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Graham Greene was born on 22 June 1952 in Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for The Green Mile (1999), Wind River (2017) and Dances with Wolves (1990). He has been married to Hilary Blackmore since 20 December 1990. They have two children.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Penn Jillette was born on 5 March 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989), Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (2003) and Hackers (1995). He has been married to Emily Zolten Jillette since 23 November 2004. They have two children.- Actor
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Robert Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he spent his whole childhood. He graduated from the William Penn Charter School and attended Yale University. At Yale, he landed a role in Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" and at age 19, he played a leading role in the European premiere of "Mass". Later, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Drama from Yale University. He appeared in the David Mamet play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and, with Diane Keaton, in "The Primary English Class". In 1977, he made his Broadway debut in the comedy hit, "Gemini", with Danny Aiello, and also appeared in Bernard Slade's "Tribute", "Beyond Therapy" as well as "Geniuses" and "The Normal Heart", for which he won a Drama-Logue Award.
Then, he became involved in television, where he soon was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Coach Cutlip on the series, The Wonder Years (1988). Robert appeared in several other series: China Beach (1988), Frasier (1993), Ally McBeal (1997), Home Improvement (1991), The Outer Limits (1995) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996).
In 1995, he got the role of the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager (1995), where he also directed two episodes. He also got roles in The Howling (1981), Star 80 (1983), Get Crazy (1983), Oh, God! You Devil (1984), Innerspace (1987), Munchies (1987), Samantha (1991), White Mile (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (2010), and so on.
He resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Linda, and their two daughters.- Writer
- Producer
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Teller was born on 14 February 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (2003), Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) and Tim's Vermeer (2013).- Producer
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An actor, comedian and writer, Seth Rogen has come a long way from doing stand-up comedy as a teen.
Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Sandy (Belogus), a social worker, and Mark Rogen, who worked for non-profits. His father is American-born and his mother is Canadian. He is of Russian Jewish descent. He attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School (although he dropped out of high school to move to Los Angeles) and was known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp. At sixteen, Rogen placed second in the 1998 Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest.
Soon after that he landed his first role in Judd Apatow's short-lived but well regarded TV series Freaks and Geeks (1999), taking on the role of Ken Miller. Though the show only lasted one season, it was the launching pad for many careers, including Rogen, Apatow, James Franco, and Jason Segel. This early work sharpened Rogen's keen improvisational skills, which he's used on many projects since.
Following Freaks and Geeks (1999), he participated in a few unsuccessful television projects, and then joined the American television version of Da Ali G Show (2000) as a writer during its second and last season, along with his childhood friend and writing partner Evan Goldberg. The writing team received an Emmy nomination. As a huge fan of the first season, Rogen was thrilled to get the chance to work with Sacha Baron Cohen.
Continuing his work with Apatow, he joined the cast of Apatow's debut film The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and is credited as co-producer. After that he took the lead in Knocked Up (2007), Apatow's second movie and a huge success. He's since been a frequent collaborator with Apatow, in projects such as Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008) and Funny People (2009). He co-wrote Superbad (2007), with Goldberg; the pair started the project when they were teens. They won the Canadian Comedy Award for Best Writing in a Film in 2008. They later wrote Pineapple Express (2008) and The Green Hornet (2011), also starring Rogen.
A talented voice artist, Rogen is in the animated films Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Kung Fu Panda (2008), and Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), and has voiced characters for The Simpsons (1989) and American Dad! (2005).
Rogen was named the Canadian Comedy Person of the Year by the Canadian Comedy Awards in both 2008 and 2009.
Rogen lives in Los Angeles with Lauren Miller Rogen, whom he met in 2004. They became engaged in September 2010 and married in October 2011.- Actor
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Andrew Dick is an American actor, producer and comedian. He is known for playing Boingo from Hoodwinked, Kramer from Inspector Gadget, Mr. Sheepman from Clone High, Mambo from Happily N'Ever After, Dylan from The Reef, Barry from Old School and Nuka from The Lion King II. He was married to Ivone Kowalczyk and had 3 children.- Actress
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Missi Pyle was born Andrea Kay Pyle on November 16, 1972 in Houston, Texas, and was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. The daughter of Linda and Frank Pyle, she has four older siblings, sisters Debbie and Julie, and brothers Sam and Paul. Pyle attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and graduated in 1995. Since then, Pyle has had a significant career in many films and television series. She has also established in parallel a singing career as a member of the country-rock band Smith & Pyle with actress Shawnee Smith.
Pyle has started an acting career playing a minor role in the comedy film As Good as It Gets (1997) starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. Her following notable roles were in the sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest (1999), Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002) where she played her first role as a villain, Tim Burton films Big Fish (2003) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) starring Johnny Depp and Christopher Lee, Just My Luck (2006) starring Lindsay Lohan, and Soccer Mom (2008) where she had a double role. Pyle has also played guest roles on many television series such as Mad About You (1992) also starring Helen Hunt, Frasier (1993), The One with Ross' Teeth (1999), Ally McBeal (1997), three episodes of Two and a Half Men (2003), three episodes of Boston Legal (2004), Grey's Anatomy (2005), two episodes of Heroes (2006), and two episodes of The Mentalist (2008). Pyle is also an occasional voice actress, and has voiced characters in one episode of series Family Guy (1999) and two episodes of American Dad! (2005).
Pyle began a career as a singer when she met Shawnee Smith in 2007 while filming an ABC comedy pilot. Pyle stated that her dream was to be in a rock band, and Smith gave her the opportunity by creating the country-rock band Smith & Pyle in Los Angeles, California. Their debut album "It's OK to Be Happy" (2008) was recorded in Joshua Tree, California and was released under their own record label when they became business partners. Their first live performance was in Texas on January 18, 2008 and since then, the band performed in many other states, especially in West Virginia, until May 29, 2010 in California. In 2011, the actresses officially disbanded before their second album was completed.- Actor
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This Queens-born actor has certainly proven himself adept at everything from quirky comedy to flat-out melodrama earning TV stardom in the early 1990's and maintaining a strong foothold on stage, film and TV in its aftermath.
Steven Robert Weber was born on March 4, 1961, to Fran (Frankel), a nightclub singer, and Stuart Weber, a nightclub performer, and Borscht Belt comic and manager. He was already appearing in television commercials by elementary school age. He later studied at the High School of the Performing Arts in New York and graduated from New York State University. The fair-haired, fair-skinned actor worked a series of menial jobs during his salad days as a struggling thespian (custodian, elevator operator, singing waiter) until earning his break on TV in a presentation of one of Mark Twain's stories. Quickly making his film debut in the popular comedy The Flamingo Kid (1984), he nabbed a running role on the soap opera As the World Turns (1956) a year later. On the set he met first wife Finn Carter, another co-star on the daytime drama. Steven stayed put for a year then went on to gain recognition in more offbeat and/or prestigious productions on film and prime-time TV. He played a rock star in the thoroughly offbeat foreign-made film Angels (1990) and showed real command as John F. Kennedy in the epic miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990).
That same year TV stardom came his way with the sitcom Wings (1990). Co-starring with Tim Daly as Brian Hackett, the looser, goofier more aimless half of the brotherly team who co-owned a one-plane, Nantucket-based airline, the actors' chemistry, not to mention a terrifically eclectic supporting cast, kept the show on a steady course for seven seasons. Easily typed now as a genial, lovable loser type, Weber faced the prospect of severe pigeon-holing. So during the show's off season, he started showing up in more serious roles. He suffered at the hands of the deranged Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female (1992); appeared in a second chiller with The Temp (1993); and made a cameo in the highly depressing, award-winning Leaving Las Vegas (1995). His flair for comedy shone in is straight-man role as Johathan Harker in the critically acclaimed horror spoof, Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) He truly impressed both critics and audiences alike as the complex title character in Jeffrey (1995), a gay romantic film comedy, and then completely defied all odds by starring in an epic TV-movie version of Stephen King's horror classic The Shining (1997), seizing the role inherited from Jack Nicholson and brilliantly making it his own while earning a Saturn award for his chilling efforts.
By the time "Wings" came to an end in 1997, Weber had divorced his actress/wife Finn Carter (they had no children) and married actress/TV executive Juliette Hohnen on July 9, 1995. They have two children, Jack and Alfie. He and Laura Linney were selected to play the TV-movie leads in the popular A.R. Gurney theater piece Love Letters (1999). While other TV series comebacks have fared less well, including the short runs of The Weber Show (2000) (which he produced), The D.A. (2004), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006), Happy Town (2010) and Chasing Life (2014).
Steven bounced around solidly in other venues. In 2002, he joined the cast of the smash Broadway musical "The Producers," taking over the nebbish Matthew Broderick role. In 2004, he went to London to appear on stage with Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson in "National Anthems." Other plays over the years have included "Throwing Your Voice," "Something in the Air" and "Design for Living."
Steven has remained quite productive into the millennium with recent film outings in Sexual Life (2004), The Amateurs (2005), Inside Out (2005), the title role in Choose Connor (2007), Farm House (2008), My One and Only (2009), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011), Son of Morning (2011), the comedy Being Bin Laden (2011) in which he played Osama Bin Laden, Crawlspace (2012), Kiss Me (2014), Amateur Night (2016), A Thousand Junkies (2017), The Perfection (2018) and Allan the Dog (2020). Seen even more prolifically on TV, he has graced such popular shows as "The D.A.," "Will & Grace" (as Will's brother Sam), "Monk," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Desperate Housewives," "Hot in Cleveland," "Parenthood," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Sleepy Hollow" and "This Close."
The actor continues to play a stream of comedic and dramatic recurring roles on such TV programs as Without a Trace (2002), Brothers & Sisters (2006), Dallas (2012) (the New Generation), Murder in the First (2014), Helix (2014), iZombie (2015), House of Lies (2012), NCIS: New Orleans (2014), Ballers (2015) and Get Shorty (2017) and more recently appeared as a regular on the mystery series 13 Reasons Why (2017) and comedy series Indebted (2020). In addition, he has given voice to a few animated programs including Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), Avengers Assemble (2012) The Bravest Knight (2019) and Puppy Dog Pals (2017).- Actor
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John Mark Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, to American parents; his father was stationed there while serving in the U.S. Air Force. When he was three years old, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up with his parents, Mary Lou and Richard Galecki, and siblings, sister Allison (1980) and brother Nick (1982). His father was of Polish descent, and his mother's ancestry is Irish and Italian. His mother was a mortgage consultant and his father became a teacher for blind veterans in a VA hospital outside of Chicago. When Galecki was sixteen, his father died in an accident.
His mother recalled in an interview with People magazine that Galecki was a very artistic kid; at only 4 years old, he told her: "Mom, I'm gonna be on T.V., and I don't mean when I grow up." Two years later, when their attempts to distract him with sports failed, Galecki's parents took him to open auditions at local theaters in Chicago. He landed his first role in "Fiddler on the Roof," and more parts in other productions followed. By age 11, he was already known as an excellent actor in Chicago's theater scene evidenced by him receiving a Joseph Jefferson Citation nomination for portraying John Henry in "The Member of the Wedding."
In 1989 he was cast in his first movie, a holiday film called Prancer (1989), but his big break was in another Christmas movie as Chevy Chase's son Rusty Griswold, in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). On the set, Chase took a liking to him, and Galecki recalled in a later interview that Chevy Chase showed him some tricks for comedic timing.
By that time, his whole family had moved from Chicago to L.A. to support his career. But within 10 months they realized they missed Chicago too much, and moved back home. Galecki, still just 14, was under contract on a show with Robert Urich called "American Dreamer (1990)", so he stayed in L.A. Although he was living alone in a studio apartment, he never got into trouble and was a good kid. He recalled living alone in L.A. without adult supervision as "not fun" and "quite intimidating and lonely, to be honest. But I've always been happiest when I'm working, so..." He bought a motorcycle with a mirrored helmet so he could get to work and back, at Paramount studios.
In 1991 Galecki was picked by Roseanne Barr to play her son in the made for T.V. movie Backfield in Motion (1991). She liked him so much she asked him to come on her sitcom for what started as a one-off appearance, but soon turned into the important recurring role of David Healy. His family was religious viewers of the show and he was somewhat intimidated at first to be working with his television heroes. However, before long, it was his heroes that praised him: Roseanne said he showed "great vulnerability." John Goodman said: "If he was one of those little stuffed bears at a carny, he'd have a Wuv me t-shirt on. People just want to take care of him." Galecki also became very close friends with co-star Sara Gilbert and the show's executive producer Eric Gilliland.
After Roseanne (1988) he worked on a number of diverse roles, from funny Ira alongside Christopher Walken in the 1997 dark-comedy Suicide Kings (1997) to a drug-addicted student in 2003's Bookies (2003), and he played gay characters in Don Roos's Bounce (2000) and The Opposite of Sex (1998). He never stayed far from the television industry as he made guest appearances such as Laurie Freeman's younger lover in Norm (1999) (where he once again worked with Laurie Metcalf, his former Roseanne cast mate), as a golfer in My Name Is Earl (2005), as Hope & Faith (2003)'s younger brother in the sitcom of the same name, and as hilarious party-boy Trouty on My Boys (2006). In 2006 he returned to his theater roots as he took on the role of conflicted but sweet male escort Alex in Douglas Carter Beane's play "The Little Dog Laughed," for which he received a 2007 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Browdway Debut.
In 2007 he was back on the small screens, starring as Leonard Hofstadter in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2007). Not only was Chuck Lorre, a former producer for Roseanne, a producer of the new show, but Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf both made guest appearances.
Galecki is a self-admitted motorcycle "nerd," and rides a Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe. Although he never went to college, he has said: "I'm not dead! We should never stop learning. We should never stop absorbing," and so he learned how to play the cello in his early twenties. He likes traveling around the world, painting, music (he also plays bass), and hiking with his dog Vera.
He always has been very private about his personal life and little is known about past relationships. It has only been confirmed that he dated actresses Laura Harris and Kaley Cuoco. He isn't on twitter, and Galecki once said, "I don't understand the current frame of mind in our society that seems to say that any action is not of value until it's broadcast somehow."
He still lives in Los Angeles but is often spotted in Chicago, where his siblings still live.- Actor
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Simon Helberg was born and raised in Los Angeles but despite this, and the fact that his father is the actor Sandy Helberg and his mother the casting director Harriet B. Helberg, his main interest as a young boy was karate. In his teens, though, he discovered acting and went on to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company. He started acting in 1999, taking guest roles and small parts, establishing himself as a character performer and able sketch comedian. Solid TV work followed throughout the 2000s until he was cast as Howard Wolowitz in the hit TV comedy The Big Bang Theory (2007) for which he remains best known.- Actress
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Multi Grammy Award-winning singer/comedienne/author Bette Midler has also proven herself to be a very capable actress in a string of both dramatic and comedic roles. Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 1, 1945. She is the daughter of Ruth (Schindel), a seamstress, and Fred Midler, a painter. Her parents, originally from New Jersey, were both from Jewish families (from Russia, Poland, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
Midler studied drama at the University of Hawaii and got her musical career started by performing in gay bathhouses with piano accompaniment from Barry Manilow. Her first album was "The Divine Miss M" released in November 1972, followed by the self-titled "Bette Midler" released in November 1973, both of which took off up the music charts, and Bette's popularity swiftly escalated from there.
After minor roles in several film/TV productions, she surprised all with her knockout performance of a hard-living rock-and-roll singer (loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin) in The Rose (1979), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1986, director Paul Mazursky cast Midler opposite Nick Nolte and Richard Dreyfuss in the hilarious Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and so began a string of very funny comedic film roles. She played an obnoxious wife who was the victim of a kidnap plot by her scoundrel husband, played by Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People (1986), was pursued by CIA and KGB spies in Outrageous Fortune (1987), played mismatched twins with Lily Tomlin in Big Business (1988) and shone in the tear-jerker Beaches (1988).
Bette matched feisty James Caan in the WWII drama For the Boys (1991), made a dynamic trio with Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in The First Wives Club (1996), was back on screen with DeVito for the tepid comedy Drowning Mona (2000) and turned up in the glossy remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). Apart from her four Grammy awards, Bette Midler has also won four Golden Globes, one Tony Award, and three Emmy Awards, plus she has sold in excess of 15 million albums worldwide. Most recently, she toured with her sassy "Kiss My Brass" show, and is promoting her album "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook".- Actress
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Melissa Ivy Rauch was born in Marlboro, New Jersey. She attended Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she received a BFA degree. While going to school, Melissa performed stand-up comedy around Manhattan, and soon made a name for herself on the NYC comedy scene. Her one-woman show, "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush", in which she portrayed Jenna Bush Hager, the former President's daughter, garnered critical acclaim and played to sold-out audiences (Outstanding Solo Show and TheaterMania's Audience Favorite Award--New York International Fringe Festival/HBO's US Comedy Arts Festival).
Melissa resides in Los Angeles, California, with Winston Rauch, her husband and writing partner.- Actress
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Famed actress, comedian, singer, and dancer Vicki Lawrence has appeared in television shows, and in nightclubs. Her career included shows with such popular actors as Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway.
Lawrence was born Vicki Ann Axelrad in Inglewood, California, to Ann Alene (Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant. Her interest in singing and dancing began at an early age. During high school, she was a cheerleader and voted Most Likely to Succeed by her class. From 1965 to 1967, Lawrence sang with the Young Americans musical group and appeared in The Young Americans, a film that won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Vicki Lawrence sealed her own fate as a famed actress and comedian by sending Carol Burnett a newspaper clipping showing their uncanny resemblance to each other, and asking if she could give some advice for a contest she was in called "Miss Fireball Contest" in California. Burnett, having a feeling about her, found her phone number and called Vicki. Burnett attended the event, hoping to find an entertainer who could play her kid sister on her variety show. Sure enough, Lawrence was chosen as the kid sister and was mentored by Ms Burnett and her career blossomed from there. In the fall of 1967, she made her debut on the first episode of The Carol Burnett Show. She spent 11 years with the show and earned one Emmy Award and five more nominations. In 1967, she also enrolled in UCLA to study theater arts. To enhance her singing career, she went to Vietnam to perform for U.S. troops with Johnny Grant.
Her music career peaked in 1973, when she was awarded a gold record for her internationally known hit "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." In 1974, Lawrence married CBS makeup artist Al Schultz, with whom she has had two children. When the Carol Burnett Show ended, Vicki Lawrence starred in her own comedy show, Mama's Family, which also featured Dorothy Lyman, Ken Berry, Beverly Archer, and Betty White; Carol Burnett also frequently appeared on the show. After ending her sitcom, Lawrence delved into hosting television shows.
She became the first successful female game show host when she hosted Win, Lose or Draw; she also hosted her own talk show, appropriately titled Vicki!, which ran from 1992-1994. Vicki Lawrence's credits cannot be limited to television alone. Her stage credits include Carousel, Hello Dolly, Annie Get Your Gun, No, No, Nanette and My Fat Friend. In the '90s, she performed in I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road. Her autobiography, Vicki! The True Life Adventures of Miss Fireball, recounts her musical, stage, and television career. She spends most of her time doing motivational speeches for women's groups and charities.- Actress
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The entertainment world has enjoyed a six-decade love affair with comedienne/singer Carol Burnett. A peerless sketch performer and delightful, self-effacing personality who rightfully succeeded Lucille Ball as the carrot-topped "Queen of Television Comedy," it was Burnett's traumatic childhood that set the stage for her comedy.
Carol's rags-to-riches story started out in San Antonio, Texas, on April 26, 1933, where she was born to Ina Louise (Creighton) and Joseph Thomas "Jodie" Burnett, both of whom suffered from acute alcoholism. As a child, she was left in the care of a beloved grandmother, who shuttled the two of them off to Hollywood, California, where they lived in a boarding house and shared a great passion for the Golden Age of movies. The plaintive, loose-limbed, highly sensitive Carol survived her wallflower insecurities by grabbing attention as a cut-up at Hollywood High School. A natural talent, she attended the University of California and switched majors from journalism to theater. Scouting out comedy parts on TV and in the theater, she first had them rolling in the aisles in the mid-1950s performing a lovelorn novelty song called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" (then Secretary of State) in a nightclub act. This led to night-time variety show appearances with Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan and where the career ball really started rolling.
Carol's first big TV breaks came at age 22 and 23 as a foil to a ventriloquist's dummy on the already-established The Paul Winchell Show (1950) in 1955, and as Buddy Hackett's gawky girlfriend on the short-lived sitcom Stanley (1956). She also developed an affinity for game shows and appeared as a regular on one of TV earliest, Stump the Stars (1947) in 1958. While TV would bring Carol fans by the millions, it was Broadway that set her on the road to stardom. She began as the woebegone Princess Winnifred in the 1959 Broadway musical "Once Upon a Mattress" which earned her first Tony Award nomination. [She would later appear in three TV adaptations - Once Upon a Mattress (1964), Once Upon a Mattress (1972) and Once Upon a Mattress (2005).] This, in turn, led to the first of an armful of Emmy Awards as a repertoire player on the popular variety series The Garry Moore Show (1958) in 1959. Burnett invented a number of scene-stealing characters during this time, most notably her charwoman character. With the phenomenal household success of the Moore show, she moved up quickly from second banana to headliner and appeared in a 1962 Emmy-winning special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962) co-starring close friend Julie Andrews. She earned the Outer Critics Circle Award for the short-lived musical "Fade Out, Fade In" (1964); and made her official film debut opposite Bewitched (1964) star Elizabeth Montgomery and Dean Martin in the lightweight comedy Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963).
Not surprisingly, fellow redhead Lucille Ball, who had been Carol's treasured idol growing up, subsequently became a friend and mentor to the rising funny girl. Hilarious as a guest star on The Lucy Show (1962), Carol appeared as a painfully shy (natch) wallflower type who suddenly blooms in jaw-dropping fashion. Ms. Ball was so convinced of Carol's talent that she offered Carol her own Desilu-produced sitcom, but Burnett had her heart set on fronting a variety show. With her own team of second bananas, including character crony Harvey Korman, handsome foil Lyle Waggoner, and lookalike "kid sister" type Vicki Lawrence, the The Carol Burnett Show (1967) became an instant sensation, and earned 22 Emmy Awards during its 11-year run. It allowed Carol to fire off her wide range of comedy and musical ammunition--whether running amok in broad sketch comedy, parodying movie icons such as Gloria Swanson, Shirley Temple, Vivien Leigh or Joan Crawford, or singing/gushing alongside favorite vocalists Jim Nabors, Steve Lawrence, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé. She managed to bring in huge stars not known at all for slapstick comedy, including Rock Hudson and even then-Governor Ronald Reagan while providing a platform for such up-and-coming talent as Bernadette Peters and The Pointer Sisters In between, Carol branched out with supporting turns in the films Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974) and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978).
Her program, whose last episode aired in March of 1978, was the last truly successful major network variety show to date. Carol took on new challenges to display her unseen dramatic mettle, and accomplished this amazingly in TV-movie showcases. She earned an Emmy nomination for her gripping portrayal of anti-Vietnam War activist Peg Mullen in Friendly Fire (1979), and convincingly played a woman coming to terms with her alcoholism in Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice (1982). Neither character bore any traces of the usual Burnett comedy shtick. Though she proved she could contain herself for films, Carol was never able to acquire crossover success into movies, despite trouper work in The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982) (as the hammy villainess Miss Hannigan), and Noises Off... (1992). The last two roles had been created onstage by Broadway's Dorothy Loudon.
Carol would return from time to time to the stage and concert forums with productions of "Plaza Suite", "I Do! I Do", "Follies", "Company" and "Putting It Together". A second Tony nomination came for her comedy work in "Moon Over Buffalo" in 1995. Carol has made frequent appearances on her own favorite TV shows too, such as Password (1961) (along with Elizabeth Montgomery, Carol was considered one of the show's best players) and the daytime soaper, All My Children (1970).
During the early 1990s, Carol attempted a TV comeback of sorts, with a couple of new variety formats in Carol & Company (1990) and The Carol Burnett Show (1991), but neither could recreate the magic of the original. She has appeared, sporadically, on various established shows such as "Magnum, P.I.," "Touched by an Angel," "Mad About You" (for which she won an Emmy), "Desperate Housewives," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Emmy nomination), "Hawaii Five-0," "Glee" and "Hot in Cleveland." Befitting such a classy clown, she has received a multitude of awards over time, including the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1985. Her personal life has been valiant--tears in between the laughs. Married three times, her second union with jazz-musician-turned-variety-show-producer Joe Hamilton produced three daughters. Eldest girl, Carrie Hamilton, an actress and former teen substance abuser, tragically died of lung and brain cancer at age 38. Shortly before Carrie's death, mother and daughter managed to write a play, together, entitled "Hollywood Arms", based on Carol's 1986 memoir, "One More Time". The show subsequently made it to Broadway.
Today, at age 80 plus, Carol has been seen less frequently but still continues to make appearances, especially on TV. Most recently she has guested on the shows "Glee," "Hot in Cleveland" and the revivals of "Hawaii Five-0" and "Mad About You." As always she signs off a live appearance with her signature ear tug (acknowledging her late grandmother), reminding us all, between the wisecracks and the songs, how glad and lucky we all are to still have some of "this time together".- Actor
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Fred Gwynne was an enormously talented character actor most famous for starring in the television situation comedies Car 54, Where Are You? (1961) (as Officer Francis Muldoon) and The Munsters (1964) (as the Frankenstein clone Herman Munster). He was very tall at 6'5" and had a resonant, baritone voice that he put to good use in Broadway musicals.
Born Frederick Hubbard Gwynne in New York City, the son of Dorothy (Ficken) and Frederick Walker Gwynne, a wealthy stockbroker and partner in the securities firm Gwynne Brothers. His grandfathers emigrated from Northern Ireland and England, respectively, and his grandmothers were native-born New Yorkers. Fred attended the exclusive prep school Groton, where he first appeared on stage in a student production of William Shakespeare's "Henry V". After serving in the United States Navy as a radioman during World War II, he went on to Harvard, where he majored in English and was on the staff of the "Harvard Lampoon". At Harvard, he studied drawing with artist R.S. Merryman and was active in dramatics. A member of the Hasty Pudding Club, he performed in the dining club's theatricals, appearing in the drag revues of 1949 and 1950. After graduating from Harvard with the class of 1951, Gwynne acted in Shakespeare with a Cambridge, Massachusetts repertory company before heading to New York City, where he supported himself as a musician and copywriter. His principal source of income for many years came from his work as a book illustrator and as a commercial artist. His first book, "The Best in Show", was published in 1958.
On February 20, 1952, he made his Broadway debut as the character "Stinker", in support of Helen Hayes, in the comic fantasy "Mrs. McThing". The play, written by "Harvey (1950)" author Mary Chase, had a cast featuring Ernest Borgnine, the future "Professor" Irwin Corey and Brandon De Wilde, the young son of the play's stage manager, Frederick DeWilde. The play ran for 320 performances and closed on January 10, 1953. He next appeared on Broadway in Burgess Meredith's staging of Nathaniel Benchley's comedy "The Frogs of Spring", which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 21, 1953. The play flopped, closing on Halloween Day after but 15 performances. He did not appear on Broadway again for almost seven years.
Gwynne made his movie debut, unbilled, as one of Johnny Friendly's gang of thugs who menace Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's classic On the Waterfront (1954). From 1956 - 1963, he appeared on the television dramatic showcases Studio One (1948), The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), Kraft Theatre (1947), The DuPont Show of the Month (1957), The DuPont Show of the Week (1961) and The United States Steel Hour (1953). But it was in situation comedies that he made his name and his fame.
In 1955, he made a memorable guest appearance as Private Honigan on The Phil Silvers Show (1955). He played a soldier with an enormous appetite that Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko entered into a pie-eating contest, only to discover he could only eat like a trencherman when he was depressed. The spot led to him coming back as a guest in more episodes. While appearing on Broadway as the pimp Polyte-Le-Mou in the Peter Brook-directed hit "Irma La Douce" (winner of the 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical), "Bilko" producer-writer Nat Hiken cast him in one of the lead roles in the situation comedy Car 54, Where Are You? (1961). The series, in which he revealed his wonderful flair for comedy, had Gwynne appearing as New York City police officer Francis Muldoon, who served in a patrol car in the Bronx with the dimwitted Officer Gunther Toody, played by co-star Joe E. Ross ("Oooh! Oooh!"). Car 54, Where Are You? (1961) lasted only two seasons, but it was so fondly remembered by Baby Boomers, it inspired a feature film version in 1994. He also served as Lamb Chop's doctor on another Baby Boomer classic, The Shari Lewis Show (1960).
Another one of his "Car 54, Where Are You?" co-stars, Al Lewis, not only became a lifelong friend, he appeared as Gwynne's father-n-law in his next situation comedy. Gwynne was cast as the Frankenstein's monster-like paterfamilias in The Munsters (1964), which also lasted two seasons. In addition to wearing heavy boots with four-inch lifts on them, Gwynne had to wear 40 - 50 lbs of padding and makeup for the role and he reportedly lost ten pounds in one day of filming under the hot lights. He made guest appearances as Herman Munster, most notably on The Red Skelton Hour (1951), appearing on April 27, 1965, along with Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, a pop band from The Beatles' native Liverpool. Gwynne appeared in character as Herman Munster in a "Freddie the Freeloader" comedy sketch.
When "The Munsters" was canceled after the 1965-1966 season, Gwynne returned to the theatre to escape television typecasting, although he did return for a featured appearance in the televised version of Arsenic and Old Lace (1969), playing the psychotic Jonathan Brewster in an all-star cast, including with his "Mrs. McThing" co-star Helen Hayes, Lillian Gish, Bob Crane, Sue Lyon, Jack Gilford and David Wayne. He appeared twice on television in Mary Chase's "Harvey" (1950), the first time in 1958 on the "Dupont Show of the Month" version broadcast by CBS, in which he appeared in support of Art Carney as Elwood P. Dodd. Others in the cast included Elizabeth Montgomery, Jack Weston and Larry Blyden. He appeared as the cab driver in the 1972 version, Harvey (1972), in which James Stewart reprised his role as Elwood P. Dodd, in which he was reunited with his Broadway co-star Helen Hayes.
In 1968, he made a television series pilot for Screen Gems, "Guess What I Did Today?", co-starring Bridget Hanley, who later played Candy Pruit on Here Come the Brides (1968). The pilot, which was made for NBC, was not picked up by the network. Gwynne had trouble making producers forget his character Herman Munster and he started refusing to have anything to do with or even to speak of the show. One of the few visual productions to utilize his beautiful singing voice was The Littlest Angel (1969), a musical produced as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951).
His movie and television appearances were sporadic throughout the 1970s as he worked on- and off-Broadway. He had used his singing voice again to great effect in Meredith Wilson's musical "Here's Love", which opened at the Shubert Theatre on October 20, 1963 and played for 334 performances, closing on July 25, 1964. Exactly nine years from the "Here's Love" opening, he appeared at the Plymouth as "Abraham Lincoln" in the Broadway play "The Lincoln Mask", a flop that lasted but one week of eight performances.
His most distinguished performance on Broadway (and the favourite of all of his theatrical roles, was as Big Daddy in the 1974 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Though not as cutting as Burl Ives had been in the original production, his Big Daddy was lyrical and powerful, so much so that he overpowered Keir Dullea in the role of "Brick". However, Elizabeth Ashley won a Tony Award for playing Maggie the Cat in the production, which gave Tennessee Williams his first big success in a decade, albeit in a revival.
Gwynne also was memorable as the elderly Klansman in the first two parts of "The Texas Trilogy" in 1977 season. His last appearance on Broadway was in Anthony Shaffer's "Whodunnit", which opened at the Biltmore Theatre on December 30, 1983 and closed May 15, 1983 after 157 total performances. Before saying goodbye to the Broadway stage in a hit, he had appeared on the Great White Way in two flops in 1978: "Angel", the musical version of Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel" (which lasted but five performances) and the Australian professional football club drama "Players" (which lasted 23 performances). For the Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, he had appeared in Off-Broadway in "More Than You Deserve" in the 1973-1974 season and, in "Grand Magic", during the 1978-1979 season, for which he won an Obie Award. On the radio, Gwynne appeared in 79 episodes of "The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre" between 1975 and 1982.
With time, his characterization of Herman Munster began to fade and he began establishing himself as a film character actor of note in the 1980s with well-reviewed appearances in The Cotton Club (1984), Ironweed (1987), Disorganized Crime (1989) and Pet Sematary (1989), in which his character, Jud Crandall, was based on author Stephen King, who himself is quite tall. Gwynne also made a memorable turn as the judge who battles with the eponymous My Cousin Vinny (1992), his last film. Critic and cinema historian Mick LaSalle cited Gwynne's performance as Judge Chamberlain Haller in his August 2003 article "Role call of overlooked performances is long", writing: "Half of what made Joe Pesci funny in this comedy was the stream of reactions of Gwynne, as the Southern Judge, a Great Dane to Joe Pesci's yapping terrier."
Gwynne sang professionally, painted, sculpted, wrote & illustrated children's books, including: "The King Who Rained" (1970); "A Chocolate Moose for Dinner" (1976); "A Little Pigeon Toad" (1988) and "Pondlarker" (1990). He wrote 10 books in all and "The King Who Rained", "A Chocolate Moose for Dinner" and "A Little Pigeon Toad", which all were published by the prestigious house Simon & Schuster, are still in print. In the first part of his professional life, Gwynne lived a quiet life in suburban Bedford, New York and avoided the Hollywood and Broadway social scenes. He married his first wife Foxy in 1952. They had five children and divorced in 1980. He and his second wife Deb, whom he married in 1981, lived in a renovated farmhouse in rural Taneytown, Maryland. His neighbors described him as a good friend and neighbor who kept his personal and professional lives separate.
Fred Gwynne died on July 2, 1993, in Taneytown, Maryland, after a battle with cancer of the pancreas. He was just eight days shy of turning 67 years old. He is sorely missed by those that who grew up delighted by his Officer Francis Muldoon and Herman Munster and were gratified by his late-career renaissance on film.- Actor
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Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and raised in Tulita (formerly Fort Norman), Northwest Territories. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (Davies), was Welsh. His father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born Mountie and a strict disciplinarian. Leslie studied at the Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto before moving on to New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. His acting career started at a much earlier age when he was forced to lie to his father in order to avoid severe punishment. Leslie starred in over fifty films and many more television films. One of his two brothers became the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. On October 10, 2002, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries. On November 28, 2010, Leslie Nielsen died at age 84 of pneumonia and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.- Actor
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Aziz Ansari was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Fatima, a medical office worker, and Shoukath, a gastroenterologist. His family is from Tamil Nadu, India. He graduated from NYU as a business major in 2004. He graduated from the South Carolina Governor's School for Math and Science in Hartsville, SC. He previously attended Marlboro Academy, a private school in his home town of Bennettsville, SC.
Starting out in television like the hit comedy Parks and Recreation (2009), he later had bit parts in the films I Love You, Man (2009), Funny People (2009), and Get Him to the Greek (2010), among others, before co-starring in the comedy 30 Minutes or Less (2011).- Actor
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Jay Scott Greenspan, known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor, comedian, film director, and television presenter. An Emmy and Tony winner, he is best known for his role as George Costanza in the television series Seinfeld (1989), for which he was nominated for seven consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. His other well-known roles include Phillip Stuckey in the film Pretty Woman (1990), comic relief gargoyle Hugo in the Disney animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and the title character in the animated series Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man (1994). He has also made guest appearances on shows such as Dream On (1994), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001, 2009), and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2019). For his role in Dream On, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song in 2020 for "The Bad Guys?" on Brainwashed By Toons.- Actor
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Humanitarian and actor Richard Gere was born on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia, the second of five children of Doris Anna (Tiffany), a homemaker, and Homer George Gere, an insurance salesman, both Mayflower descendants. Richard started early as a musician, playing a number of instruments in high school and writing music for high school productions. He graduated from North Syracuse Central High School in 1967, and won a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he majored in philosophy. He left college after two years to pursue acting, landing a lead role in the London production of the rock musical "Grease" in 1973. The following year he would be in other plays, such as "Taming of the Shrew." Onscreen, he had a few roles, and gained recognition in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). Offscreen, he spent 1978 meeting Tibetans when he traveled to Nepal, where he spoke to many monks and lamas. Returning to the US, on Broadway he portrayed a concentration-camp prisoner in "Bent," for which he received the 1980 Theatre World Award. Back in Hollywood, he played the title role in American Gigolo (1980), establishing himself as a major star; this status was reaffirmed by An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). In the early 1980s, Richard went to Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador (amidst ongoing wars and political violence); he traveled with a doctor and visited refugee camps. It is said that Richard was romantically linked with Tuesday Weld, Priscilla Presley, Barbra Streisand and Kim Basinger. In 1990 Richard teamed up with Julia Roberts to star in the blockbuster Pretty Woman (1990); his cool reserve was the perfect complement to Julia's bubbling enthusiasm. The film captured the nation's heart, and won the People's Choice award for Best Movie. Fans clamored for years for a sequel, or at least another pairing of Julia and Richard. They got that with Runaway Bride (1999), which was a runaway success (Richard got $12 million, Julia made $17 million, the box office was $152 million, which shows what happens when you give the public what it wants!). Offscreen, Richard and Cindy Crawford got married December 12, 1991 (they were divorced in 1995). Afterwards, Richard started dating actress Carey Lowell. They had a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, on February 6, 2000. Richard was picked by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1991, and as their Sexiest Man Alive in 1999. He is an accomplished pianist and music writer. Above all, Richard is a humanitarian. He's a founding member of "Tibet House," a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture. He has been an active supporter of "Survival International" for several years, a worldwide organization supporting tribal peoples, affirming their right to decide their own future and helping them protect their lives, lands and human rights (these tribes are global, including the natives of the Amazon, the Maasai of East Africa, the Wichi of Argentina, and others). In 1994 Richard went to London to open Harrods' sale, donating his £50,000 appearance fee to Survival. He has been prominent in their charity advertising campaigns.- Music Artist
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Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969 in The Bronx, New York City, New York to teacher Lupe López and computer specialist David López. The two Puerto Ricans were brought to the continental United States during their childhoods and eventually met while living in New York City. Their daughters would have a stable, middle-class upbringing.
Jennifer always dreamed of being a multi-tasking superstar. As a child, she enjoyed a variety of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like salsa, merengue, and bachata, and mainstream music like pop, hip-hop, and R&B. Although she loved music, the film industry also intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita Moreno musical, West Side Story (1961). At 5, Jennifer began taking singing and dancing lessons. Aside from being a budding entertainer, Jennifer was also a Catholic schoolgirl, attending eight years at a Catholic elementary school named Holy Family, located in The Bronx, before graduating from all-girls prep school Preston High School after a four-year stay. At school, Jennifer was an amazing athlete and participated in track and field and tennis. She spent most of her upbringing in a two-story house in the Castle Hill neighborhood.
At 18, Jennifer moved out of her parents' home. After high school, she briefly worked in a law office and took dance classes at night. During this time, she continued dance classes at night. Her big break came when she was offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy In Living Color (1990). After a two-year stay at In Living Color (1990) where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, Lopez then went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's My Family/Mi familia (1995), and her career went into overdrive when she portrayed late Tejana singer Selena in Selena (1997).- Actress
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Jennifer Coolidge is a versatile character actress and experimental comedienne, best known for playing Stifler's mom in American Pie (1999).
She was born on August 28, 1961, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to Gretchen (Knauff) and Paul Constant Coolidge, a plastics manufacturer. Young Coolidge was dreaming of becoming a singer. She attended Norwell High School and Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned her bachelor's degree in theatre in 1985. She moved to New York and joined the Gotham City improv group. Then, she headed to Los Angeles where she became a long-running member of "The Groundlings" comedy troupe. Coolidge made her television debut in a guest role on NBC's Seinfeld (1989), playing a voluptuous masseuse who won't offer her professional services to boyfriend Jerry in a 1993 episode. The following year, she had a regular gig on ABC's short-lived sketch series She TV (1994), then briefly became a cast member and writer on another short-lived sketch comedy series, Fox's Saturday Night Special (1996) produced by Roseanne Barr.
Coolidge made her big screen debut as a nurse in Not of This Earth (1995), then in the courtroom comedy Trial and Error (1996). Then, she appeared in small roles in several more feature films, and also continued her television work. Coolidge had her breakthrough role in American Pie (1999), as a boozed-up and sultry mom who seduces her son's classmate with the comment that she liked her scotch and men the same way: aged 18 years. She recreated the character in the sequel American Pie 2 (2001). Then, she reprized her role as "Paulette" opposite Reese Witherspoon in the "Legally Blonde" franchise. Although, she lost the part of "Lynette Scavo" on Desperate Housewives (2004) to Felicity Huffman, Coolidge graced several TV comedies as well, with major guest appearances on Frasier (1993) and Sex and the City (1998). Then, she landed a recurring role in the ABC sitcom Joey (2004), as "Bobbie Morgenstern", Joey's agent, appearing in 37 episodes over two seasons.
Eventually, Coolidge emerged as a versatile character actress with her no-holds-barred approach to comedy and her vanity-free comfort with playing uninhibited, unappealing characters, and delivering lines with sexual innuendo. Her talent shines in a range of characters, from a gold-digging dog owner in Best in Show (2000), to a scheming wife of an elderly mogul in Down to Earth (2001), to an opportunistic mother in American Dreamz (2006). Coolidge's gift for altering her appearance and manner, as well as her mastery of timing, shines in her perfectly hideous performance as "Fiona", a wicked stepmother in A Cinderella Story (2004) opposite Hilary Duff, for which Coolidge won a 2005 Teen Choice Award. Her lasting collaboration with director Christopher Guest continues in For Your Consideration (2006).
She has been sharing her time between her two homes, one is in Hollywood, California, and one in New Orleans, where she bought a historic mansion before the Hurricane Katrina hit the city, and then became involved in its restoration.- Actress
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Sarah Silverman was most recently the host of the two-time Emmy-nominated weekly topical series, I Love You America, which streamed on Hulu and also received a Writers Guild Awards nomination.
Silverman is currently working on a musical adaptation of her 2010 memoir and New York Times Bestseller called The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee. The musical, The Bedwetter, will premiere Off Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Company in April 2020.
On-stage, Silverman continues to cement her status as a force in stand-up comedy. In May 2017, she released her latest standup special A Speck of Dust on Netflix, which culminated in two Emmy Award nominations and a Grammy Award nomination. In 2013, she debuted her hour-long HBO standup special Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, which earned her the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special." The special received an additional Primetime Emmy Awards nomination that year for "Outstanding Variety Special" in addition to a Writers Guild Awards nomination. In September 2014, Silverman released the special as an audio album through Sub Pop Records, which went on to receive a 2015 Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Comedy Album." Previously, Silverman made an impressive splash with her concert-meets-comedy film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, which garnered major attention at the Toronto Film Festival.
In the film world, Silverman was most recently seen opposite Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the critically-acclaimed film Battle of the Sexes, which was based on the true story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. She also starred in I Smile Back, the film adaptation of the Amy Koppelman novel. The drama premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was later released in theaters by Broad Green Pictures. Silverman received much praise for her role as "Laney Brooks," culminating in a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for "Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role." Her additional film credits include The Book of Henry, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Ashby, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Take This Waltz, Gravy, Peep World, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, The School of Rock, There's Something About Mary, The Way of The Gun. Silverman also lent her voice as "Vanellope" in the Oscar-nominated smash hit Wreck It Ralph and Golden Globe nominated Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Silverman was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series" for her portrayal of a fictionalized version of herself in her Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program. This marked Comedy Central's first ever Emmy nomination in a scripted acting category. Silverman also received a Writers Guild Award nomination for her work on the show. In 2008, Silverman won a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics" for her musical collaboration with Matt Damon. Additionally, she was honored with a Webby Award for "Best Actress" for her online video "The Great Schlep," in which she persuaded young kids to encourage their grandparents in Florida to vote for President Obama prior to the 2008 Presidential Election.
Silverman has made memorable guest appearances on a number of acclaimed and notable television shows, including Monk, which earned her a 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series." Silverman also lends her voice to Emmy Award-winning FOX animated series Bob's Burgers. Her additional television work includes buzzed-about roles on HBO's Crashing, Masters of Sex, The Good Wife, The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, and Mr. Show with Bob and David. Silverman has hosted a number of major awards shows, including the 2007 MTV Movie Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Silverman grew up in New Hampshire and attended one year of New York University. In 1993 she joined Saturday Night Live as a writer and feature performer and has not stopped working since.
She currently lives in Los Angeles.- Actress
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Lauren Ash is a recent alumnus of the Second City Chicago Mainstage. She is also an alumna of the Second City Toronto Mainstage and is one half of sketch comedy duo "Cory!". She is a two-time Canadian Comedy Award winner for Best Female Improviser and has also won for Best Comedic Play in 2008 and Best Sketch Troupe in 2006.
She's played various roles in "Scare Tactics" as well as the Canadian TV series, "Almost Heroes." She had a recurring role in "The Ron James Show" and made guest appearances in "Lost Girl," "Cracked," "Bomb Girls" and "Call Me Fitz." Other film and television credits include "Video on Trial," "Hotbox" and the Academy Award-nominated film "Lars and the Real Girl." She is also the voice of Sam in the animated Canadian series "The Dating Guy."- Actor
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Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester, and worked on education for the Nigerian government. His grandparents were missionaries. His siblings Katie Firth and Jonathan Firth are also actors.
Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime. Three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries and he spent his early childhood in Nigeria, returning to England at age five where he entered a comprehensive school in Winchester. He spent two years at the Drama Centre, then in Chalk Farm, where he was "discovered" whist playing "Hamlet" during his final term. His first professional role was as "Bennet" in the West End production of "Another Country". From this performance, he was chosen to play the character of "Judd" in the movie of the play. He went on to play a variety of character parts in both film and television. For his portrayal of "Robert Lawrence" in the 1989 TV production Tumbledown (1988), he received the Royal Television Society Best Actor award and also a BAFTA nomination. He also received a BAFTA nomination for "Mr. Darcy" in the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice (1995). In 2011, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his commanding leading role, playing British King George VI in The King's Speech (2010).- Actor
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Richard Philip Lewis was born on June 29, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. He went to Dwight Morrow High School and Ohio State University, graduating in 1969 with a degree in marketing and communications. Lewis wrote ad copy in New Jersey while also writing jokes for comedians such as Morty Gunty. He finally got the nerve to perform his own jokes in 1971 at New York's Improvisation and Pips.
After appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in 1974, he continued to tour and hone his act with help from David Brenner and Robert Klein. His film Diary of a Young Comic (1979) aired in the Saturday Night Live (1975) time-slot. His work on cable "I'm in Pain" for Showtime in 1988, The I'm Exhausted Concert (1988) earned a nomination from American Comedy Awards for Funniest Male Performer in a Television Special (for HBO); Richard Lewis: I'm Doomed (1990) (HBO) won him a second Ace Nomination for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. His Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour (1996) was filmed at New York's "Bottom Line" in December 1996. In December 1989, he performed to an SRO crowd at Carnegie Hall.- Writer
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Johnny Knoxville was born on 11 March 1971 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). He has been married to Naomi Nelson since 24 September 2010. They have two children. He was previously married to Melanie Lynn Cates.- Actor
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Danny DeVito has amassed a formidable and versatile body of work as an actor, producer and director that spans the stage, television and film.
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune, New Jersey, to Italian-American parents. His mother, Julia (Moccello), was a homemaker. His father, Daniel, Sr., was a small business owner whose ventures included a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall.
While growing up in Asbury Park, his parents sent him to private schools. He attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel grammar school and Oratory Prep School. Following graduation in 1962, he took a job as a cosmetician at his sister's beauty salon. A year later, he enrolled at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts so he could learn more about cosmetology. While at the academy, he fell in love with acting and decided to further pursue an acting career. During this time, he met another aspiring actor Michael Douglas at the National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut. The two would later go on to collaborate on numerous projects. Soon after he also met an actress named Rhea Perlman. The two fell in love and moved in together. They were married in 1982 and had three children together.
In 1968, Danny landed his first part in a movie when he appeared as a thug in the obscure Dreams of Glass (1970). Despite this minor triumph, Danny became discouraged with the film industry and decided to focus on stage productions. He made his Off-Broadway debut in 1969 in "The Man With the Flower in His Mouth." He followed this up with stage roles in "The Shrinking Bride," and "Lady Liberty." In 1975, he was approached by director Milos Forman and Michael Douglas about appearing in the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which would star Jack Nicholson in the leading role. With box office success almost guaranteed and a chance for national exposure, Danny agreed to the role. The movie became a huge hit, both critically and financially, and still ranks today as one the greatest movies of all time. Unfortunately, the movie did very little to help Danny's career. In the years following, he was relegated to small movie roles and guest appearances on television shows. His big break came in 1978 when he auditioned for a role on an ABC sitcom pilot called Taxi (1978), which centered around taxi cab drivers at a New York City garage. Danny auditioned for the role of dispatcher Louie DePalma. At the audition, the producers told Danny that he needed to show more attitude in order to get the part. He then slammed down the script and yelled, "Who wrote this sh**?" The producers, realizing he was perfect for the part, brought him on board. The show was a huge success, running from 1978 to 1983.
Louie DePalma, played flawlessly by Danny, became one of the most memorable (and reviled) characters in television history. While he was universally hated by TV viewers, he was well-praised by critics, winning an Emmy award and being nominated three other times. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Danny maintained his status as a great character actor with memorable roles in movies like Romancing the Stone (1984), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987) and Twins (1988). He also had a great deal of success behind the camera, directing movies like The War of the Roses (1989) and Hoffa (1992). In 1992, Danny was introduced to a new generation of moviegoers when he was given the role of The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot in Tim Burton's highly successful Batman Returns (1992). This earned him a nomination for Best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards. That same year, along with his wife Rhea Perlman, Danny co-founded Jersey Films, which has produced many popular films and TV shows, including Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Man on the Moon (1999) and Erin Brockovich (2000). DeVito has many directing credits to his name as well, including Throw Momma from the Train (1987), The War of the Roses (1989), Hoffa (1992), Death to Smoochy (2002) and the upcoming St. Sebastian.
In 2006, he returned to series television in the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005). With a prominent role in a hit series, Devito's comic talents were now on display for a new generation of television viewers. In 2012, he provided the title voice role in Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012).
These days, he continues to work with many of today's top talents as an actor, director and producer.- Actor
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David William Duchovny was born on August 7, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Amram Ducovny, was a writer and publicist who was from a family of Jewish immigrants (from Ukraine and Poland), and worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Margaret (Miller), was a Scottish-born school teacher. David has a sister, Laurie, and an older brother, Daniel Ducovny, an award-winning director of commercials, as well as a director of photography.
David earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and also attended Yale University, where he undertook a Master's Degree in English Literature. A keen poet and writer, David's work was well recognized by his peers and teachers while he was in attendance at Yale. He was even nominated for a college prize by the Academy of American Poets for his outstanding work within the literary field. While at Yale, he began commuting to New York to study acting and was soon appearing in off-Broadway plays. In 1987, he abandoned his doctoral studies at Yale to pursue acting full time.
Like any actor or celebrity, David began his career on the bottom, by acting in numerous commercials in the late-eighties. He crossed over into films with bit parts in low key films such as New Year's Day (1989) and Bad Influence (1990). Although these parts were small and somewhat insignificant, it was a start and David was able to get his foot in the door.
In 1991, David got offered the role of DEA Dennis Bryson on the acclaimed TV series, Twin Peaks (1990). He only appeared in three episodes, but at that early stage, it was his biggest claim to fame yet, as Twin Peaks (1990) was watched by millions of people worldwide. Needless to say, David's talents as an actor would finally be recognized and he would get the acknowledgment that he so richly deserved.
In the early 1990s, he got more bit parts in films, this time, however, the films weren't "low key", but hits, such as Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) and the family favorite comedy, Beethoven (1992). David's role in Beethoven (1992) was small, but it was hard to forget the poor guy who was dragged across the lawn by the giant St. Bernard!
A year later, in 1993, David got the lead role in the independent film Kalifornia (1993). The film also starred another up-and-coming young actor, Brad Pitt. In Kalifornia (1993), David played a journalist who goes on a cross-country tour of famous murder sites with his girlfriend as research for a book he is writing about serial killers. He takes Pitt's character along to help pay the bills, unaware that Pitt's character is in fact a serial killer himself. Although it did not do much business at the box office, it is still a great film and has become somewhat of a cult favorite among fans.
That same year, David was offered the role of FBI Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder on the long-running TV series The X-Files (1993). The show was a tremendous international success and propelled David (and his co-star Gillian Anderson) into super-stardom. His character of Mulder has become somewhat of a pop culture legend and is renowned the world over for his satirical wit and dry sense of humor. Fans loved the fact that he could keep a straight face and still crack and joke in the face of extreme danger. David improvised a lot of his own lines of dialogue while on the show and even penned and directed a few episodes. The series ended in 2002 and still has a strong, dedicated following. To date, David has reprised his role of Fox Mulder in two "X Files" feature films: The X Files (1998) and The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008).
During the initial run of The X-Files (1993), David kept busy and made several films, such as: Return to Me (2000), alongside actress Minnie Driver and the comedy favorite Evolution (2001), with Julianne Moore, Seann William Scott and Orlando Jones. He even had a hysterical cameo as a self-obsessed, simple-minded hand model in the comedy-smash Zoolander (2001).
In 2007, after a few years out of the limelight, David struck gold again after landing the plum role of Hank Moody in Californication (2007). The raunchy series follows the life of womanizing writer Hank Moody (Duchovny) as he tries to juggle his career and his relationship with his daughter and his ex-girlfriend. The show has become a hit for its off-the-wall humor and Duchovny's ability to always turn in a brilliant performance.
It may have taken a while, but David has worked his way to the top and notched up an impressive resume along the way. We can expect to see a lot more of him in the future.- Actor
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Kim's film career began in 1991 with The Last Boy Scout. Two Warner Brothers' hits followed: Innocent Blood and The Client. Since that time he has starred in over forty films, including Academy Award winners Black Hawk Down directed by Ridley Scott, and Pearl Harbor directed by Michael Bay. Other films include Waterworld and Open Range with Kevin Costner, Grilled with Ray Romano, Silent Hill opposite Sean Bean, Hostage with Bruce Willis, Assault on Precinct 13, Unforgettable, Skinwalkers, and Hero Wanted.
Kim returned to Entourage for it's final season as Carl Ertz, the sleazy movie Producer. His performance garnered so much attention in previous seasons that Ertz's return was a direct request. He appeared in a recurring role on CSI Miami. Other prominent guest starring television roles include CSI, CSI NY, Cold Case, and Prison Break. He has had roles in more than 20 MOW's including the NBC miniseries Hercules, and Disney's Scream Team. These dramatic turns on television have earned him Gemini nominations for Best Actor in a Featured Supporting Role for HBO's Dead Silence and Best Performance in a Guest Role Dramatic Series for The Outer Limits.
In 2008 Kim starred in and executive produced the film The Poet. Before its wide release it won best picture and best director (Damian Lee) at the New York Staten Island Film festival.
At the AOF International Film Festival in Pasadena, Kim received the Half Life Achievement Award for acting in 2009. Kim also won best actor for playing Steve Sorrano in King of Sorrow.
Kim starred on Broadway as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, as the title role in Macbeth at the legendary Stratford Theatre, and has appeared in over fifty plays in North America.
In the fall of 2010 Kim starred in the blockbuster 3D movie Resident Evil Afterlife, with Mila Jovovich.
In 2011, Kim starred in Sacrifice, with Cuba Gooding Jr., A Little Help, with Jenna Fisher, Sinners and Saints and Robosapien.
In 2012, Kim starred in the sports comedy Goon along side Seann William Scott, Liev Schreiber and Jay Baruchel, for which Kim is nominated for Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards. Goon was much lauded by international audiences and critics alike.
The FX hit series Sons of Anarchy is going into its 6th season. Kim Coates is Tig Trager, the motorcycle club's sergeant at arms. Tig fears nothing, much like Kim throughout his career.
Kim has 3 feature films opening in 2013; Rufus, Ferocious, The Dark Truth which Kim co-produced and starred in along side Forrest Whitaker and Andy Garcia,
Kim is currently filming Crossing Lines in Prague with William Fichtner and Donald Sutherland.
Kim currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.- Actor
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David Labrava started his Hollywood career as a camera operator for the Zalman King Company (Red Shoe Diaries, 9 1/2 weeks, In God's Hands), where he learned script writing. He starred in the series Whiplash ZK as the host. He did an independent project entitled FTW for Picture Perfect Productions, and starred in Fencewalker, the new film from Chris Carter (The X-Files).
David has been riding motorcycles for 30 years, and was hired to be the Technical Advisor for Sons of Anarchy. David was then cast as "Happy," and has been with the show since its inception.
David developed a show he created with FX this past year, and has been editing a documentary he filmed about one of the larger MC's. He writes a column in a national Hot Rod Magazine called 'Ol Skool Rodz, called "Burnin' Rubber with Jimmy Carbone." Before that he used to write for the Horse Motorcycle magazine, and has built a bike that made the cover (issue #13 March 2001). He is a five diploma Harley Davidson Mechanic, graduating from the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, certified by Harley Davidson.
David is an accomplished glass artist with his own shop. He also owns a tattoo shop in Northern California called Evil Ink Tattoo in the Bay Area. When he is not filming, he is tattooing there. David still builds Hot Rod cars and bikes for fun, not profit, and rides his motorcycle daily.- Actor
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Karan Soni was born in New Delhi, India. He made his film debut as Kemal in Yusuf Sumer's short comedy film Kaka Nirvana (2010), in which he co-starred with Rachel Quinn. In 2016, Soni rose to international prominence for his role as Dopinder in Tim Miller's action film Deadpool (2016), a role he later reprised in David Leitch's sequel Deadpool 2 (2018).- Actress
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Canadian actress, writer, and comedian, Catherine O'Hara gained recognition as one of the original cast members on the Canadian television sketch comedy show SCTV (1976). On the series, she impersonated the likes of Lucille Ball, Tammy Faye Bakker, Gilda Radner, Katharine Hepburn, and Brooke Shields. O'Hara stayed with the show for its entirety (1976-1984). She went on to devote her talents to several films directed by Tim Burton, including Beetlejuice (1988), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and later, Frankenweenie (2012). O'Hara also frequently collaborated with director and writer, Christopher Guest, appearing in his mockumentary films, three of which earned her awards and nominations; Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). Recently, O'Hara can be seen on the Canadian television comedy series Schitt's Creek (2015). Her work in the series earned two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Lead Actress (2016 and 2017).- Actress
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Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Ukrainian Jewish and Romanian Jewish. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary. Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady", an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature, which included one piece by Louisa May Alcott. Ryder would later play the lead role of Josephine March in the adaptation of this author's novel Little Women (1994).
Ryder moved with her parents to Petaluma, California when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At age 13, she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but did not get the role. However, director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she would like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back-to-back. She said she did not want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993), which was directed by Martin Scorsese, whom she believes to be "the best director in the world".- Actor
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Having made over one hundred films in his legendary career, Willem Dafoe is internationally respected for bringing versatility, boldness, and daring to some of the most iconic films of our time. His artistic curiosity in exploring the human condition leads him to projects all over the world, large and small, Hollywood films as well as Independent cinema.
In 1979, he was given a role in Michael's Cimino's Heaven's Gate, from which he was fired. Since then, he has collaborated with directors who represent a virtual encyclopedia of modern cinema: James Wan, Robert Eggers, Sean Baker, Kenneth Branagh, Kathryn Bigelow, Sam Raimi, Alan Parker, Walter Hill, Mary Harron, Wim Wenders, Anton Corbijn, Zhang Yimou, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Werner Herzog, Lars Von Trier, Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Anthony Minghella, Theo Angelopoulos, Robert Rodriguez, Phillip Noyce, Hector Babenco, John Milius, Paul Weitz, The Spierig Brothers, Andrew Stanton, Josh Boone, Dee Rees and Julian Schnabel.
Dafoe has been recognized with four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Platoon, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Shadow Of The Vampire, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Florida Project, for which he also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, and most recently, Best Leading Actor for At Eternity's Gate, for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination. Among his other nominations and awards, he has received two Los Angeles Film Critics Awards, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a National Board of Review Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup, as well as a Berlinale Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement.
Willem was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to Muriel Isabel (Sprissler), a nurse, and William Alfred Dafoe, a surgeon. He is of mostly German, Irish, Scottish, and English descent. He and his wife, director Giada Colagrande, have made three films together: Padre, A Woman, and Before It Had A Name.
His natural adventurousness is evident in roles as diverse as Marcus, the elite assassin who is mentor to Keanu Reeves in the neo-noir John Wick; in his voice work as Gil the Moorish Idol in Finding Nemo and Ryuk the Death God in Death Note; as Paul Smecker, the obsessed FBI agent in the cult classic The Boondock Saints; and as real life hero Leonhard Seppala, who led the 1925 Alaskan dog sled diphtheria serum run in Ericson Core's Togo. That adventurous spirit continues with upcoming films including Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, Abel Ferrara's Siberia, and Paul Schrader's The Card Counter.
Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre collective. He created and performed in all of the group's work from 1977 thru 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Since then, he worked with Richard Foreman in Idiot Savant at The Public Theatre (NYC), with Robert Wilson on two international productions: The Life & Death of Marina Abramovic and The Old Woman opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov and developed a new theatre piece, directed by Romeo Castellucci, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. He recently completed work on Marina Abramovic's opera 7 Deaths of Maria Callas.- Actor
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Justin was born and raised in Washington, DC, the son of Phyllis (Grissim), a writer for The Washington Post, and Eugene Theroux, a corporate lawyer. He is a nephew of writer Paul Theroux and a cousin of journalists Louis Theroux and Marcel Theroux. His father is of French-Canadian and Italian descent, and his mother has English and German ancestry. Theroux graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then moved to New York City to pursue a career in the visual arts, but soon found himself immersed in stage acting. He starred in numerous off Broadway plays before his feature film career began. Justin's film career includes work both in front of and behind the camera as writer, director & actor. He has written on several high-profile films such as Iron Man 2, Tropic Thunder, and Rock of Ages. He lives in Los Angeles, estranged from wife, Jennifer Aniston.- Actor
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The story goes that huggable, highly affable stand-up comedian Howie Mandel began his show biz career by chance while catching amateur night at the Comedy Store on the L.A. Sunset Strip during a vacation. Goaded on by friends to try out, a producer spotted him, hired him for an appearance on a comedy game show and the rest is history. Talk about luck! Howie would move from this to TV celebrity, screenwriter, actor, producer, director, entrepreneur, and popular game show panelist/host.
Curly-haired Jewish-Canadian Howard Michael Mandel II was born in Toronto, Ontario on November 29 1955, and raised there. Of Romanian and Polish descent, and a distant cousin of Israeli violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, he proved to be a highly controversial class clown in high school and was expelled for some costly antics. He soon found work as a carpet salesman while hitting the stage at night as a cut-up at Toronto's Yuk Yuk's comedy club. His routine, which included extremely bizarre sight gags, which were favorably received. And then in 1978, he traveled to the States, visited the L.A. Comedy Store, and stayed.
While a regular performer at the popular Sunset Strip club, a producer for the syndicated comedy game show Make Me Laugh (1979) caught his act and booked Howie for a series of appearances during its short-lived 1979-1980 series. This led to a big step as an opening act for David Letterman, a CBS comedy special in 1980, several late-night appearances on "The Alan Thicke Show," and a lead role in the wacky but poorly-received Canadian film comedy Gas (1981) also starring Susan Anspach. He also showed up as one of the original "VeeJays" on Nickelodeon's music video series.
A pleasing, agreeable comedian who quickly graduated to TV talk shows and Vegas gigs, Howie earned household attention when cast in the critically-acclaimed medical TV drama St. Elsewhere (1982). Providing comic relief as bushy-headed Dr. Wayne Fiscus, he continuing to work as a comedian and take a shot at 80's comedy film stardom. He played a young comic in the film The Funny Farm (1983); provided the voice of Gizmo in the box-office hit Gremlins (1984) and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990); co-starred with Ted Danson in Blake Edwards' comedy caper A Fine Mess (1986); co-starred with Christopher Lloyd as a wolf boy returning to civilization in Walk Like a Man (1987); and co-starred with young Fred Savage as a blue humanoid who introduces him to the world of weird creatures in Little Monsters (1989). These co-starring vehicles, however, failed to generate major box-office or stardom.
On TV, Howie provided the voice of Skeeter in the animated cartoon series Muppet Babies (1984). Having a strong affinity for children, he ventured into his own kid series with the Emmy-nominated Bobby's World (1990) serving as creator, executive producer and title star vocals as Bobby Generic. In the 1990's, Howie starred in a short-lived "dark comedy" series Good Grief (1990) in which he fell into the funeral business. This was followed by his own failed talk show The Howie Mandel Show (1998) during the 1998-1999 season. Throughout the decade, which included guest appearances on "Lois & Clark," "Carol & Company," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Bless This House," "The Nanny," "The Outer Limits" and "Sunset Beach," managed a near-full time schedule of concerts, tours, cartoon voiceovers and TV comedy specials, the last-mentioned keeping him current with viewers The First Howie Mandel Special (1983) and Howie Mandel: Live from Carnegie Mall (1985).
In 2006, Howie his pay dirt as the (now) bald-domed host of the game show Deal or No Deal (2005). The show ran for four seasons, but returned for a season a decade later. Over time Howie appeared in scores of TV commercials for Boston Pizza as their hired spokesperson. In April 2004, he was selected as #82 on Comedy Central's list of the "100 Greatest Stand Up Comedians of All Time." On September 4, 2008, Mandel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Comedy Central listed him as #82 on their list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. That same year he revealed that he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and was involved in raising adult ADHD awareness.
In 2009, Howie served as star and executive producer of his own "Candid Camera"-like practical joke reality show Howie Do It (2008). It lasted one season. Two years later, he premiered a flash-mob reality show called Mobbed (2011), which did even less well. For the past decade, he has enjoyed stability as a judge on the reality show America's Got Talent (2006).
Married to Terry (Soil) Mandel since 1980 with three children, Howie received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 2009. Mandel has written and published an in-depth OCD, ADHD-themed autobiography Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me.- Actor
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Fred Savage was born July 9, 1976. He began acting at age 9 in a production produced by Lorimar called Morningstar/Eveningstar (1986). He was found by Roger Damon Price to play the role of Alan Bishop. During production Fred auditioned for The Boy Who Could Fly (1986) which launched Jay Underwood's career.
At the age of twelve, he was cast in the lead role of the series The Wonder Years (1988). He was later in the movie Vice Versa (1988) with Judge Reinhold and then in Little Monsters (1989), in which he worked with his younger brother Ben Savage. Then, he went into the movie The Wizard (1989), with Luke Edwards, Christian Slater, Jenny Lewis, and Beau Bridges. The Wonder Years (1988) was canceled while his younger brother Ben Savage got the lead in the show Boy Meets World (1993). He stopped working for a couple of years until he was cast in the series Working (1997).- Actor
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American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer James Rouse, who developed Columbia, MD; she passed away of brain cancer on March 6, 1997. His father, Edward Mower Norton, was an environmental lawyer and conservationist, who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Edward has two younger siblings, James and Molly.
From the age of five onward, the Yale graduate (majoring in history) was interested in acting. At the age of eight, he would ask his drama teacher what his motivation in a scene was. He attended theater schools throughout his life, and eventually managed to find work on stage in New York as a member of the Signature players, who produced the works of playwright and director Edward Albee. Around the time when he was appearing in Albee's Fragments, in Hollywood, they were looking for a young actor to star opposite Richard Gere in a new courtroom thriller, Primal Fear (1996). The role was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio but he turned it down. Gere was on the verge of walking away from the project, fed up with the wait for a young star to be found, when Edward auditioned and won the role over 2000 other hopefuls. Before the film was even released, his test screenings for the part were causing a Hollywood sensation, and he was soon offered roles in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Edward won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Primal Fear (1996). In 1998, Norton gained 30 pounds of muscle and transformed his look into that of a monstrous skinhead for his role as a violent white supremacist in American History X (1998). This performance earned him his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor.
He received his third Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). His most prominent roles also include the critically acclaimed Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Fight Club (1999), Red Dragon (2002), 25th Hour (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He has also directed and co-written films, including his directorial debut, Keeping the Faith (2000). He has done uncredited work on the scripts for The Score (2001), Frida (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
Alongside his work in cinema, Norton is an environmental and social activist, and is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing founded by his grandfather James Rouse.- Actor
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Two-time Golden Globe nominee and SAG Award nominated actor Chris Noth stars on Season 3 FX's critically acclaimed drama Tyrant (2014) and has two independent films coming out this year.
On Tyrant (2014), Noth enters the show in its third season premiering in July, starring as Gen. William Cogswell, an exiled powerhouse whose return to Abbudin and subsequent rise to power is complicated by his romantic history and hidden idiosyncrasies. In film, he stars in the hit Sundance feature film White Girl (2016), with Morgan Saylor, and the independent film Chronically Metropolitan (2016) with Mary-Louise Parker.
Christopher David Noth was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to Jeanne Parr, a CBS news reporter, and Charles James Noth, an attorney. He is of German, Irish, and English descent. Setting the bar for strong, charismatic leading men on television, Chris has a knack for tackling characters that remain as relevant today as when he first played them. He rose to prominence as Detective Mike Logan on the original Law & Order (1990), where he spent five seasons before going on to set hearts aflutter as the iconic Mr. Big on HBO's groundbreaking series Sex and the City (1998). Noth garnered his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy playing the unattainable bachelor who gradually evolves into the love of Carrie Bradshaw's life. Meanwhile, Mr. Big became a central point for the Carrie character and the series as a whole, with their tumultuous storyline launching two blockbuster movies Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010) in which he also starred. Next came a critically lauded turn as the flawed and powerful Peter Florrick opposite Julianna Margulies on the CBS hit drama The Good Wife (2009). Noth's complex performance earned him a second Golden Globe nod - this one for Best Actor in a Drama, as well as two SAG nominations for Best Ensemble. The show is coming to a close after seven seasons.
Noth has regularly appeared on stage since graduation from the Yale School of Drama and considers theater his first love. He most recently starred as Faustus in Classic Stage Company's Off-Broadway production of Dr. Faustus. Notable Broadway credits include That Championship Season with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric and Gore Vidal's The Best Man with Elizabeth Ashley and Charles Durning, for which Chris received a Theatre World Award. Off Broadway Noth starred in the Atlantic Theater's Production of Farragut North with John Gallagher, Jr and then again in Los Angeles at the Geffen Theater with Chris Pine. He also starred in, What Didn't Happen at the Playwrights Horizons, and Arms and the Man at the Roundabout Theater. He starred in American Buffalo at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and played Hamlet at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford. He has also performed in plays at Yale Rep, The Manhattan Theater Club, Circle Rep, Taper 2 series at Mark Taper Forum, and La Mama.
Other television credits include the TNT original film Bad Apple (2004), which he not only starred in but Executive Produced, as well as TNT's epic miniseries Caesar (2002), TNT telefilm Exiled (1998) and the BBC Series Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012). Additional film credits include: Lovelace (2013) with Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard, Elsa & Fred (2014), with Christopher Plummer and Marcia Gay Harden, 3, 2, 1... Frankie Go Boom (2012), My One and Only (2009), Mr. 3000 (2004), Searching for Paradise (2002), Double Whammy (2001), Cast Away (2000), A Texas Funeral (1999), Getting to Know You (1999), The Broken Giant (1997), The Confession (2011), Cold Around the Heart (1997) and Naked in New York (1993).
Noth has been the face of Biotherm Homme in Canada, he was GQ's 2015 International Man of the Year, is a supporter of the Rainforest Action Network and is co-owner of The Cutting Room, a well known music venue in New York City that opened in late 1999, with his friend Steve Walter.
Noth resides in New York and Los Angeles.- Actor
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James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nancy Louise (Howard) and James Albert Varney, Sr. He became interested in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At age 15 he played Ebeneezer Scrooge in a local children's theater production of "A Christmas Carol", and by 17 was performing professionally in nightclubs and coffee houses. He chose Nashville rather than New York or Los Angeles as a place to pursue his acting career and, with advertising executive John R. Cherry III, turned "Ernest P. Worrell" into a cash cow, making commercials for clients ranging from soft drinks to food stores and, eventually, Disney. Even though Ernest's catchphrase "KnowhutImean?" became a national craze almost immediately, Jim worked in TV and film for more than a decade before his famous alter-ego hit the big screen in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).- Actor
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Richard Cabral was born on 28 August 1984 in East Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for End of Watch (2012), Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) and Walk of Shame (2014). He has been married to Janiece Sarduy since 24 October 2014.- Actress
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Sarah Chalke was born on 27 August 1976 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her parents are Angie Chalke and Doug Chalke. She is the middle child, having one older sister, Natasha Chalke, and one younger, Piper Chalke. Sarah made her acting debut in a made-for-TV movie, City Boy (1992). In 1993, after her first film, she auditioned for the role of "Becky" on the TV series Roseanne (1988). The show was looking for a replacement after Alicia Goranson quit the show to go to college. Sarah graduated from high school in 1995, while shooting the 1994-1995 season of Roseanne (1988). Also, in 1994, Sarah co-starred in the film, Ernest Goes to School (1994), along with Jim Varney. Then, in 1996, she starred in 2 films, including Robin of Locksley (1996), and also Stand Against Fear (1996), where she played a cheerleader, "Krista Wilson". In 1998, a year after Roseanne (1988) ended, Sarah was asked to act in a show called Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998). The show was based on the TV movie with the same name, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998), which Sarah was also in.- Actor
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Macdonald was born Norman Gene Macdonald in Quebec City, Quebec. He began his career in stand-up comedy. Macdonald's first job was writing for The Dennis Miller Show (1992) and then Roseanne (1988). While writing for Roseanne (1988), he was noticed by Lorne Michaels, who liked Norm's stand up, and gave him his job on Saturday Night Live (1975).
Macdonald became widely popular when he became the Weekend Update anchor with his trademark line, "And now the fake news". He lasted from September 24, 1994 until December 13, 1997, when he was fired by Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC on the west coast. His last weekend update was December 13, 1997 and he officially left the show in March 1998. His movie, Dirty Work (1998), which he began working on in the summer of 1997, came out 2 months later. In March 1999, his show, called Norm (1999), came out on ABC and had a 3-season run. During that time, he also starred in the movie Screwed (2000), opposite Dave Chappelle.- Actor
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Tony was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1991. He has appeared in numerous Hollywood films as well many independent films and over a hundred episodes of television. He Is also a regular fixture on Canadian stages. Tony has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, A Broadway World Award, two Actra Awards, and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards.