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- Actor
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- Writer
Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD.
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, to a German mother, Marlene Kassel, and an American father, David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point, New Jersey), who were then living on a United States military base. His family moved to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, where his mother worked at a bank and his father was a welder and factory worker. Willis picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school, and was allegedly "discovered" whilst working in a café in New York City and then appeared in a couple of off-Broadway productions. While bartending one night, he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.
After countless auditions, Willis contributed minor film appearances, usually uncredited, before landing the role of private eye "David Addison" alongside sultry Cybill Shepherd in the hit romantic comedy television series Moonlighting (1985). His sarcastic and wisecracking P.I. is seen by some as a dry run for the role of hard-boiled NYC detective "John McClane" in the monster hit Die Hard (1988), in which Willis' character single-handedly battled a gang of ruthless international thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised the role of McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990), set at a snowbound Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to repatriate a corrupt South American general. Excellent box office returns demanded a further sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), this time co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust into assisting McClane during a terrorist bombing campaign on a sweltering day in New York.
Willis found time out from all the action mayhem to provide the voice
of "Mikey" the baby in the very popular family comedies Look Who's Talking (1989), and its sequel Look Who's Talking Too (1990) also starring John Travolta and
Kirstie Alley. Over the next decade, Willis starred in some very successful films, some very offbeat films and some unfortunate box office flops. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Hudson Hawk (1991) were both large scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics, and both are arguably best left off the CVs of all the actors involved, however Willis was still popular with movie audiences and selling plenty of theatre tickets with the hyper-violent
The Last Boy Scout (1991), the darkly humored Death Becomes Her (1992) and the mediocre police thriller Striking Distance (1993).
During the 1990s, Willis also appeared in several independent and low budget productions that won him new fans and praise from the critics for his intriguing performances working with some very diverse film directors. He appeared in the oddly appealing North (1994), as a cagey prizefighter in
the Quentin Tarantino directed mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994), the
Terry Gilliam directed apocalyptic thriller 12 Monkeys (1995), the Luc Besson directed sci-fi opus The Fifth Element (1997) and the M. Night Shyamalan directed spine-tingling epic The Sixth Sense (1999).
Willis next starred in the gangster comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000),
worked again with "hot" director M. Night Shyamalan in the less than
gripping Unbreakable (2000), and in two military dramas, Hart's War (2002)
and Tears of the Sun (2003) that both failed to really fire with movie audiences or critics alike. However, Willis bounced back into the spotlight in the critically
applauded Frank Miller graphic novel turned movie Sin City (2005), the voice of "RJ" the scheming raccoon in the animated hit Over the Hedge (2006) and "Die Hard" fans rejoiced to see "John McClane" return to the big screen in
the high tech Live Free or Die Hard (2007) aka "Die Hard 4.0".
Willis was married to actress Demi Moore for approximately thirteen years and they share custody to their three daughters.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large and small, Hollywood films as well as Independent cinema.
In 1979, he was given a role in Michael's Cimino's Heaven's Gate, from which he was fired. Since then, he has collaborated with directors who represent a virtual encyclopedia of modern cinema: James Wan, Robert Eggers, Sean Baker, Kenneth Branagh, Kathryn Bigelow, Sam Raimi, Alan Parker, Walter Hill, Mary Harron, Wim Wenders, Anton Corbijn, Zhang Yimou, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Werner Herzog, Lars Von Trier, Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Anthony Minghella, Theo Angelopoulos, Robert Rodriguez, Phillip Noyce, Hector Babenco, John Milius, Paul Weitz, The Spierig Brothers, Andrew Stanton, Josh Boone, Dee Rees and Julian Schnabel.
Dafoe has been recognized with four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Platoon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Shadow Of The Vampire, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Florida Project, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, and most recently, Best Leading Actor for At Eternity's Gate, for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination. Among his other nominations and awards, he has received two Los Angeles Film Critics Awards, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a National Board of Review Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup, as well as a Berlinale Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement.
Willem was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to Muriel Isabel (Sprissler), a nurse, and William Alfred Dafoe, a surgeon. He is of mostly German, Irish, Scottish, and English descent. He and his wife, director Giada Colagrande, have made three films together: Padre, A Woman, and Before It Had A Name.
His natural adventurousness is evident in roles as diverse as Marcus, the elite assassin who is mentor to Keanu Reeves in the neo-noir John Wick; in his voice work as Gil the Moorish Idol in Finding Nemo and Ryuk the Death God in Death Note; as Paul Smecker, the obsessed FBI agent in the cult classic The Boondock Saints; and as real life hero Leonhard Seppala, who led the 1925 Alaskan dog sled diphtheria serum run in Ericson Core's Togo. That adventurous spirit continues with upcoming films including Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, Abel Ferrara's Siberia, and Paul Schrader's The Card Counter.
Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre collective. He created and performed in all of the group's work from 1977 thru 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Since then, he worked with Richard Foreman in Idiot Savant at The Public Theatre (NYC), with Robert Wilson on two international productions: The Life & Death of Marina Abramovic and The Old Woman opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov and developed a new theatre piece, directed by Romeo Castellucci, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. He recently completed work on Marina Abramovic's opera 7 Deaths of Maria Callas.- Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress
before she came to Hollywood. She acted at the Royal Theatre in
Stockholm and was directed by
Ingmar Bergman. She was born in Stockholm, to actors Britta Holmberg and Stig Olin, who appeared in six
of Bergman's films. Lena also belongs to the Bergman "family". As a
young actress, she played in the great classics of
William Shakespeare,
Henrik Ibsen and
August Strindberg. She made her
international debut as a movie actress in
After the Rehearsal (1984)
(aka "After the Rehearsal"), directed by Bergman. In western Europe,
she became well-known in the political movie
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
as "Sabina", in a story about the Prague spring (1968). After coming to
the US, she played mostly distinguished, exotic temptresses,
intelligent women and crude vamps. Bergman had developed Lena's
artistic gift to play different human emotions and express them in a
subtle way. Sydney Pollack, director of
Out of Africa (1985), rewrote the
screenplay for Havana (1990)
especially for her. This explains why this film recalls associations
with the classic Casablanca (1942),
starring Ingrid Bergman, also
from Sweden. Olin received an Academy Award nomination for Best
Supporting Actress for her role in
Enemies, A Love Story (1989).
She went on to have a choice role in
Chocolat (2000), which received a Best
Picture Oscar nomination, and received a Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination. She made a move to the smaller screen and played the role
for one season as the deliciously evil "Irina Derevko", the mother to
Jennifer Garner's "Sydney
Bristow" in the series Alias (2001).
Olin received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in
a Drama Series. - Actor
- Producer
- Director
Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third
child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and
ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison,
and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a
welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle
brother died at birth in 1953. His father's job required him to move
regularly, which caused Kevin to feel like an Army kid, always the new
kid at school, which led to him being a daydreamer. As a teen, he sang
in the Baptist church choir, wrote poetry, and took writing classes. At
18, he built his own canoe and paddled his way down the rivers that
Lewis & Clark followed to the Pacific. Despite his present height, he
was only 5'2" when he graduated high school. Nonetheless, he still
managed to be a basketball, football and baseball star. In 1973, he
enrolled at California State University at Fullerton, where he majored
in business. During that period, Kevin decided to take acting lessons
five nights a week. He graduated with a business degree in 1978 and
married his college sweetheart,
Cindy Costner. He initially took a
marketing job in Orange County. Everything changed when he accidentally
met Richard Burton on a flight
from Mexico. Burton advised him to go completely after acting if that
is what he wanted. He quit his job and moved to Hollywood soon after.
He drove a truck, worked on a deep sea fishing boat, and gave bus tours
to stars' homes before finally making his own way into the films. After
making one soft core sex film, he vowed to not work again if that was
the only work he could do. He didn't work for nearly six years, while
he waited for a proper break. That break came with
The Big Chill (1983), even though
his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor -- he was remembered by
director Lawrence Kasdan when he decided
to make Silverado (1985). Costner's
career took off after that.- Actor
- Soundtrack
J.K. Simmons is an American actor.
He was born Jonathan Kimble Simmons in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Patricia (Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a music teacher. He attended the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; University of Montana, Missoula, MT (BA in Music).
He had originally planned to be a singer and studied at the University of Montana to become a composer.
He starred as Captain Hook and Mr. Darling opposite gymnastics champ Cathy Rigby in the Broadway and touring revivals of Peter Pan.
He played Benny South-street in the 1992 Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls and can be heard on the cast recording.
He did a commercial voice-over work, including the voice of the yellow M&M in the candy's TV ads.
He appeared as police psychiatrist Emil Skoda on Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).
As of 2011, has made five films with director Sam Raimi: For Love of the Game (1999); The Gift (2000); Spider-Man (2002); Spider-Man 2 (2004); and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
He won many awards from 2005 to 2007 in Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In 2014 won Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
2015 won a Golden Globe for his Best Performance as an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, BAFTA Film Awards Best Supporting Actor, Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Male.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his film debut in the Corman film Crazy Mama (1975), directed by Jonathan Demme. Moving to New York, Paxton studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. After landing a small role in Stripes (1981), he found steady work in low-budget films and television. He also directed, wrote and produced award-winning short films including Barnes & Barnes: Fish Heads (1980), which aired on Saturday Night Live (1975). His first appearance in a James Cameron film was a small role in The Terminator (1984), followed by his very memorable performance as Private Hudson in Aliens (1986) and as the nomadic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987). Bill also appeared in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), as Wyatt Donnelly's sadistic older brother Chet. Although he continued to work steadily in film and television, his big break did not come until his lead role in the critically acclaimed film-noir One False Move (1991). This quickly led to strong supporting roles as Wyatt Earp's naive younger brother Morgan in Tombstone (1993) and as Fred Haise, one of the three astronauts, in Apollo 13 (1995), as well as in James Cameron's offering True Lies (1994).
Bill died on February 25, 2017, in Los Angeles, from complications following heart surgery. He was 61.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gary Alan Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, to Mylles S.
(Alsip) and Robert L. Sinise, A.C.E., a
film editor. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), English,
Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Swedish ancestry. His family moved
to Highland Park, where he attended high school. He was something of a
rebel, playing in bands but paying little attention to school.
Gary and some friends tried out for "West Side Story" as a lark, but
Gary was hooked on acting for life by closing night. Gary credits his
love for theatre to his drama teacher, Barbara Patterson. In 1974,
Gary, Terry Kinney, and
Jeff Perry founded the Steppenwolf
Theatre Company in Chicago. Initially performing in a church basement,
the company grew and gained stature in the Chicago area. In addition to
acting in many plays, Gary also directed some of Steppenwolf's most
notable productions, including Sam Shepard's
"True West". The company made its off-Broadway debut with that
production, starring Gary and
John Malkovich, and its Broadway debut
with "The Grapes of Wrath" at the Cort Theatre in 1990. Gary's
Hollywood career also started in the director's chair with two episodes
of the stylish TV series
Crime Story (1986), followed in
1988 by the feature
Miles from Home (1988) starring
Richard Gere. Gary's first feature film as
an actor was the World War II fable
A Midnight Clear (1992) in 1992.
That year also found Gary combining his acting and directing talents
with the critically acclaimed
Of Mice and Men (1992). His first
real notice by the public came in 1994, however. He starred in the
blockbuster miniseries
The Stand (1994), rapidly followed
by his bravura performance as "Lt. Dan" in
Forrest Gump (1994). His portrayal
of the disabled, emotionally tortured veteran earned Gary numerous
awards and an Oscar nomination. Busy 1994 was followed by busy 1995,
first reuniting with Tom Hanks in
Apollo 13 (1995) and then starring in
the HBO film Truman (1995) which
earned him the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards and an Emmy
nomination.
Gary is married to Moira Sinise, an actress
and original member of the Steppenwolf company. They have three
children, Sophie Sinise,
McCanna Anthony Sinise and
Ella Sinise.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Laurie Metcalf was born June 16, 1955 in Carbondale, Illinois, the oldest of three children of Libby (Mars), a librarian, and James Metcalf, a budget director. She was
raised in Edwardsville, Illinois. Laurie attended Illinois State University,
where she obtained her bachelor of arts in theater in 1977. In her
class were the immeasurable talents of
John Malkovich,
Glenne Headly, and
Joan Allen. Laurie began acting at
Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Her acting career in film and television
began with a minor and uncredited role in
Robert Altman's
A Wedding (1978). In 1988, Laurie found
her most memorable and successful role to date, Jacqueline "Jackie"
Harris in the television series
Roseanne (1988). For her performance
in the series, she was nominated for two Golden Globes and won three
Primetime Emmy awards.- For fourteen years, she said that family was the most important
thing to her and she set most of her time aside to be a "present"
mother to her son. Movies, plays and television were chosen, for the
most part, when they occurred in town or on a school break. She took
one year to homeschool her son for his seventh grade. But it
wasn't always this way. She was raised in New York City and wanted to
be an actress from the time she was a child, graduating with acting
honors from the High School of Performing Arts. She chose to opt out of
studying acting in college and attended a small college in Europe,
majoring in art history and literature, knowing that acting would take
up a great deal of her life and that her college years would be her
only real time to learn about something else. Upon graduation, she
returned to New York City but a chance trip to Chicago inspired her to
move there and become a part of its budding theatre community. It was
in a production of "Curse of The Starving Class", directed by
Robert Falls and co-starring
John Malkovich, that she was first seen
by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and, subsequently, asked to join
their troupe. She did and learned what it really was to be an actress
on her feet, performing in all kinds of roles in both comedy and drama.
During this time, she won four
Joseph Jefferson awards for
best supporting actress.
With a return move to New York, she received a Theatre World Award for
"best newcomer" for her role in "the Philanthropist" at the Manhattan
Theatre Club and appeared in "Extremities" with
Susan Sarandon. This was followed by her
appearance in the very successful Steppenwolf production in New York of
"Balm in Gilead". She then starred on Broadway opposite
Kevin Kline and
Raul Julia in "Arms & the Man", directed by
John Malkovich, her husband at the time.
She was cast in several smaller films including
Nadine (1987),
Making Mr. Right (1987) and
Paperhouse (1988) as well as
Lonesome Dove (1989) for
television for which she received her first of two Emmy nominations for
best supporting actress. But her breakout film performance was in
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988),
in which she played the cunning "victim", who gets the best of con
artists Michael Caine and
Steve Martin. This led to her being
cast in the blockbuster comic strip parody,
Dick Tracy (1990), in which she
portrayed the girlfriend, "Tess Trueheart", to
Warren Beatty's lead.
She went on to appear in the films
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
opposite Richard Dreyfuss,
Mortal Thoughts (1991) opposite
Demi Moore,
2 Days in the Valley (1996),
What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001),
Breakfast of Champions (1999),
Around the Bend (2004) and
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
On television, she had a recurring part on
ER (1994) and
Monk (2002) and was in the short-lived
sit-com
Encore! Encore! (1998) with
Nathan Lane and
Joan Plowright. She was in the live
theatrical presentation of "On Golden Pond" as the troubled daughter of
Christopher Plummer and
Julie Andrews and also appeared in
the telefilms
Women vs. Men (2002),
My Own Country (1998)
and Pronto (1997), among others.
She received her second Emmy nomination for best supporting actress for
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996),
directed by Anjelica Huston.
Some of her later appearances were in the films
The Amateurs (2005) (aka "The
Amateurs"), The Namesake (2006),
Comeback Season (2006),
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)
and The Joneses (2009). - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Brendan Gleeson was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Pat and Frank Gleeson.
From a very young age, he loved to learn, especially reading classical
text in and outside the classroom. He took great attention to Irish
play writers such as Samuel Beckett,
which eventually led to him performing in his high school play
production of "Waiting for Godot", and paying great attention to detail
in his high school drama classes. Upon finishing 12th grade, he spent a
couple of years with the Dublin Shakespeare Festival, and under the
advice of a director there, headed across to London and auditioned for
drama schools. Soon to follow, he was invited to audition for the Royal
Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon, and spent a couple of
seasons back in England on the stage. He then, at the age of thirty
five, decided to audition for films in the UK and began to build a very
respectable resume playing many different diverse characters.
He made his debut as a quarryman in
The Field (1990). He had several small
roles in major Hollywood movies based in Ireland, such as
Far and Away (1992) and
Into the West (1992). Memorably
played historical Irish figure "Michael Collins" in
The Treaty (1991). Made his
breakthrough in Scottish themed
Braveheart (1995), which was largely
filmed in Ireland, opposite
Mel Gibson. He played Gibson's
right-hand man "Hamish". Since then, he has appeared in numerous major
films such as
Mission: Impossible II (2000),
Lake Placid (1999),
Turbulence (1997). He has made a name
for himself taking the titular role in
The General (1998), based on the life
of Irish criminal "Martin Cahill", for which he won the Boston Society
of Film Critics Award. He appears in director
John Boorman's film
The Tailor of Panama (2001)
as well as Martin Scorsese's
Gangs of New York (2002) and
Steven Spielberg's
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).
Ever since, he has continued to bring his huge stage presence to the
screen, always delivering the character in full development to his
audience. He is married to his lovely wife, Mary, since 1982. They have
four sons.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy
Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball
coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald
(Jimmy Don) (born in 1958 and now deceased) and John
David (born in 1969). He has been married six times and has four children:
daughter Amanda Brumfield, with Melissa Lee Gatlin (now Parish); sons
William and Harry, both with Pietra Dawn Cherniak; and daughter Bella
with Connie Angland.
Billy Bob began his artistic career as a musician, playing drums and
singing in a band called Tres Hombres, which once opened for
Hank Williams Jr.. In 1981, he moved
to Los Angeles with childhood friend
Tom Epperson to pursue an acting
and writing career. On the side, Billy Bob also sought work as a singer
and drummer. He and Epperson tried for years to sell their scripts but
no one was buying. During those rough times, Billy Bob neglected his
health and subsequently landed in the hospital with heart problems due
to malnutrition. In 1992, Billy Bob starred in
One False Move (1991), a movie he
co-wrote with Epperson. The team finally received attention because of
this work, which was very well received in Hollywood. His popularity
increased steadily, especially after
Sling Blade (1996) which he wrote,
directed and in which he starred.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Michael Rooker was born on April 6, 1955 in Jasper, Alabama. When he was thirteen, his parents divorced and he went with his mother to live in Chicago. He caught the acting bug while attending college, and began appearing in local stage productions. On first breaking into film, his intensity and "don't-mess-with-me" good looks were highlighted to chilling effect as he title character in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), filmed in 1986 but, due to its controversial nature, not released until 1990. Since that widely noticed and highly praised performance, much of his career has been spent playing brutes, villains and psychopaths. However, his occasional turns as a "good guy" are always well-acted and a welcome change for a talented actor too often typecast.
2017 marks an exciting time for Rooker, as he starred in two films premiering just two months of each other. On March 17, audiences saw Rooker in Blumhouse Tilt's indie horror thriller The Belko Experiment (2016). The film is the terrifying yet humorous look at a group of employees that become guinea pigs in a company-wide experiment that leads them to either kill their fellow employees or be killed themselves. Returning to his indie roots, Rooker starred as maintenance worker, Bud Melks, one of the employees trapped in the office building, who may or may not be able to kill his fellow staff member. On May 5, Rooker reprised his role as Yondu in the highly anticipated sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). The film follows the same group of galactic underdogs saving the universe to a stellar soundtrack. Rooker's breakout performance earned him critical acclaim, as audiences were introduced to a more dramatic Yondu. The film went on to earn over $145 million domestically its opening weekend and has surpassed its predecessor by grossing over $850 million worldwide.
Rooker made his film debut, playing the title role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), a film based on the confessions of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. It was here that audiences were first introduced to Rooker's impeccable ability to channel a character's idiosyncrasies and subtleties. He has also starred in some of the most iconic films, such as Mississippi Burning (1988), Sea of Love (1989), JFK (1991), Tombstone (1993) and Jumper (2008) to name a few. In August 2014, Rooker starred in one of the most memorable franchises in the Marvel Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), as Yondu, the blue-skinned renegade space pirate and surrogate father to Peter Quill. The film went on to gross over $700 million at the worldwide box office and spent five weekends atop the box office, more than any other film in the Marvel Universe.
On the television front, Rooker is best known for his series regular role as Merle Dixon on AMC's hit series The Walking Dead (2010). Audiences loved to hate the ill-tempered redneck hunter and were sad to see him killed off the series in season three. Rooker has completed a variety of stints on some of the most prominent series on television: Criminal Minds (2005), CSI: Miami (2002), Las Vegas (2003), Law & Order (1990) and Archer (2009), among others. Additionally, Rooker's talents go beyond both film and television. He adds his voice to various video games, including The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Lollipop Chainsaw.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born on November 19, 1955, in Long Island, Glynnis Mary O'Connor was primed for acting right from the beginning. Her father, Daniel O'Connor (1921-2015), was producer, executive producer, and managing director of NBC Special News for over 25 years. Her mother, former stage, film and TV actress Lenka Peterson, who worked with Glynnis in a couple of her daughter's assignments. Her brother, Darren O'Connor, was also an actor back in the 1970s.
In her late teens, she was featured on the daytime soap As the World Turns (1956) and the prime-time family series Sons and Daughters (1974), opposite Gary Frank. A graduate of the State University of New York, Glynnis found her brief niche portraying sensitive, fretful young 1970's romantics, hitting her stride early with Jeremy (1973) (she also sang the title song); Ode to Billy Joe (1976) (based on the hit song by Bobbie Gentry), and as "Emily Gibb" in the TV movie Our Town (1977) -- all of them opposite (then) off-screen boyfriend Robby Benson.
Other prime 70's credits included the social drama All Together Now (1975); the biographical drama The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) starring up-and-coming John Travolta in the title role; and the moving drama Baby Blue Marine (1976) starring Jan-Michael Vincent. Glynnis also played a sensitive misfit in the touching comedy California Dreaming (1979); a dancer who gets involved with awkward theatre hopeful Tom Hulce in the romantic comedy Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980); and, best of all, ill-fated tennis champion Maureen Connolly in the TV biopic Little Mo (1978).
With all this diversity displayed, Glynnis surprisingly did not hit the top ranks. Her name and off-camera personality somehow never quite meshed with the movie-going public despite her continued excellence. In Melanie (1982), she played as an uneducated woman trying to regain custody of her son. In Why Me? (1984), she played as an Air Force nurse forced to readjust after being disfigured in a car accident. She also co-starred in the poignant TV-movie Love Leads the Way: A True Story (1984) starring Timothy Bottoms as a recently blinded man fighting the law in using a seeing eye dog.
Glynnis has continued occasionally on film with featured roles in the Michael Keaton/Joe Piscopo comedy Johnny Dangerously (1984); the Taye Diggs mystery thriller New Best Friend (2002); the comedy crime caper Graduation (2007); the psychological thriller Heaven's Messenger (2008); the comedy The Trouble with Cali (2012) directed by and starring Paul Sorvino; the social drama The Historian (2014); the Victorian drama Angelica (2015) and the Mary Kay Place drama Diane (2018). Seen more on TV, credits include guest parts on "The Chisholms," "The New Twilight Zone" "Reasonable Doubts" and "Young Americans," as well as recurring parts on Law & Order (1990) and Condor (2018), and a number of TV movies including Sins of the Father (1985), Too Good to Be True (1988), Nightmare in the Daylight (1992), Death in Small Doses (1995) and Ellen Foster (1997).
Married to New Yorker Douglas Stern, they have two daughters together, Lindsay and Hana,- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Mark Boone Junior was born on 17 March 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Memento (2000), 30 Days of Night (2007) and Batman Begins (2005).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January, 1955, in Consett, Co.
Durham, UK, to Ella May (Bainbridge) and Eric Atkinson. His father
owned a farm, where Rowan grew up with his two older brothers, Rupert
and Rodney. He attended Newcastle University and Oxford University
where he earned degrees in electrical engineering. During that time, he
met screenwriter Richard Curtis,
with whom he wrote and performed comedy revues.
Later, he co-wrote and appeared in
Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979),
which was a huge success and spawned several best-selling books. It won
an International Emmy Award and the British Academy Award for "Best
Light Entertainment Programme of 1980." He won the "British Academy
Award" and was named "BBC Personality of the Year" for his performance
in Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979).
Atkinson also appeared in several movies, including
Dead on Time (1983),
Pleasure at Her Majesty's (1976)
(aka "Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe"),
Never Say Never Again (1983),
and The Tall Guy (1989). He played
"Mr. Bean" in the TV series,
Mr. Bean (1990) but, apart from that
and
Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979),
he also appeared in several other series like
Blackadder (1982) and
Funny Business (1992), etc.
Atkinson enjoys nothing more than fast cars. He has two children, named Benjamin and Lily, with ex-wife Sunetra Sastry.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in the Chelsea section of Manhattan on November 13, 1955. Her mother, Emma (Harris), was a teacher and a nurse, and her father, Robert James Johnson, Jr., was a clergyman. Whoopi's recent ancestors were from Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. She worked in a funeral parlor and as a bricklayer while taking small parts on Broadway. She moved to California and worked with improv groups, including Spontaneous Combustion, and developed her skills as a stand-up comedienne. Goldberg came to prominence doing an HBO special and a one-woman show as Moms Mabley. She has been known in her prosperous career as a unique and socially conscious talent with articulately liberal views. Among her boyfriends were Ted Danson and Frank Langella. Goldberg was married three times and was once addicted to drugs.
Goldberg had her first big film starring role in The Color Purple (1985). She received much critical acclaim, and an Oscar nomination for her role and became a major star as a result. Subsequent efforts in the late 1980s were, at best, marginal hits. These movies mostly were off-beat to formulaic comedies like Burglar (1987), The Telephone (1988) and Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986). She made her mark as a household name and a mainstay in Hollywood for her Oscar-winning role in the box office smash Ghost (1990). Whoopi Goldberg was at her most famous in the early 1990s, making regular appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). She admitted to being a huge fan of the original Star Trek (1966) series and jumped at the opportunity to star in "Star Trek: The Next Generation".
Goldberg received another smash hit role in Sister Act (1992). Her fish-out-of-water with some flash seemed to resonate with audiences and
it was a box office smash. Whoopi starred in some highly publicized and moderately successful comedies of this time, including Made in America (1993) and Soapdish (1991). Goldberg followed up to her success with Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), which was well-received but did not seem to match up to the first.
As the late 1990s approached, Goldberg seemed to alternate between lead roles in straight comedies such as Eddie (1996) and The Associate (1996), and took supporting parts in more independent minded movies, such as The Deep End of the Ocean (1999) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998). Goldberg never forgot where she came from, hosting many tributes to other legendary entertainment figures. Her most recent movies include Rat Race (2001) and the quietly received Kingdom Come (2001). Goldberg contributes her voice to many cartoons, including The Pagemaster (1994) and Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990), as Gaia, the voice of the earth. Alternating between big-budget movies, independent movies, tributes, documentaries, and even television movies (including Theodore Rex (1995)).
Whoopi is accredited as a truly unique and visible talent in Hollywood. Perhaps she will always be remembered as well for Comic Relief, playing an integral part in almost every benefit concert they had. Whoopi is also the center square in Hollywood Squares (1998), sometimes hosts the Academy Awards, and is an author, with the book "Book."- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Athens, Georgia, but was raised in Chelsea,
Michigan. He is the son of Marjorie J. (Ferguson) and Robert Lee
Daniels, who owned The Chelsea Lumber Company and was also mayor of
Chelsea. Jeff attended Central Michigan University, but became involved
in acting and dropped out to pursue a career as an actor. Daniels made
his feature film debut in Milos Forman's
Ragtime (1981).
Daniels went on to prove himself to be one of Hollywood's most reliable
and versatile actors with roles in successes such as
Terms of Endearment (1983),
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985),
Something Wild (1986),
Arachnophobia (1990),
Dumb and Dumber (1994),
Pleasantville (1998),
The Hours (2002) and
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005),
to name a few.
Alongside screen work, Daniels has many stage credits to his name and
is the founder of The Purple Rose Theater Company in Chelsea, Michigan.
He is also a musician and songwriter and has recorded two albums.
Daniels is married to his childhood sweetheart, Kathleen Treado and
they have three children.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Marina Sirtis was born in London, England, to Greek parents, Despina (Yianniri), a tailor's assistant, and John Sirtis. Her parents did not want her to become an actress. As soon as Marina completed high school, she secretly applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After her graduation, she worked in musical theater, repertory and television. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles, California to boost her career. For six months, she auditioned for roles but was unsuccessful. Just before she planned to go back home, she got the role of Counselor Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). After the series ended, she reprised her role for a string of successful Star Trek films: Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). In 1992, Sirtis married rock guitarist Michael Lamper. She occasionally attends Star Trek conventions so that her loving fans can meet her, and she can meet the fans.- Producer
- Actor
- Music Department
A six-time Emmy Award winner, Kelsey Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Sally (Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and restaurateur, who were from the mainland. He was raised in New Jersey and Florida. Grammer was drawn to the works of William Shakespeare and spent two years at the prestigious Juilliard School. He then dove into the world of regional theater, eventually making the leap to Broadway with roles in "Macbeth" and "Othello." He joined the cast of the situation comedy Cheers (1982) in 1984.
Grammer is the first actor in television history to receive multiple Emmy nominations for performing the same role on three series. He received two nominations for his original portrayal of Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers (1982), another for his guest appearance in that role on Wings (1990), and nine nominations (earning four awards) as Outstanding Actor for his work on Frasier (1993). Over the years, Dr. Frasier Crane has become one of television's most endearing and enduring characters. In addition to his Emmy Awards, Grammer has won two Golden Globe Awards, two American Comedy Awards and a People's Choice Award for his portrait. Grammer's distinctive voice has been heard in several hit animated features, including the voice of Stinky Pete in Disney's hit Toy Story 2 (1999) and a role in Anastasia (1997). On television, he has also been seen in several mini-series and movies. In 1996, he hosted an hour-long salute to Jack Benny for which he served as executive producer. He also starred in HBO's award-winning comedy The Pentagon Wars (1998). Grammer's autobiography, "So Far," was published in fall 1995.- Actor
- Producer
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuela-born Russian actor and stuntman, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the first two Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Ernesto Mendoza in A Low Down Dirty Shame, Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.
He was born on July 2, 1955 in San Tomé, Venezuela. His father is Russian and his mother, who was born in Venezuela, is of Irish descent. He lived in Vilassar de Mar (in Spain) from 1973-77. He lives in the United States. Divoff can speak eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Catalan, Portuguese, and Russian. He used to speak Romanian but forgot the language when he had no one with whom to speak it. He also acted in The Hunt for Red October, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers.
Divoff has played many villains in film and on television, usually drug cartel leaders, and is best known for having played the nefarious Djinn in the first two films of the Wishmaster series. His other films include Another 48 Hrs., The Hunt for Red October, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers. Divoff played the lead role in the Midnight Syndicate's Indie horror flick The Dead Matter. His television guest appearances include The A-Team, JAG and Highlander: The Series. He had a recurring role on Lost as Mikhail Bakunin.
He appeared in "The Cost of Living", and later in "Enter 77" and "Par Avion". He later appeared, in flashbacks, in "One of Us," and reappeared in the episodes "D.O.C.", "The Man Behind the Curtain", "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Package". Divoff's latest work was a recurring role as Ivan Sarnoff on CSI: Miami Season 7 (2008-09). He also appeared in Air Force One.
Divoff is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he honed his skills in the study of languages, the result seeing him speak eight languages fluently. Andrew is a SAG actor and film producer with more than a hundred movies and television appearances to his credit. He has a driving passion for environmental issues, and has used his celebrity status, putting purpose ahead of profit, for several environmental causes. Andrew is a founder of Verdant Resource, Inc., a flexible purpose corporation dedicated to location, retrieval and provision of resources found throughout planet Earth, and promoting their use in a sustainable way of life employing verdant methods. He is also a partner in a private water utility, Alpine Village Water Company, LLC in Pinyon, California. Divoff was married to Russian actress Raissa Danilova in 1992 but they divorced in 1998. Divoff resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Actor Wayne Knight achieved television immortality assaying the role of the frenetic mailman, "Newman", nemesis of the eponymous lead character in the classic TV series Seinfeld (1989).
He also appeared in Jurassic Park (1993) as "Dennis Nedry" and in one of the most notorious scenes in American cinema as one of the detectives interrogating Sharon Stone during her leg crossing in Basic Instinct (1992).
Wayne Eliot Knight was born to Grace (Monti) and William Edward Knight.
He is of Italian and English descent.
Knight was raised and lived in Cartersville, Georgia, until attending the University of Georgia in 1972.
Despite being an honor student, Knight left school to join the Barter Theatre company in Abingdon, Virginia, before graduating. (He finally secured a BFA degree in 2008.) Following an internship of two years, Wayne was hired for the professional company and earned his Equity card. Now a professional actor, Knight moved back to New York, where he made his
Broadway debut, at the age of 23, in the long-running comedy "Gemini" in 1979.
Through the years, he has established himself as a leading character actor in television as a regular or recurring character in seven series, in film (ranging from Dirty Dancing (1987) to JFK (1991)), on the stage, and as a voice artist in animation.
In TV Land's original sitcom The Exes (2011), Knight plays homebody "Haskell Lutz", who lives in an apartment with "Phil" (Donald Faison) and "Stuart" (David Alan Basche), right across the hall from his divorce attorney, "Holly" (Kristen Johnston).- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Mary Debra Winger was born May 16, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ruth
(Felder), an office manager, and Robert Jack Winger, a meat packer. She is from a Jewish
family (originally from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire). Her
maternal grandparents called her Mary, while her parents called her
Debra (her father named her Debra after his favorite actress,
Debra Paget). The
family moved to California when Debra was five. She fell in love with
acting in high school but kept it a secret from her family. She was a
precocious teenager, having graduated high school at an early age of
15. She enrolled in college, majoring in criminology. She worked
part-time in the local amusement park when she got thrown from a truck
and suffered serious injuries and went temporarily blind for several
months. She was in the hospital when she vowed to pursue her passion
for acting.
After she recovered, she abandoned college and studied acting. Like any
struggling actor, she did commercials and guest-starred on 70s TV shows
like
Task Force: Part I (1976)
and Wonder Woman (1975), where
she performed as Diana's little sister,
Wonder Girl. She also made her feature film debut in the embarrassing
soft-core porn film,
Slumber Party '57 (1976).
(Years later on
Inside the Actors Studio (1994),
host James Lipton asked her to name her
first film, and she refused to answer him.) Her next two films,
French Postcards (1979) and
Thank God It's Friday (1978),
did absolutely nothing for her career. When
Sissy Spacek said no to playing the
character Sissy in
Urban Cowboy (1980), almost every
young actress in Hollywood pursued the role. Debra won the role over a
then-unknown Michelle Pfeiffer and
gave a star-making performance as
John Travolta's wife. Her handling
of the mechanical bull made her a new kind of sex symbol. She would
always remain grateful to her director
James Bridges for threatening to
quit the film if the studio didn't cast her. However, she followed it
up with a flop, Cannery Row (1982).
But, she became part of one of the top-grossing films of all time by
providing her deep, throaty voice to the title character of
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as a favor to the film's director Steven Spielberg (Note: IMDB cast list for E.T. indicates Pat Welsh as the voice for that character.). She also appeared in the film for a few seconds in the Halloween scene, where she is wearing a zombie mask and carrying a poodle.
She received her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress
for the huge hit,
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982),
where her on-screen love scenes with
Richard Gere became just as legendary as
her off-screen fights with him and with director
Taylor Hackford.
Debra's reputation as a great talent, as well as her reputation as a
difficult actress grew with her next film,
Terms of Endearment (1983),
which not only earned her a second Oscar nomination as Best Actress but
also won the Best Picture as well. She also earned the Best Actress
Award from the National Society of Film Critics. Debra was at the top
of her game and was the most sought-after actress in Hollywood, but she
turned down quality roles and lucrative offers for three years. Some
speculated that the reason was her romantic involvement with
Bob Kerrey, then-governor of Nebraska, while
others have stated it was her back problems. Whatever her reasons were,
her career lost its heat. Her long-delayed film
Mike's Murder (1984), reuniting her
with her "Urban Cowboy" director James Bridges, didn't help matters
either when it became a critical and financial flop. Debra tried to
revive her career by starring in the big-budget comedy
Legal Eagles (1986), but she
disliked the film so much that she publicly stated that the director,
Ivan Reitman, was one of the two worst
directors she worked with, the other director being
Taylor Hackford
(An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)).
She also walked out on her agency, CAA, but returned several years
later.
Her personal life made headlines when she left Bob Kerrey and eloped
with Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton
in 1986. In 1987, she gave birth to their son,
Noah Hutton. She also starred in
Black Widow (1987), which wasn't a
hit, and acted alongside Hutton as a male angel in
Made in Heaven (1987) which
flopped. She followed that up by starring in another flop,
Betrayed (1988), which featured a
fleeting cameo by Hutton. She separated from Hutton in 1988 and they
divorced in 1990, at which time she had two more bombs,
Everybody Wins (1990) and
The Sheltering Sky (1990).
However, she relished the experience on
The Sheltering Sky (1990) so
much that she stayed in the Sahara desert long after filming wrapped.
She came back to US and filmed a
Steve Martin vehicle,
Leap of Faith (1992), which did
nothing for her career. But, she found love on the set of her next
film, Wilder Napalm (1993) when she
co-starred opposite Arliss Howard,
who became her next husband. The film flopped but their marriage
lasted. She received good notices for
A Dangerous Woman (1993), but
it was Shadowlands (1993) which
finally brought her renewed respectability and her third Academy Award
nomination as Best Actress. She followed that up with a forgettable
comedy, Forget Paris (1995). Then, she signed to do "Divine Rapture" with Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp in a small village in Ireland, but two weeks into filming, financing fell apart, and the film was never completed. Winger was never paid for her work, and neither were the poor villagers, and Winger said she was devastated for them. Now 40,
Debra felt that there were no good roles for her and she concentrated
on motherhood by having a second son, Babe Howard, in 1997. Her
six-year absence from films inspired a documentary by
Rosanna Arquette titled
Searching for Debra Winger (2002),
which is about sexism and ageism in Hollywood. In 2001, she returned to
acting in her husband's film,
Big Bad Love (2001), which she also
co-produced. It renewed her love for acting, and she has ventured out
into television as well by earning her first Emmy nomination as Best
Actress for Dawn Anna (2005),
directed by her husband. In 2008, she wrote a well-written book, based
on her personal recollections, titled "Undiscovered". And she followed
that up by winning rave reviews as
Anne Hathaway's mother in
Jonathan Demme's
Rachel Getting Married (2008). However, it wasn't enough to reignite her feature film career, so she ventured towards television in 2010 with a guest-starring role on "Law and Order" titled Boy on Fire (2010), to a seven-episode stint on In Treatment (2008), to a two-part miniseries The Red Tent (2014), to a regular role on The Ranch (2016) . Her television exposure reignited her feature film career, and she was cast in her first romantic lead in 22 years in The Lovers (2017). And she had also mellowed with age, presenting an award to Richard Gere in 2011 and saying kind things about director Taylor Hackford in 2017, after having fought with both of them during An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Nobody can deny that Debra Winger is one of the best American actresses
ever. Her fans hope that Hollywood will finally reward her talent with
a long-overdue Academy Award.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew, or Kate Mulgrew, was born on April 29, 1955. She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, the second oldest child (and oldest girl) in a large Irish Catholic family. When Kate expressed an interest in acting as a child, her mother, Joan, encouraged her to audition for local theater productions. Kate left Iowa for New York City at age 17 to pursue a career in acting. Kate was accepted into the Stella Adler Conservatory (part of New York University's acting program) and studied there for only a year, as she landed the lead role in the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope in 1975, vaulting her to instant stardom.
At the same time she was filming Ryan's Hope, Kate played the role of Emily in the American Shakespeare Theatre's production of "Our Town" in Stratford, Connecticut. At age 23, following her success on Ryan's Hope, Kate was offered the lead role of Kate Columbo in "Mrs. Columbo," playing the wife of one of television's most beloved detectives, Lt. Columbo, as made famous by actor Peter Falk. While critically successful, the series was canceled after two seasons.
In 1981, Mulgrew co-starred with Richard Burton and Nicholas Clay in Lovespell, a film set in the era of Arthurian legend, as Irish princess Isolt, whose love story with Tristan is a classic tale of doomed love. That same year, Kate co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in the six-hour miniseries, The Manions of America, set in 19th century America just before the start of the Civil War. In 1985, she had a notable role in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins as officer Major Fleming. In 1986, Kate appeared in a number of of Cheers episodes as congresswoman Janet Eldridge, a love interest for series lead Sam Malone (Ted Danson). In 1987, she appeared in Throw Momma from the Train as Margaret, Billy Crystal's ex-wife.
In 1992, Kate appeared on several episodes of Murphy Brown as Hillary Wheaton, a Toronto-based anchorwoman brought in to replace Murphy Brown during her maternity leave, but who also struggled with alcoholism (just as Brown did at the beginning of the series). Also in 1992, she played a guest-starring role as a soap opera star who kills her husband and tries to cover it up, on Murder, She Wrote, episode #170, titled "Ever After". Kate also guest-starred in three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series as the terrorist Red Claw. Kate has gone on to do a great deal of voice work for animated series and video games.
Shortly after, Kate married theater director Robert H. Egan in 1982. They have two sons, Ian Thomas and Alexander
James. The two officially divorced in 1995.
More notably in 1995, Kate received a call that a part for which she'd auditioned but another actress had been chosen for - Captain Kathryn
Janeway, the first female Star Trek captain. The first actress quit within two days of beginning production, leading producers to call Kate back and offer her the role. Star Trek: Voyager, as the newly-created UPN's flagship network show, had found its captain. Kate portrayed Janeway for seven seasons, and also appeared briefly in Star Trek: Nemesis as Admiral Kathryn Janeway.
Mulgrew played Katharine Hepburn in the one-woman play "Tea at Five", debuting in Hartford, Connecticut in 2002 and going on to tour across the U.S. after a stint on Broadway. For this role, Kate received a Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, an Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance, Broadway.com's Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance, and won the award for Best Actress at the 29th Carbonell Awards for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn, all in 2003.
Kate married Tim Hagan, former Ohio gubernatorial candidate and former commissioner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in April 1999. The two divorced in 2014.
From 2003 to 2013, Kate had many memorable television appearances, including stints on The Black Donnellys, Mercy, cult favorite Warehouse 13, and NTSF:SD:SUV. In 2013, Kate began work on Netflix breakout out Orange Is The New Black as the wildly popular prison chef Galina "Red" Reznikov. OITNB is set to conclude in the summer of 2019.
Kate is also an author of two memoirs - 2016's Born With Teeth (Little Brown) and 2019's How To Forget: A Daughter's Memoir (Harper Collins). She is filming the newest season of Mr. Mercedes, a serial killer drama based on Stephen King's Bill Hodges trilogy. Mr. Mercedes airs on the AT&T Audience network and can be streamed on DirecTV.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Producer
Reba Nell McEntire was born on Monday, March 28th, 1955, in McAlester, Oklahoma. The reigning queen of country music has pursued a musical career since she was 5. In Junior High school, she performed with her musical siblings, aka the Singing McEntires. A fine athlete, Reba McEntire followed in the footsteps of her rodeo champion father in competitive barrel racing. Her performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City caught the attention of songwriter Red Steagall, who suggested she consider a career in country music. She has since earned 7 gold and 5 platinum albums and 2 Grammy Awards. She has also explored other avenues of entertainment, serving as a guest-host on Good Morning America (1975) & earning generally favorable reviews for her acting in the movie titled "Tremors" & TV mini-series, Buffalo Girls (1995). In 1988, she formed Starstruck Entertainment to oversee the very numerous aspects of her musical & acting careers.
She is extremely fortunate, that she was not along with her eight band members (seven band members & her touring manager), when tragedy the airplane they were in, on Saturday, March 16th, 1991. There were eight lives lost that tragic Saturday.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school
recitation contest, she began acting in amateur theater by the age of
twelve. At the age of 14, she starred in her first motion picture,
Le Petit Bougnat (1970). Adjani
has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most
César Award for Best Actress (5), which she won for
Possession (1981),
One Deadly Summer (1983) (aka "One
Deadly Summer"),
Camille Claudel (1988),
Queen Margot (1994) (aka
"Queen Margot") and
Skirt Day (2008)
(aka "Skirt Day"). She was also given a double Cannes Film Festival
Best Actress Award in 1981. She also received two Academy Award
nominations for Best Actress. She performs in French, English, Italian
and German. Adjani was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2010.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles was born into a show business family. His father,
Alfred Shaughnessy, was the principal
writer for the popular London Weekend Television/ITV series
Upstairs, Downstairs (1971)
and his mother, Jean Lodge, was an actress.
He started appearing in plays during school. He attended Eton College
and read law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he
joined Footlights, a comedy revue. After graduating, he decided to
return to acting and enrolled in a London drama school, which led to
him to touring in a repertory company. Eventually moving to America to
follow the actress he later married, he got his break on
The Nanny (1993).- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007, recurring roles such as Deputy Chief William Dodds on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stacey Koons on the Showtime comedy-drama Californication, and Nick on the Netflix series Grace & Frankie. He also played CIA Director of Clandestine Services (DCS) Arthur Campbell on Covert Affairs.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Raoul Max Trujillo, aka Raoul Maximiano Trujillo de Chauvelon, was born in Northern New Mexico. He is a mixed blood descendant of Tlaxcalan (Nahuatl), Ute, Apache, Comanche, Pueblo., French, Sephardic Jew and Andalusian Moor. After high school, he spent three years serving in the military in Germany. After his discharge, he worked as an alpine ski instructor in Taos, New Mexico. Ski Flash Magazine out of France wrote about him and his unique style of teaching skiing. He left the world of professional skiing after traveling extensively through Mexico, Central and South America on his way to teach in San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina. It was a wake up call to exploring native America and beginning his journey in creating art based on his cultural roots.. He started work in the theatre as a scenic painter and landed his first job in 1977 as an actor/dancer in a production of Equus, in Santa Fe, N.M. It was his first paid professional work as well as his debut in the theatre with no training at all albeit high school drama. He now had the bug to study formally. He began dancing in Los Angeles in 1978 at USC and saw his first modern dance and ballet productions; Pilobolus, Martha Graham and Rudolph Nureyev. He was hooked.
The next two years, he trained extensively with the Toronto Dance Theatre and Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab in New York City on scholarships. He was asked to join Nikolais Dance Theatre under the direction of the master Alwin Nikolais, who became his mentor and he began touring the world performing in the grandest of opera houses and old Roman theaters in northern Africa to bamboo fields in China. He also learned scenic, costume and lighting design during this time from 1980 to 1987. After leaving the company, he began his solo work as dancer and choreographer and commenced his journey into shamanic ceremonials and incorporating native myths and legends in his work. After the first decade of performing as a dancer, he became the choreographer and co-director for the American Indian dance Theatre, the first professional native dance company incorporating traditional dance with contemporary retelling of myths and legends. He choreographed, "The Shaman's Journey", for the Asia Society in New York City and later was adapted into a short film for PBS on Alive From Off Center. He went on to join creative partners Alejandro Roncerria and Rene Highway in Toronto. This work resulted in creating successful theatre pieces for Native Earth Theatre Company. He directed, "The Son Of Ayash" and "The Jaguar Project". For Buffalo State College and the Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah, he directed,"The Maid of the Mist and the Thunder Beings", and for the Ordway Music Theatre, "Tribe".
His work with Alejandro continued and he helped establish the Aboriginal Dance Project at the Banff Center for the Arts to further train Indigenous dancers from all over the world. For New Line Cinema, he choreographed the dances, ceremonies and rituals for Terrence Malick's film, "The New World". Raoul began work as an actor in film and television in 1988 and continues to work up to the present. See resume for those projects. Finally, he created his present company Tzacol productions, Inc. in 1992. It is the umbrella company for Tzacol Tantric Theatre and Tzacol Tribal Theatre made up of dancer, actor and aerial artists, producing original work in the realm of tartaric and tribal spectacle. "Forbidden Goddesses", is the first realized work. Work on "Journey", a multi-media piece for Roots and Rhythms Festival in Santa Fe resulted in the full evening work, "Homo Erectus". These last works are multi-media and inter-disciplinary theatre and film projects. "The Dreamer" is his first completed screenplay. In 2002, he received the CANCOM Ross Charles award in Canada to attend the Banff Center's screenwriters workshop for aboriginal storytellers. The last branch of the company, Tzacol Tantric Arts produces painting and sculptural art. His work now spans more than three decades as an artist in varied disciplines and media. He has gone from dancer to choreographer, actor to director and screenwriter during this time.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Griffin Dunne was born on June 8, 1955 in New York City, the oldest
child of Dominick Dunne, a producer,
actor, and writer, and Ellen Beatriz (Griffin) Dunne, an activist. His sister was actress Dominique Dunne. He
grew up mainly in Los Angeles, California and attended school in
Colorado before moving back to New York in the late 1970s. As an actor,
Dunne has the distinction of having starred in two 1980s cult
favorites. First came the
John Landis monster movie
An American Werewolf in London (1981),
then the Martin Scorsese black comedy
After Hours (1985). After Hours is
also among the movies that Dunne has produced with partner
Amy Robinson through their company
Double Play Productions. Other Double Play productions include
Running on Empty (1988),
White Palace (1990) and
Once Around (1991). Dunne has
continued to appear on both sides of the camera, taking supporting
roles as an actor in films like
My Girl (1991) and
I Like It Like That (1994).
He made his directorial debut with a short film,
Duke of Groove (1995),
which was nominated for an Oscar.
Dunne then made the leap to feature films with
Addicted to Love (1997),
Practical Magic (1998),
Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000) and
Fierce People (2005). Dunne
produced and starred in the film
Game 6 (2005), which premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival in 2005.
Griffin's ancestry is Irish (from his father) and Irish, English,
German, Mexican, and Swedish (from his mother).- Actor
- Producer
- Make-Up Department
Xander's father was a painter and his mother a school teacher who
sewed, providing him with costumes (his preference over toys). School
plays and Community Theater were next. An experimental theater troupe
in the area (which was an offshoot from
Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater in New
York) took Xander under their wing when he was 16. He credits this
group for shaping him as both a person and an actor, committed to
taking risks and remaining open to the unknown. Xander went to
Hampshire College, the progressive brainchild of Smith, Mt. Holyoke,
Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts. He would continue in the
theater at Hampshire, studying and doing plays at each of the other
schools, all of which were there in the area.
A move to New York after college brought him access to private teachers
from the Royal Academy of the Arts, the Moscow Arts Theater and HB
Studios. Later in Los Angeles, Xander would spend time with
Lee Strasberg at The Actor's Studio during
the last years of his life.
Xander worked in Regional and Repertory Theaters in addition to
off-Broadway while living in New York but, despite a classically
trained theater background, he was increasingly drawn to the subtleties
of film acting. A play, written by the great southern novelist
Reynolds Price, called "Early Dark" had
such a cinematic feel to it, that an agent saw the film acting
potential in Xander and encouraged him to make the move out west.
Soon Mommie Dearest (1981)
provided Xander with his film debut in the role of "Christopher
Crawford", and simultaneously gave his career a slightly cultish twist.
Alex Cox with
Sid and Nancy (1986),
James Cameron with
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991),
Bernard Rose with
Candyman (1992),
Todd Haynes with
Safe (1995),
Mike Figgis with
Leaving Las Vegas (1995),
Andrew Niccol with
Gattaca (1997) all helped to further
associate Xander as an actor in his own rather unusual category.
Xander's choices were often determined by the opportunity to learn from
directors he admired, certainly all those listed above fell into that
category. Clint Eastwood with
The Rookie (1990),
Ron Howard with
Apollo 13 (1995),
Rob Reiner with
A Few Good Men (1992),
Michael Mann with
Heat (1995),
Wolfgang Petersen with
Air Force One (1997),
Steven Spielberg with
Amistad (1997) are obvious examples of
others Xander actively sought to work with and learn from.
From obscure independent movies where Xander could play lead roles to
the big budget studio movies where he might often play smaller
character-driven parts, an education was taking place. Just as working
with older directors like
Michael Cacoyannis on
The Cherry Orchard (1999) and
Robert M. Young on
Human Error (2004) (aka "Human
Error") brought insights to ways of working that are being lost in pop
cultures tendency to slide toward slickness. Not to mention bringing
him to places like Bulgaria and China along the way.
Perhaps because a life in the foreign services, or espionage was seen
as a road not taken, living on location in foreign countries, working
as an actor, has somewhat fulfilled the impulse. As early as 1987, a
film took Xander to Nicaragua while the Contra War was taking place. It
was during this three month shoot on the film
Walker (1987) (starring
Ed Harris) that Xander got an offer to
do a film with his friend, director
Jon Hess, in Chile for the following
three months. Taking him straight from the revolutionary left-wing
Sandanistas to Pinochet's fascist, right-wing regime.
In 2001, an offer came in to play a part on a TV pilot called
24 (2001). It was another shady
agent-type, and reluctant to repeat his performance from
Air Force One (1997) as the
turncoat secret serviceman, Xander almost passed on the job.
Fortunately for him, he said yes. He met his future wife,
Sarah Clarke during the first day
of filming. His character, "George Mason", was just a guest star in the
pilot, but the producers liked what Xander brought to it and continued
to write more episodes for him. By the second season, it had become
perhaps the most interesting, leveled character Xander had ever gotten
to play. Sarah and Xander were married in 2002 and had their daughters,
Olwyn in 2006 and Rowan in 2010.
Other favorite roles of late have been "Arlen Pavich", the middle
management dweeb, in Niki Caro's
North Country (2005), and the Irish
hooligan/railway foreman in
David Von Ancken's
Seraphim Falls (2006) and, more
recently, "The King of Sodom" in
Harold Ramis'
Year One (2009), "Sonny" in
David Pomes'
Cook County (2008), the recovering
meth head coming out of prison to discover the life he had left (and
destroyed), and crazy "Uncle Doug" in
David Wike's
Out There (2006) (aka "Out There").- Actress
- Additional Crew
Ornella Muti was born on 9 March 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama NYPD Blue, Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing, and for appearing in Switch (1991), My Family (1995), and as ADA Miguel Prado in Dexter. He also appeared as Bail Organa in Star Wars. From 2012 to 2014, he joined the main cast of Sons of Anarchy as Nero Padilla. Smits also portrayed Elijah Strait in the NBC drama series Bluff City Law.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Purl was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and raised in Japan, becoming the only foreigner to train at the Toho Geino Academy. At the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, she played the role of "Louis" in "The King and I" (in Japanese), "Bet" in "Oliver" and the role of "Helen Keller" in "The Miracle Worker".
She then went to England to study under Marguerite Beale, before returning to the United States to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute and, later, with Robert Lewis. Her stage credits include: The Broadway musical, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"; "Getting and Spending", which ran on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother, Evelyn, was a school
teacher. Her father, Edward, is a former Defense Department employee.
She is the oldest of four children. Her brothers, Jim & Bill, are a
teacher and an entrepreneur respectively. Her sister, Mary, works for
an Internet company. Jane was a theater major at the University of
Wisconsin. While there, she became buddies with
Tony Shalhoub, who encouraged her to shoot
for stardom. She followed Tony in enrolling at Yale University &
performed in the Yale Repertory Company. She had several film and
theatrical successes, including good notices for her replacement of
Mercedes Ruehl in
Neil Simon's Broadway play, "Lost In
Yonkers". Jane's roommate at Yale was
Kate Burton,
Richard Burton's daughter. Kate
arranged a blind date between Jane and
Bradley Whitford. In 1992, after two
years of dating, the two married. They have three children: Frances (b.
1997), Edward (b. 1999) and Mary (b. 2002).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Emmerich began his career in his native Germany. In his youth, he pursued painting and sculpting. While enrolled in the director's program at film school in Munich, his student film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries. In an amazing trivia, he directed his first feature, The Noah's Ark Principle (1984), in 1984. He is openly gay and a campaigner for the LGBT community.
A director/writer/producer with a flair for special effects-driven action, German Roland Emmerich made himself at home in blockbuster-hungry 1990s Hollywood. Born and educated in West Germany, Emmerich studied production design as well as direction at the Munich Film and Television School. After his student film, The Noah's Ark Principle, debuted at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival, Emmerich formed his production company Centropolis and directed supernatural fantasies Making Contact (1986) and Ghost Chase (1987), and the straight-to-video action film Moon 44 (1990). On the latter, he met actor Dean Devlin who subsequently switched jobs to become Emmerich's writing and producing partner once Emmerich set up shop in Hollywood.
After making his solo Hollywood debut directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the cyborg action fest Universal Soldier (1992), Emmerich and Devlin revealed a talent for conjuring A-level action spectacles out of B-movie scenarios with their first film together, Stargate (1994). A space odyssey mixing ancient Egyptiana and high-tech wizardry, Stargate became an unexpected hit. Emmerich hit his blockbuster stride with his next film, Independence Day (1996). With its eye-popping destruction of major cities and climactic annihilation of a spacecraft via portable computer, Independence Day blew away its summer movie competition on the strength of its visual flash. Geared to repeat with the endlessly- and creatively-hyped version of Godzilla (1998), Emmerich instead faced the conundrum of directing a $100 million grossing film that did not live up to box office expectations. Emmerich and Devlin next turned their epic visions to the decidedly lower-tech (but still CGI-enhanced) action of the American Revolution in the Mel Gibson summer vehicle The Patriot (2000).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Hagerty made her off-Broadway debut in 1979, starring in Mutual Benefit Life at her brother's theater, The Production Company. She continued appearing on stage, including starring in a Broadway version of The House of Blue Leaves. She was subsequently cast opposite Robert Hays in the parody film, Airplane! It was released in June 1980 and became the third-highest grossing comedy in box office history at that time, behind Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). Airplane! was considered the first of the modern parody genre and established Hagerty as a noted comedic actress.
Hagerty spent the 1980s starring in a number of theatrical films, including the well-reviewed Albert Brooks film Lost In America and Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Hagerty had supporting roles in Hollywood films, including the '90s comedies What About Bob? and Noises Off, as well as a part in the 2005 film Just Friends and 2006's She's the Man.
In 2000, she narrated the audio book version of The Trolls, a children's novel by Polly Horvath. In 2002, she appeared in the Broadway revival of Mornings at Seven. Starting in 2011, she took over as the voice of Carol, Lois's sister, on Family Guy. On Television, Hagerty was last seen recurring on NBC's "Trial & Error." Other selected credits include, "Family Guy," "New Girl," Happy Endings" and "Grace & Frankie." In 2013, she starred in Jonathan Demme's final film, "A Master Builder," where her work was hauntingly brilliant.
Most recently, Julie Hagerty can be seen starring opposite Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne in Paramount Pictures' Instant Family (2018), Additionally, Julie stars opposite Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Merritt Wever in Netflix's Marriage Story (2019), and then in Disney's Christmas movie Noelle (2019), where she plays 'Mrs. Claus' opposite Anna Kendrick, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Hader, and Billy Eichner.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Texas, Harriet Sansom Harris got involved in acting as a
youngster. At seventeen, Harris was accepted at New York's famed
Juilliard School. Upon graduation, Harris joined The Acting Company, a
repertory group formed by the first alumni of John Houseman's Drama
Division of The Juilliard School. She spent three years with the
Company before she left to work primarily in regional theater. This led
to a successful Broadway and Off-Broadway career. Her life changed
after appearing as the sole female in the original cast of "Jeffrey",
Paul Rudnick's smash Off-Broadway hit about
love in the time of AIDS. "Jeffrey" led to guest shots on series
television, including Frasier (1993),
where she created the memorable role of "Bebe Glazer", Frasier's
cutthroat, neurotic, chain-smoking agent. She also won raves from
critics for her role of "Vivian Buchanan" on CBS's
The 5 Mrs. Buchanans (1994).
She now calls New York her home, but frequently travels to California
for film and television appearances.- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
Miguel Ferrer was an American actor known for playing Morton from RoboCop, Shan Yu from Mulan, Martian Manhunter from Justice League: The New Frontier, Slade Wilson from Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Death from Adventure Time, Sesa Refumee from Halo 2 and Vice President Rodriguez from Iron Man 3. He passed away in January 2017 due to throat cancer. He is survived by his wife and three children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dynamically entertaining heavyset US actor with piercing eyes, William
Forsythe has a superb talent for playing some truly unlikable and
downright nasty characters that dominate the films in which he appears!
If you're cast as the hero against Forsythe's villain, then you
have your work cut out for you, as Forsthye's raw energy and menace on
screen is second to none. He started out in a couple of minor film
roles and guest appearances in high-rated TV shows including
CHiPs (1977),
Hill Street Blues (1981)
and T.J. Hooker (1982). He
quickly moved into high-quality feature films, including playing a
small-time hoodlum in
Once Upon a Time in America (1984),
an hilariously funny performance as a bumbling jail escapee alongside
John Goodman in the knockout
Raising Arizona (1987) and as a
renegade soldier in
Extreme Prejudice (1987).
The energetic Forsythe portrayed comic book villain "Flattop" in
Dick Tracy (1990), was foolish enough
to tangle with vengeful cop Steven Seagal
in the hyper-violent
Out for Justice (1991) and locked
horns with ex-NFL linebacker
Brian Bosworth in the biker
action film Stone Cold (1991). With
his expertise in playing icy villains, Forsythe was perfect to portray
Prohibition mobster Al Capone in the
short-lived '90s revival of the classic '60s crime show,
The Untouchables (1993), and
he continued the motif of playing edgy, nefarious individuals in the
thought-provoking
The Waterdance (1992), the oily
film noir piece
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995),
as real-life mobster Sammy Gravano, aka
"The Bull", in Gotti (1996) and
supporting another ex-NFL player's foray into film acting, when L.A.
Raider Howie Long debuted in
Firestorm (1998).
Forsythe has remained perpetually busy in the new century with a
plethora of feature film, telemovie and TV series appearances, and
has developed a minor cult following amongst film fans for his attention
grabbing dramatic skills - check out his performances in
City by the Sea (2002),
The Devil's Rejects (2005)
and Halloween (2007).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Andrew Stevens, President/CEO of Andrew Stevens Entertainment and Stevens Entertainment Group, has produced and/or financed one hundred and eighty films through his various production and distribution companies. Unique in the motion picture industry, Stevens has functioned in almost every capacity in the entertainment business, from creative development of motion picture stories and screenplays, to foreign sales, distribution, post-production, deliveries and collections. He is an accomplished screenwriter, director, as well as prolific producer, academic author of several academic books, an educator and public speaker and was a successful actor for more than 20 years. Outside of the entertainment business, Stevens has been successful in both commercial and residential real estate development, song-writing for film, with 9 credited songs in film and 6 in TV to date, community service working with elderly patients with dementia, and E-Sports.
Active since January 2003, his company has developed, produced and/or arranged the financing for more than thirty motion pictures, including the newly completed Send It!, which he also directed, All good Things, 47 Hours the Lifetime movie, The Wrong Affair, Half Past Dead 2, Walking: Tall Lone Justice, Walking: the Payback, the SyFy Channel films, Fire From Below, Mongolian Death Worm and Mandrake, 7 Seconds and The Marksman, both starring Wesley Snipes, Black Dawn starring Steven Seagal, Pursued starring Christian Slater, Blessed starring Heather Graham, Method, starring Elizabeth Hurley, to name a few.
including 7 Seconds (2005) and
The Marksman (2005), both
starring Wesley Snipes,
Black Dawn (2005) starring
Steven Seagal,
Pursued (2004) starring
Christian Slater,
Blessed (2004) starring
Heather Graham,
Method (2004), starring
Elizabeth Hurley, and
Silent Partner (2005), starring
Tara Reid.
From 1997 through 2002, Stevens co-founded, and served as President and
Chief Operating Officer of Franchise Pictures, an independent film
production and distribution company with a domestic theatrical output
deal with Warner Bros. During his five-and-a-half tenure at Franchise,
Stevens produced or executive produced and provided the finance or
co-finance for more than 60 feature films including the enormously
successful
The Whole Nine Yards (2000),
and its sequel
The Whole Ten Yards (2004),
both starring Bruce Willis and
Matthew Perry,
The In-Laws (2003), starring
Michael Douglas and
Albert Brooks,
Angel Eyes (2001) starring
Jennifer Lopez and
Jim Caviezel,
City by the Sea (2002) starring
Robert De Niro,
The Pledge (2001) starring
Jack Nicholson,
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001),
starring Kevin Costner and
Kurt Russell,
Half Past Dead (2002) starring
Steven Seagal.
Stevens was also responsible for creating Franchise Classics, a
division which produced and distributed many films which appeared in
such major film festivals as Cannes, Sundance Film Festival and Toronto
Film Festival including
The Big Kahuna (1999), starring
Kevin Spacey,
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000),
starring Cameron Diaz and
Glenn Close,
Green Dragon (2001), starring
Forest Whitaker and
Patrick Swayze, and
The Caveman's Valentine (2001),
starring Samuel L. Jackson. Concurrent
with the formation of Franchise, Stevens co-founded and served as
president of a sister company, Phoenician Entertainment which produced
such films as
The Third Miracle (1999),
starring Ed Harris and
Anne Heche,
Entropy (1999), starring
Stephen Dorff and U2,
Woman Wanted (1999), starring
Kiefer Sutherland and
Holly Hunter, and many genre
action/adventure films.
Prior to Franchise and Phoenician, Stevens was an owner and president
of Royal Oaks Entertainment, which produced and/or distributed seventy
pictures over a three-year period including many HBO, Showtime and
Sci-Fi Channel world premieres. Prior to Royal Oaks, Stevens' initial venturing
into foreign sales and production company ownership was with Sunset
Films International, which amassed a library of nineteen titles,
(including seven in-house productions) during his first year as
president of the company.
Stevens serves on the board of directors of the International Film and
Television Alliance, (the former American Film Marketing Association)
and until recently served as Chairman of the Independent Producers
Association (IPA), which is, among other things, active in collective
bargaining for independent producers and film companies. Stevens has
been involved in many guild negotiations with both the Screen Actors
Guild (SAG) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) on behalf of the
constituency of independent producers and was a key architect of the
current DGA/IPA multi-tiered low-budget agreement.
Stevens was a award-winning actor, including a Golden Globe
nomination and the Star of Tomorrow award from the National Association
of Theatre Owners (NATO) starring in over 80 feature films and/or
television series.
Stevens authored a fully accredited Associate of Applied Arts college degree program in Motion
Picture Production, which he later distilled into an online certificate program, (2015) DVD and Vimeo series. "Foolproof Film School. Dallas: Stevens Entertainment Group. ISBN 978-0-6924374-9-0, which teaches Stevens' unique practical perspective of the business side of making movies, based on his academic texts, (2014) Book: "Foolproof Filmmaking". Westport: Prospecta Press. ISBN 978-1-935212-27-0; (2016) Book: "Producing for Profit". New York and London" Focal Press/Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-138-12104-1; and (2017) Book "Screenwriting for Profit". New York and London" Focal Press/Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-138-95060-3- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Richard was born in Bethesda, Maryland, the middle of three sons of Edward, a real estate lawyer, and Charlotte, a cable TV and publishing executive. His parents divorced when he was 12. He dropped out of high school and switched to night school because he could finish sooner with less work. He studied at the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1973. "In college when I tripped and fell over the drama program at the City College of New York, and went and got into the Professional Acting Training Program by fluke, and Earle Gister, who was, uh, had just come from Carnegie-Melon, and was on his way to the Yale School of Drama stopped for a little pit stop at the City College of New York for three years to run the Davis Center for Performing Arts. I was very lucky that he was there." After not bothering to show up for finals though, he headed to Colorado where he cut firewood and lived a hippie life. He returned to New York in 1975 and started studying acting at CCNY and eventually was accepted into their theater program. He initially disliked acting and studied to be a director. He directed several off-Broadway plays, including "Antigone" with a then just-graduated Angela Bassett in 1983. He also met present wife, Sheila Kelley, during auditions for this play. The two married in 1996. In the mid-1980s, Richard says he conquered his fears and decided to take a stab at acting. He got several TV roles, but he was seen by Steven Spielberg in an episode of the TV drama High Incident (1996). Spielberg then cast him in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and his career has been on an upward climb ever since that has led to his co-starring role in The West Wing (1999).- Actress
- Writer
- Music Department
Performer, actress, singer and author Sandra Bernhard appeared as a series regular in season three of the immensely popular FX Television/Ryan Murphy show "POSE" reprising her role as brassy but caring Nurse Judy Kubrack, who works with H.I.V. / AIDS patients, following a memorable season one guest appearance and hugely successful second season. Bernhard has also done a special guest appearance on Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story: Apocalypse", highlighting a successful, decades long television career.
She is also currently in her fifth year hosting her weekly radio show Sandyland on Sirius XM's Radio Andy channel 102, for which she won a broadcasting Gracie Award.
A pioneer of the one-woman show, Bernhard brings a completely unique and raucous mix of cabaret, stand-up, rock-n-roll, and social commentary to her live stage performances. Just last year she celebrated the 10 year anniversary of her iconic annual holiday shows at Joe's Pub in New York City, while she also continues to tour throughout the country and overseas.
Extremely notable past live stage shows, which she has performed both on and off-Broadway, include Without You I'm Nothing, I'm Still Here, Dammit, Everything Bad and Beautiful, and #blessed.
Bernhard's film credits include The King of Comedy, for which she was awarded Best Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics, Track 29, Hudson Hawk, Dinner Rush, and the live performance film Without You I'm Nothing. Past television credits include Two Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Broad City, Difficult People, You're the Worst, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Will &Grace, The Sopranos, The Larry Sanders Show and Roseanne. Music albums include I'm Your Woman (Polygram, 1986), Excuses for Bad Behavior (Epic, 1994) and the world music album Whatever It Takes (Mi5, 2009). She has written three books: May I Kiss You on the Lips, Miss Sandra?, Confessions of a Pretty Lady, Love, Love and Love.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Susie Essman was born on 31 May 1955 in Mount Vernon, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), Bolt (2008) and Cop Out (2010). She has been married to Jim Harder since 13 September 2008.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and
graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in
A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She went on to receive another Academy Award nomination (this time for Best Actress in a Supporting Role) for her performance as Sally in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992). Davis and Allen would go on to be a longtime collaborators; Allen once described Davis as "one of the most exciting actresses in the world".- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic, athletically built and energetic
Asian-born film star who first came to the attention of western
audiences via his roles in the high-octane/blazing guns action films of
maverick HK director John Woo.
Chow was born in 1955 on the quiet island of Lamma, part of the
then-British colony of Hong Kong, near its famous Victoria Harbour. His
mother was a vegetable farmer and cleaning lady, and his father worked
on a Shell Oil Company tanker. Chow's family moved to urban Hong Kong
in 1965 and in early 1973, Chow attended a casting call for TVB, a
division of Shaw Bros. productions. With his good looks and easy-going
style, Chow was originally a heartthrob actor in non-demanding TV and
film roles. However, his popularity increased with his appearance as
white-suited gangster Hui Man-Keung in the highly popular drama TV
series Shanghai Beach (1980).
In 1985, Chow started receiving acclaim for his work and scored the
Golden Horse (Best Actor) Award in Taiwan and another Best Actor Award
from the Asian Pacific Film Festival for his performance in
Hong Kong 1941 (1984). With
these accolades, Chow came to the attention of Woo, who cast Chow in
the fast-paced gangster film
A Better Tomorrow (1986) (aka
"A Better Tomorrow"). The rest, as they say, is history. The film was
an enormous commercial success, and Chow's influence on young Asian
males was not dissimilar to the adulation given to previous Asian film
sensations such as Bruce Lee or
Jackie Chan. Nearly every young guy
in Hong Kong ran out and bought himself a "Mark Coat," as they became
known--a long, heavy woolen coat worn by Chow in the movie (although it
is is actually very unsuited to Hong Kong's hot and humid climate).
Further hard-edged roles in more John Woo crime films escalated Chow's
popularity even higher, and fans all over the world flocked to see
A Better Tomorrow II (1987)
(aka "A Better Tomorrow 2"),
The Killer (1989)
(aka "The Killer"), and
Hard Boiled (1992) (aka
"Hard Boiled"). With the phenomenal global interest in the HK action
genre, Chow was enticed to the United States and appeared in
The Replacement Killers (1998)
with Mira Sorvino,
The Corruptor (1999) with
Mark Wahlberg, and, for a change
of pace, in the often-filmed romantic tale of
Anna and the King (1999).
Chow then returned to the Asian cinema circuit and starred in the
critically lauded kung fu epic
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (aka
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). His wide appeal can be seen in his
"boy next door" type of personality and his ability to play such a
broad spectrum of roles from a comedic buffoon to a lovestruck Romeo to
a trigger-happy professional killer. A highly entertaining and gifted
actor with dynamic on-screen presence, Chow continues to remain in
strong demand in many film markets.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Polly Carey Draper is an award-winning actress, writer, producer, and director. She was born on June 15, 1955 in Gary, Indiana, USA, to Phyllis (Culbertson), a Peace Corps administrator, and William Henry Draper III, who was the CEO of the United Nations. She is most known for
her work on
Thirtysomething (1987),
The Tic Code (1998), Getting Into
Heaven (2003),
The Naked Brothers Band (2007), and Stella's Last Weekend (2018).
Draper married jazz pianist
Michael Wolff in 1992. They have
two children together, actor/musicians
Nat Wolff and
Alex Wolff.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Michael O'Keefe is an American actor, known for his roles as Danny Noonan in Caddyshack, Ben Meechum in The Great Santini, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Darryl Palmer in the Neil Simon movie The Slugger's Wife. He also appeared as Fred on the television sitcom Roseanne from 1993 to 1995.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Peter Scolari was born on 12 September 1955 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Newhart (1982), Girls (2012) and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997). He was married to Tracy Shayne, Cathy Trien, Debra Steagall and Lisa Kretzschmar. He died on 22 October 2021 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
For such a diminutive (4' 11") frame, character actor Leslie (Allen) Jordan had a tall talent for scene-stealing. Hailing from the South, as his dead-giveaway drawl quickly exposed, he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 29, 1955, and raised in a highly conservative, deeply religious atmosphere in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father, a Lieutenant Colonel with the Army, was killed in a plane crash when he was only 11.
Uncertain about his direction in life, an inescapable propensity for comedy and high camp, not to mention an impish mug and pocket-sized structure, led him straight to Los Angeles in an attempt to break into commercials and on-camera work. Following training with acting coach Carolyne Barry, who ran the Professional Artist's Group during the 80s, Leslie soon found himself highly marketable in commercial spots (Doritos, Fosters Beer, etc.). TV would invariably be the next step, finding him progressively better parts on such programs as "The Fall Guy," "The Wizard," "Night Court," "Newhart" and "Midnight Caller." He then earned a regular role on the short-lived comedy-fantasy series The People Next Door (1989) starring Alan Parker. Inspired by "The Far Side" comic strip, the show starred Jeffrey Jones as a cartoonist who could materialize his wild imagination.
Leslie began in films in the late 1980s with a bit part in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving (1988) and followed it with the role of Iggy, a hunch-backed Igor counterpart, in the whacked horror spoof Frankenstein General Hospital (1988) starring comic actor Mark Blankfield as the mad doctor. In primarily low-budget film projects at the onset, Leslie was part of such off-the-wall material as Ski Patrol (1990), Missing Pieces (1991), Hero (1992), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Barcelona (1994), Eat Your Heart Out (1997) and Black Velvet Pantsuit (1995), to name a few.
Into the 1990s, Leslie involved himself more and more into writing. Avid L.A. theatergoers would recognize him for such prone-to-misfit characters as Brother Boy, an institutionalized drag queen, in "Sordid Lives," and Peanut, a habitual barfly, in "Southern Baptist Sissies." His own one-man testimonials, such as the off-Broadway "Hysterical Blindness" and "Like a Dog on Linoleum," display his adeptness at baring his soul and exposing his childhood agonies on stage amid laughter and tears. These highly introspective shows, however, came at a price. A self-proclaimed substance abuser and sexaholic, Jordan finally faced his inner demons and reached full recovery in 1996.
TV was an exceptionally inviting medium over the years with a number of offbeat roles coming his way. Noted for his catchy guest work on such shows as Murphy Brown (1988), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993), Caroline in the City (1995), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and Weird Science (1994), among many others, he was also a supporting regular on various series including the comedy Top of the Heap (1991) starring Joseph Bologna and pre-Friends (1994), Matt LeBlanc; the legal series Reasonable Doubts (1991) in a season (1992-1993) as an assistant public defender; the crime drama Bodies of Evidence (1992) starring Jennifer Hortin and George Clooney; and the John Ritter/Markie Post romantic comedy Hearts Afire (1992).
Into the millennium, he got to experienced the joy of seeing one of his own writing projects come to full fruition with the semi-autobiographical film Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel (2000). He was also given the chance to recreate his "Big Brother" role in Sordid Lives (2000) to the big screen. The work continued to flow in such film supports as I'll Wave Back (2000), The Gristle (2001), Moving Alan (2003), the short film Farm Sluts (2003), Madhouse (2004), another short film Sissy Frenchfry (2005), Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007), Eating Out: All You Can Eat (2009), Mangus! (2011), the critically-acclaimed [link=tt1454029, his stage role as "Peanut" in the gay-themed Southern Baptist Sissies (2013) written and directed by Del Shores, another co-star role as an HOA "dictator" in Whoa! (2013), Lucky Dog (2015), Fear, Inc. (2016), the "Sordid Lives" sequel A Very Sordid Wedding (2017) and the romantic film Until We Meet Again (2022).
TV was even better to him with both delightful and sadly touching work on such series as Ally McBeal (1997), Boston Public (2000), Judging Amy (1999), Monk (2002), Reba (2001), Boston Legal (2004), Ugly Betty (2006), Desperate Housewives (2004), Raising Hope (2010), and American Horror Story (2011). The topper, however, was Leslie's dryly cynical, part-time role as mincing elitist Beverley Leslie, the tiny thorn in Megan Mullally's backside on the resoundingly popular sitcom Will & Grace (1998). Leslie went on to earn an Emmy trading wicked barbs with Mullally's Karen character, playing the hilarity up for all its worth. He also appeared in the cult TV movie The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018).- Actor
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Simon Templeman is a British actor who is widely known for voicing Kain from the Legacy of Kain video game franchise. He also voiced Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four animated series, Loghain from Dragon Age, Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema from Mass Effect and Gabriel Roman from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. He had two children with his wife, Rosalind Chao.