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- In the early 1980s, this ruggedly handsome young American actor of Norwegian parentage was seen as the "next big thing", and then suddenly he was dead from an accident via a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The son of Thorleif Hexum (born in Norway) and Gretha Paulsen (born in Minnesota), Jon-Erik Hexum was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, where he was a musically gifted student at school playing both the horn and the violin in the school orchestra, and even the piano at home. He then attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, before transferring across to Michigan State University studying bio-medical engineering and then switching over to philosophy. At MSU, Hexum played football, and DJ'd at several local radio stations under the name of "Yukon Jack", before being discovered by John Travolta's manager, Bob LeMond.
He reportedly turned down opportunities to appear in such shows as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and CHiPs (1977) and many day time soap operas before finally making his debut in the TV series Voyagers! (1982) as time traveler Phineas Bogg. He was then cast as hunk Tyler Burnett alongside Joan Collins in Making of a Male Model (1983), and then as ex-Green Beret Mac Harper in Cover Up (1984).
However, on October 12, 1984 after a long and draining day's shooting on the set of Golden Opportunity (1984), Hexum became bored with the extensive delays and jokingly put a prop .44 magnum revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, and the wadding from the blank cartridge shattered his skull, whereupon the mortally injured Hexum was rushed via ambulance to Beverly Hills Medical Center to undergo extensive surgery. Despite five hours of work, the chief surgeon, Dr. David Ditsworth, described the damage to Hexum's brain as life-ending. One week later, on October 18th, he was taken off life support and pronounced dead. However, Hexum's commitment to organ donation meant five other lives were assisted or saved with organs harvested from him. He was 26 years old. - Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Paul William Walker IV was born in Glendale, California. He grew up together with his brothers, Caleb and Cody, and sisters, Ashlie and Amie. Their parents, Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor, and Cheryl (Crabtree) Walker, a model, separated around September 2004. His grandfather, William Walker, was a Pearl Harbor survivor and a Navy middleweight boxing champion, while his maternal grandfather commanded a tank battalion in Italy under General Patton during World War II. Paul grew up active in sports like soccer and surfing. He had English and German ancestry.
Paul was cast for the first season of the family sitcom, Throb (1986) and began modeling until he received a script for the 1994 movie, Tammy and the T-Rex (1994). He attended high school at Village Christian High School in Sun Valley, California, graduating in 1991. With encouragement from friends and an old casting agent who remembered him as a child, he decided to try his luck again with acting shortly after returning from College.
He starred in Meet the Deedles (1998), a campy, silly but surprisingly fun film which failed to garner much attention. However, lack of attention would not be a problem for Paul Walker for long. With Pleasantville (1998), he appeared in his first hit. As the town stud (a la 1950s) who more than meets his match in modern day Reese Witherspoon, he was one of the most memorable characters of the film. That same year, Paul and his then-girlfriend Rebecca had a baby girl named Meadow Walker (Meadow Rain Walker). Even though Paul publicly admitted that Meadow was not planned, he said that she is his number one priority. Paul and Rebecca separated and Meadow lives with her mother in Hawaii. She often visited with Paul as his homes in Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach, California.
Roles in the teen hits Varsity Blues (1999), She's All That (1999) and The Skulls (2000) cemented Walker's continued rise to celebrity. He was chosen to be one of the young stars featured on the cover of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue in April 2000. While the other stars on the cover, brooded and tried their best to look sexy and serious, Paul smiled brightly and showed why he is not part of the norm. This is one young actor who certainly stood apart from the rest of the crowd, not only with his talent but with his attitude. The Dallas Morning News commented in March of 2000 that, "Paul is one of the rarest birds in Hollywood- a pretension free movie star." The latest blockbuster hit, The Fast and the Furious (2001), had raised his stardom to an even higher level.
His fighting scenes in movies lead to a passion for martial arts. He has studied various forms of Jujitsu, Taekwondo, Jeet Kune Do and Eskrima. Paul mentioned in a magazine interview that he had hoped enroll in the Keysi Fighting Method when it comes to the United States. Other than practicing martial arts, Paul enjoyed relaxing at home with his daughter, Meadow Rain, surfing near his Huntington Beach abode, walking his dogs and just driving.
When Paul seriously did get a break from the entertainment business, he said he loved traveling. Paul had traveled to India, Fiji, Costa Rica, Sarawak, Brunei, Borneo and other parts of the Asian continent. Tragically, Paul Walker died in a car crash on Saturday November 30, 2013, after attending a charity event for "Reach Out Worldwide".
Several of Paul's films were released after his death, include Hours (2013), Brick Mansions (2014), and his final starring role in The Fast and the Furious series, Furious 7 (2015), part of which was completed after his death. The film's closing scenes paid tribute to Walker, whose character met with a happy ending, and rode off into the sunset. He appeared archival footage in Fast X (2023).- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Jon Bon Jovi, was born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. On March 2, 1962, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to parents John Francis Bongiovi, Sr. and Carol Sharkey.
Family: Jon's mother, Carol Sharkey, was a former model and one of the first Playboy Bunnies. She met Bon Jovi's father after she enlisted in the United States Marines. John was already in the Marines when they met.
Bon Jovi has two brothers, Anthony and Matthew. Bon Jovi has four children, and is married to Dorothea Hurley (1989-present).
Known best as a singer-songwriter, in 1983 he was the founder and frontman of a band that bears his name. Bon Jovi is also known as a record producer, actor and philanthropist.
Music Career: Bon Jovi's music career started in June of 1982 after he was turned down by several record labels, including Atlantic Records and Mercury (Polygram) for the song "Runaway" which he recorded with a studio band named "The Allstars."
After being turned down he visited New York City's major market rock station WAPP, also known as "The Apple" at 103.5FM. WAPP included the song on a compilation of local talent and it became in instant hit.
In 1983 he signed with Mercury Records to promote "Runaway" and had to form a new band. Jon Bon Jovi became David Bryan, Alec John Such, bassist, Tico Torres, drummer, and his neighbor, Dave Sabo at lead guitar. Sabo played only a few local shows before he left to form the group Skid Row with Rachel Bolan. Sabo was soon replaced with Richie Sambora.
After "Runaway" became a worldwide hit, Bon Jovi wanted a name for the band. He wanted to call themselves Johnny Electric. But Richard Fischer, employed then by Doc McGhee, suggested that Bon Jovi follow the norm where many bands were naming their groups by the lead or frontman' name, such as, Van Halen, Dokken, Bryan Adams, Alice Cooper (70's), so Bon Jovi became the name of the band.
The band's breakout album, "Slippery When Wet," was their third studio album released in 1986. It became the band's best-selling album, selling more than 28 million worldwide, according to a Jan. 29, 2008 issue of the Daily Telegraph.
Bon Jovi's next album, "New Jersey," not only shared the same success as "Slippery When Wet," the album had five top-10 hits on Billboard's Hot-100. No other album or artist ever produced as many top-10 hits, and as of this writing (September 4, 2016) this record still stands. And two of the top-10 hits, "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There For You" topped the charts at number one, according to Bon Jovi's Biography on the Billboard website.
The band then went on an 18-month international tour, and when they finished, the band went on a hiatus.
Hiatus and Young Guns II: During the hiatus, Bon Jovi was hired to write the soundtrack for the movie "Young Guns II." During this time actor Emilio Estevez approached Bon Jovi and asked if he could use "Wanted, Dead or Alive" as the title song for the movie.
Bon Jovi balked at the idea, saying he didn't think that song was the proper song, so he quickly wrote "Blaze of Glory."
As the story goes, Kiefer Sutherland in an interview for UNCUT magazine said; "When Jon (Bon Jovi) joined the team for Young Guns II, we were all eating hamburgers in a diner and Jon was scribbling on this napkin for, say, six minutes. He declared he'd written 'Blaze of Glory', which of course then went through the roof in the States. He later gave Emilio Estevez the napkin. We were munching burgers while he wrote a No. 1 song... Made us feel stupid."
Afterwards, Bon Jovi played the song in a New Mexico desert for Estevez and John Fusco. This was the first time Bon Jovi played the song and heard by anyone. When the co-producers heard the song in a trailer, it was a no-brainer. It became the theme song for "Young Guns II."
"Young Guns II," which was released in 1990 named which Bon Jovi made into his next album "Blaze of Glory." This was Bon Jovi's first solo album as the other band members were off doing other things during the hiatus.
The movie's budget was $20 million and went on to earn $44 million. Two hits came from this album, "Blaze of Glory" and Miracle." Bon Jovi earned several Grammy and Oscar nominations.
While he wrote a song or two for a couple of shows before this, this was his first and only project where he wrote every song for a movie's soundtrack. He did go on to write songs for other movies, and many of the group's songs were used in a variety of TV series.
Back Together (Kind Of): During the years from their first hit "Runaway" in 1982, the group has released 12 studio albums and Bon Jovi recorded two solo albums and a number of singles. Worldwide, his band has sold more than 130 albums, ranking them among the top of the best sellers.
But the band isn't sitting around and resting. In 2015 there were rumors of a planned new album to be released sometime in 2016.
Rumors used to spread like wildfires, but today, the Internet allows them to travel at the speed of light. Talk about a new album for 2016 was confirmed by a consultant, and another world tour would follow.
On September 30, 2015, Bon Jovi said during a press conference confirming the new album, its title will be "This House Is Not For Sale." He further said that the album is about the group's integrity.
"Integrity matters and we're at a place in our career where we don't have anything left to prove," Bon Jovi said.
However, the new album is the first one without creative input from Richie Sambora, who left the group in 2013.
On Bon Jovi's Facebook page, a post announced that the new album, "This House Is Not For Sale" was released on August 27, 2016
Acting Career: He started acting in the 1990's starring in minor roles in movies such as "U-571," and "Moonlight and Valentino," and as Helen Hunt's husband in the movie "Pay It Forward" starring Kevin Spacey. He also appeared on several TV shows such as "Sex and the City" and "Ally McBeal."
Accolades: In 2009, Bon Jovi was inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Bon Jovi has also made appearances on some prestigious lists:- In 1996, he was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People In The World" By People Magazine.
- In 2000, the same magazine named him the "Sexiest Rock Star."
- Also in 2000 VH1 placed him on its "100 Sexiest Artists."
- In 2012 was ranked 50th in Billboard's magazine's "Power 100," a ranking of "The Most Powerful and Influential People In The Music Business."
Philanthropy: In addition, Bon Jovi was the one of the founders and majority owners of the Arena Football League team Philadelphia Soul. He is the founder of The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation which was founded in 2006 and exists to combat issues that force families and individuals into economic despair. He also campaigned for Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election, John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, and Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election. In 2010, President Barack Obama named Bon Jovi to the White House Council for Community Solutions. He was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Monmouth University in 2001.- Actor
- Soundtrack
James Paul Marsden, or better known as just James Marsden, was born on September 18, 1973, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Kathleen (Scholz) and James Luther Marsden. His father, a distinguished Professor of Animal Sciences & Industry at Kansas State University, and his mother, a nutritionist, divorced when he was nine years old. James grew up with his four other siblings, sisters, Jennifer and Elizabeth, and brothers, Jeff and Robert. He has English, German, and Scottish ancestry. During his teen years, he attended Putnam City North High School which was located in Oklahoma City. After graduating in 1991, he attended Oklahoma State University and studied Broadcast Journalism. While in university, he became a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
While vacationing with his family in Hawaii, he met actor Kirk Cameron, and his actress sister, Candace Cameron Bure. They eventually invited James to visit them in Los Angeles. After studying in Oklahoma State for over a year and appearing in his college production, "Bye Bye Birdie", he left school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his interest in acting. James got his first job on the pilot episode of The Nanny (1993) as Eddie, who was Margaret Sheffield's boyfriend. He then became part of the Canadian television series, Boogies Diner (1994), which aired for one season. After that series ended, he got a brief role as the original Griffin on Fox's Party of Five (1994). His first big break came when he became the lead on the short-lived ABC series, Second Noah (1996). Although the show didn't last long, the young actor received enough exposure from the public and even managed to win the hearts of fellow teenage girls. In 1996, he attended an audition for a movie titled Primal Fear (1996) but unfortunately lost that role to Edward Norton. Two years later, he was offered a lead role in 54 (1998), which he turned down. The role later went to another actor, Ryan Phillippe.
James' star power increased when he starred in David Nutter's Disturbing Behavior (1998), alongside Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl, which had mixed reviews, but mostly positive ones. His role in the television series as Glenn Foy in Ally McBeal (1997), is probably one of his biggest achievement to date. He became one of the main cast members during the first half of season 5, where he showcased his singing abilities. It was in that show where he was able to grab the attention of audiences from different backgrounds. The 5' 10" star later played Lon Hammon Jr. in the romantic movie, The Notebook (2004), which was based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks of the same name. His movies, Lies and Alibis (2006) and 10th & Wolf (2006) was also released around the world to audiences in the year 2006. One of his most memorable roles to fans is his role as Cyclops in the X-Men (2000) movie franchise. The movie was well accepted by audiences and critics, which eventually made James one of the hottest stars since it was released. He was among the actors who starred in all three of the X-Men movies. James had the honor of working alongside Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen and Hugh Jackman in the film. However, not many people know that he actually had to wear lifts for most of his scenes in the X-men movies, because his character Cyclops is supposed to be 6" 3" compared to a 5' 3" Wolverine. In reality, he is actually under 6' 0", shorter than Famke Janssen who plays his love interest, Jean Grey, and even shorter than Hugh Jackman who played Wolverine.
In the year 2006, he played Richard White in the highly anticipated movie, Superman Returns (2006), which coincidentally was directed by Bryan Singer, who also directed previous X-Men installments. Although he appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), the third installment of the X-Men franchise, many would notice that he in fact had more screen time in 'Superman Returns', as Lois Lane's long awaiting fiancé who had to accept the fact that his fiancée is in love with the man of steel. James earned great reviews from that movie, which led to him getting more movie roles. In 2007, James played Corny Collins in the film Hairspray (2007), an adaption of the Broadway musical based on John Waters movie, Hairspray (1988). He joined a star-studded cast, starring alongside top names such as John Travolta, Queen Latifah and Michelle Pfeiffer. James not only acted in that movie, but also sang two of the film's songs, "The Nicest Kids In Town", and "Hairspray". Being part of Hairspray catapulted James to a different level of stardom as audiences got to see another side of him. His next role was in the Disney movie, Enchanted (2007), playing Prince Edward, where he acted alongside Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon and Patrick Dempsey. Once again, James had the opportunity to sing in two songs from the movie, "True Love's Kiss" and "That's Amore". Enchanted (2007) appealed to not only older audiences but also to those who were fans of Disney's network productions. Following his huge success in the years 2006 and 2007, James played the male lead role in the romantic comedy, 27 Dresses (2008), opposite actress Katherine Heigl in 2008. The movie did well at the box office, earning a gross revenue of over $159 million, which exceeded the expectations of crew members especially since it was under a $30 million budget.
Marsden played the male lead in the horror film, The Box (2009), based on the 1970 short story "Button, Button" by author Richard Matheson. He starred opposite Cameron Diaz in the movie.
He co-starred in Accidental Love (2015) (previously Accidental Love (2015), a politically-themed romantic comedy, directed by David O. Russell and filmed in Columbia, South Carolina. Marsden's recent film roles include the sequel comedy Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), the romantic drama The Best of Me (2014), and the comedy Unfinished Business (2015).
James was married to Lisa Linde, an actress known from her role in Days of Our Lives (1965). Lisa is the daughter of legendary country music songwriter Dennis Linde. The couple wed on July 22, 2000 and have a son, Jack Holden Marsden who was born on February 1, 2001, and a daughter, Mary James, who was born on August 10, 2005. They divorced in 2011. James has another son, born in 2012, with model Rose Costa.
Many would assume that with all this success achieved by James at this age, he would be somewhat high-headed but James mentioned that despite all the attention he's getting from the public eye, he tries to keep himself as grounded as possible. He even admits that he flies coach instead of first class while traveling with his family. In an interview he mentioned that he believes he has a certain responsibility to let his children know that he isn't special because of what he does, but who he is as a person. With a great humble attitude and a bright future ahead of him, there's definitely more to expect from this Oklahoma native.- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Ned Kelly (2003), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Casanova (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.
Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally (Ramshaw), a teacher of French, and Kim Ledger, a mining engineer who also raced cars. His ancestry was Scottish, English, Irish, and Sephardi Jewish. As the story goes, in junior high school it was compulsory to take one of two electives, either cooking or drama. As Heath could not see himself in a cooking class he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, however the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent. When he was seventeen he and a friend decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams were made or, at least, where actors could possibly get their big break. Upon arriving in Sydney with a purported sixty-nine cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break.
His first real acting job came in a low-budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive cliché; an adolescent angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He only had a very small role in the film. After that small role Heath auditioned for a role in a T.V. show called Sweat (1996) about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He was offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, forcing him to look for other roles. He was in Home and Away (1988) for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws (1997), a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this offered him a small paycheck but did nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands (1999). He went to the U.S. trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in Roar (1997) opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga.
Then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands (1999), which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands (1999) was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a young hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot (2000).
What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly (2003) was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain (2005). For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in in the film, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and Best International Actor from the Australian Film Institute, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills near-by. It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included pain-killers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. His death occurred during editing of The Dark Knight (2008) and in the midst of filming his last role as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There (2007), which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.
A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his performance as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight (2008). His untimely death cast a somber shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $185 million Batman production. Ledger received more than thirty posthumous accolades for his critically acclaimed performance as the Joker, the psychopathic clown prince of crime, in the film, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards (for which he is the second actor to win an acting award posthumously after Peter Finch who won an Oscar for Network (Best Actor 1977)), the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ryan Phillippe was born on September 10, 1974 in New Castle, Delaware, to Susan (Thomas), a nurse, and Richard Phillippe, a chemical technician. He has three sisters, Kirsten, Lindsay, and Katelyn, and attended New Castle Baptist Academy. Ryan's acting career began with the soap opera One Life to Live (1968). It was no small role. His character, Billy Douglas, was US daytime television's first gay teenager. Billy struggled with coming out issues and the town's anti-gay reactions. After several other television appearances and he began appearing in movies of his own, Nowhere (1997), White Squall (1996) I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999), Crash (2005), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and Stop-Loss (2008).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999), James Franco was born April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, a writer, artist, and actress, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. His mother is Jewish and his father was of Portuguese and Swedish descent.
Growing up with his two younger brothers, Dave Franco, also an actor, and Tom Franco, James graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996 and went on to attend UCLA, majoring in English. To overcome his shyness, he got into acting while studying there, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year. After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time, and was canceled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit. Prior to joining Freaks and Geeks (1999), Franco starred in the TV miniseries To Serve and Protect (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Whatever It Takes (2000).
Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean (2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy.
Next was Deuces Wild (2002) and City by the Sea (2002), in which Robert De Niro personally had him cast, after viewing his performance in James Dean (2001). He was seen in David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express (2008) opposite Seth Rogen, in George C. Wolfe's Nights in Rodanthe (2008), starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane and in Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah (2007), starring Tommy Lee Jones. Also starring opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) in which his performance earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. Definitely growing out of his shyness, James Franco is turning into a legend of his own.- Actor
- Producer
David Chokachi was born on 16 January 1968 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Emerald Run (2020), Baywatch (1989) and Soul Surfer (2011).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Rob Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Barbara Lynn (Hepler), a schoolteacher, and Charles Davis Lowe, a lawyer. His brother is actor Chad Lowe. He has German, as well as English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. Lowe's family moved to Dayton, Ohio, when he was a child. Rob broke into acting in his teens. He spent the 1980s as a member of the "Brat Pack", a group of young, powerful and reckless actors and actresses that included Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and Judd Nelson, among others. In 1988 Lowe was involved in a scandal centering around a sexually explicit videotape which involved a minor, for which he did 20 hours of community service in Dayton. He subsequently sought help for his problems with drugs and alcohol and has re-emerged in the 1990s as a clean and sober husband and father.- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for El Pollo Loco.
Pitt's earliest credited roles were in television, starting on the daytime soap opera Another World (1964) before appearing in the recurring role of Randy on the legendary prime time soap opera Dallas (1978). Following a string of guest appearances on various television series through the 1980s, Pitt gained widespread attention with a small part in Thelma & Louise (1991), in which he played a sexy criminal who romanced and conned Geena Davis. This led to starring roles in badly received films such as Johnny Suede (1991) & Cool World (1992).
But Pitt's career hit an upswing with his casting in A River Runs Through It (1992), which cemented his status as an multi-layered actor as opposed to just a pretty face. Pitt's subsequent projects were as quirky and varied in tone as his performances, ranging from his unforgettably comic cameo as stoner roommate Floyd in True Romance (1993) to romantic roles in such visually lavish films as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) and Legends of the Fall (1994), to an emotionally tortured detective in the horror-thriller Se7en (1995). His portrayal of frenetic oddball Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) won him a Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
Pitt's portrayal of Achilles in the big-budget period drama Troy (2004) helped establish his appeal as an action star and was closely followed by a co-starring role in the stylish spy-versus-spy flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). It was on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith that Pitt, who married Jennifer Aniston in a highly publicized ceremony in 2000, met Angelina Jolie. Pitt left Aniston for Jolie in 2005, a break-up that continues to fuel tabloid stories years after its occurrence.
He continues to wildly vary his film choices, appearing in everything from high-concept popcorn flicks such as Megamind (2010) to adventurous critic-bait like Inglourious Basterds (2009) and The Tree of Life (2011). He has received two Best Actor Oscar nominations, for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). In 2014, he starred in the war film Fury (2014), opposite Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Peña.
Pitt and Jolie have 6 children, 3 adopted & 3 biological.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975. He is of mostly English, Irish, German, and Scottish ancestry. His middle name, Géza, is after a Hungarian family friend who was a Holocaust survivor.
Affleck wanted to be an actor ever since he could remember, and his first acting experience was for a Burger King commercial, when he was on the PBS mini-series, The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). It was also at that age when Ben met his lifelong friend and fellow actor, Matt Damon. They played little league together and took drama classes together. Ben's teen years consisted of mainly TV movies and small television appearances including Hands of a Stranger (1987) and The Second Voyage of the Mimi (1988). He made his big introduction into feature films in 1993 when he was cast in Dazed and Confused (1993). After that, he did mostly independent films like Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995) and Chasing Amy (1997) which were great for Ben's career, receiving renowned appreciation for his works at the Sundance film festival. But the success he was having in independent films didn't last much longer and things got a little shaky for Ben. He was living in an apartment with his brother Casey and friend Matt, getting tired of being turned down for the big roles in films and being given the forgettable supporting ones. Since Matt was having the same trouble, they decided to write their own script, where they could call all the shots. So, after finishing the script for Good Will Hunting (1997), they gave it to their agent, Patrick Whitesell, who showed it to a few Hollywood studios, finally being accepted by Castle Rock. It was great news for the two, but Castle Rock wasn't willing to give Ben and Matt the control over the project they were hoping for. It was friend Kevin Smith who took it to the head of Miramax who bought the script giving Ben and Matt the control they wanted and, in December 5, 1997, Good Will Hunting (1997) was released, making the two unknown actors famous. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt. The film marked Ben's breakthrough role, in which he was given for the first time the chance to choose roles instead of having to go through grueling auditions constantly.
Affleck chose such roles in the blockbusters Armageddon (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001). In the early years of the 2000s, he also starred in the box office hits Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Daredevil (2003), as well as the disappointing comedies Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004). While the mid 2000s were considered a career downturn for Affleck, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland (2006). In the several years following, he played supporting roles, including in the films Smokin' Aces (2006), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), State of Play (2009), and Extract (2009). He ventured into directing in 2007, with the thriller Gone Baby Gone (2007), which starred his brother, Casey Affleck, and was well received. He then directed, co-wrote, and starred in The Town (2010), which was named to the National Board of Review Top Ten Films of the year. For the political thriller Argo (2012), which he directed and starred in, Affleck won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Picture (Affleck's second Oscar win).
In 2014, Affleck headlined the book adaptation thriller Gone Girl (2014). He starred as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and Justice League (2017). He reprised the role in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and he will next appear as Batman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) and The Flash (2023).
Recently he has given praise-worthy performances in The Way Back (2020) as a recovering alcoholic, The Last Duel (2021) (notably he also co-wrote the script), and a scene-stealing golden globe nominated performance in The Tender Bar (2021).- Actor
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Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the youngest of four children. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tamara Lee "Tammy" (Stewart), worked as a retail-store saleswoman. He has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Between 1991-93, Ryan appeared in Fifteen (1990), a Nickelodeon series taped in Florida with many other Canadian actors. After the series ended, he returned to Vancouver where he played in a series of forgettable television movies. He did small roles in Glenn Close's Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995) and CBS's update of In Cold Blood (1996). However, his run of luck had led him to decide to quit acting.
One night, he ran into fellow Vancouver actor and native Chris William Martin. Martin found Ryan rather despondent and told him to pack everything: they were going to head to Los Angeles, California. The two stayed in a cheap Los Angeles motel. On the first night of their stay, Reynolds' jeep was rolled downhill and stripped. For the next four months, Ryan drove it without doors. In 1997, he landed the role of Berg in Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998). Initially, the show was reviled by critics and seemed desperate for any type of ratings success. However, it was renewed for a second season but with a provision for a makeover by former Roseanne (1988) writer Kevin Abbott. The show became a minor success and has led to additional film roles for Ryan, most notably in the last-ever MGM film, a remake of The Amityville Horror (2005). Ryan was engaged to Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, another Nickelodeon veteran, between 2004-2006.
He has been married to Blake Lively since September 9, 2012. They have three daughters. He was previously married to Scarlett Johansson.- Actor
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Chris Pine was born in Los Angeles. His parents are actors Robert Pine and Gwynne Gilford, and his maternal grandparents were Max M. Gilford, a president of the Hollywood Bar Association, and actress Anne Gwynne. His sister, Katherine Pine, has also acted. Chris's ancestry is Russian Jewish (from his maternal grandfather), English, German, Welsh, and French. Pine attended Oakwood School in the San Fernando Valley, and went on to study English at the University of California, Berkeley where he received a bachelor's degree. During this time, he spent one year studying at the University of Leeds in England. Pine also studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. After embarking on an acting career, Pine won guest roles in many television series, and made his feature film debut opposite Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Other roles in film and television followed, but he became an international star when he was cast as James T. Kirk in the hugely successful franchise reboot, Star Trek (2009).
He subsequently starred in the films Unstoppable (2010), This Means War (2012), People Like Us (2012), and the sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). In 2014, Pine co-starred in Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) and, as Cinderella's Prince, in the musical Into the Woods (2014), alongside Meryl Streep and Anna Kendrick. In 2015, he appeared in the thriller Z for Zachariah (2015), and in 2016, he headlined the sea-set drama The Finest Hours (2016), the third film in the new Trek universe, Star Trek Beyond (2016), and the bank robber drama Hell or High Water (2016). In 2017, Chris played Steve Trevor opposite Gal Gadot in the title role of Wonder Woman (2017), a film that became his biggest domestic earner.- Actor
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Born in Nutley, NJ, Nick Zano's passion for the movies began when he first watched Goodfellas (1990) at the age of 12. He had long dreamed of becoming a Navy Seal, but all that changed in one afternoon at the cinema. Shortly after that, Zano and his family moved south to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he finished his high school education. Throughout his high school years, he was active in both the drama and TV production departments. In his junior year, Zano and his closest friends produced a weekly television program at Wellington High School. The wildly humorous and offbeat skit comedy show landed Zano in detention quite often, where he would kill time by writing a series of short films. Those shorts, which he starred in and helped to direct, made their way to the JVC Universal Film Competition semifinals 3 years in a row.
Shortly after high school, he was offered a position with "Prelude Pictures" (Lost in Space (1998), Black Dog (1998)) in Television and Feature Film Development. During that time, he also acted as Associate Producer on the World AIDS Day TV special, Living Positive, hosted by Lou Diamond Phillips. In June 2001, Zano made the move to LA, where he began the daily grind of auditioning. His quick wit and charming sense of humor immediately made him a favorite among casting directors, who would call him in for reads even when the character description was totally opposite to his looks. Zano has a mental Rolodex overflowing with movie knowledge, which helped him land the hosting gig on MTV's Movie House (2002), which premiered on the cable channel in May 2002. After his move to LA, Zano remained close with his sisters and his Mom, who always supported and inspired him. Zano resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Lorenzo Fernando Lamas was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of actors Arlene Dahl and Fernando Lamas. His father was Argentinian and his mother was American, of Norwegian descent. Lorenzo was raised in Pacific Palisades, California. In 1968, his family moved to New York. He attended private school, graduating from Admiral Farragut Academy in 1975. He then moved back to California. With encouragement from his father, he enrolled in Tony Barr's Film Actors Workshop and began his career with a small role in a television show in 1976. He also began to study karate and tae kwon do in 1979. He has starred in five television series and in over fifty movies. He is most known for his roles on television, notably as Lance Cumson on CBS' Falcon Crest (1981) and Reno Raines in the syndicated hit show Renegade (1992). Lorenzo also sustained a professional racing career while working successfully as a TV and Film actor in the 80's and 90's. He acts on stage and has a cabaret show that he tours with across the country. Some of the roles he has played onstage include the king in the musical The King and I as well as Zach in the musical A Chorus Line. He is an avid motorcyclist for over thirty years and has participated in the Love Ride, to benefit MDA and various charities since its inception in 1983. He is also on the board of directors. Lorenzo is a commercial helicopter and airplane pilot and he often flies disadvantaged children to summer camps and people too sick or financially challenged to travel normally on domestic flights. He just recently received his certification to become a helicopter flight instructor.- Actor
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Shane West was born Shannon Bruce Snaith in 1978 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Leah (Launey), a lawyer, and Don Snaith, a drugstore owner. Shane began to pursue an acting career at the age of fifteen, gaining bit parts on various television shows, but it was not until 1999 when West appeared in ABC's Once and Again (1999) that he got his major breakthrough. Aside from catapulting to teen heart-throb status with the success of the show, West has made his mark on the screen within such films as Liberty Heights (1999) and Whatever It Takes (2000). He starred opposite Mandy Moore in the hit teen romance A Walk to Remember (2002), played Tom Sawyer in the action film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), and then depicted the short life of musician Darby Crash in the biopic What We Do Is Secret (2007). From 2010 to 2013, he starred as Michael on the show "Nikita" (2010)_, and since 2014, has played John Alden on the show "Salem" (2014)_.
Aside from acting, West continues the musical traditions of his family (his parents were both were musicians when he was young) with his band, Average Jo, for which he writes and plays guitar.
Shane's father was born in Jamaica, of mostly English and Sephardi Jewish descent. Shane's mother is from a Cajun (French) family from Louisiana.- Actor
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Adrian Grenier was born on 10 July 1976 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Entourage (2004) and Entourage (2015). He has been married to Jordan Roemmele since 23 June 2022. They have one child.- Actor
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Jerry O'Connell was born in New York City, to Linda (Witkowski), an art teacher, and Michael O'Connell, a British-born advertising agency art director. He spent his early years in Manhattan, with his parents and younger brother, Charlie O'Connell, who is also an actor. He is of one half Irish, one quarter Italian, and one quarter Polish, descent. Jerry began his acting career at a very young age. He did commercial work and TV work before getting the role of "Vern Tessio" in the popular film Stand by Me (1986) opposite River Phoenix and Corey Feldman. After that, he worked on several TV-Movies and TV-series and had a starring role in My Secret Identity (1988). From 1991 to 1994, Jerry attended New York University where he majored in film, but he didn't graduate.
In 1993, he starred in the film Calendar Girl (1993) opposite Jason Priestley. In 1995, he starred in the TV-movie western The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky (1995) and, in 1996, he landed the role of "Frank Cushman" in the successful film Jerry Maguire (1996) opposite Tom Cruise. Over the next few years, he starred in Scream 2 (1997), had a small uncredited role in Can't Hardly Wait (1998), as well as appearing in several TV-movies and having starring roles in the TV-series Sliders (1995) and the film Body Shots (1999) opposite Sean Patrick Flanery and Tara Reid.
In 2000, he appeared in the Brian De Palma film Mission to Mars (2000) with Gary Sinise, among others. He has also appeared in movies such as Tomcats (2001), Buying the Cow (2002), Kangaroo Jack (2003), Yours, Mine & Ours (2005), Man About Town (2006) and Room 6 (2006). In 2007, he married actress/model Rebecca Romijn, and they have twin girls.- Actor
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Christian Kane was born in Dallas, Texas. Christian and his family moved around a lot throughout the South before settling down in Norman, Oklahoma. Christian attended the University of Oklahoma where he had plans to major in Art History. However, Christian wanted to try out acting, so he took his truck and his life savings of a few hundred dollars and headed to Hollywood. Christian had many jobs, including mail-room clerk for a talent agency. His big break came when he played Ryan "Flyboy" Legget, the male lead, in a new show called Fame L.A. (1997) based on the hit movie and 80s TV show. Christian's next role was on the short-lived Aaron Spelling's Rescue 77 (1999), where he played Wick Lobo a.k.a. "Cowboy" because of his radical application of "gutter" medicine. In 1999 he played the duplicitous role of Lindsey McDonald, in the popular Horror/Fantasy series Angel (1999). Christian was soon cast as a production assistant in Edtv (1999) starring Woody Harrelson as well as a made-for-TV Western called Crossfire Trail (2001) with Tom Selleck.
Kane's TV resume also includes a leading role on Leverage (2008)(2008-2012) as Eliot Spencer. He also appeared in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced, CBS series Close to Home (2005) (2005-2007) and a featured slot in the Stephen Spielberg/TNT miniseries Into the West (2005). In addition, Kane made his mark in big-screen films that include Life or Something Like It (2002); Secondhand Lions (2003) in which he was honored to play a young Robert Duvall;Just Married (2003) where he starred with Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy ; and Friday Night Lights (2006).
Kane starred in 50 to 1 (2014), along side Skeet Ulrich and William Devane. Kane starred in The Librarians (2014) on TNT, which was produced by Dean Devlin who also produced Leverage (2008). His portrayal of Jake Stone earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor on Television with the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Christian collaborated with his friend Clayne Crawford on Tinker' (2017) which won him Best Supporting Actor at the Sutter Creek Intl Film Festival. He's also an avid supporter of the Clayne Crawford Foundation.
Christian is well-known for performing his own stunts on most of his shows! Continuing his collaboration with Dean Devlin, he stars as former DEA agent Alex Walker on Almost Paradise (2020) on WGN America and the Leverage: Redemption (2021) reboot for IMDB TV!- Actor
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Johnathon Schaech exploded onto the scene as one of Hollywood's most handsome leading men in Jocelyn Moorhouse's How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and Tom Hanks' directorial debut That Thing You Do! (1996) Since then, Johnathon has shown incredible versatility as an actor. Over the last twenty years, he's starred in over one-hundred and sixty Hollywood productions. Working opposite some of the most acclaimed and awarded actors, producers, writers and directors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kenneth Branagh, Ed Harris, Idris Elba, Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, Tom Fontana, Gary Goetzman, Neil Moritz, Greg Araki, Cary Brokaw, Roy Lee, Jessica Lange and Bill Paxton. Schaech recently captivated television audiences as the eccentric movie-star in Showtime's hit series Ray Donovan (2014) and has portrayed comic-book legend Jonah Hex on the first three season's of DC's Legends. (2015-2018) Having aged into a ruggedly handsome man, he's fast becoming one of Hollywood's go-to stars for action roles. Starring in Renny Harlin's 5 Days of War (2014), Todd Robinson's Phantom (2015), Roland Joffe's Texas Rising (2016), Steven C. Miller's Marauders (2017) and soon takes the lead opposite Frank Grillo in the action-packed Reprisal (2018). Johnathon now uses his national voice for dyslexia, working with Harvard University accredited NoticeAbility.org; a nonprofit dedicated to helping students with the brain-based difference identify their unique strengths and build their self-esteem. Johnathon has a four-year-old son, Camden, with his wife of five years, internet influencer Julie Solomon.- Actor
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Thomas Jane is an American actor who is known for portraying Frank Castle from the 2004 Marvel Comics film The Punisher and the 2012 fan film Dirty Laundry. He also was in Boogie Nights, The Thin Red Line, Deep Blue Sea, The Predator, 1922, The Mist and Evening Raga of the West.- Actor
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Casper Van Dien's breakthrough role was as the lead in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi film Starship Troopers (1997). Still one of the most talked about films of 1997 that has one of the largest cult followings in film history. He was also in Tim Burton's critically acclaimed film Sleepy Hollow (1999), as Brom Van Brunt. He was the 20th Tarzan and the only one to ever film in Africa and ride an African elephant in the Warner Bros. film Tarzan and the Lost City (1998).
Other film credits include The Pact (2012), which was well received at Sundance. Casper played a down and out alcoholic detective opposite Caity Lotz. A Post Apocalyptic survivor in Beyond The Wave (2015) shot entirely in China. Starring opposite Sean Maher as part of a two man crew on a mission to the end of the universe in the much anticipated independent film ISRA 88 (2016) .
Television credits include "Monk" (2008) Playing a Navy Doctor for the season finale, and "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1994).
Casper has tackled the web recently playing Johnny Cage in the insanely popular Machinima web-series "Mortal Kombat Legacy" seasons 2 and 3. He won best actor for his comedic chops in the series. He stars as "Hawk Guy" in the upcoming Avengers spoof "Interns of F.I.E.L.D." produced by Screen Junkies. You can also check him out as the hunky bartender in the popular series "Conman" starring Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. He played the perfect version of himself in the comedy series "Crunchtime".
His most recent victory has been behind the camera as a Director. He has directed three films in which he also starred in. His second film Patient Killer won best film and best director awards and was bought and aired on Lifetime.- Actor
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Dermot Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to Ellen and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova. Since being discovered at Northwestern University by a Hollywood talent agent 28 years ago, Mulroney has been seen in over 70 films. Mulroney is a classically trained cellist who began playing in Alexandria, Virginia's public school system when he was 7 years old. He plays with the scoring orchestras on many films for Academy Award winning composers such as James Newton Howard and Michael Giacchino.- Actor
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Brendan James Fraser was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Canadian parents Carol Mary (Genereux), a sales counselor, and Peter Fraser, a journalist and travel executive. He is of Irish, Scottish, German, Czech, and French-Canadian ancestry. As his parents frequently moved, Brendan can claim affinity with Ottawa, Indianapolis, Detroit, Seattle, London and Rome. His early exposure to theatre, particularly in London, led him to Seattle's Cornish Institute. After graduation he found a minor role as Sailor #1 in River Phoenix's Dogfight (1991), then somewhat more substantial roles in Encino Man (1992) and School Ties (1992). He expresses a preference for playing "fish out of water" men. Five more years of supporting work led finally to the title role in George of the Jungle (1997), a role which fully utilized his charm and beefy good looks, as well as offering him a chance to show off his comic talents. He describes this role as the one which dramatically altered his career. Critical raves for his role in Gods and Monsters (1998) pointed to yet another dimension to his dramatic persona.- Actor
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Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of humble means to father Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, a construction painter and Marie Rose (Hebert), a stylist and hairdresser; his father's ancestry is Italian and his mother is of half French-Canadian and half Italian descent. Mark moved with his family to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he lived out most of his teenage years. Following high school, Mark moved with his family to San Diego and soon migrated north, eventually settling in Los Angeles.
Mark first took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and subsequently co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company, an Equity-Waiver establishment, where he worked in nearly every capacity. From acting, writing, directing and producing to running the lights and building sets while building his resume.
Moving into film and TV, Mark's inauspicious movie debut was the drifter role of Christian in the horror opus Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994) and returned to the film series in the role of Joey with Mirror Mirror 3: The Voyeur (1995). He continued on through the 1990's rather indistinctly with more secondary roles in the horror film The Dentist (1996) starring madman Corbin Bernsen; an amusing perf in the obscure dramedy The Last Big Thing (1996); a third billed role in the Jerry Stiller/Anne Meara bickering senior comedy A Fish in the Bathtub (1998); and the war drama Ceremony... The Ritual of Love (1976) directed by Ang Lee.
Bartending for nearly nearly a decade to make ends meet and discouraged enough to give it up, a chance meeting and resulting collaboration with playwright/screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan approaching the millennium changed everything. Ruffalo won NY success in Lonergan's 1996 off-Broadway play "This Is Our Youth," a story about troubled young adults. This led to his male lead in Lonergan's Oscar-winning film drama You Can Count on Me (2000), playing the ne'er-do-well brother of Laura Linney. The performance drew rave reviews and invited comparisons to an early Marlon Brando.
Ruffalo never looked back. Notable roles in The Last Castle (2001), XX/XY (2002), and Windtalkers (2002) followed, although in 2002 Ruffalo was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor. Though the tumor was benign, the resulting surgery led to a period of partial facial paralysis, from which he fully recovered. In 2003, Ruffalo scored leading roles alongside two popular female stars, playing a police detective opposite Meg Ryan in In the Cut (2003) and the love interest of Gwyneth Paltrow in the comedy View from the Top (2003).
Though both films were high-profile box office disappointments, Ruffalo went on to four notable (if highly disparate) films in 2004 -- We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 13 Going on 30 (2004), and Collateral (2004) -- which solidified his ability to be both a popular leading man and an acclaimed ensemble player in either comedy or drama.
After 2004, Ruffalo was consistently at work, with leads in popular Hollywood films and independent productions that continued to solidify him as one of film's most consistently strong actors: Just Like Heaven (2005), All the King's Men (2006), Zodiac (2007), Reservation Road (2007), and The Brothers Bloom (2008). He also made his Broadway debut as Moe Axelrod in the play "Awake and Sing!"
In 2010 Ruffalo achieved something of a breakthrough, by directing the indie film Sympathy for Delicious (2010), which won him the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and co-starring as the sperm-donor father to lesbian couple Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right (2010). His role in the idiosyncratic domestic comedy/drama earned him Academy Award, Independent Spirit Award, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to earn two more Best Supporting Actor nominations as an Olympic-winning wrestling champion in Foxcatcher (2014) and as a journalist working to uncover the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Spotlight (2015). In 2017, the actor returned to Broadway in Arthur Miller's "The Price."
High-profile roles in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) and Longeran's long-delayed film Margaret (2011) followed before Ruffalo's appearance as Dr. Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, in Joss Whedon's movie blockbuster The Avengers (2012). Garnering highly positive reviews for a role in which actors Eric Bana and Edward Norton could not find success in previous films made Ruffalo a box office action star in addition to a critically-acclaimed actor. He returned to the Banner/Hulk role frequently in such Marvel movies as Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019) and Avengers: Endgame (2019),
Reunited with former co-star Gwyneth Paltrow in the sex-addiction comedy-drama Thanks for Sharing (2012), he went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for playing a bipolar Dad in Infinitely Polar Bear (2014). Ruffalo also took on the lead in Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Larry Kramer's AIDS-drama play The Normal Heart (2014) and earned a SAG Award and Emmy Nomination. He later took home the Emmy playing twin brothers, one a paranoid schizophrenic, in I Know This Much Is True (2020).
Ruffalo has been married to actress Sunrise Coigney since 2000; the couple has three children, two sons and a daughter.- Actor
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In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
With handsome movie star looks and a charismatic smile, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. Tom Cruise's biggest franchise, Mission Impossible, has also earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise has also shown lots of interest in producing, with his biggest producer credits being the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth to become one of the biggest movie stars ever.- Actor
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Brian Bloom is an American actor and writer known for playing Brock Pike in The A-Team, Captain America, Daredevil, Bullseye, the Silver Surfer and the Punisher in several Marvel games and cartoons, Kleiver in Jak and Daxter, Black Mask in Batman: Arkham Origins, Nick Reyes in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Varric Tethras in Dragon Age and B.J. Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein. He wrote The A-Team and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.- Actor
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Joe Penny was born on 24 June 1956 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II (1997), The Gangster Chronicles (1981) and Riptide (1984). He has been married to Cindy M. Penny since 2004.- Actor
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Jason Priestley was born on 28 August 1969 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), Call Me Fitz (2010) and Cas & Dylan (2013). He has been married to Naomi Lowde-Priestley since 14 May 2005. They have two children. He was previously married to Ashlee Petersen.- Actor
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Only son of Ed and Kathleen Show. Raised in San Jose, California with older sister, Kelly Show. He studied acting at Samuel Ayer High School, and then majored in theater arts at UCLA. His first professional role was "Rick Hyde" in Ryan's Hope (1975) from 1984 to 1987. He then took a year sabbatical to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. After returning to America, he worked in the theater, whilst starring in the occasional television show. In 1992, he was cast as "Jake Hanson" in the television hit, Melrose Place (1992). Since then, he has starred in numerous shows, including Swingtown (2008), Private Practice (2007) and HBO's Big Love (2006).- Actor
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William Levy was born on 29 August 1980 in Havana, Cuba. He is an actor and producer, known for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), Addicted (2014) and Montecristo (2023).- Actor
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Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American actor. Born in Cupertino, California, Eckhart moved to the United Kingdom at an early age, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Australia for his high school senior year. He left high school without graduating, but earned a diploma through a professional education course, and graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in film. For much of the mid-1990s, he lived in New York City as a struggling, unemployed actor.- Actor
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Antonio Sabato Jr. was born on 29 February 1972 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is an actor and producer, known for The Big Hit (1998), The Three Stooges (2012) and Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas (2009). He was previously married to Cheryl Moana Marie Nunes and Tully Jensen.- Actor
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Rugged features and a natural charm have worked for Josh Brolin, the son of actor James Brolin. He has played roles as a policeman, a hunter, and the President of the United States.
Brolin was born February 12, 1968 in Santa Monica, California, to Jane Cameron (Agee), a Texas-born wildlife activist, and James Brolin. Josh was not interested at first in the lifestyle of the entertainment business, in light of his parents' divorce, and both of them being actors. However, during junior year in high school, he took an acting class to see what it was like. He played Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and became hooked. His first major screen role was as the older brother in the film The Goonies (1985), based on a story by Steven Spielberg. He then immediately moved on to work on television, taking roles on such series as Pilot (1987) and The Young Riders (1989). "Private Eye" was a chance for Brolin to play a detective. "The Young Riders" was set just before the Civil War, and was co-directed by Brolin's father, James Brolin.
After The Young Riders (1989), Brolin moved back to the big screen, with mediocre success. He played a supporting role in The Road Killers (1994), but the film was not a success. He followed up with the crime film Gang in Blue (1996), the romantic film Bed of Roses (1996), the thriller film Nightwatch (1997), and appeared with his father in My Brother's War (1997). However, nothing truly stuck out, especially not the box office flop The Mod Squad (1999). The 2000s initially brought no significant change in Brolin's career. He appeared in the independent film Slow Burn (2000), the sci-if thriller Hollow Man (2000) and starred on the television series Mister Sterling (2003). In 2004, he married actress Diane Lane but later divorced in 2013.
It was not until 2007 that Brolin received much acclaim for his films. He took a supporting role in the Quentin Tarantino-written Grindhouse (2007) which was a two-part film accounting two horror stories. He also played two policemen that year: corrupt officer Nick Trupo in the crime epic American Gangster (2007), and an honest police chief in the emotional drama In the Valley of Elah (2007) which starred Tommy Lee Jones and was directed by Paul Haggis. However, it was his involvement in No Country for Old Men (2007) that truly pushed him into the limelight. The film, directed by the Coen brothers, was about a man (Brolin) who finds a satchel containing two million dollars in cash. He is pursued by an unstoppable assassin (Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar for his work) and his friend, a local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones). The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Brolin found high-profile work the next year, being cast as Supervisor Dan White in the film Milk (2008). His performance as the weak and bitter politician earned him an Oscar nomination, and Brolin received more praise for his fascinating portrayal of George W. Bush in the Oliver Stone film W. (2008). Despite the mediocre success of W. (2008), he was recognized as the best part of the film, and Milk (2008) was another triumph, critically and commercially.
Brolin then acted in the smaller comedy Women in Trouble (2009) before landing a number of large roles in 2010. The first of these was the film based on the comic book figure Jonah Hex (2010). The film was a box office flop and critically panned, but Brolin also forged a second collaboration with legendary director Oliver Stone for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). Brolin played a large role alongside such young stars as Carey Mulligan and Shia LaBeouf, and older thespians such as Michael Douglas, Eli Wallach, and Frank Langella. Brolin's character was Bretton James, a top banker in the film, and also the film's chief antagonist. Brolin also appeared in Woody Allen's London-based film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) and a second collaboration with the Coen Brothers, which was a remake of True Grit (1969).
Despite his earlier mediocre success and fame, Brolin has maintained a choosiness in his films and, recently, these choices have paid off profoundly. Hopefully, he continues this streak of good fortune that his talents have finally given him.- Actor
- Producer
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Simon Baker was first recognized in 1992, when he received Australia's prestigious Logie award for Most Popular New Talent. Upon relocating to Los Angeles with his family, Baker was immediately cast in the Academy Award winning film L.A. Confidential (1997).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jensen Ross Ackles, better known as simply Jensen Ackles, was born on March 1, 1978, in Dallas, Texas, to Donna Joan (Shaffer) and actor Alan Ackles. He has English, German, and Scottish ancestry. Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, together with his older brother, Joshua, and a younger sister, Mackenzie. Jensen graduated from Dartmouth Elementary School in 1990, he graduated from Apollo Junior High School in 1993, and LV Berkner High School in 1996.
Jensen is a sports junkie. He loves football, lacrosse, baseball and basketball. He even played on the baseball and lacrosse teams in high school. The 6' 1" actor first started modeling when he was just 2 years old. When he turned 4, he started appearing in TV commercials for Nabisco, RadioShack and Wal-Mart. He caught the acting bug because he was mostly influenced by his father, who was an actor in Dallas. He used to watch his father study scripts, and that taught him a few things about the industry. During his later years in high school, he started taking theater classes, where he claimed he was the only "jock" in that department. When he was just a sophomore, a friend of Jensen had asked him to attend a local acting seminar. Two guys, Craig Wargo, and an agent, 'Michael Einfeld', were interested in Jensen's talent and wanted him to go to Los Angeles with them.
Jensen had to say no to the offer and admitted at one point, he thought they would forget about him but, eventually, when he went to Los Angeles, he still managed to get help from them. Prior to that, Jensen actually planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist, before he decided to move to Los Angeles to give acting a try. In 1996, he managed to secure guest roles on several TV shows, which included Wishbone (1995), Mr. Rhodes (1996) and Sweet Valley High (1994). Jensen's big break came when he was cast in the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives (1965), as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer in 1998, and was nominated three times in 1998, 1999, and 2000 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Days of Our Lives (1965). After spending about three years on a soap set, he left Days of Our Lives (1965) and went on to appear in the mini-series Blonde (2001), which was about the life of Marilyn Monroe, playing Eddie G. He also auditioned for the role of Clark Kent on Smallville (2001), but lost the part to Tom Welling, instead.
Not giving up hope, he went for a few auditions and managed to secure a guest role on the popular James Cameron TV series, Dark Angel (2000), as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452, who was played by Jessica Alba. His character died in the episode, but Jensen eventually returned to the show as a regular in the second season as Ben's clone, Alec/X5-494 and continued on until the show's cancellation in 2002. In 2003, he joined the cast of Dawson's Creek (1998), playing the role of C.J., Jen Lindley's lover. He also filmed episodes of the TV series, Still Life (2003), playing the role of Max Morgan, not knowing that the series was actually dropped. He also had a small role in the short film, The Plight of Clownana (2004), playing the role of Jensen. That same year, he was offered the part of Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling (2003). Jensen, however, turned down the role which was later offered to another actor, Eric Christian Olsen. He was subsequently cast on Smallville (2001), as Assistant football coach Jason Teague, the new love interest of Lana Lang. In 2005, Jensen managed to earn a lead role in the movie, Devour (2005), playing the role of Jake Gray. Jensen also earned the opportunity to work his father, actor Alan Ackles, who happened to play his character's father, Paul Kilton. The movie, however, received mixed reviews from the public.
That same year, Jensen joined the cast of the CW series, Supernatural (2005), where he plays the role of Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam, who is played by Jared Padalecki, are brothers who drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father, John Winchester, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was reported that the creator of the show, Eric Kripke, mentioned that the show will last for a maximum of five seasons. In 2006, Jensen took on a role in the Independently filmed comedy/drama movie, Ten Inch Hero (2007), which explores the theme of honesty and the flaw of judging by appearances. In 2007 the film began a limited run at number of film festivals including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival but never made it into major mainstream theatrical release. In the Spring of 2008 Ten Inch Hero was released onto DVD exclusively through Blockbuster. Jensen however, received high praise for his work as Priestly, who one of the movie's more quirky characters.
From June 5-10 in 2007 Jensen had his professional stage debut as Lt. Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men" at Casa Manana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, working along side Lou Diamond Phillips. This proved to be another successful acting venture for Jensen, as critics were impressed with his work in this role. During his free time, Jensen enjoys golfing, horseback riding, scuba diving and photography. He is also a big fan of country music. His favorite musician is Garth Brooks. He even sang back-up vocals on good friend Steve Carlson's albums "Spot in the Corner" and "Rollin' On." In the summer of 2008 Jensen traveled to Kittaning, PA to film the horror/thriller movie, My Bloody Valentine (2009), which was filmed in the cutting edge Real D technology, Jensen played the lead role of Tom Hanniger and starred alongside Jaime King and Kerr Smith.
Jensen splits his time between Vancouver, British Columbia where he films Supernatural (2005) and his home in Austin, Texas.- Actor
- Writer
Although born in Florida, Anthony Addabbo was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and attended Virginia Tech. His original plans were to become a tree surgeon in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He moved to New York when he was 21 to begin a modeling career. In 1987 he had his first role in a western, The Gunfighters (1987). The next year he moved to L.A. to pursue a film career. Anthony's hobbies include surfing and various outdoor activities, especially mountain biking, hiking and biking.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Gerard Christopher was born on 11 May 1959 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Superboy (1988), Dangerously Close (1986) and General Hospital (1963).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
John Allen Nelson was born on 28 August 1959 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for 24 (2001), Crisis (2014) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015). He has been married to Justine Eyre since 23 September 2007. He was previously married to Åse Samuelsson.- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Newton was born on 29 December 1965 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. He is an actor, known for Alive (1993), The Christmas Card (2006) and Melrose Place (1992). He has been married to Jennifer Newton since 7 October 2006. They have one child.- Actor
- Producer
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Michael Bergin is perhaps best known as "Jack 'J.D.' Darius" on the internationally renowned hit series Baywatch (1989). An actor and model, Bergin has been featured in magazines and on billboards around the world. Growing up in the small town of Naugatuck, Connecticut, Bergin never considered modeling or acting. During his sophomore year at the University of Connecticut, a friend repeatedly urged him to try modeling. Although Bergin remained uninterested in modeling, he quickly learned that the industry's earning potential would greatly ease the financial burden of his college tuition. With the demands of work growing and the commute to New York becoming more frequent, Bergin decided to spend the summer after his junior year in Manhattan working full time. Although his career quickly took off, Bergin chose to complete his education at the University of Connecticut, graduating with a degree in business marketing. One month later he moved back to New York permanently. In search of a fresh face to replace Mark Wahlberg as his underwear model, Calvin Klein chose the relatively unknown Bergin to appear both solo, and with Kate Moss in jeans, underwear and suit advertisements. From that moment on, Bergin's career took off. Bergin has walked the runways of New York, Paris and Milan for Sonia Rykiel, Valentino, Calvin Klein, GianFranco Ferre, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Donna Karen and was the exclusive model for Claiborne for Men, a division of Liz Claiborne, Inc., for over three years. He has also appeared in commercials and print advertisements for Kellogg's, Bacardi Rum, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Coty, Valentino, Perry Ellis, and Liz Claiborne. In addition, Michael has completed correspondent work for E! Entertainment Television, Entertainment Tonight (1981) and VH1. Movie and television credits include the Merchant Ivory film The Proprietor (1996) and a re- occurring role on Darren Starr's C.P.W. (1995).- Actor
- Producer
- Executive
The original MacGyver (1985) and Stargate SG-1 (1997) star was born on January 23, 1950, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Stuart Anderson, was a teacher at a local high school and his mother, Jocelyn, was an artist who was talented in both sculpting and painting. He and his three younger brothers (Jeffrey, Thomas, and James) grew up in Roseville, a suburb of Minneapolis. He developed a love for sports, music (especially jazz) and acting.
As a teenager, Anderson dreamed of becoming a professional hockey player as a teenager. But, at age sixteen, he broke both of his arms in separate incidents, the second of which was so bad that he had to be hospitalized for three months, putting paid to the dream of becoming a hockey player. He went hitchhiking on the open road via a 5,641-mile bicycle trip from Minnesota to Alaska. Although accompanied by several friends at the beginning of this trip, he traveled the last thirty-three days alone. This experience gave him a more centered sense of direction in his life.
After studying drama at St. Cloud State University and at Ohio University (without completing his degree), he briefly moved to New York before settling in Los Angeles, where he worked as a juggler and a street mime and in a Renaissance-style cabaret. He worked briefly in Marineland, where his jobs included holding fish in his mouth for killer whales to leap up and snatch. Subsequently, he appeared in plays and formed a rock band called "Rick Dean and the Dante" with his friend Carl Dante in which he sang and played the guitar.
His big break came in 1976, when he was cast in the popular daytime drama General Hospital (1963) as Dr. Jeff Webber. He continued to play the role for five years until he felt it was time to move on to prime-time drama. He made numerous guest appearances in series such as The Facts of Life (1979) and The Love Boat (1977) and was cast as the star in two CBS series, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1982) and Emerald Point N.A.S. (1983), but both lasted just one season.
His next big success came in 1985, when he won the role as the title character in the ABC adventure series MacGyver (1985). He was cast because the producers were impressed by the lack of pretension he showed at his audition. As he is nearsighted, it was necessary for him to wear his glasses for the reading. The series lasted seven seasons and ran for 139 episodes. It was hugely successful throughout its run and has continued to be popular all over the world. He reprised his role in two TV movies, MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis (1994) and MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday (1994), both produced by his own production company, Gekko Film Corp, which he co-founded with Michael Greenburg.
Having made a huge impression in Ordinary Heroes (1986) as a blind Vietnam veteran struggling to rebuild his life in the United States. After "MacGyver" ended he moved on to such made-for-television movies as In the Eyes of a Stranger (1992), Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992), Beyond Betrayal (1994), Past the Bleachers (1995) and Pandora's Clock (1996). He returned to series television in 1995, when he was cast as Ernest Pratt/Nicodemus Legend in Legend (1995), an adventure series that aired on UPN. He served as executive producer of the series, in which one of his co-stars was his close friend John de Lancie. His character was a dime novelist (Pratt) who took on the persona of the protagonist in his novels (Legend). The series was primarily a comedy, a blend of the western and science fiction.
He found major success again when cast as Colonel (later Brigadier General) Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG-1 (1997), an adventure/science fiction series based on the blockbuster Stargate (1994) starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. The series began filming in Vancouver on February 19, 1997, and premiered on Showtime on July 27, 1997 and on Fox Friday nights. The series has remained extremely successful since then, eventually resulting in the creation of a spin-off series, Stargate: Atlantis (2004), in 2004, and the now-canceled video game "Stargate SG-1: The Alliance" in 2005. Both series aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. He appeared, sporadically, in the latest spin-off series, Stargate Universe (2009). His role in the SG-1 series was substantially reduced in its seventh and eighth seasons, which culminated in his departure from the series in 2005.
Never married, he had dated many women including such actresses as Teri Hatcher, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Sela Ward as well as German ice-skater Katarina Witt. Since 1996, his partner has been Apryl A. Prose, mother of his only child, Wylie Quinn Annarose Anderson (born August 2, 1998).- Jason was first introduced to worldwide audiences as Logan Fowler in the hit TV series Baywatch, a Show viewed by a billion people across 142 countries. After 3 years on the show he walked away from Hollywood, and returned to stage school to study theatre, to complete his training with renowned acting teacher Sanford Meisner. He has taken on controversial roles both on stage & screen, including Greg Araki's film Nowhere with Christina Applegate and Heather Graham, the much acclaimed Eroica, directed by Paul Warner, Adam Meggido 's The End of the Sentence, Mad Cow Girl directed by Greg Hatanaka, and Greek Directed by Australian actor and director Marcus Graham, at the Power House Theatre in New Farm Qld. Sharknado bought Tasmanian born actor Jaason Simmons back into the international spotlight. He has presently four movies in pre-production. The upcoming projects like Jason are diverse. A new Australian Sci Fy series 3010 where he will play a futuristic Super Soldier. A comedy with British comic genus John Cleese. An Australian drama based on the true life story of underground free style flightier Zane Dirani. A thriller to be shot in the state of Georgia. And lastly Jason will be co hosting an Australian produced Environmental Documentary about our Oceans and how that impacts the consumer.
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David Charvet, who rose to international fame on the hit shows Baywatch (1989) and Melrose Place (1992), is now moving into the feature front, having completed production on starring roles in two films.
In the sports feature Green Flash (2008), Charvet plays "Cameron Day", a star basketball player with a future in the NBA until he chokes in a key game, with the after-effects causing him to settle into an aimless life. A chance encounter takes him into the professional beach volleyball scene in Southern California, but his old demons begin creeping in again, threatening his chances at success. The film marks the directorial debut of Paul Nihipali Jr. Jr., who was a member of the U.S. National Volleyball team from 1995-1997 as well as a three-time All-American and captain for the UCLA men's championship-winning volleyball team. The film, shot on location in Southern California, is produced by Cameron Dieterich and Joseph John Barmettler, with Bob Smiland executive producing. The theatrical release date was intended to coincide with the Summer 2008 Olympic Games.
Earlier this year, Charvet starred in the action/adventure feature film Prisoners of the Sun (2013), directed by Academy Award-winner Roger Christian (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), The Dollar Bottom (1981)). He plays "Doug Adler", an archaeologist hired by an eccentric professor to lead his team on a national expedition to excavate a long lost city beneath an Egyptian pyramid. The expedition takes a turn for the worse when the gods of ancient Egypt are awakened from their five thousand year slumber and seek vengeance against the team. John Rhys-Davies, Joss Ackland and Carmen Chaplin co-star in the film, which was budgeted at $10 million.
Charvet launched his acting career on the world's most watched show of its time, Baywatch (1989), in which he developed a strong international following playing lifeguard "Matt Brody" for three seasons. He continued to expand his fan base with his role of "Craig Field" for two seasons on Melrose Place (1992). He also starred in NBC's highly-rated telefilm Seduced and Betrayed (1995) and the ABC movies-of-the week Derby (1995) and Angel Flight Down (1996). He also starred in the independent feature, Meet Prince Charming (1999), with Drea de Matteo.
As a Universal Music recording artist, Charvet spent five years in Europe, where he released three successful pop rock albums, as part of his five album deal with Universal Music Group France. He has sold over 2.5 million albums to date, with three of his singles ("Leap of Faith", "Should I Leave" and "The Tears in My Eyes") charting in the Top 10.
Charvet has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, performing for packed arenas, writing music and experiencing new cultures. He has collaborated with top songwriters such as Ty Lacy (who wrote LeAnn Rimes' single "I Need You"), and he has also worked with Robbie Williams' producer Steve Power. Charvet has recorded a duet with Bryan Adams, and he also worked on a duet with Seal.
Although his music career has taken center stage in recent years, Charvet has always sought new creative challenges. He has now returned to the United States where he is happy to be back to his first love of acting and bringing his new palette of colors to that domain. "Music has helped me to evolve tremendously as an artist and has enriched me personally in so many ways", he offers. "I left America a boy and have come back a man".
Charvet has trained with such renowned acting teachers as Roy London and Larry Moss. He currently resides in Malibu, CA with his fiancée Brooke Burke and their infant daughter, Heaven Rain.- Actor
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Paul Gross is the elder of two brothers. He was an Army brat; his father, Bob Gross, was a Tank Commander in the Canadian Army. As a consequence Paul and his family moved around a lot: he has lived in Canada, the U.S, England and Germany. Paul was introduced to acting in his early teens, while the Gross family was in Washington. He performed in stage plays such as Canterbury Tales and Faustus. From the age of 14, he appeared in television commercials, which enabled him to pay for his degree in Drama at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
In 2011, Paul Gross appeared at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto playing Elyot opposite Kim Cattrall's Amanda in the celebrated comedy by Noel Coward, Private Lives.- Actor
- Music Artist
- Writer
Sean Maguire comes from a family of teachers and has been professionally making films, television shows and performing on stage for over 40 years. In 2020 he combined his professional skills of acting with his love for teaching and launched The Players Conservatory, an acting school for students across the globe.
Originally from London, Sean started his career at age five starring alongside Sir Laurence Olivier in his final film, A Voyage around my Father. He then rose to fame at age ten when he was cast in the BBC drama "Grange Hill. in Voyage Around My Father with Sir Laurence Olivier. Many TV roles for UK television followed including Tegs in Grange Hill, Aiden Brosnan in EastEnders, Marty in Dangerfield and Lee in Sunburn (all BBC). Sean played the role of Euan in The WB sitcom, Off Centre, and Robin Hood in ABC's hit series Once Upon A Time (2013) replacing Tom Ellis in the role. He also starred in The Magicians on SyFy, the SnapChat series "Action Royale" and in the science fiction podcast series "Electric Easy". In 2022 he played a vampire in the Paramount film "V For Vengeance" which is available by video on demand.
Sean resides in Los Angeles with his wife Tanya and 3 children.- Actor
- Producer
Steven Eckholdt was born on 6 September 1961 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Friends (1994), The Wraith (1986) and Message in a Bottle (1999).- Actor
- Producer
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John James Anderson is most well known for his ten-year role as 'Jeff Colby' on the 1980's prime time TV soaps Dynasty (1981) and The Colbys (1985). John was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of radio broadcaster Herb Oscar Anderson, and brother of actor Herb Anderson.
He first starred in small roles in TV series like Fantasy Island (1977) and The Love Boat (1976), before being offered the character of Jeff in Dynasty (1981) and its spin-off The Colbys (1985). He appeared in the first episode 'Oil' (1981) and remained until the last episode 'Catch 22' (1989), returning later for the film Dynasty: The Reunion.
John then took nearly fifteen years out of the acting business, except for the odd TV movie and a role in the action thriller Icebreaker (2000) with Sean Astin and Bruce Campbell.
He returned (2003-08) with the long running hit series As the World Turns (1956) and the equally successful All My Children (1970). He also starred in the drama Lightning: Fire from the Sky (2001) alongside Jesse Eisenberg and John Schneider.
John lives with his wife and two children in New York, New York.- Actor
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Jack Stephen Burton is an American actor from Indianapolis, Indiana who is known for voicing Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy and playing Jason Morgan from General Hospital. He also acted in The Young and the Restless. He won Emmy awards for his performances on soap operas. He has three children from Shree Gustin.- Actor
- Director
Dan Gauthier was born on 2 December 1963 in Prineville, Oregon, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Teen Witch (1989), Tour of Duty (1987) and One Life to Live (1968). He has been married to Lisa Fuller since 22 April 1990. They have one child.- Actor
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Kyle M. Chandler is an Emmy-winning American actor who was born in Buffalo, New York in 1965. He resides in the United States with his wife, Kathryn Chandler, and their two children, Sawyer and Sydney. Some of his most notable credits include "Friday Night Lights" (Friday Night Lights (2006)), "Bloodline" (Bloodline (2015)), The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)), Argo (Argo (2012)) and Zero Dark Thirty (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)), to name a few.- Actor
- Producer
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Ethan Green Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole (Green), a charity worker, and James Steven Hawke, an insurance actuary. His parents were students at the University of Texas at the time but divorced when Ethan was 5 years old. His mother raised him alone for the next five years, moving around the country, until she remarried in 1981 and the family settled in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.
He attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and then transferred to the Hun School of Princeton and it was while he was there that he began taking acting classes at the McCarter Theatre on the Princeton campus. His early ambition had been to be a writer, but as a result of the acting lessons and appearances in student productions he persuaded his mother to allow him to attend an audition for a role in a sci-fi adolescent adventure, Explorers (1985). He got the role (along with River Phoenix) but although the movie was favourably reviewed, it met with little commercial success which discouraged Hawke from pursuing further movie roles for several years.
He was admitted to the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University to study theatre but his studies were interrupted when he won his break-through role opposite Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (1989) and he did not complete his degree. He then appeared in numerous films before taking a role in the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994) for which he received critical praise. He starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise (1995), and its later sequels Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).
His subsequent acting career was a mix of theatre work (earning a number of awards and nominations, including a Tony Award nomination for his role in "The Coast of Utopia" at the Lincoln Center in New York), and a mix of serious and more commercial movies, notably Gattaca (1997) (where he met his first wife, Uma Thurman) and Training Day (2001). His role as the father in the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014) earned him multiple award nominations, including the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Meanwhile, he also wrote two novels: "The Hottest State" (1996) and "Ash Wednesday" (2002).- Producer
- Actor
- Composer
American actor Mark Wahlberg is one of a handful of respected entertainers who successfully made the transition from teen pop idol to acclaimed actor. A Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for The Departed (2006) who went on to receive positive critical reviews for his performance in The Fighter (2010), Wahlberg also is a solid comedy actor, proven by his starring role in Ted (2012).
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born June 5, 1971 in a poor working class district, Dorchester, of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Alma Elaine (Donnelly), a nurse's aide and clerk, and Donald Edward Wahlberg, a delivery driver. Wahlberg is the youngest of nine children. He is of Swedish (from his paternal grandfather), French-Canadian, English, Irish and Scottish, descent. The large Wahlberg brood didn't have a lot growing up, especially after his parents divorced when he was eleven. The kids crammed into a three-bedroom apartment, none of them having very much privacy. Mark's mother has said that after the divorce, she became very self-absorbed with her own life. She has blamed herself for her son's subsequent problems and delinquency. Wahlberg dropped out of high school at age fourteen (but later got his GED) to pursue a life of petty crime and drugs. He'd spend his days scamming and stealing, working on the odd drug deal before treating himself to the substances.
The young man also had a violent streak - one which was often aimed at minorities. At age sixteen, he was convicted of assault against two Vietnamese men after he had tried to rob them. As a result of his assault conviction, he was sentenced to serve 50 days in prison at Deer Island penitentiary. Whilst there, he began working out to pass time and, when he emerged at the end of his sentence, he had gone from being a scrawny young kid to a buff young man. Wahlberg also credits jail time as being his motivation to improve his lifestyle and leave crime behind him.
Around this time, his older brother Donnie Wahlberg had become an overnight teen idol as a member of the 1980s boy band New Kids on the Block. A precursor to the boy-band craze, the group was dominating the charts and were on top of their game. Mark himself had been an original member of the band but had backed out early on - uncomfortable with the squeaky clean image of the group. Donnie used his connections in the music business to help his little brother secure a recording contract, and soon the world was introduced to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, with Wahlberg as a bad-boy rapper who danced in his boxers. Despite a lack of singing ability, promoters took to his dance moves and a physique they knew teenage girls would love.
Donnie scripted some easy songs for Mark, who collected a troupe of dancers and a DJ to become his "Funky Bunch" and "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" was born. His debut album, "Music for the People", was a smash hit, which was propelled along by the rapper's willingness to disrobe down to boxer-briefs on stage, not to mention several catchy tunes. Teenage girls thrilled to the rapping "bad boy". Record producer David Geffen saw in Wahlberg a cash-cow of marketing ability. After speaking to designer Calvin Klein, Marky Mark was set up as the designer's chief underwear model.
His scantily clad figure soon adorned billboards across the nation. Ironically, while the New Kids on the Block's fame was dwindling as audiences tired of their syrupy lyrics, "Marky Mark's" bad boy image was becoming even more of a commodity. He was constantly in the headlines (often of the tabloids) after multiple scandals. In 1992, he released a book dedicated to his penis. Wahlberg was constantly getting into rumored fights, most memorably with Madonna and her entourage at a Los Angeles party. While things were always intense, they were relatively harmless and made for enjoyable reading for the public. However, when the story of his arrest for assault (and the allegations of racism) broke in the press, things took on a decidedly darker note. People were not amused. Soon after, while on a British talk show along with rapper Shabba Ranks, he got into even more trouble. After Ranks made the statement that gays should be crucified, Wahlberg was accused of condoning the comments by his silence. Marky Mark was suddenly surrounded by charges of brutality, homophobia and racial hatred. His second album, "You Gotta Believe", had not been faring well and, after the charges surfaced, it plummeted from the charts.
Adding to the hoopla, Wahlberg was brought to court for allegedly assaulting a security guard. He was ordered to make amends by appearing in a series of anti-bias advertisements. Humbled and humiliated by his fall from grace in the music world, Wahlberg decided to pursue another angle, acting. He dropped the "Marky Mark" moniker and became known simply as Mark Wahlberg. His first big screen role came in Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man (1994). Despite the name change, many people snickered at the idea of the has-been rapper thinking he could make it as an actor. From the get-go, he was proving them wrong. In Renaissance Man (1994), he gave an utterly charming performance as a simple but sincere army recruit. What naysayers remained found it increasingly difficult to write Mark Wahlberg off as he delivered one fine performance after another. He blew them away in the controversial The Basketball Diaries (1995) and chilled them in Fear (1996) as every father's worst nightmare.
The major turning point in Wahlberg's career came with the role of troubled porn star Dirk Diggler in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). Since then, Wahlberg has chosen roles that demonstrate a wide range of dramatic ability, starring in critically acclaimed dramas such as Three Kings (1999) and The Perfect Storm (2000), popcorn flicks like Planet of the Apes (2001) and Contraband (2012), and even indies such as I Heart Huckabees (2004).
Wahlberg was the executive producer of such television series as Boardwalk Empire (2010), In Treatment (2008) and the highly successful comedy Entourage (2004), which was partly based on his experiences in Hollywood.
Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham have four children.- Actor
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Christian Michael Leonard Slater was born on August 18, 1969 in New York City, to Michael Hawkins, a well-known soap actor, and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), a casting agent. Christian started in show business early, appearing on the soap opera The Edge of Night (1956) in 1976 at the age of 7. He went on to star in many Broadway shows in the early-1980s. He rose to fame in Hollywood after landing the role of Binx Davey in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a further acting career after dropping out of high school. After having a starring role in the cult classic Heathers (1988), he became somewhat known as the Hollywood bad-boy, having many run-ins with the law. He is also well-known for having dated stars such as Winona Ryder, Christina Applegate, Samantha Mathis and was at one time engaged to actress/model Nina Huang. In 2000, he married Ryan Haddon, the daughter of 1970s model Dayle Haddon. The couple have two children, Jaden Christopher (b. 1999) and Eliana Sophia (b. 2001). As of early 2005, they separated and later divorced, but remain dedicated to bring up their children.- Actor
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Channing Tatum was born in a small town, Cullman, Alabama, 50 miles north of Birmingham. He is the son of Kay (Faust), an airline worker, and Glenn Matthew Tatum, who worked in construction. Growing up, he was full of energy and somewhat troublesome, so his parents decided to enroll him in different sports such as track and field, baseball, soccer, and football to keep him out of trouble. In the ninth grade he was sent to Catholic school. It was there that he discovered his passion for football and his hopes became centered on earning an athletic college scholarship. Channing's goal was finally met, and in his senior year in high school, he was recruited and earned a full athletic college scholarship to a school in West Virginia.
Tatum is also skilled in Kung Fu and in Gor-Chor Kung Fu, a form of martial arts, in which he has earned belts. Channing later left college and, in the meantime, worked as a construction worker, a stripper, a mortgage broker and salesman. He has modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Gap, Aeropostale, Emporio Armani, and has been featured in television commercials for American Eagle, Pepsi, and some very popular Mountain Dew commercials.
Channing can be seen on the big screen as a featured actor in Coach Carter (2005), in which he plays a high school basketball player. He was also in the very popular TV series CSI: Miami (2002) where he played the role of Bob Davenport.- Actor
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Matthew Joseph "Matt" Dallas born October 21, 1982 is an American actor, best known for playing the title character on the ABC Family series Kyle XY. Dallas was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Arizona School for the Arts. He has two younger brothers and one younger sister. He became interested in acting at the age of 12, when his grandmother took him to a production of the play The Ugly Duckling.- Actor
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Michael Kevin Paré was born on October 9, 1958 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Joan (Moroney) and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. His father died of leukemia when Paré was five, leaving his mother to raise their large family of children. Paré was working as a chef in New York City when an agent, Yvette Bikoff, convinced him to try acting. Paré's first starring role was as high school student Tony Villcana on the television series The Greatest American Hero (1981). His well-known film roles were as 1960s rock icon Eddie Wilson in Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) and its sequel Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989), as well as Streets of Fire (1984) and The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). Other films include Moon 44 (1990), Village of the Damned (1995), Bad Moon (1996), Hope Floats (1998) and The Virgin Suicides (1999). On television, Paré starred with Michael Beck on the CBS police drama Houston Knights (1987), as well as the short-lived sci-fi series Starhunter (2000).- Actor
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Cary Elwes was born in Westminster, London, England, the third son of interior designer/shipping heiress Tessa Georgina Kennedy and the late portrait painter Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes. He is the brother of producer/agent Cassian Elwes and artist Damian Elwes. He was raised in London and attended Harrow. After graduating from Harrow, he moved to the US and studied drama at Sarah Lawrence College. He left school after two years to begin his film career. Cary is well respected by colleagues and fans alike and considered by many to be one of the finest actors working today. He is interested in history and says, "It's deliberate that a lot of my films have been period pieces". He is politically active for causes he believes in, such as protecting the environment and helping Native American people.
Elwes is married to Lisa Marie Kurbikoff, a stills photographer. He comes from a long-established recusant English family on his father's side. Several prominent Catholic clerics are among his relatives, including Fr. Luke Cary-Elwes, Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, and Dom Cuthbert Cary-Elwes. His grandfather was society painter and war artist Simon Elwes. Cary (the surname "Cary-Elwes" was shortened to "Elwes" in some branches of the family) was an altar boy at London's Brompton Oratory, although he did not attend a Catholic high school. From his maternal grandmother, Daska Marija Ivanovic-Banac, who was born in Osijek in the Austra-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), he has Croatian Jewish and Serbian ancestry. Cary's other lineage is English, Irish, and Scottish.- Gabriel Garko was born on 12 July 1972 in Turin, Italy. He is an actor, known for Black Angel (2002), Beauty Centre (2001) and Non è stato mio figlio (2016).
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Wesley first enjoyed an international spotlight as a model for the famous photographer Bruce Weber. Wesley has been a feature model for both Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister stores. Wesley can be seen in national print campaigns for many Canadian retailers. Wesley's passion for acting came in high school where he auditioned and won the lead in his first stage play. He decided that he wanted to study acting privately and began lessons and scene studies with the finest of teachers. Wesley brings the same work ethic to his acting that he does to his physical endeavors. As an elite athlete, he maintains a strict training regime. Wesley has been surrounded by music, as his mother is a coloratura soprano and composer. His father is a highly decorated police officer that has lobbied the government for many important justice issues. He has an older sister, Brittany and loves to spend time with his collie dog.- Actor
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A Martinez was born in Glendale, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Longmire (2012), Dark Winds (2022) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024). He has been married to Leslie Bryans since 17 July 1982. They have three children. He was previously married to Mare Winningham.- Actor
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Joshua David Duhamel was born in Minot, North Dakota. His mother, Bonny L., is a retired high school teacher, and the Executive Director of Minot's Downtown Business & Profession Association, and his father, Larry Duhamel, is an advertisement salesman. Josh has three younger sisters: Ashlee, McKenzee and Kassidy. His ancestry is German, and smaller amounts of Norwegian, French-Canadian, English, Irish, and Austrian (his last name is very common among Francophones in the world). Before his acting career, the football player studied biology and earned his Bachelor's degree at Minot State University with the intention of pursuing dentistry.
At 26 years old, Josh worked in construction, and it was by chance that he got into showbusiness. Modeling eventually gave way to acting as Josh was asked to audition for the title character in The Picture of Dorian Gray (2004), from the novel by Oscar Wilde.
Duhamel can be seen in Vince Gilligan and David Shore's CBS series, "Battle Creek." He is in production on four films: "Lost In The Sun," "Bravetown," "The Wrong Stuff," and "Beyond Deceit."
Duhamel also starred alongside Hillary Swank and Emmy Rossum in the George C. Wolfe directed drama, "You're Not You." Duhamel also starred opposite Julianne Hough in Lasse Hallstrom's "Safe Haven," a drama based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks and the thriller "Scenic Route," which tells the story of two friends stranded in the desert. In addition, Duhamel was seen in the star-studded, ensemble comedy "Movie 43" alongside Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Kate Winslet, Richard Gere among many others. Co-directed by Peter Farrelly and Patrik Forsberg, the film features various intertwining, raunchy tales.
Other projects include Garry Marshall's "New Year's Eve" alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, and Hilary Swank and Michael Bay's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," where he reprised his role of Captain William Lennox for the third installment of the franchise. Additional film credits include the romantic comedy "Life as We Know It" alongside Katherine Heigl, "Ramona and Beezus," "When in Rome" and "The Romantics." On television, Josh is best known for his role as Danny McCoy on the NBC crime drama "Las Vegas." Additionally, he lent his voice to Nickelodeon's Emmy Award-winning animated series "Fanboy & Chum Chum" and starred in several seasons of the long-running ABC soap opera "All My Children," in which he received three consecutive Daytime Emmy nominations.
On January 10 2009, Josh married Fergie Duhamel, better known as Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. They have one child together, Axl Jack Duhamel. They reside in Los Angeles.- Actor
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David was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Patti, a travel agent, and weatherman Dave Roberts (Boreanaz). His father is of Italian descent and his mother is of half Slovak ancestry. At the age of seven he decide to be an actor, which eventually led him to study cinema and photography at Ithaca College in New York. After graduating from college, David moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in the movies. After some uncredited roles he received his first important role as Kelly's boyfriend in the series Married... with Children (1987). After three seasons of playing Angel in the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), he received his own spin-off show titled Angel (1999).- Actor
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The second of three children born to a dentist and his wife in Nashville, Tennessee, Denton grew up in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, attended Goodlettsville High School, briefly played basketball at a junior college, then went on to graduate with honors from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, snagging a degree in advertising as a television/journalism major on the way out the door. Even though his father was involved in community theater, Denton didn't jump in until he was 23, during the Tennessee bicentennial in Nashville, Tennessee. His role as "George Gibbs" in a production of "Our Town" turned out to be only the first in a long line of plays that he would do, first in Nashville and then, later, in North Carolina, Chicago and California.
Although he spent the next four years selling advertising for two radio stations and then for the CBS affiliate in Nashville, Denton's heart was already in another place and, after a short stint in North Carolina, he headed to Chicago to try his hand at acting full-time.
In Chicago, his first role was as "Stanley" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and his last was as the terrorist "Bebert" in the French farce "Lapin Lapin". In the years that came between the two, JD was a company member at The Griffin Theater and at Strawdog Theater Ensemble. He added a steady string of roles and accolades to his quickly growing list of achievements, including one of the leads in the world premiere of "Flesh and Blood", performing in and composing the music for "the Night Hank Williams Died", and his portrayal of Kentucky preacher "C.C. Showers" in "The Diviners" - which gained him a much coveted nomination for a Best Actor Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago's only theater award). A small part in The Untouchables (1993) (the series, not the movie), JAG (1995), Sliders (1995) and Dark Skies (1996). A spot on Moloney (1996), a pilot for ABC called "L.A. Med" and a stint on the silver screen in That Old Feeling (1997), were preludes to his first appearance as "Mr. Lyle" on The Pretender (1996). Immediately afterward, JD made another pilot, this time for his own series, "The Hanleys". When ABC shelved the sitcom at the last minute, Denton continued producing chilling portrayals as "Mr. Lyle" on NBC's The Pretender (1996), as a series regular.
The summer of 1999 found Denton heading back to the theater, starring in the world premiere of the play, "In Walked Monk." During the fourth season of The Pretender (1996), Denton added three more guest-starring roles to his credits - the first on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998), another on Ally McBeal (1997) and the last on the hugely popular The West Wing (1999). That summer, he co-starred in "Asylum" at The Court Theatre and, at the end of the year, headed for Canada to film two MOWs for TNT - The Pretender 2001 (2001) and The Pretender: Island of the Haunted (2001). 2001 found Denton back at ABC after Steven Bochco cast him as "Judge Augustus "Jack" Ripley," in his struggling new series, Philly (2001). Viewers liked "Judge Ripley," and hopes were high that the sizzling on-screen chemistry between Denton's character and the one portrayed by Kim Delaney would convince ABC to give the show another season to improve its ratings. Ironically, Denton was in Australia, promoting Philly (2001), when he received word that ABC had passed on renewing the show for a second season. Denton ended 2002 with a two-part guest-starring role on The Drew Carey Show (1995).
Denton returned as a guest star on JAG (1995) in 2003, and pilot season landed him the opportunity to once again head up the cast of an ABC series in Threat Matrix (2003), a Touchstone production offering up fictionalized events relating to terrorist activity around the world. Denton played "John Kilmer", the man who lead the ultra-covert team of anti-terrorist specialists and who answered solely to the President of the United States. The timely and serious role also gave Denton the opportunity to change his professional billing from "Jamie Denton" to "James Denton". Only days before the annual up-fronts in New York, where the major networks announce their new fall season line-ups, ABC picked up the show for September, 2003.
Although Threat Matrix (2003) held its own in one of the worst time-slots of the season (sandwiched between the hugely popular "Survivor" and the last season of Friends (1994)), ABC nonetheless pulled the series after only fourteen episodes aired (sixteen episodes were filmed). Threat Matrix (2003) was officially canceled on the same day as Denton's role as "Mike Delfino" on Desperate Housewives (2004), a new ABC series scheduled for the Fall, was announced at the 2004 up-fronts in New York.
On October 3, 2004, Desperate Housewives (2004) garnered incredible ratings with its debut episode and ABC picked up the rest of the first season before the end of the month. Less than three months later, Denton was included in People Magazine's 2004 "Sexiest Men Alive" issue.
During the first and second seasons of Desperate Housewives (2004), Denton managed to schedule a sweeps week guest star spot on Reba (2001) and, toward the end of the second season, played the role of "Brother John Brown" in Ascension Day (2007).
Years after composing the music for and performing in "The Night Hank Williams Died" - a play from his days in Chicago - Denton accepted an invitation that was proffered to him by Greg Grunberg (Heroes (2006)) and became a singer and guitar player for a band that was first known as "16:9" and then, later, as "The Band From TV". Other members of the band include, and have included, (the founder and drummer)Greg Grunberg, Hugh Laurie (keyboards, House (2004)), 'Bonnie Somerville' (singer, Cashmere Mafia (2008)) and Bob Guiney (singer, Bachelor #4 on The Bachelor (2002)). The band largely plays at Hollywood events but does, on occasion, play elsewhere. The band donates any money that it makes to charities that are selected by each of its primary members. When the WGA writer's strike of 2007 shut down production on TV series, there was talk of a tour for the temporarily unemployed band members. A CD that the band made in 2007, "Hoggin' All The Covers" is available for sale at Amazon.com. In addition, at least one of the band's songs are on the soundtrack for House (2004) and two of its songs, "Minnie the Moocher" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want", are available for purchase on iTunes.
While on hiatus, between the second and third seasons of Desperate Housewives (2004), Denton teamed up with Chris Kattan in the straight-to-DVD film, Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007).
2007 was a busy year for Denton. In addition to traveling all over the country in order to lend his celebrity to dozens of charitable causes, he also completed three projects - ABC's Masters of Science Fiction (2007)'s episode, The Discarded (2007); Custody (2007), which aired on Lifetime and Tortured (2007).
The same year, Denton, a lifelong fan of baseball, joined an Orange County investment group that purchased the Golden Baseball League Team, "The Fullerton Flyers". Shortly after the purchase and, although the team's home field remained at Cal State Fullerton, the group changed the name of the team to "The Orange County Flyers". Not content to merely be an investor, Denton took as active a role as his schedule and the team structure allowed, attending try-outs, where he had a hand in selecting some of the players during his first season as a co-owner, and attending quite a few of the home games.
When "Housewives" isn't in production, JD still takes part in other productions. These have included Group Sex (2010) and bringing the voice of "Superman" to life in the animated video, All-Star Superman (2011). He played the role of "Slim" in the independent film, Karaoke Man (2012).
Denton announced on the Christopher Gabriel radio program that he and his family were moving to Minnesota in August of 2012 and that he would pursue whatever comes next from there. His fans didn't have to wait long to hear from him again. In 2013 JD took on the role of Johnny Trey in "Grace Unplugged" and in short order won an award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. The film won a Top Ten Family Film of the Year and the Grand Prize, "The Epiphany Award" for Most Inspirational Film of 2013. Denton went on to do the Hallmark Channel's "Stranded In Paradise", "Ovation", "Strangers", "The Dancer and the Dame" and "Revelation Road 3: The Black Rider". 2014 found Denton making a deal with The Hallmark Channel to become (as "Dr. Sam") part of their original series, "The Good Witch" which is in its seventh season.- Actor
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Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as superhero, period, and romance characters. He is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, as well as for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013). His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013. In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.
Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, an accountant. He is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.
Jackman has a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney. After graduating, he pursued drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, immediately after which he was offered a starring role in the ABC-TV prison drama Correlli (1995), opposite his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. Several TV guest roles followed, as an actor and variety compere. An accomplished singer, Jackman has starred as Gaston in the Australian production of "Beauty and the Beast." He appeared as Joe Gillis in the Australian production of "Sunset Boulevard." In 1998, he was cast as Curly in the Royal National Theatre's production of Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma. Jackman has made two feature films, the second of which, Erskineville Kings (1999), garnered him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor in 1999. Recently, he won the part of Logan/Wolverine in the Bryan Singer- directed comic-book movie X-Men (2000). In his spare time, Jackman plays piano, golf, and guitar, and likes to windsurf.- Actor
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HBO's mega-hit True Blood created by Academy Award winner Alan Ball set the stage for Ryan's talent. For seven seasons he portrayed the fan favorite Jason Stackhouse. Most recently in the film world, Ryan has been discretionary yet fruitful with his choices of project. Working for a second time with visionary Australian director Ivan Sen on his latest film Expired. Ivan's work is critically claimed and has been presented at Festival De Cannes. Ryan played the lead role in Expired and was wonderfully supported by Hugo Weaving and Jillian Nguyen. Ryan then starred in Seth Larney's sci-fi thriller 2067 along side Academy Award Nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Kwanten has a slew of films slated to premiere in the coming months. The first is Glorious. Produced by Ryan and Directed by Rebekah McKendry, Rebekah brings Lovecraftian horror to a place it has never been seen before: a rest stop men's room. Kwanten teams up for this incredible two-hander with Academy Award Winner J.K. Simmons. Section 8 sees Ryan headline an all-star action cast including Dermot Mulroney, Scott Adkins, Dolph Lungren, and Mickey Rourke.
On the television side of things, Ryan starred in the Amazon Prime original series, Them, from powerhouse Lena Waithe. His other recent work includes starring in BlumHouse's series Sacred Lies, along side Juliette Lewis. Producing and staring in two seasons of the Sony original crime drama series, The Oath alongside Sean Bean and produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.
Kwanten is currently shooting and starring in Kindred for the Disney-owned FX Network. The project is the first ever adaption of the luminary Octavia E. Butler's works. It is being produced by Darren Aronofsky's Protozoa Pictures.- Actor
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Christopher "Chris" Hemsworth was born on August 11, 1983 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to Leonie Hemsworth (née van Os), an English teacher & Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor. His brothers are actors, Liam Hemsworth & Luke Hemsworth; he is of Dutch (from his immigrant maternal grandfather), Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry. His uncle, by marriage, was Rod Ansell, the bushman who inspired the comedy film Crocodile Dundee (1986).
Chris saw quite a bit of the country in his youth, after his family moved to the Northern Territory before finally settling on Phillip Island, to the south of Melbourne. In 2004, he unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Robbie Hunter in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1988) but was recalled for the role of Kim Hyde which he played until 2007. In 2006, he entered the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars (2004) and his popularity in the soap enabled him to hang on until show 7 (Episode #5.7 (2006)) when he became the fifth contestant to be eliminated.
His first Hollywood appearance was in the science fiction blockbuster Star Trek (2009), but it was his titular role in the superhero blockbuster Thor (2011) which propelled him to prominence worldwide. He reprised the character in the superhero blockbusters The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Chris's American representative, management company ROAR, also manages actress Elsa Pataky, and it was through them that the two met, marrying in 2010. The couple have a daughter and twin sons. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia at the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charitable organisations.- Actor
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Paul Telfer was born on 30 October 1979 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), NCIS (2003) and The Vampire Diaries (2009). He has been married to Carmen Cusack since 1 December 2012.- Actor
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Scott Speedman was born in London, England, to Scottish parents, Mary (Campbell), a primary school teacher, and Roy Speedman, a department store buyer. He grew up in Toronto, Canada. He was an aspiring swimmer and held a record amongst the best for distance freestyle, unfortunately, an accident put that career path on hold forever. He went to Earl Haig High School in Toronto and went to the University of Toronto in 1994 - 1996. On a dare, he went on a show called "Speakers Corner" and later went to audition for the role of Robin in Batman Forever (1995). When the part went to Chris O'Donnell, he managed to land an agent. Other movies he has done include Kitchen Party (1997) and Duets (2000) starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The show Felicity (1998) introduced Scott to the world and has formed quite a standing amongst fans. When the show ended in 2002, Scott's movie career took off with his breakthrough role in Underworld (2003) starring Kate Beckinsale and Bill Nighy.- Ryan Doom is known for Runaways (2017), The Astronaut Wives Club (2015) and Most Likely to Die (2015).
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Ross Thomas was born on 21 August 1981 in Stockton, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Shelter (2007), Soul Surfer (2011) and The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold (2006). He has been married to Jolene Rust since 29 August 2015. They have one child.- Actor
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Trevor Donovan, born and raised in Mammoth Lakes, California, is a multifaceted artist, philanthropist, and author. As a teenager, he was a member of the US teen ski team and later earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design before transitioning into a successful career in entertainment, where he is best known for his work as Teddy Montgomery, the first and only LGBT character who was a series regular on the global pop culture phenomenon, 90210.
Beyond his on-screen success, Trevor is a passionate advocate for various causes, including canine rights and anti-bullying. He is an active ambassador for Habitat for Humanity and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Additionally, he founded the nationwide anti-bullying program, Team Upstanders, and has made it his mission to spread awareness about bullying in all forms, along with other issues he cares deeply about.
Known for his charismatic and engaging performances, Trevor has emerged as a sought-after leading man in romantic comedies, starring in a plethora of titles. Among the films he's starred in are "Easy Heart," "USS Christmas," "Love Finds You in Charm," among many others.
Trevor recently appeared on Season 31 of Dancing with the Stars on Disney+ and quickly became a fan favorite, making it to the semi-finals despite having no dance experience. He has also starred in various popular TV shows, including 90210, Sun Records, The Client List, Melissa & Joey, Awkward, NCIS, and Lucifer. His upcoming projects include the movie Reagan with Dennis Quaid and Wolfhound.
Apart from his successful acting career, Trevor is also an accomplished author, having written three children's books in his "Love Always" series, featuring Dogbert the German Shepherd, Tito the English Bulldog, Shadow the Golden Retriever, and Chance the Labrador. These heartwarming stories are inspired by real-life everyday experiences and showcase Trevor's love for animals and his unwavering optimism.
Trevor's positive outlook on life and dedication to making a difference make him a beloved figure in both the entertainment industry and the wider community. He is an avid user of social media, where he has a global fan base known as #DonoFans, who eagerly support all his endeavors and make sure his projects trend online.
Trevor resides in both Mammoth and Los Angeles. Trevor has a younger brother Jake who is a fireman.