Nepotism: Film Industry's Biggest Liability?
aka Nepotism: Hollywood's Dirty "Secret"
or Rampant Abuse of Family Connections In the Film Industry
or How Elitism Dominates Show-Biz
2021 UPDATE: I am trying to catch up with all the more recent actors/directors, but nepotism has been plowing forward (i.e. backward, for us) at such an accelerated pace that I just can't find them all quickly enough. The list should include hundreds more people... Elitism and corruption are on the rise which perfectly aligns with the drastic drop in the quality of movies and television in this century.
2023 UPDATE: I've added almost 650 new names recently.
2023 UPDATE: I have also started adding far more non-Americans, to avoid making the list too U.S.-centric, but also because nepotism/elitism are even more widespread across the Atlantic. The majority of the French entries are to be found on pages 11 and 12. The German section is on pages 12 and 13. Gradually, I might add Spanish, and Italian sections as well, although I already have some people from these (and other) countries. There is a separate list for Serbian nepotism. However, Bollywood nepotism I won't even attempt because I have no inside knowledge of that industry at all, and besides which I'd heard that nearly everybody in it is nepotistic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"It’s a running joke in Hollywood that every bellhop, busboy and waitress in LA is working on being an actor, screenwriter, director - whatever. Every year, thousands flock to the city where dreams are made… only to be passed over so someone’s niece can snag a role without having to go through the audition process. Hooray for Hollywood!" - KC Morgan.
Hey, I'm a whistle-blower of sorts! Why won't Hollywood side with me as they do with Edward Snowden?
Oh right, I'm blowing the whistle on THEM. They don't appreciate it when THEY'RE being scrutinized. They prefer to do the moralizing and the finger-pointing themselves, especially in their brazenly deceptive political propaganda films, while always hoping that not too many people notice what a cesspool of hypocrisy, egomania and decadence the American film industry itself is. And not just American cinema, but most other successful film nations too. This list isn't just about American nepotism.
(And besides, Snowden is a bad example. There is a big difference between a whistle-blower and a spy.)
First off, let me explain why this list aggravates some people within show business: because it exposes the hypocrisy of their elitism which goes against all of their left-wing, "equal-opportunity" public-persona politics. The main reason the list might not appeal to some movie fans: because it reveals to them how easily they're manipulated into devouring anything - or accepting anybody as a "talent" - that the powerful movie-industry hype-machine forces into their defenseless brains. Nobody likes to be informed that they are uncritical and lacking criteria. Nobody likes to find out that they aren't capable of differentiating between a great actor and a mediocre one. (But it's precisely this widespread - and growing - inability among most movie-goers that enables nepotism to flourish more than ever before. The studios have grown to realize it in recent decades hence why they'd stopped trying to find talent, or at least curtailed that activity greatly, deeming it unnecessary.)
The list that proves that practically anyone can be turned into a star, or at least a moderately employable actor. If you can talk, walk and learn lines, i.e. if you're a half-way functioning "meat puppet", you're in. But you do need strong connections, because the Pearly Gates of Hollywood are holding off hordes of incoming potential actors, writers and directors whose unexplored talents will remain forever hidden thanks to favouritism.
Millions of young people want in on the fun (sex, power, money and fame... and the "artistry" ha ha) but 99.9% have practically zero chance, not just because many are not good enough but because the privileged kids from powerful industrial and show-biz families have the huge advantage over them, because they get the short-cuts to fame: they get to be auditioned, and the others don't. Rich show-biz kids get the A-movie roles almost straight away, while struggling "plebeian" actors have to scrape up the ladder from the very bottom. Thanks to nepotism (and other forms of Hollywood corruption that I won't get into here but which you can easily guess) these Pearly Gates of Stardom are firmly shut most of the time. At least for the working-class and even middle-class kids.
The movie industry (everywhere, not just in the States) is a very incestuous, sect-like world in which family connections, political affiliation - and even ethnicity - are the deciding factors when it comes to the forging of careers. (The recent Weinstein scandals proved yet again that the casting couch is alive and well, too, and that even nepotists aren't safe from its clutches - let alone non-nepotists.) Talent is far behind in 10th place, after the various, more decisive factors: nobody seems to be interested in talent anymore, certainly not studio bosses, producers, and even directors who had realized a long time ago that the public's criteria have sunk so low over the years that these new audiences accept pretty much any face on the screen. And that is a big part of the reason why at least 90% of all movies are pretty much useless.
Which brings me to why (American) movies have been going down the toilet in recent years. The amount of garbage being put out by major studios has been on a steady rise for some years now. There are several reasons for this, one certainly being political correctness i.e. an all-encompassing political agenda, but perhaps the most negative impact stems from the exponentially growing nepotism which is now firmly entrenched in ALL aspects of film-making. It is difficult to find a recent (big-budget) movie in which more than a half of the cast members don't have influential parents/relatives/friends in the industry before they got their foot in the movie door.
Ditto the film crews, but the list concerns itself only with the "creative" branches of the film industry. In fact, I don't mind at all when gaffers, electricians, prop people, producers and even costume designers stem from show-biz clans. These are all pretty much behind-the-camera, non-creative aspects of the business hence irrelevant. It's the creative and "creative" aspects such as acting, writing and directing that this list is about: this is the Holy Trio of what makes or breaks a movie, the stuff that needs to be of a certain level and quality in order for a movie or TV show to be great, or at least solid.
The list focuses predominantly on actors and directors - hence largely it doesn't even take into consideration the vast number of bad scripts that have been a result of nepotistic infiltration! Nor does it include the plethora of nepotistic offspring that had appeared only in several smaller roles in fairly meaningless productions and as extras in big movies. I have intentionally skipped all the nepotists who have just a handful of minor appearances i.e. credits. You can click on the bio of just about any better-known actor older than 45 and you'll find that at least half of them have kids, siblings or cousins who are either actors, producers, or working in film crews as set designers or whatever.
So movie "artistry" is now an arena limited to a predetermined genetic karma, to a select few with the "right breeding", huh? Nice. How monarchistic. How anti-socialist. But the element of injustice isn't what is the worst about it all: it's the fact that nepotism kills good entertainment. Bad scripts, mediocre directors and charisma-free/incompetent actors combine to produce a heap of garbage that cannot measure up to what real talent can achieve. This is simply a fact, and a very evident one.
Tinseltown's elitist jet-set would have us believe that acting "talent" is passed on genetically, but if you believe there is such a thing as an acting gene (or a "charisma DNA") I would like to see some scientific proof of it first. Besides, many nepotists on this list come from non-movie, or at least non-acting, backgrounds. MANY of the kids who got a shot at fame in the past few decades - that aren't related to actors or producers - are children of upper-class, millionaire clans, wealthy industrialists for example, a fact that offers more proof how anti-equal-opportunity the film industry is, how corrupt and lazy it is.
They would also have us believe that nearly all of the world's acting/writing/directing talent has already been collected from all corners of America (and elsewhere), that the world's "acting talent pool" has dried up, been totally depleted, so why even bother looking for potential new De Niros, Caines, MacLaines, Connerys and Pacinos amongst the "masses"? Hence the debilitating current trend whereby the vast majority of the younger stars today have parents in powerful positions in the business - or commerce, or politics. I wouldn't mind, IF these kids were any good. But they usually aren't. Armies of Pauly Shores, Casey Aflecks and Amy Schumers dominate the film industry, while much more talented kids are sitting around stupidly, naively waiting for their agents to cast them in good auditions. So anti-socialist. Totally anti-liberal.
The gulf between what cinema's left-wingers preach and what they practice can't be any bigger.
It would seem that auditions serve very little purpose in Hollywood (and elsewhere), except to weed out the worst from the bad. A typical high-profile Hollywood audition (I am guessing) must be like a who's-who of famous actors' children, all fighting for a shot at fame and additional cash. Very few outsiders. It makes one wonder just how many truly bad nepotists never make it! Even a severely talent-free case like David Arquette must have beaten out several dozen failed nepotists, i.e. they are even worse ones than him. Scary (but fascinating) thought.
The list also exposes the startling hypocrisy of the movie business which is predominantly left-wing (now more than ever before), i.e. supposedly orientated toward the rights of the poor and "oppressed" - and yet there's this little anti-equality thing called elitist nepotism that proves that this is just an act: in reality, no poor or unconnected person with talent can make it in Hollywood unless they have wild luck. Hollywood predominantly employs its own spoiled rich kids, plus a whole array of sons and daughters of powerful politicians, famous pop stars, high-profile athletes - even sons and daughters of barons, lords and countesses! Hollywood producers and casting directors rarely hire middle-class or especially blue-collar talent. Again, I wouldn't mind this at all, IF only this corrupt selection-process worked - but it clearly doesn't. We've never had so many bland, boring actors and mediocre directors. The scripts are pitiful too.
So what is the real message Hollywood is giving blue-collar kids with dreams of movie careers? "You go on working in your factories and washing dishes and flipping burgers like your parents, we don't really need you here." That is the real message here, and one that is in total contrast/opposition to Hollywood's left-wing equal-opportunity lies - the politically-correct and completely dishonest message Hollywood is selling to the brainwashed masses.
So, yes, as insane and as despicable as it may sound, Hollywood is about silver-spoon-fed, righteous, holier-than-thou millionaires creating/starring in movies that preach about the rights of the oppressed, the poor, promoting socialism, minorities and the working class. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. This fact alone should tell you what kind of people run the film industry.
(It's interesting how this list had close to 500 views per week in its first years - then suddenly the numbers went down to two digits. I wonder how that happened.)
The list will be continually upgraded, there are LITERALLY HUNDREDS MORE people that haven't yet been added.
(EDIT: I stuck to my promise and added 200 more names. Then another 200. And another.)
Listed in the approximate order from the worst to slightly less bad. Essentially the first 100 are the best and most relevant examples of why nepotism is awful and destructive, whereas the rest are pretty much ranked randomly.
And no, I am not a disgruntled actor or director. I have never had any aspirations whatsoever to be in show-biz, since I am neither an exhibitionist attention-seeker nor obsessed with money. All I want is to watch good movies, but that is only possible when a good script is complemented with a good cast, and directed by someone chosen on the merit of his talents, not as a favour for a friend.
Nepotism is a branch of corruption. It is amoral, and it leads to a lowering of artistic standards. Whoever can't grasp this simple concept should skip this list altogether.
"The ultimate idea of rags-to-riches success in America is the Hollywood movie star." - Marin Ireland, actress
Methinks Ms Ireland is either trying to be funny or working hard to prove one of the oldest cliches about Hollywood actresses...
Of course, as with anything else, there are degrees or levels. Not all of the people listed here had it equally easy to enter show business. From easiest level entry to least easy:
1. Kids/relatives of studio bosses and powerful producers.
2. Kids/relatives of billionaires and of nobility i.e. the upper-most echelon of the so-called "1%"
3. Kids/relatives of current A-list actors (and directors), so-called "film stars".
4. Kids/relatives of non-show-biz people, but powerful professionals such as influential Hollywood lawyers, District Attorneys and Washington politicians.
5. Kids/relatives of top-tier casting agents and mid-level producers.
6. Kids/relatives of former A-list actors (and directors), i.e. "has-beens" but well-connected has-beens who have quite a number of very useful telephone numbers in their notepads.
7. Kids/relatives of B-list/C-list actors with lengthy filmographies. Not nearly as well-connected as the categories listed above, but certainly with far more advantages at their disposal than a farmer's daughter in Alabama (who has almost zero chance to get her Cinderella foot in the door, even if she's beautiful and talented; this does happen but very rarely).
8. Kids/relatives of minor actors who showed up on TV and movies in small parts.
9. Kids/relatives of prominent and/or wealthy archeologists, scientists, and other types of non-show-biz professionals.
.....
.....
.....
100. Kids from the working class, from trailer-parks, and farmers' sons and daughters. These demographics very rarely make it to the film industry or even the mainstream music industry - which is equally corrupt, believe it or not. There was a time in the 50s and 60s in the UK when this happened occasionally (Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins), but generally speaking most eras have been blue-collar-unfriendly. Being even "merely" of the middle-class lessens one's chances significantly.
The 9 categories above are neither a complete or totally precise division/ranking of nepotistic levels, but it gives you a good idea of how nepotists are ranked in terms of how well connected they are, i.e. how easy or less easy their access to employment and/or outright stardom is. Being Will Smith's kid is thereby in a far better position to get started than a child from a wealthy clan of famous archeologists. Kids from the top 3 categories rarely need to waste their time on minor roles and smaller movies: they usually start their careers right away in big-budget films. But that's just a general rule. (Hint: whenever an unknown young actor/actress suddenly appears in a very good role in a top movie production, chances are fairly high it's a nepotist).
Of course, there are also many actors who broke into show-business through a childhood friend, such as was the case with Tobey Maguire. There are many such cases, but they aren't included on this list. In other words, the list could/should be twice as large if I had access to this kind of information too.
My YouTube channel, it's mostly music-related:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3QrO38IvBGyUUPeTs46aYA
or Rampant Abuse of Family Connections In the Film Industry
or How Elitism Dominates Show-Biz
2021 UPDATE: I am trying to catch up with all the more recent actors/directors, but nepotism has been plowing forward (i.e. backward, for us) at such an accelerated pace that I just can't find them all quickly enough. The list should include hundreds more people... Elitism and corruption are on the rise which perfectly aligns with the drastic drop in the quality of movies and television in this century.
2023 UPDATE: I've added almost 650 new names recently.
2023 UPDATE: I have also started adding far more non-Americans, to avoid making the list too U.S.-centric, but also because nepotism/elitism are even more widespread across the Atlantic. The majority of the French entries are to be found on pages 11 and 12. The German section is on pages 12 and 13. Gradually, I might add Spanish, and Italian sections as well, although I already have some people from these (and other) countries. There is a separate list for Serbian nepotism. However, Bollywood nepotism I won't even attempt because I have no inside knowledge of that industry at all, and besides which I'd heard that nearly everybody in it is nepotistic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"It’s a running joke in Hollywood that every bellhop, busboy and waitress in LA is working on being an actor, screenwriter, director - whatever. Every year, thousands flock to the city where dreams are made… only to be passed over so someone’s niece can snag a role without having to go through the audition process. Hooray for Hollywood!" - KC Morgan.
Hey, I'm a whistle-blower of sorts! Why won't Hollywood side with me as they do with Edward Snowden?
Oh right, I'm blowing the whistle on THEM. They don't appreciate it when THEY'RE being scrutinized. They prefer to do the moralizing and the finger-pointing themselves, especially in their brazenly deceptive political propaganda films, while always hoping that not too many people notice what a cesspool of hypocrisy, egomania and decadence the American film industry itself is. And not just American cinema, but most other successful film nations too. This list isn't just about American nepotism.
(And besides, Snowden is a bad example. There is a big difference between a whistle-blower and a spy.)
First off, let me explain why this list aggravates some people within show business: because it exposes the hypocrisy of their elitism which goes against all of their left-wing, "equal-opportunity" public-persona politics. The main reason the list might not appeal to some movie fans: because it reveals to them how easily they're manipulated into devouring anything - or accepting anybody as a "talent" - that the powerful movie-industry hype-machine forces into their defenseless brains. Nobody likes to be informed that they are uncritical and lacking criteria. Nobody likes to find out that they aren't capable of differentiating between a great actor and a mediocre one. (But it's precisely this widespread - and growing - inability among most movie-goers that enables nepotism to flourish more than ever before. The studios have grown to realize it in recent decades hence why they'd stopped trying to find talent, or at least curtailed that activity greatly, deeming it unnecessary.)
The list that proves that practically anyone can be turned into a star, or at least a moderately employable actor. If you can talk, walk and learn lines, i.e. if you're a half-way functioning "meat puppet", you're in. But you do need strong connections, because the Pearly Gates of Hollywood are holding off hordes of incoming potential actors, writers and directors whose unexplored talents will remain forever hidden thanks to favouritism.
Millions of young people want in on the fun (sex, power, money and fame... and the "artistry" ha ha) but 99.9% have practically zero chance, not just because many are not good enough but because the privileged kids from powerful industrial and show-biz families have the huge advantage over them, because they get the short-cuts to fame: they get to be auditioned, and the others don't. Rich show-biz kids get the A-movie roles almost straight away, while struggling "plebeian" actors have to scrape up the ladder from the very bottom. Thanks to nepotism (and other forms of Hollywood corruption that I won't get into here but which you can easily guess) these Pearly Gates of Stardom are firmly shut most of the time. At least for the working-class and even middle-class kids.
The movie industry (everywhere, not just in the States) is a very incestuous, sect-like world in which family connections, political affiliation - and even ethnicity - are the deciding factors when it comes to the forging of careers. (The recent Weinstein scandals proved yet again that the casting couch is alive and well, too, and that even nepotists aren't safe from its clutches - let alone non-nepotists.) Talent is far behind in 10th place, after the various, more decisive factors: nobody seems to be interested in talent anymore, certainly not studio bosses, producers, and even directors who had realized a long time ago that the public's criteria have sunk so low over the years that these new audiences accept pretty much any face on the screen. And that is a big part of the reason why at least 90% of all movies are pretty much useless.
Which brings me to why (American) movies have been going down the toilet in recent years. The amount of garbage being put out by major studios has been on a steady rise for some years now. There are several reasons for this, one certainly being political correctness i.e. an all-encompassing political agenda, but perhaps the most negative impact stems from the exponentially growing nepotism which is now firmly entrenched in ALL aspects of film-making. It is difficult to find a recent (big-budget) movie in which more than a half of the cast members don't have influential parents/relatives/friends in the industry before they got their foot in the movie door.
Ditto the film crews, but the list concerns itself only with the "creative" branches of the film industry. In fact, I don't mind at all when gaffers, electricians, prop people, producers and even costume designers stem from show-biz clans. These are all pretty much behind-the-camera, non-creative aspects of the business hence irrelevant. It's the creative and "creative" aspects such as acting, writing and directing that this list is about: this is the Holy Trio of what makes or breaks a movie, the stuff that needs to be of a certain level and quality in order for a movie or TV show to be great, or at least solid.
The list focuses predominantly on actors and directors - hence largely it doesn't even take into consideration the vast number of bad scripts that have been a result of nepotistic infiltration! Nor does it include the plethora of nepotistic offspring that had appeared only in several smaller roles in fairly meaningless productions and as extras in big movies. I have intentionally skipped all the nepotists who have just a handful of minor appearances i.e. credits. You can click on the bio of just about any better-known actor older than 45 and you'll find that at least half of them have kids, siblings or cousins who are either actors, producers, or working in film crews as set designers or whatever.
So movie "artistry" is now an arena limited to a predetermined genetic karma, to a select few with the "right breeding", huh? Nice. How monarchistic. How anti-socialist. But the element of injustice isn't what is the worst about it all: it's the fact that nepotism kills good entertainment. Bad scripts, mediocre directors and charisma-free/incompetent actors combine to produce a heap of garbage that cannot measure up to what real talent can achieve. This is simply a fact, and a very evident one.
Tinseltown's elitist jet-set would have us believe that acting "talent" is passed on genetically, but if you believe there is such a thing as an acting gene (or a "charisma DNA") I would like to see some scientific proof of it first. Besides, many nepotists on this list come from non-movie, or at least non-acting, backgrounds. MANY of the kids who got a shot at fame in the past few decades - that aren't related to actors or producers - are children of upper-class, millionaire clans, wealthy industrialists for example, a fact that offers more proof how anti-equal-opportunity the film industry is, how corrupt and lazy it is.
They would also have us believe that nearly all of the world's acting/writing/directing talent has already been collected from all corners of America (and elsewhere), that the world's "acting talent pool" has dried up, been totally depleted, so why even bother looking for potential new De Niros, Caines, MacLaines, Connerys and Pacinos amongst the "masses"? Hence the debilitating current trend whereby the vast majority of the younger stars today have parents in powerful positions in the business - or commerce, or politics. I wouldn't mind, IF these kids were any good. But they usually aren't. Armies of Pauly Shores, Casey Aflecks and Amy Schumers dominate the film industry, while much more talented kids are sitting around stupidly, naively waiting for their agents to cast them in good auditions. So anti-socialist. Totally anti-liberal.
The gulf between what cinema's left-wingers preach and what they practice can't be any bigger.
It would seem that auditions serve very little purpose in Hollywood (and elsewhere), except to weed out the worst from the bad. A typical high-profile Hollywood audition (I am guessing) must be like a who's-who of famous actors' children, all fighting for a shot at fame and additional cash. Very few outsiders. It makes one wonder just how many truly bad nepotists never make it! Even a severely talent-free case like David Arquette must have beaten out several dozen failed nepotists, i.e. they are even worse ones than him. Scary (but fascinating) thought.
The list also exposes the startling hypocrisy of the movie business which is predominantly left-wing (now more than ever before), i.e. supposedly orientated toward the rights of the poor and "oppressed" - and yet there's this little anti-equality thing called elitist nepotism that proves that this is just an act: in reality, no poor or unconnected person with talent can make it in Hollywood unless they have wild luck. Hollywood predominantly employs its own spoiled rich kids, plus a whole array of sons and daughters of powerful politicians, famous pop stars, high-profile athletes - even sons and daughters of barons, lords and countesses! Hollywood producers and casting directors rarely hire middle-class or especially blue-collar talent. Again, I wouldn't mind this at all, IF only this corrupt selection-process worked - but it clearly doesn't. We've never had so many bland, boring actors and mediocre directors. The scripts are pitiful too.
So what is the real message Hollywood is giving blue-collar kids with dreams of movie careers? "You go on working in your factories and washing dishes and flipping burgers like your parents, we don't really need you here." That is the real message here, and one that is in total contrast/opposition to Hollywood's left-wing equal-opportunity lies - the politically-correct and completely dishonest message Hollywood is selling to the brainwashed masses.
So, yes, as insane and as despicable as it may sound, Hollywood is about silver-spoon-fed, righteous, holier-than-thou millionaires creating/starring in movies that preach about the rights of the oppressed, the poor, promoting socialism, minorities and the working class. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. This fact alone should tell you what kind of people run the film industry.
(It's interesting how this list had close to 500 views per week in its first years - then suddenly the numbers went down to two digits. I wonder how that happened.)
The list will be continually upgraded, there are LITERALLY HUNDREDS MORE people that haven't yet been added.
(EDIT: I stuck to my promise and added 200 more names. Then another 200. And another.)
Listed in the approximate order from the worst to slightly less bad. Essentially the first 100 are the best and most relevant examples of why nepotism is awful and destructive, whereas the rest are pretty much ranked randomly.
And no, I am not a disgruntled actor or director. I have never had any aspirations whatsoever to be in show-biz, since I am neither an exhibitionist attention-seeker nor obsessed with money. All I want is to watch good movies, but that is only possible when a good script is complemented with a good cast, and directed by someone chosen on the merit of his talents, not as a favour for a friend.
Nepotism is a branch of corruption. It is amoral, and it leads to a lowering of artistic standards. Whoever can't grasp this simple concept should skip this list altogether.
"The ultimate idea of rags-to-riches success in America is the Hollywood movie star." - Marin Ireland, actress
Methinks Ms Ireland is either trying to be funny or working hard to prove one of the oldest cliches about Hollywood actresses...
Of course, as with anything else, there are degrees or levels. Not all of the people listed here had it equally easy to enter show business. From easiest level entry to least easy:
1. Kids/relatives of studio bosses and powerful producers.
2. Kids/relatives of billionaires and of nobility i.e. the upper-most echelon of the so-called "1%"
3. Kids/relatives of current A-list actors (and directors), so-called "film stars".
4. Kids/relatives of non-show-biz people, but powerful professionals such as influential Hollywood lawyers, District Attorneys and Washington politicians.
5. Kids/relatives of top-tier casting agents and mid-level producers.
6. Kids/relatives of former A-list actors (and directors), i.e. "has-beens" but well-connected has-beens who have quite a number of very useful telephone numbers in their notepads.
7. Kids/relatives of B-list/C-list actors with lengthy filmographies. Not nearly as well-connected as the categories listed above, but certainly with far more advantages at their disposal than a farmer's daughter in Alabama (who has almost zero chance to get her Cinderella foot in the door, even if she's beautiful and talented; this does happen but very rarely).
8. Kids/relatives of minor actors who showed up on TV and movies in small parts.
9. Kids/relatives of prominent and/or wealthy archeologists, scientists, and other types of non-show-biz professionals.
.....
.....
.....
100. Kids from the working class, from trailer-parks, and farmers' sons and daughters. These demographics very rarely make it to the film industry or even the mainstream music industry - which is equally corrupt, believe it or not. There was a time in the 50s and 60s in the UK when this happened occasionally (Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins), but generally speaking most eras have been blue-collar-unfriendly. Being even "merely" of the middle-class lessens one's chances significantly.
The 9 categories above are neither a complete or totally precise division/ranking of nepotistic levels, but it gives you a good idea of how nepotists are ranked in terms of how well connected they are, i.e. how easy or less easy their access to employment and/or outright stardom is. Being Will Smith's kid is thereby in a far better position to get started than a child from a wealthy clan of famous archeologists. Kids from the top 3 categories rarely need to waste their time on minor roles and smaller movies: they usually start their careers right away in big-budget films. But that's just a general rule. (Hint: whenever an unknown young actor/actress suddenly appears in a very good role in a top movie production, chances are fairly high it's a nepotist).
Of course, there are also many actors who broke into show-business through a childhood friend, such as was the case with Tobey Maguire. There are many such cases, but they aren't included on this list. In other words, the list could/should be twice as large if I had access to this kind of information too.
My YouTube channel, it's mostly music-related:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3QrO38IvBGyUUPeTs46aYA
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Born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, Schwimmer was encouraged by a high school instructor to attend a summer program in acting at Northwestern University. Inspired by that experience, he returned to Northwestern where he received a bachelor's degree in speech/theater. In 1988, along with seven other Northwestern graduates, he co-founded Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company.Son of a powerful Hollywood lawyer, Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer. Talk about a rock-solid connection that can't fail no matter how modest the skill-set.
Maybe I've never seen a comedian worse than him. Not sure yet, coz it's so tough to rank people who are totally unfunny.- Actress
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Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951 to director and actor John Huston and Russian prima ballerina Enrica 'Ricki' Soma. Huston spent most of her childhood overseas, in Ireland and England, and in 1968 first dipped her toe into the world of show business, taking on the lead role of her father's movie A Walk with Love and Death (1969). However, before it was released, her mother died in a car accident, at 39, and Huston relocated to the United States, where the very tall, exotically-beautiful young woman modeled for several years.
While modeling, Huston made sporadic cameo appearances in a couple films, but decided to pursue it as a career in the early '80s. She prepared herself by reaching out to acting coach Peggy Feury and began to get roles. The first notable part was in Bob Rafelson's remake of the classic noir movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) (in which Jack Nicholson, with whom Huston had been living since 1973, was the star). After a few more years of on-again, off-again supporting work, her father perfectly cast her as calculating, imperious Maerose, the daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of Richard Condon's Mafia-satire novel Prizzi's Honor (1985). Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and a grandparent (her father and grandfather Walter Huston) had also won one.
Huston thereafter worked prolifically, including notable roles in Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), Barry Sonnenfeld's film versions of the Charles Addams cartoons The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), in which she portrayed Addams matriarch Morticia, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Probably her finest performance on-screen, however, was as Lilly, the veteran, iron-willed con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990), for which she received another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favorite is her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987) -- with her many years of residence in Ireland, Huston's Irish accent in the film is authentic.
Endowed with her father's great height and personal boldness, and her mother's beauty and aristocratic nose, Huston certainly cuts an imposing figure, and brings great confidence and authority to her performances. She clearly takes her craft seriously and has come into her own as a strong actress, emerging from under the shadow of her father, who passed away in 1987. Huston married the sculptor Robert Graham in 1992. The couple lived in Venice Beach until Graham's death in 2008.3rd generation.
Just abysmal.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Laura Dern was born on February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Dern was exposed to movie sets and the movie industry from infancy, and obtained several bit parts as a child. Her parents divorced when Dern was two and Dern lost contact with her father for several years as a result.
Her parents' background and her own early taste of the movie-making world soon convinced the young Dern to pursue acting herself. Like so many young actors, her decision may have been influenced by social awkwardness -- the child of 1960s counterculture parents, she was steeped in Eastern mysticism and political radicalism, and was seen as an oddball by her more conservative classmates. Even before her teens, she had achieved most of her impressive 5' 10" height and was rail-skinny with a slouching posture.. Perhaps the nine-year-old Dern found refuge by studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.
The first success for the young Dern came in 1980, with a role in Adrian Lyne's Foxes (1980), a teen movie starring Jodie Foster. She followed this with several small parts, or parts in small movies, such as Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) and Teachers (1984), as a student who has an affair with a teacher. (Her mother objected to her active presence on movie sets at age thirteen, which required Dern to sue for emancipation so she could play her role in "The Fabulous Stains"). Her next roles, as the blind girl who befriends the deformed boy in Mask (1985), and as a teen-aged girl whose sexual awakening collides with a mysterious older man in Smooth Talk (1985), gave her career an important boost. Dern appeared to have made it with a leading role in David Lynch's acclaimed Blue Velvet (1986), but it was four years before her next notable film, and this was the bizarre Wild at Heart (1990), also directed by Lynch.
The following year, Dern starred in Rambling Rose (1991), which would become her signature performance, as a sexually-precocious, free-spirited young housemaid in the South in the 1930s. Dern earned an Oscar nomination for her performance, and so did her mother and co-star, Diane Ladd. Dern continues to win prominent roles on the big screen, often in smaller, highly-regarded human dramas such as October Sky (1999), I Am Sam (2001) and We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), although she is perhaps most widely known for her repeat role as Ellie Sattler in the summer adventure movies Jurassic Park (1993) and Jurassic Park III (2001), or for her guest performance on Ellen (1994), as the woman to whom Ellen finally comes out as a lesbian.
Dern's pre-teen gawkiness matured into lithe beauty, but this doesn't prevent Dern from fearlessly throwing herself into a wide variety of roles which are sometimes unflattering, an excellent example being her unflinchingly comic portrayal of an intensely annoying loser whose pregnancy becomes a social and political football in Citizen Ruth (1996). This results in Dern being one of the most interesting actors working in Hollywood today.
Having previously dated such Hollywood talent as Treat Williams, Renny Harlin, Kyle MacLachlan, Jeff Goldblum and Billy Bob Thornton, Dern eventually married musician Ben Harper in 2005. Early in her career, Dern was roommate to Marianne Williamson, the spirituality guru. Dern attended two days of college at UCLA and one semester at USC.My opinion of David Lynch sunk and never recovered when he started casting her. By casting so many nepotists, Lynch inadvertently revealed that his fall from artist to just another Hollywood hired-gun elitist was complete. (As if his 80s movies didn't already show that.)- Actress
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Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, to actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow. Her father was Greek, and her mother was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Italian descent. Jennifer spent a year of her childhood living in Greece with her family. Her family then relocated to New York City where her parents divorced when she was nine. Jennifer was raised by her mother and her father landed a role, as "Victor Kiriakis", on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives (1965). Jennifer had her first taste of acting at age 11 when she joined the Rudolf Steiner School's drama club. It was also at the Rudolf Steiner School that she developed her passion for art. She began her professional training as a drama student at New York's School of Performing Arts, aka the "Fame" school. It was a division of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts. In 1987, after graduation, she appeared in such Off-Broadway productions as "For Dear Life" and "Dancing on Checker's Grave". In 1990, she landed her first television role, as a series regular on Molloy (1990). She also appeared in The Edge (1992), Ferris Bueller (1990), and had a recurring part on Herman's Head (1991). By 1993, she was floundering. Then, in 1994, a pilot called "Friends Like These" came along. Originally asked to audition for the role of "Monica", Aniston refused and auditioned for the role of "Rachel Green", the suburban princess turned coffee peddler. With the success of the series Friends (1994), Jennifer has become famous and sought-after as she turns her fame into movie roles during the series hiatus.The best example in all the history of Hollywood of how intense the hyping of nepotist kids is, as compared to the usual levels of hype for "outsiders". No amount of bombs stopped her career because as a nepotist you are forgiven a lot more than as somebody who came outside of the inner circle. The amount of media attention she received - and still does - is reversely proportional to her almost non-existent talents.
And her smile is awfully fake.- Actor
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An accomplished and striking performer, Academy Award® winner Casey Affleck has established himself as a powerful leading man with performances in multiple projects.
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. His mother, Chris Anne (née Boldt), is a school teacher, and his father, Timothy Byers Affleck, is a social worker; the two are divorced. Casey's brother is actor Ben Affleck, who was born in 1972. He is of mostly English, Irish, German, and Scottish ancestry.
Affleck was nominated for an Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and Screen Actors Guild® Award for his performance in the character drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik ("Chopper"), the Warner Bros. film stars Affleck as 'Ford' opposite Brad Pitt's 'Jesse James.' The story follows 'Ford's' sycophantic obsession with 'James' that quickly turns into growing resentment after he joins the legendary outlaw's gang, leading to his subsequent plan to murder 'James' and claim his rightful glory.
Additionally, Casey garnered significant praise for his starring role in the Miramax film Gone, Baby Gone. Based on Dennis Lehane's novel of the same title, and adapted for the screen and featuring the directorial debut by Ben Affleck, the film is the story of two Boston detectives in search of a four-year-old girl who has been kidnapped. The film also stars Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and Michelle Monaghan.
In 2014, Affleck and John Powers Middleton formed The Affleck/Middleton Project, a full service production company designed to develop and produce film and television content across a variety of genres. With a mission to produce quality films and television series that connect with audiences, The Affleck/Middleton Project looks to develop and produce a new wave of great American entertainment. It was recently announced that The Affleck/Middleton Project has secured the rights to Far Bright Star, the second in the book series of the same name by 'Robert Olmstead;' Affleck will direct a script by Damien Ober with three-time Academy Award® nominee Joaquin Phoenix set to star.
Affleck also directed I'm Still Here (2010), which he also wrote and produced starring Joaquin Phoenix. Affleck also co-wrote with and starred alongside Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's independent road movie Gerry (2002). He has also appeared in Van Sant's Good Will Hunting and To Die For, Hamlet with Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles, the Oceans trilogy and Tony Goldwyn's The Last Kiss with Zach Braff and Blythe Danner.
On stage, Casey appeared in Kenneth Lonergan's West End debut of his award winning play This is Our Youth. Affleck played the role of 'Warren' alongside Matt Damon and Summer Phoenix.
In 2016, Affleck starred opposite 'Michelle Williams' in Manchester by the Sea (2016). The film tells the story of an uncle (Affleck) who is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, the film will be released on November 18th by Amazon Studios.
Also that year, he was seen in Triple 9 (2016), opposite Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet. The film follows a gang of criminals and corrupt cops who plan to murder a police office in order to pull off their biggest heist yet. The film was released by Open Road in February. Additionally, Affleck starred in The Finest Hours (2016), opposite Chris Pine. The Disney film recounts the story of the Coast Guard's daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
Other credits include Christopher Nolan's Interstellar opposite Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, and Anne Hathaway; Out of the Furnace opposite Christian Bale; and Ain't Them Bodies Saints opposite Rooney Mara.Casey wouldn't have had an acting career even in Z-level soap-TV had he not had the very powerful - and evidently very persistent - backing of his influential (though ironically almost talent-free) brother. Ben Affleck himself can barely act with any amount of conviction, so how exactly does his brother get to have the unproven, fictional "acting gene"?
I struggle to see any talent or charisma in him, at all. He seems so bored - hence boring. I pretty much avoid every movie he's in, because I don't believe that you can "learn" charisma through years of practice.
Did they actually give this guy an Oscar? Kids, the Oscars have ZERO to do with ability, it's all politics.- Actor
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Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the camera. Adrien attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York.
Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line (1998), time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become until Roman Polanski called on him to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a brilliant performance in The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish-born grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union.I have rarely come across a more overrated actor than Adrien. What makes his career even more bizarre, he gets badly cast most of the time.
Bad casting + very little talent = quite a mess and bad movies- Actor
- Music Department
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Jason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film Rushmore, and has gone on to appear in seven other Anderson films: The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023). His other film roles include Spun (2003), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Marie Antoinette (2006), and Klaus (2019). Schwartzman starred in the television series Bored to Death (2009-11) and appeared in the fourth season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2020). He was an executive producer on the Amazon Prime show Mozart in the Jungle (2014-18), a series he also acted in. Schwartzman has released three albums through his solo project Coconut Records, having previously been drummer in the rock band Phantom Planet.Is there a Coppola clan member NOT in movies? I believe around 50 of them are in movies, one way or another, and that's a modest estimate.
Jason is one of the unfunniest "comedians" I have ever cringed to, as I explain on my Comedians list. You know that feeling when a stand-up comic bombs after every bad gag? That's how I feel watching him. Wes Anderson has no clue about comedy, which is why he casts some of the worst "comedians" in Hollywood.- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and Cosima. She was previously married to Spike Jonze.Here's another one.
A great example of how a newcomer nepotist director will nearly always receive much more attention than a non-nepotist newcomer director, and how quickly the Oscar voters will jump to "reward" such nepotists with awards that are totally undeserved, mildly put.
Why? To ensure that nepotism remains a powerful force, which in turns benefits all of Hollywood's numerous clans.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23, 1989 in Fulham, London, England, to casting agent Marcia Gresham (née Jacobson) and literary agent Alan Radcliffe. His father is from a Northern Irish Protestant background, while his mother was born in South Africa, to a Jewish family (from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Germany). Daniel began performing in small school productions as a young boy. Soon enough, he landed a role in David Copperfield (1999), as the young David Copperfield. A couple of years later, he landed a role as Mark Pendel in The Tailor of Panama (2001), the son of Harry and Louisa Pendel (Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis). Curtis had indeed pointed out to Daniel's mother that he could be Harry Potter himself. Soon afterwards, Daniel was cast as Harry Potter by director, Chris Columbus in the film that hit theaters in November 16, 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). He was recognized worldwide after this film was released. Pleasing audiences and critics everywhere, filming on its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), commenced shortly afterwards. He appeared again as Harry in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and then appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) directed by Mike Newell. Shortly afterwards, he finished filming December Boys (2007) in Adelaide, Australia, Kangaroo Island, and Geelong, Australia which began on the 14 November 2005 and ended sometime in December. On January 27, 2006, he attended the South Bank Awards Show to present the award for "Breakthrough Artist of the Year" to Billie Piper. Daniel reprised his famous character once again for the next installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). In February 2007, he took on his first stage role in the West End play Equus, to worldwide praise from fans and critics alike. Also that year, he starred in the television movie My Boy Jack (2007), which aired on 11 November 2007 in the UK.
After voicing a character in an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons in late 2010, Radcliffe debuted as J. Pierrepont Finch in the 2011 Broadway revival How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a role previously held by Broadway veterans Robert Morse and Matthew Broderick. Other cast members included John Larroquette, Rose Hemingway and Mary Faber. Both the actor and production received good reviews, with USA Today commenting: "Radcliffe ultimately succeeds not by overshadowing his fellow cast members, but by working in conscientious harmony with them - and having a blast in the process." Radcliffe's performance in the show earned him Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. The production itself later received nine Tony Award nominations. Radcliffe left the show on 1 January 2012. His first post-Harry Potter project was the 2012 horror film The Woman in Black, adapted from the 1983 novel by Susan Hill. The film was released on 3 February 2012 in the United States and Canada, and was released on 10 February in the UK. Radcliffe portrays a man sent to deal with the legal matters of a mysterious woman who has just died, and soon after he begins to experience strange events from the ghost of a woman dressed in black. He has said he was "incredibly excited" to be part of the film and described the script as "beautifully written".
In 2013, he portrayed American poet Allen Ginsberg in the thriller drama Kill Your Darlings (2013), directed by John Krokidas. He also starred in an Irish-Canadian romantic comedy film The F Word directed by Michael Dowseand written by Elan Mastai, based on TJ Dawe and Michael Rinaldi's play Toothpaste and Cigars and then he starred in an American dark fantasy horror film directed by Alexandre Aja Horns. Both of the films premiered at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival. Radcliffe also performed at the Noël Coward Theatre in the stage play revival of Martin McDonagh's dark comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan as the lead, Billy Claven, for which he won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play. In 2015, Radcliffe starred as Igor in a science fiction horror film Victor Frankenstein (2015), directed by Paul McGuigan and written by Max Landis, which was based on contemporary adaptations of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein. In 2016, he appeared as a wealthy villain in the mystery/action film Now You See Me 2 (2016), and as an oftentimes mobile corpse in the indie fantasy Swiss Army Man (2016).
Now being one of the world's most recognizable people, Daniel leads a somewhat normal life. He has made friends working on the Harry Potter films, which include his co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.You would think that at least when casting for a hugely expensive/ambitious project one would try to get the best possible candidate for the lead role? Think again. Most viewers (especially children) are totally uncritical, a fact not lost on producers and directors.
So Daniel is the BEST Harry Potter producers could find, out of literally THOUSANDS of kids who wanted that role? Really, Britain? Did these other kids get the same audition space that he got? I very much doubt it.
I think there should be a law prohibiting casting directors from pushing their own kids into movies. I see a conflict of interest in there somewhere... This kid can't act to save his life, plus the charisma of a chair. Daniel is a poster-boy (now a poster-man) for why nepotism is a huge problem in the film industry.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Though most famous for her role as Isabella "Bella" Swan in The Twilight (2008) Saga, Kristen Stewart has been a working actor since her early years in Los Angeles, California. Her parents, John Stewart and Jules Stewart, both work in film and television. The family includes three boys, Kristen's older brother Cameron Stewart and two adopted brothers Dana and Taylor. Kristen is of English, Scottish, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
After a talent scout caught her grade school performance in a play at the age of eight, she appeared on television in a few small roles. Her first significant role came when she was cast as Sam Jennings in The Safety of Objects (2001). Soon after that, she starred alongside Jodie Foster in the hit drama, Panic Room (2002) and was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
Praised for her Panic Room performance, she went on to join the cast of Cold Creek Manor (2003) as the daughter of Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. Though the film did not do well at the box office, she received another nomination for a Young Artist Award. After appearing in a handful of movies and a Showtime movie called Speak (2004), Stewart was cast in the role of a teenage singer living in a commune in Sean Penn's Into the Wild (2007), a critically acclaimed biopic. A third Young Artist Award nomination resulted in a win for this role. She also appeared in Mary Stuart Masterson's The Cake Eaters (2007) that same year.
Just 17, Stewart took on the starring role in Twilight (2008) which was based on a series of the same name written by Stephenie Meyer, the novel already had a huge following and the film opened to fans anxious to see the vampire romance brought to life. Awarded the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance, Stewart's turn as Bella continued in the sequels The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010). The final installments of the series started filming in late 2010, and were released the following years, as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012).
Despite her stratospheric launch into stardom with the Twilight films, she stayed true to her roots by working on a number of indie projects, including Adventureland (2009) (filmed prior to the Twilight series) and Welcome to the Rileys (2010). And she took on the daunting task of playing hard rocker Joan Jett in Floria Sigismondi's The Runaways (2010) alongside Dakota Fanning. Stewart received praise for her acting and musical performances and later won the 2010 BAFTA Rising Star Award and best actress at the Milan International Film Festival for Welcome to the Rileys (2010).
Stewart worked on several other leading roles between the Twilight Saga installments including the #1 summer box office hit, Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and the Cannes selection On the Road (2012). She also performed in the Sundance drama Camp X-Ray (2014), Cannes selection Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), for which she won a César Award, and the Lionsgate action comedy, American Ultra (2015), also starring Jesse Eisenberg, the Adventureland duo. She also delivered an acclaimed turn opposite Academy Award-winner Julianne Moore in Still Alice (2014). For the remainder of the decade, Kristen alternated choice supporting roles, such as Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) and Café Society (2016), with starring roles in films about historical figures, including Lizzie (2018) and Seberg (2019), and special effects/action thrillers Charlie's Angels (2019) and Underwater (2020).
Kristen had a change-of-pace role in the romantic comedy Happiest Season (2020), about an LGBT+ couple, and received universal acclaim, and her first Oscar nomination, for Best Actress, for her performance as Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín's Spencer (2021). Moving deeper into the 2020s, she is working on David Cronenberg's thriller Crimes of the Future (2022).
Stewart lives in Los Angeles, California.I wouldn't have a problem if nepotists only got cast for horrible movies - as is the case with this woman.
And she has a reputation for being difficult. Can't confirm or deny, coz I'm not a director. And if I was I certainly wouldn't hire her.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick was born on August 19, 1965 in New York City to Patricia (Rosenwald), a family and speech therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist. Her mother was from an upper-class German Jewish family, and her father was from a wealthy Massachusetts clan of English descent, with many prominent ancestors (including Judge Theodore Sedgwick and educator Endicott Peabody).
Sedgwick attended private schools. She made her professional acting debut at age 16 on the soap opera Another World (1964). A graduate of USC, Kyra has pursued a career that includes stage, screen and television. Kyra's reason for becoming an actor is that it gives her the ability to be compassionate and to walk around in the shoes of others. Her first brush with stardom came in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) as "Donna", the high-school sweetheart of Tom Cruise. Two of her roles led to Golden Globe nominations: Miss Rose White (1992) and Something to Talk About (1995). She met her husband, Kevin Bacon, when they played leads in the television movie Lemon Sky (1988). They have two children.Quiz question: There is far less nepotism in sports, because?
Answer: In sports you can't fake athleticism or lose to everyone then pretend you're victorious. In sports quality is objectively measured - it can't be artificially hyped by corrupt film studios selling a bad product. In sports you get the winning trophy because you're the best or at least one of the very best i.e. in sports you DON'T EVER GET AWARDED FOR BEING MEDIOCRE.- Writer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003 in Sweden. She is a writer and actress, known for I Am Greta (2020), Pearl Jam: Retrograde (2020) and Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World (2021).3rd generation. Granddaughter of Olof Thunberg and daughter of Malena Ernman & Svante Thunberg, all actors.
Surprised?
I'm not.
You may claim she isn't an actress hence is ineligible for this list. I disagree. She is definitely an actress. She gets "angry" on cue. And she does it just as badly and unconvincingly as one would expect from someone who needed family connection in order to be covered/hyped by worldwide media.
Elitist hypocrisy and entitlement are a wonder. The left-wing Establishment is so arrogant, so dishonest, and so elitist that they couldn't even pick a "regular kid" from the middle class or lower class to promote their ridiculous agenda. It had to be a silver-spoon privileged show-biz kid.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rumer Glenn Willis was born August 16th, 1988, in Paducah, Kentucky, to actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. She was named after the British novelist Rumer Godden. She made her debut at the age of 5 in the movie Now and Then (1995) but was credited as Willa Glen. Her mother hired cameramen to video tape her birth.I doubt many movie-goers would disagree with me on this one: one of the truly typical examples of why nepotism doesn't work. At all.
Her two sisters Scout and Tallulah Willis had also started careers but very quickly either gave up or nobody wanted to hire them anymore.- Actress
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She has show biz in her blood. Martha Plimpton was born November 16, 1970, in New York City to two actors: Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton. Martha began her career at age 8, when her mom had a friend of hers, composer Elizabeth Swados, enroll her in an actors' workshop. At age 10, she got a small part in Rollover (1981), and also made a series of Calvin Klein commercials.
Her first substantial film role was as a tomboy in The River Rat (1984); the following year, Steven Spielberg cast her in The Goonies (1985). Martha met River Phoenix while they were both filming The Mosquito Coast (1986), but since she was only 15 at the time, she did not go out with him. Even though she had a small part in the movie, it established her as a serious actress. Martha appeared in movies such as the screwball comedy Stars and Bars (1988) and, that same year, she was paired again with Phoenix in Running on Empty (1988). They dated for a while and then broke up. For a while, she was engaged to actor Jon Patrick Walker.
As if making movies didn't keep her busy enough, Martha frequently worked at theaters and made her Chicago debut with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company Ensemble in "The Libertine" in 1996. As a member of that ensemble, she received a National Medal of Arts award in the autumn of 1998. As for movies, Colin Fitz Lives! (1997) and Eye of God (1997) in which she plays the starring role, have been run at the Sundance Film Festival. Although some recent movies have had low box office (Pecker (1998) $2.1 million, and 200 Cigarettes (1999) $6.8 million), Martha's performances shine and she often rises above her material.
Perhaps recalling how important acting lessons were to her as a child, she donates her time and efforts to the "52nd Street Project" which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to matching the inner-city children with professional theater artists to create original theater, by writing, directing and performing their own plays. Perhaps one of the inner-city kids she is coaching will be the next famous actress in Hollywood.3rd generation.
Stems from a large acting clan. (These nepotist acting clans are growing in size, and ever more keep springing up.) She often gets cast in sit-coms and comedies, despite her inexpressive face, evident lack of charisma, and almost zero comedic abilities.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
The youngest of five, David Arquette was born in Winchester, Virginia and is part of the illustrious Arquette family, whose work has spread over several generations. His parents, Lewis Arquette, an actor, and Brenda Denaut (née Nowak), an acting teacher and therapist, had 4 other children: Rosanna Arquette, Richmond Arquette, Patricia Arquette, and Alexis Arquette, all actors. His paternal grandfather, Cliff Arquette, was also an entertainer. David's mother was from an Ashkenazi Jewish family (from Poland and Russia), while David's father had French-Canadian, Swiss-German, and English ancestry.
Like his siblings, Arquette started working at an early age, and his first major role came as Luke Perry's character's best friend in the hit film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). But his major break both personally and professionally didn't come until 1996 when he was cast in the slasher flick Scream (1996) starring opposite close friend Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell and more importantly Friends (1994), with Courteney Cox who he married in San Francisco in the summer of 1999. Scream (1996) earned worldwide success and acclaim as did Arquette for his role as lovable simple cop "Dewey". His role proved to be so popular that in the original script his character was meant to die, but due to test audiences response to Dewey the script was changed and he returned for both Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000). Usually known for his goofiness in more mainstream roles, his greatest performances and reviews have come for his indie films such as Johns (1996), Dream with the Fishes (1997) and The Grey Zone (2001). David and wife Courteney Cox reside in LA and produce their own DIY show Mix It Up (2003) because of their love for home improvement.3rd generation.
The Arquettes must wield some serious power, if they were even able to turn David into a Hollywood star, if only briefly.
What that mysterious power might be, I will leave to you to decide.
Son of Lewis Arquette and Brenda Denaut. Younger brother of Richmond Arquette, Alexis Arquette, Patricia Arquette and Rosanna Arquette. Grandson of Cliff Arquette, better known as "Charley Weaver" from The Hollywood Squares and Julie Harrison. Uncle of Zoë Bleu Sidel (Rosanna's daughter), Enzo Rossi and Harlow Jane-Arquette (Patricia's children).
Formerly brother-in-law of actors Nicolas Cage and Thomas Jane who were married to his sister, Patricia Arquette. Former brother-in-law of Tony Greco, James Newton Howard and John Sidel who were married to his sister, Rosanna Arquette.
Hollywood is almost like one of those small hick towns that Hollywood's leftists make fun of for inbreeding all the time, isn't it? Everyone's related.- Actor
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- Additional Crew
Kiefer Sutherland was born in London, England, UK, to Canadian actors Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland, who moved to California shortly after his birth. His maternal grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who was a Premier of Saskatchewan for over 17 years and led the national NDP party for almost 10.
Kiefer got his first film role in the comedy drama Max Dugan Returns (1983). Sutherland's first major role was in the Canadian drama The Bay Boy (1984), which earned Sutherland and director Daniel Petrie, Genie award nominations for best actor and best director, respectively. Following his success in The Bay Boy, Sutherland eventually moved to Los Angeles and landed television appearances in "The Mission", an episode of Amazing Stories (1985) and in the telefilm Trapped in Silence (1986) with Marsha Mason.
In 1992, Sutherland starred opposite Ray Liotta and Forest Whitaker in Article 99 (1992) and in the military drama A Few Good Men (1992) also starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Later, in 1994, he starred with Jeff Bridges and Nancy Travis in the American version of The Vanishing (1993) for 20th Century Fox. In 1997, he co-starred with William Hurt and Rufus Sewell in Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas, which was a special presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. Sutherland also added his second directorial credit and starred in Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) alongside Kevin Pollak, Mykelti Williamson, Rod Steiger and Martin Sheen. He stars in the Fox drama series 24 (2001) as Jack Bauer for which he has earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Most recently, he has been seen in the movie Phone Booth (2002) as a man who calls up someone at a phone booth and threatens to kill them if they hang up.I avoid him like the plague. However, I bit the bullet once years ago and decided to watch a very good film despite his presence ("Dark City"), and was amazed at how badly he played his part: he delivered his lines like an asthmatic gasping for air. He must have thought that a nerdy, weird sci-fi scientist should talk like that.
Some nepotist actors overact, some underact. But they rarely get it right.
There are a bunch more Sutherlands, just keep listing the many pages of this list...- Actress
- Producer
Long a vital, respected thespian of the classic and contemporary stage, this grand lady did not become a household name and sought-after film actress until age 56 when she turned in a glorious, Oscar-winning performance as Cher's sardonic mother in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). Movie (and TV) fans then discovered what East coast theater-going audiences had uncovered decades before -- Olympia Dukakis was an acting treasure. Her adaptability to various ethnicities (Greek, Italian, Jewish, Eastern European, etc.), as well her chameleon-like versatility in everything from cutting edge comedy to stark tragedy, kept her in high demand for 30 years as one of Hollywood's topnotch character players.
Olympia Dukakis was born on June 20, 1931, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Greek immigrants, Alexandra (Christos), from the Peloponnese, and Constantine S. Dukakis, from Anatolia. She majored in physical therapy at Boston University, where she graduated with a BA. Olympia practiced as a physical therapist during the polio epidemic. She later returned to her alma mater and entered the graduate program in performing arts, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Olympia found early success by distinguishing herself first on stage performing in summer stock and with several repertory and Shakespearean companies throughout the county. She made her Broadway debut as an understudy in "The Aspern Papers" at age 30, followed by very short runs in the plays "Abraham Cochrane" (1964) and "Who's Who in Hell" (1974). In 1999, she premiered a one-woman play "Rose," at the National Theatre in London and subsequently on Broadway in 2000. The play earned her an Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award nomination and she continues to tour the country with it.
Olympia was seen on the New York stage in the Roundabout Theatre's production of "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" (2011), in San Francisco in A.C.T.'s production of "Vigil" (2011) and as "Prospera" in "The Tempest" (2012) at Shakespeare & Co. She has performed in over 130 productions Off-Broadway and regionally at theaters including the Public Theatre, A.C.T., Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare & Co., and the Williamstown Summer Theatre Festival, where she also served as Associate Director. She was seen again at Shakespeare & Co. in the summer of 2013 as the title role in "Mother Courage and Her Children."
Olympia married Yugoslav-American actor Louis Zorich in 1962. The New York-based couple went on to co-found The Whole Theatre Company in Montclair, New Jersey, and ran the company for 19 years (1971-1990). As actress, director, producer and teacher, she still found the time to raise their three young children. She also became a master instructor at New York University for fourteen years. She scored theater triumphs in "A Man's a Man," for which she won an Off-Broadway Obie Award in 1962; several productions of "The Cherry Orchard" and "Mother Courage"; "Six Characters in Search of an Author"; "The Rose Tattoo"; "The Seagull"; "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" (another Obie Award); and, more notably, her many performances as the title role in "Hecuba." A good portion of her successes was launched within the walls of her own theater company, which encouraged the birth of new and untried plays.
Olympia's prolific stage directing credits include many of the classics: "Orpheus Descending," "The House of Bernarda Alba," "Uncle Vanya," and "A Touch of the Poet," as well as the more contemporary ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Kennedy's Children"). She also adapted such plays as "Mother Courage" and "The Trojan Women" for the theater company. Over the duration of their marriage, she and her husband have experienced shared successes, appearing together in "Long Day's Journey Into Night," "Camino Real, "The Three Sisters" and "The Seagull," among many others. Both are master interpreters of Chekhovian plays -- one of their more recent acting collaborations was in "The Chekhov Cycle" in 2003.
Making an inauspicious debut in a bit role as a mental patient in Lilith (1964), she tended to gravitate toward off-the-wall films with various offshoots of the ethnic mother. She played mom to such leads as Dustin Hoffman in John and Mary (1969), Joseph Bologna in the cult comedy Made for Each Other (1971) and Ray Sharkey in The Idolmaker (1980). Interestingly, it was her scene-stealing work on Broadway in the comedy "Social Security" (1986) that caught director Norman Jewison's eye and earned her the Moonstruck (1987) movie role. The Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actress was the last of a stream of awards she earned for that part, including the Los Angeles Film Critics, Golden Globe and American Comedy awards.
From then on, silver-haired Olympia was frequently first in line for a number of cream-of-the-crop matron roles: Steel Magnolias (1989), Dad (1989), Look Who's Talking (1989), The Cemetery Club (1993), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) and Mother (1995).
On TV, she received high praise for her work especially for her sympathetic trans-gendered landlady Anna Madrigal in the acclaimed miniseries Tales of the City (1993) and its sequels More Tales of the City (1998) (Emmy Nominee) and Further Tales of the City (2001). She was additionally seen in episodes of Bored to Death (2009), and TV movies The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000) (Judi Dench), Sinatra (1992) (Golden Globe Nominee), and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) (Emmy Nominee). This work is among more than 40 other series, mini-series and guest starring roles she accumulated over her long career. Several recurring TV roles also came her way with Center of the Universe (2004), Bored to Death (2009), Sex & Violence (2013), Forgive Me (2013), Switch (2018) and one last return to her popular Anna Madrigal role with the series sequel Tales of the City (2019).
The septuagenarian hardly slowed down and continued strongly into the millennium with top supporting film credits including The Intended (2002), The Event (2003), the title role in the mystery Charlie's War (2003), The Thing About My Folks (2005), Jesus, Mary and Joey (2005), Away from Her (2006), Day on Fire (2006), In the Land of Women (2007), The Last Keepers (2013), A Little Game (2014), 7 Chinese Brothers (2015), The Infiltrator (2016), Her Secret Sessions (2016) and Change in the Air (2018). The film Cloudburst (2011), in which she shared a co-lead with Brenda Fricker, became a critical and audience darling, winning a multitude of "Best Film" awards and several "Best Actress" honors (Seattle, San Diego) at various film festivals.
An ardent liberal and Democrat, she was the cousin of 1988 presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Moreover, she was a strong advocate of women's rights and environmental causes. Olympia published her best-selling autobiography "Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress" in 2003, an introspective chronicle full of her trademark candor and wry humor. She was also a figure on the lecture circuit covering topics as widespread as life in the theater to feminism, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
A hardcore New Yorker, she resided there following the death of her husband in 2018, and until her death in May 2021. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greek America Foundation, the National Arts Club Medal of Honor, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Cousin of failed Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (lost to Bush Sr. in 1988).
Guess what year she won an Oscar?
1988.
Mere coincidence.
The Oscars are NOT about politics, ethnicity and marketing hype. I repeat, NOT about politics, ethnicity or marketing hype. And certainly only actors from working-class backgrounds win them.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Chet Hanks was born on 4 August 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Larry Crowne (2011), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Project X (2012).Tom Hanks.- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Jim Hanks was born on 15 June 1961 in Shasta County, California, USA. He is an actor and cinematographer, known for Blood Type (2018), Abnormal Attraction (2018) and Forrest Gump (1994). He has been married to Karen Praxel since 25 May 1986. They have one child.Brother of Tom Hanks.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor. He was born in Sacramento, California, to actors Samantha Lewes and Tom Hanks. Colin is best-known for his work as "Jack Bailey" in the series, The Good Guys (2010) and as "Alex Whitman" in Roswell (1999). Hanks' best-known film role may be in the teen movie, Orange County (2002), with Jack Black and John Lithgow. His best-known television role was "Alex Whitman", the love interest of Katherine Heigl in the science fiction series, Roswell (1999) between 1999 and 2001. Hanks also made an appearance in an episode of The O.C. (2003). He appeared in part eight of the HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers (2001).Man, when Tom Hanks pulls strings, these strings are as tight as an Everest rope. Hands down the blandest "actor" on this list. Wallpaper. He'd be great at playing accountants though.
Peter Jackson, shame on you.
And makers of FARGO, too. How do I know FARGO sucks? Because they cast this extremely boring "actor" in a major role: that already tells me how "serious" the producers were about the show. Hence why I ignore it. Simple and logical.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Mary Stuart Masterson started acting before the age of ten, when she appeared in The Stepford Wives (1975) in 1975 with her father. Afterwards, at the direction of her parents, Mary Stuart led a life outside of the limelight, attending school in New York. She appeared in a few productions at New York's Dalton School. At the age of 15, the young actress appeared on Broadway in Eva Le Gallienne's version of Alice In Wonderland. She played two parts, the Four of Hearts and the Small White Rabbit. She returned to films in 1985 with the role of Dani in Heaven Help Us (1985). For eight months afterwards, Mary Stuart attended New York University, where she studied anthropology.They hyped her in the 80s until studio heads finally realized that audiences didn't want her.
A very obvious example of nepotism. You don't have to read her bio to know it.
Still, nowadays she'd make it much bigger, because today's audiences have almost no standards, no criteria: you can give them anyone and they won't even notice they're being conned.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Almost everyone who has spent time with Kate Hudson -including directors, family members, co-stars and interviewers - is quick to comment on her ability to light up a room. Through some combination of a winning smile, solid work ethic, and good old-fashioned talent, the young actress has gone from indie beginner to Vanity Fair cover girl in just three years. What's more, she's done it all without capitalizing on the success of legendary actress mom, Goldie Hawn.
Kate Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California, to Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, a comedian, actor and singer. She was raised by her mother and her mother's longtime boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell, whom she considers to be her father. Kate is the sister of actor Oliver Hudson, the half-sister of actor and hockey player Wyatt Russell, and the granddaughter of band musician Rut Hawn. She is the niece of entertainment publicist Patti Hawn, record producer Mark Hudson and musician Brett Hudson. Kate is of Hungarian Jewish (from her maternal grandmother), Italian (from her paternal grandmother), English, and German ancestry.
By all accounts, Hudson was a born performer - as a child she danced and sang at every opportunity. Her family hoped that she would attend New York University after graduating from high school, but she opted to get her feet wet in the professional acting world first. She made her big-screen debut as an ambitious young starlet stranded in a tiny California town in Desert Blue (1998). Her next two films, while critically panned, made it into wider release: 200 Cigarettes (1999) (in which she played an earnest but accident-prone ditz) and Gossip (2000) (which cast her as a rich, virginal college student). Perhaps Hudson's biggest break was landing the role of rock groupie (or "Band Aide") Penny Lane in Almost Famous (2000). The part was originally intended for Sarah Polley; when Polley backed out to pursue another project, director Cameron Crowe considered scrapping the film altogether. Hudson, who had been cast in a smaller role (as William's stewardess sister), begged for a chance to read for Penny. Crowe was impressed, Hudson got the part, and the show went on. As much as Tinseltown gossipmongers would like to put them at odds, mother and daughter agree that Hawn is one of Hudson's biggest supporters.That the "comedy gene" does not exist is well-supported by Kate's case. This is a typical average-looking American girl-next-door. Dime-a-dozen. You can find a million like her without even having to look...
She turned down a role (while she was still just a nepotist-in-waiting) in "Escape from L.A." because it starred Kurt Russell and she "didn't want to be professionally associated with my dad. I just wanted to see if I could do the audition."
So what she was saying is basically she wanted to debut in a film without any family relatives, so she could more easily fool the audiences into thinking she was a "free electron".
Shame has many names, and one of them is "Nepotism", and Kate must have felt that shame bone-deep.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Tori Spelling was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of author Candy Spelling and Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling. With her father producing many popular television shows in the 1970s, Tori had an early flair for showbusiness. She appeared on many of her father's shows, which gained her more praise for acting in comedies. Tori has a younger brother, Randy Spelling, who also appeared on his father's shows.
Tori has five children, all with her second husband, Dean McDermott, whom he wed in Fiji on Sunday, May 7th, 2006. Parenthood, among the duo began with Liam McDermott's birth (aka Liam Aaron McDermott), on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz. Second was Stella McDermott (aka Stella Doreen McDermott), she was born on Monday, June 9th, 2008, weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz. Third was Hattie McDermott (aka Hattie Margaret McDermott), born on Monday, October 10th, 2011, weighing 6 lbs. 14 oz. Fourth was Finn McDermott (aka Finn Davey McDermott), this birth was on Thursday, August 30th, 2012, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz., at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. Fifth was Beau Dean Mcdermott, he was born on Thursday, March 2nd, 2017. All births were by C-section. (Liam, her firstborn, was an emergency C-section).Daughter of Aaron Spelling, one of the most powerful and most successful TV producers ever.
Bargain-basement talent, no charisma, hence almost no career outside Aaron's TV series that "catapulted" her on us.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
One of today's most recognizable entrepreneurs and international influencers, Paris Hilton is a pioneer in reality television and an innovator in social media and celebrity branding.
Since starring in "The Simple Life," Hilton has built a global empire as an influencer, DJ, designer, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, model and New York Times best-selling author. In 2006, she created Paris Hilton Entertainment, a multi-billion-dollar company consisting of 45 branded stores, 19 product lines and 27 fragrances, which have surpassed over $4 billion in revenue. In 2001, Variety declared Paris Hilton as a "Billion Dollar Entrepreneur" in recognition of her successful business and global brand.
Hilton debuted "This Is Paris," her critically acclaimed YouTube Originals documentary on her life, which has garnered nearly 20 million views to date. Hilton has used her voice and dedicated her platform and resources to supporting Breaking Code Silence, the organization created to affect change in the industry, and eradicate the abuse of children in systemically abusive institutions.
Hilton recently partnered with iHeartRadio to launch her "This is Paris" podcast and will continue to expand podcast production through her company London Audio. As an investor, she is committed to supporting and investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs positively impacting the world at companies such as Daily Harvest, R3SET, Good Catch, Zen Water, Podz, among others. In addition, Hilton launched her new production banner Slivington Manor Entertainment, which will develop long-form content for television, streaming services, and emerging platforms. She has signed an exclusive two-year overall deal with Warner Bros. Unscripted Television to develop, executive produce and star in original unscripted television programming on behalf of the studio.Still don't believe me that anyone can become an actor provided they have connections?
She could have continued making movies (until the audiences got totally bored of it, which would have happened quickly), but didn't feel like it. Being jet-set "royalty" means doing whatever you like.- Actress
- Composer
- Producer
The daughter of Grateful Dead devotee and first manager Hank Harrison and psychotherapist Linda Caroll, Courtney Love was born Courtney Michelle Harrison in San Francisco, California in 1964. Love spent her early years living in hippie communes in Oregon and at schools in Europe and New Zealand, under the care of her mother and other family members.
By age 16, Love became legally emancipated and traveled throughout Europe, living off of a small trust fund left behind by her grandmother. Love eventually returned to Portland, Oregon, still pursuing music, and then moved around to various locations in the United States before making her break into the industry.
As a musician, she played in early incarnations of Babes In Toyland and Faith No More, as well as acting in bit parts for some Alex Cox films. In 1989, she started her own band, Hole, and in 1992 married Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, giving birth to their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, that same year. After Cobain's suicide in 1994, and the release of Hole's second album "Live Through This", Love continued to thrill her fans and enrage her detractors with her on- and off-stage antics.
By 1998, Hole had released their third studio album, "Celebrity Skin", and Love had attracted cinematic notoriety for her performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which not only garnered her a Golden Globe nomination, but recognition as a serious performer.
Early into the millennium, Hole broke up, and Love took some supporting roles in films such as Trapped (2002), but her rocky past and propensity toward drug addiction eventually caught up with her, sending her through a whirlwind of numerous health and legal issues.
After unsuccessful stints in and out of drug rehabilitation centers, Love was ordered by the L.A. county court to three months in lock down rehab, which came to an end in 2006. Love soon after released a scrapbook-like diary recounting her life, titled "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love", and continued writing music, testifying her sobriety to the press and public.
In 2009, after losing custody of daughter Frances Bean Cobain for unrelated reasons, Love re-formed Hole with an entirely new lineup, and soon after released the band's first album in ten years, titled "Nobody's Daughter".Her maternal grandmother was the children's novelist Paula Fox, and her maternal great-grandmother was screenwriter Elsie Fox Elsie's husband, (Courtney's maternal grandfather) was screenwriter Paul Hervey Fox, who wrote 14 films. Paul was the first cousin of film star Douglas Fairbanks.
So you always wondered how she got her band signed, and why she can neither sing or act? Now you know.
ELITISM.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California, to Oona Chaplin (née O'Neill) and legendary entertainer Charles Chaplin (A.K.A. Charlie Chaplin). She is a granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and a great-granddaughter of stage actor James O'Neill. She attended the Royal Ballet Academy in London. She was discovered by David Lean when she was dancing in Paris, which led to her role in Doctor Zhivago (1965). She has two children, Shane and Oona Chaplin.Charlie Chaplin's daughter.
She literally would have been hired by NOBODY ever had she being from the working class or middle class.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Carmen Chaplin was born on 27 July 1977 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for All About the Benjamins (2002), Sabrina (1995) and The Serpent's Kiss (1997).3rd generation.- Actress
- Producer
Kiera Chaplin was born on 1 July 1982 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), The Year That Trembled (2002) and The Professional (2003).3rd generation.- Actor
- Director
- Music Department
James Thierrée was born on 2 May 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is an actor and director, known for Tabac Rouge (2013), Chocolat (2016) and Les illusions (2008).Part of the Chaplin clan.- Victoria Chaplin was born on 19 May 1951 in Santa Monica, California, USA. She is an actress, known for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Le cirque imaginaire (1989) and Mi reino por un caballo (2010). She has been married to Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée since 2 January 1970. They have two children.
- Aurélia Thiérrée was born on 24 September 1971. She is an actress, known for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Goya's Ghosts (2006) and Twice Upon a Time (2019).Part of the Chaplin clan.
- Actor
- Composer
- Writer
Christopher Chaplin was born on 8 July 1962 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is an actor and composer, known for Je suis le ténébreux (2017), Till We Meet Again (1989) and Labyrinth (1991).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Dolores Chaplin is known for The Ice Rink (1998), The Counterfeiters (2007) and Until the End of the World (1991).3rd generation.- Actor
- Casting Department
- Soundtrack
In choosing a professional acting career for himself, bon vivant Sydney Chaplin had to deal with the powerful and pervasive shadow of his famous father, the legendary Charles Chaplin, hovering over him every step of the way. While his older brother, actor Charles Chaplin Jr., buckled under the pressure and died of an alcohol-related illness at age 43, the dashing and debonair Sydney achieved respectable success on his own terms by avoiding films and focusing on the theater.
Sydney was the oldest surviving Chaplin child at the time of his death following a stroke on March 3, 2009. While in no way could he match his father's ambitious nature and incredible genius, Sydney managed to do things his way. Fortunately, he was not weighed down by his father's all-encompassing obsession for recognition. Easygoing to a fault, Sydney was both charming and charismatic -- a winning combination on the stage. A wonderful mimic, he also possessed a fun and witty idle-rich mentality that tended to reflect his stage and film persona.
Sydney Earle Chaplin, who bore a similar, slightly forlorn facial resemblance to his famous father, was born in Beverly Hills, California, on March 31, 1926, and was the second son born to Charlie and his second wife, Lita Grey. Lita was an aspiring actress who married the 35-year-old legend when she was 16. Sydney was named after his half-uncle, actor Syd Chaplin. His parents' marriage was doomed from the start and indeed was over before Sydney was even a year old. Charlie created just as many headlines off camera as he did on, and this breakup was no exception. The acrimonious divorce proceedings was a feast for the tabloids in 1927. Sydney was thereafter raised by his maternal grandmother and saw almost nothing of his father during his most irregular upbringing.
Growing up, the boy suffered from extreme restlessness and a lack of discipline, and his education was erratic as a result. He was expelled from three boarding schools by the time he was 16. However, things changed for him with his country's participation in World War II. Drafted into the infantry at age 18, a new sense of purpose took over him when he was sent to Europe to serve as a bazooka man in the Third Army commanded by General George S. Patton.
Sydney had avoided his father's profession up until this point. However, after his discharge from the United States Army, he was asked by a friend to try acting and he found out that he liked it. In 1946, he became the co-founder (with George Englund) of the Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Father Charlie actually directed Sydney in a couple of the company's endeavors, including a production of "Rain". Impressed by Sydney's newfound seriousness, Charlie gave him his first movie role as the composer in the classic Limelight (1952). Despite a fine introduction into films, Sydney's later output would be largely overlooked.
Despite his inbred elegance, he was not the leading man type on film and was often cast in ethnic support roles (Indian, Egyptian). His credits included such foreign films as Act of Love (1953) starring Kirk Douglas; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel (1954), which co-starred brother Charlie Jr., the British entry Land of the Pharaohs (1955), which starred one-time paramour Joan Collins, the English/Egyptian co-production Abdullah's Harem (1955) starring Kay Kendall, and another British programmer, Follow That Man (1961) with Dawn Addams. He did not have any better luck with the American films he made -- Pillars of the Sky (1956) -- an actionful Western in which he played an Indian scout working for the army -- Four Girls in Town (1957) and Quantez (1957). Sydney did star in one above-average picture, the British thriller The Deadliest Sin (1955) co-starring Audrey Dalton, but the second-string film came and went without much fanfare.
Stardom finally occurred for the actor on the New York stage -- not in a chic comedy, for which he was known, but in a musical. He opened on Broadway in November 1956 in the hit Betty Comden and Adolph Green effort "Bells Are Ringing" after femme star Judy Holliday encouraged him to audition. Having never sung before, it took 15 rounds before the director gave him the role of Jeff Moss, the gent who falls for Holliday's switchboard operator. Both Sydney and Judy wound up winning Tony Awards in 1957 for their performances (Sydney in the "featured" category) and he also earned a 1957 Theatre World Award as a new "promising personality". He and Holliday became involved at one point, which did not work out, and the uncomfortable situation led to his agreed replacement (by Hal Linden). Sydney would not return to perform with Holliday when the show made its London debut. Nevertheless, he continued on Broadway in both musicals and comedies, including "Goodbye, Charlie" (1959), "Subways Are for Sleeping" (1961) and "In the Counting House" (1962). His modest baritone was utilized on television as well in the musical version of Wonderful Town (1958) starring Rosalind Russell.
Sydney's second greatest triumph came again in a Broadway musical -- "Funny Girl" (1964) co-starring meteoric newcomer Barbra Streisand. Playing the inveterate gambler and ladies' man Nick Arnstein opposite Streisand's love-torn comedienne Fanny Brice, both actors received Tony nominations for their performances, but neither won. His problems working with the young and eccentric Streisand resulted in a feud that led to his eventually leaving the cast. Because of the problems with his leading ladies, both of his original roles in "Bells Are Ringing" and "Funny Girl" went to other more famous stars (Dean Martin and Omar Sharif, respectively) when they transferred to film.
In the late 1960s, Sydney appeared in another of his father's pictures, supporting Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren in the poorly-received A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). Sadly, this was Charlie's last hurrah as a director. Sydney later worked in foreign-made film fare, most of them unworthy of his talents. He ended his career in the late 1970s on an uneventful note with some standard television guest appearances and roles in a couple of abysmal horror films: So Evil, My Sister (1974) and Satan's Cheerleaders (1977), the latter movie featuring other veteran actors on the wane, including John Ireland, John Carradine and Yvonne De Carlo.
In later years, Sydney opened a celebrity-friendly bistro and dinner club called "Chaplin's" in Palm Springs, California. It ran for about a decade. He also enjoyed trophy-winning celebrity status out on the desert's golf courses. Sydney Chaplin died at age 82 of a stroke in Rancho Mirage, California on March 30, 2009. He was survived by his third wife, Margaret Beebe, and his only child Stephan from his first marriage.Son of Charlie Chaplin.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Orson Chaplin, grandson of the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin, and son to Producer Ilya Salkind (Superman) was born to Jane Chaplin in London, England, in 1986. Orson traveled internationally with his mom up until the age of seven when he acquired his green card, putting an end to his 6 month trips between Orlando, Florida and Switzerland, where he and his mom would spend half a year with the Chaplin clan, consisting of all his uncles, aunts, and cousins. He began acting as a child in elementary school. His first role was in his schools stage adaption of Amistad. His parents divorced when he was twelve years old and Orson moved with his father to Los Angeles where his academic theatre performances continued at Hollywood high. In 2009, Orson wrote, composed, produced, and performed the vocals on his debut rap album "Oz and Effect" under his Music Producer Alias "Ozzy Beats"the album was released on all music streaming services. In 2010 he returned to acting in independent film. During this time he teamed up with fellow underground rapper (and close friend) "Geek". Together they formed the duo Radioactive, releasing in 2011 their debut album "RadioActive First edition" which is also available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and many other online retailers. In 2011, Orson began dedicating himself strictly to acting, enrolling at the "Art of Acting Studio" in Hollywood, where he trained for a year. He has since appeared in many television productions, including Ray Donovan, Lucifer, and American Horror Story. He has also worked heavily in independent features, including Nightmare Cinema, and Fifth Street. Orson also continues to produce music as Producer Ozzy Beats for fellow artist Geek.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Oona Chaplin is a Spanish actress. Her mother is Geraldine Chaplin. She is also the granddaughter of English film actor Charlie Chaplin, and great-granddaughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. She is best known for playing Talisa Maegyr in the HBO TV series Game of Thrones and Zilpha Geary in Taboo.
She was named after her maternal grandmother, Oona O'Neill Chaplin.
Her acting debut was in the TV Series Spooks.3rd generation.
Daughter of actress Geraldine Chaplin, granddaughter of filmmaker and actor Charlie Chaplin, and great-granddaughter of Irish-American playwright Eugene O'Neill.- Actress
- Producer
- Costume Designer
Actress and philanthropist Rooney Mara was born on April 17, 1985 in Bedford, New York. She made her screen debut in the slasher film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), went on to have a supporting role in the independent coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009), and has since starred in the horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), the biographical drama The Social Network (2010), the thriller remake The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and the romantic drama Carol (2015).
Patricia Rooney Mara is one of four children of Kathleen McNulty (née Rooney) and NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara. Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Timothy Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her grand-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former Ambassador to Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney, the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. Her father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.
After graduating from Bedford's Fox Lane High School, she went to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in South America for four months as part of the Traveling School, an open learning environment. She attended George Washington University for a year and then transferred to New York University, where she studied international social policy psychology and nonprofits. She took her degree from New York University in 2010. Her studies focused on non-profit organizations, as her family has a tradition of involvement in philanthropic causes.
She had thought of acting after watching old movies and attending musical theater, but did not think of it as a serious vocation and was afraid she might fail at this. As a result of her reservations, she appeared in only one play while in high school.
She began seriously focusing on acting when she was at New York University, appearing in student films. Inspired by her older sister, actress Kate Mara, she began to pursue the craft, auditioning for acting jobs at age 19. She appeared with her sister Kate in the video horror movie Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005), billing herself as "Patricia Mara". As "Tricia Mara", she had guest roles on television and won her first lead in the movie Tanner Hall (2009), which was shot in the fall of 2007.
She originally auditioned for the supporting role of Lucasta in "Tanner Hall", a $3-million independent film, but director Tatiana von Fürstenberg was so impressed by the young actress, she had her return to audition for the lead role of Fernanda, which Mara won. Furstenberg was delighted with her nuanced performance, saying, "Still waters run deep".
Continuing to call herself Tricia Mara, this was during the making of "Tanner Hall" that she considered changing her professional name to Rooney Mara, soliciting the advice of the cast and crew. After premiering at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, her performance in "Tanner Hall" brought the rechristened Rooney Mara a "Rising Star" award at the 2009 Hamptons Film Festival and a "Stargazer Award" at the 2010 Gen Art Film Festival.
She received her first lead role in a major feature, in the $35 million remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The movie proved disappointing at the box office, grossing only $63 million domestically and racking up a worldwide gross of just under $116 million. However, she was noticed by critics in the small but pivotal role of the Boston University undergrad Erica Albright who dumps Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010). Director David Fincher subsequently cast her as the lead, Lisbeth Salander, in his thriller remake, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), based on Stieg Larsson's Millennium book series. She received critical acclaim for her performance, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.
She starred in the thriller film Side Effects (2013), the independent drama Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), and the acclaimed sci-fi romantic drama Her (2013). The following year, she starred in the adventure drama Trash (2014). She garnered further critical acclaim for her performance in Todd Haynes' romantic drama Carol (2015), for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and the SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In the spirit of her family's philanthropic endeavors, Rooney created Faces of Kibera, a charity that provides food, medical care and housing to orphans in Nairobi, Kenya's Kibra district, a small slum that houses a million people. There are many orphans as AIDS is rampant in the slum.Quote from her bio: "She is one of four children of Kathleen McNulty (née Rooney) and NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara. Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Timothy Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her grand-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former Ambassador to Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney, the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise."
Nuff said. She could be a frog and be turned into a "star" with that kind of support.
Nepotism is corruption, no matter how you twist it and spin it, and elitist nepotism is the worst kind there is.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kate Mara is an American actress. She starred in the Netflix political drama House of Cards (2013) as Zoe Barnes and appeared in the Fox TV series 24 (2001) as computer analyst Shari Rothenberg. She appeared in Brokeback Mountain (2005), We Are Marshall (2006), Shooter (2007), Transsiberian (2008), Stone of Destiny (2008), The Open Road (2009), Transcendence (2014), and Fantastic Four (2015) as the Invisible Woman. She also appeared in the FX horror mini-series American Horror Story (2011) as Hayden McClaine. Mara's film debut was in Random Hearts (1999), with Harrison Ford in 1999, directed by Sydney Pollack. In 2015, she also had a supporting role as astronaut "Beth Johanssen" in director Ridley Scott's film The Martian (2015). In the same year, she also starred as Ashley Smith in the movie Captive (2015).
Mara also starred in Morgan (2016), Megan Leavey (2017) and My Days of Mercy (2017).
Kate was born in Bedford, New York. She is one of four children of Kathleen McNulty (Rooney) and NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara. Her younger sister is actress Rooney Mara.
Her grandfathers were Wellington Mara, co-owner of the Giants, and Timothy Rooney, owner of Yonkers Raceway, and her grand-uncle is Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the former US Ambassador to Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. She often sings the national anthem at Giants home games. Her father has Irish, German, and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.
Mara graduated from high school a year early. She was accepted at the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts but deferred her admission for three consecutive years.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Melissa Ellen Gilbert is an American actress, television director, producer, politician, and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. Gilbert began her career as a child actress in the late 1960s, appearing in numerous commercials and guest starring roles on television. From 1974 to 1983, she starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder, the second oldest daughter of Charles Ingalls (played by Michael Landon) on the NBC series Little House on the Prairie. During the run of Little House, Gilbert appeared in several television films, including The Diary of Anne Frank and The Miracle Worker.Adopted by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and his wife, dancer and actress Barbara Crane, the daughter of The Honeymooners creator Harry Crane.
So how does the "adoption gene" turn into "high-quality acting DNA"?
Or did her parents just make a few phone-calls...- Producer
- Actress
- Writer
Sara Gilbert was born on January 29, 1975, as Sara Rebecca Abeles at St. John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California, to Barbara Cowan and Harold Abeles. Barbara was previously married to the late Paul Gilbert. At the age of six, when Sara saw her sister Melissa Gilbert get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she told her mother that she wanted to be an actress, too. A string of commercials and, in 1984, an appearance in the CBS TV movie Calamity Jane (1984), led her to adopt the Gilbert family name. After failing to get the new The Facts of Life (1979) show, she eventually found success with Roseanne (1988). Sara spent a total of nine years on that show and was given time to be able to study at Yale University, graduating with honors in 1997. Aside from Roseanne (1988), she has provided the voice of Laura Powers on The Simpsons (1989), and starred in several movies including Sudie and Simpson (1990), Poison Ivy (1992) and Light It Up (1999).Some nepotists are so talent-free, they can only have careers in sit-com-land.
Yes, comedy is tougher than drama, but not bad comedy. Not sitcom acting.
Her maternal grandfather was The Honeymooners creator Harry Crane.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Christian Michael Leonard Slater was born on August 18, 1969 in New York City, to Michael Hawkins, a well-known soap actor, and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), a casting agent. Christian started in show business early, appearing on the soap opera The Edge of Night (1956) in 1976 at the age of 7. He went on to star in many Broadway shows in the early-1980s. He rose to fame in Hollywood after landing the role of Binx Davey in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a further acting career after dropping out of high school. After having a starring role in the cult classic Heathers (1988), he became somewhat known as the Hollywood bad-boy, having many run-ins with the law. He is also well-known for having dated stars such as Winona Ryder, Christina Applegate, Samantha Mathis and was at one time engaged to actress/model Nina Huang. In 2000, he married Ryan Haddon, the daughter of 1970s model Dayle Haddon. The couple have two children, Jaden Christopher (b. 1999) and Eliana Sophia (b. 2001). As of early 2005, they separated and later divorced, but remain dedicated to bring up their children.Has an annoying speech impediment which may or may not be intentional. It's ludicrous how often he played leads.
His mother is a casting agent! Hilarious irony...- Actor
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Jake Gyllenhaal was born on December 19, 1980 in Los Angeles, California as Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, the son of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the younger brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and German (father) descent.
He made his movie debut at 11 in City Slickers (1991). From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, he starred in October Sky (1999) & Donnie Darko (2001), receiving an Independent Spirit Award Best Actor nomination for the latter. He followed up w/ roles in Bubble Boy (2001), The Good Girl (2002), Moonlight Mile (2002) & The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
He made his theater debut in a revival of This Is Our Youth in London. The play was well-received & played for 8 weeks on West End. He then starred in Jarhead (2005) & Proof (2005). However, it was his performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005) that won him critical acclaim. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role while also being nominated for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role SAG Award, the Best Supporting Actor-Motion Picture Satellite Award & the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. Afterwards, he starred in Zodiac (2007), Brothers (2009), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) & Love & Other Drugs (2010). For Love & Other Drugs (2010), he was nominated for the Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award.
In the 2010s, he starred in Source Code (2011), End of Watch (2012), Prisoners (2013), Nightcrawler (2014), Southpaw (2015) & Demolition (2015). For Nightcrawler (2014), he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe, the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role SAG & the Best Actor in a Leading Role BAFTA Award. Leading Role BAFTA Award.A lot like Jennifer Aniston. No talent but hyped to the point of absurdity. Even if all of his movies bombed, they'd still give him a dozen more chances - because nepotism HAS to work in order to ensure employment for future generations of everyone who is currently part of the Hollywood elite. Actors who don't stem from Hollywood don't get as many chances.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Maggie Gyllenhaal was born on November 16, 1977 in New York City, New York as Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal, the daughter of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and German (father) descent.
She made her film debut in Waterland (1992). She had sporadic roles throughout her teenage years though she took a break to attend Columbia University where she graduated w/ a degree in literature in 1999. In addition, she briefly studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, which helped w/ her post-graduation transition back into acting.
Soon after graduating, she had supporting roles in Cecil B. Demented (2000) & Donnie Darko (2001). Her breakout role came later when she starred in Secretary (2002), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She followed that up w/ supporting roles in 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Adaptation. (2002), & Mona Lisa Smile (2003) among other movies. She received her 2nd Golden Globe nomination for playing a recent prison parolee in Sherrybaby (2006). She followed that up w/ roles in World Trade Center (2006), Stranger Than Fiction (2006) & The Dark Knight (2008).
In 2009, she received great acclaim for her role in Crazy Heart (2009), which earned her 1st Oscar nomination. Since then, she has been seen in Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), Hysteria (2011) & Won't Back Down (2012).Like her brother, it didn't take long for her to get A roles in big movies. That clan wields more power than we can even grasp. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes in Tinseltown.
She has as much "star power" as a sack of beans. Yet she got some very big roles which much better actresses would have been more suitable for.- Zoë Wanamaker is an American expatriate actress, who has spend most of her career in the United Kingdom. She has worked extensively in the theatre. She has been nominated for 9 Laurence Olivier Awards, wining twice. She has also been nominated for 4 Tony Awards, without ever winning. In television, she is known for the main role of Susan Harper in the long-running sitcom "My Family" (2000-2011).
In 1949, Wanamaker was born in New York City. Her father the American film director Sam Wanamaker (1919 -1993). Sam was born in Chicago to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. Wanamaker's mother was the Canadian actress Charlotte Hollan, who was also of Jewish descent. Wanamaker's paternal grandfather was the tailor Maurice Wanamaker, whose original family name was "Watmacher".
Sam Wanamaker was a veteran of World War II, and an adherent of communism. In the early 1950s, the United States was experiencing the Second Red Scare. Communists, real or suspected ones, were seen as potential foreign agents and were targeted by political purges. In 1952, Sam was blacklisted in the United States. He decided to settle in the United Kingdom with his family. Zoë consequently settled in the United Kingdom at the age of 3.
Wanamaker received her early education at the King Alfred School, a co-educational independent school located in London. She later attended the Sidcot School, a co-educational boarding school located in the village of Winscombe, Somerset. Sidcot was a Quaker school, but was open to students from various faiths and cultures. Sidcot had served as a co-educational school since 1808. one of the earliest British schools of its kind.
Following her graduation, Wanamaker pursued a pre-diploma course at the Hornsey College of Art. Having decided to follow an acting career, Wanamaker was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. The school had been operating since 1906, when founded by the teacher Elsie Fogerty (1865 -1945). The school was initially based around Fogerty's theories about teaching proper elocution.
In the early 1970s, Wanamaker was primarily a theatrical actress. In 1976, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is a prestigious theatrical company, headquartered in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. It specializes in performing the plays of William Shakespeare, though it has performed plays by many other playwrights. Wanamaker served as a member until 1984.
In 1979, Wanamaker won her first Olivier Award for her role in a revival of the play "Once in a Lifetime" (1930) by Moss Hart (1904 -1961) and George Simon Kaufman (1889-1961). The play is a satire of American show business. It depicts veteran vaudeville performers trying to re-establish their careers in the Hollywood film industry.
In the 1980s, Wanamaker frequently appeared in television films and other television production. She played an intelligence agent in the mini-series "Edge of Darkness" (1985), which combined elements from the genres of crime drama, political thriller, and science fiction. She was part of the cast of the historical drama series "Paradise Postponed" (1986), which depicts the changes experienced by British from the 1940s to the 1970s. She was part of the cast in the biographical film "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story" (1987), based on the life and long-term problems of American heiress Barbara Hutton (1912 -1979). She had a one-shot role in the anthology series "Tales of the Unexpected" (1979-1988), which typically adapted short stories into its episodes.
In 1991, Wanamaker played manicurist Moyra Henson in the first season of the police procedural "Prime Suspect" (1991-2006). Henson's common-law husband is suspected serial killer George Marlow, and police authorities eventually realize that all the recent victims were Henson's clients. Wanamaker's role was critically well-received. She was nominated for the "British Academy Television Award for Best Actress" for this role, but the award was instead won by her co-star Helen Mirren (1945-).
In 1993, Wanamaker had a co-starring role in the drama film "The Countess Alice". In the film, she played Konstanza (nicknamed "Connie"), the German daughter of British aristocrat Countess Alice von Holzendorf (played by Wendy Hiller). Connie investigates her own past and realizes that the real Konstanza died in childhood. She is a child of obscure origins, who was secretly adopted by Alice as a replacement. The film was well-received at the time, though it is mostly remembered for Hiller's last role in a film.
In 1997, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the biographical film "Wide", based on the life of the writer Oscar Wilde (1854 -1900). She played the role of the novelist Ada Leverson (1862 -1933), a close friend of Wilde who offered him hospitality when he became an outcast. The film was well-received by critics. Wanamaker was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, but the award was instead won by rival actress Sigourney Weaver (1949-).
In 2000, Wanamaker gained a major television role, when cast as Susan Harper in the sitcom "My Family" (2001-2011). Harper was depicted as a tour guide who is married and has three children. Her so-called "control freak" nature often has her clash with her family. Her problems include being married to a husband who clearly does not care about her, and having immature kids.
In 2000, Wanamaker finally gained British citizenship, after residing in the country for 48 years. She also maintained her American citizenship. In January 2001, Wanamaker was appointed a "Commander of the Order of the British Empire" for her services to drama. This is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences.
In 2001, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the fantasy film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", an adaptation of a novel by J. K. Rowling (1965-). Wanamaker played the role of Rolanda Hooch, a Quidditch referee and flying instructor for first-year students at the magic school Hogwarts. The film was a box office hit. Wanamaker did not appear in the film's sequels.
In 2005, Wanamaker had a role in the science fiction series "Doctor Who" (2005-) as the villain Lady Cassandra, who is obsessed with prolonging her own life. Wanamaker returned to this role in 2006.
Also in 2005, Wanamaker joined the cast of the mysteries series "Agatha Christie's Poirot" (1989-2013) as crime novelist Ariadne Oliver. Oliver was a recurring character created by writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976), and was intended as a self-portrait of Christie. Wanamaker played this role in 6 feature-length episodes, broadcast from 2005 to 2013. Oliver was depicted as a close friend and ally of detective Hercule Poirot (played by David Suchet).
In 2008, Wanamaker voiced the blind seeress Theresa in the role-playing video game "Fable II". Her character guides the game's protagonist through its story. The video game was quite successful. Wanamaker returned to this role in two of the game's sequels: "Fable III" (2010), and Fable: The Journey (2012). This has been Wanamaker's most prominent performance in voice acting.
In 2011, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the drama film "My Week with Marilyn", which depicted Marilyn Monroe brief stay in the United Kingdom during the shooting of the classic film "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957). Wanamaker played the role of Paula Strasberg (1909-1966), Monroe's acting coach. The film performed well at the box office, and was critically acclaimed.
In 2015, Wanamaker joined the cast of the period drama series "Mr Selfridge" (2013-2016). The series was based on the life of retail magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858-1947). Wanamaker played the role of Princess Marie Wiasemsky de Bolotoff, a Russian aristocrat who serves at the mother-in-law of Rosalie Selfridge.
In 2018, Wanamaker gained the major role of Queen Antedia in the historical fantasy series "Britannia" (2018-).Antedia was depicted as the Queen regnant of the Regni tribe, a Celtic tribe struggling against the rival Cantii tribe.
As of 2021, Wanamaker is 72-years-old. She has never retired from acting, and continues to appear regularly in television. She is quite familiar to the British public, through decades of notable roles.The daughter of Canadian actress and radio performer Charlotte Holland and American actor, film director, and radio producer Sam Wanamaker.
Obvious. Very. - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Blake Ellender Lively was born Blake Ellender Brown on August 25, 1987 in Los Angeles, California to Elaine Lively & Ernie Lively. Her brother is actor Eric Lively, and her half-siblings are actors Lori Lively, Robyn Lively and Jason Lively. She followed her parents' and siblings' steps. Her first role was Trixie, the Tooth Fairy in the musical movie Sandman (1998), directed by her father. Her big break came along a few years later, though. Blake was up to finish high school when she got the co-starring role of Bridget in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005).
Blake was so perfect for the role of Bridget that, with no big references or even auditioning, she landed the role. According to her, all she did was walk in and leave a photo of herself. It was clear that she was the Bridget needed. After the film, Blake went back to high school for her senior year to have the life of a regular teenager -- or a very busy regular teenager. She was class president, a cheerleader, and performed with the choir.Some nepotists get a lot of facial surgery before kick-starting their careers. Check out her before and after pics.
Isn't Blake a guy's name?
Her brother (whose name isn't Blake) appears on this list too.- Brandi Cyrus was born on 26 May 1987 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She is an actress, known for Old 37 (2015), Zoey 101 (2005) and Hannah Montana (2006).
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Noah Lindsey Cyrus (born January 8, 2000) is an American actress and singer. She voiced the title role in the English version of the 2009 animated feature film Ponyo. In 2016, she released her debut single "Make Me (Cry)", featuring vocals from Labrinth.
Noah is the fifth child of Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus and the youngest sibling of Trace and Miley Cyrus. She was named one of Time's 30 Most Influential Teens in 2017.
Noah was born January 8, 2000, in Nashville, Tennessee, to producer and director Tish Cyrus and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Her parents have had an on and off relationship, with the two filing for divorce twice but later rekindling the relationship both times. Noah's paternal grandfather Ronald Ray Cyrus was a democratic politician in Kentucky. Noah is the sibling to: Miley Cyrus, Trace Cyrus, Braison Cyrus, Brandi Cyrus and Christopher Cyrus.
Cyrus dated rapper Lil Xan from July 2018 to September 2018.
At the age of two, Cyrus began her acting career, playing Gracie Hebert on the sixth episode of the television show Doc. She was a background dancer in the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie, and played small roles in six episodes of the Disney Channel Original Series Hannah Montana. She appeared in the straight-to-DVD movie Mostly Ghostly, where she was spotted as a Trick or Treater. In 2008, her first movie role was in the English version of the anime feature film Ponyo, in which she voiced the title character. She sang the English version of the theme song to that film, performing alongside with Frankie Jonas. Between 2009 and 2010, Cyrus ran a web-show with Emily Grace Reaves, called The Noie and Ems Show.
On November 15, 2016, it was announced that Cyrus had inked a record deal with Barry Weiss' record label, called Records, and later signed a management deal with Maverick under Adam Leber. She released her debut single "Make Me (Cry)" featuring Labrinth that same day. In December 2016, she released an acoustic performance of "Almost Famous". She also provided vocals on the song "Chasing Colors" performed by Marshmello and Ookay, which was released in February 2017. On April 14, 2017, she released another single, called "Stay Together", followed by the single "I'm Stuck", released on May 25, 2017. On September 21, 2017, she released another single "Again" featuring XXXTentacion. From September 19, 2017, to November 1, 2017, she opened for Katy Perry on the Witness: The Tour. In November 2017, Cyrus made an appearance at Emo Nite in Los Angeles for a surprise DJ set which included some of her and her brother Trace Cyrus' music. "My Way", a collaboration with electronic group One Bit, was released on November 24, 2017.
Her first single of 2018, "We Are..." featuring Danish artist MØ, was released on February 7. Cyrus released "Team", a collaboration with MAX, on May 11, 2018. A follow up collaboration "Lately", was released on June 15, 2018, with Tanner Alexander. On July 9, 2018, Cyrus announced her first headlining tour, The Good Cry Tour. "Live or Die", a collaboration with Lil Xan, was released on August 20, 2018. Norwegian DJ Matoma featured Cyrus on "Slow" in 2017, which was featured on his second album One in a Million, released on August 24, 2018.
Cyrus released her new EP, Good Cry, on September 21, 2018, featuring new songs.
Before the release of Good Cry, Cyrus collaborated with the brand Pizzaslime for a line of merchandise that was only available for 48 hours. The items included sweatpants and hoodies, along with a jar filled with "Noah Tears" that was offered for $12,000.
In 2013, Cyrus used her thirteenth birthday as an opportunity to raise funds for the ban of using horse-drawn carriages in New York City. She has worked with PETA, first appearing in an ad protesting the use of animal dissection in high school lab classes, then in another supporting a SeaWorld boycott.Because Billy Cyrus is a great actor and a major "artist"?- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Trace Cyrus was born on 24 February 1989 in Ashland, Kentucky, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for The House Bunny (2008), Winged Creatures (2008) and Already Lucky (2018).Adopted, hence not even theoretical "music/acting DNA".
Typical Hollywood kid.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
Miley Ray Cyrus was born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992 in Franklin, Tennessee and raised in Thompson's Station, Tennessee to Tish Cyrus & Billy Ray Cyrus. She has five siblings - two half-brothers, a half-sister, and a younger brother and sister. Her parents named her because they hoped she would achieve greatness. Her childhood nickname, Smiley, due to her cheerful disposition, was eventually shortened to Miley. Her paternal grandfather was Democratic politician Ron Cyrus.
Cyrus was initially educated at Heritage Elementary School in Tennessee. When she turned eight, her family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Cyrus' father Billy Ray took a role in the TV series Doc (2001). It was around this time that Cyrus decided she wanted to act too. Her first role came alongside her father in Doc (2001). She also scored a small role in Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003).
In 2005, Cyrus was cast as the lead in the Disney series Hannah Montana (2006), about a teen leading a double life as a pop star. Again her father acted alongside her. The show was a smash and hit records, sell-out tours and merchandising deals soon followed. Cyrus became a teen superstar.
Following the success of Hannah Montana (2006), Cyrus made the move into other roles - including playing Ronnie Miller in The Last Song (2010) and Lola in LOL (2012) alongside Demi Moore.No comment necessary.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
Jean-Pierre Léaud is not everybody's cup of tea for sure, but will remain an important name in film history. As an actor he can be adored or hated for exactly the same reasons: he is one of those rare players that directors let improvise his dialogue, which gets on certain viewers' nerves while it fascinates others. The same is true for his very personal staccato diction and elocution and his many mannerisms, the most obvious one being his way to run his hand through his long hair. But there is no denying Léaud is not just another actor, whether you love him or are allergic to him. The son of actress Jacqueline Pierreux and scriptwriter/assistant director Pierre Léaud, Jean-Pierre started acting very early. Indeed, he was only thirteen when he first appeared on a screen, playing a small role in a swashbuckling film directed by veteran Georges Lampin "la Tour, prends garde!" (1957). And he was still only fourteen when he answered an ad placed in a newspaper by François Truffaut, who was seeking a young actor able to play Antoine Doinel, a troubled adolescent, in his first feature film "The 400 blows". Jean-Pierre was tested among a hundred other candidates and proved so amazingly spontaneous and so gifted for improvisation that not only was he hired but he would go on to play the role in four subsequent Truffaut semi-autobiographies concluding with "Love on the run" (1978), a unique experience indeed. Thanks to Truffaut he was introduced to the other stars of the French New Wave, mainly Jean-Luc Godard for whom he would appear in eight films and one TV film, and gradually became their icon. Not too sure about his acting talents, he planned to become a director (which he actually did only once) and worked as an assistant to Truffaut and Godard. But his success both as Truffaut's alter ego and as the leftist movie makers' spokesman encouraged him to go on playing rather than directing. "Masculin Féminin" (1966) by Godard even earned him an Award for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival. An ardent leftist militant himself, he worked with equally committed directors, including abroad. He was in Italian Pasolini's "Porcile" (1968), in Polish Skolimovski's "Dialog 20-40-60" (also '68) Brazilian Carlos Diegues' Os herdeiros (1970) and Glauber Rocha's Der Leone have sept cabeças (1971). Bertolucci also hired him for "Last tango in Paris" starring Marlon Brando (who so petrified Léaud that he could not play his scenes alongside him), but this one was filmed in Paris. This busy period ended after an excellent role in a classic art movie in the French style: Jean Eustache's "La maman et la putain". In the late seventies and throughout the eighties Léaud worked irregularly, mainly on television, occasionally giving a crazy performance in a mainstream film, as was the case in Josiane's Balasko crime comedy "Les keufs", for which he got a César nomination. But he made an exciting comeback in the nineties when several "new New Wave" directors hired Léaud to pay homage to their elders. Among them French movie makers such as Olivier Assayas, Danièle Dubroux , Serge Le Péron or Bertrand Bonello and foreigners like Finnish Aki Käurismäki and Taiwanese Tsai Ming-Liang. A second youth for eternally young, rebellious, ill-at-ease, annoyingly romantic,touchingly annoying Jean-Pierre Léaud, whose round face staring at the camera in the last shot of "The 400 blows" will never be forgotten.Son of comedian Jacqueline Pierreux and screenwriter Pierre Léaud.
Proof that French "artists" such as Truffaut weren't above hiring their friends' kids as favours - instead of getting the best man for the job. Or, according to Wikpedia, Truffaut was "spellbound" by the teen, in which case I now partially understand why he directed so many average, vastly overrated movies, rarely making a good film. You do actually have to know how to CAST a film, not just work the camera...
You scratch my back, I scratch yours. The film-making business is morally lacking, to say the least - and yet moralizing and preaching is all they do in their movies. They sure have some nerve, with all that hypocrisy.
On the one hand they want us to think what they're making is "art", and yet they dilute that "art" with inferior actors - making me suspect they themselves don't believe they're making art.
Btw, nepotism is in even more widespread in France, it is so dominant you have to dig deep through its film/TV industry to find people who made it on their own, stemming from the working class or the middle class.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Memphis Eve Sunny Day Hewson, known professionally as Eve Hewson, is an Irish actress. Her first major role was in the drama film This Must Be the Place (2011). She played Nurse Lucy Elkins in Steven Soderbergh's TV series The Knick (2014-2015).
Hewson was born in Dublin, the second daughter of activist Ali Hewson (née Alison Stewart) and U2 lead singer Bono (Paul David Hewson). She was named after being born at 7 am on 7 July, as "eve" is the middle of the word "seven". She has an older sister, Jordan, and two younger brothers, Elijah and John. She was educated at the Dalkey School Project and St. Andrew's College in Dublin and New York University. The U2 song "Kite" was inspired by a moment when Bono took a kite up on Killiney Hill with Hewson and her sister, but the kite blew off and smashed.
Although Hewson's parents were against her performing, she made her acting debut in 2005 alongside her sister Jordan in the short film Lost and Found. She made her feature-length debut in 2008 in The 27 Club. The same year, Hewson took part in an acting programme at the New York Film Academy. In 2010, she appeared in the music video and accompanying short film for Irish band The Script's song "For the First Time".
She portrayed Yvonne in the 2013 thriller film Blood Ties. In July 2013, Jack Quaid of The Hunger Games and Hewson asked fans to help them fund a new film called Roadies using crowdsourcing. In September that year, she appeared in the romantic comedy film Enough Said as the daughter of James Gandolfini's character Albert. In November 2013, she was nominated for the Tatler Irish Woman of the Year Award for her work in films.
From 2014 to 2015, she co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's Cinemax TV series The Knick.
In October, 2015 she appeared as Carol Donovan in Steven Spielberg's Cold War movie Bridge of Spies. Her character is daughter of the main character in the movie, played by Tom Hanks.
She appeared as Maid Marian in the Otto Bathurst version of Robin Hood, released in November 2018. Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, and Jamie Dornan co-star.
Hewson lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She received her degree from New York University on 22 May 2013; her father, Bono, declined an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from NYU on the same day.Bono is SUCH a great actor, won all those film and theater awards, so obviously his daughter would be a great actor...
No, wait. Bono is just a singer.
Didn't Bono fight for the poor all those years? For equal opportunities? No?
Of course he didn't, that's might be just a ruse.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Keira Christina Knightley was born March 26, 1985 in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born mother is of Scottish and Welsh origin. Brought up immersed in the acting profession from both sides - writing and performing - it is little wonder that the young Keira asked for her own agent at the age of three. She was granted one at the age of six and performed in her first TV role as "Little Girl" in Royal Celebration (1993), aged seven.
It was discovered at an early age that Keira had severe difficulties in reading and writing. She was not officially dyslexic as she never sat the formal tests required of the British Dyslexia Association. Instead, she worked incredibly hard, encouraged by her family, until the problem had been overcome by her early teens. Her first multi-scene performance came in A Village Affair (1995), an adaptation of the lesbian love story by Joanna Trollope. This was followed by small parts in the British crime series The Bill (1984), an exiled German princess in The Treasure Seekers (1996) and a much more substantial role as the young "Judith Dunbar" in Giles Foster's adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher's novel Coming Home (1998), alongside Peter O'Toole, Penelope Keith and Joanna Lumley. The first time Keira's name was mentioned around the world was when it was revealed (in a plot twist kept secret by director George Lucas) that she played Natalie Portman's decoy "Padme" to Portman's "Amidala" in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). It was several years before agreement was reached over which scenes featured Keira as the queen and which featured Natalie!
Keira had no formal training as an actress and did it out of pure enjoyment. She went to an ordinary council-run school in nearby Teddington and had no idea what she wanted to do when she left. By now, she was beginning to receive far more substantial roles and was starting to turn work down as one project and her schoolwork was enough to contend with. She reappeared on British television in 1999 as "Rose Fleming" in Alan Bleasdale's faithful reworking of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1999), and traveled to Romania to film her first title role in Walt Disney's Princess of Thieves (2001) in which she played Robin Hood's daughter, Gwyn. Keira's first serious boyfriend was her Princess of Thieves (2001) co-star Del Synnott, and they later co-starred in Peter Hewitt's 'work of fart' Thunderpants (2002). Nick Hamm's dark thriller The Hole (2001) kept her busy during 2000, and featured her first nude scene (15 at the time, the film was not released until she was 16 years old). In the summer of 2001, while Keira studied and sat her final school exams (she received six A's), she filmed a movie about an Asian girl's (Parminder Nagra) love for football and the prejudices she has to overcome regarding both her culture and her religion). Bend It Like Beckham (2002) was a smash hit in football-mad Britain but it had to wait until another of Keira's films propelled it to the top end of the US box office. Bend It Like Beckham (2002) cost just £3.5m to make, and nearly £1m of that came from the British Lottery. It took £11m in the UK and has since gone on to score more than US$76m worldwide.
Meanwhile, Keira had started A-levels at Esher College, studying Classics, English Literature and Political History, but continued to take acting roles which she thought would widen her experience as an actress. The story of a drug-addicted waitress and her friendship with the young son of a drug-addict, Pure (2002), occupied Keira from January to March 2002. Also at this time, Keira's first attempt at Shakespeare was filmed. She played "Helena" in a modern interpretation of a scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" entitled The Seasons Alter (2002). This was commissioned by the environmental organization "Futerra", of which Keira's mother is patron. Keira received no fee for this performance or for another short film, New Year's Eve (2002), by award-winning director Col Spector. But it was a chance encounter with producer Andy Harries at the London premiere of Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) which forced Keira to leave her studies and pursue acting full-time. The meeting lead to an audition for the role of "Larisa Feodorovna Guishar" - the classic heroine of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (2002), played famously in the David Lean movie by Julie Christie. This was to be a big-budget TV movie with a screenplay written by Andrew Davies. Keira won the part and the mini-series was filmed throughout the Spring of 2002 in Slovakia, co-starring Sam Neill and Hans Matheson as "Yuri Zhivago". Keira rounded off 2002 with a few scenes in the first movie to be directed by Blackadder and Vicar of Dibley writer Richard Curtis. Called Love Actually (2003), Keira played "Juliet", a newlywed whose husband's Best Man is secretly besotted with her. A movie filmed after Love Actually (2003) but released before it was to make the world sit up and take notice of this beautiful fresh-faced young actress with a cute British accent. It was a movie which Keira very nearly missed out on, altogether. Auditions were held in London for a new blockbuster movie called Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), but heavy traffic in the city forced Keira to be tagged on to the end of the day's auditions list. It helped - she got the part. Filming took place in Los Angeles and the Caribbean from October 2002 to March 2003 and was released to massive box office success and almost universal acclaim in the July of that year.
Meanwhile, a small British film called Bend It Like Beckham (2002) had sneaked onto a North American release slate and was hardly setting the box office alight. But Keira's dominance in "Pirates" had set tongues wagging and questions being asked about the actress playing "Elizabeth Swann". Almost too late, "Bend It"'s distributors realized one of its two stars was the same girl whose name was on everyone's lips due to "Pirates", and took the unusual step of re-releasing "Bend It" to 1,000 screens across the US, catapulting it from no. 26 back up to no. 12. "Pirates", meanwhile, was fighting off all contenders at the top spot, and stayed in the Top 3 for an incredible 21 weeks. It was perhaps no surprise, then, that Keira was on producer Jerry Bruckheimer's wanted list for the part of "Guinevere" in a planned accurate telling of the legend of "King Arthur". Filming took place in Ireland and Wales from June to November 2003. In July, Keira had become the celebrity face of British jeweller and luxury goods retailer, Asprey. At a photoshoot for the company on Long Island New York in August, Keira met and fell in love with Northern Irish model Jamie Dornan. King Arthur (2004) was released in July 2004 to lukewarm reviews. It seems audiences wanted the legend after all, and not necessarily the truth. Keira became the breakout star and 'one to watch in 2004' throughout the world's media at the end of 2003.
Keira's 2004 started off in Scotland and Canada filming John Maybury's time-travelling thriller The Jacket (2005) with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody. A planned movie of Deborah Moggach's novel, "Tulip Fever", about forbidden love in 17th Century Amsterdam, was canceled in February after the British government suddenly closed tax loopholes which allowed filmmakers to claw back a large proportion of their expenditure. Due to star Keira and Jude Law in the main roles, the film remains mothballed. Instead, Keira spent her time wisely, visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the "Comic Relief" charity, and spending summer at various grandiose locations around the UK filming what promises to be a faithful adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride & Prejudice (2005), alongside Matthew Macfadyen as "Mr. Darcy", and with Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench in supporting roles. In October 2004, Keira received her first major accolade, the Hollywood Film Award for Best Breakthrough Actor - Female, and readers of Empire Magazine voted her the Sexiet Movie Star Ever. The remainder of 2004 saw Keira once again trying a completely new genre, this time the part-fact, part-fiction life story of model turned bounty hunter Domino (2005). 2005 started with the premiere of The Jacket (2005) at the Sundance Film Festival, with the US premiere in LA on February 28th. Much of the year was then spent in the Caribbean filming both sequels to Pirates Of The Caribbean. Keira's first major presenting role came in a late-night bed-in comedy clip show for Comic Relief with presenter Johnny Vaughan. In late July, promotions started for the September release of Pride & Prejudice (2005), with British fans annoyed to learn that the US version would end with a post-marriage kiss, but the European version would not. Nevertheless, when the movie opened in September on both sides of the Atlantic, Keira received her greatest praise thus far in her career, amid much talk of awards. It spent three weeks at No. 1 in the UK box office.
Domino (2005) opened well in October, overshadowed by the death of Domino Harvey earlier in the year. Keira received Variety's Personality Of The Year Award in November, topped the following month by her first Golden Globe nomination, for Pride & Prejudice (2005). KeiraWeb.com exclusively announced that Keira would play Helene Joncour in an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novella Silk (2007). Pride & Prejudice (2005) garnered six BAFTA nominations at the start of 2006, but not Best Actress for Keira, a fact which paled soon after by the announcement she had received her first Academy Award nomination, the third youngest Best Actress Oscar hopeful. A controversial nude Vanity Fair cover of Keira and Scarlett Johansson kept the press busy up till the Oscars, with Reese Witherspoon taking home the gold man in the Best Actress category, although Keira's Vera Wang dress got more media attention. Keira spent early summer in Europe filming Silk (2007) opposite Michael Pitt, and the rest of the summer in the UK filming Atonement (2007), in which she plays Cecilia Tallis, and promoting the new Pirates movie (her Ellen Degeneres interview became one of the year's Top 10 'viral downloads'). Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) broke many box office records when it opens worldwide in July, becoming the third biggest movie ever by early September. Keira sued British newspaper The Daily Mail in early 2007 after her image in a bikini accompanied an article about a woman who blamed slim celebrities for the death of her daughter from anorexia. The case was settled and Keira matched the settlement damages and donated the total amount to an eating disorder charity. Keira filmed a movie about the life of Dylan Thomas, The Edge Of Love (2008) with a screenplay written by her mother Sharman Macdonald. Her co-star Lindsay Lohan pulled out just a week before filming began, and was replaced by Sienna Miller.
What was announced to be Keira's final Pirates movie in the franchise, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2007), opened strongly in June, rising to all-time fifth biggest movie by July. Atonement (2007) opened the Venice Film Festival in August, and opened worldwide in September, again to superb reviews for Keira. Meanwhile, Silk (2007) opened in September on very few screens and disappeared without a trace. Keira spent the rest of the year filming The Duchess (2008), the life story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, based on Amanda Foreman's award-winning biography of the distant relation of Princess Diana. The year saw more accolades and poll-topping for Keira than ever before, including Women's Beauty Icon 2007 and gracing the covers of all the top-selling magazines. She won Best Actress for Atonement (2007) at the Variety Club Of Great Britain Showbiz Awards, and ended the year with her second Golden Globe nomination. Christmas Day saw - or rather heard - Keira on British TV screens in a new Robbie The Reindeer animated adventure, with DVD proceeds going to Comic Relief. At the start of 2008, Keira received her first BAFTA nomination - Best Actress for Atonement, and the movie wins Best Film: Drama at the Golden Globes. Seven Academy Award nominations for Atonement soon follow. Keira wins Best Actress for her role as Cecilia Tallis at the Empire Film Awards. In May, Keira's first Shakespearean role is announced, when she is confirmed to play Cordelia in a big-screen version of King Lear, alongside Naomi Watts and Gwyneth Paltrow, with Sir Anthony Hopkins as the titular monarch. After two years of rumours, it is confirmed that Keira is on the shortlist to play Eliza Doolittle in a new adaptation of My Fair Lady. The Edge Of Love opens the Edinburgh Film Festival on June 18th, and opens on limited release in the UK and US. A huge round of promotions for The Duchess occurs throughout the summer, with cast and crew trying to play down the marketers' decision to draw parallels between the duchess and Princess Diana. Keira attends the UK and US premieres and Toronto Film Festival within the first week of September. The Duchess opens strongly on both sides of the Atlantic. Two more movies were confirmed for Keira during September - a tale of adultery called Last Night (2010), and a biopic of author F Scott Fitzgerald entitled The Beautiful and the Damned.
Keira spent October on the streets of New York City filming Last Night alongside Sam Worthington and Guillaume Canet. Keira helped to promote the sixtieth anniversary of the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, by contributing to a series of short films produced to mark the occasion. In January 2009 it was announced Keira had signed to play a reclusive actress in an adaptation of Ken Bruen's novel London Boulevard (2010), co-starring Colin Farrell. Keira continues her close ties with the Comic Relief charity by helping to launch their British icons T-shirts campaign. In the same week King Lear was revealed to have been shelved, it was announced that Keira would instead star alongside her Pride & Prejudice co-star Carey Mulligan in an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go (2010). A new short film emerges in March, recorded in the January of 2008 in which Keira plays a Fairy! The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers (2009) was written by Keira's boyfriend Rupert Friend and actor Tom Mison. It went to be shown at the London Film Festival in October and won Best Comedy Short at the New Hampshire Film Festival. Keira continued to put her celebrity to good use in 2009 with a TV commercial for WomensAid highlighting domestic abuse against women. Unfortunately, UK censors refused to allow its broadcast and it can only be viewed on YouTube. May and June saw Keira filming Never Let Me Go (2010) and London Boulevard (2010) back-to-back. In October, a new direction for Keira's career emerged, when it was announced she would appear on the London stage in her West End debut role as Jennifer, in a reworking of Moliere's The Misanthrope, starring Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald. More than $2m of ticket sales followed in the first four days, before even rehearsals had begun! The play ran from December to March at London's Comedy Theatre.Appallingly bad actress with average looks. Whoever says she is "beautiful" can't know many beautiful women...
Daughter of stage actors Will Knightley and Sharman Macdonald.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Maria Aitken was born on 12 September 1945 in Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress and writer, known for A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Fierce Creatures (1997) and Spider (2002). She has been married to Patrick McGrath since 28 December 1991. She was previously married to Nigel Davenport and Richard Durden.The daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Her grandfather was the UK Representative to Ireland. She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Lord Beaverbrook, and sister to former Conservative cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken.
So why wonder that most movies are rubbish?- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jack Davenport was born in 1973 and is the son of actors Maria Aitken and Nigel Davenport. He studied Literature and Film Studies at the University of East Anglia. His first break happened after he wrote to John Cleese to ask to be a runner on Fierce Creatures (1997) where he ended up playing a zoo keeper. His first major role however was that of public school educated barrister Miles in the BBC television series This Life (1996). Recent projects include the stylish Ultraviolet (1998) where he played a modern-day vampire hunter, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) as Matt Damon's love interest, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as the Keira Knightley's intended mate.4th generation "jet-set royalty".
One of the unfunniest "comedians" on this list. He is the main reason I can't watch those cheesy pirate comedies with Depp. The way he says his lines is how I imagine a total amateur desperately trying to be funny - because he is at gun point being told "be funny - or else".
The son of actors Nigel Davenport and Maria Aitken.
It doesn't end there...
His uncle is writer and former Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken, his maternal grandmother was socialite Penelope Aitken, his maternal grandfather was politician William Aitken, and one of his maternal great-grandfathers was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Through Jonathan Aitken's marriage to Elizabeth Rees-Williams, Davenport is also related to Jared Harris and Jamie Harris, her sons from her marriage to Richard Harris.
So...
Politicians + barons + average actors = great comedian?
Worst math equation ever.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Catherine Reitman was born on 28 April 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Workin' Moms (2017), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005) and Black-ish (2014). She has been married to Philip Sternberg since August 2009. They have two children.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Jason Reitman is a Canadian filmmaker and producer who notably directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Juno, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, Young Adult and Tully. He produced Chloe and Jennifer's Body, two films that advanced Amanda Seyfried's career for adult oriented roles. He is the son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two Ghostbusters films and Twins."Juno". Need I say more?
Much like Sofia Coppola, an offspring of a powerful director/producer whose early efforts received immense hype from the studio. Kick-starting a bad career requires hype and money. When it comes to hyping a powerful nepotist, everyone in Hollywood and the media gives it their all to make sure the project works, because for the media elites nepotism MUST work, it is one of their biggest agendas, aside from politics, of course.
Left-wing politics that promotes non-elitism. Quite ridiculous.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Troy Garity is an actor known for his diverse body of work. Though his breakout film performance came when he starred opposite Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thorton in Barry Levinson's "Bandits", he is perhaps best known for his role as Isaac in the "Barbershop" film franchise. A role he will reprise for the upcoming 2016 film.
Garity earned both a Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance in the Showtime original film "Soldier's Girl". The film also garnered Garity a Peabody Award and the AFI award for excellence in film.
Born in Santa Monica California, as a member of the Fonda family, acting was indeed in his blood. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and went on to study at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. After graduation, Troy spent a year performing as a member of the Academy's famed repertory company.
Some of Garity's other notable credits include the Danny Boyle sci-fi thriller "Sunshine," "Gangster Squad" directed by Ruben Fleischer, and the critically acclaimed television series "Boss" directed by Gus Van Sant.
Troy can been seen playing NFL agent Jason Antolotti in HBO's hit comedy series "Ballers."Fonda clan.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of "The Country Girl". Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) (directed by Logan) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by two Academy Awards for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978), and five Oscar nominations for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981), which was the only film she made with her father. Her professional success contrasted with her personal life, which was often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risqué movies (including Barbarella (1968)) by then-husband Roger Vadim was followed by what was to become her most debated and controversial period: her espousal of anti-establishment causes and especially her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the "Jane Fonda's Workout Book". She and Hayden divorced, and she married broadcasting mogul Ted Turner in 1991.Being a "Marxist" AND a nepotist gives you a huge advantage. You can basically do as you like, and get away with anything - including mediocre acting or even treason.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Bridget Jane Fonda was born in Los Angeles, California, to Susan Brewer and actor Peter Fonda. She is the granddaughter of Henry Fonda and niece of Jane Fonda, both famous actors. Bridget made her film debut at age five as an extra in Easy Rider (1969), but first became interested in acting after appearing in a high school production of "Harvey." At age 18, she enrolled at New York University and spent four years there and at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
She went on to hone her craft in workshop productions and worked on such stage projects as "Just Horrible," written by Nicholas Kazan, who later cast Bridget in his directorial debut, "Professional Man," an episode for The Edge (1989) series on HBO. She also starred in PBS's Jacob Have I Loved (1989) and in a segment of Aria (1987), a film composed of short works by 10 respected directors. Her film credits include The Godfather Part III (1990), Strapless (1989), Doc Hollywood (1991), Singles (1992), and Single White Female (1992).Bland and wooden.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Peter Henry Fonda was born in New York City, to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario, Canada-born New York socialite Frances Brokaw (born Frances Ford Seymour). He was the younger brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda and the father of actress Bridget Fonda.
Fonda made his professional stage debut on Broadway in 1961 in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, for which he received rave reviews from the New York Critics, and won the Daniel Blum Theater World Award and the New York Critics Circle Award for Best New Actor. He began his feature film career in 1963, playing the romantic lead in Tammy and the Doctor and joined the ensemble cast of the World War II saga, The Victors.
Shortly thereafter, Fonda began what would become a famous association with Roger Corman, starring in Wild Angels, as the ultra-cool, iron-fisted leader of a violent biker gang, opposite Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, and Diane Ladd. Fonda starred in Corman's 1967 psychedelic film The Trip, also starring Dern and Susan Strasberg. His next project was the seminal 1969 anti-establishment film Easy Rider, which he produced and co-scripted, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
His acting credits included the feature films Outlaw Blues, an expose of the country music business; Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry; Race with the Devil; Robert Rossen's Lilith; Split Image; Robert Wise's Two People; and the cult films Love and a .45 and Nadja. He appeared in Grace of My Heart (directed by Alison Anders), and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A., starring Kurt Russell. He made a cameo appearance in Bodies, Heat & Motion, which starred his daughter Bridget Fonda.
Fonda won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Ulee Jackson, the taciturn beekeeper in the 1997 film Ulee's Gold, earning him both a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and the New York Film Critics Award, as well as an Oscar nomination. Following this, he published his autobiography, Don't Tell Dad, and was then seen in the NBC movie The Tempest, for which he had been nominated for another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series. Fonda then appeared with Helen Mirren in the Showtime telefilm The Passion of Ayn Rand, where he won the Golden Globe for outstanding supporting actor in a mini-series or movie made for television and was nominated for both an Emmy and SAG Award. He co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's 1997 film The Limey. Following this, he appeared in Thomas and the Magic Railroad for director Britt Allcroft, starring Alec Baldwin.
Fonda directed his first feature film, The Hired Hand, in 1971. A critically acclaimed western in which he also starred, the film debuted with a restored version at the 2001 Venice Film Festival; it then screened at the Toronto Film Festival before reopening in theaters in 2003. Other directing credits include the science fiction feature Idaho Transfer, starring as a gambler who wins Brooke Shields in a poker game.
Fonda co-starred in HBO's The Laramie Project, based on the true story of openly gay college student Matthew Shepard, killed in an act of senseless violence and cruelty, which attracted national attention. Fonda starred in The Maldonado Miracle, directed by Salma Hayek for Showtime Networks, and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his role. Fonda also starred opposite Kris Kristofferson in Wooly Boys, which was released in March 2004, and the television drama Back When We Were Grownups, opposite Blythe Danner and Faye Dunaway. Fonda was seen in Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve and appeared in Mark Steven Johnson's Ghost Rider, opposite Nicolas Cage.
Fonda's last projects included director Ron Maxwell's Civil War-era drama Copperhead, alongside Billy Campbell and Angus MacFadyen, The Ultimate Gift directed by Michael Landon Jr., and John McNaughton's The Harvest, with Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon.
Peter Fonda died on August 16, 2019, in Los Angeles.They tried hard to turn him into a star in the 70s, but failed, due to staggering levels of non-charisma. Henry Fonda he ain't.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Illeana Douglas is an actress, writer, and producer. Born with show business in her blood, she is the granddaughter of screen legend Melvyn Douglas. Illeana began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. While working in New York as a stand-up comedian and sketch comedy artist, she got a job "screaming" for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). This led to a long working relationship in the films, New York Stories (1989), Goodfellas (1990) and Cape Fear (1991). She received critical acclaim as the suspicious sister of Matt Dillon in To Die For (1995), as "Denise Waverly" in Grace of My Heart (1996) and "Roberta Allsworth" in Ghost World (2001). On television, she has appeared on Entourage (2004), Ugly Betty (2006), and received an Emmy nomination as "Angela" on Six Feet Under (2001).Third-generation nepotist, I believe.
There is much in Hollywood that reminds of old European monarchies.
Ts, ts, ts. So elitist.- Actor
- Composer
- Director
Jaden Smith is an actor, known for The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), The Karate Kid (2010) and After Earth (2013). In addition to being an actor he is also a dancer, songwriter and rapper who won an MTV award for his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness. He co-starred with his father Will Smith in both The Pursuit of Happyness and in the 2013 science fiction film After Earth. Smith and his siblings are youth ambassadors for Project Zambia which provides assistance in conjunction with Hasbro for Zambian children orphaned by AIDS.
Jaden Smith was born on July 8, 1998 in Malibu, California, USA as Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. He is the older brother of Willow Smith (born on October 23, 2000) and is the younger half-brother of Trey Smith. He is also the nephew of Caleeb Pinkett. His maternal grandmother's family was Afro-Caribbean (from Barbados and Jamaica). His other grandparents' families were African-American.
Before fame, He helped Project Zambia and Hasbro to take care of children in Zambia whose parents have died of AIDS. He made his film debut in 2006 in The Pursuit of Happyness. Along with his sister, Willow Smith, and his elder brother, Trey Smith, are youth ambassadors for Project Zambia, in conjunction with the Hasbro corporation, which helps children orphaned by AIDS in Africa. Along with his younger sister, Willow Smith, he was home-schooled and also attends the New Village Leadership Academy, which was co-founded by his parents.
He co-starred with Jackie Chan in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid directed by Harald Zwart. Smith's character portrayal was acclaimed by critics and the film received mixed to mainly positive reviews. He also played a role in The Day the Earth Stood Still (2013) with Keanu Reeves. In May 2013, Will Smith and Jaden starred together, playing father and son, in After Earth. In 2014, it was announced that Smith will return for the sequel Karate Kid 2 with Jackie Chan. The movie will be directed by Breck Eisner, produced by James Lassiter and Will Smith and written by Zak Penn. The movie would be released in 2015.
Smith rapped alongside Canadian singer Justin Bieber in the song "Never Say Never." On October 1, 2012, Jaden released his first mix tape, The Cool Cafe.
Smith started his own clothing/lifestyle brand called MSFTSrep. The clothes range from hoodies and T-shirts to trousers and vests. In May 2013 Smith collaborated with a Korean designer, Choi Bum Suk, to create a pop-up store in which customers can buy clothes with their collaborated logos.
In 2015, he began dating Instagram star Sarah Snyder. Before Sarah, Jaden dated Kylie Jenner.Will Smith can't act, he can only grin unconvincingly, so what can we expect from his kids?- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Willow Smith was born on 31 October 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a music artist and actress, known for I Am Legend (2007), Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Briana was born on October 23rd, in Los Angeles, California. Her nationality is American and ethnicity is mixed (Polish and Italian). Born to actor Greg Evigan, and Dancer Pam Evigan, raised with her two siblings, music producer Jason Evigan, and actress Vanessa Evigan. This Husky-Voiced Evigan started off performing with her band Moorish idol singing and playing keys.
Evigan also undertook a speech and communications degree at Los Angeles Valley College competing on the speech and debate team becoming one of the number one speakers in the country.
Having studied dance since she was 7 she landed her first major feature debut as the star of the box office hit Step Up 2: The Streets in 2008, and reprized her role in a 2014 installment of the franchise, Step Up: All In. She also played starring roles in a number of films, including Sorority Row, S. Darko, and Burning Bright. On the television front, Briana starred in Season 2 of From Dusk Till Dawn for Robert Rodriguez, Jerry Bruckheimer's pilot, Trooper, TNT's acclaimed drama Longmire, and in the indie world, starred in festival darling, ToY, and Love is All You Need? For which she received Best Actor accolades. Some other credits include She Loves Me Not, starring Cary Elwes, Mothers Day, starring Rebecca Demornay, and Rites of Passage, starring Wes Bentley and Christian Slater.
When she's not working, Briana spends much of her time traveling, with the last 8 years being dedicated to non-profit efforts in Asia and Africa. She strives to bring home stories to tell on the big screen. She has deep dived into the anti-poaching world, fighting the ivory trade and protecting South African animals and rangers. She also has worked closely with Cambodian organization, Somaly Mam, teaching and serving as a role model to young victims of sex trafficking. Most recently, Briana has ventured into producing and directing, with 3 projects in development.
Briana's first foray into the development world came following a traumatic experience where she was painfully struck by the ubiquitous mistreatment of elephants in Southeast Asia, so much so that it became unimaginable to step back into Hollywood, role playing as she once saw it. It was clear for her at that point, that her life's mission was to make use of her background, her network, and most importantly, her voice, to advocate on behalf of those without.
Over the years that followed, countless campaigns, fundraisers, speaking events, and mission trips affirmed Briana's allegiance to animal advocacy, ultimately positioning her as a global voice of authority in this space. She is most excited about her upcoming completed films, Just Below Sunset, and Love and Communication.- Actress
- Visual Effects
- Costume Designer
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Vanessa got her start on the small screen at only eight years old, when she was an extra on the TV show MyTwo Dads, which starred her father, Greg Evigan. Vanessa knew then she wanted to be an actress, but it wasn't until she was 11 that her parents allowed her to get into the business. Her mother, Pamela Serpe Evigan, who was a dancer on Broadway, and her father, Greg Evigan, had strong feelings about her getting into the business too young. Vanessa is the oldest of three children: her brother, Jason Evigan, who is a singer songwriter best known for his number one hit "Heart Attack" he wrote and produced for Demi Lovato, and her sister, actress Briana Evigan, who is best known as Andie from Step Up 2 The Streets.
At the age of twelve, Vanessa got her first job when she guest starred on the TV show Jacks Place, in which she was nominated for best actress in a guest star role at the Young Artist Awards. Shortly after, she landed the role of "Jenny Clemens" on the critically acclaimed NBC series Against The Grain, which also starred Ben Affleck. At fifteen, Vanessa was cast as "Sara Valentine" on UPN's TV series Social Studies.. She then went on to play "Brittany Hodges" on The Young and The Restless.
Vanessa has guest starred on many shows such as Boy Meets World, The Tom Show, Norm, Less Than Perfect, Emily's Reasons Why Not, In Plain Sight, and How I Met Your Mother. She has starred in several independent movies and made for-TV movies as well. And she costarred in ABC's '25 Days Of Christmas' Family Movie Holiday In Handcuffs. You can watch Vanessa in Zombie Hamlet which was just released January of 2014 where she stars opposite Jason Mewes, June Lockhart, Shelley Long, and John Amos.
Vanessa is currently developing a TV show with her father and sister which she co-wrote, produced, and stars in and their productions company Evigan Entertainment has several other projects in the works.
Along with acting, Vanessa has several other passions in life: Vanessa has always had a passion for fashion and jewelry. She started making jewelry as a hobby and it caught on. The jewelry line is called Vanessalee Jewelry. You can find her creations in stores and online. Vanessa has also started a movement called "LuvtheinnerU. LuvtheinnerU is a movement to help people see that love starts within. Spreading the word that if we can learn to love ourselves, we can change our entire life! Finally one of Vanessa's greatest passions is finding a cure for muscular dystrophy. After losing a friend to the disease in high school, she has become passionate about raising the younger generation's awareness and helping find a cure. Vanessa has been involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association for the past several years and started a benefit some years ago called "Night of Spirits."- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Fuschia Sumner was born on 17 April 1982 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men (2021), Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and The Voice of Dust and Ash (2022).Sting's daughter.
And he isn't even a good actor. He's a (brilliant) musician.
He hired his son's awful band to support The Police on their huge 2008 reunion tour. Sting, the great humanitarian. Why doesn't he hire a struggling Newcastle band?- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Lucy DeVito was born on 11 March 1983 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Deadbeat (2014), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005) and Leaves of Grass (2009).Quite a blatant attempt to cheat the viewers into thinking they're getting quality.
Danny de Vito is a staunch political activist, fighting for freedom, equality, non-elitism, the working class and... hang on. So why is he using his connections to promote his bad actress daughter?- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Kelly Michelle Lee Osbourne is a British actress, singer, fashion model and television personality from Westminster, London. She is the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. She is known for her roles in Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Masked Singer UK, Phineas & Ferb, The Muppets Wizard of Oz and The Osbournes.Would anyone disagree about her?
Apart from Sharon, I mean.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Juliet Landau is an actress, director, producer and writer. As an actress, highlights include her role as "Drusilla" on Joss Whedon 's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) & spin-off Angel (1999), and co-starring in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) as "Loretta King". She played the recurring role of Rita Tedesco on Amazon's number one series, Bosch (2014) in season 5. She's recurring as "Cordelia" on TNT's Claws (2017) .
Juliet just helmed her visionary feature film directorial debut, A Place Among the Dead (2020). Modern Films is distributing it worldwide. Release date is Nov, 9th, 2020. Starring Juliet Landau with Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen, Joss Whedon and Anne Rice (appearing for the first time ever in a movie).
Also in the works and partially completed is The Undead Series (2016). Think Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012)... This is Vampires in Coffins Getting Blood!... The only series ever to gather the A-list of the genre together. Every one of the talented artists in A Place Among the Dead (2020) came back to participate in her series, as did Tim Burton, Willem Dafoe and many other notables.
Other acting work includes starring opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Theodore Rex (1995) as well as starring in over 20 other films, appearing in many more, guest-starring frequently on television, extensive voiceover work in features, tv, video games and garnering rave reviews for her roles in the theater.
Juliet's previous directorial efforts include two short subjects. Take Flight: Gary Oldman Directs Chutzpah (2009). explored Gary Oldman's creative process and was produced by Gary. Dream Out Loud featured interviews with Guillermo del Toro, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson. Both projects were produced with her husband Deverill Weekes, under the Miss Juliet Productions banner.
Landau co-wrote two issues of the Angel (1999) comic book for IDW Publishing . She is now penning the companion coffee table book to The Undead Series (2016) called Book Of The Undead.Such a bad actress, that no amount of nepotism helped her being launched into stardom. She played a tree in "Ed Wood", right?- Actor
- Soundtrack
Mason Lee was born on 30 May 1990 in the USA. He is an actor, known for The Hangover Part II (2011), Lucy (2014) and Who Killed Cock Robin? (2017).- Actor
- Producer
"Legacy" is what you think of when hearing the Van Peebles name, and third generation Mandela is definitely doing his part in upholding the family's cinematic lineage.
Van Peebles recently finished filming the Taylor Sheridan (of Yellowstone fame) and Antoine Fuqua-produced Mayor of Kingstown (2021) alongside Jeremy Renner, Kyle Chandler and Dianne Wiest in his second home of Toronto (he holds dual citizenship with Canada and the U.S; his mother is Canadian) in the role of Sam, a novice guard in a brutal maximum security prison.
Season two's premiere episode of the Hulu hit television show Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Little Ghetto Boys 2021) produced by Rza, Method Man and Brian Grazer further exemplifies just how versatile an actor he is, as the charming and charismatic thespian eased into his role as lead antagonist Shank, a young and ruthless drug dealer. Van Peebles gained worldwide recognition as the affable Mitch in Jigsaw (2016) of the SAW movie franchise, the biggest horror franchise to date, with fans still lamenting his undeserved death; he also previously appeared in the epic reimagining of the miniseries Roots with Forest Whittaker and Lawrence Fishburne, in Part 2 (2012) as Noah.3rd generation.
Mario was smart. Give his boy the name "Mandela" and how could any PC casting director refuse him a role?- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Cécile Cassel was born on 25 June 1982 in Paris, France. She is an actress and producer, known for HollySiz: Thank you all i'm fine (2021), Two Is a Family (2016) and HollySiz: Come back to me (2013).Vincent Cassel's half-sister.- Actor
- Producer
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Vincent Cassel's brother. Half-sister is a pop singer.
I love how Wikipedia states that he comes from a "family of artists". Perhaps there are a few DJs there too?- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, actually coming from upper classes, succeeded to express the despair of a social class living in the suburbs of towns. This veracity in his play comes from the fact that he was in fact since years in connection with many hip-hop artists from the rising generation, (his own brother was leader of a legendary french rap group). Then the success of The Crimson Rivers (2000), where he plays a young French cop alongside Jean Reno, made of him "the man to count on." He never hid his taste for rap music, break dance, Capoeira, Brasil and his endless energy, but Vincent is also a family man, married to Monica Bellucci, his Italian co-star from The Apartment (1996) (aka The Apartment); and recently a father.A horrible French actor, one of the kings of overacting, and vastly overrated. Perhaps he and Nicholas Cage studied from the same acting coaches.
Plays tough guys often, for whatever insane reason. I certainly would never cast him in any gangster film. But directors these days are so out of the loop, they have no clue how the real world looks - so they cast Cassel as a tough guy, which he doesn't remotely resemble.
His brother is a "rapper" and director, his half-sister Cecile is a French pop singer.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Mario Van Peebles is a highly regarded director, actor, producer and writer. His directorial skills can be seen in the retelling of the epic mini-series "Roots" starring Forest Whitaker and Matthew Goode. Van Peebles has directed award-winning shows such as the recent hit "Empire" and "The Last Ship," as well as "Sons of Anarchy," "Lost," "Damages," and "Boss." As an actor Van Peebles has credits are as equally impressive.
An independent filmmaker to his core, Van Pebbles grew up watching Melvin Van Peebles, his maverick filmmaker father. A true master craftsman in his own right, Van Peebles is defined as a director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer; known for funding his own work.
His many talents can be seen in films like his directorial breakout hit "New Jack City," "Posse" and "Panther;" plus Michael Mann's Oscar® nominated "Ali," in which he received critical acclaim for his role as real life minister and human rights activist Malcom X; the multi-award-winning "Cotton Club" written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge;" and several projects with Ava DuVernay.
Throughout his career, Van Peebles has brought challenging, compelling material to the screen, including his hip hop coming-of-age film "We the Party," for which he wrote, directed and produced; his documentary short "Bring You're a Game;" and, of course, "Baadasssss!" This was Van Peebles' odyssey about the making of his father's groundbreaking film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and was one of Ebert and Roeper's ten best movies of the year for 2004.
As a director, Van Pebbles has affected unusually strong performances from his fellow actors. They often remark that he creates a collaborative climate where they feel free to do their best work. He believes his background as an actor helps him approach the actor's character development process internally. Conversely, he believes being a director has made him a more trusting, nuanced actor. Being able to do both is like creative crop rotation for Van Peebles. Not many directors get the privilege of being directed by other strong filmmakers. Acting for others is still "super exciting" to him.
In 1994, Hofstra University awarded Van Peebles an honorary doctorate of humane letters. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University, Van Peebles spent two years working at New York's Department of Environmental Protection before moving to Hollywood to try his hand at acting writing and directing.
In addition to directing and acting in features, Van Peebles is passionate about supporting education and eco-consciousness through media. With his reality show, Mario's Green House, he teamed up with his five children and his father to chronicle the Van Peebles family's often-humorous attempts to raise their eco-consciousness as they try to go green in Hollywood. Green "We never got to the full green, more like Olive green," jokes Van Peebles.Good-looking guy, but his acting consists of grinning, much like Gwyneth.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in West Covina, California, but raised in New York City, Tim Robbins is the son of former The Highwaymen singer Gil Robbins and actress Mary Robbins (née Bledsoe). Robbins studied drama at UCLA, where he graduated with honors in 1981. That same year, he formed the Actors' Gang theater group, an experimental ensemble that expressed radical political observations through the European avant-garde form of theater. He started film work in television movies in 1983, but hit the big time in 1988 with his portrayal of dimwitted fastball pitcher "Nuke" Laloosh in Bull Durham (1988). Tall with baby-faced looks, he has the ability to play naive and obtuse (Cadillac Man (1990) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)) or slick and shrewd (The Player (1992) and Bob Roberts (1992)).Son of a popular country singer.
So let me get this straight... The country gene becomes the acting gene? Country DNA = acting DNA. Is that it?
A brilliant example of how nepotism and left-wing activism can help you advance in Hollywood. If Tim had declared himself a Republican at the outset of his acting career, how far do you think he would have gone? Or without the benefit of nepotism?
Tim is especially bad in comedies.- Miles Guthrie Tomalin Robbins is an American musician and actor. Miles Guthrie Tomalin Robbins was born on May 4, 1992, in New York City. He studied documentary film and music production at Brown University for three years but left before graduation. He is a son of the actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. His half-sister is the actress Eva Amurri, and his older brother is the director Jack Henry Robbins.3rd generation. Son of Susan Sarandon and very boring Tim Robbins.
All hail the monarchy! - Director
- Writer
- Editor
Jack Henry Robbins was born on 15 May 1989. He is a director and writer, known for VHYes (2019), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003) and Alex (2019).- Actress
- Additional Crew
Eva Maria Olivia Amurri Martino (born March 15, 1985) is an American film and television actress Amurri Martino was born in New York City, to Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon. She attended Friends Seminary (Manhattan) for middle school, and graduated from Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, New York, and Brown University.
Eva initially appeared in Bob Roberts (1992) in 1992 and Dead Man Walking (1995) in 1999. In 1999, she appeared in Earthly Possessions (1999) and Anywhere But Here (1999).In 2009, she appeared as Shelly in the episode The Playbook (2009) of How I Met Your Mother (2005). Amurri Martino starred in the thriller film Isolation (2011), directed by Stephen Kay. She guest-starred, along with her mother, on an episode of Friends (1994) in The One with Joey's New Brain (2001) Amurri Martino had a role in the 2002 film The Banger Sisters (2002), in which her mother starred, with Amurri Martino playing the daughter of her mother's character. She guest-starred, along with her mother, on an episode of Friends (1994) in Season 7 Episode 15 The One with Joey's New Brain (2001). In 2004, she appeared in Saved! (2004). She had a role in the third season of the Showtime series Californication (2007), where she played Jackie, a stripper, student and love interest of central character Hank Moody. Amurri Martino played the leading role in the 2008 film Middle of Nowhere (2008).
In 2010, she appeared in the Fox series House (2004) as Nicole in the episode The Choice (2010). In 2012, she appeared in Happy Madison Production's That's My Boy (2012) as young Mary McGarricle. Her mother also appeared in the film as McGarricle's older self.Daughter of Susan Sarandon.- Actor
- Producer
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Ezra Matthew Miller was born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, to Marta (Koch), a modern dancer, and Robert S. Miller, who has worked at Workman Publishing and as former senior V.P. for Hyperion Books. Ezra has two older sisters and is of Ashkenazi Jewish (father) and German-Dutch (mother) ancestry. Ezra has described themselves as Jewish and "spiritual".
As a child, Miller sang with the Metropolitan Opera and attended Rockland Country Day School and The Hudson School. Miller's first feature film was the independent Afterschool (2008), with subsequent appearances on the television series Californication (2007), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and Royal Pains (2009), and in the films City Island (2009), Every Day (2010), Beware the Gonzo (2010), and Another Happy Day (2011).
Miller drew critical praise playing Kevin Khatchadourian, the homicidal son of Tilda Swinton's character, in the dramatic thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). Miller subsequently played Patrick in the well-received teen drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), opposite Logan Lerman and Emma Watson.
Ezra's other roles include the period piece Madame Bovary (2014), Judd Apatow's comedy Trainwreck (2015), and the psychological thriller The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015). Miller has been cast as superhero The Flash in The Flash (2023), scheduled for release in 2022.A walking meme, this guy.
Sorry, not a guy. He is "gender fluid".
He symbolizes literally everything that's wrong with modern cinema and entertainment in general. Ticks all the elitist boxes and dubious modes of behaviour.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Evan Rachel Wood was born September 7, 1987, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a theatre actor, writer and director, and her mother, Sara Wood, is an actress and acting coach. She has two older brothers--Dana Wood, a musician, and Ira David Wood IV, who has also acted. Evan and her brothers sometimes performed at Theatre In The Park in Raleigh, which her father founded and where he serves as executive director.
At the age of five she screen-tested against Kirsten Dunst for the lead role in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) after a long auditioning process. She moved to Los Angeles with her mom and brother Ira in 1996 and has had success ever since, appearing in a TV series, TV movies and feature films. She has appeared in Practical Magic (1998), starred in the comedy S1m0ne (2002) as Al Pacino's daughter, and followed that with Thirteen (2003), with Holly Hunter. Her breakout role as Tracy in "Thirteen" garnered her a Golden Globes nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama and for a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. At the time of this SAG nomination, she was the youngest actress to be nominated in the Leading Role category. She received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie" for her portrayal of Veda Pierce in the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011).
She also earned acclaim for her powerful performance as Stephanie, Mickey Rourke's estranged daughter, in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler (2008).I've seen her in several movies, and still can't remember what she looks like. She's that interesting. Bland and average in every way.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Chase "Lizzie" Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films Silent House (2011), Liberal Arts (2012), Godzilla (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). For her role in the critically-acclaimed Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), she was nominated for numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She is the younger sister of actresses and fashion designers Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
Olsen was born in Sherman Oaks, California to Jarnette "Jarnie", a personal manager, and David "Dave" Olsen, a real estate developer and mortgage banker. She is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, who became famous as TV and movie stars at an early age. Her oldest brother is named Trent Olsen, and she has two younger half-siblings. In 1996, Olsen's parents divorced. The Olsens have Norwegian and English ancestry.
As a child, Olsen received ballet and singing lessons. She began acting at age 4, and by 11 she'd had small roles in How the West Was Fun and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley. Having appeared in her sisters' videos, when she was in the fourth grade, Olsen began to go on auditions for other projects, auditioning for the film Spy Kids. She almost quit acting in 2004 over the media frenzy surrounding Mary-Kate's eating disorder.
She attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California from kindergarten through grade 12. After graduation, she enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow, Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School through the MATS program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Olsen's breakout role came in 2011, when she appeared in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. The film, along with Olsen's performance, received critical acclaim. Olsen was nominated for and won numerous critics awards for her portrayal of the titular character Martha, a girl suffering from delusions and paranoia after fleeing her life in a cult and returning to her family. She next appeared in the horror film remake Silent House, in which she played the role of Sarah. The film received mixed reviews, although Olsen's performance was once again praised. Olsen also appeared in the music video "The Queen" by Carlotta. Olsen filmed the movie Red Lights during mid-2011, and it was released in the U.S. on July 13, 2012. She starred in Josh Radnor's film Liberal Arts, which was released on January 22, 2012. She and Dakota Fanning starred in Very Good Girls, a 2013 release.
In January 2013, Olsen was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She co-starred in the 2013 American remake of the 2003 South Korean film Oldboy; she played Marie, a young social worker who developed a relationship with the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin. She played Edie Parker, Jack Kerouac's first wife and the author of the Beat Generation memoir You'll Be Okay, in Kill Your Darlings.
In 2014, Olsen starred in Legendary's Godzilla a reboot, opposite Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Olsen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by playing the Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the 2015 Avengers sequel. She first appeared as the character in a mid-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, again alongside her Godzilla co-star Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed her brother Quicksilver. She reprised this role as the Scarlet Witch in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War.
In September 2014, it was announced that Olsen would portray Audrey Williams, Hank Williams' wife, manager, and duet partner in the upcoming 2015 biopic I Saw the Light directed by Marc Abraham and starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams.
In January 2016, it was announced that Olsen would team up with her Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan's directorial feature film debut, Wind River.
Olsen attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company and graduated in March 2013 after six years of intermittent study. Her sisters' clothing line "Elizabeth and James" was named after her and her older brother.
Olsen started dating fellow actor Boyd Holbrook in September 2012 after meeting him on the film Very Good Girls. They became engaged in March 2014 but called it off in January 2015.The Olsen twins are so wealthy hence powerful that even if there were a thousand Olsen sisters, they'd all get employed.
That's Hollywood.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Emily Jordan Osment was born on March 10, 1992 in Los Angeles. She is the younger sister of The Sixth Sense star, Haley Joel Osment. Her father Eugene is also an actor of some renown. Following in their footsteps, Emily started her acting career performing in several commercials, including a radio spot with Dick Van Dyke, before making her film debut in "The Secret Life of Girls." The same year she landed a role in the Hallmark film, "Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End," as the daughter of Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. That role led to a nomination for Best Young Actor.
After that Emily played several smaller roles for television, which include, "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Touched by an Angel," and "Friends." During this time she also did voice acting alongside her brother and John Cleese, Catherine O'Hara, and Harry Shearer in the short animated-film, "Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big."
Finally, Emily landed the much sought after role of Gerti Giggles in, "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams." Writer/Director Robert Rodriguez was so impressed by her audition that he made the role longer without even knowing that she was the sister of Haley Joel Osment. She then appeared in the sequel, "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over."
She appeared as a regular on the hit Disney Channel show "Hannah Montana," in which she played the hyperactive, Lily Truscott, alongside co-stars Miley Cyrus and Mitchell Musso.- Producer
- Actor
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John William Ferrell was born in Irvine, California, to Betty Kay (Overman), a teacher, and Roy Lee Ferrell, Jr., a musician. His parents were originally from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
A graduate of the University of Southern California, Ferrell became interested in performing while a student at University High School in Irvine, where he made his school's daily morning announcements over the public address system in disguised voices. He started as a member of the Los Angeles comedy/improvisation group The Groundlings, where fellow cast members Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph and former Saturday Night Live (1975) repertory players such as Laraine Newman, Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman began their careers. It was there he met Chris Kattan and the two became good friends and both went on to Saturday Night Live (1975) later. He has also appeared on several television programs, including Strangers with Candy (1999), Grace Under Fire (1993) and Living Single (1993) during his time at The Groundlings. Will also lent his voice to the armless and legless dad of cartoon family "The Oblongs".
In 1995 he became a feature cast member at Saturday Night Live (1975) during the show's rapid re-casting. He was declared quite possibly the worst cast member ever during his first season. However, his talents of impersonations and range of characters shot him forward to making him arguably the greatest Saturday Night Live (1975) cast member ever. During his seven year run he is one of the few cast members to ever be nominated for an Emmy for a performance and played George W. Bush during the 2000 elections. He has appeared in every Saturday Night Live (1975) movie since his premiere on the show in 1995. In 2002 he left Saturday Night Live (1975) and was the only cast member to ever receive a farewell from all the current cast members at the end of the season finale show. Since leaving the show Will has pursued a career in films. In 2000, he married Viveca Paulin, and lives in L.A.Yes, the mystery is finally solved... Why is he so unfunny yet has a career?
Because Roy Lee Ferrell Jr. played saxophone and keyboards for the famous 60s band the Righteous Brothers.
Because saxophone DNA automatically converts into "funnyman DNA". Obviously. I mean, come on.- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Agata Buzek was born on 20 September 1976 in Pyskowice, Slaskie, Poland. She is an actress and producer, known for Redemption (2013), The Innocents (2016) and The Reverse (2009). She has been married to Adam Mazan since 30 September 2006.Ever wonder why Jason Statham had to kiss her in "Redemption"? Her Daddy was none other than Poland's PRIME MINISTER between 1997 and 2001.
And of course she worked as a model, as well. Elitism at its worst. Did I mention that any woman can become a model if they come from a powerful background?
Since when does the "political gene" carry the "acting gene"? She is just another proof that to become an actor all you need is connections, period. Talent and looks are irrelevant.- Crispin Daniel Bonham-Carter is an English actor and theatre director.
He played Mr. Bingley in BBC's Pride and Prejudice in 1995. The previous year, he had starred in the TV sitcom Honey for Tea. Bonham-Carter also starred alongside Ewan McGregor in the 1993 BBC period drama Scarlet and Black playing Rachel Weisz's suitor.
He played a small role in the hit film Bridget Jones's Diary.
He appeared on Season 4 of Absolutely Fabulous as a gardener named Jago Balfour who was commissioned to redesign the back garden.
He also appeared in the video of Westlife's cover of "Uptown Girl" and played Mandy's well-to-do love interest in season 3 of Game On. He is currently teaching English at Alexandra Park School, a comprehensive secondary school in Muswell Hill, north London.
Bonham-Carter is the son of Peter Bonham-Carter and Clodagh Greenwood, and the grandson of Sir Christopher Douglas Bonham-Carter. He is a third cousin of actress Helena Bonham Carter and her brother, businessman Edward. He is married to Katherine Julian Dawnay. They have four sons: Arthur Thomas Patrick, Christopher Ruan (born March 1999), Stanley Peter and Frank Douglas.
Bonham-Carter was educated at Glenalmond College, and graduated in 1992 from the University of St Andrews with a degree in classics. In 2011, he represented his former university in a special series of University Challenge. The St Andrews team lost to a team from Cambridge in the first round. - Director
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- Actor
British film director Anthony Asquith was born on November 9, 1902, to H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was subsequently elevated to the hereditary peerage. His youngest child, Anthony, was called Puffin by his family, a nickname given him by his mother, who thought he resembled one. Puffin was also the name his friends called him throughout his life.
Asquith was active in the British film industry from the late silent period until the mid-1960s. As a director he was highly respected by his contemporaries and had a long and successful career; by the 1960s he was one of only three British directors (the others being David Lean and Carol Reed) who were directing major international motion picture productions. However, Asquith's proclivity for adapting plays for the screen caused an erosion in his critical reputation as a filmmaker after his death. He was faulted for what was perceived as his failure to focus, like his contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, on the cinematic. Asquith was known as an actor's director, and solicited some of the finest film performances from Britain's greatest actors, including Edith Evans and Michael Redgrave.
Although Asquith's first love was music, he lacked musical talent. He channeled his artistic ambitions toward the nascent motion picture, and was instrumental in the formation of the London Film Society to promote artistic appreciation of film. Asquith traveled to Hollywood in the 1920s to observe American film production techniques, and after returning to England, he became a director.
Among his best-known films is Pygmalion (1938), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's stage play, which he co-directed with its star, Leslie Howard. The film was a major critical success, even in the United States, winning multiple Academy Award nominations. Nobel Prize-winner Shaw, who had been a co-founder of the London Film Society along with Asquith, won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the film. Asquith had a long professional association with playwright Terence Rattigan, and two of Asquith's most famous and successful pictures were based on Rattigan plays, The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951). Asquith directed the screen version of Rattigan's first successful play, French Without Tears (1940), in 1940.
Asquith's most successful postwar film was, arguably, his adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). More than a half-century after it was made, Asquith's film remains the best adaptation of Wilde's work. Ironically, Asquith's father H.H., while serving as Home Secretary, ordered Wilde's arrest for his homosexual behavior. Wilde's arrest, for "indecent behavior", led to his incarceration in the Reading jail and destroyed the great playwright, personally. The Wilde incident stifled gay culture in Britain for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Another irony of the situation is that H.H.'s youngest son, Anthony, himself was gay.
By the 1960s Asquith was directing Hollywood-style all-star productions, including the episodic The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), once again from a screenplay by Rattigan, and the Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor potboiler The V.I.P.s (1963), also with a screenplay by Rattigan. It is based in an incident in the life of Laurence Olivier, a frequent Asquith collaborator. In 1967 Asquith was tipped to direct the big-screen adaptation of the best-selling novel The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) set to co-star Olivier and Anthony Quinn, but he had to drop out of the production due to ill heath. He died on February 20, 1968, at the age of 65.
The British Academy Award for best music is named the Anthony Asquith Award in his honor.Son of a high-ranking British politician.
Relative of Helena Bonham Carter.
Which explains why he made only average and boring movies.- Actress
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Helena Bonham Carter is an actress of great versatility, one of the UK's finest and most successful.
Bonham Carter was born May 26, 1966 in Golders Green, London, England, the youngest of three children of Elena (née Propper de Callejón), a psychotherapist, and Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant banker. Through her father, she is the great-granddaughter of former Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith, and her blue-blooded family tree also contains Barons and Baronesses, diplomats, and a director, Bonham Carter's great-uncle Anthony Asquith, who made Pygmalion (1938) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), among others. Cousin Crispin Bonham-Carter is also an actor. Her maternal grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, was a Spanish diplomat who was awarded the honorific Righteous Among the Nations, by Israel, for helping save Jews during World War II (Eduardo's own father was a Czech Jew). Helena's maternal grandmother, Hélène Fould-Springer, was from an upper-class Jewish family from France, Austria, and Germany, and later converted to her husband's Catholic faith.
Bonham Carter experienced family dramas during her childhood, including her father's stroke - which left him wheelchair-bound. She attended South Hampstead High School and Westminster School in London, and subsequently devoted herself to an acting career. That trajectory actually began in 1979 when, at age thirteen, she entered a national poetry writing competition and used her second place winnings to place her photo in the casting directory "Spotlight." She soon had her first agent and her first acting job, in a commercial, at age sixteen. She then landed a role in the made-for-TV movie A Pattern of Roses (1983), which subsequently led to her casting in the Merchant Ivory films A Room with a View (1985), director James Ivory's tasteful adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, and Lady Jane (1986), giving a strong performance as the uncrowned Queen of England. She had roles in three other productions under the Merchant-Ivory banner (director Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala): an uncredited appearance in Maurice (1987), and large roles in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) and Howards End (1992).
Often referred to as the "corset queen" or "English rose" because of her early work, Bonham Carter continued to surprise audiences with magnificent performances in a variety of roles from her more traditional corset-clad character in The Wings of the Dove (1997) and Shakespearian damsels to the dark and neurotic anti-heroines of Fight Club (1999). Her acclaimed performance in The Wings of the Dove (1997) earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination, a BAFTA Best Actress nomination, and a SAG Awards Best Actress nomination. It also won her a Best Actress Award from the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics, the Boston Society Film Critics, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Texas Society of Film Critics, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.
In the late 1990s, Bonham Carter embarked on the next phase of her career, moving from capable actress to compelling star. Audiences and critics had long been enchanted by her delicate beauty, evocative of another time and place. Her late '90s and early and mid 2000s roles included Mick Jackson's Live from Baghdad (2002), alongside Michael Keaton, receiving a nomination for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe; Paul Greengrass' The Theory of Flight (1998), in which she played a victim of motor neurone disease; Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night (1996), in which she played Olivia; opposite Woody Allen in his Mighty Aphrodite (1995); Mort Ransen's Margaret's Museum (1995); Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein (1994); and Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990).
Other notable credits include her appearance with Steve Martin in Novocaine (2001), Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes, in which she played an ape, Thaddeus O'Sullivan's The Heart of Me (2002), opposite Paul Bettany, and Big Fish (2003), her second effort with Tim Burton, in which she appeared as a witch.
In between her films, Helena has managed a few television appearances, which include her portrayal of Jacqui Jackson in Magnificent 7 (2005), the tale of a mother struggling to raise seven children - three daughters and four autistic boys; as Anne Boleyn in the two-parter biopic of Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone; and as Morgan Le Fey, alongside Sam Neill and Miranda Richardson, in Merlin. Earlier television appearances include Michael Mann's Miami Vice (1984) as Don Johnson's junkie fiancée, and as a stripper who wins Rik Mayall's heart in Dancing Queen (1993). Helena has also appeared on stage, in productions of Trelawney of the Wells, The Barber of Seville, House of Bernarda Alba, The Chalk Garden, and Woman in White.
Bonham Carter was nominated for a Golden Globe for the fifth time for her role in partner Tim Burton's film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), for which Burton and co-star Johnny Depp were also nominated. For the role, she was awarded Best Actress at the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2008. Other 2000s work includes playing Mrs Bucket in Tim Burton's massive hit Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), providing the voices for the aristocratic Lady Campanula Tottington in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and for the eponymous dead heroine in Tim Burton's spooky Corpse Bride (2005), and co-starring in Conversations with Other Women (2005) opposite Aaron Eckhart.
After their meeting while filming Planet of the Apes (2001), Bonham Carter and Tim Burton made seven films together. They lived in adjoining residences in London, shared a connecting hallway, and have two children: Billy Ray Burton, born in 2003, and Nell Burton, who was born in 2007. Ironically, a mutual love of Sweeney Todd was part of the initial attraction for the pair. Bonham Carter has said in numerous interviews that her audition process for the role of Mrs. Lovett was the most grueling of her career and that, ultimately, it was Sondheim who she had to convince that she was right for the role.Stems from an almost aristocratic family, her great-grandpa was Prime Minister of Britain (no less). She ticks every single elitist box in the book.
To quote Wikipedia:
"Her father, Raymond Bonham Carter, who came from a prominent British political family, was a merchant banker and served as the alternative British director representing the Bank of England at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, during the 1960s. Her mother, Elena is a psychotherapist who is of Spanish and mostly Jewish background, and whose parents were diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejón from Spain and painter Baroness Hélène Fould-Springer. Bonham Carter's paternal grandmother was politician and feminist Violet Bonham Carter, daughter of H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the first half of the First World War.
So which director or producer in his right mind wouldn't have hired her when asked "politely" by her clan and agent to cast her? Pass up an opportunity to make friends with such a powerful clan? Of course not. Film-making is a business, not art, at least usually it's not art... Kubrick and a handful of other film-makers would have rejected her, but most directors would have happily "contaminated" their film with her, for completely non-artistic reasons.
Many people on this list stem from the upper classes, from the richest 1%. Where are all those poor that Hollywood liberals are so worried about never get a shot at becoming a success story?
Hypocrisy.
And then Hollywood's liberals make movies about how the American Dream is a failure.
Ultra-hypocrisy.- Actress
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Helen Hunt began studying acting at the age of eight with her father, respected director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. A year later she made her professional debut and afterwards worked steadily in films, theatre and television.What an uninteresting, barely gifted actress. So plain-looking too. Housewife from next door.
But...
Her mother Jane Elizabeth worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, was a film, voice and stage director and acting coach. Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, was also a director.- Actress
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Daryl Christine Hannah was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Susan Jeanne (Metzger), a schoolteacher and later a producer, and Donald Christian Hannah, who owned a tugboat/barge company. Her stepfather was music journalist/promoter Jerrold Wexler. Her siblings are Page Hannah, Don Hannah and Tanya Wexler. She has Scottish, Norwegian, Danish, Irish, English, and German ancestry.
Daryl graduated from the University of Southern California School of Theatre. She practiced ballet with Maria Tallchief and studied drama at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. In her twenties, she played keyboard and sang backup for Jackson Browne. Hannah, a tall (5' 10") blond beauty, with haunting blue-green eyes, was a natural for show biz.
She started with small roles, such as a student in The Fury (1978) and as Kim Basinger's kid sister in Hard Country (1981). Daryl's breakout role was as the acrobatic, beautiful replicant punk android Pris in Blade Runner (1982); Pris was the vixen who wanted to live beyond her allotted years and risked the wrath of the title character. Showing her versatility, from there she portrayed a mermaid, Madison, who falls in love with Tom Hanks's character in Ron Howard's zany comedy Splash (1983), and a Cro-Magnon in The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986). Hannah played Roxanne in the eponymous Steve Martins contemporary take on the Cyrano de Bergerac story, and co-starred as Elle Driver in Quintin Tarantino's box office hit Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004).
Hannah has been a consistent, strong supporter of independent cinema, both acting in and producing many films, starring in such indie films as John Sayles's Casa de los babys (2003) as well as his political satire Silver City (2004). She worked on several films with the revered Robert Altman, including The Gingerbread Man (1998), as well as several films with the Polish Brothers including Northfork (2003) and Jackpot (2001). Daryl starred in the experimental improvised Michael Radford film Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000) and made As a filmmaker, Hannah wrote, directed, and produced an award winning short film, entitled The Last Supper (1995). Hannah also directed, produced and shot the documentary Strip Notes (2002) which was inspired while researching her role for Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000) that was shown on HBO and UK's Channel 4.
Daryl is in the process of shooting a documentary on Human Trafficking and has traveled undercover to South East Asia to document this atrocity and has become and advocates raising awareness and ending slavery. She has made over 40 video blogs for various websites including her popular dhlovelife.com. She designed dhlovelife.com (online since 2005) her website dedicated to sharing solutions on how to live more harmoniously with the planet and all other living things. Daryl has been passionate, committed and effective advocate for a more ethical relationship with each other and all life on the Planet. She has produced, hosted and shot numerous environmental awareness/ health documentaries, TV appearances and is a frequent speaker on both the conservative and progressive news.
Hannah has been a greening consultant for events such as the Virgin Music Festival, attended by over 150,000 people. Her many speaking engagements include keynote speeches at the UN Climate Change Summit, UN Global Business Conference on the environment, Natural and Organic Products Expo, LOHAS and numerous national and international universities, conferences and events. She has written articles on self sufficiency and sustainability for many magazines and has done a plethora of interviews on the topic in thousands of publications. The site features weekly five-minute inspirational video blogs which Daryl produces and films. There are daily news updates, alerts, community and access to goods and services. She is a member of the World Future Council, sits on the boards of the Sylvia Earle Alliance, Mission Blue, Eco America, Environmental Media Association (EMA), The Somaly Mam Foundation, and the Action Sports Environmental Coalition, She is the founder of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (SBA).I can't understand why anyone would hire her for a movie such as Blade Runner. Scott Ridley loves his nepotist actresses, he literally can't tell non-talent apart from talent. Or he simply doesn't give a hoot whom he casts, as long as he does friends favours.- Actor
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A slight comic actor chiefly known for his boyish charm, Matthew Broderick was born on March 21, 1962 in New York City, to Patricia Broderick (née Biow), a playwright and painter, and James Broderick, an actor. His father had Irish and English ancestry, and his mother was from a Jewish family (from Germany and Poland).
Matthew initially took up acting at New York's upper-crust Walden School after being sidelined from his athletic pursuits (football and soccer) by a knee injury. His father got him his stage debut at age 17 in a workshop production of the play "On Valentine's Day". Matthew's career then accelerated with parts in two Neil Simon projects: the play "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1982-83) and the feature film Max Dugan Returns (1983). Broderick reprised the role of Eugene in "Biloxi Blues" (1988), the second installment of the Simon trilogy, for both the Broadway production and the film adaptation (Biloxi Blues (1988)). For the third and final installment of the trilogy, he was replaced by Jonathan Silverman. In 1983, the same year as Max Dugan Returns (1983), Broderick had his first big-screen success in the light comedy WarGames (1983). Since then he has had his fair share of hits and misses, with some of his better films including Project X (1987) also starring Helen Hunt, whom he subsequently dated; Addicted to Love (1997); and Inspector Gadget (1999). Other films he has appeared in which may be known but not so much respected include Out on a Limb (1992) with his Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) co-star Jeffrey Jones; The Night We Never Met (1993); The Road to Wellville (1994); and The Cable Guy (1996) with Jim Carrey, which got him an MTV "Best Fight" award nomination; and the MTV film Election (1999) with Reese Witherspoon. In 1985 he was involved in a controversial car crash while driving in Ireland with his then fiancée Jennifer Grey. The crash killed a woman and her daughter. Broderick paid a small fine to the family of the victims. He broke his leg in the accident, which happened just as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), his biggest hit, was coming out in the US. The box office success (but critical flop) and special effects blockbuster Godzilla (1998) gave Broderick his first action role (should any "Godzilla" sequels be planned, he is under contract for two more). He has occasionally returned to the stage in New York, either in revivals of old musical warhorses such as "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" or in revivals of old "show people"plays, such as "Night Must Fall". In 1996 Broderick attempted to wear three hats as co-producer/director/actor in Infinity (1996), working very closely with his mother, who also wrote the screenplay. It was not a critical or commercial success, and he has not directed or produced since. Since May 1997 he has been married to actress Sarah Jessica Parker. He was previously engaged to both Helen Hunt and dated Lili Taylor. In 1999 he donned a trenchcoat for the children's film Inspector Gadget (1999), alongside Rupert Everett as the evil villain Claw. In March 2001 Broderick returned to Broadway in the musical smash "The Producers" (based on the 1968 Mel Brooks film of the same name). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, which he lost to his co-star, Nathan Lane.Incredibly boring actor, because he seems so bored in most of his roles, especially after his teen period. He is so entitled, he doesn't even try.- Director
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Jake Paltrow was born on 26 September 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Young Ones (2014), The Good Night (2007) and June Zero (2022). He has been married to Taryn Simon since 2010. They have two children.Thanks, Bruce, for these gifts to cinema...
Who needs Pacino, Monroe and Kubrick when we got the Paltrows...- Actress
- Soundtrack
Blythe Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Katharine (Kile) and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has German, as well as English and Irish, ancestry. Danner studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the Theater World Award for her work in Molière's "The Miser", at Lincoln Center. She also won the 1970 Tony award for her role in "Butterflies Are Free". She made her film premiere in the same year in the television production of Dr. Cook's Garden (1971). For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. She has also been nominated for Tonys for performances in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Betrayal". Married to director Bruce Paltrow, she is the mother of two acting children, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.Sister of opera singer and stage actor Harry Danner.- Actress
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Gwyneth Kate Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of noted producer and director Bruce Paltrow and Tony Award-winning actress Blythe Danner. Her father was from a Jewish family, while her mother is of mostly German descent. When Gwyneth was eleven, the family moved to Massachusetts, where her father began working in summer stock productions in the Berkshires. It was here that she received her early acting training under the tutelage of her parents. She graduated from the all-girls Spence School in New York City and moved to California where she attended the UC Santa Barbara, majoring in Art History. She soon quit, realizing it was not her passion. She made her film debut with a small part in Shout (1991) and for the next five years had featured roles in a mixed bag of film fare that included Flesh and Bone (1993); Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); Se7en (1995); Jefferson in Paris (1995); Moonlight and Valentino (1995); and The Pallbearer (1996). It was her performance in the title role of Emma Woodhouse in Emma (1996) that led to her being offered the role of Viola in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she was awarded the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her roles have also included The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Shallow Hal (2001), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Proof (2005), Iron Man (2008), Two Lovers (2008), and Country Strong (2010). She has two children with her former husband, English musician Chris Martin.Her acting method consists of grinning and smirking. All the time. Regardless of whether she's doing comedy or drama. Good thing Brad Pitt never opens that box in "Se7en" or we'd have seen a grinning head - and the thriller would have become an unintentional comedy.
She was relatively attractive for a nepotist actress, early on in her career, but her abilities are close to nothing.
Daughter of actress Blythe Danner and film producer-director Bruce Paltrow. She has a younger brother, Jake, who is a director and screenwriter. Half-cousin of actress Katherine Moennig, through her mother, and a second cousin of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. She is a second-cousin-in-law of U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Her godfather is director Steven Spielberg. Her uncle is opera singer and actor Harry Danner, whose daughter, actress Hillary Danner is a cousin.
So she's even got high-ranking politicians in her family tree.
Well, that explains everything. That and being...- Actress
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Born on December 29, 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US as Katherine Sian Moennig, she is an American actress and producer, best known for the role of Shane McCutcheon in The L Word (2004). Her father was William H. Moennig III and her mother was Mary Zahn, a Broadway dancer. She is of Irish and German ancestry. At 18 she moved to New York City, where she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 2000 she got her first TV role as Jacqueline 'Jake' Pratt in Young Americans (2000). From 2004 to 2009 she played the iconic role of Shane McCutcheon in "The L Word". 2006 marked her Off-Broadway debut in "Guardians", in which he played opposite Lee Pace. From 2013 to she played an assistant to the eponymous character in Ray Donovan (2013). In 2019 she came back to the role of Shane in The L Word: Generation Q (2019). She's been married to a Brazilian film director and musician Ana Rezende since 2017.This truly mediocre actress is the daughter of Broadway dancer Mary Zahn and violin-maker William H. Moennig III. Her father's maternal half-sister is actress Blythe Danner, making her a half-first cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.- Producer
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Tamasin Day-Lewis was born on 17 September 1953 in Greenwich, London, England, UK. She is a producer and director, known for The Levin Interviews (1980), Looking Good Feeling Fit (1980) and Private Wound (1996).- Jill Balcon was born on 3 January 1925 in Westminster, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for An Ideal Husband (1999), Esther Waters (1977) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947). She was married to Cecil Day-Lewis. She died on 18 July 2009 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
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Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing Studios. His older sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, is a documentarian. His father was of Northern Irish and English descent, and his mother was Jewish (from a family from Latvia and Poland). Daniel was educated at Sevenoaks School in Kent, which he despised, and the more progressive Bedales in Petersfield, which he adored. He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic School. Daniel made his film debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), but then acted on stage with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Companies and did not appear on screen again until 1982, when he landed his first adult role, a bit part in Gandhi (1982). He also appeared on British television that year in Frost in May (1982) and How Many Miles to Babylon? (1982). Notable theatrical performances include Another Country (1982-83), Dracula (1984) and The Futurists (1986).
His first major supporting role in a feature film was in The Bounty (1984), quickly followed by My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and A Room with a View (1985). The latter two films opened in New York on the same day, offering audiences and critics evidence of his remarkable range and establishing him as a major talent. The New York Film Critics named him Best Supporting Actor for those performances. In 1986, he appeared on stage in Richard Eyre's "The Futurists" and on television in Eyre's production of The Insurance Man (1986). He also had a small role in a British/French film, Nanou (1986). In 1987, he assumed leading-man status in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), followed by a comedic role in the unsuccessful Stars and Bars (1988). His brilliant performance as Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989) won him numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor.
He returned to the stage to work again with Eyre, as Hamlet at the National Theater, but was forced to leave the production close to the end of its run because of exhaustion, and has not appeared on stage since. He took a hiatus from film as well until 1992, when he starred in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), a film that met with mixed reviews but was a great success at the box office. He worked with American director Martin Scorsese in The Age of Innocence (1993), based on Edith Wharton's novel. Subsequently, he teamed again with Jim Sheridan to star in In the Name of the Father (1993), a critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination. His next project was in the role of John Proctor in father-in-law Arthur Miller's play The Crucible (1996), directed by Nicholas Hytner. He worked with Scorsese again to star in Gangs of New York (2002), another critically acclaimed performance that earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Day-Lewis's wife, Rebecca Miller, offered him the lead role in her film The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), in which he played a dying man with regrets over how his wife had evolved and over how he had brought up his teenage daughter. During filming, he arranged to live separate from his wife to achieve the "isolation" needed to focus on his own character's reality. The film received mixed reviews. In 2007, he starred in director Paul Thomas Anderson's loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!", titled There Will Be Blood (2007). Day-Lewis received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, and a variety of film critics' circle awards for the role. In 2009, Day-Lewis starred in Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine (2009) as film director Guido Contini. He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.3rd generation.
The moment he appeared in "My Left Foot" I knew he was a nepotist and laughed at the hype he received thereafter. It was a classic case of a nepotist being uber-hyped because of who he is. Even more laughably, so many audiences fell for it, believing him to be some uber-actor. Such is the power of hype... But hey, even Casey Afleck was successfully turned into an Oscar winner, despite being utterly horrible in every single way.
Stems from a very wealthy British show-biz family, and has other upper-class roots as well. Plus related to Jewish author Arthur Miller.
He has never impressed me, in any movie. The main reason is that he lacks charisma and looks so utterly average and boring. He has a kind of face the camera hates. The fact that most people don't notice it is kind of similar to how most people don't realize that Bon Jovi play horrible music.
Some people say Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood can't act. Performance, however, is 80% charisma, 20% actual acting "technique", whatever that may be. Charisma doesn't get inherited; you either got it or you don't. Try as he may, Lewis will never be a great actor...- Actress
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It would have been pretty difficult for willowy actress/model Dina Merrill to have pulled off playing a commoner on stage, film or TV in her day. She reeked of elegance and class. The epitome of style, poise and glamour, the New York-born socialite and celebrity was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton on December 29, 1923, the daughter of E.F. Hutton, the financier and founder of the Wall Street firm that bore his name, and heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, of the Post cereal fortune. Although Dina made elegant, elaborate use of her upbringing over the decades, she handled it all positively and graciously without tabloid incidents, instilling these same refined credentials into a large portion of her characters.
Dina did not originally intend on an acting career. After studying at George Washington University, she suddenly dropped out after only a year (to the chagrin of her disapproving parents) after demonstrating a late desire to perform. Enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studying with Uta Hagen among others, Dina appeared in the comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner" before taking her first Broadway curtain call in "The Mermaids Singing" in 1945. She took some time off to play wife and mother to three children after marrying Stanley Rumbough, Jr., heir to the Colgate toothpaste fortune.
Dina finally made an official film debut with a smart and stylish support role in the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn vehicle Desk Set (1957). She continued to charm in the same upper crust vein playing some version of the model wife or blue-blooded maven in frequent posh outings. Some of her more noticeable roles came with Operation Petticoat (1959) with the equally classy Cary Grant; BUtterfield 8 (1960) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey; and The Young Savages (1961) opposite Burt Lancaster.
Following her divorce to Rumbough after 20 years, Dina married ruggedly handsome actor Cliff Robertson in 1966. The pair had one daughter and were a popular Hollywood fixture for nearly 20 years. With her film career on the wane in the mid 1960's, Dina gravitated toward TV guest spots on such popular shows as "Dr. Kildare," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Burke's Law," "Rawhide," "Daktari," "Bonanza," "Daniel Boone," "Batman" (as the villainous "Calamity Jan" alongside Robertson's western bad guy "Shame"), "The Name of the Game," "The Virginian," "Night Gallery," "Marcus Welby," "The Love Boat" and "The Odd Couple." She also graced a number of TV-movie dramas beginning with The Sunshine Patriot (1968) co-starring husband Robertson and Seven in Darkness (1969) (as a blind survivor of a plane crash), and continuing with The Lonely Profession (1969), Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971), Family Flight (1972), The Letters (1973), The Tenth Month (1979), and a featured part in the mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations (1979).
Dina returned to Broadway as the co-star of the drama "Angel Street" (1975) and again with the revival of the musical "On Your Toes" in which she played "Peggy Porterfield" in both the 1983 Broadway revival and 1986 national tour. In the same year that Dina divorced second husband Cliff Robertson (1989), she married actor/investment banker Ted Hartley. Together the couple bought RKO Studios and renamed it RKO Pavilion. He serves as chairman and she vice chairperson/creative director. The studio produced such popular efforts as Milk & Money (1996) and the remake of Mighty Joe Young (1998).
Admired for her tireless philanthropic contributions, Dina was a moderate Republican (vice chair of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition), and an active lobbyist for women's health issues. She also devoted much time working for the disadvantaged, particularly for the New York City Mission Society. She remained active and was an avid tennis and golf player for quite some time. Broaching age 90, the ever-glamorous actress appeared in a summer stock production of "Only a Kingdom" (2004) and continued to appear in occasional movie and television productions until developing dementia. Dina died on May 22, 2017, at age 93, survived by her third husband.Child of Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband, Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis Hutton, founder of E. F. Hutton & Co.
Actress Glenn Close is her half-sister. Related to actress Annie Starke.- Annie Starke was born on 26 April 1988 in Connecticut, USA. She is an actress, known for The Wife (2017), Albert Nobbs (2011) and We Don't Belong Here (2017). She has been married to Marc Albu since 30 June 2018.3rd generation.
Daughter of Glenn Close.