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- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which would earn him an Emmy when it was made into a made-for-TV movie the next year. His big-screen debut would be as the blind lodger in Places in the Heart (1984), which earned him an Academy Award Nomination for best supporting actor. Other films would follow, including The Killing Fields (1984) and The Glass Menagerie (1987), but he would be well remembered as Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Playing against Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in a costume picture helped raise his standing in the industry. He would be cast as the psychotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire (1993), for which he would be nominated for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1994, Malkovich would portray the sinister Kurtz in the made-for-TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993), taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Simon Helberg was born and raised in Los Angeles but despite this, and the fact that his father is the actor Sandy Helberg and his mother the casting director Harriet B. Helberg, his main interest as a young boy was karate. In his teens, though, he discovered acting and went on to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company. He started acting in 1999, taking guest roles and small parts, establishing himself as a character performer and able sketch comedian. Solid TV work followed throughout the 2000s until he was cast as Howard Wolowitz in the hit TV comedy The Big Bang Theory (2007) for which he remains best known.- Actress
- Music Department
- Director
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and at Old Vic Theatre. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance (1981) in which she appeared with her husband, Michael Williams, and Best Supporting Actress in A Handful of Dust (1988) and A Room with a View (1985). She received an ACE award for her performance in the television series Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill (1985). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1988 and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2005.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. His parents, Bryna (Sanglel) and Herschel Danielovitch, were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mahilyow Voblast (now in Belarus). Although growing up in a poor ghetto, Douglas was a fine student and a keen athlete and wrestled competitively during his time at St. Lawrence University. Professional wrestling helped pay for his studies as did working on the side as a waiter and a bellboy. However, he soon identified an acting scholarship as a way out of his meager existence, and was sufficiently talented to gain entry into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his Broadway debut in "Spring Again" before his career was interrupted by World War II. He joining the United States Navy in 1941, and then after the end of hostilities in 1945, returned to the theater and some radio work. On the insistence of ex-classmate Lauren Bacall, movie producer Hal B. Wallis screen-tested Douglas and cast him in the lead role in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). His performance received rave reviews and further work quickly followed, including an appearance in the low-key drama I Walk Alone (1947), the first time he worked alongside fellow future screen legend Burt Lancaster. Such was the strong chemistry between the two that they appeared in seven films together, including the dynamic western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), the John Frankenheimer political thriller Seven Days in May (1964) and their final pairing in the gangster comedy Tough Guys (1986). Douglas once said about his good friend: "I've finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I've got nice-looking girls in my films now.".
After appearing in "I Walk Alone", Douglas scored his first Oscar nomination playing the untrustworthy and opportunistic boxer Midge Kelly in the gripping Champion (1949). The quality of his work continued to garner the attention of critics and he was again nominated for Oscars for his role as a film producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and as tortured painter Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), both directed by Vincente Minnelli. In 1955, Douglas launched his own production company, Bryna Productions, the company behind two pivotal film roles in his career. The first was as French army officer Col. Dax in director Stanley Kubrick's brilliant anti-war epic Paths of Glory (1957). Douglas reunited with Kubrick for yet another epic, the magnificent Spartacus (1960). The film also marked a key turning point in the life of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s. At Douglas' insistence, Trumbo was given on-screen credit for his contributions, which began the dissolution of the infamous blacklisting policies begun almost a decade previously that had destroyed so many careers and lives.
Douglas remained busy throughout the 1960s, starring in many films. He played a rebellious modern-day cowboy in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), acted alongside John Wayne in the World War II story In Harm's Way (1965), again with The Duke in a drama about the Israeli fight for independence, Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and once more with Wayne in the tongue-in-cheek western The War Wagon (1967). Additionally in 1963, he starred in an onstage production of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but despite his keen interest, no Hollywood studio could be convinced to bring the story to the screen. However, the rights remained with the Douglas clan, and Kirk's talented son Michael Douglas finally filmed the tale in 1975, starring Jack Nicholson. Into the 1970s, Douglas wasn't as busy as previous years; however, he starred in some unusual vehicles, including alongside a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the loopy western comedy The Villain (1979), then with Farrah Fawcett in the sci-fi thriller Saturn 3 (1980) and then he traveled to Australia for the horse opera/drama The Man from Snowy River (1982).
Unknown to many, Kirk has long been involved in humanitarian causes and has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963. His efforts were rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1981), and with the Jefferson Award (1983). Furthermore, the French honored him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. More recognition followed for his work with the American Cinema Award (1987), the German Golden Kamera Award (1987), The National Board of Reviews Career Achievement Award (1989), an honorary Academy Award (1995), Recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999) and the UCLA Medal of Honor (2002). Despite a helicopter crash and a stroke suffered in the 1990s, he remained active and continued to appear in front of the camera. Until his passing on February 5 2020 at the age of 103, he and Olivia de Havilland were the last surviving major stars from the Golden Years of Hollywood.- Actress
Nico Parker was born on 9 December 2004. She is an actress, known for Dumbo (2019), The Last of Us (2023) and Reminiscence (2021).- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Felicity Huffman was born on 9 December 1962 in Bedford, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Transamerica (2005), Desperate Housewives (2004) and Sports Night (1998). She has been married to William H. Macy since 6 September 1997. They have two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Award-winning actor and producer Jesse Metcalfe was born in Northern California's Carmel Valley.
Raised in Waterford, Connecticut, as an only child, Jesse's family relocated time and again. He attended three different elementary schools: Cohanzie, Quaker Hill and Oswegatchie Schools as well as Clark Lane Junior High School. An extraordinary visual artist in high school, his life-like pencil drawings and paintings were exhibited at the renowned Lyman Allyn Art Museum.
After aspiring to, and achieving middle class status and financial security, Jesse's mother Nancy and stepfather Scott encouraged Jesse to attend The Williams School, a prep-school for gifted students situated on the Connecticut College campus in New London. There Jesse excelled, receiving a fist rate education, which led to being accepted to New York University.
In 1995 Jesse was discovered and signed with a major modeling agency. He began splitting his time between Connecticut and Manhattan. The work ethic Jesse learned from his parents served him well helping him juggle his studies and demanding modeling career.
Jesse fell in love New York City, where he worked regularly with Seventeen and YM Magazines, and many high-end brand campaigns. His modeling career would last through his Junior year in college, and would introduce him to Europe, participating in Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks and would ultimately lead to being discovered as an actor.
In a life-changing experience, he was discovered yet again, at an open call for the daytime NBC television show, Passions. After being chosen to play Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald on the hit, cult-classic soap, he left NYU for sunny California where he later gained widespread attention as John Rowland in Desperate Housewives.
Television credits include Passions (NBC), Desperate Housewives (ABC), Dallas (TNT) and Smallville (WB) among countless others.
Film credits include John Tucker Must Die (20th Century Fox), The Other End of The Line (MGM), God's Not Dead, Fortress (Lionsgate), The Latin From Manhattan (Doom Inc.) and the soon to be released On A Wing And A Prayer (Amazon Studios.)
Awards and nominations include a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in an ensemble in Desperate Housewives (2005), Teen Choice Award Nomination for Desperate Housewives and a Soap Opera Digest Award for Passions.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. Margaret had already built her resume with several performances in film before she came to her most memorable and astronomically successful role, Almira Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The character is considered to be one of the screen's greatest and most memorable villains of all time.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.
Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). Nicholas was an immigrant from Greece, while Katherine was Greek-American who had been born in New York City. The Cassavetes family moved back to Greece in the early 1930s, and John learned Greek as his primary language. The family moved back to the United States around 1936, possibly to evade Greece's new dictatorship, the 4th of August Regime (1936-1941). Young John had to learn to speak English. He spent his late childhood and most of his teenage years in Long Island, New York. From 1945-47, he attended the Port Washington High School. He wrote for the school newspaper and the school yearbook. The 18-year-old Cassavetes was then transferred to the Blair Academy, a boarding school located in Blairstown, New Jersey. When the time came for him to start college, Cassavetes enrolled at Champlain College (in Burlington, Vermont) but was expelled owing to poor grades.
After a brief vacation to Florida, Cassavetes enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), in New York City. Several of his old friends were already students there and had recommended it to Cassavetes, who would be mentored by Don Richardson (1918-1996). After graduating, he began to regularly perform on stage while also appearing in small roles in films and television shows.
Cassavetes's first notable film role was that of Robert Batsford, one of the three villains (along with Vince Edwards and David Cross) in The Night Holds Terror (1955). His next major role was juvenile delinquent Frankie Dane in the crime film "Crime in the Streets" (1956). He won a lead role in Edge of the City (1957) as drifter Axel Nordmann. His co-star for the film was Sidney Poitier, who played stevedore Tommy Tyler. The film helped break new ground, portraying a working-class interracial friendship. Cassavetes gained critical acclaim for his role, and film critics compared him to Marlon Brando. Cassavetes's success as an actor led to his becoming a contract player for MGM. In 1959, he directed his first film, Shadows (1958). It depicted the lives of three African-American siblings in New York City. It won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.
His next directing effort, Too Late Blues (1961), was about the professional and romantic problems of a struggling jazz musician. The film was poorly received at the time, though its autobiographical elements are considered remarkable. Cassavetes then directed A Child Is Waiting (1963), which depicted life in a state institution for mentally handicapped and emotionally disturbed children. The film was a documentary-style portrayal of problems in the social services. It was praised by critics but failed at the box office.
In 1968, Cassavetes had a comeback as a director with Faces (1968), which depicts a single night in the life of a middle-aged married couple. After 14 years of marriage, the two feel rather miserable and seek happiness in the company of friends and the beds of younger lovers, but neither manages to cure their sense of misery. The film gained critical acclaim, and, in 2011, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Cassavetes returned to the theme of a midlife crisis in his next film, Husbands (1970). The film depicts three middle-aged men, professionally successful and seemingly happily married. The death of a close childhood friend reminds them of their own mortality, and of their fading memories of youth. They flee their ordinary lives with a shared vacation to London, but their attempts to rejuvenate themselves fail. This film attracted mixed reviews, with some critics praising its "moments of piercing honesty" and others finding fault with its rambling dialogue.
Cassavetes's next film was Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), about the romantic relationship between a seemingly incompatible couple, jaded museum curator Minnie Moore and the temperamental drifter Seymour Moskowitz. It was well received and garnered Cassavetes a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. His next film was A Woman Under the Influence (1974), concerning the effects of mental illness on a working-class family. In the film, ordinary housewife Mabel Longhetti starts displaying signs of a mental disorder. She undergoes psychiatric treatment for six months while her husband, Nick Longhetti, attempts to play the role of a single father. But Nick seems to be a social misfit in his own right, and neither parent seems to be "normal". Cassavetes was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for this film, but the award was won by Francis Ford Coppola.
Cassavetes next directed the gritty crime film, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976). In the film, Korean War veteran and cabaret owner Cosmo Vittelli owes a large debt to a criminal organization and is coerced to serve as their hit-man in an assassination scheme. He has been told that the target is an insignificant bookie, but after the assassination Vittelli learns that he just killed a high-ranking crime boss of the Chinese mafia and that he himself is now a target for assassination. The film gained good reviews and a cult following.
His next film, Opening Night (1977), was more enigmatic, mixing drama with horror elements. Protagonist Myrtle Gordon (played by Cassavetes's wife, Gena Rowlands) is a famous actress, but aging and dissatisfied with the only theatrical role available to her. After seeing teenager Nancy Stein, one of her obsessive fans , get killed in a car accident, Myrtle starts having visions of Nancy's ghost. As she keeps fighting the ghost, drinking heavily and chain-smoking, the film ends without explaining what seems to be going wrong with Myrtle's perception of reality. The film was a hit in Europe but flopped in the United States.
Cassavetes had another directing comeback with "Gloria" (1980). In the film, Gloria Swenson (formerly a gangster's girlfriend) is asked to protect Phil Dawn, the young son of an FBI informant within a New York crime family. After the apparent assassination of Phil's parents, Gloria finds herself targeted by gangsters and wanted by the police as a kidnapping suspect. The film won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, and protagonist Gena Rowlands was nominated for several acting awards.
Cassavetes's 11th directing effort was the rather unconventional drama Love Streams (1984), about the relationship between two middle-aged siblings. In the film, Sarah Lawson suffers from depression following a messy divorce and moves in with her brother, Robert Harmon, an alcoholic writer with self-destructive tendencies. Though estranged from his ex-wife and his only son and unable to protect himself from violent foes, in the end Robert finally has someone for whom to care. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Cassavetes' swan song as a director was the comedy Big Trouble (1986), replacing the much younger Andrew Bergman. The film concerns an insurance agent who needs $40,000 for college tuition for his three daughters. He agrees to cooperate in an insurance scam with the wife of one of his clients, though the plan may require them to murder her husband. Several elements of the film were recycled from the plot of the iconic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), and "Big Trouble" served as its unofficial remake. The film was unsuccessful, and Cassavetes himself reportedly disliked the script.
In the late 1980s, Cassavetes suffered from health problems and his career was in decline. He died in 1989 from cirrhosis of the liver caused by many years of heavy drinking. He was only 59 years old. He is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, having left more than 40 unproduced screenplays and an unpublished novel. His son, Nick Cassavetes, eventually used one of the unproduced screenplays to direct a new film, the romantic drama, She's So Lovely (1997). It was released eight years after the death of John Cassavetes, and was well received by critics.- Actor
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Michael Dorn is an American actor from Texas. He is best known for playing Worf in the "Star Trek" franchise, the first Klingon character to be part of a television series' main cast. Dorn played the character regularly from 1987 to 2002, appearing in four films and 272 television episodes. Dorn has had more episode appearances than any other actor in the franchise's main cast.
In 1952, Dorn was born in Luling, Texas. Luling was a small city, established as a railroad town in 1874. It used to be visited by cattle drivers on the Chisholm Trail. In the 1950 census, the city had a population of about 4,300 people. Dorn's parents were Fentress Dorn, Jr. and his wife Allie Lee Nauls. Relatively little is known about his family background.
The Dorn family eventually moved to California. Dorn was primarily raised in Pasadena, a city located 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. He eventually attended Pasadena City College, a community college located in Pasadena. He studied radio and television production, though he had not planned on becoming an actor.
Following his graduation, Dorn initially pursued a career as a rock musician. He served as a member of several California-based music bands, though fame eluded him. In 1976, Dorn made his film debut in the sports film "Rocky". He had an uncredited role as the bodyguard of boxer Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers).
Dorn had his next film role in the science fiction-horror film "Demon Seed" (1977), which depicted the forced impregnation of a woman by a sentient computer. He had a small television role in the short-lived soap opera "W.E.B. " (1978), which depicted the behind-the-scenes activities of the personnel of a television network.
Dorn came to the attention of a television producer, who learned that the novice actor had no formal training. The producer helped introduce Dorn to a talent agent, who arranged for some acting lessons for Dorn. Dorn was trained for six months by the acting coach Charles Erich Conrad (1925 - 2009).
Dorn received his first regular television role when cast as officer Jebediah Turner in the crime drama series "CHiPs". The series depicted the activities of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). He was a series regular from 1979 to 1982. For most of the 1980s, Dorn played bit parts and one-shot characters in various television series.
In 1985, Dorn had a small part in the neo-noir thriller "Jagged Edge". The film depicts an affair between defense lawyer Teddy Barnes (played by Glenn Close) and a client who is accused of murdering his wife. Barnes is increasingly convinced that her lover is manipulating her. The film was a modest box office hit, and received decent reviews.
Dorn received his big break as an actor when cast as Worf in the science fiction television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987-1994). It was the third television series in the "Star Trek" franchise and featured an entirely new cast of characters. Klingons had traditionally been portrayed as a warrior race with an antagonistic relationship with the United Federation of Planets. Worf was depicted as an orphaned Klingon who was raised by human adoptive parents. He had chosen to follow a career in the Federation's Starfeet, and his upbringing resulted in him having unique cultural traits. Worf turned out to be one of the series' most popular characters.
In 1991, Dorn appeared in the film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" which depicted the cast of the original Star Trek series. Dorn played the role of a namesake ancestor of Worf, who was employed as a defense lawyer. He next played Worf himself in the film "Star Trek Generations" (1994), which featured the cast of the third series. The film was successful and was followed by three sequels. Dorn played Worf in three subsequent films: "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998), and "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002).
In 1995, Dorn (as Worf) was added to the main cast of the television series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993-1999), the fourth "Star Trek" television series. The addition to the cast was part of an effort to boost the series' ratings. The series introduced a romantic relationship between Worf and chief science officer Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell). The two characters were married in the series' 6th season, though the marriage ended with Jadzia's death in the season finale. The series was canceled in 1999, ending Dorn's regular appearances in "Star Trek" television series.
During the 1990s, Dorn started regularly working as a voice actor in animated television series. Among his notable voice roles in this period were the cyborg gargoyle Coldstone in the urban fantasy series "Gargoyles" (1994-1997), Gorgon the Inhuman in the superhero series "Fantastic Four" (1994-1996), and both the villainous god Kalibak and the superhero Steel/John Henry Irons in the superhero series "Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000). He also received the eponymous role of I.M. Weasel in the comedy series "I Am Weasel" (1997-2000). The series focused on a rivalry between the successful and popular character Weaser and his envious frenemy I.R. Baboon (played by Charlie Adler), who constantly tries to upstage him.
In the 2000s, Dorm continued working regularly as a voice actor, though he often played one-shot characters. Among his prominent roles in superhero series of this period were the super-villain Kraven the Hunter/Sergei Kravinoff in "Spider-Man: The New Animated Series" (2003) and villainous ghost Fright Knight in "Danny Phantom" (2004-2007). and the super-villain Bane in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" (2008-2011).
In a 2010 interview, Dorn mentioned that he had been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. While receiving treatment, he decided to switch to a vegan diet.
In 2011, Dorn was cast as the villainous god Lord Darkar in Nickelodeon's dub of the popular Italian animation series "Winx Club". Darkar was a major villain in the series 2nd season but was eventually killed. Whether his death was permanent is questionable because he had the form of a phoenix.
From 2011 to 2015, Dorn had the regular role of Dr. Carver Burke in the police procedural series "Castle (2009-2016). Burke is depicted as the psychiatrist treating female lead Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic) for post-traumatic stress disorder. She eventually confides in him about other psychological problems which she is facing.
In 2011, Dorn had another prominent role in a superhero series when he voiced Ronan, the Accuser, in the final season of "The Super Hero Squad Show" (2009-2011). Ronan is a prominent Marvel character, typically serving as an officer of the Kree Empire, a militaristic space empire. His role as a hero or a villain depends on the Empire's plan in any given story-line.
From 2015 to 2016, Dorn played the alien Captain Mozar in the superhero series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles " (2012-2017). Mozar is a humanoid Triceratops leading an alien invasion fleet to Earth. The character was a regular antagonist of the Turtles, portrayed as a brutal military commander.
From 2016 to 2017, Dorn voiced the super-villain Prometheus/Adrian Chase in the live-action series "Arrow" (2012-2020). The series portrayed the adventures of the superhero Green Arrow/Oliver Queen, and Prometheus holds Queen responsible for his father's death and seeks revenge.
In 2017, Dorn voiced Fortress Maximus, an Autobot Titan, in the animated web series "Transformers: Titans Return". The series featured characters from the "Generation 1" version of the "Transformers" franchise. Fortress Maximus was introduced in the 1980s. Dorn replaced the three previous voice actors of the character, Stephen Keener, Kunihiko Yasui, and Ikuya Sawaki.
From 2017 to 2018, Dorn voiced Atrocitus in the superhero series "Justice League Action" (2016-2018). Atrocitus is a prominent DC super-villain, typically depicted as the leader of the Red Lantern Corps. In the original comics, Atrocitus is a character mainly motivated by revenge. His wife and daughters were murdered before his eyes, and since then, Atrocitus has sought revenge against those responsible for the tragedy.
From 2017 to 2019, Dorn voiced the recurring character Bupu, the sable antelope, in the coming-of-age series "The Lion Guard" (2016-2019). The series was a spin-off of the film "The Lion King" (1994) and featured the adventures of Simba's son Kion. Bupu is depicted as the leader of a herd of antelopes and too proud and stubborn to follow orders from others.
By 2021, Dorn is 68-years-old and continues to add new roles to his resume.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Beau Bridges was born in Hollywood, and is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. Born just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was delivered by candlelight because of a power blackout. Named Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, his parents immediately started calling him Beau after Ashley Wilkes' son in Gone with the Wind (1939), a book they were reading at the time. His younger brother, actor Jeff Bridges, was born in 1949 and a sister, Cindy Bridges, the following year.
Although only 5'10", Beau played basketball for UCLA his freshman year. The following year he transferred to the University of Hawaii, but dropped out to pursue acting and got his first major role in 1967. During his first marriage to Julie Landifield, they adopted Casey Bridges and then had Jordan Bridges. He and his second wife, Wendy Treece Bridges, have three children from this marriage: Dylan Bridges (born 1985); Emily Bridges, (born 1987) and Ezekiel Jeffry Bridges.
Beau likes to play guitar and collects Native American percussion instruments. He also loves the ocean, including swimming and surfing. He is also active in environmental causes and handgun control.- Actress
- Director
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Reiko was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois with her younger brother and single mother. Her mother worked as a counselor in a methadone clinic and later ran a rehabilitation corrections facility. As a teen, she moved to Seattle, WA where she briefly attended the University of Washington. She then moved to NYC and soon began acting in new and developing plays in off-broadway and regional theaters. Among the playwrights were John Patrick Shanley, Anna Deavere Smith, Eric Bogosian, Lyle Kessler. She's also worked with Obie and Tony winning theater directors such as Marshall Mason, Jo Bonney, Robert O'Hara as well as many other respected theater makers. Her breakthrough came with the role of Michelle Dessler on the critically acclaimed series, 24. She's also had ongoing roles on Lost, Damages, Hawaii 5-0 and has worked on many other television shows, films and plays. More recently, she's expanded her career to include VoiceOver work, including Lady Bullseye in the Marvel animated show, Hit Monkey. She's also directed and produced 2 award winning short films. Her husband, Rob Clare is a well-respected Shakespeare teacher and director. They are an adoptive family with a child who was born in 2014.- Actor
- Writer
- Art Department
Toby Huss was born on 9 December 1966 in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Copshop (2021), Halt and Catch Fire (2014) and King of the Hill (1997).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Adopted from a Chinese orphanage as an infant, American actress Leah Lewis is poised to emigrate into living rooms everywhere with her triple talent as an actress, singer, and dancer. She was raised in Windermere, FL and in Los Angeles, CA.
Leah Lewis is known for her breakout performance in the Netflix feature film, "The Half of It," written and directed by Alice Wu. The film launched globally on Netflix after winning the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. Lewis also portrays the starring role of 'Ember' in Pixar's animated feature, "Elemental" written and directed by Peter Sohn." She is also known for her role 'George Fan' in the CW series "Nancy Drew."
In addition to her acting, Lewis is professionally trained singer since childhood who has been writing her own music since the age of 15. In her free time, Lewis has many hobbies with a strong physical background including power lifting, dancing, yoga and strength and conditioning training. She enjoys writing, playing guitar, staying active in nature, advocating for mental health care, spending time with her family and creating strong community while traveling or resting between work.- Michael Nouri was born on 9 December 1945 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is an actor, known for The Watcher (2022), Yellowstone (2018) and Devils (2020). He was previously married to Vicki Light and Lynn Goldsmith.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
A former cook in a Hollywood restaurant, Lando first came to the attention of casting directors in the role of heartthrob Jake Harrison on the soap opera One Life to Live (1968). That job led to the co-starring role as the backwoodsman/love interest of Jane Seymour on TV's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993).- Actress
- Soundtrack
- Writer
Allison Smith's career started on Broadway at the age of nine, in the original production of "Evita", quickly followed by her landing the title role of "Annie" on Broadway in the musical "Annie" at the age of ten. She was the longest-running and youngest star of a Broadway musical at that time, playing the role for over 1,000 performances; nearly 3 years. She's given vocal performances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, and The White House. After "Annie", she was cast on "Kate and Allie", playing the role of "Jennie Lowell" on CBS for six seasons. Allison recurred in all seven seasons of NBC's The West Wing (1999) as "Mallory O'Brien", the chief of staff's daughter / Sam Seaborn's (Rob Lowe's) love interest. She was in the CBS miniseries Helter Skelter (2004), in which she portrayed real-life Charles Manson murderess Patricia Krenwinkel, and gave a stellar performance starring as the guest in the pilot of The Closer (2005). She has starred in several regular television series: Buddy Faro (1998), Spy Game (1997). She played the lead in the independent feature, A Reason to Believe (1995), and supporting roles in such features as Holes (2003) and Switchback (1997). Other theater work includes starring in the L.A. premiere production of David Mamet's "Oleanna", "QED" opposite Alan Alda at the Mark Taper Forum and with Randy Newman in his musical "The Education of Randy Newman", at South Coast Rep, for which her vocal performance got rave reviews. Also a writer, she was born in New York City and raised in Bergen County, New Jersey.- Kevin Daniels was born on 9 December 1976 in San Diego, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Not Another Church Movie (2024), Will Trent (2023) and Frasier (2023).
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Sean Durkin was born on 9 December 1981 in Canada. He is a producer and director, known for Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Nest (2020) and The Iron Claw (2023).- Producer
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Dame Emma Thomas is an Academy Award Winner British film producer, known for co-producing films such as The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010) (2010), the Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023). She frequently collaborates with her husband, filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
She has produced all of Nolan's films since 1997, with the exception of the short documentary film Quay (2015). Together they run the production company Syncopy Inc.
In July 2023, Christopher Nolan released his biographic drama 'Oppenheimer' co-produced by Thomas, that on top of grossing almost a Billion Dollars on the Worldwide Box office, also swept the 2023-2024 award-season and gave Thomas her first Oscar, BAFTA, Producers Guild, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award as well as a handful of regional critics-circles awards.
Thomas also appeared in the film Following (1998).- Actor
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In 2022 Joshua Sasse can be seen starring in FOX's upcoming epic, multi-generational musical drama "Monarch." The series revolves around America's first family of country music; the reigning King of Country Albie Roman (Trace Adkins), and his insanely talented but tough-as-nails wife, Dottie (Susan Sarandon). Sasse shines as Luke Roman, Albie, and Dottie's smart, charming, straight-shooting, high-flying son who also happens to be the CEO of the family's business, Monarch Entertainment. "Monarch" features original music and covers, and is slated to premiere on Sunday September 11 and will move into its regular time period on Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on September 20th, 2022.
Additional recent credits for Sasse include his breakout role as Galavant on the Emmy nominated, ABC series "Galavant" (created by Dan Fogelman, 2015-16), and leading roles on "No Tomorrow" for The CW, "Rogue," for DirectTV, and ABC's "The Neighbors." In film, Sasse has starred in "Frankenstein's Army," and "The Big I Am."
Born in London, Sasse was raised in the Himalayas in Nepal until his father died in an air crash in Kathmandu, which brought his family back to England. He attended an English boarding school with aspirations of returning to Nepal to join the army. Upon finishing school, Sasse discovered his love of bringing characters to life on stage and decided to study performing arts at Hurtwood House College and later at Cygnet Training Theatre in Exeter. After joining the British Army as an officer, he left his place at Military academy and spent four years cutting his teeth in theater, touring with companies in the UK and Europe, and starring in the West End production of "Mamma Mia" at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London before making his way to America to fully pursue a career in film and television. He has been working ever since.
In 2017 Sasse took a brief hiatus from the entertainment industry, making the decision to step away from the limelight in order to re-root himself. He worked in a vintage car garage, lived on an island in Greece where he wrote two novels, collections of poetry, and penned a travel/remedial book. He started a Safari company in Zambia, and moved to Australia where he opened a café and bar. Sasse got married and had two children, in the process. Sasse notes this period of time changed his life and life changed him, marking a new chapter in his journey.
In 2020 during the pandemic, Sasse was finally published as a poet and dove deeper into his love of poetry, even launching a podcast entitled "The Poet's Voice" which features accessible, bite-size poems that erase the stigma placed on poetry by reading them in a way that everyone can enjoy. As a writer, Sasse is putting the finishing touches on his latest book "The Poetry Orchard," which is due to be published in 2022.
Sasse is a staunch supporter of anti-poaching and protecting wildlife across the world, and is one of the founders of 'Classic Zambia' a close to nature Safari experience with professional guides that have an unparalleled knowledge of the bush.
When he isn't on set, Sasse spends his time pursuing his writing and is most passionate about spending time with his wife and children.- Jackson starred in a leading role opposite Elizabeth Banks and David Denman in Brightburn (2019), which premiered May 24, 2019. He also appeared in Avengers: Endgame as Scott Lang (12 years old). Born in San Diego in 2003, Jackson's debut into acting was at the age of four when he played the Grinch in his preschool play. He has always enjoyed performing and public speaking, and at the age of ten, he asked to attend an open audition in San Diego. That audition led to a showcase in Los Angeles, and ultimately to signing with his manager and agent. Within a few months, Jackson landed a recurring role on the hit Showtime series Shameless. He has also appeared on several other hit television shows including Get Shorty, GLOW, Colony, and Henry Danger. He had a recurring role on Nickelodeon's Legendary Dudas. In addition, Jackson has had roles in the films Gone Are the Days (2018) and The Scent of Rain and Lightning. When not pursuing his acting career, Jackson enjoys skateboarding, biking, snowboarding, listening to music, writing, and hanging out with friends and family.
- Dick Van Patten began acting as a child. He made his first of 27 Broadway appearances at age seven in "Tapestry in Grey". After, he appeared in numerous films, including Freaky Friday (1976), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Spaceballs (1987). His television credits include his best-known role on the 1980s comedy-drama Eight Is Enough (1977), on which he played Tom Bradford, the patriarchal head of the pack.
Van Patten authored several bestselling books, including "How To Get Your Child Into Show Business" and his autobiography, "Eighty Is Not Enough". He was also known for lending his name to "Natural Balance", a line of high-end dog food that is intended to be indistinguishable from stews and other dishes, that are normally intended for human consumption. He was married to Pat Poole (née Patricia Poole) for 61 years; the union produced three sons: Nels Van Patten, James Van Patten, and Vincent Van Patten. - Actor
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Redd Foxx began doing stand-up comedy on the infamous "Chitlin' Circuit" in the 1940s and 1950s. Foxx was one of the premier "blue humor" comedians. Blue humor was very dirty, too dirty for white audiences. For years his party albums were not available in white record stores. In the 1960s his records became available, although marginally in white record stores, leading to minor comedy work on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") and The Red Skelton Hour (1951), among other classic variety shows of the time. Foxx developed a fan base in the 1960s that led to increased notoriety. He received his own television series in 1972 called Sanford and Son (1972), which was a reworking of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son (1962). Foxx's character, Fred Sanford (was actually Foxx's brother's name), was a cranky old man who was set in his ways and would insult both friends and strangers at the drop of a hat. He ran a junkyard in Watts, a bad neighborhood in Los Angeles, with his son Lamont (played by Demond Wilson). The show broke down racial stereotypes and was a huge success, making Foxx and the show household names. Foxx fought a very public battle with the writers and producers of the show, claiming that they did not do enough to promote the black experience, and in general complained there were not enough black writers or producers in the entertainment industry. These highly publicized disputes led to the show faltering artistically, but not in the ratings. Foxx left the show in 1977 to accomplish his dream on ABC: his own variety show, which lasted less than a year. He also starred in the controversial film Norman... Is That You? (1976).
Foxx's trouble with the law and the Internal Revenue Service hampered his career in the early 1980s. He flopped yet again with the sitcom The Redd Foxx Show (1986) on ABC. He did, however, find success playing a ghost in the TV movie Ghost of a Chance (1987), with Dick Van Dyke. The late 1980s found Foxx on a rebound, as he starred with Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy in the popular Harlem Nights (1989), which showcased the three premiere black comedians of their respective generations. A whole new generation of comedians begin claiming Redd Foxx as a major influence on their careers, including Murphy and Pryor. Foxx looked like he was finding success 20 years after Sanford and Son (1972) with The Royal Family (1991). However, we will never know if the show would have been a success--while rehearsing for an episode, Foxx collapsed and was rushed to a hospital. He died in October of 1991. Redd Foxx will be remembered as a pioneering comedian who influenced generations of comedians and helped break down racial barriers in the the entertainment industry. His influence seems as strong as ever.- Actor
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Broderick Crawford is best remembered for two roles: his Oscar-winning turn as Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) and as Chief Dan Mathews on the syndicated TV series Highway Patrol (1955). He was also memorable as Judy Holliday's vulgar partner in Born Yesterday (1950), roles both actors had originated on Broadway to great acclaim.
He was born William Broderick Crawford on December 9, 1911, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to vaudeville performers Lester Crawford and Helen Broderick. His mother had a brief movie career acting in Hollywood comedies. Broderick Crawford, large and burly, was no one's idea of a leading man due to his rough-and-tumble looks, but he broke through playing John Steinbeck's simple-minded giant Lenny in the Broadway adaptation of Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men". After this Broadway success, Crawford moved to Hollywood and made his cinema debut in the comedy Woman Chases Man (1937), in a supporting role to stars Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins. When producer-director Lewis Milestone was casting the movie version of Steinbeck's classic (Of Mice and Men (1939)), he passed over Crawford and selected Lon Chaney Jr. to play Lenny.
After many supporting roles (including a memorable turn as a big but kindhearted lug in the comedy Larceny, Inc (1942)) and a stint in the military during World War II, Crawford had his breakthrough role in Robert Rossen's adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "All the King's Men". Crawford gave a masterly performance as the southern U.S. politician based on Louisiana's Huey Long. In addition to the Oscar, he also won the New York Film Critics' Award for Best Actor. All the King's Men (1949) was a hit, as was Born Yesterday (1950). (Crawford had also played the role on Broadway, succeeding Paul Douglas, who originated the role.) However, Crawford soon after became typecast as crude or brutish.
Five years after copping the Academy Award, TV producer Frederick W. Ziv hired Crawford to play the lead role in his syndicated police drama "Highway Patrol". The show ran for four seasons. Crawford's career, moribund in the early 1950s, revived, but he generally eschewed the big screen, preferring television, for the remainder of his career. He continued to act almost up until his death in Rancho Mirage, California, on April 26, 1986, at age 74, following a series of strokes.- Actor
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Commanding actor Richard Brooks was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is an actor, director and singer. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied acting, dance, and voice work at Interlochen Academy of Arts in Michigan. Later, he moved to New York City and was a student of the Circle in the Square Professional Theater School and performed in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference production of August Wilson's Fences.
He moved to Los Angeles, where he started his movie career. Some of his appearances were in _Teen Wolf_, Off Limits (1988), _Shakedown_, _Shocker_ and To Sleep with Anger (1990). He became noticed in The Substitute (1996) with Tom Berenger and as voodoo drug lord Judah Earl in The Crow: City of Angels (1996) with Vincent Perez, Thomas Jane, Mia Kirshner and Iggy Pop. While on TV, he is best known as Paul Robinette on Law & Order (1990) and Jubal Early on Firefly (2002). He portrayed Frederick Douglass in the PBS American Experience docudrama mini-series The Abolitionists (1988) and plays Gabrielle Union's big brother Patrick in the hit BET drama Being Mary Jane (2013).- Actress
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Liz Crowther was born on 9 December 1954 in Isleworth, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (1985), Mansfield Park (1983) and Tripper's Day (1984).- Actress
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Jolene Purdy was born on 9 December 1983 in Redondo Beach, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for The White Lotus (2021), WandaVision (2021) and Orange Is the New Black (2013). She has been married to Chuck Brandt since 2007. They have one child.- Actor
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Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond was born December 9, 1957 in Ogden, Utah, to Olive Osmond (née Davis) and George Osmond on . He was the seventh of eight brothers and has one sister. When Donny was young, his family went to see Lawrence Welk in California. They were unable to meet with him so they decided to take a vacation to Disneyland. This is where Donny's older brothers Wayne Osmond, Alan Osmond, Merrill Osmond and Jay Osmond were discovered by Walt Disney. They performed at Disneyland and were soon asked to perform on The Andy Williams Show (1962). They performed on the show for nine years, with Donny joining the show at age six. After their run on the show was up, the brothers spent two years trying to make it big before Mike Curb and Rick Hall found "One Bad Apple," the song originally chosen for The Jacksons (then known as The Jackson Five), but was instead recorded by the Osmonds and made them famous. For the next several years, Donny traveled all over the world with his brothers, performing for fans such songs as "Puppy Love", "Crazy Horses", "Go Away Lttle Girl", "Down By the Lazy River" and "Twelfth of Never."
In 1974, Donny's sister, Marie Osmond, started performing with the brothers and Donny recorded duets with her. That led to their co-hosting The Mike Douglas Show (1961). An executive at ABC saw the show and offered them their own TV variety show. The pair took it under one condition--that the whole family be involved. Donny and Marie (1975) was a huge success and lasted four years. During the run of the show, Donny married Debra Glenn in 1978 and started a family. In 1979, the show was canceled and the family was faced with a huge debt that they repaid. The early 1980s were not easy for Donny. He tried many different avenues, including starring in "Little Johnny Jones" on Broadway, but without much success. Donny had a break in the late 1980s, though, when he teamed up with Peter Gabriel and recorded "Soldier of Love", which went to #2 on the US charts. In the 1990s, he toured as Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". This lasted to the late 1990s. After that, he teamed up with Marie again for Donny & Marie (1997), this time a TV talk show. This was highly successful as well, but only lasted a few years. After the end of the show, Donny once again returned to music. He has since released "This is The Moment" a collection of Broadway tunes, and "Somewhere in Time", a collection of love songs. Shortly afterward, Donny was offered the opportunity to host the syndicated game show Pyramid (2002), a revival of the popular The $10,000 Pyramid (1973) game show, and it ran from 2002-2004. Donny has released a new single "Breeze on By", which reached #8 on the UK charts. He has an upcoming CD "What I Meant to Say" due out in November in the UK and January 2005 in the US.- Actor
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David Anthony Higgins was born on 9 December 1961 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Malcolm in the Middle (2000), Mike & Molly (2010) and The Wrong Guy (1997). He has been married to Julia since 2000. They have two children.- Actress
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Jacqueline Lovell was born and raised in Southern California. From a very young age, she had the immense innate talent and enthusiasm for performance. She expressed this through school musicals and church plays from grade school through high school. In much of her free time, she was writing skits and performing them for her family. She attended many schools during her formative years, which instilled drive and independence in her. At eighteen, she went to Santa Monica College to pursue accounting and later landed a full time job as an accountant.
However, she quickly realized her hunger was not being fulfilled. So she set sail and journeyed into the world of modeling. She quickly became the number one nude model in 1995 and was in over 150 magazines by '96. She completed more than 80 videos for Playboy, Penthouse and numerous independents. Not only beautiful but also intelligent, she became the publisher for "Babe" Magazine. She also wrote for "Femme Fatales" Magazine and for major internet corporations such as Danni Ash's Harddrive. After being in the industry for one year, Jacqueline's desire to grow as a person led her to acting classes. As she studied her craft, her vocation became clear. She started as an extra in Forest Gump, The Truth about Cats and Dogs, Murder She Wrote, Baywatch Nights and before long her talent was recognized. She was cast in lead roles for Full Moon Entertainment, Zalman King Productions, Mystique Films, and many more.
Jacqueline has acted in films around the world planting her seed in film history. She has easily become one of the top erotic actresses in Hollywood. Others with as much success in erotic films might be content to focus only on that genre. But not someone with Jacqueline's talent. She has closed this chapter in her life to focus on mainstream roles.- Actor
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Rene Rosado was born on 9 December 1982 in Puerto Rico. He is an actor and producer, known for The Conners (2018), Major Crimes (2012) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).- Actress
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One of stage, screen, radio and TV's most inimitable, irrepressible entertainers, Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold was born in London on December 9, 1897, the daughter of an upscale Austrian-Jewish financier and English homemaker. The blue-eyed blonde loved to perform in school plays and made her professional stage debut at age 11 as the Herald in "Pinkie and the Fairies."
She went on to appear at London's Savoy Theatre, at Christmastime in 1911, in the children's fantasy "Where the Raindow Ends," starring Reginald Owen and a cast of 45 children, including Gingold and a 12-year-old Noël Coward. Trained in the classics under actress/writer Rosina Filippi (1866-1930), Hermione played everything from the Page in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" to Jessica in "The Merchant of Venice" and Cassandra in "Troilus and Cressida." Stage parts in "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Dippers" also came about during this period.
But it was Hermione's deep, guttural voice (as a result of vocal nodes) and flair for tart, quirky comedy that truly boosted her notoriety in the 1930's when she triumphed as a musical revue artist. Sharpening her talent and bawdy, razor-like wit in this venue throughout World War II, she graced such revues as "The Gate Revue," "Sweet and Low," "Sweet and Lower," "Sweet and Lowest," "Swinging the Gate" and "Rise Above It." In between she appeared in a few films, including a cleaning woman bit in the comedy thriller Someone at the Door (1936), and featured roles in the comedies Meet Mr. Penny (1938) and The Butler's Dilemma (1943).
After performances in such legit plays as "Fumed Oak" and "Fallen Angels" in 1949, and having completed character roles in the pictures The Pickwick Papers (1952), The Slasher (1953) and The Adventures of Sadie (1953), she transported herself to the States, making her New York bow with the popular revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac," directed by Cyril Ritchard. She was an immediate success and went on to win the theatre's Donaldson Award for this performance. Settling now in America, she involved herself with a variety of theatre projects including "Sticks and Stones" (revue, 1956), "The Sleeping Prince (play) 1956), "Fallen Angels" (play, 1957-58), "First Impressions (play, 1959), "From A to Z (revue, 1960) and as Julia in "Abracadabra," (play, 1960), which she also wrote.
Beloved on Broadway, Hermione served as intriguing replacements for "Milk and Honey" (1962) and "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad" (1963) and continued to make a mark with such plays as "Charley's Aunt." In 1973, the 75-year-old veteran was a featured highlight nostalgically warbling the exotic tune "Liaisons" in the Stephen Sondheim musical hit "A Little Night Music" as Madame Armfeldt. She later returned to Sondheim with the tribute show "Side by Side by Sondheim" in 1978.
Never one to be overlooked for long, she was invited to Hollywood and made a delightfully offbeat niche for herself in several eccentric comedies and plush musical films. Usually permitted to play her charming and haughty self, she was Golden Globe awarded playing the aging courtesan in Gigi (1958) while singing the nostalgic duet "I Remember It Well" with equally aging playboy Maurice Chevalier. Other movie roles would include a quirky cameo as a witch queen in the comedy Bell Book and Candle (1958); another quirky cameo in the second-rate Hitchcockian thriller The Naked Edge (1961); a Golden Globe nominated part as the mayor's wife in the musical The Music Man (1962); a comically villainous voice in the animated musical feature Gay Purr-ee (1962) starring the vocal talents of Judy Garland; a charming reunion with Chevalier in the lightweight comedy I'd Rather Be Rich (1964); a bizarre landlady in the romantic comedy Promise Her Anything (1966), which reunited her with her "Gigi" star Leslie Caron; a devious British Munster relative in Munster, Go Home! (1966); and her Madame Armfeldt recreation in a rather pallid film version of her stage hit A Little Night Music (1977). Her last film was as an aging actress who rubbed elbows with Garbo in the comedy-drama Garbo Talks (1984) starring Anne Bancroft.
Gingold was a delightfully ribald raconteur and became a very popular TV talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957). She was finishing up the last touches on her autobiography when she passed away in New York City of pneumonia and a heart ailment on May 24, 1987. Her autobiography, How to Grow Old Disgracefully, was published a year after her death (1988). It had been previously presented in installments -- The World Is Square (1946), My Own Unaided Work (1952) and Sirens Should Be Seen and Not Heard (1963). A one-of-a-kind entertainer if ever there was one.- Actor
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Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or TV shows, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian. Noblesse oblige.
He was born Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. in New York City, New York, to Anna Beth (Sully), daughter of a very wealthy cotton mogul, and actor Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman), then not yet established as the swashbuckling idol he would become. Fairbanks, Jr. had German Jewish (from his paternal grandfather), English, and Scottish ancestry.
He proved a gifted boy early in life. To the end of his life he remained a multi-talented, hyperactive man, not content to appear in the 100 films mentioned above. Handsome, distinguished and extremely bright, he excelled at sports (much like his father), notably during his stay at the Military Academy in 1919 (his role in Claude Autant-Lara's "L'athlète incomplete" illustrated these abilities). He also excelled academically, and attended the Lycéee Janson de Sailly in Paris, where he had followed his divorced mother. Very early in his life he developed a taste for the arts as well and became a painter and sculptor. Not content to limiting himself to just one field, he became involved in business, in fields as varied as mining, hotel management, owning a chain of bowling alleys and a firm that manufactured popcorn. During World War II he headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospital (an establishment taking care of war refugees), was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940 before becoming a lieutenant in the Navy (he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1954) and taking part in the Allies' landing in Sicily and Elba in 1943. A fervent Anglophile, was knighted in 1949 and often entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in his London mansion, "The Boltons".
His film career began at the age of 13 when he was signed by Paramount Pictures. He debuted in Stephen Steps Out (1923) but the film flopped and his career stagnated despite a critically acclaimed role in Stella Dallas (1925). Things really picked up when he married Lucille Le Sueur, a young starlet who was soon to become better known as Joan Crawford. The young couple became the toast of the town (one "Screen Snapshots" episode echoes this sudden glory) and good parts and success followed, such as the hapless partner of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931) a favorably reviewed turn as the villain in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) or more debonair characters in slapstick comedies or adventure yarns. The 1930s were a fruitful period for Fairbanks, his most memorable role probably being that of the British soldier in Gunga Din (1939); although it was somewhat of a "swashbuckling" role, Fairbanks made a point of never imitating his father. After the World War II, his star waned and, despite a moving part in Ghost Story (1981), he did not appear in a major movie. Now a legend himself, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. left this world with the satisfaction of having lived up to the Fairbanks name at the end of a life nobody could call "wasted".- Writer
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Prolific, multi-talented comedy writer, story editor, actor and director. His father was an Air Force general (Paul Steinberg Zuckerman) turned stockbroker and his mother was silent screen star Ruth Taylor, formerly a member of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. Buck Henry's first fling with comedy was as a contributor to the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern magazine (known as 'Jacko') while he was still at college. His fellow writers there included such luminaries as Dr. Seuss, novelist Budd Schulberg and the playwright Frank D. Gilroy. Henry attended Harvard Military Academy for a short time before developing an interest in acting which led to a few small roles on Broadway. His budding career was interrupted by military service during the Korean War. In 1961, Henry joined a small improvisational off-Broadway theatre troupe called The Premise for a year before moving to Hollywood. He was to find his greatest popularity in the 60s as one of the principal hosts of Saturday Night Live (1975), writer for The Garry Moore Show (1958) and co-creator/writer (with Mel Brooks) of Get Smart (1965), for which he won an Emmy in 1967. Prior to that, he had already achieved a certain amount of notoriety as co-perpetrator (with Alan Abel) of a hoax which had Henry masquerading as G. Clifford Prout, Jr., president of the bogus Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, making public appearances on network television and other media, demanding that all zoos and wildlife parks be closed until all animals were "properly dressed". At one time he tried to put huge boxer shorts on a baby elephant at San Francisco Zoo. The hoax was eventually exposed after Henry was spotted as an actor by a fellow CBS employee during a Walter Cronkite interview.
One of a new wave of satirists (others including Woody Allen and Alan Arkin) Henry brought an edgier, smarter, more anarchic and at times abrasive style to his writing. Some of his quotable one-liners (in particular for Get Smart) are - and will continue to be - idiomatic. While he was original, clever and invariably funny, not all of Henry's endeavours panned out. Two of his TV parodies proved to be conspicuous failures: Captain Nice (1967) (a send-up of Batman) and Quark (1977) (a Star Trek parody about interstellar garbage collectors). On the plus side, Henry was Oscar-nominated twice: the first time for his screenplay of The Graduate (1967), the second for co-directing (with star Warren Beatty ) the re-make of Heaven Can Wait (1978). Following The Graduate, a New York Times reviewer described him as a cross between Jack Lemmon and Wally Cox , "a terrifying practical joker and a compulsive reader of 200 periodicals a month". He was much in demand as a guest on talk shows (including Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Dick Cavett) and appeared as a self-deprecating actor in most of the films he wrote: as a hotel desk clerk in The Graduate, the cynical Colonel Korn in Catch-22 (1970), a lunatic in Candy (1968), a priest and a TV anchorman in First Family (1980), and so on. In Milos Forman's Taking Off (1971) he also had a rare co-starring role as a father looking for his runaway daughter. Buck Henry passed away at the age of 89 in Los Angeles on January 8 2020.- Actress
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Pixie Davies was born on 9 December 2006 in England, UK. She is an actress, known for Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and Humans (2015).- Actor
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Talk-show host and songwriter ("Because We're Young", "Hearts Are Wild"), composer, author, actor and singer, educated at New York University (BS) and a two-year Law School student. He was a program director and announcer at WPOP in Hartford, Connecticut, and later made several records under his birth name. Joining ASCAP in 1960, his other popular-song compositions include "Now I Lay Me Down to Cry", "Ballad of Billy Brown", "Flattery", and "Don't Mention My Name".- Eugenio Mastrandrea was born on 9 December 1993. He is an actor, known for The Equalizer 3 (2023), A.C.A.B. - All Cops Are Bastards (2012) and Cercando Itaca.
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Actor/writer/producer Todd Allen has appeared in close to 70 film and television productions in his career. He has recently completed filming Kevin Costner's epic Horizon: An American Saga parts 1 and 2 making the 5th time he has worked with Costner. He is also slated to appear in Horizon parts 3 and 4. Previously, Todd worked with Kevin Costner on three films and with Robert Duvall on The Apostle (1997), and again on Broken Trail (2006), in which Allen received excellent reviews as territorial Marshal Bill Miller.
Via his independent production company, Virtuosity Media, he has planned a number of exemplary film and television projects, including some 14 feature projects, 11 television projects, two documentaries and a number of alternative television projects. Todd recently completed writing, and will make his Directorial debut, with the feature screenplay, Six Mile Creek, the story of a Veteran suffering from PTSD who must overcome his own demons to save the woman and daughter he comes to love. He will also Executive Produce the epic long form television project Sarita, a true story of a girls journey into Mexico to track down her brother's killers, set on the Texas / Mexico border during the 1920 Prohibition era. A UFC centered television series project, The Tournament, and a sought-after spaghetti western reboot, Challenge at Crown Valley, to be shot on location in Almeria, Spain. Other projects include the gritty, noir-styled western, The Deserters, the romantic thrill ride, Suicide Grip.
Allen maintains residences in both Los Angeles and his hometown, Austin,Texas where he lives with his wife and youngest child, Shelby Allen, who works in Development for Virtuosity Motion Pictures and Virtuosity Television, and is pursuing a career in media, sports entertainment and sports management.- He is most notably recognized today as "Cowboy" Cliff Harting in Hallmark Channel's original television series "Cedar Cove," based on the books by award-winning author Debbie Macomber (series began in 2013)
Not to be typecast, Sebastian has become one of the most sought-after actors in Vancouver, BC. While science fiction is a preferred genre, based on his impressive resume, it is clear to see that he can take any role he is given and give the same kind of impressive performances that has become a hallmark of his career. His versatility could be considered practically legendary. - Actor
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John Dixon Paragon was born in Alaska, but grew up and attended schools in Fort Collins, Colorado. He got his start in the Los Angeles-based improvisation group The Groundlings alongside Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman. John is best known for his work on children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse where he played Jambi the Genie and voiced Pterri the Pterodactyl. In addition to writing many of the regular season episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986), John also co-wrote with Paul Reubens the acclaimed "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" in 1988, for which they were nominated an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Children's Special. He has also collaborated with fellow Groundling Cassandra Peterson on numerous projects, including the recurring role of The Breather, an annoying caller, for her first television series Movie Macabre on KHJ-TV-Los Angeles and was co-writer on her 1988 feature film, Elvira Mistress of the Dark. Some of his other memorable roles include Cedric, one half of the homosexual couple Bob and Cedric on the television series Seinfeld; the title character in the children's movie The Frog Prince; the sex shop salesman in the cult favorite Eating Raoul; and the owner of a Strip-o-gram business in the 1986 film Echo Park. In recent years, John has worked with Walt Disney Imagineering on ways to incorporate improvisational performance into attractions at Disney parks. He returned to his performance as Jambi the Genie in the Broadway outing of the new "Pee-wee Herman" stage show that began performances October 26, 2010 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater.- Writer
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Dalton Trumbo, the Oscar-winning screenwriter, arguably the most talented, most famous of the blacklisted film professionals known to history as the Hollywood 10, was born in Montrose, Colorado to Orus Trumbo and his wife, the former Maud Tillery.
Dalton Trumbo was raised at 1124 Gunnison Ave. in Grand Junction, Colorado, where his parents moved in 1908. His father, Orus, worked in a shoe store. Dalton, the first child and only son, was later joined by sisters Catharine and Elizabeth. The young Dalton peddled the produce from his father's vegetable garden around town and had a paper route. While attending Grand Junction High School (Class of 1924), he worked at The Daily Sentinel as a cub reporter. Of his early politics, a much older Dalton Trumbo told how he asked his father for five dollars so he could join the Ku Klux Klan, a mass organization after the First World War. He didn't get the five dollars.
While at university, he realized that his calling was as a writer. He worked on the school's newspaper, humor magazine and yearbook, while also toiling for the Boulder Daily Camera. He left school his first year to follow his family to Los Angeles. The family moved due to financial difficulties after his father had been terminated by the shoe company. In L.A., Dalton enrolled at the University of Southern California but was unable to complete enough credits for a degree. Orus Trumbo died of pernicious anemia in 1926, and Dalton had to take a job to become the breadwinner for his widowed mother and two younger sisters. Dalton Trumbo took on whatever jobs were available, including repossessing motorcycles and bootlegging, which he quit because it was too dangerous. Eventually, Trumbo took a job at the Davis Perfection Bakery on the night shift and remained for nearly a decade. Trumbo continued to write, mostly short stories, becoming more and more anxious and eventually desperate to leave the bakery, fearing that he would never achieve his destiny of becoming an important writer. During this time, he sold several short stories, written his first novel and worked for the "Hollywood Spectator" as a writer, critic and editor. His work also appeared in "Vanity Fair" and "Vogue" magazines. Trumbo's first novel, "Eclipse" (1934), was set in fictional Shale City, Colorado (a thinly veiled Grand Junction) during the 1920s and 1930s, with characters who resembled notable community members. One of its main characters, John Abbott, is modeled after Trumbo's father. Dalton had tried, perhaps unfairly he admitted later, to avenge his father on the town where he had failed.
In 1934, Warner Bros. hired Trumbo as a reader, a job that entailed reading and summarizing plays and novels and advising whether they might be adapted into movies. It lead to a contract as a junior screenwriter at its B-pictures unit. In 1936, the same year he of his first screen credit for the B-move Road Gang (1936), Trumbo met his future soulmate Cleo Fincher and they married two years later. Daughter Nikola was born in 1939 and son Christopher in 1940. A daughter was added, Mitzi, the baby of the family.
He wrote the story for Columbia's Canadian-made Tugboat Princess (1936), clearly influenced by Captain January (1936), which had been made into a silent in 1924 before being remade with superstar Shirley Temple, substituting a tugboat in the original with a lighthouse. His screenplays for such films as Devil's Playground (1937) showed some concern for the plight of the disenfranchised, but the Great Depression still existed, and social commentary was inevitable in all but fantasies and musicals.
After leaving Warners, he worked for Columbia, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, and beginning in 1937, M.G.M., the studio for which he would do some of his best work in the 1940s. By the late 1930s, he had worked himself up to better assignments, primarily for RKO (though he returned to Warners for The Kid from Kokomo (1939)), and was working on A-list pictures by the turn of the decade. He won his first Oscar nod for RKO's Kitty Foyle (1940), for which Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for best actress as a girl from a poor family who claws her way into the upper middle class via a failed marriage to a Main Line Philadelphia swell.
By the time of America's entry into World War II, Trumbo was one of the most respected, highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood. He had also established a name for himself as a left-wing political activist whose sympathies coincided with those of the American Communist Party (CPUSA), which hewed to the line set by Moscow.
Trumbo was part of the anti-fascist Popular Front coalition of communists and liberals in the late 1930s, at the time of the Spanish Civil War. The Popular Front against Nazism and Fascism was been torn asunder in August 1939 when the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Many party members quit the CPUSA in disgust, but the true believers parroted the party line, which was now pro-peace and against US involvement in WWII.
Trumbo reportedly did not join the Party until 1943 and harbored personal reservations about its policies as regards enforcing ideological conformity. However, the publication of his anti-war novel "Johnny Got His Gun" in 1939 coincided with the shift of the CPUSA's stance from anti-Hitler to pro-peace, and his novel was embraced by the Party as the type of literature needed to keep the US out of the war. Trumbo agreed with the Party's pro-peace platform. The book, about a wounded World War One vet who has lost his limbs, won the American Book Sellers Award (the precursor to the National Book Award) in 1939. In a speech made in February 1940, four months before the Nazi blitzkrieg knocked France out of the war, Trumbo said, "If they say to us, 'We must fight this war to preserve democracy,' let us say to them, 'There is no such thing as democracy in time of war. It is a lie, a deliberate deception to lead us to our own destruction. We will not die in order that our children may inherit a permanent military dictatorship.'"
His speech was a rebuke to New Deal liberals. The Party began demonizing President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who hated Hitler and was pro-British, as a war-monger. The Party ordered its members to henceforth be pro-peace and anti-FDR in their work and statements. In June 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, the CPUSA shifted gears to become pro-war, supportive of FDR's aggressive behavior towards Nazi Germany.
Shortly after the German invasion, Trumbo instructed his publisher to recall all copies of "Johnny Got His Gun" and to cease publication of the book. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against the U.S. catapulted the U.S. into both the Asian and European theaters of World War II, the book - always popular with peace-lovers and isolationists who opposed America's involvement in foreign wars - suddenly became popular among native fascists, too. However, it proved hard to get a copy of the book during the war years.
Trumbo joined the CPUSA in 1943, the same year Victor Fleming's great patriotic war movie A Guy Named Joe (1943), with a Trumbo screenplay, appeared on screens. In 1944, Original Story was a separate Oscar category and David Boehm and Chandler Sprague were nominated in that category for an Academy Award. Trumbo's screenplay was overlooked. Like other communist screenwriters, he proved to be an enthusiastic writer of pro-war propaganda, though except for the notorious pro-Stalin Mission to Moscow (1943), few films displayed any overt communist ideas or propaganda. One that did was Tender Comrade (1943) , which Trumbo wrote as a Ginger Rogers vehicle for RKO. Directed by his future Hollywood 10 comrade Edward Dmytryk, it depicted a mild form of socialism and collectivization among women working in the defense industry. He also wrote the patriotic classic Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) for M.G.M., which was based on the Doolittle Raid of 1942.
Trumbo voluntarily invited FBI agents to his house in 1944 and showed them letters he had received from what he perceived were pro-fascist peaceniks who had requested copies of "Johnny Got His Gun", then out-of-print due to Trumbo's orders to his publisher. He turned those letters over to the FBI and later kept in contact with the Bureau, a fact that would later haunt blacklisted leftists, urging that the F.B.I. deal with them. His actions conformed to the CPUSA policy of denouncing anyone who opposed the war.
In 1945, the last year of the war, MGM released the Margaret O'Brien / Edward G. Robinson vehicle, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), penned by Trumbo. Robinson was a future member of the Hollywood "gray-list" with those, like Henry Fonda who were suspected of leftist sympathies or for being Fellow Travelers, but who could not be officially blacklisted. Drawing on his own rural childhood, it was a picture of a young girl's life on a farm in rural Wisconsin. The year 1945 was crucial for Trumbo and other Hollywood party members in terms of the CPUSA's desire to have their work reflect the party's ideological agenda.
HCUA was originally created in 1934 as the Special Committee on Un-American Activities to look into the activities of fascist and pro-Nazi organizations. Then popularly known as the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities exposed fascist organizations, including a planned coup d'etat against President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the so-called Business Plot. Later on, it became known as the House Un-American Activities Committee or the Dies Committee after the new chairman, Martin Dies. HCUA originally was tasked with investigating the involvement of German Americans with the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
HCUA became a standing committee in 1946, still tasked with investigating suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution." The focus was solely on the communists and their allies, so-called Fellow Travelers who made common cause with communists during the War Years. Fellow Travelers was a loose term that seemed to embrace many liberal FDR New Deal Democrats.
HCUA subpoenaed suspected communists in the entertainment industry. Trumbo's screenplay for Tender Comrade (1943), which concerned three Army wives who pool their resources while their husbands are away fighting was denounced as communist propaganda. However, writer-producer James Kevin McGuinness, a conservative who was a friendly witness before HCUA, testified that left-wing screenwriters did not inject propaganda into their movie scripts during World War II. McGuiness testified "[The movie industry] profited from reverse lend-lease because during the [war] the Communist and Communist-inclined writers in the motion picture industry were given leave of absence to be patriotic. During that time...under my general supervision Dalton Trumbo wrote two magnificent patriotic scripts, A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)."
Appearing before HCUA in October 1947 with Alvah Bessie, Herbert J. Biberman, Lester Cole, John Howard Lawson, 'Ring Lardner Jr' , Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, and Samuel Ornitz, Trumbo - like the others - refused to answer any questions. In a defense strategy crafted by CPUSA lawyers, the soon-to-be-known-as "Hollywood 10" claimed that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave them the right to refuse to answer inquiries into their political beliefs as well as their professional associations. One line of questioning of HCUA was to ask if the subpoenaed witnesses were members of the Screen Writers Guild in order to smear the SWG. It was a gambit played by the Committee as it knew that which of the 10 were in the unions, and it knew which were communist. As Arthur Miller has pointed out, HCUA left the Broadway theater alone, despite the fact that there were communists working in it, because no one outside of the Northeastern U.S. really cared about theater or knew who theatrical professionals were, and thus, it could not generate the publicity that HCUA members craved and courted through their hearings.
HCUA cited them for contempt of Congress, and the Hollywood 10 were tried and convicted on the charge. All were fined and jailed, with Trumbo being sentenced to a year in federal prison and a fine of $1,000. He served 10 months of the sentence. The Hollywood 10 were blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, a blacklist enforced by the very guilds they helped create. Trumbo and the other Hollywood 10 screenwriters were kicked out of the Screen Writers Guild (John Howard Lawson had been one of the founders of the SWG and its first president), which meant, even if they weren't blacklisted, they could not obtain work in Hollywood. Those who continued to write for the American cinema had to do so under assumed names or by using a "front", a screenwriter who would take credit for their work and pass on all or some of the fee to the blacklisted writer. Later, as one of the Hollywood Ten, Trumbo claimed for himself the mantle of "Martyr for Freedom of Speech" and attacked, as rats, those who became informers for HCUA by naming names. In 1949, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., wrote in The Saturday Review of Books, that Trumbo was in fact NOT a free speech martyr since he would not fight for freedom of speech for ALL the people, such as right-wing conservatives, but only for the freedom of speech of CPUSA members. The anti-communist Schlesinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian, thought Trumbo and others like him were doctrinaire communists and hypocrites. In response, Trumbo wrote a scathing letter to The Saturday Review to defend himself, characterizing himself as a paladin championing free speech for all Americans under the aegis of the First Amendment, which the Hollywood 10 claimed gave them the right to refuse to cooperate with HCUA.
After his blacklisting and failure of the Hollywood 10's appeals, the Trumbo family exiled themselves to Mexico. In Mexico, chain-smoking in the bathtub in which he always wrote, usually with a parrot given to him by 'Kirk Douglas' perched on his shoulder, Trumbo wrote approximately thirty scripts under pseudonyms and using fronts who relayed the money to him. His works included the film noir classic Gun Crazy (1950) (AKA Gun Crazy), co-written under the pseudonym Millard Kaufman, Oscar-winning Roman Holiday (1953) (with screenwriter Ian McLellan Hunter as a front), and The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) for director Otto Preminger and upon which blacklisted Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Wilson also worked).
At the 1957 Academy Awards, Robert Rich won the Oscar for best original story of 1956 for The Brave One (1956). Rich was not present to accept the award, which was accepted on his behalf by Jesse Lasky Jr. of the Screen Writers Guild. When journalists began digging in to the background of the phantom Mr. Rich, they found out he was the nephew of a producer. Suspicion then arose that Rich was a pseudonym for the blacklisted Trumbo.
Though Hollywood has always been inundated with writers, Trumbo, even while blacklisted, was prized as a good writer who was fast, reliable and could write in many genres. Despite being a communist, Trumbo's favorite themes were more in the vein of populism than Marxism. Trumbo celebrated the individual rebelling against the powers that be.
With rumors circulating that Trumbo had written the Oscar-winning The Brave One (1956), it triggered a discussion in the industry about the propriety of the blacklist, since so many screenplays were being written by blacklisted individuals who were being denied screen credit. The blacklist only worked to suppress the prices of screenplays by these talented writers. In 1958, Pierre Boulle won the Oscar for the screenplay adapted from his novel The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which was unusual since Boulle could not speak nor write in English, which may have been the reason he did not attend the awards ceremony to pick up the Oscar in person. It was immediately realized that the screenplay had likely been written by a blacklisted screenwriter. It was - Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman.
Kirk Douglas hired Trumbo to write the script for Spartacus in 1958. In the summer of 1959 Otto Preminger hired Trumbo to write the script for Exodus. On January 20, 1960, the New York Times carried the story that Otto Preminger had hired Dalton Trumbo to write the script for Exodus, and that he would start shooting in April. On August 8, of the same year Kirk Douglas announced in Variety that Trumbo had written the script for Spartacus. Both pictures opened in the winter of 1960.
Trumbo wrote many more screenplays for A-list films, including Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sandpiper (1965), Hawaii (1966) , and _Fixer, The (1968). In 1970, he was awarded the Laurel Award for lifetime achievement by the Screen Writers Guild. He made a famous speech that many saw as a reconciliation of the two sides of fight. In 1971, he wrote and directed the movie adaptation of his famous anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun (1971). His last screenwriting credit on a feature film was for Papillon (1973), in which he also had a cameo role.
A six-pack-a-day smoker, he developed lung cancer in 1973. Two years later, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (which had supported the black list), Walter Mirisch, personally delivered a belated Oscar to Trumbo for his The Brave One (1956) script, now officially recognized by AMPAS as his creation. Eighteen years later, AMPAS would award him a posthumous Oscar for Roman Holiday (1953).
Dalton Trumbo died from a heart attack in California on September 10, 1976. At his memorial service, Ring Lardner Jr., his close friend and fellow Hollywood 10 member, delivered an amusing eulogy. "At rare intervals, there appears among us a person whose virtues are so manifest to all, who has such a capacity for relating to every sort of human being, who so subordinates his own ego drive to the concerns of others, who lives his whole life in such harmony with the surrounding community that he is revered and loved by everyone with whom he comes in contact. Such a man Dalton Trumbo was not."- Stunts
- Actor
Billy Clements was born in Guys Hospital London, England. He grew up and spent most of his younger years in and around South London.
After leaving school he attended London Metropolitan University, Aldgate. Whilst completing an apprenticeship at Hatton Garden London to become a Lapidary, which led to him winning a Silver Cartier Award, for his specialist section in stone Cutting.
He worked numerous jobs after that including, Jeweller, Plumber and Bouncer before training to become a member of the British Stunt Register and finally of course, Actor.- Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and was raised in Berkeley, California, she attended/graduated at The Pasadena Community Playhouse where her major was acting, and she pursued her career immediately. The Emmy Award nominee who has played Alice Horton for the entire 37 years that Days of Our Lives has been on the air, is daytime's television's most beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. As one of the two remaining original cast members, she is indisputably one of the most revered veterans in soap opera history. She has won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Actress/Mature Role in 1978, 1979, 1984 and 1985, and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986-87, and for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1978-79. It should come as a surprise that many longtime fans that watched Days who knew her as Alice that Frances had an accomplished acting career prior to her debut on November 8, 1965. Her Broadway appearances include Hamlet with Maurice Evans, Cyrano de Bergerac with Jose Ferrer, Twelfth Night and a Theater Hill production of The Rivals with Mary Boland. Her first radio job was at NBC as Ann Rutledge in Prologue To Glory, which was followed by her role of Mrs. Moonlight in Mrs. Moonlight and Charlotte Corday in Charlotte Corday. Little did she know at that time how the name Corday was to play an important role in her life. Her television credits include "The Eleventh Hour," "Little Mister," "Wagon Train," and the movie-of-the-week, "Mercy Or Murder?"
- Jaren Lewison was born on 9 December 2000 in the USA. He is an actor, known for Never Have I Ever (2020) and Tag (2018).
- Actor
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- Editorial Department
Brad had his first career as a child actor from 1967 to 1988. Credits include 7 features, 2 TV series, 7 pilots, numerous TV movies and "Guest Shots", lots of theater and over 100 commercials. Some highlights include:
Red Dawn (1984)/film (Directed by John Milius), "On Golden Pond"/stage (Ahmanson Theater), The Tony Randall Show (1976)/series (Regular-2 Seasons), "Del Monte Gel Cup"/commercial (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola).
Attended CSUN... was the lead singer in the band, "Fashion Risk", then played bass and sang for the power rock trio, "Big Boy Combo" (Aerial Flipout Records). He worked as a "Runner" on the TV show, ALF (1986), then as a Post-Production Coordinator for Patchett Kaufman Entertainment, then freelanced on some other "Made for Television" movies. He became interested in Film Editing and saw that as a more stable career as he was starting a family.
In April of 1992, began working in motion picture marketing. He worked for the In-house trailer department at Universal where he began to edit trailers and TV spots.
From 1999 to 2005, he owned a boutique Trailer / Post-production company with partner, David Friedman, in Hollywood called "Flashframe". They created advertising materials for the major studios as well as independent film companies. "Flashframe" also created Main Title Sequences for Film and Television.
After producing A/V materials for BLT, one of the top Movie Marketing firms in Hollywood, he returned to Universal as a VP in the in-house trailer department for 2 years.
In 2009, he formed production company, "Bandwagon Media", with partner Greg Grunberg (Heroes (2006), Alias (2001), etc.). They create and produce all forms of media from Film and TV to Marketing and Digital. They also own and operate "The Woodshed Studios" in North Hollywood, CA as offices and content creation including live-stream capabilities.
Brad also plays bass guitar and sings in "Band From TV" with numerous celebrities, who all donate their time and talent to raise money for charity and "The Action Figures" www.theactionfiguresband.com- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Mario Cantone is probably best known at home in the US as a comedian, impressionist and singer but he has also made a name for himself as a very successful Broadway actor, appearing in "Love! Valor! Compassion!" in 1995 as well as a number of off-Broadway Shakespeare productions including "The Tempest" and "The Taming of the Shrew".
He made his TV debut in 1987 in a local children's show in New York, Steampipe Alley (1987) and his comedy work has been frequently showcased, but he's probably better known to international audiences as Anthony in Sex and the City (1998).- Producer
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Kendall Vertes was born as Kendall K Vertes on December 9, 2002 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She is the youngest daughter of Erno and Jill Vertes. She has been a dancer since the age of 18 months. As of 2016, Kendall is still dancing for the Abby Lee Dance Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Alongside dance, Kendall also models, sings, and has begun acting as well. Kendall is most well known for her starring role on the hit Lifetime show, Dance Moms.- McKayla Maroney was born and raised in California. The daughter of Mike and Erin Maroney, she was home-schooled so that she could train as an elite gymnast. She started her senior career in 2011 at the age of 15. At that year's world championships, Maroney won gold medals in the team and vault competitions. She was then named to the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and helped the Americans win the team gold medal. In the vault competition, she won the silver medal, and her look of disappointment while standing on the podium was photographed and became an Internet meme. Maroney made her acting debut in the series Hart of Dixie (2011) later in 2012.
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Born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona, Nicole Randall Johnson trained in the B.F.A. Acting/Directing program at University of Arizona in Tucson.
Nicole later moved to Los Angeles where, after 3-years of sketch & improvisation training at the renowned Groundlings School & Theatre, she became a performer and writer for the Groundlings Sunday Company.
After a year of performing at the Groundlings, she became a series regular on the NBC/Bravo 1/2-hour comedy, Significant Others (2004). After the series ended, Nicole became a series regular and writer on FOX Television's Mad TV (1995), during it's 11th and 12th season. She became popular for such recurring characters as "Ka-son" and "Da-rell", who are both the center of several Mad TV (1995) sketches that, combined, have received more than 35-million hits on You Tube. Nicole's Mad TV (1995) celebrity impersonations include, Condoleezza Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Queen Latifah, Chris Rock, Beyoncé, Randy Jackson, Tyra Banks, Chandra Wilson, Star Jones, Mo'Nique and Isabel Sanford.
Nicole has had supporting roles in several films and has been directed by Todd Phillips, Judd Apatow, Michael Bay, Curtis Hanson, Ken Kwapis and Bob Odenkirk. In November 2008, Nicole made her feature film starring debut opposite Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott in the David Wain-directed comedy, Role Models (2008), for Universal Pictures.