Trending

Popular people

Billy Boyle

Biography

Billy Boyle is an Irish actor and singer on British film, television and stage. His recording career included five 45rpm singles for the Decca and Columbia labels, including the novelty song "My Baby's Crazy 'Bout Elvis" (Decca F 11503) in 1962. He is a veteran of the West End stage, having played leading roles in over 15 hit shows. In his first West End musical, Maggie May, he was nominated as best newcomer. Gower Champion then chose him to play Barnaby in Hello Dolly at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He appeared in Canterbury Tales at the Phoenix Theatre as The Clerk of Oxford. Harold Hobson, The Times critic said, "He was a breath of fresh air in the West-End" He went on to play leading roles in No Sex Please, We're British, Billy, What's a Nice Country, The Rivals, Love, Lust, & Marriage, Some Like It Hot, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and in the original cast of Dirty Dancing. Lately he has appeared as Grandpa George and Grandpa Joe in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at Drury Lane. In 2010, he was the Mysterious Man in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of Into the Woods. His films include Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Groupie Girl, Side by Side, Wild Geese II, The Scarlet and the Black, Round Ireland with a Fridge and A United Kingdom.
Read more

Isaach de Bankolé

Biography

Isaach or Isaac de Bankolé (born 12 August 1957; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is an Ivorian actor. De Bankolé was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Yoruba parents from Benin. His grandparents are from Nigeria. He moved to Paris in 1975 for his last year of lycée and pursued a master's degree in physics and mathematics. He then attended an aviation school and earned a private pilot licence, before a chance encounter with French director Gérard Vergez led him to enroll in the Cours Simon, a Parisian drama school.
Read more

Cedric Gibbons

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Austin Cedric Gibbons (March 23, 1893 – July 26, 1960) was an Irish art director and production designer for the film industry. He also made a significant contribution to motion picture theater architecture from the 1930s to 1950s. He is credited as the designer of the Oscar statuette in 1928. Gibbons was born in Dublin, Ireland and studied at the Art Students League of New York and worked for his architect father. While at Edison Studios from 1915, he first designed a set for a film released in 1919, assisting Hugo Ballin. But, after this first foray, the studio closed, and he signed with Samuel Goldwyn in 1918. This evolved to working for Louis B. Mayer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1924 to 1956—a 32-year career. Gibbons was one of the original 36 founding members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and oversaw the design of the Academy Awards statuette in 1928, a trophy for which he himself would be nominated 39 times, winning 11. He retired in 1956 with about 1,500 films credited to him: however, his contract with MGM dictated that he receive credit as art director for every MGM film released in the United States, even though other designers may have done the bulk of the work. Even so, his actual hands-on art direction may have been on about 150 films. In 1930, Gibbons married actress Dolores del Río and co-designed their house in Santa Monica, an intricate Art Deco residence influenced by Rudolf Schindler. They divorced in 1941; three years later he married actress Hazel Brooks with whom he remained until his death at the age of 67. Gibbons's grave is in the Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.
Read more

Art Smith

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Arthur Gordon "Art" Smith (March 23, 1899 – February 24, 1973) was an American film, stage and television actor, best known for playing supporting roles in the 1940s. Born in Chicago, he was a member of the Group Theatre and performed in many of their productions, including Rocket to the Moon, Awake and Sing!, Golden Boy and Waiting for Lefty, all by Clifford Odets; House of Connelly by Paul Green; and Sidney Kingsley's Men in White. The gray-haired actor usually played studious and dignified types in films, such as doctors or butlers. Smith appeared in many black-and-white noirish films in supporting roles alongside more handsome and popular movie leads, such as John Garfield in Body and Soul (1947) and Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950). He had a key role as a federal agent in 1947's Ride the Pink Horse, starring and directed by Robert Montgomery. Two of these films, In a Lonely Place and Ride a Pink Horse, were based on novels by Dorothy B. Hughes. Smith was one of the victims of the Hollywood blacklist, which ended most of his film career in 1952. In 1957, he originated the role of Doc in the stage version of West Side Story. Smith only returned occasionally to the film business, for example in an uncredited part in The Hustler. He also worked on television before retiring in 1967. He died, aged 73, in Long Island, New York, from a heart attack.
Read more

Jim Davis

Biography

James Robert Davis (born July 28, 1945) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the comic strips Garfield and U.S. Acres. Published since 1978, Garfield is one of the world's most widely syndicated comic strips. Davis's other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, and Mr. Potato Head. Davis wrote or co-wrote all of the Garfield TV specials for CBS, originally broadcast between 1982 and 1991. He also produced Garfield and Friends, a series which also aired on CBS from 1988 to 1994. Davis was the writer and executive producer for a series of CGI direct-to-video feature films about Garfield, as well as an executive producer for the CGI animated TV series The Garfield Show and Garfield Originals. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jim Davis (cartoonist), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more

Oliver Park

Biography

Oliver Park is an award-winning British actor from Bath, England. Oliver started on stage at Bath's Theatre Royal and went on to achieve lead roles in numerous short and feature films including the multi-award winning 'Shank'. As a result of this performance, the production team behind the film, Bonne Idee Productions, wrote parts especially for Oliver in their two follow-up productions - "Release" and "Buffering", both of which went on to secure US and UK distribution on DVD, as well as critical acclaim from festivals around the world.
Read more

Douglas Shearer

Biography

Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a Canadian-American pioneering sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. He won seven Academy Awards for his work. In 2008, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Douglas began his journey into cinema by studying experimental electricity at Northern Electric Company before joining MGM in 1925. Initially exploring lighting and cameras, he pivoted to sound when the era of sound pictures emerged in 1928. He pioneered synchronizing musical soundtracks with film scenes, notably in the groundbreaking "The Broadway Melody," which won the 1929 Oscar for Best Picture. As head of MGM's sound department until his retirement, Shearer revolutionized sound recording, winning an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording for "The Big House." His groundbreaking work at MGM significantly enhanced the technical aspects of filmmaking. His legacy was recognized even in death, receiving a front-page obituary in The New York Times—an honour typically reserved for industry giants and heads of state.
Read more

Max Boublil

Biography

Max Boublil (born Maximilien Léon Boublil; 17 May 1979) is a French actor of Sephardi Jewish descent, singer and comedian. He has released 2 albums. Boublil started his career as a comedian in a number of films (Le Bon Fils, Les Gaous, Doo Wop, T.I.C.), in television films and series such as (Sous le Soleil, Navarro, Quai N°1, Hé M'sieur!, Mystère) and a number of advertisements (Crunch, Yoplait, Direct Assurance). In May 2007, he released the provocative and humorous song "Ce soir... tu vas prendre" online and gained big fame and was invited to appear on "Dating" spot on Le Grand Journal on Canal+. He left in October 2007, to concentrate on his one-man shows between 2007 and 2009 including a long French tour Max prend.... and in the provinces under the title Max prend la route starting January 2008. He also took part in TV shows such as One Man Sauvage and did comedy in Max les veut toutes, a F2H production broadcast on Comédie! and NRJ 12 and in May and June 2010, in the television reality show Dilemme on W9 where he presented Le Mag de Max. In September 2010, he came with his new show Le one man musical that included songs and sketches. For his music career, he has released two albums, the debut L'album released on 14 February 2011 and the follow up Le 2ème album in June 2012. He is also well known for his humoristic takes on certain songs and personalities such as in "Ce soir tu vas prendre", "Susan Boyle", "Chanson raciste", "J'aime les moches" and others. Max Boublil co-written and appeared in the film Les Gamins with Alain Chabat, which was released in April 2013. Source: Article "Max Boublil" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Read more

Monica Bellucci

Biography

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (Italian: [ˈmɔːnika belˈluttʃi]; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French films. Bellucci played a Bride of Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's gothic horror romance film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Malèna Scordia in the Italian-language romantic drama Malèna (2000). She was in the controversial Gaspar Noé arthouse thriller film Irréversible (2002), and portrayed Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's biblical drama The Passion of the Christ (2004). In the 2003 science-fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, she played Persephone. In the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, she became the oldest Bond girl in the history of the franchise. Description above from the Wikipedia article Monica Bellucci, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more

Kid Creole

Biography

Thomas August Darnell Browder, aka August Darnell--who goes by the stage name Kid Creole--is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He co-founded Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band with his half-brother Stony Browder Jr., then went on to form and lead Kid Creole and the Coconuts. The latter band, with its trio of backing female singers (dubbed the Coconuts), draw upon musical influences as disparate as salsa, no wave, jazz, disco, pop music and big band. Darnell has written and produced for other artists and bands, such as Machine and Gichy Dan's Beachwood No. 9. He and the Coconuts have also contributed songs to numerous motion picture soundtracks, including "My Male Curiosity" for Against All Odds (1984).
Read more