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Jeffrey Donovan was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, son to single mother Nancy Matthews. Nancy raised him and two of his brothers, while having trouble financially supporting herself and her family. They were reportedly living on welfare, had trouble paying electric bills, and often moved to a new residence. Donovan estimated that they moved 10 times during his childhood. He and his brothers were taught to live frugally.

A female teacher called Patricia Hoyt served as Donovan's mentor and helped him establish a drama club. With her help, Donovan received a private scholarship that allowed him to continue his studies. Donovan started his college years in Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He later transferred to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, from where he eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in drama. He continued his studies at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, from where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts.

During his college years, Donovan took an interest in martial arts. He initially took lessons in Shotokan karate, where he eventually earned a black belt. He later also took lessons in aikido and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Donovan had his first film and television roles in 1995, but he mostly played minor parts. His first major role on television was main character David Creegan in the crime drama series Touching Evil (2004). The premise of the series was that Keegan is an FBI investigator who was stripped of his impulse control and sense of shame following a near-fatal injury. He was willing to do anything to stop ruthless criminals, including performing vigilante-style crimes of his own. The series only lasted a single season of 12 episodes.

Donovan gained another lead role in the action series Burn Notice (2007), where he played main character Michael Westen. The premise of the series was that Westen used to be a professional intelligence agent until he was inexplicably blacklisted, stripped of his money and contacts, and forced to remain in his hometown of Miami, Florida until further notice. The series had him working as an unlicensed private investigator, while covertly investigating who orchestrated his downfall. The series lasted for 111 episodes, and also included a spin-off film called Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe (2011). Donovan directed the film, but was not among its main cast.

Donovan had a recurring role as mobster Dodd Gerhardt in the second season of anthology series Fargo (2014). The season is set in 1979, Midwestern United States. The premise of the season is that the Gerhardt family is the most powerful crime syndicate in Fargo, North Dakota, but is facing internal competition for the leadership position and external threats. Dodd is one of the characters vying for leadership.

Donovan continues his career as lead character Charlie Haverford in the series Shut Eye (2016). The premise is that Haverford is a professional con artist, posing as a fortune teller and psychic. But he starts experiencing genuine visions, and his life is changing.

Zoë Wanamaker is an American expatriate actress, who has spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She has worked extensively in the theatre. She has been nominated for 9 Laurence Olivier Awards, winning twice. She has also been nominated for 4 Tony Awards, without ever winning. In television, she is known for the main role of Susan Harper in the long-running sitcom "My Family" (2000-2011).

In 1949, Wanamaker was born in New York City. Her father was the American film director Sam Wanamaker (1919 -1993). Sam was born in Chicago to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. Wanamaker's mother was the Canadian actress Charlotte Hollan, who was also of Jewish descent. Wanamaker's paternal grandfather was the tailor Maurice Wanamaker, whose original family name was "Watmacher".

Sam Wanamaker was a veteran of World War II, and an adherent of communism. In the early 1950s, the United States was experiencing the Second Red Scare. Communists, real or suspected ones, were seen as potential foreign agents and were targeted by political purges. In 1952, Sam was blacklisted in the United States. He decided to settle in the United Kingdom with his family. Zoë consequently settled in the United Kingdom at the age of 3.

Wanamaker received her early education at the King Alfred School, a co-educational independent school located in London. She later attended the Sidcot School, a co-educational boarding school located in the village of Winscombe, Somerset. Sidcot was a Quaker school, but was open to students from various faiths and cultures. Sidcot had served as a co-educational school since 1808. one of the earliest British schools of its kind.

Following her graduation, Wanamaker pursued a pre-diploma course at the Hornsey College of Art. Having decided to follow an acting career, Wanamaker was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. The school had been operating since 1906, when founded by the teacher Elsie Fogerty (1865 -1945). The school was initially based around Fogerty's theories about teaching proper elocution.

In the early 1970s, Wanamaker was primarily a theatrical actress. In 1976, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is a prestigious theatrical company, headquartered in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. It specializes in performing the plays of William Shakespeare, though it has performed plays by many other playwrights. Wanamaker served as a member until 1984.

In 1979, Wanamaker won her first Olivier Award for her role in a revival of the play "Once in a Lifetime" (1930) by Moss Hart (1904 -1961) and George Simon Kaufman (1889-1961). The play is a satire of American show business. It depicts veteran vaudeville performers trying to re-establish their careers in the Hollywood film industry.

In the 1980s, Wanamaker frequently appeared in television films and other television production. She played an intelligence agent in the mini-series "Edge of Darkness" (1985), which combined elements from the genres of crime drama, political thriller, and science fiction. She was part of the cast of the historical drama series "Paradise Postponed" (1986), which depicts the changes experienced by British from the 1940s to the 1970s. She was part of the cast in the biographical film "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story" (1987), based on the life and long-term problems of American heiress Barbara Hutton (1912 -1979). She had a one-shot role in the anthology series "Tales of the Unexpected" (1979-1988), which typically adapted short stories into its episodes.

In 1991, Wanamaker played manicurist Moyra Henson in the first season of the police procedural "Prime Suspect" (1991-2006). Henson's common-law husband is suspected serial killer George Marlow, and police authorities eventually realize that all the recent victims were Henson's clients. Wanamaker's role was critically well-received. She was nominated for the "British Academy Television Award for Best Actress" for this role, but the award was instead won by her co-star Helen Mirren (1945-).

In 1993, Wanamaker had a co-starring role in the drama film "The Countess Alice". In the film, she played Konstanza (nicknamed "Connie"), the German daughter of British aristocrat Countess Alice von Holzendorf (played by Wendy Hiller). Connie investigates her own past and realizes that the real Konstanza died in childhood. She is a child of obscure origins, who was secretly adopted by Alice as a replacement. The film was well-received at the time, though it is mostly remembered for Hiller's last role in a film.

In 1997, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the biographical film "Wide", based on the life of the writer Oscar Wilde (1854 -1900). She played the role of the novelist Ada Leverson (1862 -1933), a close friend of Wilde who offered him hospitality when he became an outcast. The film was well-received by critics. Wanamaker was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, but the award was instead won by rival actress Sigourney Weaver (1949-).

In 2000, Wanamaker gained a major television role, when cast as Susan Harper in the sitcom "My Family" (2001-2011). Harper was depicted as a tour guide who is married and has three children. Her so-called "control freak" nature often has her clash with her family. Her problems include being married to a husband who clearly does not care about her, and having immature kids.

In 2000, Wanamaker finally gained British citizenship, after residing in the country for 48 years. She also maintained her American citizenship. In January 2001, Wanamaker was appointed a "Commander of the Order of the British Empire" for her services to drama. This is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences.

In 2001, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the fantasy film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", an adaptation of a novel by J. K. Rowling (1965-). Wanamaker played the role of Rolanda Hooch, a Quidditch referee and flying instructor for first-year students at the magic school Hogwarts. The film was a box office hit. Wanamaker did not appear in the film's sequels.

In 2005, Wanamaker had a role in the science fiction series "Doctor Who" (2005-) as the villain Lady Cassandra, who is obsessed with prolonging her own life. Wanamaker returned to this role in 2006.

Also in 2005, Wanamaker joined the cast of the mysteries series "Agatha Christie's Poirot" (1989-2013) as crime novelist Ariadne Oliver. Oliver was a recurring character created by writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976), and was intended as a self-portrait of Christie. Wanamaker played this role in 6 feature-length episodes, broadcast from 2005 to 2013. Oliver was depicted as a close friend and ally of detective Hercule Poirot (played by David Suchet).

In 2008, Wanamaker voiced the blind seers Theresa in the role-playing video game "Fable II". Her character guides the game's protagonist through its story. The video game was quite successful. Wanamaker returned to this role in two of the game's sequels: "Fable III" (2010), and Fable: The Journey (2012). This has been Wanamaker's most prominent performance in voice acting.

In 2011, Wanamaker had a supporting role in the drama film "My Week with Marilyn", which depicted Marilyn Monroe brief stay in the United Kingdom during the shooting of the classic film "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957). Wanamaker played the role of Paula Strasberg (1909-1966), Monroe's acting coach. The film performed well at the box office, and was critically acclaimed.

In 2015, Wanamaker joined the cast of the period drama series "Mr Selfridge" (2013-2016). The series was based on the life of retail magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858-1947). Wanamaker played the role of Princess Marie Wiasemsky de Bolotoff, a Russian aristocrat who serves at the mother-in-law of Rosalie Selfridge.

In 2018, Wanamaker gained the major role of Queen Antedia in the historical fantasy series "Britannia" (2018-).Antedia was depicted as the Queen Regent of the Regni tribe, a Celtic tribe struggling against the rival Cantii tribe.

As of 2021, Wanamaker is 72-years-old. She has never retired from acting, and continues to appear regularly in television. She is quite familiar to the British public, through decades of notable roles.

Anthony Carrigan is a Massachusetts-born actor best known for his breakout role as Noho Hank in the HBO series Barry (2018). Previously he was known for playing Victor Zsasz in the series Gotham on Fox and Kyle Davies in The Forgotten on ABC. He has also appeared on The Flash, The Blacklist, and Parenthood (2010). He was diagnosed at age three with the auto-immune disease alopecia areata, which causes baldness. He gradually lost all of his body hair, leaving him completely bald by age 30. Carrigan has become an advocate for both body positivity and human rights.

Ryan Eggold was born on August 10, 1984 in Lakewood, California. His father is of German descent and his mother is of half Croatian and half Austrian-Jewish ancestry. Ryan's maternal grandmother was born in Vienna.

Eggold attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School, where he participated in many school plays and graduated in 2002. He went on to study at USC's esteemed theatre department, graduating in 2006, then landed several recurring television roles on CBS, HBO, Cartoon Network, ABC, The CW, and FX right out of college. He made his professional television debut on "Related" and his professional film debut on "Con: The Corruption of Helm" in 2006.

Eggold's other television credits include the A&E miniseries "Sons of Liberty," FX's "Dirt" with Courteney Cox and HBO's "Entourage." Eggold also starred as Tom Keen in the spin-off series "The Blacklist: Redemption."

Eggold stepped behind the camera to write, direct, produce and compose the film "Literally Right Before Aaron," which premiered at Tribeca film festival and was originally based on Eggold's award-winning 2011 short of the same name. The film follows a young man who attends the wedding of his ex-girlfriend. Cobie Smulders, Justin Long, John Cho and Kristen Schaal star.

On the big screen, Eggold played a supporting role in Spike Lee's Academy Award winning "BlacKKKlansman." He can also be seen in Eliza Hittman's new drama "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always;" Other film credits include So Yong Kim's "Lovesong," opposite Riley Keough and Jena Malone; Gabriele Muccino's "Fathers and Daughters," opposite Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul; Tyler Perry's "The Single Moms Club;" Megan Griffiths' "Lucky Them," opposite Toni Collette and Thomas Hayden Church; "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby," with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy; and Chris Lowell's directorial debut "Beside Still Waters."

On stage, Eggold starred in a revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," opposite Alec Baldwin and Laurie Metcalf, at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y.

Born and raised in Southern California, Eggold is a graduate of USC's theater program. When he's not acting, he plays in his a band as a musician and singer. He's looking to turn his attention to writing and directing more content in the near future.

Ilfenesh Hadera (born December 1, 1985) is an American actress. Ilfenesh was born in Harlem, New York City and is of Ethiopian and European ethnicity. Her father Asfaha Hadera, an Ethiopian refugee, is the founder and Co-Executive Director of African Services Committee, a Harlem based NGO which seeks to aid African immigrants. Her mother, Kim Nichols has served as Co-Executive Director of ASC since 1984. Hadera's love for the theatre began during her time at Harlem School of the Arts, she accredits HSA with preparing her for entry to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Hadera went on to receive an MFA in Text and Performance studies from RADA/King's College London. In 2010, Hadera made her acting debut in the film 1/20. A frequent collaborator with Spike Lee, she has also appeared in Da Brick, The Blacklist, Oldboy, Show Me a Hero, Chi-Raq, Chicago Fire, The Punisher, and She's Gotta Have It. She co-starred as Stephanie Holden in the 2017 film Baywatch and as of 2018 is starring as Kay Daniels in the TV series Deception. She has a recurring role in the Showtime Series Billions, playing as Bobby Axelrod's secretary Deb Kawi.

Robert Francis Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in New York City, the son of show business parents, Marcella Frances (Gaudel) and Gerald Walter Vaughn. His father was a radio actor and his mother starred on stage. Robert came to the public's attention first with his Oscar-nominated role, in The Young Philadelphians (1959). The next year, he was one of the seven in the western classic The Magnificent Seven (1960). Despite being in such popular films, he generally found work on television. He appeared over 200 times in guest roles in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It was in 1963 that he received his first major role in The Lieutenant (1963). Robert took the role with the intention of making the transition from being a guest-star actor to being a co-star on television. It was due to his work in this series that producer Norman Felton offered him the role of Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964).

Four extremely successful years (1964-68) followed as the series became one of the most popular television series of the 1960s. It made Vaughn an international television star, but he wanted to embark on a career in film, and did so soon after the series ended in 1968 by co-starring in Bullitt (1968) with Steve McQueen. Now working in film full-time, he starred in The Bridge at Remagen (1969) and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970), before making a change by going back to television, this time in England. He took a lead role in the series The Protectors (1972) and stayed in England for the first half of the 1970s. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and embarked on a very successful run of television miniseries roles that resulted in his receiving an Emmy Award in 1978 for Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) and a nomination the following year for Backstairs at the White House (1979).

The 1970s proved a important time in Robert's life, as in 1974, he married actress Linda Staab, and completed his thesis on Hollywood blacklisting during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era, published in 1972 as "Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting". During the 1980s, he mixed television with film. Roles in such films as S.O.B. (1981), Superman III (1983), The Delta Force (1986) and Black Moon Rising (1986) were highlights. In television, he appeared in many successful series, most notably in The A-Team (1983) and Emerald Point N.A.S. (1983).

He continued with a diverse range of projects, appearing on stage on numerous occasions. The 1990s saw the same variety of roles. Made-for-TV movies were a popular choice for him, as well as such series as As the World Turns (1956), The Nanny (1993) and Law & Order (1990). He had a role in the 1998 series remake of the classic film in which he appeared, The Magnificent Seven (1998). He also appeared in major features such as Joe's Apartment (1996) and BASEketball (1998), and in smaller roles in subsequent years.

Robert died of acute leukemia on November 11, 2016 in Ridgefield, Connecticut. His last acting credit, Gold Star (2017), was released the year of his death.

Whiskey-voiced Patricia Richardson is best known as Jill Taylor on Home Improvement (1991). For her work, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and four Emmy Awards. She also starred in two other comedies: Eisenhower & Lutz (1988) with Scott Bakula, and FM (1989) with Robert Hays. After pregnancy with twins and Home Improvement she took off a few years to be with her children. Offered a shorter contract that worked around her parenting, she joined Lifetime's Strong Medicine as Dr. Andy Campbell, introduced after Janine Turner's departure from the show. (2002-2004) She was nominated for her work twice by the Prism Awards. She was a recurring guest star on The West Wing during the show's last two years as Alan Alda's Chief of Staff. Patricia co-hosted The 46th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1994) with Ellen DeGeneres, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her first starring role in a movie opposite Peter Fonda in Ulee's Gold. (1997). Patricia has served 8 years on the National and Los Angeles Local Boards of SAGAFTRA, previously served as First Vice President, then 2019-2021 as President of the largest local in the union, the LA Local , or the "Los Angeles Local Union Performers" (on Facebook), which Membership First created for LA members in the pandemic along with popularly attended Town Halls. She's continuing to serve on both boards and remains a proud member of Membership First, which has been running the largest, ( 80,000 ), most employed ( members earn 57% of all earnings), and informed local in the union for some years.

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. His parents, Bryna (Sanglel) and Herschel Danielovitch, were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mahilyow Voblast (now in Belarus). Although growing up in a poor ghetto, Douglas was a fine student and a keen athlete and wrestled competitively during his time at St. Lawrence University. Professional wrestling helped pay for his studies as did working on the side as a waiter and a bellboy. However, he soon identified an acting scholarship as a way out of his meager existence, and was sufficiently talented to gain entry into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his Broadway debut in "Spring Again" before his career was interrupted by World War II. He joining the United States Navy in 1941, and then after the end of hostilities in 1945, returned to the theater and some radio work. On the insistence of ex-classmate Lauren Bacall, movie producer Hal B. Wallis screen-tested Douglas and cast him in the lead role in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). His performance received rave reviews and further work quickly followed, including an appearance in the low-key drama I Walk Alone (1947), the first time he worked alongside fellow future screen legend Burt Lancaster. Such was the strong chemistry between the two that they appeared in seven films together, including the dynamic western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), the John Frankenheimer political thriller Seven Days in May (1964) and their final pairing in the gangster comedy Tough Guys (1986). Douglas once said about his good friend: "I've finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I've got nice-looking girls in my films now."

After appearing in "I Walk Alone," Douglas scored his first Oscar nomination playing the untrustworthy and opportunistic boxer Midge Kelly in the gripping Champion (1949). The quality of his work continued to garner the attention of critics and he was again nominated for Oscars for his role as a film producer in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and as tortured painter Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956), both directed by Vincente Minnelli. In 1955, Douglas launched his own production company, Bryna Productions, the company behind two pivotal film roles in his career. The first was as French army officer Col. Dax in director Stanley Kubrick's brilliant anti-war epic Paths of Glory (1957). Douglas reunited with Kubrick for yet another epic, the magnificent Spartacus (1960). The film also marked a key turning point in the life of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s. At Douglas' insistence, Trumbo was given on-screen credit for his contributions, which began the dissolution of the infamous blacklisting policies begun almost a decade previously that had destroyed so many careers and lives.

Douglas remained busy throughout the 1960s, starring in many films. He played a rebellious modern-day cowboy in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), acted alongside John Wayne in the World War II story In Harm's Way (1965), again with The Duke in a drama about the Israeli fight for independence, Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and once more with Wayne in the tongue-in-cheek western The War Wagon (1967). Additionally in 1963, he starred in an onstage production of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but despite his keen interest, no Hollywood studio could be convinced to bring the story to the screen. However, the rights remained with the Douglas clan, and Kirk's talented son Michael Douglas finally filmed the tale in 1975, starring Jack Nicholson. Into the 1970s, Douglas wasn't as busy as previous years; however, he starred in some unusual vehicles, including alongside a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the loopy western comedy The Villain (1979), then with Farrah Fawcett in the sci-fi thriller Saturn 3 (1980) and then he traveled to Australia for the horse opera/drama The Man from Snowy River (1982).

Unknown to many, Kirk has long been involved in humanitarian causes and has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963. His efforts were rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1981), and with the Jefferson Award (1983). Furthermore, the French honored him with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. More recognition followed for his work with the American Cinema Award (1987), the German Golden Kamera Award (1987), The National Board of Reviews Career Achievement Award (1989), an honorary Academy Award (1995), Recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999) and the UCLA Medal of Honor (2002). Despite a helicopter crash and a stroke suffered in the 1990s, he remained active and continued to appear in front of the camera. Until his passing on February 5 2020 at the age of 103, he and Olivia de Havilland were the last surviving major stars from the Golden Years of Hollywood.

A Tony and Emmy Award winner, Donna Murphy has forged a career of exceptional diversity, impressing both audiences and critics with her depth and skill. This "seductive actress of major transformative powers" (NY Times) was named one of three "Legit Luminaries," alongside Joan Didion and Christine Ebersole, in Variety's Women's Impact Issue. She will next be seen on Starz' hit series Power as Lorette Walsh, the opponent of Rashad Tate, played by Larenz Tate.

Recognized as a gifted character actress in the film world, she received international critical acclaim for her performance as the mercurial Marie in Todd Solondz' Dark Horse, with Selma Blair, Christopher Walken, and Mia Farrow. In Vera Farmiga's 2011 directorial debut, Higher Ground, she co-starred with Farmiga as Kathleen, the film's troubled matriarch, creating a sensual, heartbreaking characterization. Murphy's animated feature debut, voicing the villainess Mother Gothel in Disney's mega-hit Tangled, earned her rave reviews for her scene stealing performance. She is also widely recognized for her performances as Judy Braddock, the hardworking, suburban single mom to Scarlett Johansson in The Nanny Diaries; the elegant and demanding, but ultimately sympathetic ballet instructor Juliette Simone, in Nicholas Hytner's Center Stage; and Anij, the quietly alluring and wise leader in Star Trek: Insurrection, opposite Sir Patrick Stewart. Other select film credits include: No Pay, Nudity opposite Gabriel Byrne, The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, Darren Aronovsky's The Fountain, Rosalie Octavius in Spider-Man 2, The Door in the Floor, The Astronaut's Wife with Johnny Depp, and Jade, directed by William Friedkin.

One of the most beloved and honored stage actresses of her generation, New York Magazine named Murphy one of "Three Living Legends" of the New York Theater and in 2003 awarded her one of their prestigious New York Awards. Murphy earned her two Tony Awards for her spellbinding performance in Stephen Sondheim's Passion and for her "resplendent, matchless" (New York Post) portrayal of Anna Leonowens in Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic The King and I. For her hilarious comic tour de force as Ruth Sherwood in the Broadway Revival of Wonderful Town, she received Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Awards, as well as a Tony® nomination. Her mesmerizing performance as the Austrian chanteuse, Lotte Lenya, in Hal Prince's production of LoveMusik, earned her Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and another Tony nomination. She garnered yet another Tony Award nomination and rave reviews for her performance as a Yiddish Theater star during the Holocaust in Roundabout Theatre Company's The People in the Picture.

Murphy's off-Broadway theater highlights include three of the most successful productions in New York City Center Encores! History: Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, and Wonderful Town; Tony Kushner's production of Helen; Lincoln Center Theater's Hello, Again and Twelve Dreams opposite Mischa Barton. For Shakespeare in the Park's 50th Anniversary season, Murphy took on the role of the Witch in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, which also starred Amy Adams, Jessie Mueller, and Denis O'Hare. She earned Drama League and Drama Desk nominations for her performance.

Murphy returned to Broadway in 2017 when she shared the iconic role of Dolly Gallagher Levi with the legendary Bette Midler in the Tony Award winning revival of Hello, Dolly! She received great critical acclaim for the "gutsiest star turn in town" (NY Daily News) and "her own megawatt glow; her peerless musical-comedy technique, deep-dish characterization and supple vocals." (The Hollywood Reporter)

Murphy's first television film, HBO's "Someone Had to be Benny," earned her a Daytime Emmy as Best Actress in a Drama Special or Series, as well as a Cable Ace Award, and she starred as Jane Green, the matriarch of a prominent Southern family in PBS' Civil War drama series, "Mercy Street." Select recurring and guest star appearances include NBC's "The Blacklist," ABC's " Quantico", the mysterious "elegant woman" Angela Forrester in ABC's "Resurrection," include USA's "Royal Pains", "The Good Wife", "The Mentalist", "Ugly Betty", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", "Law & Order: SVU", "Damages", "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", "CSI", "Law & Order", "The Practice", "Ally McBeal", Stephen Bochco's "Murder One" (ABC), and the PBS Broadcast of the Emmy Award winning "Sondheim! The Birthday Concert," the 2000 and 2002 Kennedy Center Honors (CBS.)

Murphy's additional starring television performances include Darlene Garretti on CBS' "Made in Jersey" alongside Janet Montgomery and Kyle McLaughlin, the steely Denise Goodman on TNT's "Trust Me" with Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanaugh, Heather Olshansky in CBS' "Hack" opposite David Morse, and her critically acclaimed comedic performance as the neurotic psychiatrist Dr. Ruby Stern on ABC's sitcom, "What About Joan." Her television films include Lifetime's "House of Versace," opposite Gina Gershon, Showtime's political drama "The Last Debate,"and Mary Todd Lincoln in "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" (TNT.)

A versatile singer, she can be heard on a number of recordings including Tangled (Disney Soundtrack), The People in the Picture (Kritzerland), LoveMusik (Ghostlight), Wall to Wall Sondheim (Symphony Space), Wonderful Town (DRG), Leonard Bernstein's New York (Nonesuch), Hello Again (RCA Victor), The King and I (Varese Sarabande), the Grammy Award winning Passion (Angel), and Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Project, to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Young Survival Coalition.

Ms. Murphy, born in Queens, New York and raised in Hauppauge, New York and Topsfield, Massachusetts, studied with the legendary Stella Adler and at the Lee Strasberg Institute. For her contribution to the Arts, Culture and Public life, she's received special honors from New York Magazine, Symphony Space, Urban Stages, The Abingdon Theater Company, Greenwich Village's Caring Community, the Women's Project, The Little Orchestra Society, Irish America Magazine, the Breukelein Institute and Emerson College. She donates her time and efforts to a number of organizations, including the Worldwide Orphan's Foundation, Berwin Lee London New York Playwrights, Inc., The Drama League, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and The Actors Fund. She is the proud mother of one daughter and two stepdaughters, and happily resides in New York City.

Annet Mahendru is an Afghan-American actress of Indian-Russian origin. She was born in Kabul to an Indian father (a journalist and professor) and a Russian mother (a businesswoman and artist). Annet spent her early years learning six languages while living in Afghanistan, Russia, and Europe. She put her curious mind to use playing competitive chess and earning a brown belt in Karate, sweeping a free sparring championship. At age 11, Annet choreographed a performance that gained her an appearance on German TV as a graceful Russian snow maiden that turns into a playful Indian dancer. Sad that her parents never signed her up for ballet classes as a little girl, she joined a local Rock 'n' Roll dance group, and later, began to study classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam.

Annet finished high school in New York and received a Bachelor of Arts in English at St. John's University. After school, drawn by her passion for acting, she took classes at the HB studio, performed in plays, and Indie films. But it was in the course of pursuing a Master's degree in Global Affairs at NYU that Annet reached a crossroad in her life. She decided to drop out of NYU and escaped to the West Coast in search for yet another degree that would enable her to effect the kind of change she really wished for. This one was in Storytelling. Always being a big fan of Improvisation, she began studies at the Groundlings School and took on several comedy projects thereafter. Annet has also studied at the Imagined Life in Hollywood because she finds trans-formative experience and expression of the empathetic imagination to be the foundation of her work.

Everything, from growing up among a big Indian family on a healthy diet of Bollywood films to experiencing St. Petersburg's famous ballet, art and theatre scene, prepared Annet for her life as an ambassador of change through storytelling. Becoming an actress synthesized her many curiosities with her passion and mission.

Annet is best known for her starring role in the 2013 TV series The Americans, where she plays the role "Nina," the beautiful and mysterious spy opposite FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich). "Annet Mahendru has been a revelation as Nina, bringing the character to life with a rich and subtle depth that keeps you guessing as to what's really percolating under the surface," said Executive Producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields. Other credits include 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, Big Time Rush, The Blacklist, The X Files and feature films Escape From Tomorrow and Love Gloria.

From the age of five, Linda Blair had to get used to the spotlight, first as a child model and then as an actress, when out of 600 applicants she was picked for the role of Regan, the possessed child, in The Exorcist (1973). Linda quickly rose to international fame, won the Golden Globe, and seemed to be set to take the Academy Award for that role, but when it leaked how some parts of the role were not performed by her (the demonic voice was dubbed by Mercedes McCambridge, and eight seconds of a stunt dummy were used) that dream broke, and with that disappointment probably came the first blow to what looked like the beginning of an A-list career.

Over the next few years she had no trouble securing lead roles in a number of pictures, including the highly successful television films Born Innocent (1974) (the #1 TV movie of that year) and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as well as the Exorcist sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). However, when she was peer pressured into buying cocaine at the age of 18, it led to an arrest and subsequent sentencing to three years probation. The much-publicized drug bust caused Linda to be blacklisted in Hollywood, and her career was soon reduced to B-movies and occasional TV guest appearances only.

Although her career never returned to its former glory, Linda proved to be a good sport about embracing the change, and out of the '80s emerged lead roles in two cult classics: the women-in-prison film Chained Heat (1983) and the femme fatale vigilante action film Savage Streets (1984). She continued acting in numerous films throughout the '80s and '90s, including the Exorcist spoof Repossessed (1990). In 1997, she also took to the Broadway stage and starred as "Rizzo" in the revival of "Grease." She received widespread mainstream attention again in the 2000's with the theatrical re-release of the Exorcist, followed by a hosting job on the hit Fox Family TV series Scariest Places on Earth (2000), which ran for six years and followed Linda as she visited notorious "haunted" locations around the world.

Linda was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Elinore, a real estate agent, and James, an executive headhunter. She has a brother, Jimmy, and a sister, Debbie. Linda has been a Hollywood icon for over 40 years, but it is her first love of animals that has ultimately taken center stage in her life. She now runs the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a non-profit 501C3 tax deductible organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused, neglected, and abandoned animals from the harsh streets of the Los Angeles area, as well as from the overcrowded and overwhelmed city and county animal shelters. She works and lives on the 2-acre rescue sanctuary full-time in California, which was featured on The Today Show in a segment titled "From Devil to Angel." Of course, she also makes frequent appearances at horror fan conventions to celebrate the legacy of The Exorcist (1973) .

Ralph Bellamy was a veteran actor who was so well-liked and respected by his peers that he was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1987 for his contributions to the acting profession.

Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born June 17, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise (Smith), originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy, who had deep roots in New England. Bellamy began his career as a player right out of high school in 1922, joining a traveling company that put on Shakespearean plays. For the next five years he appeared with stock companies and repertory theaters associated with the Chautauqua Road Co., which brought culture to the hinterlands. He not only learned his craft but by 1927 wound up owning his own theatrical troupe. Two years later he made his Broadway theatrical debut in "Town Boy" (29 years later he would win a Tony Award).

Bellamy made the first of his over 100 films in 1933, appearing as a gangster in The Secret 6 (1931). While he never became a major star or played many leads in "A" pictures, he made a career out of playing second-leads in major productions before developing into a character actor. In his heyday he typically played a rich but dull character who is jilted by the leading lady (he won his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for just such a role in the 1937 comedy The Awful Truth (1937), in which he lost Irene Dunne to Cary Grant). He also specialized in redoubtable detectives who always find their man (he starred as Ellery Queen in a series of four "B" movies) and as slightly sinister yet stylish villains (such typecasting reaching its apogee with his turn as the not-so-kindly doctor in the horror classic Rosemary's Baby (1968)).

Bellamy's greatest role was as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Dore Schary's play "Sunrise at Campobello," for which he won a 1958 Best Actor-Dramatic Tony Award. He also reprised his portrayal of Roosevelt in Schary's 1960 movie adaptation of his play Sunrise at Campobello (1960), which brought his co-star Greer Garson a Golden Globe award and a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt.

To play F.D.R. and show his struggle with the onset of polio, Bellamy studied up on Roosevelt as both man and politician, gaining an insight into the future president's psyche. Like Method actors Marlon Brando and Jon Voight, who prepared for their portrayals of paraplegic war veterans in the movies The Men (1950) and Coming Home (1978) by living in veterans hospitals with paraplegics, Bellamy tried to understand the trauma that F.D.R. underwent and the challenges he faced. Bellamy spent a considerable amount of time at a rehabilitation center learning how to master leg braces, crutches and a wheelchair to increase the verisimilitude of his portrayal of Rosevelt. So successful was his portrait of Roosevelt that he was called upon a generation later to recreate F.D.R. for the blockbuster TV miniseries War and Remembrance (1988) (ironically, Voight himself would later play F.D.R. in the movie Pearl Harbor (2001)).

Bellamy also had a prolific career on television, beginning with his 1948 debut in The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). He starred in one of the first TV police shows, Man Against Crime (1949), which was on the air from 1949-54, and later had roles in several other TV series, including The Eleventh Hour (1962), The Survivors (1969) and The Most Deadly Game (1970). He also appeared in countless TV-movies and tele-plays, and was three times nominated for an Emmy Award.

Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus, the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the theater. Under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect members against charges of Communist Party membership or "exhibiting left-wing sympathies". (One of the charges levied against legendary stage and film director Elia Kazan, including Rod Steiger at the time Kazan received an honorary Oscar, was that he should have defied the House Un-American Activities Committee and not have named names because he could have remained employed in the theater even if he had been blacklisted in Hollywood.)

Under Bellamy's leadership, Actor's Equity managed to double its assets within the first six years of his presidency and was successful in establishing the first pension fund for actors. It was for his services to the acting community that he was the recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 1987.

Ralph Bellamy died on November 29, 1991 in Santa Monica, California. He was 87 years old.

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, distant German and very remote Portuguese. The age-old story goes that the small town of his birth was won by John's grandfather in a poker game. John's father was the equally magnanimous character actor Walter Huston, and his mother, Rhea Gore, was a newspaperwoman who traveled around the country looking for stories. The only child of the couple, John began performing on stage with his vaudevillian father at age 3. Upon his parents' divorce at age 7, the young boy would take turns traveling around the vaudeville circuit with his father and the country with his mother on reporting excursions. A frail and sickly child, he was once placed in a sanitarium due to both an enlarged heart and kidney ailment. Making a miraculous recovery, he quit school at age 14 to become a full-fledged boxer and eventually won the Amateur Lightweight Boxing Championship of California, winning 22 of 25 bouts. His trademark broken nose was the result of that robust activity.

John married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Harvey, and also took his first professional stage bow with a leading role off-Broadway entitled "The Triumph of the Egg." He made his Broadway debut that same year with "Ruint" on April 7, 1925, and followed that with another Broadway show "Adam Solitaire" the following November. John soon grew restless with the confines of both his marriage and acting and abandoned both, taking a sojourn to Mexico where he became an officer in the cavalry and expert horseman while writing plays on the sly. Trying to control his wanderlust urges, he subsequently returned to America and attempted newspaper and magazine reporting work in New York by submitting short stories. He was even hired at one point by mogul Samuel Goldwyn Jr. as a screenwriter, but again he grew restless. During this time he also appeared unbilled in a few obligatory films. By 1932 John was on the move again and left for London and Paris where he studied painting and sketching. The promising artist became a homeless beggar during one harrowing point.

Returning again to America in 1933, he played the title role in a production of "Abraham Lincoln," only a few years after father Walter portrayed the part on film for D.W. Griffith. John made a new resolve to hone in on his obvious writing skills and began collaborating on a few scripts for Warner Brothers. He also married again. Warners was so impressed with his talents that he was signed on as both screenwriter and director for the Dashiell Hammett mystery yarn The Maltese Falcon (1941). The movie classic made a superstar out of Humphrey Bogart and is considered by critics and audiences alike--- 65 years after the fact--- to be the greatest detective film ever made. In the meantime John wrote/staged a couple of Broadway plays, and in the aftermath of his mammoth screen success directed bad-girl 'Bette Davis (I)' and good girl Olivia de Havilland in the film melodrama In This Our Life (1942), and three of his "Falcon" stars (Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet) in the romantic war picture Across the Pacific (1942). During WWII John served as a Signal Corps lieutenant and went on to helm a number of film documentaries for the U.S. government including the controversial Let There Be Light (1980), which father Walter narrated. The end of WWII also saw the end of his second marriage. He married third wife Evelyn Keyes, of "Gone With the Wind" fame, in 1946 but it too lasted a relatively short time. That same year the impulsive and always unpredictable Huston directed Jean-Paul Sartre's experimental play "No Exit" on Broadway. The show was a box-office bust (running less than a month) but nevertheless earned the New York Drama Critics Award as "best foreign play."

Hollywood glory came to him again in association with Bogart and Warner Brothers'. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), a classic tale of gold, greed and man's inhumanity to man set in Mexico, won John Oscars for both director and screenplay and his father nabbed the "Best Supporting Actor" trophy. John can be glimpsed at the beginning of the movie in a cameo playing a tourist, but he wouldn't act again on film for a decade and a half. With the momentum in his favor, John hung around in Hollywood this time to write and/or direct some of the finest American cinema made including Key Largo (1948) and The African Queen (1951) (both with Bogart), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Red Badge of Courage (1951) and Moulin Rouge (1952). Later films, including Moby Dick (1956), The Unforgiven (1960), The Misfits (1961), Freud (1962), The Night of the Iguana (1964) and The Bible in the Beginning... (1966) were, for the most part, well-regarded but certainly not close to the level of his earlier revered work. He also experimented behind-the-camera with color effects and approached topics that most others would not even broach, including homosexuality and psychoanalysis.

An ardent supporter of human rights, he, along with director William Wyler and others, dared to form the Committee for the First Amendment in 1947, which strove to undermine the House Un-American Activities Committee. Disgusted by the Hollywood blacklisting that was killing the careers of many talented folk, he moved to St. Clerans in Ireland and became a citizen there along with his fourth wife, ballet dancer Enrica (Ricki) Soma. The couple had two children, including daughter Anjelica Huston who went on to have an enviable Hollywood career of her own. Huston and wife Ricki split after a son (director Danny Huston) was born to another actress in 1962. They did not divorce, however, and remained estranged until her sudden death in 1969 in a car accident. John subsequently adopted his late wife's child from another union. The ever-impulsive Huston would move yet again to Mexico where he married (1972) and divorced (1977) his fifth and final wife, Celeste Shane.

Huston returned to acting auspiciously with a major role in Otto Preminger's epic film The Cardinal (1963) for which Huston received an Oscar nomination at age 57. From that time forward, he would be glimpsed here and there in a number of colorful, baggy-eyed character roles in both good and bad (some positively abysmal) films that, at the very least, helped finance his passion projects. The former list included outstanding roles in Chinatown (1974) and The Wind and the Lion (1975), while the latter comprised of hammy parts in such awful drek as Candy (1968) and Myra Breckinridge (1970).

Directing daughter Angelica in her inauspicious movie debut, the thoroughly mediocre A Walk with Love and Death (1969), John made up for it 15 years later by directing her to Oscar glory in the mob tale Prizzi's Honor (1985). In the 1970s Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Wise Blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under the Volcano (1984), the afore-mentioned Prizzi's Honor (1985) and The Dead (1987). His only certifiable misfire during that era was the elephantine musical version of Annie (1982), though it later became somewhat of a cult favorite among children.

Huston lived the macho, outdoors life, unencumbered by convention or restrictions, and is often compared in style or flamboyancy to an Ernest Hemingway or Orson Welles. He was, in fact, the source of inspiration for Clint Eastwood in the helming of the film White Hunter Black Heart (1990) which chronicled the making of "The African Queen." Illness robbed Huston of a good portion of his twilight years with chronic emphysema the main culprit. As always, however, he continued to work tirelessly while hooked up to an oxygen machine if need be. At the end, the living legend was shooting an acting cameo in the film Mr. North (1988) for his son Danny, making his directorial bow at the time. John became seriously ill with pneumonia and died while on location at the age of 81. This maverick of a man's man who was once called "the eccentric's eccentric" by Paul Newman, left an incredibly rich legacy of work to be enjoyed by film lovers for centuries to come.

Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and model, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in "L'Orocolo". After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in "Detective Story". She reprised the role in the film version (Detective Story (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc., were persecuted for supposedly "Communist" or "progressive" political beliefs, whether they had them or not. Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 12 years. In 1965 Lee re-started her acting career in the TV series Peyton Place (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for Shampoo (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976). Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of August Strindberg's, "Stronger, The" was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI. In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, Down and Out in America (1985) and directed Nobody's Child (1986) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award. In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking. Subsequently, Women in Film paid tribute to her in 1989, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the New York City Council and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have recognized Ms. Grant for the contribution her films have made to the fight against domestic violence.

A fascinating aura of mystery seemed to surround the characters portrayed by blue-eyed blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose trademark high cheekbones, rosebud lips and heart-shaped face kept audiences intrigued for nearly three decades. She left a fine legacy of work in theater, motion pictures and television.

Born Charlotte Gercke on February 13, 1932 in New York City, she was the daughter of well-to-do George Gercke, a political reporter and journalist for the New York World, and his astrology practitioner wife, Ruth Oliver (aka Ruth Hale Oliver), both of whom divorced while Susan was still quite young (age 3). As a privileged adolescent, she went to various public and boarding schools. As a teenager, she lived with her father and traveled with him overseas to Japan, where he maintained a news post. While there (1948-49), she studied at the Tokyo International College and developed an interest in Japan's deep obsession with the American popular culture. Much later in her career (1977), in fact, Susan would write and direct Cowboysan (1978), a short film which told of Japanese actors performing in an American western.

In the spring of 1949, Susan briefly rejoined her mother, who was now remarried, residing in Los Angeles, and gaining a solid reputation as Hollywood's astrologer to the stars. However, by that fall, Susan was back East, studying drama at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College (for four years). She then continued her training at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, while finding stage work in both summer stock and regional theaters. Commercials and daytime/prime-time television work started coming Susan's way and, by that time, she had already changed her stage moniker to the more flowing name of Susan Oliver.

The year 1957 began with a debut ingénue role as a Revolutionary War-era daughter in the Broadway comedy "Small War on Murray Hill", which opened and closed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater after only nine days. A far more potent and substantial role fell her way in October of that same year, when she replaced British actress Mary Ure as Allison Porter in the superior kitchen sink drama "Look Back in Anger". Susan continued to find extensive dramatic work in live East coast television plays, with roles on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), The United States Steel Hour (1953), Studio 57 (1954) and Matinee Theatre (1955). At this juncture, she decided to migrate back to Los Angeles for more on-camera opportunities and attained guest roles on such popular prime-time series as Wagon Train (1957), Father Knows Best (1954), The Millionaire (1955) and The Lineup (1954).

Susan made her cinematic debut as the tough yet doomed title role in Warner Bros.' low-budget melodrama The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957). The film was shot in black and white, so it didn't matter that Susan's eyes were blue. Topbilled, she played the rebellious delinquent leader at a girls' reformatory and lent class to the rather exploitative material, which was written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Two years later, Susan returned to the big screen as another tough cookie in the better-received biopic The Gene Krupa Story (1959), as a jazz singer who lures the renowned drummer (played by Sal Mineo) down the road to drugs and near ruin. A brief return to the Broadway stage, with the comedy "Patate" starring Tom Ewell and Lee Bowman, would last only four days but Susan earned great notices and won New York's Theatre World Award World for her outstanding breakout performance.

On early 1960s television, Susan continued to offer a number of striking and often showy, neurotic performances on episodes of Bonanza (1959), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Wagon Train (1957), The Virginian (1962), Adventures in Paradise (1959), Route 66 (1960), Dr. Kildare (1961) and The Fugitive (1963). Filmwise, she found a few lead and support roles in the Elizabeth Taylor-starred BUtterfield 8 (1960); as a psychiatric nurse in the all-star hospital melodrama The Caretakers (1963); in the tailored-for-the-teens romp, Looking for Love (1964), as a friend to Connie Francis; and in the hilarious Jerry Lewis slapstick vehicle The Disorderly Orderly (1964), in which she added rather heavy drama as a depressed hospital patient. During this time, her most challenging role was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams (George Hamilton, in offbeat casting) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964).

Susan's name remained active particularly on television, where she graced such series as The Andy Griffith Show (1960), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963), Burke's Law (1963), Dr. Kildare (1961), Ben Casey (1961), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), My Three Sons (1960), The Invaders (1967) and Mannix (1967). Classic television showcases includes the episode, People Are Alike All Over (1960), in which she plays the beautiful martian Teenya, who encounters astronaut Roddy McDowall, and the unsold pilot episode The Cage (1966), as Vina, the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship who charms Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter, the captain subsequently replaced by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, when the show became a series). Footage from that pilot was later incorporated into the two-part episode "The Menagerie". In 1966, Susan made bittersweet news, when her regular role as Ann Howard in the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964), was pushed off a cliff to her death. Written out after only five months of a year-long planned role, audiences (as well as Susan) were saddened by the loss of a character they had grown to care about. Subsequently, Susan starred in her own pilot for a new series, "Apartment in Rome", but that didn't sell.

Unfortunately, Susan's late 1960s work in a variety of film genres and opposite a number of formidable leading men were ultimately too few and did not help to advance her career. These included the LSD-induced drama The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd and James MacArthur; the western A Man Called Gannon (1968) starring Anthony Franciosa; and the sci-fiers Change of Mind (1969) with Raymond St. Jacques and The Monitors (1969) with Guy Stockwell. The 1970s also hardly fared better with standard roles in Ginger in the Morning (1974) (donning a black wig), the Spanish-made drama Nido de viudas (1977), and Hardly Working (1980), in which she reunited with Jerry Lewis in what was supposed to be his comeback attempt. That film was ultimately shelved, before earning scant release a couple of years later.

Susan appeared as a regular for one season (1975-76) on Days of Our Lives (1965) and received a "Supporting Actress" Emmy nomination for the made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart (1976), playing aviatrix Neta "Snookie" Snook, friend and mentor to the title character, played by Emmy-nominated Susan Clark. The role of "Snookie" was tailor-made for Susan, who, by this time, had merited attention as a licensed commercial pilot.

Susan's passion for flying had been compromised a decade earlier after a dramatic 1966 commercial plane scare. The near-death experience kept the actress on solid ground for well over a year, before she managed to overcome her paralyzing fear. In 1970, fully recovered, she co-piloted a single-engine Piper Comanche to victory in the Powder Puff Derby racing event, a victory that earned her the name, "Pilot of the Year". [Amelia Mary Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean]. However, in her attempt to fly to Moscow, the Soviet government denied her entrance to their air space and she was forced to end her journey in Denmark. Susan would later write about her flying exploits in her autobiography "Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey" (1983).

Susan's last years were focused on the small screen, with roles in the made-for-TV movies Tomorrow's Child (1982) and International Airport (1985), and standard guest-starring on The Love Boat (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Simon & Simon (1981) and Freddy's Nightmares (1988). She also moved behind the camera a few times, directing episodes of M*A*S*H (1972) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). A longtime smoker, the never-married Susan was diagnosed with lung cancer and died with quiet dignity at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at age 58 -- an untimely death for such a beautiful lady and strong talent.

As an actor Tony Plana has performed in more than 70 feature films. Recent films include Pain & Gain with Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg directed by Michael Bay, Roman J. Israel, Esquire starring Denzel Washington directed by Dan Gilroy, and the soon to be released, Bombshell, directed by Jay Roach starring Charlize Theron, John Lithgow, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie and Wasp Network, directed by Olivier Assayas with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez.

His latest television projects include principal roles in Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope with Jude Law and Diane Keaton for HBO, Jugar Con Fuego for Telemundo and the recently released Mayans MC on the FX Channel. Current recurring roles include the comedies One Day at a Time with Rita Moreno and Super Store with America Ferrera, as well as the dramas, The Affair with Anna Paquin. Start Up with Martin Freeman and Ron Perlman, The Punisher with Jon Bernthal, Madam Secretary, Lethal Weapon, Colony, Alpha House, Elementary, The Fosters, and The Blacklist.

Tony Plana also starred as Ignacio Suarez, the widowed father to America Ferrera's Ugly Betty, in ABC's landmark, groundbreaking hit series for which he received the 2006 Golden Satellite Award from the International Press Academy, an Imagen Award, and an Alma Award. Ugly Betty received the highest ratings and the most critical acclaim of any Latino-based show in the history of television, most notably 11 Emmy nominations and a Golden Glove Award for best comedy.

Previously, he also starred in Showtime's original series, Resurrection Boulevard, and was nominated for two Alma Awards for best actor. Resurrection Boulevard was the first series to be produced, written, directed and starring Latinos and awarded an Alma Award for the best television series of 2002.

Other feature film credits include JFK, Nixon, Salvador, An Officer and a Gentleman, Lone Star, Three Amigos, Born in East L.A., El Norte, 187, Primal Fear, Romero, One Good Cop, Havana, The Rookie, Silver Strand and Picking Up the Pieces with Woody Allen. He has also appeared in the action thriller Half Past Dead with Steven Segal; The Lost City, with Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman; and Disney's highly acclaimed GOAL, The Dream Begins.

He has produced and directed two feature film comedies, A Million to Juan with Paul Rodriguez and The Princess and the Barrio Boy, the first Latino family film to be produced by Showtime, starring academy award nominee Edward James Olmos and Maria Conchita Alonso. The film received two 2001 Alma Award nominations for Best Made for Television Movie and Best Ensemble Acting and won the 2001 Imagen Award for Best Made for Television Movie. Plana's television episodic debut was 2001's Resurrection Blvd.'s Saliendo, which garnered critical acclaim, receiving a GLAAD Award for best dramatic episode of the year and a SHINE Award nomination for sensitive portrayal of sexuality. He has directed several episodes of Nickelodeon's hit series, The Brothers Garcia, receiving a Humanitas Award nomination and winning the Imagen Award for its third season finale, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover. He also directed the season finale of Greetings from Tucson for the Warner Brothers Network and the Halloween episode of Desperate Housewives in its final season on ABC.

Plana was the Co-founder and served as Producing Artistic Director of the East LA Classic Theatre (ECT), a group comprised of multicultural, classically trained theatre professionals, for over 20 years. The EastLA Classic Theatre was dedicated to serving economically challenged communities through educational outreach programs for primary and secondary schools. As ECT's Producing Artistic Director, Plana defined its mission as 'educational' with a priority on creating access to classic dramatic literature for young minority audiences, emphasizing interpretations filtered through a multicultural, non-traditional perspective and presented with a contemporary, populist aesthetic. His provocative adaptations of classic Shakespearean plays were specifically conceived for students with little or no theatre going experience. He produced, directed and adapted these plays set against curriculum relevant historical backgrounds that served as catalysts for the investigation of personal and interpersonal psychology, race and cultural relations, socio-political issues and world history. Such as A zoot suit styled, musical Romeo & Juliet, was set during World War II with 1940's swing music and dance, featuring an East L.A. Latina Juliet and a West L.A. Anglo sailor Romeo struggling to define their love and identities in a wartime city sharply divided by racism, xenophobia, and economics and a Mariachi Musical production of Much Ado About Nothing set in early California.

Plana has continued to challenge the boundaries of teaching and learning language through an innovative approach called Language in Play (LIP). Working directly with language arts teachers, LIP utilizes the performing arts to impact literacy skills in academically at risk and bi-lingual students. Evolved collaboratively with educators over the last fifteen years, ECT's unique process of 'personalizing' language, through student play writing and play acting based on autobiographical experience, has proven more effective in achieving academic advancement and personal growth than established, traditional methods. It has consistently improved students' reading, writing and speaking skills resulting in higher attendance and lower drop-out rates, increased class participation and homework completion, as well as achieved better test scores, strengthened self-confidence and provided an engaging and meaningful school experience.

In 2005 he was honored as Educator of the Year by Loyola Marymount University's Department of Education. In 2008 he was awarded Loyola High School's Cahalan Award as a distinguished alumnus and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Imagen Foundation. In 2009 the HOLA organization honored him with the Raul Julia HOLA Founders Award for excellence. In 2010, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa selected him as worthy of one of the highest honors bestowed by the City of Los Angeles, The Dream of Los Angeles Award for his contributions to the media arts and education. He is the proud recipient of the 2013 ALMA Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council of La Raza, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers' Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016, and the 2018 Nosotros Lifetime Impact Golden Eagle Award. He is currently an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University School of Education.

Danny Strong started his career as an actor in numerous classic films and TV shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls, then transitioned into screenwriting, exploding onto the scene with his 2007 script Recount which was #1 on the Hollywood Blacklist and became an award winning HBO Film. Since then he has become a prolific film and TV writer, director and producer, garnering numerous awards for various projects, including two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two WGA awards, a PGA Award, and the Peabody Award.

Through out his career he has shown a wide range and versatility moving between mediums and genres with films like the political docudramas Recount and Game Change, the civil rights epic The Butler and the big budget action blockbusters Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part I and II). He co-created the smash hit TV show Empire which won him the NAACP Image Award and he produced the civil rights drama The Best of Enemies starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell. He has also written numerous theater projects having made his theatrical debut with a new book to the musical Chess that premiered at the Kennedy Center.

Strong transitioned into directing with several episodes of Empire. He made his feature directorial debut with Rebel in the Rye that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films. Over the years he has continued his acting career with recurring roles in many highly acclaimed TV shows including Mad Men, Girls, Justified, Billions and The Right Stuff. He grew up in Manhattan Beach, California and attended the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

Orson Bean, the American actor, television personality and author, was born Dallas Frederick Burrows on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont to George Frederick Burrows, a policeman who later went on to become the chief of campus police at Harvard University, and the former Marion Ainsworth Pollard. He was of Irish, Scottish, and English descent. Through the latter, the newborn Dallas Burrows was a first cousin, twice removed, to Calvin Coolidge, who was President of the United States at the time of his birth. The young Dallas, an amateur magician with a taste for the limelight, graduated from Boston's prestigious Latin School in 1946. Too young to see military service during World War II, the future Orson Bean did a hitch in the U.S. Army (1946-47) in occupied Japan.

After the war, he launched himself onto the nightclub circuit with his new moniker, the "Orson" borrowed from reigning enfant terrible Orson Welles. His comedy act premiered at New York City's Blue Angel nightclub, and the momentum from his act launched him into the orbit of the legitimate theater. He made his Broadway debut on April 30, 1954 in Stalag 17 (1953) producer Richard Condon's only Broadway production as a playwright, "Men of Distinction", along with Robert Preston and Martin Ritt. The play flopped and ran only four appearances.

The following year was to prove kinder: he hosted a summer-replacement television series produced at the Blue Angel, and won a Theatre World Award for his work in the 1954 music revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac", which co-starred Harry Belafonte, Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold and Carleton Carpenter. It was a hit that ran for 229 performances. He followed this up with an even bigger hit, the leading role in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter". Next up was a succès d'estime as the leading man in Herman Wouk's comic play "Nature's Way", which co-starred Bea Arthur, Sorrell Booke and Godfrey Cambridge. Though the play lasted but 67 performances, Orson Bean had established himself on the Broadway stage.

He enjoyed his greatest personal success on Broadway in the 1961-62 season, in the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical "Subways are for Sleeping", which was directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd and featured music by Jule Styne. Bean received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (his co-star Phyllis Newman won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical). The following season, he was in a bigger hit, the comedy "Never Too Late", which would go on to play for 1,007 performances. After appearing in the flop comedy "I Was Dancing" in November 1964, Bean made his last Broadway appearance in the musical "Illya Darling" in 1967 with Melina Mercouri, directed by fellow blacklister Jules Dassin; it played 320 performances. He also toured in the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach musical "Promises, Promises".

Bean made an impression as the Army psychiatrist in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). But it was as a television personality that he made his biggest inroads into the popular consciousness, as well as the popular culture. He appeared in numerous quiz and talk shows, becoming a familiar face in homes as a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth (1956). He also appeared on Norman Lear's cult favorite Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and its sequel, Forever Fernwood (1977), as "Reverend Brim", and as store owner "Loren Bray" on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993). Much of his role as 105-year-old "Dr. Lester" in the cult film Being John Malkovich (1999) wound up the cutting room floor, but audiences and critics welcomed back his familiar presence.

Gruff, burly American character actor. Born in 1903 in Benkelman, Nebraska (confirmed by Social Security records; sources stating 1905 or Denver, Colorado are in error.) Bond grew up in Denver, the son of a lumberyard worker. He attended the University of Southern California, where he got work as an extra through a football teammate who would become both his best friend and one of cinema's biggest stars: John Wayne. Director John Ford promoted Bond from extra to supporting player in the film Salute (1929), and became another fast friend. An arrogant man of little tact, yet fun-loving in the extreme, Bond was either loved or hated by all who knew him. His face and personality fit perfectly into almost any type of film, and he appeared in hundreds of pictures in his more than 30-year career, in both bit parts and major supporting roles. In the films of Wayne and Ford, particularly, he was nearly always present. Among his most memorable roles are John L. Sullivan in Gentleman Jim (1942), Det. Tom Polhaus in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and the Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnson Clayton The Searchers (1956). An ardent but anti-intellectual patriot, he was perhaps the most vehement proponent, among the Hollywood community, of blacklisting in the witch hunts of the 1950s, and he served as a most unforgiving president of the ultra-right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. In the mid-'50s he gained his greatest fame as the star of TV's Wagon Train (1957). During its production, Bond traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend a football game and died there in his hotel room of a massive heart attack.

Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new generation of American movie actors who became stars in the post-World War II era. With fellow post-War stars Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum, Widmark brought a new kind of character to the screen in his character leads and supporting parts: a hard-boiled type who does not actively court the sympathy of the audience. Widmark was not afraid to play deeply troubled, deeply conflicted, or just downright deeply corrupt characters.

After his debut, Widmark would work steadily until he retired at the age of 76 in 1990, primarily as a character lead. His stardom would peak around the time he played the U.S. prosecutor in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as the 1950s segued into the 1960s, but he would continue to act for another 30 years.

Richard Weedt Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, to Ethel Mae (Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. He has said that he loved the movies from his boyhood, claiming, "I've been a movie bug since I was 4. My grandmother used to take me". The teenaged Widmark continued to go to the movies and was thrilled by Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). "I thought Boris Karloff was great", Widmark said. Although he loved the movies and excelled at public speaking while attending high school, Widmark attended Lake Forest College with the idea of becoming a lawyer. However, he won the lead role in a college production of, fittingly enough, the play "Counsellor-at-Law", and the acting bug bit deep. After taking his bachelor of arts degree in 1936, he stayed on at Lake Forest as the Assistant Director of Speech and Drama. However, he soon quit the job and moved to New York to become an actor, and by 1938 he was appearing on radio in "Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories". He made his Broadway debut in 1943 in the play "Kiss and Tell" and continued to appear on stage in roles that were light-years away from the tough cookies he would play in his early movies.

After World War II, he was signed by 20th Century-Fox to a seven-year contract. After seeing his screen test for the role of Tommy Udo, 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that the slight, blonde Widmark - no one's idea of a heavy, particularly after his stage work - be cast as the psychopath in Kiss of Death (1947), which had been prepared as a Victor Mature vehicle. Even though the role was small, Widmark stole the picture. The publicity department at 20th Century-Fox recommended that exhibitors market the film by concentrating on thumping the tub for their new antihero. "Sell Richard Widmark" advised the studio's publicity manual that an alert 20th Century-Fox sent to theater owners. The manual told local exhibitors to engage a job printer to have "wanted" posters featuring Widmark's face printed and pasted up. He won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nod for the part, which led to an early bout with typecasting at the studio. Widmark played psychotics in The Street with No Name (1948) and Road House (1948) and held his own against new Fox superstar Gregory Peck in the William A. Wellman western Yellow Sky (1948), playing the villain, of course. When his pressuring the studio to let him play other parts paid off, his appearance as a sailor in Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) made headlines: Life magazine's March 28, 1949, issue featured a three-page spread of the movie headlined "Widmark the Movie Villain Goes Straight". He was popular, having captured the public imagination, and before the decade was out, his hand- and footprints were immortalized in concrete in the court outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The great director Elia Kazan cast Widmark in his thriller Panic in the Streets (1950), not as the heavy (that role went to Jack Palance) but as the physician who tracks down Palance, who has the plague, in tandem with detective Paul Douglas. Widmark was establishing himself as a real presence in the genre that later would be hailed as film noir. Having proved he could handle other roles, Widmark didn't shy away from playing heavies in quality pictures. The soon-to-be-blacklisted director Jules Dassin cast him in one of his greatest roles, as the penny-ante hustler Harry Fabian in Night and the City (1950). Set in London, Widmark's Fabian manages to survive in the jungle of the English demimonde, but is doomed. Widmark was masterful in conveying the desperation of the criminal seeking to control his own fate but who is damned, and this performance also became an icon of film noir. In that same year, he appeared in Oscar-winning writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's No Way Out (1950) as a bigot who instigates a race riot.

As the 1950s progressed, Widmark played in westerns, military vehicles, and his old stand-by genre, the thriller. He appeared with Marilyn Monroe (this time cast as the psycho) in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and made Pickup on South Street (1953) that same year for director Samuel Fuller. His seven-year contract at Fox was expiring, and Zanuck, who would not renew the deal, cast him in the western Broken Lance (1954) in a decidedly supporting role, billed beneath not only Spencer Tracy but even Robert Wagner and Jean Peters. The film was well respected, and it won an Oscar nomination for best screenplay for the front of Hollywood 10 blacklistee Albert Maltz. Widmark left Fox for the life of a freelance, forming his own company, Heath Productions. He appeared in more westerns, adventures and social dramas and pushed himself as an actor by taking the thankless role of the Dauphin in Otto Preminger's adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (1957), a notorious flop that didn't bring anyone any honors, neither Preminger, his leading lady Jean Seberg, nor Widmark. In 1960, he was appearing in another notorious production, John Wayne's ode to suicidal patriotism, The Alamo (1960), with the personally liberal Widmark playing Jim Bowie in support of the very conservative Wayne's Davy Crockett. Along with character actor Chill Wills, Widmark arguably was the best thing in the movie.

In 1961, Widmark acquitted himself quite well as the prosecutor in producer-director Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), appearing with the Oscar-nominated Spencer Tracy and the Oscar-winning Maximilian Schell, as well as with superstar Burt Lancaster and acting genius Montgomery Clift and the legendary Judy Garland (the latter two winning Oscar nods for their small roles). Despite being showcased with all this thespian firepower, Widmark's character proved to be the axis on which the drama turned. A little later, Widmark appeared in two westerns directed by the great John Ford, with co-star James Stewart in Two Rode Together (1961) and as the top star in Ford's apologia for Indian genocide, Cheyenne Autumn (1964). On Two Rode Together (1961), Ford feuded with Jimmy Stewart over his hat. Stewart insisted on wearing the same hat he had for a decade of highly successful westerns that had made him one of the top box office stars of the 1950s. Both he and Widmark were hard-of-hearing (as well as balding and in need of help from the makeup department's wigmakers), so Ford would sit far away from them while directing scenes and then give them directions in a barely audible voice. When neither one of the stars could hear their director, Ford theatrically announced to his crew that after over 40 years in the business, he was reduced to directing two deaf toupees. It was testimony to the stature of both Stewart and Widmark as stars that this was as far as Ford's baiting went, as the great director could be extraordinarily cruel.

Widmark continued to co-star in A-pictures through the 1960s. He capped off the decade with one of his finest performances, as the amoral police detective in Don Siegel's gritty cop melodrama Madigan (1968). With Madigan, one can see Widmark's characters as a progression in the evolution of what would become the late 1960s nihilistic antihero, such as those embodied by Clint Eastwood in Siegel's later Dirty Harry (1971). In the 1970s, he continued to make his mark in movies and, beginning in 1971, in television. In movies, he appeared primarily in supporting roles, albeit in highly billed fashion, in such films as Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Robert Aldrich's Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), and Stanley Kramer's The Domino Principle (1977). He even came back as a heavy, playing the villainous doctor in Coma (1978).

In 1971, in search of better roles, he turned to television, starring as the President of the U.S. in the TV miniseries Vanished (1971). His performance in the role brought Widmark an Emmy nomination. He resurrected the character of Madigan for NBC in six 90-minute episodes that appeared as part of the rotation of "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" for the fall 1972 season. Widmark was married for 55 years to playwright Jean Hazlewood, from 1942 until her death in 1997 (they had one child, Anne, who was born in 1945). He lived quietly and avoided the press, saying in 1971, "I think a performer should do his work and then shut up". Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas thought that Widmark should have won an Oscar nomination for his turn in When the Legends Die (1972) playing a former rodeo star tutoring Frederic Forrest's character.

It is surprising to think that Kiss of Death (1947) represented his sole Oscar nomination, but with the rise of respect for film noir around the time his career began tapering off in the '70s, he began to be reevaluated as an actor. Unlike Bogart, who did not live to see his reputation flourish after his death, Widmark became a cult figure well before he retired.

David Kallaway is a stage, screen and television actor .

His most notable movie roles include "Ray" in the Academy Award winning film Green Book, "Turner" in The Magnificent Seven, "Edward Covey" in Roots and as "John Kruesi" in the film Tesla with Ethan Hawke.

At 8 years old Kallaway got his start in a string of television commercials, at age eleven he landed his first film role in Making The Grade opposite Judd Nelson (Breakfast Club) & Gordon Jump (WKRP In Cincinnati).

He went on to work in a slew of projects filmed in his hometown of Memphis, including "The Rainmaker" with Francis Ford Coppola & Matt Damon and "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" with Woody Harrelson & Edward Norton. After attending the University of Memphis Theatre Program, Kallaway moved to Los Angeles and soon landed a guest spot on the Sci-Fi series "Sliders" and a recurring role on Aaron Spelling's hit daytime soap "Sunset Beach."

Kallaway held recurring television roles on NBC's The Blacklist, Amazon's Sneaky Pete and WGN's series Underground. He portrayed the infamous slave breaker "Edward Covey" in the TV mini-series Roots. Kallaway stared opposite Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke & Vincent D'Onofrio in MGM's remake of The Magnificent Seven directed by Antoine Fuqua and played opposite Mahershala Ali & Viggo Mortensen in the Academy Award Winning film Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly. He played opposite Hugh Jackman in "Logan" as well as Kevin Costner in the Academy Award nominated "Hidden Figures." Also making an appearance in Adam McKay's Academy Award nominated The Big Short.

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding a job at Gaumont British Studios in 1927. He worked as tea boy, clapper boy, messenger, then cutting room assistant. By 1935, he had become chief editor of Gaumont British News until in 1939 when he began to edit feature films, notably for Anthony Asquith, Paul Czinner and Michael Powell. Amongst films he worked on were Pygmalion (1938), Major Barbara (1941) and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942).

By the end of the 1930s, Lean's reputation as an editor was very well established. In 1942, Noël Coward gave Lean the chance to co-direct with him the war film In Which We Serve (1942). Shortly after, with the encouragement of Coward, Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer 'Anthony Havelock-Allan' launched a production company called Cineguild. For that firm Lean first directed adaptations of three plays by Coward: the chronicle This Happy Breed (1944), the humorous ghost story Blithe Spirit (1945) and, most notably, the sentimental drama Brief Encounter (1945). Originally a box-office failure in England, "Brief Encounter" was presented at the very first Cannes film festival (1946), where it won almost unanimous praises as well as a Grand Prize.

From Coward, Lean switched to Charles Dickens, directing two well-regarded adaptations: Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). The latter, starring Alec Guinness in his first major movie role, was criticized by some, however, for potential anti-Semitic inflections. The last two films made under the Cineguild banner were The Passionate Friends (1949), a romance from a novel by H.G. Wells, and the true crime story Madeleine (1950). Neither had a significant impact on critics or audiences.

The Cineguild partnership came to an end after a dispute between Lean and Neame. Lean's first post-Cineguild production was the aviation drama The Sound Barrier (1952), a great box-office success in England and his most spectacular movie so far. He followed with two sophisticated comedies based on theatrical plays: Hobson's Choice (1954) and the Anglo-American co-production Summertime (1955). Both were well received and "Hobson's Choice" won the Golden Bear at the 1954 Berlin film festival.

Lean's next movie was pivotal in his career, as it was the first of those grand-scale epics he would become renowned for. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was produced by Sam Spiegel from a novel by 'Pierre Boulle', adapted by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman. Shot in Ceylon under extremely difficult conditions, the film was an international success and triumphed at the Oscars, winning seven awards, most notably best film and director.

Lean and Spiegel followed with an even more ambitious film, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), based on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", the autobiography of T.E. Lawrence. Starring relative newcomer Peter O'Toole, this film was the first collaboration between Lean and writer Robert Bolt, cinematographer Freddie Young and composer Maurice Jarre. The shooting itself took place in Spain, Morocco and Jordan over a period of 20 months. Initial reviews were mixed and the film was trimmed down shortly after its world première and cut even more during a 1971 re-release. Like its predecessor, it won seven Oscars, once again including best film and director.

The same team of Lean, Bolt, Young and Jarre next worked on an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel "Dr. Zhivago" for producer Carlo Ponti. Doctor Zhivago (1965) was shot in Spain and Finland, standing in for revolutionary Russia and, despite divided critics, was hugely successful, as was Jarre's musical score. The film won five Oscars out of ten nominations, but the statuettes for film and director went to The Sound of Music (1965).

Lean's next movie, the sentimental drama Ryan's Daughter (1970), did not reach the same heights. The original screenplay by Robert Bolt was produced by old associate Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Lean once again secured the collaboration of Freddie Young and Maurice Jarre. The shooting in Ireland lasted about a year, much longer than expected. The film won two Oscars; but, for the most part, critical reaction was tepid, sometimes downright derisive, and the general public didn't really respond to the movie.

This relative lack of success seems to have inhibited Lean's creativity for a while. But towards the end of the 1970s, he started to work again with Robert Bolt on an ambitious two-part movie about the Bounty mutiny. The project fell apart and was eventually recuperated by Dino De Laurentiis. Lean was then approached by producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin to adapt E.M. Forster's novel "A Passage to India", a book Lean had been interested in for more than 20 years. For the first time in his career; Lean wrote the adaptation alone, basing himself partly on Santha Rama Rau's stage version of the book. Lean also acted as his own editor. A Passage to India (1984) opened to mostly favourable reviews and performed quite well at the box-office. It was a strong Oscar contender, scoring 11 nominations. It settled for two wins, losing the trophy battle to Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984).

Lean spent the last few years of his life preparing an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's meditative adventure novel "Nostromo". He also participated briefly in Richard Harris' restoration of "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1988. In 1990, Lean received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award. He died of cancer on April 16, 1991 at age 83, shortly before the shooting of "Nostromo" was about to begin.

Lean was known on sets for his extreme perfectionism and autocratic behavior, an attitude that sometimes alienated his cast or crew. Though his cinematic approach, classic and refined, clearly belongs to a bygone era, his films have aged rather well and his influence can still be found in movies like The English Patient (1996) and Titanic (1997). In 1999, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 favorite British films of the 20th century. Five by David Lean appeared in the top 30, three of them in the top five.

Victoria Rowell is an award-winning actress, international lecturer, holds two 'honorary' doctorates - a teacher, advocate, mother, and former foster youth. She has been recognized by 193 members of Congress for advocacy work on behalf of education, arts, foster and adoptive youth and parents as well as diversity issues.

Her New York Times bestseller, The Women Who Raised Me, published by HarperCollins Publishers, received literary acclaim. Rowell also enjoys a literary book deal with Simon & Schuster for her popular soap opera novel series.

Rowell is an Emmy-nominated, NAACP-winning actress, who co-starred with Dick Van Dyke in the prime time television series Diagnosis Murder (1993) for VIACOM for eight seasons, as well as starring in Daytime television. Rowell was submitted for a Golden Globe Award, starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Home of the Brave (2006).

Other credits include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and other series. She stars in the movie, Marry Me For Christmas and an upcoming feature, What Love Will Make You Do. She has been in multiple films, starring opposite Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Jeff Bridges, Samuel L. Jackson, Beau Bridges, Forest Whitaker and more. Victoria is currently filming opposite The Blacklist/Man of Steel star, Harry Lennix.

Born in Maine, Rowell was raised on a 60 acre working farm and learned classical ballet from a book. She eventually turned professional and performed with American Ballet Theater (ABT) II and other professional ballet companies.

Rowell has two adult children, Maya and Jasper.

Benito Martinez (actor/producer)

Benito has been busy in front of and behind the camera.

He is currently working as Executive Producer on the Amazon Prime feature A MILLION MILES AWAY starring Michael Peña as "José Hernandez." The film is based on the inspirational true story of an immigrant farm worker who became an astronaut for NASA. On the acting side, he just wrapped WITH LOVE Season 2 (Amazon Prime) as the romantic patriarch "Jorge Diaz, Sr." Martinez is widely known for his various fan favorite roles such as "Sheriff Gabriel Reyes" on LONE STAR 9-1-1 (FOX), "District Attorney Todd Denver" on HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC), for multiple roles over 3 seasons in John Ridley's anthology series AMERICAN CRIME (ABC) and as "Police Captain David Aceveda" on the critically acclaimed, award winning television series THE SHIELD (FX) that ran for seven seasons. Other credits include character arcs on THE MAYOR, JACK RYAN, 13 REASONS WHY, SHOOTER, LAW & ORDER: SVU, THE BLACKLIST, HOUSE OF CARDS, and SONS OF ANARCHY, to name but a few. His feature film credits include AMERICAN MADE, QUEEN & SLIM, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, BLESS ME, ULTIMA, UNTHINKABLE, MY FAMILY/MI FAMILIA and SAW.

Benito received his theatrical training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art's (LAMDA) prestigious three-year program after attending Hollywood High Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Benito got his start on stage playing the vihuela in his father's mariachi at the age of eight. The next year, he also started participating in theatrical productions at La Compania de Teatro de Albuquerque, a bilingual theater company, co-founded by his mother, Margarita Martinez. After many years of doing both, acting won out.

Born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, and raised in Jacksonville, Ala., Rodriguez grew up in a military family that would routinely attend the Soldier Show, an annual song-and-dance production with members of the United States Army. Rodriguez's initial plan was to follow in her family's footsteps and join the military (wanting to be a JAG officer) while also being a Soldier Show member. Continuing her love of the arts in high school, she was a member of the choir and band, playing clarinet, and decided to participate in the school musical her senior year. When it came time to apply for college, she originally planned to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program but ended up studying art with a concentration in political science and Spanish, minoring in theatre; choosing theatre to obtain a scholarship. Rodriguez graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama. After college, she returned to work at the Jacksonville McDonald's (where she'd worked all through high school) to save for a move to New York City. While in New York, she was preparing for a career in public service and planning to take the foreign service test to become an ambassador - wanting to represent a Spanish speaking country. Subsequently, Rodriguez heard about an audition for a national tour of "Dora the Explorer" and auditioned on a whim. She booked the tour and was on the road for nearly two years. After an injury during the tour, she moved back home to Alabama to recuperate. Now having to pay for her medical expenses, she booked a union job in Atlanta and has been working ever since. She appeared in the multicultural comedy film "The Valet" opposite Eugenio Derbez, Samara Weaving and Max Greenfield. Additional film credits include "The In Between" (Paramount+), "Night Teeth" (Netflix), "The Suicide Squad" (Warner Bros.) and her feature film debut in "Pitch Perfect 3" (Universal Pictures). On the television side, Rodriguez starred on the long-running crime-drama series "The Blacklist" alongside James Spader. Joining the series in the ninth season, she played Weecha Xiu, Raymond 'Red' Reddington's bodyguard. Additional television credits include Amer Rose on "Twisted Metal," ADA Maria Delgado on NBC's "Law & Order: Organized Crime," CBS's "Bull" and "NCIS: New Orleans," BET's "Bigger" and "Long Slow Exhale," Amazon's "Tell Me Your Secrets," HBO's "The Outsider," USA Network's "The Purge," Showtime's "Ray Donavan," AMC's "Lodge 49" and IFC's "Stan Against Evil." Rodriguez supports local causes in Atlanta and politics including The Arc Georgia, Planned Parenthood of Georgia, B.L.A.C.T. ATL, Latinas in Media Atlanta and Out of Hand Theater Atlanta to name a few. She is also a founding member of the social justice organization, Coalition for Racial Equity (CREAT), which strives to remove barriers that prevent full and equitable inclusion of Black, Indigenous and people of color from participating in all aspects of theater-making. Their goal is to fundamentally reshape the Atlanta theater community so that it prioritizes opportunities for the historically underserved and underrepresented. In her free time, Rodriguez enjoys bike riding, watching television and film, and studying her craft. In addition, she continues to have a passion for the law and public service and plans to pursue that career path as well.