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- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for El Pollo Loco.
Pitt's earliest credited roles were in television, starting on the daytime soap opera Another World (1964) before appearing in the recurring role of Randy on the legendary prime time soap opera Dallas (1978). Following a string of guest appearances on various television series through the 1980s, Pitt gained widespread attention with a small part in Thelma & Louise (1991), in which he played a sexy criminal who romanced and conned Geena Davis. This led to starring roles in badly received films such as Johnny Suede (1991) & Cool World (1992).
But Pitt's career hit an upswing with his casting in A River Runs Through It (1992), which cemented his status as an multi-layered actor as opposed to just a pretty face. Pitt's subsequent projects were as quirky and varied in tone as his performances, ranging from his unforgettably comic cameo as stoner roommate Floyd in True Romance (1993) to romantic roles in such visually lavish films as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) and Legends of the Fall (1994), to an emotionally tortured detective in the horror-thriller Se7en (1995). His portrayal of frenetic oddball Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) won him a Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Pitt's portrayal of Achilles in the big-budget period drama Troy (2004) helped establish his appeal as an action star and was closely followed by a co-starring role in the stylish spy-versus-spy flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). It was on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith that Pitt, who married Jennifer Aniston in a highly publicized ceremony in 2000, met Angelina Jolie. Pitt left Aniston for Jolie in 2005, a break-up that continues to fuel tabloid stories years after its occurrence.
He continues to wildly vary his film choices, appearing in everything from high-concept popcorn flicks such as Megamind (2010) to adventurous critic-bait like Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Tree of Life (2011). He has received two Best Actor Oscar nominations, for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). In 2014, he starred in the war film Fury (2014), opposite Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Peña.
Pitt and Jolie have 6 children, 3 adopted & 3 biological.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.
Since then, Tarantino has helmed several critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named 'The Kids'. When he married Lori A. Depp, he took a job as a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger.
In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.
Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. The film's enormous success has opened several doors for his career and included an Oscar nomination. He appeared as the central character in the Stephen King-based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet; and Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004). Depp collaborated again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and later in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Off-screen, Depp has dated several female celebrities, and has been engaged to Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He was married to Lori Anne Allison in 1983, but divorced her in 1985. Depp has two children with his former long-time partner, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and John Christopher "Jack" III, born in 2002. He married actress/producer Amber Heard in 2015, divorcing a few years later.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Vanessa Lynne Williams was born on March 18, 1963 in Tarrytown, Greenburgh, New York and raised in Millwood, New Castle, New York to Helen Williams & Milton Williams, both music teachers. Vanessa and her brother
grew up in suburban New York in comfortable surroundings. Vanessa sang
and danced in school productions and signed her high school yearbook
with a promise to "see you on Broadway". After winning a performing
scholarship to Syracuse University, she left school and tried to make
it in New York show business. She began entering beauty contests in
1984, eventually winning Miss New York and then becoming the first
African-American Miss America. During her reign, some nude girl-girl
photos, taken while she was in New York, surfaced in Penthouse
magazine. Although the photos were taken before her beauty contest
victories, she was forced to resign her crown. Many predicted that her
future in show business was over. She went on to land a recording contract and
released several albums, including "The Comfort Zone" and "The
Sweetest Days".
Vanessa made her film debut in 1986 in
Under the Gun (1987) and appeared
in the films
The Pick-up Artist (1987),
Another You (1991) and
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991).
She starred opposite
Arnold Schwarzenegger in
Eraser (1996), opposite
Laurence Fishburne and
Andy Garcia in
Hoodlum (1997) and the box office hit,
Soul Food (1997). She also starred in
Dance with Me (1998),
Light It Up (1999),
Shaft (2000), opposite
Samuel L. Jackson and
Johnson Family Vacation (2004).
She starred recently in the independent features,
My Brother (2006) and
And Then Came Love (2007) (aka
"Somebody Like You"). On television, Vanessa starred in such movies and
mini-series as
Stompin' at the Savoy (1992),
The Kid Who Loved Christmas (1990),
The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992),
ABC's revival of
Bye Bye Birdie (1995),
Nothing Lasts Forever (1995),
The Odyssey (1997),
Don Quixote (2000) and
Keep the Faith, Baby (2002),
and she executive-produced and starred in Lifetime's
The Courage to Love (2000)
for Lifetime and the VH1 Original Movie,
A Diva's Christmas Carol (2000).
Her albums "The Right Stuff", "The Comfort Zone and "The Sweetest Days"
earned multiple Grammy nominations and have yielded the
Academy Award-winning single "Colors of the Wind", from Disney's
Pocahontas: The Musical Tradition Continues (1995).
Her recordings also include two holiday albums,
"Star Bright" and "Silver & Gold", "Vanessa Williams Greatest Hits: The
First Ten Years" and "Everlasting Love", a romantic collection of love
songs from the
1970's. In 1994, Vanessa took Broadway by storm when she replaced Chita Rivera
in "Kiss of the Spider Woman", winning the hearts of critics and
becoming a box-office sensation. She garnered rave reviews and was
nominated for a Tony Award for the 2002 revival of "Into the Woods".
She also headlined a limited special engagement of the classic, "Carmen
Jones", at the Kennedy Center and starred in the Encore! Series staged
concert production of "St. Louis Woman".
She stars in ABC's critically-acclaimed hit series,
Ugly Betty (2006), for which she
has won or been nominated for numerous individual and ensemble awards,
including the Emmy, SAG Award, Golden Globe and NAACP Image Awards.
Vanessa achieved a career pinnacle, with a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame for her accomplishments as a performer. Her charitable
endeavors are many and varied, embracing and supporting such
organizations as Special Olympics and many others.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
David Thewlis was born David Wheeler in 1963 in Blackpool, Lancashire, to Maureen (Thewlis) and Alec Raymond Wheeler, and lived with his
parents above their combination wallpaper and toy shop during his childhood. Originally, he came to London with his band Door 66, however
he changed his plans and entered Guildhall School of Drama.
He had minor roles in films and TV until he took the main role in Naked (1993). The film won him several awards including the New York Critics Award. He has since been in many other films including DragonHeart (1996), Restoration (1995), Black Beauty (1994) and he took the part of Professor Remus John Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and its sequels.
Recently, he starred in the third season of FX's Fargo (2014).
He lived with the British actress Anna Friel from 2001-2010. They have a daughter, Gracie Ellen Mary, born July 9, 2005.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Natasha Jane Richardson was born in Marylebone, London, England, to director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave. She was the sister of actress Joely Richardson, the niece of actors Corin Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, and the granddaughter of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.
Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson
performed extensively on stage in roles, including "Helena" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Ophelia in "Hamlet" at the Young Vic. In 1986, she garnered the London Drama Critics' Most Promising Newcomer Award for her performance as "Nina" in "The Seagull", with Vanessa Redgrave and
Jonathan Pryce. In 1987, she played "Tracey Lord" in Richard Eyre's musical, "High Society".
Natasha made her feature film debut as Mary Shelley in
Ken Russell's Gothic (1986). Her performance caught the
attention of director Paul Schrader, who cast her in the
title role in Patty Hearst (1988). Natasha achieved notable success in such films as Pat O'Connor's A Month in the Country (1987),
Roland Joffé's Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) and
The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1991), featuring Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum. For her performance in
Volker Schlöndorff's The Handmaid's Tale (1990) and Schrader's
The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Richardson earned The London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1990; and for Widows' Peak (1994),
also starring Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright, she received the Best Actress Award at the 1994 Karlovy Vary Festival.
Also in 1994, she co-starred with Jodie Foster
and Liam Neeson in
Nell (1994) and, in 1998, in
The Parent Trap (1998) with
Dennis Quaid. Her early 2000s films include
Blow Dry (2001) released in 2001, and
Ethan Hawke's
Chelsea Walls (2001).
Natasha performed the title role of "Anna Christie", first
in London, where she was voted London Drama Critics' Best Actress Award
in 1992, then on Broadway at the Roundabout in 1993, where she was
nominated for a Tony for Best Actress in a Play, a Theatre World Award
for Outstanding Debut, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding
Debut of an Actress, and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress. For
her performance as Sally Bowles in
Sam Mendes' production of "Cabaret",
she won the 1998 Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Drama
Desk Awards for Best Actress in a Musical. She then appeared on
Broadway in Patrick Marber's
Tony-nominated play "Closer". In December 2009 she had been intended to
play "Miss Julie" on Broadway with
Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed
by David Leveaux for Roundabout Theatre.
Richardson's television credits included
Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" for the BBC, also
starring Judi Dench,
Michael Gambon and
Kenneth Branagh; the HBO cable feature
Hostages (1992); the BBC film
Suddenly, Last Summer (1993),
based on the play by
Tennessee Williams, and also starring
Maggie Smith and
Rob Lowe. In 1993 she starred as Zelda
Fitzgerald in the TNT movie
Zelda (1993), co-starring
Timothy Hutton and directed by Pat
O'Connor (cable Ace nomination for Best Actress). She played
Ruth Gruber in the 2001 CBS mini-series
Haven (2001) based on Ms.
Gruber's autobiography.
In March 2009, Natasha died in a New York City hospital, after falling and receiving a head
injury whilst skiing in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. Natasha was married to actor Liam Neeson from 1994 until her death, and the couple have two children.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Phoebe Belle Cates was born on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York, and raised there. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates, who was a Broadway producer and television pioneer. Her uncle was director/producer Gilbert Cates. Phoebe is of Russian Jewish, and one quarter Chinese, descent. She studied at Miss Hewitt's school and at the Professional Children's School in New York City. She took classes at Juilliard when she was ten-years-old for three and a half years until a knee injury forced her to stop. Phoebe had been a busy New York model starting at the age of fourteen. She's since been featured on the covers of four Seventeens, two Elle covers, a British Vogue, and Andy Warhol's Interview, as well as in numerous layouts in other magazines. She actively pursued her modeling career, until she met her film agent at a party at New York's Studio 54. She trains with Robert Ravan, founder of The Actors' Circle in New York. Previously she studied with Alice Spivack of the H.B. Studios. Cates made her motion picture debut as Sarah in Paradise (1982) in the same year she starred as Jennifer Jason Leigh's "experienced" confidante in Amy Heckerling's acclaimed Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Cates then landed the role of "Christine Ramsey" in Private School (1983), then co-starred in the innovative Gremlins (1984) for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, directed by Joe Dante. Cates has remained active in theatre, as well. After making her New York debut in Joseph Papp's Off-Broadway production of "The Nest of the Wood Grouse" in 1984, she followed with David Henry Hwang's "Rich Relations" at The Second Stage and a one-act festival at the Manhattan Punchline. On the West Coast, Cates played "Nina" in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Anton Chekhov's "The Sea Gull" and has since appeared in "Much Ado About Nothing" at New York's Public Theatre, and as "Juliet" in Chicago's Goodman Theatre production of "Romeo and Juliet".
Since 1989, Cates has been married to actor Kevin Kline, with whom she has two children.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Elisabeth Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Anne Brewster
(Wells), who worked for the Chemical Banking Corporation, and James
William Shue, a lawyer and real estate developer. She is of German and
English ancestry, including descent from Mayflower passengers. Shue's
parents divorced while she was in the fourth grade. Owing to the
occupational demands of her parents, Shue and her siblings found plenty
of time to get into trouble in their suburban neighborhood, but
Elisabeth soon enrolled in Wellesley College, an all-female institution
which kept her out of trouble.
During her studies, she found a way to make a little extra money by
acting in television commercials. Elisabeth became a common sight in
ads for Burger King, DeBeers diamonds, and Hellman's mayonnaise. In
1984, she landed a role in the
The Karate Kid (1984) as the
on-screen girlfriend of
Ralph Macchio and a role as the
teenage daughter of a military family in the short-lived series
Call to Glory (1984). At this
time, Shue got herself an acting coach and transferred to Harvard,
where she began studying political science.
She continued her acting work with
Adventures in Babysitting (1987),
Cocktail (1988),
Soapdish (1991) and
The Marrying Man (1991).
Unfortunately, time was catching up with the impressive girl-next-door.
Her brother Andrew Shue had almost eclipsed
her own fame by landing a starring role in the hit TV series
Melrose Place (1992). It was at
this time that Elisabeth took a chance on a low-budget, high-risk
project entitled
Leaving Las Vegas (1995),
directed by Mike Figgis. Her gutsy portrayal
of a prostitute mixed up with a suicidal alcoholic paid off as she was
recognized with a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards that
year. This was the turning point of her career. What followed was a
barrage of film roles, including
The Saint (1997),
Woody Allen's
Deconstructing Harry (1997),
Palmetto (1998) and
Hollow Man (2000).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Dave Foley dropped out of an alternative high school to do stand-up
comedy. He met Kevin McDonald at an improv class and, while employed as movie
ushers, they began working as a comedy team. In 1984 they merged with
another team to form "The Kids in the Hall". Foley made his film debut
at 22 as the lead in the Canadian film High Stakes (1986).- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Paula Pell was born on 15 April 1963 in Joliet, Illinois, USA. She is a writer and actress, known for Saturday Night Live (1975), Inside Out (2015) and 30 Rock (2006). She has been married to Janine Brito since 13 November 2020.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Dermot Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to Ellen and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova. Since being discovered at Northwestern University by a Hollywood talent
agent 28 years ago, Mulroney has been seen in over 70 films.
Mulroney is a classically trained cellist who began playing in
Alexandria, Virginia's public school system when he was 7 years old. He
plays with the scoring orchestras on many films for Academy Award
winning composers such as James Newton Howard and Michael Giacchino.- Actor
- Producer
- Animation Department
Jason Isaacs was born in Liverpool. He studied law at Bristol University but fell in love with the theatre and directed, produced and appeared in dozens of productions there, at the National Student Theatre Festival and at the Edinburgh Festival. He graduated in 1985 but then attended the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began working in 1988.
Jason's notable roles include Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, Mr. Darling/Captain Hook in Peter Pan (2003), and many soldiers: Col. William Tavington in Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (2000), Captain Steele in Ridley Scott's Blackhawk Down, Major Briggs in Paul Greengrass's Green Zone, Captain Waggoner in Fury, Captain Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery, Field Marshall Zhukov in Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin and Rear-Admiral Godfrey in John Madden's Operation Mincemeat. He was Hap in the cult series The OA, Maurice in the WW2 film Good (2008) and Jay in the multi-award winning MASS. He has made many TV series in Britain and the US and has won or been nominated for a Golden Globe, International Emmy, BAFTA, Critics Choice, Peabody, Satellite and many other awards.
On stage he was Louis Ironson in the original productions of Angels in America parts 1 and 2 for the Royal National Theatre and has performed at the Royal Court, Almeida and West End Theatres.
Jason is married to documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, who he met at drama school and with whom he has two children.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ming-Na ("enlightenment") was born on the island of Macau, forty miles
from Hong Kong. Her mother, Lin Chan Wen, divorced her father when
Ming-Na was only a toddler. She has an older brother named Jonathan.
After the divorce, they moved to Hong Kong where her mother became a
nurse. There her mother met Soo Lim Yee, a U.S. businessman. They soon
married, and at four years, Ming-Na moved with her family to Queens,
New York. Five years later, they transferred to Yee's hometown of
Pittsburgh where his family runs the Chinatown Inn restaurant. Jonathan
and half-brother, Leong, now manage this restaurant. Struggling to fit
in at school, she changed her name to Maggie & Doris. She found a love
for acting while appearing in a third grade Easter play, where she
played a klutzy bunny. Her mother was not excited about her desire to
pursue acting, She preferred that she go into medicine. Nonetheless,
Ming-Na graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in
theatre. She got her first acting job in 1988 on the soap
As the World Turns (1956).
Her big break came when she was cast in
The Joy Luck Club (1993). When
she needed a ride to the premiere of the film, her acting instructor
sent one of his students,
Eric Michael Zee. The two started
dating in 1994 after Ming-Na moved permanently to Los Angeles and
married in 1995, dropping her last name, Wen, at that time. She says
she is now like Ann-Margret. Zee is a
screenwriter and, with Ming-Na, manages At Last, a boy band.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Having made his feature film debut starring in the teen comedy Cavegirl
Daniel Roebuck quickly realized that there was only one direction to
travel in his career. Up!
Soon after Cavegirl, Roebuck established himself as one of the
industry's youngest character actors with his haunting portrayal as the
teenage killer, Samson in The River's Edge.
Daniel Roebuck was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, A fan of
movies and television from a very early age he was immediately drawn to
the actors and comedians. As his obsession with performing grew his
parents unwittingly fomented his future by gifting him with a cardboard
TV on his seventh Christmas.
At the age of 10, he started performing in talent shows doing
impressions of movie stars he loved. He joined a local circus two years
later and made his debut as one of the youngest clowns in the country.
Roebuck's clown act eventually segued into a magic act and he performed
that throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
It was only a matter of time before Roebuck discovered the theater and
from that point he never looked back. Over the next few years while
still in Pennsylvania, Roebuck continued to hone his craft, acting in,
directing, and even writing over 40 plays. He also began performing
stand up comedy.
Now, nearly 30 years later, Roebuck has amassed a substantial resume as
an actor, writer and director. He has moved easily between all mediums
having continued working on television, in movies and on the stage.
His film credits are myriad, having starred in blockbusters like The
Fugitive, US Marshals,and final Destination, as well as popular titles
including Agent Cody Banks and it's sequel, That's What I Am, Money
Talks, Flash Of Genius and so many more.
Lately, Roebuck has enjoyed working in a number of horror movies - his
favorite genre. He has collaborated with filmmaker Rob Zombie on
Halloween, Halloween 2, Devil's Rejects, and Lords of Salem (as well as
a commercial for AMDRO, the insecticide). He also appeared in Don
Coscarelli's cult favorite Bubba Ho Tep as well as the director's
Reggie's Tales and John Dies At The End.
Daniel has also been a familiar face on television for nearly 3
decades, he was a regular for three seasons on the evergreen hit drama,
Matlock, portraying attorney 'Cliff Lewis," the junior partner of the
law firm headed by Andy Griffith's beloved character, 'Ben Matlock.'
Interestingly, his landing the role was the fulfillment of a promise
made several years earlier with his first appearance on "Matlock" in
its inaugural season. At that time, Roebuck was told that Griffith had
been so impressed with his work that he would be back as a regular on
the show. It took five seasons, two more guest shots as different
characters, and a change of networks, but Griffith kept his promise and
Roebuck indeed became a series regular.
He portrayed the irascible Rick Bettina on many episodes of Nash
Bridges and in the fall of 2003 Daniel returned to series television as
Pete Peterson, the gay owner of a local diner in A Minute With Stan
Hooper.
As a television guest star, Daniel has played countless characters.
Some of his most memorable are a cop who literally turns into a pig on
Grimm, a Romulan on Star Trek, Next Generation, a gun toting hostage
taker on NYPD Blue, a cranky studio owner on Sonny With A Chance and a
grieving father on Glee. He played other memorable roles on New
Adventures of Old Christine, NCIS, Ghost Whisperer, CSI, Boston Legal,
CSI Miami, Law And Order, Desperate Housewives and Hot in Cleveland.
On the popular show, Lost, Roebuck portrayed the infamous Dr. Leslie
Arzt, the aggravating science teacher whose explosive exit in the
finale of the first season remains one of television's most surprising
and talked about moments.
He has starred in dozens of TV Movies. Perhaps his most famous turn was
his critically acclaimed portrayal of Jay Leno in The Late Shift. He
stepped into another pair of famous shoes when he played Garry Marshall
in Behind The Camera; Mork and Mindy, The Unauthorized Story. Other
Movies for television include A Family Lost, A Glimpse Of Hell, Murder
At The Presidio, Shredderman Rules, A Borrowed Life, Quints and many
others. Daniel's voice over work includes Christmas Is Here Again (a
film he also produced),The Haunted World Of El Super Beasto and the
groundbreaking video game, L.A. Noire.
The theater remains Roebuck's first love and he has continued that
passion in the Los Angeles area. He appeared in the world premiers of
Sarcophagus and Crooks. He has also starred in No Time For Sergeants,
Here Lies Jeremy Troy, Arsenic and Old Lace and The Man Who Came To
Dinner among others. In 2006 Daniel founded THE Saint Francis Stage
Company.
Behind the camera, Roebuck has produced, written and
directed/co-directed a number of documentaries including Halloween: The
Happy Haunting of America and it's sequel as well as Goolians,
Movieland Memories and a number of documentaries for the Monsterama
series.
Daniel has fulfilled nearly every dream of his childhood like appearing
in Mad Magazine, becoming a toy and a Halloween mask and having his mug
on a few trading cards.
When not performing, Roebuck writes articles about Horror Movies,
raises two children, teaches The Audition is the Job Experience and
mentors young actors.- Actress
- Producer
Gail Ann O'Grady an American actress and producer, is best known for her roles on television. Her roles include Donna Abandando in the ABC police drama NYPD Blue, and Helen Pryor in the NBC drama series American Dreams. O'Grady is also well known for her lead roles in a number of television movies. She has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Awards three times.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Hardly the dumb blonde of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Lisa was born in Encino, California on July 30, 1963. Her mother, Nedra S. (Stern), worked as a travel agent, and her father, Lee N. Kudrow, is a physician. Her parents are both from Jewish families (from Belarus, Russia, and Hungary). Lisa was raised in Tarzana and played varsity-level tennis in high school and college, and is a pool shark who has mastered some of the more difficult trick shots (so beware). She graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychobiology. At first, she wanted to pursue a career in research, so she returned to Los Angeles to begin working with her father. However, Lisa got inspired to perform by one of her brother's friends, comedian Jon Lovitz, and so the tall (5' 8") blonde-haired, green-eyed beauty entered show biz. Lisa auditioned for the improv theater group, The Groundlings, based in Los Angeles. Cynthia Szigeti, a well-known improv teacher, took Lisa under her wing. In that class, Lisa became a friend of Conan O'Brien. Graduating with honors in 1989, Lisa became a full-fledged member of The Groundlings. Breaking into TV, she got a recurring role as Ursula, the ditsy waitress on Mad About You (1992). This led to her starring role on Friends (1994). In the debut season (1994-95) of Friends (1994), Lisa earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; in 1998, she won that award for her role as Phoebe, the ditsy but lovable folk singer. Lisa has also been nominated for Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and American Comedy Awards for her performances.
Lisa made the transition to the big screen with a lot of success. In 1997, she starred opposite Oscar winner Mira Sorvino in the above-mentioned Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997). Lisa garnered more praise for her film work when she got the New York Film Critics Award for her starring role in The Opposite of Sex (1998).
Lisa married Michel Stern, an advertising executive, on May 27, 1995. On May 7, 1998, they were blessed with a son, Julian Murray; they live in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two college professors, Lauren Michael Holly grew up in the upstate New York town of Geneva. Her childhood was split between experiences that contrasted. She was privy to the shelter of growing up in a rural town and also exposed due to the erudite sophistication of her parents' academic careers. She spent time traveling in Europe and lived for a year in London, where she studied languages and flute at the famed Sarah Siddons School. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County, New York, Holly credits her love of acting to her great-grandmother who bred a family tradition of "treading the boards" on the musical theatre stages of Liverpool and London.
Holly's breakthrough motion picture performance came in the New Line Cinema's box-office smash, Dumb and Dumber (1994), with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Lauren captured the hearts of audiences, as "Mary Swanson", the woman who drove Jim Carrey to follow her across the country to pledge his love. Next, she received glowing reviews for her performance in the Edward Burns drama, No Looking Back (1998), as a woman whose life in a small seaside community is turned upside down by the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend. Other film credits include Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday", Sydney Pollack's "Sabrina", the action-drama "Turbulence", the Miramax ensemble "Beautiful Girls", "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story", "A Smile Like Yours", "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane", "Down Periscope", "Entropy" and "The Last Producer". On television, Holly recently starred in two films for Hallmark. She also boasts three seasons as Director Jenny Shepard in NCIS, opposite Mark Harmon. Holly was seen in the TNT movie "King of Texas", an adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear", playing opposite Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden and renowned actor Patrick Stewart, and in the NBC miniseries "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot". She also starred on David E. Kelley's drama, "Chicago Hope", marking her second project with Kelley, following their successful collaboration on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series, "Picket Fences".
Holly has worked on numerous Independent films, including the political thriller "Fatwa", in which she not only acted but also served as a producer, the Peter Schwaba penned and directed comedy "Godfather of Green Bay", "The Chumscrubber", "Pleasure Drivers", a Lifetime movie "Caught in the Act" (which she also produced), and "Chasing 3000". Most recently, she starred in "You're So Cupid". Additional projects contributing to the broad and diverse body of motion picture work Lauren has compiled include the drama "Colored Eggs" with Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway, the comedy "Raising Flagg" playing opposite Academy Award winner Alan Arkin, the Darrell Roodt directed HBO thriller, "Pavement" (co-starring Robert Patrick), and "What Women Want" (starring Academy Award winners Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt). She had a prime role in Disney's Academy Award-winning animated motion picture "Spirited Away" as the voice of Chihiro's Mother. Thrice divorced, as of 2014, Holly makes her home in Toronto, Canada, with her sons: Alexander, George, and Henry.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Helen Hunt began studying acting at the age of eight with her father,
respected director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. A year later she made her
professional debut and afterwards worked steadily in films, theatre and
television.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 10, 1963, Jeanne Marie Tripplehorn developed
an interest in performing through her father, guitarist
Tom Tripplehorn, who at one time
recorded with the pop group
Gary Lewis & The Playboys on
such hits as "This Diamond Ring". (Note: many references list Jeanne's
father's birth date as February 2, 1949, but this seems unlikely as he
would have been only 14 years old when she was born). Graduating
from Edison High School, Jeanne began her career as a local radio and
TV host.
Educated at both the University of Tulsa and the drama division of The
Juilliard School in New York City, she made her major TV debut in a
supporting role in The Perfect Tribute (1991),
a fictional story that centered around President
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address. The next year she made a big splash with her second lead, in
Paul Verhoeven's thriller Basic Instinct (1992), in support
of Michael Douglas. In this
movie, which made a sex star out of
Sharon Stone, Jeanne's weird
psychiatrist role established her as a talent to be reckoned with,
although a torrid sex scene with Douglas certainly helped. She earned a
huge break when she replaced a pregnant
Robin Wright in the role of
Tom Cruise's wife in the box-office smash
The Firm (1993). Her smart work in this
film afforded her the opportunity to work opposite other "top guns" in
the industry, including Kevin Costner in
the futuristic Waterworld (1995),
Gwyneth Paltrow in
Sliding Doors (1998) and
Hugh Grant in
Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). While
none of these roles impressed to a great degree, they nevertheless put
her in good standing. Reaching into her versatile bag of tricks, she
went on to play everything from a lesbian gangster in
Mike Figgis' experimental film, Timecode (2000), to a love interest of
left-wing activist Abbie Hoffman in
Steal This Movie (2000).
On stage, the lady with the strikingly open face and penetrating glare
made her Broadway bow in the role of "Masha" in
Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters", opposite Amy Irving and
Lili Taylor. Prior to this, she appeared off-Broadway in
John Patrick Shanley's "The Big Funk" in 1990, then co-starred with
Val Kilmer in a 1993 production of John Ford's 1630s play, "'Tis Pity She's a Whore". In 2002, Jeanne was one of a revolving door of guest stars to appear in the Actor's Alley play "The Guys", a tribute to the valiant firefighters of the 9/11 attack. On television, Jeanne appeared
less frequently but did star, opposite Arliss Howard, in a superlative
TV-movie adaptation of William Faulkner's
Old Man (1997).
Back in the 1990s, she maintained a roller coaster relationship with actor/writer Ben Stiller. Engaged at one point in 1993, she even appeared on his early '90s TV show, The Ben Stiller Show (1992), on occasion. But the union broke up after six years. In 2000, Jeanne married actor Leland Orser of TV's ER (1994) fame. They appeared together in the TV movie Brother's Keeper (2002) and the films Very Bad Things (1998) and Morning (2010), the latter one written and directed by Orser. The couple has one son, August Tripplehorn Orser, born in 2002.
Jeanne's career on TV has deservedly been on an upswing of late as the senior wife of polygamist Bill Paxton's three live-ins in the HBO,
drama, Big Love (2006); as Jackie Kennedy Onassis in the TV movie Grey Gardens (2009); after joining the cast as Alex Blake in the series Criminal Minds (2005); and as Eleanor Schlafly in the political mini-series Mrs. America (2020) starring Cate Blanchett.
Into the millennium, Jeanne has also graced such films as Relative Values (2000), the Madonna misfire Swept Away (2002), The Amateurs (2005), Winged Creatures (2008), Crazy on the Outside (2010) and Ana (2020), as well as co-starring roles in Little Pink House (2017) with Catherine Keener and We Only Know So Much (2018) with Damian Young.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Kenny Johnson is an American actor whose celebrated range, depth and sincerity has only been magnified by starring opposite Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winners and nominees, such as Anthony Hopkins, Vera Farmiga, Holly Hunter, Juliette Lewis, Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker, Maria Bello, and Michael Chiklis, among others. Johnson can be seen in a barrage of critically acclaimed series, from Dexter (2006) to Bates Motel (2013), and from Sons of Anarchy (2008) to Secrets and Lies (2015). His portrayal of Detective Curtis Lemansky on The Shield (2002) won him a substantial fanbase struck by his character's strong but sensitive personality. Johnson's future only brightened - now consistently in demand as an actor who embraces his characters, protects them and fights with them to further not only their stories, but the stories of the actors around him.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
After this feisty, highly offbeat actress from Chattanooga,
Tennessee, broke into TV in the 1980s, she immediately set herself
apart from the norm with a prime role as new owner Bud Cort's female friend in the bizarre mini-movie Bates Motel (1987).
This rather inauspicious beginning would also set Lori Petty off on a career as a
kinetic fighter and a misfit, types for which she would be best known.
Lori was born on October 14, 1963, and spent her childhood traveling the US with her father, a Pentecostal
minister. Her keen talents first lent themselves toward being a graphic
artist in Omaha, Nebraska, but an impulsive desire to act quickly took
precedence and soon she was off to New York, where she took acting
classes and pounded the pavement for jobs.
Going nowhere fast, she eventually headed for Los Angeles and finally found an "in".
Following a number of mediocre TV roles, she won a bit of attention on the
short-lived series Booker (1989) as a lippy secretary, then hit pay dirt in
secondary roles as an outrageous Cyndi Lauper wannabe in Cadillac Man (1990) and as
Patrick Swayze's ex-girlfriend/waitress who hooks up with Keanu Reeves in Point Break (1991).
It looked like mainstream stardom might happen for the tomboy actress,
especially after getting cast as Geena Davis' bratty baseball-playing
sister in the highly successful A League of Their Own (1992). However, while Lori proved to be an intriguing, kooky sort, she also proved more difficult to cast. Such disparate roles as a kind-hearted animal trainer in Free Willy (1993) and the sole female recruit in
Pauly Shore's inane comedy In the Army Now (1994) only proved the point.
She seemed bent towards playing scrappy, hard-edged figures alongside the big action guys but
started off on the wrong foot when she was replaced by Sandra Bullock in
Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man (1993) due to "artistic differences". She did play a lone female cop in the thriller The Glass Shield (1994), then found her true calling as the bizarre cartoon heroine Tank Girl (1995), which was billed as "a post-apocalyptic comedy." Playing along the same hard lines, Lori portrayed an FBI agent who teams up with a Tokyo policewoman Yûki Amami in the crime thriller Countdown (1996); played a butch lesbian in the social comedy Relax... It's Just Sex (1998); and an aggressive, tough-talking stripper at odds with the Mafia in the potboiler The Arrangement (1999). She ended the decade on TV as Max, a motel clerk, in the crime drama fantasy series Brimstone (1998).
Into the millennium, the crop-haired, tough-as-nails actress continued to take it to the limit. Following roles in the action films Firetrap (2001) and Route 666 (2001), Lori co-starred alongside the similarly tough-styled Gina Gershon in Prey for Rock & Roll (2003) as members of a punk rock band. She later starred in the creature vs. human horror opus Cryptid (2006); had a small part (First Murderer) in a contemporary Hollywood updating of Shakespeare's Richard III (2007); a deputy in the cross-country sports movie Chasing 3000 (2010); a doctor in the horror thriller Dead Awake (2016); a starring role as a lady Marine in Fear, Love, and Agoraphobia (2018); and a campy role in the low-budget horror flick A Deadly Legend (2020).
On TV, Lori would be seen as a guest in such shows as "The Beast," "NYPD Blue," "CSI: NY," "Masters of Horror," "House," "Prison Break," "Hawaii Five-0," and, more notably, in the recurring and amusing role of loony, paranoiac Lolly in the women's prison series Orange Is the New Black (2013). On the other side of the camera, the still-single Lori wrote and directed the film The Poker House (2008) starring Jennifer Lawrence, a re-dramatization of Lori's teenage years in Iowa. The film earned awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Jennifer Beals is an internationally renowned actress who has over 90 credits to her name, including critically acclaimed feature films and some of the highest rated television series to date. Beals is currently executive producing and returning as a lead cast member in the revival of her hit original series THE L WORD: GENERATION Q. The highly anticipated series will launch in December 2019 on Showtime. The ground-breaking lesbian-focused drama THE L WORD originally aired for six seasons. For her performance as Bette Porter, Beals received the prestigious GLAAD Golden Gate Award, as well as two NAACP Image Award nominations and a Satellite Award nomination. In 2012, Beals was presented with the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality Award for her support of the LGBT community. Additionally, Beals and The L Word's Ilene Chaiken are set to executive produce the Freeform series "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo," an adaption for Taylor Jenkins Reid's acclaimed novel.
Beals and filmmaker Tom Jacobson created the concept for the new novel, The Hive. The book is a gripping thriller set in the near future that focuses on escalating mob violence that ensues from online shaming and internet bullying. Released in September 2019, the novel was named one of People Magazine's 'Best Books of Fall 2019.'
Throughout her accomplished film career, Beals has worked with many of the industry's most acclaimed filmmakers and talent. She co-starred alongside Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman in the blockbuster THE BOOK OF ELI and starred opposite Garry Marshall, Faye Dunaway and Brendan Fraser in TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS, for which she won a Golden Satellite Award. Beals was featured among an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and Rachel Weisz in the crime thriller RUNAWAY JURY. She also starred in THE MADONNA AND THE DRAGON from legendary film director Samuel Fuller. More recently, Beals co-starred in the feature film MANHATTAN NIGHT, opposite Adrien Brody and Campbell Scott, as well as AFTER, the film adaption of Anna Todd's series of bestselling young adult novels alongside Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
On the television side, Beals recurred in the Amazon series THE LAST TYCOON, receiving critical acclaim for her performance as Hollywood starlet Margo Taft. Los Angeles Magazine proclaimed "Beals stole every scene she's in as a ball-busting, piece-of-work Joan Crawford goddess with a very American secret" and Indiewire named her "the shows biggest stand out." Beals was also seen as the female lead in TAKEN, NBC's straight-to-series adaptation of the hit movie franchise, and co-starred in the Warner Bros TV/DC series SWAMP THING, released in May 2019. Beals starred in the TV movie A WIFE'S NIGHTMARE, for which she received a Canadian Screen Award nomination. Notable television credits include TNT's PROOF, NBC's medical drama THE NIGHT SHIFT and the FOX series THE CHICAGO CODE alongside Jason Clarke.
For her role in the iconic film FLASHDANCE, Beals earned a Golden Globe nomination and an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress. Beals starred in A HOUSE DIVIDED, for which she was nominated for a Satellite Award. Some of her acclaimed independent film projects include IN THE SOUP opposite Steve Buscemi, which won The Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival, and CINEMANOVELS which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Beals extensive credits include films such as RODGER DODGER, MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE, FOUR ROOMS, BEFORE I FALL and DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, which earned her another NAACP Image Award nomination. Beals received the Maverick Tribute Award at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival in 1999.
In addition to her work on-camera, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group recently named Beals a 'C40 Goodwill Ambassador.' Beals' partnership with C40 will help raise awareness about the bold climate action underway in leading cities driving forward solutions to the climate crisis worldwide. Through her ambassador role, she will support and amplify the voices of inspiring young climate activists in raising awareness of the current climate emergency. Additionally, Beals will also play a leading role in C40's Women4Climate Initiative, helping to celebrate the incredible leadership being delivered by women around the world in climate action.
Originally from Chicago, Beals attended Yale University, where she graduated with honors.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Brian Robbins is President of Kids & Family Entertainment for ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks, with oversight of all strategy, creative and business operations for the company's kids and young-adult focused brands including Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nickelodeon Studios and Awesomeness. He also has purview over The Nick Experience, Nickelodeon's experiential division which includes live shows, as well as Nick's domestic consumer products business.
Robbins most recently served as President of Nickelodeon, responsible for evolving the global brand leader in kids and family entertainment for a new generation of young audiences by enhancing its robust content offerings and expanding its cultural footprint on next-generation platforms and in film.
Prior to that, Robbins was President of Paramount Players, a production division of Paramount Pictures that develops, produces and markets feature films from original source material and in collaboration with Viacom flagship brands Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET.
Projects led by Robbins under the Paramount Players division include: Nobody's Fool, directed by Tyler Perry and starring Tiffany Haddish; What Men Want directed by Adam Shankman and starring Taraji P. Henson; the adaptation of Trevor Noah's autobiography Born a Crime; and film versions of classic Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and Dora the Explorer, among others.
Prior to establishing Paramount Players, Robbins founded multi-platform media company Awesomeness, which Viacom purchased in July 2018. As Founder & CEO, he drove all Awesomeness creative, producing hit web series and films Expelled, Guidance, Foursome, t@gged, and Freakish, as well as theatrical release Before I Fall.
A prolific producer of television, film and digital media, Robbins is best known for executive producing numerous popular and critical television hits aimed at teens and young audiences, including the long-running CW series Smallville and One Tree Hill; Nickelodeon's All That and Kenan and Kel; Disney Channel's Sonny With a Chance and So Random; and Spike TV's Blue Mountain State. He also produced the popular WB series What I Like About You and HBO's Arli$$.
In feature film, his director and producer credits include Paramount Pictures' Coach Carter, Hardball, Varsity Blues and Good Burger; Disney's Wild Hogs and Shaggy Dog; DreamWorks' A Thousand Words; and Sony's Radio, along with many other works.
Robbins is the recipient of a Directors Guild Award, a Peabody Award, and the Pioneer Prize by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is based in Los Angeles, CA.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
James Mangold is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Films he has directed include Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).
Mangold also wrote and directed Cop Land (1997), starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta.- Michelle was born in July 1965, the second child of publican Brian and nurse Theresa Fairley. As a teenager she attended the Ulster Youth Theatre before moving to Belfast , where she was a member of Fringe Benefit, a repertory company where she acted alongside Conleth Hill, with whom she would later appear in television juggernaut 'Game of Thrones'. In 1986 she came to London and established herself as a considerable stage actress in 'Oleanna 'at the Royal Court, 'Dancing at Lughnasa' at the Old Vic, as Lady Macbeth with the West Yorkshire Playhouse and as Emilia, wife of the villainous Iago in the Donmar Warehouse's production of 'Othello', for which she was nominated for an Olivier award and on the strength of which she was offered the part of the fiercely matriarchal Lady Stark in 'Game of Thrones'. Following that character's demise she appeared in several American television series - '24', 'Suits' and 'The Lizzie Borden Chronicles ' - as well as playing the wife of (Southern) Irish Brendan Gleeson in the epic period film 'In the Heart of the Sea'. In 2015 she returned to Britain to appear in the play 'Splendour' in London and the television series 'Rebellion' chronicling the 1916 Easter Rising.
- Actor
- Producer
British actor Mark Strong, who played Jim Prideaux in the 2011 remake of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), is often cast as cold, calculating villains. But before he became a famous actor, he intended to pursue a career in law.
Strong was born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia in London, England, to an Austrian mother and an Italian father. His father left the family not long after he was born, and his mother worked as an au pair to raise the boy on her own. Strong's mother had his name legally changed, by deed poll, when he was young in order to help him better assimilate with his peers. He became Mark Strong.
Strong attended Wymondham College in Norfolk, and studied at the university level in Munich with the intent of becoming a lawyer. After a year, he returned to London to study English and Drama at Royal Holloway. He went on to further master his craft of at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Although Americans are most familiar with Strong's roles as Sinestro in Green Lantern (2011), mob boss Frank D'Amico in Kick-Ass (2010), and Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes (2009), British audiences know him from his long history as a television actor. He also starred in as numerous British stage productions, including plays at the Royal National Theatre and the RSC.
His most prominent television parts include Prime Suspect 3 (1993) and Prime Suspect: The Last Witness (2003) as Inspector Larry Hall, and starring roles in the BBC Two dramas Our Friends in the North (1996) and The Long Firm (2004), the latter of which netted Strong a BAFTA nomination. He also played Mr. Knightley in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's classic tale Emma (1996).
Strong resides in London with his wife Liza Marshall, with whom he has two sons, the younger of which is the godson of his longtime friend Daniel Craig.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
A more unconventional husky-voiced "scream queen" heroine of the 1980s was Jill Schoelen, daughter of well-known fashion designer Dorothy Schoelen. Born and raised in Burbank, she studied at the Acting for Life Theatre in Burbank and started off on TV as a teen in the Fame-influenced TV pilot called The Best of Times (1981), starring the up-and-coming Nicolas Cage and Crispin Glover. She gained in experience with a number of innocuous films geared mostly toward the young, including D.C. Cab (1983), Thunder Alley (1985) and Hot Moves (1984). The dark-eyed, black-haired pretty girl, with the trademark bangs, wouldn't find her horror niche until starring in Wes Craven's TV movie, Chiller (1985). From there, she scored big with the cult shocker, The Stepfather (1987), wherein she played the resourceful stepdaughter terrorized by the lecherous, meek-appearing Terry O'Quinn as the title monster.
The sleeper hit put Jill on the map with a seemingly solid future, continuing on with The Phantom of the Opera (1989), this time keeping company opposite "Freddy Krueger" inhabiter, Robert Englund, as her deranged pursuer. But a few bumps in the road, with such low-grade fodder as Curse II: The Bite (1989), Cutting Class (1989) and Popcorn (1991), put a permanent damper on her career, despite coming back with a bit of grit in the thriller TV movie, When a Stranger Calls Back (1993). Her object-of-a-stalker days behind her, after filming Not Again! (1996), she settled comfortably back and raised two children with her husband, musician/composer Anthony Marinelli.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Fisher Stevens moved from his native Chicago to New York at the age of
13 to pursue an acting career. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get any
kind of job and was, he recalls, even rejected as extra for a Crest
commercial.
When his acting teacher, Dan Fauci, lost the
lease to his teaching studio, he rented Fisher's loft and built a stage
in the living room. He later studied with
Uta Hagen. His first professional theatrical
production was playing Tiny Tim's brother, Harry, in the musical
version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in the basement of an
off-off-off Broadway theatre when he was 14. Since then he has
performed in more than 20 stage productions including 544 performances
in Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song
Triology", both on and off Broadway. He also played Eugene in
Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach
Memories". Most recently, he played the leads in
Thomas Babe's "Carrying School Children",
"Almost Romance" opposite Helen Slater and
Jules Feiffer's "Little Murders" with
Christine Lahti. He also sang
and danced in the musicals "Miami" by
Wendy Wasserstein and the late
Michael Bennett's Broadway
production of "Scandal" with Swoosie Kurtz
and Treat Williams. He also appeared in
the recent New York City Shakespeare Festival production of "A
Midsummer Nights Dream".
Fisher made his motion picture debut getting his fingers chopped off in
the horror film The Burning (1981)
when he was 16-years-old. After that he appeared in
Baby It's You (1983) and
The Brother from Another Planet (1984).
He co-starred with Matt Dillon in
the hit comedy film
The Flamingo Kid (1984) where he
met the then fledgling producer
Gary Foster. He appeared as sidekick
to Steve Guttenberg's character in
Short Circuit (1986).
In television he has performed in ABC's
Ryan's Hope (1975), Showtime's
Tall Tales & Legends (1985)
and CBS' Early Edition (1996).
Despite having lived in New York City for more than a decade, where,
with some other actors, Stevens has started an off-off-off Broadway
theatre company called Naked Angels, he insists that he is still a fan
of the Chicago Cubs.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Alex Proyas has moved
effortlessly between helming TV commercials and music videos to feature
films. Born to Greek parents in Egypt, Proyas
relocated to Australia with his family when he was three years old. He
began making films at age ten and went on to attend the Australian Film
Television and Radio School along with
Jane Campion and
Jocelyn Moorhouse. Proyas collaborated
with Campion on two of her shorts,
A Girl's Own Story (1984), for
which he wrote and performed a song, and
Passionless Moments (1983),
which he photographed. Proyas' own short,
Groping (1980), had earned him some
attention at festival screenings in Sydney and London. Also while still
a student, the enterprising novice formed Meaningful Eye Contact, a
production company.
Spirits of the Air: Gremlins of the Clouds (1987)
marked Proyas' feature debut as director and screenwriter. Set in a
post-apocalyptic world, the film, with its stylized production design
and aural texture, was atypical of standard Australian fare, more
closely resembling a longform music video. Critics admired the
director's vision, but felt the overall result was lacking. Proyas
continued to hone his craft helming TV advertisements for products like
Nike, Nissan and Swatch (earning kudos from advertising associations in
both Australia and England) and directing videos for such artists as
Sting, INXS and
Crowded House. In 1993 Proyas was tapped
to helm the screen adaptation of
James O'Barr's comic strip
The Crow (1994). During production, star
Brandon Lee died of an accidental
gunshot wound (ironically, the film's story revolves around his
character's resurrection). His death cast a pall over the remainder of
the filming and its subsequent theatrical release, although reviews
were generally favorably, most singling out the production values which
created a colorless rain-soaked wasteland that invoked comparisons with
Ridley Scott's seminal
Blade Runner (1982) and
Tim Burton's
Batman (1989). Made for about $14 million,
it grossed close to $50 million domestically. Proyas seemed set to move
on to other projects and was announced as the director of
Casper (1995), but left the project and
was replaced by Brad Silberling. After a
four-year absence he returned with another thriller,
Dark City (1998), about an amnesiac who
may or may not have been a serial killer.
Garage Days (2002) marked Proyas'
return to his homeland, Australia: the movie tells the story of a young
Sydney garage band desperately trying to make it big in the competitive
world of rock 'n' roll. In 2004 Proyas returned to Hollywood: he
directed I, Robot (2004), a
science-fiction film suggested by the
'Isaac
Asimov' short story compilation of the
same name that starred Will Smith. It
was a box office success, but met with mixed reactions by readers and
fans of the Asimov stories.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Harold Perrineau is an American actor best known for his roles as Michael Dawson on the television series Lost (2004-2008; 2010), Augustus Hill in the television series Oz (1997-2003), Link in The Matrix franchise (2003), and Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). He has also starred in the films Woman on Top (2000), Smoke (1995), The Edge (1997), The Best Man (1999), 28 Weeks Later (2007), and Zero Dark Thirty (2012). His other television credits include Sons of Anarchy (2012), Constantine (2014-2015), Claws (2017-2022), and The Rookie (2019-2021). He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the hit indie film Smoke.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Helen Slater was born in Bethpage, New York, to Alice Joan (Citrin), a lawyer and peace activist, and Gerald Slater, a television executive. She was raised in Massapequa, Long
Island, New York, and is of Eastern European Jewish descent. Appearing in many shows as a child, she attended the
New York High School of Performing Arts, graduating in 1982. Having
made her acting debut in
Amy & the Angel (1982),
co-starring with James Earl Jones and
Matthew Modine. Helen took her career
very seriously. Within months of her graduation, she attended auditions
for the upcoming spin-off of the famous
Superman (1978) franchise,
Supergirl (1984). It was to be shot in
England at Pinewood Studios, where the first "Superman" movies were
filmed. Slater even spoke to
Christopher Reeve about playing a
superhero to assure herself she could do it. After being the first to
present herself for audition, she was cast as the lead in the film and
her career took off.
Although Supergirl (1984) received
mixed reviews, most critics were impressed with Helen's abilities. In
fact, the critics' consensus was that she did a better job at keeping a
secret identity (a mousy schoolgirl) than Reeve did as Clark Kent. In
her next film, she was cast as a modern-day "Joan of Arc" in
The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
with Yeardley Smith and
Peter Coyote. The film, though not
particularly successful, has managed to attract a somewhat cult
following. She next appeared in one of her best-received roles, that of
the female half of the bumbling husband-and-wife team that kidnaps
Bette Midler in the comic blockbuster,
Ruthless People (1986), and
scored again in the hit
The Secret of My Success (1987).
Both roles helped to cement her status as an actress of note. Next, she
and her friend, Melanie Mayron, starred
in the feminist comedy,
Sticky Fingers (1988), a critical
but not financial success. It was in this film and her next,
Happy Together (1989), that she
was able to prove that she could do comedy as well as drama. She went
on to do more feature films such as
City Slickers (1991),
A House in the Hills (1993)
and Lassie (1994), before making regular
appearances on television. Her regional stage credits include
appearances in such plays as "Grease" and "Shakespeare and Friends". On
Broadway, she starred in "Responsible Parties" and "Almost Romance".
She also attended classes at both NYU and UCLA, trying to broaden her
acting abilities. On television, she has appeared in
Caroline in the City (1995),
as well as many others. She also became a spokeswoman for Preference by
L'Oreal in both TV and print ads. She is an accomplished pianist and
now has an album out called "One of These Days". She co-founded the New
York theater group, The Naked Angels, with her friend
Gina Gershon. In 1990, she married
award-winning editor Robert Watzke and
they have a daughter, born in 1995. She stepped out of the limelight
for a couple of years, appearing mainly in the occasional TV show, but
came back strong in 2003, showing moviegoers and TV audiences how great
an entertainer she really is.- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia,
USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age,
his family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father was a professor and
the dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University.
While still in high school, around the age of 15, Soderbergh enrolled
in the university's film animation class and began making short
16-millimeter films with second-hand equipment, one of which was the
short film "Janitor". After graduating high school, he went to
Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance editor. His time there was
brief and, shortly after, he returned home and continued making short
films and writing scripts.
His first major break was in 1986 when the rock group
Yes assigned him to shoot a full-length concert film
for the band, which eventually earned him a Grammy nomination for the
video,
Yes: 9012 Live (1985).
Following this achievement, Soderbergh filmed
Winston (1987), the short-subject film
that he would later expand into
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989),
a film that earned him the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or Award, the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and an Oscar nomination for
Best Original Screenplay. Over the next six years, he was married to
actress Betsy Brantley and had a daughter
named Sarah Soderbergh, who was born in 1990.
Also during this time, he made such films as
Kafka (1991),
King of the Hill (1993),
The Underneath (1995) and
Gray's Anatomy (1996), which many
believed to be disappointments. In 1998, Soderbergh made
Out of Sight (1998), his most
critically and commercially successful film since
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989).
Then, in 2000, Soderbergh directed two major motion pictures that are
now his most successful films to date:
Erin Brockovich (2000) and
Traffic (2000). These films were both
nominated for Best Picture Oscars at the 2001 Academy Awards and gave
him the first twin director Oscar nomination in almost 60 years and the
first ever win. He won the Oscar for Best Director for
Traffic (2000) at the 2001 Oscars.- Hugh Bonneville is a British actor, known for his stage work at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the West End. His extensive film and television work includes Twenty Twelve, W1A, Downton Abbey, Paddington, The Gold and I Came By. See his website hughbonneville.uk for full biography.
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is an American actress and author. She is the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award, winning at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (1973) opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal. She also starred as Amanda Wurlitzer in The Bad News Bears (1976), followed by Nickelodeon (1976), and Little Darlings (1980). O'Neal later appeared in guest roles in Sex and the City, 8 Simple Rules and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. From 2006 to 2007, she portrayed Blythe Hunter in the My Network TV drama series Wicked Wicked Games.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Robert Taylor is one of Australia's busiest actors with an illustrious career spanning over international film and television. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of the title role of Walt Longmire in Netflix's record breaking drama series Longmire, which recently released its sixth and final season.
Graduating from the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Robert has since appeared as the lead opposite French star, Nadia Fares in the international feature Storm Warning, directed by Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) for Dimension films in the USA. He also featured in Rogue, from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) was the lead in Coffin Rock (Head Gear Films, UK) and in 2013 filmed a supporting role in Rupert Glasson's What Lola Wants opposite Sophie Lowe and wrapped a key role opposite Hugo Weaving in the feature film, Healing (dir. by Craig Monahan).
Prior to this, he appeared as Kiron in the NBC telemovie Hercules in 2005, and worked with acclaimed American director, Peter Bogdanovich in The Mystery Of Natalie Wood (ABC Network, USA). Robert starred in the series role of Vincent in the BBC series Ballykissangel, and had a lead role opposite Guy Pearce, and Rachel Griffiths in the feature film The Hard Word.
Robert's work on international blockbusters include, starring as Skip Taylor along side Chris O'Donnell in Vertical Limit (dir. Martin Campbell - Casino Royale, GoldenEye), and Agent Jones alongside Hugo Weaving in The Matrix (dir. Larry & Andy Wachowski).
In a career spanning over 30 years, he has also starred in many productions in Australia and the USA such as Killing Time (TV1), Mr & Mrs Murder (TEN Network), Twentysomething (ABC TV); Satisfaction; Underbelly - Tell Them Lucifer Was Here (Screentime); Ned Kelly; After The Rain; First Daughter; Tales of The South Seas; Muggers; Twisted Tales; The Feds; Stingers; Phage, and Nash's Vision (USA).
In 2015, Robert starred alongside Will Smith and Margot Robbie in feature film Focus directed by Glenn Fircarra and John Requa. Australian feature films The Menkhoff Method directed by David Parker, Turkey Shoot Reloaded directed by Jon Hewitt and Grant Scicluna's feature Downriver were all released in 2016 also.
Robert recently featured in Kong: Skull Island, and the Australian Feature Film, Don't Tell directed by Tori Garrett, opposite Rachel Griffiths, Jack Thompson, Aden Young and Jacqueline McKenzie.
Robert will next be seen in the action sci-fi feature The Meg, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and opposite Jason Statham for Warner Bros due for worldwide release this August. This year, he just completed filming the independent US feature film Into The Ashes opposite Frank Grillo, and Blood Vessel opposite Alyssa Sutherland.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Tate Buckley Donovan began making television appearances while still in his
teens, most often cast as angst-ridden high schoolers in such
made-for-TV films such as Not My Kid (1985) and Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder (1987).
Donovan was born to a large family
in Tenafly, New Jersey, the son of Eileen Frances (McAllister) and John Timothy Donovan, a surgeon. He is of Irish descent. Donovan moved to Los Angeles to be closer to
the television industry while he attended college at USC, where he also
met several fellow actors who became longtime friends, such as Grant Heslov
and George Clooney, with whom he still parties with to this day (he also had a
fairly substantial part in their smash film, Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005). Although not
quite as active as his friend Clooney in the romantic arena, confirmed
bachelor Donovan has been engaged to both film star Sandra Bullock and
television icon Jennifer Aniston, and has dated a diverse group of women such as
socialite Plum Sikes (2000), stage actress Whitney Allen (2001) and
television actress Lauren Graham, whom he met when they both appeared in the
play "Once in a Lifetime" at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2002.
After graduating from college, Donovan gained prominent notice for his
portrayal of the charismatic yet self-centered co-pilot in the ensemble
period drama Memphis Belle (1990). Prior to that, Donovan had appeared as the cocky
elder camper in SpaceCamp (1986) and as a recovering drug addict in Clean and Sober (1988). His
first leading role was in the charming but minor Love Potion No. 9 (1992), costarring
Bullock, to whom he became engaged (their relationship ended in 1994).
He then appeared in several independent features as sullen, withdrawn
types before following up with a role in the Disney family comedy,
Holy Matrimony (1994). He returned to Disney for perhaps his highest-profile effort
to date, the animated Hercules (1997), for which he provided the voice for the
adult version of the title character. His small-screen work has
included a Cable ACE-nominated turn in the HBO series Vietnam War Story II (1988) (V). He
joined the parade of film stars who turned to sitcoms, heading the cast
of Partners (1995) opposite Jon Cryer. When that failed to catch on, he joined
with his "Memphis Belle" co-stars Eric Stoltz and Reed Diamond to play three
brothers in a memorable episode of NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and had a recurring
role as a client and potential love interest for Calista Flockhart's titular
lawyer Ally McBeal (1997). Switching networks, he had a recurring role as a love
interest opposite his then-girlfriend Jennifer Aniston in NBC's Friends (1994) and
donned clerical garb to play the priest son of a large Irish Catholic
family in the short-lived NBC drama Trinity (1998). More recently he has
appeared as a guest star in several shows such as The Guardian (2001), as well as
Mister Sterling (2003) and in the new show The O.C. (2003).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director.
González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene or best director award at Cannes (2006), the second one being Carlos Reygadas in 2012. His six feature films, 'Amores Perros' (2000), '21 Grams' (2003), 'Babel' (2006), 'Biutiful' (2010), 'Birdman' (2014) and 'The Revenant' (2015), have gained critical acclaim world-wide including two Academy Award nominations.
Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City.
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a cargo ship at the ages of seventeen and nineteen years, González Iñárritu worked his way across Europe and Africa. He himself has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a film-maker. The setting of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period.
After his travels, González Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana. In 1984, he started his career as a radio host at the Mexican radio station WFM, a rock and eclectic music station. In 1988, he became the director of the station. Over the next five years, González Iñárritu spent his time interviewing rock stars, transmitting live concerts, and making WFM the number one radio station in Mexico. From 1987 to 1989, he composed music for six Mexican feature films. He has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself.
In the nineties, González Iñárritu created Z films with Raul Olvera in Mexico. Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements. Making the final transition into T.V Film directing, he studied under well-known Polish theatre director Ludwik Margules, as well as Judith Weston in Los Angeles.
In 1995, González Iñárritu wrote and directed his first T.V pilot for Z Films, called Detras del dinero, -"Behind the Money", starring Miguel Bosé. Z Films went on to be one of the biggest and strongest film production companies in Mexico, launching seven young directors in the feature film arena. In 1999, González Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Amores perros explored Mexican society in Mexico City told via three intertwining stories. In 2000, Amores perros premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics Weeks Grand Prize. It also introduced audiences for the first time to Gael García Bernal. Amores perros went on to be nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.
After the success of Amores Perros, González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga revisited the intersecting story structure of Amores perros in González Iñárritu's second film, 21 Grams. The film starred Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, and was presented at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Volpi Cup for actor Sean Penn. At the 2004 Academy Awards, Del Toro and Watts received nominations for their performances.
In 2005 González Iñárritu embarked on his third film, Babel, set in 4 countries on 3 continents, and in 4 different languages. Babel consists of four stories set in Morocco, Mexico, the United States, and Japan. The film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Adriana Barraza. The majority of the rest of the cast, however, was made up of non-professional actors and some new actors, such as Rinko Kikuchi. It was presented at Cannes 2006, where González Iñárritu earned the Best Director Prize (Prix de la mise en scène). Babel was released in November 2006 and received seven nominations at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director nominated for a DGA award and for an Academy Award. Babel went on to win Best Motion Picture in the drama category at the Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007. Gustavo Santaolalla won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Score. After Babel, Alejandro and his writing partner Guillermo Arriaga professionally parted ways, following González Iñárritu barring Arriaga from the set during filming (Arriaga told the LA Times in 2009 "It had to come to an end, but I still respect González Iñárritu").
In 2008 and 2009, González Iñárritu directed and produced Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, written by González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, and Nicolas Giacobone. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festial on May 17, 2010. Bardem went on to win Best Actor (shared with Elio Germano for La nostra vita) at Cannes. Biutiful is González Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish since his debut feature Amores perros. For the second time in his career his film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. It was also nominated for the 2011 Golden Globes in the category of Best Foreign Film, for the 2011 BAFTA awards in the category of Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Actor. Javier Bardem's performance was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, González Iñárritu directed Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Andrea Riseborough. The film is Iñárritu's first comedy. Birdman is about an actor who played an iconic superhero, and who tries to revive his career by doing a play based on the Raymond Carver short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film was released on October 17, 2014.
In April 2014, it was announced that González Iñárritu's next film as a director will be The Revenant, which he co-wrote with Mark L. Smith. It is based on the novel of same name by Michael Punke. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter with shooting began in September 2014, for a December 25, 2015 release.The Revenant is being filmed in Alberta and B.C. with production scheduled to wrap in February 2015. The film will be a 19th Century period piece, and is described as a "gritty thriller" about a fur trapper who seeks revenge against a group of men who robbed and abandoned him after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
From 2001 to 2011, González Iñárritu directed several short films.
In 2001, he directed an 11 minute film segment for 11.09.01- which is composed of several short films that explore the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from different points of view around the world.
In 2007, he made ANNA which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival inside Chacun son cinéma. It was part of the 60th anniversary of the film festival and it was a series of shorts by 33 world-renown film directors.
In 2012, he made the experimental short film Naran Ja: One Act Orange Dance - inspired by L.A Dance Project's premiere performance. The short features excerpts of the new choreography Benjamin Millepied crafted for Moving Parts. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten.
In 2001/2002, González Iñárritu directed "Powder Keg", an episode for the BMW film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen as the driver.
In 2010, González Iñárritu directed Write the Future, a football-themed commercial for Nike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which went on to win Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.
In 2012, he directed Procter and Gamble's "Best Job" commercial spot for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies. It went on to win the Best Primetime Commercial Emmy at Creative Arts Emmy Awards.- Actor
- Soundtrack
An award-winning Canadian actor, Christopher Heyerdahl
co-stars in one of Amazon's number 1 series of 2021 Little Marvin's anthology series: "Them", "Chapelwaite" for Epix, James Gunn's "The Peacemaker", WGNA's "Pure", USA's "Damnation" Sky Atlantic's "Tin Star", SyFy's "Van Helsing" and
AMC's hit series "Hell On Wheels," playing the enigmatic
'Swede." This post-Civil War drama debuted as the second highest rated
original series in AMC history. He started 2021 shooting the feature "Corner Office" with director Joachim Back and has appeared in the feature films "Sicario: Day of The Soldado", "Adopt a Highway" and co-starring in Robert Budreau's "Stockholm".
Born in British Columbia, Heyerdahl is known internationally for his
powerful performances in film, theatre and television. His previous
credits include roles as H.P. Lovecraft in the Gemini award winning
"Out Of Mind: The Stories Of H.P. Lovecraft"." Fluent in French, he also starred in Québecois films "Le
Dernier Tunnel," "Cadavres" and "La Loi Du Cochon." All directed by Érik Canuel and many recurring roles in French language television.
Heyerdahl has an impressive list of television credits including recent
guest starring roles on "50 States of Fright" ," Star Trek: Discovery", "Messiah", "Deadly Class", "Midnight, Texas", "Minority Report", "Vegas," "Castle," "CSI," and "Falling Skies," as well as recurring guest roles on "Supernatural," "Caprica,"
"Smallville," "Human Target," "Stargate Atlantis," the award-winning
children's series "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" In addition to Steven
Spielberg's Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning mini-series "Into The
West" for Dreamworks TNT.
In 2017 Heyerdahl was nominated for a both Canadian Screen Award and Leo Award for his portrayal of Sam on SYFY's Van Helsing. In 2015 he won a Leo Award for Best performance by a male (supporting) in a motion picture for "Eadweard" and Best Performance in a Children's Program for R.L. Stine's "The Haunting
Hour - Fear Never Knocks" In 2012. Additionally, in 2010 and 2006 Heyerdahl won
Leo Awards for Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic
Series for "Sanctuary" and Best Guest Performance by a Male in a
Dramatic Series respectfully for his performance as Jan Van Der Heyden
in "The Collector."
In 2009, Heyerdahl was nominated for Best Supporting Performance by a
Male in a Dramatic Series for "Sanctuary- Revelations Part 2" and a
Gemini Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest
Role in a Dramatic Series, also for "Sanctuary."
On stage, Heyerdahl has a long list of theatre credits including
"Love's Labour's Lost", "The Changeling" and "Knight of the Burning
Pestle" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, "The Glace Bay Miners'
Museum", "The Last Comedy", and "Savage Love", to name a few.
Most recently, Heyerdahl shot a leading role alongside Susan Sarandon,
Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn in the indie crime-drama "The
Calling," Gil Bellows in "3 Days in Havana" and Michael Eklund in
"Eadwaerd." Heyerdahl is internationally known for his dual roles of
John Druitt and Bigfoot in SyFy's hit series "Sanctuary" and the mega
hit "Twilight" franchise as the "sensitive" Volturi Leader Marcus.- Actor
- Stunts
- Producer
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou, China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a kung fu master and his father, Kylster Yen, a newspaper editor and amateur musician. When Donnie was just two years old, the family moved to Hong Kong and then, when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim Mark became a pioneer for Chinese martial arts in America, and it was only natural that her only son was trained from early childhood in the same skills. At the same time, Donnie was influenced by his parents' love of music and reached a high level of proficiency as a pianist. All these interests would have a manifest influence on Yen's later life.
In his teens, Donnie defined his own persona by rebelling against his parents edicts. Beyond the limitations of his mother's school, Yen began training in various different fighting arts, including Japanese karate, Korean taekwondo and western boxing. Donnie also took up hip-hop and break-dancing. At the same time, he began spending his nights in Boston's notorious Combat Zone. Given that he was by now a serious practitioner of modern Wu Shu, his parents decided to send him to Beijing to train at the Chinese capital's famed Wu Shu academy.
It was when Yen returned to Hong Kong en route back to Boston that he met the famed martial arts movie director Yuen Woo-ping.
Donnie exploded onto the Hong Kong movie scene when he was cast in the lead role of director Yuen Woo-ping's 'Drunken Tai Chi'. His debut film immediately established him as a viable leading man, and Yen has remained a major figure in Chinese action cinema to this day.
Yen skills as a street dancer were to the fore in his second starring role, 'Mismatched Couples', in which he showed off his breakdance moves, as well as his general athleticism. This slapstick romantic comedy was produced by Hong Kong's prestigious Cinema City studio.
Donnie was subsequently signed by the newly formed D&B Films, and cast in the hit cop actioner 'Tiger Cage'. In this movie, and his follow-up features for the company ('In the Line of Duty 4', 'Tiger Cage 2'), Yen showed off his own unique form of contemporary screen combat, a form that included elements of rapid fire kicking, Western boxing and grappling moves.
Having established a worldwide fan base, Yen moved on to star in a string of independent Asian action features before director Tsui Hark tapped him to co-star in 'Once Upon A Time In China 2'. The film's two action highlights saw Donnie's character duel the legendary martial arts master Wong Fei-hung, played by his old friend Jet Li. The film brought Yen his first real attention as a thespian and he was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at that year's Hong Kong Film Awards.
Tsui Hark went on to produce a remake of King Hu's classic 'New Dragon Inn', which provided another showcase role for Donnie as the film's apparently invincible villain.
Donnie was reunited with director Yuen Woo-ping for 'Iron Monkey', a film which brought Yen's acting and action skills both into focus. In 'Iron Monkey', Yen played the father of Wong Fei-hung, and its success prefigured that which he would later enjoy as another pugilistic patriarch in 'Ip Man'. Donnie collaborated with Yuen on the action for the film, designing a new on-screen interpretation of Wong Fei-hung's classic 'Shadowless Kick'.
'Iron Monkey' was all the more remarkable in that, years after its Asian release, it was acquired by the American studio Miramax, re-cut, re-scored and given a wide release in US theatres. After premieres in New York and Los Angeles, the film enjoyed great acclaim from the American critics, and won a prize at that year's Taurus Awards, an event held to celebrate action in cinema.
After working on a number of independent features, Yen went on to enjoy huge success on the small screen when he accepted a lucrative offer from Hong Kong's ATV to film a series based on the Bruce Lee classic 'Fist of Fury'. The show was the top-rated action drama show around the region, and was subsequently re-edited for international distribution on video.
Donnie went on to make his directorial debut with 'Legend of the Wolf', a stylish period actioner that even attracted the attention of legendary American film-maker Francis Coppola. The film, about an amnesiac warrior returning to his home village, has become a bona fide cult classic.
As director, Donnie followed 'Legend of the Wolf' with a very different venture, 'Ballistic Kiss', an urban thriller about a conflicted assassin. The film played at the prestigious Udine Festival in Italy, and took home awards at several other events, including the Japanese Yubari International Action Film Festival.
Donnie's body of work had by then attracted the attention of Hollywood, and Yen was approached to choreograph the action for the mainstream franchise films 'Highlander: Endgame' and 'Blade 2'. After a period where he was based in Los Angeles, Donnie returned East by way of the West when Jackie Chan requested that Yen play his nemesis in the hit 'Shanghai Knights', a shoot that took the star from Prague to London.
Yen returned to China to co-star in director Zhang Yimou's epic wu xia master work 'Hero'. Yen's duel with Jet Li brought his skills to the emerging Mainland Chinese theatrical audience, and paved the way for Donnie to become the country's biggest action star. The film received a wide US theatrical release from Miramax, and remains one of the most successful foreign language titles ever distributed in the America market.
Donnie returned to Hong Kong to choreograph the smash hit fantasy-horror-comedy 'The Twins Effect', and went on to enjoy his most productive partnership with a director. Beginning with the cop actioner 'SPL', Donnie teamed with helmer Wilson Yip for a series of very different films that Yen would star in and action choreograph and Yip would direct. Star and director subsequently teamed to create the comic book inspired fantasy actioner 'Dragon Tiger Gate' and the gritty police thriller 'Flashpoint', in which Donnie created what fans feel is the definitive on-screen MMA action scene. Yen was to return to this hard-hitting, urban action style for the later 'Special ID'.
Donnie now found himself in demand as a leading man in a series of prestigious period actioners produced for the Chinese market. 'Seven Swords' premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and proved a hit with worldwide audiences. The film was released in North America by The Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty label, and remains its biggest hit.
Yen also attracted rave reviews when he played an honorable general in 'An Empress and her Warriors' and an offbeat ghost-buster in Gordon Chan's 'Painted Skin'.
Yen took his career to a new level when he accepted producer Raymond Wong's suggestion that he play Bruce Lee's teacher, 'Ip Man', in an eponymous film relating the life of the great master. The film was a huge success in Hong Kong and China, and 'Ip Man' went on to find favor with audiences worldwide. Donnie also received a Best Actor nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
'Ip Man' confirmed Donnie's position as China's greatest action hero, and he was immediately signed to lead a strong ensemble cast for Teddy Chen's 'Bodyguards and Assassins', produced by Peter Chan. Besides his on-screen performance, Donnie was also called on to choreograph the dynamic duel between himself and MMA champion Cung Le. The movie went on to sweep the board at the Hong Kong Film Awards winning Best Film, among many other prizes. Yen himself was nominated for Best Actor at the Chinese Hundred Flower awards.
Yen followed this with 'Ip Man 2', a rare example of a sequel that proved a match for its predecessor. The film followed Ip's life journey to Hong Kong, where he faces both rival kung fu masters, led by the film's choreographer, Sammo Hung, and a brutal foreign boxer, portrayed by the late Darren Shahlavi. 'Ip Man 2' was the biggest local hit of the year in China, and enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the US.
The film's success led to Donnie being cast as a number of legendary Chinese heroes: He played General Qin-long in Daniel Lee's '14 Blades', Guan Yu in 'The Lost Bladesman' and reprised Bruce Lee's Chen Zhen role in Andrew Lau's 'Legend of the Fist'. Yen also used the lighter side of his screen persona to good effect in two installments of the hit Hong Kong comedy movie series 'Alls Well Ends Well'.
Yen was cast opposite Tang Wei and Takeshi Kaneshiro in director Peter Chan's 'Wu Xia' (aka 'Dragon'), a dark, elegant period martial arts murder mystery. The film premiered to great acclaim at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and subsequently received a North American theatrical release from The Weinstein Company.
Donnie Yen played 'The Monkey King' in a hit reimagining of the Chinese classic. Donnie starred opposite screen legend Chow Yun-fat in the film, which smashed box office records in Mainland China.
Showing his versatility, Yen went on to play a kung fu master facing challenges in the modern era in director Teddy Chen's 'Kung Fu Jungle'. The movie, which premiered at the London Film Festival, paid tribute to the great history of Hong Kong martial arts cinema.
During the shooting of his ambitious, time travel themed action fantasy 'Iceman 3D', Yen was approached to revitalize the greatest brand in the history of Chinese martial arts cinema. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny' was shot primarily on location in New Zealand, with Yen in the lead role. The world class creative team gathered by producer Harvey Weinstein included legendary kung fu film director Yuen Woo-ping, acclaimed directors Peter Berg and Morten Tyldum (as producers), 'X-Men' series DP Tom Sigel as well as the Oscar-winning production, costume and FX designers from the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' film series.
The film debuted in most international territories as a Netflix Original movie, making it the most widely seen wu xia of all time. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny' also played at selected Imax theatres in North America, and enjoyed a wide theatrical release in China, where it was screened in its 3D version.
Yen reteamed with his former mentor Yuen Woo-ping for the hugely popular 'Ip Man 3'. The film, with Wilson Ip as director and Yuen as choreographer, pitted the title character against legendary boxing champion Mike Tyson. The film out-performed all the previous movies featuring the character of Ip Man, smashing box office records throughout Asia. Following a high profile Los Angeles premiere, 'Ip Man 3' enjoyed a Los Angeles premiere and a US theatrical release, earning rave reviews in the mainstream American media.
Having conquered every territory beneath the Asian skies, Donnie accepted an invitation to join the cast of an entry in the world's biggest film franchise. In 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story', Yen plays one of the Rebel warriors responsible for the theft of the Death Star plans, the adventure that, within the 'Star Wars' universe, leads to the events of the very first film in the series. The film was shot primarily at the famed Elstree Studios in England.
Donnie had a role opposite Vin Diesel and his fellow Asian action star, Tony Jaa, in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), which filmed in Toronto, Canada.
Now firmly established as a leading player across the globe, Donnie Yen continues to present a unique blend of Eastern experience and Western innovation, of musical grace with martial impact, from Hong Kong to a galaxy far, far away....
Donnie is one of the leading martial arts choreographers in the world of action cinema. His skills behind the camera began developing from his early days in the industry, and he was very much involved with the action choreography of his films for D&B Films. He received his first full action directing credit on the Michelle Yeoh, kung fu drama 'Wing Chun', in which he also starred.
Yen further developed his style of choreography in the high pressure world of Hong Kong television, where he created the action for his hit series 'Kung Fu Master' and 'Fist of Fury', and as a low-budget film-maker, when he directed, starred in and choreographed the movies 'Legend of the Wolf' and 'Ballistic Kiss'.
It was after Yen had helmed his first two Chinese features that Hollywood made its first serious bid for his services. He was signed to co-star in and action direct 'Highlander: Endgame', the latest in a series of fantasy actioners. The film, which starred Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert, was produced by the US studio Dimension, and enjoyed a successful worldwide theatrical release.
Having relocated to Los Angeles, Yen paid his dues by directing action scenes for the Dimension action thriller 'Stormbreaker' and providing the fight sequences for the German TV series 'The Puma'.
Donnie agreed to both action direct and cameo in the major New Line action franchise entry 'Blade 2', starring Wesley Snipes. The film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was a huge hit, earning almost twice the box office of the original 'Blade'.
Returning to Hong Kong, Yen found he now had a major contribution to make behind the camera, co-directing the SFX action adventure 'The Twins Effect'. The film, which starred two of China's top pop idols, told the tale of young vampire hunters with well-honed martial arts skills. A huge hit for Emperor, the film earned Yen his first Best Action Director prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
'The Twins Effect' saw Donnie start to introduce elements of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in his film fight scenes. He took the on-screen depiction of the style to new heights with the film 'SPL', released in the US as 'Kill Zone'. Yen's final reel duel with Sammo Hung is now regarded as a classic of the genre. The film won Donnie his second Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
He took his on-screen depiction of MMA to new heights in 'Flashpoint', which featured an even longer and more intense final showdown, this time between Yen and 'Matrix Reloaded' actor Collin Chou. The film won Donnie his third Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as a prize for Best Action in a Foreign Language Film at the Taurus Awards.
Yen explored different styles of screen combat when he choreographed the stunning kung fu fights for the period actioners 'Legend of the Fist' and 'The Lost Bladesman', the fantasy combat for 'The Monkey King' and the time travel adventure 'Iceman Cometh 3D'.
Many fans feel that Yen delivered his best choreographic work to date in Peter Chan's masterful 'Wu Xia', released in the US as 'Dragon'. The film saw Donnie bring his own unique flair to classical Shaw Bros style kung fu action.
Donnie brought traditional Chinese martial arts into the modern era with 'Kung Fu Jungle', for which his work won yet another Best Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Away from the cameras, Yen entered into the most rewarding partnership of his life when he married former beauty queen, Cissy Wang. The couple now has two children, a girl and boy, Jasmine and James.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Michael John Myers was born in 1963 in Scarborough, Ontario, to Alice
E. (Hind), an officer supervisor, and Eric Myers, an insurance agent.
His parents were both English, and had served in the Royal Air Force
and British Army, respectively.
Myers' television career really started in 1988, when he joined
Saturday Night Live (1975),
where he spent six seasons. He brought to life many memorable
characters, such as Dieter and Wayne Cambell. His major movies include
Wayne's World (1992),
Wayne's World 2 (1993),
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993),
the Austin Powers movies and
The Cat in the Hat (2003).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jerome Patrick Flynn (born 16 March 1963) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his roles as Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the ITV series Soldier Soldier, Fireman Kenny 'Rambo' Baines in the pilot of London's Burning, Bronn in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, and Bennet Drake in Ripper Street.
He and his Soldier Soldier co-star Robson Green also performed as Robson & Jerome in the later half of the 1990s. They released a version of "Unchained Melody", which stayed at number 1 for 7 weeks on the UK Chart, selling more than a million copies and becoming the best-selling single of 1995. The duo had two further number 1 singles: "I Believe" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted". Their eponymous debut album and the follow-up Take Two both reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart.
Flynn was born in Bromley, Greater London, the son of actor and singer Eric Flynn and drama teacher Fern Flynn. He has a brother and sister, and a half-brother and sister from his father's second marriage. His brother Daniel Flynn is also an actor, and his half-brother Johnny Flynn is a musician and actor. Jerome attended Wilderness school in Sevenoaks and was an excellent rugby player at school.
In 1986 Flynn appeared in the LWT television film London's Burning as firefighter Kenny "Rambo" Baines. When the film spawned a series of the same name in 1988, he was the only member of the main cast who was unable to reprise his role (aside from Gary McDonald, whose own character, Andreas "Ethnic" Lewis, was killed off in the film) due to previous commitments. Also in 1986 he played a minor role as the soldier "Franny" in "The Monocled Mutineer".In 1988 he played the character Freddie in the ITV drama; The Fear which was about the London underworld. He appeared as D.S Eddie Hargreaves for six episodes of the British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) winning police drama, Between The Lines between 1992 and 1994.
Flynn portrayed Corporal Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the ITV series Soldier Soldier. The series began in 1990. He acted alongside Robson Green in the series. After Flynn and Green performed Unchained Melody on the program-me, ITV was inundated by people looking to buy the song, and the pair were persuaded by record producer Simon Cowell to record it and release it as a single, a double A-side with White Cliffs of Dover. The single was released under the name Robson & Jerome and reached number one in the UK chart in 1995. It stayed at No.1 for 7 weeks in the UK Singles Chart, selling more than 1.9 million copies and making it the best-selling single of the year, and winning the duo the Music Week Awards in 1996 for best single and best album. The duo had two more number one hits in 1995 and 1996 with "I Believe" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" both re-makes of standards, they also produced two number one albums.
Soldier Soldier ended in 1997. Flynn went on to star as Eddie Wallis (alongside singing partner Robson Green) in the comedy-drama Ain't Misbehavin' (1997), and was the star of the short-lived police show Badger in 1999. He played Bobby Charlton in the 1999 film Best. On stage, he played Tommy Cooper in Jus' Like That, a tribute to the comic magician written by John Fisher and directed by Simon Callow.
Having semi-retired from acting and moved to Pembrokeshire, in 2007 Flynn directed and starred in the low budget film Rude Tales. The film was split into a series of short stories centered in the lead character, Jerome Rude, played by Flynn. The film was screened at a small number of independent cinemas in the Pembrokeshire area.
After almost 10 years away from acting, in July 2010 it was confirmed that Flynn would be playing the role of Bronn in the HBO television series Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels of George R. R. Martin.
Flynn provides the voice of Daniel (the hound) in the children's television show Tommy Zoom. He also appeared on the television program-me So You Think You're Royal?, where it was established that through his mother he is a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell, through his son Henry Cromwell, and also a descendant of Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III of England.
Flynn stars alongside Matthew Macfadyen in four series of Ripper Street for the BBC.
In 2016, he appeared in "Shut Up and Dance", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.
In a 2019 interview, Flynn revealed that he'd been cast in Amazon Prime Video's upcoming series adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series in an unannounced role.- Actress
- Producer
- Casting Director
Edith Falco, called Edie, was born on July 5, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, to Judith Anderson, an actress, and Frank Falco, a jazz drummer. She is of Italian (father) and Swedish, English, and Cornish (mother) descent. Edie grew up on Long
Island and attended SUNY Purchase, where she was trained in acting at
the prestigious Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film. She moved to
Manhattan after graduation, auditioning for roles and supporting
herself as best she could; for example, working parties for an
entertainment company where she would wear a Cookie Monster costume and
urge people to get on the dance floor. Falco began getting film roles,
mostly smaller supporting parts, starting in the late 1980s. Her first
notable role was a supporting part in
Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
Ironically, it was in television where the conservatory-trained Falco's
career first flowered. She obtained her first recurring roles in 1993,
on the acclaimed police dramas
Homicide: Life on the Street (1993),
as the wife of a blinded police officer, and
Law & Order (1990) as a Legal Aid
attorney. Next came a recurring role on the prison drama
Oz (1997), as a sympathetic corrections
officer. All the while she continued to work in film, still in small
supporting roles.
Supporting herself in acting continued to be a challenge until at last
Falco found success in 1999, when she was cast in the HBO series
The Sopranos (1999), as Carmela,
the wife of New Jersey Mafia street boss Tony Soprano. "The Sopranos"
gained her a great deal of visibility and praise for her exceptionally
strong dramatic skills. In 2000 Falco became one of the few actresses
in history to sweep all of the major television awards (the Emmy, the
Golden Globe and the SAG Award) in one year for a dramatic role. She is
also the first female actor ever to receive the Television Critics
Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama.
Interestingly, her roles have frequently put her on one side of the law
or the other--a defense attorney, a corrections officer, a cop's wife,
a mobster's wife, a police officer (in a pilot for a television
adaptation of the movie Fargo (1996)). She
has also worked frequently on the stage, such as her award-winning work
in the play "Sideman," in "The Vagina Monologues," and in revivals of
"Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune" (which was hugely
successful) and "'night Mother."
Unlike her brashly assertive alter-ego Carmela Soprano, Falco is
self-described as shy, but is clearly a witty and down-to-earth person.
She sometimes travels with her beloved dog Marley, driving so that the
dog does not have to travel in the baggage compartment. At one point
Falco had a relationship with her "Frankie and Johnny" co-star
Stanley Tucci. She was treated for
breast cancer in 2004 and her prognosis is very good. In December 2004,
Falco adopted a baby boy, whom she named Anderson, after her mother's
surname. Another adoption, of a baby girl named Macy, followed in 2008.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Terry Farrell was born on November 19, 1963 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At
age 15, she became a foreign exchange student to Mexico, and, from that
experience, she decided she would like to live a more adventurous life
in the big city. She sent several photos to a modeling agency and then,
at age 17, dropped out of high school and became a model in New York.
She is most famously known for her role as Jadzia Dax in the television
series
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993),
but she did have some acting experience before that. In 1992, she had
the starring role in the horror movie
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992).
She appeared in several television and straight-to-video movies, and
also dated actors Michael Dorn and
Mickey Rourke while on
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993).
Afterward, Paramount decided to move her to the sitcom
Becker (1998), where she played the
character Reggie Kostas, but, after four seasons, she was replaced by
Nancy Travis. In September 2002, she married
Brian Baker, better known as the
cell-phone company Sprint's spokesperson, and retired soon after. They divorced in 2015.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Emmanuelle Béart was born August 14,
1963, in Gassin, France. She lived with her mother, brothers, and
sister on a farm not far from Saint-Tropez in Provence
(southern France), because her father, singer and poet
Guy Béart, did not want his children to be
affected by the glamour world of Paris. When Emmanuelle was thirteen, she saw
Romy Schneider in the movie
Mado (1976). From that time on, she wanted
to be an actress. In Emmanuelle's teens, her parents sent her to
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for four years, so she could learn English.
There, she was engaged for a
Robert Altman movie that was never
made. After returning to France, she took drama classes and got her
first TV role, in
Raison perdue (1984).
David Hamilton, the
photographer/director, was impressed by her beauty and gave her a role
in First Desires (1983). She
met her spouse-to-be, Daniel Auteuil,
while making
Love on the Quiet (1985). The
film that made her famous in France was
Manon of the Spring (1986), in
which she played the role of a blonde shepherd dancing nude in the
fields. Director Tom McLoughlin
chose her out of 5,000 candidates for her first Hollywood picture,
Date with an Angel (1987).
Emmanuelle is a very sensitive and a perfectionist. For the part of
Camille in the film
A Heart in Winter (1992), she
took violin lessons for a whole year. Her biggest success was as a nude
model in the art film
La Belle Noiseuse (1991),
which starred Michel Piccoli and was
directed by Jacques Rivette.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Dean Joseph Norris is an American actor. He is well known for playing DEA agent Hank Schrader on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008-2013). He also portrayed town councilman James "Big Jim" Rennie on the CBS series Under the Dome (2013-2015) and played mob boss Clay "Uncle Daddy" Husser on the TNT series Claws. He reprises his role as Hank Schrader in the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul (2020). Throughout his career, Norris has acted in nearly 50 movies and more than 100 different TV shows.
Norris has appeared in films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Hard to Kill (1990), Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Firm (1993), Starship Troopers (1997), The Cell (2000), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Evan Almighty (2007), and Sons of Liberty (2015), and has more recently starred in films such as The Book of Henry (2017), Death Wish (2018), and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The middle of five children, Bratt hails from a close-knit family. His mother, an indigenous Quechua Peruvian from Lima, moved to the U.S. at age 14. He grew up in San Francisco. He is known for his roles in the films Traffic (2000), Miss Congeniality (2000), and Despicable Me 2 (2013). He is married to actress Talisa Soto.- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
William Baldwin has distinguished himself as an actor/producer/writer who continues to showcase his multitude of talents in the world of film and television.
Baldwin has a busy year ahead starring in several high-profile upcoming projects. He is currently travelling the world shooting back-to-back productions - most recently wrapping his recurring role opposite Miles Teller in Nicolas Winding Refn's highly-anticipated upcoming Amazon series "Too Old to Die Young."
He is about to begin production in Canada starring in & executive producing the new Netflix / CBC family drama "Northern Rescue" opposite Kathleen Robertson. After the death of his wife, John West (Baldwin) packs up his three children and moves from their hectic urban life to his small northern hometown to take command of the local search-and-rescue service. Once there, the family struggles with their new surroundings, new friends and accepting Sarah's death.
Additionally, Baldwin will reprise his role as Brian McCaffrey from the 1991 blockbuster "Backdraft" in the Universal / Netflix sequel "Backdraft 2," along with Donald Sutherland. The action drama is now shooting in Eastern Europe. He then will return to the United States to begin his recurring role in the USA Network/SyFy series "The Purge" (Fall 2018). Based on the popular Blumhouse film franchise about one day each year when murder and mayhem is legalized - the series will be an entirely new chapter in America's 12 hours of annual lawlessness. Baldwin will play David Ryker, the handsome & powerful Managing Partner at an investment firm, who leads his team with confidence & intelligence, but also harbors a Purge night secret. He will also appear in the upcoming Netflix series "Insatiable."
Baldwin made his television series debut starring in the hit ABC series, "Dirty Sexy Money," opposite Jill Clayburgh, Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause. The tongue-in-cheek drama focused on the wealth, power & privilege of the fictional Darling family of New York City. He won rave reviews portraying Patrick Darling, the state Attorney General - who harbored a multitude of scandalous secrets - including an affair with his transgendered mistress. Since then, he has appeared on several acclaimed series including BBC's "Copper," TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland," NBC's "Parenthood" & "30 Rock," CW's "Gossip Girl" and FX's "Wilfred." He has also guested/recurred on such series as "MacGyver," "Hawaii 5-0," "Hit the Floor," "Forever," and starred in the popular Lifetime telefilm "The Craig's List Killer."
Baldwin has starred in over 30 films of varied genres. In 2005, he memorably starred with Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels in the critical award-winning hit film "The Squid & The Whale." The drama, directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson, was recognized on over 200 Top 10 Lists that year. He also appeared in the hit comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," with Kristen Bell & Russell Brand, co-starred with William Hurt & Tim Robbins in the independent comedy "Noise," as well as the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival & HBO Comedy Arts Festival entry "Humble Pie." His other film credits include the screen adaptation of Noel Coward's "Relative Values," "One Eyed King," "The Brotherhood of Murder," "Curdled," "Virus," "Pyromaniacs: A Love Story," "Shattered Image," "Double Bang," "Fair Game," "Sliver," "Three of Hearts," "Flatliners," "Internal Affairs," and the "The Preppy Murder." He made his feature film debut in Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July."
As a producer, Baldwin co-produced the independent film "Lymelife" starring Cynthia Nixon & his brother Alec. He produced & starred in "Lead with the Heart" and "Second Time Around" for the Hallmark Network.
A native of Massapequa, New York, Baldwin graduated Binghamton University with a degree in Political Science, and politics remains a passion. Baldwin serves on the boards of KCLU radio, The Massapequa Community Fund, The Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling, The Los Angelitos Orphanage and The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund.
Baldwin lives in California with his wife, singer/songwriter Chynna Phillips and their three children Jameson, Vance and Brooke. He was also the Executive Producer for Phillips' record "One Reason" for her band "Chynna & Vaughan."- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Enrico Colantoni was born on 14 February 1963 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for Galaxy Quest (1999), Veronica Mars (2004) and Contagion (2011). He has been married to Rosanna Francioni since 11 November 2011. They have four children. He was previously married to Nancy Snyder.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975), Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), The Hot Chick (2002), and Grown Ups (2010).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Greg Kinnear was born on June 17, 1963, in Logansport, Indiana, USA to
Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat with the US State Department, and
Suzanne (nee Buck) Kinnear, a homemaker. He has two brothers -- James, vice
president-investments at Wachovia Securities in Arizona who was born in
1957, and Steve, a business manager with the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina who was born in 1959. His family moved often, including Lebanon and Greece. While a student in Athens, Greg first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear".
Returning to college in the States, he attended the University of
Arizona in Tucson, graduating in 1985 with a degree in broadcast
journalism. He headed out to Los Angeles, landing his first job as a
marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. He auditioned to be an
MTV VJ, but was not selected and became an on-location reporter for the
channel. He had bit parts on L.A. Law (1986) and Life Goes On (1989). He would later become the creator, co-executive producer, and host of Best of the Worst (1991) (1990-91). His breakthrough was as first host of Talk Soup (1991) (1994), when he left the show for the NBC late-night talk show, Later (1994).
In 1994, Kinnear had his first big screen role, as a talk show host in
the Damon Wayans comedy Blankman (1994). In 1995 he won the role
of David Larrabee in Sydney Pollack's remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 classic Sabrina (1995). Next was the lead in the 1996 comedy Dear God (1996). In 1997, he was cast in James L. Brooks's
blockbuster comedy-drama As Good as It Gets (1997), receiving an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. In his next film, the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours (1997), he starred opposite Lauren Holly as part of a
couple trying to have a baby. The film met with lukewarm reviews and a
low box office.
His next film, You've Got Mail (1998), struck gold. He played Meg Ryan's significant other, a newspaper columnist. Next he played Captain Amazing in
Mystery Men (1999). His more recent films have Nurse Betty (2000),
Loser (2000), and Someone Like You (2001).