Heath Ledger

biography:
Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career further. His work consisted of twenty films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), the latter two being posthumous releases. He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the Best International Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute; he was the first actor to win the latter award posthumously. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the eighth-youngest nominee in the category at that time. Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There, which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.

Ledger died on 22 January 2008 as a result of an accidental overdose of medications. A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. At the time of his death, The Dark Knight was in post-production, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in which he was playing his last role as Tony, was in the midst of filming. His death affected the subsequent promotion of The Dark Knight. His performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight earned him universal acclaim and popularity from fans and critics alike. Ledger also received numerous posthumous awards for his work on The Dark Knight, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

place_of_birth: Perth, Western Australia, Australia


Anne Hathaway

type: Profile

biography:
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. She has received numerous accolades, most notably an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance as Fantine in Les Misérables (2012). In 2015, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, and in 2024, she was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people. Additionally, she holds a Primetime Emmy Award for her voice work on The Simpsons.

She began her career appearing in the television series Get Real (1999) before achieving worldwide fame as the lead in her film debut, the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). She earned critical acclaim for her transition to more adult roles in the dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Her star status was solidified with the commercial success of The Devil Wears Prada (2006), starring alongside Meryl Streep, and she received her first Oscar nomination for her role as a woman in rehab in Rachel Getting Married (2008).

Since 2010, she has starred in several of her career's biggest box-office hits, including the romantic comedies Valentine's Day (2010) and Love and Other Drugs (2010), the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010), and her role as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Her films Interstellar (2014), The Intern (2015), Ocean's 8 (2018), The Idea of You (2024), and the most recent The Odyssey (2026) have reaffirmed her versatility in the industry. Beyond her artistic work, she serves as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, advocating for gender equality and women's rights in the workplace.

place_of_birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

known_for_department: Acting


Linda Cardellini

biography:
Linda Edna Cardellini (born June 25, 1975) is an American actress. In television, she is known for her leading roles in the teen drama Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), the medical drama ER (2003–09), the drama thriller Bloodline (2015–17), and the tragicomedy Dead to Me (2019–present), the latter of which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She also guest starred in the period drama Mad Men (2013–15), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Her voice work includes the animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010–13), Regular Show (2012–15), Gravity Falls (2012–16), and Sanjay and Craig (2013–16).

In film, Cardellini is best known for her portrayal of Velma Dinkley in Scooby-Doo (2002) and its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and her supporting roles in Legally Blonde (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Grandma’s Boy (2006), Kill the Irishman (2011), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), The Founder (2016), Green Book, A Simple Favor (both 2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). She also starred in the drama Return (2011), earning an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead nomination, the comedies Daddy's Home (2015) and Daddy's Home 2 (2017), and the horror film The Curse of La Llorona (2019).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Linda Cardellini, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Redwood City, California, USA


Paul Winfield

biography:
Paul Edward Winfield (born May 22, 1939) was an American actor.

He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the television miniseries King, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Description above from the Wikipedia article  Paul Winfield, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Shirley Henderson

biography:
Shirley Henderson (born 24 November 1965) is a Scottish actress. Her accolades include two Scottish BAFTAs, a VFCC Award and an Olivier Award, and BAFTA, BIFA, London Critics' Circle, Chlotrudis, Gotham, and Canadian Screen Award nominations.

Henderson's film roles include Gail in Trainspotting (1996) and its 2017 sequel, Jude in the Bridget Jones films (2001–2025), and Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Her other notable credits include Rob Roy (1995), Wonderland (1999), Topsy-Turvy (1999), 24 Hour Party People (2002), Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002), Intermission (2003), American Cousins (2003), Frozen (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), Life During Wartime (2009), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Anna Karenina (2012), Filth (2013), Okja (2017), Never Steady, Never Still (2017), and Stan & Ollie (2018).

Henderson starred as Isobel Sutherland in the BBC series Hamish Macbeth (1995–97) and played Frances Drummond in the BBC drama Happy Valley (2016). She was nominated for RTS Awards for the BBC miniseries The Way We Live Now (2001) and the ITV television film Dirty Filthy Love (2004), and received a BAFTA nomination for her portrayal of Claire Salter in the Channel 4 miniseries Southcliffe (2013). She won the 2018 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Elizabeth in the original Old Vic production of Girl from the North Country.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Shirley Henderson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Forres, Morayshire, Scotland


Katja Riemann

biography:
Katja Hannchen Leni Riemann (born 1 November 1963 in Weyhe-Kirchweyhe, Germany) is a German actress.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Katja Riemann, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Kirchweyhe, Germany


Matt Damon

biography:
Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is a multifaceted American actor, producer, and screenwriter. In 2007, he was highlighted as one of Forbes' most bankable stars, and by 2010, he emerged as one of the highest-grossing actors in cinematic history. His accolades include an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, along with nominations for three BAFTA Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Damon's journey in acting began with *Mystic Pizza* in 1988, but it was in 1997 that he truly came into the limelight. Collaborating with Ben Affleck on *Good Will Hunting*, they not only starred in the film but also won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. He solidified his reputation as a leading man through iconic roles, such as Tom Ripley in *The Talented Mr. Ripley*, Jason Bourne in the *Bourne* series, and Linus Caldwell in the *Ocean's* trilogy. His portrayal of an astronaut stranded on Mars in *The Martian* earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and he has been part of various notable films, including *Saving Private Ryan*, *The Departed*, and *Ford v Ferrari*.

On the small screen, Damon played Scott Thorson in HBO's *Behind the Candelabra*, which garnered him an Emmy nomination. His guest appearances in *30 Rock* and hosting *Saturday Night Live* were also Emmy-nominated. Beyond acting, Damon has produced projects like *Project Greenlight* and *Manchester by the Sea*. He co-founded two production companies with Ben Affleck and has lent his voice to several animated and documentary projects. His philanthropic efforts span multiple organizations, including the One Campaign and Water.org.

place_of_birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA


Scott Caan

biography:
Scott Andrew Caan (born August 23, 1976) is an American actor, director, photographer, writer, and former rapper. He received his breakthrough role in Ocean's Eleven as Turk Malloy, whom he played in the Ocean's trilogy, and starred as Detective Danny "Danno" Williams in the CBS television series Hawaii Five-0 (2010–2020), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Caan had a recurring role as manager Scott Lavin in the HBO television series Entourage (2009–2011). In the 1990s, he was a rapper and part of the hip-hop group The Whooliganz with The Alchemist, under the pseudonym Mad Skillz.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Scott Caan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


Dianne Wiest

biography:
Dianne Evelyn Wiest (/wiːst/; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway (both directed by Woody Allen), one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.

Other film appearances by Wiest include Footloose (1984), Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), and September (1987), The Lost Boys (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Little Man Tate (1991), The Birdcage (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Dan in Real Life (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Rabbit Hole (2010), The Mule (2018), Let Them All Talk (2020), and I Care a Lot (2020). She also appeared in the television series Law & Order (2000–2002) and the CBS comedy Life in Pieces(2015–2019).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Dianne Wiest, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Kansas City, Missouri, USA


Anthony Michael Hall

biography:
Michael Anthony Hall (born April 14, 1968), known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor best known for his leading role as Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone from 2002 to 2007. He also rose to fame starring in films with John Hughes, which include the teen classics Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science.

Hall diversified his roles to avoid becoming typecast as his geek persona, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) and starring in films such as Out of Bounds (1986), Johnny Be Good (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993). After a series of minor roles in the 1990s, he starred as Microsoft's Bill Gates in the 1999 television film Pirates of Silicon Valley and started in 2001 comedy Freddy Got Fingered. In 2008, he appeared in a minor role in The Dark Knight. In 2020, he appeared in ABC's The Goldbergs. Additionally, he starred in the slasher film Halloween Kills (2021).


Vincent Price

biography:
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller, and comedy. He appeared on stage, television, radio, and in over one hundred films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, and one for television.

Price was an art collector and consultant, with a degree in art history. He lectured and wrote books on the subject. He was the founder of the Vincent Price Art Museum in California. He was also a noted gourmet cook.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Vincent Price, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Saint Louis, Missouri, USA


Kathy Baker

biography: Kathy Baker is an American stage, film and television actress.

place_of_birth: Midland, Texas, USA


Robbie Coltrane

biography:
Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (March 30, 1950 – October 14, 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011), and as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his "outstanding contribution" to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.

Coltrane started his career appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984). In 1987, he starred in the BBC miniseries Tutti Frutti alongside Thompson, for which he received his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor nomination. Coltrane then gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the ITV television series Cracker (1993–2006), a role which saw him receive the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in three consecutive years (1994 to 1996). In 2006, Coltrane came eleventh in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars, voted by the public. In 2016 he starred in the four-part Channel 4 series National Treasure alongside Julie Walters, a role for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination.

Coltrane appeared in two films for George Harrison's Handmade Films: the Neil Jordan neo-noir Mona Lisa (1986) with Bob Hoskins, and Nuns on the Run with Eric Idle. He also appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation Henry V (1989), the comedy Let It Ride (1989), Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World (1989), Steven Soderbergh's crime-comedy thriller Ocean's Twelve (2004), Rian Johnson's caper film The Brothers Bloom (2008), Mike Newell's Dickens film adaptation Great Expectations (2012), and Emma Thompson's biographical film Effie Gray (2014). He was also known for his voice performances in the animated films The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and Pixar's Brave (2012).

place_of_birth: Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK


Saul Williams

biography:
Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and his lead roles in the 1998 independent film Slam and the 2013 jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Saul Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Newburgh, New York, USA


Danny Boyle

biography: Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and Steve Jobs. In 2009, Slumdog Millionaire won Boyle the Academy Award for Best Director, and the film won Best Picture. In 2012, Boyle was the artistic director for Isles of Wonder, the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London, which was widely praised.

place_of_birth: Manchester, England, UK

known_for_department: Directing


Cillian Murphy

biography:
Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor.

He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early notable film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Murphy began collaborating with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in 2005, playing Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012) as well as appearing in Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017) and portraying the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the biographical epic Oppenheimer (2023). By the year 2023, Murphy has already worked with Nolan for around 20 years and six films. He also gained prominence for his role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC period drama series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) and for starring in the horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II (2020).

In 2011, Murphy won the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Actor and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for the one-man play Misterman. In 2020, The Irish Times named him one of the greatest Irish film actors.

place_of_birth: Douglas, Cork, Ireland


Christopher Eccleston

biography: Christopher Eccleston (born 16 February 1964) is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2005, he became the ninth incarnation of The Doctor in the British television series Doctor Who.

place_of_birth: Salford, Lancashire, England, UK


Stephen Hopkins

biography: Stephen Hopkins is a Jamaican-born film director and producer. He is best-known for his continuation of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and the Predator franchise with Predator 2. His highest grossing film however was the 1998 film adaption of the TV series Lost in Space. He was born in Jamaica and was raised in Australia and England. He was educated at Sutton Valence School. In 2004, Hopkins directed the controversial biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers which raised the ire of the actor's son Michael Sellers. Hopkins was a co-executive producer for the first season of the Fox action drama 24, and also directed half of the season's episodes, including the first and last episodes.

place_of_birth: Jamaica


Danny Glover

biography:
Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is best known for his co-starring lead role as Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles. He starred as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character, Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation of The Color Purple, and as Lieutenant James McFee in the film Witness. He had leading roles in other films including To Sleep with Anger, Predator 2, Angels in the Outfield, and Operation Dumbo Drop. He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his starring role in Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger.

Also, he has had prominent supporting roles in Silverado, Witness, A Rage in Harlem, Dreamgirls, Shooter, Death at a Funeral, Beyond the Lights, Sorry to Bother You, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Dead Don't Die, Lonesome Dove and Jumanji: The Next Level. Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the science fiction action film Predator. During his career, he has also made several cameos, appearing, for example, in the Michael Jackson video "Liberian Girl" of 1987.

In 1994, he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override. Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory founded the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about black people.

place_of_birth: San Francisco, California, USA


Bill Paxton

biography: Bill Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor. He appeared in films including Aliens and Titanic and starred as practising polygamist Bill Henrickson in the HBO series Big Love. On February 25, 2017 he died from complications following heart surgery.

place_of_birth: Fort Worth, Texas, USA


James Mason

biography:
James Neville Mason (known as James Mason; May 15, 1909 – July 27, 1984) was an English actor who made a significant impact on both British and American cinema. His acting career began in the 1930s, where he initially gained recognition for his stage performances in London's West End. He made his film debut in 1935 with the British film "Late Extra," marking the start of his illustrious on-screen journey.

Throughout his career, Mason showcased his exceptional acting abilities, often portraying complex and morally ambiguous characters. His commanding presence, distinctive voice, and versatile range allowed him to effortlessly transition between genres, from dramas to thrillers and even period pieces.

One of Mason's most acclaimed performances came in 1945 when he starred as the troubled and enigmatic Johnny McQueen in the film "Odd Man Out." His portrayal of the wounded Irish nationalist earned him widespread praise and established him as a respected leading man.

Mason's notable filmography includes memorable roles in films such as "The Wicked Lady" (1945), "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" (1951), "A Star Is Born" (1954), "North by Northwest" (1959), and "Lolita" (1962). His ability to bring depth, sophistication, and complexity to his characters captivated audiences and garnered critical acclaim.

Beyond his film career, Mason also dabbled in producing and directing. He co-produced and starred in the acclaimed film "A Star Is Born," showcasing his multifaceted talent and creative vision.

Throughout his life, Mason was recognized with numerous awards and nominations, including three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. He was highly regarded by his peers and critics alike for his impeccable craft and his ability to elevate any production he was a part of.

place_of_birth: Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK


Kim Cattrall

biography: Kim Victoria Cattrall (born August 21, 1956) is a British-Canadian actress, renowned for her diverse acting career in film, stage, and television. She started her career early, signing a film deal with Otto Preminger before graduating high school in 1972. While famous as Samantha Jones in "Sex and the City," she boasts classical training from LAMDA and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her stage credits include Broadway, alongside Sir Ian McKellen, and in David Mamet's praised play 'The Cryptogram.' On TV, she starred in adaptations like 'The Heidi Chronicles' and Oliver Stone’s 'Wild Palms,' alongside numerous blockbuster films. Awards include a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her iconic role in 'Sex and the City.' Cattrall is also a successful author, having written bestsellers like 'Sexual Intelligence' and 'Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm.'

place_of_birth: Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England, UK


Leigh Whannell

biography:
Leigh Whannell (/ˈli ˈwɑːnɛl/; born 17 January 1977) is an Australian filmmaker and actor. He has written multiple films that were directed by his friend James Wan, including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2010), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannell made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and has since directed three more films, Upgrade (2018), The Invisible Man (2020) and Wolf Man (2025).

Whannell and Wan are the creators of the Saw franchise. Whannell wrote the first installment, co-wrote the second and third installments, was the producer or executive producer for all the films, and appeared as the Adam Stanheight character in three of the installments. He was also the writer of the Saw video game (2009) and co-writer of the film Cooties (2014).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Leigh Whannell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

known_for_department: Writing


Makenzie Vega

biography: Makenzie Jade Vega Norfolk (born February 10, 1994) is an American actress, best known for her role as Grace Florrick in the CBS series The Good Wife.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Ned Bellamy

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ned Bellamy (born May 7, 1957) is an American actor. Bellamy was born in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating UCLA, he founded the Los Angeles based theater company The Actors' Gang with fellow actor Tim Robbins. He was featured on a role on an episode of Seinfeld entitled The Fatigues. His brother, Mark Bellamy, was the United States Ambassador to Kenya from 2003-2006.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ned Bellamy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Dayton, Ohio, USA


Kevin Greutert

biography: Kevin Greutert (born March 31, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the Saw franchise.

place_of_birth: Pasadena, California, USA

known_for_department: Editing


Carlo Varini

place_of_birth: Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland

known_for_department: Camera


Rosanna Arquette

biography: Rosanna Lisa Arquette (born August 10, 1959) is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Her other film roles include After Hours (also 1985), The Big Blue (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Crash (1996). She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian? from 2006 to 2007.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Sergio Castellitto

biography:
Sergio Castellitto (born August 18, 1953) is an Italian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

Sergio Castellitto was born in Rome in 1953, to parents from Molise and Abruzzo, Southern Italy. After graduating from the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Art in 1978, he began his theatrical career in Italian public theater with Shakespeare's Measure for Measure at the Teatro di Roma and with roles in other plays such as La Madre by Brecht, Merchant of Venice, and Candelaio by Giordano Bruno. At the Teatro di Genova he starred in the roles of Tuzenbach in Chekhov's Three Sisters and Jean in Strindberg's Miss Julie, both under the direction of Otomar Krejka. In the coming years, he also starred in such theatrical productions as L'infelicità senza desideri and Piccoli equivoci at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. He also appeared in Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon. During his years in the theatre, he worked alongside many famous actors, including Luigi Squarzina, Aldo Trionfo, and Enzo Muzii.

Castellitto began his film career in 1983 beside Marcello Mastroianni and Michel Piccoli in The General of the Dead Army by Luciano Tovoli. He interpreted many films like Sembra morto...ma è solo svenuto directed by Felice Farina, Piccoli equivoci by Ricky Tognazzi and Stasera a casa di Alice by Carlo Verdone. He became more famous with the films The Great Pumpkin by Francesca Archibugi and The Star Maker by Giuseppe Tornatore.

In the late 1980s, Castellitto appeared in several Italian television miniseries, including Un siciliano in Sicilia (1987), Cinque storie inquietanti (1987), Piazza Navona (1988), Cinéma (1988), and Come stanno bene insieme (1989). He also appeared in the miniseries Victoire, ou la douleur des femmes (2000).

Success arrived with the films La famiglia, L'ultimo bacio, Caterina in the Big City, My Mother's Smile, Mostly Martha, and especially with Don't Move, written by his wife Margaret Mazzantini. Other films that he interpreted include Il regista di matrimoni by Marco Bellocchio and La stella che non c'è by Gianni Amelio.

In France, Castellitto played the male lead opposite Jeanne Balibar in Jacques Rivette's Va savoir (2001). His most recent accomplishment as an actor has been in his role as Padre Pio: Miracle Man, arguably the defining role of his career.

The first film that he directed is Libero Burro, followed by Don't Move. He played the role of the antagonist, King Miraz, in the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

His most recent film as director was Twice Born, which played at the Toronto Film Festival (2012), where it was not well received by much of the English speaking press.

Most recently, Castellitto appeared in the television series In Treatment in the role of Giovanni.

Castellitto is married to Margaret Mazzantini with four children, one of these is Pietro, actor and film director himself.

Source: Article "Sergio Castellitto" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

place_of_birth: Roma, Lazio, Italia


Michael Jeter

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Robert Michael Jeter (August 26, 1952 – March 30, 2003) was an American character actor of film, stage, and television. His television roles included Herman Stiles on the sitcom Evening Shade from 1990 until 1994 and Mr. Noodle's brother, Mister Noodle on the Elmo's World segments of Sesame Street from 2000 until 2003. Jeter's film roles include Zelig, Tango & Cash, The Fisher King, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Waterworld, Air Bud, Patch Adams, The Green Mile, Jurassic Park III, Welcome to Collinwood, Open Range, and The Polar Express.

place_of_birth: Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, USA


Marc Duret

biography:
Marc Duret (born 28 September 1957 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France) is a French actor.

Having previously played Cardinal Guillaume Briçonnet in the television series Borgia from 2011–14, Duret appeared as Joseph Duverney in the Starz series Outlander in 2016.

Duret was nominated for a 1991 César Award for Most Promising Actor for his portrayal of Rico in the 1990 film La Femme Nikita, and later nominated for a 1994 Molière Award for Best Newcomer for his theatre performance in Les grandes personnes (The Grown Ups). Screen Junkies named Duret #1 of its "10 Best French Movie Actors".

Duret studied drama at the Conservatoire national in Nice, the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris, Rose Bruford College in London, and the University at Albany, SUNY and the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York.

Source: Article "Marc Duret" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

place_of_birth: Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France


Andréas Voutsinas

biography:
Andreas Voutsinas (22 August 1930 – 8 June 2010) was a Greek actor and theatre director. In the English-speaking world, he was best known for his roles in three Mel Brooks films, The Producers (1967), The Twelve Chairs (1970) and History of the World, Part I (1981).

Voutsinas was born on 22 August 1930 in Khartoum, since there was a sizeable community of Greek settlers in Sudan at the time. His parents came from the island of Cephalonia, Greece. They set up a pasta factory in the Anglo-Egyptian colony, "reputedly supplying spaghetti to Italian forces" during the Fascist invasion of Abyssinia. After the collapse of the business during WWII, Voutsinas moved with his mother to Athens, Greece. His father returned 2 years later.

Voutsinas studied acting and costume design at the The Old Vic Τheatre School and drama and song at the Webber Douglas Academy in London, and, in 1957, joined the Actors Studio.

Voutsinas directed more than 130 performances of classical and contemporary repertoire in London, Paris, New York, Canada and Greece. He worked as an actor and director on Broadway and acted in films by Jules Dassin and Luc Besson.

Voutsinas, a life member of The Actors Studio since 1957, spent many years working in summer stock theater and as an assistant to Studio co-founder Elia Kazan, before he met Jane Fonda, with whom he got involved and whom he cast in the leading part in The Fun Couple, his Broadway directorial debut in 1963.

Voutsinas later followed Fonda to Hollywood where he coached her in a number of movies. He then started working as a coach for many others, including Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Following Fonda to Paris to coach her in Roger Vadim's Barbarella, he decided to found Le Theatre Des Cinquante, an acting workshop based on the principles of Lee Strasberg. Many famous French actors and actresses started attending his classes, and at the same time he successfully began directing plays for the French theatre.

In 1967, Voutsinas became the original Carmen Ghia after befriending Mel Brooks's wife, Anne Bancroft. She recommended him to Brooks and said Voutsinas would be perfect for the part. Voutsinas had a role in another Brooks feature, History of the World, Part I, playing the role of "Bernaise" in the French Revolution scenes.

It was not until the early 1980s that he eventually moved to his ancestral Greece, where he continued his career directing a wide range of repertoire from Tennessee Williams to Euripides, mainly for the State Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki. His productions were also staged during summer in the Athens Festival in Herodion, as well as in the Epidaurus Festival. He continued working between the two countries while he appeared in many French and Greek films, including Le Grand Bleu (1988) and Safe Sex (1999).

Andreas Voutsinas taught acting at the State Theatre of Northern Greece from 2002 to 2009.

After he suffered a stroke he founded his own drama school in Thessaloniki, the Higher Drama School Andreas Voutsinas.

He was married to Artemis Papastrati from 1953 to 1964, they had one son Marios Voutsinas, who became an artist. ...

Source: Article "Andreas Voutsinas" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

place_of_birth: Khartoum, Sudan


Valentina Vargas

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Valentina Vargas (born December 31, 1964) is a Chilean-born actress. She developed most of her career in France, where she was raised.

Vargas began her career in the dramatic art within the workshop of Tania Balaschova in Paris and also later at the Yves Pignot School of Los Angeles. Her cinematographic career started via the filming of three of the most important works[dubious – discuss] in contemporary French cinema, namely Pierre Jolivet's Strictly Personal, Luc Besson's Big Blue and Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose. Over the years, Vargas also worked with Samuel Fuller in Street of No Return, Miguel Littín in Los náufragos and Alfredo Arieta in Fuegos.

Vargas is trilingual in Spanish, French and English. This has enabled her to pass without notice in films as varied as the cinematic horror film Hellraiser IV: Bloodline where she played the Cenobite Angelique, to the comedy Chili con carne of Thomas Gilou. She appeared opposite Jan Michael Vincent (Dirty Games), Malcolm McDowell and Michael Ironside (Southern Cross), and James Remar (The Tigress).

After her performance in Bloody Mallory where she played "the malicious one", she turned to playing roles for television. Initially she played in a version of Les Liaisons dangereuses directed by Josée Dayan. She starred in this production with Catherine Deneuve, Rupert Everett, Leelee Sobieski and Nastassja Kinski.

place_of_birth: Santiago, Chile


Tommy Lee Jones

biography:
Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive.

His other notable starring roles include Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call in the television miniseries Lonesome Dove, Agent K in the Men in Black film series, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men, Hank Deerfield in In the Valley of Elah, the villain Two-Face in Batman Forever, Mike Roark in the disaster film Volcano, terrorist William "Bill" Strannix in Under Siege, Texas Ranger Roland Sharp in Man of the House, rancher Pete Perkins in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (which he also directed), Colonel Chester Phillips in Captain America: The First Avenger, CIA Director Robert Dewey in Jason Bourne, and Warden Dwight McClusky in Natural Born Killers. He most recently appeared in the science fiction film Ad Astra in 2019 and in the comedy The Comeback Trail in 2020.

He has also portrayed historical figures such as businessman Howard Hughes in The Amazing Howard Hughes, Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln, executed murderer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur in Emperor, businessman Clay Shaw, the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in JFK, Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn, in Coal Miner's Daughter, and baseball player Ty Cobb in Cobb.

place_of_birth: San Saba, Texas, USA


Lambert Wilson

biography: Lambert Wilson (born August 3, 1958) is a French actor, singer, and activist. He is best known internationally for his portrayal of The Merovingian in The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Matrix Resurrections.

place_of_birth: Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France


Neal McDonough

biography: Neal McDonough was trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and Sciences. His theatre credits include 'Cheap Talk', 'Foreigner', 'As You Like It', 'Rivals', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Bald Soprano', and 'Waiting for Lefty'. The young actor won a 1991 Best Actor Dramalogue Award for 'Away Alone'. McDonough has been a 'Star Trek' fan since he was a kid. Playing Lieutenant Hawk in 'Star Trek First Contact' was a life-long dream. McDonough has three pictures on his bedroom wall. One is a picture of his mom, the other is the Holy Virgin Mary, and the third is William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He has numerous television credits including 'NYPD Blue', 'Quantum Leap', and the voice of Bruce Banner in the animated series 'The Incredible Hulk' among others. He graduated Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988.

place_of_birth: Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA


Tobey Maguire

biography:
Tobias "Tobey" Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor and film producer. He began his career in supporting roles before gaining international recognition and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's 2002 film. Maguire reprised the role in two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). He played the role again in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Maguire expanded his career with dramatic roles in Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), and The Great Gatsby (2013). He received critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his role as a PTSD-stricken soldier in the war film Brothers (2009).

Outside of acting, Maguire has also produced several films, including 25th Hour (2002) and Seabiscuit. He later established his own production company, Material Pictures, in 2012, and co-produced Good People (2012), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), and Babylon (2022).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Tobey Maguire, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Santa Monica, California, USA


Beau Bridges

biography:
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges (born December 9, 1941) is an American actor and director. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 7, 2003, for his contributions to the television industry. He is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and elder brother of fellow actor Jeff Bridges.

In 1948, he had an uncredited role in Force of Evil, and No Minor Vices, while in 1949, he played in the film The Red Pony. In the 1962–1963 television season, he and his brother, Jeff, appeared on their father's series, The Lloyd Bridges Show. He appeared in other television series too, including National Velvet (1962), The Fugitive (1963), Bonanza (1967), Mr. Novak (1963), and The Loner (1966). He appeared in such feature films during that time as The Landlord (1970), The Other Side of the Mountain (1975), Greased Lightning (1977), Norma Rae (1979), Heart Like a Wheel (1983), and The Hotel New Hampshire (1984).

In 1989, in perhaps his best-known role, he starred in The Fabulous Baker Boys. In the 1993–94 television season, he appeared with his father in the 15-episode series Harts of the West. In 1998, he starred as Judge Bob Gibbs in the one-season Maximum Bob on ABC. He had a recurring role in the Showtime series Beggars and Choosers (1999–2000).

In 2001, he guest-starred as Daniel McFarland, in two episodes in Will & Grace. From 2002 to 2003, he took on the role of Senator Tom Gage in The Agency. In January 2005, he was cast as Major General Hank Landry in Stargate SG-1. He also played the character in five episodes of the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis, as well as the two direct to DVD films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, both in 2008. In 2005, he guest-starred as Carl Hickey in My Name Is Earl; later, his character became recurring. He received a 2007 Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In 2009, he guest-starred as Eli Scruggs on the 100th episode of Desperate Housewives and received an Emmy Award nomination for his performance.

In 2011, he guest-starred in Brothers and Sisters, and in Franklin & Bash. In 2012, he took on the role of J.B. Biggley in the hit revival of the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In 2013, he became a major character on the CBS television show The Millers. He has had several roles in movies since then including Underdog Kids (2015), and Lawless Range (2016). He has also had guest roles on the shows Masters of Sex (2013–2016) and Code Black (2016).


Catherine Keener

biography:
Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. Considered one of the independent film industry's most reliable performers, Keener is known for portraying disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich (1999) and for her portrayal of author Harper Lee in Capote (2005).

Keener also appeared in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Into the Wild (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), and Get Out (2017), which were all well received by critics. Keener is the muse of director Nicole Holofcener, having appeared in each of Holofcener's first five films. She also appeared in each of director Tom DiCillo's first four films, and three films directed by Spike Jonze. From 2018 to 2020, she starred in the Showtime dramedy series Kidding.

place_of_birth: Miami, Florida, USA


Samuel L. Jackson

biography:
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him the second highest-grossing actor of all time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an Academy Honorary Award in 2022 as "A cultural icon whose dynamic work has resonated across genres and generations and audiences worldwide".

Jackson started his career on stage making his professional theatre debut in Mother Courage and her Children in 1980 at The Public Theatre. From 1981 to 1983 he originated the role of Private Louis Henderson in A Soldier's Play Off-Broadway. He also originated the role of Boy Willie in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson in 1987 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. He returned to the play in the 2022 Broadway revival playing Doaker Charles. Jackson early film roles include Coming to America (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Patriot Games (1992), Juice (1992), True Romance (1993), and Jurassic Park (1993), Menace II Society (1993), and Fresh (1994). His collaborations with Spike Lee led to greater prominence with films such as School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Oldboy (2013), and Chi-Raq (2015).

Jackson's breakout role was in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) which earned him a BAFTA Award win and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He further collaborated with Tarantino, acting in Jackie Brown (1997), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015). He's known for having appeared in a number of big-budget films, including Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), The Negotiator (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Shaft (2000) and its reboot (2019), XXX (2002), S.W.A.T. (2003), Coach Carter (2005), Snakes on a Plane (2006), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Glass (2019).

He also gained widespread recognition as the Jedi Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), later voicing the role in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and the video game Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011). With his permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury; he subsequently played Fury in 11 Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with a cameo appearance in Iron Man (2008), as well as guest-starring in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He will reprise this role in the upcoming Disney+ series Secret Invasion, which is set to premiere on June 21, 2023. Jackson has provided his voice for several animated films, documentaries, television series, and video games, including Lucius Best / Frozone in the Pixar films The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018).

place_of_birth: Washington, D.C., USA


Michael Keaton

biography:
Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. In 2016, he was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

Keaton gained early recognition for his comedic roles in Night Shift (1982), Mr. Mom (1983), and Beetlejuice (1988). He gained wider stardom portraying the title superhero in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). He took roles in Clean and Sober (1988), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), The Paper (1994), Multiplicity (1996), Jackie Brown (1997), Jack Frost (1998), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and The Other Guys (2010). He also performed voice roles in the animated films Cars (2006), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Minions (2015).

Keaton experienced a career resurgence after taking a starring role as a faded actor attempting a comeback in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman (2014), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He has since acted in biographical dramas such as Spotlight (2015), The Founder (2016), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Worth (2021). He portrayed the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), while also reprising his roles as Man in The Flash (2023) and the title role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).

Keaton starred as a journalist in the HBO film Live from Baghdad (2002). He portrayed a drug-addicted doctor in the Hulu limited series Dopesick (2021), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Keaton directed the films The Merry Gentleman (2008) and Knox Goes Away (2023), in which he also played the starring role.

place_of_birth: Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, USA


Yusuf Gatewood

biography: Yusuf Gatewood (born September 12, 1982) is an American actor best known for playing Vincent Griffith in The Originals and Doug in the 2005 film The Interpreter. His television work includes guest roles on the television series Hack (2003), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2003), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006) and CSI: Miami (2007). In 2020, he played the main cast role of Raymond Chestnut for season 2 of The Umbrella Academy.

place_of_birth: Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA


Patrick Magee

biography: Patrick Magee (born Patrick George McGee; 31 March 1922 – 14 August 1982) was a Northern Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as his appearances in horror films and in Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.

place_of_birth: Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK


Stanley Tucci

biography:
Stanley Tucci Jr. (born November 11, 1960) is an American actor. Known as a character actor, he has played a wide variety of roles ranging from menacing to sophisticated. Tucci has earned numerous accolades, including six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Tony Award.

Tucci made his film debut in John Huston's Prizzi's Honour (1985) and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in films such as Deconstructing Harry (1997), Road to Perdition (2002), and The Terminal (2004). He made his directorial debut with the comedy Big Night (1996), which he also co-wrote and starred in. Following roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Julie & Julia (2009), Tucci was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Lovely Bones (2009). Tucci's other film roles include Burlesque (2010), Easy A (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Margin Call (2011), The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015), Spotlight (2015), Supernova (2020), Worth (2021), and Conclave (2024).

He has starred in numerous television series such as the legal drama Murder One (1995–1997), the medical drama 3 lbs (2006), Ryan Murphy's limited series Feud: Bette & Joan (2017), and the drama Limetown (2018). He played Stanley Kubrick in the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). For his portrayal of Walter Winchell in the HBO film Winchell (1998), he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. Since 2020, Tucci has voiced Bitsy Brandenham in the Apple TV+ animated series Central Park.

From 2021 to 2022, he hosted the CNN food and travel documentary series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, for which he won two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2003) and a Grammy Award for narrating the audiobook The One and Only Shrek! (2008).

place_of_birth: Peekskill, New York, USA


Robert Rodriguez

biography:
Robert Anthony Rodriguez is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 action film El Mariachi, which was a commercial success after grossing $2.6 million against a budget of $7,000. The film spawned two sequels, collectively known as the Mexico Trilogy: Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).

Rodriguez directed From Dusk till Dawn in 1996 and developed its television series adaptation(2014–2016). He co-directed the 2005 neo-noir crime thriller anthology Sin City (adapted from the graphic novel of the same name) and the 2014 sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. He is also the creator of the Spy Kids franchise, as well as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005), Planet Terror (2007), Machete (2010), We Can Be Heroes (2020), and directed The Faculty (1998) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019).

Rodriguez is a close friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who founded the production company A Band Apart, of which Rodriguez was a member. In December 2013, Rodriguez launched his own cable television channel, El Rey.

place_of_birth: San Antonio, Texas, USA


Clive Owen

biography:
Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes (1991) before earning international attention for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier (1998). In 2005, he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award . He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the drama Closer (2004).

Owen has played leading roles in films such as Sin City (2005), Derailed (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), and The International (2009). In 2012, he earned his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his role in Hemingway & Gellhorn. He played Dr. John W. Thackery on the Cinemax medical drama series The Knick, for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama nomination. In 2021, Owen starred in the psychological romance-horror miniseries Lisey's Story. Also, he portrayed President Bill Clinton in the third season of American Crime Story. He then had further television roles in A Murder at the End of the World (2023) and Monsieur Spade (2024).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Clive Owen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Keresley, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, UK


Bruno Ganz

biography: Bruno Ganz (March 22, 1941 – February 16, 2019) was a Swiss actor who debuted at the theatre in 1961 and gained there a good reputation as a solid, young actor. In 1970 he founded with 'Peter Stein' the theatre company "Schaubuehne" of Berlin. His debut at the movies was early and unsuccessful in 1960. Only in 1975 after "Sommergaeste (1975)" he could show his talent as a reflexive actor with tendencies towards introspection.

place_of_birth: Zürich, Switzerland


Julia Hummer

biography: Julia Hummer (born 24 April 1980) is a German actress and singer.

place_of_birth: Hagen, Germany


Patrick Stewart

biography: An English film, television and stage actor. He has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century. He is most widely known for his television and film roles, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. Stewart was born in Mirfield near Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of Gladys, a weaver and textile worker, and Alfred Stewart, a Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army who served with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and previously worked as a general labourer and as a postman. Stewart and his first wife, Sheila Falconer, have two children: Daniel Freedom and Sophie Alexandra. Stewart and Falconer divorced in 1990. In 1997, he became engaged to Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and they married on 25 August 2000, divorcing three years later. Four months prior to his divorce from Neuss, Stewart played opposite actress Lisa Dillon in a production of The Master Builder. The two dated for four years, but are no longer together. He is now seeing Sunny Ozell; at 31, she is younger than his daughter. "I just don't meet women of my age," he explains. Stewart has been a prolific actor in performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in over 60 productions.

place_of_birth: Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England, UK


Audrey Tautou

biography:
Audrey Justine Tautou (French pronunciation: [o.dʁɛ to.tu]; born August 9, 1976) is a French actress and model. Signed by an agent at age 17, she made her acting debut at 18 on television and her feature film debut in Venus Beauty Institute (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Le Libertin and Happenstance (2000).

Tautou achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2001 film Amélie, which met with critical acclaim and was a major box-office success. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards, four César Awards (including Best Film and Best Director), two BAFTA Awards (including Best Original Screenplay), and was nominated for five Academy Awards.

Tautou has since appeared in films in a range of genres, including the thrillers Dirty Pretty Things and The Da Vinci Code, and the romantic Priceless (2006). She has received critical acclaim for her many roles including the drama A Very Long Engagement (2004) and the biographical drama Coco avant Chanel (2009). She has been nominated three times for the César Award and twice for the BAFTA for Best Actress in a leading role. She became one of the few French actors in history to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.

Tautou has modeled for Chanel, Montblanc, L'Oréal and many other companies. She is an active supporter of several charities.

place_of_birth: Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, France


Mathieu Kassovitz

biography: Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 August 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for his Cannes-winning drama La Haine. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise, a film production company.

place_of_birth: Paris, Ile-de-France, France


Herbert Marshall

biography: Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen and radio actor who, despite losing a leg during the First World War, starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the United Kingdom and North America, he became an in-demand Hollywood leading man, frequently appearing in romantic melodramas and occasional comedies. In his later years, he turned to character acting.

place_of_birth: London, England, UK


Bill Nighy

biography:
William Francis Nighy (/naɪ/; born 12 December 1949) is a British actor. Known for his work on stage and screen, he has received various accolades, including two BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre, starting with The Illuminatus! in 1977. He gained acclaim for his roles in David Hare's Pravda in 1985, Harold Pinter's Betrayal in 1991, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 1993, and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1994. He received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor nomination for his role in Blue/Orange in 2001. He acted on Broadway in the David Hare plays The Vertical Hour (2006) and Skylight (2015), earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for the latter.

Nighy's early film roles include the comedies Still Crazy (1998), Guest House Paradiso (1999) and Blow Dry (2001). He rose to international stardom with his role in Love Actually (2003), for which he won a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to portray Viktor in the Underworld film series (2003–2009) and Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2006–2007). His other films include Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Constant Gardener (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Hot Fuzz (2007), Valkyrie (2008), Wild Target (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), About Time (2013), Emma (2020), and Living (2022), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Nighy has gained acclaim for his television roles, earning a BAFTA Award for his role in the BBC One series State of Play (2003), and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the BBC film Gideon's Daughter (2007). He is also known for his roles in The Girl in the Café (2006), the BBC's Worricker trilogy, which includes Page Eight (2012), Turks & Caicos (2014), and Salting the Battlefield (2014), and the BBC's Ordeal by Innocence (2018).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Bill Nighy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Caterham, Surrey, England, UK


Mary Steenburgen

biography: Mary Nell Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in the Western comedy film Goin' South (1978). Steenburgen went on to earn critical acclaim for her role in Time After Time (1979) and Jonathan Demme's comedy-drama film Melvin and Howard (1980), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

place_of_birth: Newport, Arkansas, USA


Mel Gibson

biography: Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. After appearing in the "Mad Max" and "Lethal Weapon" series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning "Braveheart" (1995). In 2004, he directed and produced "The Passion of the Christ," a controversial yet successful film portraying the last hours in the life of Jesus Christ.


James Cromwell

biography:
James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. Zefram Cochrane in “Star Trek: First Contact,” as well as his roles in “Babe,” “L.A. Confidential,” and “Spider-Man 3.” He has been nominated for an Oscar, three Emmy Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards during his career.

Cromwell was born in Los Angeles, California and was raised in Manhattan, New York. He was adopted by actress Kay Johnson and actor, director and producer John Cromwell, who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. He was educated at The Hill School, Middlebury College and Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he studied engineering. Like both his parents, he was drawn to the theater, doing everything from Shakespeare to experimental plays.

He has long been an advocate of leftist causes. In an October 2008 interview, he strongly attacked the Republican Party and the George W. Bush administration, saying their controversial foreign policy would "either destroy us or the entire planet." He became a vegetarian in 1974 after seeing a stockyard in Texas and experiencing the "smell, terror and anxiety." He became an ethical vegan while playing the character of Farmer Hoggett in the movie Babe in 1995. He frequently speaks out on issues regarding animal cruelty for PETA, largely the treatment of pigs.

Cromwell was married to Anne Ulvestad from 1976 to 1986. They had three children. He married his second wife, Julie Cobb, on May 29, 1986.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Donna Murphy

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donna Murphy (born March 7, 1959) is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood,Lovemusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as Raisel/Bubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled (2010), Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Donna Murphy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Corona, New York, USA


Sanja Milkovic Hays

biography: Sanja Milkovic Hays (born September 19, 1958, in Zagreb, Croatia) is a Croatian costume designer.

place_of_birth: Zagreb, Yugoslavia [now Croatia]

known_for_department: Costume & Make-Up


Tom Hardy

biography:
Edward Thomas Hardy CBE (born 15 September 1977) is an English actor, producer, writer and former model. After studying acting at the Drama Centre London, he made his film debut in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001). He has since been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, two Critics' Choice Movie Awards and two British Academy Film Awards, receiving the 2011 BAFTA Rising Star Award.

Hardy has also appeared in films such as Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), RocknRolla (2008), Bronson (2008), Warrior (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Lawless (2012), This Means War (2012), Locke (2013), The Drop (2014), and The Revenant (2015), for which he received a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2015, he portrayed "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road and both Kray twins in Legend. He has appeared in three Christopher Nolan films: Inception (2010) as Eames, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Bane, and Dunkirk (2017) as an RAF fighter-pilot. He starred as both Eddie Brock and Venom in the 2018 anti-hero film Venom and its sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021).

Hardy's television roles include the HBO war drama mini-series Band of Brothers (2001), the BBC historical drama mini-series The Virgin Queen (2005), Bill Sikes in the BBC's mini-series Oliver Twist (2007), Heathcliff in ITV's Wuthering Heights (2009), the Sky 1 drama series The Take (2009), and as Alfie Solomons in the BBC historical crime drama series Peaky Blinders (2014–present). He created, co-produced, and took the lead in the eight-part historical fiction series Taboo (2017) on BBC One and FX. In 2020, he also contributed narration work to the Amazon docuseries All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur.

Hardy has performed on both British and American stages. He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role as Skank in the production of In Arabia We'd All Be Kings (2003), and was awarded the 2003 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in both In Arabia We'd All Be Kings and Blood, in which he played Luca. He starred in the production of The Man of Mode (2007) and received positive reviews for his role in the play The Long Red Road (2010). Hardy is active in charity work and is an ambassador for the Prince's Trust. He was appointed a CBE in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Hardy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Hammersmith, London, England, UK


Barnard Hughes

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernard Aloysius Kiernan “Barnard” Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006) was an American actor of theater and film. Hughes became famous for a variety of roles; his most notable roles came after middle age, and he was often cast as a dithering authority figure or grandfatherly elder.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Barnard Hughes, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Bedford Hills, New York, USA


Victor Argo

biography:
Victor Argo (November 5, 1934 – April 7, 2004) was a Puerto Rican - American actor who usually played the part of a tough bad guy in his movies.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Victor Argo, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Brooklyn, New York, USA


Terry George

biography: Terence Noel George (born December 20, 1952) is an Irish screenwriter and director. Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland much of his film work (e.g. The Boxer, Some Mother's Son, and In the Name of the Father) involves the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He has been nominated for two Oscars; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium in 1993 for In the Name of the Father and Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Hotel Rwanda in 2004.

place_of_birth: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK


Sophie Okonedo

biography:
Sophie Okonedo, OBE (born 1968) is a British actress and singer, who has starred in both successful British and American productions. In 1991, she made her acting debut in the British critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Young Soul Rebels. In 2004, she gained critical acclaim for her role as Tatiana Rusesabagina, the wife of Rwandan hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in the genocide drama film Hotel Rwanda (2004). Her role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Sophie Okonedo, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


Kiefer Sutherland

biography: Kiefer Sutherland (born December 21, 1966) is a British-Canadian actor, producer and director, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24. Sutherland first achieved critical acclaim for his role in the Canadian film The Bay Boy (1985,) after which he rose to further prominence for Hollywood roles, primarily as villains. During the 2000s, he pivoted to more heroic roles. He has won an Emmy Award and Golden Globe award. He is the son of Canadian actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas.

place_of_birth: Paddington, London, England, UK


Alun Armstrong

biography:
Alun Armstrong is a prolific English character actor.

Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic."

His numerous credits include six different Dickens adaptations and seven series as eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in New Tricks.

Armstrong is also an accomplished stage actor who spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Thénardier in the London production of Les Misérables and he won an Olivier Award for playing the title role in Sweeney Todd.

place_of_birth: Annfield Plain, County Durham, England, UK


Alfred Hitchcock

biography:
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in cinema history. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, cameo appearances in most of his films, and hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins. However, despite five nominations, he never won the  Best Director award.

Hitchcock initially trained as a technical clerk and copywriter before entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer. The British–German silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925) was his directorial debut. His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, and Blackmail (1929) was the first British "talkie". His thrillers The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) are ranked among the greatest British films of the 20th century. By 1939, he had international recognition and producer David O. Selznick persuaded him to move to Hollywood. A string of successful films followed, including Rebecca(1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1946). Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Hitchcock nominated as Best Director. He also received Oscar nominations for Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960).

Hitchcock's other notable films include Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964) and Frenzy (1972), all of which were also financially successful and are highly regarded by film historians. Hitchcock made several films with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including four with Cary Grant, four with James Stewart, three with Ingrid Bergman and three consecutively with Grace Kelly. Hitchcock became an American citizen in 1955.

In 2012, Hitchcock's psychological thriller Vertigo, starring Stewart, displaced Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) as the British Film Institute's greatest film ever made based on its worldwide poll of hundreds of film critics. As of 2021, nine of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, including his favourite, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 1971, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979, and was knighted in December of that year, four months before his death on 29 April 1980.

place_of_birth: Leytonstone, London, England, UK


James Waterston

biography: James Waterston (born January 17, 1969) is an American actor. His first role was playing Gerard Pitts in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, and he has subsequently worked mostly in television.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York


Maurice Jarre

biography:
Maurice-Alexis Jarre (13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009) was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, Jarre is best known for his film scores, particularly for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on. Notable scores for other directors include The Train (1964), Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976), Lion of the Desert (1981), Witness (1985), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Ghost (1990).

Jarre was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three of his compositions spent a total of 42 weeks on the UK singles chart; the biggest hit was "Somewhere My Love" (to his tune "Lara's Theme", with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) performed by the Mike Sammes Singers, which reached Number 14 in 1966 and spent 38 weeks on the chart.

Jarre was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning three in the Best Original Score category for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984), all of which were directed by David Lean. He also won four Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, and a Grammy Award.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Maurice Jarre, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Lyon, Rhône, France

known_for_department: Sound


Linda Hamilton

biography: Linda Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress, best known for role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day; and for her television work as Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy. She also had a recurring role in the comedy television series Weeds and Chuck.

place_of_birth: Salisbury, Maryland, USA


Lance Henriksen

biography: Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor and artist. He is best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as The Terminator, the Alien film franchise, and the television show Millennium. Henriksen is also a voice actor, noted for his deep, commanding voice.

place_of_birth: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA


Brigitte Mira

biography:
Brigitte Mira (20 April 1910 – 8 March 2005) was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Brigitte Mira's mother was German and her father was Jewish Russian. During the Nazi dictatorship, Mira took part in the propaganda series Liese und Miese. She played Miese (germ. bad one)--the bad role model according to Nazi ideology that listened to enemy radio stations and stockpiled rationed food. But her acting skills turned the "bad" character she portrayed into a likeable one. The series was soon cancelled for being counter productive. The propaganda directors did not know that Mira was half-Jewish. Even though she insisted on her naivete as a young woman and the fact she had to hide her identity, she was criticized later by some for taking part in these ads at all.

Even if Mira was born in Hamburg she early on moved to Berlin and through her TV work came to embody the typical Berlin sense of humor.

Notable performances include Emmi Kurowski in Fear Eats the Soul (1974), a role for which she won a German Film Award. In the 1980s Mira achieved another big success with the television series Drei Damen vom Grill.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Brigitte Mira, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Hamburg, German Empire [now Germany]


Jacques Mayol

biography:
Jacques Mayol, born April 1, 1927, in Shanghai, China, and died December 22, 2001, in Capoliveri, on the island of Elba, Italy, was a French freediver whose story inspired the film The Big Blue (1988).

Jacques Mayol grew up in Shanghai, in the French Concession, where his father was an architect. In the summer, the family would often travel to Karatsu, Japan, via the Shanghai-Nagasaki shipping line. It was there that he learned to dive at the age of six. He was fascinated by the "ama," Japanese freedivers who dived for shellfish. It was also in the Nanatsugama caves that he encountered his first dolphin when he was ten years old. In the late 1930s, Japanese militarism drove Westerners away. Jacques Mayol would not return to Karatsu until 1971.

In 1939, he settled with his family in Marseille, where he was stranded due to World War II. With his brother, Pierre Mayol, he often went diving, using masks fashioned from truck inner tubes and a homemade speargun to catch a few fish. At seventeen, he decided to join the air force in Morocco but returned to Marseille in 1945. He then spent his time in the Calanques of Marseille with Albert Falco, who later became the captain of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's Calypso. Drawn to Sweden, Jacques Mayol moved there in 1948, where he married a Danish woman, Vibeke Boje Wadsholt (or Vicky), a few years later. They had a daughter (Dottie) and a son (Jean-Jacques/Pedro), and divorced in 1957.

The family then settled in Miami (USA), where in 1955 Mayol was hired as a diver to clean the aquariums at a local water park, the Seaquarium. He spent a lot of time with a female dolphin named Clown, the mother of Flipper, the star of the famous 1960s television series. Observing her like a student observes a teacher, he managed to improve his freediving skills. In 1966, he met the Italian Enzo Maiorca in the Bahamas, breaking his personal best with a dive to 60 meters. He became the first diver in the world to reach a depth of 100 meters on a single breath, in November 1976, in the waters off the island of Elba, and then reached 105 meters in 1983, a feat that would remain iconic for many years. He was interested in the physiology of diving, practiced gymnastics, yoga, and meditation, seeking to better understand how the human body adapts to immersion. When he dived, Mayol surprised scientists because his heart rate could drop from 70 to 20 beats per minute; this bradycardia should have caused him to faint.

Jacques Mayol, who paved the way for many freedivers, conceived of diving not as a simple sport, but as a physical and spiritual experience.

In 1983, he met Luc Besson, who presented him with his film project, The Big Blue. The fictionalized character of Jacques Mayol was portrayed by Jean-Marc Barr. His rivalry with Enzo Maiorca (named Enzo Molinari in the film and played by Jean Reno) is a recurring theme.

According to Umberto Pelizzari, he was consumed by loneliness and had been depressed for several months. He took his own life on December 22, 2001, at his home in Calone on the island of Elba, where he had lived for over thirty years. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Tuscany.

place_of_birth: Shanghai, China


Andrzej Wajda

biography:
Andrzej Wajda (born 6 March 1926) was a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he was possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School" (active circa 1955 to 1963). He was known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation (1954), Kanał (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).

Four of his movies were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Promised Land (1975), The Maids of Wilko (1979), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyń (2007).

He passed away in 2016 at the age of 90.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Andrzej Wajda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Suwałki, Polska


Chloë Sevigny

biography:
Chloë Stevens Sevigny (/ˈsɛvəni/ SEV-ən-ee; born November 18, 1974) is an American actress. Known for her work in independent films, often appearing in controversial or experimental features, Sevigny has received several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Academy Award.

After graduating from high school, Sevigny found work as a model and appeared in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads, which helped acquire her "it girl" status. In 1995, she made her film debut in Kids and became a prominent performer in the independent film scene throughout the late 1990s, with roles in such films as 1996's Trees Lounge. Sevigny rose to prominence with her portrayal of Lana Tisdel in the drama film Boys Don't Cry (1999), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress.

Throughout the 2000s, Sevigny appeared in supporting parts in numerous independent films, including American Psycho (2000), Demonlover(2002), Party Monster and Dogville (both 2003), and The Brown Bunny (2004). Her participation in the latter caused considerable controversy due to a scene in which she performed graphic, unsimulated fellatio. From 2006 to 2011, Sevigny portrayed Nicolette Grant on the HBO series Big Love, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2010. She also appeared in mainstream films such as David Fincher's Zodiac (2007) and starred in numerous television projects, including the British series Hit & Miss (2012), and had supporting roles in Portlandia (2013), two seasons of American Horror Story; and in the Netflix series Bloodline (2015–2017) and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024).

Sevigny made her directorial debut in 2016 with the short film Kitty. Her third film as a director, White Echo, competed for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. She also has a career in fashion design concurrent with her acting work. Over the years, her alternative fashion sense has earned her a reputation as a style icon.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Chloë Sevigny, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Springfield, Massachusetts, USA


Anne Goursaud

biography: French filmmaker known for her work editing Francis Ford Coppola films like Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Outsiders. She has also directed Poison Ivy II and Embrace of the Vampire.


Emilio Estevez

biography: Emilio Estévez (born May 12, 1962) is an American actor and filmmaker. Estevez started his career as a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, appearing in The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, and The Outsiders. He is also known for the films Repo Man, The Mighty Ducks, Stakeout, Maximum Overdrive, Bobby (which he also wrote and directed), and Young Guns. He is the son of actor Martin Sheen and the older brother of Charlie Sheen.

place_of_birth: Staten Island, New York, USA


Diane Lane

biography:
Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress and producer. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance. Laurence Olivier, who played a major supporting role in the film, called her "the new Grace Kelly".

The two films that could have catapulted her to star status, Streets of Fire and The Cotton Club, were both commercial and critical failures, and her career languished as a result. After taking a break, Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town and Lady Beware, but did not make another big impression on a sizable audience until 1989's popular and critically acclaimed TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. It was not until 1999 that Lane earned further recognition for her role in A Walk on the Moon, and that was followed by her performance alongside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in the 2000 blockbuster The Perfect Storm.

She was especially lauded and honored for the 2002 film Unfaithful, which earned her Satellite, New York Film Critics Circle, and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama). Her performance in Unfaithful also garnered her Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Actress. She was also highly lauded by critics for her performance in the immediately subsequent film Under the Tuscan Sun. For much of the rest of the decade, she alternately appeared as a lead actress in romantic films such as Must Love Dogs (2005) and Nights in Rodanthe (2008), and thrillers such as Fierce People (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), and Untraceable (2008).

She has appeared in four films directed by Francis Ford Coppola: The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and Jack. She has been in one film directed by his wife Eleanor Coppola: Paris Can Wait.

She also played the recurring role of Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in Man of Steel (2013) and appeared in subsequent films of the DC Extended Universe. Her most recent film is the 2020 neo-western Let Him Go.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Will Smith

biography:
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor and rapper. Known for variety of roles, Smith has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and four Grammy Awards.

Smith began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996). He first gained recognition as part of a hip hop duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff, with whom he released five studio albums and the US Billboard Hot 100 top 20 singles "Parents Just Don't Understand", "A Nightmare on My Street", "Summertime", "Ring My Bell", and "Boom! Shake the Room" from 1984 to 1994. He released the solo albums Big Willie Style (1997), Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002), and Lost and Found (2005), which contained the US number-one singles "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" and "Wild Wild West". He has received four Grammy Awards for his rap performances.

Smith achieved wider fame as a leading man in films such as the action film Bad Boys (1995), its sequels Bad Boys II (2003) and Bad Boys for Life (2020), and the sci-fi comedies Men in Black (1997), Men in Black II (2002), and Men in Black 3 (2012). After starring in the thrillers Independence Day (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998), he received Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his portrayal as Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001), and as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). He then starred in a range of commercially successful films, including I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016) and Aladdin (2019).

For his portrayal of Richard Williams in the biographical sports drama King Richard (2021), Smith won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor.

place_of_birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA


Emil Jannings

biography: Emil Jannings (1884–1950) was a German actor, the first to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Between 1926 and 1929, he worked in Hollywood. Upon returning to Germany, he sympathized with the Nazi regime and was one of the advisors to Universum Film-Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), the film studios controlled by Goebbels as a propaganda weapon. With the end of World War II and Germany's defeat, his career fell into disgrace.

place_of_birth: Rorschach, Switzerland


Hans Albers

biography:
Hans Philipp August Albers (22 September 1891 – 24 July 1960), also known by his nickname “der blonde Hans” (The Blond Hans), was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Hans Albers, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Hamburg, Germany


Gerhard Bienert

biography:
Gerhard Max Richard Bienert (8 January 1898 – 23 December 1986) was a German stage and film actor.

Gerhard Bienert was born in Berlin, Germany and died in the same city in 1986 at age 88.

Source: Article "Gerhard Bienert" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

place_of_birth: Berlin, Germany


Stephen Gaghan

biography:
Stephen Gaghan (/ˈɡeɪɡən/ GAY-gən; born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director. He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Syriana, which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the thriller Abandon, the family film Dolittle, and the drama Gold.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Gaghan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.


Jeffrey Wright

biography: Jeffrey Wright (born December 7, 1965) is an American actor. He is well known for his Tony, Golden Globe and Emmy winning role as Belize in the Broadway production of Angels in America and its acclaimed HBO miniseries adaptation. He has starred as Jean-Michel Basquiat in Basquiat; Felix Leiter in the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and No Time to Die; Valentin Narcisse in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire; Beetee Latier in The Hunger Games films; Isaac Dixon in the video game The Last Of Us Part II; and the Watcher in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) animated series What If...? Since 2016, he has starred as Bernard Lowe in the HBO series Westworld. He will portray Commissioner James Gordon in the superhero film The Batman (2022) by Matt Reeves.

place_of_birth: Washington, D.C., USA


Chris Cooper

biography:
Christopher Walton Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an American actor. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including American Beauty (1999), October Sky (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Seabiscuit (2003), Capote (2005), Syriana (2005), The Kingdom (2007), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), The Town (2010), The Muppets (2011), Cars 3 (2017), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), and Little Women (2019). He also portrayed Sheriff July Johnson in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove, which became one of the most successful Westerns in history.

Cooper won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche in the 2002 film Adaptation. He played a lead role in the historical and political thriller Breach (2007), playing FBI agent and traitor Robert Hanssen. He played Daniel Sloan in the 2012 political thriller The Company You Keep, and supervillain Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). He also portrayed Al Templeton on the 2016 Hulu miniseries 11.22.63.

He is a frequent collaborator with director John Sayles, including Matewan (1987), City of Hope (1991), Lone Star (1996), Silver City (2004) and Amigo (2010).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Chris Cooper, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Kansas City, Missouri, USA


Nicolas Cage

biography: Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award. During the early years of his career, Cage starred in a variety of films such as Rumble Fish (1983), Racing with the Moon (1984), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Raising Arizona (1987), Vampire's Kiss (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), and Red Rock West (1993). During this period, John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36 listed him as one of twelve Promising New Actors of 1984. For his performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995), he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance as Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Adaptation (2002). He subsequently appeared in more mainstream films, such as The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), City of Angels (1998), 8mm (1999), Windtalkers (2002), Lord of War (2005), The Wicker Man (2006), Bangkok Dangerous (2008) and Knowing (2009). He also directed the film Sonny (2002), for which he was nominated for Grand Special Prize at Deauville Film Festival. Cage owns the production company Saturn Films and has produced films such as Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and The Life of David Gale (2003). In October 1997, Cage was ranked No. 40 in Empire magazine's The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list, while the next year, he was placed No. 37 in Premiere's 100 most powerful people in Hollywood. In the 2010s, he starred in Kick-Ass (2010), Drive Angry (2011), Joe (2013), The Runner (2015), Dog Eat Dog (2016), Mom and Dad (2017), Mandy (2018), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), and Color Out of Space (2019). His participation in various film genres during this time increased his popularity and gained him a cult following.

place_of_birth: Long Beach, California, USA


Nicky Henson

biography: Nicky Henson was born on May 12, 1945 in London, England as Nicholas Victor Leslie Henson. He was an actor of stage, film and TV.

place_of_birth: London, England, UK


Laurence Fishburne

biography:
Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three-time Emmy Award and Tony Award winner known for his roles on stage and screen. He has frequently portrayed forceful, militant, and authoritative characters. Some of Fishburne's best-known roles are Morpheus in The Matrix series (1999–2003), Jason "Furious" Styles in the John Singleton drama film Boyz n the Hood (1991), Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller in Francis Ford Coppola's war film Apocalypse Now (1979), and "The Bowery King" in the John Wick film series (2017–present).

For his portrayal of Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Fishburne was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Two Trains Running (1992) and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in TriBeCa (1993). Fishburne became the first African American to portray Othello on film when he appeared in Oliver Parker's 1995 film adaptation of the Shakespeare play. He has also received five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. He received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead nomination for his performance in Deep Cover (1992).

Other film credits of Fishburne include Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), Spike Lee's School Daze (1988), Abel Ferrara's King of New York (1990), Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), and Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying (2017). He has also gained a wider audience with the blockbuster films Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). On television, he starred as Dr. Raymond Langston on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008–2011) and as Special Agent Jack Crawford in the NBC thriller series Hannibal (2013–2015), and had a recurring role as Earl "Pops" Johnson in the ABC sitcom Black-ish (2014–2022).

place_of_birth: Augusta, Georgia, USA


Max Minghella

biography:
Max Giorgio Choa Minghella (born 16 September 1985) is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the films Syriana (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), Elvis and Anabelle (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Darkest Hour (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Internship (2013), Horns (2013), and Spiral (2021), as well as his role as Nick Blaine in the television series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025), which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Max Minghella, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Hampstead, London, England, UK