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1-50 of 1,141
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
William Gregory Magnussen is an American actor. He has been featured in the films Into the Woods (2014), Birth of the Dragon (2016), Game Night (2018), and Aladdin (2019), and has had supporting television roles in Get Shorty (2017) and Maniac (2018). In 2021, Magnussen starred in the sci-fi series Made for Love on HBO Max and appeared in the films The Many Saints of Newark and No Time to Die.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a B.S. degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an M.A. in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films including The Big Shave (1967), and directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).
He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock (1970) and won critical and popular acclaim for Mean Streets (1973), which first paired him with actor and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), also starring De Niro, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and he followed that film with New York, New York (1977) and The Last Waltz (1978). Scorsese directed De Niro to an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995) and Kundun (1997), among other films. Commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, Scorsese completed the four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson.
His long-cherished project, Gangs of New York (2002), earned numerous critical honors, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) won five Academy Awards, in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture. Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), which was also honored with the Director's Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critic's Choice awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, Shine a Light (2008), followed, with the successful thriller Shutter Island (2010) two years later. Scorsese received his seventh Academy Award nomination for Best Director, as well as a Golden Globe Award, for Hugo (2011), which went on to win five Academy Awards.
Scorsese also serves as executive producer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010) for which he directed the pilot episode. Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), The Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010). Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on five separate occasions: Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Ramy Youssef was born on 26 March 1991 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Ramy (2019), Mr. Robot (2015) and Ramy Youssef: Feelings (2019).- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor of the American stage and films, with sandy colored hair, pale complexion and a somewhat nervous disposition. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter (1978), and has been seen in mostly character roles, often portraying psychologically unstable individuals, though that generalization would not do justice to Walken's depth and breadth of performances.
Walken was born in Astoria, Queens, New York. His mother, Rosalie (Russell), was a Scottish emigrant, from Glasgow. His father, Paul Wälken, was a German emigrant, from Horst, who ran Walken's bakery. Christopher learned his stage craft, including dancing, at Hofstra University & ANTA, and picked up a Theatre World award for his performance in the revival of the Tennessee Williams play "The Rose Tattoo". Walken then first broke through into cinema in 1969 appearing in Me and My Brother (1968), before appearing alongside Sean Connery in the sleeper heist movie The Anderson Tapes (1971). His eclectic work really came to the attention of critics in 1977 with his intense portrayal of Diane Keaton suicidal younger brother in Annie Hall (1977), and then he scooped the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1977 for his role as Nick in the electrifying The Deer Hunter (1978). Walken was lured back by The Deer Hunter (1978) director Michael Cimino for a role in the financially disastrous western Heaven's Gate (1980), before moving onto surprise audiences with his wonderful dance skills in Pennies from Heaven (1981), taking the lead as a school teacher with telepathic abilities in the Stephen King inspired The Dead Zone (1983) and then as billionaire industrialist Max Zorin trying to blow up Silicon Valley in the 007 adventure A View to a Kill (1985). Looking at many of Walken's other captivating screen roles, it is easy to see the diversity of his range and even his droll comedic talents with humorous appearances in Biloxi Blues (1988), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Joe Dirt (2001), Mousehunt (1997) and America's Sweethearts (2001). Most recently, he continued to surprise audiences again with his work as a heart broken and apologetic father to Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can (2002).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
David Krumholtz is an American actor and comedian. He played Mr. Universe in Serenity, Charlie Eppes in the CBS drama series Numb3rs, and starred in the Harold & Kumar and The Santa Clause film franchises. Krumholtz was born in Queens, New York City. He is the son of Michael, a postal worker, and Judy Krumholtz, a dental assistant. He grew up in a "very working-class, almost poor", Jewish family. His paternal grandparents had immigrated from Poland, and his mother moved from Hungary to the U.S. in 1956.- Actress
- Producer
Dina Meyer is an American film and television actress best known for her roles as Barbara Gordon in Birds of Prey (2002), Dizzy Flores in Starship Troopers (1997) and Detective Allison Kerry in the Saw installments.
Meyer started acting in 1993, with her first major role playing Lucinda Nicholson in the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). In the same year she made her film debut in the TV movie Strapped (1993). She broke out two years later, playing the cybernetically enhanced bodyguard Jane in the cyberpunk thriller Johnny Mnemonic (1995). In addition to Johnny Mnemonic, Meyer has played roles in other science fiction productions including Starship Troopers, Birds of Prey and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). She also starred as Detective Allison Kerry in the horror/thriller film Saw (2004) and its sequels as well.
She has made many guest appearances and played one of the series regular roles in FOX's Point Pleasant (2005).
Her additional guest star roles include Criminal Minds (2005), Castle (2009), The Mentalist (2008), Burn Notice (2007), and Nip/Tuck (2003), and she has recurred on ABC's Scoundrels (2010), CW's 90210 (2008), CBS's CSI: Miami (2002), and NCIS (2003).
Meyer resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in America, and raised in Ireland and England, actor Patrick McGoohan rose to become the
number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. His parents moved
to Ireland when he was very young and McGoohan acquired a neutral
accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue. He was an
avid stage actor and performed hundreds of times in small and large
productions before landing his first TV and film roles. McGoohan is one
of few actors who has successfully switched between theater, TV, and
films many times during his career. He was often cast in the role of
Angry Young Man. In 1959, he was named Best TV Actor of the Year in
Britain. Shortly thereafter, he was chosen for the starring role in the
Secret Agent (1964) TV series (AKA
'Secret Agent in the US), which proved
to be an immense success for three years and allowed the British to
break into the burgeoning American TV market for the first time.
By the series' 3rd year, McGoohan felt the series had run its course and was beginning to repeat itself. McGoohan and Lew Grade - the president of ITC (the series' production company), had agreed that McGoohan could leave Danger Man to begin work on a new series, and turned in his
resignation right after the first episode of the fourth year had been
filmed ("Koroshi"). McGoohan set up his own production company and
collaborated with noted author and script editor
George Markstein to sell a brand new
concept to ITC's Lew Grade.
McGoohan starred in, directed, produced, and wrote many of the
episodes, sometimes taking a pseudonym to reduce the sheer number of
credits to his name. Thus, the TV series
The Prisoner (1967) came to
revolve around the efforts of a secret agent, who resigned early in his
career, to clear his name. His aim was to escape from a fancifully
beautiful but psychologically brutal prison for people who know too
much. The series was as popular as it was surreal and allegorical, and
its mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to
desert England for more than 20 years to seek relative anonymity in LA,
where celebrities are "a dime a dozen."
During the 1970s, he appeared in four episodes of the TV detective
series "Columbo," for which he won an Emmy Award. His film roles lapsed
from prominence until his powerful performance as King Edward I
(Longshanks) in Mel Gibson's
production of Braveheart (1995). As
such, he has solidified his casting in the role of Angry Old Man.- Actress
- Producer
Elizabeth Ann Perkins was born on November 18, 1960, in the borough of Queens, New York, and was raised in Vermont. Her mother, Jo Williams, was a concert pianist and drug treatment counselor, and her father, James Perkins, was a businessman, farmer, and writer. She is of Greek and English descent. Perkins studied acting at Chicago's Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University for three years, then launched her professional career with a co-starring gig in the touring company of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986). Seasoned, she returned to New York in the spring of 1984 to make her Broadway debut as a replacement in the Simon play. As a stage actress, she has trod the boards with Playwrights Horizon, the Ensemble Studio, The New York Shakespeare Festival, and, back in Chicago, with the Steppenwolf Theater. Elizabeth Perkins was listed as one of the 12 "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, and has since landed numerous film roles. Perkins made her film debut in 1986 in Edward Zwick's About Last Night... with Rob Lowe, Demi Moore and Jim Belushi, and had a career breakthrough co-starring with Tom Hanks in Big. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Barry Levinson's Avalon,[9] and was a standout opposite William Hurt in The Doctor (1991), receiving critical acclaim for her performance as a terminal cancer patient.[5] .[10] She subsequently starred in the Alan Rudolph film Love at Large and Sweethearts Dance with Susan Sarandon and Jeff Daniels. Since, she has appeared in Miracle on 34th Street with Sir Richard Attenborough, 28 Days opposite Sandra Bullock, the suspense thriller, The Ring Two, opposite Naomi Watts, Indian Summer with Diane Lane and Bill Paxton, Moonlight and Valentino with Gwyneth Paltrow, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner and Jon Bon Jovi, the Antonio Banderas directed Crazy in Alabama opposite Melanie Griffith, Jiminy Glick in LaLaWood with Martin Short, Wilma Flintstone opposite John Goodman in the 1994 live-action comedy The Flintstones, The Thing About My Folks with Paul Reiser and Peter Falk, He Said, She Said with Kevin Bacon and Sharon Stone and Must Love Dogs with John Cusack, Diane Lane, Christopher Plummer, Dermot Mulroney and Stockard Channing.
From 2005 to 2009, Perkins played Celia Hodes, an alcoholic and image-obsessed parent-teacher association (PTA) mother, alongside Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Nealon and Justin Kirk on the Showtime series Weeds. Perkins received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or Made for TV Motion Picture (in 2006 and 2007).[5] and was also nominated three times for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Weeds.[5] At a screening of Weeds at the Museum of TV and Radio on October 25, 2006, Perkins said that she considers Celia Hodes her favorite role in her career.[5] On May 6, 2010, she announced that the fifth season of Weeds was her last despite the cliffhanger her character had in the season finale.[11]
Perkins appeared in the television projects My Sisters Keeper with Kathy Bates, If These Walls Could Talk with Vanessa Redgrave and Paul Giamatti and Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Women directed by Peter Bogdonavich. Perkins starred in the ABC comedy series How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life).[12] with Brad Garrett, played Birdie in the Netflix original series GLOW with Alison Brie, starred as Marilyn Lovell in HBO's epic From The Earth to the Moon, played opposite Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson in HBO's Sharp Objects directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, starred with Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul and Lizzie Caplan in AppleTV's Truth Be Told, was featured on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and is currently starring in Season 2 of the Fox comedy The Moodys opposite Denis Leary and Jay Baruchel. She plays the role of Mandy Moores mother on the hit series This Is Us.
(Perkins also had a role in the 2003 film Finding Nemo, voicing Coral, the wife of Marlin and mother of Nemo, and who was killed and eaten by the barracuda in the beginning of the film.)- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Andrea Donna de Matteo, called Drea (pronounced "dray"), was born on
January 19, 1972 in Queens, New York, into an affluent family, the
youngest of three children and the only girl. She is the daughter of Donna, a playwright and playwriting teacher at HB Studio in New York, and Albert A. De Matteo, a furniture manufacturer. She is of Italian descent. De Matteo spent her early
childhood in Queens, and the family then moved to the Upper East Side
in Manhattan, into Aretha Franklin's former townhouse.
De Matteo decided to pursue a directing career at NYU's Tisch School of
the Arts, perhaps because of the brief moment when, as a girl, she was
brought onstage out of the audience and dazzled by the stage lights
when she was seeing the play "Cats," perhaps because of her mother's
involvement in the entertainment business. Once she was in school,
however, it was the acting classes which attracted her greatest
interest, and she decided on an acting career. After a screen debut in
an obscure independent and a small part in a small movie,
Meet Prince Charming (1999),
de Matteo auditioned for a one-episode part in the HBO series
The Sopranos (1999). She
impressed the producers enough that they expanded the role, as Adriana
La Cerva, girlfriend to up-and-coming Soprano family soldier
Christopher Moltisanti
(Michael Imperioli), and she
eventually became a regular on the show. De Matteo had the right sultry
beauty to portray Adriana, but her acting skills greatly fleshed out
the character, making her as rich and complex a character as a slightly
ditzy gangster's girlfriend can be in the first place - humorous, even
charming in a way and, ultimately, tragic. She won an Emmy award for
her portrayal of Adriana in 2004.
Although De Matteo's role on the HBO series ended in 2004, in that same
year she got a leading role in
Joey (2004), a spin-off of the
long-running NBC sitcom
Friends (1994). She has also appeared
in several movies since starting on "The Sopranos" - regardless of the
caliber of the production, de Matteo has consistently shown her strong
acting skills, such as her award-winning lead in
Abel Ferrara's
'R Xmas (2001) and her supporting role in
Prey for Rock & Roll (2003).
Although De Matteo describes herself as shy, she also says she was and
remains a wild, multi-tattooed party-girl who peppers her conversation
with strong language and prefers jeans to dressing up. She owned a rock
and roll vintage clothing store in the East Village called "Filth Mart"
for several years but has closed it and is considering re-opening it in
the Los Angeles area. She has said that she considers actor
Vince Vaughn to be like a brother to her.- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his
mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making
him feel comfortable in front of the camera. Adrien attended the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing
Arts in New York.
Despite a strong performance in
The Thin Red Line (1998),
time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part.
In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and
Barry Levinson, he never became
the star many expected he would become until
Roman Polanski called on him to play a
celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a
brilliant performance in
The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish-born grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Amy Ryan was born on May 3, 1968 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA as Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski. She is an actress, known for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Escape Plan (2013). She has been married to Eric Slovin since August 23, 2011. They have one child.- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher was born on September 30, 1957 in Queens, New York City, New York to Sylvia Drescher, a bridal consultant & Mort Drescher, a naval systems analyst. Fran attended Hillcrest High School in New York with another now-famous name, Ray Romano. She was a studious girl and was quite popular. In fact, at age fifteen, she'd met the man she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. That man was Peter Marc Jacobson. Her first break was in the unforgettable movie, Saturday Night Fever (1977) with John Travolta. She continued to play small roles in movies, until she came up with the idea for The Nanny (1993). She was visiting a friend in England and came up with the plot line. The Nanny (1993) became an instant success, and so did Fran. Since then, she has been in films such as The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (which she also produced) and Picking Up the Pieces (2000) co-starring Woody Allen. Fran has since divorced her husband Jacobson. She is a cancer survivor and an inspiration to women everywhere.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Initially an indie film favorite, actor Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a writer/producer/director.
The amiable, husky-framed actor with the tight, crinkly hair was born in Queens, New York on October 19, 1966, the only child of Madeleine (Balkoff), an elementary school teacher, and Charles Favreau, a special education teacher. His father has French-Canadian, German, and Italian ancestry, and his mother was from a Russian Jewish family. He attended the Bronx High School of Science before furthering his studies at Queens College in 1984. Dropping out just credits away from receiving his degree, Jon moved to Chicago where he focused on comedy and performed at several Chicago improvisational theaters, including the ImprovOlympic and the Improv Institute. He also found a couple of bit parts in films.
While there, he earned another bit role in the film, Rudy (1993), and met fellow cast mate Vince Vaughn. Their enduring personal friendship would play an instrumental role in furthering both their professional careers within just a few years. Jon broke into TV with a role on the classic series, Seinfeld (1989) (as "Eric the Clown"). After filming rudimentary roles in the movies Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Notes from Underground (1995) and Batman Forever (1995), he decided to do some risk taking by writing himself and friend Vaughn into what would become their breakthrough film. Swingers (1996), which he also co-produced, centers on Jon as a luckless, struggling actor type who is emotionally shattered after losing his girlfriend, but is pushed back into the L.A. social scene via the help of cool, worldly, outgoing actor/buddy Vaughn. These two blueprint roles went on to define the character types of both actors on film.
In 1997, Jon appeared favorably on several episodes of the popular TV sitcom, Friends (1994), as "Pete Becker", the humdrum but extremely wealthy suitor for Courteney Cox's "Monica" character, and also appeared to fine advantage on the Tracey Takes On... (1996) comedy series. He later took on the biopic mini-movie, Rocky Marciano (1999), portraying the prizefighter himself in a highly challenging dramatic role and received excellent reviews. Other engagingly offbeat "everyman" films roles came Jon's way -- the ex-athlete in the working class film, Dogtown (1997); a soon-to-be groom whose bachelor party goes horribly awry in the comedy thriller Very Bad Things (1998); a newlywed opposite Famke Janssen in Love & Sex (2000); a wild and crazy linebacker in The Replacements (2000); as Ben Affleck's legal partner in Daredevil (2003); and another down-and-out actor in The Big Empty (2003). He wrote and directed himself and Vaughn as two fellow boxers who involve themselves in criminal activity in Made (2001). Both he and Vaughn produced. He also directed the highly popular Will Ferrell comedy Elf (2003), in which he had a small part.
Jon went on to re-team favorably with his friend, Vince Vaughn, who enjoyed a meteoric rise into the comedy star ranks, in such light-weight features as The Break-Up (2006), Four Christmases (2008) and Couples Retreat (2009), the last of which he co-wrote with Vaughn.
Jon has made even greater strides as a writer, producer and/or director in recent years with the exciting mega-box office action-packed Iron Man (2008), starring Robert Downey Jr., and its sequels, Iron Man 2 (2010) and Iron Man 3 (2013). Jon's character of "Happy Hogan" would be featured in a number of Marvel Comic adventures. Other offerings behind the scenes have included the adventure dramedy Chef (2014), in which he also starred in the title role; the revamped film version of The Avengers (2012) also starring Downey Jr., and it's sequels Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019); and the animated Disney features The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019) and the TV series The Chef Show (2019).
Favreau's marriage to Joya Tillem on November 24, 2000, produced son Max and two daughters, Madeleine and Brighton Rose. Joya is the niece of KGO (AM) lawyer and talk show host, Len Tillem. On the sly, the actor/writer/producer/director enjoys playing on the World Poker Tour.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
David Lee Gallagher was born on February 9, 1985 in College Point, New
York, to Elena (Lopez) and Darren James Gallagher. His stepfather is Vincent Casey. David is of Irish (father) and Cuban (mother) descent. At not even two years old, he landed his first print ad job and
he has since done commercials for corporations such as Walt Disney
World, Burger King, Panasonic, Hanes, Betty Crocker and Tyson Foods. At
the age of 8, David made his film debut with a lead role in the
surprise hit Look Who's Talking Now (1993). Several television appearances and
made-for-television movies followed until another big-screen success in
Phenomenon (1996), with John Travolta. That same year he landed his most famous role to
date, Simon Camden, in the WB hit 7th Heaven (1996).
Angels in the Endzone (1997) and Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (1998) were barely enough to show off his talents and most
of his acting depth is shown off on the television series, which covers
such serious issues as drugs, abuse and suicide.
After achieving fan-magazine fame and teen-idol status, David co-starred in the film _Kart Racer (2003). He graduated from Chaminade High School in
2003. David enjoys swimming and basketball.- Actor
- Art Department
- Director
Michael Cudlitz was born on 29 December 1964 in Queens, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), The Walking Dead (2010) and Sex Drive (2008). He is married to Rachael Cudlitz. They have two children.- Actress
- Director
Born March 6, 1968 in Queens, New York, she is the third of six kids.
Her father, Peter, was trained as a concert violinist. Her mother,
Anne, is a nurse. Both are Irish immigrants. Moira was raised in
Ronkonkoma, NY. She attended Connetquot Senior High School and
graduated in the class of 1986. Later Moira attended Marymount
Manhattan College. In 1984 Moira was cast in a small role in Connetquot
Senior High School's production of Annie. Due to illness, the young
woman playing Miss Hannigan was replaced, causing a series of cast
changes. Director Eric Martinsen chose to recast Moira as Grace
Farrell. She was a great success, and so began her career.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz, on Saturday, October 31st, 1936, in
Forest Hills, Queens, New York. In 1941, he and his family moved to
Collingswood, New Jersey.
When Eugene was in high school, he participated -- and did very well --
in track and field, especially javelin throwing, and his athletic
skills earned him a scholarship to USC. However, an accident injured
his arm, ending his athletic career -- and his term at USC -- and he
worked a number of odd jobs and small roles to make ends meet and
decided that acting was for him. However, he thought that his real name
was not a suitable one for an aspiring actor, and so "Michael Landon"
was born.
Two of his first big roles were as Tony Rivers in
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
and as Tom Dooley in the western
The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959).
That same year he was approached by producer
David Dortort to star in a pilot called
The Restless Gun (1957),
which was renamed when the series was picked up to
Bonanza (1959). Landon played Little
Joe Cartwright, the youngest of the three Cartwright brothers, a cocky
and somewhat rebellious youth nevertheless had a way with the ladies.
For 14 years, Landon became the heart and soul of the show, endearing
himself to both younger and older viewers, and he became a household
name during the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1968, after almost ten years of playing Little Joe, he wanted an
opportunity to direct and write some episodes of the show. After the
season finale in 1972, Dan Blocker, who
played his older brother Hoss and was also a close friend, died from a
blood clot in his lung, after gall bladder surgery, but Michael decided
to go back to work, revisiting his own character in a two-part episode
called "Forever."
Bonanza (1959) was finally canceled
in early 1973, after 14 years and 430 episodes. Michael didn't have to
wait long until he landed another successful role that most TV
audiences of the 1970s would thoroughly enjoy, his second TV western,
for NBC,
Little House on the Prairie (1974).
That show was based on a popular book written by
Laura Ingalls Wilder, and he played
enduring patriarch and farmer Charles Ingalls. Unlike
Bonanza (1959), where he was mostly
just a "hired gun," on this show he served as the producer, writer,
director, and executive producer. By the end of its eighth season in
1982, Landon decided to step down from his role on "Little House" as he
saw his TV children grown up and moved out of their father's house, and
a year later, the show was canceled. After 14 years on
Bonanza (1959) and 8 years on
Little House on the Prairie (1974),
it was about time to focus on something else, and once again, he didn't
have to wait too long before
Highway to Heaven (1984)
came along. Unlike the western shows that he did for 23 years, this NBC
fantasy/drama show focused on Jonathan Smith, an angel whose job was to
save peoples' lives and work for God, his boss.
Victor French played ex-cop Mark Gordon,
who turned down a fortune but had redeemed himself by meeting Jonathan.
By the end of the fifth season in 1989, French was diagnosed with lung
cancer and died in June of that same year. Landon was devastated by the
loss and pulled the plug on
Highway to Heaven (1984).
In early 1991, after 35 years of working on NBC, he was axed by the
network, so he moved to CBS to star in the pilot of a two-hour movie,
Us (1991), in which he played Jeff
Hayes, a man freed from prison by new evidence after 18 years
wrongfully spent inside. This was going to be another one of Landon's
shows but, in April 1991, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He
later appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)
to talk about his battle with the disease, and many people in the
audience were affected by the courage and energy he showed.
Unfortunately, he was already terminally ill by that time, and on Monday, July
1st, 1991, after a three-month battle, he finally succumbed to the
disease. His family, his colleagues, and his children were all by his
side. His life-time: Saturday, October 31st, 1936 to Monday, July 1st, 1991, was 19,966 days, equaling 2,852 weeks & 2 days.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Liza Lapira is a film, television, and theater actress. She was raised in Queens, N.Y. In New York, she acted on stage and in independent films. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in television. Her first theatrical film appearance was in the romantic drama Autumn in New York and since then she has been cast in a myriad of television and film roles. Lapira is a supporter of children's organizations, like LA's Best and Impact Theatre in Harlem, and she also participates in the annual Children's Hospital Los Angeles Charity Triathlon.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Joe Lo Truglio was born in Ozone Park, Queens and was raised in Margate, Florida. He is the son of Helen (Lynch) and Joseph Lo Truglio, and is of Italian and Irish descent. His childhood
revolved around collecting Mad magazines, shooting horror movies on a
Super 8, fishing in his backyard canal, and drawing homemade comics. He
graduated Coconut Creek High School in 1988, where he was a member of
Thespian troupe 2617, and there, along with classmate Russell Scherker,
in category Duo Scene at Thespian VII district competition at
Santaluces High School, snagged the coveted "Critic's Choice". The
scene performed: the screwball, banter-laden opening scene of "Say
Goodnight, Gracie".
He attended NYU Film school where he met his future colleagues and
co-founded the cult sketch group, "The State". Also during this time,
he indulged in "Jagger-Induced, Midnight Sidewalk-Stencil Missions".
After a short run on MTV, he and his cohorts were pistol-whipped by the
realities of network television.
After The State's hiatus in 1996, he hunkered down in Hell's Kitchen
and immersed himself in commercial, video-game, and TV episodic work.
He found a local watering hole, played poker, and trash-talked LA,
where, ironically, he would move to 10 years later.
Around the millennium, with "Wet Hot American Summer" and "The Station
Agent", independent film work came back into the fray. It was all
coming full-circle, the only missing element being a Super 8 camera.
Now, he balances writing and producing web series and firebranding its
originality over mainstream media with bike rides and matinées. He
relishes jumping back and forth between studio and indie flicks.
Guinness and Jameson is still his favorite buddy-comedy.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Producer
Deborah Anne Mazar Corcos (born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality, known for playing sharp-tongued women. She began her career with supporting roles in Goodfellas (1990), Little Man Tate (1991) and Singles (1992), followed by lead roles on the legal drama series Civil Wars and L.A. Law.
Beginning in 2014, she has had a starring role in the Cooking Channel series, Extra Virgin, along with her husband Gabriele Corcos. She is also known for her role as press agent Shauna Roberts on the HBO series Entourage and stars as Maggie Amato on TV Land's Younger.
Mazar was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, the daughter of Nancy and Harry Mazar. Her father was born in the Latvian SSR, Soviet Union, to a Jewish family, but raised Roman Catholic. She had no knowledge of her father's ancestry until her twenties. Mazar's parents annulled their marriage shortly after she was born, and she spent her early life in the country in upstate New York with her mother. As a teenager, she relocated to Long Island, where she lived with her godparents.
Mazar worked various odd jobs, including selling jewelry at Fiorucci with Linda Ramone and Joey Arias, later as a dental assistant, and at a nightclub.
While working at Danceteria, Mazar met Madonna. She hired Mazar to do her makeup for the music video for "Everybody". She also originated the hair and makeup for the play Speed-the-Plow.
Mazar began her career as a hip hop b-girl in New York City. Her first television appearance was on the pilot for a hip hop television dance show, Graffiti Rock in 1984. She appeared in five of Madonna's music videos - "Papa Don't Preach", "True Blue" (both 1986), "Justify My Love" (1990), "Deeper and Deeper" (1992) and "Music" (2000).
Mazar has played a number of minor supporting roles in a variety of films, including Sandy, a friend of Henry Hill's mistress in Goodfellas (1990); The Doors (1991); a small role in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992); Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and as Spice (of Sugar and Spice, with Drew Barrymore as Sugar) in Batman Forever (1995). She gained her first real following from playing a character on Civil Wars in the early 1990s. When that series was can-celled her character was brought over as a recurring role between 1993 and 1994 season of the TV drama L.A. Law.
She played the villain Regina, a modern-day Cruella de Vil, in the family film Beethoven's 2nd (1993). She has appeared in independent films Inside Monkey Zetterland and Nowhere and her short-lived sitcom, Temporarily Yours. She appeared as the genie in the Space Monkeys' music video, "Sugarcane".
Mazar appeared on a Friends episode in its eighth season ("The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part One"). Mazar played "Doreen, the Evil Bitch," a crazed pregnant woman who shares a hospital room with Rachel. In the 1999 docudrama film The Insider she played character Lowell Bergman's assistant Debi. From 2000-02 she played Jackie on the television drama That's Life. She provided the voice of Maria Latore in the video games Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).
From 2004 to 2011, she had a supporting role on Entourage as press agent Shauna Roberts. She also had a recurring role on the sitcom Living with Fran, playing Fran Drescher's character's cousin, Merrill. She did a two-episode stint on the television series Ugly Betty as fraudster Leah Stillman.
Mazar was a contestant on the ninth season of Dancing With the Stars. She was partnered with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and finished in twelfth place. She was eliminated in the third week (October 6, 2009). In 2012, Mazar played Jessica, a glamorous, leather-clad villainies in Home Alone: The Holiday Heist.
Mazar began appearing on a Cooking Channel cooking/reality show television series in January 2011. She, her husband Gabriele Corcos, and their two daughters star in the series, which depicts their lives, and showcases their own recipes. The show is scripted. The show has had four seasons as of June 2014. In 2015, Mazar and her husband started another series on the Cooking Channel entitled Extra Virgin Americana where they travel the U.S., road trip style, with their children and family friend searching for great food.
Beginning in 2015, Mazar has starred in Younger with Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff as Maggie. The series met critical acclaim and began filming its fifth season in February 2018.
Mazar appeared in the 2nd season of The $100,000 Pyramid reboot on ABC on August 6, 2017. In the main game, she helped her contestant get 7 clues in only 15 seconds causing host Michael Strahan to say, "I think that's the quickest round we've ever had, 15 seconds!"
In 2018 she played Ava Gardner in the Spanish period comedy-drama television series Arde Madrid, telling the story of the period which the American actress spent in Madrid during Francoist Spain.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt, who is also known as Rosemarie DeWitt, is one of the most popular American actresses. She was born on October 26, 1971 in Flushing, Queens that lies in New York, USA. Her parents are Rosemarie Baddock and Kenny DeWitt. She has been featured in various roles in a number of movies and TV shows. She was raised in Hanover Township, New Jersey and she graduated from Whippany Park High School. She also used to perform in many high school productions. She is a granddaughter of former World Heavyweight Champion Jimmy Braddock, and played the role of neighbor Sara Wilson in the movie Cinderella Man (2005), which depicted Jimmy Braddock's life.
DeWitt performed in numerous off Broadway plays. Most notably, she starred in John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Second Stage Theatre; George S. Kaufman's The Butter and Egg Man at the Atlantic Theater Company; and Craig Lucas' Small Tragedy, for which the entire cast won an Obie Award. From May 4-23, 2010, DeWitt appeared in MCC Theater's Off Broadway play Family Week, written by Beth Henley and directed by Jonathan Demme. In its review of the play, the New York Times stated that DeWitt's lead performance has many affecting moments as the beleaguered Claire.
DeWitt appeared in Showtime's series United States of Tara (2009) as Tara's sister, Charmaine. She appeared in Season 1 of the AMC series Mad Men (2007) as Midge Daniels, lead character Don Draper's bohemian mistress, and returned for one episode in Season 4. She co-starred with Ron Livingston in the 2006-2007 Fox series Standoff (2006). She played FBI hostage negotiator Emily Lehman. DeWitt has also appeared on television in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Sex and the City (1998), Rescue Me (2004), and Love Monkey (2006).
DeWitt is featured in the film Margaret (2011), opposite Anna Paquin and Mark Ruffalo. Additional film credits include Purple Violets (2007), Off the Black (2006), The Wedding Weekend (2006), The Great New Wonderful (2005), The Commuters (2005) and How I Got Lost (2009). She plays the role of Rachel in the Jonathan Demme-directed movie Rachel Getting Married (2008) alongside Anne Hathaway, for which she won several critics' awards and a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress.
DeWitt played Ben Affleck's character's wife in the corporate drama The Company Men (2010). In 2011 she played Hannah, one of the three lead characters in the critically acclaimed Your Sister's Sister (2011), opposite Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass. In 2011, she played Renee Blair in the film A Little Bit of Heaven (2011) starring Kate Hudson.
In 2012, she played Alice in Gus Van Sant's film Promised Land (2012), released on December 28, 2012.
In 2016 she appeared in the multi-award-winning La La Land (2016) as Laura, the sister of Ryan Gosling's character Sebastian.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Hank Azaria is an American comedian and actor from Queens, New York. He is known for voicing several characters in The Simpsons including Apu, Chief Wiggum, Moe, Bumblebee Man, Lou and Superintendent Chalmers. The latter became well-known due to the "Steamed Hams" scene. He also acted in Godzilla, The Smurfs and Mystery Men.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
David Bryan Woodside (born July 25, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as the bass singer Melvin Franklin in The Temptations, Robin Wood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Malcolm Franks in Single Ladies, Dr. Joseph Prestridge in Parenthood, the angel Amenadiel in Lucifer, as well as Wayne Palmer in the thriller series 24.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Debra Wilson was born on 26 April 1962 in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Over the Hedge (2006), Batman: The Enemy Within (2017) and Scary Movie 4 (2006). She has been married to Cliff Skelton since 8 April 2006.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Peter Facinelli was born in Queens, New York, the youngest child of
Bruna (Reich) and Pierino Facinelli, a waiter. His parents are Italian
immigrants, originally from Trentino, Northern Italy. He has three
sisters. Peter was educated at St. Francis Preparatory School in
Fresh Meadows, New York, and went on to attend St. John's University, but left
after a year to follow his interest in acting at the Atlantic Theater
Company Acting School, also in New York. There Facinelli was taught by
such distinguished actors as Academy Award nominees
William H. Macy and
Felicity Huffman.
He made his screen debut in 1995, appearing in
Rebecca Miller's
Angela (1995) and has worked consistently
ever since. Notable projects include
The Price of Love (1995),
An Unfinished Affair (1996)
(where he met his future wife,
Jennie Garth),
Touch Me (1997) and
The Scorpion King (2002).
Facinelli has also had re-occurring roles in such TV shows such as
Fastlane (2002),
Six Feet Under (2001),
Damages (2007) and
Nurse Jackie (2009). In 2008, he
won the role of Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the wildly popular
Twilight (2008) and its sequels.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Frederick Koehler was born on 16 June 1975 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Mr. Mom (1983), Death Race (2008) and Pearl Harbor (2001).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
This Queens-born actor has certainly proven himself adept at everything from quirky comedy to flat-out melodrama earning TV stardom in the early 1990's and maintaining a strong foothold on stage, film and TV in its aftermath.
Steven Robert Weber was born on March 4, 1961, to Fran (Frankel), a nightclub singer, and Stuart Weber, a nightclub performer, and Borscht Belt comic and manager. He was already appearing in television commercials by elementary school age. He later studied at the High School of the Performing Arts in New York and graduated from New York State University. The fair-haired, fair-skinned actor worked a series of menial jobs during his salad days as a struggling thespian (custodian, elevator operator, singing waiter) until earning his break on TV in a presentation of one of Mark Twain's stories. Quickly making his film debut in the popular comedy The Flamingo Kid (1984), he nabbed a running role on the soap opera As the World Turns (1956) a year later. On the set he met first wife Finn Carter, another co-star on the daytime drama. Steven stayed put for a year then went on to gain recognition in more offbeat and/or prestigious productions on film and prime-time TV. He played a rock star in the thoroughly offbeat foreign-made film Angels (1990) and showed real command as John F. Kennedy in the epic miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990).
That same year TV stardom came his way with the sitcom Wings (1990). Co-starring with Tim Daly as Brian Hackett, the looser, goofier more aimless half of the brotherly team who co-owned a one-plane, Nantucket-based airline, the actors' chemistry, not to mention a terrifically eclectic supporting cast, kept the show on a steady course for seven seasons. Easily typed now as a genial, lovable loser type, Weber faced the prospect of severe pigeon-holing. So during the show's off season, he started showing up in more serious roles. He suffered at the hands of the deranged Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female (1992); appeared in a second chiller with The Temp (1993); and made a cameo in the highly depressing, award-winning Leaving Las Vegas (1995). His flair for comedy shone in is straight-man role as Johathan Harker in the critically acclaimed horror spoof, Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) He truly impressed both critics and audiences alike as the complex title character in Jeffrey (1995), a gay romantic film comedy, and then completely defied all odds by starring in an epic TV-movie version of Stephen King's horror classic The Shining (1997), seizing the role inherited from Jack Nicholson and brilliantly making it his own while earning a Saturn award for his chilling efforts.
By the time "Wings" came to an end in 1997, Weber had divorced his actress/wife Finn Carter (they had no children) and married actress/TV executive Juliette Hohnen on July 9, 1995. They have two children, Jack and Alfie. He and Laura Linney were selected to play the TV-movie leads in the popular A.R. Gurney theater piece Love Letters (1999). While other TV series comebacks have fared less well, including the short runs of The Weber Show (2000) (which he produced), The D.A. (2004), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), Happy Town (2010) and Chasing Life (2014).
Steven bounced around solidly in other venues. In 2002, he joined the cast of the smash Broadway musical "The Producers," taking over the nebbish Matthew Broderick role. In 2004, he went to London to appear on stage with Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson in "National Anthems." Other plays over the years have included "Throwing Your Voice," "Something in the Air" and "Design for Living."
Steven has remained quite productive into the millennium with recent film outings in Sexual Life (2004), The Amateurs (2005), Inside Out (2005), the title role in Choose Connor (2007), Farm House (2008), My One and Only (2009), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011), Son of Morning (2011), the comedy Being Bin Laden (2011) in which he played Osama Bin Laden, Crawlspace (2012), Kiss Me (2014), Amateur Night (2016), A Thousand Junkies (2017), The Perfection (2018) and Allan the Dog (2020). Seen even more prolifically on TV, he has graced such popular shows as "The D.A.," "Will & Grace" (as Will's brother Sam), "Monk," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Desperate Housewives," "Hot in Cleveland," "Parenthood," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Sleepy Hollow" and "This Close."
The actor continues to play a stream of comedic and dramatic recurring roles on such TV programs as Without a Trace (2002), Brothers & Sisters (2006), Dallas (2012) (the New Generation), Murder in the First (2014), Helix (2014), iZombie (2015), House of Lies (2012), NCIS: New Orleans (2014), Ballers (2015) and Get Shorty (2017) and more recently appeared as a regular on the mystery series 13 Reasons Why (2017) and comedy series Indebted (2020). In addition, he has given voice to a few animated programs including Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), Avengers Assemble (2012) The Bravest Knight (2019) and Puppy Dog Pals (2017).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ruehl received her first Academy Award nomination and win for her performance as Anne Napolitano, the emotionally driven girlfriend to fallen radio personality, (played by Jeff Bridges), in Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, The Fisher King (1991). In addition to an Oscar, and a Golden Globe, Ruehl's performance garnered several accolades. Los Angeles Times commended the performance, calling it "a bravura performance that runs from high, bantering comedy to an intense projection of pain and sorrow."
Notable film credits include The Fisher King (1991), Lost in Yonkers (1993) and For Roseanna (1997).- Actor
- Producer
Jason Patric was born on 17 June 1966 in Queens, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Lost Boys (1987), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) and The Losers (2010).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Tobin Bell is an American actor with a career in film, television and
theater spanning three decades. He was born in Queens, New York and
raised in Weymouth, Mass. His mother is the British actress Eileen
Bell. He is perhaps best known for his role as the iconic villain
"Jigsaw" in the Saw film series...for which he received MTV Award
nominations in 2007 & 2009. He's a graduate of Boston University and
has a Masters Degree in Education from Montclair State University. He
studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and
Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. He is a lifetime member
of The Actors Studio and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Phil Rosenthal was born on 27 January 1960 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), The Simpsons Movie (2007) and Coach (1989). He has been married to Monica Horan since 22 April 1990. They have two children.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers
in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as
John Philip Sousa,
Aaron Copland or
Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he
is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards
that includes over 52 Oscar nominations (five wins), twenty-odd Gold
and Platinum Records, and a slew of Emmy (two wins), Golden Globe
(three wins), Grammy (25 wins), National Board of Review (including a
Career Achievement Award), Saturn (six wins), American Film Institute (including a Lifetime Achievement Award) and BAFTA (seven wins)
citations, along with honorary doctorate degrees numbering in the
teens, Williams is undoubtedly one of the most respected composers for
Cinema. He's led countless national and international orchestras, most
notably as the nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from
1980-1993, helming three Pops tours of the US and Japan during his
tenure. He currently serves as the Pop's Conductor Laureate. Also to
his credit is a parallel career as an author of serious, and some
not-so-serious, concert works - performed by the likes of
Mstislav Rostropovich,
André Previn,
Itzhak Perlman,
Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham,
Leonard Slatkin,
James Ingram, Dale Clevenger, and
Joshua Bell. Of particular interests
are his Essay for Strings, a jazzy Prelude & Fugue, the multimedia
presentation American Journey (aka The Unfinished Journey (1999)), a
Sinfonietta for Winds, a song cycle featuring poems by
Rita Dove, concerti for flute, violin,
clarinet, trumpet, tuba, cello, bassoon and horn, fanfares for the
1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and a
song co-written with Alan Bergman
and Marilyn Bergman for the Special
Olympics! But such a list probably warrants a more detailed
background...
Born in Flushing, New York on February 8, 1932, John Towner Williams
discovered music almost immediately, due in no small measure to being
the son of a percussionist for CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintet.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1948, the young pianist and leader of
his own jazz band started experimenting with arranging tunes; at age
15, he determined he was going to become a concert pianist; at 19, he
premiered his first original composition, a piano sonata.
He attended both UCLA and the Los Angeles City College, studying
orchestration under MGM musical associate
Robert Van Eps and being privately
tutored by composer
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
until conducting for the first time during three years with the U.S.
Air Force. His return to the states brought him to Julliard, where
renowned piano pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne helped Williams hone
his performance skills. He played in jazz clubs to pay his way; still,
she encouraged him to focus on composing. So it was back to L.A., with
the future maestro ready to break into the Hollywood scene.
Williams found work with the Hollywood studios as a piano player,
eventually accompanying such fare such as the TV series
Peter Gunn (1958),
South Pacific (1958),
Some Like It Hot (1959),
The Apartment (1960), and
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962),
as well as forming a surprising friendship with
Bernard Herrmann. At age 24, "Johnny
Williams" became a staff arranger at Columbia and then at 20th
Century-Fox, orchestrating for
Alfred Newman and
Lionel Newman,
Dimitri Tiomkin,
Franz Waxman, and other Golden Age
notables. In the field of popular music, he performed and arranged for
the likes of Vic Damone,
Doris Day, and
Mahalia Jackson... all while courting
actress/singer Barbara Ruick, who became
his wife until her death in 1974. John & Barbara had three children;
their daughter is now a doctor, and their two sons,
Joseph Williams and Mark Towner
Williams, are rock musicians.
The orchestrating gigs led to serious composing jobs for television,
notably Alcoa Premiere (1961),
Checkmate (1960),
Gilligan's Island (1964),
Lost in Space (1965),
Land of the Giants (1968),
and his Emmy-winning scores for
Heidi (1968) and
Jane Eyre (1970).
Daddy-O (1958) and
Because They're Young (1960)
brought his original music to the big theatres, but he was soon
typecast doing comedies. His efforts in the genre helped guarantee his
work on William Wyler's
How to Steal a Million (1966),
however, a major picture that immediately led to larger projects. Of
course, his arrangements continued to garner attention, and he won his
first Oscar for adapting
Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
During the '70s, he was King of Disaster Scores with
The Poseidon Adventure (1972),
Earthquake (1974) and
The Towering Inferno (1974).
His psychological score for Images (1972)
remains one of the most innovative works in soundtrack history. But his
Americana - particularly
The Reivers (1969) - is what caught
the ear of director Steven Spielberg,
then preparing for his first feature,
The Sugarland Express (1974).
When Spielberg reunited with Williams on
Jaws (1975), they established themselves as
a blockbuster team, the composer gained his first Academy Award for
Original Score, and Spielberg promptly recommended Williams to a
friend, George Lucas. In 1977, John
Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of
Erich Wolfgang Korngold,
Franz Waxman and other composers from the
Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned
countless musical imitators. For the next five years, though the music
in Hollywood changed, John Williams wrote big, brassy scores for big,
brassy films - The Fury (1978),
Superman (1978),
1941 (1979),
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
... An experiment during this period,
Heartbeeps (1981), flopped. There was
a long-term change of pace, nonetheless, as Williams fell in love with
an interior designer and married once more.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
brought about his third Oscar, and
The River (1984),
Empire of the Sun (1987),
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
and
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
added variety to the 1980s, as he returned to television with work on
Amazing Stories (1985) and
themes for NBC, including
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (1970). The
'80s also brought the only exceptions to the composer's collaboration
with Steven Spielberg - others scored
both Spielberg's segment of
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
and The Color Purple (1985).
Intending to retire, the composer's output became sporadic during the
1990s, particularly after the exciting
Jurassic Park (1993) and the
masterful, Oscar-winning
Schindler's List (1993). This
lighter workload, coupled with a number of hilarious references on
The Simpsons (1989) actually
seemed to renew interest in his music. Two Home Alone films (1990,
1992), JFK (1991),
Nixon (1995),
Sleepers (1996),
Seven Years in Tibet (1997),
Saving Private Ryan (1998),
Angela's Ashes (1999), and a
return to familiar territory with
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
recalled his creative diversity of the '70s.
In this millennium, the artist shows no interest in slowing down. His
relationships with Spielberg and Lucas continue in
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001),
the remaining Star Wars prequels (2002, 2005),
Minority Report (2002),
Catch Me If You Can (2002),
and a promised fourth Indiana Jones film. There is a more focused
effort on concert works, as well, including a theme for the new
Walt Disney Concert Hall and a rumored light
opera. But one certain highlight is his musical magic for the world of
Harry Potter (2001, 2002, 2004, etc.), which he also arranged into a
concert suite geared toward teaching children about the symphony
orchestra. His music remains on the whistling lips of people around the
globe, in the concert halls, on the promenades, in album collections,
sports arenas, and parades, and, this writer hopes, touching some place
in ourselves. So keep those ears ready wherever you go, 'cause you will
likely hear a bit of John Williams on your way.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Tika Sumpter was born in New York and graduated from Marymount
Manhattan College. Sumpter began her career as model, before she landed
the role of "Layla Williamson" in ABC's daytime soap opera,
One Life to Live (1968)
(2005-2010, 2011).
After she left the soap, Sumpter won a recurring role in the CW series,
Gossip Girl (2007), and appeared
in the BET sitcom, The Game (2006).
After supporting roles in the films,
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010),
Salt (2010),
What's Your Number? (2011)
and Think Like a Man (2012), she
was cast alongside Jordin Sparks and
Whitney Houston in the 2012
musical film, Sparkle (2012). In
2013, she was cast as vixen "Candace Young" in the OWN drama series,
The Haves and the Have Nots (2013).- Barbara Linhares Ferreira is an American model and actress. She has earned attention and acclaim for her career as well as for being an outspoken supporter of the body positivity movement.
Ferreira was born in Queens, New York, but later moved to Maywood, New Jersey and attended Hackensack High School. She was raised by her Brazilian mother and grandmother. Her mother works as a chef.
Ferreira jumpstarted her career on her own by sending in pictures to American Apparel. She modeled for the brand while simultaneously working in one of their retail stores. She has since modeled for acclaimed brands such as Aerie, Adidas, Asos, Forever 21, H&M, Missguided and Target, among others. Unretouched photos and a video interview from Ferriera's Aerie campaign went viral in 2016. Later that year, Time (magazine) named her among their "30 Most Influential Teens."
Ferreira starred in the 10-episode Vice series "How to Behave," focused on etiquette. The show explored themes such as sex, money, and body image. The series also earned her recognition from the Webby Awards for "Best Web Personality/Host."
She also starred in a web series for Teen Vogue called "Body Party" where she guided the audience through the various facets of her own mantra of body positivity.
In addition, Ferreira starred alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church as "Ella" in two episodes of HBO's series "Divorce". Ferreira will continue her relationship with HBO as "Kat" in their upcoming series "Euphoria (2019)" starring Zendaya. - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Ray Romano grew up in Forest Hills, Queens. He performed in the NYC comedy club circuit before landing a guest spot on The Letterman Show. It was here that he propelled his TV show Everybody Loves Raymond.
He was also the voice of the Mammoth in the extremely successful Ice Age Series Movies.
He is also the inspiration for the character 'Paul', written by his brother Rich in the film "The Investigator".- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Harvey Weinstein was born on March 19, 1952, in Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York, USA, the first of two boys born to Max and Miriam Weinstein. He is a film producer, known for Pulp Fiction (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Gangs of New York (2002). He has been married and divorced twice; most recently from Georgina Chapman and previously from Eve Chilton.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson) is an American rapper, actor, producer, and entrepreneur.
He began a musical career and in 2000 he produced Power of the Dollar for Columbia Records, but days before the planned release he was shot and the album was never released. In 2002, after Jackson released the compilation album Guess Who's Back?, he was discovered by Eminem and signed to Shady Records, under the aegis of Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.
With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre (who produced his first major-label album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'), Jackson became one of the world's best selling rappers and rose to prominence with East Coast hip hop group G-Unit (which he leads de facto). In 2003, he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. Jackson had similar commercial and critical success with his second album, The Massacre, which was released in 2005. He released his fifth studio album, Animal Ambition, in 2014 and as of 2019 is working on his sixth studio album, Street King Immortal.
During his career Jackson has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and won several awards, including a Grammy Award, thirteen Billboard Music Awards, six World Music Awards, three American Music Awards and four BET Awards. He has pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), the Iraq War film Home of the Brave (2006) and Righteous Kill (2008).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Goldbach was born to Howard and Marjorie Goldbach in Queens, New York. Her father was a policeman. She met her first husband Augusto Gregorini in New York while she worked as a model and he was visiting from Italy for business tourism in 1966. Barbara followed him to Italy to be with him and they married in 1968. They had two children, Francesca Gregorini and Gianni Gregorini. During Gianni's birth, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, nearly choking him, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, although a later operation improved his condition.
In 1975, Barbara and Augusto Gregorini separated when she moved to Los Angeles, California. The couple separated in 1978, sharing custody of their two children. Barbara met Ringo Starr on the set of the comedy Caveman (1981), and they became a couple during the filming. Ringo and Barbara were on a holiday in December 1980 when her daughter called to inform them that John Lennon had been shot. Ringo and Barbara went to New York City to console Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. Ringo and Barbara married on April 27, 1981.
Her acting career began in Italy, where she played Nausicaa in Odissea (1968), a television adaptation of Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", directed by Franco Rossi and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Bach co-starred with two other "Bond Girls", Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet in the mystery Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) and had small roles in other Italian films. In 1977, she played Russian secret agent Anya Amasova in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The following year, she appeared in the war film Force 10 from Navarone (1978), which also starred Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Patty Duke was born Anna Marie Duke on December 14, 1946 in Elmhurst, New York, to Frances Margaret (McMahon), a cashier, and John Patrick Duke, a cab driver and handyman. She is of Irish, and one eighth German, descent. Her acting career began when she was introduced to her brother
Ray Duke's managers, John and Ethel Ross. Soon
after, Anna Marie became Patty, the actress. Patty started off in
commercials, a few movies and some bit parts. Her first big, memorable
role came when she was chosen to portray the blind and deaf
Helen Keller in the Broadway version of
"The Miracle Worker". The play lasted almost two years, from October
19, 1959-July 1, 1961 (Patty left in May, 1961). In 1962,
The Miracle Worker (1962)
became a movie and Patty won an Academy Award for best supporting
actress. She was 16 years old, making her the youngest person ever to
win an Oscar. She then starred in her own sitcom titled
The Patty Duke Show (1963).
It lasted for three seasons, and Patty was nominated for an Emmy. In
1965, she starred in the movie
Billie (1965). It was a success and was
the first movie ever sold to a television network. That same year, she
married director Harry Falk. Their marriage
lasted four years. She then starred in
Valley of the Dolls (1967),
which was a financial but not a critical success. In 1969, she secured
a part in an independent film called
Me, Natalie (1969). The film was a
box-office flop, but she won her second Golden Globe Award for her
performance in it. In the early 1970s, she became a mother to actors Sean Astin (with writer Michael Yell) and Mackenzie Astin (with actor John Astin). In 1976, she won her second Emmy award for the
highly successful mini-series,
Captains and the Kings (1976).
Other successful TV films followed. She received two Emmy nominations
in 1978 for
A Family Upside Down (1978)
and
Having Babies III (1978).
She then won her third Emmy in the 1979 TV movie version of
The Miracle Worker (1979),
this time portraying "Annie Sullivan". In 1982, she was diagnosed with
manic-depressive illness. In 1984, she became President of the Screen
Actors Guild (SAG). In 1986, she married
Michael Pearce, a drill
sergeant whom she met while preparing for a role in the TV movie,
A Time to Triumph (1986).
In 1987, she wrote her autobiography, "Call Me Anna". In 1989, she and
Mike adopted a baby, whom they named "Kevin". Her autobiography became
a TV movie in 1990, with Patty playing herself, from her 30s onward. In
1992, she wrote her second book, "A Brilliant Madness: Living with
Manic Depression Illness".
Anna Marie Duke had a long and
successful career, winning three Emmys. She was a mother and a political
advocate for issues such as the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), AIDS and
nuclear disarmament, all despite having Manic-Depression. She died on March 29, 2016, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. Patty had proved her strength as an actress and as a person.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Robert Davi is an award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, producer
and jazz vocalist.
From his portrayal of the opera singing baddie in "The Goonies" and one
of the most popular James Bond villains Franz Sanchez in "License to
Kill" to FBI Special Agent Big Johnson in "Die Hard" or Al Torres in
"Showgirls" to most recently Leo Marks in "The Iceman " Robert Davi is
one of the film industry's most recognized tough guys. He has also
starred in the small screen in hit shows like Profiler, Stargate
Atlantis, Criminal Minds and CSI. With over 140 film and TV credits he
has frightened us, romanced us, made us cry or split our seams
laughing. He is also one of the top vocalists of our day in
interpreting the Great American Songbook, thrilling audiences by
playing top venues like the Venetian in Las Vegas where he headlines or
for 10,000 people at the Harry Chapin Theater in East Meadow, Long
Island or the Orleans in Vegas where he gave 3 sellout shows with Don
Rickles. His debut album Davi Sings Sinatra- On the Road to Romance
produced by Phil Ramone shot to number 6 for more than several weeks on
Billboard's Jazz Charts.
In his early acting years, Davi attended Hofstra University on a drama
scholarship. He then moved to Manhattan, New York where he studied with
the legendary acting coach Stella Adler, who became his mentor. Davi
became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio, where he studied with
acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Always perfecting his craft, Davi studied
under Sandra Seacat, Larry Moss, Milton Katselas, Martin Landau, Mala
Powers and George Shdanoff, the creative partner and collaborator with
Michael Chekhov.
Robert Davi was born in Astoria, Queens, to Maria (Rulli) and Sal Davi.
His father was an Italian immigrant and his mother was of Italian
descent. Davi was introduced to film when he was cast opposite Frank
Sinatra in the telefilm, "Contract on Cherry Street." Later, his work
as a Palestinian terrorist in the award-winning television movie,
"Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami" brought him
critical acclaim and caught the eye of legendary James Bond producer
Albert R. Broccoli and writer Richard Maibaum, who cast Davi as
Colombian drug lord and lead villain Franz Sanchez in the Bond film
"License to Kill." Today, Davi is one of the top Bond villains of all
time ranking at the top on many lists. Davi also received critical
acclaim within the industry for his provocative portrayal of Bailey
Malone in "Profiler." The show struck a chord with audiences, paving
the way for such shows as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Without a
Trace," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Criminal Minds" and many
others. In 2004, Davi joined the cast of television's "Stargate:
Atlantis," which earned Davi many science fiction fans. He has also
shown his comedic strength in films such as "The 4th Tenor" with Rodney
Dangerfield and "The Hot Chick," produced by Rob Schneider and Adam
Sandler.
Having appeared in more than 100 motion pictures, some of Davi's most
notable film credits span 30 years and include cult-classics and
blockbuster hits with roles as Jake Fratelli in "The Goonies," Max
Keller in "Raw Deal," Special Agent Big Johnson in "Die Hard," Al
Torres in "Showgirls," Leo Marks in "The Iceman" with Michael Shannon,
Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta, Chris Evans and James Franco, and most
recently, with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger among a
large A-list cast in "Expendables 3." He has worked with such directors
as Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner, Blake Edwards, John McTiernan,
Paul Verhoeven and Patrick Hughes. In addition, he has worked on film
projects with acting talent such as Marlon Brando, Roberto Benigni,
Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Walken, Benicio Del Toro,
Danny Glover and Catherine Zeta Jones, to name a few.
In 2007, Davi produced, directed, co-wrote, and starred in "The Dukes,"
which tells the story of a once-successful Doo Wop group who fall on
hard times. The film won nine awards including the coveted Coup de
Coeur award. Davi was also awarded Best First-time Director and Best
Screenplay in the Monte Carlo Festival of Comedy by the legendary
director Ettore Scola where Prince Albert presented him with the
awards. Davi was the only first-time director in the Premiere Section
of the International Rome Film Festival along with Sean Penn, Robert
Redford, Sidney Lumet, Julie Taymor and others.
In October of 2011, Davi released his debut album, Davi Sings Sinatra:
On the Road to Romance (produced by Grammy award-winning producer Phil
Ramone) to rave reviews. Within weeks of its highly anticipated
release, the album soared onto Billboard Magazine's Top 10 Jazz Chart
taking the number 6 spot for several weeks. In response to the release,
the legendary Quincy Jones stated, "As FS would say, 'Koo, Koo.' Wow! I
have never heard anyone come this close to Sinatra's sound - and still
be himself. Many try, but Robert Davi has the voice, tone, the flavor
and the swagger. What a surprise. He absolutely touched me down to my
soul and brought back the essence and soul of Ol' Blue Eyes himself."
In support of the album release, Davi is touring the U.S. with his live
stage show, receiving standing ovations. He has performed at The
Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas for a three-night engagement,
the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza with a 55-piece orchestra, the
National Italian-American Foundation's (NIAF) special tribute to the
25th anniversary of its Lifetime Achievement Award to Frank Sinatra at
the Washington Hilton in D.C., the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto,
Calif., with David Foster at the Beverly Hilton, and in August of 2013,
at Long Island's Eisenhower Park for more than 10,000 people. In
November of 2013, Davi released the Christmas single, "New York City
Christmas."
Besides working in film, television, and music and raising his five
children, four dogs and two cats, Davi keeps busy volunteering his time
with such charities as The Dream Foundation, Exceptional Children's
Foundation, Heart of a Child Foundation, the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Youth Foundation, The Humane Society of the United States,
Heart of a Horse, NIAF, The Order 'Sons of Italy' in America (OSIA),
and UNICO. Since its inception in 1998, Davi has been the National
Spokesperson for i-Safe America, which is regarded by many internet
experts as the most complete internet safety program in the country and
is available in grades K-12 in all 50 U.S. states.
Among his numerous awards for career achievement and community
involvement, Davi has received the George M. Estabrook Distinguished
Service Award from the Hofstra University Alumni Association (past
recipients include Francis Ford Coppola and William Safire). In 2000,
Davi was awarded the FBI's Man of the Year Award in Los Angeles. In
2004, Davi was named KNX radios' "Citizen of the Week" for saving a
young girl from a fire in her home. The same year, he also received the
Sons of Italy's Royal Court of the Golden Lion Award, including a
$20,000 donation to a foundation in which he is involved. In addition,
he received the 2004 STEP Award (Science, Technology and Education
Partnership). In 2007, Davi was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Italian Board of Governors in New York, where New York State
recognized his value as an artist and community leader. In 2008, he
received the Italo-Americano Award from the Capri-Hollywood Festival.
In 2011, Davi was awarded the "Military Order of the Purple Heart"
(MOPH) Special Recognition Award for dedication and service honoring
America's service members, veterans, and their families. In June of
2013, Davi was honored with a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in
Toronto, Canada.
Davi is on The Steering Committee for George Washington University's
Homeland Security Policy Institute and is the only entertainer among 28
members, which consists of mainly Senators and former heads of the FBI
and CIA. Davi has developed Civilian Patrol 93, which is at Homeland
Security, where a lesson plan is being written.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Christina Vidal was born on 18 November 1981 in Whitestone, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for See No Evil (2006), The Guilty (2021) and Life with Mikey (1993). She has been married to Marcus Mitchell since 25 September 2016. They have two children.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
The late Adrienne Shelly was born in Queens, New York, to Elaine Langbaum
and Sheldon Levine. After graduating Jericho High School in Jericho, New
York, she enrolled at Boston University and majored in film production. She
dropped out after her junior year and moved to Manhattan, where she made
a name for herself in independent films with her work in
The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
and Trust (1990).
She eventually moved behind the camera, writing and directing
I'll Take You There (1999)
and Waitress (2007) (her final film).
On November 1, 2006, Adrienne Shelly was murdered. She was survived by
her husband Andy Ostroy and their daughter Sophie.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Katie Lowes was born on 22 September 1982 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Zootopia (2016) and Scandal (2012). She has been married to Adam Shapiro since 23 June 2012. They have two children.- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
Billy Jayne was born in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Just One of the Guys (1985), Cujo (1983) and The 'Burbs (1989). He was previously married to April Jayne.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Mike Starr was born on 29 July 1950 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Ed Wood (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994) and Uncle Buck (1989). He has been married to Joanne since 1975. They have three children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
The whole Turturro clan and their extended family seem to have gotten into the show biz act at one time or another. The youngest of three boys, including famous older brother (by five years) John Turturro, Nicholas Turturro was born on January 29, 1962, in Queens, New York, and grew up in its Rosedale section. He is the son of Italian-American parents, Katherine (Incerella), a jazz singer, and Nicholas Turturro, a construction worker and carpenter, who was born in Giovinazzo.
After attending various Catholic schools, he graduated and majored in theater at Adelphi University for two years, but left to marry Jami Biunno and help raise their child, Erica. The couple later divorced. While working as a doorman at the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City, Nick managed to find a job as both an extra and voice-over artist in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) after brother John introduced Nick to Spike. Spike took an immediate interest in the rough-edged Nick and wrote a featured role for him in his next film Mo' Better Blues (1990) in which John and Nick played repugnant Jewish brothers and co-owners of a club. Both the brothers went on to appear together again in Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) and Nick also appeared in Lee's Malcolm X (1992).
Nick branched out on his own after this and earned parts in the movies Federal Hill (1994) and Excess Baggage (1997), and garnered serious TV attention as rookie detective "James Martinez" on NYPD Blue (1993) earning a couple of Emmy nominations in the process. His character was originally created as a foil to David Caruso star character, but he lost momentum after Caruso's early departure from the show. Still, he managed to hang around for seven seasons.
Very dark in tone and complexion, the compact-framed Nick certainly has had a wealth of experience in mob drama, playing a young Al Capone in one guest appearance, and assorted mobster types in other TV-movies. Plenty of guest-starring roles have also come his way with episodes of Law & Order (1990), L.A. Law (1986) and The Twilight Zone (1985) and a recurring role on Third Watch (1999). He has lightened up on a rare occasion in such comedies as The Drew Carey Show (1995) and in a couple of failed pilots.
Into the millennium, Nicholas continues to work steadily including the comedies The Shipment (2001) and The Biz (2002); played the title role of Angelo Buono in the crime drama The Hillside Strangler (2004) and then turned around to play a good guy officer in First Sunday (2008); appeared in the sports comedy remake of The Longest Yard (2005) starring Adam Sandler; starred as the title TV producer nobody recalls in Remembering Phil (2008); co-starred in the gangster movie Street Boss (2009); as well as the low level comedy The Deported (2009); supported comic actor Kevin James in both Zookeeper (2011) and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015); appeared as part of the kidnapped ensemble in the crime comedy The Wretched (2020); had parts in a couple of biographical dramas including A Chance in the World (2017) and the Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman (2018); as well as the action thrillers Las Vegas Vietnam: The Movie (2019) and Shooting Heroin (2020).
On stage, Nick has appeared in "Wild Goose", "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" (with John) "Lusting After Popino's Wife" and "Siddown: Conversations With the Mob". Nick's never strayed too far from the family fold. He's appeared in a number of John's projects over the years that have also occasionally featured cousin Aida Turturro (from The Sopranos (1999) fame). His mother has also appeared in a few films, as has John's wife and sons. Nick remarried a number of years ago.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Burly, talented character actor who remained consistently busy playing "rough edged" or scary characters, often on the wrong side of the law. Young was born on April 30, 1940, in New York City, the son of a high school shop teacher. He is of Italian descent. Young received his dramatic arts training under acting coach Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
Young first gathered notice playing tough thugs in such films as The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Chinatown (1974) and The Gambler (1974). Director Sam Peckinpah cast Young as the getaway driver/assassin, "Mac", in The Killer Elite (1975), and Young came to the attention of newcomer Sylvester Stallone, who cast him as future
brother-in-law "Paulie" in the 1976 sleeper hit Rocky (1976).
Young was nominated for an Oscar, and has gone on to reprise the role in all five "Rocky" sequels to date! Peckinpah re-hired him to play renegade trucker "Pigpen" in the moderately successful Convoy (1978) (watch for "Pigpen's" Mack truck where the writing on the door states "Paulie Hauling"!).
Young also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
James Marshall was born James David Greenblatt in Queens, New York,
USA, to Charlotte (Bullard), a dancer, and
William R. Greenblatt, a producer
and director. His father is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and his mother
has English and Irish ancestry.
James grew up in Bergen County New Jersey. At the age of fifteen he
moved with his family to the Los Angeles area where he attended Santa
Monica High School. Once high school was over, James attended acting
classes and struggled to break into Hollywood. His father offered to
help James, but he didn't want to take the nepotism route. Coming from
a family of entertainers (his mother a former radio city music hall
Rockette and his sister a musician) he had Hollywood in site. Accepting
small acting parts, working as a messenger, as well as at a pizzeria,
James felt the pressures of the business. James made a big splash when
director David Lynch cast Marshall for his new series entitled Twin
Peaks. Playing the moody, biker boyfriend of Laura Palmer thrust James
Marshall into the living rooms of millions and introduced the new actor
to a captivated audience. By early 1990 his career took a turn onto the
silver screen with an appearance in the movie Cadence, starring Martin
Sheen and Charlie Sheen. This lead to his first starring role with a
major movie studio. The movie was the 1992 boxing drama, Gladiator.
Three months of rigorous training was put into the role before even
getting to the set. The buzz on Marshall was so great that director Rob
Reiner cast James and co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. in his upcoming film A
Few Good Men. The movie was an excellent springboard towards a busy
acting career. James has continued working steadily in television
movies and features. In May of 1998 James married actress Renee Allman.
They have appeared together in the features Criminal Affairs and
Doomsday Man. Together they have one child, James David, who was born
in January of 2002. The happy family live together in the Los Angeles
area. James continues to work on a host a television movies and film
projects. In addition James is an accomplished author, artist and
musician.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York City, New York. He is the son of Mary Trump (née Macleod) and Fred Trump, a real estate millionaire. His mother was a Scottish immigrant who initially worked as a maid. His father was born in New York, to German parents.
From kindergarten through seventh grade, he attended the Kew-Forest School. At age 13, he enrolled in the New York Military Academy.
In 1964, he began his higher education at Fordham University. After two years, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.
From 1971 to 2017, he was chairman and president of his family real estate company, Elizabeth Trump & Son (now called The Trump Organization), which was founded in 1923 by his grandmother and father. His business career primarily focused on building or renovating office towers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses.
He has five children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump with his first wife, Ivana Trump (m. 1977- d.1990), Tiffany Trump with his second wife, Marla Maples (m. 1993- d.1999) and Barron Trump with his third wife, Melania Trump (m. 2005).
He has hosted and produced the reality television series, The Apprentice (2004), which has been nominated for nine Primetime Emmy awards.
He was the 45th President of the United States from January 20, 2017 - January 20, 2021.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Reginald VelJohnson was born on 16 August 1952 in Queens, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Die Hard (1988), Ghostbusters (1984) and Die Hard 2 (1990).