Notables not inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame
Notables not inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame
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- Actress
- Writer
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Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on the vaudeville circuit. In 1910, she had a hit with 'Tillie's Nightmare' which Mack Sennett adapted to film as Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) with Charles Chaplin. Marie took top billing over a young Chaplin, but her film career never took off and by 1918, she was out of films and out of work. Her role in the chorus girls' strike of 1917 had her blacklisted from the theaters. In 1927, MGM screenwriter Frances Marion got her a small part in The Joy Girl (1927) and then a co-starring lead with Polly Moran in The Callahans and the Murphys (1927) (which was abruptly withdrawn from circulation thanks to objections of Irish-American groups over its depiction of gin-guzzling Irish). Her career stalled and the 59-year old actress found herself no longer in demand. In the late 1920s she had been largely forgotten and reduced to near-poverty. Despite her last film being a financial disaster, Irving Thalberg, somewhat incredibly, sensed her potential was determined to re-build her into a star. It was a slow return in films but her popularity continued to grow. But it was sound that made her a star again. Anna Christie (1930) was the movie where Garbo talks, but everyone noticed Marie as Marthy. In an era of Harlow, Garbo and Crawford, it was homely old Marie Dressler that won the coveted exhibitor's poll as the most popular actress for three consecutive years. In another film from the same year, Min and Bill (1930) she received a best actress Oscar for her dramatic performance. She received another Academy Award nomination for Emma (1932). She had more success with Dinner at Eight (1933) and Tugboat Annie (1933). In 1934, cancer claimed her life.- Eva Tanguay was born in Marbleton, Québec, Canada, on August 1, 1878. A stage actress early on, Eva went into vaudeville as soon as she got the chance and performed there for years, becoming known as "The Girl Who Made Vaudeville Famous". She was a late comer to the world of movies; had she been born 20 years later, she probably would have been a bona fide star on the screen. She was 38 when she appeared in her first motion picture, Energetic Eva (1916). Her next--and last--film was The Wild Girl (1917).
Eva died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, on January 11, 1947. She was 69 years old. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Walter Pidgeon, a handsome, tall and dark-haired man, began his career studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He then did theater, mainly stage musicals. He went to Hollywood in the early 1920s, where he made silent films, including Mannequin (1926) and Sumuru (1927). When talkies arrived, Pidgeon made some musicals, but he never received top billing or recognition in these. In 1937 MGM put him under contract, but only in supporting roles and "the other man" roles, such as in Saratoga (1937) opposite Jean Harlow and Clark Gable and in The Girl of the Golden West (1938) opposite Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Although these two films were big successes, Pidgeon was overlooked for his contributions to them. MGM lent him out to Fox, where he finally had top billing, in How Green Was My Valley (1941). When he returned to MGM the studio tried to give him bigger roles, and he was cast opposite his frequent co-star Greer Garson. However, Garson seemed to come up on top in Blossoms in the Dust (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), although Pidgeon did receive an Academy Award nomination for his role in the latter film.
Pidgeon remained with MGM through the mid-'50s, making films like Dream Wife (1953) and Hit the Deck (1955) with Jane Powell and old pal Gene Raymond. In 1956 Pidgeon left the movies to do some work in the theater, but he returned to film in 1961.
Pidgeon retired from acting in 1977. He suffered from several strokes that eventually led to his death in 1984.- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Composer, saxophonist, author and singer Carmen Lombardo was educated in the public schools of London, Ontario and joined the orchestra of his brother Guy Lombardo as a saxophonist and singer on films, in theatre and hotel appearances, on radio, and on many records. Joining ASCAP in 1929, he wrote the stage scores for the shows "Arabian Nights", "Paradise Island" and "Mardi Gras!" at Jones Beach, New York. His chief musical collaborators included Gus Kahn, Charles Newman, John Loeb and John Green, and his popular-song compositions include "Boo Hoo", "Powder Your Face With Sunshine", "Coquette", "Sweethearts on Parade", "Snuggled on Your Shoulder", "Jungle Drums", "Wake Up and Sing", "Address Unknown", "Return to Me", "A Sailboat in the Moonlight", "It's Never Too Late", "It's Easier Said Than Done", "Some Rainy Day", "Seems Like Old Times", "Where Are You Gonna Be When the Moon Shines?", "Our Little Ranch House", "Get Out Those Old Records", "How Long Has It Been?", "A Thousand and One Nights", "A Whale of a Story", "Teeny Weeny Genie", "Marry the One You Love", "The Hero of All My Dreams", "Paradise Island", and "The Coconut Wireless".- Lebert Lombardo was born on 11 February 1905 in London, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Rambling 'Round Radio Row #3 (1933), The Guy Lombardo Show (1954) and New Year's Eve Party with Guy Lombardo (1960). He died on 16 June 1993.
- Victor Lombardo was born on 10 April 1911. He was an actor, known for Rambling 'Round Radio Row #3 (1933), The Guy Lombardo Show (1954) and New Year's Eve Party with Guy Lombardo (1960). He died on 22 January 1994.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Tall, luminous and leonine, the legendary Colleen Dewhurst must go down as one of the theater's finest contemporary tragediennes of the late 1900s. With trademark dusky tones and a majestically careworn appearance, she possessed an inimitable down-to-earth fierceness that not only earned her the title "Queen of Off-Broadway" but allowed her to put a fiery and formidable stamp on a number of Eugene O'Neill's heroines. She was no slouch in the on-camera department, either, reaping trophies for a host of wryly comedic and electrifying dramatic turns on TV. While most of her towering achievements occurred in mid- to late career, she quickly made up for lost time. In addition, she and two-time actor/husband George C. Scott became an acting force together throughout much of the 1960s and early 1970s.
Colleen Rose Dewhurst was born on June 3, 1924, in Montreal, Quebec, the only child of Ferdinand Augustus "Fred" Dewhurst, a hockey and football player who later became sales manager of a lighting concern to support his family. Her mother, Frances Marie (nee Woods), a homemaker, was a Christian Science practitioner. Raised in the United States from the age of 13 (mostly in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin), she graduated from Riverside High School in Milwaukee in 1942 and then enrolled at Milwaukee's Downer College for Young Ladies. Working such odd jobs as a receptionist and elevator operator in between summer-stock engagements, she prepared for the stage in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met and later married fellow acting student James Vickery in 1947. She also took up studies with such illustrious teachers as Harold Clurman and Tyrone Guthrie.
Dewhurst played Julia Cavendish in "The Royal Family" while a student at Carnegie Lyceum in 1946. However, it took six years for her to make her professional debut at the ANTA in New York with a small dancing role in O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" (1952). In 1963, she won an Obie Award in the same play's leading role, Abbie. She built up her esteemed resumé gradually. In 1956 Joseph Papp featured her strongly at his New York Shakespeare Festival with roles in "Tamburlaine the Great", "Titus Andronicus", "Camille" (title part), "The Taming of the Shrew" (as Kate), and "The Eagle Has Two Heads". She won another Obie Award for her combined performances in the last three productions mentioned. The following year she portrayed Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth" and Mrs. Squeamish in "The Country Wife".
Dewhurst divorced her first husband, actor James Vickery in 1959 after meeting George C. Scott during the 1958 run of Broadway's "Children of Darkness", for which she won a Theatre World Award. Scott divorced his wife to marry Dewhurst in 1960 (ex-husband Vickery later married actress Diana Muldaur). Scott and Dewhurst had two children, Alexander Robert Scott ("Alex") and Campbell Scott.
Dewhurst's signature O'Neill role was that of Irish-American Josie Hogan in "The Moon for the Misbegotten". She first played the part in 1958 in Italy, then tackled the role again in 1965 in a production in Buffalo, New York. The third time was the charm when she recreated the role on Broadway in December of 1973 at age 49, not only earning the coveted Tony Award (her second), but the Los Angeles Drama Critics and Sarah Siddons awards as well. Over the years, O'Neill's plays would benefit greatly from her searing, impassioned performances, which included Sara in "More Stately Mansions," Christine Mannon in "Mourning Becomes Electra," Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night," Essie Miller in "Ah, Wilderness!" and, of course, Abbie Putnam in "Desire Under the Elms". In 1987, she portrayed Carlotta Monterey O'Neill (Eugene's wife) in an acclaimed one-woman show, "My Gene", in New York.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Dewhurst became a frequent contender at the Tony Awards ceremonies. She won her first Tony for James Agee's "All the Way Home" in 1960, and went on to be nominated for "Great Day in the Morning" (1962), "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (1963), "More Stately Mansions" (1967), "All Over" (1971), "Mourning Becomes Electra" (1972) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1976). One of her few career failures was directing the Broadway production of "Ned & Jack", which opened and closed the same night on November 8, 1981. Very much a theater activist, she joined several advisory boards in her time and became president of the Actor's Equity Association in 1985, serving until her death six years later.
While Dewhurst and then-husband Scott were heralded for their explosive appearances together on stage ("Desire Under the Elms" [both won Obies], "Antony and Cleopatra," "The Lion in Winter"), film (The Last Run (1971)) and TV (The Crucible (1967)), the couple's personal relationship was equally turbulent. Separated in 1963 and divorced in 1965, they remarried two years later. After appearing together in "The Last Run", Scott and Dewhurst parted ways again when he took up with another actress from the movie, Trish Van Devere, whom he later married. Scott and Dewhurst had two sons together and remained amicable.
Preferring the stage, Dewhurst was vastly underused on the big screen. Despite showing Hollywood her potential on film with a small but spectacular, spine-tingling role as an asylum patient who nearly does in poor Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story (1959), she offered only a sprinkling of film roles over the years--Man on a String (1960), A Fine Madness (1966), The Cowboys (1972), McQ (1974), Ice Castles (1978), When a Stranger Calls (1979), Tribute (1980), The Dead Zone (1983), The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), Termini Station (1989) and Dying Young (1991).
Better utilized on TV, the multiple Emmy Award winner appeared delightfully as Candice Bergen's brash worldly mother on the popular Murphy Brown (1988), earning two of her Emmy statuettes. The other two came for her strong supporting performances in the mini-movies Between Two Women (1986) and Those She Left Behind (1989). In 1985, she played Marilla Cuthbert in Kevin Sullivan's strong adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (1985) and continued her role in the mini-movie Anne of Avonlea (1987). She graced Sullivan's series Avonlea (1990) with the same character in a recurring format. Sadly, Dewhurst died before her role could be written out of the show properly. A touching death scene was edited into one episode as a tribute.
Diagnosed with cervical cancer, Colleen's fervent Christian Science beliefs led her to refuse any kind of surgical treatment. She died at age 67 at the pet-friendly South Salem, New York, farmhouse she shared with her companion (since 1974), producer Ken Marsolais on August 22, 1991. Two months later, her ex-husband George C. Scott starred in and directed a production of "On Borrowed Time", dedicating the show to her memory. Both of their sons, Alexander Robert Scott ("Alex") and Campbell Scott entered the entertainment field. Alex became a theatrical manager and writer, while Campbell has appeared on stage and in films. He appeared with his mother on Broadway in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Ah, Wilderness!" (both by Eugene O'Neill) in the late 1980s, and in the film "Dying Young (1991)" (one of her last performances).
Her autobiography, incomplete at the time of her death (she had been working on it for nearly 15 years), finally arrived in bookstores in 1997, six years after her death.- Charmion King was born on 25 July 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Anne of Green Gables (1985), Anne of Avonlea (1987) and Last Night (1998). She was married to Gordon Pinsent. She died on 6 January 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Although known primarily as the lead singer on the long-running TV show, Your Hit Parade (1950), Dorothy Collins was also featured on the TV show, Candid Camera (1960), where she displayed a lively flair for comedy. Her best work, however, was in the musical theater, where she starred in the original cast of what has become a legendary Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies". For her work, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1971, losing the award to her cast mate Alexis Smith. Her work in various musical programs on television in addition to Your Hit Parade (1950) showed her to be one of the finest vocalists of her era. She and her first husband, Raymond Scott, had their own record label; Collins surprised her fans with a number of critically-well-received jazz performances. She also was quite successful with night club engagements.- Actress
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Gisele MacKenzie was born on 10 January 1927 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), Burke's Law (1963) and MacGyver (1985). She was married to Robert F. Klein and Robert J. Shuttleworth. She died on 5 September 2003 in Burbank, California, USA.- Everyone knows (or should know) Lois Maxwell as the one and only "Miss Moneypenny," but there's much more to her acting career than that. She started out against her parents' will, and without their knowledge, in a Canadian children's radio program, credited as "Robin Wells." Before the age of 15 she left for England with the Canadian army's Entertainment Corps and managed (after her age had been discovered) to get herself enrolled in The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she met and became friends with Roger Moore. Her movie career started with a Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger production, A Matter of Life and Death (1946). After having won The Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe Award in 1947, she went to Hollywood and made six films before she decided to try her luck in Italy. She had to leave Italy to go to England when her husband became ill, and since then she has had roles in a number of movies besides the first 14 Bond movies. In 1989 she retired.
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The Canadian-American actor Peter Donat had a 50-year-long career in TV, motion pictures and theater. So respected was Donat, that Francis Ford Coppola considered casting him in the role of Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) that went to Robert Duvall.
The nephew of Oscar-winning actor Robert Donat, Peter was born Pierre Collingwood Donat on January 20, 1928 in Kentville, Nova Scotia. His father, landscape gardener Philip Donat, was Anglo-Canadian while his Marie (née Bardet) was French-Canadian.
In 1950, the 22-year-old Donat moved to the United States to study drama at Yale. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Donat frequently returned to Canada for acting work, appearing in the lead in a 1961 production of Donald Jack's play "The Canvas Barricade" at the Stratford Festival. He was also in the Canadian TV serial Moment of Truth (1964), which was broadcast on commercial TV in the States.
Peter Donat was married for 16 years to Emmy-winning actor Michael Learned. The couple, who divorced in 1972, had three children: Caleb, Christopher, and Lucas.- The brilliant and versatile London-born stage, radio and TV actress Kate Reid was actually born Daphne Kate Reid in 1930 to Canadian parents, Walter Clarke Reid and Helen Isabel Moore. The family moved back to Ontario before she was a year old. An introverted child of delicate health, Kate sought refuge in books and role-playing and began studying drama in her mid-teens. She apprenticed in summer stock and trained with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof at the HB Studio in New York. Earning critical acclaim as Lizzie in "The Rainmaker"and as Masha in "The Three Sisters", her decade with the Stratford Festival in Canada would establish her as one of North America's most accomplished actresses.
In the Shakespearean canon, she played numerous characters, from Lady Macbeth to the shrewish Katharina, who may or may not have been tamed by the end of the comedy of the same name. She often played women older than she actually was, and battled alcohol and weight problems throughout much of her life. She was to have taken "The Rainmaker" to England's West End at one point but severe anxiety attacks kept her from doing so. She made her Broadway debut in 1962, playing the matinée Martha in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", which role was played 7 out of eight weekly performances by Reid's legendary mentor, Uta Hagen.
Filming for Reid would be very erratic during her career. She played Natalie Wood's mother in This Property Is Condemned (1966) and may be best-remembered as a scientist in the thriller The Andromeda Strain (1971) or as the brittle, bitter, boozing Claire in A Delicate Balance (1973), opposite such heavyweights as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Joseph Cotten, and Betsy Blair. She earned two Tony nominations in the 1960s for her participation in the plays "Dylan" and "Slapstick Tragedy". Further respect came in the package of Arthur Miller's "The Price" and John Guare's "Bosoms and Neglect". On U.S. television, she played the skeptical mother of a murder witness in the Columbo (1971) episode Dead Weight (1971), as well as a treacherous foreign agent in the Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) episode The First Time (1983). She also managed a recurring part on Dallas (1978) as well as regular roles on the short-lived TV series Gavilan (1982) and Morningstar/Eveningstar (1986).
Plagued by ill health in later years, Reid nevertheless offered a couple of outstanding contributions. She was the invalid mistress in the film Atlantic City (1980) opposite Burt Lancaster, and portrayed the devoted, long-suffering wife Linda Loman alongside Dustin Hoffman in the critically-acclaimed 1984 remake of Miller's "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway. She and Hoffman (who was seven years her junior) subsequently preserved their roles with a TV adaptation the following year. Likewise, she appeared in the television movie Morning's at Seven (1982), reprising and preserving on celluloid her performance in the same role in the successful Broadway production. Her last role was in the miniseries Murder in the Heartland (1993). Reid succumbed to brain cancer at age 62 in Ontario, Canada. - Roberta Maxwell was born on 17 June 1941 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress, known for Popeye (1980), The Postman (1997) and Philadelphia (1993).
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Anna McGarrigle was born on 4 December 1944 in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is a composer and actress, known for The Squid and the Whale (2005), Before Tomorrow (2008) and Good Neighbours (2010). She is married to Dane Lanken.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actress
Kate McGarrigle was born on 6 February 1946 in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was a composer and actress, known for The Squid and the Whale (2005), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Before Tomorrow (2008). She was married to Loudon Wainwright III. She died on 18 January 2010 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.- Michael Ontkean, best known for playing the minor league hockey player Ned Braden in the cult classic Slap Shot (1977), was born on January 24, 1946 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His parents, Leonard and Muriel (née Cooper) Ontkean, were actors. Michael was raised Catholic and attended Catholic elementary and high schools. Like many young Canadian men, he grew up playing hockey. He was good enough to earn a hockey scholarship to the University of New Hampshire, a Division I program. He was a standout player at UNH in his three seasons as a varsity player from 1966-69. (Division I hockey teams did not allow freshmen to play on the varsity team in those days.) After graduating from UNH in 1969, he did not pursue a professional hockey career but appeared on the Canadian series Hudson's Bay (1959), which ran for one season in 1959-60, but did not appear again professionally as an actor until an episode of Ironside (1967) was broadcast in 1970. He moved to Los Angeles to become an actor.
After taking roles on episodic TV shows and appearing in TV movies from 1970-72, he had his breakthrough with a lead in the TV series The Rookies (1972), which debuted in September 1972. He played policeman Willie Gillis on the series, but left after the 1973-74 season and was replaced by Chris Owens (Bruce Fairbairn). His co-star, Kate Jackson, would later appear as his wife in the then-controversial 1982 film Making Love (1982), in which Ontkean played a married man who leaves his wife after coming out after an affair with his gay lover.
Earlier, Ontkean's skill as a hockey player enabled him to beat out Peter Straus and other actors for the role as the disaffected Ned Braden in Slap Shot (1977). In the film, he performed all of his on-ice shots himself. Subsequently, he had a major role in Paul Mazursky's Willie & Phil (1980), but neither that movie or "Making Love" was a hit. (Peter Strauss -- who lost the role in "Slap Shot" to Ontkean but became a bigger star after the success of Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) -- turned down the role of the closeted gay husband played by Ontkean in "Making Love".)
Ontkean's most memorable role since the early 1980s was Sheriff Harry S. Truman) in David Lynch's cult classic TV series Twin Peaks (1990). He lives in Hawaii with his wife, Jamie Smith Jackson. - Actor
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Stephen McHattie was born on 3 February 1947 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is an actor and director, known for Pontypool (2008), The Fountain (2006) and Watchmen (2009). He is married to Lisa Houle. They have three children. He was previously married to Meg Foster.- Actress
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Micheline Lanctôt was born on 12 May 1947 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is an actress and director, known for Sonatine (1984), Pour l'amour de Dieu (2011) and The Handyman (1980). She was previously married to Marshall Chrostowski.- Actor
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Born in Halifax to a Royal Canadian Navy father, Art's mother soon had him back in their home town of Toronto, Ontario. He grew up in the "Beaches" of Toronto a big fan of Elvis Presley and rock n' roll. Although shy as a child, he grew to be a rebellious and independent teenager. This lead him to much traveling, mostly by hitch-hiking, picking up odd jobs, meeting all sorts of people from red-necks to freedom marchers to surfers and everyone in between. By the time he was 21, he was a father, a stockbroker and an amateur photographer. A much admired uncle of Art's was Michael Kane, a talented and successful actor. This had piqued Art's interest in acting during his teens. Although fairly successful himself, as a broker, he basically felt unfulfilled and eventually, after being inspired and touched by a Toronto Workshop Productions play, he made the commitment to leave the stock market for theatre. Although he worked, basically, as an unglorified gofer for a few months with TWP, eventually he got an acting agent, mostly with a false resume, and started auditioning mostly for commercials. It was at this time that Art credits a discovery that changed his future. Someone, he can't remember who, directed him to the Eli Rill Workshop. Eli had moved to Toronto from New York, where he taught at the Actor's Studio. Kind, gentle and articulate, Eli lucidly communicated techniques and explorations of the Method. Art thrived in this environment and soon started applying his knowledge to getting acting jobs. His first big role was in a biker movie, The Proud Rider (1971), spawned by the popularity of Easy Rider (1969). Art actually worked with a real motorcycle gang, the Satan's Choice. It was during the making of this rather bad movie that Art almost changed his professional name to Jeremy Kane. The producers thought that Art should have a more "show biz" name and took his photo to a girls school and asked the students to suggest first names and last names. They then took these names to Art and asked him to pick one of each. He liked the name Jeremy and chose Kane in honor of his uncle. The first person he called was his uncle Michael. Michael told him in no uncertain terms to stick to his own name. Art did so, but the other name is still connected to the film. The other anecdote was when the producers asked Art if he could ride a "bike," he took them "literally" and said he could, but that when it came to motorcycles his brother Lang Hindle was much better, being a champion road racer. Cast for the part late on a Thursday, Art had to learn to ride a motorcycle by Monday morning. The next big step was being cast as Billy Duke, the best hockey player in the world, drafted by the Maple Leafs to lead them back to the playoffs in the film Winter Comes Early (1971), Canada's first million-dollar movie. This film led to offers from Hollywood, which he resisted until work dried up and Art, who had 4 children by this time, finally moved to Los Angeles.
Art credits much of his success in California to luck. He felt he was lucky having Patricia McQueeney as his manager and a dynamic pair of agents in Arnold Rifkin and Nichole David. Over the years Art has come to be known as a "working actor" involved as a leading actor in some "classic" films and numerous pilots and series. His work in ENG, one Canada's most successful series, won him a Acting Gemini and his Pete Braga in Paradise Falls (2001) has been described as a "classic performance" although Art credits brilliant writing for all the plaudits. Also, in the early 1990s, Art added the credit Director to his impressive resume. He and his beautiful wife, Brooke now split time between California, Florida and Canada spending time with their much beloved children, all 8 of them, and their 6 grandchildren. Lucky? Indeed!- Actress
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Joanna Gleason was born in Winnipeg, Canada, moving to the U.S. in 1956. She retains dual citizenship.
Her Broadway debut was in Cy Coleman's musical. "I Love My Wife", in 1977, for which she won a Theatre World Award.
She returned to Broadway and off Broadway with "Joe Egg" in 1984, for which earned a Tony nomination.
Stephen Sondheim's "Into The Woods" won her a Tony Award as Best Actress, plus Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1991, she starred as Nora in "Nick and Nora", the ill-fated musical. What she won, however , was a her husband -to - be, Chris Sarandon. They have been together ever since. They have four children between them, with song-writer-producer Aaron David Gleason being Joanna's son from her first marriage.
In 2004, she starred in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" on Broadway (Tony nomination) the same year she was in "The Normal Heart" at The Public Theatre in New York City.
"Sons Of The Prophet" and "Happiness" were two other off-Broadway shows.
Film appearances include "Boogie Nights", Heartburn", The Wedding Planner" "The Skeleton Twins"
TV roles include "West Wing", "The Newsroom", "Friends", "Bette", "Love and War"
Joanna has directed off-Broadway, and for CBS Television and Lifetime. She made a deeply personal short, "Morning Into Night", which will soon be available.
"The Grotto" marks her first feature as writer/director- Actor
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Matt Frewer has been travelling all over North America in recent months filming recurring roles. Most recently, he worked in Los Angeles for HBO's Perry Mason and in Austin for AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. In Vancouver portrayed Carnage in Netflix's sci-fi drama Altered Carbon (2018); in Montreal (opposite Dennis Quaid) as Anthony Bruhl in NBC's Timeless (2016); in Toronto as Paul Rice in Crackle's The Art of More (2015), and also in Toronto as Dr. Leekie on BBC America's award-winning Orphan Black (2013); and in Brooklyn, New York as Dr. J. M. Christiansen in Steven Soderbergh's gritty early-20th century hospital drama The Knick (2014).
Frewer's film credits include Steven Spielberg's The BFG (2016), 20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), 50/50 (2011) (with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Foreverland (2011), Frankie & Alice (2010) (with Halle Berry), and as Moloch in Zack Snyder's Watchmen (2009). He appeared in Snyder's 2004 film, Dawn of the Dead (2004). He filmed Attack on Darfur (2009) in South Africa and played the lead in the action/adventure film Wushu Warrior (2011), which was filmed in China. Other work on the big screen includes playing "Big Russ Thompson" in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and Jobe Smith, the nefarious computer genius in Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995). Frewer starred in four Sherlock Holmes films for Muse Entertainment, CTV and the Odyssey Channel.
He performed leading roles in numerous television movies & miniseries, including Nick Willing's Alice (2009) (as the White Knight; for which he was nominated for a Gemini Award). He reunited with Nick Willing to play Daedalus in 13 episodes of Olympus (2015). Frewer starred in the television miniseries Delete (2013) for Brightlight Pictures, A&E's miniseries Bag of Bones (2011) with Pierce Brosnan, Hallmark's Battle of the Bulbs (2010), and in Spielberg's Taken (2002). He played an arsonist known as the " Trashcan Man" in the Stephen King-scripted ABC miniseries, The Stand (1994).
In addition to his recent television work, Cable Ace and Gemini award-winning Frewer is a familiar face on the Emmy-nominated DreamWorks/TNT Falling Skies (2011) as well as Eureka (Sci-Fi), Intelligence (CBC), and Doctor, Doctor (CBS). He made guest appearances on such prime time network television series as St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other notable turns on television include portraying such real-life notable individuals as U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer in American Playhouse's Long Shadows (1994) (PBS), Alexander Haig in Kissinger and Nixon (1995) (TNT), and Gene Kranz in the made-for-television movie Apollo 11 (1996).- Actress
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Gloria Reuben is an actress, singer and published author whose impressive credentials in television, film, theater and music include portraying the HIV+ physician assistant Jeanie Boulet on the hit NBC series ER (a role that garnered her two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination) and many other television series including Raising The Bar, Falling Skies, Marvel TV's Cloak & Dagger, City On A Hill and The First Lady.
Gloria completed her role as Krista Gordon (the therapist to Rami Malek's Elliot Alderson) in the hit TV series Mr. Robot. As Rolling Stone wrote in their review of the Mr. Robot series finale: "...what makes the scene so powerful are the performances by Rami Malek and Gloria Reuben (who delivers a masterclass in how to convey so much information while making it feel emotionally resonant)."
In film, Gloria portrayed Elizabeth Keckley alongside Daniel Day-Lewis & Sally Field in the Steven Spielberg film LINCOLN, appeared with Paul Rudd and Tina Fey in Paul Weitz's Admission, and starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Reasonable Doubt. Gloria's portrayal of Condoleezza Rice in David Hare's play Stuff Happens at The Public Theater in NYC garnered her a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress.
In music, Gloria's career includes being a backup singer for Tina Turner in 2000, which led her to record her solo record Just For You. Gloria released her first jazz album Perchance To Dream in 2015 on the iconic Mcg Jazz label, and her new album For All We Know was released on Valentine's Day 2020, again on the Mcg Jazz label, to rave reviews.
Gloria's non-fiction book My Brothers' Keeper: Two Brothers. Loved. And Lost. (an intimate tribute to her two brothers who have passed away) was published by Post Hill Press in November 2019.- Actor
- Producer
- Visual Effects
Nathan Fillion was born on 27 March 1971 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is the son of Cookie (Early) and Bob Fillion, both retired English teachers, and has an older brother, Jeff. His father is of French-Canadian descent, and his mother is of English, German, Finnish, and Norwegian ancestry. In Canada, he attended Holy Trinity Catholic High School, Concordia University College of Alberta and University of Alberta. Before moving to New York City in 1994, he participated in improv theatre, including Theatresports with Rapid Fire Theatre and improvised soap opera Die-Nasty. He also appeared in a TV Movie Ordeal in the Arctic (1993) starring Richard Chamberlain and in Strange and Rich (1994).
Fillion's first regular role was on a daytime soap opera, One Life to Live (1968), as Joey Buchanan, for which role he was nominated in 1996 for a Daytime Emmy Award. He left the series after three years in 1997. During the late 1990's, he appeared in small roles in the films Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Blast from the Past (1999). Fillion also guest starred on Das Bootie (1997), Mama's Got a Brand New Bag (1998) and Starcrossed (1999). His biggest break by then happened in 1998, when he was cast as Johnny Donnelly on the 2nd season of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998) opposite Traylor Howard, Ryan Reynolds, Richard Ruccolo and Suzanne Cryer. He starred on the show for 60 episodes.
After "Two Guys" ended in 2001, Fillion gained critical acclaim and a large cult of fans when he starred as Captain Malcolm Reynolds on the Joss Whedon's Firefly (2002). Unfortunately the show was prematurely canceled in late 2002. He also guest starred on several episodes of two short lived TV shows, Pasadena (2001), as Rev. Glenn Collins and Miss Match (2003), as Adam Logan. In 2003, Whedon gave Fillion another chance to display his range when he cast Fillion as the twisted preacher Caleb, a villain, in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Before and after "Firefly", Fillion appeared in many movies, Dracula 2000 (2000), Alligator Point (2003), Water's Edge (2003), If Dad Only Knew (2004) and Hollywood Division (2004).
Whedon vowed to resurrect "Firefly" in some way, and Fillion played Captain Reynolds again in the feature-film Serenity (2005). Fillion followed this film with more big screen leading roles, in the horror-comedy Slither (2006), in White Noise 2: The Light (2007), in the indie hit Waitress (2007) opposite Keri Russell and in Trucker (2008). He also continued to be a force in television, starring in the short-lived Fox-TV series Drive (2007) and appearing on a recurring role as Dr. Adam Mayfair on the 4th season of ABC's Desperate Housewives (2004), opposite Dana Delany. He also appeared on I Do (2006) and was a voice actor on many video games (e.g. Halo 3 (2007)).
In 2008, he took his first singing part (and cemented his cult appeal) as Captain Hammer in Whedon's musical Internet smash Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008), with Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Simon Helberg. In 2009, he was cast as the title character Richard Castle in ABC's hit television series, Castle (2009). The show has aired more than 160 episodes and Nathan Fillion has won four People's Choice Awards for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor, as of 2016. In 2018, Fillion took the starring role in The Rookie (2018) as John Nolan, a contractor who starts over as a rookie police officer in the LAPD after a life-altering event. Besides starring on "Castle", he has appeared in many movies, in Super (2010) as The Holy Avenger, in Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (2012) as Dogberry, the incompetent chief of security, in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) as Hermes and in Thrilling Adventure Hour Live (2015).
His credits as a voice-actor are numerous: on Bright Lights, Dean City (2010) as Brown Widow, in Wonder Woman (2009) as Steve Trevor, in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011), Justice League: Doom (2012), Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, in Robot Chicken: DC Comics Special (2012) as Green Lantern/Mr. Freeze, on American Dad! (2005), in Pixar's Monsters University (2013) as Johnny, in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as Monstrous Inmate and on Gravity Falls (2012) as Preston Northwest. He also voices the lead, Shojun in the animated movie, Yamasong: March of the Hollows (2017). He has also continued voicing characters in video games, such as in Destiny (2014) and in Halo 5: Guardians (2015).
He has also guest starred on The Daly Superheroes (2012) as himself, on Community (2009) as Bob Waite, on The Comic Book Store Regeneration (2015) as himself, on Twins (2015) as Mountie McMinniman, on Con Man (2015) as Jack Moore and on Space (2015) as Wernher Von Braun. He also narrated the documentary, Highway of Tears (2015).