Famous people I have seen in real life
These are people who I have seen in real life. Sometimes presenting a film, acting in a play or walking down the street going about their own business.
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One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in Child in the House (1956). She has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include: Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, A Room with a View (1985), Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and Jim Broadbent, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999) with Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher and Gosford Park (2001) with Kristin Scott Thomas and Clive Owen, directed by Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful 'Harry Potter' franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in Julian Fellowes' ITV drama series, Downton Abbey (2010) (2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.- Actor
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Richard E. Grant is an actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.- Actress
- Producer
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Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient of the Julie Harris Awards from the Actor's Fund for Artistic Achievement.
She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. She received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.
Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote's The Old Friends for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, White's Lies, Lincoln Center's Elegies, the original NYSF production of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy, Juno's Swans and Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road. Regional credits include The Perfectionist, Gypsy, Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo Gal, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Old Friends at Houston's Alley Theatre and Grey Gardens at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2016 for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination. In London she starred in Promises, Promises for which she was nominated for An Evening Standard Award and in 2013 the British premiere of Dear World.
Ms. Buckley most recently appeared in the new M. Night Shyamalan hit film Split co-starring James McAvoy, released in January 2017. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her work in the film. Her other films include her debut in Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman, Lawrence Kasden's Wyatt Earp and M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening.
On television, Buckley most recently guest starred in the NBC Series Chicago Med and in the HBO series The Leftovers and Getting On. She appeared in The Pacific also for HBO and twice on the Kennedy Center Honors. She also starred for three seasons in the HBO series Oz and as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight Is Enough. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television series, miniseries and films for television including Evergreen, Roses For The Rich, Without A Trace, Law & Order: SVU and Pretty Little Liars.
Buckley tours in concert worldwide with her ensemble of musicians and recently was featured in the Royal Albert Hall concert of Follies in celebration of Stephen Sondheim's 85th birthday. She has recorded 17 CD's: including Ghostlight produced by T Bone Burnett released in 2014 and most recently Story Songs released in April 2017.
She received a Grammy Nomination for Stars and The Moon, Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar. She received her second Grammy Nomination for the audio book The Diaries of Adam and Eve. For over forty years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and performing Arts Conservatories around the country. She has been a faculty member in the theatre department of the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches regularly at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX and in Los Angeles, Denver and Oklahoma.
In 2009, Ms. Buckley received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Theater and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2007. She has two honorary doctorates from The Boston Conservatory and Marymount College and has been honored with three Lifetime Achievement Awards for her contributions to theater from the New England Theater Conference, The Shubert Theater in New Haven and the Terry Schreiber School in NYC.- Actress
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Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her childhood and teens, and at age 20, she launched her stage career in a London Palladium production of "Cinderella".
Andrews came to Broadway in 1954 with "The Boy Friend", and became a bona fide star two years later in 1956, in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the unprecedented hit "My Fair Lady". Her star status continued in 1957, when she starred in the TV-production of Cinderella (1957) and through 1960, when she played "Guenevere" in "Camelot".
In 1963, Walt Disney asked Andrews if she would like to star in his upcoming production, a lavish musical fantasy that combined live-action and animation. She agreed on the condition if she didn't get the role of Doolittle in the pending film production of My Fair Lady (1964). After Audrey Hepburn was cast in My Fair Lady, Andrews made an auspicious film debut in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Andrews continued to work on Broadway, until the release of The Sound of Music (1965), the highest-grossing movie of its day and one of the highest-grossing of all time. She soon found that audiences identified her only with singing, sugary-sweet nannies and governesses, and were reluctant to accept her in dramatic roles in The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Torn Curtain (1966). In addition, the box-office showings of the musicals Julie subsequently made increasingly reflected the negative effects of the musical-film boom that she helped to create. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) was for a time the most successful film Universal had released, but it still couldn't compete with Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music for worldwide acclaim and recognition. Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970) also bombed at the box office.
Fortunately, Andrews did not let this keep her down. She worked in nightclubs and hosted a TV variety series in the 1970s. In 1979, Andrews returned to the big screen, appearing in films directed by her husband Blake Edwards, with roles that were entirely different from anything she had been seen in before. Andrews starred in 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981) and Victor/Victoria (1982), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She continued acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s in movies and TV, hosting several specials and starring in a short-lived sitcom. In 2001, she starred in The Princess Diaries (2001), alongside then-newcomer Anne Hathaway. The family film was one of the most successful G-Rated films of that year, and Andrews reprised her role as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). In recent years, Andrews appeared in Tooth Fairy (2010), as well as a number of voice roles in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Enchanted (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010), and Despicable Me (2010).- Actor
- Producer
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Hugo Wallace Weaving was born on April 4, 1960 in Nigeria, to English parents Anne (Lennard), a tour guide and teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. Hugo has an older brother, Simon, and a younger sister, Anna, who both also live and work in Australia. During his early childhood, the Weaving family spent most of their time traveling between Nigeria, Great Britain, and Australia. This was due to the cross-country demands of his father's job in the computer industry. Later, during his teens, Hugo spent three years in England in the seventies attending Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School in Bristol. There, he showed early promise in theater productions and also excelled at history, achieving an A in his O-level examination. He arrived permanently in Australia in 1976 and finished his education at Knox Grammar School, Sydney. He graduated from NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art), a college well-known for other alumni such as Mel Gibson and Geoffrey Rush, in 1981. Since then, Hugo has had a steadily successful career in the film, television, and theater industries. However, he has illustrated that, as renowned as he is known for his film work, he feels most at home on stage and continually performs in Australian theater productions, usually with the Sydney Theater Company. With his success has also come extensive recognition. He has won numerous awards, including two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI) for Best Actor in a Leading Role and three total nominations. The AFI is the Australian equivalent of an Academy Award, and Hugo won for his performances in Proof (1991) and The Interview (1998). He was also nominated for his performance in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). He garnered the Best Acting prize for The Interview (1998) at the Montreal Film Festival in 1998 in addition to his AFI Award and, that same year, won the Australian Star of the Year. More recently, roles in films such as The Matrix trilogy as Agent Smith and The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Lord Elrond have considerably raised his international profile. His famous and irreplaceable role in The Matrix movies have made him one of the greatest sci-fi villains of the Twenty-first Century. With each new film, television, or theatrical role, Hugo continues to surpass his audience's expectations and remains one of the most versatile performers working today. He resides in Australia and has two children with partner Katrina Greenwood. Though Hugo and Katrina have never married, they've been a committed couple for over 25 years; while Hugo was quoted as saying marriage "petrified" him in the 1990s, by middle of the following decade he said he no longer felt that way, and that he and Katrina have toyed with the idea of marrying "when we're really old".- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten years old, her 40-year-old father died of a sudden heart attack. Her mother never remarried, and her grandmother moved in to help her mother.
Cate graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and, in a little over a year, had won both critical and popular acclaim. On graduating from NIDA, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls", then played Felice Bauer, the bride, in Tim Daly's "Kafka Dances", winning the 1993 Newcomer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle for her performance. From there, Blanchett moved to the role of Carol in David Mamet's searing polemic "Oleanna", also for the Sydney Theatre Company, and won the Rosemont Best Actress Award, her second award that year. She then co-starred in the ABC Television's prime time drama Heartland (1994), again winning critical acclaim. In 1995, she was nominated for Best Female Performance for her role as Ophelia in the Belvoir Street Theatre Company's production of "Hamlet". Other theatre credits include Helen in the Sydney Theatre Company's "Sweet Phoebe", Miranda in "The Tempest" and Rose in "The Blind Giant is Dancing", both for the Belvoir Street Theatre Company. In other television roles, Blanchett starred as Bianca in ABC's Bordertown (1995), as Janie Morris in G.P. (1989) and in ABC's popular series Police Rescue (1994). She made her feature film debut in Paradise Road (1997).
Cate married writer Andrew Upton in 1997. She had met him a year earlier on a movie set, and they didn't like each other at first. He thought she was aloof, and she thought he was arrogant, but then they connected over a poker game at a party, and she went home with him that night. Three weeks later he proposed marriage and they quickly married before she went off to England to play her breakthrough role in films: the title character in Elizabeth (1998) for which she won numerous awards for her performance, including the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. Cate was also nominated for an Academy Award for the role but lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow. 2001 was a particularly busy year, with starring roles in Bandits (2001), The Shipping News (2001), Charlotte Gray (2001) and playing Elf Queen Galadriel in the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. She also gave birth to her first child, son Dashiell, in 2001. In 2004, she gave birth to her second son Roman.
Also, in 2004, she played actress Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004), for which she received an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for playing a teacher having an affair with an underage student in Notes on a Scandal (2006). In 2007, she returned to the role that made her a star in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). It earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She was nominated for another Oscar that same year as Best Supporting Actress for playing Bob Dylan in I'm Not There (2007). In 2008, she gave birth to her third child, son Ignatius. She and her husband became artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, choosing to spend more time in Australia raising their three sons. She also purchased a multi-million dollar home in Sydney, Australia and named it Bulwarra and made extensive renovations to it. Because of her life in Australia, her film work became sporadic, until Woody Allen cast her in the title role in Blue Jasmine (2013), which won her the Academy Award as Best Actress. She ended her job as artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, while her husband continued there for two more years before he too resigned.
In 2015, she adopted her daughter Edith in her father's homeland of the United States. That same year, she and her husband sold their multi-million dollar home in Australia at a profit and moved to America. Reasons varied from her wanting to work more in America to wanting to familiarize herself with her late father's American heritage. She played the title role of Carol (2015), a 1950s American housewife in a lesbian affair with a younger woman, for which she received an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. While most actresses might slow down in their forties, Blanchett did the opposite by stretching her boundaries even further, such as when she played 13 different characters in Manifesto (2015) and then making her Broadway debut in 2017 in "The Present", which is her husband's adaptation of Chekhov's play "Platonov" for which she earned a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Play. Also in 2017, she was selected for the highest honor in her birth country: the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and followed an illustrious theatrical career, which includes Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country", Euripides' "Medea" (title role) etc. She made her movie debut in Le Prussien (1971) and soon became one of the top actresses of her generation, giving fine performances in important films, like Claude Goretta's The Lacemaker (1977), as a simple-minded girl who falls in love with - and is betrayed by - a student, Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980), as a prostitute, and Maurice Pialat's Loulou (1980), as an upper-class woman who is physically attracted by a young vagabond. She made an inconsequential US debut in Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975) before playing a brothel madam in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980), but she fared better in Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window (1987) (as an adulteress who witnesses an attack). Huppert has an extremely productive collaboration with Claude Chabrol, who cast her in several movies, including Violette (1978), in which she played a woman who murders her parents, and Story of Women (1988), in which she gave an excellent performance as a shameless abortionist, the last woman to be executed in France. More recent good films include Patricia Mazuy's Saint-Cyr (2000) and Michael Haneke's controversial The Piano Teacher (2001), as a sexually repressed piano teacher.- Actress
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- Music Department
Performer, actress, singer and author Sandra Bernhard appeared as a series regular in season three of the immensely popular FX Television/Ryan Murphy show "POSE" reprising her role as brassy but caring Nurse Judy Kubrack, who works with H.I.V. / AIDS patients, following a memorable season one guest appearance and hugely successful second season. Bernhard has also done a special guest appearance on Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story: Apocalypse", highlighting a successful, decades long television career.
She is also currently in her fifth year hosting her weekly radio show Sandyland on Sirius XM's Radio Andy channel 102, for which she won a broadcasting Gracie Award.
A pioneer of the one-woman show, Bernhard brings a completely unique and raucous mix of cabaret, stand-up, rock-n-roll, and social commentary to her live stage performances. Just last year she celebrated the 10 year anniversary of her iconic annual holiday shows at Joe's Pub in New York City, while she also continues to tour throughout the country and overseas.
Extremely notable past live stage shows, which she has performed both on and off-Broadway, include Without You I'm Nothing, I'm Still Here, Dammit, Everything Bad and Beautiful, and #blessed.
Bernhard's film credits include The King of Comedy, for which she was awarded Best Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics, Track 29, Hudson Hawk, Dinner Rush, and the live performance film Without You I'm Nothing. Past television credits include Two Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Broad City, Difficult People, You're the Worst, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Will &Grace, The Sopranos, The Larry Sanders Show and Roseanne. Music albums include I'm Your Woman (Polygram, 1986), Excuses for Bad Behavior (Epic, 1994) and the world music album Whatever It Takes (Mi5, 2009). She has written three books: May I Kiss You on the Lips, Miss Sandra?, Confessions of a Pretty Lady, Love, Love and Love.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Producer
Best known as the the lead singer of the popular 1960s singing group The Supremes, Diana Ernestine Earle Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, the second of six children of African-American parents Ernestine Lillian (Moten), a schoolteacher, and Fred Earl Ross, who served in the army. After being raised in housing projects for most of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Diana started singing in the gospel choir of a Baptist church. With friends Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Barbara Martin, she formed a vocal group, The Primettes, at age 15. After Barbara had departed the group, the remaining three girls inked a deal with Motown Records and were renamed The Supremes. Ross wasn't picked to become the group's lead singer until Motown honcho Berry Gordy decided that the time was exactly right, and from then on he described the group as "Diana Ross and the Supremes." From 1965 to 1969 the group had a string of #1 records. In late 1969 Gordy announced that Ross would be leaving the group for a solo career. In the third week of 1970 she played her last concert with The Supremes and started working with the songwriting team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Ross' first two songs by the team reached #1 on both the pop and R&B charts, justifying her move. Prior to starting a family of her own, she won the title role in the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), which was extremely successful at the box office, and had the distinction of being nominated for an Academy Award for her first film. The movie's soundtrack reached #1 on the U.S. charts. Despite fame and fortune, her next two big films,Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), didn't meet with the same success. However, she had a #1 hit single with "Mahogany" to make up for it. In February 1976, just before another #1 hit with "Love Hangover," she was stunned when her singing partner and friend, Florence Ballard, died after complications from a combination of alcohol abuse and long-term depression, which led to cardiac arrest. Ballard was only 32 years old and Ross was devastated by the loss.
After recovering from Ballard's death, Ross went on to focus on her singing career and continued having more #1 songs, including "Upside Down". The following year she performed the theme song from Endless Love (1981), which was composed by Lionel Richie. That same year she left Motown Records and signed contracts with various record companies across the globe, and formed her own production company. The following year she released "Silk Electric," on which she sang "Muscles," a song written and produced by Michael Jackson.
After she sang a tribute song dedicated to the late Marvin Gaye, Ross scored another #1 song in 1986 in the UK with "Chain Reaction," which brought back her days as the member of The Supremes , and was written and produced by The Bee Gees. Unlike the song she sang when Florence died, this song was about how she became accustomed to Marvin over the years. After an eight-year absence, in 1989 she came back to Motown. Ross had gained more fame through concert appearances over the years, and in April 1993 she became a best-selling author with her first and only children's book, "When You Dream," which featured a CD with four songs that were dedicated to the book. That same year she was declared by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the most successful female singer of all times. Two years later she was honored with the Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement on the Soul Train Awards. After receiving those honors, she came back to the studio in 1999 with "Every Day Is A New Day," and the song reached the UK Top 10. The following year, with Mary Wilson--the only other surviving original Supremes member--she planned to book a Supremes reunion tour, but this was eventually canceled.
She was arrested in 2002 in Tucson, Arizona, for driving under the influence and after pleading guilty was sentenced to two days in jail, 36 hours of counseling and one year probation. Today she is hard at work finishing her forthcoming book, "Upside Down: Wrong Turns, Right Turns and the Road Ahead."- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
William Martin Joel is an American singer, pianist, composer and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his single and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 pop and rock studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album of classical compositions in 2001. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the seventh-best-selling recording artist and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 160 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2, is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.- Actor
- Producer
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Bryan Brown was born on 23 June 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor and producer, known for Cocktail (1988), Breaker Morant (1980) and Two Hands (1999). He has been married to Rachel Ward since 16 April 1983. They have three children.- Actress
- Director
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Rachel Ward was born on 12 September 1957 in Cornwell Manor, Cornwell, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for The Thorn Birds (1983), Against All Odds (1984) and Sharky's Machine (1981). She has been married to Bryan Brown since 16 April 1983. They have three children.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.
Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical psychologist. She is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then, three years later, made the pilgrimage back to her parents' native Sydney in Australia, where Nicole was raised. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well (her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant). In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge -- as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion (then a film student). Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into movies at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in BMX Bandits (1983) and a turn as a schoolgirl-turned-protester in the miniseries Vietnam (1987) (for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award). With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (1989).
Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as Tom Cruise's doctor/love interest in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk hook, line and sinker. After a whirlwind courtship (and decent box office returns), the couple wed on December 24, 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian film Flirting (1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the gangster flick Billy Bathgate (1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (1993). Despite her steady employment, critics and moviegoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), but achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995). As a fame-crazed housewife determined to eliminate any obstacle in her path, Kidman proved that she had an impressive range and deadly comic timing. She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance. In 1996, Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen as a nuclear weapons expert in The Peacemaker (1997), adding "action star" to her professional repertoire.
She and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The couple's on-screen shenanigans prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's rumored homosexuality); tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (mother was a feminist; father, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mother eventually beat the cancer). She and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.- Actress
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Jane Birkin was born on 14 December 1946 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for Evil Under the Sun (1982), Blow-Up (1966) and Death on the Nile (1978). She was married to John Barry. She died on 16 July 2023 in Paris, France.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She went on to receive another Academy Award nomination (this time for Best Actress in a Supporting Role) for her performance as Sally in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992). Davis and Allen would go on to be a longtime collaborators; Allen once described Davis as "one of the most exciting actresses in the world".- The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for prize money'. Like most children, Richard's "mother tongue" was the same as his parents. In his case, that was sign language. Like many kids in the 50s, his world did not include television. He had to explain sounds to his parents, for example music. Griffiths made a career out of language. For instance, he developed a talent for dialects which later allowed him to shine in a number of ethnic portrayals. He attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and then began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre. He subsequently became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he often excelled playing Shakespeare's comic characters.
In a 2007 interview, Griffiths said "I like playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids. I hate the odious business of sucking up to the public." In fact, unlike those jovial characters he so often portrayed on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly. On occasion, he would get stroppy with members of an audience, especially those failing to switch off their mobile phones during a performance (who could blame him?). He was also highly thought of as a raconteur and wit.
The ever-versatile, often bespectacled and bearded Griffiths did his best work for the small screen, excelling as the inquisitive and resourceful civil servant Henry Jay in Bird of Prey (1982) and as the lovable 'cooking policeman' Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994), a role specially created for him. As comic relief he made many a hilarious guest appearance, in, among other popular series, The Vicar of Dibley (1994) (as the Bishop of Mulberry) and as Dr. Bayham Badger in the superb BBC adaption of Bleak House (2005). He could also play evil and sinister, none more so than Swelter in Gormenghast (2000), a character Griffiths described being at once "laughably comic" and "a monster like Idi Amin". He was also much sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in a dual role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), as the ill-fated Magistrate Philipse in Tim Burton 's Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as King George in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
The much-acclaimed actor won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Griffiths was uncommonly skinny as a child and this required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. It caused his metabolism to slow to such an extent that he eventually became obese, a condition which in all likelihood contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at the age of 65. - Producer
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Describing himself as the "chunky unit," James Kimberley Corden was born in Hillingdon, London, England and raised in Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Margaret (Collins), a social worker, and Malcolm Corden, a musician. He studied drama at the Jackie Palmer Stage School before going on to Holmer Green Senior School, near High Wycombe. However, he admits that he had very little academic ambition and turned to acting, making his screen debut in the monochrome Shane Meadows film TwentyFourSeven (1997). After taking small roles in television drama series, he landed his first notable role as the teenage member of a slimming club in the British TV comedy-drama Fat Friends (2000). Shortly afterwards, he appeared on the London stage in Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys," taking part in its subsequent international tour, as well as the cinema adaptation. Whilst working on Fat Friends (2000), he met the Welsh actress Ruth Jones and, between them, they fashioned the sitcom (in which both also appear) Gavin & Stacey (2007), the big hit of the 2007 season, winning British Film Academy awards for them both as Best Comedy Show and for James as Best Comedy Actor. He also persuaded three of the erstwhile "History Boys" to make cameo appearances as Gavin's stag party friends. In 2011 he found fame as a stage actor in the acclaimed farce 'One Man, Two Guv'nors' transferring with it from London to Broadway, thus beginning Transatlantic success topped in 2015 when he became the host of CBS 'The Late, Late Show.'- Actor
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Russell Tovey was born on 14 November 1981 in Billericay Essex, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), The Good Liar (2019) and Grabbers (2012).- Actor
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Dominic Edward Cooper was born and raised in Greenwich, London, England. His mother, Julie (Heron), is a nursery school teacher and a keen theater-goer. His father, Brian Cooper, is an auctioneer. They divorced when Dominic was age 5. His maternal great-grandfather was film enthusiast E.T. Heron, who published The Kinematograph Weekly. He has two older brothers, Nathan and Simon. He had a sister who died in a car accident when she was age 5, which happened before Dominic was born. He also has a half-sister from an extramarital affair by his father and a half-brother from his father's second marriage.
He went to school in Kidbrooke, attending the Thomas Tallis School. He didn't know what to do afterwards and his girlfriend, at the time, suggested that he should apply to drama school. He did his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He performed in the end of year play 'Waiting For Godot' and this performance landed him the renowned agent Pippa Markham.
He graduated in 2000 and started with a few minor roles in television and theater. In 2004, he landed a role at the National Theatre with 'The History Boys'. He originated the role of Dakin, as he was involved in the play from the very beginning. He played the role for two years on the stage and then, for the final time, in his breakthrough film role The History Boys (2006).- Actor
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Jamie Parker is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: London Show (2017), for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play. He also received a Tony Award Nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play as a member of the original Broadway version ( The 72nd Annual Tony Awards (2018) ). Other notable include John Dudley in Becoming Elizabeth (2022) (2022), Lt Richards in 1917 (2019) (2019); Alan Greene QC in Des (2020) (2020); Scripps in The History Boys (2006) (original stage cast and film); Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Henry V (2013) at Shakespeare's Globe, 2012; and Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls (Olivier nomination, Best Actor in a Musical, 2015; UK Theatre Award win, Best Performance in a Musical, 2015). For his performance as Richard Rodgers in Rodgers & Hart & Hammerstein, recorded remotely from his home studio for BBC Radio 3, he has been shortlisted for a BBC Audio Award for Best Actor. He has made numerous other appearances in BBC audio dramas and as a BBC reader for Book at Bedtime and Book of the Week. He has sung at the Albert Hall in two BBC Proms: Prom 30: The John Wilson Orchestra Performs Frank Sinatra (2015), 2015 singing original Nelson Riddle arrangements with Seth MacFarlane; and 'The Golden Age of Broadway', 2021. Born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, Jamie Parker is an actor and singer, known for Becoming Elizabeth (2022) (2022), 1917 (2019) and Des (2020) (2020). He has been married to Deborah Crowe since 2007. They have one child.- Actor
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David Argue was born on 26 December 1959 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for Gallipoli (1981), BMX Bandits (1983) and Road Kill (2010).- The former actor has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He was with an MP Company based in Irvine, California. Now, he is with a CID detachment in Los Angeles.
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Daughter of Eva, the Baroness Erisso, and Major Glynn Faithfull, a WWII British spy. Recorded the first song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "As Tears Go By" (1964). Involved in a major drug scandal with Jagger, Richards, and others, which ultimately turned public opinion favorably towards the 'Rolling Stones' and other rock groups. In the '70s she became addicted to heroin and was homeless in London's Soho district for a couple of years. Recorded numerous albums in the '80s while struggling with cocaine and alcohol. Has remained sober and productive since.- Actor
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Gary Michael Cole is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the TV series Midnight Caller, American Gothic, The West Wing, Crusade, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Veep, Chicago Fire, and Mixed. In film, he has appeared in The Brady Bunch Movie, One Hour Photo, Office Space, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Breach, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He is also known for voicing the title character on the Adult Swim series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Principal Shepherd on Family Guy, and James Timothy Possible on Kim Possible. As of season 19, Cole joined NCIS, taking over from Mark Harmon, who left the show, as FBI Special Agent, and new head of Gibbs' team, Alden Parker.- Nick graduated from NIDA in 1980. His theatre credits include Taming of the Shrew (Melbourne 1998, Sydney 1998/99) and A Midsummer Nights Dream for Elston Hocking and Woods Productions, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Waya, The Crucible, Summer of Aliens, Two Weeks with the Queen, Furious, and Third World Blues for the Sydney Theatre Company, Extremities for Playbox, The Sentimental Bloke and True West for Q Theatre, In Duty Bound for Marion Street Theatre, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and Gary's House and Gulls for the State Theatre Company SA. Most recently, Nick appeared in the Hot House Theatre Production of Big Hair in America, directed by Marion Potts. Nick was awarded an AFI and Logie Award for his performance in Vietnam, a Penguin Award for GP and was also nominated for an AFI for his performance in Fragments of War.
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Terry Serio was born in 1956 in Western Australia, Australia. He is an actor and director, known for Running on Empty (1982), Ocean Girl (1994) and Blue Heelers (1994).- Actress
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The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007), however, her androgynous looks and often bizarre appeal have been embraced by more mainstream crowds as well.
She was born Katherine Mathilda Swinton into a patrician Scottish military family on November 5, 1960, in London, England. Her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian, and her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, an army officer, was English-born. Her ancestry is Scottish, Northern Irish, and English, including a long tapestry of prominent Scottish ancestors. Educated at an English and a Scottish boarding school, Tilda subsequently studied Social and Political Science at Cambridge University and graduated in 1983 with a degree in English Literature.
During her tenure as a student, she performed countless stage productions and proceeded to work for a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company where she appeared in such productions as "Measure for Measure." The rebel insider her, however, was strong and she left the company after a year as her approach and interests began to shift dramatically. With a pungent taste for the unique and seldom tried, Tilda found some gender-bending stage roles come her way. She portrayed Mozart in Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri", and as a working class woman impersonating her dead husband during World War II, in Manfred Karge's "Man to Man," a role she later committed to film (Man to Man (1992)).
In 1985, the tall, slender performer with alabaster skin and carrot-topped hair began a professional association with gay experimental director Derek Jarman. She continued to live and work with the groundbreaking writer/director/cinematographer for the next nine years, involving herself in seven of his often notorious films. This quirky, highly fascinating alliance would produce such stark and radical turns as the Berlin International Film Festival winners Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), The Garden (1990) and Edward II (1991) (playing Isabella, in which she won "Best Actress" at the Venice Film Festival) and Wittgenstein (1993), as well as the films Soursweet (1988) (a movie with no spoken dialogue) and the Stockholm Film Festival Award winner Blue (1993).
Jarman succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1994. His untimely demise left a devastating void in Tilda's life for quite some time. Her most notable performance of her Jarman period, however, came from a non-Jarman film. For the vivid title role in Orlando (1992), her nobleman character lives for 400 years while changing sex from man to woman. The film, which Swinton spent years helping writer/director Sally Potter develop and finance, continues to this day to have a worldwide devoted fan following.
Over the years, Tilda has preferred art to celebrity, opening herself to experimental projects with new and untried directors and mediums, delving into the worlds of installation art and cutting-edge fashion. Consistently off-centered roles in Female Perversions (1996), Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), Teknolust (2002), Young Adam (2003), Broken Flowers (2005) and Béla Tarr's The Man from London (2007) have added to her mystique. Back in 1995, she delved into a performance art piece in the Serpentine Gallery, London, where she was put on display to the public for a week, asleep (or apparently so), in a glass case.
Following the birth of her twins in 1997, Tilda would leave lean for a time towards Hollywood mainstream filming. The thriller The Deep End (2001), earned her a number of critic's awards and her first Golden Globe nomination. Other visible U.S. pictures included The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio, fantasy epic Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves, her Oscar-decorated performance in Michael Clayton (2007) and, of course, her iconic White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Into the millennium, Tilda continued to amaze starring in the crime drama Julia (2008) and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). She learned Italian and Russian for Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love (2009), starred in the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (2013), and earned fine notice in Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem (2013). She also starred in the dark romantic fantasy drama Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) directed by Jim Jarmusch, had a small role in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), starred in Judd Apatow's comedy Trainwreck (2015), and played a rock star in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015).
Showing no signs of slowing up, Tilda continues to make creative, visual impressions in such films as the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar! (2016) where she reunited with Clooney and had a dual role playing twin journalists, and as the wise Asian teacher of Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the Marvel Comics action film Doctor Strange (2016), while repeating the part of The Ancient One in Avengers: Endgame (2019). She gave another eccentric, unhinged performance in the action adventure message movie Okja (2017), played Betsy Trotwood in a contemporary telling of The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) and teamed up again with writer/director Jim Jarmusch in the thoroughly offbeat fantasy horror comedy The Dead Don't Die (2019).- Actress
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Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She got her big break at acting in 1978 when she won the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). After that, she became famous for roles in movies like Trading Places (1983), Perfect (1985) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988). She starred in one of the biggest action films ever, True Lies (1994), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Curtis also appeared on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and starred in Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) as the title role. Her first starring role was opposite Richard Lewis on the ABC situation comedy Anything But Love (1989). In 1998, she starred in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) in which she reprised her role that made her famous back in 1978.
Jamie Lee served as an honorary chairperson for the Building Resilience for Young Children Dealing with Trauma program held at the Shakespeare Theatre - Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. She was an inspiration for the youth that were celebrated. Curtis was also given an award from US Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman for her work on behalf of children through her charities and children's books.- Shirley Henderson was the eldest of three sisters born into a working-class family in the village of Kincardine in Fife, Scotland. As a teenager she sang locally and performed in school drama clubs. Her first break came when she watched a singer on the Opportunity Knocks (1956) TV talent program and decided she could do as well. She entered and won a talent competition at Butlins Holiday Camp and from there graduated to local music club gigs. She was later accepted by London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She performed on stage in England's National Theatre company, which led to a role on the British TV drama Hamish Macbeth (1995) with future Trainspotting (1996) co-star Robert Carlyle.
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Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Having graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, and a BA, with a painting major, at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, she began filmmaking in the early 1980s, attending the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Her first short film, Peel (1982) won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986. Her other short films include A Girl's Own Story (1984), Passionless Moments (1983), After Hours (1985) and the tele-feature 2 Friends (1986), all of which won Australian and international awards. She co-wrote and directed her first feature film, Sweetie (1989), which won the Georges Sadoul prize in 1989 for Best Foreign Film, as well as the LA Film Critics' New Generation Award in 1990, the American Independant Spirit Award for Best Foreign Feature, and the Australian Critics' Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. She followed this with An Angel at My Table (1990), a dramatization based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame which won some seven prizes, including the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1990. It was also awarded prizes at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals, again winning the American Independent Spirit Award, and was voted the most popular film at the 1990 Sydney Film Festival. The Piano (1993) won the Palme D'Or at Cannes, making her the first woman ever to win the prestigious award. She also captured an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 1993 Oscars, while also being nominated for Best Director.- Director
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Michael took an English degree at Oxford then trained in film at Bristol and London breaking into television via the cutting room at Thames Television. He made his directorial debut with two documentaries on Ingmar Bergman His production of Love Lies Bleeding won the Silver Award at the 1993 New York Television Festival and the 4 part serial 'Family' has collected numerous awards at film and television festivals around the world. He also directed the opening story in the first series of the multi award winning Cracker- Director
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Lindsay was born in Bangalore, India but educated in England at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford where he was a classical scholar. He then spent 3 years war time service in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. His career in the theatre started at the Royal Court in the late 1950's where he was responsible for the premiere productions of The Long and the Short and the Tall, Sergeant Musgrave's Dance, Billy Liar and The Bed Before Yesterday. His collaboration with David Storey began with the film This Sporting Life followed by the plays In Celebration, Home, The Changing Room, Early Days and his last, in 1992, Stages He also contributed to the Times, Observer and New Statesman newspapers.- Writer
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Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), and the black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions, although both Snowpiercer and Okja (2017) are mostly in the English language. Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival-Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019; the latter earned the Palme d'Or, which was a first for a South Korean film. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations, with Bong winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making Parasite the first film not in English to win Best Picture. In 2017, Bong was included on Metacritic's list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. In 2020, Bong was included in Time's annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50.- Actor
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Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. After minor roles in cinema, at last, he got his chance in Bertrand Blier's Going Places (1974). That film established a new type of hero in the French cinema and the actor's popularity grew enormously. Later, he diversified his screen image and became the leading French actor of the 80s and 90s. He was twice awarded a César as Best Actor for The Last Metro (1980) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), also received an Oscar nomination for "Cyrano" and a number of awards at international film festivals. In 1996, he was distinguished by the highest French title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur". He married Elisabeth Depardieu in 1971, and they divorced in 1996; she appeared with him in Jean de Florette (1986) and Manon of the Spring (1986); their children Guillaume Depardieu and Julie Depardieu are both actors.- Actress
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Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of "The Country Girl". Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) (directed by Logan) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by two Academy Awards for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978), and five Oscar nominations for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981), which was the only film she made with her father. Her professional success contrasted with her personal life, which was often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risqué movies (including Barbarella (1968)) by then-husband Roger Vadim was followed by what was to become her most debated and controversial period: her espousal of anti-establishment causes and especially her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the "Jane Fonda's Workout Book". She and Hayden divorced, and she married broadcasting mogul Ted Turner in 1991.- Actress
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Joan Collins is an English actress from Paddington, London. She is most famous for playing the role of vengeful schemer Alexis Carrington Colby in the soap opera "Dynasty" (1981-1989). In 1997, She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama. In 2015, She was promoted to the rank of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to charity.
She was the daughter of talent agent Joseph William Collins (1902-1988) and his wife, dance teacher Elsa Bessant, (1906-1962). Joseph was born in South Africa, and of Jewish descent. As a talent agent, his most famous clients were Shirley Bassey, the Beatles, and Tom Jones. Elsa was born in the United Kingdom to an Anglican family.
Collins was educated at Francis Holland School in London, an independent day school for girls. She made her theatrical debut c. 1942, as a child actress. She had a role in a performance of the play "A Doll's House" (1879) by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). In 1949, She started training as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. In 1950, she signed a contract with a British film studio, the Rank Organisation of businessman Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (1888-1972).
Collins made her film debut in the short film "Facts and Fancies" (1951), and her feature film debut in "Lady Godiva Rides Again" (1951), where she played an unnamed Beauty Queen Contestant. She had supporting roles as the Greek maid Marina in "The Woman's Angle" (1952) and gangster's moll Lil Carter in "Judgment Deferred" (1952).
Collins had her big break when cast as juvenile delinquent Norma Hart in prison drama "I Believe in You" (1952). She was hailed as Britain's new "bad girl" and started being offered high-profile roles in British films. The next stage in her career started when cast as Princess Nellifer of Egypt in the historical epic "Land of the Pharaohs" (1955), an international production . While the film was not successful at the box office, it became a cult classic and Nellifer was one of her most recognizable roles. Studio executive Darryl Francis Zanuck (1902-1979) was sufficiently impressed to offer her a 7-year-long contract with American studio 20th Century Fox. She took the offer.
Collins' first American film was the historical drama "The Virgin Queen" (1955), where she shared the top-billing with established stars Bette Davis and Richard Todd. She then played the leading role of actress Evelyn Nesbit (1884/1885-1967) in the biographical film "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing" (1955). The role was intended for established actress Marilyn Monroe, but she replaced Monroe based on a studio decision.
Collins was placed on loan to studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for her next role, that of gold digger Crystal in "The Opposite Sex" (1956). She received the top billing in the refugee-themed film "Sea Wife" (1956), and enjoyed box-office success with the interracial-love themed drama "Island in the Sun" (1957). In the drama film "The Wayward Bus" (1957), she received top-billing over her co-star Jayne Mansfield. Her next films included the spy thriller "Stopover Tokyo" (1957), the Western "The Bravados" (1958), the comedy "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" (1959), the caper film "Seven Thieves" (1960), and the biblical epic Esther and the King (1960).
By 1960, Collins was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest stars, but she demanded a release from her studio contract. She had campaigned for the title role in the upcoming production of "Cleopatra", but the studio chose to cast Elizabeth Taylor in the role. Collins felt slighted. As a freelance actress for most of the 1960s, she had few film roles. Among her most notable roles was playing the leading lady in "The Road to Hong Kong" (1962), the last film in the long-running "Road to ..." series. The male leads for the entire series were Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, but their usual leading lady Dorothy Lamour was considered too old for the role. Collins replaced Lamour.
Collins started appearing frequently on television guest star roles. Among her most notable television roles was the villainous Siren in "Batman", and pacifist spokeswoman Edith Keeler in "Star Trek: The Original Series". "Road to ..." played in only one episode of Star Trek, the time-travel episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1967). However the episode is regarded among the best episodes in the entire Star Trek franchise, with Collins considered one of the most memorable guest stars in the original series.
In 1970, Collins returned to her native United Kingdom. She started appearing frequently in British thriller and horror films of the decade. Among her films was revenge-themed drama "Revenge" (1971),science fiction film "Quest for Love" (1972), horror anthology "Tales from the Crypt" (1972), psychological horror "Fear in the Night" (1972), thriller "Dark Places", horror anthology "Tales That Witness Madness" (1973), and horror film "I Don't Want to Be Born" (1975).
Collins appeared in a few comedies in-between horror films, but none was particularly successful. She returned to the United States in order to play a role in the giant monster film "Empire of the Ants" (1977). She then returned to mostly appearing in thriller roles. She was catapulted back to stardom with the lead role of nymphomaniac Fontaine Khaled in the erotic drama "The Stud" (1978), an adaptation of a novel written by her younger sister Jackie Collins. The film was a surprise box office hit, earning 20 million dollars at the worldwide box office. "Road to ..." returned to the role of Fontaine in the sequel film ''The Bitch'' (1979), which was also a hit.
Collins found herself in high demand in both stage and film. But she gained more notoriety with the television role of Alexis Carington in "Dynasty". She started appearing in the role in the second season of the soap opera. Her performance is credited with the subsequent rise of the show's Nielsen's ratings. She became a household name, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983.
By 1985, "Dynasty" was the number-one show in the United States, beating out rival soap opera "Dallas". Collins was nominated six times for a Golden Globe Award for her role, winning once in 1983. She was also once nominated for an Emmy as Best Actress in a Drama Series. Collins was viewed as a sex symbol at the time, and in 1983 appeared in a 12-page photo layout for Playboy magazine. She was 50-years-old, unusually old for a Playboy model.
Collins appeared in a total of 195 episodes of "Dynasty". The series was canceled with the last episode of its 9th season, due to falling ratings. New ABC entertainment president Bob Iger (1951-) is credited with ending the series as soon as possible. The show had a cliffhanger ending, and several of its subplots were not resolved. Collins returned to the role of Alexis in the sequel mini-series "Dynasty: The Reunion" (1991). The miniseries only lasted for 2 episodes, but resolved several subplots and was a ratings hit.
Throughout the 1990s., Collins returned to guest star roles in television. She appeared in (among others) "Roseanne", "Egoli: Place of Gold", and "The Nanny", She had the recurring role of Christina Hobson in the short-lived soap opera "Pacific Palisades" (1997). She appeared in 7 of its 13 episodes. Her next notable soap opera role was that of so-called "rich bitch" Alexandra Spaulding in 2002 episodes of the long-running series "Guiding Light". Collins was the third actress to play this role. following Beverlee McKinsey and Marj Dusay.
In film, Collins played Pearl Slaghoople, Wilma Flintstone's mother, in "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" (2000). It was the second live-action film based on the popular animated series "The Flintstones". In 2006, she toured the United Kingdom with "An Evening with Joan Collins", an one-woman show where she narrated the highs and lows of her career and life. She later toured the word with both this show and its sequel "Joan Collins Unscripted".
Collins had a notable guest star-role as Ruth Van Rydock in the television film "Agatha Christie's Marple: They Do It with Mirrors" (2009). The film was an adaptation of the 1952 novel by Agatha Christie, where Ruth is an old school friend of Jane Marple, who assigned Jane to investigate a home for juvenile delinquents.
Collins played herself in three episodes of the sitcom "Happily Divorced" (2011-2013). She had the recurring role of Crystal Hennessy-Vass in the sitcom "Benidorm" (2007-2018). She had another recurring role as Alexandra, Grand Duchess of Oxford in the soap opera "The Royals" (2015-2018).
Collins had two different roles in the horror anthology series "American Horror Story". She played wealthy grandmother Evie Gallant, and witch Bubbles McGee. She appeared in a total of four episodes in 2018.
By 2024, Collins was 90-years-old. She has never retired from acting, and she continues to appear in new roles.- Actor
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Anthony Rapp started his career at the young age of six, and received his first professional job at the age of nine. His breakout came when he originated the role of Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson's production of the Broadway musical "Rent". He can also be heard on the original cast recording.- Actor
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Richard Moir was born in 1950 in Queensland, Australia. He is an actor and editor, known for Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), In Search of Anna (1978) and The Challenge (1986). He is married to Julie Nihill. They have two children.- Actress
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Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage and television, in concert, and on recordings. She is one of the most critically-acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven Tony Awards, winning two, and eight Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards. Recently, she has been starring on Broadway as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the hit musical, Hello, Dolly!
Bernadette was born Bernadette Lazzara on February 28, 1948 in Queens, New York City, to Marguerite (Maltese) and Peter Lazzara, a bread delivery truck driver. She is of Sicilian descent.
Bernadette first performed on the stage as a child and then a teenage actor in the 1960s, and in film and television in the 1970s. She was praised for this early work and for appearances on The Muppet Show (1976), The Carol Burnett Show (1991) and in other television work, and for her roles in films like Silent Movie (1976), The Jerk (1979), Pennies from Heaven (1981) and Annie (1982). In the 1980s, she returned to the theatre, where she became one of the best-known Broadway stars over the next three decades. She also has recorded six solo albums and several singles, as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act. Peters is particularly noted for her starring roles in stage musicals, including "Song and Dance", "Sunday in the Park with George", "Into the Woods", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Gypsy", becoming closely associated with composer Stephen Sondheim.
Peters continues to act in films and on television, where she has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, winning once. Her career boasts an impressive list of television credits, which includes Amazon Prime's highly popular, Mozart in the Jungle, which won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy or Musical series. She also co-stars in the new CBS All Access series, The Good Fight, a spin-off of the network's popular series, The Good Wife. One of Broadway's most critically acclaimed performers, Peters has won numerous accolades including being the recipient of three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, three Grammy nominations, three Emmy nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Peters' albums include the Grammy nominated I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall, and Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein, in addition to numerous Grammy Award winning Broadway Cast recordings. Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Her "pet project" Broadway Barks, co-founded with Mary Tyler Moore, is an annual, star-studded dog and cat adoption event that benefits shelter animals throughout the New York City area. She is a New York Times bestselling author who has penned three children's books, Broadway Barks, Stella Is a Star and Stella and Charlie: Friends Forever. All of her proceeds from the sale of these books benefit Broadway Barks.
She had a four-year romantic relationship with comedian Steve Martin and was married to investment adviser Michael Wittenberg for over nine years until he was killed in a helicopter crash on September 26, 2005. Peters is known for her charitable work, including as a founder of the Broadway Barks animal charity. Peters resides in New York with her rescue dogs, Charlie and Rosalia.- Producer
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Ronan Farrow was born on 19 December 1987 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), The Wind Rises (2013) and Endangered (2022).- Actor
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One of France's most popular actors, writers, and producers, Thierry Lhermitte has been appearing in films since the 1970s. Perhaps best known for work in farcical comedies, the tall, handsome actor has appeared in some of France's more outrageous films over the course of his prolific career.
Lhermitte was born on November 24, 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Rossanne (Bouchara) and André Lhermitte. His mother was from a Sephardi-Ashkenazi Jewish family, and his father was of French background. He began his career as one of the founding members of the comedy troupe Le Splendid. Among the troupe's other founders were Patrice Leconte, Josiane Balasko, and Michel Blanc, all of whom Lhermitte would collaborate with on future films. After his film debut in Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1974) and a supporting role in Bertrand Tavernier's Que La Fête Commence... (1975), Lhermitte had his first screen collaboration with his Le Splendid colleagues, co-writing and acting in Leconte's Les Bronzés (1978). A farcical satire about a group of French tourists vacationing in Africa, the film proved to be phenomenally popular in France, inspiring a sequel the next year and a dedicated cult following.
Lhermitte subsequently made his mark starring in a number of comedies, including Les Hommes Preferent les Grosses (1981) with Balasko, Jean-Loup Hubert's L'Année Prochaine...Si Tout Va Bien (1981) with Isabelle Adjani, and Blier's La Femme De Mon Pote (1983). He maintained a prolific work schedule throughout the '80s and '90s, continuing to play the romantic lead in comedies of every possible variety for a diverse array of directors.
Lhermitte also continued to collaborate with his Le Splendid colleagues, starring in Leconte's 1993 Tango as a man intent on murdering his wife after she leaves him, and alongside Balasko in Grosse Fatigue, a comedy that featured Michel Blanc both directing and acting in a double role. In 1998, Lhermitte had one of his greatest successes to date as one of the stars of Francis Veber's Le Dîner de Cons. A witty comedy of manners, it featured the actor in top form as an arrogant publisher put in his place by the seemingly moronic man (Jacques Villeret) he has invited to his weekly dinner of idiots. One of the most popular films to be released in France in years, it was a phenomenal hit with critics and audiences alike.
In addition to acting, Lhermitte has continued to work as a screenwriter and producer. In 1994, he wrote, produced, and starred in the children's comedy Un Indien dans la Ville; three years later he served as the associate producer for its American remake, Jungle 2 Jungle. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Children: Victor Lhermitte, Louise Lhermitte, Astree Lhermitte-Soka
Father: Andre Lhermitte- Actress
- Producer
French/US actress, Roxane Mesquida grew up in Le Pradet, a little town in the South of France. At the age of 11, while walking with her mother, writer Francoise Mesquida, she was spotted by director Manuel Pradal who cast her in Mary from the Bay of Angels (Marie Baie de Anges). In 1998, she played opposite Isabelle Huppert in Benoit Jacquot's The School of Flesh (L'ecole de la Chair) which was presented at that year's Cannes Film Festival. A few years later, she crossed paths with the renowned and provocative director Catherine Breillat. Not only did the director bring Roxane to international attention, she taught the actress her craft. In 2001, their first film Fat Girl (A ma soeur!) was presented at festivals around the world including Berlin and Toronto. The following year, the director and her actress collaborated on Sex is a Comedy which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, 2002. They worked together again on The Last Mistress (Une vieille maitresse) with Asia Argento. The film was presented in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. In 2006, after making Sheitan with Vincent Cassel directed by Kim Chapiron, Mesquida moved to the United States. She spent several months in New York attending The Barrow Group, a prestigious non-profit Off-Broadway Theatre Company and acting School before settling in Los Angeles. In 2010, two of her films were presented at Cannes: Kaboom by independent filmmaker Gregg Araki and Rubber by Quentin Dupieux a.k.a Mr. Oizo (a corruption of the French word for "bird"). She also starred three music videos: Buck 65's "Paper Airplane", Grudd Rhys's "Shark Ridden Waters" and Marilyn Manson's "No Reflection" in 2012. 2011 was a very busy year for Mesquida who played Beatrice, the sister of Louis Grimaldi in TV series Gossip Girl and appeared in the features The Most Fun You Can Have Dying by Kirstin Marcon, Kiss of the Damned by Alexandra Cassavetes (daughter of John Cassavetes) and Homesick by young independent filmmaker Frederic Da. She also appeared in the art video for Opening Ceremony.
When she was 14, Mesquida was spotted by Elite Model Management and she has been working as a model ever since. She is signed by worldwide modeling agency IMG Modelssince 2008.- Actress
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Marcia Hines was born on 20 July 1953 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress and composer, known for Frauds (1993), All the Way (2003) and The True Blue Show (1973).- Actor
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Born in Melbourne in 1934 Graham Kennedy remains an icon in Australian TV, an accolade earned from his hosting of the long-running In Melbourne Tonight (1957) or IMT on Channel Nine. With his sidekick Bert Newton and aided and abetted by a range of brillant comedians including Joff Allen and a young Patti McGrath, now Bert Newton's wife, Kennedy pioneered live sketch comedy in Australia and kept IMT alive into the 1970s with his irreverent and often close to the mark humour and his famous anti-ads, genuine "live-read" commercials that Kennedy would turn into attacks on the sponsors or the product or both.
After IMT was cancelled he started making movies and then returned to TV with Blankety Blanks (1977), a truly funny game show where the cast was the star and the contestants mere bystanders.
As Kennedy aged he appeared less and less on the screen and his last major appearance was as a late night newsreader on the Nine Network.
In recent years his health had been uncertain following a stroke, and he passed away on 25 May 2005, resulting in complications from pneumonia. He was 71.- Noel Ferrier was born on 20 December 1930 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was an actor and producer, known for The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Eliza Fraser (1976) and Turkey Shoot (1982). He was married to Suzanne de Berenger. He died on 16 October 1997 in Sydney, Australia.
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Zhangke Jia was born on 24 May 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Ash Is Purest White (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since 7 January 2012.- Actress
- Producer
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Tao Zhao was born on 28 January 1977 in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. She is an actress and producer, known for Ash Is Purest White (2018), Mountains May Depart (2015) and Shun Li and the Poet (2011). She has been married to Zhangke Jia since 7 January 2012.- Director
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João Pedro Rodrigues was born in 1966 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a director and writer, known for Will-o'-the-Wisp (2022), Morrer Como Um Homem (2009) and The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012).- Actor
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Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene.
Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.- Actor
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Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent. Young Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five. By age 10, he had appeared in his first film, Murder in the Family (1938), playing Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns.
His mother brought Roddy and his sister to the U.S. at the beginning of World War II, and he soon got the part of "Huw", the youngest child in a family of Welsh coal miners, in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), acting alongside Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp in the film that won that year's best film Oscar. He went on to many other child roles, in films like My Friend Flicka (1943) and Lassie Come Home (1943) until, at age eighteen, he moved to New York, where he played a long series of successful stage roles, both on Broadway and in such venues as Connecticut's Stratford Festival, where he did Shakespeare. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1949.
In addition to making many more movies (over 150), McDowall acted in television, developed an extensive collection of movies and Hollywood memorabilia, and published five acclaimed books of his own photography. He died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70, of cancer. He never married and had no children.- Actress
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Amma Asante is a British BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, known for Belle (2013), and A Way of Life (2004). She is a former child actress, who began her writing career at the age of 23 with a script deals from both Channel 4 in the UK and BBC. Her first movie, A Way of Life, which she wrote and directed won her numerous awards, both in the UK and internationally, including FIPRESCI prizes and the Carl Foreman BAFTA Film Award. In 2017 Amma was awarded an MBE on the Queen's New Year's Honours List, for her services to film as a writer and director.- Actress
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Jennifer Kent was born on 5 March 1969 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is an actress and director, known for The Nightingale (2018), The Babadook (2014) and Monster (2005).- Producer
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George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max films, Miller has been involved in a wide range of projects. These include the Academy Award-winning Babe (1995) and Happy Feet (2006) film series.
Miller is co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. His younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have been producers on almost all the films in Miller's later career, since the death of his original producing partner Byron Kennedy.
In 2006, Miller won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet (2006). He has been nominated for five other Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay in 1992 for Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1995 for Babe (1995), and Best Picture and Best Director for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actress
Nina Simone was born on 21 February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA. She was a music artist and actress, known for Point of No Return (1993), Repo Men (2010) and Miami Vice (2006). She was married to Andrew Stroud and Donald Ross. She died on 21 April 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.- Actress
- Music Department
- Composer
k.d. lang was born on 2 November 1961 in Consort, Alberta, Canada. She is an actress and composer, known for Twister (1996), Salmonberries (1991) and Dick Tracy (1990).- Music Department
- Actress
- Producer
Dionne Warwick was born on 12 December 1940 in East Orange, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Alive (1993), The Happytime Murders (2018) and Bird Box (2018). She was previously married to William Elliott.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mariza was born on 16 December 1973 in Mozambique. She is an actress, known for Orphan Black (2013), Mulheres (2014) and Alguém Como Eu (2017). She was previously married to João Pedro Ruela.- Actor
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Max Gillies was born on 16 November 1941 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor and producer, known for Blue Heelers (1994), The True Story of Eskimo Nell (1975) and Stork (1971).- Music Department
- Actress
- Composer
Shirley Bassey was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales, and raised in the nearby working class neighborhood of Splott. Her mother was originally from Yorkshire, and her father was a Nigerian seaman who left the family when she was less than two. She later helped to support her family by working in an Enamelware factory. She made her professional debut at 16 appearing in a touring revue "Memories of Al Jolson". Her first major hit was "The Banana Boat Song," and she later sang "Goldfinger" in the James Bond movie Goldfinger (1964). Her younger daughter died of drowning in 1985. She currently lives in Monte Carlo.- Actor
- Producer
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Jonah Hill was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of Sharon Feldstein (née Chalkin), a fashion designer and costume stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses. He is the brother of music manager Jordan Feldstein and actress Beanie Feldstein. He graduated from Crossroads School in Santa Monica and went on to The New School in New York to study drama.
He began writing and performing in plays while at college in New York, and managed to get himself introduced to Dustin Hoffman, through whom he got an audition for his first film role in I Heart Huckabees (2004). A succession of increasingly high-profile film and TV parts followed until he eventually landed one of the starring roles in the teen hit, Superbad (2007). Continuing to write and act, more roles followed as well as popular appearances on US TV talk shows.- Actress
- Producer
Debicki was born in Paris to a Polish father and an Australian mother of Irish descent who were both dancers. When she was five, the family moved to Melbourne, where she grew up with two younger siblings. She became interested in ballet at an early age and trained as a dancer until deciding to switch to theatre. A student at Huntingtower School in Melbourne's east, Debicki achieved two perfect study scores in drama and English and was the school's dux when she graduated in 2007. In 2010, she completed a degree in drama at the University of Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts. In August 2009, she was the recipient of a Richard Pratt Bursary for outstanding acting students in their second year of training.- Writer
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Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021. Red Rocket was acquired by A24 for theatrical and home entertainment release.
Baker is also the co-creator of the long-running comedy show Greg the Bunny (2005) which had incarnations on IFC TV, FOX and MTV Warren the Ape (2010).- Actor
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Paul Bartel was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He decided he wanted to direct animated movies when he was 11 and by 13 had spent a summer working at New York's UPA animation studio. He majored in theater arts at UCLA, and received a Fulbright scholarship to study film direction in Rome, producing a short that was presented at the 1962 Venice Fiom Festival. He later was hired by Roger Corman's brother, Gene, to direct a low-budget horror featured called Private Parts (1972). Roger Corman hired him as a second unit director on Big Bad Mama (1974), which led to his directing Death Race 2000 (1975). He could not persuade Corman to finance his pet project, Eating Raoul (1982). The $500,000 black comedy was made after his parents sold their New Jersey home and gave him the money. Shot in 22 days, mostly weekends, over the course of a year, Eating Raoul (1982) starred Bartel and Mary Woronov as gourmet cannibals who lure sex swingers to their apartment, smack them with a skillet, rob them and use the proceeds to buy a restaurant.- Jeanne made her television debut on Network Ten's The Mike Walsh Show (1969) in September 1974. Invited on as a guest, she quickly became a regular, moving with the "Walsh Show" to Channel Nine, where as part of the team, she wowed and won audiences for the next 15 years. She was a guest on The Ray Martin Show (2001) and her appearance on the BBC's Michael Parkinson's Greatest Entertainers (2007) so startled London critics she had the London Evening News saying: "What a woman! With her in the house, you wouldn't want a TV". Among the overseas guests she has appeared with are Phyllis Diller, George Burns and Danny La Rue. In 1976, Jeanne won the Gold Logie for most popular television personality and has won two other Logies for her work on The Mike Walsh Show (1969). She performed at the Royal Command Bicentennial Concert before the Prince and Princess of Wales. Her stage career took off with Jerry's Girls where American director John W. Frost teamed Jeanne with Marcia Hines, Debra Byrne and Judi Connelli. Then came "Legends" with Kerrie Biddell, Toni Lamond and Nancye Hayes at the Sydney Opera House. "Marlene", Jeanne's one woman tribute to Marlene Dietrich, toured Australia and the US to critical acclaim, followed by "More of a Little", currently on tour which is filled with song, chat and hilarity from the inimitable Jeanne. Jeanne is married to interior decorator, Barrie Little. Their daughter, Katie, is 24 and runs her own graphic arts studio.
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Bertrand Tavernier was the son of Geneviève (Dumond) and René Tavernier, who was a publicist, writer, and president of the French PEN club. He was a law student that preferred write film criticisms. He also wrote a few books about American movies. Then his first film won a few awards in France and abroad and established his reputation.- Director
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Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His idiosyncratic oeuvre continues to enthrall audiences worldwide.- Colleen Clifford was born on 17 November 1898 in Taunton, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Year My Voice Broke (1987), Number 96 (1972) and Careful, He Might Hear You (1983). She was married to Douglas 'Jerry' Blackford. She died on 7 April 1996 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian TV actress whose career has encompassed roles across film, TV and an extensive time in theatre. Maggie's most known TV role is as Prison Guard Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson on legendary Aussie TV Drama Prisoner (1979). Other roles include a stint on Aussie Soap Home and Away (1988) as Viv 'The Guv' Standish, the movie Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), The Pirate Movie (1982), Voyage Into Fear (1993) and many more roles.
Maggie has also enjoyed a long extensive career in Australian theatre and even after Prisoner ended she joined the cast in a British tour in 1996 and 1997. Maggie has also had a role in Wicked as Madame Morrible.
In 2015 Maggie spent the year fighting a year long legal battle to prove her innocence after being charged with a historic offense. In the end Maggie was found innocent and slammed media coverage of the case, as media would show clips from Prisoner, calling it 'bad journalism' and saying that the media couldn't separate fiction from reality and revealed in 2017 that she was diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the legal battle.
Maggie in 2017 returned to the TV screen after a 9 year hiatus in the Australian Comedy mini-series The Letdown (2017), Australian Drama series Sando (2018) and as the voice of Doris in The Bureau of Magical Things (2018). - Director
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Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hair-dresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, working as a bank manager, house painter, and photographic archivist before becoming a film-maker. Maddin produced his first film in 1985, and since then his distinctive style of recreating and renovating silent film conventions and international critical acclaim have made him one of Canada's most celebrated directors. In 2003, Maddin also expanded his career to become an author and an installation artist.- Actor
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His father was a well-to-do builder. Barry was a highly intelligent boy who attended Melbourne University. There, he began acting in revues and doing impersonations. He moved to London in 1959 and began his professional performing career on the West End and Broadway stages as Mr Sowerby in Oliver!, and in Peter Cook's Establishment nightclub. He has created numerous characters including Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.- Actress
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Amanda is currently one of Australia's most successful and highly sought after actresses in theatre, with appearances in Private Lives, Shirley Valentine, HMS Pinafore, Soulmates, Steaming, The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, Book Club, Rough Gallop and Master Class (in which she played opera diva Maria Callas) to name but a few. Born in London, Amanda emigrated to Australia in 1974.- Actress
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Judi Connelli was born on 20 July 1947 in Brisbane, Australia. She is an actress, known for Lost in the Wild (1976), A Country Practice (1981) and Prisoner (1979).- Actor
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Julian Clary was born on 25 May 1959 in Surbiton, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Carry on Columbus (1992), Dick Whittington (2002) and Aladdin (2000). He has been married to Ian Mackley since 19 November 2016.- Actress
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Mia is an Australian actress, born and raised in the country's capital, Canberra. She is the daughter of photographers Marzena Wasikowska and John Reid. Her mother is Polish and her father is an Australian of British ancestry. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. At age eight, her family moved to Poland for a year.
At age nine, Mia took ballet classes with dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. However, an injury prevented this from happening and she quit at age fourteen. Mia turned to acting, having been excited by European and Australian cinema. She was attending Canberra High School, but left to pursue her career as an actor.
She had just turned 15 when she landed the role of Lilya in Suburban Mayhem (2006). Her breakthrough role came when she was cast as Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010).- Director
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Kleber Mendonça Filho is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer, and critic. With a degree in journalism from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Kleber Mendonça Filho began his career as a film critic and journalist. He wrote for newspapers such as Jornal do Commercio and Folha DE S. Paulo, for magazines such as Continente and Cinética, and for his own site, CinemaScópio.- Actress
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- Actress
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Multi talented Leah Purcell is a Theatre, Film and Television Actress, Singer, Director, Playwright and Author. She is the youngest of seven children of Aboriginal Australian descent. Her father was a butcher and a boxing trainer. After a difficult adolescence, looking after her sick mother who died while Leah was in her late teens, problems with alcohol and teenage motherhood, Purcell left Murgon mission and moved to Brisbane and became involved with community theatre. In 1996 she moved to Sydney to become presenter on a music video cable television station, RED Music Channel. This was followed by roles in the ABC television series Police Rescue and Fallen Angels and the excellent Australian Drama starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, Jindabyne. She co-wrote and starred in a play called Box the Pony, which played at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, the Queensland Performing Arts Complex (QPAC), the 1999 Edinburgh Festival and in 2000 at the Barbican Theatre in London. She then wrote and directed the documentary Black Chicks Talking, which won a 2002 Inside Film (IF) award. She appeared in the acclaimed Australian film Lantana and on stage in The Vagina Monologues. She went on to appear in three 2004 films including Somersault (starring Abbie Cornish) and The Proposition as well as playing the role of Condoleeza Rice in David Hare's play, Stuff Happens in Sydney and Melbourne.- Writer
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Sebastián Silva was born on 9 April 1979 in Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile. He is a writer and director, known for Tyrel (2018), The Maid (2009) and Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013).- Catalina Saavedra was born on 9 January 1968 in Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile. She is an actress, known for The Maid (2009), Rotting in the Sun (2023) and Amor a domicilio (1995).
- Actress
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Helen Morse was born on 24 January 1947 in Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, England, UK. She is an actress and costume designer, known for Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) and A Town Like Alice (1981).