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- Actress
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- Producer
Multi-talented, multi-award-winning actress Kathleen (Doyle) Bates was born on June 28, 1948, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates. Kathy has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German, ancestry, and one of her ancestors, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor.
Kathy discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders. Things started moving quickly up the ladder after giving a tour-de-force performance alongside Christopher Walken at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre in Lanford Wilson's world premiere of "Lemon Sky" in 1970, but she also had a foreshadowing of the heartbreak to come after the successful show relocated to New York's off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre without her and Walken wound up winning a Drama Desk award.
By the mid-to-late 1970s, Kathy was treading the boards frequently as a
rising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. She
appeared in "Casserole" and "A Quality of Mercy" (both 1975) before
earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in "Vanities". She
took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980's "Goodbye Fidel," which
lasted only six performances. She then went directly into replacement
mode when she joined the cast of the already-established and highly
successful "Fifth of July" in 1981.
Kathy made a false start in films with
Taking Off (1971), in which she was
billed as "Bobo Bates". She didn't film again until
Straight Time (1978), starring
Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not
substantial enough to cause a stir. Things turned hopeful, however,
when Kathy and the rest of the female ensemble were given the chance to
play their respective Broadway parts in the film version of
Robert Altman's
Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982).
It was a juicy role for Kathy and film audiences finally started
noticing the now 34-year-old.
Still and all, it was the New York stage that continued to earn Kathy
awards and acclaim. She was pure textbook to any actor studying how to
disappear into a role. Her characters ranged from free and
life-affirming to downright pitiable. Despite winning a Tony Award
nomination and Outer Critic's Circle Award for her stark, touchingly
sad portrait of a suicidal daughter in 1983's "'night, Mother" and the
Obie and Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her powerhouse job as a
romantic misfit in "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune," Kathy
had no box-office pull, however, and was never a strong consideration when the
roles transferred to the screen. Her award-winning stage went to established film stars. First
Sissy Spacek took over her potent role as the
suicidal Jessie Cates in
'night, Mother (1986), then
Michelle Pfeiffer seized the moment to
play her dumpy lover character in
Frankie and Johnny (1991). It
would take Oscar glory to finally rectify the injustice.
It was Kathy's fanatical turn as the drab, chunky, porcine-looking
psychopath Annie Wilkes, who kidnaps her favorite author
(James Caan) and subjects him to a
series of horrific tortures, that finally turned the tide for her in
Hollywood. With the 1990 shocker
Misery (1990), based on the popular
Stephen King novel, Bates and Caan
were box office magic. Moreover, Kathy captured the "Best Actress"
Oscar and Golden Globe award, a first in that genre (horror) for that
category. To add to her happiness she married
Tony Campisi, also an actor, in 1991.
Quality film scripts now started coming her way and the 1990s proved to
be a rich and rewarding time for her. First, she and another older
"overnight" film star, fellow Oscar winner
Jessica Tandy, starred together in the
modern portion of the beautifully nuanced, flashback period piece
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991).
She then outdid herself as the detached and depressed housekeeper
accused of murdering her abusive husband
(David Strathairn) in
Dolores Claiborne (1995).
Surprisingly, she was left out of the Oscar race for these two
excellent performances. Not so, however, for her flashy political
advisor Libby Holden in the movie
Primary Colors (1998), receiving praise and a
"Best Supporting Actress" nomination.
Kathy has continued to work prolifically on TV as a 14-time Emmy winner or nominee thus far. She has also taken to directing a couple of TV-movies on the sly. As most actors, she has been in hit and miss TV shows. On the hit side, she has earned a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Jay Leno's manager playing tough politics in The Late Shift (1996) and played to the hilt the cruel-minded orphanage operator, Miss Hannigan, in Annie (1999) for which she also earned an Emmy nom. She has done some eye-catching, offbeat turns on regular series such as Six Feet Under (2001) (for which she also earned a DGA award for helming an episode), The Office (2005), Harry's Law (2011) and especially American Horror Story (2011) for which she won an Emmy as Ethel Darling. She also won an Emmy for a guest episode on the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003).
Interesting millennium filming have included a Catholic school's Mother Superior in the comic drama Bruno (2000); Jesse James' mother in American Outlaws (2001); a quirky, liberal mom in About Schmidt (2002) for which she earned another "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination; a brief but potent turn as Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011); Queen Victoria in the adventurous remake of Around the World in 80 Days (2004); wacky parent types in the comedies Failure to Launch (2006) and Relative Strangers (2006); Mother Claus in the seasonal farce Fred Claus (2007); an over-gushy foster mother in the dramedy The Great Gilly Hopkins (2015); and a wrenching performance as the mother of a suspected terrorist in Richard Jewell (2019) for which she earned her third "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination.
Divorced from husband Campisi since 1997, Kathy has been the Executive
Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero.
Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a
successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while
avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to
an Irish-American family. With the exception of mom Nancy (née
Carolan), a former math teacher, the Cusack clan is all show business:
father Dick Cusack was an actor and
filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack,
Ann Cusack,
Bill Cusack and
Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade.
Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven
Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he
already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and
industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17,
acting alongside Rob Lowe and
Andrew McCarthy in the romantic
comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a
member of Anthony Michael Hall's
geek brigade in
Sixteen Candles (1984), put him
on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the
periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of
most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like
The Sure Thing (1985) and
Better Off Dead (1985).
Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered
his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in
Say Anything (1989). A year
later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man
caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in
The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled
in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several
shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he
founded in 1988 (modeling it after
Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los
Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years
later, Cusack's high school friends
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting
a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first
feature was the sharply written comedy
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997),
which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to
co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his
ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the
girl he stood up on prom night
(Minnie Driver). In an instance of life
imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to
honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life
romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent
(or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action
star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a
movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business
decisions. He followed that with
Clint Eastwood's
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997),
in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder
case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when
he turned up in the fiercely original
Being John Malkovich (1999).
Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in
the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into
the brain of actor John Malkovich. The
convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the
Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven
self in High Fidelity (2000),
another New Crime production. He worked with
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis to adapt
Nick Hornby's popular novel
(relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the
sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find
out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically
linked with several celebs, including Driver,
Alison Eastwood,
Claire Forlani and
Neve Campbell. He's also something of a
family man, acting frequently opposite sister
Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into
his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of
projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his
ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".- Irish actress Niamh Algar was raised in Ireland as the youngest of five siblings. In 2019 Niamh was awarded the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, in 2018 she was named as Screen International 'Star of Tomorrow' for her leading turn in the The Virtues, a new drama from This is England creator Shane Meadows.
She first came to prominence in the 2017 Indie film 'Without Name' playing a young free spirited and charismatic field assistant who falls victim to man suffering from a mental breakdown. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and London BFI Film Festival before its general release in 2017.
Niamh was cast in channel 4's hit drama Pure as Amber before being announced as a regular in Ridley Scott's sci-fi series Raised by Wolves for HBO Max. - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Mary Stuart Masterson started acting before the age of ten, when she
appeared in The Stepford Wives (1975) in 1975 with her father. Afterwards, at the
direction of her parents, Mary Stuart led a life outside of the
limelight, attending school in New York. She appeared in a few
productions at New York's Dalton School. At the age of 15, the young
actress appeared on Broadway in Eva Le Gallienne's version of Alice In
Wonderland. She played two parts, the Four of Hearts and the Small
White Rabbit. She returned to films in 1985 with the role of Dani in
Heaven Help Us (1985). For eight months afterwards, Mary Stuart attended New York
University, where she studied anthropology.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to television.
He was a writer for, Your Show of Shows (1950) Caesar's Hour (1954) and wrote the Broadway show Shinbone Alley. He also worked in the creation of The 2000 Year Old Man (1975) and Get Smart (1965) before embarking on a highly successful film career in writing, acting, producing and directing.
Brooks is famous for the spoofs of different film genres that he made such as Blazing Saddles (1974), History of the World: Part I (1981), Silent Movie (1976), Young Frankenstein (1974), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), High Anxiety (1977), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), and Spaceballs (1987).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gil Bellows was born on 28 June 1967 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for Patriot (2015), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Love and a .45 (1994). He has been married to Rya Kihlstedt since 3 October 1994. They have two children.- Actress
- Producer
Ayelet Zurer is one of Israel's most acclaimed actresses. She was born in Tel Aviv, and first
garnered the attention of Hollywood when she was cast by Steven Spielberg in
her first English-speaking role, as Eric Bana's character's wife in the Oscar®
nominated film Munich (2005). Since arriving in the United States, Zurer has
starred in Studio films including Sony Pictures' Vantage Point with
Dennis Quaid and William Hurt, Samuel Goldwyn's Fugitive Pieces
opposite Stephen Dillane, Paul Schrader's Adam Resurrected opposite
Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe. Ron Howard's Angeles and Demons,
opposite Tom Hanks, Darling Companion, a Lawrence Kasdan ensemble cast
featuring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline and Warner Bros. Man Of Steel
opposite Russell Crow. She filmed Rodrigo Garcia, Last
days in the desert opposite Ewan McGregor, as well as awaiting the
release of the movie The Last Knights by the Japanese director Kazuaki
Kiriya opposite Clive Owen.
She recently won the Gold Nymph Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama
Series at the 54th Festival of Television of Monte-Carlo for her role
in the series "Hostages". Ayelet won the Israeli Film And Television Academy
Award for her lead performance in Nina's Tragedies. She also received
nominations for her work in the features Only Dogs Run Free, The Dybbuk
from the Holy Apple Field, Desperado, and Rutenberg. She won the Haifa
International Film Festival critic award and was awarded a star on
Haifa's "film boulevard," for her international and local achievements.
Zurer also won the Israeli Television Academy Award for her lead performance in "In Treatment," a highly acclaimed television
series that has been adapted by HBO for American television. In 2014
She was nominated apposite herself in the year's best drama "Shtisel",
but won best actress in a drama for her portrayal of a
brilliant surgeon faced with the life and death dilemma in Hostages,
sold to BBC4 and Canal Plus, and as a format to the American ABC. The
"face " of one of Israel's leading women's fashion companies- Golbary. She is a producer, a writer, an illustrator of two adult books, "Shorts" and the
best seller "Badolina" by Gabi Nitazn.
Ayelet has been developing a few of her own projects in Israel and the
US, expressing interest in working internationally with directors from
all over the world, believing in joining unknown writers/directors as
well as known ones.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Alice Maud Krige was born on June 28, 1954 in Upington, South Africa
where her father, Dr. Louis Krige, worked as a young physician. The
Kriges later moved to Port Elizabeth where Alice grew up in what she
describes as a "very happy family", a family that also included two
brothers (both of whom became physicians) and her mother, Pat, a
clinical psychologist. Interestingly, Alice also grew up without
television, something which the actress calls a "huge black hole in my
education" (South Africa did not start getting television until 1976, a
year after Alice left the country to pursue an acting career in
London).
While growing up, she had no dreams or aspirations of pursuing an
acting career, in fact as a child she had wanted to become a dancer,
but her father disapproved. Instead, she prepared to follow in the
footsteps of her mother by attending Rhodes University in Grahamstown
where she pursued an undergraduate degree in psychology and literature
(graduating in 1975). However, as luck or fate would have it, Alice
decided to "take up a bit of timetable" by enrolling in a drama class
in order to make use of a free credit. This decision would prove to be
a life-altering one, resulting in an honors degree in drama from
Rhodes, a move to London and a new career path. As Alice explains, "I
really got into it and it took over my life... it became my
life-calling, all consuming."
After arriving in England, she began three years of study at London's
Central School of Speech and Drama. Her first professional acting
performance was a tiny television role in a 1979 BBC Play for Today. In
1980, Alice made her feature film debut as Sybil Gordon in the Academy
Award winning Best Picture,
Chariots of Fire (1981). She
then appeared in the television adaptation of Charles Dickens'
A Tale of Two Cities (1980),
which was followed by her memorable, dual role as the avenging spirit
in Ghost Story (1981). Also in 1981,
she debuted in a West End theatre production of Bernard Shaw's Arms and
the Man, for which she received the honors of both a Plays and Players
Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer. It was
this early success in theatre that she decided to focus her career on
next by spending some time working with the prestigious Royal
Shakespeare Company.
During her two seasons with the RSC (1982-83), Alice performed in such
productions as "King Lear", "The Tempest", "The Taming of the Shrew"
and "Cyrano de Bergerac". After her stint with the Royal Shakespeare
Company, she returned to work in film and television. Her career could
best be described as an eclectic mix of both mediums. She appeared in a
diverse range of films, such as
King David (1985),
Barfly (1987),
Haunted Summer (1988),
Spies Inc. (1992) and
See You in the Morning (1989).
Her work in television included critically acclaimed miniseries, such
as Ellis Island (1984) and
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985),
as well as a healthy dose of what Alice herself calls, "kitchen sink
dramas".
This eclectic trend continued into the 1990s. In addition to numerous
roles in television (including appearances on
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990)
and Becker (1998), Alice also appeared
in the films Sleepwalkers (1992),
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995),
Donor Unknown (1995),
Amanda (1996),
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997),
Habitat (1997),
The Commissioner (1998) and
Molokai (1999).
However, one notable standout was the film
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
for which she won a 1997 Saturn Award for her portrayal of the Borg
Queen. This is without a doubt the most commercial, mainstream film
with which she has been involved. However, due to the amount of make-up
and prosthetics that the role required, Alice claims that even today
she is still most recognized from her role in
Ghost Story (1981).
One obvious and lasting impact of her experience with Star Trek: First
Contact has been her initiation into the world of Star Trek/sci-fi
conventions. These weekend-long conventions take place all over the
United States and Europe (primarily in the United Kingdom and Germany).
They feature "guests", such as Alice, who give presentations, sign
autographs, etc. The new millennium finds her with several new projects
to her credit, which include such works as
The Little Vampire (2000), the
Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
series finale "Endgame",
Attila (2001),
Dinotopia (2002),
Reign of Fire (2002),
Children of Dune (2003),
The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004)
and a recurring guest role in the HBO series
Deadwood (2004). Current projects
include a film about the life of Julius Caesar, the horror film
Silent Hill (2006),
Lonely Hearts (2006) and
The Contract (2006). In
addition, she continues to make sporadic convention appearances and was
recently awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Rhodes
University.
Alice Krige is married to writer/director Paul Schoolman, and lives
what she describes as an "itinerant" lifestyle. Although she and her
husband maintain a permanent home in the United States, they spend much
of their time living and working abroad.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Camille Guaty, raised in Northern California and New Jersey, studied at Boston University and continued her education at R.A.D.A, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. There she learned the great works of William Shakespeare.
After a ten day trip to meet her new Los Angeles reps, they immediately signed her and sent her out on her first pilot season. Camille was offered a holding deal with WB and booked her first role, on Bob Saget's "Raising Dad," as a feisty best friend to Kat Dennings and Brie Larson. She next landed the lead role in Disney Channel's "Gotta Kick It Up" and hasn't stopped working since.- Felicia Day was born on June 28, 1979 in Huntsville, Alabama, USA as Kathryn Felicia Day. She is an actress and producer, known for her work on TV and the web video world. She has appeared in mainstream television shows and films, including Supernatural (2005) and a two-season arc on the SyFy series Eureka (2006). However, Felicia may be best known for her work in the web video world. She co-starred in Joss Whedon's Internet musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008) and created and starred in the hit web series, The Guild (2007). Felicia is creative chief officer of her production company Knights of Good, which produced the web series Dragon Age: Redemption (2011) and the YouTube channel Geek & Sundry.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jessica Hecht is an American actress and singer who played Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad, Susan Bunch on Friends, and Carol on The Boys. She has also made numerous Broadway appearances. Hecht was born in Princeton, New Jersey. When she was three, she moved with her parents and sister to Bloomfield, Connecticut. After her parents divorced, her mother married psychiatrist Howard Iger, and they raised Jessica and her sister Elizabeth. Hecht attended Connecticut College for a year and a half before graduating from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1987 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Mike White was born Michael Christopher White on June 28, 1970 in Pasadena, California. He is a writer, director and producer, mostly acknowledged for his award-winning HBO series The White Lotus (2021). He wrote and produced the HBO series Enlightened (2011), and wrote and co-produced Year of the Dog (2007) in which he made his directorial debut. Earlier works include Chuck & Buck (2000), Orange County (2002), The Good Girl (2002) and School of Rock (2003). He also wrote two episodes of the NBC series Freaks and Geeks (1999).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Brendan Hunt was born on 28 June 1982. He is an actor and writer, known for Ted Lasso (2020), Bless This Mess (2019) and Horrible Bosses 2 (2014).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Alessandro Nivola was born on 28 June 1972 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Many Saints of Newark (2021), American Hustle (2013) and Disobedience (2017). He has been married to Emily Mortimer since 3 January 2003. They have two children.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Abundantly busy and much-loved Asian-American actor who became an
on-screen hero to millions of adults and kids alike as the wise and
wonderful Mr. Miyagi in
The Karate Kid (1984), the
sparkling Noriyuki Morita was back again dishing out Eastern philosophy
and martial arts lessons for
The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
and
The Karate Kid Part III (1989),
and even for
The Next Karate Kid (1994).
However, putting all that karate aside, the diminutive Morita actually
first started out as a stand-up comedian known as the Hip Nip in
nightclubs and bars, and made his first on-screen appearance in
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967).
He quickly adapted to the screen and showed up in small parts in such
comedy films as
The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968),
alongside Don Knotts, and in
Evil Roy Slade (1972)
supporting John Astin. He also appeared in
such popular series as
Sanford and Son (1972) and
M*A*S*H (1972).
Morita got his next break playing the often-perplexed restaurant owner
Matsho "Arnold" Takahashi in 26 episodes of the hugely popular sitcom
Happy Days (1974) between 1975 and
1976, and again between 1982 and 1983. Morita was quite in demand on
the small screen and also scored the lead in his own police drama
Ohara (1987), and guest-starred on
other high-profile television series including
Magnum, P.I. (1980),
Murder, She Wrote (1984),
Baywatch (1989) and
The Hughleys (1998). Although
most often used as a minor character actor, he remained consistently
busy and occasionally lent his vocal talents to animated features such
as Mulan (1998). However, his real
strengths lay in portraying slightly oddball or unusual characters in
offbeat films. He died at age 73 of natural causes at Sunrise Hospital
in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 24, 2005.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Aileen was introduced to show business by her
mother, Helenann, who was doing theatre when Aileen was growing up.
Aileen begged to audition too, and she began to get parts near her home
of Yardley, Pennsylvania. Her first show being, ironically "Annie Get Your Gun."
Aileen's first movie part was one line in
Paternity (1981), starring
Burt Reynolds. At the time Aileen
was picked for the movie, she was in the Broadway show, "Annie" as the "swing orphan." The Swing essentially understudied
various Orphan roles in the show and knew all their parts and had to go
on stage at a moment's notice if one of the actors was sick and
couldn't perform, averaging 2 or 3 times a week.
A year later, she was chosen to be Annie in the film version from over 8,000 girls throughout the world. The
announcement was made in January 1981 by director
John Huston, who introduced Aileen
as his Annie to the world on nationwide TV.
Annie (1982) was filmed from April to
September 1981. Aileen was under contract for 6 years to make "Annie 2," and possibly "Annie 3," but those projects never materialized. When the contract expired, Aileen was then approached to star in a new film version of -
The Frog Prince (1986) - which they aired on The Disney Channel often.
While Aileen was under contract, she continued to perform and went back to her theatre roots. She starred in a variety of productions in Fort Bragg, North Carolina including Dorothy in 'The Wizard Of Oz', Kim in "Bye Bye Birdie," Jenny in "Shenandoah," and Annie in "Annie,"
opposite Harve Presnell as Daddy Warbucks. She also starred in "A Day In Hollywood, A Night In The
Ukraine" in Bristol, Pennsylvania as Harpo Marx.
Aileen decided to take a break from show business and attended Drew University in Madison,
New Jersey. She received a B.A. with honors in Spanish and minored in Political Science. She spent 6
months living with a family in Chile as part of an exchange program at La Universidad Católica with all of her classes in Spanish.
She considers it one of her life's most rewarding experiences.
After graduation from Drew, Aileen once again took to the stage playing Bette in "Oliver!" at the famous Paper Mill Playhouse
in Millburn, New Jersey. She then begin a 5 year stint doing Broadway National Tours including
"Fiddler On The Roof," "Peter Pan," and "Saturday Night Fever." In between touring, Aileen starred in two off-Broadway shows,
"Dreamstuff," and "Yiddle With a Fiddle."
Starting in 2007, Aileen returned to film getting roles in various projects, including independent and studio backed. So, she decided to leave her East Coast roots, and moved to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2011, where she resides, but keeps a home in New York. The following year she formed a Rockabilly, Swing, Blues Band appropriately named "Aileen Quinn and the Leapin' Lizards." The band released their debut album in 2015, "Spin Me," which includes 10 tracks of all original material. Aileen has gone back into the recording studio as she did when she was 9 years old, recording the double platinum "Annie" soundtrack as well as her solo album, "Bobby's Girl," and is enjoying it as much now, as she did then. Her current band performs all over California in hopes to tour throughout the US and the world.
In addition to performing, Aileen teaches Master Classes all over the US in drama and musical theatre, and has directed and co-directed various children's theatre productions.- Actor
- Producer
Benito Martinez (actor/producer)
Benito has been busy in front of and behind the camera.
He is currently working as Executive Producer on the Amazon Prime feature A MILLION MILES AWAY starring Michael Peña as "José Hernandez." The film is based on the inspirational true story of an immigrant farm worker who became an astronaut for NASA. On the acting side, he just wrapped WITH LOVE Season 2 (Amazon Prime) as the romantic patriarch "Jorge Diaz, Sr."
Martinez is widely known for his various fan favorite roles such as "Sheriff Gabriel Reyes" on LONE STAR 9-1-1 (FOX), "District Attorney Todd Denver" on HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC), for multiple roles over 3 seasons in John Ridley's anthology series AMERICAN CRIME (ABC) and as "Police Captain David Aceveda" on the critically acclaimed, award winning television series THE SHIELD (FX) that ran for seven seasons.
Other credits include character arcs on THE MAYOR, JACK RYAN, 13 REASONS WHY, SHOOTER, LAW & ORDER: SVU, THE BLACKLIST, HOUSE OF CARDS, and SONS OF ANARCHY, to name but a few.
His feature film credits include AMERICAN MADE, QUEEN & SLIM, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, BLESS ME, ULTIMA, UNTHINKABLE, MY FAMILY/MI FAMILIA and SAW.
Benito received his theatrical training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art's (LAMDA) prestigious three-year program after attending Hollywood High Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Benito got his start on stage playing the vihuela in his father's mariachi at the age of eight. The next year, he also started participating in theatrical productions at La Compania de Teatro de Albuquerque, a bilingual theater company, co-founded by his mother, Margarita Martinez. After many years of doing both, acting won out.- Actor
- Stunts
- Producer
Daniel (Peter) Webber was born 28th of June, 1988 in Gosford, NSW, Australia. His parents, Vick and Peter Webber, ran a tree removal company for 20 years. Daniel's the middle child, between older sister, Kylie and a younger sister Sarah. Daniel first came to notice in David Field' controversial film, The Combination (2009), after auditioning and acquiring the role by himself. Due to his work on the film, he signed with an agency, and worked in the acclaimed television drama All Saints (1998). His breakthrough came playing Darius in a [Bob Baker - penned story of the [Doctor Who (2005) spin off series,K9 (2009).
Daniel worked opposite [Emily Browning, in [Julia Leigh's haunting erotic fairytale, [Sleeping Beauty (2011).- Actor
- Director
- Producer
The award-worthy actor, now enjoying an over five decade career, has a resume that includes everything from Shakespeare to Seinfeld -- from the villainous Senator on Ozark to the wise judge on Lincoln Lawyer.
Born on June 28, 1946, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Clair, an architect and musician, and Marian (Holman) Davison, a secretary, Bruce's parents divorced when he was just three. He developed a burgeoning interest in acting while majoring in art at Penn State and after accompanying a friend to a college theater audition. Making his professional stage debut in 1966 as Jonathan in "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Bad" at the Pennsylvania Festival Theatre, he made it to Broadway within just a couple of years (1968) with the role of Troilus in "Tiger at the Gates" at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. The year after that he was seen off-Broadway in "A Home Away from Home" and appeared at the Lincoln Center in the cast of "King Lear."
Success in the movies came immediately for the perennially youthful-looking actor after he and a trio of up-and-coming talents (Barbara Hershey [then known as Barbara Seagull], Richard Thomas and Catherine Burns) starred together in the poignant but disturbing coming-of-age film
Last Summer (1969). From this he was awarded a starring role opposite Kim Darby in The Strawberry Statement (1970), an offbeat social commentary about 60s college radicalism, and in the cult horror flick Willard (1971) in which he bonded notoriously with a herd of rats.
Moving further into the 70s decade, his film load did not increase significantly as expected and the ones he did appear in were no great shakes. With the exception of his co-starring role alongside Burt Lancaster in the well-made cavalry item Ulzana's Raid (1972) and the powerful low-budget Short Eyes (1977) in which he played a child molester, Bruce's film roles were underwhelming, such as his elder Patrick Dennis in the Lucille Ball musical film version of Mame (1974), as well as The Jerusalem File (1972), Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976), Grand Jury (1976) and Brass Target (1978).
As such, Bruce wisely looked elsewhere for rewarding work and found it on the stage and on the smaller screen. Earning strong theatrical roles in "The Skin of Our Teeth," "The Little Foxes" and "A Life in the Theatre," he won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for his work in "Streamers" in 1977. On TV, he scored in mini-movie productions of Mourning Becomes Electra (1978), Deadman's Curve (1978) (portraying Dean Torrence of the surf-era pop duo Jan and Dean) and, most of all, Summer of My German Soldier (1978) co-starring Kristy McNichol as a German prisoner of war in the American South who falls for a lonely
Jewish-American girl. In 1972 Bruce married actress Jess Walton who appeared briefly as a college student in The Strawberry Statement (1970) and later became a daytime soap opera fixture. The marriage was quickly annulled the following year.
The 1980s was also dominated by strong theater performances. Bruce took over the role of the severely deformed John Merrick as "The Elephant
Man" on Broadway; portrayed Clarence in "Richard III" at the New York Shakespeare Festival; was directed by Henry Fonda in "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial"; played a moving Tom Wingfield opposite Jessica Tandy's Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie"; received a second Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for his work in the AIDS play "The Normal Heart"; and finished off the decade gathering up fine reviews in the amusing A.R. Gurney period piece "The Cocktail Hour". While hardly lacking for work on film (Kiss My Grits (1982), Crimes of Passion (1984), Spies Like Us (1985), and The Ladies Club (1985)), few of them made use of his talents and range.
It was not until he was cast in the ground-breaking gay drama Longtime Companion (1989) that his film career revitalized. Giving a quiet, finely nuanced, painfully tender performance as the middle-aged lover and caretaker of a life partner ravaged by AIDS, Bruce managed to stand out amid the strong ensemble cast and earn himself an Oscar nomination for "Best Supporting Actor". Although he lost out to the flashier antics of Joe Pesci in the mob drama Goodfellas (1990) that year, Bruce was not overlooked -- copping Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics awards. Other gay-themed films also welcomed his presence, including The Cure (1995) and It's My Party (1996). The actor eventually served as a spokesperson for a host of AIDS-related organizations, including Hollywood Supports, and has been active with foundations that assist abused children.
Bruce has been all over the screen since his success in Longtime Companion (1989). Predominantly seen as mature, morally responsible dads and politicians, his genial good looks and likability have on occasion belied a weak or corrupt heart. Bruce married actress Lisa Pelikan in 1986 and they have one son, Ethan, born in 1996.
(Color of Justice (1997)). Popular films have included Six Degrees of Separation (1993) starring Will Smith, the family adventure film
Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog (1995) and the box-office hit X-Men (2000) and its sequel in the role of Senator Kelly. More controversial art-house showcases include Dahmer (2002), as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's father, and Hate Crime (2005), as a bigoted, murderous pastor.
Into the millennium, Bruce has played mature gents and several high-level officials in such films as The Dead Girl (2006), Christmas Angel (2009), Camp Hell (2010), Black Beauty (2015), Displacement (2016), 9/11 (2017), Along Came the Devil (2018), Itsy Bitsy (2019)
Divorced from second wife Lisa Pelikan, Bruce is happily married to Michele Correy and has a daughter with her, Sophia Lucy, born in 2006. They live in the Los Angeles area.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Angeline Ball was born on 28 June 1969 in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress, known for The Commitments (1991), Bloom (2003) and The General (1998).- Actress
- Composer
- Music Department
Danielle Brisebois was born on 28 June 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and composer, known for Begin Again (2013), All in the Family (1971) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979). She has been married to Nick Lashley since 2 August 2008. They have two children.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Gilda Radner was one of the great comic geniuses of the 20th century, ranked
with Lucille Ball and other comedy legends of the highest caliber. She
was born on June 28, 1946, in Detroit, Michigan, the younger of two children of Henrietta (Dworkin), a legal secretary, and Herman Radner, a businessman.
She had an older brother, Michael. Her family were Jewish immigrants (from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania). Radner grew up with a nanny she always called Dibby, on whom she based her famous Saturday Night Live (1975) character, hard-of-hearing news
correspondent Emily Litella.
She was very close to her father, not as close to her mother, and tragically, her father died when she was 14,
leaving her heartbroken. She was very overweight as a child, and because of this, she suffered from anorexia and bulimia and became very
thin.
She overcame these disorders by 16 and was normal weight, yet if you watch some of her episodes of Saturday Night Live (1975) you can see that her weight sometimes goes down very low and she looks anorexic again.
She graduated from the Liggett school for Girls and enrolled at the University of Michigan but dropped out and followed a boyfriend to
Canada, where she made her stage debut in Godspell. In 1975, Gilda was the first person ever cast for Saturday Night Live (1975), the show that would make her famous.
She stayed on SNL for 5 years, from 1975 to 1980 and had a brief marriage to the SNL band guitarist G.E. Smith. On this show, she
created characters like Emily Litella, loudmouthed Roseanne Roseannadanna, nerd Lisa Loopner, and Baba Wawa, a talk show host with a speech impediment.
Gilda left the show in 1980 and married actor Gene Wilder, whom she met on a movie set and fell in love with nearly on the spot.
A short while after, Gilda started having pains in her upper legs, and she was eventually diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She went through lots of chemotherapy and treatment, and finally her doctors told her that she was in remission. In this period of time, Gilda wrote her autobiography, called "It's Always Something," about her battles with cancer.
However, cancer was found in her liver and her lungs after a more comprehensive check a while later.
Now it was too late to do anything.
Gilda died in her sleep on May 20, 1989.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Tichina Arnold was born on 28 June 1969 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Everybody Hates Chris (2005) and Martin (1992). She was previously married to Rico Hines and Lamon Brewster.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Glasgow, Kirsty Mitchell is a prominent Scottish actress with a rich body of work across film, television and theatre. She trained at the prestigious Central School of Ballet in London before being crowned the coveted title of "Miss Scotland" at the age of seventeen. Kirsty Mitchell's initial break-through performance came as Robert Duvall's daughter in the film A Shot at Glory (2000).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jon Watts is an American filmmaker and screenwriter. He directed Cop Car and Clown before he was picked by Marvel and Sony to direct Spider-Man: Homecoming starring Tom Holland and Zendaya. It's success resulted in two sequels, Far from Home in 2019 and No Way Home in 2021. He was also picked by Marvel to direct a Fantastic Four reboot film following the failure of Josh Trank's Fant4stic, but dropped the directing role in April 2022.- Sara was born and raised in Edinburgh Scotland. After spending some
time in England, she trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama
in London, and made London her home. Her work has been diverse, ranging
from classical tragic heroines like "Natalya Petrovna" in Turgenyev's
"Month in the Country" for the RSC;
Gwyneth Paltrow's overbearing sister in
"Proof" for its London premiere; to comic characters like the louche
"Stella" in the TV series
Sugar Rush (2005).
Now based in Twickenham, she is separated from actor
Aden Gillett, with whom she has 2 children. - Fair complexioned, cold-eyed actor Richard Bright notched up an impressive array of character performances of often shifty, or deadly
characters on the wrong side of the law. He first came to attention as a burglar in the engrossing The Panic in Needle Park (1971), and then followed it the following year playing a slick con artist hustling naive Ali MacGraw for the bank robbery loot in The Getaway (1972), before Steve McQueen pummels Bright to get the money back.
In 1972, he made his first appearance as bodyguard/enforcer "Al Neri", protecting Al Pacino in The Godfather (1972), and returned in the same role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and, 16 years later, he was back once again still protecting mob boss Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III (1990).
The actor's features endeared him to casting agents looking for both criminals and cops. He also appeared in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Sam Raimi's crazy Crimewave (1985), the union tale Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992) and Witness to the Mob (1998). In addition, he appeared regularly on TV in police/drama shows such as Hill Street Blues (1981), Houston Knights (1987), Third Watch (1999) and The Sopranos (1999). - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Jack Stephen Burton is an American actor from Indianapolis, Indiana who is known for voicing Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy and playing Jason Morgan from General Hospital. He also acted in The Young and the Restless. He won Emmy awards for his performances on soap operas. He has three children from Shree Gustin.- Actress
- Producer
Maya Stojan was born on 28 June 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland. She is an actress and producer, known for Castle (2009), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) and Fatal Affair (2020).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Janine Drzewicki was born in the Lancashire town of Lancaster to an English mother and a
Polish father. She attended school in Nottingham and later moved to London to train as an actress at the E 15
theatre school. Shortly after leaving she was given a couple of small
roles in television dramas but had no agent, and placed an advert in
the 'Spotlight' agency catalogue with a photograph. As a result she was
approached by the BBC to test for a play about incest, entitled
Diane (1975).
Although she was in her early 20s the part was that of a 13-year-old
girl but her audition was sufficiently convincing to win her the role.
The door thus opened to her for more TV and stage roles and, whilst she
was appearing in
'Don Juan' at Hampstead Theatre, London, she was spotted by Mike Leigh
who offered her the part of Angie in the stage production of
Abigail's Party (1977),
which she repeated in the television version. A familiar face in
television comedy series, she has nonetheless been given very little of
note in the cinema, playing typically small roles as mad women in
Dracula (1979) and
The Madness of King George (1994).
Married to the actor Paul Bentall, she has
two sons and two daughters, one being the actress Ruby Bentall, and lives in London.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Elon Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. He is an actor and producer, known for Machete Kills (2013), Iron Man 2 (2010) and Why Him? (2016). He was previously married to Talulah Riley and Justine Musk.- Daniel Zovatto is a Costa Rican actor. Born 28 June, 1991 in San José, Costa Rica, Zovatto moved to New York City, initially pursuing a career in theater. He was later cast in the short film The Return (2012). He then moved to Los Angeles, where he made his feature film debut in the horror movie Beneath (2013), and made his television debut in a season 1 episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). Other roles in Zovatto's career include Junior in the romantic comedy Laggies (2014), Neils Hirsch in the adventure horror film Innocence (2013), and his breakthrough roles in the horror mystery films It Follows (2014) as Greg Hannigan and Don't Breathe (2016) as Money.
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Mark Edward Fischbach, known by his Internet persona and main YouTube username Markiplier, is an American Internet and YouTube personality star. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Fischbach began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Generally, he gained fame as Markiplier, uploading videos of him and sometimes his friends playing and commenting on video games.
He was born on June 28th, 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States and has American and Korean ancestry. His father served in the military where he met his mother of Korean origin. His family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally, Fischbach studied to become a medical engineer at the University of Cincinnati, but dropped out of college to pursue his YouTube career. Before his YouTube fame, He originally aspired to become a voice actor.
Markiplier is perhaps one of the icons of famous Internet and YouTube stars. As of April 2022, his channel has over 17.9 billion total video views and over 32.7 million subscribers, and is the 17th most subscribed individual user channel on YouTube. Fischbach specializes in Let's Play game-play commentary videos and indie games, commonly of survival horror and action video games, and some film production.
Starting his Internet web video YouTube career, Fischbach first joined YouTube on May 26, 2012, creating a channel under the username "Markiplier". Fischbach's first series was a play-through of the video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. After playing several other game series, including Penumbra and Dead Space, YouTube banned Fischbach's AdSense account. Though he appealed to YouTube as a last effort, the appeal was ultimately lost. Because of this, a new and current channel was created and dubbed MarkiplierGAME. In 2014, Fischbach's YouTube Channel, Markiplier, was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #61.
Since then, he has collaborated with many others, including Jacksepticeye, LordMinion777, Muyskerm, CrankGameplays, PewDiePie, Matthias, GameGrumps, Cyndago, Yamimash, Jacksfilms, CaptainSparklez and LixianTV, as well as acting appearances in TomSka's asdfmovie series (voice only) and in Smosh: The Movie. He has also played many games on his channel, including the Five Nights at Freddy's series, Garry's Mod, Happy Wheels, Surgeon Simulator 2013, Minecraft (while intoxicated), SCP - Containment Breach, HuniePop, SOMA, Until Dawn, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, To the Moon, The Evil Within, Alien: Isolation, Among the Sleep, Grand Theft Auto V, and many more. He has also done "Impossible Challenges" (spicy peppers, painful trials, etc.), sketch comedy with Matthias and Cyndago, and played horror spin-off parodies from games like Slender: The Eight Pages and Five Nights at Freddy's. At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Fischbach appeared on a panel with Red Giant Entertainment including Benny R. Powell (Wayward Sons), David Campiti (Pandora's Blogs), Mort Castle (Darchon), David Lawrence, and Brian Augustyn. He also co-hosted the 2015 South By Southwest (SXSW) Gaming Awards with The Legend of Korra voice actor Janet Varney. Fischbach and fellow Youtuber Jenna Mae appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September of 2014 following backlash that Kimmel received regarding jokes he had made about YouTube and Let's Play videos. Fischbach joined the Red Giant Entertainment board in November 2014. He was featured in Youtube Rewind 2015. He has made an interactive sketch story called A Date with Markiplier (ADWM), which premiered on February 14, 2017, that is dedicated to Valentine's Day and has a total of 10 different outcomes depending on the choices of the viewer. He also made the series called Who Killed Markiplier? (WKM) - Chapters1-4, which premiered over the course of four days from October 10th, 2017. He also created Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache, and Damien soon after for further story and character development after his WKM series. He has made a new, free, YouTube Red series called A Heist with Markiplier (AHWM). This is an interactive story with 31 possible endings to it, and it premiered on October 30, 2019. Fischbach is often referred to as one of the most kind, generous, and down-to-earth YouTubers. He has done many charity live-streams, donating to charities such as Doctors Without Borders and to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, located in his hometown. Fischbach also enjoys keeping a close relationship with his viewers, often going to conventions and interacting with them on social media. He also highly praises his community's support, taking much pride in how his viewers care about each other as well as him.
In his Cyndago collaboration, Fischbach made many comedy videos together with the YouTube sketch comedy and music channel, Cyndago. The channel was founded in 2012 by Daniel Kyre and Ryan Magee in South Carolina, stemming from Magee's post-high school film work. Matt Watson from Maker Studios later joined Cyndago after they moved to Los Angeles. Their work was noted for having unexpected endings and dark, often disturbing, humor. Following Kyre's attempted suicide on September 16, 2015 and subsequent death two days later, the remaining members of Cyndago chose to disband. At the time of their disbandment, the group had done forty sketches and fourteen original songs, many of them featuring Fischbach. Watson and Magee then decided to work on Watson's own comedy and music channel, Kids w/ Problems, and they continue to collaborate with Fischbach. After the death of Daniel Kyre and disbandment of Cyndago, Fischbach temporarily halted uploads and went on hiatus from September 17 to October 5, 2015.
On March 23, 2015, he had emergency surgery and posted a video from his hospital bed which received over 5 million views. Fortunately, the surgery was a success and mark returned to vlogging afterwards.- Marie Bach Hansen was born on 28 June 1985 in Borum, Denmark. She is an actress, known for The Legacy (2014), Hvidsten gruppen (2012) and The Last Vermeer (2019).
- Actress
- Producer
Debbie Zipp was born on 28 June 1952 in Missouri, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Murder, She Wrote (1984), Gilmore Girls (2000) and Double Exposure (1982). She has been married to Michael Horton since 20 December 1975. They have two children.- Actress
Elaine was born in London, England. She attended the Sylvia Young
Theatre School and performed in West End stage productions, including
South Pacific and The King & I, Royal Variety Shows, film, television,
radio and commercials. After leaving to attend a regular academic
school, she continued taking her LAMDA (London Academy of Music and
Dramatic Art) Exams, and carried on working in productions mainly for
the BBC. She went on to study Law and graduated from Exeter University.
Later Elaine played the lead role of Liat in Sir Trevor Nunn's
production of South Pacific at the National Theatre in London, and sang
'Happy Talk' as a duet with the character of Bloody Mary which features
on the musical soundtrack recorded at Abbey Road Studios. After
returning to acting full time, she completed the last part of her law
training part time.
She has appeared in commercials for Olay, Mercedes, Coors Light, Camaro Chevrolet, Clairol and Gillette.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The proud owner of tons of dialects and hundreds of uncanny impersonations, the short (5'7"), slight, deadpan, rubber-faced, fair-haired funnyman
John Byner is the forerunner to such latter day gifted comic impressionists as Dana Carvey, Frank Caliendo and Jim Carrey. Byner's spot-on impressions have run the entertainment and historical gamut -- from John Wayne, Ed Sullivan, Walter Brennan and George Jessel to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. As icing on the cake, he hilariously unleashed over-done singing vocals to such stylists as Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin. At his heyday in the late 60s and early 70s, John and Rich Little were the cream of the mimicking crop -- deservedly recognized as the "Men of 1,000 Impressions".
Born John Thomas Biener on June 28, 1938, in New York City, he was the son of Michael Biener, an auto mechanic, and Christina Biener, a mental hospital attendant. His stand-up comedy career began in New York's Greenwich Village where he worked for a year for Max Gordon at Gordon's jazz club "Village Vanguard". He then went on to open for some of the finest jazz greats of his time and steadily became a favorite New York nightclub fixture. As he rose to the top of his game, he opened or headlined prominent niteries throughout the country included headlining stints at Basin Street East, Copa Cabana, Latin Quarter, The Rainbow Room and at such showrooms as Harrah's, The Sahara, The Sands, Caesar's Palace, The Tropicana and Las Vegas Hilton.
John's TV career break happened in New York City on Merv Griffin's "Talent Scouts Show" in 1964. After great exposure on both Garry Moore and Steve Allen's variety shows in 1966 and 1967, he clowned around on Ed Sullivan's showcase program over
two dozen times and Johnny Carson late-night haunt over three dozen times. He added to the laughs on Carol Burnett, Mike Douglas and Dean Martin's self-titled shows and became a veritable favorite with David Letterman and Jay Leno at night.
John hosted and starred in his own summer variety series with The John Byner Comedy Hour (1972) which focused on sketch comedy and sitcom spoofs. John's series "Comedy on the Road," which aired for four seasons on A&E earned him his second Ace Award. The first came for his uproarious series
Bizarre (1979), a half-hour sketch-styled program which aired for six seasons.
John began on-camera acting in 1967. He began things off with a recurring part on the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family (1967) starring Jerry Van Dyke and as the sole voice in the cartoon segment The Ant and the Aardvark (1969) of The Pink Panther (1969) series. This segment had the title characters voiced by Byner, who gave dead-on impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason, respectively.
From there, he provided many side-splitting moments on such established 60s and 70s shows as "Get Smart", "The Mothers-In-Law," "Love, American Style," "Hawaii 5-O," "The Odd Couple," "Maude" and "When Things Were Rotten," and added greatly to the zaniness as Detective Donahue in the hit spoof Soap (1977) as well as the family sitcom The Practice (1976) starring comic legend Danny Thomas. On the TV movie scene, John starred as a gangster in McNamara's Band (1977), but it failed as a pilot to a prospective series. He also appeared in the comedies The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979) and Murder Can Hurt You! (1980), and the rare drama Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982) and played a failed ventriloquist in an episode of "Friday the Thirteenth: The Series."
John made his film debut in a slightly noticeable bit in the Barbra Streisand/Ryan O'Neal gagfest What's Up, Doc? (1972). While he
never found a strong footing in film, he managed to add second-banana fun to a handful of action comedies and slapstick vehicles such as The Great Smokey Roadblock (1977) with Henry Fonda and Eileen Brennan; the highly obscure A Pleasure Doing Business (1979) with Conrad Bain and Alan Oppenheimer; Stroker Ace (1983) starring Burt Reynolds; and the comedy horror Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) with Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr..
John's penchant for creating voices led to an expansive career in animation for Disney The Black Cauldron (1985) as well as the TV cartoon programs "Duckman," "Garfield," Angry Beavers" and "Rugrats" and a revamped "Felix the Cat."
His continued visibility into the 90's millennium has included a recurring role in the crime drama series Silk Stalkings (1991), as well as sporadic parts on "Married...with Children," "Dharma & Greg," "In the Heat of the Night" and "The First Family." He was also spotted in the fantasy comedy Munchie Strikes Back (1994); the fantasy horror Wishmaster (1997); the Rodney Dangerfield slapstick farce My 5 Wives (2000); and the National Lampoon offering Robodoc (2009).
Married four times, John has four children from his first marriage.- Steve Downes is an American voice actor and disk jockey from Columbus, Ohio who is widely known for providing the voice of Master Chief John-117 from the Halo franchise of video games made for the Xbox. He voiced Master Chief in nearly every Halo game in existence and in trailers, commercials and other Halo media. He is married to Liz Zweifler since 1992.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Inman was born on 28 June 1935 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Are You Being Served? (1972), Are You Being Served? (1977) and Odd Man Out (1977). He was married to Ron Lynch. He died on 8 March 2007 in Paddington, London, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lalla Ward born Sarah Ward, daughter of Lord Bangor - Edward Ward - and
his writer wife, Marjorie Banks. She always wanted to act, paint and
draw, and so joined the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1967.
When she left in 1970, it was straight into a part in the Hammer film
Vampire Circus (1972).
Following
this she worked extensively on stage, in films - including
England Made Me (1973),
Rosebud (1975) and
Crossed Swords (1977) (aka The
Prince and the Pauper) - and on television - including appearances in
Thundersky (1975),
Hazell Meets the First Eleven (1978),
Thundersky (1975)
and several episodes of
The Duchess of Duke Street (1976).
She also appeared in a film called
Got It Made (1974), which was later
reissued as "Sweet Virgin" with sex scenes added featuring other
actors. This led to her winning a libel action against Club
International magazine, which ran a selection of nude photographs from
the film purporting to be of her.
Her guest appearance in the story
The Armageddon Factor: Part One (1979) led to her being chosen to play Romana when the original
actress, Mary Tamm, left after one season.
Ward quit Doctor Who in 1980, and in December of that year married
Tom Baker. The marriage lasted 16
months. Ward continued to act, with roles in
Schoolgirl Chums (1982) and
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980)
for the BBC and "The Jeweller's Shop" and "The Rehearsal" on stage. She
also developed her love of painting and wrote and illustrated several
books.
In 1992, she married eminent biologist Dr.
Richard Dawkins, author of such books as
"The Selfish Gene" and "The Blind Watchmaker", and gave up acting to
concentrate on writing and on her family.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Soundtrack
This boyish-looking New York-born actor of film and (especially) TV was
born in 1928 and signed by Columbia at the onset of his teen career.
Also known as Donald Dubbins, he started off playing earnest young
cadet types in the war films
From Here to Eternity (1953)
(as a young bugler) and
The Caine Mutiny (1954). It was
superstar James Cagney who took a distinct
liking to the rookie actor and prominently displayed him in two of his
subsequent films. In
These Wilder Years (1956),
Dubbins played Cagney's long-lost adopted son and, in the western
Tribute to a Bad Man (1956),
he forms an unlikely romantic triangle with cattle boss Cagney and
senorita Irene Papas. He also was at the
mercy of Jack Webb's title character
as a private in the Dragnet-styled military film
The D.I. (1957). He subsequently played
a frequent suspect on several episodes of the
Dragnet 1967 (1967) series.
Finishing up the 1950s, he was a part of the cast in the
Jules Verne sci-fi picture
From the Earth to the Moon (1958).
Although Dubbins never became a box office name, he certainly was a
reliable asset on TV and was seen in a host of character roles over the
years, not to mention a good number of smaller parts in such films as
The Prize (1963) and
The Learning Tree (1969). A
character player adept at both good guys and bad guys, he retired
completely in the late 1980s after filming episodes of
Dynasty (1981),
Highway to Heaven (1984)
and Knots Landing (1979). He
succumbed to cancer less than a decade later in 1991 at the age of 63.- As the son of radio, TV and film character actor
Carleton G. Young, dark, dexterous and
good-looking Tony Young was exposed early on to the machinations of the
Hollywood industry. Born in New York in 1937, he was raised in
Hollywood after his father's on-camera character work increased.
Although Tony was offered some film roles in the early 1950s while
still a teen, his father insisted that Tony receive a proper education
first before putting together any kind of acting career.
Following a hitch with the US Air Force, Tony attended Los Angeles City
College. Working initially as an NBC page, his interest in acting had
not flagged after all this time and the virile, brawny wannabe began
landing TV roles in 1959 with such western shows as
Overland Trail (1960),
The Deputy (1959),
Bronco (1958) and
Laramie (1959), not to mention bit
parts in the films
Walk Like a Dragon (1960) and
The Marriage-Go-Round (1961).
In 1961 Tony was handed his own weekly series as a cavalry undercover
agent in the TV western
Gunslinger (1961). While the
program was short-lived, it managed to basically pigeonhole him as a
western player. Such low-budget films as
He Rides Tall (1964) (in which he
played a U.S. marshal) and Taggart (1964)
(in which he is accused of murder and must clear his name) followed.
On the TV front, reliable guestings occurred on such popular shows as
Star Trek (1966),
The Virginian (1962),
Medical Center (1969),
Bonanza (1959) and
The Streets of San Francisco (1972).
From there Tony moved more into to character work supporting
Elvis Presley in his non-musical western
Charro! (1969) and
James Garner in the Italian
"spaghetti western"
A Man Called Sledge (1970).
Roles in action-adventure and blaxploitation flicks also came and went
in the early 70s, including
Chrome and Hot Leather (1971),
Play It As It Lays (1972),
Black Gunn (1972),
Superchick (1973) and
The Outfit (1973).
Thrice married and divorced to actresses, he was first briefly married to Playboy playmate Connie Mason, then to Madlyn Rhue who bore him one child and co-starred with him on both film and TV before and after their divorce, and finally to Sondra Currie. Tony's father died of cancer in 1971 at age 64. Tony, who retired from acting in the early 1990s, later succumbed to lung cancer in 2002 at the very same age as his
father. - Writer
- Director
- Producer
Florian Zeller is a French writer and director. He is, according to the Times, "the most exciting playwright of our time." He has written more than 10 plays, which have been staged in more than 45 countries. His black-comedy play "The Father" is one of the outstanding hits of recent years. It has won several awards in Paris, London, and New York. "The Father" is his first film as a director.- South Korean fresh face Ha Ji-won is a very talented actress. She first
came to theater in 2000 and won an award for best new actress. Her big
break was "Sex is zero" and "True or Dare". In 2003, she was cast as
Chae-oak in the famous Korean TV drama "Damo" and was stated as South
Korean's most promising actress. Ha Ji-won has just finished filming
"Duelist" and "Daddy Long Legs". She is now planning to further her
English studies in New Zealand. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Don "Sonny" Strait is an American voice actor and voice director who is known for voicing in cartoons, video games and English dubs of anime. He provided the voice of Krillin in the Dragon Ball franchise, TOM from Toonami before he got replaced by Steve Blum and Rocko from Borderlands 2.- Christopher Neiman was born on 28 June 1966 in the USA. He is an actor, known for American Horror Story (2011), The Longest Yard (2005) and Ally McBeal (1997).
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
RaéVen Larrymore Kelly continues to make her celebrity count with a
cause. RaéVen has had the fortune of performing in a wide
range of high-quality projects for film and television: John Grisham's
"A Time to Kill" as Tonya Hailey with Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra
Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, director Joel Schumacher; "What's Love
Got To Do With It?" as young Tina Turner with Laurence Fishburne,
Angela Bassett, director Brian Gibson; "Ghosts of Mississippi" as Rena
Evers with Whoopi Goldberg, James Woods, Alec Baldwin, director Rob
Reiner; and "How to Make an American Quilt" as young Anna, a role
shared with Maya Angelou's character, also starring Wynona Rider, Ann
Bancroft, director Jocelyn Moorehouse; "Blossoms and Veils" as Em, with
producers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith and director Shonda Rhimes;
"Underclassman" as Qweeshawn Washington, with Nick Cannon; "Tournament
of Dreams" as Slick, also starring Debbie Allen, Carl Lewis, and Tony
Todd, director Don Abernathy. A sample of her credentials for
television and made for TV movies include stellar performances in
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" recurring as Lisa, director Joss Whedon;
"Freedom Song" as Dora Charles with Danny Glover, Vicellous Shannon,
director Phil Alden Robinson; "Maximum Bob" as series regular Wanda
Grace with Beau Bridges, director Barry Sonnenfeld; "Ditchdigger's
Daughters" as Jeanette with Carl Lumbley, Victoria Dillard; guest
starring on "Even Stevens;" "Any Day Now;" "City of Angels" as
Savannah, director Reginald Hudlin; "Scrooge" as young Ebenita with
Cicely Tyson; "Lily in Winter" as Louetta with Marla Gibbs, Natalie
Cole, director Delbert Mann; and "America's Dream" as Laura with Wesley
Snipes, Jasmine Guy, director Bill Duke.
RaéVen's theater accolades include the California premiere of Regina
Taylor's "Crowns" as Yolanda, director Anthony Hainey; Sara
Finney-Johnson's "Mazel Tov & Black Eyed Peas" as Maya, director
Adleane Hunter; and Yolanda King's "Achieving the Dream" as Lead
Vocalist.
RaéVen was born in Fairfax, Virginia. Although only 20, RaéVen has a
distinguished career with a hallmark of earlier spectacular
performances as series regular Adlaine Harper on the award-winning
"I'll Fly Away" with Sam Waterston, Regina Taylor, producer/director
David Chase, Ian Sander. Her works associated with "Touched By An
Angel," guest-starring as Serena with Randy Travis, have been catalogued
as a Christmas classic. RaéVen has also performed guest-starring roles
on "E.R.," "Living Single," "Roseanne," "The Sentinel," "Roc," Maloney,"
"Sweet Justice" as Niara, granddaughter of Cicely Tyson's character,
and others.
RaéVen is the recipient of many awards such as The Emerging Artist
Award for her television and film works, Best Youth Actress TV
Mini-Series/MOW/Special for "Lily in Winter," and Best Youth Actress in
a Leading Role Television Series for "I'll Fly Away." RaéVen is a NAACP
National Equity Theatre Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress 2003
in "Achieving the Dream," Hollywood Reporter Youngstar Award Nominee
for Best Actress in a Mini-Series 2000 for "Freedom Song," Hollywood
Reporter Youngstar Award Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama Film 1997
for "A Time to Kill," NAACP Image Award Nominee for Best Youth
Performer for "A Time to Kill" and "I'll Fly Away," and Youth In Film
Award Nominee for Best Actress for "What's Love Got To Do With It?,"
"Sweet Justice," and "Lily in Winter."
RaéVen Larrymore Kelly's talent as a vocalist shouldn't be a surprise,
since her voice has been musically recorded while acting and singing
in "What's Love Got To Do With It?" at age 7. Since then she has recorded
on "The Preacher's Wife" soundtrack and been in session with HB Barnum,
George Duke, John Williams (film music composer), and many others. She
has already performed at The Grand Ole Opry and performed for The
Stellar Awards.
Her receipt of The 2006 Omni Award for Career Achievement and as
Honorary Gala Chairperson celebrates, as noted above, the distinguished
entertainment achievements of RaéVen Larrymore Kelly, in addition to
her academics as a College National Dean's List student and active
member of a State of California Honor Society and an International
Honor Society; and her Community Service Support to Pediatric Aids
Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation.- Pamela Rodgers was born on 28 June 1943 in Houston, Texas, USA. She is an actress, known for The Maltese Bippy (1969), The Big Cube (1968) and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). She was previously married to Jere Henshaw.
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Kellie Pickler was born in Albemarle, North Carolina to Cynthia Morton
and Clyde "Bo" Raymond Pickler, Jr. Cynthia left when Kellie was 2 but
was then granted custody for two years. Kellie was returned to her
grandparents at age 12. Her father was in and out of jail throughout
her childhood and she was raised in Albemarle, North Carolina by her
grandparents, who were big influences in her life. She has a half-sister
named Courtney and two half-brothers, Eric and Michael; she has never
met Michael. Kellie and Eric continued to live with their grandfather
after their grandmother died of lung cancer in 2002. At North Stanly
High School in New London, North Carolina, from which she graduated
in 2004, she was a cheerleader and a beauty queen. In 2005 she tried
out for American Idol (2002)
and was sent to Hollywood. She sang many famous songs, including "Since
U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson, "A Broken Wing" by Martina McBride,
and "Blame it on the Sun" by Stevie Wonder. She was one
of Simon's favorites, but was eliminated in the Final 6. Back in North Carolina
she was given a key to the city on "Kellie Pickler Day", May 6, 2006. She then
headed to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue her dreams. She was signed to 19
Recordings/BNA Records and wrote and sang many chart-toppers, including
"Red High Heels", "I Wonder", "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind", "Don't
You Know You're Beautiful", "You Didn't Know How Much I Loved You", and
"The Best Days of Your Life".- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Gemmenne de la Peña was born on 28 June 1992 in Redlands, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Weather Man (2005), Bunker Z (Zulu) (2018) and Erin Brockovich (2000).