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- Actor
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In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
With handsome movie star looks and a charismatic smile, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. Tom Cruise's biggest franchise, Mission Impossible, has also earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise has also shown lots of interest in producing, with his biggest producer credits being the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth to become one of the biggest movie stars ever.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Austin Richard Post, known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer.
Post was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Nicole Frazier Lake, from Walton, NY, and Rich Post. His father had been a disc jockey in his youth and introduced Post to many different genres of music including hip-hop, country, and rock. He is of Polish, English, and Scottish descent.
When Post was nine years old, he moved to Grapevine, Texas, with his father and stepmother Jodie, after his father became the manager of concessions for the Dallas Cowboys. Post began to play the guitar and auditioned for the band Crown the Empire in 2010, but was rejected after his guitar strings broke during the audition. He credited his initial interest in learning guitar to the popular video game Guitar Hero. Post has always had a love for emo music, and appeared for a DJ set at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in June 2017, playing My Chemical Romance at the event. According to Post, his very first foray into professional music began when he was in a heavy metal band. Soon after, he says he transitioned to softer rock as well as hip-hop, before beginning to experiment on FL Studio. At 16, using Audacity, Post created his first mixtape, Young and After Them Riches. He showed it to some of his classmates at Grapevine High School.He was voted "Most Likely to Become Famous" by his classmates as a senior in high school. He worked at a Chicken Express as a teenager.
He enrolled in Tarrant County College but dropped out. After leaving college, Post moved to Los Angeles, California, with his longtime friend Jason Probst, a professional game streamer.
According to Post, he chose Post Malone as his stage name when he was 14 or 15. The name was rumored to be a reference to the professional basketball player Karl Malone, but Post later explained that while 'Post' is his last name, he used a "rap name generator" to get "Malone".
After moving to LA, Post, Probst, and several other producers and artists formed the music group BLCKVRD and recorded music together. Several members of the group, including Post, moved into a house in San Fernando Valley together. While living in San Fernando Valley, Austin met 1st Down of FKi. He met 1st and Rich from FKi and Rex Kudo who produced several of Post's tracks, including "White Iverson". Post recorded the song two days after writing it. "White Iverson" is, in part, a reference to the professional basketball player Allen Iverson. In February 2015, upon completion, it was uploaded to Post's SoundCloud account. On July 19, 2015, Post released a music video for "White Iverson". The single received praise from Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa. However, the song was notoriously mocked by Earl Sweatshirt.
After hitting one million views within a month of releasing "White Iverson", Post quickly garnered attention from record labels. In August 2015, he signed a recording contract with Republic Records. Post subsequently worked with a number of prominent rappers such as 50 Cent, Young Thug, and Kanye West, among others. In August 2015, he performed at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday party, where he met Kanye West, who enjoyed his music, leading to him collaborating with Post on his single "Fade" from his album The Life of Pablo. Post later began his friendship with Canadian singer and songwriter Justin Bieber, which led to Post being an opening act for Bieber's Purpose World Tour. On April 20, 2016, Post premiered his new single, "Go Flex" on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show. On May 12, 2016, he released his first full-length project, a mixtape, titled August 26, the title of which was a reference to the release date of his debut album. On June 9, 2016, Post made his national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing "Go Flex".
In June 2016, XXL editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten revealed Post Malone was considered for XXL's "2016 Freshmen Class" magazine cover, but she was "told by his camp that he wasn't paying attention to hip hop so much. He was going in more of a rock/pop/country direction." However, Post denied these claims, explaining that his latest mixtape as well as his upcoming album were both hip-hop. In August 2016, Post issued an apology for his album, Stoney, being late. It was available for pre-order on November 4, and was finally released on December 9. Post later went on to call the album "mediocre", despite the success of the single "Congratulations" featuring Quavo, Post's first top-ten song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight. Stoney also featured the top 100 hits "I Fall Apart", and "Deja Vu", featuring Bieber, with the album later being certified double platinum by the RIAA in October 2017.
Post's music has described as a "melting pot of the country, grunge, hip-hop and R&B" and Post himself has been described as versatile. His vocal style has been described as laconic. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described Post as "an artist who toes the line between singing and rapping, and hip-hop and spooky electric folk". Malone himself has called his music "genre-less".
Post cites Bob Dylan, in whom he became interested around the age of 15, as an influence on his music, calling him "a genius" and "a god" though his music has been called "about as far away from Rock n' Roll as you can get." He called "Subterranean Homesick Blues" the "first rap song". He has a tattoo of Dylan as well. Post has also listed rappers 50 Cent, whom he called a legend and Key! as influences.
In February 2017, Post revealed the title of his next project, Beerbongs & Bentleys, and was set to be released in December, before eventually being pushed back to 2018. In September, Malone released the first single from the album, "Rockstar", featuring 21 Savage. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the spot for eight consecutive weeks, later prompting Rolling Stone to call him "one of the most popular musicians in the country" in 2017. In November, Malone released the official music video for "Rockstar", directed by Emil Nava.
On February 20, 2018, Malone previewed his new song with Ty Dolla Sign titled "Psycho." "Psycho" was released on February 23, 2018 and a tour with 21 Savage was announced. The song debuted at number 2 and later peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Post's third entry in the top 10. On April 5, 2018, Malone stated that Beerbongs & Bentleys will be released on April 27, 2018. The same day, he also premiered the song "Stay" during the Bud Lite Dive Bar show in Nashville. Upon release, Beerbongs & Bentleys broke the first day streaming records on Spotify, with 78.7 million streams worldwide. The album was also certified platinum by the RIAA after four days and spawned three top 10 songs and six top 20 songs.
In an interview with Billboard in May 2018, Malone's manager announced that Malone was planning to start his own record label and film production company and Post later won Top Rap Song at the Billboard Music Awards for "Rockstar" featuring 21 Savage. Post confirmed in June 2018 that he was writing his third album.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rory Cochrane was born in New York, however he spent his childhood years in England. He later returned to New York City and was educated at the renowned High School of The Performing Arts. Soon after graduating, he got his first substantial role as Jeff Goldblum's son in Fathers & Sons, followed by Richard Linklater's sophomore film Dazed and confused...- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Michaela is currently a main company member of The Groundlings in Los
Angeles.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Michaela pursued a life in regional
theater.
She received her BFA from Boston University School For the Arts.
Her father is a math professor at Syracuse University, and her mother
teaches Latin in the Boston area.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Dylan Baker was born on 7 October 1959 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Happiness (1998), Trick 'r Treat (2007) and Revolutionary Road (2008). He has been married to Becky Ann Baker since 6 September 1987. They have one child.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Robert Francis 'Bobcat' Goldthwait, born May 26, 1962, is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and star of films and television shows. He is most widely known for his at times screechy voice and scattergun delivery during his standup comedy performances and some film roles.
He was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, the son of Kathleen Ann (Welch), a department store employee, and Thomas Lincoln Goldthwait, a sheet metal worker. His family, of Irish, German, and English descent, was Catholic. He decided on a career as a comedian at an early age and was performing professionally while still in high school at the age of fifteen. He and his classmate, Tom Kenny, performed in a comedy duo, billing themselves as "Bobcat and Tomcat". Goldthwait became recognized as a solo stand-up comedian and had three televised concert specials in The 1980s: Bob Goldthwait - Is He Like That All the Time?, An Evening with Bobcat Goldthwait: Share the Warmth (1987) and Meat Bob.
Goldthwait's first major film role was in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985). He reprised the role in the next two films in the series. During the fall of 1993, Goldthwait did stand-up material as an opening act for Nirvana on what would be their final North American tour. He has made several guest appearances on talk shows as well as comedy programs including The Ben Stiller Show (1992). On May 9, 1994, he made a controversial appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992), where, on impulse, he set a couch on fire. This incident was then the basis of the plot for his subsequent appearance on The Larry Sanders Show (1992).
One of the most recognizable features of Goldthwait's performances is his voice. Goldthwait has voiced characters on the television series Capitol Critters (1992); The Moxy & Flea Show (1995); Unhappily Ever After (1995); Hercules (1998) and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000). He has also appeared, as himself, hosting the comedy quiz show Bobcat's Big Ass Show (1998). Goldthwait has released two comedy albums: "Meat Bob" (1988) on Chrysalis Records and "I Don't Mean to Insult You, but You Look Like Bobcat Goldthwait" (23 September, 2003) on Comedy Central Records.
He made his feature film directorial debut with Shakes the Clown (1991), which he wrote and starred in as well. His film, Windy City Heat (2003), won a Comedia Award for Best Comedy Film at Montreal's Just for Laughs Film Festival in 2004.
Bobcat began directing ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003) in the fall 2004 season. Since joining the show's crew, the ratings went up to 2 million viewers a night, with the numbers rising nearly 50% with the teenage demographic. In May of 2006, he left to pursue his film career as a filmmaker/director but has since returned to the show. Goldthwait's feature, "Sleeping Dogs Lie" (formally Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006)), starring Melinda Page Hamilton, was in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and it was part of the "Independent Dramatic Features" competition. "Sleeping Dogs Lie" is about a youthful, impulsive sexual encounter which opens the door to a dark comedy about the complexities of honesty. It was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the "Dramatic Features" category. "Sleeping Dogs Lie" was picked up in a mid-six figure deal for distribution in north America by Roadside Attractions & Samuel Goldwyn Films at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. A French film company called "Gaumont" bought it for the international rights to the film in France. "Tartan Films", a UK-based production company, also bought it for international rights in the United Kingdom. The film was released in the US on October 20, 2006.
He married Ann Luly in 1986 at the age of 24. The couple have two children (now grown), Tasha and Taylor, and divorced in May 1998. At one time, Goldthwait was engaged to his Unhappily Ever After (1995) co-star, Nikki Cox, but the couple split.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank Whaley is a critically acclaimed actor/writer/director. He is best known for the films Pulp Fiction (1994) and Swimming with Sharks (1994), and has worked with Oliver Stone multiple times. His feature directorial debut, Joe the King (1999), earned him the Waldo Salt Screenwriting prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. He was born in Syracuse, New York, and resides in New York City. He is also an accomplished stage actor, working frequently with the New Group theater. Frank is married to the writer Heather Whaley. They have two children.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Tom Kenny grew up in East Syracuse, New York. When Tom was young he was into comic books, drawing funny pictures and collecting records. Tom turned to stand-up comedy in Boston and San Francisco. This led to appearances on every cable show spawned by the stand-up epidemic of the '80s and '90s as well as stints on The Dennis Miller Show (1992), The Pat Sajak Show (1989), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and [error]. Tom was a regular on Fox TV's The Edge (1992) and spent a year as the host of NBC's Friday Night (1983). His mainstream television appearances include Brotherly Love (1995) and David Alan Grier's sitcom debacle, The Preston Episodes (1995). Tom supplies the voice for "Heffer" the cow on Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life (1993) and Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants (1999), as well as regular performances on The Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory (1996), Justice League (2001), The Powerpuff Girls (1998), and Johnny Bravo (1997). Tom joined the cast of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995) where he met his future wife Jill Talley. Together they've teamed up on Comedy Central's The Mark Thomas Comedy Product (1996), the stage show "The Show With Two Heads", HBO's Not Necessarily the Election (1996), the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" video and Travis "Sing" video.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Siobhan Fallon Hogan has been seen in several blockbusters over the
past twenty five years. Her many film and television credits include "Men In Black," "Forrest Gump," "SNL," "Seinfeld, "Holes", "Eileen," "New In Town," and "Wayward Pines." She has done several foreign films including three with Denmark's Lars von Trier in "Dancer Dark," "Dogville" and "The House that Jack Built" and Michael Haneke's "Funny Games."
Fallon Hogan has been recently seen in William Oldroyd's Sundance hit "Eileen starring Anne Hathaway. "Vanity Fair" review said, "The great Siobhan Fallon Hogan who practically walks off with the movie after a mere few line readings." Other recent films include work Johnny Depp in "The Professor", FX's "What We Do in The Shadows" and in Paramount Pictures "Clifford the Big Red Dog".
Fallon Hogan wrote, produced and plays the lead role in her film, "RUSHED" released in 2021 by Vertical Entertainment in theaters and now streaming on Amazon in the USA and in 20 countries. Emerald Caz Productions and Lars von Trier's Zentropa Entertainment co produced "RUSHED" with a critic score of 90% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 89% audience.
Fallon Hogan's has penned and produced a second film "Shelter in Solitude" directed by Vibeke Muasya starring Robert Patrick, Peter Macon, Peter Hogan, Jr. and Fallon Hogan. It premiered at Kevin Smith's SModCastle Film Festival and will be seen Spring 2023 at the Craicfest in NYC, Boston Film Festival and many others and is awaiting distribution.
Siobhan was born in 1961 in Syracuse, New York, to Jane (Eagan) and William
J. Fallon, an attorney, and is the second of five children. A graduate
of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, she received her M.F.A. from Catholic
University. She began her career on stage in her own character-driven,
one-women shows. After appearing in her show "Bat Girl," she was cast
on SNL and Seinfeld in 1992. These shows opened many doors for
Fallon, and she then began to work steadily in film. Fallon Hogan has been married to Peter
Hogan for over twenty thirty years. They have three children: Bernadette Hogan,
Pete Hogan and Sinead Hogan.- Actor
- Producer
Johnny Messner was born on 11 April 1970 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Running Scared (2006), Tears of the Sun (2003) and Spartan (2004).- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
A former boxer, paratrooper and general all-around angry young man, Rod
Serling was one of the radical new voices that made the "Golden Age" of
television. Long before
The Twilight Zone (1959),
he was known for writing such high-quality scripts as "Patterns" and
"Requiem for a Heavyweight," both later turned into films
(Patterns (1956) and
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)).
The Twilight Zone (1959)
featured forays into controversial grounds like racism, Cold War
paranoia and the horrors of war. His maverick attitude eventually drove
him from regular network television.- Anthony attended Marquette University on the Liberace Foundation
Scholarship for Performance, where he studied Theatre and Spanish
Literature. While at Marquette he worked with the Pabst Theatre and the
Wisconsin Shakespeare Company, appearing in a range of plays spanning
classic, modern and musical. After graduating cum laude from Marquette
with a B.A. in Theatre Arts and a B.A. in Spanish, Anthony took up
acting full time.
He quickly won a screen role for in the CBS Movie of the Week, "First
Steps", playing quadriplegic teenager Dean Conroy. His first feature
film was "Nothing in Common" with Jackie Gleason and Tom Hanks, playing
the part of Cameron. Other film roles were quick to follow. He
continues to play lead and guest characters in many of America's
favorite drama and comedy shows, as well as appearing on the stage and
in film.
Anthony has proven himself to be a versatile and varied actor, with a
full body of works behind him to show for it. He lives in Los Angeles,
California. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Mary Mara's television credits include recurring roles on the series
"ER" and guest-starring roles on "Hope & Gloria", "NYPD Blue" and "Law
& Order". She has also appeared in the television films "In the Blink
of an Eye", on the CBS Television Network, and "Indictment". Mara's
feature film credits include "Mr. Saturday Night", "True Colors",
"Blue Steel", "Just Looking", "Love Potion #9", with Sandra Bullock,
and "The Hard Way", with Michael J. Fox. She has performed on stage in
"Kindertransport", "Dream of a Common Language" and "Mad Forest" for
the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, as well as in a New York
Shakespeare Festival production of "Twelfth Night", co-starring with
Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. She
also appeared with William Hurt in a Yale Repertory production of
"Ivanov", directed by the head of the Moscow Arts Theater (who spoke no
English). While attending San Francisco State University, Mara
established the theater company HART (Haight Ashbury Repertory
Theatre), where she honed her acting skills. She later transferred to
the Yale School of Drama from which she was graduated with a master's
degree in fine arts. Mara, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., splits her time
between homes in Los Angeles and San Francisco.- Robert De Niro Sr. was born on 3 May 1922 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was married to Virginia Holton Admiral. He died on 3 May 1993 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Andy Ridings was born on 16 December 1984 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for All My Children (1970), Hearts Unarmored (2007) and Dan Is Missing (2013).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jeff Altman was born on 13 August 1951 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Bee Movie (2007), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) and Easy Money (1983). He is married to Bonnie Goldstein. He was previously married to Leslie Ackerman.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Since the age of six, Andy Davoli has been performing on stage and it
can be said that since then he hasn't left. He attended clown and
magic school as a teen, graduated from Villanova University and then
got accepted into law school. But Andy knew his destiny was always in
front of him so he made his way to New York City to realize his
dreams of being an actor. He settled in Little Italy where he vigorously studied the three branches of the Method, finding that he could instinctively bring his
intensity, intelligence, and humor and encompass them into the
characters he played whether it be on stage or on film.
After returning from a visit to Davoli, Italy, he was cast in his first lead
role in an independent film entitled "Loser Love" directed by Jean-Marc
Vallée. Meanwhile, he carried on honing his craft performing in several
Off-Broadway plays. Director James Gray discovered Andy and cast
him in what would be Andy's first foray into studio features for a
splashy role opposite such top talents as Joaquin Phoenix, Mark
Wahlberg, and Charlize Theron, in the big budget Miramax feature
"The Yards". It's no surprise then that Andy quickly caught the eye of
Italian-American cinematic legends like Martin Scorsese who cast him
in a cameo role in "Bringing Out the Dead" opposite Nicolas Cage.
Andy then had a cameo in "People I Know" with The Godfather himself,
the great Al Pacino.
Davoli beat out hundreds of other actors for the coveted role of
"Scarpa" in New Line Cinema's "Knockaround Guys" where Brian
Koppelman and David Levein cast him in the lead role opposite Vin
Diesel, Barry Pepper, and John Malkovich. After an audition for the
critically acclaimed HBO series "The Sopranos", series creator David
Chase wrote the recurring role of "Dino Zerilli" for him in the third
season of arguably the greatest show in the history of television.
Clearly Andy Davoli brings something special to the screen and the
directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo saw what others were seeing.
They cast the rising star in the lead ensemble role of "Basil" alongside
Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, and Gabrielle Union in Warner Bros'
"Welcome to Collinwood", produced by Clooney and Steven
Soderbergh.
While in the room auditioning in front of Pulitzer winning playwright
and screenwriter David Mamet, he was immediately cast opposite Val
Kilmer in "Spartan" after telling a joke. Andy's charisma is both on and
off the screen. He continued to prove himself as a multi-faceted actor
in the role of "Jake Perini", a wheelchair-bound victim of polio, opposite
Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon in the Golden Globe-nominated
HBO film "Warm Springs".
Davoli's dark Sicilian-Italian good looks were used to stunning effect in
a Stephen Meisel Dolce & Gabbana campaign opposite international
supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
His starring turn as the lead in the magical surrealistic short film
"Lucky Clown" brought Andy back to his clown college roots and paved
the way for the film to premiere at both the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
and the Venice Film Festival. Directed by the brilliant Renaissance
filmmaker Salvatore Di Costanzo, Andy went on to make two more
shorts with him of the same genre: "The Crying Museum" and "The
Abandoned Circus".
Since his memorable role in "The Sopranos", Andy has lent his talent
and versatility over the years to countless roles on such celebrated
shows as "24", "CSI:New York", "CSI:Miami", "The Unit", "Burn Notice",
and "Lucifer".
As if being in recognizable films, TV series, and stage performances weren't enough, you most likely have seen Davoli in memorable national commercials and groundbreaking video games such as Rockstar Games' "LA Noir". His broad range is truly remarkable.
Yes, it can be said with confidence that the once young boy on stage is still doing what he's always done-manifesting his dreams and bringing his passion of storytelling with him to every project he collaborates on. Now living in Los Angeles, Andy Davoli continues to sharpen his skills as he further advances his career.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The athletic William Lundigan stood 6' 2" and weighed 170 pounds. He
played football, basketball and tennis at Syracuse (NY) University. He
was discovered by Charles R. Rogers, head of production at Universal Studios.
Rogers happened to tune into radio station WFBL in Syracuse. He was so
intrigued by a voice he heard reading a commercial that he gave
instructions for the speaker to be located, brought to New York and
tested for movie possibilities. The speaker, of course, was Lundigan.
He had gotten the announcing job because his father owned the building
that housed WBFL. Later in his career Lundigan was successful as the
host of the CBS programs Climax! (1954) and Shower of Stars (1954). For these programs he
delivered on-air commercials for their sponsor, Chrysler Motors. Off
screen he traveled as a goodwill ambassador for the company, covering
over 100,000 miles on the road and visiting 560,000 people in 90
weeks.- Viva was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York, to Mary
Alice (McNicholas) and Wilfred Ernest Hoffmann, a well-to-do lawyer.
She is the first child of a devout Catholic family, and is of German,
Irish, English, and one eighth Italian, ancestry. Her parents had eight
more children. She told her mentor,
Andy Warhol, that her father was a religious
fanatic and her mother worshiped the Irish-Catholic Witch-Finder
General Joseph McCarthy,
insisting that the children watch the televised Army-McCarthy hearings
of 1954.
Janet Hoffman was educated in parochial schools and attended a Catholic
college, Marymount, in Tarrytown, New York. She spent her junior year
in college abroad, studying art at the Sorbonne in Paris, boarding at a
convent. Hers was a life that made her ache for rebellion, and rebel
the young Ms. Hoffman eventually did. She became the first
non-anonymous performer to perform an act of sexual intercourse on
screen, in Warhol's Blue Movie (1969),
at the end of the turbulent decade that was the 1960s.
Reportedly, she had had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized
by her parents when she stayed in Paris to try to become a painter,
supporting herself by modeling. She moved to New York City in the early
1960s, intent on becoming a fashion illustrator. Living with a
photographer, she remained involved with the arts, and one night at a
gallery opening circa 1963, she introduced herself to Warhol. They did
not click then, nor did they the second time their forking paths
brought Warhol into contact with his future movie queen.
It was a different story in 1965, when they met again and engaged in
conversation at a party thrown by fashion designer
Betsey Johnson. Not lacking in
courage, Hoffman soon went over to Warhol's loft-living/work space,
"The Factory", to solicit Warhol for money to pay her rent at the
Chelsea Hotel, where she lived with her sister in a room that cost
$16.00 a week. Of the encounter, Warhol wrote in his memoir "Popism".
"She'd done it with all the nonchalance of somebody asking for their
paycheck - except that I didn't even know her! What she essentially
said was 'I need twenty dollars and you can afford it.'" It was an
attitude that would lead to the break-up of their professional and
social relationship four years later.
Warhol's movies were always transgressive, and he had decided to move
into pornographic production, "nudies" as he called him. (Hard-core
porn would come later in the decade). He became entranced with Viva, as
he believed he could use the striking, well-educated women in his films
(which were pointedly homo-erotic and featured male "flesh" in
abundance).
Andy Warhol thought Viva's tedious voice could work to his advantage in
dealing with the censors. Warhol was concerned about the "without
redeeming social value" phrase in the legal definition of obscenity
under the Warren Court in the 1960s. Many decisions finding a film
"pornographic," and thus not legally protected by the First Amendment,
hinged on whether there was or was not redeeming social value. One of
Russ Meyer's nudies had been
condemned as obscene and withdrawn from exhibition by the courts as its
attempt at inserting redeeming social value had been too transparent
and obvious and was felt, by the judges, to be a cynical ploy to make
an otherwise objectionable film legally acceptable.
Confronted with Hoffman, Warhol the avant-garde filmmaker had a
brainstorm that would make her famous for slightly more than 15
minutes: the Machiavellian Warhol became convinced that he might be
able to outfox the censors if he used a woman who "could look
beautiful, take off her clothes, step into a bathtub, and talk as
intellectually as Viva did".
"Redeeming social value" was the legal fiction that Warhol enlisted
Viva to provide in order to make genuinely pornographic movies without
getting busted for obscenity. Viva's reflection was beautiful in
Warhol's bloodshot eyes and - ever the Catholic rebel - she was willing
to go fully nude on screen and even do the nasty.
Warhol's directorial method was to encourage improvisation among his
actors while his cinematographic technique entailed aiming a camera at
them and shooting continuously for the entire length of a 1,200-ft.
reel of 16-mm film, approximately 33 minutes of running time.
(Joe Dallesandro once saw Warhol direct
a film by reading a newspaper with his back to the unmanned camera that
was shooting the actors!) He believed that Viva, with her continuous
stream of intellectual babble, would provide him with the legal fig
leaf of "socially redeeming value" that would enable him to become a
profitable pornographer.
Viva made her debut in
The Nude Restaurant (1967),
though another movie she had made for Warhol,
Bike Boy (1967), was screened first.
Playing a waitress in a restaurant patronized by only men (including a
bemused Taylor Mead and real-life Army
deserter Julian Burroughs), Viva wore
only a G-string throughout the entire movie, as did all the male
patrons. (A first version of the film, featuring an all-male cast
completely in the buff, has been lost.)
But it was Blue Movie (1969) that made
Viva infamous for 15 minutes - at least. It was shot in October 1968 at
David Bourdon's apartment in Greenwich Village. Although Viva and Louis
Waldon actually do have sexual intercourse in the film, they spend more
time involved in social intercourse to give Warhol that fig leaf of
"socially redeeming value." For 33 minutes, the length of one
uninterrupted 1,200 foot 16-mm reel of film stock, Viva and Waldon made
love. For the rest of the 132-minute movie (three more reels worth of
film shown at the pubic premiere), they spend time talking about the
war in Vietnam, cooking food and taking a shower. (The blue tint that
gave the alternate title of the film its punning quality was not
planned but actually was the result of an error. Warhol had correctly
used tungsten film for shooting indoors, but he did not compensate with
a blue filter for the sunlight streaming into Bordon's apartment,
resulting in the blue tint on the exposed negative.)
Viva was cast in a speaking part in
John Schlesinger's
Midnight Cowboy (1969), as
"Gretel McAlbertson", the woman throwing the party with her "brother"
who invites "Joe Buck" to her soirée. The party scenes -- which
featured other Warhol regulars -- were filmed in late June 1968, two
weeks after Valerie Solanas's
unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Warhol.
In November 1968, Viva wanted to go to Europe, and Warhol provided her
with a round-trip plane ticket to Paris. In January of the following
year, she sent Warhol a nasty letter from Paris that threatened that
she would turn on him unless he sent her money. Her disappointed mentor
decided to ignore her. She followed up with new threats in February
1969, in a telegram. Again she was ignored, as Warhol had more pressing
concerns on his mind. He had to have an operation related to
complications from his June 1968 shooting, and when he was in the
hospital, Viva sent another telegram to "The Factory", announcing her
marriage.
Viva had met and married Michel Auder, a
French filmmaker whom she brought back with her to the States. While in
New York, she telephoned Warhol to tell him she had signed a contract
with the prestigious publishing house G.P. Putnam to write an
autobiographical novel. She informed Warhol that she was taping their
conversation for use in her book, which she intended to call
"Superstar", an expose of the New York demimonde.
Thus, Viva and Warhol parted ways, and she signed up to star in
Agnès Varda's
Lions Love (... and Lies) (1969), which was shot in
Los Angeles. She went off to California with her new hubby in tow. She
eventually made 13 movies in addition to the Varda picture, including
such films as the
Kris Kristofferson vehicle
Cisco Pike (1971), the
non-Woody Allen-directed
Woody Allen movie
Play It Again, Sam (1972),
Dino De Laurentiis's
megalithic Flash Gordon (1980), and
Wim Wenders'
Paris, Texas (1984), but they were
just bit parts. She never made another film with Warhol after the
break-up, and never achieved anything close to the notoriety she did as
one of his superstars.
In addition to her 1970 memoir "Superstar", she wrote a book about
giving birth,"The Baby", which was published in 1975 by Alfred A.
Knopf. - Ted Markland was born on 15 January 1933 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Colors (1988) and Last Man Standing (1996). He died on 18 December 2011 in Yucca Valley, California, USA.
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Jaclyn Hales was born on September 4th, in Syracuse, New York to Julie Lea Hales, a homemaker and real estate agent, and James Rulon "Jim" Hales, a retired pharmaceutical district sales manager. She is of Scottish, Italian, and English descent. At age six, Hales made her stage debut as "The Shrunken Alice" in a production of Alice in Wonderland, at the Seacoast Repertory Theater in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where she grew up. She appeared in many more productions throughout her childhood until her family moved to North Salt Lake, Utah at the age of fourteen and she decided it was time to try TV/Film.
It was at a Janet Jackson Concert that she was first scouted by a modeling agent. The modeling didn't pan out due to her not wanting to quit the swim team, leave her friends behind, or lose the extra inch off her waist they wanted. However, she was able to meet a talent agent in an office down the hall and quickly booked her first television role on a show called Everwood, which aired on The WB. This was the beginning of her professional quest to be a full-time actress.
Hales studied acting at Utah Valley University and graduated with a BS in theater performance. She was awarded "Best Actress 2009" and "Best Student Director 2009" by the theater department.
Her career truly began when she was offered the lead role in the Indie feature 'Unicorn City' (Jon Gries, 2011) winning her the Best Actress award at the LA Comedy Festival (2012). This led to her appearing in several more films and TV shows including FX's 'Legion' (Jean Smart, Jemaine Clement), HBO's 'Mosaic' (Garrett Hedlund, Sharon Stone), and 'Christmas Eve' (Patrick Stewart). She has played two series regular roles; Lynn from 'Extinct' (2017), which aired on BYUTV, and Claire from 'Cypher' (2021) which aired on The Roku Channel as their first exclusive series.
In 2020, Hales began co-writing with Ash Lendzion, to create a scripted dark comedy podcast called The Bystanders. Producers Heather Morris (Glee) and Black Label Media (La La Land) helped them bring it to life. Now writer, producer, and director, Season 1 (2021) starring, Jane Lynch (Glee), Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked), Oscar Nunez (The Office), Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), and Michael Hitchcock (Best in Show), took off with rave reviews, landing them another season.
Season 2 (2023) stars, Jane Lynch (Glee), Kathleen Turner (Romancing the Stone), Margaret Cho (PsyCHO), Beth Dover (Orange is the New Black), Joe Lo Truglio (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite), Luke Cook (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Darren Chris (Glee), and Wayne Knight (Jurassic Park).- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Michael A. Nickles was born in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Holly Star (2018), A Spartan Dream (2024) and Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Luce was born on 15 October 1903 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Up the River (1930), The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) and Over She Goes (1937). She was married to Clifford Warren Smith. She died on 31 August 1989 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Vin Vescio was born in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Chicago Med (2015), We're All Gonna Die (2024) and See You Next Christmas (2021).- Susan Marie Featherly was born in Syracuse, New York to Robert "Bob" Featherly, a Korean War veteran and his wife Suzanne. She has two older brother Robert and William and a younger sister Crystal. She started working at nine years of age, along with her two brothers, at their parents family owned towing business. She graduated from East Syracuse-Minoa Central High School and while still a teenager, she owned and operated Central New York Academy of Dance Arts where she ran the business for 14 years. She coached her students to win thousands of awards in regional, state and national competitions.
In 1994, she sold the business and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress and model. She began her acting career in in late-night adult cable TV shows like Hot Line and Erotic Confessions. Susan went on to star in several direct to video (and direct to cable) movies that were also adult related in content. She has been credited under the names Michelle Turner, Marie West and Jen Dike.
In September 2004, Susan became a Realtor and eventually a broker. Her interest in real estate started as a hobby, by helping friends invest their money to build their financial portfolios. - Ann Carter was born on 16 June 1936 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Blondie Hits the Jackpot (1949) and The North Star (1943). She was married to Crosby Newton. She died on 27 January 2014 in Tacoma, Washington, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Mark Kassen originated the role of "Ben" in the off-Broadway play,
"Things You Shouldn't Say past Midnight".
He performed in the Broadway production of "The Last Night of
Ballyhoo", and traveled with the production to Los Angeles.
A produced playwright, Mark's multi-media play "Perfect" was mounted at
the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles in 2001. It was funded by Rhea
Perlman, Danny DeVito and Jean Doumanain.
He wrote and performed a workshop of his multi-media play "little
Willy" at the prestigious New York Stage and Film in the 2005 summer
season under the direction of John Rubin.
With brother Adam, partnered with Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti to
found Trigger Street Independent in 2004.- Jackie Dallas is a Korean-American television and film actress. She was born May 23, 1984, in Syracuse, New York and completed medical school before deciding to pursue acting. She did residency training in general surgery at the Mount Sinai hospital in New York City and then pathology in Chicago before moving to California in 2014.
- Clement Brace was born on 6 January 1916 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for A Woman for All Men (1975) and The Loretta Young Show (1953). He died on 3 November 1996 in Medford, Oregon, USA.
- Jim Abele was born on 13 November 1960 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Playing by Heart (1998), 24 (2001) and Angel (1999).
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Tamara Bass was born in Syracuse, New York, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Baby Boy (2001), If Not Now, When? (2019) and All That Matters (2015).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
David Greenman was born on 27 October 1977 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Loyalties (2003), Checked Out (2012) and General Hospital (1963).- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Having photographed and directed hundreds of music videos and
commercials over the last 15 years, Samuel Bayer has firmly established
himself as one of the industry's most prolific and sought-after
talents.
A 1987 graduate of New York City's School of Visual Arts, Bayer was a
painter who saw film and video as the perfect medium to deliver his art
to a greater audience. He launched his career with
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," a landmark
video that MTV has consistently rated as one of the most influential
music videos ever made. His decision to photograph the Nirvana video
himself infused it with a distinct style and attitude that started him
on a path he's blazed ever since. His hands-on approach to filmmaking
so clearly imprinted on his work, Bayer chooses to light, photograph
and operate the camera on all his work. On the heels of his work with
Nirvana, he went on to create countless videos for artists as diverse
as The Rolling Stones,
Sheryl Crow,
John Lee Hooker,
Marilyn Manson,
Metallica,
Smashing Pumpkins,
'David Bowie (I)',
Aerosmith,
Lenny Kravitz and
Blink-182.
In 1995 he hit the commercial scene with the same results--one of his
first spots, the revolutionary spot for Nike "If You Let Me Play", won
the AICP award for Best Direction. In 1997 his Packard-Bell "Home" spot
won the AICP for Cinematography, Direction, and Production Design. His
work on Mountain Dew "Showstopper" collected the 2001 Clio Awards for
Best Direction and Best Cinematography. His other commercial work
includes campaigns for Nike, Coke, Pepsi, Nissan, Lexus and Mountain
Dew and has cemented his reputation as a visual revolutionary. Bayer's
commercials are showcased in the permanent film/video collection at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
His video for Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken
Dreams" swept the MTV music awards, garnering seven Moon Men including
Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Rock Video as well as the
coveted Viewer's Choice Award. In 2005 Bayer was the recipient of the
Kodak Lifetime Achievement Award for his work and cinematography in
music videos and was honored in 2006 by the Music Video Producers
Association with his second Lifetime Achievement Award.- Ann Leary was born on 14 August 1962 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She is a writer, known for Modern Love (2019), Two If by Sea (1996) and The Good House (2021). She has been married to Denis Leary since 19 August 1989. They have two children.
- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Caris Vujcec is an award-winning American-born actress, writer, producer and director of Mediterranean descent. With a career spanning Broadway, television and original content creation, as a storyteller and filmmaker, she has a passion for narratives highlighting dynamic, powerful and vulnerable, multi-faceted female leads. Caris created, wrote, executive produced, co-directed and solo-directed, and leads the cast in the international award-winning digital series, The Pepper Project. Having recently garnered the Best Actress Award at the 2022 Los Angeles Web Festival, with Pepper: Ricochet winning Best Suspense Thriller Mystery as well, Caris is recognized as an actor and indie-creator of note in the global arena.
She is best known for her role in the hit romantic comedy, P.S. I Love You, and for her long-standing recurring role of Detective Louise Campesi on Law & Order - both Criminal Intent and SVU (opposite Mariska Hargitay and Danny Pino). Broadway credits include understudying both the title role of Chole (Uma Thurman) and supporting role, Jeanette (Blair Brown) in 'The Parisian Woman' by Beau Willimon, directed by Pam MacKinnon. She has performed Off-Broadway and in many regional theaters, playing such favorite roles as Gertrude in Hamlet at The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Lady Macbeth at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis and Nadia in David Hare's The Vertical Hour at The Pioneer Theater in Salt Lake City.
The Pepper Project series, having screened to much acclaim at numerous festivals and in competitions worldwide, ranked the #1 U.S. digital series in the 2021 Web Series World Cup, #7 World - landing in the Top Ten earning the Most Awarded Thriller/Crime Series, and has won and been nominated, along with Pepper: Ricochet, for over 40 awards. Festivals include: DC Web Fest 9 (2021), where Caris was honored with the Inaugural Legacy Creator Award; New Jersey Web Festival, Best of the Best and Outstanding Thriller, 2021; Best Director and Outstanding Thriller, 2018; Best Director and Best Suspense/Thriller, Minnesota Web Fest; Best Action, Miami Web Fest, 2021; Best Thriller, 2017; Best Suspense/Thriller, International, Seoul Web Fest 2021; Sound Design, Sisicly Web Fest 2021; Baltimore Next Media Web Fest, Best Action, 2021; Best Dramatic Actress, 2018; Brooklyn Web Fest, Best Drama Series; Dances With Films; die Seriale, Best Actress; Austin Web Fest, Best Actress, Sound Design, Audience Choice; Sicily Web Fest, War/Action/Adventure; Miami Web Fest, Best Suspense/Thriller; Bilbao Web Fest - Starlet Amets; ITVFest and La Femme.
Caris passionately believes in and supports indie-creator content, having presented and served on Jury Panels at such U.S.-based and International Festivals as: Montreal Digital Web Fest; die Seriale, Germany - Official Jury, 2019, and Pitch Deck Creation Workshop; International Creator Panel, 2017; Minnesota Web Fest, Jury 2018, 2019; Sicily Web Fest, International Creator Panel, 2017; Austin Web Fest, Female Filmmaker Panel, 2017.
Caris received a Master of Fine Arts in Acting and Directing from The University of Missouri-Kansas City and graduated with a B.S. from The S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and Department of Drama at Syracuse University. She was inducted into the Liverpool Central School District's Fine Arts Hall of Fame, 2015 Honorees, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of fine arts, in the community and at-large. She is an active member of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) and Catalyst Storieroad, and is a faculty member at The New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. She also has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film and Speech at CUNY Hostos in the Bronx. An avid cyclist, Caris rides for BIKE MS and is a ten-time Elite 200 fundraiser for the NYC Chapter. She is a daughter, sister and proud aunt to five amazing people, and is based in New York City.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mildreds star shone for what seemed like a split second and yet she
knew everybody in town and the whole of tinsel town knew Mildred Shay.
Adrian, Hollywoods premiere costumer made all her gowns and a pair of
false breasts. She worked with, and unlike the rest of Hollywood got on
with Joan Crawford despite the fact that as Helene, the French maid to
Crystal Allen (Crawford) in George Cukors The Women 1939, Mildred Shay
stole every scene.
She dated eligible bachelors in Hollywood and married three of them.
Errol Flynn, naked but for his shirt and sock garters, held her captive
in his apartment before she succumbed to his advances. Cecil B DeMille
wine and dined her at his Paradise Ranch, feeding her oysters, complete
with the pearls still attached.
Born into Palm Beach money, Mildred was educated at a Swiss school for
genteel ladies in France. At fourteen her wealthy New York lawyer
Father Joseph A. Shay brought Mildred and her younger sister to London.
From London the family returned to their chateaux in Nice, then moved
to Florence before finally settling in California.
Mildred's father had taken up work acting on behalf of the Hollywood
powerbrokers at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists and Fox. So it was
living in the heart of Hollywood that young Mildred rang her father and
told him that she wanted to be an actress. Within weeks Mildred was
making her first screen test for MGM.
Her first assignment was dubbing for Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932).
Later she played in The Women (1939) as well as Balalaika (1939) with
Nelson Eddy, and All Women Have Secrets (1939). The following year
Mildred headed East to New York where she appeared on Broadway. It was
whilst in New York Mildred met and then eloped with Winthrop Gardner
Junior, one of Americas finest and wealthiest bachelors. Gardner
suffocated her with diamonds and furs. Walter Winchell jested on being
shown an enormous gem, Mildred you could house Manhattan on that rock!
As long as Mildred stayed in Hollywood she was always going to make
headlines. She had a torrid affair with Victor Mature and Roy Rogers.
In 1940 she met Geoffrey Steele, an army Captain in the Blue and
Royals, they married the following year.
With motherhood, Mildred gave up her career, only to return in 1974
with a starring role in The Great Gatsby. Two years later, and Mildred
was asked by Ken Russell to appear in his new film Valentino (1976). At
91, she shows no signs of retirement. Mildred has just recently been
photographed alongside Kevin Spacey, Catherine Zeta Jones, Shirley
Temple, Kirk Douglas and Stephen Fry for an exhibition of film actors
to be held in London and Beverly Hills over Oscar week 2004.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Alderman was a talented, prolific, and ubiquitous actor in numerous
low-budget exploitation features who appeared in everything from 1960s
softcore items to 1970s drive-in fare to 1980s hardcore porn throughout
the course of his long and diverse career.
Alderman was born on June 12, 1934, in Syracuse, New York. His father was a prominent lawyer. Alderman attended Syracuse University as a theater major. He first
began acting in both films and TV shows alike in the late 1950s,
alternating between lead and co-starring roles. His most memorable
parts include pathetic twitchy heroin addict Jimmy Devlin in the
gloriously lurid
The Hard Road (1973), antsy hoodlum
Lattimer in
This Is a Hijack (1973), a
flunky for Shelley Winters in
Jack Starrett's delightful blaxploitation
blast Cleopatra Jones (1973),
stuttering drug dealer Cockroach in
The Black Godfather (1974),
uptight all-girls school principal Dr. Baxter in the amusing
Delinquent School Girls (1975)
and coldly rational researcher Dr. Frank Rogers in the nifty sci-fi
doomsday thriller
The Alpha Incident (1978).
Alderman appeared in four softcore movies for legendary schlockmeister
David F. Friedman:
Starlet! (1969),
Thar She Blows! (1968),
The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972)
and Trader Hornee (1970). Although
he primarily worked in maverick independent cinema productions, he
nonetheless did manage to pop up in the occasional mainstream film like
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
and The Stunt Man (1980).
In the early 1980s Alderman acted in a handful of hardcore X-rated
porno films for director Gary Graver, under
the pseudonym Frank Hallowell. Among the TV shows Alderman appeared on
are Hunter (1984),
Dynasty (1981),
The Fall Guy (1981),
Starsky and Hutch (1975),
Iron Horse (1966),
12 O'Clock High (1964),
The Lieutenant (1963),
Checkmate (1960),
Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958),
Hawaiian Eye (1959),
Wagon Train (1957) and
Gunsmoke (1955). He directed the
crime opus Lisa's Folly (1970) and
co-wrote the script for the lowbrow comedy romp
C.B. Hustlers (1976).
John Alderman died at age 52 of an apparent heart attack on January 12,
1987, in Hollywood, California.- Michael is best known for his role as Steve in 1446: An Eternal Moment and the butler in the ConfidencemanJP drama and subsequent movies. Born in Syracuse, NY, Michael has lived in America, Italy, Korea, and Japan, where he has called home since 2006. Michael is an actor, writer, model and TV personality who also owns a large organic farm where he grows over 250 varieties of fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, wild edibles, and also keeps bees. Michael has a passion for food and learned the culinary arts from his father from childhood. His skills as a chef have helped him land various live cooking programs.
Michael's hobbies and passions consist of photography, travel, writing, painting, carpentry, sewing, hiking, climbing, surfing, SUP, wake-boarding, scuba diving, skin diving, fishing, sailing, kayaking, yoga, break-dancing, snowboarding, and he jogs 10K every day of the year. - Writer
- Actor
- Director
Tim Scanlon received a B.A. in English/Communications at Niagara University. In the summer of '89 he traveled across the country to Los Angeles with his college roommate to pursue screen writing. In '91 he secured a job at Multi Entertainment Holdings where he met and worked with Donald O'Connor (Singing In The Rain) on "Father Frost" a Russian, live action fairy tale. In '93 he landed small roles as a stunt man getting him exposure on HBO and TNT in Don "The Dragon" Wilson movies. Tim entrenched himself in the inner-workings of the film industry as a production assistant, set dresser and stunt man. In 1997, he was specifically geared toward optimizing springboard opportunities for the acting community.
In an effort to hone his production and directing skills and connect with local talent venues, he has written and produced, edited, and starred in his own public television comedy series entitled "Billy Mahoney". The series follows a young salesman through failed attempts at securing steady employment and his emotionally and physically taunting escapades at the hands of his colleagues. Heavily relying on slapstick humor, the "Billy Mahoney" series has adopted a local following which inspired Scanlon to explore a more serious side of the title character in a heroic adventure series. The action-drama "Concrete Skies", presented at the New York International Film and Video Festival in New York City (November 2003), a 111 minute action packed film that shows the adventures of Will Mahoney and LT as detectives being pursued by a local drug dealer thought to be dead.
"Reynolds City" is also from Scanman Productions. Tim Scanlon wrote, directed, produced and edited this piece. The film debut was at The Palace Theater in Eastwood, New York on October 13, 2005 at 8 p.m. which brought in a crowd of approximately 350 people. This one has plenty of action!
"The Challenge" comes from Scanman Productions with a boxing/street fighter genre. It's about Patrick Reilly (Tim Scanlon), a once promising boxer finds himself going down the the wrong path, having fallen into a life of street fighting and brawling to survive. The premiere served as a fund raiser for The Syracuse Golden Gloves Athletic and Education Centers an area youth organization for troubled kids. It raised over $1000 and everyone had an incredible time!
Tim produced an action video in which he directed and starred called "Home Invaders". This shows that he is still on the cusp of real-time action adventure.
Under the new label of Scanlon Media Corp, Tim produced an action pilot (Nov 2022) called "Ryan Carson" with Cynthia Rothrock and it's being financed by a solid media platform. Tim's ready to produce more action adventure for his loyal audiences.- Will McLaughlin was born on 24 February 1969 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Men in Black³ (2012), Non-Stop to Comic-Con (2016) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Bruce Wexler was born in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Euphoria (2019), Killing Hollywood: The Cotton Club Murder (2021) and Stumptown (2019).- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Michael J. Sarna was born on 12 September 1965 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Toby's Big Adventure (2020), Return to Fear and A Tiger's Tail (2014).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Hoyt Richards is an award winning actor, writer and producer who was born in Syracuse, New York. He grew up in the Main Line area outside of Philadelphia, PA. He is is the fourth of six children. A high school scholar-athlete, who excelled at football and track, Hoyt graduated from Princeton University with an Economics Degree. A football injury led him to New York to see a shoulder specialist -- where he was discovered as a fashion model. Hoyt had a long successful modeling career before turning his efforts to acting, writing and producing. He is considered by many in the fashion industry to be the world's first male supermodel.
Hoyt moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to pursue his growing interest in the entertainment industry. In 2010, he created a production company, Tortoise Entertainment. Tortoise has released two films to date, "Dumbbells" and "Intersection." Together these films have won well over a two hundred awards on the film festival circuit. "Dumbbells,"a buddy comedy set in a gym, won over thirty-five (35) Best Picture awards and Hoyt won multiple awards for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. His romantic thriller, "Intersection," won over fifty (50+) Best Picture awards and Hoyt won thirty (30) Best Actor awards for his role as Cobb Mills. As screenwriter, Hoyt has placed in the top 30 of Slamdance Screenplay Competition twice, he's a Golden Script finalist and an Academy Nicholl Fellowships quarter-finalist.- Actor
- Stunts
Larry Sherman was born on 2 February 1923 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for One Fine Day (1996), Law & Order (1990) and The Sopranos (1999). He was married to Marion. He died on 26 August 2017 in New York, New York, USA.- Mitchell Lewis was born on 26 June 1880 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Salomé (1922) and The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1920). He was married to Rosabel Morrison and Nan Frances Ryan. He died on 24 August 1956 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a poet, Doris Kenyon made her stage and screen debuts in 1915.
She was often cast as a pleasant heroine in many silent films. She
co-starred with popular silent-era actors like Rudolph Valentino and her future
husband Milton Sills. Due to her stage experience she made a smooth
transition to sound films. She could still be seen on television in the mid-'60s.- Michael Coulthard was born on 8 December 1968 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for WrestleMania XXVIII (2012), WWE Smackdown! (1999) and WrestleMania XXVI (2010).
- Carol Andrews was born on 4 July 1921 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Murder Is My Business (1946), The Lady Confesses (1945) and The Guilty (1947). She was married to Jack Jarvis Jr and Frank A.Wilson. She died on 27 February 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Actor, comedian, and composer, educated at the Sargent School of
Acting. His Broadway stage appearances included "The Little Missus",
"The Mimic World", "The Firefly", and "How's Your Health?". He was a
member of the Fortune Gallo Opera Company, and joined ASCAP in 1957. He
composed the popular song "Some Little Bug is Going to Bite
You".- Producer
- Production Designer
Thom is the founder of his own interior design company, Thom Filicia
Inc., where he has established a strong reputation and was named one of
House Beautiful's Top 100 American Designers. His firm has completed
work in metropolitan New York, the Hamptons, Los Angeles, Miami and
Bermuda. His practice includes both residential and commercial
projects, with clients ranging from leaders of fashion and
entertainment to real-estate development and finance. Thom holds a B.A.
in Interior Design from Syracuse University's school of Art and Design
in the college of Visual and Performing Arts. Early on, Thom focused
his creativity on high-end interiors working at the venerable firms of
Parish Hadley Associates, Robert Metzger Interiors and Bilhuber Inc.
Having established a strong classical foundation, Thom is now
exercising a personal aesthetic driven by a unique and innovative
vision of classic simplicity. His work has been featured in House &
Garden, W, City, Details, New York, and The New York Times.