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- Bitty Schram is a Golden Globe nominated actress. Born in New York City, Schram attended the University of Maryland on a tennis scholarship. She is best known for her role as Adrian Monk's original personal assistant, Sharona Fleming, on the TV series Monk. She is also known for her film role as Evelyn Gardner, the sobbing right-fielder who was reminded by Tom Hanks that "There's no crying in baseball!" in Penny Marshall's box-office hit A League of Their Own. Schram followed that success with numerous critically acclaimed films, including Kissing a Fool, with David Schwimmer; One Fine Day, with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney; Marvin's Room, with Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton; The Pallbearer, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Toni Collette; Caught, with Edward James Olmos; Dennis Hopper's Chasers; The Night We Never Met, with Matthew Broderick; Fathers & Sons, with Jeff Goldblum; and Cleopatra's Second Husband. Schram was recently seen in The Sure Hand of God and in Unconditional Love, with Kathy Bates.
Schram is also an accomplished stage actor, having appeared as one of the original cast members of the hit Broadway production of Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" with Nathan Lane, in the off-Broadway productions of "Blackout" and "One Acts" by Warren Leight; and in regional productions, including "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground." - Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Taylor Sheridan is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for 'Sicario' (2015) and 'Hell or high water' (2016), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
He also starred in the FX television series 'Sons of anarchy' and directed the film 'Wind river,' starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen.- Dagmara Dominczyk is a Polish-American actress and author. She has appeared in the films Rock Star (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Kinsey (2004), Trust the Man (2005), Lonely Hearts (2006), Running with Scissors (2006), Higher Ground (2011), The Letter (2012), The Immigrant (2013), Big Stone Gap (2014), A Woman, a Part (2016), The Assistant (2019), and The Lost Daughter (2021).
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Eric Winter was born on 17 July 1976 in La Mirada, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Ugly Truth (2009), Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) and Fire with Fire (2012). He has been married to Roselyn Sanchez since 29 November 2008. They have two children. He was previously married to Allison Ford.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Grace Caroline Currey was born on 17 July 1996 in the USA. She is an actress and director, known for Fall (2022), Shazam! (2019) and Annabelle: Creation (2017). She has been married to Branden Currey since 26 June 2022.- Sarah Jones is an American actress, best known for her starring roles as NASA astronaut Tracy Stevens in the Apple TV+ original science fiction space drama series For All Mankind and as Detective Rebecca Madsen in the Fox TV drama series Alcatraz. Jones was born in Winter Springs, Florida, and graduated from Winter Springs High School in 2001. She "grew up dancing" with the expectation that it would become her career, but she turned to acting as "the next best thing" after her dancing ended because of injuries. She had gotten her first break working as a dancer for the MTV Movie Awards.
- Actor
- Producer
Jason Clarke is an Australian actor, known for often being cast in antagonist roles in feature films. In 1969, Clarke was born in Winton, Queensland, a small town where the main industries are sheep and cattle raising. Winton was established as a township in 1879, but its main claim to fame are a number of dinosaur fossils located within the town's limits.
Clarke was the son of a sheep shearer, but decided to follow an acting career instead. By 1995, the 26-year-old Clarke had started appearing in small parts in various television series. He then started appearing as an extra in films. His early film appearances included the action comedy "Wanted" (1997), the action film "Dilemma" (1997), and the neo-noir crime drama "Twilight" (1998). Clarke had a more substantial role in the crime comedy "Our Lips are Sealed" (2000), where he played the assassin Mac.
Clarke returned to playing small roles in films such as the period drama "Rabbit-Proof Fence" (2002) and the serial killer-themed black comedy "You Can't Stop the Murders" (2003). Clarke had a breakthrough television role as the co-star of the crime drama television series "Brotherhood" (2006-2008). In the series, Clarke played career politician Tommy Caffee, who has a complex relationship with his brother, the Irish-mob employed gangster Michael Caffee (played by Jason Isaacs). The series was loosely based on the lives of two real-life brothers with different careers, the Democratic politician and academic William Bulger (1934-) and the crime boss Whitey Bulger (1929-2018). The series won much critical praise for Clarke, though some critics disliked its humorless approach to its subject matter.
In 2008, Clarke played the leading role of Howard Ferp in the live-action short film "Hole in the Paper Sky". In the film, Howard is a lonely misanthrope. He finds himself feeling genuine affection for a dog, which is used as a laboratory animal. The short film won awards by the Beverly Hills Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival. Also in 2008, Clarke played T. Ulrich, one of the main villains in the action thriller film "Death Race".
In 2009, Clarke portrayed the Canadian gangster John "Red" Hamilton (1899-1934) in the crime drama film "Public Enemies". The film was an adaptation of the non-fiction book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34", which depicted the lives and deaths of a number of professional criminals during the Great Depression. Clarke next had a small role in the drama film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (2010), as the New York Fed Chief. The film was a sequel to the drama film "Wall Street", and depicted the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Clarke also played the role of FBI agent Doug Tate in the thriller film "Trust" (2010), which focused on the relationship between a teenage girl and an online predator.
In 2011, Clarke played the abusive father Gordon O'Hara in the drama film "Yelling to the Sky". In 2011, the film was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival, but lost the award to the Iranian drama film "A Separation". Clarke also played the police officer Frank in the neo-noir thriller "Swerve" (2011). Finally, in 2011, Clarke gained another leading role in television. He played the Polish-American homicide detective Jarek Wysocki in the short-lived police procedural series "The Chicago Code" (February-May, 2011). In the series, Jarek is the leader of a special unit of the Chicago Police Department, which investigates political corruption, and the connections between Chigago politicians and organized crime.
In 2012, Clarke played moonshine smuggler Howard Bondurant in the crime-drama film "Lawless". The film was an adaptation of the historical novel "The Wettest County in the World" by Matt Bondurant, and depicts the lives of moonshine smugglers in Virginia from 1931 to 1933. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but lost the award to the French-language romantic tragedy "Amour".
Also in 2012, Clarke played the role of the CIA intelligence officer Dan in the thriller film "Zero Dark Thirty". The film depicted the then-recent assassination of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (1957-2011) by personnel the United States Navy SEALs. The film earned about 133 million dollars at the worldwide box office. and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Clarke himself was nominated for the "Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor" for his role in the film. But the award for that year was instead won by rival actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014).
In 2013, Clarke played the mechanic George Wilson in the romantic drama "The Great Gatsby", an adaptation of the novel "The Great Gatsby" by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Also in 2013, Clarke played the mercenary leader Emil Stenz in the action thriller "White House Down".
In 2014, Clarke played the illiterate farmer and carpenter Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851) in the historical film "The Better Angels". Thomas was the father of politician Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), and the film focuses on the family life of the Lincoln family in Indiana from 1817 to 1821. Clarke also played a prominent role in the science fiction film "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014), cast as Malcolm, a human friend of the apes' leader Caesar (played by Andy Serkis).
In 2015, Clarke gained the main cast role of John Connor in the science-fiction film "Terminator Genisys", the fifth film of "The Terminator" franchise. John Connor is the main protagonist of the franchise, and had previously been played (at various ages of his life) by the actors Dalton Abbot, Edward Furlong, Michael Edwards, Nick Stahl, Christian Bale, John De Vito, and Thomas Dekker. The film gained about 441 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the second-most lucrative film in "The Terminator" franchise, following "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).
Also in 2015, Clarke played the mountaineer Rob Hall (1961-1996) in the biographical film "Everest". The film was based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, when 8 mountaineers were killed in a blizzard on Mount Everest. Most of them had successfully climbed on the summit of the mountain, but were caught in the blizzard while attempting to descend from the summit. Hall was the most experienced mountaineer among them, as he had reached the summit of Everest five times (a record for non-Sherpa mountaineers). The film earned abut 203 million dollars at the worldwide box office.
In 2016, Clarke played the ambiguous role of James in the psychological drama "All I See Is You". In 2017, Clarke returned to playing leading roles in historical films. He portrayed Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942), the Director of the Reich Main Security Office (term 1939-1942) in "The Man with the Iron Heart", and Ted Kennedy (1932-2009), the United States Senator from Massachusetts (term 1962-2009) in "Chappaquiddick". The first film focused on "Operation Anthropoid" (1942), the successful assassination of Heydrich by Czechoslovak exiled soldiers, who were trained and equipped by the Special Operations Executive (1940-1946) of the United Kingdom. The second film focuses on the Chappaquiddick incident of 1969, when Kennedy's negligence during and after a single-vehicle car accident caused the death of political campaign specialist Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969). Kennedy was driving the vehicle with Kopechne as a passenger. The accident trapped Kopechne inside the submerged vehicle, but Kennedy did not try to help her and only reported the accident to the police 10 hours later. Kennedy received a two-month suspended jail sentence for his role in the incident.
Also in 2017, Clarke played the role of Henry McAllan in the period drama "Mudbound". Henry is depicted as a farmer living in near poverty in Mississippi during the late 1930s and 1940s, while having to care for an aging father who is a bigoted member of the local Ku Klux Klan, and for a war veteran brother who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The film was nominated for a "Satellite Award for Best Film", but the award for that year was instead shared by the films "God's Own Country" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri".
In 2018, Clarke played the supporting role of Dr. Eric Price in the horror film "Winchester". The film presents a fictionalized account of the life of Sarah Winchester (1839-1922), co-owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and her survival in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Also in 2018, Clarke played astronaut Ed White (1930-1967) in the historical film "First Man", which depicted the Space Race of the 1960s. The historical White was the first American to walk in space (in a June, 1965 space mission), and the second person to manage to do so following the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (1934-) (who performed the original space walk in March, 1965).
In 2019, Clarke played the abusive stepfather Frank Zariakas in the neo-noir thriller "Serenity", the British colonel Lewis Morgan in the war-themed drama "The Aftermath", and Dr. Louis Creed in the resurrection-themed horror film "Pet Sematary". By 2019, Clarke was 50-years-old, but he was busier than ever in appearing in more film productions.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
The towering presence of Canadian actor Donald Sutherland is often
noticed, as are his legendary contributions to cinema. He has appeared in almost 200 different shows and films. He is also the father of renowned actor Kiefer Sutherland, among others.
Donald McNichol Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, to Dorothy Isobel
(McNichol) and Frederick McLea Sutherland, who worked in sales and
electricity. He has Scottish, as well as German and English, ancestry. Sutherland
worked several different jobs - he was a radio DJ in his youth - and
was almost set on becoming an engineer after graduating from the
University of Toronto with a degree in engineering. However, he also
graduated with a degree in drama, and he chose to abandon becoming an
engineer in favour of an actor.
Sutherland's first roles were bit parts and consisted of such films as
the horror film
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
which starred Christopher Lee.
He was also appearing in episodes of TV shows such as "The Saint" and
"Court Martial". Sutherland's break would come soon, though, and it
would come in the form of a war film in which he was barely cast.
The reason he was barely cast was because he had been a last-minute
replacement for an actor that had dropped out of the film. The role he
played was that of the dopey but loyal Vernon Pinkley in the war film
The Dirty Dozen (1967). The film
also starred Lee Marvin,
Charles Bronson, and
Telly Savalas. The picture was an instant
success as an action/war film, and Sutherland played upon this success
by taking another role in a war film: this was, however, a comedy
called M*A*S*H (1970) which landed Sutherland
the starring role alongside Elliott Gould
and Tom Skerritt. This is now
considered a classic among film goers, and the 35-year old actor was
only getting warmed up.
Sutherland took a number of other roles in between these two films,
such as the theatrical adaptation
Oedipus the King (1968), the
musical Joanna (1968) and the
Clint Eastwood-helmed war comedy
Kelly's Heroes (1970). It was
Kelly's Heroes (1970) that became
more well-known, and it reunited Sutherland with
Telly Savalas. 1970 and 1971 offered
Sutherland a number of other films, the best of them would have to be
Klute (1971). The film, which made
Jane Fonda a star, is about a prostitute
whose friend is mysteriously murdered. Sutherland received no critical
acclaim like his co-star Fonda (she won an Oscar) but his career did
not fade.
Moving on from Klute (1971), Sutherland
landed roles such as the lead in the thriller
Lady Ice (1973), and another lead in the
western Alien Thunder (1974). These
films did not match up to "Klute"'s success, though Sutherland took a
supporting role that would become one of his most infamous and most
critically acclaimed. He played the role of the murderous fascist
leader in the Bernardo Bertolucci
Italian epic 1900 (1976).
Sutherland also gained another memorable role as a marijuana-smoking
university professor in
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) among other work
that he did in this time.
Another classic role came in the form of the
Robert Redford film,
Ordinary People (1980).
Sutherland portrays an older father figure who must deal with his
children in an emotional drama of a film. It won Best Picture, and
while both the supporting stars were nominated for Oscars, Sutherland
once again did not receive any Academy Award nomination. He moved on to
play a Nazi spy in a film based on
Ken Follett's book "Eye of the Needle" and
he would star alongside Al Pacino in the
commercial and critical disaster that was
Revolution (1985). While it drove
Al Pacino out of films for four years,
Sutherland continued to find work. This work led to the dramatic,
well-told story of apartheid
A Dry White Season (1989)
alongside the legendary actor
Marlon Brando.
Sutherland's next big success came in the
Oliver Stone film
JFK (1991) where Sutherland plays the
chilling role of Mister X, an anonymous source who gives crucial
information about the politics surrounding President Kennedy. Once
again, he was passed over at the Oscars, though
Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his
performance as Clay Shaw. Sutherland went on to appear in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992),
Shadow of the Wolf (1992), and
Disclosure (1994).
The new millennium provided an interesting turn in Sutherland's career:
reuniting with such former collaborators as
Clint Eastwood and
Tommy Lee Jones, Sutherland starred in
Space Cowboys (2000). He also
appeared as the father figure to
Nicole Kidman's character in
Cold Mountain (2003) and
Charlize Theron's character in
The Italian Job (2003). He has
also made a fascinating, Oscar-worthy performance as the revolutionist
Mr. Thorne in
Land of the Blind (2006) and
also as a judge in
Reign Over Me (2007). Recently, he
has joined forces with his son
Rossif Sutherland and Canadian comic
Russell Peters with the new comedy
The Con Artist (2010), as well as
acting alongside Jamie Bell and
Channing Tatum in the sword-and-sandal
film The Eagle (2011). Sutherland has
also taken a role in the remake of
Charles Bronson's film
The Mechanic (1972).
Donald Sutherland has made a lasting legacy on Hollywood, whether
portraying a chilling and horrifying villain, or playing the older
respectable character in his films. A true character actor, Sutherland
is one of Canada's most well-known names and will hopefully continue on
being so long after his time.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Brett attended school in Sutton, Surrey before reading Film Studies at Warwick University. At twenty-two Brett went to New York to study acting at the American Academy Of Dramatic Art. Aside from performing, he began to write his own plays and take them to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival but ultimately decided that comedy was less depressing and in 2006 began his stand-up career with a show entitled 'Brett Goldstein Grew Up in a Strip Club'. He began appearing to a wider audience in a variety of television sitcoms, including 'Derek', 'Uncle', 'Drifters' and the Emmy award winning "Hoff The Record". In 2015 he wrote and starred in the title role of 'SuperBob', a superhero romantic comedy set in Peckham, directed by his old classmate from Sutton Jon Drever. Brett has become an award winning actor, writer and stand up, and over time has made three more hours of stand up that premiered in Edinburgh and toured the UK and overseas: 'Brett Goldstein Contains Scenes Of An Adult Nature', 'Brett Goldstein: Burning Man', and 'Brett Goldstein: What Is Love Baby Don't Hurt Me'.- Actress
- Producer
- Casting Director
Spanish actress Elena Anaya impressed the critics with her performance in Sex and Lucía (2001).
Elena was born in Palencia, Spain, on July 17th, 1975. An active child, she excelled in karate and mountain climbing. By the time she was 17 Elena knew that she wanted to channel her energy into being an actress and enrolled in a drama course being given in her local town by actor Manuel Moron. More determined than ever, she then opted out of school, choosing instead to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Madrid.
Moron mentioned Elena's exceptional talent to his agent, Katrina Bayonas, who was looking for a young girl to star in the film, "Africa". Elena auditioned and the role was hers.
Elena was obliged to leave the Royal Academy when Fernando Leon de Aranoa called her to work in his comedy, "Familia". But, aware of the importance of studying, Elena her formation at the Juan Carlos Corazza school of acting.
Following her feature debut in the 1996 drama "África"(Alfonso Ungría) Anaya continued to impress with supporting roles in such features as "Lagrimas negras" (Fernando Bauluz y Ricardo Franco, 1998) "Finisterre" (Xavier Villaverde, 1998), "Las Huellas borradas" (Enrique Gabriel, 1999) and the romantic drama "El Invierno de las Anjanas"(Pedro Telechea). In 2000, director Julio Medem cast her as the seductive baby sitter, Belen, in the erotic drama "Lucia y el sexo" (2001). The explosive mixture of innocence and provocation earned her a Goya (Spanish Academy Award) nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also received the Spanish Actors Union Award for Best Supporting Actress. That same year she was featured in the comedy "Sin noticias de Dios" (Agustín Díaz Yanes 2001) with Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril.
As her star continued to rise thanks to roles in "Dos Tipos duros" (Juan Martínez Moreno 2003) and Pedro Almodóvar's "Talk to Her", it was only a matter of time before she caught the attention of international directors and she was offered the role of Dracula's most possessive bride in 2004's "Van Helsing" (Stephen Sommers). Then, in 2004, came the action comedy "Dead Fish" (Charley Stadler) with Gary Oldman, in 2005 the thriller "Fragile" (Jaume Balagueró), and the period adventure "Capitán Alatriste "(Agustín Díaz Yanes). In 2007 she starred in "Miguel & William" (Inés París) and "Savage Grace" (Tom Kalin) with Julianne Moore.
In 2008 she was introduced to French audiences in "L'instinct de Mort" (Jean-François Richet) with Vincent Cassel and Gerard Depardieu. She then travelled to Cairo to work in the romantic drama "Cairo Time" (Ruba Nadda). Agustín Díaz Yanes called her again for his film "I only want to walk" and she then starred in Gaby Ibanez's thriller "Hierro".
2009 brought Elena and Julio Medem together again to make "Room in Rome". The role of Alba earned her Best Actress nominations for both the Spanish Actors Guild and the Goya Awards. She then returned to France to shoot Fred Cavaye's "A Bout Portant".
In 2010 Pedro Almodovar offered her the leading role of Vera in his new film "The Skin I live in" with Antonio Banderas. This role won her the 2011 Best Actress Goya (Spanish Academy Award).
In 2012 she received the honorary Málaga Sur Award at the yearly Film festival in Málaga.
This same year took Elena to Argentina to make "Pensé que iba haber fiesta". In 2013 she starred as Lupe in "Todos están muertos", directed by Beatriz Sanchis. This role won her six Best Actress nominations, the only actress to be nominated for all the awards in the 2015 Spanish Award season. She received the Spanish SAG Best Actress Award.
In 2013 Elena also starred in the Scottish film "Swung". In 2014 she shot Chilean director Matias Bize's "La memoria del Agua" and has recently finished filming Imanol Uribe's "Lejos del mar".
2015 started for Elena with a cameo role in Brad Furman's "The Infiltrator" working alongside Bryan Cranston and John Leguizamo.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Billie Lourd is an American actress. She is known for starring as Chanel #3 in the Fox horror comedy series Scream Queens (2015-2016) and for her roles in the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story (2017-present). She also appears as Lieutenant Connix in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015-2019).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Justine Triet is a graduate from the Paris National School of Fine
Arts. Since then, she has directed a couple of films dealing with the
place of the individual within a group:
Sur place (2007) was shot right in the
middle of the 2006 student protest;
Solférino (2009) was filmed during the
2007 French presidential election; in her next effort,
Two Ships (2012),
Justine Triet gave a startling account of life in a São Paulo
shantytown and garnered many awards in the festival circuit. Her first
feature,
Age of Panic (2013)
is a skillful mix of a documentary (five years after
Solférino (2009), she records the
second ballot of the French elections for President live in the streets
of Paris) and fiction (the crisis experienced on that very day by a
divorced couple).
Age of Panic (2013)
has been acclaimed by most critics as one of the best works of the
latest new wave of French directors.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Mike Vogel was born on 17 July 1979 in Abington, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Help (2011), Cloverfield (2008) and She's Out of My League (2010). He has been married to Courtney Renee Raborg since 4 January 2003. They have three children.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Thomas Cullen is a Welsh actor and director. He had roles in the independent film Weekend (2011), as Anthony Foyle, Viscount Gillingham in the television series Downton Abbey, and as Sir Landry in the historical drama series Knightfall. Cullen was born in Aberystwyth. He is the son of two writers. His father is Irish and his mother is English. He spent his early years in Llandrindod Wells and moved to Cardiff at age 12, where he attended Llanishen High School. He has two siblings.
Before pursuing an acting career he was involved in music. He graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2009 with First Class Honours degree in Acting after spending a year at the Central School of Speech and Drama.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Stefania Spampinato was born in Catania, Sicily, Italy and grew up in a small town at the base of the Etna Volcano called Belpasso. She started dancing at 6 years old. Her passion for the arts at a young age was undeniable so her mother started making her dance costumes so she could afford her daughter's tuition. After graduating high school with honors, she moved to Milan where she got a BA in performing arts. This lead to a very successful career in dance & theatre that lasted over 10 years traveling all over to locations like Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Berlin and included collaborations with Joaquin Cortez, Kylie Minogue, Leona Lewis, The Voice UK and X Factor US & UK. In 2011 she bought a one way ticket to Los Angeles. Since 2017 she is a recurring cast member of the record breaking ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy and one of the leads of it's spin off show Station19 where she also portraits Dr. Carina Deluca.
Among other projects she's been cast in the Oscar winning James Mangold movie "Ford vs Ferrari" starring Matt Damon & Christian Bale, in October 2019 she appeared as the leading female in the Italian comedy "Il Giorno più bello del mondo" written, directed and starring Italian comedy master Alessandro Siani.
Her directorial debut, the short film titled "Zita Sempri" will premier worldwide at the Taormina film Festival on July 1st 2022- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker,
internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly
stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990),
Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si
(1995), Chun gwong cha sit (1997), 2046 (2004) and My Blueberry Nights
(2007), Yi dai zong shi (2013). His film Fa yeung nin wa (2000),
starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, garnered widespread critical
acclaim. Wong's films frequently feature protagonists who yearn for
romance in the midst of a knowingly brief life and scenes that can
often be described as sketchy, digressive, exhilarating, and containing
vivid imagery. Wong was the first Chinese director to win the Best
Director Award of Cannes Film Festival (for his work Chun gwong cha sit
in 1997). Wong was the President of the Jury at the 2006 Cannes Film
Festival, which makes him the only Chinese person to preside over the
jury at the Cannes Film Festival. He was also the President of the Jury
at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013. In
2006, Wong accepted the National Order of the Legion of Honour: Knight
(Highest Degree) from the French Government. In 2013, Wong accepted
Order of Arts and Letters: Commander (Highest Degree) by the French
Minister of Culture.- Kamilla Kowal was born on 17 July 1998. She is an actress, known for Priscilla (2023), Junction Row and American Hangman (2019).
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Summer Bishil was born in Pasadena, California. She and her family moved overseas when
she was three. Summer attended British and American schools
while her family lived overseas, She returned to her home town of
Pasadena just shy of her 14th birthday. In love with the idea of
becoming an actress since the age of five, Summer took her first acting
class at 14. Nine months later she signed with an agent and manager and
began to pursue her career full time. She attends college on her spare
time, working towards her degree.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cecile de France was born in Namur in Belgium in 1975 and discovered her vocation at the early age of six. As soon as she was seventeen, she was off to Paris with the ambition of beginning a career on the stage. She studied drama with Jean-Paul Denizon, actor and assistant to Peter Brook, before being admitted to the Ecole National Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre, where she complemented her preparatory training with classes in fencing, dance, singing and masque.
Hardly had she graduated than the cinema snapped her up. It was none other than Richard Berry himself who offered her her first important role in L'art (délicat) de la seduction. Theatre and film roles followed aplenty, leading up to L'Auberge Espagnole (Potluck or Spanish Apartment in English speaking countries), where her performance as the character Isabelle was a huge success with the public and earned her a prestigious César award for most promising young actress as well as the Prix Louis Lumière. Two years later the sequel, Les Poupées russes (The Russian Dolls), brought her a César for best supporting actress. The next Klapisch's movie, Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle), will be out on December 4, 2013 for France.
On film Cecile de France continued to give her all with Alexandre Aja's horror movie Haute Tension (High Tension or Switchblade Romance in English-speaking countries). This gave her the opportunity to bring genre cinema into her repertoire, as well as to win the hearts and minds of the most demanding film buffs.
Gilles Jacob invited her to host the legendary Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Cecile de France's unquenchable, vital passion for acting has found its truest expression when playing opposite such great performers as Gerard Depardieu (Quand j'étais chanteur; When I Was a Singer), Ulrich Tukur (Où est la main de l'homme sans tête?; Hand of the Headless Man), Kad Merad (Superstar) and Jean Dujardin (Möbius) or when working with such major figures of French film as Etienne Chatiliez, Daniele Thompson, Claude Miller, Cedric Klapisch, Claude Chabrol and the Dardenne brothers.
Her American career, which was launched in Around the World in 80 Days alongside Jackie Chan, recently entered a new phase in 2009 with Clint Eastwood's Hereafter.
Cecile is ready to live out all the forms of human passion and to embrace the most diverse forms of cinema, providing they are demanding, creative and stimulating. However, she has always maintained a special love for the theater, she will play in a new reading of Anna, a Serge Gainsbourg's musical at Lyon and Paris in few months.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Janeen Damian was born in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Irish Wish (2024), Falling for Christmas (2022) and Paris Christmas Waltz (2023). She has been married to Michael Damian since 18 June 1998.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
P.J. (Pamela Jayne) Soles was born on July 17, 1950 in Frankfurt,
Germany. Her father came from Holland and her mother from New Jersey.
Because her father was working for an international insurance company,
the family moved all over the world. P.J. lived in Casablanca, Morocco,
and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish,
and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the
International School of Brussels. When she was at Briarcliff College,
she wanted to become the first woman ambassador to the Soviet Union.
This career goal changed when she visited the Actors Studio in New York
City. She moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and
modeling for fashion magazines. She was married to
J. Stephen Soles during her years in New
York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in television and
movies. At this time, she and Soles' got divorced, but she decided to
keep her name as P.J. Soles. She was among the hundreds of actors
auditioning for Brian De Palma and
George Lucas in their joint casting
session for Carrie (1976) and
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). After Carrie, she
went to Georgia to film
Our Winning Season (1978) and
met actor Dennis Quaid. They were married
in 1978 in Texas on a dude ranch.
P.J. starred in
Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
with Ramones. Next she filmed
Private Benjamin (1980) and then
Stripes (1981). She and Quaid were
divorced in 1983. P.J. continued doing numerous television and film
roles, and then married Skip Holm, who was the
stunt pilot on
The Right Stuff (1983). They have
two children and were divorced in 1998. Still active in television and
film, P.J. manages not to let her fans down, but keeps them interested
in her work, which keeps on getting better, making her one of the most
versatile actresses of her time.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
David Hasselhoff has become one of the most recognizable faces on television and throughout the world. Aside from starring in Knight Rider (1982) and Baywatch (1989), he is also an accomplished singer and popular recording artist.
David Michael Hasselhoff was born on July 17, 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Dolores Therese (Mullinex) and Joe Hasselhoff (Joseph Vincent Hasselhoff), a business executive. He is of German (from his paternal grandfather), English, and Irish descent. The acting bug first hit when David was seven and so he took acting, singing and dancing lessons. He was very shy off stage in front of girls because he was tall and thin, but when he was on stage he was in his element. Due to his father's work, his family (he has four sisters) moved around frequently. He initially thought his career was going to go in the direction of musicals and Broadway.
American audiences first came to know Hasselhoff when he portrayed the popular "Dr. Snapper Foster" for six seasons on CBS's soap opera, The Young and the Restless (1973). Lured by NBC's Brandon Tartikoff to move from daytime to prime time, Hasselhoff went on to star as "Michael Knight" in NBC's hit series Knight Rider (1982). The role garnered him a "People's Choice Award" for most popular actor and the show became a huge success overseas. The success of Knight Rider (1982) resulted in Hasselhoff's first major international following. When the show ended, Hasselhoff launched a successful recording career in Europe. In 1989, "Looking for Freedom" remained in the number one spot on the German charts for eight consecutive weeks. He has continued to perform regularly in concert and has released nine albums to date.
Hasselhoff returned to episodic television as Mitch Buchannon on Baywatch (1989) when the show debuted on NBC in 1989. Though it enjoyed good ratings, the network canceled the series after only one season. Undeterred, Hasselhoff and his partners acquired the rights to the show and, based on Hasselhoff's popularity overseas, they were able to secure financing and revive "Baywatch" in 1991. Now a piece of American pop culture and an international television phenomenon, Baywatch (1989) was at its peak seen in 140 countries by over one billion viewers each week. During his lengthy career, Hasselhoff has flexed his acting muscles in numerous other projects. He starred in the epic miniseries Shaka Zulu (1986), shot on-location in Morocco.
Hasselhoff is an outdoor sports enthusiast whose interests include scuba diving, hiking, white water rafting, tennis, and jogging. In addition, he has parachuted with the US Army Parachute Demonstration Team, The Golden Knights, and flown with the US Navy's Blue Angels. He is an avid sports fan, and has attended the World Cup Soccer Finals, the NBA Finals, the Olympics, the Indy 500, and the Kentucky Derby. Hasselhoff has traveled throughout Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. He spends many hours visiting children's
hospitals throughout the world. His charity, "Race For Life", works
with the terminally ill and handicapped children in America.
He was married to the beautiful actress Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff, with whom he has two daughters, Taylor-Ann and Hayley Amber.- Katharine Towne was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Mulholland Drive (2001), Evolution (2001) and What Lies Beneath (2000). She was previously married to Charlie Hunnam.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Helen Walker was a beautiful and bright actress whose career never
reached its full potential, in spite of her evident talent. She was a
successful actress on Broadway, and in 1942 her performance in the play
"Jason" was so impressive that she was signed up to act in films. She
immediately earned good notice and received star billing in her film
debut, Lucky Jordan (1942), starring Alan Ladd. During the mid-1940s she had
continued success with strong performances in offbeat but entertaining
and successful films like The Man in Half Moon Street (1944), the satirical Brewster's Millions (1945), and the
murder spoof Murder, He Says (1945), which starred Fred MacMurray. Achieving both artistic
and box office success, she was clearly on the brink of major stardom.
She won the starring role in the prestigious film Heaven Only Knows (1947). But all that
changed on New Year's Eve of 1946 when she picked up three hitchhiking
World War II veterans while driving to Los Angeles from Palm Springs,
where she had been vacationing. She had a terrible accident, hitting a
divider and wrecking the car, which flipped several times. One of the
soldiers died and the other two were severely injured. Walker herself
was seriously injured, including a broken pelvis. But her career
suffered even greater and longer-lasting damage. The survivors of the
accident accused her of driving drunk and speeding, and she was brought
to trial. She suffered bad press and faced a public that was grateful
to World War II veterans for having won the war, and was replaced in
Heaven Only Knows (1947). Although she was acquitted of criminal charges, many fans
turned against her and major studios were hesitant to hire her. She
tried to adapt by portraying ruthless and manipulative women in dark
murder mysteries, in which she again showed great talent. She performed
with great aplomb in Nightmare Alley (1947), the gritty urban police drama Call Northside 777 (1948),
and Impact (1949), an unconventional murder drama that featured a fatal
automobile accident her character helped cause. But she could not
overcome the stigma of the veteran's death. By the 1950s, she was
reduced to low-budget films that received little notice. After winning
a minor role in the Cornel Wilde police drama The Big Combo (1955), her film career ended
and she only appeared in a few television shows. In 1960, she made her
last television appearance, and that same year her house burned down.
Some remaining friends from show business helped her, with some fellow
actresses staging a benefit for her, which touched her deeply. She
faded from the public view and during the 1960s she experienced health
problems. In 1968, she died of cancer. She was 47 years
old.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Robert Romanus is an American film/television actor and musician. He played ticket scalper Mike Damone in the 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and Natalie Green's boyfriend Snake on The Facts of Life (1979).
Robert is the son of Eileen (Maloof) and Raymond Romanos, a dentist. His brother is actor Richard Romanus. Robert originally came to Los Angeles to become a singer with the
possibility of having a band. He instead ended up in Fast Times at
Ridgemont High. He became a singing busboy at a restaurant for a little
while, and later quit to pursue another job. When he came back for a visit and play a few songs at his old job, he
met Steve Feldman who was working as a current singing busboy. The two
ended up hitting it off and created their own group with the name
Papa's Kitchen.
Romanus starred in the 1983 series The Best of Times as Pete Falcone. He also starred in the 1985 film Bad Medicine. His other TV roles include Fame as Miltie Horowitz in 1986-1987, and two short-lived shows: the 21 Jump Street spin-off Booker as Tony DeAngelo in 1989, and as Jeff Foster in Maggie Winters in 1998. Romanus has starred on soap operas such as Days of Our Lives as Marvin 'Speed' Selejko from 1983-1985, and The Young and the Restless as Lou in 2002. He has guest starred on many shows, including CHiPs, 21 Jump Street, Alien Nation, MacGyver, Providence, Will & Grace and My Own Worst Enemy. Romanus directed the 2008 drama Grapefruit Moon and had a small part in American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, as himself. In 2010 he played the guitar teacher in The Runaways. Starting 2012, Romanus opened up a café in North Hollywood, Bob's Espresso Bar.
Romanus has three children with his ex-wife, actress Kari Lizer.- Actress
- Producer
Annie Q. Riegel is an American actress known for the role of Christine on The Leftovers, Winnie on Death and Other Details, and Juliette Tan on Kung Fu. She also starred as Erica Yang in the School Spirit installment of the Hulu and Blumhouse anthology series Into the Dark. She was the first Asian American lead and final girl in Blumhouse production history.
Born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents, she spent her childhood in Beijing being raised by her Siberian grandmother and her Chinese grandfather. She grew up between Beijing and Staten Island, speaking both Mandarin Chinese and English at home. After discovering her joy in acting, she transferred from an engineering program at Staten Island Technical High School, where she studied Russian and robotics, to attend LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she honed her craft for stage and screen. Shortly after graduating high school, she began her career on stage by playing the title role in Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang's revival of Golden Child at the Signature Theatre. She is married to filmmaker and producer Chris Robert Riegel.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Heather Langenkamp was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. She got her start in acting when she was cast as an extra in the Francis Ford Coppola films The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983), which were both filmed in Tulsa. Her scenes were deleted from the final cut of both films. While studying at Stanford University, she rose to international prominence when Wes Craven cast her as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). After a string of television guest appearances, she returned as Nancy in the 1987 sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). Subsequently, she became known for her role as the moralistic Marie Lubbock on the ABC television series Just the Ten of Us (1987), a spin-off of the popular ABC situation comedy Growing Pains (1985) (on which she guest-starred), from 1988 to 1990. In 1994, she portrayed fictionalized versions of herself in New Nightmare (1994) and the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story (1994). The following year, she had a supporting role as the reporter Christy Carruthers in the horror film The Demolitionist (1995). She served as executive producer and narrator for the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010), followed by roles in The Butterfly Room (2012), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Truth or Dare (2017). She has since starred in a variety of independent films. She co-owns AFX Studio, a company responsible for the special effects for films such as Dawn of the Dead (2004) and The Cabin in the Woods (2011). She has been married to David LeRoy Anderson since 1990. They have two children. She was previously married to Alan Pasqua.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Andre Royo was born on July 18, 1962 in Bronx, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Collection (2012), The Spectacular Now (2013), Hunter Gatherer (2016), Empire (2015), Hand Of God (2014) and Super (2010). He has been married to Jane Choi since November 21, 1997. They have one child.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Alex Winter began his career as a child actor; co-starring roles include the Broadway productions of "The King & I" with Yul Brynner, and "Peter Pan" with Sandy Duncan, and the American premiere of Simon Gray's "Close of Play" at the Manhattan Theater Club, directed by Lynne Meadow.
After attending NYU film school, Winter went on to have starring roles in several feature films, including Orion's huge hit "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and its sequel "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" the Warner Brothers cult favorite "The Lost Boys", Ivan Passer's "Haunted Summer" and Percy Adlon's "Rosalie Goes Shopping." With directing partner Tom Stern, Winter starred in, co-directed and co-wrote the hit MTV comedy series, "The Idiot Box" and starred in their theatrical co-directing debut, "Freaked," released by Twentieth Century Fox. "Freaked" was acclaimed by critics, including The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, who heralded the film on their list of "Top Ten greatest comedies of the Nineties." Winter's solo directorial debut was the critically acclaimed "Fever," for Lionsgate, which screened in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. Also written by Winter, The New York Times' A.O. Scott praised the film as "Pure Hitchcockian panic. An arresting example of what a talented filmmaker can do with the sparest of means."
Winter is the founder of Trouper Productions, which services much of his directing work. In 2020, Winter released two new documentary feature films, "Showbiz Kids," premiered on HBO to widespread critical acclaim, garnering a Critics Choice nomination for Best Score by Tweedy. Followed by "Zappa," the first all-access documentary on the life and times of Frank Zappa. The Kickstarter campaign for this project was the highest funded documentary in crowdfunding history. Magnolia Pictures released "Zappa," a Critics Pick in the New York Times, and nominated for Best Music Documentary by the Critics Choice Awards.
Previous documentary work includes "The Panama Papers," about the largest global corruption scandal in history, and the journalists who worked in secret and at considerable risk to break the story. A multiple award-winner, "The Panama Papers," executive produced by Laura Poitras, opened to a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Also in release worldwide is "Trust Machine," about the rise of bitcoin and the blockchain, from Breaker Studios.
"Deep Web" is about the online black market Silk Road and the trial of its creator Ross Ulbricht. The documentary premiered on the Epix network, opening as the #1 documentary on iTunes and earning a Cinema Eye nomination among several award wins. "Downloaded" is a VH1 RockDoc about Napster and the digital revolution. The film premiered at SXSW, garnering worldwide critical acclaim at theatrical and festival screenings.
In 2013, Winter returned to the screen in "Grand Piano," directed by Eugenio Mira, from the Blacklist script by Damian Chezelle (La La Land), co-starring alongside Elijah Wood and John Cusack. Recently, Winter co-starred in the highly anticipated third installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, "Bill & Ted Face The Music," which opened in 2020 as the number one movie both in the U.S. and the UK.
Soon to be released is Winter's next feature documentary, "The YouTube Effect." Produced by Winter & Trouper Productions in partnership with Gale Anne Hurd & Valhalla Entertainment and Glen Zipper. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2022.- Actress
- Art Director
Perla Haney-Jardine was born on 17 July 1997 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is an actress and art director, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Steve Jobs (2015) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).- Actor
- Director
- Producer
One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur boxer. Cagney was of Norwegian (from his maternal grandfather) and Irish descent. Ending three
decades on the screen, he retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New
York (some 77 miles/124 km. north of his New York City birthplace),
after starring in Billy Wilder's
One, Two, Three (1961). He
emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of
E.L. Doctorow's novel "Ragtime"
(Ragtime (1981)), in which he was
reunited with his frequent co-star of the 1930s,
Pat O'Brien, and which was his last
theatrical film and O'Brien's as well). Cagney's final performance came
in the title role of the made-for-TV movie
Terrible Joe Moran (1984),
in which he played opposite Art Carney.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Alun Armstrong is a British actor who is known for playing Cardinal Jinette from the Van Helsing franchise, Baltus Hafez from The Mummy Returns, Uncle Garrow from Eragon, the High Constable from Sleepy Hollow and Maxwell Randall from Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. He is married to Sue Bairstow and has three sons.- Phyllis Davis was one of the loveliest faces in Hollywood during the late 60s-early 80s. She grew up in Nederland, Texas. The family lived on the second floor of her parents' mortuary business. Phyllis and her two younger brothers learnt how to be quiet during services, as the floors would creak. Phyllis attended Lamar College briefly, then went to Los Angeles in the mid-'60s to pursue a career in film and TV. She attended acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. Phyllis' first break began with small parts in Elvis Presley movies. Love, American Style (1969) were holding auditions for the show. 200 actresses had already been tested and rejected. Phyllis put on a bathing suit and was hired on the spot. After a five season run with Love, American Style (1969), Phyllis started to get some small movie roles. Phyllis was hired - and actually signed a contract, for the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971), only to be told shortly afterwards the producers had dropped her, and hired Lana Wood to replace her. Still, Phyllis received residual checks for the film, as she had a signed contract. She had a chance encounter with Candy Spelling, wife ofAaron Spelling, who was then casting for a new TV series called, Vega$ (1978). Phyllis got the role of Beatrice, or Bea, for the series' run. After working on a regular series, Phyllis appeared in a few Aaron Spelling made-for-TV movies. Sadly, Phyllis kept her battle with cancer extremely private,, and after her passing away in 2013, there was some confusion as to which 'Phyllis Davis'had died.
- Born in Budapest, Hungary, her true name is Katherina Freiin Schell von
Bauschlott, the scion of a once wealthy German patrician family. Her
father, the Baron Paul Schell von Bauschlott, was a well-respected
diplomat until the Nazis confiscated their estates during WWII, while
her mother was Countess Katharina Maria Etelka Georgina Elisabeth
Teleki de Szék. Her family was living in poverty until 1948 when they
sought asylum in Vienna and Salzburg as the communist regime began to
take hold in Hungary. In 1950, her family emigrated to the States and
Baron von Schell Bauschlott renounced his title in order for his family
to gain citizenship. Catherine entered a convent school in New York's
Staten Island area. In 1957, her father joined Radio Free Europe,
taking the family to Munich where she developed an interest for acting
and trained at the prestigious Falconberg School. Her inauspicious
debut (sometimes billed as Catherine von Schell) was in the German film
Lana, Queen of the Amazons (1964).
While filming
Amsterdam Affair (1968), she met
and married actor
William Marlowe, subsequently
moving to London. She went on to appear in
Moon Zero Two (1969), the James
Bond feature
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969),
Callan (1974) and
The Black Windmill (1974), but
is best known at that time for the slapstick comedy
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975),
which marked Peter Sellers' cinematic
revisiting of his "Inspector Clouseau" character. Extremely visible on
TV with frequent work in such series as
The Persuaders! (1971),
The Adventurer (1972) and the
cult sci-fi series
Space: 1999 (1975) starring
Barbara Bain and
Martin Landau playing the role of "Maya",
an alien, for which she is best known. Her marriage to actor Marlowe
had run its course by 1977, and she met director
Bill Hays that same year, who had two children
from a previous marriage. They married in 1982, together working on a
TV production of
A Month in the Country (1985).
Her career began to wane by the time she did the series
Wish Me Luck (1987) and she
retired shortly thereafter, running a small guest hotel in France.
Catherine is often mistakenly thought of as a sister of actors
Maximilian Schell,
Maria Schell,
Immy Schell and
Carl Schell, but she is not. One of her two
brothers, Paul von Schell, is, however,
the widower of actress Hildegard Knef. - Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Lucie Arnaz was born on 17 July 1951 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Jazz Singer (1980), Here's Lucy (1968) and Smoking Nonsmoking (2011). She has been married to Laurence Luckinbill since 22 June 1980. They have three children. She was previously married to Phil Vandervort.- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
John Ventimiglia is an American actor. He portrayed Artie Bucco in the HBO television series The Sopranos and had a recurring role as Dino Arbogast, an Organized Crime Control Bureau Chief for the NYPD, on the American police procedural/drama series Blue Bloods on CBS. Ventimiglia was born in Ridgewood, Queens to Sicilian immigrants and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1981 where he played on the football team.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Robin Shou is the fourth child of a Shanghai tailor and homemaker. His
family moved to the US in 1971. Their first home in Los Angeles was a 2
bedroom apartment near Olympic and Vermont, today known as Koreatown.
Shou didn't start attending martial arts classes until he was 19. He
took Kenpo (Karate) classes while attending California State
University. He soon realized that Karate didn't do anything for him so
he decided to quit. A year and a half later he watched a demonstration
by a group of Wu Shu practitioners from Beijing. He said "This is
Chinese!" He was so inspired to train in this discipline that in year
1981, just before starting his senior year at California State
University, he sold his car and used the money to spend a quarter
studying Wu Shu in China. Robin's parents didn't know his real
whereabouts until his aunt wrote his mother telling her that her son
was in Nanjing.
He returned to California State University and obtained his B.S. in
civil engineering. He spent a year and a half in this field and was
convinced that he needed a different career, he found computer and
electronics boring. He was always trying to follow the ideal; finishing
school, getting a job, getting married etc. He wasn't happy and the
only thing that kept him going was martial arts. Soon he took off to
Hong Kong, planning to vacation and think. Shortly after his arrival,
however, he was offered a chance to appear in a movie as a stuntman. He
was offered job after job, and for his first two years in Hong Kong he
played small parts in action films. When Robin isn't making films he
takes ceramic classes, paints, welds, and does woodworking. He enjoys
to do anything that involves working with his hands.
Shou's first real dramatic role was in the film
Forbidden Nights (1990),
where he played opposite
Melissa Gilbert. Though only a
TV film, this was his first American debut and surely a huge step for
Hollywood. Robin went back to Hong Kong and continued making movies
there. By this time, he was more thorough about the roles he was
offered. He wanted other roles and after nine years he was bored and
didn't want to continue acting.
He returned to Los Angeles in 1994 to start an import/export business.
He got a call from his agent, ranting about a perfect role for him in a
movie called Mortal Kombat (1995).
Robin wasn't interested, assuming he would be playing a villain who
gets killed in the end. His agent begged him to audition and he did,
along with other top contenders like:
Jason Scott Lee,
Russell Wong and
Dustin Nguyen. Seven auditions later, he
was Liu Kang in
Mortal Kombat (1995). Shou also
appears as a supporting role in another fighting video game adaption,
DOA: Dead or Alive (2006),
based on the Dead or Alive series.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Felix Gary Gray is an African-American music video director, film producer and film director from New York City known for directing films such as Friday, Men in Black: International, Be Cool, The Fate of the Furious, Set It Off, The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job. He directed 22 music videos.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Anna Grace Barlow was born in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. Anna Grace is an actor and producer, known for The Big Leap (2021), Grey's Anatomy (2005) and Big Sky (2020). Anna Grace has been married to Andrew Colicchio since 9 February 2024. Anna Grace was previously married to Taylor Boldt.- Beth Littleford is an actress and television personality, known for Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), Dog with a Blog (2012) Drillbit Taylor (2008), and The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.
Dog With A Blog (2012) was nominated for an Emmy three years in a row for Best Children's Program.
She won a Peabody Award for her contribution to The Daily Show. - Actress
- Soundtrack
One of television's premier African-American series stars, elegant actress, singer and recording artist Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann (or Diahann) Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a nurse; music was an important part of her life as a child, singing at age six with her Harlem church choir. While taking voice and piano lessons, she contemplated an operatic career after becoming the 10-year-old recipient of a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art. As a teenager she sought modeling work but it was her voice, in addition to her beauty, that provided the magic and the allure.
When she was 16, she teamed up with a girlfriend from school and auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show using the more exotic sounding name of Diahann Carroll. She alone was invited to appear and won the contest. She subsequently performed on the daily radio show for three weeks. In her late teens, she began focusing on a nightclub career and it was here that she began formulating a chic, glamorous image. Another TV talent show appearance earned her a week's engagement at the Latin Quarter.
Broadway roles for black singers were rare but at age nineteen, Diahann was cast in the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote musical "House of Flowers". Starring the indomitable Pearl Bailey, Diahann held her own quite nicely in the ingénue role. While the show itself was poorly received, the score was heralded and Diahann managed to introduce two song standards, "A Sleepin' Bee" and "I Never Has Seen Snow", both later recorded by Barbra Streisand.
In 1954 she and Ms. Bailey supported a riveting Dorothy Dandridge as femme fatale Carmen Jones (1954) in an all-black, updated movie version of the Georges Bizet opera "Carmen." Diahann later supported Ms. Dandridge again in Otto Preminger's cinematic retelling of Porgy and Bess (1959). During this time she also grew into a singing personality on TV while visiting such late-nite hosts as Jack Paar and Steve Allen and performing.
Unable to break through into the top ranks in film (she appeared in a secondary role once again in Paris Blues (1961), a Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward vehicle), Diahann returned to Broadway. She was rewarded with a Tony Award for her exceptional performance as a fashion model in the 1962 musical "No Strings," a bold, interracial love story that co-starred Richard Kiley. Richard Rodgers, whose first musical this was after the death of partner Oscar Hammerstein, wrote the part specifically for Diahann, which included her lovely rendition of the song standard "The Sweetest Sounds." By this time she had already begun to record albums ("Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen" (1957), "Diahann Carroll and Andre Previn" (1960), "The Fabulous Diahann Carroll" (1962). Nightclub entertaining filled up a bulk of her time during the early-to-mid 1960s, along with TV guest appearances on Carol Burnett, Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye's musical variety shows.
Little did Diahann know that in the late 1960s she would break a major ethnic barrier on the small screen. Though it was nearly impossible to suppress the natural glamour and sophistication of Diahann, she touchingly portrayed an ordinary nurse and widow struggling to raise a small son in the series Julia (1968). Despite other Black American actresses starring in a TV series (i.e., Hattie McDaniel in "Beulah"), Diahann became the first full-fledged African-American female "star" -- top billed, in which the show centered around her lead character. The show gradually rose in ratings and Diahann won a Golden Globe award for "Best Newcomer" and an Emmy nomination. The show lasted only two seasons, at her request.
A renewed interest in film led Diahann to the dressed-down title role of Claudine (1974), as a Harlem woman raising six children on her own. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, but her acting career would become more and more erratic after this period. She did return, however, to the stage with productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Agnes of God". While much ado was made about her return to series work as a fashionplate nemesis to Joan Collins' ultra-vixen character on the glitzy primetime soap Dynasty (1981), it became much about nothing as the juicy pairing failed to ignite. Diahann's character was also a part of the short-lived "Dynasty" spin-off The Colbys (1985).
Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s she toured with her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, with occasional acting appearances to fill in the gaps. Some of her finest work came with TV-movies, notably her century-old Sadie Delany in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) and as troubled singer Natalie Cole's mother in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000). She also portrayed silent screen diva Norma Desmond in the musical version of "Sunset Blvd." and toured America performing classic Broadway standards in the concert show "Almost Like Being in Love: The Lerner and Loewe Songbook." She then had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy (2005) and White Collar (2009).
Diahann Carroll died on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Soundtrack
Diller put out an autobiography in 2005 in her late 80s, and entitled it "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse", which pretty much says it all when recalling the misfit life and career of the fabulous, one-of-a-kind Phyllis Diller. It may inspire all those bored, discouraged and/or directionless housewives out there to know that the one-time 37-year-old chief bottle washer and diaper disposer of five started out writing comedy routines for her fellow female laundry mates as a sort of reprieve from what she considered her everyday household doldrums. Little did she know she would wind up an entertainment legend who would share the biggest comedy stages with the likes of Bob Hope, George Burns and Jack Benny.
They said it couldn't be done back then (to be a successful lady comic, that is) but the doyenne of female stand-up did just that -- opened the doors for other odd-duck funny girls who dared to intrude on what was considered a man's profession. Initially, the comedienne whipped up an alter-ego that could have only been created with the aid of hallucinogens. Boldly facing the world as a scrawny, witchy-faced, flyaway haired, outlandishly costumed, cigarette-holding, magpie-cackling version of "Auntie Mame", Diller made a virtue
out of her weird looks and cashed in on her wifely horror tales and her own idiosyncratic tendencies. Her solid fan base has been thriving now for over five decades.
She was born Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917 in Lima, Ohio to Perry Marcus and Frances Ada (Romshe) Driver. A student at Lima's Central High School, she went on to study for three years at the Sherwood Music Conservatory in Chicago, before transferring to Bluffton (Ohio) College where she served as the editor of the school's more humorous newspaper articles. She was a serious student of the piano but was never completely confident enough in her performance level to try and act on it as a possible career.
She wed Sherwood Anderson Diller at age 22 in November 1939 and had six children (one of whom died in infancy). On the sly, she was an advertising copywriter. During World War II, the family moved to Michigan where her husband had found work at the Willow Run Bomber Plant. A natural laugh-getter, she began writing household-related one-liners and the feedback from the fellow wives greatly encouraged her. When the family moved to California for job-related reasons, Diller became a secretary at a San Francisco television station. By this time, she had built up the courage to put together a nightclub act.
The local television hosts at the station (Willard Anderson and Don Sherwood) thought her act was hilarious and invited her on their show in 1955. Not long after, at age 38, Diller made her debut at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub. What was to be a two-week engagement was stretched out to more than a year and a half. The widespread publicity she received took her straight to the television talk and variety circuits where she was soon trading banter with Jack Paar, Jack Benny and Red Skelton, among others, on their popular television series. She was a contestant on Groucho Marx's popular quiz show You Bet Your Life (1950).
Throughout the 1960s, audiences embraced her bold and brazen quirkiness. Diller formed a tight and lasting relationship with
Bob Hope, appearing in scores of his television specials and co-starring in three of his broad 1960s comedy films (Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), Eight on the Lam (1967) and The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968). Diller joined Hope in Vietnam in 1966 with his USO troupe.
Her celebrity eventually took its toll on her marriage. She separated from and eventually divorced Sherwood in 1965, who had, by
this time, become a favorite topic and target of her act in the form of husband "Fang". That same year, she married singer, film actor and
television host Warde Donovan who appeared with her in the slapstick movie Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968). They divorced in 1975.
By this time, Diller was everywhere on the small screen. A special guest on hordes of television series and comedy specials and,
especially on such riotfests as Laugh-In (1977) and the Dean Martin celebrity series of roasts, she became a celebrity on the game show circuit as well, milking laughs on such established shows as The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965) and The Gong Show (1976). She published best-selling comedy records to her credit and humorous anecdotes to pitch that made it to the bookstore shelves, such as "Phyllis Diller Tells All About Fang". However, stand-up remained her first love.
Her forays on television in her own series were, regretfully, unsuccessful. Her first television series, The Phyllis Diller Show (1966), had her pretty much pulling out all the stops as a wacky widow invariably scheming to keep up a wealthy front despite being heavily in debt. She had the reliably droll Reginald Gardiner and cranky Charles Lane as foils and even Gypsy Rose Lee, but to little avail. Revamped as "The Phyllis Diller Show", several of comedy's best second bananas (John Astin, Paul Lynde, Richard Deacon, Billy De Wolfe, Marty Ingels) were added to the mix, but the show was canceled after a single season. A second try with The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show (1968), a comedy/variety show that had the zany star backed by none other than Rip Taylor and Norm Crosby, lasted only three months.
Seldom did she manage or receive offers to take her funny face off long enough to appear for dramatic effect. Somewhat more
straightforward roles came later on episodes of Boston Legal (2004) and 7th Heaven (1996). Back in 1961, interestingly enough, she made both her stage and film debuts in the dramas of William Inge. Her theatrical debut came with a production of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" and she appeared first on film in the highly dramatic Splendor in the Grass (1961), lightening things up a bit with a cameo appearance as larger-than-life nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. Diller later impressed with her harridan role in the film The Adding Machine (1969) opposite Milo O'Shea.
Diller enjoyed a three-month run on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly!", co-starring Richard Deacon and appeared in other shows and musicals over time: "Wonderful Town" (she met her second husband Warde Donovan in this production), "Happy Birthday", "Everybody Loves Opal" and "Nunsense". In 1993, Diller was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Her cackling vocals have enhanced animated features, too, what with Mad Monster Party? (1967) and A Bug's Life (1998). It took a heart attack in 1999 to finally slow down the comedienne and she eventually announced her retirement in 2002.
Aside from the baby who died in infancy, Diller was also predeceased by her eldest son, Peter (who died of cancer in 1998) and her daughter, Stephanie Diller (who died of a stroke in 2002). Her surviving children are Sally Diller, Suzanne Sue Diller and Perry Diller. As late as January 2007, she made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992). She was set to return on her 90th birthday in July but a back injury forced her to cancel. She died at age 95 of heart failure on August 20, 2012 in her home in Brentwood, California.- Denise Miller was born on 17 July 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Sooner or Later (1979), Archie Bunker's Place (1979) and Fish (1977).
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He started his acting career on the big screen with the film Pitambar (1992) and went on to act in several other Hindi films like Zakhmi Dil (1994), Aatank (1996), Koi Kisise Kum Nahin (1997), Keemat: They Are Back (1998), Hera Pheri (2000), Marshal (2002), In Your Name (2003), Aan: Men at Work (2004), Gehri Chaal: The Final Move (2005), Phir Hera Pheri (2006) and Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008), along with Raavan (2010), Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Bullett Raja (2013) and Batla House (2019). He also made his debut in Tamil cinema with the film Monishaa en Monalisa (1999).
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