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Jim Jordan
Biography
James Edward Jordan was the American actor who played Fibber McGee in Fibber McGee and Molly and voiced the albatross, Orville, in Disney's The Rescuers. Jim Jordan went on the vaudeville circuit, both as a solo act and with his wife, Marian, at various times until 1924. They went entirely broke in 1923, having to be wired money by their parents to get back to Peoria from Lincoln, Illinois. Jim and Marian Jordan got their major break in radio while performing in Chicago in 1924; Jim said he could give a better performance than the singers they were listening to on the radio, and his brother Byron bet $10 that Jim couldn't do it. By the end of the evening, Jim and Marian had their first radio contract, at $10 per show for 26 weeks as The O'Henry Twins, sponsored by Oh Henry! candy.
The Jordans would work as a double act for the remainder of their careers, seldom appearing separate from each other, with Jim as the comic foil and Marian as the stooge. From 1931 to 1935, they produced the low-budget sitcom Smackout, in which they portrayed most of the characters (including semi-fictional versions of themselves). In 1935, the couple, along with head writer Don Quinn, teamed up to create Fibber McGee and Molly, a weekly sitcom that was given a larger budget and an ensemble cast.
Fibber McGee and Molly would run as a weekly series, becoming one of radio's most popular programs, until 1953. In addition to the general decline of scripted radio and the concurrent rise of television, Marian's health was beginning to fail. The show would transition to a pre-recorded daily sitcom from 1953 to 1956, then to a short-form weekly series (under the name Just Molly and Me) for Monitor from 1957 to 1959.
In 1959, Fibber McGee and Molly was finally adapted for television, after years of resistance. Marian was too ill to continue, and for reasons unexplained (nothing in the radio series had identified the age of either of the McGees), neither Jim nor Don Quinn (nor Quinn's successor as head writer of the radio show, Phil Leslie) transitioned to the new series; new writers were brought in, and both the McGees were recast. The television version of Fibber McGee and Molly, with Bob Sweeney as Fibber, was a critical and commercial failure.
In March 1988, Jordan fell down at his home and suffered a major stroke. Left comatose for over a week, he never regained consciousness and died on April 1. His death came shortly before voice actors were being hired for The Rescuers Down Under; in acknowledgement of Jordan's death, Roy E. Disney wrote his character out of the script (John Candy would play the character's brother instead). He is buried next to Marian Jordan in the Saint Ann section of Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, and is next to the plot of Sharon Tate.
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Frank Sivero
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Frank Sivero (born January 6, 1952) is a European-American businessman, entrepreneur and character actor, perhaps best known for playing the roles of Genco Abbandando in Mario Puzo's and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II and Frankie Carbone (based on Angelo Sepe) in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. Sivero was born Francesco LoGiudice in Siculiana, Sicily, Italy, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He can be seen as an extra in The Godfather as one of the witnesses to Sonny Corleone's brutal beating of his brother-in-law, Carlo. Director Martin Scorsese cast him as Frankie Carbone after seeing his performance in The Godfather: Part II. He also appeared in the The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Sivero, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Stan Moore
Biography
Stan Moore is an award-winning filmmaker who has worked in the biz for over 30 years on feature films, music videos, and corporate/documentary projects. From work as an actor/stuntman to writer/director, Moore found a niche in writing and directing over music videos for rock, Christian and country artists.
His production company, MP Films, has produced over 70 television commercials, 200+ music videos, and 300+ industrial films. The company has completed projects for clients such as IBM, EMI, Focus On The Family, The Magic Johnson Foundation, Sony-BMG, Summit Toys, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Tyndale House Publishers, and Warner Bros. among others.
As a two-time Emmy Award winner, his films have played at festivals around the world including the American Film Institute, the Hollywood Film Festival, the Houston Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival. Moore's documentary work has been recognized by the Liberty Film Festival in Los Angeles, the mid-South Emmys, and the Telly Awards. As a screenwriter, his script on The Flying Tigers has received awards at the Charleston Film Festival and the Phoenix Film Festival.
Moore holds a BS degree in biochemistry and a Masters in theatre and film and has taught writing, production, and acting for TV/film. He's a former member and VP of the Texas Stuntman's Association working in feature films and live shows. He is also a former faculty member of the University of North Texas and TCU.
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Jon Reep
Biography
Jonathan David Reep (born March 26, 1972) is an American comedian and actor. While attending North Carolina State University he began performing stand-up comedy at Goodnights comedy club. He graduated from NCSU in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater, Mass Communication, and Public & Personal communication.
After graduating, he was employed at UNC-TV where he became the assistant director of such TV shows as "North Carolina Now" & "Legislative Week in Review", while at night simultaneously honing his skills as a stand-up comedian. In 1998, he left UNC-TV to pursue comedy full time. He traveled all over the country performing in comedy clubs and colleges in every state in America. In 2000, he was invited to perform at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival, and shortly thereafter moved to Los Angeles, CA to further is career as a stand-up comedian and actor.
As an actor, his roles include the pot-smoking farmer Raymus in the movie Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay, dim-witted cop Gerald Bob on the ABC Sitcom Rodney, and a goodwill worker in Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie. He was the HEMI guy in Dodge Truck's popular ad campaigns.
As a comedian, he was the winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing, season 5. He's been on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, the half-hour special Comedy Central Presents: Jon Reep, and his own specials Jon Reep: Metro Jethro, and Jon Reep: Ginger Beard Man. He's been on TBS's Pit Stop Comedy, NBC's Late Friday or CMT's Comedy Club, and Comedy Stage.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon Reep
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Katherine MacGregor
Biography
Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor (born Dorlee Deane McGregor; January 12, 1925 – November 14, 2018) was an American actress, best known for her role as Harriet Oleson in Little House on the Prairie.
Katherine MacGregor was born Dorlee Deane McGregor on January 12, 1925, in Glendale, California, to Ralph S. McGregor and Beatrice E. Willard. When Katherine was a child, her mother Beatrice moved the family to Fort Collins, Colorado, where they lived most of Katherine's early life. She graduated from Northwestern University with a major in drama and moved to New York City in 1949. She was hired by the Arthur Murray Dance Studios as a dance instructor. She studied acting under N. Richard Nash, Sanford Meisner, and Stella Adler. She did summer stock in Lebanon, Pennsylvania as Dorlee Deane McGregor but switched to using the stage name Scottie MacGregor as her acting career advanced. When she adopted the use of Katherine as her given name is unclear but she switched from using ‘Scottie’ as she matured in age on the advice of her manager.
Beginning in the 1950s, as Scottie MacGregor, she worked in theatre on and off Broadway in New York City and other locations in plays such as The Seven Year Itch and Handful of Fire, and won such uncredited parts as "a longshoreman's mother" (On the Waterfront); "Alice Thorn" (The Traveling Executioner), and "Miss Boswell" (The Student Nurses). She appeared in numerous episodes of various television series: Love of Life (1956), The Secret Storm, The Nurses, Play of the Week (1959), East Side/West Side (1963), Mannix (1970–71), Emergency! (1972), Ironside (1972, 1974), and All in the Family (1973), as well as the two 1981 "Heroes vs. Villains" episodes of Family Feud hosted by Richard Dawson. She had roles in the TV movies, The Death of Me Yet (1971), The Girls of Huntington House (1973), and Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974).
MacGregor's best-known role was from 1974 to 1983 in NBC's Little House on the Prairie as Harriet Oleson, the general store owner's wife and a comedic part. MacGregor's favorite description of her character in Little House came in a fan letter from Minnesota in the 1970s, in which Mrs. Oleson was described as "the touch of pepper in the sweetness of the show". In 1979, due to the popularity of Little House in Spain, MacGregor was invited to Madrid, Spain, and appeared on RTVE's 625 Lineas and Ding Dong La Cocina programs.
After Little House on the Prairie, she withdrew from screen productions in favor of local theater. She dedicated herself to the Hindu religion, and to teaching acting to children at the Wee Hollywood Vedanta Players, before finally retiring in the early 2000s. In 2014, she did an in-depth interview about her life and career for the book Prairie Memories by Patrick Loubatiere.
She was married to actor Bert Remsen from 1949 to 1950 and to actor, director, and teacher Edward G. Kaye-Martin, 14 years her junior, from August 1969 to October 1970. She had no children.
While recovering from alcoholism, MacGregor converted to Hinduism. She was unable to appear in the series finale of Little House on the Prairie, because she was on a pilgrimage to India at the time of the episode's filming.
MacGregor died on November 14, 2018, at the age of 93, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. No cause was given.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 - October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who 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, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
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Sam Pollard
Biography
Samuel D. Pollard (born 20 April, 1945; Harlem) is an American documentary director, producer and editor. His films have garnered numerous awards such as Peabodys, Emmys, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, the International Documentary Association gave him a career achievement award. Spike Lee, whose films Pollard has edited and produced, described him as being "a master filmmaker." Henry Louis Gates Jr. characterizes his work in this way: "When I think about his documentaries, they add up to a corpus — a way of telling African-American history in its various dimensions."
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Zoe Perry
Biography
Zoe Perry (born September 26, 1983) is an American actress. The daughter of actors Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Perry, she made her film debut in Deception (2008) and had a supporting role in the independent drama film The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008).
After recurring roles as Jane on The Family (2016) and Samantha Ruland on Scandal (2017), Perry had her breakout as Mary Cooper on the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon (2017–24). The role, which was played by her mom Laurie Metcalf on The Big Bang Theory, earned Perry a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2019. She reprised the role on the spin-off series Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage (2024–present).
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Douglas Wood
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Douglas Wood (October 31, 1880 – January 13, 1966) was an American actor of stage and screen during the first six decades of the 20th century. Born on Halloween 1880 (October 31), his mother, Ida Jeffreys, was a stage actress. During the course of his career, Wood would appear in dozens of Broadway productions, and well over 100 films. Towards the end of his career, he would also make several guest appearances on television. Wood died in 1966. At the end of 1933, Wood began work on his first film, with a supporting role in David Butler's comedy, Bottom's Up, starring Spencer Tracy. The following year he would originate the role in talking pictures of Wopsle in Stuart Walker's 1934 production of Great Expectations. Over the next 20 years he would appear in over 125 films, mostly in smaller and supporting roles. In 1937 he would appear in a small role in Maytime, the sound version of the 1910s play in which he had starred. Other notable films in which he appeared include: Two Against the World (1936), starring Humphrey Bogart; the Abbott and Costello vehicle, Buck Privates (1941); Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), starring Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, and Claude Rains; Howard Hawk's 1941 classic, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper; and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), starring Fredric March.
During the 1950s, Wood appeared in a handful of pictures, mostly B-films. During the early and mid-1950s Wood would make several guest appearances on several television series, including The Lone Ranger (1950–51), Fireside Theater (1952-53), and Topper (1954). His final screen performance would be in a small role in That Certain Feeling (1956), starring Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint, and George Sanders. In 1958 Wood returned to the Broadway stage with a supporting role in Jane Eyre, it would be his final acting performance. Wood died on January 13, 1966 in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, California.
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Nan Ji
Biography
Nan Ji is an actor, producer and a founder of Daji Films. She graduated from the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy. Nan Ji started learning dance at the age of 9, was admitted to the Dance Department of Minzu University of China at the age of 12, and was admitted to the Performance Department of the Beijing Film Academy at the age of 16. In 2014, he went to the United States to study acting under the tutelage of Hollywood star acting instructor Bobbie Shaw Chance, becoming classmates with Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, etc.
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