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- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Parker Posey was born two months premature in Baltimore, Maryland, to Lynda (Patton) and Chris Posey. The family moved to Monroe, La. and then Laurel, Mississippi, where Chris became owner of Laurel's own Posey Chevrolet. Parker attended high school at R. H. Watkins High School in Laurel, and college at the prestigious SUNY Purchase. While at SUNY she roomed with Sherry Stringfield of TV's ER (1994).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Courtney Thorne-Smith is an American actress. She is best known for her starring roles as Alison Parker on Melrose Place, Georgia Thomas on Ally McBeal, Cheryl Mabel in According to Jim and her recurring role on Two and a Half Men as Lyndsey McElroy. Thorne-Smith was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Menlo Park, a suburb south of San Francisco. Her father, Walter Smith, was a computer market researcher, and her mother, Lora Thorne, was a therapist. They divorced when Courtney was seven years old and she lived with both parents at different stages. She has an older sister, Jennifer, who is an advertising executive. She attended Menlo-Atherton High School, in Atherton, California, and graduated from Tamalpais High School, in Mill Valley, California, in 1985. She also performed with the Ensemble Theater Company in Mill Valley while attending high school.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA on November 8, 1975. She got her career start at six, when she appeared on a children's game show called Child's Play (1982). Later, she appeared in commercials for Jell-O, McDonald's, and Crayola. She attended the Professional Children's School in New York City. Her classmates included Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jerry O'Connell, Macaulay Culkin, and Ben Taylor. After several career moves, she became known after her role as Bunny, in The Big Lebowski (1998).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Dania is a Latin American actress born in the Dominican Republic. She grew up, living with her grandmother, in a poor household. Her parents left for the United States, when she was 6-months old, and she finally joined them in New York when she was age 10.
She knew from a young age that she wanted to act. She was discovered by a model scout and cast in a soda commercial. She attended the Actor's workshop in New York City and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.
Her first job was Jay-Z's girlfriend in his music video, Streets Is Watching (1998). She went on to appear in high profile TV shows The Sopranos (1999), Entourage (2004) and Heroes (2006). She has also appeared in films and, in 2012, she was cast in American Reunion (2012). She is currently starring on Lifetime's Devious Maids (2013) as 'Rosie Falta'.- Actress
- Producer
Christina Robinson was born on 8 November 1997 in Orlando, Florida, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Dexter (2006), Syn (2017) and Equestrian Sexual Response (2010).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy childhood, being frequently expelled from school.
In 1953/1954 he served with the French Marines in Indochina. In the mid-'50s he worked at various odd jobs including waiter, salesman and porter in Les Halles market. He decided to try an acting career and in 1957 made his film debut in Yves Allégret's Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957). He declined an offer of a contract from producer David O. Selznick, and in 1960 he received international recognition for his role in Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers (1960). In 1961 he appeared on the stage in "'Tis a Pity She's a Whore", directed by Visconti, in Paris. In 1964 he formed his own production company, Delbeau Productions, and he produced a short film directed by Guy Gilles. In 1968 he found himself involved in murder, drug and sex scandal that indirectly implicated major politicians and show-business personalities, but he was eventually cleared of all charges. In the late 1960s he formed another company. Adel Film, and the next year he began producing features. In 1981 he directed his first film, To Kill a Cop (1981).
Delon was a sensation early in his career; he came to embody the young, energetic, often morally corrupted man. With his breathtaking good looks he was also destined to play tender lovers and romantic heroes, and he was a French embodiment of the type created in America by James Dean. His first outstanding success came with the role of the parasite Tom Ripley in 'Rene Clement''s sun-drenched thriller Purple Noon (1960). Delon presented a psychological portrait of a murderous young cynic who attempts to take on the identity of his victim. A totally different role was offered to him by Visconti in Rocco and His Brothers (1960). In this film Delon plays the devoted Rocco, who accepts the greatest sacrifices to save his shiftless brother Simon.
After several other films in Italy, Delon returned to the criminal genre with Jean Gabin in Any Number Can Win (1963). This work, a classic example of the genre, was distinguished not only by a soundly worked-out screenplay, but also by the careful production and the excellent performances of both Delon and Gabin. It was only in the late 1960s that the sleek and lethal Delon came to epitomize the calm, psychopathic hoodlum, staring into the camera like a cat assessing a mouse. His tough, ruthless side was first used to real effect by Jean-Pierre Melville in The Samurai (1967). In 1970 he had a huge success in the bloodstained Borsalino (1970)--which he also produced--playing a small-time gangster in the 1930s who, with Jean-Paul Belmondo, becomes king of the Marseilles underworld. Delon later won critical acclaim for his roles, against type, in Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein (1976) in which he played (brilliantly) the icily sinister title role, and the art-movie Swann in Love (1984). He has an older son Anthony Delon (who has also acted in a number of movies) from his first marriage to Nathalie Delon, and has a young son and daughter, Alain-Fabien and Anouchka with Rosalie.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gretchen Mol was born November 8, 1972, in Deep River, Connecticut, the daughter of a school principal, James Mol, and his artist wife, Janet. Deep River is a small community located on the Chester Bowles Highway (Rt. 9), nine miles northwest of Old Saybrook (home of the legendary Katharine Hepburn), within commuting distance of New York City. The young Gretchen was bit by the acting bug and participated in high school theatrics, then moved to the Big Apple as a teenager to study acting and musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and at the William Esper Studio.
Although only 5'6" tall--too short for a traditional modeling career--her unique beauty brought her modeling jobs as she pursued her dream of becoming a professional actress. She began appearing in magazines in 1994, meanwhile working at such time-honored Manhattan jobs as restaurant hat-check girl. It was while working that gig she was discovered by a talent agent. The agent landed her her first acting job, a TV commercial for Coca-Cola. She continued to hone her acting skills in summer stock, appearing in such productions as "Bus Stop," "No Exit," and "Godspell."
The 23-year-old Gretchen made her film debut in Spike Lee's Girl 6 (1996), a small role that came to her, as luck would have it, after she had gone for an audition for the soap opera Guiding Light (1952). Her career began to take off, and she appeared in small parts, mostly "girlfriend" roles, in such films as Rounders (1998) starring 'Matt Damon' (qav) and in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), opposite Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Gretchen was touted as the "Next Big Thing" after appearing on the cover of the September 1998 issue of "Vanity Fair." Her most memorable role up to that time was as a mobster's moll in the minor cult classic Donnie Brasco (1997), which was mostly remembered for cinematic turns by Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Anne Heche. Nonetheless, her beauty and presence led "Vanity Fair" to hype the beautiful blonde, heralding the arrival of a major new star. She seemed poised to move up to featured roles. but the announcement turned out to be premature. Brunette Angelina Jolie proved to be Hollywood's Next "It" girl.
During the seven years that followed the "Vanity Fair" cover story, Mol continued to appear in films and on the stage, including the part of Jennie in the London and New York productions of Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" in 2001 (she also appeared in the film version, The Shape of Things (2003)). The good reviews she got proved that she was not just another pretty face. In 2004 she displayed her singing and dancing chops by playing Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of "Chicago."
She worked steadily, appearing in another small role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and eventually won the lead in David E. Kelley TV series Girls Club (2002). The series bombed, however, and was canceled after only two episodes. Nevertheless, the intervening period allowed her to develop as an actress. In 2004 the blonde beauty finally had the role that proved to be her acting breakthrough: brunette 1950s "stag queen" Bettie Page in The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). Many brunettes have gone blonde, but Mol--the blonde who went brunette--rocked the screen with her presence. Her embodiment of the legendary Page garnered excellent reviews and propelled the flick into art house hit status.
Mol married film director Tod Williams on June 1, 2004, and they became parents a little over three years later, when a son, Ptolemy John Williams, was born on October 10, 2007.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jocelin Donahue is an American actress best known for her lead role in Ti West's critically acclaimed horror film The House of the Devil and for playing young Lorraine in Insidious: Chapter 2. She has played leading roles in many independent films including The Frontier, a noir crime thriller from director Oren Shai. In 2016 Donahue also worked with director Terrence Malick on his film Knight of Cups and starred opposite Martin Freeman as a rookie FBI agent on the Crackle series StartUp.
As a commercial actress, she has appeared in numerous national and international campaigns including ads for Levi's, Apple, AT&T and General Motors. In campaigns for Ketel One and Old Navy, she worked with directors David O. Russell and Roman Coppola.
Donahue is a native of Bristol, Connecticut and a graduate of New York University with a degree in Sociology. She lives in Los Angeles and has been married to the artist Greg Santos since 2006.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Matthew Rhys Evans is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Kevin Walker in Brothers & Sisters (2006-2011) and Philip Jennings in The Americans (2013-2018), for which he received two Golden Globe Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award. In film, he appeared as Dylan Thomas in the film The Edge of Love (2008) and as Daniel Ellsberg in the film The Post (2017) and starred in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). In 2020, he starred in the lead role on the HBO period series Perry Mason, for which he received his third Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor - Television Series Drama.- Rachel Bay Jones is an American stage actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin and Evan's mother Heidi in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter earned her the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Jones was born in New York City and grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. Her parents were both Shakespearean actors. She dropped out of high school to perform in a local play, then moved to New York City to pursue acting at 19.
Jones's first Broadway role was as an understudy for the lead in Meet Me in St. Louis. In the early 1990s, she was in the touring company of Grand Hotel, as well as other national and international tours, performing Rent in German and Evita in Spanish. She performed in the 2009 revival of Hair, then became one of the original cast members starring in the revival of Pippin; she played Catherine, Pippin's lover, during the entire run.
Jones has portrayed Evan's mother Heidi in the musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2015. She reprised the role in the New York City Off-Broadway production at the Second Stage Theatre in May 2016, and then on Broadway in November 2016. At the 71st Tony Awards, she won for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Heidi Hansen. - Can Yaman was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Can's father Güven and mother Güldem divorced when he was five years old. From an early age, his grandmothers were actively involved in his upbringing and care due to his parents' financial difficulties, which were also the reason why his education was mostly covered by scholarships. Can attended Bilfen College during primary and middle school and then studied at the Liceo Italiano di Istanbul, where he graduated with the highest grade since the school was established. In 2012, he graduated from Yeditepe University Law School and started working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he met his future law firm partners. When he was 24, he worked in mergers and acquisitions and wrote articles for the tax section of Dünya newspaper. While he worked in the field of corporate law, he realized that the office life was not for him. During one of his summer holidays, Can traveled to Bodrum, where he met his managers and began his acting career. His first job in show business was the role of an unfaithful husband in the music video of the song "Porselen Dusler" by Gulnur Gokce. Although his first role in a TV series was in Affairs of the Heart (2014), his breakthrough acting role was in Full Moon (2017), which made him internationally well known. The international success of the TV series, in which he starred, led him to continue his career in Italy. In addition to his work as an actor, he is the face of various Italian and Turkish brands and dedicates his time to the charity association Can Yaman for Children.
- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Kaniehtiio 'Tiio' Horn is a Canadian actress from Kahnawake, the Mohawk reserve outside of Montreal. Since graduating from Dawson College's Professional Theatre Program in 2005 she has established herself as a versatile actress with roles on television including the multiple award-winning comedy Letterkenny, Amazon's Man in the High Castle, Hemlock Grove for Netflix, and the CBC legal drama Diggstown. Feature film credits include Immortals, On the Road, Death Wish and The Hummingbird Project opposite Alexander Skarsgård. Tiio received critical acclaim as Oak in the 2017 action/thriller Mohawk, directed by Ted Geoghegan. Tiio earned a Gemini Award nomination in 2009 for her portrayal of Angel in the APTN MOW Moccasin Flats: Redemption, as well in 2010 and 2011 as part of the ensemble cast of CBC's 18 to Life. In 2018 she launched the podcast Coffee With My Ma, sharing the adventures and experiences of of her activist mother, Kahentinetha. Most recently, Tiio co-hosted the 2019 Indspire Awards on CBC, recognizing the outstanding achievements of individuals within Canada's Indigenous community.- Actor
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Chris McNally was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Altered Carbon (2018), When Calls the Heart (2014) and Supernatural (2005). He has been married to Julie Gonzalo since 2018. They have one child.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Alfre Woodard was born on November 8, 1952 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the youngest of three children of Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an interior designer. She was named by her godmother, who claimed she saw a vision of Alfre's name written out in gold letters. A former high school cheerleader and track star, she got the acting bug after being persuaded to audition for a school play by a nun at her school. She went on to study acting at Boston University and enjoyed a brief stint on Broadway before moving to Los Angeles, California. She got her first break in Remember My Name (1978) which also starred Jeff Goldblum. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband, writer Roderick M. Spencer, and their two adopted children: Mavis and Duncan. She was named one of the Most Beautiful People in America by People Magazine.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Jessica Lowndes is a multifaceted Canadian actress, singer, and songwriter. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Jessica began her acting career at a young age, appearing in various television shows and films before landing her breakout role as drug addicted teen Adrianna Tate-Duncan on the CW TV series "90210." Originally written as a 3-episode arc, the character quickly became a series regular and a central character on 90210 for five seasons.
Beyond acting, Lowndes has expanded her career into production, having executive produced eight projects, two of which she has written the scripts and music for, as well as starred in.
In addition to her acting talents, Lowndes is also a gifted musician. She has released several singles and albums, showcasing her soulful voice and songwriting skills. She has self-released over 30 original songs and her single, Silicone in Stereo reached #11 on the Billboard charts in both the U.S. and Canada.
Lowndes starred alongside Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig in Lifetime's "A Deadly Adoption" and was the female lead in Bruce Willis and John Cusack's action flick "The Prince". In the past few years she has starred in over 15 projects with Lifetime, Hallmark, GAF and Tubi, many of which included original songs she wrote and performed for the projects. She wrote the original screenplay for Hallmark's "Over the Moon in Love" and co-wrote/performed the hit song "Paradise" for the film which hit #1 on iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts. She also starred in the 2021 film Mix Up in the Mediterranean for Hallmark Channel. Her duet "Alive," which she performed with her co-star Jeremy Jordan for the film, cracked the top 15 on iTunes last year.
Lowndes both wrote and starred in "Harmony From The Heart," for GAF and Hulu, alongside Jesse Metcalfe. Additionally, she wrote and produced the film's popular original song "11:11," which soared to #3 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart.- Jade Pettyjohn was born in Los Angeles, California. She graduated high school with honors in 2018. Her early work consisted of guest-starring roles in one hour dramatic episodic as well as independent feature films alongside award-winning actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Tony Collette, and J.K. Simmons. For three seasons, she held the series regular role of Summer on the twice Emmy nominated series, School of Rock. Jade worked opposite Academy Award-winning actress Nicole Kidman in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer, and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress, Laura Dern in Edward Zwick's Trial by Fire. She played the pivotal role of Caroline Woolgarden, an 1800's prostitute who has a strong connection to Ian McShane's character, Al Swearengen, in the HBO Emmy nominated Deadwood: The Movie. Jade stars alongside Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and award-winning actress, Kerry Washington in Hulu's limited series, Little Fires Everywhere.
- Actress
Azura Skye was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and began acting as a child in local theater. At age fifteen she was cast in her first on camera role alongside James Earl Jones and Hume Cronyn in the Showtime original film, Horton Foote's "Alone." Shortly thereafter she starred as Jane in the WB's "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane," and in the feature film "28 Days" starring Sandra Bullock. Skye's other film credits include, "Bandits," "Red Dragon," and "One Missed Call," and she's worked on a slew of television shows over the past two decades including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "American Horror Story," "Girls," and "Riverdale." Skye starred in the independent feature, "The Swerve," for which she won Best Actress awards at FrightFest, Panic Fest, and Cinepocalype, where Joel Schumacher served as jury president.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
O'Donnell was born on 8 November 1978, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to an Australian father of Irish descent and an English mother. He grew up in the suburb of St. Ives, outside of Sydney. When he was eight years old he and his family moved to Harvard, Massachusetts, United States. He has one sibling, a brother, Patrick, who is eighteen months older. His name is of Gaelic origin and translates to "Little Dark One" (It is pronounced to rhyme with "beer").- Born Rolf Åke Mikael Nyqvist in Stockholm, Sweden, it wasn't until he was over a year old when he was finally adopted from the orphanage he had been given to. His father was a lawyer and his mother a writer. It wasn't until he had his first child that he decided to seek out his biological parents. After a long journey, he met his biological mother who is Swedish and is now close to his biological father who is Italian and a pharmacist.
Acting wasn't always originally on the agenda for Nyqvist. A career in hockey was desired until an injury lead to an early retirement. At the age of 17, Nyqvist went to Omaha, Nebraska in America as an exchange student for a year. This is where his passion for acting first sparked. He took his first acting classes and played in addition to other roles, a part in a school version of the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
However, upon returning to Sweden he got accepted into Ballet school but after one year gave it up insisting he was too "stiff" and twirls and twists were not for him. An ex-girlfriend suggested to try theatre instead and at 19 years old, he was accepted into the Swedish Academic School of Drama in Malmö. He then went onto work mainly in theatre but also had several parts in film productions.
He became well known for his role as police officer Banck in the first series of Beck (1997) films made in 1997. His big breakthrough in European cinema came three years later, as he starred as Rolf, an alcoholic and abusive husband, in a film by Lukas Moodysson called Together (2000). This role landed him his first Guldbagge nomination (Best Supporting Actor) and won him the Best Actor award at the Gijón International Film Festival.
The accolades, awards and nominations flowed on from there. In 2002, Nyqvist played the leading man in the Swedish romantic comedy-drama, Grabben i graven bredvid (2002) directed by Kjell Sundvall and based on the novel of the same name written by Katarina Mazetti. He won a Best Actor Guldbagge award for his performance. The following year, Nyqvist starred as the leading role in As It Is in Heaven (2004) which was Academy Award nominated for Best Foreign Film and his performance as an internationally renowned, struggling conductor earned Nyqvist his second nomination for a Best Actor Guldbagge award. In 2006, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Guldbagge award for his role in the film Mother of Mine (2005).
Over the next few years he went on to star in several other films and plays as part of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. A notable role that Nyqvist portrayed was that of Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam in the film The Black Pimpernel (2007). Edelstam was a hero that saved several lives from execution in Chile during and after the military coupe in September 1973.
In 2008, it was announced that Nyqvist was chosen to star as Mikael Blomkvist of the literary phenomenon, the Millennium Trilogy written by Stieg Larsson. It was long speculated by Scandinavian tabloids that fellow Swedish actor, Mikael Persbrandt could be chosen for the role of Blomkvist until Niels Arden Oplev claimed that 'he would not have been right for the role.' Oplev needed 'a humanist with his heart in the right place, a Swedish teddy bear whom women would feel safe in his arms...a man who respects women, regardless of what type they are.' Nyqvist's capabilities as an actor and his public persona scored him the role.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and its sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) were released in 2009 throughout Europe and in the following year, throughout the rest of the world. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has garnered international critical acclaim. Oplev, Noomi Rapace (who starred as Lisbeth Salander, female protagonist of the trilogy) and Nyqvist all gained international recognition. Nyqvist said that his role as Blomkvist 'put me on the map internationally.' As a result he starred in two major Hollywood action movies as the leading villain: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) as Hendricks, and John Wick (2014) as Tarasov. He made other movies in English, and continued to work in Swedish language projects.
He appeared in two films based on novels by well-known Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, Kennedy's Brain (2010) and The Man from Beijing (2011). There was speculation and talk from Mankell that Nyqvist would be his first choice to play Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated in 1986, but that project never materialized. Instead, one of his final appearances was as a man who was the diametric opposite of Palme: he played Hendrik Verwoed, the architect of apartheid in South Africa, in Madiba (2017).
Michael Nyqvist was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he passed away of the disease in Stockholm in June 2017, aged 56.
He was married to set designer, Catharina Ehrnrooth and had two children Ellen (born in 1991) and Arthur (born in 1996). - Jeanine Serralles is an award-winning stage and screen actor who has received nominations for two Drama Desk Awards, two Drama League Awards, and the Lucille Lortel Award for her work. Her film roles include opposite Timothée Chalamet in Hot Summer Nights, Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis, Gabriel Byrne in No Pay, Nudity, and Amy Adams and Gary Oldman in The Woman in the Window. She was a series regular on Amazon's "Utopia" created by Gillian Flynn and has a major role in Season 3 of the Starz series "Hightown". Her many stage credits include acclaimed productions at Lincoln Center, Atlantic, BAM, Labyrinth, The Vineyard, Williamstown, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theater Workshop, to name a few. Ms. Serralles is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and a native New Yorker.
- Magda Apanowicz was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Magda is an actor, known for The Green Inferno (2013), The Butterfly Effect (2004) and Caprica (2009).
- Brooke Lyons was born on 8 November 1980 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is an actress, known for Reasonable Doubt (2022), Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020) and Life Sentence (2018). She has been married to Max Osswald since 26 April 2014. They have two children.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born on November 8, 1961 in Hollywood, California, Leif grew up in a world of showbiz and got his first taste of acting in the blockbuster film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) playing the son of Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon, though he was uncredited. Then he was a frequent guest in TV shows such as Nanny and the Professor (1970), Family Affair (1966), Cannon (1971), Gunsmoke (1955) and The Odd Couple (1970) as well as receiving brief exposure in Walking Tall (1973) and Peopletoys (1974), both films also starring his sister, Dawn Lyn. He then played Endy Karras in the TV series Three for the Road (1975), also starring Alex Rocco and Vincent Van Patten, and by then he started getting exposure on teen magazines and fan mail, despite the show's short run. He still pursued his acting career by starring in some westerns like God's Gun (1976), Vengeance (1976) and Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion (1977).
Garrett was offered a recording contract by Atlantic Records. He released two oldie cover singles "Surfin' USA" and "Runaround Sue" on his self-titled debut album, but wasn't really happy with this style of music. After switching to the Scotti Brothers he recorded another album called "Feel the Need" which had a top 10 disco-flavoured hit called, "I Was Made for Dancin'". He released three more albums but mostly stopped recording music in the early 1980s.
He continued in films and is well remembered for his small supporting role in the blockbuster film The Outsiders (1983), which starred Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise, but his films after that were less successful. However, he did return to music by playing in a band called "Godspeed" in the late 1990s, this time playing his own music.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Megan Cavanagh is a Chicago native, most recognized as Marla Hooch, from the Penny Marshall movie A League of Their Own. Other film credits include: Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. She starred with Tim Allen and Kirstie Ally in For Richer or Poorer (Levinia Yoder). Megan voiced Judy Neutron, Jimmy Neutron's Mom, in The Academy Award Nominated Animated Feature Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and also did the Nickelodeon TV series. Megan was a recurring character on Home Improvement and her character, Trudy married Al on the last episode. Guest star roles include: Friends, Will & Grace, Just Shoot Me, West Wing, ER, Roseanne and many others. Megan has been performing in Menopause The Musical since 2004. She is a passionate fan of baseball, and has been honored on the field at Major and Minor League ballparks across the country but calls the Chicago Cubs "her team".- Don McManus was born on 8 November 1959 in San Diego, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Vice (2018), Sorry for Your Loss (2018) and Mom (2013).
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Lauren Alaina (real name Lauren Alaina Suddeth) quickly became a favorite on American Idol (2002) Season Ten's list of competitors, unique in her looks and known for her devotion to God. Born and raised in Rossville, Georgia, Lauren tapped into her talent of singing when her cousin got diagnosed with a brain tumor and convinced Lauren to pursue her singing dreams. During her stay on "American Idol", she quickly became friends with winner Scotty McCreery. They shared their Christianity, country roots and likability. Though Scotty won, Lauren was more than happy to lose to a friend and kissed him repeatedly after it was announced to what would later be called "Proof of McLaina", which is a couple nickname dubbed by Lauren and Scotty's fans. Though Lauren played it coy for weeks after, both she and Scotty have now said that they are like "brother and sister" and they are "best friends". Her new album, "Wildflower", hit stores in October of 2011 and, already, she shows some huge success, debuting at number 1 on iTunes. With her awesome looks, angelic voice and charming sense of humor, one thing is for sure: this "Georgia Peach" has talent and will go very far.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Scottish by birth, Gordon Ramsay was brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. With an injury prematurely putting an end to any hopes of a promising career in football, he went back to college to complete a course in hotel management. His dedication and natural talent led him to train with some of the world's leading chefs, such as Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White in London, and Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon in France.
In 1993 Ramsay became chef of Aubergine in London, which within three years was awarded two Michelin stars. In 1998, at the age of 31, Ramsay set up his first wholly owned and namesake restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which quickly received the most prestigious accolade in the culinary world - three Michelin stars. Today, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is London's longest-running restaurant to hold this award, and Ramsay is one of only four chefs in the UK to maintain three stars.
Now internationally renowned, multi-Michelin-starred Ramsay has opened a string of successful restaurants across the globe, from Italy to the United States. These include two ventures in Doha, Qatar, that opened in 2012; five restaurants in Las Vegas (Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen at Caesars Palace, Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips at The LINQ Promenade, Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas, Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill at Caesars Palace, and Gordon Ramsay Burger at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino), Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill in Atlantic City, Gordon Ramsay Steak in Baltimore and Bread Street Kitchen in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. In the UK, the Gordon Ramsay Group has opened Union Street Café, London House, Heddon Street Kitchen and two further maze Grills, one of which is located on the former Aubergine site on Park Walk, Chelsea.
His next-generation multi-media production company Studio Ramsay has a joint venture with All3Media to develop and produce both unscripted and scripted television shows, creating new formats and innovative programming that includes a scripted arm focused on food-related themes, and development of new talent on a global front. The catalogue of programs that Ramsay has worked on historically with All3Media via One Potato Two Potato, together with new original content he's currently developing, make for a unique and dynamic production and distribution partnership. Its first daytime cooking series, ""Culinary Genius,"" premiered in the spring on ITV in the U.K. was syndicated on FOX stations in the U.S. this past summer. Seasons 3 and 4 of "Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch," starring Tilly Ramsay for U.K. children's channel CBBC, are also produced by Studio Ramsay
Renowned for highly successful and award-winning original programming, Emmy-nominated, multi-Michelin-star chef Gordon Ramsay produces TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic (in the U.S and the UK) seen by audiences worldwide, including his FOX shows ""24 Hours to Hell & Back,"" ""Masterchef,"" ""Masterchef Junior,"" ""Hell's Kitchen,"" and ""Masterchef Celebrity Showdown,"" as well as Bravo's "Best New Restaurant" and Food Network's competition series "Food Court Wars." In the U.K., he's produced "Gordon Ramsay Behind Bars" and "Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape" for Channel 4; food biography and nostalgia series "My Kitchen" for UKTV's Good Food Channel; two instructional cookery series, "Ultimate Home Cooking" and "Ultimate Cookery Course" for Channel 4; and the first two seasons of "Matilda And the Ramsay Bunch," all under his One Potato Two Potato banner.
Ramsay has a global partnership with WWRD (Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton), which offers quality home and lifestyle products.
In 2014, Ramsay and his wife, Tana, set up the Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation to make a meaningful difference to charities that are important to them. The Foundation is currently partnered with Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of London's most respected Children's Hospitals.
Ramsay received an OBE (Order of the British Empire awarded by Queen Elizabeth II) in 2006 for services to the industry.
He resides with his wife, Tana, and children, along with their two dogs, two cats and a tortoise. He divides his time between Los Angeles and London.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Richard Curtis was born on 8 November 1956 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a writer and producer, known for Love Actually (2003), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and About Time (2013).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Musical theater devotees will undoubtedly know that the song "Let Me Entertain You" was from the classic musical "Gypsy", the born-in-a-trunk story of resilient kid troopers Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc who were mercilessly pushed into vaudeville careers by an unbearably headstrong mother. While the lesser-talented Gypsy, of course, became the legendary ecdysiast who turned stripping into an art form, sister June survived her "Baby June" vaudeville child days of old and the tougher road of Depression-era dance marathons to become a reputable actress of stage, screen and TV, among other things. While June may have immortalized in "Gypsy," based on her older sister's memoirs, it was a bittersweet notoriety as she felt it was a very unjust, hurtful and highly inaccurate portrait of her. It also caused a deep rift between the sisters that lasted for well over a decade.
The Canadian-born actress (she was born in Vancouver, not Seattle) entered the world in 1912 (some sources insist 1913 or 1916, but Havoc confirmed her true birth date in 2006), the younger daughter of audacious "stage mother" Rose Thompson Hovick and her husband, John Olaf Hovick, a cub reporter for a Seattle newspaper. Baby June was primed for stardom by Rose by age 2 and was soon dancing with the great ballerina Anna Pavlova and appearing in Hal Roach film shorts (1918-1924) with Harold Lloyd. A flexible, high-kicking vaudeville sensation at 5, she was featured front-and-center in an act completely built around her ("Dainty June and Her Newsboys"). Earning around $1,500 a week at her peak, the delightful child star had audiences eating out of the palm of her little hand while sharing the stage with the likes of "Red-Hot Mama" Sophie Tucker and "Baby Snooks" Fanny Brice. The unrelenting pressures and suffocating dominance of her mother, however, led to a capricious elopement at age 13 with a young boy from the act (Bobby Reed, who inspired the dancing character of Tulsa in "Gypsy"). They married in North Platte, Nebraska with each lying about their age. By the time the Depression hit, however, vaudeville, the nation's economy and her marriage had all collapsed.
Now a mother of a young daughter, April (born out of wedlock in 1930, April Kent acted briefly in the 1950s and died of a heart attack in 1998), June made ends meet by modeling, posing and toiling in dance marathons. The blonde, blue-eyed stunner also found work in stock musicals and on the Borscht Belt circuit. She made her Broadway debut in the musical "Forbidden Melody in 1936". Years passed before she earned her big break as Gladys in Rodgers and Hart's classic musical "Pal Joey" opposite Van Johnson and Gene Kelly in 1940. As a result of their scene-stealing work, the trio earned movie contracts - the two men heading off to the MGM studio and June to RKO.
Unlike her male counterparts, June found herself inextricably caught up in "B" level material. Her film debut in the war-era Four Jacks and a Jill (1942) was followed by the equally ho-hum Powder Town (1942) and Sing Your Worries Away (1942), neither requiring much in the line of acting. Her personality was big for the screen due to her broad vaudeville background, but she nevertheless could show some true grit and talent on occasion, particularly with her support role in My Sister Eileen (1942).
For the next few years she experienced both highs and lows. Her Broadway shows were either hits, such as the musical "Mexican Hayride" (1944) (for which she won the Donaldson Award), and the dramatic "The Ryan Girl" (1945), or complete misses, which included a musical version of the Sadie Thompson saga Rain. June's film acting continued to be a stumbling block, scoring best when asked to play brassy, cynical dames. While she fared well as the femme fatale in Intrigue (1947), the racist secretary in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and the gun moll The Story of Molly X (1949), more often than not, she was handed second-rate fodder to flounder in such as The Iron Curtain (1948), Once a Thief (1950) and Follow the Sun (1951). She appeared on TV in the early 50s, and she received her own short-lived vehicles as a lawyer in Willy (1954) and as host of her own show The June Havoc Show (1964).
After completing her last film Three for Jamie Dawn (1956), June refocused on stage and TV - particularly the former. She earned some of her best reviews both here and abroad in later years: Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Mistress Sullen in "The Beaux' Stratagem," Sabina in "The Skin of Our Teeth," Millicent in "Dinner at Eight," Jenny in "The Threepenny Opera," Mrs. Swabb in "Habeas Corpus," and Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd". In 1982 she pulled out all the stops on Broadway and gave a real Rose's Turn as a Miss Hannigan replacement in "Annie".
June expanded her talents to include both playwriting and directing. In addition to "I Said the Fly," she wrote "Marathon '33" (based on her Depression-era struggles) and received a 1964 Tony nomination for directing the play. June became the artistic director of the New Orleans Repertory Theatre in 1970, and later went on tour with her own one-woman show "An Evening with June Havoc". On stage and broaching age 80, the never-say-die actress appeared in a production of "Love Letters" and "An Old Lady's Guide to Survival".
June's mid-career biography "Early Havoc" was published in 1959. Married three times (her last husband, producer/director/writer William Spier died in 1973), June was long estranged from her sister, none too happy with Gypsy's portrayal of her in the best-selling memoir, "Gypsy" and equally dismayed of her Baby June character in the smash musical hit. The girls, noted for their trademark elongated faces and shapely gams, were estranged as children as well, but eventually patched things up for a time as adults. The sisters didn't truly grow close until Gypsy told June that she was dying of lung cancer in 1970. June elaborated more about her relationship with her sister in her second autobiography, "More Havoc" in 1980.
Ms. Havoc died peacefully on March 28, 2010, at her home in Stamford, Connecticut of natural causes. She was 97 years young.- Actor
- Producer
Andrew Gower is a British actor and singer/songwriter who is probably best known for his role as "Bonnie Prince" Charles Edward Stuart in "Outlander" and playing Nick Cutler, the vampire solicitor in season 4 of "Being Human". Andrew was born in Aintree (near Liverpool, UK) and he has been acting - and singing - since his school days.
He joined a drama group while studying for his A-Levels and graduated from the Oxford School of Drama in 2010, winning the Spotlight Prize in July of the same year.
His other acting projects include the lead role of Victor Frankenstein in BBC Three's live musical production of "Frankenstein's Wedding", and portraying Roman emperor Caligula in the TV mini series "A.D. - The Bible Continues". He appeared in the season 4 episode "Crocodile" of science fiction anthology series "Black Mirror" and plays Ezra Spurnrose in the fantasy-noir series "Carnival Row" on Amazon Prime. He can also be seen as Rupert Parker in the new Victorian crime drama "Miss Scarlet and The Duke".
Andrew's stage credits include Seiffert in "Conquest of the South Pole" at the Arcola Theatre (touring to the Rose Theatre in Kingston) and Charlie in "Terror Tales" at the Hampstead Theatre. In 2016 he made his West End debut in London playing the lead role of Winston Smith in a stage adaptation of "1984". He played William/Lupin in the radio production of "The Diary of a Nobody" and Lucian in the BBC 4 Radio production "Dangerous Visions: Speak". He also gave his voice to the character Mudlark in the animated short film "The Tall Tales of Urchin".
Andrew recorded several songs with his former band Emerson and sang live on stage during "Frankenstein's Wedding". He has written some tracks for "Humpty Fu*king Dumpty" with fellow actor Stephen Walters, and is involved in the music project The Gustaffsons.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Raised in the backstage wings of Las Vegas hotels by his Cuban father, Puerto Rico-born Kamar de los Reyes knew the second he was hoisted onto the stage to dance with Lola Falana at the age of 8, that he not only wanted to perform, but he wanted to be out front.
Kamar's father, a Cuban drummer and percussionist, would see two of his three sons follow in his footsteps: one a world-renowned drummer, the other a world-renowned percussionist. Kamar, the youngest of the brood, chose to go another route. While in high school, he discovered the arts as a singer and dancer. During his senior year, a stage role as El Gallo in "The Fantastiks" marked his acting debut. Shortly thereafter, Kamar would go to Los Angeles, to visit his brother Daniel, who was playing percussion for the Cher video "We All Sleep Alone." Kamar landed a dancing role and subsequently went on to work with Kenny Ortega in the feature film Salsa (1988) and the television series Dirty Dancing (1988). Later in 2001, Kamar would work again with Ortega in the VH-1 movie The Way She Moves (2001). Only this time, he would work as the lead actor.
In 1989, Kamar began to focus only on his acting career; "I was baptized by fire," he likes to say. With very little professional experience as an actor, he landed a role in the critically acclaimed Off Broadway play "Blade to the Heat" and rose to critical attention for his portrayal of gay Irish-Mexican boxer Pedro Quinn. The rest, I guess you can say, is history.
Kamar has steadily performed alongside a virtual Who's Who in television, movies, stage, and music for more two decades, including projects such as The Gifted (2017)), Sleepy Hollow (2013), One Life to Live (1968), Shooter (2016), and Blue Bloods (2010), to name just a few. He would star in the made-for-television movie The Way She Moves (2001); in Nixon (1995), directed by Oliver Stone; and in the feature film Salt (2010), starring Angelina Jolie. You might also recognize him as the face and voice of Raul Menendez in the most successful video game franchise in history, Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012), Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018), and Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021).
Joining forces with his actor wife Sherri Saum, they created MaPá Productions and recently starred in and produced their first short film, First Strike Butcher Knife (2017), which premiered at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival to critical acclaim.
An avid gym rat and self-professed weekend warrior, Kamar resides in Los Angeles with his wife and twin sons, Michael Luis and John Rubén. Kamar is also very active in helping with the recovery efforts of his beloved island Puerto Rico. To date, Kamar and his brother Daniel de los Reyes, along with Day Glow Relief, have made five trips to the hurricane-ravaged island. "We want to make sure that the relief aid makes it into the hands of the people who need it most, but also create awareness so that the people of Puerto Rico aren't forgotten," he has said- Benjamin Hassan Wadsworth was born on November 8, 1999 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is an actor known for Deadly Class (2018), Teen Wolf (2017), and Your Honor (2020).
Benjamin became increasingly interested in acting during his childhood. Always finding himself enthralled with television and movie characters. He made his acting debut in local independent Texas films such as That Day (2015), Blank Check (2015), and Hunter (2017). - Actor
- Producer
- Editor
Bradley Gregg is an American actor, director, writer, and producer. Gregg's first film was the 1985 movie Explorers, but his big role came in 1986 in the hit drama film Stand by Me as Eyeball Chambers, the older brother of River Phoenix's character (Gregg and Phoenix had both appeared previously in Explorers). In 1987, Gregg starred in the hit horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as Phillip Anderson.
In 1989, Bradley appeared in the hit movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (another film with River Phoenix). He also appeared in the critically acclaimed TV mini-series Lonesome Dove as an Irish immigrant named Sean O'Brien who joins the cattle crew. His character's death was the climatic scene that ended one of the episodes and began the story in the next. He also had the lead role in the 1990 action/science-fiction movie Class of 1999. His most recent film was Whiplash (2002). He starred on the short-lived TV series The Marshall Chronicles and starred in the 1992 TV movie O Pioneers! with Jessica Lange.
Bradley made his directorial debut with the movie 14 Days in America for which he was also producer and editor. He took some years off from acting, following Phoenix's death. Bradley had been living in the desert of Arizona directing, editing, and writing films with his production company.
Bradley and his wife produced the documentary "Journey to Jemima", A visual journal documenting the process of international adoption, an American couple's journey and month long stay in the country of Kazakhstan.
He recently moved his family back to Los Angeles to resume his acting career and work on his film and television projects.
Bradley Gregg has made some guest appearances on TV shows such as My Two Dads, Valerie, The Twilight Zone, The Pretender, ER, and The Bronx Zoo.
He has been married to his wife, Dawn, since 1991. They have 5 children: Zion, Mcabe, Braverijah, Galilee, and Jemima. Gregg recently returned with his family to Los Angeles.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory in New York. Aspiring to work as a classical repertory player, he gradually shed his Brooklyn accent and became a busy stage actor in the 1930s; he next joined the original company of the Orson Welles-John Houseman Mercury Theatre. Lloyd was brought to Hollywood to play a supporting part (albeit the title role) in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942). Hitchcock, who later used the actor in Spellbound (1945) and other films, made him an associate producer and a director on TV's long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) (then in its third year). In the course of his eight years on the series, Lloyd became a co-producer (with Joan Harrison) and then executive producer. He has since directed for other series (including the prestigious Omnibus (1952)) and for the stage, produced TV's Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Journey to the Unknown (1968), and played Dr. Auschlander in TV's acclaimed St. Elsewhere (1982).- Stunning Italian actress Virna Lisi, a brief but lovely Hollywood import in the 1960's, was merely one of a plethora of European movie beauties who proved over the course of their long careers, that they were capable of more than just visual performances.
Born Virna Lisa Pieralisi on November 8, 1936, she began her film career as a 17-year-old teen with a co-starring part with the musical drama ...e Napoli canta! (1953) (Naples Sings!). Cast initially for her photographic beauty, she gained more experience in such early pictures as Lettera napoletana (1954) and La corda d'acciaio (1954) before earning her first top-billed movie lead in Piccola santa (1954) opposite Rosario Borelli. Other late 50's/early 60's films that helped steam up her image included Luna nova (1955), Le diciottenni (1955), La rossa (1955), The Doll That Took the Town (1957), Lost Souls (1959) opposite Jacques Sernas, Don't Tempt the Devil (1963) (Don't Tempt the Devil), Sua Eccellenza si fermò a mangiare (1961) (His Excellency Stayed to Dinner], the Italian-made spectacle, Duel of the Titans (1961) and an innocent role in the French-made Eva (1962) starring the scheming Jeanne Moreau in the title role.
The pert and sexy star later made a decorative dent in late 1960's Hollywood as a tempting blue-eyed blonde opposite the likes of Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966) and Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966). Confined once again to the same type of glamour roles (she turned down the title role of "Barbarella"), she returned to Europe within a couple of years but hardly fared better with such nothing special movies as Anyone Can Play (1967), The Girl Who Couldn't Say No (1968), The Christmas Tree (1969), The Statue (1971), Bluebeard (1972) and White Fang (1973) and its sequel Challenge to White Fang (1974).
Come middle age, however, a career renaissance occurred for Virna. She began to be perceived as more than just a tasty dish and was given a wide variety of quality mature performances. As the stature of her films improved, she began winning foreign awards right and left for such European pictures as Beyond Good and Evil (1977), The Cricket (1980), Time for Loving (1983), Buon Natale... Buon anno (1989) and Va' dove ti porta il cuore (1996) (Follow Your Heart). It all culminated in the lifetime role of the malevolent "Caterina de Medici" in Queen Margot (1994) for which she captured both the César and Cannes Film Festival awards, not to mention the Italian Silver Ribbon award.
Virna continued reigning supreme on TV as a character lead and support player into the millennium with parts in such TV movies as the title role in Anna's World (2004) and Donne sbagliate (2007) (Steel Women) as well as Italian TV series work. Starring as the matriarch in the excellent family film drama Il più bel giorno della mia vita (2002), Virna would find her last excellent movie role in the award-winning dramedy Latin Lover (2015). Having passed away on December 14, 2014, at age 78, of lung cancer, the actress received a couple of award nominations posthumously for her work here. Survived by her son Corrado, her longtime husband (from 1960), architect Franco Pesci (1934-2013), died a year earlier. - Emily Bader was born on 8 November 1996 in Temecula, California, USA. She is an actress, known for My Lady Jane (2024), Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021) and Fresh Kills (2023).
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Nia DaCosta was born on 8 November 1989 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Candyman (2021), Little Woods (2018) and The Marvels (2023).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Best known for the role of Florida Evans on the 1970s sitcoms Maude (1972) and Good Times (1974), African-American actress Esther Rolle proved to be as spirited and iron-willed off-camera as well. The gap-toothed actress with the gravelly voice was born in Pompano Beach, Florida, the 10th child of 18 born to Caribbean farming immigrants. Her first important work came with the Negro Ensemble Company and over the years would earn a solid careworn reputation in such theater plays as "The Blacks", "Blues for Mister Charlie", "The Amen Corner", "A Raisin in the Sun" and "A Member of the Wedding". Ironically, her father insisted she promise him that she would never become a servant or maid in real life. She didn't, and however Esther would have her biggest successes playing just those types of roles. She caught the attention of television producer Norman Lear while performing on stage who cast her in the Maude (1972) supporting role in 1972. Audiences loved her so much as the feisty domestic who stood her ground, and then some, against her volatile and liberal-minded employer Maude Findley (Bea Arthur), that Esther earned her own spin-off series with Good Times (1974). Compelled to fight racial stereotypes, she insisted before accepting the series that a strong father figure be central in the show (actor John Amos). And while she still played the role of a lower middle-class maid, the show's emphasis was to be on her home and family life, not her outside work. Still, Esther left the show for one season when she was unhappy about the negative role model perpetuated by Jimmie 'JJ' Walker's jive-talking character J.J., but later returned after the producers assured her that more responsibility would be taken. In other assignments, she won an Emmy Award for the television movie Summer of My German Soldier (1978) and gained further respect for her work in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) and for her film work in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Rosewood (1997). Two of her sisters, Estelle Evans and Rosanna Carter, were also character actresses. Afflicted with diabetes, Esther's health failed in the 1990s and toward the end of her life she was on kidney dialysis. The actress, who was divorced and had no children, died nine days after her 78th birthday on November 17, 1998.- Actor
- Stunts
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Phil Fondacaro started his career in 1981 when a casting call went out for "little people" for the feature film Under the Rainbow (1981). This was the beginning of a career that is still going strong to this day. From that time he has worked in every genre. including drama, comedy, horror and animation.
Phil has worked in films with directors such as Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express (2004)), Ron Howard (Willow (1988), in which he played Vohnkar) and George Lucas (Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), in which he played an Ewok - the only Ewok who died on screen). Phil's feature films include many in the horror genre, such as Troll (1986), Ghoulies II (1987), Bordello of Blood (1996), Blood Dolls (1999), Meridian (1990) and his collaboration with George A. Romero in Land of the Dead (2005). He also starred opposite Verne Troyer in a short film, Bit Players (2000), which premiered at Sundance and was directed by Andy Berman. Phil's television credits included a recurring role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) as Roland. His TV work also includes some other memorable performances where he guest-starred in shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), and had an amazing role in Touched by an Angel (1994).
Phil Fondacaro stands 3' 6" tall and lives by the quote, "It is not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of the fight in the man".- Gonzalo Menendez was born on 8 November 1971 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is an actor, known for Spectral (2016), Colony (2016) and Breaking Bad (2008).
- Actor
- Producer
- Editor
Robert Longstreet was born in the USA. Robert is an actor and producer, known for Sorry to Bother You (2018), I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) and The Haunting of Hill House (2018).- Actress
- Producer
Roxana Zal was born on 8 November 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Testament (1983), River's Edge (1986) and Something About Amelia (1984).- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Jensen Karp was born on 8 November 1979. He is a producer and writer, known for Cinderella (2021), Classmates (2023) and Untitled Danielle Fishel/Lance Bass Project. He has been married to Danielle Fishel since 4 November 2018. They have two children.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Darla Hood was born in the small town of Leedey, Oklahoma on November 8, 1931. Hood began her association with "Our Gang" at the tender age of 2 1/2, as she stated on the The Jack Benny Program (1950). Her father, James Claude Hood Jr., a banker, and especially her mother, Elizabeth Davner Hood, prodded their daughter's musical talents with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City. She made an unscheduled, impromptu singing debut at Edison Hotel in Times Square when the band-leader invited her onto the stage, and the crowd roared in appreciation. By sheerest coincidence, Joe Rivkin, (an agent of Hal Roach) spotted the four year old scene stealer, screen tested her & signed her to a long-term (7 year) contract at $75 weekly.
Darla went on to perform as the leading "Rascals" actress in 51 of the popular short films plus a television movie. She recalled finding her off-camera time on set as lonely as the boys tended to group together and play such "boys" games as baseball and football. At the beginning of her association with the "Little Rascals", she appeared opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in one of their handful of feature films, The Bohemian Girl (1936). Darla Hood's tenure as most popular "Little Rascals" actress, began in 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) and her finale, Wedding Worries (1941). Then, almost 40 years later, during the last four months of her life, she voiced her "Little Rascals" character with the animated off-screen special, The Little Rascals' Christmas Special (1979). She did not live to see it televised.
While very few of the "Our Gang" shorts were made during World War II due to the scarcity of film (a majority of them were saved for feature-length wartime propaganda films), by the time the series was to be finally revived in 1945, she had already outgrown her role. She had some trouble dealing with the inevitable transition into a teen actor and her career faltered badly. She graduated with honors from Fairfax High School (Hollywood). She found some work with Ken Murray's popular "Blackbirds" variety show on the Los Angeles stage as well as some behind-the-scenes work in the post-war years.
With her first husband, Robert W. Decker (whom she married when she was 17 years old), she formed the vocal group "Darla Hood and the Enchanters", which provided incidental background music for such classic films as A Letter to Three Wives (1949). She also made appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows, The Ken Murray Show (1950), The Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue (1949), and she was also performed & or sang songs, on a few Merv Griffin's radio programs. Another successful outlet for her was in the field of voice-over work in cartoons and commercials "Chicken of the Sea" was her longest lasting commercial tenure, as the mermaid. She also did some "Campbell's Soup" commercials, at the same time, but fewer. In time, she became a well-oiled impressionist and trick voice artist.
In June of 1957, at the age of 25, she divorced her first husband after eight years of marriage and by whom she had her first two children (one son, Brett, and one daughter, Darla Jo). She promptly married her former manager, Jose Granson, a musical publisher. She and Granson had three children together. Hood remained small in show business until her untimely end, which came on Wednesday, June 13, 1979, when she died of congestive heart failure. She had recently had an appendectomy at Canoga Park Hospital, during which she received a blood transfusion. The transfusion caused her to contract acute hepatitis, which led to her heart failure. She passed away at a Hollywood hospital. Following her funeral, she was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, later renamed Hollywood Forever.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
SZA was born Solána Imani Rowe was born on November 8, 1989 in St. Louis, Missouri & raised in Maplewood, New Jersey. She began making music in the early 2010s, releasing two extended plays: See.SZA.Run & S, before signing with the hip hop record label Top Dawg Entertainment, through which she released Z, her third EP and first retail release. SZA's debut studio album, Ctrl was released on June 9, 2017 to universal acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 and was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album and its songs were nominated for four Grammy Awards and SZA was nominated for Best New Artist at the 60th annual ceremony. Ctrl was ranked as the best album of 2017 by Time. That year, she also featured on Maroon 5's hit single, What Lovers Do. The next year, she collaborated with Kendrick Lamar to create All the Stars for the Black Panther soundtrack; the song was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2021, her single: Good Days became popular on streaming platforms and became her first solo top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
SZA is a neo soul singer, whose music has been described as alternative R&B, with elements of soul, hip hop, minimalist R&B, indie rock, cloud rap, witch house, and chillwave. SZA's lyrics are described as unravelling and her songs often revolve around themes of sexuality, nostalgia & abandonment.- Aden Gillett was born on 8 November 1958 in Aden, Yemen. He is an actor, known for Shadow of the Vampire (2000), The Foreigner (2017) and Ivanhoe (1997).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Van Crosby was born on 8 November 2002 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He is an actor, known for The Family Plan (2023), Splitting Up Together (2018) and Criminal Minds (2005).- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jack Osbourne was born on 8 November 1985 in London, England, UK. He is a producer and actor, known for Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Untitled Ozzy Osbourne/Sharon Osbourne Project and Ozzy Osbourne: Life Won't Wait (2010). He has been married to Aree Gearhart since September 2023. They have one child. He was previously married to Lisa Osbourne.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Tara Lee is an actor, singer-songwriter and music producer from Dublin, Ireland. Her career continues to grow having featured in the hugely successful BBC series 'The Fall', alongside Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, followed by a recurring role in BBC's 'EastEnders.' Film credits include the critically acclaimed A Date for Mad Mary (IFTA Best Picture Award winner) which saw Tara nominated for the Bingham Ray New Talent award, The Racer opposite Iain Glenn, the multi-award winning Moon Dogs, Justice.net, Songbird (Cobie Smulders, Jessica Hynes, Noel Clarke), Love Spreads (Chanel Cresswell, Eiza Gonzalez, Alia Shawkart, Nick Helm), and most recently starring opposite Elisha Cuthbert in The Cellar. 2023 saw Tara make her live musical theatre debut playing the coveted roles of Mia Wallace and Beatrix Kiddo in For The Record's London production of Tarantino Live. This debut led to an OFFIE nomination for Tara and a performance to 50,000 people in London's famed West End Live @ Trafalgar Square. In 2017 Tara signed to music publishing giants, BMG Chrysalis, and in 2018 she begun releasing music with AWAL, Kobalt. Tara's music has featured on many soundtracks and television shows (Evil Dead Rise, Love Island 2023, etc) and she recently wrote the title song, If I Burn (You Burn Too) for the international hit TV series, 'Jack Taylor' starring Iain Glenn (Game Of Thrones). Lee studied dance (ballet and modern) at the National Performing Arts School for 13 years, as well as being a trained concert pianist. She is based in London, UK.- Kathrine Thorborg Johansen was born on 8 November 1989. She is an actress, known for The Quake (2018) and Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes (2021).