The Italian Job 2003 (LA) premiere
Tuesday May 27th, TCL Chinese Theatre 6925 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028
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American actor Mark Wahlberg is one of a handful of respected entertainers who successfully made the transition from teen pop idol to acclaimed actor. A Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for The Departed (2006) who went on to receive positive critical reviews for his performance in The Fighter (2010), Wahlberg also is a solid comedy actor, proven by his starring role in Ted (2012).
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born June 5, 1971 in a poor working class district, Dorchester, of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Alma Elaine (Donnelly), a nurse's aide and clerk, and Donald Edward Wahlberg, a delivery driver. Wahlberg is the youngest of nine children. He is of Swedish (from his paternal grandfather), French-Canadian, English, Irish and Scottish, descent. The large Wahlberg brood didn't have a lot growing up, especially after his parents divorced when he was eleven. The kids crammed into a three-bedroom apartment, none of them having very much privacy. Mark's mother has said that after the divorce, she became very self-absorbed with her own life. She has blamed herself for her son's subsequent problems and delinquency. Wahlberg dropped out of high school at age fourteen (but later got his GED) to pursue a life of petty crime and drugs. He'd spend his days scamming and stealing, working on the odd drug deal before treating himself to the substances.
The young man also had a violent streak - one which was often aimed at minorities. At age sixteen, he was convicted of assault against two Vietnamese men after he had tried to rob them. As a result of his assault conviction, he was sentenced to serve 50 days in prison at Deer Island penitentiary. Whilst there, he began working out to pass time and, when he emerged at the end of his sentence, he had gone from being a scrawny young kid to a buff young man. Wahlberg also credits jail time as being his motivation to improve his lifestyle and leave crime behind him.
Around this time, his older brother Donnie Wahlberg had become an overnight teen idol as a member of the 1980s boy band New Kids on the Block. A precursor to the boy-band craze, the group was dominating the charts and were on top of their game. Mark himself had been an original member of the band but had backed out early on - uncomfortable with the squeaky clean image of the group. Donnie used his connections in the music business to help his little brother secure a recording contract, and soon the world was introduced to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, with Wahlberg as a bad-boy rapper who danced in his boxers. Despite a lack of singing ability, promoters took to his dance moves and a physique they knew teenage girls would love.
Donnie scripted some easy songs for Mark, who collected a troupe of dancers and a DJ to become his "Funky Bunch" and "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" was born. His debut album, "Music for the People", was a smash hit, which was propelled along by the rapper's willingness to disrobe down to boxer-briefs on stage, not to mention several catchy tunes. Teenage girls thrilled to the rapping "bad boy". Record producer David Geffen saw in Wahlberg a cash-cow of marketing ability. After speaking to designer Calvin Klein, Marky Mark was set up as the designer's chief underwear model.
His scantily clad figure soon adorned billboards across the nation. Ironically, while the New Kids on the Block's fame was dwindling as audiences tired of their syrupy lyrics, "Marky Mark's" bad boy image was becoming even more of a commodity. He was constantly in the headlines (often of the tabloids) after multiple scandals. In 1992, he released a book dedicated to his penis. Wahlberg was constantly getting into rumored fights, most memorably with Madonna and her entourage at a Los Angeles party. While things were always intense, they were relatively harmless and made for enjoyable reading for the public. However, when the story of his arrest for assault (and the allegations of racism) broke in the press, things took on a decidedly darker note. People were not amused. Soon after, while on a British talk show along with rapper Shabba Ranks, he got into even more trouble. After Ranks made the statement that gays should be crucified, Wahlberg was accused of condoning the comments by his silence. Marky Mark was suddenly surrounded by charges of brutality, homophobia and racial hatred. His second album, "You Gotta Believe", had not been faring well and, after the charges surfaced, it plummeted from the charts.
Adding to the hoopla, Wahlberg was brought to court for allegedly assaulting a security guard. He was ordered to make amends by appearing in a series of anti-bias advertisements. Humbled and humiliated by his fall from grace in the music world, Wahlberg decided to pursue another angle, acting. He dropped the "Marky Mark" moniker and became known simply as Mark Wahlberg. His first big screen role came in Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man (1994). Despite the name change, many people snickered at the idea of the has-been rapper thinking he could make it as an actor. From the get-go, he was proving them wrong. In Renaissance Man (1994), he gave an utterly charming performance as a simple but sincere army recruit. What naysayers remained found it increasingly difficult to write Mark Wahlberg off as he delivered one fine performance after another. He blew them away in the controversial The Basketball Diaries (1995) and chilled them in Fear (1996) as every father's worst nightmare.
The major turning point in Wahlberg's career came with the role of troubled porn star Dirk Diggler in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). Since then, Wahlberg has chosen roles that demonstrate a wide range of dramatic ability, starring in critically acclaimed dramas such as Three Kings (1999) and The Perfect Storm (2000), popcorn flicks like Planet of the Apes (2001) and Contraband (2012), and even indies such as I Heart Huckabees (2004).
Wahlberg was the executive producer of such television series as Boardwalk Empire (2010), In Treatment (2008) and the highly successful comedy Entourage (2004), which was partly based on his experiences in Hollywood.
Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham have four children.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Seth Green has starred in numerous films and television series including the Austin Powers trilogy, The Italian Job (2003), Without a Paddle (2004), Party Monster (2003), Can't Hardly Wait (1998), Old Dogs (2009) and dozens more, including starring roles in Sexy Evil Genius (2013), The Story of Luke (2012) and Yellowbird (2014). He's portrayed Christopher Guest in Netflix's National Lampoon origin film, A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018), and he starred opposite Katie Holmes and Michael Caine in Dear Dictator (2017). Green made his feature film directorial debut with Changeland (2019) starring Green, Breckin Meyer, Brenda Song, Macaulay Culkin, Clare Grant and Randy Orton. He is the co-creator/executive producer/primary voice talent and a writer/director on Robot Chicken (2001), 2010 & 2016 Emmy® Award-winner for Outstanding Short Format Animation Program. Green has voiced Chris Griffin on Family Guy (1999) since the series' inception. Green has been singled out for many Emmy voiceover nominations for Adult Swim's Robot Chicken. The show, the network's highest-rated original program, and their specials have won numerous Annie Awards for writing and producing, including one for Green for directing. In 2011, Green and his partners created Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, a full-service animation studio with many other projects including: Crackle's SuperMansion, Adult Swim's Hot Streets (2016) and WWE's Camp WWE (2016). In December 2017, the company signed a two-year first-look deal with 20th Century Fox Film to develop animated and live-action projects. Green has always been fascinated by space travel and has done a PSA for NASA and designed the CASIS patch for ISS U.S. National Laboratory missions for research to benefit life on Earth.- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to Eileen (Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street merchant and lounge singer. He was a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished twelfth in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman and finally of course, actor. He received the audition for his debut role as Bacon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) through French Connection, for whom he was modeling. They became a major investor in the film and introduced Jason to Guy Ritchie, who invited him to audition for a part in the film by challenging him to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase fake jewelry. Jason must have been doing something right because after the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) he teamed up again with Guy Ritchie for Snatch (2000), with co-stars including Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Toro. After Snatch (2000) came Turn It Up (2000) with US music star Ja Rule, followed by a supporting actor role in the sci-fi film Ghosts of Mars (2001), Jet Li's The One (2001) and another screen partnership with Vinnie Jones in Mean Machine (2001) under Guy Ritchie's and Matthew Vaughn's SKA Films. Finally in 2002 he was cast as the lead role of Frank Martin in The Transporter (2002). Jason was also in the summer 2003 blockbuster remake of The Italian Job (1969), The Italian Job (2003), playing Handsome Rob.
Throughout the 2000s, Statham became a star of juicy action B-films, most significantly Crank (2006) and Crank: High Voltage (2009), and also War (2007), opposite Jet Li, and The Bank Job (2008) and Death Race (2008), among others. In the 2010s, his reputation for cheeky and tough leading performances led to his casting as Lee Christmas in The Expendables (2010) and its sequels, the comedy Spy (2015), and as (apparently) reformed villain Deckard Shaw in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Apart from these blockbusters, he continued headlining B-films such as Homefront (2013).
In 2017, he had his first child, a son with his partner, model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Regarded as one of hip-hop's most introspective and insightful artists, Mos Def has shaped a career that transcends music genres and artistic medium. Taking a cue from the Afrocentric stylings of the Native Tongues crew, which included De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and Andres Titus, Mos Def has emerged as one of the more conscientious voices of new school hip-hop, alongside the likes of Common, Outkast, Goodie Mob and The Roots, to name just a few.
Mos Def was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. A child of hip-hop's Golden Era, he spent his childhood imbedded in the culture surrounding him as well as absorbing knowledge from across the artistic spectrum. With the release of "Universal Magnetic" (1996) Mos became an underground favorite in the hip hop world, leading to his legendary collaboration with Talib Kweli. The two formed Black Star whose debut album, Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, would become one of the most critically acclaimed hip-hop albums. Mos followed that release with his 1999 solo debut, Black On Both Sides, which was certified gold and credited by critics as bringing hip-hop back to its soapbox roots. As with his music, Mos has demonstrated insight and passion with his acting career, appearing in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera, 2002's critically acclaimed Monster's Ball, Showtime, and the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination. In addition Mos has served as the host, music supervisor and co-executive producer for the HBO series Def Poetry and served as a writer, producer and actor on the MTV sketch comedy series Lyricist Lounge. Mos completed his Broadway debut in 2002 in the Tony nominated, Pulitzer Prize winning, Topdog/Underdog. Mos re-teamed with Topdog playwright, Suzan Lori Parks and director George Wolfe for an off-Broadway play for which he was awarded an Obie Award. In 2003, Mos Def starred in Paramount Pictures' The Italian Job, alongside Ed Norton, Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron. Last year Mos Def starred opposite Alan Rickman in the critically acclaimed HBO movie Something the Lord Made, for which he has received a 2004 Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie. Def was also nominated for both a Golden Globe Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture) and Golden Satellite Award (Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television) for the same role. He co-starred in the feature film The Woodsman, with Kevin Bacon, Benjamin Bratt, Eve and Kyra Sedgwick. The New York Times said of his performance, "I hope we don't have to wait too much longer to see him in a big-screen leading role," and USA Today heralded him as "the movie's best performance." In addition, he co-starred in Spyglass Entertainment's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, released in April 2005. In the film, an adaptation of the classic Douglas Adams Science Fiction novel, Def starred as hero "Ford Prefect."
Mos Def released his highly-anticipated and critically acclaimed sophomore solo release, The New Danger (Geffen Records), on October 12th. The album was met with praise from both critics and fans alike, with Rolling Stone giving it 4 Stars and hailing the album as "Ghetto rock and righteous hip-hop from dazzingly talented Def" and the New York Daily News proclaimed "No one is doing more to change our notion of how hip hop can sound." The first single, "Sex, Love and Money' earned Def a 2005 Grammy nomination for Best Alternative/Urban Performance and the album was certified gold by the RIAA.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Franky G was born and raised in Brooklyn New York. Franky had a recurring role as poncho on the Starz hit TV show POWER that is executive produced by 50 cent and creator/writer Courtney A Kemp. Franky is a series regular as Juan Rodriguez on the new hit TV show, Carl weber's "THE FAMILY BUSINESS" on NETFLIX network starring/produced by Ernie Hudson, Carl weber, ND Brown, Jeff Lam and directed by Trey Haley. Franky has done an episode on the new Marvel hit Series "LUKE CAGE" on Netflix. Franky has completed several feature films this year. Franky's career started when he played the lead role in the award winning film MANITO written and directed by Eric Eason. The film received an award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 and it has been shown in over 50 festivals. Since then he has appeared in various magazines, including in being selected as one of the most beautiful people in People Español. His versatility as an actor and his intense energy has landed him roles in various studio Hollywood films starring opposite Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, Mark Wahlberg, and Charlize Theron. His credits include CONFIDENCE, THE ITALIAN JOB, SAW II, DEAD MAN DOWN, BLOWTORCH, 36 SAINTS, TIO PAPI and THE DEVILS TOMB opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. He has appeared on television in the title role of Fox's hip show JONNY ZERO. He also starred as Joe Garcia in John wells CBS drama SMITH starring Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen. Franky has guest starred on some hit TV shows like, LAW AND ORDER SVU, QUANTICO, CSI MIAMI opposite David Caruso, BLUE BLOODS opposite Donnie Wahlberg,THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA starring Debra Messing. Franky has appeared in Off Off Broadway productions, DOES A TIGER WEAR A NECKTIE and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. Franky is the owner and founder of G-Productions. His last theatrical production INSIDERS, written and directed by Frances Lozada, received great reviews. He continues to learn the art of filmmaking and has plans to write, direct and produce in the near future. His first feature THE STREETS ARE WATCHING has recently been optioned.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Felix Gary Gray is an African-American music video director, film producer and film director from New York City known for directing films such as Friday, Men in Black: International, Be Cool, The Fate of the Furious, Set It Off, The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job. He directed 22 music videos.- Producer
- Executive
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Wayne Powers (co-writer, producer, director)
Wayne Powers has written features including Paramount's The Italian Job starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton.
Wayne was writing network TV movies at the age twenty-two. He spent four years on the writing staffs for award-winning network dramas. He then turned to studio features including Warner Brothers' Deep Blue Sea starring Samuel Jackson.
He wrote and executive produced Out Of Order, a Showtime Network limited series starring Felicity Huffman, Eric Stoltz, William Macy and Peter Bogdanovich. Wayne produced a documentary for the Showtime Network that was also featured on the Oprah show (and yes, she is very nice). He just completed his micro-budget independent dark comedy Loves Me, Loves Me Not.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Donna Powers was born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She is known for Deep Blue Sea (1999), The Italian Job (2003) and Valentine (2001). She was previously married to Wayne Powers.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Diane Lane was born on January 22, 1965, in New York. She is the daughter of acting coach Burton Eugene "Burt" Lane and nightclub singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. Her parents' families were both from the state of Georgia. Diane was acting from a very young age and made her stage debut at the age of six. Her work in such acclaimed theater productions as "The Cherry Orchard" and "Medea" led to her being called to Hollywood. She was 13 when she was cast by director George Roy Hill in his wonderful 1979 film A Little Romance (1979), opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. The film only did so-so commercially, but Olivier praised his young co-star, calling her the new Grace Kelly. After her well-received debut, Diane found herself on magazine covers all over the world, including "Time", which declared her the "new young acting sensation". However, things quietened down a bit when she found herself in such critical and financial flops as Touched by Love (1980), Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980), Movie Madness (1982), Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) and, most unmemorably, Six Pack (1982), all of which failed to set her career on fire.
She also made several TV movies during this period, but it was in 1983 that she finally began to fulfill the promise of stardom that had earlier been predicted for her. Acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola took note of Diane's appeal and cast her in two "youth"-oriented films based on S.E. Hinton novels. Indeed, Rumble Fish (1983) and The Outsiders (1983) have become cult classics and resulted in her getting a loyal fan base. The industry was now taking notice of Diane Lane, and she soon secured lead roles in three big-budget studio epics. She turned down the first, Splash (1983) (which was a surprise hit for Daryl Hannah). Unfortunately, the other two were critical and box-office bombs: Walter Hill's glossy rock 'n' roll fable Streets of Fire (1984) was not the huge summer success that many had thought it would be, and the massively troubled Coppola epic The Cotton Club (1984) co-starring Richard Gere was also a high-profile flop. The back-to-back failure of both of these films could have ended her career there and then -- but thankfully it didn't. Possibly "burned out" by the lambasting these films received and unhappy with the direction her career was taking, she "retired" from the film business at age 19, saying that she had forgotten what she had started acting for. She stayed away from the screen for the next three years. Ironically, the two films that were the main causes of her "retirement" have since grown in popularity, and "Streets of Fire" especially seems to have found the kind of audience it couldn't get when it was first released.
The process of rebuilding her career was a slow and gradual one. First came the obscure and very sexy straight-to-video thriller Lady Beware (1987), followed by the critically acclaimed but little seen The Big Town (1987) with Matt Dillon and Tommy Lee Jones. In the former, Diane plays a very mysterious and sexy stripper and her memorable strip sequence is a highlight of the film. Despite her sexy new on-screen image, it wasn't until 1989's smash hit TV mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989) that Diane made another big impression on a sizable audience. Her performance in the hugely popular and critically acclaimed western epic as a vulnerable "whore with a heart" won her an Emmy nomination and much praise. Film producers were interested in her again. Another well-received TV production, Descending Angel (1990), was followed by smaller roles in major films like Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992) and Mike Binder's Indian Summer (1993), and larger parts in small independent films like My New Gun (1992), Vital Signs (1990) and Knight Moves (1992). Indeed, the latter two films co-starred her then-husband, Christopher Lambert, with whom she had a daughter named Eleanor.
Diane was now re-established in Hollywood and started to appear in higher-profile co-starring roles in some big-budget, major movies like Walter Hill's Wild Bill (1995), the Sylvester Stallone actioner Judge Dredd (1995), the Robin Williams's comedy Jack (1996) and Murder at 1600 (1997) co-starring Wesley Snipes. However, all of these still did not quite make Diane a "big-name star" and, by 1997, she found herself, possibly by choice, back in smaller, personal projects.
Her next role as a frustrated 1960s housewife in the independent hit A Walk on the Moon (1999) deservedly won her rave notices and, at last, gave her career the big lift it needed. The cute but tear-jerking comedy My Dog Skip (2000) also proved to be a small-scale success. However, it was the £330-million worldwide grossing blockbuster hit The Perfect Storm (2000) that finally made Diane Lane the household name that she always should have been.
After the worldwide success of "The Perfect Storm", she was more in demand than ever. She played Leelee Sobieski's sinister junkie guardian in the slick thriller The Glass House (2001), and co-starred with Keanu Reeves in the #1 smash hit Hardball (2001). However, her greatest career moment was still to come with her lead role in the enormous critical and commercial hit Unfaithful (2002), in which she superbly portrayed Richard Gere's adulterous wife. Her performance won the respect of critics and audiences alike, as well as many awards and nominations including Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
Her follow-up films including Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), Must Love Dogs (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), Secretariat (2010), and the blockbuster, Man of Steel (2013), were all received and her performances were highly praised. She won further Best Actress Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) and Cinema Verite (2011).
She is very well regarded within the industry, adored by film fans, and has a credibility and quality that is all too rare today. Her immense talent at playing human and real characters, her "drop dead gorgeous" beauty and down-to-earth grittiness guarantees that she will stay on top, and she guarantee has already shown the kind of resilience that will keep her working for a long, long time.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency. In the U.S., he experienced the racial chasm that divides the country, a great shock to a boy coming from a society with a majority of African descent.
At 18, he went to New York, did menial jobs and slept in a bus terminal toilet. A brief stint in the Army as a worker at a veterans' hospital was followed by more menial jobs in Harlem. An impulsive audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills. On his second try, he was accepted. Spotted in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of "Lysistrata", for which he earned good reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles. Nevertheless, the roles were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors routinely obtained. But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African-American man of that time, that of leading man. One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.
He remained active on stage and screen as well as in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. His roles in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and To Sir, with Love (1967) were landmarks in helping to break down some social barriers between blacks and whites. Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day. He took on directing and producing chores in the 1970s, achieving success in both arenas.- Actor
- Director
- Stunts
A masculine and enigmatic actor whose life and movie career have had more ups and downs than the average rollercoaster and whose selection of roles has arguably derailed him from achieving true superstar status, James Caan is New York-born and bred.
He was born in the Bronx, to Sophie (Falkenstein) and Arthur Caan, Jewish immigrants from Germany. His father was a meat dealer and butcher. The athletically gifted Caan played football at Michigan State University while studying economics, holds a black belt in karate and for several years was even a regular on the rodeo circuit, where he was nicknamed "The Jewish Cowboy". However, while studying at Hofstra University, he became intrigued by acting and was interviewed and accepted at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse. He then won a scholarship to study under acting coach Wynn Handman and began to appear in several off-Broadway productions, including "I Roam" and "Mandingo".
He made his screen debut as a sailor in Irma la Douce (1963) and began to impress audiences with his work in Red Line 7000 (1965) and the western El Dorado (1966) alongside John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Further work followed in Journey to Shiloh (1968) and in the sensitive The Rain People (1969). However, audiences were moved to tears as he put in a heart-rending performance as cancer-stricken Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in the highly rated made-for-TV film Brian's Song (1971).
With these strong performances under his belt, Francis Ford Coppola then cast him as hot-tempered gangster Santino "Sonny" Corleone in the Mafia epic The Godfather (1972). The film was an enormous success, Caan scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination and, in the years since, the role has proven to be the one most fondly remembered by his legion of fans. He reprised the role for several flashback scenes in the sequel The Godfather Part II (1974) and then moved on to several very diverse projects. These included a cop-buddy crime partnership with Alan Arkin in the uneven Freebie and the Bean (1974), a superb performance as a man playing for his life in The Gambler (1974) alongside Lauren Hutton, and pairing with Barbra Streisand in Funny Lady (1975). Two further strong lead roles came up for him in 1975, first as futuristic sports star "Jonathon E" questioning the moral fiber of a sterile society in Rollerball (1975) and teaming up with Robert Duvall in the Sam Peckinpah spy thriller The Killer Elite (1975).
Unfortunately, Caan's rising star sputtered badly at this stage of his career, and several film projects failed to find fire with either critics or audiences. These included such failures as the hokey Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), the quasi-western Comes a Horseman (1978) and the saccharine Chapter Two (1979). However, he did score again with the stylish Michael Mann-directed heist movie Thief (1981). He followed this with a supernatural romantic comedy titled Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) and then, due to personal conflicts, dropped out of the spotlight for several years before returning with a stellar performance under old friend Francis Ford Coppola in the moving Gardens of Stone (1987).
Caan appeared back in favor with fans and critics alike and raised his visibility with the sci-fi hit Alien Nation (1988) and Dick Tracy (1990), then surprised everyone by playing a meek romance novelist held captive after a car accident by a deranged fan in the dynamic Misery (1990). The 1990s were kind to him and he notched up roles as a band leader in For the Boys (1991), another gangster in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), appeared in the indie hit Bottle Rocket (1996) and pursued Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser (1996).
The demand on Caan's talents seems to have increased steadily over the past few years as he is making himself known to a new generation of fans. Recent hot onscreen roles have included The Yards (2000), City of Ghosts (2002) and Dogville (2003). In addition, he finds himself at the helm of the hit TV series Las Vegas (2003) as casino security chief "Big Ed" Deline. An actor of undeniably manly appeal, James Caan continued to surprise and delight audiences with his invigorating performances up until his death in July 2022 at the age of 82.- Actress
- Producer
Melanie Griffith was born on August 9, 1957 in New York City, to then model/future actress Tippi Hedren and former child actor turned advertising executive Peter Griffith. Her parents' marriage ended when she was four years old and Tippi brought Melanie to Los Angeles to get a new start. Tippi caught the eye of the great director Alfred Hitchcock, who gave her starring roles in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). She married her then-agent, Noel Marshall, in 1964 (they divorced in 1982), and Melanie grew up with three stepbrothers. Meanwhile, her father married Nanita Greene and had two more children: Tracy Griffith and Clay A. Griffith.
Melanie also grew up with tigers and lions, as Tippi and Noel were raising them for the movie Roar (1981), in which the family later starred. Melanie's acting career, however, began as a model at just nine months old in a commercial and she later appeared as an extra in Smith! (1969) and The Harrad Experiment (1973), where she fell in love with her mother's co-star, Don Johnson. She was only 14 years old, while he was a 22-year-old with two annulled marriages. Tippi took a very liberal approach and allowed Melanie to move in with Don at a tender age. Even though Melanie didn't like modeling, she continued to do it to pay the bills. One day she went to meet with director Arthur Penn for what she thought was a modeling assignment. It was actually an audition for his film Night Moves (1975), and Penn gave her the role of a runaway nymphet. She was hesitant, but Johnson encouraged her to take the role. She agreed but was terrified of performing in front of the camera. Penn took a paternal interest in her, and she felt confident and gave a riveting performance, doing racy nude scenes. It immediately typecast her and led to more nymphet roles, with her beautiful nude body a permanent fixture in movies like Ha-Gan (1977) and Joyride (1977). She also married Johnson, eloping in 1976, but the union ended within six months.
Unfortunately, as her career progressed, she became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol, a fact well-known to studio executives, who stopped considering her for feature film roles. Melanie started doing television work, where she met her second husband, Steven Bauer, on the set of the TV movie She's in the Army Now (1981). He helped her to overcome her drug and alcohol problems and got her to take acting classes with Stella Adler in New York. The classes paid off, as director Brian De Palma cast her as a porno actress in his murder mystery Body Double (1984) and her sexy, funny performance won her rave reviews and the Best Supporting Actress Award by the National Society of Film Critics and a Golden Globe nomination. Jonathan Demme was so impressed with her performance that he gave her the female lead in Something Wild (1986) without even auditioning her. The film was a commercial failure but quickly became a cult favorite on video and cable, with Melanie again getting critical plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination.
The birth of her first child, Alexander, in 1985, didn't help to save her struggling marriage, and she and Bauer separated shortly thereafter. Melanie was given starring roles in Cherry 2000 (1987) and Stormy Monday (1988), but the films were barely released. Soon writers were asking when the public at large was going to take notice of this unique and talented actress. Melanie's career skyrocketed when Mike Nichols cast her as spunky secretary Tess McGill in Working Girl (1988), a box-office hit for which she received an Oscar nomination as Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Comedy. However, her ongoing substance abuse had almost destroyed her career yet again, and Nichols pushed her into a rehabilitation clinic. En route to the clinic she called ex-husband Johnson for support, and they reconciled after her release from the clinic. She got pregnant, divorced Bauer and remarried Johnson in 1989, and later that year their daughter Dakota Johnson was born. A sober Melanie now concentrated on her film career: her follow-up to "Working Girl" was John Schlesinger's Hitchcockian urban thriller Pacific Heights (1990). It was a moderate success, but most of the films she chose flopped badly, especially The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), which reunited her with director Brian De Palma. Even though she gave heartfelt performances in all her films, she was often miscast, with her breathy little-girl voice not helping matters in her role as a spy in Shining Through (1992) and as a homicide detective going undercover in the Hassidic Jewish community in New York City in A Stranger Among Us (1992).
Melanie was charming as a street hooker who befriends a group of elementary students in Milk Money (1994), but the film received negative reviews and performed dismally at the box office. She made a minor comeback with the critics for her supporting role as a desperate housewife in Nobody's Fool (1994), which reunited her with Bruce Willis, her co-star in "Bonfire", and Paul Newman, her co-star from The Drowning Pool (1975). She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the well-received TV miniseries Buffalo Girls (1995), followed by another hit film, the ensemble Now and Then (1995). Her personal life was making headlines again, though, as she left Johnson because of his own substance-abuse problems, reconciled with him briefly when he became sober, only to leave him again, this time for Antonio Banderas, her married co-star from Two Much (1995). Both she and Banderas created a scandal in 1995 with their torrid romance, and the tabloids followed their every move, including her divorce from Johnson and his divorce from wife Ana Leza. Melanie became pregnant with her third child, and she and Banderas married in 1996. Their daughter Stella Banderas was born, and the notorious couple were forgiven by the public and the media.
Melanie won strong reviews in independent films like Another Day in Paradise (1998), where she played a heroin-using criminal accomplice on the run, and the made-for-cable movie RKO 281 (1999), in which she portrayed actress Marion Davies, a part that garnered her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations as Best Supporting Actress. Melanie became dependent to pain killers, however, returning to rehab in 2000. She wrote about her struggle and recovery in her journal on her official website. Greenmoon Productions, the production company that she formed with Banderas, produced several flops, such as her starring vehicle Crazy in Alabama (1999), directed by Banderas. Her career took another blow when her TV series, Me & George (1998), never even aired. After making Cecil B. Demented (2000) and Forever Lulu (2000), Melanie did a voice-over role in Stuart Little 2 (2002) and played supporting roles in minor films Tempo (2003), as Sylvester Stallone's girlfriend in Shade (2003), and as Barbara Sinatra in All the Way (2003) with Dennis Hopper playing Frank Sinatra, but none of these films made a ripple at the box office. As a result, film and television offers dried up.
In 2003, a resourceful Melanie turned to the Broadway stage, and packed houses with her turn as the murderess "Roxie Hart" in the musical "Chicago," for which she received a rave review from the New York Times theater critic. It renewed her confidence, as she had never sang, danced or been on the Broadway stage before. In 2005 she surprised viewers by playing a mom to two grown women in the TV series Twins (2005), which was canceled after one season. She tried to resurrect her career with another attempt at a TV series, Viva Laughlin (2007), but it was canceled after just two episodes. Melanie didn't act again for the remainder of the decade, because, by self-admission, she couldn't obtain any worthwhile roles. In 2009, she was back in rehab after yet another relapse, emerging after a three-month stay. Professionally, she was faced with more disappointment in 2012 when This American Housewife (2012), a Lifetime series that Banderas produced for her to star in, never aired. She went back to the stage in 2012 and played Scott Caan's mother in a play that he wrote titled "No Way Around but Through." She impressed Caan enough to recommend her to producers of his television show Hawaii Five-0 (2010). Since 2014, she started playing a recurring role as his mother on the show.
Also in 2014, Melanie filed for divorce from Banderas citing "irreconcilable differences" after nearly twenty years together. She never publicly discussed her reasons for the divorce, and she didn't promote her feature film Automata (2014), the final time that she acted with Banderas. It took a year for the divorce to be finalized, during which time, she and Banderas made one important appearance together at their daughter Stella's high school graduation. She also made another public appearance with another ex-husband, Don Johnson, on Saturday Night Live (1975) to support their daughter Dakota, who was the host for that week. Dakota was promoting her star-making turn in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), thus carrying on the family tradition of being a film actress. Melanie maintains close ties with her three children and her mother Tippi Hedren. She is involved in various charities, including raising funds for Tippi's Shambala preserve, a refuge for wild animals. Melanie also runs a non-profit organization for benefiting burned children. Melanie is single and her children are living on their own, so she has devoted most of her time to seeking out acting roles.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Intense was the word for Ray Liotta. He specialized in psychopathic characters who hide behind a cultivated charm. Even in his nice-guy roles in Field of Dreams (1989) and Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), you get the impression that something is smoldering inside of him. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was adopted by Mary (Edgar), a township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner. He studied acting at the University of Miami, where he became friends with Steven Bauer (Scarface (1983), Thief of Hearts (1984)). He spent his first years acting in TV: Another World (1964), a TV movie and several short-lived series. He broke into movies with the black comedy Something Wild (1986), which garnered him rave reviews. Originally unable to get a reading, he was recommended for the part by Melanie Griffith (then married to Bauer).
Following the success Something Wild (1986), he received more offers in the "psycho" vein, but refused them to avoid being typecast. Instead, he made "little movies" like Dominick and Eugene (1988), which earned him standing as an actor's actor, and Field of Dreams (1989), whose success always surprised him. When he heard Martin Scorsese was casting Goodfellas (1990), he lobbied hard for the part of Henry Hill. The film's huge success brought him wide popularity and garnered him star billing in future films such as Article 99 (1992), Unlawful Entry (1992), and Unforgettable (1996).
Liotta died on May 26, 2022, aged 67, in his sleep while filming on location in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Vincent Anthony Vaughn was born on March 28, 1970, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and was raised in Lake Forest, Illinois. His parents, Vernon Vaughn (a salesman and character actor), and Sharon Vaughn, née Sharon Eileen DePalmo (a real-estate agent and stockbroker) divorced in 1991. He has two older sisters, Victoria Vaughn and Valeri Vaughn. His recent ancestry includes Lebanese (from his paternal grandmother), Italian (from his maternal grandfather), English, Irish, German, and Scottish. His mother was born in Brantford, Ontario.
Vince was interested in theater early on and grabbed a spot in a Chevy commercial. In 1988 he moved to Hollywood. He managed to hit a few spots on television, but his real goal was to make it to the big screen. He made his first credited role in the film Rudy (1993) where he met his friend Jon Favreau, who was writing a script detailing his life as an out-of-work actor. Vince was written into Swingers (1996) by Jon to play the character of "Trent". He signed on just as a favor to his buddy, not realizing it would be a career changing role. Though not a commercial success, it was a critical success in which Steven Spielberg saw him and cast him in the big budget sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). This role gave Vince the exposure he needed to become a movie star and, for the first time, choose the roles he wanted to take. A Cool, Dry Place (1998) put him as a loving father, Return to Paradise (1998) cast him as a man having to make a life or death decision to save a friend, and Clay Pigeons (1998) cast him as an interesting serial killer. Since then his roles have been primarily in comedies such as Old School (2003), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Wedding Crashers (2005), and Couples Retreat (2009).- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Melanie Sloan is from a Jewish family from the Bronx and her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, a brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter Johansson, born three minutes after her, and a paternal half-brother, Christian. Her grandfather was writer Ejner Johansson.
Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions. She made her professional acting debut at the age of eight in the off-Broadway production of "Sophistry" with Ethan Hawke, at New York's Playwrights Horizons. She would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her film debut at the age of nine, as John Ritter's character's daughter in the fantasy comedy North (1994). Following minor roles in Just Cause (1995), as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw's character, and If Lucy Fell (1996), she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo (1996). Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting, "[the film] grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson", while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle commentated on her "peaceful aura", and wrote, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress."
After appearing in minor roles in Fall (1997) and Home Alone 3 (1997), Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by Robert Redford, where she played Grace MacLean, a teenager traumatized by a riding accident. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film. In 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and in the music video for Mandy Moore's single, "Candy". Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her breakout role in Ghost World (2001), credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age". She was also featured in the Coen Brothers' dark drama The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand. She appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002) with David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer.
In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation (2003)), her breakout role, starring opposite Bill Murray, and receiving rave reviews and a Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival. Her film roles include the critically acclaimed Weitz brothers' film In Good Company (2004), as well as starring opposite John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), which garnered her a third Golden Globe Award nomination.
She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III (2006) due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island (2005) alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics. After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and was nominated again for a Golden Globe Award. In May 2008, she released her album "Anywhere I Lay My Head", a collection of Tom Waits covers featuring one original song. Also that year, she starred in Frank Miller's The Spirit (2008), the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and played Mary Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).
Since then, she has appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), the action superhero film Iron Man 2 (2010), the comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo (2011) and starred as the original scream queen, Janet Leigh, in Hitchcock (2012). She then played her character, Black Widow, in the blockbuster action films The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and also headlined the sci-fi action thriller Lucy (2014), a box office success. With more than a decade of work already under her belt, Scarlett has proven to be one of Hollywood's most talented young actresses. Her other starring roles are in the sci-fi action thriller Ghost in the Shell (2017) and the dark comedy Rough Night (2017).
Scarlett and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds were engaged in May 2008 and married in September of that year. In 2010, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced a year later. In 2013, she became engaged to French journalist Romain Dauriac, the couple married a year later. In January 2017, the couple announced their separation, and subsequently divorced in March of that year. They have a daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac (born 2014). The couple divorced in September 2017.
She married Colin Jost in October 2020. They have one child, a son.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Saul Hudson, mainly known as Slash, was born on July 23, 1965, and was raised in Stoke-on-Trent. Both his parents worked in the entertainment business, his mother being a clothing designer (she did some of David Bowie's costumes) and his father being an art director for a record company. When Slash was 11 he moved with his mother to Los Angeles, leaving his father behind in England, although he eventually joined them in L.A. years later. Slash became sort of an outsider at school since he didn't really fit in with other kids. In the mid 70s his parents separated and Slash moved in with his grandmother. During this time Slash got interested in BMX riding, and went on to win several awards and money in competitions.
When he was 15 he got his first guitar, and his schoolwork started to go downhill as he skipped class to sit playing guitar all day. Slash eventually got so tired of school that he dropped out in 11th grade. As he lived in Los Angeles, a city flourishing with new, young rock bands, he quickly got in touch with people to jam with. After meeting Steven Adler the two of them formed a band called Road Crew. Then he met Izzy Stradlin who played in a band with Axl Rose, and after hearing Axl sing live, he was set on getting him in his band. Soon a bass player answered one of Slash's ads in the paper, and Slash (guitar), Steven (drums), Izzy (guitar), Axl (vocals) and Duff McKagan (bass) formed Guns N' Roses in 1986. Soon enough, GNR were known across the globe as the new rock n' roll sensation. Album sales went sky high and the band was having a blast on their world tours, and during this time Slash worked with artists like Michael Jackson on the Dangerous album and Lenny Kravitz, just to name two. But after the Use Your Illusion tour, GNR decided to take a break. Slash however, needed to play music and so he formed his own band Slash's Snakepit. With the success of this bands album It's Five O'Clock Somewhere (1995), Slash told the public that Slash's Snakepit would be back again. During this time Slash and Axl were having some heated arguments about Guns N' Roses and what would happen next. Guns N' Roses as we knew them then, was terminated by the result as Slash decided to leave the band, handing all rights of the band name over to Axl.
After this Slash did a few gigs here and there, formed a band called Blues Ball who played blues covers, and even brought back Slash's Snakepit as he said he would, although they didn't last very long this time either. In 2000, Slash met Perla Ferrar and on October 15, 2001, married her. It's not surprising that he wore black leather pants, a white shirt and his faithful black leather jacket to the wedding! His new status as a married man didn't slow him down, though. In 2003, Velvet Revolver was formed by the former members of Guns N' Roses; Slash, Duff and Matt (who replaced Steven in 1990), Scott Weiland (vocals) from Stone Temple Pilots and Dave Kushner (guitar) from Wasted Youth. Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband (2004) was long-awaited and sold incredibly well. They are now going to show up on the second Live Aid concert along with many other huge artists, which will be held in London. Velvet Revolver's plans to become a rock band of great magnitude are definitely in the works, and Slash himself has earned his title as one of the greatest rock n' roll guitar players in history.- Actor
- Composer
- Writer
Duff McKagan was born on 5 February 1964 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Hulk (2003), The Italian Job (2003) and Fantastic Four (2005). He has been married to Susan Holmes-McKagan since 28 August 1999. They have two children. He was previously married to Linda Johnson and Amanda (Mandy) Brixx.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Matt Sorum was born on 19 November 1960 in Venice Beach, California, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Hulk (2003), Fantastic Four (2005) and The Italian Job (2003). He has been married to Ace Harper since 12 October 2013. They have one child. He was previously married to Kai Sorum.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Dave Kushner has been working hard as a musician since the mid 80s and until recently he has gone virtually unnoticed.
As a member of Wasted Youth he was on board when they released their first album "Black Daze". Soon after Kushner left the band and began working with the band Infectious Grooves, he stayed on-board for their first album but was not featured on their subsequent albums. He then joined the group Electric Love Hogs which was comprised of future band members of Orgy and Goldfinger. Despite shows with an early incarnation of Stone Temple Pilots and a tour with L.A Guns the band never released another album. Kushner then worked with Danzig for a short time.
After releasing work with 'Cyco Miko' he toured with the band 'Zilch' at which point he met up with future band-mate Duff McKagan who was touring with his band 'Loaded'. He also worked as musical director on Dave Navarro's touring band for his solo album 'Trust No One'.
After McKagan disbanded Loaded he began working on 'The Project' with Kushner and past Guns N' Roses band-mates. After a grueling search for a lead singer the band found Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots fame. After sobering him up and helping him kick his heroin habit the band was christened 'Velvet Revolver'.
The band's first release, 'Contraband', has since sold around 4 million records, spawned three hit singles and been nominated for three Grammys, winning one.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in Santa Ana, California in 1970, Jason Lee is an American film photographer, actor, producer, and director. Well known for having been a professional skateboarder during skateboarding's very pivotal late 80s and early 90s, Lee would go on to pursue acting in 1993, working in film, television, and voiceover, and with such directors as Kevin Smith, Cameron Crowe, Lawrence Kasdan, and Brad Bird.
Retiring from skateboarding in 1995, Lee has maintained solid ties to the industry, most notably through his partnership with longtime friend and fellow ex-professional skateboarder, Chris Pastras, and their now 25-year-old skate brand, Stereo Skateboards, which Lee co-manages with Pastras.
In 2002, Lee developed a passion for film photography and has been an active photographer and film advocate ever since, having had his work both published and exhibited throughout the years. In October 2016, Lee published a selection of small and large format Polaroid and Fuji instant film photographs spanning a decade as a special limited hardbound issue of Fort Worth-based Refueled Magazine. Just 500 sold-out signed and numbered copies were produced, with three of those copies now living in the libraries of the SFMOMA, Amon Carter, and Philbrook museums. Lee's next publication, to be released in 2017, will be a book comprised of large format color film photographs made throughout Texas.
Lee is also the subject of a 2018 documentary from director Greg Hunt that will take the viewer on the road with him as he exposes his remaining boxes of now-expired 8x10 Polaroid film, a favorite medium of Lee's and one that is no longer being produced. An accompanying book of the large format Polaroids will be published, with the originals being exhibited. Additionally in 2018, Lee will be publishing and exhibiting selections of B&W film photographs from the past 10 years, with the collection's focus primarily on the West Coast and Southwest.
Lee has also produced and directed music videos for Beck and the band Midlake, a short documentary and live concert film featuring Midlake, two Stereo Skateboards films, and a previously unreleased 2006 short film starring Giovanni Ribisi and Beth Riesgraf, which will have its online debut in 2017.
'Acting has been a lot of fun, and I've liked that I've been able to bounce around a bit, and that I was able to make some movies for my kids, do some dramas, play 'Earl,' work with Pixar... It's a fun gig. And I enjoy being a part of that bigger process. But just as with skateboarding, photography is much more uniquely personal, and more of an independent endeavor. Very fulfilling. I look forward to continuing to work as an actor, as I do maintaining my ties to skateboarding and having Stereo as the outlet that it's been for me for over two decades now, and perhaps directing more projects, but photography will remain my primary creative focus as it has been for the past 15 years.'
Lee can be followed on Instagram at @jasonlee, @stereoskateboards, and @filmphotographic, an Instagram film community gallery and resource page founded by Lee in 2015.- Actress
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Jessica Marie Alba was born on April 28, 1981, in Pomona, CA, to Catherine (Jensen) and Mark David Alba, who served in the US Air Force. Her father is of Mexican descent (including Spanish and Indigenous Mexican roots), and her mother has Danish, Welsh, English, and French ancestry. Her family moved to Biloxi, MS, when she was an infant. Three years later her father's career brought the family back to California, then to Del Rio, TX, before finally settling in Southern California when Jessica was nine. In love with the idea of becoming an actress from the age of five, she was 12 before she took her first acting class. Nine months later she was signed by an agent. She studied at the Atlantic Theatre Company with founders William H. Macy and David Mamet.
A gifted young actress, Jessica has played a variety of roles ranging from light comedy to gritty drama since beginning her career. She made her feature film debut in 1993 in Hollywood Pictures' comedy Camp Nowhere (1994). Originally hired for two weeks, she got her break when an actress in a principal role suddenly dropped out. Jessica cheerfully admits it wasn't her prodigious talent or charm that inspired the director to tap her to take over the part--it was her hair, which matched the original performer's. The two-week job stretched to two months, and Jessica ended the film with an impressive first credit. Two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney quickly followed before Jessica was featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role in Nickelodeon's popular comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). She played an insufferable young snob, devoted to making life miserable for the the title character, played by Larisa Oleynik. That same year, she won the role of "Maya" in Flipper (1995) and filmed the pilot for the series. She spent 1995 shooting the first season's episodes in Australia. An avid swimmer and PADI-certified SCUBA diver, Jessica was delighted to be doing a show that allowed her to play with dolphins. The show's success guaranteed it a second season, which she also starred in. Her involvement in the show lasted from 1995 to 1997.
In 1996 she appeared in Venus Rising (1995) as "Young Eve." The next year she appeared on The Dini Petty Show (1989), a Canadian talk show, and spoke about her role in "Flipper" and her general acting career. She began working on P.U.N.K.S. (1999), featuring Randy Quaid, in 1998. In early 1998 she appeared in Brooklyn South (1997) as "Melissa." That same year she was in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) as "Leanne" and in two episodes of Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998).
She appeared in "Teen Magazine" in 1995 and various European magazines over the following years. More importantly, she was featured in the February 1999 issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine. She also had major roles in two movies that year: Never Been Kissed (1999) and Idle Hands (1999). In 2000 she had roles in Paranoid (2000) and starred in the sci-fi TV series Dark Angel (2000), gaining worldwide recognition.
Her first starring role in a major studio film was the Honey (2003), Universal Pictures' contemporary urban drama that grossed over $60 million worldwide. She has since made over 25 feature films that have earned a combined box-office total of over $800 million, including comedies and dramas, from gritty independents to major studio blockbusters. In 2005 she starred opposite Bruce Willis and an all-star cast in the provocative and critically acclaimed Sin City (2005), directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. She next starred as Sue Storm--"The Invisible Girl"--in Marvel's action-franchise blockbuster Fantastic Four (2005), which was released by 20th Century-Fox in July 2005 and became a worldwide box-office success with over $300 million in revenue.
Jessica was part of Garry Marshall's all-star ensemble romantic comedy, Valentine's Day (2010), which broke box-office records with the largest opening on a four-day President's Day weekend in history. She starred opposite Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson in director Michael Winterbottom's controversial screen adaptation of The Killer Inside Me (2010), based on Jim Thompson's novel, as well as Robert Rodriquez's Machete (2010). She co-starred in the third installment of the hit "Meet the Parents" franchise Little Fockers (2010), as well as the 4D family adventure Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011), marking her third of five collaborations with Robert Rodriguez. Jessica was part of an all-star voice cast for The Weinstein Company's animated adventure, Escape from Planet Earth (2012), also featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Brendan Fraser and James Gandolfini.
She appeared in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and starred Adam Scott, Jane Lynch and Amy Poehler. She made a cameo appearance in Machete Kills (2013) and co-starred in Robert Rodriquez's highly-anticipated, star-studded sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). That year she had a full slate of acting projects, including the period drama Dear Eleanor (2016), The Englishman opposite Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek; the IFC parody mini-series The Spoils of Babylon (2014), produced by Funny or Die, with a stellar cast including Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Tobey Maguire, Michael Sheen and Tim Robbins; and Stretch (2014), co-starring Patrick Wilson, Chris Pine, Ray Liotta, Ed Helms and Brooklyn Decker.
Jessica has received Golden Globe and People's Choice Award nominations, was voted TV Guide readers' Breakout Star of the Year, and won Favorite TV Actress at the 2001 Teen Choice Awards for "Dark Angel." She won the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Female Actress for her performance in "Fantastic Four" and an MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance in "Sin City." She received another Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress in a Horror/Thriller for The Eye (2008) and was honored by the Young Hollywood Awards as Superstar of Tomorrow in 2005. She has received ALMA Awards for her performances in "Dark Angel" and "Machete," as well as a Fashion Icon in 2009.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Mike Epps was born on 18 November 1970 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Friday After Next (2002) and The Hangover (2009). He has been married to Kyra Robinson Epps since 23 June 2019. They have two children. He was previously married to Mechelle McCain.- Actor
- Director
Noah Emmerich was born and raised in New York City, to Constance, a concert pianist, and André Emmerich, an art dealer and gallery owner. He attended Yale University, where he sang with the a capella group the Yale Spizzwinks. He attended NYU Film School where he wrote and directed an award winning short film called "The Painter." Emmerich came to prominence with starring roles in the cult hit Beautiful Girls (1996) and the Jim Carrey blockbuster The Truman Show (1998). His production company, Sandbox Entertainment, has a first-look production deal with New Line Cinema. His older brother is Toby Emmerich.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Dennis Haysbert was born on 2 June 1954 in San Mateo, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Far from Heaven (2002), 24 (2001) and Heat (1995). He was previously married to Lynn Griffith and Elena Simms.- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Donald Edmond "Donnie" Wahlberg Jr. was born on August 17, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts into a family of Swedish (from his paternal grandfather), Irish, and more distant French-Canadian, English, and Scottish, descent. He is the eighth of nine children of Alma Elaine Conroy (née Donnelly), a nurse's aide and clerk & Donald Edward Wahlberg, a delivery driver. His parents eventually divorced and Donnie, finding himself already in trouble, discovered a positive outlet performing in school plays and became involved in varied aspects of theater -- acting, writing, and directing. At 15, he became a member of the teen vocal group originally called NYNUK. Donnie's little brother, Mark Wahlberg was originally one of the Boys but balked at the direction the group was taking and backed out.
A founding member of the boy band "New Kids on the Block," the five teens survived a false start with their debut album and proceeded to hit #1 with the single "Please Don't Go Girl" on their second in 1988. They continued to bombard the market with one-after-another "Top Ten" hits including "The Right Stuff" and "I'll Be Loving You Forever." Leaving the young girls panting for more, they became one of the hottest young singing/line-dancing groups to hit the late 80s/early 90s. The Boys went on to sell over 70 million albums worldwide, and provoke the spawning of other five-member harmony groups such as Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. During its heyday, Donnie played up his resident "bad boy" persona by tallying up several run-ins with the law, including an alleged arson at a Kentucky hotel (charges were dropped). He also delved into "body art" with numerous tattoos and body piercings in an effort to buck their already-cloying image. Amid intergroup dissension and Milli Vanilli-like charges of not contributing all the vocals to their albums, the pop band finally disbanded in 1994 -- partly out of frustration but also having outgrown the group's juvenile moniker.
Unsure of his direction while attracting more trouble in the tabloids, Donnie, who helped write, arrange and produce brother Mark's Funky Bunch group's first two albums a few years earlier, switched gears. He rapped some and modeled some, then transformed himself into an actor, a route taken earlier by his talented bro. While Mark has turned out to become the bigger film star over the years, Donnie has stepped out of his shadows to receive raves and renewed respect for his own tense and compelling character work.
He first showed up in big screen action. Making his debut as a "tough guy" thug in the Mickey Rourke urban outing Bullet (1996), filmed in 1994 but not released until two years later. Usually cast as an amoral heavy, Donnie moved up the quality ladder with director Ron Howard's thriller Ransom (1996) as part of a gang of kidnappers who nab Mel Gibson's son, to their eventual regret, of course. His next repellent took the form of a drug dealer in the goth indie horror Black Circle Boys (1997), but the film came and went. After a couple of TV movies, he finally nabbed a starring role in the film Southie (1998) playing more or less himself as an Irish-American prodigal son who returns to the mean streets of his native Boston. The movie also featured another brother Robert Wahlberg who also was testing the acting waters.
Ironically, one of Donnie's most powerful roles during this period was also one of his briefest. Seen in the opening sequence, he is nearly unrecognizable (having dropped an alarming amount of weight) portraying a deranged former patient of psychiatrist Bruce Willis whose sudden explosion into unfathomable violence sets up the clever twists and turns that turned M. Night Shyamalan's classic psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (1999) into a critically-acclaimed box office hit. Donnie's opening bit was mouth dropping and jarring in its horror. He also proved he wasn't a flash in the pan by backing up this performance with a major role as a WWII paratrooper in the critically-hailed ten-part epic Band of Brothers (2001), which won multiple Emmy awards (6).
This TV role directly led to his casting as a gritty L.A. detective in the NBC dramatic series Boomtown (2002), an acclaimed series that didn't survive a second season. Since then Donnie has patented his unrefined intensity into a number of films such as Triggermen (2002), Dreamcatcher (2003), Saw II (2005), Annapolis (2006), Saw III (2006), Saw IV (2007) and Zookeeper (2011). He has also clocked in lead roles for such roughhewn TV series as Runaway (2006), The Kill Point (2007), Return of the Mac (2017) and, most notably, as detective Danny Reagan in Blue Bloods (2010).
Donny has two sons, Xavier and Elijah, by first wife Kim Fey, and is married to actress/producer/writer Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg. As a former teen heartthrob seemingly headed down a troubled and dangerous path after his initial success, he somehow managed to avoid the traditional pitfalls of drugs and self-destruction, and has since proven himself an actor with "the right stuff." In addition, the "New Kids on the Block" reteamed in 2007 in recording and book tours. The group received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2014.- Actress
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Juliette Lewis has been recognized as one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile actors of her generation since she first stunned audiences and critics alike with her Oscar-nominated performance as "Danielle Bowden" in Cape Fear (1991). To date, she has worked with some of the most revered directors in the industry, including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Lasse Hallström, Oliver Stone, and Garry Marshall. Whether lending dramatic authenticity or a natural comedic flair to her roles, Lewis graces the screen with remarkable range and an original and captivating style.
Lewis was born in Los Angeles, Californa, to Glenis (Duggan) Batley, a graphic designer, and Geoffrey Lewis, an actor. By the age of six, she knew she wanted to be a performer. At twelve, Lewis landed her first leading role in the Showtime miniseries Home Fires (1987). After appearing in several TV sitcoms including The Wonder Years (1988), she made her move to film, starring with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the drama Crooked Hearts (1991). At 16, Lewis starred opposite Brad Pitt in the critically acclaimed television movie Too Young to Die? (1990), catching the attention of Martin Scorsese, who cast her in his thriller Cape Fear (1991). Her powerful scenes with Robert De Niro captured the quiet complexities of adolescence and earned her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actress". Her auditorium scene with De Niro went down in movie history as one of cinema's classic scenes.
Lewis next worked with Woody Allen in Husbands and Wives (1992), playing a self-assured college coed with a penchant for older men and, particularly, her married professor. She quickly followed suit with a succession of starring roles in a variety of blockbusters and critically acclaimed projects including Kalifornia (1993), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), and Natural Born Killers (1994), Oliver Stone's controversial media satire about two mass murderers who become legendary folk heroes. Lewis's other credits include the Nora Ephron comedy Mixed Nuts (1994), with Steve Martin and Adam Sandler; the sci-fi action film Strange Days (1995) with Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett; Quentin Tarantino's vampire tale From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) with George Clooney; The Evening Star (1996) with Shirley MacLaine; the Garry Marshall-directed The Other Sister (1999), and Todd Phillips' Old School (2003), co-starring opposite Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as well as Starsky & Hutch (2004). In addition to her film career, Lewis has continued to add roles to her growing list of television credits with a performance in Showtime's My Louisiana Sky (2001), for which she secured an EMMY nomination, and a starring role in the Mira Nair-directed HBO's film Hysterical Blindness (2002), alongside Uma Thurman and Gena Rowlands.
After a six-year hiatus from film to pursue her burgeoning music career exclusively, Lewis announced her return to acting with a handful of upcoming movies. Juliette starred alongside Elliot Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig and Jimmy Fallon in the comedy Whip It (2009). The film was released by Fox Searchlight on October 2nd, 2009. Directed by Drew Barrymore, the film tells the story of an ex-beauty pageant contestant that leaves her crowns behind after joining a roller derby team. Lewis plays "Iron Maven", the star of a top derby team. Next, she joined the cast of the acclaimed European animated thriller Metropia (2009), as the voice of "Nina". She also appeared in the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), opposite Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, and Patrick Wilson. The film tells the story of a single mother (Aniston) who decides to have a child using a sperm donor. Juliette plays "Debbie Epstein", the best friend of Aniston's character. Lewis also appears in Sympathy for Delicious (2010), Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut. The film follows a paralyzed DJ, struggling to survive on the streets of LA who turns to faith healing and mysteriously develops the ability to cure the sick. Juliette plays "Ariel", costarring alongside Orlando Bloom, Mark Ruffalo, and Laura Linney. The film took home the US Dramatic Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, Juliette Lewis appears in the indie-drama Conviction (2010), which stars Hilary Swank, Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver, and Sam Rockwell. She plays "Roseanna Perry" in the true story of an unemployed single mother (Swank) who saw her brother begin serving a life sentence in 1983 for murder and robbery. The role has won Lewis praise from audiences and critics, alike, for her performance, with USA Today saying, "Juliette Lewis has an indelible role" and the San Francisco Chronicle saying "Her character work should be studied in schools. Just remarkable". In addition to Conviction (2010), Lewis also makes a cameo in Todd Phillips's comedy, Due Date (2010), starring Robert Downey Jr., Michelle Monaghan, and Zach Galifianakis.
Beginning in 2004, Juliette took a hiatus from acting to embark on a musical journey. After six years, two full length albums and countless high profile tours and festival gigs with her band, 'Juliette & the Licks', Juliette set out on a solo career. Releasing "Terra Incognita" last fall, the album has taken her all across the world from Europe to Japan to Turkey, Australia, North America and Canada. For more information on Juliette Lewis' music, please visit her MySpace page. Juliette Lewis resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Multi talented and award winning actor Neal McDonough has been blessed to have an incredible career in the film industry.
He is now producing films alongside his wife Ruvé for the McDonough company. Films such as THE WARRANT, BREAKERS LAW, REDSTONE, BOON, BLACK SPARTANS ,and most recently the hit film THE SHIFT for Angel Studios.
McDonough is about to start filming THE LAST RODEO which he has written with his partner Derek Presley.
The McDonough company will be producing this film with Jon Avnet directing.
After that they will going into production on their next western he has written called THE WICKED AND THE RIGHTEOUS .
McDonough is well known for performances in productions, such as BAND OF BROTHERS, MINORITY REPORT, WALKING TALL and STAR-TREK FIRST CONTACT. He also started in many stage productions, and most recently playing Whitey Bulger on stage in FINDING WHITEY at the Wilbur theater in Boston.
He also recently played Daddy Warbucks in ANNIE and numerous other stage productions as well.
His voice over career is what really started him. The voice of many cartoons, including Bruce Banner in the INCREDIBLE HULK and in many video games such as CALL OF DUTY ZOMBIES.
He has also been the long term voice of FIDELITY AND CADILLAC.
But he's most proud of his relationship with God, his wife, Ruvé, and their five children.
McDonough trained at Syracuse University and studied at LAMDA in London.- Actress
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Amber Valletta was born in Phoenix, Arizona, USA as Amber Evangeline Valletta. She is an actress, producer and model. She began her career as a fashion model. Valletta was married to Olympic volleyball player Chip McCaw with whom she has a son, Auden. Valletta endorsed Democrat President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. In July 2014, Valletta spoke out about her battle with drug and alcohol addiction.- Actor
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Richard was born in Bethesda, Maryland, the middle of three sons of Edward, a real estate lawyer, and Charlotte, a cable TV and publishing executive. His parents divorced when he was 12. He dropped out of high school and switched to night school because he could finish sooner with less work. He studied at the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1973. "In college when I tripped and fell over the drama program at the City College of New York, and went and got into the Professional Acting Training Program by fluke, and Earle Gister, who was, uh, had just come from Carnegie-Melon, and was on his way to the Yale School of Drama stopped for a little pit stop at the City College of New York for three years to run the Davis Center for Performing Arts. I was very lucky that he was there." After not bothering to show up for finals though, he headed to Colorado where he cut firewood and lived a hippie life. He returned to New York in 1975 and started studying acting at CCNY and eventually was accepted into their theater program. He initially disliked acting and studied to be a director. He directed several off-Broadway plays, including "Antigone" with a then just-graduated Angela Bassett in 1983. He also met present wife, Sheila Kelley, during auditions for this play. The two married in 1996. In the mid-1980s, Richard says he conquered his fears and decided to take a stab at acting. He got several TV roles, but he was seen by Steven Spielberg in an episode of the TV drama High Incident (1996). Spielberg then cast him in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and his career has been on an upward climb ever since that has led to his co-starring role in The West Wing (1999).- Margaret "Maggie" Blye attended the University of Texas, before transferring to UCLA in her senior year. She was quickly spotted by a talent agent, and the agent booked Maggie for her first audition in the Oscar-nominated film "Summer and Smoke" starring Geraldine Page. Maggie went on to participate, and star, in many feature films, working with some of the best in the business: "Hombre" with Paul Newman, "Waterhole #3" with James Coburn, "Hard Times" with Charles Bronson, "Diamonds Are For Breakfast" with Marcello Mastroianni, "Ash Wednesday" with Elizabeth Taylor, and the original "The Italian Job" with Michael Caine. In addition, her television roles included extensive guest stars and in numerous television series pilot trials. Maggie joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1968. Maggie was active in organizations, serving for many years on the Foreign Language Film Award (FLFA) Screening Committee. After a two year battle with cancer, Maggie passed away peacefully on March 24, 2016 at her home in West Hollywood, California, with her sister, Judy Blye Wilson, and her brother, John Richard Blye by her bed side. Per her wishes, Maggie was laid to rest next to her parents at Forest Park Lawn in Houston, Texas on March 30, 2016.
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James Harvey Kennedy was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 1970. He became interested in acting at the age of 15, and appeared in a movie for the first time at age 19, as an extra in Dead Poets Society (1989). His first role in a movie was as Brad in the film Road to Flin Flon (2000), which was filmed in the early 1990s but was not released until spring 2000. He is most popular for playing the role of the movie buff, geeky Randy Meeks, in Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000). In 1998, he won a Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actor in a horror movie for his role as Randy Meeks in Scream 2 (1997).- Producer
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Arsenio Hall was born on 12 February 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Coming to America (1988), Coming 2 America (2021) and Harlem Nights (1989).- Thomas Kretschmann was born in East Germany. Before becoming an actor, he was a swimmer. He has acted in several popular American movies, such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), The Pianist (2002), U-571 (2000), In Enemy Hands (2004), etc. He has three children, Nicolas, Stella and Sascha with his ex-girlfriend Lena.
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Jeri Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmerman on February 22, 1968 in Munich, West Germany, to Gerhard Florian Zimmerman, a Master Sergeant in the United States Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She and her older brother Mark grew up on several military bases, including Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia and Texas. Finally, at age 11, her father retired from the Army and her family settled down in Paducah, Kentucky. After graduating from Lone Oak High School in 1986, she attended Northwestern University Chicago as a National Merit Scholar. While studying there, she won a number of beauty contests (a.o.- sixth annual Miss Northwestern Alpha Delta Phi Pageant in 1989).
With a B.S. degree in Theatre, she came to Los Angeles, California and since then she has been on several television series and films - including popular series like Matlock (1986), Melrose Place (1992) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) as well as Dark Skies (1996). Her television experience also includes roles in a variety of telefilms including Nightmare in Columbia County (1991), NBC's In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco (1993), Co-ed Call Girl (1996), The Sentinel (1996), Men Cry Bullets (1998), Dracula 2000 (2000), The Last Man (2000) and Down with Love (2003). Jeri Ryan resides in an area of Los Angeles, California with her husband chef Christophe Eme, her son Alex and daughter Gisele.- Actor
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LeVar Burton was born on 16 February 1957 in Landstuhl, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). He has been married to Stephanie Cozart Burton since 3 October 1992. They have one child.- Actress
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Judy Greer was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan, as Judith Therese Evans. She is the daughter of Mollie Ann (née Greer), a hospital administrator and former nun, and Richard Evans, a mechanical engineer. She has German, Irish, English, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry. After training for nearly ten years in classical Russian ballet, Greer shifted her interest to acting and was accepted into Chicago's prestigious Theatre School at DePaul University.
After a variety of odd jobs during college, from telemarketer to oyster shucker, Greer landed her first on-screen role just three days after graduation -- a small part in the Jason Lee-David Schwimmer comedy Kissing a Fool (1998). She flew to Los Angeles for the film's premiere and never left. Greer quickly landed a role in the dark comedy Jawbreaker (1999), with Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart. Greer starred as a school wallflower-turned-babe in a story about high school girls who accidentally kill their best friend and try to cover up the murder.
She went on to play a news correspondent in David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999), landing a memorable opening love scene with George Clooney. Her performance caught the eye of Hollywood, and she appeared next in Mike Nichols's What Planet Are You From? (2000) as a flight attendant opposite Garry Shandling. Her television credits include a recurring role as Jason Bateman's assistant Kitty on Fox's Arrested Development (2003), as well as guest-starring roles on Love & Money (1999), Maggie Winters (1998), and Early Edition (1996).
Greer starred opposite Jennifer Garner in Columbia Pictures' romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 (2004), directed by Gary Winick. Greer played an office colleague alongside Garner's character, with whom she shares a checkered past.
She co-starred in writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sigourney Weaver, and William Hurt. Set in 1897, the film revolves around a close-knit community that lives with the knowledge that a mythical race of creatures resides in the woods surrounding them. The Village (2004) was released July 30, 2004, by Touchtone Pictures. Greer also co-starred in director Wes Craven's Cursed (2005), a modern twist on the classic werewolf tale written by Kevin Williamson. The busy actress also landed a co-starring role opposite Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon in writer-director Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (2005), playing the sister of Bloom's character and daughter of Sarandon's character.
She also joined Jeff Bridges and Jeanne Tripplehorn in the independent film The Amateurs (2005) by writer-director Michael Traeger. The film revolves around a motley group of friends who band together to make an amateur porn film. Greer plays a young temptress at the local mattress store who secures a role in the movie by allowing the store to be used as a film location.
Greer wrapped production in New York on a co-starring role opposite Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent") in Danny Leiner's The Great New Wonderful (2005) for Serenade Films/Sly Dog Films. The dark comedy tells five different stories against the backdrop of an uncertain post-September 11 New York. The cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco and Tony Shalhoub.
She also appeared in writer-director Adam Goldberg's psychological drama I Love Your Work (2003), opposite Giovanni Ribisi. The film is about a fictional movie star (Ribisi) and his gradual meltdown and increasing obsession with a young film student and his girlfriend. The stellar cast also included Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Jason Lee and debuted at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. In the film, Greer plays Samantha, the personal assistant of Ribisi's character.
Greer had a starring role as the female lead role in the comedy The Hebrew Hammer (2003) as the feisty, fearless Esther, who joins forces with an Orthodox Jewish Blaxploitation hero (Adam Goldberg) to save Hanukkah from an evil son of Santa Claus (Andy Dick). The Hebrew Hammer (2003) debuted at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and premiered on Comedy Central followed by a theatrical release.
She also appeared in Adaptation. (2002), from director Spike Jonze. In the film, Nicolas Cage stars as self-loathing writer Charlie Kaufman (and twin brother Donald) as he attempts to adapt the novel "The Orchid Thief" for the big screen. Greer played Alice, the waitress with whom he becomes obsessed -- the object of his fantasies.
Greer turned in a scene-stealing comedic performance in The Wedding Planner (2001), with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, in which she played Penny, Lopez's sweet but ditsy assistant who tries hard, but often falls a little short. Equally adept at more dramatic roles, Greer gave a standout performance opposite Mel Gibson in What Women Want (2000), playing a suicidal file clerk rescued by the one man who can hear women's thoughts. Greer's pivotal scene with Gibson is the heart of the film.
With a genuine gift for comedy and an engaging on-screen presence, Judy Greer has quickly become one of Hollywood's most captivating talents. Having appeared in such diverse films as Jawbreaker (1999), What Women Want (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Adaptation. (2002), and Wilson (2017) as well as a number of upcoming feature film projects, Greer turns in scene-stealing performances opposite some of the industry's biggest stars.- Actor
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Joe Cortese is in the Oscar-winning Green Book (2019) opposite Viggo Mortensen. He played Roger Stone in the Roger Ailes mini-series, The Loudest Voice (2019) for Showtime starring Russell Crowe, and also took on the role of Giorgio Armani in the FX true crime anthology, The Assassination of Gianni Versace-American Crime Story (2017).
Cortese first came on the scene in the 1976 cult classic gangster film The Death Collector costarring Joe Pesci. Over the next 4 decades Cortese has established himself as an actor/writer. As an actor, Joe Cortese has achieved success in film, television, and theatre.
Some of his films included starring roles in Windows (1980) with Talia Shire for Director Gordon Willis from United Artists, Monsignor (1982) which he starred with Christopher Reeve for Director Frank Perry at 20th Century Fox, and American History X (1998) with Director Tony Kaye starring Edward Norton from Warner Brothers. Cortese also starred in Paramount's Against The Ropes (2004) with Meg Ryan and Kerry Washington, and Ruby (1992) with Danny Aiello.
Cortese starred in Go Go Tales (2007) for Director Abel Ferrara, with actors Willem Dafoe and Bob Hoskins while having its World Premiere at The Cannes Film Festival and later that year it had its American Premiere at the New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Center. Cortese won The Best Actor Award from The New York Hip Hop Film Festival for his starring role as Spencer Spector in the comedy, Shut Up And Shoot (2006) and also starred in You Got Nothin' (2002) as Big Tommy for Director Philip Angelotti.
Other outstanding performances include starring roles in Paramount's Malevolence (1999) portraying a character based on James Earl Ray, Lucky Town (2000) with James Cann and Kirsten Dunst, and The Shipment (2001) with Matthew Modine and Elizabeth Berkley. He also received kudos for his role as Johnny Roselli in HBO's critically acclaimed movie The Rat Pack (1998). Also starred as Vito Lazio in the Independent film The Bronx Bull (2016) with Director Martin Guigui.
Cortese has received major accolades for his numerous top-rated Television projects, C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf (1988), a four-hour mini-series on NBC for Director/Producer William Friedkin. The top-rated mini-series Something Is Out There (1988) from NBC garnered him a Saturn Award nomination for best actor. Cortese also starred in other television projects such as the PBS Vision series special He Wants Her Back (1980) Written and Directed by Staton Kaye, Exclusive (1992) with Suzanne Somers (ABC), Assault and Matrimony (1987) (NBC), Just Life (1990) with Victoria Principal (ABC), Letting Go (1985) with John Ritter (ABC), Born to Run (1993) (FOX), Sidney Sheldon's mini-series If Tomorrow Comes (1986) (CBS), Jackie Collins' Lady Boss (1992) (NBC), and from creator Rob McElhenney's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (2007) (FX) with an appearance with Danny DeVito.
Joe Cortese has never strayed far away from the theater. Being one of the founding members of the MET Theatre in Los Angeles, Cortese produced and starred in the original play Cody Angelino Is Coming. Some of his other Los Angeles theater credits include: True West at Zephyr Theater, Waking Jimmy Rizzo at the White Fire Theatre, and Italian playwrights Luigi Pirandello's Che Che and Man With The Flower In His Mouth at the Marilyn Monroe Theater. In New York, his theater credits include: playing Clifford Odets in Golden Girl, Waiting for Lefty at ETC; and, from the Regional Theater: Of Mice and Men, Waiting for Godot, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Tonight and Every Night is the latest project in development Joe Cortese will be producing and starring in. It's about a Greek diner owner suffering from dementia, who creates an alter ego as a talk show host. Also, in pre-production, Joe has written The Bridge about a San Francisco crime family.
As lifetime member of The Actor's Studio and member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Joe Cortese continues his support of actors and the craft of acting.- Actress
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Born and raised in Minnesota, Marisa Coughlan attend the University of Southern California where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Theater, after studying in Paris during her junior year.
She married Stephen Wallack, whom she had known since they were teenagers in Minneapolis, at a private estate in Pasadena, California on November 1, 2008. They have four children together.- Producer
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Shin Koyamada is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and martial artist. As actor, Koyamada became best known to global audiences after his co-starring debut role in the Warner Bros blockbuster Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai (2003), with a worldwide box office of $456 million, earning it nominations for several awards, including four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two National Board of Review Awards. Shin also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006), which received the highest rated kids channel in Japan, U.K. and Europe, and is streaming on Disney+ to over 110 million global subscribers. As producer, Shin is also well known for producing numerous American and international movies, shows, comics and video games through his production company Shinca Entertainment for over 15 years. In addition to his prominent work in the entertainment career, Shin became eminent for his longtime global philanthropic efforts for over 15 years, mainly through Koyamada International Foundation (KIF), an international NGO with country chapters in 4 different continents around the world. Shin speaks fluent English and a native Japanese and holds several Black Belts in different martial arts.- Actress
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Ever Carradine was born on 6 August 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for The Requiem Boogie, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and Bubble Boy (2001). She has been married to Coby Brown since 1 October 2005. They have two children.- Actress
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Jamie Michelle Luner was born on Wednesday, May 12, 1971 to Stuart and Susan Luner in Palo Alto, California. She grew up with her older brother, David Luner, and her mom Susan in California. Before landing her roles on Just the Ten of Us (1987) as dizzy "Cindy Lubbock", Jamie began her career in front of the cameras at the tender age of three doing TV commercials. At 15 she won the L.A. Shakespeare Festival in the category of monologues. She was still working on Just the Ten of Us (1987), while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1989. She took a break from acting, attended culinary school, and was a chef at French restaurant Drai's after Just the Ten of Us (1987) was canceled in 1991.
She returned to TV in Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter? (1993) in 1993 with a few small parts in shows such as Married... with Children (1987), Diagnosis Murder (1993). Then, she got her first break as Southern seductress "Peyton Richards" in Savannah (1996). After the prime-time soap was canceled, Jamie and her then-boyfriend Johnny Braz traveled around the US in an Airstream motor home before she landed the role of "Lexi" in Melrose Place (1992). After the Fox soap ended in 1999, so did her four-year-romance. Then after Ally Walker left, Jamie joined the cast of Profiler (1996) as "Rachel Burke".
Later she was in ABC's short-lived 10-8: Officers on Duty (2003). Then, in 2005, she had lead roles in Lifetime's, Blind Injustice (2005), Stranger in My Bed (2005) and, in 2006, The Suspect (2006), The Perfect Marriage (2006) and a guest spot on The War at Home (2005).
Jamie has also done theater work in Santa Monica in "Black & Bluestein", Other Space, Santa Monica and The Young Playwrites Festival in Los Angeles.- Actress
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In Joely Fisher's recent unflinching memoir, she comes clean and bares her soul about growing up in what she describes as "The Fishbowl".Daughter of Hollywood legendary crooner Eddie Fisher and entertainment icon Connie Stevens, Joely was raised in the Los Angeles area educated in a dozen LA schools, continuing on to the Université de Paris/Sorbonne and Emerson College in Boston. From the time she hit the boards in the multi-purpose room in her Catholic elementary school musical, Mama said, "I couldn't stop her with a train". Triple threat, Joely Fisher stands out as a star of television, musical theatre, and motion pictures. Her "sensational and sexy" turn as Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's critic darling revival of "Cabaret" on Broadway as well as the National touring company earned her rave reviews. Joely made her Broadway debut as "Rizzo"in "Grease!." However, it was her 5 seasons as "Paige Clark ,"Ellen's best friend ,the monstrously ambitious, seductive Hollywood executive on the historic and groundbreaking ABC show, Ellen (1994), that introduced her to television audiences around the world, and earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She next starred opposite John Goodman in FOX's series Normal, Ohio (2000) playing the hilariously fascinating combo of a young caring mother who just happened to be a "bit of a slut." She spent two seasons starring in her own series Wild Card (2003) for Lifetime. In 2005, Joely joined the cast of the hit television series Desperate Housewives (2004) where she played Felicity Huffman's tough and very complex boss Nina Fletcher. Fisher then returned to television opposite Brad Garrett for four seasons in FOX's 'Til Death (2006). Their incredible chemistry kept audiences rolling with laughter. Next, Joely reoccurred on ABC's Last Man Standing (2011) opposite Hector Elizondo. Joely's film credits have placed her opposite some of the finest actors in film, like Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994), Steve Martin in Mixed Nuts (1994), and Nick Nolte in I'll Do Anything (1994). Her crowning achievement to date was starring with Matthew Broderick in the $100 million-grossing Disney film Inspector Gadget (1999). She is a stand out in such indie films as Perfect Prey (1998), Slingshot (2005), Killing Winston Jones, and Search Engines (2016). Recently seen in The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017) opposite Jennifer Garner as well as The Disappointments Room (2016), and By the Rivers of Babylon. Her television movies include the lead in NBC's Thirst (1998), Showtime's Jitters (1997), ABC's Seduction in a Small Town (1997), and Cupid, Inc. (2012) for Hallmark. No matter how much the focus of her career seems to be acting, the underlying accompaniment throughout is her love of singing and performing. She tells the tale of sleeping in the orchestra pit during one of mother Connie Stevens' performances, and by 12 she was singing all over the world, including a USO tour with Bob Hope during the Persian Gulf War, which led to her performance for President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush at the Kennedy Center. Joely has written, directed and performed multiple one-woman shows .She was even featured at a young age on the Tony awards, the Academy Awards, and was Miss Golden Globe. In recent years Ms. Fisher has embarked on a directing career ranging in television shows, "Sunset Fever" a black comedy short as commentary on reality television and the Hollywood family, to the socially conscious PSA campaigns for IFAW the International Fund for Animal Welfare and for Welcome.US an organization started by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg on Immigrant Heritage. Her first music video, "Sonte" by European artist Mirud has a million views and she is on a short list of women called upon to direct multi-camera television for the Disney Channel and this year will make her feature directorial debut with Oliver Storm and the Curse of Sinbad's Treasure, a family adventure film. Joely hopes to continue on this path and give the world delicious and compelling stories and lead the pack of women who make change in the world. In her book she also writes in gut wrenching detail how the sudden loss of her sister, Carrie Fisher, inspired her creativity and the recognition that she could indeed write. Joely has been married more than 2 decades to cinematographer and director Christopher Duddy. Together they have five children Cameron, Collin, daughter Skylar Grace, True Harlow 12 yrs old, and in 2008 they adopted Olivia "Luna "- Rhea Durham (born July 1, 1978) is an American model. She has appeared on the cover of several major fashion magazines, including French Vogue, Marie Claire, British and American ELLE. Rhea has also walked in the 2000 and 2001 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. She guest-starred as herself on the 2001 Spin City episode, "The Wedding Scammer."
Rhea and actor Mark Wahlberg started a relationship in 2001 and have four children: daughters Ella Rae (b. 2003) and Grace Margaret (b. 2010), sons Michael (b. 2006) and Brendan Joseph (b. 2008). In 2009, she converted to Catholicism from Baptist Protestantism, having received the sacraments of initiation. Wahlberg and Durham married on August 1, 2009 in a private Catholic ceremony in Beverly Hills, California. - Sonya Walger is a British actress who also holds American citizenship. She had starring roles in the short-lived sitcoms The Mind of the Married Man (2001-2002) and Coupling (2003) before landing her role as Penny Widmore in the ABC drama series Lost (2006-2010). Walger later starred on Tell Me You Love Me (2007), FlashForward (2009-2010), Common Law (2012), The Catch (2016-2017) and For All Mankind (2019-2022).
- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Joy Bryant was born in a modest home in The Bronx, New York and as a young woman, was enrolled in an inner-city outreach organization called "A Better Chance," designed to encourage minority talent. Joy was also blessed with brains as well beauty and remained an excellent student throughout her high school years. As a result, she was awarded a full academic scholarship to Yale University.
While enrolled as a full-time student at Yale, Joy was discovered by a modeling scout from Next Models Management and subsequently pursued a career as a fashion model in Paris. Her slender yet classic beauty got her an exclusive contract with prestigious brand names such as Tommy Hilfiger and the Victoria's Secret lingerie catalogue.
Joy's acting debut came about in 2001 in Robert Townsend's Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001). An MTV production, the film also starred Beyoncé and Mekhi Phifer, along with several hip-hop superstars. After a small role in the Eddie Murphy action comedy Showtime (2002), she made her big breakthrough in Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher. Bryant played Cheryl, the beautiful and supportive girlfriend of Antwone (Derek Luke). In 2003, she co-starred with Jessica Alba in Bille Woodruff's romantic drama Honey (2003). That same year, she appeared in Mario Van Peebles' _Baadasssss! (2003)_, based on his father Melvin Van Peebles' autobiographical novel. Projects for 2004 included the crime drama Three Way (2004) with Gina Gershon.
The year 2005 turned out to be an even better year for the actress. Joy appeared in high-profile films such as The Skeleton Key (2005), London (2005), and Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005). Her performances as the sassy Mallory in London (2005) and the strikingly pretty Charlene in Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) were critically acclaimed, and re-enforced her reputation as a versatile actress.- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
Tim Bevan was born on 20 December 1957 in Queenstown, New Zealand. He is a producer and actor, known for Les Misérables (2012), United 93 (2006) and Atonement (2007). He has been married to Amy Gadney since 2001. They have two children. He was previously married to Joely Richardson.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Michael Manning Weatherly, Jr. was born on July 8, 1968 in New York City, to Patricia Ruth (Hetherington) and Michael Manning Weatherly, Sr. Raised in Fairfield, CT, he left college to pursue a career in acting. He also had a great passion for music, and played in a band while pursuing his acting career. He began acting professionally and landed his first job as Theo Huxtable's roommate on The Cosby Show (1984) and a role in the independent film Trigger Happy (2001) opposite Rosario Dawson. This led to numerous guest spots on television and brought him to Los Angeles, where he landed a regular role in the FOX series Significant Others (1998). He met director Whit Stillman, who cast him in The Last Days of Disco (1998) opposite Chloë Sevigny. Michael also starred as Christina Applegate's ex-husband on the series Jesse (1998) and had roles in The Specials (2000) opposite Rob Lowe, Venus and Mars (2001) opposite Lynn Redgrave and Gun Shy (2000) opposite Liam Neeson and Sandra Bullock.
In 1995 he married actress Amelia Heinle, who appeared with him in The City (1995) and Loving (1983). Unfortunately, their marriage ended in divorce in 1997, despite the birth of their son August in 1996. Michael resides in Los Angeles. Weatherly married internist Dr. Bojana Jankovic on September 30, 2009. The couple live in Los Angeles with their two children, a daughter Olivia, and a son Liam.- Actress
- Producer
Actress and model Jo Champa was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, to an American mother and an Italian father. At age seven, she relocated to Rome, Italy, where she was raised. Before the age of eighteen, Jo had already become one of Gianni Versace's favorite runway models.
Additionally, she acted as a muse to iconic photographer Helmut Newton, starring in some of his most legendary photographs, which can be found in a permanent exhibit at the Museum in Berlin as well as in Newton's limited edition book, 'Sumo'. Jo has also been photographed many times by celebrated photographer Douglas Kirkland, and has appeared in a number of his illustrious books.
Champa broke into the film industry at age eighteen with Claude d'Anna's French-Italian production, "Salome'', which opened the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. She went on to star in many significant Italian films including "Dolce assenza" by Claudio Sestieri, "The Family" by Ettore Scola, which earned an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language, "Le vie del Signore sono finite" by Massimo Troisi, and "Il sole buio" by Damiano Damiani, to name but a few. She received continuous praise from European directors for bringing an exotic, alluring Mediterranean quality to the screen.
At the peak of her career, Jo returned to the United States and starred in Steven Seagal's Out for Justice (1991), followed by Michael Preece's Beretta's Island (1993). then Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece Little Buddha (1993), and then Jeremy Leven's Don Juan DeMarco (1994), where she played opposite Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp. Most recently she was in Somewhere (2010) , directed by Sofia Coppola.
She has guest starred in a variety of television series' including Walker, Texas Ranger, Avvocati, and CSI: Miami to name a few. In Italy, she hosted the very successful fashion television show for RAI TV, titled "Kermesse".
Champa also served as special contributing editor and columnist for Italian Vogue and L'Uomo Vogue. Italian Vogue defined her as "an icon of Italian style. We love her because she is a refined and creative woman, a tireless supporter of Italian cinema and culture in the United States".
Not just a model and an actress, Champa has continued to produce, host, and organize many extraordinary events throughout her career. Amongst her accomplishments, Jo produced "An Academy Tribute to Sophia Loren" for the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences with special guest, Sophia Loren. Jo then produced the launch of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, with a dinner and performance starring Andrea Bocelli. She produced the primetime special of that same event for Italian Sky TV. She also hosted and moderated a Special Evening for David and Susan Rockefeller at MOMA in New York, presenting Susan Rockefeller's remarkable documentary "Mission of Mermaids.
Jo is known for partnering with many of the luxury designer brands she consults for, with the philanthropic goal of enhancing their visibility in Hollywood while raising money for a variety foundations including Race to Erase MS, the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, and the Carousel of Hope for Juvenile Diabetes. Other affiliations she has worked with include the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation event at Christie's in New York.
Jo has worked for many years partnering with Alice Harris, "Sweet Alice", who is a renowned community leader in Watts, Los Angeles, for her annual Christmas toy drive, benefiting those who suffer socioeconomic neglect and poverty. In fact, the Cambodian Children's Fund in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, named a special center after her called "Jo's Kids" honoring her incredible fundraising efforts.
Champa has received numerous awards throughout her life for her accomplishments. At the Italian House of Representatives, in the presence of the Italian President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano, Jo was conferred the "Premio America - Fondazione Italia Usa". A few years earlier, together with Sophia Loren, she had achieved the "Italians in the World Award,". Jo was also awarded the "Cinema Italian Style Award."
Jo believes that "helping others is the gateway to becoming a better person". She has left a permanent imprint in the film and television industry that reaches far beyond the Unites States and Italy. She continues to inspire others and move forward with her humanitarian efforts, demonstrating first-hand what it means to truly make a difference. With her refined, impeccable style and her willingness to be the change, Jo Champa is truly an icon and in inspiration to everyone around her.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kate Linder has portrayed Esther Valentine on CBS' The Young and the Restless since April, 1982. The popular daytime drama has been the #1 rated soap opera every week for over 30 years. In 2008, Linder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Linder has a busy feature film career as well, she was in the feature films Hysteria, Erased, Miss Meadows, Garry Marshall's Mother's Day, Voice from the Stone and The Charnel House. Linder also co-stars in Charlie Matthau's upcoming feature, Book of Leah, Echo Boomers and Shriver.
Linder has been the celebrity spokesperson for The ALS Association for over a decade since her late brother-in-law's initial diagnosis and is especially active with The ALS Association's Golden West Chapter. She has lobbied Congress on their behalf and won several of their national and state volunteer awards for her service. Linder was a longtime board member for SAG-AFTRA and a former two-time Governor of the Television Academy. She is active with countless charities that benefit research and support for health-related and LGBT causes. Linder also hosts annual charity teas in Canada that benefit the March of Dimes Canada's Conductive Education program, for which she also serves as ambassador. Linder also works with the Los Angeles Mission, has been the Grand Marshal of the Walk to End Lupus Now Los Angeles twice and has made several trips visiting troops with the USO.
Website: KateLinder.com Twitter: @KATELINDER Instagram: @katelinderyr Facebook: @officialkatelinder- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Named one of People Magazine's highly coveted 50 Most Beautiful in 2014, Haitian-born actress Garcelle Beauvais immigrated to the United States at the age of seven with her mother and sisters, and has since charmed audiences with her dramatic and comedic abilities. A seasoned actress, Garcelle Beauvais starred in the indie film, "A Girl Like Grace," from executive producer Dan Garcia.
Garcelle was also seen as the host of "Window Warriors," a store front skill-based design reality series on GSN. Her latest film role includes starring alongside Michael Keaton in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
In addition to all of the above, Garcelle served as host on Fox's daytime talk-show, Hollywood Today Live, where she breaks down the latest in entertainment, pop culture, and celebrity news. Above all, Garcelle's most important job is being a mother. She has been inspired by motherhood to write a children's book series entitled 'I AM,' addressing identity issues relevant to many children today.
Garcelle got her start when she began modeling at the age of seventeen and easily transitioned to acting in the Aaron Spelling series "Models, Inc." After that, she co-starred opposite Jamie Foxx for five years on the popular WB sitcom "The Jamie Foxx Show." For four seasons she also starred on the highly rated Emmy© Award-winning series "NYPD Blue." In between her acting projects, she also co-hosts for shows like E!'s "Fashion Police" and "Access Hollywood Live" on NBC.
Garcelle supports the Step Up Women's Network, a national non-profit that empowers women and girls to be strong and reach their full potential. She is also active with March of Dimes and Fonkoze. She resides in Los Angeles and has three sons, Oliver, Jax and Jaid.- Actor
- Producer
- Executive
Taye Diggs was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Rochester, New York. He is the son of Marcia (Berry), a teacher and actress, and Andre Young, a visual artist. When he was a child, his mother married Jeffries Diggs, whose surname Taye took. He received a BFA degree in musical theater from Syracuse University. Taye made his show business debut in the ensemble cast of the five-time Tony Award winning play "Carousel." Taye Diggs is the oldest of five. His two brothers are musicians, one sister is a dancer and the other is going to college to be a veterinarian.- Actress
- Producer
From the age of 13,she attended the Italia Conte stage school where she studied dance, drama, and singing for three years. At 16, she began her modeling career gracing the covers of numerous magazines including GQ, FHM, Maxim, Sky, Cosmopolitan, Hello, Tatler, The Face, and Company, becoming one of the most recognisable in Britain, It wasn't long before Madison Avenue started calling, and in 1995, she got her first advertising campaign for Lee Jeans. Since then, she's been featured in campaigns for Renault Megane Walkers and Piz Buin. In 1998, she launched the biggest bra campaign ever for Triumph's Flaunt range and was featured on billboards nation wide, Her UK television credits are extensive and include co-hosting Britain's most popular morning programme magazine Channel 4's The Big Breakfast and MTV's live two-hour show Select. She also hosted VPL, a magazine lifestyle programme for Granada Television, the final concert at Wembley Stadium for Sky Premiers Oasis Live at Wembley. Her US credits include a four-episode arc on the WB's Smallville portraying Lex Luthor's girlfriend. She made her feature film debut in the thriller Ripper, released in October 2001, and also starred in the play "Eye Contact" at the Riverside Studios in Lonon. In her first stage role, her character Anya explores the world of adult dance clubs from an honest and funny point of view,- Derek Fisher was born on 9 August 1974 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is an actor, known for The Fix (2019), Arli$$ (1996) and The Jamie Foxx Show (1996). He was previously married to Candace Fisher.
- Music Department
- Producer
- Actress
- Viacom Chairman Sumner Murray Redstone was the multi-billionaire who was the leading shareholder of media conglomerate Viacom and CBS Corp.
He was born Sumner Murray Rothstein on May 27, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Michael Rothstein, created National Amusements, a chain of three drive-in theaters, in 1936, after starting out with one drive-in in Valley Stream, New York. In 1940, his family changed their surname to "Redstone," the English translation ("red stone") of the Yiddish Rothstein. Sumner attended Harvard College after graduating at the top of his class from the elite Boston Latin School, completing his bachelor of arts degree in three years during World War II, when college years were accelerated so that graduates could serve in the military. Redstone served in the army during World War II, working at the Pentagon decoding Japanese messages. After being demobilized, he remained in Washington and matriculated at Georgetown University Law School before transferring to Harvard Law. After graduating from Harvard Law with an LL.B, he returned to Washington, DC.
After working for the U.S. Department of Justice in San Francisco, Redstone went into private practice for several years before eventually returning to his father's National Amusements, which he turned into a major motion picture exhibitor in New England. He first made National Amusements one of the premier drive-in circuits in the country before turning to indoor exhibition. In 1964 National Amusements started building multi-screen theaters, originally called "twin theaters." These developed into the "multiplexes" and "megaplexes" that made National Amusements one of the top indoor exhibitors in the country, a great repositioning of the company, and a fortuitous one as the drive-in circuit faded away.
Redstone branched out of exhibition, as he believed that controlling the content was the way of the future--though distribution channels constantly change (from movie theaters, to TV, to cable, to videotape, to DVD), content remains constant. With this philosophy he began investing in motion picture production companies, turning a profit on buying, holding and selling shares.
In 1987 Redstone engineered a hostile takeover of Viacom International by National Amusements. Viacom began as a subsidiary of CBS, syndicating programs for the network. However, when the FCC in 1971 established its now rescinded "fin-syn" rule (that television networks could not syndicate programs they produced), Viacom was spun off from CBS. As a separate company Viacom continued to syndicate most of CBS' TV programs but was free to syndicate programs for others. After syndicating programs for cable TV channels, Viacom itself moved into cable and acquired MTV Networks in 1985. It represented a good platform from which to develop a content-distribution behemoth.
After winning voting control of Viacom, Redstone engaged in a series of acquisitions to make Viacom one of the top players in the modern media industry. During the 1990s Viacom eventually would own Columbia Pictures, Twentieth-Century Fox, Orion Pictures and Paramount Pictures, making huge profits from the sale of all but Paramount, which would become the motion picture arm of the conglomerate.
Paramount Communications, parent of Paramount Pictures, was acquired in 1993. Although criticized initially for paying too much for the company, Redstone helped pay for the acquisition by selling off some of its assets, including Madison Square Garden and its cable TV properties, and Simon & Schuster's educational publishing units. The sale of Paramount Communications' assets made the acquisition substantially profitable.
Redstone then acquired Blockbuster Entertainment, which gave Viacom Aaron Spelling's TV production company and a huge library of films, most of which were absorbed into Paramount Pictures' own library. Blockbuster eventually was spun off into its own independent entity. In 2000 Viacom pulled off arguably its most important acquisition when it acquired its former corporate parent, CBS Corp. In December of 2005 Paramount acquired Dreamworks SKG for an estimated $1.6 billion.
Under Redstone's management, Viacom has assembled one of the largest and most diversified media conglomerates, covering TV broadcasting, cable TV, radio broadcasting (Infinity Broadcasting), outdoor advertising, music publishing, motion pictures, television production, and its original business of TV syndication (King World Productions, which syndicates The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986)).
In 2005 Viacom International was split into two companies, Viacom and CBS Corp. Redstone was chairman of both the new Viacom and of CBS, controlling a majority of both firms. At one point, controlled over 70% of the voting stock of Viacom, which is a subsidiary of National Amusements, his private family-owned company.
National Amusements, whose president is Sumner's daughter (and probable successor) Shari E. Redstone, also owns a controlling interest (70%) of video-game maker Midway Games. In addition to its controlling interests in Viacom and CBS Corp., National Amusements is an international chain of movie theaters with 1,500 screens operated by the chains Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas, KinoStar and Cinema de Lux banners in the U.S., the U.K., South America and Russia. It additionally operates IMAX theaters in the U.S. and Argentina. The firm is also a partner with AMC Theatres in the on-line ticketing firm "movietickets.com."
Redstone's autobiography, "A Passion To Win" (co-written by Peter Knobler), was published in 2001 by Viacom's Simon & Schuster subsidiary. In 2006, he was ranked #63 on Forbes magazine's list of the 100 richest people in the world, with an estimated worth of $7.7 billion.
He died on August 11, 2020, in Los Angeles, at the age of 97. - Additional Crew
Paula Fortunato was born on 15 May 1962 in Toms River, New Jersey, USA. She is known for Des nouvelles du bon Dieu (1996). She was previously married to Sumner Redstone.- Jonathan Dolgen was born on 27 April 1945 in Queens, New York, New York, USA. He was married to Susan. He died on 9 October 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Producer
- Actress
- Production Manager
Sherry was born in Chicago and pursued an acting career after graduating from Northwestern University. After appearing in two films, Loving (1970) and Rio Lobo (1970), Sherry decided to leave the acting field. In 1974, Sherry joined Talent Associates, as an executive in charge of development. In 1975 she joined MGM as an executive story editor. Three years later, she was appointed vice president in charge of production at Columbia. With the success that she achieved with a number of profitable movies, she was hired as President of 20th Century-Fox. In 1984, she joined Stanley R. Jaffe to form the independent production company, named Jaffe-Lansing. When Jaffe was appointed president of Paramount Communications in 1990, Sherry became Chairman of Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group.- Perla Ferrar has been married to Slash since 15 October 2001. They have two children.
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
- Visual Effects
Over a span of the last 4 decades, Christopher Duddy, with his diverse filmmaking skills, has worked on several of the biggest and most successful movies in history and has become a sought after Cinematographer. After studying photography in college, Christopher started his career in 1985 at Industrial Light and Magic, better known as ILM, George Lucas' visual effects studio. He amassed an impressive body of experience early in his career filming visual effects and action sequences on blockbuster movies such as THE ABYSS, TOTAL RECALL and TERMINATOR 2 (which he was on the Academy Award winning visual effects teams on all three movies.) Christopher continued working with James Cameron on his next three features; TRUE LIES, TERMINATOR 2 3D, and the 2nd most successful movie of all time, TITANIC, in which Mr. Cameron enlisted Christopher to shoot the climax of the ship sinking (again, he was on that Academy Award winning visual effects team). At the same time, Christopher was there at the beginning of James Cameron's and Stan Winston's newly formed visual effects studio Digital Domain where they appointed Christopher to be the main Director of Visual Effects Photography on the summer blockbuster, action packed hit DANTES PEAK.
Starting off the 2000's, Christopher was one of the three cinematographers, including Roger Deakins and Andrej Bartkowiak, that shot the acclaimed Kevin Costner feature film THIRTEEN DAYS for New Line, where he and director Roger Donaldson re-created the Cuban missile site in the Philippines, while also bringing Washington D.C. back to 1962. Christopher has been the Director of Photography on several independent features that have premiered on HBO, Showtime and the Fox Family Channel. In 2004' he shot two horror movies, a remake of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI which he won Best Cinematography at Stan Winston's ScreamFest and ALL SOULS DAY which premiered to rave reviews at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival.
In 2005 to 2010, Christopher formed Open Sky Entertainment to develop and produce feature films which produced 7 films, one being his feature film directorial debut on the successful R rated comedy COUGAR CLUB which he also wrote and is being distributed by Universal/Vivendi. Under the Open Sky banner he also served as Director of Photography on a chilling noir horror film his company produced called THE WIZARD OF GORE that The Weinstein Co. bought and distributed on their Dimension Films platform.
In 2012, Chris began a journey into documentary filmmaking by directing a music documentary feature film about legendary Hall of Fame rock star Duff McKagan of Guns and Roses and Velvet Revolver entitled IT'S SO EASY AND OTHER LIES which because of it's incredible visual style got a theatrical release in June of 2016 and is now currently on Amazon. Christopher then began his adventure in television when he started shooting second unit on over 100 episodes of the CBS hit show SCORPION. Recently, he served as the main Director of Photography on another CBS hit series MACGYVER which just ended a long 5 season run. Currently, Christopher is the cinematographer and is in post production on the highly anticipated remake of the classic and legendary horror film NOSFERATU which is slated to hit theaters on Halloween 2021.- Producer
- Production Manager
Robert Friedman, CEO of Bungalow Media + Entertainment, is a thirty-year veteran of the entertainment business where he has developed, produced, and distributed all forms of filmed and experiential content across traditional and digital media platforms. Friedman has held an array of senior executive positions including President of RadicalMedia & Entertainment; President of AOL, Interactive Marketing, TV, & Ad Sales; Co-Chairman of New Line Cinema in charge of Worldwide Theatrical Marketing and Licensing and President of New Line Television, which he launched for the company. Friedman was an original member of the start-up team at MTV.
Friedman serves on the boards of AccuWeather, Mount Sinai Health System, Columbia Graduate School of Business, NATPE, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a trustee emeritus of Vassar College.- Executive
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Wilmer Valderrama has amassed an extensive acting resume in film and television that solidified him in Hollywood as a sought-after leading man. Valderrama starred in Fox's sci-fi series Minority Report (2015) as Will Blake, a new police detective on the force. The series, which also starred Meagan Good and Stark Sands, was a sequel to the Steven Spielberg-directed movie set 10 years after the end of Pre-crime in D.C. Valderrama also starred as Carlos Madrigal, the main villain in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's first original series From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series (2014) on El Rey Network. Valderrama voiced Prince Charming in the John H. Williams animated film Charming (2018), opposite Ashley Tisdale, Avril Lavigne, and Demi Lovato. Valderrama starred in the indie dramas To Whom It May Concern (2016), from French director Manu Boyer, and The Adderall Diaries (2015), opposite Amber Heard and James Franco, which premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. His other film credits include Larry Crowne (2011), From Prada to Nada (2011), and Summer Catch (2001). Most recognized for his role as Fez on Fox's Emmy-nominated series That '70s Show (1998), a role that garnered him numerous Teen Choice Awards and an ALMA Award nomination. Valderrama also lent his voice to the character Manny on the Disney Channel's animated children's program Handy Manny (2006). His other television credits include Awake (2012), Raising Hope (2010), Suburgatory (2011), Royal Pains (2009), and Wizards of Waverly Place (2007). Behind the camera, Valderrama created and produced the MTV series Yo Momma (2006), also serving as the host for all three seasons, in addition to producing other MTV series such as Punk'd (2003), Blowin' Up (2006), and Trippin (2005). As for his philanthropic efforts, Valderrama has directed several PSAs for multiple organizations such as Voto Latino, where he stands as co-chair, and the Environmental Media Association, where he is an executive board member. Valderrama is the spokesperson for CHCI, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and is the founder of their Ready 2 Lead program, which educates and empowers the Latino youth. He also worked with President Barack Obama's Organizing for Action campaign on future efforts involving immigration reform and education. Born in Miami, Valderrama moved to Venezuela with his family at the age of 3. Valderrama is fluent in both Spanish and English. When Valderrama was 13, his family relocated to Los Angeles.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Stephen Philip Jones, was born on September 3rd, 1955 in West London. His real father, an amateur boxer, named Don Jarvis left Steve and his mother when he was just two years old. Sometime later his Step-father arrived on the scene, for a time, Steve lived in a house with his parents and grandparents, and at the age of 12 moved to a one-bedroomed basement flat with his mother and step-father, in Shepherds Bush. He didn't have a happy childhood and felt that his mother hated him. He didn't want to get a job and at the age of 16, his step-father threw him out of the family home, for that very reason. By this time, Jones already had a criminal record dating back to 1968 and had spent a year and a half in a reform school. This did little to thwart his criminal intentions. By the age of 18, he was not far off ending up in jail. Realising that music was his only way out of the life he hated, he started up a band. In 1972 Q.T. Jones and the Sex Pistols were formed, Just a few years later, with a line-up change, a switch to guitar from vocals for Jones and the name cut in half, Jones would be part of what were once one of the most notorious bands in the UK at that time. The break-up of the Pistols led to drug problems for Jones, most notably an addiction to Heroin, which would last until 1987, until Jones got himself clean and started work on his very first solo album. 1989 gave us a second and Jones continued his work within the music scene until 1996 when not only did he have the Neurotic Outsiders, but also the Sex Pistols re-united for a world tour. Steve has had the opportunity to showcase his acting skills, in four films, in recent years. He is also a football player for Hollywood UTD and continues to produce various bands.- Actress
- Composer
Nicki Aycox lived a full artistic life since the age of nine, when she fell in love with the family piano and began playing music. By the time she had reached her preteens Nicki was performing Beethoven for audiences all around Oklahoma, until her family had a huge financial setback and was forced to sell her piano. Nicki said that this sad circumstance played a major role in her shift to the theater. Like a lot of kids her age she began performing in her high school theater, and also in drama competitions. She won state titles in different categories, and became very comfortable with being in front of an audience. She once said that she was on stage long before she ever actually sat in an audience. After high school graduation she attended the University of Oklahoma and began serious academic study. Soon, however, she found herself driving to California to enroll in the theater department at Long Beach State. While working two jobs and participating in the theater department, Nicki found little time to study and take a full class load. In her second year at Long Beach State Nicki was able to sign with a small agency in Hollywood, and thus began her career as a professional performer - a career which began relatively quickly compared to most. She was working small bit parts on several popular networks and shows within a year of making the move from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. In the beginning of her career Nicki acted opposite actor Stephen Rae in an HBO film called "Double Tap", as well as appearing in shows like "Third Rock from the Sun", NBC's "Providence", David Kelley's "Ally McBeal", and in the X-Files episode "Rush" in 1999. That role from the TV show led to a role in the second "X-Files" film "I Want to Believe" in 2008. In a time when an unspoken difference between "film" actors and "television" actors existed, Aycox did not allow this rule to apply to her.
Her work during these early years included guest spots on "CSI", and "Dark Angel", a recurring role n NBC's "ED" playing the wild and crazy sister of Julie Bowen. At some points Nicki would be pulling double duty playing roles on different shows. She played the sister of Katherine Morris on CBS's "Cold Case", while shooting the series "LAX" with Heather Locklear. By 2005, Aycox was made a series regular on shows such as FX's "Over There" created by Steven Bochco and Chris Gerolmo. She moved on from there to play a very memorable role as a psychotic serial killer in an episode of "Criminal Minds" titled "The Perfect Storm". The following year Nicki appeared in the Halle Berry film "Perfect Stranger". One of her most widely known roles was that of Meg Masters in "Supernatural".
In the years 2009-2013 Aycox enjoyed success as a series regular as Jamie Allen in the Bruckheimer series "Dark Blue". Next she was cast as Lisa Matthews in the Indie film "Lifted", directed by Oscar nominated director Lexi Alexander. Around this time she also awarded a best actress award by the Buffalo Niagara film festival for her portrayal as a German woman fighting to save her sanity in the World War II film "Christina". Her co-star, Stephen Lang, was also awarded for his role as Inspector Reinheart. Aycox spent her final years reclaiming her love of music, playing the guitar and singing for audiences, as well as continuing her acting career.
Aycox revealed on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with leukemia in March 2021. She passed away on November 16th, 2022.- Producer
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jim Dyer is an executive producer with more than 35 years of film and television production experience. He has cultivated strong connections with the major studios and networks including, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, HBO, and Starz. In addition, he has worked with digital production companies around the world. His financial oversight has a broad spectrum of film budget development and management, ranging from under $1 million to in excess of $100 million.
Dyer's accomplished career in the motion picture business includes working in several different facets of feature film production. The California native entered the business after a tour in Vietnam, working first as a camera assistant on TV commercials. Later, he worked as a film crew grip, with credits that include two Brian De Palma thrillers, the 1976 Oscar®-nominated "Carrie" and "Blow Out" starring John Travolta and John Lithgow. Jim continued to work with De Palma as assistant director on "Raising Cain." assistant director credits continued with director Walter Hill on "Red Heat," "Johnny Handsome," and "Another 48 Hours." Directors Roger Spottiswoode, on "The Best of Times," John Frankenheimer, on "Dead Bang," and Stan Dragoti, on "Mr. Mom" also called upon Dyer's skills as assistant director.
He subsequently moved on to serve as unit production manager on such projects as "The Replacement Killers" with Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun Fat, "Anaconda" with Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas's "Crazy in Alabama," which he also executive produced, and "The Deep End of the Ocean" with Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams. Additionally, Dyer production managed Roland Emmerich's epic American Revolution adventure, "The Patriot", starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger.
Dyer has a recurring relationship with producer, Donald DeLine. With DeLine, Dyer collaborated as executive producer on the romantic comedy "Fool's Gold," starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, the action-thriller "The Italian Job," with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron, and the thriller "Domestic Disturbance," with John Travolta and Vince Vaughn. With their fourth project, "Yogi Bear 3D," Dyer assisted with producing the first live action stereoscopic movie shot totally on location.
Although most involved in film production, Dyer co-executive produced twenty-two episodes of the acclaimed HBO premium television cable series "Rome," an award-winning historical drama, set during the last years of Julius Caesar's reign. Dyer was also part of the development of the "Marco Polo" series for the Starz Network.
As an international producer, Jim's understanding of individual cultures pertaining to finance and film incentives, are paramount to his successful partnerships and development. Countries where he has industry film relationships include: Canada, England, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China.
Most recently Jim is dedicating his experience to writing, developing, and financing his own projects for both television and movies. He is a founder and CEO of the startup, Shanghai Shanghai Digital Holdings, creating original content for the Chinese market with the plan to export internationally.
With the advent of the current explosive need for content to fill the voracious appetite of streaming media, Jim is focusing on that opportunity in the Asian markets, especially China.
Other projects in development include "Dead Wrong," with executive producer Morgan Freeman, and producers Jimmy Smith and Bryan Behuniak, and "The Riceball Fairy," an animated feature written by the Chinese writer, Michelle Lin.
Associations: Member of the Directors Guild of America, Member of the Screen Actors Guild, Member Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and Member Producers Guild of America- Producer
- Manager
- Writer
Mike Nilon is known for Braven (2018), Left Behind (2014) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). He was previously married to Garcelle Beauvais.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Eric Nenninger was born on 19 November 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for One Day at a Time (2017), Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) and Generation Kill (2008). He has been married to Angel Parker since 10 August 2002. They have two children.- Make-Up Department
Stephanie Cozart Burton was born on 10 November 1953 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. She is known for White Men Can't Jump (1992), In Living Color (1990) and The Talk (2010). She has been married to LeVar Burton since 3 October 1992. They have one child.- Producer
- Actress
Ruvé McDonough was born in 1966 in South Africa. She is a producer and actress, known for Boon (2022), The Last Rodeo and Homestead (2024). She has been married to Neal McDonough since 1 December 2003. They have five children.- Chris Breed is known for Actress: Another Word for Waitress (2017).
- Ed Limato was the last of the great Hollywood talent agents - a breed that dwindled with the loss of Stan Kamen and Irving "Swifty" Lazar. Over the years, Ed Limato's client list read like a who's who of Hollywood royalty and Oscar winners, including Antonio Banderas, Michael Biehn, Nicholas Cage, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, Claire Danes, Geena Davis, Robert Downey, Jr., James Franco, Matthew Fox, Ava Gardner, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Melanie Griffith, Goldie Hawn, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Thomas Jane, Frank Langella, Jennifer Lopez, Derek Luke, director Adrian Lyne, Madonna, Steve Martin, Matthew McConaughey, Bette Midler, Liam Neeson, Sam Neill, Nate Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Quaid, Doris Roberts, Diana Ross, Winona Ryder, David Selby, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Paul Walker, Denzel Washington, and Marlon Brando. To Limato, his clients were less business and more family. He was known to cry when one would leave him for another agent. Instead of family photographs in his living room, he kept exquisitely framed headshots of every actor he ever represented.
Ed Limato was in a class by himself - an iconoclast, as Vanity Fair once called him - a talent agent who glided through Hollywood with poise and panache. He hearkened back to the Golden Age, a time when men were more refined and elegant, as if he were preparing for an evening at the Mocambo. Yet despite his reverence for Hollywood of yore, his client list kept him active and relevant into the 21st century. He was as colorful as he was powerful. Always handsomely coiffed and impeccably dressed, Limato would promenade into the office wearing Italian suits of mustard yellow or salmon pink, rallying to his assistants, "Let's talk to the stars."
Edward Frank Limato was born on July 10, 1936 in Mount Vernon, New York into a middle class Italian-American family. As a young man, he left home and traveled the country, earning money as a disc jockey. Continued restlessness took him to Europe in 1966, where he eventually landed a job on the set of "The Taming of the Shrew" as an assistant to director Franco Zeffirelli. From a very young age, Limato loved movies and movie stars. He seemed obsessed with the business of Hollywood and studied the trades. In a 1990 Vanity Fair article, actor Michael York, who met Limato on the set, said, "I was the first person to tell him he should be an agent. I told him he must obey his destiny and go to the mailroom." With the help of Zeffirelli's agent, Limato returned to New York and took a job in the mailroom at Ashley-Famous Agency, which eventually became International Famous Agency - where he was promoted to junior agent. Later, Ashley-Famous merged with Creative Management Associates to become International Creative Management (ICM). He transferred to ICM's west coast office but was lured away to the William Morris Agency in 1978 by Stan Kamen. He remained there until 1986 when, after a series of secret meetings with ICM CEO Jeff Berg and agent Sam Cohn, he returned to the agency that gave him his start. He stayed there for two decades until trouble brewed.
In 2006, ICM merged with Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann, primarily a TV literary agency. But within a year, the seams at the new agency came apart. Limato claimed both his authority and stature were being undermined by the new regime, which, he alleged, planned on forcing him into a consultant position and early retirement. Limato wanted out of his contract. ICM refused. The dispute was taken to arbitration, where Limato challenged a 3-year non-compete clause, which forbade him to work for another agency. The battle became a publicity nightmare for ICM, as it played out in the national news.
During arbitration, Limato's lawyers argued that his contract dated back to the mid-90s and was bound by an obscure California law known as the "seven year rule," stating that anyone who renders extraordinary or unique services cannot be bound to a contract for more than seven years. On August 13, 2007, the arbitrator found in favor of the agent and against ICM. With Limato a free agent, Variety wrote, ""Ed Limato's arbitration victory over ICM...puts into play not only one of Hollywood's most senior and revered agents but also the most important client list in a generation." Limato was one of the few talent agents who could boast a fistful of clients with salaries of more than 20 million dollars a film plus first dollar gross. Almost immediately, he and his talent list made a return trip to the venerable William Morris Agency, which merged with Endeavor in June 2009 to form WME. Some industry insiders claim that ICM never recovered its movie business after Limato's exit.
When Limato wasn't negotiating deals for the rich and famous, he served on the boards of Abercrombie & Fitch, the LA Conservancy, the American Cinematheque, and the MPTF.
Limato's fame as an agent might have only been eclipsed by his annual Oscar party, a relaxed but star-studded event that was held at his home the Friday before the Academy Awards. Limato reigned supreme over the party in flamboyant regalia and bare feet. The guest list looked like the hall of fame from politics, movies, TV, music, and literature.
When Ed Limato passed away on July 3, 2010 - a few days shy of his 74 birthday - some of his most famous clients remembered him. Richard Gere said, "Ed was my dear friend and agent for 40 years. He was the best of the best. There will never be anyone like him. The mold has been broken. He was probably the most respected agent of our time who loved his clients dearly and would do anything for them." Mel Gibson said, "It's said of agents 'they have no hearts'. Ed was all heart! He was there for me 30 years. I will miss him." Steve Martin said "Ed Limato not only represented important actors in Hollywood, but also represented class and kindness."
Michelle Pfeiffer was 23 when her agent resigned and turned her over to Ed Limato, a name she recognized but a man she'd never met. Limato always envisioned her as the Marilyn Monroe-type, which wasn't quite in line with her thinking. He once called her before an award ceremony and told her that Giorgio Armani wanted to dress her. She responded, "Who's that and why on earth would I need someone to dress me?" "I think it's a good idea," Limato told her. She followed his instructions, but instead of settling on one of Armani's classic beaded gowns, she chose a black dress suit instead. "Poor Ed," she said, "I fell a tad short of the glamour-puss he had envisioned." After playing some character roles, Limato tried to chaperone her back into the glamour parts. He once warned her in his inimitable style, "If you think your public wants to see you in another wig and accent, you're mistaken." She remembers just hanging out in his office while he worked - simply because she felt safe there.
A memorial service was held for Ed Limato in the theater on the lot of Paramount Studios on January 11, 2011. He was eulogized by Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Denzel Washington. Washington told the audience that he grew up in the same town as Limato and, coincidentally, lived in a house built by Limato's father.
Sir Elton John eulogized his late friend with the song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."