{Actors & actresses} This was the first ever on-screen role – by a particular actor or actress. And I myself have viewed that film/TV programme.
This is a list of the very first acting appearance on-screen by an actor or actress . . . a film or TV episode that I myself have seen!
Now a well-known face, they were once just starting up as actors.
Whilst watching an old TV episode or film, I have caught sight of a now famous face. Normally just a fleeting glimpse as the role was often super-small, but their famous face &/or voice stood out nonetheless.
Now a well-known face, they were once just starting up as actors.
Whilst watching an old TV episode or film, I have caught sight of a now famous face. Normally just a fleeting glimpse as the role was often super-small, but their famous face &/or voice stood out nonetheless.
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Edward Theodore McClintock is an American actor, best known for his role of Secret Service agent Pete Lattimer on the Syfy series Warehouse 13. McClintock was born in Canton, Ohio, and raised by his father Theodore "Ted" McClintock. After his parents' divorce, he moved with his father to North Canton. After leaving St. Michael's Catholic School in the eighth grade, he attended North Canton Hoover High School. McClintock graduated with a degree in communications from Wright State University in Dayton and studied design in college. In 2007, he designed the artwork for Puscifer's album "V" Is for Vagina and sells some of his artwork on his personal website. Working as a wrestler and later a production assistant, he subsequently took up acting and began appearing in roles in 1997.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Diagnosis Murder' (1993–2001)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "A History of Murder" (S04 E14: ep aired 1997)
[Character:] Young 'Manny' Tubbs
{Now famous for:
TV series 'Warehouse 13' (2009–2014)}- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Stephen Tompkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham in October 1965. His grandad (who Stephen describes as "a comic genius") inspired him to take up acting and he attended the Central Drama School, which he left at the age of 23. He has rarely been out of work since and has worked on the stage, on radio, television and, on the big screen, notably in the movie Brassed Off (1996), for which he has gained many excellent reviews. His TV roles have included a psychopathic poisoner (A Very Open Prison (1995)), a psycho TV reporter (Drop the Dead Donkey (1990)), a yuppie (Downwardly Mobile (1994)), a priest (Ballykissangel (1996)), a veterinarian (Wild at Heart (2006)) and a detective inspector (DCI Banks (2010)). Stephen has also played "Demetruis" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for Radio 4. He is also a keen charity cricket player and once scored two more runs than Brian Lara, when they played on the same team. In 1994, he won a Best Comedy Actor award for his role as "Damien Day" in Drop the Dead Donkey (1990). In the future, he plans a trip to Australia (to do a report for the Holiday programme) before he begins filming a new series of Ballykissangel (1996) in March 1997.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'All At Number 20' (1986–1987)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Prowler" (S02 E06: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Police Constable
Note:
BTW: I also happen to have seen all of his first FOUR acting roles!:
4th role: 'After Henry' (TV Series) - episode "Intellectual Aspirations" (1989) ... Julian
3rd role: 'The Return of Shelley' (TV Series) - episode "Why Me?" (1988) ... PC Knight
2nd role: 'Never the Twain' (TV Series) - episode "Fasten Your Seat Belts" (1988) ... Darran
1st role: 'All at Number 20' (TV Series) - episode "The Prowler" (1987) ... Police Constable
{Now famous for: many TV roles
e.g. 'Drop the Dead Donkey' (1990–1998)}- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She got her big break at acting in 1978 when she won the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). After that, she became famous for roles in movies like Trading Places (1983), Perfect (1985) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988). She starred in one of the biggest action films ever, True Lies (1994), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Curtis also appeared on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and starred in Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) as the title role. Her first starring role was opposite Richard Lewis on the ABC situation comedy Anything But Love (1989). In 1998, she starred in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) in which she reprised her role that made her famous back in 1978.
Jamie Lee served as an honorary chairperson for the Building Resilience for Young Children Dealing with Trauma program held at the Shakespeare Theatre - Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. She was an inspiration for the youth that were celebrated. Curtis was also given an award from US Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman for her work on behalf of children through her charities and children's books.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Quincy M.E.' (1976–1983)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Visitors in Paradise" (S02 E04: ep aired 1977)
[Character:] Girl in Dressing Room
{Now famous for: many films}- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses -- Donald Pleasence had the essential physical attributes which make a great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished playing the obsessed, the paranoid and the purely evil. Even the Van Helsing-like psychiatrist Sam Loomis in the Halloween (1978) franchise seems only marginally more balanced than his prey. An actor of great intensity, Pleasence excelled on stage as Shakespearean villains. He was an unrelenting prosecutor in Jean Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" and made his theatrical reputation in the title role of the seedy, scheming tramp in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" (1960). On screen, he gave a perfectly plausible interpretation of the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, in The Eagle Has Landed (1976). He was a convincingly devious Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), disturbing in his portrayal of the crazed, bloodthirsty preacher Quint in Will Penny (1967); and as sexually depraved, alcohol-sodden 'Doc' Tydon in the brilliant Aussie outback drama Wake in Fright (1971). And, of course, he was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967). These are some of the films, for which we may remember Pleasence, but there was a great deal more to this fabulous, multi-faceted actor.
Donald Henry Pleasence was born on October 5, 1919 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, to Alice (Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence. His family worked on the railway. His grandfather had been a signal man and both his brother and father were station masters. When Donald failed to get a scholarship at RADA, he joined the family occupation working as a clerk at his father's station before becoming station master at Swinton, Yorkshire. While there, he wrote letters to theatre companies, eventually being accepted by one on the island of Jersey in Spring 1939 as an assistant stage manager. On the eve of World War II, he made his theatrical debut in "Wuthering Heights". In 1942, he played Curio in "Twelfth Night", but his career was then interrupted by military service in the RAF. He was shot down over France, incarcerated and tortured in a German POW camp. Once repatriated, Donald returned to the stage in Peter Brook's 1946 London production of "The Brothers Karamazov" with Alec Guinness although he missed the opening due to measles, followed by a stint on Broadway with Laurence Olivier's touring company in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Anthony and Cleopatra". Upon his return to England, he won critical plaudits for his performance in "Hobson's Choice". In 1952, Donald began his screen career, rather unobtrusively, in small parts. He was only really noticed once having found his métier as dastardly, sneaky Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955). It took several more years, until international recognition came his way: first, through the filmed adaptation of The Guest (1963), and, secondly, with his blind forger in The Great Escape (1963), a role he imbued with added conviction due to his own wartime experience.
Some of his best acting Donald reserved for the small screen. In 1962, the producer of The Twilight Zone (1959), Buck Houghton, brought Donald to the United States ("damn the expense"!) to guest star in the third-season episode "The Changing of the Guard". He was given a mere five days to immerse himself in the part of a gentle school teacher, Professor Ellis Fowler, who, on the eve of Christmas is forcibly retired after fifty-one years of teaching. Devastated, and believing himself a failure who has made no mark on the world, he is about to commit suicide when the school's bell summons him to his classroom. There, he is confronted by the spirits of deceased students who beg him to consider that his lessons have indeed had fundamental effects on their lives, even leading to acts of great heroism. Upon hearing this, Fowler is now content to graciously accept his retirement. Managing to avoid maudlin sentimentality, Donald's performance was intuitive and, arguably, one of the most poignant ever accomplished in a thirty-minute television episode. Once again, against type, he was equally delightful as the mild-mannered Reverend Septimus Harding in Anthony Trollope's The Barchester Chronicles (1982).
Whether eccentric, sinister or given to pathos, Donald Pleasence was always great value for money and his performances have rarely failed to engage.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'The Beachcomber' (1954)
[Character:] Tromp
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV two years before this film, in 1952 – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many films}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Miranda Richardson was born in Southport, Lancashire, England on March 3, 1958, to Marian Georgina (Townsend) and William Alan Richardson, a marketing executive. She has one sister, eight years her senior. Her parents and sister are not involved in the performing arts. At an early age she performed in school plays, having shown a talent and desire to "turn herself into" other people. She has referred to it as "an emotional fusion; you think yourself into them". This mimicry could be of school friends or film stars.
She left school (Southport High School for Girls) at the age of 17, and originally intended becoming a vet. She also considered studying English literature in college, but decided to concentrate on drama and enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (as did many well-known British actors). After three years she graduated and moved into repertory theatre. She became affiliated with the Library Theatre in Manchester in 1979, where she became an assistant stage manager. She obtained her Equity card, and after several regional productions, first appeared on the London stage (Moving at Queens Theatre) in 1981. British television roles soon followed, and then film.
Since then, Miranda has moved into the international arena, and has made films in America, France and Spain. Television work (on both sides of the Atlantic) continues, as does some stage work. Her roles are diverse, but powerful and engaging. She has been quoted as stating "what I basically like is doing things I haven't done before" and this continually comes through in the variety of roles she has played in her career. She is also selective in the roles she takes, being uninterested in performing in the standard Hollywood fare, and preferring more offbeat roles. She was approached to play the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction (1987), but found it "regressive in its attitudes". Her attitude is summed up by a quote from an interview that appeared in the New York Times (Dec 27 1992): "I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting. And if that's the choice I have to make, I think I've already made it".
According to "1994 Current Biography Yearbook", she resides in South London with her two Siamese cats, Otis and Waldo. She has now moved to West London. Her hobbies include drawing, walking, gardening, fashion, falconry, and music. She, by her own admission, is a loner and lives rather modestly. An actor who studied with Ms Richardson at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre in the late 1970s described her as "a strong minded, specially gifted, rather pretty young woman who enjoys wearing jewelry. She wore toe rings, which in the late 1970s and especially in England, were a rarity and considered rather racy." He also remarked on her drive, even then, to be an actress of the highest caliber.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Agony' (1979–1981)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "From Here To Maternity" (S03 E01: ep aired 1981)
[Character:] Gudrun
{Now famous for: many TV roles, etc.}- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Robert Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he spent his whole childhood. He graduated from the William Penn Charter School and attended Yale University. At Yale, he landed a role in Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" and at age 19, he played a leading role in the European premiere of "Mass". Later, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Drama from Yale University. He appeared in the David Mamet play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and, with Diane Keaton, in "The Primary English Class". In 1977, he made his Broadway debut in the comedy hit, "Gemini", with Danny Aiello, and also appeared in Bernard Slade's "Tribute", "Beyond Therapy" as well as "Geniuses" and "The Normal Heart", for which he won a Drama-Logue Award.
Then, he became involved in television, where he soon was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Coach Cutlip on the series, The Wonder Years (1988). Robert appeared in several other series: China Beach (1988), Frasier (1993), Ally McBeal (1997), Home Improvement (1991), The Outer Limits (1995) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996).
In 1995, he got the role of the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager (1995), where he also directed two episodes. He also got roles in The Howling (1981), Star 80 (1983), Get Crazy (1983), Oh, God! You Devil (1984), Innerspace (1987), Munchies (1987), Samantha (1991), White Mile (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (2010), and so on.
He resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Linda, and their two daughters.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Kojak' (1973–1978)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Kojak's Days: Part 1" (S04 E19: ep aired 1977); "Kojak's Days: Part 2" (S04 E20: ep aired 1977)
[Character:] Thomas Rindone
{Now famous for: TV series 'Star Trek: Voyager' (1995–2001)}
BTW, this was also the TV episode that offered the first ever on-screen role for the actor William Hurt.- Actor
- Producer
William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his supporting role in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence (2005). Hurt received Best Supporting Actor accolades for the role from the Los Angeles Film Critics circle and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Hurt spent the early years of his career on the stage between drama school, summer stock, regional repertory and off-Broadway, appearing in more than fifty productions including "Henry V", "5th of July", "Hamlet", "Uncle Vanya", "Richard II", "Hurlyburly" (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), "My Life" (winning an Obie Award for Best Actor), "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "Good". For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux's "The Grand Railway Bazaar", for the BBC Radio Four and "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. He has recorded "The Polar Express", "The Boy Who Drew Cats", "The Sun Also Rises" and narrated the documentaries, "Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos Passos", "Einstein-How I See the World" and the English narration of Elie Wiesel's "To Speak the Unspeakable", a documentary directed and produced by Pierre Marmiesse. In 1988, Hurt was awarded the first Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Kojak' (1973–1978)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Kojak's Days: Part 1" (S04 E19: ep aired 1977); "Kojak's Days: Part 2" (S04 E20: ep aired 1977)
[Character:] Jake
{Now famous for: many films}
BTW, this was also the TV episode that offered the first ever on-screen role for the actor for the actor Robert Picardo.- Anna Massey was born on 11 August 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on 2 July 2011 in London, England, UK.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Gideon's Day' (1958)
[Character:] Sally Gideon
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV three years before this film, in 1955 – but it was her first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many films} - Actor
- Producer
- Director
Adrian Zmed was born on 14 March 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Bachelor Party (1984), Grease 2 (1982) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He has been married to Lyssa Lynne since 5 October 2012. He was previously married to Barbara Fitzner and Susan Wood.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Starsky and Hutch' (1975–1979)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Discomania" (S04 E01: ep aired 1978)
[Character:] Marty Decker
{Now famous for: TV series 'T.J. Hooker' (1982–1986)}- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio was born on June 30, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York, to Phyllis, a restaurant manager and server, and Gene D'Onofrio, a theatre production assistant and interior designer. He is of Italian descent and has two older sisters. He studied at the Actors Studio and the American Stanislavski Theatre. Vincent D'Onofrio is known as an "actor's actor". The wide variety of roles he has played and the quality of his work have earned him a reputation as a versatile talent.
His first paid role was in Off-Broadway's "This Property Is Condemned". He continued appearing in plays and worked as a bouncer, a bodyguard and a delivery man. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in "Open Admissions", followed by work in numerous other stage plays. In 2012, D'Onofrio returned to teach at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute. As a film actor, D'Onofrio's career break came when he played a mentally unbalanced recruit in Full Metal Jacket (1987), directed by the renowned Stanley Kubrick. For this role D'Onofrio gained nearly 70 pounds. He had a major role in Dying Young (1991), and appeared prominently in the box-office smash Men in Black (1997) as the bad guy (Edgar "The Bug").
Other films of note in which he has appeared are Mystic Pizza (1988), JFK (1991), The Player (1992), Ed Wood (1994), The Cell (2000), The Break-Up (2006) and Jurassic World (2015). In 1996, D'Onofrio garnered critical acclaim along with co-star Renée Zellweger for The Whole Wide World (1996), which he helped produce. He also made a guest appearance in The Subway (1997), where he played an accident victim who could not be rescued and was destined to die. For this performance he won an Emmy nomination. In 2000, he both produced and starred in Steal This Movie (2000), a biopic of radical leader Abbie Hoffman.
In 2001, D'Onofrio took the role which has likely given him his greatest public recognition: Det. Robert Goren, the lead character in the TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001). Goren is based on Sherlock Holmes but, instead of relying upon physical evidence like Holmes, D'Onofrio's character focuses on psychology to identify the perpetrators, whom he often draws into confessing or yielding condemning evidence. He played the part for 10 years.
In his career D'Onofrio's various film characters have included a priest, a bisexual former porn star, a hijacker, a serial killer, Orson Welles, a space alien, a 1960s radical leader, a pulp fiction writer, an ingenious police investigator and Stuart Smalley's dope-head brother. His on-screen love interests have included Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Renée Zellweger, Marisa Tomei, Tracey Ullman, Rebecca De Mornay and Lili Taylor. One of his latest roles is in Marvel's Daredevil (2015) as Daredevil's nemesis, Wilson Fisk. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.First ever TV role:
[TV series:] 'The Equalizer' (1985–1989)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Counterfire" (S02 E07: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Thomas Marley Jr.
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film four years before this TV episode, in 1983 ('The First Turn-On!!') – but it was his first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: many films & TV roles}- Actor
- Producer
Oliver Platt was born in Windsor, Ontario, to American parents, Sheila Maynard, a social worker, and Nicholas Platt, a career diplomat. His parents were both from upper-class families, and his maternal great-grandmother, Cynthia Roche, was the sister of Princess Diana's maternal grandfather, Maurice Roche.
Platt spent his childhood in Washington, D.C., Asia, and the Middle East. Oliver graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Drama in 1983 from Tufts University. He then trained at Shakespeare & Co. with Kristin Linklater.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'The Equalizer' (1985–1989)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "In the Money" (S03 E04: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Norm Jameson
{Now famous for: many films}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gillian Bevan was born on 13 February 1956 in Stockport, Cheshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Teachers (2001), Loved by You (1997) and Hamlet (2015).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Never the Twain' (1981–1991)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "A Home of Your Own" (S04 E01: ep aired 1984)
[Character:] Lorraine
{Now famous for: many TV roles}- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Two-time BAFTA-nominated director Dexter Fletcher is an English actor-turned-filmmaker whose movies and TV work include the Academy Award-winning Elton John biopic Rocketman. Fletcher started his career in front of the camera at the age of 6; three years later he played "Baby Face" in Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone. At 16 Fletcher became the youngest regular member of London's Royal Shakespeare Company, at 23 he was the breakout star of the hit British show Press Gang, and in four decades as an actor his screen and stage co-stars have included Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Robert De Niro, Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, and Liam Neeson, among others. The esteemed directors Fletcher has worked for include David Lynch, Mike Leigh, Michael Winterbottom, Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, and Guy Ritchie.
Fletcher made his debut as a filmmaker with the felons-and-fatherhood drama Wild Bill (2011), which won him two Writers' Guild of Great Britain awards and earned a BAFTA nom for Outstanding Debut; the film currently has a rare 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. His follow-up, Sunshine on Leith (2013), was an adaptation of a stage work based on music by the Scottish band the Proclaimers. It debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2016 Fletcher directed Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman in Eddie the Eagle, about Olympic ski-jumper Michael "Eddie" Edwards, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Later that year, Fletcher was asked to take over directing duties on Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), which told the story of late rocker Freddie Mercury and the band Queen. Fletcher had helped develop that film, and, while uncredited, he helmed the final weeks of shooting and oversaw post-production. The film grossed over $900 million worldwide and won four Oscars, including Best Editing and Best Actor for Rami Malek's portrayal of Mercury.
Fletcher's fourth film, Rocketman (2019) - a dynamic, vibrant biopic about the life of rock legend Elton John, who provided full rights to his music - reunited Fletcher with Taron Egerton. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and earned four BAFTA nominations, and won John and songwriter Bernie Taupin the Best Original Song Oscar for "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" (the only song longtime collaborators John and Taupin won an award for together). Egerton was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor-Musical or Comedy for his performance as John.
In April 2022 Fletcher executive produced the highly-anticipated Paramount+ miniseries The Offer, about The Godfather's journey to the screen, and directed the first two episodes.
Fletcher next directed the romantic adventure comedy Ghosted, starring Ana de Armas and Chris Evans, about a CIA assassin wanting a life outside of her dangerous job and the everyday guy who falls for her without knowing her profession - which involves saving the world. The film premiered on Apple TV+ on April 21. Ghosted reunited Fletcher with cinematographer Salvatore Totino, who worked on episodes of The Offer.
Fletcher will return to acting in director Vanessa Caswill's adaptation of the bestselling novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. The Netflix film is due in 2023.
Fletcher currently resides in London with his wife, acclaimed opera director and film producer (The Offer, Ghosted) Dalia Ibelhauptaité.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Bugsy Malone' (1976)
[Character:] Baby Face
{Now famous for: 'Press Gang' (1989–1993) & other TV series}- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Macaulay Culkin, one of the most famous American child stars, was born on August 26, 1980 in New York City, New York, USA, as the third of seven children of his father Kit Culkin (a former stage and child actor and also Macaulay's former manager) and mother Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Rory Culkin, most of whom have also acted. Macaulay's mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. Macaulay's father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
"Mack", as he's known to his close friends and family, first came into showbiz at the age of 4, appearing in a string of Off-Broadway shows such as the New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker and, by 8 years-old, the films Rocket Gibraltar (1988) and See You in the Morning (1989), which included him in the rare company of kids who have received rave reviews from The New Yorker and The New York Times.
By the age of 9, the young actor had nearly upstaged star John Candy in Uncle Buck (1989) (his deadpan interrogation of Candy was Buck's funniest scene). Then, in 1990, writer John Hughes turned his finished Home Alone (1990) script over to director Chris Columbus with a suggestion to consider Culkin for the lead. Though Macaulay was the first kid Columbus saw, he was skeptical about having him in the lead and saw over 200 other possible actors and he admitted that no one came as close to being as good as Culkin. By the callback interview, Mack had memorized two scenes, and Columbus was sure he found his "Kevin McCallister". The movie grossed more than $285 million in the US alone, becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time and making Macaulay Culkin one of the biggest movie stars of the time.
His next big project was My Girl (1991) in which he played "Thomas J. Sennett", a boy who seems to be allergic to everything. Despite some controversy over the ending, the film was released anyway and proved to be another hit film for Mack (and featured his very first kiss). In 1992 came Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), which grossed more than $172 million in the US alone. In 1993 came The Good Son (1993), which was the first role to depart from his cute kid comedies. He played a murderous little demon named Henry. He got the role when his powerhouse negotiator/manager/father Kit Culkin said that he would pull Mack out of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) unless he was given the psychotic boy lead in The Good Son (1993). He was also given a salary of $5 million for the film.
In 1994, at the age of 14, came a string of duds, The Pagemaster (1994), Getting Even with Dad (1994) and Richie Rich (1994). He was paid $8 million for the last two, the highest salary ever paid for a child star. Many people believed Mack had lost his touch, though, because he was no longer that cute tiny kid they saw in Home Alone (1990). In 1995 his parents, who were never married, separated and started a greedy legal battle over the custody of their kids and Mack's fortune. In 1996, the young actor had reportedly said he wouldn't accept any roles until his parents settled their custody dispute. That case would not be resolved until April 1997 when Kit Culkin relinquished control to Brentrup.
In 1998, Macaulay married actress Rachel Miner, but separated in 2000 because Rachel wanted to start a family and Mack wanted to get back into acting. There has been a gap of eight years since 1994's Richie Rich (1994), and although he made a 'comeback' on stage in 2001, appearing in a London production of "Madame Melville", and also portrayed Michael Alig in Party Monster (2003); with an estimated fortune of $17 million he clearly never has to work again - if the roles don't appeal to him.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'The Equalizer' (1985–1989)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Something Green" (S03 E15: ep aired 1988)
[Character:] Paul Gephardt
Well, this was the first role where he was actually cited on the credits. This was actually his 2nd on-screen role, as he was in an earlier TV drama ('The Midnight Hour' [1985]) where he was not cited in the on-screen credits.
{Now famous for: film series 'Home Alone' (1990), etc.}- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances, Yul Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and outright lies designed to tease people he considered gullible. It was not until the publication of the books "Yul: The Man Who Would Be King" and "Empire and Odyssey" by his son, Yul "Rock" Brynner, that many of the details of Brynner's early life became clear.
Yul sometimes claimed to be a half-Swiss, half-Japanese named Taidje Khan, born on the island of Sakhalin; in reality, he was the son of Marousia Dimitrievna (Blagovidova), the Russian daughter of a doctor, and Boris Yuliyevich Bryner, an engineer and inventor of Swiss-German and Russian descent. He was born in their home town of Vladivostok on 11 July 1920 and named Yuli after his grandfather, Jules Bryner. When Yuli's father abandoned the family, his mother took him and his sister Vera to Harbin, Manchuria, where they attended a YMCA school. In 1934 Yuli's mother took her children to Paris. Her son was sent to the exclusive Lycée Moncelle, but his attendance was spotty. He dropped out and became a musician, playing guitar in the nightclubs among the Russian gypsies who gave him his first real sense of family. He met luminaries such as Jean Cocteau and became an apprentice at the Theatre des Mathurins. He worked as a trapeze artist with the famed Cirque d'Hiver company.
He traveled to the U.S. in 1941 to study with acting teacher Michael Chekhov and toured the country with Chekhov's theatrical troupe. That same year, he debuted in New York as Fabian in "Twelfth Night" (billed as Youl Bryner). After working in a very early TV series, Mr. Jones and His Neighbors (1944), he played on Broadway in "Lute Song" with Mary Martin, winning awards and mild acclaim. He and his wife, actress Virginia Gilmore, starred in the first TV talk show, Mr. and Mrs. (1948). Brynner then joined CBS as a television director. He made his film debut in Port of New York (1949). Two years later Mary Martin recommended him for the part he would forever be known for: the King in Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "The King and I". Brynner became an immediate sensation in the role, repeating it for film (The King and I (1956)) and winning the Oscar for Best Actor.
For the next two decades, he maintained a starring film career despite the exotic nature of his persona, performing in a wide range of roles from Egyptian pharaohs to Western gunfighters, almost all with the same shaved head and indefinable accent. In the 1970s he returned to the role that had made him a star, and spent most of the rest of his life touring the world in "The King and I". When he developed lung cancer in the mid 1980s, he left a powerful public service announcement denouncing smoking as the cause, for broadcast after his death. The cancer and its complications, after a long illness, ended his life. Brynner was cremated and his ashes buried in a remote part of France, on the grounds of the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Bois Aubry, a short distance outside the village of Luzé. He remains one of the most fascinating, unusual and beloved stars of his time.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Port of New York' (1949)
[Character:] Paul Vicola
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a TV series five years before this film, in 1944 ('Mr. Jones and His Neighbors') – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many films, live theatre, etc.}- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
John Soursby Glover, Jr., is an American actor, known for a range of villainous roles in films and television, including Lionel Luthor on the Superman-inspired television series Smallville. In 1993 he co-starred in the dark comedy Ed and His Dead Mother with Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty.Glover was born in Salisbury, Maryland, the son of Cade (née Mullins) and John Soursby Glover, Sr., a television salesman. Glover attended Wicomico High School and acted at Towson University. Glover began his career at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, and later studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse under Milton Katselas. Aside from his theatrical endeavors, Glover is also actively involved with the Alzheimer's Association. His inspiration for joining this cause was his own father's experience with Alzheimer's disease.First ever TV role:
[TV series:] 'Kojak' (1973–1978)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Elegy in an Asphalt Graveyard" (S02 E27: ep aired 1975)
[Character:] Billy Jo
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film two years before this TV episode, in 1973 ('Shamus') – but it was his first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: many TV roles}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane Wymark is a British actress, best known for her roles on the BBC drama Poldark (1975), as well as the television series Midsomer Murders (1997). She was born on October 31, 1952 in London, England, and is the daughter of American writer and playwright Olwen Wymark and English actor Patrick Wymark, both of whom she credits with instilling a love of acting in her.
Jane Wymark was educated a Birmingham University. She has appeared in a series of projects ranging from TV dramas to stage plays.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Rooms' (1974–1977)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Susan" Parts 1 & 2 (S1 E28 & E29: eps aired 1975)
[Character:] Susan
{Now famous for: TV series 'Midsomer Murders' (1997+)}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Julia Sawalha was born in London. She has received due honor for her acting talents. Starring as Lynda Day in Press Gang winning the BAFTA award for Best Drama series. She played the role of Saffy in [Absolutely Fabulous 1992-2016], for which she won the RTS award for Best Actress, Lydia Bennett in the miniseries of [Pride and Prejudice BBC] and the role of Dorcas Lane in the BBC costume drama Lark Rise To Candleford, for which she was nominated Best Actress for the RTS Awards. She created and voiced the character Ginger in Aardman's Oscar nominated feature film Chicken Run, which is the highest grossing stop-motion animated film in history. She has completed two projects for mainstream TV due to be broadcast in 2024.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Keep It in the Family' (1980–1983)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "A Game of No Chance" (S03 E03: ep aired 1981)
[Character:] Walk-On (uncredited)
Admittedly it was almost/effectively an 'extra' role, as she had no script/lines (i.e. it is a non-speaking role), the character had no name, was not spoken to by another character, & she is only on-screen for about 8 seconds in total.
{Now famous for: many TV roles}- Actress
- Producer
Veronica Hamel was born on 20 November 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Hill Street Blues (1981), Cannonball! (1976) and When Time Ran Out... (1980). She was previously married to Michael Irving.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Kojak' (1973–1978)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "How Cruel the Frost, How Bright the Stars" (S03 E15: ep aired 1975)
[Character:] Elenora
{Now famous for: TV series 'Hill Street Blues' (1981–1987)}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in Birkenhead, where her father was a bricklayer and her mother was a cleaning lady. When she was very young, her father was recruited into the Navy, where he worked aboard a minesweeper. She graduated from school at 16 and worked for a while in a pharmacy. However, she found this boring and dead-end and wanted better for herself. Her life changed forever when she was accepted into the prestigious Royal Acadamy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the age of 18. Her work impressed all who observed it. At age 22, she married Roy Hodges.
Her first work came on the stage, where she won a role in an adaptation of "Separate Tables", and made a positive impression on critics and audiences alike. This led to film roles, modest at first, but she approached them with great determination. She first came to the public's notice when she won a supporting role in the controversial film Marat/Sade (1967), and is acknowledged to have stolen the show. She quickly became a member of Britain's A-List. Her first starring role came in the offbeat drama Negatives (1968), in which she out-shone the oddball material. The following year, controversial director Ken Russell gave her a starring role in his adaptation of the 1920s romance Women in Love (1969), in which she co-starred with Oliver Reed. The film was a major success, and Jackson's performance won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. In the process, she became an international celebrity, known world-wide, yet she didn't place as much value on the status and fame as most do. She did, however, become a major admirer of Russell (who had great admiration for her in return) and acted in more of his films. She starred in the controversial The Music Lovers (1971), although it required her to do a nude scene, something that made her very uncomfortable. The film was not a success, but she agreed to do a cameo appearance in his next film, The Boy Friend (1971). Although her role as an obnoxious actress was very small, she once again performed with great aplomb.
1971 turned out to be a key year for her. She took a risk by appearing in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), as a divorced businesswoman in a dead-end affair with a shallow bisexual artist, but the film turned out to be another major success. She accepted the starring role in the British Broadcasting Corporation's much anticipated biography of Queen Elizabeth I, and her performance in the finished film, Elizabeth R (1971), was praised not only by critics and fans, but is cited by historians as the most accurate portrayal of the beloved former queen ever seen. The same year, she successfully played the role of Queen Elizabeth I again in the historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). That same year, she appeared in the popular comedy series The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968) in a skit as Queen Cleopatra, which is considered on of the funniest TV skits in British television, and also proof that she could do comedy just as well as costume melodrama. One who saw and raved about her performance was director Melvin Frank, who proceeded to cast her in the romantic comedy A Touch of Class (1973), co-starring George Segal. The two stars had a chemistry which brought out the best in each other, and the film was not only a major hit in both the United States and Great Britain, but won her a second Academy Award. She continued to impress by refusing obvious commercial roles and seeking out serious artistic work. She gave strong performances in The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) and The Incredible Sarah (1976), in which she portrayed the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. However, some of her films didn't register with the public, like The Triple Echo (1972), The Maids (1975), and Nasty Habits (1977). In addition, her marriage fell apart in 1976. But her career remained at the top and in 1978 she was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That year, she made a comeback in the comedy House Calls (1978), co-starring Walter Matthau. The success of this film which led to a popular television spin-off in the United States the following year. In 1979, she and Segal re-teamed in Lost and Found (1979), but they were unable to overcome the routine script. She again co-starred with Oliver Reed in The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978), but the film was another disappointment.
During the 1980s, she appeared in Hopscotch (1980) also co-starring Walter Matthau, and HealtH (1980) with Lauren Bacall, with disappointing results, although Jackson herself was never blamed. Her performance in the TV biography Sakharov (1984), in which she played Yelena Bonner, devoted wife of imprisoned Russian nuclear scientist Andrei Sakharov opposite Jason Robards, won rave reviews. However, the next film Turtle Diary (1985), was only a modest success, and the ensemble comedy Beyond Therapy (1987) was a critical and box office disaster and Jackson herself got some of the worst reviews of her career.
As the 1980s ended, Jackson continued to act, but became more focused on public affairs. She grew up in a household that was staunchly supportive of the Labour Party. She had disliked the policies of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, even though she admired some of her personal attributes, and strongly disapproved of Thatcher's successor, John Major. She was unhappy with the direction of British government policies, and in 1992 ran for Parliament. Although running in an area (Hampstead and Highgate) which was not heavily supportive of her party, she won by a slim margin and immediately became its most famous newly elective member. However, those who expected that she would rest on her laurels and fame were mistaken. She immediately took an interest in transportation issues, and in 1997 was appointed Junior Transportation Minister by Prime Minister Tony Blair. However, she was critical of some of Blair's policies and is considered an inter-party opponent of Blair's moderate faction. She was considered a traditional Labour Party activist, but is not affiliated with the faction known as The Looney Left. In 2000, she ran for Mayor of London, but lost the Labour nomination to fellow MP Frank Dobson, an ally of Blair, who then lost the election to an independent candidate, Ken Livingstone.
In 2005, she ran again and won the nomination, but lost to Livingstone, winning 38% of the vote. When Blair announced he would not seek reelection as Prime Minister in 2006, Jackson's name was mentioned as a possible successor, although she didn't encourage this speculation. In 2010, she sought reelection to parliament and was almost defeated, winning by only 42 votes.
In 2013, she responded to the death of Margaret Thatcher by strongly denouncing her policies, which was condemned by many as graceless. In 2015, elections for parliament were called again but she didn't seek reelection. She was succeeded in Parliament by Christopher Philp, a Conservative Party member who had been Jackson's opponent in 2010.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'The Extra Day' (1956)
[Character:] Extra (uncredited)
Admittedly it was almost/effectively an 'extra' role, as she had no script/lines (i.e. it is a non-speaking role), the character had no name, was not spoken to by another character, & she is only on-screen for about 3 seconds in total! But she is focused on by the camera (at 1h 30m), as her character is required to faint on-screen.
{Now famous for: many films, live theatre, etc.}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.
After her parents' divorce, Audrey went to London with her mother where she went to a private girls school. Later, when her mother moved back to the Netherlands, she attended private schools as well. While she vacationed with her mother in Arnhem, Netherlands, Hitler's army took over the town. It was here that she fell on hard times during the Nazi occupation. Audrey suffered from depression and malnutrition.
After the liberation, she went to a ballet school in London on a scholarship and later began a modeling career. As a model, she was graceful and, it seemed, she had found her niche in life--until the film producers came calling. In 1948, after being spotted modeling by a producer, she was signed to a bit part in the European film Nederlands in zeven lessen (1948). Later, she had a speaking role in the 1951 film, Young Wives' Tale (1951) as Eve Lester. The part still wasn't much, so she headed to America to try her luck there. Audrey gained immediate prominence in the US with her role in Roman Holiday (1953). This film turned out to be a smashing success, and she won an Oscar as Best Actress.
On September 25, 1954, she married actor Mel Ferrer. She also starred in Sabrina (1954), for which she received another Academy Award nomination. She starred in the films Funny Face (1957) and Love in the Afternoon (1957). She received yet another Academy Award nomination for her role in The Nun's Story (1959). On July 17, 1960, she gave birth to her first son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer.
Audrey reached the pinnacle of her career when she played Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), for which she received another Oscar nomination. She scored commercial success again playing Regina Lampert in the espionage caper Charade (1963). One of Audrey's most radiant roles was in the fine production of My Fair Lady (1964). After a couple of other movies, most notably Two for the Road (1967), she hit pay dirt and another nomination in Wait Until Dark (1967).
In 1967, Audrey decided to retire from acting while she was on top. She divorced from Mel Ferrer in 1968. On January 19, 1969, she married Dr. Andrea Dotti. On February 8, 1970, she gave birth to her second son, Luca Dotti in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. From time to time, she would appear on the silver screen.
In 1988, she became a special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993. She was named to People's magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. Her last film was Always (1989).
Audrey Hepburn died, aged 63, on January 20, 1993 in Tolochnaz, Vaud, Switzerland, from appendicular cancer. She had made a total of 31 high quality movies. Her elegance and style will always be remembered in film history as evidenced by her being named in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time".First ever film role
[although some sources cite this as another film made the same year: 'One Wild Oat' (1951) (character: Hotel Receptionist)]:
[Film:] 'Laughter in Paradise' (1951)
[Character:] Cigarette Girl
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role two years before this film, in a TV movie in 1949 ('Sauce Tartare') (N.B. no character name is cited) – but it was her first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many films}- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Jerome Courtland was born on 27 December 1926 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Pete's Dragon (1977), Kiss and Tell (1945) and Make Believe Ballroom (1949). He was married to Marlene Juttner, Janet Rose Gumprecht and Polly Bergen. He died on 1 March 2012 in Santa Clarita Valley, California, USA.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Together Again' (1944)
[Character:] Gilbert Parker- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957, in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She earned a BA in theater from Bethany College in 1979 and an MFA from Yale University in 1982. Her career after graduation began onstage, and she has retained her association with the theater throughout her career. She soon obtained prominent roles in movies as well, first starring in Blood Simple (1984), in which she worked with filmmaker Joel Coen, whom she married that year. She frequently collaborated with Coen and his brother, Ethan Coen, in their films.
McDormand's skilled and versatile acting has been recognized by both the critics and the Academy, and in addition to many critics' awards, she has been nominated for an Academy Award six times - Supporting in Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005), and Lead in Fargo (1996), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), and Nomadland (2020), winning the Oscar for the latter three. She also won a Best Picture Oscar as co-producer of "Nomadland." Keenly intelligent and possessed of a sharp wit, McDormand is the antithesis of the Hollywood starlet - rather than making every role about Frances McDormand, she dissolves into the characters she plays. Accordingly, she has expressed some reservations about the iconic recognition she has gained from her touching and amusing portrayal of Police Chief Marge Gunderson, the quintessential Minnesota Scandinavian, in Fargo (1996).
McDormand and Coen adopted a son, Pedro McDormand Coen, who was born in Paraguay, in 1994. They live in New York.First ever TV role:
[TV series:] 'Hunter' (1984–1991)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Garbage Man" (S1 E11: ep aired 1985)
[Character:] Nina Sloan (as Fran McDormand)
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film one year before this TV episode, in 1984 ('Blood Simple') – but it was her first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: many films}- Actor
- Soundtrack
Keith Michell was an Emmy Award-winning Australian stage, television, and film actor. Born 1 December 1926 in Adelaide, South Australia, he was brought up some 150 miles away, in Warnertown, on the Augusta Highway between Crystal Brook and Port Pirie. He taught art until he made his debut on the Adelaide stage in 1947, following that up with his first appearance in London in 1951.
Michell was a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company. From 1974-77, he was the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre. He has starred in several musicals, including the first London production of Man of La Mancha (1972). In addition to his stage work, he appeared extensively in film and television in Australia and the UK, most notably as King Henry VIII in the six-part 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), for which he won an Emmy Award. A movie version was made in 1972. On US television, he appeared in various episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984). In addition to acting, he wrote a musical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt', called "Pete McGynty and the Dreamtime". He also paints and illustrates books, as well as written and illustrated cookbooks.
Michell married the Anglo-Czech actress Jeanette Sterke in 1957; they had two children: actor Paul Michell and actress Helena Michell. He died on 20 November 2015, aged 88, in Hampstead, London, England. A theater in Port Pirie, the Keith Mitchell Theatre-Northern Festival Centre, was founded in his honor.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'True as a Turtle' (1957)
[Character:] Harry Bell
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV six years before this film, in 1951 – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now famous for:
e.g. repeat guest role in TV series 'Murder She Wrote' (1984+)}- Well-known British classical stage star Tony Britton was born Anthony Edward Lowry Britton in Birmingham, England, on June 9, 1924, the son of Edward Leslie and Doris (Jones) Britton in 1924. He took his first professional curtain call at age 18 in "Quiet Weekend" with a company in Weston-Super-Mare just before joining the Army in November of 1942. Serving with the Royal Artillery for 4 1/2 years, he eventually returned to the theater after the war, at first in the capacity of an assistant stage manager at the Manchester Library Theatre.
Making his London debut in "The Rising Wind" at the Embassy Theatre, Tony began elevating his name in repertory at Edinburgh and the Bristol Old Vic during the 1951 season, but major attention came after being cast as Rameses in Christopher Fry's "The Firstborn" at London's Winter Garden Theatre in 1952. This success led to the leading role and excellent critical notices in "The Player King" later that year at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Glen Byam Shaw, director of the Memorial Theatre, witnessed this performance and invited him join his company. He remained there for two seasons playing Bassiano opposite Peggy Ashcroft in "The Merchant of Venice," as well as essaying the roles of Cassio in "Othello", Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", among others.
Other London stage roles came with "The Night of the Ball" opposite Wendy Hiller and Gladys Cooper, and "Gigi" starring Leslie Caron. At the Old Vic he played Trigorin in "The Seagull" and Hotspur in "Henry IV" before settling in for an over two-year run as Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". He would return to this part more than once over a decade later.
A renaissance man of the theatre, Tony didn't pursue film roles with equal zest, yet his infrequent offerings reliably enhanced any project he was involved in. The highlights of his 20 or so movies include both lead and supporting parts in The Birthday Present (1957) (co-starring Sylvia Syms, Behind the Mask (1958) with Michael Redgrave, The Risk (1960) opposite Virginia Maskell, Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and The Day of the Jackal (1973); his last film to date was released decades ago -- Agatha (1979) starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave.
On TV Tony has portrayed assorted men of distinction -- lords, sirs, captains ,and the like in TV movies. He lightened up considerably in his numerous comedy series, including the popular Robin's Nest (1977) and Don't Wait Up (1983), both of which ran for several seasons. His last decade or so were spent primarily on TV with prime roles on the British series Don't Tell Father (1992), the mini-series The Way We Live Now (2001) and episodes of "My Dad's the Prime Minister," "Doctors," "The Royal" and "Holby City." He made his last appearance with a brief bit in the rollicking film comedy Run for Your Wife (2012).
He has contributed his mellifluous voice to books on tape as well. Divorced from Ruth Hawkins, who bore him two children, he later was long married to Danish sculptor Eve Birkefeldt until her death in 2008. His three children -- classical actor Jasper Britton, writer Cherry Britton, and correspondent Fern Britton -- have all been involved one way or another in the entertainment field. Tony died on December 22, 2019, at age 95.{ Hmmm . . . Not quite his first ever on-screen role! See my note, below! }
First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Loser Takes All' (1956)
[Character:] Tony
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role, but it was the film that claims in the opening credits to be 'introducing' the actor.
His actual first ever on-screen roles were, according to IMDb.com, in 3 earlier films:
(i) an uncredited role in 2 films of 1950:
(a) 'Waterfront' (1950), as the uncredited character 'Deck-hand'
(b) 'Cage of Gold' (1950), as the uncredited character of 'Nicky'
(ii) a credited role of 1952 (made 4 years earlier than 'Loser Takes All'): 'Salute the Toff' (1952), as the character 'Draycott'
{Now famous for: many films & TV roles} - Actress
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Ava Lavina Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in Grabtown, North Carolina, to Mary Elizabeth (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner. Born on a tobacco farm, where she got her lifelong love of earthy language and going barefoot, Ava grew up in the rural South. At age 18, her picture in the window of her brother-in- law's New York photo studio brought her to the attention of MGM, leading quickly to Hollywood and a film contract based strictly on her beauty. With zero acting experience, her first 17 film roles, 1942-1945, were one-line bits or little better. After her first starring role in B-grade Whistle Stop (1946), MGM loaned her to Universal for her first outstanding film The Killers (1946). Few of her best films were made at MGM which, keeping her under contract for 17 years, used her popularity to sell many mediocre films. Perhaps as a result, she never believed in her own acting ability, but her latent talent shone brightly when brought out by a superior director, as with John Ford in Mogambo (1953) and George Cukor in Bhowani Junction (1956).
After three failed marriages, dissatisfaction with Hollywood life prompted Ava to move to Spain in 1955; most of her subsequent films were made abroad. By this time, stardom had made the country girl a cosmopolitan, but she never overcame a deep insecurity about acting and life in the spotlight. Her last quality starring film role was in The Night of the Iguana (1964), her later work being (as she said) strictly "for the loot". In 1968, tax trouble in Spain prompted a move to London, where she spent her last 22 years in reasonable comfort. Her film career did not bring her great fulfillment, but her looks may have made it inevitable; many fans still consider her the most beautiful actress in Hollywood history. Ava Gardner died at age 67 of bronchial pneumonia on January 25, 1990 in Westminister, London, England.{ Hmmm . . . Not quite her first ever on-screen role! See my note, below! }
First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Ghosts on the Loose' (1943)
[Character:] Betty
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role, but it was the first CREDITED role by the actor.
His actual first ever on-screen roles were, according to IMDb.com, in 11 earlier films, starting 2 years earlier in 1941. All were UNcredited roles.
{Now famous for: many films}- Actress
- Soundtrack
Prunella Scales was born on 22 June 1932 in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Howards End (1992), Fawlty Towers (1975) and Wolf (1994). She has been married to Timothy West since 26 October 1963. They have two children.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Laxdale Hall' (1953)
[Character:] Morag McLeod
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV one year before this film, in 1952 – but it was her first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many on-screen roles}- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Timothy Darrell Russ was born on June 22, 1956, in Washington, D.C., to Air Force officer Walt and his wife Josephine. He and his younger siblings Michael and Angela grew up on several military bases, including Niagara Falls, Elmendorf (Alaska) AFB, Omaha, Taiwan, Philippines and Turkey. During these moves around the world, he graduated from Izmir High School in Turkey, and received his diploma from Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York. Afterwards he attended Saint Edwards University and earned a B.S. in Theater Arts but continued his studies with a full scholarship to continue theater studies at Illinois State University. His first professional job came while he was at St. Edward's University in Austin, when he appeared in a PBS Masterpiece Theater production, but he started to pursue acting full time in 1985. During that time he's been on many TV shows and movies - including The Twilight Zone (1985), Amazing Stories (1985), Thirtysomething (1987), Jake and the Fatman (1987), 21 Jump Street (1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987), The People Next Door (1989), Mancuso, FBI (1989), Family Matters (1989), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Tequila and Bonetti (1992), SeaQuest 2032 (1993), Dark Justice (1991), Murphy Brown (1988), Monty (1994), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Melrose Place (1992), Any Day Now (1998), The Highwayman (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), among others.
Along with his television experience he has also played in a variety of films, including Crossroads (1986), Fire with Fire (1986), Timestalkers (1987), Spaceballs (1987), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), Pulse (1988), Bird (1988), Roots: The Gift (1988), Eve of Destruction (1991), Dead Silence (1997), Night Eyes II (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Star Trek: Generations (1994), Dead Connection (1994), East of Hope Street (1997). During his comprehensive acting career he appeared in numerous theatrical productions including "Romeo & Juliet", "Barrabas", "Dream Girls", "As You Like It", "Twelfth Night", "Cave Dwellers" among others. When not acting, Russ finds time for music and film producing. Songs sung by Tim Russ are available on the CDs "Only a Dream in Rio", "Tim Russ", "Kushangaza" and "Brave New World". He lives in the area of Los Angeles where his whole family resides.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Hunter' (1984–1991)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Killer in a Halloween Mask" (S2 E05: ep aired 1985)
[Character:] Sam
{Now famous for: TV series 'Star Trek: Voyager' (1995–2001)}- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
The second of three children born to a dentist and his wife in Nashville, Tennessee, Denton grew up in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, attended Goodlettsville High School, briefly played basketball at a junior college, then went on to graduate with honors from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, snagging a degree in advertising as a television/journalism major on the way out the door. Even though his father was involved in community theater, Denton didn't jump in until he was 23, during the Tennessee bicentennial in Nashville, Tennessee. His role as "George Gibbs" in a production of "Our Town" turned out to be only the first in a long line of plays that he would do, first in Nashville and then, later, in North Carolina, Chicago and California.
Although he spent the next four years selling advertising for two radio stations and then for the CBS affiliate in Nashville, Denton's heart was already in another place and, after a short stint in North Carolina, he headed to Chicago to try his hand at acting full-time.
In Chicago, his first role was as "Stanley" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and his last was as the terrorist "Bebert" in the French farce "Lapin Lapin". In the years that came between the two, JD was a company member at The Griffin Theater and at Strawdog Theater Ensemble. He added a steady string of roles and accolades to his quickly growing list of achievements, including one of the leads in the world premiere of "Flesh and Blood", performing in and composing the music for "the Night Hank Williams Died", and his portrayal of Kentucky preacher "C.C. Showers" in "The Diviners" - which gained him a much coveted nomination for a Best Actor Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago's only theater award). A small part in The Untouchables (1993) (the series, not the movie), JAG (1995), Sliders (1995) and Dark Skies (1996). A spot on Moloney (1996), a pilot for ABC called "L.A. Med" and a stint on the silver screen in That Old Feeling (1997), were preludes to his first appearance as "Mr. Lyle" on The Pretender (1996). Immediately afterward, JD made another pilot, this time for his own series, "The Hanleys". When ABC shelved the sitcom at the last minute, Denton continued producing chilling portrayals as "Mr. Lyle" on NBC's The Pretender (1996), as a series regular.
The summer of 1999 found Denton heading back to the theater, starring in the world premiere of the play, "In Walked Monk." During the fourth season of The Pretender (1996), Denton added three more guest-starring roles to his credits - the first on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998), another on Ally McBeal (1997) and the last on the hugely popular The West Wing (1999). That summer, he co-starred in "Asylum" at The Court Theatre and, at the end of the year, headed for Canada to film two MOWs for TNT - The Pretender 2001 (2001) and The Pretender: Island of the Haunted (2001). 2001 found Denton back at ABC after Steven Bochco cast him as "Judge Augustus "Jack" Ripley," in his struggling new series, Philly (2001). Viewers liked "Judge Ripley," and hopes were high that the sizzling on-screen chemistry between Denton's character and the one portrayed by Kim Delaney would convince ABC to give the show another season to improve its ratings. Ironically, Denton was in Australia, promoting Philly (2001), when he received word that ABC had passed on renewing the show for a second season. Denton ended 2002 with a two-part guest-starring role on The Drew Carey Show (1995).
Denton returned as a guest star on JAG (1995) in 2003, and pilot season landed him the opportunity to once again head up the cast of an ABC series in Threat Matrix (2003), a Touchstone production offering up fictionalized events relating to terrorist activity around the world. Denton played "John Kilmer", the man who lead the ultra-covert team of anti-terrorist specialists and who answered solely to the President of the United States. The timely and serious role also gave Denton the opportunity to change his professional billing from "Jamie Denton" to "James Denton". Only days before the annual up-fronts in New York, where the major networks announce their new fall season line-ups, ABC picked up the show for September, 2003.
Although Threat Matrix (2003) held its own in one of the worst time-slots of the season (sandwiched between the hugely popular "Survivor" and the last season of Friends (1994)), ABC nonetheless pulled the series after only fourteen episodes aired (sixteen episodes were filmed). Threat Matrix (2003) was officially canceled on the same day as Denton's role as "Mike Delfino" on Desperate Housewives (2004), a new ABC series scheduled for the Fall, was announced at the 2004 up-fronts in New York.
On October 3, 2004, Desperate Housewives (2004) garnered incredible ratings with its debut episode and ABC picked up the rest of the first season before the end of the month. Less than three months later, Denton was included in People Magazine's 2004 "Sexiest Men Alive" issue.
During the first and second seasons of Desperate Housewives (2004), Denton managed to schedule a sweeps week guest star spot on Reba (2001) and, toward the end of the second season, played the role of "Brother John Brown" in Ascension Day (2007).
Years after composing the music for and performing in "The Night Hank Williams Died" - a play from his days in Chicago - Denton accepted an invitation that was proffered to him by Greg Grunberg (Heroes (2006)) and became a singer and guitar player for a band that was first known as "16:9" and then, later, as "The Band From TV". Other members of the band include, and have included, (the founder and drummer)Greg Grunberg, Hugh Laurie (keyboards, House (2004)), 'Bonnie Somerville' (singer, Cashmere Mafia (2008)) and Bob Guiney (singer, Bachelor #4 on The Bachelor (2002)). The band largely plays at Hollywood events but does, on occasion, play elsewhere. The band donates any money that it makes to charities that are selected by each of its primary members. When the WGA writer's strike of 2007 shut down production on TV series, there was talk of a tour for the temporarily unemployed band members. A CD that the band made in 2007, "Hoggin' All The Covers" is available for sale at Amazon.com. In addition, at least one of the band's songs are on the soundtrack for House (2004) and two of its songs, "Minnie the Moocher" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want", are available for purchase on iTunes.
While on hiatus, between the second and third seasons of Desperate Housewives (2004), Denton teamed up with Chris Kattan in the straight-to-DVD film, Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007).
2007 was a busy year for Denton. In addition to traveling all over the country in order to lend his celebrity to dozens of charitable causes, he also completed three projects - ABC's Masters of Science Fiction (2007)'s episode, The Discarded (2007); Custody (2007), which aired on Lifetime and Tortured (2007).
The same year, Denton, a lifelong fan of baseball, joined an Orange County investment group that purchased the Golden Baseball League Team, "The Fullerton Flyers". Shortly after the purchase and, although the team's home field remained at Cal State Fullerton, the group changed the name of the team to "The Orange County Flyers". Not content to merely be an investor, Denton took as active a role as his schedule and the team structure allowed, attending try-outs, where he had a hand in selecting some of the players during his first season as a co-owner, and attending quite a few of the home games.
When "Housewives" isn't in production, JD still takes part in other productions. These have included Group Sex (2010) and bringing the voice of "Superman" to life in the animated video, All-Star Superman (2011). He played the role of "Slim" in the independent film, Karaoke Man (2012).
Denton announced on the Christopher Gabriel radio program that he and his family were moving to Minnesota in August of 2012 and that he would pursue whatever comes next from there. His fans didn't have to wait long to hear from him again. In 2013 JD took on the role of Johnny Trey in "Grace Unplugged" and in short order won an award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. The film won a Top Ten Family Film of the Year and the Grand Prize, "The Epiphany Award" for Most Inspirational Film of 2013. Denton went on to do the Hallmark Channel's "Stranded In Paradise", "Ovation", "Strangers", "The Dancer and the Dame" and "Revelation Road 3: The Black Rider". 2014 found Denton making a deal with The Hallmark Channel to become (as "Dr. Sam") part of their original series, "The Good Witch" which is in its seventh season.First ever TV role:
[TV series:] 'Sliders ' (1995–2000)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy" (S2 E04 or E05: ep aired 1997)
[Character:] Jack Bullock
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film four years before this TV episode, in 1993 ('Thieves Quartet') – but it was his first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: TV series 'Desperate Housewives' (2004–2012)}- Actress
- Soundtrack
The lovely, cheery, continuously upbeat All-American mom from the classic Happy Days (1974) TV sitcom had fervent desires of becoming an actress while growing up in her obscure Minnesota town. Born Marian Ross (with an "a") on October 25, 1928, she grew up in her native state and, at one time, worked as a teenage au pair in order to earn money for drama lessons at the MacPhail Center in Minneapolis. The family eventually relocated to San Diego (she was in her late teens) and Marion attended and graduated from Point Loma High School.
Changing her stage moniker to Marion (with an "o") Ross because it read classier to her, the young hopeful enrolled at San Diego State College and appeared in the theater department's various productions. Graduating in 1950, Marion worked in summer theater in and around the San Diego area, including the Old Globe Theatre.
Marion managed to land a Paramount Studio contract with the assist of an old college professor and found a few unbilled parts to play as various actress, tourist and girlfriend types in a variety of films such as The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Secret of the Incas (1954), Sabrina (1954) and Pushover (1954). At the same time, she won a regular role as the Irish maid "Nora" in the Victorian-TV comedy Life with Father (1953) which ran a couple of seasons and was headed by Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle. This program happened to be the first live color series for network Hollywood TV.
Not your conventional leading lady type, Marion landed slightly larger parts in such movies as The Proud and Profane (1956), Lizzie (1957), Teacher's Pet (1958) and Operation Petticoat (1959), but any and all attempts to move further up the Hollywood film ladder proved a long-lasting frustration.
Marking her Broadway debut in 1958 with a role in "Edwin Booth" starring José Ferrer, Marion nevertheless continued to focus on TV work. Throughout the 1960s, she appeared in a fairly steady amount of shows, both comedies and dramas, including Father Knows Best (1954), Rawhide (1959), Route 66 (1960), The Outer Limits (1963), The Felony Squad (1966) and The Brady Bunch (1969).
By the end of the decade, however, Marion was still disillusioned, but now she was divorced from her husband of 18 years, Freeman Meskimen, and struggling to raise two children. Middle-aged stardom came to her (in her 46th year) with the nostalgic sitcom series Happy Days (1974), which arrived on a wave of 50s popularity triggered by the huge box-office reception to the film American Graffiti (1973). The show starred "Graffiti" lead Ron Howard and co-starred Henry Winkler as "The Fonz". Marion was ideally paired with Tom Bosley, who expertly played her beleaguered hubby. The series became a certifiable hit and Marion's ever-pleasant "Marion Cunningham" the new, slightly blended version of Lucille Ball's ditzy and Barbara Billingsley's pristine perfect moms. Two Emmy nominations came Marion's way during the show's long tenure (ten seasons).
Following the demise of such an exalting hit, many actors often find themselves either resting on their laurels or witnessing a sad decline in their career. Not Marion. She continued to pursue her career assertively and challengingly and the critics kept taking notice. She earned terrific reviews for her recurring The Love Boat (1977) role in 1986, and enjoyed standard guest turns on Night Court (1984), MacGyver (1985), Burke's Law (1963) and (the revived) "Superman".
One of Marion's finest hours on TV occurred with her role as the obstinate, iron-willed Jewish matriarch in the Brooklyn Bridge (1991) series, which neatly deflected any broad, daffy stereotype she might have incurred from her Happy Days (1974) role. Irritating yet ingratiating at the same time, Marion's fine interpretation garnered the veteran actress two more Emmy nominations. Sadly, a lack of viewership triggered an abrupt cancellation and deep disappointment in Marion.
While never making a strong dent in films, an excellent supporting turn for Marion came in the form of her moving portrayal of Shirley MacLaine's loyal housekeeper and confidante in The Evening Star (1996), the long-awaited sequel to the Oscar-winning Terms of Endearment (1983). Critics predicted an Academy Award nomination for the actress but, surprisingly, it did not pan out.
Other films over the years have included Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970); Grand Theft Auto (1977), which starred Happy Days (1974) son Ron Howard (who also made his directorial debut); and, more recently, Music Within (2007) and the silly spoof Superhero Movie (2008).
During her post-"Happy Days" years, Marion reinvigorated her career on the stage. As a result, she earned renewed acclaim and respect for her roles in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (which brought her back to Broadway), "Steel Magnolias", "Long Day's Journey Into Night", "The Glass Menagerie", "Pippin" and "Barefoot in the Park", among others. She also toured with her one-woman show as poet Edna St. Vincent Millay entitled "A Lovely Light".
On TV, Marion found recurring flinty-like roles on That '70s Show (1998) (as Grandma Forman), Touched by an Angel (1994) (a fifth Emmy nomination), The Drew Carey Show (1995), Gilmore Girls (2000) (as Gloria Gilmore), and Brothers & Sisters (2006), as well as guest parts on "Nurse Jackie," "Grey's Anatomy," "Anger Management," "Two and a Half Men," "Hot in Cleveland," "Chasing Life" and "The Odd Couple." Primarily involved in voice work into the millennium, she as provided voices for such animated shows as "Family Guy," "King of the Hill," "Scooby-Doo!" and "Guardians of the Galaxy," while also voicing the recurring roles of Grandma SquarePants in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) and Mrs. Lopart in Handy Manny (2006).
Into her nonagenarian years and still active, Marion was more recently featured in the old-fashioned comedy/fantasy Angels on Tap (2018). The ever-vital octogenarian continues to reside at her country-style home she calls the "Happy Days Farm" in California's San Fernando Valley.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Forever Female ' (1953)
[Character:] Patty (as Marian Ross)
{Now famous for: TV series 'Happy Days' (1974–1984)}- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jason Watkins was born on 28 October 1966 in Albrighton, Shropshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Crown (2016), Des (2020) and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (2014). He has been married to Clara Francis since January 2014. They have three children. He was previously married to Caroline Harding.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'High Hopes' (1988)
[Character:] Wayne
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV one year before this film, in 1987 – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many TV roles
e.g. 'Being Human' (2008–2013)}- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Jim Dale began his career as a stand-up comic. He sharpened his comedy skills during a stint in the army, where he organized and performed in camp shows. After his discharge he pursued a comedy career, and landed a job as the warm-up comic on a musical variety show. He did so well that the producers gave him a spot on the show as a singer, and he quickly became a recording star. He was signed for a small part in one of the "Carry On" films, Carry on Cabby (1963), but the audience reaction to him was so great the he was soon made a regular member of the cast. Unlike many comics, Dale insisted on performing his own stunts, and in fact injured his arm performing a stunt in Carry on Again Doctor (1969), his last film of the series until 1992.
After his departure from the series he returned to the stage, notably in Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theater. In the 1970s Dale moved to the US for film and stage work, achieving success in the Broadway show "Barnum" and in a string of film comedies for Disney.
He returned to Britain in 1992 for an appearance in the final "Carry On" film, Carry on Columbus (1992).First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Raising the Wind' (1961)
[Character:] Bass Trombone (Phil)
{Now famous for: many roles
e.g. the 'Carry On' film series}- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Zach Braff was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, to Anne Hutchinson (Maynard), a clinical psychologist, and Harold Irwin Braff, a trial attorney. His father is from Russia and Austria, while Zach's mother is from a family with deep roots in New England. Zach attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and also graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in film. Zach is known for playing Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian on the television series Scrubs (2001), for writing, directing, and starring in the films Garden State (2004) and Wish I Was Here (2014), and for starring in the movies Chicken Little (2005), The Last Kiss (2006), and The Ex (1996).
He just completed directing the New Line/ Warner Bros. feature "Going In Style" starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' (1993)
[Character:] Nick Lipton
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV four years before this film, in 1989 ('High' [TV movie]) – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now famous for: many TV roles
e.g. 'Scrubs' (2001–2010)}- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Richard Ridings was born on 19 September 1958 in Henley-on-Thames, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), The Pianist (2002) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). He has been married to Catherine Jensen since 1984. They have two children.First ever on-screen role:
[TV miniseries:] 'Reilly: Ace of Spies' (1983)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Prelude to War" (E2)
[Character:] Vanderberg
{Now well known for: many roles
e.g. TV series 'Fat Friends' (2000–2005)}- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Jazz singer Nancy Wilson, a three-time Grammy Award-winner, was born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio to iron-worker Olden Wilson and the former Lillian Ryan, who worked as a domestic servant. Nancy was the first of six children. Her father's love of music and the records he played at home were a huge influence on Nancy as a young girl. She already knew she would be a singer by the time she was four years old, and developed her talent by singing in the church choir.
She won a TV-talent show when she 15, and began appearing regularly on the Tv show "Skyline Melodies" while still in high school. She began working in night clubs at that same age.
After graduating from high school, the 17-year old Nancy matriculated for one year at Ohio's Central State College (now Central State University) before dropping out and becoming a professional singer. She recorded her first record with Rusty Bryant's Carolyn Club Big Band in 1956, with whom she toured from 1956 to 1958. While in the group, Nancy made her first recording with Dot Records.
Cannonball Adderley told her to move to New York to further her career, and she went to The Big Town in 1959. Within a month, she got a job singing at The Blue Morocco Night Club on Boston Road in The Bronx, where Adderley's agent heard her and signed her. He obtained a contract for with Capitol records in 1960, and she made her debut that year with the single. "Guess Who I Saw Today."
Her records were successful, and Capitol issued five Nancy Wilson albums in two years. Initially focusing on rhythm and blues, under Adderley's influence, she moved away from R&B and embraced jazz and torch songs. Their 1962 collaboration "Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley" helped propel her to the top, and she had her breakout hit, "Tell Me the Truth," in 1963. This brought her a gig at New York's Coconut Grove, the premier night club in America, the following year, and she became a star.
Her 1964 song "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" reached #11 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. Eventually, she charted 11 songs in the Hot 100. Nancy also placed four albums in Billboard's Top LP charts between March 1964 and June 1965.
She won her first Grammy in 1964, for best R&B recording for her LP "How Glad I Am." Nancy continued recording into the 21st Century, winning Best Jazz Vocal Grammy Awards for her albums "R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal)" (2005) and "Turned to Blue" (2007). She retired from live performance in 2011.
In addition to singing, Nancy Wilson also is an actress. She made numerous appearances on American TV. She also made a one-off appearance on the BBC with The Nancy Wilson Show (1966) in 1966 that was turned into a soundtrack album.
Nancy was married twice, to drummer Kenny Dennis from 1960-70. They had one child. She married the Presbyterian minister Wiley Burton in 1973. Married 35 years until his death in 2008, they had two children.First ever TV role:
[TV series:] 'Burke's Law ' (1963–1966)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Who Killed Wimbledon Hastings?" (S2 E20: ep aired 1965)
[Character:] Choo Choo
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film 1 year before this TV episode, in 1964 ('The Killers') – but it was her first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: jazz singing career}- Actor
- Soundtrack
Adam Morris is known for Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989), Mile High (2003) and Four Tails (2014).(aka: Wayne Morris)
First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Inspector Morse' (1987–2000)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Dead of Jericho" (S1 E1: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Constable Dixon (as Wayne Morris)
{Now famous for (as Wayne Morris): the role of "Robin" in 'Maid Marian and Her Merry Men' (1989–1994)}- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Julie Graham was born on 24 July 1965 in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007), Being Eileen (2011) and Shetland (2013). She has been married to Davy Croket since 11 September 2019. She was previously married to Joseph Bennett.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Taggart' (1983–2010)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Death Call Part One" (S2 E2: ep aired 1986)
[Character:] Kathleen Kelly
{Now well known for: many roles}- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Simon Callow was born on 13 June 1949 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and A Room with a View (1985). He has been married to Sebastian Fox since June 2016.First ever on-screen role
[Although some sources cite his first on-screen role as another TV series made the same year:
'Carry on Laughing!'; episode: "Orgy and Bess" (1975); character: 1st Crew Member.
But as Callow's scene was ultimately cut from that 'Carry On Laughing!' episode pre-broadcast, although he is listed in the closing credits, whether that can be considered to be his first actual on-screen role is moot!]:
[TV series:] 'Get Some In!' (1975–78)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "36-Hour Pass" (S1 E7: ep aired 1975)
[Character:] Wally
{Now well known for: many roles}- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Cuba Gooding Jr. was born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York. His mother, Shirley (Sullivan), was a backup singer for The Sweethearts. His father, Cuba Gooding, was the lead vocalist for the R&B group The Main Ingredient, which had a hit with the song "Everybody Plays The Fool". His paternal grandfather was from Barbados.
Cuba's father moved the family to Los Angeles in 1972, only to leave them a few years later. Despite this setback, Cuba was able to maintain a positive outlook and overachieved throughout school. He attended four different high schools and was elected class president in three of them. While at high school, Cuba met and fell in love with Sara Kapfer, whom he later lived with for seven years before tying the knot in March 1994.
Following high school, Cuba studied Japanese martial arts for three years before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981) and MacGyver (1985). His first major role was in the 1991 box office surprise Boyz n the Hood (1991). He followed this success with supporting roles in major films like A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994) and Outbreak (1995).
In 1996, Cuba was cast as an arrogant but loyal football player in the Tom Cruise-Cameron Crowe film Jerry Maguire (1996). The film became a huge box office smash and earned Cuba an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His "Show Me The Money" line in the movie became a nationwide catchphrase. The role elevated him to superstar status, as many of Hollywood's top producers began to "show him the money" to appear in their films.
Since Jerry Maguire (1996), Cuba has managed to keep busy with a wide range of roles alongside many of Hollywood's biggest stars. Most recently, he won critical support for his portrayal of a mentally handicapped man in the heartwarming film Radio (2003), another movie about football. In 2002, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He resides in Studio City, California.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Coming to America' (1988)
[Character:] Boy Getting Haircut
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV two years before this film, in 1986 ('Better Days' [TV series]) – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now well known for: many film roles}- Cheerful-looking actress Dinah Sheridan was considered the quintessential English rose of late 30's and 40's British films. With an alertness, elegance and quiet beauty second to none, she won the hearts of war-torn England during WWII.
She was born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg in London on September 17, 1920. Her Russian father and German mother were photographers to the Royal Family, by appointment to both the Queen and Queen Mother. Dinah's first professional role was an understudy part of Rsoamund in "Where the Rainbow End." She subsequently went on tour as Wendy in "Peter Pan" starring Charles Laughton as Captain Hook and wife Elsa Lanchester in the title role, and appeared in repertory during the war years.
Dinah broke into films at the tender age of 16 with a starring role in a meek, lowbudget piece Landslide (1937). Her co-star was young Jimmy Hanley, in his first adult role, and the two would later marry in 1942, having three children (one died in childbirth). Dinah continued in both drama and light comedy as the youthful ingenue in such films as Behind Your Back (1937), Father Steps Out (1937), Merely Mr. Hawkins (1938) and Irish and Proud of It (1938). Jimmy and Dinah became a popular WWII-era film couple, appearing quite winningly together in Salute John Citizen (1942), The Facts of Love (1945) and The Huggetts Abroad (1949). One of their children, Jenny Hanley, followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress and TV presenter.
Dinah remained a lovely presence in a variety of post-war films, gracing such productions as the stark melodrama The Hills of Donegal (1947); in the whodunnit Calling Paul Temple (1948) opposite John Bentley as part of a husband/wife detective team; in the crime drama The Story of Shirley Yorke (1948) as the title nurse; the adventure drama Ivory Hunter (1951); and the romantic war piece The Sound Barrier (1952).
Divorced from Hanley in 1952, Dinah, following a secondary role in the biopic Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) and after starring role in one of Britain's most delightful 50's comedies, Genevieve (1953), co-starring John Gregson, Kenneth More and the sublime Kay Kendall, abruptly retired on a high note after marrying Sir John Davis, the President of the Rank Organization, in 1954. Following her second divorce, and after 11 years of obscurity, Dinah made a return to the stage in 1967 with the play "Let's All Go Down the Strand." She continued with prominent 70's roles in "A Boston Story," "A Touch of Purple, "Move Over Mrs. Markham" (title role), "The Card," "The Gentle Hook," "The Please of His Company," "A Murder Is Announced" and toured in the play "Half Life."
After impressing as the hard-luck mother who is forced to raise three children alone after her husband abandons the family in the drama The Railway Children (1970), Dinah chose to focus squarely on TV with roles in such programs as "Seasons of the Year," "Zodiac," "Crown Court," "Village Hall," "Whodunnit?," "Doctor Who," and her final TV appearance in a 1999 episode of "Jonathan Creek." She also appeared in the mini-series The Winning Streak (1985) and co-starred in two British comedy series Don't Wait Up (1983) and All Night Long (1994).
Dinah married for a third time to actor John Merivale in 1986, but he died four years later. Her fourth marriage, to American businessman Aubrey Ison, ended with his death in 2007. Dinah died in London at age 92 on November 25, 2012.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Landslide' (1937)
[Character:] Dinah [sic] Shaw
{Now well known for: many film roles}
BTW - 2 facts:
1. the actress appeared in this film alongside her future husband, Jimmy Hanley, who she married 5 years later
2. Jimmy Hanley's role in this film was also a first for him: it was his first adult role, he having already been a child actor for some years - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. Rachel has a sister, Minnie, a curator and photographer.
Rachel started modeling when she was 14, and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named "Talking Tongues", which won the Guardian Award, at the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on Neville Southall's "Washbag". Rachel went on to star on stage in the lauded Sean Mathias revival of Noël Coward's "Design For Living". It was a role that won her a vote for Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle.
She has starred in many movies, including The Mummy (1999), Enemy at the Gates (2001) and Stealing Beauty (1996). Rachel can also be seen in the movies The Shape of Things (2003), About a Boy (2002), Constantine (2005) and The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Rachel has a son with her former partner, director Darren Aronofsky. In June 2011, she married "James Bond" actor Daniel Craig in a private ceremony in New York.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'The Advocates' (1991–1992)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Episodes 1-3 (S2 E1-3: eps aired 1992)
[Character:] Sarah Thompson
{Now well known for: many film roles}- Actress
- Producer
Lysette Anthony was born on 26 September 1963 in Fulham, London, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), Krull (1983) and Husbands and Wives (1992). She was previously married to David Price and Luc Leestemaker.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Krull' (1983)
[Character:] Lyssa
N.B. this was NOT actually her first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV a year before this film, in 1982 – but it was her first ever film role.
{Now well known for: many roles}- Natalie J. Robb was born on 3 December 1974 in Bellshill, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), The Shepherd (2008) and London's Burning (1988).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Taggart' (1983–2010)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "'Violent Delights" (S7 E1: ep aired 1992)
[Character:] Sheila MacIntosh
{Now well known for:
[TV series:] 'Doctors'; [character:] Dr Jude Carlyle; [Years:] 2001-04} - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Perhaps best known for her role in EastEnders as Mandy Salter, Nicola Stapleton began her career at an early age appearing in films such as Hansel and Gretel, Courage Mountain with Charlie Sheen and playing Sally in the the 1987 BBC production, Simon and the Witch. Other Notable roles include Janine Nebeski in ITV's Bad Girls and Joe Nardone in Channel 4's Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Dempsey and Makepeace' (1985–1986)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "'Hors de Combat" (S1 E5: ep aired 1985)
[Character:] Debbie
I don't watch TV soap operas, but even I! recognised the little girl in this episode of 'Dempsey and Makepeace'. I saw the episode when the series was recently rerun on TV. Something about the face of the kid, even a face at the young age of approx. 8 years old, ran a bell . . . Now WHERE did I know that face from?! . . . A little research via Google told me . . . She's been a regular actor in 'Eastenders'. I must have seen her face, as an adult, in a tabloid newspaper somewhere!
{Now well known for:
[TV series:] 'Eastenders'; [character:] Mandy (Salter); [Years:] 1992-2012}- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new generation of American movie actors who became stars in the post-World War II era. With fellow post-War stars Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum, Widmark brought a new kind of character to the screen in his character leads and supporting parts: a hard-boiled type who does not actively court the sympathy of the audience. Widmark was not afraid to play deeply troubled, deeply conflicted, or just downright deeply corrupt characters.
After his debut, Widmark would work steadily until he retired at the age of 76 in 1990, primarily as a character lead. His stardom would peak around the time he played the U.S. prosecutor in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as the 1950s segued into the 1960s, but he would continue to act for another 30 years.
Richard Weedt Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, to Ethel Mae (Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. He has said that he loved the movies from his boyhood, claiming, "I've been a movie bug since I was 4. My grandmother used to take me". The teenaged Widmark continued to go to the movies and was thrilled by Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). "I thought Boris Karloff was great", Widmark said. Although he loved the movies and excelled at public speaking while attending high school, Widmark attended Lake Forest College with the idea of becoming a lawyer. However, he won the lead role in a college production of, fittingly enough, the play "Counsellor-at-Law", and the acting bug bit deep. After taking his bachelor of arts degree in 1936, he stayed on at Lake Forest as the Assistant Director of Speech and Drama. However, he soon quit the job and moved to New York to become an actor, and by 1938 he was appearing on radio in "Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories". He made his Broadway debut in 1943 in the play "Kiss and Tell" and continued to appear on stage in roles that were light-years away from the tough cookies he would play in his early movies.
After World War II, he was signed by 20th Century-Fox to a seven-year contract. After seeing his screen test for the role of Tommy Udo, 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that the slight, blonde Widmark - no one's idea of a heavy, particularly after his stage work - be cast as the psychopath in Kiss of Death (1947), which had been prepared as a Victor Mature vehicle. Even though the role was small, Widmark stole the picture. The publicity department at 20th Century-Fox recommended that exhibitors market the film by concentrating on thumping the tub for their new antihero. "Sell Richard Widmark" advised the studio's publicity manual that an alert 20th Century-Fox sent to theater owners. The manual told local exhibitors to engage a job printer to have "wanted" posters featuring Widmark's face printed and pasted up. He won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nod for the part, which led to an early bout with typecasting at the studio. Widmark played psychotics in The Street with No Name (1948) and Road House (1948) and held his own against new Fox superstar Gregory Peck in the William A. Wellman western Yellow Sky (1948), playing the villain, of course. When his pressuring the studio to let him play other parts paid off, his appearance as a sailor in Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) made headlines: Life magazine's March 28, 1949, issue featured a three-page spread of the movie headlined "Widmark the Movie Villain Goes Straight". He was popular, having captured the public imagination, and before the decade was out, his hand- and footprints were immortalized in concrete in the court outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The great director Elia Kazan cast Widmark in his thriller Panic in the Streets (1950), not as the heavy (that role went to Jack Palance) but as the physician who tracks down Palance, who has the plague, in tandem with detective Paul Douglas. Widmark was establishing himself as a real presence in the genre that later would be hailed as film noir. Having proved he could handle other roles, Widmark didn't shy away from playing heavies in quality pictures. The soon-to-be-blacklisted director Jules Dassin cast him in one of his greatest roles, as the penny-ante hustler Harry Fabian in Night and the City (1950). Set in London, Widmark's Fabian manages to survive in the jungle of the English demimonde, but is doomed. Widmark was masterful in conveying the desperation of the criminal seeking to control his own fate but who is damned, and this performance also became an icon of film noir. In that same year, he appeared in Oscar-winning writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's No Way Out (1950) as a bigot who instigates a race riot.
As the 1950s progressed, Widmark played in westerns, military vehicles, and his old stand-by genre, the thriller. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe (this time cast as the psycho) in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and made Pickup on South Street (1953) that same year for director Samuel Fuller. His seven-year contract at Fox was expiring, and Zanuck, who would not renew the deal, cast him in the western Broken Lance (1954) in a decidedly supporting role, billed beneath not only Spencer Tracy but even Robert Wagner and Jean Peters. The film was well respected, and it won an Oscar nomination for best screenplay for the front of Hollywood 10 blacklistee Albert Maltz. Widmark left Fox for the life of a freelance, forming his own company, Heath Productions. He appeared in more westerns, adventures and social dramas and pushed himself as an actor by taking the thankless role of the Dauphin in Otto Preminger's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (1957), a notorious flop that didn't bring anyone any honors, neither Preminger, his leading lady Jean Seberg, nor Widmark. In 1960, he was appearing in another notorious production, John Wayne's ode to suicidal patriotism, The Alamo (1960), with the personally liberal Widmark playing Jim Bowie in support of the very conservative Wayne's Davy Crockett. Along with character actor Chill Wills, Widmark arguably was the best thing in the movie.
In 1961, Widmark acquitted himself quite well as the prosecutor in producer-director Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), appearing with the Oscar-nominated Spencer Tracy and the Oscar-winning Maximilian Schell, as well as with superstar Burt Lancaster and acting genius Montgomery Clift and the legendary Judy Garland (the latter two winning Oscar nods for their small roles). Despite being showcased with all this thespian firepower, Widmark's character proved to be the axis on which the drama turned. A little later, Widmark appeared in two westerns directed by the great John Ford, with co-star James Stewart in Two Rode Together (1961) and as the top star in Ford's apologia for Indian genocide, Cheyenne Autumn (1964). On Two Rode Together (1961), Ford feuded with Jimmy Stewart over his hat. Stewart insisted on wearing the same hat he had for a decade of highly successful westerns that had made him one of the top box office stars of the 1950s. Both he and Widmark were hard-of-hearing (as well as balding and in need of help from the makeup department's wigmakers), so Ford would sit far away from them while directing scenes and then give them directions in a barely audible voice. When neither one of the stars could hear their director, Ford theatrically announced to his crew that after over 40 years in the business, he was reduced to directing two deaf toupees. It was testimony to the stature of both Stewart and Widmark as stars that this was as far as Ford's baiting went, as the great director could be extraordinarily cruel.
Widmark continued to co-star in A-pictures through the 1960s. He capped off the decade with one of his finest performances, as the amoral police detective in Don Siegel's gritty cop melodrama Madigan (1968). With Madigan, one can see Widmark's characters as a progression in the evolution of what would become the late 1960s nihilistic antihero, such as those embodied by Clint Eastwood in Siegel's later Dirty Harry (1971). In the 1970s, he continued to make his mark in movies and, beginning in 1971, in television. In movies, he appeared primarily in supporting roles, albeit in highly billed fashion, in such films as Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), and Stanley Kramer's The Domino Principle (1977). He even came back as a heavy, playing the villainous doctor in Coma (1978).
In 1971, in search of better roles, he turned to television, starring as the President of the U.S. in the TV miniseries Vanished (1971). His performance in the role brought Widmark an Emmy nomination. He resurrected the character of Madigan for NBC in six 90-minute episodes that appeared as part of the rotation of "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" for the fall 1972 season. Widmark was married for 55 years to playwright Jean Hazlewood, from 1942 until her death in 1997 (they had one child, Anne, who was born in 1945). He lived quietly and avoided the press, saying in 1971, "I think a performer should do his work and then shut up". Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas thought that Widmark should have won an Oscar nomination for his turn in When the Legends Die (1972) playing a former rodeo star tutoring Frederic Forrest's character.
It is surprising to think that Kiss of Death (1947) represented his sole Oscar nomination, but with the rise of respect for film noir around the time his career began tapering off in the '70s, he began to be reevaluated as an actor. Unlike Bogart, who did not live to see his reputation flourish after his death, Widmark became a cult figure well before he retired.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Kiss of Death' (1947)
[Character:] Tommy Udo
[Info:] This was an auspicious start to an acting career: it was his first film, & it was a film in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as his role of the psychopathic killer 'Tommy Udo'.
{Now famous for: many film roles}- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jeffrey Hunter was born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr. on November 25, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, an only child. His parents met at the University of Arkansas, and when he was almost four his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his teens, he acted in productions of the North Shore Children's Theater and, from 1942 to 1944, performed in summer stock with the local Port Players, along with Eileen Heckart, Charlotte Rae and Morton DaCosta. Hunter was also a radio actor at WTMJ, getting his first professional paycheck in 1945 for the wartime series "Those Who Serve." After graduation from Whitefish Bay High School, where he was co-captain of the football team, he enlisted in the United States Navy and underwent training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, in 1945-1946, but on the eve of his shipping out for active duty in Japan he took ill and received a medical discharge from the service.
Hunter attended and graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in 1949, where he acquired more stage experience in Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Ruth Gordon's "Years Ago". He also did summer stock with Northwestern students at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania in 1948, worked on two Northwestern Radio Playshop broadcasts, was president of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, and was active in the campus film society with David Bradley, later acting in director David Bradley's production of Julius Caesar (1950) in 1949. He then attended graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he studied radio and drama. He was in the cast of a UCLA production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in May, 1950; on opening night, the good-looking Hunter drew the attention of talent scouts from Paramount and 20th Century-Fox Studios.
Hunter made a screen test with Ed Begley in a scene from "All My Sons" at Paramount (where he met Barbara Rush, his future wife), but after an executive shake-up at that studio derailed his hiring, he was signed by 20th Century Fox (where he remained under contract until 1959) and within a month was sent on location in New York for Fourteen Hours (1951). Hunter was kept fairly busy in pictures, working his way from featured roles to starring roles to first-billing within two years in Sailor of the King (1953). His big break came with John Ford's classic, The Searchers (1956), where he played the young cowboy who accompanies John Wayne on his epic search for a child kidnapped by Comanches. Hunter got excellent reviews for his performance in this film and justifiably so, as he held his own well with the veteran Wayne.
Starring roles in two more John Ford movies followed, and in 1960, Hunter had one of his best roles in Hell to Eternity (1960), the true story of World War II hero Guy Gabaldon. That same year, Hunter landed the role for which he is probably best known (although it's far from his best work), when he played Jesus in producer Samuel Bronston's King of Kings (1961), which due to Hunter's still youthful looks at 33, was dubbed by irreverent Hollywood wags "I Was a Teenage Jesus." After the cancellation of his Western series Temple Houston (1963), and his decision not to continue in the lead role of the current series Star Trek (1966), his career took a downturn, and Hunter eventually wound up in Europe working on cheap Westerns, at the time a sure sign of a career in trouble.
While in Spain in November 1968 to film Cry Chicago (¡Viva América!), a story about the Chicago Mafia, Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion when a car window near him, which had been rigged to explode outward, accidentally exploded inward. Hunter sustained a serious concussion. According to Hunter's wife Emily, he "went into shock" on the flight back to the United States after filming and "couldn't speak. He could hardly move." After landing, Hunter was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but doctors could not find any serious injuries except for a displaced vertebra and a concussion.
On the afternoon of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while walking down a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys, California. He fell, knocked over a planter, and struck his head on the banister, fracturing his skull. He was found unconscious by Frank Bellow, an actor and a friend of Hunter's, who came for a visit, and taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where he underwent brain surgery. He died at about 9:30 the following morning at the age of 42.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Call Me Mister' (1951)
[Character:] The Kid
Although technically his first role was in film 'Julius Caesar' (1950), that appears to be a non-speaking role of "Third Plebian (uncredited)" i.e. !TBC! it was almost/effectively an 'extra' role, he had no script/lines (i.e. it is a non-speaking role), the character had no name, was not spoken to by another character, & he is only on-screen for about 8 seconds in total.
{Now famous for (& he only acted for a decade or so, as he tragically died, after an accident, at the young age of 42): e.g. film 'The Searchers' (1956); TV pilot of series 'Star Trek'.}- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
Chris Walker was born in 1964 in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Doctors (2000), Ivanhoe (1997) and Playing the Field (1998). He has been married to Gail Walker since 1991. They have two children.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Dempsey and Makepeace' (1985–1986)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Cortez Connection" (S3 E8: ep aired 1986)
[Character:] Barman
{Now well known for:
[TV series:] 'Doctors'; [character:] policeman Sgt Rob Hollins; [Years:] 2009-present}- Actor
- Additional Crew
London-born David Farrar dropped out of school at 14 and became a writer for the Morning Advertiser newspaper; but it wasn't long before he decided to change careers and become an actor. He started out on the stage in 1932, and five years later made his film debut. Appearing at first in low-budget thrillers, such as Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938),he worked his way up to more prestigious projects, such as Ealing's Went the Day Well? (1942). Farrar hit his stride in a series of films for renowned directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, most notably the classic Black Narcissus (1947).
Farrar's brooding good looks and deep, rich baritone won him legions of female fans in the US and Europe, and soon Hollywood came a-calling. He journeyed to Universal as a contract player, but the studio put him in a succession of second-tier action pictures and costume dramas as a villain. He returned to England somewhat embittered by his Hollywood experiences and determined to do better in his own country's film industry, but he couldn't regain the momentum he had before he left for Hollywood. After a small role as King Xerxes of Persia in the Greek-shot The 300 Spartans (1962), he left film acting and turned to television. When his wife died in 1976 he retired from acting altogether, and with his daughter Barbara moved to the Natal coast in South Africa, where he passed away in 1995 at age 87.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Return of a Stranger' [aka: 'The Face Behind the Scar'] (1937)
[Character:] Dr. Young (uncredited)
{Now well known for: many film roles}- Greta Scacchi was born in Milan, Italy, to Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and Luca Scacchi, an Italian art dealer and painter. She grew up in Milan and Sussex, England. In 1975, her mother and second husband moved to Australia, where, after she left school, Greta worked as an Italian interpreter on a ranch. At age 18, she returned to England and trained at the Bristol Old Vic, paying her way through college by working as a model for catalogues. Played small parts as a stage actress before she made her first appearance on British television, then the young film maker Dominik Graf directed her in Das zweite Gesicht (1982). She learned German for this movie. (She also speaks fluent Italian and French.) After Heat and Dust (1983), she played parts in French, Italian and English movies and Australian television, working with the Taviani Brothers, Margareta von Trotta and Diana Kurys. She turned down Hollywood for many years but after appearing in White Mischief (1987) agreed to co-star in Presumed Innocent (1990), Shattered (1991) and The Player (1992).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Bergerac' (1981–1991)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "'The Hood and the Harlequin" (S1 E10: ep aired 1981)
[Character:] Annie
{Now well known for: many film roles} - Actress
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Edita Brychta was born in Prague but grew up in London, having fled with her family from the 1968 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. Her parents, Jan and Lida Brychta, are renowned artists who have exhibited all over the world, and her brother Alex Brychta MBE is a worldwide published book illustrator.
Edita began acting as a small child in the Czech film Kinoautomat, the world's first interactive movie, which was presented at the 1967 Expo in Montreal. It wasn't until the age of 16, when she joined London's National Theatre Youth Workshop, that she abandoned her dream of being an ornithologist and decided to pursue an acting career.
She trained at LAMDA and was swiftly signed by leading agent Ken McReddie. In the UK, Edita went on to play Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, Ophelia in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello and Marguerite in the world premiere of Vaclav Havel's Largo Desolato, directed by Tom Stoppard. She played Sybil Burlington in the award-winning West End production of Daisy Pulls It Off, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Starring roles in TV series such as Maelstrom, Gentleman and Players, Lovejoy and Taggart followed, as well as the award winning The Escape (Border in the UK) and the BAFTA nominated The Britoil Affair.
Flying In The Branches was created for Edita to play the leading role of a Czech girl trying to make her escape from communist occupied Czechoslovakia.
The highly publicized role of Princess Diana in NBC's Behind The Palace Doors brought Edita to the USA. She continued to work in diverse roles alongside Julia Roberts in Conspiracy Theory, Jim Carrey in Man On The Moon, James Garner in The Rockford Files and Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote. She also acted alongside Stellan Skarsgard and Lena Olin in the Swedish film, Friends.
She worked with directors Ronald Neame, Milos Forman, Richard Donner, and in Mark Rydell's Crime Of The Century for HBO with Isabella Rossellini and Stephen Rea.
In the Czech Republic, Edita played in her native language in two films, notably the leading role in Jan Sverak's Akumulator 1. With her language skills, she also starred in a French TV series, Cinq Filles à Paris.
Her knowledge of languages, accents and dialects makes her much in demand for voiceover work in national campaigns, together with animated films such as Ice Age: Continental Drift, Cosmos and The Bunbury Tails, and numerous features including The Bourne Identity, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Man of Steel, as the voice of the mother ship.
Among many video games featuring her voiceover talents are Ming Xiao in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. She has featured in radio plays for the BBC, including the critically acclaimed Me, Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood with John Malkovich.
Edita has voiced many audio books including Jane Goodall's Seeds of Hope and was nominated for an Audie for the trilogy, This Man. She performed a live narration for Leonard Bernstein's The Kaddish at Royce Hall in Los Angeles.
For LA Theatre Works, she featured in Daniel Deronda, A Room With a View, Watch on the Rhine and the Tony-award-winning Oslo.
Edita is married to producer David Ladd and has one daughter, Lauren Cassidy, by a previous marriage.
Her passion is open water swimming and she has completed four swims from Alcatraz Island, the length of the Golden Gate Bridge three times and the 10K distance from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge twice, winning numerous medals.
Updated Jan 11, 2020First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Just Good Friends' (1983–1986)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Fatherly Advice" (S1 E4: ep aired 1983)
[Character:] the Girl
{Now famous for: several TV roles as a supporting actor}- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
This remarkable, one-of-a-kind actress has, since the early 1990s, intrigued film and TV audiences with her glowing, yet careworn eccentricity and old world-styled glamour. Very much in demand these days as a character player, Patricia Clarkson nevertheless continues to avoid the temptation of money-making mainstream filming while reaping kudos and acting awards in out-of-the-way projects.
The New Orleans born-and-bred performer with the given name of Patricia Davies Clarkson was born on December 29, 1959, the daughter of Arthur ("Buzz") Clarkson, a school administrator, and Jackie Clarkson, a local city politician and councilwoman. Patricia demonstrated an early interest in acting and managed to appear in a few junior high and high school-level plays while growing up. She took her basic college studies at Louisiana State University, studying speech for two years, before transferring to New York's Fordham University and graduating with honors in theatre arts.
Accepted into the prestigious Yale School of Drama graduate program, she earned her Master of Fine Arts after gracing a wide range of productions including "Electra," "Pericles," "Twelfth Night", "The Lower Depths," "The Misanthrope," "Pacific Overtures" and "La Ronde". From there she took on New York City where she attracted strong East Coast notice in 1986 for her portrayal of Corrina in "The House of Blue Leaves" and in such other plays as "Eastern Standard" (1988) and "Wolf-Man" (1989).
Known for her organic approach to acting, the flaxen-maned actress decided to try out her trademark whiskey voice in Hollywood at age 28, making her movie debut as Mrs. Eliot Ness in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) starring Kevin Costner. The following years she gained attention for playing Samantha Walker in The Dead Pool (1988) where she starred opposite Clint Eastwood's popular "Dirty Harry" character. Playing supportive, wifely types at the onset, she became a strong contender for character stardom by the mid-to-late 1990s, not only on stage but in the independent film arena.
On stage Patricia received impressive notices for her contributions to the plays "Raised in Captivity," "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," "Three Days of Rain" and, in particular, "The Maiden's Prayer," which nabbed her both Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award nominations. In 2004, she finally enacted the classic part she seemed born to play, that of Southern belle Blanche DuBois in the Kennedy Center production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". She earned glowing notices.
On camera she was offered roles of marked diversity. From the heavier dramatics of a film like Pharaoh's Army (1995), she could move deftly into light comedy, courtesy of Neil Simon in the TV-movie London Suite (1996). It was, however, her bleak, convulsive portrayal of Greta, a strung-out, heroin-happy German has-been actress, opposite a resurgent Ally Sheedy in the acclaimed art film High Art (1998) that truly put Patricia on the indie map. From this she was handed a silver plate's worth of excitingly offbeat roles. In 2003 alone, Patricia received a special acting prize at the Sundance Film Festival for her superb work in three films: as a somber, grieving artist in The Station Agent (2003), a cold-hearted cancer victim in Pieces of April (2003), and a jokey, get-with-it mom in All the Real Girls (2003). She was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar for the second film mentioned.
On TV Patricia received two Emmys for her recurring guest part as Frances Conroy's free-spirited sister in the acclaimed black comedy series Six Feet Under (2001). She also received the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics awards for her supporting work in the gorgeous, 1950s-styled melodrama Far from Heaven (2002), as a prim and proper Stepford-wife and deceptive friend to Julianne Moore.
No matter the size, such as her extended cameos in The Green Mile (1999), All the Real Girls (2003), Miracle (2004) and Elegy (2008), Patricia manages to make the most of whatever screen time she has, often stealing scenes effortlessly. Working for director/actor Woody Allen in a small but notable role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), he was impressed enough to promote her with a lead in a subsequent film Whatever Works (2009).
More recent work includes leads and supports in the films Vincent in Brixton (2003), Legendary (2010), Friends with Benefits (2011), Learning to Drive (2014), The Bookshop (2017), Delirium (2018), Out of Blue (2018), Almost Love (2019) and as the antagonist Ava Paige in the sci-fi thrillers The Maze Runner (2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018). On TV, the never-married Patricia earned a supporting Golden Globe for her fine work in the mini-series Sharp Objects (2018) and had a strong recurring role on the political series House of Cards (2013).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Spenser: For Hire' (1985–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Choice" (S1 E3: ep aired 1985)
[Character:] Elizabeth Haller
{Now famous for: many roles as a supporting actor}- Actor
- Soundtrack
A balding, bespectacled, bird-like British comic actor, Richard Wattis was an invaluable asset to any UK comedy film or TV programme for nearly thirty years. Much associated with the Eric Sykes TV series for the latter part of his career. He was often seen in officious roles, such as snooty shop managers, secretaries and policemen. He was working right up to his sudden death from a heart attack in 1975.First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'A Yank at Oxford' (1938)
[Character:] Latin Speaker at Dinner (uncredited)
{Now famous for: many roles as a supporting actor}- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Described by top film critic Mark Kermode as an "unbelievably versatile" actor, Jamie Bell was born in 1986 in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, UK, to Eileen (Matfin) and John Bell, a toolmaker. He comes from a family of dancers including his grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister. It was at his sister's dance practices that he would stand outside the door and imitate the movements of the dancers inside. At age six, he was encouraged to step inside the door and, thus, his dance career began. His own story parallels that of Billy Elliot (2000) in that Jamie kept his dancing a secret from his friends at school. His mother had him when she was 16 and, unfortunately, he never knew his father.
When he met Stephen Daldry, director of Billy Elliot (2000), Jamie adopted him as his father. Once the word about his dancing got out, he was harassed, but this only made him more determined to prove that dancing wasn't just for girls. He has proven a lot by landing the title role of Billy Elliot (2000), winning the role in an audition that included more than 2,000 boys from the northeast of England. His ensuing performance certainly justified the selection since he has not only won the hearts of moviegoers all over the world, he has also been nominated for and won a number of awards, including a Best Newcomer Award and then a Best Male Performance at the BAFTA awards.First ever on-screen role:
[TV Miniseries:] 'Close & True' (2000)
[Episodes:] E1-E5
[Character:] Mark Sheedy
{Now famous for: 'Billy Elliot', a film that was released in the same year that this TV miniseries 'Close & True' was broadcast i.e. 2000}- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Catherine Tate is an English actress and comedian, primarily known for the role of Donna Noble in the "Doctor Who" franchise.
Tate was born as "Catherine Ford" during 1969, in Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury is a district of the London Borough of Camden, known as the home of several of London's museums, colleges, and universities. Tate's mother Josephine was a florist and raised her daughter as a single mother. Tate was reportedly brought up in a "female-dominated environment", as her grandmother and her godparents helped in her upbringing.
Tate attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School in Holborn, which was also within the London Borough of Camden. She then attended the Notre Dame High School of Southwark, an all-girls' Roman Catholic comprehensive school. The high school is owned and operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic institute of religious sisters.
In 1984, the 16-year-old Tate enrolled in the Salesian College of Battersea, a Roman Catholic, Voluntary Aided school for boys. She was one of the College's rare female students, because she was interested in the drama lessons it offered and its theatrical facilities. Afterwards, she applied four times to become a student of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, whose alumni included famed actors such Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft. Tate's application became accepted at her fourth attempt.
In the 1990s, Tate started her television career with small roles in the police procedural "The Bill" (1984-2010) and the fire-brigade themed drama "London's Burning" (1988-2002). In 1996, Tate started performing stand-up comedy. In 1998, she was one of the main performers and writers in the late night sketch comedy show "Barking". The show lasted for 1 series, consisting for 6 episodes.
In 2000 and 2001, Tate performed at theatrical shows staged during the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival. The increased attention helped her gain a co-starring role in the sitcom "Wild West" (2002-2004). She played the role of Angela Phillips, a bored bisexual woman living in a small town of Cornwall, the westernmost and southernmost county of England. Angela is involved in an unsatisfying lesbian relationship with Mary Trewednack (played by Dawn French), but they are both seeking other lovers. Having decided that they will stay together until something better comes along. The series lasted for 2 seasons, and a total of 12 episodes.
In 2004, Tate was granted her own television series by BBC Two, called "The Catherine Tate Show" (2004-2007). It was a sketch comedy show, where Tate got to showcase some of the characters she had developed in her comedy routines. Among the most notable of them were the foul-mouthed grandmother Joannie "Nan" Taylor, and the argumentative teenager Lauren Cooper. The initial series lasted for 3 seasons. Tate has occasionally revived the characters in the number of television specials, broadcast from 2009 to 2015. The show allowed Tate to win 2 British Comedy Award, a Royal Television Society Award, and a National Television Award.
Tate's newfound popularity in the United Kingdom helped her receive more theatrical roles, and to make frequent guest appearances in other television shows. In 2006, Tate played the character Donna Noble in the "Doctor Who" Christmas special "The Runaway Bride". In the special, Donna is a secretary for a Torchwood Institute subsidiary company, who is about to get married to fiance. But she is actually a pawn in a larger conspiracy, and her fiance has is one of the conspirators. Donna serves as the Tenth Doctor's companion for this episode. He offers her a more permanent position at the TARDIS time machine, but she declines.
In 2007, Tate played the role of frustrated mother Karen in the television film "The Bad Mother's Handbook", an adaptation of a novel by Kate Lomh (1964-). The film depicts Karen's relationships with her Altzheimer-suffering mother Nan (played by Anne Reid), and her intelligent but temperamental daughter Charlotte (played by Holly Grainger).
In 2008, Tate returned to the character of Donna Noble in the "Doctor Who" television series. She was a main character during Series 4 of the television show, but has her memory erased at the series finale "Journey's End". Tate played an amnesiac Donna in the two-part episode "The End of Time" (December, 2009-January, 2010). Unlike other then-recent female companions of the Doctor, Donna was depicted as his best friend and not as his love interest. Tate was praised for performing well in both the comedic and tragic scenes involving the character. In a number of published polls, Donna was praised by show fans as the second-best companion in the television show's history.
From 2011 to 2013, Tate appeared in the American sitcom "The Office" (2005-2013), playing the regular character Eleanour Donna "Nellie" Bertram. Nellie was depicted as a working-class British woman from the Borough of Basildon, Essex, who somehow got promoted to the position of President of Sabre's special projects. The character often commented at her impoverished background and lack of formal education, and it was implied that she was promoted due to favoritism.
Freom 2013 to 2014, Tate appeared in the British sitcom "Big School" (2013-2014), playing the teacher Sarah Postern. The sitcom depicts comedic interactions between the teachers of Greybridge Secondary School, a typical British secondary school. Sarah is portrayed as an attractive French-language teacher, who is romantically pursued by the nerdy chemistry teacher Keith Church (played by David Walliams) and the stereotypical "jerk jock" sports teacher Trevor Gunn (played by Philip Glenister). The show lasted for 2 seasons, and a total of 12 episodes. While considered a ratings hit for the channel BBC One, it was criticized for its humor being overly traditional and inoffensive.
In 2017, Tate started doing voice work for the American animated television series "DuckTales" (2017-). She was cast in the role of Italian sorceress Magica De Spell, one of the main enemies of series protagonist Scrooge McDuck (played vy David Tennant). Tate served as the replacement for Magica's previous voice actress June Foray (1917-2017), who had died prior to the series' production.
By 2019, Tate was 51 years old, but she continued to remain popular in her native United Kingdom, and to make frequent appearances in American productions. She currently lives in the suburban town of Richmond, within Greater London. She lives with her 16-year-old daughter Erin, the result of a previous relationship. Tate has never married and remains a single mother.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Surgical Spirit' (1989–1995)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "The Holiday Job" (S3 E1: ep aired 1991)
[Character:] Girlfriend
{Now well known for: many roles}- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two college professors, Lauren Michael Holly grew up in the upstate New York town of Geneva. Her childhood was split between experiences that contrasted. She was privy to the shelter of growing up in a rural town and also exposed due to the erudite sophistication of her parents' academic careers. She spent time traveling in Europe and lived for a year in London, where she studied languages and flute at the famed Sarah Siddons School. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County, New York, Holly credits her love of acting to her great-grandmother who bred a family tradition of "treading the boards" on the musical theatre stages of Liverpool and London.
Holly's breakthrough motion picture performance came in the New Line Cinema's box-office smash, Dumb and Dumber (1994), with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Lauren captured the hearts of audiences, as "Mary Swanson", the woman who drove Jim Carrey to follow her across the country to pledge his love. Next, she received glowing reviews for her performance in the Edward Burns drama, No Looking Back (1998), as a woman whose life in a small seaside community is turned upside down by the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend. Other film credits include Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday", Sydney Pollack's "Sabrina", the action-drama "Turbulence", the Miramax ensemble "Beautiful Girls", "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story", "A Smile Like Yours", "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane", "Down Periscope", "Entropy" and "The Last Producer". On television, Holly recently starred in two films for Hallmark. She also boasts three seasons as Director Jenny Shepard in NCIS, opposite Mark Harmon. Holly was seen in the TNT movie "King of Texas", an adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear", playing opposite Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden and renowned actor Patrick Stewart, and in the NBC miniseries "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot". She also starred on David E. Kelley's drama, "Chicago Hope", marking her second project with Kelley, following their successful collaboration on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series, "Picket Fences".
Holly has worked on numerous Independent films, including the political thriller "Fatwa", in which she not only acted but also served as a producer, the Peter Schwaba penned and directed comedy "Godfather of Green Bay", "The Chumscrubber", "Pleasure Drivers", a Lifetime movie "Caught in the Act" (which she also produced), and "Chasing 3000". Most recently, she starred in "You're So Cupid". Additional projects contributing to the broad and diverse body of motion picture work Lauren has compiled include the drama "Colored Eggs" with Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway, the comedy "Raising Flagg" playing opposite Academy Award winner Alan Arkin, the Darrell Roodt directed HBO thriller, "Pavement" (co-starring Robert Patrick), and "What Women Want" (starring Academy Award winners Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt). She had a prime role in Disney's Academy Award-winning animated motion picture "Spirited Away" as the voice of Chihiro's Mother. Thrice divorced, as of 2014, Holly makes her home in Toronto, Canada, with her sons: Alexander, George, and Henry.Nearly the first ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Spenser: For Hire' (1985–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Home Is the Hero" (S02 E07: ep aired 1986)
[Character:] Emily Brown
Well, I have taken a bit of a episode aired liberty, as this was actually her 3rd on-screen role. She was in 2 films/TV pilots prior to this episode of 'Spenser: For Hire'. But I have taken the liberty of citing this role in this list as all 3 roles were released in the same year (1986) i.e. this was actually the 3rd cited role of that year, according to IMDb.
{Now famous for: several TV series e.g. 'NCIS' (2003+), etc.}- Actor
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Jon Tenney was born on 16 December 1961 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor and director, known for The Closer (2005), Scandal (2012) and You Can Count on Me (2000). He has been married to Leslie Urdang since 16 June 2012. He was previously married to Teri Hatcher.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Spenser: For Hire' (1985–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Shadowsight" (S02 E09: ep aired 1986)
[Character:] Garrett
{Now famous for: several TV series e.g. 'The Closer' (2005–12), 'Major Crimes' (2012–18), etc.}- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Douglas Hodge is a Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle award winning actor, composer, director and writer. Recent films include Alfred in Joker, Gemini man The Report and Red Sparrow. Recent TV includes The Great, Black Mirror, Lost In Space, Catastrophe and Penny Dreadful. Tony and Olivier awards on Broadway and the West End for La Cage Aux Folles and originated the role of Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Drury Lane in London's West End. Ten years working as an actor and director with Harold Pinter. Major Shakespearean and classical roles at the Royal National Theatre and R.S.C. and The Globe. New plays by Pinter, Barker, Penhall, Johnson and more at the RoyalCourt, Almeida, Classic Stage and Donmar Associate Director at Donmar Theatre and director of many plays on West End and on Broadway Stiles and Drewe Best Song Award and composer and lyricist of 101 Dalmatians, Meantime and Wigmaker on the West End. Trained at RADA and a council member alumni of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain for many years.Nearly the first ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Sorry!' (1981–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Every Clown Wants to Play Hamlet" (S05 E02: ep aired 1986)
[Character:] Geoffrey
Well, I have taken a LOT of a liberty, as this was actually his 2nd on-screen role. He was in a TV episode prior to this episode of 'Sorry!'. But I have taken the liberty of citing this role in this list as it was released only 1 year (1986) after his first televised role in 1985, according to IMDb.
{Now famous for: many TV & film roles}- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Since his screen debut as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.
Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother was American, and his maternal grandfather was Canadian. His parents met in Norway. They wed and moved to New York, where Viggo, Jr. was born, before moving to South America, where Viggo, Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to the St. Paul's boarding school, in the Córdoba Sierras, in Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York.
Viggo attended Watertown High School, and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. In 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither. In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and tending bar and began taking acting classes, studying with Warren Robertson. He appeared in several plays and movies, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where his performance in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award.
He made his film debut with a small part in Witness (1985). He appeared in Salvation! (1987) and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka. The two had a son, Henry Mortensen. But after nearly eleven years of marriage, the couple divorced.
In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he did not know anything about: "The Lord of the Rings." At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of "The Lord of the Rings" made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.
Critics have continually recognized his work in over thirty movies, including such diverse projects as Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993), Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997), Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995), Andrew Davis's A Perfect Murder (1998), Ray Loriga's My Brother's Gun (1997), Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon (1999), and Peter Farrelly's Green Book (2018).
Mortensen is also an accomplished poet, photographer and painter.First ever film role:
[Film:] 'Witness' (1985)
[Character:] Moses Hochleitner
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role on TV a year before this film, in 1984 ('George Washington' miniseries) – but it was his first ever film role.
{Now well known for: several roles}- Sara was born and raised in Edinburgh Scotland. After spending some time in England, she trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and made London her home. Her work has been diverse, ranging from classical tragic heroines like "Natalya Petrovna" in Turgenyev's "Month in the Country" for the RSC; Gwyneth Paltrow's overbearing sister in "Proof" for its London premiere; to comic characters like the louche "Stella" in the TV series Sugar Rush (2005).
Now based in Twickenham, she is separated from actor Aden Gillett, with whom she has 2 children.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Drop the Dead Donkey' (1990–1998)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] 4 episodes in Series 1 (S01 E05, E06, E08, E10: eps aired 1990)
[Character:] Jenny
{Now famous for: many roles as a supporting actor} - Neil Stuke was born on 22 February 1967 in Deal, Kent, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Sliding Doors (1998), Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned (2015) and Game-On (1995). He is married to Sally-Ann ?. They have two children.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Drop the Dead Donkey' (1990–1998)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Baseball (S02 E04: ep aired 1991)
[Character:] Star Batter
{Now famous for: many roles} - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Andrew Lincoln is a British actor. Lincoln spent his early childhood in Hull, Yorkshire before his family relocated to Bath, Somerset when he was age 10. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School in Bath, and then the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His father is a civil engineer and his mother is a nurse
Lincoln's first big break came when he was cast as Edgar 'Egg' Cook in the popular UK drama series This Life (1996). Various roles followed including that of teacher Simon Casey in the Channel 4 series Teachers (2001), and as Mark in the hit film Love Actually (2003). In 2010, he was cast in The Walking Dead (2010), a live action drama series based on the comic of the same name. Lincoln plays the lead character of Rick Grimes.
Lincoln is married to Gael Anderson, his father-in-law is legendary musician Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Drop the Dead Donkey' (1990–1998)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Births and Deaths (S04 E04: ep aired 1994)
[Character:] Terry
{Now famous for: TV's 'This Life', 'Teachers', 'The Walking Dead'}- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Lorna Laidlaw is best known to television viewers as Mrs Tembe (she has a Christian name, Winifred but would never allow her colleagues to use it), the strait-laced, straight-haired Botswanan born receptionist in daytime soap 'Doctors'. Lorna however is a native Brummie, born on February 1 1963 - unusually for a baby with teeth. Brought up in Ladywood, Birmingham she joined a local youth theatre at the age of 15 and went on to train as a social worker but decided it was a thankless job and turned to acting instead, spending several years with Birmingham Rep. She made her television debut in the 1990s but became a regular in children's shows 'Tikkabilla' and 'Grandpa in my Pocket in the 2000s before joining 'Doctors' in 2009 for one episode as a character called Gloria Dixon and from 2011 as the redoubtable Mrs Tembe for which role, in 2012, she was named best actress by the Royal Television Society Midland awards. Lorna has two children and - unlike Mrs Tembe - is blonde.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Blue Heaven' (1994)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] E2: ep aired 1994
[Character:] Ursula
{Now famous for: TV's 'Doctors' (character: Mrs. Tembe (2009–2019; 1072 eps)}- Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig is an English actress, narrator, and comedian. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, Dr. Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing, Beverly Lincoln in British-American sitcom Episodes, and Jackie Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Other roles include Alice Chenery in BBC One's comedy-drama series Love Soup, Debbie Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers, Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC version of Jane Austen's Emma, and Beth Hardiment in the 2010 film version of Tamara Drewe. In 2020, Greig starred as Anne Trenchard in Julian Fellowes' ITV series Belgravia.
Greig is also an acclaimed stage actress; she won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2007 for "Much Ado About Nothing", and was nominated again in 2011 and 2015 for her roles in "The Little Dog Laughed" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown".First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Blue Heaven' (1994)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] E2: ep aired 1994
[Character:] Prof. Wiseman (as Tasmin Greig)
{Now famous for: many roles)} - Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Tori Spelling was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of author Candy Spelling and Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling. With her father producing many popular television shows in the 1970s, Tori had an early flair for showbusiness. She appeared on many of her father's shows, which gained her more praise for acting in comedies. Tori has a younger brother, Randy Spelling, who also appeared on his father's shows.
Tori has five children, all with her second husband, Dean McDermott, whom he wed in Fiji on Sunday, May 7th, 2006. Parenthood, among the duo began with Liam McDermott's birth (aka Liam Aaron McDermott), on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz. Second was Stella McDermott (aka Stella Doreen McDermott), she was born on Monday, June 9th, 2008, weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz. Third was Hattie McDermott (aka Hattie Margaret McDermott), born on Monday, October 10th, 2011, weighing 6 lbs. 14 oz. Fourth was Finn McDermott (aka Finn Davey McDermott), this birth was on Thursday, August 30th, 2012, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz., at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. Fifth was Beau Dean Mcdermott, he was born on Thursday, March 2nd, 2017. All births were by C-section. (Liam, her firstborn, was an emergency C-section).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Vega$' (1978–1981)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Seek and Destroy (S3 E19: ep aired 1981)
[Character:] Julie (as Victoria Spelling)
{Now famous for: several TV roles}- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Born in Chingford Essex United Kingdom, and not India as published, the actor is English of Parsi ancestry not an Indian citizen. She subsequently moved at age 9 . The family later returned to the UK where she completed her education.with her parents to Hong Kong while it was still under British controlFirst ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] '2point4 Children' (1991–1999)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping (S1 E3: ep aired 1991)
[Character:] Sharma
{Now famous for: several TV roles}- Mark Charnock was born on 28 August 1968 in Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Mystery!: Cadfael (1994) and Emmerdale: Revenge (1998).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] '2point4 Children' (1991–1999)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] One Night in Bangkok (S2 E4: ep aired 1992)
[Character:] Duane
{Now famous for: TV's 'Emmerdale'} - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
With over 300 television appearances to her credit, Debra Jo Rupp is perhaps best known for her role as the hilarious and beloved high-strung mom 'Kitty Forman' in the long-running FOX comedy series "That '70s Show." Her performance established her as a sitcom legend, and one of TV's Favorite Moms of all time!
Debra Jo was welcomed into the Marvel Universe with her memorable turn as 'Mrs. Hart' in Marvel Studios' "WandaVision" for Disney+.
Fans of "That '70s Show" can now look forward to Debra Jo reprising her iconic role of 'Kitty Forman' in the upcoming "That '90s Show" for Netflix! Debra Jo and Kurtwood Smith ('Red Forman') will anchor the new spin-off series, for which they will also serve as executive producers. Set in Wisconsin in 1995, they play grandparents to 'Leia' (daughter of 'Eric' and 'Donna') who visits over the summer and bonds with a new generation of Point Place kids, under the watchful eye of 'Kitty' and the stern glare of 'Red.' Production is scheduled to begin Q1 2022 on 10 episodes.
Debra Jo's memorable television roles include Phoebe's sister-in-law 'Alice' on "Friends," Jerry's Booking Agent 'Katie' on "Seinfeld," and more recently as Beth and Randall's social worker 'Linda' on "This is Us" and Abby's mother, 'Janice Phillips,' on "The Ranch." Notable guest-starring roles include "NCIS: Los Angeles," "From the Earth to the Moon" directed by Sally Field, and "The Office." She also previously starred in the ABC comedy series, "Better With You."
She made her feature film debut with Tom Hanks in "Big." She went on to play Jay Baruchel's mom in "She's Out of My League" and Jamie Kennedy's mom in "Kickin It Old Skool." Additional feature credits include "The Opposite Sex" with Mena Suvari, Geoff Stults and Kristin Chenoweth, "She Wants Me" with Josh Gad, Charlie Sheen and Hilary Duff, "Clockwatchers" with Toni Collette and Parker Posey, "Lucky 13" and "Sgt. Bilko" with Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd.
Debra Jo has lent her voice to the Emmy-winning "Teacher's Pet" with Nathan Lane (both cartoon and feature film), "Garfield," "Air Buddies" and various other projects with tiny animals.
Debra Jo has a rich and impressive theatre background and has appeared on and off-Broadway for the past four decades. She appeared on Broadway with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning in the 1990 revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." She starred off-Broadway in Cynthia Heimel's "A Girl's Guide to Chaos" (American Place Theatre), "Frankie and Johnnie in The Clair de Lune" (Westside Arts) and "The Butcher of Baraboo" (Second Stage Theatre) directed by Judith Ivey. She has also starred in numerous regional productions at Williamstown Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Chester Theatre Company and Berkshire Theatre Group.
In recent years, Debra Jo has enjoyed getting back to her theater roots. She starred off-Broadway in the one-woman show, "Becoming Dr. Ruth," based on the life of pioneering radio and television sex therapist, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She was nominated for both a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award, in the category of Outstanding Solo Performance.
In 2019, she starred off-Broadway in Bekah Brunstetter's play, "The Cake," at The Manhattan Theatre Club, after originating the role at The Echo Theater Company (Los Angeles), Barrington Stage Company (Pittsfield, MA) and Geffen Playhouse (L.A.). For her performance in "The Cake," Debra Jo won the L.A. Stage Ovation Award and L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award.
Aside from acting, Debra Jo's eclectic interests range from gardening, needlepointing and grilling, to playing Bridge, video war games and Fantasy Football. During Covid lockdowns, she kept herself occupied by taking long walks in the snow and ordering huge boxes of Nacho Cheese Doritos in small bags in order to consume as much salt as possible! She also recorded a multitude of Cameo videos, with proceeds helping to keep local restaurant workers afloat in The Berkshires. Ever by Debra Jo's side are her loyal Yorkies, Olive and Martini, who have both had all their knees replaced and are looking forward to their impending move to the west coast where "That '90s Show" will film.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Spenser: For Hire' (1985–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Gone Fishin' (S3 E8: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Helen
{Now famous for: TV's 'That '70s Show' (1998–2006)}- Joanna Kanska was born on 1 April 1957 in Nowy Sacz, Malopolskie, Poland. She is an actress, known for The Tall Guy (1989), A Very Peculiar Practice (1986) and Screen One (1985).First ever on-screen role that was made outside of her homeland of Poland & in the UK:
[TV series:] 'Rumpole of the Bailey' (1985–1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim (S4 E5: ep aired 1987)
[Character:] Hanni Boyne
{Now famous for: many roles as a supporting actor} - Actor
- Producer
- Writer
With an almost unpronounceable surname and a thick Austrian accent, who would have ever believed that a brash, quick talking bodybuilder from a small European village would become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, marry into the prestigious Kennedy family, amass a fortune via shrewd investments and one day be the Governor of California!?
The amazing story of megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger is a true "rags to riches" tale of a penniless immigrant making it in the land of opportunity, the United States of America. Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born July 30, 1947, in the town of Thal, Styria, Austria, to Aurelia Schwarzenegger (born Jadrny) and Gustav Schwarzenegger, the local police chief. From a young age, he took a keen interest in physical fitness and bodybuilding, going on to compete in several minor contests in Europe. However, it was when he emigrated to the United States in 1968 at the tender age of 21 that his star began to rise.
Up until the early 1970s, bodybuilding had been viewed as a rather oddball sport, or even a mis-understood "freak show" by the general public, however two entrepreneurial Canadian brothers Ben Weider and Joe Weider set about broadening the appeal of "pumping iron" and getting the sport respect, and what better poster boy could they have to lead the charge, then the incredible "Austrian Oak", Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over roughly the next decade, beginning in 1970, Schwarzenegger dominated the sport of competitive bodybuilding winning five Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles and, with it, he made himself a major sports icon, he generated a new international audience for bodybuilding, gym memberships worldwide swelled by the tens of thousands and the Weider sports business empire flourished beyond belief and reached out to all corners of the globe. However, Schwarzenegger's horizons were bigger than just the landscape of bodybuilding and he debuted on screen as "Arnold Strong" in the low budget Hercules in New York (1970), then director Bob Rafelson cast Arnold in Stay Hungry (1976) alongside Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, for which Arnold won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture". The mesmerizing Pumping Iron (1977) covering the 1975 Mr Olympia contest in South Africa has since gone on to become one of the key sports documentaries of the 20th century, plus Arnold landed other acting roles in the comedy The Villain (1979) opposite Kirk Douglas, and he portrayed Mickey Hargitay in the well- received TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980).
What Arnold really needed was a super hero / warrior style role in a lavish production that utilized his chiseled physique, and gave him room to show off his growing acting talents and quirky humor. Conan the Barbarian (1982) was just that role. Inspired by the Robert E. Howard short stories of the "Hyborean Age" and directed by gung ho director John Milius, and with a largely unknown cast, save Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones, "Conan" was a smash hit worldwide and an inferior, although still enjoyable sequel titled Conan the Destroyer (1984) quickly followed. If "Conan" was the kick start to Arnold's movie career, then his next role was to put the pedal to the floor and accelerate his star status into overdrive. Director James Cameron had until that time only previously directed one earlier feature film titled Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which stank of rotten fish from start to finish. However, Cameron had penned a fast paced, science fiction themed film script that called for an actor to play an unstoppable, ruthless predator - The Terminator (1984). Made on a relatively modest budget, the high voltage action / science fiction thriller The Terminator (1984) was incredibly successful worldwide, and began one of the most profitable film franchises in history. The dead pan phrase "I'll be back" quickly became part of popular culture across the globe. Schwarzenegger was in vogue with action movie fans, and the next few years were to see Arnold reap box office gold in roles portraying tough, no-nonsense individuals who used their fists, guns and witty one-liners to get the job done. The testosterone laden Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), Predator (1987), The Running Man (1987) and Red Heat (1988) were all box office hits and Arnold could seemingly could no wrong when it came to picking winning scripts. The tongue-in-cheek comedy Twins (1988) with co-star Danny DeVito was a smash and won Arnold new fans who saw a more comedic side to the muscle- bound actor once described by Australian author / TV host Clive James as "a condom stuffed with walnuts". The spectacular Total Recall (1990) and "feel good" Kindergarten Cop (1990) were both solid box office performers for Arnold, plus he was about to return to familiar territory with director James Cameron in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The second time around for the futuristic robot, the production budget had grown from the initial film's $6.5 million to an alleged $100 million for the sequel, and it clearly showed as the stunning sequel bristled with amazing special effects, bone-crunching chases & stunt sequences, plus state of the art computer-generated imagery. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was arguably the zenith of Arnold's film career to date and he was voted "International Star of the Decade" by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
Remarkably, his next film Last Action Hero (1993) brought Arnold back to Earth with a hard thud as the self-satirizing, but confusing plot line of a young boy entering into a mythical Hollywood action film confused movie fans even more and they stayed away in droves making the film an initial financial disaster. Arnold turned back to good friend, director James Cameron and the chemistry was definitely still there as the "James Bond" style spy thriller True Lies (1994) co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold was the surprise hit of 1994! Following the broad audience appeal of True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger decided to lean towards more family-themed entertainment with Junior (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996), but he still found time to satisfy his hard-core fan base with Eraser (1996), as the chilling "Mr. Freeze" in Batman & Robin (1997) and battling dark forces in the supernatural action of End of Days (1999). The science fiction / conspiracy tale The 6th Day (2000) played to only mediocre fan interest, and Collateral Damage (2002) had its theatrical release held over for nearly a year after the tragic events of Sept 11th 2001, but it still only received a lukewarm reception.
It was time again to resurrect Arnold's most successful franchise and, in 2003, Schwarzenegger pulled on the biker leathers for the third time for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Unfortunately, directorial duties passed from James Cameron to Jonathan Mostow and the deletion of the character of "Sarah Connor" aka Linda Hamilton and a change in the actor playing "John Connor" - Nick Stahl took over from Edward Furlong - making the third entry in the "Terminator" series the weakest to date.
Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver in April, 1986 and the couple have four children.
In October of 2003 Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, was elected Governor of California in a special recall election of then governor Gray Davis. The "Governator," as Schwarzenegger came to be called, held the office until 2011. Upon leaving the Governor's mansion it was revealed that he had fathered a child with the family's live-in maid and Shriver filed for divorce.
Schwarzenegger contributed cameo roles to The Rundown (2003), Around the World in 80 Days (2004) and The Kid & I (2005). Recently, he starred in The Expendables 2 (2012), The Last Stand (2013), Escape Plan (2013), The Expendables 3 (2014), and Terminator Genisys (2015).First ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'The Long Goodbye' (1973)
[Character:] Hood in Augustine's Office (uncredited)
Admittedly it was a non-speaking role, as he had no script/lines.
{Now well known for: many roles}- Paul Ready is a British actor. He is known principally for his work on stage, but he has also appeared in television, radio and films. He received a commendation at the 2003 Ian Charleson Awards. In 2018, he played the role of Rob MacDonald in the BBC television series Bodyguard.
Ready was born in Birmingham and growing up in the town of Harborne he attended King Edward VI Five Ways school within the city. He went on to train at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
At the age of 17 Ready played Romeo in the National Youth Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet at London's Bloomsbury Theatre, playing opposite Rosamund Pike who played Juliet.
He is a regular at the National and Royal Court theaters. Recent appearances have included leading parts in Major Barbara and Saint Joan (both plays by George Bernard Shaw) and Time and the Conways. His West End credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which starred Christian Slater.
Also appearing on television, Ready received notability in 2013 for appearing on the television show Utopia.
In 2018, he feature as Henry Goodsir, one of the lead roles in The Terror, a 10-part series based on Dan Simmons' best-selling novel.
Ready is married to actress and writer Michelle Terry. They have one daughter.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Doctors' (2000+)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Confidential Information" (S01 E08: ep aired 2000)
[Character:] Terry Hyde
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a film five years before this TV episode, in 1995 ('Angels and Insects') – but it was his first ever TV role.
{Now famous for: TV's 'Motherland' (2016-22)} - Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Andy Hamilton was born in 1954 in Fulham, London, England, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Drop the Dead Donkey (1990), Outnumbered (2007) and What We Did on Our Holiday (2014). He has been married to Libby Asher since 1988. They have three children.First ever on-screen* role:
[TV series:] 'The Return of Shelley' (1988–1992)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (S02 E06: ep aired 1989)
[Character:] Denis
* However, as he plays a voice on a radio - an interviewee on a radio chat show - we do not actually see Andy Hamilton's face on screen. We only ever hear his voice from the radio.
{Now famous as a screenwriter for many TV comedy dramas etc., incl. 'Drop the Dead Donkey', 'Outnumbered', 'Shelley', & 'The Return of Shelley' - including this very episode.}- Mark Aiken was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is known for 24 (2001), Trinity (2009) and The Hello Girls (1996).First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'The Return of Shelley' (1988–1992)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Help!" (S02 E13: ep aired 1990)
[Character:] Constable Myers
{Now famous for: many roles} - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, Belarus. Harrison was a lackluster student at Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge Illinois (no athletic star, never above a C average). After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he did some acting and later summer stock, he signed a Hollywood contract with Columbia and later Universal. His roles in movies and television (Ironside (1967), The Virginian (1962)) remained secondary and, discouraged, he turned to a career in professional carpentry. He came back big four years later, however, as Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1973). Four years after that, he hit colossal with the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Another four years and Ford was Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Four years later and he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role as John Book in Witness (1985). All he managed four years after that was his third starring success as Indiana Jones; in fact, many of his earlier successful roles led to sequels as did his more recent portrayal of Jack Ryan in Patriot Games (1992). Another Golden Globe nomination came his way for the part of Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1993). He is clearly a well-established Hollywood superstar. He also maintains an 800-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Ford is a private pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and owns an 800-acre (3.2 km2) ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, approximately half of which he has donated as a nature reserve. On several occasions, Ford has personally provided emergency helicopter services at the request of local authorities, in one instance rescuing a hiker overcome by dehydration. Ford began flight training in the 1960s at Wild Rose Idlewild Airport in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, flying in a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, but at $15 an hour, he could not afford to continue the training. In the mid-1990s, he bought a used Gulfstream II and asked one of his pilots, Terry Bender, to give him flying lessons. They started flying a Cessna 182 out of Jackson, Wyoming, later switching to Teterboro, New Jersey, flying a Cessna 206, the aircraft he soloed in. Ford is an honorary board member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope.
On March 5, 2015, Ford's plane, believed to be a Ryan PT-22 Recruit, made an emergency landing on the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California. Ford had radioed in to report that the plane had suffered engine failure. He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was reported to be in fair to moderate condition. Ford suffered a broken pelvis and broken ankle during the accident, as well as other injuries.{ Hmmm . . . Not quite his first ever on-screen role! See my note, below! }
In fact this was his SECOND ever on-screen role:
[Film:] 'Luv '(1967)
[Character:] Irate Motorist (uncredited)
N.B. this was NOT actually his first ever on-screen role – as that was a role in a James Coburn film of the year before i.e. 1966. But I have taken the liberty of putting this entry on this list as (i) when he was in this film he had only been acting in movies for 1 year (ii) it is, after, Harrison Ford ! ! ,-)
Blink & you’ll miss him! He’s on screen for less than 20 seconds, & has 1 word of script to say: “Hi”.
{Now famous for: many films}- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Michael McKell was born in Bethnal Green London and in the 1980s he was a prolific singer,song-writer and recording artist. However, in 1991 he was involved in a near-fatal car crash which proved to be the catalyst for a career change. He studied acting for three years at the Lee Strasberg Institute and began on stage producing and starring in Macbeth at the Lyric Hammersmith. He made his West End debut in the musical Blood Brothers. After years of television supporting roles as villains, since the mid-2000s he has been a leading player in police series Murder Investigation Team two seasons, Blessed by Ben Elton and as one of the titular Doctors in the weekday afternoon soap for which he won the Royal National TV Society award for Best Actor.In 2023 he released the album The Last Picture Show.Michael is father to Claudia Grace, Louis and Joey Valentine.First ever on-screen role:
[TV miniseries:] 'Madson' (1996)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] E4
[Character:] Ray McGreevy
{Now famous for: 'Doctors' (character: Dr Nick West (2006–2008; 474 eps)}- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Vicki Pepperdine was born on 24 July 1961 in Roehampton, London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Poor Things (2023), Getting On (2009) and Getting On (2013).Nearly the first ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Dad' (1997–1999)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Dadaholic" (S01 E05: ep aired 1997)
[Character:] WPC
Well, I have taken a LOT of a liberty, as this was actually her 2nd on-screen role. She was in a TV drama prior to this episode of 'Dad'. But I have taken the liberty of citing this role in this list as it was released in the same year (1997) as her first televised role, according to IMDb.
{Now famous for: many TV roles}- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Marc Warren is an English actor, known for his British television roles. His roles have included Albert Blithe in Band of Brothers, Danny Blue in Hustle, Dougie Raymond in The Vice, Dominic Foy in State of Play, Rick in Mad Dogs, the Comte DE Rochefort in The Musketeers and the Gentleman in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Piet Van Der Valk in TV series Van Der Valk.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'A Very Peculiar Practice' (1986-1988)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "Death of a University" (S02 E07: ep aired 1988)
[Character:] Placard Carrier (uncredited)
Admittedly it was an 'extra' role as he had no script/lines (i.e. it is a non-speaking role), the character had no name, was not spoken to by another character, & he is only on-screen for 2 camera shots of only a few seconds each.
{Now famous for many TV roles e.g. 'Hustle'}- Annette Kate Ekblom is an English actress. She starred as Linda in Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers when Bill Kenwright's production opened in London in 1988. She can also be heard on the 1988 revival cast recording with Kiki Dee. Ekblom played the role of family matriarch Debbie Gordon in the Channel 4 television soap opera Brookside (1982) in 32 episodes from 2002 to 2003.Nearly the first ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Shoestring' (1979–1980)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] "An Uncertain Circle" (S1 E04: ep aired 1979)
[Character:] JoJo
Well, I have taken a LOT of a liberty, as this was actually her 2nd on-screen role. She was in a TV drama prior to this episode of 'Shoestring'. But I have taken the liberty of citing this role in this list as it was released in the same year (1979) as her first televised role, according to IMDb.
{Now famous for: many TV roles} - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tom Ellis is a Welsh actor from Cardiff, Wales. He is best known for playing Lucifer Morningstar in the American television series Lucifer (2016-2021).
Ellis was born in Cardiff. He studied BA Dramatic Studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (previously the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama).
Ellis' notable roles include Hollywood physician in the USA Network series Rush, Mark Etches in the British supernatural drama The Fades and Gary Preston in the hit TV show Miranda which aired on the BBC from November 9, 2009 to January 1, 2015.
In February 2015, it was announced that Ellis was cast as Lucifer Morningstar in the Fox television drama Lucifer, based on the comic of the same name, which premiered on 25 January 2016. The show was continued by Netflix from its fourth to sixth season, later was released on the 10th of September 2021.First ever on-screen role:
[TV series:] 'Kiss Me Kate' (1998–2000)
[Episode: title, series & broadcast date (year):] Kate's Niece (S3 E7: ep aired 2000)
[Character:] Ben
{Now famous for: TV's 'Miranda', 'Lucifer'}