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1-50 of 146
- Actor
- Music Department
His striking menacing face and important presence as the deadly Hector The Toad in the classic Scarface (1983) was remarkable enough for movie viewers to never forget him and his role as the Colombian drug dealer who brutally murdered Tony Montana's associate in the infamous chainsaw scene from Brian De Palma's film. With De Palma, he also appeared as a porn film director in Body Double (1984) and as Rolando in Carlito's Way (1993), which reunites him with Al Pacino. Throughout his career, Al Israel has played from good guys and bad guys, from detectives to gunmen and mob bosses. Among his credits include Marked for Death (1990), Drop Zone (1994), Dangerous Minds (1995) and appearances in series like Miami Vice and The Shield; and also returned to his most famous role providing voice work for the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. He died in 2011, at age 75, and despite of a somewhat limited resume to his credit he gave us plenty of his great talents as a character actor.- Alec Cawthorne in a curious case in terms of film credits. His only film credit, in the classic Sleuth (1972) is a mere case of credit only despite being listed along heavyweights and Oscar winners Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Cawthorne does not exist - just as his other credit only colleagues John Matthews, Eve Channing and Teddy Martin (all in their only film "appearance"). The studio's idea was to create the feeling of having another actors and another characters rather than just a filmed play with two major stars in order to attract audiences. The ploy worked and many viewers keep on wondering where exactly those credit only actors appeared and where are they now.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Russian actor Anatoli Davydov had a short yet impressive career in Hollywood usually played Soviet or Russian characters. He was directed by important names such as John Schlesinger, Richard Donner, John McTiernan, Michael Apted and Michael Cimino in diverse films such as the epic western Heaven's Gate (1980), the mystery thriller Gorky Park (1983), the spy thrillers The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) and The Package (1989); the Cold War adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel The Hunt for Red October (1990); The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) where he played a clueless Russian ambassador; Bullet to Beijing (1995); a key role in Assassins (1995); and Say It in Russian (2007).
In some of those movies he also worked as a Russian consultant providing resourceful information about life and costumes in Soviet Union.- As the Blue Parrot bartender in Roman Polanski's thriller Frantic (1988), André Quiqui made his only film appearance to date. He shares a scene with Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Walker, a man who searches for his missing wife in the city of Paris. The bartender isn't much helpful except to provide a beer for the lead character.
- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Actor
Three time Academy Award-winning costume designer Anthony Powell had an interesting range of films, from costume period films to more contemporary settings, working with an impressive list of directors such as Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, George Cukor and William Friedkin. Powell contributed with the fashion and style of iconic characters like Indiana Jones, Cruela de Vil and Hercule Poirot in several films, and also works that bring a touch of class whether being the refined looks of the characters in Frantic (1988) or the colorful and detailed extravagance of a fantasy like Hook (1991), transforming Dustin Hoffman into an authentic and menacing pirate.
Right with his second film credit, Travels with My Aunt (1972), he won his first Oscar, an award he would receive two other times for his works in Death on the Nile (1978) and Tess (1979), and three other nominations for Pirates (1986), Hook (1991) and 102 Dalmatians (2000). But audiences were more familiar with Powell's career with the successful Indiana Jones trilogy (1981, 1984 and 1989), where he explored styles representing the early 20th Century in fascinating compositions, and the iconic hat and whip of Jones.- With a distinctive beautiful face that conveys a great deal of sadness and a long hair that almost hides his face, French actor Antoine Monnier conquered audiences while appearing as the leading man of The Devil, Probably (1977), directed by the acclaimed Robert Bresson. Monnier played a dissatisfied young man who failing to find a meaning to his life and mad with the world around him he decides to hire a gunman to shoot him. The movie played in several film festivals around the world and it was known as one of Bresson's final works. Like many actors of the directors troupe, Monnier was not a professional actor and ever since that movie he has never returned to the big screen.
- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Art dealer who made some adventures in Hollywood by becoming a film producer and then film director. In the 1960's he founded his first gallery in Boston and a couple of years later he moved it to New York. The gallery in question was Pace Gallery which represents countless artists such as David Hockney, Tara Donovan and Kiki Smith and it also represents the estate of names like Pablo Picasso, Ad Reinhardt and Alexander Calder.
In 1982, he debuted as an actor on a small role in Robert Benton's Still of the Night (1982). By 1986, he was already producing his first feature film, the romantic comedy Legal Eagles (1986), directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Robert Redford and Debra Winger. 1988 has Arne producing two films: Leonard Nimoy's The Good Mother (1988) and the box-office hit Gorillas in the Mist (1988)~, which received several Oscar nominations.
Ten years after his entering in the film industry, Glimcher finally made it through and went on to direct his first movie, the acclaimed The Mambo Kings (1992) starring Antonio Banderas in his first Hollywood production and Armand Assante. The story of two Cuban brothers who bring Latin music to the U.S. in the 1950's conquered audiences and critics; and Glimcher received a nomination in the Best Original Song category.
He followed with the controversial thriller about death penalty Just Cause (1995) with Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne and Ed Harris; and the comedy The White River Kid (1999), which reunited him with Banderas.
He has two sons: Marc, who is an art dealer and Paul, who is a scientist.- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
To the cinema world, Arno Frisch is best known for his two first films under the direction of Michael Haneke, even though his career progressed over the years. He was born in Vienna, on November 13, 1975. Around the age of 17, he was selected by Haneke to act as lead in his second cinema feature. As the title character in Benny's Video (1992), Frisch demonstrated the right qualities in the complex role of a stoic teenage boy fascinated with what a video camera can capture to the point of registering a murder on film and involving his parents into his problems; while in Funny Games (1997) he was the leader of a perverse game of sadism and violence against a family in one of the most controversial films to be played at the Cannes Film Festival during that year; but that role was the one where audiences started to pay more attention to this gifted young actor whose character could be charming seductive and polite in one scene and then recur to brutal senseless acts.
Other credits include feature films such as Vienna Murder Mystery (1997), Angel Express (1998), Sentimental Education (1998), Julies Geist (2002), as the dealer Niko in the human-trafficking drama Masz na imie Justine (2005), Falco - Verdammt, wir leben noch! (2008) and Sleeping Songs (2009); and several short films where he acted as a lead actor.- Babek Ahmed Poor was a local Iranian kid cast as the lead star of Abbas Kiarostami's film Where Is the Friend's House? (1987). In the award winning film, Poor plays a conflicted boy concerned in finding his best friend's house so he can return a notebook containing his lessons, an important task to get delivered on the following day and the urgency comes to avoid a possible expulsion of his friend from school. Babek wasn't a trained actor and on most the scenes, the director simply told him to present and recreate actions things that were part of his daily life. He proved to be a good natural actor.
A few years after the film's release, the northern part of Iran suffered a massive earthquake that killed thousands of people in 1990, known as the Manjil-Rudbar earthquake. Kiarostami was concerned about Babek's fate after the tragedy since not only the director was shooting his new film near the place but he knew the boy lived around there. His search for the kid become the basis of And Life Goes On (1992), where Kiarostami recreates such events of finding Babek, who survived the earthquake and lived long enough to appear as himself in another film from the director, the highly acclaimed Through the Olive Trees (1994), selected at the 1994's Cannes Film Festival. - Ben Faulkner was a local child from a small-town in Baltimore when he was spotted by director Bruce Beresford and his casting agent on Ben's local school. He was cast as Tim, an autistic child in the thriller Silent Fall (1994) where he's the only witness of a brutal family murder. A non-professional actor Faulkner's insight on this difficult role was by researching a little about the peculiarities and mannerism of kids with autism. He gracefully acted along veterans Richard Dreyfuss, Linda Hamilton, J.T. Walsh and Liv Tyler (on her film debut as well, and she plays Timmy's sister).
Faulkner hasn't returned to acting ever since that only film performance but he left an impressive mark for fans of the movie. - Benny Inocencio is an actor best remembered for his performance in The Real Glory (1939) where he plays a young native from Philippines who helps a doctor played by Gary Cooper during the Philippean war in the early 1900's. Subsequent roles were uncredited in the movies Road to Singapore (1940) - again playing a native -, Remember Pearl Harbor (1942) and Somewhere I'll Find You (1942). No information is known if he's still alive or appeared in other movies.
- Bernd Feuerhelm is a German actor born on the early 1950's. He is best known for his film performance as Daniel in the cult It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971), where he played the young and handsome Daniel, a confused gay man who throws his chances of having a decent relationship with Clemens with casual encounters with older men or other young like him who have dates on gay bars, public bathrooms or trying to just have sex rather than having a partner. The movie follows Bernd's character in several encounters, which includes chasing leather guys as well. It marks as Bernd's only film performance to date.
- Bernd Tischer was born on February 20, 1947 in Herford/Westfalen, Germany.
Better known for his unique film role as Beineberg, one of the sadist boys from the reckless group of colleagues at the military academy in Volker Schlöndorff's classic film Young Törless (1966), Tischer could have made a name for himself had he continued to pursue acting roles thanks to his great acting abilities and on-screen presence. However, this marks as his only credited film role.
After the movie, he appeared on a German stage version of the great musical "Hair", dancing and performing the songs, which were available on the album "Haare" Ensemble - Haare (Hair) released in 1968. - Bertil Guve was born on 9 September, 1970 in Sweden. The young actor is best remembered for his sensible and magic performance in Ingmar Bergman's award winning film "Fanny and Alexander", where Guve acts as Alexander. He also appeared in the miniseries (an extended version of the film and two TV movies. Little is known about his future career and life after quitting the art industry.
- Billy Redden was a typical local teen living in Georgia, handpicked by director John Boorman for the role of an odd banjo player in the Oscar-nominated classic Deliverance (1972). To Boorman, Redden had the exact look of a country boy, the mannerisms, and something different from the usual qualities needed for a part that could be suitable only for someone who wasn't trained as an actor: a nonspeaking part in one sequence in which he makes a banjo duel against Ronny Cox. The sequence turned out to be one of the highest points of the thriller--and one of the most memorable moments of cinema.
Some facts about the scene are that Redden did not know how to play the banjo, so another teenager was his hand double in the song "Dueling Banjos" while in the soundtrack, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell were the musicians performing the song. And the sequence asked for Billy's character to show a complete state of contempt for Cox's character (his on-screen rival), but he couldn't act in such way with the actor because he was very fond of him. On the other hand, he had a complete dislike for Ned Beatty, so the trick the director used for getting the exact reaction in the shot was to put Beatty next to Cox to make Billy react with disgust and dead-on facial expressions toward Beatty. The rest was all accomplished in the editing room.
After the exposition in Deliverance (1972), Redden vanished from the screen but became a tourist guide for people who wanted to visit the filming locations. He returned to acting in Blastfighter (1984), where he also played a banjo player, a trademark of his in his subsequent films such as a cameo in Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003) and Outrage: Born in Terror (2009). By the time he appeared in Big Fish (2003), he was working at a cafe near the film location. - British actor Bob Flag has a brief career as an actor appearing in a couple of films in the 1980's and early 2000's. However, he is best remembered for his unique and silent performance where his serious face and expression indicates he's watching everything and everyone. As the infamous leader Big Brother in 1984 (1984), directed by Michael Radford and adapted from George Orwell's classic novel, Flag's face is presented on a still photograph that is replicated in several screens presented on people's home, work places and everywhere indicating that the great leader is in charge of everything in his nation and people worship him as if he was a god. Except for Winston Smith, the rebellious lead character played by John Hurt. He doesn't trust the politics of Big Brother and challenges it several times.
He doesn't say a word in the whole film and the still photograph is the only way we can get a glimpse of his performance - that still says a lot. Flag's face was immortalized on the film's poster and became an iconic symbol that represents a tyrannic main authority in power and one who observes everything around him. Big Brother is watching you!
Before this role, he made his film debut in an free adaptation of James Joyce's classic Uliisses (1982). Other credits include Eat the Rich (1987), Wish You Were Here (1987), Cold Light of Day (1990) and most recently in Calendar Girls (2003). - The character Dede Martin is referenced several times in Roman Polanski's cult thriller Frantic (1988), where audiences later find out he's the connection of Michelle - played by Emmanuelle Seigner - and the mystery suitcase that causes plenty of trouble to Dr. Richard Walker, the leading character played by Harrison Ford, and his wife.
Like in many films from the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, despite prominent mentions and references, the character of Dede is only shown on screen as a dead character. Like Dick Hogan as David in Rope (1948) and Philip Truex as the lead character in The Trouble with Harry (1955), Böll Boyer is best remembered in those high-profile pictures as a corpse but in Boyer's case, it marks as his one and only film appearance - unlike the other actors who had credited roles in other films yet both end having as their final film performances the similar role of killed victims.
Coldly seated next to a cat's sandbox, dead expression of horror on his face and that's just a quick glimpse from the French actor, memorable enough to scare audiences when he is discovered by Ford and Seigner in Frantic (1988). - Carla Belver is best remembered as the memorable Mrs. Perry from Peter Weir's classic film Dead Poets Society (1989), where she plays the mother of Robert Sean Leonard character. A small dramatic role but she had the precise acting in her few scenes. She also appeared in two other movies: Shannon's Deal (1989) and Home of Angels (1995). Belver's presence can also be seen on episodes of ABC Afterschool Specials and My Life and Times.
- Director
- Actor
Under the direction of Vittorio De Sica, Carlo Battisti left a remarkable mark in cinema history as the lead character in Umberto D. (1952), an Italian Neo-Realist classic about an elderly man who wanders through Rome with his dog Flike while trying to survive the Italy of post WWII. He was born on 10 October, 1882 in Trento - then an Austro-Hungary territory that later became part of Italy during the war years.
He wasn't an actor by trade, in fact, he was a Linguistic professor. At the age of 70, De Sica discovered Battisti and chose him for the lead role in Umberto D. (1952), who didn't want a professional actor for the role, wanting to give a more realistic approach to the story just like Rossellini did with his films in the late 1940's. Battisti received excellent reviews and praise from audiences who loved his heart-breaking performance and his memorable scenes with his loyal companion, the cute dog Flike.
After the movie, Battisti never appeared on another movie and returned to teaching until his retirement some years later. He died in 1977, aged 94.- Carlo De Filippi was a young Italian actor in Rome, Lazio, Italy. His most successful role was the portrayal of 17-year old Giuseppe Pelosi in Who Killed Pasolini? (1995). Pelosi is known as the man who hit and run over writer/director Pier Paolo Pasolini on November 1975, in a crime that shocked the nation.
Filippi brings all the qualities given for the teenage male hustler who later on became known as a murderer. He's young, full of energy, deceptive and mysterious.
Carlo's previous film experience was an uncredited role in Forever Mary (1989).
Sadly, he died from a drug overdose a couple of days after his 23rd birthday and Who Killed Pasolini? (1995) marked as first and only important contribution to the world of cinema. - Like many child actors who happen to get an important film role in their lives yet their film careers doesn't necessarily follow such path for too long, Cary Guffey certainly left an eternal mark in the movie business as Barry Guiler in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). But he never thought this should be the main factor to define him. Guffey's life took a different turn with a degree in marketing from the University of Florida, MBA from Alabama's Jacksonville State University and working as a financial planner for Merrill Lynch. But early on, he was an actor with positive experiences.
He was born in 1972. His film debut around age 4 was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Melinda Dillon's son and he can be considered as a natural talent since he never had seen a movie in his life prior to this film experience (he was presented to a few films while making the film); and also the fact that director Steven Spielberg was really impressed by the kid's abilities in delivering great performances in one or two takes to each scene he was part of. The movie went on to become a massive hit and Guffey was even considered to award nominations and later on considered by a deeply impressed Stanley Kubrick for the role of Danny Torrance in The Shining (1980). But that didn't happen and Danny Lloyd was the chosen one.
Apart from Spielberg's classic sci-fi, he's best remembered as the humanoid alien H7-25 who partners Bud Spencer in Uno sceriffo extraterrestre... poco extra e molto terrestre (1979) and Everything Happens to Me (1980). Other credits include Martin Ritt's Cross Creek (1983), Stroker Ace (1983), Mutant (1984) and The Bear (1984). In 1985, he appeared in one TV movie and one miniseries and then at age 13 he never returned to the entertainment world and turned his career to other businesses, but successful ones and now he's a happily family man. - Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Academy award nominated costume designer Catherine Leterrier has a distinguished body of work that includes works with directors such as Michael Haneke, Ridley Scott, Robert Altman, Andrzej Zulawski, Alain Resnais, Luc Besson, Jonathan Demme, Jean-Paul Rappeneau and even with her husband François Leterrier, with whom she worked in films such as Emmanuelle 3 (1977), Je vais craquer!!! (1980) and Tranches de vie (1985). With François, they have one son: film director Louis Letterier.
Among her credits are diverse films in different genres, from French productions and American as well. Films like That Most Important Thing: Love (1975), Providence (1977), My American Uncle (1980), Claude Lelouch's Bolero (1981), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Meeting Venus (1991), Max & Jeremie (1992), Desire (1992), The Visitors (1993) and it's 1998 sequel, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), The Truth About Charlie (2002),A Good Year (2006) and Amour (2012).
In 2010 she had all the spotlights on her, with her costumes for the fashion icon Coco Chanel's biopic Coco Before Chanel (2009), which earned several award nominations, including Oscar and Bafta nods, and winning her third César.- Producer
- Cinematographer
Academy Award nominee Céan Chaffin is a film producer and cinematographer best known for producing the films of David Fincher, her partner ever since the early 1990's.
She met Fincher while producing Coca-Cola: Blade Roller (1993), a commercial of which he was the director. From then on, their partnership resulted in a handful of music videos and several of Fincher's films such as The Game (1997), tt0137523 tt0258000 tt0443706], The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014) and Mank (2020); and the series Mindhunter (2017).- Writer
- Producer
Son of Elia Kazan and Molly Kazan, novelist and screenwriter Chris Kazan was born on 16 December 1938, in New York. Novelist, screenwriter and assistant professor of film at Columbia University's School of the Arts, Kazan wrote two novels: "Mouth Full of Sugar" (1969) and "The Love Freak" (1971); one TV episode of "The Streets of San Francisco" (1972); and his only film screenplay The Visitors (1972), directed by his father, a film that launched the careers of James Woods and Steve Railsback. He was married to Jeneene Harris Kazan for several years, raising a stepdaughter and a stepson from her previous marriage. He's the brother of award winning screenwriter Nicholas Kazan. Chris died on 14 December 1991, two days prior to his 53rd birthday and around the time of his death, he was working on another film screenplay.- As Barbara, a rocker girl who was member of Zeca's rock group in the massive hit series A Viagem (1994), Chris Pitsch made her only appearance in the big world of entertainment. Her premature death from a heart failure at the age of 24 cut short a promising career.
Christiane Tedd was born on 5 August, 1971 in São Paulo. During her teenage years, she discovered as suffering from a congenital heart defect. But she made it through for a while with treatments and started acting on children's plays during her early 20's.
With a charismatic presence, beauty and talent she landed a minor role in A Viagem (1994), which was later expanded and she made it all through the very final episode acting alongside Christiane Torloni, Andréa Beltrão and Irving São Paulo, just to name a few of her co-stars. It was a huge dream of hers in appearing for a TV Globo soap-opera. Her artistic name Pitsch came at her boyfriend's suggestion.
Sadly, a year after the show's end, Chris Pitsch passed away on 20 October, 1995 without having a chance of appearing on another projects. She was survived by her mother, five younger brothers and sisters. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Chuck Aspegren conquered a small-time of fame after appearing in the Oscar winning film The Deer Hunter (1978). In fact, he wasn't a trained actor but he was a steel worker from Gary, Indiana, who happened to be in the right place and the right time. When the likes of Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken began researching their roles as steel workers, they acquainted this charismatic guy, who worked as a general foreman at U.S. Steel, at a local bar and next thing you know, the film director Michael Cimino liked his presence and decided to cast him as one of the friends of the leading actors. Aspegren had the real charm and presence, very natural on the role as Axel and one of the most unforgettable characters of all time. Despite the film's success, Aspegren didn't follow a career in the movie business and little is known about him afterwards.- Colin Irving is an American actor who appeared on the following films: The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), Dead Poets Society (1989) where he plays the role of football jock Chet Danburry - and The Cider House Rules (1999). He's the son of novelist John Irving, who had two of his novels adapted for the screen where Colin played parts. Little is known about him and his whereabouts except that he has a brother named Brendan.
- Diane Johnson is an American author, essayist and screenwriter best known for movie audiences as Stanley Kubrick's writing partner in Stephen King's adaptation of The Shining (1980), which became a horror classic over the years with plenty of memorable moments and unforgettable lines.
She graduated from Stephens College and in the early 1950's she began her writing career contributing to several magazines such as Mademoiselle and Vogue. In 1965, she wrote her first novel "Fair Game". Other novels include "Loving Hands at Home" (1968), "Burning" (1971), "The Shadow Knows" (1974), Lying low (1978), Persian Nights (1987) - for which she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize -, Health and Happiness (1990), Le Divorce (1997) (which was adapted into James Ivory's film The Divorce (2003)), Le Mariage (2000), L'Affaire (2003), Lulu in Marrakech (2008) and most recently Lorna Mott Comes Home (2021).
She married twice and has four kids from her first marriage; her second husband passed away on 2020 due to Covid-19 complications. - Dillon Freasier has one of those incredible legendary Hollywood stories that doesn't happen often. A speeding ticket given to a casting director and a nice talk afterwards between that director and the police officer provided the chance of a lifetime to this local Texas kid in appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson's monumental film There Will Be Blood (2007). The officer was nothing less than Dillon Freasier's mother and the casting director had the chance to see the kid and wanted to cast him in the film, but the mother wasn't so sure she wanted her son to appear in a movie and didn't even know who was Daniel Day-Lewis, the leading actor who would be sharing most of the scenes with Dillon. Since Day-Lewis previous success was Gangs of New York (2002), the casting director provided a copy of that film to the mother. She was appalled in seeing such an intense and dangerous performance and couldn't imagine such man acting along her beloved kid. The film's team rushed in sending another film with Day-Lewis, the acclaimed The Age of Innocence (1993), where he played an educated gentleman, and that role convinced her in allowing Dillon to be part of Anderson's project.
Freasier was an elementary student in West Texas, with no previous acting experience but turned out to be a perfect choice for the role Anderson needed. Despite being unfamiliar with acting in front of cameras and specially along with one of the most respected actors of all time, Freasier succeed in a great way. As HW Plainview, the adopted son of oilman Daniel Plainview, the young star captivated audiences with his quiet, magnetic, intelligent presence and timing both in small moments or in more difficult sequences, specially the ones where he could only use his expressions and no sound to convey his emotions. The movie was a hit, received several award nominations and won two Academy Awards. Dillon earned nominations as Best Young Actor in two different awards (Young Artist Awards and the Online Film & Television Association).
Not much is known about his whereabouts or current line of work but it's quite certain that many audience await for his return to the big screen. - Djiby Soumare' is an actor best remembered as the African taxi driver who drives the Walker couple (played by Harrison Ford and Betty Buckley) from the airport to the Grand Hotel in Paris in Roman Polanski's thriller Frantic (1988). During the journey course, right in the early minutes of the film, a flat tire stops his journey with the main characters. His other film role was in the comedy Périgord noir (1989).
- Donald F. Burbrink is an American actor best remembered for two small scenes in the Academy Award nominated film The Insider (1999) where he plays the security guard of Brown & Williamson tobacco company. He observes Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) entering the building and then exiting the building after the man being fired. His only line, said in a hushed tone, "He's out!" showing to his superiors that the unwanted man has left the building. All the information available on him relates to this particular movie.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Cinema lovers and sci-fi fans will always remember the great Douglas Rain not exactly by his face but specially because of his vocal talents that brought him attention and eternity in the cinema world as the soothing voice of computer HAL 9000 in the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and its sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).
What most people don't know is that he wasn't the first choice of Stanley Kubrick for voicing the most famous robot voice of all time: Kubrick had in mind using the voice of more famous and established actors such as Martin Balsam, Jason Robards and Walter Pidgeon (just to name a few). But Kubrick wanted something with an extra-quality and his description to an assistant of what he wanted was to find him an actor who could have an intelligent, sincere and disarming voice with some friendly quality. The rest is history: Rain won the role despite being an almost unknown actor with few theatre and TV film/series roles on his resume; but Kubrick's choice turned out to be the perfect one. HAL 9000 with Rain's voice brought calm and humanity to a machine that seemed perfect in all possible ways in contrast to the robotic and lifeless astronauts of whom he shares company outer space.
In front of cameras, the Canadian actor can be found in TV series such as General Motors Presents, Startime, Quest and Playdate; or films like Oedipus Rex (1957), Twelfth Night (1964) and the title role in Henry V (1966). On stage, his career consists of several William Shakespeare play adaptations - in fact, Rain was co-founding member of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival - and other authors in between the 1950's and 1990's. In 1972, he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for the play "Vivat! Vivat Regina!".
He passed away from natural causes at the age of 90 in 2018 - the 50th year anniversary of "2001". He left an important mark and legacy to the cinema world, even though with just one memorable character that paved the way to other actors using his voice talents in other feature films.- Eamonn Owens is an Irish actor born in Killeshandra, Ireland. His breakthrough role was as the antisocial and rebel Francie Brady in Neil Jordan's acclaimed film The Butcher Boy (1997) for his which Owens won and was nominated for several awards.
After this well criticized debut, he went to appear in films directed by John Boorman, Alan Parker, Peter Mullan, John Irvin and Jordan again, in films such as The General (1998) where he plays the young version of Brendan Gleeson's character; Angela's Ashes (1999), The Magdalene Sisters (2002), The Boys & Girl from County Clare (2003), Breakfast on Pluto (2005) again directed by Jordan; and other appearances in TV shows and short films. - One film acting but an important one that cemented a young boy's career to cinema eternity. Edmund Moeschke, a non-professional actor who had the starring role in Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero (1948) was sufficient enough for him to make an impression on audiences around the world. As the young Edmund Köhler, a kid who faces several life adversities in the post WWII Germany, Moeschke captivated and attracted the attention of critics and film buffs who were compelled by his dramatic acting and the character he played in Rossellini's film - a post war trilogy composed with other films such as Roma, Open City (1945) and Paisà (1946) - all part of his Neo-Realistic movement where the majority of the cast were composed by amateur actors to provide a more realistic approach of storytelling. Moeschke was part of this movement, composing a powerful and memorable character but unlike many of his contemporaries who worked with Rossellini - some made a few more films, he vanished from screen to never return, and he was never heard of again.
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
One of the most admired heartthrobs of Brazilian TV during the 1990's with his supporting roles in the classic TV series Sweet Creek (1990), A Viagem (1994) and The Next Victim (1995), Eduardo Felipe began his career in several plays and on TV he got his first big break playing the young version of Nuno Leal Maia's character in "Top Model" in the late 1980's.
Handsome, long haired and charismatic, Felipe generally played romantic and idealistic characters who were also rebels with a short temper. In A Viagem (1994), he played the member of a rock group who constantly clashes with the band leader over the group's direction; and in the massive hit The Next Victim (1995), as Giulio Rossi, one of the sons of Suzana Vieira's character, he goes from a respectable and loving teenager who becomes an angry individual when a family secret is exposed.
Outside of the little screen he had some film credits: Era Uma Vez... (1995) and As Meninas (1995), largely unknown films, and had several behind the cameras duties in the short film Os Cravos e a Rocha (2015). Despite the fame and notoriety he gained, Eduardo Felipe moved to the behind the scenes of several plays and TV series working as an assistant, costume designer and providing props and sets for plays, a work he enjoyed for some time.
Unlike many young actors of his generation who still work on TV shows or films, Eduardo Felipe quit acting and fame when it wasn't much fulfilling for him since he's a very private and reserved person. He lives in Portugal with his wife and two kids, working as a visual artist developing comic books.- Eric Fryer is a Canadian actor born in Scarborough, Ontario. He is best known for his leading role in HBO's docudrama The Terry Fox Story (1983), where Fryer played the activist and marathon runner Terry Fox famous for his personal marathon crossing Canada to raise awareness on cancer research after losing a leg due to the disease. Like Fox, Fryer also used a prosthetic leg after losing his real leg due to cancer. He won a Genie Awards as Best Actor in a Leading Role for his memorable performance. He never returned to the screen with more roles and very little is known about him.
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel directed and Ethan produced - with both editing under the name of Roderick Jaynes; but in 2004 they started to share the three main duties plus editing. Each film bring its own quality, creativity, art and with one project more daring the other.
His film debut was in 1984 dark humored thriller Blood Simple (1984) starring Frances McDormand (Joel's wife) and M. Emmet Walsh in a deep story revolving a couple of romantic lovers followed by an insisting private eye. The film received critical acclaim, some award nominations to Ethan (best writing at the Film Independent Spirit Awards) and became a cult following over the years. Their second work was the comedy Raising Arizona (1987) starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as a unusual couple trying to create their family by kidnapping babies from a rich family.
Miller's Crossing (1990) was the third film of the brothers, a mob drama with heavy influences from several criminal dramas and with a stellar cast that included Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, Albert Finney, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and Jon Polito (the latter three would become regular actors in the Coen's films).
Their views on the Hollywood era of the 1930's was the central theme is the great Barton Fink (1991), created from a writers block both brothers suffered during the making of their previous film. John Turturro stars as a writer who suffers from a breakdown when he's commissioned to a big budget Hollywood project. The film was a breakthrough for the Coens marking their first win at the Cannes Film Festival (Joel got the Palme d'Or) and the first time a film of their received Oscar nominations. The underrated comedy The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) was what followed; but no one could predict their next big and boldest move that would definitely put Ethan and Joel on the spotlight once and for all.
The comedy of errors Fargo (1996) was a huge critical and commercial success. With its crazed story of a man who hires two loonies to kidnap his own wife and a pregnant policewoman tracking the leads to the crime, Ethan and Joel came at their greatest moment that couldn't be missed. The film received several awards during award season and the Coen's got their first Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category. What came next was the underrated yet hilariously good The Big Lebowski (1998) starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. Those masterpieces made their career in the late 1990's cementing the duo as one of the greatest writers and directors of their generation, if not, from all time.
The Odyssey retold for the 1930's in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000); the intelligent noir The Man Who Wasn't There (2001); the comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and a remake The Ladykillers (2004) marked their way into the early 2000's. Certaintly of period of minor hits and some downer moments.
The big return was with the highly acclaimed No Country for Old Men (2007), where the brothers swooped at the Oscars with three wins: Best Picture, Screenplay and Writing, an adaptation from the Cormac McCarthy's novel.
A Serious Man (2009), Burn After Reading (2008), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Hail, Caesar! (2016) and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) were the subsequent films, all well received by audiences or got awards recognition, mostly nominations.
A shift from tone and career move was writing with other writers and for another directors: for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken (2014), for Spielberg in Bridge of Spies (2015) and George Clooney in Suburbicon (2017).
As for personal life, Ethan has been married to Tricia Cooke since 1990. Tricia works as an assistant editor in several of the Coen brothers films.- Eve Channing has the distinction of being the only female starring in the male dominated space of Sleuth (1972) but also, as one of the four credit only actors who does not exist, actually she's the only of the group who sort of makes an appearance in the movie thanks to a portrait displayed on a room. Channing's face was modeled after actress Joanne Woodward; and her stage name comes from the surname of the main characters of the classic All About Eve (1950), which was also directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
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- Additional Crew
Son of famed film Dino De Laurentiis and actress Silvana Mangano. Around 19-20, he started his career in the film business as an assistant to the producer in films such as Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Mandingo (1975). He moved on to executive producer of his father's produced epic King Kong (1976), and then produced two movies on his own: King of the Gypsies (1978) and She Dances Alone (1981).
Sadly, he was killed in a tragic plane crash on July 15, 1981 at the age of 26.
The movie Dune (1984), of which his father was the producer, was dedicated to him.- Ffolliott Le Coque was born on August 7, 1923 in Butte, Montana. She started her career as a former dancer who later on transitioned into the entertainment management in Las Vegas, where she spent the rest of her life and even had the chance to land a small role in Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995). She plays Anna Scott, a powerful woman who sues Kevin Pollak's character - a casino commissioner - and then she's killed off by the Mafia in a shocking scene. The movie marked as her only on-screen appearance.
She passed away on December 10, 2015 at age 92. - Actor
- Writer
Filipe Pinheiro was a Brazilian actor known for appearances in several soap operas in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and his only film appearance in the doomed The Jew (1996), which was only released three years after the actor's death due to a heart failure at age 33. The film is also known for being the final film of veteran actress Dina Sfat (who died in 1989), and they were the leads in the movie.
Pinheiro had an extensive theatre background in the 1980's before jumping to television landing roles in the TV show Bebê a Bordo (1988) and the miniseries The Promise (1988). That same year, he contributed as a writer for the comedy special TV Pirata (1988).
In the 1990's, he was best known for his role as Giron in the cult hit Vamp (1991) and a minor role in Olho no Olho (1993), which would be his final soap opera, released on the same year he appeared on the miniseries Summer Tales (1993).
By that time he already had filmed a great part of The Jew (1996) where he played Antônio José da Silva, a Jewish playwright who is considered an heretic who's sentenced to death in the Portugal of the 1700's.
But on November 1st, 1993, he was found dead in his apartment in Rio de Janeiro. His family declared that he had heart problems over the years, which ultimately led to his death at an early age.- Actor
- Writer
- Production Manager
Barhydt is an American screenwriter best remembered for his collaboration along with Robert Altman in some of his films such as Short Cuts (1993), Quintet (1979), HealtH (1980) and Kansas City (1996). He also appeared as an actor in the successful Hollywood critique The Player (1992) and as Frank Gatling in the miniseries Tanner '88 (1988) - again Robert Altman projects.
The magnum moment from the duo was with the adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories in the ensemble effort Short Cuts (1993). The extraordinary lives of 23 characters where almost nothing happens in a 3-hour film and taken from several different of Carver's writings was a critical success and earned Altman & Barhydt team a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay.- Frank Wills was born on 4 February, 1948 in South Carolina. He was the security guard who discovered the five men who broke in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, in June 1972. His courageous act made him a known name thanks to the many news articles and reports about what was later triggered as the Watergate scandal that later led to president Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. Later on, Wills played himself in the acclaimed film All the President's Men (1976) where he recreated each step of his acts.
As for the aftermath, Wills found himself unemployable as security guard due to his act and he lived in extreme poverty until his death on September 2000 from a brain tumor. - Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Though François Leterrier's career evolved from assistant director to writer and director, he left an important mark in cinema with an acting role as the leading man in Robert Bresson's immortal classic A Man Escaped (1956), as Fontaine, the man who skillfully tries several ways and attempts to escape from prison during World War II. He only acted once more in Resnais' Stavisky (1974) in the role of poet André Malraux.
After his work for Bresson, he was second assistant director in two films directed by Louis Malle: Elevator to the Gallows (1958) and The Lovers (1958), then assistant director in four other films. His directorial debut was in _Les mauvais coups (1961), a film starring Simone Signoret. In the following 30 years, Leterrier directed 20 projects in between theatrical films, TV movies and series, which include Un roi sans divertissement (1963), La chasse royale (1969), the final film of the Emmanuelle franchise in the 1970's Emmanuelle 3 (1977), _Rat Race (1980)_ and _Slices of Life (1985)_. He is the father of director Louis Leterrier, famous for directing two films of The Transporter franchise.
He passed away on 3 December, 2020.- Actor
- Composer
As the new best friend of poor persecuted boy Jean Bonnet, the young Gaspard Manesse conquered audiences with his role as Julien Quentin in the Oscar nominated picture Goodbye, Children (1987). Manesse was born on March 25, 1975, and after this film debut he ventured into some other projects such as Erreur de jeunesse (1989), Comme il vient (2002) for which he also composed the music score - and most recently Un transport en commun (2009).
He works with environmental causes.- Palma was a street drummer based in New York during the 1970's and 1980's, famous for his slick black hair and heavy makeup use, and also for his drumming routine that included several different styles - even though Gene Krupa was his favorite drummer of all time. He could use not only a minor drum, he could also perform with objects on the streets hitting his stick with precision and ability. Film lovers will remember him best for his minor yet unforgettable performance in Taxi Driver (1976) while Travis Bickle is having a date with Betsy in the classic film directed by Martin Scorsese. He continued his work on the streets for quite some time and even appeared (uncredited) in another film Hero at Large (1980), again playing a street drummer.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Guido Brunini was a Brazilian singer born on 28 May, 1963. Son of Guido Vieira Brunini and Liana Smith Brunini, he had a true passion for music both as a singer and a pianist, and also had an artistic vein for acting as well. On the plays Guido appeared he usually performed songs while his career didn't took off. As a TV actor he is best remembered for Bambolê (1987), his only on screen appearance.
His life and career were tragically cut short just when he was rising to prominence. On his early 20's he discovered to be HIV positive and despite the failing health in the following years he insisted on performing in shows and finally succeed it in recording his first and only album. The prejudice faced by HIV/AIDS patients were alarming at the time and Brunini had to hide from the record company that produced his album the fact he had the disease but to no avail. An unknown artist at the time and with an album with limited copies, the record company prevented its release - which only didn't happen completely because Guido's mother bought all the copies herself to distribute it to friends. The song "Imagens", a cover from "Someone" by The Rembrandts was used on the soundtrack of the TV series Pátria Minha (1994) and became the song he is mostly associated with thanks to his beautiful vocals, the strings and harmonica arrangements used in it as well.
Brunini died at the age of 32 on the following year of his album debut.- As Stephans, one of the senior pupils in Lindsay Anderson's classic counterculture film If.... (1968), British actor Guy Ross made his film debut with a memorable role, playing next to Malcolm McDowell. Almost nothing else is known of the actor or his whereabouts except for his TV appearances in series such as "Story Parade", "This Man Craig", "Thursday Theatre", "The Wednesday Play" and "Gideon's Way" between 1964 and 1967, before he was cast in If.....
- Editor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Hank Corwin is an Academy Award nominated film editor and additional editor who worked with several directors such as Oliver Stone, Adam McKay, Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, just to mention a few names. Sharp, fast-paced and innovative in his techniques, Corwin's ability to create the exact mood and rhythm for the scene is what makes him one of the most interesting film editors working today, growing more each film goes by.
Corwin's career began as an additional editor working under the supervision of Oliver Stone in the epic JFK (1991), which won the Best Film Editing Oscar (awarded to main editors Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia) and Best Cinematography. After enjoying his work in that movie, Stone asked him to be his editor in three other films: Natural Born Killers (1994) - where Corwin has an uncredited role as Mickey Knox's headless father -, Nixon (1995), and U Turn (1997). With the great Terrence Malick and working along other editors, Corwin worked in The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011) and Song to Song (2017).
But it was his collaboration with Adam McKay and his more serious films dealing with the economical crisis of 2008 or Dick Cheney's biography that Hank Corwin got a boost and recognition from awards and mainstream audiences. The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018) brought him two Oscar nominations, one Bafta win and one Eddie award from the American Cinema Editors. Both films dealt with real life stories, used of humor, filled with references from culture or politics aspects which makes the audience think and engage in the scenario, all thanks to the ability of a skillful director aligned with a talented editor.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Hanno Koffler is one of the most hard-working and interesting talents of Germany in recent years. With the outstanding hit Free Fall (2013), he conquered audiences all around the world, becoming a more familiar face and name, even though his career as an actor started more than ten years earlier. Previously his career consisted more of theatre works and as a drummer for Kerosin, band founded by him and his brother Max in the 1990's.
His film debut was in REC - Kassettenjungs/Kassettenmädchen (2002), and from then on he constructed a career playing both supporting roles and leading roles, displaying great intensity. Among films, TV films and series, Koffler can be seen Anatomy 2 (2003), Summer Storm (2004), Hallesche Kometen (2005), Krabat (2008), alongside Daniel Brühl and David Kross, The Red Baron (2008), Nacht vor Augen (2008) - which earned his first award; If Not Us, Who? (2011), Tough Love (2015), among many others.
However, it was Free Fall (2013) that marked him the best (so far). In the role of Marc Borgmann, a straight and married police officer who discovers different feelings when a male colleague (played by Max Riemelt, a frequent co-star of Hanno in many films and also a personal friend) approaches him with different intentions that Koffler showed a powerful emotional range while playing this repressed and tormented character who opens himself to new possibilities and to love as well. The celebrated film earned his first nomination as Best Actor in the German Film Awards and is about to get a sequel, which is being produced by crowdfunding from fans around the globe. And with this current exposure, we'll be seeing a lot more of this handsome great actor in many years to come.