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Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by heavy metal, funk, jazz, hip hop, country, and alternative rock. Their lyrics range from the personal to the political. Living Colour rose to fame with their debut album Vivid in 1988. Although the band scored a number of hits, they are best remembered for their signature anthem "Cult of Personality", which won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1990. They were also named Best New Artist at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards and won their second Grammy Award for their follow-up album Time's Up. After disbanding in 1995, Living Colour reunited in late 2000.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "the Bad Boys from Boston" since they were formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Aerosmith is the best-selling American hard rock band of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide, including over 70 million records in the United States alone. With 25 gold albums, 18 platinum albums, and 12 multi-platinum albums, they hold the record for the most total certifications by an American band and are tied for the most multi-platinum albums by an American band.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Steven Tyler was born on 26 March 1948 in Yonkers, New York, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Be Cool (2005), Wayne's World 2 (1993) and Epic (2013). He was previously married to Teresa Barrick and Cyrinda Foxe.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Liv Tyler is an actress of international renown and has been a familiar face on our screens for over two decades and counting. She began modelling at the age of fourteen before pursuing a career in acting. After making her film debut in Bruce Beresford's Silent Fall, she was cast by fledgling director James Mangold (who would go on to direct such hits as Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line and Logan) in his first feature Heavy, a critical and commercial success that went on to gain cult status. This was followed by another indie cult hit, Empire Records, but it was the leading role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty that catapulted her to stardom at the age of eighteen.
Liv was next seen in Tom Hanks' hugely successful passion project That Thing You Do!, his paean to the glory days of 1960s rock 'n' roll (as the child of a rock 'n' roll background, this was a film whose subject was also dear to Liv's heart). This was followed by Michael Bay's action blockbuster Armageddon, starring alongside Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Steve Buscemi, who would later go on to direct Liv in Lonesome Jim.
Liv had come to the attention of director Robert Altman in Stealing Beauty and the late, great auteur went on to cast her in two of his final projects, Cookie's Fortune and Dr T and the Women, describing her as "very serious, very prepared and very professional...I am crazy about her."
In between her work for Altman, Liv starred opposite Ralph Fiennes in Onegin, directed by his sister Martha, from the classic novel by Alexander Pushkin. Ralph Fiennes said of Liv, "We tested a lot of actresses but Liv has an acute sense of emotional truth that's not performed or projected, but just is."
In 2001, Liv portrayed Arwen in the ground-breaking epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
Nothing if not eclectic, Liv then defied expectations by starring in cult director Kevin Smith's gentle low-budget comedy Jersey Girl, re-uniting her with her Armageddon co-star Ben Affleck, before playing Betty, the female lead to Edward Norton's Bruce Banner in Marvel's The Incredible Hulk.
An actress who consistently refuses to be pigeonholed, Liv's career is one that cuts across genres; she cannot be defined by the roles she has chosen and is led, above all, by what speaks to her on an instinctual and emotional level. "It's very difficult to say no to whatever comes along," Tom Hanks has said of her, "...But she's saying no to all the right things."
In addition to her acting work, Liv has forged a decade-long relationship with Givenchy as the spokesperson for their fragrance and cosmetics line. Liv is also a brand ambassador for Triumph lingerie, developing a capsule collection that celebrates the company's commitment to body confidence, as exemplified by Liv herself, "a modern woman in every sense, a mother and actress with a fierce sense of femininity that women across the world can relate to."
Liv's previous design collaboration was with Belstaff, resulting in two capsule collections for the iconic British heritage brand. Liv has also been the face of commercial campaigns for several global brands, including Visa and Pantene.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sadie Sink is an American actress. She started her career in the theater, and rose to prominence for her roles as Max in Netflix's science fiction drama series Stranger Things (2016) and Ziggy Berman in the horror films Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021) and Fear Street: Part Three - 1666 (2021).
Sadie was born in Brenham, Texas. She began taking acting classes and performing in community theatre in Houston at age nine. She performed in musical productions of White Christmas in 2011, and the title role of Annie in a regional production. She then auditioned for Broadway, and played the title role as well as Duffy in the 2012 revival of Annie. While starring in the play, she appeared in the Emmy-winning series The Americans (2013). In 2015, she played Suzanne Ballard in the NBC television series American Odyssey (2015), and portrayed a young Queen Elizabeth II alongside Helen Mirren in the Broadway production of The Audience. She also made guest appearances in the shows Blue Bloods (2010) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015). She has since appeared in the films Chuck (2016), The Glass Castle (2017), and Eli (2019), and was one of the narrators for the documentary Dominion (2018). In 2021, she played the lead role in the short film All Too Well: The Short Film (2021).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Olivia Cooke was born and raised in Oldham, a former textile manufacturing town in Greater Manchester, North West England. She comes from a family of non-actors; her father, John, is a retired police officer, and her mother is a sales representative. Cooke attended Royton and Crompton Secondary School and studied drama at Oldham Sixth Form College, leaving before the end of her A-levels to star in Blackout.
At a young age, Cooke practiced ballet and gymnastics. She started acting when she was 8 years old at an after-school drama programme in her hometown, called the Oldham Theatre Workshop. For years, Cooke performed only as part of the ensemble, until she was 17, when she starred as Maria in Oldham Sixth Form College's production of West Side Story. Soon after, Cooke landed her first and last leading role for the Oldham Theatre, in Prom: The Musical, a remake of Cinderella.- Actor
- Soundtrack
By the time handsome, brawny baritone Harve Presnell arrived on the film scene, the "Golden Age" of musicals had long dissipated. Born in Modesto, California in 1933 and spending part of his youth on a family ranch near Yosemite Valley where he labored in the fields, it was discovered he had quite a voice at such a young age (7) and he became a soloist at his local church.
He graduated from Modesto High School and received a USC sports scholarship, but moved quickly to singing at Lotte Lehmann's Academy of the West. At the age of 21, he coveted the lead in the American premiere of Darius Milhaud's "David". Initially trained for an operatic career, he spent three seasons singing throughout Europe with roles in "La Forza del Destino", "Un ballo in Maschera", "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Tosca". He also shared the musical stage with Dorothy Kirsten and Leontyne Price.
Harve was performing nationally, including New York's Carnegie Hall in "Carmina Burana", when the opportunity for Broadway first came his way. Legendary composer Meredith Willson happened to catch an earful of the gifted singer in a "Gershwin Night" concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and, in the virile mold of Alfred Drake and Howard Keel, wrote the role of Johnny "Leadville" Brown in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" specifically for him. The Broadway musical, with Tammy Grimes as the spunky title heroine, was a resounding hit as Harve wrapped his glorious tonsils around such sturdy songs as "Colorado, My Home" and "I'll Never Say No". Unlike Grimes, Presnell was granted the opportunity to recreate his rags-to-riches part, when the celluloid version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) came out with a bankable film star, the indomitable Debbie Reynolds, inhabiting the backwoods role. The film version was also hugely popular with audiences and Harve, with his terrific presence, seemed well on his way to stardom.
There were precious few movie musicals, however, for Presnell to sink his teeth into and he quickly faded from view. He tried adjusting to straight dramatics with the rugged western The Glory Guys (1965) and sang again in the highly unworthy teen frolic When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965) with Connie Francis, but little else came in his direction. The disastrous film version of Paint Your Wagon (1969), hurt by the miscasting of leads Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg, was redeemed only by the presence of Presnell and his superb, moving rendition of "They Call the Wind Maria".
By the 70s, Harve was finished in films but gamely kept his momentum with Keel-like stock and touring leads in such productions as "Camelot", "The Sound of Music", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", among others. He even played Rhett Butler in a 1972 musical version of "Gone With the Wind" at London's Drury Lane Theatre, but the production did not generate much of a stir. In 1979, Presnell served as a replacement in the Broadway musical "Annie" as Daddy Warbucks and wound up staying employed as the blustery but bighearted moneybags for nearly 4 years on tour, also reprising the role in the failed 90s sequel, "Annie II: Miss Hannigan's Revenge" (1989), which was later reworked and re-titled "Annie Warbucks" (1992). All told, it is estimated that Harve played the tycoon role over 2,000 times.
More than 25 years had passed by the time Presnell returned to the movies as a brash and balding character actor. He struck pure gold as the implacable, ill-fated father-in-law of William H. Macy in the Coen Brothers' cult film hit, Fargo (1996). This success, in turn, led to meaty roles in Larger Than Life (1996), The Whole Wide World (1996), The Chamber (1996), Face/Off (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), to name a few. Over the course of his career, he displayed a strong presence on TV as well with recurring roles on prime-time (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)) and daytime (Ryan's Hope (1975). Presnell may have been born 10-20 years too late to have become a singing film star, but he suddenly had come back in spades to launch a whole new career as a noted character performer. At age 70+, he was unsinkable, vigorously steamrolling on TV (The Pretender (1996), Monk (2002) and ER (1994)) and in the films Mr. Deeds (2002), Old School (2003), Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Evan Almighty (2007). His last series role was in the short-lived Andy Barker, P.I. (2007).
Pancreatic cancer got the best of the actor in his final years. The twice-married Presnell with six children (Stephanie, Taylor, Etoile, Tulley, Shannon and Raine) succumbed to his illness at the St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California on June 30, 2009, at age 75.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Rainn Wilson lives in Los Angeles with his wife, fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn (Big Cats), and his son, Walter McKenzie Wilson who was born in 2004. He grew up in Seattle, Washington but graduated from New Trier H.S. in Winnetka, Illinois. After attending both Tufts University and the University of Washington, Rainn studied acting at NYU's graduate acting program and spent years doing theater both on and off-Broadway, on tours with the Acting Company and in region theatre including The Guthrie and Arena Stage.
Rainn co-created and directed The New Bozena, a sketch comedy and post-modern clown show which performed in New York and ended up doing a pilot presentation at Fox TV. He made his directorial debut with The New Bozena (2005), a short film based on the show.
After many years of working in TV and film, his breakthrough role happened, as Arthur, the odd love interest to the much older Frances Conroy on Six Feet Under (2001). His favorite role to date, however, is Bill Harris in the film, Baadasssss! (2003).
Rainn is a member of the Baha'i Faith.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress, singer, and producer. During her childhood, she appeared in more than 100 TV advertisements and had roles in theatre and television shows. In 2004, she was cast as Maddie Fitzpatrick in Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and rose to prominence in 2006 as Sharpay Evans in the television film High School Musical. The High School Musical series included three films and the spin-off Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure (2011). Tisdale's resultant popularity led her to sign a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2006. Her debut album, Headstrong (2007), was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and features the single "He Said She Said". Two years later, Tisdale released her second studio album, Guilty Pleasure. In 2013, she announced plans to make music again and confirmed that she has been recording her third studio album.- Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse was born on 28 April 1976 in Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Dances with Wolves (1990), Into the West (2005) and DreamKeeper (2003).
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle brother died at birth in 1953. His father's job required him to move regularly, which caused Kevin to feel like an Army kid, always the new kid at school, which led to him being a daydreamer. As a teen, he sang in the Baptist church choir, wrote poetry, and took writing classes. At 18, he built his own canoe and paddled his way down the rivers that Lewis & Clark followed to the Pacific. Despite his present height, he was only 5'2" when he graduated high school. Nonetheless, he still managed to be a basketball, football and baseball star. In 1973, he enrolled at California State University at Fullerton, where he majored in business. During that period, Kevin decided to take acting lessons five nights a week. He graduated with a business degree in 1978 and married his college sweetheart, Cindy Costner. He initially took a marketing job in Orange County. Everything changed when he accidentally met Richard Burton on a flight from Mexico. Burton advised him to go completely after acting if that is what he wanted. He quit his job and moved to Hollywood soon after. He drove a truck, worked on a deep sea fishing boat, and gave bus tours to stars' homes before finally making his own way into the films. After making one soft core sex film, he vowed to not work again if that was the only work he could do. He didn't work for nearly six years, while he waited for a proper break. That break came with The Big Chill (1983), even though his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor -- he was remembered by director Lawrence Kasdan when he decided to make Silverado (1985). Costner's career took off after that.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Buddy Ebsen began his career as a dancer in the late 1920s in a Broadway chorus. He later formed a vaudeville act with his sister Vilma Ebsen, which also appeared on Broadway. In 1935 he and his sister went to Hollywood, where they were signed for the first of MGM's Eleanor Powell movies, Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935). While Vilma retired from stage and screen shortly after this, Buddy starred in two further MGM movies with Powell. Two of his dancing partners were Frances Langford in Born to Dance (1936) and Judy Garland in Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937). They were a little bit taller than Shirley Temple, with whom he danced in Captain January (1936). MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer offered him an exclusive contract in 1938, but Ebsen turned it down. In spite of Mayer's warning that he would never get a job in Hollywood again, he was offered the role of the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ebsen agreed to change roles with Ray Bolger, who was cast as the Tin Man. Ebsen subsequently became ill from the aluminum make-up, however, and was replaced by Jack Haley. He returned to the stage, making only a few pictures before he got a role in the Disney production of Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955). After this, he became a straight actor, and later won more fame in his own hit series, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Barnaby Jones (1973).- Actress
- Director
Jill Goodacre was born on 29 March 1964 in Lubbock, Texas, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Friends (1994), Harry Connick Jr.: The New York Big Band Concert (1993) and Odd Jobs (1986). She has been married to Harry Connick Jr. since 16 April 1994. They have three children.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Betsy Palmer was probably best known for playing Jason Voorhees' mother in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980), but her career as an actress began many years before.
Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, to Marie (née Love), who launched the Chicago Business College, and Rudolph Vincent Hrunek, a Czech-born industrial chemist. Palmer played a young female officer opposite Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts (1955), and appeared in another war film the same year, The Long Gray Line (1955). Throughout the late 1950s, Palmer was recognized as a news reporter on Today (1952) on NBC, then became largely involved in television. She remained in made-for-TV films and notable guest appearances, before playing the murderous avenging mother, Mrs. Voorhees, in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980). She also continued working in television, and appearing in low-budget films like The Fear: Resurrection (1999). Palmer spent her later years between her home in New York City and Sedona, Arizona.
Betsy Palmer died of natural causes on a Friday, May 29, 2015, at a hospice care center in Danbury, Connecticut.- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Austin Majors was a scholar as well as an actor, skipping a grade, and getting high marks in all subjects. Majors graduated second in his high school class in 2013. He later studied at the University of Southern California in the School of Cinematic Arts, majoring in Film and Television Production, minoring in Music Industry. Majors was a brother of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. An avid outdoorsman, hes was a junior assistant Scoutmaster in Boy Scouts. He has earned scouting's highest rank, obtaining the honor of Eagle Scout at the age of fourteen. Majors liked helping others and lent his support to a variety of charitable causes including Kids with a Cause, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Jonathan Jaques Childrens Cancer Center. When not in front of the camera, he enjoyed making films of his own, backpacking, riding horses, attending concerts, traveling and playing sports. Majors received the Young Artists Award for Best Performance in a Television Series for his compelling work on NYPD Blue. His work on Treasure Planet earned him another nomination for Best Performance in a Voice Over Role.- Stunts
- Actor
- Producer
Carl Nespoli was born and raised in Bensonhurst Brooklyn. The son of Anthony and Catherine (Kay) Nespoli. The youngest of three children, Carl attended James Madison high school and majored in dramatic arts. Carl pursued aerial stunts and has worked in over 100+ commercials skydiving all over the world. In 2001, Carl expanded his stunt skills in stunt driving, film fighting, high falls and weapons and today he works as a stunt double for such great actors as: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, William Shatner, Andy Garcia, Michael Rispoli, Patton Oswalt, Ron Rifkin, KevinPollak and the comedic genius Robin Williams. Carl has parlayed his stunt experience and transitioned in to stunt coordinating numerous commercials, television shows and feature films and now works as the Stunt Coordinator for WWE.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia at the end of the war. After playing the lead in the play "The Truth" at Ripon College he decided that acting might be his career.
Moving to New York, Tracy and O'Brien, who'd also settled on a career on the stage, roomed together while attending the Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923 both got nonspeaking parts as robots in "R.U.R.", a dramatization of the groundbreaking science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Capek. Making very little money in stock, Tracy supported himself with jobs as bellhop, janitor and salesman until John Ford saw his critically acclaimed performance in the lead role in the play "The Last Mile" (later played on film by Clark Gable) and signed him for The William Fox Film Company's production of Up the River (1930). Despite appearing in sixteen films at that studio over the next five years, Tracy was never able to rise to full film star status there, in large part because the studio was unable to match his talents to suitable story material.
During that period the studio itself floundered, eventually merging with Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck and William Goetz's William 20th Century Pictures to become 20th Century-Fox). In 1935 Tracy signed with MGM under the aegis of Irving Thalberg and his career flourished. He became the first actor to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars for Captains Courageous (1937) and, in a project he initially didn't want to star in, Boys Town (1938).
During Tracy's nearly forty-year film career, he was nominated for his performances in San Francisco (1936), Father of the Bride (1950), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).
Tracy had a brief romantic relationship with Loretta Young in the mid-1930s, and a lifelong one with Katharine Hepburn beginning in 1942 after they were first paired in Woman of the Year by director George Stevens. Tracy's strong Roman Catholic beliefs precluded his divorcing wife Louise, though they mostly lived apart. Tracy suffered from severe alcoholism and diabetes (from the late 1940s), which led to his declining several tailor-made roles in films that would become big hits with other actors in those roles. Although his drinking problems were well known, he was considered peerless among his colleagues (Tracy had a well-deserved reputation for keeping co-stars on their toes for his oddly endearing scene-stealing tricks), and remained in demand as a senior statesman who nevertheless retained box office clout. Two weeks after completion of Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), during which he suffered from lung congestion, Spencer Tracy died of a heart attack.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Aldo DaRe was born in the borough of Pen Argyl, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 25 September 1926. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, served as a US Navy frogman during WWII and saw action on Iwo Jima.
While constable of Crockett, California, he drove his brother Guido to an audition for the film Saturday's Hero (1951). Director David Miller hired him for a small role as a cynical football player. Ray's husky frame, thick neck and raspy voice made him perfect for playing tough sexy roles. He was the star of George Cukor's The Marrying Kind (1952) and starred opposite Rita Hayworth in Miss Sadie Thompson (1953). Ray was the none-too-bright boxer in Cukor's Pat and Mike (1952) and an escaped convict in 'Michael Curtiz''s We're No Angels (1955). His career started downhill in the 1970s, with him appearing in a string of low-budget films as a character actor. His last film was Shock 'Em Dead (1991).
Ray was married three times, with one daughter Claire born in 1951 to his first wife Shirley Green whom he married on on 20 June 1947. Ray was then briefly married to actress Jeff Donnell and then had two sons and a daughter with his third wife, Johanna Ray, one of whom is the actor Eric DaRe. Aldo Ray died of throat cancer on 27 March 1991.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Distinguished pioneering cinematographer who had a career in motion pictures lasting six-decades. As a teenager, Hal built his own camera while still at school and took photos of local interest which he then developed and printed. He sent a number of these pictures to the New York Herald-Tribune and they were deemed good enough to invite interest from Hollywood. After doing some free-lance work he was hired to shoot newsreels for Sol Lesser's company, General Films. In 1915, he began working in Hollywood, first as a film cutter at Universal, eventually graduating to assistant director. During the latter stages of the First World War he worked for the photographic unit of the U.S.Army, and, afterwards, shot documentaries before turning his attention to motion pictures.
In 1921, Hal became a fully-fledged director of photography. Many of his early efforts were low budget productions although he compensated for the lack of expensive sets by embracing elements of the German expressionist movement: symbolism, stylised images, sombre lighting - all designed to create mood and evoke a more profound understanding and emotive reaction to the subject. Having spent almost a year in Paris post-war, Hal had studied European film-making techniques. During the 1920's, he worked closely with noted exponents of expressionism, including the directors Paul Leni and Michael Curtiz. He was an innovator in the use of boom and dolly shots, producing exciting new visual effects.
Significantly, he was director of photography on the first ever all-talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927). Over the years, Hal Mohr acquired a deserved reputation for best serving each director's needs by creating the exact look and mood required for each film. In the 1930's, he was one of the first to employ deep-focus photography in films like Bullets or Ballots (1936) and The Green Pastures (1936). For the Errol Flynn swashbuckler Captain Blood (1935), Hal seamlessly integrated live action shots with 18 foot-long model ships and location footage with back-lot shots. He won the first of two Academy Awards (uncontested, through a 'write-in campaign') for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). His second Academy Award, he shared with W. Howard Greene for his colour photography of Universal's Phantom of the Opera (1943).
In 1957, Hal also won the George Eastman Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Film. Among other representative examples of Hal Mohr's best work in Hollywood one has to include Another Part of the Forest (1948) and The Wild One (1953). He also shot two classic films with Marlene Dietrich: Destry Rides Again (1939) and Rancho Notorious (1952). He was very impressed with the actress, commenting: "She just knows from the heat of the light on her when she is right for the camera" (New York Times,May 12 1974). Hal Mohr served several times as President of the American Society of Cinematographers, 1930-31, 1963-65, 1969-70. He was married to the actress Evelyn Venable for almost forty years. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame bears his name.- Actress
- Writer
Helen Gurley Brown was born on 18 February 1922 in Green Forest, Arkansas, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Stoney Burke (1962) and A View from Cosmo (1982). She was married to David Brown. She died on 13 August 2012 in New York City, New York, USA.- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Imanbek Zeikenov is known for Rita Ora & David Guetta & Imanbek Feat. Gunna: Big (2021), Marshmello x Imanbek Feat. Usher: Too Much (2020) and SAINt JHN: Roses (Imanbek Remix) (2020).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Maria was born in Port Hueneme, California at the Naval Base. Her parents are Joel (dermatologist) and Marilyn (therapist) of Duluth, MN. She attended Chester Park Elementary and Marshall High School in Duluth MN and went on to attend Bates College (Lewiston, ME), University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and received a degree in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She started stand-up in Minneapolis at the age of 19 at Stevie Ray's Comedy Cabaret and 10 years later, made her first appearance on the Tonight Show!- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Revered character actor Fred Melamed was born in New York City. His birth-parents were unmarried; an American actress and British psychoanalyst. He was adopted as an infant by Manhattanites Lou and Syma Melamed (nee Krichefsky). His adoptive father was an early television producer, having contributed such watershed programs as Car 54, Where Are You?, Sergeant Bilko and Let's Pretend.
Fred received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. While still at Hampshire, he began working with playwrights Jean-Claude Van Itallie and John Guare. He was also influenced by members of The Living Theatre, and Tina Packer and Kristin Linklater, with whom he became a founding member of Shakespeare & Company. For his work with Packer, he was nominated for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize for the most promising young actors in the United States. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse Graduate Fellow, and was much influenced by resident artists James Earl Jones, John Madden, Athol Fugard and George Roy Hill. Immediately after graduation, he became a company member of Minneapolis' famed Guthrie Theater, also performing at The Kennedy Center, The Yale Repertory Theater, and New York's West Bank Cafe. In 1983, he made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-Winning Amadeus.
On television, Melamed stars on the Marvel blockbuster WandaVision, the Netflix original series Medical Police, and the Apple+ hit The Morning Show. Past starring parts have included benighted manager Bruce Ben-Bacharach in Lady Dynamite, errant father Charles Cole on the Golden Globe-nominated Casual, and major roles in Emmy-winning programs Fargo, Girls, Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl, The Good Wife, and Adventure Time. Other memorable turns have included Larry David's name-dropping psychiatrist Arthur Thurgood from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ben's father on Superstore, conman Harvey Oberholt on House of Lies, Sir Patrick Stewart's high-strung therapist Dr. Mendelson on Starz's Blunt Talk, sports casting legend Glen Klose on Now We're Talking, philandering professor Donald Holt on Married, blind physician Leonard Hillman on Childrens Hospital, and irascible voiceover legend Fred Melamed opposite Robin Williams on The Crazy Ones.
In film, Melamed has had a long association with Woody Allen. He has appeared in 7 Allen films, (more than any other actor besides Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton), including the Oscar-winning Hannah and Her Sisters, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Radio Days, Husbands & Wives, Hollywood Ending, and Shadows and Fog. But it was for his portrayal of "sensitive" villain Sy Ableman, in Joel and Ethan Coen's movie A Serious Man, nominated for Best Picture at the 2010 Academy Awards, that Melamed became most widely known. For his performance, he won the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award, New York Magazine listed his as among the Best Performances of The Decade, and Empire called Sy Ableman "One of The Best Coen Bros. Characters of All Time." Melamed appeared on the Best Supporting Actor Oscar ballot of several American critics, including A.O. Scott of The New York Times, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times, and Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune. He was named by Harry Domenico Rossi as among The 25 Greatest Screen Villains of All Time.
His slate of upcoming films includes Togetherish, where he plays lead Ed Helms's father opposite Nora Dunn; Shiva Baby, in which he portrays an Orthodox Jew who sells medical equipment out of the back of a van; Marzipan, a hallucinogenic look into the life of a washed-up, alcoholic spy; and Rumble, the first feature from Paramount's new animation department, with Will Arnett and Terry Crews.
In 2021, Melamed is slated to star in S. Craig Zahler's Hug Chickenpenny, opposite Vince Vaughn. This will be his fourth collaboration with Zahler - previous works have included Dragged Across Concrete, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Bone Tomahawk.
In the past, he starred opposite Lake Bell as voiceover legend Sam Sotto in Bell's Sundance Award-winning debut, In a World...; in The Spy Who Dumped Me with Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis; the Coen brothers' Hail Caesar, with George Clooney; Lying and Stealing, opposite Emily Ratajkowski and Theo James; Silver Lake, with Martin Starr; the James Brown biopic Get On Up; The Dictator, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Sir Ben Kingsley; Peter Yates' Suspect, with Cher, Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson; The Good Mother, with Diane Keaton and Jason Robards; The Mission, with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons; The Pickup Artist, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Dennis Hopper; and Marshall Brickman's Lovesick, with Dudley Moore and Sir Alec Guinness.
As a writer, he has produced screenplays including Girl of the Perfume River, A Jones for Gash, and is at work on The Preservationist, a television series inspired by the case of Melamed's college friend, Edward Forbes Smiley III, a renowned cartographic expert and dealer, who admitted to having been the most brazen and prolific map thief of all time.
He lives with his wife, Leslee, and twin sons in Los Angeles. Both Melamed children were born with autism, and he and his wife have been involved in advocacy for persons living with autism spectrum disorder and their families.- Actor
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Offbeat funnyman Martin Mull was born on August 18, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children of Betty, an actress and director, and Harold Mull, a carpenter. He was raised in Ohio. The blond-maned, blue-eyed comedian with the sad, droopy mustache first came in contact with the arts by honing in on his innate talents as a painter. In order to pay his art school tuition, he started organizing bands. At around the same time, he discovered that stand-up comedy was another way to allow his creative juices to flow.
Martin's early recognition as a humorist led to a recording contract, and, over the years, he would be Grammy-nominated several times for a number of eccentric comedy albums. His gimmick and allure came in the form of a dry, humorless delivery and a bland, highly conservative-looking demeanor, which masked a sly, witty and ultra-hip philosophy.
Gaining popularity in the 1970s, he finally broke into TV with the cult soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) in which he played Garth Gimble, a volatile wife abuser whose comeuppance occurred in the form of an aluminum Christmas tree (impaled) in his home closet. Martin was so popular on the show that he was resurrected in the spin-off series Fernwood Tonight (1977) as twin brother Barth Gimble, who was a co-host of the town's television program along with Fred Willard's Jerry Hubbard character.
After this peak, Martin became a sought-after guest on the talk show circuit, not to mention variety specials and TV movies. He tried his hand at producing and starring in his own sitcom Domestic Life (1984) but the series failed. He also added his special brand of merriment to films over the years, some of them being decent, such as FM (1978), Serial (1980), Mr. Mom (1983) and Clue (1985) in the role of the tweedy-looking Colonel Mustard, while most have been either formula schtick or just plain drivel, as in Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Rented Lips (1987), which he produced and wrote, Cutting Class (1989), Far Out Man (1990) with Cheech & Chong, and Mr. Write (1994).
Martin's extensive TV credits include starring roles in the comedy series His & Hers (1990) co-starring Stephanie Faracy as a fellow doctor; and The Jackie Thomas Show (1992) starring Tom Arnold; and recurring comedy roles including a restaurant boss in the hit "domestic goddess" series Roseanne (1988); a principal in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996); a high school teacher in The Ellen Show (2001); plus 'Til Death (2006), Life in Pieces (2015), I'm Sorry (2017), Arrested Development (2003), The Cool Kids (2018) and The Ranch (2016). Martin has also lent his voice to the animated comedies Family Dog (1993), Teamo Supremo (2002), Danny Phantom (2003) and American Dad! (2005). Millennium film credits include featured roles in The Year That Trembled (2002), Come Away Home (2005), Relative Strangers (2006), Killers (2010), And They're Off (2011) and A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018).
Martin's first passion has always been art and the distinguished multi-media artist's work has been showcased in galleries throughout the world. He also authored the book "Painting, Drawing and World," which is a compilation of ten years of his work. Mull is married to a composer and musician, Wendy, and they have a daughter, Maggie Mull.- Mumia Abu-Jamal was born on 23 April 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor, known for Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt? (1998), All Power to the People! (the Black Panther Party and Beyond) (1996) and Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (2010).
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Ayo Edebiri is an American comedian, writer, producer and actress. She appeared on Comedy Central's Up Next and co-hosts the podcast Iconography with Olivia Craighead. Edebiri joined the cast of Big Mouth's fourth season and is a main cast member on The Bear. Edebiri was born in Boston and raised in a religious Pentecostal household. Her mother emigrated from Barbados and her father emigrated from Nigeria. She first became interested in comedy through eighth grade drama class, after which she joined the improv club at Boston Latin School.- Actress
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Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy interpretations of Sicilian women got her noticed by Italian producers, and the combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. After Careless (1962) she rose to the front ranks of Italian cinema, and became an international star in Federico Fellini's classic 8½ (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni. American audiences may best remember her from her starring role in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).- Music Department
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Donovan Philips Leitch was born May 10, 1946, in Glasgow, Scotland. Music was always part of his home life, with both traditional Scottish/Irish songs at family and local celebrations, and popular music through radio and live performances. When Donovan was ten his family moved south to England, resettling in Hatfield. Before starting college in his teens, the young man had run away from home more than once; on one outing at fourteen, he found an old guitar in a trash can, still good enough to learn the basics on.
Though interested in rock-n-roll through artists like Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, Donovan embraced the folk-music boom that swept both England and America in the early 1960s, and also the Beat Generation writers and poets. Donovan settled into the St. Albans music scene, north of London, but traveled to different parts of the country, frequently with longtime friend "Gypsy Dave", who played kazoo and passed the hat while Donovan played guitar and harmonica and sang, for their keep. Their songs included traditional and recent folk music, songs by their friends (like Mick Softley) and the beginnings of Donovan's own writing, about what he'd seen and experienced away from home.
On a beach trip to Southend with members of the St. Albans circle, Donovan played and sang between performances by an R&B group called the Cops and Robbers, and so impressed the group's managers that they expressed interest in signing him up as a performer. Beginning with taping some publishers' demos for other songwriters, Donovan was soon demoing his own material, and the tapes found their way to the ears of Elkan Allan, producer of Britain's popular rock show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963). Donovan's first appearance (in cap and denim) led to a short residency on the show, which in turn led to a recording contract with England's Pye Records. His first singles were respectable UK hits in 1965, and made a minor impact on the American market that year.
Promoted first as mainly a folk performer and a kind of British rival to Bob Dylan, evidence of Donovan's own blossoming style as writer and musician was undeniable as early as his second album, with its hints at jazz and a different kind of pop sense from Dylan's. When Dylan toured England in 1965, the two met for a well-publicized "summit" at his hotel suite; after an hour's private talk, they emerged smiling arm-in-arm to a waiting press conference. Press headlines announced "DYLAN DIGS DONOVAN!" and he joined Dylan and Joan Baez on the road, though he didn't perform with them onstage. (Donovan can be seen keeping Dylan and Baez company in Dylan's Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back (1967)). Donovan went on to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he was welcomed.
After his first two mostly-folk albums in England (distributed in the US by Hickory Records), produced by his managers, Donovan immersed himself in the pop sounds of the "British Invasion" bands, and both his writing and choices in the studio reflected this. In 1966 Mickie Most became Donovan's new producer, and his sidemen began to include future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones (who arranged several Donovan tunes, augmenting the sound they were aiming for) and Jimmy Page. (John Carr usually played drums at Donovan's sessions, although John Bonham was also sometimes around.) Epic Records in the US expressed an interest in picking Donovan up for the American market, with Clive Davis offering a contract, and Allen Klein was also interested in taking over Donovan's management. New and bigger deals offered led to lawsuits, and Donovan vanished from the record market for a few months while matters were being settled.
Emerging with new management and production teams, Donovan followed up his first US #1 single, "Sunshine Superman" (dedicated to John Lennon and Paul McCartney), with his signature hit "Mellow Yellow", which reached #2 on the US charts late in 1966. Working with Most, Donovan enjoyed hits on both sides of the Atlantic through the end of the decade. As a pop performer, he made frequent guest appearances on television in the UK and US; most notably in America on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967). He also contributed to the stage and film worlds, writing the title song for the movie Poor Cow (1967) and adapting William Shakespeare's "Under The Greenwood Tree" for Britain's National Theatre. Later he would contribute the title song for the 1969 comedy If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) (also appearing onstage in the movie), and star in The Pied Piper (1972). Donovan brought his parents along on tour, with his father Donald introducing him to the audience.
Offstage, Donovan was a frequent guest collaborator and companion to other celebrities of the time; he contributed lyrics to The Beatles's song "Yellow Submarine" and dated George Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd (later to marry Mick Fleetwood). In turn, Donovan's recording sessions sometimes included members of The Beatles, Paul Samwell-Smith and The Rolling Stones and their circle of musician friends, as guest performers. When former Stones member Brian Jones died in 1969, Donovan married his widow Linda Lawrence, raising Jones' son Julian and having two daughters of their own. (Donovan also fathered son Donovan Leitch Jr. and Ione Skye by Enid Karl; family information is sparse at best.)
An arrest for drug possession late in 1966 was a moving experience for him, as was his noticing that the flirtation his generation had had with marijuana and LSD was getting ugly, and many young people were turning to harder drugs and destroying themselves. In the notes for his 1967 album "A Gift From A Flower To A Garden", he called for all drug use to stop and for young people to find other ways to expand their consciousness, and peace from within, as they became the parents of the next generation. He set an example by studying meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and later embraced many Eastern lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet and studies in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy.
Though not a major player in popular music since the end of the 1960s, Donovan continues to tour and perform, and recall the experiences and friendships of his heyday for the media. His music (recorded and live) appears frequently in programs about the Sixties era, and has reached the newer generations through its use in TV commercials. In late 2005, he published an autobiography, "The Hurdy Gurdy Man."- Actress
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Karen Jane Allen was born in Carrollton, rural southern Illinois, to Patricia (Howell), a teacher, and Carroll Thompson Allen, an FBI agent. She spent her first 10 years traveling around the country with her parents and two sisters. She was always "the new girl in school." Acting did not really cross Allen's mind until she was in her early 20s, when she saw a Jerzy Grotowski theater production that impressed her so much, she instantly decided to give it a shot. She trained as a classical actress and enrolled at the Actors Studio and with Lee Strasberg in New York City. During this period, she made several student films and directed and acted in several plays. In 1976, she made her first film appearance in the award-winning small film The Whidjitmaker (1976).
Her first major film role came as Katy in 1978's National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which became one of the biggest hits of the year, obtained "classic" status, and launched a whole host of young "hot" stars. However, shortly after National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) opened, Allen was struck by a rare and dangerous eyesight condition called keratoconjunctivitis. Luckily, the condition subsided and Allen could continue her dramatic rise to the top. Lead roles in cult favorites like The Wanderers (1979) and the controversial thriller Cruising (1980) followed, as did smaller parts as in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979). However, it was her performance in Rob Cohen's A Small Circle of Friends (1980), as well as her previously mentioned turn in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), that caught the eye of a certain Steven Spielberg. He then cast her as the feisty heroine and co-star of Harrison Ford in his big-budget blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which became a huge hit in 1981-82 and is regarded by many film buffs as the greatest action-adventure film ever made.
Following the huge success of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Allen chose to spend more than two years out of the limelight, concentrating on smaller, more personal projects. She won a major award for her performances on Broadway, won critical acclaim for her portrayal of Abra in the hugely successful ABC production of East of Eden (1981), and had parts in two smaller films: Alan Parker's Shoot the Moon (1982) and Split Image (1982), co-starring James Woods and Peter Fonda. She returned to the mainstream in 1984 with Until September (1984) and Starman (1984), co-starring Jeff Bridges and directed by John Carpenter (of Halloween (1978) fame), but once again decided to leave the limelight for a couple of years to do more stage work and some troubled indie films. While Allen has worked almost constantly since then, giving notable performances in Paul Newman's screen adaptation of The Glass Menagerie (1987), the Christmas hit Scrooged (1988), and Steven Soderbergh's underrated King of the Hill (1993), she has not been able to scale the same dizzy heights as the early 1980s hits. Most of her lead roles in feature films since Starman (1984) have not been that well-received (Animal Behavior (1989), Ghost in the Machine (1993), and The Turning (1992) among them). However, she has been seen to good effect on TV in such films as Challenger (1990), in which she portrayed tragic schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, and All the Winters That Have Been (1997), co-starring Richard Chamberlain.
She has also made special guest star appearances on such shows as Law & Order (1990), Knots Landing (1979), and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), and in several TV movies, including Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story (1996) and Secret Weapon (1990). She also played the lead in the CBS series The Road Home (1994). Karen Allen was married to soap star Kale Browne (with whom she co-starred in 'Til There Was You (1997)) in 1988 and they have a son, Nicholas. Apart from acting, Allen is also an accomplished singer, songwriter, and musician. She played in a band with Kathleen Turner, and recorded a duet with Jeff Bridges for the Starman (1984) soundtrack album.
She also writes plays, screenplays, and poetry; owns her own Ashtanga yoga enterprise; and spends time at her Berkshire Mountains farm or Upper West Side Manhattan townhouse. The classically trained actress also has a screenplay called "The Second Coming," which is about to be made into a movie. Most recently she has starred opposite Peter Coyote in The Basket (1999), and appeared in the blockbuster The Perfect Storm (2000), in which she co-starred with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane. In addition to these, she is working on Shaka Zulu: The Citadel (2001) and recently made an independent film, In the Bedroom (2001). Karen Allen is undoubtedly one of the most talented, ambitious, and versatile actresses of the last 20 years. In many ways, her own choices to "go back to theater and smaller projects" are the only things that have really stopped her being a major, major star. Allen was voted one of the most beautiful women in the world in 1983, and is a naturally attractive lady - who often plays characters significantly younger than herself. She also often plays unglamorous types - and there is no one better at portraying real, human, and wholly believable people.- Actress
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Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage and television, in concert, and on recordings. She is one of the most critically-acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven Tony Awards, winning two, and eight Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards. Recently, she has been starring on Broadway as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the hit musical, Hello, Dolly!
Bernadette was born Bernadette Lazzara on February 28, 1948 in Queens, New York City, to Marguerite (Maltese) and Peter Lazzara, a bread delivery truck driver. She is of Sicilian descent.
Bernadette first performed on the stage as a child and then a teenage actor in the 1960s, and in film and television in the 1970s. She was praised for this early work and for appearances on The Muppet Show (1976), The Carol Burnett Show (1991) and in other television work, and for her roles in films like Silent Movie (1976), The Jerk (1979), Pennies from Heaven (1981) and Annie (1982). In the 1980s, she returned to the theatre, where she became one of the best-known Broadway stars over the next three decades. She also has recorded six solo albums and several singles, as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act. Peters is particularly noted for her starring roles in stage musicals, including "Song and Dance", "Sunday in the Park with George", "Into the Woods", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Gypsy", becoming closely associated with composer Stephen Sondheim.
Peters continues to act in films and on television, where she has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, winning once. Her career boasts an impressive list of television credits, which includes Amazon Prime's highly popular, Mozart in the Jungle, which won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy or Musical series. She also co-stars in the new CBS All Access series, The Good Fight, a spin-off of the network's popular series, The Good Wife. One of Broadway's most critically acclaimed performers, Peters has won numerous accolades including being the recipient of three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, three Grammy nominations, three Emmy nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Peters' albums include the Grammy nominated I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall, and Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein, in addition to numerous Grammy Award winning Broadway Cast recordings. Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Her "pet project" Broadway Barks, co-founded with Mary Tyler Moore, is an annual, star-studded dog and cat adoption event that benefits shelter animals throughout the New York City area. She is a New York Times bestselling author who has penned three children's books, Broadway Barks, Stella Is a Star and Stella and Charlie: Friends Forever. All of her proceeds from the sale of these books benefit Broadway Barks.
She had a four-year romantic relationship with comedian Steve Martin and was married to investment adviser Michael Wittenberg for over nine years until he was killed in a helicopter crash on September 26, 2005. Peters is known for her charitable work, including as a founder of the Broadway Barks animal charity. Peters resides in New York with her rescue dogs, Charlie and Rosalia.- Actor
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One of the first black superstars of popular entertainment, Egbert Austin Williams, although born in the Bahamas, was raised largely in California. Nursing show business aspirations early on, he teamed with boyhood friend George Walker to form a highly successful vaudeville act, which continued until the ravages of syphilis brought about Walker's retirement and premature death in 1909. Two years later, Williams joined the Ziegfeld Follies and experienced perhaps his greatest fame as one of its' star comedians until his death. Although he played the (then) typical stereotype of the slow-witted, dialect-spouting black, and had to wear burnt cork to disguise his true ethnicity, he still managed to project an elan and style that was all his own, gently mocking the various stereotypes even as he was playing them. His recordings on American Columbia records were best-sellers in their time. An intelligent, articulate man privately, he was bitterly disappointed in a society that could applaud him onstage, yet still treat him like a second-class citizen off stage. Although he lived at one of the city's top hotels during his years in New York, he always had to ride the service elevator to his suite rather than come in by the main entrance. Ill health in his last years, primarily hypertension and lung trouble, brought about his early death at the age of only 47, while he was still a headliner. Long and happily married, he and his wife had no children but raised a niece and nephew.- Greil Marcus was born on 19 June 1945 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is a writer, known for Comme une pierre qui roule... 1965, en studio avec Bob Dylan (2022), Emma and Elvis (1992) and What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018).
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Carrie Keagan is an American television personality, actress, writer and producer, known as the host of Up Close with Carrie Keagan, Big Morning Buzz Live on VH1 and for her appearances as a panelist on Fox News Channel's Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, the E! talk show Chelsea Lately, Vh1 Classic's Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp and her numerous hosting duties for E!, VH1 and G4's Attack of the Show!.- Actor
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Dennis William Quaid was born on April 9, 1954 in Houston, Texas to Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" Quaid (née Jordan), a real estate agent & William Rudy Quaid, an electrician. He grew up in the Houston suburban city of Bellaire. He was raised a Baptist, and studied drama, Mandarin Chinese, and dance while a student at Bellaire High School. He continued study at the University of Houston, but dropped out before completing his degree. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career where his brother, Randy Quaid, had already began to build a successful career. However, Dennis initially had trouble finding film roles, but began to gain notice when he appeared in Breaking Away (1979) and earned strong reviews for his role in The Right Stuff (1983). Aside from acting, Quaid is also a musician, and plays with his band, "The Sharks". He holds a flying license and is a five handicap golfer.- Actress and producer Lizze Broadway is a fast-rising talent on both the big and small screen and will next star as "Emma Meyer" in GEN V, the upcoming spin-off of Amazon's hit franchise THE BOYS.
Born in Toledo, Ohio to school teacher parents, Broadway relocated to Los Angeles with her family at 9 years old. She began acting as a hobby in her early years and quickly found success in television, booking guest star roles on series such as SHAMELESS (Showtime), NCIS (CBS), CHICAGO P.D (NBC) and BONES (Fox). She landed a recurring arc on Alan Ball's HBO dramedy HERE AND NOW and starred in AMERICAN PIE: GIRLS RULES, of the iconic film franchise, as well as the independent horror-thriller THE INHABITANT.
Broadway will next star opposite including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Adrien Brody in Dexter Fletcher's feature film GHOSTED for Apple TV+ and will also be seen in the comedy series BASED ON A TRUE STORY for Peacock opposite Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina.
Broadway resides in Los Angeles, California - Director
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Hungarian-born Karoly Vidor spent the First World War as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian infantry. Following the armistice, he made his way to Berlin and worked for the German film company Ufa, as editor and assistant director. In 1924, he emigrated to the U.S. and, for several years, earned his living as a singer in Broadway choruses and (at one time) with a Wagnerian troupe. While little detail is extant of this period in his career, it enabled him to accumulate the means with which to finance his own project: an experimental short film entitled The Bridge (1929). On the strength of this, he was signed by MGM to co-direct his first feature film The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). For the remainder of the decade, Vidor worked with relatively undistinguished material at various studios, notably RKO (1935) and Paramount (1936-37). In 1939, he joined Columbia, where he remained under contract until 1948.
Vidor's career is something of an enigma. Never a particularly prolific filmmaker, his output has been variable. It includes a good-looking, but decidedly stodgy romance, The Swan (1956) (starring Grace Kelly in her penultimate screen role); and the interminably dull remake of A Farewell to Arms (1957). On the other side of the ledger is the lavish showbiz biopic of singer Ruth Etting, Love Me or Leave Me (1955), for which Vidor elicited powerhouse performances from his stars Doris Day and James Cagney. Frank Sinatra, also, gave one of his best performances as nightclub entertainer Joe E. Lewis, descending into alcoholism in The Joker Is Wild (1957). Other Vidor standouts are Ladies in Retirement (1941), a gothic Victorian thriller, tautly directed and maintaining its suspense, despite a relatively claustrophobic setting (among the cast, as Lucy the maid, was actress Evelyn Keyes, who became Vidor's third wife in 1944). Finally, two Rita Hayworth vehicles, the breezy musical Cover Girl (1944), and Vidor's principal masterpiece, the archetypal film noir Gilda (1946). This cleverly plotted, morally ambiguous tale of intrigue and ménage-a-trois was one of Columbia's biggest money-earners to date.
Some of the wittier dialogue in "Gilda" was voiced in re-takes, long after primary filming had been completed. The same applies to the two main musical numbers, the show-stopping "Put the Blame on Mame", and "Amado Mio". Yet, under Vidor's direction, all the dramatic and musical elements blended perfectly. The film has an undeniably electric atmosphere, largely due to the chemistry between the three leads. When the same material was later re-worked as Affair in Trinidad (1952) (with a bigger budget), that chemistry was notably absent.
In 1948, Vidor fell out with studio boss Harry Cohn, taking him to court for alleged verbal abuse and exploitation. He wanted out of his contract. Having just married Doris Warner, daughter of Warner Brothers president Harry M. Warner, Vidor sensed opportunities in working at a more prestigious studio. Cohn wasn't going to let him go quietly. It was pretty much all over, when actor Steven Geray testified, that he had himself been on the receiving end of invective at the hands of Vidor on the set of "Gilda". Glenn Ford, who thought Vidor opportunistic, then went on the stand, relating, that Cohn routinely used foul language on everyone around him, rather than aiming at any individual in particular. The fact that Vidor was not the easiest man to get along with, became evident during filming of the Liszt biopic Song Without End (1960). Both his stars (Dirk Bogarde and Capucine) found him to be ill-tempered and erratic. However, since Vidor died before the film was completed (George Cukor taking over), other factors may have played a part. In the final analysis, for "Gilda" alone, Charles Vidor deserves a niche in Hollywood heaven.- Actress
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Heidi Gardner is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on Saturday Night Live since 2017, beginning in season 43. Gardner was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up with an older brother, Justin. Growing up, Gardner worked part-time at the Tivoli Theater, where she did everything "from selling tickets to making popcorn." She later credited the theater as "setting the tone in her life." Gardner was not interested in acting as a child, only performing on stage as a flutist for the school band and doing comedy sketches in school talent shows. Gardner graduated from the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame DE Sion in 2001.- Actor
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The Canadian-American actor Peter Donat had a 50-year-long career in TV, motion pictures and theater. So respected was Donat, that Francis Ford Coppola considered casting him in the role of Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) that went to Robert Duvall.
The nephew of Oscar-winning actor Robert Donat, Peter was born Pierre Collingwood Donat on January 20, 1928 in Kentville, Nova Scotia. His father, landscape gardener Philip Donat, was Anglo-Canadian while his Marie (née Bardet) was French-Canadian.
In 1950, the 22-year-old Donat moved to the United States to study drama at Yale. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Donat frequently returned to Canada for acting work, appearing in the lead in a 1961 production of Donald Jack's play "The Canvas Barricade" at the Stratford Festival. He was also in the Canadian TV serial Moment of Truth (1964), which was broadcast on commercial TV in the States.
Peter Donat was married for 16 years to Emmy-winning actor Michael Learned. The couple, who divorced in 1972, had three children: Caleb, Christopher, and Lucas.