Sonic Unleashed (2008 - Sonic Team, Radical Entertainment, Avalanche Software, Heavy Iron Studios, Beenox, Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Activision, Sierra Entertainment, Disney Interactive Studios and Vivendi Games)
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A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won him recognition and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for "Got Milk". In 1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year. That same year, he also directed his first feature film, Bad Boys (1995), starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed more than $160 million, worldwide. His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, was also hugely successful, making Bay the director du jour.Director and Executive Producer- Director
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Zachary Edward "Zack" Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter, best known for action and science fiction films. Snyder made his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead and has gone on to be known for his comic book movies and superhero films, including 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), Man of Steel (2013) and its upcoming sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Snyder is the co-founder of Cruel and Unusual Films, a production company he established in 2004, alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller.Director- Producer
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Eight-time Academy Award®-nominated, Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most successful and respected producers and executives in the film industry today. As President of Lucasfilm, she oversees the company's three divisions: Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. In 1992, she co-founded the production company The Kennedy/Marshall Company with director/producer Frank Marshall, and in 1982 she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Marshall and Steven Spielberg. Altogether, Kennedy has further produced or executive produced more than 70 feature films, which have collectively garnered 120 Academy Award nominations and 25 wins.
For much of the past 20 years, Kennedy served as a governor and officer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She also sits on the boards of numerous educational, arts, and philanthropic organizations.Producer- Producer
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Frank was born in Glendale, California to musician Jack Marshall. He entered the film world when his parents invited him to a birthday party for the daughter of directing legend John Ford in 1966. There, he met Peter Bogdanovich and soon agreed to work on his first film, Targets (1968), later followed by collaborating on The Last Picture Show (1971) and many other films.
Continuing to branch out into the industry, he served as line producer on Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz (1978) and associate producer on Walter Hill's crime thriller, The Driver (1978). Marshall first worked as executive producer on Hill's cult classic The Warriors (1979). While producing the iconic Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), he met Steven Spielberg and their future wife Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank himself was hired to join the Amblin Productions company in 1980.
He continued producing memorable films with Spielberg including Poltergeist (1982) and Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) (while Kennedy separately produced E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)). He worked as executive producer on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985) and the Back to the Future (1985) trilogy.
He married Kathleen Kennedy in 1987, and after producing numerous films, he made his feature directing debut with Arachnophobia (1990). Reacting to the success of his directorial debut, he left Amblin in 1991. In 1992, The Kennedy/Marshall Company was formed, and the next year they released its first film Alive (1993), directed by Marshall. Both Kennedy and Marshall signed deals with Paramount in 1992, at the same time the company was formed. His productivity has only increased since then, as he took over primary duties of the production company since Kennedy was named president of Lucasfilm in 2012.Producer- Writer
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Seth Grahame-Smith was born on 4 January 1976 in Rockville Centre, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Lego Batman Movie (2017), It (2017) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016). He has been married to Erin Stickle since 2004.Producer- Producer
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David Katzenberg was born on 22 March 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a producer and director, known for It (2017), The Goldbergs (2013) and Just Beyond (2021).Producer- Producer
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Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director. He is known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000) and for directing the crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), the fantasy epic, Stardust (2007), the superhero comedy, Kick-Ass (2010), and the superhero film, X-Men: First Class (2011). Vaughn was educated at Stowe School in Buckingham, England. Taking a gap year between Stowe and university, he traveled the world on a Hard Rock Cafe tour and landed in Los Angeles, U.S. Here, he began working as an assistant to a director. He returned to London, attending University College London where he studied anthropology and ancient history. But the film bug had taken hold. He dropped out of university after a few weeks and returned to Los Angeles to start his career. He quickly realized, however, that everyone in town was trying to do the same thing, so he crossed back over the Atlantic to make a name for himself in England. At 25, he produced a little-seen thriller, The Innocent Sleep (1995), starring Annabella Sciorra and Michael Gambon. Vaughn continued as a producer on close friend Guy Ritchie's film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). The film was a success in all aspects; earning Vaughn and Ritchie £9 million each. Vaughn would go on to produce Ritchie's equally acclaimed Snatch (2000) and the critically-mauled, Swept Away (2002). Vaughn made his directorial debut in 2004 with Layer Cake (2004). The film was well-received and its success led to Vaughn being tapped to direct X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) but he later dropped out only two weeks before filming began. Vaughn was, subsequently, very critical of Brett Ratner's direction of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) (aka X-Men 3). Vaughn next directed Stardust (2007) and a movie adaption of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. He was also in talks to direct an adaptation of "Thor", but left that project. In May 2010, 20th Century Fox confirmed that Vaughn will direct X-Men: First Class (2011) and announced the film will be released on June 3, 2011. Vaughn is best known for starting his career working as a producer for the Guy Ritchie films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000) and Swept Away (2002). Jane Goldman is one the screenwriters who Vaughn collaborated with for the films, Stardust (2007), Kick-Ass (2010) and the upcoming X-Men: First Class (2011). The actors that Vaughn usually works with in his films are Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, Jason Flemyng, Adam Fogerty, Sienna Miller, Brad Pitt (as a producer on Kick-Ass (2010)), Mark Strong, Robbie Gee, Alan Ford, Tamer Hassan and Dexter Fletcher. Vaughn's wife is German supermodel Claudia Schiffer, whom he married in Shimpling, Suffolk, in 2002. The couple have three children: son Caspar Matthew (born 30 January 2003), daughter Clementine de Vere Drummond (born 11 November 2004) and a second daughter, Cosima Violet (born 14 May 2010). They have homes in Suffolk and Notting Hill. He has hired ex-Gurkha soldiers for security for him and his wife following reports of stalkers apparently intruding their house.Producer- Producer
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Lorenzo di Bonaventura was born on 13 January 1957 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and production manager, known for Four Brothers (2005), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and Madame Web (2024).Producer- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films. He is best known for the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.
As a child and a teenager, Gaiman read the works of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Mary Shelley, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alan Moore.
Gaiman also wrote episodes of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, during Matt Smith's as the Doctor.Producer- Deborah Snyder is an American film producer and wife of Zack Snyder. She produced several of Zack's films including Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Army of the Dead, 300, Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League and the director's cut Zack Snyder's Justice League. She also produced other non-Snyder DC films including Aquaman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and The Suicide Squad.Producer
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One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Jaws (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies. In 1964, he directed Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens invading a small town. In 1967, he directed Slipstream (1967), which was unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed Amblin' (1968), which featured the desert prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would feature. Amblin' also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project, Duel (1971), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Murder by the Book (1971). All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would dazzle audiences all over the world.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and followed that effort with Used Cars (1980), a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell/Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reese's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T." and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail (1986), a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the Future (1985), which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed Empire of the Sun (1987), a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long, though.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Always (1989) as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Back to the Future Part II (1989). All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. Also, in 1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results. Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", he produced the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Freakazoid! (1995), Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998), Family Dog (1993) and Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as The Land Before Time (1988), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Casper (1995) (the live action version) as well as the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller Arachnophobia (1990), Back to the Future Part III (1990) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed Schindler's List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Men in Black (1997) and Deep Impact (1998). However, it was on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and produced the epic Amistad (1997), a spectacular film that was shorted at the Oscars and in release due to the fact that its release date was moved around so much in late 1997. The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of the best films of his career: Saving Private Ryan (1998), a film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spielberg produced a series of films, including Evolution (2001), The Haunting (1999) and Shrek (2001). he also produced two sequels to Jurassic Park (1993), which were financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered varied reviews from critics.
Spielberg has been extremely active in films there are many other things he has done as well. He produced the short-lived TV series SeaQuest 2032 (1993), an anthology series entitled Amazing Stories (1985), created the video-game series "Medal of Honor" set during World War Two, and was a starting producer of ER (1994). Spielberg, if you haven't noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and Tom Hanks collaborated on Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a documentary about World War II combat photographers, and he produced a documentary about the Holocaust called Eyes of the Holocaust (2000). With all of this to Spielberg's credit, it's no wonder that he's looked at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.Executive Producer- Writer
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Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made and became one of the most celebrated filmmakers of modern cinema.
At 7 years old, Nolan began making short films with his father's Super-8 camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, he shot 16-millimeter films at U.C.L.'s film society, where he learned the guerrilla techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following (1998), on a budget of around $6,000. The noir thriller was recognized at a number of international film festivals prior to its theatrical release and gained Nolan enough credibility that he was able to gather substantial financing for his next film.
Nolan's second film was Memento (2000), which he directed from his own screenplay based on a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan. Starring Guy Pearce, the film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Nolan went on to direct the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, Insomnia (2002), starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
The turning point in Nolan's career occurred when he was awarded the chance to revive the Batman franchise in 2005. In Batman Begins (2005), Nolan brought a level of gravitas back to the iconic hero, and his gritty, modern interpretation was greeted with praise from fans and critics alike. Before moving on to a Batman sequel, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced the mystery thriller The Prestige (2006), starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as magicians whose obsessive rivalry leads to tragedy and murder.
In 2008, Nolan directed, co-wrote, and produced The Dark Knight (2008). Co-written with by his brother Jonathan, the film went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Nolan was nominated for a Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) Award, Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.) Award and Producers Guild of America (P.G.A.) Award, and the film also received eight Academy Award nominations. The film is widely considered one of the best comic book adaptations of all times, with Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker receiving an extremely high acclaim. Ledger posthumously became the first Academy Award winning performance in a Nolan film.
In 2010, Nolan captivated audiences with the Sci-Fi thriller Inception (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, which he directed and produced from his own original screenplay that he worked on for almost a decade. The thought-provoking drama was a worldwide blockbuster, earning more than $800,000,000 and becoming one of the most discussed and debated films of the year, and of all times. Among its many honors, Inception received four Academy Awards and eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Nolan was recognized by his peers with a W.G.A. Award accolade, as well as D.G.A. and P.G.A. Awards nominations for his work on the film.
As one of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) concluded Nolan's Batman trilogy. Due to his success rebooting the Batman character, Warner Bros. enlisted Nolan to produce their revamped Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), which opened in the summer of 2013. In 2014, Nolan directed, wrote, and produced the Science-Fiction epic Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. released the film on November 5, 2014, to positive reviews and strong box-office results, grossing over $670 million dollars worldwide.
In July 2017, Nolan released his acclaimed War epic Dunkirk (2017), that earned him his first Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards, as well as winning an additional 3 Oscars. In 2020 he released his mind-bending Sci-Fi espionage thriller Tenet (2020) starring John David Washington in the lead role. Released during the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie grossed relatively less than Nolan's previous blockbusters, though it did do good numbers compared to other movies in that period of time. Hailed as Nolan's most complex film yet, the film was one of Nolan's less-acclaimed films at the time, yet slowly built a fan-base following in later years.
In July 2023, Nolan released his highly acclaimed biographic drama Oppenheimer (2023) starring Nolan's frequent collaborator Cillian Murphy- in the lead role for the first time in a Nolan film. The movie was a cultural phenomenon that on top of grossing almost 1 billion dollars at the Worldwide Box office, also swept the 2023/2024 award-season and gave Nolan his first Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, D.G.A. and P.G.A. Awards, as well as a handful of regional critics-circles awards and a W.G.A. nomination. Cillian's performance as quantum physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was highly acclaimed as well, and became the first lead performance in a Nolan film to win the Academy Award.
During 2023, Nolan also received a fellowship from the British Film Institute (BFI). In March 2024, it was announced that Nolan is to be knighted by King Charles III and from now on will go by the title 'Sir Christopher Nolan'.
Nolan resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Academy Award winner producer Dame Emma Thomas, and their children. Sir Nolan and Dame Thomas also have their own production company, Syncopy.Executive Producer- Producer
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Dame Emma Thomas is an Academy Award Winner British film producer, known for co-producing films such as The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010) (2010), the Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023). She frequently collaborates with her husband, filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
She has produced all of Nolan's films since 1997, with the exception of the short documentary film Quay (2015). Together they run the production company Syncopy Inc.
In July 2023, Christopher Nolan released his biographic drama 'Oppenheimer' co-produced by Thomas, that on top of grossing almost a Billion Dollars on the Worldwide Box office, also swept the 2023-2024 award-season and gave Thomas her first Oscar, BAFTA, Producers Guild, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award as well as a handful of regional critics-circles awards.
Thomas also appeared in the film Following (1998).Executive Producer- Writer
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- Director
Lawrence Kasdan is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He directed Body Heat, Grand Canyon, The Big Chill, Silverado and Dreamcatcher. He wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bodyguard, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story. He is married to Meg Goldman since 1971 and has two sons.Executive Producer- Producer
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Don Hahn was born on 26 November 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Maleficent (2014), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and The Lion King (1994). He has been married to Denise Meara-Hahn since 12 June 1987. They have one child.Executive Producer- Producer
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Laurie MacDonald began her career as a documentary and news producer at KRON, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She later joined Columbia Pictures, where she served as a Vice President of Production. After four years, MacDonald started her own production company with her husband, screenwriter, and producer Walter Parkes. Together they have produced the Men In Black series, Gladiator, Flight, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Ring, The Mask of Zorro, Twister and Amistad, as well as the screen adaptations of The Kite Runner and Steven Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, and many others. In total, films produced or executive produced by MacDonald and Parkes have grossed over $6B globally.
MacDonald and Parkes became the co-heads of Amblin Entertainment in 1994 and just two years later were named co-presidents for the feature division of newly formed DreamWorks Studios. During their tenure, the fledgling studio won, for only the second time in Academy history, three consecutive Best Picture Oscars: American Beauty, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind, the latter two in partnership with Universal Studios.
In 2008, they left their executive positions at DreamWorks Studios for an overall producing deal under their namesake company Parkes + MacDonald where they produced The Trial of Chicago 7, written by Aaron Sorkin. Two years later MacDonald and Parkes formed a partnership with ImageNation Abu Dhabi for the development and production of films in the international market. Under this alliance, they produced films along with two feature length documentaries, He Named Me Malala and Free Solo, the latter of which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.Executive Producer- Producer
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Walter F. Parkes was born on April 15, 1951 in Bakersfield, California. He attended Yale University and it was graduated cum laude in 1973. He made its first film project The California Reich (1975), which was made in 1975.
He met Laurie MacDonald in 1982 and the next year, wrote the script for the film WarGames (1983) with Lawrence Lasker, of which received a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination. The success led to a deal with Paramount Pictures, with no films coming out. In 1985, he produced Volunteers (1985) with Richard Shepherd, and in 1987 reunited with Lasker on the film Project X (1987), of which Lasker become a full time partner for four years. Both of them continue its success with True Believer (1989), Awakenings (1990) and Sneakers (1992). Both of them tried to sign a deal with Columbia when its deal with Paramount ended. Both of them produced the TV show Eddie Dodd (1991) with Clyde Phillips.
In 1991, both Lasker and Parkes part ways, in order that Parkes to partner with MacDonald, who left Columbia in the establishment of a production company Aerial Pictures. Aerial had a two year deal at Columbia Pictures, and it was briefly transferred to 20th Century Fox in 1993. Aerial's only product was a little known TV show Birdland (1994) for ABC.
In 1993, both Parkes and MacDonald was approached by Steven Spielberg to run Amblin Entertainment, thus completely shuttering Aerial Pictures down. He oversaw production of Little Giants (1994), Twister (1996) and Men in Black (1997), the latter of which was originated at Aerial.
In 1994, Parkes and MacDonald was approached to start up the DreamWorks studio and served as co-heads of film production. He oversaw more than a few films during his tenure, serving his positions as producer or executive producer, like The Peacemaker (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Gladiator (2000), The Ring (2002) and A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004).
In 2005, while Parkes and MacDonald completed production on a few DreamWorks films like The Island (2005) and Just Like Heaven (2005), the duo started up Parkes/MacDonald Productions with a deal at DreamWorks. At that time, Parkes and MacDonald produced these leftover projects originated by DreamWorks like The Lookout (2007) and The Kite Runner (2007) as well as Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), the Asian film remake The Uninvited (2009) and the comedy Dinner for Schmucks (2010).
In 2009, Parkes and MacDonald partnered with Image Nation, and in 2010, signed a television deal with NBCUniversal to produce its television shows. The duo's contributions were the two Men in Black installments: Men in Black³ (2012) and Men in Black: International (2019), the third installment in the "Ring" franchise, Rings (2017) and original projects like Flight (2012) and Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016) as well as television shows like Crossbones (2014) and The Slap (2015).
In 2016, he was a founding partner and chairman in the virtual reality studio Dreamscape Immersive, with Kevin Wall, Caecila Charbonnier, Sylvian Chaugé and Ronald Menzel.
Both Parkes and MacDonald were currently working on future projects like "Gladiator 2" and "Barbie".Executive Producer- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Ian Bryce is known for Saving Private Ryan (1998), Almost Famous (2000) and Transformers (2007). He is married to Taylor Gilbert. They have two children.Executive Producer- Producer
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Lawrence Gordon (Producer) has been one of the entertainment industry's most prolific and successful producers in a career spanning six decades. He has been behind such timeless films as the drama "Field of Dreams," for which Gordon received a Best Picture Oscar nomination; the landmark action film "Die Hard"; and the ultimate buddy picture "48 Hrs.," starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Gordon graduated from Tulane University with a degree in business administration. Moving to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, he went to work as executive assistant to Aaron Spelling at Four Star Television and soon became a writer and associate producer of Spelling shows. He followed with a stint as head of West Coast talent development for ABC Television and later as an executive with Bob Banner Associates. In 1968, he joined Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson at American International Pictures (AIP) as story editor, and rose to vice president in charge of development. He then segued to vice president at Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, where he helped put together the classic television movie "Brian's Song," as well as the first "novel for television," the adaptation of Leon Uris' QB VII. Accepting an offer to become the first executive in the company's history to head worldwide production, Gordon returned to AIP. His many projects included "Coffy," "Foxy Brown," "Hell's Angels '69," "Wild in the Streets," John Milius' "Dillinger" (which Gordon also executive-produced), and Ralph Bakshi's groundbreaking and controversial animated hit "Heavy Traffic," which was named one of The New York Times' top-10 films of 1973. Gordon then formed Lawrence Gordon Productions and began a long and successful association with director Walter Hill. Among the duo's memorable titles are "Hard Times," starring Charles Bronson; "The Driver," with Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani; the cult classic "The Warriors"; "48 Hrs.," teaming Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, in his feature film debut; the rock-and-roll fable "Streets of Fire"; "Brewster's Millions," with Richard Pryor and John Candy; and "Another 48 Hrs.," which reunited the stars from the original. Gordon also produced the comedy hit "The End," starring Burt Reynolds, and collaborated with him again on the box office smash "Hooper." During this period, Gordon also produced the Paul Schrader-penned "Rolling Thunder," and the now-cult movie musical "Xanadu," starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. By 1977, he was housed at Paramount Pictures with an overall producing deal. In 1982, he reunited with his old boss Aaron Spelling to create and executive produce the ABC television series "Matt Houston." In 1984, Gordon became president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw such successful titles as James Cameron's "Aliens"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; "Commando," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; and "Jewel of the Nile," starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. During his tenure, "The Simpsons" television series was created by Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, as were series by Stephen Bochco and David E. Kelley. After his stint at Fox, in 1986, Gordon produced the critically acclaimed "Lucas," marking the directorial debut of David Seltzer; and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," starring Whoopi Goldberg, which was Penny Marshall's first film as a director. During the 1980s, Gordon also produced for the stage. For Broadway, he produced the 1986 musical "Smile," with music by Tony, Grammy and Oscar winner Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Tony and Oscar winner Howard Ashman. Off-Broadway, Gordon produced the 1982 revival of Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," which won the Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Play. For the screen, Gordon produced the 1987 summer action hit "Predator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, later, its sequel. In 1988, he produced the mega-blockbuster "Die Hard," which introduced Bruce Willis as an action hero and forever changed the action genre. The film went on to spawn three hit sequels, in addition to becoming one of cinema's most successful and imitated franchises. The following year, Gordon produced another seminal hit, "Field of Dreams," starring Kevin Costner under the direction of Phil Alden Robinson. The beloved film earned three Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, while the title itself and the famous line, "If you build it...," became part of the cultural lexicon. Gordon subsequently produced "Family Business," directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick; the comedy hit "K-9," starring James Belushi; "The Rocketeer," directed by Joe Johnston; and "Lock Up," starring Sylvester Stallone. In 1989, Gordon formed Largo Entertainment with the backing of JVC Entertainment, Inc. of Japan, representing the first major Japanese investment in the entertainment industry. As the company's chairman and chief executive officer, Gordon was responsible for the production of such films as "Point Break," starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves; "Unlawful Entry," starring Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta and Madeleine Stowe; "Used People," starring Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden and Marcello Mastroianni; and "Timecop," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Largo also co-financed and handled the foreign distribution of the acclaimed biopic "Malcolm X," directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington in the title role. Gordon left Largo in 1994 in favor of a long-term producing deal with Universal Pictures. There, his first production was the controversial Kevin Costner-starrer "Waterworld," which grossed $300 million worldwide. Other Lawrence Gordon Productions include "The Devil's Own," starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt; the critically acclaimed "Boogie Nights," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham and Julianne Moore; and "Mystery Men," starring Ben Stiller. In 2001, Gordon produced two pictures that opened at number one at the box office: the summer hit "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," starring Angelina Jolie, and the acclaimed "K-PAX," starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. In summer 2003, "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" was released, with Angelina Jolie back as Lara Croft. The next year, Gordon produced the Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy," based on the popular Mike Mignola comic book series and starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. In summer 2008, he scored an even bigger hit with its sequel, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," reuniting the original cast and filmmakers. Gordon's "Watchmen" directed by Zack Snyder ("300") was released in March of 2009 as one of the highest R-rated openings ever. Gordon is producing a documentary for Netflix on the legendary basketball player Bill Russell. He is also executive producer on a television adaptation of "Field Of Dreams" for Peacock, and executive produced the "Predator" spinoff "Prey" on Hulu. Gordon served for many years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Board of the American Film Institute. He is a recipient of the ShoWest Lifetime Achievement Award, the PGA's prestigious David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award, Tulane University's Distinguished Alumni Award, and most recently the Mississippi Governor's Arts Award.Executive Producer- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Born September 30, 1979, Jonathan Peter Kasdan's first acting performance in a major motion picture was at the tender age of 3 in "The Big Chill" as the son of Harold, played by Kevin Kline.
Then at age 5, Jonathan Kasdan went on to play an outpost boy in what many critics consider to be the best Western of the 1980s: "Silverado," also starring Kevin Kline as misfit-turned-sheriff Payden, Kevin Costner's character, Jake, Scott Glenn's portrayal of Emmett, and of course, Danny Glover as Malcolm "Mal" Johnson, in their oft awkward efforts to bring justice to the Old American West.
Jon played the 'boy' in a doctor's office in "The Accidental Tourist" alongside William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis.
In 1990 Jon was a lovable Dominic in the John Kostmayer comedy "I Love You to Death," again with Kevin Kline.
But instead of having a big breakaway role in the 1994 neo-classic Western "Wyatt Earp," the 14-year-old played the role of Bar Boy with leading man Kevin Kline. Alas, Jon had to settle for winning the trifecta of his third-in-a-row boy role.
In 2002, he acted in two films as a trainee in "Big Trouble" and Barry in "Slackers".
Continuing the dream in 2003, Jon played a bit part as Defuniak in "Dreamcatcher" with Morgan Freeman.
But in 2007 Jon Kasdan bypassed mere acting, taking the helm of the dramatic romantic comedy, "In the Land of Woman," as its 27-year-old writer/director. In an impressive finish for his directorial debut, his $11 million budget movie earned $12 million at the box office.
Then lightning struck twice as 32-year-old Jonathan Kasdan had two films released the same week in January of 2012, as writer/director of "The First Time" with Dylan O'Brien and Britt Robertson, and back as an actor in the role of Officiant in the Sony Pictures Classics "Darling Companion" with Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline who all got upstaged by a dog named Freeway.
But if anything, Jonathan Kasdan is a survivor. Having been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 17, he went on to act, direct and write films. His television presence is memorable as an actor in Dawson's Creek and noteworthy is his writing of Freaks and Geeks.
Jonathan is the brother of actor Jake Kasdan and son of Lawrence and Meg Kasdan, both famous directors and writers who, remarkably, have been married since 1971.
And what's next for Jon Kasdan? And action Comedy called "My Spy" co-written with his brother Jake. Oh, and a yet unnamed 2018 Han Solo Star Wars Anthology starring Alden Ehrenreich as Han, where Jon shares the screenplay credit with his father Lawrence Kasdan.
It all goes to show that in an industry that sometimes is faulted for having a dearth in creativity, with a family like the Kasdans, there's hope for Hollywood.Executive Producer- Producer
- Production Manager
- Transportation Department
Gerald R. Molen was born on 6 January 1935 in Great Falls, Montana, USA. He is a producer and production manager, known for Rain Man (1988), Jurassic Park (1993) and Schindler's List (1993).Executive Producer- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film. During the next four years, Coppola was involved in a variety of script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of "This Property is Condemned" by Tennessee Williams (with Fred Coe and Edith Sommer), and screenplays for Is Paris Burning? (1966) and Patton (1970), the film for which Coppola won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. In 1966, Coppola's 2nd film brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts degree. In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The company's first project was THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas. Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas directed, American Graffiti (1973), in 1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. In 1971, Coppola's film The Godfather (1972) became one of the highest-grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola a Best Director Oscar nomination. Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola's next film was The Conversation (1974), which was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations. Also released that year, The Godfather Part II (1974), rivaled the success of The Godfather (1972), and won six Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer. Coppola then began work on his most ambitious film, Apocalypse Now (1979), a Vietnam War epic that was inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1993). Released in 1979, the acclaimed film won a Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and two Academy Awards. Also that year, Coppola executive produced the hit The Black Stallion (1979). With George Lucas, Coppola executive produced Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), directed by Akira Kurosawa, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), directed by Paul Schrader and based on the life and writings of Yukio Mishima. Coppola also executive produced such films as The Escape Artist (1982), Hammett (1982) The Black Stallion Returns (1983), Barfly (1987), Wind (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), etc.
He helped to make a star of his nephew, Nicolas Cage. Personal tragedy hit in 1986 when his son Gio died in a boating accident. Francis Ford Coppola is one of America's most erratic, energetic and controversial filmmakers.Executive Producer- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Jennifer Love Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas, to Patricia Mae (Shipp), a speech-language pathologist, and Herbert Daniel Hewitt, a medical technician. She has English, Italian, French, Scottish, and German ancestry. She got her first name from her older brother Todd Daniel Hewitt (b. November 8, 1970), who picked the name after a little blonde girl on whom he'd had a crush. Her mother selected Jennifer's middle name, Love (which she goes by offstage), from her best college friend. Her parents separated when she was six months old and her mother raised her in Killeen, Texas.
Hewitt made her official performing debut at age 3 when she sang at a livestock show. At age 5, she was taking tap, jazz, and ballet lessons, which led to her joining the Texas Show Team, who toured the Soviet Union and Europe. When she was 10 her family moved to Los Angeles with encouragement from talent scouts, while Todd stayed behind to finish high school in Texas Jennifer quickly found commercial work and a role on Disney's Kids Incorporated (1984) in 1989. She went through a series of television flops before finally hitting it big on Party of Five (1994) in 1995.Executive Producer- Casting Director
- Producer
- Casting Department
Fred Roos was born on 22 May 1934 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was a casting director and producer, known for St. Vincent (2014), The Godfather Part II (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979). He was married to Nancy Drew. He died on 18 May 2024 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Executive Producer- Producer
- Additional Crew
Benjamin Melniker was born on 25 May 1913 in Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. He was a producer, known for National Treasure (2004), Batman & Robin (1997) and Batman Begins (2005). He was married to Shirley Gross and Jean Brody. He died on 26 February 2018 in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island, New York, USA.Executive Producer- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Michael E. Uslan was born on 15 December 1950 in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for National Treasure (2004), The Batman (2022) and Batman & Robin (1997).Executive Producer- Producer
- Writer
Born in Los Angeles in 1957 to immigrants, Hwang is a successful playwright. He graduated from Stanford University in 1979 and attended Yale in 1980. He is most famous for M. Butterfly (1993), which was adapted for the screen in 1993, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.Writer- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Joss Whedon is the middle of five brothers - his younger brothers are Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Both his father, Tom Whedon and his grandfather, John Whedon were successful television writers. Joss' mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher and she also wrote novels as Lee Whedon. Whedon was raised in New York and was educated at Riverdale Country School, where his mother also taught. He also attended Winchester College in England for two years, before graduating with a film degree from Wesleyan University.
After relocating to Los Angeles, Whedon landed his first TV writing job on "Roseanne", and moved on to script a season of "Parenthood". He then developed a film script which went on to become Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). Whedon was very unhappy with the final film - his original script was extensively re-written and made lighter in tone. After this he earned screenwriting credits on such high profile productions as Alien: Resurrection (1997) and Toy Story (1995), for which he was Oscar nominated. He also worked as a 'script doctor' on various features, notably Speed (1994).
In 1997, Whedon had the opportunity to resurrect his character Buffy in a television series on The WB Network. This time, as showrunner and executive producer, he retained full artistic control. The series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was a popular and critical hit, which ran for several seasons, the last two on UPN. Whedon also produced a spin-off series, "Angel", which was also successful. A foray in to sci-fi television followed with "Firefly", which developed a cult following, but did not stay on air long. It did find an audience on DVD and through re-runs, and a spin-off feature film Serenity (2005) was released in 2005.
Other projects have included comic book writing, the sci-fi drama "Dollhouse" and the screenplay for Marvel blockbuster The Avengers (2012).Writer- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Michael Patrick Dougherty is a writer, director, animator, and producer known for his work in a variety of genre films, both big and small. Beginning his career as an animator and illustrator, Dougherty's animated work was featured on MTV, Nickelodeon, and a line of twisted greeting cards published by NobleWorks. He then co-wrote the blockbusters X-Men 2 and Superman Returns before making his directorial debut with the classic horror comedy, Trick 'r Treat (2007), starring Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, and Brian Cox. Trick 'r Treat has since become a perennial favorite that has spawned a growing line of toys, comics, theme park attractions, and Halloween decor, and a sequel is in development with Legendary Pictures. Dougherty later set his sights on Christmas, which resulted in Krampus (2015), a holiday horror comedy starring Toni Collette, Adam Scott, David Koechner, and Allison Tolman. Much like Trick 'r Treat, Krampus has become an annual holiday classic. Most recently, Dougherty co-wrote and directed the blockbuster Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) starring Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Ken Watanabe, and co-wrote the story for its sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), starring Brian Tyree Henry, Rebecca Hall, and Alexander Skaarsgaard. Collectively, Dougherty's work has grossed over 2 billion dollars at the box office.Writer- Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Ehren Kruger is an American film producer and screenwriter who is known for writing The Ring starring Naomi Watts and Daveigh Chase. He also wrote a majority of the Transformers sequels, Scream 3 & 4, Reindeer Games, The Ring Two, Blood & Chocolate, Dumbo, The Skeleton Key, The Brothers Grimm and Ghost in the Shell.Writer- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
In 1993, Dave was one of the original writers on NBC's Late Night With Conan O'BrienTwo years later he took a job at Walt Disney Feature Animation on the movie Tarzan. While there he met with a little-known animation called Pixar who hired him to help develop their second feature, A Bug's Life.
For the next six years he wrote on almost every Disney/Pixar animated movie in production. Including writing the screenplay for The Emperor's New Groove as well as co-writing Finding Nemo. He was nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for Nemo as well as a BAFTA for New Groove.
He and New Groove director Mark Dindal have just completed The Garfield Movie, to be released May 24, 2024.Additional Screenplay Material- Actor
- Director
- Writer
David Hayter was born on February 6, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA as David Bryan Hayter. He is known for writing the screenplays to X-Men (2000), X-Men 2 (2003), and Watchmen (2009). He is best known as the voice of Solid Snake in the English versions of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.Additional Screenplay Material- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Yuji Naka was born on 17 September 1965 in Osaka, Japan. He is a writer and producer, known for ChuChu Rocket! (1999), Burning Rangers (1998) and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (2001).Based on Sega's "Sonic the Hedgehog" Characters Creator- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Hirokazu Yasuhara was born on 12 October 1965 in Japan. He is a writer and director, known for Two Worlds Collide: Chaotic Fusion, Fatal Labyrinth (1991) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994).Based on Sega's "Sonic the Hedgehog" Characters Creator- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Naoto Ohshima was born on 26 February 1964 in Osaka, Japan. He is a writer and producer, known for Burning Rangers (1998), Two Worlds Collide: Chaotic Fusion and Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (2003).Based on Sega's "Sonic the Hedgehog" Characters Creator- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to be aired on MTV (August 1, 1981).
Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, then in West Germany, the son of Brigitte (Weil) and Hans Joachim Zimmer. He entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). He soon began work on several successful solo projects, including the critically acclaimed A World Apart, and during these years Zimmer pioneered the use of combining old and new musical technologies. Today, this work has earned him the reputation of being the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.
A turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
Having already scored two Best Picture winners, in the early 1990s, Zimmer cemented his position as a preeminent talent with the award-winning score for The Lion King (1994). The soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies to date and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony, and two Grammy Awards. In total, Zimmer's work has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes, 7 Grammys and seven Oscars for Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), The Lion King (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), The The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and The Last Samurai (2003).
With his career in full swing, Zimmer was anxious to replicate the mentoring experience he had benefited from under Stanley Myers' guidance. With state-of-the-art technology and a supportive creative environment, Zimmer was able to offer film-scoring opportunities to young composers at his Santa Monica-based musical "think tank." This approach helped launch the careers of such notable composers as Mark Mancina, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Klaus Badelt.
In 2000, Zimmer scored the music for Gladiator (2000), for which he received an Oscar nomination, in addition to Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards for his epic score. It sold more than three million copies worldwide and spawned a second album Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture, released on the Universal Classics/Decca label. Zimmer's other scores that year included Mission: Impossible II (2000), The Road to El Dorado (2000), and An Everlasting Piece (2000), directed by Barry Levinson.
Some of his other impressive scores include Pearl Harbor (2001), The Ring (2002), four films directed by Ridley Scott; Matchstick Men (2003), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), and Thelma & Louise (1991), Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and A League of Their Own (1992), Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), Tears of the Sun (2003), Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991), Days of Thunder (1990), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and the animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) for which he also co-wrote four of the songs with Bryan Adams, including the Golden Globe nominated Here I Am.
At the 27th annual Flanders International Film Festival, Zimmer performed live for the first time in concert with a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Choosing selections from his impressive body of work, Zimmer performed newly orchestrated concert versions of Gladiator, Mission: Impossible II (2000), Rain Man (1988), The Lion King (1994), and The Thin Red Line (1998). The concert was recorded by Decca and released as a concert album entitled "The Wings Of A Film: The Music Of Hans Zimmer."
In 2003, Zimmer completed his 100th film score for the film The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, for which he received both a Golden Globe and a Broadcast Film Critics nomination. Zimmer then scored Nancy Meyers' comedy Something's Gotta Give (2003), the animated Dreamworks film, Shark Tale (2004) (featuring voices of Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese), and Jim Brooks' Spanglish (2004) starring Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni (for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination). His 2005 projects include Paramount's The Weather Man (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, Dreamworks' Madagascar (2005), and the Warner Bros. summer release, Batman Begins (2005).
Zimmer's additional honors and awards include the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from the National Board of Review, and the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has also received ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hans and his wife live in Los Angeles and he is the father of four children.Music Composer & Producer and Synth Programmer
Also Music and Song Producer for "Endless Possibility" and "The World Adventure"
Also Song Performer, Producer and Arranger for "A Whole New World"
Finally Music Arranger for "Theme from Dr. Eggman" and "Score Cues" from "Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)", "Bloody Christmas" & "The Victor" from "L.A. Confidential", "Someday" from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)", "Score Excerpts from 'Aladdin' (1992)", "Under the Sea" from "The Little Mermaid (1989)" and "Prince Ali (Reprise)"
With Song Producer for "A Love Before Time" and "Go the Distance" from "Hercules (1997)"
and Music for "This Land" from "The Lion King (1994)"- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
James Newton Howard attended the University of Southern California's music school, but dropped out to tour with Elton John, and eventually compose music for film and television. He started with Head Office (1985) in 1985. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He currently is a songwriter, record producer, conductor, keyboardist, and film composer.Music Composer & Producer and Piano (Featured Musicians)
Also Music for "Endless Possibility" and "The World Adventure"
Later Music & Lyrics and Strings Arrangements for "Dear my Friend"
Finally Music Producer for "The World Adventure", "Prince Ali" and "That's What Friends Are For"
With Music Arranger for "Theme from Dr. Eggman" & "Score Cues" from "Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)", "Prince Ali (Reprise)", "This Broken Soul" from "The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night"- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
Mary Ramos has been a Film Music Supervisor for over 25 years, creatively helping Directors find the best songs and scores for their films. She has helped shape the music for blockbuster features, fierce independents and passionate documentaries. Along with Grammy nominated soundtracks and two Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for "Django Unchained," and "Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood," she worked with Quentin Tarantino on "The Hateful Eight" which brought Ennio Morricone his first Academy Award for Best Original Score and she worked with Reginald Hudlin on his film "Marshall" for which the powerful original theme song entitled "Stand Up For Something" was nominated for an Academy Award.Music Supervisor- Music Department
- Actress
- Producer
Michelle Silverman was born on 29 August 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Aquaman (2018), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Good Boys (2019).Music Supervisor (as Michelle Kuznetsky)- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Wesley Coller is known for Watchmen (2009), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and Man of Steel (2013).Co-Producer- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Roy Conli was born on 15 August 1971 in the USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Big Hero 6 (2014), Treasure Planet (2002) and Tangled (2010).Co-Producer- Producer
- Production Manager
- Actor
Gray Frederickson was born on 21 July 1937 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He was a producer and production manager, known for The Godfather Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979) and UHF (1989). He was married to Karen. He died on 20 November 2022 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.Co-Producer- Casting Director
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Kris Zimmerman was born on 12 December 1958 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She is a casting director, known for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015), Regular Show (2010) and Mad Max (2015). She was previously married to Patric Zimmerman and Carlton Salter.Casting and Voice Over Director (Soundelux Design Music Group) (as Kris Zimmerman Salter)- Sound Department
- Additional Crew
- Director
Gordon Hunt was born on 26 April 1929 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA. He was a director, known for Mad About You (1992), Dilbert (1999) and Hawaiian Eye (1959). He was married to B.J. Ward and Jane Elizabeth Novis. He died on 17 December 2016 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.Casting and Voice Over Director (Soundelux Design Music Group)- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Director
Keythe is an actor/director/writer who lives in Los Angeles. Keythe is best known for his portrayal of Thane Krios in Mass Effect, Kellogg in Fallout 4 and Eruptor in the Skylanders series of video games. Commercial VO campaigns include Scottrade, Orbit Gum and Hornitos Tequila. Keythe has voice directed the animated series Rugrats, As Told By Ginger, The Wild Thornberries and Adventure Time! as well as dozens of video games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (the highest grossing video game of all time), Final Fantasy XV and God of War. Keythe is also the co-author of "Bat Boy: The Musical" (with Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe) which is the recipient of the Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Off-Broadway Musical. Bat Boy has been produced all over the US and has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Spanish and German.Casting and Voice Over Director (Soundelux Design Music Group)- Actor
- Production Manager
- Producer
Patrick will next be seen in Eli Roth's new feature film THANKSGIVING as well as Michael Mann's new film, FERRARI, in which he stars opposite Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz. He was just seen starring in the Disney+ feature film and sequel to ENCHANTED, DISENCHANTED, opposite Amy Adams and most recently starred in the SKY-Italy television series, DEVILS that aired throughout Europe. Other credits include Universal's BRIDGET JONES'S BABY alongside Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth, and the EPIX mini-series THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR. Patrick Dempsey is well-known for his portrayal of Dr. Derek Shepherd on the hit ABC series, GREY'S ANATOMY. His performance earned him a 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated in 2006 and 2007 for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama. Patrick's other film credits include TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, VALENTINE'S DAY, MADE OF HONOR, FREEDOM WRITERS, SWEET HOME ALABAMA, SCREAM 3, WITH HONORS, OUTBREAK, HUGO POOL, THE TREAT, THE PALACE THIEF, HEAVEN HELP US, HAPPY TOGETHER, SOME GIRLS, COUPE DE VILLE, RUN, MOBSTERS, and IN THE MOOD. Dempsey became well known from such classic '80s nostalgia films such as, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE and LOVERBOY.as Sonic the Hedgehog Sr (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Executive
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as superhero, period, and romance characters. He is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, as well as for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013). His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013. In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.
Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, an accountant. He is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.
Jackman has a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney. After graduating, he pursued drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, immediately after which he was offered a starring role in the ABC-TV prison drama Correlli (1995), opposite his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. Several TV guest roles followed, as an actor and variety compere. An accomplished singer, Jackman has starred as Gaston in the Australian production of "Beauty and the Beast." He appeared as Joe Gillis in the Australian production of "Sunset Boulevard." In 1998, he was cast as Curly in the Royal National Theatre's production of Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma. Jackman has made two feature films, the second of which, Erskineville Kings (1999), garnered him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor in 1999. Recently, he won the part of Logan/Wolverine in the Bryan Singer- directed comic-book movie X-Men (2000). In his spare time, Jackman plays piano, golf, and guitar, and likes to windsurf.as Sonic the Werehog Sr (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and his maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director. Joseph first became well known for his starring role on NBC's award-winning comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996). During his six seasons on the show, he won two YoungStar Awards and also shared in three Screen Actors Guild Award® nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Comedy Series Ensemble.
Prior to his success on television, Joseph had already worked steadily in feature films. Early in his career, he won a Young Artist Award for his first major role, in Robert Redford's drama A River Runs Through It (1992). During the 1990s, he also co-starred in the films Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Juror (1996), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), a well-reviewed slasher sequel, and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), opposite Heath Ledger, which has become a teen comedy classic.
Following his work on 3rd Rock, Joseph took time off from acting to attend Columbia University. In the early 2000s, he broke from the mold of his television and film comedy supporting roles by appearing in a string of intense dramatic parts, mostly in smaller, independent films, such as Manic (2001), with Don Cheadle; Mysterious Skin (2004), for writer/director Gregg Araki; Rian Johnson's award-winning debut, dramatic thriller Brick (2005) (2005); Lee Daniels' Shadowboxer (2005); the crime drama The Lookout (2007), which marked Scott Frank's directorial debut; John Madden's Killshot (2008), with Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke; Spike Lee's World War II film Miracle at St. Anna (2008); and the controversial drama Stop-Loss (2008), in which he starred with Ryan Phillippe, under the direction of Kimberly Peirce. By 2009, Joseph was officially established as one a new generation of leading men with his Golden Globe-nominated role in Marc Webb's comedy-drama 500 Days of Summer (2009), also starring Zooey Deschanel , for which he received Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award and People's Choice Award nominations. He also adapted the Elmore Leonard short story Sparks (2009) into a 24-minute short film that he directed, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Beginning the new decade, he headlined the indie drama Hesher (2010) and established himself as an action star in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), also starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Elliot Page. Balancing both independent and Hollywood film, Joseph scored another Golden Globe nod for the cancer drama 50/50 (2011), directed by Jonathan Levine and also starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, and Bryce Dallas Howard. He worked again with director Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the third and final installment in the director's Batman series, for which he received a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite Movie Actor; and snagged leading roles in both Premium Rush (2012), directed by David Koepp, and Looper (2012), reuniting with his Brick director, Rian Johnson, opposite Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. Rounding out the year, he played Abraham Lincoln's son Robert in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated Lincoln (2012), with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.
In 2013, Gordon-Levitt starred in his critically-acclaimed feature film directorial debut, Don Jon (2013), from a script he wrote, opposite Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "Best First Screenplay" for the film. He also provided the voice of Jiro Horikoshi in the 2014 English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-nominated animated feature The Wind Rises (2013), and appeared in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), in which he played Johnny, a character Miller created for the film. In 2015, he starred in The Walk (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis, and in which he portrayed Philippe Pettit, and in 2016 headlined Oliver Stone's Snowden (2016).
Joseph has completed production on Project Power (2020), Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman sci-fi film for Netflix, in which he stars opposite Jamie Foxx, and on the independent thriller, 7500 (2019), written and directed by Patrick Vollarth. Among his other projects, he will play attorney Richard Schultz in Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and is in development on a variety of feature films including Fraggle Rock.
Joseph has also founded and directs hitRECord, an open collaborative production. hitRECord creates and develops art and media collectively using their website where anyone with an internet connection can upload their records, download and remix others' records, and work on projects together. When the results of these RECords are produced and make a profit, hitRECord splits the profits 50/50 with everybody who contributed to the final production. hitRECord has published books, put out records, gone on tour and has screened their work at major festivals including Sundance and TIFF. The half-hour variety program, "Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt," which includes short films, live performances, music, animation, conversation and more, earned an Emmy Award for Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Social TV Experience. hitRECord's project, "Band Together with Logic," is a one-hour YouTube Originals special that sees Grammy-nominated rapper Logic open up his creative process like never before, inviting the world to collaborate with him on an original song and music video.
In 2016, the ACLU honored Gordon-Levitt with their annual Bill of Rights Award for furthering diversity efforts, promoting free speech, empowering women and otherwise supporting civil rights and liberties for all Americans.as Chip / Light Gaia (voice)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Hannah Dakota Fanning was born on the 23rd of February 1994, in Conyers, Georgia, USA, to Heather Joy (Arrington) and Steven Fanning. Her mother played professional tennis, and her father, now an electronics salesman, played minor league baseball. She is of German, Irish, English, French, and Channel Islander descent. Before her debut into the cinematic world, Dakota did her own acting around her house. She was very active for her age, and often put a blanket under her shirt and pretended to be having a baby, using her younger sister, Elle Fanning, who is also an actress now, as the baby. Dakota went to a playhouse near her home, where the children that attended put on a play every week to show to their parents. But the people running the playhouse noticed that Dakota stood out, and advised her parents to take her to an agency. They believed that she was extremely talented.
The Fanning family were advised to spend six weeks in Los Angeles, a long way from their home in Georgia. But there Dakota managed to get her first work; to star in a national Tide commercial. She was chosen out of many, many other children.
The family then decided to move to Los Angeles permanently, for it looked like Dakota's career was looking very good. After they moved, Dakota signed with a professional agency, and soon won a role in the movie Tomcats (2001). She then went onto a small project called Father Xmas (2001) as Clairee.
But Dakota's big break-through was yet to come. She auditioned for one of the main characters in I Am Sam (2001), and the director and the rest of the crew were amazed by her extraordinary talent. Dakota was cast, and starred in the movie as Lucy Diamond Dawson, alongside major Hollywood stars Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer.
After I Am Sam (2001) her talent was immediately recognized around the world. She went straight onto Trapped (2002) as Abby Jennings, alongside Charlize Theron, then played the younger version of Reese Witherspoon in 2002's Sweet Home Alabama (2002) But Dakota still had two more movies to come in 2002. Firstly she got a huge role in Steven Spielberg's Taken (2002), the mini-TV series, and narrated the ten whole episodes, as well as having a part. This was a little more challenging, as she was playing a troubled alien child, but she managed to do brilliantly. Her last movie for 2002 was the children's movie Hansel & Gretel (2002) as Katie.
2003 was also a brilliant year for Dakota, as she starred in a number of exciting projects. Firstly, it was as Sally Walden in The Cat in the Hat (2003) with Mike Myers, then she played Lorraine "Ray" Schleine, a bratty little girl, in the sweet comedy Uptown Girls (2003) alongside Brittany Murphy. She then voiced preschool Kim in Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time (2003).
In 2004, Dakota appeared in the violent thriller, Man on Fire (2004), alongside Denzel Washington. Her reviews were excellent.
First in 2005 was Nine Lives (2005), as Maria, then the chilling Hide and Seek (2005) alongside Robert De Niro. By now, she was the busiest child actress in Hollywood, with a resume to die for. Her younger sister, (Elle Fanning), had also been discovered a few years earlier.
After Hide and Seek (2005) came War of the Worlds (2005), which was one of her major movies out of everything she'd worked in. Not only did it make her more popular, but she got to play the daughter of A-list Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. They had four very successful premieres; the first in Tokyo, Japan, the second in France, the third in London, England and the fourth in New York, USA. The reviews were outstanding, especially Dakota's. She then voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005).as Miles "Tails" Prower (voice)- Actress
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- Director
Maggie Gyllenhaal was born on November 16, 1977 in New York City, New York as Margalit Ruth Gyllenhaal, the daughter of producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She is of Ashkenazi Jewish (mother) and Swedish, English, and German (father) descent.
She made her film debut in Waterland (1992). She had sporadic roles throughout her teenage years though she took a break to attend Columbia University where she graduated w/ a degree in literature in 1999. In addition, she briefly studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, which helped w/ her post-graduation transition back into acting.
Soon after graduating, she had supporting roles in Cecil B. Demented (2000) & Donnie Darko (2001). Her breakout role came later when she starred in Secretary (2002), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She followed that up w/ supporting roles in 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Adaptation. (2002), & Mona Lisa Smile (2003) among other movies. She received her 2nd Golden Globe nomination for playing a recent prison parolee in Sherrybaby (2006). She followed that up w/ roles in World Trade Center (2006), Stranger Than Fiction (2006) & The Dark Knight (2008).
In 2009, she received great acclaim for her role in Crazy Heart (2009), which earned her 1st Oscar nomination. Since then, she has been seen in Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), Hysteria (2011) & Won't Back Down (2012).as Amy Rose (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).as Ignitus the Flame Guardian (voice)- Actress
- Art Department
- Producer
Mae was born in Los Angeles, California to Pat Musick, a voice artist, and Jeffrey Whitman, a personal manager and set construction coordinator. She began her career with a voice-over for a Tyson Chicken commercial. Whitman attended Ribét Academy, a private preparatory school in Los Angeles.
Whitman made her first silver screen debut playing Meg Ryan's youngest daughter, "Casey Green", in When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). Among her notable childhood roles were that of "Patricia Whitmore", daughter of the President in Independence Day (1996); George Clooney's daughter, "Maggie Taylor", in One Fine Day (1996); and the charming daughter, "Bernice Pruitt", of Sandra Bullock, in Hope Floats (1998).
As she has grown older, Mae has made several guest appearances in television shows such as JAG (1995), State of Grace (2001), Desperate Housewives (2004), Grey's Anatomy (2005) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), just to name a few, as well as some voice-over work.
In 2015, she starred in the movie The Duff (2015) portraying a high school student who realized she is the approachable one, the designated ugly fat friend, the DUFF.
We should expect to see great things from Mae Whitman as her career progresses, for she has shown what a strong, dynamic, and talented actress she has become.as Cynder the Black Dragoness, New York Civilian, Young Amy Rose, Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Martin Jarvis OBE is one of Britain's most versatile leading actors. His distinguished career continues to encompass just about every aspect of the entertainment industry: film, television, theatre, radio and audio recording. He is also the author of two bestselling books: a hilarious autobiography Acting Strangely and a compelling account of his award-winning time on Broadway in 2001: Broadway, Jeeves - The Diary of a Theatrical Adventure, both published by Methuen. In 2010 he starred as Vincent Hogg in a new production of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Cracked in ITV/WGHB's popular 'Miss Marple' series. In 2009, he starred in BBC2's comedy/drama Taking the Flak, receiving outstanding reviews for his performance as national treasure tv journalist David Bradburn. He stars in the feature film Neander Jin - Return of the Neanderthal Man (US/ Germany co-production, 2010) as Peter Blodnik, network mogul.
Alongside his screen and theatre career he is a prolific director of radio drama and, with his wife, actress/director Rosalind Ayres, produces plays and readings for BBC. His award-winning productions include Shadowlands, David Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon, Ayckbourn's Man of the Moment and Ian Fleming's Dr No. He has homes in London and Los Angeles. He trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England), where he won the Vanbrugh Award and the Silver Medal. He is an Associate of RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England). He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's New Years Honors List for his services to drama.
In 2006, he appeared at the Santa Fe Arts Festival in New Mexico in Wilde's The Canterville Ghost with Shirley Maclaine and Ali McGraw. Earlier in the same year, he starred in Honour at Wyndham's Theatre, London giving an acclaimed performance opposite Dame Diana Rigg. On screen that year he played Leonard in BBC-TV's modern version of "Much Ado About Nothing" and (in 2005) starred as "Malvolio" in "Twelfth Night" at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. He received a Theatre World Award on Broadway in 2001 for his title role performance in "By Jeeves" which he also filmed. His West End, National, Almeida and Donmar theatre appearances include works by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Michael Frayn, Harold Pinter CH, Somerset Maugham, Sir George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. He played Jack Worthing opposite Dame Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell in Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the National Theatre in the 1980s directed by Sir Peter Hall, and premiered Pinter's "Other Places" in the National's Cottesloe Theatre. Pinter directed him in the leading role of Hector in Giraudoux's "The Trojan War Will Not Take Place."
He met Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the National and subsequently went on to star in his "Woman in Mind," "Henceforward," "Just Between Ourselves" and "By Jeeves." His Screen credits include leading roles in the British/Australian mini-series "Bootleg," "Inspector Lynley Mysteries," "Lorna Doone," Frayn's "Make and Break," "Ike - The War Years" (with Robert Duvall) and "The Bunker" (with Sir Anthony Hopkins.) He was "Linus" in Sir Richard Eyre's film, "Absence of War written by Sir David Hare. He has guest starred (very often as villains) in "Inspector Morse," "Frost," "Lovejoy," "Casualty," "Murder Most Horrid," "Dr Who," "Space Above and Beyond," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Walker: Texas Ranger" in the US. He played monstrous Neil Biddle in "Sex 'N' Death" and was a memorable television Uriah Heep in "David Copperfield" on British television. First major screen role: 'Jon' in the multi-award winning "The Forsyte Saga." He followed this with many 'classic serials' including "The Way of All Flesh (in which he starred as Ernest Pontifex), "Nicholas Nickleby" (title role), "The Moonstone," "Little Women" and "The Pallisers." His feature films include the psychological thriller "Framed" (2007), "Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War," James Cameron's "Titanic," "Kid With the X-Ray Eyes," "Buster," "The Last Escape," and "Taste the Blood of Dracula."
His voice can be heard in numerous television animation series as well as feature films including "Flushed Away" and "Eragon." He has narrated "Peter and the Wolf at the Barbican" and appeared with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra as Narrator for Egmont and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." At the Chichester Festival Theatre he starred with Sir John Gielgud in "Paradise Lost," with Googie Withers CBE and Susan Hampshire OBE in "The Circle" and with concert pianist Lucy Parham in "Beloved Clara." Jarvis & Ayres Productions, which he founded with his wife, Rosalind Ayres, has produced many award-winning dramas and readings for BBC Radio, National Public Radio in America and for audio books. Their work includes outstanding interpretations of plays by Sir George Bernard Shaw, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter CH, Michael Frayn, David Mamet, Hugh Whitemore, Robert Shearman, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, and many more. British and American stars who have been associated with J&A productions include, in the UK: Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Diana Rigg, Alfred Molina, Richard E. Grant, Michael York OBE, Richard Briers CBE, Pauline Collins OBE, Janie Dee, Fiona Shaw CBE, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Patricia Hodge, Twiggy Lawson, Natascha McElhone, Martin Freeman, Barry Humphries CBE, Phil Collins and in the US: Brendan Fraser, Elaine Stritch, Teri Garr, Stacy Keach, Shirley Knight, Hector Elizondo, Bruce Davison, Matthew Wolf, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ed Begley Jr, Ed O'Neill and Gregory Peck. Directors of J&A dramas include: David Mamet, Michael Grandage, David Grindley, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Pete Atkin, Rosalind Ayres. Their productions have received Audie and Earphone awards in the US.
In September 2006, he directed Teri Garr, Michael York OBE and Alfred Molina in an acclaimed production of "Pack of Lies" for BBC Radio 4. He and Fiona Shaw CBE starred for five years in the popular BBC series "Our Brave Boys." His Just William audio and radio recordings are world wide best sellers. He was the subject of BBC TV's This Is Your Life in 1999.as The Chronicler (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
James graduated from Davis High School and attended Juilliard, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and the American Conservatory Theatre. After spending ten years doing stage work he finally moved to L.A. to pursue a career in film and television. After appearing in several guest roles he finally got his big break as Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Originally, the character was suppose to be killed after a few episodes but Spike became so popular that he was promoted to a regular on the show. After the show ended, he appeared as Spike in the spin-off Angel (1999) and in several movies. James is also a talented musician; his band Ghost of the Robot released their first album, Mad Brilliant, in 2003.as General Jehan Frollo (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Strikingly featured and muscular American actor Ving Rhames was born Irving Rameses Rhames in Harlem, New York, to Reather, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. A good student, Ving entered the New York High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. He studied at the Juilliard School of Drama, and began his career in New York theater and in Shakespeare in the Park productions. He first appeared on Broadway in the play "The Winter Boys", in 1984. Also that year, he appeared in front of the cameras for the first time in the TV movie Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), and was then quickly cast in minor roles in several popular TV shows, including Miami Vice (1984), Tour of Duty (1987) and Crime Story (1986). Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas.
His big break came in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino cast him as the merciless drug dealer Marsellus Wallace in the mega hit Pulp Fiction (1994). Not long after, director Brian De Palma cast Rhames alongside Tom Cruise as the ace computer hacker Luther Stickell in Mission: Impossible (1996). With solid performances in both these highly popular productions, his face was now well known to moviegoers and the work offers began rolling in more frequently. His next career highlight was playing the lead role in the HBO production of Don King: Only in America (1997). Rhames' performance as the world's most infamous boxing promoter was nothing short of brilliant, and at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards he picked up the award for Best Actor in a Miniseries. However, in an incredible display of compassion, he handed over the award to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon, as he felt Lemmon was a more deserving winner. Rhames then made an attention-grabbing performance in Bringing Out the Dead (1999), reprised his role as Luther Stickell in Mission: Impossible II (2000), contributed his deep bass voice for the character of Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002), and played a burly cop fighting cannibal zombie hordes in Dawn of the Dead (2004). A keen fitness and weightlifting enthusiast, Rhames is also well known for his strong spiritual beliefs and benevolent attitude towards other people.
In a remarkable turn of events whilst filming The Saint of Fort Washington (1993) in New York, he was introduced to a homeless man who turned out to be his long-lost older brother, Junior, who had lost contact with the family after serving in Vietnam. The thrilled Rhames immediately assisted his disheveled brother in getting proper food and clothing and moved him into his own apartment.as Professor Henry Pickle (voice)- Ian McDiarmid was born on August 11, 1944 in Carnoustie, Tayside, Scotland. He studied for a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, but eventually found that his calling was in theatre. He went to the Royal Academy in Glasgow, where he received the prestigious gold medal for his work. He now has a highly successful career as a theatre director, and from 1990 until his retirement in 2001, was Joint Artistic Director of London's Almeida Theatre in Islington. He and his co-director Jonathan Kent revived the Almeida and persuaded many Hollywood stars including Kevin Spacey, Ralph Fiennes and Anna Friel to tread the boards in their humble theatre. They won the coveted London Evening Standard Award in 1998 for their efforts. McDiarmid is also well known for his film and television appearances, and is perhaps most famous for his chilling performance as Emperor Palpatine in George Lucas's Star Wars films.as U.S. President George W. Bush (voice)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Christopher Khayman Lee was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His younger sister, Chyler Leigh, co-starred with him in Safe Harbor (1999). He had been intrigued by her success in modeling and moved to Miami to join her and their mother. At 17 he joined an acting class and soon landed the role of "Andros" in Power Rangers in Space (1998) and brought him to his current residence of Los Angeles.as Peter William (voice)- Actor
- Special Effects
- Additional Crew
Actor/comedian Josh Robert Thompson first appeared on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," playing a number of characters-most notably Robert De Niro and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Behind the camera, Josh provided the voices of the entire Shy Fellas Band, Sandra the Rhino, celebrity insects, and every caller on Ferguson's desk phone. But it was his role as a wise-cracking robot skeleton sidekick-Geoff Peterson-that proved to be Josh's big break, creating one of TV's most unlikely and endearing late night duos.
For over 10 seasons, Josh's wide range of voices have appeared on FOX's "Family Guy," as well as "American Dad," "The Angry Birds Movie," "Robot Chicken," and Netflix original series, "Skylanders Academy."
In the audio book realm, Josh has provided character voices and narration on over 30 projects-most notably author Michael Kaminski's "The Secret History of Star Wars" and the Audible scripted podcast, "10 Days."
On radio, Josh became a "Howard Stern Show" regular as the voice of "Fake" Arnold Schwarzenegger-fooling everyone from Fox News to Star Trek's George Takei.
As a stand-up, Josh has toured all over the U.S. and Canada, playing such legendary venues as The Chicago Theater, Town Hall and Radio City.
On screen, he starred in the romantic comedy "Nowhere Girl,' the indie supernatural thriller "Revelator," and the award-winning comedic series "F#cking 40."
Recently, Josh won a Webby Award for his turn as George Lucas in Collider's "deep fake" video series.as U.S. Senator Dick Cheney (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary's Teaching College, Newcastle. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players' Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People". After two years, Neeson moved to Dublin's Abbey Theater where he performed the classics. It was here that he was spotted by director John Boorman and was cast in the film Excalibur (1981) as Sir Gawain, his first high-profile film role.
Through the 1980s Neeson appeared in a handful of films and British TV series - including The Bounty (1984), A Woman of Substance (1984), The Mission (1986), and Duet for One (1986) - but it was not until he moved to Hollywood to pursue larger roles that he began to get noticed. His turn as a mute homeless man in Suspect (1987) garnered good reviews, as did supporting roles in The Good Mother (1988) and High Spirits (1988) - though he also starred in the best-to-be-forgotten Satisfaction (1988), which also featured a then-unknown Julia Roberts - but leading man status eluded him until the cult favorite Darkman (1990), directed by Sam Raimi. From there, Neeson starred in Under Suspicion (1991) and Ethan Frome (1992), was hailed for his performance in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992), and ultimately was picked by Steven Spielberg to play Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List (1993). The starring role in the Oscar-winning Holocaust film brought Neeson Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor.
Also in 1993, he made his Broadway debut with a Tony-nominated performance in "Anna Christie", in which he co-starred with his future wife Natasha Richardson. The next year, the two also starred opposite Jodie Foster in the movie Nell (1994), and were married in July of that year. Leading roles as the 18th century Scottish Highlander Rob Roy (1995) and the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins (1996) followed, and soon Neeson was solidified as one of Hollywood's top leading men. He starred in the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) as Qui-Gon Jinn, received a Golden Globe nomination for Kinsey (2004), played the mysterious Ducard in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), and provided the voice for Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Neeson found a second surprise career as an action leading man with the release of Taken (2008) in early 2009, an unexpected box office hit about a retired CIA agent attempting to rescue his daughter from being sold into prostitution. However, less than two months after the release of the film, tragedy struck when his wife Natasha Richardson suffered a fatal head injury while skiing and passed away days afterward. Neeson returned to high-profile roles in 2010 with two back-to-back big-budget films, Clash of the Titans (2010) and The A-Team (2010), and returned to the action genre with Unknown (2011), The Grey (2011), Battleship (2012) and Taken 2 (2012), as well as the sequel Wrath of the Titans (2012).
Neeson was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama. He has two sons from his marriage to Richardson: Micheal Richard Antonio Neeson (born June 22, 1995) and Daniel Jack Neeson (born August 27, 1996).as David / Solid Snake (voice)- Christopher Randolph is known for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) and Metal Gear Solid (1998).as Hal "Octacon" Emmerich (voice)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. "The Muscles from Brussels" started martial arts at the age of eleven. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. At the age of 12, Van Damme began his martial arts training at Centre National De Karate (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Master Claude Goetz in Ixelles, Belgium. Van Damme trained for 4 years and earned a spot on the Belgium Karate Team. He won the European professional karate association's middleweight championship as a teenager, and also beat the 2nd best karate fighter in the world. His goal was to be number one but got sidetracked when he left his hometown of Brussels. In 1976 at the age of sixteen, Jean-Claude started his Martial Arts fight career.
Over the next 6-years, he competed in both full-contact and semi-contact matches. He debuted under his birth name of Jean Claude Van Varenberg. In his first match, Jean-Claude was staggered by a round-house kick thrown by fellow countryman, Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium. Van Damme was badly stunned, but came back to knockout Van Oostrum moments later. In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Antwerp, Belgium, Jean-Claude lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels in a semi-contact match. At the 1978 Challenge De Espoirs Karate Tournament (1st Trials),Jean-Claude placed 2nd in the semi-contact division. He defeated twenty-five opponents during the week long tournament, but lost in the finals to Angelo Spataro from the Naha Club. Later in 1978, Jean-Claude lost a 3-round match for the Belgium Lightweight Championship (semi-contact) to his fellow team-mate to Patrick Teugels.
In 1979, Jean-Claude traveled to the United States of America, to Tampa, Florida. In his first and only match against a United States opponent, Van Damme faced 'Sherman 'Big Train'Bergman', a kick-boxer from Miami Beach, Florida. For the first and only time in his career, Jean-Claude was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook from Bergman. However, Jean-Claude climbed off the canvas and with a perfectly timed ax-kick, knocked Bergman out in 56 seconds of the first round. Jean-Claude was a member of the Belgium team which competed on December 26, 1979 at the La Coupe Fancois Persoons Karate Tournament which was sanctioned by the Federation bruxelloise de Karate. Van Damme's final match victory enabled his team to win the European Team Karate Championship. In Full-Contact karate, Jean-Claude knocked out England's Micheal Heming in 46 seconds of the first round. In 1980, Van Damme knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds of a match fought under kick-boxing rules. Jean-Claude wanted to defeat his rival Patrick Teugels. At the Forest Nationals in Brussels, on March 8, 1980, Jean-Claude knocked Teugels down and Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue. Jean-Claude was awarded a first round victory.
Jean-Claude retired from martial arts in 1982, following a knockout over Nedjad Gharbi in Brussels,Belgium. Jean-Claude posted a 18-1 (18 knockouts) Kickboxing record, and a Semi-Contact record of 41-4. He came to Hong Kong at the age of 19 for the first time and felt insured to do action movies in Hong Kong. In 1981 Van Damme moved to Los Angeles. He took English classes while working as carpet layer, pizza delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a club. Norris gave Van Damme a small role in the movie Missing in Action (1984), but it wasn't good enough to get anybody's attention. Then in 1984 he got a role as a villain named Ivan in the low-budget movie No Retreat, No Surrender (1985). Then one day, while walking on the streets, Jean-Claude spotted a producer for Cannon Pictures, and showed some of his martial arts abilities which led to a role in Bloodsport (1988). But the movie, filmed in Hong Kong, was so bad when it was completed, it was shelved for almost two years. It might have never been released if Van Damme did not help them to recut the film and begged producers to release it. They finally released the film, first in Malaysia and France and then into the U.S. Shot on a meager 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a U.S box-office hit in the spring of 1988. It made about 30 million worldwide and audiences supported this film for its new sensational action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.
His martial arts assets, highlighted by his ability to deliver a kick to an opponent's head during a leaping 360-degree turn, and his good looks led to starring roles in higher budgeted movies like Cyborg (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992). In 1994, he scored with his big breakthrough $100 million worldwide hit Timecop (1994). But in the meantime, his personal life was coming apart. A divorce, followed by a new marriage, followed by another divorce. It began to show up in his career when his projects began to tank at the box office - The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997). The three films made less than $50 million combined. In 1999 he remarried his ex-wife Gladys Portugues and restarted his lost career to attain new goals. With help from his family he faced his problems and made movies like Replicant (2001), Derailed (2002), and In Hell (2003) which did averagely in box office terms, but he tried to give his fans the best, his acting in those movies got better, more emotional and each movie was basically in different action tones.as Adamska / Revolver Ocelot (voice)- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Ned Kelly (2003), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Casanova (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.
Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally (Ramshaw), a teacher of French, and Kim Ledger, a mining engineer who also raced cars. His ancestry was Scottish, English, Irish, and Sephardi Jewish. As the story goes, in junior high school it was compulsory to take one of two electives, either cooking or drama. As Heath could not see himself in a cooking class he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, however the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent. When he was seventeen he and a friend decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams were made or, at least, where actors could possibly get their big break. Upon arriving in Sydney with a purported sixty-nine cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break.
His first real acting job came in a low-budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive cliché; an adolescent angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He only had a very small role in the film. After that small role Heath auditioned for a role in a T.V. show called Sweat (1996) about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He was offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, forcing him to look for other roles. He was in Home and Away (1988) for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws (1997), a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this offered him a small paycheck but did nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands (1999). He went to the U.S. trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in Roar (1997) opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga.
Then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands (1999), which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands (1999) was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a young hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot (2000).
What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly (2003) was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain (2005). For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in in the film, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and Best International Actor from the Australian Film Institute, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills near-by. It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included pain-killers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. His death occurred during editing of The Dark Knight (2008) and in the midst of filming his last role as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There (2007), which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.
A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his performance as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight (2008). His untimely death cast a somber shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $185 million Batman production. Ledger received more than thirty posthumous accolades for his critically acclaimed performance as the Joker, the psychopathic clown prince of crime, in the film, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards (for which he is the second actor to win an acting award posthumously after Peter Finch who won an Oscar for Network (Best Actor 1977)), the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.as Jack / Raiden (voice) (In Loving Memory of Our Friend)- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in mainstream films. Macy has won two Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, while his performance in Fargo earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. From 2011 to 2021, he played Frank Gallagher, a main character in Shameless, the Showtime adaptation of the British television series. Macy has been married to Felicity Huffman since 1997.as Liquid Snake (voice)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
David Harewood was born on 8 December 1965 in Birmingham, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Blood Diamond (2006), The Merchant of Venice (2004) and Supergirl (2015). He has been married to Kirsty Handy since 26 February 2013. They have two children.as Colonel Roy Campbell (voice)- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
For Joely, the theatre must be in her genes. Born in Marylebone, London, England, she is the daughter of director Tony Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, niece of Lynn Redgrave, and sister of Natasha Richardson, all actors. Former husband Tim Bevan is a producer. However the genes were slow - as a child she saw her older sister Natasha interested in acting but she was imagining a career in tennis. Her father put his foot down, and tennis was out. British by birth, she considers herself a sort of honorary American, having attended boarding school at Thacher in Ojai, California. Beginning in the '80s film became her life, from small parts in Wetherby (1985) to BBC dramas such as Lady Chatterley (1993) to today's Disney studio going to the dogs in 101 Dalmatians (1996).as Naomi Hunter (voice)- Cristina Pucelli was born in Orange County, California, USA. She is an actress, best known for her roles in The Loud House, Baby Shark's Big Show, The Casagrandes, Doc McStuffins, DC Super Hero Girls, Allen Gregory, Monsters University, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Pixar's Party Central, Psychonauts, and Viewtiful Joe.as Sunny Emmerich, Corpse Kid, Additional Voices (voice) (as Christina Pucelli)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Michael Jai White is an American actor and martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, having starred as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn. White portrayed Jax Briggs in Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011). White also portrayed boxer Mike Tyson in the 1995 HBO television movie Tyson.as Gaul the Ape (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Well-known, king-sized actor and voice artist Kevin Michael Richardson was born in Bronx, New York. He is, perhaps, mostly recognizable for his deep voice, which he uses in many of his works.
Richardson is a classically trained actor. He first gained recognition as one of only eight U.S. high school students selected for the National Foundation for the Arts' "Arts '82" program, later he earned a scholarship to Syracuse University.
Kevin is well-known by various voice works, mostly villainous. He lent his voice to based-upon video game film Mortal Kombat (1995) as Goro, he was also in Matrix Revolutions (2003) as Deus Ex Machina, and made a brief appearance in Clerks II (2006) as a police officer. To mention that he did a brief additional voices for mega hit Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).
He did voice in many animated films and TV series, such as "The Mask - The Animated Series" (1995), "The New Batman Adventures" (1997), "Pokemon" (1998), "Powerpuff Girls" (1998), "Voltron: The Third Dimension" (1998), "Family Guy", Lilo & Stitch (2002), as well as "Lilo & Stitch" TV series, "Codename Kids Next Door" (2002), Batman VS Dracula (2005) (V), where he voiced Joker, "Mummy The Animated Series" (2003), TMNT (2007) as General Aguila, "Transformers Animated" (2007) as Omega Supreme and Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), as Lucius Fox.
He also did voices in such video games as Halo 2 (Tartarus), Kingdom Hearts (Sebastian) and others. He lives in Los Angeles and likes to work in Manhattan.as Terrador the Earth Guardian, U.S. Army Soldier, Agrabah Guard, Sebastian the Crab, Malefor the Dark Master, U.S. Delta Force Operative, Agrabah Citizen, Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Voice actor and former stand-up comic Roger Craig Smith is a man of a thousand voices. In just one animation production alone, Roger voiced more than 170 characters for the Emmy award-winning Cartoon Network series Regular Show. He's the titular character "Mouse", as well as "Moose" for Amazon Prime's Emmy-nominated children's series If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. For Netflix, Roger voices "Brock", "Mayor Fowler", "Cousin Ashley" and many more on Dreamworks' hit series from Tony Hale, Archibald's Next Big Thing. Also on Netflix, Roger voices "Pinkeye", "Bobby", and "Billy" in Dreamworks Animation's Harvey Girls Forever. On Cartoon Network, he voices "Sonic the Hedgehog" in Sonic Boom, "Hawkodile" and "Richard" for WB/LEGO's Unikitty!, "Diamondhead", "Forever Knight" and "Steam Smythe" on Ben-10, "Percy" and "Belson" in Clarence, "Bob" and "Schedulebot" in Powerpuff Girls. On Disney XD's NAACP Image Award-nominated Avengers: Black Panther's Quest, Roger has been voicing legendary superhero "Captain America" since 2012. He voices "Batman" in in the DC/WB film Superman: Red Son, as well as in the trilogy Batman Unlimited. His impact in the genre of anime includes voicing "Batman" in WB's feature film Batman Ninja, the maniacal "Deidara" in Naruto and "Shinji Hirako" in Bleach. Roger voiced "Sonic the Hedgehog" in Disney's blockbuster features Wreck-It Ralph and Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet and was called on by Disney in 2013 to voice lead villain "Ripslinger" in Disney's hit feature Planes.
Roger's legacy as an actor in video games is extensive. Voice of gaming icon "Ezio Auditore da Firenze" from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, with more than 28 million copies sold worldwide. He's the voice of the charming Legend "Mirage" in Respawn's record-setting Apex Legends, with over 70 million players in 2019 alone. WB chose Roger to voice the legendary "Batman" in WB's Batman: Arkham Origins and Arkham Origins: Blackgate. Roger has been voicing "Sonic the Hedgehog" for SEGA since 2010 and earned early gaming fandom when he voiced "Chris Redfield" in the Resident Evil series of games.
Roger is the announcer/narrator for NBC's smash hit World of Dance, averaging millions of viewers each episode. He's narrated more than 1,000 episodes of other shows, including TLC's longest-running prime-time series Say Yes to the Dress and DIY Network's Crashers series. He's voiced multiple promo campaigns for major networks and is the imaging/promo voice for the world-famous KROQ 106.7FM in Los Angeles. Multiple national retail campaigns continue to utilize Roger to enhance their message to consumers across all mediums.
An average day begins with sessions from his home studio at 7am for national retail clients, heading into LA from 9am-6pm for animation/game sessions, then back to his home studio for more promo/narration sessions in the evening.
Raised in SoCal and voted "Class Clown" in 8th grade, he focused his creativity toward training in musical theater. He spoke at both his 8th and 12th grade graduations, was elected freshman class president in high school, and hosted a live local TV talk show while earning his B.A. in Screenwriting from Chapman University...all while pursuing a career in stand-up comedy. After working as a comic for 5 years, he left stand-up to pursue voice acting full-time in 2005.
Knowing he's got fans of all ages on social media, Roger keeps his posts apolitical and family-friendly. An avid supporter of CHOC (Chidlren's Hospital Orange County), he frequently visits the hospital to meet with patients. He's currently learning ASL (American Sign Language) and enjoys getting outdoors as often as possible to pursue his passion for nature, hiking/mountain biking, and nightscape/astrophotography, which he shares regularly with his followers on Instagram and Twitter. (@rogercraigsmith).as Cyril the Ice Guardian, U.S. Navy SEALs, Tidus, The White Rabbit, Paris Civilian, U.S. Army Rangers, New York Mayor, Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Executive
- Writer
Travis Willingham is a Los Angeles-based voice actor known for his extensive roles in animation and video games, as well as the massively popular hit show and media brand, Critical Role.
Critical Role has become one of the most popular storytelling and world building independent media companies in the world, and Travis plays a pivotal role within the company as the Chief Executive Officer, primary cast member for the flagship show and executive producer of The Legend of Vox Machina animated series which will air exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. As the CEO of Critical Role, Travis serves as the north star of the company, helping grow the brand internationally and elevating it into the massive media company it is today.
In addition, Travis has impressively amassed over 300 roles in video games, original animation projects and anime. He's known for reprising the role of Thor over the past decade in Marvel's hit original series' Avengers Assemble, Ultimate Spider-Man, HULK, Agents of SMASH, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Other roles include Superior Man / Guy Gardner in Superman: Red Son, The Heretic in Batman: Bad Blood, Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic Boom and King Roland II in Sofia the First, among others.
He has also starred in some of the biggest video game titles around, voicing Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Thor in Marvel's Avengers and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Castamir in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Jaro Tapal in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Harvey Dent / Two-Face in Batman: The Telltale Series, plus countless more.
Travis was named Voice Actor of the Year at the 2017 BTVA Voice Acting Awards. He is also the recipient of four BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Awards, a BTVA Special/DVD Voice Acting Award and a BTVA Video Game Voice Acting Award.as Volteer the Lightning Guardian, Agrabah Guard, Stone Trolls, Gaul's Apes, U.S. Navy SEAls, Agrabah Guards, Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dynamically entertaining heavyset US actor with piercing eyes, William Forsythe has a superb talent for playing some truly unlikable and downright nasty characters that dominate the films in which he appears! If you're cast as the hero against Forsythe's villain, then you have your work cut out for you, as Forsthye's raw energy and menace on screen is second to none. He started out in a couple of minor film roles and guest appearances in high-rated TV shows including CHiPs (1977), Hill Street Blues (1981) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He quickly moved into high-quality feature films, including playing a small-time hoodlum in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), an hilariously funny performance as a bumbling jail escapee alongside John Goodman in the knockout Raising Arizona (1987) and as a renegade soldier in Extreme Prejudice (1987).
The energetic Forsythe portrayed comic book villain "Flattop" in Dick Tracy (1990), was foolish enough to tangle with vengeful cop Steven Seagal in the hyper-violent Out for Justice (1991) and locked horns with ex-NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth in the biker action film Stone Cold (1991). With his expertise in playing icy villains, Forsythe was perfect to portray Prohibition mobster Al Capone in the short-lived '90s revival of the classic '60s crime show, The Untouchables (1993), and he continued the motif of playing edgy, nefarious individuals in the thought-provoking The Waterdance (1992), the oily film noir piece Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), as real-life mobster Sammy Gravano, aka "The Bull", in Gotti (1996) and supporting another ex-NFL player's foray into film acting, when L.A. Raider Howie Long debuted in Firestorm (1998).
Forsythe has remained perpetually busy in the new century with a plethora of feature film, telemovie and TV series appearances, and has developed a minor cult following amongst film fans for his attention grabbing dramatic skills - check out his performances in City by the Sea (2002), The Devil's Rejects (2005) and Halloween (2007).as SA-55 (Prototype Orbot) (voice)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Fred Tatasciore is a voice actor/animator known for his work in film, television and games. He can be heard regularly on Fox's "Family Guy," "American Dad," and "The Cleveland Show." He plays Aaarggggh! and many characters on the new show, "Trollhunters" (for Netflix by Guillermo Del Torro), For Marvel, he has voiced Hulk/Banner, Beast, Thing, and Crossbones in countless animated roles, including "Hulk and the Agents of Smash," "Avengers Assemble," "MARVEL Spiderman" (Max Model), and "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Ultimate Spiderman." For DC, He played various characters on "Batman, The Brave and the Bold," "DC Girls" as Bane, Solomon Grundy, Deathstroke, Gorilla Grod, Killer Croc, and "The Killing Joke"(as Ringmaster). He has also appeared on numerous Nickelodeon programs including "Breadwinners" (The Bread Maker), "Pig Goat Banana Cricket" (Thomas Jefferson), "Kung Fu Panda, Legends of Awesomeness" (Master Shifu), "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (Rocksteady), "Monsters vs. Aliens" (Vornicarn), "Sanjay and Craig" (Barfy the Dog), "Loud House", and "Invader Zim." He has worked with Disney Television on "Star and the Forces of Evil" (as Buffrog), "Ducktales," "Sofia the First" (as Harumph), "Future Worm," "Penn Zero: Part Time Hero" (Coach Egsgard), "Tangled", "Wander Over Yonder" (Monsters), "TRON, Uprising" (Flynn and Clue), and "Star Wars Rebels" (Boss Yushyn). His film work includes Star Wars: "The Last Jedi', "The Force Awakens," "Rogue One," as well as "IT," "Moana" (as KA), "Annabelle: Creation," DreamWork's,"Kung Fu Panda 2" (as Po's Panda father), "Kung Fu Panda 3" (Master Bear) Disney's "Frozen," "The Princess and the Frog" (Gators), and "Planes" (various). Other films he voiced are "9" (as 8), and "Team America," "Maleficent," "Wreck it Ralph," "The Emoji Movie," "The Huntsman" (as The Mirror Man), and "Dead Silence." Fred's work in videogames include "OVERWATCH" (Soldier 76), "Minecraft" (Jack), "Gears of War" (Damon Baird), "StarCraft" (Zeratul), "Mass Effect" (Saren Arterius), "Call of Duty" (Nikolai Belinsky), and "Ratchet and Clank" (Neftin Prog). In Disney Theme Parks, Fred can be heard as the voices of Darth Vader and Groot; various characters on "Star Tours" and "Soarin"; Bigfoot on "Everest" (Orlando), and the voice of "Space Mountain" for the past decade.as Dark Gaia / Perfect Dark Gaia, U.S. Army Soldier, Cerberus, Rock Titan, George Sears / Solidus, Master Yen Sid, Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Additional Crew
Darin De Paul has performed as an actor on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theaters and on national tours. He has also done voice-overs for many national commercials. On film, Darin can be heard in "Shazam" as the voice of the Sins "Pride" and "Greed", as well as in "Goosebumps 2", "Ice Age" and "Robots". In the world of animation, Darin can be heard in Dreamworks "3 Below:Tales Of Arcadia" and "The Adventures Of Puss In Boots", in Amazon's "The Stinky & Dirty Show", on Cartoon Network's "We Bare Bears" and "Justice League Action" and in Blizzard Entertainment's animated Overwatch short "Honor And Glory". A prolific voice actor in video games, Darin has voiced characters in "Overwatch", "Spider-Man", "Final Fantasy XV", "Destiny 2", "DOOM", "Star Wars: The Old Republic", "CAll Of Duty:WW II", "Agents of Mayhem", "Middle Earth: Shadow Of War", and many others. Darin has also made many appearances on Geek & Sundry and Project Alpha in such shows as "Critical Role", "Sagas of Sundry", "Game Engine" and "Darin & Amy Have To Do A Morning Show".as Dark Gaia / Perfect Dark Gaia (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Sound Department
Maurice LaMarche is a Canadian-American comedian and voice actor from Toronto. He is most well-known for voicing Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Lrrr, Morbo and Calculon from Futurama, Estroy from Evil Con Carne, Mr. Big from Zootopia, King Agnarr from Frozen, Mr. Freeze from Batman: Arkham City, Yosemite Sam from Looney Tunes, Jack O'Lantern from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Toucan Sam from Froot Loops commercials and Orson Welles from The Critic.as Wentos (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Samuel Ernest Wright was an African-American actor and singer from Camden, South Carolina. He notably voiced Sebastian the Crab from Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise and Kron the Iguanodon from Dinosaur. He also played Mufasa in the original Broadway run of The Lion King. He passed away in May 2021 at California due to prostate cancer.as Ice Cream Vendor (voice)- Actor
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Standing 6 feet 9 inches tall, Garrett grew up in Woodland Hills outside of Los Angeles. His father was a hearing aid specialist working in geriatrics and his mother was a housewife. Garrett spent a whopping six weeks at UCLA before going into stand-up comedy full time. He began performing his act at various Los Angeles comedy clubs, getting his start at the Ice House in Pasadena and the Improv in Hollywood. In 1984, he became the first $100,000 grand champion winner in the comedy category of Star Search (1983). This led to his first appearance, at age 23, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), making him one of the youngest comedians ever to perform on the show. In 1986, Garrett told a joke the talent booker warned him against and he hasn't been on the show since. Following his "Tonight Show" appearance, Garrett's career took off, garnering him headlining gigs at several national venues as well as opening spots for legends including Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli. He has headlined at Bally's Park Place and co-headlined with The Temptations at Trump Plaza. He has also worked at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Caesar's Palace with David Copperfield, and Smokey Robinson, Harrah's with Sammy Davis Jr. and The Beach Boys, and Radio City Music Hall with Julio Iglesias. In 1989, the Las Vegas Review Journal named him the Best Comedian working on the strip. Changing gears, he made his way into the world of television. He struck gold with Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Apart from his supporting role in sitcoms, he has also done voice-overs and appeared in a few films. In 1998, Garrett made a real-life proposal to his then real-life girlfriend, Jill Diven, on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Garrett currently resides in Hollywood, California with his two Labradors Retrievers, Gus and Mabel.as Hot Dog Vendor, Eeyore (voice)- Actor
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Anthony Anderson is an American actor, comedian and game show host who is known for playing Louis Booker from Kangaroo Jack, Glen Whitmann from Transformers, Ray Ray from The Proud Family and Antwon Mitchell from The Shield. He also acted in Blackish, Hoodwinked, The Departed, Agent Cody Banks 2 and Scream 4.as Sniff the Parrott (voice)- Actor
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William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university, he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles in major shows on live television.
Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959). In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known variously as "Trekkies" or "Trekkers".
After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds, guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967). He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare, such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000).
He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
Outside of work, he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health.as Scratch the Parrott (voice)- Actor
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Mike Pollock is an American voice actor who is widely known for being the voice of Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic X since 2003. He voiced Dr. Eggman longer than Dr. Eggman's previous voice actors. He also voiced in Viva Piñata, Pokémon, Kirby: Right Back at Ya, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, the Astonishing X-Men motion comic and Berserk.as Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik Statue (voice)- Actor
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Jeff Bennett is an American voice actor who is well-known for voicing Johnny Bravo (based on Elvis Presley's voice), Dr. Hamsterviel from Lilo & Stitch, Kowalski from The Penguins of Madagascar, Petrie in The Land Before Time, Ted Shackleford (The Man in the Yellow Hat) from Curious George, Yosemite Sam in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Smee in Return to Never Land and Kingdom Hearts, Dexter's Dad in Dexter's Laboratory, Cyril in The Legend of Spyro, Extor in Samurai Jack, JB, Pins, Needles and Caged Juju in Tak and the Power of Juju, Ace, Big Billy, Pickloids, Broccoloids and Grubber in The Powerpuff Girls and Raj in Camp Lazlo.as British Soldier (voice) (as Jeff Glen Bennett)- Actor
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Greg Ellis is a best selling author, Annie Award nominated voice artist and Emmy Award® nominated actor.
Greg mastered the Rubik's cube at 12, held the world-record for Pac-Man at 13, performed a lead role in a West End musical at 14, had a number 1 single on the pop charts at 15, left school at 16 and home at 17.
Greg has appeared in Oscar winning movies, directed Hollywood super-stars, produced and written television shows and commercials, leading stage roles in original Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh musicals in London's West End and Las Vegas, voiced cartoon characters for movies, TV series, cartoons, over 130 video games and toys, has over 20 action figures of characters he's portrayed in film and television, and recorded multiple albums, singles and soundtracks as a soloist.
Greg's major motion picture film credits include billion-dollar franchises like the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Titanic, Star Trek, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Beowulf. television credits include 24, The X-Files, CSI, Dexter, NCIS, Hawaii Five-O, The Rookie and more.
Under his production company banner, Monkey Toes Studio, Greg has written and directed projects for Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Fry, produced and directed multiple commercials.
He hosts the video podcast series The Voices in My Head, Wiser Life Practices, and his passion project The Respondent.
Greg has skydived from 10,000 feet above earth, completed one Ironman and ten triathlons, won the South Beach Triathlon, made the cut at the BMW golf championships, competed against ski legends Franz Klammer and Marc Giardelli, played doubles with 12 time Grand-slam champion Mark Woodforde at Wimbledon on finals Sunday's, performed for Prince, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, HRH Queen Elizabeth ll at three Royal Command Performances, written songs with Robbie Williams, sung the American National Anthem at New York Rangers and Oakland A's games and a live duet with Kermit the Frog on live television on the red carpet at a Pirates of the Caribbean premiere.
Greg taught phenomenological classes to orphans born with HIV in India, storytelling at the Parva Slum School in Jaipur, practiced shamanic rituals with the Cherokee Nation, purification sweat lodges with the Skidi Tribe, studied affect theory, psychology and phenomenology, created the 'Mindwell' initiative with the Global Wellness Institute, co-founded the drone pilot school Buzz, and founded the charity CPU: Children and Parents United, with a mission is to promote and improve child well-being by providing information and resources to policy makers, legislators, practitioners and the public, resulting in enhanced relationships and reduced conflict for those children and parents navigating our current family law systems.as British Soldier (voice)- Actor
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Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life, so Malcolm was packed off to boarding school at age 11. He attended the Tonbridge School and the Cannock House School in Eltham, Kent. At school, he was beaten with the slipper or cane every Monday for his wayward behavior. Whilst at school, he decided that he wanted to become an actor; it was also around this time that his love for race cars began. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) to study acting. Meanwhile, he worked at his parents' pub but lost his job when the pub went bankrupt, his father drinking all the profits. He then had a variety of jobs, from coffee salesman to messenger.
His first big-screen role was in Poor Cow (1967), although his two-minute scene was ultimately cut from the completed film. Soon after, he caught the attention of director Lindsay Anderson who cast him in the role of a rebellious student in his film If.... (1968). The film catapulted Malcolm to stardom in Britain but failed everywhere else. He was so enthusiastic about the film's success that he wanted to do another right away. He began writing what would become the semi-autobiographical O Lucky Man! (1973). Then he starred as Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971), a role that gave him world fame, and legendary status (although typecasting him as a in villainous roles). In early 1976, he spent nearly a year working on what would later be one of the most infamous films of all time, the semi-pornographic Caligula (1979), financed by Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione. Around that time, the British film industry collapsed, forcing him to flee to America to continue working. His first American film was Time After Time (1979). He then did Britannia Hospital (1982), the last part of Lindsay Anderson's working-class trilogy that started with If.... (1968).
In the mid-1980s, the years of alcohol and drug abuse, including $1000 a week on cocaine, caught up with him. Years of abuse took its toll on him; his black hairs were now gray. Looking older than he really was, nobody wanted to cast him for playing younger roles. The big roles having dried up, he did many B-rated movies. The 1990s were kinder to him, though. In 1994, he was cast as Dr. Tolian Soran, the man who killed Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was back on the track, playing villains again. He played another in the classic BBC miniseries Our Friends in the North (1996). Today, with more than 100 films under his belt, he is one of the greatest actors in America. He still does not have American citizenship, but he likes the no-nonsense American ways. He resides in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles, California.as British Soldier (voice)- William Sheppard was born and raised in London, England to an Anglo-Irish family. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He was an Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 12 years. He appeared on Broadway in 1966 with "Marat-Sade" and later in 1975 with "Sherlock Holmes". He won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for "The Homecoming" in 1995, at the Matrix Theatre. He voiced the narrator in the popular computer game Civilization 5.as British Soldier (voice) (as Morgan Sheppard)
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Quinton Joseph Flynn is an American voice actor and comedian known for voicing Raiden in Metal Gear Solid, Sheldon Lee in My Life as a Teenage Robot, Axel and Lea in Kingdom Hearts, Max Courage in Evil Con Carne, Marcus Damon in Digimon Data Squad and Silver the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog.as S.A.S. Operative (voice)- Actor
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James Kevin Ward is an American actor from New York who is known for voicing Captain Qwark from Ratchet & Clank, Chet Ubetcha from The Fairly OddParents, the River Spirit from Spirited Away, Abe Lincoln from Hard Drinkin' Lincoln and Krackus from My Life as a Teenage Robot. He also acted in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.as S.A.S. Operative (voice)- Actor
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William Richard Werstine is an American actor and radio personality with autism and ADHD. He grew up in both New Jersey and Boston. He became a regular cast member of the Howard Stern show. He became known for The Ren & Stimpy Show, Futurama, Doug, Space Jam and several commercials featuring the red M&M.as S.A.S. Operative (voice)- Actor
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Diedrich Bader was born in Alexandria, Virginia, but moved to Paris, France, with his family at age two. While in the "City of Light" he developed an appreciation for movie legends like Fred Astaire and Charles Chaplin. So, when a fragile "Chaplin" movie reel burned in the theater's projector, four-year-old Bader hopped on stage and entertained the crowd with an imitation of the "Little Tramp." The standing ovation he received set the course for the rest of his life--he knew he wanted to perform.
He returned to the United States for high school and attended North Carolina School of the Arts. During spring break he was discovered by a casting director in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That meeting led to an audition for a small role in a TV pilot. Bader landed a starring role instead. Although the pilot wasn't picked up, Bader moved to Los Angeles and began auditioning for other roles. He landed guest spots on several series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Cheers (1982) and Quantum Leap (1989). Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris liked his tongue-in-cheek delivery when he read for her action-adventure spoof series, Danger Theatre (1993). She hired him in that role and for the feature film The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), which she directed. Bader played the dual roles of twins Jethro and Jethrine Beaudine. He also filmed the political thriller The Assassination File (1996) for the Encore Entertainment Group. Bader was excited to work on the project, as it allowed him to be shot in the head -- a first for the actor. Bader's father, William, was Chief of Staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is president of the Eurasia Foundation on Capitol Hill. His mother, Gretta, is a sculptor whose portrait of the late Sen. J. William Fulbright sits in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Bader's wife is actress Dulcy Rogers; they reside in Los Angeles, CA.as U.S. Army Soldier (voice)- Actor
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Born James Jonah Cummings on November 3, 1952, he grew up in Youngstown, Ohio.
Sooner or later, he moved to New Orleans. There, he designed Mardi Gras floats, was a singer, door-to-door salesman, and a Louisiana riverboat deckhand.
Then Cummings moved to Anaheim, California, where he started his career playing Lionel from the program Dumbo's Circus (1985).as U.S. Army Soldier, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, U.S. Ambassador to Cairo, Apes, Houston Command, LAPD Officer, Additional Voices (voice) (as James Cummings)- Actor
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Mark Hamill is best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy - Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) - a role he reprised in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He also starred and co-starred in the films Corvette Summer (1978), The Big Red One (1980), and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Hamill's extensive voice acting work includes a long-standing role as the Joker, commencing with Batman: The Animated Series (1992).
Hamill was born in Oakland, California, to Virginia Suzanne (Johnson) and William Thomas Hamill, a captain in the United States Navy. He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College and made his acting debut on The Bill Cosby Show (1969). He then played a recurring role (Kent Murray) on the soap opera General Hospital (1963) and co-starred on the comedy series The Texas Wheelers (1974).
Released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was an enormous unexpected success and made a huge impact on the film industry. Hamill also appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and later starred in the successful sequels Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). For both of the sequels, Hamill was honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. He reprised the role of Luke Skywalker for the radio dramatizations of both "Star Wars" (1981) and "The Empire Strikes Back" (1983), and then in a starring role in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017). For the radio dramatization of "Return of the Jedi" (1996), the role was played by a different actor.
He voiced the new Chucky in Child's Play (2019), taking over from Brad Dourif.as U.S. Army Soldier (voice)- Actor
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Dee Bradley Baker is an American voice actor from Indiana. He first became known for voicing Olmec in Legends of the Hidden Temple before voicing Daffy Duck in Space Jam. He is well-known for voicing Klaus in American Dad, the Clone Troopers in several Star Wars media, Ra's al Ghul in Batman: Arkham City, Momo and Appa in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Perry the Platypus in Phineas & Ferb, Sunny Jim in Lobo, Kevin the Sea Cucumber in SpongeBob SquarePants, Numbuh Four in Codename: Kids Next Door and Gravemind in Halo 2.as U.S. Navy SEALs, Dumbo the Elephant, Barrel, Clown with the Tear-Away Face, Special Vocal Effects, Additional Voices (voice) (as Dee Baker)- Actor
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James Mathis III was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Avengers Assemble (2012), God of War Ragnarök (2022) and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).as U.S. Navy SEALs, Vamp, Vampire (voice) (as James Mathis)- Actor
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A native of New York City, André Sogliuzzo began his career working in New York Theater. His screen debut was opposite Al Pacino in Pacino's Richard III project Looking For Richard (1996). After roles in Disney's Iron Will (1994) and Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail (1998), he began adding voice work to his resume. An astoundingly versatile character-actor, it was in the world of voice acting that he found unlimited horizons. In addition to Pacino and Nora Ephron, André has had the pleasure of working with Tom Hanks, Bob Zemekis, Taylor Hackford, Andrew Adamson, and Adam Sandler. Since moving to Los Angeles he has covered the gambit in the voice-acting field. As a voice-match artist André has looped for the likes of Russel Crowe, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. His animated feature work includes the twin train engineers Smokey and Steamer in The Polar Express (2005), Lion King 1 &1/2 (2004), Mulan 2 (2004), and Disney's The Wild(2006).
With L.A. Theater Works, he has performed in live radio-drama productions of Breaking The Code and Sixteen Wounded. He has contributed numerous voices to a variety of animated TV series including: Family Guy, American Dad, Jackie Chan Adventures, Stewart Little, Invader Zim, Father Of the Pride, Samurai Jack, Celebrity Deathmatch, and The Avatar. He can be heard regularly on Family Guy, American Dad, Clone Wars, and as Gaspar Le Gekko in Disney's Brandy & Mr. Whiskers. As a veteran of close to a hundred video games, André has died a thousand deaths in titles such as Medal Of Honor, Call Of Duty, True Crime, Destroy All Humans, Spawn, and Doom 3. He voices the character of Puss N' Boots in all of the Shrek games, and is very proud to perform the role of Tony Montana in Vivendi Universal's Scarface: The World Is Yours.as News Reporter (Male), Card Soldiers (voice)- Actor
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John Cygan was born on 27 April 1954 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), Iron Man (2008) and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003). He was married to Cathy Merriman. He died on 13 May 2017 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.as News Reporter (Male) (voice)- Actor
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Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born in 1957 in Chicago, the son of Mary McCullough and Jeffery Harrison. He grew up in the city, in a rougher neighborhood than most others, with a large family living under one roof. This situation provided him with a great insight into his comedy, as his family, and the situations surrounding them would be what dominated his comedy. Mac worked in the Regal Theater, and performed in Chicago parks in his younger days. He became a professional comedian in 1977, at the age of 19. He refused to change his image for television and films, and therefore was not very well known for most of the eighties. In 1992 he made his film debut with a small part with Mo' Money (1992). This started a plethora of small parts in a string of movies, mostly comedies, including Who's the Man? (1993), House Party 3 (1994) and The Walking Dead (1995). 1995 proved to be a turning point in his career. He did an HBO Special called Midnight Mac (1995), and took a part as Pastor Clever in the Chris Tucker comedy Friday (1995). Bernie Mac developed a cult following due to the film. In 1996. he starred in the memorable Spike Lee movie Get on the Bus (1996), and was very funny in Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996). About this time he had a recurring role in the TV series Moesha (1996). Bernie Mac's star was slowly rising from this point. His next couple of movie parts were more substantial, including How to Be a Player (1997) and The Players Club (1998). In 1999 Bernie Mac got his most high profile part up to that point in the film Life (1999) starring Eddie Murphy.
The new century started a new era for the brash Chicago comedian. He was a featured comedian in The Original Kings of Comedy (2000). This performance made him more of a household name, and led to many more major parts. In 2001 he played Martin Lawrence's uncle in What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) and later that year, was in the star studded remake of Ocean's Eleven (2001). However his biggest success was The Bernie Mac Show (2001), which debuted in 2001 to instant acclaim. However, soon after the series ended, Mac's health took a turn for the worse. He developed sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease which causes inflammation in the lungs. On August 9, 2008, after weeks of unsuccessful treatments, Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He was 50.
Bernie Mac was a comedian who refused to change his image for Hollywood and said that his life in Chicago was who he was, and there was nothing that could change that. He was a mature comedian who was very intelligent and engaging in his television, film and stand-up appearances.as News Reporter (Male) (voice) (In Loving Memory of our friend)- Actress
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Mona Marshall was born on 31 August 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Blue Exorcist (2011), Digimon Adventure tri. Part 1: Reunion (2015) and .hack//Mutation (2002). She was previously married to Sal Iannotti.as News Reporter (Female) (voice)- Actress
- Producer
Michelle Lynn Monaghan was born on March 23, 1976, in Winthrop, Iowa. She is the youngest of three children and the only daughter of Sharon (Hamel), who ran a day care center, and Robert L. Monaghan, a factory worker and farmer. She is of mostly Irish and German descent. After graduating from high school in Iowa, she studied journalism for three years at Chicago's Columbia College. In order to pay for college, she took a job as a model. In 1999, she quit college and moved to New York to work full-time as a fashion model. She traveled the world doing stints on the runways in Milan, Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and also appeared in a number of magazines and catalogs.
In 2000, she made her TV debut in two episodes of Young Americans (2000), then appeared in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). She made her big screen debut with a small role of Henrietta in Perfume (2001). Monaghan shot to fame in 2002 when she co-starred as Kimberly Woods for one season on the TV series Boston Public (2000). After appearances in several supporting roles, she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). Later in 2005, Monaghan was filming in China, Italy, and the United States on Mission: Impossible III (2006), as the female lead opposite Tom Cruise.
In August of 2005, in Sydney, Australia, she married her long-time sweetheart, Peter White, a New York based graphic designer, whom she met at a Manhattan party five years earlier.as Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff (voice)- Actor
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Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority actors of his time, he fought to upscale the Latin (particularly, Mexican) image in Hollywood. His noted militancy may have cost him a number of roles along the way, but he gained respect and a solid reputation as a mover and shaker within the acting community while providing wider-range opportunities for Spanish-speaking actors via Los Angeles theater.
He was born in Mexico City on November 25, 1920, the youngest of four children to Castilian Spanish immigrants, Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán. His father was a dry goods store owner. Montalbán moved to Los Angeles as a teen and lived with his much older brother Carlos Montalbán, who was then pursuing show business as both an actor and dancer. Ricardo attended Fairfax High School in Hollywood and was noticed in a student play but passed on a screen test that was offered. Instead, he traveled with his brother to New York, where he earned a bit part in the Tallulah Bankhead stage vehicle "Her Cardboard Lover" in 1940, and won subsequent roles in the plays "Our Betters" and "Private Affair".
Returning to Mexico to care for his extremely ill mother, his dark good looks and magnetic style helped propel him into the Spanish-language film industry. After nearly a dozen or so films, he was on the verge of stardom in Mexico when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer took an interest in him and he relocated back to Los Angeles. Making his Hollywood leading debut as a robust bullfighter and twin brother of MGM star Esther Williams in the "B"-level musical Fiesta (1947), he attracted immediate attention. His second film with Williams, On an Island with You (1948), led to a contract with the studio, where he routinely ignited "Latin Lover" sparks opposite such prime female stars as Cyd Charisse, Shelley Winters, Anne Bancroft, Pier Angeli, Laraine Day and (once again) Esther Williams, this time in Neptune's Daughter (1949) (one of his MGM extravaganzas opposite gorgeous Lana Turner was actually called Latin Lovers (1953)). His strongest Hispanic competition in films at the time was Argentine-born fellow MGM player Fernando Lamas, who wound up eventually marrying Esther Williams after divorcing another MGM beauty, Arlene Dahl.
Although Montalban was the epitome of the "Latin lover" type, it actually damaged his cinematic career, pigeonholing him and hurting his momentum. He was seldom able to extricate himself from the usual portrayals of bandidos and gigolos, although he did manage to find an interesting film from time to time, such as his turn as a Mexican undercover policeman in the gritty Border Incident (1949), Mystery Street (1950), the classic war film Battleground (1949) and the hard-edged boxing drama Right Cross (1950). Occasionally, he was handed ethnic roles outside the Latino realm, such as his villainous Blackfoot Indian chief in Across the Wide Missouri (1951) starring Clark Gable, his heroic, bare-chested rebel warrior in the steamy Italian sword-and-sandals costumer The Queen of Babylon (1954) alongside Rhonda Fleming and his Japanese Kabuki actor in the Oscar-winning feature Sayonara (1957). It was during the filming of Across the Wide Missouri (1951) that he suffered a serious injury to his spine after he slipped and fell off a running horse, which resulted in a permanent limp.
Well established by this time, Montalban returned to the stage in 1954 with varied roles in such fare as "Can-Can", "The Inspector General", "South Pacific" and "Accent on Youth", before making his Broadway debut as Chico in the original musical "Seventh Heaven" (1955) with Gloria DeHaven, Kurt Kasznar and Bea Arthur. He then earned a Tony Award nomination as the only non-African-American actor in the tropical-themed musical "Jamaica" (1957) co-starring Lena Horne. He also toured as the title role in "Don Juan in Hell" in the 1960s, returning to Broadway with it in 1973 with Agnes Moorehead, Paul Henreid and Edward Mulhare, and touring once again with the show in 1991.
His strong work ethic and reservoir of talent enabled him to continue on television long after his exotic beefcake status in films had waned. He had married Loretta Young's half-sister Georgiana Young in 1944, and appeared on his sister-in-law's television series (The New Loretta Young Show (1962)) several times. He also showed up in a number of television dramatic anthologies (Playhouse 90 (1956) and Colgate Theatre (1958)) and made guest appearances on the popular series of the day, such as Death Valley Days (1952), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963), Dr. Kildare (1961), The Defenders (1961) and, more notably, a first-season episode of Star Trek (1966) in which he memorably portrayed galaxy arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh. He resurrected this character memorably in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Over the years, he continued to appear occasionally on the big screen, typically playing continental smoothies, in such films as Love Is a Ball (1963), Madame X (1966) and Sweet Charity (1969), but it was television that finally made him a household name. Montalban captivated audiences as the urbane, white-suited concierge of mystery Mr. Roarke in the Aaron Spelling series Fantasy Island (1977). He stayed with the series for six seasons, buoyed by his popular "odd couple" teaming with the late Hervé Villechaize, who played Mr. Roarke's diminutive sidekick, and fellow greeter, Tattoo. While it may have seemed a somewhat lightweight and undemanding role for the talented Montalban, it nevertheless became his signature character. The series faltered after Villechaize, who had become erratic and difficult on the set, was fired from the series in 1983. Corpulent Britisher Christopher Hewett, as Lawrence, replaced the Tattoo character but to little avail and the series was canceled one season later. The troubled Villechaize committed suicide on September 4, 1993.
An Emmy Award winner for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1976) and a noteworthy villain in the Dynasty (1981) spin-off series The Colbys (1985), Montalban was also famous for a series of television commercials in which he returned somewhat to his "Latin lover" persona, primarily in a series of slick commercials for Chrysler's Cordoba automobile, pitching the elegant auto with its "rich, Corinthian leather" (it later came to light that this phrase had been conjured up as a marketing tool, and that there was no such product from Corinth or anywhere else!). As for film and television work in his later years, he good-naturedly spoofed his Hollywood image in a number of featured roles, including a hilarious send-up of himself in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). Two of his final, larger-scaled film roles were as the grandfather in the two "Spy Kids" sequels: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) and Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003). His deep, soothing, confident tones could also be heard in animated features and television series.
Frustrated at Hollywood's portrayal of Mexicans, he helped to found, and gave great support, attention and distinction to, the image-building "Nosotros" organization, a Los Angeles theatre-based company designed for Latinos working in the industry. Nosotros and the Montalban foundation eventually bought the historic Doolittle Theater in Hollywood and renamed the theatre in his honor in 2004. It became the first major theater facility (1200 seats) in the United States to carry the name of a Latino performing artist. In 1980, along with Bob Thomas, he published his memoir, entitled "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds".
A class act who was beloved in the industry for his gentle and caring nature, the long-term effects of his spinal injury eventually confined him to a wheelchair in his later years. He died in his Los Angeles home of complications from old age on January 14, 2009 at age 88. His wife having died on November 29, 2007, he was survived by their two daughters and two sons: Laura, Anita, Victor and Mark.as Professor Gerald Robotnik (voice)- Actor
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John Slattery was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Joan (Mulhern), a CPA, and John "Jack" Slattery, a leather merchant, both of Irish descent. John landed his first TV gig on the 1988 series The Dirty Dozen (1988) and has worked steadily since then. His television career has included the short-lived series Under Cover (1991), Homefront (1991), Maggie (1998) and Feds (1997); and the mini-series A Woman of Independent Means (1995) with Sally Field and From the Earth to the Moon (1998), in which he played Walter Mondale. By having recurring roles on Will & Grace (1998) as Will's big brother, "Sam"; Judging Amy (1999) as Amy's estranged husband; and Sex and the City (1998) as a very kinky politician, John has become one of the most in-demand character actors. In 2001, he had a role on NBC's comedy-drama Ed (2000), where he played the confident, cool, aloof high school principal "Dennis Martino". This role earned him much notoriety, and made him the subject of debate among Ed (2000) fans. John has also had a long, successful and diverse career in the theater. He made his theater debut in the 1989 play "The Lisbon Traviata", which also starred Nathan Lane. He has had several successful collaborations with the playwright Richard Greenberg and appeared in the author's "The Extra Man", "Night and Her Stars" and "Three Days of Rain", for which he earned critical praise for his dual roles of father and son. In 1993, John made his Broadway debut starring opposite Nathan Lane in Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor". Returning to the theater in 2000, John starred in a revival of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal". Making his feature film debut in 1996, John had a small role in the movie City Hall (1996). He then appeared in the movies Eraser (1996), Where's Marlowe? (1998), Traffic (2000), and the Anthony Hopkins/Chris Rock vehicle Bad Company (2002)_, before finding greater fame as one of the stars of the television series Mad Men (2007).as Howard Stark (voice)- Actor
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Critically hailed for his forceful, militant, authoritative figures and one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile performers, Laurence (John) Fishburne III has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a number of NAACP Image honors.
Born in Augusta, Georgia on July 30, 1961, to Hattie Bell (Crawford), a teacher, and Laurence John Fishburne, Jr., a juvenile corrections officer. His mother transplanted her family to Brooklyn after his parents divorced. At the age of 10, the young boy appeared in his first play, "In My Many Names and Days," at a cramped little theater space in Manhattan. He continued on but managed to avoid the trappings of a child star per se, considering himself more a working child actor at the time. Billing himself as Larry Fishburne during this early phase, he never studied or was trained in the technique of acting.
In 1973, at the age of 12, young Laurence won a recurring role on the daytime soap One Life to Live (1968) that lasted three seasons. He subsequently made his film debut in the ghetto-themed Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975). At 14 Francis Ford Coppola cast him in Apocalypse Now (1979), which filmed for two years in the Philippines. Laurence didn't work for another year and a half after that long episode. A graduate of Lincoln Square Academy, Coppola was impressed enough with Laurence to hire him again down the line with featured roles in Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984) and Gardens of Stone (1987).
Throughout the 1980s, he continued to build up his film and TV credit list with featured roles despite little fanfare. A recurring role as Cowboy Curtis on the kiddie show Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986) helped him through whatever lean patches there were at the time. TV guest appearances at this time included "Trapper John," "M*A*S*H*," "Hill Street Blues," "Miami Vice," "Spenser: For Hire" and "The Equalizer."
With the new decade (1990s) came out-and-out stardom for Laurence. A choice lead in John Singleton's urban tale Boyz n the Hood (1991) catapulted him immediately into the front of the film ranks. Set in LA's turbulent South Central area, his potent role as a morally minded divorced father who strives to rise above the ignorance and violence of his surroundings, Laurence showed true command and the ability to hold up any film.
On stage, Laurence would become invariably linked to playwright August Wilson and his 20th Century epic African-American experience after starring for two years as the eruptive ex-con in "Two Training Running." For this powerful, mesmerizing performance, Laurence won nearly every prestigious theater award in the books (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Theatre World). It was around the time of this career hallmark that he began billing himself as "Laurence" instead of "Larry." More awards and accolades came his way. In addition to an Emmy for the pilot episode of the series "Tribeca," he was nominated for his fine work in the quality mini-movies The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) and Miss Evers' Boys (1997).
On the larger screen, both Laurence and Angela Bassett were given Oscar nominations for their raw, seething portrayals of rock stars Ike and Tina Turner in the film What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). To his credit, he managed to take an extremely repellent character and make it a sobering and captivating experience. A pulp box-office favorite as well, he originated the role of Morpheus, Keanu Reeves' mentor, in the exceedingly popular futuristic sci-fi The Matrix (1999), best known for its ground-breaking special effects. He wisely returned for its back-to-back sequels.
Into the millennium, Laurence extended his talents by making his screenwriting and directorial debut in Once in the Life (2000), in which he also starred. The film is based on his own critically acclaimed play "Riff Raff," which he staged five years earlier. In 1999, he scored a major theater triumph with a multi-racial version of "The Lion in Winter" as Henry II opposite Stockard Channing's Eleanor of Acquitaine. On film, Fishburne has appeared in a variety of interesting roles in not-always-successful films. Never less than compelling, a few of his more notable parts include an urban speed chess player in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993); a military prisoner in Cadence (1990); a college professor in Singleton's Higher Learning (1995); a CIA operative in Bad Company (1995); the title role in Othello (1995) (he was the first black actor to play the part on film); a spaceship rescue team leader in the sci-fi horror Event Horizon (1997); a Depression-era gangster in Hoodlum (1997); a dogged police sergeant in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003); a spelling bee coach in Akeelah and the Bee (2006); and prominent roles in the mainstream films Predators (2010) and Contagion (2011). He returned occasionally to the theatre. In April 2008, he played Thurgood Marshall in the one-man show "Thurgood" and won a Drama Desk Award. It was later transferred to the TV screen and earned an Emmy nomination.
In the fall of 2008, Fishburne replaced William Petersen as the male lead investigator on the popular CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), but left the show in 2011 to refocus on films and was in turn replaced by Ted Danson. Having since had a regular role as "Pops" in the comedy Black-ish (2014), he has also been seen on the bigger screen in the Superman movies Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) as Daily Planet chief Perry White; played a hired assassin in the thriller Standoff (2016); portrayed a minister and former Vietnam War vet in Last Flag Flying (2017); and essayed the role of a revengeful prison warden in Imprisoned (2018).
Fishburne has two children, Langston and Montana, from his first marriage to actress Hajna O. Moss. In September 2002, Fishburne married Cuban-American actress Gina Torres.as Nick Fury (voice)