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- Actor
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Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of humble means to father Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, a construction painter and Marie Rose (Hebert), a stylist and hairdresser; his father's ancestry is Italian and his mother is of half French-Canadian and half Italian descent. Mark moved with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he lived out most of his teenage years. Following high school, Mark moved with his family to San Diego and soon migrated north, eventually settling in Los Angeles.
Mark first took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and subsequently co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, an Equity-Waiver establishment, where he worked in nearly every capacity. From acting, writing, directing and producing to running the lights and building sets while building his resume.
Moving into film and TV, Mark's inauspicious movie debut was the drifter role of Christian in the horror opus Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994) and returned to the film series in the role of Joey with Mirror Mirror 3: The Voyeur (1995). He continued on through the 1990's rather indistinctly with more secondary roles in the horror film The Dentist (1996) starring madman Corbin Bernsen; an amusing perf in the obscure dramedy The Last Big Thing (1996); a third billed role in the Jerry Stiller/Anne Meara bickering senior comedy A Fish in the Bathtub (1998); and the war drama Ceremony... The Ritual of Love (1976) directed by Ang Lee.
Bartending for nearly nearly a decade to make ends meet and discouraged enough to give it up, a chance meeting and resulting collaboration with playwright/screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan approaching the millennium changed everything. Ruffalo won NY success in Lonergan's 1996 off-Broadway play "This Is Our Youth," a story about troubled young adults. This led to his male lead in Lonergan's Oscar-winning film drama You Can Count on Me (2000), playing the ne'er-do-well brother of Laura Linney. The performance drew rave reviews and invited comparisons to an early Marlon Brando.
Ruffalo never looked back. Notable roles in The Last Castle (2001), XX/XY (2002), and Windtalkers (2002) followed, although in 2002 Ruffalo was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor. Though the tumor was benign, the resulting surgery led to a period of partial facial paralysis, from which he fully recovered. In 2003, Ruffalo scored leading roles alongside two popular female stars, playing a police detective opposite Meg Ryan in In the Cut (2003) and the love interest of Gwyneth Paltrow in the comedy View from the Top (2003).
Though both films were high-profile box office disappointments, Ruffalo went on to four notable (if highly disparate) films in 2004 -- We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 13 Going on 30 (2004), and Collateral (2004) -- which solidified his ability to be both a popular leading man and an acclaimed ensemble player in either comedy or drama.
After 2004, Ruffalo was consistently at work, with leads in popular Hollywood films and independent productions that continued to solidify him as one of film's most consistently strong actors: Just Like Heaven (2005), All the King's Men (2006), Zodiac (2007), Reservation Road (2007), and The Brothers Bloom (2008). He also made his Broadway debut as Moe Axelrod in the play "Awake and Sing!"
In 2010 Ruffalo achieved something of a breakthrough, by directing the indie film Sympathy for Delicious (2010), which won him the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and co-starring as the sperm-donor father to lesbian couple Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right (2010). His role in the idiosyncratic domestic comedy/drama earned him Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to earn two more Best Supporting Actor nominations as an Olympic-winning wrestling champion in Foxcatcher (2014) and as a journalist working to uncover the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Spotlight (2015). In 2017, the actor returned to Broadway in Arthur Miller's "The Price."
High-profile roles in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) and Longeran's long-delayed film Margaret (2011) followed before Ruffalo's appearance as Dr. Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, in Joss Whedon's movie blockbuster The Avengers (2012). Garnering highly positive reviews for a role in which actors Eric Bana and Edward Norton could not find success in previous films made Ruffalo a box office action star in addition to a critically-acclaimed actor. He returned to the Banner/Hulk role frequently in such Marvel movies as Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019) and Avengers: Endgame (2019),
Reunited with former co-star Gwyneth Paltrow in the sex-addiction comedy-drama Thanks for Sharing (2012), he went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for playing a bipolar Dad in Infinitely Polar Bear (2014). Ruffalo also took on the lead in Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Larry Kramer's AIDS-drama play The Normal Heart (2014) and earned a SAG Award and Emmy Nomination. He later took home the Emmy playing twin brothers, one a paranoid schizophrenic, in I Know This Much Is True (2020).
Ruffalo has been married to actress Sunrise Coigney since 2000; the couple has three children, two sons and a daughter.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was orphaned at 15 after his father's death in 1930 and became the ward of Dr. Maurice Bernstein of Chicago. In 1931, he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois. He turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain, where he fought in the bullring.
Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katharine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938, they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his subsequent films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948.
In 1956, he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the United States but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984, the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a filmmaker steadily climbed thereafter.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Don Ameche was a versatile and popular American film actor in the 1930s and '40s, usually as the dapper, mustached leading man. He was also popular as a radio master of ceremonies during this time. As his film popularity waned in the 1950s, he continued working in theater and some TV. His film career surged in a comeback in the 1980s with fine work as an aging millionaire in Trading Places (1983) and a rejuvenated oldster in Cocoon (1985).
Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Barbara Edda (Hertel) and Felice Amici, a bartender.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The highly regarded actor Daniel J. Travanti was born Danielo Giovanni Travanty in the southeastern part of Wisconsin on March 7, 1940, but raised for a time in Iowa before returning to his native state. The youngest son of an American Motors auto worker, he showed both athletic and academic prowess in high school on both the football and debate teams.
It was during the course of his studies at the University of Wisconsin that Dan first developed a strong, abiding interest in drama, appearing in many college plays while there. He, in fact, turned down top football scholarships in order to pursue his acting dream. Following training at the Yale School of Drama, he was glimpsed on stage as a messenger (billed as Dan Travanty) in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of "Othello" starring James Earl Jones. The following year he co-starred as Nick with Colleen Dewhurst in a touring company of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1965 and he was off and running. He later returned to Shakespeare in a much bigger role in 1977 as Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew." National tours of "Twigs" (1972, opposite Sada Thompson) and "I Never Sang for My Father" (1987, opposite Harold Gould and Dorothy McGuire) would highlight his theatrical career.
The following year Travanti relocated to Los Angeles, appearing in scores of TV roles as assorted buddies and villains while still billing himself under his actual last name of Travanty (until the early 1970s). Starting with his film debut in the sordid stalker drama Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965) starring Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse, he found a sturdy, if routine, niche in drama with supporting roles in the films The Organization (1971) and St. Ives (1976), and TV guest spots on The Defenders (1961), Perry Mason (1957), Judd for the Defense (1967), The F.B.I. (1965), Mannix (1967), Cannon (1971), and Barnaby Jones (1973).
A consummate professional and chronic overachiever, he quickly approached burnout when he obtained only a measure of the success he expected of himself. Travanti turned to drinking to combat his career dissatisfaction. He finally was forced to seek professional help in 1973 after a collapse and breakdown on stage during the middle of a show in Indianapolis.
Following extensive treatment, Travanti did an about-face. In 1978 he earned a master's degree in English literature at Loyola of Marymount in Los Angeles and the following year nabbed a six-month stint on the ABC daytime soap General Hospital (1963). This renewed resurgence came to a peak came after being cast as the serious, somber-looking Capt. Frank Furillo for six seasons on the classic drama Hill Street Blues (1981). The actor not only won both Emmy (twice) and Golden Globe awards, but developed unlikely sex-symbol status at the age of 41.
This major showcase led to a host of highly acclaimed TV mini-movie parts, notably that of John Walsh, the father who turned activist after his child was murdered, in Adam (1983) and its sequel, Adam: His Song Continues (1986), and the title role of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow in Murrow (1986), earning a Cable ACE award nomination. Other penetrating TV-movies starring or co-starring Travanti included A Case of Libel (1983), Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder (1989), Eyes of a Witness (1991), Weep No More, My Lady (1992), With Harmful Intent (1993),My Name Is Kate (1994), To Sir, with Love II (1996) and Murder in My House (2006).
Avoiding the limelight and focusing on theater endeavors, he found major stage roles both in London ("Les liaisons dangereuses" (1990), "The Aspern Papers") and here ("Wicked Songs (2000), All My Sons" (2002), "Major Barbara" (2003), "The Last Word..." (2007), The Touch of the Poet (2008)). Daniel eventually returned to guest dramatics on both TV crimers ("Prison Break," "Criminal Minds" and "The Defenders") and medical shows ("Grey's Anatomy," "Chicago Med").
Travanti returned to series TV sporting a police badge briefly on Missing Persons (1993), and had recurring roles on Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996), Boss (2011) and NCIS: Los Angeles (2009). Sporadic filming in later years has included the moving drama Something Sweet (2000), the dark-edged dramedy Design (2002) and the romantic film comedy One Small Hitch (2013).- Character actress Concetta Tomei was born on December 30, 1945, and raised in her hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the only child of a policeman who was a talented artist on the sly. She came from a long line of educators and was likely drawn to that career at an influential age. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education. After teaching school in a Milwaukee suburb for four years, however, she abruptly quit to pursue her acting dream. She became a student of the famed Goodman School of Drama in Chicago where she received a another degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in theater arts. She also trained at the Alley Theatre in Houston.
Concetta (unrelated to actress Marisa Tomei) eventually moved to New York and began on the stock and repertory stages where she gathered a formidable list of early credits, appearing in such plays as "A Streetcar Named Desire, "Candida," "Blithe Spirit" and "The Corn Is Green." Appearing off-Broadway in such plays as "Cloud Nine" and "The Normal Heart," she made her debut on Broadway replacing Carole Shelley in "The Elephant Man" playing the actress/grande dame Mrs. Kendal. She continued in her role when a subsequent tour went out starring David Bowie.
Seeking on-camera experience, she moved out West in the 1980s and found substantial work on TV with her all-controlling, severe-looking femmes, which culminated in the critically acclaimed Vietnam War drama China Beach (1988) in which she played a hard-as-nails major. She continued with a host of guest parts on "L.A. Law," "Murphy Brown," "Picket Fences" and "Wings," among many others. Not readily known for her film work, she has nevertheless offered occasional arch support (since 1991) in such pictures as Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), Twenty Bucks (1993), Out to Sea (1997) Deep Impact (1998), The Muse (1999) and View from the Top (2003). Another hard-edged series TV role came with Providence (1999), in which she played a chain-smoking mom.
Plentifully seen on film and TV into the millennium, Concetta has been spotted in Purpose (2002), View from the Top (2003), The List (2007) and Reach (2018), while her offbeat TV guest credits include "Judging Amy," 7th Heaven," "The King of Queens," "Numb3rs," "Cold Case," "Nip/Tuck" and "Arrested Development." - Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Angelica Ross was born on 28 November 1980 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for American Horror Story (2011), Pose (2018) and Claws (2017).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Albert was born on June 24, 1919 to Raffaele Molinaro and Teresa Marrone. His father was born in Calabria, Italy and immigrated to the US when he was 15 years old and worked as a water boy with a railroad crew going west from New York. He ended up in Kenosha Wisconsin where he met and married Albert's mother Teresa on December 22, 1901. His father named Albert after his favorite Italian Prince, Umberto II who was born 15 years earlier. A school teacher later suggested that "Albert" might be more suitable. His mother chose his middle name Fransico after Santo Francisco since he was born on Saint Francis Day. The midwife who's English was only slightly better than Albert's parents spelled his middle name with a feminine "A" at the end which was never corrected. His legal named remained Umberto Francisca Molinaro. He was the ninth child of what would later become a family of ten children, eight boys and 2 girls. At 19 years of age Albert became a union leader at the Vincent-McCall furniture spring factory after working there for only 4 months. He later became the special assistant to the Kenosha City Manager when he was 20. At this time Albert's best friend from Kenosha, Mills Tenuta, who had moved to Southern California to work in an aircraft plant, began harassing him to come out to Hollywood. He was sure that Albert could be a movie star. Albert left a promising career with the city after only a year to head to Hollywood to become an actor. Albert had many jobs while pursuing his acting career. His first job was at Reginald Denny's Hobby shop in Hollywood. He spent 2 years as a live action animator at George Pal's studios. If Technicolor hadn't gone on a sympathy strike with the Studio Carpenters union he might have spent his career as an animator. He managed the M&G Grand Variety Store for a year and then became a bill collector for the "Collection Agency of America" in downtown LA. He quickly learned the art of bill collecting and was able to become a salesman who procured collection accounts for another agency which he later purchased. This gave him flexible hours and a steady income so he could focus again on his dreams of Hollywood. Even after his acting career took off he kept his Bill Collection business until he retired. Albert married Jacqueline Martin in 1948. They moved into a home in Granada Hills, CA and adopted their son Michael Molinaro. Albert and Jacqueline were divorced in 1980. Albert then married Betty Sedillos in 1981 and they lived in Glendale CA until his death in 2015. Albert had two step children, Jim Sedillos & Victoria Sedillos and a total of 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grand children. Albert's movie debut happened when he was 25 years old. After appearing as the lead in a Chekhov play called "The Bear" at the old Sartu Theater that used to be on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea Ave. A movie producer saw the performance and cast him in a picture that had three separate stories, one of the stories was Chekhov's play "The Bear" but changed from a Russian setting to a Spanish locale. The movie was titled "Love Me Madly". Albert was not told that some of the scenes they shot without him were R rated in today's standards but X rated for 1954's standards. He was surprised and upset during the movies premiere and vowed to never again be in a film that his mother couldn't watch. During the early 1950's Albert began producing live television shows for local televisions stations channel 5 KTLA, channel 9 KHJ & channel 11 KTTV. He Co-created "Insomnia" a late night live show and a "Ski Show" in which Warren Miller allowed him to use some of his skiing footage. He created "Star Finder" a pre-teen amateur show, "Square Dance Party" and "The Tiny Late Show" which was his own late night one man show that filled the few minutes of time between the end of the late night movie and the station signing off for the night.
All the time Albert was working to pay his bills he was also acting in small plays in theaters all over Hollywood. After 25 years of theater acting he was convinced to play a small part in a play directed by his friend, Leo Matranga, at the Hollywood Horseshoe Theater. After the show, a commercial agent named Don Schwartz offered to represent him. Albert swore off acting and never called Don. One year later, Don called Albert telling him that he already set up an appointment for him and convinced him to audition for a national commercial. Albert got the commercial for the Volvo 140. You can see his commercial debut on youtube "Volvo 140 advertising". It's 3 min. & 30 seconds into the video (they have strung many vintage Volvo ads together). Take a look at his first commercial and you will see the face that went on to land over 100 commercials. 42 of them were nationals. He also landed a 10 year deal with "Encore" frozen dinners becoming their spokesperson. A friend from George Pal's Studios named Glenn Grossman cast Albert whenever he could in the industrial films that he would make from time to time. It was while working on one of Glenn's films that Albert met another working actor named Harvey Lembeck. When Harvey wasn't acting he ran an actor's workshop. Harvey convinced Albert that he could help him with his comedy timing. Gary Marshall's sister Penny was also a member of Harvey's workshop. One night Penny asked her brother to come down and see Albert. Gary was in the process of producing a movie starring Jacquiline Bissett called "The Grasshopper" and wanted Al to play the part of a truck driver. Albert did not play the part because the shooting dates conflicted with a Pepto-Bismol commercial he was scheduled to shoot in Phoenix. A year later, when Albert learned from his writer friend, John Rappaport, that Garry Marshall was casting for The Odd Couple TV show, John convinced him that he would be perfect to play one of the poker players. Albert first refused to call Gary but John badgered him enough to finally make him call. Albert made numerous phone calls but got no response so he decided to dress up like a delivery man and deliver a 2'x3' card with many pictures of himself glued to it stating that "Al Molinaro is a Poker Player. ...Assorted Poker Faces ... More faces available upon demand. Just Call (his Phone #) Dear Gary, If you don't call me for an audition, I'll put a curse on you to make you sterile for life. Sincerely, Al Molinaro. The delivery outfit did not get him past the guard at the Paramount gate but it did get the card delivered and Albert got an audition and landed the part of Murray the Cop. Later, Gary stated that, "Although we thought Albert was wrong for the part, we decided to take a chance on Al because of all the men who we auditioned, he was the funniest. Albert spent 5 years on The Odd Couple and when it finished, due to the fact that Jack Klugman wanted to do drama, he was offered the roll of the Malt Shop Owner on Gary's new show "Happy Days". Albert turned down the role feeling he did not want to work with a "bunch of kids". After the first season of Happy Days, Pat Morita, who was cast in the role of the malt shop owner, was offered his own show so Gary once again asked Albert to work on the show. Albert asked Gary that if he didn't like working on the show, could he quit whenever he wanted. Gary said he couldn't put that in writing but that they would shake on it. Albert enjoyed 10 years on "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984 and 1 more year on "Joanie Loves Chachi. He guest starred on many television shows during and after the filming of the Odd Couple and Happy Days. He also worked on a short lived sitcom called "The Family Man" from 1990-1991 but decided to stop taking roles by the mid 90's. He completed his 10 year contract with Encore Frozen Foods and as his last job he surprisingly accepted an offer to be in a music video with Wheezer.
Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the mid 90's and lived with the illness for 20 years. Early diagnosis and careful medication allowed Albert to enjoy life until he had a small heart attack in May of 2015. He was a wonderfully kind man. He taught himself to play the piano, clarinet and ukulele and even had a few real gigs in Reno playing the clarinet in his youth. His family believes that his improvisational skills allowed him to mask his Alzheimer's disease from most people until just before he died. He continued to personally answer his fan mail until his health did not allow it. In June he celebrated his 96th birthday but he was declining quickly. He developed a gall stones and due to his age and the recent heart attack, surgery was not recommended. Albert died on October 30th 2015.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Faye Mata is a professional voice actress and a former competitive gamer. She primarily voices video game and animated characters, best known for Lulu from League of Legends. Faye played games semi-professionally in tournaments around the world such as EVO, Pokémon Worlds, and SyFy's WCG Ultimate Gamer under the gamer tag "Princess Aura". Even as a voice actor convention guest, Faye is notorious for crashing the game room and competing in tournaments and playing with fans.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Thom Bierdz was born on 25 March 1962 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and The Last Place on Earth (2002). He is married to Mark R. Harris.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin to British parents, multi award winning actor, writer, director Sarah Deakins spent the first year of her life in Chicago, until her parents decided to move to Canada. She was heavily inspired by her artist stepmother, deeply affected by her descent into Schizophrenia, and having lost this childhood idol to the streets, her work often illustrates the fragility and unexpected integrity of the disenfranchised and the down trodden. A graduate of the University of Victoria theater program, Ms. Deakins has extensive stage and screen credits. The first short film she penned and starred in, "Late", went to Cannes as part of Telefilm Canada's "Not Short On Talent" Program, and more recently Deakins has collected over 25 awards on the festival circuit as the writer and director of "Greece", produced by Brightlight Pictures. She is the creator, writer, director of an award winning 1/2 hour pilot, "Yellow", again with Brightlight Pictures, and her feature film script, "Violet", recently won the top prizes in the Outstanding Screenplay Competition and the Golden Script Competition, placed in the top 40 of the Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition, and was an honorable mention in the Screencraft Feature Screenplay competition, and a runner up in their Film Fund Competition. Ms Deakins makes her home in three main cities, splitting the year between LA, Toronto, and Vancouver.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
A 1941 graduate of Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha, where he served on the student council and participated in forensics under dramatic coach John Davies, he took second place in the National Forensics League national contest in Lexington, Kentucky in dramatic declaration and oratorical declamation. (The Kenosha team won the meet that year over 800-plus contestants.) By 1948, he was working in radio and joined television in its infancy, becoming the commercial announcer for "I Love Lucy" in 1951. He was married for sixty years.- Charlie Talbert, born Charles McClellan Talbert in Kenosha, WI. Was discovered by Director Patrick Read Johnson (5-25-77) while in line late one evening telling jokes to the workers in a Wendy's, landing him the starring role in the 1995 Turner Classic film "Angus". After a six year hiatus from acting Charlie has rebooted his career in early 2015 acting in such films as "I Saw The Light" (2015), "Hap and Leonard" (2015), "Camera Obscura" (2017) and the Oscar winning film "The Big Short" (2015). Having tried his hand at The Groundlings in Los Angeles and performing Stand-Up at The World Famous Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd. or at the HaHa Cafe Comedy Club on Lankershim Blvd. Charlie returned to the big screen to reach a larger audience. In his off time he is an ordained minister and has performed several weddings for friends and fans alike. Charlie lives by the mantras, "There are no small parts, only small actors" and "Every little bit helps".
- Actor
- Director
One of acting's more reliable performers from the 1970s through the early 1990s, Charles Siebert alternated between the live theater and film/television as both an actor and director. Born the eldest of four children in 1938 in Wisconsin, he started his career following journalism school at Marquette University and a stint in the U.S. Army in the 60s. After marrying his college sweetheart, Catherine Kilzer, he trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. They eventually returned to the United States with their English-born son, Christopher, and resided in New York City where two more children, Charles Andrew and Gillian, were born.
Following work in various regional theatre productions, Charles graduated to roles on the Broadway and off-Broadway stages. He made his Broadway debut in Galileo (1967) and appeared in such other New York plays as "The Gingerbread Lady" (1970) with Tony winner Maureen Stapleton, "Sticks and Bones" (1972), and the 1974 revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" starring Elizabeth Ashley in which he played the role of Gooper. He was also in the cast of the 1968 musical "Jimmy Shine" starring Dustin Hoffman. Simultaneously Charles was appearing in such New York-based daytime soaps as "Search for Tomorrow," "Another World" and "As the World Turns."
Moving to Los Angeles in the mid 1970s, Charles was seen in many commercials and also joined the guest roster of episodics, appearing on most of the popular series of the time including "All in the Family," "Rhoda," "Barnaby Jones," "One Day at a Time," "Maude," "Kojak," and "The Rockford Files." Among his more distinguished TV work was his portrayal of Helen Keller's father in the mini-movie The Miracle Worker (1979) which starred Melissa Gilbert as Helen and Patty Duke, formerly the Oscar-winning Helen on film, inheriting the role of teacher Annie Sullivan. For seven seasons Charles co-starred as Dr. Stanley Riverside, the chief of emergency services, on Trapper John, M.D. (1979) with Pernell Roberts and Gregory Harrison. During that period he began taking an avid interest in directing and ended up helming several episodes of the series.
Over the years Charles has performed with some the finest regional theatres in the United States, including the inaugural year of San Francisco's ACT; the Goodman Theatre in Chicago; The Theatre Company of Boston; Baltimore's Center Stage; The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey; Stratford Connecticut's American Shakespeare Festival, and some seven seasons at Williamstown, Massachusetts' Summer Theatre. In the 1990s he became predominantly known as a TV director of such shows as "Knots Landing", "Silk Stalkings", "The Pretender", "Hercules" and "Xena: Warrior Princess".
Following the death of his first wife Catherine in 1981, Charles re-married in 1986 to Kristine Leroux, a former real-estate executive, who added three children of her own to the family mix. Of his own three children, both Christopher and Charlie, Jr. now have careers in jazz music as headliners in the well-known band Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. Charles Sr. is now retired and living happily with his wife in the wine country of Northern California.- Paul Sorensen was born on 16 February 1926 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Hang 'Em High (1968) and Charlie's Angels (1976). He was married to Jacqueline May. He died on 17 July 2008 in Cardiff by-the-Sea, San Diego County, California, USA.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Bert I. Gordon, affectionately nicknamed "Mr. B.I.G." by Forrest J. Ackerman, produced, directed, and wrote more than twenty-five Sci/Fi and Horror features, such as The Magic Sword (1962), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Village of the Giants (1965), The Cyclops (1957), in addition to comedies such as How to Succeed with Sex (1970). His film, The Food of the Gods (1976), was awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International Du Paris Fantastique 1977.- Nancy Berg was the only child of Paul Axel Berg and Dorothy Esther (Schanock) Berg. On her father's side, she was of Swedish descent. Paul Berg's grandfather, William Bernard Berg, was born April 23, 1838, in Osa, Jamtland, Sweden. He came to the United States in 1873, settled in Maple Ridge, Isanti County, Minnesota and worked as a farmer. Paul Berg enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. In 1925, at age 20, he had attained the rank of surfman and was located at the Coast Guard Station in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He served in the Coast Guard for the next 20 years. He married Dorothy Schanock, the eldest of three daughters of John and Frances Schanock, of Kenosha.
The story of the marriage of Nancy Berg's parents is a bit unusual. According to two genealogies of which Paul Axel Berg was a member - that of the Mattson Family and that of the Harrington Family with focus on Swedish lines - Paul Berg married Dorothy Esther Shunck (her surname misspelled). The latter genealogy specified the marriage date of Thursday, April 4, 1929. The Kenosha Evening News of that date published a story headlined "True Love Ends in a Marriage. Sweethearts for 3 Years, Opposed by Parents, Will Be Married Soon". As the girl was by then 18, it would appear the boy, then 21, had been dating a 15 year-old. In the event, the girl left a note for her parents, saying she was going off to make a living for herself. The parents called the police with suspicions that their daughter had run off with her young man. Further investigation revealed that the two were living in a small room in Chicago. Their plans to marry were thwarted when they ran out of money. A police officer was dispatched to Chicago to bring the couple back to Kenosha. At police headquarters the girl's parents talked the matter over with the policewomen and the detectives. They concluded that the best course was to let the couple marry. The follow-up story, "Couple Married, All's Well that Ends Well", notes that on Friday, the day after their return to Kenosha, they were married at the parsonage.
One year later, in April 1930, the U. S. Census for Kenosha finds Dorothy Berg, married, head of a household which includes only herself, was living in the rear of 5036 Fourth Avenue, Kenosha. That address is located on Simmons Island, the site of the Coast Guard station. On a separate census sheet devoted to the men billeted at the Coast Guard station, Paul Berg, age 25, is listed as married, head of a household consisting only of himself. At that time in the history of the Coast Guard, housing for spouses of men on active duty was not automatically provided. Indeed, for assignment to a Coast Guard station located in a remote area of shoreline, married couples would be separated for long periods of time. (Valuable research assistance for the story of Nancy Berg and her parents in the early years in Kenosha was graciously provided by Melissa Olson, Archives Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Parkside Archives & Area Research Center, Kenosha WI.)
After their marriage, Paul and Dorothy Berg continued to live in Kenosha, with Paul on active duty at the Coast Guard station. In 1937, when Nancy was 6 years old, Paul was transferred to the Atlantic coast, to the Monmouth, New Jersey Coast Guard Station. The 1940 U. S. Census has Nancy, still 8 years old, and her mother living in the small town of Little Silver, New Jersey, while her father is listed with his unit at the Coast Guard station. In a lengthy interview with syndicated columnist James L. Kilgallen, Part 3 of a ten-part series on America's "most glamorous and successful models", published in various newspapers between October 31 and November 2, 1955, Nancy Berg described her early life. She told Kilgallen that her mother had started her modeling in Kenosha when she was 3 years old. At age 6, now in New Jersey, she attended parochial school until age 14, that is, until 1945. Although her parents were still listed as living together in the 1945 Red Bank, New Jersey directory, they were going through a divorce. Nancy's mother remarried in 1947. Aged 16, Nancy ran away from home. She told Kilgallen she didn't want to talk about her family, saying she was not close to them.
Now on her own at age 16, Nancy went to Detroit, where she found work modeling for television commercials about home appliances. She went to Miami, Florida, where she modeled for the famous department store Burdine's, and learned trick water skiing. On May 15, 1949, a photograph of Nancy Berg modeling a bathing suit with an outline map of Florida on the front was published in The Miami News and republished in newspapers across the country. She was then 17. It is not clear from published accounts how or why Nancy Berg made her way to Chicago, nor how she happened to meet Dave Garroway. In any event, Garroway, who had a successful television show in Chicago ("Garroway At Large"), was asked by NBC to come to New York City and lead a new network morning program, Today. In early 1951, not yet 20 years old, Nancy followed him to New York and described her big breakthrough succinctly: "I checked into the Plaza Hotel and in 6 months I was on the cover of Vogue." Following her first cover photo in 1951, offers of modeling work increased.
Later in 1951, Berg was photographed wearing an evening gown by Leslie Morris. In 1952, she modeled creations designed by Luis Estevez and by Jacques Fath, among others. Many photographs appeared in Vogue, but other publications, including Life Magazine featured her as well. By August 4, 1954, columnist Leonard Lyons, writing his column from the French Riviera and interviewing Nancy Berg at poolside, could describe her as a "high-priced model" making forty dollars an hour. She said that she was taking singing lessons, realizing that "a pretty face doesn't last long. Five more years at most" - that is, until age 28, in 1959. One year after making that prediction, she was interviewed by James L. Kilgallen, who was able to write "Nancy Berg, $40,000-a-year fashion model is at the peak of her career as a glamour girl and is enjoying every minute of it." She mentioned her social life, going out almost every night with men of varying degrees of fame, combined with work, acting and ballet lessons made for many twenty-hour days. Her photographs were used to sell everything from ball gowns to bathing suits and products from cosmetics to Cadillacs.
Berg's first role in a made-for-television series was Paris Precinct (1955). The series was unique in that it took place and was filmed in Paris, recorded in English, and made for the American public. Berg appeared in episode 7 in the first year of the series, playing an actress. The episode aired on May 15, 1955. She took two flights from Paris to New York, that year, on February 15 and on March 28, 1955. That same year, Berg got her own television show on WRCA-TV in New York. The program was titled Count Sheep and aired from 1:00 to 1:05 in the morning five nights a week. Berg, wearing a nightgown and peignoir, appeared on a bedroom set. She would comb her hair, fuss with makeup, and improvise bits of stage business. On one show, she poked a hole in a small pizza, put the pizza on a turntable, whereupon the pizza played "That's Amore!" as sung by Dean Martin. Finally, she would have her cockerspaniel jump on the bed, would get under the covers, and count the sheep in an animated overlay. The show ran for over a year and garnered much press attention. While some twenty or twenty-five people were working on the show, the names of the production staff are not available, and film or tape of the shows have apparently not been preserved. Berg appeared in episodes of one TV series in 1956 and in two series in 1959. In 1964, a time of great stress in her personal life, she appeared in two films and in three series. Her appearances included scenes with Walter Matthau in Fail Safe (1964) and a cameo as herself in Mr. Broadway (1964). She appeared in an episode of Ben Casey (1961).
Berg was a serious student of acting. She first attended the Actors' Studio in late 1956, when Lee Strasberg, the head of the Actors' Studio assured her that acting would have a calming influence on her. She made two appearances in summer stock in Connecticut in 1956, and made her New York stage debut in November 1956. As Berg's modeling work decreased, her theatrical appearances increased, such that publicity often referred to her as "Nancy Berg, actress."
Berg's last recorded acting credit was in Nurse (1981), starring Michael Learned. By 1980, Berg had already outlived the syndicated columnists for whom she had provided so much copy in the 1950s and 1960s: Dorothy Kilgallen died in 1965; Earl Wilson in 1967; Walter Winchell in 1972; and friend as well as columnist Leonard Lyons, who retired in 1974 and died in 1976.
Around 1994, Michael Gross interviewed Berg for his book "Model. The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women", Warner Books (1995). He noted that at the time of his interview, Nancy was working as a makeup artist for a local New York City television station. In fact, she received screen credit for make up for the Charlie Rose (1991) program of October 14, 1994 on which the interviewee was Quentin Tarantino. In the interviews published in "Model", Berg was far more candid about her relationship with her mother than she had been many years earlier in her 1955 interview with Kilgallen. She told Gross that when she was photographed at age 3 she realized that her mother was pleased with her. Perhaps, she thought as a child, this was the way to win her mother's approval. Instead, she describes in stark terms the beatings she said her mother gave her, including allegedly dousing her with hot coffee. Her parents had separated long before their divorce. In this telling, Nancy ran away from home at age 15 and headed directly to Florida. To her chagrin, even with her considerable success and fame as a model after arriving in New York, there was no response from her mother. She also told Gross of being introduced to amphetamines by her first boyfriend, Dave Garroway. With the pressures of work and an active social life, she said she didn't sleep "for about ten years".
Her first marriage, to actor Geoffrey Horne, ended when he reportedly abandoned her and their then 5 year old daughter and cleaned out their bank account. She said her second marriage, to physician Alan K. Elliott, ended after two months when Elliott struck her and her daughter. Finally, in 1968, she married Rick Praeger. In her interviews with Michael Gross, she related how Praeger's 16 year old son from a previous marriage, high on LSD, wanted to attack his father but beat her up instead. She lost several teeth, required plastic surgery and ruefully realized that the face that was her fortune was no more. They too divorced. Berg was interviewed by Meryle Secrest for her biography of Stephen Sondheim. The book was copyright 1997. Nancy described her close friendship with Sondheim. They both liked word games, and, of course, theater. They also had another strong bond. As Berg put it, "We both had Medea-mothers".
Finally, on July 15, 2009, William Safire, writing another installment of his New York Times Magazine series "On Language", undertook an explanation of how the word "model" evolved from its original meaning to a word denoting a person who posed for photographs. Safire noted that he had dated Berg in the 1950s, when she and only two other models were reportedly the first to break the $100 an hour ceiling for modeling fees. - Robin Samsoe was born on 13 December 1966 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. She died on 20 July 1979 in Sierra Madre, California, USA.
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Richard Blake is a veteran actor known for NCIS: Los Angeles, Drop Dead Diva, Days of our Lives, Cold Case, CSI, Dragonball: Evolution, the indie biopic Snake & Mongoose, and the multiple award winning indie film The Rocket. He founded the company Amberock Productions in 2016. He continues to work as an actor while writing, producing, and directing projects as well. Amberock Production's second film, Blame, released September 2021 as the #3 most streamed new release film on Amazon in the fall of 2021. His third feature film "The Actor" released April 2nd, 2024 on Apple TV and was ranked as the #1 independent new release on that platform. "The Actor" premiered to a sold out crowd at AMC theaters in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. The entire cast was present as was rock legend Ed Roland from the world famous rock band Collective Soul, whose music is featured on the film's energetic soundtrack. Richard Blake has several projects in development both as writer and director in addition to working on screen.- Actor
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Nathan Greno was born in Kenosha, Wisc., on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan. As a child, he developed a love for drawing, which quickly evolved into a passion for visual storytelling. Influenced by comic books and newspaper comic strips, he started filling tablets of paper full of sketches. He began creating his own characters, his own worlds and story lines. It was his frequent trips to the local movie theater that planted the seed for a future career at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He made sure to see all of Disney's classic animated films on the big screen. Animation was quickly becoming his favorite form of visual storytelling, so at the ripe old age of 8, he just knew he wanted to work for Disney.
Greno devoted himself to discovering all there was to know about the art of animation. He continued to create his own characters, crudely animating them in the pages of his school textbooks. In 1989, a family trip to Walt Disney World gave him his first real glimpse of animators at work. It was there that he watched the artists breathe life into their characters and he was more determined than ever to continue on his path to joining the Disney family. He went on to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1996, Greno's portfolio was accepted by Walt Disney Animation Studios in Florida. His career started as a clean-up animation artist on "Mulan." Having never lost his affinity for storytelling, he soon became obsessed with the storyboarding process at the studio. He realized that storyboarding was similar to the comic books and comic strips he grew up reading and creating.
Pursuing his new interest, Greno joined the story department in 1998. He was part of the story team on short film "John Henry" and feature-length "Brother Bear." He relocated to California in 2003, where he continued to work in the story department and in a variety of other capacities. He served as a screenwriter, story artist and voice actor on "Meet the Robinsons" and was then promoted to head of story on "Bolt." In that role, he oversaw the story of the film, managed the story crew and their sequences, while also storyboarding. He made his directorial debut with the short film, "Super Rhino," which was featured as an exclusive on the "Bolt" Blu-Ray/DVD. He also lent his voice talent to Dasher the Reindeer in Disney's 2009 animated holiday special "Prep and Landing."
Greno went on to direct the 2010 hit "Tangled," Walt Disney Animation Studios' 50th animated feature, with fellow director Byron Howard. According to John Lasseter, chief creative offices for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Greno and Howard created a movie that can sit on the shelf next to classic Disney animated films, while also being an entertaining roller coaster ride for modern audiences. In 2012, the Greno and Howard once again joined forces for "Tangled Ever After," a short film and continuation of the "Tangled" story that saw the kingdom abuzz over the royal wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.
Since, Greno has contributed to Walt Disney Animation Studios' two Academy Award®-winning feature length films, as an additional story artist on "Frozen" (2013) and a creative advisor for "Big Hero 6" (2014). Greno resides in the hills of Los Feliz, Calif., just down the street from Walt Disney's old house, with his fiancée Colie. His favorite film of all time is and always will be "Dumbo."- Ryan Knight was born on 18 June 1986 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. He died on 27 November 2014 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA.
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One of several handsome American actors who migrated to Europe in the early 60s when their careers in the States weren't progressing as well as they wanted, Antonio Pietro Russo, aka Tony Russel (or Tony Russell), was born on November 23, 1925 in Wisconsin, the son of Italian immigrants. Brought up with a strong religious foundation, he developed an interest in acting at a relatively young age and, following his honorable discharge with the Air Force, took up languages, speech and drama at the University of Michigan.
After training at the Pasadena Playhouse, Tony began to find uncredited ethnic roles in such 1950's films as Hiawatha (1952), The Silver Chalice (1954), Jump Into Hell (1955), Anything Goes (1956), King Creole (1958), Don't Give Up the Ship (1959) and Last Train from Gun Hill (1959). He also found work in a few popular shows including "The Lone Wolf," "Highway Patrol," "Broken Arrow," "Peter Gunn" and "Zorro." His first prime movie role came with the low-budget Korean War yarn War Is Hell (1961), courtesy of writer, producer, director Burt Topper.
Russel's big break came when he was given the starring role of notorious bandit Fra Diavolo in the Italian-made action adventure The Last Charge (1962) co-starring Israeli actress Haya Harareet. Finding a market for himself in Italy as a dashing hero, he packed up his gear and headed for Europe in September of 1961 with wife, actress Jodean Lawrence and young son in tow to go where the action was.
Settling in Rome, for the next several years, Tony worked steadily in standard adventures, swashbucklers, "007"-type spy tales and sci-fi thrillers. Most of his work followed the typical title-tells-all fare starring in such actioneers as Knights of Terror (1963), The Secret Seven (1963), Sword of Damascus (1964), L'ultima carica (1964), The Revolt of the Seven (1964) (aka The Spartan Gladiator), Secret of the Sphinx (1964), Behind the Mask of Zorro (1964) (title role), The Wild, Wild Planet (1966) and its companion film The War of the Planets (1966), Target Goldseven (1966) and Honeymoons Will Kill You (1966). Tony was one of the unfortunates to turn down the popular "spaghetti western" A Fistful of Dollars (1964) which made an international superstar out of Clint Eastwood. He also auditioned to play Disney's TV "Zorro" character but lost out to Guy Williams. Fluent in Italian (from high school), Tony found work dubbing voices and was the founder and president of the English Language Dubbers Association (ELDA) in Italy.
Tony returned to Hollywood in 1967 but found scant work on film and TV, often veering off onto the dinner theater circuit. Some TV guest shots came his way with "Death Valley Days," "The High Chaparral," "Night Gallery," "Hec Ramsey," "Lou Grant," "CHiPS" and "Vega$." His old friend Burt Topper hired him and gave him third billing in both the cheaply-budgeted biker drama The Hard Ride (1971) starring Robert Fuller, and as a tent-show evangelist preacher who takes in singing hustler Fabian in the hip drama Soul Hustler (1973).
Save for an isolated 1992 appearance in the series "Hearts Afire," Tony ended his career following featured roles in the TV movies The Mystic Warrior (1984) and The Vegas Strip War (1984). Little was heard of him after this. He died on March 18, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at aged 91. He was buried in Boulder City. His longtime second wife, Renee Iris Russo (1942-2019), followed him in death more than two years later.- Actress
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Joyce Elaine Romeo, the raven-haired daughter of Orlando and Emma Romeo of 5606 34th Avenue in Kenosha, Wisconsin, studied at the nearby McKinley Junior High School and the downtown Mary D. Bradford High School while simultaneously nurturing her dreams of performing before appreciative audiences. She made her first such appearances in Chicago clubs before coming to Los Angeles for George White's Scandals and Billy Gray's Band Box (Dorothy Kilgallen noted her in July, 1946 as a dancer at LaConga) and local television. One such telecast caught the eye of producer Ron Ormond who signed her for "Outlaw Women" (1952) without a screen test. Previously she had appeared with Mickey Rooney as "the other woman" in The Strip. Also in 1952 Jacki (as she was labeled on Crystalette Records songs) worked with Jack Carson at the Sahati's Country Club Casino in Stateline, Nevada. Bing Crosby noticed her at a Pebble Beach golf tournament and cast her in The Country Girl. Later she did live appearances with comic Lenny Kent at the Casino Lounge in the Mapes Hotel and in 1962 with Buddy Lester at New Facks and at the Losers Club in Hollywood. and by 1965 at the Jamaica Room of the West Valley Bowl and at Sunset Boulevard's Key Club. Three years later she worked as a regular in a troupe with singer-comic Duke Mitchell, and by the 1970s she was seen at Aladdin's Funny Farm, the new Nine Thousand and the Fire and Flame in North Hollywood, with billing calling her "The Performer's Performer".- Erin Wagner was born on 22 September 1990 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. She is an actress, known for Ask Me No Questions, America's Next Top Model (2003) and The Tyra Banks Show (2005).
- Scott Ruffalo was born on 1 February 1969 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. Scott was married to Luzelena Garcia. Scott died on 8 December 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
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Rocky Faulkner was born on 18 March 1978 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. He is an actor, known for Dune: Part One (2021), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Star Trek: Discovery (2017).