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- Producer
- Director
- Production Designer
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom and Europe before they eventually returned to Teesside. Scott wanted to join the British Army (his elder brother Frank had already joined the Merchant Navy) but his father encouraged him to develop his artistic talents instead and so he went to West Hartlepool College of Art and then London's Royal College of Art where he helped found the film department.
In 1962, he joined the BBC as a trainee set designer working on several high profile series. He attended a trainee director's course while he was there and his first directing job was on an episode of the popular BBC police series Z Cars (1962), Error of Judgement (1965). More TV work followed until, frustrated by the poor financial rewards at the BBC, he went into advertising. With his younger brother, Tony Scott, he formed the advertising production company RSA (Ridley Scott Associates) in 1967 and spent the next 10 years making some of the best known and best loved TV adverts ever shown on British television, including a series of ads for Hovis bread set to the music of Dvorak's New World Symphony which are still talked about today ("'e were a great baker were our dad.")
He began working with producer David Puttnam in the 1970s developing ideas for feature films. Their first joint endeavor, The Duellists (1977) won the Jury Prize for Best First Work at Cannes in 1977 and was nominated for the Palm d'Or, more than successfully launching Scott's feature film career. The success of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) inspired Scott's interest in making science fiction and he accepted the offer to direct Dan O'Bannon's low budget science fiction horror movie Alien (1979), a critical and commercial success that firmly established his worldwide reputation as a movie director.
Blade Runner (1982) followed in 1982 to, at best, a lukewarm reception from public and critics but in the years that followed, its reputation grew - and Scott's with it - as one of the most important sci-fi movies ever made. Scott's next major project was back in the advertising world where he created another of the most talked-about advertising spots in broadcast history when his "1984"-inspired ad for the new Apple Macintosh computer was aired during the Super Bowl on January 22, 1984. Scott's movie career has seen a few flops (notably Legend (1985) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)), but with successes like Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001) to offset them, his reputation remains solidly intact.
Ridley Scott was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire at the 2003 Queen's New Year Honours for his "substantial contribution to the British film industry". On July 3, 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship in 2018. BAFTA described him as "a visionary director, one of the great British film-makers whose work has made an indelible mark on the history of cinema. Forty years since his directorial debut, his films continue to cross the boundaries of style and genre, engaging audiences and inspiring the next generation of film talent."- Actor
- Composer
- Producer
Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to
Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents
were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by
Richard Burton, he decided to
study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he
moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by
Laurence Olivier, who could see the
talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television,
A Flea in Her Ear (1967).
From this moment on, he enjoyed a successful career in cinema and
television. In 1968, he worked on
The Lion in Winter (1968) with
Timothy Dalton. Many successes came
later, and Hopkins' remarkable acting style reached the four corners of
the world. In 1977, he appeared in two major films:
A Bridge Too Far (1977) with
James Caan,
Gene Hackman,
Sean Connery,
Michael Caine,
Elliott Gould and
Laurence Olivier, and
Maximilian Schell. In 1980, he worked
on The Elephant Man (1980). Two
good television literature adaptations followed:
Othello (1981) and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982).
In 1987 he was awarded with the Commander of the order of the British
Empire. This year was also important in his cinematic life, with
84 Charing Cross Road (1987),
acclaimed by specialists. In 1993, he was knighted.
In the 1990s, Hopkins acted in movies like
Desperate Hours (1990) and
Howards End (1992),
The Remains of the Day (1993)
(nominee for the Oscar),
Legends of the Fall (1994),
Nixon (1995) (nominee for the Oscar),
Surviving Picasso (1996),
Amistad (1997) (nominee for the Oscar),
The Mask of Zorro (1998),
Meet Joe Black (1998) and
Instinct (1999). His most remarkable
film, however, was
The Silence of the Lambs (1991),
for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor. He also got a B.A.F.T.A. for
this role.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through the '00s.
Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937, in Neptune, New Jersey. He was raised believing that his grandmother was his mother, and that his mother, June Frances Nicholson, a showgirl, was his older sister. He discovered the truth in 1975 from a Time magazine journalist who was researching a profile on him. His real father is believed to have been either Donald Furcillo, an Italian American showman, or Eddie King (Edgar Kirschfeld), born in Latvia and also in show business. Jack's mother's ancestry was Irish, and smaller amounts of English, German, Scottish, and Welsh.
Nicholson made his film debut in a B-movie titled The Cry Baby Killer (1958). His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films, including The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971). Before that, he wrote the screenplay for The Trip (1967), and co-wrote Head (1968), a vehicle for The Monkees. His big break came with Easy Rider (1969) and his portrayal of liquor-soaked attorney George Hanson, which earned Nicholson his first Oscar nomination. Nicholson's film career took off in the 1970s with a definitive performance in Five Easy Pieces (1970). Nicholson's other notable work during this period includes leading roles in Roman Polanski's noir masterpiece Chinatown (1974) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which he won his first Best Actor Oscar.
The 1980s kicked off with another career-defining role for Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining (1980). A string of well-received films followed, including Terms of Endearment (1983), which earned Nicholson his second Oscar; Prizzi's Honor (1985), and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). He portrayed another renowned villain, The Joker, in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). In the 1990s, he starred in such varied films as A Few Good Men (1992), for which he received another Oscar nomination, and a dual role in Mars Attacks! (1996).
Although a glimpse at the darker side of Nicholson's acting range reappeared in The Departed (2006), the actor's most recent roles highlight the physical and emotional complications one faces late in life. The most notable of these is the unapologetically misanthropic Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997), for which he won his third Oscar. Shades of this persona are apparent in About Schmidt (2002), Something's Gotta Give (2003), and The Bucket List (2007). In addition to his Academy Awards and Oscar nominations, Nicholson has seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. He also became one of the youngest actors to receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award in 1994.
Nicholson has six children by five different women: Jennifer Nicholson (b. 1963) from his only marriage to Sandra Knight, which ended in 1966; Caleb Goddard (b. 1970) with Five Easy Pieces (1970) co-star Susan Anspach, who was automatically adopted by Anspach's then-husband Mark Goddard; Honey Hollman (b. 1982) with Danish supermodel Winnie Hollman; Lorraine Nicholson (b. 1990) and Ray Nicholson (b. 1992) with minor actress Rebecca Broussard; and Tessa Gourin (b. 1994) with real estate agent Jennine Marie Gourin. Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 nonmonogamous years he spent with Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard announced she was pregnant with his child.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular
American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in
modern US cinema. Morgan was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee,
to Mayme Edna (Revere), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a
barber. The young Freeman attended Los Angeles City College before
serving several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic between 1955
and 1959. His first dramatic arts exposure was on the stage including
appearing in an all-African American production of the exuberant
musical Hello, Dolly!.
Throughout the 1970s, he continued his work on stage, winning Drama
Desk and Clarence Derwent Awards and receiving a Tony Award nomination
for his performance in The Mighty Gents in 1978. In 1980, he won two
Obie Awards, for his portrayal of Shakespearean anti-hero Coriolanus at
the New York Shakespeare Festival and for his work in Mother Courage
and Her Children. Freeman won another Obie in 1984 for his performance
as The Messenger in the acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music production
of Lee Breuer's The Gospel at Colonus and, in
1985, won the Drama-Logue Award for the same role. In 1987, Freeman
created the role of Hoke Coleburn in
Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play
Driving Miss Daisy, which brought him his fourth Obie Award. In 1990,
Freeman starred as Petruchio in the New York Shakespeare Festival's The
Taming of the Shrew, opposite
Tracey Ullman. Returning to the Broadway
stage in 2008, Freeman starred with
Frances McDormand and
Peter Gallagher in
Clifford Odets' drama The Country Girl,
directed by Mike Nichols.
Freeman first appeared on TV screens as several characters including
"Easy Reader", "Mel Mounds" and "Count Dracula" on the Children's
Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) show
The Electric Company (1971).
He then moved into feature film with another children's adventure,
Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow! (1971).
Next, there was a small role in the thriller
Blade (1973); then he played Casca in
Julius Caesar (1979) and
the title role in
Coriolanus (1979). Regular
work was coming in for the talented Freeman and he appeared in the
prison dramas Attica (1980) and
Brubaker (1980),
Eyewitness (1981), and portrayed the
final 24 hours of slain Malcolm X in
Death of a Prophet (1981).
For most of the 1980s, Freeman continued to contribute decent enough
performances in films that fluctuated in their quality. However, he
really stood out, scoring an Oscar nomination as a merciless hoodlum in
Street Smart (1987) and, then, he
dazzled audiences and pulled a second Oscar nomination in the film
version of
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
opposite Jessica Tandy. The same year,
Freeman teamed up with youthful
Matthew Broderick and fiery
Denzel Washington in the epic Civil
War drama Glory (1989) about freed slaves
being recruited to form the first all-African American fighting
brigade.
His star continued to rise, and the 1990s kicked off strongly with
roles in
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990),
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991),
and The Power of One (1992).
Freeman's next role was as gunman Ned Logan, wooed out of retirement by
friend William Munny to avenge several prostitutes in the wild west
town of Big Whiskey in
Clint Eastwood's de-mythologized
western Unforgiven (1992). The film
was a sh and scored an acting Oscar for
Gene Hackman, a directing Oscar for
Eastwood, and the Oscar for best picture. In 1993, Freeman made his
directorial debut on Bopha! (1993) and
soon after formed his production company, Revelations Entertainment.
More strong scripts came in, and Freeman was back behind bars depicting
a knowledgeable inmate (and obtaining his third Oscar nomination),
befriending falsely accused banker
Tim Robbins in
The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
He was then back out hunting a religious serial killer in
Se7en (1995), starred alongside
Keanu Reeves in
Chain Reaction (1996), and was
pursuing another serial murderer in
Kiss the Girls (1997).
Further praise followed for his role in the slave tale of
Amistad (1997), he was a worried US
President facing Armageddon from above in
Deep Impact (1998), appeared in
Neil LaBute's black comedy
Nurse Betty (2000), and reprised his
role as Alex Cross in
Along Came a Spider (2001).
Now highly popular, he was much in demand with cinema audiences, and he
co-starred in the terrorist drama
The Sum of All Fears (2002),
was a military officer in the
Stephen King-inspired
Dreamcatcher (2003), gave divine
guidance as God to Jim Carrey in
Bruce Almighty (2003), and played
a minor role in the comedy
The Big Bounce (2004).
2005 was a huge year for Freeman. First, he he teamed up with good
friend Clint Eastwood to appear
in the drama,
Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Freeman's on-screen performance is simply world-class as ex-prize
fighter Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris, who works in a run-down boxing gym
alongside grizzled trainer Frankie Dunn, as the two work together to
hone the skills of never-say-die female boxer
Hilary Swank. Freeman received his fourth
Oscar nomination and, finally, impressed the Academy's judges enough to
win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. He also
narrated Steven Spielberg's
War of the Worlds (2005) and
appeared in Batman Begins (2005) as
Lucius Fox, a valuable ally of
Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman for
director Christopher Nolan.
Freeman would reprise his role in the two sequels of the
record-breaking, genre-redefining trilogy.
Roles in tentpoles and indies followed; highlights include his role as
a crime boss in
Lucky Number Slevin (2006), a
second go-round as God in
Evan Almighty (2007) with
Steve Carell taking over for
Jim Carrey, and a supporting role in
Ben Affleck's directorial debut,
Gone Baby Gone (2007). He
co-starred with Jack Nicholson in
the breakout hit
The Bucket List (2007) in 2007,
and followed that up with another box-office success,
Wanted (2008), then segued into the second
Batman film,
The Dark Knight (2008).
In 2009, he reunited with Eastwood to star in the director's true-life
drama Invictus (2009), on which Freeman
also served as an executive producer. For his portrayal of
Nelson Mandela in the film, Freeman
garnered Oscar, Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award nominations, and
won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor.
Recently, Freeman appeared in RED (2010), a
surprise box-office hit; he narrated the
Conan the Barbarian (2011)
remake, starred in Rob Reiner's
The Magic of Belle Isle (2012);
and capped the Batman trilogy with
The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Freeman has several films upcoming, including the thriller
Now You See Me (2013), under
the direction of Louis Leterrier, and
the science fiction actioner
Oblivion (2013), in which he stars
with Tom Cruise.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture
salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a
Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los
Angeles High School in 1955, and went to Santa Monica City College,
where he dropped out after a year due to bad grades. But before he did,
he took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks
acting." Also received some training at Los Angeles Conservatory of
Music. Decided to go into acting because he did not want to work or go
into the service. Trained at The Pasadena Playhouse for two years.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, Vanessa Redgrave.
Vanessa was born in Greenwich, London, to Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, both thespians. Three quarters of a century after her birth (despite numerous ups and down) this rather forward expectation has definitely been lived up to with an acclaimed actress that has won (among many others) an Academy Award, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, two Cannes Best Actress awards, a Tony, a Screen Actors Guild award, a Laurence Olivier theatre award and a BAFTA fellowship.
Growing up with such celebrated theatrical parents, great expectations were put on both herself, her brother Corin Redgrave and sister Lynn Redgrave at an early age. Shooting up early and finally reaching a height just short of 6 foot, Redgrave initially had plans to dance and perform ballet as a profession. However she settled on acting and entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1954 and four years later made her West End debut. In the decade of the 1960s she developed and progressed to become one of the most noted young stars of the English stage and then film. Performances on the London stage included the classics: 'A Touch of Sun', 'Coriolanus', 'A Midsummer's Night Dream', 'All's Well that Ends Well', 'As You Like It', 'The Lady from the Sea', 'The Seagull' and many others. By the mid 1960s, she had booked various film roles and matured into a striking beauty with a slim, tall frame and attractive face. In 1966 she made her big screen debut as the beautiful ex-wife of a madman in an Oscar nominated performance in the oddball comedy Morgan! (1966), as well as the enigmatic woman in a public park in desperate need of a photographer's negatives in the iconic Blow-Up (1966) and briefly appeared in an unspoken part of Anne Boleyn in the Best Picture winner of the year A Man for All Seasons (1966).
She managed to originate the title role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" the same year on the London stage (which was then adapted for the big screen a few years later, but Maggie Smith was cast instead and managed to win an Oscar for her performance). Her follow up work saw her play the lead in the box office hit adaptation Camelot (1967), a film popular with audiences but dismissed by critics, and her second Academy Award nominated performance as Isadora Duncan in the critically praised Isadora (1968).
Her rise in popularity on film also coincided with her public political involvement, she was one of the lead faces in protesting against the Vietnam war and lead a famous march on the US embassy, was arrested during a Ban-the-Bomb demonstration, publicly supported Yasar Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and fought for various other human rights and particularly left wing causes. Despite her admirably independent qualities, most of her political beliefs weren't largely supported by the public. In 1971 after 3 films back to back, Redgrave suffered a miscarriage (it would have been her fourth, after Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson and Carlo Gabriel Nero) and a break up with her then partner and father of her son, Franco Nero. This was around the same time her equally political brother Corin introduced her to the Workers Revolutionary Party, a group who aimed to destroy capitalism and abolish the monarchy. Her film career began to suffer and take the back seat as she became more involved with the party, twice unsuccessfully attempting to run as a party member for parliament, only obtaining a very small percentage of votes.
In terms of her film career at the time, she was given probably the smallest part in the huge ensemble who-dunnit hit, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and given another thankless small part as Lola Deveraux in the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976).
After a celebrated Broadway debut, she created further controversy in 1977 with her involvement in two films, firstly in Julia (1977) where she acted opposite Jane Fonda as a woman fighting Nazi oppression and narrated and featured in the documentary The Palestinian (1977) where she famously danced holding a Kalashnikov rifle. She publicly stated her condemnation of what she termed "Zionist hudlums", which outraged Jewish groups and as a result a screening of her documentary was bombed and Redgrave was personally threatened by the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Julia (1977) happened to be a huge critical success and Redgrave herself was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but Jewish support groups demanded her nomination to be dropped and at the event of the Academy Awards burned effigies of Redgrave and protested and picketed. Redgrave was forced to enter the event via a rear entrance to avoid harm and when she won the award she famously remarked on the frenzy causes as "Zionist hoodlums" which caused the audience to audibly gasp and boo. The speech reached newspapers the next morning and her reputation was further damaged.
It came as a surprise when CBS hired her for the part of real life Nazi camp survivor Fania Fenelon in Playing for Time (1980), despite more controversy and protesting (Fenelon herself didn't even want Redgrave to portray her) she won an Emmy for the part and the film was one of the highest rating programs of the year. Her follow up film work to her Oscar had been mostly low key but successful, performances in films such as Yanks (1979), Agatha (1979), The Bostonians (1984), Wetherby (1985) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987) further cemented her reputation as a fine actress and she received various accolades and nominations.
However mainly in the 1980s, she focused on TV films and high budget mini-series as well as theatre in both London and New York. She made headlines in 1984 when she sued the Boston Symphony Orchestra for $5 million for wrongful cancellation of her contract because of her politics (she also stated her salary was significantly reduced in Agatha (1979) for the same reason). She became more mainstream in the 1990s where she appeared in a string of high profile films but the parts often underused Redgrave's abilities or they were small cameos/5-minute parts. Highlights included Howards End (1992), Little Odessa (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Cradle Will Rock (1999), as well as her leading lady parts in A Month by the Lake (1995) and Mrs Dalloway (1997).
In 2003 she finally won the coveted Tony award for her performance in 'The Long Day's Journey Into Night' and followed up with another two Tony nominated performances on Broadway, her one woman show 'The Year of Magical Thinking' in 2007 and 'Driving Miss Daisy' in 2010 which not only was extended due to high demand, but was also transferred to the West End for an additional three months in 2011.
Vanessa continues to lend her name to causes and has been notable for donating huge amounts of her own money for her various beliefs. She has publicly opposed the war in Iraq, campaigned for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, supported the rights of gays and lesbians as well as AIDs research and many other issues. She released her autobiography in 1993 and a few years later she was elected to serve as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She also famously declined the invitation to be made a Dame for her services as an actress. Many have wondered the possible heights her career could have reached if it wasn't for her outspoken views, but being a celebrity and the artificial lifestyle usually attached doesn't seem to interest Redgrave in the slightest.
Vanessa has worked with all three of her children professionally on numerous occasions (her eldest daughter, Natasha Richardson tragically died at the age of 45 due to a skiing accident) and in her mid 70s she still works regularly on television, film and theatre, delivering time and time again great performances.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of "The Country Girl". Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) (directed by Logan) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by two Academy Awards for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978), and five Oscar nominations for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981), which was the only film she made with her father. Her professional success contrasted with her personal life, which was often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risqué movies (including Barbarella (1968)) by then-husband Roger Vadim was followed by what was to become her most debated and controversial period: her espousal of anti-establishment causes and especially her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the "Jane Fonda's Workout Book". She and Hayden divorced, and she married broadcasting mogul Ted Turner in 1991.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, and actor, and few have evidenced so high a level of integrity in a body of work.
In Rules Don't Apply (2016), he writes, produces, directs and stars in. Only Beatty and Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) have been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor, a director, a writer, and a producer for the same film. Beatty is the only person ever to have done it twice, for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and again for Reds (1981). Beatty has been nominated 15 times by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and 8 films he has produced have earned 53 Academy nominations. In 1982 he won the Academy Award for Directing and in 2000 was given the Academy's highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award.
He was awarded Best Director from the Directors Guild of America and Best Writer three times from the Writers Guild of America. He has received the Milestone Award from the Producers Guild, the Board of Governors Award from the American Society of Cinematographers, the Directors Award from the Costume Designers Guild, the Life Achievement Award from the Publicists Guild, and the Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award from the Art Directors Guild. The National Association of Theater Owners has honored him as Director of the Year, as Producer of the Year and as Actor of the Year.
He has won 16 awards from the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics, the National Board of Review, and the Golden Globes. In 1992, he was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France; in Italy he received the David di Donatello award in 1968 and again in 1981 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998; in 2001, he received the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Sebastian International Film Festival; in 2002, he received the British Academy Fellowship from BAFTA; and in 2011, he was awarded the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.
In December 2004, Beatty received The Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D.C. In addition, he is the recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, the HFPA Cecile B. DeMille Award and many others. Politically active since the 1960's, Beatty campaigned with Robert F. Kennedy in his 1968 presidential campaign. That same year he traveled throughout the United States speaking in favor of gun control and against the war in Vietnam. In 1972 he took a year off from motion pictures to campaign with George McGovern.
In 1981, Beatty was a founding board member of the Center for National Policy. He is a founding member of The Progressive Majority, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has participated in the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.
Beatty serves on the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of The Scripps Research Institute for several years. He has received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Americans for Democratic Action, the Brennan Legacy Award from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, and the Philip Burton Public Service Award from The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
In multiple forums he has addressed campaign finance reform, the increasing disparity of wealth, universal health care and the need for the Democratic Party to return to its roots.
In March of 2013, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
Beatty was born in Richmond, Virginia. He and his wife, Annette Bening, live in Los Angeles and have four children.
His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. His sister is actress Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty). His ancestry is mostly English and Scottish.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She moved to Los Angeles hoping to continue her dancing, but was soon cast in movies. At first, Yvonne had small roles in movies such as Gidget (1959) and
The Gene Krupa Story (1959). After that, her film career just bumped along. As Yvonne was dating Elvis Presley at the time, she did have a
supporting role in the two Elvis movies, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964).
But her fame would come with the cult television series Batman (1966) in which she played Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Her secret identity was Batgirl and as the Commissioner's daughter, she had access to all the calls of trouble taking place in Gotham City. Her character, Batgirl, was part of the 1967-68 season, which was the end of the run for the series. After Batman (1966), she also appeared on other television series such as Star Trek (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). As her career wound down, Yvonne went into the real estate business. Yvonne Craig died at age 78 of breast cancer at her home in Pacific Palisades, California on August 17, 2015.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Suzanne Pleshette achieved television immortality in her role as Bob Newhart's wife in the 1970s classic situation comedy, The Bob Newhart Show (1972). For her role as "Emily Hartley," wife of psychologist "Bob Hartley" (played by Bob Newhart), Pleshette was nominated for the Emmy Award twice, in 1977 and 1978. She was also nominated for an Emmy in 1962 for a guest appearance on the TV series, Dr. Kildare (1961) and, in 1991, for playing the title role in Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean (1990) in a 1990 TV movie. Her acting career lasted almost 50 years.
Suzanne Pleshette was born on January 31, 1937, in New York, New York, to Gene Pleshette, a TV network executive who had managed the Paramount Theaters in Manhattan and Brooklyn during the Big Band era, and the former Geraldine Kaplan, a dancer who performed under the pseudonym Geraldine Rivers. Pleshette claims that she was not an acting natural, but just "found" herself attending New York City's High School of the Performing Arts. After graduating high school, she attended Syracuse University for a semester before returning to NYC to go to Finch College, an elite finishing school for well-to-do young ladies. After a semester at Finch, Pleshette dropped out of college to take lessons from famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as part of the supporting cast for the play Compulsion (1959). Initially cast as "The Fourth Girl," she eventually took over the ingénue role during the play's run.
Blessed with beauty, a fine figure, and a husky voice that made her seem older than her years, she quickly achieved success on both the small and big screens. She made her TV debut, at age 20, in Harbourmaster (1957), then was chosen as the female lead opposite superstar Jerry Lewis in his 1958 comedy, The Geisha Boy (1958). On Broadway, she replaced Anne Bancroft in the Broadway hit The Miracle Worker (1962).
Once Pleshette started acting, her career never lagged until she was afflicted with cancer.
Her most famous cinematic role was in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, The Birds (1963), as the brunette schoolteacher jilted by the hero of the film, "Mitch Brenner" (played by Rod Taylor). Pleshette's warm, earthy character was a perfect contrast to the icy blonde beauty, "Melanie Daniels" (Tippi Hedren).
Frankly, it is hard to understand how Taylor's Mitch would jilt Pleshette's Annie, other than to work out Hitchcock's dark vision of society and psychosexual relations between the sexes, in which amoral blondes triumph for aesthetic rather than moral reasons.
Still, it is for Emily Hartley she will always be remembered, for both the original show and her part in another show that had the most clever sign-off episode in TV series history. Bob Newhart had enjoyed a second success during the 1980s with his TV sitcom Newhart (1982), and when he decided to end that series, he asked Suzanne Pleshette to come back. She did, reprising her tole of Emily in a final episode of Newhart, where Newhart woke up as Bob Hartley from "The Bob Newhart Show" in the bedroom of the Hartley's Chicago apartment, Pleshette's Emily at his side. Bob Hartley then told his wife Emily of a crazy dream he'd just had, where he was the proprietor of a Vermont inn overrun with eccentrics, the premise of the second show.
After "The Bob Newhart Show" ceased production, Suzanne Pleshette worked regularly on television, mostly in TV movies. Although she was a talented dramatic actress, she had a flair for comedy and, in 1984, she headlined her own series at CBS. She helped develop the half-hour sitcom, and even had the rare honor of having her name in the title. Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs (1984), however, was not a success. She co-starred with Hal Linden in another short-lived CBS TV series, The Boys Are Back (1994), in the 1994-95 season, then had recurring roles in the TV series Good Morning, Miami (2002) and 8 Simple Rules (2002).
Pleshette was married three times: In 1964, she wed teen idol Troy Donahue, her co-star in the 1962 film Rome Adventure (1962) and in 1964's A Distant Trumpet (1964), but the marriage lasted less than a year. She was far more successful in her 1968 nuptials to Texas oil millionaire Tommy Gallagher, whom she remained married to until his death in 2000. After becoming a widow, she and widower Tom Poston (a Newhart regular) rekindled an old romance they had enjoyed when appearing together in "The Golden Fleecing," a 1959 Broadway comedy. They were married from 2001 until Poston's death, in April 2007.
Pleshette was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent chemotherapy in the summer of 2006; she rallied, but in late 2007, she barely survived a bout of pneumonia. She died of respiratory failure on January 19, 2008, a few days shy of her 71st birthday.
Suzanne Pleshette was remembered as a gregarious, down-to-earth person who loved to talk and often would regale her co-stars with a naughty story. Newhart and his producers had picked her for the role of Emily in "The Bob Newhart Show" after watching her appearances with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), where she showed herself to be a first-rate raconteuse. Because she could hold her own with Newhart's friend Carson, it was felt she would be a perfect foil as Newhart's TV wife.
She accepted the part, and TV history was made.- Blue-eyed, red-haired American character actress, often seen as resolute, strong-willed women. Though born in Kansas, Barbara Babcock spent much of her early childhood in Japan, where her father, U.S. Army Major General Conrad Stanton Babcock Jr., was posted (he was also a noted equestrian, who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics). Her mother was Chilean-born Jadwiga Florence Noskowiak (1903-2000), a former stage actress and singer.
Babcock attended universities in Lausanne and Milan and later graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She initially interviewed for a job with the State Department, aiming at a diplomatic career. When this fell through, she turned to acting, debuting on screen in 1956. From the early 60s, Babcock made guest appearances in numerous television series. She ultimately became best known for her Emmy Award-winning performance as the over-amorous Grace Gardner in NBC's Hill Street Blues (1981) and as pioneer newspaper editor Dorothy Jennings in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993) (a regular role, lasting from 1993 to 1998).
Babcock featured several times on Star Trek (1966), though it was more often her voice that was utilized for assorted alien background characters. She also played a member of the 'underground' in episodes of Hogan's Heroes (1965) and Pam Ewing's fashion boss in Dallas (1978). Babcock was one of the leads in Alan Alda's sitcom The Four Seasons (1984), about four middle-aged couples who vacation together four times annually, once per season. In this, she played the orthopedist wife of Allan Arbus (of M*A*S*H (1972) fame). Babcock subsequently starred in her own right as a demure attorney, counterpoint to Jerry Orbach's vociferous, seedy 'old school' gumshoe, in the short-lived CBS mystery drama The Law and Harry McGraw (1987). One might also remember her as one of the (ill-fated) residents of Salem's Lot (1979) and as a repeat guest star on Mannix (1967) and (alternating between murder victim and villainess of the week) in Murder, She Wrote (1984).
Her occasional forays to the big screen tended to be in smaller supporting roles, first up as an Apache kidnap victim in the Glenn Ford western Day of the Evil Gun (1968). More recently in maternal roles, she portrayed an Irish immigrant, the mother of Nicole Kidman's character, in Ron Howard's big budget western Far and Away (1992). Her last motion picture appearance was as the wife of test pilot and would-be-astronaut Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) in Space Cowboys (2000).
Barbara Babcock retired from acting in 2004, the year she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In her private life, she has had a lifelong interest in travel and exploration and has dabbled in writing. She is known as an avid crusader for animal rights. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Tap dancing at the age of 16 months, pert and pretty Elinor Donahue has
been entertaining audiences for six decades. Born Mary Eleanor Donahue
in Tacoma, Washington, on April 19, 1937, she appeared as a radio singer and
vaudeville dancer while a mere toddler, then was picked up by
Universal Studios at the age of 5.
Cast in minor child roles in such
pictures as Mister Big (1943), the
precocious youngster eventually moved to MGM but didn't attain the
juvenile stardom of a
Margaret O'Brien or
Elizabeth Taylor, whom she
supported in both
The Unfinished Dance (1947)
and
Love Is Better Than Ever (1952),
respectively. Still and all, Elinor's talent and wholesome appeal was
recognized and the 50s brought her into the TV era.
Elinor became more accessible, finally winning nationwide "girl-next-door" notice in
her late teens as the oldest daughter of "ideal" parents
Robert Young and
Jane Wyatt in the classic family show
Father Knows Best (1954).
Suffering more than her share of teen angst, she played Betty
("Princess") Anderson from 1954 to 1960.
By the time the series was
finished, Eleanor was blossoming into a pretty, wholesome, romantic ingénue. She became
Andy Griffith's first longstanding
girlfriend on
The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
for one season, but then suffered a major slump. She revived in the 70s
with steady roles on
The Odd Couple (1970) (as
Tony Randall's girlfriend),
Pilot (1977)
as a typical sunny mom, and as a guest for countless other shows,
including Barnaby Jones (1973),
Newhart (1982) and
The Golden Girls (1985).
An extremely pleasant personality, she was primarily tapped into playing
nice, friendly, non-flashy parts in both lightweight comedy and dramatic.
Possessing a suitable voice for commercials and cartoons, she has
lately found recurring roles on
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993)
and a few soaps, including
Santa Barbara (1984) and
Days of Our Lives (1965),
the latter in which she played a rare malicious part.
Though she may not have had much of a chance to shine in her career, Elinor has
certainly been a steady, reliable player who has not let her fans down
with her obvious warmth and pleasing disposition. Into the 90's, guest appearances included "Murder, She Wrote," "Coach," "Friends," "Herman's Head," "Ellen," "Cold Case," and a recurring role as "Rebecca Quinn" on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993). Her last credits were several appearances as a judge on The Young and the Restless (1973) in 2010 and a featured role in the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004).
The widow of TV executive producer Harry Ackerman (he was
25 years her senior), whose list of credits included
Leave It to Beaver (1957),
Bewitched (1964) and
Gidget (1965), and a mother of four
sons, Elinor married third husband, contractor Louis Genevrino, in 1992.
In 1998, she published a memoir
entitled "In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue", in which she relived
some of her memories of Hollywood along with providing more than 150 of
her top-grade recipes.- Actor
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Harvard-educated stage and screen actor Richard Jordan was born into a
socially prominent family on July 19, 1937 in New York City, the
grandson of Learned Hand, the greatest
American jurist never to have served on the U.S. Supreme Court. Newbold
Morris, his stepfather, was a member of the New York City Council
during Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's
administration. Young Richard was educated in private Manhattan schools
and then at the exclusive Hotchkiss prep school in Lakeville,
Connecticut. While at Hotchkiss, he was outstanding as the eponymous
lead of the school play "Mr. Roberts", which won him a place in the
Sharon, Connecticut summer stock company. Jordan went to England as an
exchange student at the Sherbourne School, a college (private school)
that was over 1,000 years old. After graduating from Sherbourne, Jordan
entered Harvard College and took his degree in three years.
At Harvard, Jordan was a member of the Dramatic Club, both as an actor
and as a director. It was while at Harvard that he decided to become a
professional actor and began performing with off-campus stage
companies. After graduating from Harvard, Jordan launched what was to
be a prolific stage career in New York, making his Broadway debut in
December 1961 in the play "Take Her, She's Mine" under the direction of
the venerable George Abbott in
Biltmore Theatre. The play, which starred
Art Carney,
Elizabeth Ashley in a Tony
Award-winning turn, and
Heywood Hale Broun, was a hit,
playing 404 performances.
Jordan next appeared in a one-night flop, in "Bicycle Ride to Nevada",
which opened and closed on September 24, 1963. He was more lucky with
his next play, "Generation", a comedy starring
Henry Fonda that played for 300 performances
in the 1965-66 season. He last appeared on Broadway in a success
d'estime, John Osborne's "A Patriot
for Me", directed by Peter Glenville and
starring Maximilian Schell and
Tommy Lee Jones, who was making his
Broadway debut. By that time, Jordan had established himself as a
leading player Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, which accounted for
the majority of his over 100 New York stage appearances.
Jordan, as actor and director, was a major force in the development of
New York's "Off-Off-Broadway" theater that flourished in the 1960s. He
was one of the founders of the Gotham Arts Theater, which put on plays
in an old funeral parlor on West 43rd Street. Fittingly, the company's
first play was about necrophilia. Jordan engaged young New York artists
to design the sets, the results of which were not always auspicious.
Jordan said of this development, "With our weirdo plays against their
far-out sets...it was total insanity!" He made a significant
breakthrough, career-wise, with his appearance in the anti-war play
"The Trial Of The Catonsville Nine" in both New York and California.
Jordan spent eight years with Joseph Papp's
New York Shakespeare Festival. He made his debut with Papp's
Shakespeare Festival in 1963, playing "Romeo" opposite the "Juliet" of
Kathleen Widdoes, the fellow Papp stock
company member who would become his wife, in Papp's Shakespeare in the
Park series. The couple married in 1964, and their eight-year marriage
produced a daughter, Nina Jordan, born in
1964, who would later co-star with her father in the movie
Old Boyfriends (1979).
Although he appeared on television during the 1960s, the tall, handsome
and talented Jordan did not make his motion picture debut until 1971,
when he appeared in a supporting role in
Michael Winner's horse opera
Lawman (1971), which featured a first-rate
cast, including Burt Lancaster,
Robert Ryan,
Lee J. Cobb and
Robert Duvall. However, it was his role as
the baby-faced, amoral Treasury agent in
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
that made him a known commodity on-screen, while it was the monumental
mini-series
Captains and the Kings (1976)
that made his reputation. His performance as the Irish immigrant
"Joseph Armagh" brought him an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe
award, and it also brought him his long-time companion, co-star
Blair Brown, whom he lived with for
many years and by whom he had a son.
An actor rather than a star, Jordan played many unsympathetic roles,
including that of Nazi Albert Speer in the
TV movie The Bunker (1981).
He continued to appear on the stage, Off-Broadway and in stock
companies touring the major cities of the U.S., while appearing in
films and on TV. Jordan was the manager of the L.A. Actors Theater in
Los Angeles during the 1970s, where he produced, directed and wrote his
own plays. For the 1983-84 Off-Broadway season, he won an Obie Award
for his performance in Czech playwright
Václav Havel's "A Private View". He won the
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for directing Havel's "Largo
Desolato" at the Taper, Too in 1987.
In 1992, Jordan had begun filming
The Fugitive (1993) when his fatal
illness forced him to leave the production. Thus, Jordan's final role
was that of "General Lewis Armistead" in the film
Gettysburg (1993), which was a labor
of love for him. He was close friends with
Michael Shaara, the author of the novel
"The Killer Angels", which the movie was based upon, and contributed to
the screenplay. Jordan's last appearance as an actor was the death of
his on-screen character, "General Armistead".
Richard Jordan died in Los Angeles, California of a brain tumor on
August 30, 1993. He was 56 years old.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
In a career spanning more than four decades, James MacArthur developed
a body of work which is wonderfully dynamic in both scope and range.
Portraying everything from crazed killer to stalwart defender of law
and order, frustrated teenager to cynical senior supervisor, he has
appeared in numerous films, television programs, and stage productions
since his career officially began back in 1955. Although he had been
performing in parts during summer stock productions since 1949, making
his stage debut in "The Corn Is Green", his real acting career did not
begin until he starred as the complex and misunderstood teenager in
John Frankenheimer's "Deal a Blow".
Broadcast live on the Climax! (1954)
television anthology series, the program told the story of "Hal
Ditmar", a relatively ordinary youngster on the verge of manhood who
finds himself caught up in a snowballing world of trouble with his
parents, the law, and virtually everyone in authority after a minor
infraction of the rules at a movie theater. The story was so
well-crafted and MacArthur's performance so compelling that a year
later it was remade by Frankenheimer into his first theatrical release,
The Young Stranger (1957). The
movie received much critical acclaim and earned its star a BAFTA
(British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Award nomination as
Most Promising Newcomer (1958) and won a film festival in Switzerland.
Next up was the Disney movie of
Conrad Richter's novel,
The Light in the Forest (1958).
Set in the late 18th century in the burgeoning United States, it told
the tale of a young man who had been kidnapped by Indians as a baby and
raised as the son of a chief. A respected and accepted member of the
tribe, the boy, known as "True Son", is ripped away from the only life
he has ever known and forced to return to his biological parents due to
a treaty signed by people of whom he has no knowledge and who cannot
possibly have any interest in his individual welfare. His subsequent
struggles to find out exactly where he fits in and to gain the trust
and sanction of his new community are told in a way which is as
wrenching and relevant to today's society as it was then. The
corollaries between this story and the custody battles which seem to
occur with alarming frequency in our own time are strong and thought
provoking. It seems the question regarding when in a child's life his
biological parentage begins to be outweighed by the environment in
which he is being raised is one which has yet to be answered. The depth
with which MacArthur imbued the role makes his performance both
truthful and unforgettable. Before its release in theaters,
The Light in the Forest (1958)
was preceded by three more appearances in live teleplays, including
another outstanding performance in the
Studio One (1948) production of
"Tongues of Angels" as "Ben Adams", a young man with a devastating
stuttering problem who pretends to be a deaf/mute in order to hide his
infirmity. A string of meaty roles quickly followed, including the
Disney classic films Kidnapped (1960),
Third Man on the Mountain (1959)
and
Swiss Family Robinson (1960);
television programs such as
The Untouchables (1959),
Bus Stop (1961) and
Wagon Train (1957); and two more
live teleplays. As sociopathic killer and racketeer "Johnny Lubin" in
The Untouchables (1959)
episode "Death for Sale", MacArthur for the first time portrayed an
unsympathetic character. The heart-stopping realism of his performance
provided definitive proof of his abilities as a multifaceted and
talented actor. In what he described in one interview as his first
"mature" role, he then appeared as a doctor-in-the-making in
The Interns (1962), turning in a fine
performance as a somewhat naive young man who grows up rather quickly
when presented with several tough choices and life-defining situations.
After that came more television, the underrated yet stirring film,
Cry of Battle (1963), and
Spencer's Mountain (1963), the
highly successful precursor to the popular television series
The Waltons (1972). Once again,
in both films, MacArthur played young men whose lives are changed by
circumstances beyond their control and who must dig deep within
themselves to find the inner strength and fortitude to deal with those
events. Having by now amassed an impressive list of film and television
credits in addition to stage performances on Broadway and other venues,
MacArthur then turned to the pivotal role of "Ensign Ralston" in the
tense and nerve-wracking Cold War yarn,
The Bedford Incident (1965).
His performance as the eager to-please and earnest young officer
carried a subtlety and intensity hard to believe of someone not yet
thirty years old. The role of "William Ashton" in the light-hearted
romance,
The Truth About Spring (1965)
came next, almost immediately followed by yet another coming-of-age
performance as "Lt. Weaver" in the blockbuster WWII saga,
Battle of the Bulge (1965).
Westerns and war dramas predominated the next phase of MacArthur's
career with appearances in television programs such as
Branded (1965),
12 O'Clock High (1964),
Gunsmoke (1955),
Combat! (1962),
Hondo (1967),
Bonanza (1959), and
Death Valley Days (1952),
in addition to the films
Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966),
"Mosby's Marauders" (1966) and
Hang 'Em High (1968). It was his
appearance in this last movie that would ultimately lead him into the
role of "Dan Williams" on
Hawaii Five-O (1968). When
Leonard Freeman found himself looking
for a replacement to play the complex sidekick to
Jack Lord's powerful "Steve
McGarrett", he went looking for the young actor he remembered from just
two or three days' work on his low-budget spaghetti Western. The
juxtaposition of MacArthur's still-boyish good looks with his ability
to bring a convincing toughness and sincerity to the role made him one
of the best-remembered and well-admired actors of 1960s and 1970s
popular television. Even today, more than twenty years after the
program stopped production, it is broadcast in syndication in markets
all over the world. Its "Book 'im, Danno" catchphrase is still as much
a part of our popular culture as that famed line from another show of
the same era: "Beam me up, Scotty". Departing "Five-O" prior to its
12th and final season, MacArthur's appearances became less frequent,
yet still memorable. He was featured in such popular television shows
as The Love Boat (1977),
Vega$ (1978),
Fantasy Island (1977), and
Murder, She Wrote (1984)
and starred in two made-for-television movies:
Irwin Allen's
The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1980)
and
Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980).
His poignant portrayal of hapless "Walt Stomer" in the latter provided
a fine example that his skills as an actor had not waned in the 25
years since that first television appearance. He concentrated on the
stage for a while then, performing in productions such as "Arsenic and
Old Lace", "A Bedfull of Foreigners" and "Love Letters", as well as the
occasional live appearance at charity and celebrity sporting events. In
1998, after nearly a decade away from television screens, he took up
the role of "Frank Del Rio" in the Family Channel movie
Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister (1998).
With the new century, MacArthur returned to a more active professional
schedule, continuing to make a number of personal appearances to sign
autographs and greet fans, as well as several speaking engagements such
as northeast Ohio's "One Book, Two Counties: An Evening With James
MacArthur", The Cinema Audio Society Annual Awards Banquet and
AdventureCon in Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition, he has been featured
in several television specials and interview programs, including Emme &
Friends,
Entertainment Tonight (1981),
Inside TVLand, and Christopher Closeup. The increasing popularity of
the DVD market has seen the re-release of
Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
with a new behind-the-scenes documentary narrated by MacArthur and a
lengthy on-screen interview covering many aspects of his career.
Planned for re-release in July 2003, the 1956 version of
Anastasia (1956) is expected to include
an on-screen interview with MacArthur discussing his mother,
Helen Hayes, and her work in that
movie. April 2003 marked his return to the stage as "Father Madison" in
Joe Moore's original play Dirty Laundry. On 6 November 2003, the Hawaii
International Film Festival chose James MacArthur and
Hawaii Five-O (1968) as the
recipient of their annual "Film in Hawaii" award, an honor both
well-deserved and especially significant, coming as it did from the
people and the State of Hawaii. Plans were being made to feature
MacArthur in a new television series set in the Hawaiian Islands,
though nothing more definitive had ever been arranged.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Educated at Harrow he worked at Marks and Spencers but was dismissed for wearing a loud checked suit. He sprang to international fame in 1973 as the assassin in Day of the Jackal, then had cameo style roles in Gandhi, The Dresser, Never Say Never Again and leads in The Wild Geese and The Shooting Party and on television in Edward and Mrs Simpson as the king, He lives in Maida Vale area of London with actress ~Joanna David and their daughter Emilia born in 1974- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
George Takei was born Hosato Takei on April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California. His mother was born in Sacramento to Japanese parents & his father was born in Japan. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he & his family were relocated from Los Angeles to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas. Later, they were moved to a camp at Tule Lake in Northern California. His first-hand knowledge of the unjust internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II, poignantly chronicled in his autobiography, created a lifelong interest in politics & community affairs.
After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1956, he studied architecture at UC Berkeley. An ad in a Japanese community paper led to a summer job on the MGM lot where he dubbed 8 characters from Japanese into English for Rodan (1956). Bitten by the acting bug, he transferred to UCLA as a theater arts major. Contacting an agent he had met at MGM led to his appearance as an embittered soldier in postwar Japan in the Playhouse 90 (1956) production. Being spotted in a UCLA theater production by a Warner Bros. casting director led to his feature film debut in Ice Palace (1960), various roles in Hawaiian Eye (1959) &other feature work. In June 1960, he completed his degree at UCLA and studied at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-Upon-Avon in England that summer.
After starting a master's degree program at UCLA, he was cast in the socially relevant stage musical production Fly Blackbird! but was replaced when the show moved to New York. He took odd jobs until returning to his role at the end of the run. Getting little work in Manhattan, he returned to Los Angeles to continue his studies, once again appearing in TV & films. He earned his master's in 1964. Wanting a multi-racial crew, Gene Roddenberry cast him in Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second Star Trek (1966) pilot. Mr. Sulu remained a regular character when the series went into production. In the hiatus after the end of shooting the first season, he worked on The Green Berets (1968), playing a South Vietnamese Special Forces officer.
After Star Trek (1966) was canceled, he did guest stints in several TV shows, voiced Sulu for the animated Star Trek series & regularly appeared at Star Trek conventions. He also produced & hosted a public affairs show Expression East/West, which aired in Los Angeles from 1971-1973. That year, he ran for the L.A. City Council. Although he lost by a small margin, Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, where he served until 1984 & contributed to plans for the subway. During this period, he co-wrote a sci-fi novel Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe. He campaigned to get more respect for his character in the Star Trek features, resulting in Sulu finally obtaining the rank of
captain in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), a role reprised in the Star Trek: Voyager (1995) episode Flashback.
He has run several marathons and was in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Torch Relay. He received a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1986. He also left his signature & hand print in cement at the Chinese Theater in 1991. His 1994 autobiography, To the Stars, was well-received. He remains active as a stage, TV & film actor as well as as an advocate for the interests of Japanese Americans.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Dyan Cannon is the first woman in the history of the Motion Picture Academy to be nominated for Oscars both in front of and behind the camera. Her diligence and determination have been rewarded by many prestigious honors.
She received her first Academy Award nomination for her memorable role as Alice in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), opposite Natalie Wood and directed by Paul Mazursky. For her performance, she garnered the coveted New York Film Critics Award.
Dyan received her second Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Live Action Short for writing and directing the 48-minute film, Number One (1976), which she also produced, edited and scored. The New York Times commended the film as one of the best movies ever made concerning children's development.
She received her third Academy Award nomination for her comedic role as Julia Farnsworth, opposite Warren Beatty, in Heaven Can Wait (1978), for which she won the Golden Globe Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Later that year, she portrayed Sally Stanford in the Emmy Award-nominated biopic Lady of the House (1978) and starred in another comedy hit, Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), opposite Peter Sellers and directed by Blake Edwards, and was named Female Star of the Year by the Hollywood Women's Press Club.
As the singular force behind the motion picture The End of Innocence (1990), Dyan undertook a triumvirate of tasks as writer, director and star. Dyan's work received amazing reviews from the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
Dyan has co-starred on two outstanding prime-time television shows. For several years, she brought her own brand of humor, class and sexiness to the role of Whipper Cone on the Emmy Award-winning series Ally McBeal (1997). She then starred as the vivacious and free-spirited Honey Bernstein-Flynn on NBC's comedy series Three Sisters (2001).
Her filmography is vast and includes TNT's remake of the Warner Bros. classic Christmas in Connecticut (1992), directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger; Author! Author! (1982) opposite Al Pacino; The Last of Sheila (1973), directed by Herbert Ross; two films directed by Sidney Lumet: Deathtrap (1982), co-starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, and The Anderson Tapes (1971), starring Sean Connery; an adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine (1971); Such Good Friends (1971), directed by Otto Preminger; and Honeysuckle Rose (1980), in which she played Willie Nelson's wife and made her debut as a country music singer. She has starred on Broadway and in her own musical stage act at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. Dyan co-wrote the title song for Chaka Khan's album, The Woman I Am, with Brenda Russell.
Dyan wanted to take time off from her acting career to write. During the next nine years, she not only collaborated on a Broadway musical, but wrote her memoir, "Dear Cary," which was on the New York Times best seller list three different times spanning four years. A miniseries adaptation of the book, Archie (2023), starring Jason Isaacs and created by Jeff Pope, premiered on ITV and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Dyan is recognized as an exceptional motivational speaker for prominent associations and corporations. Children are her passion and most of her work centers around the care and welfare of kids. She is the national spokesperson for the Hemangioma Treatment Foundation, an organization that provides treatment to children all over the world who are afflicted with vascular birthmarks. She is the international executive spokesperson for Operation Lookout, an organization dedicated to recovering missing and exploited children who have been kidnapped from their homes, schools, etc. She has also been national spokesperson for Martin Colette's Wildlife Waystation, an international refuge that rescues and rehabilitates wild and exotic animals, as well as national spokesperson for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America
In addition, she devotes time and energy to several other charitable organizations such as California's Special Olympics for physically and mentally challenged athletes and also works with recovering addicts weekly.
Dyan is a permanent court-side fixture at the Los Angeles Lakers basketball games.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Sally Kellerman arrived quite young on the late 1950s film and television scene with a fresh and distinctively weird, misfit presence. It is this same uniqueness that continued to make her such an attractively offbeat performer. The willowy, swan-necked, flaxen-haired actress shot to film comedy fame after toiling nearly a decade and a half in the business, and is still most brazenly remembered for her career-maker in the irreverent hit Korean War dramedy M*A*S*H (1970), for which she received supporting Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. From there, she went on to enjoy several other hallmark moments as both an actress and a vocalist.
California native Sally Clare Kellerman was born in Long Beach on June 2, 1937, to Edith (née Vaughn), a piano teacher, and John Helm Kellerman, a Shell Oil Company executive. Raised along with her sister in the San Fernando Valley area, Sally was attracted to the performing arts after seeing Marlon Brando star in the film Viva Zapata! (1952). Attending the renowned Hollywood High School as a teenager, she sang in musical productions while there, including a version of "Meet Me in St. Louis." Following graduation, she enrolled at Los Angeles City College but left after a year when enticed by acting guru Jeff Corey's classes.
Initially inhibited by her height (5'10"), noticeably gawky and slinky frame and wide slash of a mouth, Kellerman proved difficult to cast at first but finally found herself up for the lead role in Otto Preminger's "A"-level film Saint Joan (1957). She lost out in the end, however, when Preminger finally decided to give the role of Joan of Arc to fellow newcomer Jean Seberg. Hardly compensation, 20-year-old Sally made her film debut that same year as a girls' reformatory inmate who threatens the titular leading lady in the cult "C" juvenile delinquent drama Reform School Girl (1957) starring "good girl" Gloria Castillo and "bad guy" Edd Byrnes of "777 Sunset Strip" teen idol fame, an actor she met and was dating after attending Corey's workshops. Directed by infamous low-budget horror film Samuel Z. Arkoff, her secondary part in the film did little in the way of advancing her career.
During the same period of time, Sally pursued a singing career and earned a recording contract with Verve Records. The 1960s was an uneventful but growing period for Kellerman, finding spurts of quirky TV roles in both comedies ("Bachelor Father," "My Three Sons," "Dobie Gillis" and "Ozzie and Harriet") and dramas ("Lock Up," "Surfside 6," "Cheyenne," "The Outer Limits," "The Rogues," "Slattery's People" and the second pilot of "Star Trek"). Sally's sophomore film was just as campy as the first, but her part was even smaller. As an ill-fated victim of the Hands of a Stranger (1962), the oft-told horror story of a concert pianist whose transplanted hands become deadly, the film came and went without much fanfare.
Studying later at Los Angeles' Actors' Studio (West), Sally's roles increased toward the end of the 1960s with featured parts in more quality filming, including The Third Day (1965), The Boston Strangler (1968) (as a target for serial killer Tony Curtis) and The April Fools (1969). Sally's monumental break came, of course, via director Robert Altman when he hired her for, and she created a dusky-voiced sensation out of, the aggressively irritating character Major Margaret "'Hot Lips" Houlihan. Her highlighting naked-shower scene in the groundbreaking cinematic comedy M*A*S*H (1970) had audiences ultimately laughing and gasping at the same time. Both she and the film were a spectacular success with Sally the sole actor to earn an Oscar nomination for her marvelous work here. She lost that year to the overly spunky veteran Helen Hayes in Airport (1970).
Becoming extremely good friends with Altman during the movie shoot, Sally went on to film a couple more of the famed director's more winning and prestigious films of the 1970s, beginning with her wildly crazed "angelic" role in Brewster McCloud (1970), and finishing up brilliantly as a man-hungry real estate agent in his Welcome to L.A. (1976), directed by Alan Rudolph. Sally later regretted not taking the Karen Black singing showcase role in one of Altman's best-embraced films, Nashville (1975), when originally offered. Still pursuing her singing interests, she put out her first album, "Roll with the Feelin'" for Decca Records in 1972.
Films continued to be a priority and Sally was deemed a quirky comedy treasure in both co-star and top supporting roles of the 1970s. She was well cast neurotically opposite Alan Arkin in the Neil Simon comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) and again alongside ex-con James Caan as a sexy but loony delight in Slither (1973), a precursor to the Coen Bros.' darkly comic films. She also co-starred and contributed a song ("Reflections") to the Burt Bacharach/Hal David soundtrack of the Utopian film Lost Horizon (1973), a musical picture that proved lifeless at the box office. More impressive work came with the movies A Little Romance (1979) as young Diane Lane's quirky mom; Foxes (1980) as Jodie Foster's confronting mother; Serial (1980), a California comedy satire starring Martin Mull; That's Life! (1986), a social comedy with Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews; and Back to School (1986), comic Rodney Dangerfield's raucous vehicle hit.
Sally's films from the 1980s on were a mixed bag. While some, such as the low-grade Moving Violations (1985), Meatballs III: Summer Job (1986), Doppelganger (1993), American Virgin (1999) and Women of the Night (2001) were beneath her considerable talents, her presence in others were, at the very least, catchy such as her Natasha Fatale opposite Dave Thomas' Boris Badenov in Boris and Natasha (1992); director Percy Adlon's inventive Younger and Younger (1993), which reunited her with MASH co-star Donald Sutherland, and in Robert Altman's rather disjointed, ill-received all-star effort Ready to Wear (1994) in which she played a fashion magazine editor.
When her film output waned in later years, Sally lent a fine focus back to her singing career and made a musical dent as a deep-voiced blues and jazz artist. She started hitting the Los Angeles and New York club circuits with solo acts. In 2009, Kellerman released her first album since "Roll with The Feelin'" simply titled "Sally," a jazz and blues-fused album. Along those same lines, Sally played a nightclub singer in the comedy Limit Up (1989) Kellerman's seductively throaty voice has also put her in good standing as a voice-over artist of commercials, feature films, and television.
Among her offbeat output in millennium films were prime/featured roles in the soft-core thriller Women of the Night (2001), written and director by Zalman King, in which she played a lady deejay (she also gets to sing); the real estate musical Open House (2004) in which she played an agent (who gets to sing again); the Florida senior citizens' romantic comedy Boynton Beach Club (2005); the comedy Night Club (2011) where friends and residents start a club in a retirement home; the social dramas A Place for Heroes (2014) and A Timeless Love (2016); and the family dramedy The Remake (2016).
Divorced from Rick Edelstein, Kellerman married Jonathan D. Krane in 1980 and the couple adopted twins, Jack and Hanna. Sally was also the adoptive mother of her niece, Claire Graham. Her husband died unexpectedly in August 2016; less than three months later, daughter Hanna died from heroin and methamphetamine use. Sally died on February 24, 2022 in Los Angeles.- Writer
- Producer
David Seidler was born on 4 August 1937 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and producer, known for The King's Speech (2010), Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988) and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). He was married to Mary Ann Tharaldsen, Huia Newton and Jacqueline Feather. He died on 16 March 2024 in New Zealand.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Billy Dee Williams was born William December Williams on April 6, 1937
in New York City. Billy Dee has notched up an impressive array of film
and television appearances over the past 50+ years. He is easily best
known to international film audiences as the roguish Lando Calrissian
in the last two episodes of the original Star Wars trilogy:
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
and
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
Williams can also be seen on screen in
Lady Sings the Blues (1972),
Nighthawks (1981),
Batman (1989),
Moving Target (1996) and
Undercover Brother (2002). A
regular performer also in many fine quality television movies and
television series.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Equally versatile at comedy and drama, Loretta Swit was born on November 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey. Her parents, Polish immigrants, were not in favor of her making a stab at a show business career. Performing on stage from age
7, however, nothing and nobody could deter her.
A natural singer who trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before finding work in
repertory companies, her features were deemed a bit too plain and hard
for ingénue roles so she attempted musicals and light comedy, imbuing
her characters with a snappy, comic edge. Beginning with the 1967
national touring company of "Any Wednesday", starring
Gardner McKay, she forged ahead as a
scene-stealing "Pigeon sister" opposite
Don Rickles and
Ernest Borgnine in an L.A. run of "The
Odd Couple" and, from there, earned more laughs as the hopelessly
awkward "Agnes Gooch" in the Las Vegas version of "Mame" starring
Susan Hayward and (later)
Celeste Holm.
Arriving in Hollywood in 1970, Loretta merited some attention by
lightening up a number of dramas with her humorous, off-centered
performances on such TV fare as
Gunsmoke (1955),
Mission: Impossible (1966),
Hawaii Five-O (1968) and
Mannix (1967). Her star-making role,
however, came within two years of moving to the West Coast when she
inherited Sally Kellerman's vitriolic
"Hot Lips" Houlihan movie character for the TV series version of
M*A*S*H (1972). She stayed with the
show the entire eleven seasons and was Emmy-nominated every season the
show was on the air (except the first).
Although Loretta's post-"M*A*S*H" career may appear less noteworthy (it
would be hard to imagine anything that could top her bookend Emmy wins
on the M*A*S*H series), she has nonetheless remained quite active and
provided colorful support in a handful of films including
S.O.B. (1981),
Beer (1985),
Whoops Apocalypse (1986),
Forest Warrior (1996) and
Beach Movie (1998). She also kept up
her TV visibility with episodic appearances and occasional mini-movies,
including originating the role of "Chris Cagney" in the TV pilot of
Pilot (1981).
Returning to singing on occasion, she also inherited the
Linda Lavin role in the TV version of the
stage musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman! (1975).
On stage, she made her Broadway debut opposite
That Girl (1966)'s
Ted Bessell
in "Same Time, Next Year" in 1975 and later replaced
Cleo Laine on Broadway in "The Mystery of
Edwin Drood". Honored with the
Sarah Siddons award for her title role in
"Shirley Valentine" (over 1,000 performances) in Chicago, she has more
recently toured in productions of "The Vagina Monologues" and played
the musical title role of "Mame" in 2003. Loretta also was a
five-season host of the 1992 cable-TV wildlife series "Those Incredible
Animals" (1992).
After her smash success on "M*A*S*H," Loretta went the dramatic TV movie route with leads in such vehicles as The Execution (1985), Miracle at Moreaux (1985), Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story (1986), A Matter of Principal (1990) and Hell Hath No Fury (1991). She also appeared in a few guest spots on the series "The Love Boat," "Dolly," "Murder, She Wrote," "The New Burke's Law" and "Diagnosis Murder" before she left the big and small screens. After a decade, Loretta was spotted in the film drama Play the Flute (2019).
Off-stage, Loretta was once married to actor
Dennis Holahan, whom she met on the set
of M*A*S*H (1972), in 1983. They had
no children and divorced in 1995. Her natural spark and trademark
blonde, curly mane are more prevalent these days at animal activist
fundraisers. A strict vegetarian, she has served as a spokesperson for
the Humane Society of the United States and has been multi-honored for
her long-time dedication and passion to animals. She is also the author
of a book on needlepoint (A Needlepoint Scrapbook), runs her own line
of jewelry and exhibits watercolor paintings. As a result, little has
been seen of Loretta on film and TV, into the millennium.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Many well known and highly identifiable actresses have tried and failed to make the arduous crossover from fizzy TV sitcom star to mature, dramatic artist. Usually it was their hardcore fans who refused to accept them in any other light. Sally Field and Elizabeth Montgomery come first to mind as two strong actresses, with even stronger TV comedy character personas to contend with, who managed to make the none-too-easy leap to serious dramatic stardom after the fact. And then there's THAT girl ... lovely, glowing brunette Marlo Thomas ... another prime example.
Born in Detroit, Michigan on November 21, 1937, Marlo was christened Margaret Julia Thomas. Raised within the mad Beverly Hills whirl of the entertainment business as the daughter of show business legend Danny Thomas, she was initially dissuaded from an acting career and began a half-hearted adult life as a school teacher.
Quickly switching to acting, however, Marlo began with early TV appearances in the late 1950's on such series as "Dobie Gillis," "77 Sunset Strip," "Thriller" and "Zane Grey Theatre" (an appearance with her father). Her first break came when she was cast as Joey Bishop's sister and aspiring actress on the sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1961) for one season, and she continued to build up her small screen resumé with assorted guest shots on "Bonanza," "My Favorite Martian," "McHale's Navy," "The Donna Reed Show" and "Ben Casey."
Following her delightful work on the London stage as Corey in "Barefoot in the Park" in 1965, Marlo appeared in a failed TV pilot. The pilot was seen by ABC, and they had her tested for another sitcom lead and passed with flying colors. This one stuck did not fail. Audiences adored "That Girl" with the romantic entanglements and struggling ambition of Ann Marie, a single, independent and very trendy young lady in the real world as an actress wannabe. Marlo became an instant household name (as did co-star Ted Bessell) and earned a Golden Globe ("Best TV Star") and four Emmy nominations during the five-year run of the groundbreaking show.
Cancelling the show on her own terms in 1971, the smoky-voiced actress was faced with a huge task of breaking a stereotype as a perky, fresh-faced, wide-eyed innocent. Capitalizing on her TV fame, she immediately pursued serious film roles. Playing the title dramatic role of Jenny (1970) opposite Alan Alda, she portrayed an unwed, naïve, pregnant girl who marries a filmmaker for convenience sake and earned a Golden Globe nom for "Most Promising Newcomer" in the process. Still, the box office take was mild and the public needed more convincing. When she made her Broadway debut successfully in the Herb Gardner play "Thieves" opposite Richard Mulligan in 1975, she made another stab at films by recreating her stage role. The reviews for Thieves (1977) co-starring Charles Grodin this time (who directed her in the Broadway version) were underwhelming. She would meet talk show icon Phil Donahue on his daytime TV program while a guest promoting the Thieves (1977) movie. They wed in 1980.
During this time Marlo broadened her focus and combined her deep love for children and education with her show business career. She took home bookend Emmy Awards for producing the "Outstanding Children's Specials" Free to Be... You & Me (1974) and, later, Free to Be... a Family (1988). She would also win a Grammy for her children's album "Marlo Thomas & Friends." As for TV, she earned wonderful reviews starring in the ABC holiday mini-movie comedy It Happened One Christmas (1977) playing a troubled female version of James Stewart's protagonist in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) but it was her dramatic work in the TV movies The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck (1984) Consenting Adult (1985) (Golden Globe nomination), Nobody's Child (1986) (Emmy Award, Golden Globe nomination), and Held Hostage: The Sis and Jerry Levin Story (1991), Ultimate Betrayal (1994) and Reunion (1994) that forever erased her pristine stereotype image and saw her as a dramatic force to be reckoned with.
Marlo's subsequent return visits to Broadway with the plays "Social Security" (1986) and "The Shadow Box" (1994) added to her list of successes and continued with demanding theater roles such as Beatrice in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigold" (1990), Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1992) and Ouisa in "Sex Degrees of Separation" (1992).
Marlo remained actively involved on TV in everything from classic comedy (as Jennifer Aniston's mom in Friends (1994) to adult drama as a lawyer/mentor in the highly-rated crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), with other TV guest appearances including "Roseanne," "Ally McBeal," "Ugly Betty," "The New Normal" and an additional recurring role on Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2017).
Sporadic filming into the millennium included the "Odd Couple"-styled comedy In the Spirit (1990) co-starring Elaine May and featuring May's daughter Jeannie Berlin who also co-wrote, and featured roles in the romantic comedy The Real Blonde (1997), the drama Starstruck (1998), the social comedy Playing Mona Lisa (2000), the Miley Cyrus romantic dramedy LOL (2012), the witty comedy The Female Brain (2017) and the action comedy Ocean's Eight (2018) headed by Sandra Bullock.
Younger brother/producer Tony Thomas and actress/sister Terre Thomas also involved themselves in show business careers. On a more personal level, Marlo is an accomplished author, humanitarian and social activist. She has also continued the tradition of her late father as National Outreach Director for St. Jude's Children Hospital for cancer research.- Another one of those frustratingly nameless but omnipresent and
talented faces of stage, film and TV, chameleon-like player Harris
Yulin has avoided the severe stereotyping lost to many a prolific
actor. Benign, balding and often bearded, Yulin off camera was a stark
contrast to the tough, unsympathetic men he presented on camera. Born
in Los Angeles in 1937, Yulin traveled extensively throughout Europe
and Israel before deciding on an acting career. Attending UCLA, he
studied acting with Jeff Corey before
making his off-Broadway debut in "Next Time I'll Sing for You" in 1963.
From there, Harris continued to forge a respectable name for himself in
the classical arena, particularly in the works of Shakespeare. With
credits including "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1964), "Richard III"
(1966) and "King John" (1967), he proved to be a stellar Hamlet in
1974, and subsequently played the role of Claudius to
Kevin Kline's dour Dane in a 1986
production. Marking his Broadway debut in "Watch on the Rhine" in 1980,
he impressed later that year alongside
James Earl Jones in the contemporary
drama "A Lesson from Aloes" (1980). His classical repertoire over the
years has included "Uncle Vanya" (1981), "Hedda Gabler" (1981) and
(2001), "The Doctor's Dilemma" (1982) "Tartuffe" (1984), "The Seagull"
(1985), and a Broadway return with "The Visit" (1992). More recently,
he won Drama Desk nominations for his superb work in "The Price" (1999)
and "The Diary of Anne Frank" (2001). Keeping his base firmly in Los
Angeles for most his career, he was one of the founders of the Los
Angeles Classic Theater and has kept active on the regional theater
scene over the years. A noted New York stage director, he helmed the
off-Broadway productions "Baba Goya," "This Lime Tree Bower," and "The
Trip to Bountiful".
He is the possessor of an intriguingly solemn, autocratic-looking
mug, and his glowering intensity usually invites suspicion, scorn or
skepticism... or all three. Yulin began appearing in films and TV in
mid-life (1970), and a high percentage of his work earned standout
notices, if not awards and outright stardom. He started impressively
enough in Terry Southern's
thoroughly bizarre film adaptation of
John Barth's novel
End of the Road (1970) amid a
dream ensemble cast that included
Stacy Keach,
James Earl Jones,
Dorothy Tristan, and
James Coco. He then formed a strong acting
bond with Keach, again playing best friend Wyatt Earp to Keach's Doc
Holliday in an offbeat, revisionist version of their OK Corral story in
'Doc' (1971) that also co-starred
Faye Dunaway. While strong supporting turns
in The Midnight Man (1974),
Night Moves (1975),
Scarface (1983),
Woody Allen's
Another Woman (1988),
Narrow Margin (1990), and
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
kept his name alive on the larger screen, his career found a stronger
focus on TV. Over time, he played a number of flashy historical figures
on the quality small screen, including Machine Gun Kelly
(George Kelly),
J. Edgar Hoover, Senator
Joseph McCarthy, Israeli
General Forman, Jesse James, George Marshall, Leonardo DaVinci and even
the Bard himself.
He could always be counted on to play a maniacal genius or the
embodiment of white-collar corruption in a career piled with genuinely
unsympathetic characters. His more mainstream filming has included
lightweight comedies and horrors, such as
Bad Dreams (1988),
Ghostbusters II (1989),
Multiplicity (1996) and
Rush Hour 2 (2001), and the more
familiar heavy drama, including the brutal urban tale
Training Day (2001) starring
Oscar-winner
Denzel Washington, and the
somber biopic
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
with Nicole Kidman.
Though Yulin has been unable to find the one transcending role to
catapult him to the very top of his character ranks, he continues to
enjoy an enviable career broaching age 70. Fresher audiences might
recognize him from episodes of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993),
Law & Order (1990),
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997),
24 (2001) and
Frasier (1993), for which he earned a
"guest" Emmy nomination. His late wife
Gwen Welles, who succumbed to cancer at age
42 in 1993, was an actress of note
(Robert Altman's
Nashville (1975), in particular). A
documentary chronicling his wife's illness and untimely death appeared
at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival.
Into the millennium, Harris has added sturdy support to such films as The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), Perfume (2001), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Training Day (2001), King of the Corner (2004), My Soul to Take (2010), The Family Fang (2015), Norman (2016) and Wanderland (2018). TV appearances included "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Mister Sterling," "Third Watch," "Law & Order," "Encourage," "Rubicon," "Pan Am," "Nikita," "Veep" and the revamped "Murphy Brown." Inclusive were offbeat recurring roles in 24 (2001), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015) and Ozark (2017). - Actress
- Director
- Writer
Joyce Bulifant was born on 16 December 1937 in Newport News, Virginia, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Airplane! (1980), Dirty Love (2005) and American Playhouse (1980). She was previously married to Roger Perry, Glade Bruce Hansen, William Asher, Edward Mallory and James MacArthur.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Both a leading and a supporting actor in movies and on television, name
a role - lawyer, airline pilot, rig foreman, doctor, gunslinger,
real-life person, good guy, bad guy - and Chad Everett has probably
played it. He was born Raymon Lee Cramton on June 11, 1937 in South
Bend, Indiana. In high school, he did stage plays and wanted to become
an actor.
After he graduated from Wayne University, Chad came to Hollywood and
signed a contract with Warner Brothers. He first became known playing a
deputy in the short-lived television series,
The Dakotas (1962) but acted in a
number of supporting roles, such as
Get Yourself a College Girl (1964)
and Made in Paris (1966), and
played the title role in
Johnny Tiger (1966) and
Return of the Gunfighter (1966).
He was probably best-known for his seven-year run as "Dr. Joe Gannon"
in the television series,
Medical Center (1969), which
earned him two Golden Globe nominations. After "Medical
Center" was canceled, Chad starred in the mini-series,
Centennial (1978), and played the
title role in Hagen (1980). In the
early '80s, Chad was in television films, including
The Intruder Within (1981),
and did a number of guest appearances on
The Love Boat (1977) and
Murder, She Wrote (1984).
Chad's recent work has included roles in the remake of
Psycho (1998) and in
Mulholland Drive (2001). Today, he
is still seen on television in
Manhattan, AZ (2000). He
recently completed a new film with
Gwyneth Paltrow,
View from the Top (2003), which
is soon to be released. Chad is married to
Shelby Grant, and they have two daughters.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stocky, genial-looking supporting actor Ned Beatty was once hailed by Daily Variety as the "busiest actor in Hollywood."
Ned Thomas Beatty was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Margaret (Fortney) and Charles William Beatty. He grew up fishing and working on farms. His hometown of St. Matthews, Kentucky, is hardly the environment to encourage a career in the entertainment industry, though, so when asked, "How did you get into show business?" Beatty responded, "By hanging out with the wrong crowd." That "crowd" includes some of the industry's most prominent names, such as John Huston, Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando and Robert Redford.
Beatty garnered praise from both critics and peers as a dedicated actor's actor. He started as a professional performer at age ten, when he earned pocket money singing in gospel quartets and a barber shop. The big city and bright lights did not come easy, though. The first ten years of Beatty's career were spent at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia. He then moved on to the Erie Playhouse in Pennsylvania, the Playhouse Theater in Houston, Texas, and the prestigious Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. He was also a member of Shakespeare in Central Park, Louisville, Kentucky. Later, he appeared in the Broadway production of "The Great White Hope". At the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, he won rave reviews when he starred in "The Accidental Death of an Anarchist."
In 1971, Beatty was chosen by director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe in the hit film/backwoods nightmare Deliverance (1972). Co-star Burt Reynolds and Beatty struck up a friendship, and Ned was then cast by Burt in several other films together, including White Lightning (1973), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and the abysmal Stroker Ace (1983). Ned's talents were also noticed by others in Hollywood and he was cast in many key productions of the 1970s turning in stellar performance, including an Academy Award nomination of Best Supporting Actor for his role in Network (1976). Beatty was also marvelous in Nashville (1975), under fire from a crazed sniper in The Deadly Tower (1975), an undercover FBI man in the action comedy Silver Streak (1976), as Lex Luthor's bumbling assistant, Otis, in the blockbuster Superman (1978) ... and he returned again with Gene Hackman to play Otis and Lex Luthor again in Superman II (1980).
Beatty continued to remain busy throughout the 1980s with appearances in several big budget television productions including The Last Days of Pompeii (1984). However, the overall caliber of the productions in general did not match up to those he had appeared in during the 1970s. Nonetheless, Beatty still shone in films including The Big Easy (1986) and The Fourth Protocol (1987). Into the 1990s, Beatty's work output swung between a mixture of roles in family orientated productions (Gulliver's Travels (1996), Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1990), etc.) taking advantage of his "fatherly" type looks, but he could still accentuate a hard edge, and additionally was cast in Radioland Murders (1994) and Just Cause (1995). His many other films include The Toy (1982), All the President's Men (1976), Wise Blood (1979), Rudy (1993), Spring Forward (1999), Hear My Song (1991) -- for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor -- Prelude to a Kiss (1992), He Got Game (1998) and Cookie's Fortune (1999). Beatty's numerous television credits include three years on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993), Streets of Laredo (1995) and The Boys (1993).
Beatty received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Friendly Fire (1979) opposite Carol Burnett, and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Family Channel's Magic Hour: Tom Alone (1989). Other notable credits include The Wool Cap (2004), The Execution of Private Slovik (1974), A Woman Called Golda (1982), Pray TV (1982), the miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985), Lockerbie: A Night Remembered (1998) and T Bone N Weasel (1992). He also had a recurring role on Roseanne (1988) and performed musically on television specials for Dolly Parton and The Smothers Brothers.
In 2001, Beatty returned to his theatrical roots starring in London's West End revival production of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with Brendan Fraser. He also appeared in the production on Broadway in 2003/2004 with Jason Patric and Ashley Judd. In 2006, Beatty completed three features to be released next year: The Walker (2007); Paul Schrader's film also starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily Tomlin; Paramount Pictures' Shooter (2007) starring Mark Wahlberg; and Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Mike Nichols's film with Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts. Also in the 21st century, Beatty turned out a terrific performance in the popular Where the Red Fern Grows (2003). Blessed with eight children, Ned Beatty enjoyed golf and playing the bass guitar. He gave himself until the age of 70 to become proficient at both. He died at age 83 of natural causes on June 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Highly acclaimed English actor, playwright, author and director
continues to set the benchmark in stunning, intense performances on
both stage and screen. Berkoff was born in Stepney, London in August
1937 and received dramatic arts training in both Paris and London and
then moved on to performing with several repertory companies, before he
formed the London Theatre Group in 1968. Berkoff had actually been
appearing in uncredited roles in UK cinema since 1959, and started to
get noticed by casting agents with his performances in
Hamlet at Elsinore (1964),
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971),
A Clockwork Orange (1971) and
Barry Lyndon (1975).
Mainstream film fans are probably most familiar with Steven Berkoff via
his portrayal of a trio of ice cold villains in several big budget
Hollywood productions of the 1980s. Firstly, he played a rogue general
plotting to launch a war in Europe in
Octopussy (1983), then a drug smuggling
art dealer out to kill Detroit narcotics officer
Eddie Murphy in
Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and
thirdly as a sadistic Russian commando officer torturing
Sylvester Stallone in
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
Berkoff continued to contribute scintillating performances and was
quite memorable as Adolf Hitler in
War and Remembrance (1988),
The Krays (1990) and the haunting
The Tell-Tale Heart (1991).
Further villainous roles followed for the steely Berkoff in
Fair Game (1995) and the
Jean-Claude Van Damme kick flick
Legionnaire (1998). He excelled in
the camp comedy
9 Dead Gay Guys (2002), played UK
crime figure Charlie Richardson Snr. in
Charlie (2004) and then appeared in the
passionate Greek film about mail order brides simply titled,
Brides (2004) ("Brides").
His screen performances are but one part of the brilliance of Steven
Berkoff, as he has additionally built a formidable reputation for his
superb craftsmanship in the theatre. Berkoff has written and performed
original plays including "Decadence", "Harry's Christmas Lunch"
"Brighton Beach Scumbags" and "Sink the Belgrano", as well as appearing
in productions of "Hamlet", "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus" to rapturous
audiences right across the globe. Furthermore, he has authored several
highly entertaining books on the theatre and his life including "The
Theatre of Steven Berkoff", "Coriolanus in Deutscheland", "A Prisoner
in Rio", "I am Hamlet" and "Meditations on Metamorphosis".- Anna Massey was born on 11 August 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on 2 July 2011 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Barbara Ann Luna was born on March 2, in Manhattan and virtually
grew up on Broadway. Her Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese and
Filipino background has led her to portray a variety of roles.
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II cast her in
the Broadway hit musical "South Pacific", as Ngana, which was spoken
entirely in French. When she outgrew her sarong, Luna, as she prefers
to be called, was cast again by Rodgers and Hammerstein in "The King
and I". When the show was closing after many years, Luna auditioned for
the understudy role of Lotus Blossom in "Teahouse of the August Moon".
Not only was she hired, but she was given the starring role--which was
spoken entirely in Japanese--in the first national touring company for
three years. While she was appearing with "Teahouse" in Los Angeles,
she was seen by producer/director
Mervyn LeRoy, who cast her as Camille, a
blind girl who was the love interest for
Frank Sinatra in
The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961),
also starring Spencer Tracy.
This led to other films, such as
Firecreek (1968) with
James Stewart and
Henry Fonda,
Ship of Fools (1965) with
Vivien Leigh,
Simone Signoret and
Oskar Werner, and the prison drama
The Concrete Jungle (1982)
portraying Cat, the queen bee of the prison. Her exotic beauty and
timeless look, along with her talent, has afforded her the opportunity
to have a lengthy television career, as well. She is remembered by
Star Trek (1966) fans for her
portrayal of Lt. Marlena Moreau in the all-time classic episode
"Mirror, Mirror" from the original series. She has guest-starred on
nearly 500 television series. Some of her favorites are
Aaron Spelling productions such as
Fantasy Island (1977). Other
favorites are Dallas (1978),
The Bill Cosby Show (1969),
Hunter (1984),
Mission: Impossible (1966)
(and its 1988 reincarnation,
Mission: Impossible (1988)),
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979),
The Outer Limits (1963) and
many others.
Luna continued to keep one foot on Broadway; in between film
commitments, she appeared in a revival of "West Side Story" as Anita,
at Lincoln Center in New York City. This was followed by the role of
Morales in "A Chorus Line", where she got to sing the beautiful
Marvin Hamlisch tune, "What I Did For
Love". This inspired the multi-talented Luna to meet with Oscar nominee
Marc Shaiman to have him write a nightclub
act for her, and that he did: "An Evening with BarBara Luna". A New
York reviewer, after her first engagement, said, "Ms. Luna can take the
cabaret scene by storm". This review was noticed by agent Lee Solomon
of the William Morris Agency office. He called and booked Luna to open
for Bill Cosby at the Concord Hotel in the
Catskills and Caesars Palace in Atlantic City, New Jersey. While she
was singing at Freddies in New York City, she was offered a role in a
soap opera.
After a six-month stint as Anna Ryder (a role she created) on
Search for Tomorrow (1951),
she was then offered a two-year contract to play Maria Roberts on
One Life to Live (1968).
This character very quickly became notorious and extremely popular as
the "character everyone loved to hate". Spelling then hired Luna for
her to play Sydney Jacobs, a jewelry fence, on
Sunset Beach (1997). Luna loves
to travel, so she co-hosted "The Alpen Tour", a television special for
the Travel Channel sponsored by TWA airlines that was filmed throughout
Europe. When she returned to Los Angeles, Luna performed her club act
to sold-out crowds at Tom Rolla's Gardenia Cabaret and the Cine-grill
at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Recently, Luna made her first trip to
the Philippines to film a movie for Showtime,
Noriega: God's Favorite (2000),
starring Bob Hoskins. Luna is a
member of "The Thalians", a charity foundation at Cedars-Sinai
Hospital. She is an avid sports fan, loves playing golf, tennis and
dancing on roller skates.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The son of former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, Max Baer Jr. is
a classic (except probably to him) example of Hollywood typecasting.
Known around the world as "Jethro Bodine" in the smash TV series
The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Baer did not find work as an actor in Hollywood for three
years after the Hillbillies went off the air. Baer finally had to put
himself to work as an actor in his movie Macon County Line (1974), which he also wrote
and produced with a friend. Although it didn't let him escape his
Jethro character, he did earn more than $35 million dollars in box
office and (later) rental receipts. This after an initial investment of
just over $100,000. Not bad for a boy with a "sixth grade
education!"- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Born in Portland, Maine to a musically inclined family (her mother was
once an opera singer) and on stage from the age of 5, singer/actress
Linda Lavin graduated from The College of William and Mary with a
theatre degree.
Linda pounded the New York pavements in the early 1960s
searching for work following some stock roles in New Jersey, and
gradually made a dent within the New York musical comedy scene with
roles in "Oh, Kay!" (1960), "A Family Affair," (1962), "It's a
Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" (1966) (her standout number was
"You've Got Possibilities") and "On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever"
(1966). She also won kudos for her straight acting roles in "Little
Murders" (1969 Drama Desk award) and "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1969
Tony nomination). A one-time member of
Paul Sills' Compass Players comedy troupe
back in the late 1950s, she served as a replacement in Sills' "Story
Theatre" Broadway production in 1971.
Television beckoned in the 1970s and utilized her singing talents in a
small-screen version of
Damn Yankees! (1967)
starring Phil Silvers and
Lee Remick. After a one-season false start as
Detective Janice Wentworth on the sitcom
Barney Miller (1975), it did
not take long for the talented lady to become a household name in
another. As the titular waitress/mother in the sitcom
Alice (1976), based on the
award-winning film
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
starring Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn, Lavin
won deserved stardom. During the nine seasons (1976-1985) the show was
on the air, she nabbed two Golden Globe awards and an Emmy nomination.
Ever the singer, she even warbled "There's a New Girl in Town" over the
opening credits of the show to the delight of her fans.
Following this success, Linda lavished her attentions once again on the
stage. She earned renewed respect, in addition to several critic's
awards, for her diversified Broadway work in "Broadway Bound" (1987
Tony award), "Death Defying Acts" (1995 Obie award), "The Diary of Anne
Frank" (1998 Tony nomination: as the high-strung Mrs. Van Daan) and
"Tales of the Allergist Wife" (2000 Tony nomination). She later appeared in a PBS-TV version of
Collected Stories (2002)
and in 2010 revived it on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for her
efforts. She has also occasionally directed for the stage.
Linda was married and divorced twice to actors --
Ron Leibman and
Kip Niven -- and in 2005 married her third
husband, actor Steve Bakunas, who is also
an artist and musician. After her "Alice" heyday, the actress would again
return to series work, albeit the short-lived
Room for Two (1992) and
Conrad Bloom (1998).
Millennium credits include penetrating/amusing TV work on "The Sopranos," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "The O.C.," "Madame Secretary," "Santa Clarita Diet" and "Room 104," plus regular roles on three comedy series -- Sean Saves the World (2013), 9JKL (2017) and Yvette Slosch, Agent (2020) (title role). As for stage work, Linda returned to Broadway where she received fine reviews for her starring role in Carol Burnett's
autobiographical play "Hollywood Arms" (2002) portraying Burnett's
grandmother. The piece was co-written by Burnett's late daughter,
Carrie Hamilton. Linda also received
excellent reviews in "Collected Stories" (2010). Subsequent Broadway shows included brief runs of "The Lyons" (2012) and "My Mother's Brief Affair."- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
"Go home and get your shine box....", so said ill-fated Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990). However, Billy Batts is better known to a legion of crime-film fans as the talented actor, musician, and comedian Frank Vincent. He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey. Frank studied music at St. Pauls Grammar School and became a keen drummer at a young age, while his father introduced him to the dramatic arts. Vincent went on to became quite an accomplished musician and played with some of the key 1960s recording artists including Trini López, Del Shannon and Paul Anka. In 1975 Vincent appeared before the camera for the first time in the low-budget The Death Collector (1976) where he was noticed by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese, who cast Frank in three iconic American films: the first saw Frank play the insolent Salvi in Raging Bull (1980), secondly as the aforementioned made man Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990) being bumped off by Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, and once again as Frank Marino in Casino (1995). Frank Vincent appeared in over fifty movies, and set the pace as one of the cinema's most versatile and resourceful character actors. With the recognition of his talents, various new opportunities work followed, and Frank lent his skills to contributing and appearing on video games, in television commercials and even rock-music clips with artists including DMX, T-Boz and Hype Williams. He also had the role of Phil Leotardo in the legendary gangster TV series The Sopranos (1999).
Frank Vincent was also the proud recipient of the Italian American Entertainer of the Year Award, and was also acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Back East Picture Show.- Actress
- Writer
Best known as Hammer Films' most seductive female vampire of the early
1970s, the Polish-born Pitt possessed dark, alluring features and a
sexy figure that made her just right for Gothic horror! Ingrid Pitt
(born Ingoushka Petrov) survived World War II and became a well-known
actress on the East Berlin stage, however, she did not appear on screen
until well into her twenties. She appeared in several minor roles in
Spanish films in the mid 1960s, mostly uncredited, before landing the
supporting role of undercover agent "Heidi", assisting
Clint Eastwood and
Richard Burton defeat the Third
Reich in
Where Eagles Dare (1968).
Her exotic looks and eastern European accent came to the notice of
Hammer executives who cast Pitt as vampiress "Mircalla" in the sensual
horror thriller
The Vampire Lovers (1970). The
film was a box office success with its blend of horror and sexual
overtones, and Pitt was a beautiful, yet ferocious bloodsucker. Next
up, Pitt was cast by Amicus Productions as another gorgeous vampire in
the episode entitled "The Cloak" in the superb
The House That Dripped Blood (1971).
This time, Ingrid played an actress appearing in horror films alongside
screen vampire Jon Pertwee, but then later
reveals herself to be a real vampire keen on recruiting fresh blood.
Ingrid donned the fangs for her third vampire film in a row,
Countess Dracula (1971) which
was loosely based around the legend of the 16th century bloodthirsty
Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Whilst not as successful, as the two prior
outings, Ingrid Pitt had firmly established
herself as one of the key ladies of British horror of the 1970s. She
then appeared in the underrated at the time - now widely regarded as a classic - The Wicker Man (1973) as an
uncooperative civil servant annoying
Edward Woodward in his search for a
missing child. Further work followed in
The Final Option (1982), as "Elvira"
in the adaptation of the John le Carré
Cold War thriller
Smiley's People (1982),
Wild Geese II (1985) and
The Asylum (2000).
Ingrid Pitt made regular appearances at horror conventions and fan
gatherings, had penned several books on her horror career, and she
relished talking to fans about her on screen vampiric exploits.
Ingrid's fan club is known as the "Pitt of Horror"! A much loved and
genuine cult figure of modern horror cinema, she died on November 23,
2010, just two days after her 73rd birthday.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Bobbi Charlton was born on 11 October 1937. She is an actress, known for The Unforgivable (2021), The Magicians (2015) and Discovery Street: The Web Series (2010).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Born in New York, Larry Hankin took an industrial design degree from the University of Syracuse; multifaceted artist, in addition to being an actor, he is also a screenwriter, producer, director and singer. He began his career as an illustrator in the entertainment world, and studied acting at Syracuse University. He was in the same class with Frank Langella and Carl Gottlieb. He was also a member of two comedy improvisation groups, Second City (Chicago) and The Committee (San Francisco). Hankin continues today his work in Hollywood.- Actress
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Long before Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty and company showed up in 1980s TV households, Hollywood had, in effect, its own original "Golden Girl"...literally...in the form of stunning British actress Shirley Eaton. Although she found definitive cult stardom in 1964 with her final golden moment in a certain "007" film, Shirley was hardly considered an "overnight success". For nearly a decade, she had been out and about uplifting a number of 1950s and early 1960s British dramatic films and slapstick farce. Shirley became quite a sought-after actress internationally but, by the end of the decade, the dark-browed blonde beauty intentionally bade Hollywood and her acting career a fond and permanent farewell. She has never looked back.
Born in Edgware, Middlesex, England on January 12, 1937 (some references incorrectly list her birth year as 1936), Shirley Jean Eaton began on stage as a youth, making her debut at age 12 in "Set to Partners" (1949) and following it up the following year with Benjamin Britten's "Let's Make an Opera". Her first on-camera work was on TV in 1951, but it didn't take long before the pretty teen began to provide fleeting, decorative interest on film. Under contract to Alexander Korda in her early career, she found an encouraging break with minor parts in such comedies as Doctor in the House (1954) and The Love Match (1955). She quickly rose to co-star status in the droll features, Panic in the Parlor (1956), Three Men in a Boat (1956), Your Past Is Showing (1957) and Doctor at Large (1957), while appearing opposite such top stars as Peter Sellers and Dirk Bogarde, among others.
Upon Korda's death in 1956, Shirley briefly joined the Rank Organization. Every once in awhile, she relished playing a fetching villainess in a drama, such as in The Girl Hunters (1963) when not playing it straight as the beautiful foil caught up in some of Britain's finest madcap farces, which included the highly popular "Carry On" movies. Trained also in ballet and voice, Shirley was afforded a great chance to sing and dance with the film, Life Is a Circus (1960), and managed to grace the BBC as well in a few of their musical formats of the 1950s.
Shirley's career hit international status, of course, when she played "Jill Masterson", one of a bevy of beauties linked to titular archvillain Gert Fröbe in the film, Goldfinger (1964). And like many of the Bondian girls before and since, her character dearly paid for her furtive romantic clinches with Sean Connery's magnetic "James Bond". Shirley's memorable 24-karat gold death scene (She was found by Bond, painted head to toe in gold paint, and had "died of skin suffocation".), became the eye-catching draw for the movie. The image was splattered everywhere -- on movie posters, in press junkets and in publicity campaigns. Despite the formidable attention the movie received in the form of Honor Blackman's high-kicking "Pussy Galore" character and Shirley Bassey's famous rendition of the title song playing the airwaves, it was Eaton's gilded visuals that became THE iconic image of not only the movie but the whole "007" phenomena.
In its wake, Hollywood beckoned and Shirley immediately won a number of female leads in melodrama, crime yarns, war stories and rugged adventures. Adding to the mesmerizing Ivan Tors scenery in such movies as Rhino! (1964) and the underwater epic, Around the World Under the Sea (1966), she appeared opposite some of Hollywood best-looking and talented leading men, including Harry Guardino and Robert Culp of the afore-mentioned Rhino! (1964), and Hugh O'Brian in the classic whodunnit, Ten Little Indians (1965). During this highly productive time, her co-stars ranged from comedy legend Bob Hope in Eight on the Lam (1967) to horror icon Christopher Lee in The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968). Shirley's film career ended with her participation as "Sumuru", the ambitious leader of an all-woman's society called "Femina", in both The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Mothers of America (1969). Many of her movies remain interesting to the public today as they are a product reflective of their times, and a number of them, like she, have achieved cult status.
After Shirley's self-imposed retirement, she, first and foremost, dedicated herself to her family. The widow of building contractor Colin Rowe (they were married in 1957; he died in 1994), she has two sons, Grant and Jason, and is the proud grandmother of five. She also developed a special knack for writing and, in 1999, published her autobiography entitled "Golden Girl". In 2006, she marketed an "intimate diary" of poems. These days, the spectacular Shirley can be glimpsed from time to time at film festivals that very much appreciate her cult celebrity. She also enjoys painting and has made a return to the stage in recent years.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Tall, blond haired country & western singer / songwriter from Atlanta
Georgia, who usually appears in films portraying good humored Southern
type characters. Reed was already writing and singing music in high
school, and was signed by Capitol Records to a three-year contract in
1955. However, in 1958, he signed over to NRC Records, and appeared
alongside Ray Stevens and
Joe South, plus he met his future
wife, singer Priscilla Mitchell.
Reed is well known by music fans for his C & W hits including "She Got
The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)", "Lord, Mr. Ford", "When You're Hot,
You're Hot" and "East Bound and Down". After striking up a friendship
with Burt Reynolds, Reed was cast
in small roles in
W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975),
and Gator (1976). He had a natural
on-screen charm, and Reynolds picked him to play trucker "Cledus Snow"
in the hugely popular
Smokey and the Bandit (1977),
plus he returned to the role in
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
and
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983).
More recently, Reed has been seen in
Bat*21 (1988) and
The Waterboy (1998).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Acting chameleon Sir Tom Courtenay, along with Sir
Alan Bates and
Albert Finney, became a front-runner in an
up-and-coming company of rebel upstarts who created quite a stir in
British "kitchen sink" cinema during the early '60s. An undying love for
the theatre, however, had Courtenay channeling a different course from
the aforementioned greats and he never, by his own choosing, attained
comparable cinematic stardom.
The gaunt and glum, fair-haired actor was born Thomas Daniel Courtenay
into modest surroundings on February 25, 1937, in Hull, East Yorkshire,
England, the son of Thomas Henry Courtenay, a ship painter, and his
wife, Anne Eliza (née Quest). Graduating from Kingston High School
there, he trained in drama at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
His reputation as an actor grew almost immediately with his
professional debut in 1960 as Konstantin in "The Seagull" at the Old
Vic. Following tours in Scotland and London with the play, Tom
performed in "Henry IV, Part I" and "Twelfth Night" (also at the Old
Vic) before assuming the title role of Billy from
Albert Finney in the critically acclaimed
drama "Billy Liar" at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. The story, which
tells of a Yorkshire man who creates a fantasy world to shield himself
from his mundane middle-class woes, was the initial spark in Tom's rise
to fame.
The recognition he received landed him squarely into the heap of things
as a new wave of "angry young men" were taking over British cinema
during the swinging '60s. Singled out for his earlier stage work at
RADA, he was eventually handed the title role in the war film
Private Potter (1963), but it was
his second movie that clinched stardom. Winning the role of Colin Smith
in
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962),
Courtenay invested everything he had in this bruising portrayal of
youthful desolation and rebellion. As a reform school truant whose
solitary sentencing for robbing a bakery leads to a reawakening and
subsequent recognition as a long distance runner, he was awarded a
"Promising Newcomer" award from the British Film Academy, It was
Courtenay then, and not Finney, who recreated his stage triumph as
Billy Fisher in the stark film version of
Billy Liar (1963). British Film
Academy nominations came his way for this and for his fourth movie role
in King & Country (1964). Vivid
contributions to the films
King Rat (1965), the ever-popular
Doctor Zhivago (1965), which
earned him his first Oscar nomination, and
The Night of the Generals (1967)
followed.
Despite all this cinematic glory, Courtenay did not enjoy the process
of movie-making and reverted to his first passion -- the theatre -- beginning in 1966. Displaying his versatility with roles in such
classic works as "The Cherry Orchard," "Macbeth" (as Malcolm),
"Charley's Aunt," "The Playboy of the Western World," "Hamlet," "She
Stoops to Conquer," "Peer Gynt" and "Arms and the Man," he still found
scattered work in films, including
The Day the Fish Came Out (1967),
A Dandy in Aspic (1968) and
Otley (1969), but none matched his earlier
brilliance. In 1971 he took a self-imposed, decade-long sabbatical from
filming.
Forming a sturdy association with the Royal Exchange Theatre in
Manchester that would last over a decade, he continued to impress with
lead roles in "The Rivals" and "The Prince of Homburg". Following his
huge success as the libidinous Norman in "The Norman Conquests" in
London, he made his Broadway debut with "Otherwise Engaged" (1977) and
earned a Tony nomination and Drama League Award in the process. It was
his second Tony-nominated triumph in "The Dresser" in 1980-1981,
however, that lured Courtenay back to films when he was asked to
recreate the role for the large screen.
The Dresser (1983) co-starred Tom as
the mincing personal assistant to an appallingly self-destructive stage
star played by Albert Finney
(Paul Rogers played the role with
Tom on Broadway) who struggles to get the actor through a rigorous
performance of "King Lear". Both British actors received Oscar
nominations but lost the 1984 "Best Actor" award to American
Robert Duvall.
Since then Tom has appeared on occasion in TV and film roles -- usually
in support. A few standouts include the films
Let Him Have It (1991),
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999),
Last Orders (2001) and
Nicholas Nickleby (2002), as well as the TV mini-series
A Rather English Marriage (1998),
for which he earned a British Television Award, Little Dorrit (2008) and the series Unforgotten (2015) for which he won a BAFTA award.
Over the years Sir Tom has excelled in solo stage shows as well. As a
chronic alcoholic in "Moscow Stations," he won the 1994 London Critics
Circle Theatre and London Evening Standard Theatre awards for "Best
Actor." In 2002, he wrote the one-man show "Pretending To Be Me," based
on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin. In the past decade
he has continued to distinguish himself on both the classical ("King
Lear," "Uncle Vanya") and contemporary ("Art") stages.
Courtenay's marriage to actress
Cheryl Kennedy lasted about a decade
(from 1973 to 1982). In 1988 he married Isabel Crossley, a stage
manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre in London. He has no children
from either marriage. In 1999, Sir Tom Courtenay was awarded an
honorary doctorate from Hull University and in 2000 published his
memoir "Dear Tom: Letters From Home", which earned strong reviews.
Knighthood came a year after that.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor. Discovered by chance at the
age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. and then
convincing in anything he ever undertook on the movie screen and on
television throughout his career spanning 17 years (1943-1960).
Includes such notable movie screen appearances as
The Fighting Sullivans (1944),
Song of the South (1946),
So Dear to My Heart (1948),
and The Window (1949), which was not
only the sleeper of 1949 but even earned him his Academy Award in March
1950 as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949. For his role as Jim
Hawkins in Walt Disney's
Treasure Island (1950), he
eventually received his Hollywood Star on 1560 Vine Street, and in 1954
he was chosen in a nation-wide poll for a Milky Way Gold Star Award
(for his work on TV and radio). But all the more tragic, then, was his
fruitless struggle to find a place in a pitiless adolescent world after
severe acne had stalled his acting career at 16. When his face was no
longer charming and his voice not smooth enough to be used for
voice-over jobs, his last big movie hit was the voice of animated
Peter Pan (1953), for which he was also
the live-action model. When his contract with the Disney studios was
prematurely terminated shortly after the release of
Peter Pan (1953) in late March 1953,
his mother additionally took him from the talent-supporting Hollywood
Professional School, which he attended by then. On his new School, the
public Westwood University High School, on which he graduated in 1955,
all of a sudden his former stardom became more burden than advantage.
He successfully continued acting on TV until 1957 and even managed to
get two final screen roles; in
The Scarlet Coat (1955) and
opposite of Mark Damon and
Connie Stevens in
The Party Crashers (1958). His
life became more and more a roller coaster ride that included several
encounters with the law and his eventual sentencing as a drug addict in
October 1961. Released in early 1962, rehabilitated and eager to make a
comeback, Bobby was ignored by the very industry that once had raised
and nurtured him, because of his record as a convict and former drug
addict. First famous... now infamous. Hoping to revive his career on
the stage after his parole had expired in 1964, he eventually traveled
to New York, only to learn that his reputation had preceded him, and no
one wanted to hire him there, either. After a final appearance in
Piero Heliczer's Underground short Dirt (1965) in 1965
and a short art-period at Andy Warhol's
so-called Factory, he disappeared into the underground, thoroughly
dispirited, funds depleted. On March 30, 1968, two playing children
found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. Believed to
be an unclaimed and homeless person, he was buried in an unmarked
pauper's grave on Hart Island, where he remains.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
George Denis Patrick Carlin was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, to Mary (Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick John Carlin, an advertising manager for The Sun; they had met while working in marketing. His father was from Donegal, Ireland, and his mother was Irish-American. His parents divorced when he was two months old, and he was raised by his mother. The long hours the mother worked left the young George by himself for long hours every day, providing him (in his own words), the time he needed to think about various subjects, listen to radio, and practice his impersonations, that where acclaimed by his mother and coworkers since an early age. Carlin started out as a conventional comedian and had achieved a fair degree of success as a Bill Cosby style raconteur in nightclubs and on TV until the late 1960s, when he radically overhauled his persona. His routines became more insightful, introducing more serious subjects. As he aged, he became more cynic and bitter, unintentionally changing his stage persona again in a radical way throughout the '90s. This new George Carlin, usually referred to as the late George Carlin, is one of the most acclaimed and enjoyed by the public and critics. Carlin's forte is Lenny Bruce-style social and political commentary, spiced with nihilistic observations about people and religion peppered with black humor. He is also noted for his masterful knowledge and use of the English language. Carlin's notorious "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine was part of a radio censorship case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978.- Lanky, balding, intense American character actor of Puerto Rican ancestry, born in New York's Spanish Harlem. Deserted by his parents, Sierra was brought up by an aunt in a rough, predominantly Irish neighbourhood from the age of six. Though briefly tempted by gang life as a teenager, he took up acting classes after accompanying a friend to an audition and ended up playing Shakespearean roles with the National Shakespeare Company and in the New York Shakespeare Festival (playing, among many other parts, Macbeth and Romeo), as well as appearing off-Broadway. He later said "I would have been happy if I continued to do that for the rest of my life". However, in 1969, Sierra decided to move to Hollywood and began acting in episodic television where he was initially typecast as Latino heavies or cops.
Sierra made his breakthrough in the role of Julio Fuentes on NBC's Sanford and Son (1972), his character the perennial butt of bigoted jokes from the show's cantankerous lead, played by Redd Foxx. He then appeared in the original cast of the police sitcom Barney Miller (1975) as the passionate, proudly Puerto Rican Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale. Written out of the show at the end of season two, he had further recurring roles in serial television, frequently alternating between comedy and drama. These included the short-lived hospital sitcom A.E.S. Hudson Street (1977), the controversial but hugely popular parody Soap (1977) (as South American counter-revolutionary "El Puerco"), Hill Street Blues (1981) (as Assistant District Attorney Alvarez), Zorro and Son (1983) (as garrison commander Paco Pico, one of the hero's chief antagonists), Miami Vice (1984) (as Don Johnson's erstwhile boss Lou Rodriguez, killed off by a hitman in episode four -- in fact, Sierra opted to leave the show because he disliked Miami) and the science fiction series Something Is Out There (1988) (as Captain Victor Maldonado). His numerous, varied and often highly entertaining guest appearances have included supporting roles as a Native American renegade on Gunsmoke (1955), a mutated religious leader living underneath irradiated New York in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), a professor of anthropology helping Mulder and Scully track down the Jersey Devil in The X-Files (1993), a Cardassian member of the sinister Obsidian Order on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), an Italian priest in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) and an Iraqi gunboat captain in the Rambo spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).
Sierra made his home in Laguna Beach, California, where he died of cancer on January 4 2021 at the age of 84. - Tim Scott was tall and thin, who sometimes went unshaven, and because
of this rough yet unthreatening appearance he was often cast in westerns. He was
born in Detroit, Michigan, but as a young boy moved with his family to
Albuquerque, New Mexico. He loved the theater deeply and he became the
co-founder of the "New MET Theatre" in Los Angeles, California, with
one of his best friends, actor James Gammon.
Tim died unexpectedly at the age of 57 from complications of lung
cancer in Los Angeles, California, on 15 June 1995. He was a fabulous
actor and is dearly missed by many. - Fair complexioned, cold-eyed actor Richard Bright notched up an impressive array of character performances of often shifty, or deadly
characters on the wrong side of the law. He first came to attention as a burglar in the engrossing The Panic in Needle Park (1971), and then followed it the following year playing a slick con artist hustling naive Ali MacGraw for the bank robbery loot in The Getaway (1972), before Steve McQueen pummels Bright to get the money back.
In 1972, he made his first appearance as bodyguard/enforcer "Al Neri", protecting Al Pacino in The Godfather (1972), and returned in the same role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and, 16 years later, he was back once again still protecting mob boss Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III (1990).
The actor's features endeared him to casting agents looking for both criminals and cops. He also appeared in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Sam Raimi's crazy Crimewave (1985), the union tale Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992) and Witness to the Mob (1998). In addition, he appeared regularly on TV in police/drama shows such as Hill Street Blues (1981), Houston Knights (1987), Third Watch (1999) and The Sopranos (1999). - Actress
- Additional Crew
The normally erudite, soft-spoken and well-mannered Alabama-born
(July 2, 1937) actress Polly Dean Holliday, daughter of a truck driver, accumulated quite an extensive theater
background by the time she hit sassy, blue-collar stardom on 70s TV as gum-cracking waitress Florence Jean Castleberry on the highly popular sitcom
Alice (1976).
Following her studies at Alabama College for Women, where she appeared in such productions as "Medea" and "The Lady's Not for Burning" and at Florida State University, Polly began her professional stage career in outdoor drama in North Carolina before joining the Asolo Repertory Company in Sarasota, Florida, and becoming a long, respected company member. During her initial residency (1962-1972), she appeared in such classic and contemporary productions as "The Way of the World" (1962), "Major Barbara" (1967), "As You Like It" (1967), "Look Back in Anger" (1968), "Joe Egg" (1970), "Candida" (title role, 1971), "The Subject Was Roses" (1971) and "House of Blue Leaves" (1971). Later roles with the company included "Hay Fever" (1974) and "Free and Clear" (2004). Polly worked long and hard to disguise her Alabama drawl while building up a sturdy classical reputation. At the same time, she supplemented her income teaching piano and also music in elementary schools.
Making her off-Broadway debut in "Orphee" back in 1964, she moved to the East Coast in 1972 and appeared in New York productions of "Wedding Bond," and "The Girl Most Likely to Succeed" before taking her first Broadway bow in "All Over Town" directed by Dustin Hoffman in 1974. She then began appearing in small parts in such movies as The Catamount Killing (1974), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) and All the President's Men (1976)
Polly won the flashy TV role of Flo in 1976. As the Southern-baked hash slinger who delightfully redefined trailer park trash, the actress gave a no-holds barred performance that earned her two Golden Globes awards and an Emmy nomination. She hit it so big with fans (her character introduced the catch phrase "Kiss mah grits!") that she was given her own spin-off, aptly titled Flo (1980). Surprisingly, the show lasted only one season despite another Emmy-nomination.
To avoid severe typecasting, Polly veered away from the television limelight and returned to her first love, the theatre. She won renewed respect and critical notice on Broadway and in regional theatre for her performances in "A Sense of Humor" (1983), "Black Coffee" (1985), her eccentric Martha Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1986), as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" (1988), her Tony-nominated turn as Big Mama in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1990), "A Quarrel of Sparrows" (1993), her Veta in "Harvey" (1993), as spinster schoolteacher Flo Owens in "Picnic" (1994) and again off-Broadway in "Marco Polo Sings a Solo" (1998).
From time to time, Polly has taken on feisty roles in both comic and dramatic films, such as the old
crank who meets a freakish end in the box-office critter hit
Gremlins (1984), and on TV wherein she
briefly replaced Eileen Brennan as Captain Amanda Allen
in the series
Private Benjamin (1981)
after Ms. Brennan's near-fatal car accident in 1982.
Though Polly never recaptured the brash success of her
Alice (1976) years, she has continued
at a healthy pace primarily in guest spots. She nominally played wise and
opinionated mothers and grandmothers on such shows as "Stir Crazy," "The Golden Girls," "Amazing Stories," "The Equalizer" and "Homicide: Life on the Streets." She also had recurring roles as Momma Love on the short-lived crime series The Client (1995) and as Patricia Richardson's mom on the hit sitcom Home Improvement (1991).
Broaching the millennium she continued sporadically with featured parts in such films as Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Mr. Wrong (1996), The Parent Trap (1998), Stick It (2006), The Heartbreak Kid (2007) and Fair Game (2010). She has also been featured on stage in such plays as "The Time of the Cuckoo" (2000), "Dividing the Estate" (2007), "A Christmas Carol" (2013) and "The Old Friends" (2014).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
A blue-eyed blonde with a bubbly personality, aptly dubbed 'the Champagne Girl' by studio publicists, she was born Cynthia Robichaux, one of five siblings, in Hammond, Louisiana. Her father was Louis Robichaux. Her mother ran a dancing school in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Cynthia began dancing in public under her mum's tutelage at the age of five, occasionally taking part in entertaining American soldiers who were stationed in the area. During her school years, she switched to acting in amateur dramatics.
At the age of eleven, Cynthia performed on Ken Murray's 'Blackouts' variety show in Los Angeles. At that time, she began to adopt the name 'Cindy Robbins' as her stage moniker. Several years later, the acclaimed character actress Shirley Booth saw potential in her and picked Cynthia for a part in her 1954 Broadway show 'By the Beautiful Sea', set on early 1900s Coney Island. The play was a hit and ran for 270 performances. On the strength of this success, Booth took Cynthia back to California to be cast in the lead role of another play, 'The Vacant Lot', at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Soon after, Universal-International signed her under contract.
Cynthia made her screen debut as a Native American girl in the early western series Brave Eagle (1955). Credited as Cindy Robbins, she went on to play supporting roles in a few second features, including in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), and one A-grader, the big budget melodrama This Earth Is Mine (1959), starring Rock Hudson. The studio publicity machine reinforced her 'champagne girl' image with fanzine articles about Cynthia using champagne as a supplement to shampoo. She was also said to own a champagne-coloured toy poodle named Chu-Chu. In interviews, Cynthia named her favorite activities as being tennis, riding, surfing and skin diving.
For all the hype, Cynthia never progressed beyond the status of starlet. She guest-starred in many TV sitcoms (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), Leave It to Beaver (1957), McHale's Navy (1962)), occasional westerns (Wagon Train (1957), Outlaws (1960), The Tall Man (1960)) and crime dramas (Dragnet (1951), Markham (1959), Tightrope (1959), Perry Mason (1957)). Her most popular role was as the star's eldest daughter (Carol Porter) in the comedy series The Tom Ewell Show (1960) (Cynthia, then 23, playing a 15 year-old). The main storyline revolved around a maladroit realtor, struggling to cope with life in a household dominated entirely by females.
Long after her retirement from screen acting, Cynthia penned several teleplays for a TV youth anthology series, for which she also received associate producer credit. She had a daughter (Kimberly Beck) by her first husband William Howard Beck. Her second husband was singer-songwriter Tommy Leonetti , with whom she resided in Sydney, Australia, for many years until his death in 1979. Her third husband (whose surname she adopted in her later credits) was the producer, director and writer Robert Chenault who died in 2009.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Garrett Morris was born on 1 February 1937 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Coneheads (1993), Saturday Night Live (1975) and How High (2001). He has been married to Freda Morris since 20 September 1996.- Actor
- Stunts
Proud and passionate Angle, Pat Roach, was born and raised in
Birmingham, England and grew to be a mountain of a man standing at six
feet, five inches tall, with doorway-wide shoulders and a barrel chest.
Pat wrestled competitively under the name of "Bomber" Roach, and at one
time held both the British and European Heavyweight Wrestling
Championships. While still in the wrestling game, Roach broke into
acting with a bit part in the
Stanley Kubrick film
Barry Lyndon (1975). He quickly
became popular as an enforcer or warrior figure and appeared on-screen
with some of Hollywood's biggest names. Many people would remember him
as the muscle-bound, bald German guard who hands out a beating to
Harrison Ford in
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),
before being cut down by a spinning plane propeller.
In other film roles, Roach nearly eliminates 007
Sean Connery in the Bond film
Never Say Never Again (1983),
in dual roles as a resurrected demon and as a fierce warrior, he fought
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Conan
sequel
Conan the Destroyer (1984),
and was back as a ferocious Indian guard pummeling poor
Harrison Ford once again in
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984),
before falling into a rock crusher.
He also appeared in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989),
Red Sonja (1985) and
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).
Apart from his film activity, Pat ran a gymnasium in Birmingham,
operated a used appliance business in the local markets and was known
as a warm-hearted and genial man who was happy to chat with admiring
fanatics, sign autographs and pose for photographs.
Roach was also very popular with English television audiences for his
portrayal of gentle giant "Brian 'Bomber' Busbridge" in the series
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983)
and was scheduled to appear in the fifth series of the show, when he
died of cancer on July 17, 2004. He was 67 years old.- David Margulies was born on 19 February 1937 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). He was married to Carol Grant. He died on 11 January 2016 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Bill Cosby is one of the world's most well-known
entertainers and comedians. William Henry Cosby, Jr. was born on July
12, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Anna Pearl (Hite), a maid
and William Henry Cosby, Sr., a U.S. Navy sailor. After 10th grade, Cosby
joined the Navy and completed high school through a correspondence
course. He later took up an athletics scholarship at Temple University,
supporting himself during his studies by tending bar, where his easy
going style and witty joking with the clientèle prompted suggestions
that he try stand-up comedy. This he did and was soon to be discovered
by the legendary Carl Reiner.
In his early twenties, he appeared on many well-known variety programs
including
The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). His big break came in 1965 when he
appeared as "Alexander Scott" in
I Spy (1965), winning numerous Emmys
for his performance. He later appeared in
The Bill Cosby Show (1969),
playing a teacher, although originally the show only lasted for two
years. He then created a Filmation cartoon based on many of his high
school buddies including Weird Harold, Dumb Donald, Mushmouth, and
others: the show was, of course,
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972).
The theme was humorous but also focused on Cosby's more educational
side. He studied for many years during his career in the 1960s and
1970s, and he received a doctorate in Education from the University of
Massachusetts. Cosby also starred in some highly successful movies such
as
Uptown Saturday Night (1974),
Let's Do It Again (1975),
A Piece of the Action (1977),
Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976),
and California Suite (1978).
During his early years he also made some comedy albums that sold very
well; his most notable comedy song being "Little Old Man." He was one
of the original cast members of
The Electric Company (1971),
and he was featured in the series
Pinwheel (1976) during the late
1970s and then appeared in the mediocre
The Devil and Max Devlin (1981).
In 1984, 'Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids' stopped production, and
The Cosby Show (1984)
commenced. The show was originally intended to follow a blue-collar
family, but finally ended up portraying a white-collar family. It was
originally rejected by ABC, accepted by a then-floundering NBC, and was
an almost instant success. From 1985 to 1987 the show broke viewing
records, with Cosby becoming perhaps the strongest driving force in
television during the eighties. Despite this great success, he arguably
created his own downfall. The Cosby Show led what was considered by
many at that time to be the best night of television: the line-up
included Night Court (1984),
Hill Street Blues (1981),
and Family Ties (1982), which all
followed The Cosby Show.
Cosby was dissatisfied with the way minorities were portrayed on
television. He produced the TV series
A Different World (1987)
and insisted that this program should follow the Cosby Show, rather
than Family Ties. A Different World was set in an historically Black
college and concentrated on young people and education. Impact was felt
on the show immediately; at its peak, the Cosby Show logged an
estimated 70 million viewers. However, after the scheduling reshuffle,
the show lost roughly 20% of its massive audience. However, Cosby was
still riding high in the early nineties until massive competition from
The Simpsons (1989).
The Cosby Show finally ended in 1992, conceding to
The Simpsons (1989), with the
final production considered to be one of the highest-rated shows of the
season and featured a pleading Cosby asking for peace in riot-torn Los
Angeles during the height of the
Rodney King riots. Cosby never
seemed able to top the success of the Cosby Show; his film
Leonard Part 6 (1987) was
considered to be one of the worst American films in history and may
have contributed in part to his downfall as a film actor, along with
his performance in Ghost Dad (1990). He
did attempt a minor comeback in 1996 starring in the
Robin Williams film
Jack (1996), which was directed by
Francis Ford Coppola; and in
another show, Cosby (1996), (starring
Phylicia Rashad, who appeared as his
wife in the previous Cosby Show). Since then he has produced films such
as Men of Honor (2000), and shows
including Little Bill (1999).
Sadly, his son Ennis was murdered in 1997. Throughout the years, Bill
Cosby has taken a socially conscious tone, often associated with family
values, coupled with a distinctly urban spin on his style.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gary Lockwood was born John Gary Yurosek in Van Nuys, California to John and Margaret Emma (Kiel) Yurosek . He attended UCLA on a football scholarship.
He began his career as a movie stuntman, and a stand-in for Anthony Perkins, prior to his acting debut in 1959 in an uncredited bit role in
Warlock (1959). He also appeared as a police officer in The Case of the Romantic Rogue (1959). Two series came early in his career, ABC's Hawaii-set
Follow the Sun (1961) (1961-62) as an adventurous magazine writer in Honolulu. In 1961, he appeared as a rodeo cowboy in love with an 18-year-old singer (played by Tuesday Weld) in ABC's Cherie (1961). He then starred with Lloyd Bridges in My Daddy Can Lick Your Daddy (1963). In 1964, he starred as a young U.S. Marine lieutenant in the NBC series, The Lieutenant (1963). He then starred in another NBC television series, Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), opposite Sally Kellerman (with whom he would later appear in the second Star Trek (1966) pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)) as "Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell", and Kellerman as the ship's psychiatrist, "Dr. Elizabeth Dehner", who both develop destructive super powers.
In 1966, he guest-starred in the episode, Reunion (1966), of ABC's The Legend of Jesse James (1965). That same year, he appeared on Day of Thunder (1966) of the NBC's drama The Long, Hot Summer (1965), as well as appearing as "Jim Stark" in the two-part episode "The Raid" of CBS's Gunsmoke (1955).
He co-starred with Stefanie Powers (his wife at the time) in the episode, Love and the Phone Booth/Love and the Doorknob (1969), of ABC's Love, American Style (1969). In 1968, he was cast as the co-star in director Stanley Kubrick's legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), starring as "Dr. Frank Poole". In 1983, he made a guest appearance as "Alex Carmen" in the Hart to Hart (1979) episode, Emily by Hart (1983).
Between 1959 and 2004, he had roles in some forty theatrical and made-for-TV features and made almost eighty TV guest appearances,
including several as a villain on CBS-TV's Barnaby Jones (1973).