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Shawn Silver
Biography
Shawn Silver is a professional Irish dancer and dance teacher in St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador. He received master dance training in Dublin, Ireland with world champion dancers Ronan McCormack TCRG, Roisin Cahalane TCRG and Gemma Carney TCRG, all members of the famed Riverdance Troupe, and Margaret Kelly TCRG ADCRG who instructed Shawn in the Ceili (or group) dances (sponsored by the Governments of Canada and Newfoundland & Labrador).
Shawn Silver Shawn has worked in Canadian dance, film, music video, television and stage productions on a full and part time basis since 1982. These activities include: dancing, dance instruction and choreography, acting, location and set design. He has also worked as a model for a variety of print and television advertising campaigns.
Born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland Shawn was educated in Montreal in the 1980's and worked in Toronto in the 1990's, before returning to St. John's in 1998.
Some of Shawn's notable career highlights include: choreography and dance performance with the popular East Coast Celtic rock group The Fables for the 2002 Juno Awards Premier's Gala (honouring the best in Canada's recording industry); choreography and dance performance in Cape Breton Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond's award winning Stepping Song video (nominated for an East Coast Music Award 1998); research and feature interviews for The Stowaway (1999), a 1999 History Channel documentary exploring his family's Portuguese heritage and immigration to Canada; location work for Ekhaya! (Freedom), a CBC-TV dramatic mini-series exploring the Canadian connection to apartheid, filmed on location in Toronto and South Africa; Production coordinator, choreographer and stylist for Bloomsday Cabaret , a film about James Joyce and music, shot in Dublin and St. John's; Acting roles in Canadian films such as The Ocean Ranger Disaster (2001) and Baking Lessons (2002).
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Jay Wolpert
Biography
Jay Wolpert is an American television producer and screenwriter.
Wolpert began his game show producing career working for US quiz scandal figure Dan Enright in Canada. He later worked as a producer and creator of game shows for Chuck Barris Productions and Goodson-Todman Productions. While at Goodson-Todman, he served as producer of The Price is Right from 1972 until 1978.
Wolpert left Goodson-Todman to form his own production company. His first game show was the 1979 series Whew! for CBS. Whew! was canceled in 1980 and Wolpert didn't return to television with a series until January 1983, despite shooting several pilots in the interim. On January 3, 1983, Wolpert's Hit Man debuted on NBC with Peter Tomarken. Like most of Wolpert's productions, Hit Man was short-lived and left the air after thirteen weeks.
Five years later, Wolpert returned to daytime television with the series Blackout for CBS. Debuting on January 4, 1988 in place of the long-running hit The $25,000 Pyramid, Blackout never found an audience as. The Bob Goen-hosted Blackout ended after thirteen weeks of episodes and was replaced by The $25,000 Pyramid.
In 1990 Wolpert launched a new series on the Lifetime network based on a pilot he had shot in 1981 with Tomarken as host. On February 5, 1990, Rodeo Drive debuted with comedienne Louise DuArt hosting. Again, however, Wolpert was behind a short lived series and Rodeo Drive ended its run on August 31 of that year; the show had only aired twelve weeks of new episodes prior to that and had been in reruns until the program was removed from Lifetime's lineup.
After a hiatus, Wolpert returned to the Goodson Productions team and produced a new Price is Right series for Goodson and Paramount Television. The New Price is Right debuted in syndication in September 1994, with Wolpert producing. But as with Wolpert's previous three series, ratings for The New Price is Right were lacking and it resulted in a cancellation after sixteen weeks in January 1995.
In 1996 Wolpert and The Family Channel teamed up for two series. One was Wait 'til You Have Kids, another short-lived series based on The Parent Game, a series produced by Wolpert's previous employer Chuck Barris. The other was the popular Shopping Spree, which ran for nearly two years and was Wolpert's longest-running game show in his company's history. After Shopping Spree went off the air in August 1998, Wolpert's company stopped producing programming. He was executive producer of the 1998 version of Match Game. Despite having worked for Goodson during the 1970's, he didn't work on the 1970's version of that show.
More recently, Wolpert has turned to screenwriting, writing the script for The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and receiving a story credit for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
In the 2010-11 season, Wolpert is listed as a consultant during the credits of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and had some input in that season's format changes.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jay Wolpert, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Chuck Hayward
Biography
Charles Bert Hayward (January 20, 1920 – February 23, 1998) was an American motion picture stuntman and actor. He was associated particularly with the films of John Wayne. He doubled for most of the great Western and action stars of the 1950s-1980s.
His parents, Bert and Hazel Hayward, were cattle ranchers on a farm near Hyannis, Nebraska, about sixty miles east of Hayward's birthplace in Alliance. He spent his early youth working cattle, then, at 16, left home to join the rodeo circuit as a bronc rider and horse trainer. In 1947, he arrived in Los Angeles and sought work as a wrangler on motion pictures. He began doing stunts in 1949 on The Fighting Kentuckian, doubling for John Wayne. The two became pals and Hayward subsequently stunted and doubled for Wayne on nearly two dozen of the latter's films. Excelling at all sorts of horseback stunts, Hayward doubled most stars of the period who found themselves in Westerns or otherwise astride a horse, including Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Gregory Peck. He was prominent in The Big Country, co-produced by Peck. He was known as "Good Chuck" in contrast to "Bad Chuck", in reference to Chuck Roberson, another of Wayne's stunt doubles.
He graduated into stunt coordination, arranging the stunts in films such as The Deadly Companions and the TV series The Rat Patrol. He played small roles in numerous films and TV shows, and his appearance often served as an accurate predictor of an upcoming fight scene. He retired from stunt work in 1981, and from acting in 1989. Hayward was a member of the unofficial John Ford Stock Company, a lifetime member of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures, and an inductee into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame. He died from Hodgkin's Disease at his home in North Hollywood, California, in 1998. He was married three times, to Ellen Powell, by whom he had a daughter, and to Carol Lynn Shepherd. He had two children with Carol Lynn Shepherd. They were divorced in 1982. He then married Sally Pape Callaghan on October 30, 1982.
Before his Hollywood stuntman career, Hayward also worked as a medic in the United States Merchant Marine and he stated that he served on liberty ships. His two boys, along with his wife Carol's best friend who was trying to save them, perished in a forest fire in the early 1980s.
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Evald Hermaküla
Biography
Evald Hermaküla (December 6, 1941 – May 16, 2000) was an Estonian actor and director.
Hermaküla was born in the village of Maardu in Jõelähtme Parish. In 1965 he graduated from the University of Tartu in geology. In 1965 he also finished his studies at Vanemuine Theatre Studio in Tartu. From 1962 he was an actor and from 1969 a stage director in Vanemuine theatre. He also directed and appeared as an actor films and television.
Hermaküla committed suicide by hanging on 16 May 2000 in Kadriorg Park in Tallinn, aged 58. He was buried in Tallinn's Forest Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was married to actress Kaie Mihkelson.
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Robert Taylor
Biography
Robert Taylor (born Spangler Arlington Brugh; August 5, 1911 – June 8, 1969) was an American film and television actor who was one of the most popular leading men of his time.
Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He won his first leading role the following year in Magnificent Obsession. His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Air Corps, where he worked as a flight instructor and appeared in instructional films. From 1959 to 1962, he starred in the ABC series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor. In 1966, he took over hosting duties from his friend Ronald Reagan on the series Death Valley Days.
Taylor was married to actress Barbara Stanwyck from 1939 to 1951. He married actress Ursula Thiess in 1954, and they had two children. A chain smoker, Taylor was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 1968. He died of the disease on June 8, 1969 at the age of 57.
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David Huynh
Biography
A Canadian transplant, David Huynh has had the fortunate opportunity to have performed on both Canadian and American theater, television and film productions. David was seen on Canadian television on YTV's "2030 C.E." and appeared in Kiefer Sutherland's directorial debut "Woman Wanted". His stage credits also include the role of Oscar in "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang" and Berthold Brecht's "The Caucasian Chalk Circle". David has studied at The Prairie Theatre Exchange and was a member of the influential Manitoba Theatre for Young People. David was a student at The University of Manitoba, working on a major in Theatre and a minor in Film studies.
In Los Angeles, David made his stage debut in Joe Jordan's "Dubya 2004" at The Sacred Fools theater, following a stint at The Underground Theatre's production of Landford Wilson's "Balm In Gilead" and on television as Sun Kim on the ABC program, "Invasion". Most notably, David is recognized as the title character of Juwan Chung's intense gangland drama, "Baby(2005)".
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Barbara Weber-Scaff
Biography
A resident of Paris, France for quite awhile, Barbara performed in Les Miserables as well as a trilogy of musicals at the Folies Bergère, as well as starring in the TV variety show Les Années Tubes before turning to film and animation. Film credits include Miss Missouri (narration), Bon Voyage, Arthur and the Minimoys 1, 2 & 3, Lucy, Valerian... cartoons include all listed plus Sammy and Co (Ricky), Code Lyoko (Ulrich), the legend of Calamity Jane (Calamity Jane), Moka's Fabulous Adventures (Moka, Cherry), Paprika Twins (Puff), and many others. Video game characters include Carla Valenti in Indigo Prophesy (Farenheit), Nora and Shimasani in Beyond Two Souls, Chloe in Detroit Become Human.
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Mimi Chu Mai-Mai
Biography
Mimi Chu is a Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress and singer. She lived in Singapore before moving to Hong Kong. She has appeared at many events. As an actress, she is a recognised face in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia having appeared in both Hong Kong and Singaporean productions.
Mimi still owns a HDB flat in Singapore and her children are educated in Singapore. Her older brother is the founder and chairman of a listed company in Singapore. She is the sister-in-law of Hong Kong actor and former policeman Joe Ma.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000).
Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.
On October 31, 2020, Connery died at the age of 90.
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Suzanne C. Johnson
Biography
After years of devoting her life to her family, and to nursing, Suzanne Johnson listened to her heart and made the leap from being a mother and nurse to following her dream of an acting career. She began her journey by enrolling in acting classes and combing the internet for casting announcements, gamely submitting herself for every part she thought would be a good fit. In her first feature film, Empty Space, a powerful drama, she was cast as a waitress in a rural diner trapped in an abusive relationship. After that role, she was hooked. A series of parts followed in several shorts, student films and features. Suzanne played a range of roles, including a mother to a dying girl in a faith-based film, the love interest of a sheriff in a rural town, a hippie psychic, and a Southern socialite with a poker fetish. It was a solid start to her film career but she wanted more. What would be the next big step?
Working with her acting coach, Damon Shalit, they brainstormed how she could further her career. They decided that one great course of action would be to not only act but to produce a film in which she could star. Damon suggested she read some screenplays, and also recommended Joshua Henkin’s best-selling novel The World Without You. She immediately connected with the powerful material, and the character of grieving mother Marilyn deeply resonated with her. Apart from great similarities in their personalities, Marilyn’s trajectory as a mother who loses her only son to a terrorist act was an emotional journey that Suzanne felt compelled to fulfill.
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