Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

biography:
Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film Nightwatch (1994). He played Jaime Lannister in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Coster-Waldau has appeared in numerous films in his native Denmark and Scandinavia, including Headhunters (2011) and A Thousand Times Good Night (2013). In the U.S, his debut film role was in the war film Black Hawk Down (2001), playing Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon. He then played a detective in the short-lived Fox television series New Amsterdam (2008), and appeared in the 2009 Fox television film Virtuality, originally intended as a pilot. He is a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, drawing public attention to issues such as gender equality and climate change.

place_of_birth: Rudkobing, Denmark


Jeremy Piven

type: Profile

biography: Jeremy Samuel Piven (born July 26, 1965) is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won three Primetime Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

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

known_for_department: Acting


Robert Rodat

biography:
Robert Rodat (born c. 1960) is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television. He is known for writing the films Saving Private Ryan (1998), which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay; Fly Away Home (1996); The Patriot (2000); and The Catcher Was a Spy (2018). He is also the creator of the television series Falling Skies (2011–15) and Those About to Die (2024).

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

place_of_birth: New Hampshire, USA

known_for_department: Writing


Barry Pepper

biography: Barry Robert Pepper is a Canadian actor. He is best known for roles such as Private Daniel Jackson in Saving Private Ryan, Sergeant Michael Strank in Flags of Our Fathers, Dean Stanton in The Green Mile, Roger Maris in 61*, "Lucky" Ned Pepper in True Grit and Jonnie Goodboy Tyler in Battlefield Earth. He has been nominated for three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In 2011, for his role as Robert F. Kennedy in the miniseries The Kennedys, Pepper won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.

place_of_birth: Cambell River, British Columbia, Canada


Vin Diesel

biography:
Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic "Dom" Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise.

Born in California, Diesel attended Hunter College in New York City, where studies in creative writing led him to begin screenwriting. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short drama film Multi-Facial (1995) and his debut feature, Strays (1997). He came to prominence in the late 1990s. First, he gained recognition for his appearance in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan in 1998. He followed up with commercially successful films such as Boiler Room (2000) and The Pacifier (2005). He gained stardom as a leading action star headlining numerous franchises, including Fast & Furious, XXX, and The Chronicles of Riddick.

His voice acting work includes The Iron Giant (1999), the video games The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004) and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009), and the voices of Groot I and Groot II in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); he portrayed the characters in six superhero films, beginning with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Diesel has reprised his role as Groot for the Disney+ animated shorts series I Am Groot (2022–2023), the television special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), and the animated film Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).

He founded the production company One Race Films, where he has also served as a producer or executive producer for his star vehicles. Diesel also founded the record label Racetrack Records and video game developer Tigon Studios, providing his voice and motion capture for all of Tigon's releases.

place_of_birth: Alameda County, California, USA


Tim Allen

biography:
Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1999) for which he won a Golden Globe Award and Mike Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing (2011–2021). He voices Buzz Lightyear for the Toy Story franchise (1995–present) for which he won an Annie Award and played Scott Calvin and Santa Claus in The Santa Clause franchise (1994–2023).

Allen's other films include Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Galaxy Quest (1999), Joe Somebody (2001), Big Trouble (2002), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), The Shaggy Dog (2006), Wild Hogs (2007), The Six Wives of Henry Lefay (2009), and Crazy on the Outside (2010).

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

place_of_birth: Denver, Colorado, USA


David S. Ward

biography:
David Schad Ward (born October 25, 1945) is an American screenwriter and film director. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his screenplays for the films The Sting (1973) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), winning for the former. He was also nominated for a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Writers Guild of America Awards.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

place_of_birth: Providence, Rhode Island, USA


Gaby Hoffmann

biography: Gabrielle Mary Hoffmann (born January 8, 1982) is an American film and television actress best known for her roles on Sleepless in Seattle, Transparent and Girls, which garnered her nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015, respectively. Additionally, she is remembered as a child actress from the films Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, Now and Then, and Volcano.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Jon Turteltaub

biography:
Jonathan Charles "Jon" Turteltaub is an American film director and producer. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is the son of television comedy writer Saul Turteltaub.

He has directed several successful mainstream films for the Walt Disney Studios, including; 3 Ninjas (1992), Cool Runnings (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995), Phenomenon (1996), Instinct (1999), Disney's The Kid (2000), 2004's National Treasure, as well as its 2007 sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Turteltaub produced the CBS television series, Jericho, and also directed the first three episodes, "Pilot", "Fallout", and "Four Horsemen".

known_for_department: Directing


Marc Forster

biography:
Marc Forster (born 30 November 1969) is a German-Swiss filmmaker. He is best known for directing the feature films Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, Quantum of Solace, World War Z, and Christopher Robin, and has directed numerous television commercials as well. He is a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nominee.

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

place_of_birth: Illertissen, Germany


Toby Jones

biography:
Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones OBE (born September 7, 1966) is an English actor.

Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando in 1992. He appeared in minor roles in films such as Naked (1993), Les Misérables (1998), Ever After (1998), Finding Neverland (2005), and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005). He won critical acclaim for his leading role as Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous (2006). Since then, he has worked as a character actor in films such as Michael Apted's biographical drama Amazing Grace (2006), John Curran's drama The Painted Veil (2006), Oliver Stone's political satire W. (2008), Ron Howard's political drama Frost/Nixon (2008), the Cold War spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn (2011), the psychological drama Berberian Sound Studio (2012), the war comedy Dad's Army (2016), and the war drama Journey's End (2017).

He is also known for his vocal performances as Dobby the House elf in the Harry Potter films (2002–2011), Aristides Silk in The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Owl in Disney's Christopher Robin (2018). He is also known for his performances in blockbuster franchises such as Claudius Templesmith in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Arnim Zola in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), also voicing the character in the Disney+ television series What If...? (2021), and as Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).

Jones's television credits include Doctor Who (2010), Julian Fellowes's Titanic miniseries (2012), the MCU's Agent Carter (2015), and Wayward Pines (2015–2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl (2012) and won a Best Male Comedy BAFTA for his role in Detectorists (2018). In 2017, he portrayed Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective", an episode of the BBC crime drama Sherlock.

Jones is also known for his work in the theatre. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020 he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.

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

place_of_birth: Hammersmith, London, England, UK


Mark Wahlberg

biography:
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor and former rapper. His work as a leading man spans the comedy, drama, and action genres. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.

Wahlberg was born in Boston. As a youth, he took part in a number of violent and racially motivated attacks. He gained fame as a member of the hip hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch in the 1990s, with whom he released the albums Music for the People (1991) and You Gotta Believe (1992). Wahlberg made his screen debut in Renaissance Man (1994) and had his first starring role in Fear (1996). He received critical praise for his performance as porn actor Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights (1997).

In the early 2000s, Wahlberg ventured into big-budget action movies, such as The Perfect Storm (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), and The Italian Job (2003). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a police officer in the crime drama The Departed (2006). Wahlberg was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for portraying Micky Ward in the sports drama biopic The Fighter (2010); as co-producer, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. During the 2010s, he landed successful comedy roles with The Other Guys (2010), Ted (2012), Ted 2 (2015), Daddy's Home (2015), and Daddy's Home 2 (2017). Wahlberg also starred in the Transformers franchise films Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). He was the world's highest-paid actor in 2017.

Wahlberg served as executive producer of five HBO series: the comedy-drama Entourage (2004–2011), the period crime drama Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), the comedy-dramas How to Make It in America (2010–2011) and Ballers (2015–2019), and the documentary McMillions (2020). He is co-owner of the Wahlburgers chain and co-starred in the reality TV series about it. Wahlberg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010.

place_of_birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA


Paul Giamatti

biography:
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (/ˌdʒiːəˈmɑːti/JEE-ə-MAH-tee; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.

After studying acting at the Yale School of Drama, he performed in numerous theatrical productions. Giamatti debuted on Broadway, portraying Ezra Chater in the Tom Stoppard play Arcadia (1995). Later that year, he played the Rev. Donald "Streaky" Bacon in the David Hare play Racing Demon (1995). He returned to theatre in the revivals of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters (1997) and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1999).

Giamatti's breakout film role was in Private Parts (1997), followed by roles in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Man on the Moon (1999). He won acclaim for his leading roles in American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), Win Win (2011), and Private Life (2018). He has also acted in Planet of the Apes (2001), The Illusionist (2006), Fred Claus (2007), The Ides of March (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Love & Mercy (2014), and Straight Outta Compton (2015). He has earned Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Joe Gould in Cinderella Man (2005) and Best Actor for playing a disgruntled teacher in The Holdovers (2023).

On television, Giamatti played the role in the HBO miniseries John Adams (2008), earning him acclaim and several awards, including a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe. He starred as U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades Jr. in the Showtime television series Billions (2016–2023). He earned Emmy nominations for his roles as Ben Bernanke in the HBO film Too Big to Fail (2011) and Harold Levinson in the ITV series Downton Abbey (2013). In the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror episode Eulogy (2025), he played a grieving lover.

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

place_of_birth: New Haven, Connecticut, USA


Hidetoshi Nishijima

biography:
Hidetoshi Nishijima (born March 29, 1971) is a Japanese actor. He is widely regarded as one of Japan's leading actors in numerous films and television drama series. He has appeared in a wide range of films from epic science fiction films such as Shin Ultraman (2022) to small-scale art films such as Dolls (2002). He is best known internationally for his leading role in the film Drive My Car (2021). He received the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor for the film.

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

place_of_birth: Tokyo, Japan


James Daly

biography:
James Daly was an American theater, film, and television actor, who is perhaps best known for his role as Paul Lochner in the hospital drama series Medical Center, in which he played Chad Everett's superior

From Wikipedia

place_of_birth: Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, USA


Millard Mitchell

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Millard Mitchell (August 14, 1903 – October 13, 1953) was an American character actor whose credits include roughly thirty feature films and two television appearances.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Mitchell appeared as a bit player in eight films between 1931 and 1936. He returned to film work in 1942 after a six-year absence. Between 1942 and 1953, Mitchell was a successful supporting actor.

For his performance in the 1952 film, My Six Convicts, Millard Mitchell won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Mitchell is also known for his role as Col. Rufus Plummer in Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), as Gregory Peck's commanding officer in the war drama Twelve O'Clock High (1949), and as movie mogul "R. F. Simpson" in the musical comedy Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Mitchell died at the age of fifty from lung cancer in Santa Monica, California and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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

place_of_birth: Havana, Cuba


Vanessa Redgrave

biography:
Vanessa Redgrave CBE (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and political activist.  Redgrave rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since starred in more than 35 productions in London's West End and on Broadway, winning the 1984 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for The Aspern Papers, and the 2003 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the revival of Long Day's Journey into Night. She also received Tony nominations for The Year of Magical Thinking and Driving Miss Daisy.

On screen she has starred in scores of films and is a six-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the title role in the film Julia (1977). Her other nominations were for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Bostonians (1984), and Howards End (1992). Among her other films are A Man for All Seasons (1966), Blowup (1966), Camelot (1967), The Devils (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), Mission: Impossible (1996), Atonement (2007), Coriolanus (2011), and The Butler (2013). Redgrave was proclaimed by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as "the greatest living actress of our times", and has won the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, BAFTA, Olivier, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards.

place_of_birth: Greenwich, London, England, UK


Patricia Quinn

biography: Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28 May 1944) is a Northern Irish actress best known for her role as Magenta in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Hers were the red lips that appeared in the film's opening song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (although the singing voice was that of Richard O'Brien). She has appeared in many film and television roles including the Rocky Horror semi-sequel, Shock Treatment (1981), as well as I, Claudius (1976), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), and the 1987 Doctor Who serial Dragonfire.

place_of_birth: Belfast, Northern Ireland


Jim Sharman

biography: James "Jim" Sharman (born March 12, 1945) is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with over 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director since the 1960s, but is probably best known internationally as the director of the 1973 theatrical hit The Rocky Horror Show, its film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and the film's follow-up Shock Treatment (1981).

place_of_birth: Sydney, Australia


Aaron Sorkin

biography:
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter, playwright and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing early on. As a writer for stage, television, and film, Sorkin is recognised for his trademark fast-paced dialogue and extended monologues, complemented by frequent use of the "walk and talk" storytelling technique. Sorkin has earned numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globes.

Sorkin rose to prominence as a writer-creator and showrunner of the television series Sports Night (1998–2000), The West Wing (1999–2006), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–07), and The Newsroom (2012–14). He is also known for his work on Broadway, including the plays A Few Good Men (1989), The Farnsworth Invention (2007), To Kill a Mockingbird (2018), and the revival of Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot (2023).

He wrote the film screenplays for A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995), and several biopics, including Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Moneyball (2011), and Steve Jobs (2015). For writing The Social Network (2010), he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He made his directorial film debut with Molly's Game (2017), followed by The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and Being the Ricardos (2021).

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

place_of_birth: Manhattan, New York, USA


Matt Craven

biography:
Matt Craven (born Matthew John; November 10, 1956) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles in Blue Steel, Jacob's Ladder, K2, A Few Good Men, Crimson Tide, The Juror, Assault on Precinct 13, Déjà Vu, Disturbia, The Longshot, Public Enemies, X-Men: First Class, White House Down, and Lou.

He's had recurring roles on Stumptown, Sharp Objects, Resurrection, Justified, NCIS, Raines, The Lyon's Den, Boomtown, ER, L.A. Doctors, High Incident, Harry, and Tough Cookies. His guest starring credits include Alcatraz, Without a Trace, The Pacific, Nuremberg, From the Earth to the Moon, American Gothic, and The Outer Limits.

place_of_birth: Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada


Noah Wyle

biography: Noah Strausser Speer Wyle is an American actor, producer, director, and writer. He is best know for his role as John Carter in the NBC medical drama ER, earning nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


David Kirschner

biography:
David Maxwell Kirschner (born May 29, 1955) is an American film and television producer and screenwriter. His producing credits include Don Bluth's An American Tail (also wrote) and Titan A.E. animated features as well as Cats Don't Dance, Curious George, the Child's Play horror franchise.

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

known_for_department: Production


Kristen Johnston

biography:
Kristen Johnston studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School in New York City.

She won two Emmys for her role on 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996). She has appeared on many other television shows, including Ugly Betty (2006), ER (1994), Bored to Death (2009) and, perhaps most memorably, as the party girl whose famous final words were "I'm so bored I could die" on Sex and the City (1998). She's currently, on television, on TV Land's hit series, The Exes (2011), which is now in its fourth season. Just a few of Johnston's many stage credits are "So Help Me God!" (Drama desk nomination), "The Women", "Aunt Dan & Lemon", "Love Song" on the West End, as well as starring in three "Shakespeare in Central Park" productions, "Much Ado About Nothing", "12th Night", and "The Skin of our Teeth". She is a long-time member of The Atlantic Theater Company, and her roles over the years have included "The Lights" (Drama Desk Nomination) and "Scarcity". Kristen's film credits include Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), the 2nd Austin Powers film (as "Ivana Humpalot"), Finding Bliss (2009), Bad Parents (2012), Bride Wars (2009), L!fe Happens (2011), Vamps (2012), Strangers with Candy (2005), and the upcoming independent film, Lovesick (2014), with Matt LeBlanc. Johnston teaches acting at The Atlantic Theater Company's Acting School at NYU. She founded an organization called SLAM, whose goal is the creation of a desperately needed sober high school in New York City. Johnston's first book was a New York Times Bestselling memoir, entitled "GUTS: the endless follies and tiny triumphs of a giant disaster".

place_of_birth: Washington, District of Columbia, USA


Ronee Blakley

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronee Blakley (born August 24, 1945) is an American entertainer. Though an accomplished singer, songwriter, composer, producer and director, she is perhaps best known as an actress. Her most famous role was as the fictional country superstar Barbara Jean in Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville, for which she won a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a notable role in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

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

place_of_birth: Nampa, Idaho, USA


Joseph Whipp

biography: Joseph Whipp was born on July 12, 1941 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is an actor, known for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Scream (1996) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

place_of_birth: San Francisco, California, USA


Whit Bissell

biography: Whit Bissell (born Whitner Nutting Bissell) was an American character actor. His career in film and television spanned the years 1940 to 1984.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Barry Fitzgerald

biography:
Brother of actor Arthur Shields, with whom he performed in several films, most notably John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952). One of the very few character actors ever to achieve star status.

Fitzgerald was the only player ever nominated for the Academy Award for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in the same year for the same role. The recognition was for Going My Way (1944). After he received this double nomination, the Academy immediately changed their rules to prevent this from happening again, rules which have remained unchanged to this day.

One of Hollywood's finest character actors and most accomplished scene  stealers, Barry Fitzgerald was born William Joseph Shields in 1888 in  Dublin, Ireland. Educated to enter the banking business, the diminutive  Irishman with the irresistible brogue was bitten by the acting bug in  the 1920s and joined Dublin's world-famous Abbey Players. He  subsequently starred in the Abbey Theatre production of Sean O'Casey's Juno And The Paycock, a role that he recreated in his film debut for director Alfred Hitchcock in 1930. He was coaxed to the U.S. in 1935 by John Ford to appear in Ford's film adaptation of another O'Casey masterpiece, The Plough and the Stars (1936). Fitzgerald took up residence in Hollywood and went on to give outstanding performances in such films as The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), None But the Lonely Heart (1944), And Then There Were None (1945), Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and what is probably the role for which he is most fondly remembered, The Quiet Man (1952). He won the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of gruff, aging Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way  (1944). He was also nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for the same  role and was the only actor to ever be so honored. Barry Fitzgerald died  in his beloved Dublin in 1961.

place_of_birth: Dublin, Ireland


Addison Powell

place_of_birth: Belmont, Massachusetts, USA


Gordon Pinsent

biography: Gordon Edward Pinsent CC FRSC (July 12, 1930 – February 25, 2023) was a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He began his career in the 1940s, delving into radio dramas before serving in the Canadian Army. His extensive four-decade-long career spans stage, TV, and film, starring in notable works like "Quentin Durgens MP," "The Rowdyman," and "Power Play." He's received numerous awards, including ACTRA, GENIE, and GEMINI Awards, and earned honoraries from several universities. Pinsent's skills extend to writing; his novels inspired feature films, and he penned his memoirs, "By the Way." He shared a close friendship with Marlon Brando, often enjoying drive-in movies with Brando's family.

place_of_birth: Grand Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada


June Lockhart

biography:
June Lockhart (June 25, 1925 – October 23, 2025) was an American actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She appeared primarily in 1950s and 1960s television and with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. Lockhart also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She was a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, Lockhart was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In 1951, Lockhart married John F. Maloney. They had two daughters, Anne Kathleen and June Elizabeth. The couple divorced in 1959.  She married architect John Lindsay that same year, but they divorced in October 1970 and she never remarried. A Roman Catholic, Lockhart and her daughter Anne and actress Kay Lenz met Pope John Paul II in 1985.

Lockhart had a lifelong fascination with American presidential candidates and the media's coverage of them. Her friend reporter Merriman Smith arranged for her to travel with both major-party candidates Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson during the 1956 presidential election and again with both campaigns in the 1960 election. Between 1957 and 2004, Lockhart attended many presidential briefings.

Although a child of the Greatest Generation, Lockhart embraced rock music and listened to emerging rock bands. In an interview, her Lost in Space co-star Bill Mumy stated that she took Angela Cartwright and him to the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in Hollywood "to hang out with The Allman Brothers Band".  Appearing on The Virginia Graham Show in 1970 with Art Metrano and LGBT cleric Troy Perry, Lockhart confronted Graham about her moralizing tone toward gay people.

Lockhart turned 100 on June 25, 2025.  She died of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, California, on October 23, 2025.  CLR

[biography, excerpted, from Wikipedia]


Chill Wills

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Chill Theodore Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.

He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s. After appearing in a few westerns he disbanded the group in 1938, and struck out on a solo acting career.

One of his more memorable roles was that of the distinctive voice of Francis the Mule in a series of popular films. Wills' deep, rough voice, with its Western twang, was matched to the personality of the cynical, sardonic mule. As was customary at the time, Wills was given no billing for his vocal work, though he was featured prominently on-screen as blustery General Ben Kaye in the fourth entry, Francis Joins the WACS. He provided the deep voice for Stan Laurel's performance of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in Way Out West (1937), in which the Avalon Boys Quartet appeared.

Wills was cast in numerous serious film roles, including as "the city of Chicago" as personified by a phantom police sergeant in the film noir City That Never Sleeps (1953), and that of Uncle Bawley in Giant (1956), which also features Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Wills was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Davy Crockett's companion "Beekeeper" in the film The Alamo (1960). However, his aggressive campaign for the award was considered tasteless by many, including the film's star/director/producer John Wayne, who publicly apologized for Wills. Wills' publicity agent, W.S. "Bow-Wow" Wojciechowicz, accepted blame for the ill-advised effort, claiming that Wills had known nothing about it. The Oscar was instead won by Peter Ustinov for his role as Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus.

In Rory Calhoun's CBS western series The Texan, Wills appeared in the lead role in the 1960 episode entitled "The Eyes of Captain Wylie".

Wills starred in the short-run series Frontier Circus which aired for only one season (1961–62) on CBS. In 1966, he was cast in the role of a shady Texas rancher, Jim Ed Love, in the short-lived ABC comedy/western series The Rounders (reprising his role in the 1965 film The Rounders, starring Henry Fonda), with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne and Walker Edmiston.

in 1963-64, Wills joined William Lundigan, Walter Brennan and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in making appearances on behalf of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1968, Wills refused to support Richard Nixon for the presidency and served as master of ceremonies for George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, for the California campaign stops in Wallace's presidential campaign.[5] Wills was among the few Hollywood celebrities to endorse Wallace's bid against Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey; another was Walter Brennan.

Also in 1968, he starred in the Gunsmoke episode "A Noose for Dobie Price", where he played Elihu Gorman, a former outlaw who joins forces with Marshal Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, to track down a member of his former gang who has escaped jail. His last role was in 1978, as a janitor in Stubby Pringle's Christmas. CLR

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

place_of_birth: Seagoville, Texas, USA


Tom Courtenay

biography:
An English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963), and Dr. Zhivago (1965). Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre. Courtenay received a knighthood in February 2001 for forty years' service to cinema and theatre. Courtenay is the President of Hull City A.F.C.'s Official Supporters Club. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.

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

place_of_birth: Kingston-Upon-Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK


Don Gordon

biography: Don Gordon (November 13, 1926 – April 24, 2017)  was an American film and television actor, best known for playing in feature films alongside his friend Steve McQueen, such as "Bullitt", "Papillon" and "The Towering Inferno", as well as the western series "Wanted: Dead or Alive".


Philip Leaver

place_of_birth: Kensington, London, England, UK


Dean Norris

biography:
Dean Joseph Norris (born April 8, 1963 height 5' 7" (1,70 m)) is an American actor, best known for portraying DEA agent Hank Schrader on the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and its spin-off Better Call Saul (2015–2022), as well as town selectman James "Big Jim" Rennie on the CBS series Under the Dome (2013–2015). He has also appeared in films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Starship Troopers (1997), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and Evan Almighty (2007).

Norris was born in South Bend, Indiana, to Jack, a furniture store owner, and Rosie Norris. He has four sisters. Norris graduated from Clay High School in 1981, where he says he got straight A's. He is a 1985 graduate of Harvard College, where he majored in social studies. He also attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

place_of_birth: South Bend, Indiana, USA


Stuart Wilson

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Stuart Wilson (born 25 December 1946) is an English actor. Known as a character actor, having acted in 90 films and television series. Wilson got his first big break when chosen for the leading role of Johann Strauss II in the 1972 ITV costume drama The Strauss Family. He subsequently made many appearances on British television, his credits including Space: 1999, I, Claudius, The Sweeney, Return of the Saint, The Professionals, Tales of the Unexpected, The Old Men at the Zoo, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, Hot Fuzz and Spooks. His biggest success was as Alan Stewart in the 1979 thriller serial Running Blind.

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

place_of_birth: Guildford, Surrey, England


William Dozier

biography:
William Dozier was an American TV and movie producer who made it to the top of the TV heap briefly in the mid-1960s with his show "Batman (1966)". Born on February 13, 1908 in Omaha, Nebraska, Dozier was also known for his wives. After divorcing his first wife, he was married to Oscar-winner Joan Fontaine from 1946 to 1951 and to movie star Ann Rutherford from 1953 to his death on April 23, 1991.

In 1948, he and Fontaine launched Rampart Productions, which produced "Max Ophüls' Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)" starring his wife, and "You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)", which starred Fontaine and James Stewart. He served as executive producer on both pictures.

Turning to TV as the new decade of the Fifties dawned, Dozier produced the series "Danger (1950)", which ran for five years from 1950-55. In the Fifties and Sixties, he continued his career as a TV producer, bringing to the tube the short-lived TV series "Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (1953)" and "The Loner (1965)".

In 1966, he achieved the height of TV success with "Batman" which ran for three seasons and was a cultural sensation. The TV show spun off a "Batman: The Movie (1966)" feature film. That same year, he also launched , a modest success, and "The Tammy Grimes Show (1966)", a notorious flop that shot five episodes and was canceled after four.

Dozier retired as a producer after the 1969 movie "The Big Bounce (1969)" flopped, though he enjoyed a modest second career as an actor in the Seventies and early Eighties.

place_of_birth: Omaha, Nebraska, USA


Rik Mayall

biography: Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English comedian, writer and actor. He was known for his comedy partnership with Adrian Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s.

place_of_birth: Harlow, Essex, England


Joanna Barnes

biography:
Barnes' initial appearance on television was in the episode "The Man Who Beat Lupo" on Ford Theatre. She made guest appearances on many television series, including the ABC/Warner Bros. programs 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick, CBS's Have Gun - Will Travel, What's My Line, and the crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective. In 1960-61, she guest-starred on The Untouchables episode "90 Proof Dame" as the wife of a French exporter of brandy.

Barnes appeared as Kate Henniger, with Bing Russell and Arthur Space in the 1958 episode "Ghost Town" of the ABC/WB Western series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. In 1959, she portrayed Lola in the NBC detective series 21 Beacon Street.

In the 1960s, Barnes worked for producer Martin Ransohoff and appeared in episodes of his The Beverly Hillbillies ("Elly Goes to School" and "The Clampett Look") and was billed as special guest-star. Barnes played Peter Falk's former wife on the 1965–1966 CBS series The Trials of O'Brien and was host of the ABC daytime talk show Dateline: Hollywood in 1967.

She was also a frequent panelist in the early years of the syndicated version of What's My Line?. On December 19, 1972, Barnes appeared on The Merv Griffin Show with Joan Fontaine, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Dan Martino (founder of the Dan Martino School for Men).

Barnes moved to Los Angeles soon after finishing her education, and took up a contract with Columbia Pictures. She went on to have roles in more than 20 films. Among her most remembered roles is the snooty Gloria Upson in the film Auntie Mame, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for New Star of the Year. Barnes became the 13th actress to play Jane when she appeared in Tarzan, the Ape Man, with Denny Miller as Tarzan.

In Disney's original 1961 version of The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills, Barnes played gold-digger Vicki Robinson, who temporarily comes between Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith. In the 1998 remake starring Lindsay Lohan, she played Vicki Blake, the mother of the child-hating gold-digger and fiancee Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix). As well, she appeared in The War Wagon, a western movie starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

Barnes was also a writer and columnist. In 1973, she told newspaper columnist Dick Kleiner that she liked writing because "it is something you do yourself. With acting, if you win an Oscar or an Emmy, you have to thank everybody. If you write a book, it is completely your own."

She wrote a book, titled Starting from Scratch, about home decorating and several novels, including The Deceivers, Who Is Carla Hart?, Pastora, and Silverwood. She wrote a weekly book review for the Los Angeles Times, and her column "Touching Home" was carried by The Chicago Tribune and the New York News Syndicate.

place_of_birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA


Mel Brooks

biography:
Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 21 entertainers to win the EGOT (which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony). He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows(1950–1954). There, he worked with Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, and Carl Reiner. With Reiner, he co-created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man. He released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. Brooks received five nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, finally winning in 1999. With Buck Henry, he created the hit satirical spy comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970) on NBC television.

Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence by directing a string of successful comedy films such as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). Later, Brooks made History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and earned Brooks three Tony Awards. The project was remade into a musical film in 2005. He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023).

Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until she died in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, is an actor and author known for his novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006). In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir titled All About Me!. Three of his films are included on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which were ranked in the top 15: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.

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


Josef Sommer

biography: Maximilian Josef Sommer (born June 26, 1934) is a German-American retired stage, television, and film actor. His best known roles are as The President in X-Men: The Last Stand, Senator Jessup in The Sum of All Fears, Peter Lassiter in The Family Man, Curtis Flemming in Shaft, Dr. Eaton in Patch Adams, Phelps Bowen in The Chamber, Clive Peoples Jr. in Nobody's Fool, Mr. Duckworth in The Mighty Ducks, Chief Paul Schaefer in Witness, Max Richter in Silkwood, Sam Taylor in Independence Day, Rothko in Dirty Harry, and narrator for the film Sophie's Choice.


Jeanne Moreau

biography:
Jeanne Moreau (January 23, 1928 – July 31, 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, and director.

She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. She began playing small roles in films in 1949 and eventually achieved prominence as the star of Lift to the Scaffold (UK)/Elevator to the Gallows (USA) (1958), directed by Louis Malle, and Jules et Jim (1962), directed by François Truffaut. Most prolific during the 1960s, Moreau continued to appear in films until her death in 2017,  at the age of 89.

Moreau was the recipient of a César Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and a Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award for individual performances, and several lifetime awards.

place_of_birth: Paris, France


David Wayne

biography:
David Wayne (January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.

Wayne was born Wayne James McMeekan in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of Helen Matilda (née Mason) and John David McMeekan. He grew up in Bloomingdale, Michigan. Wayne's first major Broadway role was Og the leprechaun in Finian's Rainbow, for which he won the Theatre World Award and the first ever Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. While appearing in the play, he and co-star Albert Sharpe were recruited by producer David O. Selznick to play Irish characters in the film Portrait of Jennie (1948).

It was in 1948 as well that Wayne became one of those fortunate 50 applicants (out of approximately 700) granted membership in New York's newly formed Actors Studio. He was awarded a second Tony for Best Actor in a Play for The Teahouse of the August Moon and was nominated as Best Actor in a Musical for The Happy Time. He originated the role of Ensign Pulver in the classic stage comedy Mister Roberts and also appeared in Say, Darling, After the Fall, and Incident at Vichy.

place_of_birth: Traverse City - Michigan - USA


Victor Saville

biography:
Victor Saville (25 September 1895, Birmingham, England – 8 May 1979, London) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962.

He produced his first film, Woman to Woman, with Michael Balcon in 1923, and on the back of its success produced pictures for the veteran director Maurice Elvey, including the classic British silent Hindle Wakes (1927). His first picture as director was The Arcadians (1927). In 1929 he and Balcon worked together again on a talkie remake of Woman to Woman for Balcon's company, Gainsborough Pictures. This time Saville directed it.

From 1931, as Gainsborough Pictures and the Gaumont British Picture Corporation joined forces, Saville produced a string of comedies, musicals and dramas for Gainsborough and Gaumont-British, including the popular Jessie Matthews pictures. In 1937, he left to set up his own production company, Victor Saville Productions, and made three pictures for Alexander Korda's London Films at Denham studios.

As an independent producer he had purchased the film rights to A. J. Cronin's novel The Citadel. He was persuaded to sell them to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in return for the chance to produce the film and another big-budget adaptation, Goodbye Mr Chips (1939). Both films starred Robert Donat and were a great success in the USA as well as in Britain, providing Saville with a passport to Hollywood.

When the war broke out in 1939, Saville was in America and was advised to remain there. He produced pictures in support of the war effort, such as The Mortal Storm and Forever and a Day (1943) (in which he worked for the last time with his former star Jessie Matthews), and in 1945 Tonight and Every Night, based on the history of the Windmill Theatre in London.

After the war Saville continued directing films for MGM but eventually returned to Britain. Saville acquired production rights for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer mysteries and produced a few features, though Spillane thought he was interested in doing so only to acquire the money to produce The Silver Chalice. He produced two final films in the 1960s, The Greengage Summer (1961), adapted from the novel of the same name, and Mix Me a Person (1962).

place_of_birth: Birmingham, England, UK


Paddy Considine

biography:
Patrick George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for playing antiheroes in independent films. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard British Film Awards, British Independent Film Awards, and a Silver Lion for Best Short Film at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.

His first major onscreen appearance was in his first collaboration with filmmaker/director Shane Meadows, A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), and he then played Alfie in Paweł Pawlikowski's Last Resort (2000). Other credits include Doctor Sleep (2002), 24 Hour Party People (2002), In America (2003), My Summer of Love (2004), and Dead Man's Shoes (2004), winning the 2005 Empire Award for Best British Actor and a nomination for the BIFA for Best Actor. He wrote and directed Dog Altogether (2007), winning a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film, and its 2011 feature film adaptation Tyrannosaur which won BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. He directed and starred in Journeyman.

On stage, Considine received Olivier Awards and Tony Award nominations as Best Actor in 2018 and 2019 for his performances in The Ferryman at the Royal Court Theatre, at the Gielgud Theatre, and at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. On television, Considine has been lead in Pu-239 (2006), My Zinc Bed (2008), Red Riding (2009), Informer (2018), and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher series of television films (2013–2014). Other television credits include Peaky Blinders (2016), The Outsider (2020), The Third Day (2020), and most notably he played a lead role as King Viserys I Targaryen in House of the Dragon (2022–2024).

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

place_of_birth: Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK


Bruce McGill

biography: Bruce Travis McGill (born July 11, 1950) is an American actor. Of his extensive film and television credits, he is perhaps best known for his role as Jack Dalton on the television series MacGyver and as D-Day in National Lampoon's Animal House.

place_of_birth: San Antonio, Texas, USA


Rosemarie DeWitt

biography: Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt (born October 26, 1971) is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on United States of Tara. She also was the title character in 2008's Rachel Getting Married, garnering several awards and nominations for best supporting actress. She starred in the horror/thriller Poltergeist (2015), a remake of the 1982 film of the same name.

place_of_birth: Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York, USA


Kathryn McGuire

biography: Kathryn McGuire (December 6, 1903 – October 10, 1978) was an American silent-film actress and dancer.

place_of_birth: Peoria, Illinois, USA


Porter Hall

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clifford Porter Hall (September 19, 1888 – October 6, 1953) was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall played movie villains or comedic incompetent characters.  Hall was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and began his career touring as a stage actor with roles in productions of The Great Gatsby and Naked in 1926. Hall made his film debut in the 1931 drama Secrets of a Secretary. He made his last onscreen appearance in the 1954 film Return to Treasure Island, which was released after his death.

He was probably best remembered for four roles: a senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, an atheist in Going My Way, the nervous, ill-tempered Granville Sawyer, who administers a psychological test to Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, and a train passenger who encounters a man (Fred MacMurray) who has just committed a murder in Double Indemnity.

On October 6, 1953, Hall died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California at the age of 65. His interment was at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery. Hall had two children, David and Sarah Jane.

place_of_birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA


Leah Remini

biography:
Leah Marie Remini (born June 15, 1970, height 5' 3" (1,60 m)) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on the CBS hit sitcom The King of Queens from 1998 to 2007. Prior to The King of Queens, she was known for her six episode stint as Stacey Carosi in 1991 on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell. She was also one of the co-hosts on the CBS network daytime talk show/series The Talk, before being fired in 2011.

Leah Remini was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City to private-school teacher Vicki Marshall and George Remini, who owned an asbestos-removal company. Her mother is of Austrian Jewish background and her father was Sicilian. Remini has an older sister, Nicole Remini (born 1969), who was her assistant on The King of Queens. She also has four half-sisters, including Christina (born 1969). Remini moved to Los Angeles, California, at age 13 with her mother to pursue an acting career.

Remini met Puerto Rican salsa musician Angelo Pagán in 1996 at a Cuban restaurant. Pagan has three sons from previous relationships. In January 2003, Remini announced their engagement; they were married on July 19, 2003. On June 16, 2004, the day after her 34th birthday, Remini gave birth to daughter Sofia Bella, who weighed 6 lb/7.4 oz.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Simon Schwarz

biography:
Simon Schwarz (born 10 January 1971) is an Austrian actor. He is known for his role as Chris Wegner in the medical drama series Die Eifelpraxis and as Rudi Birkenberger in the Franz Eberhofer series of crime films. Since 2019 he has been starring with Eberhofer actor Sebastian Bezzel in a documentary TV series Bezzel & Schwarz - Die Grenzgänger, in which they live and travel in a motorhome through Bavaria, Germany. He plays a lead role in the 2025 Slovak-Austrian co-production Perla.

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

place_of_birth: Vienna, Austria


Jane Birkin

biography: Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE (December 14, 1946 – July 16, 2023) was a British-French actress, singer, and designer. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. In addition to her prolific career in French cinema, she appeared in several English-language films including Blowup (1966), Death on the Nile (1978), Evil Under the Sun (1982), and A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998). She was the mother of photographer Kate Barry with her first husband composer John Barry; of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg with Serge Gainsbourg; and of musician Lou Doillon with Jacques Doillon.

place_of_birth: London, England, UK


Zack Snyder

biography:
Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with Dawn of the Dead, a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since then, he has directed or produced a number of comic book and superhero films, including 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), as well as the Superman film that started the DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013), and its follow-ups, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), the latter of which had a director's cut released in 2021. He also directed the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), the psychological action film Sucker Punch (2011), the zombie heist film Army of the Dead (2021), and the two-part space opera films Rebel Moon (2023) and Rebel Moon—Part Two: The Scargiver (2024).

In 2004, he founded the production company The Stone Quarry (formerly known as Cruel and Unusual Films) alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller.

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

place_of_birth: Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA


Emir Kusturica

biography:
Emir Nemanja Kusturica is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films.

He is a two-time winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes (for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground), as well as being a Commander of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  Since the mid-2000s, Kusturica's primary residence is Drvengrad, a village in the Mokra Gora region of Serbia. He had portions of the historic village reconstructed for his film Life Is a Miracle.

place_of_birth: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina


Christine Taylor

biography:
Christine Joan Taylor Stiller (born July 30, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for playing Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel, as well as roles in films like The Craft, The Wedding Singer, Zoolander, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and her television roles in Hey Dude, Arrested Development, and Search Party.

Taylor began her acting career in 1989 on the Nickelodeon children's television series Hey Dude where she played the lifeguard Melody Hanson. She continued in that role through 1991 while making various guest appearances on other programs. In 1995, Taylor was cast as Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie and later in A Very Brady Sequel.

Following The Brady Bunch Movie, Taylor made several comedic guest appearances on the TV series Ellen, landing the lead role in the television series Party Girl, based on the 1995 film of the same name, and more guest appearances on Seinfeld and Friends.

She played the racist school bully Laura Lizzie in the 1996 horror film The Craft, and also played Drew Barrymore's cousin, Holly Sullivan, in the 1998 comedy The Wedding Singer. In 2001, she starred alongside her husband Ben Stiller in Zoolander and again, in 2016, she reprised her role in Zoolander 2.

In 2005, she made television appearances as a guest star in two episodes of Arrested Development as Sally Sitwell and, in 2006, in an episode of NBC's My Name Is Earl. In July 2006, her husband, Ben Stiller announced plans to direct a CBS sitcom starring Taylor, but the series never aired. In 2008, she was in the film, Tropic Thunder, along with her husband, Ben Stiller.

She has appeared with Mandy Moore in both Dedication and License to Wed. In 2010, she guest starred in Hannah Montana Forever and she starred in the Hallmark Channel Christmas movie Farewell Mr. Kringle. In 2013, she reprised her role as Sally Sitwell in two episodes of the revived Arrested Development. She also guest starred on Elementary in 2017, playing villainess Gail Lundquist.

Beginning in 2016, Taylor had a recurring role as Gail on Search Party. In 2021, Taylor joined the cast of High Desert, an Apple TV+ series.

Christine and her husband, Ben Stiller, separated in 2017, after 17 years of marriage, but have since rekindled their marriage.

place_of_birth: Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA


Niki Caro

biography:
Nikola Jean Caro MNZM (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film, television, and music video director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live-action version of Disney's Mulan, making her the second woman and the second New Zealand director hired by Disney to direct a film budgeted at over $100 million. Caro's work ranged from music videos, commercials, and television dramas to films.

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

place_of_birth: Wellington, New Zealand


Rachel House

biography:
Rachel Jessica Te Ao Maarama House ONZM (born 20 October 1971) is a New Zealand actress and director. She is best known for her roles in the films of Taika Waititi. She has received numerous accolades, including an Arts Laureate, the NZ Order of Merit, 'Mana Wahine' from WIFT NZ, and Te Waipuna a Rangi (Matariki Awards) for her contributions as an actor and director.

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

place_of_birth: Auckland, New Zealand


Marcel Iureș

biography:
Marcel Iureş (born August 2, 1951) is a Romanian stage and screen actor.

Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978. He has acted in films and on stage both in Romania and internationally, as well as playing at least ten roles on Romanian and British television.

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

place_of_birth: Bailesti, Romania


Brian Smrz

biography:
Brian Smrz (/smɜːrʃ/; born c. 1960), also Brian Delaney Smrz, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director of projects such as Mission: Impossible 2, Live Free or Die Hard, Taxi, Eagle Eye, Night at the Museum, Windtalkers, Iron Man 3, and Superman Returns, among others. He is also the director of Hero Wanted, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta, and of 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke and Xu Qing. He won the Taurus Award twice and was nominated for a third time.

Smrz has worked as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator on Hollywood films since 1981. In more recent years, he has acted as second unit director and director on projects such as Hero Wanted, Fantastic Four, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Predator, and Face/Off. He has worked on several of director John Woo's American films, including Windtalkers, Pay cheque, and Mission: Impossible 2.

Smrz shared a Taurus Award for stunt work on Mission: Impossible 2 and Live Free or Die Hard. He was also nominated for Taxi. In an otherwise negative review of Taxi, Variety praised Smrz's stunts.

Hero Wanted is his directorial debut. It is a crime drama/action film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ray Liotta, and Norman Reedus. Shooting occurred in Sofia and Bulgaria with a crew composed mostly of Bulgarians.

Smrz is from Strafford, Pennsylvania, and was the brother of the stuntman Brett Smrz, who died while performing a stunt jump off a building. Smrz was hospitalised after a stunt went wrong in 1992 on Cyborg 2. The incident was investigated by the Screen Actors Guild.

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known_for_department: Crew


Alex Kurtzman

biography:
Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for co-writing the scripts to Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) with his writing and producing partner Roberto Orci, and directing and co-writing The Mummy (2017). He made his directorial debut with People Like Us (2012), co-written alongside Orci and Jody Lambert.

Kurtzman is known, alongside Orci, for frequently collaborating with Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams and co-creating the TV series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

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

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Gretchen Mol

biography:
Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She is known for her role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). She also appeared in the films Rounders (1998), Celebrity (1998), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), in which she played the title character, 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and Manchester by the Sea (2016).

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

place_of_birth: Deep River, Connecticut, USA


Louis Malle

biography:
Louis Marie Malle (30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. His film "The Silent World" won the Palme d'Or in 1956 and the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1957, although he was not credited at the ceremony with the award instead being presented to the film's co-director Jacques Cousteau. Later in his career he was nominated multiple times for Academy Awards. Malle is also one of the few directors to have won the Golden Lion multiple times.

Malle worked in both French cinema and Hollywood, and he produced both French and English language films. His most famous films include the crime film "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), the World War II drama "Lacombe, Lucien" (1974), the romantic crime film "Atlantic City" (1980), the comedy-drama "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), and the autobiographical film "Au Revoir les Enfants" (1987).

Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries, Nord, France. He initially studied political science at Sciences Po before turning to film studies at IDHEC instead.

He assisted Robert Bresson on "A Man Escaped" (1956) before making his first feature, "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), a taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, which made an international film star of Jeanne Moreau, at the time a leading stage actress of the Comédie-Française. Malle was 24 years old.

Malle's "The Lovers" (1958), which also starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal definition of obscenity.  Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague movement, and while Malle's work does not directly fit in with or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and others, and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the Cahiers du cinéma, his films do exemplify many of the characteristics of the movement, such as using natural light and shooting on location, and his film "Zazie dans le Métro" (1960), an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel, inspired Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle.

In 1968 Malle visited India and made a seven-part documentary series "Phantom India" (1969), which was released in cinemas. Concentrating on real India, its rituals and festivities, Malle fell afoul of the Indian government, which disliked his portrayal of the country, in its fascination with the pre-modern, and consequently banned the BBC from filming in India for several years. Malle later claimed his documentary on India was his favorite film.

Malle later moved to the United States and continued to direct there. Just as his earlier films such as "The Lovers" helped popularize French films in the United States, "My Dinner with Andre" was at the forefront of the rise of American independent cinema in the 1980s.

place_of_birth: Thumeries, Nord, France


Miles Davis

biography: Miles Dewey Davis III was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

place_of_birth: Alton, Illinois, USA


David Clennon

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Clennon (born May 10, 1943) is an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miles Drentel in the ABC series Thirtysomething, a role he reprised on Once and Again.

Clennon was born in Waukegan, Illinois, the son of Virginia, a homemaker, and Cecil Clennon, an accountant. Clennon is well known for his political activism.

In 1980, David Clennon provided the voice for Admiral Motti in NPR's Star Wars The Original Radio Drama. He was a regular on the TV shows Almost Perfect, The Agency and Saved. Most recently, Clennon played Carl Sessick (a.k.a Carl the Watcher) on Ghost Whisperer.

In 1993 he won an Emmy award for his guest appearance on the series Dream On.

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

place_of_birth: Waukegan, Illinois, USA


Peter Maloney

biography: Peter Maloney (born December 30, 1941) is an American actor, director, and playwright who has appeared in film, television, and theatre for over 50 years.

place_of_birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA


Joel Polis

biography: An American television, film and stage actor. He has appeared in over one hundred television programs and films during his career. Polis' first film role was the character 'Fuchs' in the science fiction film The Thing. He appeared in numerous television series including Cheers, Alien Nation, Northern Exposure, Star Trek: Voyager, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Boston Legal and CSI. He appeared in a recurring role on the television series Cheers as the mischievous Gary, owner of the rival bar, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. Polis's theater credits include performances at the Astor Place Theatre, Hartford Stage, Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Odyssey Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Lillian Theater and the Pasadena Playhouse.

place_of_birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA


Tate Donovan

biography:
Tate Buckley Donovan (born September 25, 1963) is an American actor. He is most recently known for his role in the FX drama Damages, as Tom Shayes. He is also known for his role as Jimmy Cooper in the American teen drama television series The O.C., and as the voice of the title character Hercules in Disney's animated feature film of the same name, in the animated television series and in the video game Kingdom Hearts II.

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

place_of_birth: Tenafly, New Jersey, USA


Sabine Timoteo

biography:
Sabine Timoteo, born Sabine Hagenbüchle on 25 March 1975 in Bern, is a Swiss actress and former dancer. She fluently speaks German, French, English, Italian and Spanish.

She studied dance and won the Prix de Lausanne for "best young dancer".

Her film debut was in Philip Gröning's L'Amour, l'Argent, l'Amour, which was shot in 1996 but released in 2000. For this role, she won the Swiss Film Award for Best Actress. Between 1997 and 2000, before fully embarking on her acting career, she trained as a professional cook in Bern. After marrying a man, she took the name Sabine Timoteo, under which she built the majority of her film career.

She continued to gain acclaim with major roles in films such as Ghosts (2005), The Free Will (2006), Color of the Ocean (2012), Cyanide (2013), Futuro Beach (2014), The Wonders (2014) and Center of My World (2016).

In more recent years she has worked in several notable projects, including Meanwhile on Earth (2024), Chaos & Silence (2025) and Transamazonia (2025).

place_of_birth: Bern, Switzerland


Ken Loach

biography:
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936; Nuneaton) is a retired British film director, screenwriter and producer. His humanist values and socialist political views are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001).

Kenneth Charles Loach was born on 17 June 1936 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and at the age of 19 went to serve in the Royal Air Force. He read law at St Peter's College, Oxford and graduated with a third-class degree. As a member of the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club he directed an open-air production of Bartholomew Fair for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford, in 1959 (when he also took the role of the shady horse-dealer Dan Jordan Knockem). After Oxford, he began a career in the dramatic arts.

Loach's film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice.

place_of_birth: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, UK


Liam Cunningham

biography:
Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish actor. He has appeared in numerous film and television productions including A Little Princess, First Knight, Jude and the BBC One science-fiction drama series Outcasts.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Liam Cunningham (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Dublin, Ireland


Derek Luke

biography:
Derek Luke (born April 24, 1974) is an American actor. He won the Independent Spirit Award for his big-screen debut performance in the 2002 film Antwone Fisher, directed and produced by Denzel Washington.

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

place_of_birth: Jersey City, New Jersey, USA


Rebecca Hall

biography:
Rebecca Maria Hall (born May 3, 1982) is an English actress and filmmaker. She made her first onscreen appearance at age 10 in the 1992 television adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, directed by her father, Sir Peter Hall. Her professional stage debut came in her father's 2002 production of Mrs. Warren's Profession, which earned her the Ian Charleson Award.

In 2006, following her film debut in Starter for 10, Hall got her breakthrough role in Christopher Nolan's thriller film The Prestige. In 2008, she starred as Vicky in Woody Allen's romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Hall then appeared in a wide array of films, including Ron Howard's historical drama Frost/Nixon (2008), Ben Affleck's crime drama The Town (2010), the horror thriller The Awakening (2011), the superhero film Iron Man 3 (2013), the science fiction film Transcendence (2014), the psychological thriller The Gift (2015), the live-action/CGI fantasy adventure film The BFG (2016), the biographical drama Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) and the monster film Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). In 2016, Hall was praised by critics for her portrayal of news reporter Christine Chubbuck in the biographical drama Christine. She made her directorial debut with Passing (2021), receiving critical acclaim.

Hall has also made several notable appearances on British television. She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 2009 Channel 4 miniseries Red Riding: 1974. In 2013, she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her performance in BBC Two's Parade's End.

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

place_of_birth: London, England, UK


Bill Condon

biography:
William Condon (born October 22, 1955) is an American director and screenwriter. Condon is known for writing and/or directing numerous successful and acclaimed films, including Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Kinsey, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and Beauty and the Beast. He has received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Gods and Monsters and Chicago, winning for the former.

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

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Helen Mirren

biography:
Dame Helen Mirren (/ˈmɪrən/; born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov; July 26, 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in The Audience, three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, including two for Prime Suspect.

Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, Mirren's performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut in 1975. Since then, Mirren has also had success in television and film. Aside from her Academy Award-winning performance, Mirren's other Oscar-nominated performances were for The Madness of King George (1994), Gosford Park (2001), and The Last Station (2009). For her role on Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991 to 2006, she won three consecutive British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress (1992, 1993 and 1994), a joint-record of consecutive wins shared with Julie Walters, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing Queen Elizabeth I in the television series Elizabeth I (2005), and Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006), she is the only actor to have portrayed both the regnant Elizabeths on screen.

After her breakthrough film role in The Long Good Friday (1980), other notable film roles included Cal (1984), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Calendar Girls (2003), Hitchcock (2012), The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), Woman in Gold (2015), Trumbo (2015), and The Leisure Seeker (2017). She also appeared in the action films Red (2010) and Red 2 (2013) playing an ex-MI6 assassin, and in the Fast & Furious films The Fate of the Furious (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), and F9 (2021).

In the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours, Mirren was appointed a Dame (DBE) for services to drama, with investiture taking place at Buckingham Palace. In 2013 she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2014 she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2021, she was announced as the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

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

place_of_birth: Hammersmith, London, England, UK


Ashley Judd

biography:
An American television and film actress, who has played lead roles in films including Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, Where the Heart Is and High Crimes. She is active in a number of humanitarian and political causes, including two missions to the Democratic Republic of Congo to campaign against sexual violence against women.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

place_of_birth: Granada Hills, California, USA


Wes Studi

biography: Wesley "Wes" Studi (born December 17, 1947) is an American Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayals of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An American Legend and the Academy Award-nominated film The New World (2005). He portrayed General Linus Abner (an analogue to the biblical Abner) in the NBC series Kings, and Eytukan in James Cameron's box office blockbuster Avatar.

place_of_birth: Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, USA


Miguel Ferrer

biography: Miguel José Ferrer (February 7, 1955 – January 19, 2017) was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film RoboCop. Other film roles include Quigley in Blank Check (1994), Harbinger in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Shan Yu in Mulan (1998), Eduardo Ruiz in Traffic (2000) and Vice President Rodriguez in Iron Man 3 (2013). Ferrer's notable television roles include FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017), Tarakudo on Jackie Chan Adventures (2000–2005), Dr. Garret Macy on Crossing Jordan (2001–2007) and NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on NCIS: Los Angeles (2012–2017).

place_of_birth: Santa Monica, California, USA


Julia Louis-Dreyfus

biography:
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus (/ˌluːiˈdraɪfəs/ LOO-ee DRY-fəs; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She is known for her roles in a string of successful comedy series and several comedy films. She has received numerous accolades, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The daughter of French billionaire Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, she entered comedy as a performer with the Practical Theatre Company. She was a cast member on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. Her breakthrough came playing Elaine Benes on the NBC sitcomSeinfeld (1990–1998), one of the most successful sitcoms in television history. She earned further acclaim for her roles as Christine Campbell on The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–2010) and Selina Meyer on Veep (2012–2019), and has guest-starred on shows such as Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock.

Louis-Dreyfus has had leading film roles in the comedy-dramas Enough Said (2013), Downhill (2020), You Hurt My Feelings (2023), and Tuesday (2023), with supporting film roles in comedy films such as Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Deconstructing Harry (1997), and You People (2023). Her voice acting work includes roles in the Disney animated films A Bug's Life (1998), Planes (2013), and Onward (2020). She has played Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2021.

Louis-Dreyfus is one of the most awarded actors in television history, winning more Emmys and Screen Actors Guild Awards than any other performer. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2014. She was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. She also received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour in 2018 and the National Medal of Arts in 2021.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Julia Louis-Dreyfus, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


Dan Fogelman

biography: Dan Fogelman (born February 19, 1976) is an American television producer and screenwriter whose screenplays include Tangled; Crazy, Stupid, Love; and the Pixar film Cars. He also created the 2012 television sitcom The Neighbors, the 2015 fairy tale-themed musical comedy series Galavant, the 2016 dramedy series This Is Us, and the 2016 baseball drama series Pitch.

place_of_birth: River Vale, New Jersey, USA


Lee Meriwether

biography: Lee Ann Meriwether (born May 27, 1935) is an American actress, former model, and the winner of the 1955 Miss America pageant. Her trademarks are natural auburn hair, light blue eyes, and a seductive deep voice. Today, she is best remembered for her roles in a few science fiction/fantasy cult productions made between 1966 and 1969. Batman: The Movie (1966), Star Trek (1966), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968).  Firstly Batman: The Movie (1966), in which she played both evil Catwoman and not-so-evil Kitka, who has a romance with Bruce Wayne. A few notable roles of hers are Betty Jones, the crime-solving partner in the long-running 1970s crime drama, Barnaby Jones, which earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations and an Emmy Award nomination, and John Schuck's long-haired wife, Lily Munster, in the popular 1990s sitcom The Munsters. Meriwether is currently working in television and has a recurring role in the daytime soap opera All My Children.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Youki Kudoh

biography: Youki Kudoh is a Japanese actress and singer. She won the award for best newcomer at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival for The Crazy Family. She also won the award for best actress at the 16th Hochi Film Award for War and Youth.

place_of_birth: Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan


Mario Van Peebles

biography:
Mario Cain Peebles Marx (born January 15, 1957) is a Mexican-born American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Mario Van Peebles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Mexico City, Mexico


Choi Jeong-ho

biography: Jeong-ho Choi is known for 3-Iron (2004), Bolts & Blip: Battle of the Lunar League (2012) and Kuru Kuru and Friends: The Rainbow Tree Forest (2015).


Jonathan Demme

biography: Robert Jonathan Demme (February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He was best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed the acclaimed films Something Wild (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), Philadelphia (1993), and Rachel Getting Married (2008), as well as the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (1984), which is widely considered to be one of the greatest concert films of all time.

place_of_birth: Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA


Simon McBurney

biography:
Simon Montagu McBurney, OBE (born 25 August 1957) is an English Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actor, writer and director. He is the founder and artistic director of Théâtre de Complicité in England, now called Complicite.

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

place_of_birth: Cambridge, England, UK


Michael Talbott

biography: Michael Talbott (born February 2, 1955) is an American actor. He portrayed Detective Stanley Switek in the crime drama television series Miami Vice (1984–1989).

place_of_birth: Waverly, Iowa, USA


David Caruso

biography:
David Stephen Caruso (born January 7, 1956) is a retired American actor and producer, best known for his roles as Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue (1993–1994) and Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the CBS series CSI: Miami (2002–2012). He appeared in the feature films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), First Blood (1982, the first film in the Rambo franchise), Twins (1988), King of New York (1990), Kiss of Death (1995), and Proof of Life (2000).

After CSI: Miami, he quietly retired from acting and became involved in the art business. He is also co-owner of Steam on Sunset, a clothing store in South Miami.

He was married to his first wife Cheri Maugans from 1979 until they divorced in 1984. He was married to his second wife actress Rachel Ticotin from 1984 to 1987, with whom he has a daughter, Greta. He and former girlfriend Liza Marquez have two children together: Marquez and Paloma.


George P. Cosmatos

biography:
George Pan Cosmatos (January 4, 1941 in Florence, Italy - April 19, 2005 in Victoria, Canada) was a Greek/Italian film director. After studying film in London, he became assistant director to Otto Preminger on Exodus (1960), Leon Uris's epic about the birth of Israel. Thereafter he worked on Zorba the Greek (1964), in which Cosmatos had a small part as Boy with Acne. Cosmatos grew up in Egypt and Cyprus and is said to have spoken six languages. He was famous in Italy for the movies Rappresaglia (1973) with Marcello Mastroianni and The Cassandra Crossing (1976) with Sophia Loren. In 1979, he made the famous and successful World War II adventure movie Escape to Athena, starring a gigantic all star cast including Roger Moore, David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliot Gould and Claudia Cardinale. Cosmatos was nominated for a 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for his role as director of Rambo: First Blood Part II starring Sylvester Stallone. He also directed another Stallone vehicle, Cobra, in 1986.

Late in his career, Cosmatos received more praise for Tombstone, a 1993 Western movie about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. This film was particularly praised for the exceptional performance of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. After his death it was revealed by Tombstone star Kurt Russell that Cosmatos had ghost-directed the movie on Russell's behalf. Sylvester Stallone recommended Cosmatos after the departure of the first director, and informed Russell that Cosmatos had also ghost-directed Rambo: First Blood Part II on Stallone's behalf.

George P. Cosmatos died of lung cancer on April 19, 2005 at the age of 64.

Description above from the Wikipedia article George P. Cosmatos, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

place_of_birth: Florence, Tuscany, Italy


Kevin Connolly

biography: Kevin Connolly (born March 5, 1974) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his roles as Eric Murphy in the HBO series Entourage and the eldest son Ryan Malloy in the 1990s television sitcom Unhappily Ever After. He began his career at age six, appearing in television commercials, including the "Betcha bite a chip" campaign for Chips Ahoy!. In 1990, he landed his first film role, as Chickie in Rocky V.

place_of_birth: Patchogue, Long Island, New York, USA


Sean Harris

biography: Sean Harris (born 1966, Bethnal Green, London, England) is a British actor, best known for his film roles in 24 Hour Party People (2002), Prometheus (2012), The King (2019), The Green Knight (2021), Spencer (2021), The Stranger (2022), and the Mission: Impossible franchise (2015-2018). As a stage actor, Harris was a member of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, where he performed in stage productions such as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet directed by Giles Havergal and as Carino in Don Juan directed by Robert David MacDonald. He also appeared as Lysander in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Matthew Lloyd at the Haymarket Theatre (Leicester) and as Johnny in a Nottingham Playhouse production of Angels Rave On, directed by Jonathan Church. Harris won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role in the miniseries Southcliffe (2013) and received three consecutive BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in ‘71 (2014), Macbeth (2015), and Trespass Against Us (2016).  Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Harris, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


Graham King

biography:
Graham King OBE is an English film producer. He has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the films The Aviator (2004), Hugo (2011), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and The Departed (2006); for the last of which he won the award.

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


Eduardo Ciannelli

biography:
Eduardo Ciannelli, sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli, (30 August 1889 - 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals.

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

place_of_birth: Lacco Ameno, Ischia, Italy


Aki Kaurismäki

biography:
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish: [ˈɑki ˈkɑu̯rismæki]; born April 4,1957; Orimattila) is a Finnish film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and actor. He is best known for the award-winning Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Le Havre (2011), The Other Side of Hope (2017) and Fallen Leaves (2023), as well as for the mockumentary Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). He is described as Finland's best-known film director. He is the younger brother of director and screenwriter Mika Kaurismäki.

After graduating in media studies from the University of Tampere, Kaurismäki worked as a bricklayer, postman, and dish-washer, long before pursuing his interest in cinema, first as a critic, and later as a screenwriter & director. He started his career as a co-screenwriter and actor in films made by his older brother, Mika Kaurismäki. He played the main role in Mika's film The Liar (1981). Together they founded the production company Villealfa Filmproductions and later the Midnight Sun Film Festival. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel set in modern Helsinki. He gained worldwide attention with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989).

Kaurismäki's film Ariel (1988) was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Prix FIPRESCI. Kaurismäki's most acclaimed film has been The Man Without a Past, which won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony, asserting that he did not feel like partying in a country that was in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film, Lights in the Dusk, was also chosen to be Finland's nominee for best foreign-language film, but Kaurismäki again boycotted the awards and refused the nomination, as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. In 2002 Kaurismäki also boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival in a show of solidarity with the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was not given a US visa in time for the festival. Kaurismäki's 2017 film The Other Side of Hope won the Silver Bear for Best Director award at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At the same festival he also announced that it would be his last film, although the retirement was short-lived as he began filming Fallen Leaves in 2022, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

place_of_birth: Orimattila, Finland


Gaspard Ulliel

biography:
Gaspard Thomas Ulliel (25 November 1984 – 19 January 2022) was a French actor. He was known for portraying the young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising (2007), fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic Saint Laurent (2014), and for being the face of the Chanel men's fragrance Bleu de Chanel. He also voiced Jack Frost in the French version of Rise of the Guardians (2012), and portrayed Anton Mogart in the Disney+ miniseries Moon Knight (2022).

Ulliel made his feature film debut in Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), and had his breakthrough in Strayed (2003). He was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor for three consecutive years for his performances in Summer Things (2002), Strayed (2003), and A Very Long Engagement (2004); winning that award in 2005 for his performance as World War I soldier Manech in A Very Long Engagement. In 2015, he earned his first César nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Saint Laurent. In 2017, he won the César Award for Best Actor for his role as a terminally ill playwright in It's Only the End of the World (2016). He became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2015. His other notable works include films such as  The Last Day (2004), Paris, je t'aime (2006), Jacquou le Croquant (2007), The Princess of Montpensier (2010), To the Ends of the World (2018), and the miniseries Twice Upon a Time (2019). Ulliel died on 19 January 2022, following a skiing accident at La Rosière resort in Savoie, France.

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Brett Cullen

biography:
Peter Brett Cullen (born August 26, 1956) is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs. Early in 2007, he was cast as the role of an estranged father to one of the American football players, Tim Riggins (played by actor Taylor Kitsch), in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights.

Cullen was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Lucien Hugh Cullen, an oil industry executive, and Catherine Cullen. He graduated from Madison High School in Houston in 1974. Cullen graduated from the University of Houston, giving great credit to his highly acclaimed acting mentor and University of Houston professor, Cecil Pickett, who also mentored such Houston born actors as Dennis Quaid, Randy Quaid, & Brent Spiner among others. Cullen and Dennis Quaid's close friendship to this day dates back to the 1970s and it is Cullen who introduced Dennis Quaid to his current wife, Kimberly Buffington at a dinner in Austin, Texas.

Cullen played Dan Fixx in the 1980s CBS drama Falcon Crest for two seasons (1986–1988) and Marshal Sam Cain in the ABC western series The Young Riders for one season (1989–1990). In 1980, he appeared as the second Gideon Chisholm in the last nine episodes of the CBS western miniseries The Chisholms. In the four earlier episodes, the Gideon Chisholm role was played by Brian Kerwin. Cullen was the lead actor as Ned Logan in the short-lived Legacy, which lasted for just one season (1998–1999). On the series The West Wing Cullen played Ray Sullivan, a fictional governor of West Virginia and the Republican nominee for Vice President.

His guest appearances on TV include: The Incredible Hulk, Tales from the Crypt, MAS*H, V, Matlock, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ally McBeal, Walker, Texas Ranger, Once and Again, Without a Trace, Cold Case, The Mountain, Monk, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Desperate Housewives, Pepper Dennis, Lost, Ghost Whisperer, Private Practice, Ugly Betty, and Friday Night Lights. In 2009, he had a recurring role in the ABC Family television series Make It or Break It.

He has played two real-life astronauts, Jack Lousma in Apollo 13 (Brett is the CapCom at the time of the explosion; at that shift Lousma was the CapCom in real life) and David Scott in the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.

His most recent appearance was in the role of Barton Blaze in the movie Ghost Rider. Other movie credits include Wyatt Earp (with Kevin Costner), Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (with Kenny Rogers and Bruce Boxleitner), Something to Talk About (with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid), The Replacements (with Gene Hackman), On Golden Pond (with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer), Nancy Drew, and Gridiron Gang. He also played Bob Cleary in the 1983 mini-series The Thorn Birds.

Cullen was recently cast in the up-coming femme comedy Monte Carlo alongside Selena Gomez, Andie MacDowell and Leighton Meester and is playing the role of Tom Eckert in the upcoming war film Red Dawn.

On February 8, 2011, Brett was named the official spokesman for Houston Works which helps Houston residents with job training and placement, scholarships, consulting, technical initiatives focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics and summer job programs along with Youth Summits.

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place_of_birth: Houston, Texas, USA