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Dean Cain was born Dean George Tanaka in Mount Clemens, Michigan, to actress Sharon Thomas Cain and Roger Tanaka. His mother married his adoptive father, director Christopher Cain, when Dean was three. Though he grew up in Malibu and attended Santa Monica High School, his career plans favored professional football over acting. While at Princeton, he completed a history major, dated Brooke Shields for two years, and set a Princeton record for interceptions in a season (12). After signing with the Buffalo Bills, a knee injury ended his pro career before it began. Though he had already played a part in his father's The Stone Boy (1984), he went through the usual route of commercials and tv-parts (notably, Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) in 1990) before landing his break-through role as Superman/Clark Kent in the series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993).- Actor
- Producer
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Justin Hartley can currently be seen starring on NBC's critically acclaimed, award winning series, "This Is Us," alongside Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K. Brown and Chrissy Metz. Created by Dan Fogelman, "This Is Us" premiered in September 2016 and instantly broke ratings records, earning the freshman series an immediate two-season renewal, with season three set to premiere on September 25, 2018. The heartwarming, emotionally provocative drama follows a unique set of triplets and their wonderful parents, whose lives and struggles intertwine, challenging the everyday presumptions about the people you think you know. Hartley shines as Kevin Pearson, one-third of the "big three" and a successful, handsome actor that seemingly has it all. However, as the series has progressed, viewers have been captivated as Kevin's perfect life has deconstructed episode to episode; from struggling with addiction, coping with the death of his father, exposing the dysfunctional relationship with both his mother and brother, and his heartbreaking longing to be loved and accepted by his own family. Hartley and his cast members most recently won the 2018 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, and the show picked up five additional Emmy nominations in 2018, following 33 award wins and 80 nominations over the last two years, and counting.
On the film front, Hartley was recently cast in the Universal comedy "Little," opposite Issa Rae and Regina Hall. He also starred in "A Bad Moms Christmas" (STX Entertainment) opposite Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn as the hilarious scene stealer, Ty Swindle. Additional film credits for Hartley include: "Another Time," which he also executive produced, indie "Race you to the Bottom," "Red Canyon," opposite Norman Reedus and Christine Lakin, "Spring Breakdown," opposite Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and Seth Meyers, "A Way with Murder," opposite Michael Madsen, and the award-winning, boxing indie "The Challenger" for Vision Films.
Born in Knoxville, Ill., and raised in Orland Park, Ill., Hartley had a love for bringing characters to life at an early age and began to take acting seriously once he got to college. He attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale and University of Illinois at Chicago, majoring in History and Theatre. Upon graduation, he decided to make the move to Los Angeles, packing up his truck with no money or a job, to give the entertainment industry a shot.
In 2002, Hartley landed his first regular gig on the daytime soap "Passions," a role he held until 2006. He then starred as billionaire Oliver Queen (the Green Arrow) on the long running, hit CW series "Smallville." Hartley was able to showcase his talents behind the camera as well, writing ("Sacrifice," Season 9) and directing ("Dominion," Season 10) two episodes. Once "Smallville" came to an end, Hartley went on to appear on a handful of hit series including: "Chuck," "Castle," and "Hart of Dixie." In 2012, he returned to the CW as a series regular on the medical drama "Emily Owens, M.D.," opposite Mamie Gummer. Throughout 2013-16, Hartley juggled a handful of TV projects, appearing on 12 episodes of ABC's "Revenge," 16 episodes of ABC's summertime drama "Mistresses," and taking over the role of Adam Newman in the long-running CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless." Hartley was nominated for a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the show. While filming "Y&R," it was announced that Hartley would be joining the cast of NBC's fall 2016 passion project, "This Is Us."
On the charity front, Hartley has been a supporter of The Water Project for several years. When not on set, you can find him following his favorite teams (The Chicago Cubs, LA Dodgers, and the Chicago Bears), traveling, and spending time with his wife and daughter.- Actor
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Jonathan David Bennett was born in Rossford, Ohio, to RuthAnne (Mason) and Dr. David Paul Bennett. He headed straight to New York to pursue acting after graduating from the theater program at Otterbein. He was actually discovered by an agent while sitting on a train. Six months later he signed on to the iconic soap opera "All My Children," playing J.R. Chandler. Since then Jonathan's career has been on fire. He has appeared in a slew of teen comedies, side-by-side with some of the biggest and brightest stars of their time including; "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" (with Steve Martin) and "Lovewrecked" (with Amanda Bynes). He also stepped into and took over the iconic role replacing Ryan Reynolds as Van Wilder in "Van Wilder: Freshman Year."- Actor
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Jake Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980 in Los Angeles, California as Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, the son of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the younger brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and German (father) descent.
He made his movie debut at 11 in City Slickers (1991). From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, he starred in October Sky (1999) & Donnie Darko (2001), receiving an Independent Spirit Award Best Actor nomination for the latter. He followed up w/ roles in Bubble Boy (2001), The Good Girl (2002), Moonlight Mile (2002) & The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
He made his theater debut in a revival of This Is Our Youth in London. The play was well-received & played for 8 weeks on West End. He then starred in Jarhead (2005) & Proof (2005). However, it was his performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005) that won him critical acclaim. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role while also being nominated for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role SAG Award, the Best Supporting Actor-Motion Picture Satellite Award & the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. Afterwards, he starred in Zodiac (2007), Brothers (2009), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) & Love & Other Drugs (2010). For Love & Other Drugs (2010), he was nominated for the Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award.
In the 2010s, he starred in Source Code (2011), End of Watch (2012), Prisoners (2013), Nightcrawler (2014), Southpaw (2015) & Demolition (2015). For Nightcrawler (2014), he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe, the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role SAG & the Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award. Leading Role BAFTA Award.- Actor
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Val Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California, to Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. His mother, born in Indiana, was from a Swedish family, and his father was from Texas. Val studied at Hollywood's Professional's School and, in his teens, entered Juilliard's drama program. His professional acting career began on stage, and he still participates in theater; he played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. His film debut was in the 1984 spoof Top Secret! (1984), wherein he starred as blond rock idol Nick Rivers. He was in a number of films throughout the 1980s, including the 1986 smash Top Gun (1986). Despite his obvious talent and range, it wasn't until his astonishingly believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991) that the world sat up and took notice. Kilmer again put his good baritone to use in the movie, performing all of the concert pieces. Since then, he has played two more American legends, Elvis Presley in True Romance (1993) and Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993). In July 1994, it was announced that Kilmer would be taking over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton.- Actor
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Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, Scottish, and Irish. The Gosling family moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. He also attended Gladstone Public School and Cornwall Collegiate & Vocational School, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School.
Ryan first performed as a singer at talent contests with Mandi. He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" (The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989)) in January 1993 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family.
Though he received no formal acting training, after "MMC," Gosling segued into an acting career, appearing on the TV series Young Hercules (1998) and Breaker High (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000). He first attracted serious critical attention with his performance as the Jewish neo-Nazi in the controversial film The Believer (2001), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He was cast in the part by writer-director Henry Bean, who believed that Gosling's strict upbringing gave him the insight to understand the character Danny, whose obsessiveness with the Judaism he was born into turns to hatred. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead in 2002 for the role and won the Golden Aries award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.
After appearing in the sleeper The Notebook (2004) in 2004, Gosling won the dubious honor of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.
Gosling reached a summit of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006), which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. Throughout the subsequent decade, he has become all three of an internet fixation, a box office star, and a critical darling, having headlined Blue Valentine (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), Drive (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), The Nice Guys (2016), and La La Land (2016). In 2017, he starred in the long-awaited science fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Harrison Ford.
Ryan has two children with his partner, actress Eva Mendes.- Actor
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Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the youngest of four children. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tamara Lee "Tammy" (Stewart), worked as a retail-store saleswoman. He has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Between 1991-93, Ryan appeared in Fifteen (1990), a Nickelodeon series taped in Florida with many other Canadian actors. After the series ended, he returned to Vancouver where he played in a series of forgettable television movies. He did small roles in Glenn Close's Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995) and CBS's update of In Cold Blood (1996). However, his run of luck had led him to decide to quit acting.
One night, he ran into fellow Vancouver actor and native Chris William Martin. Martin found Ryan rather despondent and told him to pack everything: they were going to head to Los Angeles, California. The two stayed in a cheap Los Angeles motel. On the first night of their stay, Reynolds' jeep was rolled downhill and stripped. For the next four months, Ryan drove it without doors. In 1997, he landed the role of Berg in Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998). Initially, the show was reviled by critics and seemed desperate for any type of ratings success. However, it was renewed for a second season but with a provision for a makeover by former Roseanne (1988) writer Kevin Abbott. The show became a minor success and has led to additional film roles for Ryan, most notably in the last-ever MGM film, a remake of The Amityville Horror (2005). Ryan was engaged to Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, another Nickelodeon veteran, between 2004-2006.
He has been married to Blake Lively since September 9, 2012. They have three daughters. He was previously married to Scarlett Johansson.- Actor
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Eric was born in Staten Island, New York, May 24. His father is an orthopedic surgeon and his mother is an artist. Eric is the eldest of three brothers. He graduated with a B.A. in communications from the University of Southern California in 1989. He married Keri Moyers in 1995 and they have two daughters, Katie and Ella.
Eric Close is an actor, director, and writer. He has starred opposite Tommy Flanagan in the Amazon film Legal Action (2018) as an attorney who must defend his brother-in-law on a murder charge. He can also be seen as Ltc. Jacobsen in the war drama Indivisible (2018), based on the true story about a family's real-life events during the 2007 Iraq War.
Close starred opposite Connie Britton in the hit series Nashville (2012), created by Oscar-winning writer Callie Khouri for the ABC network. Before this, Close starred for almost a decade in the critically acclaimed CBS series Without a Trace (2002), nominated for a Golden Globe for best ensemble cast. Close then teamed up again with the network as the lead of their dramedy series Chaos (2011), opposite Tim Blake Nelson. Close also starred as crafty lawyer Travis Tanner in the critically acclaimed USA series Suits (2011). On the feature side, Close joined Bradley Cooper in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper (2014) for Warner Bros., playing DIA Agent Snead.
Past credits also include the series The Magnificent Seven (1998), Now and Again (1999), Dark Skies (1996), and McKenna (1994), while taking on a number of long-form features such as American Me (1992), Seven Deadly Sins (2010), NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323 (2004), Christmas Crime Story (2016), Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994), Follow the Stars Home (2001), The Stranger Beside Me (1995), Long Island Fever (1995), Without Consent (1994), and Unanswered Prayers (2010), which was produced by Garth Brooks. Not to mention the Golden Globe-nominated miniseries Taken (2002), which was executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
Behind the camera, Close is also an accomplished director. In addition to directing episodes of Nashville (2012) and Without a Trace (2002), Eric finished directing and acting in his fourth feature for the Hallmark channel, which included the network's highest-rated Christmas film, Christmas at Graceland (2018), and Hallmark Hall of Fame's film A Christmas Love Story (2019), starring Kristin Chenoweth, Scott Wolf, and Close himself.- Actor
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- Additional Crew
Scott Eastwood is an American actor and model. He was born as Scott Clinton Reeves in Carmel, Monterey County, California, to Jacelyn Ann Reeves, a flight attendant, and Clint Eastwood, an actor and director. He grew up in Hawaii. Scott has a younger sister, Kathryn Reeves, and many half-siblings.
Scott made his film debut in Flags of Our Fathers (2006), directed by his father, and has also appeared in the film Gran Torino (2008). He has since co-starred in the sports drama Invictus (2009), as union rugby player Joel Stransky. Eastwood played the lead role in Enter Nowhere (2011), appeared in the dramas The Forger (2012) and Trouble with the Curve (2012), and the horror sequel Texas Chainsaw (2013), as Deputy Hartman. He had a supporting role in David Ayer's war action film Fury (2014), as Sergeant Miles, and in the drama The Perfect Wave (2014), appeared in the 2015 music video for Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams," and starred alongside Britt Robertson in the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel The Longest Ride (2015).
Eastwood appeared in the drama Mercury Plains (2016), and played Lieutenant GQ Edwards in the film Suicide Squad (2016), an adaptation of the DC Comics series. The same year, he starred alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley in the biographical drama film Snowden (2016), directed by Oliver Stone. He appeared in the comedy Walk of Fame (2017), played a special agent in the action film The Fate of the Furious (2017), and starred in Overdrive (2017), a thriller film which was shot in Paris and Marseille. He starred as Nate Lambert in the science fiction follow-up Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018).- Eddie Cibrian was born on 16 June 1973 in Burbank, California, USA. He is an actor, known for The Cave (2005), Sunset Beach (1997) and The Best Man Holiday (2013). He has been married to LeAnn Rimes since 22 April 2011. He was previously married to Brandi Glanville.
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Jim Carrey, Canadian-born and a U.S. citizen since 2004, is an actor and producer famous for his rubbery body movements and flexible facial expressions. The two-time Golden Globe-winner rose to fame as a cast member of the Fox sketch comedy In Living Color (1990) but leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994) and The Mask (1994) established him as a bankable comedy actor.
James Eugene Carrey was born on January 17, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, and is the youngest of four children of Kathleen (Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician. The family surname was originally "Carré", and he has French-Canadian, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. Carrey was an incurable extrovert from day one. As a child, he performed constantly, for anyone who would watch, and even mailed his résumé to The Carol Burnett Show (1967) at age 10. In junior high, he was granted a few precious minutes at the end of each school day to do stand-up routines for his classmates (provided, of course, that he kept a lid on it the rest of the day).
Carrey's early adolescence took a turn for the tragic, however, when the family was forced to relocate from their cozy town of Newmarket to Scarborough (a Toronto suburb). They all took security and janitorial jobs in the Titan Wheels factory, Jim working 8-hour shifts after school let out (not surprisingly, his grades and morale both suffered). When they finally deserted the factory, the family lived out of a Volkswagen camper van until they could return to Toronto.
Carrey made his stand-up debut in Toronto after his parents and siblings got back on their feet. He made his (reportedly awful) professional stand-up debut at Yuk-Yuk's, one of the many local clubs that would serve as his training ground in the years to come. He dropped out of high school, worked on his celebrity impersonations (among them Michael Landon and James Stewart), and in 1979 worked up the nerve to move to Los Angeles. He finessed his way into a regular gig at The Comedy Store, where he impressed Rodney Dangerfield so much that the veteran comic signed him as an opening act for an entire season. During this period Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. Wary of falling into the lounge act lifestyle, Carrey began to look around for other performance outlets. He landed a part as a novice cartoonist in the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory (1984); while the show fell flat, the experience gave Carrey the confidence to pursue acting more vigorously.
Carrey also worked on breaking into film around this time. He scored the male lead in the ill-received Lauren Hutton vehicle Once Bitten (1985), and had a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), before making a modest splash with his appearance as the alien Wiploc in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts (one of his most popular characters, psychotic Fire Marshall Bill, was attacked by watchdog groups for dispensing ill- advised safety tips).
Following his time on In Living Color (1990), Carrey's transformation from TV goofball to marquee headliner happened within the course of a single year. He opened 1994 with a starring turn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), a film that cashed in on his extremely physical brand of humor (the character's trademark was talking out his derrière). Next up was the manic superhero movie The Mask (1994), which had audiences wondering just how far Carrey's features could stretch.
Finally, in December 1994, he hit theaters as a loveable dolt in the Farrelly brothers' Dumb and Dumber (1994) (his first multi-million dollar payday). Now a box-office staple, Carrey brought his manic antics onto the set of Batman Forever (1995), replacing Robin Williams as The Riddler. He also filmed the follow-up to his breakthrough, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and inked a deal with Sony to star in The Cable Guy (1996) (replacing Chris Farley) for a cool $20 million--at the time, that was the biggest up-front sum that had been offered to any comic actor. The movie turned out to be a disappointment, both critically and financially, but Carrey bounced back the next year with the energetic hit Liar Liar (1997). Worried that his comic shtick would soon wear thin, Carrey decided to change course.
In 1998, he traded in the megabucks and silly grins to star in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) playing a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show, Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity that took moviegoers by surprise. He won a Golden Globe for the performance, and fans anticipated an Oscar nomination as well--when it didn't materialize, Carrey lashed out at Academy members for their narrow-minded selection process. Perhaps inspired by the snub, Carrey threw himself into his next role with abandon. After edging out a handful of other hopefuls (including Edward Norton) to play eccentric funnyman Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999), Carrey disappeared into the role, living as Kaufman -- and his blustery alter-ego Tony Clifton -- for months (Carrey even owned Kaufman's bongo drums, which he'd used during his audition for director Milos Forman). His sometimes uncanny impersonation was rewarded with another Golden Globe, but once again the Academy kept quiet.
An indignant Carrey next reprised his bankable mania for the Farrelly brothers in Me, Myself & Irene (2000), playing a state trooper whose Jekyll and Hyde personalities both fall in love with the same woman (Renée Zellweger). Carrey's real-life persona wound up falling for her too--a few months after the film wrapped, the pair announced they were officially a couple. By then, Carrey had already slipped into a furry green suit to play the stingy antihero of Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).
Although Carrey maintains a foothold in the comedy world with films such as Bruce Almighty (2003) and Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), he is also capable of turning in nuanced dramatic performances, as demonstrated in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and the drama/comedy Yes Man (2008). In 2013, he costars with Steve Carell in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013).
Carrey has one child with his first wife, Melissa Carrey, whom he divorced in 1995. He married actress Lauren Holly in 1996, but they split less than a year later.- Actor
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A legendary actor with 50 celebrated years of film, television and producing experience, Michael Douglas is known for his era-defining roles and enduring cultural impact.
In addition to his career accomplishments, Douglas has remained a steadfast public servant, activist and philanthropist dedicated to peace and human welfare, democracy, gun control advocacy, support of the arts and support of nuclear disarmament. In 1998, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Douglas as a Messenger of Peace for his commitment on disarmament issues, including nuclear non-proliferation and halting the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.
Since his earliest acting work on Hail, Hero! (1969) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972) Douglas has played some of the most memorable and enigmatic American anti-heroes of the last half century. He is most known for his iconic screen roles, like his Academy Award-winning turn as Gordon Gekko Wall Street (1987) as well as the critically and commercially acclaimed films Fatal Attraction (1987), The American President (1995), Basic Instinct (1992), Traffic (2000) and Romancing the Stone (1984). He is also a prolific producer with credits on politically relevant and socially influential motion pictures like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The China Syndrome (1979), Traffic (2000) the television series: The Kominsky Method (2018) and an upcoming limited series where Douglas portrays Benjamin Franklin (2024) during his nine years in France lobbying for French aid for the American Revolution.
With a passion for complex protagonists and darkly humorous undercurrents, Douglas has received numerous accolades for his work, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, AFI Life Achievement Award, two French César Awards for Career Achievement and, most recently, the Palme d'or d'honneur for lifetime achievement at the 76th Annual Festival de Cannes as well as the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema at the Goa Film Festival in India.
Michael Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to actors Diana Douglas (Diana Love Dill) and Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch). His paternal grandparents were Belarusian Jewish immigrants, while his mother was born in Bermuda, the daughter of a local Attorney General, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Melville Dill; Diana's family had long been established in both Bermuda and the United States. Douglas's parents divorced when he was six, and he went to live with his mother and her new husband. Only seeing Kirk on holidays, Michael attended Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he was about a year younger than all of his classmates.
Douglas attended the elite preparatory Choate School and spent his summers with his father on movie sets. Although accepted at Yale, Douglas attended the University of California, Santa Barbara. Deciding he wanted to be an actor in his teenage years, Michael often asked his father about getting a "foot in the door" Kirk was strongly opposed to Michael pursuing an acting career, saying that it was an industry with many downs and few ups, and that he wanted all four of his sons to stay out of it. Michael, however, was persistent, and made his film debut in his father's film Cast a Giant Shadow (1966).
After receiving his B.A. degree in 1968, Douglas moved to New York City to continue his dramatic training, studying at the American Place Theatre with Wynn Handman, and at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he appeared in workshop productions of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author (1976) and Thornton Wilder's Happy Journey (1963). A few months after he arrived in New York, Douglas got his first big break, when he was cast in the pivotal role of the free-spirited scientist who compromises his liberal views to accept a lucrative job with a high-tech chemical corporation in the CBS Playhouse production of Ellen M. Violett's drama, The Experiment, which was televised nationwide on February 25, 1969.
Douglas' convincing portrayal won him the leading role in the adaptation of John Weston's controversial novel, Hail, Hero! (1969), which was the initial project of CBS's newly organized theatrical film production company, Cinema Center Films. Douglas starred as a well-meaning, almost saintly young pacifist determined not only to justify his beliefs to his conservative parents but also to test them under fire in the jungles of Indochina. His second feature, Adam at Six A.M. (1970) concerned a young man's search for his roots. Douglas next appeared in the film version of Ron Cowen's play Summertree (1971), produced by 'Kirk Douglas'' Bryna Company, and then Napoleon and Samantha (1972), a sentimental children's melodrama from the Walt Disney studio.
In between film assignments, he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway productions, among them "City Scenes," Frank Gagliano's surrealistic vignettes of contemporary life in New York, John Patrick Shanley's short-lived romance "Love is a Time of Day" and George Tabori's "Pinkville," in which he played a young innocent brutalized by his military training. He also appeared in the made-for-television thriller, "When Michael Calls," broadcast by ABC-TV on February 5, 1972 and in episodes of the popular series "Medical Center" and "The F.B.I."
Impressed by Douglas' performance in a segment of The F.B.I. (1965), producer 'Quinn Martin' signed the actor for the part of Karl Malden's sidekick in the police series "The Streets of San Francisco", which premiered in September 1972 and became one of ABC's highest-rated prime-time programs in the mid-1970s. Douglas earned three successive Emmy Award nominations for his performance and he directed two episodes of the series.
During the annual breaks in the shooting schedule for The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Douglas devoted most of his time to his film production company, Big Stick Productions, Ltd., which produced several short subjects in the early 1970s. Long interested in producing a film version of Ken Kesey's grimly humorous novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Douglas purchased the movie rights from his father and began looking for financial backing. After a number of major motion picture studios turned him down, Douglas formed a partnership with Saul Zaentz, a record industry executive, and the two set about recruiting the cast and crew. Douglas still had a year to go on his contract for "The Streets of San Francisco," but the producers agreed to write his character out of the story so that he could concentrate on filming "Cuckoo's Nest."
A critical and commercial success, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress, and went on to gross more than $180 million at the box office. Douglas suddenly found himself in demand as an independent producer. One of the many scripts submitted to him for consideration was Mike Gray's chilling account of the attempted cover-up of an accident at a nuclear power plant. Attracted by the combination of social relevance and suspense, Douglas immediately bought the property. Deemed not commercial by most investors, Douglas teamed up with Jane Fonda and her own motion picture production company, IPC Films.
A Michael Douglas-IPC Films co-production, The China Syndrome (1979) starred Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and Michael Douglas and received Academy Award nominations for Lemmon and Fonda, as well as for Best Screenplay. The National Board of Review named the film one of the best films of the year.
Despite his success as a producer, Douglas resumed his acting career in the late 1970s, starring in Michael Crichton's medical thriller Coma (1978) with Genevieve Bujold, Claudia Weill's feminist comedy It's My Turn (1980) starring Jill Clayburgh, and Peter Hyams' gripping tale of modern-day vigilante justice, "The Star Chamber" (1983). Douglas also starred in Running (1979), as a compulsive quitter who sacrifices everything to take one last shot at the Olympics, and as Zach the dictatorial director/choreographer in Richard Attenborough's screen version of the Broadway's longest running musical A Chorus Line (1985).
Douglas' career as an actor/producer came together again in 1984 with the release of the tongue-in-cheek romantic fantasy "Romancing the Stone." Douglas had begun developing the project several years earlier, and with Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder, the dowdy writer of gothic romances, Danny DeVito as the feisty comic foil Ralphie and Douglas as Jack Colton, the reluctant soldier of fortune. "Romancing the Stone" was a resounding hit and grossed more than $100 million at the box office. Douglas was named Producer of the Year in 1984 by the National Association of Theater Owners. Douglas, Turner and DeVito teamed up in 1985 for the successful sequel The Jewel of the Nile (1985).
It took Douglas nearly two years to convince Columbia Pictures executives to approve the production of Starman (1984), an unlikely tale of romance between an extraterrestrial, played by Jeff Bridges, and a young widow, played by Karen Allen. Starman (1984) was the sleeper hit of the 1984 Christmas season and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for Jeff Bridges. In 1986 Douglas created a television series based on the film for ABC which starred Robert Hays.
After a lengthy break from acting, Douglas returned to the screen in 1987 appearing in two of the year's biggest hits. He starred opposite Glenn Close in the phenomenally successful psychological thriller, "Fatal Attraction," which was followed by his performance as ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Douglas next starred in Ridley Scott's thriller Black Rain (1989) and then teamed up again with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito in the black comedy The War of the Roses (1989).
In 1988, Douglas formed Stonebridge Entertainment, Inc., which produced Flatliners (1990), directed by Joel Schumacher and starred Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin and Radio Flyer (1992) starring Lorraine Bracco and directed by Richard Donner. Douglas followed with David Seltzer's adaptation of Susan Isaacs' best-selling novel, "Shining Through," opposite Melanie Griffith. In 1992 he starred with Sharon Stone in the erotic thriller from Paul Verhoeven Basic Instinct (1992), one of the year's top grossing films.
Douglas gave one of his most powerful performances opposite Robert Duvall in Joel Schumacher's controversial drama Falling Down (1993). That year he also produced the hit comedy "Made in America" starring Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Danson and Will Smith. In 1994-95 he starred with Demi Moore in Barry Levinson's "Disclosure," based on the best seller by Michael Crichton. In 1995, Douglas portrayed the title role in Rob Reiner's romantic comedy The American President (1995) opposite Annette Bening, and in 1997, starred in The Game (1997) directed by David Fincher and co-starring Sean Penn.
Douglas formed Douglas/Reuther Productions with partner Steven Reuther in May 1994. The company, under the banner of Constellation Films, produced The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), starring Douglas and Val Kilmer, and John Grisham's The Rainmaker (1997), based on John Grisham's best selling novel, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon,Claire Danes, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Mickey Rourke, Mary Kay Place, Virginia Madsen, Andrew Shue, Teresa Wright, Johnny Whitworth and Randy Travis.
Michael Douglas and Steve Reuther also produced John Woo's action thriller Face/Off (1997) starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, which proved to be one of '97's major hits.
In 1998, Michael Douglas starred with Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen in the mystery thriller A Perfect Murder (1998), and formed a new production company, Furthur Films. 2000 was a milestone year for Douglas. "Wonder Boys" opened in February 2000 to much critical acclaim. Directed by Curtis Hanson and co-starring Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr. and Katie Holmes, Douglas starred in the film as troubled college professor Grady Tripp. Michael was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Film Award for his performance.
"Traffic" was released by USA Films on December 22, 2000 in New York and Los Angeles and went nationwide in January 2001. Douglas played the role of Robert Wakefield, a newly appointed drug czar confronted by the drug war both at home and abroad. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Amy Irving, Dennis Quaid and Catherine Zeta-Jones, "Traffic" was named Best Picture by New York Film Critics, won Best Ensemble Cast at the SAG Awards, won four Academy Awards (Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Benicio del Toro) and has been recognized on more than 175 top ten lists.
In 2001, Douglas produced and played a small role in USA Films' outrageous comedy "One Night at McCool's" starring Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon, John Goodman and Paul Reiser and directed by Harald Zwart. "McCool's" was the first film by Douglas' company Furthur Films. Also in 2001, Douglas starred in "Don't Say A Word" for 20th Century Fox. The psychological thriller, directed by Gary Fleder, also starred Sean Bean, Famke Janseen and Brittany Murphy.
In 2002, Douglas appeared in a guest role on the hit NBC comedy "Will & Grace," and received an Emmy Nomination for his performance.
Douglas starred in two films in 2003. MGM/BVI released the family drama "It Runs in the Family," which Douglas produced and starred with his father Kirk Douglas, his mother Diana Douglas his son Cameron Douglas, Rory Culkin and Bernadette Peters. He also starred in the Warner Bros. comedy "The-In Laws," with Albert Brooks, Candice Bergen and Ryan Reynolds.
In 2004, Douglas, along with his father Kirk, filmed the intimate HBO documentary "A Father, A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". Directed by award-winning filmmaker Lee Grant, the documentary examines the professional and personal lives of both men, and the impacts they each made on the motion picture industry.
In 2005, Douglas produced and starred in "The Sentinel", which was released by 20th Century Fox in April 2006. Based on the Gerald Petievich novel and directed by Clark Johnson, "The Sentinel" is a political thriller set in the intriguing world of the Secret Service. Douglas stars with Keifer Sutherland, Eva Longoria and Kim Bassinger. Douglas then filmed "You, Me & Dupree," starring with Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon. The comedy, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, was released by Universal Pictures during the summer of 2006. In 2007 Douglas made "King of California," co-starring Evan Rachel Wood and is written and directed by Michael Cahill, and produced by Alexander Payne and Michael London.
Michael had two films released in early 2009, "Beyond A Reasonable Doubt" directed by Peter Hyams and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner and directed by Mark Waters. He followed with the drama "Solitary Man" directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, co-starring Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary Louise-Parker, and Jenna Fischer, produced by Paul Schiff and Steven Soderbergh. In 2010, Douglas reprised his Oscar-winning role as Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," earning a Golden Globe for his performance. Again directed by Oliver Stone, he co-starred with Shia Labeouf, Cary Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon.
In 2011, Douglas had a cameo role in Steven Soderbergh's action thriller "Haywire."
"Behind the Candelabra," based on the life of '70's/80's musical icon Liberace and his partner Scott Thorson, directed by Steven Soderbergh and costarring Matt Damon, premiered on HBO in May 2013. Douglas won an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actor in a television movie or mini series for his performance as the famed entertainer. He followed with the buddy comedy "Last Vegas," directed by John Turtletaub co-starring Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline and the romantic comedy "And So It Goes," co-starring Diane Keaton directed by Rob Reiner.
Douglas recently starred in and produced the thriller "Beyond The Reach," directed by Jean-Baptiste Leonetti and costarring Jeremy Irvine. He and portrayed Dr. Hank Pym in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) opposite Paul Rudd. The franchise was his first venture into the realm of comic book action adventure.
In 2017, he starred in the spy thriller "Unlocked" starring with Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich and directed by Michael Apted.
In 1998 Douglas was made a United Nations Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan. His main concentrations are nuclear non-proliferation and the control of small arms. He is on the Board of Ploughshares Foundation and The Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Michael Douglas was recipient of the 2009 AFI Lifetime Achievement as well as the Producers Guild Award that year. In Spring '10 he received the New York Film Society's Charlie Chaplin Award.
Douglas has hosted 11 years of "Michael Douglas and Friends" Celebrity Golf Event which has raised over $6 million for the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Douglas is very passionate about the organization, and each year he asks his fellow actors and to come out and show that "we are an industry that takes care of own".
Douglas is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones. The couple has one son, Dylan, and one daughter, Carys. Douglas also has one son, Cameron, from a previous marriage.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Gary Barlow was born on January 20th 1971 in Frodsham, Cheshire, UK, the second and youngest son of Marge and Colin Barlow. He has an older brother named Ian. His first school was Weaver Vale Primary School, and he moved on to Frodsham High School in 1982. He was the founding member of successful pop group Take That, who split up in 1996. His acting debut came in 2000 when he starred in Heartbeat, shortly after his marriage to Dawn Andrews, and shortly before the birth of son Daniel. Their daughter Emily was born in 2002. He now works as a record producer.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jensen Ross Ackles, better known as simply Jensen Ackles, was born on March 1, 1978, in Dallas, Texas, to Donna Joan (Shaffer) and actor Alan Ackles. He has English, German, and Scottish ancestry. Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, together with his older brother, Joshua, and a younger sister, Mackenzie. Jensen graduated from Dartmouth Elementary School in 1990, he graduated from Apollo Junior High School in 1993, and LV Berkner High School in 1996.
Jensen is a sports junkie. He loves football, lacrosse, baseball and basketball. He even played on the baseball and lacrosse teams in high school. The 6' 1" actor first started modeling when he was just 2 years old. When he turned 4, he started appearing in TV commercials for Nabisco, RadioShack and Wal-Mart. He caught the acting bug because he was mostly influenced by his father, who was an actor in Dallas. He used to watch his father study scripts, and that taught him a few things about the industry. During his later years in high school, he started taking theater classes, where he claimed he was the only "jock" in that department. When he was just a sophomore, a friend of Jensen had asked him to attend a local acting seminar. Two guys, Craig Wargo, and an agent, 'Michael Einfeld', were interested in Jensen's talent and wanted him to go to Los Angeles with them.
Jensen had to say no to the offer and admitted at one point, he thought they would forget about him but, eventually, when he went to Los Angeles, he still managed to get help from them. Prior to that, Jensen actually planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist, before he decided to move to Los Angeles to give acting a try. In 1996, he managed to secure guest roles on several TV shows, which included Wishbone (1995), Mr. Rhodes (1996) and Sweet Valley High (1994). Jensen's big break came when he was cast in the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives (1965), as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer in 1998, and was nominated three times in 1998, 1999, and 2000 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Days of Our Lives (1965). After spending about three years on a soap set, he left Days of Our Lives (1965) and went on to appear in the mini-series Blonde (2001), which was about the life of Marilyn Monroe, playing Eddie G. He also auditioned for the role of Clark Kent on Smallville (2001), but lost the part to Tom Welling, instead.
Not giving up hope, he went for a few auditions and managed to secure a guest role on the popular James Cameron TV series, Dark Angel (2000), as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452, who was played by Jessica Alba. His character died in the episode, but Jensen eventually returned to the show as a regular in the second season as Ben's clone, Alec/X5-494 and continued on until the show's cancellation in 2002. In 2003, he joined the cast of Dawson's Creek (1998), playing the role of C.J., Jen Lindley's lover. He also filmed episodes of the TV series, Still Life (2003), playing the role of Max Morgan, not knowing that the series was actually dropped. He also had a small role in the short film, The Plight of Clownana (2004), playing the role of Jensen. That same year, he was offered the part of Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling (2003). Jensen, however, turned down the role which was later offered to another actor, Eric Christian Olsen. He was subsequently cast on Smallville (2001), as Assistant football coach Jason Teague, the new love interest of Lana Lang. In 2005, Jensen managed to earn a lead role in the movie, Devour (2005), playing the role of Jake Gray. Jensen also earned the opportunity to work his father, actor Alan Ackles, who happened to play his character's father, Paul Kilton. The movie, however, received mixed reviews from the public.
That same year, Jensen joined the cast of the CW series, Supernatural (2005), where he plays the role of Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam, who is played by Jared Padalecki, are brothers who drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father, John Winchester, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was reported that the creator of the show, Eric Kripke, mentioned that the show will last for a maximum of five seasons. In 2006, Jensen took on a role in the Independently filmed comedy/drama movie, Ten Inch Hero (2007), which explores the theme of honesty and the flaw of judging by appearances. In 2007 the film began a limited run at number of film festivals including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival but never made it into major mainstream theatrical release. In the Spring of 2008 Ten Inch Hero was released onto DVD exclusively through Blockbuster. Jensen however, received high praise for his work as Priestly, who one of the movie's more quirky characters.
From June 5-10 in 2007 Jensen had his professional stage debut as Lt. Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men" at Casa Manana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, working along side Lou Diamond Phillips. This proved to be another successful acting venture for Jensen, as critics were impressed with his work in this role. During his free time, Jensen enjoys golfing, horseback riding, scuba diving and photography. He is also a big fan of country music. His favorite musician is Garth Brooks. He even sang back-up vocals on good friend Steve Carlson's albums "Spot in the Corner" and "Rollin' On." In the summer of 2008 Jensen traveled to Kittaning, PA to film the horror/thriller movie, My Bloody Valentine (2009), which was filmed in the cutting edge Real D technology, Jensen played the lead role of Tom Hanniger and starred alongside Jaime King and Kerr Smith.
Jensen splits his time between Vancouver, British Columbia where he films Supernatural (2005) and his home in Austin, Texas.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Stunts
Sam Witwer headlines the SyFy series Being Human (2011), the U.S. adaptation of the popular British television series. The darkly humorous, provocative drama stars Sam as the heroic Aidan, a sensual and brooding vampire. His excellent work was noticed soon after the show's premiere, as Sam received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing, Leading Dramatic Role in 2011.
Feature film fans remember Sam as the sacrificed Wayne Jessup in The Mist (2007), Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Stephen King novella. Two other independent features in which Sam stars were The Return of Joe Rich (2011), starring opposite Armand Assante and Talia Shire, and No God, No Master (2013) starring with David Strathairn and Edoardo Ballerini.
A favorite in the science-fiction world, Sam began his career in the memorable role of Lt. Crashdown in SyFy's Battlestar Galactica (2004) and played Davis Bloom/Doomsday, the character fated to kill Superman, on CW's Smallville (2001). Star Wars fans and the gaming community will also recognize Sam as Darth Vader's vengeful apprentice, StarKiller", in the LucasArts video game sensations Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010). Through high-tech digital referencing and motion capture, Sam has become the voice and face of this LucasArts creation in which the first title grossed over $500 million. Sam has also done extensive voice work for the fan-favorite Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), the animated series airing on the Cartoon Network. Working opposite Jon Favreau and Clancy Brown as the voice of Darth Maul on Clone Wars, Sam received recognition with an Annie Award nomination for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production in 2012. Outside of sci-fi, audiences remember Sam in his recurring role of Neil Perry on the Emmy winning Showtime series Dexter (2006). Sam's edge perfectly complemented the ground-breaking series in its first season.
A Chicago native and a Juilliard-trained actor, Sam is also an accomplished musician who performed in the LA music scene with his band, The Crashtones.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Grammy-winning band Maroon 5's frontman Adam Noah Levine was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Patsy (Noah), an admissions counselor, and Fredric Levine, who founded the retail chain M. Fredric. Adam's father's family is Jewish, while Adam's mother is of half Jewish (her own father) and half German and Scottish (her own mother) ancestry. His uncle, Timothy Noah, is a journalist. Adam began playing music with his junior-high friends guitarist, rather than the keyboardist (for which he is known in the band Maroon 5) Jesse Carmichael and bassist Mickey Madden. Their first gig was at a school dance and Levine was terribly shy so he played with his back to the audience. Ryan Dusick joined the band as drummer and the alternative rock band Kara's Flowers were born (1994). They released an album called "The Fourth World" (1997). Then, he headed to New York City with Carmichael to study music at Five Towns College on Long Island. While they were there, he was surrounded by new music scenes and influences which give him whole new perspective on songwriting and singing. He dropped out of school after a semester and headed back to California with Carmichael to reunite with their pals and develop their band. He began writing a bunch of songs that were inspired by his recently failed relationship. After adding in new guitarist James Valentine (moving Carmichael over to keyboards) Maroon 5 was officially born. The band released their debut album "Songs About Jane", which included international hits "This Love", "Sunday Morning" and "She Will Be Loved" (2002).- Actor
- Producer
- 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
- Director
David was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Patti, a travel agent, and weatherman Dave Roberts (Boreanaz). His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of half Slovak ancestry. At the age of seven he decide to be an actor, which eventually led him to study cinema and photography at Ithaca College in New York. After graduating from college, David moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in the movies. After some uncredited roles he received his first important role as Kelly's boyfriend in the series Married... with Children (1987). After three seasons of playing Angel in the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), he received his own spin-off show titled Angel (1999).- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Matthew Chandler Fox was born in Abington, Pennsylvania. His mother, Loretta B. (Eagono), was a schoolteacher, and his father, Francis G. Fox, was a consultant for an oil company, who raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer. He has Italian (from his maternal grandfather), English, and Irish ancestry. Matthew entered the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts for a post-grad year after high school, and then matriculated at Columbia University where he played football and majored in Economics with the intent to end up on Wall Street. However, his girlfriend's mother was a modeling agent who convinced him to try some modeling which led to a couple of TV commercials. Soon after he was sold on acting.
He made his debut on an episode of _"Wings"(1990)_ in 1992. From 1994 to 2000 he played the role of Charlie Salinger in Party of Five (1994) alongside Neve Campbell and Scott Wolf. From 2004 to 2010 he starred on the popular TV-Show Lost (2004). During this time he appeared in movies such as We Are Marshall (2006), Vantage Point (2008) and Speed Racer (2008).
He has been married to his wife Margherita since 1992 and they 2 children together, a daughter and a son.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975. He is of mostly English, Irish, German, and Scottish ancestry. His middle name, Géza, is after a Hungarian family friend who was a Holocaust survivor.
Affleck wanted to be an actor ever since he could remember, and his first acting experience was for a Burger King commercial, when he was on the PBS mini-series, The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). It was also at that age when Ben met his lifelong friend and fellow actor, Matt Damon. They played little league together and took drama classes together. Ben's teen years consisted of mainly TV movies and small television appearances including Hands of a Stranger (1987) and The Second Voyage of the Mimi (1988). He made his big introduction into feature films in 1993 when he was cast in Dazed and Confused (1993). After that, he did mostly independent films like Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995) and Chasing Amy (1997) which were great for Ben's career, receiving renowned appreciation for his works at the Sundance film festival. But the success he was having in independent films didn't last much longer and things got a little shaky for Ben. He was living in an apartment with his brother Casey and friend Matt, getting tired of being turned down for the big roles in films and being given the forgettable supporting ones. Since Matt was having the same trouble, they decided to write their own script, where they could call all the shots. So, after finishing the script for Good Will Hunting (1997), they gave it to their agent, Patrick Whitesell, who showed it to a few Hollywood studios, finally being accepted by Castle Rock. It was great news for the two, but Castle Rock wasn't willing to give Ben and Matt the control over the project they were hoping for. It was friend Kevin Smith who took it to the head of Miramax who bought the script giving Ben and Matt the control they wanted and, in December 5, 1997, Good Will Hunting (1997) was released, making the two unknown actors famous. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt. The film marked Ben's breakthrough role, in which he was given for the first time the chance to choose roles instead of having to go through grueling auditions constantly.
Affleck chose such roles in the blockbusters Armageddon (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001). In the early years of the 2000s, he also starred in the box office hits Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Daredevil (2003), as well as the disappointing comedies Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004). While the mid 2000s were considered a career downturn for Affleck, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland (2006). In the several years following, he played supporting roles, including in the films Smokin' Aces (2006), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), State of Play (2009), and Extract (2009). He ventured into directing in 2007, with the thriller Gone Baby Gone (2007), which starred his brother, Casey Affleck, and was well received. He then directed, co-wrote, and starred in The Town (2010), which was named to the National Board of Review Top Ten Films of the year. For the political thriller Argo (2012), which he directed and starred in, Affleck won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Picture (Affleck's second Oscar win).
In 2014, Affleck headlined the book adaptation thriller Gone Girl (2014). He starred as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and Justice League (2017). He reprised the role in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and he will next appear as Batman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) and The Flash (2023).
Recently he has given praise-worthy performances in The Way Back (2020) as a recovering alcoholic, The Last Duel (2021) (notably he also co-wrote the script), and a scene-stealing golden globe nominated performance in The Tender Bar (2021).- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
John Phillip Stamos was born in Cypress, California, to Loretta (Phillips), a model, and William Stamos, a restaurateur. His father was of Greek descent, with the family surname originally being "Stamotopoulos". John has two younger sisters, Janeen and Alaina, both school teachers. His first professional role was as Blackie Parrish on the daytime soap General Hospital (1963) from 1982-1984, for which he won two Soap Opera Digest Awards (1982 and 1983). In 1987 he began the role of Jesse on Full House (1987), which is his best-known role to date, spanning eight years. At his request, the writers of Full House (1987) gave his character the last name of Katsopolis, instead of the original character's name, Cochran, in order to highlight John's Greek heritage. He has played drums occasionally with The Beach Boys since 1985, and directed their "Hot Fun in the Summertime" video. He expanded his career to include the role of J. Pierrepont Finch in Broadway's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying!" in 1995, showcasing not only his musical talents, but his dancing ability, as well. On September 19, 1998, he married model Rebecca Romijn, of MTV's House of Style (1989), which was the first marriage for both. They were officially divorced on March 1, 2005.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Wentworth Miller is a compelling and critically acclaimed actor whose credits span both television and feature film.
Wentworth Earl Miller III was born June 2, 1972 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, to American parents, Joy Marie (Palm), a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller II, a lawyer educator. He has two younger sisters, Gillian and Leigh. His father, who is black, is of Afro-Jamaican and African-American (along with English and German) descent. His mother, who is caucasian, has Dutch, French, Swedish, Lebanese/Syrian, Austrian, and Rusyn ancestry.
When Miller turned a year old, his family moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. His father became an assistant district attorney over there. Wentworth retains a dual citizenship, but affirms that he has always been an American. He comes from a diverse background. Wentworth attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn, where he was a member of Sing!, an annual musical production that was started by Midwood. He later on transferred to Quaker Valley Senior High School in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Wentworth was a straight As student in high school and was involved in the AV club and school newspaper. After graduating from high school in 1990, he attended Princeton University. He was also a cartoonist for the school paper and a member of the A Capella group, The Princeton Tigertones, where he sang baritone. It was then that he realized he was interested in performing in front of big and small audiences. Five years later, in 1995, he graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in English Literature and moved to California. That same year, he was hired by a small company who made movies for television. About a year and a half later, he realized that he had unconsciously moved to Los Angeles to be an actor. He then decided to quit his job at the production company even after his employee at the production company had offered him another stable job position.
Unfortunately for Wentworth, breaking into the industry was a tough job for him. He worked as a temp at several production companies before ending up working as a temp for his former employee's production office. It wasn't too long before Wentworth started landing guest roles on show such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), ER (1994), and Popular (1999). He also starred in the Hallmark series, Dinotopia (2002), playing the character, David Scott. These guest spots later on led to a role in the feature film, The Human Stain (2003), which happened to be his breakthrough role, alongside Nicole Kidman and Sir Anthony Hopkins, where he played the younger version of Anthony Hopkins' character, Coleman Silk. Although the film didn't fare well in movie theaters, it was well received by viewers and critics, further catapulting Wentworth to bigger stardom.
After The Human Stain (2003), he appeared in the movie _Underworld_, as Dr Adam Lockwood, opposite Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman, playing the voice of EDI. He also guest-starred in the series finale of CBS' Joan of Arcadia (2003), as Ryan Hunter, a charming-yet-sinister man who revealed to Joan that he also spoke to God. It was reported that his character would be Joan's greatest challenge, but in May, CBS decided to cancel the show, leaving fans to wonder what might have been. In 2005, Wentworth appeared in the pilot of Ghost Whisperer (2005) before eventually starring on FOX network's Prison Break (2005). Wentworth played the role of Michael Scofield, a character helping his brother, Lincoln Burrows, escape death row after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit. He stars alongside actors, Dominic Purcell, Amaury Nolasco and Robert Knepper. Prison Break (2005) became an instant hit and Wentworth secured a spot among viewers as one of the hottest up-and-coming actors around. His performance in the show earned him a Golden Globe nomination, a Saturn award nomination, as well as three Teen Choice Award nominations. The Brooklyn native also appeared in two of Mariah Carey's music videos, "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together" as Mariah's love interest.
Brett Ratner, who was signed on to direct both the music videos, directed the pilot episode of Prison Break (2005) and already knew who Wentworth was. Brett then brought up the idea to the songstress about using Wentworth in the videos. After showing Mariah pictures of Wentworth, she agreed to use him and Wentworth managed to work on both the videos and Prison Break with the help of crew members who constructed a special set on the set of the videos. Wentworth even admits that the two days he spent working with Mariah, was in fact, one of his career highs - even topping anything he's ever done prior to Prison Break (2005) because it gave him so much exposure. Wentworth describes himself as a very private person who likes to spend time just relaxing at home when he's not working. He enjoys swimming, reading, taking naps as well as going to different restaurants every week. He enjoys spending time at The Art Institute of Chicago because he believes that music, painting, movies and theater can all contribute to the work of an actor.
In 2013, he returned to his writing roots, linking up with acclaimed director Park Chan-wook and penning the screenplay for the film _Stoker_, which he submitted under an alias, Ted Foulke. He has also written a screenplay for a prequel called Uncle Charlie.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent. He was raised by his astrologer/psychologist mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and adoptive father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theatre manager, in an artists' housing project in New York City's Greenwich Village. He never knew his biological father. His mother is white (with English, German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry), and his adoptive father is African-American; referring to his biological father's background, Diesel has said that he himself is "definitely a person of colour".
His first break in acting happened by chance, when at the age of seven he and his friends broke into a theatre to vandalize it. A woman stopped them and offered them each a script and $20, on the condition that they would attend everyday after school. From there, Vin's fledgling career progressed from the New York repertory company run by his father, to the Off-Off-Broadway circuit. At age seventeen and already sporting a well-honed physique, he became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to Vin Diesel.
Following high school, Vin enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but dropped out after three years to go to Hollywood to further his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York. His mother then gave him a book called "Feature Films at used Car Prices" by Rick Schmidt. The book showed him that he could take control of his career and make his own movies. He wrote a short film based on his own experiences as an actor, called Multi-Facial (1995), which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000. Multi-Facial (1995) was eventually accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it got a tumultuous reception.
Afterwards, Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first feature, Strays (1997). Six months after shooting, the film was accepted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and although it received a good reception, it did not sell as well as hoped. Yet again Vin returned disappointed to New York only to receive a dream phone call. Steven Spielberg was impressed by Multi-Facial (1995) and wanted to meet Vin, leading him to be cast in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Multi-Facial (1995) earned Vin more work, when the director of The Iron Giant (1999) saw it and decided to cast Vin in the title role. From there, Vin's career steadily grew, with him securing his first lead role, as Richard B. Riddick in the sci-fi film Pitch Black (2000). The role has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.
Since then, he has headlined a series of blockbusters, often but not only centered on fast-driving motor vehicles: The Fast and the Furious (2001), xXx (2002), The Pacifier (2005), Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Furious 7 (2015). He also voiced Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and starred in the lower-budgeted courtroom drama Find Me Guilty (2006), the latter directed by Sidney Lumet.- Actor
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK on January 30, 1974, to English parents Jennifer "Jenny" (James) and David Bale. His mother was a circus performer and his father, who was born in South Africa, was a commercial pilot. The family lived in different countries throughout Bale's childhood, including England, Portugal, and the United States. Bale acknowledges the constant change was one of the influences on his career choice.
His first acting job was a cereal commercial in 1983; amazingly, the next year, he debuted on the West End stage in "The Nerd". A role in the 1986 NBC mini-series Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) caught Steven Spielberg's eye, leading to Bale's well-documented role in Empire of the Sun (1987). For the range of emotions he displayed as the star of the war epic, he earned a special award by the National Board of Review for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor.
Adjusting to fame and his difficulties with attention (he thought about quitting acting early on), Bale appeared in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V (1989) and starred as Jim Hawkins in a TV movie version of Treasure Island (1990). Bale worked consistently through the 1990s, acting and singing in Newsies (1992), Swing Kids (1993), Little Women (1994), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Secret Agent (1996), Metroland (1997), Velvet Goldmine (1998), All the Little Animals (1998), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999). Toward the end of the decade, with the rise of the Internet, Bale found himself becoming one of the most popular online celebrities around, though he, with a couple notable exceptions, maintained a private, tabloid-free mystique.
Bale roared into the next decade with a lead role in American Psycho (2000), director Mary Harron's adaptation of the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel. In the film, Bale played a murderous Wall Street executive obsessed with his own physicality - a trait for which Bale would become a specialist. Subsequently, the 10th Anniversary issue for "Entertainment Weekly" crowned Bale one of the "Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures" of the past decade, citing his cult status on the Internet. EW also called Bale one of the "Most Creative People in Entertainment", and "Premiere" lauded him as one of the "Hottest Leading Men Under 30".
Bale was truly on the Hollywood radar at this time, and he turned in a range of performances in the remake Shaft (2000), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the balmy Laurel Canyon (2002), and Reign of Fire (2002), a dragons-and-magic commercial misfire that has its share of defenders.
Two more cult films followed: Equilibrium (2002) and The Machinist (2004), the latter of which gained attention mainly due to Bale's physical transformation - he dropped a reported 60+ pounds for the role of a lathe operator with a secret that causes him to suffer from insomnia for over a year.
Bale's abilities to transform his body and to disappear into a character influenced the decision to cast him in Batman Begins (2005), the first chapter in Christopher Nolan's definitive trilogy that proved a dark-themed narrative could resonate with audiences worldwide. The film also resurrected a character that had been shelved by Warner Bros. after a series of demising returns, capped off by the commercial and critical failure of Batman & Robin (1997). A quiet, personal victory for Bale: he accepted the role after the passing of his father in late 2003, an event that caused him to question whether he would continue performing.
Bale segued into two indie features in the wake of Batman's phenomenal success: The New World (2005) and Harsh Times (2005). He continued working with respected independent directors in 2006's Rescue Dawn (2006), Werner Herzog's feature version of his earlier, Emmy-nominated documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997). Leading up to the second Batman film, Bale starred in The Prestige (2006), the remake of 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and a reunion with director Todd Haynes in the experimental Bob Dylan biography, I'm Not There (2007).
Anticipation for The Dark Knight (2008) was spun into unexpected heights with the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, whose performance as The Joker became the highlight of the sequel. Bale's graceful statements to the press reminded us of the days of the refined Hollywood star as the second installment exceeded the box-office performance of its predecessor.
Bale's next role was the eyebrow-raising decision to take over the role of John Connor in the Schwarzenegger-less Terminator Salvation (2009), followed by a turn as federal agent Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009). Both films were hits but not the blockbusters they were expected to be.
For all his acclaim and box-office triumphs, Bale would earn his first Oscar in 2011 in the wake of The Fighter (2010)'s critical and commercial success. Bale earned the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of Dicky Eklund, brother to and trainer of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg. Bale again showed his ability to reshape his body with another gaunt, skeletal transformation.
Bale then turned to another auteur, Yimou Zhang, for the epic The Flowers of War (2011), in which Bale portrayed a priest trapped in the midst of the Rape of Nanking. Bale earned headlines for his attempt to visit with Chinese civil-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, which was blocked by the Chinese government.
Bale capped his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012); in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy, Bale made a quiet pilgrimage to the state to visit with survivors of the attack that left theatergoers dead and injured. He also starred in the thriller Out of the Furnace (2013) with Crazy Heart (2009) writer/director Scott Cooper, and the drama-comedy American Hustle (2013), reuniting with David O. Russell.
Bale will re-team with The New World (2005) director Terrence Malick for two upcoming projects: Knight of Cups (2015) and an as-yet-untitled drama.
In his personal life, he devotes time to charities including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He lives with his wife, Sibi Blazic, and their two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Stephen Amell is a Canadian actor, known for portraying Oliver Queen / Green Arrow in the Arrowverse television franchise (based on the comic character of the same name) and Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).
Stephen Adam Amell was born on May 8, 1981 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Sandra (Bolté) and Thomas Amell. His cousin is actor Robbie Amell. He is of English, Scottish, German, and one sixteenth French-Canadian, descent. Stephen decided to pursue a career in acting when he was in his teens. He appeared in two episodes of the fourth season of Queer as Folk as the Liberty Ride spinning instructor in 2004. Amell played Adam in the first season of the television series Dante's Cove; he was replaced in the second season by Jon Fleming. In 2007, Amell won a Gemini Award for his guest-starring role on ReGenesis. The same year he was also nominated for a Gemini Award in the Best Ensemble Cast Category for Rent-a-Goalie. He had recurring roles in the TV series Da Kink in My Hair and Heartland. On December 3, 2010, Amell joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries as werewolf 'Brady' for season 2. Amell starred as Joran Van Der Sloot in the Lifetime film Justice for Natalee Holloway which originally aired in May 2011.
On October 2, 2011, season 3 of HBO's series Hung premiered with Amell starring as busboy-turned-prostitute Jason, a younger rival "ho" to Thomas Jane's Ray Drecker. He also appeared as Jim in the fourth season of 90210. Amell announced on October 28, 2011 that he had just finished filming the Christmas episode of New Girl with Zooey Deschanel and Max Greenfield. He touches on the experience of filming his first "network half hour comedy" in an interview with Daemon's TV. On November 9, 2011, Amell was announced for the recurring role of Scottie, a paramedic on ABC's Private Practice. He also plays the role of Travis in Blue Mountain State In January 2012, Amell was cast as the title character in The CW series Arrow, a re-imagining of the comic-book character Green Arrow. On March 31, 2015, Amell joined the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows as vigilante Casey Jones, which will be released on June 3, 2016. As an avid professional wrestling fan, Amell had long campaigned for a guest appearance on WWE's weekly Raw program, when in late May 2015 it was reported that he was tentatively set to wrestle Stardust at WWE's SummerSlam pay-per-view on August 23, 2015. Amell made his first WWE appearance on the May 25 Raw, where he had a confrontation with Stardust. However, after the real-life death of Stardust's father Dusty Rhodes in June 2015, reports speculated that the match had been scrapped. Despite this, Amell stated at the 2015 Comic Con International in July 2015, "I'm probably gonna do some stuff with the WWE. I don't know if that means a wrestling match. We'll see."
Amell returned to Raw on August 10, continuing his story-line with Stardust when he stepped into the ring after being assaulted in the audience by Stardust, attacking the wrestler until being contained by security. Following a backstage segment with Triple H, it was announced that Neville would team with Amell to face Stardust and King Barrett at SummerSlam. At the event on August 23, Amell and Neville defeated Barrett and Stardust in a tag team match. Neville and Barrett started and after Neville used his speed to control the action, Barrett tagged in Stardust. Stardust insisted that Amell enter the ring, a challenge accepted in a way that both imitated and bettered Stardust's own athletic ring entrance. Stardust first pushed Amell to the canvas, Amell then responded with a kip-up and a stiff front thrust kick to Stardust's chest. For the next few minutes Amell was controlled by Stardust and Barrett, and absorbed punches, kicks, knees, slams, falls from ring to floor, and an attack on the floor by the non-legal man, Stardust. Upon returning to the ring, and hitting Stardust with an Enzuigiri, Amell made a hot tag to Neville, who dominated both opponents. The conclusion of the match came after Amell dove off the top corner ropes onto Stardust and Barrett who were standing on the floor below. The match ended after Neville hit his finisher, the Red Arrow, on Barrett and pinned him. Behind the scenes, wrestlers were said to have been impressed with Amell's performance. There were also talks of a potential singles match with Stardust. On December 21, Amell was awarded a Slammy for the "Celebrity Moment of the Year" for his dive onto Stardust.
Amell has hosted a number of successful fund-raising campaigns via the crowd funded merchandise platform Represent.com. In 2014, Amell partnered with the charity Fuck Cancer to raise almost a million dollars with the release of a T-shirt featuring his face on the front (with a Post-it note on his forehead, and featuring the organization's name). He ended up selling over 60,000 shirts from this campaign. In January 2015, Amell launched his second Represent.com campaign featuring a word he made up, Sinceriously, to benefit two mental health charities: Paws and Stripes, and Stand For The Silent. In August 2015, Amell used his guest appearance on WWE Raw with Stardust to raise funds via his third campaign for children's hospice Emily's House in Toronto. The campaign raised $300,000, and Amell and Stardust presented a check together at Emily's House.
Amell married actress and model 'Cassandra Jean' on December 25, 2012 in a private ceremony in the Caribbean, and for a second time in New Orleans on May 26, 2013. The couple have a daughter, Mavi, born in 2013. Growing up, Amell was a fan of various local sporting teams, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Blue Jays. Amell is still very involved with the sports; he often jokes with fans telling them to skip Maple Leafs games and watch Arrow when the team faces a tough opponent, and recently, Amell campaigned to have Jays' third baseman Josh Donaldson elected to the 2015 all-star game.