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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.- American actor Rebecca McFarland is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She began acting in middle school, playing the Ice Queen in a school production, and has been a performer ever since. She attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, an arts training center for children of secondary school age, and went on to Tulane University where she obtained her BA in Theater.
Relocating to Los Angeles, she was soon cast in guest starring roles on television, including in the famous Seinfeld (1989) episode, The Little Kicks (1996), in which she plays Anna, a love interest of George's who is attracted to rough men, causing George to feign a dangerous side, with predictable results. Recurring roles followed, such as in the Fred Savage series, Working (1997), and as the bartender Leanne in the hit series, Two and a Half Men (2003). McFarland's film roles have included Scream 2 (1997).
New Orleans famously boasts bigger-than-life personalities and McFarland, a daughter of that city, is no exception, being capable of portraying a gamut of roles from tough professional to comical ditz. She is an accomplished self-taught painter and is active on social media. McFarland has been linked romantically to director Jason Ensler. - Actress
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Born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Amy Carlson spent most of her early life in the Chicago area. But when Amy was in junior high, she and her family also lived in the Middle East where her parents, Bob and Barb, taught at the American School. Amy has three siblings, sisters Betsy and Lori and brother Joe. Amy has backpacked all over Europe with her family and on her own. Because her parents were teachers, they were able to spend every summer together traveling and camping all over the United States. In fact, they have camped in every state except Alaska. Amy also went to Rwanda after the war in 1994 to aid relief efforts. Early on, Amy showed artistic talent acting in school productions and winning contests for writing. In high school, she was a promising athlete who placed in the first ever 3200 meter relay in Illinois girls track. In college, after an injury, she returned to the theater with many roles on stage starting with Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July" and directing Wallace Shawn's "Aunt Dan and Lemon". Amy attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in East Asian history and a concentration in Theater. She moved to Chicago afterward and studied Improv at the Improv Olympic and acting at The Actor's Center. A contract job on the now defunct soap opera Another World (1964) moved her to NYC soon after graduation. She has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama Series". Her most memorable roles have been of strong women playing Alex Taylor in Third Watch (1999), Maggie Pistone in Falcone (2000), Katie Owen alongside Tom Berenger in Peacemakers (2003) and Linda Reagan in Blue Bloods. Carlson resides in New York City with husband Syd Butler, bassist of Les Savy Fav, where she also works in the independent music business as part-owner of the independent label "Frenchkiss Records". Amy continues to write as well as seek out diverse and unique roles in the film industry.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Bonnie was raised by her mother, and her mother's large Irish Catholic family in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Her mother is one of 9 children! Bonnie started acting and singing at a young age, appearing in all the high school plays at Poly Prep Country Day School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She attended Boston College as a Musical Theater major, and left to move back home to New York to try acting professionally. Bonnie sang in many bands in the NYC music scene, and had a development deal to sing her own music at 17 years old. She was noticed by a modeling scout while waiting tables in NYC, and did some modeling in New York, and Europe, only to return more focused on acting. She packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles at age 22, very quickly had a band and then an agent. One of her first auditions, after getting an agent, was for the lead role in CBS's mini-series, Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story (1999), in which she also sang. She now lives in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Producer
Callie Thorne is an American actress of Armenian descent. She was born in Boston, and studied theater and dramatic literature at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She continued her acting studies at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City.
Thorne made her film acting debut as the female lead in the romantic comedy "Ed's Next Move" (1996). She portrayed the bohemian musician Lee, the love interest of a young scientist who previously had negative experiences in relationships. The film debuted at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, and was praised by critics for its realism.
Thorne gained her first major television role when cast as detective Laura Ballard in the police procedural series "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993-1999). Ballard was depicted as a new recruit to the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit, having previously worked as a detective in Seattle. The character joined the series at the start of its 6th season in 1997. Ballard was seriously wounded by gunfire in the penultimate episode of the season. In the 7th and last season of the series, Ballard started dating her co-worker Paul Falsone (played by Jon Seda). Thorne played Ballard for the last time in the spin-off film "Homicide: The Movie" (2000).
In the 2000s, Thorne played recurring characters in several then-popular series. She portrayed the vindictive ex-wife Elena McNulty in the crime drama "The Wire" (2002-2008). The character was initially determined to ruin the life of her former spouse, the police detective Jimmy McNulty (played by Dominic West). They later reconciled, though Elena still did not trust him.
Thorne portrayed the recurring defense attorney Nikki Staines in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", starting in 2003. Staines was herself depicted as a sexual assault victim in Season 20 (2019). Thorne portrayed the grieving widow Sheila Keefe in the comedy-drama series "Rescue Me" (2004-2011). The character was suffering from bipolar disorder and substance abuse problems after the death of her husband.
Thorne had the recurring role of the Darfur aide worker Jodie Kenyon in season 12 of the medical drama "ER" (from 2005 to 2006). Thorne portrayed the estranged ex-wife Pamela 'Pam' Larson in several episodes of the crime drama series "Prison Break" (2005-2017). The character was the ex-wife of the troubled FBI agent Alexander "Alex" Mahone (played by William Fichtner).
Thorne had the protagonist role of the therapist Dr. Danielle "Dani" Santino in the drama series "Necessary Roughness" (2011-2013). In the series, Dani is initially struggling financially, so she agrees to become the therapist for an entire professional football team. She soon attracts other high-profile clients. The series deals both with the recurring mental issues of Dani's clients and her own career choices. The series lasted for 3 seasons and a total of 38 episodes.
In 2015, Thorne started appearing in the police procedural "NCIS: New Orleans" (2014-2021). She portrayed the recurring character of Sasha Broussard. Broussard was a member of her family's crime syndicate, and was also a former lover of NCIS agent Dwayne Pride (played by Scott Bakula). Also in 2015, Thorne became a series regular in the second season of the police procedural "The Mysteries of Laura" (2014-2016). She portrayed by-the-book police captain Nancy Santiani, who had an adversarial relationship with her detectives. Santiani's murder was also portrayed in this season.
In 2019, Thorne gained a recurring role in the long-running police procedural "Blue Bloods (2010-). She portrayed the psychic Maggie Gibson, who at times assisted the police with murder cases. Thorne continued portraying the character until 2022. Thorne has had relatively few new roles in the 2020s, though she has not retired from her acting career. She is relatively popular among fans of police procedural series due to her long association with the genre.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ever Carradine was born on 6 August 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for The Requiem Boogie (2024), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and Bubble Boy (2001). She has been married to Coby Brown since 1 October 2005. They have two children.- Actress
- Additional Crew
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Actress Carole Cook showed a knack for comic timing from early on, so much so that the legendary Lucille Ball took her on as a protégée. Cook would make many appearances on Ball's TV shows The Lucy Show (1962) and Here's Lucy (1968), as well as other shows like Magnum, P.I. (1980), Dynasty (1981), and Grey's Anatomy (2005). She would also appear in several movies, like Sixteen Candles (1984) and Home on the Range (2004), while maintaining an active stage career and supporting many AIDS charities.- Actress
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Brittany Underwood is a Colombian American Actress best known for the 5 years she spent on ABC's 'One Life to Live' as Langston Wilde and for her leading role as Loren Tate, the girl next door turned superstar on Nickelodeon's teen hit drama series 'Hollywood Heights'. She has also starred in over 20 TV movies and has now directed 10 feature films.- Shantel Yvonne VanSanten is an American model and actress, born July 25, 1985. As a model, she has been featured in the magazines Teen Vogue and Seventeen. VanSanten was born in Luverne, Minnesota. She is of Dutch and one quarter Norwegian descent. VanSanten was raised in Spring, Texas where she attended Incarnate Word Academy (an all-girls college prep school) in Houston and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. VanSanten also started her career as a model at the age of fifteen for the Page Parkes Management.
- Actress
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Nikki Deloach was born on 9 September 1979 in Waycross, Georgia, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Love & Other Drugs (2010), Longshot (2001) and The House Bunny (2008). She has been married to Ryan Goodell since 5 September 2009. They have two children.- Actress
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- Casting Director
Molly Hagan was born the seventh child of Jack and Betty Hagan in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the age of 4 the entire family moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She grew up among cornfields and limestone quarries. Molly always wanted to be an actor. She toiled with her sister, Lucy Hagan, to create the best living room theatre a family could watch. But had her first real break as Glinda the good witch in "The Wizard of Oz" at St. Therese's Elementary School. After crushing it, doing the best Billie Burke she could, Molly went on to be kicked out of High School drama. She then attended Northwestern University.- Actress
- Producer
Blonde, buoyant Donna Mills began acting in local amateur and professional productions in her home town of Chicago. Donna made her Broadway bow as a harem girl in Woody Allen's play "Don't Drink the Water," then played recurring roles on the Manhattan-based TV soap operas The Secret Storm (1954) and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967). Her first film was The Incident (1967), a hard-hitting drama which co-starred fellow up-and-comers Martin Sheen and Beau Bridges. After playing Clint Eastwood's imperiled girlfriend in the cult thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), Mills guest-starred on numerous top-rated series and carved a niche for herself in made-for-TV movies, usually typecast as a damsel in distress. On the big screen, she scored another coup when she acted with Don Stroud in Murph the Surf (1975). Donna forever altered her on-screen image from trembling helplessness to calculating truculence in the role of Abby Cunningham Ewing, second wife of Dallas (1978) "black sheep" Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford), in the nighttime serial Knots Landing (1979); coincidentally, Mills had co-starred with J. R. Ewing himself (aka Larry Hagman) on the short-lived sitcom The Good Life (1971). Three times she won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Villainess: 1986, '88, and '89. She also earned a Soap Opera Digest nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role on a Prime Time Serial. After nine years as Abby, Mills decided to leave the long-running hit in pursuit of other opportunities. She continued to headline a range of television films, several of which she produced, often highlighting important social issues. These including Outback Bound (1988), The World's Oldest Living Bridesmaid (1990), Runaway Father (1991), In My Daughter's Name (1992) and My Name Is Kate (1994). Mills returned to Knots Landing for its final episode in 1993, and again for the reunion miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac (1997). In between she had a brief recurring guest role as Jane Mancini (Josie Bissett)'s mother on Melrose Place (1992). In 2014, Donna joined ABC's General Hospital (1963) as yet another wealthy troublemaker, Madeline Reeves. For this role, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series. Donna has since appeared in the feature films Joy (2015) and Nope (2022), and starred in the reality show Queens of Drama (2015).
Donna has long been a supporter of various political and human rights causes, including Easter Seals, Women in Film, and ECO (Earth Communications Office). Unmarried, she adopted a daughter, Chloe, in 1994. She lives in Beverly Hills with her longtime boyfriend, Larry Gilman. She was previously in a long-term relationship with Richard Holland.- Leah Marie Pipes (born August 12, 1988) is an American actress. She is most notable for starring in the television series Life Is Wild, the slasher film Sorority Row and the CW's The Originals.
Pipes was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She first started acting in 2001 on the popular show Angel. She was a regular on the TV series Lost at Home and appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie Pixel Perfect as Samantha Jacobs. She starred in the movie Fingerprints in 2006 (released in 2008). She has also appeared on TV shows such as Crossing Jordan and Drake & Josh. She also appeared on Clubhouse as Jessie. The show also starred Jeremy Sumpter.
She starred in the soccer film, Her Best Move. She appeared in Odd Girl Out and other small budget films.
For the 2007-2008 television season, Pipes starred in the drama series Life Is Wild. She also had a recurring role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as Jody. She plays Beth in the ABC series The Deep End, which premiered on 21 January 2010.
She played one of the leads in her first major film, 2009's Sorority Row. For which she received critical acclaim, and was either seen as the "highlight" or the best part of the film.
In 2010 she played Miranda for 1 episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles She also played Alexis for 1 episode of The Defenders (2010 TV series) . In 2012 she began filming alongside Mischa Barton and Ryan Eggold in the Mark Edwin Robinson's supernatural romance thriller, Into the Dark.
She starred with E.J. Bonilla in the film romance Musical Chairs, about a couple who participates in wheelchair ballroom dancing. It was released to theaters on March 23, 2012.
In January 2014, Pipes announced her engagement to actor and musician A.J. Trauth, after almost three years of dating. They married on December 6, 2014 in Santa Barbara, California. - Actress
- Casting Department
- Soundtrack
GloZell Green was born on 30 July 1972 in Orlando, Florida, USA. She is an actress, known for Trolls (2016), Escape the Night (2016) and The Wedding Ringer (2015). She was previously married to Kevin Simon.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Julie Gonzalo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to Miami, Florida when she was 8 years old.
She won her first acting role when she was 20 and she made a few TV appearances during the early 2000s. She also appeared in some high-profile movies during that time, including Freaky Friday (2003)) but her breakthrough role came in 2006 when she won the role of Parker Lee in Veronica Mars (2004).
More TV and movie work followed (including several as producer) until she was cast as Rebecca Sutter in the revival of the hit 1980s soap Dallas (2012).- Actress
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Kelly Michelle Stables was born in St. Louis, Missouri where she performed at The Muny Opera. She graduated cum laude from The University of Missouri, Columbia with a BA in Communications and Theater. Upon moving to Los Angeles she quickly got involved in theater arts, acting and choreographing in over 2 dozen plays and musical productions including The Little Foxes, Brady Bunch: The Musical, Peter Pan at the Thousand Oaks Civic Light Opera and 7 title roles in LA's award winning Storybook Theatre. While continuing to study improvisation at The Groundlings and becoming a company member of Theatre West, Kelly also started landing roles on television and in film. Her unique voice and petite stature has allowed her to take on a wide variety of colorful characters. She is known for her work alongside Naomi Watts, taking over the role as the evil Samara in The Ring 2, but is also more commonly recognized as the bubbly, bright receptionist on Two and a Half Men. From 2011-2015 Kelly played a paralegal at-day/party hopper at-night, as a Series Regular on the TV Land sitcom The Exes. She was also a Regular as the sassy sexpert little sister to Alyssa Milano on ABC's Romantically Challenged, as well as the stressed out suburban mom on the CW's No Tomorrow. She has lent her soprano singing voice to several cartoons including Doc McStuffins, Tom & Jerry and Sofia the First. Most recently she can be seen as the dim but lovable Cloud 9 employee on NBC's hit comedy Superstore. She lives a quiet, private life with her husband and two young children and enjoys sewing, writing and volunteering at school activities.- Actress
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Alley Mills was born on May 9, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of Yale in 1973, she studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. While still in college, Alley Mills scored a small role in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970). She got her first lead role in 1979 in a short-lived television series about young lawyers entitled The Associates (1979), opposite a then yet-unknown Martin Short. After another failed sitcom in 1982, she finally caught a big break with a lead role in the critically acclaimed nostalgic 1960s-set family dramedy The Wonder Years (1988) playing matriarch Norma Arnold. After the show ended in 1993, Alley Mills continued work in television, landing a recurring role on the western drama Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993) as Jane Seymour's sister. She also made numerous guest appearances shows such as NYPD Blue (1993), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)and Yes, Dear (2000). She made the leap to daytime television with a guest role on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (1987) as Pamela Douglas playing along-side Susan Flannery and Betty White in 2006. As the producers were thrilled with her performances, she was eventually offered a contract and continues to star on the show, occasionally taking some time off to do theatre work in the Los Angeles area, often together with her husband. Alley Mills is married to actor Orson Bean since 1993 and the couple lives in Venice, California.- Alexandra Peters was born on 17 January 2000 in the USA. She is an actress, known for Allegiance (2015), Saige Paints the Sky (2013) and Major Crimes (2012).
- Actress
- Location Management
- Casting Department
Donzaleigh Abernathy won the Tanne Foundation 2012 Artist Award for her work as an actress and for her script, "Birmingham Sunday." She starred for four years in over 60 Episodes as a Series Regular on Lifetime Television's critically acclaimed dramatic series, "Any Day Now." She received recognition from Film Critic Roger Ebert for her performance in the Warner Bros. film, "Gods And Generals." She starred as the leading lady in the Emmy and Golden Globe winning HBO Film, "Don King-Only in America," opposite Ving Rhames. In the HBO Emmy and Golden Globe winning "Miss Evers Boys," she co-starred with Alfre Woodard and in NBC's "The Tempest" opposite Golden Globe Award winner, Peter Fonda. She also starred in New Line Cinema's comedy "Grilled" and Lions Gate's comedy "Leprechan 6 - Back 2 'Da Hood." She starred in the Directors Guild of America Award Winning, "Murder In Mississippi."
Audiences also know her from her recurring roles on the TV Series, "EZ Streets," "Commander-In-Chief," "Lincoln Heights," "Dangerous Minds," and "Amazing Grace." She has starred in several Television Movies, "Fatal Exposure," "Abducted - A Father's Love," "Ned Blessing" and "Grassroots."
Emory University's Brave New Works Project produced her screenplay, "Partners to History." For the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus and National Black Arts Festival at Atlanta's Symphony Hall, she wrote and starred in the Musical, "Lushlife - The Music of Billy Strayhorn." For the Harper's Ferry National Park Service's Centennial Celebration of the Niagara Movement, she wrote and starred in "The Women of Niagara." She wrote and performed "John Brown" for the University of Utah at Park City.
Along with her husband actor/producer Dar Dixon Bijarchi, she created, produced and directed the project, "St. Francis."
She is the youngest daughter born to Mrs. Juanita and Reverend Doctor Ralph David Abernathy, who led with his best friend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. the American Civil Rights Movement, which changed the course of American history. Ms. Abernathy witnessed the integral decision-making process shaping American laws and society, the creation of the Civil Rights Bill, the Public Accommodations Act and the Voting Rights Act.
She authored the history book, "Partners To History, Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement," published by Random House/Crown. The coffee table pictorial of American History which is sold out was nominated as one of the "Best Books of 2004" for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote the foreword.
Ms. Abernathy is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the New Visions Foundation which created New Roads Schools and several other schools in the Los Angeles area. As a public speaker, she has spoken for the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges, Harvard Law School, Pepperdine University and Morgan State University, just to name a few. Her life is profiled in the books "Fearless Women" and "No Mountain High Enough - Secrets of Successful African American Women."- Actress
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Laura San Giacomo was born in West Orange, New Jersey, to MaryJo and John San Giacomo. She was raised in the nearby city of Denville. She went to Morris Knolls High School in Denville, where she got the acting bug and had the lead in several school plays. Laura got a Fine Arts degree, specializing in acting, at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (Pittsburgh). After graduation, she moved to New York.
During the late 1980s (1987-89) before starting her film career, she appeared on Spenser: For Hire (1985), Crime Story (1986), The Equalizer (1985), All My Children (1970) and Miami Vice (1984). Her breakout film was her first credited role in Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). The movie won the Cannes Film Festival's Grand Prize, the Palme d'Or. Laura received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association's New Generation Award and a Golden Globe nomination for her role. Next, she was Kit De Luca in Pretty Woman (1990) (1990) opposite Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The film won the People's Choice Awards for Best Comedy and Best Film.
On stage, Laura has appeared in many theater productions. She was on the Los Angeles stage in the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz production of "Wrong Turn at Lungfish", in "North Shore Fish" (WPA Theatre), in "Three Sisters" (Princeton/McCarter Theatre, New Jersey, 1992) and in "Beirut" (Off-Broadway, Westside Arts Theatre, New York City, 1987). She also starred in "Italian American Reconciliation" (Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City, 1988) and "The Love Talker" (Off-Broadway in 1988). In regional theater, Laura was in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", "As You Like It" and "Romeo and Juliet". She also starred in "Crimes of the Heart".
During the early 1990s, she was busy making movies (Vital Signs (1990), Quigley Down Under (1990), Once Around (1991) (where she played Holly Hunter's sister), Under Suspicion (1991), Where the Day Takes You (1992) and Nina Takes a Lover (1994)). In 1994, she also appeared in Stephen King's television miniseries, The Stand (1994). During the mid 1990s, she also provided her voice to an animated series Gargoyles (1994). Offscreen, Laura got married to Cameron Dye in 1990 (and divorced in 1998). They had a son, Mason, in 1996. Having a child influenced Laura to make the transition to television. She started in the sitcom Just Shoot Me! (1997), which also starred George Segal (as her father, Jack), Wendie Malick, Enrico Colantoni and David Spade. Television gave her a more regular work schedule and less traveling. The series lasted for seven seasons and 148 episodes. She appeared in all of them together with the other four regular cast members.
After Just Shoot Me! (1997) was canceled in 2003, Laura appeared infrequently on television and in feature films. She was the narrator for Snapped (2004), a true crime series. In 2005, she appeared in two feature films (Checking Out (2005) and Havoc (2005)). In 2006, she was reunited with her Just Shoot Me! (1997) co-star Enrico Colantoni in Veronica Mars (2004), where she played Harmony Chase for three episodes. In September 2006, she secured a starring role in Saving Grace (2007) as Grace's (Holly Hunter's) best friend, Rhetta Rodriguez. Laura continued to play the role through all three seasons.- Actress
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Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Shortly after wards, she appeared as Marcia in the TV series The Second Hundred Years (1967).
The film that made her a star was Easy Rider (1969), where she worked with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and a supporting actor named Jack Nicholson. She appeared with Nicholson again the next year when they starred in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which garnered an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Karen. Her roles mainly consisted of waitresses, hookers and women on the edge. Some of her later films were disappointments at the box office, but she did receive another Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby (1974). One role for which she is well remembered is that of the jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot (1976). Another is as the woman terrorized in her apartment by a murderous Zuni doll come to life in the well received TV movie Trilogy of Terror (1975). After a number of forgettable movies, she again won rave reviews for her role in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Since then, her film career has been busy, but the quality of the films has been uneven.- Actress
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Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, thus becoming an EGOT. She was born Rosita Dolores Alverío in the hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931 (but raised in nearby, smaller Juncos, which had no hospital), to seamstress Rosa María (Marcano) and farmer Francisco José "Paco" Alverío. Her mother moved to New York City in 1937, taking Rita with her while leaving her reportedly unfaithful husband and Rita's younger brother behind. Rita's professional career began before she reached adolescence.
From the age of nine, she performed as a professional dancer in New York night clubs. At age 11, she landed her first movie experience, dubbing Spanish-language versions of US films. Less than a month before her 14th birthday on November 22, 1945, she made her Broadway debut in the play "Skydrift" at the Belasco Theatre, costarring with Arthur Keegan and a young Eli Wallach. Although she would not appear again on Broadway for almost two decades, Rita Moreno, as she was billed in the play, had arrived professionally. In 1950, she was signed by MGM, but the studio dropped her option after just one year.
The cover of the March 1, 1954, edition of "Life Magazine" featured a three-quarters, over-the-left-shoulder profile of the young Puerto Rican actress/entertainer with the provocative title "Rita Moreno: An Actresses' Catalog of Sex and Innocence". It was sexpot time, a stereotype that would plague her throughout the decade. If not cast as a Hispanic pepper pot, she could rely on being cast as another "exotic", such as her appearance on Father Knows Best (1954) as an exchange student from India. Because of a dearth of decent material, Moreno had to play roles in movies that she considered degrading. Among the better pictures she earned featured roles in were the classic Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The King and I (1956).
Director Robert Wise, who was chosen to co-direct West Side Story (1961) (the film version of the smash Broadway musical, a retelling of William Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" with the warring Venetian clans the Montagues and Capulets re-envisioned as Irish/Polish and Puerto Rican adolescent street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks), cast Moreno as "Anita", the Puerto Rican girlfriend of Sharks' leader Bernardo, whose sister Maria is the piece's Juliet.
However, despite her talent, roles commensurate with that talent were not forthcoming in the 1960s. The following decade would prove kinder, possibly because the beautiful Moreno had aged gracefully and could now be seen by filmmakers, TV producers and casting directors as something other than the spitfire/sexpot that Hispanic women were supposed to conform to. Ironically, it was in two vastly diverging roles--that of a $100 hooker in director Mike Nichols' brilliant realization of Jules Feiffer's acerbic look at male sexuality, Carnal Knowledge (1971), and Milly the Helper in the children's TV show The Electric Company (1971)--that signaled a career renaissance.
Moreno won a 1972 Grammy Award for her contribution to "The Electric Company"'s soundtrack album, following it up three years later with a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for "The Ritz" (a role she would reprise in the film version, The Ritz (1976)). She then won Emmy Awards for The Muppet Show (1976) and The Rockford Files (1974).
She has continued to work steadily on screen (both large and small) and on stage, solidifying her reputation as a national treasure, a status that was officially ratified with the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in June 2004.- Actress
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Jill Larson was born on 7 October 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She is an actress, known for All My Children (1970), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) and Shutter Island (2010).- Actress
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Rebecca Budig was born on 26 June 1973 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for General Hospital (1963), All My Children (1970) and Getaway (2013). She has been married to Mike Benson since 2012. They have one child. She was previously married to Bob Guiney and Daniel Geller.