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Melissa Leo
Biography
Melissa Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in 1985, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Ingenue/Woman in the Drama Series “All My Children”. Her most notable role as was as Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on “Homicide: Life on the Street” for the show's first five seasons from 1993–1997.
Following several films, Leo received critical acclaim and national attention in earning several nominations and awards, including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Leo earned several awards for her role as Alice Ward in the critically acclaimed film, “The Fighter” (2010). For this role Leo won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Leo currently appears on the television series Treme.
Leo currently resides in Stone Ridge, New York and two sons John Matthew Heard (born 1987), and Adam (adopted - born 1984).
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Reg Varney
Biography
Varney was born in Canning Town, then in Essex but now part of the London Borough of Newham. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. Varney was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy and a page boy at the Regent Palace Hotel. He took piano lessons as a child and was good enough to find employment as a part-time piano player. His first paid engagement was at Plumstead Radical Club in Woolwich, for which he was paid eight shillings and sixpence (42½p). He also played in working men's clubs, pubs and ABC cinemas, and later sang with big bands of the time. He and his mother decided that show business was the career for him, and he gave up his day jobs.
During the Second World War, Varney joined the Royal Engineers, but continued his performing career as an army entertainer, touring in the Far East for a time. After being demobilised in the late 1940s, he starred on stage in a comic revue entitled Gaytime, with Benny Hill as his partner in a double act.[2] He then became an all-round entertainer, working his way around the music halls.
Career[edit]
Varney was cast in the role of a foreman in the television sitcom The Rag Trade (1961–63), which made him a household name. He was aware that he was the only performer without West End acting experience and worked hard to make up for it. Slightly later, he starred in a show for BBC TV called The Valiant Varneys (1964–65), performing various characters in front of a live audience. After that followed another comedy role in Beggar My Neighbour (1966–68); this also starred Pat Coombs, June Whitfield, and Peter Jones. Pat Coombs played the wife of Varney's character. Varney featured in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) with Frankie Howerd, Dora Bryan and George Cole.
Varney's most successful lead role was in the sitcom On the Buses (1969–73) as the bus driver Stan Butler, who never has much luck where romance is concerned. Varney took considerable lengths to research the role, even taking bus-driving lessons and a test to gain a public service vehicle licence so that he could be filmed driving a bus on the open road. Three spin-off films were made — On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973). Varney was 52 when the first series was recorded, although his character, who lived with his mother and was often trying to attract young women, was supposed to be about 35. Varney was only eleven years younger than Doris Hare, the main actress to play his mother in the series.
He later worked as an entertainer on cruise ships and toured Australia with his one-man show. He told an interviewer, "Whatever I did after On the Buses, nobody wanted to know about it. But I can't knock the programme because it brought me offers to do concert tours in Australia, New Zealand and Canada."[3]
The world's first voucher-based cash dispensing machine was installed at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank. Varney was living in Enfield at the time and for publicity purposes he was photographed making the first withdrawal from the machine on Tuesday 27 June 1967.[4]
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Rob Letterman
Biography
Robert Thomas Letterman (born October 31, 1970) is an American film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut as co-director of the animated comedy film Shark Tale(2004), for which he received a nomination for the Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production. He co-directed the animated science fiction comedy Monsters vs. Aliens (2009).
Letterman has since transitioned into live-action filmmaking, directing the fantasy comedy film Gulliver's Travels (2010), the horror comedy film Goosebumps (2015), and the fantasy mystery film Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019).
Letterman was born in Hawaii and attended Mid-Pacific Institute and USC.
Before joining DreamWorks Animation, Letterman directed the short film Los Gringos, which was accepted at 2000's Sundance Film Festival.
In 2002, Vicky Jenson and Eric "Bibo" Bergeron invited him as a screenwriter (then as co-director) in the making of Shark Tale. In 2010, Letterman directed the live-action film Gulliver's Travels, starring Jack Black in the lead role. He also directed the live-action/CGI film Pokémon Detective Pikachu, based on the Pokémon videogame franchise. The film was released on May 10, 2019. It grossed $433 million at the box office. It attained the highest percentage of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for a film adaptation of a video game at the time.
In 2020, Netflix announced Letterman as director for an upcoming live-action animated film adaptation of Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil video game. Since then, no further updates have been given for the film since the announcement.
Letterman is in a relationship with Beth Pontrelli and has two children, Jack and Eva.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Rob Letterman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Mimi Kennedy
Biography
Mary Claire "Mimi" Kennedy (born September 25, 1948) is an American actress, author, and activist. Best known for her roles in television sitcoms, Kennedy co-starred in numerous short-lived sitcoms before her role as Ruth Sloan on Homefront (1991–93). She received wider recognition with her roles in the Chuck Lorre created sitcoms; Dharma & Greg (1997–2002), and Mom (2013–2021). For her performance in the latter, Kennedy received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. Kennedy has also appeared in various films, including; Pump Up the Volume (1990), Erin Brockovich (2000), In the Loop (2009), Due Date (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011), and The Five-Year Engagement (2012).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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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Eliza Sam
Biography
Eliza Sam is a Canadian actress based in Hong Kong, currently under contract in TVB. She won the Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant in 2009, and went on to win the 2010 Miss Chinese International Pageant. After winning the Miss Chinese Vancouver title 2010, Sam was involved supporting organizations such as the Canadian Cancer Society and S.U.C.C.E.S.S.. She won the World Chinese Entrepreneur Scholarship in January 2010, hosted by The 4th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention, Canada Founding & Development Society.
Sam's family are Hoa, with parents of Chinese descent from Vietnam, and grandparents from Guangdong and Fujian. She was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Eliza has also stated publicly that she is a Christian.
She graduated from Surrey's Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2010, with a bachelor's degree in Business as well as a diploma in Marketing Management and a diploma in Fashion Design and Technology. She was an English teacher prior to participating in Miss Chinese International.
After winning the Vancouver pageant, Sam represented Vancouver in the Miss Chinese International Pageant 2010 organized by TVB. During her final speech (which was to void points from the previous performance segments) she talked about her Cantonese being weak, and thus spending one year to practice and improve her Cantonese. Sam won the competition under the new voting system. Later she signed with TVB. On 2 December 2016, Sam openly acknowledged her engagement on social media with her out of industry boyfriend Joshua Ngo. They married in Vancouver on 17 December 2016. In mid-June 2018 Sam announced on her social media that her eight-year contract with TVB has come to an end.
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Frank Darabont
Biography
Frank Darabont (born January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe. He was born in France by Hungarian parents who fled Budapest during the 1956 uprising, but the family moved to Los Angeles while he was still an infant.
He has directed the films The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, all based on stories by Stephen King. In 2010 he developed and executive produced the first season of the AMC network television series The Walking Dead.
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Daniel Morris
Biography
Daniel Morris is an American filmmaker and photographer based in Charleston, South Carolina. Early in age, he has been fascinated with the inner workings of his favorite films and with what goes on behind the scenes. In his college years, Daniel minored in Film Production at Trident Technical College and since then has released various experimental shorts on Youtube. He has been inspired by the works of Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Lars von Trier, David Lynch, Gaspar Noé and others. Ultimately Daniel enjoys working behind the camera, shaping scenes for audiences.
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Jojo Mayer
Biography
Jojo Mayer is a Swiss drummer born in Zürich and currently residing in New York City. He plays Vic Firthsticks, Sonor drums, Sabian cymbals and Evans heads. Mayer is the son of a touring musician and began his career as a drummer at an early age, receiving his first drum set at the age of two. Having taught himself throughout his childhood, he broke out into the professional music scene at the age of 18, joining theMonty Alexander group. Touring with the group launched him into the major jazz music scene, and he has played at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux, Nice, and Athens etc., which culminated with his gigging with jazz-greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone. Eventually, after playing with a great variety of artists, Mayer moved away from jazz and into Drum 'n' Bass. Jojo Mayer is known for bringing together jazz, drum and bass, jungle, and other influences. He is also famous for his ability to play the rhythms of programmed jungle drum 'n' bass music on acoustic drums, terming this technique "reverse engineering", a phrase borrowed from computing.[1] He executes this approach using various methods such as the heel-toe bass drum technique, the Moeller stroke, and the "pull-out" or "push-pull" accent which takes the beat on the rebound. Using these techniques, he can play beats at astonishing speeds. A few of his main influences are Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Buddy Rich. He is the leader of live electronica trio Nerve, which he founded in 1997. He played with the guitarist David Fiuczynski in the avant-garde pop rock band Screaming Headless Torsos and in the fusion jazzband, Intergalactic Maiden Ballet. He ran the popular Prohibited Beatz live electronica party in NYC from 1996-2001.
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Simon Oakland
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simon Oakland (August 28, 1915 – August 29, 1983) was an American actor of stage, screen, and television.
During his career, Oakland performed primarily on television, appearing in over 130 series and made-for-television movies between 1951 and 1983. His most notable big-screen roles were in Psycho (1960), West Side Story (1961), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Bullitt (1968), The Hunting Party (1971), and Chato's Land (1972). On television, he was a regular on the cult classic horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975), and the military drama Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976-1978).
Early life and career
Oakland was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of the three sons of immigrant Jewish parents, Jacob Weiss and Ethel Oaklander, born in Romania and the Russian Empire respectively. His father was a plasterer and builder. While he later claimed in media interviews to have been born in 1922 (a date repeated in his New York Times obituary), Social Security and vital records indicate he was born Simon Weiss in 1915; his stage name was derived from his mother's maiden name, Oaklander.
Film and television
In 1955, Oakland made his film debut, albeit uncredited, as an Indiana state trooper in The Desperate Hours. He appeared in two films released in 1958: as Mavrayek in The Brothers Karamazov and as journalist Edward Montgomery in I Want to Live!
Oakland's notable performance in I Want to Live! led to his playing a long series of tough-guys, either as authority figures or villains or a mix of both. He appeared in Psycho as the psychiatrist who, at the end of the film, explains Norman Bates's multiple personality disorder. He appeared in the films West Side Story, The Sand Pebbles, and Bullitt.
He made two guest appearances as murder victims on CBS's Perry Mason. He appeared in the syndicated crime drama, Decoy, starring Beverly Garland. Oakland appeared once on the CBS Western Dundee and the Culhane and once on the series Sheriff of Cochise. He was also a regular, in a comedic supporting role, as General Thomas Moore, on NBC's Baa Baa Black Sheep, starring Robert Conrad. He appeared in two episodes of the original The Twilight Zone TV series (“The Rip Van Winkle Caper” and “The Thirty-Fathom Grave”) and in The Outer Limits as the alien birdman in "Second Chance". In 1974 and 1975, he was a series regular on Kolchak: The Night Stalker, playing newspaper editor Tony Vincenzo. (He had previously played the same character in two made-for-television movies.
Personal life
Oakland was married to Lois Lorraine Porta. The couple had one daughter, Barbara.
Death
Oakland continued working up to the year of his death. His last credited acting appearance was in the episode "Living and Presumed Dead" on the CBS television series Tucker's Witch. That episode aired three months before Oakland's death from colon cancer in Cathedral City, California, on August 29, 1983, the day after his 68th birthday. CLR
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