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Charles Fleischer was born on 27 August 1950 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Zodiac (2007), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). He has been married to Sheryl Stressman since 1977. They have two children.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lou Hirsch was born on 27 February 1955 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Superman III (1983) and My Hero (2000).- Actress
- Producer
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Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri, to Patsy (Magee) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer. She graduated from American School in London in 1972. After the death of her father, the Turner family moved back to the United States where Kathleen later enrolled at Missouri State University for two years, and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1977. Kathleen made her film debut in Body Heat (1981), her role as the relentless Matty Waker brought her astronomical success, and is remembered as one of the sexiest roles in film history. After her initial success, Kathleen continued to flourish with performances in The Man with Two Brains (1983), Romancing the Stone (1984), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Prizzi's Honor (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), The War of the Roses (1989), and Serial Mom (1994).- Actress
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April Terri Winchell is a Jewish-American voice actress from New York City. She is the daughter of Paul Winchell. She voiced in many cartoons and video games such as Clarabelle Cow, Wander Over Yonder, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Antz, Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Epic Mickey.- Animation Department
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The son of commercial artists, Richard Williams studied at the Ontario College of Art and first worked in animation for Disney Studios in Burbank. His tenure there had a strong influence on his later work but proved somewhat stifling to his own creative flair. In 1955, aged 22, Williams moved to England and joined fellow Canadian George Dunning's company T.V. Cartoons Ltd., working primarily on television commercials. At the same time, Williams created his first animated short feature, The Little Island (1958), which won him the 1959 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film. Though a critical success it received a mixed response at the box office. Consequently, his next venture was aimed at the mainstream market. Love Me, Love Me, Love Me (1962) turned out to be a commercial success and generated enough revenue for Williams to set up his own animation studio. In addition to producing commercials, Williams went on to create memorable title sequences for motion pictures, including What's New Pussycat (1965), The Liquidator (1965), The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976). He also produced several animated features, notably A Christmas Carol (1971) and The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). The latter project underwent numerous rewrites and re-edits and took 31 years to complete. In 1995, it was eventually released by Miramax in the U.S. as Arabian Knight.
Possibly the high point of his career was as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), for which Williams won two Academy Awards: one for Best Visual Effects and the other for animation direction and (CGI) creation of cartoon characters. An occasional voice-over actor, he also provided the voice for the Tex Avery character Droopy Dog. In 2001, Williams published a text book, entitled The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators.- Actor
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Corey Burton is an American voice actor with Asperger's. He is known for voicing Mole in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return, Captain Hook in Return to Neverland and Kingdom Hearts, Count Dooku in various Star Wars media whenever Christopher Lee is unavailable, Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City, Judge Claude Frollo in Kingdom Hearts 3D, Nicolai in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Doctor Nefarious Tropy and N.Gin in Crash Bandicoot, Volteer in The Legend of Spyro and Zeus in the God of War video game series. He is one of the most prolific autistic voice actors alongside Billy West.- Sol Pavlovsky was an actor, known for Tummy Trouble (1989), Lunch Box (1992) and Beauty and the Beast (1987). He died on 18 June 2018.
- Actor
- Producer
Charles Noland has worked on over one hundred different film and TV episodes including "Blow" and "Waynes World". He also played Steve, a member of the White House press corps, on "The West Wing" for seven seasons. He also had a supporting role on "ER" as E Ray for 2 seasons.- William Bronder was born on 12 June 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Stand by Me (1986), Return to Me (2000) and Cannery Row (1982). He was married to Tona Dodd. He died on 6 May 2015 in Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a wisecracking, Southern type of "good ol' boy."
Burton Leon Reynolds was born in Lansing, Michigan. He was the son of Harriette Fernette "Fern" (Miller) and Burton Milo Reynolds, who was in the army. After World War II, his family moved to Riviera Beach, Florida, where his father was chief of police, and where Burt excelled as an athlete and played with Florida State University. He became an All Star Southern Conference halfback (and was earmarked by the Baltimore Colts) before a knee injury and a car accident ended his football career. Midway through college he dropped out and headed to New York with aspirations of becoming an actor. There he worked in restaurants and clubs while pulling the odd TV spot or theatre role.
He was spotted in a New York City production of "Mister Roberts," signed to a TV contract, and eventually had recurring roles in such shows as Gunsmoke (1955), Riverboat (1959) and his own series, Hawk (1966).
Reynolds continued to appear in undemanding western roles, often playing a character of half Native American descent, in films such as Navajo Joe (1966), 100 Rifles (1969) and Sam Whiskey (1969). However, it was his tough-guy performance as macho Lewis Medlock in the John Boorman backwoods nightmare Deliverance (1972) that really stamped him as a bona-fide star. Reynolds' popularity continued to soar with his appearance as a no-nonsense private investigator in Shamus (1973) and in the Woody Allen comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). Building further on his image as a Southern boy who outsmarts the local lawmen, Reynolds packed fans into theaters to see him in White Lightning (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) and Gator (1976).
At this time, ex-stuntman and longtime Reynolds buddy Hal Needham came to him with a "road film" script. It turned out to be the incredibly popular Smokey and the Bandit (1977) with Sally Field and Jerry Reed, which took in over $100 million at the box office. That film's success was followed by Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983). Reynolds also appeared alongside Kris Kristofferson in the hit football film Semi-Tough (1977), with friend Dom DeLuise in the black comedy The End (1978) (which Reynolds directed), in the stunt-laden buddy film Hooper (1978) and then in the self-indulgent, star-packed road race flick The Cannonball Run (1981).
The early 1980s started off well with a strong performance in the violent police film Sharky's Machine (1981), which he also directed, and he starred with Dolly Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and with fellow macho superstar Clint Eastwood in the coolly received City Heat (1984). However, other projects such as Stroker Ace (1983), Stick (1985) and Paternity (1981) failed to catch fire with fans and Reynolds quickly found himself falling out of popularity with movie audiences. In the late 1980s he appeared in only a handful of films, mostly below average, before television came to the rescue and he shone again in two very popular TV shows, B.L. Stryker (1989) and Evening Shade (1990), for which he won an Emmy. In 1988, Burt and his then-wife, actress Loni Anderson, had a son, Quinton A. Reynolds (aka Quinton Anderson Reynolds), whom they adopted.
He was back on screen, but still the roles weren't grabbing the public's attention, until his terrific performance as a drunken politician in the otherwise woeful Striptease (1996) and then another tremendous showing as a charming, porn director in Boogie Nights (1997), which scored him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Like the phoenix from the ashes, Reynolds resurrected his popularity and, in the process, gathered a new generation of young fans, many of whom had been unfamiliar with his 1970s film roles. He then put in entertaining work in Pups (1999), Mystery, Alaska (1999), Driven (2001) and Time of the Wolf (2002). Definitely one of Hollywood's most resilient stars, Reynolds continually surprised all with his ability to weather both personal and career hurdles and his almost 60 years in front of the cameras were testament to his staying ability, his acting talent and his appeal to film audiences.
Burt Reynolds died of cardiac arrest on September 6, 2018, in Jupiter, Florida, U.S. He was eighty two.- The only child of Jozsef Barsi and Maria Benko, Judith Eva Barsi beat 10,000-to-1 odds when she was discovered at a San Fernando Valley skating rink at age 5 1/2 in 1983 and mistaken for a three-year-old. Her first commercial was for Donald Duck Orange Juice and she went on to appear in anywhere between fifty and a hundred commercials, several episodes of various T.V. series, and three major motion pictures. Her mother Maria was the main thrust of her career as a Hollywood starlet, but also took great pains to try to give her a normal, happy childhood; bringing her Hungarian meals like duck for her school lunch. But this happy childhood did not last long. Beginning in 1985, Jozsef would often be home drunk instead of working as a plumber, and he refused to let Maria work. As a result, the family briefly went on welfare until Judith's career took off in 1986 and 1987. By the time she entered fourth grade, she was pulling in an estimated $100,000 a year, which bought her family a nice four-bedroom house on a quiet street in West Hill. As her career soared, her father became an increasingly abusive recluse who constantly threatened to kill his wife and daughter. In stressful moods Judith bit her nails and plucked out her eyebrows and eyelashes and her cats' whiskers. C.P.S. was called in numerous times, but as Maria was reluctant to press charges and many of the reports/accounts were emotional and not physical abuse, the case was not pursued.
On Wednesday, July 27th, Eunice Daly, a next-door neighbor, heard a loud bang next door while watering her plants. The house had been set on fire, and later the Barsis' bodies were discovered shot dead. All of Judith's toys that were not destroyed by the fire were given to the local Goodwill, and her best friend continued to feed her cats for months afterward. - Actor
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As might be said for the late and great comedians Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn, it seems that Mel Brooks was the only director on the planet who knew how to best utilize this funnyman's talents on film. Brooks once remarked that, whenever he cast Dom in one of his films he'd add an extra two days to the shooting schedule because of delays between takes due to the constant laughter from cast and crew at Dom's improvisations.
The lovable, butterball comedian was a mainstay on 1960s and '70s TV variety as a "second banana," or comic-relief player. While his harsher critics believed his schtick would be better served in smaller doses, Dom nevertheless went on to find some range in a few moving, more restrained projects. Those few glimpses behind all the mirth and merriment revealed a dramatic actor waiting to be unleashed. As they say, behind every clown's smile, one finds tears.
He was born Dominick DeLuise on August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents John, a sanitation engineer, and Vicenza (DeStefano) DeLuise, both Italian immigrants. A natural school-class clown, his irrepressible sense of humor helped Dom fit in at school, and he started drawing belly laughs fairly young in his very first school play that had him portraying an inert copper penny! He later attended New York's High School of Performing Arts, but when it came to college, he decided to major in biology at Tufts University, outside Boston. That decision failed to expunge the idea of being a comedian from his head and heart, however, and that determination finally prevailed.
Dom's formative years as an actor were spent apprenticing at the Cleveland Playhouse, where which he gamely played roles in everything from contemporary shows like "Guys and Dolls" and "Stalag 17" to classics like "The School for Scandal" and even "Hamlet." He earned his first professional paycheck playing the titular Bernie the dog in "Bernie's Last Wish." Dom also got a taste of what it was like in front of the camera in Cleveland, appearing on the local TV kiddie's show "Tip Top Clubhouse."
Back in NYC, he took over the lead role of Tinker the toymaker in another children's local program, Tinker's Workshop (1954), for one season in 1958. He also started making noise on the off-Broadway scene. Appearing in the plays "The Jackass" and "All in Love," he became part of the featured ensemble of the 1961 musical revue "An Evening with Harry Stoones," which included 19-year-old Barbra Streisand. More outlandish musical roles came his way in the early 1960s with "Little Mary Sunshine" (as Corporal Billy Jester) and "The Student Gypsy, or the Prince of Liederkrantz" (his Broadway debut as Muffin T. Raggamuffin). While appearing in the lighthearted summer stock spoof "Summer & Smirk" in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Dom met fellow performer Carol Arthur (née Carol Arata). They married on November 23, 1965. Their three sons, Peter DeLuise, Michael DeLuise and David DeLuise all eventually found their way into show business. In 1971, Dom returned successfully to Broadway in a perfectly-suited Neil Simon vehicle, "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers."
Dom was first noticed on the smaller screen, creating the sketch character of Dominick the Great, a magician who tries in vain to mask his inept prestidigitations with feigned dignity on Garry Moore's popular show. The comedian truly thrived in this TV variety atmosphere and soon began popping up seemingly everywhere: (The Hollywood Palace (1964), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), The Jackie Gleason Show (1966)). Balding, blushing, dimpled and moon-faced (comparisons to a ripe tomato were not wide of the mark), he was readily equipped with a high-wattage, Cheshire Cat smile that became his trademark. At his best, looking embarrassed or agitated, the laughs usually came at his own expense, whether playing a panic-stricken klutz or squirming nervous-Nelly type. Dom took his magician character to the ensemble comedy show The Entertainers (1964), which also showcased Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart, and found more regular employment as a bumbling private eye in puppeteer Shari Lewis' daytime children's program, and as a foil for Dean Martin on the entertainer's regular and summer replacement shows. Dom again repeated his Dominick the Great character on Martin's show and received great reception. He later found himself part of Martin's "in-crowd" of comedians on his "celebrity roasts."
Dom's obvious comic genius was more readily evident, and succeeded better, in tandem with other performers than it was on its own. Hosting duties for his very first comedy/variety program The Dom DeLuise Show (1968), which featured wife Carol as part of the regular roster, lasted only one summer. The sitcom Lotsa Luck! (1973), which showcased Dom as bachelor Stanley Belmont having to contend with a live-in mother (a harping Kathleen Freeman) and sister (an ungainly Beverly Sanders), was canceled after its first season. He gave it a rest for awhile before trying once again with the sketch-like sitcom The Dom DeLuise Show (1987), but it, too, quickly faded. Another brief stint was as host of a revamped Candid Camera (1991).
While Dom made an unlikely film debut as a high-strung Air Force technician in the gripping nuclear drama Fail Safe (1964) starring Henry Fonda, it was in zany, irreverent comedy that he found his true calling. Appearing in support of others such as Sid Caesar and Mary Tyler Moore, respectively, in the so-so comedies The Busy Body (1967) and What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968), he proved a delight as an inept, dim-witted spy in the Doris Day caper The Glass Bottom Boat (1966).
Mel Brooks first cast Dom as the miserly Russian Orthodox priest, Father Fyodor, in his film The Twelve Chairs (1970), and found plenty of room for the comedian after that -- as campy director Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles (1974), the silly-ass director's assistant in Silent Movie (1976), Emperor Nero in History of the World: Part I (1981), the voice of the cheese-oozing Pizza the Hutt in the "Star Wars" parody Spaceballs (1987), and as Sherwood Forest's very own puffy-cheeked Godfather, Don Giovanni, in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).
A very close friend of action star Burt Reynolds, Dom romped through a number of Reynolds' freewheeling films as well, including Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). One of his finest scene-stealing film roles, in fact, was as Reynolds' schizo pal in The End (1978). Dom went on to direct a number of stage productions for his close friend at the Burt Reynolds Theatre in Jupiter, Florida -- among them "Butterflies Are Free," "Same Time, Next Year" (starring Burt and Carol Burnett), "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (starring son Peter), and the musical "Jump" (featuring wife Carol). Still another comic buddy, Gene Wilder, handed Dom the roles of the indulgent opera star in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) and harassed movie mogul Adolf Zitz in The World's Greatest Lover (1977). Dom later joined Wilder once again, along with Wilder's wife Gilda Radner, in the leaden comedy Haunted Honeymoon (1986), a clumsy haunted-house spoof that even Dom, in full drag, could not salvage.
Change-of-pace roles were few and far between. One that did come Dom's way was the compulsive-eating protagonist in Fatso (1980). Directed by and co-starring Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft, Dom managed to mix comedy with pathos. Obesity was also a chronic, real-life problem for the comedian and, at one point in 1999, it was reported that he had tipped the scales at 325 lbs. On a positive note, this passion for food actually fed into a more lucrative sideline -- as a respected chef and culinary author ("Eat This" and "Eat This Too") in which he appeared all over the tube cooking and demonstrating his favorite recipes. He also found time to write children's books on the side.
Dom tackled broad comedy films with great abandon -- a wallflower he was not -- but they were hit-or-miss. Some of his biggest misses were the Mae West disaster Sextette (1977), the Dudley Moore showcase Wholly Moses! (1980) (although Dom was arguably the best thing in it), Loose Cannons (1990), in which he appeared as portly pornographer Harry "The Hippo" Gutterman, Driving Me Crazy (1991), which filmed far away in Germany, and The Silence of the Hams (1994), a parody on the horror genre in which he played Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza.
Films could also be a family affair. True to life, Dom played a sympathetic kiddie show host in the moving TV-movie Happy (1983). Also the executive producer, he was joined by wife Carol and all three sons in the cast. In addition, Dom offered a cameo in Between the Sheets (2003), a film written by Peter, directed, edited and executive-produced by Michael, and featuring roles for the rest of the family.
Dom's voiceover skills did not go untapped, either, in films including the animated features The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986) and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), plus all of their offshoots. The heavily-bearded DeLuise even displayed scene-stealing antics on the operatic scene, once playing the speaking part of Frosch the Jailer in Johann Srauss II's operetta "Die ," at the Metropolitan Opera.
Suffering from various physical ailments in later years, some of which were exacerbated by his chronic obesity and diabetes, Dom's health declined, and he died in 2009 at age 75. His wife and three children survive him, as do three grandchildren.- Actor
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Vic Tayback was born on 6 January 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Alice (1976), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). He was married to Sheila McKay Barnard. He died on 25 May 1990 in Glendale, California, USA.- Actor
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Charles Nelson Reilly was born to Charles Joseph Reilly and Signe Elvera Nelson. His father was Irish-American and Catholic, his mother was Swedish-American and Lutheran. As a child he amused himself with improvised puppet theater performances.
He had a traumatic experience in 1944, when present for the Hartford circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut. A fire during a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus killed 167 people and injured 700 people. While Reilly was one of the survivors, he was left with a life-long fear of fires. He never attended public performances of theater and circus again, as an audience member, for fear of another fire.
Reilly wanted to enter show business as a youth, and in particular to become an opera singer. He took lessons at the University of Hartford Hartt School, but eventually realized that his voice skills were inadequate. He turned to theater next, and debuted in film with a bit role in "A Face in the Crowd" (1957). During the late 1950s, Reilly appeared regularly in comic roles in theatrical performances off-Broadway. In 1960, Reilly first gained critical attention, for a small but noteworthy part in Broadway musical "Bye Bye Birdie". In 1961, Reilly joined the cast of the musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". He won his first Tony Award in 1962 for that performance. He kept appearing in Broadway shows for the rest of the decade.
As a notable actor, Reilly started making television appearances in the 1960s. He started as a guest in panel shows and as a player in television advertisements. He eventually gained a key role in the television series "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir", where he appeared from 1968 to 1970. In the 1970s, Reilly was a regular in game shows and children's series, such as "Match Game" and "Uncle Croc's Block".
In 1976, Reilly started teaching acting to others, while shifting his own career from acting to directing. He directed Broadway shows regularly and was nominated for a Tony Award for directing in 1997. He also directed a number television episodes. In the 1990s, he had guest roles in television series such as "X-Files" and "Millennium".
In the 2000s, Reilly was primarily known for the autobiographical play "Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly", and for its film adaptation. While touring the United States, he developed respiratory problems which led to his retirement. His illness got worse, and he died due to pneumonia in 2007.- Actress
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A bodacious, bedimpled, pert-nosed, well-endowed knockout, Loni Anderson earned an assured television sex symbol pedestal during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As sexy but smart Jennifer Marlowe on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), the ravishing star later became a soap-styled fixture in mini-movies. All eyes were peeled on this worthy pin-up who helped to bring back the glossy platinum-blonde allure of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren.
Loni strove for much more than a sex pedestal as she tried to parlay her newly found fame into a viable dramatic career. She met with a measured degree of success as she recreated the lives of such artificial sex sirens as Mansfield and Thelma Todd on television, but got bogged down in television-movie retellings of famous movie classics (Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Leave Her to Heaven (1945)) that could not help but pale in comparison. This attempt at seriousness was further hampered by messy tabloid headlines in her private life.
Loni Kaye Anderson was born with very dark (jet black) hair on August 5, 1945 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of a chemist. An art student at the University of Minnesota, she entered (and won) beauty contests on the sly (including a Miss Minnesota runner-up placing in 1964). Married and divorced from Bruce Hasselberg before she reached age 21, Loni took on a teaching position to support herself and baby daughter (Deidre) while completing college.
Developing an interest in acting, she went the route many aspiring thespians do -- apprenticing in local commercials and theater shows. Still dark-haired, she played in several early 1970s productions such as "Born Yesterday" (as Billie Dawn), "Send Me No Flowers", "Can-Can" and "The Star-Spangled Girl". She even played Tzeitel in "Fiddler on the Roof" and appeared in a production of "The Threepenny Opera".
Remarried in 1973 to actor, Ross Bickell, the couple decided to move away from Minnesota to Los Angeles in 1975 and actively pursue film and television work. Pounding the proverbial pavement, she eventually went blonde and this, plus her gorgeous looks, helped her to secure minor but sexy roles on such series as S.W.A.T. (1975), Police Woman (1974), Barnaby Jones (1973), The Bob Newhart Show (1972) and Three's Company (1976). By the time she nabbed the role of Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), she had grown quite admirably as an actress.
Loni and Howard Hesseman became the breakaway stars of the sitcom and Loni skyrocketed to sexy status, earning two Emmy nominations in the process. On the other hand, her instant fame led to the breakup of her second marriage to Bickell in 1981. Loni found hit-and-miss success outside the parameters of her comedy series. She was front-and-center in a number of television-movies, notably playing tragic Hollywood sex sirens Jayne Mansfield in The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as her muscle-bound husband Mickey Hargitay, and Thelma Todd, in White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd (1991), whose untimely death in 1935 is still questioned.
Loni also appeared lusciously alongside Bob Hope, brightening up several of his classic television specials. On the minus side, she fizzled in her teaming up with equally sexy Wonder Woman (1975) star Lynda Carter in the tepid, short-lived series Partners in Crime (1984) and then played a former Las Vegas showgirl who inherits a bundle in the sitcom misfire Easy Street (1986). She also was given a chance to work in feature films such as Stroker Ace (1983). While her performance in that movie was panned, it did have her meeting and co-starring opposite mega star Burt Reynolds.
Appearing in routine, mini-movie soap operas (via her own production company), if anything, kept Loni in the public eye as a serious-minded actress, but it was an uphill battle to rise above her manufactured image as a fantasy bombshell. Not helping things was her high-profile marriage to Reynolds in 1988, which began blissfully enough (and produced adopted son Quinton), then dissolved quickly into a nasty divorce in 1993 that damaged the reputations of both stars.
In later years, Loni showed incredible perseverance. As always, the stalwart beauty continued to play up the glam but has since downplayed the dramatics. She seems more focused these days on having innocuous fun, playing a number of hearty vixens in sitcoms and series guest spots. Over time, she has enjoyed such lightweight sitcoms as her regular role in Nurses (1991), and as a guest in such sitcoms as The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991) (in which she recreated her role as Jennifer Marlowe), Empty Nest (1988), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) and Clueless (1996). Her last movie was the SNT-based comedy movie A Night at the Roxbury (1998).
Millennium television credits include the sitcom The Mullets (2003) and as Tori Spelling's materialistic mother in So Notorious (2006), which did not get the seal of approval from Tori's real-life mother. Loni has more recently starred in the resurrected comedy series My Sister Is So Gay (2016). In 2008, she married a fourth time to musician Bob Flick. Loni's autobiography, "My Life in High Heels", was published in 1997.- Actress
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Melba Moore has shot to super-stardom in the early 1970s with her debut album ("I Got Love"), that garnered her a 1971 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, the following year, she also scored with a variety television show that co-starred Clifton Davis. Despite the show's being a modern success, the real-life couple fell victim through an ongoing self-destruction, hence, it was canceled. She was also in a crisis, when her career was put to an end, before it took a few years for her to comeback.
A four-time Grammy nominee and one-time Tony Award winner, prior to being a singer/actress, Melba Moore also made guest appearances on nearly all of the following shows: The David Frost Show (1969), Soul Train (1971), The Mike Douglas Show (1961), Dinah! (1974), The Dick Cavett Show (1968), 13 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Captain Kangaroo (1955), The Tim Conway Show (1980), Solid Gold (1980), among many others.
Born Melba Hill in New York City, New York, to a very popular musical family, for the time being, she was raised in Harlem, New York, and until aged 9, despite of her parents divorce, her mother remarried Clement Moorman, who introduced her to several agents, while she was growing up, in Newark, New Jersey, where she had been raised, where she attended school, there. Prior to Melba's birth, her mother penned the #1 song "Don't Stop Now". Although her biological father encouraged her to pursue a career in music, it was actually her stepfather/saxophonist, Teddy Hill, who insisted on young Melba to do it, which successfully he did, which gave her a four decade career on the map. In her early years, she even learned how to play the piano. In 1967, after graduation from college, she won the original role of Dionne (when, unfortunately Donna Summer lost the role to her) in the musical, "Hair" with Ronnie Dyson and Diane Keaton, whom Moore replaced her in the role of Sheila. In 1970, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Purlie, which she portrayed Lutiebelle.
After her successful, short-lived series The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show (1972), she went on sabbatical, then, formed Hush Productions, her own production company. This was 1 year after, when in 1974, she signed with Buddah Records, before Epic Records, which allowed her to make some records over the next decade, and had some chart topping hits with "This Is It," which reached #2 on the U.S. dance charts, which was also popular in the UK, a country that was used for that song. Other chart toppers that Melba scored over the years of the Disco-R&B era were, "Lean On Me," "Make Me Believe In You," "You Stepped Into My Life," "Let's Stand Together," and "Take My Love." Unlike fellow singer Donna Summer, Moore struggled to garner some disco hits of the 1970s.
The 1980s saw Moore made a remarkable turn in her career, as she signed with Capitol Records, in 1982, and scored such hits as "Love's Comin' At Ya," which was a major song in the UK and in Europe. She also scored such songs with "Keepin' My Love Satisfied," "Love Me Right," "Read My Lips," (which she was nominated for her fourth Grammy) and "When You Love Me Like This." She also starred in her own series Melba (1986), for CBS, a show that was canceled unexpectedly. The following year, Moore also had a recurring role on the long-running Falcon Crest (1981), opposite Oscar Award-winner Jane Wyman. At the end of the decade, Moore also garnered some songs with, "Do You Really (Want My Love)," and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".
In the mid-1990s, Moore traveled with Gospel Play called, "Mama I'm Sorry" aside Gospel's sisterly duo of Erica and Tina Atkins that was Written and Produced by Michael Matthews.
With a total of 11 U.S. Top 10 Hits (singles and albums) on the Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of 40 years, Melba Moore is one of the most enduring artists of the 21st century.
By the late 1990s, Melba Moore was back where she felt she belonged, reaching out and entertaining America through her acting, her singing and her comedy.
In 2003, Moore was featured in the film, The Fighting Temptations (2003), which starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé. In 2007, she landed a role in the Broadway revival of Ain't Misbehavin'. In 2009, independent label, Breaking Records released the EP Book of Dreams, in which Moore was featured. That same year Moore told her life story on TV-One's Unsung and later that year released her first R&B album in nearly 20 years, a duet release with Phil Perry called, The Gift of Love.- Actor
- Production Designer
- Soundtrack
Ken Page is an African-American actor who is widely known for voicing Oogie Boogie from Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas and it's various spin-offs and video games including Kingdom Hearts. He also acted in various movies and stage productions including All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Little Mermaid and Little Shop of Horrors.- Darryl Gilley is known for Animated Tales of the World (2000) and Tugger: The Jeep 4x4 Who Wanted to Fly (2005).
- Rob Fuller is known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Miami Vice (1984) and Only Fools and Horses (1981).
- Actress
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Script and Continuity Department
Earleen Carey is known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Hollow Creek (2016) and Masterblaster (1987).- Camera and Electrical Department
Jay Stevens is known for The Expendables 4 (2023), The Gentlemen (2019) and Red, White & Royal Blue (2023).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Nigel Pegram was born in November 1940. He is an actor, known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Poirot (1989) and Princess Daisy (1983). He was previously married to April Olrich.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Anna Manahan was born on 18 October 1924 in County Waterford, Irish Free State [now Ireland]. She was an actress, known for Clash of the Titans (1981), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and Ulysses (1967). She was married to Colm O'Kelly. She died on 8 March 2009 in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland.- Godfrey Quigley was born on 4 May 1923 in Jerusalem, Palestine [now Israel]. He was an actor, known for A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975) and Get Carter (1971). He was married to Genevieve Lyons. He died on 7 September 1994 in Dublin, Ireland.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Candy Devine was born on 4 September 1956 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. She is an actress, known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Skippy (1968) and Theatre 625 (1964). She is married to McLeod.- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
Kelly Briley is known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Adventures in Science & Art: Where's Wilbur? (2001) and A World Without Strangers (2007).- Cyndi Cozzo is known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989).
- Thomas Durkin was born on 18 September 1948 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and Mighty Aphrodite (1995). He died on 20 August 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
- Dana Rifkin is known for All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989).
- Actor
- Sound Department
- Music Department
Frank Welker was born in Colorado. He followed his dream to California, and started a voice acting career which has spanned over five decades and hundreds of credits. Frank has worked with fellow voice actors Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Heather North, and Stefanianna Christopherson on Hanna-Barbera's iconic Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969), voicing Fred Jones, among other Scooby credits over the years. He has also worked with Kurt Russell, Peter Cullen, and Michael Bay.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Casting Director
Charles is an Emmy Award winning Dialogue Director, Annie Award Acting Nominee, Dramalogue Winning Actor, Helen Hayes Award Acting Nominee and Casting Director. Successfully going from genre to genre, he has lent his Dialogue Direction talents to the remake of "The Nutty Professor" starring legend Jerry Lewis, the 2010 Emmy Nominated Prime Time series "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" (Cartoon Network), the Direct to Videos dark and dramatic "Dante's Inferno" (Casting and Voice Directing), the horror success "Dead Zone" (Casting and Voice Directing), the family film "The Blue Elephant" with Carl Reiner and Martin Short and several more titles for the Weinstein Co.. He directed the performances in the long form action adventure Fire Breather for Cartoon Network which broke all records for it's time slot as well as Cast and Voice Directed Van Partiple's comedy "Johnny Bravo goes to Bollywood" starring Jeff Bennett and Brenda Vacarro. In the Adult Comedy genre Adler Voice Directed and or cast new prime time adult comedy pilots for Fox, MTV and Adult Swim Television. In the Pre-School genre Adler has Voice Directed 3 seasons of hit show Bubble Guppies for NICK Jr.. Charlie Directed Della Reese in an Alicia Keyes production of "Mamma Mae and the Blue Moon" (2012) and has also Directed and voiced(2012) 14 characters in the Children's book classic "Sweet Pickles"(Amazon Books). Adler Voice Directed all the Klasky/ Csupo franchised series and feature films, "Rugrats" (Emmy Award)", The Wild Thorn berry's" (Tim Curry), "Rocket Power", "Pre School Daze", "All Grown Up" and all of their pilots. Adler has also directed "Stripperella" (Pamela Anderson SPIKE TV), "The Replacements", "The Emperor's New School"(directing legend Eartha Kitt), "The Buzz on Maggie" all for Disney Television. Charlie also cast and Voice Directed "Eloise at the Plaza" w/Lynn Redgrave (Starz), "Holly Hobbie" with Jane Lynch (American Greeting Cards) and Spawn (Film Roman). As a Voice Actor, Adler can be heard as series regulars in well over 100 animated series often playing opposite himself. He was nominated for an Annie Award for his multiple roles as Cow, Chicken and the Red Guy in the Emmy Nominated series "Cow and Chicken", was Baboon in "I.M. Weasel" (opposite Michael Dorn) and can be heard playing 5 roles (including Cobra Commander) in the "GI Joe Resolute" Internet series as well as reprising Cobra Commander in Hasbro's "GI Joe Origins" (2010) on the HUB. Somwhere in the world daily Adler can be heard as the manic Mr. Whiskers in Disney's"Brandy & Mr. Whiskers" (opposite Kaley Cuoco), The Evil Eric Raymond and Techrat in "Jem", 3 roles in "Pet Aliens", 3 roles in "Shuriken School ", 3 roles in "Space Goofs", 2 roles in "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks" for PBS and Dr. Doom and his mother Coco Von Doom in "Marvel Super Hero Squad". He has has also Voice Directed two Marvel Super Hero Squad video games for THQ. He is the voice of Starscream in the Michael Bay mega blockbuster Transformers Movie Trilogy and has reprised his role of Starscream for the 2012 Universal Theme Park "Transformers Ride". Some other notable characters of Adler's are Buster Bunny in Steven Spielberg's "Tiny Toon Adventures," Ickis in "AAAHH!!! Real Monsters" and Ed and Bev Bighead in "Rocko's Modern Life." He has also been an original "Smurf", was an original "G.I. Joe", an original "Transformer", a "Glow Friend" ,was 3 roles in original "My Little Pony " series(Spike the Baby Dragon, Moochick, Trundle King)and was in Ralph Bakshi's cult classic "Cool World" playing opposite Kim Bassinger and Brad Pitt as Nails Pitt's neurotic sidekick. Named one of the "Top 13 All Time Voice-Over Artists" by Animation Magazine and "Voice of The Decade" by Animation World News(2000), Adler is at the undisputed top of the animation world. Adler is also the Director, co-writer and star of the independent live action movie "No Prom for Cindy," appearing in over 45 prestigious film festivals worldwide and winning numerous awards in Acting/and Directing categories. The movie was adopted by San Francisco State University's Film Department as part of their curriculum. As a stage actor, Charlie starred on Broadway in "Torch Song Trilogy"(1984) as a successor to Harvey Feinstein and toured in the First National Company which earned him a "Helen Hayes Award Best Actor" nomination (1985). Off-Broadway, Adler co-starred in the hit "Family Business" at the Astor Place Theater for a year as well as appearing in Alan Albert's acclaimed Improv. Company, "The Proposition". Adler co-starred and played opposite comedy legend Imogene Coca in "Once Upon a Mattress," with Professor Irwin Corey in Neil Simon's "God's Favorite" and toured as Edward Albee's complex anti hero in "Zoo Story." In addition, he has played Israel Horowitz's Hero in "Dr. Hero" ( another disturbed soul), as well as the Emcee in "Cabaret." On television Charlie appeared on "The Redd Foxx Show (with Pam Adlon)(Lorimar ABC)" assumed the roles of three generations of sons for PBS in "Then and Now,"and guest starred On "Hot in Cleveland" opposite Susan Lucci and Wendie Malick in the two part "I Love Lucci" as Lucci's Director. In his youth, (when he had brown hair and eyelids), Adler was a familiar face in dozens television commercials for Coca-Cola, McDonalds, IBM, G.E. Big Red Gum and Safeguard Soap. As a writer, Adler has co-written "Steven Spielberg's Tiny Toon Adventures" episodes and his critically acclaimed One Man Show (playing eleven characters), "There Used to Be Fireflies," which won him a Dramalogue Award for "Best Actor "(1996), (a performance he reprised in 2006 Directed by Asaad Kelada) and a Dramalogue Award for Set Design (1996) as well. He also paints and sells his work to calm down and remember just who in the hell he is.- Chicago-born Damian London began acting in early television in New York at the age of 16, signing his first contract by pretending to be 21. Auditioning for his screen debut as a Nazi youth, he also pretended to be able to speak fluent German, but ended up memorizing his lines, being assisted in the correct pronunciation by Germans who owned a local greengrocer. Amazingly, he pulled it off. Still under age, he joined the Screen Actor's Union soon after. Fast forward to 1956, Damian made his first Hollywood film appearance in a bit part. Featured roles had to wait for another eleven years, but he eventually forged a career as a television guest actor, showing up in popular cult TV shows like Get Smart (1965), I Dream of Jeannie (1965), Mannix (1967), The F.B.I. (1965), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Seinfeld (1989). He is most fondly remembered as the sad, ill-fated Centauri Regent Milo Virini in Babylon 5 (1993). Many of Virini's personality quirks were either created or ad-libbed by the actor. He said in a July 2000 interview: "I would get a script and it was left up to you to figure out how your character would say these words, how your character's personality would handle this particular scene. There was nobody standing over you saying, 'This is the way it's going to be."
- Joni Barnes is known for Slow Ride Home (2020).
- Jim Bracken is known for Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990).
- Ancel Cook was born on 24 August 1935 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Breakdown (1997), Road House (1989) and Down Periscope (1996). He died on 31 January 2001 in Lomita, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Kiefer Sutherland was born in London, England, UK, to Canadian actors Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland, who moved to California shortly after his birth. His maternal grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who was a Premier of Saskatchewan for over 17 years and led the national NDP party for almost 10.
Kiefer got his first film role in the comedy drama Max Dugan Returns (1983). Sutherland's first major role was in the Canadian drama The Bay Boy (1984), which earned Sutherland and director Daniel Petrie, Genie award nominations for best actor and best director, respectively. Following his success in The Bay Boy, Sutherland eventually moved to Los Angeles and landed television appearances in "The Mission", an episode of Amazing Stories (1985) and in the telefilm Trapped in Silence (1986) with Marsha Mason.
In 1992, Sutherland starred opposite Ray Liotta and Forest Whitaker in Article 99 (1992) and in the military drama A Few Good Men (1992) also starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Later, in 1994, he starred with Jeff Bridges and Nancy Travis in the American version of The Vanishing (1993) for 20th Century Fox. In 1997, he co-starred with William Hurt and Rufus Sewell in Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas, which was a special presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. Sutherland also added his second directorial credit and starred in Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) alongside Kevin Pollak, Mykelti Williamson, Rod Steiger and Martin Sheen. He stars in the Fox drama series 24 (2001) as Jack Bauer for which he has earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Most recently, he has been seen in the movie Phone Booth (2002) as a man who calls up someone at a phone booth and threatens to kill them if they hang up.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Megan (pronounced Mee-gan) has two children, a daughter, Lyla, and a son, Russel. Megan comes from a showbiz family: father Ted Follows, mother Dawn Greenhalgh, and sister Samantha Follows are all actors; her other sister, Edwina Follows, is a producer and writer; and her brother Laurence Follows is a producer. Has done many commercials, the first of which was at the age of 9. Has appeared in many theatrical productions, including "Romeo and Juliet", "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds", and "Seven Lears: The Pursuit of the Good." Won two Gemini awards for her performances in Anne of Green Gables (1985) and Anne of Avonlea (1987). Megan met her husband, Christopher Porter, while filming Deep Sleep (1990), where he was a gaffer.- Actor
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Mike MacDonald was born on 21 June 1954 in Metz, Moselle, France. He was an actor and writer, known for The Nutcracker Prince (1990), Chasing Robert (2007) and The Funny Farm (1983). He was married to Bonnie Lee Bayes. He died on 17 March 2018 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a journalist, beginning as a newspaper copy boy. Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theater and made his stage debut at age 17. He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
O'Toole spent several years on-stage at the Bristol Old Vic, then made an inconspicuous film debut in the Disney classic Kidnapped (1960). In 1962, he was chosen by David Lean to play T.E. Lawrence in Lean's epic drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The role made O'Toole an international superstar and received him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1963, he played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theater. He continued successfully in artistically rich films as well as less artistic but commercially rewarding projects. He received Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) for seven different films.
However, medical problems (originally thought to have been brought on by his drinking but which turned out to be stomach cancer) threatened to destroy his career and life in the 1970s. He survived by giving up alcohol and, after serious medical treatment, returned to films with triumphant performances in The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982). His youthful beauty lost to time and drink, O'Toole has found meaningful roles increasingly difficult to come by, though he remained one of the greatest actors of his generation. He had two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips. He also had a son, Lorcan O'Toole, by model Karen Brown.
On December 14, 2013, Peter O'Toole died at age 81 in London, England.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Soundtrack
Diller put out an autobiography in 2005 in her late 80s, and entitled it "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse", which pretty much says it all when recalling the misfit life and career of the fabulous, one-of-a-kind Phyllis Diller. It may inspire all those bored, discouraged and/or directionless housewives out there to know that the one-time 37-year-old chief bottle washer and diaper disposer of five started out writing comedy routines for her fellow female laundry mates as a sort of reprieve from what she considered her everyday household doldrums. Little did she know she would wind up an entertainment legend who would share the biggest comedy stages with the likes of Bob Hope, George Burns and Jack Benny.
They said it couldn't be done back then (to be a successful lady comic, that is) but the doyenne of female stand-up did just that -- opened the doors for other odd-duck funny girls who dared to intrude on what was considered a man's profession. Initially, the comedienne whipped up an alter-ego that could have only been created with the aid of hallucinogens. Boldly facing the world as a scrawny, witchy-faced, flyaway haired, outlandishly costumed, cigarette-holding, magpie-cackling version of "Auntie Mame", Diller made a virtue out of her weird looks and cashed in on her wifely horror tales and her own idiosyncratic tendencies. Her solid fan base has been thriving now for over five decades.
She was born Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917 in Lima, Ohio to Perry Marcus and Frances Ada (Romshe) Driver. A student at Lima's Central High School, she went on to study for three years at the Sherwood Music Conservatory in Chicago, before transferring to Bluffton (Ohio) College where she served as the editor of the school's more humorous newspaper articles. She was a serious student of the piano but was never completely confident enough in her performance level to try and act on it as a possible career.
She wed Sherwood Anderson Diller at age 22 in November 1939 and had six children (one of whom died in infancy). On the sly, she was an advertising copywriter. During World War II, the family moved to Michigan where her husband had found work at the Willow Run Bomber Plant. A natural laugh-getter, she began writing household-related one-liners and the feedback from the fellow wives greatly encouraged her. When the family moved to California for job-related reasons, Diller became a secretary at a San Francisco television station. By this time, she had built up the courage to put together a nightclub act.
The local television hosts at the station (Willard Anderson and Don Sherwood) thought her act was hilarious and invited her on their show in 1955. Not long after, at age 38, Diller made her debut at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub. What was to be a two-week engagement was stretched out to more than a year and a half. The widespread publicity she received took her straight to the television talk and variety circuits where she was soon trading banter with Jack Paar, Jack Benny and Red Skelton, among others, on their popular television series. She was a contestant on Groucho Marx's popular quiz show You Bet Your Life (1950).
Throughout the 1960s, audiences embraced her bold and brazen quirkiness. Diller formed a tight and lasting relationship with Bob Hope, appearing in scores of his television specials and co-starring in three of his broad 1960s comedy films (Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), Eight on the Lam (1967) and The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968). Diller joined Hope in Vietnam in 1966 with his USO troupe.
Her celebrity eventually took its toll on her marriage. She separated from and eventually divorced Sherwood in 1965, who had, by this time, become a favorite topic and target of her act in the form of husband "Fang". That same year, she married singer, film actor and television host Warde Donovan who appeared with her in the slapstick movie Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968). They divorced in 1975.
By this time, Diller was everywhere on the small screen. A special guest on hordes of television series and comedy specials and, especially on such riotfests as Laugh-In (1977) and the Dean Martin celebrity series of roasts, she became a celebrity on the game show circuit as well, milking laughs on such established shows as The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965) and The Gong Show (1976). She published best-selling comedy records to her credit and humorous anecdotes to pitch that made it to the bookstore shelves, such as "Phyllis Diller Tells All About Fang". However, stand-up remained her first love.
Her forays on television in her own series were, regretfully, unsuccessful. Her first television series, The Phyllis Diller Show (1966), had her pretty much pulling out all the stops as a wacky widow invariably scheming to keep up a wealthy front despite being heavily in debt. She had the reliably droll Reginald Gardiner and cranky Charles Lane as foils and even Gypsy Rose Lee, but to little avail. Revamped as "The Phyllis Diller Show", several of comedy's best second bananas (John Astin, Paul Lynde, Richard Deacon, Billy De Wolfe, Marty Ingels) were added to the mix, but the show was canceled after a single season. A second try with The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show (1968), a comedy/variety show that had the zany star backed by none other than Rip Taylor and Norm Crosby, lasted only three months.
Seldom did she manage or receive offers to take her funny face off long enough to appear for dramatic effect. Somewhat more straightforward roles came later on episodes of Boston Legal (2004) and 7th Heaven (1996). Back in 1961, interestingly enough, she made both her stage and film debuts in the dramas of William Inge. Her theatrical debut came with a production of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" and she appeared first on film in the highly dramatic Splendor in the Grass (1961), lightening things up a bit with a cameo appearance as larger-than-life nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. Diller later impressed with her harridan role in the film The Adding Machine (1969) opposite Milo O'Shea.
Diller enjoyed a three-month run on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly!", co-starring Richard Deacon and appeared in other shows and musicals over time: "Wonderful Town" (she met her second husband Warde Donovan in this production), "Happy Birthday", "Everybody Loves Opal" and "Nunsense". In 1993, Diller was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Her cackling vocals have enhanced animated features, too, what with Mad Monster Party? (1967) and A Bug's Life (1998). It took a heart attack in 1999 to finally slow down the comedienne and she eventually announced her retirement in 2002.
Aside from the baby who died in infancy, Diller was also predeceased by her eldest son, Peter (who died of cancer in 1998) and her daughter, Stephanie Diller (who died of a stroke in 2002). Her surviving children are Sally Diller, Suzanne Sue Diller and Perry Diller. As late as January 2007, she made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992). She was set to return on her 90th birthday in July but a back injury forced her to cancel. She died at age 95 of heart failure on August 20, 2012 in her home in Brentwood, California.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Peter Boretski was born on 25 May 1929 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for Naked Lunch (1991), Festival (1960) and The Nutcracker Prince (1990). He was married to Jennifer Phipps. He died on 5 September 2001 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Len Carlson was born on 2 September 1937 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was an actor, known for Cypher (2002), The Raccoons: Let's Dance! (1984) and Mighty Thor (1966). He was married to Judy Carlson. He died on 26 January 2006 in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.- Actress
- Production Manager
Theresa Sears and her partner David Switzer have extensive experience as professional actors, writers, producers, and directors working in theatre and television. Their careers have taken them around the world creating, producing and training. They have worked on all of the major Canadian broadcast networks and in every province and territory in Canada. Theresa and David now run one of Canada's most respected professional acting studios. They recently created the award-winning Sound & Light Shows for Parliament Hill and for Province House in Charlottetown. They have adjudicated the Theatre Ontario Festival 3 times.- Lynne Gorman was born on 16 February 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was an actress, known for Videodrome (1983), The Nutcracker Prince (1990) and Upside Town/Swingaround (1968). She was married to George Gorman. She died on 1 November 1989 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Hanna was born on 2 April 1953 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress, known for Mega Man Legends (1997), The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (1999) and Mega Man Legends 2 (2000).- George Merner was born on 29 October 1939 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), Deadly Eyes (1982) and American Playhouse (1980). He died on 23 August 2017 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
BIOGRAPHY
Stephanie Morgenstern's award-winning career spans many disciplines: beginning as an actor, she branched out into filmmaking, screenwriting, directing and showrunning. She was designated National Indie Treasure by Toronto's Eye Magazine, profiled in Montreal's Voir Magazine as a New Face to Watch, and selected as one of three 'Great Expectations' filmmakers at the Telluride International Film Festival in Colorado.
TELEVISION. Most recently, Morgenstern was Executive Producer on Season 2 of NBC/CTV's medical drama 'Transplant,' developing the season and character arcs with the writing room and writing the Season 2 Premiere episode with Mark Ellis. She has been working as a freelance television director for the last few years on hour-long drama such as 'Nurses,' (NBC/Global), 'Burden of Truth,' (CBC/CW), 'Killjoys' (Space Channel/Syfy), and 'Hudson & Rex' (CityTV).
Morgenstern was Co-Creator, Writer, Executive Producer and Showrunner, alongside Mark Ellis, of CBC's WWII espionage drama 'X Company.' It received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Television Drama in its premiere year and, in the fall of 2017, wrapped its third and final season in Budapest. Morgenstern directed the two-part series finale. Prior to that, Ellis & Morgenstern were Co-creators, Writers, and Executive Producers on 'Flashpoint' (CBS/CTV/Ion), for which they were designated Showrunners of the Year by the Writers' Guild of Canada. They co-wrote twenty of the show's 75 episodes, earning both a Gemini and WGC Award for Best Writing in a Television Drama. The show received the Academy Board of Directors Tribute for Outstanding and Enduring Contribution to Canadian Television in 2013, the 2009 Gemini and 2013 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Dramatic Series, and the Innovative Producers Award at the Banff World Media Festival. The Academy also designated Flashpoint #2 out of the Top 25 Canadian television shows of all time, second only to Degrassi.
FILMMAKING. Morgenstern directed the critically acclaimed 'Remembrance,' a short WW2 drama which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Mark Ellis. It earned a Genie Award nomination for Best Short Live Action Film, won Best Canadian Short at the Worldwide Short Film Festival, and the Jutra Award for Best Short. It was also a Jury Award winner and quintuple nominee (including Best Direction and Best Drama) at Yorktown's Golden Sheaf Awards. 'Remembrance' premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, won Certificates of Merit from both the San Francisco and Chicago International Film Festivals, and screened in the prestigious Filmmakers of Tomorrow section at Telluride. She and Ellis won TIFF's national Pitch This! Competition in 2005: the cash prize funded the development of 'Remembrance into longer dramatic form, which later became 'X Company.'
Morgenstern's first short was the bilingual Curtains/Rideau, co-directed with her brother Mark Morgenstern. Like 'Remembrance,' it was a Genie nominee for Best Short as well as a quintuple Golden Sheaf nominee. It earned her the award for Best Script at Yorkton, where she and her brother Mark also jointly won for Best Direction. Curtains/Rideau toured English and French language festivals extensively, and won the Palme D'Or at the Festival mondial du cinema de court metrage in Huy, Belgium.
ACTING. Fluent in English and French, Morgenstern was an actor for over 20 years. Her work spanned film ('Maelstrom,' Denis Villeneuve; 'The Sweet Hereafter,' Atom Egoyan; 'Revoir Julie,' Jeanne Crepeau), TV ('This is Wonderland,' 'At the Hotel,' CBC), and theatre across Canada ('A Midsummer Night's Dream,' Stratford Festival; 'Romeo and Juliet,' Globe Theatre; 'Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet,' Grand Theatre). She also provided the original English dub voice for Sailor Venus in the cult anime series 'Sailor Moon.'
EDUCATION. Stephanie was raised in Montreal where she began her career as a professional actor at the age of 15. She got her BA in English from McGill University, and studied drama at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. She then moved to Toronto to pursue her MA at York University's Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought. Stephanie is also an alumna of the Women in the Director's Chair Master Class, and a graduate of the Berlinale Talent Campus.- Christopher Owens is known for The Great War (2017).
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
For Susan Roman, being part of the wacky, wonderful world of animation for most of her adult life has been a dream come true. Let's be frank: some of her earlier efforts didn't exactly light up the galaxy. (We're looking at you, Piggsburg Pigs...) But along the way, she worked on projects that have since become mainstream classics, voicing characters such as Champ Bear in the original Care Bears series, Melissa Raccoon in The Raccoons, Sara Lynn and Eddie in Fisher-Price Little People, Cucumber in The Busy World of Richard Scarry, the Berry Princess in Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins, and James in Thomas and the Magic Railroad. She also voiced Mega Man in Nintendo's Mega Man Legends 2, Judy Tate in Beyblade, Akira in Bakugan, Tika in Barbie as the Island Princess, and as Snowy, the little white dog, she barked her way through a television series that has become a perennial fan favorite: The Adventures of TinTin.
In what turned out to be a huge departure from children's animation, she was cast as Angel, the speaking voice of Debbie Harry, in the ground-breaking major motion picture Rock & Rule, and in yet another cult classic, Columbia Picture's Heavy Metal, she played The Girl in the Harry Canyon Sequence.
Susan is probably best known as the voice of Sailor Jupiter in the original English dub of Sailor Moon- Diane Stapley was born in 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress, known for Stargate SG-1 (1997), The Nutcracker Prince (1990) and The Immortal (2000).
- Actress
- Producer
Mona Waserman was born on 2 May 1953 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is an actress and producer, known for My Best Friend Was an Alien (2010), Follow (2012) and The Nutcracker Prince (1990).- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Noam Zylberman was born on 30 June 1973 in Haifa, Israel. He is an actor and producer, known for The Nutcracker Prince (1990), The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988) and Star Wars: Droids (1985).- Marvin Goldhar was born on 29 April 1933 in Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Offering (1966), The Raccoons (1985) and Deadline (1980). He died on 31 March 2002 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Keith Hampshire was born on 23 November 1945 in Dulwich, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987), Rock & Rule (1983) and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000).- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Phillip Glasser was born on 4 October 1978 in Tarzana, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for An American Tail (1986), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and Agent Cody Banks (2003). He has been married to Elise Shirley since 28 May 2000.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Catherine Cavadini, aka Cathy Cavadini, is an actress, singer, and voice artist perhaps best known as the voice of Blossom in Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls. Fans also know her as the voice of Glitter in Kidd Video, Clash in Jem, and Tanya Mousekewitz in the movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. During her long and prolific career, Catherine's voice has been featured in over a hundred radio & television commercials, and in over a thousand films, television movies, and series.
Various animated film credits include The Powerpuff Girls Movie as Blossom, Babes in Toyland as Mary, Sky Blue as Jay, Young Shua, and Cheyenne, Batman: Dark Knight Returns as Carol Ferris, Joannie, and Woman with hot dog, Scooby-Doo Legend of the Phantosaur as Faith, My Little Ponies as North Star, and Pound Puppies: Legend of Big Paw as Collette and her newborn puppies. Also, she has performed guest roles in numerous animated series. Some of Catherine's recent guest roles are Doc McStuffins (Dart), The Cleveland Show (Siri), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Alanna Strange, Jan, Ruby Ryder, Dr. Myrrha Rhodes), Ben 10 (Cooper), and Teen Titans (Alien Woman/Cironelian Chrysalis Eater). Catherine also originated the series regular roles of Jennifer Jane Parker in Back to the Future, Tanya and Yasha Mousekewitz on Fievel's American Tails, and Mom, Terri, and Mrs. Weebles in season 1 of What's with Andy.
In the gaming world, she has voiced the roles of Car'l, Twyla, and Candle Maiden in Broken Age, Mechari Female in Wildstar, Kara in White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2, Felicia in War Hammer, Griffin's Mom, Dr. Hoffstader, and Assassin in Jumper, Valla the Witch of the Tundra, Bolvangar Nurse, and Tartar Leopard in The Golden Compass, Norma Jean in the Happy Feet Interactive Game, Sadie in Gun, and a variety of roles in Final Fantasy X, XIII, and XIII-2.
In addition to her animation and game voice work, Catherine has done ADR (automated dialogue replacement) in innumerable movies and television series. Recently, Catherine has performed additional voices in Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Hercules, Jersey Boys, The Lego Movie, Twelve Years a Slave, Red 2, The Great Gatsby, and Rise of the Guardians. Listed under the umbrella of "additional voices" are: Pacific Rim (voice of one of the P.A. announcers in the Shatterdome), Now You See Me (reporter voice), Happy Feet Two (emperor penguin voice), How I Met Your Mother (southern teenage mommy), Sleepy Hollow (voice of woman on phone from Oxford College), Fun Size (voice of 911 Operator in the scene with Johnny Knoxville), and Bridge to Terabithia (voice of Judy Burke).
Throughout her career, Catherine has been honored by and nominated for a number of awards. In 2003, Catherine was recognized with an Epic Award from the White House Project for promoting positive images of women's leadership through her work in the film The Powerpuff Girls Movie. In 1998, she was nominated for an Annie Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production" for performing the voice and singing for the role of Mary in the animated movie Babes in Toyland. She also sang "Dreams to Dream" as the character Tanya in the animated movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was nominated for Best Song at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards. In addition, she has received 2 Emmy Award Certificates for contributing to Outstanding Sound on the television series X-Files.- Actress
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Erica Yohn was born on 1 October 1928 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for An American Tail (1986), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) and Corrina, Corrina (1994). She was married to Tom Rosqui and Lars Speyer. She died on 27 January 2019 in California, USA.- Actor
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Born in 1919 in Jerusalem, Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to America in 1929.
Following schooling at the Hebrew Technical Institute of New York, he found a job as a subway electrician doing signal maintenance until an interest in the theater altered the direction of his life.
He joined amateur groups and subsequently won a scholarship to the Dramatic Workshop in New York. This led to what would have been his Broadway debut in a production of "Eve of St. Mark", but he was fired before the show opened. He made his official New York debut in a production of "The Emperor's New Clothes" in 1940.
WWII interrupted his young career in 1942, when he was inducted into the United Sates Army, returning to the stage after his hitch was over in 1945, three years later. He sought work in stock plays and became an intern of Stella Adler and, as a result, a strong exponent of the Actor's Studio. Discovered by Charles Laughton and cast in his production of "Galileo" in 1947, Persoff made his film debut a year later with an uncredited bit in The Naked City (1948).
Short, dark, chunky-framed and with a distinct talent for dialects, Persoff became known primarily for his ethnic villainy, usually playing authoritative Eastern Europeans.
In a formidable career which had him portraying everything from cab drivers to Joseph Stalin, standout film roles would include Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart, Gene Conforti in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Albert in This Angry Age (1958) and gangster Johnny Torrio in Al Capone (1959). That same year he played another gangster, the small role of Little Bonaparte, in Some Like It Hot (1959).
He was a durable performer during TV's "Golden Age" (Gunsmoke (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959)) and well beyond (Chicago Hope (1994), Law & Order (1990)), playing hundreds of intense, volatile and dominating characters.
In later years, his characters grew a bit softer as Barbra Streisand's Jewish father in Yentl (1983) and the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the An American Tail (1986) will attest. Later stage work included well-received productions of "I'm Not Rappaport" and his biographical one-man show "Sholem Aleichem".
After declining health and high blood pressure forced him to slow down, Persoff took up painting in 1985, studying sketching in Los Angeles. Specializing in watercolor, he created more than 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited up and down the coast of California. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2019.- Actor
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James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing), and sometime actor.
In 1929, he won a place at Princeton University, where he studied architecture with some success and became further involved with the performing arts as a musician and actor with the University Players. After graduation, engagements with the University Players took him around the northeastern United States, including a run on Broadway in 1932. But work dried up as the Great Depression deepened, and it was not until 1934, when he followed his friend Henry Fonda to Hollywood, that things began to pick up.
After his first screen appearance in Art Trouble (1934), Stewart worked for a time for MGM as a contract player and slowly began making a name for himself in increasingly high-profile roles throughout the rest of the 1930s. His famous collaborations with Frank Capra, in You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, after World War II, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) helped to launch his career as a star and to establish his screen persona as the likable everyman.
Having learned to fly in 1935, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1940 as a private (after twice failing the medical for being underweight). During the course of World War II, he rose to the rank of colonel, first as an instructor at home in the United States, and later on combat missions in Europe. He remained involved with the United States Air Force Reserve after the war and officially retired in 1968. In 1959, he was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the highest-ranking actor in U.S. military history.
Stewart's acting career took off properly after the war. During the course of his long professional life, he had roles in some of Hollywood's best-remembered films, starring in a string of Westerns, bringing his everyman qualities to movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)), biopics (The Stratton Story (1949), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), for instance, thrillers (most notably his frequent collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock), and even some screwball comedies.
On June 25, 1997, a thrombosis formed in his right leg, leading to a pulmonary embolism, and a week later on July 2, 1997, surrounded by his children, James Stewart died at age 89 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. His last words to his family were, "I'm going to be with Gloria now".- Actress
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Naturally brunette/blue-eyed beauty Amy Davis Irving was born in Palo Alto, California. She is the youngest of three children, and the daughter of influential theatrical/television director and producer Jules Irving, and actress Priscilla Pointer. Her father was of Russian Jewish descent, and her mother's ancestry includes English, Scots-Irish, Welsh, Jewish, and German.
Amy was brought up in the world of theater. She was put on stage from the time she was nine-months-old, her father was the director and her mother was the actress, they didn't want baby sitters for their children, so if she wasn't performing, she would stay in the wardrobe department or her mother used to put her in the second row center where she could watch her. And, before she was 10-years-old, she had already worked in several plays. At a young age, Amy Irving was trained at the American Conservatory Theater and Britain's London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (L.A.M.A.D.A.). She made her off-Broadway debut at the age of 17 and, from that moment to date, she received critical acclaim, appearing in such plays as: "Heartbreak House" (1983), "The Road to Mecca" (1988), "Broken Glass" (1994), "The Three Sisters" (1997), "The Guys" (2002), "Ghosts" (2002) and "Celadine" (2004), among others.
In 1976, Amy made her film debut, playing "Sue Snell", one of her most unforgettable characters in Stephen King's Carrie (1976), a classic in the horror genre, taken to the big screen by director Brian De Palma. For the next few years, Irving continued working in important films, The Fury (1978), also directed by De Palma, Voices (1979) and The Competition (1980). Later, in 1983, she gave a fine performance as "Hadass", in Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983); earning an Oscar nomination. Two of her best opportunities arrived in the late 80s, when she played "Anna Anderson" in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) and "Isabelle Grossman" in the romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey (1988); she received a Golden Globe nomination for each movie.
Amy was married to director Steven Spielberg from 1985 to 1989 and she has a son with him, Max Spielberg. And, in 1990, after her divorce, she met Brazilian director Bruno Barreto while they were working on A Show of Force (1990). They wed a few years later and they have a son (Gabriel). In 1997, Irving made a guest appearance on Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997) and, in 1999, she came back in the sequel of Carrie (1976), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999).
Unfortunately, her film opportunities narrowed in the 90s. However, in the year 2000, she surprised the whole world again when she performed as "Mary Ann Simpson", a very funny and sensual, at the same time, English teacher in the film, Bossa Nova (2000). She managed to capture this peculiar character very well. After this romantic comedy, Amy had a great opportunity, playing "Barbara Wakefield", Michael Douglas' wife in Traffic (2000), the film was a huge success and she won an Actor Award, shared with the rest of the cast. Then, this beautiful and talented actress continued working in remarkable films such as 13 Conversations About One Thing (2001), with her Carrie (1976) co-star, Sissy Spacek, in the Walt Disney production, Tuck Everlasting (2002) and in the horror film, Hide and Seek (2005), along with Robert De Niro. Recently, she had an important part as "Emily Sloane" in the very-known show, Alias (2001).
In addition to her talents as an actress, she is a great dancer and also showed off her vocal talents, singing in films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Rumpelstiltskin (1987) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991).
Nowadays, Amy Irving continues working on stage in Broadway productions and spends most of her time with her friends and family, especially with her two children.- Actor
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John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain a good education. Here he was often tormented for his height, having reached a height of six feet by the age of twelve, and eventually discovered that being humorous could deflect aggressive behavior in others. He loved humor in and of itself, collected jokes, and, like many young Britons who would grow up to be comedians, was devoted to the radio comedy show, "The Goon Show," starring the legendary Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe.
Cleese did well in both sports and academics, but his real love was comedy. He attended Cambridge to read (study) Law, but devoted a great deal of time to the university's legendary Footlights group, writing and performing in comedy reviews, often in collaboration with future fellow Python Graham Chapman. Several of these comedy reviews met with great success, including one in particular which toured under the name "Cambridge Circus." When Cleese graduated, he went on to write for the BBC, then rejoined Cambridge Circus in 1964, which toured New Zealand and America. He remained in America after leaving Cambridge Circus, performing and doing a little journalism, and here met Terry Gilliam, another future Python.
Returning to England, he began appearing in a BBC radio series, "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again", based on Cambridge Circus. It ran for several years and also starred future Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. He also appeared, briefly, with Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman in At Last the 1948 Show (1967), for television, and a series of collaborations with some of the finest comedy-writing talent in England at the time, some of whom - Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Chapman - eventually joined him in Monty Python. These programs included The Frost Report (1966) and Marty Feldman's program Marty (1968). Eventually, however, the writers were themselves collected to be the talent for their own program, Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), which displayed a strange and completely absorbing blend of low farce and high-concept absurdist humor, and remains influential to this day.
After three seasons of the intensity of Monty Python, Cleese left the show, though he collaborated with one or more of the other Pythons for decades to come, including the Python movies released in the mid-70s to early 80s - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and The Meaning of Life (1983). Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth collaborated in the legendary television series Fawlty Towers (1975), as the sharp-tongued, rude, bumbling yet somehow lovable proprietor of an English seaside hotel. Cleese based this character on a proprietor he had met while staying with the other Pythons at a hotel in Torquay, England. Only a dozen episodes were made, but each is truly hilarious, and he is still closely associated with the program to this day.
Meanwhile Cleese had established a production company, Video Arts, for clever business training videos in which he generally starred, which were and continue to be enormously successful in the English-speaking world. He continues to act prolifically in movies, including in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), in the Harry Potter series, and in the James Bond series as the new Q, starting with The World Is Not Enough (1999), in which he began as R before graduating to Q. Cleese also supplies his voice to numerous animated and video projects, and frequently does commercials.
Besides the infamous Basil Fawlty character, Cleese's other well-known trademark is his rendition of an English upper-class toff. He has a daughter with Connie Booth and a daughter with his second wife, Barbara Trentham.
Education and learning are important elements of his life - he was Rector of the University of Saint Andrews from 1973 until 1976, and continues to be a professor-at-large of Cornell University in New York. Cleese lives in Santa Barbara, California.- Actor
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Jonathan Michael Lovitz is a American comedian and actor from Tarzana who is known for voicing Jay Sherman from The Critic and for being a Saturday Night Live cast member in the 1990s. He acted in a lot of Adam Sandler films such as The Wedding Singer, Little Nicky, Hotel Transylvania, Grown Ups 2 and Eight Crazy Nights.- Actor
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Jack Angel was born on 24 October 1930 in Modesto, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Balto (1995) and The Iron Giant (1999). He was married to Arlene Thornton and Barbara Champion. He died on 18 October 2021 in Malibu, California, USA.- Casting Department
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Mickie (Maryanne) McGowan is the daughter of Robert A. McGowan, writer/director of the "Our Gang Comedies." She was born in Culver City, Calif. and now resides in Palm Springs, Calif. She continues to work as an animation voice actor, mainly for Disney and Pixar. She has two sons, Anthony and Vincent Capparilli.- Actor
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Patrick Pinney (born June 30, 1952) is an American actor/voice actor. Born in Los Angeles, CA. Pinney attended college at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he had many friends including assistant director Michele Panelli Venetis and San Francisco Bay area costumer Alison Barnwell Morris, with whom he costarred in "The Deputy" at the UOP Rotunda Theatre. He studied theatre along with producer / director Dennis Jones at University of the Pacific in Stockton where the two of them were room mates. As well as performing in theaters in the United States, he had also done theaters in Europe. He came to Los Angeles. Some time later, he played three characters in a play. Afterwards he was approached by a producer who offered him work in animation. It was a role in a Hanna-Barbera animation. From there he made the transition from a serious stage actor to voice. He has also done work on Harry & the Hendersons.
Pinney has voiced numerous characters. His roles include Cyclops in Disney's Hercules, Wormguy and Idikiukup in the Men and Black Series, and Painty The Pirate from the opening theme of SpongeBob SquarePants. He has also done voice work for Mulan, Toy Story, Aladdin, and Ducktales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.- Music Artist
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Linda Ronstadt was born on 15 July 1946 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. She is a music artist and actress, known for The Pirates of Penzance (1983), An American Tail (1986) and The Abyss (1989).- Actor
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Michael Bell is an American voice actor who is known for voicing Gleeman Vox from Ratchet: Deadlocked, Raziel from The Legacy of Kain video game series, Chas Finster and Dru Pickles from Rugrats and several Smurfs from The Smurfs cartoon. He also voiced in The Transformers: The Movie, Challenge of the Super Friends, and did live-action acting for several episodes of Star Trek and Dallas.- Actor
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The proud owner of tons of dialects and hundreds of uncanny impersonations, the short (5'7"), slight, deadpan, rubber-faced, fair-haired funnyman John Byner is the forerunner to such latter day gifted comic impressionists as Dana Carvey, Frank Caliendo and Jim Carrey. Byner's spot-on impressions have run the entertainment and historical gamut -- from John Wayne, Ed Sullivan, Walter Brennan and George Jessel to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. As icing on the cake, he hilariously unleashed over-done singing vocals to such stylists as Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin. At his heyday in the late 60s and early 70s, John and Rich Little were the cream of the mimicking crop -- deservedly recognized as the "Men of 1,000 Impressions".
Born John Thomas Biener on June 28, 1938, in New York City, he was the son of Michael Biener, an auto mechanic, and Christina Biener, a mental hospital attendant. His stand-up comedy career began in New York's Greenwich Village where he worked for a year for Max Gordon at Gordon's jazz club "Village Vanguard". He then went on to open for some of the finest jazz greats of his time and steadily became a favorite New York nightclub fixture. As he rose to the top of his game, he opened or headlined prominent niteries throughout the country included headlining stints at Basin Street East, Copa Cabana, Latin Quarter, The Rainbow Room and at such showrooms as Harrah's, The Sahara, The Sands, Caesar's Palace, The Tropicana and Las Vegas Hilton.
John's TV career break happened in New York City on Merv Griffin's "Talent Scouts Show" in 1964. After great exposure on both Garry Moore and Steve Allen's variety shows in 1966 and 1967, he clowned around on Ed Sullivan's showcase program over two dozen times and Johnny Carson late-night haunt over three dozen times. He added to the laughs on Carol Burnett, Mike Douglas and Dean Martin's self-titled shows and became a veritable favorite with David Letterman and Jay Leno at night.
John hosted and starred in his own summer variety series with The John Byner Comedy Hour (1972) which focused on sketch comedy and sitcom spoofs. John's series "Comedy on the Road," which aired for four seasons on A&E earned him his second Ace Award. The first came for his uproarious series Bizarre (1979), a half-hour sketch-styled program which aired for six seasons.
John began on-camera acting in 1967. He began things off with a recurring part on the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family (1967) starring Jerry Van Dyke and as the sole voice in the cartoon segment The Ant and the Aardvark (1969) of The Pink Panther (1969) series. This segment had the title characters voiced by Byner, who gave dead-on impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason, respectively.
From there, he provided many side-splitting moments on such established 60s and 70s shows as "Get Smart", "The Mothers-In-Law," "Love, American Style," "Hawaii 5-O," "The Odd Couple," "Maude" and "When Things Were Rotten," and added greatly to the zaniness as Detective Donahue in the hit spoof Soap (1977) as well as the family sitcom The Practice (1976) starring comic legend Danny Thomas. On the TV movie scene, John starred as a gangster in McNamara's Band (1977), but it failed as a pilot to a prospective series. He also appeared in the comedies The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979) and Murder Can Hurt You! (1980), and the rare drama Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982) and played a failed ventriloquist in an episode of "Friday the Thirteenth: The Series."
John made his film debut in a slightly noticeable bit in the Barbra Streisand/Ryan O'Neal gagfest What's Up, Doc? (1972). While he never found a strong footing in film, he managed to add second-banana fun to a handful of action comedies and slapstick vehicles such as The Great Smokey Roadblock (1977) with Henry Fonda and Eileen Brennan; the highly obscure A Pleasure Doing Business (1979) with Conrad Bain and Alan Oppenheimer; Stroker Ace (1983) starring Burt Reynolds; and the comedy horror Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) with Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr..
John's penchant for creating voices led to an expansive career in animation for Disney The Black Cauldron (1985) as well as the TV cartoon programs "Duckman," "Garfield," Angry Beavers" and "Rugrats" and a revamped "Felix the Cat."
His continued visibility into the 90's millennium has included a recurring role in the crime drama series Silk Stalkings (1991), as well as sporadic parts on "Married...with Children," "Dharma & Greg," "In the Heat of the Night" and "The First Family." He was also spotted in the fantasy comedy Munchie Strikes Back (1994); the fantasy horror Wishmaster (1997); the Rodney Dangerfield slapstick farce My 5 Wives (2000); and the National Lampoon offering Robodoc (2009).
Married four times, John has four children from his first marriage.- Alexaundria Simmons is known for A Wish for Wings That Work (1991), Tequila and Bonetti (1992) and Opposite Sex (2000).
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Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford Motor Company executive from Indiana. Williams had English, German, French, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
Robin briefly studied political science at Claremont Men's College and theater at College of Marin before enrolling at The Juilliard School to focus on theater. After leaving Juilliard, he performed in nightclubs where he was discovered for the role of "Mork, from Ork", in an episode of Happy Days (1974). The episode, My Favorite Orkan (1978), led to his famous spin-off weekly TV series, Mork & Mindy (1978). He made his feature starring debut playing the title role in Popeye (1980), directed by Robert Altman.
Williams' continuous comedies and wild comic talents involved a great deal of improvisation, following in the footsteps of his idol Jonathan Winters. Williams also proved to be an effective dramatic actor, receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), and The Fisher King (1991), before winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Good Will Hunting (1997).
During the 1990s, Williams became a beloved hero to children the world over for his roles in a string of hit family-oriented films, including Hook (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), Flubber (1997), and Bicentennial Man (1999). He continued entertaining children and families into the 21st century with his work in Robots (2005), Happy Feet (2006), Night at the Museum (2006), Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), Happy Feet Two (2011), and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014). Other more adult-oriented films for which Williams received acclaim include The World According to Garp (1982), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Awakenings (1990), The Birdcage (1996), Insomnia (2002), One Hour Photo (2002), World's Greatest Dad (2009), and Boulevard (2014).
On Monday, August 11th, 2014, Robin Williams was found dead at his home in Tiburon, California USA, the victim of an apparent suicide, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. A 911 call was received at 11:55 a.m. PDT, firefighters and paramedics arrived at his home at 12:00 p.m. PDT, and he was pronounced dead at 12:02 p.m. PDT.- Actress
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Tress MacNeille is one of the most talented women in the voice-over industry to date. With her versatile talent has done the voices of Dot Warner from Animaniacs, Babs Bunny from Tiny Toon Adventures to being a featured singer in the Weird "Al" Yankovic song "Ricky", She has also appeared in a small part in the full-length motion picture "Elvira Mistress of the Dark".- Actor
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Joe Alaskey, among the most talented voice actors in the business, impeccably recreated many of the original characters which the late cartoon pioneer Mel Blanc invented. A natural mimic and gifted actor, his amazing "ear" for voices enabled him to imitate almost anything, including some of the most obscure show business personalities. Alaskey was one of the most employed voice actors in the business during his career.- Producer
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Andrew Hill Newman began his career as an actor. He made his Broadway debut in Merlin as an understudy for both Nathan Lane and magician Doug Henning. Other Broadway and National Tour credits include Barnum, Big River, and Master Harold...and the boys. Off-Broadway, Andrew starred for two years as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors in the original production at the Orpheum Theatre. He created the roles of Tom Kelly in Only Kidding! at the Westside Arts Theatre and Dave Schoenfeld in Birds of Paradise, directed by Arthur Laurents at the Promenade. He has appeared at numerous regional and stock theatres including: The Guthrie Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Theatre Under The Stars. In 1990, Andrew moved to Los Angeles to broaden his career in film and television. He has had recurring and guest starring roles in over three dozen different television series, and has also appeared in seven feature films. In 1997, Andrew wrote sketch and monologue material for Saturday Night Live. He landed his first staff writing position in 1998 on the UPN sit-com, Guys Like Us. The show did not last long - nor did the network. Partnered with Matthew Perry, he wrote and sold two sit-com pilots and a feature film script, all of which were developed with the studios and networks until they were no longer funny. In 2002, Andrew and Joshua Malina created Celebrity Poker Showdown for Bravo. He served as Executive Producer for this highly successful series, which raised more than $2,000,000 for over 100 different charities. Teamed with Hank Azaria, Andrew wrote and produced Nobody's Perfect, which premiered at Sundance and won Best Short Film at the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. Andrew has written and produced children's television for Nickelodeon since 1999. He was a writer/producer on the sketch comedy shows: The Amanda Show and All That, as well as an original writer on the sitcoms: Drake & Josh and Wendell & Vinnie. He was Head Writer for 60 episodes of iCarly, a 5-time Emmy Nominee for Outstanding Children's Program. Andrew is currently a writer/producer for Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.- Actor
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Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, and went to Santa Monica City College, where he dropped out after a year due to bad grades. But before he did, he took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks acting." Also received some training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Decided to go into acting because he did not want to work or go into the service. Trained at The Pasadena Playhouse for two years.- Actress
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Samantha Mathis was born in 1970 in New York, to Donald Mathis and Austrian-born Bibi Besch, an aspiring actress at the time. Her maternal grandmother was actress Gusti Huber. Her first acting job was in a commercial for baby products with her mother. Since her parents divorced when she was only three years old, Samantha was very exposed to the acting industry from a very young age, which made her almost destined to become an actress. Samantha's first feature film was Pump Up the Volume (1990) opposite her on- and off-screen love at the time, Christian Slater.- Actor
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Jonathan Ward was born on 24 February 1970 in Elkridge, Maryland, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Steel Magnolias (1989), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and The New Adventures of Beans Baxter (1987). He is married to Jamie. They have two children.- Actor
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Christian Michael Leonard Slater was born on August 18, 1969 in New York City, to Michael Hawkins, a well-known soap actor, and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), a casting agent. Christian started in show business early, appearing on the soap opera The Edge of Night (1956) in 1976 at the age of 7. He went on to star in many Broadway shows in the early-1980s. He rose to fame in Hollywood after landing the role of Binx Davey in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a further acting career after dropping out of high school. After having a starring role in the cult classic Heathers (1988), he became somewhat known as the Hollywood bad-boy, having many run-ins with the law. He is also well-known for having dated stars such as Winona Ryder, Christina Applegate, Samantha Mathis and was at one time engaged to actress/model Nina Huang. In 2000, he married Ryan Haddon, the daughter of 1970s model Dayle Haddon. The couple have two children, Jaden Christopher (b. 1999) and Eliana Sophia (b. 2001). As of early 2005, they separated and later divorced, but remain dedicated to bring up their children.- Actress
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"Amazing Grace" Zabriskie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She wrote her own original poetry, then performed at coffee shops and various artist hangouts in Atlanta. She was also a wonderful silk-screen printmaker. She moved to Hollywood and made her acting debut in Norma Rae (1979). She went on to appear in over 80 movies. She gave an acclaimed performance as Mrs. Ames in East of Eden (1981), the adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel. Grace appeared in the highly acclaimed and Oscar-nominated An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and The Big Easy (1986), set in her beloved New Orleans. She worked with producer and director David Lynch, and was a series regular in the cult favorite Twin Peaks (1990) as Sarah Palmer, the part with which she is most often identified. She also appeared in Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) the same year. She has played a wide variety of roles, and gave a terrific performance in the Oscar-nominated Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and showed great character depth as the lonely and despondent widow in The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995).
Grace's more recent roles were in the zany Sparkler (1997) and in the big-name feature No Good Deed (2002), based on a short story by Dashiell Hammett. A woman of many talents, she is currently creating her own original paintings, unique sculptures and woodwork art that can be viewed in Los Angeles galleries.
Her visual arts, which include creating lamps or "sculptures with light" as she calls them, are available from the L.A.-based ArtHaus.- Actor
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Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England. His mother, Maura Patricia (Langmead), was a school secretary, and his father, James Curry, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain. Curry studied Drama and English at Birmingham University, from which he graduated with Combined Honors. His first professional success was in the London production of "Hair", followed by more work in the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Glasgow Citizens Repertory Company, and the Royal Court Theatre where he created the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show". He recreated the role in the Los Angeles and Broadway productions and starred in the screen version entitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Curry continued his career on the New York and London stages with starring roles in "Travesties", "Amadeus", "The Pirates of Penzance", "The Rivals", "Love for Love", "Dalliance", "The Threepenny Opera", "The Art of Success" and "My Favorite Year". He also starred in the United States tour of "Me and My Girl". He has received two Tony Award nominations for best actor and won the Royal Variety Club Award as "Stage Actor of the Year".
A composer and a singer, Tim Curry toured the United States and Europe with his own band and released four albums on A&M Records. In addition to an active movie and television career, he is a sought-after actor for CD-ROM productions. His distinctive voice can be heard on more than a dozen audio books, and in countless animated television series and videos. He lives in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
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Geoffrey Blake is an Emmy nominated, two-time SAG Award winning actor best known for his role as 'Wesley' (the abusive radical boyfriend) opposite Robin Wright's 'Jennie' in the iconic Academy Award Best Picture Forrest Gump (1994). In addition to Forrest Gump (1994), Blake has appeared alongside Academy Award Winner Tom Hanks in multiple films. Those performances are part of Blake's frequent collaborations with such Academy Award winning filmmakers as Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard (Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), Apollo 13 (1995), Edtv (1999), Frost Nixon) whose films alone have garnered over $2,000,000,000 in Box office. Blake's most critically acclaimed performance was that of the preppy pipe-smoking astrophysicist 'Fisher', the right hand man, in the Sci-Fi classic Contact opposite Academy Award winner Jodie Foster.
Blake has well over 100 credits to his name in both television and film. In the 1980's and early 1990's, he frequently collaborated with friend and colleague, Emilio Estevez. The two met on the generation defining film Young Guns (1988) where Blake portrayed 'McCloskey', the Young Gun snitch, opposite Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Dermot Mulroney. Blake would go on to make four more films with Estevez as both an actor and director (Men at Work, Rated X, The War at Home, Nightbreaker). He also worked with other luminary filmmakers such as Ridley & Tony Scott (The Man in the High Castle, Enemy of the State), Paul Mazursky (The Pickle), Frank Darabont (Mob City), Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog), Roland Joffe in Texas Rising (2015) and numerous others. In addition, he has appeared in a multitude of Emmy Award winning series, mini-series, and movies for television with prolific content providers such as Steven Bochco, David Milch, Jerry Bruckheimer, Shonda Rhimes, David Shore, Paul Attanosio, Don Bellisario, and Dick Wolf, repeatedly reaching out to Blake to be on their shows.
Simultaneously, Blake stars in two series as recurring regulars. In Agent X for TNT, Blake portrays 'Gray Lawson', the Machiavellian Director of the CIA, opposite Academy Award Nominee Sharon Stone and James Earl Jones. He also recurs in Ridley Scott/Scott Free's The Man in the High Castle, Amazon Prime's highest rated and most critically praised one-hour drama to date. Based on the Phillip P. Dicks Hugo award winning Dystopian novel, Blake portrays 'Doc Meyer' the leader of the American East Coast resistance to the Nazi occupiers and nemesis to Rufus Sewell's menacing Third Reich killer sociopath.
In 2014, Blake spent five months in Durango, Mexico filming History Channel's 10-hour mini-series event Texas Rising (2015) directed by two-time Academy Award Nominee Roland Joffe (Killing Fields, The Mission). Blake came to the production by way of his colleague Bill Paxton, whom he previously worked opposite in Apollo 13 and Mighty Joe Young. Blake portrays 'Col. George Hockley'; confidant, agitate, right hand man and second in command to Paxton's 'General Sam Houston'. Blake relished at the opportunity of working with Paxton again as well with fellow actors Ray Liotta, Olivier Martinez, Brendon Fraser, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and numerous others.
Raised in Northern California, Blake sparked his love for acting and writing as a member of The American Conservatory Theatre at the ripe old age of 16. He started his career under the tutelage of John Housman at the USC School of Theatre. He went on to study with legendary acting teacher Peggy Feury at the Loft Studio, where among his classmates were his generation's finest actors (Sean Penn, Forrest Whitaker, Meg Ryan, Nicolas Cage, Michelle Pfeifer to name just a few). Later he studied with, often mentioned in Academy Award winner's speeches, Larry Moss.
Not only is Blake an award winning actor, he is also a highly respected screenplay writer alongside his scribe partner and wife, Marcia Blake. Together, they have written projects for A-Level film talent such as Robert Towne (Chinatown), Tom Cruise's production companies, Brad Pitt's Plan B, Robert Deniro's Tribeca, major studios, and HBO.
Together with Marcia, Blake has the great fortune of raising two sons. His family inspires and supports him in his creative endeavors where he strives and blessed to stay working at the top tiers of the Entertainment Industry.- Actor
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Beefy, roughhewn actor Robert Pastorelli was a former boxer and an admitted drug addict before he cleaned up his act and pursued theater work in New York in such 1970s productions as "Rebel Without a Cause," "The Rainmaker," and "Death of a Salesman," he headed west and turned to film and TV in 1982, soon finding a fairly comfortable niche playing ballsy, streetwise characters often with a Runyonesque feel and truck driver mentality. Supporting Bette Midler and Shelley Long in Outrageous Fortune (1987) and Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), his first meaty film role came with Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990). But it was TV that would be his claim to fame as Candice Bergen's gruff but mushy-hearted house painter in Murphy Brown (1988), staying with the show for seven seasons. With that came more visible roles in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Michael (1996), and Modern Vampires (1998). He played the role of salty Luther Billis in the mini-movie remake of South Pacific (2001) with Glenn Close, then appeared as Mitch with Ms. Close on stage in "A Streetcar Named Desire" a year later. Sadly, drugs once again took hold of Pastorelli in full force in later years. In 2004, the 49-year-old died of a heroin overdose and was found at home with a syringe in his arm in the bathroom by his assistant.- Actor
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Danny Mann was born on 28 July 1951 in Mobile, Alabama, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Babe (1995), Balto (1995) and Up (2009).- Actor
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Cheech Marin was born on 13 July 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Born in East L.A. (1987), Tin Cup (1996) and Up in Smoke (1978). He has been married to Natasha Rubin since 8 August 2009. He was previously married to Rikki Marin and Patti Heid.- Actor
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Tommy Chong was born on 24 May 1938 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Up in Smoke (1978), Zootopia (2016) and Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980). He has been married to Shelby Chong since 1975. They have four children. He was previously married to Maxine Sneed.- Actor
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Tone Loc was born on 3 March 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Heat (1995), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Titan A.E. (2000).- Actor
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As a busy Hollywood voice-actor, Townsend Coleman is perhaps one of the most recognizable voices on TV. For 16 years, he was the voice of NBC's "Must See TV" and "Comedy Night Done Right" primetime comedy promos, including hits from Seinfeld and Frasier to 30 Rock and The Office, as well as the promos for "The Tonight Show" starring Jay Leno (then Conan), "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (then Jimmy Fallon), "Last Call with Carson Daly" and "Saturday Night Live". He currently voices the daily on-air promos for the long-running "Live with Kelly and Michael" and radio spots for "Judge Judy", in addition to regularly voicing primetime promos for ABC Family, The Hub, and now, ABC-TV.
But the character behind the voice really came to life in 1985, when Coleman, having just moved to Los Angeles from Cleveland, Ohio, auditioned for and got a part on the animated hit, "Inspector Gadget". As the voice of Corporal Capeman, Gadget's bumbling assistant, he embarked on an entirely new career, providing the voices for some of the most memorable characters in cartoons and commercials. In addition to thwarting evil as the voice of "The Tick", Fox Kids' hit animated series, he has provided the voices for many popular cartoon characters, including Michaelangelo, Rat King, and Usagi Yojimbo on the original, long-running cartoon series, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". He also voiced Waldo on "Where's Waldo?", Gobo, Architect, and Wrench on NBC's animated "Fraggle Rock", Scott/Teen Wolf on "Teen Wolf", Scratch on "Spacecats", the voice of Wayne Gretzky on "Prostars", Riot on "Jem and the Holograms", Dragonflyer on "Glofriends", Rewind on the 80's "Transformers", and 20 years later, Sentinel Prime on "Transformers: Animated" for Cartoon Network, Neddy the Mallet on "Mighty Magiswords" for Nickelodeon, and the voice of Jason Whittaker on Focus on the Family's popular radio drama, "Adventures In Odyssey".
In addition to his active animation career, Coleman has also been the voice behind numerous national TV ad campaigns for clients such as Home Depot, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Mattel Hot Wheels, Sunny Delight, Colgate, Friskies, Sara Lee, Nestle, Jenny Craig, Blockbuster Video, Greyhound, AT&T, Eggo Waffles, Taco Bell and the voice of "Spot", the precocious red 7-Up dot... even a few "Keebler elves" and "Raid bugs".
Born in New York City in 1954, Coleman spent his childhood in Denver, Colorado and Cleveland, Ohio. After studying architecture and theater at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he returned home to Ohio to pursue a radio career. Ten years as a disc jockey at various Cleveland radio stations led to numerous commercial and voiceover jobs. He appeared as host of the nationally syndicated TV series "The Dance Show" prior to moving his family to LA in 1984 to take advantage of career opportunities on the west coast. Coleman's primary career focus was acting in TV and film, but soon changed, as he foresaw a more lucrative career specializing in the field of voiceovers. Having performed in numerous theatrical and musical productions back in Cleveland, the fall of 2013 saw Townsend re-ignite his passion for theatre after a 30 year hiatus by performing the role of Uncle Sid in Eugene O'Neill's 'Ah, Wilderness!' at The Actors Co-op in Hollywood, where he is currently a member.- Actor
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Brian Cummings was born on 4 March 1948 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. He is an actor, known for Beauty and the Beast (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). He has been married to Carla McNally since 1981. They have eight children.- Anderson Wong is known for FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989) and The Real Ghostbusters (1986).
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Kathleen Freeman's introduction to show business came very early in life. Her parents were vaudevillians, and she made her debut at age 2 in their act. Later she attended UCLA with intentions of becoming a pianist, but was bitten by the acting bug and never looked back. She gained experience on stage in various stock and repertory companies, and made her film debut in 1948. One of the most memorable character actresses in recent memory, her stocky build, incredibly expressive face and hearty laugh have kept audiences convulsed for decades, playing a variety of neighborhood gossips, busybodies and eccentrics. Memorable as Sister Mary Stigmata ("The Penguin"), Dan Aykroyd's and John Belushi's nemesis, in The Blues Brothers (1980). She was used as a comic foil by Jerry Lewis in many of his films, always to great advantage. She did much television work, playing in everything from The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) to Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964) to Hogan's Heroes (1965) to Married... with Children (1987), where she was the voice of Peg's monstrous but never-seen mother, Al Bundy's nemesis. She was working on Broadway in a production of "The Full Monty" when she died of lung cancer in 2001.- Naomi Lewis was born on 24 March 1971 in Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Inside Looking Out (2006) and Derailed (2005).
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Neil Ross was born in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Transformers: The Movie (1986), An American Tail (1986) and Back to the Future Part II (1989). He has been married to Jeanne Jackson since February 1977. They have one child.- Casting Director
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Pamela Adlon comes from an acting family and began her career in television in 1983. She has appeared in many popular TV shows, including as a voice actress in a number of animated TV series including, most famously, King of the Hill (1997) for which she won an Emmy for her role as Bobby Hill.- Actor
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Jim Carrey, Canadian-born and a U.S. citizen since 2004, is an actor and producer famous for his rubbery body movements and flexible facial expressions. The two-time Golden Globe-winner rose to fame as a cast member of the Fox sketch comedy In Living Color (1990) but leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994) and The Mask (1994) established him as a bankable comedy actor.
James Eugene Carrey was born on January 17, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, and is the youngest of four children of Kathleen (Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician. The family surname was originally "Carré", and he has French-Canadian, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. Carrey was an incurable extrovert from day one. As a child, he performed constantly, for anyone who would watch, and even mailed his résumé to The Carol Burnett Show (1967) at age 10. In junior high, he was granted a few precious minutes at the end of each school day to do stand-up routines for his classmates (provided, of course, that he kept a lid on it the rest of the day).
Carrey's early adolescence took a turn for the tragic, however, when the family was forced to relocate from their cozy town of Newmarket to Scarborough (a Toronto suburb). They all took security and janitorial jobs in the Titan Wheels factory, Jim working 8-hour shifts after school let out (not surprisingly, his grades and morale both suffered). When they finally deserted the factory, the family lived out of a Volkswagen camper van until they could return to Toronto.
Carrey made his stand-up debut in Toronto after his parents and siblings got back on their feet. He made his (reportedly awful) professional stand-up debut at Yuk-Yuk's, one of the many local clubs that would serve as his training ground in the years to come. He dropped out of high school, worked on his celebrity impersonations (among them Michael Landon and James Stewart), and in 1979 worked up the nerve to move to Los Angeles. He finessed his way into a regular gig at The Comedy Store, where he impressed Rodney Dangerfield so much that the veteran comic signed him as an opening act for an entire season. During this period Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. Wary of falling into the lounge act lifestyle, Carrey began to look around for other performance outlets. He landed a part as a novice cartoonist in the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory (1984); while the show fell flat, the experience gave Carrey the confidence to pursue acting more vigorously.
Carrey also worked on breaking into film around this time. He scored the male lead in the ill-received Lauren Hutton vehicle Once Bitten (1985), and had a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), before making a modest splash with his appearance as the alien Wiploc in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts (one of his most popular characters, psychotic Fire Marshall Bill, was attacked by watchdog groups for dispensing ill- advised safety tips).
Following his time on In Living Color (1990), Carrey's transformation from TV goofball to marquee headliner happened within the course of a single year. He opened 1994 with a starring turn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), a film that cashed in on his extremely physical brand of humor (the character's trademark was talking out his derrière). Next up was the manic superhero movie The Mask (1994), which had audiences wondering just how far Carrey's features could stretch.
Finally, in December 1994, he hit theaters as a loveable dolt in the Farrelly brothers' Dumb and Dumber (1994) (his first multi-million dollar payday). Now a box-office staple, Carrey brought his manic antics onto the set of Batman Forever (1995), replacing Robin Williams as The Riddler. He also filmed the follow-up to his breakthrough, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and inked a deal with Sony to star in The Cable Guy (1996) (replacing Chris Farley) for a cool $20 million--at the time, that was the biggest up-front sum that had been offered to any comic actor. The movie turned out to be a disappointment, both critically and financially, but Carrey bounced back the next year with the energetic hit Liar Liar (1997). Worried that his comic shtick would soon wear thin, Carrey decided to change course.
In 1998, he traded in the megabucks and silly grins to star in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) playing a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show, Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity that took moviegoers by surprise. He won a Golden Globe for the performance, and fans anticipated an Oscar nomination as well--when it didn't materialize, Carrey lashed out at Academy members for their narrow-minded selection process. Perhaps inspired by the snub, Carrey threw himself into his next role with abandon. After edging out a handful of other hopefuls (including Edward Norton) to play eccentric funnyman Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999), Carrey disappeared into the role, living as Kaufman -- and his blustery alter-ego Tony Clifton -- for months (Carrey even owned Kaufman's bongo drums, which he'd used during his audition for director Milos Forman). His sometimes uncanny impersonation was rewarded with another Golden Globe, but once again the Academy kept quiet.
An indignant Carrey next reprised his bankable mania for the Farrelly brothers in Me, Myself & Irene (2000), playing a state trooper whose Jekyll and Hyde personalities both fall in love with the same woman (Renée Zellweger). Carrey's real-life persona wound up falling for her too--a few months after the film wrapped, the pair announced they were officially a couple. By then, Carrey had already slipped into a furry green suit to play the stingy antihero of Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).
Although Carrey maintains a foothold in the comedy world with films such as Bruce Almighty (2003) and Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), he is also capable of turning in nuanced dramatic performances, as demonstrated in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and the drama/comedy Yes Man (2008). In 2013, he costars with Steve Carell in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013).
Carrey has one child with his first wife, Melissa Carrey, whom he divorced in 1995. He married actress Lauren Holly in 1996, but they split less than a year later.- Actress
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Heralded as "one of the funniest women on Broadway" by the New York Times, ANDREA MARTIN is a multi-talented award-winning actress who won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in MY FAVORITE YEAR. She has since become the featured actress with the most Tony Award nominations in a musical, with a record number for her performances in CANDIDE (also Drama Desk Award nomination), OKLAHOMA! (also Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (also Drama Desk Award nomination), and PIPPIN for which she received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Elliot Norton, and IRNE Awards. Her Broadway appearance in the revival of NOISES OFF earned her an additional Tony Award nomination. She has also been seen on stage in the revival of EXIT THE KING (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), in the Broadway adaptation of Moss Hart's ACT ONE (Outer Critics Circle Award), which also aired on PBS, and in her one-person play NUDE NUDE TOTALLY NUDE (Drama Desk Award nomination).
Martin received two Emmy Awards for writing and an Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Variety Series for her work on the legendary sketch comedy show SCTV. She also received a special Emmy Award for her contributions on SESAME STREET and had her own special for Showtime, ANDREA MARTIN, TOGETHER AGAIN. Her additional television appearances include HAIRSPRAY LIVE!, MODERN FAMILY, UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT, 30 ROCK, THE GOOD FIGHT, and HARLEM. Following her simultaneous runs on the NBC comedy series GREAT NEWS and the Hulu series DIFFICULT PEOPLE. Martin appears in the hit Hulu show, ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, as well as the Paramount + series EVIL, for which she received a Critics Choice Award nomination.
Martin's film appearances include CANNIBAL GIRLS, CLUB PARADISE, STEPPING OUT, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, WAG THE DOG, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, ALL OVER THE GUY, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 3, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (SAG Award nomination for Best Ensemble and People's Choice Award), and its sequels MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2 and 3.
Martin recently received a star on the Canada Walk of Fame. Her critically acclaimed book LADY PARTS was released by Harper Collins.- Actress
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From Monkey Trouble (1994) to American Beauty (1999)-- that's Hollywood "Hocus Pocus"!
Thora Birch was born on Thursday (as in Thor's Day) March 11, 1982 in Los Angeles. Her father, Jack Birch, and mom, Carol Connors, named her after the Norse God Thor ("Thora" being the feminine), the God of Thunder; she has a younger brother named Bolt Birch. Thora appeared in one of the "classic" California raisin commercials in 1986 (at age 4), and later did other commercials. At age 6, Thora appeared in Purple People Eater (1988) and won a Youth in Film Award for her performance. Then, she appeared in the television series Parenthood (1990), which co-starred a not-yet-discovered Leonardo DiCaprio. Thora's breakout movie was Paradise (1991) with Elijah Wood and Melanie Griffith; Thora bested 4,000 young hopefuls to land the role and she, again, got great reviews. Thora appeared in Hocus Pocus (1993) with major stars; however, she got real recognition by having a starring role in Monkey Trouble (1994), in which her affection for her pet (and sometimes scene-stealing) monkey basically carried the entire movie (she and the monkey did their own stunts). All grown up, this petite beauty (5' 4") with green eyes had a major role in American Beauty (1999) which won 5 Oscar awards. Thora delivered a strong, effective performance as the alienated daughter of parents whose mid-life crises drive them to affairs and destruction; her acting was convincing and inspired and, once again, received good reviews. A down-to-earth young woman in real life, she loves Italian food and diet root beer.- Actor
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Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during the 1960s. He soon became a successful stage actor, and also began to have roles in films and television. His birth name was Krishna Bhanji, but he changed his name to "Ben Kingsley" soon after gaining fame as a stage actor, fearing that a foreign name could hamper his acting career.
Kingsley first earned international fame for his performance in the drama movie Gandhi (1982). His performance as Mohandas K. Gandhi earned him international fame. He won many awards - including an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won Golden Globe, BAFTA and London Film Critics' Circle Awards. After acting in Gandhi (1982), Ben was recognized as one of the finest British actors.
After his international fame for appearing in Gandhi (1982), Kingsley appeared in many other famous movies. His success as an actor continued. His performance as Itzhak Stern in the drama movie Schindler's List (1993) earned him a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor. Schindler's List (1993) won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. During the late 1990s, Kingsley acted in many successful movies. He played Sweeney Todd in the television movie The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1997), for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award. His other notable role was as Otto Frank in the television movie Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), for which he won the Screen Actors' Guild Award.
In 2002, Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Years Honours for his services to drama. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment. That same year, he also received the Fellowship Award at the Asian Awards in London, England.- Actress
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Jenny Agutter was born on December 20, 1952, in Taunton, Somerset, England, UK. The daughter of an army officer, she spent her childhood traveling and living in different countries. Her film career began at the age of 12 in East of Sudan (1964), which was quickly followed by Ballerina: Part 1 (1966) and Ballerina: Part 2 (1966), and A Man Could Get Killed (1966). Other films and television appearances in her early career include Gates to Paradise (1968), Long After Summer (1967), Star! (1968), I Start Counting (1970), The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970), and The Wild Duck (1971).
In 1970, she appeared in what was her real big break as a child star: The Railway Children (1970), as "Bobbie". The next year, Hollywood called and she spent several years there, appearing in such works as The Cherry Orchard (1971), Walkabout (1971), and The Snow Goose (1971) with Richard Harris, for which she received an Emmy Award. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed A War of Children (1972) and Shelley (1972).
In 1976, Jenny really came to the attention of US film audiences with her starring role in the science-fiction classic Logan's Run (1976) with Michael York. Though not a critical favorite, it was a huge box-office success and spawned a television series. She also starred alongside Richard Chamberlain in a well-received made-for-TV version of the famous Dumas tale The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) and turned in a solid performance in the WW II thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976) with Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland. The next year, she starred in Peter Shaffer's weighty Equus (1977) as "Jill Mason", alongside Richard Burton. Among her other TV and film work during the 1970s were Dominique (1979), School Play (1979), and The Riddle of the Sands (1979).
In 1981, she played "Desdemona" opposite William Marshall in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (1981). Other Shakespeare performances include "King Lear", Love's Labour's Lost (1985) as "Rosaline" for the BBC and Romeo & Juliet (1993) as "Lady Capulet". During this time, she was in numerous films and television series, including Sweet William (1980), Beulah Land (1980), The Survivor (1981), Amy (1981), and one of the films for which she is most fondly remembered, An American Werewolf in London (1981). She also appeared in This Office Life (1984), Secret Places (1984), Silas Marner (1985), Dark Tower (1987), Miss Right (1982), and King of the Wind (1990).
In the 1990s, she concentrated mainly on television, with roles in TECX (1990); Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1990); Red Dwarf (1988); The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994); The Buccaneers (1995); And the Beat Goes On (1996); September (1996) with Edward Fox, Michael York, Virginia McKenna, and Jacqueline Bisset; A Respectable Trade (1998) with Warren Clarke, Anna Massey, and Richard Briers. Her theatrical films during this period included Darkman (1990) with Liam Neeson; and Blue Juice (1995) with Sean Pertwee, Ewan McGregor, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. She also appeared as "Mrs. Bruce" in two feature-length episodes of the popular ITV series Bramwell (1995) in which she starred with Jemma Redgrave. She has also made several guest appearances in TV shows such as The Red Dwarf (1998); Boon (1986); The Equalizer (1985) with Edward Woodward; The Twilight Zone (1985); Magnum, P.I. (1980) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974).
Jenny married to Johan Tham in August 1990. They have one son Jonathan, born in December 1990 and live in Cornwall, England, UK. Her particular love is charity work for The Diabetic Association and NCH Action for Children - a charity which provides home and other help for homeless children - with which she has been involved for many years.- Actor
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Actor and comedian known for his various roles on film, TV and stage. He was born in Largs, Scotland, in 1953. He has an older brother and a twin sister. His debut film was The Sender (1982), a horror feature in which he played a patient. His next film was The Bounty (1984) with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. He has also appeared in Henry V (1989) and A Midwinter's Tale (1995), both directed by Kenneth Branagh, his friend and frequent collaborator. The two met at RADA in 1979. He continues to appear in Stella Street (1997) in which he plays a variety of middle-aged actors, alongside Phil Cornwell. One of his most memorable performances to date is the role of Dr. Prunesquallor in Gormenghast (2000), the BBC's lavish production of Mervyn Peake's novels "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast." Onstage, he has appeared in many productions and performed numerous one-man shows. His ability to improvise landed him a spot as the first regular contestant on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988). It was here that he showcased his great literary knowledge. He appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show "Dead Man Talking," as various "dead" characters, including J. Robert Oppenheimer and Michelangelo.- Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage and screen actors both in his native UK and internationally, the unparalleled Nigel Hawthorne was born in Coventry, England on 5 April 1929, raised in South Africa and returned to the UK in the 1950s with his extensive work as a great gentleman of acting following during the decade as well as in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His portrayal of 'Sir Humphrey Appleby' in the BBC comedy Yes Minister (1980) won him international acclaim in the 1980s. In 1992, he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for his sublime interpretation of 'George III' in Alan Bennett's hit stage play, "The Madness of King George III" and he was also nominated for an Academy Award of Best Actor in a Leading Role in its brilliant film adaptation The Madness of King George (1994), both of them exquisitely directed by Nicholas Hytner.