1.
Brokeback Mountain
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Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American neo-western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the name by Annie Proulx. The film received acclaim and commercial success. In 1963, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired by Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer in the Wyoming mountains, after a night of heavy drinking, Jack makes a pass at Ennis, who is initially hesitant but eventually responds to Jacks advances. Despite Ennis informing Jack that it was an incident, they develop a passionate sexual and emotional relationship. Shortly after discovering their summer together is being cut short, they briefly fight, after Jack and Ennis part ways, Ennis marries his longtime fiancé Alma Beers and has two daughters with her. Jack returns the next summer seeking work, but Aguirre, who observed Jack and Ennis on the mountain, Jack moves to Texas, where he meets, marries, and has a son with rodeo rider Lureen Newsome. After four years, Jack visits Ennis, upon meeting, the two kiss passionately, which Alma observes. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch and he is also unwilling to abandon his family. Ennis and Jack continue to meet for infrequent fishing trips, the marriages of both men deteriorate. Lureen abandons the rodeo, going into business with her father, Alma and Ennis eventually divorce in 1975. Hearing about Ennis divorce, Jack drives to Wyoming and he suggests again that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Jack finds solace with male prostitutes in Mexico, Ennis sees his family regularly until Alma finally confronts him about her knowing the true nature of his relationship with Jack. This results in a violent argument, causing Ennis to abandon his connections with Alma, Ennis meets and has a brief romantic relationship with Cassie Cartwright, a waitress. Jack and Lureen meet and befriend another couple, Randall and Lashawn Malone and it is implied that Jack begins an affair with Randall, although he later tells Ennis he had a relationship with a woman, who is assumed to be Lashawn. At the end of a fishing trip with Jack, Ennis tries to delay their next meeting. Jacks frustration erupts into argument, and Ennis blames Jack for being the cause of his own conflicted actions, Jack tries to hold him and there is a brief struggle, but they end up locked in an embrace. Jack watches as Ennis drives away, some time later, Ennis receives a postcard he had sent to Jack, stamped Deceased
2.
Walk the Line
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Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold and based on the early life and career of country music artist Johnny Cash. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, the film focuses on Cashs early life, his romance with June Carter, and his ascent to the country music scene, as based on his autobiographies. The screenplay was written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, the films production budget is estimated to have been US$28 million. Walk the Line previewed at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4,2005, the film was nominated for five Oscars at the 78th Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Costume Design. The film grossed more than $186 million worldwide, in 1968, as an audience of inmates at Folsom State Prison cheer for Johnny Cashs band, he waits backstage near a table saw, reminding him of his early life. In 1944, Johnny, then known as J. R. grows up the son of a sharecropper on a farm in Dyess. He is known for his singing of hymns, while his brother Jack is training himself to become a pastor, while Jack is sawing wood for a neighbor with a table saw, J. R. goes fishing until his brother finishes. But Jack has an accident with the saw and dies of his injuries, Cashs strained relationship with his father Ray becomes much more difficult after Jacks death. In 1950, J. R. enlists in the Air Force as Johnny Cash and he purchases a guitar and in 1952, finds solace in writing songs, one of which he develops as Folsom Prison Blues. After his discharge, Cash returns to the United States and marries his girlfriend Vivian Liberto, the couple moves to Memphis, Tennessee, where Cash works as a door-to-door salesman to support his growing family. He walks past a studio, which inspires him to organize a band to play gospel music. Cashs band auditions for Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, after they play Folsom Prison Blues, the band receives a contract, and launch to stardom at the beginning of the rock and roll craze. The band begins touring as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, on tour he meets singer June Carter, with whom he falls in love. Cash begins spending time with June, who divorces her first husband Carl Smith. After his attempt to woo June fails, Cash starts abusing drugs, after his behavior reaches a bottom during a performance with June, they separate. Later, over Vivians objections, Johnny persuades June to come out of semi-retirement, the tour is a success, but backstage, Vivian becomes critical of Junes influence. After one performance in Las Vegas, Johnny and June sleep together, the next morning, she notices Johnny taking pills and doubts her choices. At that evenings concert, Johnny, upset by Junes apparent rejection, June disposes of Johnnys drugs and begins to write Ring of Fire, describing her feelings for him and her pain at watching him descend into addiction
3.
Ang Lee
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Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese-born film director, screenwriter and producer. Lees earlier films, such as The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, Lee also deals with repressed, hidden emotions in many of his films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Hulk, and Brokeback Mountain. Lees work is known for its charge, which critics believe is responsible for his success in offsetting cultural barriers. Ang Lee was born in a Waishengren family, in a Military dependents village of the Republic of China Armed Forces located at Chaochou, Pingtung, both of Lees parents moved from Mainland China to Taiwan following the Chinese civil war in 1949. He grew up in a household that put emphasis on education. Lee studied in the Provincial Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal and he was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a college, the National Arts School. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had interested in drama. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art, seeing Ingmar Bergmans film The Virgin Spring was a formative experience for him. Originally, Lee was interested in acting, but his challenges with speaking English made it difficult, at UIUC, Lee met his future wife Jane Lin, also a Taiwanese student, who pursued her Ph. D. degree. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and he was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads. During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, Shades of the Lake and his own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, Fine Line, won NYUs Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service. Lees NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent, at first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin and this arrangement put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lins support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in film but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time, in 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, to a competition sponsored by Taiwans Government Information Office, and they came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu, Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct Pushing Hands, a full-length feature that debuted in 1991. The Father Knows Best trilogy Pushing Hands was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office and it received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwans premier film festival. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and these first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US
4.
The Daily Show
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The Daily Show is an American news satire and late-night talk show television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organizations, and often uses self-referential humor as well. The half-hour-long show premiered on July 21,1996, and was first hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 17,1998, Stewart was succeeded by Trevor Noah, whose tenure premiered on September 28,2015. Under different hosts, the show has been known as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 until 2015. The Daily Show is the program on Comedy Central, and has won 23 Primetime Emmy Awards. Critics chastised Stewart for not conducting sufficiently hard-hitting interviews with his political guests, Stewart and other Daily Show writers responded to such criticism by saying that they do not have any journalistic responsibility and that as comedians their only duty is to provide entertainment. Stewarts appearance on the CNN show Crossfire picked up this debate, each episode begins with announcer Drew Birns announcing the date and the introduction, From Comedy Centrals World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Previously, the introduction was This is The Daily Show, the most important television program, the host then opens the show with a monologue drawing from current news stories and issues. Some episodes will begin with a 1-3 minute intro on a story before fully transitioning into the main story of the night. Their stated areas of expertise vary depending on the story that is being discussed. They typically present absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against the straight man. While correspondents stated to be reporting abroad are usually performing in-studio in front of a background, on rare occasions. For instance, during the week of August 20,2007, in August 2008, Riggle traveled to China for a series of segments titled Rob Riggle, Chasing the Dragon, which focused on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On July 19,2016, Roy Wood Jr. reported live from the Republican National Convention, topics have varied widely, during the early years of the show they tended toward character-driven human interest stories such as Bigfoot enthusiasts. Since Stewart began hosting in 1999, the focus of the show has more political. Under Kilborn and the years of Stewart, most interviewees were either unaware or not entirely aware of the comedic nature of The Daily Show. However, as the show began to gain popularity—particularly following its coverage of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections—most of the subjects now interviewed are aware of the comedic element, some segments have recurred periodically throughout different tenures, such as Back in Black & Your Moment of Zen. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a segment of the show has been dubbed Mess O Potamia, focusing on the United States policies in the Middle East
5.
Good Night, and Good Luck
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Good Night, and Good Luck is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney and starring David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey, Jr. Patricia Clarkson and Jeff Daniels. The movie was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov and portrays the conflict between radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senators actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The movie, although released in black and white, was filmed on color film stock but on a greyscale set and it focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offer a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Clooney and Best Actor for David Strathairn. Set in 1953, during the days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow first defends Milo Radulovich, who is facing separation from the U. S. Air Force because of his sisters political leanings, Murrow makes a show on McCarthy attacking him. A very public feud develops when McCarthy responds by accusing Murrow of being a communist, Murrow is accused of having been a member of the leftist union Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow claimed was false. In this climate of fear and reprisal, the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity ultimately strikes a historic blow against McCarthy. David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now Robert Downey, having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, Los Angeles, California, the elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004. George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney couldnt pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film, dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeff Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54m worldwide, the CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a soundstage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, the elevator was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location, in doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in a building just north of Grand Central Terminal. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building, Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction
6.
George Clooney
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George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, filmmaker, and activist. He has received three Golden Globe Awards for his work as an actor and two Academy Awards, one for acting in Syriana and the other for co-producing Argo, in 1999, he took the lead role in Three Kings, a well-received war satire set during the Gulf War. In 2001, Clooneys fame widened with the release of his biggest commercial success, the heist comedy remake Oceans Eleven, in 2013, he received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the political thriller Argo. He is the person who has been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories. In 2009, Clooney was included in Times annual Time 100 as one of the Most Influential People in the World and he is also noted for his political activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since January 31,2008. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Clooney was born in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce, was a beauty queen and city councilwoman and his father, Nick Clooney, is a former anchorman and game show host who hosted AMC for five years in the late 1990s. Clooney has Irish, German, and English ancestry and his maternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow, was the half-sister of Nancy Lincoln, mother of President Abraham Lincoln. Clooney has a sister named Adelia. His aunt was the cabaret singer and actress Rosemary Clooney. Through Rosemary, his cousins include actors Miguel Ferrer, Rafael Ferrer, and Gabriel Ferrer, Clooney was raised a strict Roman Catholic, but said in 2006 that he does not know if he believes in Heaven, or even God. He has said, Yes, we were Catholic, big time, whole family and he began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. He attended St. Michaels School in Columbus, Ohio, then Western Row Elementary School in Mason, Ohio, from 1968 to 1974, and St. Susanna School in Mason, the Clooneys moved back to Kentucky when George was midway through the seventh grade. In middle school, Clooney developed Bells palsy, a condition that partially paralyzes the face, the malady went away within a year. In an interview with Larry King, he stated that yes and it takes about nine months to go away. It was the first year of school, which was a bad time for having half your face paralyzed. After his parents moved to Augusta, Kentucky, Clooney attended Augusta High School and he has stated that he earned all As and a B in school, and was an enthusiastic baseball and basketball player. He tried out to professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977
7.
Gena Rowlands
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Virginia Cathryn Gena Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night, in November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. Rowlands was born as Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin and her mother, Mary Allen, was a housewife who later worked as an actress under the stage name Lady Rowlands. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and state legislator and he was a member of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, and was of Welsh descent. She had a brother, David Rowlands and her family moved to Washington, D. C. From 1947–50, she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she was a popular student already renowned for her beauty and she left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the early 1950s, Rowlands performed with theatre companies. She made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch and toured in a production of the play. In 1956, she starred in Middle of the Night opposite Edward G. Robinson and she appeared alongside husband Cassavetes on an episode of the 1959–60 NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. She also appeared on an episode of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin, Rowlands made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. In 1961–62, she starred as Teddy Carella, the wife of Robert Lansing. In that same season, she appeared on ABCs Target, The Corruptors and she also guest starred in CBSs The Lloyd Bridges Show and ABCs Breaking Point. In 1963, she guest-starred in an episode on the NBC western series, Bonanza and The Virginian, in 1967, she was cast as socialite Adrienne Van Leyden in the prime time ABC soap opera Peyton Place. According to Boston University film scholar Ray Carney, Rowlands sought to suppress an early version of Cassavetes first film, Shadows, Rowlands also became involved in the screenings of Husbands and Love Streams, according to Carney. At Rowlands request, UCLA created a print with almost ten minutes of content edited out. The alternative print is the one that has been made available for rental. In 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie An Early Frost and she won an Emmy for her portrayal of former First Lady of the United States Betty Ford in the 1987 made-for-TV movie The Betty Ford Story. In 1988, Rowlands starred in Woody Allens dramatic film Another Woman and she played Marion Post, a middle-aged professor who is prompted to a journey of self-discovery when she overhears the therapy sessions of another woman
8.
Stan Winston
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Stanley Stan Winston was an American television and film special make-up effects creator. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series and he won four Academy Awards for his work. Winston, a frequent collaborator with director James Cameron, owned several effects studios, the established areas of expertise for Winston were in makeup, puppets and practical effects, but he had recently expanded his studio to encompass digital effects as well. Winston was born on April 7,1946, in Arlington, Virginia to a Jewish family and he studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from which he graduated in 1968. In 1969, after attending California State University, Long Beach, struggling to find an acting job, he began a makeup apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios. In 1972, Winston established his own company, Stan Winston Studio, over the next seven years, Winston continued to receive Emmy Award nominations for work on projects and won another for 1974s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Winston also created the Wookiee costumes for the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, in 1978 Winston was the Special Make-up Designer for The Wiz. In 1982, Winston received his first Oscar nomination for Heartbeeps, however, it was his ground-breaking work with Rob Bottin on his update of the science fiction horror classic The Thing that year that brought him to prominence in Hollywood. Between then, he contributed some visual effects to Friday the 13th Part III, in 1983, Winston designed the Mr. Roboto facemask for the American rock group Styx. In 1983 he also worked on the television series Manimal, for which he created the panther. Winston reached a new level of fame in 1984 when James Camerons The Terminator premiered, the movie was a surprise hit, and Winstons work in bringing the titular metallic killing machine to life led to many new projects and additional collaborations with Cameron. In fact, Winston won his first Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1986 on James Camerons next movie, in 1988, Winston made his directorial debut with the horror movie Pumpkinhead, and won Best First Time Director at the Paris Film Festival. His next directing project was the child-friendly A Gnome Named Gnorm, James Cameron drafted Winston and his team once again in 1990, this time for Terminator 2, Judgment Day. T2 premiered in the summer of 1991, and Winstons work on box office hit won him two more Oscars for Best Makeup Effects and Best Visual Effects. Winston turned his attention from super villains and cyborgs to dinosaurs when Steven Spielberg enlisted his help to bring Michael Crichtons Jurassic Park to the cinema screen, in 1993, the movie became a blockbuster and Winston won another Oscar for Best Visual Effects. In 1993, Winston, Cameron and ex-ILM General Manager Scott Ross co-founded Digital Domain, in 1998, after the box office success of Titanic, Cameron and Winston severed their working relationship with the company and resigned from its board of directors. Winston and his continued to provide effects work for many more films. One of Winstons most ambitious projects was Steven Spielbergs AI, Artificial Intelligence
9.
Rupert Friend
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Rupert William Anthony Friend is an English actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his roles as Mr and he also starred in the 2015 film Hitman, Agent 47. Friend was born and brought up in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, the son of Caroline, a solicitor, and Nicholas Friend and he attended Marlborough School in Woodstock. He moved to take A-levels at the Cherwell School and dOverbroecks College in Oxford, Friend received his professional acting training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He considered himself a starter, I was about to set off sailing around the world when I heard Id got into drama school. Everyone else there had grown up singing and dancing, whereas I was the opposite, instead, he turned to acting, in which he was also inspired by Harrison Ford, who played Indiana Jones, and Marlon Brando who played Vito Corleone. He made his debut as Billy Downs in the 2004 film The Libertine from The Weinstein Company. In 2005, he had his first starring role as Ludovic Meyer in the adaption of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. In the same year, he portrayed Wickham in Joe Wrights version of Pride, in 2008, Friend and Tom Mison wrote and starred in a short film called The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers. He founded his own company called Beat Pictures, and he made his directorial debut with a short film in 2010 called Steve. In addition to directing, he wrote and produced the film and he also starred in the film Chéri and played the titular character. In addition, he joined the cast of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and played Kurt Kotler, in 2010, he played Albert, Prince Consort in Young Victoria. Graham King, producer of Young Victoria, chose Friend to star in the role because he remembered Friends strong performance in Pride. His performance received acclaim, in particular, from historian Alex von Tunzelmann, in 2010, Friend made his stage debut as Mitchell in the UK premiere of The Little Dog Laughed. He stars in the films The Kid, based on the novel by Kevin Lewis, as the film involves boxing, he had to train himself so as to improve his physical and psychological shape. He also starred in a French film called Lullaby for Pi, in 2011, he played Thomas Anders, the protagonist of the film 5 Days of War. In 2014, Friend played Oliver Baumer in Fox Searchlights film Starred Up and his performance was applauded by critics and was nominated for BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2015, Friend starred as Agent 47 in Hitman, Agent 47, in order to play the role, he had to shave all his hair
10.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
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Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor, director, and producer of film and theater. Best known for his supporting and character roles – typically lowlifes, bullies. Drawn to theater as a teenager, Hoffman studied acting at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts and he began his screen career in a 1991 episode of Law & Order and started to appear in films in 1992. He began to play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote. The feature Jack Goes Boating marked his debut as a filmmaker, Hoffman was also an accomplished theater actor and director. He joined the off-Broadway LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, where he directed, produced and his performances in three Broadway plays – True West, Long Days Journey into Night, and Death of a Salesman – all led to Tony Award nominations. Hoffman struggled with drug addiction as an adult, and relapsed in 2013 after many years of sobriety. Hoffman was born on July 23,1967, in the Rochester suburb of Fairport and his mother, Marilyn OConnor, came from nearby Waterloo and worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming a lawyer and eventually a family court judge. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, was a native of Geneva, New York, along with one brother, Gordy, Hoffman had two sisters, Jill and Emily. Hoffman was baptized a Roman Catholic and attended Mass as a child and his parents divorced when he was nine, leaving the children to be raised primarily by their mother. Hoffmans childhood passion was sports, particularly wrestling and baseball, and he recalled in 2008, I was changed – permanently changed – by that experience. It was like a miracle to me, Hoffman developed a love for the theater, and proceeded to attend regularly with his mother, who was a lifelong enthusiast. He remembered that productions of Quilters and Alms for the Middle Class, at the age of 14, Hoffman suffered a neck injury that ended his sporting activity, and he began to consider acting. Encouraged by his mother, he joined a club. Acting gradually became a passion for Hoffman, I loved the camaraderie of it, the people, and thats when I decided it was what I wanted to do. At the age of 17, he was selected to attend the 1984 New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, Miller later commented on Hoffmans popularity at the time, We were attracted to the fact that he was genuinely serious about what he was doing. Hoffman applied for several drama degree programs and was accepted to New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, between starting on the program and graduating from Fairport High School, he continued his training at the Circle in the Square Theatres summer program. Hoffman had positive memories of his time at NYU, where he supported himself by working as an usher, with friends, he co-founded the Bullstoi Ensemble acting troupe
11.
Terrence Howard
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Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor and singer. Having his first major roles in the 1995 films Dead Presidents and Mr. Hollands Opus, Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of television and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Hustle & Flow. Howard has had prominent roles in other movies including Winnie, Ray, Lackawanna Blues, Crash, Four Brothers, Get Rich or Die Tryin, Idlewild, August Rush, The Brave One. Howard played James Rhodes in Iron Man and reprised the role in the game adaptation. However, he was replaced by Don Cheadle for the future films and he currently stars as the lead character Lucious Lyon in the television series Empire. His debut album, Shine Through It, was released in September 2008, Howard was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 11,1969 to Tyrone and Anita Howard. The great-grandson of stage actress Minnie Gentry, he was raised in Cleveland, Ohio by father Tyrone Howard, the killing resulted in Tyrone Howard spending 11 months in jail for manslaughter. Howards parents divorced upon his fathers release, Howard first entered the entertainment world when he portrayed Jackie Jackson in The Jacksons, An American Dream, an ABC miniseries. Three years later, he made his big break in 1995s Mr. Hollands Opus. Howard made an appearance on the TV series Family Matters, Howard has stated that he looks for characters that teach him about himself when choosing his film roles. Howard has also worked as a producer, receiving such a credit for the film Pride. In 2008, Howard hosted the PBS series Independent Lens, Howard was the highest-paid cast member of the 2008 film Iron Man. He did not appear in either of the follow-up sequels because it was reported that he would have had to take a 50 to 80 percent pay cut and was replaced by actor Don Cheadle. Howard released his debut adult alternative album, Shine Through It and he described the album as urban country and either wrote or co-wrote all the tracks on the album. During rehearsals he allegedly attacked and seriously injured musical composer Tex Allen, in October 2008, Allen filed a $5 million lawsuit against Howard. In October 2008, Howard made a guest appearance in the short film For All Mankind directed by Daniel L. Clifton, filmed on location in Conshohocken, in 2009, he starred in the movie Fighting. It was reported on July 30,2010, that Howard had joined the cast of the new Law & Order, Los Angeles installment of the Law & Order franchise and he alternated shows with Alfred Molina, who portrayed Deputy District Attorney Ricardo Morales. The series was cancelled after one season, in 2011, Howard played Nelson Mandela in Winnie Mandela alongside Jennifer Hudson
12.
Felicity Huffman
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Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. Huffman began her career in theatre and in the 1990s also had many supporting roles in film. She starred as executive producer Dana Whitaker in the critically acclaimed ABC comedy-drama Sports Night from 1998 to 2000, Huffman drew critical praise for her performance as a transgender woman in the independent film Transamerica. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award, Independent Spirit Award, National Board of Review, Huffman has also starred in such films as Reversal of Fortune, The Spanish Prisoner, Magnolia, Path to War, Georgia Rule, Phoebe in Wonderland, Rudderless and Cake. Additionally, she has been nominated on three occasions for a Golden Globe Award, and has also won an Obie. Huffman was born in Bedford, New York, into a family, the daughter of Grace Valle and Moore Peters Huffman. Her parents divorced a year after her birth, and she was raised mostly by her mother and she has six sisters, Mariah, Betsy, Grace, Isabel, Jessie, Jane, and a brother, Moore Jr. In the 1970s her mother left New York and bought property in Snowmass, Colorado and her great-grandfather was Gershom Moore Peters, founder of the Peters Cartridge Company and prominent Baptist minister, author of the The Master. Another great-grandfather, Frederick Berthold Ewing, graduated from Yale University and her great-great-grandfather was Joseph Warren King, founder of the King Mills Powder Company. She has German, English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian ancestry, Huffman attended The Putney School, a private boarding high school in Putney, Vermont and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan in 1981. She attended New York University, Circle in the Square and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Huffman made her debut on stage in 1982 and in the 1980s and 1990s worked as a rule on stage productions. In 1988, she debuted on Broadway in the role as Karen in David Mamets play Speed the Plow, in 1995, Huffman won Obie Award for her performance in the critically successful play The Cryptogram by David Mamet. Huffman debuted on the big screen in 1988 with a role in Mamets film Things Change. Two years later, she appeared as Minnie, a Harvard law school student in the courtroom drama, Huffman starred on the television mini-series Golden Years, based on the novel by Stephen King in 1991. In 1994, she starred in the ABC pilot Thunder Alley as Ed Asners daughter, during the 1990s, she appeared mostly in guest roles on such shows as The X-Files, Early Edition, Chicago Hope and Law & Order. In 1997, she starred in Mamets critically acclaimed film The Spanish Prisoner, after the completion of Sports Night, she gave birth to her first child and soon returned to work. In 2001, she starred on not picked up CBS pilot Heart Department In 2003, in 1999, she appeared in the Paul Thomas Andersons ensemble drama Magnolia and television adaptation of 1938 movie A Slight Case of Murder along with William H. Macy. In 2002 she played Lady Bird Johnson in the HBO award-winning movie Path to War and made a appearance in the Door to Door, which starred
13.
Reese Witherspoon
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Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon is an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur. Her leading role of Tracy Flick in Election was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Witherspoons breakthrough role was playing Elle Woods in the 2001 film Legally Blonde, for which she received her second Golden Globe nomination. The following year, she starred in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, which emerged as her biggest live-action commercial success. In 2005, she portrayed June Carter in Walk the Line, which earned her the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Critics Choice Award for Best Actress. Other notable films of hers include Legally Blonde 2, Red, White & Blonde, Monsters vs. Aliens, Water for Elephants, in 2017, she produced and starred in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies. Witherspoon owns a company, Pacific Standard, and she is actively involved in childrens and womens advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Childrens Defense Fund and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007 and she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. Witherspoon was born on March 22,1976 in Southern Baptist Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, while her father and her father was born in Georgia and served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve. He was in practice as an otolaryngologist until 2012. In 1988, her mother began nursing babies back to health in the intensive care unit of Vanderbilt University Hospital until she retired. Her parents are legally married, although they separated in 1996, due to her fathers alcoholism, infidelity, overspending. Because Witherspoons father worked for the U. S. military in Wiesbaden, Germany, after returning to the U. S. she spent her childhood in Nashville, Tennessee in the suburb of Belle Meade. She was raised as an Episcopalian and her older brother, John Jr. is a real estate agent. She received high grades in school, loved reading, and considered herself a big dork who read loads of books, on mentioning her love for books, she said, I get crazy in a bookstore. It makes my heart beat hard because I want to buy everything, Witherspoon attended middle school at Harding Academy and graduated from the all-girls Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, during which time she was a cheerleader. She attended Stanford University as an English literature major, after completing one year of studies, she left Stanford to pursue an acting career. Witherspoon is proud of the definitive Southern upbringing which she received, Witherspoon is described as a multi-achiever and was given the nickname Little Type A by her parents. On discussing her early achievements, she told Interview magazine, I just dont see any of it as that remarkable, maybe thats the attitude I choose to have to keep me sane and keep my feet on the ground
14.
Emmylou Harris
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Emmylou Harris is an American singer and songwriter. She has released many albums and singles over the course of her career. Her work and recordings include work as a solo artist, a bandleader, an interpreter of other works, a singer-songwriter. Harris is from a military family. Her father, Walter Harris, was a Marine Corps officer and her father was reported missing in action in Korea in 1952 and spent ten months as a prisoner of war. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Harris spent her childhood in North Carolina and Woodbridge, Virginia and she married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969 and recorded her first album, Gliding Bird. Instead, Hillman recommended her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to collaborate with on his first solo album, Harris toured as a member of Parsonss band, the Fallen Angels, in 1973, and the pair shone during vocal harmonies and duets. Later that year, Parsons and Harris worked on a studio album, Parsons died in his motel room near what is now Joshua Tree National Park on September 19,1973, from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. Parsonss Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974, and three tracks from his sessions with Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights. One more album of recorded material from that period was packaged as Live 1973, Warner Brothers A&R representative Mary Martin introduced Harris to Canadian producer Brian Ahern, who produced her major label debut album, Pieces of the Sky, released in 1975 on Reprise Records. It also featured Bluebird Wine, a composition by a young Texas songwriter, Rodney Crowell, two singles were released, Too Far Gone, which initially charted at No. 73, and Harriss first big hit, If I Could Only Win Your Love, a duet with Herb Pedersen, executives of Warner Bros. Records told Harris they would agree to record her if she would get a hot band. Harris did so, enlisting guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Hardin, Burton was a renowned guitarist, starting in Ricky Nelsons band in the 1950s, and Hardin had been a member of the Crickets. Other Hot Band members were drummer John Ware, pedal steel guitarist Hank DeVito, singer-songwriter Crowell was enlisted as a rhythm guitarist and duet partner. Harriss first tour schedule originally dovetailed around Presleys, owing to Burton, the Hot Band lived up to its name, with most of the members moving on with fresh talent replacing them as they continued on to solo careers of their own. Elite Hotel, released in December 1975, established that the created by Pieces of the Sky was well-founded. Unusual for country albums at the time, which revolved around a hit single. Elite Hotel was a No.1 country album and also did well as a crossover success with the rock audience
15.
Danny Huston
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Daniel Sallis Danny Huston is an American actor, writer and director. Huston got his start directing Mr. North starring Anthony Edwards, Robert Mitchum and his half-sister, later, Huston gave his breakthrough acting performance in the independent film Ivans Xtc and was nominated for Best Male Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2003. Huston’s latest film, The Congress, opened the 45th Director’s Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16,2013, Huston co-starred in Tim Burtons film Big Eyes, alongside Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams, Krysten Ritter and Jason Schwartzman. As of 2013, he has appeared in the FX thriller series American Horror Story, portraying The Axeman in American Horror Story, Coven and Massimo Dolcefino in American Horror Story, Huston was born in Rome, Italy. His mother was an actress and author whose ancestry was Indian, Huston was conceived as a result of an affair between his mother and John Huston. His father, John Huston, produced Dannys first feature as a director, Mr. North, in 1995s Leaving Las Vegas, he moved in front of the camera and has since acted in over 20 films. That same year, he directed the film The Maddening and he gave his breakthrough acting performance in the independent film Ivans Xtc. The Bernard Rose feature was nominated for several Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, Huston has worked nonstop as an actor ever since. Soon after Ivans Xtc, he worked on Martin Scorseses The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio and Alec Baldwin, in 2006, Huston received the Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Sandy Woodrow in Fernando Meirelles The Constant Gardener. That year, Huston starred in the critically acclaimed Australian western The Proposition with Guy Pearce, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Huston also starred in the British independent features Alpha Male and Oliver Parker’s Fade to Black, in which he played Orson Welles alongside Christopher Walken and Paz Vega. His other film credits include Birth, Silver City, Marie Antoinette, The Number 23, The Kingdom and he portrayed Samuel Adams in the award-winning HBO miniseries John Adams and also portrayed Colonel William Stryker in X-Men Origins, Wolverine, a prequel for the trilogy. His 2009–10 roles include Boogie Woogie, The Warriors Way, the thriller Edge of Darkness, and he played the famous lawyer Geoffrey Fieger HBOs film You Dont Know Jack. Huston will also feature alongside Nicolas Cage in the Simon West-directed film Medallion, Huston played gangster Ben The Butcher Diamond on Mitch Glazers Magic City on the Starz network from 2012 to 2013. He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2013, later that year, he portrayed The Axeman in a recurring role on American Horror Story, Coven. His first marriage was in 1989 to Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen and he married his second wife, Katie Jane Evans, in 2001 and they separated in 2006. Evans took her own life in October 2008 before the divorce was finalized and they had one daughter named Stella. He dated Magic City co-star Olga Kurylenko for approximately a year, Danny Huston at the Internet Movie Database
16.
Val Kilmer
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Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, then the cult classic Real Genius, as well as the military action film Top Gun and the fantasy film Willow. Kilmer was born December 31,1959, in Los Angeles, the son of Gladys Swanette and Eugene Dorris Kilmer and his parents divorced in 1968 when he was 8 years old. In 1977 Kilmers younger brother Wesley drowned in a pool at age 15. Kilmers grandfather was a miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona. His mother was of Swedish descent and his fathers ancestry included English, Scots-Irish, French and German. Kilmer attended Berkeley Hall School, a Christian Science school in Los Angeles and he attended Chatsworth High School with Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham, and also attended the Hollywood Professional School. He became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the Juilliard Schools Drama Division, on May 5,2012, Kilmer was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from William Woods University. In 1981, while at Juilliard, Kilmer co-authored and starred in the play How It All Began, Kilmer turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppolas 1983 film The Outsiders, as he had prior theatre commitments. In 1983 he appeared off Broadway in The Slab Boys with Kevin Bacon, also in 1983, Kilmer self-published a collection of his own poetry entitled My Edens After Burns, that included poems inspired by his time with Pfeiffer. The book of poems is difficult to obtain, and expensive, even second-hand copies fetch $300 and his big break came when he received top billing in the comedy spoof of spy movies Top Secret. Where he played an American rock and roll star, Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and released an album under the film characters name, Nick Rivers. While garnering more substantial roles and prestige, he gained a reputation as a ladies man, dating numerous women, some many years older, including Cher. During a brief hiatus, he backpacked throughout Europe before going on to play the character in the 1985 comedy Real Genius. He turned down a role in David Lynchs Blue Velvet before being cast as naval aviator Iceman in the action film Top Gun alongside Tom Cruise, Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. Kilmer starred in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of Hamlet]] in 1988, in 1989, Kilmer played the lead in both Kill Me Again, again opposite Whalley, and in TNTs Billy the Kid. After several delays, director Oliver Stone finally started production on the film The Doors, Kilmer spoke with Oliver Stone early on, concerned about what he might want to do with the story because Kilmer didnt believe in or want to promote substance abuse. Kilmer saw Morrison as having picked the wrong heroes, who had different issues, Kilmer saw Morrisons story as one that could be told a thousand different ways and didnt want to tell it by playing the role in the style of drugs, with which Oliver Stone agreed
17.
Laura Linney
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Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress. A three-time Academy Award nominee and three-time Tony Award nominee, she won her first Emmy Award in 2002 for Wild Iris, from 2010–13, she starred in the Showtime series The Big C, which won her a fourth Emmy in 2013. She is also a two-time Golden Globe Award winner and she made her screen debut in the 1992 film Lorenzos Oil, and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for You Can Count on Me, Kinsey and The Savages. Her other films include Primal Fear, The Truman Show, Mystic River, Love Actually and The Squid and the Whale. Her mother, Miriam Anderson Ann Perse, was a nurse who worked at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, linneys paternal great-great-grandfather was Republican U. S. Linney grew up in modest circumstances, living with her mother in a small one-bedroom apartment and she has a half-sister, Susan, from her fathers second marriage. She is a 1982 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school in New England. Linney graduated from Brown in 1986 and she went on to study acting at the Juilliard School as a member of Group 19, which also included Jeanne Tripplehorn. Linney later received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard when she delivered the commencement address in 2009. Linney first appeared in roles in a few early 1990s films, including Lorenzos Oil and Dave. She was then cast in a series of thrillers, including Congo, Primal Fear. She made her Hollywood breakthrough in 1998, playing Jim Carreys on-screen wife in The Truman Show, Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 2000 film You Can Count on Me. The same year, she appeared in the role of an artists model in the low-budget film Maze with Rob Morrow. In 2003, Linney appeared in notable films, including The Life of David Gale, Love Actually. The latter film earned her a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and her 2004 performance in Kinsey, again as the title characters wife, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2005, Linney starred in the horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the comedy-drama The Squid, for the latter role, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. In 2006, Linney appeared in the political satire Man of the Year, the comedy Driving Lessons, Jindabyne was based on Raymond Carvers short story So Much Water so Close to Home. She received a third Academy Award nomination for The Savages, this time for Best Actress, in 2008, Linney starred in The Other Man, opposite Liam Neeson, with whom she had starred in Kinsey and Love Actually, and Antonio Banderas
18.
Rosario Dawson
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Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress. She made her debut in the 1995 teen drama Kids. Dawson currently portrays Claire Temple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in five of the Marvel Television/Netflix series, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Dawson was born in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is a writer and singer of Puerto Rican and Cuban ancestry, Isabel was 16 years old when Rosario was born, she never married Rosarios biological father, Patrick C. When Rosario was an old, her mother married Greg Dawson, a construction worker. Dawson stated, Hes always been my dad, Dawson has a half-brother, Clay, who is four years younger. Isabel and Greg divorced in 2001, Dawson lived in Garland, Texas for a year and went to Garland High School. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that, If you wanted something better, as a child, Dawson made a brief appearance on Sesame Street. She went on to star in varied roles, ranging from independent films to big budget blockbusters including Rent, He Got Game, in 1999, Dawson teamed up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit 1999. The new remixed version featured the actress in a voice over. The same year, she appeared in The Chemical Brothers video for the song Out of Control from the album Surrender. She is also featured on the track She Lives In My Lap from the disc of the OutKast album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in which she speaks the intro. In 2001, she appeared in the movie, Josie and the Pussycats, Dawson starred as Naturelle Rivera, the love interest of a convicted drug dealer played by Edward Norton, in the 2002 Spike Lee film drama, 25th Hour. In the 2004 Oliver Stone film Alexander, she played the bride of Alexander the Great, in the autumn of 2005, Dawson appeared on stage as Julia in the Public Theaters Shakespeare in the Park revival of Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was her first appearance on stage, in the film adaptation of the popular musical Rent in 2005, she played the exotic dancer Mimi Marquez, replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was pregnant and unable to play the part. She also appeared in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City, co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, portraying Gail, also in that year, she appeared in a graphically violent scene in the Rob Zombie film The Devils Rejects. Though the scene was cut from the film, it is available in the deleted scenes on the DVD release. She starred as Becky in 2006s Clerks II, and mentioned in Back to the Well, the making-of documentary, in May of the same year, Dawson, an avid comic book fan, co-created the comic book miniseries Occult Crimes Taskforce
19.
Capote (film)
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Capote is a 2005 biographical film about Truman Capote, following the events during the writing of Capotes non-fiction book In Cold Blood. Philip Seymour Hoffman won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his acclaimed portrayal of the title character. The film was based on Gerald Clarkes biography Capote and was directed by Bennett Miller and it was filmed mostly in Manitoba in the autumn of 2004. It was released September 30,2005, to coincide with Truman Capotes birthday, in 1959, the four dead bodies of the Clutter family are discovered on their Kansas farm. While reading The New York Times, Truman Capote is riveted by the story, Capote travels to Kansas, inviting childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee to come along. He intends to interview those involved with the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between, Capotes stories of movie sets and film stars captivate Marie. Over time, her husband warms to Capote and allows him to view the photographs of the victims, the Deweys, Lee, and Capote are having dinner when the murder suspects, Perry Smith and Richard Dick Hickock, are caught. Flattery, bribery, and an insight into the human condition facilitate Capotes visits to the prison where the accused are held. Capote begins to form an attachment to Smith and he informs Shawn of his intent to expand the story into a full-length book. Following the trial and conviction, Capote gains continued access to the murderers by bribing Warden Marshall Krutch, the story of Smiths life, his remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote, who becomes emotionally attached to him despite the gruesome murders. Capote aids Smith and Hickock by obtaining expert legal counsel for them, still he is frustrated, as Smith declines to relate exactly what happened on the night of the murders. Though initially an effort to provide representation and extend Capotes opportunity to speak with the killers. Without the court case being resolved, Capote feels he is stuck with a story without an ending, eventually he gets Smith to describe the killings and his thoughts at the time in great detail. He has what he wants from Smith, but in the process he sees a callousness and selfishness in his own actions, now with everything in hand, Capote still must wait for the appeals process to conclude before he feels he can publish his work. With the last appeal rejected, Smith pleads for Capote to return before he is executed, a telegram from Smith to Harper Lee ultimately compels Capote to return to Kansas. There he is an eyewitness as Smith and Hickock are executed, Capote talks to Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he could not do anything to stop it. The fact is you didnt want to, the final scenes show Capote looking through photos from the case and at the writings and drawings given to him by Smith. An epilogue points out that In Cold Blood turned Capote into the most famous writer in America, also noting that he never finished another book
20.
Jake Gyllenhaal
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Jacob Benjamin Jake Gyllenhaal is an American actor. He subsequently appeared in indie film, The Good Girl. In 2005, Gyllenhaal portrayed Anthony Swoff Swofford in Jarhead, Gwyneth Paltrows love interest in Proof, Gyllenhaal was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of film producer and screenwriter Naomi Foner and film director Stephen Gyllenhaal. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, his sister, appeared with him in the film Donnie Darko. Gyllenhaals father, who was raised as a Swedenborgian, is of Swedish and English descent, jakes last ancestor to be born in Sweden was his great-great-grandfather, Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal. Jakes mother is Jewish, she was born in New York City, to a family from Russia, Gyllenhaal has said that he considers himself Jewish. His parents insisted that he have summer jobs to support himself and he worked as a lifeguard. Gyllenhaal said his parents encouraged artistic expression, I do have parents who supported me in certain ways. In other ways, they were lacking, definitely, its in expression and creativity where my family has always been best at. As a child, Gyllenhaal was regularly exposed to filmmaking due to his familys ties to the industry. He made his debut as Billy Crystals son in the 1991 comedy film City Slickers. His parents did not allow him to appear in the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks because it would have required his leaving home for two months, in subsequent years, his parents allowed him to audition for roles but regularly forbade him to take them if he were chosen. He was allowed to appear in his fathers films several times, Gyllenhaal appeared in the 1993 film A Dangerous Woman, in Bop Gun, a 1994 episode of Homicide, Life on the Street, and in the 1998 comedy Homegrown. Along with their mother, Jake and Maggie appeared in two episodes of Molto Mario, an Italian cooking show on the Food Network. Prior to his year in high school, the only other film not directed by his father, in which Gyllenhaal was allowed to perform, was the 1993 film Josh. Gyllenhaal dropped out two years to concentrate on acting but has expressed intentions to eventually finish his degree. The film earned $32 million and was described in the Sacramento News, Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaals second film, was not a box office success upon its initial 2001 release but eventually became a cult favorite. After the critical success of Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaals next role was as Pilot Kelston in 2002s Highway alongside Jared Leto and his performance was described by one critic as silly, cliched and straight to video
21.
Jarhead (film)
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The title comes from the slang term used to refer to United States Marines. In 1989, Anthony Swoff Swofford attends U. S. Marine Corps training before being stationed at Camp Pendleton, claiming that he joined the military because he got lost on the way to college, Swofford finds his time at Camp Pendleton difficult, and struggles to make friends. While Swofford feigns illness to avoid his responsibilities, a lifer, Staff Sergeant Sykes, takes note of his potential and orders Swofford to attend his Scout Sniper course. After gruelling training, the Scout Sniper course is left with eight candidates, among them Swofford, now a sniper, when Iraq invades Kuwait, Swoffords unit is deployed to the Arabian Peninsula as a part of Operation Desert Shield. They even erect a bulletin board featuring photographs and brief notes telling what perfidies the women had committed, Swofford obtains unauthorized alcohol and organizes an impromptu Christmas party, arranging for Fergus to cover his watch so he can celebrate. Later, Operation Desert Storm begins and the Marines are sent to the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border, Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged when the unit returns home. Troy becomes distant from his friends, knowing that Troy will not be allowed to reenlist, the Marines attack him with a red-hot USMC branding iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, the Marines march through the Highway of Death, strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of an allied bombing campaign. Before they can finish, Sykes orders the squad to move upwind, Swofford and Troy are finally given a sniping mission. Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, their commander, orders them to kill at least one of two high-ranking Iraqi Republican Guard officers at a nearby airfield. At the last split second before Swofford takes the shot, Major Lincoln interrupts them to call in an air strike, Swofford and Troy protest, but are overruled and look on in disappointment as airplanes destroy the Iraqi airfield. After returning home the Marines parade through a town in a celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend but discovers she has a new boyfriend, later, Swofford learns of Troys death during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends his funeral, reunites with some of his old friends and afterwards reminisces about the effects of the war. I. USA Today gave the three out of four stars and wrote, What were left with is solid if not exceptional. Russells Three Kings — that show in no uncertain terms what its like to be a soldier in Iraq, in his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, A master of the monotone, Mendes prompts his performers to hit a note and sustain it. Although Jarhead is more accomplished and less empty than American Beauty or Road to Perdition. Nathaniel Fick, another author who is a Marine, gave the film a review in Slate
22.
Tommy Lee Jones
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Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U. S, marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive. Early in his career, Jones first gained recognition for his role as Dr. Mark Toland on the soap opera One Life to Live for six years. Jones was born on September 15,1946, in San Saba and his mother, Lucille Marie, was a police officer, school teacher, and beauty shop owner, and his father, Clyde C. Jones, was an oil field worker, the two were married and divorced twice. He was raised in Midland, Texas and attended Robert E. Lee High School, Jones soon moved to Dallas and graduated from the St. Marks School of Texas in 1965, which he attended on scholarship and he attended Harvard College on a need-based scholarship. He stayed in Mower B-12 as a freshman, across the hall from future Vice President Al Gore, as an upperclassman, he stayed in Dunster House with roommates Gore and Bob Somerby, who later became editor of the media criticism site the Daily Howler. He recounts his memory of the most famous game in Ivy League history in the documentary Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Jones graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1969, Jones moved to New York to become an actor, making his Broadway debut in 1969s A Patriot for Me in a number of supporting roles. In 1970 he landed his first film role, coincidentally playing a Harvard student in Love Story, in early 1971, he returned to Broadway in Abe Burrows Four on a Garden where he shared the stage with Carol Channing and Sid Caesar. Between 1971 and 1975 he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera and he returned to the stage for a 1974 production of Ulysses in Nighttown with Zero Mostel. It was followed by the acclaimed TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes, in 1981, he played a drifter opposite Sally Field in Back Roads, a comedy that received middling reviews. In 1983, he received an Emmy for Best Actor for his performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in a TV adaptation of Norman Mailers The Executioners Song and that same year he starred in a pirate adventure, Nate and Hayes, playing the heavily-bearded pirate Captain Bully Hayes. In 1989, he earned another Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Texas Ranger lawman Woodrow F, call in the acclaimed television mini-series Lonesome Dove, based on the best-seller by Larry McMurtry. Marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive received broad acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, actually Im lucky to be working. Jones co-starred with director Clint Eastwood as astronauts in the 2000 film Space Cowboys, in 2005, the first theatrical feature film Jones directed, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, was presented at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Joness character speaks both English and Spanish in the film and his performance won him the Best Actor Award
23.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
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The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a 2005 French-American neo-Western film directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and written by Guillermo Arriaga. It also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, the film has many flashbacks and sometimes the same event is shown from different perspectives. Melquiades Estrada, a Mexican illegal immigrant working in Texas as a cowboy, a nearby United States Border Patrol officer, Norton, thinks he is being attacked and shoots back, killing Melquiades. Norton quickly buries Melquiades and does not report anything, Melquiades body is found and is reburied in a local cemetery by the sheriffs office. Evidence that he may have killed by the U. S. Border Patrol is ignored by the sheriff, Belmont, who would prefer to avoid trouble with the Border Patrol. Pete Perkins, a rancher and Melquiades best friend, finds out from a waitress, Rachel, Perkins kidnaps Norton after tying up his wife, Lou Ann, and forces him to dig up Melquiades body. Perkins had promised Melquiades that he would bury him in his town of Jiménez in Mexico if he died in Texas. Perkins undertakes a journey on horseback into Mexico with the body tied to a mule and it is clear to Sheriff Belmont that Perkins has kidnapped Norton, and so police officers and the Border Patrol begin to search for them. Belmont sees them heading towards the Mexico border, but as he takes aim at Perkins, he cant bring himself to shoot and returns to town, on their way across the harsh countryside, the pair experience a series of surrealistic encounters. They spend an afternoon with an elderly blind American man, who listens to Mexican radio for company, the man asks to be shot since there is no one left to take care of him. He does not want to commit suicide because, he argues, Perkins refuses as, if he killed the man, he would offend God. Norton attempts to escape and is bitten by a rattlesnake and eventually discovered by a group of illegal immigrants crossing into Texas, Perkins gives one of them a horse as barter payment for guiding them across the river to an herbal healer. She turns out to be a woman whose nose Norton had broken when he punched her in the face a few weeks previously during an arrest, at Perkinss request, she saves Nortons life before exacting her revenge by breaking Nortons nose with a coffee pot. The captivity, the journey, and the rotting corpse slowly take a profound psychological toll on Norton. At one point the duo encounter a group of Mexican cowboys watching American soap operas on a television hooked up to their pickup truck, the program is the same episode that was airing when Norton had sex with his wife in their trailer earlier in the movie. Norton is visibly shaken and is half a bottle of liquor by one of the cowboys. Nortons wife is shown as she decides to leave the town to return to her home town of Cincinnati
24.
Heath Ledger
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Heathcliff Andrew Heath Ledger was an Australian actor and director. After performing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s and he also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director. In the film, Ledger portrayed an actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylans life. Ledger died on 22 January 2008 from an accidental intoxication from prescription drugs, a few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight. His death occurred during editing of The Dark Knight and in the midst of filming his last role as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and his untimely death cast a shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $185 million Batman production. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather and he had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Ledger attended Marys Mount Primary School in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School and his parents separated when he was 10 and divorced when he was 11. After sitting for early graduation exams at age 17, Ledger left school to pursue an acting career, in 1999, he starred in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and in the acclaimed Australian crime film Two Hands, directed by Gregor Jordan. In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award as Male Star of Tomorrow, in The New York Times review of the film, critic Stephen Holden writes, Both Mr. Ledger and Mr. Gyllenhaal make this anguished love story physically palpable. Mr. Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean and it is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn. In a review in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers states, Ledgers magnificent performance is an acting miracle and he seems to tear it from his insides. Ledger doesnt just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens, to see him inhale the scent of a shirt hanging in Jacks closet is to take measure of the pain of love lost. Shortly after the release of Candy, Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, posthumously, on 23 February 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the films ensemble cast, its director, and its casting director. In his penultimate film performance, Ledger played the Joker in Christopher Nolans 2008 film The Dark Knight, released nearly six months after his death. At the time of his death on 22 January 2008, Ledger had completed half of the work for his final film performance as Tony in Terry Gilliams The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. In 2006, Ledger directed music videos for the track on Australian hip hop artist Nfas CD debut solo album Cause An Effect. Later that year, Ledger inaugurated a new label, Masses Music, with singer Ben Harper. After Ledgers death, his video for Black Eyed Dog was shown on the Internet
25.
Viggo Mortensen
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Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. is a Danish-American actor. I. Jane, A Perfect Murder, A Walk on the Moon, Mortensen received international attention in the early 2000s with his role as Aragorn in the epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. In 2005, Mortensen won critical acclaim for David Cronenbergs crime thriller A History of Violence, Two years later, another Cronenberg film Eastern Promises earned him further critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. A third teaming with Cronenberg in A Dangerous Method resulted in a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture. Other well-received films have included Appaloosa, adapted from a Robert B. Parker novel, and Far from Men and he received a second Best Actor nomination in 2017 at the 89th Academy Awards for his role in Captain Fantastic. Aside from acting, his artistic pursuits include fine arts, photography, poetry. In 2002, he founded the Perceval Press to publish the works of little-known artists, Mortensen was born in New York City. His mother, Grace Gamble, was American, and his father, Viggo Peter Mortensen Sr. was Danish and his maternal grandfather was from Nova Scotia, Canada, and his maternal grandmothers family was from New England. At the age of 11, his parents divorced and he returned to New York with his mother and he then attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, earning a bachelors degree in Spanish Studies and Politics in 1980. Afterward, he went to Europe and lived in Spain, England and he eventually returned to the United States to pursue an acting career. Mortensen made his first film playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weirs Witness. Also in 1985, he was cast in the role of Bragg on Search for Tomorrow, Mortensens 1987 performance in Bent at the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles, won him a Dramalogue Critics Award. Coincidentally, the play, about homosexual concentration camp prisoners, was brought to prominence by Ian McKellen. In 1987, Mortensen guest starred as a police detective on the hit series Miami Vice. I. Of these roles, Mortensen was probably best known for playing Master Chief John Urgayle in G. I, another major mainstream breakthrough came in 1999, when Peter Jackson cast him as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. In the The Two Towers DVD extras, the swordmaster, Bob Anderson. Mortensen often performed his own stunts, and even the injuries he sustained during several of them did not dampen his enthusiasm. He received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Aragorn, and was ranked No.15 on a 2015 survey of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters conducted by Empire
26.
A History of Violence
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A History of Violence is a 2005 American crime thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Josh Olson. It is an adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel of the name by John Wagner. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a diner who is thrust into the spotlight after confronting two robbers in self-defense, thus changing his life forever. The film was in the competition for the 2005 Palme dOr. The film was put into limited release in the United States on September 23,2005, william Hurt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while Josh Olson was nominated for Academy Award for Best Writing. The Los Angeles Times has called it the last major Hollywood film to be released on VHS, Mortensen himself praised it as one of the best movies ever been in, if not the best, also declaring it was a perfect film noir or close to perfect. Tom Stall is an owner who lives in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, with a loving wife Edie, teenage son Jack. One night, two men attempt to rob the restaurant, when a waitress is threatened, Tom deftly kills both robbers with surprising skill and precision. He is hailed as a hero by his family and the townspeople, Tom is visited by scarred gangster Carl Fogarty, who alleges that he is actually a gangster named Joey Cusack who had dealings with him in the Irish Mob in Philadelphia. Tom vehemently denies this, but Fogarty remains persistent and begins to stalk the Stall family, under pressure from Fogarty and his newfound fame, Toms relationships with his family become strained. Following an argument with his father over the use of violence on a bully at his school and he is caught by Fogarty, who, with Jack as his hostage, goes with his men to the Stall house and demands that Joey return to Philadelphia with them. After the gangsters release Jack, Tom is slow to join them in their car, Tom kills the two henchmen with the same precision he used against the robbers, but Fogarty shoots Tom as Tom is aiming at him. As Fogarty is standing over Tom, preparing to kill him, however, before Fogarty can deliver a coup de grâce, Jack kills Fogarty with a shotgun. At the hospital, Edie confronts Tom, claiming that while he was attacking Fogartys men, Tom shocks Edie by admitting that he is actually Joey Cusack, and that he has killed for both money and pleasure. He tells Edie that he ran away from Philadelphia to escape his violent criminal past and this admission deepens the tensions in their marriage. After Tom gets out of the hospital, Sam, the local sheriff, Sam expresses confusion about everything that has happened. He tells Tom and Edie that these mobsters wouldnt go to all this if they werent sure they had the right man. Just when Tom is about to confess, Edie lies to Sam, claiming that Tom is who he says he is, at a loss for words after Edie breaks down into tears, Sam leaves
27.
David Strathairn
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David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. Strathairn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and he is also recognized for his role as CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen in the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum, a role he reprised in 2012s The Bourne Legacy. He played a prominent role as Dr. Lee Rosen on the Syfy series Alphas from 2011 to 2012 and he was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in the TV film Temple Grandin. Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California, the second of three children of Thomas Scott Strathairn, Jr. a physician and Mary Frances, a nurse. Strathairn attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and he studied clowning at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida, and briefly worked as a clown in a traveling circus. Strathairn was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 biopic Good Night. The film explored Murrows clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthys Communist witch-hunt in the 1950s, Strathairn also received Best Actor Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance. In 2010, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of Dr. Carlock in the HBO television film Temple Grandin, Strathairn is a character actor, appearing in supporting roles in many independent and Hollywood films. In this capacity, he has co-starred in Twisted as a psychiatrist, in The River Wild as a husband and he has worked with his Williams College classmate and director John Sayles. He made his debut in Return of the Secaucus 7. Alongside Sayles, he played one of the men in black in the 1983 film The Brother from Another Planet, Strathairn created the role of Edwin Booth with Maryann Plunkett in a workshop production of Booth. A House Divided, by W. Stuart McDowell, at The Players in New York, Strathairn had a recurring role on the hit television drama The Sopranos. Strathairn starred in the episode, Out Where the Buses Dont Run. In 2006 he did an ad for then congressional candidate Kirsten Gillibrand. He reprised his role as Edward R. Murrow in a similar to the one from Good Night, and Good Luck. Strathairn plays the role in the 2007 independent film, Steel Toes. The film is based on Gows stage play Cherry Docs, in which Strathairn starred for its American premiere at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia and he played a role in the summer 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum and appeared in Paramount Pictures childrens film The Spiderwick Chronicles as Arthur Spiderwick. Strathairn appeared in the American Experience PBS anthology series documentary, The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer and he first played Oppenheimer in the 1989 CBS TV movie Day One
28.
Hustle & Flow
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Hustle & Flow is a 2005 American independent drama film written and directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain. It was released on July 22,2005, terrence Howard stars as a Memphis hustler and pimp who faces his aspiration to become a rapper. The film is dedicated to Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, the film won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Three 6 Mafias song Its Hard out Here for a Pimp. Howard was nominated for Best Actor, DJay is a pimp and drug dealer who is dissatisfied with his life. After acquiring a keyboard and reacquainting himself with an old friend from school, Key, Key and his sound-mixer friend Shelby help DJay put together several flow songs in which he expresses the frustrations of a small-time hustler struggling to survive. The group experiences many setbacks throughout the creative process, DJay must hustle those around him in order to procure proper equipment and recording time, and Keys relationship with his wife becomes strained. DJay throws out one of his prostitutes, Lexus, along with her one-year-old son Roger, after their first recording, DJay begins to show a romantic interest in Shug. DJays friend, Arnel, informs him that Skinny Black, a successful Memphis rapper, DJay gains admittance to the party under the pretext of providing marijuana, with the intention of giving Skinny Black his demo tape. Black is dismissive at first, but after a night of reminiscing DJay successfully persuades him into taking the tape. Before leaving the party, however, DJay discovers that the drunken Black has destroyed his tape, when DJay confronts Skinny Black, Black laughs at the idea of touring with DJay and insults him. In a fit of rage, DJay beats and pistol whips Black with his own gun, realizing what he has done, DJay attempts to resuscitate the unconscious Black, until a member of Blacks crew enters the bathroom and quickly pulls out his gun. DJay shoots the man in his arm, then him as a human shield to make his escape. DJay arrives home to find the police and Blacks associates waiting for him, DJay turns himself in and tells Nola to keep his writing pad, with his rap lyrics. He tells her she is in charge of getting his songs on radio stations. DJay is charged for assault and possession of a firearm and is sentenced to 11 months in prison, while serving his time, DJay gets a visit from Key. When Key asks DJay if he really knew Skinny Black, DJay reveals that he made it up in order to keep the dream alive. DJay learns from Key that Nola has hustled the local radio DJs into playing his songs, Key says he and Nola want to discuss his future plans. The film ends as we see a duo of prison guards who have their own rap group asking DJay to listen to their demo, DJay accepts their tape and responds with, You know what they say, everybody gotta have a dream
29.
Kevin Costner
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Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, director, producer, and musician. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Emmy Award, Costner has played Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, Crash Davis in Bull Durham, Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, Lt. John J. He directed, produced, and starred in The Postman, Costner was born January 18,1955 in Lynwood, California. He grew up in Compton, California and he is the youngest of three boys, the middle of whom died at birth. His mother, Sharon Rae, was a worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician. His fathers heritage originates with German immigrants to North Carolina in the 1700s and Costner also has English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and he instead enjoyed sports, took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. He has stated that a viewing of the 1962 film How the West Was Won at the age of seven had formed his childhood. Spending his teenage years in parts of California as his fathers career progressed, Costner has described this as a period when he lost a lot of confidence. Costner lived in Ventura, then in Visalia, he attended Mt. Whitney High School and then moved to Orange County and he went on to earn a BA in marketing and finance from California State University, Fullerton in 1978. While at CSUF, he was a fraternity brother in Delta Chi. Costner became interested in acting while in his last year of college, Burton agreed to speak to Costner after he finished reading his book. Costner, who had been taking acting classes but had not told his wife about his desire to be an actor, watched Burton closely and approached when Burton gestured. Costner told Burton that he would prefer to avoid the drama that followed Burton, Burton replied, You have green eyes. After landing, Burtons limousine pulled up to the curb where Costner, Burton wished Costner luck, and the two would never meet again. Still, Costner credits Burton with partially contributing to his career, having agreed to undertake a job as a marketing executive, Costner began taking acting lessons five nights a week, with the support of his wife. His marketing job lasted 30 days, Costner allegedly made his film debut in the film Sizzle Beach, U. S. A. Although a biography claims it was filmed in the winter of 1978–79. Costner made a brief appearance in the Ron Howard film Night Shift. He is listed in the credits as Frat Boy No.1 and appears at the climax of a frat-style, blow-out party in the New York City morgue, Costner can be seen holding a beer and looking surprised at the sudden halt of celebration
30.
The Upside of Anger
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The Upside of Anger is a 2005 American romantic comedy and drama film written and directed by Mike Binder and set in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It stars Joan Allen, Kevin Costner and Evan Rachel Wood, the film was produced by Jack Binder, Alex Gartner and Sammy Lee. The opening scene presents Terry Wolfmeyer and her daughters, with a friend, Denny Davies, about three years earlier, a flashback reveals, Terry had told her daughters that she thought their father, Grey, had left the family to be with his former secretary in Sweden. Keen to help where he can, Denny helps Andy, one of Terrys daughters, there she meets and starts a relationship with Shep, Dennys producer, a questionable character in his 40s. Meanwhile, daughter Popeye, who is attending a high school, finds herself attracted to a classmate. Hadley, for her part, announces immediately following her graduation that she is engaged to her boyfriend of three years, and pregnant. Weary and tired of Terrys ever-shifting moods, Denny storms out of her house, when a real estate deal involving both Denny and Terry finally goes through, construction begins in the area surrounding their homes. A worker accidentally uncovers an abandoned, partially covered well, where Grey Wolfmeyers body is found, rather, he had accidentally fallen in the well and died. Sarah Coomes as Anna Holstein Dane Christensen as Gorden Reiner Danny Webb as Grey Wolfmeyer Magdalena Manville as Darlene Suzanne Bertish as Gina David Firth as David Sr, rod Woodruff as Dean Reiner Stephen Greif as Emilys doctor. Arthur Penhallow as Himself According to the credits and the special features section of the DVD, much of the film was shot at Ealing Studios. Part was filmed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. At one point in the film, Detroits 101 WRIF served as a backdrop for the movie, Denny Davies, Costners character, is referenced to have retired from the Detroit Tigers several years earlier. Several still pictures of Costner from For Love of the Game, the film holds a 74% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 6. 8/10. The site critical consensus reads A comedy/ drama for grown-ups, with performances by Joan Allen
31.
Robert Downey Jr.
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Robert John Downey Jr. is an American actor. His career has included critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of abuse and legal troubles. For three consecutive years from 2012 to 2015, Downey has topped the Forbes list of Hollywoods highest-paid actors, making an estimated $80 million in earnings between June 2014 and June 2015. He starred as the character in the 1992 film Chaplin. This earned him a Golden Globe Award and his character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After his last stay in a drug treatment program, Downey achieved sobriety. Each of these films has grossed over $500 million at the box office worldwide, four of these—The Avengers, Avengers, Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3 and Captain America, Downey Jr. has also played the title character in Guy Ritchies Sherlock Holmes and its sequel. Downey was born in Manhattan, New York, the younger of two children and his father, Robert Downey Sr. is an actor and filmmaker, while his mother, Elsie Ann, was an actress who appeared in Downey Sr. s films. Downeys father is of half Lithuanian Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian Jewish, and one-quarter Irish descent, while Downeys mother had Scottish, German, Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village. As a child, Downey was surrounded by drugs and his father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father has said he now regrets. Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and making a phone calls in pursuit of drugs. During his childhood Downey had minor roles in his fathers films and he made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound, and then at seven appeared in the surrealist Greasers Palace. At the age of ten, he was living in England and he attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, Downey and Kiefer Sutherland, who shared the screen in the 1988 drama 1969, were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting. Downey began building upon theater roles, including in the short-lived off-Broadway musical American Passion at the Joyce Theater in 1983, rolling Stone magazine named Downey the worst SNL cast member in its entire run, stating that the Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great. That same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James Spaders sidekick in Tuff Turf and he was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes film Pretty in Pink, but his first lead role was with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist. Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, in 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin and he had a personal coach in order to help him imitate Chaplins posture and way of carrying himself
32.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy crime film written and directed by Shane Black, and starring Robert Downey, Jr. Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan and Corbin Bernsen. The script is based on the Brett Halliday novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them. The film was produced by Joel Silver, with Susan Downey, shot in Los Angeles between February 24 and May 3,2004, the film debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and received a limited release in cinemas on October 21,2005. At a Los Angeles party, Harry Lockhart recounts recent events, fleeing a botched burglary, Harrys friend is shot, forcing Harry to evade police by ducking into an audition. Harry unintentionally impresses the producers with an outburst of remorse they mistake for method acting and he also encounters his childhood crush Harmony Lane but wakes up in bed with her hostile friend. He runs over to Harmonys place at 6 a. m. to apologize, Perry and Harry witness a vehicle being dumped in a lake and are spotted by the apparent killers. Perry shoots the lock in a rescue attempt but accidentally hits the female corpse inside as well. They cannot report the body because it appears Perry killed her, Harmony contacts Harry, explaining that her sister Jenna came to Los Angeles, stole Harmonys credit cards, and later killed herself. Believing Harry is a detective, Harmony asks him to investigate Jennas death as a murder, after she leaves, Harry discovers the lake corpse in his bathroom and a planted pistol. Harry and Perry dump the corpse, later identified as Veronica Dexter by police, Harry discovers it was Harmonys credit card that was used to hire Perry to come to the lake, tying Jenna to their case. He goes to see Harmony, who slams the door on his finger, cutting it off and they go to a party, but Harry is abducted, beaten, threatened, and ordered to cease the investigation by the killers from the lake and then let go. While taking Harry back to the hospital, Harmony sees the killers heading to Perrys stakeout. Realizing that Perry is heading into a trap, she leaves Harry in her car and rushes off to the stakeout, where she saves Perry, a pink-haired girl, affiliated with the killers, steals Harmonys car and unwittingly drives an unconscious Harry to her safe house. The remaining lake killer arrives and shoots her, Harry recovers the pistol and his finger has fallen off again, so he puts it on ice, but a dog jumps up and eats it. Harmony meets Harry at his hotel where she reveals she had told Jenna that Harlan Dexter was her real father. They quarrel in bed, when Harmony reveals she had slept with Harrys best friend. After Harmony disappears following a lead, Harry and Perry investigate a private clinic owned by Harlan Dexter. Perry realizes Veronica Dexter was incarcerated there by Harlan so an impostor could drop her court case, the pair capture a guard to question him but accidentally kill him and then are captured by Dexter
33.
Cillian Murphy
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Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor of stage and screen. A native of Cork, Murphy began his career as a rock musician. After turning down a deal, he made his professional acting debut in the play Disco Pigs in 1996. While continuing with work he also began appearing in independent films. For his performance as a woman in Breakfast on Pluto. In 2006, Murphy played the role in Ken Loachs Palme dOr-winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley. He teamed up again with Boyle for the science-fiction film Sunshine, since 2013, Murphy has played the lead in the BBC gangster series Peaky Blinders. He has continued to work on stage, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for Misterman in 2011, Murphy lives with his wife and two children in Monkstown, Dublin. In 2011 Murphy became patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway and he is closely associated with the work of Professor Pat Dolan Director UCFRC and UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement. Murphy was born in Douglas and raised in Ballintemple, two suburbs of Cork and his father, Brendan, works for the Irish Department of Education, and his mother is a French teacher. Not only are his parents educators, but his aunts and uncles are also teachers, musicianship also runs in the family, and Murphy started playing music and writing songs at the age of 10. Not keen on sport, a part of life at PBC. Still, it was there that he got his first taste of performing, when he participated in a drama module presented by Pat Kiernan, Murphy later described the experience as a huge high and a fully alive feeling that he set out to chase. His English teacher, the poet and novelist William Wall, encouraged him to pursue acting, in his late teens and early twenties, Murphy worked towards a career as a rock musician, playing guitar in several bands alongside his brother Páidi. The Beatles-obsessed pair named their most successful band The Sons of Mr. Greengenes, after a 1969 song by another idol, Murphy sang and played guitar in the band, which he has said specialised in wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos. In 1996, The Sons of Mr. Murphy confessed that Im very glad in retrospect that we didnt sign because you kind of sign away your life to a label and the whole of your music. Also in 1996, Murphy began studying law at University College Cork, not only was he busy with his band, but he has said that he knew within days after starting at UCC that law was not what he wanted to do. After seeing Corcadorcas stage production of A Clockwork Orange, directed by Kiernan and his first major role was in the UCC Drama Societys amateur production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, also starring Irish American comedian, Des Bishop
34.
Breakfast on Pluto (film)
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Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 British-Irish comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. This dark comedy stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender foundling searching for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland, the film is divided in over 30 chapters. He is then placed with a foster mother. Biologically male, a young Patrick is later shown donning a dress and lipstick, Patrick is accepted by his close friends Charlie, Irwin, and Lawrence, as well as by Lawrences father, who tells Patrick Eily looked like blonde American movie star Mitzi Gaynor. The story moves to Patricks late teen years, Patrick gets into trouble in school by writing explicit fiction imagining how he was conceived by his parents and by inquiring about where to get a sex change. Patrick comes out as transgender and renames himself Kitten, also using the name Patricia and she approaches Father Liam in confession, asking about Eily, but is rebuffed. Kitten soon runs away home, catching a ride with a glam rock band, Billy Hatchet and the Mohawks. Billy installs the lovestruck, homeless Kitten in a home where she discovers hes hiding guns smuggled for the Irish Republican Army. Meanwhile, Irwin has begun to work with the IRA, much to the dismay of his now-girlfriend Charlie. Kitten dismisses Irwins politics as serious, serious, serious, but after Lawrence is killed by police detonating a suspected IRA car bomb, Billy abandons Kitten to flee the IRA, while Kitten plays crazy, so that she wont be shot. Kitten next journeys to London to search for Eily, but initial inquiries prove fruitless, penniless, she finds shelter in a tiny cottage in a park, only to find that its a childrens entertainment park for The Wombles. Kitten gets a job as a singing, dancing Womble, but immediately loses it when her sponsor, forced into prostitution, she is violently attacked by her first client, saving herself from strangulation by spraying him in the eyes with Chanel No.5 perfume. At a diner, magician Bertie Vaughan asks her what she is writing in her notebook and she explains that its the story of The Phantom Lady who was swallowed up by the big city, then reveals its about the mother she is seeking. Bertie hires her to be his magicians assistant, turning her story in to a hypnosis act. The two take a day trip, but Kitten explains that shes not biologically female when Bertie tries to kiss her. Bertie says that he knew this. Soon, Charlie finds Berties show and takes Kitten away, Kitten goes to a club frequented by British soldiers and dances with a soldier, only to be injured when the club is bombed by the IRA. When police discover that Kitten is biologically male and Irish, she is arrested as a suspected terrorist, beaten and prevented from sleeping, she writes a hyperbolic statement, shown in a fantasy spy film spoof sequence
35.
Bill Murray
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William James Bill Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Murray received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016, Murray was born on September 21,1950 in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. He is the son of Lucille, a room clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II. Murray and his eight siblings were raised in a Roman Catholic Irish-American family, three of his siblings, John Murray, Joel Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray, are also actors. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan and their father died in 1967 at the age of 46 from complications of diabetes when Bill was 17 years old. As a youth, Murray read childrens biographies of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok and he attended St. Josephs grade school and Loyola Academy. During his teen years, he worked as a golf caddy to fund his education at the Jesuit high school, one of his sisters had polio and his mother suffered several miscarriages. During his teen years he was the singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school. After graduating, Murray attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado and he quickly dropped out, returning to Illinois. Decades later, in 2007, Regis awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree, on September 21,1970, his 20th birthday, the police arrested Murray at Chicagos OHare Airport for trying to smuggle 10 lb of cannabis, which he had allegedly intended to sell. The drugs were discovered when Murray joked to the next to him that he was smuggling. Murray was convicted and sentenced to probation, with an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at The Second City in Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. In 1975, an Off-Broadway version of a Lampoon show led to his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and that same season, another variety show titled NBCs Saturday Night premiered. Cosells show lasted just one season, canceled in early 1976, after working in Los Angeles with the guerrilla video commune TVTV on several projects, Murray rose to prominence in 1976. He officially joined the cast of NBCs Saturday Night Live for the second season, following the departure of Chevy Chase. Murray was with SNL for three seasons from 1977 to 1980. S, during the first few seasons of SNL, Murray was in a romantic relationship with fellow cast member Gilda Radner. Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979 and he followed this up with his portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in 1980s Where the Buffalo Roam
36.
Broken Flowers
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Broken Flowers is a 2005 French-American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. The film focuses on an aging Don Juan who embarks on a journey to track down four of his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter stating that he has a son. The film stars Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, Mark Webber, Chloë Sevigny, Christopher McDonald and Alexis Dziena. Don Johnston, a former Don Juan who made a fortune in the computer industry. He is content to lounge around watching old movies and listening to classical or easy listening music and his current girlfriend, Sherry, is ending their relationship and moving out of his house when a letter in a pink envelope arrives. After she walks out, Don reads the letter, it purports to be from a former girlfriend, informing him that he has a son who is nearly nineteen years old. Initially, Don does not intend to do anything about it, but his busybody neighbor Winston, who is a mystery novel enthusiast, urges Don to investigate. Ultimately Don meets with four women, each worse than the last and each woman damaged in some way, Laura works as a closet. That night, Laura sleeps with Don, once a flower child of the 1960s, she has reversed to the opposite extreme and is now apparently resigned to a very uptight existence in her otherwise happy marriage to Ron. Carmen Markowski works as an animal communicator, Don recalls how she was formerly so passionate about becoming a lawyer. But passion is a thing, she says. She is cold to Don and has an odd relationship with her secretary, penny lives in a rural area amongst bikers. She still holds a grudge against Don, and apparent rage overall, when Don asks her whether she has a son, she becomes furious, which results in one of her biker friends punching Don out. The next morning, Don finds himself in his car, in the middle of a field, later, Don stops at a florist to buy flowers from a young woman named Sun Green who treats his cut. Don leaves the flowers at the grave of the woman, Michelle Pepe. Finally, Don returns home where he finds a letter from Sherry. He discusses the trip and second letter with Winston, who theorizes that Sherry might have written the letter as a hoax. He then goes home to compare the two letters, Don then meets a young man in the street who he suspects may be his son
37.
Joaquin Phoenix
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Joaquín Rafael Phoenix, known formerly as Leaf Phoenix, is a Puerto Rican–born American actor, producer, music video director, musician and activist. For his work as an artist, Phoenix has received a Grammy Award, Phoenix started acting in television shows with his brother River Phoenix and sister Summer Phoenix. His first major release was in the comedy-drama film Parenthood. During his period as an actor he was credited as Leaf Phoenix. He received international attention for his portrayal of Commodus in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, to this date, he and River Phoenix hold the distinction of being the first and only brothers to be nominated for acting Academy Awards. Aside from his career, he has also ventured into directing music videos, as well as producing films. He has recorded an album, the soundtrack to Walk The Line, Phoenix is a social activist, lending his support to a number of charities and humanitarian organizations. He is also known for his animal rights advocacy. He has been a vegan since the age of three, and actively campaigns for PETA and In Defense of Animals, Phoenix was born Joaquín Rafael Bottom in the Río Piedras district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents from the U. S. mainland. He is the third of five children, including River, Rain, Liberty and Summer and he also has a half-sister named Jodean from a previous relationship of his fathers. Phoenixs father, John Lee Bottom, originally from Fontana, California, was a lapsed Catholic, of English, Phoenixs mother, Arlyn, was born in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents whose families emigrated from Russia and Hungary. Arlyn left her family in 1968 and moved to California, later meeting Phoenixs father while hitchhiking and they married in 1969, then later joined a religious group, the Children of God, and began traveling throughout South America. His parents eventually became disenchanted with the Children of God, they made the decision to leave the group and they changed their last name to Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, symbolizing a new beginning. Around this time, Joaquín began calling himself Leaf, desiring to have a name like his siblings. Leaf became the name he used as a actor, until at age 15. He first used it as a credit in his big comeback film To Die For. In order to provide food and financial support for the family, in Los Angeles, his mother started working as a secretary for NBC, and his father worked as a landscaper. He went on to himself as a child actor before deciding to withdraw from acting for a while and travel to Mexico
38.
Transamerica (film)
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Transamerica is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Duncan Tucker, and starring Felicity Huffman and Kevin Zegers. One of the themes is the personal journey toward self-discovery, according to interviews with the director. The film is marked by an Academy Award–nominated and Golden Globe–winning performance by Huffman and he asks for Stanley Schupak, claiming to be Stanleys son. Bree was previously unaware she had a son, she now wants to break with her past, however, Brees therapist refuses permission for her operation if she does not face up to her past ties before facing her new future. Bree flies from Los Angeles to New York City to bail Toby out of jail, Toby is a foul-mouthed runaway plus small-time drug user and male hustler. His mother committed suicide when he was a child after which he was raised by his stepfather, Bree pretends to be a Christian missionary and persuades Toby to ride with her back to the West Coast, secretly planning to leave him at his stepfathers along the way. When they arrive in the town of Callicoon, Kentucky, it out that Tobys stepfather was very abusive. To Brees dismay, her plan to leave Toby with him fails miserably, Bree and Toby continue driving to Los Angeles together. They also stop by a house in Dallas where a group of women are hosting a gender pride gathering. Later on in the trip, when Bree has to urinate and he tries to be open-minded about it, but is angry that Bree had not told him prior to his unintentional discovery. After their car and money are stolen by a young hitchhiking hippie who calls himself a peyote shaman, to Bree he pretends that he got the money from selling some drugs he had taken along for his own use. They get a ride with a kindly rancher Calvin Many Goats to Brees parents house in Phoenix, Calvin and Bree hit it off very well and flirt a little, which disturbes Toby. Here they find her pampered and self-centred mother Elizabeth, her Jewish father Murray who seems to be dominated by Elizabeth, Elizabeth disapproves of Brees transsexuality, but is astonished to find out she has a grandson. She is kind to Toby and invites him to stay and live with them, Toby likes the luxury and kindness, but hesitates because he does not like how disrespectful they are to Bree. Realizing he has feelings for Bree, he tries to seduce her, Bree realizes she must tell Toby the truth immediately, saying that she was his real father. Toby is appalled and infuriated that Bree had not disclosed this earlier, overnight he steals money and valuable antiques from the house and disappears. Heartbroken, Bree returns to Los Angeles via a plane ticket bought by her parents and her family finally accepts her calling herself Bree, she has a completely successful surgery, but she is unhappy because she feels she will never again see or hear from Toby. The therapist visits Bree in recovery and Bree, after she confesses she made a mistake, sobs, some months later, Bree is surprised to see Toby knock at her front door
39.
Toni Collette
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She is a recipient of six AACTA Awards, one Emmy Award and one Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Award and once for both an Academy Award and a Tony Award. Collettes acting career began in the early 1990s with comedic roles in such as Spotswood and Muriels Wedding. Collette returned to Broadway in Will Enos The Realistic Joneses, for which she earned a Drama Desk Special Award, Toni Collett was born in Blacktown, a suburb in Western Sydney, the daughter of Judith, a customer-service representative, and Bob Collett, a truck driver. She has two brothers, Ben and Christopher. She was born under the surname Collett, but added an e at the end for her stage name and her biological paternal grandfather was an American serviceman whose name Toni does not know. From an early age, Collette showed a talent for acting and she faked an appendicitis when she was eleven, and was so convincing that doctors removed her appendix, although tests showed nothing wrong with it. She attended Blacktown Girls High School until the age of 16 and her first acting role was onstage in the musical Godspell in Sydney in her early teens. Collette made her debut in 1990, in a guest appearance on the Seven Network drama series A Country Practice. In 1992, she made her film debut as part of the ensemble comedy-drama Spotswood, which starred Anthony Hopkins. Collette soon rocketed to international notice with her performance in the role for Muriels Wedding in 1994. She won the Australian award for Best Actress as Muriel, her first of five Australian Film Institute awards, in 1996, she was part of the ensemble cast of the comedy, Così, and had a leading role in Emma as the naïve Harriet Smith. She has also received acclaim on Broadway, starring as Queenie in Michael John LaChiusas musical work. For this role, Collette was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Collette turned down the title role in Bridget Joness Diary because she was committed to perform on Broadway at the time. In 1999, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as the mother of a boy in the U. S. film The Sixth Sense. In 2000, she was the voice of Meg Bluegum Bunyips mother in The Magic Pudding based on the childrens book by Norman Lindsay. Collette won the Australian Film Institute award for Best Actress for her performance, in 2004, Collette starred with Nia Vardalos and David Duchovny in the musical comedy Connie and Carla, released by Universal Studios. Collettes only film in 2005 was In Her Shoes, a comedy-drama about the relationship between two sisters and their estranged grandmother, co-starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. In 2006, Collette starred in Little Miss Sunshine, a movie about a familys trip to a childrens beauty pageant
40.
In Her Shoes (film)
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In Her Shoes is a 2005 American comedy-drama film based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Weiner. It is directed by Curtis Hanson with a screenplay by Susannah Grant and stars Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette. The film focuses on the relationship between two sisters and their grandmother, Maggie and Rose Feller are sisters with nothing in common but their shoe size. They were raised by their father Michael and stepmother after their mother Caroline died in a car accident, Rose is the eldest, an ostensibly plain and serious lawyer who is protective of Maggie despite her flaws. Maggie is a spirit who is unable to hold a steady job and turns to alcohol. Rose grudgingly allows Maggie to move in with her in her Rittenhouse Square apartment in Philadelphia when their stepmother throws her out of the house and their already difficult relationship ends when Rose catches Maggie in bed with Jim, her boyfriend. Maggie subsequently disappears from Roses life, a few days before, while secretly looking through her fathers desk for money, Maggie discovered a bundle of old greeting cards containing cash. She was astonished to discover that the cards were addressed to both her and Rose and were from their grandmother Ella, now, homeless and without job prospects, Maggie travels to Florida to find her and hopefully a new source of income. So she letting Maggie stay with her out of guilt for abandoning her responsibilities as a grandmother. However, as passes, Ella discovers that Maggie has come to do nothing but sunbathe. Maggie asks Ella to finance an acting career for her, Ella agrees to match her salary dollar for dollar if she accepts a job with the living section of her grandmothers retirement community. Meanwhile, Rose has decided to quit her job, become a dog-walker, Maggie befriends one of her patients, a blind retired professor of English literature, who has asked Maggie to read works of poetry to him. She does so, but with great difficulty, after asking if she is dyslexic, the professor encourages Maggie to continue reading to him while offering emotional support to her. Maggie finds a friend in the professor, the first person in her life who does not ridicule her difficulties with reading, as time passes with the professor, Maggies confidence grows not only with reading but with her general image of herself. In addition, she becomes friendly with the residents of the retirement community. In doing so, Maggie discovers a livelihood that is greatly needed among the women, a personal clothing shopper. Ella offers to run the financial aspects of the business, in the process, they become close and resolve their history. Meanwhile, Roses reluctance to talk about Maggie is straining her relationships with those around her, such as Simon, her father, and stepmother
41.
Julianne Moore
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Julianne Moore is an American actress, prolific in films since the early 1990s. She is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent and Hollywood films, and has received many accolades, including the 2014 Academy Award for Best Actress. After studying theatre at Boston University, Moore began her career with a series of television roles, from 1985 to 1988, she was a regular in the soap opera As the World Turns, earning a Daytime Emmy for her performance. Her film debut was in Tales from the Darkside, The Movie, Moore first received critical attention with Robert Altmans Short Cuts, and successive performances in Vanya on 42nd Street and Safe continued this acclaim. Starring roles in the blockbusters Nine Months and The Lost World, Moore received considerable recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s, earning Oscar nominations for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far from Heaven and The Hours. In the first of these she played a 1970s pornographic actress, in addition to acting, Moore has written a series of childrens books about a character named Freckleface Strawberry. She is married to director Bart Freundlich, with whom she has two children, Moore was born Julie Anne Smith on December 3,1960, at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina. Her father, Peter Moore Smith, was a paratrooper in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and her mother, Anne, was a psychologist and social worker from Greenock, Scotland, who emigrated to the United States in 1951 with her family. Moore has a sister, Valerie, and a younger brother. She considers herself half Scottish and claimed British citizenship in 2011 to honor her deceased mother, Moore frequently moved around the United States as a child, due to her fathers occupation. She was close to her family as a result, but has said she never had the feeling of coming from one particular place. The family lived in locations, including Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Panama, Nebraska, Alaska, New York, and Virginia. The constant relocating made her a child, and she struggled to establish friendships. Despite these difficulties, Moore later remarked that an itinerant lifestyle was beneficial to her career, When you move around a lot. I would change, depending on where I was and it teaches you to watch, to reinvent, that character can change. When Moore was 16, the moved to Frankfurt, Germany. She was clever and studious, a good girl. She had never considered performing, or even attended the theatre and she appeared in several plays, including Tartuffe and Medea, and with the encouragement of her English teacher she chose to pursue a theatrical career
42.
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
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The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a 2005 biographical film written and directed by Jane Anderson. It is based on the book by Terry Ryan, the film stars Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern. The film received a release on October 14,2005. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is based on the story of housewife Evelyn Ryan. Evelyns husband, Kelly, failed to support his family in part due to apparent alcoholism and he had dreamed of being a singer but lost his singing voice in a car accident, and was often cruel and abusive. Kelly, who feels like his role as provider for the family is being threatened, criticizes Evelyn, at one point, Kelly gets angry at his wife and knocks her over while she is carrying 12 full glass bottles of milk, causing her to nearly sever a ligament. Evelyn is able to him down after each incident and, temporarily at least. Evelyn is largely isolated because of the hours she has to spend caring for the children, however, she is contacted by a group of other contest-entering mid-western housewives and befriends them. Ultimately, Evelyn discovers that Kelly had secretly taken out a mortgage on their house and never made payments on it. The children pray for their mothers miraculous victory in a contest sponsored by Dr Pepper and she wins and pays the mortgage on the house. In the closing sequence, set later, we learn that after Kelly died. The actual Ryan children are shown as adults. Metacritic reported a score of 58/100, based on reviews from 28 critics, the film was released on DVD on March 14,2006. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio at Rotten Tomatoes The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio at the Internet Movie Database Evelyn Ryans Official site The Prize Winner of Defiance Web Site by Terry Ryan
43.
Robin Wright
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Robin Gayle Wright is an American actress and director. Wright received Primetime Emmy nominations for House of Cards in 2013,2014,2015 and 2016, Wright first gained attention for her role in the NBC Daytime soap opera Santa Barbara, as Kelly Capwell from 1984 to 1988. She then made the transition to film, starring in the comedy fantasy adventure film The Princess Bride. She will next appear in the superhero film Wonder Woman and will appear in the upcoming film Blade Runner 2049 opposite Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, Wright was born in Dallas, Texas, to Gayle, a cosmetics saleswoman, and Freddie Wright, a pharmaceutical company employee. Wright was raised in San Diego, California and she attended La Jolla High School and Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Wright started her career as a model, when she was 14 and she first became popular for playing Kelly Capwell on the NBC television soap opera Santa Barbara at age 18, which earned her several Daytime Emmy Award nominations. She transitioned into film work as Buttercup in the cult hit The Princess Bride. The latter role garnered her critical acclaim as well as Golden Globe Award. In 1996 she starred in the adaptation of Daniel Defoes Moll Flanders. She went on to co-star with her then-husband in the film Shes So Lovely, Wright received her third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her role in the television film Empire Falls. Since 2013, Wright has portrayed Claire Underwood, political mastermind Frank Underwoods equally ruthless wife and she received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award in 2013 and 2014 for the same role. Following season 4 in 2016, Wright stated that she felt Claire Underwood was the equal of Frank Underwood, Wright has been cast in the live action Wonder Woman film alongside Gal Gadot and Chris Pine and Ridley Scotts Blade Runner sequel. From 1986 to 1988, Wright was married to actor Dane Witherspoon, in 1989, Wright became involved with actor Sean Penn following his divorce from Madonna. Wright was offered the role of Maid Marian in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and their daughter Dylan Frances Penn was born in April 1991. She backed out of the role of Abby McDeere in The Firm, with Tom Cruise, upon discovering she was pregnant with her second child and their son, Hopper Jack Penn, was born in August 1993. After breaking up and getting together, Wright and Penn married in 1996. Their on-and-off relationship seemingly ended in divorce plans, announced in December 2007, in February 2009, Wright and Penn attended the 81st Academy Awards together, at which Penn won Best Actor. Penn subsequently filed for separation in April 2009, but withdrew the petition in May
44.
Nine Lives (2005 film)
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Nine Lives is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Rodrigo García. The screenplay, an example of cinema, relates nine short. Their themes include parent-child relationships, fractured love, adultery, illness, imprisoned Sandra has an emotional breakdown when the broken telephone in her cubicle prevents her from communicating with her daughter on visiting day. Diana and Damian, two former flames now married to others, unexpectedly have a poignant reunion in the aisle of the local supermarket, holly returns home to confront her sexually abusive stepfather and dissolves into gun-waving hysteria. Feuding married couple Sonia and Martin have an emotional meltdown while visiting their friends Lisa, teenaged Samantha is torn between her non-communicative parents Ruth, and Larry, each of whom questions her about everything the other one has to say. Divorcée Lorna must cope with her ex-husband Andrews sexual desire for her during his wifes funeral. Ruth, primary caretaker for her husband, becomes increasingly guilt-ridden during a tryst with drunken widower Henry in a hotel. Camille is facing breast cancer surgery and uses her time to lash out at her quietly supportive husband Richard. Maggie discusses life with her daughter Maria during a picnic in the cemetery and it opened on seven screens and earned $28,387 in its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $478,830 in the US and $1,084,093 in foreign markets for a worldwide box office of $1,562,923. The films reward for intense concentration is a feeling of deep empathy, for once, you dont harbor the uneasy suspicion of having been emotionally manipulated. Mr. García has made a film that could be described as radically realistic, in its subtle, understated performances, the actors vanish into characters who behave like ordinary people observed through one-way glass. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said, Rodrigo Garcia, a movie like this, with the appearance of new characters and situations, focuses us, we watch more intently, because it is important what happens. He added, stories might seem the stuff of soap opera, the peculiar overall structure makes them distinctive as well, the way these little semi-Chekhovian, semi-Andre Dubus pieces play out against each other. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it that rare film that actually accrues a cumulative power. By the time its over it has become a testament to the resilience of women in coping with a critical moment in their lives. Each segment seems perfectly shaped and timed, not lasting a second too long yet always of sufficient length to be satisfying in itself, garcías large ensemble cast is impeccable, and he and his actors have created a film as memorable as it is subtle. Nine Lives is a sophisticated, elegant-looking film shot in distinctive, wide-ranging L. A. locales, list of American films of 2005 Nine Lives at the Internet Movie Database Nine Lives at Rotten Tomatoes Nine Lives at AllMovie Nine Lives at Metacritic
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