Birthdays: April 14
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Da Brat was born on 14 April 1974 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Wasabi (2001), Bad Boys (1995) and Big Momma's House (2000). She has been married to Jesseca Dupart since 2022.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Academy Award-nominated actress Abigail Breslin is one of the most sought-after actors of her generation. Her unique and charismatic talents have contributed to her versatile roles in both comedy and drama.
Recently, Breslin headlined the first season of the horror-comedy series, Scream Queens (2015), opposite Emma Roberts, Lea Michele and Jamie Lee Curtis, and starred in the coveted role of "Baby" in ABC/Lionsgate's recreation of the pop-culture classic, Dirty Dancing (2017).
Abigail Kathleen Breslin was born in New York City, New York, to Kim and Michael Breslin, a telecommunications expert and consultant. She has two sibling, Ryan Breslin and Spencer Breslin, who is also an actor. She is of Irish, Austrian Jewish, and English descent.
Abigail has acted since she was a small child. She is widely recognized for her role in the critically-acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the irreverent, antic comedy which created a sensation at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, Breslin played the role of "Olive", an ambitious young girl who is obsessed with winning a beauty pageant. For her performance, she received a Best Actress Award from the Tokyo International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award, SAG and BAFTA Best Supporting Actress awards. In addition, she was honored as ShoWest's "Female Star of Tomorrow" in 2008, and made her Broadway debut in 2010 in "The Miracle Worker".
Her many credits include Ender's Game (2013), Haunter (2013), The Call (2013), Rango (2011), Janie Jones (2010), Zombieland (2009), My Sister's Keeper (2009), New Year's Eve (2011), Raising Helen (2004), The Ultimate Gift (2006), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), No Reservations (2007), Definitely, Maybe (2008), Nim's Island (2008), Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) and M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film, Signs (2002), opposite Mel Gibson.
Breslin was seen in The Weinstein Company film, August: Osage County (2013), opposite Meryl Streep, Ewan McGregor, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, Dermot Mulroney and Juliette Lewis. She starred in the coveted role of "Jean Fordham", the daughter of Julia Roberts' and Ewan McGregor's characters.
She starred in the Lionsgate film, Maggie (2015), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film follows a teenage girl (Breslin) from a small town in the Midwest, who becomes infected by a disease that slowly turns her into a zombie. The film premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival in New York and was released on May 8, 2015.
In October of 2015, Harper Collins published Breslin's first book, "This May Sound Crazy". The book is based on her popular Tumblr "Mixtapes & Winter Coats", in which she writes honest, funny and emotional observations on her daily life as a young adult.- Adam DiMarco was born in Canada. He is an actor, known for The White Lotus (2021), The Order (2019) and The Magicians (2015).
- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
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.- Amy Dumas was born on April 14, 1975 in Florida. Not much is known about her past except that she and her family did a lot of moving around. Her parents divorced before she graduated from high school. She graduated 6 months early and became a roadie for 5 years and became interested in wrestling after watching Rey Mysterio Jr. She later made her way through wrestling schools before being signed to ECW, where she remained for 9 months before quitting. Later that year she signed with WWF and debuted with Essa Rios on Feb. 13, 2000. After her relationship with Essa ended, Amy joined Matt and Jeff Hardy and the three became Team Xtreme. Time went by and the threesome were popular everywhere, but it wasn't long before the group started facing problems and the three split for a while until returning in 2002 at the WWF 2002 Royal Rumble. A few months later, Amy broke her neck while filming FOX'S Dark Angel and was unable to return to the ring for many months. She is currently partnered with Edge on WWE's RAW.
- Ana María Cachito was born in 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was an actress, known for La mujer de tu prójimo (1966), Ahorro y préstamo... para el amor (1965) and Villa Cariño (1967). She died on 9 February 2023.
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Anderson is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC Middleweight Champion. Silva was the UFC's longest reigning champion and also holds the longest winning and title defense streak in UFC history, with 16 consecutive wins and 10 title defenses, and is the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world according to ESPN, Sherdog, Yahoo! Sports and other publications. Silva holds notable victories over former champions Carlos Newton, Hayato Sakurai, Chris Leben, Rich Franklin(x2), Dan Henderson, Forrest Griffin and Vitor Belfort. UFC president Dana White has called Silva "the greatest mixed martial artist ever. Anderson Silva was born April 14, 1975, a middle child of four. The son of a poverty stricken family, Silva spent the majority of his childhood with his aunt and uncle, an officer with the Curitiba police force. Silva has three sons and two daughters with his wife, Dayane. Silva appeared in Never Surrender in 2009 and a documentary about his life in the UFC called Like Water, released in 2011.
Silva first began training Jiu Jitsu with neighborhood kids who could afford lessons. By the age of 12, his family was able to set aside enough money to start him in Tae Kwon Do lessons, from which he moved on to Capoeira, before finally settling on Muay Thai at the age of 16.
Before he began his career as a professional fighter, Silva worked at McDonalds, and also as a file clerk. He also considers Spider-Man a personal hero, and has a stated love of comic books and comic book heroes. Film and television is one of his greatest passions and he can see himself heavily immersed in the industry in the future.- Actress
- Music Department
Anita Hassanandani Reddy (born 14 April 1981) is an Indian actress and model who has acted in multilingual films and serials. She appears in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil films. After appearing as a model for EverYuth, Sunsilk, Boroplus and other brands, she made her debut on the television screen in daytime soap Kabhii Sautan Kabhii Sahelii. She made her Hindi film debut with the 2003 Thriller film Kucch To Hai. She later worked in the films Krishna Cottage, a supernatural thriller; and Koi Aap Sa. She also starred in the television show Kavyanjali, playing the protagonist Anjali, a middle class girl marrying into a business tycoon's family. Other than her mainstream Bollywood film and television screen performances, she also worked in some South Indian movies including Nenupelliki Ready and Thotti Gang which later was remade as Yeh Dil in Hindi with Tusshar Kapoor. She appeared in a song in a Telugu movie, Nenunnanu.
Since 2013 she appears in the role of Shagun Arora on the television show Ye Hai Mohabbatein. She was a wild card entry in season 8 of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Location Management
Anthony Dod Mantle was born on 14 April 1955 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He is a cinematographer, known for Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Antichrist (2009) and The Last King of Scotland (2006).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Anthony Michael Hall was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. His parents are Mercedes Hall, an actress-blues and jazz singer, and Larry Hall, who owned an auto body shop. His stepfather is a show-business manager. His sister, Mary Christian, is also a performer. He has Irish and Italian ancestry. Hall's given name was Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall, but he adopted the Anthony Michael moniker upon finding that another Michael Hall was already a member of the Screen Actors' Guild.
Hall began acting in commercials at the age of seven, and his breakthrough role was as Rusty Griswold in Vacation (1983) alongside Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. Following the success of Vacation (1983), Hall entered the defining period of his career, starring in three John Hughes classics: Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Weird Science (1985). Wanting to avoid being typecast, Hall turned down roles in two subsequent 1986 Hughes films, Pretty in Pink (1986) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). His early television credits include the Emmy Award-winning "The Gold Bug", in which he played the young Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1982), and specials "The Body Human" and "Orphans, Waifs and Wards". On stage, he appeared in the Lincoln Center Festival's production of "St. Joan of the Microphone".
Following a one-year stint on Saturday Night Live (1975), excessive drinking and partying threatened to sidetrack Hall's career. However, he was able to regain control and has been sober since 1990, the year he played the role of Jim in Edward Scissorhands (1990). After a series of minor roles in the 1990s, he starred as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in the television movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). Since that time, Hall has focused on television work, including an 81-episode run on Stephen King's The Dead Zone (2002), but has managed to take on film projects as well, including the role of Mike Engel in The Dark Knight (2008).
In addition to acting, Hall has also pursued his musical talents, as songwriter and lead singer of his band, Hall of Mirrors, which was formed in 1998. Hall helps at-risk youth via the Anthony Michael Hall Literacy Club and lives in Los Angeles, Caifornia.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Antwon Tanner was born on 14 April 1975 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Coach Carter (2005), Never Die Alone (2004) and Chase (2010).- Arlene Martel was likely best-known (if not by name) to Star Trek (1966) fans, and possibly most television viewers of a certain age, as Spock's treacherous Vulcan betrothed, T'Pring, in the episode, Amok Time (1967).
Born Arline Greta Sax to Austrian Jewish immigrants on April 14, 1936 in New York City, she spent her early years in one of the poorest slums in the Bronx. When her mother's boss saw her poor living conditions, he personally underwrote her attendance at an upper-crust boarding school in Connecticut. At age 12, she assumed personal responsibility to audition for New York's famed High School of the Performing Arts. Not only did she gain entrance, she went on to excel at the school and graduated with the school's top drama award. Her professional career began in her teens when she landed the role of Esther in the Broadway production of 'Uncle Willie', also starring Norman Fell.
After heading to Hollywood, Martel began making guest appearances on television series such as The Untouchables (1959), Route 66 (1960) and The Twilight Zone (1959). She had the recurring role of Tiger on the situation comedy Hogan's Heroes (1965). Her facility with accents and dialects enabled her to play a wide variety of characters, earning her the nickname of "The Chameleon". Her relationship with James Dean was chronicled in Joe Hyams's biography, "The James Dean Story".
Married and divorced three times, Arlene had three children: Adam Palmer, Avra Douglas, and Jod Douglas.
Martel died at age 78 of a heart attack on August 12, 2014 in Santa Monica, California. She had battled breast cancer some years earlier. - Arthur got the role after casting agents came to his school looking for kids who looked the part of the characters they were casting.
When he auditioned he did not tell his parents until his mom received a letter coming from the casting crew of Harry Potter. Asking Arthur to come to London for more auditions. After a few more auditions and a photo shoot with Daniel Radcliffe, he was cast as Harry Potter's second child, Albus Severus Potter.
Since his appearance on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 Arthur has gotten a lot of praise from fans and now has over thirty thousand followers on twitter - Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Artie Kane was born on 14 April 1929 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Men in Black (1997), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Matlock (1986). He was married to Jo Ann Kane, Sherry Wells , Jeanne Cheadle, Jinx Clark, Joy Holly and Jaye P. Morgan. He died on 21 June 2022 in Whidbey Island, Seattle, Washington, USA.- Audrey Long was born on 14 April 1922 in Orlando, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Born to Kill (1947), Pan-Americana (1945) and A Night of Adventure (1944). She was married to Leslie Charteris and Edward Rubin. She died on 19 September 2014 in Virginia Water, Surrey, England, UK.
- Born in Tokyo, Ayumi Ito has always had a love for movies and art. She made her big-screen debut in Nobuhiko Obayashi's The Water Travelers: Samurai Kids. Her distinctive style led to her critically acclaimed performance in Swallowtail Butterfly, directed by the renowned Director Shunji Iwai. At 16-years-old, Ayumi was awarded both the Best New Actress Award as well as the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 20th Annual Japanese Academy Awards.
Ayumi's career has blossomed into starring roles in several successful films and television shows. She trained in LA and New York and has worked globally with world-renown Chinese director and artist Zhuangzhuang Tian, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), among other great filmmakers. Ayumi's performance in the the Fuji TV drama Belle de Jour was so strong that she reprised the role when it became a feature film and box-office hit, earning over 2.3 billion JPY. She is also the voice of Tifa Lockhart in the animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Off-screen, Ayumi is a talented vocalist and recording artist. Her passion for art continues to thrive and she brings characters to life in her performances. - Actress
- Additional Crew
Born Berinthia Berenson in New York in 1948, Berenson was a noted photographer and actress and was the sister of model-turned-actress Marisa Berenson (of "Barry Lyndon" fame). Berenson met her husband, actor and star of Alfred Hitchcock's original version of Psycho (1960), Anthony Perkins on the set of his film Play It As It Lays (1972) and married him in 1973. The couple raised 2 sons and remained married until Perkins' death of an AIDS-related illness in 1992. Listed on the flight manifest as Berinthia Perkins, Berenson was killed aboard the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which was deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on September 11, 2001 and was one of over 3,000 lives lost on this date. She was survived by her adult sons, musician Elvis Perkins and actor Oz Perkins.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Clendenin was born in Newark, Ohio, USA. He is an actor, known for Cougar Town (2009), Scrubs (2001) and Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). He has been married to Erin Fiedler since 27 May 2001. They have two children. He was previously married to Greer Shephard.- Actor
- Writer
Bob Grant was trained at Rada after spending some time as a Lieutenant with the Royal Artillery. He plied his trade to begin with in Repertory and appeared on stage for many years all around the UK. His work in rep continued up to the mid-90s. He will be best remembered for his role of Jack Harper, the cheeky bus conductor with his traditional cigarette, cheeky laugh and his passion for the ladies and, of course, winding up old Blakey, the Inspector in On the Buses (1969). On the Buses was a huge success for Bob and his co-star, Reg Varney, running from 1969 to 1973 with 76 episodes and 3 spin-off films. It sold in 38 countries and is a great tribute to his comedy acting talents. In 1971 his popularity proved a little too much as his wedding to Kim was attended by hundreds of fans and it meant that everyone had to walk to the wedding! Famous other roles included Sparrows Can't Sing (1963) and Mrs. Wilson's Diary (1969). He toured Australia, starring in 'No Sex please we're British'. He also appeared on stage in musicals and pantomime. Sadly, he suffered from a depressive illness for a number of years and was found dead in his car in Gloucestershire on November 8th 2003. He was 71 years old.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Standing 6 feet 9 inches tall, Garrett grew up in Woodland Hills outside of Los Angeles. His father was a hearing aid specialist working in geriatrics and his mother was a housewife. Garrett spent a whopping six weeks at UCLA before going into stand-up comedy full time. He began performing his act at various Los Angeles comedy clubs, getting his start at the Ice House in Pasadena and the Improv in Hollywood. In 1984, he became the first $100,000 grand champion winner in the comedy category of Star Search (1983). This led to his first appearance, at age 23, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), making him one of the youngest comedians ever to perform on the show. In 1986, Garrett told a joke the talent booker warned him against and he hasn't been on the show since. Following his "Tonight Show" appearance, Garrett's career took off, garnering him headlining gigs at several national venues as well as opening spots for legends including Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli. He has headlined at Bally's Park Place and co-headlined with The Temptations at Trump Plaza. He has also worked at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Caesar's Palace with David Copperfield, and Smokey Robinson, Harrah's with Sammy Davis Jr. and The Beach Boys, and Radio City Music Hall with Julio Iglesias. In 1989, the Las Vegas Review Journal named him the Best Comedian working on the strip. Changing gears, he made his way into the world of television. He struck gold with Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Apart from his supporting role in sitcoms, he has also done voice-overs and appeared in a few films. In 1998, Garrett made a real-life proposal to his then real-life girlfriend, Jill Diven, on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Garrett currently resides in Hollywood, California with his two Labradors Retrievers, Gus and Mabel.- Dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charm and confident good looks that were slightly tainted by a bent smile, darting glance and edgy countenance that often provoked suspicion. Sure enough, the camera picked up on it and he played shady, highly suspect characters throughout most of his career.
The actor was born in San Francisco on April 14, 1930, to Dean and Josephine Dillman. Yale-educated, he graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. Following this he served with the US Marines in Korea (1951-1953) before focusing on acting as a profession. Studying at the Actors Studio, he spent several seasons apprenticing with the Sharon (CT) Playhouse before making his professional acting debut in "The Scarecrow" in 1953.
Dillman took his initial Broadway bow in Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in 1956, originating the author's alter ego character Edmund Tyrone and winning a Theatre World Award in the process. This success put him squarely on the map and 20th Century-Fox took immediate advantage by placing the darkly handsome up-and-comer under contract. Cast in the melodrama A Certain Smile (1958), he earned a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" playing a Parisian student who loses his girl (Christine Carère) to the worldly Italian roué Rossano Brazzi. He followed this with a strong ensemble appearance in In Love and War (1958), which featured a cast of young rising stars including Hope Lange and Robert Wagner. More acting honors followed after completing the film Compulsion (1959), which told the true story of the infamous 1920s kidnapping/murder case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. He went on to share a "Best Actor" award at the Cannes Film Festival with fellow co-stars Dean Stockwell, who played the other youthful murderer, and veteran Orson Welles.
Though he was a magnetic player poised for stardom, Dillman's subsequent films failed to serve him well and were generally unworthy of his talent. Though properly serious and stoic as the title character in Francis of Assisi (1961), the film itself was stilted and weakly scripted. Circle of Deception (1960) was a misguided tale of espionage and intrigue, but it did introduce him to his second wife, supermodel-cum-actress Suzy Parker. While A Rage to Live (1965) with Suzanne Pleshette was trashy soap material, The Plainsman (1966) was rather a silly, juvenile version of the Gary Cooper western classic. As a result of these missteps--and others--he began to top-line lesser quality projects or play supporting roles in "A" pictures. His nothing role as Robert Redford's college pal-turned Hollywood producer in The Way We Were (1973) and his major roles in the ludicrous The Swarm (1978) and Lords of the Deep (1989) became proof in the pudding. His last good film role was in O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1973), although he did play an interesting John Wilkes Booth in the speculative re-enactment drama The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) and had a fun leading role in the Jaws (1975)-like spoof Piranha (1978).
Dillman bore up very well on TV over the years, subsisting on a plethora of mini-movies and guest spots on popular series, playing everything from turncoats to frauds and from adulterers to psychotics. He earned a Daytime Emmy for his appearance in Last Bride of Salem (1974) and starred in two series--Court Martial (1965), as a military lawyer, and King's Crossing (1982), as an alcoholic parent and teacher attempting to straighten out. He also spent a season on the established nighttime soap Falcon Crest (1981) in 1982.
A narrator, director and teacher of acting in later years. Bradford launched a late-in-the career sideline as an author. The football fan inside him compelled him to write "Inside the New York Giants" (1995), a book that rated players drafted by the team since 1967. Two years later he published his memoirs, the curiously-titled "Are You Somebody?: An Actor's Life." He retired from the screen after a few guest star shots on "Murder, She Wrote" in the mid-90s.
From 1956 to 1962, Dillman was married to Frieda Harding, and had two children, Jeffrey and Pamela. Following their divorce, he met well-known model-turned-actress Suzy Parker during the production of Circle of Deception (1960) and the couple married on April 20, 1963. They had three children, Dinah, Charles, and Christopher. Daughter Pamela Dillman has worked as an actress. Dillman was made a widower when Parker died on May 3, 2003. He lived for many years in Montecito, California, and helped raise money for medical research. He died in Santa Barbara, California on January 16, 2018, aged 87, from complications of pneumonia. - Brian Forster was born in Los Angeles, California. He came from an acting family and his Mom started him in commercials to get money for college. Brian did his first commercial at age seven for Texaco. He did 21 commercials in total including United Airlines, Texaco, and one for Nestle's Quik. The commercial he did for Mattel Hot Wheels won an award. His Mom was an actress named Jennifer Raine. His father was an actor and his stepfather was a character actor named Whit Bissell. His great-great- great grandfather is Charles Dickens.
His first big role was as Susan Olsen's Prince on an episode of The Brady Bunch. During the rehearsal, he forgot his line. The Director thought the mess up was great and they decided to keep it in.
In 1970, Jeremy Gelbwaks was leaving The Partridge Family and they asked for Brian instead. He only went to one interview and they told him he got the job.
Brian was good friends with the late Suzanne Crough, and they kept in touch until she sadly passed in 2015. As kids they shared a trailer, rode bikes together, and they both had crushes on each other, even though Suzanne tried to deny it!
Brian is now a race car driver in California and lives a private life. - Actress
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Catherine Dent arrested audiences as Officer Danni Sofer in The Shield (2002), playing a single woman in a world that understands brutality more than beauty. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Dent made her film debut in 1994, playing Paul Newman's daughter-in-law in Robert Benton's Nobody's Fool (1994). Since then, she has appeared in a number of features, co-starring opposite Greg Kinnear in Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002), starring opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Replicant (2001), playing Ashley Judd's sister in Tony Goldwyn's romantic comedy Someone Like You (2001), and appearing with Jim Carrey in Frank Darabont's The Majestic (2001). Her independent film credits include appearances in A Girls' Guide to Sex (1990), Jaded (1998), A New Game (2001), The Debutante (1993), and Dangerous Proposition (1998).
When she was based in New York, Dent appeared frequently on East Coast-based based television shows including The Sopranos (1999), Third Watch (1999), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and New York Undercover (1994). Since moving to Los Angeles she has guest-starred on such series as Dharma & Greg (1997), The X-Files (1993), Frasier (1993), The Pretender (1996), Chicago Hope (1994), and The Invisible Man (2000).
In addition to her starring role on the acclaimed drama series "The Shield", she also starred in Steven Spielberg's Taken (2002) on the Sci-Fi Channel. Her theater credits include the title role in "Baby Doll", Maggie in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", and roles in "Bang The Drum Slowly" and "The Street of the Sun" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. In New, York she starred off-Broadway in "Amoeba Concerto" and understudied for the Sofia and Yelena roles in "Uncle Vanya" on Broadway.
The recently wed Dent resides with her husband in their first home in Los Angeles.- Chris Ellis was born on 14 April 1956 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for Armageddon (1998), The Island (2005) and Transformers (2007).
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Chris Langham was born on 14 April 1949 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Thick of It (2005), Help (2005) and Life of Brian (1979). He is married to Christine Cartwright. They have two children. He was previously married to Sue Jones-Davies.- Actor
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Chris Wood was born in Dublin, Ohio. During childhood, Wood spent all of his free time writing plays and putting them on with his sister and their friends. Once he got his first super-8 camera at eleven years old, he began writing and directing short films which he entered into local film festivals. This included PROBLEM: SOLUTION, the story of a boy who drops his contact lens, only to discover that he is out of contact solution. Critics said it was "...pretty good."
Wood attended public school at Dublin Jerome High School, where he was encouraged by his drama teacher to pursue acting and writing professionally. In his senior year, his school theater program mounted a play that he wrote about a talking dead body that is discovered on a business' rooftop. His mom didn't love it.
Wood attended Elon University in North Carolina, where he received a B.F.A. in Music Theatre. Weeks before graduation, he was cast as the lead role in the national tour of Spring Awakening, which brought him to Los Angeles for the first time. The show earned Wood his first representation, and soon after the completion of tour he was cast in a comedy pilot from Amazon Studios. After the pilot was not picked up to series, Wood began to work on television in shows such as Girls (2012), The Carrie Diaries (2013), Major Crimes (2012), The Vampire Diaries (2009), and the Civil War mini-series Mercy Street (2016).
His first leading role in a series came in the limited event series, Containment (2016), where he played an Atlanta-based cop trapped in the quarantine zone of a dangerous viral outbreak. Wood then joined the comic-book series Supergirl (2015) for a two season arc, portraying the superhero 'Mon-el'. He then returned to his filmmaking roots with a short film, which he wrote and directed, and is in development on his first feature film.
Wood's mother works in finance and his father worked in banking. He has one sister, who is a dancer and dance instructor. In 2017, Wood launched the non-profit campaign IDONTMIND, a mental health awareness program working to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness by getting people to talk openly about their minds.- Christian Alexander is best known for his role as Kiefer Bauer on the American daytime drama General Hospital, on which he appeared from 2009 to 2015. He was born to Bulgarian parents in Athens and moved to the United States as a child. Alexander is a graduate of Beverly Hills High School. Alexander has appeared in a number of television series, including The Lying Game (2011), _Grey's Anatomy (2008)_ and _Eastwick (2009)_.
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Claire graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a degree in Theater. She began performing on stage at age 5 in The Mountain Play Theater Company's production of "The King and I" in Mill Valley, CA. She continued acting extensively on stage before moving to Los Angeles after college. She has also trained at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, and Improv Olympic, and resides in Brooklyn.- Silent-era star Claire Windsor was born Clara Viola Cronk in Cawker City, Kansas, the daughter of Ella and G.E. Cronk. She was educated at Broadway High School in Seattle, Washington, and Washburn Preperatory Academy in Topeka, Kansas. She studied voice and piano at Cohn's Conservatory of Music in Seattle. Claire began her film career as an extra on the Famous Players-Lasky lot, and was signed to stock by director Allan Dwan to work at First National Pictures. She was then signed by writer/director Lois Weber to the lead role in What Do Men Want? (1921), at which time she changed her name to Claire Windsor (on the advice of writer Frances Marion). She toured with Al Jolson in his stage show in 1933.
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D.L. Menard was born on 14 April 1932 in Erath, Louisiana, USA. He was married to Lou Ella Abshire. He died on 27 July 2017 in Scott, Louisiana, USA.- Writer
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Daniel Clowes was born on 14 April 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Ghost World (2001), Art School Confidential (2006) and Patience. He is married to Erika ?.- Actress
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This pert, petite, delicate, dreamy-eyed French dish of post-war filming with the piled-high blonde hairdo was a one-time threat to the sexy, kittenish pedestal Brigitte Bardot stood on during the 1950s. While working for such legendary directors as Marcel Carné, Marc Allégret, Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin and René Clair, she also got to work opposite France's most handsome leading men, including Georges Marchal, Jean Marais, Jean Servais, François Périer, Daniel Gélin, Jacques Sernas and singer Marcel Amont, Dany became the epitome of the romantic, virginal heroine in light comedy souffles, although she was just as entrancing and touching in dramatic works.
Born Danielle Robin on April 4, 1927, the lithe Dany trained as a ballerina as a child and eventually made her way dancing with the Opera de Paris. At age 19, however, she opted for a movie career and decided to study at the Paris Conservatoire. Making her screen debut with a bit part in Lunegarde (1946), she first turned heads in the romantic dramedy Man About Town (1947) directed by Clair and starring Maurice Chevalier.
Dany continued to touch pulses with her naïve lovelies throughout the 50's with such pictures as Naughty Martine (1947); Monelle (1948); four films co-starring heartthrob Georges Marchal, whom she married in 1951 -- La passagère (1949), La voyageuse inattendue (1950), The Thirst of Men (1950) and Valley of Fire (1951); Elle et moi (1952); Deux sous de violettes (1951); Frou-Frou (1955); the title role in the films Holiday for Henrietta (1952) and Julietta (1953); the US/French co-production Act of Love (1953) starring Kirk Douglas; Napoleon (1955) (as Desiree); Frou-Frou (1955); Maid in Paris (1956); C'est arrivé à Aden... (1956); Bonsoir Paris (1956); C'est la faute d'Adam (1958); L'école des cocottes (1958); the title role in Mimi Pinson (1958); and The Chasers (1959).
Though most of her films were produced in her own homeland, Dany branched out internationally from time to time in the 1960's, appearing in the British sex comedy Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) opposite Peter Sellers and the innocuous, teen-oriented flick Follow the Boys (1963) starring singing teen pop idol Connie Francis here in the U.S. She matured with roles in Love and the Frenchwoman (1960), Les mystères de Paris (1962), Mandrin (1962), X-Ray of a Killer (1965) and a pair of British comedies Carry on Don't Lose Your Head (1967) and The Best House in London (1969). She would last appear on film in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Topaz (1969), an American production.
Divorced from first husband Marchal, the father of her two children, in 1968, Dany married British agent/producer Michael Sullivan the following year and retired quietly. On May 25, 1995, the 68-year-old former actress was tragically killed, along with Sullivan, in a fire that consumed their Paris apartment.- Actor
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David Miller was born on 14 April 1973 in San Diego, California, USA. He is an actor and director, known for A Hand of Bridge (2017), Il Divo & Toni Braxton: The Time of Our Lives (2006) and Laten corazones (2015).- Writer
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Don Roos was born on 14 April 1955 in New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for The Opposite of Sex (1998), M.Y.O.B. (2000) and Happy Endings (2005). He has been married to Dan Bucatinsky since 2008. They have two children.- Elzbieta Czyzewska was born on 14 April 1938 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. She was an actress, known for Damages (2007), Zona dla Australijczyka (1964) and Malzenstwo z rozsadku (1967). She was married to David Halberstam and Jerzy Skolimowski. She died on 17 June 2010 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
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Eric Tsang was born on 14 April 1953 in Hong Kong. He is an actor and producer, known for Infernal Affairs (2002), Hold You Tight (1998) and The Eye (2002). He was previously married to Mei-Hua Wang.- Producer
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Däniken attended a Jesuit boarding school, where his interest in religion also led him to deal with philosophical problems. The high school student was passionate about archaeology and futurology, space travel and molecular biology. After attending school, Däniken trained as a cook and waiter. As such, he initially began working in the hotel industry and in the catering industry in major Swiss cities. His job also took him on ocean liners, on which he crossed the Atlantic as a steward. In 1963, Däniken worked in a large hotel in Nuremberg. From 1964 onward he worked his way to the top of the Davos sports hotel "Rosenhügel" until he finally managed the hotel.
During these years, Däniken continued his scientific and futurological studies, which eventually led him to thesis that there was a prehistoric civilization on Earth that was brought to the planet by the landing of alien astronauts. Däniken tried to prove his assumptions on extensive trips around the world, which, however, mainly caused him financial problems. Apparently through no fault of his own, he came into conflict with the Swiss tax authorities at the end of the 1960s. At the same time, the futurologist triggered the first wave of popularization of his fascinating world of ideas with the publication of his hypotheses as "Memories of the Future" (1968). The bestseller was made into a film in 1969.
In the 1970s, millions of readers around the world devoured the numerous books in which Däniken sought to prove the extraterrestrial origins of human culture and civilization. The "Ancient Astronaut Society" in Chicago, founded in 1973 by the American lawyer Gene M. Phillips, also helped his theses to spread. In the following years, numerous other scientists took part in the scientific discussion of Däniken's theses. Although the tireless publicist continued to publish numerous publications in the 1980s, public attention has now waned. However, with his first books for young people, Däniken regained a recognized place in futurological and science fiction literature at the beginning of the 1990s.
In 1993 he appeared in a 25-part series "In the Footsteps of the All-Mighty" for the private television station SAT.1. The CD-ROM "Contact with the Universe", with which Däniken once again published a summary of his theses in 1995, also represented a concession to the mass appeal of the new media. In 1996 he fascinated the television audience of the private RTL broadcaster with the documentary "Extraterrestrials - Are They Returning?". However, Däniken realized the largest project to spread and popularize his worldview with the 60,000 square meter, EUR80 million expensive "Mysteries of the World" adventure park, which opened in Interlaken, Switzerland, in May 2003. Mystery Park closed on November 19, 2006 due to bankruptcy.
The member of the Swiss Writers' Association and the Swiss PEN Center was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Boliviana in 1975 for his commitment to science journalism. He received further awards from several South American bodies.
Erich von Däniken has been married to Elisabeth Skaja since 1960 and is the father of a daughter.- Actress
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Faith Salie was the host and executive producer of the National Public Radio show "Fair Game from PRI with Faith Salie". During its 300 episode run, she conducted over 1000 interviews with the likes of President Jimmy Carter, Lorne Michaels, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Slash, Elizabeth Edwards, Norah Jones, Oliver Sacks, Tom Brokaw and a family of champion elk callers.
On television, Faith hosts the Sundance Channel's coverage of the Sundance Film Festival, conducting interviews with filmmakers and actors such as Chris Rock, Uma Thurman, Billy Bob Thornton, The Doors, Kristen Wiig, Mo'Nique and Paul Giamatti. Faith was also one of the stars of the critically-acclaimed improvisational sitcom, Significant Others (2004) on Bravo. She has appeared in numerous sitcoms and dramas -- from a memorable turn in gold lamé on Sex and the City (1998) to reaching the arcane iconic status of "tradable life form" for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) fans.
Faith is a monthly contributor to "O", the Oprah Magazine, as an ethics expert and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), taking on Randy Cohen, The New York Times ethicist.
As a commentator on politics and current events, Faith has appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley (1979), The Factor (1996) and CNN, and has contributed to the National Public Radio shows "Tell Me More" and "The Takeaway". For the latter, she covered both the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions. She serves as one of the moderators for the World Science Festival, leading panels with scientists such as Richard Leakey, Vilayanur Ramachandran and Raymond Kurzweil. To justify her subscriptions to Star and US Weekly, Faith offers pop-culture punditry on a variety of VH-1 shows and is a regular on the late-night Fox News show Red Eye w/Tom Shillue (2007).
Faith has regularly performed as a stand-up comedian at the Hollywood Improv. She is also a television writer and has created/executive produced pilots for Fox, VH-1, and the Oxygen Network.
Faith is a Rhodes scholar who graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University. She completed an M. Phil. in Literature at Oxford University. Faith was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, which means she uses "wicked" as an adverb and also says "y'all". Faith's hobbies include baking white trash treats and giving them away before she can eat them.- Ferfried von Hohenzollern was born on 14 April 1943 in Umkirch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He was married to Maja von Hohenzollern, Eliane Etter Zosso and Angela von Morgen . He died on 27 September 2022 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- Francis Anthony Mossman was born on April 14, 1988, in Auckland, New Zealand to Maria Abad and Reginald Mossman. Francis has two younger brothers, Jeremy and Laurence Mossman (who is also a successful performer).
Francis discovered his love of acting in high school productions. This led him to pursue a Bachelor of Arts, double-majoring in 'Drama' and 'Film, Television and Media Studies' at New Zealand's top university, The University of Auckland. He stayed on to earn a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (with Merit) and a Master of Arts (with First Class Honours), both in 'Film, Television and Media Studies'. Concurrent with these studies, he explored his craft in the Meisner Technique master class taught by one of Sanford Meisner's original students, Michael Saccente.
Among other credits, Francis guest-starred in the New Zealand kids' series, Amazing Extraordinary Friends, and New Zealand's longest-running soap, Shortland Street. In 2011, Francis was cast as Vitus in three episodes of the popular US series, Spartacus: Vengeance.
In 2012, Francis migrated to Sydney, Australia. He stars as Stevie Hughes on The Horizon, Australia's most watched web series and the world's most watched gay-themed web series. The show received four awards at the 2014 LA Webfest, including Outstanding Series and Outstanding Writing. The Horizon is written and directed by Boaz Stark, known for his work on the hit shows Sons and Daughters, Neighbours, Home and Away, and Packed to the Rafters. In 2015, The Horizon was made into a television series and was directed by Stephan Elliot, who is best known for his film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Francis also appeared in the 2015 Australian feature film Ruben Guthrie, directed by Brendan Cowell. - Georges Duboeuf was born on 14 April 1933 in Crêches-sur-Saône, Bourgogne, France. He was married to Rolande. He died on 4 January 2020 in Romanèche-Thorins, Saône-et-Loire, France.
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Georgina Rose Chapman (born 14 April 1976) is an English fashion designer and actress. Together with Keren Craig, she is a co-founder of the fashion label Marchesa.
Chapman was born in London, England, the daughter of Caroline Wonfor, a journalist, and Brian Chapman, a co-owner of the coffee company Percol. Chapman grew up in Richmond, southwest London. Chapman attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire. In her 20s, Chapman model-led in an advertisement for Head & Shoulders, a dandruff shampoo, and one for throat lozenges Soothers. Chapman met future business partner Keren Craig while they were students at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Chapman graduated from Wimbledon School of Art in 2001 and began her career as a costume designer. After graduation, Chapman appeared in various television shows and films.- Writer
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Gerry Anderson was born on 14 April 1929 in West Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was a writer and producer, known for Joe 90 (1968), Invasion: UFO (1974) and UFO (1970). He was married to Mary Robins, Sylvia Anderson and Betty Wrightman. He died on 26 December 2012 in Henley-on-Thames, England, UK.- Actress
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She was born in Sunderland but raised just down the coast in Peterlee where she was educated at Peterlee Comprehensive. At 14 she joined the local drama group which led to a part in the children's tv series 'Quest of Eagles' and appeared in some television commercials including one as a shop assistant in a 'Mates' condom ad and one for Carlsberg Lager. At 17 she auditioned for 3 drama schools and was turned down by all of them but she didn't mention to them that she was a member of the National Youth Theatre or that she had been on TV. She moved to London at 18 intending to go to art college but a year later still wanting to act she paid for acting lessons to learn the techniques she felt she needed. Only twice she says that she was affected by nerves, the first was when she was taking her driving test, the other was when she was up for a BAFTA Award She's directed a short film 'Speed', about car thieves for Tyne Tees Television.- Actress
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Gloria Jean Schoonover was born on April 14, 1926 in Buffalo, New York and she and her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania shortly afterward. Her father owned a music store; her mother, who had been a circus bareback rider, took care of Gloria and her three siblings.
Gloria's singing ability was discovered when she was little; by 5 she was singing in the Scranton area. At 12 she was taken to an audition by Universal director Joe Pasternak, who was looking for a new child singer to replace studio icon Deanna Durbin, who was being steered into ingenue and young-adult roles. Although hundreds of Shirley-Temple-perfect girls competed, natural-looking Gloria was chosen and she and her mother headed to Hollywood.
In 1939 Gloria made her first film, "The Under-Pup", which made her an instant hit with moviegoers. Happy with their young coloratura soprano, Universal cast her in "If I Had My Way," which co-starred Bing Crosby. Next came "A Little Bit of Heaven," which many consider her best film; then a co-starring role with W.C. Fields in "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," her most-seen film.
At this point in 1941, Gloria was at the pinnacle of her career, yet her star wasn't soaring. She had outgrown her Little Miss Fixit roles, as Durbin had a few years earlier, but Durbin was in command of the older-girl roles for the better pictures. Unsure what to do with Jean, Universal moved her to the "Hepcat" movies, which appealed to the teenagers of that day. "What's Cooking", "Get Hep to Love", "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", and "It Comes Up Love," were all shot in 1942 and "Mr. Big," and "Moonlight in Vermont" followed in 1943; all were stock B-films. Like many Universal stars, Gloria had a few seconds onscreen in the war-effort picture "Follow the Boys" in 1944. After that came the rather good "Pardon My Rhythm" with Mel Torme, who became a close friend. Then in "Ghost Catchers" she was teamed with popular comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The forgettable "Reckless Age" was next; its main distinction was as the first in which Gloria played a more mature role.
Gloria was to star in one of four episodes of Julien Duvivier's "Flesh and Fantasy," alongside such stars as Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. But the movie was found to be too long and Gloria's segment was cut out. Some additional footage was added and the result was "Destiny." Gloria's performance won rave reviews, but the actual movie met with only modest success. Gloria followed this with three more Universal films: "I'll Remember April," "River Gang," and "Easy to Look At."
At this point, on bad advice from her agent, Gloria decided to go on tour instead of renewing her Universal contract. The tour underperformed and she returned to Hollywood in 1947, but she found herself in negligible demand. Groucho Marx gave her a minor role in his film "Copacabana"; this appearance ultimately landed her four more: in "I Surrender, Dear," "Manhattan Angel," "An Old-Fashioned Girl," and "There's a Girl in My Heart."
As the 1950s began, Gloria made several singing shorts that aired during television's early days. Other than that and a few guest appearances on TV series, her acting career was virtually finished. She appeared in 1955's forgettable "Air Strike" and worked in a couple of film that were never released. Jerry Lewis found her working as a restaurant hostess and gave her a part in his movie "The Ladies' Man," which was meant to relaunch her career, but her scenes didn't make the final cut. Shortly after, she was briefly married and had a son; at that point she virtually retired from the screen and went to work for the cosmetics firm Redken until 1993, when she retired.
Gloria was reintroduced to a limelight of sorts by the magic of eBay, where her movies, some of which are in the public domain, were being sold. With her sister Bonnie's help (she handled the computer end of things, as Gloria didn't do "Windows") she got onto eBay and sold copies of the movies she appeared in, as well as signed photographs of herself (old publicity shots). Spurred by the popularity of these, she published her autobiography, "Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven" in 2005.
After her sister Bonnie's death in 2007, Gloria moved to Hawaii to live with her son and his family.- Actor
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Gollapudi Maruthi Rao was born on 14 April 1939 in Vizianagaram, Madras Presidency, British India [now Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, India]. He was an actor and writer, known for Papam Pasivaadu (1972), Deshoddharakudu (1986) and Chelleli Kapuram (1971). He died on 12 December 2019.- Actor
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Graham Phillips is an American actor, writer, and director. His extensive resume spans theater, television, and film. He can next be seen in Universal's The Pact and the upcoming season of Riverdale. His notable credits include playing 'Zach Florrick' in The Good Wife, and the lead roles in Paramount's Staten Island Summer, Netflix's XOXO, and Goats, opposite David Duchovny. He has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and held the starring roles in both The Little Prince at the New York City Opera and 13: The Musical on Broadway. Graham graduated in 2017 from Princeton University, where he majored in United States History.
In addition to his acting, Graham has found success behind the camera. His first short film, The Mediator, which he co-directed and wrote with his brother, Parker, won the 2015 Carmel International Film Festival for Best Short Film and has played at film festivals worldwide. He and his brother are currently in pre- production for their first feature, The Bygone, which is slated to begin principal photography in fall 2017.- Actor
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Guillaume Bats was born on 14 April 1987 in Reims, Marne, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Hero Corp (2008), Les duos impossibles de Jérémy Ferrari (2014) and Omega (2011). He died on 1 June 2023 in Paris, France.- Henri Kichka was born on 14 April 1926 in Brussels, Belgium. He died on 25 April 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.
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Hilde Van Mieghem was born on 14 April 1958 in Antwerp, Belgium. She is an actress and director, known for De suikerpot (1997), De kus (2004) and Smoorverliefd (2013).- Hugo Conte was born on 14 April 1963 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has been married to Sonia Escher since 1988. They have three children.
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Hugo Moser was born on 14 April 1926 in Argentina. He was a writer and director, known for El precio del poder (2002), Teatro 13 (1971) and Historia de un trepador (1984). He was married to Stella Maris Lanzani. He died on 16 December 2003 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Actor
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J. Farrell MacDonald was born on 14 April 1875 in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Sunrise (1927), My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Great Lie (1941). He was married to Edith Bostwick. He died on 2 August 1952 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
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Jacques Houdek is a Croatian recording artist. He was born as Zeljko Houdek. His last name is of Czech origin. After finishing elementary music school (piano department), Houdek enrolled in two high schools, music (solo singing department) and vocational hairdressing. He also attended singing lessons with professor Viktorija Badrov who wanted him to become opera singer. After finishing high schools in 2001 he enrolled in prestigious Berklee College of Music, honing his singing in seminars in France, Greece and Italy. Houdek continued to build up his knowledge on Berklee seminars in Europe, where he had the opportunity to be mentored by Donna McElroy, a Grammy Award nominee. Houdek held his first solo concert on February 19, 2000 in Zagreb club SAX! where he performed covers of various songs. His first single, the song "Carolija" was released in 2002 and performed by Houdek at the Dora pop festival, Croatia's national competition for entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. There he was noticed by maestro Zdravko Sljivac who offered him a collaboration and publicly praised him by saying that a singer such as Houdek is born once every 300 years. The next month, Houdek signed an exclusive contract with Croatia Records, the leading music publisher in the region, with whom he has produced 13 albums.
During campaign for 2007 parliamentary election, Houdek sang party anthem "HDZ zna" (HDZ knows) for the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which was at the time ran by Ivo Sanader. He later also sang for the mayoral campaign of the populist Milan Bandic. Houdek said in an interview for Jutarnji list that he is apolitical and that those were just professional engagements as any other.
In January 2011, Houdek placed 4th in the finals of the Open Mic UK singing contest held in London's O2 Arena. He also participated in the British TV show X Factor, where he was given the nickname "Croatian Sensation" and entered the top 100 candidates. He was unable to continue his participation in the contest because he did not receive a work permit in time.
In February 2017, Houdek was selected to represent Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine. He qualified for the final, placing 8th in the second semi-final and eventually placing 13th in the grand final with the song "My Friend".
Over the years, he has performed in the Zagreb's Gavella and Comedy theaters, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his career, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, and has sold out solo concert in Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall for five times.- Actor
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Jaimz Woolvett studied acting and drama at university and was invited to join the National Theatre School. Jaimz had his first break when he was cast in the sitcom Dog House as the lead and was nominated for a Young Artists Award. Jaimz's big break then followed a few years later when he was cast in the role of 'The Schofield Kid' opposite Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman in the Academy Award winning Unforgiven. Once the film wrapped, Jaimz immediately headed off to Hollywood, a decision that proved a little pre-emptive. Even with a film like Unforgiven to his name, it had not yet been released and wouldn't be for another year, he found himself struggling to find work and when the chance for the lead in a TV show came up, he set off to New Zealand to star in White Fang. As a result, Jaimz was out of the country when the calls did start to come in off of Unforgiven. It was released to critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Film and Director. Upon his return, Jaimz was featured in a number of films including Dead Presidents directed by Albert and Alan Hughes; Rosewood directed by John Singleton; The Guilty, Boogie Boy, Helter Skelter and Hard Time, the latter earning him a Gemini nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Woolvett continues. He has started encouraging writers, singers, actors and poets to present their works at 'Open Mike Write' evenings as well as directing and volunteering at numerous schools in the LA area for students of all ages.- Director
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Writer/director James Gray made his first film Little Odessa (1994) at the age of twenty-five. The film, which starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, received critical acclaim and was the winner of the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Silver Lion Award in 1994.
Miramax Films released James Gray's second feature, The Yards (2000) starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn, Charlize Theron and James Caan in fall of 2000. The film was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. Prior to "The Yards" and "Little Odessa", Gray attended film school at the University of Southern California. It was there that his student film Cowboys and Angels was first seen by producer Paul Webster, who encouraged Gray to write his first feature script.
As a child growing up in Queens, New York, Gray aspired to be a painter. However, when introduced in his early teenage years to the works of various filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola, Gray's interests expanded to the art of filmmaking. The Yards returned Gray to Queens where the story takes place.- James Kisicki was born on 14 April 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Wonder Boys (2000) and The Oh in Ohio (2006). He was married to Deborah Kaiser Kisicki. He died on 27 November 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
- Tall, dapper, oval-faced, crisp-talking British stage actor James Stephenson was born in Yorkshire on April 13, 1889, the son of a chemist and druggist. A bank clerk to begin with, he later pursued a career as a merchant and served with the British Army during World War I. He had no formal acting training, but a growing interest led him to amateur theatre presentations and eventually working professionally on the London and Liverpool stages.
Rather late in life, the 48-year-old Stephenson made his film debut with the British drama The Perfect Crime (1937) at Warner Brothers' Teddington Studios in England. He continued there with the comedy You Live and Learn (1937) and the mystery Mr. Satan (1938). Warner mogul Jack Warner saw much promise in Stephenson and summoned him to Hollywood where he became a studio contract player. Having married Lorna Hewitt Anderson (1908-1967) in 1936, Stephenson left his homeland and emigrated to America, summoning her later once he settled in. They eventually became U.S. citizens in 1938.
During his extremely short stay, the distinguished gent with the clipped tones and neat, sliver mustache indulged himself in urbane villainy in the oily, cultivated tradition of George Sanders and his brother Tom Conway. He proved a reliable support in such films as You Live and Learn (1937), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Nancy Drew: Detective (1938), White Banners (1938), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939), Espionage Agent (1939) and the classic adventures Beau Geste (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940).
At one point he was entrusted by director William Wyler and mega-star Bette Davis to play the sympathetic role of the family attorney Howard Joyce in the melodrama The Letter (1940). It was the role of a lifetime and he didn't let them down for he earned an Oscar nomination in the process. He had supported Ms. Davis earlier in her dramatic vehicles The Old Maid (1939) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939).
Stephenson was soon on a roll. Having been handed the role of the titular sleuth in Calling Philo Vance (1940), he was finally first-billed in the above-average "B" movie Shining Victory (1941) when he when he tragically suffered a myocardial infarction in 1941, dying at age 52 in Pacific Palisades. Having made 40 films in just four years, Hollywood lost a valued, charismatic player. Survived by his wife, James is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. - Stunts
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Janene is the youngest of 3 children, born and raised in Kelowna, Canada. Growing up she was always a well-rounded athlete having participated in a wide range of sports & dance. But her main focus was competitive horseback riding where she competed at a national level in show jumping and three day eventing. Janene shifted her focus from the competitive horse circuit to attend college in Victoria BC, where she studied Biology and English. She also became a personal trainer, fitness model and began to dabble in mixed martial arts. However, it was through Janene's experience with training animals and horses that helped her transition into her career as a stunt woman by 2005. Her first jobs in the industry included helping train movie horses, giving actors riding lessons, and eventually doubling actors for their horse work. It didn't take long for the rest of her experience as a well-rounded athlete to launch her into her full-fledged career as a well-rounded stunt woman. She has since doubled many of Hollywood's biggest action stars including Angelina Jolie, Jessica Biel, Paula Patton and Carla Gugino. Some of the blockbuster films to her credit include 'Salt', 'Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol',' Total Recall', 'Watchmen', 'Twilight Breaking Dawn' and 'Xmen 3', to name a few. Janene's favorite activities include yoga, snowboarding, hiking with her dogs & exploring the mountains with her horses. Family, music and world travel have her heart. She loves immersing herself in the experience of different people, cultures and cuisine, and believes in giving back from the grassroots. She is also an avid supporter of "The Earth Charter' & organizations educating 3rd world countries in a sustainable way of living. Locally, she supports charities by sharing her horses and her time with Equine Theraputic Farms helping children with Autism and other disabilities. Janene continues to stay busy doubling action stars and performing stunts in major motion pictures & television, although she aspires to get more involved behind the camera as well. A highlight in Janene's stunt career was being recognized by her stunt peers in 2011, winning a World Taurus Stunt Award for 'Best Overall Stunt Performed by a Woman' for her action doubling Angelina Jolie in 'Salt'.- Javier Valdez Cárdenas was born on 14 April 1967 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. He died on 15 May 2017 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.
- Character actor Jay Robinson owned a pair of the narrowest, cruelest-looking eyes in 1950s Hollywood. To complement them was an evil-looking sneer, crisp and biting diction and a nefarious-sounding cackle. These were all draped upon a lean, bony physique that could slither about menacingly like a ready-to-pounce cobra. With that in mind, he made an auspicious film debut as Caligula in The Robe (1953), stealing much of the proceedings from the movie's actual stars Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. Though many complained that Jay's interpretation bordered dangerously on outrageous camp, his depraved Roman emperor nevertheless remains the most indelible image when reminded of the epic costumer.
Born on April 14, 1930 in New York City, Jay came from a fine upbringing, tutored at private schools both here and in Europe. His background in summer stock and repertory companies eventually attracted Broadway work in the Shakespeare classics "As You Like It" (1950) and "Much Ado About Nothing" (1952). He also appeared in and produced the play, "Buy Me Blue Ribbons," in 1951, which was short-lived. After his movie bow, Jay went on to reprise the scenery-chewing character Caligula in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) with Mature and Susan Hayward, and offered typically eye-catching supporting turns in The Virgin Queen (1955), starring Bette Davis, and My Man Godfrey (1957), with David Niven and June Allyson.
However, it was at this juncture that things started going horribly wrong for Jay. His new-found celebrity reportedly went to his head and he became extremely difficult to work with. In addition, the volatile actor began experimenting recklessly with drugs. In 1958, he was booked for possession of narcotics (methadone) and sentenced to a year in jail. Free on bail, the incident and resulting notoriety ruined his career. After scraping up work outside the entertainment industry as a cook and landlord, he recovered from his drug addiction and married. Resuming work in obscure bit parts, he had another career relapse when he was forced to spend 15 months in jail after an old warrant was served on him.
In the late 1960s, Jay started appearing again on television. He even prodded the memory of his own character Caligula character by playing an impertinent Julius Caesar on an episode of Bewitched (1964). However, it took a huge star like Bette Davis, who had always recognized and appreciated his talent, to help him regain a footing in movies again when she insisted he take a prime role in her movie, Bunny O'Hare (1971). The movie failed miserably, deservedly so, but Jay prevailed and managed to repair his status with a number of delightfully flamboyant and hammy performances.
Jay played fun parts along the way in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Warren Beatty's Shampoo (1975) and even Big Top Pee-wee (1988). While he played the delightfully eccentric Dr. Shrinker on The Krofft Supershow (1976) for one season, he somewhat balanced this silliness with made-for-video Shakespearean performances of Macbeth (1981), The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (1981) and Richard II (1982). Some horror roles fell his way as well with Train Ride to Hollywood (1975), in which he played Dracula, Transylvania Twist (1989) and Bram Stoker's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).
In 1997, Jay proved an ideal host for the Discovery Channel's Beyond Bizarre (1997). HIs last TV work was providing various voices for the animated comedy series Mad Jack the Pirate (1998).
Jay Robinson died at age 83 of congestive heart failure in his home in Sherman Oaks, California on September 27, 2013. - Jesse Flanagan was born on 14 April 1982 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He is an actor, known for The Big Lebowski (1998), The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1998) and Art School Confidential (2006).
- Oh Ji-ho was born on 14 April 1976 in Mokpo, Korea. He is an actor, known for The Slave Hunters (2010), The Queen of Office (2013) and A Second Proposal (2004).
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Jo Osmond was born on 14 April 1987 in Cardiff, South Wales, UK. She is an actress, known for Dumbo (2019), Doctor Who (2005) and The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016). She has been married to Josh Morris since 9 May 2013.- Production Manager
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Joan Gail Bradshaw is the daughter of John Powers Bradshaw (1907-1987) and Mary Elizabeth Merkle (1912-1998), who married in 1935 in Carter County, Oklahoma. After Joan's birth in 1936, the family settled eventually in Houston, Texas, where her father owned an ice cream company. He also acquired some horses and Joan began riding as early as age 3.
Joan was listed as a sophomore student at Houston's John Reagan High School in the 1952 school yearbook. It turned out to be her final school year. She quit school at age 15. She entered several beauty pageants and various beach contests. She won her first beauty contest at age 16. Joan was crowned Miss Texas USA on July 4, 1953, in only the second year of the pageant, and was a semi-finalist (top 15) in the Miss USA pageant held in Long Beach, California, on July 16, 1953. The Miss Universe pageant was held at the same time and venue in those days. Joan competed but did not win. She later admitted, like many of the other girls competing, that she was under the minimum age of 18 required for the pageant. Her physical description at that time was 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 113-15 pounds, brunette, brown eyes, with measurements of 36-23-36. Her bust size increased to 38 a few years later. Her talents for the pageant were singing, sport, and ice skating.
Joan returned to Houston where she worked as a receptionist for the Texas Company, which later became Texaco. Eventually, she went to New York and became the girl who danced the mystery dance on the weekly Arthur Murray Party television show. She met actress Jean Simmons, who suggested a movie career. So she headed west. She scored ten acting roles in her first 14 months in Hollywood and became a starlet and model in the mid- to late 1950s. She scored a social coup at celebrity clothier Sy Devore's Halloween party by arriving with Elvis Presley in 1957.
At age 25 in 1961, she married 56 year-old movie producer, Frank Ross (1904-1990), and she promised to give up her acting career forever. She did. Contrary to erroneous reports, the gorgeous Joan Bradshaw so famously photographed by Earl Leaf walking down Hollywood and Vine with her toy poodle in September 1957 did not go on to become a successful movie producer. The producer by the same name is a different person.
Eventually she returned to her home state of Texas, where she operated a tiki bar and motel for several years. She sold her bar and still splits her time between South Padre Island, Texas, and Los Angeles, California.- John Clarke was born on 14 April 1931 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), The Satan Bug (1965) and Death Valley Days (1952). He was married to Patricia Clarke. He died on 16 October 2019 in Laguna Beach, California, USA.
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John D'Aquino was born on 14 April 1958 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Cory in the House (2007), 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995).- Actor
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Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other contemporaries of the National Theatre at the "Old Vic", London. He made his screen debut in 1924. Academy Award Best Supporting Actor, 1981, for Arthur (1981), Academy Award Nomination, 1964, for Becket (1964).- A native Ohioan, John Howard (born John R. Cox, Jr.) had no interest in working in theater until schoolmates at Cleveland's Western Reserve University turned him on to acting. After some work on his college stage, he made his movie debut in a bit part in Paramount's One Hour Late (1934) before moving up the Hollywood ladder to featured parts and ultimately landing his own series, the Bulldog Drummond mysteries. Decades later, when offers of work began to slow down, Howard went into teaching.
Best-known for his role as Ronald Colman's brother in director Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon (1937), Howard later said he felt he did a bad job of playing the character: "Damn it, I thought I was too brash, too uncontrolled, too unbelievable. And I've wished always that I could go back and do it again." - Actor
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John Hubbard was born on 14 April 1914 in East Chicago, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Tall T (1957), Dramatic School (1938) and One Million B.C. (1940). He was married to Lois. He died on 6 November 1988 in Camarillo, California, USA.- Actor
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Handsome, slim-faced, curly-haired actor John Shea is primarily known to TV audiences for his recurring role as the evil Lex Luthor in the early '90s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993).
John Victor Shea III was born in 1949 in North Conway, New Hampshire, to Elizabeth Mary (Fuller) and Dr. John Victor Shea, a teacher, coach, and assistant Superintendent of Schools. He is of Irish and German descent. John was raised in Massachusetts, and received his BA from Bates College, which he achieved on debating and football scholarships. He then attended Yale University and earned an MFA in directing from its School of Drama.
Following New York stage work, including his portrayal of Paris in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" (1977), initial on-camera notice came on TV with his reverential portrayal of Joseph in the mini-movie The Nativity (1978). A few years later on film he appeared in the small but memorable role of the impassioned, ill-fated American idealist who becomes a casualty to Chilean war-torn politics in Costa-Gavras' Academy Award-winning thriller Missing (1982). Although Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, who respectively played his despairing father and wife, were nominated for Oscars for their starring performances, John's role was central to the heart of the film and he made quite an impact. The actor was later honored by Amnesty International for his political work following the film's release.
Critical kudos, as well as awards, have come in John's direction over the years on stage, film and TV. In the film Windy City (1984) opposite Kate Capshaw, he earned the Best Actor Award at the Montreal Film Festival. On stage, he received a Drama Desk Award for "American Days", an Obie Award for "The Dining Room" and a 1976 Theatre World Award for his portrayal of the Jewish student "Avigdor" in "Yentl". The role was later portrayed by Mandy Patinkin in Barbra Streisand's 1983 film adaptation. On television, John was awarded the coveted Emmy for his depiction of the distressed husband and father wannabe who touches off a legal landmark case in the miniseries, Baby M (1988).
In a career pocked with remarkable versatility, interesting choices and challenging parts, John has played everything from a young Nazi in the miniseries Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (1985) to 'Robert F. Kennedy' in the epic-styled Kennedy (1983). He has kept his face alive in guest parts over the years on such well-received series as Sex and the City (1998), Tales from the Crypt (1989), The Hitchhiker (1983), Law & Order (1990) and Medium (2005). A budding Irish-American filmmaker, John co-wrote, directed and appeared in the low-budget film Southie (1998), a drama set in the Irish-American section of Boston. The film won the Jury Award for Best Independent Film at the 1998 Seattle International Film Festival.
Into the millennium, John found popularity on the Mutant X (2001) sci-fi series playing the role of "Adam Kane". Based on Marvel Comic's "X-Men", he received a nomination for Canada's prestigious Gemini Award as Best Actor. He also appears in a recurring role on Gossip Girl (2007) and had a regular part in the action drama series Agent X (2015) starring Sharon Stone.
In addition, he was also seen in a spat of dramas including The Insurgents (2006) with Mary Stuart Masterson; the British Framed (2008) and the Indian drama Achchamundu! Achchamundu! (2009), plus the Jessica Alba drama, An Invisible Sign (2010), the title role in Julius Caesar (2010), the horror opus 51 (2011),the psychological drama Anatomy of the Tide (2013) and the crime mystery Grey Lady (2017), which he also wrote and directed.
A screenwriter and audio book performer in addition to all his other talents, John lives with his second wife, the painter Melissa MacLeod, and his family are based in New York and on Nantucket Island where he was a founding member of the Nantucket Film Festival and is Artistic Director of the Nantucket Theatre Workshop. He has one son, Jake, from his first marriage, and two children, Miranda and Caiden, by wife Melissa.- Actor
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Josef Somr was born on 15 April 1934 in Vracov, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Closely Watched Trains (1966), Jak svet prichází o básníky (1982) and Cerní baroni (1992). He was married to Somrova, Alena and Alena Somrová. He died on 16 October 2022 in Nová Ves pod Plesí, Czech Republic.- Actor
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Joseph Ruskin was born on 14 April 1924 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Smokin' Aces (2006), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and The Scorpion King (2002). He was married to Barbara Greene and Patricia Herd. He died on 28 December 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actress
Josie Taylor was born on 14 April 1983 in Somerset, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Youth (2015), Tamara Drewe (2010) and Doctor Who (2005).- Producer
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Joyce Davidson was born on 14 April 1931 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was a producer, known for Hotline (1964), The Fifties (1997) and PM East (1961). She was married to David Susskind and Doug Davidson . She died on 7 May 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actress
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Julia Zemiro was born on 14 April 1967 in Aix-en-Provence, France. She is an actress and producer, known for Muffled Love (2001), Charlotte's Web (2006) and The Extra (1999).- Actress
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Julie Christie, the British movie legend whom Al Pacino called "the most poetic of all actresses," was born in Chabua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1940, the daughter of a tea planter and his Welsh wife Rosemary, who was a painter. The young Christie grew up on her father's plantation before being sent to England for her education. Finishing her studies in Paris, where she had moved to improve her French with an eye to possibly becoming a linguist (she is fluent in French and Italian), the teenager became enamored of the freedom of the Continent. She also was smitten by the bohemian life of artists and planned on becoming an artist before she enrolled in London's Central School of Speech Training. She made her debut as a professional in 1957 as a member of the Frinton Repertory of Essex.
Christie was not fond of the stage, even though it allowed her to travel, including a professional gig in the United States. Her true métier as an actress was film, and she made her debut in the science-fiction television series A for Andromeda (1961) in 1961. Her first film was a girlfriend part in the Ealing-like comedy Crooks Anonymous (1962), which was followed up by a larger ingénue role in another comedy, The Fast Lady (1962). The producers of the James Bond series were sufficiently intrigued by the young actress to consider her for the role that subsequently went to Ursula Andress in Dr. No (1962), but dropped the idea because she was not busty enough.
Christie first worked with the man who would kick her career into high gear, director John Schlesinger, when he choose her as a replacement for the actress originally cast in Billy Liar (1963). Christie's turn in the film as the free-wheeling Liz was a stunner, and she had her first taste of becoming a symbol if not icon of the new British cinema. Her screen presence was such that the great John Ford cast her as the young prostitute in Young Cassidy (1965). Charlton Heston wanted her for his film The War Lord (1965), but the studio refused her salary demands.
Although Amercan magazines portrayed Christie as a "newcomer" when she made her breakthrough to super-stardom in Schlesinger's seminal Swinging Sixties film Darling (1965), she actually had considerable work under her professional belt and was in the process of a artistic quickening. Schlesinger called on Christie, whom he adored, to play the role of mode Diana Scott when the casting of Shirley MacLaine fell through. (MacLaine was the sister of the man who would become Christie's long-time paramour in the late 1960s and early '70s, Warren Beatty, whom some, like actor Rod Steiger, believe she gave up her career for. Her "Dr. Zhivago" co-star, Steiger -- a keen student of acting -- regretted that Christie did not give more of herself to her craft.)
As played by Christie, Diana is an amoral social butterfly who undergoes a metamorphosis from immature sex kitten to jaded socialite. For her complex performance, Christie won raves, including the Best Actress Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Film Academy. She had arrived, especially as she had followed up "Darling" with the role of Lara in two-time Academy Award-winning director David Lean's adaptation of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (1965), one of the all-time box-office champs.
Christie was now a superstar who commanded a price of $400,000 per picture, a fact ruefully noted in Charlton Heston's diary (his studio had balked at paying her then-fee of $35,000). More interested in film as an art form than in consolidating her movie stardom, Christie followed up "Zhivago" with a dual role in Fahrenheit 451 (1966) for director François Truffaut, a director she admired. The film was hurt by the director's lack of English and by friction between Truffaut and Christie's male co-star Oskar Werner, who had replaced the the more-appropriate-for-the-role Terence Stamp. Stamp and Christie had been lovers before she had become famous, and he was unsure he could act with her, due to his own ego problems. On his part, Werner resented the attention the smitten Truffaut gave Christie. The film is an interesting failure.
Stamp overcame those ego problems to sign on as her co-star in John Schlesinger's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), which also featured two great English actors, Peter Finch and Alan Bates. It is a film that is far better remembered now than when it was received in 1967. The film and her performance as the Hardy heroine Bathsheba Everdene was lambasted by film critics, many of whom faulted Christie for being too "mod" and thus untrue to one of Hardy's classic tales of fate. Some said that her contemporary Vanessa Redgrave would have been a better choice as Bathsheba, but while it is true that Redgrave is a very fine actress, she lacked the sex appeal and star quality of Christie, which makes the story of three men in love with one woman more plausible, as a film.
Although no one then knew it, the period 1967-68 represented the high-water mark of Christie's career. Fatefully, like the Hardy heroine she had portrayed, she had met the man who transformed her life, undermining her pretensions to a career as a movie star in their seven-year-long love affair, the American actor Warren Beatty. Living his life was always far more important than being a star for Beatty, who viewed the movie star profession as a "treadmill leading to more treadmills" and who was wealthy enough after Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to not have to ever work again. Christie and Beatty had visited a working farm during the production of "Madding Crowd" and had been appalled by the industrial exploitation of the animals. Thereafter, animal rights became a very important subject to Christie. They were kindred souls who remain friends four decades after their affair ended in 1974.
Christie's last box-office hit in which she was the top-liner was Petulia (1968) for Richard Lester, a film that featured one of co-star George C. Scott's greatest performances, perfectly counter-balanced by Christie's portrayal of an "arch-kook" who was emblematic of the '60s. It is one of the major films of the decade, an underrated masterpiece. Despite the presence of the great George C. Scott and the excellent Shirley Knight, the film would not work without Julie Christie. There is frankly no other actress who could have filled the role, bringing that unique presence and the threat of danger that crackled around Christie's electric aura. At this point of her career, she was poised for greatness as a star, greatness as an actress.
And she walked away.
After meeting Beatty, Julie Christie essentially surrendered any aspirations to screen stardom, or at maintaining herself as a top-drawer working actress (success at the box office being a guarantee of the best parts, even in art films.) She turned down the lead in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), two parts that garnered Oscar nominations for the second choices, Jane Fonda and Geneviève Bujold. After shooting In Search of Gregory (1969), a critical and box office flop, to fulfill her contractual obligations, she spent her time with Beatty in Calfiornia, renting a beach house at Malibu. She did return to form in Joseph Losey's The Go-Between (1971), a fine picture with a script by the great Harold Pinter, and she won another Oscar nomination as the whore-house proprietor in Robert Altman's minor classic McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) that she made with her lover Beatty. However, like Beatty himself, she did not seek steady work, which can be professional suicide for an actor who wants to maintain a standing in the first rank of movie stars.
At the same time, Julie Christie turned down the role of the Russian Empress in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), another film that won the second-choice (Janet Suzman) a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Two years later, she appeared in the landmark mystery-horror film Don't Look Now (1973), but that likely was as a favor to the director, Nicolas Roeg, who had been her cinematographer on "Fahrenheit 451," "Far From the Madding Crowd" and "Petulia." In the mid '70s, her affair with Beatty came to an end, but the two remained close friends and worked together in Shampoo (1975) (which she regretted due to its depiction of women) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).
Christie was still enough of a star, due to sheer magnetism rather than her own pull at the box-office, to be offered $1 million to play the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis character in The Greek Tycoon (1978) (a part eventually played by Jacqueline Bisset to no great acclaim). She signed for but was forced to drop out of the lead in Agatha (1979) (which was filled by Vanessa Redgrave) after she broke a wrist roller-skating (a particularly southern Californian fate!). She then signed for the female lead in American Gigolo (1980) when Richard Gere was originally attached to the picture, but dropped out when John Travolta muscled his way into the lead after making twin box-office killings as disco king Tony Manera in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and greaser Danny Zuko in Grease (1978). Christie could never have co-starred with such a camp figure of dubious talent. When Travolta himself dropped out and Gere was subbed back in, it was too late for Christe to reconsider, as the part already had been filled by model-actress Lauren Hutton. It would take 15 years for Christie and Gere to work together.
Finally, the end of the American phase of her movie career was realized when Christie turned down the part of Louise Bryant in Reds (1981), a part written by Warren Beatty with her in mind, as she felt an American should play the role. (Beatty's latest lover, Diane Keaton, played the part and won a Best Actress Oscar nomination.) Still, she remained a part of the film, Beatty's long-gestated labor of love, as it is dedicated to "Jules."
Julie Christie moved back to the UK and become the UK's answer to Jane Fonda, campaigning for various social and political causes, including animal rights and nuclear disarmament. The parts she did take were primarily driven by her social consciousness, such as appearing in Sally Potter's first feature-length film, The Gold Diggers (1983) which was not a remake of the old Avery Hopwood's old warhorse but a feminist parable made entirely by women who all shared the same pay scale. Roles in The Return of the Soldier (1982) with Alan Bates and Glenda Jackson and Merchant-Ivory's Heat and Dust (1983) seemed to herald a return to form, but Christie -- as befits such a symbol of the freedom and lack of conformity of the '60s -- decided to do it her way. She did not go "careering," even though her unique talent and beauty was still very much in demand by filmmakers.
At this point, Christie's movie career went into eclipse. Once again, she was particularly choosy about her work, so much so that many came to see her, essentially, as retired. A career renaissance came in the mid-1990s with her turn as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's ambitious if not wholly successful Hamlet (1996). As Christie said at the time, she didn't feel she could turn Branagh down as he was a national treasure. But the best was yet to come: her turn as the faded movie star married to handyman Nick Nolte and romanced by a younger man in Afterglow (1997), which brought her rave notices. She received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, and showed up at the awards as radiant and uniquely beautiful as ever. Ever the iconoclast, she was visibly relieved, upon the announcement of the award, to learn that she had lost!
Christie lived with left-wing investigative journalist Duncan Campbell (a Manchester Guardian columnist) since 1979, first in Wales, then in Ojai, California, and now in London's East End, before marrying in January 2008. In addition to her film work, she has narrated many books-on-tape. In 1995, she made a triumphant return to the stage in a London revival of Harold Pinter's "Old Times", which garnered her superb reviews.
In the decade since "Afterglow," she has worked steadily on film in supporting roles. Christie -- an actress who eschewed vulgar stardom -- proved to be an inspiration to her co-star Sarah Polley, the remarkably talented Canadian actress with a leftist political bent who also abhors Hollywood. Of her co-star in No Such Thing (2001) and The Secret Life of Words (2005), Polley says that Christie is uniquely aware of her commodification by the movie industry and the mass media during the 1960s. Not wanting to be reduced to a product, she had rebelled and had assumed control of her life and career. Her attitude makes her one of Polley's heroes, who calls her one of her surrogate mothers. (Polley lost her own mother when she was 11 years old.)
Both Christie and Polley are rebels. Sarah Polley had walked off the set of the big-budget movie that was forecast as her ticket to Hollywood stardom, Almost Famous (2000), to have a different sort of life and career. She returned to her native Canada to appear in the low-budget indie The Law of Enclosures (2000), a prescient art film in that director John Greyson offset the drama with a background of a perpetual Gulf War three years before George W. Bush invaded Iraq, touching off the second-longest war in U.S. history. Taking a hiatus from acting, Polley went to Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre to learn to direct, and direct she has, making well-regarded shorts before launching her feature film debut, Away from Her (2006), which was shot and completed in 2006 but held for release until 2007 by its distributor.
Polley, who had longed to be a writer since she was a child actress on the set of the quaint family show Avonlea (1990) wrote the screenplay for her adaptation of Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" with only one actress in mind: Julie Christie. Polley had first read the short story on a flight back from Iceland, where she had made "No Such Thing" with Christie, and as she read, it was Julie whom she pictured as Fiona, the wife of a one-time philandering husband, who has become afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and seeks to save her hubby the pain of looking after her by checking herself into a home.
After finishing the screenplay, it took months to get Christie to commit to making the film. Julie turned her down after reading the script and pondering it for a couple of months, saying "No" even though she liked the script. Polley then had to "twist her arm" for another couple of months. But alas, Julie has a weakness for national treasures: Just like with Branagh a decade ago, the legendary Julie Christie could not deny the Great White North's Sarah Polley, and commit she did. Polley then found out why Christie is so reticent about making movies:
"She gives all of herself to what she does. Once she said yes, she was more committed than anybody."
According to David Germain, a cinema journalist who interviewed Christie for the Associated Press, "Polley and Christie share a desire to do interesting, unusual work, which generally means staying away from Hollywood.
"'It's been a kind of greed and a kind of egotism, but it's not necessarily wanting to avoid the Hollywood thing, but in fact, it incorporates wanting to avoid the Hollywood thing, because the Hollywood thing is so inevitably not original,' Christie said. 'It's avoiding non-originality, so that means you're really down to a very small choice.'"
The collaboration between the two rebels yielded a small gem of a film. Lions Gate Films was so impressed, it purchased the American distribution rights to the film in 2006, then withheld it until the following year to build up momentum for the awards season.
Julie Christie's performance in "Away From Her" is superb, and already has garnered her the National Board of Review's Best Actress Award. She will likely receive her fourth Academy Award nomination, and quite possibly her second Oscar, for her unforgettable performance, a labor of love she did for a friend.
We, the Julie Christie fans who have waited decades for the handful of films made by the numinous star: Would we have wanted it any other way? We are the Red Sox fans of the movies, once again rewarded with a world-class masterpiece by our heroine. Perhaps, like all human beings, we want more, but we have learned over the last thirty-five years to be content with the diamonds that are Julie's leading performances that she gives just once a decade, content to feel that these are a surfeit of riches, our surfeit of riches, so great is their luminescence.- Justin Tarr was born on 14 April 1940 in Amarillo, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Bullitt (1968), Massacre Harbor (1968) and The Rat Patrol (1966). He died on 26 July 2012 in Hawaii, USA.
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Katsuhiro Ôtomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation.
In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Action, Otomo created his first science-fiction work, titled Fireball. Although the manga was never completed, it is regarded as a milestone in Otomo's career as it contained many of the same themes he would explore in his later. In 1982, Otomo made his anime debut, working as character designer for the animated film Harmagedon. The next year, Otomo began work on a manga which would become his most acclaimed and famous work: Akira. It took eight years to complete and would eventually culminate in 2000 pages of artwork. While the serialization of Akira was taking place, Otomo decided to animate it into a feature film, although the manga was yet to be finished. In 1988, the animated film Akira was released.
Otomo became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, and was awarded the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013.- Actor
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Kenneth Cope was born on 14 April 1931 in Liverpool, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Carry on at Your Convenience (1971), Truckers (1987) and My Partner the Ghost (1969). He has been married to Renny Lister since 1961. They have three children.- Composer
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Kenny Young was born on 14 April 1941 in Jerusalem, Israel. He was a composer, known for Beaches (1988), The Lovely Bones (2009) and Mindhunters (2004). He died on 14 April 2020.- Kita Mean is known for My Life Is Murder (2019), RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under (2021) and Have You Been Paying Attention? NZ (2019).
- Kristina Asmus was born Kristina Igorevna Myasnikova on April 14, 1988, in Kaliningrad, Moscow region, RSFSR, USSR (now Korolev, Russia). As a child, she was involved in gymnastics, becoming a Candidate for Master of Sports.
In her mid-teens, while still in high school, she played the role of Zhenya Komelkova in a theatrical adaptation, directed by Elena Makhona, of Boris Vasilev's novel "A zori zdes tikhie..." ("The Dawns Here Are Quiet...") at the director's theater "Makhona ELena" ("MEL") in Moscow. After graduating from high school, she played the role of Fantine in Ivan Elagin's play "Portret madmuazel Tarzhi" ("The Portrait of Mademoiselle Tarsi") and the title role of the dog Silviya in the play "Silviya", a Russian adaptation of American playwright A.R. Gurney's play "Sylvia", both directed by Nataliya Ermakova of the "Korolevskiy Teatr Yunogo Eritelya" ("The Royal Theater for a Young Audience") at the "Teatr Dobroy Skazki" ("The Theater of the Kind Fairy Tale") in Moscow.
In her late teens, before deciding to become an actress, she worked in the modeling business.
In 2008, she entered the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theater School in a course taught by the famous Soviet-era actor Boris Klyuev, graduating in 2012.
The debut of the actress on the screen was in early 2010 in the role of Varvara Chernous in director Maksim Pezhemskiy's popular comedy series Interny (2010) ("Interns").
Following this, in late 2010, she was named the Sexiest Woman of the Year in the Russian edition of Maxim magazine, appearing on the cover that October, with a full pictorial and interview inside.
In 2011, the budding actress starred in the role of Sasha in the detective story 'Alibi' na dvoikh (2011) ("An 'Alibi' for Two"), directed by Nikolay Gusev.
She lives in Moscow with her husband, actor and comedian Garik Kharlamov, and their daughter Anistasiya. - Actor
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Langley Kirkwood was born in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. His family moved to South Africa when Kirkwood was young. The son of a poet and an art teacher, he was exposed to literature and the arts from an early age and fell in love with acting in his school years. He studied drama at high school and at Johannesburg's Wits University, and started working in theatre immediately thereafter. He made an award-winning debut at Johannesburg's Market Theatre as Billy the Kid and followed that up by award-nominated performances in other theatre productions in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, and winning another award as Biff Loman in Miller's Death of a Salesman. He had two children, Willow and Phoenix with former Calvin Klein model Josie Borain. He lives in Cape Town and works primarily in film and television, but still finds time for theatre and also works as a voice-artist. He is a fitness fanatic and spends much of his free time trail running, cycling and competing in ultra distance races.- Actor
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Rangy, red-headed and straightforward to the bone while possessing distinctively adenoidal vocal tones, this actor with a voracious appetite for high living was a fine cinematic representation of the racy and race-paced style of pre-Code Hollywood. Lee Tracy patented with peerless skill the lightning rod timing and machine gun delivery so identified with that period and would have continued on handsomely in films had severe typecasting, a hair-trigger temper and a notoriously reckless off-camera life not gotten the best of him.
Christened William Lee Tracy on April 14, 1898, the Atlanta-born actor was the son of a traveling railroad superintendent and a former school teacher. Lee attended Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois, while growing up, and then relocated with his family to upstate New York. Lee may have studied engineering at Union College in 1918, but he also showed an interest in dramatics and was almost immediately asked to join a theater company upon his graduation. WWI interrupted his nascent stage career when he joined the army. Following his discharge, he cast aside thoughts of a theater career and instead became a U.S. Treasury agent. Within two years' time, however, he was back via the vaudeville stage and touring stock companies. This all culminated in a most auspicious Broadway debut in "The Showoff" in 1924.
It took but a couple of years for Tracy to achieve certified stardom with the George Abbott production of "Broadway" (1926), in which he played a song-and-dance man, receiving the New York Drama Critics Award for his efforts. In 1928, following more vaudeville work, Lee found his quintessential role in the form of Hildy Johnson, the hustling, fast-talking newspaperman, in Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht's timeless play "The Front Page". If ever an actor and role fit together like a hand in a glove, this was it, and it was highly unfortunate, with all due respect to actor Pat O'Brien, that Tracy was not afforded the proper chance to transfer this prototype Broadway part to the 1931 film. During this time he was also developing an off-stage reputation as a carouser and heavy drinker.
Nevertheless, Fox Studios immediately signed Tracy and offered up a fine screen debut for him co-starring with Mae Clarke in the early talkie Big Time (1929) as the male half of a husband-and-wife vaudeville team who breaks off with his mate and falls on heavy times while she becomes a star. In Born Reckless (1930), Tracy played the first of his Walter Winchell-like, staccato-styled characters. Tracy went on to perfectly evoke his fast-talking image in such Depression-era films as the drama Liliom (1930) and the ribald comedy She Got What She Wanted (1930).
A highly impulsive man, Tracy abandoned Hollywood at this early stage of the game and returned to his former glory, Broadway, appearing to fine advantage in "Oh, Promise Me" and "Louder, Please" in 1930 and 1931, respectively. But films continued to beg for his services; this time it was Warner Bros. He contributed greatly to both the melodrama The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932) and the horror opus Doctor X (1932) and easily stole the proceedings, this time in a comic mode, as the cynical, scandal-sniffing columnist in Blessed Event (1932). Columbia Studios decided to get in on the action with a three-picture deal. Tracy played a no-holds-barred politico in Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932), the title role in The Night Mayor (1932) and an ex-con in Carnival (1935). In between, however, trouble started brewing with his unrestrained night life and patterned absences from the set.
A fourth big studio, MGM, took him on in 1933 with a contract boost despite his "bad boy" reputation, yet more personality problems surfaced. Despite excellent performances in such films as Clear All Wires! (1933), The Nuisance (1933), Turn Back the Clock (1933), Advice to the Forlorn (1933), and the MGM classics Dinner at Eight (1933) and Bombshell (1933), both showcasing MGM's comedic sex siren Jean Harlow, Tracy went too far. During the filming of Viva Villa! (1934) in Mexico City, Tracy displayed shocking, ungentlemanly behavior that resulted in fisticuffs with the law and a high-profile arrest on public morals charges. MGM not only kicked Tracy off the picture but felt compelled to apologize publicly to the Mexican people for his disrespect and terminate the actor's five-year contract.
Tracy freelanced thereafter, often for RKO, but the quality of his pictures began to slide and his constant rash of quicksilver reporters, columnists and press agents had worn out their welcome. He returned to the stage in both New York ("Bright Star") and London ("Idiot's Delight") and was warmly received. In the midst of it all, he married Helen Thoms Wyse, a nonprofessional, in 1938 and, defying all odds, made the marriage work. She survived him by thirty years.
With his last postwar film at the time being High Tide (1947), Tracy's looks had hardened dramatically and he looked at TV being a possible medium for his talents. Throughout the '50s and early '60s, he appeared on a number of shows, including "Kraft Television Theatre", "Wagon Train" and "Ben Casey". He also took on series leads, such as The Amazing Mr. Malone (1951), Martin Kane (1949), and New York Confidential (1959). And there was always the stage.
Tracy's last hurrah, both on Broadway and in film, was Gore Vidal's blistering political drama The Best Man (1964). Recreating his 1961 Tony-nominated role of the crusty, terminally ill U.S. president, he received his only Oscar nod for this standout part. The rest of his working years went by with less distinction. In the summer of 1968 he was diagnosed with liver cancer and succumbed to the illness on October 18 of that year in a Santa Monica hospital.- Liz Renay's extraordinary life could almost be a movie script. Raised by fanatically religious parents, she ran away from home to win a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest, and become a showgirl during World War II. She eventually became a "moll" to Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen, and when he was arrested she refused to co-operate with the authorities and was sentenced to three years in Terminal Island prison, where she wrote her autobiography. On release she became a stripper and self-publicist, performing the first mother-and-daughter strip and the first grandmother to streak down Hollywood Boulevard.
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Lloyd Owen was born in Westminster, London, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), Miss Potter (2006) and Apollo 18 (2011). He is married to Juliette Mole. They have two children.- Music Artist
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Loretta Lynn was born on 14 April 1932 in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, USA. She was a music artist and actress, known for The New Mutants (2020), High Crimes (2002) and Logan Lucky (2017). She was married to Oliver Lynn. She died on 4 October 2022 in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
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Lothaire Bluteau was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Vikings (2013), Black Robe (1991) and Jesus of Montreal (1989).- Actress
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Lydia Clarke came to Chicago in 1941, at the age of 18, and graduated from Northwestern University in 1945. She worked in summer stock at the Belfry Theater in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and with the University Players at Northwestern. After graduating, she had four years of professional experience in the east, and in late December, 1949 and into January of 1950, she was back in Chicago on stage at the Blackstone Theater, playing Mary McLeod, wife of the hard-minded detective, played by Chester Morris, in Sidney Kingsley's "Detective Story."- Mahito Tsujimura was born on 14 April 1930 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love (1978) and Porco Rosso (1992). He died on 27 November 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
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Manno Charlemagne was born on 14 April 1948 in Port Au Prince, Haiti. He was an actor and composer, known for The Truth About Charlie (2002), Kenbe la, jusqu'à la victoire (2019) and Rezistans (1997). He died on 10 December 2017 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Producer
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Marc Platt was born on 14 April 1957 in Pikesville, Maryland, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for La La Land (2016), Cruella (2021) and The Girl on the Train (2016). He has been married to Julie Beren since 1 July 1979. They have five children.- Actress
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Maria João Abreu was born on 14 April 1964 in Lisbon, Portugal. She was an actress and writer, known for A Mãe é que Sabe (2016), Golpe de Sorte (2019) and Submissão (2020). She was married to João Soares and José Raposo. She died on 13 May 2021 in Almada, Portugal.