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1-50 of 1,442
- Actress
- Producer
Emmanuelle Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Liliane (Benisty) and Albert Chriqui. Her family moved to Toronto when she was two years old. At the age of 10, Chriqui appeared in a McDonald's commercial. She moved to Vancouver, guest-starring in series such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990), Forever Knight (1992), Once a Thief (1996) and PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (1996). Her first Hollywood role was in Detroit Rock City (1999). Her breakout performance came in 2000's Snow Day (2000), in which she played the foxy "Claire Bonner." She appeared in rock band Hinder's "Lips of an Angel" music video in 2006. Emmanuelle later starred in several films and was nominated for a DVD Exclusive Award as Best Actress for her performance in 100 Girls (2000). She also starred in the movie, Adam and Eve (2005), opposite Cameron Douglas. Chriqui increased her visibility by playing "Sloan" on the HBO hit show, Entourage (2004), and by starring opposite Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). She reprise her role as Sloan in Entourage (2015).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents William Branagh, a plumber and carpenter, and Frances (Harper), both born in 1930. He has two siblings, William Branagh, Jr. (born 1955) and Joyce Branagh (born 1970). When he was nine, his family escaped The Troubles by moving to Reading, Berkshire, England. At 23, Branagh joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he took on starring roles in "Henry V" and "Romeo and Juliet". He soon found the RSC too large and impersonal and formed his own, the Renaissance Theatre Company, which was disbanded in 1992 when he moved more fully into filmmaking. At 29, he directed Henry V (1989), where he also co-starred with his then-wife, Emma Thompson. The film brought him Best Actor and Best Director Oscar nominations. In 1993, he brought Shakespeare to mainstream audiences again with his hit adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (1993), which featured an all-star cast that included, among others, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton and Keanu Reeves. At 30, he published his autobiography and, at 34, he directed and starred as "Victor Frankenstein" in the big-budget adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein (1994), with Robert De Niro as the monster himself. In 1996, Branagh wrote, directed and starred in a lavish adaptation of Hamlet (1996). His superb film acting work also includes a wide range of roles such as in Celebrity (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Valkyrie (2008) and his stunning portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn (2011), where once again he offered a great performance that was also nominated for an Academy Award.- Actress
- Director
Melissa Roxburgh is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012), as Ensign Syl in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond, as Olivia Tanis in The Marine 4: Moving Target., and as Michaela Stone in the NBC/Netflix science fiction drama series Manifest.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Michael Clarke Duncan was born on December 10, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on Chicago's South Side by his single mother, Jean, a house cleaner, Duncan grew up resisting drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let him, afraid that he would get hurt. He then turned to acting and dreamed of becoming a famous actor.
After graduating from high school and attending community college, he worked digging ditches at People's Gas Company in Chicago. When he quit his job and headed to Hollywood, he landed small roles while working as a bodyguard. Duncan's role in the movie Armageddon (1998) led to his breakthrough performance in The Green Mile (1999), when his Armageddon co-star Bruce Willis called director Frank Darabont, suggesting Duncan for the part of convict John Coffey. He landed the role and won critical acclaim as well as many other Awards and Nominations, including an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
After suffering a heart attack on July 13, 2012, he was taken to a Los Angeles hospital, in which his girlfriend Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth tried to save his life with CPR. Unfortunately, on September 3, 2012, Michael Clarke Duncan died at age 54 from respiratory failure.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Fionnula Flanagan was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. From an early age she grew up speaking both English and Irish on a daily basis. Her parents weren't native Irish speakers but wanted Fionnula and her four siblings to learn the language. Her mother used to say, "A nation without a language is a nation without a soul". Fionnula has said she will be forever grateful to them for that. She was educated at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin and in Switzerland. She moved to Los Angeles in 1968 and lives with her husband, psychiatrist Dr. Garrett O'Connor, in Beverly Hills. Of her enormous body of work, including stage, television and film, she might be most well-known for James Joyce's Women (1985), in which she plays six different women who had a profound influence on James Joyce's life. Besides giving an award-winning performance, she also wrote, adapted and produced the piece for the stage, and subsequently as a feature film. She believes Joyce is the most important writer in the English language, most notably for "Ulysses", "Finnegan's Wake" and "The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man". When she was growing up she thought the much lauded author was a good friend of her parents, because they were always saying, "Joyce said this, Joyce said that". When she was finally old enough to read Joyce for herself, the characters were like old friends.- Patrick John Flueger was born on 10 December 1983 in Red Wing, Minnesota, USA. He is an actor, known for The World's Fastest Indian (2005), The 4400 (2004) and Brothers (2009).
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Director
Teyana Taylor is an American singer, actress, dancer, choreographer, director, and model. In 2005, Taylor signed a record deal with American musician Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment imprint, before making her first national appearance on MTV's My Super Sweet 16. In 2012, she signed to Ye's GOOD Music label through Def Jam, after asking for her release from Star Trak. As an aspiring songwriter, Taylor has worked with and written records for artists such as Usher, Chris Brown, and Omarion. Taylor has appeared on runways during Fashion Week and has also landed high-profile features, such as on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. She stars in the VH1 reality television show Teyana and Iman (2018), alongside her husband, NBA player Iman Shumpert.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
FYI: I've written my own BIO. To be honest it felt more sincere than pretending like I hired some journalist to do a ton of research and come up with a non biased presentation. So here it goes.
Nia Peeples- What others have said: is an American actress, singer, dancer. For more than 30 years Nia has graced the screen with her talent and intelligence, her fearlessness and compassion, and her beauty. (Why thank you) Most known for her roles in the hit TV series Fame, Walker Texas Ranger, and Pretty Little Liars as well as her jaunt through the music industry with her number 1 record Trouble and the 3 music shows she hosted in that era, Nia is one of the first multi-racial performers to cross all genres and all platforms helping to lay the groundwork for bridging the gap between ethnic performers and leading roles in Hollywood.
Recently, with her son well on his music path, her daughter heading off to college, and her 4th marriage ending, Nia sold everything and went on "walk about" to realign with her greater purpose. After three years of wandering, Nia has returned with one book under her belt, The Little Apple Tree, and is in the middle of writing her second, "Confessions of a Serial Monogamist, Journey Through the Men I loved to the Me I Love, for which she interviewed all her significant others.
Nia's passion is empowering women and students. She is also a keynote speaker, works very closely with My Saint My Hero creating and launching empowering lines of jewelry, and continues to perform live.
(2018) Nia currently lives in Topanga, CA when she's not fasting at an ashram or studying quantum physics and sacred geometry:)- Actor
- Additional Crew
Daniel Betts was born in 1971 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, England. He trained under Yat Malmgren and Christopher Fettes at the Drama Centre, London, graduating in 1993. His varied career has included many roles on the British and International stage, as well as TV and film work including Fury (2014), and the upcoming Brad Pitt films War Machine (2016) and Allied (2016).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born on December 10, 1978. Summer Joy Phoenix is the fifth and youngest child of Arlyn Phoenix and John Bottom, a carpenter. Summer was raised in Southern California, but spent her teen years in Central Florida, where she was born. She is an active supporter of numerous charities and activist groups, mainly concerning the environment, animal rights and vegetarianism. Summer has also appeared in many print ads in Europe.
Summer was married to actor Casey Affleck. She filed for divorce in July 2017.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman, also known as Raven, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, executive producer, and director. She began her career as actress, appearing as Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show (1984) and Nicole Lee on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992). She starred as Raven Baxter on the television series That's So Raven (2003), for which she was nominated for numerous accolades.
In music, Pearman released her debut studio album at the age of seven, Here's to New Dreams (1993), which saw the moderate commercial success. Her subsequent studio albums, Undeniable (1999), This Is My Time (2004), and Raven-Symoné (2008) saw some commercial success on the Billboard 200 chart. She also contributed vocals to several soundtracks from her Disney projects, including The Cheetah Girls (2003), That's So Raven (2003), and The Cheetah Girls 2 (2005), several of which were certified platinum and gold.
In 2011, she starred in the lead role on the sitcom State of Georgia (2011). She also joined the panel of the ABC daytime talk show The View (1997) from 2015 to 2016. Since 2017, Pearman has reprized her role as Raven Baxter on Raven's Home (2017), for which she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming.- Actress
- Producer
Susan Dey was born on 10 December 1952 in Pekin, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Partridge Family (1970), L.A. Law (1986) and Skyjacked (1972). She has been married to Bernard Sofronski since 20 February 1988. She was previously married to Leonard Hirshan.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Arden Myrin was born in Little Compton, Rhode Island, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017), Shameless (2011) and Insatiable (2018). She was previously married to Dan Martin.- Kyliegh Curran stepped into the spotlight, starring opposite Ewan McGregor in Warner Bros.' gripping supernatural thriller, "Doctor Sleep." The film, which was released November 8th 2019, is directed by Mike Flanagan from his own screenplay based upon Stephen King's best-selling novel.
"Doctor Sleep" continues the story of Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in the classic "The Shining." Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has fought to find some semblance of peace. At the heart of the story is Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the "shine." Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.
Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abra's innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never before - at once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.
Next for Kyliegh is a starring role in Disney Channel's upcoming "Sulphur Springs," a live-action, time travel mystery series that takes place in a haunted hotel. She portrays 'Harper,' a bright-eyed, mystery obsessed teen whose classmate 'Griffin' has just moved into a hotel rumored to be haunted by a girl who went missing decades ago. Together, they discover a secret portal that allows them to travel back in time to investigate the unsolved mystery. Production is set to begin in early 2020 in New Orleans.
Kyliegh was born in Miami, FL on December 10, 2005 to Traci-Liegh Johnson and Shannon Curran. She is the granddaughter of esteemed writer and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Whittington B. Johnson. She began her professional acting career at the age of seven, performing diverse roles in regional theatre productions for The Miracle Theatre/Actor's Playhouse in Coral Gables, FL.
At ten years old, Kyliegh landed a coveted role on Broadway, starring in the principal role of Young Nala in Disney's award-winning musical "The Lion King." In 2017, Kyliegh appeared in the independent film, "I Can I Will I Did," in the role of Lily opposite Selenis Leyva and Mike Faist. The film won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Asian American International Film Festival.
A triple threat, Kyliegh loves to sing, dance and act, and she also enjoys writing. She is a passionate young advocate and looks forward to aligning with organizations that support early literacy and storytelling in schools, as well as animal causes. Her varied interests range from studying foreign languages, to baking and gardening, to knitting and crocheting. Additionally, Kyliegh is vegan and is environmentally conscious.
Follow her journey on Instagram @kylieghcurran. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Xavier Samuel was born on 10 December 1983 in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor, known for Blonde (2022), Elvis (2022) and Adore (2013).- Actor
- Production Designer
- Soundtrack
Born in Japan, Makoto Iwamatsu was living there with his grandparents while his parents studied art in the United States, when Japan and the U.S. went to war in 1941. His parents remained in the U.S., working for the Office of War Information, and, at the cessation of the conflict, were granted U.S. residency by Congress. "Mako", as he became known, joined his parents in New York and studied architecture.
He entered the U.S. Army in the early 1950s and acted in shows for military personnel, discovering a talent and love for the theatre. He abandoned his plans to become an architect and instead enrolled at the famed Pasadena Community Playhouse. Following his studies there, he appeared in many stage productions and on television. In 1966, he won an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his first film role, as the coolie "Po-Han" in The Sand Pebbles (1966). He worked steadily in feature films since.
He appeared on Broadway in the leading role in Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures", and co-founded and served as artistic director for the highly-acclaimed East-West Players theatre company in Los Angeles.
Following a long battle with cancer, Mako passed away on July 21, 2006, at the age of 72. He was survived by his wife, Shizuko Hoshi (who co-starred in episodes of M*A*S*H (1972)) as well, and his children and grandchildren.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Amanda Anka was born on 10 December 1968 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Lost Highway (1997) and Taxi (2004). She has been married to Jason Bateman since 3 July 2001. They have two children.- Michael Earl Schoeffling is an American former actor and model, known for playing the role of Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, Al Carver in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, Kuch in Vision Quest, and Joe in Mermaids. Schoeffling was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and raised in South Jersey. He graduated from Cherokee High School in New Jersey, and majored in Liberal Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia. In the mid-1980s he began modeling for GQ, and photographer Bruce Weber paid for his acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Shane Gillis is a stand-up comic based out of New York City, recently named an "Up-Next" Comic at Comedy Central's 2019 Clusterfest in San Francisco and a "New Face" at Just For Laughs in Montreal. Winner of Philly's Funniest at Helium Comedy Club in 2016, Shane is a regular guest on Sirius XM and Faction Talk Radio's The Bonfire. He's also one half of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast. Shane has written for Comedy Central's Delco Proper and starred in and wrote for the Dweck Show, Tires Etc, and New Muscle.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dan Blocker is one of the true television immortals, having played Hoss Cartwright -- the heart and soul of Bonanza (1959) -- for 13 seasons, before his untimely death in 1972 at the age of 43. "Bonanza" was the most popular TV series of the 1960s, ranked #1 for three straight seasons (1964-65 through 1966-67) and spending a then-unprecedented nine seasons in the Top 5. After Blocker's death, "Bonanza" -- still in the Top 20 with Hoss after being #8 the previous year -- didn't last another entire season.
The character of Hoss was conceived as a stereotype: The Gentle Giant. The 6'4", 300 lbs. Blocker filled Hoss's cowboy boots and ten-gallon hat admirably but brought something extra to the role, a warmth and empathy that helped ground the show. Personal accounts of Blocker testify to the fact that the man was gregarious and friendly to everyone. He brought that upbeat personality to the character of Hoss.
Hoss originally had been conceived as dull-witted, but ironically, Blocker's professional acting career was assured after he moved his family to California so he could pursue a PhD at U.C.L.A. A native of West Texas, he reportedly was discovered while making a call in a phone booth while outfitted in Western garb, including a straw cowboy hat, his standard dress being a native son of Texas, soon after arriving in California. Even after being cast in "Bonanza", he intended to complete his PhD, but the great success of the series made that impossible, due to the workload of 30+ episodes per year necessitating a 7AM-9PM work schedule five days a week.
Donny Dany Blocker made his debut on December 10, 1928 in De Kalb, Texas, weighing in at 14 lbs. He reportedly was the biggest baby ever born in Bowie County. By the age of 12, he already was 6' tall and weighed 200 lbs. (Towards the end of "Bonanza", he reportedly had ballooned past his stated weight of 300 to as much as 365 lbs.) A "TV Guide" story after his death reported that back in Texas, the young Dan once lifted a car off of a man after it slid off a jack and pinned him under the auto. "My daddy used to say that I was too big to ride and too little to hitch a wagon to," Blocker said, "no good for a damn thing".
His father, Ora Blocker, a poor Texas farmer, was hurt by the Great Depression that began the year after Dan's birth. Ora Blocker lost the farm and later went into the grocery business. He moved his family to O'Donnell, which is just south of Lubbock, where he ran a grocery store. His "no good" son went to the Texas Military Institute, and in 1946 started his undergraduate work at Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, Texas), where he played football. It was there he fell in love with acting when he was recruited by a girlfriend to play a role in campus production of Arsenic and Old Lace as they needed a strong man to lift the bodies that the spinster aunts had dispatched up from the cellar.
After graduating in 1950 with a degree in English, Blocker went east where he did repertory work in Boston. A 1960 "TV Guide" article says that he appeared on Broadway in the 1950-51 production of King Lear, which starred Louis Calhern. The draft soon ended his apprenticeship, and he served in the Army in the Korean War, making sergeant. After being demobilized in 1952, he attended attended Sul Ross State Teacher's College (Alpine, Texas), earning a master's degree in dramatic arts. He taught English and drama at a Sonora, Texas high school before moving to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where he taught sixth grade. He then moved his family to California, where he again taught school while preparing for his PhD studies.
Blocker picked up bit parts in television, making his debut as a bartender in The Sheriff of Cochise (1956). His career rise was steady and rapid, and he appeared on many Westerns, including Gunsmoke (1955), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), The Rifleman (1958), and Maverick (1957). He claimed his turn as Hognose Hughes on "Maverick", the comic Western starring James Garner, was the seminal role of his career. As Hoss, Blocker would often star in light-hearted episodes on "Bonanza". He was cast in the recurring role of "Tiny" Carl Budinger in the short lived Western series, Cimarron City (1958). Its cancellation after one season made him available for "Bonanza", which was "Cimarron City" creator David Dortort's next project. He had previously appeared on Dortort's Western series, The Restless Gun (1957).
"Bonanza" debuted in September 1959, shot in color, and R.C.A. made color TV sets and saw the program as a good advertisement for its wares. The company sponsored the first two seasons of the show, and the sponsorship and R.C.A.'s ownership of N.B.C. was likely why it wasn't cancelled after its shaky first season, when it placed #45 in the ratings for the 1959-60 season. The following year, it cracked the top 20 at #17, but it wasn't until it was shifted to Sundays at 9PM in the 1961-62 season that it became a ratings phenomenon, coming in at #2. It was the first of nine straight seasons in the top 5. Once "Bonanza" was ensconced as America's favorite Western, Blocker and his three co-stars, Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts and Michael Landon were paid an extremely handsome salary that eventually rose to approximately $10,000 per episode each by the time Roberts quit after the sixth season, its first at #1.
Commenting on Roberts' departure, Landon said, "After he left we took one leaf out of the dining room table and we all made more money because we split the take three ways instead of four." Salary, royalties from Bonanza-related merchandise, and business ventures (Blocker started the Bonanza Steak House chain in 1963), and an eventual $1-million payout from NBC to buy out the residual rights of each of the three remaining stars made them all rich. "Bonanza" made Blocker a very wealthy man, but more importantly, it made him a television immortal. The series continues to be re-run in syndication 40 years after Hoss exited the stage.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harold Gould earned a Ph.D. in theater and taught speech and drama at Cornell University.
Pursuing off-Broadway work in the 1950s, he decided to practice what he preached and became a full-time professional actor in the 1960s.
He appeared in hundreds of TV programs during his distinguished performing career, usually playing a father, grandfather, or other varieties of authority figures.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Scrappy, plucky-looking Kentucky-born Tommy Kirk, who was born on December 10, 1941, became synonymous with everything clean and fun that Disney Entertainment prescribed to in the late 1950s and very early 1960s. One of four sons born to a mechanic, Louie, and legal secretary, Lucy, the Kirk family, in search of better job prospects, moved from Louisville to Downey, California while Tommy was still an infant. The boy's interest in acting was ignited at the age of 13 years when he (instead of older brother Joe) was cast in a minor role in a production of Will Rogers Jr. and Bobby Driscoll in a production of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" at the Pasadena Playhouse. Discovered by a Hollywood agent who saw him and signed him up, Tommy went on to appear in two other Pasadena theatre plays, Portrait in Black" and "Barefoot in Athens" and on TV ("Lux Video Theatre, "Frontier," "Big Town," "Gunsmoke" and "The Loretta Young Show") and film (Down Liberty Road (1956) and The Peacemaker (1956)). It was an episode of "Matinee Theatre" that brought the freshly-scrubbed All-American kid to the attention of mogul Walt Disney who quickly signed him to a long-term contract.
In 1955, the lad became a member of the The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) TV series and won a legion of young fans as the brush-cut haired, irrepressibly inquisitive young sleuth Joe Hardy in two "Hardy Boys" serials ("The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure," "The Mystery of the Ghost Farm") with Tim Considine, another young promising Disney staple, playing older brother Frank. With time Tommy became a prime juvenile Disney hero and ideal mischief maker for many of the studio's full-length comedy and drama classics, earning nationwide teen idol status for his exuberant work in Old Yeller (1957), The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), The Absent Minded Professor (1961), Babes in Toyland (1961), Bon Voyage! (1962), Moon Pilot (1962), Son of Flubber (1962) and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964).
In 1963 the bubble completely burst when the Disney factory found out 21-year-old Tommy was in a relationship with an underage boy. He was also arrested on Christmas Eve in 1964 when a party he was attending was raided and busted for marijuana use. Although charges were dropped, it was too late. Fired from his role in the John Wayne western The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) as a result, the Disney studio, out of protection, was forced to release him from his contract, but not after rehiring him one more time to complete a "Merlin Jones" movie sequel entitled The Monkey's Uncle (1965)).
Tommy found very mild restitution after signing with AIP (American International Pictures) and appearing in such popular teen-oriented flicks as Pajama Party (1964), co-starring fellow Disney cohort Annette Funicello, and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). He also began appearing on the musical stage as Harold Hill in "The Music Man," Riff in "West Side Story" and as the lead in "Tovarich." He also was lent out to do a lead in the mediocre cult sci-fi Embassy Picture Village of the Giants (1965). After leaving AIP, things got progressively worse for Tommy with a lead role in Trans American Film's It's a Bikini World (1967) -- by this time, beach party films were no longer trendy. Bargain basement fare such as Unkissed Bride (1966), UA's Track of Thunder (1967), Catalina Caper (1967) Mars Needs Women (1968), in which he played a Martian, and Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967) (aka Psycho a Go-Go) pretty much spelled as a leading man. Practically blacklisted by an industry that deemed "outed" gay actors "box office poison," he returned to the musical theatre in his home state of Kentucky with such shows as "Anything Goes" (as Moonface Martin), "Hello, Dolly!" (as Horace Vandergelder), "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (as Marcus Lycus) and "Little Mary Sunshine" (as General Fairfax).
Following roles in the low budget 70s films Ride the Hot Wind (1973) and the unreleased My Name Is Legend (1975) as well as an isolated TV part on a 1972 episode of "The Streets of San Francisco," Tommy disappeared from the limelight. His life went into a seemingly irreversible tailspin. Depressed and angry, he sought solace in drugs and nearly died from an acute overdose at one point. For health reasons he felt the need to completely abandon his career and slowly moved himself forward as a recovering addict. On a very positive note, he was able to build a very successful carpet and upholstery cleaning company for himself ("Tommy Kirk's Carpet and Upholstery) in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. It stayed open for business for well over two decades.
After some time away, Tommy showed up again in Hollywood, glimpsed in a few dismissible low-budgeters here and there, including Streets of Death (1988), Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds (1995), Little Miss Magic (1998), Billy Frankenstein (1998), Club Dead (2000) and, his last to date, The Education of a Vampire (2001). He appeared in several documentary interviews for the DVD releases of some of his best known films and TV shows, and occasionally at film festivals and nostalgia convention/memorabilia fests. He lived in Las Vegas.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was the archetypal brassy, bosomy, Brooklynesque blonde with a highly distinctive scratchy voice. Barbara Nichols started life as Barbara Marie Nickerauer in Queens, New York on December 10, 1928, and grew up on Long Island. Graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School, she changed her reddish-brown hair to platinum blonde and worked as a post-war model and burlesque dancer. As a beauty contestant, she won the "Miss Long Island" title as well as the dubious crowns of "Miss Dill Pickle", "Miss Mink of 1953" and "Miss Welder of 1953", and also became a GI pin-up favorite. She began to draw early attention on stage (particularly in the musical "Pal Joey") and in television drama.
Barbara found herself stealing focus in small, wisecracking roles, managing at times to draw both humor and pathos out of her characters -- sometimes simultaneously. She seemed consigned to play strippers, gold-diggers, barflies, gun molls and other floozy types, but Barbara made the best of her stereotype, taking full advantage of the not-so-bad films that came her way. While most of them, of course, emphasized her physical endowments, she could also be very, very funny when given a decent script. By far the best of her work came out in one year: Pal Joey (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and The Pajama Game (1957). By the decade's end, though, her film career had allowed down, and she turned more and more to television, appearing on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Adam-12 (1968), The Twilight Zone (1959) (the classic "Twenty-Two" episode), The Untouchables (1959) and Batman (1966), to name a few.
Barbara landed only one regular series role in her career, the very short-lived situation comedy Love That Jill (1958) starring husband-and-wife team Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling. Barbara played a model named "Ginger". She also co-starred on Broadway with George Gobel and Sam Levene in the musical "Let It Ride" in 1961 and played roles in a few low-budget movies from time to time, including the campy prison drama House of Women (1962) and the science fiction film The Human Duplicators (1964) starring George Nader and Richard Kiel, who played "Jaws" in the James Bond film series.
A serious Long Island car accident in July 1957 led to the loss of her spleen, and another serious car accident in Southern California in the 1960s led to a torn liver. Complications would set in over a decade later and she was forced to slow down her career. Barbara eventually developed a life-threatening liver disease and her health deteriorated. In summer 1976, she was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, where she went into a coma. She awoke for a few days just before Labor Day, but sank back shortly after. She died at age 47 of liver failure on October 5 and was survived by her parents, George and Julia Nickerauer. She was interred at Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, New York.- Alicia von Rittberg, born on December 10, 1993 in Munich, made her debut in front of the camera at the age of six in the popular TV-show "Dingsda," in which small children had to explain different everyday concepts. But her real acting career began only a few years later: in 2006 she appeared in a series of the crime series "The Old One," followed by supporting roles in the television games Die Lawine (2007) and Die Sache mit dem Glück (2008). Alicia von Rittberg became known to a wider audience through the seven-part film series Meine wunderbare Familie (2008); In it she played the 13-year-old daughter of the main character. In the film biography Romy (2009), she played Romy Schneider in her teens. Shortly thereafter, she was seen in No Sky Over Whales (2009) as the daughter of Veronica Ferres played main character. Other supporting roles she had in the cinema comedy Eine ganz heiße Nummer (2011), in A Deal with Adele (2012) and in Christian Petzold's GDR drama Barbara (2012). A major role played by Rittberg as a humiliated Heimkind in the drama Und alle haben geschwiegen (2012). In 2013, she received the Günter Rohrbach Film Prize and the Young Talent Award at the Bavarian Television Prize for this performance. Positive reviews also got the TV play The Lost Daughter (2013), about a woman who is suddenly confronted after 16 years with her daughter once released for adoption. Rittberg also belonged to the family history ensemble On the Road with Elsa (2014) and the historical thriller The Midwife (2014). The latter role earned her the New Faces Award for Best Newcomer Actress. Rittberg had a small but significant role in the American second world war movie Fury (2014) starring Brad Pitt. She played in it a young German, who must host an American tank crew. Easier stuff was the romantic comedy Das Romeo-Prinzip (2015), which showed her as a shy student. Director Sönke Wortmann cast Alicia von Rittberg in a starring role in his acclaimed mini-series Charité (2017) as a combative and ambitious nurse. Another American production was the miniseries Genius (2017) on the life of Albert Einstein, in which played by Rittberg Anna Winteler, the daughter of the scientist Jost Winteler. In the same year she was an ambitious elite student to the ensemble of Alain Gsponer's Godless Youth (2017), a dystopian future after Ödön von Horvath's novel of the same name.
In addition to acting, Alicia von Rittberg studies economics in Friedrichshafen. - Kristine was raised on a small self-sufficient farm in upstate New York. As a young girl, she took ballet and studied voice. At 14, she began modeling for Macy's. During her freshman year of high school, Kristine auditioned for and won the part of Marta in the musical The Sound Of Music. The following summer, the now-famous Mac-Haydn Theatre opened in DeBell's hometown, featuring The Sound Of Music as its last show of its season. Kristine auditioned for the part of Marta again, however producers felt her voice was too mature and cast her as the naughty postulant. This was the beginning of a fruitful four performance seasons with The Mac-Haydn Theatre. After graduation from high school and a year at Berkeley College studying Fashion Merchandising, Kristine began modeling for Ford Models in NYC. She later moved into acting and is known for starring in an X-rated film version of Alice in Wonderland . She was on the April 1976 cover of Playboy, photographed by Suze Randall, and appeared in the Helmut Newton pictorial, "200 Motels, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation"( August, 1976), from which 11 original prints were sold at auctions of Playboy archives by Butterfields in 2002 for $21,075 and three by Christies in December 2003 for $26,290. Kristine starred in a number of motion pictures including Meatballs (Bill Murray's first film and Ivan Reitman's directorial debut), Blood Brothers (Richard Gere's first film, directed by Robert Mulligan), and The Big Brawl (Jackie Chan's first American film). Kristine also starred in a number of television pilots throughout the early 1980's, and enjoyed many guest-star appearances in episodic television and movies of the week, including Night Court, and the award-winning soap opera The Young & The Restless. DeBell left the film and television industry in the mid-1980's to raise her children on a thoroughbred farm in upstate New York. Her passion for theater brought her back to the stage, and she began starring in many regional theater productions. One of her most memorable performances was as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. Since moving back to Los Angeles in 2008, she has enjoyed steady work as a film and television actress.