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A charismatic performer who spent years on television looking for his big break, actor George Eads finally became a television star portraying forensic investigator Nick Stokes on the hit procedural "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000- ). Prior to that role, Eads eked out a living with roles on less-than-popular shows like "Strange Luck" (Fox, 1995-96) and Aaron Spelling's short-lived "Savannah" (The WB, 1996-97), before carving out a niche in TV movies like "The Ultimate Lie" (USA, 1996) and "Crowned and Dangerous" (ABC, 1997). He went on to score a few episodes of "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009) and had a regular role on the sitcom "Grapevine" (CBS, 2000), only to find himself out of work once more when that series was canceled after five episodes. But Eads segued right away into "CSI," where he was fortunate enough to have landed on a series that ran well into the next decade, turning him into a known commodity while allowing the actor the comfort of tackling outside roles as he chose. During his time on the show, Eads landed a number of guest spots and TV movies, but none as high-profile as his starring turn as the iconic 1970s daredevil, "Evel Knievel" (TNT, 2004). With his portrayal of Stokes, Eads was elevated from unknown to fan favorite after years of struggle.- Actor
- Writer
Big, burly character actor, one of the toughest of screen heavies. New York-born Leo Gordon's combination of a powerful physique, deep, menacing voice and icy, withering glare was guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of even the bravest screen hero. Director Don Siegel, who used Gordon in his prison film Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), once said that "Leo Gordon was the scariest man I have ever met"--this coming from a man who had directed John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Bette Midler! Siegel wasn't talking about just Gordon's screen presence. As a "heavy", Gordon was the real deal--before becoming an actor (he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Gordon served five years in San Quentin State Prison for armed robbery (during which he was shot several times point-blank by police--and survived). "Riot in Cell Block 11" was filmed at Folsom State Prison--where Gordon also served time--and the Folsom warden remembered him as a troublemaker.At first he refused to allow the film to be shot there if Gordon was to be in it, but Siegel was able to convince him that Gordon was no threat to the prison.
Contrary to his image, though, Gordon was not just a one-note villain. He did play sympathetic parts on occasion, notably in the western Black Patch (1957)--which he also wrote--and in Roger Corman's civil rights drama The Intruder (1962), and turned in first-rate performances, especially in the latter film. Gordon was also a screenwriter, turning out several screenplays for Corman. He wasn't just limited to writing low-budget sci-fi films, either; he penned the screenplay for the WWII epic Tobruk (1967), writing in a meaty part for himself as Kruger, a tough sergeant in a platoon of German Jews masquerading as Nazi soldiers to help blow up a German oil storage facility.
Leo Gordon died in Los Angeles, CA, in 2000 at age 78 of heart failure.- Actor
- Writer
Laconic, dark and handsome were the essential attributes for Hollywood western leading men in the 50s and 60s. James Drury fit the bill, keeping in mind that his most famous screen persona - that of the stalwart Shiloh estate ranch foreman known only as 'the Virginian' - took a while to properly develop. In the original 30-minute pilot way back in 1958, the Virginian appeared rather more like a genteel dandy than a tough cowboy. Four years later, the NBC network approved a revamped version of the series and Drury, now looking the part, was on his way to popular success. Though his career may have fallen short of outright stardom, he endeared himself with TV audiences for almost a decade and went on to enjoy a fair cult status beyond the final episode of The Virginian (1962) in March 1971.
James Child Drury was born not in the American West, but in New York, the son of Beatrice (Crawford) and James Child Drury. His father, from an Irish family, was a professor who lectured in marketing and advertising at New York University. Young James spent some of his formative years on a family ranch in Salem, Oregon, where he learned to become an expert rider. His maternal grandfather, John Hezekiah Crawford, of Kentucky, educated him in the ways of the woodsman and taught him marksmanship. James began to act in school plays, toured with a theatrical company by the age of twelve and then studied drama at his father's university. Curiously, he completed his senior year at UCLA studying not acting but horticulture and animal husbandry. Upon graduation, he was signed to a contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and made his first screen appearance a year later in 1955. Aside from playing junior army officers and assorted teenagers in films for 20th Century Fox and Disney, Drury quickly found a comfortable niche in TV westerns (which, no doubt, had much to do with his expertise in horsemanship). He had guest appearances in just about all the famous ones: The Texan (1958), Bronco (1958), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Lawman (1958), Cheyenne (1955), Gunsmoke (1955), Rawhide (1959) and Wagon Train (1957). He also made the little seen, yet unsold pilot for The Virginian. A strong performance as one of a quartet of villainous brothers in Sam Peckinpah's seminal western Ride the High Country (1962) led to a seven-year contract with Universal. He (along with Doug McClure) auditioned for their respective roles in The Virginian soon after, finding out that the parts were indeed theirs just two days prior to shooting. In 1966, Drury fronted a band, the Wilshire Buffalo Hunters, touring Vietnam for three weeks as part of the USO.
Despondent after The Virginian ended its run, Drury played a sheriff in the pilot for the comedy western series Alias Smith and Jones (1971) and then starred in Firehouse (1974), a short-lived ABC adventure drama set at a Los Angeles fire station. After the cancellation of Firehouse, Drury seemed to become even more disheartened and made only a few more sporadic TV appearances thereafter. However, he managed to reinvent himself as a successful businessman, first as co-owner of a ranch raising Appaloosa horses (his steed in The Virginian had been a white Appaloosa named Joe D), then as proprietor of a company recycling asphalt, and latterly, having moved to Texas, in the oil and natural gas business. He was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers in 1991.
James Drury died from natural causes on April 6, 2020, in Houston, Texas. He was 85.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Vincent Van Patten was born on 17 October 1957 in Bellerose, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for 7 Days to Vegas (2019), World Poker Tour (2003) and The Break (1995). He has been married to Eileen Davidson since 15 April 2003. They have one child. He was previously married to Betsy Russell.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Multi talented and award winning actor Neal McDonough has been blessed to have an incredible career in the film industry.
He is now producing films alongside his wife Ruvé for the McDonough company. Films such as THE WARRANT, BREAKERS LAW, REDSTONE, BOON, BLACK SPARTANS ,and most recently the hit film THE SHIFT for Angel Studios.
McDonough is about to start filming THE LAST RODEO which he has written with his partner Derek Presley.
The McDonough company will be producing this film with Jon Avnet directing.
After that they will going into production on their next western he has written called THE WICKED AND THE RIGHTEOUS .
McDonough is well known for performances in productions, such as BAND OF BROTHERS, MINORITY REPORT, WALKING TALL and STAR-TREK FIRST CONTACT. He also started in many stage productions, and most recently playing Whitey Bulger on stage in FINDING WHITEY at the Wilbur theater in Boston.
He also recently played Daddy Warbucks in ANNIE and numerous other stage productions as well.
His voice over career is what really started him. The voice of many cartoons, including Bruce Banner in the INCREDIBLE HULK and in many video games such as CALL OF DUTY ZOMBIES.
He has also been the long term voice of FIDELITY AND CADILLAC.
But he's most proud of his relationship with God, his wife, Ruvé, and their five children.
McDonough trained at Syracuse University and studied at LAMDA in London.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Never a big name but always a reliable staple on TV crime shows during the 1960s and 1970s, Harold J. Stone usually was seen in a strong, unsympathetic vein -- an unyielding father or husband, corrupt businessman, menacing crime figure, etc. A sober-looking gent with a block jaw, Romanesque-styled nose and steely gray-black hair, he was also prone to playing ethnic types of varying origins.
Born Harold Jacob Hochstein in New York City on March 3, 1913, the scion of a Jewish acting family who established themselves in the Yiddish theater, Stone started on stage with his father as a child. He once entertained a career in medicine, attaining a BA degree at the University of Buffalo Medical School, but acting proved too strong a desire. After initially finding work in radio, Stone made his Broadway bow with "The World We Make" (1939), which led to other productions such as "Morning Star" (1940) and "A Bell for Adano" (1944). His early work in New York on stage and TV eventually paved the way to a modest character career in movies and a move to Hollywood.
In the 1950s Stone began to provide a minor, shady presence in such "A" films as Humphrey Bogart's The Harder They Fall (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), the Rocky Graziano biopic Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), the ultimate gladiator spectacle Spartacus (1960) and the gangster epic The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) in which he played Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. He also played a no-nonsense foil to good friend Jerry Lewis in a few of his wacky 60s comedies. None of these, however, did much to improve his standing. Television, on the other hand, became a strong and steady medium for Stone, and he became a fixture in hundreds of police dramas including 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Naked City (1958), The Untouchables (1959), Mannix (1967), Mission: Impossible (1966), The Rockford Files (1974) and Kojak (1973). He was once Emmy-nominated for a dramatic guest role.
Left a widower by his first wife Joan in 1960, by whom he had two children, he continued to work primarily on episodic TV into the mid-1980s before retiring and settling down with his second wife Miriam (from 1962), who bore him another child. He died in Woodland Hills, California at age 92.- Actor
- Producer
David Patrick O'Hara was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Martha (née Scott) and Patrick O'Hara, a construction worker and raised in the Pollok section of Glasgow in a large Catholic family of Irish descent. His paternal great-grandfather was Irish.
After leaving school he was accepted for a Youth Opportunities Programme, at a community theatre based at the Glasgow Arts Centre. It toured local schools under the direction of Robin Peoples. He moved to London at age 17 to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama but left after two terms because of a shortage of funds. He went back to Scotland and landed a role in Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy (1984), then returned to Central to finish his last term. He was understudy to Ralph Fiennes in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
He performed in "Romeo and Juliet" as Tybalt, directed by Declan Donnellan for the New Shakespeare Company, at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent Park, which was followed by a European tour. Other stage credits include "The Comedy of Errors" at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, and "Aff the Other Man" at the Haymarket. He spent a year at the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford and the Barbican, in "Fashion", and in Jonathan Miller's productions of "Taming of the Shrew", "Romeo and Juliet", "Cymbeline", and "Bite of the Night" (directed by Danny Boyle).
His big break came as Stephen, the rampaging Irishman who joins forces with William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart (1995). The following year, 1996, saw him co-starring opposite Helen Mirren as a slightly independent policeman in Granada Television's Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement (1996), which aired on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1997. That same year, he appeared in Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own (1997), was the romantic foil to Janeane Garofalo in The MatchMaker (1997), portrayed a biker in the Scottish film The Slab Boys (1997), and portrayed Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist (1997).- David Bromstad, the season one winner of HGTV Design Star and the finalists' mentor in the new seasons of the series, is known for his endless energy and out-of-the-box thinking. David began his career as a design student at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. Earnest, passionate, talented and innovative, David creates awe-inspiring works on many platforms, including custom art, furniture building and interior design. David says he "blends styles that incorporate realism and fantasy." He combines this approach with a love of color and practical advice that shows viewers how to transform tired rooms into unique, vibrant spaces in his weekly series Color Splash.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
American character actor specializing in tough guys and heavies. A native of Yonkers, New York. He worked on the Broadway stage and then became an increasingly familiar figure in Westerns and crime dramas, after World War II. Although almost as familiar a presence in films as his contemporaries Warren Oates, Robert J. Wilke, and Leo Gordon, for some reason Lambert never became as well-known, despite having appeared in a great number of similar roles and films. His credits are often confused with those of the Scottish actor of the same name, Jack Lambert.- "Doc T". as he was known, was a Ph.D., and Professor of Theatre at Michigan State University in the early 1940s, just before World War II. He often spoke about leaving academia and actually trying his hand at the craft he taught. After the war, he got his chance and never looked back.
- Producer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Oklahoma-bred John Ashley got his start in the movie business while on a vacation in California. A friend from Oklahoma State University got him onto the set of the John Wayne movie The Conqueror (1956), and Wayne in turn steered him toward a job in television in the William Castle series Men of Annapolis (1957). One day, Ashley was at the offices of American International Pictures to pick up his girlfriend, who was auditioning for a part in the company's Dragstrip Girl (1957). AIP house writer Lou Rusoff saw Ashley waiting in the hall and decided the young man was the type AIP was looking for to play the Dragstrip Girl (1957) male lead. Ashley acted in a long line of "kids-in-trouble" melodramas, monster movies and in the Beach Party series before carving a lucrative niche for himself as producer-star of a series of Filipino exploitation pictures. He was also producer of several TV series, including The A-Team (1983) and Werewolf (1987).- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Sean McClory was born in Dublin, Ireland, but spent his early life in Galway. He was the son of Hugh Patrick, an architect and civil engineer, and Mary Margaret Ball, who had been a model. Sean decided to become an actor and joined Dublin's renowned Abbey Theater (also known as the National Theater of Ireland, opened in 1904). He rose through the ranks playing in productions of the works of such authors as William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, and soon began to play leads mostly in comedies (popular through most of the 1940s and into the 1950s). When comedies began to fade from the theater after World War II, McClory with turned an eye toward film. In early 1947 he decided to make the jump to America and break into Hollywood. His first roles were that of a staple in American films: the Irish cop, which he played in two of the "Dick Tracy" series in 1947. In 1949 he signed a short contract with 20th Century-Fox. By 1950 he was showing up in more notable films - though uncredited, particularly in The Glass Menagerie (1950). Within a year McClory's talents were being showcased in various small feature roles. John Ford finally began casting - a painstaking process for the finicky director -- for his long conceived The Quiet Man (1952) and chose McClory for a small but showy part, in which he was seen throughout the film feature with Charles B. Fitzsimons, the younger brother of the film's star, Maureen O'Hara, playing an Irish villager. Although some of the cast were familiar members of the "John Ford Stock Company", many roles were filled by actual Irish villagers (the film was shot on location) and included a generous helping of Abbey Theater alumni: the Shields brothers (Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields) and Jack MacGowran, in addition to O'Hara McClory. Ford wanted him for roles in several of his subsequent films, however McClory's busy film and TV schedule only allowed him to accept roles in two other Ford films, The Long Gray Line and Cheyenne Autumn.
In 1953 McClory played one of his standout roles as menacing, shady archaeologist Jefferson in Plunder of the Sun (1953), a good adventure thriller helped along by location shooting in Mexico. McClory, with a white-tinted crewcut and dark glasses (very effective), had the opportunity to reveal the depth of his talent and really stole the picture from star Glenn Ford, who couldn't get away from his usual mumbling delivery.
McClory had a cultured, neutral Irish brogue that fit well in small- or big-screen performances, unlike such Irish actors as Barry Fitzgerald who, though very effective and beloved, had a thick brogue that kept him forever cast as an Irishman. As a result, McClory was much more at home in American TV and had many memorable roles from 1953 onward, appearing in a gamut of episodic TV in addition to his feature film work. However, it was his frequent appearances on the small screen that enabled McClory to stand out in viewers' memories, especially in a range of western and adventure series (in which he played a good sprinkling of Irish characters) well into the 1970s. Though not as busy in the 1980s as he was in the '70s, one role in which he truly stood out was in an adaptation by John Huston of Irish writer James Joyce's famous 1907 short story "The Dead" made in 1987 (The Dead (1987)), his final film appearance. McClory's role as Mr. Grace was not a character in the original story but was created by Huston and his son Tony Huston to provide McClory with a reading of the medieval Irish poem "Young Donal", which was very effective to the mood of this look at Irish family remembrance.