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Scott Caan is the son of tough guy actor James Caan. While it is obvious that he admires tough method actors like Marlon Brando and Sean Penn, Scott also has a strong egalitarian streak, evidenced by his reasoning for baring his body in films. He is quoted as saying that originally only the women in the scene were to be nude, but that he felt it really sexist, so he stripped too.
Scott was born on August 23, 1976 in Los Angeles, California. He spent his childhood being shuttled between his parents' homes. His mom is actress and model Sheila Ryan; the Caans divorced when Scott was a year old. He has an older half-sister, Tara, and three younger half-brothers: Alexander, Jacob, and James. His paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants.
Self-described as a bad kid who was always getting into trouble, Scott initially steered clear of acting, opting to play sports instead. Scott benefited from his father's hands-on approach to child rearing; the elder Caan reportedly took a five-year hiatus to coach all of his son's little league teams. He also pursued his love of hip-hop by forming a group with his friend The Alchemist; as The Whooliganz, the duo made inroads on the music scene and signed an ll-fated contract with Tommy Boy Records.
It did not take long for Scott to appear in front of the camera; in 1995, he took roles in a couple independent films, Star Struck (1996) and A Boy Called Hate (1995). Critical of his performances, Scott enrolled at Playhouse West in Los Angeles to study acting. Roles in more indies followed, including Bongwater (1998) and Gregg Araki's Nowhere (1997).
His first major film was also a hit; he had a supporting role in Enemy of the State (1998) for director Tony Scott. He then appeared (in the buff) in Varsity Blues (1999) as a wisecracking receiver. By now, Scott had built a reliable reputation for playing strong-minded characters with a sense of humor, exemplified by his work in movies such a Boiler Room (2000), Ready to Rumble (2000), and his second hit picture, Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).
Scott's star rose with a fun supporting turn in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001) remake. At this time he had more indie turns in the films American Outlaws (2001), Novocaine (2001), and Sonny (2002) - Nicolas Cage's directorial debut starring James Franco. Scott followed up with his own directorial outing, Dallas 362 (2003). Scott reprised his role as Turk Malloy in Ocean's Twelve (2004), then took a supporting roles in two very different pictures: the sexy, ocean-bound thriller Into the Blue (2005) and in Nicole Holofcener's indie comedy, Friends with Money (2006). 2006 marked Caan's return to the director¹s chair, with The Dog Problem (2006), and soon was back for Ocean's Thirteen (2007).
Over the past few years, Scott made memorable appearances as a recurring character on Entourage (2004). He has a starring role in the remake of the TV series Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
Scott has also established himself as a photographer, having been mentored in the medium by cinematographer Phil Parmet. In 2009, he published his book, Scott Caan Photographs, Vol. 1.- Taylor Wily (Teila Tuli) has the distinction of competing in the first bout held in Ultimate Fighting Championship (2000) or UFC. Wily was a sumo wrestler when UFC was created to determine the best style of fighting. Wily fought Gerard Gordeau at UFC 1: The Beginning (1993) where he quickly lost. Wily never again competed in the sport now known as Mixed Martial Arts, and later became an actor.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin was born in August 1976.
Alex started out his film career in 2004, when he starred in Oyster Farmer (2004) as Jack Flange. The following year, he returned to the big screen as Michael Carter in Feed (2005), a movie that he also co-produced and helped write. Also released that year was a movie titled Man-Thing (2005), in which Alex played Deputy Eric Fraser.
However, his most recent role in a feature film was that of "Marcus Bohem" in The Invisible (2007). Alex acted in the Australian miniseries Mary Bryant (2005) as the title role's husband. He made his way to American serialized television in The Shield (2002) as Detective Kevin Hiatt, the newest member of the strike team. Alex can be seen as Marshall in the movie August Rush (2007), and also in Whiteout (2009). In 2005, he was nominated for the Australian Film Institute's Best Lead Actor in Television for his role in Mary Bryant (2005). In 2006, he was nominated for the Logie Awards' Silver Logie in the same category and role.- Actor
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Chi McBride was born on 23 September 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), I, Robot (2004) and The Terminal (2004). He is married to Julissa Marquez. They have one child.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Jorge Garcia (born April 28, 1973) is an American actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker (1998), but probably more known later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost (2004) from 2004 to 2010. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian. He more recently starred in the FOX television series Alcatraz (2012), as well as playing a minor character on ABC's Once Upon a Time (2011). He stars as Jerry Ortega on Hawaii Five-0 (2010). Most recently Jorge Garcia can be seen in the Netflix original movie The Ridiculous 6 (2015).- Actor
- Visual Effects
- Producer
Masayori "Masi" Oka is a Japanese American actor, producer and digital effects artist. He became widely known for his role on NBC's Heroes as Hiro Nakamura and in CBS' Hawaii Five-0 as Doctor Max Bergman. Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Setsuko Oka. His parents divorced when he was one month old; he was raised in a single parent family and has never met his father. He was six years old when his mother and he moved to Los Angeles from Japan. At age eight, he appeared on the CBS-TV game show Child's Play. In 1987, a twelve-year-old Oka was featured on the cover of Time titled "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids". Though he was not featured in the article itself, he was acquainted with the photographer who conducted the shoot. His IQ has been reported at over 180.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Rarely at a loss for work, Willie Garson appeared in more than 300 episodes of television and more than 70 films. Best known for his long runs on television as Mozzie on White Collar (2009), Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City (1998), and Henry Coffield on NYPD Blue (1993), he also appeared as the grifter with a heart of gold, Gerard Hirsch, on Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
Born in New Jersey, he started training at the Actors Institute In New York, before majoring in psychology and theater at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After graduation, he quickly started landing guest roles on such shows as Cheers (1982), Family Ties (1982), Thirtysomething (1987), L.A. Law (1986), as well as continually recurring in a wide array of shows including The X-Files (1993), Twin Peaks (1990), Two and a Half Men (2003), Stargate SG-1 (1997), Pushing Daisies (2007), The Practice (1997), Ally McBeal (1997), etc., etc., etc. His favorite long-form role on TV was Dr. Kreutz for Steven Spielberg in the acclaimed miniseries Taken (2002). Garson also appeared in many episodes of Boy Meets World (1993) and Girl Meets World (2014).
On the big screen, other than reprising his Sex and the City (1998) role for two features (Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010)), he collaborated with the Farrelly brothers on three films, There's Something About Mary (1998), Kingpin (1996), and Fever Pitch (2005), as well as appearing in Soapdish (1991), Groundhog Day (1993), Mars Attacks! (1996), The Rock (1996), Being John Malkovich (1999), and many others. He was often used by such varied directors as Spike Jonze, Michael Bay, the late great Mike Nichols, and Ron Shelton. Next up is Feed (2017), touching on a subject Garson was very proud to be a part of. Upcoming films include 7 Days to Vegas (2019), and Magic Camp (2020).
As a director, Garson directed episodes of White Collar (2009) and Girl Meets World (2014), and, with Warner Brothers, had TV shows in development as producer/creator.
Garson continued to perform with various bicoastal theater companies such as Naked Angles, Manhattan Theater Club, the Roundabout Theater, and the Geffen. He was also very involved with many charities, including AMFAR, Camp Joslin for Diabetes, Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, and especially the Alliance for Children's Rights, which facilitates adoptions in LA County. This had a special place in the Garson family, as Willie adopted his son Nathan in Los Angeles in 2010, and twice served as national spokesman for National Adoption Day.
Aside from acting, Garson was known as a world-class poker player, nicknamed Evil Willie on the first episode of Celebrity Poker Showdown (2003), and continued to play in tournaments all over the world, both for charity and through the World Poker Tour.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
Jimmy Buffett was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi and grew up living beside the the Gulf of Mexico. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi he worked his way to success in the music industry. His hits in the 1970s including "Margaritaville" and "Come Monday". He struck a chord and helped to build a huge fan-base of all ages over the decades. Now married with three kids, Buffett loves fishing, flying and world travel. Buffett is also the author of numerous books including the bestselling "A Pirate Looks At Fifty" and has added movies to his repertoire as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen's novel Hoot (2006).- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Joey Lawrence (born Joseph Lawrence Mignogna Jr.) is an American actor and singer from Pennsylvania. He is a former child actor, and has had an active career since the early 1980s. Lawrence is primarily known for television roles in sitcoms. He portrayed middle child Joseph "Joey" Russo in the popular sitcom "Blossom" (1990-1995), and male nanny Joseph Paul "Joe" Longo in the sitcom "Melissa & Joey" (2010-2015). As a singer, he is mostly remembered for the hit song "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix" (1993), which peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1976, Lawrence was born in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia's northern fringe. The township has largely been overshadowed by Philadelphia for most of its history. It is mostly remembered in history books as one of the battlefields in the inconclusive Battle of White Marsh (1777). Lawrence's parents were Joseph Lawrence Mignogna Sr. and his wife Donna Lynn Shaw. His father was an insurance broker and his mother was a personnel manager and former school teacher. Through his parents, Lawrence has English, Italian, and Scottish ancestry. His entire family changed their surname to "Lawrence" during his childhood.
Lawrence started appearing in commercials in early childhood. In 1982, he received his first taste of television stardom when he performed a song in the late-night talk show "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962-1992). In the same year, he had his first guest star roles in the long-running sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978-1986) and the then-new sitcom "Silver Spoons" (1982-1987).
In 1983, Lawrence joined the main cast of the sitcom "Gimme a Break!" (1981-1987). He played the new foster son of main character Nellie Ruth "Nell" Harper (played by Nell Carter), who was already tasked with raising an old friend's three daughters. The series was moderately successful for most of its run. Its 6th and final season featured an attempt to retool the series, with most of the regular cast written out and the introduction of a new premise. This failed to prevent its cancellation, marking the end of Lawrence's first recurring role.
Lawrence had his feature film debut in the comedy "Summer Rental" (1985). He played Bobby Chester, son of the main character Jack Chester (played by John Candy). The film focuses on the efforts of stressed-out Jack to achieve victory over an arrogant sailing champion who has ruined his vacation. The film earned 25 million dollars at the domestic box office. It is mainly remembered for featuring John Candy's first lead role in a Hollywood film.
In 1988, Lawrence had his first starring role in a film. He voiced the eponymous orphan kitten Oliver in the animated feature film "Oliver & Company". The film was a loose adaptation of the novel "Oliver Twist" by Charles Chickens, changing the setting to 1980s New York City and featuring anthropomorphic animals in main roles. The film was a box office hit of its time, helping revitalize the animated studio Walt Disney Feature Animation. However, Oliver's role was overshadowed by that of the Artful Dodger (voiced by Billy Joel) who was granted more screen-time
Lawrence received more attention when he joined the cast of the sitcom "Blossom" (1990-1995). The series' main character was Italian-American teenage girl Blossom Ruby Russo (played by Mayim Bialik), but the main cast also featured Blossom's single father, her two older brothers, and her best friend. Lawrence had to play middle child Joseph "Joey" Russo, a skilled baseball player and aspiring ladies' man. Despite his stereotypical "dumb jock" traits, Joey received some character development and at time shared the spotlight with his sister. Lawrence was at the height of his popularity during the series' run, which lasted for 5 seasons and 114 episodes.
Lawrence wanted to have a singing career of his own. In 1993, he released his eponymous debut album "Joey Lawrence". He co-wrote some of the album's songs, including the international hit "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix". He performed the song live at then-popular music television shows, such as "The Arsenio Hall Show" and "Top of the Pops". His next album, "Soulmates" (1997), did not chart. He subsequently released the singles ""Ven Ven Conmigo" (1997) and "Never Gonna Change My Mind" (1998), the later of which was the 49th most popular song in the British charts. Following these, Lawrence's singing career went on hiatus.
In 1995, Lawrence was cast as the main character in a sitcom. He played elder brother Joseph "Joe" Roman in "Brotherly Love" (1995-1997), while his real-life brothers Matthew Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence were cast in the roles of Joe's half-brothers. In the series, Joe was a 20-year-old mechanic. Following his father's death in a racing accident, Joe had to serve as a father figure to his two underage half-brothers. Other subplot's of the series focused on Joe's attempts to woo female mechanic (and artist) Louise "Lou" Davis (played by Liz Vassey), and whether she actually viewed him as a love interest. The series lasted for 2 seasons and 40 episodes, though it was never a ratings hit.
After a brief decline in his acting career, Lawrence had a supporting role in the slasher film "Urban Legends: Final Cut" (2000). The film was the second in a trilogy of slasher films. In the film, film student Amy Mayfield (played by Jennifer Morrison) has to discover who is the masked serial killer who is targeting her classmates, and why is he stalking her in particular. The film was noted for homaging scenes from several classic serial killer films, particularly Italian giallo films.
In 2001, Lawrence had one of the main roles in the slasher film "Do You Wanna Know a Secret?" The film featured a mysterious killer, who always warned victims by writing this message before attacking. The film has a subplot about the killer's unrequited love for a woman, and mentions that he has been stalking her for more than a year.
In 2002, Lawrence played a police detective in the neo-noir erotic thriller "Trois 2: Pandora's Box". In the film, retired police psychologist Mia DuBois (played by Monica Calhoun) is unaware that her husband, her lover, and her new patient have secretly conspired to get their hands on her inheritance money. The film was marketed as a sequel to the then-popular erotic thriller "Trois" (2000), though their plots and characters were unrelated.
In 2002, Lawrence joined the cast of the period television series "American Dreams" (2002-2005), which depicted life in Philadelphia during the 1960s. He played the floor producer of the historical music and dance show "American Bandstand" (1952-1989), though his character was written out following the period series' first season.
Lawrence next had one of the main roles in the short-lived sitcom "Run of the House" (2003-2004). The series' premise was that three adult siblings are allowed to move into their middle-aged parents' former residence in Michigan, on condition of raising their underage sister Brooke Franklin (played by Margo Harshman). The series only lasted a single season and 19 episodes, as it was canceled due to low ratings.
In 2005, Lawrence joined the cast of the sitcom "Half & Half" (2002-2006). He played recurring character Brett Mahoney for the series' last few seasons. The series' premise followed the interactions between half-sisters Mona Rose Thorne (played by Rachel True) and Deirdre Chantal "Dee Dee" Thorne (played by Essence Atkins). The two women decided to form a relationship after moving into the same apartment building, despite being kept apart for most of their lives and having much different life experiences.
In 2006, Lawrence played a police officer in the horror film "Rest Stop". The premise of the film was that main character Nicole Carrow (played by Jaimie Alexander) had a series of mysterious encounters in a sparsely-populated area, including meeting a girl (or the girl's ghost) who went missing in 1971. The film was released direct-to-video, where it was an unexpected sales hit. It reportedly had a gross of about 5 million dollars in domestic video sales at retail.
In 2007, Lawrence played the recurring role of serial killer and serial rapist Clay Dobson in the police procedural television series "CSI: NY" (2004-2013). According to his character arc, Dobson had originally been convicted without forensic evidence tying him to his first murder. He was released on appeal, and took care that the corpses of his victims were never found.
In 2008, Lawrence played a fictionalized version of himself as one of the murder victims in the comedy horror film "Killer Pad". The film concerns three young men who are oblivious to the fact that their new residence is a portal to hell, and that their new friend Lucy (played by Emily Foxler) is actually Lucifer in female form. Much of the humor derived from their failure to notice supernatural events around them.
In 2009, Lawrence experienced a resurgence of his career when he and actress Melissa Joan Hart co-starred in the comedy television film "My Fake Fiancé". The premise of the film was that two financially broke people arranged their marriage to each other, motivated primarily by the idea of getting cash and gifts from their families and friends. But a brief cohabitation resulted in them developing genuine feelings for each other. The film was the most "the most-watched television film of the ratings season", and was unexpectedly popular with key demographics. Motivating the network ABC Family to cast Lawrence and Hard as the co-leads in an upcoming sitcom.
From 2010 to 2015, Lawrence played the male lead in the sitcom "Melissa & Joey". The premise of the series was that character Joseph Paul "Joe" Longo (Lawrence) was a formerly successful business executive and commodities trader, who lost his job, money and marriage due to a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by the brother-in-law of young politician Melanie Alison "Mel" Burke (Melissa Joan Hart). Following the disappearance of her brother-in-law and the incarceration of her sister, Melanie became the legal guardian of her niece and nephew. Having no idea how to raise two kids on her own, Melanie hired Joe as a male nanny and live-in housekeeper. The two adults eventually started dating each other, and were eventually married. The series lasted for 4 seasons and 104 episodes. The series was among the highest-rated sitcoms during its first three seasons. Ratings declined during its fourth season, along with a general decline in the numbers of television network subscribers at the time. The network decided to cancel the series.
In 2011, Lawrence revived his singing career. He released the singles "Rolled" and "Give It To Ya" during this year. He released several more singles between 2013 and 2022. He also released the albums "Imagine" (2017) and "Guilty" (2022). In 2017, Lawrence formed the music band "Still 3" with his brothers Matt and Andy.
In July 2017, Lawrence and his wife Chandie Yawn-Nelson both filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Their case was reportedly settled in April, 2018, though its details were not publicized. The couple filed for divorce in 2020. They had been married since 2005, and had been acquainted to each other since their teen years. In August 2021, Lawrence was engaged to actress Samantha Cope. They were married to each other on May 1, 2022. This is Lawrence's third marriage, and he has two children from previous marriages.
By 2022, Lawrence was 46-years-old. He has not had recurring acting roles for several years, though he continues appearing in guest-star roles in several television series. His singing career is still ongoing, and he keeps releasing new material. Lawrence is no longer a teen idol, but his career has endured for 40 years. He remains popular due to several of his past roles.- Actor
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First known as a rapper who became one of the more prominent voices in hip-hop's new millennium renaissance, Common later transitioned into acting. He was born in Chicago, and is the son of educator Dr. Mahalia Ann Hines and Lonnie Lynn, an ABA basketball player turned youth counselor.
On October 6, 1992, Common released his first LP, "Can I Borrow A Dollar?" under the Common Sense moniker. Tracks like "Charm's Alarm" and "Breaker 1-9" established him as a lyricist with wit, street-smarts, and love for extended similes, while tracks like "Heidi Hoe" would touch on the misogyny that would surface sparingly on future work.
In 1994 he released "Resurrection", notable for the smooth 'Large Professor' produced title cut as well as "I Used To Love H.E.R.", an ode to hip-hop. This album further increased his underground reputation while giving the hip-hop nation a new solid conscientious voice in a year that was excellent for underground artists (Nas, Jeru the Damaja, Digable Planet, et al.)
After a name change brought on by a lawsuit, Common reemerged in 1997 with "One Day It'll All Make Sense". With guests ranging from Erykah Badu to Canibus to De La Soul and production help from mainstays No I.D. and Dug Infinite, the album had a distinctly underground flair. His big mainstream breakthrough album was yet to come.
After an appearance on The Roots smash 1999 album, "Things Fall Apart," Common moved to MCA Records. He soon was in the studio collaborating with the Okayplayer collective and with help from the forward-thinking production troupe Questlove (aka Questlove), J Dilla, James Poyser, et al), he released his fourth album, "Like Water For Chocolate" in the spring of 2000. With its varied sonic plateau (Afrobeat, funk, and old-school soul) it was much different from previous outings. On the strength of tracks like the 'DJ Premier' produced banger "The 6th Sense", the album was a success, becoming a worthy addition to "The Next Movement".
In 2003 he released "Electric Circus". The album, a hip-hop/funk/soul/rock/psychedelia hybrid, polarized hip-hop fans like no other album has in recent memory. Common has also chosen to redefine himself, swearing off the alcohol, marijuana, and fornication that he had once indulged in.
Also in 2003 he appeared in a TV sitcom episode. With only a couple minor roles between 2003 and 2004, in January of 2007 he made his big screen debut.- Actor
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Talented and highly capable character actor Geoffrey Lewis, with rustic (sometimes sour-faced) looks, grew up in Rhode Island but was moved out to California at the age of ten. Lewis was very keen on the dramatic arts at high school, but often preferred to put on his own one-man shows rather than participate in larger school productions. His drama teacher took note of his growing talent and referred him to the Plymouth Theater in Massachusetts, where he appeared in summer stock. Afterwards he appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. After spending considerable time traveling, in both the United States and abroad, Lewis turned his attention back to his love of the dramatic arts, and scored his first minor movie role in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972) as a somewhat jovial but deadly cowhand. He then cropped up as gangster Harry Pierpont in Dillinger (1973) before beginning a long association with Clint Eastwood, starting off with High Plains Drifter (1973), then as kind-hearted thief Eddie Goody in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), as Clint's buddy Orville Boggs in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), then as a henpecked husband in Bronco Billy (1980), as Ricky Z in Pink Cadillac (1989), and in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) also as patient Michael Kahn in Disturbed (1990).
Equally busy on the small screen, he has guest-starred in dozens of episodes of high profile TV series. Additionally, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the series Flo (1980). Apart from his extensive film and TV exposure, Lewis is also a member of the rather unique musical/storytelling "Celestial Navigations," along with award-winning composer songwriter Geoff Levin. Their performances have received terrific reviews from some of Hollywood's top actors and noted musicians, including Chick Corea. As Geoffrey Lewis approaches his seventh decade, nothing seems likely to slow down this multi-talented actor, storyteller and engaging entertainer!- Actor
- Director
Fiery, forceful and intimidating character actor James Tolkan has carved out a nice little niche for himself in both movies and television alike as a formidable portrayer of fierce and flinty hard-boiled tough guy types. James Stewart Tolkan was born on June 20, 1931 in Calumet, Michigan. His father, Ralph M. Tolkan, was a cattle dealer. James attended the University of Iowa, Coe College and Eastern Arizona College. After serving a year-long stint in the United States Navy, Tolkan went to New York and studied acting with both Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler at the Actors Studio. Short and bald, with beady, intense eyes, a wiry, compact, muscular build, a gruff, jarring, high-decibel voice, and an aggressive, confrontational, blunt-as-a-battle-ax, rough-around-the-edges demeanor, Tolkan has been often cast as rugged, cynical no-nonsense cops, mean, domineering authority figures, and various ruthless and dangerous criminals.
Tolkan first began acting in movies in the late 1960s and was highly effective in two pictures for Sidney Lumet: He was a rabidly homophobic police lieutenant in the superbly gritty Serpico (1973) and a sneaky district attorney in the equally excellent Prince of the City (1981). Best known as the obnoxiously overzealous high school principal Gerard Strickland in the Back to the Future films, Tolkan's other most memorable roles include Napolean in Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975), a ramrod army officer in WarGames (1983), mayor Robert Culp's mordant, wisecracking assistant in Turk 182 (1985), the hard-nosed Stinger in Top Gun (1986), the choleric Detective Lubric in Masters of the Universe (1987), meek mob accountant Numbers in Dick Tracy (1990), and Wesley Snipes' bullish superior in Boiling Point (1993).
James has had recurring parts on the television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001) (he also directed two episodes), Mary (1985), Cobra (1993), The Hat Squad (1992) and Remington Steele (1982). Among the television series James has done guest spots on are Naked City (1958), Hill Street Blues (1981), Miami Vice (1984), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), The Equalizer (1985), The Wonder Years (1988) and The Pretender (1996). Besides his film and television work, Tolkan has also performed on stage in productions of such plays as "Between Two Thieves", "Wings", "One Tennis Shoe", "The Front Page", "Twelve Angry Men", "Full Circle", "The Tempest", "Golda", "The Silent Partner" and the original 1984 Broadway production of David Mamet's "Glengary, Glen Ross". When he isn't acting, James Tolkan spends his spare time collecting folk art.- Actor
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Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in music and mechanics, but was an otherwise bored student; this resulted in being held back a grade. In 1949, the year he is said to have graduated from high school, his parents and younger sister Jeanne moved to Seattle. Clint spent a couple years in the Pacific Northwest himself, operating log broncs in Springfield, Oregon, with summer gigs life-guarding in Renton, Washington. Returning to California in 1951, he did a two-year stint at Fort Ord Military Reservation and later enrolled at L.A. City College, but dropped out to pursue acting.
During the mid-1950s he landed uncredited bit parts in such B-films as Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) while digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to supplement his income. In 1958, he landed his first consequential acting role in the long-running TV show Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Although only a secondary player the first seven seasons, he was promoted to series star when Fleming departed--both literally and figuratively--in its final year, along the way becoming a recognizable face to television viewers around the country.
Eastwood's big-screen breakthrough came as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's trilogy of excellent spaghetti westerns: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The movies were shown exclusively in Italy during their respective copyright years with Enrico Maria Salerno providing the voice of Eastwood's character, finally getting American distribution in 1967-68. As the last film racked up respectable grosses, Eastwood, 37, rose from a barely registering actor to sought-after commodity in just a matter of months. Again a success was the late-blooming star's first U.S.-made western, Hang 'Em High (1968). He followed that up with the lead role in Coogan's Bluff (1968) (the loose inspiration for the TV series McCloud (1970)), before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). In Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and Kelly's Heroes (1970), Eastwood leaned in an experimental direction by combining tough-guy action with offbeat humor.
1971 proved to be his busiest year in film. He starred as a sleazy Union soldier in The Beguiled (1971) to critical acclaim, and made his directorial debut with the classic erotic thriller Play Misty for Me (1971). His role as the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971), meanwhile, boosted him to cultural icon status and helped popularize the loose-cannon cop genre. Eastwood put out a steady stream of entertaining movies thereafter: the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (his first of six onscreen collaborations with then live-in love Sondra Locke), the Dirty Harry sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976), the action-packed road adventures Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and The Gauntlet (1977), and the prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979). He branched out into the comedy genre in 1978 with Every Which Way But Loose (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time; taking inflation into account, it still is. In short, The Eiger Sanction (1975) notwithstanding, the 1970s were nonstop success for Eastwood.
Eastwood kicked off the 1980s with Any Which Way You Can (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), was the highest-grossing film of the franchise and spawned his trademark catchphrase: "Make my day." He also starred in Bronco Billy (1980), Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), City Heat (1984), Pale Rider (1985) and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Honkytonk Man (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988, he did his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch the previous films had. About this time, with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990), it seemed Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on low-key projects, directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker that earned him a Golden Globe, and starring in and directing White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston (both films had a limited release).
Eastwood bounced back big time with his dark western Unforgiven (1992), which garnered the then 62-year-old his first ever Academy Award nomination (Best Actor), and an Oscar win for Best Director. Churning out a quick follow-up hit, he took on the secret service in In the Line of Fire (1993), then accepted second billing for the first time since 1970 in the interesting but poorly received A Perfect World (1993) with Kevin Costner. Next was a love story, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), where Eastwood surprised audiences with a sensitive performance alongside none other than Meryl Streep. But it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. Subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Absolute Power (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000) did well enough, while True Crime (1999) and Blood Work (2002) were received badly, as was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), which he directed but didn't appear in.
Eastwood surprised again in the mid-2000s, returning to the top of the A-list with Million Dollar Baby (2004). Also starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, the hugely successful drama won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. He scored his second Best Actor nomination, too. His next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), earned almost $30 million in its opening weekend and was his highest grosser unadjusted for inflation. 2012 saw him in a rare lighthearted movie, Trouble with the Curve (2012), as well as a reality show, Mrs. Eastwood & Company (2012).
Between acting jobs, he chalked up an impressive list of credits behind the camera. He directed Mystic River (2003) (in which Sean Penn and Tim Robbins gave Oscar-winning performances), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), Changeling (2008) (a vehicle for Angelina Jolie), Invictus (2009) (again with Freeman), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) (2014's top box office champ), Sully (2016) (starring Tom Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger) and The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Back on screens after a considerable absence, he played an unlikely drug courier in The Mule (2018), which reached the top of the box office with a nine-figure gross, then directed Richard Jewell (2019). At age 91, Eastwood made history as the oldest actor to star above the title in a movie with the release of Cry Macho (2021).
Away from the limelight, Eastwood has led an aberrant existence and is described by biographer Patrick McGilligan as a cunning manipulator of the media. His convoluted slew of partners and children are now somewhat factually acknowledged, but for the first three decades of his celebrity, his personal life was kept top secret, and several of his families were left out of the official narrative. The actor refuses to disclose his exact number of offspring even to this day. He had a longtime relationship with similarly abstruse co-star Locke (who died aged 74 in 2018, though for her entire public life she masqueraded about being younger), and has fathered at least eight children by at least six different women in an unending string of liaisons, many of which overlapped. He has been married only twice, however, with a mere three of his progeny coming from those unions.
His known children are: Laurie Murray (b. 1954), whose mother is unidentified; Kimber Eastwood (b. 1964) with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis; Kyle Eastwood (b. 1968) and Alison Eastwood (b. 1972) with his first ex-wife, Margaret Neville Johnson; Scott Eastwood (b. 1986) and Kathryn Eastwood (b. 1988) with stewardess Jacelyn Reeves; Francesca Eastwood (b. 1993) with actress Frances Fisher; and Morgan Eastwood (b. 1996) with his second ex-wife, Dina Eastwood. The entire time that he lived with Locke she was legally married to sculptor Gordon Anderson.
Eastwood has real estate holdings in Bel-Air, La Quinta, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cassel (in remote northern California), Idaho's Sun Valley and Kihei, Hawaii.- Actor
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One of Hollywood's finest character / "Method" actors, Eli Wallach was in demand for over 60 years (first film/TV role was 1949) on stage and screen, and has worked alongside the world's biggest stars, including Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Peter O'Toole, and Al Pacino, to name but a few.
Wallach was born on 7 December 1915 in Brooklyn, NY, to Jewish parents who emigrated from Poland, and was one of the few Jewish kids in his mostly Italian neighborhood. His parents, Bertha (Schorr) and Abraham Wallach, owned a candy store, Bertha's Candy Store. He went on to graduate with a B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin, but gained his dramatic training with the Actors Studio and the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his debut on Broadway in 1945, and won a Tony Award in 1951 for portraying Alvaro Mangiacavallo in the Tennessee Williams play "The Rose Tattoo".
Wallach made a strong screen debut in 1956 in the film version of the Tennessee Williams play Baby Doll (1956), shined as "Dancer", the nattily dressed hitman, in director Don Siegel's film-noir classic The Lineup (1958), and co-starred in the heist film Seven Thieves (1960). Director John Sturges then cast Wallach as vicious Mexican bandit Calvera in The Magnificent Seven (1960), the western adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai (1954). The Misfits (1961), in the star-spangled western opus How the West Was Won (1962), the underrated WW2 film The Victors (1963), as a kidnapper in The Moon-Spinners (1964), in the sea epic Lord Jim (1965) and in the romantic comedy How to Steal a Million (1966).
Looking for a third lead actor in the final episode of the "Dollars Trilogy", Italian director Sergio Leone cast the versatile Wallach as the lying, two-faced, money-hungry (but somehow lovable) bandit "Tuco" in the spectacular The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) (aka "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"), arguably his most memorable performance. Wallach kept busy throughout the remainder of the '60s and into the '70s with good roles in Mackenna's Gold (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), Crazy Joe (1974), The Deep (1977) and as Steve McQueen's bail buddy in The Hunter (1980).
The 1980s was an interesting period for Wallach, as he was regularly cast as an aging doctor, a Mafia figure or an over-the-hill hitman, such as in The Executioner's Song (1982), Our Family Honor (1985), Tough Guys (1986), Nuts (1987), The Two Jakes (1990) and as the candy-addicted "Don Altabello" in The Godfather Part III (1990). At 75+ years of age, Wallach's quality of work was still first class and into the 1990s and beyond, he has remained in demand. He lent fine support to Vendetta: Secrets of a Mafia Bride (1990), Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992), Naked City: Justice with a Bullet (1998) and Keeping the Faith (2000). Most recently Wallach showed up as a fast-talking liquor store owner in Mystic River (2003) and in the comedic drama King of the Corner (2004).
In early 2005, Eli Wallach released his much anticipated autobiography, "The Good, The Bad And Me: In My Anecdotage", an enjoyable reading from one of the screen's most inventive and enduring actors.
Eli Wallach was very much a family man who remained married to his wife Anne Jackson for 66 years. When Wallach died at 98, in 2014, in Manhattan, NY, he was survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.- Actor
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Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a train accident when he was two, and Robert and his siblings (including brother John Mitchum, later also an actor) were raised by his mother and stepfather (a British army major) in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware. An early contempt for authority led to discipline problems, and Mitchum spent good portions of his teen years adventuring on the open road. He later claimed that on one of these trips, at the age of 14, he was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to a Georgia chain gang, from which he escaped. Working a wide variety of jobs (including ghostwriter for astrologist Carroll Righter), Mitchum discovered acting in a Long Beach, California, amateur theater company. He worked at Lockheed Aircraft, where job stress caused him to suffer temporary blindness. About this time he began to obtain small roles in films, appearing in dozens within a very brief time. In 1945, he was cast as Lt. Walker in Story of G.I. Joe (1945) and received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His star ascended rapidly, and he became an icon of 1940s film noir, though equally adept at westerns and romantic dramas. His apparently lazy style and seen-it-all demeanor proved highly attractive to men and women, and by the 1950s, he was a true superstar despite a brief prison term for marijuana usage in 1949, which seemed to enhance rather than diminish his "bad boy" appeal. Though seemingly dismissive of "art," he worked in tremendously artistically thoughtful projects such as Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) and even co-wrote and composed an oratorio produced at the Hollywood Bowl by Orson Welles. A master of accents and seemingly unconcerned about his star image, he played in both forgettable and unforgettable films with unswerving nonchalance, leading many to overlook the prodigious talent he can bring to a project that he finds compelling. He moved into television in the 1980s as his film opportunities diminished, winning new fans with The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988). His sons James Mitchum and Christopher Mitchum are actors, as is his grandson Bentley Mitchum. His last film was James Dean: Race with Destiny (1997) with Casper Van Dien as James Dean.- Actor
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Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie job by trading his accounting services for a role. In short time he became one of the most memorable supporting players in Hollywood, thanks not only to his near-demented screen persona but also to an out-of-kilter left eye, sightless from a childhood fight. He appeared with great aplomb in Westerns and gangster films alike, and in later years played to wonderful effect in comedic roles.- Actor
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Pierson was born and raised in Chicago. After graduating from high school, he moved to New York to attend Fordham University. He earned a Bachelor's Degree and went on to the Yale School of Drama where, in 1980, he earned his masters. He began his career in summer stock outside of Chicago. In 1983, he landed the role of "Frank Ryan" on ABC's daytime drama Ryan's Hope (1975), a show he starred on for three years. He also appeared in several other daytime serials including Texas (1980), Another World (1964) and One Life to Live (1968). On prime-time TV, he has guest starred on such series as Grace Under Fire (1993), Party of Five (1994), New York Undercover (1994), Against the Law (1990), Kate & Allie (1984) and Law & Order (1990). His feature film credits include Two Bits (1995) with Al Pacino and he co-starred with Alan Arkin in Necessary Parties (1988) (TV)_ . Pierson has amassed extensive credits on stage, including the Broadway production of "Tricks of the Trade" in which he appeared with George C. Scott. His other stage work includes "The Gamblers" for the American Stage Company; "Stringbean" at the California Theatre; and "Speed the Plow" for the Philadelphis Theatre Company. Additional Productions include; "Otherwise Engaged", "Glengarry Glen Ross", "American Buffalo", "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", all for the Virginia Stage Company, "Measure for Measure", "Timon of Athens", "UbuRex" and "The Bundle" at the Yale Repertory Theatre and "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Pennsylvania Centre Stage. Pierson divides his time between Los Angeles and New York, where he lives.- Jake Cherry was born on 15 September 1996 in New Jersey, USA. He is an actor, known for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), Night at the Museum (2006) and Friends with Money (2006).
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Cliff Curtis was born in Rotorua, New Zealand, on July 27, 1968.
He is of New Zealand Maori descent (with Ngati Hauiti and Te Arawa tribal affiliations). He enrolled at the New Zealand Drama School, and then the Teatro Dmitri Scuola in Switzerland.
After returning to New Zealand from Europe, he was cast in The Piano (1993). Subsequent roles in New Zealand include the camp melodrama Desperate Remedies (1992), the grueling urban drama Once Were Warriors (1994), and the lighthearted comedy Jubilee (2000).
In Hollywood, Curtis has played a range of different roles and ethnicities in films. He plays a Colombian in Blow (2001), an Arab in Three Kings (1999) and The Insider (1999), a Latino in Training Day (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003), and a drug dealer of ambiguous ethnicity in Bringing Out the Dead (1999). However, he is probably best known for his role as Paikea's father Porourangi, in Whale Rider (2002).- Music Artist
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Sean "Diddy" Combs has cemented himself as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and cultural icons of all-time. Standing as a respected symbol of relentless ambition, for three decades Combs' unrivaled influence is only matched by an unparalleled ability to innovate, evolve, and consistently defy convention.
Combs began his career in the music industry as an intern at Uptown Records, where he quickly rose through the ranks and played a pivotal role in launching the careers of Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. By 1993, he had established Bad Boy Entertainment by the following year, partnered with Clive Davis's Arista BMG in a 50/50 joint venture. The label's debut release, Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready to Die," set the stage for a roster of memorable artists including Faith Evans, 112, Mase, Total, and The Lox, and later included MGK, French Montana, Janelle Monáe among many others. For over 30 years, the label has amassed countless Grammy Awards, Billboard number ones, and built an extensive catalog of classic hits, culminating in over 400 million albums sold and over 3 billion streams to date.
After the tragic and untimely death of The Notorious B.I.G. in 1996, Combs paid tribute to his late friend by stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist, releasing "No Way Out" in 1997. His career has since soared, earning him numerous accolades and awards, including multiple Grammy Awards, a slew of number 1 hits, and global recognition. He has produced hundreds of songs and has collaborated with the biggest names in music and performed on stages around the world. In 2022, Combs announced his official return to music with the launch of his new all-R&B label, Love Records. That same year, he took center stage at the Billboard Music Awards as the host, performer, and executive producer. He was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards and by year's end he celebrated a milestone with his song "Gotta Move On" featuring Bryson Tiller, marking his 11th number one hit. In 2023, Combs continued to make significant contributions to the industry by making the unprecedented move of reassigning his portion of Bad Boy Publishing to the artists, writers, and producers who helped him build the label. That same year, the Apollo Theater honored him with an Icon Award, and he received the MTV VMA Global Icon Award, where he performed a medley of hits. He released his critically acclaimed "Love Album: Off the Grid" under Love Records, which climbed to the top of the charts and earned him a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album.
Combs has appeared in dozens of films and is recognized for his role as both a television and film producer. Marking his acting debut in 2001 with a heartfelt performance as Lawrence Musgrave, Halle Berry's husband in the critically acclaimed film "Monster's Ball." He showcased his versatility in 2007 by playing the leading role in "A Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway, later reprising this role for its ABC television adaptation, which he also executive produced. This adaptation earned three Emmy nominations, and Combs received an NAACP Award for Best Actor. In 2010, he delivered a memorable performance as Sergio in "Get Him to the Greek," alongside Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. His role as an executive producer is equally notable, particularly for the Academy Award-winning documentary "Undefeated" in 2012, the critically acclaimed film "DOPE," and "Two Distant Strangers," which won an Oscar in 2021. In television, he has produced numerous shows, including 12 seasons of "Making the Band," multiple seasons of "I Want to Work for Diddy," and "The Four." Combs expanded his influence beyond music and entertainment building a successful portfolio of businesses under Combs Global. He launched the Sean John brand in 1998, steering it to success for over two decades, earning many accolades including a prestigious CFDA award until its sale in 2016. In a strategic move, Combs reacquired Sean John in 2021 from Global Brands Group, with plans to reconceptualize the brand. Marking this new era, he unveiled a couture look at the 2023 Met Gala. In 2007, Combs partnered with Diageo on a strategic alliance for Cîroc Vodka. They expanded that partnership in 2013 with the acquisition of luxury tequila brand DeLeón Tequila. After a successful 15 year relationship, the partnership ended in 2024. Combs launched Revolt Media & TV, the first Black-owned multi-platform cable music network in 2013. The network now reaches over 80 million homes and 20 million viewers digitally, with carriers like Time Warner, Xfinity, and Verizon Fios. Revolt attracts more than 50 million young adults through television, digital properties, social and mobile. Additionally, Combs has fitness water brand Aquahydrate, with Mark Walberg. In 2023, Combs launched Empower Global, a global online Black marketplace.
Combs applied the same drive and entrepreneurial spirit from his entertainment and business success to his philanthropic work and political activism. He has given millions of dollars to support charitable and social causes focused on the underserved and Black communities across the nation, particularly in education and entrepreneurship. Combs launched several initiatives to help the underserved, including Our Fair Share in 2020, a financial readiness platform designed to help diverse business owners and entrepreneurs secure capital. The following year, he introduced the Excellence Program, an internship initiative with Endeavor aimed at students aspiring to work in the entertainment industry. In 2023, Combs deepened his commitment to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with a $1 million donation to Howard University, his alma mater. He also unveiled a $1 million investment fund at Invest Fest in Atlanta to foster financial literacy and economic empowerment. Furthermore, he demonstrated his support for HBCUs by donating $1 million to the Jackson State University Football program, underscoring his commitment to the growth and support of HBCU institutions and their enduring legacy.- Actor
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Andrew McCarthy grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, until he was 15, when his family moved to Bernardsville. He attended the Pingry School, a prep school, where he performed in plays and musicals and played basketball. At 18, he went to New York University as a theatre major and wound up as the lead in the 1983 film Class (1983). He also studied at the Circle in Square Theater School in New York. He has been in several on and off Broadway shows, such as 'Long Day's Journey', as well as over 40 movies. He continues to show his talented acting abilities in upcoming movies and shows.
Since the mid-2000s, McCarthy has had a second career as a travel writer for such publications as National Geographic Traveler, Travel+Leisure, Afar, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Men's Journal, and Slate, among others. In 2010, the Society of American Travel Writers awarded McCarthy their Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism prize and named him Travel Journalist of the Year.- Actor
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American actor Lee Marvin was born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. in New York City. After leaving school aged 18, Marvin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in August 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II and after being wounded in action and spending a year being treated in naval hospitals, he received a medical discharge. Marvin's military decorations include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon. Returning to the United States it was while working as a plumbers apprentice, repairing a toilet at a local community theater, that he was asked to stand in for an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He immediately caught the acting bug, moving to Greenwich Village to study at the American Theater Wing and began making appearances in stage productions and TV shows. His film debut came in 'You're in the Navy Now' (1951) but it was his portrayal of villains in 'The Big Heat' (1953) and 'The Wild One' (1953) that brought him to the attention of the public and critical acclaim. Now firmly established as a screen bad guy, he began shifting towards leading man roles and landed the lead role in the popular TV series 'M Squad' (1957-1960). Returning to feature films, Marvin had prominent roles in 'The Comancheros' (1961), 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962), 'Donovan's Reef' (1963) and 'The Killers' (1964) but it was his dual comic role in the offbeat western 'Cat Ballou' (1965) that made him a star and won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was now a much sought-after actor and starred in a number of movies as a new kind of leading man including 'The Professionals' (1966), 'The Dirty Dozen' (1967), 'Point Blank' (1967), 'Hell in the Pacific' (1968), 'Monte Walsh' (1970), 'Prime Cut' (1972), 'Emperor of the North' (1973) and 'The Spikes Gang' (1974).Later film credits include 'Shout at the Devil' (1976), 'Avalanche Express' (1979), 'The Big Red One' (1980), 'Death Hunt' (1981) and 'Gorky Park' (1983). His final film role was alongside Chuck Norris in 'The Delta Force' (1986). Lee Marvin died of a heart attack in August 1987. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Marvin paved the way for leading men that didn't fit the traditional mould. An iconic American tough guy and one of the 20th Century's greatest Hollywood stars.- Actor
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Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.
Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."
Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with Night Moves (1975) and Bite the Bullet (1975), or fall to new depths with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Young Frankenstein (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Extreme Measures (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in Crimson Tide (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and The Quick and the Dead (1995).- Actor
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Louis Diamond Phillips is an American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film La Bamba (1987). For Stand and Deliver (1988), Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won an Independent Spirit Award. Phillips made his Broadway debut with the 1996 revival of The King and I, earning a Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of King Mongkut of Siam. Phillips' other notable films include Young Guns (1988), Young Guns II (1990), Courage Under Fire (1996), The Big Hit (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Che (2008), and The 33 (2015). In the television series Longmire, he played a main character named Henry Standing Bear. He played New York City Police Lieutenant Gil Arroyo on Prodigal Son on FOX from 2019 to 2021.- Matthew Cowles was born on 28 September 1944 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Shutter Island (2010), All My Children (1970) and City by the Sea (2002). He was married to Christine Baranski and Kathleen Dezina. He died on 22 May 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Johnny Knoxville was born on 11 March 1971 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). He has been married to Naomi Nelson since 24 September 2010. They have two children. He was previously married to Melanie Lynn Cates.- Actor
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Robert Forster was born Robert Wallace Foster, Jr. in Rochester, New York, to Grace Dorothy (Montanarella) and Robert Wallace Foster, Sr., who worked as an elephant trainer and baking supply company executive. He was of English, Irish, and Italian descent. Forster first became interested in acting while attending Rochester's Madison High School, where he performed as a song-and-dance man in musical revues. After graduating in 1959, Forster attended Heidelberg College, Alfred University and the University of Rochester on football scholarships and continued to perform in student theatrical revues.
After earning a BA in Psychology from Rochester in 1963, Forster took an apprenticeship at an East Rochester theater where he performed in such plays as "West Side Story". He moved to New York City in 1965, where his first big break came when he landed the lead in the two-character play "Mrs. Dally Has a Lover", opposite Arlene Francis. However, after the play ran its course work was hard to find in the theater. Forster returned to Rochester, where he worked as a substitute teacher and construction worker until an agent from 20th Century-Fox offered him a five-picture deal. His movie debut was a small part in the drama Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando. Forster went on to appear in small and minor roles alongside some top Hollywood actors in films like The Stalking Moon (1968) and Medium Cool (1969), and a large part in Justine (1969). Although he continued to act in feature films, he took the part of a hard-boiled detective in the short-lived TV series Banyon (1971).
Forster also appeared in notable parts in The Black Hole (1979), Avalanche (1978) and as the lead in the cult horror flick Alligator (1980), and played the part of a factory worker-turned-vigilante in the thriller Vigilante (1982). Forster also took the lead as a taxi driver in Walking the Edge (1985) by director Norbert Meisel. A series of action flicks followed, the most notable being The Delta Force (1986), starring Chuck Norris. By the late 1980s Forster's acting career had begun to slide, and he was getting less and less work; if there was any, he would be cast in small parts playing villains. Forster then began to work as a motivational speaker and an acting coach in Hollywood film schools.
However, in the mid-1990s, his career was resurrected by writer-director Quentin Tarantino, a big fan of Forster's early work, who offered him an audition for a part in his latest movie. After a seven-hour audition, Tarantino cast Forster as the tough but sympathetic bail bondsman Max Cherry in Jackie Brown (1997), which netted him an Academy Award nomination and a measure of recognition, both nationwide and within his own profession, landing him more high-profile roles in such films as All the Rage (1999), Gus Van Sant's Psycho (1998)--a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film--and Supernova (2000). Forster continued to act in many big-budget Hollywood productions for the next two decades.
Forster died on October 11, 2019, in Los Angeles, California, aged 78. His last film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019), was released on the day of his death. He is survived by four children (Bobby, Elizabeth, Kate and Maeghen), four grandchildren (Tess, Liam, Jack and Olivia), and his long-time partner, Denise Grayson. Denise has been Robert's long-time partner and they had been together for 16 years till Robert passed away at home in Los Angeles surrounded by family.- Actor
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Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa was born on August 1, 1979, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son of Coni (Lemke), a photographer, and Joseph Momoa, a painter. His father is of Native Hawaiian and Samoan descent; and his mother, who is from Iowa, is of German, Irish, and Native American ancestry. Jason was raised in Norwalk, Iowa, by his mother. After high school, he moved to Hawaii, where he landed a lead role, beating out of thousands of hopefuls in the TV series Baywatch (1989) (known as "Baywatch Hawaii" in its 10th season). When the show ended, he spent the next couple of years traveling around the world. In 2001, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to pursue an acting career. In 2004, after the short-lived TV series North Shore (2004), he was cast as the popular character "Ronon Dex" in the TV series Stargate: Atlantis (2004), which achieved a cult-like following. In 2010, he appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), playing the Dothraki king, Khal Drogo. To illustrate to the producers that he was Khal Drogo, he performed the Haka, a traditional war dance of the Maori of New Zealand. The audition was with the same casting director who was casting the titular role in the reboot of Conan the Barbarian (2011). Four weeks after being cast as the popular Robert E. Howard character, Momoa began shooting in Bulgaria. His approach, like that of the filmmakers, was to pull from the eight decades of comics and stories as well as the Frank Frazetta images rather than the hugely popular 1982 movie. Jason has a production company, Pride of Gypsies, in which he is expanding his career from actor to filmmaker. He has directed a couple of short films and is working on his feature film debut Road to Paloma (2014), which is pulled from a series of stories that he's been developing over the years, which he calls the Brown Bag Diaries: Ridin' the Blinds in B Minor (2010). Jason lives with his wife, actress Lisa Bonet, with whom he has two children, Lola and Nakoa-Wolf.- Actor
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Richard Donald Crenna was born in Los Angeles, California, into a modest-income family, the only child of Edith J. (Pollette) and Domenick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent. His mother managed a small hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where Richard and his family resided.
He began his career when he was eleven years old, playing the dimmer half of two youngsters called Herman and Sam in the Los Angeles radio show "Boy Scout Jamboree". He stayed with the series on and off for seventeen years, doing hundreds of other radio shows in between, including voicing Ougy Pringle in "A Date with Judy" (1946). During this time, he graduated from high school with letters in track and basketball, and later enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he majored in Theater Arts.
He was cast as Walter Denton in the radio show "Our Miss Brooks" and stayed in the part when the show moved from radio to television (Our Miss Brooks (1952)). The role called for a gangly, awkward, cracked-voice adolescent. Crenna was a tall, graceful man with a rich voice, yet his acting skills were such that he was easily able to fulfill the character's requirements, leading many viewers to believe that he actually was of high school age, when in fact he was 26 years old at the time. Crenna went on to star in another early television series, The Real McCoys (1957), but it was his role as the dedicated state legislator in the short-lived Slattery's People (1964) that finally established him both as a dramatic actor and a leading man. From that moment on, he was rarely absent from either television or motion pictures. In 1985, Crenna was awarded an Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor for The Rape of Richard Beck (1985). During the 1980s, he also became known for playing Colonel Trautman in the Rambo films (First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Rambo III (1988)). His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is in a prime position, opposite Mann's Chinese Theatre, two stars down from his Rambo co-star Sylvester Stallone.
Crenna married shortly after his graduation from USC, but the marriage was short-lived. He met and married his last wife in the late 1950s. Richard Crenna died at age 76 of heart failure on January 17, 2003 in Los Angeles, with more than 70 major motion pictures to his credit.- Actor
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Scott Glenn was born January 26, 1939, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hope Elizabeth and Theodore Glenn, a salesman. As he grew up in Appalachia, his health was poor; he was bedridden for a year and doctors predicted he would limp for the rest of his life. During long periods of illness, Glenn was reading a lot and "dreaming of becoming Lord Byron". He challenged his illness by intense training programs and eventually got rid of his limp.
After graduating high school, Glenn entered William and Mary College where he majored in English. He spent three years in the Marines and then tried to combine his passion for storytelling with his passion for adventures by working for five months as a criminal reporter at the Kenosha Evening News. Glenn planned to become an author but found out he had "problems with dialogues", so he decided to overcome it by studying acting. In 1966, he headed to New York where he joined George Morrison acting class. He helped in directing student plays to pay for his studies and appeared onstage in La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club productions. Soon after arriving in New York, Glenn became a fan of martial arts. In 1968, he joined The Actors Studio and began working in professional theater and TV. In 1970, James Bridges offered him his first movie work in The Baby Maker (1970).
Glenn left for L.A., where he spent seven of the "most miserable years of [his] life". He couldn't find interesting film roles and, doing brief TV stints, he felt "like a person who had to paint the Sistine Chapel with a house-painter's brush". On a brighter side, he worked episodically with Jonathan Demme (Angels Hard as They Come (1971), Fighting Mad (1976)), Robert Altman (Nashville (1975)) and Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now (1979)). In 1978, Glenn got tired of Hollywood and moved his family to Ketchum, Idaho, where he worked as a barman, huntsman and mountain ranger for two years (occasionally acting in Seattle stage productions). James Bridges once more changed the course of Glenn's life in 1980 when he offered him the role of John Travolta's rival in Urban Cowboy (1980) and made him a star. Glenn's acting abilities and physical presence helped him to excel both in action (Silverado (1985), The Challenge (1982)) and drama (The Right Stuff (1983), Countdown to Looking Glass (1984), The River (1984)) as he alternately played good guys and bad guys.
In the beginning of the '90s, his career was at its peak - he appeared in such indisputable masterpieces as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). Established as one of Hollywood's most solid and respected character actors he has appeared in a wide variety of films, such as the black Freudian farce Reckless (1995), the tragicomedy Edie & Pen (1996) and Ken Loach's socio-political declaration Carla's Song (1996), alternating mainstream (Courage Under Fire (1996), Absolute Power (1997)) with independent projects (Lesser Prophets (1997) and Larga distancia (1997)), written by his daughter Dakota Glenn), and TV (Naked City: A Killer Christmas (1998)). Continuing into the 21st century, Glenn has also appeared in Training Day (2001), W. (2008) (as Donald Rumsfeld), Secretariat (2010), Sucker Punch (2011), The Paperboy (2012), and two of the Bourne films: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Bourne Legacy (2012).- Actor
- Producer
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Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and worked there until he was injured. In the Army during WWII he was introduced to the USO and to acting. His first film was The Killers (1946), and that made him a star. He was a self-taught actor who learned the business as he went along. He set up his own production company in 1948 with Harold Hecht and James Hill to direct his career. He played many different roles in pictures as varied as The Crimson Pirate (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), Elmer Gantry (1960) and Atlantic City (1980).
His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, produced such films as Paddy Chayefsky's Marty (1955) (Oscar winner 1955) and The Catered Affair (1956). In the 1980s he appeared as a supporting player in a number of movies, such as Local Hero (1983) and Field of Dreams (1989). However, it will be the sound of his voice, the way that he laughed, and the larger-than-life characters he played that will always be remembered.- Steven Ford was born on 19 May 1956 in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He is an actor, known for Starship Troopers (1997), Black Hawk Down (2001) and When Harry Met Sally... (1989).
- Actor
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Enrico Colantoni was born on 14 February 1963 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for Galaxy Quest (1999), Veronica Mars (2004) and Contagion (2011). He has been married to Rosanna Francioni since 11 November 2011. They have four children. He was previously married to Nancy Snyder.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
George Segal was born on February 13, 1934 in New York City, New York, to Fannie Blanche (Bodkin) and George Segal Sr., a malt and hop agent. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. After a stint in the military, he made his bones as a stage actor before being cast in his first meaty film role in The Young Doctors (1961). His turns in Ship of Fools (1965) and the eponymous King Rat (1965) heralded the arrival of a major talent. He followed this up with his Oscar-nominated performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), in which he more than held his own against Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) was a cultural phenomenon, the film that wrecked the MPDDA censorship code that had been in place since 1934, and a huge box office success to boot.
By the early 1970s, appearances in such films as The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), Blume in Love (1973), Born to Win (1971) and The Hot Rock (1972) had made him a major star with an enviable reputation, just under the heights of the superstar status enjoyed by the likes of Paul Newman. He followed up A Touch of Class (1973) (a hit film for which his co-star Glenda Jackson won an Oscar) with his brilliant performance as the out-of-control gambler in Robert Altman's California Split (1974).
At one time in the early 1970s, it seemed like George Segal would have a career like that enjoyed by his contemporary Jack Nicholson, that of an actor's actor equally adept at comedy and drama. Segal never made the leap to superstar status, and surprisingly, has never won a major acting award, the latter phenomenon being particularly surprising when viewed from the period 1973-74, when he reached the height of his career. It was at this point that Segal's career went awry, when he priced himself as a superstar with a seven-figure salary, but failed to come through at the box office. For example, The Black Bird (1975) was a failure, although his subsequent starring turn opposite Jane Fonda in Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) was a big hit that revitalized her career.
The thriller Rollercoaster (1977) became a modest hit even during a summer which saw it competing with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), and he gave a adroit comic performance in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) with Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Morley, which proved another box office success. For all practical purposes, even after the failures of The Black Bird (1975), and The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), it seemed like Segal, with a few deft career choices, could reorient his career and deliver on the promise of his early period.
At the end of the decade, he dropped out of a movie that would have burnished his tarnished lustre as a star: Blake Edwards' 10 (1979). 10 (1979) made Dudley Moore a star, while Arthur (1981) made him a superstar in the 1980s, a lost decade for Segal. It was an example of a career burnout usually associated with the "Oscar curse" (his No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) co-star Rod Steiger, for example, was a great character actor whose career was run off the rails by the expectations raised by the Academy Award). George Segal has never won an Oscar, but more surprisingly, has only been nominated once, for Best Supporting Actor of 1966 for his role as Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
That he didn't return to the promise of the early 1970s may be the unintended consequence of his focusing on comedy to the detriment of drama. The comedy A Touch of Class (1973) made him a million dollar-per-film movie star, and that's what he concentrated on. Segal began relying on his considerable charm to pull off movies that had little going for them other than their star, and it backfired on him. These films weren't infused with the outrageously funny, subversive comedy of Where's Poppa? (1970), a success from his first period that he enjoyed along with co-star Ruth Gordon and director Carl Reiner.
When Segal first made it in the mid-1960s, he established his serious actor bona fides with a deal he cut with ABC-TV that featured him in TV adaptations of Broadway plays. He also played a very memorable Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman (1966), shining in performance in counterpoint to the vital presence that was Lee J. Cobb's Willy Loman. It was a good life for an actor, and he took time to show off his banjo-playing skills by fronting the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, with which he cut several records.
While the 1980s were mostly a career wasteland for Segal, with no starring roles in hit films, he remained a popular figure on television, and appeared regularly on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), where he would routinely sing and play the banjo during interviews. After a major role in the surprise hit Look Who's Talking (1989), he co-starred with Bette Midler and James Caan in For the Boys (1991), leading to a career revival in the 1990s, using his flair for comedy as part of the ensemble cast of Just Shoot Me! (1997). In the 2010s, he co-starred as the eccentric but lovable grandfather on the hit sitcom The Goldbergs (2013). On February 14, 2017, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on his 83rd birthday. George Segal died at age 87 of complication from bypass surgery on March 23, 2021 in Santa Rosa, California.- Actor
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Adept at playing comic brat extraordinaires both on film and TV, David Spade was born on July 22, 1964, in Birmingham, Michigan, the youngest of three brothers. He is the son of Judith J. (Meek), a writer and editor, and Wayne M. Spade, a sales rep, and is of German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Raised in both Scottsdale (from age four) and Casa Grande, Arizona, he graduated with a degree in business from Arizona State University in 1986. A natural prankster most of his life, Spade was pushed immediately into stand-up comedy by friends and appeared in nightclubs and college campuses all over the country.
A casting agent saw his routine at "The Improv" in Los Angeles and offered him a mischievous role in the film Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987). In 1990, the diminutive, flaxen-haired comedian finally hit the big time as a regular cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live (1975). Slow at first in gaining acceptance on the show, his razor-sharp sarcasm eventually caught on by his second season, when he played a number of smart-aleck characters in a variety of sketches, including a highly disinterested airline steward who bids each passenger adieu with a very sardonic "buh-bye" and an irritating receptionist for Dick Clark Productions who greets each huge celebrity with an unknowing "And you are . . . ?" A master of the putdown, Spade's "Hollywood Minute" reporter also took cynical advantage of tabloid-worthy stars. Spade impersonated such luminaries as Michael J. Fox, Kurt Cobain and Tom Petty during his tenure.
Following his SNL departure after six years, he spun off into a slapstick movie career, most noticeably as the scrawny, taciturn foil to SNL's wild and crazy big boy Chris Farley in Tommy Boy (1995) and Black Sheep (1996). The teaming of this unlikely but funny pair ended with Farley's death from a 1997 drug overdose. Since then, Spade has appeared in his own lukewarm vehicles, including Joe Dirt (2001) and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003). More recently he teamed with former SNL member Rob Schneider on the film The Benchwarmers (2006). Television has been more accepting over the years, with Spade earning an Emmy nomination as the droll, skirt-chasing secretary Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me! (1997) and filling in after the untimely death of John Ritter on ABC's 8 Simple Rules (2002) as Katey Sagal's unprincipled nephew.
Into the millennium, David was the star of the Comedy Central show The Showbiz Show with David Spade (2005) in 2005 wherein he more or less resurrected his obnoxious, razor-tongued gossipmonger from the old "Hollywood Minute" put-down segment on SNL, as well as co-starring in the adult-oriented ensemble sitcom Rules of Engagement (2007).
More recent comic film vehicles include The Benchwarmers (2006), The Do-Over (2016) alongside Adam Sandler; Father of the Year (2018); and The Wrong Missy (2020), along with cocky supporting roles in Entourage (2015) (as himself); the Adam Sandler vehicles Jack and Jill (2011), Grown Ups (2010), Grown Ups 2 (2013) and The Ridiculous 6 (2015); Sandy Wexler (2017); a voice in the animated feature Hotel Transylvania (2012) and its sequel Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018); Mad Families (2017) (also-co-wrote); and the rare dramatic thriller Warning Shot (2018). He also played recurring parts on the TV programs Carpet Bros (2008), Love (2016) and The Mayor (2017).- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Hillerman, who most famously played the impeccably urbane Englishman Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (VC !) -- Tom Selleck's sophisticated majordomo in Magnum, P.I. (1980) --, was of French, German and Austrian descent, raised in a small Texas town and educated at a Catholic high school. He majored in journalism at the University of Texas, enlisted in the Air Force and spent the period from 1953 to 1957 stationed at Ft. Worth. There, he unexpectedly landed a choice role in a community theatre production of "Death of a Salesman" and discovered acting to be to his liking. Having a photographic memory benefited Hillerman greatly, as it enabled him to learn his lines quickly. He professed to be able to memorize a page of dialogue in the space of a minute. There remained the problem of his Texas accent, however. Following demobilization, he traveled to New York where it took him a year to lose his drawl, studying elocution under the tutelage of voice coach Fanny Bradshaw (who encouraged him to listen to recordings of Laurence Olivier reciting "Hamlet"). All the while, Hillerman lived the life of a typical struggling actor, having taken up residence in a lower East Side tenement and living on home-made turkey soup. After fifteen years of stage work and with a meager $700 to his name, he decided to try to change his luck by making the journey to Hollywood.
His first major break came when he was picked for a small part in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971)). From then on he was rarely out of work, although initially tasked with only smallish supporting roles. By the mid-70s, after memorable back-to-back turns in Blazing Saddles (1974) and Chinatown (1974), Hillerman had established his credentials. His first opportunity to shine in a recurring TV role was as pompous radio sleuth Simon Brimmer ("Policemen snoop, without a glimmer. To solve the case, call Simon Brimmer...") who persistently got it all very wrong in TV's Ellery Queen (1975). A self-declared Anglophile with a solid acting background in plays by Noël Coward, he fairly jumped at the chance to portray Selleck's genteel sidekick Higgins in "Magnum" which was to become his personal favorite and career-defining role.- Producer
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Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has called a "fractured" family. He moved around a great deal after his parents' divorce, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood. He has no acting experience in college and credits the fact that he could not get cast in a college play with actually starting his career. He went downtown, and auditioned for a community theater play, was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and there his acting career started.
Ron Howard was working on Splash (1983), a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid who falls in love with a business executive. Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, which eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role and the film went on to become a surprise box office success, grossing more than $69 million. After several flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet (1987), Hanks' stature in the film industry rose. The broad success with the fantasy-comedy Big (1988) established him as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the film industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992). Hanks has stated that his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks noted his "modern era of movie making ... because enough self-discovery has gone on ... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began for Hanks, first with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and then with Philadelphia (1993). The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Richard Schickel of Time magazine called his performance "charming", and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.
In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost 35 pounds and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia. During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life ... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
Hanks' next role - astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the docudrama Apollo 13 (1995) - reunited him with Ron Howard. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. Later that year, Hanks starred in Disney/Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story (1995), as the voice of Sheriff Woody. A year later, he made his directing debut with the musical comedy That Thing You Do! (1996) about the rise and fall of a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer.
As of 2022, Hanks is 66-years-old. He has never retired from acting, and has remained active in the film industry for more than four decades.- Actor
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- Art Department
Steve Kanaly was born on 14 March 1946 in Burbank, California, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Dallas (1978), My Name Is Nobody (1973) and Dillinger (1973). He has been married to Brent Power since 27 March 1975. They have two children.- Actor
- Producer
Jason Patric was born on 17 June 1966 in Queens, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Lost Boys (1987), The Losers (2010) and Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997).- Actor
- Producer
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Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a two-year hitch in the army after graduating in 1953. He began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, studying under Sanford Meisner along with Dustin Hoffman, with whom Duvall shared an apartment. Both were close to another struggling young actor named Gene Hackman. Meisner cast Duvall in the play "The Midnight Caller" by Horton Foote, a link that would prove critical to his career, as it was Foote who recommended Duvall to play the mentally disabled "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). This was his first "major" role since his 1956 motion picture debut as an MP in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), starring Paul Newman.
Duvall began making a name for himself as a stage actor in New York, winning an Obie Award in 1965 playing incest-minded longshoreman "Eddie Carbone" in the off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge", a production for which his old roommate Hoffman was assistant director. He found steady work in episodic TV and appeared as a modestly billed character actor in films, such as Arthur Penn's The Chase (1966) with Marlon Brando and in Robert Altman's Countdown (1967) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969), in both of which he co-starred with James Caan.
He was also memorable as the heavy who is shot by John Wayne at the climax of True Grit (1969) and was the first "Maj. Frank Burns", creating the character in Altman's Korean War comedy M*A*S*H (1970). He also appeared as the eponymous lead in George Lucas' directorial debut, THX 1138 (1971). It was Francis Ford Coppola, casting The Godfather (1972), who reunited Duvall with Brando and Caan and provided him with his career breakthrough as mob lawyer "Tom Hagen". He received the first of his six Academy Award nominations for the role.
Thereafter, Duvall had steady work in featured roles in such films as The Godfather Part II (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Network (1976), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Occasionally this actor's actor got the chance to assay a lead role, most notably in Tomorrow (1972), in which he was brilliant as William Faulkner's inarticulate backwoods farmer. He was less impressive as the lead in Badge 373 (1973), in which he played a character based on real-life NYPD detective Eddie Egan, the same man his old friend Gene Hackman had won an Oscar for playing, in fictionalized form as "Popeye Doyle" in The French Connection (1971).
It was his appearance as "Lt. Col. Kilgore" in another Coppola picture, Apocalypse Now (1979), that solidified Duvall's reputation as a great actor. He got his second Academy Award nomination for the role, and was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor in the world. Duvall created one of the most memorable characters ever assayed on film, and gave the world the memorable phrase, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"
Subsequently, Duvall proved one of the few established character actors to move from supporting to leading roles, with his Oscar-nominated turns in The Great Santini (1979) and Tender Mercies (1983), the latter of which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Now at the summit of his career, Duvall seemed to be afflicted with the fabled "Oscar curse" that had overwhelmed the careers of fellow Academy Award winners Luise Rainer, Rod Steiger and Cliff Robertson. He could not find work equal to his talents, either due to his post-Oscar salary demands or a lack of perception in the industry that he truly was leading man material. He did not appear in The Godfather Part III (1990), as the studio would not give in to his demands for a salary commensurate with that of Al Pacino, who was receiving $5 million to reprise Michael Corleone.
His greatest achievement in his immediate post-Oscar period was his triumphant characterization of grizzled Texas Ranger Gus McCrae in the TV mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989), for which he received an Emmy nomination. He received a second Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Stalin (1992), and a third Emmy nomination playing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996).
The shakeout of his career doldrums was that Duvall eventually settled back into his status as one of the premier character actors in the industry, rivaled only by his old friend Gene Hackman. Duvall, unlike Hackman, also has directed pictures, including the documentary We're Not the Jet Set (1974), Angelo My Love (1983) and Assassination Tango (2002). As a writer-director, Duvall gave himself one of his most memorable roles, that of the preacher on the run from the law in The Apostle (1997), a brilliant performance for which he received his third Best Actor nomination and fifth Oscar nomination overall. The film brought Duvall back to the front ranks of great actors, and was followed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for A Civil Action (1998).
Robert Duvall will long be remembered as one of the great naturalistic American screen actors in the mode of Spencer Tracy and his frequent co-star Marlon Brando. His performances as "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), "Jackson Fentry" in Tomorrow (1972), "Tom Hagen" in the first two "Godfather" movies, "Frank Hackett" in Network (1976), "Lt. Col. Kilgore" in Apocalypse Now (1979), "Bull Meechum" in The Great Santini (1979), "Mac Sledge" in Tender Mercies (1983), "Gus McCrae" in Lonesome Dove (1989) and "Sonny Dewey" in The Apostle (1997) rank as some of the finest acting ever put on film. It's a body of work that few actors can equal, let alone surpass.- Actor
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From small-town Oklahoma native to internationally acclaimed actor and musician, Wes Studi credits his passion and multi-faceted background for his powerful character portrayals that forever changed a Hollywood stereotype. Within a few years of his arrival in Hollywood, Studi caught the attention of the public in Dances with Wolves (1990). In 1992, his powerful performance as "Magua" in The Last of the Mohicans (1992) established him as one of the most compelling actors in the business.
Studi has since appeared in more than 80 film and television productions, including Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Being Flynn (2012), Avatar (2009), Comanche Moon (2008), Streets of Laredo (1995), Mystery Men (1999), Kings (TV Series), The New World (2005), Hell on Wheels (2011), Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) and Seraphim Falls (2006). He also brought Tony Hillerman's "Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn" to life in a series of PBS specials produced by Robert Redford: Skinwalkers (2002), Coyote Waits (2003), and A Thief of Time (2003).
Studi was born in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, the son of Maggie (Nofire), a housekeeper, and Andy Studie, a ranch hand. Studi exclusively spoke his native Cherokee language until beginning school at the age of five. A professional horse trainer, Studi began acting at The American Indian Theatre Company in Tulsa in the mid-80s.
Studi and his wife, Maura Dhu Studi, live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have a son, Kholan. Studi has a daughter, Leah, and a son, Daniel, from a previous marriage.- Producer
- Actor
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Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and Scottish descent, and his mother is of Finnish and Swedish ancestry. The family lived in Newton until his parents divorced in 1973, when Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge. He grew up in a stable community, and was raised near actor Ben Affleck.
Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and he performed in a number of theater productions during his time there. He attended Harvard University as an English major. While in Harvard, he kept on skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Son (1990), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). It was until his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely. Arriving in Hollywood, Matt managed to get his first break with a part in the romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza (1988). However, the film did not do too well and his film career failed to take off. Not letting failure discourage him from acting, he went for another audition, and managed to get a starring role in School Ties (1992). Up next for Matt was a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996). Matt had, in fact, lost forty pounds for his role which resulted in health problems.
The following year, he garnered accolades for Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck. In the year 1998, Matt played the title role in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), which was one of the most acclaimed films in that year. Matt had the opportunity of working with Tom Hanks and Vin Diesel while filming that movie. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich. The next year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the comedy Dogma (1999).
Towards the end of 1999, Matt played "Tom Ripley", a working-class young man who tastes the good life and will do anything to live it. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow also starred in the movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) earned mixed reviews from critics, but even so, Matt earned praise for his performance. Matt lent his voice to the animated movie, Titan A.E. (2000) in the year 2000, which also earned mixed reviews from the public. He also starred in two other movies, All the Pretty Horses (2000) and the golf comedy-drama, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring alongside Will Smith. In the year 2003, he signed on to star in The Informant! (2009) by Steven Soderbergh and the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You (2003). He also starred in Gerry (2002), a film he co-wrote with his friends, Gus Van Sant and Casey Affleck. One of Matt's most recognizable work to date is his role in the "Bourne" movie franchise. He plays an amnesiac assassin, "Jason Bourne", in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Another praised role is that as "Linus Caldwell" in the "Ocean's" movie franchise. He had the opportunity to star opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven (2001). The successful crime comedy-drama eventually had two other sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Among other highly acclaimed movies that Matt has been a part of are Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), George Clooney's Syriana (2005), Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006).
In his personal life, Matt is now happily married to Argentine-born Luciana Barroso, whom he met in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple have four daughters Alexia, Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, as well as Isabella, Gia and Stella. Matt is a big fan of the Boston Red Sox and he tries to attend their games whenever possible. He has also formed great friendships with his Ocean's co-stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, whom he works on charity projects with. He and actor Ben Affleck have remained lifelong friends and collaborators.- Actor
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Kevin most recently recurred in LAW AND ORDER: SVU on NBC and guest starred in COMPLICATIONS for USA Network. He is well known for his recurring role as "Anthony Cooper" in LOST and lead role of "Roy DeSoto" in Emergency! He also starred in the feature film, I AM I, directed by Jocelyn Towne. He has worked prolifically in film, television and on-stage.- Actor
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American character actor born in Cincinnati and raised in Louisville, Mitchell Ryan was a well known supporting actor in films and television. Joined the Navy in 1951 at age 17 and was later assigned to the Special Services Entertainment and became hooked on acting. After his term in the Navy, he appeared in dozens of plays until he received notice as playing a regular in TV's Dark Shadows (1966).
Beginning in the 1970s, he received work in motion pictures including Monte Walsh (1970), Magnum Force (1973) and in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973). He had a small part in Universal's Midway (1976) and returned to act in numerous soaps and television series, among them included a recurring guest role in Having Babies (1978), Executive Suite (1976), The Chisholms (1979) and All My Children (1970) and a growing list of television films and TV guest appearances.
He may have been best-known for portraying the villain that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are after in Lethal Weapon (1987), but his career included several supporting roles in the past ten years including Judge Dredd (1995), Michael Myers' nemesis in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Liar Liar (1997) (with Jim Carrey), and as Harrison Ford's chief out to get Brad Pitt in the film The Devil's Own (1997).- Actor
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Diminutive American actor Billy Curtis avoided the usual onus of freak-show employment as a youth, opting for a mainstream job as a shoe clerk. Encouraged by stock company actress Shirley Booth to take a little person role in a stage production, Curtis soon became a professional actor, with numerous Broadway musical productions to his credit. Curtis' big movie season was 1938-39: he was cast in The Wizard of Oz (1939) (albeit with voice dubbed by Pinto Colvig) and as the cowboy hero of the all-dwarf western The Terror of Tiny Town (1938). This last epic was one of the few instances that Curtis was cast as a good guy; many of his screen characters were ill-tempered and pugnacious, willing to bite a kneecap if unable to punch out an opponent. Seldom accepting a role which demeaned or patronized little people, Curtis played an obnoxious vaudeville performer compelled to sit on Gary Cooper's lap in Meet John Doe (1941), a suspicious circus star willing to turn Robert Cummings over to the cops in Saboteur (1942), and one of the many fair-weather friends of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Billy Curtis' career thrived into the 1970s, notably with solid parts in the Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter (1973) and the crime-caper melodrama Little Cigars (1973), in which he had second billing as a diminutive criminal mastermind. Billy Curtis retired in the 1980s, except for the occasional interview or Wizard of Oz cast reunion.- Richard Bull was born on 26 June 1924 in Zion, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Little House on the Prairie (1974), Sugar (2008) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). He was married to Barbara Collentine. He died on 3 February 2014 in Calabasas, California, USA.
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Robert Donner was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey, Michigan and Texas. Robert joined the Navy after he graduated from high school and served almost 4 years. After he left the Navy he stayed on the West Coast and worked as a shipping clerk, salesman, bartender, commercial artist, gardener, and insurance investigator. Robert attended San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), at nights taking courses in Art History, Psychology and speech. During this time, Robert Donner lived in Studio City and became friends with actor Clint Eastwood who lived in his apartment building. Clint urged Robert to study drama, telling him he was humorous and had a good face. When Robert was not acting he was active in athletics, and was known as one of Hollywood's most enthusiastic golfers. He was a member of the former "Hollywood Hackers" and carried a seven handicap and was the leader of a group of entertainment industry professionals known as Don Porter's Thursday Golf Group as well as joining others at many of the Celebrity Golf Tournaments who raise money for various charities around the world. Robert also played in many tennis tournaments and was frequently called upon during "Celebrity Nights" in which he performed stand-up comedy and promised not to sing. His reputation in this area also led him to become known as one of Hollywood's "in demand" Corporate Speakers.- Actor
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Frank Pesce was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. Began his acting career appearing in various films, such as the Jack Palance action film "One Man Jury" (1978), the crime picture "Fingers" (1978) with Harvey Keitel and "Paradise Alley" (1978) with Sylvester Stallone. He also appeared in the comedy "Tilt" (1979) with Brooke Shields, the drama "American Gigolo" (1980) with Richard Gere and the Jan-Michael Vincent action picture "Defiance" (1980). He working in film throughout the eighties, starring in the thriller "Cameron's Closet" (1989) with Cotter Smith, "Hit List" (1989) and the action flick "Lock Up" (1989) with Sylvester Stallone. He played roles in "Ice" (1994) with Traci Lords, the India Allen romance sequel "Seduce Me: Pamela Principle 2" (1994) and the Nicolas Cage comedy "Trapped in Paradise" (1994). He also appeared in the Pruitt Taylor-Vince comedy "Cottonwood" (1996) and the crime drama "Donnie Brasco" (1997) with Al Pacino. Most recently, Pesce acted in "Creed" (2015).- Actor
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Robert Taylor is one of Australia's busiest actors with an illustrious career spanning over international film and television. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of the title role of Walt Longmire in Netflix's record breaking drama series Longmire, which recently released its sixth and final season. Graduating from the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Robert has since appeared as the lead opposite French star, Nadia Fares in the international feature Storm Warning, directed by Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) for Dimension films in the USA. He also featured in Rogue, from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) was the lead in Coffin Rock (Head Gear Films, UK) and in 2013 filmed a supporting role in Rupert Glasson's What Lola Wants opposite Sophie Lowe and wrapped a key role opposite Hugo Weaving in the feature film, Healing (dir. by Craig Monahan). Prior to this, he appeared as Kiron in the NBC telemovie Hercules in 2005, and worked with acclaimed American director, Peter Bogdanovich in The Mystery Of Natalie Wood (ABC Network, USA). Robert starred in the series role of Vincent in the BBC series Ballykissangel, and had a lead role opposite Guy Pearce, and Rachel Griffiths in the feature film The Hard Word. Robert's work on international blockbusters include, starring as Skip Taylor along side Chris O'Donnell in Vertical Limit (dir. Martin Campbell - Casino Royale, GoldenEye), and Agent Jones alongside Hugo Weaving in The Matrix (dir. Larry & Andy Wachowski). In a career spanning over 30 years, he has also starred in many productions in Australia and the USA such as Killing Time (TV1), Mr & Mrs Murder (TEN Network), Twentysomething (ABC TV); Satisfaction; Underbelly - Tell Them Lucifer Was Here (Screentime); Ned Kelly; After The Rain; First Daughter; Tales of The South Seas; Muggers; Twisted Tales; The Feds; Stingers; Phage, and Nash's Vision (USA). In 2015, Robert starred alongside Will Smith and Margot Robbie in feature film Focus directed by Glenn Fircarra and John Requa. Australian feature films The Menkhoff Method directed by David Parker, Turkey Shoot Reloaded directed by Jon Hewitt and Grant Scicluna's feature Downriver were all released in 2016 also. Robert recently featured in Kong: Skull Island, and the Australian Feature Film, Don't Tell directed by Tori Garrett, opposite Rachel Griffiths, Jack Thompson, Aden Young and Jacqueline McKenzie. Robert will next be seen in the action sci-fi feature The Meg, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and opposite Jason Statham for Warner Bros due for worldwide release this August. This year, he just completed filming the independent US feature film Into The Ashes opposite Frank Grillo, and Blood Vessel opposite Alyssa Sutherland.- Actor
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A Martinez was born in Glendale, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Longmire (2012), Dark Winds (2022) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024). He has been married to Leslie Bryans since 17 July 1982. They have three children. He was previously married to Mare Winningham.- Actor
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Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship, and went to Harvard on another scholarship. He roomed with future Vice President Al Gore and played offensive guard in the famous 29-29 Harvard-Yale football game of '68 known as "The Tie." He received a B.A. in English literature and graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1969.
Following college, he moved to New York and began his theatrical career on Broadway in "A Patriot for Me" (1969). In 1970, he made his film debut in Love Story (1970). While living in New York, he continued to appear in various plays, both on- and off-Broadway: "Fortune and Men's Eyes" (1969); "Four on a Garden" (1971); "Blue Boys" (1972); "Ulysses in Nighttown" (1974). During this time, he also appeared on a daytime soap opera, One Life to Live (1968) as Dr. Mark Toland from 1971-75. He moved with wife Kate Lardner, granddaughter of short-story writer/columnist Ring Lardner, and her two children from a previous marriage, to Los Angeles.
There he began to get some roles on television: Charlie's Angels (1976) (pilot episode); Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976); and The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977). While working on the movie Back Roads (1981), he met and fell in love with Kimberlea Cloughley, whom he later married. More roles in television--both on network and cable--stage and film garnered him a reputation as a strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting as well as leading roles. He made his directorial debut in The Good Old Boys (1995) on TNT. In addition to directing and starring in the film, he co-wrote the teleplay (with J.T. Allen). The film, based on Elmer Kelton's novel, is set in west Texas where Jones has strong family ties. Consequently, this story of a cowboy facing the end of an era has special meaning for him.- Actor
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Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth talking 'Eric "Otter" Stratton' in the 1978 comedy, National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), but has had a variety of other well-known roles both before and since, including critical accolades for his playing "Vice President John Hoynes" on the television series, The West Wing (1999), which garnered him two Primetime Emmy award nominations for Best Guest Star in a Drama Series.
From 2011 to 2015, Matheson starred as 'Dr. Brick Breeland' in The CW series, Hart of Dixie (2011), opposite Rachel Bilson. He has and continues to direct several episodes each season throughout the series. Not limited to "Hart of Dixie", Matheson has made a career of directing an array of episodic projects on some of television's most prominent shows, including "The Last Ship," "Burn Notice," "Criminal Minds," "Without a Trace," "Cold Case," "Numbers," "Drop Dead Diva," "Suits," "Eureka" and "White Collar," as well as pilots for Fox's "The Good Guys" and the USA Network successful original series "Covert Affairs."
Beginning his career at the age of 13, Matheson appeared in Robert Young's CBS nostalgia comedy series, Window on Main Street (1961), during the 1961-1962 television season. In 1964, he provided the voice of the lead character in the cartoon program Jonny Quest (1964), as well as the voice of "Jace" in the original animated series, Space Ghost (1966). Additionally, he played the role of the oldest son, "Mike Beardsley", in the film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), which starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.
In 1969, Matheson joined the cast of NBC's western series, The Virginian (1962), in its eighth season, as "Jim Horn". During the final season of the television western Bonanza (1959) in 1972-1973, Matheson played "Griff King", a parolee who tries to reform his life as a worker at the Ponderosa Ranch under Ben Cartwright's watch. Following that, he portrayed young motorcycle cop "Phil Sweet", in the 1973 film, Magnum Force (1973).
In the fall of 1976, Matheson was seen opposite Kurt Russell in the NBC series, The Quest (1976), the story of two young men in the American West seeking the whereabouts of their sister, a captive of the Cheyenne. In 1978, he co-starred in the acclaimed National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), opposite John Belushi; the following year, he appeared alongside Belushi again in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). Matheson and Catherine Hicks played "Rick Tucker" and "Amanda Tucker", who operate a detective agency in Laurel Canyon in CBS' Tucker's Witch (1982), which aired during the 1982-1983 season. He then appeared in the 1983 To Be or Not to Be (1983), starring Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft and went on to star in the 1984 comedy, Up the Creek (1984) and 1985's Fletch (1985).
Matheson, along with business partner 'Dan Grodnik', bought National Lampoon in 1989, when the magazine was facing financial decline. They took the stock from two dollars to over six dollars, and sold it in 1991. In 1996, Matheson took on the role of a con man who claims to be Carol Brady's thought-to-be-dead husband in A Very Brady Sequel (1996). Matheson was seen opposite Ryan Reynolds in the feature comedy National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002) in 2002, playing the father of the title character, who was inspired by his own character in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), as a nod to the original film.
Tim was born Timothy Lewis Matthieson in Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, the son of Sally and Clifford Matthieson, a training pilot. He has three wonderful children with former wife Megan Murphy Matheson.- Actor
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Son of character actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman. He grew up on the road with his parents while they toured in plays. First appeared at age 3 in film Pied Piper Malone (1924) with his father. Began acting in radio programs and on stage before World War II. Joined the Marines and served as a machine gunner. Returned to Broadway stage after the war and branched out into television and film. Worked as an extra in several films before achieving speaking roles and subsequent stardom.- Actor
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Michael Rooker was born on April 6, 1955 in Jasper, Alabama. When he was thirteen, his parents divorced and he went with his mother to live in Chicago. He caught the acting bug while attending college, and began appearing in local stage productions. On first breaking into film, his intensity and "don't-mess-with-me" good looks were highlighted to chilling effect as he title character in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), filmed in 1986 but, due to its controversial nature, not released until 1990. Since that widely noticed and highly praised performance, much of his career has been spent playing brutes, villains and psychopaths. However, his occasional turns as a "good guy" are always well-acted and a welcome change for a talented actor too often typecast.
2017 marks an exciting time for Rooker, as he starred in two films premiering just two months of each other. On March 17, audiences saw Rooker in Blumhouse Tilt's indie horror thriller The Belko Experiment (2016). The film is the terrifying yet humorous look at a group of employees that become guinea pigs in a company-wide experiment that leads them to either kill their fellow employees or be killed themselves. Returning to his indie roots, Rooker starred as maintenance worker, Bud Melks, one of the employees trapped in the office building, who may or may not be able to kill his fellow staff member. On May 5, Rooker reprised his role as Yondu in the highly anticipated sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). The film follows the same group of galactic underdogs saving the universe to a stellar soundtrack. Rooker's breakout performance earned him critical acclaim, as audiences were introduced to a more dramatic Yondu. The film went on to earn over $145 million domestically its opening weekend and has surpassed its predecessor by grossing over $850 million worldwide.
Rooker made his film debut, playing the title role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), a film based on the confessions of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. It was here that audiences were first introduced to Rooker's impeccable ability to channel a character's idiosyncrasies and subtleties. He has also starred in some of the most iconic films, such as Mississippi Burning (1988), Sea of Love (1989), JFK (1991), Tombstone (1993) and Jumper (2008) to name a few. In August 2014, Rooker starred in one of the most memorable franchises in the Marvel Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), as Yondu, the blue-skinned renegade space pirate and surrogate father to Peter Quill. The film went on to gross over $700 million at the worldwide box office and spent five weekends atop the box office, more than any other film in the Marvel Universe.
On the television front, Rooker is best known for his series regular role as Merle Dixon on AMC's hit series The Walking Dead (2010). Audiences loved to hate the ill-tempered redneck hunter and were sad to see him killed off the series in season three. Rooker has completed a variety of stints on some of the most prominent series on television: Criminal Minds (2005), CSI: Miami (2002), Las Vegas (2003), Law & Order (1990) and Archer (2009), among others. Additionally, Rooker's talents go beyond both film and television. He adds his voice to various video games, including The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Lollipop Chainsaw.- Actor
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The son of writer/producer/actor Dwight Hauser, who worked on (amongst many other projects) the classic "Whistler" radio series, and Geraldine Hauser (the daughter of author Tom Thieness), he raised a child as a single father, having arrived in Hollywood "with thirty dollars and a box of pampers" - and actually earned his career accomplishments with hard work and dedication. He is the father of actor Cole Hauser.
Wings Hauser married his young music and filmmaking partner, actress/filmmaker Cali Lili on June 12, 2012. Having often been compared to Richard Widmark for some of his "mean" roles, he has played a variety of equally remarkable roles in films and on TV. After a high-school career centered in sports (his name "Wings" is taken from the wing-back position he played in football), he chose to lean toward the arts - acting and music (including an album of his original music for RCA) - instead of pursuing professional sports. Having descended from an artistic and talented family, this choice was a heartfelt one.- Actor
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An American stuntman who, after more than 30 years in the business, moved into acting and became an acclaimed and respected character actor, Richard Farnsworth was a native of Los Angeles. He grew up around horses and as a teenager was offered an opportunity to ride in films. He appeared in horse-racing scenes and cavalry charges unbilled, first as a general rider and later as a stuntman. His riding and stunting skills gained him regular work doubling stars ranging from Roy Rogers to Gary Cooper, and he often doubled the bad guy as well. Although. like most stuntmen, he was occasionally given a line or two of dialogue, it was not until Farnsworth was over 50 that his natural talent for acting and his ease and warmth before the camera became apparent. When he won an Academy Award nomination for his role in Comes a Horseman (1978), it came as a surprise to many in the industry that this "newcomer" had been around since the 1930s. Farnsworth followed his Oscar nomination with a number of finely wrought performances, including The Grey Fox (1982) and The Natural (1984). In 1999 he came out of semi-retirement for a tour-de-force portrayal in The Straight Story (1999).- Slim Pickens spent the early part of his career as a real cowboy and the latter part playing cowboys, and he is best remembered for a single "cowboy" image: that of bomber pilot Maj. "King" Kong waving his cowboy hat rodeo-style as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target in the great black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Born in Kingsburg, near Fresno in California's Central Valley, he spent much of his boyhood in nearby Hanford, where he began rodeoing at the age of 12. Over the next two decades he toured the country on the rodeo circuit, becoming a highly-paid and well-respected rodeo clown, a job that entailed enormous danger. In 1950, at the age of 31, Slim married Margaret Elizabeth Harmon and that same year he was given a role in a western, Rocky Mountain (1950). He quickly found a niche in both comic and villainous roles in that genre. With his hoarse voice and pronounced western twang, he was not always easy to cast outside the genre, but when he was, as in "Dr. Strangelove", the results were often memorable. He died in 1983 after a long and courageous battle against a brain tumor. He was survived by his wife Margaret and children.
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Dennis William Quaid was born on April 9, 1954 in Houston, Texas to Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" Quaid (née Jordan), a real estate agent & William Rudy Quaid, an electrician. He grew up in the Houston suburban city of Bellaire. He was raised a Baptist, and studied drama, Mandarin Chinese, and dance while a student at Bellaire High School. He continued study at the University of Houston, but dropped out before completing his degree. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career where his brother, Randy Quaid, had already began to build a successful career. However, Dennis initially had trouble finding film roles, but began to gain notice when he appeared in Breaking Away (1979) and earned strong reviews for his role in The Right Stuff (1983). Aside from acting, Quaid is also a musician, and plays with his band, "The Sharks". He holds a flying license and is a five handicap golfer.- Actor
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Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 35 years.
Glover was born in San Francisco, California, to Carrie (Hunley) and James Glover, postal workers who were also active in civil rights. Glover trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater. It was his Broadway debut in Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys, which brought him to national recognition and led director Robert Benton to cast Glover in his first leading role in 1984's Oscar®-nominated Best Picture Places in the Heart.
The following year, Glover starred in two more Best Picture nominees: Peter Weir's Witness and Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. In 1987, Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon film and went on to star in three hugely successful Lethal Weapon sequels. Glover has also invested his talents in more personal projects, including the award-winning To Sleep With Anger, which he executive produced and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor; Bopha!; Manderlay; Missing in America; and the film version of Athol Fugard's play Boesman and Lena. On the small screen, Glover won an Image Award and a Cable ACE Award and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO movie Mandela. He has also received Emmy nominations for his work in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove and the telefilm Freedom Song. As a director, he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Showtime's Just a Dream.
Glover's film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced. He co-starred in the critically acclaimed feature Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon and in Po' Boy's Game for director Clement Virgo. He appeared in the hit feature Shooter for director Antoine Fuqua, Honeydripper for director John Sayles, and Be Kind, Rewind for director Michel Gondry.
Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa. For these efforts, Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor. Internationally, Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and serves as UNICEF Ambassador.
In 2005, Glover co-founded Louverture Films dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. The New York based company has a slate of progressive features and documentaries including Trouble the Water, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Africa Unite, award winning feature Bamako, and most recent projects Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan.- Actor
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Jared Leto is a very familiar face in recent film history. Although he has always been the lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and songwriter for American band Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto is an accomplished actor merited by the numerous, challenging projects he has taken in his life. He is known to be selective about his film roles.
Jared Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, to Constance "Connie" (Metrejon) and Anthony L. "Tony" Bryant. The surname "Leto" is from his stepfather. His ancestry includes English, Cajun (French), as well as Irish, German, and Scottish. Jared and his family traveled across the United States throughout his childhood, living in such states as Wyoming, Virginia and Colorado. Leto would continue this trend when he initially dropped a study of painting at Philadelphia's University of the Arts in favor of a focus on acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
In 1992, Leto moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, intending to take acting roles on the side. Leto's first appearances on screen were guest appearances on the short-lived television shows Camp Wilder (1992), Almost Home (1993) and Rebel Highway (1994). However, his next role would change everything for Leto. While searching for film roles, he was cast in the show, My So-Called Life (1994) (TV Series 1994-1995). Leto's character was "Jordan Catalano", the handsome, dyslexic slacker, the main love interest of "Angela" (played by Claire Danes). Leto contributed to the soundtrack of the film, and so impressed the producers initially that he was soon a regular on the show until its end.
Elsewhere, Leto began taking film roles. His first theatrically released film was the ensemble piece, How to Make an American Quilt (1995), based on a novel of the same name and starring renowned actresses Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Jean Simmons and Alfre Woodard. The film was a modest success and, while Leto's next film, The Last of the High Kings (1996), was a failure, Leto secured his first leading role in Prefontaine (1997), based on long-distance runner Steven Prefontaine. The film was a financial flop, but was praised by critics, notably Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. He also took a supporting role in the action thriller, Switchback (1997), which starred Dennis Quaid, but the film was another failure.
Leto's work was slowly becoming recognized in Hollywood, and he continued to find work in film. In 1998, everything turned for the better on all fronts. This was the year that Leto founded the band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, with his brother, Shannon Leto, as well as Matt Wachter (who later left the group), and after two guitarists joined and quit, Tomo Milicevic was brought in as lead guitarist and keyboardist. As well as the formation of his now-famous band, Leto's luck in film was suddenly shooting for the better. He was cast as the lead in the horror film, Urban Legend (1998), which told a grisly tale of a murderer who kills his victims in the style of urban legends. The film was a massive success commercially, though critics mostly disliked the film. That same year, Leto also landed a supporting role in the film, The Thin Red Line (1998). Renowned director Terrence Malick's first film in nearly twenty years, the film had dozens of famous actors in the cast, including Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, John Travolta, Nick Nolte and Elias Koteas, to name a few. The film went through much editing, leaving several actors out of the final version, but Leto luckily remained in the film. The Thin Red Line (1998) was nominated for seven Oscars and was a moderate success at the box office. Leto's fame had just begun. He had supporting roles in both James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted (1999), and in David Fincher's cult classic, Fight Club (1999), dealing with masculinity, commercialism, fascism and insomnia. While Edward Norton and Brad Pitt were the lead roles, Leto took a supporting role and dyed his hair blond. The film remains hailed by many, but at the time, Leto was already pushing himself further into controversial films. He played a supporting role of "Paul Allen" in the infamous American Psycho (2000), starring Christian Bale, and he played the lead role in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000), which had Leto take grueling measures to prepare for his role as a heroin addict trying to put his plans to reality and escape the hell he is in. Both films were massive successes, if controversially received.
The 2000s brought up new film opportunities for Leto. He reunited with David Fincher in Panic Room (2002), which was another success for Leto, as well as Oliver Stone's epic passion project, Alexander (2004). The theatrical cut was poorly received domestically (although it recouped its budget through DVD sales and international profit), and though a Final Cut was released that much improved the film in all aspects, it continues to be frowned upon by the majority of film goers. Leto rebounded with Lord of War (2005), which starred Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer who ships weapons to war zones, with Leto playing his hapless but more moral-minded brother. The film was an astounding look at the arms industry, but was not a big financial success. Leto's flush of successes suddenly ran dry when he acted in the period piece, Lonely Hearts (2006), which had Leto playing "Ray Fernandez", one of the two infamous "Lonely Hearts Killers" in the 1940s. The film was a financial failure and only received mixed responses. Leto then underwent a massive weight gain to play "Mark David Chapman", infamous murderer of John Lennon, in the movie, Chapter 27 (2007). While Leto did a fantastic job embodying the behavior and speech patterns of Chapman, the film was a complete flop, and was a critical bomb to boot. It was during this period that Leto focused increasingly on his band, turning down such films as Clint Eastwood's World War 2 film, Flags of Our Fathers (2006).
In 2009, however, Leto returned to acting with Mr. Nobody (2009). Leto's role as "Nemo Nobody" required him to play the character as far aged as 118, even as he undergoes a soul-searching as to whether his life turned out the way he wanted it to. The film was mostly funded through Belgian and French financiers, and was given limited release in only certain countries. Critical response, however, has praised the film's artistry and Leto's acting.
He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the documentary film Artifact (2012).
Leto remains the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success.
After a five years hiatus from filming, Leto returned to act in the drama Dallas Buyers Club (2013), directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and co-starring Matthew McConaughey. Leto portrayed Rayon, a drug-addicted transgender woman with AIDS who befriends McConaughey's character Ron Woodroof. Leto's performance earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. In order to accurately portray his role, Leto lost 30 pounds, shaved his eyebrows and waxed his entire body. He stated the portrayal was grounded in his meeting transgender people while researching the role. During filming, Leto refused to break character. Dallas Buyers Club received widespread critical acclaim and became a financial success, resulting in various accolades for Leto, who was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and a variety of film critics' circle awards for the role.
In 2016, he played the Joker in the super villain film Suicide Squad (2016).
Leto is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the shooting schedules of his films, even to the point of adversely affecting his health.- Actor
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Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University, intent on a career in journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student drama productions and, upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater. He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor. His first paid acting role was in a summer stock theater stage production in St. Mary's City, Maryland. The play was "Wings of the Morning", which is about the founding of the colony of Maryland (now the state of Maryland) and the early days of the Maryland colonial assembly (a legislative body). He played the part of a real historical character, Mathias Da Sousa, although much of the dialogue was created. Afterwards he began to pursue screen roles in earnest. With his acting versatility and powerful presence, he had no difficulty finding work in numerous television productions.
He made his first big screen appearance in Carbon Copy (1981) with George Segal. Through the 1980s, he worked in both movies and television and was chosen for the plum role of Dr. Philip Chandler in NBC's hit medical series St. Elsewhere (1982), a role that he would play for six years. In 1989, his film career began to take precedence when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Tripp, the runaway slave in Edward Zwick's powerful historical masterpiece Glory (1989).
Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999), football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007), and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). Malcolm X and The Hurricane garnered him Oscar nominations for Best Actor, before he finally won that statuette in 2002 for his lead role in Training Day (2001).
Through the 1990s, Denzel also co-starred in such big budget productions as The Pelican Brief (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996), and Courage Under Fire (1996), a role for which he was paid $10 million. He continued to define his onscreen persona as the tough, no-nonsense hero through the 2000s in films like Out of Time (2003), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009). Cerebral and meticulous in his film work, he made his debut as a director with Antwone Fisher (2002); he also directed The Great Debaters (2007) and Fences (2016).
In 2010, Washington headlined The Book of Eli (2010), a post-Apocalyptic drama. Later that year, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable (2010), about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying dangerous cargo. The film was his fifth and final collaboration with director Tony Scott, following Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. He has also been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of director Spike Lee.
In 2012, Washington starred in Flight (2012), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House (2012), and prepared for his role by subjecting himself to a torture session that included waterboarding. In 2013, Washington starred in 2 Guns (2013), alongside Mark Wahlberg. In 2014, he starred in The Equalizer (2014), an action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, based on the television series of same name starring Edward Woodward. During this time period, he also took on the role of producer for some of his films, including The Book of Eli and Safe House.
In 2016, he was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.
He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Pauletta Washington, and their four children.- Actor
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David Thornton was born on 12 June 1953 in Cheraw, South Carolina, USA. He is an actor, known for Home Alone 3 (1997), John Q (2002) and Tamo i ovde (2009). He has been married to Cyndi Lauper since 24 November 1991. They have one child.- Actor
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Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle brother died at birth in 1953. His father's job required him to move regularly, which caused Kevin to feel like an Army kid, always the new kid at school, which led to him being a daydreamer. As a teen, he sang in the Baptist church choir, wrote poetry, and took writing classes. At 18, he built his own canoe and paddled his way down the rivers that Lewis & Clark followed to the Pacific. Despite his present height, he was only 5'2" when he graduated high school. Nonetheless, he still managed to be a basketball, football and baseball star. In 1973, he enrolled at California State University at Fullerton, where he majored in business. During that period, Kevin decided to take acting lessons five nights a week. He graduated with a business degree in 1978 and married his college sweetheart, Cindy Costner. He initially took a marketing job in Orange County. Everything changed when he accidentally met Richard Burton on a flight from Mexico. Burton advised him to go completely after acting if that is what he wanted. He quit his job and moved to Hollywood soon after. He drove a truck, worked on a deep sea fishing boat, and gave bus tours to stars' homes before finally making his own way into the films. After making one soft core sex film, he vowed to not work again if that was the only work he could do. He didn't work for nearly six years, while he waited for a proper break. That break came with The Big Chill (1983), even though his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor -- he was remembered by director Lawrence Kasdan when he decided to make Silverado (1985). Costner's career took off after that.- Actor
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Will Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Bill Patton, is a playwright, acting/directing instructor, and Lutheran minister. Patton attended the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has won two OBIE awards for Best Actor -- for the off-Broadway plays "Fool for Love" (by Sam Shepard) and the Public Theatre production of "What Did He See?" (by Richard Foreman).- Actor
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Larenz Tate was born on the west side of Chicago to Larry and Peggy Tate, the youngest of three brothers. His brothers are actors Larron Tate and Lahmard J. Tate. In 1984, Larenz and his family moved to California. It was while living in California that Larenz's parents got him and his brothers involved in a drama program at the Inner City Cultural Center. At first, the boys were interested just to meet girls. However, when they saw classmate Malcolm-Jamal Warner get cast in the role of "Theo Huxtable" on The Cosby Show (1984), they began to take it more seriously. From then on, the brothers began getting other small roles. Larenz's career first took off in a Christmas episode of The Twilight Zone (1985), after which roles began pouring in. He has gone on to star in both television series and movies.- Music Artist
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Thomas Earl Petty was an American musician and actor who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the late 1980s super-group the Traveling Wilburys, and had success as a solo artist.
Petty had many hit records. Hit singles with the Heartbreakers include "Don't Do Me Like That" (1979), "Refugee" (1980), "The Waiting" (1981), "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) and "Learning to Fly" (1991). Petty's solo hits include "I Won't Back Down" (1989), "Free Fallin'" (1989), and "You Don't Know How It Feels" (1994). Solo or with the Heartbreakers, he had hit albums from the 1970s through the 2010s and sold more than 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.
In 2017, Petty died of an accidental drug overdose, at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers' 40th Anniversary Tour.- Scott Bairstow was born on 23 April 1970 in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. He is an actor, known for The Postman (1997), Tuck Everlasting (2002) and Wild America (1997). He was previously married to Marty Rich.
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Antonino Giovanni Ribisi is an American actor who was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents both have careers in the entertainment industry. His mother, Gay Ribisi (née Landrum), is a talent manager for actors and writers, and his father, Albert Anthony Ribisi, is a musician. He has a twin sister, actress Marissa Ribisi, and another sister, Gina. Giovanni is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), English and German ancestry.
His mother helped to launch his acting career, which began with an appearance on two episodes of the television series Highway to Heaven (1984). This followed with numerous roles on television. In 1996, he gained the role of Phoebe Buffay's half-brother on the high profile sitcom Friends (1994), which boosted his career. He became involved in films, which included roles in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do! (1996) and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998). He appeared in James Cameron's Avatar (2009), Contraband (2012), Gangster Squad (2013), Ted (2012) and Ted 2 (2015).- Actor
- Producer
Brian Anthony Wilson was born on 22 February 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Postman (1997), Limitless (2011) and Law Abiding Citizen (2009). He has been married to Greer M. Richardson , PhD since 30 September 2005.- Actor
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Shawn Wayne Hatosy is an American film and television actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the films In & Out, The Faculty, Outside Providence, Anywhere but Here, The Cooler, and Alpha Dog. He is also well known for his role as Detective Sammy Bryant on the TNT crime drama series Southland and is starring as Andrew "Pope" Cody in the TNT crime drama series, Animal Kingdom, based on the 2010 Australian film of the same title.- Actor
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- Location Management
Rex Maynard Linn is an American film and television actor. He is best known for playing the role of Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami. Linn was born in Spearman, Texas, the third child, and second son, of Darlene (née Deere) and James Paul Linn. In August 1969, his parents relocated the family to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his father practiced law. There he attended Heritage Hall and later Casady School, an independent school affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and was employed part-time at the Oklahoma City Zoo. November 1975, after seeing Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Linn announced he was an actor.- Actor
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Ryan Douglas Hurst (born June 19, 1976) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Gerry Bertier in Disney's Remember the Titans, Tom Clark in Taken, Opie Winston in the FX network drama series Sons of Anarchy, as Sergeant Ernie Savage in We Were Soldiers, and as Chick in Bates Motel.
Hurst was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Candace Kaniecki, an acting coach, and Rick Hurst, an actor. He attended Santa Monica High School.
Growing up in a Hollywood family, Hurst made a very early start in show business, with a recurring role in the NBC teen situation comedy series Saved by the Bell: The New Class. In the 1998 epic war drama film Saving Private Ryan, Hurst portrayed Mandelsohn, a paratrooper who, because of temporary hearing loss, cannot understand Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) questions about sighting Private Ryan, which forces Miller to ask the questions in writing. Additionally, he appeared in the 2002 war film We Were Soldiers as Sgt. Ernie Savage, played the football player Lump Hudson in the black comedy thriller film The Ladykillers (2004), and starred in the TNT police drama series Wanted (2005). From 2005 to 2007, Hurst gained recognition for portraying the recurring role of Allison DuBois' half-brother, Michael Benoit, in NBC's supernatural procedural drama series Medium.
Hurst's big break came when he was cast as Opie Winston in the FX crime drama series Sons of Anarchy. Originally a recurring cast member in the first season, he was promoted to main cast member for the following season and went on to become a fan favorite. His character, newly released from a five-year prison stint and "living right", but not making ends meet, goes back to Samcro to provide for his family, despite his wife's objections and his knowing the risks. Hurst's portrayal of Opie earned him the 2011 Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Also in 2011, Hurst voiced Jedidiah in the animated box office hit Rango. Also stars in the series, Outsiders. It was announced in August 2018 that he will star as Beta on The Walking Dead.
In 1994, Hurst met Molly Cookson and the couple married in May 2005. Together, they founded the production company Fast Shoes. In April 2013, Hurst purchased a 3,400 square-foot home in Woodland Hills, California for $1.71 million.- Actor
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Charles Esten was born on 9 September 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Postman (1997), Nashville (2012) and Swing Vote (2008). He has been married to Patty Esten since 2 November 1991. They have three children.- Actor
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Oliver Hudson was born on 7 September 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Black Christmas (2006), Walk of Shame (2014) and Executive Decision (1996). He has been married to Erinn Bartlett since 9 June 2006. They have three children.- Actor
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American leading man famed as the star of one of the longest-running shows in U.S. television history, Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian heritage (the family name, Aurness, had formerly been Aursness) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was a traveling salesman of medical supplies and his mother later became a newspaper columnist. James attended West High School in Minneapolis. Although he appeared in school plays, he had no interest in performing, and dreamed instead of going to sea. After high school, he attended one semester at Beloit College before receiving his draft notice in 1943. He entered the army and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before shipping out for North Africa. At Casablanca, Arness joined the 3rd Infantry Division in time for the invasion of Anzio. Ten days after the invasion, Arness was severely wounded in the leg and foot by German machine-gun fire. His wounds, which plagued him the rest of his life, resulted in his medical discharge from the army.
While recuperating in a hospital in Clinton, Iowa, Arness was visited by his younger brother Peter (later to gain fame as actor Peter Graves), who suggested he take a radio course at the University of Minnesota. James did so, and a teacher recommended him for a job as an announcer at a Minneapolis radio station. Though seemingly headed for success in radio, he followed a boyhood friend's suggestion and went with the friend to Hollywood to find work as a film extra. Arness studied at the Bliss-Hayden Theatre School under actor Harry Hayden, and while appearing in a play there was spotted by agent Leon Lance. Lance got the actor a role as Loretta Young's brother in The Farmer's Daughter (1947). The director of that film, H.C. Potter, recommended that he drop the "u" from his last name and soon thereafter the actor was officially known as James Arness.
Little work followed this break, and Arness became sort of beach bum, living on the shore at San Onofre and spending his days surfing. He began taking his acting career more seriously when he began to receive fan mail following the release of the Young picture. He appeared in a production of "Candida" at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and married his leading lady, Virginia Chapman. She pressed him to study acting and to work harder in pursuit of a career, but Arness has been consistent in ascribing his success to luck. He began to act small roles with frequency, often due to his size, and mostly villainous characters. Most notable among these was that of the space alien in The Thing from Another World (1951).
While playing a Greek warrior in a play, Arness was spotted by agent Charles K. Feldman, who represented John Wayne. Feldman introduced Arness to Wayne, who put the self-described 6', 6" actor under personal contract. Arness played several roles over the next few years for and with Wayne, whom he considered a mentor. In 1955, Wayne recommended Arness for the lead role of Matt Dillon in the TV series Gunsmoke (1955). (Contrary to urban legend, Wayne himself was never offered the role.) Arness at first declined, thinking a TV series could derail his growing film career, but Wayne argued for the show, and Arness accepted. His portrayal of stalwart Marshal Dillon became an iconic figure in American television and the series, aired for 20 seasons, is, as of 2008, the longest-running dramatic series in U.S. television history. Arness became world-famous and years later reprized the character in a series of TV movies.
After the surprising cancellation of "Gunsmoke" in 1975, Arness jumped immediately into another successful (though much shorter-lived) Western project, a TV-movie-miniseries-series combination known as "How The West Was Won." A brief modern police drama, McClain's Law (1981), followed, and Arness played his mentor John Wayne's role in Red River (1988), a remake of the Wayne classic.
Following the aforementioned "Gunsmoke" TV movies (the last in 1994, when Arness was 71), Arness basically retired. His marriage to Virginia Chapman ended in divorce in 1960. They had three children, one of whom, Jenny Lee, committed suicide in 1975. Arness subsequently married Janet Surtrees in 1978.- Actor
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Raul Julia was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Olga Arcelay, a mezzo-soprano singer, and Raúl Juliá, an electrical engineer. He graduated from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola High School in San Juan. Here he studied the rigorous classical curriculum of the Jesuits and was always active in student dramatics. Julia was discovered while performing in a nightclub in San Juan by actor Orson Bean who inspired him to move to the mainland to pursue other projects. Julia moved to Manhattan, New York City in 1964 and quickly found work by acting in small and supporting roles in off-Broadway shows. In 1966, Julia began appearing in Shakespearean roles, creating a deliciously conniving Edmund in "King Lear" in 1973 and a smoldering Othello in 1979. Julia also made his mark on the musical stage playing one of the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" during its run in 1971, and a chilling role of Mack the Knife in "The Threepenny Opera" in 1976 and as a Felliniesque film director in "Nine" in 1982. The stage successes led to his movie works where he is better known.
One of his best movie roles is a passionate political prisoner in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). Julia also appeared as dramatic heroes and memorable villains in a number of films and made-for-TV-movies. His later roles included the crazy macabre Gomez Addams in two Addams Family movies. With his health declining from 1993 onward after he underwent a surgical operation for stomach cancer, Julia kept on acting, where he traveled to Mexico during the winter of 1993-1994 to play the Brazilian Amazon forest activist Chico Mendes in The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (1994), for which he posthumously won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. His last theatrical movie was filmed shortly after The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (1994) when he traveled to Australia to shoot all of his scenes for Street Fighter (1994), based on the popular video game where he played the villainous General M. Bison. His last role was a supporting part in another made-for-TV movie titled Down Came a Blackbird (1995).
On October 16, 1994, the weakened and gaunt Raul Julia suffered a stroke in New York City where he fell into a coma a few days later and was put on life support. He was transferred to a hospice in nearby Manhasset, Long Island where his weakened body finally gave up the struggle on October 24, at age 54. His body was flown back to Puerto Rico for burial where thousands turned out for his state funeral to remember him. Two honoring ceremonies were held at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola High School, and at the Headquarters of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture prior to his burial.- Actor
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Aaron Tveit was born on October 21, 1983 in Middletown, New York as Aaron Kyle Tveit. He's an American actor & singer known for originating the roles of Gabe in Next to Normal as well as Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can on Broadway. He's also known as Tripp van der Bilt in Gossip Girl (2007) & Enjolras in Les Misérables (2012). Other works include Graceland (2013) & Grease Live! (2016).- Actor
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Thirty-plus years in, Gregory Alan Williams continues to appear regularly in film and on television. He has also been producing, writing and, directing for the past several years. Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, GregAlan served as a Combat Engineer and Journalist in the United States Marine Corps. His professional career began in 1978 as a member of the renown Penumbra Theater Company in St. Paul Minnesota.- Actor
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Saul Rubinek was born in a refugee camp in Germany, where his father ran a Yiddish Repertory Theatre company. Saul started his professional career as a child actor in theater and radio in Canada. By the time he was 20, he was a member of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival company in Stratford, Ontario and, later, was a co-founder, actor and director of Theatre Le Hibou, Theatre Passe-Muraille and Toronto Free Theatre. He got his early training in film and television as an actor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Saul started working in the United States as an actor at the Public Theater in New York. Rubinek's work on U.S. and Canadian television, film and theater spans four decades. In 1997, Rubinek directed his first feature for Lionsgate, based on the play he previously directed, Jerry and Tom (1998). He also was producer on the film in partnership with his wife, Elinor Reid. The film was an official entry in competition at Sundance in 1998. He also directed the features _Club Land (2001) (TV)_ and _Bleacher Bums (2001) (TV)_ for Showtime/Paramount. Rubinek directed, and his wife and partner Elinor Reid produced the award-winning indie film Cruel But Necessary (2005). Penguin Books published (1987) Rubinek's non-fiction book, "So Many Miracles", an account of his parents' survival growing up in Poland during World War II. He wrote and produced an award-winning documentary (1988) of the same title, So Many Miracles (1987), for CBC and PBS which chronicles his parents' reunion with the people who saved their lives during the Holocaust. The DVD of the documentary is available from The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University. Rubinek wrote the play "Terrible Advice", which was produced in 2011 in London by The Chocolate Factory, starring Scott Bakula, Andy Nyman, Caroline Quentin, Sharon Horgan, and directed by Frank Oz.- Actor
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Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations to a rugby career, but he became fascinated with the theater and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of "Henry IV". He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), then spent several years in stage productions. He debuted on screen in Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) and quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), The Night Fighters (1960) and a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in The Guns of Navarone (1961).
However, his breakthrough performance was as the quintessential "angry young man" in the sensational drama This Sporting Life (1963), which scored him an Oscar nomination. He then appeared in the WW II commando tale The Heroes of Telemark (1965) and in the Sam Peckinpah-directed western Major Dundee (1965). He next showed up in Hawaii (1966) and played King Arthur in Camelot (1967), a lackluster adaptation of the famous Broadway play. Better performances followed, among them a role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires (1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. Harris took the lead role in the violent western A Man Called Horse (1970), which became something of a cult film and spawned two sequels. As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen; however, the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful.
His credits during this period included directing himself as an aging soccer player in The Hero (1970); the western The Deadly Trackers (1973); the big-budget "disaster" film Juggernaut (1974); the strangely-titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974); with Connery again in Robin and Marian (1976); Gulliver's Travels (1977); a part in the Jaws (1975); Orca (1977) and a nice turn as an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the popular action film The Wild Geese (1978).
The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek vanity production Tarzan the Ape Man (1981) and the remainder of the decade had him appearing in some very forgettable productions. However, the luck of the Irish was once again to shine on Harris's career and he scored rave reviews (and another Oscar nomination) for The Field (1990). He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathizer in Patriot Games (1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven (1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue and rewarded his fans with more wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993); Cry, the Beloved Country (1995); The Great Kandinsky (1995) and This Is the Sea (1997). Further fortune came his way with a strong performance in the blockbuster Gladiator (2000) and he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). His final screen role was as "Lucius Sulla" in Caesar (2002).
Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London on October 25, 2002, aged 72.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Greg Kinnear was born on June 17, 1963, in Logansport, Indiana, USA to Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat with the US State Department, and Suzanne (nee Buck) Kinnear, a homemaker. He has two brothers -- James, vice president-investments at Wachovia Securities in Arizona who was born in 1957, and Steve, a business manager with the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina who was born in 1959. His family moved often, including Lebanon and Greece. While a student in Athens, Greg first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear".
Returning to college in the States, he attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, graduating in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He headed out to Los Angeles, landing his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. He auditioned to be an MTV VJ, but was not selected and became an on-location reporter for the channel. He had bit parts on L.A. Law (1986) and Life Goes On (1989). He would later become the creator, co-executive producer, and host of Best of the Worst (1991) (1990-91). His breakthrough was as first host of Talk Soup (1991) (1994), when he left the show for the NBC late-night talk show, Later (1994).
In 1994, Kinnear had his first big screen role, as a talk show host in the Damon Wayans comedy Blankman (1994). In 1995 he won the role of David Larrabee in Sydney Pollack's remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 classic Sabrina (1995). Next was the lead in the 1996 comedy Dear God (1996). In 1997, he was cast in James L. Brooks's blockbuster comedy-drama As Good as It Gets (1997), receiving an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. In his next film, the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours (1997), he starred opposite Lauren Holly as part of a couple trying to have a baby. The film met with lukewarm reviews and a low box office.
His next film, You've Got Mail (1998), struck gold. He played Meg Ryan's significant other, a newspaper columnist. Next he played Captain Amazing in Mystery Men (1999). His more recent films have Nurse Betty (2000), Loser (2000), and Someone Like You (2001).- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jeffrey Scaperrotta was born in 1993. He is an actor, known for You've Got Mail (1998), Hollow Man (2000) and An Unfinished Life (2005).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Actor Stanley Tucci was born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York. He is the son of Joan (Tropiano), a writer, and Stanley Tucci, an art teacher. His family is Italian-American, with origins in Calabria.
Tucci took an interest in acting while in high school, and went on to attend the State University of New York's Conservatory of Theater Arts in Purchase. He began his professional career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in 1982, and then made his film debut in Prizzi's Honor (1985).
In 2009, Tucci received his first Academy Award nomination for his turn as a child murderer in The Lovely Bones (2009). He also received a BAFTA nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for the same role. Other than The Lovely Bones, Tucci has recently had noteworthy supporting turns in a broad range of movies including Lucky Number Slevin (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Tucci reached his widest audience yet when he played Caesar Flickerman in box office sensation The Hunger Games (2012).
While maintaining an active career in movies, Tucci received major accolades for some work in television. He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in TV movie Winchell (1998), an Emmy for a guest turn on Monk (2002), and a Golden Globe for his role in HBO movie Conspiracy (2001).
Tucci has also had an extensive career behind the camera. His directorial efforts include Big Night (1996), The Impostors (1998), Joe Gould's Secret (2000) and Blind Date (2007), and he did credited work on all of those screenplays with the exception of Joe Gould's Secret (2000).
Tucci has three children with Kate Tucci, who passed away in 2009. Tucci married Felicity Blunt in August 2012.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
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.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Albert Brooks was born on 22 July 1947 in Beverly Hills, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Drive (2011), Broadcast News (1987) and Defending Your Life (1991). He has been married to Kimberly Shlain since 15 March 1997. They have two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
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
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Ethan Embry was born Ethan Philan Randall on June 13, 1978, in Huntington Beach, California, to Karen and Charles Randall. Before he started acting in movies, Ethan appeared in more than 100 TV and radio commercials. In 1991, at the age of 13, he appeared in three films and has continued acting ever since. On average, Ethan released or filmed at least two films per year, which continued up until 1999, when he filmed about five films.
Ethan spent most of his childhood in Southern California growing up with his older brother, Aaron (said to be one of the best musicians in LA), and his little sister, Kessia. In 1998, he bought a home of his own.
In the fall of 1999, Ethan co-starred as Sebastian in the short-lived CBS sitcom Work with Me (1999). Sadly, due to a lack of ratings, the show ended after only four episodes. 1999, however, did bring a happy event; Ethan's then-wife, Amelinda Smith, gave birth to their first child, whom they named Cogeian, after the Latin word "cogeo," which means "to think over."
In the fall of 2000, Ethan starred as Derek Barnes in FreakyLinks (2000) on FOX. Thirteen episodes were shot, but the series was soon canceled after its debut. Later success includes a role as Detective Frank Smith on Dick Wolf's remake of the classic series Dragnet (2003), a part in the recent cult classic Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), and a guest-starring role in the series Numb3rs (2005).
He has been married to actresses Amelinda Smith, with whom he has one child, and Sunny Mabrey.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in high school theatrics, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989.
He made his feature film debut in the indie production Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991) as Phil Hoffman, and his first role in a major release came the next year in My New Gun (1992). While he had supporting roles in some other major productions like Scent of a Woman (1992) and Twister (1996), his breakthrough role came in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997).
He quickly became an icon of indie cinema, establishing a reputation as one of the screen's finest actors, in a variety of supporting and second leads in indie and major features, including Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), Flawless (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999), Almost Famous (2000) and State and Main (2000). He also appeared in supporting roles in such mainstream, big-budget features as Red Dragon (2002), Cold Mountain (2003) and Mission: Impossible III (2006).
Hoffman was also quite active on the stage. On Broadway, he has earned two Tony nominations, as Best Actor (Play) in 2000 for a revival of Sam Shepard's "True West" and as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) in 2003 for a revival of Eugene O'Neill (I)'s "Long Day's Journey into Night". His other acting credits in the New York theater include "The Seagull" (directed by Mike Nichols for The New York Shakespeare Festival), "Defying Gravity", "The Merchant of Venice" (directed by Peter Sellars), "Shopping and F*@%ing" and "The Author's Voice" (Drama Desk nomination).
He was the Co-Artistic Director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York, for which he directed "Our Lady of 121st Street" by Stephen Adly Guirgis. He also directed "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Jesus Hopped the A Train" by Guirgis for LAByrinth, and "The Glory of Living" by Rebecca Gilman at the Manhattan Class Company.
Hoffman consolidated his reputation as one of the finest actors under the age of 40 with his turn in the title role of Capote (2005), for which he won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award as Best Actor. In 2006, he was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for the same role.
On February 2, 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in an apartment in Greenwich village, New York. Investigators found Hoffman with a syringe in his arm and two open envelopes of heroin next to him. Mr. Hoffman was long known to struggle with addiction. In 2006, he said in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he had given up drugs and alcohol many years earlier, when he was age 22. In 2013, he checked into a rehabilitation program for about 10 days after a reliance on prescription pills resulted in his briefly turning again to heroin.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Jonathan Southworth Ritter was born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. He was the son of legendary country singer/actor Tex Ritter (born Woodward Maurice Ritter) and his wife, actress Dorothy Fay (née Dorothy Fay Southworth). The couple married in 1941 and had their first child, Tom Ritter, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. John was destined to follow in his parents footsteps. He was enrolled at Hollywood High School where he was student body president.
After graduation from high school, he attended the University of Southern California where he majored in Psychology and minored in Architecture. His first appearance on TV was in 1966 as a contestant on The Dating Game (1965) where he won a vacation to Lake Havasu, Arizona. After making his very first cameo appearance, he was induced to join an acting class taught by Nina Foch. He changed his major to Theater Arts, graduating in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama. He also studied acting with Stella Adler at the Harvey Lembeck Comedy Workshop. Between 1968 and 1969, he appeared in a series of stage plays in England, Scotland, Holland and in Germany.
His TV debut came playing a campus revolutionary on Dan August (1970) which starred Burt Reynolds and Norman Fell, who later starred with him on Three's Company (1976). Then he appeared as "Reverend Matthew Fordwick" on The Waltons (1972). He continued making more guest appearances on Medical Center (1969), M*A*S*H (1972), The Bob Newhart Show (1972), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Kojak (1973), Rhoda (1974) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). While working on The Waltons (1972), he received word that his legendary father had passed away, just a day after New Year's Day in 1974. The following year, in late 1975, ABC picked up the rights for a new series based on a British sitcom, Man About the House (1973). Ritter beat out 50 people, including a young Billy Crystal, to get a major role. The first pilot was trashed, and in order for it to be improved, Joyce DeWitt, an unknown actress, played the role of "Janet Wood", along with Susan Lanier as the dumb blonde, "Chrissy Snow". It did better than the first pilot, but the producers still needed a change and Suzanne Somers came to the show at the very last minute to play "Chrissy". The series, Three's Company (1976), was born. When it debuted as a mid-season replacement, it became a ratings hit. It focused mainly on his character, "Jack Tripper", a chef who pretended to be gay in order to share an apartment with two attractive ladies.
Before playing "Jack Tripper" on the small screen, he also made his box office debut in the movie Nickelodeon (1976). Two years later, he worked with his close friend, Jenny Sullivan, in Breakfast in Bed (1977), and the following year, played "Pres. Chet Roosevelt" in the movie Americathon (1979). Also in 1977, he and his brother emceed the Annual United Cerebral Palsy Telethon which he continued to support for over 15 years. He also became more popular with movies such as Hero at Large (1980) and They All Laughed (1981). In 1980, when Three's Company (1976) was sold into syndication, the show became a ratings phenomenon. At the height of Ritter's popularity, he won a Golden Globe in 1983 for Best Performance by an Actor after being nominated twice for Best TV Actor in a Musical-Comedy Series and, one year later, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In a Comedy Series after being nominated twice. By its eighth season, the show began to drop in the ratings and was canceled in 1984. After cancellation, he starred in its spin-off, called Three's a Crowd (1984), also starring Mary Cadorette, but it lasted for only one season.
His first animated movie was that of a man turning into a dragon, whose job was to defeat "Ommendon" in The Flight of Dragons (1982). The following year, he came back to series television as "Detective Harry Hooperman" in the comedy/drama, Hooperman (1987) for which he was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 1988 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He also won a People's Choice Award for this role. He continued doing more box-office films such as Skin Deep (1989), in which he played a womanizing, alcoholic writer whose life seemed to be falling apart at the seams. In the movies, Problem Child (1990), and Problem Child 2 (1991), he played the surrogate father of a rebellious little boy who wrought havoc on the family. He also worked on Noises Off... (1992) and Stay Tuned (1992) before returning to another TV sitcom called Hearts Afire (1992) that also starred Billy Bob Thornton. The show had well-written scripts but failed to reach a massive audience which led to its cancellation in 1995. While he was working on Hearts Afire (1992), he played "Ward Nelson" on North (1994). Then, he had the opportunity to work with Billy Bob Thornton, in the movie Sling Blade (1996), in which Ritter played the gay manager of a department store. He also provided the voice of "Clifford" in Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000). He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award 4 times in a row, totaling seven Emmy nominations in his 35-year career. In 1999, he was also nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series playing the role of "George Madison" on an episode of Ally McBeal (1997).
Soon afterwards, he landed his last television role in 8 Simple Rules (2002), based on the popular book. On this sitcom he played "Paul Hennessey", a loving, yet rational dad, who laid down the ground rules for his three children and dealt with such topics as curfews, sex, drugs, getting arrested, etc. The show was a ratings winner in its first season and won a People's Choice Award for Best New Comedy and also won for Favorite Comedy Series by the Family Awards. While working on "8 Simple Rules," he also starred in his second-to-last film, Manhood (2003). That same year, he felt ill while rehearsing on set, and was taken across the street to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, where he was mistakenly treated for a heart attack. He died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection which is a tear in the wall of the aorta. He underwent surgery and died on September 11, 2003, just six days shy of his 55th birthday. In the years that he worked, John Ritter was a brilliant comedian and a passionate actor, who wanted to make everybody laugh. Shortly before his death, his eldest son, Jason Ritter, was cast in the role of "Kevin" in the highly-rated drama Joan of Arcadia (2003).- Actor
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Mark Boone Junior was born on 17 March 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Memento (2000), 30 Days of Night (2007) and Batman Begins (2005).- Actor
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Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England, he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager. He adopted the name of Caine on the advice of his agent, taking it from a marquee that advertised The Caine Mutiny (1954). In the years that followed, he worked in more than 100 television dramas, with repertory companies throughout England and eventually in the stage hit "The Long and the Short and the Tall".
Zulu (1964), the epic retelling of a historic 19th-century battle in South Africa between British soldiers and Zulu warriors, brought Caine to international attention. Instead of being typecast as a low-ranking Cockney soldier, he played a snobbish, aristocratic officer. Although "Zulu" was a major success, it was the role of Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) and the title role in Alfie (1966) that made Caine a star of the first magnitude. He epitomized the new breed of actor in mid-1960s England, the working-class bloke with glasses and a down-home accent. However, after initially starring in some excellent films, particularly in the 1960s, including Gambit (1966), Funeral in Berlin (1966), Play Dirty (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), Too Late the Hero (1970), The Last Valley (1971) and especially Get Carter (1971), he seemed to take on roles in below-average films, simply for the money he could by then command.
However, there were some gems amongst the dross. He gave a magnificent performance opposite Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and turned in a solid one as a German colonel in The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Educating Rita (1983), Blame It on Rio (1984) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) (for which he won his first Oscar) were highlights of the 1980s, while more recently Little Voice (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999) (his second Oscar) and Last Orders (2001) have been widely acclaimed. Caine played Nigel Powers in the parody sequel Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. He appeared in several other of Nolan's films including The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014). He also appeared as a supporting character in Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (2006) and Pixar's sequel Cars 2 (2011).
As of 2015, films in which Caine has starred have grossed over $7.4 billion worldwide. He is ranked the ninth highest grossing box office star. Caine is one of several actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting every decade from five consecutive decades (the other being Laurence Olivier and Meryl Streep). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2000 Birthday Honours in recognition for his contributions to the cinema.
Caine has been married twice. First to actress Patricia Haines from 1954 to 1958. They had a daughter, Dominique, in 1957. A bachelor for some dozen-plus years after the divorce, he was romantically linked to Edina Ronay (for three years), Nancy Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Candice Bergen, Bianca Jagger, Françoise Pascal and Jill St. John. In 1971 he met his second wife, fashion model Shakira Caine (née Baksh), and they married in 1973, six months before their daughter Natasha was born. The couple has three grandchildren, and in 2023, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.- Actor
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The middle of five children, Bratt hails from a close-knit family. His mother, an indigenous Quechua Peruvian from Lima, moved to the U.S. at age 14. He grew up in San Francisco. He is known for his roles in the films Traffic (2000), Miss Congeniality (2000), and Despicable Me 2 (2013). He is married to actress Talisa Soto.- Leon Rippy was born on 30 October 1949 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. He is an actor, known for Eight Legged Freaks (2002), Stargate (1994) and Deadwood (2004). He is married to Carol Rippy. They have two children.
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Bailey was born in Chicago but moved to Florida after his parents divorced at a young age. He attended Duke University on a football scholarship and majored in Psychology. After graduation, Bailey moved to LA to pursue his boyhood dream of acting which encompassed a training stint in London (LAMDA). His first film break came in Adam Shankman's Cosmo's Tale (1998), which screened at both Sundance and Cannes. Bailey's career blossomed in television starting with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer then working with Oscar-winners in Saving Grace and Damages before his own critically acclaimed performance in Longmire. Bailey has starred in various projects since including Batman V Superman, Chicago PD, Grimm, 24: Legacy, Twin Peaks and Queen of the South. He was recently nominated for Best Lead Actor for his performance in Far Haven and is currently shooting Homestead (2024). Bailey resides in North Carolina with his wife and three children.- Actor
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Kenny Johnson is an American actor whose celebrated range, depth and sincerity has only been magnified by starring opposite Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winners and nominees, such as Anthony Hopkins, Vera Farmiga, Holly Hunter, Juliette Lewis, Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker, Maria Bello, and Michael Chiklis, among others. Johnson can be seen in a barrage of critically acclaimed series, from Dexter (2006) to Bates Motel (2013), and from Sons of Anarchy (2008) to Secrets and Lies (2015). His portrayal of Detective Curtis Lemansky on The Shield (2002) won him a substantial fanbase struck by his character's strong but sensitive personality. Johnson's future only brightened - now consistently in demand as an actor who embraces his characters, protects them and fights with them to further not only their stories, but the stories of the actors around him.- Actor
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Greg works as an Actor is in Film, Television, Video, Commercials, Motion Capture, and Voice Over. His Theatrical background includes main-stage productions with: El Teatro Campesino The Mark Taper Forum (Centre Theatre Group) The Berkeley Repertory Theatre The Denver Center Theatre Company In New York he created the role of Knuckles in the theatrical production of Noah's Archives at the Ohio Theatre. Greg did extensive work with the Friends & Artists Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles, CA) and was a founding member, He received a Drama-Logue Award for his performance as Macheath in their production of The Three Penny Opera.- Actor
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Bokeem Woodbine grew up in Harlem, New York. At the age of 19, he secured the lead role in the HBO production of Forest Whitaker's directorial debut Strapped (1993). Bokeem moved to Los Angeles shortly after completing the film Jason's Lyric (1994), and has pursued his dream of becoming a noteworthy film actor while balancing a passion for musical expression. Along the way he has appeared alongside Oscar- wining actors and worked with many of today's top directors, producers, and networks. To date he has appeared in biographical movies, like "Ray," comedies like "Life," horror, "Devil," and most recently science fiction, in the much anticipated film, In the Shadow of the Moon (2019). Bokeem respects the responsibilities inherent in taking on any role, and enjoys the process.- Actor
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Mark L. Taylor was born on 25 October 1950 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Innerspace (1987), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and Arachnophobia (1990). He is married to Judy Taylor. They have two children.- A native of Illinois, Tom Irwin attended Illinois State University. After graduation, he joined the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. The renowned ensemble of artists - among them Laurie Metcalf, John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and Joan Allen - still work together as often as possible. Irwin has been involved in over 50 Steppenwolf productions as an actor or director. Highlights include: "The Grapes of Wrath", also Royal National Theatre; "Balm in Gilead", also Off-Broadway; "My Thing of Love", also Broadway; "Frank's Wild Years", with Tom Waits; "Space", also Off-Broadway. In the summer of 2002 he co-starred with Madonna in "Up for Grabs" at the Wyndam's Theatre in London. He has been on the faculty of The Goodman School of Drama at Depaul University and Columbia College in Chicago.
In addition to his filmography credits, he has starred in many telefilms and was a series regular on My Life and Times (1991) and My So-Called Life (1994). Tom makes his home in Los Angeles. - Patrick St. Esprit was born on 18 May 1954 in the USA. He is an actor, known for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Green Zone (2010) and We Were Soldiers (2002).