Bite me: Vampires in Movies and TV
Creatures of the night ... some hot, some not so much and some just nasty. No "sparklers" allowed. A work in progress.
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- Actor
- Additional Crew
Max Schreck was born in Berlin. He worked in an apprenticeship until his father's death before enrolling into a school for acting. He toured the country with his peers and was a member of several theaters until he became a part of Max Reinhardt's group of innovative German actors. He played mostly out of the norm characters, the elderly and the grotesque, because of his talent and passion for make-up and costume fabrication. Although film was a challenge in which he excitedly and hopefully participated, he had small roles in films that are scarcely available, and his real career was in German theatre. He played hundreds of roles in his lifetime. He was married to Fanny Normann, a fellow performer whom he met a short time after his actor's education and shared many times with on stage. They had no children. He died on the morning of February 20th, 1936 from a heart attack.The granddaddy of all movie vampires, Nosferatu.- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
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Bela Lugosi was born Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and István Blaskó, a banker. He was the youngest of four children. During WWI, he volunteered and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant, and was wounded three times.
A distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary, Austria-Hungary, he began his stage career in 1901 and started appearing in films during World War I, fleeing to Germany in 1919 as a result of his left-wing political activity (he organized an actors' union). In 1920 he emigrated to the US and made a living as a character actor, shooting to fame when he played Count Dracula in the legendary 1927 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil. Also in 1931, he became a U.S. citizen. Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he had been blacklisted by the main studios and had no choice but to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row films. Due to shady blacklisting among the top Hollywood studio executives, he refused to sell out or to compromise his integrity, and therefore ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr..
Lugosi was married to Ilona Szmik (1917 - 1920), Ilona von Montagh (? - ?), and Lillian Arch (1933 - 1951). He is the father of Bela Lugosi Jr. (1938). Lugosi helped organize the Screen Actors Guild in the mid-'30s, joining as member number 28.
Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. He was buried in a Dracula costume, including a cape, but not the ones used in the 1931 film, contrary to popular--but unfounded--rumors.The standard that shaped Count Dracula for years to come (Dracula, 1931)- Actor
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.As Count Dracula in several Hammer House productions of the late fifties through the sixties and early seventies. Suave, beguiling, sexy and sometimes even scary.- Jonathan Frid's career in drama began when he first "offered his soul" to the theater as a young boy at a preparatory school in Ontario, Canada. Following his graduation from McMaster University, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in the UK and later earned a Master's Degree in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.
He was a leading actor in English and Canadian repertory and went on to work in many of the most celebrated regional theaters in the United States, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and the American Shakespeare Festival under the direction of John Houseman, performing with Katharine Hepburn in "Much Ado About Nothing".
Frid appeared in major roles on-and-off Broadway, in such productions as "Roar Like A Dove", "Murder in the Cathedral" and "Wait Until Dark". However, it was his portrayal of a complex, conflicted vampire on ABC-TV's daytime drama series Dark Shadows (1966) (he also had a cameo role in the motion picture House of Dark Shadows (1970)) which garnered him his greatest fame in the United States. Other film credits included co-starring roles in The Devil's Daughter (1973) (with Shelley Winters) and Seizure (1974) (Oliver Stone's directorial debut).
In 1986, Frid joined the Broadway production of "Arsenic and Old Lace" (co-starring with Jean Stapleton). He won critical acclaim for his villainous turn as the homicidal nephew and spent ten months with the play's national tour. That same year, Frid founded his own production company, "Clunes Associates", to create and tour a series of one-man readers' theater shows across North America. Frid continued to perform his one-man shows, now under the banner of "Charity Associates", to raise money for a variety of charities. Combining the arts of his voice and his zest for entertaining", as one critic put it. In June 2000, he returned to the traditional professional stage in the play "Mass Appeal" at the Stirling Festival Theatre in Stirling, Ontario.Dark Shadows (Barnabas Collins) - Actor
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Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's perception of the "Monster" from the classic Mary Shelley novel "Frankenstein". William Henry Pratt was born on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell, London, England, UK, the son of Edward John Pratt Jr., the Deputy Commissioner of Customs Salt and Opium, Northern Division, Indian Salt Revenue Service, and his third wife, Eliza Sarah Millard.
He was educated at London University in anticipation that he would pursue a diplomatic career; however, he emigrated to Canada in 1909, joined a touring company based out of Ontario and adopted the stage name of "Boris Karloff." He toured back and forth across the U.S. for over 10 years in a variety of low budget theater shows and eventually ended up in Hollywood, reportedly with very little money to his name. Needing cash to support himself, Karloff secured occasional acting work in the fledgling silent film industry in such pictures as The Deadlier Sex (1920), Omar the Tentmaker (1922), Dynamite Dan (1924) and Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927), in addition to a handful of serials (the majority of which, sadly, have not survived). Karloff supplemented his meager film income by working as a truck driver in Los Angeles, which allowed him enough time off to continue to pursue acting roles.
His big break came in 1931 when he was cast as "the Monster" in the Universal production of Frankenstein (1931), directed by James Whale, one of the studio's few remaining auteur directors. The aura of mystery surrounding Karloff was highlighted in the opening credits, as he was listed as simply "?". The film was a commercial and critical success for Universal, and Karloff was instantly established as a hot property in Hollywood. He quickly appeared in several other sinister roles, including Scarface (1932) (filmed before Frankenstein (1931)), the black-humored The Old Dark House (1932), as the namesake Chinese villain of Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu novels in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), as the undead Im-ho-tep in The Mummy (1932) and as the misguided Prof. Morlant in The Ghoul (1933). He thoroughly enjoyed his role as a religious fanatic in John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934), although contemporary critics described it as a textbook example of overacting.
He donned the signature make-up, neck bolts and asphalt spreader's boots again to play the Frankenstein Monster twice, in the sensational Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the less thrilling Son of Frankenstein (1939). Karloff, on loan to Fox, appeared in one of the best of the Warner Oland Charlie Chan films, Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), before beginning his own short-lived Mr. Wong detective series. He was a wrongly condemned doctor in Devil's Island (1938), shaven-headed executioner "Mord the Merciless" in Tower of London (1939), another misguided scientist in The Ape (1940), a crazed scientist surrounded by monsters, vampires and werewolves in House of Frankenstein (1944), a murderous cabman in The Body Snatcher (1945) and a Greek general fighting vampirism in the Val Lewton thriller Isle of the Dead (1945).
While Karloff continued appearing in a plethora of films, many of them were not up to the standards of his previous efforts, including appearances in two of the hokey Bud Abbott and Lou Costello monster films (he had appeared with them in an earlier, superior film, Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949), of which theater owners often added his name to the marquee), the low point of the Universal-International horror film cycle. During the 1950s he was a regular guest on many high-profile TV shows, including The Milton Berle Show (1948), Tales of Tomorrow (1951), The Veil (1958), The Donald O'Connor Show (1954), The Red Skelton Hour (1951) and The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956), to name a few, and he appeared in a mixed bag of films, including Sabaka (1954) and Voodoo Island (1957). On Broadway, he appeared as the murderous Brewster brother in the hit "Arsenic and Old Lace" (his role, or rather the absence of him in it, was amusingly parodied in the 1944 film version) and 10 years later he enjoyed a long run in "Peter Pan," perfectly cast as "Captain Hook."
His career experienced something of a revival in the 1960s thanks to hosting the TV anthology series Thriller (1960) and indie director Roger Corman, with Karloff contributing wonderful performances in The Raven (1963), The Terror (1963), the ultra-eerie Black Sabbath (1963) and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Die, Monster, Die! (1965). Karloff's last great film role was as Byron Orlok, an aging horror film star on the brink of retirement confronting a modern-day sniper in the Peter Bogdanovich film Targets (1968). In 1970, he played the blind sculptor Franz Badulescu in Cauldron of Blood (1968) which was produced, directed and written by Edward Mann, who had also come to the art of film from the stage and the theater. His TV career was capped off by achieving Christmas immortality as both the voices of the titular character and the narrator of Chuck Jones's perennial animated favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). Four low-budget Mexican-produced horror films starring an ailing Karloff were released in the two years after his death; however, they do no justice to this actor. In retrospect, he never took himself too seriously as an actor and had a tendency to downplay his acting accomplishments. Renowned as a refined, kind and warm-hearted gentleman with a sincere affection for children and their welfare, Karloff passed away on February 2, 1969 from emphysema. Respectful of his Indian roots and in true Hindu fashion, he was cremated at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, England, UK, where he is commemorated by a plaque in Plot 2 of the Garden of Remembrance.Black Sabbath, segment The Wurdalak (Gorca)- Actor
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Marton was born in Invercargill, Aotearoa (New Zealand), to Margaret Christine (Rayner), a nurse, and Márton Csókás, a mechanical engineer. His father is Hungarian and his mother is Australian (of English, Irish, and Danish origin). He inherited some of his talents from his father, who was also a trained opera singer and at one time, a trapeze artist in the Hungarian Circus.
His academic training began at Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he commenced a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History, and then transferred to, Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa/ The New Zealand Drama School, graduating in December, 1989. His first acting role was in Te Whanau a Tuanui Jones by Apairana Taylor at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington New Zealand, (1990). He has since had an eclectic career of theatre, television and film.
He appeared in the 1994 movie Jack Brown Genius (1996) in which he played the role of Dennis. After starring for two years in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street (1992), he starred in the 1996 movie Broken English (1996) as Darko. After performing in a great number of theatrical plays, writing his own and co-founding his own theatre company, the Stronghold Theatre, Marton got the role of Tarlus in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). After that, he continued working with Renaissance Pictures, playing the roles of Khrafstar and Borias in the 1997-1998 seasons of Xena: Warrior Princess (1995). He continued appearing in many other shows in both NZ and Australia, such as Farscape (1999), BeastMaster (1999), Water Rats (1996), Cleopatra 2525 (2000), and more, returning for the role of Borias in three episodes of the 2000-2001 season of Xena: Warrior Princess (1995). He was also in many movies produced in NZ and Australia, such as Hurrah (1998), The Monkey's Mask (2000) and the mini-series The Farm (2001). He is a citizen of the European Union and Hungary, and is a permanent resident of the United States.
Most recently, Csokas starred opposite Denzel Washington in Sony's hit film The Equalizer. He played a brutal fixer for the Russian mafia and a formidable villain to Washington's reluctant hero.
Csokas appeared in Darren Aronofsky's Noah as well as Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, a sequel to the 2005 hit film Sin City. Csokas also played the psychiatrist, "Dr. Kafka," in the hit movie sequel, The Amazing Spiderman 2, alongside Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx.
Csokas most famously starred as "Lord Celeborn" in one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some of his other film credits include 2010's The Debt opposite Jessica Chastain and Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Supremacy with Matt Damon. His depth of experience is illustrated in Asylum in which he starred opposite Natasha Richardson and Ian McKellen, as well as the Ridley Scott epic, Kingdom of Heaven, with Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Liam Neeson.
On the small screen, Csokas recently starred on the History Channel's miniseries Sons of Liberty as well as Discovery Channel's miniseries Klondike with Tim Roth and Sam Shepard.
On stage, Csokas continues to work internationally, most recently starring in a production of Lillian Hellman's "Little Foxes" at The New York Theatre Workshop by acclaimed director, Ivo van Hove. The play was noted by Time Magazine as one of the "Top 10 of Everything of 2010." The actor has numerous classical credits, including 'Orsino' in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at the National Theatre of Great Britain, 'Anthony' in "Anthony and Cleopatra" at the Theatre of a New Audience, 'Brutus' in "Julius Caesar" and as 'Septimus' in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" in his birthplace of New Zealand. On the Australian stage, Csokas has appeared as 'George' in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," directed by Benedict Andrews of the Schaubuhne Theatre in Berlin and in "Riflemind," directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman at the Sydney Theatre Company.Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Jack Barts)- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Tony Curran was born on 13 December 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is an actor, known for Calibre (2018), Deadwood: The Movie (2019) and Outlaw King (2018). He has been married to Mai Curran since 13 August 2011.Underworld: Evolution (Marcus)
Blade II (Priest)- Actor
- Producer
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Luke George Evans was born in Pontypool, Wales, and grew up in Aberbargoed, in the south of Wales. He is the son of Yvonne (Lewis) and David Evans. He moved to Cardiff at the age 17. He then won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre, and graduated in 2000.
He starred in many of London's West End theatre productions. In 2009, he landed the role of Apollo in Clash of the Titans (2010) (2010). Then, he quickly landed roles in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010) (2010), Robin Hood (2010) (2010), Tamara Drewe (2010) (2010), Blitz (2011) (2010), The Three Musketeers (2011) (2011), Ashes (2011), Immortals (2011) (2011) and The Raven (2012) (2012). He's also scheduled to star in The Amateur American (2012), No One Lives (2012) (2012) and Only God Forgives (2013) (2013).
Luke Evans resides in Shoreditch, London.Dracula Untold (Vlad Tepes)- Actor
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Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-born actor. He is best known for portraying the roles of Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), Javier Peña in the Netflix series Narcos (2015), the titular character in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019) and Joel Miller in the HBO series The Last of Us (2023).
He's long-time friends with Triple Frontier (2019) co-star Oscar Isaac.Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "The Freshman" (Eddie)- Actor
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Sebastian Roché is a Scottish-French actor, known for his roles as Kurt Mendel on Odyssey 5 (2002), Thomas Jerome Newton on Fringe (2008), Martin Heusmann on The Man in the High Castle (2015), Michel Marivaux on The Young Pope (2016), Balthazar on Supernatural (2005), and Mikael on both The Vampire Diaries (2009) and The Originals (2013). His film work includes A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) and Beowulf (2007).
Roché was born in Paris, France to a French father, Philippe Roché, and a Scottish mother, Gail Stewart. From age 12 to 18, he lived on a sailboat with his parents and two brothers, traveling to the Mediterranean, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. He is a graduate of the prestigious French National Academy of Dramatic Arts. Roché also studied at the Cours Florent and the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre. Upon his graduation in 1989, Roché started working in French theater, films and television.
In 2002, Roché began portraying Kurt Mendel in the Canadian science fiction series Odyssey 5 (2002) for Showtime. In 2007, Roché began appearing in the ABC soap opera General Hospital (1963) as criminal Jerry Jacks. In 2010, Roché joined the recurring cast of The CW's drama series Supernatural (2005). He was next cast in the Fox sci-fi drama series Fringe (2008), recurring in the second and third seasons as Thomas Jerome Newton, a main antagonist of the series. In 2011, Roché began recurring as Mikael, the father of the Original Vampires, in The CW's supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009) and its spin-off series, The Originals (2013).
In 2016, Roché co-starred in the Paolo Sorrentino's miniseries The Young Pope (2016), alongside Jude Law and James Cromwell, and had a recurring role as Martin Heusmann in the drama series The Man in the High Castle (2015).
Roché has lived in the United States since 1992. He met Vera Farmiga in 1997 while starring together in the Fox adventure series Roar (1997), and married her that same year. After seven years of marriage, Roché and Farmiga separated and were subsequently divorced. On May 31, 2014, he married Australian actress Alicia Hannah-Kim in a private ceremony in Mercuès, France.The Vampire Diaries, The Originals (Mikael Mikaelson)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Claes Kasper Bang is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film The Square. For that role he won the European Film Award for Best Actor, being the first Dane to do so. He played the role of Sasha Mann in the final series of The Affair.
He graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre in 1996 and has worked mainly on stage and in television in Denmark.
Since 2002 he has performed a monologue based on Jan Guillou's novel Evil more than 300 times, including an English-language version at St. James Theatre in London in 2015.
He played the leading role of the art museum curator Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film The Square, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. He also won the European Film Award for Best Actor, being the first Dane to do so. As a side project, he makes music under the moniker This Is Not America.
In November 2018, Bang was cast to play Count Dracula in the BBC mini-series Dracula.
He married the stylist Lis Louis-Jensen in 2010. He is stepfather to her two children, and step-grandfather to her grandson. They reside in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen.Dracula, miniseries (Dracula)- Actor
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Born and raised in West Berlin, Rudolf moved with his family from Berlin to Paris to Italy, arriving in the United States a short time after his high school graduation from the Universite de Paris. While studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, he landed his first professional role in the Susan Seidelman short film The Dutch Master, which was nominated for a 1994 Academy Award. He went on to appear in the off-Broadway plays Murder In Disguise, The Dumb Waiter, and Front Page.Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (Vlad Dracul aka Vlad the Impaler)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy vs. Dracula (Count Dracula)- Actor
- Producer
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Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He continued to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.
Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the Hamilton Hodell agency in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001). Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated (2007). His breakthrough role came when he portrayed the nemesis Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor (2011). He reprised the character in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). On television, he appeared on the BBC series The Hollow Crown (2012), in the adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry V". In theatre, he has been in the productions of "Cymbeline" (2007) and "Ivanov" (2008). In December 2013, he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of "Coriolanus" which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in "Cymbeline" while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in "Othello".Only Lovers Left Alive (Adam)- Actor
- Producer
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Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Karl Urban now lives in Auckland. Born on June 7, 1972, he is the son of a leather-goods manufacturer (who had hoped that Karl would follow in his footsteps). His first acting role was when he was 8 -- he had a line on a television series. However, he did not act again until after high school. He was offered a role in the NZ soap opera Shortland Street (1992) as he was preparing to attend Victoria University. After appearing on the series for the 1993-1994 season, he attended the university for one year, then left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland, where a number of guest roles in NZ television followed. One of his first roles was that of a heroin addict in the drama series Shark in the Park (1989). He was in a movie as well, entitled Once in Chunuck Bay (aka Chunuk Bair (1992)). Other television roles followed, including a guest-starring role in the series White Fang (1993). Karl's biggest roles include Éomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek (2009), William Cooper in RED (2010) and Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012).Priest (Black Hat)- Actor
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Jeremy Lee Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie (Tague) and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley. After a tumultuous yet happy childhood with his four younger siblings, Renner graduated from Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. He explored several areas of study, including computer science, criminology, and psychology, before the theater department, with its freedom of emotional expression, drew him in.
However, Renner recognized the potential in acting as much through the local police academy as through drama classes. During his second year at Modesto Junior College, Renner role-played a domestic disturbance perpetrator as part of a police-training exercise for an easy $50. Deciding to shift his focus away from schoolwork, Renner left college and moved to San Francisco to study at the American Conservatory Theater. From there he moved to Hawaii and, in 1993, to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Renner devoted himself to theater, most notably starring in and co-directing the critically acclaimed "Search and Destroy." He pursued other projects during this time as well, landing his first film role in 1995's National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995). After several commercials and supporting roles in television movies and series, Renner captured the attention of critics with his gripping, complex portrayal of the infamous serial killer in the 2002 film Dahmer (2002). Renner's performance, which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, is especially remarkable for painting a humane and sympathetic, yet deeply disturbing, portrait of the title character.
In 2003, Renner took a break from small indie films to work on his first commercially successful movie, S.W.A.T. (2003), with Colin Farrell. In 2005, he played the leading role in Neo Ned (2005) as an institutionalized white supremacist in love with a black girl, winning the Palm Beach International Film Festival's best actor award. Renner's pivotal supporting roles in 2005's 12 and Holding (2005) and North Country (2005) earned him accolades from critics, and his 2007 turn in Take (2007) garnered him the best actor award at California's Independent Film Festival. Also in 2007, Renner played a leading role in the horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007) as well as a supporting role in the underrated Western epic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), with Casey Affleck, Brad Pitt, and Sam Rockwell.
Renner's depiction of Jeffrey Dahmer in 2002 caught the attention of director Kathryn Bigelow, and, in 2008, she cast him in his most famous role as Sergeant First Class William James in The Hurt Locker (2008). Renner's performance as a single-minded bomb specialist scored him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. He also earned best actor nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards, the Screen Actors Guild, and the BAFTA Awards, as well as wins in this category from several film critics groups.
In 2009, Renner starred in the short-lived TV series, The Unusuals (2009), and in 2010 he played the chilling but loyal criminal Jem in Ben Affleck bank-heist thriller The Town (2010). In the fall of 2010, Renner began filming Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). He has also since starred in The Avengers (2012), American Hustle (2013), and Kill the Messenger (2014).
Renner's strengths as an actor derive not only from his expressive eyes but also from his ability to thoroughly embody the characters he portrays. His visceral depiction of these individuals captivates audiences and empowers him to steal scenes in many of his films, even when playing a minor role. Renner gravitates toward flawed, complicated, three-dimensional characters that allow him to explore new territory within himself.
In addition to his work as an actor, Renner continues to cultivate his lifelong love of music. A singer, songwriter, and musician, he performed with the band Sons of Ben early in his career. Scenes in Love Comes to the Executioner (2006), North Country (2005), and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) briefly showcase Renner's singing talents.
Despite traveling the world for film roles and, recently, as a United Nations Goodwill Peace Ambassador to raise awareness for mine-clearing efforts in Afghanistan, Renner remains close to his roots. In 2010, Modesto Junior College presented him the Distinguished Alumnus award in recognition of his body of work as an actor. He also headlined at a benefit for Modesto's Gallo Center for the Arts in the fall of 2010.
Renner maintains a sense of humility and gratitude, even in the wake of his recent successes and recognition. He keeps himself grounded by renovating and restoring old and rundown iconic Hollywood homes, an enterprise he began back in his early days in Los Angeles. He values loyalty and a sense of both age and history, and enjoys the opportunity to help conserve these qualities in a town that favors the young and the new.Angel episode "Somnambulist" (Penn)- Actor
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Blackthorne's first film role was as Captain Andrew Russell in the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001). He spent six months learning Hindi for the role. He also starred in Mindcrime (2003) and the festival-winning indie feature length film Four Corners of Suburbia (2005), winner of both the Crossroads Film Festival in Best Narrative Feature (2006) and in the category of Best Composer at the Avignon Film Festival, Avignon, France (2006). Additional indie film credits include This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis (1999), and a starring role in the British film The Truth Game (2001). Blackthorne appeared as Jonas Exiler in Special (2006), with Michael Rapaport. Blackthorne's directorial debut This American Journey (2013) was released in 2013. The road trip documentary film follows Blackthorne and Australian photographer Mister Basquali as they travel across America interviewing everyday Americans about how they feel about their country and their hopes for its future. The film was featured at the Hollywood, Carmel, Ojai and Big Bear Film Festivals. It was released through Cinema Libre Studios.The Gates (Christian Harper)- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Luke Roberts is a British/Canadian actor and producer whose first role out of LAMDA was in an episode of HBO's Band of Brothers directed by Tom Hanks. Luke is perhaps best known as the series lead and producer of CBS crime procedural Ransom. The show ran for three seasons and follows Eric Beaumont's elite team of negotiators as they navigate numerous international kidnappings and conflicts. Prior to Ransom, Luke played the much loved character, Joseph Byrne, in BBC medical drama Holby City as well as dual sword wielding Arthur Dayne in Game of Thrones. He starred as villainous Woodes Rogers in the third and forth seasons of Starz pirate drama Black Sails. Currently Luke can be found playing Thomas Wayne in The Batman and alien bodysnatcher, Joe Allen in Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix.Dracula: The Dark Prince (Dracula)- Ciarán McMenamin was born on 1 October 1975 in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, UK. He is an actor, known for To End All Wars (2001), Any Time Now (2002) and Primeval (2007). He has been married to Annabel Scholey since 2017. They have one child.Demons (Quincey)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rufus Sewell was born on the 29th of October 1967 in Twickenham, England. His mother, Jo, was Welsh, and was an artist and painter. His father, Bill Sewell, was an English-Australian animator who was born in Australia to English parents and died when Rufus was 10. He has one brother, Caspar. He attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama and left in June of 1989 after completing three years of training.
He made his London Stage debut in "Making It Better" for which he won the "Best Newcomer Award"; he also originated the role of Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppards "Arcadia" and was nominated for an Olivier Award. On the Broadway stage, he debuted in "Translations" and received the Broadway Theater World Award. His film work has been equally varied and acclaimed from the junkie in Twenty-One (1991), the sweet bus driver in A Man of No Importance (1994), and the volatile artist in Carrington (1995). The lustful son in Cold Comfort Farm (1995), the protagonist hounded Dostoevsky-like in Dark City (1998), the star-crossed suitor in Dangerous Beauty (1998), to the the bitter, acidic, alcoholic coke-head of The Very Thought of You (1998), he has appeared in some of the most acclaimed theatre, film and television productions.Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Adam)- Actor
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Beginning his life with the same flair for the dramatic that would come to define his career, Udo Kier was born in Köln, Germany near the end of the 2nd world war. The hospital was bombed and buried Kier and his mother in the rubble. Both survived, and Kier would later move to London as a young adult to study English. Kier was discovered in London by Michael Sarne, who cast him in his first role as a gigolo in "Road To Saint Tropez". Kier then starred in Michael Armstrong's extremely controversial "Mark Of The Devil". He would go on to work with Paul Morrissey in Andy Warhol's "Flesh For Frankenstein" and "Blood For Dracula", Dario Argento in "Suspiria", and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in "The Third Generation", "Lili Marllen", and "Lola".
Kier entered the American independent cinema scene many years later after meeting Gus Van Sant at the Berlin Film Festival. Van Sant offered Kier the role of Hans, the lamp-singing john in "My Own Private Idaho" with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. He would later have roles in Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" and "Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot" as well as such 90s Hollywood hits as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Barb Wire", "End Of Violence", "For Love Or Money", "Armagedden", "Blade", and "End Of Days". Kier is probably best known for his collaboration with Lars von Trier, appearing in most of his films including "Medea", "Europa", "Breaking The Waves", "Dancer In TheE Dark", "Dogville", "Manderlay", "Melancholia", "Nymphomaniac (Vol. II)" and "The Kingdom" (Danish TV). Kier's recent renaissance has seen him play memorable roles in the Activision game "Call Of Duty", numerous television roles in North America and Europe, and in the films "Iron Sky", "Brawl In Cell Block 99", "Downsizing", "American Animals", "Bacurau", "The Painted Bird", "The Blazing World" and "Swan Song", among many others.Andy Warhol's Dracula (Count Dracula)
Modern Vampires, aka Revenant (Vincent)- Actor
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James graduated from Davis High School and attended Juilliard, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and the American Conservatory Theatre. After spending ten years doing stage work he finally moved to L.A. to pursue a career in film and television. After appearing in several guest roles he finally got his big break as Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Originally, the character was suppose to be killed after a few episodes but Spike became so popular that he was promoted to a regular on the show. After the show ended, he appeared as Spike in the spin-off Angel (1999) and in several movies. James is also a talented musician; his band Ghost of the Robot released their first album, Mad Brilliant, in 2003.Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Spike)- Actor
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Eric Balfour is a true Angelino, one who embraces everything the City of Angels has to offer. As a lover of the ocean he is an avid surfer and supports many environmental causes. His charitable endeavors include Surfrider, Oceana and Sea Shepard. As a lover of fashion he's built an incredible sustainable clothing company Electric & Rose made in Los Angeles with his wife Erin. Its namesake is an homage to the cross streets in Venice where they called home. And lastly his acting which he may be most known for. As a creative force in both film and TV, Balfour continues to play interesting and captivating characters. He will next be seen in the Amazon series Wilderness. He was last seen in the Paramount Plus series The Offer. Other notable roles include the acclaimed Six Feet Under, 24, Ray Donovan, Haven, Country Comfort and many others. On the big screen, Balfour can be seen in a laundry list of films among a whose who of Hollywood. Notable films include Texas Chainsaw Massacre and indie and award winning films like Quention Tarantino's Hellride Ariel Vromen's RX and Clement Virgos Lie With Me. Balfour lives in Los Angeles with his wife Erin his two sons Oliver and Romeo and his dog Coconut. When not on set you can find him at the beach with his family.Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth (Jesse)- Actor
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Joseph Morgan was born in London and spent his childhood with his family in Swansea, Wales. Morgan moved back to London in his late teens to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama. While there he continued to write and experiment with filmmaking, participating in student films and work-shopping scenes from his favorite movies. Upon graduation from Central School, Morgan was hired by acclaimed film director Peter Weir to costar opposite Russell Crowe in 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.' Soon after completion of that film, director Oliver Stone hired Morgan for a strong supporting role in the feature film 'Alexander.' After 'Alexander', Morgan spent time working on stage in the West End of London, as well as starring in numerous British television dramas including BBC miniseries 'The Line of Beauty', 'Henry VIII' opposite Emily Blunt, 'Doc Martin' and 'Mansfield Park'. Morgan was also hired by Harmony Korine to play a James Dean impersonator in his film 'Mister Lonely' His big break came in 2009, when Morgan was cast in the leading role in the miniseries 'Ben Hur'. Based on the classic novel and film, 'Ben Hur' was directed by Emmy winner Steve Shill. In 2010, Morgan's film projects included the independent drama 'Angels Crest', and the big-budget film 'Immortals', in which he co-starred with Mickey Rourke. Later that year he was cast as "Klaus" a series regular in the CW hit series 'The Vampire Diaries' After two short years as "Klaus" Morgan was offered a spin-off show called 'The Originals' and centered around his character. 'The Originals' ran for five seasons earning Morgan numerous nominations as well as The People's Choice award for favorite actor in a new show. During his time on the show Morgan spent his hiatus' shooting indie films 'Open Grave' opposite Shalto Copley and 'Desiree' opposite Walton Goggins and and Ron Perlman. He went on to direct three episodes of 'The Originals' bringing his unique style to an established show, garnering a very positive response from colleagues and critics alike. In 2015 Joseph Morgan started a production Company - Night Owl Productions - with his wife and creative partner Persia White. Under that banner they wrote and produced two short films which Morgan directed. The first 'Revelation' went on to play at eight film festivals, winning the best fantasy film award at Flickers. The second 'Carousel' was filmed over seven hard days with a crew of over fifty passionate people striving to achieve maximum production value. It went on to play at numerous film festivals and win Best Drama Short at the London Independent Film Awards August 2018.The Vampire Diaries, The Originals (Klaus Mikaelson)- Actor
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Daniel Joshua Gillies was born on 14 March 1976 in Winnipeg, Canada and moved to New Zealand at a young age. Though born into a family of strong medical background (his father is a pediatrician, his mother a nurse, and his great-great-great-grandfather is the renowned ENT/plastic surgery pioneer Sir Harold Gillies), he became interested in acting and studied at the Unitec School of Performing Arts. Frustrated with the lack of opportunities in New Zealand, he moved to Sydney, Australia for six weeks in 2001, before returning to his native Canada for two months, where he worked as a waiter and dishwasher until deciding to move to Los Angeles, USA.The Vampire Diaries, The Originals (Elijah Mikaelson)- Actor
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Charles Michael Davis is an American actor, director, model and photographer from Dayton, Ohio.. He was born on December 1st, 1984 to an African American father and Filipino mother. Charles got his start with the talent agency Actors, Models, and Talent for Christ (AMTC). As an actor, he is best known for his role on The CW show The Originals.The Originals (Marcel Gerard)- Actor
- Producer
Zane was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he began modeling at 5 years of age. He shot one of his first commercials on his 10th birthday. He relocated to California, in 1999, with his mom, Laura Mary Clarke and his three younger brothers; Beau, Harrison and Mackenzie Holtz. Zane continues to thrive in his career and has been seen in principal roles, both in Television and Film.From Disk Till Dawn, The Series (Richard Gecko)- Actor
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Richard Roxburgh is an Australian actor, writer and producer who is known for portraying Dracula in the 2004 cult classic monster movie Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman, Hugh Stamp in Mission: Impossible 2 and for his collaborations with Baz Luhrmann, particularly Moulin Rouge. He is married to his Van Helsing co-star Silvia Colloca since 2004 and has three children with her.Van Helsing (Count Vladislaus Dracula)- Actor
- Director
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Stuart Townsend was born in Howth, County Dublin in 1972. Although his father, Peter Townsend was a professional golfer, Stuart was determined to be an actor and began his career by appearing in a number of student films, while attending the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. He supported himself by boxing until his first feature film debut in Trojan Eddie (1996). Although his part was small, Townsend attracted a London agent and began appearing in numerous stage and film productions in England and Ireland. America began to take notice of Stuart's talents when he appeared in two films featured in the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, in one of which, About Adam (2000), he took the title role. He also played Lestat de Lioncourt in Queen of the Damned (2002). Townsend was in a romantic relationship with actress Charlize Theron from 2001 to 2009.Queen of the Damned (Lestat de Lioncourt)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
George Chakiris made his film debut at the age of 12 singing in the chorus of Song of Love (1947). Following his graduation from high school, he supported his night-time dancing, singing and dramatic lessons with a daytime job clerking in a Los Angeles department store. Later he started his acting/dancing career appearing in musicals such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)--he is one of the ballet dancers escorting Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"--White Christmas (1954), The Girl Rush (1955), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Brigadoon (1954), and Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). In 1957, he made his debut as a dramatic actor in Under Fire (1957). In 1958 he traveled to New York hoping for a Broadway "break." Hearing that Jerome Robbins was casting the London company of "West Side Story", he auditioned and was awarded the co-starring role of Riff. He played the part for almost two years on the West End stage before acting, singing and dancing as Bernardo in the Robert Wise film version (West Side Story (1961)), a performance that earned him a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he starred in a succession of films, including Diamond Head (1962) with Charlton Heston, Bebo's Girl (1964) with Claudia Cardinale, The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) with Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac and Gene Kelly, The Big Cube (1968) with Lana Turner, Why Not Stay for Breakfast? (1979), Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982), and Pale Blood (1990). He is one of the most traveled stars in motion pictures, having been to such locations as Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England, Spain, and France. His nightclub career was launched to rave reviews at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah's Club in Lake Tahoe. In the 1970s and 1980s, his career focused on television and music. He appeared as guest star in several TV series such as Hawaii Five-O (1968) (Death is a Company Policy - 1972), Wonder Woman (1975) (Death in Disguise - 1978), CHiPs (1977) (Fox Trap - 1983), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) (Lost and Found - 1984), Murder, She Wrote (1984) (Weave a Tangled Web - 1989), and he joined the cast of Dallas (1978) from 1985 to 1986. He has released several records: "George Chakiris," "Memories Are Made of These," "The Gershwin Song Book," "West Side Story's Dynamic...". Recently, he has appeared in several plays and stage musicals: after "The King and I" in the US in 1995, he performed in Britain the role of Rochester in "Jane Eyre".Pale Blood (Michael Fury)- Actor
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Klaus Kinski was born as Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland), to Susanne (Lutze), a nurse, and Bruno Nakszynski, a pharmacist. He grew up in Berlin, was drafted into the German army in 1944 and captured by British forces in Holland. After the war he began acting on the stage, quickly gaining a reputation for a ferocious talent and an equally ferocious temper. He started acting in films shortly afterward, showing an utter disregard for the quality of the productions he appeared in and churning out so many that a complete filmography is almost impossible to assemble.
However, he did turn out memorable work for director Werner Herzog, a similarly driven and obsessive character. Herzog and Kinski pushed each other to extremes over a 15-year working relationship, which finally ended after filming Cobra Verde (1987), a production plagued by volcanic clashes between the star and director, involving--among other things--violent physical altercations and mutual death threats. He subsequently directed and starred in the notorious Paganini (1989), his only film as director and which was marked by (again) clashes between Kinski and his producers, who accused him of turning their movie into a pornographic film and sued him in court. His autobiography, "All I Need is Love", a vicious attack on the film industry, was withdrawn for legal reasons and subsequently re-released as "Kinski Uncut" in the US & UK, "Ich brauche Liebe" in Germany, and in various other languages.Nosferatu the Vampyre (Count Dracula)- Actor
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Kiefer Sutherland was born in London, England, UK, to Canadian actors Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland, who moved to California shortly after his birth. His maternal grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who was a Premier of Saskatchewan for over 17 years and led the national NDP party for almost 10.
Kiefer got his first film role in the comedy drama Max Dugan Returns (1983). Sutherland's first major role was in the Canadian drama The Bay Boy (1984), which earned Sutherland and director Daniel Petrie, Genie award nominations for best actor and best director, respectively. Following his success in The Bay Boy, Sutherland eventually moved to Los Angeles and landed television appearances in "The Mission", an episode of Amazing Stories (1985) and in the telefilm Trapped in Silence (1986) with Marsha Mason.
In 1992, Sutherland starred opposite Ray Liotta and Forest Whitaker in Article 99 (1992) and in the military drama A Few Good Men (1992) also starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Later, in 1994, he starred with Jeff Bridges and Nancy Travis in the American version of The Vanishing (1993) for 20th Century Fox. In 1997, he co-starred with William Hurt and Rufus Sewell in Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas, which was a special presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. Sutherland also added his second directorial credit and starred in Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) alongside Kevin Pollak, Mykelti Williamson, Rod Steiger and Martin Sheen. He stars in the Fox drama series 24 (2001) as Jack Bauer for which he has earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Most recently, he has been seen in the movie Phone Booth (2002) as a man who calls up someone at a phone booth and threatens to kill them if they hang up.The Lost Boys (David)- Actor
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Handsome, soulful-eyed, exotic-looking leading man Vincent Perez is known for his grand and glossy French pictures, exuding a sexy stare and irresistible charm that has swept Gallic women off their feet for over two decades.
Perez was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to a German mother and a Spanish businessman father. From the classical theatre stage (Paris Conservatoire, L'Ecole des Amandiers) and in works ranging from Shakespeare to Chekhov, Perez became an instant romantic idol after pairing opposite slightly older femme stars Jacqueline Bisset in La maison de jade (1988) and Catherine Deneuve in the Oscar-winning film Indochine (1992). His true cinematic breakthrough, however, came as the callow, vacuous lover "Christian" opposite Gérard Depardieu's Cyrano de Bergerac (1990). The film is considered these days the definitive version of the Edmond Rostand classic.
With this phenomenal European success, the lithe, moody heartthrob branched out internationally, finally making his American film debut in The Crow: City of Angels (1996), taking over the vengeful title role from the late Brandon Lee who was accidentally killed in the original. The sequel proved lackluster and the U.S. has since been surprisingly and sadly unresponsive. This may be in part due to his subsequent American movies, which have included the passionless I Dreamed of Africa (2000), Bride of the Wind (2001) and Queen of the Damned (2002) with the late musical star Aaliyah.
Continuing into the millennium, Perez has remained an overseas art-house favorite and has graced scores of international films including the title role in the romantic French adventure Fanfan (2003); the Italian drama La felicità non costa niente (2003); the French/Swiss comedy co-production Welcome to Switzerland (2004); the Swedish action drama Arn: The Knight Templar (2007); the French dramas Tomorrow at Dawn (2009), Monsieur Papa (2011), A Butterfly Kiss (2011) and Kto porwal bociany? (2011); the Irish drama The Price of Desire (2015); the Australian romantic dramedy Ladies in Black (2018); and the U.S. action adventure The Aeronauts (2019).
Perez has been married to model/actress Karine Silla since 1998 and they have three children, including one set of twins). Sylla also has a child by Perez's ex-co-star Gérard Depardieu.Queen of the Damned (Marius de Romanus)- Actor
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Wirth attended Collegiate Prep School in Manhattan and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Discovered by photographer Bruce Weber while at Brown University, he started modeling in New York City in the mid 80s for such magazines as Seventeen, GQ, Interview, and teen magazines. While at Brown he did his first Diet Pepsi Commercial before moving on to television and movies. His first television show was The Equalizer and moved to LA to start an acting career. His first movie was Seven Minutes In Heaven. Fifteen years later he is fine tuning his craft and has moved on to being behind the camera. Besides acting, he is also serious about writing,directing,and his artwork is showing in many California galleries. Having completed a Short Film, Kismet, in 1999, he moved on to his first full length Independent film, MacArthur Park, for which he was the writer, director and producer. The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival 2001 (Grand Prize nominee), Taos Talking Picture Festival (Land Grant nominee), and Seattle International Film Festival 2001 as part of the Black Experience in Films. In the early 1990s Billy fronted a rock band in LA called Dust N'Bones. He works off and on with a band called "The Cronies" and they are still in the working stage of a new acoustic CD with music written by Wirth and Steven Costentino. Billy seems to have found his calling behind the scenes of movie making and at the present time is working on a documentary that combines the plight of the homeless, one of Billy's long time interests, and behind the making of MacArthur Park. He changed management in 2007 by going with John Crosby Management of LA and will be working with manager looking for acting and directing projects. He has also opened his own online Art Gallery and completed a new film The Drone Virus, plus a feature for director Andrew Wagner called The Talent Given Us.The Lost Boys (Dwayne)- Actor
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Stephen Moyer's passion for acting began in local theatre in Brentwood & Chelmsford, Essex where he also made a name for himself with his own theatre company "The Reject Society". He then trained at LAMDA and began his professional acting career on stage, including 2 years with the RSC ("Romeo & Juliet", "The Thebans", "Columbus"), touring in "Romeo & Juliet" with the Oxford Stage in the title role of "Romeo", and in the world premiere of Pete Townshend's rock opera "The Iron Man" at "The Young Vic". British television credits include leading roles in Channel 4 dramas Men Only (2001), NY-LON (2004), Five's Menace (2002) and the BBC's The Grand (1997), Lilies (2007) and Empathy (2007), as well as a number of guest roles in popular shows such as Cold Feet (1997), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Waking the Dead (2000). In the meantime, he made his screen debut starring in the eponymous role in Prince Valiant (1997) with Katherine Heigl, followed by Quills (2000) with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix & Michael Caine, as well as leading roles in subsequent movies including Entrusted (2003) and Restraint (2008). U.S. television credits include leading roles in Princess of Thieves (2001) with Keira Knightley, NBC's mini-series Uprising (2001) with David Schwimmer, Hank Azaria and Donald Sutherland, USA Network's Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated The Starter Wife (2007) starring Debra Messing, and co-starring with Anna Paquin in Alan Ball's Golden Globe-nominated show for HBO; True Blood (2008) as the 173-year-old vampire "Bill Compton".True Blood (Bill Compton)
Ultraviolet (TV Series) Jack- Actor
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Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden and is the eldest son of famed actor Stellan Skarsgård. Among his siblings are actors Gustaf Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and Valter Skarsgård. For most of his formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor in Europe but had not yet achieved the international fame that came after his star turn in Breaking the Waves (1996). Young Alexander was raised under modest circumstances in a working-class Swedish neighborhood as his parents wanted their children to have as normal an upbringing as possible. He began his acting career at the age of eight and continued working in films and on Swedish television until he turned sixteen and decided acting was not the career for him. Life under a microscope lost its charm and perhaps due to the influence of My Skarsgård, his physician mother, he stopped working as an actor, to continue his education.
Instead of continuing college, at the age of nineteen, he entered compulsory military service (military conscription). He used the time to contemplate his future. He studied at the Leeds Metropolitan University then moved to New York where he enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College to study theatre. After six months in New York, a romantic entanglement lured him back to Sweden but the relationship was short-lived. Despite having a broken heart, Alexander decided to stay in Sweden and, with a bit of life experience under his belt, began his acting career again. He appeared in a number of Swedish productions and became a star in his native country but was interested in broadening his horizons and working outside of Sweden. A visit to Los Angeles landed him both an agent and a part in the Ben Stiller movie, Zoolander (2001). After that Alexander returned to Sweden where he continued honing his acting in film and theatrical productions including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Bloody Wedding". He also co-wrote and co-directed an award-winning short, Att döda ett barn (2003), (To Kill a Child), which was shown at both the Tribeca and Cannes Film Festivals.
His first big break was with the miniseries Generation Kill (2008). Alexander spent seven months broiling in the desert of Namibia but it was well worth it. His portrayal of Marine Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert astonished critics and audiences, alike. Thanks to the writer's strike, after completing Generation Kill (2008), he was cast in the role of "Eric Northman", a 1,000-year-old Viking vampire on the hit series, True Blood (2008). The series was created by Alan Ball, the man behind Six Feet Under (2001). True Blood (2008) was adapted from the "Sookie Stackhouse' novels by Charlaine Harris' and rode to success on quality scripts, great acting and the public's obsession with the vampire genre. In addition to True Blood (2008), which begins its third season in 2010, Alexander has a number of film projects in the works including the remake of Straw Dogs (2011), Melancholia (2011), written and directed by Lars von Trier, action Sci-Fi film, Battleship (2012), and The East (2013), directed by Zal Batmanglij.True Blood (Eric Northman)- Colin Salmon is one of Britain's most renowned actors. With a bold voice and posture, Colin makes his characters a favorite among audiences for every role he plays. He made his feature debut as Sgt. Robert Oswald in the British mega-hit mini-series Prime Suspect 2 (1992), which gave him much acclaim among British audiences. He has a recurring role in the James Bond films as Charles Robinson, M's Chief of Staff. He has also appeared as the Commander James "One" Shade in the video game-to-movie Resident Evil (2002) and played Oonu, squad leader of the Skybax in the mini-series Dinotopia (2002) . His other film credits include Captives (1994), Immortality (1998), Fanny and Elvis (1999), Mind Games (2001), and My Kingdom (2001). His theatre credits include Ariadne at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.Blood: The Last Vampire (Powell)
- Mark Frankel was born on 13 June 1962 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Young Catherine (1991), Fortune Hunter (1994) and Kindred: The Embraced (1996). He was married to Caroline Besson. He died on 24 September 1996 in West London, England, UK.Kindred: The Embraced (Julian Luna)
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Ivan Sergei was born on 7 May 1971 in Hawthorne, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor and director, known for The Opposite of Sex (1998), Jack & Jill (1999) and Crossing Jordan (2001). He was previously married to Tanya Gaudio.Kindred: The Embraced (Zane)- Actor
- Producer
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Aidan Turner was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. After graduating from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004, Aidan appeared in a number of stage productions, many with Ireland's national theatre, The Abbey. Such productions included The Plough & The Stars, Romeo & Juliet and A Cry from Heaven. In 2008, Turner made the transition to movies and television with a lead role in the film Alarm and a co-starring role in the popular Irish TV drama The Clinic. In 2009, Turner moved to the UK to take on a starring role in BBC's acclaimed Being Human. Aidan played the spellbinding "Mitchell" for 3 seasons during which time he also starred in BBC's Desperate Romantics and BBC's top rated TV movie Hattie. In 2011, famed director Peter Jackson cast Turner in the role of Kili in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. The highly successful movie trilogy filmed for approximately two years in New Zealand during which time Aidan also starred in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments.
In 2014 Turner was cast as Poldark in the BBC remake. Aidan was the only actor considered for this charismatic hero. Poldark premiered to excellent rating in the UK in March 2015 and also in the USA in June 2015. The BBC series also aired across Europe and Australia and returned for a second series, aired during 2016.
In 2015 Aidan took on a small role in The Secret Scripture so he could work with one of his favorite directors, Jim Sheridan. He also voiced a role in the first painted animation movie, Loving Vincent, co-starred in the dark comedy, Look Away and starred in the BBC mini series, And Then There Were None.
A third series of the hugely popular Poldark aired in the spring and summer of 2017.Being Human (UK) John Mitchell- Actor
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A small-town guy with a big heart, William Fichtner has been captivating the hearts of Western New Yorkers for decades. Bill was born in 1956 on Long Island, New York, to Patricia A. (Steitz) and William E. Fichtner. He is of German, Irish, and English descent.
Fichtner was raised in Cheektowaga, and graduated from Maryvale High School in 1974. His first roles were in soap operas such as As the World Turns (1956) and sitcoms like Grace Under Fire (1993). He has also been in films such as Armageddon (1998), Empire Falls (2005), as The Marriage Counselor, uncredited, in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and in The Dark Knight (2008). A fan of the Buffalo Sabres, Bill always stays true to his roots. He is married to actress Kymberly Kalil.Ultraviolet (Garth)- Actor
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The Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin was born in August 1976.
Alex started out his film career in 2004, when he starred in Oyster Farmer (2004) as Jack Flange. The following year, he returned to the big screen as Michael Carter in Feed (2005), a movie that he also co-produced and helped write. Also released that year was a movie titled Man-Thing (2005), in which Alex played Deputy Eric Fraser.
However, his most recent role in a feature film was that of "Marcus Bohem" in The Invisible (2007). Alex acted in the Australian miniseries Mary Bryant (2005) as the title role's husband. He made his way to American serialized television in The Shield (2002) as Detective Kevin Hiatt, the newest member of the strike team. Alex can be seen as Marshall in the movie August Rush (2007), and also in Whiteout (2009). In 2005, he was nominated for the Australian Film Institute's Best Lead Actor in Television for his role in Mary Bryant (2005). In 2006, he was nominated for the Logie Awards' Silver Logie in the same category and role.Moonlight (Mick St. John)- Jason William Dohring was born on March 30, 1982 in Ohio, USA. He is a TV and film actor, best known for Deep Impact (1998), Veronica Mars (2004), Veronica Mars (2014), The Originals (2013), and iZombie (2015). He has a reputation for portraying emotionally intense characters and smoldering chemistry with fellow cast members. He has been married to Lauren Kutner since July 7, 2004. They have four children together.Moonlight (Josef Kostan)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
An imposing figure (standing at 6'3") with intense, penetrating eyes and possessed of a larger-than-life personality, the actor George Raymond Stevenson began life as one of three sons, born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to a British pilot in the Royal Air Force. Raised near Newcastle in England after the family relocated, he initially studied art and worked for some time as an interior designer. However, after seeing a play with John Malkovich at the West End, Stevenson became inspired to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. By the time of his graduation in 1993, he had already made his debut on the stage at the Barbican Theatre in London in the plays Temptation and Revenger's Tragedy.
He made his first recurring screen appearances in the TV crime drama Band of Gold (1995) (acting alongside his future wife Ruth Gemmell) and as DI Tony Baynham in the BBC procedural police series City Central (1998), which was briefly touted as a rival to The Bill (1984). Though Stevenson first attracted international attention as a dependable Knight of the Round Table in the motion picture King Arthur (2004), it was his charismatic performance as the rascally, hedonistic soldier Titus Pullo in HBO's historical series Rome (2005) which truly put him on the map.
More vigorous or pugnacious warrior roles soon came his way, beginning with a starring turn as the titular anti-hero vigilante Frank Castle in the ultra-violent Punisher: War Zone (2008), for which Stevenson put himself through strenuous martial arts and weapons training under the direction of U.S. Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) Marines. Among his subsequent gallery of colourful characters were the powerful Asgardian warrior Volstagg in Marvel's Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017); the relentless enforcer Redridge in The Book of Eli (2010); an Irish mobster challenging the Cleveland Mafia for control of the city's criminal underworld in Kill the Irishman (2011); Porthos, one of the The Three Musketeers (2011); the much feared Blackbeard in Starz's excellent swashbuckling Black Sails (2014), and the enigmatic Anglo-Saxon missionary and explorer Othere in Vikings (2013).
Stevenson reserved one of the most compelling performances for the strangely sympathetic Russian gangster Isaak Sirko, chief antagonist in season seven of Dexter (2006), overshadowing even that of the star Michael C. Hall (definitely no mean feat!). Add to that another acting standout as the obsessed, revenge-driven Commander Jack Swinburne in the German-produced World War II drama series Das Boot (2018).
Having first joined the Star Wars universe as a voice actor (the Mandalorian Gar Saxon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)), Stevenson was later cast in the villainous role of dark Force user Baylan Skoll doing battle with the indomitable Ahsoka (2023) Tano (Rosario Dawson), complete with orange/red lightsaber. Stevenson said in a 2020 interview that he had drawn much of his inspiration from veteran tough guys like Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman: "Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that caliber. It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with."
Tragically, this supremely accomplished and charismatic actor died in Italy on 21 May 2023 while filming Cassino in Ischia, in which he was cast as a fading movie action hero attempting to revive his career. At the time of his passing he was just 58.Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (Murlough)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Kyle Schmid was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is best known for History's "SIX", BBC America's "COPPER" and a number of feature films including David Cronenberg's "A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE".
He has been acting for a majority of his life. An early career in television lead way to Disney films and a number of Lifetime films for which he garnered a nomination for a Young Artist Award. Well known for playing Henry Fitzroy in the Lifetime series "BLOODTIES", he went onto take on the role of Henry Durham, in the Syfy Channel series "BEING HUMAN" and the role of Robert Morehouse in the BBC America series "COPPER". Kyle focused on film for a number of years following building leading characters until he landed the role of Alex Caulder in History's well respected, "SIX".
Most recently Kyle can be seen portraying Charlie Dick, in the Lifetime film recently nominated for 5 Critic's Choice Awards, "PATSY AND LORETTA". He also recently wrapped the new Netflix series, "I-LAND" in which he plays Moses and will be seen in "10 MINUTES GONE" along side Micheal Chicklis and Bruce Willis.Blood Ties (Henry Fitzroy)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
David was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Patti, a travel agent, and weatherman Dave Roberts (Boreanaz). His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of half Slovak ancestry. At the age of seven he decide to be an actor, which eventually led him to study cinema and photography at Ithaca College in New York. After graduating from college, David moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in the movies. After some uncredited roles he received his first important role as Kelly's boyfriend in the series Married... with Children (1987). After three seasons of playing Angel in the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), he received his own spin-off show titled Angel (1999).Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel (Angel)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Geraint Wyn Davies was born in Swansea, Wales on April 20, 1957. His father is a semi-retired Welsh congregational minister and his mother, a retired teacher, was headmistress at Geraint's first school. At the age of seven, his family moved to Canada where he attended Upper Canada College then the University of Western Ontario where he briefly studied business and economics before leaving to pursue his acting career.
Geraint was 12 when he was first bitten by the acting bug, appearing in a school production of "Lord of the Flies". His professional stage debut was made in 1976 in Quebec City when at 19 he appeared in "The Fantasticks", "Red Emma", and "A Midsummer's Night Dream". After Quebec, Geraint moved on England where he played the lead in "The Last Englishman". He then spent 2 seasons with Wales' leading theatre company, Theatre Clwyd, touring the United Kingdom in "Enemy of the People" and "Hamlet". It was his performance in "Hamlet" that led to the Regional Theatre Best Actor Award. He then spent a season with the Chichester Festival doing "Henry VIII". He has performed at the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival of Canada as well as the Mark Taper Forum Lincoln Center. He has appeared in such plays as "The Music Cure", "Candida", "Cyrano de Bergerac", "The Vortex", "Goodnight Disgrace", "Henry V" and "The Three Musketeers, "The Boys from Syracuse, "Sleuth" and "The Taming of The Shrew", "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde", "My Fair Lady" and "King Lear". In August of '99, Geraint starred in a one man show written by the late Leon Pownall called "An Evening with Dylan Thomas" at the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada. Two more shows were written for Geraint "Dylan Thomas and Shakespeare: In the Envy Of Some Greatness" and "Stranger in Paradise". Geraint has continued to perform "Do Not Go Gentle" in Chicago, Stratford and New York. Most recently Geraint appeared at Washington DC's Shakespeare Theater in "Cyrano" (Helen Hayes Award winner), "Love's Labor's Lost" (Helen Hayes Award nominee) and "Richard III". He, along with friend Brent Carver, are opening in Toronto's CanStage production of "The Elephant Man" in mid-October of 2007.
Geraint's directorial accomplishments include multiple episodes of "Forever Knight", "Black Harbour", "Pit Pony", "Power Play" and "North of 60". In June 2000, Geraint took on the challenge of directing Oliver Mayer's "Joy of the Desolate" in Highland Park, Illinois. A "back-burner" project for Geraint is "Horatio Salt", a collection of four short films that he is producing and directing.
Geraint's musical talent was first brought to prominence on "Forever Knight" where he actually played the piano in the loft and co-wrote a song for the "Baby Baby" episode. As a result he was featured in one of the selections on the first "Forever Knight" CD. He is a self-taught musician who produced a CD of his own works "Bar Talk" which is sold through his fan club with the proceeds going to a variety of charities such as Childrens' Hospital Foundation in Washington D.C. and The Stratford Festival's Shakespeare School (Stratford, Ontario). Geraint's voice can be enjoyed on two audio books, "Great American Suspense: Five Unabridged Classics" and "Great Classic Hauntings: Six Unabridged Stories".
Geraint is divorced from artist Alana Guinn however they are the proud parents of a son, Galen, and a daughter, Pyper.
He became a U.S. citizen on June 13, 2006, at a swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. He was made a city resident for the run of "Love's Labor's Lost" to facilitate the process. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over his induction ceremony.Forever Knight (Nicolas de Braband aka Det. Nicholas 'Nick' Knight)- Ben Bass was born on 14 August 1968 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is an actor, known for Rookie Blue (2010), Burden of Truth (2018) and Would Be Kings (2008). He was previously married to Laura Carswell.Forever Knight (Javier Vachon)
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Marc Warren is an English actor, known for his British television roles. His roles have included Albert Blithe in Band of Brothers, Danny Blue in Hustle, Dougie Raymond in The Vice, Dominic Foy in State of Play, Rick in Mad Dogs, the Comte DE Rochefort in The Musketeers and the Gentleman in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Piet Van Der Valk in TV series Van Der Valk.Dracula (2006, BBC) (Count Dracula)- James Frain is one of Hollywood's most versatile and respected actors who has a reputation for bold, intelligent performances in a diverse body of work in which he's collaborated with some of the finest actors and directors working today.
James is well known for his portrayal of real life current and historical figures. On television/streaming these have included; Lord Warwick 'The Kingmaker' (in "The White Queen", Starz), the godfather of the English Reformation Thomas Cromwell (in "The Tudors", Showtime), LBJ speechwriter Richard Goodwin (in "Path to War", HBO Max) and Olympic rowing trainer Jack Beresford opposite Matt Smith (in "Bert and Dickie", BBC). In features James played world famous conductor, and classical pianist Daniel Barenboim in the Oscar nominated "Hilary and Jackie" (October Films) and the Spanish Ambassador in the Oscar nominated "Elizabeth" opposite Cate Blanchett (Working Title).
James also has considerable experience in genre in the cable and streaming space: as a DC villain in "Gotham" (Fox, HBO Max), a vampire in "True Blood" (HBO Max) and as Spock's father Sarek, as a younger man, in "Star Trek Discovery" (Paramount +).
His past film credits include "TRON: Legacy" opposite Jeff Bridges, "Water for Elephants" opposite Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, "The Count of Monte Cristo" with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce, "Where the Heart Is" opposite Natalie Portman, and "Reindeer Games" with Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron.
James has an extensive theatre background having performed in the UK with The Royal Shakespeare Company, as Edmund in "King Lear" The Almeida, and The Royal Court. James co-starred with Ian McShane on Broadway in the critical hit production of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming", 2007, for which the cast won The Drama Critics Circle Best Ensemble Award. In 2019 James played Lionel Logue in The Chicago Shakespeare Theater's world premiere of "The Kings Speech".
James has a BA in English Drama and Film from the University of East Anglia (Norwich, England) and a diploma in acting from London's Central School of Speech and Drama. While studying in London, James was spotted by Sir. Richard Attenborough, who immediately cast him in his first feature Shadowlands opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins, with whom he worked again on Julie Taymor's "Titus Andronicus".
James was born in Leeds, in the north of England, to an Irish Catholic family. He has seven younger brothers and sisters. The family moved South when he was young and James grew up in Stansted and Bishops Stortford on the Hertfordshire/Essex border. He went to a state secondary school at the Joyce Frankland Academy, in Newport. James was married to director Marta Cunningham. He has two teenage children and splits his time between Los Angeles and London.True Blood (Franklin Mott) - Actor
- Additional Crew
Matthew Mackendree Lanter was born April 1, 1983 in Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, to Jana Kay (Wincek) and Joseph Hayes Lanter. He has a sister, Kara. When he was eight years old, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his father's family is from. His recent ancestry includes Polish, English, Austrian, Scottish, and German.
Growing up, the blue-eyed actor spent most of his time playing baseball, football and golf. His love for baseball led him to scoring a position as a bat boy with the Atlanta Braves. In the year 2001, he graduated from Collins Hill High School. His parents got divorced when he was a senior at Collins Hill. Matt majored in Sports Business at the University of Georgia, but eventually moved to Los Angeles to follow his dreams of being part of the showbiz industry. He attended the University of Georgia after attending a community college for two years.
Lanter first gained the attention of fans when he was selected as a contestant in the 2004 reality television series, Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model (2004). The show revolved around contestants having to compete with each other in a series of modeling events. Although he did not win the competition, Matt succeeded in making the show's top 10. It did not take too long before critics started noticing Matt.
After landing roles on shows such as Grey's Anatomy (2005), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), Life (2007), Big Love (2006), Monk (2002), as well as the feature film, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), starring Jim Caviezel, he built a solid foundation and was already in demand for future projects. His big break came when he starred as "Horace Calloway", the John F. Kennedy-like first son on the short-lived ABC political series, Commander in Chief (2005) in 2005. However, most people do not know that he was, in fact, not in the original pilot. Instead, Matt was a re-cast. Matt has also recurred on two of television's most popular shows: NBC's Heroes (2006) as the sinister quarterback "Brody Mitchumm" opposite Hayden Panettiere and CBS' Shark (2006) as "Eddie Linden".
His talent surpasses the ability to solely act for TV and film and on stage; Matt had the opportunity of starring in his theatrical debut, opposite Laurence Fishburne in Alfred Uhry's "Without Walls" at The Mark Taper Forum. Consistently booking role after role, he has starred in multiple other feature films merging him into a leading man. Lanter's films include: Warner Bros. animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), in which he voices the popular character "Anakin Skywalker", the lead in Liongate's comedy, Disaster Movie (2008), and MGM's feature film, WarGames: The Dead Code (2008). Prior to that, he established himself as a tween heartthrob, playing the lead in MGM/ABC Family's film, The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream (2008).
Outside of acting, Matt has participated in various events for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (one of which was a celebrity dodgeball team promoting the premiere of Ben Stiller's movie, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), in which the proceeds also went to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation) and the Nautica Malibu Triathlon, where he was part of the "Commander in Chief" celebrity relay team.
Despite being busy working in the industry, Matt says that he tries to stay as humble as possible. When he's not acting, he enjoys being outdoors, playing golf and relaxing at the beach.
Matt married his longtime girlfriend, Angela Lanter, on June 14, 2013.Vampires Suck (Edward Sullen)- Actor
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Gerard James Butler was born in Paisley, Scotland, to Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker. His family is of Irish origin. Gerard spent some of his very early childhood in Montreal, Quebec, but was mostly raised, along with his older brother and sister, in his hometown of Paisley. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his siblings were raised primarily by their mother, who later remarried. He had no contact with his father between the ages of two and 16 years old, after which time they became close. His father passed away when Gerard was in his early 20s. Butler went on to attend Glasgow University, where he studied to be a lawyer/solicitor. He was president of the school's law society thanks to his outgoing personality and great social skills.
His acting career began when he was approached in a London coffee shop by actor Steven Berkoff, who later appeared alongside Butler in Attila (2001), who gave him a role in a stage production of "Coriolanus" (later, Butler played Tullus Aufidius in a big screen Coriolanus (2011). After that, Butler decided to give up law for acting. He was cast as Ewan McGregor's character "Renton" in the stage adaptation of Trainspotting. His film debut was as Billy Connolly's younger brother in Mrs. Brown (1997). While filming the movie in Scotland, he was enjoying a picnic with his mother near the River Tay when they heard the shouts of a young boy, who had been swimming with a friend, who was in some trouble. Butler jumped in and saved the young boy from drowning. He received a Certificate of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society. He felt he only did what anyone in the situation would have done.
His film career continued with small roles, first in the "James Bond" movie, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and then Russell Mulcahy's Tale of the Mummy (1998). In 2000, Butler was cast in two breakthrough roles, the first being "Attila the Hun" in the USA Network mini-series, Attila (2001). The film's producers wanted a known actor to play the part but kept coming back to Butler's screen tests and decided he was their man. He had to lose the thick Scottish accent, but managed well. Around the time "Attila" was being filmed, casting was in progress for Wes Craven's new take on the "Dracula" legacy. Also wanting a known name, Butler wasn't much of a consideration, but his unending tenacity drove him to hounding the producers. Eventually, he sent them a clip of his portrayal of "Attila". Evidently, they saw something because Dracula 2000 (2000) was cast in the form of Butler. Attila's producers, thinking that his big-screen role might help with their own film's ratings, finished shooting a little early so he could get to work on Dracula 2000 (2000). Following these two roles, Butler developed quite a fan base, and began appearing on websites and fancasts everywhere.
Since then, he has appeared in Reign of Fire (2002) as "Creedy" and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) as "Terry Sheridan", alongside Angelina Jolie. The role that garnered him the most attention from both moviegoers and movie makers, alike, was that of "Andre Marek" in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, Timeline (2003). Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. Last year, he appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera (2004), playing the title character in the successful adaptation of the stage musical. It was a role that brought him much international attention. Other projects include Dear Frankie (2004), The Game of Their Lives (2005) and Beowulf & Grendel (2005).
In 2007, he starred as Spartan "King Leonidas" in the Warner Bros. production 300 (2006), based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, and Shattered (2007), co-starring Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello, which aired on network TV under the title, "Shattered". He also starred in P.S. I Love You (2007), with Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank.
In 2007, he appeared in Nim's Island (2008) and RocknRolla (2008), and completed the new Mark Neveldine / Brian Taylor film, Gamer (2009). His next films included The Ugly Truth (2009), co-starring Katherine Heigl, which began filming in April 2008, The Bounty Hunter (2010), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Chasing Mavericks (2012) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). In recent years, he has appeared in films such as Gods of Egypt (2016), Geostorm (2017), Den of Thieves (2018), The Vanishing (2018) and Hunter Killer (2018). Butler is related to writer-director Mark Flood.Dracula 2000 (Dracula)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.
He was the son of Teunke Hauer (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, actors who operated an acting school. As his parents were often touring, he and his three sisters were raised by a nanny. A bit of a rebel during his childhood, he chafed at the rules and rigors of school and was often getting into mischief. His grandfather had been the captain of a schooner and at age fifteen, Hauer ran away to work on a freighter for a year. Like his great-grandfather, Hauer was color-blind, which prevented him from furthering his career as a sailor.
Upon his return he attended night school and started working in the construction industry. When he again bombed at school, his parents enrolled him in drama classes. An amateur poet, he spent most of his time writing poetry and hanging out in Amsterdam coffee houses instead of studying. He was expelled for poor attendance and afterward spent a brief period in the Dutch navy.
Deciding he didn't like military life, Hauer honed his acting skills trying to convince his superiors he was mentally unfit and was sent to a special home for psych patients. It was an unpleasant place, but Hauer remained there until he had convinced his ranking officers that the military really did not need him.Salem's Lot 2004 (Barlow)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the movie (Lothos)- Peter Mensah has been doing martial arts since he was 6 years old, growing up in St. Albans, England, just north of London. A former engineer, Mensah came to Canada 11 years ago. He'd worked for British Gas developing gas fields at Morecambe Bay and had done theatre in school. He comes from an academic family. His father, an architect, relocated with his mother to their native Ghana. He only has two younger sisters. Mensah emigrated from Britain to see the world and it was a toss up whether his destination would be Canada or Australia. The paperwork for Canada came through first.Midnight, Texas (Lemuel Bridger)
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Bill Nighy is an award-winning British character actor. He was born William Francis Nighy on December 12, 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, England, to Catherine Josephine (Whittaker), a psychiatric nurse from Glasgow, and Alfred Martin Nighy, who was English-born and managed a garage in Croydon.
At school, he gained 'O'-levels in English Language and English Literature and enjoyed reading, particularly Ernest Hemingway. On leaving school he wanted to become a journalist but didn't have the required qualifications. He eventually went on to work as a messenger boy for the Field magazine. He stayed in Paris for a while because he wanted to write "the great novel", but he only managed to write the title. When he ran out of money, the British consul shipped him home.
Nighy wound up training at Guildford School of Dance and Drama in London, and has since then worked consistently in film, television, and on stage.
Nighy is perhaps best-known to international audiences for his memorable performance as washed-up pop singer Billy Mack in Love Actually (2003), which won him a BAFTA for best supporting actor. He has also made appearances in major franchises: he played vampire leader Viktor in Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009), did the performance capture and voice for Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and made a brief appearance as Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).
Nighy's recent film credits include roles in I Capture the Castle (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Constant Gardener (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Hot Fuzz (2007), Valkyrie (2008) and The Boat That Rocked (2009). He has also provided voice work for many animated movies in the past few years including Flushed Away (2006), Astro Boy (2009), Rango (2011) and Arthur Christmas (2011).
With supporting turns in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012) and Total Recall (2012), 2012 was a busy year for Nighy. There are no signs of slowing down either, as he next appeared in Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), About Time (2013), and I, Frankenstein (2014).
Nighy has also had an active career on the small screen, beginning with Agony (1979), and his first widely-recognized role was in 1991 mini-series The Men's Room (1991). He has also made a habit of working on television with Harry Potter director David Yates: projects together include State of Play (2003), The Young Visiters (2003), The Girl in the Café (2005) and Page Eight (2011). Nighy won a Golden Globe for his performance in Gideon's Daughter (2005).
Nighy actually began his career on the stage, and has earned acclaim for his work in numerous plays including "The Vertical Hour," "Pravda". "A Map of the World", Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 1993, and David Hare's Skylight. He received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in 2001 play "Blue/Orange."
Bill's partner was actress Diana Quick (he asked her to marry him but she said: "don't ask me again"; he called her his wife because anything else would have been too difficult). They have a daughter, Mary Nighy, who is studying at university and contemplating an acting career. She has already begun to appear on TV dramas and radio programs.Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Viktor)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kevin Joseph Zegers started acting at the tender age of six. He has starred in more than 40 films, including Air Bud (1997), Dawn of the Dead (2004), and Transamerica (2005), and has also appeared in several modeling campaigns.
Kevin was born in Woodstock, Ontario, to Mary-Ellen (Veldman), a teacher, and James Zegers, a quarry worker. All of his grandparents were Dutch immigrants. He lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife, agent Jaime Feld (CAA). Their daughters, Zoë Madison and Blake Everleigh, were born on August 17, 2015.Vampire (Simon)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).Dracula (Count Dracula)- Actor
- Stunts
- Producer
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou, China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a kung fu master and his father, Kylster Yen, a newspaper editor and amateur musician. When Donnie was just two years old, the family moved to Hong Kong and then, when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim Mark became a pioneer for Chinese martial arts in America, and it was only natural that her only son was trained from early childhood in the same skills. At the same time, Donnie was influenced by his parents' love of music and reached a high level of proficiency as a pianist. All these interests would have a manifest influence on Yen's later life.
In his teens, Donnie defined his own persona by rebelling against his parents edicts. Beyond the limitations of his mother's school, Yen began training in various different fighting arts, including Japanese karate, Korean taekwondo and western boxing. Donnie also took up hip-hop and break-dancing. At the same time, he began spending his nights in Boston's notorious Combat Zone. Given that he was by now a serious practitioner of modern Wu Shu, his parents decided to send him to Beijing to train at the Chinese capital's famed Wu Shu academy.
It was when Yen returned to Hong Kong en route back to Boston that he met the famed martial arts movie director Yuen Woo-ping.
Donnie exploded onto the Hong Kong movie scene when he was cast in the lead role of director Yuen Woo-ping's 'Drunken Tai Chi'. His debut film immediately established him as a viable leading man, and Yen has remained a major figure in Chinese action cinema to this day.
Yen skills as a street dancer were to the fore in his second starring role, 'Mismatched Couples', in which he showed off his breakdance moves, as well as his general athleticism. This slapstick romantic comedy was produced by Hong Kong's prestigious Cinema City studio.
Donnie was subsequently signed by the newly formed D&B Films, and cast in the hit cop actioner 'Tiger Cage'. In this movie, and his follow-up features for the company ('In the Line of Duty 4', 'Tiger Cage 2'), Yen showed off his own unique form of contemporary screen combat, a form that included elements of rapid fire kicking, Western boxing and grappling moves.
Having established a worldwide fan base, Yen moved on to star in a string of independent Asian action features before director Tsui Hark tapped him to co-star in 'Once Upon A Time In China 2'. The film's two action highlights saw Donnie's character duel the legendary martial arts master Wong Fei-hung, played by his old friend Jet Li. The film brought Yen his first real attention as a thespian and he was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at that year's Hong Kong Film Awards.
Tsui Hark went on to produce a remake of King Hu's classic 'New Dragon Inn', which provided another showcase role for Donnie as the film's apparently invincible villain.
Donnie was reunited with director Yuen Woo-ping for 'Iron Monkey', a film which brought Yen's acting and action skills both into focus. In 'Iron Monkey', Yen played the father of Wong Fei-hung, and its success prefigured that which he would later enjoy as another pugilistic patriarch in 'Ip Man'. Donnie collaborated with Yuen on the action for the film, designing a new on-screen interpretation of Wong Fei-hung's classic 'Shadowless Kick'.
'Iron Monkey' was all the more remarkable in that, years after its Asian release, it was acquired by the American studio Miramax, re-cut, re-scored and given a wide release in US theatres. After premieres in New York and Los Angeles, the film enjoyed great acclaim from the American critics, and won a prize at that year's Taurus Awards, an event held to celebrate action in cinema.
After working on a number of independent features, Yen went on to enjoy huge success on the small screen when he accepted a lucrative offer from Hong Kong's ATV to film a series based on the Bruce Lee classic 'Fist of Fury'. The show was the top-rated action drama show around the region, and was subsequently re-edited for international distribution on video.
Donnie went on to make his directorial debut with 'Legend of the Wolf', a stylish period actioner that even attracted the attention of legendary American film-maker Francis Coppola. The film, about an amnesiac warrior returning to his home village, has become a bona fide cult classic.
As director, Donnie followed 'Legend of the Wolf' with a very different venture, 'Ballistic Kiss', an urban thriller about a conflicted assassin. The film played at the prestigious Udine Festival in Italy, and took home awards at several other events, including the Japanese Yubari International Action Film Festival.
Donnie's body of work had by then attracted the attention of Hollywood, and Yen was approached to choreograph the action for the mainstream franchise films 'Highlander: Endgame' and 'Blade 2'. After a period where he was based in Los Angeles, Donnie returned East by way of the West when Jackie Chan requested that Yen play his nemesis in the hit 'Shanghai Knights', a shoot that took the star from Prague to London.
Yen returned to China to co-star in director Zhang Yimou's epic wu xia master work 'Hero'. Yen's duel with Jet Li brought his skills to the emerging Mainland Chinese theatrical audience, and paved the way for Donnie to become the country's biggest action star. The film received a wide US theatrical release from Miramax, and remains one of the most successful foreign language titles ever distributed in the America market.
Donnie returned to Hong Kong to choreograph the smash hit fantasy-horror-comedy 'The Twins Effect', and went on to enjoy his most productive partnership with a director. Beginning with the cop actioner 'SPL', Donnie teamed with helmer Wilson Yip for a series of very different films that Yen would star in and action choreograph and Yip would direct. Star and director subsequently teamed to create the comic book inspired fantasy actioner 'Dragon Tiger Gate' and the gritty police thriller 'Flashpoint', in which Donnie created what fans feel is the definitive on-screen MMA action scene. Yen was to return to this hard-hitting, urban action style for the later 'Special ID'.
Donnie now found himself in demand as a leading man in a series of prestigious period actioners produced for the Chinese market. 'Seven Swords' premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and proved a hit with worldwide audiences. The film was released in North America by The Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty label, and remains its biggest hit.
Yen also attracted rave reviews when he played an honorable general in 'An Empress and her Warriors' and an offbeat ghost-buster in Gordon Chan's 'Painted Skin'.
Yen took his career to a new level when he accepted producer Raymond Wong's suggestion that he play Bruce Lee's teacher, 'Ip Man', in an eponymous film relating the life of the great master. The film was a huge success in Hong Kong and China, and 'Ip Man' went on to find favor with audiences worldwide. Donnie also received a Best Actor nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
'Ip Man' confirmed Donnie's position as China's greatest action hero, and he was immediately signed to lead a strong ensemble cast for Teddy Chen's 'Bodyguards and Assassins', produced by Peter Chan. Besides his on-screen performance, Donnie was also called on to choreograph the dynamic duel between himself and MMA champion Cung Le. The movie went on to sweep the board at the Hong Kong Film Awards winning Best Film, among many other prizes. Yen himself was nominated for Best Actor at the Chinese Hundred Flower awards.
Yen followed this with 'Ip Man 2', a rare example of a sequel that proved a match for its predecessor. The film followed Ip's life journey to Hong Kong, where he faces both rival kung fu masters, led by the film's choreographer, Sammo Hung, and a brutal foreign boxer, portrayed by the late Darren Shahlavi. 'Ip Man 2' was the biggest local hit of the year in China, and enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the US.
The film's success led to Donnie being cast as a number of legendary Chinese heroes: He played General Qin-long in Daniel Lee's '14 Blades', Guan Yu in 'The Lost Bladesman' and reprised Bruce Lee's Chen Zhen role in Andrew Lau's 'Legend of the Fist'. Yen also used the lighter side of his screen persona to good effect in two installments of the hit Hong Kong comedy movie series 'Alls Well Ends Well'.
Yen was cast opposite Tang Wei and Takeshi Kaneshiro in director Peter Chan's 'Wu Xia' (aka 'Dragon'), a dark, elegant period martial arts murder mystery. The film premiered to great acclaim at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and subsequently received a North American theatrical release from The Weinstein Company.
Donnie Yen played 'The Monkey King' in a hit reimagining of the Chinese classic. Donnie starred opposite screen legend Chow Yun-fat in the film, which smashed box office records in Mainland China.
Showing his versatility, Yen went on to play a kung fu master facing challenges in the modern era in director Teddy Chen's 'Kung Fu Jungle'. The movie, which premiered at the London Film Festival, paid tribute to the great history of Hong Kong martial arts cinema.
During the shooting of his ambitious, time travel themed action fantasy 'Iceman 3D', Yen was approached to revitalize the greatest brand in the history of Chinese martial arts cinema. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny' was shot primarily on location in New Zealand, with Yen in the lead role. The world class creative team gathered by producer Harvey Weinstein included legendary kung fu film director Yuen Woo-ping, acclaimed directors Peter Berg and Morten Tyldum (as producers), 'X-Men' series DP Tom Sigel as well as the Oscar-winning production, costume and FX designers from the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' film series.
The film debuted in most international territories as a Netflix Original movie, making it the most widely seen wu xia of all time. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny' also played at selected Imax theatres in North America, and enjoyed a wide theatrical release in China, where it was screened in its 3D version.
Yen reteamed with his former mentor Yuen Woo-ping for the hugely popular 'Ip Man 3'. The film, with Wilson Ip as director and Yuen as choreographer, pitted the title character against legendary boxing champion Mike Tyson. The film out-performed all the previous movies featuring the character of Ip Man, smashing box office records throughout Asia. Following a high profile Los Angeles premiere, 'Ip Man 3' enjoyed a Los Angeles premiere and a US theatrical release, earning rave reviews in the mainstream American media.
Having conquered every territory beneath the Asian skies, Donnie accepted an invitation to join the cast of an entry in the world's biggest film franchise. In 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story', Yen plays one of the Rebel warriors responsible for the theft of the Death Star plans, the adventure that, within the 'Star Wars' universe, leads to the events of the very first film in the series. The film was shot primarily at the famed Elstree Studios in England.
Donnie had a role opposite Vin Diesel and his fellow Asian action star, Tony Jaa, in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), which filmed in Toronto, Canada.
Now firmly established as a leading player across the globe, Donnie Yen continues to present a unique blend of Eastern experience and Western innovation, of musical grace with martial impact, from Hong Kong to a galaxy far, far away....
Donnie is one of the leading martial arts choreographers in the world of action cinema. His skills behind the camera began developing from his early days in the industry, and he was very much involved with the action choreography of his films for D&B Films. He received his first full action directing credit on the Michelle Yeoh, kung fu drama 'Wing Chun', in which he also starred.
Yen further developed his style of choreography in the high pressure world of Hong Kong television, where he created the action for his hit series 'Kung Fu Master' and 'Fist of Fury', and as a low-budget film-maker, when he directed, starred in and choreographed the movies 'Legend of the Wolf' and 'Ballistic Kiss'.
It was after Yen had helmed his first two Chinese features that Hollywood made its first serious bid for his services. He was signed to co-star in and action direct 'Highlander: Endgame', the latest in a series of fantasy actioners. The film, which starred Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert, was produced by the US studio Dimension, and enjoyed a successful worldwide theatrical release.
Having relocated to Los Angeles, Yen paid his dues by directing action scenes for the Dimension action thriller 'Stormbreaker' and providing the fight sequences for the German TV series 'The Puma'.
Donnie agreed to both action direct and cameo in the major New Line action franchise entry 'Blade 2', starring Wesley Snipes. The film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was a huge hit, earning almost twice the box office of the original 'Blade'.
Returning to Hong Kong, Yen found he now had a major contribution to make behind the camera, co-directing the SFX action adventure 'The Twins Effect'. The film, which starred two of China's top pop idols, told the tale of young vampire hunters with well-honed martial arts skills. A huge hit for Emperor, the film earned Yen his first Best Action Director prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
'The Twins Effect' saw Donnie start to introduce elements of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in his film fight scenes. He took the on-screen depiction of the style to new heights with the film 'SPL', released in the US as 'Kill Zone'. Yen's final reel duel with Sammo Hung is now regarded as a classic of the genre. The film won Donnie his second Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
He took his on-screen depiction of MMA to new heights in 'Flashpoint', which featured an even longer and more intense final showdown, this time between Yen and 'Matrix Reloaded' actor Collin Chou. The film won Donnie his third Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as a prize for Best Action in a Foreign Language Film at the Taurus Awards.
Yen explored different styles of screen combat when he choreographed the stunning kung fu fights for the period actioners 'Legend of the Fist' and 'The Lost Bladesman', the fantasy combat for 'The Monkey King' and the time travel adventure 'Iceman Cometh 3D'.
Many fans feel that Yen delivered his best choreographic work to date in Peter Chan's masterful 'Wu Xia', released in the US as 'Dragon'. The film saw Donnie bring his own unique flair to classical Shaw Bros style kung fu action.
Donnie brought traditional Chinese martial arts into the modern era with 'Kung Fu Jungle', for which his work won yet another Best Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Away from the cameras, Yen entered into the most rewarding partnership of his life when he married former beauty queen, Cissy Wang. The couple now has two children, a girl and boy, Jasmine and James.Blade II (Snowman)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ian Somerhalder was born and raised in the small southern town of Covington, Louisiana. His mother, Edna (née Israel), is a massage therapist, and his father, Robert Somerhalder, is a building contractor. He has Cajun (French), English, and Scots-Irish ancestry. Boating, swimming, fishing and training horses filled much of his recreational time growing up, as did the school drama club and performing with the local theater group. With his mother's encouragement, at age 10, he began a modeling career that took him to New York each summer. By junior high, he opted to put modeling on the back burner and focus more on sports and school. A few years later, when the opportunity to model in Europe arose, Somerhalder grabbed it, embarking on an enriching path of work, travel and study that took him to cities, including Paris, Milan and London. At 17, he began studying acting in New York and, by 19, had committed himself to the craft, working with preeminent acting coach William Esper. His fate was sealed while working as an extra in a club scene in the feature film, Black & White (1999). A talent manager visiting a client on the set spotted Somerhalder in a crowd scene of 400 and immediately signed him for representation. He was cast later for the drama Changing Hearts (2002) directed by Martin Guigui. Happy to be anchored in New York, Somerhalder spends much of his time studying acting, writing and practicing yoga. His recreational interests include water and snow skiing and horseback riding.The Vampire Diaries (Damon Salvatore)- Actor
- Director
- Stunts
An accomplished theatre actor, Mr. Bennett appeared on the British stage for fifteen years before moving to Canada in 1986. During this time, he starred in "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole" at the Wyndhams Theatre in London's West End. He also performed in "Ghosts", "Private Lives" and "Rookery Nook" at such theaters as the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, the Crucible Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic and the King's Head Theatre Club, as well as many seasons on the stages of Canterbury, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield in England. From 1992-1996, he starred as the powerful and seductive "Lucien LaCroix" in the Gemini-nominated television series, Forever Knight (1992). In 1995, he received the prestigious Gemini Award for his role in the series, and it was on this show where he made his directorial debut.
His feature film work includes co-starring with Gene Hackman in Narrow Margin (1990), The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988), a poignant drama that was voted Best New Film at both the Toronto Festival of Festivals and the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1988, Legends of the Fall (1994) starring Brad Pitt, Murder at 1600 (1997) starring Wesley Snipes, Top of the Food Chain (1999), a science fiction feature that premiered at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and The Skulls (2000) starring Craig T. Nelson.Forever Knight (Lacroix)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named 'The Kids'. When he married Lori A. Depp, he took a job as a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger.
In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.
Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. The film's enormous success has opened several doors for his career and included an Oscar nomination. He appeared as the central character in the Stephen King-based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet; and Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004). Depp collaborated again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and later in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Off-screen, Depp has dated several female celebrities, and has been engaged to Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He was married to Lori Anne Allison in 1983, but divorced her in 1985. Depp has two children with his former long-time partner, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and John Christopher "Jack" III, born in 2002. He married actress/producer Amber Heard in 2015, divorcing a few years later.Dark Shadows (movie) Barnabas Collins- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jude Law is an English actor. Law has been nominated for two Academy Awards and continues to build a prolific body of work that spans from early successes such as Gattaca (1997) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) to more recent turns as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), as Hugo's father in Hugo (2011) and in the titular role in Dom Hemingway (2013).
David Jude Law was born on December 29, 1972 in Lewisham, London, England, to Margaret Anne (Heyworth) and Peter Robert Law, both of whom taught at comprehensive schools; his father later became a headmaster. Law has said that he was named after both the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude.
In 1992, Jude began his stage career. He starred in many plays throughout London, and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award of "Outstanding Newcomer" After doing the play "Indiscretions" in London, he moved and did it again on Broadway. This time, he was alongside Kathleen Turner. He then received a Tony Nomination for "Outstanding Supporting Actor". He was then rewarded the Theatre World Award. After Broadway, Jude started on the big screen, in many independent films. His first big-named movie was Gattaca (1997), with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. He also had a good role in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Jude's latest rise to fame has been because of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), in which he plays Matt Damon's obsession. The film did very well at the box office, and critics loved Jude's acting.
Following the success of Gattaca (1997) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Law's feature film career continued to gain momentum throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s with roles in such films as Enemy at the Gates (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), I Heart Huckabees (2004), The Aviator (2004) and many others. Law is one of three actors, along with Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp, to take over acting responsibilities in the Terry Gilliam project The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) following Heath Ledger's death.
Law is a partner in the production company "Natural Nylon". His partners include Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor and his ex-wife Sadie Frost.
Law has been active in many charitable activities and supports several different foundations and causes, doing work for organizations including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Make Poverty History, Breast Cancer Care and others. Law is also a peace advocate, and in 2011, participated in street protests against the rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
Law married Sadie Frost in 1997 and the couple had two sons (Rafferty and Rudy) and a daughter (Iris) before divorcing in 2003. Law and Alfie (2004) co-star Sienna Miller were engaged to be married in 2005 and separated in 2006 (they would later rekindle their relationship in 2009, splitting once again in 2011). Law and American model Samantha Burke had a brief relationship in 2008 that resulted in the birth of Law's fourth child, daughter Sophia. Law's fifth child, with an ex-girlfriend, Catherine Harding, was born in 2015.The Wisdom of Crocodiles (Steven Grlscz)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Stunts
Sam Witwer headlines the SyFy series Being Human (2011), the U.S. adaptation of the popular British television series. The darkly humorous, provocative drama stars Sam as the heroic Aidan, a sensual and brooding vampire. His excellent work was noticed soon after the show's premiere, as Sam received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing, Leading Dramatic Role in 2011.
Feature film fans remember Sam as the sacrificed Wayne Jessup in The Mist (2007), Frank Darabont's adaptation of the Stephen King novella. Two other independent features in which Sam stars were The Return of Joe Rich (2011), starring opposite Armand Assante and Talia Shire, and No God, No Master (2013) starring with David Strathairn and Edoardo Ballerini.
A favorite in the science-fiction world, Sam began his career in the memorable role of Lt. Crashdown in SyFy's Battlestar Galactica (2004) and played Davis Bloom/Doomsday, the character fated to kill Superman, on CW's Smallville (2001). Star Wars fans and the gaming community will also recognize Sam as Darth Vader's vengeful apprentice, StarKiller", in the LucasArts video game sensations Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010). Through high-tech digital referencing and motion capture, Sam has become the voice and face of this LucasArts creation in which the first title grossed over $500 million. Sam has also done extensive voice work for the fan-favorite Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), the animated series airing on the Cartoon Network. Working opposite Jon Favreau and Clancy Brown as the voice of Darth Maul on Clone Wars, Sam received recognition with an Annie Award nomination for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production in 2012. Outside of sci-fi, audiences remember Sam in his recurring role of Neil Perry on the Emmy winning Showtime series Dexter (2006). Sam's edge perfectly complemented the ground-breaking series in its first season.
A Chicago native and a Juilliard-trained actor, Sam is also an accomplished musician who performed in the LA music scene with his band, The Crashtones.Being Human (US) Aidan Waite- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for El Pollo Loco.
Pitt's earliest credited roles were in television, starting on the daytime soap opera Another World (1964) before appearing in the recurring role of Randy on the legendary prime time soap opera Dallas (1978). Following a string of guest appearances on various television series through the 1980s, Pitt gained widespread attention with a small part in Thelma & Louise (1991), in which he played a sexy criminal who romanced and conned Geena Davis. This led to starring roles in badly received films such as Johnny Suede (1991) & Cool World (1992).
But Pitt's career hit an upswing with his casting in A River Runs Through It (1992), which cemented his status as an multi-layered actor as opposed to just a pretty face. Pitt's subsequent projects were as quirky and varied in tone as his performances, ranging from his unforgettably comic cameo as stoner roommate Floyd in True Romance (1993) to romantic roles in such visually lavish films as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) and Legends of the Fall (1994), to an emotionally tortured detective in the horror-thriller Se7en (1995). His portrayal of frenetic oddball Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) won him a Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Pitt's portrayal of Achilles in the big-budget period drama Troy (2004) helped establish his appeal as an action star and was closely followed by a co-starring role in the stylish spy-versus-spy flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). It was on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith that Pitt, who married Jennifer Aniston in a highly publicized ceremony in 2000, met Angelina Jolie. Pitt left Aniston for Jolie in 2005, a break-up that continues to fuel tabloid stories years after its occurrence.
He continues to wildly vary his film choices, appearing in everything from high-concept popcorn flicks such as Megamind (2010) to adventurous critic-bait like Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Tree of Life (2011). He has received two Best Actor Oscar nominations, for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). In 2014, he starred in the war film Fury (2014), opposite Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Peña.
Pitt and Jolie have 6 children, 3 adopted & 3 biological.Interview With The Vampire (Louis de Pointe du Lac)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Colin Farrell is one of Ireland's biggest stars in Hollywood and abroad. His film presence has been filled with memorable roles that range from an inwardly tortured hit man, to an adventurous explorer, a determined-but-failing writer, and the greatest military leader in history.
Farrell was born on May 31, 1976 in Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland to Rita (Monaghan) and Eamon Farrell. His father and uncle were both professional athletes, and briefly it looked like Farrell would follow in their footsteps. Farrell auditioned for a part in the Irish boy band Boyzone, unsuccessfully. After dropping out of the Gaiety School of Acting, Farrell was cast in Ballykissangel (1996), a BBC television drama. "Ballykissangel" was not his first onscreen role. Farrell had previously been in The War Zone (1999), directed by Tim Roth and had appeared in the independent film Drinking Crude (1997). Farrell was soon to move on to bigger things.
Exchanging his thick Dublin accent for a light Texas drawl, Farrell acted in the gritty Tigerland (2000), directed by Joel Schumacher. Starring Farrell among a number of other budding young actors, the film portrays a group of new recruits being trained for the war in Vietnam. Farrell played the arrogant soldier Boz, drafted into the army and completely spiteful of authority. The film was praised by critics but made little money at the box office. It was Farrell's first big role on film, and certainly not his last. Farrell followed up with American Outlaws (2001), where he played the notorious outlaw Jesse James with Scott Caan, son of legendary actor James Caan, in the role of Cole Younger. The film was a box-office flop and a critical failure. Immediately, Farrell returned to the war drama film that had made him famous. Co-starring in the war film Hart's War (2002) opposite Bruce Willis, Farrell played the young officer captured by the enemy. The film was another failure. Farrell struck gold when he was cast in the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report (2002) that same year. Set in a futuristic time period, Farrell played the character Danny Witwer, a young member of the Justice Department who is sent after Tom Cruise's character. The film was a smash hit, and praised by critics.
Farrell continued this success when he reunited with Joel Schumacher on the successful thriller Phone Booth (2002). Farrell played the role of the victim who is harassed by an unseen killer (Kiefer Sutherland) and is made to reveal his sins to the public. 2003 was a big year for Farrell. He starred in the crime thriller The Recruit (2003) as a young CIA man mentored by an older CIA veteran (Al Pacino). Pacino later stated that Farrell was the best actor of his generation. Farrell certainly continued to be busy that year with Daredevil (2003), which actually allowed him to keep his thick Irish accent. The film was another success for Farrell, as was the crime film S.W.A.T. (2003) where Farrell starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson and LL Cool J. Farrell also acted in the Irish black comedy film Intermission (2003) and appeared another Irish film Veronica Guerin (2003) which reunited him with Joel Schumacher once again. The following year, Farrell acted in what is his most infamous film role yet: the title role in the mighty Oliver Stone film epic Alexander (2004), which is a character study of Alexander the Great as he travels across new worlds and conquers all the known world before him. Farrell donned a blond wig and retained his Irish accent, and gave a fine performance as Alexander. However, both he and the film were criticized. Despite being one of the highest grossing films internationally and doing a good job at the DVD sales, Farrell did not come out of the experience without a few hurts. Farrell attempted to rebound with his historical film The New World (2005). Reuniting with "Alexander" star Christopher Plummer, and also acting with Christian Bale, Farrell played the brave explorer John Smith, who would make first contacts with the Native peoples. The film did not do well at the box office, though critics praised the film's stunning appearance and cinematography.
Farrell returned to act in Michael Mann's film Miami Vice (2006) alongside Jamie Foxx. The film was a film adaptation of the famous television series, and did reasonably well at the box office. Farrell also acted in Ask the Dust (2006) with Salma Hayek and Donald Sutherland, though the film did not receive much distribution. The next year, Farrell acted alongside Ewan McGregor in the Woody Allen film Cassandra's Dream (2007) which received mixed reviews from critics. Farrell followed up with the hilarious black comedy In Bruges (2008). Written and directed by Irish theatre director Martin McDonagh, the film stars Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two Irish hit men whose latest assignment went wrong, leaving them to hide out in Bruges, Belgium. The film has been one of Farrell's most praised work, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe. As well as In Bruges (2008), Farrell acted alongside Edward Norton in the crime film Pride and Glory (2008) which was not as successful as the former film. As well as working with charity, and speaking at the Special Olympics World Games in 2007, he has donated his salary for Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) to Heath Ledger's little daughter (who was left nothing in a will that had not been updated in time). Ledger had originally been cast in the film and was replaced by Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law. The film was a critical and financial success, and Farrell also played a small role in Crazy Heart (2009) which had the Dubliner playing a country singer. Farrell even sang a few songs for the film's soundtrack. As well as those small roles, Farrell took the lead role in the war film Triage (2009). Farrell incredibly lost forty-four pounds to play the role of a war photographer who must come to terms with what he has experienced in Kurdistan. While the film was finely made, with excellent performances from all involved, the film has received almost no distribution.
Farrell's other leading role that year was in Neil Jordan's Irish film Ondine (2009). In recent years, he co-starred in the comedy horror film Fright Night (2011), the science fiction action film Total Recall (2012), both remakes, and McDonagh's second feature, and the black comedy crime film Seven Psychopaths (2012). Since the mid-2000s, Farrell has cleaned up his act, and far from being a Hollywood hell raiser and party animal, he has shown himself to be a respectable and very talented actor.
He also starred in The Lobster (2015) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), both directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. For The Lobster he was nominated for a Golden Globe.Fright Night (remake) Jerry Dandrige- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Preeminent British classical actor of the first post-Olivier generation, Derek Jacobi was knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre, and, in fact, is only the second to enjoy the honor of holding TWO knighthoods, Danish and English (Olivier was the other). Modest and unassuming in nature, Jacobi's firm place in theatre history centers around his fearless display of his characters' more unappealing aspects, their great flaws, eccentricities and, more often than not, their primal torment.
Jacobi was born in Leytonstone, London, England, the only child of Alfred George Jacobi, a department store manager, and Daisy Gertrude (Masters) Jacobi, a secretary. His paternal great-grandfather was German (from Hoxter, Germany). His interest in drama began while quite young. He made his debut at age six in the local library drama group production of "The Prince and the Swineherd" in which he appeared as both the title characters. In his teens he attended Leyton County High School and eventually joined the school's drama club ("The Players of Leyton").
Derek portrayed Hamlet at the English National Youth Theatre prior to receiving his high school diploma, and earned a scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where he initially studied history before focusing completely on the stage. A standout role as Edward II at Cambridge led to an invite by the Birmingham Repertory in 1960 following college graduation. He made an immediate impression wherein his Henry VIII (both in 1960) just happened to catch the interest of Olivier himself, who took him the talented actor under his wing. Derek became one of the eight founding members of Olivier's National Theatre Company and gradually rose in stature with performances in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," "Othello" (as Cassio) and in "Hay Fever", among others. He also made appearances at the Chichester Festival and the Old Vic.
It was Olivier who provided Derek his film debut, recreating his stage role of Cassio in Olivier's acclaimed cinematic version of Othello (1965). Olivier subsequently cast Derek in his own filmed presentation of Chekhov's Three Sisters (1970). On TV Derek was in celebrated company playing Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (1967) alongside Maggie Smith and then-husband Robert Stephens; Derek had played the role earlier at the Chichester Festival in 1965. After eight eventful years at the National Theatre, which included such sterling roles as Touchstone in "As You Like It", Jacobi left the company in 1971 in order to attract other mediums. He continued his dominance on stage as Ivanov, Richard III, Pericles and Orestes (in "Electra"), but his huge breakthrough would occur on TV. Coming into his own with quality support work in Man of Straw (1972), The Strauss Family (1972) and especially the series The Pallisers (1974) in which he played the ineffectual Lord Fawn, Derek's magnificence was presented front and center in the epic BBC series I, Claudius (1976). His stammering, weak-minded Emperor Claudius was considered a work of genius and won, among other honors, the BAFTA award.
Although he was accomplished in The Day of the Jackal (1973) and The Odessa File (1974), films would place a distant third throughout his career. Stage and TV, however, would continue to illustrate his classical icon status. Derek took his Hamlet on a successful world tour throughout England, Egypt, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China; in some of the afore-mentioned countries he was the first actor to perform the role in English. TV audiences relished his performances as Richard II (1978) and, of course Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980).
After making his Broadway bow in "The Suicide" in 1980, Derek suffered from an alarming two-year spell of stage fright. He returned, however, and toured as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1982-1985) with award-winning results. During this period he collected Broadway's Tony Award for his Benedick in "Much Ado about Nothing"; earned the coveted Olivier, Drama League and Helen Hayes awards for his Cyrano de Bergerac; and earned equal acclaim for his Prospero in "The Tempest" and Peer Gynt. In 1986, he finally made his West End debut in "Breaking the Code" for which he won another Helen Hayes trophy; the play was then brought to Broadway.
For the rest of the 80s and 90s, he laid stage claim to such historical figures as Lord Byron, Edmund Kean and Thomas Becket. On TV he found resounding success (and an Emmy nomination) as Adolf Hitler in Inside the Third Reich (1982), and finally took home the coveted Emmy opposite Anthony Hopkins in the WWII drama The Tenth Man (1988). He won a second Emmy in an unlikely fashion by spoofing his classical prowess on an episode of "Frasier" (his first guest performance on American TV), in which he played the unsubtle and resoundingly bad Shakespearean actor Jackson Hedley.
Kenneth Branagh was greatly influenced by mentor Jacobi and their own association would include Branagh's films Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), and Hamlet (1996), the latter playing Claudius to Branagh's Great Dane. Derek also directed Branagh in the actor's Renaissance Theatre Company's production of "Hamlet". In the 1990s Derek returned to the Chichester Festival, this time as artistic director, and made a fine showing in the title role of Uncle Vanya (1996).
More heralded work of late include profound portrayals of the anguished titular painter in Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), the role of Gracchus in the popular, Oscar-winning film Gladiator (2000), and sterling performances in such films as Two Men Went to War (2002), Bye Bye Blackbird (2005), The Riddle (2007), Endgame (2009), The King's Speech (2010), Jail Caesar (2012), and as the King in Cinderella (2015). Continuing to mesmerize on the stage, he has turned in superb performances in "Uncle Vanya" (2000), Friedrich Schiller's "Don Carlos" (2005), _A Voyage 'Round My Father (2006), "Twelfth Night" (2009) and the title role in "King Lear" (2010). On the British TV series front, he has commanded more recent attention in the title role of a crusading monk in the mystery series Mystery!: Cadfael (1994), as Lord Pirrie in Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012), as Alan in Last Tango in Halifax (2012), and as Stuart Bixby in Vicious (2013).
He and his life-time companion of three decades, Richard Clifford, filed as domestic partners in England in 2006. Clifford, a fine classical actor and producer in his own right, has shared movie time with Jacobi in Little Dorrit (1987), Henry V (1989), and the TV version of Cyrano de Bergerac (1985).Underworld: Evolution (Corvinus)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Stephen Dorff was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Nancy and Steve Dorff, a composer. Chosen from over 2000 young men from around the world, he auditioned and won the coveted role of "PK" in John G. Avildsen's The Power of One (1992) in 1992, starring opposite Morgan Freeman, John Gielgud and Fay Masterson. For his performance, he was awarded the Male Star of Tomorrow Award from the National Association of Theater Owners.
Dorff then amassed an impressive list of screen credits, chief among them New Line's Blade (1998), in which he starred opposite Wesley Snipes and won the "Best Villain" at both the MTV Movie and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. He also co-starred with Susan Sarandon in HBO's Earthly Possessions (1999), based on Anne Tyler's novel about an unlikely romance between a young, fumbling bank robber and his hostage. He also starred in Scott Kalvert's street gang drama, Deuces Wild (2002), for MGM and as the champion of bad cinema in the John Waters comedy, Cecil B. Demented (2000), co-starring Melanie Griffith.
Additional credits include XIII: The Conspiracy (2008), Entropy (1999), Blood and Wine (1996) with Jack Nicholson, and opposite Harvey Keitel in City of Industry (1997). He starred as the fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe, in Iain Softley's Backbeat (1994), and as the notorious Candy Darling in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).
His 2000s credits include Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006), Robert Ludlum's Covert One: The Hades Factor (2006), .45 (2006) with Milla Jovovich, Shadowboxer (2005) with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren, and the Disney thriller, Cold Creek Manor (2003), with Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone for director Mike Figgis.
Stephen appeared as disillusioned Hollywood actor and single father Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010), which won a Golden Lion at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. In 2009, Dorff teamed with Somewhere producer G. Mac Brown on Michael Mann's gangster drama Public Enemies (2009), starring opposite Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.
Dorff was most recently cast in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel Leatherface (2017) and the fantasy family film Albion: Rise of the Dannan (2016) _.Blade (Deacon Frost)- Actor
- Soundtrack
- Producer
The handsome, weird and worldly-looking Chris Sarandon has shown his versatility in everything from vampires to Jesus Christ in hypnotic performances that have been controversial but irresistible. He was born Christopher Sarandon, Jr. and raised in Beckley, West Virginia of Greek heritage on both sides (family surname originally Sarondonethes). His mother Cliffie (Cardullias) and father Christopher Sarandon, Sr. were restaurateurs.
As a teen, Chris appeared locally on the musical stage and played drums and sang back-up with a local band called The Teen Tones. His band toured following high school and backed up such music legends as Bobby Darin, Gene Vincent and Danny and the Juniors. Chris later attended West Virginia University majoring in speech, but appearing in such musical productions as "The Music Man" as Harold Hill. He went on to attend the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he received his master's degree in theater and met first wife Susan Sarandon. They married in 1967.
Touring with improv companies and in regional theater productions, he made his professional debut in "The Rose Tattoo" in 1965 and later joined the Long Wharf Theatre Company for a season. The Sarandons moved to New York in 1968, wherein the dark and handsome charmer immediately nabbed the role of Dr. Tom Halverson on the daytime soap Guiding Light (1952), a part that would last two years. Throughout the 1970s he would be rewarded with rich theater acting roles. On Broadway he appeared in "The Rothchilds" and replaced Raul Julia in "Two Gentlemen from Verona" while appearing elsewhere in various Shakespeare and Shaw festivals both here and in Canada.
Chris made a phenomenally successful film debut in a huge, career-risking part as bank robber's Al Pacino's tormented, gender-confused lover in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), earning the New York Film Critics award and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his supporting turn. He took other sordid roles as well, this time in co-leads, such as opposite Margaux Hemingway in the poorly received exploitative thriller Lipstick (1976) and as a demon in the shocker The Sentinel (1977). To avoid being typed as creepy characters, Chris furthered his range of roles in years to come, including the title role in The Day Christ Died (1980), a critically heralded TV-movie. He then received high marks also for his mesmerizing interpretation of two completely different characters with unique subtlety, intelligence, charisma and profoundness as both Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities (1980) and co-starred with Goldie Hawn in the more mainstream Protocol (1984). By the end of the 1970's, he and Susan would divorce and he would remarry (model Lisa Ann Cooper).
Moving into 80s work, Chris endeared himself to a younger generation of film goers with memorable performances in enjoyable roles such as the undeniably sexy, magnetic vampire-next-door in the teen horror classic Fright Night (1985), the cruel, evil-plotting prince in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987) and as the investigating cop in Child's Play (1988), the first in the "Chucky" series about a murdering doll. In recent years Chris has continued steadily on stage, film and TV but at a lesser pace and in less flashy, high-profiled roles.
In 1991 he co-starred on Broadway in the short-lived musical "Nick and Nora" with Joanna Gleason, the daughter of Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal (1963)). Again divorced, he and Gleason married in 1994 and reunited on stage in "Thorn & Bloom" in 1998. They have also appeared together in a number of films, including American Perfekt (1997), Edie & Pen (1996) and Let the Devil Wear Black (1999). He found frightful fun and a major cartoon niche as the voice of Jack Skellington in the original Disney movie The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), reprising the role in sequels, video games and Halloween special events.
Into the millennium, Chris' focus has been more on Broadway and off-Broadway theatre with flavorful roles in "The Light in the Piazza," "Cyrano de Bergerac," "Through a Glass Darkly and "The Exonerated." In the 2015 production of "Preludes," he played multiple roles that included Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy. He has also sporadically appeared in films with featured parts in Perfume (2001), Loggerheads (2005), My Sassy Girl (2008), a cameo as a vampire victim in a remake of Fright Night (2011), Safe (2012) and Frank the Bastard (2013), Big Stone Gap (2014) and I Smile Back (2015). He has also uplifted a number of popular TV shows with his presence: "ER," "Charmed," "Cold Case," "Judging Amy," "Law and Order," "The Good Wife," "Orange Is the New Black" and as the voice of Dracula in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."Fright Night (Jerry Dandrige)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Patrick Nicolas Jean Sixte Ghislain Bauchau was born in Brussels, Belgium. His father, Henry Bauchau, is a noted author, psychoanalyst, and philosopher, while his mother was an educator who also helped operate a publishing company. Coming from an intellectual family, it's not surprising that Bauchau won an academic scholarship to Oxford University, where he received a degree in Modern Languages. In the early '60s, Bauchau became interested in film, and worked with French filmmaker Eric Rohmer; this led to Bauchau being cast in the leading role as Adrien in Rohmer's 1967 "moral tale," La Collectionneuse. Bauchau and his fellow leading actors Haydee Politoff and Daniel Pommereulle were also credited with the film's dialogue. While this got Bauchau's acting career off to an impressive start, his naturalistic performance left many believing that Bauchau was simply playing himself. After "Tuset Street" (also released in 1967), Bauchau temporarily moved away from acting and worked with Salvador Dali constructing large pillow-like animal sculptures.
In 1980, Bauchau re-launched his film career in Robert Kramer's "Guns", and in 1982, Wim Wenders cast him in the leading role of "The State of Things". In 1984, Bauchau made his American film debut in Alan Rudolph's eccentric, romantic comedy "Choose Me", and through much of the rest of the decade he worked regularly on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1991, Bauchau scored an impressive role in Michael Tolkin's superb drama "The Rapture", and four years later the same director gave him a meaty role in "The New Age". Bauchau plays the villain the Bond flick, "A View to a Kill" and has starring roles in Entre Nous and The Music Teacher, both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film In 1996. Bauchau was cast in the television series "Kindred: The Embraced" as a patriarch of the living dead; while the series lasted only a few weeks, it did lead to the series regular role of Sydney in "The Pretender", which debuted the same year and ran for four seasons on NBC. Bauchau's higher profile in television helped him win notable roles in high-profile films such as "Clear and Present Danger", "The Cell", "Ray" and "Panic Room". Bauchau also plays notable roles in the independent features "The Five Obstructions", "Twin Falls Idaho", "The Secretary", "Boy Culture" and "The Gray Man" among several others. Bauchau is a series regular playing the blind seer Lodz on the HBO hit show "Carnivale" and recurs in NBC's "Revelation" and ABC's "Alias". He guest stars on numerous television shows including "Castle", "CSI", "How to Make It In America", "Numbers", "Women's Murder Club", "House", "Dead Zone" and "24" among many others. More recently in Europe Bauchau finished shooting the feature films "Ladrones" in Spain, "Suzanne" (France), "Glenn" (Belgium), "Chrysalis" (Italy) and Michel Houellebecq's "Possibility Of an Island" also filmed in Spain. Bauchau currently stars in the hit French TV series" Mystere". More recently in the USA Bauchau appears in Roland Emmerich's "2012", the Polish Brothers film "The Sweet Smell Of Success" and "Extraordinary Measures" with Harrison Ford. He recently returned from filming in Vera Cruz, Mexico on "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" with Mel Gibson.
Bauchau speaks at least 6 languages fluently and has acted in films in different languages throughout the world. He holds passports in 3 countries including the USA.
When not busy with acting, Bauchau lives in a small village outside Paris, and, in Malibu Lake, California, where he is an avid gardener, reader and art collector. He's married to Mijanou Bardot, Brigitte's sister, who also appears in La Collectionneuse. They have 5 dogs, and an adult daughter that lives in Rome.Kindred: The Embraced (Archon Raine)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ethan Green Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole (Green), a charity worker, and James Steven Hawke, an insurance actuary. His parents were students at the University of Texas at the time but divorced when Ethan was 5 years old. His mother raised him alone for the next five years, moving around the country, until she remarried in 1981 and the family settled in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.
He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and then transferred to the Hun School of Princeton and it was while he was there that he began taking acting classes at the McCarter Theatre on the Princeton campus. His early ambition had been to be a writer, but as a result of the acting lessons and appearances in student productions he persuaded his mother to allow him to attend an audition for a role in a sci-fi adolescent adventure, Explorers (1985). He got the role (along with River Phoenix) but although the movie was favourably reviewed, it met with little commercial success which discouraged Hawke from pursuing further movie roles for several years.
He was admitted to the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University to study theatre but his studies were interrupted when he won his break-through role opposite Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (1989) and he did not complete his degree. He then appeared in numerous films before taking a role in the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994) for which he received critical praise. He starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise (1995), and its later sequels Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).
His subsequent acting career was a mix of theatre work (earning a number of awards and nominations, including a Tony Award nomination for his role in "The Coast of Utopia" at the Lincoln Center in New York), and a mix of serious and more commercial movies, notably Gattaca (1997) (where he met his first wife, Uma Thurman) and Training Day (2001). His role as the father in the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014) earned him multiple award nominations, including the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Meanwhile, he also wrote two novels: "The Hottest State" (1996) and "Ash Wednesday" (2002).Daybreakers (Edward Dalton)- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Jay Laga'aia was born on 10 September 1963 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is an actor and writer, known for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Daybreakers (2009). He has been married to Sandra Jane since 16 August 1990. They have eight children.Daybreakers (Senator Turner)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Hugo Wallace Weaving was born on April 4, 1960 in Nigeria, to English parents Anne (Lennard), a tour guide and teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. Hugo has an older brother, Simon, and a younger sister, Anna, who both also live and work in Australia. During his early childhood, the Weaving family spent most of their time traveling between Nigeria, Great Britain, and Australia. This was due to the cross-country demands of his father's job in the computer industry. Later, during his teens, Hugo spent three years in England in the seventies attending Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School in Bristol. There, he showed early promise in theater productions and also excelled at history, achieving an A in his O-level examination. He arrived permanently in Australia in 1976 and finished his education at Knox Grammar School, Sydney. He graduated from NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art), a college well-known for other alumni such as Mel Gibson and Geoffrey Rush, in 1981. Since then, Hugo has had a steadily successful career in the film, television, and theater industries. However, he has illustrated that, as renowned as he is known for his film work, he feels most at home on stage and continually performs in Australian theater productions, usually with the Sydney Theater Company. With his success has also come extensive recognition. He has won numerous awards, including two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI) for Best Actor in a Leading Role and three total nominations. The AFI is the Australian equivalent of an Academy Award, and Hugo won for his performances in Proof (1991) and The Interview (1998). He was also nominated for his performance in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). He garnered the Best Acting prize for The Interview (1998) at the Montreal Film Festival in 1998 in addition to his AFI Award and, that same year, won the Australian Star of the Year. More recently, roles in films such as The Matrix trilogy as Agent Smith and The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Lord Elrond have considerably raised his international profile. His famous and irreplaceable role in The Matrix movies have made him one of the greatest sci-fi villains of the Twenty-first Century. With each new film, television, or theatrical role, Hugo continues to surpass his audience's expectations and remains one of the most versatile performers working today. He resides in Australia and has two children with partner Katrina Greenwood. Though Hugo and Katrina have never married, they've been a committed couple for over 25 years; while Hugo was quoted as saying marriage "petrified" him in the 1990s, by middle of the following decade he said he no longer felt that way, and that he and Katrina have toyed with the idea of marrying "when we're really old".Strange Planet (in this Australian movie, he dressed up as Count Dracula. Does that count?)- Actor
- Writer
- Art Department
Jeff Kober was born in Billings, Montana on December 18, 1953. Not satisfied with being a rancher, Kober relocated to the L.A. area in his twenties with the desire to become an actor. His first appearance on the small screen was a non-billed role in the 1980s series V (1984). Kober went on to supporting roles in the highly acclaimed Vietnam War drama China Beach (1988) and the short-lived, but now-cult horror series Kindred: The Embraced (1996). Following these series, Kober has guested on some of the most popular television series of the day. They include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), ER (1994), 24 (2001), The Closer (2005) and Criminal Minds (2005).
Kober's big screen career began with the film Out of Bounds (1986), in which he played the first of his signature nefarious characters - "Roy Gaddis", a small-time drug dealer with murderous inclinations. This role led to more film opportunities in The First Power (1990), Tank Girl (1995) (a comedic turn), Defining Maggie (2002), World Without Waves (2004), and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007), among others. Never one to balk at taking a chance in the acting field, Kober has also appeared in several short independent films - the Academy Award-winning Session Man (1991) and, most recently, Lucid (2006), another film that has garnered a number of awards at independent film festivals across the country. He has done extensive stage work, most prominently, as "the father" in Jenny Sullivan's autobiographical work "J For J" and "Defying Gravity". Being a creature of diverse talents, Kober is also a noted artist (he was responsible for the paintings attributed to his character "Daedalus" on Kindred: The Embraced (1996) and is the c/o author of "Art That Pays: The Emerging Artist's Guide to Making a Living" along with Adele Slaughter. On the personal front, Kober is twice divorced (Rhonda Talbot, Kelly Cutrone) and the father of one son. He has, at present, finished work on The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) (set for release in March 2007)-in the role of "Col. Lincoln Redding". Kober's next film was Multiple (2008).Kindred: The Embraced (Daedalus)- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
David Bowie was one of the most influential and prolific writers and performers of popular music, but he was much more than that; he was also an accomplished actor, a mime and an intellectual, as well as an art lover whose appreciation and knowledge of it had led to him amassing one of the biggest collections of 20th century art.
Born David Jones, he changed his name to Bowie in the 1960s, to avoid confusion with the then well-known Davy Jones (lead singer of The Monkees). The 1960s were not a happy period for Bowie, who remained a struggling artist, awaiting his breakthrough. He dabbled in many different styles of music (without commercial success), and other art forms such as acting, mime, painting, and play-writing. He finally achieved his commercial breakthrough in 1969 with the song "Space Oddity", which was released at the time of the moon landing. Despite the fact that the literal meaning of the lyrics relates to an astronaut who is lost in space, this song was used by the BBC in their coverage of the moon landing, and this helped it become such a success. The album, which followed "Space Oddity", and the two, which followed (one of which included the song "The Man Who Sold The World", covered by Lulu and Nirvana) failed to produce another hit single, and Bowie's career appeared to be in decline.
However, he made the first of many successful "comebacks" in 1972 with "Ziggy Stardust", a concept album about a space-age rock star. This album was followed by others in a similar vein, rock albums built around a central character and concerned with futuristic themes of Armageddon, gender dysfunction/confusion, as well as more contemporary themes such as the destructiveness of success and fame, and the dangers inherent in star worship. In the mid-1970s, Bowie was a heavy cocaine abuser and sometime heroin user.
In 1975, he changed tack. Musically, he released "Young Americans", a soul (or plastic soul as he later referred to it) album. This produced his first number one hit in the US, "Fame". He also appeared in his first major film, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). With a permanently-dilated pupil and skeletal frame, he certainly looked the part of an alien. The following year, he released "Station to Station," containing some of the material he had written for the soundtrack to this film (which was not used). As his drug problem heightened, his behavior became more erratic. Reports of his insanity started to appear, and he continued to waste away physically. He fled back to Europe, finally settling in Berlin, where he changed musical direction again and recorded three of the most influential albums of all time, an electronic trilogy with Brian Eno "Low, Heroes and Lodger". Towards the end of the 1970s, he finally kicked his drug habit, and recorded the album many of his fans consider his best, the Japanese-influenced "Scary Monsters". Around this time, he appeared in the title role of the Broadway drama The Elephant Man, and to considerable acclaim.
The next few years saw something of a drop-off in his musical output as his acting career flourished, culminating in his acclaimed performance in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1983, he released "Let's Dance," an album which proved an unexpected massive commercial success, and produced his second #1 hit single in the United States. According to producer Nile Rodgers, the album was made in just 17 days and was "the easiest album" he'd ever made in his life. The tour which followed, "Serious Moonlight", was his most successful ever. Faced with this success on a massive scale, Bowie apparently attempted to "repeat the formula" in the next two albums, with less success (and to critical scorn). Finally, in the late 1980s, he turned his back on commercial success and his solo career, forming the hard rock band, Tin Machine, who had a deliberate limited appeal. By now, his acting career was in decline. After the comparative failure of Labyrinth (1986), the movie industry appears to have decided that Bowie was not a sufficient name to be a lead actor in a major movie, and since that date, most of his roles have been cameos or glorified cameos. Tin Machine toured extensively and released two albums, with little critical or commercial success.
In 1992, Bowie again changed direction and re-launched his solo career with "Black Tie White Noise", a wedding album inspired by his recent marriage to Iman. He released three albums to considerable critical acclaim and reasonable commercial success. In 1995, he renewed his working relationship with Brian Eno to record "Outside." After an initial hostile reaction from the critics, this album has now taken its place with his classic albums. In 2003, Bowie released an album entitled 'Reality.' The Reality Tour began in November 2003 and, after great commercial success, was extended into July 2004. In June 2004, Bowie suffered a heart attack and the tour did not finish its scheduled run.
After recovering, Bowie gave what turned out to be his final live performance in a three-song set with Alicia Keys at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York in November 2006. He also returned to acting. He played Tesla in The Prestige (2006) and had a small cameo in the comedy David Bowie (2006) for fan Ricky Gervais. In 2007, he did a cartoon voice in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) playing Lord Royal Highness. He had a brief cameo in the movie ''Bandslam'' released in 2009; after a ten year hiatus from recording, he released a new album called 'The Next Day', featuring a homage cover to his earlier work ''Heroes''. The music video of ''Stars are Out Tonight'' premiered on 25 February 2013. It consists of other songs like ''Where Are We Now?", "Valentine's Day", "Love is Lost", "The Next Day", etc.
In 2014, Bowie won British Male Solo Artist at the 2014 Brit Awards, 30 years since last winning it, and became the oldest ever Brit winner. Bowie wrote and recorded the opening title song to the television miniseries The Last Panthers (2015), which aired in November 2015. The theme used for The Last Panthers (2015) was also the title track for his January 2016 release, ''Blackstar" (released on 8 January 2016, Bowie's 69th birthday) was met with critical acclaim. Following Bowie's death two days later, on 10 January 2016, producer Tony Visconti revealed Bowie had planned the album to be his swan song, and a "parting gift" for his fans before his death. An EP, No Plan, was released on 8 January 2017, which would have been Bowie's 70th birthday. The day following his death, online viewing of Bowie's music skyrocketed, breaking the record for Vevo's most viewed artist in a single day.
On 15 January, "Blackstar" debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart; nineteen of his albums were in the UK Top 100 Albums Chart, and thirteen singles were in the UK Top 100 Singles Chart. The song also debuted at #1 on album charts around the world, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the US Billboard 200. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Bowie won all five nominated awards: Best Rock Performance; Best Alternative Music Album; Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; Best Recording Package; and Best Rock Song. The wins marked Bowie's first ever in musical categories. David Bowie influenced the course of popular music several times and had an effect on several generations of musicians.The Hunger (John Blaylock)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jonathan Rhys Meyers was born Jonathan Michael Meyers on July 27, 1977, in Dublin, Ireland, to Mary Geraldine (Meyers) and John O'Keeffe, a musician. He and his family moved to County Cork, Ireland, when the actor was nearly a year old, and then, at the age of 3, his father left the family, leaving his mother to care for Jonny and his 3 younger brothers alone.
Rhys Meyers grew up with a tumultuous childhood and being permanently expelled from school at age 16. Happy to be out of school, he began spending time in a local pool hall where he was discovered by Hubbard Casting. The casting agents were talent-spotting for the David Puttnam production of War of the Buttons (1994), and asked Rhys Meyers to appear for an audition. After three days of auditions, however, he did not get the role, and Rhys Meyers gave up on his acting aspirations. Soon afterward, he received a call to audition for a national ad campaign for Knorr Soup, and though embarrassed by the attention from the ad, he soon found himself considered for a major film. His movie acting debut was a very small role in the film A Man of No Importance (1994), where his simple cast credit is as "First Young Man". His first lead role was in the film The Disappearance of Finbar (1996). During a 6-month postponement in production, he returned home to Cork and there received a call about the film Michael Collins (1996). He traveled to Dublin to meet with director Neil Jordan and successfully won the role of Collins' assassin. Jordan wrote about his meeting with the actor, "I have found someone to play Collins' killer. Jonathan Rees-Myers (sic), from County Cork, apparently, who looks like a young Tom Cruise. [He] Comes into the casting session with alarming certainty. Obviously gifted".
Rhys Meyers continued working constantly from that point and appeared in such films as The Maker (1997), Telling Lies in America (1997), and The Tribe (1998). Going on to film The Governess (1998), B. Monkey (1998), Titus (1999) and Ride with the Devil (1999), he has received critical acclaim for several performances, most notably as "Brian Slade" in Velvet Goldmine (1998), as "Steerpike" in the British mini-series Gormenghast (2000), and as a sympathetic football coach in Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Rhys Meyers is also a talented singer and musician, having performed his own vocals in Velvet Goldmine (1998) and appearing on the film's soundtrack. Rhys Meyers still resides in County Cork, Ireland.Dracula (Dracula) NBC Series- Thomas Kretschmann was born in East Germany. Before becoming an actor, he was a swimmer. He has acted in several popular American movies, such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), The Pianist (2002), U-571 (2000), In Enemy Hands (2004), etc. He has three children, Nicolas, Stella and Sascha with his ex-girlfriend Lena.Blade (Damaskinos)
Dracula (Dracula) (Dario Argento, 2012) - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.Daughter of Darkness (Anton / Prince Constantine)- Actor
- Production Manager
- Soundtrack
Louis Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France to Yvonne (née Jourdan) and hotel owner Henry Gendre. He was educated in France, Britain, and Turkey. He trained as an actor with René Simon at the École Dramatique. He debuted on screen in 1939, going on to play cultivated, polished, dashing lead roles in a number of French romantic comedies and dramas.
After his father, the manager of the Cannes Grand Hôtel, was arrested by the Gestapo during World War II, Louis and his two brothers (Pierre Jourdan and Robert Gendre, both of whom became film directors) joined the French underground; his film career came to a halt when he refused to act in Nazi propaganda films.
In 1948, David O. Selznick invited him to Hollywood to appear in The Paradine Case (1947); he remained in the USA and went on to star in a number of Hollywood films. After 1953, he appeared in international productions and, in 1958, appeared in Gigi (1958), his best-known film by American audiences. He also made numerous appearances on American television.
Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills, California in 2015, at age 93.Count Dracula (Dracula)- Writer
- Music Department
- Actor
By August of 1994, Craig Ferguson was established as one of Great Britain's leading comedians - he had just had huge success at the Edinburgh Festival. In January 1995 he moved to Los Angeles where he now works as an actor-writer-director-producer-creator.Modern Vampires (Richard)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large and small, Hollywood films as well as Independent cinema.
In 1979, he was given a role in Michael's Cimino's Heaven's Gate, from which he was fired. Since then, he has collaborated with directors who represent a virtual encyclopedia of modern cinema: James Wan, Robert Eggers, Sean Baker, Kenneth Branagh, Kathryn Bigelow, Sam Raimi, Alan Parker, Walter Hill, Mary Harron, Wim Wenders, Anton Corbijn, Zhang Yimou, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Werner Herzog, Lars Von Trier, Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Anthony Minghella, Theo Angelopoulos, Robert Rodriguez, Phillip Noyce, Hector Babenco, John Milius, Paul Weitz, The Spierig Brothers, Andrew Stanton, Josh Boone, Dee Rees and Julian Schnabel.
Dafoe has been recognized with four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Platoon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Shadow Of The Vampire, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Florida Project, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, and most recently, Best Leading Actor for At Eternity's Gate, for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination. Among his other nominations and awards, he has received two Los Angeles Film Critics Awards, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a National Board of Review Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup, as well as a Berlinale Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement.
Willem was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to Muriel Isabel (Sprissler), a nurse, and William Alfred Dafoe, a surgeon. He is of mostly German, Irish, Scottish, and English descent. He and his wife, director Giada Colagrande, have made three films together: Padre, A Woman, and Before It Had A Name.
His natural adventurousness is evident in roles as diverse as Marcus, the elite assassin who is mentor to Keanu Reeves in the neo-noir John Wick; in his voice work as Gil the Moorish Idol in Finding Nemo and Ryuk the Death God in Death Note; as Paul Smecker, the obsessed FBI agent in the cult classic The Boondock Saints; and as real life hero Leonhard Seppala, who led the 1925 Alaskan dog sled diphtheria serum run in Ericson Core's Togo. That adventurous spirit continues with upcoming films including Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, Abel Ferrara's Siberia, and Paul Schrader's The Card Counter.
Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre collective. He created and performed in all of the group's work from 1977 thru 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Since then, he worked with Richard Foreman in Idiot Savant at The Public Theatre (NYC), with Robert Wilson on two international productions: The Life & Death of Marina Abramovic and The Old Woman opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov and developed a new theatre piece, directed by Romeo Castellucci, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. He recently completed work on Marina Abramovic's opera 7 Deaths of Maria Callas.Shadow of the Vampire (Max Schreck)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Thomas Ian Griffith was born on March 18, 1962 in Hartford, Connecticut. His father was a college professor, his mother a dance teacher. Griffith trained as an opera singer in New York City with Metropolitan Opera star Delia Rigal. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, majoring in English literature and music. While still in school, he was cast in the Broadway show The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He continued to work on Broadway and in regional theater until moving to Los Angeles to star in his first feature film, The Karate Kid Part III. After a successful acting career, Griffith segued into writing full time, including developing multiple pilots for NBC, Universal and Warner Brothers TV. He is married to actress/screenwriter Mary Page Keller. They have two sons, Conner and Eamon.Vampires (Jan Valek)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sam Neill was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to army parents, an English-born mother, Priscilla Beatrice (Ingham), and a New Zealand-born father, Dermot Neill. His family moved to the South Island of New Zealand in 1954. He went to boarding schools and then attended the universities at Canterbury and Victoria. The 6-foot tall star has a BA in English Literature. Following his graduation, he worked with the New Zealand Players and other theater groups. He also was a film director, editor and scriptwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for 6 years.
Sam Neill is internationally recognised for his contribution to film and television. He is well known for his roles in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) and Jane Campion's Academy Award Winning film The Piano (1993). Other film roles include The Daughter (2015), Backtrack (2015) opposite Adrien Brody, MindGamers (2015), United Passions (2014), A Long Way Down (2014), Escape Plan (2013), The Hunter (2011) with Willem Dafoe, Daybreakers (2009), Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), Little Fish (2005) opposite Cate Blanchett, Skin (2008), Dean Spanley (2008), Wimbledon (2004), Yes (2004), Perfect Strangers (2003), Dirty Deeds (2002), The Zookeeper (2001), Bicentennial Man (1999) opposite Robin Williams, The Horse Whisperer (1998) alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Sleeping Dogs (1977), and My Brilliant Career (1979).
He received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the NBC miniseries Merlin (1998). He also received a Golden Globe nomination for One Against the Wind (1991), and for Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). The British Academy of Film and Television honoured Sam's work in Reilly by naming him Best Actor. Sam received an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in Jessica (2004).
Other television includes House of Hancock (2015), Rake (2010), Doctor Zhivago (2002), To the Ends of the Earth (2005), The Tudors (2007) with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Crusoe (2008), Alcatraz (2012) and recently in Old School (2014) opposite Bryan Brown, Peaky Blinders (2013) alongside Cillian Murphy and The Dovekeepers (2015) for CBS Studios.Daybreakers (Charles Bromley)- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Stephen Rea was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Belfast High School and the Queen's University, where he studied English. He later trained at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin. In 1970s, he acted in the Focus Company in Dublin with the talented Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney. After several stage, television and film appearances, he came to international success with his performance in The Crying Game (1992). He was nominated an Oscar for Best Actor.Interview With The Vampire (Santiago)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Dominic Edward Cooper was born and raised in Greenwich, London, England. His mother, Julie (Heron), is a nursery school teacher and a keen theater-goer. His father, Brian Cooper, is an auctioneer. They divorced when Dominic was age 5. His maternal great-grandfather was film enthusiast E.T. Heron, who published The Kinematograph Weekly. He has two older brothers, Nathan and Simon. He had a sister who died in a car accident when she was age 5, which happened before Dominic was born. He also has a half-sister from an extramarital affair by his father and a half-brother from his father's second marriage.
He went to school in Kidbrooke, attending the Thomas Tallis School. He didn't know what to do afterwards and his girlfriend, at the time, suggested that he should apply to drama school. He did his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He performed in the end of year play 'Waiting For Godot' and this performance landed him the renowned agent Pippa Markham.
He graduated in 2000 and started with a few minor roles in television and theater. In 2004, he landed a role at the National Theatre with 'The History Boys'. He originated the role of Dakin, as he was involved in the play from the very beginning. He played the role for two years on the stage and then, for the final time, in his breakthrough film role The History Boys (2006).Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Henry Sturges)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.
Ronald N. Perlman was born April 13, 1950 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy (Rosen), is retired from the City Clerk's Office. His father, Bertram "Bert" Perlman, now deceased, was a repairman and a drummer. His parents were both from Jewish families (from Hungary, Germany and Poland).
With a career spanning over three decades, Perlman has worked alongside such diverse actors as Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Dominique Pinon, Brad Dourif, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jude Law, Christina Ricci, Federico Luppi, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Wincott and Elijah Wood to name a few.
While he has never been a bankable star, Perlman has always had a large fan-base. He started out strong as Amoukar, one of the tribesmen in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Academy Award-winning film Quest for Fire (1981), for which he earned a Genie Award nomination. Perlman teamed up with Annaud again, this time as a hunchback named Salvatore in The Name of the Rose (1986). His first real breakthrough came later when he landed the role of the noble lion-man Vincent, opposite Linda Hamilton on the fantasy series Beauty and the Beast (1987). His work in this role earned him not only a Golden Globe Award but an underground fan following. Sadly the series was canceled in its third season shortly after Hamilton's character's death.
After that, he spent time doing supporting work on television and independent films such as Guillermo del Toro's debut Cronos (1992) (where a lifelong friendship and collaboration between the director and Perlman would blossom) as Angel and his first lead role as One in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's surreal The City of Lost Children (1995). His first real big role in a mainstream film came when Jeunet wanted him for the brutish Johner in his first Hollywood outing Alien: Resurrection (1997). Perlman has also used his distinctive voice to his advantage, appearing in many animated films/series, commercials and he is a video game fan favorite because of his work on such games as the Fallout series.
It was not until much later he received worldwide fame when his good friend Guillermo del Toro helped him land the title role in the big-budget comic book movie Hellboy (2004). Del Toro fought the studio for four years because they wanted a more secure name, but he stood his ground and in 2004, after almost 25 years in and out of obscurity, Perlman became a household name and a sought out actor. Perlman has had one of the most offbeat careers in film, playing everything from a prehistoric ape-man to an aging transsexual and will always be a rarity in Hollywood.
Other notable roles include the cunning Norman Arbuthnot in The Last Supper (1995), sniper expert Koulikov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), vampire leader Reinhardt in Blade II (2002), his reprisal of Hellboy in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) and biker chief Clarence Morrow on the popular series Sons of Anarchy (2008).
He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Opal, and their two children, Blake and Brandon.Blade II (Reinhardt)- Dynamic African American leading man and characters actor William Marshall trained in Grand Opera, Broadway and Shakespeare. In films from the 50s and 60s including: Lydia Bailey (1952), Something of Value (1957), To Trap a Spy (1964) and finally known for being in The Boston Strangler (1968) with Tony Curtis. Marshall really didn't hit it big until the "blaxplotation" era of the 70s. He starred in the contemporary vampire melodrama, Blacula (1972), and its sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973), and the Exorcist-type film, Abby (1974). From the 80s, Marshall was seen as the "King of Cartoons" on the Saturday morning TV kiddie show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986), a job that he accepted on behalf of his grandchildren. Marshall has also appeared in Maverick (1994) and Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996). Marshall retired from acting afterwards and died of Alzheimer's disease in June, 2003.Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Edward Regan Murphy was born April 3, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York, to Lillian Lynch (born: Lillian Laney), a telephone operator, and Charles Edward Murphy, a transit police officer who was also an amateur comedian and actor. After his father died, his mother married Vernon Lynch, a foreman at a Breyer's Ice Cream plant. His brothers are Charlie Murphy & Vernon Lynch Jr. Eddie had aspirations of being in show business since he was a child. A bright kid growing up in the streets of New York, Murphy spent a great deal of time on impressions and comedy stand-up routines rather than academics. His sense of humor and wit made him a stand out amongst his classmates at Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School. By the time he was fifteen, Murphy worked as a stand-up comic on the lower part of New York, wooing audiences with his dead-on impressions of celebrities and outlooks on life.
In the early 1980s, at the age of 19, Murphy was offered a contract for the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players of Saturday Night Live (1975), where Murphy exercised his comedic abilities in impersonating African American figures and originating some of the show's most memorable characters: Velvet Jones, Mr. Robinson, and a disgruntled and angry Gumby. Murphy made his feature film debut in 48 Hrs. (1982), alongside Nick Nolte. The two's comedic and antagonistic chemistry, alongside Murphy's believable performance as a streetwise convict aiding a bitter, aging cop, won over critics and audiences. The next year, Murphy went two for two, with another hit, pairing him with John Landis, who later became a frequent collaborator with Murphy in Coming to America (1988) and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). Beverly Hills Cop (1984) was the film that made Murphy a box-office superstar and most notably made him a celebrity worldwide, and it remains one of the all-time biggest domestic blockbusters in motion-picture history. Murphy's performance as a young Detroit cop in pursuit of his friend's murderers earned him a third consecutive Golden Globe nomination. Axel Foley became one of Murphy's signature characters. On top of his game, Murphy was unfazed by his success, that is until his box office appeal and choices in scripts resulted into a spotty mix of hits and misses into the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Films like The Golden Child (1986) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) were critically panned but were still massive draws at the box office. In 1989, Murphy, coming off another hit, Coming to America (1988), found failure with his directorial debut, Harlem Nights (1989). Another 48 Hrs. (1990), his turn as a hopeless romantic in Boomerang (1992) and as a suave vampire in Vampire In Brooklyn did little to resuscitate his career. However, his remake of Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor (1996) brought Murphy's drawing power back into fruition. From there, Murphy rebounded with occasional hits and misses but has long proven himself as a skilled comedic actor with laudable range pertaining to characterizations and mannerisms. Though he has grown up a lot since his fast-lane rise as a superstar in the 1980s, Murphy has lived the Hollywood lifestyle with controversy, criticism, scandal, and the admiration of millions worldwide for his talents. As Murphy had matured throughout the years, learning many lessons about the Hollywood game in the process, he settled down with more family-oriented humor with Doctor Dolittle (1998), Mulan (1998), Bowfinger (1999), and the animated smash Shrek (2001), in a supporting role that showcased Murphy's comedic personality and charm. Throughout the 2000s, he further starred in the hits The Haunted Mansion (2003), Shrek 2 (2004), Dreamgirls (2006) (for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Norbit (2007), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010).
Murphy was married to Nicole Mitchell Murphy from 1993 to 2006. Murphy has ten children.Vampire in Brooklyn (Maximillian)- Actor
- Producer
Ben Cross was born Harry Bernard Cross on December 16, 1947, in London, England. He was the son of Catherine (O'Donovan), a cleaning woman, from Keelraheen, Dunmanway, Ireland, and Harry Cross, an English doorman and nurse. He began acting at a very young age and participated in grammar school plays -- most notably playing "Jesus" in a school pageant at age twelve.
Ben left home and school at age 15 and worked various jobs, including work as a window washer, waiter and carpenter. He was master carpenter for the Welsh National Opera and property master at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, England. Driven by his desire to be an actor, Ben accepted and overcame the enormous challenges and obstacles that came with the profession. In 1970, at age 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) -- the alma mater of legendary actors such as Sir John Gielgud, Glenda Jackson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Upon graduation from RADA, Ben performed in several stage plays at Duke's Playhouse where he was seen in "Macbeth", "The Importance of Being Earnest", and Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". He then joined the Prospect Theatre Company and played roles in "Pericles", "Twelfth Night" and "Royal Hunt of the Sun". Ben also joined the cast in the immensely popular musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and played leading roles in Peter Shaffer's "Equurs", "Mind Your Head" and the musical "Irma La Douce" -- all at Leicester's Haymarket Theatre.
In 1976, Ben's debut screen appearance came when he went on location to Deventer, Holland, to play Trooper Binns in Joseph E. Levine's World War II epic A Bridge Too Far (1977), which starred a very famous international cast -- namely Dirk Bogarde, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Michael Caine and James Caan. In 1977, Ben became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed in the premier of "Privates on Parade" as Kevin Cartwright and played Rover in a revival of a Restoration play titled "Wild Oats".
Ben's path to international stardom began in 1978 with his extraordinary performance in the musical "Chicago" in which he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer of murderess Roxie Hart. During his performance in this musical, he was recognized and recommended for a leading role in the multiple Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire (1981). The major success of Chariots of Fire (1981) opened the doors to the international film market. Ben followed up Chariots of Fire (1981) with strong and successful performances, most notably in the Masterpiece Theatre miniseries The Citadel (1983), in which he played a Scottish physician, Dr. Andrew Manson, struggling with the politics of the British medical system during the 1920s, and his performance as Ash Pelham-Martyn, a British cavalry officer torn between two cultures in the Home Box Office miniseries The Far Pavilions (1984). During the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Ben appeared in a commercial for American Express with Jackson Scholz, a sprinter for the 1924 American Olympic team whose character was featured in the film Chariots of Fire (1981). In 1986, he subsequently replaced James Garner as the featured actor endorsing the Polaroid Spectra camera. Ben was also featured in GQ Magazine as one of the annual "Manstyle" winners in January 1985, followed by a featured photo shoot in March 1985.
Having stuck by his desire to choose quality roles over monetary potential, Ben enjoyed long-term success in the film industry, for over 40 years. He played several outstanding roles including his portrayal of Solomon, one of the most fascinatingly complex characters of the Bible, in the Trimark Pictures production Solomon (1997). Other outstanding roles included his Barnabus in the MGM remake of the miniseries Dark Shadows (1991); Sir Harold Pearson in the Italian production Honey Sweet Love... (1994); Ikey Solomon in the Australian production The Potato Factory (2000); and his role as Rudolf Hess in the BBC production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial (2006).
Ben was a director, writer and musician, as well. Among many of his original works is the musical "Rage" about Ruth Ellis, which was performed in various regional towns in the London area. He also starred in it and played the role of the hangman. Ben's first single as a lyricist was released by Polydor Records in the late 1970s and was titled "Mickey Moonshine". Other works include "The Best We've Ever Had" and "Nearly Midnight", both written by Ben and directed by his son, Theo Cross. In addition, the original soundtrack for "Nearly Midnight" was written, produced and performed by his daughter, Lauren Cross. These works were performed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2002 and 2003, respectively. "Square One", directed by Ben, was performed at the Etcetera Theatre in London in 2004.
Ben resided all over the world, including London, Los Angeles, New York, Southern Spain, Vienna and Sofia. He was familiar with the Spanish, Italian and German languages and enrolled in a course studying Bulgarian. When he was not filming, he wrote music, screenplays and articles for English language publications. Ben Cross died at age 72 of cancer on August 18, 2020 in Vienna, Austria.Dark Shadows (1991 remake) Barnabas Collins- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Brendan Fehr was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He and his two sisters were raised by his mother, a case manager at the Stony Mountain Correctional Institute. In Vancouver for a wedding in 1997, he dropped by Look Talent Management to inquire about quick-cash modelling assignments. Manager Jim Sheasgreen suggested he try TV acting instead. But a week later, he was up for a nine-line guest role on the high-school-at-sea series Breaker High. Then only days away from starting the University of Manitoba and planning to be a teacher, he heeded his mother's counsel that if he wanted to try acting, he should give it the full effort.The Forsaken (Nick)- Actor
- Director
Kerr Smith was born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Barbara (Hess) and Rick Smith. He has a younger sister, Alison. Kerr graduated from Henderson High School in 1990 and then went on to attend the University of Vermont, graduating with a degree in Business Administration (Accounting and Finance). After college, Kerr moved to New York City where he quickly began his career in acting. After three years in NYC working on "As the World Turns," and films such as "Hit and Runway" and "Kiss and Tell," he moved to Los Angeles where he landed the role of "Jack McPhee" on the hit series "Dawson's Creek" after being in Los Angeles for only seven weeks. Kerr has had a slew of films and TV shows over the last 20 years in the business such as: "Final Destination," "E-Ring", "Justice", "Life Unexpected" and "My Bloody Valentine" just to name a few. He is also the co-owner of the Venice Beach Beer Company. His hobbies include flying airplanes and riding motorcycles.The Forsaken (Sean)- Actor
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Palance quite often exemplified evil incarnate on film, portraying some of the most intensely feral villains witnessed in 1950s westerns and melodrama. Enhanced by his tall, powerful build, icy voice, and piercing eyes, he earned two "Best Supporting Actor" nominations early in his career. It would take a grizzled, eccentric comic performance 40 years later, however, for him to finally grab the coveted statuette.
Of Ukrainian descent, Palance was born Volodymyr Ivanovich Palahniuk (later taking Walter Jack Palance as his legal name) on February 18, 1919 (although some sources, including his death certificate, cite 1920) in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania (coal country), one of six children born to Anna (nee Gramiak) and Ivan Palahniuk. His father, an anthracite miner, died of black lung disease. Palance worked in the mines in his early years but averted the same fate as his father. Athletics was his ticket out of the mines when he won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He subsequently dropped out to try his hand at professional boxing. Fighting under the name "Jack Brazzo", he won his first 15 fights, 12 by knockout, before losing a 4th round decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi on December 17, 1940.
With the outbreak of World War II, his boxing career ended and his military career began, serving in the Army Air Force as a bomber pilot. Wounded in combat and suffering severe injuries and burns, he received the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. He resumed college studies as a journalist at Stanford University and became a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also worked for a radio station until he was bit by the acting bug.
Palance made his stage debut in "The Big Two" in 1947 and immediately followed it understudying Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in the groundbreaking Broadway classic "A Streetcar Named Desire", a role he eventually took over. Following stage parts in "Temporary Island" (1948), "The Vigil" (1948), and "The Silver Tassle" (1949), Palance won a choice role in "Darkness of Noon" and a Theatre World Award for "Promising New Personality." This recognition helped him secure a 20th Century-Fox contract. The facial burns and resulting reconstructive surgery following the crash and burn of his WWII bomber plane actually worked to his advantage. Out of contention as a glossy romantic leading man, Palance instead became the archetypal intimidating villain equipped with towering stance, imposing glare, and killer-shark smile.
He stood out among a powerhouse cast that included actors such as Richard Widmark, Zero Mostel and Paul Douglas in his movie debut in Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets (1950), as a plague-carrying fugitive. He was soon on his way. Briefly billed as Walter Jack Palance before eliminating the first name, the actor made fine use of his former boxing skills and war experience for the film Halls of Montezuma (1951) as a boxing Marine in Richard Widmark's platoon. He followed this with the first of his back-to-back Oscar nods. In Sudden Fear (1952), only his third film, he played rich-and-famous playwright Joan Crawford's struggling actor/husband who plots to murder her and run off with gorgeous Gloria Grahame. Finding just the right degree of intensity and menace to pretty much steal the proceedings without chewing the scenery, he followed this with arguably his finest villain of the decade, that of sadistic gunslinger Jack Wilson who takes on Alan Ladd's titular hero, played by Shane (1953), in a classic showdown.
Throughout the 1950s, Palance doled out strong leads and supports such as those in Man in the Attic (1953) (his first lead), The Big Knife (1955) and the war classic Attack (1956). Mixed in were a few routine to highly mediocre parts in Flight to Tangier (1953), Sign of the Pagan (1954) (as Attila the Hun), and the biblical bomb The Silver Chalice (1954). In between filmmaking were a host of television roles, none better than his down-and-out boxer in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956), a rare sympathetic role that earned him an Emmy Award.
Back and forth overseas in the 1960s and 1970s, Palance would dominate foreign pictures in a number of different genres -- sandal-and-spear spectacles, biblical epics, war stories and "spaghetti westerns." Such films included The Battle of Austerlitz (1960), The Mongols (1961), Barabbas (1961), Night Train to Milan (1962), Contempt (1963), The Mercenary (1968), Marquis de Sade's Justine (1969), The Desperados (1969), It Can Be Done Amigo (1972), Chato's Land (1972), Blood and Bullets (1976), Welcome to Blood City (1977). Back home, he played Fidel Castro in Che! (1969) while also appearing in Monte Walsh (1970), Oklahoma Crude (1973) and The Four Deuces (1975).
On the made-for-television front, Jack played a number of nefarious nasties to perfection, ranging from Mr. Hyde (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)) to Dracula in Dracula (1974) to Ebenezer Scrooge in a "Wild West" version of the Dickens classic Ebenezer (1998). He also played one of the Hatfields in The Hatfields and the McCoys (1975). Jack switched gears to star as a "nice guy" lieutenant in the single-season TV cop drama Bronk (1975). In later years, the actor mellowed with age, as exemplified by roles in Bagdad Cafe (1987), but could still display his bad side as he did as an evil rancher, crime boss or drug lord in, respectively, Young Guns (1988), Batman (1989) and Tango & Cash (1989). Into his twilight years he showed a penchant for brash, quirky comedy capped by his Oscar-winning role in City Slickers (1991) and its sequel. He ended his film career playing Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1999).
His three children by his first wife, actress Virginia Baker -- Holly Palance, Brooke Palance, and Cody Palance -- all pursued acting careers and appeared with their father at one time or another. A man of few words off the set, he owned his own cattle ranch and displayed other creative sides as a exhibited painter and published poet.
His last years were marred by both failing health and the 1998 death of his son Cody from melanoma. He was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died at the Santa Barbara County home of his daughter, Holly Palance, in 2006.Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974) Dracula- Alex Price is known for Storage 24 (2012), Doctor Who (2005) and Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (2016).Doctor Who episode, Vampires in Venice (Francesco)
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Brian Earl Thompson was born on August 28, 1959 in Ellensburg, Washington. Raised on the Columbia River in Longview, he learned the value of academics and athletics, as the son of two teachers and the second of six siblings. His interest in acting was first sparked during his senior year of high school with the role of the Russian ballet instructor, Boris Kolenkhov, in the comedy "You Can't Take it With You". Under the pretense of attending Central Washington University to play football and study business management, he quietly auditioned for every available play, treading the boards for a dozen school productions, from musicals and operas to the more lighthearted fare of Neil Simon.
Earning a scholarship to the University of California-Irvine, he sailed through a three-year Master of Fine Arts program, learning from such theatrical luminaries as playwright Edward Albee, Robert Cohen and Jerzy Grotoswski, and supplementing his education through work with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He began to audition theatrically before graduation, and by that time, he had his SAG card, an agent and five professional credits, including James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), where he and Bill Paxton's clothes were forcibly removed by a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger. About a year after Arnold took Brian's clothes, Sylvester Stallone wanted a hack at Brian as well. After seven auditions and a screen test, Brian earned the right to get impaled on a meat hook, then burned alive, Stallone's Cobra (1986). This began a string of credits that has left Thompson in and around some of Hollywood's biggest and most projects.
Brian has tackled two superhero roles as well: first, Conan the Librarian (1999), starring red in the title role, a PBS special to encourage kids to read. He also earned critical acclaim playing the larger-than-life role of Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts (2000). Probably the first role that demanded use of his classical background as well as his 6' 3" muscled frame. Brian says that no gym can claim him as a member, and that his physique is kept honed by years of windsurfing and kitesurfing. Taking a curiously "musical" approach to his craft, the actor continually seeks fresh rhythms for each new role. Brian verifies his well-rounded nature with a resume that lists such special skills as martial arts (black belt Hapkido), piano and sushi rolling. He currently resides at home with his son Jordan and daughter Daphne.Kindred: The Embraced (Eddie Fiori)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth (Luke)- Actor
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Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.Innocent Blood (Sallie "The Shark" Macelli)- Actor
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One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend Arnould Herbert Hurt, an Anglican clergyman and mathematician, his quiet shyness betrayed an early passion for acting. First enrolled at the Grimsby Art School and St. Martin's School of Art, his focus invariably turned from painting to acting.
Accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960, John made his stage debut in "Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger" followed by "The Dwarfs." Elsewhere, he continued to build upon his 60's theatrical career with theatre roles in "Chips with Everything" at the Vaudeville, the title role in "Hamp" at the Edinburgh Festival, "Inadmissible Evidence" at Wyndham's and "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" at the Garrick. His movie debut occurred that same year with a supporting role in the "angry young man" British drama Young and Willing (1962), followed by small roles in Appuntamento in Riviera (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967).
A somber, freckled, ravaged-looking gent, Hurt found his more compelling early work in offbeat theatrical characterizations with notable roles such as Malcolm in "Macbeth" (1967), Octavius in "Man and Superman" (1969), Peter in "Ride a Cock Horse" (1972), Mike in '"The Caretaker" (1972) and Ben in "The Dumb Waiter" (1973). At the same time he gained more prominence in a spray of film and support roles such as a junior officer in Before Winter Comes (1968), the title highwayman in Sinful Davey (1969), a morose little brother in In Search of Gregory (1969), a dim, murderous truck driver in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a skirt-chasing, penguin-studying biologist in Cry of the Penguins (1971), the unappetizing son of a baron in The Pied Piper (1972) and a repeat of his title stage role as Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974).
Hurt shot to international stardom, however, on TV where he was allowed to display his true, fearless range. He reaped widespread acclaim for his embodiment of the tormented gay writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp in the landmark television play The Naked Civil Servant (1975), adapted from Crisp's autobiography. Hurt's bold, unabashed approach on the flamboyant and controversial gent who dared to be different was rewarded with the BAFTA (British TV Award). This triumph led to the equally fascinating success as the cruel and crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the epic television masterpiece I, Claudius (1976), followed by another compelling interpretation as murderous student Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1979).
A resurgence occurred on film as a result. Among other unsurpassed portraits on his unique pallet, the chameleon in him displayed a polar side as the gentle, pathetically disfigured title role in The Elephant Man (1980), and as a tortured Turkish prison inmate who befriends Brad Davis in the intense drama Midnight Express (1978) earning Oscar nominations for both. Mainstream box-office films were offered as well as art films. He made the most of his role as a crew member whose body becomes host to an unearthly predator in Alien (1979). With this new rush of fame came a few misguided ventures as well that were generally unworthy of his talent. Such brilliant work as his steeple chase jockey in Champions (1984) or kidnapper in The Hit (1984) was occasionally offset by such drivel as the comedy misfire Partners (1982) with Ryan O'Neal in which Hurt looked enervated and embarrassed. For the most part, the craggy-faced actor continued to draw extraordinary notices. Tops on the list includes his prurient governmental gadfly who triggers the Christine Keeler political sex scandal in the aptly-titled Scandal (1989); the cultivated gay writer aroused and obsessed with struggling "pretty-boy" actor Jason Priestley in Love and Death on Long Island (1997); and the Catholic priest embroiled in the Rwanda atrocities in Shooting Dogs (2005).
Latter parts of memorable interpretations included Dr. Iannis in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the recurring role of the benign wand-maker Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), the tyrannical dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta (2005) and the voice of The Dragon in Merlin (2008). Among Hurt's final film appearances were as a terminally ill screenwriter in That Good Night (2017) and a lesser role in the mystery thriller Damascus Cover (2017). Hurt's voice was also tapped into animated features and documentaries, often serving as narrator. He also returned to the theatre performing in such shows as "The Seagull", "A Month in the Country" (1994), "Afterplay" (2002) and "Krapp's Last Tape", the latter for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
A recovered alcoholic who married four times, Hurt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in 2004, and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. That same year (2015) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In July of 2016, he was forced to bow out of the father role of Billy Rice in a then-upcoming London stage production of "The Entertainer" opposite Kenneth Branagh due to ill health that he described as an "intestinal ailment". Hurt died several months later at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, England on January 15, 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.Only Lovers Left Alive (Marlowe)- Actor
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Johnathon Schaech exploded onto the scene as one of Hollywood's most handsome leading men in Jocelyn Moorhouse's How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and Tom Hanks' directorial debut That Thing You Do! (1996) Since then, Johnathon has shown incredible versatility as an actor. Over the last twenty years, he's starred in over one-hundred and sixty Hollywood productions. Working opposite some of the most acclaimed and awarded actors, producers, writers and directors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kenneth Branagh, Ed Harris, Idris Elba, Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, Tom Fontana, Gary Goetzman, Neil Moritz, Greg Araki, Cary Brokaw, Roy Lee, Jessica Lange and Bill Paxton. Schaech recently captivated television audiences as the eccentric movie-star in Showtime's hit series Ray Donovan (2014) and has portrayed comic-book legend Jonah Hex on the first three season's of DC's Legends. (2015-2018) Having aged into a ruggedly handsome man, he's fast becoming one of Hollywood's go-to stars for action roles. Starring in Renny Harlin's 5 Days of War (2014), Todd Robinson's Phantom (2015), Roland Joffe's Texas Rising (2016), Steven C. Miller's Marauders (2017) and soon takes the lead opposite Frank Grillo in the action-packed Reprisal (2018). Johnathon now uses his national voice for dyslexia, working with Harvard University accredited NoticeAbility.org; a nonprofit dedicated to helping students with the brain-based difference identify their unique strengths and build their self-esteem. Johnathon has a four-year-old son, Camden, with his wife of five years, internet influencer Julie Solomon.The Forsaken (Kit)- Actor
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Anton Yelchin was an American actor, known for playing Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in Like Crazy (2011).
He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin, were a successful pair of professional figure skaters in Leningrad, and his grandfather was also a professional sportsman, a soccer player. Anton was a six-month-old baby when he immigrated to the United States, where his parents settled in California and eventually developed coaching careers. He demonstrated his strong personality from the early age of four, and declined his parents' tutelage in figure skating because he was fond of acting and knew exactly what he wanted to do in his life.
Yelchin attended acting classes in Los Angeles, and eventually was noticed by casting agents. In 2000, at the age of 10, he made his debut on television, appearing as Robbie Edelstein in the medical drama ER (1994). At the age of 11, he shot to fame as Bobby Garfield, co-starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and earning himself the 2002 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Young Actor. Over the course of his acting career, Yelchin has already played roles in more than 20 feature films and television productions, including Pavel Chekov in the hugely successful reboot Star Trek (2009), and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Outside of his acting profession, Anton loved reading, and was also fond of playing chess. He wrote music and performed with a band, where he also played piano and guitar.
Anton lived in Los Angeles, California, until his death on the evening of June 19, 2016, outside his LA home, when his parked Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backward on his steep driveway, pinning him against a brick pillar and security fence. This was due to badly designed shifter that indicated park when it was in neutral. This death, along with reports of other near-misses, resulted in a recall of that model.Only Lovers Left Alive (Ian)- Grant Bowler can be seen as the male lead, 'Nolan', in Syfy's Defiance, which returned for its second season, June 2014. Bowler in his recent hiatus shot four movies back-to-back including the psychological action film, "Swelter", alongside Jean Claude Van Damme & Alfred Molina, Sci-Fi thriller "400 Days" with Brandon Routh and Dane Cook, "Lucky Dog" with Amy Smart and the family movie, "Zooey to the Max".
Bowler was last seen on the small screen as 'Richard Burton' in Lifetime's television movie Liz & Dick, and had a widely popular turn as 'Cooter' in the award winning vampire franchise True Blood on HBO. He is perhaps best known for his work as recurring character 'Connor Owens' on Ugly Betty and as 'Captain Gault' in TV blockbuster Lost.
Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, he is a graduate of the esteemed Australian drama school NIDA, alongside other notable graduates including Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett and Sam Worthington.
Prior to basing himself in Los Angeles, Grant carried many successful Australian TV roles including dramas Blue Heelers, Pacific Drive, All Saints, Something In The Air, as well as starring in the mini-series Through My Eyes about the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlin, Lindy Chamberlin's baby and the Australian TV movie The Great Mint Swindle. He's also been seen in the widely viewed NZ crime drama Outrageous Fortune, where he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2010 Qantas Film and Television Awards. 2012 saw Bowler add an International Emmy win to his list of career accomplishments.True Blood (Cooter) - Actor
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Martin Kemp was born on 10 October 1961 in Islington, London, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Stalker (2010), EastEnders (1985) and The Krays (1990). He has been married to Shirlie Kemp since 14 November 1988. They have two children.Embrace of the Vampire (Vampire)- Actor
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Cheech Marin was born on 13 July 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Born in East L.A. (1987), Tin Cup (1996) and Up in Smoke (1978). He has been married to Natasha Rubin since 8 August 2009. He was previously married to Rikki Marin and Patti Heid.From Dusk Till Dawn (Border Guard / Chet Pussy / Carlos)- Actor
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Danny Trejo was born Dan Trejo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, to Alice (Rivera) and Dan Trejo, a construction worker. A child drug addict and criminal, Trejo was in and out of jail for 11 years. While serving time in San Quentin, he won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles. Imprisoned for armed robbery and drug offenses, he successfully completed a 12-step rehabilitation program that changed his life. While speaking at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting in 1985, Trejo met a young man who later called him for support. Trejo went to meet him at what turned out to be the set of Runaway Train (1985). Trejo was immediately offered a role as a convict extra, probably because of his tough tattooed appearance. Also on the set was a screenwriter who did time with Trejo in San Quentin. Remembering Trejo's boxing skills, the screenwriter offered him $320 per day to train the actors for a boxing match. Director Andrey Konchalovskiy saw Trejo training Eric Roberts and immediately offered him a featured role as Roberts' opponent in the film. Trejo has subsequently appeared in many other films, usually as a tough criminal or villain.
Trejo is of Mexican descent.From Dusk Till Dawn (Razor Charlie)
From Dusk Till Dawn, The Series (The Regulator)