Ron Howard

biography:
Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American filmmaker and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of The Twilight Zone. Howard gained national attention for playing young Opie Taylor, the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968. During this time, he also appeared in the musical film The Music Man (1962), a critical and commercial success. He was credited as Ronny Howard in his film and television appearances from 1959 to 1973.

Howard was cast in one of the lead roles in the coming-of-age film American Graffiti (1973), which received widespread acclaim and became one of the most profitable films in history. The following year, Howard became a household name for playing Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days, a role he would play from 1974 through 1984. Howard continued appearing in films during this time, such as the western film The Shootist (1976) and the comedy film Grand Theft Auto (1977), which also marked his directorial debut.

In 1984, Howard left Happy Days to focus on directing, producing and occasionally writing variety films and television series. His films include the science-fiction/fantasy Cocoon (1985), the fantasy Willow (1988), the thriller Backdraft (1991), the historical docudrama Apollo 13 (1995), the Christmas comedy How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), the biographical drama A Beautiful Mind (2001), the biographical sports drama Cinderella Man (2005), the thriller The Da Vinci Code (2006), the historical drama Frost/Nixon (2008), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and the documentary Pavarotti (2019). For A Beautiful Mind, Howard won the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Picture. He was nominated again for the same awards for Frost/Nixon.

In 2003, Howard was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013. Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in the television and motion pictures industries.

place_of_birth: Duncan, Oklahoma, USA


Jason Gray-Stanford

type: Profile

biography: Jason Gray-Stanford (born May 19, 1970) is a Canadian actor and voice actor . He is known for playing Lieutenant Randy Disher in the TV program Monk and Raditz in the Ocean Group dub of Dragon Ball Z.

place_of_birth: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

known_for_department: Acting


Judd Hirsch

biography:
Judd Seymore Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American actor. He is known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–2010). He is also well known for his career in theatre and for his roles in films such as Ordinary People (1980), Running on Empty (1988), Independence Day (1996), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), Uncut Gems (2019), and The Fabelmans (2022).

He won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, two Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, and was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The 42-year gap between his first nomination (Ordinary People in 1980) and second (The Fabelmans in 2022) is the longest in history.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Leonardo DiCaprio

biography:
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biopics and period films, DiCaprio is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. As of 2019, his films have grossed over $7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.

Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career in the late 1980s by appearing in television commercials. In the early 1990s, he had recurring roles in various television shows, such as the sitcom Parenthood, and had his first major film part as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life (1993). At age 19, he received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performance as a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). He achieved international stardom with the star-crossed romances Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997).

After the latter became the highest-grossing film at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years. In an attempt to shed his image of a romantic hero, DiCaprio sought roles in other genres, including crime drama in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Gangs of New York (2002); the latter marked the first of his many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004) and received acclaim for his performances in the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime drama The Departed (2006), and the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008).

In the following decade, DiCaprio starred in several high-profile directors' projects, including the science fiction thriller Inception (2010), the western Django Unchained (2012), the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the survival drama The Revenant (2015), for which he won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), all of which were critical and commercial successes.

DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions, a production company that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008–2010), and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. He regularly supports charitable causes and has produced several documentaries on the environment. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Hannelore Elsner

biography: Hannelore Elsner (born Hannelore Elstner, 26 July 1942 – 21 April 2019) was a German actress with a long career in television and film. She first performed on stage in Munich, and later starred in popular films and television series such as Die Schwarzwaldklinik (The Black Forest Clinic), and as the lead character, Inspector Lea Sommer, in the series Die Kommissarin. She was recognized internationally for her lead role in the 2000 film Die Unberührbare (No Place to Go), shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

place_of_birth: Burghausen, Germany


Michael Nyqvist

biography:
Rolf Åke Mikael Nyqvist (November 8, 1960 – June 27, 2017), better known as Michael Nyqvist, was a Swedish actor. Educated at the School of Drama in Malmö, he became well known for playing police officer Banck in the first series of Martin Beck films made in 1997, and later for his leading role in the film Grabben i graven bredvid in 2002. He was most recognized internationally for his role in the acclaimed Millennium series as Mikael Blomkvist, as well as the lead villains in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (as Kurt Hendricks) and John Wick (as Viggo Tarasov). In 2004, he played the leading role in the Academy Award-nominated Best Foreign Film As It Is in Heaven.

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

place_of_birth: Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden


Jane Fonda

biography:
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. She is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, the Honorary Palme d'Or, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Born to socialite Frances Ford Seymour and actor Henry Fonda, Fonda made her acting debut with the 1960 Broadway play There Was a Little Girl, for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, and made her screen debut later the same year with the romantic comedy Tall Story. She rose to prominence during the 1960s with the comedies Period of Adjustment (1962), Sunday in New York (1963), Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Barbarella (1968). Her first husband was Barbarella director Roger Vadim. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, she received her first nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress twice in the 1970s, for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978). Her other nominations were for Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), On Golden Pond (1981), and The Morning After (1986). Consecutive hits Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), California Suite (1978), The Electric Horseman (1979), and 9 to 5 (1980) sustained Fonda's box-office drawing power, and she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Dollmaker (1984).

In 1982, she released her first exercise video, Jane Fonda's Workout, which became the highest-selling VHS of the 20th century. It would be the first of 22 such videos over the next 13 years, which would collectively sell over 17 million copies. Divorced from her second husband Tom Hayden, she married billionaire media mogul Ted Turner in 1991 and retired from acting, following a row of commercially unsuccessful films concluded by Stanley & Iris (1990). Fonda divorced Turner in 2001 and returned to the screen with the hit Monster-in-Law (2005). Although Georgia Rule (2007) was her only other movie during the 2000s, in the early 2010s she fully re-launched her career. Subsequent films have included The Butler (2013), This Is Where I Leave You (2014), Youth (2015), Our Souls at Night (2017), and Book Club (2018). In 2009, she returned to Broadway after a 49-year absence from the stage, in the play 33 Variations which earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, while her major recurring role in the HBO drama series The Newsroom (2012–14) earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She also released another five exercise videos between 2009 and 2012. Fonda currently stars as Grace Hanson in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie, which debuted in 2015 and has earned her nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.


Roy Scheider

biography: Roy Richard Scheider (/ˈʃaɪdər/; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer who achieved fame with his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, and one BAFTA.  Scheider's best-known roles include Frank Ligourin in Klute (1971), Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and its 1978 sequel, "Cloudy" Russo in The French Connection (1971), "Buddy" in The Seven-Ups (1973), Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976), Scanlon / Dominguez in Sorcerer (1977), Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979), Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder (1983), and Dr. Heywood Floyd in the 2001: A Space Odyssey sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984). Subsequent credits included Naked Lunch (1991), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), The Rainmaker (1997), and The Punisher (2004). He portrayed Captain Nathan Bridger on NBC's seaQuest DSV from 1993–1996.

place_of_birth: Orange, New Jersey, USA


Aaron Eckhart

biography:
Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor and producer. Born in Cupertino, California, Eckhart moved to the United Kingdom at early age, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Australia for his high school senior year. He left high school without graduating, but earned a diploma through a professional education course, and graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in film. For much of the mid-1990s, he lived in New York City as a struggling, unemployed actor.

As an undergraduate at BYU, Eckhart met director and writer Neil LaBute, who cast him in several of his own original plays. Five years later Eckhart made a debut as an unctuous, sociopathic ladies' man in LaBute's black comedy film In the Company of Men (1997). Under LaBute's guidance he worked in the director's films Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Nurse Betty (2000), and Possession (2002).

Eckhart gained wide recognition as George in Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed film Erin Brockovich (2000), and, in 2006, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking. He gained further mainstream breakout in 2008 when he starred in the blockbuster Batman film The Dark Knight as District Attorney Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Eckhart's other key roles include The Pledge (2001), The Core (2003), Paycheck (2003), Rabbit Hole (2010), Battle: Los Angeles (2011), Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and its sequel London Has Fallen (2016), I, Frankenstein (2014), Sully (2016), Midway (2019) and Line Of Duty (2019).

place_of_birth: Cupertino, California, USA


Francine Maisler

biography:
Francine Joyce Maisler (born May 8, 1961) is an American casting director who has built a reputation as one of the most influential casting professionals in contemporary cinema and television. She began her professional journey at Actors' Equity Association, the union, in New York before transitioning into casting.

Maisler rose to prominence after her work on the film Reality Bites, and her breakthrough into major studio and director-led film work came when she was hired to cast the ensemble for The Usual Suspects.

Over the span of her career, Maisler has cast more than seventy feature films and numerous television productions. She has collaborated with many of cinema's most lauded directors, including Alejandro González Iñárritu (films such as The Revenant and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)), Terrence Malick (e.g., The Tree of Life), and Denis Villeneuve (including Dune and its sequel).

She is a recipient of fifteen awards from the Casting Society of America (Artios Awards) and has received over fifty nominations. She has also won two Robert Altman Awards (from the Independent Spirit Awards) and two Primetime Emmy Awards; one in the category of Drama for her work on Succession and another in the category of Comedy for The Studio.

known_for_department: Production


Danny Huston

biography:
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.

He is known for his roles in films such as Ivans Xtc (2000), for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, 21 Grams (2003), Birth (2004), The Aviator (also 2004), The Constant Gardener (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), Children of Men (also 2006), The Kingdom (2007), 30 Days of Night (also 2007), Robin Hood (2010), Hitchcock (2012), The Congress (2013), Big Eyes (2014), Wonder Woman (2017), Game Night (2018), Stan & Ollie (also 2018), and Angel Has Fallen (2019).

Huston portrayed The Axeman on the FX series American Horror Story: Coven and Massimo Dolcefino on American Horror Story: Freak Show. He played Ben "The Butcher" Diamond on Magic City (2012–13), Dan Jenkins in the first two seasons of the Paramount Network drama series Yellowstone (2018–19), and Jamie Laird on the second season of Succession (2019). His directing credits include the films Mr. North (1988), The Maddening (1995) and The Last Photograph (2017).

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

place_of_birth: Rome, Italy


Polly Walker

biography: Polly Alexandra Walker was born on May 19, 1966 in Warrington, Cheshire, England. She graduated from Ballet Rambert School in Twickenham, began her career as a dancer, but an injury at age 18 forced her to change direction. She started at London's Drama Centre to the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she portrayed small parts before graduating to small roles on television. Polly landed the title role in the television series Lorna Doone (1990) before making her feature debut in Journey of Honor (1991) ("Shogun Mayeda"). She first gained attention as an English woman in an Irish terrorist brigade in Phillip Noyce's Patriot Games (1992)

place_of_birth: Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK


Yohei Taneda

biography: Yohei Taneda is a Japanese production designer based in Tokyo. He studied Fine Arts at Musashino Art University and began his film career as an assistant to Sawako Goda on the 1981 French-Japanese film, Fruits of Passion. Taneda’s first feature film as a production designer was Futari Botchi in 1988.

place_of_birth: Osaka Prefecture, Japan

known_for_department: Art


Faye Dunaway

biography:
Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is a European-American actress. She is the recipient of such accolades as an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, and a British Academy Film Award.

Her career began in the early 1960s on Broadway. She made her screen debut in the 1967 film The Happening, and rose to fame that same year with her portrayal of outlaw Bonnie Parker in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. Her most notable films include the crime caper The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), the drama The Arrangement (1969), the revisionist western Little Big Man (1970), an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic The Three Musketeers (1973), the neo-noir mystery Chinatown (1974), for which she earned her second Oscar nomination, the action-drama disaster The Towering Inferno (1974), the political thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975), the satire Network (1976), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, and the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (1978).

Her career evolved to more mature and character roles in subsequent years, often in independent films, beginning with her controversial portrayal of Joan Crawford in the 1981 film Mommie Dearest. Other notable films in which she has appeared include Barfly (1987), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Arizona Dream (1994), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), The Twilight of the Golds (1997), Gia (1998) and The Rules of Attraction (2002). Dunaway also performed on stage in several plays including A Man for All Seasons (1961–63), After the Fall (1964), Hogan's Goat (1965–67), A Streetcar Named Desire (1973) and was awarded the Sarah Siddons Award for her portrayal of opera singer Maria Callas in Master Class (1996).

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

place_of_birth: Bascom, Florida, USA


Dede Allen

biography:
Dorothea Carothers "Dede" Allen (December 3, 1923 – April 17, 2010) was an American film editor.

Allen is known for having edited classic films such as The Hustler (1961), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Reds (1981). She had an extended collaboration with director Arthur Penn, and over the years had worked with other distinguished directors including Sidney Lumet, Robert Wise, Elia Kazan, and George Roy Hill. She received three Academy Award nominations for her work on  Dog Day Afternoon, Reds, and Wonder Boys (2001).

known_for_department: Editing


Kelly Lynch

biography:
Kelly Lynch (born January 31, 1959) is an American actress. Once a model for the Elite modeling agency, Lynch appeared in the film Drugstore Cowboy which starred Matt Dillon, and the film Road House which starred Patrick Swayze.

Lynch was born in Golden Valley, Minnesota, the daughter of Barbara, a modern dancer, and Robert Lynch, a restaurateur. Lynch has been married to producer and writer Mitch Glazer since 1992 and has a daughter, Shane, born 1985, from a previous relationship.

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

place_of_birth: Golden Valley, Minnesota, USA


Isabelle Adjani

biography: Isabelle Yasmine Adjani (born June 27, 1955) is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Award for Best Actress with five, for Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) and Skirt Day (2009). She was also given a double Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1981. She also received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She performs in French, English, and German.

place_of_birth: Paris, France


William Sadler

biography: William Thomas Sadler (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, and—perhaps most notably—the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a role for which he was nominated for, and won, the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, and his role as Colonel Stuart alongside Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2.

place_of_birth: Buffalo, New York, USA


Clancy Brown

biography:
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.

His film roles include Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), the Kurgan in Highlander (1986), Sheriff Gus Gilbert in Pet Sematary Two (1992), Capt. Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Sgt. Charles Zim in Starship Troopers (1997), Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Stanley Thomas in Promising Young Woman (2020), and the Harbinger in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023). On television, he has played Brother Justin Crowe on the HBO series Carnivàle (2003–2005), Waylon "Jock" Jeffcoat on the Showtime series Billions (2018–2019, 2023), Kurt Caldwell on the Showtime series Dexter: New Blood (2021–2022), and Sal Maroni in The Penguin (2024).

In animation, Brown has voiced Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe (1996–2006) and Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present). His other animated roles include Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2006) and Savage Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011–2013). He has also voiced video game characters such as Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot franchise (1997–2003) and Hank Anderson in Detroit: Become Human (2018).

Clarence J. Brown III was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, Ohio, and had an older sister, Beth, who died in 1964. Their mother, Joyce Helen (née Eldridge), was a conductor, composer and concert pianist. The siblings' father, Clarence J. "Bud" Brown Jr., was a newspaper publisher who helped manage the Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper business started by Clancy's grandfather, Congressman Clarence J. Brown. From 1965 to 1983, Bud Brown also served as a congressman, in the same seat as his own father, and later as Chairman of the Board of Brown Publishing. The family continued to operate the business until 2010.

Brown graduated from St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and Northwestern University. At St. Albans, Brown performed the role of Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth in The Crucible.

place_of_birth: Urbana, Ohio, USA


Gil Bellows

biography: Gil Bellows (born June 28, 1967) is a Canadian film and television actor. He is best known for the roles of Tommy Williams in The Shawshank Redemption, Billy Thomas in the television series Ally McBeal and as CIA agent Matt Callan in the television series The Agency.


Mark Rolston

biography: Mark Rolston (born December 7, 1956) is an American actor. He made his film debut as PFC. Drake in Aliens (1986), and is known for his supporting roles in films like Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Rush Hour (1998), The Departed (2006), and the Saw film series (2008–09). On television, he played Gordie Liman on The Shield (2003), Edward Shippen IV on Turn: Washington's Spies (2015–16), the voice of Lex Luthor on Young Justice (2010–22), and Lt. Don Thorne on Bosch (2018–21) and Bosch: Legacy (2022-25).  Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Rolston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Baltimore, Maryland, USA


James Whitmore

biography:
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American film, theatre, and television actor. During his career, Whitmore won three of the four EGOT honors; - a Tony, a Grammy, and an Emmy. Whitmore also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for two Academy Awards.  Following World War II, Whitmore appeared on Broadway in the role of the sergeant in Command Decision. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave Whitmore a contract, but his role in the film adaptation was played by Van Johnson. His first major picture for MGM was Battleground, in a role that was turned down by Spencer Tracy, to whom Whitmore bore a noted physical resemblance. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role, and won the Golden Globe Award as Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role. Other major films included Angels in the Outfield, The Asphalt Jungle, The Next Voice You Hear, Above and Beyond, Kiss Me, Kate, Them!, Oklahoma!, Black Like Me, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Give 'em Hell, Harry!, a one-man show for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of former U.S. President Harry S Truman. In the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, he played Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey.

Whitmore appeared during the 1950s on many television anthology series. He was cast as Father Emil Kapaun in the 1955 episode "The Good Thief" in the ABC religion anthology series Crossroads. Other roles followed on Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater, Lux Video Theatre, Kraft Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Schlitz Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, and the Ford Television Theatre. In 1958, he carried the lead in "The Gabe Carswell Story" of NBC's Wagon Train, with Ward Bond.  Whitmore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6611 Hollywood Boulevard. The ceremony was held on February 8, 1960.

place_of_birth: White Plains, New York, USA


Barry Gifford

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Barry Gifford (born October 18, 1946) is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.

He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Perdita Durango was adapted into film by Alex de la Iglesia. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Barry Gifford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

place_of_birth: Chicago, Illinois, United States

known_for_department: Writing


Isabella Rossellini

biography: Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born June 18, 1952) is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.

place_of_birth: Rome, Lazio, Italy


Jonathan Sagall

biography: Jonathan Sagall (born April 23, 1959) is an Israeli actor, film director, TV director and screenwriter.

place_of_birth: Toronto, Ontario, Canada


Friedrich von Thun

biography: Friedrich Ernst Peter Paul Maria Thun-Hohenstein (born 30 June 1942) is an Austrian actor.

place_of_birth: Kvasice, Czech Republic


Ray Wise

biography: Raymond Herbert Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor best known for his role as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017) and its prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). He has appeared in films such as Swamp Thing (1982), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), RoboCop (1987), Bob Roberts (1992), Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), X-Men: First Class (2011) and God's Not Dead 2 (2016).

place_of_birth: Akron, Ohio, USA


David Newman

biography: David Newman (February 4, 1937 - June 27, 2003)  was an American filmmaker. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s  he frequently collaborated with Robert Benton. He was married to fellow  writer Leslie Newman, with whom he had two children, until the time of  his death. He died in 2003 of conditions from a stroke.  Newman studied at the University of Michigan.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Robert Benton

biography:
Robert Douglas Benton (September 29, 1932 - May 11, 2025) was an American screenwriter and film director.

Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Dorothy (née Spaulding) and Ellery Douglass Benton, a telephone company employee. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University. Benton has enjoyed a highly successful career in film, winning numerous prestigious awards for both writing and directing. He was also the art director at Esquire magazine in the early 1960s. In 2006, he appeared in the documentary Wanderlust, as did a number of other well-known people.

Benton's family originally hailed from Northumberland in Great Britain, where the Bentons held a seat long before the Norman Conquest. Many family members settled in America, including Abigail and Isabel Benton, who settled in Virginia in 1642; George Benton, who settled in Barbados in 1669; and Robert Benton, who settled in Virginia in 1635. Benton was once a noble family, but they became commoners after the Norman invasion. Robert Benton still has relatives living in England who trace their origins to the seventeenth century. Other prominent Bentons include: Thomas Hart Benton and William Burnett Benton.

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

place_of_birth: Waxahachie, Texas, USA


Graham Greene

biography:
Graham Greene CM (June 22, 1952 – September 1, 2025) was a Canadian First Nations (Oneida) actor and recording artist, active in film, television and theatre in a career spanning over 50 years. He achieved international fame for his role as Kicking Bird (Ziŋtká Nagwáka) in Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves (1990), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

His other notable films include Thunderheart (1992), Maverick (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), The Green Mile (1999), Skins (2002), Transamerica (2005), Casino Jack (2010), Winter's Tale (2014), The Shack (2017), and Wind River (2017).

In addition to his Oscar nomination, he was a Grammy Award, Gemini Award, Canadian Screen Award, and a Dora Mavor Moore Award winner. In 2025, he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

From Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada


Dabbs Greer

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007) was an American actor who performed many diverse supporting roles in film and television for over 50 years. His distinctive voice and southern accent was a good fit for shows featuring rustic characters, especially westerns. He also was portrayed on other shows as a minister, and is probably best remembered as the Reverend Robert Alden in NBC's Little House on the Prairie. Earlier, Greer had a recurring role as Coach Ossie Weiss in the NBC sitcom Hank.

place_of_birth: Fairview, Missouri, USA


Sam Rockwell

biography:
Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for playing distressed police officer Jason Dixon in Martin McDonagh's crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The following year, he was nominated in the same category for portraying in Adam McKay's political satire Vice (2018). In 2019, he portrayed Bob Fosse in the FX biographical miniseries Fosse/Verdon, earning a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award, and in 2022, he received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo.

Rockwell's other films include The Green Mile (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Matchstick Men (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Moon (2009), Gentlemen Broncos (2009), Iron Man 2 (2010), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Jojo Rabbit (2019), and See How They Run (2022).

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

place_of_birth: Daly City, California, USA


Werner Herzog

biography:
Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhɛɐ̯tsoːk]; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films.

Herzog started work on his first film Herakles in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas.

French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive." American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009.

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

place_of_birth: Munich, Allemagne

known_for_department: Directing


Kurt Russell

biography:
Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. At 12, he began acting in the Western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The Walt Disney Company, where he starred as Dexter Riley in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). For his portrayal of rock and roll superstar Elvis Presley in Elvis (1979), he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, Russell became the studio's top star of the 1970s.

Russell was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance in Mike Nichols's Silkwood (1983). Also in the 1980s, he starred in several films directed by John Carpenter in which he played anti-hero roles: the futuristic action film Escape from New York (1981), its sequel Escape from L.A.(1996), the horror film The Thing (1982), and the kung-fu comedy action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

Russell starred in various other films, including Used Cars (1980), The Best of Times (1986), Overboard (1987), Tango & Cash (1989), Backdraft (1991), Tombstone (1993), Stargate (1994), Executive Decision (1996), Breakdown (1997), Vanilla Sky (2001), Miracle (2004), Sky High (2005), Death Proof (2007), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). He also appeared in the Fast & Furious franchise as Mr. Nobody (starring in Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), and F9 (2021)). He also portrayed Ego in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) instalments Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and What If...?(2021), and played the role of Santa Claus in The Christmas Chronicles (2018) and The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020).

place_of_birth: Springfield, Massachusetts, USA


Christina Ricci

biography:
Christina Ricci (born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. She is known for playing unconventional characters with a dark edge. Ricci is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Satellite Award for Best Actress, as well as Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, and Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Ricci made her film debut at the age of nine in Mermaids (1990), which was followed by a breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel. Subsequent appearances in Casper and Now and Then (both 1995) brought her fame as a "teen icon". At 17, she moved into adult-oriented roles with The Ice Storm (1997), which led to parts in films such as Buffalo '66, Pecker and The Opposite of Sex (all 1998). She garnered acclaim for her performances in Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Monster (2003). Her other credits include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Prozac Nation (2001), Pumpkin (2002), Anything Else (2003), Black Snake Moan (2006), Speed Racer (2008), and The Smurfs 2 (2013). Despite being known predominantly for her work in independent productions, Ricci has appeared in numerous box office hits – to date, her films have grossed in excess of US$1.4 billion.

On television, Ricci appeared as Liza Bump in the final season of Ally McBeal (2002), and received acclaim for her guest role on Grey's Anatomy in 2006. She also starred as Maggie Ryan on the ABC series Pan Am (2011–12), and produced and starred in the series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) and Z: The Beginning of Everything (2017). As well as voicing characters in several animated films, Ricci provided voices for the video games The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon and Speed Racer: The Videogame (both 2008). In 2010, she made her Broadway debut in Time Stands Still.

place_of_birth: Santa Monica, California, USA


Sammy Lee

biography:
Sammy Sean Lee has never been interested in building what already exists. Over a career spanning four decades, three continents, and multiple industries, he has consistently identified structural shifts in how people live, work, and connect—and built the physical and digital infrastructure to meet those shifts before the rest of the market caught on.  Recognizing the shifting dynamics of global entertainment, Lee formed an independent film company to finance, produce, and distribute feature films. His instinct for compelling narratives paid off immediately when his company financed Monster, the critically acclaimed film that earned Charlize Theron the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Born in Hong Kong and educated in England, Lee began his career not as a developer, but as a lawyer. Armed with an English law degree and a solicitor qualification, he returned to Hong Kong to found his own law firm. But the mechanics of the law proved too restrictive for his entrepreneurial instincts. He didn't just want to structure deals; he wanted to build the assets behind them.

place_of_birth: Hong Kong


Bruce Dern

biography:
Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978) and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Nebraska (2013). His other major film appearances include Silent Running (1972), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Cowboys (1972), Posse (1975), Family Plot (1976), Black Sunday (1977), Tattoo (1981), Monster (2003), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

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

place_of_birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA


Marc Macaulay

biography: Marc Macaulay is an American character actor and occasional stuntman with nearly 160 credits to his name. He was born in Millinocket, Maine, in 1957. He graduated with a BFA in theater from the University of Maine. Macaulay began his acting career in the early 1980s. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Edward Scissorhands (1990), Passenger 57 (1992), Cop and a Half (1993), The Real McCoy (1993), and Burn Notice (2007-2013). Macaulay is also a skilled stuntman. He has performed stunts in films such as The Punisher (2004), Monster (2003), and The Jacket (2005). In addition to his work in film and television, Macaulay has also appeared in several stage productions. He has won numerous awards for his work, including a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the 1997 production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Macaulay is a versatile actor who is known for his strong presence and his ability to bring complex characters to life. He is a respected member of the acting community and continues to work in film, television, and theater.

place_of_birth: Millinocket, Maine, USA


Ellen Barkin

biography: Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film Diner, and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as Tender Mercies (1983), Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), The Big Easy (1986), Johnny Handsome, and Sea of Love (both 1989).


John Malkovich

biography:
John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He has received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

Malkovich started his career as a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976. He moved to New York City, acting in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West (1980). He made his Broadway debut as Biff in the revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman (1984). He directed the Harold Pinter play The Caretaker(1986) and acted in Lanford Wilson's Burn This(1987).

Malkovich has received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor nominations for his performances in Places in the Heart (1984) and In the Line of Fire (1993). Other films include The Killing Fields (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Of Mice and Men (1992), Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), Johnny English (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), and Red (2010). He has also produced films such as Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

For his work on television, he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Death of a Salesman (1985). His other Emmy-nominated roles were for portraying Herman J. Mankiewicz in RKO 281 (1999) and Charles Talleyrand in Napoléon (2002). Other television roles include  Crossbones (2014), Billions (2018–19), The New Pope (2020), and Space Force (2020–2022).

place_of_birth: Christopher, Illinois, USA


Charlie Sheen

biography:
Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), The Rookie (1990), The Three Musketeers (1993), and The Arrival (1996). In the 2000s, when Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox as the star of ABC's Spin City, his portrayal of Charlie Crawford earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He then starred as Charlie Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003–11), for which he received multiple Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations, and as Dr. Charles "Charlie" Goodson on the FX series Anger Management (2012–14). In 2010, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television, earning US$1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.

Sheen's personal life has made headlines, including reports of alcohol and drug abuse and marital problems, as well as allegations of domestic violence. In March 2011, his contract for Two and a Half Men was terminated by CBS and Warner Bros. following his derogatory comments about the series' creator, Chuck Lorre. On November 17, 2015, Sheen publicly revealed that he is HIV positive, having been diagnosed four years previously. The disclosure resulted in a vast increase of online search queries for HIV prevention and testing, which was later dubbed the "Charlie Sheen effect".


Hugh Jackman

biography:
Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor, singer, and producer. Beginning in theatre and television, Jackman landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine, playing it across the X-Men film franchise and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from X-Men (2000) to Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Prominent on both screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Grammy Award and two Tony Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award. Jackman was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019.

Jackman has headlined films in various genres, including the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige (2006), the period romance Australia (2008), the science fiction Real Steel (2011), the musical Les Misérables (2012), the thriller Prisoners (2013), the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), the political drama The Front Runner (2018), and the crime drama Bad Education (2019). For his role as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, and for The Greatest Showman soundtrack, Jackman received a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack. He also provided voice roles in the animated films Flushed Away, Happy Feet (both 2006), Rise of the Guardians (2012) and Missing Link (2019).

Jackman is also known for his early theatre roles in the original Australian productions of Beauty and the Beast as Gaston in 1995 and Sunset Boulevard as Joe Gillis in 1996. He earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his performance as Curly McLain in the West End revival of Oklahoma! in 1998. In 2002, he made his American stage debut in a concert of Carousel as Billy Bigelow at Carnegie Hall. On Broadway, he won the 2004 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role of Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. From 2021 to 2023, Jackman starred as con man Harold Hill in the Broadway revival of the musical The Music Man, earning another Tony Award nomination. A four-time host of the Tony Awards, he won an Emmy Award for hosting the 2005 ceremony. He also hosted the 81st Academy Awards in 2009.

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

place_of_birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia


Romola Garai

biography:
Romola Sadie Garai (born 6 August 1982) is an English actress and model. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the TV movie Emma.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

place_of_birth: Hong Kong, China


Pierrette Robitaille

biography:
Pierrette Robitaille (born June 6, 1950) is a Canadian film and television actress from Quebec.

Robitaille is a two-time Genie Award nominee for Best Actress, for her role as Mme Therrien in It's Your Turn, Laura Cadieux (C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux) and its sequel Laura Cadieux II (Laura Cadieux...la suite), and a Jutra Award winner for Best Actress for her performance as Vic in Vic et flo ont vu un ours.

Robitaille was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2011.

place_of_birth: Québec City, Québec, Canada


Richard Curtis

biography: Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE (born 8 November 1956) is New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He is also the founder of the British charity Comic Relief.

place_of_birth: Wellington, New Zealand


Rhys Ifans

biography:
Rhys Owain Evans (Welsh pronunciation: [r̥ɨːsˈivans]; born 22 July 1967), known as Rhys Ifans, is a Welsh actor. His portrayed roles in Notting Hill (1999), Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000), and Enduring Love (2004), in addition to Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 (2010), Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and Grigori Rasputin in The King's Man (2021). His television roles include Hector DeJean in the Epix thriller series Berlin Station, Mycroft Holmes in the CBS series Elementary, and Otto Hightower in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon.

Ifans was also formerly the frontman of the rock bands The Peth and Super Furry Animals.

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place_of_birth: Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK


Brad Bird

biography:
Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both live-action and animation.

Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon. He developed an interest in the art of animation early on, and completed his first short subject by age 14. Bird sent the film to Walt Disney Productions, leading to an apprenticeship from the studio's Nine Old Men. He attended the California Institute of the Arts in the late 1970s, and worked for Disney shortly thereafter.

In the 1980s, Bird worked in film development with various studios. He co-wrote Batteries Not Included (1987), and developed two episodes of Amazing Stories for Steven Spielberg, including its spin-off (based on a segment written by Bird for the show), the widely panned animated sitcom Family Dog. Afterwards, Bird joined the animated sitcom The Simpsons as creative consultant for eight seasons. He directed the animated film The Iron Giant (1999); though acclaimed, it was a box-office bomb.

Bird moved to Pixar where he wrote and directed two successful animated films, The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). They earned Bird two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature wins and Best Original Screenplay nominations. He transitioned to live-action filmmaking with similarly successful Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), he then directed Disney's Tomorrowland (2015). He returned to Pixar to develop Incredibles 2 (2018), which became the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time during its theatrical run, and earned him another nomination for the Academy Award. In 2026, he is set to partner with Skydance Animation to direct Ray Gunn, a sci-fi noir film he’s wanted to make for over thirty years.

Bird has a reputation for supervising his projects to a high degree of detail. He advocates for creative freedom and the possibilities of animation, and has criticized its stereotype as children's entertainment, or classification as a genre, rather than an art.

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place_of_birth: Kalispell, Montana, USA


Kelsey Grammer

biography:
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor, producer, and singer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1984–1993) and its spin-off Frasier (1993–2004, and again from 2023 to 2024). With more than 20 years on air, this is one of the longest-running roles played by a single live-action actor in primetime television history. He has received numerous accolades, including a total of six Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award.

Grammer, having trained as an actor at Juilliard and the Old Globe Theatre, made his professional acting debut as Lennox in the 1981 Broadway revival of Macbeth. The following year, he portrayed Cassio acting opposite Christopher Plummer and James Earl Jones in Othello. In mid-1983, he acted alongside Mandy Patinkin in the original off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George. He has since starred in the leading roles in productions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, My Fair Lady, Big Fish, and Finding Neverland.

In film, he is known for his role as Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast in the superhero films X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and The Marvels (2023). His other roles include Down Periscope (1996), The Pentagon Wars (1998), and Swing Vote (2008). He is also known for his voice roles in Anastasia (1997), Toy Story 2 (1999), and as Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons (1990–present). He took guest roles in the sitcoms 30 Rock (2010–2012), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2016), and Modern Family (2017). For his performance as the corrupt mayor in the Starz political series Boss (2011–2012), he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama.

In early 2010, Grammer returned to Broadway in the musical revival of La Cage aux Folles, where he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. In mid-2016, Grammer won a Tony Award for Best Musical as producer of a musical revival of The Color Purple. In early 2019, he starred as Don Quixote in a production of Man of La Mancha at the London Coliseum. In late 2023, The Telegraph described Grammer as one of "the finest actors" of his generation. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 22, 2001.

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

place_of_birth: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands


Juliet Landau

biography:
Juliet Rose Landau (born March 30, 1965) is an American actress best known for co-starring as Loretta King Hadler in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, and for portraying Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination.

She has appeared in a diverse range of roles. She is active in film, television and theater.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Sandra Hüller

biography:
Sandra Hüller (born 30 April 1978) is a German actress. She has appeared in German, Austrian, British, French, and American films. She has received various accolades, including two European Film Awards, a César Award and three German Film Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.

Hüller has played Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's 2006 drama Requiem, for which she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, and a troubled daughter in Maren Ade's 2016 comedy Toni Erdmann, for which she won her first European Film Award for Best Actress. She portrayed Irma Sztáray in Frauke Finsterwalder's 2023 historical black comedy Sisi & I.

International recognition came in 2023 for her starring roles in Justine Triet's legal drama Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. Her performances in the former won her another European Film Award and a César Award, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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

place_of_birth: Suhl, Germany


Frank Vincent

biography:
Frank Vincent (August 4, 1939 - September 13, 2017) was an American actor, musician, author and entrepreneur. He was a favorite performer of director Martin Scorsese, having played important roles in three of Scorsese's most acclaimed films: Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995). He often played a gangster and worked both in features and television. He also lent his voice talents to video games. He played the New York Boss Phil Leotardo in the HBO series The Sopranos.

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

place_of_birth: North Adams, Massachusetts, USA


Richard Donner

biography:
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American filmmaker. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the most financially successful films of the 1970s and 1980s. His career spanning more than six decades crossed genres and influenced trends among filmmakers across the world.

Donner began his career in 1957 as a television director. In the 1960s, he directed episodes of the series The Rifleman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, The Banana Splits, and many others. Donner made his film debut with the low-budget aviation drama X-15 in 1961, but had his critical and commercial breakthrough with the horror film The Omen in 1976. He directed the landmark superhero film Superman in 1978, which provided an inspiration for the fantasy film genre to eventually gain artistic respectability and commercial dominance. Donner later went on to direct films in the 1980s such as The Goonies and Scrooged, while reinvigorating the buddy cop film genre with the Lethal Weapon series.

Donner and his wife, Lauren, owned a production company, The Donners' Company, which is most successful for producing the Free Willy and X-Men film franchises. Donner also produced Tales from the Crypt and co-wrote several comic books for Superman publisher DC Comics. In 2000, Donner received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.

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place_of_birth: Bronx, New York, USA


David Webb Peoples

biography:
David Webb Peoples (born c. 1940) is an American screenwriter.

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

place_of_birth: Middletown, Connecticut, USA


Rena Owen

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rena Owen is a New Zealand actress in film, theatre and television. She is of Maori and Pakeha (European) descent. Owen is most well known in the lead role of Beth in the cult classic movie Once Were Warriors (1994) directed by Lee Tamahori. The role earned Owen a number of awards including Best Actress at the Montreal World Film Festival and San Diego International Film Festival. Owen has also worked with arthouse director Rolf de Heer, one of Australia's most well known directors, in the film Dance Me to My Song (1998). Owen played the role of Rix in the movie which earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the AFI Awards.

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

place_of_birth: Bay of Islands, New Zealand


Cliff Curtis

biography:
Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born July 27, 1968) is a New Zealand actor. His film credits include Once Were Warriors (1994), Three Kings (1999), Training Day (2001), Whale Rider (2002), Collateral Damage (2002), Sunshine, Live Free or Die Hard (both 2007), The Dark Horse (2014), for which he won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor, Doctor Sleep (2019), Avatar, and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). His  television roles include NBC's Trauma, and ABC's Body of Proof and Missing. From 2015 to 2017, he portrayed Travis Manawa on the AMC horror drama series Fear the Walking Dead.

He is the co-owner of the independent New Zealand production company Whenua Films.

place_of_birth: Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand


Adrian Lyne

biography:
Adrian Lyne (born 4 March 1941) is an English film director. Lyne is known for sexually charged narratives, conflicting passions, the power of seduction, moral ambiguity, betrayal, and the indelibility of infidelity.

In the mid 1970s, he directed television commercials for DIM Lingerie (France), but Lyne's career in feature length films began in 1980 with Foxes, and would later direct Flashdance, 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Jacob's Ladder, Indecent Proposal, Lolita, and Unfaithful. Lyne received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for Fatal Attraction.

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

place_of_birth: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, UK


Anthony Perkins

biography:
Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion (1956). He made his film debut in The Actress (1953) directed by George Cukor before experiencing success on Broadway with Elia Kazan’s production of Tea and Sympathy (1955).

He quickly became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, working alongside actors such as Henry Fonda (The Tin Star), Sophia Loren (Desire Under the Elms), Shirley MacLaine (The Matchmaker), Audrey Hepburn (Green Mansions), and Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, and Ava Gardner (On the Beach).

He left Hollywood in 1960 and had a successful career in Europe, where he co-starred with Ingrid Bergman (Aimez-vous Brahms?), Melina Mercouri (Phaedra), Brigitte Bardot (Une ravissante idiote), and Romy Schneider, Jeanne Moreau, Elsa Martinelli, and Orson Welles (Le procès). He returned to Hollywood in 1968 with Pretty Poison, which became a cult classic.

In the decades that followed, his career continued to flourish alongside personalities like Diana Ross (Mahogany), Jeff Goldblum (Remember My Name), Elizabeth Taylor (Winter Kills), John Candy (Double Negative), and Lauren Bacall (Murder on the Orient Express). In 1973, he co-wrote The Last of Sheila with Stephen Sondheim.

During his career, he won a Golden Globe, a Cannes Award, and a David di Donatello Award, and was nominated for two Tony Awards and one Academy Award. Perkins died on September 12, 1992, of AIDS complications.

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Mark Burton

biography:
Mark Burton (born 23 September 1960) is a British television writer, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and film director.

After turning up at BBC Radio's Light Entertainment Department, Burton teamed up with John O'Farrell, and the two were commissioned for Week Ending by Harry Thompson (who later named his two pet rats Burton and O'Farrell). The pair won the BBCLight Entertainment Contract Award and went on to write or contribute to a number of radio series, including Little Blighty on the Down, McKay the New, and with Pete Sinclair, the multi-award-winning A Look Back at the Nineties and Look Back at the Future, in which Burton also performed. Burton also created the BBC Radio 4 panel game We've Been Here Before, presented by Clive Anderson.

Burton and O’Farrell were commissioned for Spitting Image in 1988, and the following year they became two of the lead writers on the show. They also wrote for Clive Anderson Talks Back, Nick Hancock on Room 101, Murder Most Horrid, and co-wrote some of the Heads to Heads for Alas Smith and Jones. In 1993, they left Spitting Image and became the first writers credited for the scripted parts of Have I Got News For You? Also for Hat Trick Productions, they wrote a BBC1 sitcom The Peter Principle starring Jim Broadbent (known as The Boss in the US).

The pair are credited for 'additional dialogue' for the Aardman film Chicken Run, but after a decade of collaboration, Burton and O'Farrell began to work on separate projects. Although he continued to do some TV comedy scriptwriting (with credits for 2DTV, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and Mike Bassett: Manager), Burton began to focus on screenwriting, most notably with DreamWorks Animation Madagascar. Other major screenplay credits include Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (which won an Oscar in 2006 for Best Animated Feature Film), Gnomeo and Juliet, and Aliens in the Attic. He adapted the novel of his former writing partner for the ITV film 'May Contain Nuts' and also wrote and produced the BBC short film One of Those Days. He also wrote and made his directorial debut with Richard Starzak with Shaun the Sheep Movie, which got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He would later return to write its sequel, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon with Jon Brown, based on a story by Starzak.

Burton is a musician and songwriter, having composed the music for the comedy rock musical The Next Big Thing, which he wrote and produced with Pete Sinclair. He also shares the credit for the original music in 'One of Those Days' and has written songs and parodies for a number of radio shows.

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

place_of_birth: USA


Peter Kay

biography: Peter John Kay (born July 2, 1973) is an English actor, comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He has written, produced and acted in several television and film projects, and has written three books.

place_of_birth: Farnworth, Lancashire, England, UK


John Thomson

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

John Patrick Thomson (born Patrick Francis McAleer on 2 April 1969) is an English comedian and actor, known for his roles in The Fast Show and Cold Feet.

Description above from the Wikipedia article John Thomson (comedian), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

place_of_birth: Salford, Lancashire, England, UK


Sara Allgood

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sara Ellen Allgood (29 November 1879 – 13 September 1950) was an Irish actress who held both Irish and American citizenship. She first studied drama with the Irish nationalist Daughters of Ireland and was in the opening of the Irish National Theatre Society.

In 1904, she had her first big role in Spreading the News and was a full-time actress the following year. In 1915, she toured Australia and New Zealand as the lead in Peg o' My Heart. Her acting career continued in Dublin, London, and the U.S. She appeared in a number of films, most notably being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Beth Morgan in the 1941 film How Green Was My Valley. She became an American citizen in 1945 and died of a heart attack in 1950.

place_of_birth: Dublin, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [now Dublin, Republic of Ireland]


Bobby Farrelly

biography:
Robert Farrelly (born June 17, 1958) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is one of the Farrelly brothers, alongside his brother Peter, who together are known for directing and producing successful box-office comedy films, including Dumb and Dumber (1994), There's Something About Mary (1998), Me, Myself and Irene (2000), Shallow Hal (2001), and the 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid. He made his solo directorial debut in 2023 with Champions.

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

place_of_birth: Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA


Peter Farrelly

biography:
Peter John Farrelly (born December 17, 1956) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and novelist. Along with his brother Bobby, the Farrelly brothers are best known for directing and producing quirky and romantic comedy films such as Dumb and Dumber, Shallow Hal, Me, Myself and Irene, There's Something About Mary, and the 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid.

Farrelly solo-directed and co-wrote the comedy-drama Green Book (2018), which won the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, and the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

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

place_of_birth: Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA


Felicity Huffman

biography:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Felicity Kendall Huffman (born December 9, 1962) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as executive producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC television show Sports Night (1998—2000), which earned her an Golden Globe Award nomination, and as hectic supermom Lynette Scavo on the ABC show Desperate Housewives (2004—present), which has earned her an Emmy Award.

In 2005, her critically acclaimed role as a trans woman in the independent film Transamerica earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination. She has also starred in films such as Reversal of Fortune, The Spanish Prisoner, Magnolia, Path to War, Georgia Rule and Phoebe in Wonderland.

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

place_of_birth: Bedford, New York, USA


Kevin Zegers

biography:
Kevin Zegers (born September 19, 1984) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his leading roles as Josh Framm in the Air Bud series, as well as playing Damien Dalgaard in the Gossip Girl series and the protagonist in Rock Mafias The Big Bang. On August 3rd, 2013, Zegers married Jaime Feld, an agent who was his girlfriend for several years.

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

place_of_birth: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada


Emma Chambers

biography: Emma Gwynedd Mary Chambers (11 March 1964 – 21 February 2018) was an English actress. She was best known for playing the roles of Alice Tinker in the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley and Honey Thacker in the film Notting Hill (1999).

place_of_birth: Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK


Toshirō Mifune

biography:
Toshirō Mifune (April 1, 1920 - December 24, 1997) was a Japanese actor who is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema. He was born in Qingdao, China, but was raised in Japan. Mifune's career spanned over 50 years, during which he collaborated extensively with renowned director Akira Kurosawa, creating some of the most iconic films in Japanese cinema.

Mifune gained international recognition for his performances in Kurosawa's films, particularly in samurai films. He portrayed strong, dynamic, and often rebellious characters, bringing a raw intensity to his roles. Some of his notable collaborations with Kurosawa include "Rashomon" (1950), "Seven Samurai" (1954), "Yojimbo" (1961), and "The Hidden Fortress" (1958), which inspired George Lucas's "Star Wars."

Apart from his work with Kurosawa, Mifune appeared in numerous other films, showcasing his versatility as an actor. He played roles in various genres, including dramas, comedies, and war films. Some of his other notable films include "The Throne of Blood" (1957), "High and Low" (1963), and "Red Beard" (1965).

Mifune's charismatic presence, powerful performances, and ability to convey complex emotions made him an iconic figure in Japanese cinema. He received international recognition and awards for his contributions to the film industry, including several honors at the Venice Film Festival and a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

place_of_birth: Qingdao, China


Rachel Singer

biography: Rachel Singer is an American actress known for her roles in Fight Club (1999), The Green Mile (1999), and Better Call Saul (2015). She began her career in theater and performed in productions with Tina Fey and Nick Offerman. Singer graduated from Duke University and has been married to Tom Lamb since 2000. They have two children.


Julian Schnabel

biography:
Julian Schnabel is an American artist and filmmaker. In the 1980s Schnabel received international media attention for his "plate paintings"—large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates.

Schnabel directed Before Night Falls, which became Javier Bardem's breakthrough Academy Award nominated role and the four-time Academy Award nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

He has won a Golden Globe, as well as BAFTA, a César Award, a Golden Palm, two nominations for the Golden Lion and an Academy Award nomination.

place_of_birth: Brooklyn, New York, USA


Parker Posey

biography:
Parker Christian Posey (born November 8, 1968) is an American actress and musician. Posey is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Satellite Award nomination and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Posey made her film debut in Joey Breaker (1993). Following small roles in Coneheads and the cult classic Dazed and Confused (both also 1993), she was labeled "Queen of the Indies" for starring in a succession of independent films throughout the 1990s, such as Sleep with Me (1994), Frisk, Party Girl, The Doom Generation, Kicking and Screaming (all 1995), The Daytrippers (1996), Henry Fool, The House of Yes and Clockwatchers (all 1997). Her other notable film appearances include You've Got Mail (1998), Scream 3 (2000), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Personal Velocity, The Sweetest Thing (both 2002), Blade: Trinity (2004), Superman Returns, Fay Grim (both 2006), Broken English (2007), The Eye (2008), Spring Breakdown (2009), Inside Out (2011), Irrational Man (2015), Café Society (2016), and Columbus (2017).

She frequently works with Christopher Guest and has appeared in several of his mockumentaries: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016).

Outside of film, Posey starred in the television movie Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (2002) and has guest-starred on numerous series, such as Futurama (2000), The Simpsons (2000), Will & Grace (2001), Boston Legal (2006), Parks and Recreation (2011), The Good Wife (2011–12), Louie (2012), Inside Amy Schumer (2014), and Search Party (2016). From 2018 to 2021, she starred as Dr. Smith on the Netflix series Lost in Space.

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

place_of_birth: Baltimore, Maryland, USA


Ernest Borgnine

biography:
Ernest Borgnine (born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but calm voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular performer, he also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and as a panelist on several game shows.

Borgnine's film career began in 1951, and included supporting roles in China Corsair (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Vera Cruz (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and The Wild Bunch (1969). He also played the unconventional lead in many films, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for Marty (1955). He achieved continuing success in the sitcom McHale's Navy (1962–1966), in which he played the title character, and co-starred as Dominic Santini in the action series Airwolf (1984–1986), in addition to a wide variety of other roles.

Borgnine earned his third Primetime Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the 2009 series finale of ER. He was known as the original voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 until his death in 2012. He had earlier replaced the late Vic Tayback as the voice of the villainous Carface Caruthers in both All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996) and All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series (1996–1998).

place_of_birth: Hamden, Connecticut, USA


Roddy McDowall

biography: Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was an English-American actor, director, and photographer. He is best known for portraying Cornelius and Caesar in the original Planet of the Apes film series, as well as Galen in the spin-off television series.

place_of_birth: London, England, UK


Kate Bosworth

biography:
Catherine Ann 'Kate' Bosworth (born January 2, 1983) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Bailey Ginner in Life on the Line opposite John Travolta, Sydney in Heist (2015) opposite Robert DeNiro, Anna Howland-Jones in Still Alice, Cassie Bodine Klum in Homefront, Jill Taylor in 21, Lois Lane in Superman Returns,  Rosalee Futch in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, Kelly in The Rules of Attraction, Anne Marie Chadwick in Blue Crush, Emma Hoyt in Remember the Titans, and Judith in The Horse Whisperer.

In 2008, she became both Calvin Klein Jeans newest model and spokeswoman for Coach newest luxury bags.

Because her grandparents suffered from Alzheimer's disease, the book Still Alice has had an impact on her. She contacted the author, Lisa Genova, and later landed a co-starring role in the film version of the book.

She has heterochromia, a condition where the eyes have different colors: she has one blue eye and one eye that is part hazel / part blue.

She had a relationship with actor Orlando Bloom from 2002 to 2005.

In mid-2011, she began dating American director Michael Polish, whom she met earlier that year when he directed her in Big Sur. They announced their engagement in August 2012, and married on August 31, 2013. She became the stepmother to Jasper, Polish's daughter from a previous marriage, whom Bosworth said was “hands-down the greatest unexpected gift of her life”. In August 2021, she announced her separation from Polish and were legally divorced in March 2023.

In January 2022, it was reported that she was dating actor Justin Long. In April 2023, the couple announced their engagement and they married in May 2023, less than two months after getting engaged.

place_of_birth: Los Angeles, California, USA


Giuseppe Battiston

biography:
Giuseppe Battiston (22 July 1968) is an Italian film, TV, and stage actor, director, writer, and producer. Born in Udine, he graduated from the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Arts in Milan. He is the winner of 3 David di Donatello awards.  He is perhaps best known to worldwide audiences for Pinocchio (2022) on Disney + where he played Stromboli. His most notable films are Perfect Strangers (2016), Bread & Tulips (2000), La Passione (2010). Giuseppe made his directorial debut with Io Vivo Altrove! (2023)

Giuseppe, or Beppe Battiston as he is sometimes credited, has frequently collaborated with directors Silvio Soldini, Carlo Mazzacurati, and Antonio Padovan.

On screen he plays the title character of Stucky, a Treviso detective.

place_of_birth: Udine, Italy


Courtney Love

biography:
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actress, and goddess. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989. Love has drawn public attention for her uninhibited live performances and confrontational lyrics, as well as her highly publicized personal life following her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In 2020, NME named her one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years.

Born to countercultural parents in San Francisco, Love had an itinerant childhood, but was primarily raised in Portland, Oregon, where she played in a series of short-lived bands and was active in the local punk scene. After briefly being in a juvenile hall, she spent a year living in Dublin and Liverpool before returning to the United States and pursuing an acting career. She appeared in supporting roles in the Alex Cox films Sid and Nancy (1986) and Straight to Hell (1987) before forming the band Hole in Los Angeles with guitarist Eric Erlandson. The group received critical acclaim from underground rock press for their 1991 debut album, produced by Kim Gordon, while their second release, Live Through This (1994), was met with critical accolades and multi-platinum sales. In 1995, Love returned to acting, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance as Althea Leasure in Miloš Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which established her as a mainstream actress. The following year, Hole's third album, Celebrity Skin (1998), was nominated for three Grammy Awards.

Love continued to work as an actress into the early 2000s, appearing in big-budget pictures such as Man on the Moon (1999) and Trapped (2002), before releasing her first solo album, America's Sweetheart, in 2004. The subsequent several years were marred with publicity surrounding Love's legal troubles and drug relapse, which resulted in a mandatory lockdown rehabilitation sentence in 2005 while she was writing a second solo album. That project became Nobody's Daughter, released in 2010 as a Hole album but without the former Hole lineup. Between 2014 and 2015, Love released two solo singles and returned to acting in the network series Sons of Anarchy and Empire. In 2020, she confirmed she was writing new music. Love has also been active as a writer; she co-created and co-wrote three volumes of a manga, Princess Ai, between 2004 and 2006, and wrote a memoir, Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love (2006).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Courtney Love, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. (the goddess part wasnt from wikipedia im sorry lolol, follow me on letterboxd @courtneyluvvver)

place_of_birth: San Francisco, California, USA

known_for_department: Sound


Stan Lee

biography:
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber /ˈliːbər/; December 28, 1922–November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics. He was Marvel's primary creative leader for two decades, expanding it from a small publishing house division to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.

In collaboration with others at Marvel—particularly co-writers and artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko—he co-created iconic characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow. These and other characters' introductions in the 1960s pioneered a more naturalistic approach in superhero comics. In the 1970s, Lee challenged the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to changes in its policies. In the 1980s, he pursued the development of Marvel properties in other media, with mixed results.

Following his retirement from Marvel in the 1990s, Lee remained a public figurehead for the company. He frequently made cameo appearances in films and television shows based on Marvel properties, on which he received an executive producer credit, which allowed him to become the person with the highest-grossing film total ever. He continued independent creative ventures until his death, aged 95, in 2018. Lee was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the NEA's National Medal of Arts in 2008.

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

place_of_birth: New York City, New York, USA


Henry Travers

biography: British-born Henry Travers was a veteran of the English stage before  emigrating to the U.S. in 1917. He gained more stage experience there on  Broadway working with the Theatre Guild, and began his long film career  with Reunion in Vienna (1933). Travers' kindly, grandfatherly demeanor became familiar to filmgoers over the next 25 years, especially in films like High Sierra (1941), where he played Joan Leslie's kindly but slyly observant uncle, and the generous Mr. Bogardus in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), but it's as the somewhat befuddled angel Clarence Oddbody assigned to James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life  (1946) that Travers will forever be known. After a long and successful  career, he retired from the screen in 1949, and died in Hollywood in  1965.

place_of_birth: Prudhoe, Northumberland, England, UK


Paul Gleason

biography:
Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. He was known for his roles on television series such as All My Children and films such as The Breakfast Club, Trading Places, and Die Hard.

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

place_of_birth: Jersey City, New Jersey, USA


Kristoffer Joner

biography: Kristoffer Joner (born September 19, 1972) is a Norwegian actor born in Stavanger, Norway.

place_of_birth: Stavanger, Norway


Kevin Jarre

biography:
Kevin Noel Jarre (August 6, 1954 – April 3, 2011) was an American screenwriter, actor, and film producer. He adopted his adoptive father's last name, Maurice Jarre.

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

place_of_birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA


John Lasseter

biography:
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Lasseter's first job was with The Walt Disney Company, where he became an animator. Next, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation. After Lucasfilm became Pixar in 1986, Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer and he directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, "Toy Story 3" and "Cars 2".

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (Toy Story).

place_of_birth: Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA


Peter de Sève

biography:
Peter de Sève (born 1958) is an American artist who has worked in the illustration and animation fields. He has drawn many covers for the magazine The New Yorker. As a character designer, he worked on the characters of A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Robots, the Ice Age franchise, and on the main animal character E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand) in the 2011 Easter-themed comedy film Hop.

de Sève designed the characters for Arthur Christmas, for which he was nominated for Annie Award. He received the National Cartoonists Society Magazine Illustration Award for 2000. He is also a recipient of the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators, a Clio Award for a Nike television commercial, and a Visual Effects Society Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Character Design for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

de Sève won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Design for his work on the Sesame Street segment Abby Cadabby's Flying Fairy School. He is part of the Directors Collective Hornet Incorporated company.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Peter de Sève, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

known_for_department: Visual Effects


Kyle Balda

biography:
Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012) with Chris Renaud, Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017) with Pierre Coffin and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar, where he worked on three of their films.

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

place_of_birth: Tucson, Arizona, USA


Gary Scott Thompson

biography:
Gary Scott Thompson (born October 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He worked on projects including The Fast and the Furious, its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious; Hollow Man, Split Second; 88 Minutes, K-911 and K-9: P.I.

Thompson was the creator, showrunner, writer, and executive producer of NBC's comedy-drama series Las Vegas, and he also directed four episodes and made a brief cameo as a psychotherapy patient. Additionally, Thompson wrote, co-developed, and executive produced NBC and TF1's Taxi Brooklyn.

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

place_of_birth: Ukiah, California, USA


Paul Walker

biography: Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. He became well known in 1999 after his role in the hit film Varsity Blues. However, he was perhaps best known for starring as Brian O'Conner in The Fast and the Furious film series. His other films include Eight Below, Into the Blue, She's All That and Takers.

place_of_birth: Glendale, California, USA


Eva Mendes

biography:
Eva de la Caridad Méndez (born March 5, 1974), known professionally as Eva Mendes, is an American retired actress. Her acting career began in the late 1990s with a series of roles in films such as Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998) and Urban Legends: Final Cut(2000).

Mendes's performance in Training Day (2001) marked a turning point in her career and led to parts in the commercially successful films 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Hitch (2005). She starred in Ghost Rider (2007) and The Spirit (2008), both film adaptations of comics, and ventured into more dramatic territory with We Own the Night(2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans(2009), Last Night (2010), and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). Her other films include Out of Time (2003), The Women (2008), The Other Guys (2010), and Girl in Progress (2012).

Mendes has appeared in several music videos for artists such as Will Smith and has also been an ambassador for brands including Calvin Klein, Cartier, Reebok, Pantene shampoo, and Peek & Cloppenburg. She has designed for New York & Company and is the creative director of CIRCA Beauty, a makeup line sold at Walgreens.

place_of_birth: Miami, Florida, USA


Mary Kate Schellhardt

place_of_birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA


Chris Ellis

biography:
Chris Ellis (born April 14, 1956) is an American film and television actor. Ellis always wanted to be an actor because of television. He grew up in the 50's in the deep south in a "world of privation and violence", but saw on television people who seemed to have lives of ease and privilege.

It took him seven years to finish college however, because "I have always been shiftless". During those years Chris became involved in community theatre in Memphis, where "I did and do still think the quality of the work has always been quite good". By the time he moved to New York, he had worked with many excellent actors in about two dozen plays, classical and contemporary. "I cannot imagine what might have supplanted that background for a newcomer in New York."

His first part in either television or film came in 1979, where he played a truck driver in the TV movie The Suicide's Wife, which starred Angie Dickinson. The role resulted in very little TV or film work. After working in regional theatre for a year or so, Chris fell off the radar screen and did not work for about ten years. During that time he lived in "bone-grinding poverty" in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. In one nine-month period of 1987, Chris accepted 102 dinner invitations. "I don't know why they kept arriving, nor why I counted them, though I do know why I accepted them."

In 1990, a break came when he got a part in Days of Thunder, which starred Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, Robert Duvall, and Randy Quaid. John C. Reilly and Fred Dalton Thompson also appear. This seemed to jump-start Ellis' career as parts in films like My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei, a small part in Addams Family Values, and a larger one in Apollo 13 as former NASA Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, alongside Tom Hanks, followed. He also began picking up credits on well-known television shows like Melrose Place, NYPD Blue, and The X-Files.

Since working with Hanks on Apollo 13, the two have worked together on That Thing You Do, the TV miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and Catch Me If You Can. Ellis returned to a fictional NASA Mission Control when he played a Flight Director in 1998's Armageddon.

Additional films in which Ellis has appeared include Home Fries, October Sky, Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers. His television credits also include The West Wing, Ghost Whisperer, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Alias, JAG, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, and Cold Case. He appeared in three season one episodes of Millennium as group member Jim Panseayres. He has established a reputation as being particularly talented at portraying Southern lawmakers or serious military or police-type characters.

He also appeared in Criminal Minds as Sheriff Jimmy Rhodes who calls for the BAU's help in investigating a string of murders in New Mexico. In addition to that, he also had two guest appearances in NCIS as Gunnery Sergeant John Deluca. Ellis's appearance in the Season 1 episode, "The Curse" was uncredited while his second and final appearance in Season 2's "The Bone Yard" was credited.

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

place_of_birth: Dallas, Texas, USA


Ulrich Mühe

biography:
Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (20 June 1953 – 22 July 2007) was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006), for which he received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Gold, at Germany's most prestigious film awards, the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.

Curiously, events in Mühe's life were mirrored by the plot of the film, as he allegedly discovered in a Stasi file compiled on him that he had been under surveillance by his second wife, Jenny Gröllmann. Gröllmann denied this, and after an acrimonious and highly-publicized court case she succeeded in obtaining an injunction to prevent Mühe from repeating the allegation in a book.

After leaving school, Mühe was employed as a construction worker and a border guard at the Berlin Wall. He then turned to acting, and from the late 1970s into the 1980s appeared in numerous plays, becoming a star of the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin. He was active in politics and denounced Communist rule in East Germany in a memorable address at the Alexanderplatz demonstration on 4 November 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After German reunification he continued to appear in a large number of films, television programmes and theatre productions. In Germany he was particularly known for playing the lead role of Dr. Robert Kolmaar in the long-running forensic crime series Der letzte Zeuge (The Last Witness, 1998–2007).

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

place_of_birth: Grimma, Germany


Wes Bentley

biography:
Wesley Cook "Wes" Bentley (born September 4, 1978) is an American film actor known for his roles as Ricky Fitts in American Beauty (1999) and Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games (2012). Bentley was one of four subjects in the documentary My Big Break (2009), which covered his fame after American Beauty and struggles with substance abuse. Rebuilding his career, he starred in the premier of Venus in Fur by David Ives in the off-Broadway production in 2010, whose run was extended.

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place_of_birth: Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA


William Holden

biography: William Holden was an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1953 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s, he was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961) and appeared on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list as #25.

place_of_birth: O'Fallon, Illinois, USA