Trending

Popular people

Rutger Hauer

Biography

Rutger Oelsen Hauer (January 23, 1944 – July 19, 2019) was a Dutch film actor. He was well known for his roles in Flesh + Blood, Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Sin City, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins. Hauer was born in Breukelen, Netherlands, to drama teachers Arend and Teunke, and grew up in Amsterdam. Since his parents were very occupied with their careers, he and his three sisters (one older, two younger) were raised mostly by nannies. At the age of 15, Hauer ran off to sea and spent a year scrubbing decks aboard a freighter. Returning home, he worked as an electrician and a carpenter for three years while attending acting classes at night school. He went on to join an experimental troupe, with which he remained for five years before he was cast in the lead role in the very successful 1969 television series Floris, a Dutch Ivanhoe-like medieval action drama. The role made him famous in his native country. Hauer's career changed course when director Paul Verhoeven cast him as the lead in Turkish Delight (1973) (based on the Jan Wolkers book of the same name). The movie found box-office favour abroad as well as at home, and within two years, its star was invited to make his English-language debut in the British film The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Set in South Africa and starring Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, the film was an action melodrama with a focus on apartheid. Hauer's supporting role, however, was barely noticed in Hollywood, and he returned to Dutch films for several years. Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Nighthawks (1981), cast as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named "Wolfgar" (after a character in the Old English poem Beowulf). The following year, he appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric, violent, yet sympathetic replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi thriller, Blade Runner. Hauer was a dedicated environmentalist. He fought for the release of Greenpeace's co-founder, Paul Watson, who was convicted in 1994 for sinking a Norwegian whaling vessel. Hauer has also established an AIDS awareness foundation called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation. He married his second wife, Ineke, in 1985 (they had been together since 1968); and he has one child, actress Aysha Hauer, who was born in 1966 and who made him a grandfather in 1988. In April 2007, he published his autobiography All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners (co-written with Patrick Quinlan) where he discussed many of his movie roles. Proceeds of the book go to Hauer's Starfish Foundation.
Read more

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.
Read more

Robert Zemeckis

Biography

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker known for directing and producing a range of successful and influential movies. He often blends cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling. He has received several accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for five British Academy Film Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award. Zemeckis started his career directing the comedy films I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), Used Cars (1980), and Romancing the Stone (1984). He gained prominence directing the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), the fantasy comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and the comedy-drama Forrest Gump (1994), the latter of which won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. He has also directed the satirical black comedy Death Becomes Her (1992), the science fiction film Contact (1997), and the drama films Cast Away (2000), Flight (2012), The Walk (2015), and Allied (2016). His exploration of motion capture techniques can be seen in the animated films The Polar Express (2004) and A Christmas Carol (2009), as well as the action fantasy drama Beowulf (2007) and the drama Welcome to Marwen (2018). He has collaborated with film composer Alan Silvestri since 1984 and directed Tom Hanks in five films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Zemeckis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more

Jake Quickenden

Biography

Jacob "Jake" Quickenden (born 3 September 1988) is an English singer and reality television personality. He was a contestant on the ninth and eleventh series of The X Factor in 2012 and 2014, before being runner-up in series 14 of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in December 2014. After taking part in I'm a Celebrity, Quickenden met Carl Fogarty's daughter, Danielle and they dated until just after Dancing On Ice. In 2018, he won the tenth series of Dancing on Ice, where he was partnered with professional German figure skater Vanessa Bauer. Jake is currently starring in a U.K. tour of Hair The Musical. Quickenden was a lifeguard in his home town of Scunthorpe, alongside a career as semi-pro footballer.
Read more

Douglas Horne

Biography

Douglas P. Horne is a former Navy officer. In 1974, he graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. From 1975 to 1985, he served as a junior Surface Line Officer in the U.S. Navy. He transitioned to Navy Civil Service in 1985, and was an Operations Manager at a U.S. Navy field office in Pearl Harbor, which dedicated to the logistic support of anti-submarine warfare vessels. In August 1995, he was hired as an analyst on the Military Records Team of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in Washington, DC, and was later promoted to the position of Chief Analyst for Military Records. After the ARRB concluded its work in September 1998, Horne served as the Manager of the Visitor Services Branch at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial for over two years. He then joined the State Department’s Washington Passport Agency as a Passport Specialist.
Read more

Andrew Collins

Biography

Andrew Collins was born in Bedford, England. He is a science and history writer, and the author of over a dozen books that challenge the way we perceive the past. They include The Black Alchemist, The Seventh Sword, From the Ashes of Angels, Gods of Eden, Gateway to Atlantis, Tutankhuman: The Exodus Conspiracy (co-authored with Chris Ogilvie Herald), The Cygnus Mystery, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt and Denisovan Origins: Hybrid Humans, Göbekli Tepe and the Genesis of the Giants of Ancient America, co-authored with Greg L. Little. He lives in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Source: www.andrewcollins.com
Read more

Bibi Besch

Biography

Bibi Besch (born Bibiana Maria Köchert; February 1, 1940 – September 7, 1996) was an Austrian-American film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Dr. Carol Marcus in the science fiction film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Her other notable film roles were in Who's That Girl (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and Tremors (1990). Besch also appeared in a number of television productions, including the television film The Day After (1983) and The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Read more

Donal Logue

Biography

Donal Francis Logue (born February 27, 1966) is an Canadian actor, producer and writer. His notable roles include starring as Dex in The Tao of Steve, Father Brian Norris in Runaway Bride, Quinn in Blade, Dan Scott in The Patriot, Jack in Just Like Heaven, Alex Balder in Max Payne, and Mack in Ghost Rider. His major roles on TV include starring as Detective Harvey Bullock on Fox's Gotham, Declan Murphy on NBC's Law & Order: SVU, Sean Finnerty on the sitcom Grounded for Life, ADA Dickie Flood on The Practice, Chuck Martin on ER, Capt. Kevin Tidwell on Life, Hank Dolworth on Terriers, Brendan Donovan on Copper, Lee Toric on Sons of Anarchy, King Horik on Vikings, Dan on Quibi's series Dummy, Sheriff McCullough on Departure, Ken Schuler on Public Morals, Eugene Gurkin on The Knights of Prosperity, and Dr. Danny Macklin on Medicine Ball.
Read more

Hiroki Matsumoto

Biography

Hiroki Matsumoto (松本 大輝, Matsumoto Hiroki, born March 29, 1999) is a Japanese actor from Sapporo, Hokkaido. He stands 182 cm tall and has blood type O. He is represented by Stardust Promotion. His path to acting began unexpectedly: while studying to become a sports trainer, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the prestigious 31st Junon Superboy Contest in 2018. This recognition marked the start of his artistic career. He made his acting debut in 2019 with a role in the drama Rinshō Hanzaigakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri, and has since steadily built a presence in television and film. His breakthrough came in 2022, when he was cast as the lead in the series Ultraman Decker, playing Kanata Asumi—a role that connected him directly to the iconic tokusatsu franchise. Beyond his screen work, Matsumoto has shown strong athletic ability, particularly in basketball, a sport in which he competed at the national level during his school years. His hobbies include watching films and collecting sneakers. *** Not to be confused with the voice actor of the same name, also written 松本大輝, affiliated with 81 Produce.
Read more

Soichi Yamashita

Biography

Soichi Yamashita was a Japanese farmer and writer. When his farm work of the day was done and everyone in his family was asleep, he would read works by Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) and Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) and philosophize about farm villages and agriculture. Yamashita attempted twice, after finishing junior high school, to run away from home out of his resentment for his father. He still took over the family farm, however, and fantasized about modernizing the farm village. He said the only things that exist are the rice paddies and farms, the mountains, his family and the farm village before his eyes, and they all have values that are intrinsically at odds with modernization and a market economy.
Read more