My favorite horror movie actors
A list of my favorite actors who're often seen in horror movies or B-movies. Number one is Billy Drago, the rest is in random order.
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- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Drago was well known for his villainous parts (leading or supporting), and his rugged yet scary looks and evil smile. He was born William Eugene Burrows in Hugoton, Kansas. He became interested in acting and took his mother's maiden name "Drago" as a stage name. At first he worked as a stuntman in Kansas, then attended the University of Kansas. After graduating he worked as a radio host before joining an acting crew that led him to New York. He began his acting career at the end of 1970s.
After appearing in multiple TV series as a guest actor, he appeared in such low-budget films as: Windwalker (1980), Vamp (1986), Hunter's Blood (1986), Freeway (1988), Dark Before Dawn (1988), Gwang tin lung fo wooi (1989), True Blood (1989), Martial Law II: Undercover (1991), Lady Dragon 2 (1993) and Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow (1993). He also appeared in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Other well-known appearances were in: Mad Dog Time (1996), Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) (the remake), as the leader of mutant nomads. He did an extensive work on TV, most notably on Charmed (1998). He also produced an instructional acting video with his wife, Silvana Gallardo.- Actor
- Producer
Robert Z'Dar was born Robert James Zdarsky on June 3, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. He caught the acting bug while attending Proviso West High School in Hillside. He received a BFA from Arizona State University. Prior to acting Z'Dar was a singer/keyboardist/guitar player for the Chicago-based rock band Nova Express, which performed as an opening act for such groups as Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and The Electric Prunes. Other early jobs included a jingle writer for the Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson ad agencies, a Chicago police officer, and even a brief stint as a Chippendales dancer.
Big, brawny and imposing, with an enormous face, gigantic jaw, and a massive, muscular physique, the hulking 6'2" Z'Dar projected a strong, aggressive, and intimidating screen presence that was ideally suited for the steady succession of mean, nasty, and extremely scary larger-than-life villains he often portrayed throughout a career that spanned over three decades. Z'Dar acted in his film debut in the mid-1980's. He achieved his greatest and most enduring cult movie fame as the vengeful, relentless, and seemingly indestructible undead New York City police officer Matt Cordell in the immensely entertaining "Maniac Cop" pictures. Among Z'Dar's other memorable roles were a prison guard in the enjoyably sleazy "Hellhole," a crazed prostitute-murdering serial killer in "The Night Stalker" (this part directly led to Z'Dar being cast as Matt Cordell), a vicious criminal who savagely beats up Sylvestor Stallone in "Tango and Cash," the Angel of Death in "Soultaker," a smooth drug dealer in the delightfully outrageous "The Divine Enforcer," and Linnea Quigley's abusive husband in "The Rockville Slayer."
A popular frequent guest at horror film conventions, Z'Dar also produced several movies and continued to act with pleasing regularity in a slew of features up until his death from cardiac arrest at age 64 on March 30, 2015.- Actor
- Producer
- Transportation Department
Late 1970s horror genre icon who's best known for his creepy performance as "Pluto" in the uncompromising Wes Craven horror film The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Berryman (who suffers from Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia, a rare condition leaving him with no sweat glands, hair, fingernails or teeth) reminds one of a latter-day Rondo Hatton who also suffered from a rare medical condition that distorted his features giving him a brutish look just right for horror movies.
To Berryman's credit, he managed to develop upon his "Pluto" character, and has turned up in numerous sci-fi / fantasy movies such as My Science Project (1985), Weird Science (1985), Armed Response (1986) and Evil Spirits (1991). The tall & lean Berryman generally portrays mutant bikers, evil undertakers, monsters and other frightening characters! A genuine favorite of horror movie fans.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Danny Trejo was born Dan Trejo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, to Alice (Rivera) and Dan Trejo, a construction worker. A child drug addict and criminal, Trejo was in and out of jail for 11 years. While serving time in San Quentin, he won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles. Imprisoned for armed robbery and drug offenses, he successfully completed a 12-step rehabilitation program that changed his life. While speaking at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting in 1985, Trejo met a young man who later called him for support. Trejo went to meet him at what turned out to be the set of Runaway Train (1985). Trejo was immediately offered a role as a convict extra, probably because of his tough tattooed appearance. Also on the set was a screenwriter who did time with Trejo in San Quentin. Remembering Trejo's boxing skills, the screenwriter offered him $320 per day to train the actors for a boxing match. Director Andrey Konchalovskiy saw Trejo training Eric Roberts and immediately offered him a featured role as Roberts' opponent in the film. Trejo has subsequently appeared in many other films, usually as a tough criminal or villain.
Trejo is of Mexican descent.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including Medic (1954), Cheyenne (1955) and Sugarfoot (1957). His first film role was in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), quickly followed by Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September 1955.
Hopper portrayed a young Napoléon Bonaparte (!) in the star-spangled The Story of Mankind (1957) and regularly appeared on screen throughout the 1960s, often in rather undemanding parts, usually as a villain in westerns such as True Grit (1969) and Hang 'Em High (1968). However, in early 1969, Hopper, fellow actor Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern, wrote a counterculture road movie script and managed to scrape together $400,000 in financial backing. Hopper directed the low-budget film, titled Easy Rider (1969), starring Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson. The film was a phenomenal box-office success, appealing to the anti-establishment youth culture of the times. It changed the Hollywood landscape almost overnight and major studios all jumped onto the anti-establishment bandwagon, pumping out low-budget films about rebellious hippies, bikers, draft dodgers and pot smokers. However, Hopper's next directorial effort, The Last Movie (1971), was a critical and financial failure, and he has admitted that during the 1970s he was seriously abusing various substances, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He appeared in a sparse collection of European-produced films over the next eight years, before cropping up in a memorable performance as a pot-smoking photographer alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). He also received acclaim for his work in both acting and direction for Out of the Blue (1980).
With these two notable efforts, the beginning of the 1980s saw a renaissance of interest by Hollywood in the talents of Dennis Hopper and exorcising the demons of drugs and alcohol via a rehabilitation program meant a return to invigorating and provoking performances. He was superb in Rumble Fish (1983), co-starred in the tepid spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (1983), played a groovy school teacher in My Science Project (1985), was a despicable and deranged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986) and, most memorably, electrified audiences as foul-mouthed Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic David Lynch film Blue Velvet (1986). Interestingly, the offbeat Hopper was selected in the early 1980s to provide the voice of "The StoryTeller" in the animated series of "Rabbit Ears" children's films based upon the works of Hans Christian Andersen!
Hopper returned to film direction in the late 1980s and was at the helm of the controversial gang film Colors (1988), which was well received by both critics and audiences. He was back in front of the cameras for roles in Super Mario Bros. (1993), got on the wrong side of gangster Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993), led police officer Keanu Reeves and bus passenger Sandra Bullock on a deadly ride in Speed (1994) and challenged gill-man Kevin Costner for world supremacy in Waterworld (1995). The enigmatic Hopper continued to remain busy through the 1990s and into the new century with performances in All the Way (2003), The Keeper (2004) and Land of the Dead (2005).
As well as his acting/directing talents, Hopper was a skilled photographer and painter, having had his works displayed in galleries in both the United States and overseas. He was additionally a dedicated and knowledgeable collector of modern art and had one of the most extensive collections in the United States. Dennis died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Jeffrey Combs was born on September 9th, 1954 in Oxnard, California. He grew up in Lompoc, California with a plethora of siblings both older and younger. He attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, and the Professional Actor's Training Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. He spent about four years in regional theater performing at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, the Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson, the California Shakespearean Festival, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa among others. In 1980 he moved to Los Angeles, where he lives with his family. As a horror film leading actor, Combs is probably best known for portraying Herbert West in the cult horror film Re-Animator (1985). Re-Animator was based on H.P. Lovecraft's famous novel brought together by Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna, the producer and financier of the film. Combs stayed in the realm of cult films with both Gordon and Yuzna to return when making From Beyond (1986), and Bride of Re-Animator (1990) also from Lovecraft novels. He has also been in some supporting roles in _Pit and the Pendulum, The (1990) (V)_, the strange FBI Agent with Michael J. Fox in The Frighteners (1996), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) and the remake of the William Castle thriller, House on Haunted Hill (1999).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Madsen is an enigmatic force in the entertainment industry, widely regarded as one of the most intense and compelling actors of our time. With an electrifying presence both on and off the screen, Madsen has captivated audiences worldwide with his mesmerizing performances, making an indelible mark on the realm of cinema. Known for his rugged charm and brooding charisma, Madsen has perfected the art of bringing complex characters to life, seamlessly transitioning between nuanced vulnerability and unbridled intensity. Michael Madsen continues to command attention and leave an indelible impact on the industry.
Born with an innate talent for acting, Madsen's journey in the entertainment industry has been nothing short of extraordinary. His powerful performances have earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base, cementing his status as a true Hollywood icon. Madsen's distinctive ability to effortlessly portray characters with a captivating blend of sensitivity and grit has led to collaborations with renowned directors and fellow actors, garnering him numerous accolades and nominations. His unparalleled versatility has allowed him to effortlessly navigate between genres, delivering unforgettable performances in films such as "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," "Thelma & Louise," and "Donnie Brasco," among others.
Beyond his remarkable acting career, Michael Madsen's multifaceted talents extend to other creative endeavors. An accomplished poet, he has published several volumes of poetry, revealing a profound depth and introspection that mirrors the complexity of his on-screen persona. With an unparalleled body of work and an undying passion for his craft, Michael Madsen remains an indomitable force, continuously pushing the boundaries of cinematic storytelling and leaving an indelible mark on the entertainment landscape.- Actor
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid Haig provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitation film and high-priced action film.
Sid Haig was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on July 14, 1939 in Fresno, California, a screaming ball of hair. His parents, Roxy (Mooradian) and Haig Mosesian, an electrician, were of Armenian descent. Sid's career was somewhat of an accident. He was growing so fast that he had absolutely no coordination. It was decided that he would take dancing lessons, and that's when it all began. At the age of seven, he was dancing for pay in a children's Christmas Show, then a revival of a vaudeville show... and on it went.
Sid also showed a musical inclination, particularly for the drums. So when his parents got tired of him denting all the pots and pans in the house, they bought him a drum set. The music was in him and he took to it immediately, a born natural. First it was swing, then country, then jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll. Sid always found it easy to make money with his music, and did very well. One year out of high school and signing a recording contract is not too bad. Sid went on to record the single "Full House" with the T-Birds in 1958. However, back while he was in high school, Sid got bitten by the "acting bug". Alice Merrill was the head of the drama department at that time and gave him all the encouragement in the world to pursue an acting career. The clincher came in his senior year. The way that the senior play was cast was that she would double cast the show, then have one of her friends from Hollywood come up and pick the final cast.
You see, Merrill was quite famous as an actress on Broadway and kept up her contacts in the business. When the appointed day came, the "friend" that showed up was Dennis Morgan, a big musical comedy star from the 1940s. The rest is history -- he picked Sid for the role, then two weeks later came back to see the show and told Sid that he should continue his education down south and consider acting as a career path. Two years later, Sid enrolled in the world famous Pasadena Playhouse, the school that trained such actors as Robert Preston, Robert Young, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and so on. After two years of "actor's hell" (non-stop 7:00 am to 11:00 pm with homework thrown in just for the fun of it), it was time to move on to the big "H", Hollywood! Sid did so with longtime friend and roommate Stuart Margolin (Angel on The Rockford Files (1974)).
Sid's first acting job was in Jack Hill's student film at UCLA. It was called The Host (2000), which was released in 2004 on DVD as a companion to Switchblade Sisters (1975), another Hill film. That role launched a 40-year acting career during which Haig appeared in over 50 films and 350 television series. He has proven himself quite valuable to such filmmakers as producer Roger Corman. He also became a staple in the pictures of Jack Hill, appearing in Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967), Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Haig's other memorable credits include George Lucas' THX 1138 (1971), and the James Bond opus Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (he is one of the Slumber Brothers, and got to toss a topless Lana Wood from the window of a high-rise Vegas hotel).
Among his most significant television credits are appearances on such landmark series as The A-Team (1983), T.J. Hooker (1982), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Quincy M.E. (1976), Hart to Hart (1979), Fantasy Island (1977), Charlie's Angels (1976), Police Woman (1974), The Rockford Files (1974), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Mannix (1967), Mission: Impossible (1966), Gunsmoke (1955), Get Smart (1965), Here's Lucy (1968), The Flying Nun (1967), Daniel Boone (1964), Star Trek (1966), Batman (1966) and The Untouchables (1959).
Sid was never one to give-up on anything but after nearly 40 years of carrying a gun (except for the occasional Jack Hill or Roger Corman film), his dreams of being recognized as a more than competent actor were fading. Then in 1992, frustrated with being typecast, Sid retired from acting and quoted, "I'll never play another stupid heavy again, and I don't care if that means that I never work, ever." This just proves that if you take a stand people will listen, for Quentin Tarantino wrote for Sid the role of the judge in Jackie Brown (1997). Then things got better, much better. During the mid and late 1990s, Sid managed a community theatre company, as well as dabbled occasionally in theater in Los Angeles.
Then in 2000, Sid came out of his self-imposed retirement at the request of Rob Zombie for a role in Zombie's debut film House of 1000 Corpses (2003). He starred as the fun-loving, but murderous, Captain Spaulding. This role breathed new life into Sid's acting career and earned him an award for Best Supporting Actor in the 13th Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as an induction into the Horror Hall of Fame. Sid's character Captain Spaulding became an icon for the new horror genre. Sid has recently enjoyed success as Captain Spaulding once again in Rob Zombie's follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses (2003), entitled, The Devil's Rejects (2005). For this film, Sid received the award for best Actor in the 15th Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as sharing the award for "Most Vile Villain" at the First Annual Spike TV Scream Awards with Leslie Easterbrook, Sheri Moon Zombie and Bill Moseley as The Firefly Family.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Sid continued to enjoy his renewed success as an actor. In September 2019, he was hospitalized after falling in his home in Los Angeles, California. While recovering, he suffered from a lung infection after vomiting in his sleep. He died on September 21, 2019, from complications of the infection at age 80.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Perhaps best known for his chilling performance as "Candyman", the charismatic 6' 5" actor Tony Todd has consistently turned in compelling performances since his debut in the fantasy film Sleepwalk (1986). Born in Washington, D.C., Todd spent two years on a scholarship at the University of Connecticut, which, in turn, led to a scholarship from the renowned Eugene O'Neill National Theatre Institute. It proved to be the foundation for intense stints at the Hartman Conservatory in Stamford, Connecticut and the Trinity Square Repertory Theatre Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. Todd appeared in dozens of classical and many experimental plays, yet still managed to find time to teach playwriting to high school students in the Hartford public school system.
Todd's extensive credits exemplify his versatility. They include such film classics as The Rock (1996), The Crow (1994), Lean on Me (1989), Bird (1988), Night of the Living Dead (1990), Final Destination (2000), the multiple Academy Award winning Oliver Stone film Platoon (1986) and The Secret (2000), which was nominated and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Todd's recent films include the independent film Silence (2002) and Final Destination 2 (2003). He has had prominent guest starring roles in numerous critically-acclaimed television series, including recurring on Boston Public (2000), For the People (2002) and The District (2000), as well as NYPD Blue (1993), Smallville (2001), Law & Order (1990), Crossing Jordan (2001), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and The X-Files (1993). Todd recurred on three incarnations of "Star Trek" and guest starred on Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) and episodes of CSI: Miami (2002) and Andromeda (2000). His television movies include starring roles in True Women (1997), Black Fox (1995), Butter (1998), Ivory Hunters (1990), Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999) and Control Factor (2003).
Todd's considerable theatre credits include the world premiere of award-winning playwright August Wilson's "King Hedley II", where he originated the title role in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Boston. Variety commented: "Todd's King Hedley dominates the stage. A sour-faced mix of rage and resolve, anger and vulnerability. Todd's Hedley was a memorable tour-de-force even on opening." He also received a coveted Helen Hayes nomination for his performance in Athol Fugard's "The Captain's Tiger at La Jolla, the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Kennedy Center. Other theatre credits include "Les Blancs", "Playboy of the West Indies", "Othello", "Zooman and the Sign", award-winning playwright Keith Glover's "Dark Paradise", "Aida" (on Broadway), and most recently, "Levee James" for the prestigious Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference and The New Dramatist Guild.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Musician, Actor, Producer, Screenwriter, Activist - Referred to as "The Hardest Working Man in Horror," Reggie Bannister is known world wide for his starring role as the intrepid ice cream vendor-turned hero in the action-horror series, Phantasm I-IV. His career spans over 40 years in television, film and entertainment with a background that includes writing, acting and music. His most recent projects have been Steven King's "One For the Road" (from the Night Shift Anthology), (2011), "Primitive" (2011), "Abolition" (2011), "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X" (2010) (with the late Kevin McCarthy), "Bloody Bloody Bible Camp" (2010), "Walking Distance (2009)," "Small Town Saturday Night" (2009) (with Chris Pine, John Hawkes, and Muse Watson), and "Satan Hates You" (2009) (with Angus Scrimm).
Reggie has released six (6) musical albums which include rock, country and folk and is a veteran of stage and television. Since the '60s he's played with such groups as Stone Country and Greenwood County Singers, as well as many greats such as Red Skelton, Robert Goulet, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, Sonny and Cher, Stevie Wonder, and many more. He continues to write, play, compose and currently promotes his albums, "Naked Truth," and "Fool's Paradise," with promises of compiling an anthology album of earlier works. Reggie is a sponsored musician of Samick Music/Greg Bennett Guitars, Toadworks USA, and CD Baby. He's even guarding the forces of good on "Transformers Prime" (2011) Episode 10: "Deus Ex Machina."
A gifted writer, Reggie has co-authored two scripts and is working on another horror piece. He is the Vice-President of an independent production company with his wife in Southern California, Production Magic, Incorporated. He is a popular guest and speaker at charity events and genre' media conventions. Other film credits include Kenny & Company, Survival Quest, Silent Night, Deadly NightIV: The Initiation, That little Monster, The Demolitionist, Wes Craven's Wishmaster, Carnies and most recently, Dark Path Chronicles. There is currently a move to film Phantasm V, in which Reggie will return to his starring role of "Reggie" in the fifth installment of the series. When asked to what he attributes the popularity of his heroic character, he states, "I think (Reggie) is seen as 'every man's man.' Not pretentious, often flawed, but with a lot of heart and guts. He does the things, and reacts the way, most men feel they would given the same situation." he added, "There's a lot of camp in scenes with Reggie. The humor comes from his being so... human."
Reggie is also credited as Assistant Director, Co-Director, Co-Producer, Associate Producer, Producer and is often on the Special Effects Team with his wife, Gigi. Reggie resides in Southern, California, with his wife and two cats and performs music regularly at local events in his mountain community.- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
A blond-haired, fair-complexioned actor with a toothy grin and capable of an unsettling glint in his eyes, Gary Busey was born in Goose Creek, Texas, and was raised in Oklahoma. He is the son of Sadie Virginia (Arnett), a homemaker, and Delmar Lloyd Busey, a construction design manager. He has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German, ancestry. He graduated from Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1962 and for a while was a professional musician. A talented drummer, he played in several bands, including those of country-and-western legends Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson.
Busey's first film appearance was as a biker in the low-budget Angels Hard as They Come (1971) and, over the next few years, he landed several film roles generally as a country hick/redneck or surly, rebellious types. His real breakthrough came in the dynamic film The Buddy Holly Story (1978), with Busey taking the lead role as Buddy Holly, in addition to playing guitar and singing all the vocals! His stellar performance scored him a Best Actor nomination and the attention of Hollywood taking overcasting agents. Next up, he joined fellow young actors William Katt and Jan-Michael Vincent as surfing buddies growing up together in the cult surf film Big Wednesday (1978), directed by John Milius. However, a string of appearances in somewhat mediocre films took him out of the spotlight for several years, until he played the brutal assassin Mr. Joshua trying to kill Los Angeles cops Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the runaway mega-hit Lethal Weapon (1987). Further strong roles followed, including alongside Danny Glover once again in Predator 2 (1990). He was back on the beaches, this time tracking bank robbers with FBI agent Keanu Reeves, in Point Break (1991) and nearly stole the show as a psychotic Navy officer in league with terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones taking over the USS Missouri in the highly popular Under Siege (1992).
The entertaining Busey has continued to remain busy in front of the cameras and has certainly developed a minor cult following among many film fans. Plus, he's also the proud father of accomplished young actor Jake Busey, whose looks make him almost a dead ringer for his famous father.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
In 1979 with his Detroit friends, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell raised $350,000 for a low-budget film, The Evil Dead (1981), in which he starred and co-executive produced. Completed piecemeal over four years, the film first gained notoriety in England where it became the best-selling video of 1983, beating out The Shining (1980). After its appearance at Cannes, where Stephen King dubbed it "the most ferociously original horror film of the year", New Line Cinema stepped forward to release "Evil Dead" in the U.S.
After co-producing Crimewave (1985), a cross-genre comedy written by Sam Raimi, Ethan and Joel Coen, Campbell moved to Los Angeles and quickly gained a foothold producing or starring in genre films such as the Maniac Cop (1988) series, Lunatics: A Love Story (1991), Moontrap (1988), and Mindwarp (1991), a post-apocalyptic "Jeremiah Johnson", during which he met his wife-to-be, filmmaker, Ida Gearon.
Campbell then rejoined his Detroit colleagues to star and co-produce the second and third films in the Evil Dead trilogy (Evil Dead II (1987) & Army of Darkness (1992)), completing 12 years of work on the cult favorite.
This rough-and-tumble background was a plus as Campbell made his foray into television, first starring in the highly touted Fox series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993), then as a recurring guest-star on the hit show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993).
With these under his belt, Campbell easily made the transition to director, helming numerous episodes and recurring as the King of Thieves in the #1 syndicated Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995), and its follow-up phenomenon, Xena: Warrior Princess (1995).
Bruce has since expanded his range on television, appearing in anything from Disney's update of The Love Bug (1997), to decidedly dramatic turns on the acclaimed series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and The X-Files (1993). At the invitation of ABC, Campbell ventured into the world of sitcoms with a recurring role on ABC's Emmy-nominated Ellen (1994), participating in one of the three touted "out" episodes.
But Campbell didn't abandon his film roots. During that time, he had featured roles in the blockbuster Congo (1995), John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996), and the award-winning independent crime drama, Running Time (1997). He followed these up with roles in Paramount's romantic comedy, Serving Sara (2002), Jim Carrey's The Majestic (2001), and all three of Sam Raimi's blockbuster Spider-Man movies.
After a return to episodic television in the swashbuckling series, Jack of All Trades (2000), Campbell took the title role in MGM's cult sleeper Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). His directorial debut, Man with the Screaming Brain (2005) premiered on the Sci Fi Channel, and Dark Horse Comics published the comic adaptation.
Campbell then directed and starred as himself in My Name Is Bruce (2007), a spoof of his B-movie career, then re-teamed with Disney for their fun-filled hit, Sky High (2005).
Campbell has since made the leap into other forms of entertainment, and is enjoying his role as an author with back-to-back New York Times bestsellers: a memoir entitled "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor", and his first novel, "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way".
In the multi-media industry, Bruce has enjoyed voicing characters for Disney's animated TV series The Legend of Tarzan (2001) and the Warner Brothers feature The Ant Bully (2006). He also portrayed the character of "Mayor Shelbourne" in the animated hit film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009). Recently, Campbell voiced the role of "Rod Torque Redline" in Cars 2 (2011), the sequel to the smash Disney animated feature and for the immensely popular game, "Call of Duty".
In 2013, Bruce co-produced the hit remake of Evil Dead (2013), joined his filmmaking pal Sam Raimi on Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and completed an impressive seven-year run on the spy show, Burn Notice (2007) (2007-2013), USA's #1 show on cable.
More than two decades after the release of Army of Darkness (1992), Bruce returned to his most iconic role for Ash vs Evil Dead (2015), a highly-anticipated series premiering on the Starz network on Halloween 2015.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Chuck Norris is familiar to fans worldwide as the star of action films such as The Hitman (1991), The Delta Force (1986) and Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990). He also starred in Missing in Action (1984) and its sequels, Firewalker (1986) and Sidekicks (1992). He was an executive producer of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) as well as the star.
Chuck Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, to Wilma (Scarberry) and Ray Norris, who was a truck driver, mechanic, and bus driver. The eldest of three children, he helped his mother raise his two younger brothers in Torrance, CA, where his family moved when he was 12. Norris attended North Torrance High School from its inception in September, 1955 until his graduation in June, 1958. He is one of several storied alumni from the school. Other NHS alumni include Bob Hite (1943-1981), who was the lead singer of "Canned Heat," Chris Demaria, who was a professional baseball player in the Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers organizations, Chris Mortensen, an analyst with ESPN, Hip-Hop DJ "Key-Kool" (Kikuo Nishi), and Wee-Man (Jason Acuna) of "JackAss fame."
Norris joined the Air Force after graduating from high school. During a stint in Korea, he began to study the Asian martial art of Tang Soo Do. After returning home, he worked for Northrop Aviation and moonlighted as a karate instructor. Two years later he was teaching full-time and running a number of martial-arts schools. His students included Steve McQueen, Priscilla Presley and the Osmonds.
Norris's fight career lasted from 1964-1974. Norris started off by losing his first three tournaments but, by 1966, he was almost unbeatable. Among the numerous titles he won were The National Karate Championships (1966), All-Star Championships (1966), World Middleweight Karate Championship (1967), All-American Karate Championship (1967), Internationals (1968), World Professional Middleweight Karate Championship (defeating Louis Delgado on 24 November 1968), All-American Championship (1968), National Tournament of Champions (1968), American Tang Soo Championship, and the North American Karate Championship. Norris compiled a fight record of 65-5 with wins over champions Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Ronald L. Marchini, Victor Moore, Louis Delgado, and Steve Sanders. Of the five men to beat Norris, three were Allen Steen, Joe Lewis, and Norris's last career defeat to Louis Delgado in 1968. Norris retired as undefeated Professional Full-Contact Middleweight Champion in 1974.
Norris, who was urged to get into acting by his friend Steve McQueen, skillfully incorporates his martial-arts knowledge into his series and feature film projects, stressing action and technique over violence. He is the author of the books "The Secret of Inner Strength" and "The Secret Power Within - Zen Solutions to Real Problems". He works for many charities, including the Funds for Kids, Veterans Administration National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, the United Way, Make-a-Wish Foundation and KickStart, a nonprofit organization he created to help battle drugs and violence in schools. He also starred in the television movie Blood In, Blood Out (1993), broadcast on CBS.
He lives on a ranch when not filming.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Kevin Franklin Gaede, who later changed his name to Kevin Gage, was born and raised in northern Wisconsin. He was physically active, working on his grandparents' dairy farm and excelling in school sports, including basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and track. He also enjoyed fishing and other outdoor activities.
After graduating high school, Kevin headed to Florida to see the ocean. After a few months he turned his sights on California, planning to find work in construction, and landed in Hollywood. There Kevin worked for a security company, drove delivery trucks, and (still only 18 years old) went to bartending school and became a bartender. The job paid well. Life was good.
When Kevin was 21, tending bar at a local steakhouse, he was approached by a theatrical agent, who had him read for a part and then recommended that he take an acting class. He became a regular in local plays and within a few years he was picking up small roles in films and television, including Highway to Heaven, Steele Justice, and High Mountain Rangers.
It was in acting class that he started seeing Kelly Preston. After a couple of years of dating, they were married in Hawaii in 1985. Kevin's first movie part was in Space Camp, where Preston had a leading role. Unfortunately his lines ended up on the cutting room floor. Two years later, the marriage fell apart and they went their separate ways. Kevin continued to find small acting roles, and in 1989 he appeared opposite Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern and Brother Theodore in The 'Burbs.
Kevin's first big role, and still one of his most memorable, was as "Waingro" in Heat, released in 1995. Competition for the role was tough, requiring twelve meetings over two months with casting director Bonnie Timmerman and director Michael Mann. Kevin was elated to be chosen, saying that he had dreamed for 13 years of being able to work with talent of Robert DeNiro's caliber.
His performance in Heat resulted in many offers, and Kevin continued to work in more A-list films, TV episodes, and lower budget films. He played opposite leading actors including Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen in G.I. Jane, Nicholas Cage in Con Air and Johnny Depp in Blow.
Kevin's career was temporarily derailed in 2002 after he and two partners set up a licensed business to grow and distribute medicinal marijuana. Though legal in California and encouraged by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (who declared SF to be a medicinal marijuana-friendly city), the Federal government disagreed and arrested them. After serving two years of his 41-month sentence in a minimal security facility, Kevin was released early for good behavior in September 2005.
Kevin married Perris Knight on a Santa Barbara beach in the spring of 2006, and their son Ryder Jay Gage was born in January 2007. Sadly, Perris was diagnosed in late 2008 with inoperable brain cancer. Kevin's focus became caring for her and Ryder, with help from her parents. Perris passed away in July 2014.
As of 2020, Kevin lives with his teenage son in southern California and continues to complete several acting projects each year.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
An intense, versatile actor as adept at playing clean-cut FBI agents as he is psychotic motorcycle-gang leaders, who can go from portraying soulless, murderous vampires to burned-out, world-weary homicide detectives, Lance Henriksen has starred in a variety of films that have allowed him to stretch his talents just about as far as an actor could possibly hope. He played "Awful Knoffel" in the TNT original movie Evel Knievel (2004), directed by John Badham and executive produced by Mel Gibson. Henriksen portrayed "Awful Knoffel" in this project based on the life of the famed daredevil, played by George Eads. Henriksen starred for three seasons (1996-1999) on Millennium (1996), Fox-TV's critically acclaimed series created by Chris Carter (The X-Files (1993)). His performance as Frank Black, a retired FBI agent who has the ability to get inside the minds of killers, landed him three consecutive Golden Globe nominations for "Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Drama Series" and a People's Choice Award nomination for "Favorite New TV Male Star".
Henriksen was born in New York City. His mother, Margueritte, was a waitress, dance instructor, and model. His father, James Marin Henriksen, who was from Tønsberg, Norway, was a boxer and merchant sailor. Henriksen studied at the Actors Studio and began his career off-Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's "Three Plays of the Sea." One of his first film appearances was as an FBI agent in Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975), followed by parts in Lumet's Network (1976) and Prince of the City (1981). He then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) with Richard Dreyfuss and François Truffaut, Damien: Omen II (1978) and in Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff (1983), in which he played Mercury astronaut Capt. Wally Schirra.
James Cameron cast Henriksen in his first directorial effort, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), then used him again in The Terminator (1984) and as the android Bishop in the sci-fi classic Aliens (1986). Sam Raimi cast Henriksen as an outrageously garbed gunfighter in his quirky western The Quick and the Dead (1995). Henriksen has also appeared in what has developed into a cult classic: Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987), in which he plays the head of a clan of murderous redneck vampires. He was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the TNT original film The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998).
In addition to his abilities as an actor, Henriksen is an accomplished painter and potter. His talent as a ceramist has enabled him to create some of the most unusual ceramic artworks available on the art market today. He resides in Southern California with his wife Jane and their five-year-old daughter Sage.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Veteran character actor Robert Englund was born in Glendale, California, to Janis (MacDonald) and John Kent Englund, an aeronautics engineer. Since 1973, Robert has appeared in over 75 feature films and starred in four TV series. He has starred alongside Oscar-winners Henry Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Jeff Bridges. Since 1984 he's achieved international fame as the iconic boogeyman Freddy Krueger in the hit franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street and its seven sequels. Englund has guest starred in hundreds of hours of TV most recently Bones, Criminal Minds and Hawaii 5-0. He will soon be seen starring in the horror film Fear Clinic, and the English thriller The Last Showing, he can be heard as the voice of the Evil Beaver in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Jeff Fahey was born in Olean, New York, one of 13 children of Jane (Gallagher) and Francis Thomas Fahey, who worked in a clothing store. He is of Irish descent. His family moved to Buffalo when he was 10, where he attended Father Baker's High School. After graduation in 1972 he traveled around the world doing odd jobs. He was a crewman on a fishing boat, drove an ambulance in Germany, lived in a kibbutz in Israel and spent some time in India. He then returned to Buffalo and joined the Studio Arena Theatre. From there he went to New York City, where he studied with Myra Rastova, began doing off-Broadway theater and television soap operas. He started a production company and produced off-Broadway shows out of the Raft Theatre on Theatre Row. He first gained attention as a motion picture actor in Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado (1985), in which he played Brian Dennehy's deputy Tyree, a cold-blooded killer with a thirst for vengeance. He starred in the acclaimed live television play The Execution of Raymond Graham (1985) and the TNT mini-series "44 Days". He starred for over two years in the daytime serial One Life to Live (1968). He appeared in the Broadway revival of "Brigadoon," toured with "Oklahoma," performed in Paris in "West Side Story" and in London in "Orphans" with Albert Finney.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Joe Estevez' first time on the stage was as a 6-year-old playing the "Evil Inn Keeper" in a Christmas Nativity play, and as an actor he has never looked back. Born the last of ten children to an Irish immigrant mother and a Spanish immigrant father, Joe was raised in Dayton Ohio to be a factory worker but he had other plans for himself, and two hundred and thirty some films later Joe feels his decision was correct.
For most actors the road is never easy, but through perseverance, faith and talent Joe has become an accomplished actor, and in Hollywood today he is one of the busiest actors for one reason: He is one of the best at what he does. Joe can be seen weekly on the T.V. series "Hollywood Joe" and as the host of the critically acclaimed Faith Film Festival in N.Y.C. And if you want to read about Joe, pick up a copy of his book "Wiping off the Sheen".- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Jake spent his childhood in sunny southern California, as well as a plethora of film sets around the country. His childhood similar to a "military brat", a series of strung-together extended-stay location shoots, alternating with tours on the road with his father's various bands and associates. In a world of gypsies & artists, spending many years on tour buses and side-stage-studying such acts as Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Little Feat, the Band, and Fleetwood Mac, Jake found his passion for music and performing live.
Busey entered the industry at the age of 5 in his first motion picture, Dustin Hoffman's opus, "Straight Time" (1977) playing Son to his father and Cathy Bates, . After finishing high school at Crossroads School, and college in Santa Barbara , Jake returned to L.A to study the craft of acting for film seriously. He started auditioning at 20yrs old, and booked his first role in a PBS film, "Shimmer", shot on location in Iowa. Slowly but surely bit parts playing supporting characters in independent films would follow. After a few years of hard work and little returns, He was Cast as the villain in Showtimes "rebel highway series" Motorcycle Gang, by Director John Milius. The film was part of an 8 film series, and drew great attention amongst the "up and coming actor" buzz of hollywood. He made his true debut to the big screen in 1994 alongside Stephen Dorff and Reese Witherspoon in grind house grunge film "SFW", but that Buzz caught the eye of Robert Zemekis & Peter Jackson which led jake to star opposite Michael J. Fox in the Frighteners. .soon after wrapping, big changes came from a 3 page monologue about religion vs. science, when he landed "Contact" with Jodi Foster and Matthew McConnaghey. Then "Enemy of the State", then Vince Gilligan scribed "Home Fries," and most memorably as the smart-mouthed Private Ace Levy in the Sci-Fi cult classic "Starship Troopers." Jake was a force to be reckoned with in the late 1990's A-list film market. Then in the early 21st century, after the great success of "Identity", Jake took some risks with projects, leaps of faith, stepping up into starring roles in such studio disasters as "Tomcats" and "the First 20million is always the hardest", Films hyped to glory among the Hollywood machine, which failed miserably, and left him needing to reassess his position . It was time for a break.some time away was needed.
After a few-year hiatus from acting as he pursued directing films, "road-tripping" the country , and playing in his band around hollywood, he was ready for his come-back. Jake blasted onscreen as a pyrotechnic specialist in the final season of FX's hit series "Justified", leaving many an audience member aghast, having thought he was a solid new addition to the show...alas, just a masterfully crafted cameo, blowing up in 30 seconds. When Robert Rodriguez cast him as the new Sex Machine for all three seasons of "From Dusk Till Dawn, Things started heating up again. In The History Channel mini-series "Texas Rising", Busey plays Samuel Wallace, the man credited with reciting the legendary warning, "Remember the Alamo!" directed by Roland Joffe.
His recent projects include "Mr. Robot", and Stranger Things", Showtime's "Ray Donovan", CBS television's "NCIS" Episode 346(1516) , ABC's "Marvels agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.., Episode 513 & 519, and in the summer of 2018 he made his return to the summer tent-pole event scene with 20th Century Fox's "the_Predator".
A bit of a modern-day Renaissance man, Jake's passions in life includes fatherhood, acting, desert racing, architecture, playing music, flying planes when necessary, and fabricating anything mechanical in his metal shop. .- Actor
- Writer
- Art Department
Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.
After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).
Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.
Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Keith David is a classically trained actor, winning 3 Emmys out of 6 nominations as well as being nominated for a Tony award. He starred in the recently concluded TV series "Greenleaf" for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. Upcoming films include "Horizon Line" with Allison Williams ("Get Out") and "Black As Night," for Amazon.
In "Greenleaf" Keith portrayed 'Bishop James Greenleaf', the charismatic and God-fearing leader of the Calvary Fellowship and the patriarch of the family. The series followed the unscrupulous world of the Greenleaf family, their scandalous secrets and lies, and their sprawling Memphis megachurch. The series was praised for its push and pull dynamic, its hypocrisy, and its compelling characters. Keith's stellar performance was best stated by The Hollywood Reporter, "... Keith David ...is perfectly cast as Bishop Greenleaf. Whether he's playing to the congregation at the altar or getting conspiratorial in a smaller venue, this is an unusually great and meaty role for David."
On the big screen, Keith co-starred with Chadwick Boseman in "21 Bridges". Prior credits include "Night School" with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish and "Tales from the Hood 2". Additional titles include the Academy award-winning films "Crash" and "Platoon." He is widely recognized for appearing in the highly-acclaimed films Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", "Requiem for a Dream", "Men at Work", "They Live", "There's Something About Mary", and "The Thing."
Other recent TV credits include an upcoming appearance on "Creepshow," "NCIS: New Orleans", "Blackish," MacGyver", and "Fresh Off the Boat". Earlier credits include "Community", "Enlisted", "ER", and "Mister Roger's Neighborhood". On Broadway, Keith starred in August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" and "Jelly's Last Jam" for which he garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical.
Keith's work as a voice actor has made him a household name. His rich and powerful voice has been featured in national commercials, award shows, documentaries, video games, and animation. His work in narration has earned him three Emmys for Ken Burns' "Jackie Robinson", "The War", and "Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson". Some of his other voice acting credits include countless fan favorites such as "Adventure Time", "Bojack Horseman," "Rick & Morty", "Spawn", and "Gargoyles". Keith has lent his voice to many video game titles. Recently he portrayed the character "Spawn" in the reboot of the "Mortal Kombat" video game. Other appearances include the "Halo" series (games 2, 3, and 5), the "Saint's Row" series (games 1, 2, and 4), as well as the "Mass Effect" series (games 1,2, and 3).
Born and raised in New York by his parents Lester and Dolores, Keith became interested in the arts at a very young age. After appearing in his school's production of "The Wizard of Oz", he knew this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He enrolled in New York's High School of the Performing Arts and continued his studies at The Juilliard School. After graduation, he was immediately hired by Joseph Papp as an understudy for the role of Tullus Aufidius in William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus." His work with Mr. Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival launched his incredible career.
In addition to his versatile acting and voiceover work, Keith is also a remarkable singer. He's has been touring in 2 shows, "Too Marvelous for Words", in which he portrays the legendary singer Nat King Cole, and a show about the incredible Blues singer Joe Williams, "Here's to Life."
Twitter: @ImKeithDavid Instagram: @SilverThroat Facebook: @ImKeithDavid- Actor
- Producer
Richard Hugh Lynch was born on February 12, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Irish immigrant parents. He was one of seven children. Before starting a career as an actor, he joined the United States Marine Corps in 1958. He served for four years where he made Corporal, and did a tour of the Middle East with the Sixth Fleet. He began his training with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen at H.B. Studios in New York's Greenwich Village, and later went on to train extensively with Lee Strasberg at Carnegie Hall. In 1970, he became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and spent years in the New York theater community playing in dozens of on- and off-Broadway productions. The more notable plays were: "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel", "The Lion in Winter", "The Devils", "The Lady from the Sea", "Action", "Live Like Pigs", "Richard III", "Offi on a Tangerine", "A View from the Bridge", "The Man with the Flower in His Mouth", and Shelley Winters' "One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger".
Lynch made his film debut in the classic film Scarecrow (1973), winner of the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in Scarecrow launched his film career and brought him to Hollywood, where he has worked in film and television for over twenty years. His more prominent film work has been in: The Seven-Ups (1973), Open Season (1974), The Formula (1980), Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Bad Dreams (1988), Little Nikita (1988), Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (2002), and William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration (1980). His performance as the evil King Cromwell, in the successful fantasy film The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), won him the Saturn Award for Best Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Although best known for playing villains, he was cast as the President of the United States in Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy (2007).
He also starred in numerous television series and Movies of the Week, such as Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980), Sizzle (1981), Vampire (1979), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Battlestar Galactica (1978), and the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) two-part episode "Gambit". His work in a variety of independent films has won him a high profile internationally. He has also worked in China, where he played in the first joint production between the Screen Actors' Guild and the People's Republic of China, The Korean Project. In his spare time, Richard enjoys fishing, the arts, architecture, music and poetry. He is also fluent in several languages including German and Italian.- Actor
- Producer
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuela-born Russian actor and stuntman, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the first two Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Ernesto Mendoza in A Low Down Dirty Shame, Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.
He was born on July 2, 1955 in San Tomé, Venezuela. His father is Russian and his mother, who was born in Venezuela, is of Irish descent. He lived in Vilassar de Mar (in Spain) from 1973-77. He lives in the United States. Divoff can speak eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Catalan, Portuguese, and Russian. He used to speak Romanian but forgot the language when he had no one with whom to speak it. He also acted in The Hunt for Red October, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers.
Divoff has played many villains in film and on television, usually drug cartel leaders, and is best known for having played the nefarious Djinn in the first two films of the Wishmaster series. His other films include Another 48 Hrs., The Hunt for Red October, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers. Divoff played the lead role in the Midnight Syndicate's Indie horror flick The Dead Matter. His television guest appearances include The A-Team, JAG and Highlander: The Series. He had a recurring role on Lost as Mikhail Bakunin.
He appeared in "The Cost of Living", and later in "Enter 77" and "Par Avion". He later appeared, in flashbacks, in "One of Us," and reappeared in the episodes "D.O.C.", "The Man Behind the Curtain", "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Package". Divoff's latest work was a recurring role as Ivan Sarnoff on CSI: Miami Season 7 (2008-09). He also appeared in Air Force One.
Divoff is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he honed his skills in the study of languages, the result seeing him speak eight languages fluently. Andrew is a SAG actor and film producer with more than a hundred movies and television appearances to his credit. He has a driving passion for environmental issues, and has used his celebrity status, putting purpose ahead of profit, for several environmental causes. Andrew is a founder of Verdant Resource, Inc., a flexible purpose corporation dedicated to location, retrieval and provision of resources found throughout planet Earth, and promoting their use in a sustainable way of life employing verdant methods. He is also a partner in a private water utility, Alpine Village Water Company, LLC in Pinyon, California. Divoff was married to Russian actress Raissa Danilova in 1992 but they divorced in 1998. Divoff resides in Los Angeles.- Gaunt character actor Brad Dourif was born Bradford Claude Dourif on March 18, 1950 in Huntington, West Virginia. He is the son of Joan Mavis Felton (Bradford) and Jean Henri Dourif, a French-born art collector who owned and operated a dye factory. His father died when Dourif was three years old, after which his mother married Bill Campbell, a champion golfer, who helped raise Brad, his brother, and his four sisters. From 1963 to 1965, Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina, where he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming a professional artist, he finally settled on acting as a profession, inspired by his mother's participation as an actress in community theater.
Beginning in school productions, he progressed to community theater, joining up with the Huntington Community Players, while attending Marshall University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his hometown college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. During the early 1970s, Dourif appeared in a number of plays, off-Broadway and at Woodstock, New York, including Milos Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Although this film is frequently cited as his film debut, in fact, Dourif made his first big-screen appearance with a bit part in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly his big break, earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut, a British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until 1988 when he moved to Hollywood. Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, his intensity destined him to play eccentric or deranged characters, starting in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979) (arguably his best performance to date), and Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981). Dourif then teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986). His high-strung style also served him well in a number of horror films, notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988) and its sequels.
Dourif broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal Beauty (1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda (1990) and London Kills Me (1991). Recent film work includes the role of Grima Wormtongue in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since his television debut in the PBS film The Mound Builders (1976), Dourif has made sporadic appearances on a number of television series, such as The X-Files (1993), Babylon 5 (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Millennium (1996) and Ponderosa (2001). He also appeared in the music video "Stranger in Town" (1984) by the rock band TOTO. - Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Phil Fondacaro started his career in 1981 when a casting call went out for "little people" for the feature film Under the Rainbow (1981). This was the beginning of a career that is still going strong to this day. From that time he has worked in every genre. including drama, comedy, horror and animation.
Phil has worked in films with directors such as Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express (2004)), Ron Howard (Willow (1988), in which he played Vohnkar) and George Lucas (Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), in which he played an Ewok - the only Ewok who died on screen). Phil's feature films include many in the horror genre, such as Troll (1986), Ghoulies II (1987), Bordello of Blood (1996), Blood Dolls (1999), Meridian (1990) and his collaboration with George A. Romero in Land of the Dead (2005). He also starred opposite Verne Troyer in a short film, Bit Players (2000), which premiered at Sundance and was directed by Andy Berman. Phil's television credits included a recurring role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) as Roland. His TV work also includes some other memorable performances where he guest-starred in shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), and had an amazing role in Touched by an Angel (1994).
Phil Fondacaro stands 3' 6" tall and lives by the quote, "It is not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of the fight in the man".- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Large, likable, and muscular actor Ken Foree was born as Kentotis Alvin Foree on February 29, 1948, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Foree attended Loyola University in Chicago and studied acting at Michael Shulman's Performing Gallery in New York City. He began his career in off-Broadway theater and worked as an assistant manager at a restaurant in Greenwich Village, in order to keep himself afloat during his salad days.
Ken made his film debut in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976). He has since amassed a substantial array of often strong and commanding characters on either side of the law in both movies and television, alike. Foree gave a fine and impressive performance as tough swat team officer, "Peter Washington", in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978). He also had a sizable supporting part in Romero's offbeat follow-up feature, Knightriders (1981). Ken was marvelously engaging as affable cop, Buford "Bubba" Brownlee, in Stuart Gordon's From Beyond (1986) and was, once again, solid as rugged survivalist "Benny" in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990). Foree portrayed hard-nosed police officers in such pictures as The Dentist (1996), Sleepstalker (1995), True Blood (1989) and Terror Squad (1987). He had a cameo as a stern televangelist in the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake by Zack Snyder. More recently, Ken had a terrific role as super mack daddy pimp, "Charlie Altamont", in The Devil's Rejects (2005) and made a brief-yet-memorable appearance as rough-n-tumble truck driver, "Big Joe Grizzley", in the remake of Halloween (2007) by Rob Zombie. Foree showed a softer and more sensitive side as "Roger Rockmore" on the hit Nickelodeon TV series, Kenan & Kel (1996). He also played a recurring part on the popular daytime soap opera General Hospital (1963). Among the TV shows on which Ken has done guest spots are Due South (1994), The X-Files (1993), Babylon 5 (1993), Matlock (1986), Dallas (1978), Cheers (1982), Quantum Leap (1989), Hunter (1984), Beauty and the Beast (1987), Moonlighting (1985), Knight Rider (1982), The Fall Guy (1981), Benson (1979), The A-Team (1983), Hill Street Blues (1981), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and Kojak (1973). His hobbies include surfing, boxing, weightlifting and watching basketball. In addition, Foree enjoys history and traveling. Ken Foree lives in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dynamically entertaining heavyset US actor with piercing eyes, William Forsythe has a superb talent for playing some truly unlikable and downright nasty characters that dominate the films in which he appears! If you're cast as the hero against Forsythe's villain, then you have your work cut out for you, as Forsthye's raw energy and menace on screen is second to none. He started out in a couple of minor film roles and guest appearances in high-rated TV shows including CHiPs (1977), Hill Street Blues (1981) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He quickly moved into high-quality feature films, including playing a small-time hoodlum in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), an hilariously funny performance as a bumbling jail escapee alongside John Goodman in the knockout Raising Arizona (1987) and as a renegade soldier in Extreme Prejudice (1987).
The energetic Forsythe portrayed comic book villain "Flattop" in Dick Tracy (1990), was foolish enough to tangle with vengeful cop Steven Seagal in the hyper-violent Out for Justice (1991) and locked horns with ex-NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth in the biker action film Stone Cold (1991). With his expertise in playing icy villains, Forsythe was perfect to portray Prohibition mobster Al Capone in the short-lived '90s revival of the classic '60s crime show, The Untouchables (1993), and he continued the motif of playing edgy, nefarious individuals in the thought-provoking The Waterdance (1992), the oily film noir piece Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), as real-life mobster Sammy Gravano, aka "The Bull", in Gotti (1996) and supporting another ex-NFL player's foray into film acting, when L.A. Raider Howie Long debuted in Firestorm (1998).
Forsythe has remained perpetually busy in the new century with a plethora of feature film, telemovie and TV series appearances, and has developed a minor cult following amongst film fans for his attention grabbing dramatic skills - check out his performances in City by the Sea (2002), The Devil's Rejects (2005) and Halloween (2007).- Tall, thin and distinguished character actor David Quentin Gale was born on October 2, 1936 in Wimbledon, England. David Gale began his acting career on the New York stage in the late 50s. He first started acting in both movies and television in the early 70s. With his gaunt face, lean build, and intense and imposing screen presence, David was usually cast as extremely wicked and hateful villains. Gale achieved his greatest enduring cult cinema popularity with his marvelously robust and inspired portrayal of the icy, ruthless, and arrogant mad scientist Dr. Carl Hill in Stuart Gordon's terrific horror splatter gem Re-Animator (1985). He reprised this part in the enjoyable sequel Bride of Re-Animator (1990). David's other memorable roles include demented pop psychologist TV show host Dr. Anthony Blakely in The Brain (1988), at his deliriously wired and wacky best as batty CEO Carter Brown in Syngenor (1990), and evil corporate head Fulton Balcus in The Guyver (1991). Gale had recurring parts on the TV shows The Secret Storm (1954), The Edge of Night (1956), One Life to Live (1968), and Search for Tomorrow (1951). Among the TV series he made guest appearances on episodes of are Kojak (1973), Ryan's Hope (1975), Hart to Hart (1979), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Tales from the Darkside (1983), L.A. Law (1986), Dallas (1978), and Knots Landing (1979). Moreover, David also had a lengthy and impressive stage career: He not only acted in Broadway stage productions of the classic plays "Of Mice and Men" and "Sweet Bird of Youth," but also acted in Off-Broadway stage productions of such plays as "Elizabeth the Queen," "Joe Egg," "The Trial," "Orpheus Descending," and "Anthony and Cleopatra." Gale was married and had a son. David died of complications from open-heart surgery on August 18, 1991, in Los Angeles, California.
- He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and moved to the United States at the age of 5. Gunnar lived in Maine till he was 11, his family then moving to Texas, where he went to high school before attending the University of Texas. At the university, he did some theater work and majored in English and mathematics before going on to graduate in English and Scandinavian Studies. Despite graduating in the aforementioned fields, his first job out of high school was as a computer operator.
In the summer of 1973, he heard that Tobe Hooper and others were in town to work on a movie and decided to try out for a part. After interviewing with Tobe Hooper and the writer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Kim Henkel, he was cast in the role of the disturbed, mentally handicapped killer, Leatherface.
After Chainsaw, Hansen went on to work as a freelance writer for magazines for several years before going on to write books, one later being set in Iceland about purported serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. He has gone on to write multiple screenplays - one co-written with his partner Gary Jones, director of Mosquito (1994)).
Gunnar also directed a documentary on Greenland and had a stint designing web pages for GTE. - Actor
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Kane Hodder was born on April 8, 1955 in Auburn, California. He is best known for his role as horror icon Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), and Jason X (2001). He is also known for his role as the deformed serial killer Victor Crowley in Hatchet (2006), Hatchet II (2010), and Hatchet III (2013).- Actor
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From his acting debut at age two on "The Andy Griffith Show" to his first lead role in the TV series "Gentle Ben," including roles throughout so many blockbuster films, art-house films, ever-popular cult horror films, and valued comedies, with a rare voice adding life to multiple characters of Disney, Clint Howard is an iconic Hollywood Legend who is ever solid, energetic, and always readily prepared to contribute his talents.
He is one of very few if any who has had a unique five-generation Star Trek run, including episodes in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", "Star Trek: Discovery," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Star Trek: Enterprise," all the way to "Star Trek: The Original Series."
Clint has played a variety of characters over the years in several classic films including "Frost/Nixon," "Apollo 13," the Austin Powers trilogy, "The Waterboy," "The Rocketeer," "Tango and Cash," and Disney's "The Jungle Book," along with hundreds of other titles through his 60 years of acting.
Clint Howard has played such a variety of roles ready to take on any acting challenge. He is the ultimate chameleon of television and film. He has consistently worked well alongside Hollywood's fellow top actors throughout the decades, and has fully committed himself to every character in parts large and small. He has carried unique roles echoing through the generations in some of Hollywood's most memorable roles, still driving forth full steam ahead, ready to take on his next acting persona.- Actor
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Stanley Lloyd Kaufman never really wanted to make movies, he wanted to work in Broadway musicals. During his years in Yale he was introduced to "B" pictures and the works of Roger Corman. Lloyd later got the opportunity to executive-produce a short movie made by a fellow student. The film, called "Rappacini", got him even more interested in movies. He bought his own camera and took it with him to Chad, Africa, were he spent his summer. There, he shot a 15-minute film of a pig being slaughtered. That was his first movie, and was the birth of what was later to become known as Troma Films. He showed the footage of the squealing pig being killed to his family, and their reaction to it made him wonder if making movies that shocked audiences would keep them in their seats to see what would happen next.
He wanted to be a director right then and there, so he got a couple of friends at Yale and made his second movie, The Girl Who Returned (1969). People loved it, and he went straight to work on other films, helping out on projects like Joe (1970), Rocky (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1977).
Lloyd put in a lot of long, hard hours in the film business, just to be in the credits and to get money for his next project, a full-length feature. It was a tribute to Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and the classic era of silent-film comedy. Even though Lloyd hated the movie when it was completed, people seemed to love it. He formed a studio called 15th Street Films with friends and producers Frank Vitale and Oliver Stone. Together, they made Sugar Cookies (1973) and Cry Uncle (1971), directed by John G. Avildsen. A friend from Yale, Michael Herz, saw Lloyd in a small scene in "Cry Uncle" and contacted him to try to get into the film business. Kaufman took Herz in, as the company needed some help after Oliver Stone quit to make his own movies. Michael invested in a film they thought would be their biggest hit yet, Schwartz: The Brave Detective (1973) (aka "Big Gus, What's the Fuss?"). It turned out to be a huge flop and 15th Street Films was ruined. Lloyd and Michael owed thousands of dollars to producers and friends and family members who had invested in the picture.
Lloyd, trying to find a quick way to pay off the bills, made The Divine Obsession (1976), and with Michael formed Troma Studios, hoping to make some decent movies, since they only owned the rights to films they thought were poor. They were introduced to Joel M. Reed, who had an unfinished movie called "Master Sardu and the Horror Trio". The film was re-edited and completed at Troma Studios (which consisted of just one room) during 1975, re-titled and released in 1976 as Blood Sucking Freaks (1976) (aka "Bloodsucking Freaks"). It was enough of a success to enable them to pay the rent so they wouldn't lose the company.
Lloyd later got a call from a theater that wanted a "sexy movie" like The Divine Obsession (1976), but about softball (!). The resulting film, Squeeze Play (1979), used up all the money Troma had earned from "Bloodsucking Freaks" and, as it turned out, no one wanted to see it--not even the theater owner who wanted it made in the first place (he actually wanted a porno movie). Just when things looked their darkest, they got a call from another theater which was scheduled to show a film, but the distributor pulled it at the last minute. Troma rushed "Squeeze Play" right over, and it turned out to be a huge hit. Lloyd, Michael and Troma eventually made millions from it, and had enough money to buy their own building (which remains as Troma Headquarters). Troma then turned out a stream of "sexy" comedies-- Waitress! (1982), The First Turn-On!! (1983), Stuck on You! (1983)--but there was a glut of "T&A" films on the market. Lloyd noticed that a lot of comedies were being made and decided to make one, but much different than the rest. After reading an article that claimed horror movies were dead, Lloyd got the idea to combine both horror and comedy, and Troma came up with "Health Club Horror"--later re-titled and released as The Toxic Avenger (1984), a monster hit that finally put Troma on the map.
Lloyd Kaufman and Troma have become icons in the cult-movie world, and Troma has distributed over 1000 films. Lloyd has continued his career as a director in addition to producing, and Troma has turned out such films as Monster in the Closet (1986), Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986), Combat Shock (1984), Troma's War (1988), and Fortress of Amerikkka (1989), and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006), which follows an army of undead chickens as they seek revenge on a fast food palace.- Actor
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Beginning his life with the same flair for the dramatic that would come to define his career, Udo Kier was born in Köln, Germany near the end of the 2nd world war. The hospital was bombed and buried Kier and his mother in the rubble. Both survived, and Kier would later move to London as a young adult to study English. Kier was discovered in London by Michael Sarne, who cast him in his first role as a gigolo in "Road To Saint Tropez". Kier then starred in Michael Armstrong's extremely controversial "Mark Of The Devil". He would go on to work with Paul Morrissey in Andy Warhol's "Flesh For Frankenstein" and "Blood For Dracula", Dario Argento in "Suspiria", and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in "The Third Generation", "Lili Marllen", and "Lola".
Kier entered the American independent cinema scene many years later after meeting Gus Van Sant at the Berlin Film Festival. Van Sant offered Kier the role of Hans, the lamp-singing john in "My Own Private Idaho" with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. He would later have roles in Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" and "Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot" as well as such 90s Hollywood hits as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Barb Wire", "End Of Violence", "For Love Or Money", "Armagedden", "Blade", and "End Of Days". Kier is probably best known for his collaboration with Lars von Trier, appearing in most of his films including "Medea", "Europa", "Breaking The Waves", "Dancer In TheE Dark", "Dogville", "Manderlay", "Melancholia", "Nymphomaniac (Vol. II)" and "The Kingdom" (Danish TV). Kier's recent renaissance has seen him play memorable roles in the Activision game "Call Of Duty", numerous television roles in North America and Europe, and in the films "Iron Sky", "Brawl In Cell Block 99", "Downsizing", "American Animals", "Bacurau", "The Painted Bird", "The Blazing World" and "Swan Song", among many others.- Actor
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David Carradine was born in Hollywood, California, the eldest son of legendary character actor John Carradine, and his wife, Ardanelle Abigail (McCool). He was a member of an acting family that included brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine as well as his daughters Calista Carradine and Kansas Carradine, and nieces Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.
He was born in Hollywood and educated at San Francisco State College, where he studied music theory and composition. It was while writing music for the Drama Department's annual revues that he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a Shakespearean repertory company and learning his craft on his feet. After a two-year stint in the army, he found work in New York as a commercial artist and later found fame on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" opposite Christopher Plummer. With that experience he returned to Hollywood, landing the lead in the short-lived TV series Shane (1966) before being tapped to star opposite Barbara Hershey in Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood film, Boxcar Bertha (1972). The iconic Kung Fu (1972) followed, catapulting Carradine to super-stardom for the next three years, until he left the series to pursue his film career.
That career included more than 100 feature films, a couple of dozen television movies, a whole range of theater on and off Broadway and another hit series, Kung Fu: A Legend Reborn (1992).
Carradine received the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Film Review as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory (1976), and he won critical acclaim for his work as Cole Younger in The Long Riders (1980). "Kung Fu" also received seven Emmy nominations in its first season, including one for Carradine as Best Actor. In addition, he won the People's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival's "Director's Fortnight" for his work on Americana (1981), and a second Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985). Among his other notable film credits were Gray Lady Down (1978), Mean Streets (1973), Bird on a Wire (1990), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Serpent's Egg (1977) and Circle of Iron (1978). He returned to the screen in what could be his greatest performance, playing the title role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), for which he received his fourth Golden Globe nomination. He also continued his devotion to music, and recorded some 60 tracks in various musical genres and sang in several movies. He made his home in Los Angeles with his fifth wife Annie, her four children and their two dogs.
Found dead in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 3, 2009, aged 72.- Actor
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.- Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 5, 1934, actor Zakes Mokae was initially a jazz saxophonist. Moving to England in 1961, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and became one of the most distinguished thespians in South Africa for over two decades.
Mokae was one of the few actors capable of crossing the divided racial sections, punctuated by his collaborations with white writer Athol Fugard. Together they founded the radical theater group The Rehearsal Room in the 50s that specifically dealt with his country's injustices. In fact, over the years his performances in "The Blood Knot," "Boesman and Lena," "A Lesson from Aloes" and "Master Harold...and the Boys," have been universally applauded.
He fled the racist apartheid policies in South Africa in 1969 and migrated to America, subsequently winning a Tony award in 1982 for "Master Harold..." and proceeded to perform in American films to somewhat lesser acclaim, including A Dry White Season (1989), A Rage in Harlem (1991) and Waterworld (1995). TV appearances included strong appearances on such programs as "Law & Order," "Dream On," "Oz," "X-Files," "The West Wing" and "Monk."
In later years, Mokae moved to Las Vegas and served as artistic director for the Nevada Shakespeare Company. 75-year-old Mokae died there from complications of a stroke on September 11, 2009. - Actor
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Stephen Geoffreys made a strong and distinct impression with his winning blend of wild energy and manic intensity that he brought to a handful of hugely enjoyable comedies and horror films made throughout the 1980s. He was born Stephen Geoffrey Miller on November 22, 1964, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Geoffreys first began acting at a performing arts high school in Cincinnati and attended acting classes at New York University. Geoffreys gave an excellent and inspired performance as obnoxious horror movie geek "Evil" Ed Thompson in the terrific Fright Night (1985). Stephen displayed a real flair for comedy with his amusing turns as the antsy Williams in Heaven Help Us (1985) and the nerdy Wendell in Fraternity Vacation (1985). Other memorable roles include persecuted wimp Hoax in 976-EVIL (1988), hardened inmate Roach in the dreary haunted prison dud The Chair (1988), and slimy drug dealer Cookie in Moon 44 (1990). Geoffreys did guest appearances on the TV anthology shows Amazing Stories (1985) and The Twilight Zone (1985). Stephen has also had a very respectable stage career: he's acted in the Off-Broadway productions "The Human Comedy" (Geoffreys was nominated for a Broadway Tony Award for Best Actor for the subsequent Broadway production of this play), "Maggie/Magalita," and "Songs on the Shipwrecked Sofa." In a startling and unexpected career move, Geoffreys wound up acting in numerous gay hardcore porno pictures under the pseudonyms Sam Ritter and Stephan Bordeaux. Outside of acting, Geoffreys writes short stories and is an avid bodybuilder. After a regrettably lengthy absence from the big screen, Stephen Geoffreys made a welcome comeback with a co-starring role in the indie fright feature Sick Girl (2007).- Actor
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Theodore (Ted) Raimi is an American Character Actor who was born and raised in Detroit Michigan. Ted Raimi started his career at the early age of 17 and now owns 40 years of experience in his business. Raimi is known for appearing in horror shows, movies, series, and his most recent work; a motion-captured horror Game. But he has played various Characters in his career, allowing him to fit perfectly in any given role. The actor is best known for his role as Sheriff Travis Hackett in the Quarry, Tim O'Neill in Sea Quest, Ted Hoffman in Spiderman, Henrietta, and Chet Kaminski in the Evil Dead series, and Joxer the Mighty in Xena Warrior Princess. The Raimi family is well known for their work and take up important roles in the American film industry. Ted is the youngest brother of writer Ivan Raimi and Director/Producer Sam Raimi.- Actor
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Klaus Kinski was born as Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland), to Susanne (Lutze), a nurse, and Bruno Nakszynski, a pharmacist. He grew up in Berlin, was drafted into the German army in 1944 and captured by British forces in Holland. After the war he began acting on the stage, quickly gaining a reputation for a ferocious talent and an equally ferocious temper. He started acting in films shortly afterward, showing an utter disregard for the quality of the productions he appeared in and churning out so many that a complete filmography is almost impossible to assemble.
However, he did turn out memorable work for director Werner Herzog, a similarly driven and obsessive character. Herzog and Kinski pushed each other to extremes over a 15-year working relationship, which finally ended after filming Cobra Verde (1987), a production plagued by volcanic clashes between the star and director, involving--among other things--violent physical altercations and mutual death threats. He subsequently directed and starred in the notorious Paganini (1989), his only film as director and which was marked by (again) clashes between Kinski and his producers, who accused him of turning their movie into a pornographic film and sued him in court. His autobiography, "All I Need is Love", a vicious attack on the film industry, was withdrawn for legal reasons and subsequently re-released as "Kinski Uncut" in the US & UK, "Ich brauche Liebe" in Germany, and in various other languages.