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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.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known as The Rock, was born on May 2, 1972 in Hayward, California. He is the son of Ata Johnson (born Feagaimaleata Fitisemanu) and professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). His father, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, is black (of Black Nova Scotian descent), and his mother is of Samoan background (her own father was Peter Fanene Maivia, also a professional wrestler). While growing up, Dwayne traveled around a lot with his parents and watched his father perform in the ring. During his high school years, Dwayne began playing football and he soon received a full scholarship from the University of Miami, where he had tremendous success as a football player. In 1995, Dwayne suffered a back injury which cost him a place in the NFL. He then signed a three-year deal with the Canadian League but left after a year to pursue a career in wrestling.
He made his wrestling debut in the USWA under the name Flex Kavanah where he won the tag team championship with Brett Sawyer. In 1996, Dwayne joined the WWE and became Rocky Maivia where he joined a group known as "The Nation of Domination" and turned heel. Rocky eventually took over leadership of the "Nation" and began taking the persona of The Rock. After the "Nation" split, The Rock joined another elite group of wrestlers known as the "Corporation" and began a memorable feud with Steve Austin. Soon the Rock was kicked out of the "Corporation". He turned face and became known as "The Peoples Champion". In 2000, the Rock took time off from WWE to film his appearance in The Mummy Returns (2001). He returned in 2001 during the WCW/ECW invasion where he joined a team of WWE wrestlers at The Scorpion King (2002), a prequel to The Mummy Returns (2001).
Dwayne has a daughter, Simone Alexandra Johnson, born in 2001, with his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and daughters, Jasmine, born in 2015, and Tiana Gia, born in 2018, with his wife, singer and songwriter Lauren Hashian.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent. He was raised by his astrologer/psychologist mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and adoptive father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theatre manager, in an artists' housing project in New York City's Greenwich Village. He never knew his biological father. His mother is white (with English, German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry), and his adoptive father is African-American; referring to his biological father's background, Diesel has said that he himself is "definitely a person of colour".
His first break in acting happened by chance, when at the age of seven he and his friends broke into a theatre to vandalize it. A woman stopped them and offered them each a script and $20, on the condition that they would attend everyday after school. From there, Vin's fledgling career progressed from the New York repertory company run by his father, to the Off-Off-Broadway circuit. At age seventeen and already sporting a well-honed physique, he became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to Vin Diesel.
Following high school, Vin enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but dropped out after three years to go to Hollywood to further his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York. His mother then gave him a book called "Feature Films at used Car Prices" by Rick Schmidt. The book showed him that he could take control of his career and make his own movies. He wrote a short film based on his own experiences as an actor, called Multi-Facial (1995), which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000. Multi-Facial (1995) was eventually accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it got a tumultuous reception.
Afterwards, Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first feature, Strays (1997). Six months after shooting, the film was accepted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and although it received a good reception, it did not sell as well as hoped. Yet again Vin returned disappointed to New York only to receive a dream phone call. Steven Spielberg was impressed by Multi-Facial (1995) and wanted to meet Vin, leading him to be cast in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Multi-Facial (1995) earned Vin more work, when the director of The Iron Giant (1999) saw it and decided to cast Vin in the title role. From there, Vin's career steadily grew, with him securing his first lead role, as Richard B. Riddick in the sci-fi film Pitch Black (2000). The role has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.
Since then, he has headlined a series of blockbusters, often but not only centered on fast-driving motor vehicles: The Fast and the Furious (2001), xXx (2002), The Pacifier (2005), Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Furious 7 (2015). He also voiced Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and starred in the lower-budgeted courtroom drama Find Me Guilty (2006), the latter directed by Sidney Lumet.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 29, 1964. His childhood found him moving from city to city with his family: mother Bettye (née North), a teacher; father Donald Frank Cheadle Sr., a clinical psychologist; sister Cindy; and brother Colin. After graduating from high school in Denver, Colorado, Cheadle attended and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a bachelor¹s degree in fine arts. Encouraged by his college friends, he attended a variety of auditions and landed a recurring role on the hit series Fame (1982), which led to feature film roles in Dennis Hopper's Colors (1988) and John Irvin's Hamburger Hill (1987).
Early in his career, Cheadle was named Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his breakout performance opposite Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). His subsequent film credits include Traitor (2008), an international thriller that he produced, starring opposite Guy Pearce; Kasi Lemmons's Talk to Me (2007), with Chiwetel Ejiofor; the 2006 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Crash (2004), which Cheadle also produced; Hotel Rwanda (2004), for which his performance garnered Oscar, Golden Globe, Broadcast Film Critics and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for Best Actor; Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007) with Adam Sandler; the Academy Award-winning Traffic (2000) and Out of Sight (1998), with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, both films also directed by Soderbergh; Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed Boogie Nights (1997) with Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg; Bulworth (1998), directed by and starring Warren Beatty; Swordfish (2001), with John Travolta and Halle Berry; Mission to Mars (2000) with Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise; John Singleton's Rosewood (1997), for which Cheadle earned an NAACP Image Award nomination; Brett Ratner's The Family Man (2000), starring Nicolas Cage; and the independent features Manic (2001) and Things Behind the Sun (2001).
Cheadle was honored by the CineVegas Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival and received ShoWest's Male Star of the Year award. He is also well-recognized for his television work, including his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack (1998), for which he received a Golden Globe Award and a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nomination. That same year, he also received an Emmy nomination for his starring role in HBO's adaptation of the best-selling novel A Lesson Before Dying (1999), opposite Cicely Tyson and Mekhi Phifer.
He also starred for HBO in Eriq La Salle's Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996). Cheadle's TV series credits include his two-year stint in David E. Kelley's acclaimed series Picket Fences (1992), a guest-starring role on ER (1994) (earning yet another Emmy nomination) and a regular role on The Golden Palace (1992) He also starred in the live television broadcast of Fail Safe (2000) opposite George Clooney, James Cromwell, Brian Dennehy, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harvey Keitel. He also co-executive produced the TV version of Crash (2008).
His most recent big-screen appearances have been in Antoine Fuqua's ensemble crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest (2009) and Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), another mainstream breakthrough where he played Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, replacing Terrence Howard from the first film. The Guard (2011), an art-house hit directed by John Michael McDonagh and co-starring Brendan Gleeson, followed.
Cheadle stars in House of Lies (2012) on Showtime. Late in 2012, he was seen in Flight (2012), Robert Zemeckis's return to live-action filmmaking. In 2013, he reprised his role as Rhodey in Iron Man 3 (2013). Among his projects in development is a movie based on the life of jazz legend Miles Davis.
A talented musician who plays saxophone, writes music and sings, he is also an accomplished stage actor and director and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Spoken Word Album for his narration/dramatization of the Walter Mosley novel 'Fear Itself.'
Other notable off-stage achievements include the 2007 BET Humanitarian Award for the cause of the people of Darfur and Rwanda, and sharing the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome with George Clooney for their work in Darfur.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Timothy Leonard Spall is an award-winning classical character actor who was born on February 27, 1957, and raised in London. The son of blue-collar parents, Joseph L. Spall, a postal worker, and Sylvia R. (Leonard), a hairdresser, his interest in acting happened early and Spall auditioned and earned a spot with the National Youth Theatre.
The young actor showed great promise at RADA where he portrayed the title roles in "Macbeth" and "Othello." In 1979 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and stayed for approximately two years performing in such plays as "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Cymbeline," "The Three Sisters," "Nicholas Nickleby" and "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." With other rep companies, he appeared in, among others, "The Merchant" and "St. Joan."
Making his minor debut in a filmed version of the play The Life Story of Baal (1978), Tim went on to play featured roles in offbeat films such as Quadrophenia (1979), Remembrance (1982), The Missionary (1982), The Bride (1985), Body Contact (1987), Crusoe (1988), To Kill A Priest (1988), Dream Demon (1988) and 1871 (1990)
In the 1990's, Timothy surged forward largely through his association with prolific writer/director Mike Leigh, appearing in a number of his award-winning, working-class features. Those included his doomed chef Aubrey in Life Is Sweet (1990); brother/uncle Maurice in Secrets & Lies (1996) (BAFTA Award nomination); the vulnerable performer Richard Temple in the Gilbert & Sullivan biopic Topsy-Turvy (1999) (another BAFTA nomination); and the benign taxi driver Phil in All or Nothing (2002). He also worked for other noted directors including Ken Russell in Gothic (1986), Clint Eastwood in White Hunter Black Heart (1990), Bernardo Bertolucci in The Sheltering Sky (1990), and Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet (1996) (as Rosenkrantz).
Tim impressed on the small screen as well during this time, accentuated by his starring work on series TV as the luckless Frank Stubbs Promotes (1993) as well as the comedies Nice Day at the Office (1994) and Outside Edge (1994), and his BAFTA-nominated TV roles in Our Mutual Friend (1998), Shooting the Past (1999) and Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001).
A battle with myeloid leukemia sharply curtailed Tim's momentum for a time, but he returned healthy into the millennium in superb lead and support form to create arguably his most hissable cinematic character. As the cowardly, half-blooded wizard Peter Pettigrew, Tim inhabited the role in several of the nine "Harry Potter" blockbusters from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). He also earned superb notices as: one of the charitable Cheeryble brothers in Nicholas Nickleby (2002); gullible banker Mr. Poe in the wild Jim Carrey adventure comedy A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004); humorous Simon Graham in the Tom Cruise starrer The Last Samurai (2003); evil queen henchman Nathaniel in the delightful Disney film Enchanted (2007); the villainous Beadle in the dark musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007); the over-anxious lawyer starring role in the family dramedy Reuniting the Rubins (2010); Sir Winston Churchill in The King's Speech (2010); werewolf hunter Sid in the horror comedy Love Bite (2012); eccentric painter J.M.W. Turner portrait in Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner (2014) (Cannes, London Critics Circle, New York Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics winner); the co-lead with Juno Temple in the social drama Away (2016); legal combatant David Irving in the Holocaust-themed Denial (2016); part of an upper-class couple (opposite Kristin Scott Thomas in the dark social comedy The Party (2017); a syndicated boss in The Corrupted (2019); and as artist L.S. Lowry opposite Vanessa Redgrave playing his mother in the biopic Mrs Lowry & Son (2019).
Tim's more recent notable TV outings have included his Fagin in the mini-series version of the Dickens classic Oliver Twist (2007), the title role in the TV-movie The Fattest Man in Britain (2009), and as Eddie in the series The Street (2006), Lord Blandings in the comedy Blandings (2013) and Lord Wallington in the dramatic mini-series Summer of Rockets (2019).
The father of three children, one of his children, Rafe Spall, is a prolific actor in his own right.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Frances de la Tour (born 30 July 1944) is an English actress, known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the television sitcom Rising Damp from 1974 until 1978. She is a Tony Award winner and three-time Olivier Award winner.
She performed as Mrs. Lintott in the play The History Boys in London and on Broadway, winning the 2006 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She reprised the role in the 2006 film. Her other film roles include Madame Olympe Maxime in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010). Other television roles include Emma Porlock in the Dennis Potter serial Cold Lazarus (1996), Headmistress Margaret Baron in BBC sitcom Big School and Violet Crosby in the sitcom Vicious.
De la Tour was born in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, to Moyra (née Fessas) and Charles de la Tour. The name was also spelt De Lautour, and it was in this form that her birth was registered in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, in the third quarter of 1944. She has French, Greek, and Irish ancestry. She was educated at London's Lycée Français and the Drama Centre London.
She is the sister of actor and screenwriter Andy de la Tour.
She has a son and a daughter.
An episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, first broadcast on 22 October 2015, revealed De La Tour to be a descendant of the aristocratic Delaval family.
After leaving drama school, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1965. Over the next six years, she played many small roles with the RSC in a variety of plays, gradually building up to larger parts such as Hoyden in The Relapse and culminating in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which she played Helena as a comic "tour de force".
In the 1970s, she worked steadily both on the stage and on television. Some of her notable appearances were Rosalind in As You Like It at the Playhouse, Oxford in 1975 and Isabella in The White Devil at the Old Vic in 1976. She enjoyed a collaboration with Stepney's Half Moon Theatre, appearing in the London première of Dario Fo's We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay (1978), Eleanor Marx's Landscape of Exile (1979), and in the title role of Hamlet (1980).
In 1980, she played Stephanie, the violinist with MS in Duet for One, a play written for her by Kempinski, for which she won the Olivier for Best Actress. She played Sonya in Uncle Vanya opposite Donald Sinden at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1982. Her performance as Josie in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten won her another Olivier for Best Actress in 1983. She joined the Royal National Theatre for the title role in Saint Joan in 1984 and appeared there in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1986. She again won the Olivier, this time for Best Supporting Actress for Martin Sherman's play about Isadora Duncan, When She Danced, with Vanessa Redgrave at the Globe Theatre in 1991 and played Leo in Les Parents terribles at the Royal National Theatre in 1994, earning another Olivier nomination.
In 1994, de la Tour co-starred with Maggie Smith in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at the Wyndham's and with Alan Howard in Albee's The Play About the Baby at the Almeida in 1998. In 1999, she returned to the RSC to play Cleopatra opposite Alan Bates in Antony and Cleopatra, in which she did a nude walk across the stage. In 2004, she played Mrs. Lintott in Alan Bennett's The History Boys at the National and later on Broadway, winning both a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She would also later appear in the film version. In December 2005, she appeared in the London production of the highly acclaimed anti-Iraq war one-woman play Peace Mom by Dario Fo, based on the writings of Cindy Sheehan. In 2007, she appeared in a West End revival of the farce Boeing-Boeing. In 2009, she appeared in Alan Bennett's new play The Habit of Art at the National. In 2012, she returned to the National in her third Bennett premiere, People.
Her many television appearances during the 1980s and 1990s include the 1980 miniseries Flickers opposite Bob Hoskins, the TV version of Duet for One, for which she received a BAFTA nomination, the series A Kind of Living (1988-89), Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus (1996), and Tom Jones (1997). Of all her TV roles, however, she is best known for playing spinster Ruth Jones in the successful Yorkshire television comedy Rising Damp, from 1974 to 1978. De la Tour told Richard Webber, who penned a 2001 book about the series, that Ruth Jones "was an interesting character to play. We laughed a lot on set, but comedy is a serious business, and Leonard took it particularly seriously, and rightly so. Comedy, which is so much down to timing, is exhausting work. But it was a happy time." Upon reprising her Rising Damp role in the 1980 film version, she won Best Actress at the Evening Standard Film Awards.
In the mid-1980s, de la Tour was considered, along with Joanna Lumley and Dawn French, as a replacement for Colin Baker on Doctor Who. The idea was scrapped and the job was given to Sylvester McCoy.
In 2003, de la Tour played a terminally ill lesbian in the film Love Actually with the actress Anne Reid, although their scenes were cut from the film and appear only on some DVD releases as a bonus feature.
In 2005, she portrayed Olympe Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a role she reprised in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Notable television roles during this time include Agatha Christie's Poirot: Death on the Nile (2004), Waking the Dead (2004), the black comedy Sensitive Skin (2005), with Joanna Lumley and Denis Lawson, Agatha Christie's Marple: The Moving Finger (2006) and New Tricks as a rather morbid Egyptologist, also in 2006.
She was nominated for the 2006 BAFTA Award for Actress in a Supporting Role for her work on the film version of The History Boys.
She later appeared in several well-received films, including Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland as Aunt Imogene, a delusional aunt of Alice's, opposite Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Mia Wasikowska and a supporting role in the film The Book of Eli, directed by the Hughes brothers. In 2012, she appeared in the film Hugo.
Until 2012, she was also a patron for the performing arts group Theatretrain.
From 2013 to 2016, de la Tour played the role of Violet Crosby in ITV sitcom Vicious (2013) with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi.
From 2013 to 2014, she portrayed headmistress Ms Baron in the BBC One sitcom Big School.
In April 2016, she joined the second series of _Outlander_as Mother Hildegarde.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harry Melling started acting at the age of 10 in the Harry Potter films playing the role of Dudley Dursley.
In his mid-teens he joined the National Youth Theatre appearing in a number of shows including "The Master and Margarita".
Harry at the age of 18 attended the LAMDA (London Academy Of Music and Dramatic Art.) He left early when offered to join the company of "Mother Courage and her Children" at the National Theatre alongside on-screen mother Fiona Shaw.
This kick-started a long series of theatre roles which included Harold Pinter's "The Hothouse," the Old Vic Theatre's, "King Lear" opposite Glenda Jackson, and the lead in the West End transfer of hit show, "Hand To God."
Harry in 2017 won the role in the new Coen Brother's film, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs." This premiered at the Venice Film Festival.- The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for prize money'. Like most children, Richard's "mother tongue" was the same as his parents. In his case, that was sign language. Like many kids in the 50s, his world did not include television. He had to explain sounds to his parents, for example music. Griffiths made a career out of language. For instance, he developed a talent for dialects which later allowed him to shine in a number of ethnic portrayals. He attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and then began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre. He subsequently became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he often excelled playing Shakespeare's comic characters.
In a 2007 interview, Griffiths said "I like playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids. I hate the odious business of sucking up to the public." In fact, unlike those jovial characters he so often portrayed on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly. On occasion, he would get stroppy with members of an audience, especially those failing to switch off their mobile phones during a performance (who could blame him?). He was also highly thought of as a raconteur and wit.
The ever-versatile, often bespectacled and bearded Griffiths did his best work for the small screen, excelling as the inquisitive and resourceful civil servant Henry Jay in Bird of Prey (1982) and as the lovable 'cooking policeman' Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994), a role specially created for him. As comic relief he made many a hilarious guest appearance, in, among other popular series, The Vicar of Dibley (1994) (as the Bishop of Mulberry) and as Dr. Bayham Badger in the superb BBC adaption of Bleak House (2005). He could also play evil and sinister, none more so than Swelter in Gormenghast (2000), a character Griffiths described being at once "laughably comic" and "a monster like Idi Amin". He was also much sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in a dual role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), as the ill-fated Magistrate Philipse in Tim Burton 's Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as King George in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
The much-acclaimed actor won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Griffiths was uncommonly skinny as a child and this required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. It caused his metabolism to slow to such an extent that he eventually became obese, a condition which in all likelihood contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at the age of 65. - Actress
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Shaw was already an accomplished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film, My Left Foot (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found incredible success as an artist and writer. Shaw portrayed Eileen Cole, the doctor largely responsible for Christy's education and physical rehabilitation. Since, Shaw has received several accolades for her film and television performances.- Actress
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Sandra Oh was born to Korean parents in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Oh Junsu, a businessman, and her mother, Oh Young-Nam, a biochemist, were married in Seoul, Korea. They both attended graduate school at the University of Toronto. Sandra began her career as a ballet dancer and eventually studied drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal. She then starred in a London (Ontario) stage production of David Mamet's "Oleanna" and appeared as the title character in the Canadian television production The Diary of Evelyn Lau (1994), beating out over 1,000 applicants. Her list of awards includes the FIPA d'Or for Best Actress at the 1994 Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels at Cannes, France, two Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscar), a Cable Ace Award, a Theatre World Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2003, she married writer-director Alexander Payne and their first film together was the Oscar-winning Sideways (2004).- Actress
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Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress and rapper. She has played supporting roles in the comedy films Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and her leading role in the comedy-drama The Farewell (2019) earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress nomination.
She has released two albums, Yellow Ranger (2014) and In Fina We Trust (2018). She has also ventured into comedy and hosting, making television appearances in Girl Code, Future Man, and Saturday Night Live.
Lum was born in New York City to painter and South Korean immigrant Tia, who died when she was four, and Chinese-American father Wally. She grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, raised by her father and his grandparents; she became especially close to her grandmother. One of her paternal great-grandfathers was a Chinese immigrant in the 1940s; he opened the Cantonese restaurant Lum's in Flushing, Queens that was one of that neighborhood's first Chinese restaurants.
Lum attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where she played the trumpet and was trained in classical music and jazz. At age 16, she adopted the stage name Awkwafina, "definitely a person I repressed" and an alter ego to her "quiet and more passive" personality during her college years. Lum majored in journalism and women's studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. From 2006 to 2008, Lum attended Beijing Language and Culture University in China, where she studied Mandarin.
Lum states that Charles Bukowski, Anaïs Nin, Joan Didion, Tom Waits, and Chet Baker were early influences. Prior to her career in entertainment, she was an intern at local New York publications Gotham Gazette and the Times Union newspaper in Albany, and was a publicity assistant for publishing house Rodale.- Actor
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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.- Actor
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Aaron Yoo was born on 12 May 1979 in New Jersey, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for 21 (2008), Disturbia (2007) and Friday the 13th (2009).- Actor
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Dat Phan is the Original Winner of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and is a Headlining Comedian touring live across the U.S. He has made numerous TV and movie appearances including "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "The Family Guy" voice-over, and "Cellular". Most recently Dat has appeared on "The Tyra Banks Show" discussing racial diversity.
Dat Phan was born in Saigon, Vietnam and immigrated with his mother to San Diego, CA. He suffered through financial hardships most of his childhood. After 9/11 he realized life was short and decided to go for his dream to pursue comedy full time. Moving to LA he had to live out of his car and even after being robbed at gunpoint he wouldn't stop pursuing his dream. Dat answered phones for The Improv in Hollywood during the day and tried to get as much stage time as possible at night; this meant he often went on well after midnight when crowds were often more drunk than coherent. Later, Dat took the risk and auditioned for the experimental, comedy based show produced by NBC that would launch his career. The rest is history as he was named the funniest person in America on August 5, 2003
Dat's culturally insightful comedy inspects ridiculous stereotypes, and shares his experience of being a regular American guy with a Vietnamese heritage. His youthful energy and truly unique life experiences, including all the tough times, are combined to create the message of living your dreams and reaching out for the stars. Dat Phan's mission is to bring a more positive portrayal of Asian-Americans to mainstream entertainment and Hollywood. "We want to be seen as more than just martial artists, or bad stereotype token roles in American TV & Movies."
Dat Phan has been included in The Smithsonian Institution's exhibition of The Top 10 Most Influential Vietnamese-American Individuals. The DVD "Dat Phan Live" was released in January 2010 and is available via Amazon. His CD "You Touch, You Buy" was released in 2009. Dat's latest CD, "Born in Saigon...California" is now available on iTunes and Amazon.- Actor
- Producer
Jon Bernthal was born and raised in Washington D.C., the son of Joan (Marx) and Eric Bernthal, a lawyer. His grandfather was musician Murray Bernthal. Jon went to study at The Moscow Art Theatre School, in Moscow, Russia, where he also played professional baseball in the European professional baseball federation. While in Moscow, he was noticed by the director of Harvard University's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre and was invited to obtain his M.F.A there. After graduating in 2002 he has performed in over 30 plays regionally and off-Broadway including many with his own award-winning theatre company Fovea Floods. He now lives in Venice, California with his dog, Boss.- Actor
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He is an acclaimed Canadian voice and motion capture artist for the hit game Grand Theft Auto V (2013) in the role of Trevor Philips. He was nominated in numerous events for the role including a VGX nomination for Best Voice Actor.
He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on November 4, 1973. Before fame, He first appeared on screen as part of a promotion for the National Film Board of Canada. He made his professional debut in an episode of Law & Order (1990). In an amazing trivia, He had roles on television series such as Unforgettable as Larry Yablonski and Broad City as a creepy locksmith. He appeared in a season 3 episode of the James Caviezel starring CBS drama Person of Interest (2011).
Ogg began his acting career in an advertisement for the National Film Board of Canada, before working in various theater productions. Following this, he became more focused on a career in sports, before an injury prevented him from pursuing such a career. After moving to New York, Ogg began acting professionally, starring in television shows such as Law & Order (1990) and Third Watch (1999), in addition to some theater work and voice acting. After taking a break from acting so that he could build a house, Ogg was hired by Rockstar Games to as the voice actor and motion capture artist for Trevor Philips in their video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Following the release of the game, Ogg's character was critically acclaimed, and he later had various public appearances, due to his portrayal.- Actor
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Michael Rooker was born on April 6, 1955 in Jasper, Alabama. When he was thirteen, his parents divorced and he went with his mother to live in Chicago. He caught the acting bug while attending college, and began appearing in local stage productions. On first breaking into film, his intensity and "don't-mess-with-me" good looks were highlighted to chilling effect as he title character in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), filmed in 1986 but, due to its controversial nature, not released until 1990. Since that widely noticed and highly praised performance, much of his career has been spent playing brutes, villains and psychopaths. However, his occasional turns as a "good guy" are always well-acted and a welcome change for a talented actor too often typecast.
2017 marks an exciting time for Rooker, as he starred in two films premiering just two months of each other. On March 17, audiences saw Rooker in Blumhouse Tilt's indie horror thriller The Belko Experiment (2016). The film is the terrifying yet humorous look at a group of employees that become guinea pigs in a company-wide experiment that leads them to either kill their fellow employees or be killed themselves. Returning to his indie roots, Rooker starred as maintenance worker, Bud Melks, one of the employees trapped in the office building, who may or may not be able to kill his fellow staff member. On May 5, Rooker reprised his role as Yondu in the highly anticipated sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). The film follows the same group of galactic underdogs saving the universe to a stellar soundtrack. Rooker's breakout performance earned him critical acclaim, as audiences were introduced to a more dramatic Yondu. The film went on to earn over $145 million domestically its opening weekend and has surpassed its predecessor by grossing over $850 million worldwide.
Rooker made his film debut, playing the title role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), a film based on the confessions of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. It was here that audiences were first introduced to Rooker's impeccable ability to channel a character's idiosyncrasies and subtleties. He has also starred in some of the most iconic films, such as Mississippi Burning (1988), Sea of Love (1989), JFK (1991), Tombstone (1993) and Jumper (2008) to name a few. In August 2014, Rooker starred in one of the most memorable franchises in the Marvel Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), as Yondu, the blue-skinned renegade space pirate and surrogate father to Peter Quill. The film went on to gross over $700 million at the worldwide box office and spent five weekends atop the box office, more than any other film in the Marvel Universe.
On the television front, Rooker is best known for his series regular role as Merle Dixon on AMC's hit series The Walking Dead (2010). Audiences loved to hate the ill-tempered redneck hunter and were sad to see him killed off the series in season three. Rooker has completed a variety of stints on some of the most prominent series on television: Criminal Minds (2005), CSI: Miami (2002), Las Vegas (2003), Law & Order (1990) and Archer (2009), among others. Additionally, Rooker's talents go beyond both film and television. He adds his voice to various video games, including The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Lollipop Chainsaw.- Actress
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Richard Harmon was born on 18 August 1991 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for The 100 (2014), I Still See You (2018) and The Age of Adaline (2015).- Actor
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David Bradley was born on 17 April 1942 in York, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The World's End (2013), Hot Fuzz (2007) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). He has been married to Rosanna Bradley since 1978. They have three children.- Actor
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Tom Felton was born in Epsom, Surrey, to Sharon and Peter Felton. He has been acting since he was 8 years old at the suggestion of an actress friend of his family who recognized Felton's theatrical qualities. Felton met with an agent, and two weeks later, after auditioning with over 400 other children, he landed an international commercial campaign and went abroad to work.
A talented singer, he started singing in a church choir at the age of 7 and has been a member of four choirs at school. He declined an offer to join the Guildford Cathedral Choir. He is a keen sportsman enjoying football (soccer), ice skating, roller blading, basketball, cricket, swimming, and tennis.
After working on Anna and the King (1999) with Jodie Foster, Tom received his big break in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) as Draco Malfoy, school boy rival to the titular character as played by Daniel Radcliffe. Tom managed to film the part of Draco in all eight "Harry Potter" movies while also having an active life outside the magical world it created. In between shoots he filmed independent horror movies The Disappeared (2008), Night Wolf (2010), and The Apparition (2012) with Twilight's Ashley Greene. It was directly after completing his filming on "Harry Potter" that he landed his roles in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and From the Rough (2013). His newest projects are In Secret (2013), Fangs of War (????) and Attachment.
In between acting gigs, Tom still manages times with his music. He is one of the founding owners and talent of Six String Productions, a recording company devoted to signing young musical artists overlooked by the major recording industry.- Additional Crew
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Christopher William Rankin lived with his parents in his native New Zealand until age 6 when they moved back to England.
He found his love for acting at the age of 11, at Northgate High School in Norfolk, as a member of the Youth Theatre Company of Dereham Operatic Society. While in school, Chris appeared in numerous productions. He was ensemble in "Bugsy Malone" and "Little Shop of Horrors" (also on a European tour). Chris has also appeared as Bosun in "Return to the Forbidden Planet", Roger in "Grease", Ralph in "The Lord of the Flies", Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and in 2003 made a last-minute appearance, stepping in as Thenardier in "Les Miserables", when a cast member had taken ill. With the Youth Theatre, Chris has played Edmund in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe"; chorus roles in "My Fair Lady", "Whistle Down the Wind" and "The King and I" and Harry / Young Ebenezer in "Scrooge".
In August 2000, he auditioned for and landed the role of Percy Weasley in the "Harry Potter: movie series, which was the beginning of his professional on-camera acting career. Chris made his professional stage debut in "Jack and the Beanstalk" at Norwich Theatre Royal. He has since been splitting his time between films, television and stage.
In January 2004, Chris formed Painted Horse Theatre Company with Director Jim Rymer. He played Eilert Loevborg in their premiere production of 'Hedda Gabler' by Ibsen and worked on their production of 'Salome', which toured East Anglia in 2005. He made his first television drama as Waring in "The Rotter's Club", a 3-part drama produced by Company Pictures for the BBC.- Born Dublin, Ireland on July 11 1929. Educated at Synge Street Catholic boys school. Started acting aged 8 in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. Playing everything from Beckett to Shakespeare, he has appeared in theatre, TV and film constantly since 1959. Awards include: Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Supporting Performer, Non-Resident Production (1991) for "The Playboy of the Western World"; nominated for SAG Award, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (1999) for Waking Ned Devine (1998); ESB Lifetime Achievement award for work in the Irish theatre. He lived in Dublin, Ireland, where he died on 12 February 2012 at the age of 82. Children: Son, David. Daughter, Miriam.
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Noah George Taylor, the elder of two boys, was born in 1969 in London, England, to Maggie (Miller), a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. His family lived in both England and New Zealand before returning to his parents' native Australia in 1974. His parents divorced when he was a teenager and his father remarried--to theatre publicist, Suzie Howie. Noah left home at age 16 before graduating from University High School in Melbourne when he fell into acting. He decided to pursue his craft at St. Martin's Youth Theater. Despite his intense studies, the remote, slim-framed actor did not make his professional theater debut until March 1997 with Chekhov's "The Seagull."
His work at St. Martin's led to an auspicious debut playing the painfully shy and sensitive teen Danny Embling in the coming-of-age film The Year My Voice Broke (1987). This affecting performance lost none of its heart-tugging appeal when the sequel Flirting (1991) came out four years later. Noah won awards for both films. Unconventionally typecast as the gawky, gloomy-eyed, somewhat manic depressive, directors started lining up to use the young actor. It all culminated in what is arguably the best known performance of his career--as the young, tortured genius, pianist David Helfgott, in Shine (1996). Working in tandem with Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, who played Helfgott as an older adult, Noah's scenes with Armin Mueller-Stahl, who played the pianist's egregiously abusive father, were incredibly powerful and helped him to win the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival awards. The variety of Noah's performances have been stunning over the years. He played a young Adolf Hitler in the drama Max (2002), a "what-if" spin on Hitler growing up as an angry tortured artist instead of a Fascist dictator following World War I. He played the darkly humorous protagonist in He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001) and the titular Jewish outcast in Simon Magus (1999).
Music, songwriting and art have been other strong passions for Noah. In 1994 he became part of a band called "The Honky Tonk Angels. A singer-guitarist, included in this band were Noah's co-stars from previous movies Loene Carmen and Kym Wilson. He has also formed other bands with such names as Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey and The Thirteens, a country-western rock group.
American audiences have taken an equal "shine" to Noah recently, particularly as the manager of Stillwater in the popular film Almost Famous (2000); as Bryce in the popular adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and its sequel which both starring Angelina Jolie; a featured role in Vanilla Sky (2001) which starred Tom Cruise; and in the "Willy Wonka" extravaganza Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) as Mr. Bucket.- Actress
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Sophie Okonedo is a British actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda (2004).
Okonedo was born within London in 1968. Her parents were Henry Okonedo (1939-2009) and Joan Allman. Her father was British Nigerian employed as a government worker. Her mother was a British Jew employed as a Pilates teacher. Sophie's maternal grandparents were Yiddish-speaking emigrants to the United Kingdom, one from Poland and the other from Russia.
Henry Okonedo abandoned his family around 1973, when Sophie was 5. Joan raised her daughter as a single mother in the Chalkhill Estate, a large council estate within the Wembley Park district of the London Borough of Brent. The Chalkhill Estate consisted of "about 1900 houses and flats" and was located at a short distance from the Wembley Stadium. The Chalkhill Estate was often vandalized by football hooligans during during the 1970s and suffered from high crime rates from the 1970s to the 1990s. The Estate's buildings were eventually demolished in 2000.
Sophie was raised as a practicing Jew, and always had access to books despite her family's relative poverty. She chose to follow acting as a profession, and was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, one of the oldest and most prestigious drama schools in the United Kingdom.
Okonedo made her film debut at 23, in the coming-of-age film "Young Soul Rebels" (1991). The film was a historical fiction work, examining the youth culture of London in the late 1970s, and the interactions between different culture movements: the skinheads, the punks, and the soul-boys. Sophie Okonedo played Tracy, the girlfriend of the main character Chris (Valentine Nonyela).
In 1995, Okonedo gained the role of Moira Levitt in the first season of the prison drama "The Governor" (1995-1996). The series primarily concerned the lives of a prison's staff members. Also in 1995, Okonedo played the role of the Wachati Princess, Ace Ventura's love interest in the comedy film "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls". In the film, the virgin princess of an African tribe has been engaged to a heir from another tribe, but disagrees with the arranged marriage and attempts to seduce pet detective Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) instead. Ace has recently become a Buddhist monk and has taken an oath of celibacy, but feels tempted by the offer.
From 1996 to 1997, Okonedo played the main role of Kelly Booth in the medical drama series "Staying Alive". In 2000, Okonedo played a main role in the legal drama mini-series "In Defence". While originally planned to be a multi-season television series, the series was cut short due to poor ratings.
In 2000, Okonedo co-stared in the dramatic television film "Never Never". She was nominated for a "Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor - Female", for her role in the film. In 2002, Okonedo played the role of the prostitute Juliette in the social thriller film "Dirty Pretty Things", which depicted the lives of impoverished immigrants in London.
In 2003, Okonedo voiced the role of Alison Cheney in the flash-animated series "Scream of the Shalka", a spin-off of "Doctor Who". In the series, Alison is a barmaid at a Lancashire village who becomes the newest time-traveling companion of the Doctor (played by Richard E. Grant). Alison also befriends the Master (played by Derek Jacobi), an arch-enemy-turned-assistant of the Doctor who is permanently trapped within the time machine known as the Tardis.
In 2004, 36-year-old Okonedo had her breakthrough role as the co-star of the historical drama film "Hotel Rwanda", depicting the Rwandan genocide (1994). Okonedo played the historical figure Tatiana Rusesabagina (1958-), a professional nurse from the Tutsi ethnic group who helped over a 1000 individuals to escape the massacre. Okonedo won a Black Reel Award for Best Actress for her role. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but the Award for that year was won by rival actress Cate Blanchett (1969-).
In 2005, Okonedo had the role of Sithandra in the science fiction film "Æon Flux". The film was set in the 25th century, within the fictional city-state of Bregna. The characters Æon Flux (played by Charlize Theron) and Sithandra are female assassins, tasked with assassinating Trevor Goodchild, the local head-of-state. But in the process, Æon finds out that the city-state's main rebel-organization is actually a tool for a coup d'état orchestrated by other politicians. And also discovers some dark secrets about the city's past. The film gained a worldwide box office total of 52 million dollars, smaller than its actual budget,
In 2006, Okonedo played the intelligence agent "Mrs. Jones" in the spy film "Stormbreaker", an adaptation of the "Alex Rider" novel series by Anthony Horowitz (1955-). In the film, Mrs. Jones (full name "Tulip Jones" in the novels) is an an agent of the Special Operations Division of MI6, and the de facto second-in-command of MI6. When subordinate agent Ian Rider gets assassinated by enemy agents, Mrs. Jones recruits Ian's nephew and surrogate son Alex Rider as a replacement agent. Blackmailing the boy by threatening to deport his housekeeper and primary caretaker Jack Starbright (played by Alicia Silverstone) if he refuses to serve the agency. The film gained about 24 million dollars at the international box office, receiving only a limited release in the United States.
Also in 2006, Okonedo played the role of Anna in the British comedy-drama film "Scenes of a Sexual Nature", an anthology film depicting seven loosely connected stories, all set in the nature reserve of Hampstead Heath within Greater London. Anna was depicted as a woman suffering from extreme mood swings, which convince her boyfriend to leave her alone in the nature reserve. The depressed Anna is approached by the weirdly-acting stranger Noel (played by Tom Hardy) who attempts to cheer her up and befriend her. Anna is at turns amused and annoyed by Noel, attempts to have sex with him, and then abruptly abandons him due to another sudden change in her mood. The film opened in niche cinemas.
Also in 2006, Okonedo played the role of Susie Carter in the mini-series "Tsunami: The Aftermath", which depicted the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In the film, Susie is a young mother who is searching for her daughter Martha Carter (Jazmyn Maraso). Martha was swept away by the tsunami, and her whereabouts are unknown for most of the series. Okonedo won an "NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special" for this role, and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Okonedo's next films were the comedy-drama "Martian Child" (2007), the drama film "The Secret Life of Bees" (2008), and the biographical film "Skin" (2008). The last two films allowed Okonedo to be nominated for several Black Reel Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Satellite Awards, and British Independent Film Award. Despite the critical acclaim for her acting roles, Okonedo never actually won these awards.
In 2010, 42-year-old Okonedo was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire, a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences. The Order was established in 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom (reigned 1910-1936) and counts among its members several actors.
In 2010, Okonedo returned to the Doctor Who franchise, playing another character in the most recent "Doctor Who" television series. She was cast as Elizabeth X (nicknaned "Liz Ten"), a Queen regnant of the United Kingdom in the 29th century. In the series, Elizabeth is immortal, but has limited access to her own memories due to a series of mind-wipes. She was depicted as still alive and reigning in an episode set in the 52nd century, at which point she was over 2300 years old.
Okonedo was limited to television roles for much of the early 2010s, but returned to theatrical films with the post-apocalyptic science fiction film "After Earth" (2013). The film is set in the 31st century, when the planet Earth has long been abandoned by humanity. Most humans live in the colony world Nova Prime, which is protected from alien threats by the Ranger Corps. Okonedo was cast in the role of Faia Raige, wife of the General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), the commanding officer of the Rangers. Early in the film, Faia convinces Cypher to take their son Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) with him in mission, as a bonding experience. Young Kitai's application to become a Ranger has already being rejected due to reckless behavior, Kitai suffers from survivor's guilt for playing a part in his sister's death, and his father sees him as a failure. Faia's request for a bonding experience results in father and son being left stranded on planet Earth, the only two humans alive on the planet. The film was poorly received by critics, but earned about 244 million dollars at the worldwide box office. Becoming the commercially most successful film in Okonedo's entire career at this point.
Okonedo's next film was the political drama "War Book" (2014). The film depicts British civil servants who participate in a war-game, concerning government reactions in a potential nuclear war. In 2016, Okonedo had a major role in the mini-series "The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses", depicting the historical Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), a series of English civil wars involving rival branches of the royal family. Okonedo was cast in the role of Queen consort Margaret of Anjou (1430-1482, terms as Queen 1445-1461, 1470-1471). The historical Margaret was the wife and consort of Henry VI of England (1421-1471, reigned 1422-1461, 1470-1471), the mother of Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (1453-1471), and the mother-in-law of Anne Neville (1456-1485). Due to Henry's health problems and Edward's underage status, Margaret served as the de facto head of the House of Lancaster and the Lancastrian military faction in early phases of the war. The defeat of her army at the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) caused the deaths of both her husband and her son, and allowed the rival House of York to dominate the English throne until 1485.
In 2018, Okonedo returned to voice acting. She voiced Kanga the kangaroo of the Hundred Acre Wood in the fantasy film "Christopher Robin", a sequel to the Winnie-the-Pooh novels of Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956). The film depicts an adult Christopher Robin as a World War II veteran and aging businessman. He thinks that his childhood friends from the Hundred Acre Wood were imaginary, until said friends come searching for him. He has aged, but they have not. The film earned about 198 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise.
In 2019, Okonedo played the seer Lady Hatton in the superhero film "Hellboy", the first superhero film of her career. The film earned about 40 million dollars at the worldwide box office, lower than its own budget. The film was criticized for its excessive gore, including an opening scene where King Arthur mutilates the corpse of his enemy Nimue.
Also in 2019, Okonedo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019., for her services in drama. She is living with her only daughter Aoife Okonedo Martin in Muswell Hill, a suburban district of north London. Aoife is employed as a Personal Trainer. At 51, Okonedo continues to work regularly in her chosen field.- Mackenzie Crook, one of British comedy's best-known faces, who collected Star Wars figurines as a child, is now immortalized in plastic as a six-inch-high pirate action figure. He was born Paul Mackenzie Crook on September 29, 1971, in Maidstone, Kent, England, UK. His father worked for British Airways. His mother was a hospital manager. He went to grammar school in Dartford, and did his first plays there. In the summers, he spent time with his uncle in Zimbabwe.
Young Mackenzie Crook expressed his creativity through painting and even copied a pre-Raphaelite's painting on to the back of his biker's jacket. He also joined a local youth theater. At the age of 18, he failed to secure a place at art college and turned to writing comedy sketches. Crook ended up working at Pizza Hut, and at hospitals. However, the principal of the youth theater believed in his potential and became his manager, guiding Crook to a career as a stand-up comedian. In 1996, he made his film debut in The Man Who Fell in Love with a Traffic Cone! (1996). In 1997, Crook was scouted by Bob Mortimer at the Edinburgh Festival. Soon he made his debut on television as a stand-up comedian on The 11 O'Clock Show (1998), then worked on other TV shows playing grotesques and exaggerated characters.
He shot to fame as Gareth Keenan, a quirky geek with a funny haircut in a TV hit comedy, The Office (2001), and earned himself a British Comedy Award nomination. He also was a member of the main cast of the BBC show "TV to Go" (2001)_. After that, Crook shared the screen with Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice (2004), with Heath Ledger in The Brothers Grimm (2005), and with Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland (2004). Depp bonded with Crook during the making of 'Neverland' and it was Depp who recommended him for the part of Ragetti, his best-known role, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Crook is also billed as Ragetti in the third installment of the 'Pirates' franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
After having spent about a decade on a stand-up comedian circuit, Crook made a perfect tool out of that character-actor face and added experience to his effortless style. It is in the 'Pirates' trilogy that Mackenzie Crook had showed his funniest and widest variety of emotions, effortlessly shifting his facial expression from a deep philosophical pensiveness to a grotesque excitement, and from a comically exaggerated fear to such a gleeful exuberance while removing his wooden eyeball. For that particular scene he was wearing two contact lenses sandwiched on top of each other.
In 2004, Crook appeared as Billy Bibbit opposite Christian Slater in the West End stage production of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," which initially opened at Gielgud Theatre and then was shown at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. At the same time, Crook has been writing a script for his own future project; he describes it as a period production that is set in London around the same period as the 'Pirates' movies.
Mackenzie Crook has been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, Lindsay, a former advertising executive and club owner, and their son Jude (born in 2003). He is fond of gardening and is also focused on maintaining an organic way of life. He resides with his family in Peter Sellers' old art-deco house in Muswell Hill, North London, England. - Lee Arenberg has the remarkable ability to morph himself into frightening aliens, twisted psychotherapists, lascivious entertainment executives and everything in between. Most frequently referred to as a character actor, Arenberg maintains a flourishing acting career--almost 20 years spanning television, stage and film. Arenberg has appeared in more than 30 movies, including Cradle Will Rock (1999), RoboCop 3 (1993), Waterworld (1995), Bob Roberts (1992), The Apocalypse (1997), Cross My Heart (1987) and the fantasy adventure feature Dungeons & Dragons (2000). Bitten by the acting bug at age eight when he portrayed David in his Hebrew school play, "Killing Goliath", Arenberg notes that the parable "could be the title of any actor's chances in this game." A native Angeleno, Lee attended Santa Monica high school with "brat packers" Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr. and Emilio Estevez, and co-wrote a play with Estevez which was directed by Penn. Lee's first professional job was in 1986 at the Mark Taper Forum in "Ghetto", a play directed by Gordon Davidson. Within weeks he was cast in three films, including the role of Norton in the feature Tapeheads (1988)opposite Tim Robbins and John Cusack. Guest appearances on television began in 1987 with the hit sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986), and have continued with memorable roles such as the parking space-stealing New Yorker on Seinfeld (1989) and as the murderous rock promoter opposite Katey Sagal and Sam Kinison in Tales from the Crypt (1989), as well as roles on Arli$$ (1996), Friends (1994), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995). Arenberg can also be seen in the role of the notoriously huge studio head, Bobby G., on the controversial syndicated comedy Action (1999) opposite series star Jay Mohr. Arenberg names his family and friends as his inspirations, and states that having grown up on Los Angeles' Westside, he was able to see actors as the parents of friends and classmates, not as just as movie stars. "It also gave me an honest assessment of the industry and what I was getting myself into," he laughs. He credits "fear of failure" as his main motivation, and admires the talents and creativity of such legendary actors Paul Muni, Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff. Lee also credits much of his development as an actor to his participation in the Actors' Gang, one of Los Angeles' oldest theater companies. The Actors' Gang was founded by Lee in 1981 with Tim Robbins and other friends from UCLA. After 20 years as an actor in the group, Lee recently made his writing and directing debut with Foursome, a play about golf, sex and witchcraft. In his leisure time, Arenberg enjoys golf, cooking, blues harmonica, video games and pitching for his softball team Bubblin' Crude, which is made up of other actors, many of whom are friends from high school. He is involved with St. Jude's Children's Hospital and other children's health causes, and animal rights organizations, participating regularly in fund raising efforts on behalf of those charitable causes.
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One of the British theatre's most famous faces, Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, has gone on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
He was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, at 41 Liverpool Road, Chester, Cheshire, England. His father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was a merchant seaman turned steel erector, and then became landlord of the "Ring O'Bells" pub in Frodsham, Cheshire. His mother, Carol Olivia (Williams), was an art teacher. Craig has English, as well as Irish, Scottish and Welsh, ancestry. His parents split up in 1972, and young Daniel was raised with his older sister, Lea, in Liverpool, then in Hoylake, Wirral, in the home of his mother. His interest in acting was encouraged by visits to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre arranged by his mother. From the age of six, Craig started acting in school plays, making his debut in the Frodsham Primary School production of "Oliver!", and his mother was the driving force behind his artistic aspirations. The first Bond movie he ever saw at the cinema was Roger Moore's Live and Let Die (1973); young Daniel Craig saw it with his father, so it took a special place in his heart. He was also a good athlete and was a rugby player at Hoylake Rugby Club.
At age 14, Craig played roles in "Oliver", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Cinderella" at Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Wirral. He left Hilbre High School at age 16 to audition at the National Youth Theatre's (NYT) troupe on their tour in Manchester in 1984. He was accepted and moved down to London. There, his mother and father watched his stage debut as Agamemnon in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida". As a struggling actor with the NYT, he was toiling in restaurant kitchens and as a waiter. Craig performed with NYT on tours to Valencia, Spain, and to Moscow, Russia, under the leadership of director Edward Wilson. He failed at repeated auditions at the Guildhall, but eventually his persistence paid off, and in 1988, he entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican. There, he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and Alistair McGowan, then later Damian Lewis and Joseph Fiennes, among others. He graduated in 1991, after a three-year course under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, the actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company. From 1992-1994, he was married to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, their daughter, named Ella Craig (born 1992).
Craig made his film debut in The Power of One (1992). His film career continued on television, notably the BBC2 serial Our Friends in the North (1996). He shot to international fame after playing supporting roles in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Road to Perdition (2002). He was nominated for his performances in the leading role in Layer Cake (2004), and received other awards and nominations. Craig was named as the sixth actor to portray James Bond, in October 2005, weeks after he finished his work in Munich (2005), where he co-starred with Eric Bana under the directorship of Steven Spielberg. Craig's reserved demeanor and his avoidance of the showbiz-party-red-carpet milieu makes him a cool 007. He is the first blond actor to play Bond, and also the first to be born after the start of the film series, and also the first to be born after the death of author Ian Fleming in 1964. Four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan have indicated that Craig is a good choice as Bond.
He was appointed Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) by Queen Elizabeth II at the 2022 Queen's New Years Honours for his services to Film and Theatre.- Actor
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Sylvester Stallone is an athletically built, dark-haired American actor/screenwriter/director/producer, the movie fans worldwide have been flocking to see Stallone's films for over 40 years, making "Sly" one of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office draws.
Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946, in New York's gritty Hell's Kitchen, to Jackie Stallone (née Labofish), an astrologer, and Frank Stallone, a beautician and hairdresser. His father was an Italian immigrant, and his mother's heritage is half French (from Brittany) and half German. The young Stallone attended the American College of Switzerland and The University of Miami, eventually obtaining a B.A. degree. Initially, he struggled in small parts in films such as the soft-core The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970), the thriller Klute (1971) and the comedy Bananas (1971). He got a crucial career break alongside fellow young actor Henry Winkler, sharing lead billing in the effectively written teen gang film The Lords of Flatbush (1974). Further film and television roles followed, most of them in uninspiring productions except for the opportunity to play a megalomaniac, bloodthirsty race driver named "Machine Gun Joe Viterbo" in the Roger Corman-produced Death Race 2000 (1975). However, Stallone was also keen to be recognized as a screenwriter, not just an actor, and, inspired by the 1975 Muhammad Ali-Chuck Wepner fight in Cleveland, Stallone wrote a film script about a nobody fighter given the "million to one opportunity" to challenge for the heavyweight title. Rocky (1976) became the stuff of cinematic legends, scoring ten Academy Award nominations, winning the Best Picture Award of 1976 and triggering one of the most financially successful movie series in history! Whilst full credit is wholly deserved by Stallone, he was duly supported by tremendous acting from fellow cast members Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith and Burt Young, and director John G. Avildsen gave the film an emotive, earthy appeal from start to finish. Stallone had truly arrived on his terms, and offers poured in from various studios eager to secure Hollywood's hottest new star.
Stallone followed Rocky (1976) with F.I.S.T. (1978), loosely based on the life of Teamsters boss "Jimmy Hoffa", and Paradise Alley (1978) before pulling on the boxing gloves again to resurrect Rocky Balboa in the sequel Rocky II (1979). The second outing for the "Italian Stallion" wasn't as powerful or successful as the first "Rocky", however, it still produced strong box office. Subsequent films Nighthawks (1981) and Victory (1981) failed to ignite with audiences, so Stallone was once again lured back to familiar territory with Rocky III (1982) and a fearsome opponent in "Clubber Lang" played by muscular ex-bodyguard Mr. T. The third "Rocky" installment far outperformed the first sequel in box office takings, but Stallone retired his prizefighter for a couple of years as another series was about to commence for the busy actor.
The character of Green Beret "John Rambo" was the creation of Canadian-born writer David Morrell, and his novel was adapted to the screen with Stallone in the lead role in First Blood (1982), also starring Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy. The movie was a surprise hit that polarized audiences because of its commentary about the Vietnam war, which was still relatively fresh in the American public's psyche. Political viewpoints aside, the film was a worldwide smash, and a sequel soon followed with Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), which drew even stronger criticism from several quarters owing to the film's plot line about American MIAs allegedly being held in Vietnam. But they say there is no such thing as bad publicity, and "John Rambo's" second adventure was a major money spinner for Stallone and cemented him as one of the top male stars of the 1980s. Riding a wave of amazing popularity, Stallone called on old sparring partner Rocky Balboa to climb back into the ring to defend American pride against a Soviet threat in the form of a towering Russian boxer named "Ivan Drago" played by curt Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (1985). The fourth outing was somewhat controversial with "Rocky" fans, as violence levels seemed excessive compared to previous "Rocky" films, especially with the savage beating suffered by Apollo Creed, played by Carl Weathers, at the hands of the unstoppable "Siberian Express".
Stallone continued forward with a slew of macho character-themed films that met with a mixed reception from his fans. Cobra (1986) was a clumsy mess, Over the Top (1987) was equally mediocre, Rambo III (1988) saw Rambo take on the Russians in Afghanistan, and cop buddy film Tango & Cash (1989) just did not quite hit the mark, although it did feature a top-notch cast and there was chemistry between Stallone and co-star Kurt Russell.
Philadelphia's favorite mythical boxer moved out of the shadows for his fifth screen outing in Rocky V (1990) tackling Tommy "Machine" Gunn played by real-life heavyweight fighter Tommy Morrison, the great-nephew of screen legend John Wayne. Sly quickly followed with the lukewarm comedy Oscar (1991), the painfully unfunny Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), the futuristic action film Demolition Man (1993), and the comic book-inspired Judge Dredd (1995). Interestingly, Stallone then took a departure from the gung-ho steely characters he had been portraying to stack on a few extra pounds and tackle a more dramatically challenging role in the intriguing Cop Land (1997), also starring Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta. It isn't a classic of the genre, but Cop Land (1997) certainly surprised many critics with Stallone's understated performance. Stallone then lent his vocal talents to the animated adventure story Antz (1998), reprised the role made famous by Michael Caine in a terrible remake of Get Carter (2000), climbed back into a race car for Driven (2001), and guest-starred as the "Toymaker" in the third chapter of the immensely popular "Spy Kids" film series, Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003). Showing that age had not wearied his two most popular series, Stallone has most recently brought back never-say-die boxer Rocky Balboa to star in, well, what else but Rocky Balboa (2006), and Vietnam veteran Rambo (2008) will reappear after a 20-year hiatus to once again right wrongs in the jungles of Thailand.
Love him or loathe him, Sylvester Stallone has built an enviable and highly respected career in Hollywood, plus, he has considerably influenced modern popular culture through several of his iconic film characters.- Actor
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Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr. on September 16, 1952, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Annette Elizabeth (Cameron) and Philip Andre Rourke. His father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother was of mostly English and French-Canadian ancestry. When he was six years old, his parents divorced. A year later, his mother married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer, and moved to Miami Shores, Florida. After graduating from Horace Mann Junior High School, Rourke's family moved to a house located on 47th Street and Prairie Avenue in Miami Beach. In 1969 Rourke attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he played second-string first baseman under coach Skip Bertman. He also acted in a school play, "The Serpent," directed by legendary "Teacher To The Stars" Jay W. Jensen.
In 1971 he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School, and after working for a short time as a bus boy at the famed Forge Restaurant on Miami Beach, Rourke moved back to New York to seek out a career in acting.
Rourke's teenage years were more aimed toward sports more than acting. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career. At the age of 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as an 118-pound bantamweight, defeating Javier Villanueva. Some of his early matches were fought as Andre Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, soon joining the Police Athletic League boxing program. In 1969 Rourke, now weighing 140 pounds, sparred with former World Welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the number one-rated middleweight boxer in the world and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match.
In 1971, at the Florida Golden Gloves, Rourke received another concussion from a boxing match. Doctors told him to take a year off and rest. In 1972 Rourke knocked out Ron Robinson in 18 seconds and John Carver in 39 seconds. On Aug. 20, 1973, Rourke knocked out 'Sherman "Big Train"' Bergman' in 31 seconds. Shortly after, Rourke decided to retire from amateur boxing.
From 1964 to 1973, Rourke compiled an amateur boxing record of 27 wins (17 by knockout) and 3 defeats. At one point, he reportedly scored 12 consecutive first-round knockouts. As an amateur, Rourke had been friendly with pro-boxer Tommy Torino. When Rourke decided to return to boxing as a professional in 1991, Torino promoted some of Rourke's fights. Rourke was trained by former pro-boxer Freddie Roach at Miami Beach's 5th Street Gym and the Outlaw Boxing Club Gym in Los Angeles. He made $250 for his pro debut, but by the end of his second year of boxing, he had earned a million dollars. In June 1994, Rourke appeared on the cover of World Boxing Magazine. He sparred with world champions James Toney, John David Jackson, and Tommy Morrison.
Rourke wished to have 16 professional fights and then fight for a world title. However, he retired in 1994 after eight bouts and never got his desired title fight. His boxing career resulted in severe facial injuries that required a number of operations to repair his damaged face. Rourke went back to acting but worked in relative obscurity until he won a Golden Globe Award for his role as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler (2008). He was nominated for Best Actor, as well, but lost.- Actor
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Jorge Garcia (born April 28, 1973) is an American actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker (1998), but probably more known later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost (2004) from 2004 to 2010. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian. He more recently starred in the FOX television series Alcatraz (2012), as well as playing a minor character on ABC's Once Upon a Time (2011). He stars as Jerry Ortega on Hawaii Five-0 (2010). Most recently Jorge Garcia can be seen in the Netflix original movie The Ridiculous 6 (2015).- Actor
- Music Department
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Chuck Norris is familiar to fans worldwide as the star of action films such as The Hitman (1991), The Delta Force (1986) and Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990). He also starred in Missing in Action (1984) and its sequels, Firewalker (1986) and Sidekicks (1992). He was an executive producer of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) as well as the star.
Chuck Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, to Wilma (Scarberry) and Ray Norris, who was a truck driver, mechanic, and bus driver. The eldest of three children, he helped his mother raise his two younger brothers in Torrance, CA, where his family moved when he was 12. Norris attended North Torrance High School from its inception in September, 1955 until his graduation in June, 1958. He is one of several storied alumni from the school. Other NHS alumni include Bob Hite (1943-1981), who was the lead singer of "Canned Heat," Chris Demaria, who was a professional baseball player in the Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers organizations, Chris Mortensen, an analyst with ESPN, Hip-Hop DJ "Key-Kool" (Kikuo Nishi), and Wee-Man (Jason Acuna) of "JackAss fame."
Norris joined the Air Force after graduating from high school. During a stint in Korea, he began to study the Asian martial art of Tang Soo Do. After returning home, he worked for Northrop Aviation and moonlighted as a karate instructor. Two years later he was teaching full-time and running a number of martial-arts schools. His students included Steve McQueen, Priscilla Presley and the Osmonds.
Norris's fight career lasted from 1964-1974. Norris started off by losing his first three tournaments but, by 1966, he was almost unbeatable. Among the numerous titles he won were The National Karate Championships (1966), All-Star Championships (1966), World Middleweight Karate Championship (1967), All-American Karate Championship (1967), Internationals (1968), World Professional Middleweight Karate Championship (defeating Louis Delgado on 24 November 1968), All-American Championship (1968), National Tournament of Champions (1968), American Tang Soo Championship, and the North American Karate Championship. Norris compiled a fight record of 65-5 with wins over champions Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Ronald L. Marchini, Victor Moore, Louis Delgado, and Steve Sanders. Of the five men to beat Norris, three were Allen Steen, Joe Lewis, and Norris's last career defeat to Louis Delgado in 1968. Norris retired as undefeated Professional Full-Contact Middleweight Champion in 1974.
Norris, who was urged to get into acting by his friend Steve McQueen, skillfully incorporates his martial-arts knowledge into his series and feature film projects, stressing action and technique over violence. He is the author of the books "The Secret of Inner Strength" and "The Secret Power Within - Zen Solutions to Real Problems". He works for many charities, including the Funds for Kids, Veterans Administration National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, the United Way, Make-a-Wish Foundation and KickStart, a nonprofit organization he created to help battle drugs and violence in schools. He also starred in the television movie Blood In, Blood Out (1993), broadcast on CBS.
He lives on a ranch when not filming.- Actor
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Drago was well known for his villainous parts (leading or supporting), and his rugged yet scary looks and evil smile. He was born William Eugene Burrows in Hugoton, Kansas. He became interested in acting and took his mother's maiden name "Drago" as a stage name. At first he worked as a stuntman in Kansas, then attended the University of Kansas. After graduating he worked as a radio host before joining an acting crew that led him to New York. He began his acting career at the end of 1970s.
After appearing in multiple TV series as a guest actor, he appeared in such low-budget films as: Windwalker (1980), Vamp (1986), Hunter's Blood (1986), Freeway (1988), Dark Before Dawn (1988), Gwang tin lung fo wooi (1989), True Blood (1989), Martial Law II: Undercover (1991), Lady Dragon 2 (1993) and Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow (1993). He also appeared in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Other well-known appearances were in: Mad Dog Time (1996), Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) (the remake), as the leader of mutant nomads. He did an extensive work on TV, most notably on Charmed (1998). He also produced an instructional acting video with his wife, Silvana Gallardo.- Music Artist
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Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father, Joe Jackson (no relation to Joe Jackson, also a musician), had been a guitarist, but was forced to give up his musical ambitions following his marriage to Michael's mother Katherine Jackson (née Katherine Esther Scruse). Together, they prodded their growing family's musical interests at home. By the early 1960s, the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.
A musical prodigy, Michael's singing and dancing talents were amazingly mature, and he soon became the dominant voice and focus of the Jackson 5. An opening act for such soul groups as the O-Jays and James Brown, it was Gladys Knight (not Diana Ross) who officially brought the group to Berry Gordy's attention, and by 1969, the boys were producing back-to-back chart-busting hits as Motown artists ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Got to Be There," etc.). As a product of the 1970s, the boys emerged as one of the most accomplished black pop / soul vocal groups in music history, successfully evolving from a group like The Temptations to a disco phenomenon.
Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the 1980s, he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group. Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling album of all time, "Thriller" in 1982. A TV natural, he ventured rather uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had much better luck with elaborate music videos.
In the 1990s, the downside as an 1980s pop phenomenon began to rear itself. Michael grew terribly child-like and introverted by his peerless celebrity. A rather timorous, androgynous figure to begin with, his physical appearance began to change drastically, and his behavior grew alarmingly bizarre, making him a consistent target for scandal-making, despite his numerous charitable acts. Two brief marriages -- one to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley -- were forged and two children produced by his second wife during that time, but the purposes behind them appeared image-oriented.
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. His passion and artistry as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman were unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his troubled adult life.- Music Artist
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Keith Richards is an internationally recognized iconic figure in contemporary culture and popular music as a singer, guitar player, songwriter, film actor, and public figure. He was voted 10th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine, and was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, as founding member of the legendary rock band The Rolling Stones. Together with his song-writing partner, Mick Jagger, he wrote and recorded hundreds of songs, including their monster hit 'Satisfaction', one of the defining songs of the era.
He was born on December 18, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. His father, Bert Richards, a factory worker, was injured during the WWII. His mother, Doris (Dupree), introduced him to music of jazz, and also encouraged his singing performances with a choir in Westminster Abbey. Keith Richards met Mick Jagger when he attended primary school during the 1950s, albeit when they went into secondary schools they lost touch for a while. But one day in 1960 they accidentally met on a train and talked about starting up a band. Eventually, Richards and Jagger made their dream come true. They established one of the most legendary life-long songwriting partnerships, following the example of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's songwriting for The Beatles. Besides their main success in popular music and entertainment, Richards and Jagger had carried on their early image of unkempt and surly youth that many others would emulate, and spread their influence across traditional boundaries of genres and styles into filmmaking, art, fashion, and contemporary lifestyle, thus turning Jagger and Richards into cross-cultural trend-setters.
Since The Rolling Stones were formed in 1962, Richards and Jagger were continuously absorbing from many musical styles and assimilated various genres and artistic influences, ultimately creating their very own inimitable style. Together they undergone transformation from semi-amateur local musicians to the leading international superstars. Both Richards and Jagger became poster boys for excess, however, they had survived ups and downs in their careers and personal lives, and remained the core of the band. Initially they shared a flat with the late Brian Jones in London, in 1962. The first lineup of the Stones consisted of Mick Jagger on lead vocal and harmonica Keith Richards on guitar, Bill Wyman on bass, Charlie Watts on drums and Brian Jones on guitar. In 1964 they released their first album titled "The Rolling Stones." In 1965 Richards and Jagger wrote their single, "The Last Time," that became their first number 1 hit in the UK. Then came "Satisfaction" (1965), which was composed by Keith Richards in his sleep, and with the addition of provocative lyrics by Mick Jagger it became the greatest hit and their calling card on each and every show.
In 1966, after The Beatles stopped giving live performances, The Rolling Stones took over as the unofficial "biggest touring band in the world" for the next few years. During 1966-1969 they toured the world, and constantly updated their song-list with many great hits like "Lets Spend the night together" (1967), "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968) and "Honky tonk woman" (1969). The incredible international success of the Stones came with a sad side, caused by Brian's drug and alcohol abuse that impaired his speech and appearance, so the band-mates had to replace him. In July 1969, Brian Jones died of drowning in his swimming pool while having signs of drug overdose. Upon Richards's and Jagger's approval, guitarist Mick Taylor took Brian's place. Brian's death at age 27 made him one of the first members of the infamous "27 Club" of rock stars who died at that age. Although Brian's estrangement from his band-mates, and his numerous arrests were caused by his personal problems with drugs, both Richards and Jagger were blamed at the time for Brian's death. The loss of one of their founding members was a painful moment for the Stones. However, at the end of the 1960s their creativity reached the new highs. Their albums "Beggars Banquet" (1968) and "Sticky Fingers" (1971) were among the most popular albums they ever made, having such hits as "Wild Horses" and "Brown Sugar."
During the 1970s The Rolling Stones remained the biggest band in the world, albeit they were rivaled by the Led Zeppelin. The Stones made thousands of live performances and multi-million record sales with hits like "Angie" (1973), "It's Only Rock and Roll" (1974), "Hot Stuff" (1976) and "Respectable" (1978). At that time both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had individual ambitions, and applied their untamed creativity in various projects outside the Stones. Keith released his own single. In 1974 Ron Wood had replaced Mick Taylor on guitar and Keith and Ron both played lead guitars. During the decade Keith Richards had a family crisis on his hands, and suffered through emotional pain and drug abuse, albeit it didn't stop him from being himself. In 1980 the group released "Emotional Rescue" which Keith Richards didn't care for, and the group didn't even tour to promote the album. In 1981 with the release of 'Tattoo You', the group went on a major world tour filling stadiums in the US and in Europe. In 1983 the Stones recorded the album "Undercover" at the Compass Point in Nassau and during this time Mick and Keith were having arguments over rights of the group. After having created tens of albums and over a hundred popular songs together, their legendary song-writing partnership was undergoing the most painful test: the bitter rivalry between two enormously talented and equally ambitious superstars.
Outside of The Rolling Stones, Richards toured with The New Barbarians, and also was the front-man of the X-Pensive Winos in the 1980s. In 1985 Keith Richards took part in the "Artists United Against Apartheid" charity project, and has been a participant in many more charitable concerts ever since. In 1992 he released his solo album titled 'Main Offender', which got him back on the road with a promotional tour. Also during the tour he continued singing a few Stones songs. But individual career and solo performances did not bring Richards as much satisfaction as he experienced together with his writing partner. Eventually, Jagger and Richards got together in Barbados and started to write new songs for the album "Steel Wheels." After the Stones recorded it they went back on the road. It was the first tour of The Rolling Stones in 7 years. But in 1992 Bill Wyman announced that he was going to leave the group. In 1993 Keith Richards and his band released an album and toured for a few months. However, his artistic and personal connection with the Stones had eventually prevailed, and Richards reunited with his former band-mates.
In 1994 The Rolling Stones got back together again and recorded the album "Voodoo Lounge" and toured the world extensively. In 1995 an album of their warm up gig in a pub in Denmark was released. It was an acoustic live album called "Stripped". In 1997 they released the album "Bridges to Babylon" and started a new tour promoting the album. In 1998 a live album "No Security" was released. Their 1999 the tour ended and the group hasn't performed together until 2002. At that time Keith Richards continued playing guitar for various projects and artists, such as Norah Jones, and Aretha Franklin among others. Richards has been good friends with Johnny Depp, who modeled the character of Capt. Jack Sparrow after him, including his voice, his mannerisms, his personality, and aspects of his appearance. In return, Johnny Depp invited Keith Richards to play his father, Captain Teague, in the third installment of the "Pirates" franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
The Rolling Stones have released 55 albums of original work and compilations, and sold over 200 million records word-wide during their career spanning over 45 years. "The Stones" played in all kinds of spaces from small clubs to big stadium arenas, they remained one of the biggest entertainment acts touring the world with a retinue of jet-set hangers-on. Their inimitable shows, no matter the best, or the worst, has been played with fire and emotion, giving their audiences the kind of music they do best - it's only rock'n roll. In 2007 they even rocked the Tsar's Winter Palace with fifty thousand fans in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the communist revolution took place. They gave more large-scale shows internationally than any other existing band in the world, culminating in their 2005-2007 "A Bigger Band" tour with 147 concerts, the highest grossing tour of all time with $559 million earned. At their shows, even if you don't shake your hips like Mick Jagger, just hold on to your hat as tears go by, and they can start you up and get you rocking. You can make it if you try.
Since 1962, during the career spanning over 45 years, Keith Richards has been the lead guitarist and primary musical force behind The Rolling Stones, as well as songwriter for the band. He also continues making numerous guest performances as guitarist, as well as actor and producer active in various other projects. Besides his favorite Telecaster and Gibson guitars, Keith Richards owns a valuable collection of about one thousand vintage guitars of various brands, many of which he takes along on concert tours and studio gigs.
Since Richards wrote the signature "Satisfaction" guitar riff, that was called by Newsweek "five notes that took the world," his influence on popular music had never stopped. In his own words, Keith Richards has been dedicated to "grow this music up" beyond the theatrics of the rock's past and "keep it fresh."- Actor
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Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with John Strasberg. He began writing and performing original theatre pieces with fellow actor/writer Mark Boone Junior. This led to his being cast in his first lead role in Parting Glances (1986). Since then, he has worked with many of the top filmmakers in Hollywood, including Quentin Tarantino, Jerry Bruckheimer, and The Coen Brothers. He is a highly respected actor.- Actor
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English film actor, director and author Andy Serkis is known for his performance capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for such computer-generated characters as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), the eponymous King Kong in the 2005 film, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Serkis earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of serial killer Ian Brady in the British television film Longford (2006), and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his portrayal of new wave and punk rock musician Ian Dury in the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010). In 2015, he had a small role in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Serkis has his own motion capture workshop, The Imaginarium Studios in London, which he will use for his directorial debut, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018).
Andrew Clement G. Serkis was born April 20, 1964, in Ruislip Manor, West London, England. He has three sisters and a brother. His father, Clement Serkis, an ethnic Armenian whose original family surname was Serkissian, was a medical doctor working abroad, in Iraq; the Serkis family spent time around the Middle East, and for the first ten years of his life, Andy traveled between Baghdad and London. His mother, Lylie (Weech), who is British-born, was busy working as a special education teacher of handicapped children, so Andy and his four siblings were raised with au pairs in the house. Young Serkis wanted to be an artist; he was fond of painting and drawing, and visualized himself working behind the scenes. He attended St. Benedict's School, a Roman Catholic School for boys at the Benedictine Abbey in London. Serkis studied visual arts at Lancaster University in the north-west of England. There, he became involved in mechanical aspects of the theatre and did stage design and set building for theatrical productions. Then, Serkis was asked to play a role in a student production, and made his stage debut in Barrie Keeffe's play, "Gotcha"; thereafter, he switched from stage design to acting, which was a real calling that transformed his life.
Instead of going to an acting college, Serkis, in 1985, began his professional acting career at the Duke's Playhouse in Lancaster, where he was given an Equity card and performed in fourteen plays, one after another, as an apprentice of Jonathan Petherbridge. After that, he worked in touring theatre companies, doing it for no money, fueled by a sense of enthusiasm, moving to a new town every week. He has thus appeared in a host of popular plays and on almost every renowned British stage. In 1989, he appeared in a stage production of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth", so beginning his long association with the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, where he would return many times, to appear in "She Stoops to Conquer", "Your Home in the West" and the "True Nature of Love", among other plays. In the 1990s, Serkis began to make his mark on the London stage, appearing at the Royal Court Theatre as "The Fool" in "King Lear", making his interpretation of "The Fool" as the woman that "Lear", a widower, could relate to - a man, in drag, as a Victorian musician. He also appeared as "Potts" in the hit play, "Mojo", playing in front of full houses and earning huge critical success. In 1987, Serkis made his debut on television, and he acted in several major British TV miniseries throughout the 1990s.
In 1999, Andy Serkis landed the prize role of "Gollum" in Peter Jackson's epic film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's saga, "The Lord of the Rings". He spent four years in the part and received awards and nominations for his performance as "Gollum", a computer-generated character in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), which won 11 Oscars. "Gollum" was the collaborative team's effort around Serkis's work in performance capture - an art form based on CGI-assisted acting. Serkis's work was an interactive performance in a skin-tight CGI suit with markers allowing cameras to track and register 3D position for each marker. Serkis' every nuance was picked up by several cameras positioned at precisely calculated angles to allow for the software to see enough information to process the image. The images of Serkis' performances were translated into the digital format by animators at Weta Digital studio in New Zealand. There, his image was key-frame animated and then edited into the movie, Serkis did have one scene in "The Return of the King" showing how he originally had the ring, killing another hobbit to posses it after they found it during a fishing trip. He drew from his three cats clearing fur balls out of their throats to develop the constricted voice he produced for "Gollum" and "Sméagol", and it was also enhanced by sound editing in post-production.
Serkis spent almost two years in New Zealand and away from his family, and much of 2002 and 2003 in post-production studios for large periods of time, due to complexity of the creative process of bringing the character of "Gollum" to the screen. Serkis had to shoot two versions for every scene; one version was with him on camera, acting with (chiefly) Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, which served both to show Wood and Astin the moves so that they could precisely interact with the movements of "Gollum", and to provide the CGI artists the subtleties of Gollum's physical movements and facial expressions for their manual finishing of the animated images. In the other version, he'd go the voice off-camera, as Wood and Astin repeated their movements as though "Gollum" were there with them; that take would be the basis for inserting the CGI Gollum used in the released movie. In post-production, Serkis was doing motion-capture wearing a skintight motion capture suit with CGI gear while acting as a virtual puppeteer redoing every single scene in the studio. Additional CGI rotomation was done by animators using the human eye instead of the computer to capture the subtleties of Serkis' performance. Serkis also used this art form in his performance as "Kong" in King Kong (2005), which won him a Toronto Film Critics Association Award (2005) for his unprecedented work helping to realize the main character in "King Kong", and a Visual Effects Society Award (2006) for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture.
Apart from his line of CGI-driven characters, Serkis continued with traditional acting in several leading and supporting roles, such as his appearances as "Richard Kneeland" opposite Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30 (2004), and "Alley" opposite David Bowie in The Prestige (2006), among other film performances. On television, he starred as 'Vincent Van Gogh' in the sixth episode of Simon Schama's Power of Art (2006), the BBC2 series about artists. Serkis is billed as "Capricorn" in the upcoming adventure film, Inkheart (2008). At the same time, he continued the development of performance capture while expanding his career into computer games. He starred as "King Bothan" in the martial arts drama, Heavenly Sword (2007), a Playstation 3 title, for which he provided a basis for his in-game face and also acts as a dramatic director on the project.
Andy Serkis married actress and singer Lorraine Ashbourne, and the couple have three children: daughter Ruby Serkis (born in 1998), and two sons Sonny Serkis (born in 2000) and Louis Ashbourne Serkis (born on 19 June 2004), who is now also a movie star. Away from acting, Andy Serkis is an accomplished amateur painter. Since his school years at Lancaster, being so close to the Lake District, Serkis developed his other passion in life: mountaineering. He is a pescetarian. Serkis has been active in charitable causes, such as The Hope Foundation, which provides essential life-saving medical aid for children suffering from Leukemia and children from countries devastated by war. In October 2006, he was a presenter at the first annual British Academy Video Games Awards at the Roundhouse, London. Andy Serkis lives with his family in North London, England.- Actor
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Character actor, dramatic leading man, or hilarious comic foil? With an astonishing range of roles already under his belt, John C. Reilly has played an eclectic host of rich characters to great effect over the years, from seedy ne'er-do-wells, to lovable, good-natured schlepps.
The fifth of six children, John Christopher Reilly was born in Chicago, to a father of mostly Irish descent, and a Lithuanian-American mother, and was brought up on Chicago's tough Southwest territory. His father, also named John, ran an industrial linen supply company business. On the amateur stage from age eight, Reilly trained at the Goodman School of Drama and eventually became a member of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre.
His film break came with a small role in the Vietnam War drama Casualties of War (1989), wherein Brian De Palma liked his work so much during the early stages that he recast him in a major role by the start of shooting as a soldier bent on rape. Reilly gained momentum throughout the 1990s and showed his dazzling stretch of talent in such films as Days of Thunder (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and The River Wild (1994). He became a major stock player in director Paul Thomas Anderson's films, while finding some of his best roles in Hard Eight (1996) as a compulsive gambler, Boogie Nights (1997) in which he played a narcissistic porn star, and in Magnolia (1999) as a compassionate policeman. He went on to earn further critical points for his role of the soldier sent to the front lines in Terrence Malick's war epic The Thin Red Line (1998).
On stage, Reilly has wowed audiences in "The Grapes of Wrath" on Broadway, "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Othello" at Steppenwolf, and earned an Outer Critics Circle Award and Tony nomination for "True West" alongside another impeccable character player Philip Seymour Hoffman. Reilly finally received the film recognition he deserved in 2002 with a slew of choice, high-profile parts in The Hours (2002), The Good Girl (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), and especially Chicago (2002) as the put-upon husband, Amos Hart, who is played for a patsy by murderous wife Roxie (Renée Zellweger). For this last part, he received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
Since then his stock has risen considerably, and he has further widened his cinematic repertoire, appearing in everything from dramatic roles - We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), The Aviator (2004) and Carnage (2011) - to broader comic turns - Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Step Brothers (2008), Cyrus (2010) and Cedar Rapids (2011). Most recently, he has voiced the lead in Disney's animated smash Wreck-It Ralph (2012).
Reilly is married to producer Alison Dickey.- Actor
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Haley Joel Osment is an American actor who has proven himself as one of the best young actors of his generation. He is the first millennial male to have received an Academy Award nomination for acting.
Osment was born in Los Angeles, California, to Theresa (Seifert), a teacher, and actor Eugene Osment. His sister is actress Emily Osment. His ancestry includes Irish, along with German and English/Scottish. Haley began acting at the age of four, when he tried out for a Pizza Hut commercial in a shopping mall. The commercial launched his career, and he landed his first television role later that year. As a young child, his first film role was as Forrest Gump (1994)'s son, also named Forrest Gump, in the 1994 film of the same name as well as making a small appearance in Mixed Nuts (1994). He had roles in numerous TV series, including Thunder Alley (1994), The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1995), and, most notably, the final season of Murphy Brown (1988), in which he replaced Dyllan Christopher as Murphy's son Avery. Osment also made numerous guest appearances in various TV series, including The Larry Sanders Show (1992), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) (as a child dying from AIDS), Touched by an Angel (1994), Chicago Hope (1994), The Pretender (1996), and as a child dying from leukemia in the emotional episode 'Angels and Blimps' (1999) of the series Ally McBeal (1997). Osment starred in Bogus (1996) with Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu, and appeared in the 1998 made-for-TV movie The Lake (1998) with Yasmine Bleeth, as well as I'll Remember April (1999) with future The Sixth Sense (1999) co-star Trevor Morgan.
He first achieved stardom in 1999 when he appeared in the blockbuster The Sixth Sense (1999), co-starring Bruce Willis. For this role, Osment won the Saturn Award for best young actor. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Michael Caine, with whom he would later star in Secondhand Lions (2003). Osment (voice) also made three minor guest appearances on Family Guy (1999) in 2000. One of Osment's lines in The Sixth Sense (1999), "I see dead people," is often repeated or parodied on television programs and in other media. The 2000 Academy Awards ceremony honored another of Osment's future co-stars, BestActor Kevin Spacey, who, along with Helen Hunt, appeared in Osment's next film, Pay It Forward (2000). The following year, Osment appeared in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), cementing his stature as one of the leading young actors in Hollywood. This role earned him his second Saturn Award. Also in 2001, Osment starred in a Polish film, Edges of the Lord (2001), as Romek. The movie was never released theatrically in the United States. Osment has since provided voices for The Country Bears (2002) and The Jungle Book 2 (2003). More recently, Osment was the voice of Sora, the main protagonist of the Walt Disney Company and Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts (2002) video-game series, which was extremely financially successful as well and generally well-received critically. He was also the voice of Takeshi Jinno in the "Time to Shine" episode of the IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (2005) anime TV series.
Osment also worked in Home of the Giants (2007), playing a high school journalist opposite Ryan Merriman and Danielle Panabaker. He also played Helmuth Hübener in the film Truth & Treason (????). On July 20, 2006, Osment was injured in a one-car accident. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.16%, twice the legal limit in California. On August 18, he was charged with four misdemeanors, including driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of marijuana while driving. He pleaded no contest on October 19 and was sentenced to three years' probation, 60 hours in an alcohol-rehabilitation and education program, a fine of $1,500, and a minimum requirement of 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over a six-month period.
In 2006, Osment took a hiatus from Hollywood and studied acting at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with Honors and a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in 2011. He also appeared on Broadway in a 2008 production of David Mamet's American Buffalo, and in John Logan's Red at the Philadelphia Theater Company in 2011.
Osment returned to the screen in 2012 with I'll Follow You Down (2013), co-starring with Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, and Victor Garber, Sassy Pants (2012) with Anna Gunn and Diedrich Bader, then appeared in two seasons of Amazon Studios' comedy series Alpha House (2013), written by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau and starring John Goodman. His many additional credits include Comedy Bang! Bang!, Kevin Smith's horror comedies Tusk (2014) and Yoga Hosers (2016), Entourage (2015) (Warner Bros.' silver screen extension of the award-winning HBO dramedy), the award-winning independent comedy Sex Ed (2014), the hit FX series What We Do in the Shadows (2019), the Hulu science fiction comedy Future Man (2017), and the true crime thriller and 2019 Sundance Film Festival Selection Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, and featuring Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario, Jim Parsons, and John Malkovich.- Actor
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Macaulay Culkin, one of the most famous American child stars, was born on August 26, 1980 in New York City, New York, USA, as the third of seven children of his father Kit Culkin (a former stage and child actor and also Macaulay's former manager) and mother Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Rory Culkin, most of whom have also acted. Macaulay's mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. Macaulay's father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
"Mack", as he's known to his close friends and family, first came into showbiz at the age of 4, appearing in a string of Off-Broadway shows such as the New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker and, by 8 years-old, the films Rocket Gibraltar (1988) and See You in the Morning (1989), which included him in the rare company of kids who have received rave reviews from The New Yorker and The New York Times.
By the age of 9, the young actor had nearly upstaged star John Candy in Uncle Buck (1989) (his deadpan interrogation of Candy was Buck's funniest scene). Then, in 1990, writer John Hughes turned his finished Home Alone (1990) script over to director Chris Columbus with a suggestion to consider Culkin for the lead. Though Macaulay was the first kid Columbus saw, he was skeptical about having him in the lead and saw over 200 other possible actors and he admitted that no one came as close to being as good as Culkin. By the callback interview, Mack had memorized two scenes, and Columbus was sure he found his "Kevin McCallister". The movie grossed more than $285 million in the US alone, becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time and making Macaulay Culkin one of the biggest movie stars of the time.
His next big project was My Girl (1991) in which he played "Thomas J. Sennett", a boy who seems to be allergic to everything. Despite some controversy over the ending, the film was released anyway and proved to be another hit film for Mack (and featured his very first kiss). In 1992 came Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), which grossed more than $172 million in the US alone. In 1993 came The Good Son (1993), which was the first role to depart from his cute kid comedies. He played a murderous little demon named Henry. He got the role when his powerhouse negotiator/manager/father Kit Culkin said that he would pull Mack out of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) unless he was given the psychotic boy lead in The Good Son (1993). He was also given a salary of $5 million for the film.
In 1994, at the age of 14, came a string of duds, The Pagemaster (1994), Getting Even with Dad (1994) and Richie Rich (1994). He was paid $8 million for the last two, the highest salary ever paid for a child star. Many people believed Mack had lost his touch, though, because he was no longer that cute tiny kid they saw in Home Alone (1990). In 1995 his parents, who were never married, separated and started a greedy legal battle over the custody of their kids and Mack's fortune. In 1996, the young actor had reportedly said he wouldn't accept any roles until his parents settled their custody dispute. That case would not be resolved until April 1997 when Kit Culkin relinquished control to Brentrup.
In 1998, Macaulay married actress Rachel Miner, but separated in 2000 because Rachel wanted to start a family and Mack wanted to get back into acting. There has been a gap of eight years since 1994's Richie Rich (1994), and although he made a 'comeback' on stage in 2001, appearing in a London production of "Madame Melville", and also portrayed Michael Alig in Party Monster (2003); with an estimated fortune of $17 million he clearly never has to work again - if the roles don't appeal to him.- Actor
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Actor of Puerto Rican descent who gained fame making many memorable films in the 1980s and 1990s due to his villainous physical appearance. Guzmán was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico on August 28, 1956 and raised in New York City's Greenwich Village and the surrounding Lower East Side neighborhood. His mother Rosa worked in a hospital and Benjamin Cardona, his stepfather, was a TV repairman. Guzman presently resides in Vermont with his wife and kids.- Actor
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Stephen Lang is a distinguished and award-winning actor who commands considerable respect, and is equally at home on the Broadway stage, on television, and in film.
Though he is arguably most well-known for his acclaimed performance in James Cameron's Avatar (2009), Lang began his career in theater. Broadway roles include his Tony-nominated performance as Lou in "The Speed of Darkness", Happy in the Dustin Hoffman revival of "Death of a Salesman", Colonel Nathan Jessep in "A Few Good Men", and Mike Tallman alongside Quentin Tarantino and Marisa Tomei in "Wait Until Dark".
Off-Broadway credits include John Patrick Shanley's "Defiance", Anne Nelson's "The Guys", Arthur Miller's "Finishing the Picture" and his own play, "Beyond Glory", for which he received numerous accolades. The play premiered in Washington, D.C. and has played the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, the Roundabout in New York City and a USO tour to various military bases and battleships around the world. In the fall of 2010, Lang received the Patriot Award from the Medal of Honor Society in honor of his theatrical and charitable works for the United States military.
Television and film credits include celebrated performances as Babe Ruth in Babe Ruth (1991), Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals (2003) as well as acclaimed performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Tombstone (1993), Gettysburg (1993), Public Enemies (2009), The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), Michael Mann's hit TV show Crime Story (1986) , the NBC revival of The Fugitive (2000), featuring Tim Daly, and Fox's sci-fi epic Terra Nova (2011).
He has been nominated for and won numerous awards including the Grace Prize, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Helen Hayes, and Tony Awards, as well as acting prizes at 2010's VisionFest and the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival.
Stephen was born in New York City, New York, to Theresa (Volmer) and Eugene Lang, a prominent businessperson and philanthropist. He is of Hungarian Jewish-German Jewish (father) and Irish-German Catholic (mother) descent. He is married to Kristina Watson, a costume designer and teacher, with whom he has four children.- Actress
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Victoria Smurfit is an Irish actress. She is known for playing Orla O'Connell in the BBC television series Ballykissangel, Detective Chief Inspector Roisin Connor in the ITV police procedural Trial & Retribution and Cruella DE Vil in Once Upon A Time for which she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress in 13th IFTA Film & Drama Awards in 2016.- Actor
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Alfie Evan Allen (born 12 September 1986) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Theon Greyjoy in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011-2019).
Allen was born in Hammersmith, London, the son of film producer Alison Owen and Welsh-born actor Keith Allen. His older sister is singer Lily Allen; her song "Alfie" is about him. He went to Windlesham House School in Sussex, Embley Park School near Romsey, St John's College in Portsmouth and the Fine Arts College in Hampstead, where he studied for his A-levels. He is also a third cousin of singer Sam Smith.
Allen's first professional appearance was in a one-off Channel 4 comedy, You Are Here in 1998, co-written by Matt Lucas and David Walliams. The same year, Allen and his sister Lily appeared in the 1998 film, Elizabeth, which was produced by their mother.
His early work included small roles in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, directed by his uncle Kevin Allen, the film Atonement and in BBC1's historical hospital drama, Casualty 1907, as Nobby Clark. Starting in Chichester on 31 January 2008, he took over Daniel Radcliffe's role in a revival of Equus on a nationwide tour.
In April 2009, he co-starred with then partner Jaime Winstone in the music video for "Dust Devil" by Madness. He also had a role in the BBC2 film, Freefall.
Originally auditioning for the role of Jon Snow, Allen came to international attention when he was cast as Theon Greyjoy in the HBO medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones in 2011. He has continued to work in films, appearing in Soulboy, The Kid, Freestyle and Powder in 2010. In 2012, he starred in the British thriller Confine.
In 2016, Allen filmed a two part documentary for the History Channel titled Football: A Brief History exploring the roots of Association Football and his take on the English game. He is a self-confessed Arsenal fan while his father supports Fulham. Part of the filming took Allen to Scottish football club Rangers.- Actor
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Isaac has been acting since he was age 11. Currently, he is still studying at school and balancing acting jobs.
Isaac Hempstead-Wright is an English actor. Beginning his professional acting career at the age of eleven, Hempstead-Wright is best known for his role as Bran Stark on the HBO series Game of Thrones, which earned him a Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Supporting Actor in a TV Series
He started acting in commercials, and studied acting at the Kent Youth Theatre in Canterbury, England.
He made it his screen debut in the horror film, The Awakening (2011). But, the big break came when he was cast as Bran Stark on Game of Thrones (2011), which earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations as Oustanding Performance by an Ensemble in Drama Series at the 18th and 20th Screen Actors Guild Awards- Jack Gleeson was born on 20 May 1992 in Cork, Ireland. He is an actor, known for Game of Thrones (2011), Batman Begins (2005) and A Shine of Rainbows (2009). He has been married to Roisin O'Mahony since 27 August 2022.
- British actor Anton Lesser (b. 1952) has played many of the principal Shakespearian roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Associate Artist since 1990), including Petruchio, Romeo and Richard III. He is very active in radio (BBC) and spoken word audio. Over a dozen recordings range from Paradise Lost and Homer to the title role in Hamlet. He is particularly known for the major novels of Charles Dickens - Great Expectations won the Talkie Award.
- While in his teens, Owen Teale occasionally worked at Porthcawl Little Theatre. In September 1980 he was accepted by the Guildford School of Acting and by Christmas of 1983 had obtained his Equity card. His first proper work was as a dancer in the musical "Cabaret" in Plymouth, Devon. Subsequently he was approached by BBC-TV and landed a role in The Mimosa Boys (1985). Two years spent as a jobbing actor were followed by roles in the stage version of "The Fifteen Streets", "When She Danced" and "The Comedy of Errors". In 1990 he appeared in Robin Hood (1991) starring Patrick Bergin and immediately after finishing this film, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford upon Avon.
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James Cosmo was born on 24 May 1948 in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Braveheart (1995), Highlander (1986) and Troy (2004). He has been married to Annie Harris since 24 May 2000.- 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.- Actor
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Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint was born in Harlow, Essex, England, the elder son of Joanne (Parsons) and Nigel Grint, who dealt in memorabilia. The first of 5 children, Rupert has one brother and three sisters.
Rupert grew up in Hertfordshire, the English county directly to the north of London, conveniently placed for commuting to Leavesden Film Studios. Before successfully auditioning for the Harry Potter films, Rupert attended Richard Hale Secondary School in Hertford: here he took an active interest in school plays, being cast as Rumplestilskin in the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. He was also a regular attendee at weekend drama classes at Top Hat Stage School, also in Hertford.
Time at school was limited, as Rupert was needed on set for the Harry Potter films, where all of the child actors were tutored for four hours a day on set, to keep up with legal requirements. During the summer of 2004, he took his GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams and completed his formal education.- Actor
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Sam Spruell was born in Southwark, London, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Legend (2015) and Taken 3 (2014).- Adam is an actor and comedy writer. He is best known for playing 'Ori' in The Hobbit (Warner Brothers), directed by Peter Jackson as well as Jack Sparrow's new recruit in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tale No Tales (Disney). Recently, he appeared on stage alongside Ian McKellen in Mother Goose (West End/UK Tour) and Iolanthe (West End) for the English National Opera.
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David Michael Bautista, Jr. was born on January 18, 1969 in Washington, D.C., to Donna Raye (Mullins) and David Michael Bautista, a hairdresser. He has Filipino and Greek ancestry.
When WCW officials told him he'd never make it in sports entertainment, Bautista pushed himself to achieve his dream of being a Superstar. In May 2002, he made his debut on SmackDown using the ring name Batista, but it wasn't until a move to Raw and two victories over Kane that "The Animal" began to make noise in the WWE Universe. The wins impressed Ric Flair and Triple H, who were looking to align themselves with the industry's brightest new stars. After a lengthy search, they identified Randy Orton and Batista. Collectively the four Superstars became known as Evolution.
Batista earned his first championship alongside "The Nature Boy" when the duo captured the WWE Tag Team Championships in December 2003. As Evolution dominated WWE, Batista started to emerge from the shadows of Triple H and Ric Flair. By the time Batista won the 2005 Royal Rumble Match, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H viewed him as a serious threat to his title.
After a triceps injury at the hands of Mark Henry forced Batista to relinquish the title in January 2006, he vowed to return. Batista successfully regained the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series in 2006. Four months into his second reign, Batista faced the Undertaker at WrestleMania 23. "The Animal" took Undertaker to the limit, but was unable to stop the streak of "The Deadman" at WrestleMania. Though disappointed, Batista stayed hungry and always managed to keep himself in the championship hunt for the rest of his career.
At Bragging Rights in 2009, Batista shocked the world when he blamed Rey Mysterio for a loss to Undertaker, then attacked his former tag team partner. "The Animal" then became locked in a tense rivalry with another former friend, John Cena, over the WWE Championship. The grueling match at Over the Limit led to a wheelchair-bound Batista declaring "I quit!" the following night on Raw before fading from the WWE Universe in May 2010. Following his departure from WWE, Bautista appeared opposite Vin Diesel in the Universal film Riddick (2013) and RZA's feature directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), in which he played the villainous Brass Body and starred opposite Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu. His other film credits include The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012), where he played Argomael; the action film House of the Rising Sun (2011); and Wrong Side of Town (2010) opposite rapper Ja Rule.
Two years later, he joined MMA and won his first professional MMA fight. In January 2014, he made his long awaited return to the WWE, before quitting a second time in June of that same year. He did this in order to promote Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), which was released on August 1, 2014, and starred Chris Pratt, Benicio Del Toro, Zoe Saldana, and Djimon Hounsou, alongside Bautista.
He will shoot Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016), directed by John Stockwell, and co-starring martial artist Alain Moussi and UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre. The remake of the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme film, Kickboxer (1989) is about two brothers David and Kurt Sloan; When David wins the Karate World Championship, a promoter lures him to Hong Kong, despite his brother's protestations that the man is a crook. When Kurt travels to Thailand to meet his brother, he discovers he has died and seeks his revenge.
After starring in films such as, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Hotel Artemis (2018), Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018), and Final Score (2018), he made a special guest appearance on WWE Smackdown! (1999) for it's 1000 episode reuniting with his former Evolution members Triple H, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair on October 16, 2018. The following year on February 25, 2019, he made his return to WWE Raw (1993) when he attacked Ric Flair on his 70th birthday at the end of the episode sending a message to Triple H that would ultimately lead to a No Holds Barred match for WrestleMania 35 (2019). Batista added the stipulation that if he wins the match, Triple H will have to retire from in-ring competition. As a result, Triple H was finally able to beat Batista for the first time and won the match, which ultimately led to Batista announcing his official retirement from wrestling in the WWE. Following his retirement, he will continue with his career as an actor in Hollywood.
His next films scheduled for release will be; Stuber (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019), and My Spy (2020). He is one of many professional wrestlers to make the smooth transition from wrestling into the entertainment world.- Actor
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Eamon Farren was born on 19 May 1985 in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. He is an actor, known for Chained (2012), Winchester (2018) and The Dig (2021).- Actress
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The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007), however, her androgynous looks and often bizarre appeal have been embraced by more mainstream crowds as well.
She was born Katherine Mathilda Swinton into a patrician Scottish military family on November 5, 1960, in London, England. Her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, an army officer, was English-born. Her ancestry is Scottish, Northern Irish, and English, including a long tapestry of prominent Scottish ancestors. Educated at an English and a Scottish boarding school, Tilda subsequently studied Social and Political Science at Cambridge University and graduated in 1983 with a degree in English Literature.
During her tenure as a student, she performed countless stage productions and proceeded to work for a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she appeared in such productions as "Measure for Measure." The rebel insider her, however, was strong and she left the company after a year as her approach and interests began to shift dramatically. With a pungent taste for the unique and seldom tried, Tilda found some gender-bending stage roles come her way. She portrayed Mozart in Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri", and as a working class woman impersonating her dead husband during World War II, in Manfred Karge's "Man to Man," a role she later committed to film (Man to Man (1992)).
In 1985, the tall, slender performer with alabaster skin and carrot-topped hair began a professional association with gay experimental director Derek Jarman. She continued to live and work with the groundbreaking writer/director/cinematographer for the next nine years, involving herself in seven of his often notorious films. This quirky, highly fascinating alliance would produce such stark and radical turns as the Berlin International Film Festival winners Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), The Garden (1990) and Edward II (1991) (playing Isabella, in which she won "Best Actress" at the Venice Film Festival) and Wittgenstein (1993), as well as the films Soursweet (1988) (a movie with no spoken dialogue) and the Stockholm Film Festival Award winner Blue (1993).
Jarman succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1994. His untimely demise left a devastating void in Tilda's life for quite some time. Her most notable performance of her Jarman period, however, came from a non-Jarman film. For the vivid title role in Orlando (1992), her nobleman character lives for 400 years while changing sex from man to woman. The film, which Swinton spent years helping writer/director Sally Potter develop and finance, continues to this day to have a worldwide devoted fan following.
Over the years, Tilda has preferred art to celebrity, opening herself to experimental projects with new and untried directors and mediums, delving into the worlds of installation art and cutting-edge fashion. Consistently off-centered roles in Female Perversions (1996), Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), Teknolust (2002), Young Adam (2003), Broken Flowers (2005) and Béla Tarr's The Man from London (2007) have added to her mystique. Back in 1995, she delved into a performance art piece in the Serpentine Gallery, London, where she was put on display to the public for a week, asleep (or apparently so), in a glass case.
Following the birth of her twins in 1997, Tilda would leave lean for a time towards Hollywood mainstream filming. The thriller The Deep End (2001), earned her a number of critic's awards and her first Golden Globe nomination. Other visible U.S. pictures included The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio, fantasy epic Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves, her Oscar-decorated performance in Michael Clayton (2007) and, of course, her iconic White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Into the millennium, Tilda continued to amaze starring in the crime drama Julia (2008) and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). She learned Italian and Russian for Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love (2009), starred in the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (2013), and earned fine notice in Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem (2013). She also starred in the dark romantic fantasy drama Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) directed by Jim Jarmusch, had a small role in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), starred in Judd Apatow's comedy Trainwreck (2015), and played a rock star in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015).
Showing no signs of slowing up, Tilda continues to make creative, visual impressions in such films as the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar! (2016) where she reunited with Clooney and had a dual role playing twin journalists, and as the wise Asian teacher of Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the Marvel Comics action film Doctor Strange (2016), while repeating the part of The Ancient One in Avengers: Endgame (2019). She gave another eccentric, unhinged performance in the action adventure message movie Okja (2017), played Betsy Trotwood in a contemporary telling of The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) and teamed up again with writer/director Jim Jarmusch in the thoroughly offbeat fantasy horror comedy The Dead Don't Die (2019).- Actor
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Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His mother was of German descent and his father had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. He was raised in Brisbane, Queensland, after his parents split up.
Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company.
Known for his classical repertory work over the years, he scored an unexpected hit with his Queensland role as Snoopy in the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". A few years later he moved to France to study but subsequently returned to his homeland within a short time and continued work as both actor and director with the Queensland company ("June and the Paycock," "Aladdin," "Godspell," "Present Laughter," "The Rivals"). In the 1980s Rush became a vital member of the State Theatre Company of South Australia and showed an equally strong range there in such productions as "Revenger's Tragedy," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Mother Courage...and Her Children," "Blood Wedding," "Pal Joey," "Twelfth Night" and as The Fool in "King Lear".
Rush made an inauspicious debut in films with the feature Hoodwink (1981), having little more than a bit part, and didn't carry off his first major role until playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a movie production of Twelfth Night (1986). Yet, he remained a durable presence on stage with acclaimed productions in "The Diary of a Madman" in 1989 and "The Government Inspector" in 1991.
Rush suffered a temporary nervous breakdown in 1992 due to overwork and anguish over his lack of career advancement. Resting for a time, he eventually returned to the stage. Within a few years film-goers finally began taking notice of Geoffrey after his performance in Children of the Revolution (1996). This led to THE role of a lifetime as the highly dysfunctional piano prodigy David Helfgott in Shine (1996). Rush's astonishing tour-de-force performance won him every conceivable award imaginable, including the Oscar, Golden Globe, British Film Award and Australian Film Institute Award.
"Shine" not only put Rush on the international film map, but atypically on the Hollywood "A" list as well. His rather homely mug was made fascinating by a completely charming, confident and captivating demeanor; better yet, it allowed him to more easily dissolve into a number of transfixing historical portrayals, notably his Walsingham in Elizabeth (1998) and Leon Trotsky in Frida (2002). He's also allowed himself to have a bit of hammy fun in such box office escapism as Mystery Men (1999), House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Banger Sisters (2002), Finding Nemo (2003) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). More than validating his early film success, two more Oscar nominations came his way in the same year for Quills (2000) (best actor) and Shakespeare in Love (1998) (support actor) in 2000. Geoffrey's amazing versatility continued into the millennium with his portrayal of the manic, volatile comedy genius Peter Sellers in the biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). He also merited attention as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech (2010), Basil Hunter in The Eye of the Storm (2011), Hans Hubermann in The Book Thief (2013), artist/sculptor Alberto Giocometti in Final Portrait (2017) and Michael Kingley Storm Boy (2019).
Rush's intermittent returns to the stage have included productions of "Marat-Sade," "Uncle Vanya," "Oleanna," "Hamlet" and "The Small Poppies". In 2009 he made his Broadway debut in "Exit the King" co-starring Susan Sarandon. His marriage (since 1988) to Aussie classical actress Jane Menelaus produced daughter Angelica (1992) and son James (1995). Menelaus, who has also performed with the State Theatre of South Australia, has co-starred on stage with Rush in "The Winter's Tale" (1987), "Troilus and Cressida" (1989) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (as Gwendolyn to his Jack Worthing). She also had featured roles in a few of his films, including Quills (2000) and The Eye of the Storm (2011).- Actor
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Kevin Serge Durand is a Canadian actor. He is best known for portraying Vasiliy Fet in The Strain, Joshua in Dark Angel, Martin Keamy in Lost, Fred J. Dukes / The Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Barry Burton in Resident Evil: Retribution, Gabriel in Legion, Little John in Robin Hood, Jeeves Tremor in Smokin' Aces, and Carlos in The Butterfly Effect. He received a 2012 Best Supporting Actor Genie nomination for his portrayal of Lenny Jackson in Citizen Gangster.- Producer
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Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.
Since then, Tarantino has helmed several critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015).- Actor
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Dacre was born in 1994 in Perth, Western Australia. His mother is Australian-Canadian and his father is a New Zealander. At the time of his birth both of his parents were working in the film industry and he spent many hours during his childhood on film sets where he developed a love of acting. Dacre was accepted into WAAPA to undertake his 3 year Bachelor of Arts in Acting.- Actor
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Daniel Dae Kim has made a career of creating multifaceted and stereotype-breaking roles as an actor, director and now, producer. Prior to his seven-season portrayal of Chin Ho Kelly on "Hawaii Five-0," Kim was best known for his role as Jin Soo Kwon on the hit TV series "Lost," for which he shared a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble, and was individually honored with an AZN Asian Excellence Award, a Multicultural Prism Award and a Vanguard Award from the Korean American Coalition, all for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. In 2009, he was recognized with the prestigious KoreAm Achievement Award in the field of Arts and Entertainment, and has twice been named one of "People" Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive."
Most recently, he received a Broadway Beacon Award for his role as the King of Siam in Lincoln Center's Tony Award-winning production of "The King and I," as well as the Theater Legacy Award from New York's Pan Asian Repertory Theater. Outside of his artistic endeavors, he actively pursues interests in the community at large, having most recently served as Cultural Envoy and Member of the U.S. Presidential Delegation for the United States at the World Expo in Korea.
Born in Busan, South Korea, and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, Kim discovered acting while a student at Haverford College. After graduation, he moved to New York City, where he began his career on stage, performing in classics such as "Romeo and Juliet," "Ivanov," and "A Doll's House." Despite early success, he deepened his knowledge of the craft by enrolling at New York University's Graduate Acting Program, where he earned his Master's Degree.
After receiving his MFA, Kim's film career began in earnest with roles in "The Jackal," "For Love of the Game," "The Hulk," "Spider-Man 2" and "The Cave," as well as the Academy Award-winning "Crash." Most recently, he created the role of Jack Kang in "The Divergent Series films, "Insurgent" and "Allegiant." Kim is set to star as Ben Daimio in the highly anticipated feature: "Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen".
Kim has also lent his voice talents to animated series and films, such as the award-winning Studio Ghibli film, "The Tale of Princess Kaguya," as well as the PBS nature documentary series, "Big Pacific". He's also voiced characters for several video games, including Johnny Gat in the bestselling series, "Saints Row."
On camera, he has guest-starred on numerous TV shows, including "CSI," on the network, "ER" and two seasons on "24" as CTU Agent Tom Baker. In 2008, he starred in the Emmy Award-nominated miniseries "The Andromeda Strain."
In addition to his onscreen career, Kim spearheads his production company 3AD, established in 2014 by Daniel Dae Kim to produce premier content for TV, film and digital media - in development partnership with ITV Studios America. Committed to storytelling that features characters and cultures traditionally underrepresented in today's media, 3AD produced projects include this season's acclaimed new series The Good Doctor (ABC),where he serves as Executive Producer. Daniel Dae Kim can be found on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook @danieldaekim and is repped by UTA and KlevanLongarzo LLP and EPR. 3ADmedia.- Actor
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Michael Emerson was born on 7 September 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. He is an actor, known for Saw (2004), Lost (2004) and Person of Interest (2011). He has been married to Carrie Preston since 5 September 1998.- Jeremy Davies attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California. He made his film debut starring in David O. Russell's acclaimed first film, the Indy classic, "Spanking the Monkey", which became a surprise Sundance Film Festival winner, earning Jeremy an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance.
Davies' portrayal of Tom Hanks' interpreter, 'Corporal Upham', in Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning film, "Saving Private Ryan" also earned him considerable critical acclaim and subsequent Oscar buzz.
Davies' other film credits include Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris", with George Clooney and Viola Davis; "Going All the Way" with Ben Affleck; "The Locusts" with Vince Vaughn; Wim Wenders' "Million Dollar Hotel"; Lars von Trier's acclaimed avant-garde films, "Dogville" and "Manderlay" with Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skarsgard; "Rescue Dawn" with Christian Bale and Steve Zahn, and directed by the legendary Werner Herzog; "Nell" with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson; "Half Nelson" writer/directors Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden's "It's Kind of a Funny Story"; "Guncrazy" with Drew Barrymore, and Jan de Bont's "Twister" with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
In television, Davies was invited to join the cast of JJ Abram's groundbreaking show, "Lost", and soon after, his character, 'Daniel Faraday', quickly became an integral part of the "Lost" mythology and a favorite of critics and fans (to the extent that ABC began selling Faraday bobbleheads).
After "Lost", Davies joined Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and Margo Martindale on Graham Yost's acclaimed, Emmy winning FX show, "Justified", based on a short story by the great Elmore Leonard. Wildly against his better judgment, Yost generously granted Jeremy unusual freedom to develop the character of Mags Bennett's middle son, and Davies' subsequent ferocious and fragile Richard the Third-esque portrayal of Harlan, Kentucky outlaw 'Dickie Bennett' was so far removed from 'Daniel Faraday', his work earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor.
Davies' television work also includes the Emmy-honored HBO film, "The Laramie Project".
Davies was raised without television, and experienced a vividly nomadic (non-military brat), low-income childhood, growing up throughout the US and abroad, including Vermont, Seattle, Oregon, Kansas, Michigan, New Orleans, Latin America, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and the Kingdom of California. - Actor
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Ralph Ineson was born on 15 December 1969 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Witch (2015), The Green Knight (2021) and The Creator (2023).- Actor
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Jerome Patrick Flynn (born 16 March 1963) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his roles as Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the ITV series Soldier Soldier, Fireman Kenny 'Rambo' Baines in the pilot of London's Burning, Bronn in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, and Bennet Drake in Ripper Street.
He and his Soldier Soldier co-star Robson Green also performed as Robson & Jerome in the later half of the 1990s. They released a version of "Unchained Melody", which stayed at number 1 for 7 weeks on the UK Chart, selling more than a million copies and becoming the best-selling single of 1995. The duo had two further number 1 singles: "I Believe" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted". Their eponymous debut album and the follow-up Take Two both reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart.
Flynn was born in Bromley, Greater London, the son of actor and singer Eric Flynn and drama teacher Fern Flynn. He has a brother and sister, and a half-brother and sister from his father's second marriage. His brother Daniel Flynn is also an actor, and his half-brother Johnny Flynn is a musician and actor. Jerome attended Wilderness school in Sevenoaks and was an excellent rugby player at school.
In 1986 Flynn appeared in the LWT television film London's Burning as firefighter Kenny "Rambo" Baines. When the film spawned a series of the same name in 1988, he was the only member of the main cast who was unable to reprise his role (aside from Gary McDonald, whose own character, Andreas "Ethnic" Lewis, was killed off in the film) due to previous commitments. Also in 1986 he played a minor role as the soldier "Franny" in "The Monocled Mutineer".In 1988 he played the character Freddie in the ITV drama; The Fear which was about the London underworld. He appeared as D.S Eddie Hargreaves for six episodes of the British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) winning police drama, Between The Lines between 1992 and 1994.
Flynn portrayed Corporal Paddy Garvey of the King's Fusiliers in the ITV series Soldier Soldier. The series began in 1990. He acted alongside Robson Green in the series. After Flynn and Green performed Unchained Melody on the program-me, ITV was inundated by people looking to buy the song, and the pair were persuaded by record producer Simon Cowell to record it and release it as a single, a double A-side with White Cliffs of Dover. The single was released under the name Robson & Jerome and reached number one in the UK chart in 1995. It stayed at No.1 for 7 weeks in the UK Singles Chart, selling more than 1.9 million copies and making it the best-selling single of the year, and winning the duo the Music Week Awards in 1996 for best single and best album. The duo had two more number one hits in 1995 and 1996 with "I Believe" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" both re-makes of standards, they also produced two number one albums.
Soldier Soldier ended in 1997. Flynn went on to star as Eddie Wallis (alongside singing partner Robson Green) in the comedy-drama Ain't Misbehavin' (1997), and was the star of the short-lived police show Badger in 1999. He played Bobby Charlton in the 1999 film Best. On stage, he played Tommy Cooper in Jus' Like That, a tribute to the comic magician written by John Fisher and directed by Simon Callow.
Having semi-retired from acting and moved to Pembrokeshire, in 2007 Flynn directed and starred in the low budget film Rude Tales. The film was split into a series of short stories centered in the lead character, Jerome Rude, played by Flynn. The film was screened at a small number of independent cinemas in the Pembrokeshire area.
After almost 10 years away from acting, in July 2010 it was confirmed that Flynn would be playing the role of Bronn in the HBO television series Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels of George R. R. Martin.
Flynn provides the voice of Daniel (the hound) in the children's television show Tommy Zoom. He also appeared on the television program-me So You Think You're Royal?, where it was established that through his mother he is a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell, through his son Henry Cromwell, and also a descendant of Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III of England.
Flynn stars alongside Matthew Macfadyen in four series of Ripper Street for the BBC.
In 2016, he appeared in "Shut Up and Dance", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.
In a 2019 interview, Flynn revealed that he'd been cast in Amazon Prime Video's upcoming series adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series in an unannounced role.- Actor
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Ian Beattie is a Northern Irish actor best known for his roles as Antigonus in Oliver Stone's film Alexander, and as Ser Meryn Trant in the HBO series, Game of Thrones.
For Beattie, acting has always been a part of his life, beginning at an early age when he toured Northern Ireland in a circus with his father. Beattie has appeared in a number of television and film projects over his career, with credits including The Tudors, Mo, Vikings, and Space Truckers.
Announced in 2010, Beattie was confirmed in the role of Ser Meryn Trant, a member of the Kingsguard under King Joffrey. Initially only appearing as a guest in the first season, he soon reprised the role in the second, third, fourth and fifth seasons. Though being far different in person, Beattie's sadistic, brutal and all round vile portrayal of the character led to one of the most graphic, yet satisfying deaths on the show. It's safe to say that Ser Meryn Trant was one of the many characters we loved to hate.
Alongside his filmography, Beattie has also appeared in the play Demented by Gary Mitchell at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.
Most recently, Ian Beattie has appeared in the latest season of Doctor Who alongside Peter Capaldi, Hayfield, US hit series Quantico, and the historical drama film Viking Destiny.- Writer
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Garry Shandling was born on 29 November 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Larry Sanders Show (1992), It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). He died on 24 March 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Spencer Treat Clark is from the New York City suburbs. He began acting at an early age, appearing in films like Gladiator and Unbreakable. He attended Columbia University in New York City where he studied political science and economics. His older sister, Eliza Clark, is a playwright and screenwriter. Spencer lives in Los Angeles. He recently appeared in the series finale of Mad Men, as a recurring character in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, and as a recurring character in the new TNT series Animal Kingdom.- Tim McMullan was born in 1963 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Fifth Element (1997) and Enola Holmes 2 (2022).
- Tom Brooke was born in 1978 in Berkshire, England, UK. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and lives in London. He is best known for his roles as the angel Fiore in AMC/Amazon Prime's 'Preacher', Bill Wiggins in the BBC's 'Sherlock' and Thick Kevin in Richard Curtis' film 'Pirate Radio', starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
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Liz grew up in Bebington, England where she lived until she went to Nottingham University in 1990 to study law. After graduating with an LLB in Law, she volunteered in a law centre and became a campaigner for civil rights for Disabled people in the UK and internationally. It wasn't until 2000 that she began to tread the boards when she co-founded the comedy group, Nasty Girls. In 2003, Liz studied performing arts with Graeae Theatre Company and London Met University and played the eponymous 'Mother Courage' in the final touring production. Following this, Liz was part of the first ever Disabled women's reading of 'The Vagina Monologues', took to the main stage at The Young Vic theatre, London in another Brecht, 'The Exception and the Rule' and then toured with the Graeae production of Moliere's 'George Dandin' the following year.
Liz's first job with the BBC was as a columnist for the website Ouch! before becoming co-host with American Horror Story (2011) actor, Mat Fraser, of the infamous Ouch podcast. In 2005 she joined the comedy group Abnormally Funny People and her stand up debut with them was filmed for a documentary on Sky TV. She was a finalist in the Funny Women competition 2006 and in 2007 she was runner up in the Hackney Empire New Act competition. She has taken 6 shows to Edinburgh Fringe, 2 shows to Melbourne Comedy Festival, toured all over the world with her comedy, her cabaret and with her one woman show, 'It Hasn't Happened Yet'. She wrote the book and lyrics for her show, 'Assisted Suicide The Musical' which she performed to sell out audiences at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 2016 and 2017.
On screen, Liz is perhaps best known for her role as forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery in the BBC's long running drama, Silent Witness (1996) alongside Emilia Fox, David Caves and Richard Lintern. She joined the series in 2012 but almost missed out on the role when she got stuck in traffic and turned up too late for the audition. This was Liz's first TV acting role and over the next seven series, her character Clarissa has grown from a sidekick to a main part of the regular cast.- Actor
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Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson was born May 13, 1986 in London, England, to Richard Pattinson, a car dealer importing vintage cars, and Clare Pattinson (née Charlton), who worked as a booker at a model agency. He grew up in Barnes, southwest London with two older sisters. Robert discovered his love for music long before acting and started learning the guitar and piano at the age of four. He became a big cinephile for love of auteur cinema in his early teens and preferred to watch films rather than doing his homework. In his late teens and early twenties, he used to perform solo acoustic guitar gigs at open mic nights in bars and pubs around London where he sung his own written songs. Thinking about becoming a musician or going to university to study speech-writing, he never thought about pursuing an acting career and his drama teacher in school even advised him not to join the drama club because she thought he wasn't made for the creative subjects. But as a teenager, he joined the local amateur theatre club after his father convinced him to attend because he was quite shy. At age 15 and after two years of working backstage, he auditioned for the play 'Guys and Dolls' and he got his first role as a Cuban dancer with no lines. He got the lead part in the next play 'Our Town', was spotted by a talent agent who was sitting in the audience and he began looking for professional roles.
His first screen role was a small part in Vanity Fair (2004), but he'd been cut out of the final film and didn't know about it until he attended the premiere. The casting director felt so guilty for not telling him, that she got him the audition for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). He was lucky and succeeded in gaining the role of Cedric Diggory, which brought him to a wider audience at the age of 19 and he continued to star in mostly smaller British TV productions. Hollywood expressed only mild interest in him and he was still debating whether or not he wished to pursue acting. Throughout that period, Pattinson would occasionally send audition tapes for roles in America. One, for a rom-com, led to the opportunity for an in-person audition in Los Angeles. That audition did not pan out, but while in town he went in for another, with Thirteen (2003) director Catherine Hardwicke, for a part in what he understood to be an indie movie based on a low-profile book about a vampire. Being the last one out of 3000 male actors to audition for the part, the role of Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of the Twilight novels written by Stephenie Meyer brought him to unexpected worldwide stardom at age 22 and the five films between 2008 and 2012 grossed over $3.3 billion in worldwide receipts. Between the Twilight Saga films, he also starred in Remember Me (2010), Water for Elephants (2011) and Bel Ami (2012).
Pattinson's Twilight-era was surreal. He had been catapulted onto Hollywood's A-list as a heartthrob, but also experienced certain preconceptions about what he wanted - or was capable of doing - as an actor. That changed with an unexpected straight offer from auteur director David Cronenberg to star in Cosmopolis (2012), which he described as an eye-opening experience: It reminded him of his love for cinema, why he wanted to become an actor in the first place and solidified his foremost desire for the coming years to work with great filmmakers. With Pattinson being a big cinephile, he since then starred in mostly independent films from respected auteur directors, such as The Rover (2014), Maps to the Stars (2014), Life (2015), Queen of the Desert (2015) and The Childhood of a Leader (2015). His unrecognizable role as an explorer in the amazon jungle in The Lost City of Z (2016) from director James Gray brought him much critical acclaim. His transformation to a sleazy, manic conman in the gritty crime thriller Good Time (2017) earned a six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and brought him a nomination for Best Actor at the Independent Spirit Awards. It was a major step for his transition into a character actor with incredible range, with critics calling his performance a revelation and career-defining. He starred in the western-comedy Damsel (2018) as a cowboy with sociopathic characteristics and played a convict sent to space for sexual experimentation in the psychological mystery drama High Life (2018) from acclaimed French auteur director Claire Denis. He returned to work with director David Michôd in The King (2019) and starred in the black-and-white fantasy-horror movie The Lighthouse (2019) from director Robert Eggers, which earned him his second Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor. In Netflix's The Devil All the Time (2020), Pattinson played a corrupt preacher preying on young girls.
He returned to mainstream films with a leading role in Christopher Nolan's time bending spy film Tenet (2020) and will star as the DC Comics superhero Batman in Matt Reeves' film The Batman (2022).- Actor
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A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, actor Finn Wolfhard stars as Mike Wheeler in the critically acclaimed Netflix Original Series Stranger Things (2016). The hit series has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series; two MTV Movie & TV Awards for Show of the Year; an AFI award for TV Program of the Year; and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Television Series. To date, the world-famous series has received 30 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series.
His first role was in the 2013 independent film Aftermath. After appearing in more independent films such as The Resurrection, Wolfhard moved into roles on television shows The 100 (2014) and Supernatural.
In September 2017, Wolfhard moved to the silver screen, playing the lead role of Ritchie Tozier in the film adaptation of the Stephen King acclaimed novel It (2017). Fans of the novel will remember Wolfhard's role as Trashmouth, part of the Losers Club. The film premiered to critical acclaim, breaking opening weekend box office records in its debut and going on to become the highest grossing horror movie ever. Wolfhard, along with his cast, received the Best On-Screen Team award for "IT" at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Wolfhard also starred in Dog Days (2018) alongside Vanessa Hudgens and Nina Dobrev. He can also be heard in the Netflix animated series "Carmen Sandiego," which released its second season in October 2019. Wolfhard reprises his role of Richie Tozier in New Line's blockbuster sequel It Chapter Two (2019).
In May 2019, Wolfhard became the new face of Yves Saint Laurent's Fall/Winter 2019 Campaign. Wolfhard starred as Miles in Amblin's haunted house horror film The Turning (2020) opposite Mackenzie Davis and Brooklynn Prince. Wolfhard will star alongside Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and McKenna Grace in Sony Pictures' highly anticipated Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), a new chapter in the "Ghostbusters" universe, from director Jason Reitman. Wolfhard stars alongside Oscar winning actress Julianne Moore in the comedy-drama feature When You Finish Saving the World (2022), written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and produced by Emma Stone. The mother-son story is inspired by Eisenberg's upcoming Audible Original of the same name, which is debuting in 2020. Wolfhard is also set to star as a lead voice over in the upcoming animated series, "NEW-GEN," based on the comic series distributed by Marvel and created by Chris Matonti, J.D. Matonti, and Julia Coppola.
He co-starred in Warner Bros & Amazon Studios' "The Goldfinch," an adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning & New York Times best-selling novel. Wolfhard played the role of Young Boris alongside an all-star cast including Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson and Jeffrey Wright. Lastly, he voiced the character Pugsley Addams in MGM's The Addams Family (2019) animated film. He can also be heard in Netflix's animated series "Carmen Sandiego," which released its second season in October 2019.
In addition to acting, Wolfhard has a passion for music and formed a garage-rock band called Calpurnia. Calpurnia recorded their debut EP which was released in June 2018. The band's first single "City Boy" debuted at No. 23 on Billboard's Alternative Digital Song Chart and hit No. 1 on Spotify's Global Viral 50 playlist. During the bands three-year run, Calpurnia toured across North America and Europe.
In the Fall of 2019, Wolfhard and drummer Malcolm Craig formed The Aubreys. In March 2020, The Aubreys released their first official EP entitled "Soda & Pie." Wolfhard also used his growing platform to host an event and raise funds for Sweet Relief, an organization that helps musicians in need.- Actor
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Steven Frederic Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, to Patricia Anne (Fisher), a medical technician, and Samuel Seagal, a high school math teacher. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and his mother had English, German, and distant Irish and Dutch, ancestry. The enigmatic Seagal commenced his martial arts training at the age of seven under the tutelage of well-known karate instructor and author Fumio Demura, and in the 1960s commenced his aikido training in Orange County, CA, under the instruction of Harry Ishisaka. Seagal received his first dan accreditation in 1974, after he had moved to Japan to further his martial arts training. After spending many years there honing his skills, he achieved the ranking of a 7th dan in the Japanese martial art "aikido" and was instructing wealthy clients in Los Angeles when he came to the attention of Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz.
Ovitz saw star value in the imposing-looking Seagal. The high-octane action movie genre was in full swing in the late 1980s, and Seagal's debut movie, "Above the Law", was wildly received by action fans and actually received some complimentary critical reviews. He followed up "Above the Law" with another slam-bang thriller, Hard to Kill (1990), as a cop shot in an ambush by the mob who revives from a coma to take his revenge. The movie also starred Seagal's wife at the time, leggy Kelly LeBrock, who was married to him from 1987 to 1996 and is the mother of three of his children. His next outing was battling voodoo-using Jamaican drug "posses" in the hyper-violent Marked for Death (1990), before returning to fight psychotic mob gangster William Forsythe in the even more punishing Out for Justice (1991). Seagal was by now enormously popular, and his next movie, the big-budgeted Under Siege (1992), set aboard the battleship USS Missouri and also starring Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, was arguably his best film to date, impressing both fans and critics alike.
Seagal's fighting style was rather different from that of other on-screen martial arts dynamos such as Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who were predominantly fighters from striking arts background such as karate or tang soo do. However, aikido is built around using an opponent's inertia and body weight to employ various locks, chokes and holds that incapacitate him. Seagal carries himself differently, too, and often appears wearing Italian designer clothes and usually favors an all-black outfit, generally with a three-quarter-length coat with an elaborate trim. Additionally, Seagal's on-screen characters were often seemingly benign or timid individuals; however, when the going gets rough they reveal themselves to be deadly ex-CIA operatives, or retired Special Forces soldiers capable of enormous destruction!
As his box-office drawing power grew, Seagal began to infuse his film projects with his personal and spiritual beliefs, especially concerning the abuse of the environment. He appeared as an oil fire expert who turns against his corrupt CEO (played by Michael Caine) in On Deadly Ground (1994) to save the Eskimo population from an oil disaster; in Fire Down Below (1997) he plays an environmental agency troubleshooter investigating the dumping of toxic waste in Kentucky coal mines, and in the slow-moving The Patriot (1998) he plays a medical specialist trying to stop a lethal virus unleashed by an extremist group.
Action fans struggled to come to terms with social messaging being built into bone-crunching fight films; however, Seagal's box-office clout remained fairly strong, and more traditional chopsocky projects followed with the "buddy cop" film The Glimmer Man (1996), then almost a cameo role as a Navy SEAL alongside CIA analyst Kurt Russell before Seagal is sucked out of a jet at 35,000 feet in Executive Decision (1996).
In 1999 Seagal took a different turn in his film projects with the surprising genteel Prince of Central Park (2000), about a child living inside NYC's most famous park. He returned to more familiar territory with further high-voltage, guns-blazing action in Exit Wounds (2001), Half Past Dead (2002), Out for a Kill (2003) and Belly of the Beast (2003).
Unbeknownst to many, in 1997 Seagal publicly announced that one of his Buddhist teachers, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, had accorded Seagal as a tulku, the reincarnation of a Buddhist Lama. This initial announcement was met with some disbelief until Penor Rinpoche himself gave a confirmation statement on Seagal's new title. Seagal has repeatedly discussed his involvement in Buddhism and how he devotes many hours studying and meditating this ancient Eastern religion.
While his box-office appeal has somewhat declined from his halcyon blockbusters of the mid-'90s, Seagal still has a very loyal fan base in the action movie genre and continues to remain a highly bankable star.- Actor
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Adrien Nicholas Brody was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York, the only child of retired history professor Elliot Brody and Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy. He accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice, and credits her with making him feel comfortable in front of the camera. Adrien attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York.
Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line (1998), time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become until Roman Polanski called on him to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a brilliant performance in The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish-born grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union.- Actor
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Rory Culkin was born in New York City, New York. He is the youngest son of Kit Culkin, a former stage and child actor, and Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Quinn Culkin, and Christian Culkin. His mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. His father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
He grew up in New York along with his mother (his parents split up in 1995) and the rest of his siblings. He started his career by playing younger versions of his brothers in their films, such as Richie Rich and Igby Goes Down. He landed his first real role in 2000 in the Kenneth Lonergan film You Can Count on Me. Rory Culkin is best known for his work in the 2002 M. Knight Shyamalan film Signs but has also appeared in a number of independent films like Mean Creek, The Chumscrubber, Down in the Valley, The Night Listener, and Lymelife. He has also appeared in some television shows such as The Twilight Zone and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.- Kieran Kyle Culkin was born September 30, 1982 in New York City, New York. He is the son of Kit Culkin, a former stage and child actor, and Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Macaulay Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Rory Culkin. His mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. His father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
Culkin started working in 1990. He worked with his brother, Mac several times. His debut was playing Mac's cousin, Fuller, in Home Alone (1990). He went on to do lots of films on his own. He starred in Father of the Bride (1991) playing Steve Martin's young son. Then a few years later they offered him a special role in The Mighty (1998). After his wonderful performance, he went on to bigger movies like The Cider House Rules (1999) and Music of the Heart (1999). - Writer
- Actor
- Script and Continuity Department
"I am too old to die young, and too young to grow up," Marty Feldman told a reporter -- a week before he died.
This beloved comedian, who poked fun at himself, as well as others, was born Martin Alan Feldman on July 8, 1934, in London, England. His parents were of Ukrainian Jewish heritage (from Kiev). He was the son of Cecilia (née Crook) and Myer Feldman, a gown manufacturer. Marty spent his childhood in the poverty-stricken London East End and left school at the age of 15, hoping for a career as a jazz trumpeter (his appearance in a Variety show earned him the title "the worst trumpeter in the world"). He had just started his comedy career, as a writer for BBC radio programs and TV shows in the late 1950s, when he married Lauretta Sullivan in January 1959 (they would stay married until his death in 1982). There's a saying: "Your face is your fortune"; Marty had received a double-whammy. His nose was mangled in his youthful years in a boxing match; his walleyed orbs were the result of both a hyperactive thyroid and a botched operation after a car accident before his 30th birthday, in 1963. American audiences first saw Marty in Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers (1968), where he did comedy skits with Susie Ewing and the Golddiggers. He appeared in a number of movies, his most-remembered role being that of Igor (pronounced Eye-Gor) in Young Frankenstein (1974). Besides acting, he made his directorial debut in The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977). Beloved and popular, it seemed Marty was to enjoy a long career in the entertainment field. However, he died of a massive heart attack, caused by shellfish food poisoning, while filming Yellowbeard (1983) in Mexico City, on December 2, 1982... he was only 48.- Actor
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Sean Gunn is an American actor who is known for his collaborations with his brother James Gunn. He famously played Kraglin and did the physical portrayal of Rocket before being dubbed over by Bradley Cooper in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. He also portrayed Weasel and Calendar Man in The Suicide Squad. He was also in Tromeo & Juliet, Super, Lollipop Chainsaw, The Specials and Gilmore Girls.- Actor
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John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which would earn him an Emmy when it was made into a made-for-TV movie the next year. His big-screen debut would be as the blind lodger in Places in the Heart (1984), which earned him an Academy Award Nomination for best supporting actor. Other films would follow, including The Killing Fields (1984) and The Glass Menagerie (1987), but he would be well remembered as Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Playing against Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in a costume picture helped raise his standing in the industry. He would be cast as the psychotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire (1993), for which he would be nominated for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1994, Malkovich would portray the sinister Kurtz in the made-for-TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993), taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.- Actor
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When he was 11, he wanted to be a comedian like Sid Caesar. Then, when he was 15 and saw Lee J. Cobb in 'Death of a Salesman,' he decided he would be a comedy actor and found that Mel Brooks was a great influence on his screen writing. He combined both talents with directing in The World's Greatest Lover (1977), followed by The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975).- Producer
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Scottish by birth, Gordon Ramsay was brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. With an injury prematurely putting an end to any hopes of a promising career in football, he went back to college to complete a course in hotel management. His dedication and natural talent led him to train with some of the world's leading chefs, such as Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White in London, and Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon in France.
In 1993 Ramsay became chef of Aubergine in London, which within three years was awarded two Michelin stars. In 1998, at the age of 31, Ramsay set up his first wholly owned and namesake restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which quickly received the most prestigious accolade in the culinary world - three Michelin stars. Today, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is London's longest-running restaurant to hold this award, and Ramsay is one of only four chefs in the UK to maintain three stars.
Now internationally renowned, multi-Michelin-starred Ramsay has opened a string of successful restaurants across the globe, from Italy to the United States. These include two ventures in Doha, Qatar, that opened in 2012; five restaurants in Las Vegas (Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen at Caesars Palace, Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips at The LINQ Promenade, Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas, Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill at Caesars Palace, and Gordon Ramsay Burger at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino), Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill in Atlantic City, Gordon Ramsay Steak in Baltimore and Bread Street Kitchen in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. In the UK, the Gordon Ramsay Group has opened Union Street Café, London House, Heddon Street Kitchen and two further maze Grills, one of which is located on the former Aubergine site on Park Walk, Chelsea.
His next-generation multi-media production company Studio Ramsay has a joint venture with All3Media to develop and produce both unscripted and scripted television shows, creating new formats and innovative programming that includes a scripted arm focused on food-related themes, and development of new talent on a global front. The catalogue of programs that Ramsay has worked on historically with All3Media via One Potato Two Potato, together with new original content he's currently developing, make for a unique and dynamic production and distribution partnership. Its first daytime cooking series, ""Culinary Genius,"" premiered in the spring on ITV in the U.K. was syndicated on FOX stations in the U.S. this past summer. Seasons 3 and 4 of "Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch," starring Tilly Ramsay for U.K. children's channel CBBC, are also produced by Studio Ramsay
Renowned for highly successful and award-winning original programming, Emmy-nominated, multi-Michelin-star chef Gordon Ramsay produces TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic (in the U.S and the UK) seen by audiences worldwide, including his FOX shows ""24 Hours to Hell & Back,"" ""Masterchef,"" ""Masterchef Junior,"" ""Hell's Kitchen,"" and ""Masterchef Celebrity Showdown,"" as well as Bravo's "Best New Restaurant" and Food Network's competition series "Food Court Wars." In the U.K., he's produced "Gordon Ramsay Behind Bars" and "Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape" for Channel 4; food biography and nostalgia series "My Kitchen" for UKTV's Good Food Channel; two instructional cookery series, "Ultimate Home Cooking" and "Ultimate Cookery Course" for Channel 4; and the first two seasons of "Matilda And the Ramsay Bunch," all under his One Potato Two Potato banner.
Ramsay has a global partnership with WWRD (Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton), which offers quality home and lifestyle products.
In 2014, Ramsay and his wife, Tana, set up the Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation to make a meaningful difference to charities that are important to them. The Foundation is currently partnered with Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of London's most respected Children's Hospitals.
Ramsay received an OBE (Order of the British Empire awarded by Queen Elizabeth II) in 2006 for services to the industry.
He resides with his wife, Tana, and children, along with their two dogs, two cats and a tortoise. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London.- Actor
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Versatile veteran character actor Jonathan Banks was born in Washington, D.C. in 1947. While growing up he always had an interest in acting and stage work, so decided to pursue a career in entertainment. To this day he is a very accomplished stage actor. While acting in film, he usually plays sinister types or villains. He can be seen in Better Call Saul (2015) as Mike Ehrmantraut.- Actor
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Since the start of his music career, Dwight Yoakam has proven he's more than just another guy with a guitar and a hat. He has risen from hot country star to being one of country music's biggest influences. While doing that, he has also become a critically acclaimed actor.
Dwight David Yoakam was born on October 23, 1956 in the coal mining community of Pikeville, Kentucky, to Ruth Ann (Tibbs), a key-punch operator, and David Yoakam, a gas-station owner. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he was raised. As part of the Drama Club in his days at Northland High School in Columbus, he acted in school plays. He played Helen Keller's brother in his sophomore year in the school's production of "The Miracle Worker." He followed that his Junior year playing the lead as Charlie in "Flowers for Algernon." He capped off his high school acting career as Richard Bravo in The "Demon Seed." In 1977, Dwight moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. At the time, Nashville was moving away from the traditional country sound that he was playing. After a brief time there, he moved to California, which was more receptive to the music he was doing. He hooked up with producer/guitar virtuoso Pete Anderson in 1982. That began a musical relationship that became country music's equivalent to rock's Glimmer Twins (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards).
Financial backing to make a high-quality recording came from Dwight's sister and brother-in-law, an insurance check that was meant to fix Dwight's El Camino and money raised from a benefit classical music concert staged by UCLA music professor Dr. Robert Winter. With the EP (extended play) that captured the "Dwight Yoakam sound." In1984, Dwight released the six-song EP "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." on the independent Oak label, and then hit the road with such artists as Los Lobos and Violent Femmes. Playing traditional country music, Dwight gained a following among not only country fans but punk rockers and rockabilly fans as well. This eclectic fan base brought him to the attention of many record labels. Warner Brothers signed him to its newly revived Reprise Record label in 1985. The EP's title and tracks were kept intact and more songs added to make a full album. At the time, country music was in the waning days of its Urban Cowboy (1980) phase, and fans of country were hungry for something "new." This new sound was a return to a more traditional style that had been abandoned when John Travolta put on a cowboy hat. After establishing himself in the music industry, Dwight set his sights on his second love, acting. In 1991 he appeared as a stuntman/country singer in an episode of P.S.I. Luv U (1991). This became the beginning of his professional acting career. In 1992, he appeared on the big screen for the first time in the Nicolas Cage/Dennis Hopper film Red Rock West (1993). In 1993, Dwight released what is considered his masterpiece, the album "This Time." He supported the album with a tour that lasted over a year and covered the world. In 1994, he received his first Grammy for the album's single, "Ain't That Lonely Yet." In 1996, he co-starred in Billy Bob Thornton's film Sling Blade (1996). His work as the evil Doyle Hargraves left audiences speechless and critics hailing his performance.
Dwight was included with the cast who were among the nominees for "Best Cast" by the Screen Actors Guild awards. As the 1990s drew to a close, Dwight proved that his music didn't have to suffer as he pursued more ventures into movies. While filming The Newton Boys (1998), he wrote what many consider his most personal album, "A Long Way Home." All the tracks were written solely by Dwight. He began 1999 with a Grammy win for his contribution to the track "Same Old Train" from the various artists' album "Tribute to Tradition." He then added two new items to his resume: director and screenwriter. In South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000), he not only starred, he made his directorial debut with a screenplay he authored. Dwight Yoakam continues to prove that he is able to successfully have careers in both film and music, without either profession suffering.- Actor
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Ian McNeice went to Taunton School in Somerset and then had two years at the Salisbury Playhouse as an Acting A.S.M. before going to L.A.M.D.A. 1971-74. The next few years were spent in theatre, including four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, ending with "Nicholas Nickleby" on Broadway. His TV breakthrough was as Harcourt in the B.A.F.T.A award-wining series Edge of Darkness (1985). His American screen breakthrough was playing opposite Jim Carrey as Fulton Greenwall in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995).- Actor
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Ken Davitian was born on 19 June 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Borat (2006), Get Smart (2008) and S.W.A.T. (2003). He has been married to Ellen Baca since 22 July 1977. They have two children.- Actress
- Producer
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Amber Laura Heard was born in Austin, Texas, to Patricia Paige Heard (née Parsons), an internet researcher, and David C. Heard (David Clinton Heard), a contractor. She has English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Welsh ancestry.
Heard appeared in the Academy Award-nominated film, North Country (2005), in which she played Charlize Theron's character in flashbacks. Her other early film credits include: Syrup (2013), Drive Angry (2011) 3D, The Joneses (2009), Never Back Down (2008), Alpha Dog (2006) and Friday Night Lights (2004). On television, Heard starred on The CW drama, Hidden Palms (2007), and had guest starring roles on Showtime's Californication (2007) and CBS's Criminal Minds (2005).
In 2009, Heard starred in the box office hit, Zombieland (2009), opposite Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Jesse Eisenberg. She also starred in the suspense thriller, The Stepfather (2009), with Sela Ward, Dylan Walsh and Penn Badgley. In 2008, she garnered attention for her role in the comedic hit, Pineapple Express (2008), with Seth Rogen and James Franco. Heard received a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for her breakthrough performance in "Pineapple Express".
She appeared in The Rum Diary (2011), opposite Johnny Depp, and John Carpenter's The Ward (2010), which premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. She also starred in the independent film, And Soon the Darkness (2010), in which she additionally served as a co-producer.
Heard starred in Paranoia (2013), opposite Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth and Gary Oldman. The film was released by "Relativity Media" on August 16, 2013. She also starred in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills (2013), which was released by "Open Road Films" on March 4, 2013, and McG's 3 Days to Kill (2014), opposite Kevin Costner and Hailee Steinfeld, which was released in 2014.
Additionally, her film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), which premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, was released by The Weinstein Co. in theaters in the fall of 2013.
Heard resides in Los Angeles, where she is actively involved with Amnesty International. In 2015, she married actor Johnny Depp, and the two divorced in 2017.- Actor
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Walton Goggins is an actor of considerable versatility and acclaim who has delivered provocative performances in a multitude of feature films and television series. He won a Critics' Choice Award for his performance in the HBO comedy series "Vice Principals" and landed an Emmy nomination for his role of 'Boyd Crowder' on FX's "Justified," among numerous accolades.
Goggins is the producer/star of the hit new CBS single-camera comedy "The Unicorn," which debuted as TV's #1 New Show and has been picked up for a full season. The series is about a tight-knit group of best friends and family who help 'Wade' (Goggins) embrace his "new normal" in the wake of the loss of his wife one year ago. As a sometimes ill-equipped but always devoted single parent to his two adolescent daughters, he is taking the major step of dating again. To Wade's amazement, he's a hot commodity with women, and his friends explain that he's the perfect single guy - a "unicorn": employed, attractive, and with a proven track record of commitment.
He has also re-teamed with his former "Vice Principals" co-star Danny McBride on HBO's comedy series "The Righteous Gemstones," which has been renewed for a second season. Written, directed and EP'ed by McBride, it tells the story of a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed and charitable work. Goggins plays 'Baby Billy,' a former child star who clogged and sang for Jesus. As an aging man, he's fallen on hard times and comes to the Gemstones for salvation.
On the feature front, Goggins plays the role of 'Christ' in THREE CHRISTS, which IFC Films will release in theaters, VOD and Digital on January 10, 2020. The story follows a doctor (Richard Gere) who is treating paranoid schizophrenic patients at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, each of whom believe they are Jesus Christ. The film made its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Goggins recently starred opposite Oscar winner Olivia Colman in the Appalachian thriller THEM THAT FOLLOW, which made its World Premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was released in August 2019. The film followed members of an isolated community of Pentecostal snake handlers led by 'Pastor Lemuel' (Goggins). In the can is the indie feature WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS.
In 2018, Goggins appeared in three major studio features: He starred opposite Alicia Vikander in Warner Bros./MGM's TOMB RAIDER reboot, in the role of villain 'Mathias Vogel.' The film opened as the #1 film globally. In its review, Variety proclaimed, "Goggins, a magnetic actor who projects the lean, hungry anger of vintage-period Jack Nicholson, never hits you over the head with evil; he lets Vogel's sleazy cruelty seep through his pores."
In Disney/Marvel's ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, the sequel to the superhero feature starring Paul Rudd, Goggins played 'Sonny Burch,' a character deep in the Marvel mythos. Additionally, he appeared in Twentieth Century Fox's MAZERUNNER: THE DEATH CURE, the third installment of the highly successful franchise that also opened at #1.
In recent years, Goggins has had pivotal roles in films by two of Hollywood's most important auteurs: Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg. His integral role as 'Chris Mannix,' a southern renegade who claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock in Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT, marked his second collaboration with the Academy Award-winning writer/director. He previously played slave fight trainer 'Billy Crash' in Tarantino's 2012 DJANGO UNCHAINED. That same year, Goggins also appeared in Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, where he portrayed Congressman 'Wells A. Hutchins.'
For television, Goggins headlined and executive-produced season two of the contemporary espionage thriller "Deep State." He starred as 'Nathan Miller,' a former CIA operative who now works in the private sector as a fixer for the deep state and is at the heart of the new season. The series aired in the U.S. on EPIX, and Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa aired it globally in 50 markets in the summer of 2019.
Goggins won a Critics Choice Award for his role opposite Danny McBride in the HBO series "Vice Principals," which aired for two seasons. Created by McBride and Jody Hill, who also created "Eastbound & Down," "Vice Principals" is a dark comedy about a high school and the two people who almost run it, the vice principals (McBride and Goggins).
He starred in the first season of HISTORY's "Six," a military action drama from A+E Studios and The Weinstein Co that was the top new cable series of 2017 in total viewers. Inspired by current events, it followed an elite team of Navy SEALs whose mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan went awry when they uncovered a U.S. citizen working with the terrorists. Goggins played 'Rip Taggart,' the one-time leader of the SEAL team SIX squad.
For over a decade, Goggins has been one of the most magnetic and intense actors on television. He received an Emmy® nomination and four Critics Choice Award nominations for his mesmerizing portrayal of 'Boyd Crowder' on FX's Peabody Award-winning Drama series "Justified," which ran for six seasons. Goggins' 'Boyd' was the long-time friend, yet ultimate nemesis to U.S. Marshal 'Raylan Givens' (Timothy Olyphant). Elmore Leonard, EP and writer of the short story "Fire in the Hole" on which the show is based, says of 'Boyd,' "There has never been a more poetic bad guy on television in the way that he sees the world."
Goggins' critical turn as the complex transgender prostitute 'Venus Van Dam' on the FX drama series "Sons of Anarchy" earned him two Critics Choice Award nominations and helped shed a fresh light on the transgender community.
For seven years Walton garnered much acclaim for his complex and edgy portrayal of 'Detective Shane Vendrell' on FX's gritty, award-winning drama series "The Shield." He was nominated for a Television Critics Association (TCA) Award in the category of "Individual Achievement in Drama."
He has also taken his turn behind the camera. Goggins' collaborations with his partners at Ginny Mule Pictures include winning an Academy Award® for their 2001 short film, THE ACCOUNTANT, which he produced and starred in. The team produced, directed and starred in their first feature, CHRYSTAL, starring Billy Bob Thornton, which was accepted into the 2005 Sundance Film Festival's Dramatic Competition. For their third collaboration, Goggins produced and starred in the feature RANDY AND THE MOB, which won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2007 Nashville Film Festival.
Goggins and his Ginny Mule partners completed their fourth feature, THAT EVENING SUN, starring Hal Holbrook and Goggins. The film made its world premiere at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, TX in 2009, where it won the Narrative Feature Audience Award and received the Special Jury Award for "Best Ensemble Cast." It went on to win awards at over 14 film festivals, culminating with the honor of the "Wyatt Award" from the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Goggins is co-owner of Mulholland Distilling, a portfolio of premium spirits reflecting the vibrant, rich culture of Los Angeles and one of the first spirits companies from the city of Los Angeles since prohibition. Its namesake William Mulholland was the visionary who expanded the boundaries and possibilities of L.A. by bringing water to the desert town. Now, Mulholland Distilling is bringing a different kind of water to the city, the water of life. American Whiskey. Vodka. Gin. "The Spirit of Los Angeles." With a mission to create artisanal spirits inspired by the diversity and verve of Los Angeles, the brand has worked with top distillers, blenders and mixologists across the nation to bring only the best to the City of Angels (www.mulhollanddistilling.com).
Goggins enjoys traveling the world and has spent time in Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Central America, Morocco and India. He is an avid photographer and has captured many of his journeys on film.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ken Leung was raised in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side in New York City. His family moved to Midwood, Brooklyn where he grew up before finishing high school in Old Bridge, New Jersey. He attended NYU and studied acting with Catherine Russell and Nan Smithner, then briefly with Anne Jackson at HB Studio.
He emerged from Manhattan's downtown theater community in the 1990s and flourished in non-traditional productions that included Jeff Weiss' Hot Keys; Terrence McNally's passion play Corpus Christi; and as Buckingham opposite Austin Pendleton's Richard III.
His early career is defined by the relationships he established with theater groups like Ma-Yi, New Perspectives, and STAR, a traveling troupe of actors-educators based in Mount Sinai Hospital. In 2002, he made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Leung has gone on to establish himself in mainstream features including two films with Spike Lee.- Adam Copeland is an actor and an professional wrestler, who wrestles as Edge in the WWE. He starred as one of the leads in the fifth season of the popular television series Haven on Syfy. He also starred as a recurring character on the History Channel series Vikings. Canadian-born, Copeland's life in wrestling spans three decades, and through his long and decorated career as "Edge", Copeland entertained millions of fans internationally while winning 31 championships overall in WWE - the most by any wrestler ever - including 11 world heavyweight championships. Copeland became the youngest wrestler ever inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in March 2012. As an actor, Copeland appeared in an installment of the popular film franchise Highlander: Endgame, and also starred in the WWE produced, Bending the Rules opposite Jamie Kennedy. Copeland's television appearances include a recurring guest arc on Sanctuary, and numerous appearances as Edge in shows such as Clash Time, the Weakest link, Mind of Mencia, Deal Or No Deal, and MADtv to name a few. Copeland's autobiography, Adam Copeland on Edge, was a New York Times bestseller, Copeland has a massive and dedicated international fan base, with a twitter following of over 750K, and growing daily. He lives in the mountains of Asheville, NC, where he spends his time hiking, biking, cuddling with his family.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Lenn Kudrjawizkis family moved with him as a child from Leningrad (USSR) to East Berlin. At the age of four, Lenn auditioned on the stage with the Leningrad State Ballet. At five, he became enchanted with a violin that his father brought down from the attic of the family home. This was to play an important part in his life. Later he attended a secondary school for music in Berlin where he studied acting, voice, and violin. In Dresden he refined his skills on the violin and graduated with a Master of Arts in Music in 2003. In 1994 Lenn made his television debut as a teenager with the role of Wladimir in the film Katrin and Wladimir. Jean-Jacques Annaud's Duel - Enemy at the Gates followed, as well as Alain Gsponer's feature film Kiki & Tiger. From 2001 to 2006 Lenn was a series regular in the highly acclaimed RTL series Abschnitt 40. Since, he was performing in more than 50 TV and feature film productions, including Pope Joan, The Counterfeiters - 2008 Oscar winner for best foreign-language film -, Paramount Pictures' Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, directed by Kenneth Branagh and most recently The Transporter Refueled - written and produced by Luc Besson. Since 2016 Lenn is back as a detective in the Kroatien Krimi for ARD (national German Television).
Lenn was giving his directors debut in 2007 with the short film Today Is My Day. His second work as a director and writer was Thank You Mr. President (2009), that successfully toured international festivals and has won the renowned award Murnaupreis.
In 2014, Lenn filmed his third short film Business As Usual - The Prophet on board, for which he received the Amnesty International Human Rights Award. In addition to this, he founded the world wide first sustained orchestra "The Berlin Show Orchestra" with his company Legrain Productions and is committed to the sustainability concept for CO2 reduction.
Lenn is member of the German Film Academy.- Actor
- Producer
Veteran of stage and screen, Kevin Weisman became internationally known for his work as "Marshall Flinkman" on the JJ Abrams/Jennifer Garner series, 'Alias', which ran for five critically acclaimed seasons on ABC. TV Guide named Weisman one of television's 'Top Ten Scene Stealers', and he appeared on Entertainment Weekly's 'Must List'. Weisman portrays "Dale Yorkes" in 'Marvel's Runaways', based on the popular Brian K. Vaughn comic (HULU). TV Guide cited Kevin's work on the show as one of Television's 'favorite performances of 2017'. Season three starts production in May, 2019. Other recent memorable turns include agoraphobic genius, "Ned Berring", in the David Kelly Amazon drama, "Goliath" (opposite academy award winners, Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt), as well as the brash ladies-man, "Kives" on Stephen Merchant's two time Emmy nominated HBO comedy series, 'Hello Ladies', (where he was cited as one of TV.com's ten best new characters of the fall, 2013 television season). Weisman also recurs as "Dr. Jeffrey Maynard" on NBC's 'The Blacklist', "Ray Spiewack" on 'Scorpion' (CBS), and as "Stevie" in the critically acclaimed series, 'Better call Saul' on AMC.
Other television work includes the character, Joseph Feller, on 'Fringe', simultaneously portraying the mysterious "Mr. Blonde" and the straight shooting "Detective Hawkins" on NBC's critically acclaimed drama, 'Awake', as well as duplicitous fight promoter on 'Kingdom' (Audience Network), and villainous poisoner, "Reardon Payne", on 'Chuck' (NBC). Additional credits include 'Felicity', 'Roswell', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (as fan favorite "Dreg"), 'The X-Files', 'Frasier', 'E.R.', 'October Road', all three installments of 'C.S.I.', and the cult hit, 'Moonlight' starring Alec O'Loughlin on CBS.
Kevin's film work includes 'Flipped', the Rob Reiner-directed feature adaptation of Wendelin Van Draanen's young adult novel, which revolves around the confusing romantic developments of 2 young neighbors as they age from 7 to 13. Aidan Quinn and Penelope Ann Miller play the girl's parents, while Weisman portrays her mentally-challenged uncle. Other work includes the independent horror film, 'Undocumented', Michael Bay's 'Gone in Sixty Seconds', Disney's 'Space Buddies', and Kevin Smith's cult classic 'Clerks 2', which featured Kevin as the very popular "hobbit-lover".
Kevin received a BA from UCLA's school of Theatre/Film/Television and studied at New York's Circle in the Square Theatre. Recent work includes J.T. Rogers' Tony winning 'Oslo' for LA Theatreworks, and as famed rogue poet, "Francios Villon", in Murray Mednick's world premiere play, 'Villon', at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles (LA Drama Critics nomination for 'Best Leading Male Performance'). At the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, Weisman appeared as "Gabe" in Donald Margulies' Pulitzer Prize winning play, 'Dinner with Friends', and as "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Pulitzer prize winning 'Lost in Yonkers'. As a founding member of the award-winning and critically acclaimed Buffalo Nights Theatre Company, Kevin has served as an actor and producer on numerous productions in and around the Los Angeles area. He starred as "Griffith J. Griffith" in the award- winning 'Crazy Drunk' at the John Anson Ford Theatre, and appeared in the title role of "Anatol" in Arthur Schnitzler's 'Anatol'. Other work with the company includes Jean Giraudoux's 'Apollo of Bellac' (LA Weekly Production of the Year), Archibald McCleish's 'J.B.', 'Suburban Motel', Arthur Miller's 'Incident at Vichy', Oscar Wilde's 'Salome,' and the West Coast premiere of Jonathon Marc Sherman's 'Sophistry'. Additional theatre credits include 'Tis Pity She's a Whore', 'The Greeks,' (LA Weekly 2000 Production of the Year Award), and 'The Goldoni Trilogy' at the Mark Taper Forum.
Weisman produced and acted opposite screen legend Kirk Douglas in the feature film 'Illusion', directed by fellow Buffalo Nights founder & Emmy winner, Michael Goorjian. Quite prolific in the world of voice-over, Kevin's soothing vocal timbre can be heard on radio and television ads for such companies as Apple (Ipad), Nike, Coke, ATT, and as one of the longstanding voices of Honda. Also an accomplished drummer, Kevin was an original member of 'Trainwreck', the L.A. based band featuring Kyle Gass of Tenacious D.
Weisman takes advantage of every opportunity to participate in celebrity golf, ski and poker tournaments (he is an avid player) that benefit organizations such as Tony LaRussa's Celebrities Fore! ARF (Animal Recue Foundation), The Special Olympics, The Urban Health Institute, The Melanoma Research Foundation, and The Clear View Treatment Center, which provides a residential treatment program for adolescent boys who have been neglected,, abused & abandoned. Most importantly, Kevin is the proud parent of Maya Rose (born on 3/31/06) and Ellie Samantha (born on 2/11/08). Kevin is an avid supporter of numerous children's charities and Jewish organizations, including the L.A. Children's Hospital, The Children's Defense Fund, Wheels For Humanity, Bet Tzedek, a non-profit law-firm that provides free legal services to low-income, disabled & elderly residents of Los Angeles Country, and Koreh LA, a local Jewish organization that assists kids in advancing their reading skills. Particularly close to his heart is Kevin's involvement in the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, serving as a board member of the DMD Fund.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a feature film that received the 2003 Audience Award at the New York International Film Festival. In 2004, he produced the documentary Homeless in America (2004), which received the 2004 Social Award.
He is now working on several more projects.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Wyatt Hawn Russell is an American actor and former hockey player. Russell portrayed Corporal Lewis Ford in Julius Avery's 2018 horror film Overlord, Dud in AMC's Lodge 49 and John Walker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). Russell was born on July 10, 1986, in Los Angeles, California, to actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. He is a grandson of actor Bing Russell, and a half-brother of actors Oliver Hudson and Kate Hudson. He is of German, English, Scottish, Irish; and Hungarian-Jewish descent (from his maternal grandmother).- Producer
- Actor
- Make-Up Department
Jeffree Star was born on 15 November 1985 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Pieces of Eight (2006), Jeffree Star: Prom Night (2012) and What Now (2015).- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York City, New York. He is the son of Mary Trump (née Macleod) and Fred Trump, a real estate millionaire. His mother was a Scottish immigrant who initially worked as a maid. His father was born in New York, to German parents.
From kindergarten through seventh grade, he attended the Kew-Forest School. At age 13, he enrolled in the New York Military Academy.
In 1964, he began his higher education at Fordham University. After two years, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.
From 1971 to 2017, he was chairman and president of his family real estate company, Elizabeth Trump & Son (now called The Trump Organization), which was founded in 1923 by his grandmother and father. His business career primarily focused on building or renovating office towers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses.
He has five children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump with his first wife, Ivana Trump (m. 1977- d.1990), Tiffany Trump with his second wife, Marla Maples (m. 1993- d.1999) and Barron Trump with his third wife, Melania Trump (m. 2005).
He has hosted and produced the reality television series, The Apprentice (2004), which has been nominated for nine Primetime Emmy awards.
He was the 45th President of the United States from January 20, 2017 - January 20, 2021.- Peter Dutton was born on 18 November 1970 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He has been married to Kirilly Dutton since 19 July 2003. They have two children.
- Gladys Berejiklian was born on 22 September 1970 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.