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1-50 of 4,790
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
As a child growing up in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Ernie Hudson wrote
short stories, poems and songs, always thinking that his words might
one day come to life on stage. After a short stint in the Marine Corps,
he moved to Detroit where he became the resident playwright at Concept
East, the oldest black theatre in the country. In addition, he enrolled
at Wayne State University to further develop his writing and acting
skills and found time to establish the Actors' Emsemble Theatre, where
he and other talented young black writers directed and appeared in
their own works. After graduating with a B.A. from Wayne State, he was
rewarded a full scholarship to the M.F.A. program at the prestigious
Yale School of Drama. While performing with the school's repertory
company, he was asked to appear in the Los Angeles production of
Lonne Elder III's musical "Daddy Goodness," which led to his meeting Gordon Parks,
who gave Hudson the costarring role in his first feature film, Leadbelly (1976).
Unfortunately, all that followed "Leadbelly" was a year of "bit parts
and some harsh lessons about Hollywood," which led Hudson to enroll in
another academic doctorate program at the University of Minnesota. He did not complete the program. Through his experience, he learned another vital lesson:
"There are those who spend their lives studying it and those who spend
their lives doing it." Hudson definitely wanted to be in the second
group. Keeping in mind this self-revelation, Hudson accepted the
starring role of Jack Jefferson in the Minneapolis Theatre In The
Round's production of "The Great White Hope," a role that he put
"everything he had into," including shaving his head. A series of
starring and guest roles followed on such television shows as Fantasy Island (1977),
The Incredible Hulk (1977), Little House on the Prairie (1974), Diff'rent Strokes (1978), Taxi (1978), One Day at a Time (1975), Gimme a Break! (1981), The A-Team (1983) and
Webster (1983), as well as costarring roles in the TV movies White Mama (1980) with
Bette Davis, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Women of San Quentin (1983), California Girls (1985), Mad Bull (1977) and Love on the Run (1985). Other feature
film credits include The Jazz Singer (1980), The Main Event (1979), Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), Penitentiary II (1982), Going Berserk (1983),
Joy of Sex (1984) and, of course, the mega-hit Ghostbusters (1984).- Producer
- Writer
- Director
George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2 (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max films, Miller has been involved in a wide range of projects. These include the Academy Award-winning Babe (1995) and Happy Feet (2006) film series.
Miller is co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. His younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have been producers on almost all the films in Miller's later career, since the death of his original producing partner Byron Kennedy.
In 2006, Miller won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet (2006). He has been nominated for five other Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay in 1992 for Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1995 for Babe (1995), and Best Picture and Best Director for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West
London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from
a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich
Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own
father was a diplomat. Mirren attended St. Bernards High School for
girls, where she would act in school productions. After high school,
she began her acting career in theatre working in many productions including
in the West End and Broadway.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Thomas William Selleck is an American actor and film producer, best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator "Thomas Magnum" on the 1980s television series, Magnum, P.I. (1980).
Selleck was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Martha (Jagger), a homemaker, and Robert Dean Selleck, a real estate investor and executive. He is of mostly English descent, including recent immigrant ancestors. Selleck has appeared extensively on television in roles such as "Dr. Richard Burke" on Friends (1994) and "A.J. Cooper" on Las Vegas (2003). In addition to his series work, Selleck has appeared in more than fifty made-for-TV and general release movies, including Mr. Baseball (1992), Quigley Down Under (1990), Lassiter (1984) and, his most successful movie release, Three Men and a Baby (1987), which was the highest grossing movie in 1987.
Selleck also plays "Jesse Stone" in a series of made-for-TV movies, based on the Robert B. Parker novels. In 2010, he appears as "Commissioner Frank Reagan" in the drama series, Blue Bloods (2010) on CBS.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Goldie Jeanne Hawn was born November 21, 1945 in Washington, D.C. and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland to Laura Hawn, a jewelry shop/dance school owner & Rut Hawn, a band musician. She has a sister, Patti Hawn, and a brother, Edward, who died in infancy before her birth. She was raised in the Jewish religion. Her mother was Jewish and the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. Her father was Presbyterian. At the age of three, Goldie began taking ballet and tap dance lessons, and at the age of ten she danced in the chorus of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production of "The Nutcracker". At the age of 19 she ran and instructed a ballet school, having dropped out of college where she was majoring in drama. Before going into the film business she worked as a professional dancer.
Hawn had her feature film debut in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), with a small role as a giggling dancer. Her first big role came in 1969, where she played opposite Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman in Cactus Flower (1969), a role which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. After the Oscar win her career took off and she followed with roles in successful comedies such as There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) and Shampoo (1975), and more dramatic roles in The Girl from Petrovka (1974) and The Sugarland Express (1974). In 1978, she starred alongside Chevy Chase in the box office hit, Foul Play (1978). In 1980 she starred in another box office hit, Private Benjamin (1980), where she also served as producer. During the 1980s she starred in hit movies such as Best Friends (1982), Protocol (1984) and Wildcats (1986). In 1987, she appeared with her boyfriend Kurt Russell in Overboard (1987), which became both a critical and box office disappointment. Her career slowed down after that until 1990 when she starred alongside Mel Gibson in Bird on a Wire (1990). In 1992 she starred in the successful film, Death Becomes Her (1992), with Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis, which was followed by another successful film HouseSitter (1992), which co-starred Steve Martin. In 1996 she played the role of an aging alcoholic actress in the comedy, The First Wives Club (1996), with Diane Keaton and Bette Midler; it became a critical and financial success. She also starred in the Woody Allen film Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The Out-of-Towners (1999), which reunited her with Martin. In 2001 and 2002 she starred in Town & Country (2001) with Warren Beatty, and The Banger Sisters (2002) with Susan Sarandon.
Goldie has been married twice. First to actor/director Gus Trikonis, from 1968 to 1973. In 1975 she married musician Bill Hudson and became a mother for the first time in 1976, when she gave birth to their son Oliver Hudson. In 1979, she had her second child with Hudson, daughter Kate Hudson. The marriage ended in divorce in 1980. Since 1983, she has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell. They had a son in 1986, Wyatt Russell.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst
Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was
located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the
Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known
colloquially as West Germany until reunification). At university,
Wenders originally studied to become a physician before switching to
philosophy before terminating his studies in 1965. Moving to Paris, he
intended to become a painter.
He fell in love with the cinema but failed to gain admission to the
French national film school. He supported himself as an engraver while
attending movie houses. Upon his return to West Germany in 1967, he was
employed by United Artists at its Düsseldorf office before he was
accepted by the University of Television and Film Munich school for its
autumn 1967 semester, where he remained until 1970. While attending
film school, he worked as a newspaper film critic. In addition to
shorts, he made a feature film as part of his studies,
Summer in the City (1971).
Wenders gained recognition as part of the German New Wave of the 1970s.
Other directors that were part of the New German Cinema were
Rainer Werner Fassbinder and
Werner Herzog. His second feature, a film
made from Peter Handke's novel
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972),
brought him acclaim, as did
Alice in the Cities (1974)
and Kings of the Road (1976). It
was his 1977 feature
The American Friend (1977)
("The American Friend"), starring
Dennis Hopper as
Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom
Ripley, that represented his international breakthrough. He was
nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for "The
American Friend", which was cited as Best Foreign Film by the National
Board of Review in the United States.
Francis Ford Coppola, as producer,
gave Wenders the chance to direct in America, but
Hammett (1982) (1982) was a critical and
commercial failure. However, his American-made
Paris, Texas (1984) (1984) received
critical hosannas, winning three awards at Cannes, including the Palme
d'Or, and Wenders won a BAFTA for best director. "Paris, Texas" was a
prelude to his greatest success, 1987's
Wings of Desire (1987)
("Wings of Desire"), which he made back in Germany. The film brought
him the best director award at Cannes and was a solid hit, even
spawning an egregious Hollywood remake.
Wenders followed it up with a critical and commercial flop in 1991,
Until the End of the World (1991)
("Until the End of the World"), though
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes. Still, is reputation as a
feature film director never quite recovered in the United States after
the bomb that was "Until the End of the World." Since the mid-1990s,
Wenders has distinguished himself as a non-fiction filmmaker, directing
several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
and Pina (2011), both of which brought him
Oscar nominations.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas, USA as Stephen Glenn Martin to Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1913-2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914-1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor. He was raised in Inglewood and Garden Grove in California. In 1960, he got a job at the Magic shop of Disney's Fantasyland, and while there he learned magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals. At Santa Ana College, he took classes in drama and English poetry. He also took part in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre, and joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. He attended California State University as a philosophy major, but in 1967 transferred to UCLA as a theatre major.
His writing career began on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), winning him an Emmy Award. Between 1967 and 1973, he also wrote for many other shows, including The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969) and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971). He also appeared on talk shows and comedy shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1972, he first appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), doing stand-up several times each year, and even guest hosting a few years later. In 1976, he served for the first time as guest-host on Saturday Night Live (1975). By 2016, he has guest-hosted 15 times, which is one less than Alec Baldwin's record, and also appeared 12 other times on SNL.
In 1977, he released his first comedy album, a platinum selling "Let's Get Small". He followed it with "A Wild and Crazy Guy" (1978), which sold more than a million copies. Both albums went on to win Grammys for Best Comedy Recording. This is when he performed in arenas in front of tens of thousands of people, and begun his movie career, which was always his goal. His first major role was in the short film, The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977), which he also wrote. His star value was established in The Jerk (1979), which was co-written by Martin, and directed by Carl Reiner. The film earned more than $100 million on a $4 million budget. He also starred in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984), all directed by Reiner. To avoid being typecast as a comedian, he wanted do more dramatic roles, starring in Pennies from Heaven (1981), a film remake of Dennis Potter's 1978 series. Unfortunately, it was a financial failure.
He also starred in John Landis's Three Amigos! (1986), co-written by himself, opposite Martin Short and Chevy Chase. That year, he also appeared in the musical horror comedy, Little Shop of Horrors (1986) opposite Rick Moranis. Next year, he starred in Roxanne (1987), co-written by himself, and in John Hughes' Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), opposite John Candy. His other films include Parenthood (1989) and My Blue Heaven (1990), both opposite Moranis. In 1991, he wrote and starred in L.A. Story (1991), about a weatherman who searches meaning in his life and love in Los Angeles. It also starred his then-wife, Victoria Tennant. Same year, Father of the Bride (1991) was so successful that a 1995 sequel followed.
During the 1990s, he continued to play more dramatic roles, in Grand Canyon (1991), playing a traumatized movie producer, in Leap of Faith (1992), playing a fake faith healer, in A Simple Twist of Fate (1994), playing a betrayed man adopting a baby, and in David Mamet's thriller The Spanish Prisoner (1997). Other, more comedic roles include in HouseSitter (1992) and The Out-of-Towners (1999), opposite Goldie Hawn, in Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts (1994), and in Bowfinger (1999), written by himself and co-starring Eddie Murphy. After Bowfinger, he starred in Bringing Down the House (2003) and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), both earning more than $130 million. He wrote and starred in Shopgirl (2005), and appeared in the sequel of Cheaper by the Dozen. After them, he appeared in The Pink Panther (2006) and The Pink Panther 2 (2009), which he both co-wrote, as Inspector Clouseau.
He continues to do movies, more recently appearing in The Big Year (2011), Home (2015), and Love the Coopers (2015). Besides aforementioned, he has been an avid art collector since 1968, written plays, written for The New Yorker, written a well-received memoir (Born Standing Up), written a novel (An Object of Beauty; 2010), hosted the Academy Awards three times, released a Grammy award winning music album (The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo; 2009), and another album (Love Has Come For You; 2013) with Edie Brickell. Since 2007, he has been married to Anne Stringfield, with whom he has a daughter.- English actress Francesca Annis, who has enjoyed a career
spanning seven decades in movies, television and the theater, was born
in London six days after V-E Day, on May 14, 1945. Her father, Lester,
was English, but her mother, Mariquita (aka
Mara Purcell), was of Brazilian-French
heritage. From the time she was a year old to the age of seven, the
family lived in Brazil. The young Francesca spoke Portuguese, that
country's language, as a child. Educated at a convent school, she
dreamed of becoming a nun but trained as a ballet dancer before
studying drama at the Corona Theatre School. She began acting in bit
parts in the 1950s, working her way up to better roles. In addition to
appearing on the big and little screens, she was a member of the Royal
Shakespeare Company.
Her most famous roles are as Lady Macbeth in
Roman Polanski's version of
Macbeth (1971),
in which she had a notorious nude sleepwalking scene, and as
Kyle MacLachlan (Paul
Atreides)' mother Lady Jessica in David Lynch's
adaptation of Frank Herbert's
Dune (1984). A highly respected performer,
in 1979, she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress,
playing Lily Langtry in the miniseries
Lillie (1978). She appeared with
James Warwick as husband and
wife sleuths Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in the television series
Partners in Crime (1983).
She also appeared as
Jacqueline Kennedy in the
television movie
Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988). - Actress
- Writer
- Composer
A bizarre, gloriously one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed
outcast, San Francisco-born actress Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian
Creamer) was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for
Ginger" in 1962. A product of the entertainment industry, her father
was a top agent at one time with the William Morris firm. She built up
her resumé in summer stock and regional plays usually cast in standard
ingénue roles. Her nascent career took an abrupt shift in direction,
however, when, as a member of New York's Lincoln Repertory Company, she
was cast in an array of seamy, salty-tongued, highly dysfunctional
character parts. After striking performances on and off Broadway in
such fare as "The Rimers of Eldritch" (1967), "A Cry of Players"
(1968), "The Time of Your Life" (1969) and "Camino Real" (1970)
Hollywood took keen notice of this special talent and, in the early
1970s, began to cast her in their more offbeat projects.
In only her fourth film, Susan earned an Academy Award nomination for
her powerhouse portrayal of a cynical, low-life boozer girlfriend
opposite Stacy Keach's has-been boxer in
John Huston's potent but highly
depressing Fat City (1972). Pulling out
all the stops after this, she continued to show her fearless attraction
toward the dark side throughout the late 1970s with flashy roles in
lesser quality material such as
The Killer Inside Me (1976),
Andy Warhol's
Bad (1977),
Islands in the Stream (1977),
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977),
and September 30, 1955 (1977)
as various harridans and grotesques. The 1980s proved no
different with manic behavior on full display in
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981),
Forbidden Zone (1980),
Liar's Moon (1981),
Fast-Walking (1982),
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981),
Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and
underground director John Waters'
more mainstream film Cry-Baby (1990),
many of which have now achieved cult status.
Toned down a bit for TV, she nevertheless demonstrated in both the
one-season series
Open All Night (1981) and on
MacGruder and Loud (1985)
that she wasn't about to change. When her TV and movie career started
to simmer down, the Los Angeles-based actress opted for the avant-garde
stage with such productions as "Why Hannah's Skirt Won't Stay Down"
(1986), "Landscape of the Body" (1987), "The Geography of Luck" (1989)
and her trenchant one-woman piece "My Rotten Life: A Bitter Operetta"
(1989), which she performed over a long period of time.
Real-life tragedy struck in late April of 2000 when Susan contracted a
near-fatal illness. Both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee
as a result of multiple blood clots due to a rare blood disease --
thrombocythemia. Never say die, she valiantly tried to maintain a
positive outlook, and continued to perform on occasion while going
through rehabilitation. She also spent time writing and painting before passing away on June 16, 2012. A wild, boisterous trooper, she was the definitive underground raconteur for those who desired the more sordid side of Hollywood.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Priscilla Presley's stepfather was an Air Force officer stationed in West Germany when as a teenager she met Elvis Presley in 1959, then four years into his meteoric career in rock and roll and serving with the U.S. Armed Forces. After an eight year courtship, she married him on 1 May 1967. As their marriage was winding down, she began studying karate and acting. After his death she went into business and began work in movies and TV, notably playing the part of Jenna Wade (1983-88) in the very successful series Dallas (1978). She more recently established herself as Jane Spencer in the "Naked Gun" (The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)) movies.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
If "born to the theater" has meaning in determining a person's life path, then John Lithgow is a prime example of this truth. He was born in Rochester, New York, to Sarah Jane (Price), an actress, and Arthur Washington Lithgow III, who was both a theatrical producer and director. John's father was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, where the Anglo-American Lithgow family had lived for several generations.
John moved frequently as a child, while his father founded and managed local and college theaters and Shakespeare festivals throughout the Midwest of the United States. Not until he was 16, and his father became head of the McCarter Theater in Princeton New Jersey, did the family settle down. But for John, the theater was still not a career. He won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he finally caught the acting bug (as well as found a wife). Harvard was followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Returning from London, his rigorous dramatic training stood him in good stead, and a distinguished career on Broadway gave him one Tony Award for "The Changing Room", a second nomination in 1985 for "Requiem For a Heavyweight", and a third in 1988 for "M. Butterfly". But with critical acclaim came personal confusion, and in the mid 1970s, he and his wife divorced. He entered therapy, and in 1982, his life started in a new direction, the movies - he received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982). A second Oscar nomination followed for Terms of Endearment (1983), and he met a UCLA economics professor who became his second wife. As the decade of the 1990s came around, he found that he was spending too much time on location, and another career move brought him to television in the hugely successful series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996).
This production also played a role in bringing him back together with the son from his first marriage, Ian Lithgow, who has a regular role in the series as a dimwitted student.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Hunt is a veteran character actress who had only just begun acting in motion pictures when director Peter Weir required her peculiarities to animate one of cinema's most esoteric characters, Billy Kwan, the intellectual and virtuous Chinese-Australian dwarf and photographer, in the Australian romantic drama, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Hunt's work in the film earned an Oscar, among many critic awards, all for Best Supporting Actress.- Actress
- Soundtrack
- Writer
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and author best known for her roles on the sitcom Maude (1972) and in horror films, especially those directed by John Carpenter, with whom she was once married. She was born on June 11, 1945 in Sacramento, California, the daughter of an executive for Mobil Oil Company. Early on in her career, she starred in Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981), all John Carpenter-related projects. She has collaborated with George A. Romero on occasion, such as Stephen King's anthology Creepshow (1982) and Two Evil Eyes (1990). Her work with other horror directors includes Wes Craven's superhero monster movie Swamp Thing (1982). During the 1990s, she became best known for providing the voice of Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series (1992). She was the original tough-girl Betty Rizzo in the first Broadway production of "Grease". She is the author of the memoir "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" (2006), and the comedy romance vampire novels "Vampyres of Hollywood" (2008), "Love Bites" (2010) and "Make Me Dead" (2015).- Actress
- Art Department
- Writer
Mimsy Farmer first began acting at age 16, when a press agent noticed
her and offered her work in the film,
Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961),
an unbilled bit with one line as a girl in the lobby. Her first billed
film was a featured part in
Spencer's Mountain (1963),
starring Henry Fonda,
Maureen O'Hara and
James MacArthur. After her first
acting role, Mimsy took acting lessons after graduation and landed a
few more roles, playing featured characters in the films,
Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965),
Hot Rods to Hell (1966),
Riot on Sunset Strip (1967)
and Devil's Angels (1967). After
spending a year in Canada and working in a research hospital, she
returned to the USA, moved to Los Angeles, and was soon cast for a role
in Roger Corman's
The Wild Racers (1968), which was
directed by Daniel Haller. Her
experience on that film was to her 'a pleasant one' because she first
traveled to Europe and experienced the various countries, and to
England to visit her older brother, who worked as a math teacher at a
university in London.
After appearing in the film, More (1969),
Mimsy traveled to Italy for a vacation and met her future husband,
screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami, who wanted
to write her a part in a film. He was later fired as the scriptwriter
and her role was not cast. After spending time in Italy, and
disillusioned by the civil unrest and political problems with the USA
and its involvement in the Vietnam War, Mimsy, a liberal left-winger,
settled in Italy to continue her acting career there.
Mimsy Farmer first became an international star when
Dario Argento cast her to appear alongside
Michael Brandon in 'giallo'
mystery-thriller,
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
(aka "Four Flies on Grey Velvet"), in 1971. After her success with
"Four Flies on Grey Velvet" (1971), Mimsy remained in Italy and a
steady stream of acting roles followed with dramatic parts in dramas
and thrillers, including
Allonsanfan (1974), and
The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974),
directed by Francesco Barilli. One of
her best roles was a starring role in the horror-mystery-thriller,
Autopsy (1975) (aka
"Autopsy"), directed by
Armando Crispino, where she played a
pathologist investigating a murder.
She also appeared in two films, directed by
Ruggero Deodato, titled
Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)
and
Body Count (1986).
Lucio Fulci even cast her, in 1981, for a
co-starring part in
The Black Cat (1981)
(aka "The Black Cat") (1981), playing the heroine/victim. She also
appeared in a number of French language films and TV. After her divorce
from Vincenzo Cerami in the 1980s, Mimsy
and her teenage daughter, Aisha Cerami,
settled in France, where she also did some French-language movie and TV
roles and she considers French an easier language to learn and speak
than Italian.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Henry Franklin Winkler was born on October 30, 1945, in Manhattan, New York. His parents, Ilse Anna Maria (Hadra) and Harry Irving Winkler, were German Jewish immigrants who escaped the Holocaust by moving to the US in 1939. His father was the president of an international lumber company while his mother worked alongside his father. Winkler is a cousin of Richard Belzer.
Winkler grew up with "a high level of low self-esteem." Throughout elementary school and high school, he struggled with academics. This was due to what he would later identify as dyslexia. His parents expected him to eventually work with them at the lumber company. However, he had other plans as he saw roles on stage as the key to his happiness. Winkler's acting debut came in the eighth grade when he played the role of Billy Budd in the school play of the same name. Following his graduation from McBurney High School, Winkler was able to incorporate his learning disability and succeed in higher education. He received a Bachelor's degree from Emerson College in 1967 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1970. He later received an honorary PhD in Hebrew Literature in 1978 from Emerson College.
Following college, his top priority was to become an actor. However, if this was unsuccessful, he wanted to become a child psychologist because of his deep interest in working with children. Like many other actors, he began his career by appearing in 30 commercials. His first major film role was in The Lords of Flatbush (1974) in which he played a member of a Brooklyn gang. After that, he was cast on a new ABC series which was set in the 1950s, Happy Days (1974). He was given the role of high school dropout and greaser Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli. The character was seldom seen during the first few episodes as ABC initially feared he would be perceived as a hoodlum. However, the character became extremely popular with viewers, and the show's producers decided to give Fonzie a more prominent role in the series.
Following this, the show's ratings began to soar, and Fonzie became a 1970s icon and the epitome of cool. His motorcycle, leather jacket, thumbs-up gesture, and uttering of the phrase "Aayyyy!" became television trademarks. Unlike many other 1970s stars who rose to fame in a short period of time and developed "big heads", Winkler managed to stay well-grounded and avoided falling into this trap. He was said to be more polite and agreeable even after his popularity soared. He remained on the series until its cancellation in 1984.
In the mid-1980s, with his Happy Days (1974) now behind him, Winkler decided to change his focus toward producing and directing. He produced and directed several television shows and movies, most notably MacGyver (1985) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996). In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, he was able to re-establish himself with a younger generation of moviegoers and TV viewers, appearing in the popular films, Scream (1996) and The Waterboy (1998) and on shows such as The Practice (1997) and Arrested Development (2003).
In 2018 after over 45 years in the entertainment industry, he won his first-ever Prime Time Emmy Award: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on the HBO series Barry (2018). In addition to his movie and film credits, Winkler is a well-accomplished author. Between 2003 and 2007, he co-authored 12 children's novels with Lin Oliver. The series is called "Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever." The books are based on his early struggles with dyslexia, and they sold more than two million books in that time.
Winkler has been married since 1978 to Stacey Winkler (nee Weitzman) with whom he has three children. Together, they are actively involved with various children's charities. In 1990, they co-founded the Children's Action Network (CAN), which provides free immunization to over 200,000 children. Winkler is also involved with the Annual Cerebral Palsy Telethon, the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the annual Toys for Tots campaign, the National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped, and the Special Olympics.
In September 2003, Winkler suffered a personal setback when John Ritter unexpectedly passed away. Winkler was on the set of 8 Simple Rules (2002) that day for a guest appearance and was one of the last people to talk to Ritter.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Gunton is an American actor, primarily known for portraying strict and authoritarian characters in popular films. His better known roles include Chief George Earle in "Demolition Man" (1993), Prison Warden Samuel Norton in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), medical school dean Dr. Walcott in "Patch Adams" (1998), and politician Cyrus Vance in "Argo" (2012).
In 1945, Gunton was born Santa Monica, California. His parents were labor union executive Robert Patrick Gunton Sr. and his wife Rose Marie Banovetz. Gunton was raised in California and attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. His college years were spent in the Paulist Seminary St Peter's College, in Baltimore, Maryland, and the University of California, Irvine.
Gunton joined the United States Army in 1969, when 24-years-old. He served until 1971. He served as a radio telephone operator with the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He was assigned to the Fire Support Base Ripcord during the Vietnam War. When the base was evacuated during a siege by North Vietnamese Army (NVA), Gunton manage to retrieve important radios that were in danger of falling in enemy hands. He was awarded with a Bronze Star commendation for his deed.
Gunton was primarily known for theatrical roles in the late 1970s and 1980s. He played Raoul in the Broadway musical "King of Hearts" (1978). For this role he was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. The award was instead won by rival actor Ken Jennings (1947-).
From 1979 to 1983, Gunton played the role of President of Argentina Juan Perón (1895-1974, term 1946-1955, 1973-1974) in "Evita". He won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
In 1980, Gunton acted in the play How I Got That Story. He won both the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Performer and the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actor. He was also nominated Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
In 1985, Gunton played the King in the musical "Big River". The musical was an adaptation of the novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884) by Mark Twain. For this role Gunton was again nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
From 1987 to 1990, Gunton played protagonist Sweeney Todd in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. While critically acclaimed for this role, Gunton won none of these awards.
In the 1990s, Gunton started focusing more on film roles. More often playing antagonists than heroes or supporting characters,. In 2007, Gunton joined the main cast of the popular action drama television series "24", playing politician Ethan Kanin. He played the role until the end of the series in 2010. In 2015, Gunton joined the main cast of the superhero series "Daredevil". He played the super-villain Leland Owlsley (codenamed "the Owl in the comics).
By 2020 Gunton was 74-years-old. He has never retired, and continues to appear regularly in film and television.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Everett McGill was the leader of a popular Kansas City dance band prior to becoming an accomplished stage actor with more than 1300 performances on Broadway to his credit. He first acquired wide attention in film with his starring role in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Oscar-winning saga of primitive man, Quest for Fire. He went on to star in a broad range of movie genres playing characters that have been described in every way from malevolent to lovable. He is best known to fans of filmmaker David Lynch as the owner of Big Ed's Gas Farm in the town of Twin Peaks. He replayed the lovelorn Ed Hurley for the Showtime series Twin Peaks: The Return. He studied dance at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and earned a BA in Speech and Theatre from the University of Missouri.- Actress
- Producer
A native of Berlin, Maryland, Linda Harrison was Miss Berlin at 16,
then a model in New York's Garment Center. Homesickness brought her
back to Maryland, where she entered and won the state beauty pageant.
During the finals in the Miss International contest (held in Long
Beach, California), she was "spotted" by talent scout Mike Medavoy and
presented at 20th Century-Fox. Throughout her acting years at Fox, and
amidst movie roles in Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and others, she dated studio
boss Richard D. Zanuck and married him in 1968. They were divorced in 1978, but
she's appeared in three of his movies since then.- Actor
- Producer
Brion James was born February 20, 1945, in Redlands, California, to Ida
Mae (Buckelew) and Jimmy James. The family soon moved to Beaumont,
California (between Los Angeles and Palm Springs), where his parents
built and operated a movie theater, where stars such as
Gene Autry would occasionally stop
by. After graduating from Beaumont High School in 1962, Brion attended
San Diego State University, majoring in theater arts. Upon graduation
he moved to New York to study acting while working a variety of jobs to
support himself in the early years. He also did a stint in the National
Guard. He and fellow actor
Tim Thomerson served in the army
together and later made several films together. A veteran of over 100
television and 120+ movie roles, James is best remembered for roles
such as the replicant Leon in
Blade Runner (1982), Gen. Munro in
The Fifth Element (1997), Big
Teddy in Cabin Boy (1994), Max Jenke in
House III: The Horror Show (1989) (his
personal favorite) as well as countless other parts in films like
Southern Comfort (1981),
The Player (1992),
Tango & Cash (1989),
48 Hrs. (1982),
Another 48 Hrs. (1990),
Enemy Mine (1985) and
Silverado (1985). Brion is survived by
two brothers, Craig James of Scottsdale, Arizona, Chester James of
Beaumont, California and their families.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Virile, handsome and square-jawed youthful star of the 1970s and 1980s who showed early potential at super-stardom, Jan-Michael Vincent originally made a name for himself portraying rebellious young men bucking the system, as in The Tribe (1970), White Line Fever (1975) and Baby Blue Marine (1976) or as a man of action on either side of the law, as in The Mechanic (1972), Vigilante Force (1976) and The Winds of War (1983).
He was born in July 1944 in Denver, Colorado, and was finishing a stint in the National Guard when a talent scout was struck by his all-American looks. He made his first appearance on-screen in The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1967), before appearing in Journey to Shiloh (1968) and in "Danger Island" on the Hanna-Barbera kids TV show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968). He remained very busy during the 1970s, appearing in high-profile productions alongside such stars as John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Charles Bronson, Slim Pickens and Robert Mitchum.
In 1984, Vincent was cast as Stringfellow Hawke in the helicopter action series Airwolf (1984), co-starring Ernest Borgnine. The show wrapped after three seasons and from then on he was primarily appearing in low-budget, B-grade action and sci-fi films, including Alienator (1990), The Divine Enforcer (1992), Deadly Heroes (1993) and Lethal Orbit (1996). His last film was the woeful gang movie White Boy (2002), and ongoing health issues and personal problems seemed to preclude his return to the screen.
Vincent will be best remembered by film fans as a smirking, apprentice hit man to Charles Bronson in The Mechanic (1972), as feisty "Matt" in the superb surf movie Big Wednesday (1978) with Gary Busey and William Katt, or as rebel trucker Carol Jo Hummer battling corruption in White Line Fever (1975).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mia Farrow is the daughter of the director
John Farrow and the actress and
Tarzan-girl
Maureen O'Sullivan. She debuted at the movies in 1959 in very small roles. She was
noticed for the first time in the film
Rosemary's Baby (1968) by
Roman Polanski. She showed her talent
also on TV and at the theatre, but her final breakthrough was when she
met Woody Allen and became his Muse after
the film
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982).
After that, Woody Allen wrote many other
roles for her.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jaclyn Smith was born Jacquelyn Ellen Smith on October 26, 1945 in Houston, Texas. She graduated from high school and originally aspired to be a famous ballerina. In 1973, she landed a job as a Breck shampoo model. In 1976, she was offered a chance to star in a new pilot for a planned television series, entitled Charlie's Angels (1976). The pilot was slick and the show was an instant hit when it debuted on September 22, 1976 on ABC.
Smith is the only original "Angel" to stay with the show through its entire five-season run (1976-81). She is also the only "Angel" from the television series to make an appearance in either of the movie adaptations. (She had an uncredited cameo in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) as "Kelly Garrett", offering advice to the new generation of angels.)
After Charlie's Angels (1976), she went the TV-movie route and starred in such TV films as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1981) for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, and such miniseries as The Bourne Identity (1988), Rage of Angels (1983) and Windmills of the Gods (1988). She has had her own extremely successful clothing line at Kmart since 1985, and is often a spokesperson.
Her first two marriages to actors Roger Davis and Dennis Cole ended in divorce. She has two children from her third marriage to cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond (they divorced in 1989). Her fourth marriage is to physician Dr. Brad Allen. She married him in 1997; the two created the skincare line which Smith promotes.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Multi Grammy Award-winning singer/comedienne/author Bette Midler has also proven herself to be a very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic roles. Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1945. She is the daughter of Ruth (Schindel), a seamstress, and Fred Midler, a painter. Her parents, originally from New Jersey, were both from Jewish families (from Russia, Poland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
Midler studied drama at the University of Hawaii and got her musical career started by performing in gay bathhouses with piano accompaniment from Barry Manilow. Her first album was "The Divine Miss M" released in November 1972, followed by the self-titled "Bette Midler" released in November 1973, both of which took off up the music charts, and Bette's popularity swiftly escalated from there.
After minor roles in several film/TV productions, she surprised all with her knockout performance of a hard-living rock-and-roll singer (loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin) in The Rose (1979), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast Midler opposite Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss in the hilarious Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and so began a string of very funny comedic film roles. She played an obnoxious wife who was the victim of a kidnap plot by her scoundrel husband, played by Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People (1986), was pursued by CIA and KGB spies in Outrageous Fortune (1987), played mismatched twins with Lily Tomlin in Big Business (1988) and shone in the tear-jerker Beaches (1988).
Bette matched feisty James Caan in the WWII drama For the Boys (1991), made a dynamic trio with Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in The First Wives Club (1996), was back on screen with DeVito for the tepid comedy Drowning Mona (2000) and turned up in the glossy remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). Apart from her four Grammy awards, Bette Midler has also won four Golden Globes, one Tony Award, and three Emmy Awards, plus she has sold in excess of 15 million albums worldwide. Most recently, she toured with her sassy "Kiss My Brass" show, and is promoting her album "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook".- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tall (6' 4"), agile, energetic, and ever-so-confident as both actor and
singer, especially on the award-winning Broadway stage, Barry Bostwick
possesses that certain narcissistic poise, charm and élan that reminds
one instantly (and humorously) of a
Kevin Kline -- both were quite brilliant in
their respective interpretations of The Pirate King in "The Pirates of
Penzance". Yet, for all his diverse talents (he is a Golden Globe
winner and was nominated for the Tony Award three times, winning once),
Barry is indelibly caught in a time warp. Even today, 35 years after
the fact, he is indelibly associated with the role of nerdy hero Brad
Majors in the midnight movie phenomena
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
While it is extremely flattering to be a part of such a cult
institution, Barry's acting legacy deserves much more than this.
He was born Barry Knapp Bostwick on February 24, 1945, in San Mateo,
California, one of two sons of Elizabeth "Betty" (Defendorf) and Bud Bostwick (Henry Bostwick), a city
planner and actor. A student at San Mateo High School, he and
his elder brother Peter use to put on musicals and puppet shows for the
neighborhood kids. Barry attended San Diego's United States
International University's School for the Performing Arts in 1967, and
switched from music to drama during the course of his studies. He also
worked occasionally as a circus performer, which would come in handy on
the musical stage down the line. He subsequently moved to New York and
attended the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York
University.
Making his stage debut at age 22 in a production of "Take Her, She's
Mine," Barry performed in a number of non-musical roles in such
productions of "War and Peace" (1968) and "The Misanthrope (1968).
Making his 1969 Broadway debut in "Cock-a-Doodle Dandy", which ran in
tandem with "Hamlet" in which he was featured as Osric, it was his
portrayal of the swaggering, leather jacket-wearing 50s "bad boy" Danny
Zuko in the 1972 Broadway high-school musical smash "Grease" that put
Barry's name prominently and permanently on the marquee signs.
Originating the role, he was nominated for a Tony but lost out that
year to the older generation (Phil Silvers
for "A Funny Thing Happened...").
In the midst of all this star-making hoopla, Barry was also breaking
into films with a minor role in
Jennifer on My Mind (1971)
and leading parts in the comedy spoofs
Road Movie (1973) and
The Wrong Damn Film (1975).
It all paled after winning the role as
Susan Sarandon's simp of a boyfriend in
the
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975),
which featured a delicious Tim Curry
camping it up as a transvestite monster-maker. The movie, based on the
macabre 1973 British stage musical "The Rocky Horror Show," packed the
midnight movie houses with costumed fans replicating every move and,
word and offering puns and props aplenty in recapturing the insanity of
the show.
While the "Rocky" association hit like a tornado, Barry ventured on and
tried to distance himself. He created sparks again on Broadway,
garnering a second Tony nomination for the comedy revival "They Knew
What They Wanted" in 1976. He finally took home the trophy the
following year for the musical "The Robber Bridegroom" (1977), which
relied again on his patented bluff and bravado as a Robin Hood-like
hero. Following top roles in the musicals "She Loves Me" and "The
Pirates of Penzance", Barry turned rewardingly to film and TV.
The two-part feature
Movie Movie (1978), which played like
an old-style double feature, was a great success, performing alongside
esteemed actor George C. Scott. Barry
excelled in both features, but especially the musical parody. He fared
just as well on the smaller screen in TV movies, playing everything
from historical icons (George Washington) to preening matinée idols
(John Gilbert), and winning a Golden Globe for his role as a military
officer in the epic miniseries
War and Remembrance (1988).
A variety of interesting roles followed in glossy, soap-styled fare,
farcical comedies and period drama.
A welcomed return to Broadway musicals in the form of "Nick & Nora" (he
as sleuth Nick "The Thin Man" Charles) was marred when the glitzy
production folded after only nine perfs. Instead, the prematurely
grey-haired actor found steadier success in sitcoms as a smug comedy
foil to Michael J. Fox playing
Mayor Randall Winston for six seasons in
Spin City (1996). He later enjoyed
a recurring role as a dauntless attorney on
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
Then again, Barry could be spotted pitching items in commercials or
hamming it up in family-oriented Disneyesque entertainment in the
"Parent Trap" and "101 Dalmatian" mold.
In 1997, Bostwick was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 10 days later
had his prostate removed. The operation was successful and in 2004, he
won the Gilda Radner Courage Award from the Roswell Park Cancer
Institute. Just a year earlier he appeared on an episode of "Scrubs" as
a patient also having prostate cancer. Barry married somewhat late in
life. For a brief time he was wed to actress
Stacey Nelkin (1987-1991), but has since
become a father of two, Brian and Chelsea, with second wife
Sherri Jensen Bostwick, an actress who appeared
with Barry in the TV movie
Praying Mantis (1993).- 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
- Soundtrack
This Arkansas native was born on 26 November 1945 to parents who owned
a movie theater. He often felt that his desire to become an actor came
from the fact that he spent so much time in the theater's "crying room"
for babies - and listening to the likes of Tyrone Power and others. His
first "professional" work came at the age of 11 when he became a member
of the cast of a children's TV series broadcast from Little Rock -
"Betty's Little Rascals". His formal acting training came from the
Arkansas Arts Center (a fine arts conservatory with its own repertory
company), followed by work with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and 6 years with the American
Conservatory Theatre, among many others. He also taught acting classes
while at ACT. His love of the theater has continued through his career.
He has played in nearly every Shakespeare play and an untold number of
musicals (he's an accomplished singer) and straight plays. For the year
2000 Tony Awards, he was recognized with a nomination as best actor in
a featured role for his performance in "Wrong Mountain". When The Nanny (1993)
first went on the air, many people believed that the very British
butler "Niles" was definitely being played by a British actor. This
Southern boy was so convincing in his role that many fans wrote to the
show and suggested that he teach Charles Shaughnessy (a true British native) how to
improve his accent!- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Brian Doyle-Murray was born on 31 October 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Caddyshack (1980), JFK (1991) and Groundhog Day (1993). He has been married to Christina Stauffer since 28 August 2000.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Dirk Benedict was born in Montana on March 1st, 1945. He was raised in
the country, far away from anything connected with movies or acting. He
gathered his first experiences in acting (on a dare) in a college
production of "Showboat" where he got the main part. His father, a
lawyer, died when Dirk was 18, which was hard for him to take. While
working on
Georgia, Georgia (1972) in
Sweden, he made the first contact with a macrobiotic diet and changed
his eating habits drastically. He was 26 at that time. A few years
later, doctors found that he had cancer of the prostate. He refused to
accept the usual treatment and moved away to a secluded cottage. Dirk
managed to cure himself from cancer by following the rules of his
macrobiotic diet. When he got his part as "Starbuck" in
Battlestar Galactica (1978),
the doctors stated that he was in good health. Dirk's main successes
were "Battlestar Galactica" and
The A-Team (1983) in which he
played "Templeton - The Face - Peck". He was formerly married to
actress Toni Hudson and has two sons (George
and Roland).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Drago was well known for his villainous parts (leading or supporting), and his rugged yet scary looks and evil smile. He was born William Eugene Burrows in Hugoton, Kansas. He became interested in acting and took his mother's maiden name "Drago" as a stage name. At first he worked as a stuntman in Kansas, then attended the University of Kansas. After graduating he worked as a radio host before joining an acting crew that led him to New York. He began his acting career at the end of 1970s.
After appearing in multiple TV series as a guest actor, he appeared in such low-budget films as: Windwalker (1980), Vamp (1986), Hunter's Blood (1986), Freeway (1988), Dark Before Dawn (1988), Gwang tin lung fo wooi (1989), True Blood (1989), Martial Law II: Undercover (1991), Lady Dragon 2 (1993) and Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow (1993). He also appeared in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Other well-known appearances were in: Mad Dog Time (1996), Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) (the remake), as the leader of mutant nomads. He did an extensive work on TV, most notably on Charmed (1998). He also produced an instructional acting video with his wife, Silvana Gallardo.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A bodacious, bedimpled, pert-nosed, well-endowed knockout, Loni Anderson earned an assured television sex symbol pedestal during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As sexy but smart Jennifer Marlowe on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), the ravishing star later became a soap-styled fixture in mini-movies. All eyes were peeled on this worthy pin-up who helped to bring back the glossy platinum-blonde allure of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren.
Loni strove for much more than a sex pedestal as she tried to parlay her newly found fame into a viable dramatic career. She met with a measured degree of success as she recreated the lives of such artificial sex sirens as Mansfield and Thelma Todd on television, but got bogged down in television-movie retellings of famous movie classics (Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Leave Her to Heaven (1945)) that could not help but pale in comparison. This attempt at seriousness was further hampered by messy tabloid headlines in her private life.
Loni Kaye Anderson was born with very dark (jet black) hair on August 5, 1945 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of a chemist. An art student at the University of Minnesota, she entered (and won) beauty contests on the sly (including a Miss Minnesota runner-up placing in 1964). Married and divorced from Bruce Hasselberg before she reached age 21, Loni took on a teaching position to support herself and baby daughter (Deidre) while completing college.
Developing an interest in acting, she went the route many aspiring thespians do -- apprenticing in local commercials and theater shows. Still dark-haired, she played in several early 1970s productions such as "Born Yesterday" (as Billie Dawn), "Send Me No Flowers", "Can-Can" and "The Star-Spangled Girl". She even played Tzeitel in "Fiddler on the Roof" and appeared in a production of "The Threepenny Opera".
Remarried in 1973 to actor, Ross Bickell, the couple decided to move away from Minnesota to Los Angeles in 1975 and actively pursue film and television work. Pounding the proverbial pavement, she eventually went blonde and this, plus her gorgeous looks, helped her to secure minor but sexy roles on such series as S.W.A.T. (1975), Police Woman (1974), Barnaby Jones (1973), The Bob Newhart Show (1972) and Three's Company (1976). By the time she nabbed the role of Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), she had grown quite admirably as an actress.
Loni and Howard Hesseman became the breakaway stars of the sitcom and Loni skyrocketed to sexy status, earning two Emmy nominations in the process. On the other hand, her instant fame led to the breakup of her second marriage to Bickell in 1981. Loni found hit-and-miss success outside the parameters of her comedy series. She was front-and-center in a number of television-movies, notably playing tragic Hollywood sex sirens Jayne Mansfield in The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as her muscle-bound husband Mickey Hargitay, and Thelma Todd, in White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd (1991), whose untimely death in 1935 is still questioned.
Loni also appeared lusciously alongside Bob Hope, brightening up several of his classic television specials. On the minus side, she fizzled in her teaming up with equally sexy Wonder Woman (1975) star Lynda Carter in the tepid, short-lived series Partners in Crime (1984) and then played a former Las Vegas showgirl who inherits a bundle in the sitcom misfire Easy Street (1986). She also was given a chance to work in feature films such as Stroker Ace (1983). While her performance in that movie was panned, it did have her meeting and co-starring opposite mega star Burt Reynolds.
Appearing in routine, mini-movie soap operas (via her own production company), if anything, kept Loni in the public eye as a serious-minded actress, but it was an uphill battle to rise above her manufactured image as a fantasy bombshell. Not helping things was her high-profile marriage to Reynolds in 1988, which began blissfully enough (and produced adopted son Quinton), then dissolved quickly into a nasty divorce in 1993 that damaged the reputations of both stars.
In later years, Loni showed incredible perseverance. As always, the stalwart beauty continued to play up the glam but has since downplayed the dramatics. She seems more focused these days on having innocuous fun, playing a number of hearty vixens in sitcoms and series guest spots. Over time, she has enjoyed such lightweight sitcoms as her regular role in Nurses (1991), and as a guest in such sitcoms as The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991) (in which she recreated her role as Jennifer Marlowe), Empty Nest (1988), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) and Clueless (1996). Her last movie was the SNT-based comedy movie A Night at the Roxbury (1998).
Millennium television credits include the sitcom The Mullets (2003) and as Tori Spelling's materialistic mother in So Notorious (2006), which did not get the seal of approval from Tori's real-life mother. Loni has more recently starred in the resurrected comedy series My Sister Is So Gay (2016). In 2008, she married a fourth time to musician Bob Flick. Loni's autobiography, "My Life in High Heels", was published in 1997.- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
As a testament to her passion and talent, former 1950s pig-tailed
moppet star Patty McCormack has remained a consistent presence on film
and TV for over five decades. While the lovely and talented blonde
suffered her share of hard knocks and obvious stereotypes in adjusting to an adult career, she
did not fade away into oblivion or self destruct as other vulnerable child stars
before her did.
Born Patricia Ellen Russo in Brooklyn, New York, to Frank Russo, a
firefighter, and the former Elizabeth McCormack, a roller skating pro,
the young girl found herself modeling at age 4. Two years later, she
had progressed to films with bits in
Two Gals and a Guy (1951) and
Here Comes the Groom (1951).
Soon thereafter she made her Broadway debut (at age 6) in the
short-lived play "Touchstone" starring
Ossie Davis.
While simultaneously appearing in the live television series
Mama (1949) [aka "I Remember Mama"], the
by-now 8-year-old returned to Broadway a second time and created the
role that would make her a cult sensation -- "Rhoda Penmark", the tiny,
braided little demon with murderous intentions in "The Bad Seed".
Starring Nancy Kelly as her
put-upon, overly-trusting mother, the show became a certifiable hit.
The two actors were invited to recreate their famous roles in the film
version, The Bad Seed (1956), and
achieved equally fine results. No child before her had ever been given
such a deliberately evil, twisted role and Patty chewed up the scenery
with courteous malevolence. Though the film today may come off as
extremely stagy and overly mannered to some, its fascination cannot be
denied. Audiences took readily to Patty and her wicked ways and the
young actress earned both Oscar and Golden Globe "Best Supporting
Actress" nominations.
The film would be a hard act to follow or forget. So strongly
identified with the role, Patty found it difficult for audiences to see
her any other way. She tried finding some variance as a pioneer girl in
All Mine to Give (1957), a testy
child star in Kathy O' (1958) and a
tomboy in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
but the memory of "Rhoda Penmark" would not be so easily wiped away. She
suffered typical teen angst in the film
The Explosive Generation (1961)
with William Shatner and had to make do
as a young adult in such low-level movies as
The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968),
Maryjane (1968) and
The Young Animals (1968).
By the 1970s Patty, who had spent so much time as a child doing live
television, found herself again relying on the medium for steadier
work. Billed now as a more grown-up "Patricia McCormack", she also
appeared in a variety of legit stage productions and, on occasion,
found roles in independent films. Appearing in more than 250 episodes
of some of the most successful programs around, audiences may remember
her giving sensible, wifely support to
Jeffrey Tambor on
The Ropers (1979), the short-lived
spin-off of the
Three's Company (1976)
sitcom, or from her recurring role as "Evelyn Michaelson" on
Dallas (1978). More recently on film
and TV, she played "Adrianna"'s mother, "Liz LaCerva", on HBO's hit
The Sopranos (1999) and appeared
in guest form on NYPD Blue (1993),
Cold Case (2003),
Grey's Anatomy (2005),
Entourage (2004) and
What About Brian (2006). She
also played former "First Lady" "Pat Nixon" in the film
Frost/Nixon (2008).
In 1995, Patty's devoted fans reveled when she felt comfortable enough to
embrace again her "Bad Seed" behavior by starring in the low-budget
horror feature Mommy (1995) and its
sequel Mommy's Day (1997) [aka "Mommy
2"]. She came full circle as a most pernicious homemaker who created
violent, Rhoda-worthy ends for those unlucky enough to cross her path.
Patti's millennium films, a variety of comedy, drama and, of course, horror films, would include The Medicine Show (2001), Choosing Matthias (2001), Shallow Ground (2004), Frost/Nixon (2008) (as First Lady Pat Nixon), Soda Springs (2012), Buttwhistle (2014), Chicanery (2017) and a lead in the lowbudget mystery House of Deadly Secrets (2018). As for TV, in addition to guest parts on such shows as "The D.A.," "N.Y.P.D. Blue," "Grey's Anatomy," "Entourage," "Criminal Minds," "Shark," "Private Practice," "Citizen Jane," "Desperate Housewives," "Prime Suspect," "Hawaii Five-0, she had recurring roles on The Sopranos (1999), Have You Met Miss Jones? (2012), Hart of Dixie (2011) and the daytime series General Hospital (1963) as Dr. Monica Quartermaine. She also played the small role of a doctor in a remake of her cult film The Bad Seed (2018).
A mother herself with two children, Robert and Danielle, Patty was once
married to Bob Catania, a restaurateur. She was also an eight-year
companion to screenwriter and playwright
Ernest Thompson of
On Golden Pond (1981) fame.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Originally born Harris Glen Milstead just after the end of WWII,
Baltimore's most outrageous resident eventually became the
international icon of bad taste cinema, as the always shocking and
highly entertaining transvestite performer, Divine.
Milstead met maverick film director & good friend,
John Waters, at high school in
Baltimore, and the two combined to star in and direct several ultra low
budget, taboo breaking cult films of the early 1970s. Their first
efforts included
Roman Candles (1967),
Eat Your Makeup (1968) and
Mondo Trasho (1969)....however,
their most infamous work together was the amazing
Pink Flamingos (1972), in which
Divine starred as "Babs Johnson", the "filthiest person alive" living
in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son
and voyeuristic daughter.
Divine also starred as career criminal Dawn Davenport in
Female Trouble (1974), as bored
housewife Francine Fishpaw in
Polyester (1981), as outlaw gal Rosie
Velez in Lust in the Dust (1984)
and in Waters' loving (but still slightly bizarre) salute to teen dance
TV shows as Ricki Lake's mother in the superb
Hairspray (1988).
Milstead's health deteriorated due to to his obese frame, and he passed
away in his sleep from a combination of heart attack and apnea in 1988.- Actress
- Director
Stunning Swedish born ex-model who broke into film in 1970, and quickly
appeared in several high profile films including playing the ex-wife of
James Caan in the futuristic
Rollerball (1975) and the ill-fated
lover of super-assassin Francisco Scaramanga played by
Christopher Lee in
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
To date, the beautiful Maud Adams has appeared in three James Bond
films... the other two performances were as one of the lead villains in
Octopussy (1983) and as an extra in
A View to a Kill (1985). She has
appeared in numerous television specials on the Bond series of films,
and also played the love interest of crazy
Bruce Dern in
Tattoo (1981). In the late 1990s, Adams
had a regular role on a Swedish soap opera; however, she has not been
seen on cinema screens since late 1996.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Mr. Roth won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump & has been nominated for his screenplays of The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, & Dune. He wrote Mr. Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, & Best Picture Nominee, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He was a producer of the Best Picture Nominee Mank. He received the WGA Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement.- Actor
- Producer
One of England's most popular actors for more than four decades, Martin Shaw is noted for his versatility. He has featured in over 100 TV roles, his
long TV career beginning in 1967 with the television episode
Love on the Dole (1967). He achieved genuine stardom with The Professionals (1977), generally seen, along with The Sweeney (1975), as one of the two classic British action series to be spawned from the 1970s. Before that, Mr. Shaw had always been careful to be very different in each of his roles to
avoid being typecast, and to spend long periods in the theatre.
His
theatrical career has been very distinguished, with a string of West
End successes, beginning in 1967 with the first revival of "Look Back
in Anger" and most recently on Broadway as Lord Goring in "An Ideal
Husband" which won him a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk award for
Best Actor. The Professionals was an international hit, and brought him
offers of similar roles. Never one to take the obvious route, Shaw
refused them all, including the American series
The Equalizer (1985),
preferring variety of work to riches.
A rare television flop for Shaw was Rhodes (1996), a quickly forgotten mini-series about the highly controversial British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Later projects have included a hospital drama,
Always and Everyone (1999)
from Granada, in which he plays consultant Robert Kingsford, and playing
Adam Dalgliesh in the BBC adaptations of
P.D. James's novels
Death in Holy Orders (2003)
and
The Murder Room (2004).
He works almost exclusively in
England, where he lives in a beautiful Quaker house in Norfolk, once
owned by an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln. He is a pilot, and owns and
flies a vintage biplane, a Boeing Stearman.
Reticent about his private life, he dislikes interviews, and has little
respect for the press.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Strong-featured Australian actor Vernon Wells was born December
1945 in Rushworth, rural Victoria, to Eva Maude (Jackson) and Michael Wells. He initially worked in a quarry, and then as a salesman. He was noticed by casting agents and started to appear in Australian
TV commercials, print ads, local Australian TV shows such as "Homicide"
and "Matlock Police".
His first cinema appearance was a minor role in Felicity (1978), a low budget,
erotic fantasy film. However, Wells was then fortunate to be cast as
the homicidal biker "Wez", in the big budget Mad Max 2 (1981) filmed around
Silverton near Broken Hill in outback New South Wales, Australia. It's
the role for which he is probably best known to international
audiences, as Wells portrays a psychotic, post apocalyptic gang leader
who relentlessly pursues hero Mel Gibson, before meeting a spectacular
death at the film's finale. Hollywood beckoned for Wells, and he
spoofed his mad biker role in the popular teen comedy Weird Science (1985), before
taking on another villainous role as the treacherous ex-soldier
"Bennett", who foolishly double crosses Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985). Once more,
Wells meets a dramatic end, as he is impaled against a boiler at the
film's conclusion, as big Arnold remarks "Let off some steam, Bennett".
Wells continued to find regular work as a "villain" of one description
or another, predominantly in B-grade thrillers or action films
including Last Man Standing (1987), Circuitry Man (1990), Kick of Death (1997) and Starforce (2000). The talented Wells
then landed a recurring role as futuristic criminal "Ransik" in the
highly popular "Power Rangers" TV series, and subsequent series of
films including _Power Rangers Time Force: Photo Finish (2001)_, _Power Rangers Time Force: The End of Time (2002)_ and _Power Rangers Time Force: Dawn of Destiny (2002)_.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Bob Balaban was born on 16 August 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Gosford Park (2001), A Mighty Wind (2003) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He has been married to Lynn Grossman since 1 April 1977. They have two children.- Bruce Spence was born on September 17, 1945 in New Zealand. When he was growing up in Henderson, just out of Auckland, the last thing he ever expected to be was an actor. Bruce's family were winemakers, and he worked in the family winery from a very tender age, later attending Henderson High School then Massey University, where he studied horticulture. From this background he retained a passion for growing things, and has created a succession of beautiful gardens for himself and friends. At 20, Bruce moved to Australia, where to his surprise he was accepted into the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. Bruce's mother, Olga, was a painter and potter. In 1969 Bruce joined a ragtag group working at the tiny La Mama theatre in Melbourne. The group became the revolutionary Australian Performing Group, and Bruce's talent for acting was discovered. Forced to choose between art and acting, he decided to try his luck at the latter. He went on to perform in numerous plays with the group, then the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company, the South Australian Theatre Company and several other companies, even the National Arts Centre of Canada where he played the lead in the award-winning "The Floating World" by John Romeril. He now lives in Sydney, where his recent acting credits with the Sydney Theatre Company include "The Secret River", "The Harp in the South", "Endgame" and "Rules for Living". Bruce has appeared in close to 100 films, including Mad Max 2 ("The Road Warrior") and 3 ("Beyond Thunderdome"), "Ace Ventura" Part II, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith", "Finding Nemo", "The Matrix Revolutions" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales". He has also appeared in numerous television roles. When starring as the wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander in the cult series "Legend of the Seeker", which was filmed in New Zealand, Bruce found he had come full circle, working directly opposite his old high school in Henderson. At home in Sydney he lives quietly with his wife, Jenny and an adoring tabby cat. They have two children and four grandchildren. Between jobs Bruce works on his own burgeoning garden and as a volunteer at the Royal Botanic Garden, where he and his group propagate plants. He is also currently chair of the NSW Actors' Benevolent Fund.
- Larry Pine was born on 3 March 1945 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He is an actor, known for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The French Dispatch (2021) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Clive Russell was born in England but raised in Fife, Scotland, UK, from three months old. He originally trained as a teacher, but when his drama lecturer resigned and took over a theatre in the provincial town of Bolton, Lancashire, Russell joined him. Russell has been working solely in film and television since 1991.- Gretchen Corbett was born on 13 August 1945 in Portland, Oregon, USA. She is an actress, known for The Rockford Files (1974), Pig (2021) and Otherworld (1985).
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was
marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one
of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor.
Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male
chauvinist, antiSemitic and even antigay, he completed 44
projects between 1966 and 1982, the majority of which can be
characterized as highly intelligent social melodramas. His prodigious
output was matched by a wild, self-destructive libertinage that earned
him a reputation as the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema (as
well as its central figure.) Known for his trademark leather jacket and
grungy appearance, Fassbinder cruised the bar scene by night, looking
for sex and drugs, yet he maintained a flawless work ethic by day.
Actors and actresses recount disturbing stories of his brutality toward
them, yet his pictures demonstrate his deep sensitivity to social
misfits and his hatred of institutionalized violence. Some find his
cinema needlessly controversial and avant-garde; others accuse him of
surrendering to the Hollywood ethos. It is best said that he drew forth
strong emotional reactions from all he encountered, both in his
personal and professional lives, and this provocative nature can be
experienced posthumously through reviewing his artistic legacy.
Fassbinder was born into a bourgeois Bavarian family in 1945. His
father was a doctor and his mother a translator. In order to have time
for her work, his mother frequently sent him the movies, a practice
that gave birth to his obsession with the medium. Later in life, he
would claim that he saw a film nearly every day and sometimes as many
as three or four. At the age of 15, Fassbinder defiantly declared his
homosexuality, soon after which he left school and took a job. He
studied theater in the mid-sixties at the Fridl-Leonhard Studio in
Munich and joined the Action Theater (aka, Anti-Theater) in 1967.
Unlike the other major auteurs of the New German Cinema (e.g.,
Schlöndorff, Herzog and Wenders) who started out making movies,
Fassbinder acquired an extensive stage background that is evident
throughout his work. Additionally, he learned how to handle all phases
of production, from writing and acting to direction and theater
management. This versatility later surfaced in his films where, in
addition to some of the aforementioned responsibilities, Fassbinder
served as composer, production designer, cinematographer, producer and
editor. [So boundless was his energy, in fact, that he appeared in 30
projects of other directors.] In his theater years, he also developed a
repertory company that included his mother, two of his wives and
various male and female lovers. Coupled with his ability to serve in
nearly any crew capacity, this gave him the ability to produce his
films quickly and on extremely low budgets.
Success was not immediate for Fassbinder. His first feature length
film, a gangster movie called
Love Is Colder Than Death (1969)
was greeted by catcalls at the Berlin Film Festival. His next piece,
Katzelmacher (1969), was a minor
critical success, garnering five prizes after its debut at Mannheim. It
featured Jorgos, an emigrant from Greece, who encounters violent
xenophobic slackers in moving into an all-German neighborhood. This
kind of social criticism, featuring alienated characters unable to
escape the forces of oppression, is a constant throughout Fassbinder's
diverse oeuvre. In subsequent years, he made such controversial films
about human savagery such as
Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971)
and Whity (1971) before scoring his first
domestic commercial success with
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972).
This moving portrait of a street vendor crushed by the betrayal and his
own futility is considered a masterpiece, as is his first international
success
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
(Fear Eats the Soul). With a wider audience for his efforts, however,
some critics contend that Fassbinder began to sell out with big budget
projects such as Despair (1978),
Lili Marleen (1981) and
Lola (1981). In retrospect, however, it
seems that the added fame simply enabled Fassbinder to explore various
kinds of filmmaking, including such "private" works as
In a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
and
The Third Generation (1979),
two films about individual experience and feelings. His greatest
success came with
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
(The Marriage of Maria Braun), chronicling the rise and fall of a
German woman in the wake of World War II. Other notable movies include
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972),
Fox and His Friends (1975),
Satan's Brew (1976) and
Querelle (1982), all focused on gay and
lesbian themes and frequently with a strongly pornographic edge.
His death is a perfect picture of the man and his legend. On the night
of June 10, 1982, Fassbinder took an overdose of cocaine and sleeping
pills. When he was found, the unfinished script for a version of Rosa
Luxemburg was lying next to him. So boundless was his drive and
creativity that, throughout his downward spiral and even in the moment
of his death, Fassbinder never ceased to be productive.- Actor
- Visual Effects
- Soundtrack
From Caped Crusader to Canine Crusader
Little did aspiring actor Burt Ward know that learning martial arts in addition to his mental and athletic prowess would change his life forever.
As a teen-age, Burt had all the makings of a true boy wonder. As an all around athlete, strong in martial arts, wrestling, track, tennis and golf, combined with a sharp intellect, playing "first board" in chess for Beverly Hills High School, achieving the top 3% in the U.S. in math and science tests at UCLA, and becoming the world's fastest reader - Burt tested before the American Medical Society in Beverly Hills, California and was clocked at 30,000 words per minute with 90% comprehension (the average reader reads 240 words per minute with 40% comprehension). Burt was featured in an article entitled, "Will the Real Boy Wonder Please Stand Up" and subsequently appeared on the national television educational show "Read Right."
With the help of his father, a prominent real estate broker in Beverly Hills, CA, Burt became one of the youngest real estate agents in California, and met producer, Saul David, who arranged for him to sign with a Hollywood agent. His first interview was set up at 20th Century Fox Studios, and a few weeks later, Burt was called back for a screen test with Adam West. Holder of a brown belt in karate at the time, Burt showed off his athletic ability for the producers by demonstrating some falls and tumbles, and even broke a one-inch pine board with his hand. Later, Burt attained his black belt from his instructor, All Korean champion, Young Ik Suh. Burt was friends with Bruce Lee. A special piece of movie trivia is that Bruce Lee's first filmed fight scene of his career was fighting Burt Ward. In October 2015, Burt was inducted into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame.
Executive Producer William Dozier commented about Ward's tall size in comparison to Adam West, and the new Boy Wonder prospect replied, "I promise you, sir, I won't grow anymore." Dozier laughed and told Burt that he would hold him to that.
2
It wasn't until six weeks after the screen test that Burt learned that he had won the coveted role of Robin, the Boy Wonder in the new "Batman" TV series for ABC-TV. He was everything they wanted. All he had to do was just be himself.
Batman Was an Overnight Sensation!
Biff, Bam, Boom! The Ratings Soared!
Burt and Adam West made hundreds of personal appearances together and were featured in dozens of magazine articles, including the cover of Life magazine.
Years later, when accepting Harvard's "Man of the Year" award, Burt brought one of his original Robin costumes, even then valued at six figures. Some students came up to him dressed as security guards and told him they would keep the costume safe. Then, in the middle of Burt's speech, one student stood up and asked, "When is a costume not a costume? When it's stolen." The lights dimmed and the students grabbed the costume and made off. After snapping photos with one another in the cape, they later called Ward and gave the costume back. The ringleader of the gang? Harvard Lampoon editor, Conan O'Brien.
From "Caped Crusader" to "Canine Crusader"
In 1994, Burt and his wife, Tracy Posner Ward, philanthropist and daughter of former corporate raider and billionaire, Victor Posner, rescued a Great Dane in distress. From this experience, they learned about dozens of other Great Danes also needing homes. When they called weeks later to see what had happened to the others, they was horrified to hear that they had all been destroyed. Both Burt and Tracy have a huge love for animals. They made a decision, and created a rescue for Great Danes and other giant dog breeds.
Located 50 miles east of Los Angeles, Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoptions is a nonprofit charity created by Burt and Tracy. Gentle Giants has rescued and adopted more than 15,500 giant breed and small breed dogs during their 22 years of operation. All of their dogs are socialized and behaviorally trained, and live communally together in their home. Gentle Giants is now the largest giant breed dog rescue in the world and rescues and finds homes for 45 different dog breeds, ranging from 2 lbs. to 300 lbs.
Traditionally, giant breed dogs usually have short lifespans, living 6-8 years or 7-9 years, depending upon the breed. Spending millions of dollars of their own money and more than a decade of research and testing, and combining their special care and feeding program with their own all natural Gentle Giants dog food, Burt and Tracy have successfully doubled the average lifespan of their rescued giant breed dogs, and significantly lengthened the average lifespan of their rescued small and medium breed dogs as well, with dogs living as long as 27 active, healthy years.
Gentle Giants Products manufacturers all natural Gentle Giants dog food which is sold in more than 1,250 stores in California, and in 339 Walmart Supercenters in Oregon,
3
Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida. Gentle Giants dog food is sold nationally through mail order on Chewy.com, Walmart.com, and Amazon.com. In California, Gentle Giants is sold in Walmart Supercenters, Stater Bros. Ralphs, and Gelson's.
Gentle Giants has a spectacular new line of wet (canned) dog food, with 90% Beef, 90% Chicken, and 90% Salmon. Gentle Giants Products also has a new line of super premium dog supplements and super premium dog treats.
The Caped Crusader has truly evolved into the Canine Crusader.- Tricia O'Neil was born on 11 March 1945 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. She is an actress, known for Titanic (1997), Babylon 5 (1993) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
- Entrancing Leigh Taylor-Young was born on January 25, 1945, in Washington, D,C,. to a diplomat father and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the older sister of future actress Dey Young and writer/director Lance Young. She studied classical ballet and, following high school, attended Northwestern University where she initially majored in economics. She switched gears after developing an interest in theater, however, and studied under drama teacher Alvina Krause, and would apprentice as the youngest member of the Eaglesmere Summer Repertory Theatre.
Leigh eventually moved to New York with designs on a professional career and studied under acting guru Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her major break came when she was cast in the already firmly established prime-time TV soap Peyton Place (1964). She played the mysterious Rachael Welles, whose character was brought in to provide clues to the disappearance of Allison MacKenzie (played by Mia Farrow who shocked ardent viewers by abruptly leaving the series). A mysterious girl herself, Leigh proved to be a fetching figure with her slightly off-kiltered beauty and unsympathetic countenance.
Like Farrow, Leigh developed a bit of bad publicity when she too walked off the weekly series after only one season. She also fell into the arms of the very popular -- and very married -- series star Ryan O'Neal. The couple would marry in 1967 following his divorce from actress Joanna Moore. By then, Leigh was already pregnant with their child Patrick O'Neal, who would later become an actor before turning to sportscasting.
Leigh started off in films auspiciously as a "flower child" of the psychedelic (late) 1960s. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Newcomer," when she played opposite Peter Sellers, in the eccentric comedy, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), but then appeared opposite her husband in The Big Bounce (1969), a kinky misfire. She went on to appear in a cameo in her husband's British-made movie, The Games (1970), but her career sputtered again with a series of misguided features, including the star-heavy epic, The Adventurers (1970); another kinky British film, The Buttercup Chain (1970), which dealt with kissing cousins who don't quite stop at kissing; the beautifully photographed but rather hollow action-adventure The Horsemen (1971) co-starring Omar Sharif; and the mild romp, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) which is best remembered for starting Robert De Niro off and running in films. Arguably, Leigh's best remembered role during that period came alongside Charlton Heston in the controversial film Soylent Green (1973), although she was a bit overshadowed by the grisly topic material and showier performances of co-stars Heston and Edward G. Robinson.
Following her separation from O'Neal in 1971 (they didn't actually divorce until '74), the actress made herself somewhat scarce while raising her young son. In 1978, she married agent/director Guy McElwaine, but that marriage would also end in divorce. In the 1980s, she made a comeback of sorts as a mature -- but still spicy -- presence. Taking a back seat to Albert Finney in the film thriller Looker (1981) and to Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges in the whodunnit Jagged Edge (1985), she found her best results back on TV.
Leigh would nab a supporting Emmy award in 1994 for her portrayal of vixen Rachel Harris on the acclaimed series drama Picket Fences (1992). In addition, she performed in several plays, in the US, England and Scotland, including "The Beckett Plays", "Knives" and "Sleeping Dogs". More recently, she appeared in her writer/director brother Lance Young's film Bliss (1997). Leigh also would play a regular role on the daytime soap, Passions (1999) as wealthy Katherine Crane.
A few movie roles have come her way into the millennium, including the film comedy Slackers (2002); a cameo role (as Mrs. Leigh Taylor Young) in (then) husband Craig Sheffer's film Ritual (2002); the comedy crimer Klepto (2003); the comedy A-List (2006); as a psychiatrist in the sci-fi adventure Spiritual Warriors (2007) and, more recently, the drama The Wayshower (2011).
Finding a fulfilling life off-camera, Leigh became an ordained minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and her voice can be heard in the Search of Serenity series of audio meditations from The Course in Miracles trainings. She is also a grandmother of two granddaughters from son Patrick's relationship with the older Rebecca De Mornay. - Brenda Benet, born Brenda Ann Nelson in Los Angeles, California, on
August 14, 1945, was a classic example of the modern-day Hollywood
tragedy. As a television actress with good dramatic scope, she managed
to piece together a wide and impressive portfolio of guest shots in a
career spanning just over 16 years before taking her life at the age of
36. She spent her childhood and early teenage years feeling awkward and
self-conscious because her complexion was darker than those of her
siblings. Because of this, she felt that she did not fit in with her
family, and often fantasized about being adopted.
Brenda attended UCLA for a brief time, majoring in languages. In 1962
she entered show business; her breakthrough role came in 1964 when she
was selected to play the part of Jill McComb in
The Young Marrieds (1964).
After that came stints on various comedy and drama series in the '60s
and '70s, usually playing ethnic, exotic types. She was probably best
known for her role as the kind-hearted prostitute in
Walking Tall (1973). During this
time she married and divorced actor
Paul Petersen. She began a
relationship with Bill Bixby and moved in
with him in 1969, and they married in 1971. By the late '70s, however,
they were divorced.
Brenda retired from the business in the mid-'70s to raise a family, and
in late 1974 she gave birth to a boy, Christopher Sean Bixby.
Tragically, Christopher died in 1981 during a winter ski vacation in
California. It was believed that this and her divorce from Bixby were
the events which caused Brenda's life to spin out of control. On April
7, 1982, Brenda went into the bathroom of her West Los Angeles home,
lit and arranged some candles in a circle on the floor and lay down.
She then placed a Colt .38-cal. revolver into her mouth and pulled the
trigger. She died instantly. - Actress
- Costume Designer
- Soundtrack
Born in Shanghai, China to a banker father and a painter mother. The family left for Hong Kong where Irene attended parochial school and studied ballet. At 12 the family immigrated to New York City where Irene attended George Washington HS and Quintano's School for young professionals and studied ballet and jazz at Carnegie Hall. She was a teenage dancer in Flower Drum Song (1961), directed by Henry Koster who gave her her first speaking role as a teenage prostitute in his next film, Take Her, She's Mine starring James Stewart which launched her acting career.
Her career spans four decades in most of the popular TV series (50 titles) and 32 feature films. Irene was able to cross over to play not only Chinese parts but roles originally written for other ethnicities with the help of casting directors and creative writers/directors. Director Paul Mazursky cast Irene as Shiela Waltzberg, the Jewish princess wife in Down & Out in Beverly Hills. Director Frank Tashlin cast Irene as Ray Walston's secretary in Caprice Irene played a Malaysian revolutionary in Paper Tiger. She was also the TV spokeswoman for Chevron Island Wiki Wiki Dollars for Standard Oil, as well as Hawaiian Punch for Proctor and Gamble
Irene Speaks 3 dialects of Chinese, she appeared in the Peter Chan Ho-Sun's hit Hong Kong film Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) and Golden Chicken (2002).
Irene studied acting with Ned Manderino and Milton Katselas in Los Angeles
For the past two decades, Irene has been a successful realtor in Beverly Hills. She enjoys helping people body mind and spirit. She teaches Bikram yoga for the Beverly Hills Department of Parks.- IMDB Mini Biography
- Actress
- Writer
- Music Department
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, McClurg began her performing career at age five with the Kansas City Rhythm Kids. She retired when the dance teacher was arrested on a morals charge for "dating" the tall and lissome, yet underage, star dancer in the troupe. That girl's big number culminated with a back-bend where Edie drank a soda upside down (of course).
She earned a Bachelor's degree in Speech Education and a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University and taught radio at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for eight years. There she re-entered the entertainment field as a DJ, newswoman and producer for the NPR affiliate KCUR-FM. Her proudest moment was portraying John Ehrlichman in Conversation 26 of the NPR national broadcast of the Nixon Tape Transcripts. Her career-long devotion to satirical improvisation included an impressive tenure with The Groundlings.
She went on to create original characters, performed on the short-lived talk show The David Letterman Show (1980): Mrs. Marv Mendenhall, Dot Duncan, Whirly June Pickens, Officer Jeanelle Archer, 105-year-old Edie, etc. Television has been a home to many of McClurg's characters -- on The Richard Pryor Show (1977); as Lucille Tarlek, wife of brash advertising salesman Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978); and Mrs. Poole, the ever-cheery and almost omnipresent next-door neighbor on Valerie (1986). Her movie career growth paralleled her ten years with The Groundlings. Her first film was Brian De Palma's teen horror classic Carrie (1976). She did several John Hughes films, including Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), She's Having a Baby (1988) and Curly Sue (1991). Offbeat cult favorites are Eating Raoul (1982), Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), HBO's The Pee-Wee Herman Show (1981), and Martin Mull's The History of White People in America (1985).
In more mainstream films, she received a National Media Award for her portrayal of a mentally disabled woman in Bill: On His Own (1983) (which starred Mickey Rooney). She worked with Robert Redford (in A River Runs Through It (1992)), for Oliver Stone (in Natural Born Killers (1994)), for Diane Keaton (in Hanging Up (2000)), and was named Best Actress of the Chicago Alternative Film Festival for her portrayal of the mother of Ted Kaczynski ("The Unabomber").
More recent roles include the nosy lady on Fat Actress (2005), David Spade's nasty neighbor in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), Dana Carvey's mother in Sony Pictures' The Master of Disguise (2002), Jane Kaczmarek's friend on Malcolm in the Middle (2000), and guest-starring on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), Providence (1999), 7th Heaven (1996), and Caroline in the City (1995). She had voice roles in such television series and feature films as The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rugrats Movie (1998), A Bug's Life (1998), and Cars (2006).- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann,
Jamaica, to Norval Marley and
Cedella Booker. His father was a Jamaican
of English descent. His mother was a black teenager. The couple were married in 1944 but Norval left for Kingston immediately after. Norval died in 1957, seeing his son only a few times.
Bob Marley started his career with the Wailers, a group he formed with
Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in 1963.
Marley married Rita Marley in February 1966,
and it was she who introduced him to Rastafarianism. By 1969 Bob, Tosh
and Livingston had fully embraced Rastafarianism, which greatly
influence Marley's music in particular and on reggae music in general.
The Wailers collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry, resulting in some of
the Wailers' finest tracks like "Soul Rebel", "Duppy Conquerer", "400
Years" and "Small Axe." This collaboration ended bitterly when the
Wailers found that Perry, thinking the records were his, sold them in
England without their consent. However, this brought the Wailers' music
to the attention of
Chris Blackwell, the owner of
Island Records.
Blackwell immediately signed the Wailers and produced their first
album, "Catch a Fire". This was followed by "Burnin'", featuring tracks
as "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff."
Eric Clapton's cover of that song reached
#1 in the US. In 1974 Tosh and Livingston left the Wailers to start
solo careers. Marley later formed the band "Bob Marley and the
Wailers", with his wife Rita as one of three backup singers called the
I-Trees. This period saw the release of some groundbreaking albums,
such as "Natty Dread", "Rastaman Vibration".
In 1976, during a period of spiraling political violence in Jamaica, an
attempt was made on Marley's life. Marley left for England, where he
lived in self-exile for two years. In England "Exodus" was produced,
and it remained on the British charts for 56 straight weeks. This was
followed by another successful album, "Kaya." These successes
introduced reggae music to the western world for the first time, and
established the beginning of Marley's international status.
In 1977 Marley consulted with a doctor when a wound in his big toe
would not heal. More tests revealed malignant melanoma. He refused to
have his toe amputated as his doctors recommended, claiming it
contradicted his Rastafarian beliefs. Others, however, claim that the
main reason behind his refusal was the possible negative impact on his
dancing skills. The cancer was kept secret from the general public
while Bob continued working.
Returning to Jamaica in 1978, he continued work and released "Survival"
in 1979 which was followed by a successful European tour. In 1980 he
was the only foreign artist to participated in the independence
ceremony of Zimbabwe. It was a time of great success for Marley, and he
started an American tour to reach blacks in the US. He played two shows
at Madison Square Garden, but collapsed while jogging in NYC's Central
Park on September 21, 1980. The cancer diagnosed earlier had spread to
his brain, lungs and stomach. Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital on
May 11, 1981. He was 36 years old.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Carrera was born Barbara Kingsbury on December 31, 1945 in Bluefields, Nicaragua. This stunning former model became best known for her screen performances playing a sinister femme fatale. In doing so, she has achieved minor cult status and has quite a loyal fanbase. The tall and tanned Carrera first cropped up in minor roles taking advantage of her exotic features in The Master Gunfighter (1975), Embryo (1976) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). She broke through with mainstream North American audiences playing Clay Basket in the miniseries Centennial (1978), and Lucia Flavius Silva's mistress in the miniseries Masada (1981).
She sizzled on screen with Armand Assante as the sexy yet evil doctor in I, the Jury (1982), was the love interest of Texas Ranger Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), and gave her best role to date as assassin Fatima Blush opposite Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again (1983), and then as Emma Forsayth in the miniseries Emma: Queen of the South Seas (1988). In 1985-86, she played the role of business executive turned serial killer Angelica Nero on the primetime soap opera Dallas (1978). Carrera has most recently been seen guest starring on the popular television series That '70s Show (1998) and Judging Amy (1999).