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Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included family friend, illusionist Harry Houdini. Keaton himself verified the origin of his nickname "Buster", given to him by Houdini, when at the age of three, fell down a flight of stairs and was picked up and dusted off by Houdini, who said to Keaton's father Joe, also nearby, that the fall was 'a buster'. Savvy showman Joe Keaton liked the nickname, which has stuck for more than 100 years.
At the age of four, Keaton had already begun acting with his parents on the stage. Their act soon gained the reputation as one of the roughest in the country, for their wild, physical antics on stage. It was normal for Joe to throw Buster around the stage, participate in elaborate, dangerous stunts to the reverie of audiences. After several years on the Vaudeville circuit, "The Three Keatons", toured until Keaton had to break up the act due to his father's increasing alcohol dependence, making him a show business veteran by the age of 21.
While in New York looking for work, a chance run-in with the wildly successful film star and director Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, resulted in Arbuckle inviting him to be in his upcoming short The Butcher Boy (1917), an appearance that launched Keaton's film career, and spawned a friendship that lasted until Arbuckle's sudden death in 1933. By 1920, after making several successful shorts together, Arbuckle moved on to features, and Keaton inherited his studio, allowing him the opportunity to begin producing his own films. By September 1921, tragedy touched Arbuckle's life by way of a scandal, where he was tried three times for the murder of Virginia Rapp. Although he was not guilty of the charges, and never convicted, he was unable to regain his status, and the viewing public would no longer tolerate his presence in film. Keaton stood by his friend and mentor through out the incident, supporting him financially, finding him directorial work, even risking his own budding reputation offering to testify on Arbuckle's behalf.
In 1921, Keaton also married his first wife, Natalie Talmadge under unusual circumstance that have never been fully clarified. Popular conjecture states that he was encouraged by Joseph M. Schenck to marry into the powerful Talmadge dynasty, that he himself was already a part of. The union bore Keaton two sons. Keaton's independent shorts soon became too limiting for the growing star, and after a string of popular films like One Week (1920), The Boat (1921) and Cops (1922), Keaton made the transition into feature films. His first feature, Three Ages (1923), was produced similarly to his short films, and was the dawning of a new era in comedic cinema, where it became apparent to Keaton that he had to put more focus on the story lines and characterization.
At the height of his popularity, he was making two features a year, and followed Ages with Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924) and The General (1926), the latter two he regarded as his best films. The most renowned of Keaton's comedies is Sherlock Jr. (1924), which used cutting edge special effects that received mixed reviews as critics and audiences alike had never seen anything like it, and did not know what to make of it. Modern day film scholars liken the story and effects to Christopher Nolan Inception (2010), for its high level concept and ground-breaking execution. Keaton's Civil War epic The General (1926) kept up his momentum when he gave audiences the biggest and most expensive sequence ever seen in film at the time. At its climax, a bridge collapses while a train is passing over it, sending the train into a river. This wowed audiences, but did little for its long-term financial success. Audiences did not respond well to the film, disliking the higher level of drama over comedy, and the main character being a Confederate soldier.
After a few more silent features, including College (1927) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Keaton was informed that his contract had been sold to MGM, by brother-in-law and producer Joseph M. Schenck. Keaton regarded the incident as the worst professional mistake he ever made, as it sent his career, legacy, and personal life into a vicious downward spiral for many years. His first film with MGM was The Cameraman (1928), which is regarded as one of his best silent comedies, but the release signified the loss of control Keaton would incur, never again regaining his film -making independence. He made one more silent film at MGM entitled Spite Marriage (1929) before the sound era arrived.
His first appearance in a film with sound was with the ensemble piece The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), though despite the popularity of it and his previous MGM silents, MGM never allowed Keaton his own production unit, and increasingly reduced his creative control over his films. By 1932, his marriage to Natalie Talmadge had dissolved when she sued him for divorce, and in an effort to placate her, put up little resistance. This resulted in the loss of the home he had built for his family nicknamed "The Italian Villa", the bulk of his assets, and contact with his children. Natalie changed their last names from Keaton to Talmadge, and they were disallowed from speaking about their father or seeing him. About 10 years later, when they became of age, they rekindled the relationship with Keaton. His hardships in his professional and private life that had been slowly taking their toll, begun to culminate by the early 1930s resulting in his own dependence on alcohol, and sometimes violent and erratic behavior. Depressed, penniless, and out of control, he was fired by MGM by 1933, and became a full-fledged alcoholic.
After spending time in hospitals to attempt and treat his alcoholism, he met second wife Mae Scrivens, a nurse, and married her hastily in Mexico, only to end in divorce by 1935. After his firing, he made several low-budget shorts for Educational Pictures, and spent the next several years of his life fading out of public favor, and finding work where he could. His career was slightly reinvigorated when he produced the short Grand Slam Opera (1936), which many of his fans admire for giving such a good performance during the most difficult and unmanageable years of his life.
In 1940, he met and married his third wife Eleanor Norris, who was deeply devoted to him, and remained his constant companion and partner until Keaton's death. After several more years of hardship working as an uncredited, underpaid gag man for comedians such as the Marx Brothers, he was consulted on how to do a realistic and comedic fall for In the Good Old Summertime (1949) in which an expensive violin is destroyed. Finding no one who could do this better than him, he was given a minor role in the film. His presence reignited interest in his silent films, which lead to interviews, television appearances, film roles, and world tours that kept him busy for the rest of his life.
After several more film, television, and stage appearances through the 1960s, he wrote the autobiography "My Wonderful World of Slapstick", having completed nearly 150 films in the span of his ground-breaking career. His last film appearance was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) which premiered seven months after Keaton's death from the rapid onset of lung cancer. Since his death, Keaton's legacy is being discovered by new generations of viewers every day, many of his films are available on YouTube, DVD and Blu-ray, where he, like all gold-gilded and beloved entertainers can live forever.- Writer
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Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the toothbrush mustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane, and a funny walk.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in Walworth, London, England on April 16, 1889, to Hannah Harriet Pedlingham (Hill) and Charles Chaplin, both music hall performers, who were married on June 22, 1885. After Charles Sr. separated from Hannah to perform in New York City, Hannah then tried to resurrect her stage career. Unfortunately, her singing voice had a tendency to break at unexpected moments. When this happened, the stage manager spotted young Charlie standing in the wings and led him on stage, where five-year-old Charlie began to sing a popular tune. Charlie and his half-brother, Syd Chaplin spent their lives in and out of charity homes and workhouses between their mother's bouts of insanity. Hannah was committed to Cane Hill Asylum in May 1903 and lived there until 1921, when Chaplin moved her to California.
Chaplin began his official acting career at the age of eight, touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads. At age 18, he began touring with Fred Karno's vaudeville troupe, joining them on the troupe's 1910 United States tour. He traveled west to California in December 1913 and signed on with Keystone Studios' popular comedy director Mack Sennett, who had seen Chaplin perform on stage in New York. Charlie soon wrote his brother Syd, asking him to become his manager. While at Keystone, Chaplin appeared in and directed 35 films, starring as the Little Tramp in nearly all.
In November 1914, he left Keystone and signed on at Essanay, where he made 15 films. In 1916, he signed on at Mutual and made 12 films. In June 1917, Chaplin signed up with First National Studios, after which he built Chaplin Studios. In 1919, he and Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists (UA).
Chaplin's life and career was full of scandal and controversy. His first big scandal was during World War I, at which time his loyalty to England, his home country, was questioned. He had never applied for American citizenship, but claimed that he was a "paying visitor" to the United States. Many British citizens called Chaplin a coward and a slacker. This and other career eccentricities sparked suspicion with FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), who believed that he was injecting Communist propaganda into his films. Chaplin's later film The Great Dictator (1940), which was his first "talkie", also created a stir. In the film, Chaplin plays a humorous caricature of Adolf Hitler. Some thought the film was poorly done and in bad taste. However, the film grossed over $5 million and earned five Academy Award Nominations.
Another scandal occurred when Chaplin briefly dated 22 year-old Joan Barry. However, Chaplin's relationship with Barry came to an end in 1942, after a series of harassing actions from her. In May 1943, Barry returned to inform Chaplin that she was pregnant and filed a paternity suit, claiming that the unborn child was his. During the 1944 trial, blood tests proved that Chaplin was not the father, but at the time, blood tests were inadmissible evidence, and he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21.
Chaplin also was scrutinized for his support in aiding the Russian struggle against the invading Nazis during World War II, and the United States government questioned his moral and political views, suspecting him of having Communist ties. For this reason, HUAC subpoenaed him in 1947. However, HUAC finally decided that it was no longer necessary for him to appear for testimony. Conversely, when Chaplin and his family traveled to London for the premier of Limelight (1952), he was denied re-entry to the United States. In reality, the government had almost no evidence to prove that he was a threat to national security. Instead, he and his wife decided to settle in Switzerland.
Chaplin was married four times and had a total of 11 children. In 1918, he married Mildred Harris and they had a son together, Norman Spencer Chaplin, who lived only three days. Chaplin and Harris divorced in 1920. He married Lita Grey in 1924, who had two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. They were divorced in 1927. In 1936, Chaplin married Paulette Goddard, and his final marriage was to Oona O'Neill (Oona Chaplin), daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1943. Oona gave birth to eight children: Geraldine Chaplin, Michael Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin, Eugene Chaplin, Jane Chaplin, Annette-Emilie Chaplin, and Christopher Chaplin.
In contrast to many of his boisterous characters, Chaplin was a quiet man who kept to himself a great deal. He also had an "un-millionaire" way of living. Even after he had accumulated millions, he continued to live in shabby accommodations. In 1921, Chaplin was decorated by the French government for his outstanding work as a filmmaker and was elevated to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1952. In 1972, he was honored with an Academy Award for his "incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century". He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1975 New Year's Honours List. No formal reason for the honour was listed. The citation simply reads "Charles Spencer Chaplin, Film Actor and Producer".
Chaplin's other works included musical scores that he composed for many of his films. He also authored two autobiographical books, "My Autobiography" (1964) and its companion volume, "My Life in Pictures" (1974).
Chaplin died at age 88 of natural causes on December 25, 1977 at his home in Vevey, Switzerland. His funeral was a small and private Anglican ceremony according to his wishes. In 1978, Chaplin's corpse was stolen from its grave and was not recovered for three months; he was re-buried in a vault surrounded by cement.
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Charlie Chaplin is considered one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of American cinema, whose movies were and still are popular throughout the world and have even gained notoriety as time progresses. His films show, through the Little Tramp's positive outlook on life in a world full of chaos, that the human spirit has and always will remain the same.The Pawnshop (1916) - 6/20/2017
Easy Street (1917) - 1/11/2022
The Immigrant (1917) - 3/17/2020
The Adventurer (1917) - 3/5/2024
A Dog's Life (1918) - 7/11/2017- Writer
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George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar driver. However, a terrible car accident just after his high school graduation ended that dream permanently. The accident changed his views on life.
He decided to attend Modesto Junior College before enrolling in the University of Southern California film school. As a film student, he made several short films including Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967) which won first prize at the 1967-68 National Student Film Festival. In 1967, he was awarded a scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe the making of Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas and Coppola became good friends and formed American Zoetrope in 1969. The company's first project was Lucas' full-length version of THX 1138 (1971). In 1971, Coppola went into production for The Godfather (1972), and Lucas formed his own company, Lucasfilm Ltd.
In 1973, he wrote and directed the semiautobiographical American Graffiti (1973) which won the Golden Globe and garnered five Academy Award nominations. This gave him the clout he needed for his next daring venture. From 1973 to 1974, he began writing the screenplay which became Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He was inspired to make this movie from Flash Gordon and the Planet of the Apes films. In 1975, he established ILM. (Industrial Light & Magic) to produce the visual effects needed for the movie. Another company called Sprocket Systems was established to edit and mix Star Wars and later becomes known as Skywalker Sound. His movie was turned down by several studios until 20th Century Fox gave him a chance. Lucas agreed to forego his directing salary in exchange for 40% of the film's box-office take and all merchandising rights. The movie went on to break all box office records and earned seven Academy Awards. It redefined the term "blockbuster" and the rest is history.
Lucas made the other Star Wars films and along with Steven Spielberg created the Indiana Jones series which made box office records of their own. From 1980 to 1985, Lucas was busy with the construction of Skywalker Ranch, built to accommodate the creative, technical, and administrative needs of Lucasfilm. Lucas also revolutionized movie theaters with the THX system which was created to maintain the highest quality standards in motion picture viewing.
He went on to produce several more movies that have introduced major innovations in filmmaking technology. He is chairman of the board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. In 1992, George Lucas was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his lifetime achievement.
He reentered the directing chair with the production of the highly-anticipated Star Wars prequel trilogy beginning with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) . The films have been polarizing for fans and critics alike, but were commercially successful and have become a part of culture. The animated spin-off series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) was supervised by Lucas. He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, making co-chair Kathleen Kennedy president. He has attended the premieres of new Star Wars films and been generally supportive of them.Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967) - 10/24/2017- Producer
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Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a B.S. degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an M.A. in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films including The Big Shave (1967), and directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).
He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock (1970) and won critical and popular acclaim for Mean Streets (1973), which first paired him with actor and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), also starring De Niro, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and he followed that film with New York, New York (1977) and The Last Waltz (1978). Scorsese directed De Niro to an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995) and Kundun (1997), among other films. Commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, Scorsese completed the four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson.
His long-cherished project, Gangs of New York (2002), earned numerous critical honors, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) won five Academy Awards, in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture. Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), which was also honored with the Director's Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critic's Choice awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, Shine a Light (2008), followed, with the successful thriller Shutter Island (2010) two years later. Scorsese received his seventh Academy Award nomination for Best Director, as well as a Golden Globe Award, for Hugo (2011), which went on to win five Academy Awards.
Scorsese also serves as executive producer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010) for which he directed the pilot episode. Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), The Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010). Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on five separate occasions: Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).The Big Shave (1967) - 9/18/2018- Producer
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One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Jaws (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies. In 1964, he directed Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens invading a small town. In 1967, he directed Slipstream (1967), which was unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed Amblin' (1968), which featured the desert prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would feature. Amblin' also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project, Duel (1971), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Murder by the Book (1971). All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would dazzle audiences all over the world.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and followed that effort with Used Cars (1980), a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell/Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reese's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T." and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail (1986), a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the Future (1985), which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed Empire of the Sun (1987), a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long, though.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Always (1989) as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Back to the Future Part II (1989). All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. Also, in 1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results. Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", he produced the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Freakazoid! (1995), Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998), Family Dog (1993) and Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as The Land Before Time (1988), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Casper (1995) (the live action version) as well as the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller Arachnophobia (1990), Back to the Future Part III (1990) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed Schindler's List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Men in Black (1997) and Deep Impact (1998). However, it was on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and produced the epic Amistad (1997), a spectacular film that was shorted at the Oscars and in release due to the fact that its release date was moved around so much in late 1997. The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of the best films of his career: Saving Private Ryan (1998), a film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spielberg produced a series of films, including Evolution (2001), The Haunting (1999) and Shrek (2001). he also produced two sequels to Jurassic Park (1993), which were financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered varied reviews from critics.
Spielberg has been extremely active in films there are many other things he has done as well. He produced the short-lived TV series SeaQuest 2032 (1993), an anthology series entitled Amazing Stories (1985), created the video-game series "Medal of Honor" set during World War Two, and was a starting producer of ER (1994). Spielberg, if you haven't noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and Tom Hanks collaborated on Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a documentary about World War II combat photographers, and he produced a documentary about the Holocaust called Eyes of the Holocaust (2000). With all of this to Spielberg's credit, it's no wonder that he's looked at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.Amblin' (1968) - 3/8/2022- Producer
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Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was especially fond of films with Vincent Price). When he was in the ninth grade, his artistic talent was recognized by a local garbage company, when he won a prize for an anti-litter poster he designed. The company placed this poster on all of their garbage trucks for a year. After graduating from high school, he attended California Institute of the Arts. Like so many others who graduated from that school, Burton's first job was as an animator for Disney.
His early film career was fueled by almost unbelievable good luck, but it's his talent and originality that have kept him at the top of the Hollywood tree. He worked on such films as The Fox and the Hound (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985), but had some creative differences with his colleagues. Nevertheless, Disney recognized his talent, and gave him the green light to make Vincent (1982), an animated short about a boy who wanted to be just like Vincent Price. Narrated by Price himself, the short was a critical success and won several awards. Burton made a few other short films, including his first live-action film, Frankenweenie (1984). A half-hour long twist on the tale of Frankenstein, it was deemed inappropriate for children and wasn't released. But actor Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) saw Frankenweenie (1984), and believed that Burton would be the right man to direct him in his first full-length feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). The film was a surprise success, and Burton instantly became popular. However, many of the scripts that were offered to him after this were essentially just spin-offs of the film, and Burton wanted to do something new.
For three years, he made no more films, until he was presented with the script for Beetlejuice (1988). The script was wild and wasn't really about anything, but was filled with such artistic and quirky opportunities, Burton couldn't say no. Beetlejuice (1988) was another big hit, and Burton's name in Hollywood was solidified. It was also his first film with actor Michael Keaton. Warner Bros. then entrusted him with Batman (1989), a film based on the immensely popular comic book series of the same name. Starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, the film was the most financially successful film of the year and Burton's biggest box-office hit to date. Due to the fantastic success of his first three films, he was given the green light to make his next film, any kind of film he wanted. That film was Edward Scissorhands (1990), one of his most emotional, esteemed and artistic films to date. Edward Scissorhands (1990) was also Burton's first film with actor Johnny Depp. Burton's next film was Batman Returns (1992), and was darker and quirkier than the first one, and, while by no means a financial flop, many people felt somewhat disappointed by it. While working on Batman Returns (1992), he also produced the popular The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), directed by former fellow Disney Animator Henry Selick. Burton reunited with Johnny Depp on the film Ed Wood (1994), a film showered with critical acclaim, Martin Landau won an academy award for his performance in it, and it is very popular now, but flopped during its initial release. Burton's subsequent film, Mars Attacks! (1996), had much more vibrant colors than his other films. Despite being directed by Burton and featuring all-star actors including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan and Michael J. Fox, it received mediocre reviews and wasn't immensely popular at the box office, either.
Burton returned to his darker and more artistic form with the film Sleepy Hollow (1999), starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci and Casper Van Dien. The film was praised for its art direction and was financially successful, redeeming Burton of the disappointment many had felt by Mars Attacks! (1996). His next film was Planet of the Apes (2001), a remake of the classic of the same name. The film was panned by many critics but was still financially successful. While on the set of Planet of the Apes (2001), Burton met Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he has two children. Burton directed the film Big Fish (2003) - a much more conventional film than most of his others, it received a good deal of critical praise, although it disappointed some of his long-time fans who preferred the quirkiness of his other, earlier films. Despite the fluctuations in his career, Burton proved himself to be one of the most popular directors of the late 20th century. He directed Johnny Depp once again in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), a film as quirky anything he's ever done.Frankenweenie (1984) - 6/4/2019- Writer
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The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends included Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca.
After moving to Paris, Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs in Paris, including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein. With financial assistance from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first film, the 17-minute Un chien andalou (1929), in 1929, and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its shocking imagery (much of which - like the sliced eyeball at the beginning - still packs a punch even today). It made a deep impression on the Surrealist Group, who welcomed Buñuel into their ranks.
The following year, sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first feature, the scabrous witty and violent L'Age d'Or (1930), which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career. That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and after the Spanish Civil War he emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros.
Moving to Mexico in the late 1940s, he teamed up with producer Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in The Young and the Damned (1950), winning him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries (though many of them are well worth seeking out). But in 1961, General Franco, anxious to be seen to be supporting Spanish culture invited Buñuel back to his native country - and Bunuel promptly bit the hand that fed him by making Viridiana (1961), which was banned in Spain on the grounds of blasphemy, though it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
This inaugurated Buñuel's last great period when, in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière he made seven extraordinary late masterpieces, starting with Diary of a Chambermaid (1964). Although far glossier and more expensive, and often featuring major stars such as Jeanne Moreau and Catherine Deneuve, the films showed that even in old age Buñuel had lost none of his youthful vigour.
After saying that every one of his films from Belle de Jour (1967) onwards would be his last, he finally kept his promise with That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), after which he wrote a memorable (if factually dubious) autobiography, in which he said he'd be happy to burn all the prints of all his films- a classic Surrealist gesture if ever there was one.
Un chien andalou (1929) - 6/18/2019
Las Hurdes (1933) - 11/28/2017
Simon of the Desert (1965) - 4/25/2017- Producer
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Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of his childhood. At age 16, during World War I, he faked his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 1920s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however.
The two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies", they were distributed by M.J. Winkler (Margaret). Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his older brother Roy O. Disney, who remained his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity.
Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They had also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lillian Disney (Lilly) and Roy's wife Edna Disney to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn't stop creating new ideas.
In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932), was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs (1933), was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular.
In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now.
In the mid 1940s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).
In 1955 he opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success. Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series The Magical World of Disney (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) and Zorro (1957). To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida.
He did not live to see the culmination of those plans, however; in 1966, he developed lung cancer brought on by his lifelong chain-smoking. He died of a heart attack following cancer surgery on December 15, 1966 at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. His company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still-growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten.- Director
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Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In the political turmoil in the 60's, Gilliam feared he would become a terrorist and decided to leave the USA. He moved to England and landed a job on the children's television show Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967) as an animator. There he met meet his future collaborators in Monty Python: Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin. In 2006 he renounced his American citizenship.The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) - 7/20/2021- Director
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David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 Griffith set out to pursue a career both acting and writing for the theater, but for the most part was unsuccessful. Reluctantly, he agreed to act in the new motion picture medium for Edwin S. Porter at the Edison Company. Griffith was eventually offered a job at the financially struggling American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., where he directed over four hundred and fifty short films, experimenting with the story-telling techniques he would later perfect in his epic The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Griffith and his personal cinematographer G.W. Bitzer collaborated to create and perfect such cinematic devices as the flashback, the iris shot, the mask and cross-cutting. In the years following "Birth", Griffith never again saw the same monumental success as his signature film and, in 1931, his increasing failures forced his retirement. Though hailed for his vision in narrative film-making, he was similarly criticized for his blatant racism. Griffith died in Los Angeles in 1948, one of the most dichotomous figures in film history.The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - 5/14/2019- Director
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Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.Coffee and Cigarettes (1986) - 5/16/2023- Producer
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John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "spaghetti" westerns. Returning to the US, he made his feature debut as a writer-director at age 21 with Schlock (1973), an affectionate tribute to monster movies. Clad in a Rick Baker-designed gorilla suit, Landis starred as "Schlockthropus", the missing link. After working as a writer, actor and production assistant, Landis made his second film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), in collaboration with the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams. Landis rose to international recognition as director of the wildly successful National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). With blockbusters such as The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), Three Amigos! (1986) and Coming to America (1988), Landis has directed some of the most popular film comedies of all time. Other feature credits include Into the Night (1985), Innocent Blood (1992) and the comedy/horror genre classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), which he also wrote. In 1986, Landis and four others were acquitted of responsibility for the tragic accident that occurred in Landis' segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) in which actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed. The film also included segments directed by Joe Dante, George Miller and Steven Spielberg. In 1983 Landis wrote and directed the groundbreaking music video of Michael Jackson's Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983), created originally to play as a theatrical short. "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos, garnering multiple accolades including the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Overall Video, Viewer's Choice, and the Video Vanguard Award - The Greatest Video in the History of the World. In 1991 "Thriller" was inducted into the MVPA's Hall of Fame. In 1991, Landis collaborated again with Jackson (I) on Michael Jackson: Black or White (1991), which premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million. Although it was not the first motion picture or music video to do so, "Black or White" popularized the use of "digital morphing", where one object appears to seamlessly metamorphoses into another; the project raised the standard for state-of-the-art special effects in music videos. Landis has also been active in television as the executive producer (and often director) of the Ace- and Emmy Award-winning HBO series Dream On (1990). Other TV shows produced by his company, St. Clare Entertainment (St. Clare is the patron saint of television), include Weird Science (1994), Sliders (1995), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997), Campus Cops (1995) and The Lost World (1998). In 2004 the Independent Film Channel broadcast his feature-length documentary about a used-car salesman, Slasher (2004). Deer Woman, an original one-hour episode written by Landis and his son Max Landis, inaugurated the Masters of Horror (2005) series in the fall of 2005 on Showtime. "Masters of Horror" also features one-hour episodes by John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, Dario Argento and Larry Cohen.
A sought-after commercial director, Landis has worked for a variety of companies including Direct TV, Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg's and Disney. He was made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1985, awarded the Federico Fellini Prize by Rimini Cinema Festival in Italy and was named a George Eastman Scholar by The Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Both the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival have held career retrospectives of his films. In 2004 Landis received the Time Machine Career Achievement Award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Sent as a filmmaker/scholar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Landis has lectured at many film schools and universities including Yale, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, UCSB, USC, Texas A&M, The North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Miami and Indiana University. He has also acted as a teacher and advisor to aspiring filmmakers at the Sundance Institute in Utah. Additionally, he edited Best American Movie Writing 2001 (Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 2001). Born in Chicago, Illinois, Landis moved to Los Angeles soon after his birth. He is married to Deborah Nadoolman, an Oscar-nominated costume designer, and President of the Costume Designers Guild, with whom he has two children.Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) - 10/25/2022- Writer
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A bright child, John Sayles began reading novels before age 9. A Williams College grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He wrote stories and submitted them to various magazines, and the Atlantic Monthly gave him the idea of publishing them in a novel--thus "Pride of the Bimbos" (1975) was born.
In the late 1970s he worked for renowned low-budget producer Roger Corman as a screenwriter. He saved much of the money he earned from that job, got some friends together and made Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) in 25 days. Altough it was a hit, he had trouble obtaining financing for the films he wanted to make because he would not give up his right of final cut. Baby It's You (1983) was Sayles' only film made under studio control.
In 1983 the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship granted him a tax-free income of $32,000 a year for 5 years. That stipend and money he earned for writing such films as The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983) and Breaking In (1989) enabled him to make the kinds of films he wanted to make. Lone Star (1996) placed Sayles in the ranks of top American filmmakers. In it and his other films, a broadly appealing social consciousness emerges, showing Sayles to be concerned with what's going on with regional cultures, national values and what living in the US is like today.
Sayles and Maggie Renzi, whom he met during college, have lived together since the 1970s, splitting their time between a Hoboken, NJ, house and a farm in upstate New York. They have no plans to marry.Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A. (1984) - 7/4/2023- Director
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Tex Avery was a descendant of Judge Roy Bean and Daniel Boone, but all his grandma ever told him about it was "Don't ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He's a no good skunk!!" After graduating from North Dallas High School in 1927, Avery moved to Southern California in 1929 and got a job in the harbor. After showing samples of his artwork he got a job at Walter Lantz Studios in 1929 as animator. His contributions during the years at Walter Lantz Studios were minor. From 1936 to 1941 he worked as supervisor - another word for cartoon director - of some 60 titles in the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series for Leon Schlesinger at Warner's. From 1942 to 1954 Avery worked as director of cartoons at MGM. He was responsible for practically every MGM Cartoon that did not feature Tom and Jerry. In 1955 he did four cartoons, again for Walter Lantz Studios, before leaving the field for advertising, where, alas, his unique sense of humor went largely unappreciated, but primarily because commercials are not credited for the viewing audience (perhaps his best known commercial work was for Raid bug spray, which always featured the cartoon bugs screaming "Raid!" before getting smashed.)
Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the basic personality of Bugs Bunny. He was the one who coined the phrase "What's up, Doc?"I Love to Singa (1936) - 3/21/2017
Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) - 6/25/2019
The Shooting of Dan McGoo (1945) - 2/23/2021
Northwest Hounded Police (1946) - 8/27/2019- Additional Crew
- Art Department
- Animation Department
Saul Bass was born in New York City in 1920 and is a widely acclaimed graphic designer with a career spanning over 40 years. Among his most famous works are the title sequences for such classic films as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Bass used his innovative ideas and unique perspective of the world to influence his art, engaging his audiences and developing the graphic design industry in the process. Hitchcock's famous shower-murder scene in Psycho owes its success to the design work of Bass' storyboards. Bass' short documentary Why Man Creates (1968) was spotlighted on the premiere episode of 60 Minutes (1968) in 1968. He is also responsible for the logos of many prominent corporations like AT&T, United Airlines, and Dixie. Bass died in Los Angeles in 1996.Why Man Creates (1968) - 4/27/2021- Director
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Richard Donner was born on 24 April 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on 5 July 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1963) - 1/3/2023- Actor
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Seth Green has starred in numerous films and television series including the Austin Powers trilogy, The Italian Job (2003), Without a Paddle (2004), Party Monster (2003), Can't Hardly Wait (1998), Old Dogs (2009) and dozens more, including starring roles in Sexy Evil Genius (2013), The Story of Luke (2012) and Yellowbird (2014). He's portrayed Christopher Guest in Netflix's National Lampoon origin film, A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018), and he starred opposite Katie Holmes and Michael Caine in Dear Dictator (2017). Green made his feature film directorial debut with Changeland (2019) starring Green, Breckin Meyer, Brenda Song, Macaulay Culkin, Clare Grant and Randy Orton. He is the co-creator/executive producer/primary voice talent and a writer/director on Robot Chicken (2001), 2010 & 2016 Emmy® Award-winner for Outstanding Short Format Animation Program. Green has voiced Chris Griffin on Family Guy (1999) since the series' inception. Green has been singled out for many Emmy voiceover nominations for Adult Swim's Robot Chicken. The show, the network's highest-rated original program, and their specials have won numerous Annie Awards for writing and producing, including one for Green for directing. In 2011, Green and his partners created Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, a full-service animation studio with many other projects including: Crackle's SuperMansion, Adult Swim's Hot Streets (2016) and WWE's Camp WWE (2016). In December 2017, the company signed a two-year first-look deal with 20th Century Fox Film to develop animated and live-action projects. Green has always been fascinated by space travel and has done a PSA for NASA and designed the CASIS patch for ISS U.S. National Laboratory missions for research to benefit life on Earth.Robot Chicken: Star Wars (2007) - 3/13/2018- Director
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Todd Haynes was always interested in art, and made amateur movies and painted while he was still a child. He attended Brown university and majored in art and semiotics. After he graduated he moved to New York City and made the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). The movie uses dolls instead of actors to tell the the story of the late Karen Carpenter. The movie was a success at several film festivals, and because of a lawsuit by Richard Carpenter (over musical rights) is very hard to see but it is a true classic for bootleg video buyers. His first feature, Poison (1991) was even more controversial. The film was attacked by conservatives and Christians who said it was pornographic, but it won the Grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It is now considered a seminal work of the new queer cinema. His short film Dottie Gets Spanked (1993) was aired on PBS. His next feature film Safe (1995) told the story of a woman played by his good friend, Julianne Moore, suffering from a breakdown caused by a mysterious illness. Many thought the film was a metaphor of the Aids virus. The movie was considered to be an outstanding work and one of the best films of the year. In Velvet Goldmine (1998), starring Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor, he combines the visual style of 60s/70s art films and his love for glam rock music to tell the story of a fictional rock star's rise and fall. Far from Heaven (2002), set in the 1950s and starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid, is about a Connecticut housewife who discovers that her husband is gay, and has an affair with her black gardener, played by Dennis Haysbert. The film was a critical and box office success, garnering four Academy Awards. It was hailed as a breakthrough for independent film, and brought Haynes mainstream recognition. With I'm Not There (2007), Haynes returned to the theme of musical legend bio, portraying Bob Dylan via seven fictive characters played by six different actors. The film brought him critical claim, with special attention to the casting of Cate Blanchett as arguably the most convincing of the Dylan characters, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. In 2011, Haynes directed Mildred Pierce, a five-hour miniseries for HBO starring Kate Winslet in the title role. His new feature film Carol (2015) with Cate Blanchett premiered at the Cannes International Festival 2015 to rave reviews and won Best Actress for Rooney Mara.- Producer
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Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none were as captivated as the 12-year-old Rodriguez, who sat with his friends in a crowded cinema. Many people watch films and arrogantly proclaim "I can do that." This young man said something different: "I WILL do that. I'm gonna make movies." That day was the catalyst of his dream career. Born and raised in Texas, Robert was the middle child of a family that would include 10 children. While many a child would easily succumb to a Jan Brady sense of being lost in the shuffle, Robert always stood out as a very creative and very active young man. An artist by nature, he was very rarely seen sans pencil-in-hand doodling some abstract (yet astounding) dramatic feature on a piece of paper. His mother, not a fan of the "dreary" cinema of the 1970s, instills a sense of cinema in her children by taking them on weekly trips to San Antonio's famed Olmos Theatre movie house and treats them to a healthy dose of Hollywood's "Golden Age" wonders, from Sergio Leone to the silent classic of Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
In a short amount of time, young Robert finds the family's old Super-8 film camera and makes his first films. The genres are unlimited: action, sci-fi, horror, drama, stop-motion animation. He uses props from around the house, settings from around town, and makes use of the largest cast and crew at his disposal: his family. At the end of the decade, his father, a salesman, brings home the latest home-made technological wonder: a VCR, and with it (as a gift from the manufacturer) a video camera. With this new equipment at his disposal, he makes movies his entire life. He screens the movies for friends, all of whom desperately want to star in the next one. He gains a reputation in the neighborhood as "the kid who makes movies". Rather than handing in term papers, he is allowed to hand in "term movies" because, as he himself explains, "[the teachers] knew I'd put more effort into a movie than I ever would into an essay." He starts his own comic strip, "Los Hooligans". His movies win every local film competition and festival. When low academic grades threaten to keep him out of UT Austin's renowned film department, he proves his worth the only way he knows how: he makes a movie. Three, in fact: trilogy of short movies called "Austin Stories" starring his siblings. It beats the entries of the school's top students and allows Robert to enter the program. After being accepted into the film department, Robert takes $400 of his own money to make his "biggest" film yet: a 16mm short comedy/fantasy called Bedhead (1991).
Pouring every idea and camera trick he knew into the short, it went on to win multiple awards. After meeting and marrying fellow Austin resident Elizabeth Avellan, Robert comes up with a crazy idea: he will sell his body to science in order to finance his first feature-length picture (a Mexican action adventure about a guitarist with no name looking for work but getting caught up in a shoot-'em-up adventure) that he will sell to the Spanish video market and use as an entry point to a lucrative Hollywood career. With his "guinea pig" money he raises a mere $7,000 and creates El Mariachi (1992). But rather than lingering in obscurity, the film finds its way to the Sundance film festival where it becomes an instant favorite, wins Robert a distribution deal with Columbia Pictures and turns him into an icon among would-be film-makers the world over. Not one to rest on his laurels, he immediately helms the straight-to-cable movie Roadracers (1994) and contributes a segment to the anthology comedy Four Rooms (1995) (his will be the most lauded segment).
His first "genuine" studio effort would soon have people referring to him as "John Woo from south-of-the-border". It is the "Mariachi" remake/sequel Desperado (1995). More lavish and action-packed than its own predecessor, the movie--while not a blockbuster hit--does decent business and launches the American film careers of Antonio Banderas as the guitarist-turned-gunslinger and Salma Hayek as his love interest (the two would star in several of his movies from then on). It also furthers the director's reputation of working on low budgets to create big results. In the year when movies like Batman Forever (1995) and GoldenEye (1995) were pushing budgets past the $100 million mark, Rodriguez brought in "Desperado" for just under $7 million. The film also featured a cameo by fellow indie film wunderkind, Quentin Tarantino. It would be the beginning of a long friendship between the two sprinkled with numerous collaborations. Most notable the Tarantino-penned vampire schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). The kitschy flick (about a pair of criminal brothers on the run from the Texas Rangers, only to find themselves in a vamp-infested Mexican bar) became an instant cult favorite and launched the lucrative film career of ER (1994) star George Clooney.
After a two-year break from directing (primarily to spend with his family, but also developing story ideas and declining Hollywood offers) he returned to "Dusk till Dawn" territory with the teen sci-fi/horror movie The Faculty (1998), written by Scream (1996) writer, Kevin Williamson. Although it's developed a small following of its own, it would prove to be Robert's least-successful film. Critics and fans alike took issue with the pedestrian script, the off-kilter casting and the flick's blatant over-commercialization (due to a marketing deal with clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger). After another three-year break, Rodriguez returned to make his most successful (and most unexpected) movie yet, based on his own segment from Four Rooms (1995). After a string of bloody, adult-oriented action fare, no one anticipated him to write and direct the colorful and creative Spy Kids (2001), a movie about a pair of prepubescent Latino sibs who discover that their lame parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are actually two of the world's greatest secret agents. The film was hit among both audiences and critics alike.
After quitting the Writers' Guild of America and being introduced to digital filmmaking by George Lucas, Robert immediately applied the creative, flexible (and cost-effective) technology to every one of his movies from then on, starting with an immediate sequel to his family friendly hit: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) which was THEN immediately followed by the trilogy-capper Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003). The latter would prove to be the most financially-lucrative of the series and employ the long-banished movie gimmick of 3-D with eye-popping results. Later the same year Rodriguez career came full circle when he completed the final entry of the story that made brought him to prominence: "El Mariachi". The last chapter, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), would be his most direct homage to the Sergio Leone westerns he grew up on. With a cast boasting Antonio Banderas (returning as the gunslinging guitarist), Johnny Depp (as a corrupt CIA agent attempting to manipulate him), Salma Hayek, Mickey Rourke, Willem Dafoe and Eva Mendes, the film delivered even more of the Mexican shoot-'em-up spectacle than both of the previous films combined.
Now given his choice of movies to do next, Robert sought out famed comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, a man who had been very vocal of never letting his works be adapted for the screen. Even so, he was wholeheartedly convinced and elated when Rodriguez presented him with a plan to turn Miller's signature work into the film Sin City (2005). A collection of noir-ish tales set in a fictional, crime-ridden slum, the movie boasted the largest cast Rodriguez had worked with to that date. Saying he didn't want to mere "adapt" Miller's comics but "translate" them, Rodriguez' insistence that Miller co-direct the movie lead to Robert's resignation from the Director's Guild of America (and his subsequent dismissal from the film John Carter (2012) as a result). Many critics cited that Sin City was created as a pure film noir piece to adapt Miller's comics onto the screen. Co-directing with Frank Miller and bringing in Quentin Tarantino to guest-direct a scene allowed Rodriguez to again shock Hollywood with his talent.
In late 2007, Rodriguez again teamed up with his friend Tarantino to create the double feature Grindhouse (2007). Rodriguez's offering, Planet Terror (2007), was a film made to be "hardcore, extreme, sex-fueled, action-packed." Rodriguez flirts with his passion to make a showy film exploiting all of his experience to make an extremely entertaining thrill ride. The film is encompassed around Cherry (Rose McGowan), a reluctant go-go dancer who is found wanting when she meets her ex-lover El Wray (played by Freddy Rodríguez) who turns up at a local BBQ grill. They then, after a turn of events, find themselves fending off brain-eating zombies whilst trying to flee to Mexico (here we go off to Mexico again). Apart from directing, Rodriguez also involves himself in camera work, editing and composing music for his movies' sound tracks (he composed Planet Terror's main theme). He also shoots a lot of his own action scenes to get a direct idea from his eye as the director into the film. In El Mariachi (1992), Rodriguez spent hours in front of a pay-to-use, computer editing his film. This allowed him to capture the ideal footage exactly as he wanted it. Away from the filming aspect of Hollywood, Rodriguez is an expert chef who cooks gourmet meals for the cast and crew. Rodriguez is also known for his ability to turn a low-budgeted film with a small crew into an example of film mastery. El mariachi was "the movie made on seven grand" and still managed to rank as one of Rodriguez' best films (receiving a rating of 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes film review site).
Because Rodriguez is involved so deeply in his films, he is able to capture what he wants first time, which saves both time and money. Rodriguez's films share some similar threads and ideas, whilst also having differences. In El Mariachi (1992), he uses a hand-held camera. He made this decision for several reasons. First, he couldn't afford a tripod and secondly, he wanted to make the audience more aware of the action. In the action sequences he is given more mobility with a hand-held camera and also allows for distortion of the unprofessional action sequences (because the cost of all special effects in the film totaled $600). However, in Sin City (2005) and Planet Terror (2007), the budget was much greater, and Rodriguez could afford to spend more on special affects (especially since both films were filmed predominately with green screen) and, thus, there was no need to cover for error.
Playing by his own rules or not at all, Robert Rodriguez has redefined what a filmmaker can or cannot do. Shunning Hollywood's ridiculously high budgets, multi-picture deals and the two most powerful unions for the sake of maintaining creative freedom are decisions that would (and have) cost many directors their careers. Rodriguez has turned these into his strengths, creating some of the most imaginative works the big-screen has ever seen.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.
Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His gritty, violent, often homosexual-themed films were too strong for American audiences of the time, and many of his productions were filmed in Europe, mainly France.
However, Anger is best known for authoring the landmark "Hollywood Babylon" book series, which detailed a far seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most people were aware.- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Chris Marker was born on 29 July 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and director, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Sans Soleil (1983) and Third Side of the Coin (1960). He died on 29 July 2012 in Paris, France.- Director
- Stunts
- Actor
Nash Edgerton was born on 19 January 1973 in Australia. He is a director and actor, known for Mr Inbetween (2018), Gringo (2018) and The Square (2008). He has been married to Carla Ruffino since 1 April 2014.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Christina Maria Aguilera was born on December 18, 1980 in Staten Island, New York City, New York to musician Shelly Loraine Fidler Kearns and U.S. Army sergeant Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera Monge. Her father is Ecuadorian and her mother, who is American-born, has Welsh, Dutch and German ancestry. Her parents divorced when she was young and she lived with her mother, although they moved around a lot. Her goal almost since birth was to be a singer, and at age 12 she was invited to audition for The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989). She won the part and stayed until the show ended. In 1999 she had her breakthrough hit, "Genie in a Bottle." Since then she's made millions of fans, sold millions of records, and won many awards, including a Grammy for Best New Female Artist. She has even made a Latin album and released a Christmas album.
Aguilera is a bilingual singer. She has received many honors including Grammy Nominations and a win for Best New Artist. 2 MTV Video Music Awards, a Radio Music Awards, 2 VH1 Awards, and a Teen Choice Award with 'Lil' Kim', Mya and Pink and the smash hit "Lady Maramalade". She was on The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989) with *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell. Her musical influences include Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson.Christina Aguilera: Hurt (2006) - 5/9/2023- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Starting as a cel washer, Chuck Jones worked his way up to animator and then director at the animation division of Warner Bros. He is famous for creating such beloved cartoon characters as Wile E. Coyote, Henery Hawk, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Ralph Wolf, Road Runner, Sam Sheepdog, Sniffles, and many others, as well as adding to the development of Warner favorites such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and countless others.
His most famous cartoons tend to have been created with writer Michael Maltese. Jones' autobiography, published by Simon & Schuster "Chuck Amuck"--a pun on his Daffy Duck short Duck Amuck (1953)--gives a very amusing account of his life. It is liberally sprinkled with hundreds of cartoons with some color plates.Old Glory (1939) - 1/19/2021
The Dover Boys at Pimento University or the Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942) - 2/6/2018
Hair-Raising Hare (1946) - 10/31/2023
Fast and Furry-ous (1949) - 2/25/2020
Rabbit of Seville (1950) - 3/21/2023
Rabbit Fire (1951) - 7/25/2017
Feed the Kitty (1952) - 12/5/2023
Beep, Beep (1952) - 5/7/2024
Rabbit Seasoning (1952) - 8/1/2017
Duck Amuck (1953) - 1/24/2017
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) - 1/29/2019
Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) - 8/8/2017
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1953) - 5/30/2017
One Froggy Evening (1955) - 1/10/2017
Broom-Stick Bunny (1956) - 10/31/2017
Ali Baba Bunny (1957) - 9/24/2019
What's Opera, Doc? (1957) - 2/7/2017
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) - 12/25/2018- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the direction of Mike D and Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch before the sad demise of Grand Royal Records. Jonze was also responsible for directing the famous Beastie Boys: Sabotage (1994) short film as well as numerous other music videos for various artists.Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice (2001) - 6/6/2023- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Although born in Hollywood, John and his twin sister Johanna were raised in Whittier near Los Angeles. His parents were Jewell Mae (Risley), an art teacher, and Paul Eual Lasseter, a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. His mother's profession contributed to his interest in animation and particularly the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons which he would watch on television. It was when he was in High School that he realized that he could have a career in animation and he wrote to the Walt Disney Studios but nothing happened then In 1975 the Disney company started an animation course at Calarts - The California Institute of the Arts- and John, with encouragement from his mother, was one of the first to sign up. He and his class mates, who included the future animators and directors Brad Bird, and Tim Burton were taught by some of Disney's veteran animators such as Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. During his time there John produced two animated shorts - Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980) - which both won the Student Academy Award for Animation. On graduating in 1979 John was taken on as an animator at the Disney Studios. In 1983, while working on Mickey's Christmas Carol some friends invited him to see some footage of Tron that they were working on using CGI and he immediately saw the potential of it to enhance animated films. John and a colleague made a short test film and satisfied with the result and full of enthusiasm started work on a feature without consulting their superiors who when they found out about it canceled it and sacked John. Having made contacts in the computer industry he was quickly taken on by Lucasfilm which was bought by Steve Jobs for $5 million with a further $5 million invested as working capital and the company renamed Pixar. John soon convinced Steve that the future lay in computer animation by bringing his desk lamp to life in the short 'Luxor Jr' which was shown at a computer graphics conference and got a standing ovation. The first computer animated feature soon followed in the form of 'Toy Story' winning John an Oscar for Special Achievement to go with one he got for Animated Short Film - Tin Toy. He's also had Oscar nominations for Animated Feature - Monster Inc and Cars, Original Screenplay -Toy Story, Animated Short Story - Luxor Jr while the short Knick Knack was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the best 10 animated films of all time. In 2008, he was honored with the Winsor McCay Award, - the lifetime achievement award for animators. He oversees 3 animation studios - Pixar, Disney Animation and DisneyToon He spent 9 year (2005 - 2014) on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only relinquishing his seat due to term limits. He was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood in November 2011.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Ghislain Cloquet was born on 18 April 1924 in Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Tess (1979), Love and Death (1975) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). He was married to Sonia Salvy-Matossian and Sophie Becker. He died on 2 November 1981 in Montainville, Yvelines, France.Statues also Die (1953) - 11/30/2021- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
Born in France to British parents, William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson stayed in that country until age 19, when he, his mother and sisters (their father had died sometime before) returned to Great Britain. Once there, Dickson--in an early indication of his lifelong fascination with science and mechanics--began a correspondence with Thomas A. Edison in the US, asking for employment, but was turned down. Eventually Dickson's family moved to the US, and several years afterward Dickson actually did land a job with Edison, and soon proved to be a trusted and valuable associate. He worked closely with Edison on the development of both the phonograph and, closer to Dickson's heart, the motion picture (it was Dickson who eventually decided that motion picture film should be 35mm wide; he also developed the emulsion process used in the film).
In 1889, while Edison was on a trip to Europe, Dickson set up a building in which to conduct his "photographic experiments", the forerunner of the first motion picture studio. In 1890 he and his chief mechanical assistant, Eugène Lauste, showed the results of their experiments, produced on a cylindrical system called the Kinetoscope: a short film called Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890), featuring one of his assistants. Improvements on this system continued, and in 1891 patents were filed on an improved camera called the Kinetograph. Edison's plans to exhibit the new system at the Chicago World Exposition necessitated not only the production of many new machines but also films that could be shown on them, and the result was the building of a film studio at Edison's laboratory in West Orange, NJ, which was nicknamed "The Black Maria" because it was constructed of wood covered with tar-paper, resembling the police wagons of that era which were known by that nickname.
However, even with Dickson's perfecting of a new version of the Kinetograph camera, not enough films were completed to be shown at Edison's planned exhibition. Dickson, however, did manage to persuade many stage and vaudeville stars to appear in films shot at the West Orange studio, and in the following years the studio was a beehive of activity, with some of the biggest names of the era making short films there. However, friction between Dickson and an executive appointed to oversee Edison's businesses soon broke into open conflict, resulting in Dickson's angrily leaving Edison's employ in 1895. He then joined forces with two businessmen in the development of a way to exhibit films differently than Edison's peepshow-style Kinetoscope. The system eventually developed into what was called the Mutoscope, and the camera that was developed to take pictures for the Mutoscope was called the Biograph. This in turn developed into a filming and projection system that retained the Biograph name.
In 1896 Dickson and three partners began the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. (often referred to as just "Biograph", and generally considered to be the first major American motion picture studio) to produce and distribute films. Dickson produced and directed many of Biograph's early films, but by the turn of the century he had taken over management of the company's European branch, headquartered in England. He died there in 1935.Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890) - 2/6/2024
Blacksmith Scene (1893) - 8/24/2021
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) - 4/23/2024- Animation Department
- Producer
- Actor
Bill Melendez was born on 15 November 1916 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. He was a producer and actor, known for A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968). He was married to Helen Antionette Huhn. He died on 2 September 2008 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
James Algar studied at Stanford where he developed his skills as a cartoonist by drawing for the university's satirical magazine, The Chaparral. He joined the Disney Organisation in 1934, initially as animator. He directed the classic "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia (1940), as well as several sequences of Bambi (1942). Algar was one of several key personnel to whom Walt Disney delegated higher executive functions. During the 1950's, he assumed the mantle of chief writer/director for Disney's True Life Adventure series, turning out such Oscar-winning documentaries as The Living Desert (1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954).
Algar was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and has been recipient of the Look Magazine Movie Award for outstanding achievement in production.Bear Country (1953) - 1/26/2021- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Roger Allers is an American animated film director and writer who is known for co-directing the influential 1994 Disney musical film The Lion King. He also worked on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. He was intended to direct the musical drama Kingdom of the Sun, which got retooled into the 2000 comedy The Emperor's New Groove.The Little Matchgirl (2006) - 5/16/2017- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Leonid Amalrik was born on 8 July 1905. He was a director and writer, known for Movie Circus (1942), Political Satire Magazine #1 (1938) and Peacock's Tail (1946). He was married to Nadezhda Privalova. He died on 22 October 1997 in Moscow, Russia.The Hippo Who Was Afraid of Inoculations (1966) - 9/28/2021- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Roy Arne Lennart Andersson is a Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdist humor and melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by long takes, and stiff caricaturing of Swedish culture and grotesque. Over his career Andersson earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival.
Andersson spent much of his professional life working on advertisement spots, directing over 400 commercials and two short films; directing six feature-length films in six decades. He made his feature film debut with A Swedish Love Story (1970) followed by Giliap (1975). Anderson received the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize for Songs from the Second Floor (2000). His film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) won the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion. He other notable films include You, the Living (2007), and About Endlessness (2019).World of Glory (1991) - 2/13/2024- Art Department
- Director
- Writer
Mark Andrews was born on 12 September 1968 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Brave (2012), John Carter (2012) and Circle of Stone (2020).One Man Band (2005) - 9/17/2019- Editor
- Director
- Actor
Drew Antzis is known for The Lottery Ticket (bick/antzis) (2022), Honey and Joy (2011) and Coma (2009). He is married to Tamara Bick.The Landlord (2007) - 10/8/2019- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Andrea Arnold was born on 5 April 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).Wasp (2003) - 5/26/2020- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Director
Frédéric Back was born on 8 April 1924 in Saarbrücken, Germany. He was a director, known for The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Crac (1980) and The Mighty River (1993). He was married to Ghylaine Paquin. He died on 24 December 2013 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) - 1/31/2023- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Joseph Roland Barbera was an American animator, film director, and television producer. He was the co-founder of the company Hanna-Barbera, with his longtime partner William Hanna.
Barbera was born in an Italian-American family. His parents were barbershop-owner Vincent Barbera (1889-1965) and Francesca Calvacca (1875-1969), both Italian immigrants from Sicily. Vincent was from the farming town of Castelvetrano, while Francesca was from the spa town of Sciacca (founded as the ancient Greek colony of Thermae).
Barbera was born in Little Italy, at the Lower East Side section of Manhattan. Months following his birth, Barbera's family moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn. He was mostly raised in Flatbush. Vincent Barbera grew prosperous for a while, but a gambling addiction led him to squander the family fortune. In 1926, Vincent abandoned his family, and Joseph was taken under the wing of his maternal uncle Jim Calvacca.
Barbera attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. During his high school years, he worked as a tailor's delivery boy. Meanwhile, he excelled in boxing and won a number of titles, but decided against becoming a professional boxer. He graduated high school in 1928, and started working odd jobs.
In 1929, Barbera first became interested in animation, after viewing Walt Disney's "The Skeleton Dance" (1929). Shortly after, he started working as a freelance cartoonist. Some of his print cartoons were published in Redbook, the Saturday Evening Post, and Collier's. Meanwhile Barbera took art classes at the Art Students League of New York and the Pratt Institute, hoping to improve his drawing skills.
Barbera was eventually hired as an inker and colorist by Fleischer Studios. In 1932, he was hired by the Van Beuren Studios as an animator and storyboard artist. At Van Beuren he worked on such film series as "Cubby Bear" and "Rainbow Parades". The studio's most prominent cartoon starts were a human duo known as "Tom and Jerry". Barbera worked on the Tom and Jerry series, and apparently liked the sound of the duo's name.
In 1936, Barbera left the financially struggling Van Beuren studio to work for Paul Terry's Terrytoons studio. In 1937, he left Terrytoons to work for the then-recently established Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio (1937-1957). MGM offered its animators higher salaries than what Terrytoons could offer. His first few years at the studio were not particularly notable. In 1939, he and co-worker William Hanna started working on the idea of a cat-and-mouse duo of characters. They were allowed to co-direct "Puss Gets the Boot" (1940), introducing the new duo of Tom and Jerry. It was critically and commercially successful, but studio head Fred Quimby was initially uninterested in producing a full series of Tom and Jerry films. The lack of success of other products of the studio convinced Quimby, and Barbera and Hanna became the head of their own production unit to work on the new series.
From 1940 to 1957, Hanna and Barbera co-directed 114 Tom and Jerry animated shorts. The Tom and Jerry series was very popular with critics and audience. But by the 1950s, production costs were high while the profitability of the shorts was lower than before. MGM decided to shut down its animation subsidiary. Barbera was unemployed for the first time in decades.
Barbera briefly partnered with Robert D. Buchanan (1931-) in production of an animated television series, the science fiction series "Colonel Bleep" (1957-1960). It was the first animated series specifically produced for color television. Barbera eventually left this partnership and teamed up with William Hanna again. They founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, their own animation studio. With theatrical animation in decline, they focused on the new market of television animation.
The studio's first television series was the moderately successful "The Ruff & Reddy Show". It was succeeded by the much more popular "The Huckleberry Hound Show" and "The Yogi Bear Show". Survey's revealed that the two shows had attracted an adult audience, convincing Hanna and Barbera that they could market animation to adults. Their next series was the animated sitcom "The Flintstones" (1960-1966), popular with both children and adults. Its success helped establish Hanna-Barbera Productions as the leader in television animation.
In 1966, Hanna-Barbera Productions was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million dollars.Barbera and Hanna remained studio heads until 1991, when the studio was sold to the Turner Broadcasting System for an estimated 320 million million dollars. Barbera and Hanna were reduced to advisory positions, which would they keep for the rest of their lives. Barbera periodically worked on new Hanna-Barbera shows, and even provided input for the original live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo in 2002.
In 2001, Hanna-Barbera Productions was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation. Barbera received executive producer credits for Warner Bros. sequels and adaptations of his old series (such as "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and "Tom and Jerry Tales"). In 2005, Barbera co-directed a new Tom and Jerry short film: "The Karate Guard". Barbera then started work on a Tom and Jerry feature film, " Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale" (2007). He died before production was completed.
Barbera died in December 2006, at the age of 95. He had never fully retired and was still working at the time of his death. His legacy includes more than a 100 television series, and a large number of enduring characters.The Lonesome Mouse (1943) - 7/31/2018
The Cat Concerto (1947) - 1/22/2019
Old Rockin' Chair Tom (1948) - 3/27/2018
The Little Orphan (1948) - 11/21/2017- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Cordell Barker was born in 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Strange Invaders (2001), Runaway (2009) and The Cat Came Back (1988).The Cat Came Back (1988) - 5/2/2017- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Toni Basil began her career as a dancer and assistant choreographer, working on such shows as Hullabaloo (1965) choreographed by David Winters. Later, she choreographed the hit film American Graffiti (1973) and also began appearing in films, including the now-classic Easy Rider (1969). After several films, she launched her music career with her first album, "Word of Mouth", in 1981, which was released both as a record and a video, quite an innovation at the time. Culled from that album was a innocent little ditty called "Mickey", which soon became a massive hit all over the world, first in Britain. The song topped the American music charts in December 1982, and the video (directed by Basil, as were all of her others) still receives airplay, today. In 1984, Toni Basil's self-titled follow-up album was released, which included the American Top 40 hit "Over My Head". Although she found future chart success elusive, Basil remained busy appearing in such films as Rockula (1990) and has appeared in a guest shot on Baywatch (1989) in the late 1990s. Her choreographer talents have also been utilized lately by superstars Bette Midler and David Bowie and, in 1998, she choreographed a successful ad for "The Gap".Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime (1981) - 11/1/2022- Producer
- Director
- Composer
Producer, author, and composer, educated at NYU. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded a film production company in New York. He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated musically with Edward Thomas and James Polack. His popular-song works include "Pinocchio," "Three Sad Souls," and "Daydreamer." His most famous and lasting collaboration was with Arthur Rankin Jr., with whom he partnered on many of his hits, including all his ABC-TV Christmas specials of stop motion animation and many cartoons.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Josef Berne was born on 19 January 1904 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Mirele Efros (1939), Down Missouri Way (1946) and Gypsy Night (1935). He died on 19 December 1964 in Palm Springs, California, USA.Jam Session (1942) - 2/15/2022- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
In the US from the age of 10, he first worked as a journalist-illustrator for the New York World. Interviewing Thomas A. Edison, he so impressed the inventor with his drawings that Edison suggested he allow some of them to be photographed by the Kinetograph camera. The result was a short film, Edison Drawn by 'World' Artist (1896). Fascinated by the new medium, Blackton bought a Kinetoscope from Edison, went into partnership with a friend, Albert E. Smith, and exhibited films with it. In 1897 they added a third partner, William T. Rock, and the young partners converted the projector into a motion-picture camera and established the Vitagraph Company. They started film production in an open-air studio on the roof of the Morse Building at 140 Nassau Street, New York City. Their first film, The Burglar on the Roof (1898), was about 50 feet long, with Blackton playing the leading role. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, they produced Tearing Down the Spanish Flag (1898), probably the world's first propaganda film. Smith operated the camera and Blackton was again the actor, tearing down the Spanish flag and raising the Stars and Stripes to the top of a flagpole. Blackton and his partners continued filming fake and real news events, ranging from Spanish-American War footage to coverage of local fires and crimes in New York City. They constantly expanded their activities and soon moved into the world's first glass-enclosed studios, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Blackton directed most of the production of this early period, including such story films as A Gentleman of France (1905) and Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1905), two milestones in the development of the American feature film. Blackton pioneered the single-frame (one turn, one picture) technique in cinema animation, turning out a number of animated cartoons between 1906 and 1910, including the immensely successful Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906), The Haunted Hotel (1907), and The Magic Fountain Pen (1909). He also introduced (in 1908, before Griffith) the close shot, a camera position between the close-up and the medium shot. Like Griffith, he emphasized film editing, setting his films apart from most of the products of this very early period. His film editing was especially noteworthy in his 'Scenes Of True Life' series, a realistic group of films he directed beginning in 1908. Next to Griffith, Blackton was probably the most innovative and creative force in the development of the motion picture art, not only as the director of hundreds of films but also as organizer, producer, actor, and animator. He pioneered the production of two- and three-reel comedies and starred in one such series as a character called Happy Hooligan. Beginning in 1908, he also pioneered the American production of distinguished stage adaptations, including many Shakespeare plays and historical re-creations. When the output at Vitagraph became too heavy for one man to handle, he initiated the system (later to be adopted by Ince) of overseeing the work of several underling directors as production supervisor. In 1917 he left active work with Vitagraph and began independent productions. During WWI, he directed and produced a series of patriotic propaganda films, the most famous of which, and which he also wrote, was The Battle Cry of Peace (1915), based on a hypothetical attack on New York City by a foreign invader. Blackton later went to England, where he directed a number of costume pageants, two of them experiments in color. When Vitagraph was absorbed by Warner Bros. in 1926, Blackton retired. He lost his entire fortune in the 1929 crash and was forced to seek work on a government project in California. Later he was hired as director of production at the Anglo-American Film Company, where he worked until his death. Between 1900 and 1915, Blackton was president of the Vitaphone Company, a manufacturer of record players. In 1915 he organized and became president of the Motion Picture Board of Trade, later known as the Association of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. He was also publisher and editor of Motion Picture Magazine, one of America's first film-fan publications.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James Blue was born on 10 October 1930. He was a director and writer, known for A Few Notes on Our Food Problem (1968), The Olive Trees of Justice (1962) and Invisible City: The Houston Housing Crisis (1978). He died on 14 June 1980 in Buffalo, New York, USA.The March (1964) - 7/7/2020- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), and the black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions, although both Snowpiercer and Okja (2017) are mostly in the English language. Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival-Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019; the latter earned the Palme d'Or, which was a first for a South Korean film. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations, with Bong winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making Parasite the first film not in English to win Best Picture. In 2017, Bong was included on Metacritic's list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. In 2020, Bong was included in Time's annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50.Incoherence (1994) - 10/20/2020- Animation Department
- Director
- Additional Crew
Motion picture animator best known for his contributions to the Popeye the Sailor cartoons of the 1930s. Born in New York City, Bowsky joined the Fleischer Studios in the late 1920s and quickly became one of its star artists, winning promotion to animator at age 23. His drawing skills and instinctive feel for jazz rhythms made him an asset on such early Betty Boop cartoons as the classic "Minnie the Moocher" (1932). He became a supervising animator in 1933. Although Dave Fleischer was the credited director of all the studio's output, he left the "staging" of the films to men like Bowsky, who headed their own creative teams. Bowsky's work was quite stylish in its fluid movement and well-chosen compositions. From 1933 to 1941 he was animation director for over 30 Popeye cartoons, including the Technicolor two-reelers "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" (Academy Award nomination, 1936) and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" (1937), and collaborated in that capacity on the Fleischers' feature-length films "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (aka "Hoppity Goes to Town", 1941). His last work was on the "Superman" series (1941 to 1942), the first time that comic strip superhero was brought to the screen. When Paramount Pictures reorganized the Fleischer company as Famous Studios in 1942, Bowsky left for World War II service in the US Army. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 14th Armored Division, and saw action in the Normandy Invasion. On November 27, 1944, Bowsky and four men in his platoon were killed in a nighttime firefight with German forces east of Paris, France. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Bowsky is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-Avold, France.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Jasper Ewing Brady was born on 12 September 1866 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and director, known for The Man She Brought Back (1922), The Island of Regeneration (1915) and The Divorce Trap (1919). He was married to Lillian Fowler Miller, Marjorie Estelle Shoals, Virginia Nelles Wright and Emma Augusta Dennis. He died on 8 August 1940 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.The Singing Brakeman (1929) - 10/17/2023- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Stan Brakhage was born on 14 January 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Loom (1986), The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (2000) and Dog Star Man (1964). He was married to Marilyn Jull and Jane Wodening. He died on 9 March 2003 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Centuries of June (1955) - 6/1/2021
Window Water Baby Moving (1959) - 2/19/2019
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971) - 2/26/2019- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Lou Breslow was born on 18 July 1900 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Battle of Broadway (1938), You Never Can Tell (1951) and Damon Runyon Theater (1955). He was married to Marion Byron. He died on 10 November 1987 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Punch Drunks (1934) - 9/20/2022- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jeffrey D. Brown is known for Sold (2014), Molly's Pilgrim (1985) and CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984).Molly's Pilgrim (1985) - 11/23/2021- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Had been out of work and was pretty much broke when he killed himself. He borrowed Buster Keaton's gun and after eating a meal that he could not pay for, shot himself. There are two stories; One says it was in the restroom of the cafe on Santa Monica Blvd, and the other story states he did it in the phone booth. His last real work was directing Buster Keaton on his local Los Angeles tv show on KTTV. This was in the early fifties and it was live. The show ran for just a year, but was popular. KTTV was having money problems and could not keep it on the air. The few tapes that survived show Keaton doing his typical gags, many that had been re-worked from his past glory.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Rudy Burckhardt was born on 5 April 1914 in Basel, Switzerland. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Inside Dope (1971), Square Times (1967) and Seeing the World: Part One - A Visit to New York, N.Y. (1937). He was married to Yvonne Jacquette and Edith Schloss,. He died on 1 August 1999 in Searsmont, Maine, USA.Nymphlight (1957) - 6/8/2021- Music Artist
- Composer
- Actor
David Byrne is an Oscar winning composer, songwriter and singer, best known for being frontman of the New Wave/punk band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Born in Scotland but raised in the United States in Maryland, Byrne began performing musically in high school.
Byrne attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) between 1970 and '71. He dropped out to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art before dropping out for good in 1972. He returned to Providence and started a band in 1973 called The Artistics with Chris Frantz, whom he knew at RISD. The band broke up in May '74 and Byrne moved to New York, followed by Frantz and his girlfriend Tina Weymouth in September. The three started performing as Talking Heads in 1975. The band was one of the major acts of the punk and new wave scene of the 1970s.
Byrne won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for his soundtrack to the movie The Last Emperor (1987) in 1988, the same year Talking Heads ceased to function. Except for a brief reunion in 1991, the band stopped recording together in '88 as Byrne launched a solo career. Talking Heads were inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime (1981) - 11/1/2022- Producer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Steven Cantor is best known as the director of such hit documentaries as Dancer (2017) Chasing Tyson (2015), loudQUIETloud: A Film About Pixies (2011) and What Remains (2007). He is also the producer of such films as STEP (2017), Devil's Playground (2002), Reporter (2011) and Unraveled (2012). He is the founder of NY based Stick Figure Productions.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Peter Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Nancy (Soutar) and Gerald John Capaldi. His parents owned an ice cream business. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), Scottish, and Irish descent. Capaldi attended drama classes and was accepted into the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating he secured his breakthrough role in Local Hero (1983). Prior to becoming an actor he also worked as a graphic designer for BBC Scotland TV.
Peter was announced as the Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who (2005) on 4th August 2013 on a BBC special programme. He had to hide it from his daughter who remarked to him why it is his name never came up during the buzz. It was a huge relief not to have to keep the secret anymore. His agent called and said "Hello Doctor" when informing him he had gotten the part.Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (1993) - 12/22/2020- Director
- Writer
- Producer
With only three feature films, Carlos Carrera is considered one of the best young directors of the new Mexican cinema. He began as an animator at 12 years old and wrote, produced and directed a number of animated-shorts before filming his first live-action movie, a docummentary short titled Vestidito Blanco como la Leche Nido, Un (1989). He studied filmmaking at the Training Center of Cinematography (Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica) in Mexico City. After that, Carrera made his first feature, Mujer de Benjamín, La (1991). This film won the Mexican Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and many prizes in film festivals. After his second feature film, Vida conyugal, La (1993), Carrera made Héroe, El (1994), an animated short winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes Festival.El héroe (1994) - 11/17/2020- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Shawn Christensen graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Illustration and Graphic Design. After graduating, he formed indie rock band Stellastarr* and, while on tour, wrote and sold many screenplays, including Sidney Hall (Fox Searchlight) and Karma Coalition (Warner Bros.). Stellastarr* released two albums on RCA Records and a third album, independently. In 2011, Christensen's short film, Brink, was an Official Selection of the Tribeca Film Festival and won "Best Festival Film of the Year" by ShortOfTheWeek.com. In 2012, his short film, Curfew, won over 40 awards in Film Festivals before winning the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards.
He is currently in pre-production on a feature film based on Curfew, and is attached to direct Sidney Hall.Curfew (2012) - 1/31/2017- Writer
- Director
- Producer
René Clair was born on 11 November 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on 15 March 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Entr'acte (1924) - 4/6/2021- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Born in San Diego, California, the young Robert Clampett was monumentally moved as a child by the film The Lost World (1925), inspiring him to create a sea-serpent sock-puppet that he used in puppet shows to entertain the neighborhood kids. This led him to create a stuffed Mickey Mouse toy, which became a prototype for the first mass-produced Mickey Mouse doll.
Between 1931 and 1947 Clampett was an animator and later director for the legendary Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Brothers Animation) where alongside his one time boss Tex Avery he became known as the wackiest and most archetypally cartoonish of all the directors.
During this time he also developed a test for a animated adaptation of 'John Carter of Mars' however, despite the support of the author Edgar Rice Burroughs it failed to materialize.
Amongst his famous fare was the Dalí inspired Porky in Wackyland (1938), his loving adaption of the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hatches the Egg (1942), the controversial all-black cast musical Snow White parody Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943), the Fantasia (1940) parody A Corny Concerto (1943) and John Kricfalusis's favorite cartoon The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) featuring the acerbic irreverence of Daffy Duck -- easily the most Clampett-esque of all his characters.
Clampett, at the time the longest serving employee at the animation studio, finally left in 1947. After a brief stint at Columbia, and a one-off cartoon at Republic It's a Grand Old Nag (1947) he was inspired by the new innovation of television to resurrect his old sea-serpent puppet, and created the phenomenally successful Time for Beany (1949)_ puppet television show, which was acclaimed by the likes of Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx, and even inspired the AC/DC line "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap".
Clampett later returned to animation as a supervising producer on a cartoon series based on the characters of his puppet show Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1959).Porky in Wackyland (1938) - 1/30/2018
A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) - 8/21/2018
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943) - 5/23/2023
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) - 1/23/2024- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Edward "Eddie" Cline began his career in the film business as one of the Keystone Kops. The former vaudevillian appeared sporadically in films as an actor until 1922, but became increasingly active behind the camera as a gagman and scenario writer for Mack Sennett. From 1916 he worked on a steady stream of two-reelers, either as director or assistant director, for such comedians as Buster Keaton, Ford Sterling and Mack Swain. An expert in slapstick comedy with an unerring sense of timing, Cline was consistently in demand by Hollywood studios during the 1920s and served short-term contracts with Fox (the "Sunshine" comedies), Pathe, First National, MGM and Paramount.
During the sound era he had more periods of steadier employment, particularly at Universal (1939-45). He became the favorite director of comedian W.C. Fields. In fact, Fields would often demand Cline's participation, much to the consternation of the studios. In one instance, director Edward Sedgwick was assigned to the Fields comedy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939), but was replaced by Cline just two days into shooting because he couldn't get along with Fields. Cline frequently worked out comedy routines by standing in for the Fields character in rehearsals. As for being able to get along with the notoriously prickly star, Cline believed in just "letting him run with it" and later editing out any unwanted ad-libs (which Fields had a habit of inserting at the end of his lines). Unfortunately, those famous ad-libs often tended to crack up the camera crew and ruin the take . . .
Cline directed Fields in some of his funniest comedies, including My Little Chickadee (1940) and The Bank Dick (1940) (the climactic car chase was largely due to Cline's input). He teamed up once more with Keaton for the anachronistic slapstick farce The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940). Cline's output diminished by the mid-'40s and he retired from directing in 1951.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
George Coe was born on 10 May 1929 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He was married to Karen Foray, Nancy Baker and Susan Allsopp Massaron. He died on 18 July 2015 in Santa Monica, California, USA.De Düva: The Dove (1968) - 4/28/2020- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Pioneering animator Emile Cohl was born Emile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet in Paris, France, in 1857. He began his career as a caricaturist, cartoonist and writer in his 20s, and in 1908 he was hired by the Gaumont film company as a writer. He soon also became a director, turning out comedies and fantasies, but animated films--which were just starting to come into their own--fascinated him and he began experimenting with them. He worked with line drawings, silhouettes and puppets, and in 1908 he turned out A Fantasy (1908), generally considered to be the first fully animated film (it consisted of 700 drawings of a character he created, "Fantoche", each separately photographed). He made more than 250 animated films between 1908 and 1923 for a variety of studios, including Eclair and Pathe.
Unfortunately, Cohl was financially ruined by the Great Depression of the early 1930s, and he died in poverty in France in 1938 after having caught pneumonia.A Fantasy (1908) - 11/16/2021- Director
- Animation Department
- Editor
Vince Collins is known for Unofficial Reality (2005), General Chaos: Uncensored Animation (1998) and Santa Barbara (1984).Malice in Wonderland (1982) - 9/14/2021- Animation Department
- Director
- Actor
Richard Condie was born in 1942 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is a director and actor, known for The Big Snit (1985), La Salla (1996) and The Cat Came Back (1988).The Big Snit (1985) - 1/14/2020- Bruce Conner was born in McPherson, Kansas, in 1933 and studied art at Wichita University, the University of Nebraska, the Brooklyn Art School, and the University of Colorado. Moving to San Francisco in 1957, Conner became involved with the Beatniks. He continued to live and work in San Francisco, until his death in 2008.
Conner first made a name for himself in the 1950s with assemblages/sculptures of found objects. In the late 1950s, he began making short movies that proved highly influential and established him as one of the seminal figures in the history of independent, avant-garde filmmaking. Conner's first film, A Movie (1958), a visual collage created from bits of B-movies, newsreels, and other footage, has been listed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Connor was also responsible for Crossroads (1976), produced with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, which turned the destructive and sinister atom-bomb test in Bikini Atoll into elegiac visual poetry.A Movie (1958) - 10/13/2020 - Director
- Writer
- Editor
Joseph Cornell was born on 24 December 1903 in Nyack, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Children's Jury (1938), The Midnight Party (1969) and Children's Party (1938). He died on 29 December 1972 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.- Animation Department
- Director
- Actress
Sally Cruikshank was born in Chatham, New Jersey, USA. She is known for Mannequin (1987), Top Secret! (1984) and Ruthless People (1986). She is married to Jon Davison.Quasi at the Quackadero (1976) - 9/26/2023- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Adam Davidson was born on 13 August 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a director and producer, known for The Lunch Date (1989), Community (2009) and You, Me and Dupree (2006). He has been married to Jessica Lynn Pahlow since 19 November 2006.The Lunch Date (1989) - 1/25/2022- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Sid Davis was born on 1 April 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Name Unknown (1951), On the Run (1956) and Live and Learn (1951). He was married to Norma Rosalind Henkins. He died on 16 October 2006 in Palm Desert, California, USA.Boys Beware (1962) - 7/26/2022- Director
- Writer
- Actress
Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the pogroms organized by the Bolsheviks against the Jews. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse University in New York, finishing her BA at the New York University (NYU) in June 1936, and then received her MA in English literature from the Smith College in 1939.
In 1943, she made her first film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), co-starring with Alexander Hammid. Through this association, at Hammid's suggestion, she changed her name to Maya, meaning "illusion." Overall, she made six short films and several incomplete films, including Witch's Cradle (1944) starring Marcel Duchamp.
Deren is the author of two books, "An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form, and Film" 1946 (reprinted in "The Legend of Maya Deren," vol 1, part 2) and "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" (1953)--a book that was made after her first trip to Haiti in 1947 and which is still considered one of the most useful on Haitian Voudoun. Deren wrote numerous articles on film and on Haiti. Maya Deren shot over 18,000 feet of film in Haiti from 1947 to 1954 on Haitian Voudoun, parts of which can be viewed in Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1993) made after her death by her then-husband Teiji Ito and his new wife Cherel Ito.
In 1947, Maya Deren became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim grant for creative work in motion pictures. She wrote film theory, distributed her own films, traveled across the USA, and went to Cuba and Canada to promote her films using the lecture-demonstration format to teach film theory, and Voudoun and the interrelationship of magic, science, and religion. Deren established the Creative Film Foundation in the late 1950s to reward the achievements of independent filmmakers.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Director
John Dilworth was born on 14 February 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for The Dirdy Birdy (1995), The Chicken from Outer Space (1996) and Courage the Cowardly Dog (1999).- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
Benjamin Doniger was born on 14 July 1903 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Modesta (1955), Louisiana Story (1948) and Pedacito de tierra (1953). He was married to Margot Ferra. He died on 6 March 1988 in Tampa, Florida, USA.Modesta (1955) - 4/25/2023- Animation Department
- Writer
- Director
Michael Dudok de Wit was born on 15 July 1953 in Abcoude, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a writer and director, known for The Red Turtle (2016), Father and Daughter (2000) and The Monk and the Fish (1994).Father and Daughter (2000) - 6/13/2017- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Heinz Dunkhase was born on 12 October 1928 in Hamburg, Germany. He was a director and actor, known for Das Programm geht weiter... (1961), Dinner for One (1963) and Der Schwiegermuttermörder (1963). He died on 3 August 1987 in Hamburg, West Germany.Dinner for One (1963) - 12/31/2019- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Eames spent his childhood and youth in St. Louis, where he also attended high school. After graduating, he studied architecture at Washington University from 1925 to 1928. He then settled in New York. In 1936, Eames received a scholarship to the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Michigan. He later took up a teaching position there. His colleagues included the well-known Italian painter and sculptor Harry Bertoia and the celebrated Finnish architect Eero Saarinen as well as the painter Ray Kaiser. In 1941, Charles Eames and Ray Kaiser (1916-1988) celebrated their wedding. In the same year they founded a joint design studio, which led to a successful professional collaboration from the 1940s to the 1970s, which made both of them one of the leading designers of the 20th century.
From 1941 to 1943 the first furniture designs were created together with Eero Saarinen. They also made arm and leg splints and stretchers out of plywood for the US Navy. To do this, they invented a new process to deform layered glued wood in three dimensions. In 1946, Eames took part in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with some experimental works using this production method, after which he received a job as a furniture designer at Herman Miller. Charles Eames developed progressive furniture design with rational design. In the same year he had his first solo exhibition at the "Museum of Modern Art" under the title "New Furniture by Charles Eames". Eames experimented with fiberglass as a material to make furniture.
In 1948 he presented a chair made of molded fiberglass, which later became the first piece of plastic furniture to go into large-scale production. Commercial series production offered the opportunity not only to produce designer objects economically and quickly, but also to copy them. Eames attracted international attention when he took part in the "Low-cost Furniture" competition at the Museum of Modern Art New York with his fiberglass chair. Eames won second prize with the innovative design. He gave new impetus to furniture design and construction, primarily through the use of fiberglass as a material. But his design designs in a timeless stylistic language also had a significant influence on the industry. Eames chairs are still in demand today.
In 1956, Miller created the legendary "Lounge Chair", which is now one of Eames' most popular works and stands for classic modernism like no other piece of furniture. It was presented to the public for the first time in March 1956. Pieces from the first series are now traded like works of art. Eames worked with his wife Ray on various projects in the fields of film, photography, industrial design, toys, exhibitions, books, architecture and fine art. The couple made over 85 films, including films about the painters Cézanne and Degas. The short film entitled "The Power of Ten", in German: "Zehn hoch", is considered one of the best. For the 1959 World's Fair they made the multiscreen film called "Insights into the USA", which made the couple known as filmmakers.
In addition to attractive designer furniture, the Eames couple also designed functional office furniture made of metal, plastic, molded wood, chrome and leather. In their work they combined quality with economy and aesthetics. Eames also applied these principles to architecture. He was interested in producing standard elements economically and with little material expenditure, with the aim of versatile and effective use. In this way, Charles and Ray Eames also built their own house from a steel and glass structure in Los Angeles. It is an example of an economical living space in an avant-garde style that combines industrially manufactured elements with handcrafted and handcrafted objects.
Charles Eames died on August 21, 1978 in St. Louis. His wife Ray Eames died exactly ten years later on August 21, 1988 in Los Angeles.Powers of Ten (1977) - 5/8/2018- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Ray Eames was born on 15 December 1912 in Sacramento, California, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Where Did You Go?' 'Out.' 'What Did You Do?' 'Nothing. (1960), The Lick Observatory (1968) and Decorator Crab (1969). She was married to Charles Eames. She died on 21 August 1988 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.Powers of Ten (1977) - 5/8/2018- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Production Designer
Ralph Eggleston was born on 18 October 1965 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. He was a production designer, known for Finding Nemo (2003), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and WALL·E (2008). He died on 28 August 2022 in California, USA.For the Birds (2000) - 7/10/2018- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Grew up on a shrimp farm in southern Australia together with two brothers, one sister and two parrots. He discerned his artistic abilities at an early age and spent five years studying photography, painting, pottery etc. In 1996 he began his studies at the Victorian College of the Arts where Uncle (1996), the first part of his trilogy, was made. After he graduated in 1997, the trilogy was completed with Cousin (1999) and Brother (2000).Harvie Krumpet (2003) - 4/4/2017- Cinematographer
Barney Elliott was born on 24 July 1906 in Rock Island, Illinois, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (1940). He died on 20 July 1997 in Tacoma, Washington, USA.Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (1940) - 4/9/2024- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Robert Enrico studied in Toulon and then in Paris where he graduated from Lycée Voltaire. He later enrolled in the famous film school IDHEC where he specialized in editing and directing. Until 1956 he was an active member of the Sorbonne's medieval group "Les Théophiliens". From 1956 to 1959 he did his military service within the Service Cinématographique des Armées. His shorts gave him critical acclaim very early in his career. Having become the maker of popular movies after an arty debut, he was awarded the best movie "César" for The Old Gun (1975) before becoming the long-time president of "L'Académie des Césars".Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961) - 8/29/2017- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Rob Epstein was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA as Robert P. Epstein. He is a producer and director, known for The Celluloid Closet (1995), Paragraph 175 (2000) and The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).
Rob has produced films that have screened worldwide, in cinemas, on television, home video and digital platforms, at museums, and at leading film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York. Rob has received two Academy Awards®, five Emmy Awards, three Peabodys and both a Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowship.
Rob moved by bus from New York City to San Francisco at age 19. His first job in the city was as an usher at the Castro Theater back when there was still a smoking section. While taking a filmmaking class at San Francisco State University, he became a production assistant on a documentary in early development where he met his mentor, Peter Adair. He quickly rose to co-director, with the other members of the Mariposa Film Group. The film became the landmark documentary Word Is Out, released in theaters in 1978, airing nationally on prime-time public television, and recently restored and re-released by Milestone.
Rob's next project was the Oscar-winning feature documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, which he conceived, directed, co-produced and co-edited. The film touched audiences immediately, becoming an international festival sensation starting at Berlinale, and winning the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary as well as the New York Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film of 1985. In 2013, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry, and the film is now part of the prestigious Criterion Collection. Harvey Milk was recently named one of "25 most influential documentaries of all time" by the Cinema Eye honors and in 2017 received the Legacy Award.
Since 1987, Rob and his producing partner Jeffrey Friedman have worked under the Telling Pictures banner, traversing the worlds of non-fiction and scripted narrative. Rob won his second Oscar for the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, made with Jeffrey Friedman. Rob's other films with Jeffrey include the box office hit The Celluloid Closet (Emmy Award for directing), the HBO documentary Paragraph 175 (Sundance Film Festival Jury Award for Directing), Where Are We?, And the Oscar Goes to for Turner Classic Movies and most recently Killing the Colorado, a feature documentary about the drought in the Western U.S. premiering on Discovery Channel in August 2016.
In moving from documentary to dramatic narrative, Rob and Jeffrey collaborated on the narrative feature HOWL, starring James Franco, followed by Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and Sharon Stone, and released by The Weinstein Company's Radius-TWC. Both films premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. HOWL was developed at the Sundance Institute Writer's Lab, where Rob and Jeffrey were Sundance Screenwriting Fellows in 2009, and was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It received the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.
In addition to his Oscars for The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads, Rob has received several Peabody and Emmy Awards, as well as Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships. In 2008, Rob was recognized with the Pioneer Award from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for distinguished lifetime achievement. He has also received achievement awards from Frameline (1990), Outfest (2000) and the Provincetown International Film Festival. In 2016, Epstein was awarded the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Screenwriting Grant by the San Francisco Film Society for his original screenplay Dogpatch (working title).
Career retrospectives honoring Rob's work have been presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London (ICA), the Taipei International Film Festival in Taiwan, the Cinémathéque Québécoise in Montreal, and the Pink Apple Film Festival in Zurich.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Rob is a professor at California College of the Arts, where he serves as Co-chair of the Film program. He has been a visiting professor at the Graduate Film Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He serves on the Sundance Institute's Board of Trustees and is a member of the Directors Guild of America as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch where he served as an elected member of the Board of Governors for three terms.End Game (2018) - 3/31/2020- Director
- Animation Department
- Producer
Dave Fleischer was an American film producer and director of animated films. He co-founded the animation studio Fleischer Studios (1929-1942) with his brother Max Fleischer. Dave is primarily remembered for directing the studio's only two feature films: "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941). They were both among the earliest American animated feature films, and were intended to compete with the productions of the Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Fleischer was born in New York City, and grew up in the impoverished Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn. In early life, he worked as an usher at the Palace Theater on Broadway. He became familiar with the gags and comic timing required in vaudeville-style comic acts, which were featured in the theater. These familiarity would later influence his output as a director.
At one point, Fleischer worked as a clown for a sideshow amusement in Coney Island. His costume and mannerisms for this job were used as an inspiration for Koko the Clown, the first star character of the Fleischer brothers. In c. 1913, Fleischer was hired as a film cutter for Pathé Exchange. The company was the American subsidiary of the French film production and distribution company Pathé. This was Fleischer's earliest known involvement with the film industry.
In 1921, the Fleischer brothers set up their first animation studio: Out of the Inkwell Films. It was located in midtown Manhattan. Dave served as both the director and the production supervisor of their animated short films. The studio soon became one of the leading production companies in animation, due to introducing a number of technological innovations. In 1924, the Fleischer brothers became partners in the Red Seal Pictures Corporation, a new chain of movie theaters. They soon acquired the rights to use Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system for sound films. The Fleischer brothers produced the earliest animated sound films in 1924.
By 1926, Red Seal owned 56 movie theaters but was not particularly profitable. It soon filed for bankruptcy, but the animation studio of the Fleischer brothers survived for a while due to signing a contract with Paramount Pictures. Following the termination of this contract, Out of the Inkwell filed for bankruptcy in January 1929. In March of the same year, the Fleischer brothers established the new Fleischer Studios. They soon gained a new contract with Paramount, securing their funding.
During the 1930s, Dave supervised the production of two lucrative series of animated short films. One featured Betty Boop, lasting from 1932 to 1939. The other featured Popeye the Sailor, lasting from 1933 to 1942. In 1938, the studio was relocated from New York City to Miami, Florida. By that time, Dave was already working in the production of his first animated feature film, "Gulliver's Travels" (1939). The film earned about 3.3 million dollars at the domestic box office, but Paramount received the lion's share of the profits. It also requested the Fleischer Studios to pay a penalty fee for going over budget. Leaving the animation studio in debt.
In the early 1940s, Dave launched production of several new animated series in hopes of keeping the studio afloat. "Stone Age Cartoons" (1940) anachronistically featured elements of modern life in prehistory. "Gabby" (1940-1941) featured a supporting character from "Gulliver's Travels" as its main star. "Animated Antics" (1940-1941) was an anthology series, often showcasing the supporting characters of "Gulliver's Travels". All these series were commercial flops, met with indifference by theater owners and the general audience. Max eventually secured a contract to produce a superhero animated series featuring Superman. This lasted from 1941 to 1942, and was better received by the public. The Superman short films had a higher budget than previous productions of the studio.
Dave soon went to work in directing and producing his second feature film, "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941). But his personal and professional relationship with his brother had increasingly deteriorated since the late 1930s, and Dave decided to resign from the studio prior to the film's release. He resigned in late November 1941, though his resignation was not officially announced until December 31. The financially declining Fleischer Studios was soon acquired by Paramount, which turned it into the subsidiary company Famous Studios (1942-1967).
By April 1942, Dave had been hired as a producer by another animation studio. He was working for Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. Fleischer soon replaced Frank Tashlin (1913-1972) as the new studio head. He supervised the production of "The Fox and the Crow" (1941-1950), which soon became the studio's most popular series. He also produced an animated film series based on the comic strip "Li'l Abner", and continued the low-budget anthology series "Phantasies" (1939-1948). In 1944, Fleischer was fired by Harry Cohn (1891-1958), the then-studio head of Columbia. The reasons for his termination are unclear, but Fleischer was replaced by Henry Binder.
In the mid-1940s, Fleischer developed an elf-like new character, called Snippy. He tried to secure funding for a new animated series from Republic Pictures, but the project ended in development hell. Republic instead hired Fleischer to provide animation sequences for its B-movies. Fleischer resurfaced in the 1950s, as an employee of Filmack Trailer. He was put to work in animating a series of Technicolor theatrical snipes. The most famous of these was the musical advertisement "Let's All Go to the Lobby" (1957), which continued to be used for decades.
At a later point, Fleischer was hired as a "Technical Specialist" by Universal Pictures. His job required him to work as a special-effects expert and general problem-solver for various live-action films. His most famous film in this position was the natural horror film "The Birds" (1963), where he collaborated with veteran animator and technician Ub Iwerks. Universal also asked Fleischer to supervise the English language dubbing of the Soviet animated feature film "The Snow Queen" (1957).
Fleischer's last work as a technical adviser was in the live-action film "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967), a period piece set in the 1920s. He then permanently retired. He spend the last decades of his life living at the Peyton Hall apartment complex on Hollywood Boulevard. In June 1979, Fleischer suffered a stroke. He died shortly after, at the age of 84. Though long gone, Dave Fleischer is fondly remembered by fans of traditional animation. Several of his works became available at the home video market, introducing his style to new generations of animation fans.Swing You Sinners! (1930) - 11/2/2021
Bimbo's Initiation (1931) - 4/30/2019
Minnie the Moocher (1932) - 6/14/2022
Snow-White (1933) - 4/24/2018
The Old Man of the Mountain (1933) - 6/11/2019
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936) - 7/27/2021- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Robert Florey became infatuated with Hollywood while in his teens. By the time he set off for America in the early 1920s he had written articles on film for Cinemagazine, La Cinematographie Francaise and Le Technicien du Film, acted and directed one-reel shorts in Switzerland and worked as an assistant for Louis Feuillade at his studio in Nice. Sent to Hollywood as a correspondent for one of his French publications, he decided to settle down and learn the film business "from the bottom up", first as a gag writer, then as director of foreign publicity for Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. In 1924 he was signed by MGM as assistant director on a two-year contract, moving on to Paramount as full director in 1928. During this period of apprenticeship he learned the tricks of his trade under such experienced craftsmen as King Vidor and Josef von Sternberg. His first claim to directing fame were two highly acclaimed avant-garde short films, The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928), and Skyscraper Symphony (1929) -- both heavily influenced by German expressionist cinema. Florey was also tasked with co-directing (alongside Joseph Santley) the first wacky comedy with The Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts (1929), shot at Paramount's Astoria studio, near Broadway (Groucho Marx was not impressed with either director; he once said about them that "one of them didn't understand Harpo [Harpo Marx] and the other one didn't understand English").
After a spell at the German studio UFA in 1929, Florey joined Universal in 1931. His request to write and direct Frankenstein (1931) with Bela Lugosi was initially accepted. However, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. ultimately disliked Lugosi 's make-up for the monster, and Lugosi himself resented not having a speaking part. Much of Florey's script also ended up on the cutting room floor, except for several key ingredients, such as the ending in the windmill. As consolation for missing out on the prestigious assignment (which went to James Whale), Florey was given a lesser project, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), with Lugosi as Dr. Mirakle, a demented Darwinian scientist who crossbreeds humans with apes. The stylized, distorted buildings of Florey's Parisian sets were once again reminiscent of German expressionism, notably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Florey, from then on, was set on a career of helming second features for Warner Brothers (1933-35), Paramount (1935-40), Columbia (1941), Warner Brothers again (1942-46) and United Artists (1948-50). As a result of his affinity with horror and science-fiction, he did his best work in these genres. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) has become something of a cult classic and is notable for some clever montage and animation effects, as well as an effectively eerie atmosphere. Unfortunately, the anti-climactic downbeat ending (a result of studio interference) rather lessened the picture's overall impact.
In 1951, Florey stopped making features and became prodigiously active as a director of television episodes. In 1953 he won the first Directors Guild of America Award bestowed for TV direction, for The Last Voyage (1953). He also wrote eight influential books on the history of cinema.The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928) - 12/13/2022- Actor
- Sound Department
- Director
Ernie Fosselius was born on 23 October 1945 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Hardware Wars (1978), Porklips Now (1980) and Spaceballs (1987).Hardware Wars (1978) - 1/2/2018- Director
- Writer
- Composer
Georges Franju is a figure of immense importance in the history of French cinema, not primarily for his films (exceptional though many of these are) but for being the co-founder, with Henri Langlois, of the Cinematheque Française in 1937--France's most famous and important film archive.
He worked primarily as a film archivist until 1949, when he made his solo directorial debut with the shocking yet lyrical slaughterhouse documentary Blood of the Beasts (1949). More documentary shorts followed before his feature debut, Head Against the Wall (1959) in 1958, which established his uniquely poetic and visually striking style (his films were generally characterized by unforgettable images that owed a great deal to early cinema in general and German Expressionism in particular). His reputation was strengthened with the bizarre plastic surgery horror film Eyes Without a Face (1960); Judex (1963), a tribute to French film serial pioneer Louis Feuillade in 1963; and the Jean Cocteau adaptation Thomas the Impostor (1965), though in the last 15 years of his life he was sadly neglected.Blood of the Beasts (1949) - 5/25/2021- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Herz Frank was born on 17 January 1926 in Ludza, Latvia. He was a director and writer, known for Flashback (2003), Reiz dzivoja septini Simeoni (1989) and Augstaka tiesa (1987). He died on 3 March 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel.Par desmit minutem vecaks (1978) - 2/18/2020- Director
- Producer
- Animation Department
Friz Freleng was born Isadore Freleng on August 21, 1906 in Kansas City, Missouri. With no formal training in drawing, his first job as an animator was with United Film Advancement Services in 1924 at the age of 17. The first work Friz is credited with was for Disney Studios where he worked as an animator on the "Alice" series in 1927. Friz then did some animation for Robert Winkler Productions in 1928 starting with Fiery Fireman and for Screen Gems (Port Whines) in 1929, but it was his work in Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid (1929) in 1929 under the direction of Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising when he first worked for Warner Brothers, though known at that time as Leon Schlesinger Studios.
Under Leon Schlesinger's supervision in the budding animation department of Warner Brothers, Freleng's career as an animator and director rocketed, producing some of the most beloved cartoons in America's golden age of animation.
Freleng worked as the head animator and oftentimes producer on the two main animation subdivisions established by Warner Brothers, Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies.
In the late forties, after Tex Avery and Robert Clampett had left Warner Brothers, Freleng's career as a director soared. Though nominated throughout his career for numerous Academy Awards, it wasn't until 1947 that he eventually took the Oscar for Tweetie Pie (1947). Freleng then won Oscars for Speedy Gonzales (1955) in 1955, Birds Anonymous (1957) in 1957, Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) in 1958, and The Pink Phink (1964) in 1964.
In 1963, Freleng along with David De Patie created the DePatie-Freleng Studio that specialized in short films and television commercials. It was here that Freleng enjoyed great success with his Pink Panther television series.
Freleng returned to Warner Brothers to direct a number of specials, such as Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) and Porky Pig in Hollywood.
In 1986, Freleng appeared as himself in the Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary (1986), and three years later he made another appearance in the television special, Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town (1988).
Freleng, in addition to his production work, wrote the script for The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), while contributing to the Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) and Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983).
He also penned the book "Animation: The Art of Friz Freleng" (1994).
The New York Museum of Modern Art honored both Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones in a 1985 retrospective that set attendance records for the institution that remain unbroken to this day.
Friz Freleng passed away due to a heart ailment at his home in Los Angeles on May 26, 1995 at the age of 88.
Today Freleng's artwork is highly prized and sought by many collectors. Expect to pay a pretty penny for his work.You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940) - 4/3/2018
Bunker Hill Bunny (1950) - 7/4/2017
Ballot Box Bunny (1951) - 11/7/2017
Bugs and Thugs (1954) - 12/26/2023
Speedy Gonzales (1955) - 12/3/2019- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Jeffrey Friedman is a producer, director, and editor, known for Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019), The Celluloid Closet (1995) and Howl (2010).
Jeffrey began his film career in New York City working with some of the most respected filmmakers in the industry. He apprenticed with the legendary editor Dede Allen on the Arthur Penn segment of Visions of Eight (1973), and assisted Thelma Schoonmaker on Martin Scorcese's Raging Bull (Academy Award, Film Editing, 1980). His editing credits include three Oscar-nominated documentaries, one of which, Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989), won for Best Documentary Feature.End Game (2018) - 3/31/2020- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Richard Gale is known for The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon (2008), Criticized (2006) and Pressure (2002).- Director
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Clyde Geronimi was born on 12 June 1901 in Chiavenna, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He died on 24 April 1989 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Burt Gillett was an animator from the state of New York, and a notable director of animated short films. He directed about a 100 short films between 1920 and 1940, but is best remembered for directing "Three Little Pigs" (1933) for the Disney studio.
Gillett started his film career c. 1916, when he was hired by the animation studio "International Film Service" (1915-1921). It was a subsidiary company of the International News Service, owned by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). The studio focused on creating adaptations for then-popular comic strips, such as "Krazy Kat," "The Katzenjammer Kids," and "Happy Hooligan."
Gillett worked in relative obscurity, until 1929 when hired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Studio head Walt Disney was facing a problem at the time, because Ub Iwerks was the only experienced animator on the studio's staff. Walt decided to head to New York City and to offer employment to a number of experienced animators working in the city's studios. Gillett was the second animator to accept Walt's offer, following Ben Sharpsteen.
By the summer of 1929, Gillett had become on the Disney's leading directors. He took over control of the "Mickey Mouse" film series, starting with the short film "Wild Waves". In 1930, Gillett also started directing films in the "Silly Symphonies" film series, an anthology which focused on one-shot characters. His first film in the series was "Cannibal Capers", featuring the tribal dance of a cannibal tribe.
Two of Gillett's short films won the "Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film": "Flowers and Trees" (1932) and "Three Little Pigs" (1933). "Flowers and Trees" was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, an is credited as a milestone in the development of color films. "Three Little Pigs" introduced Disney's version of the Big Bad Wolf (also known as "Zeke Wolf") and the Three Little Pigs. The characters later became regularly featured characters in Disney comic strips and comic books.
Due to his newfound fame in the animation industry, Gillett was offered a more lucrative position as the new studio head of the animation studio Van Beuren Studios. Gillett started working there in 1934, and helped the studio transition to producing only color cartoon shorts.
While at Van Beuren, Gillett introduced the film series "Rainbow Parade." It was a "Silly Symphonies"-style anthology series, produced fully in Technicolor. Gillett personally directed many of the series' films. His most notable works for the studio included the "Molly Moo-Cow" sub-series (1935-1936), three animated adaptation of the popular comic strip "Toonerville Folks" (1908-1955), and a few color films for Felix the Cat.
Gillett's policies at the Van Beuren studios were controversial at the time. In order to compete effectively with the Disney studio, Gillett adopted several of the methods and techniques used by Disney. This made the studio's products seem more modern, but their films were seen as derivative. Gillett also fired several animators who had failed to meet his quality standards. His most controversial policy was forcing employees to work overtime to complete films, without any compensation for the extra hours.
In the mid-1930s, the Animated Motion Picture Workers Union (AMPWU) filed a complain against Van Beuren with the National Labor Relations Board. Their complain was based on Gillett's policies, but the Board decided in favor of the studio management. Gillett celebrated his victory by firing union agitators.
The Van Beuren studio shut down in 1936, leaving Gillett temporarily unemployed. The studio had lost its main distributor, RKO Pictures, and was unable to find another distributor. RKO had signed an exclusive deal to distribute Disney's films, and most major film studios already had animation subsidiaries.
Gillett was re-hired by the Disney studio, and he returned to directing films. His most notable film during this period of his career was the horror comedy "Lonesome Ghosts" (1937). It featured Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as ghost hunters. The film's ghosts were portrayed as malicious pranksters. The short has received a number of adaptations of its own, including scenes in Disney-related video games.
In 1938, Gillett was hired by the Walter Lantz Studio. He worked as a director for a hand full of films, most notably introducing the new character Lil' Eightball, as a caricature of an African-American child. The character starred in three animated shorts, but was then retired. Gillett also directed a few entries in the popular "Andy Panda" series.
Gillett retired from the animation industry in 1940, and lived the rest of his life out of the limelight. He died in 1971, at the age of 80. His fame in the animation industry endures, in part due to directing several highly regarded short films, and in part due to his pioneering work in producing color films. Animation histories often include both his accomplishments and his controversial decisions.- Additional Crew
- Director
- Actor
Bob Gimlin is known for Man vs Bigfoot (2021), Patterson-Gimlin Film (1967) and The Legend of Grassman.Patterson-Gimlin Film (1967) - 7/16/2019- Editor
- Director
- Producer
Arthur Ginsberg is known for The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter (1993), Girls Nite Out (1982) and America Undercover (1983).Child of Rage (1990) - 12/1/2020- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Alan Gorg was born on 12 October 1931. He was a director and writer, known for Hollywood Love (1998), Earth Spirit (2006) and Living the Blues (1986). He was married to Gwyn Gorg. He died on 31 July 2020 in Waimea, Hawaii, USA.Felicia (1965) - 8/3/2021- Production Manager
- Producer
- Director
Les Goldman was born on 2 July 1913 in New York, USA. He was a production manager and producer, known for The Hangman (1964), The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965) and The Phantom Tollbooth (1970). He died on 27 May 1983 in Santa Cruz, California, USA.The Hangman (1964) - 4/26/2022- Animation Department
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) - 6/30/2020- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
Paul Gruwell was born on 28 November 1933 in the USA. He was a director, known for Heavy Metal (1981), Dino-Riders (1988) and Batman Beyond (1999). He was married to Sharon Ehler Gruwell and Elizabeth Gruwell. He died on 4 November 2014 in Bellingham, Washington, USA.Basketball Jones (1973) - 7/12/2022- Director
- Producer
- Writer
The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion picture production company when they switched to creating movies, and Guy became its first film director. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising its other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran Gaumont's British and German offices. The pair went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 Mme. Guy set up her own production company, Solax, in New York and with her husband built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, the couple's fortunes declined when Thomas Alva Edison's trust hindered film production in the East coast, and they eventually shut down the studio in 1919. Although her husband secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, Guy was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, never made a film again, most of her films were lost, some were credited to other film directors, and she did no receive recognition for her pioneering work in France and the United States. She returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blaché, and in 1964 returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughter, where she died in 1968.The Waterer Watered (1895) - 8/28/2018