1.
Shrine Auditorium
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The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners and it was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1975. Opened in 1926, the current Shrine Auditorium replaced an earlier 1906 Al Malaikah Temple which had destroyed by a fire on January 11,1920. The fire gutted the building in just 30 minutes. The new auditorium was designed in the Moorish Revival style by San Francisco-based theater architect G. Albert Lansburgh, with local architects John C. Austin, when built, the auditorium could hold 1,200 people on stage and seat an audience of 6,442. An engineer who consulted on the said that the steel truss supporting the balcony was the largest ever constructed. The entire complex follows a Moroccan architectural motif, the Shrine Auditorium seats approximately 6,300 people and has a stage 194 feet wide and 69 feet deep. The Auditorium features two boxes above the orchestra level holding 40 people each and seven loges on the balcony holding between 36 and 47 seats each, of the remaining seats,2,964 are on the orchestra level and 2,982 on the balcony level. The Shrine Auditorium has hosted a number of events, mainly for entertainment, the Academy Awards were held at the Shrine from 1947 to 1948 and eight times between 1988 and 2001 until it moved to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The Shrine hosted several Grammy ceremonies until 2000 when the Grammys moved to the nearby Staples Center, the Primetime Emmy Awards were also held at the venue for a decade beginning in 1998. However, the Primetime ceremony moved to the nearby Microsoft Theater, for 33 years, the Shrine Auditorium was home to the University of Southern California Trojans basketball team. The Trojans home court was on the Shrines stage, the Los Angeles Lakers also briefly played some playoff games in the theatre, when the nearby Los Angeles Sports Arena was unavailable. The Shrine Circus, concerts, stage shows and other events are held here. The Shrine Auditorium was also the venue for the 55th Miss Universe beauty pageant, the 1933 movie King Kong filmed the audience in the Shrine Auditorium for the scenes where Kong was displayed manacled on stage. In 1953, segments of Judy Garlands movie classic A Star Is Born were filmed at the Shrine, in 1955, The Great Shrine Auditorium Concert took place, which is considered a major event in the histories of both American gospel and secular music. The event also featured a young Sam Cooke who was at the time performing with the gospel group The Soul Stirrers. Ray Charles recorded his landmark Live in Concert album at the Shrine in 1964, in the late 1960s, the Shrine was referred to as The Pinnacle by the audiences of rock concerts. On August 24,1968, The Grateful Dead performed there and recorded their show, on January 24,1975, Genesis, then led by singer Peter Gabriel, gave a live performance of the conceptual progressive rock show, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway at the Shrine
2.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Conan O'Brien
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Conan Christopher OBrien is an American television host, comedian, and television producer. He is best known for hosting several talk shows, since 2010 he has hosted Conan on the cable channel TBS. OBrien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was raised in an Irish Catholic family and he served as president of The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News. After writing for comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. OBrien was a writer and producer for The Simpsons for two seasons until he was commissioned by NBC to take over David Lettermans position as host of Late Night in 1993. A virtual unknown to the public, OBriens initial Late Night tenure received unfavorable reviews, the show generally improved over time and was highly regarded by the time of his departure in 2009. Afterwards, OBrien relocated from New York to Los Angeles to host his own incarnation of The Tonight Show for seven months until network politics prompted a host change in 2010. He has hosted Conan since 2010 and has hosted such events as the Emmy Awards. OBrien has been the subject of a documentary, Conan OBrien Cant Stop, with the retirement of David Letterman on May 20,2015, OBrien became the longest-working of all current late-night talk show hosts in the United States, at 22 years. OBrien was born on April 18,1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts and his father, Thomas Francis OBrien, is a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. His mother, Ruth OBrien, is an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray and he is the third of six children. OBriens family is Irish Catholic, some of his Irish ancestors immigrated before the American Civil War, in a Late Night episode, OBrien paid a visit to County Kerry, Ireland, where his ancestors originated. OBrien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the editor of the school newspaper. After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University, at Harvard, OBrien lived in Holworthy Hall during his first year and Mather House during his three upper-class years. He concentrated in history and literature and graduated cum laude in 1985. OBriens senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner, larry Bird in which the Boston Celtics play against a classical ballet troupe. During his sophomore and junior years he served as the Lampoons president, at this time, OBriens future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the schools newspaper The Harvard Crimson. OBrien moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the staff of HBOs Not Necessarily the News
5.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
6.
57th Primetime Emmy Awards
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The 57th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 18,2005 and was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The ceremony was broadcast on CBS, BBC America received its first major nomination this year. Opening the ceremony was the famous 1970s band Earth, Wind & Fire with a version of September. Also, the show featured Emmy Idol, five segments in which famous TV stars performed popular TV theme songs in a format like American Idol. Everybody Loves Raymond became the first comedy to have its final season win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series since Barney Miller in 1982, everybody Loves Raymond tied for the lead in major nominations and wins with ten and three, respectively. In the drama field, new series Lost won Outstanding Drama Series, defending champion The Sopranos was on hiatus and had not aired any new episodes during the eligibility period. Actress Angela Lansbury received her eighteenth and most recent nomination, however, she failed to win causing her record losing streak to be extended. com list of 2005 Nominees & Winners 2005 Emmy Awards at the Internet Movie Database
7.
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
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The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 16,2007, honoring the best in U. S. prime time television programming at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was televised live on Fox at 8,00 p. m. EDT for the first time in high definition (on tape delay three hours later on the West Coast of the United States at 8,00 p. m. It was also the final Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony to be held at the Shrine Auditorium, the ceremony was hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The nominations were announced on July 19 at 5,40 a. m. PDT by Jon Cryer, meanwhile, the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian-actor Carlos Mencia, were presented eight days earlier on September 9. Freshman series 30 Rock defeated defending champion The Office to claim Outstanding Comedy Series, going into its final ceremony, The Sopranos needed just three major awards to tie the drama series record of 18 major wins set by Hill Street Blues. It was nominated in ten major categories coming in and ended the night with three wins, including its second win for Outstanding Drama Series and this tied the record and gave both shows identical résumés—18 major wins and 74 major nominations. This was the first year the Emmy was presented during the Primetime awards ceremony, the stage design for the ceremony was created with seating surrounding platform creating a theater in the round with a catwalk style walkway for winners and presenters to exit the stage to. A trap door was placed in the center of the main stage, some TV critics viewed this as a reference to Foxs American Idol. Another segment occurred during the presentation of the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program award, there was a competition between singer Kanye West and The Office actor Rainn Wilson similar to Dont Forget the Lyrics. with host Wayne Brady presiding. West sang the last line of the chorus in the song Stronger as That how long Ive been on you which was supposed to be That how long Ive been on ya, losing to Wilson. West jokingly retorted I never win, poking fun at his losses at award ceremonies, tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera sang Steppin Out With My Baby from Bennetts award-winning special. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert presented the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, the award went to Ricky Gervais for Extras, but after reading his name, Jon Stewart was informed that Gervais was not at the ceremony. Stewart immediately announced, Ricky Gervais couldnt be here tonight, so instead were going to give this to our friend Steve Carell, Carell ran onto the stage and hugged Stewart and Colbert as they all screamed in mock celebration, then ran off together with the award. As a joke, in 2008, at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, Ricky Gervais showed a video of the moment, commenting, Look at stupid face, accusing Carell of stealing his award, and demanding it back. During the Fox telecast, some presenters and award winners were censored while making statements. When Ray Romano delivered a monologue about the change of television in the years since he left his own show, he mentioned that for one, from what I hear. On Fox, all that was heard was for one, from what I hear, Frasier is before Fox cut the audio, when viewers saw the ball through a high camera angle, it is revealed that the ball covered the entire stage. This lasted approximately 10 seconds before Fox returned to Romano, the reason for the censorship of this comment has been debated between vulgar language or revealing an important plot line to the show
8.
Coordinated Universal Time
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Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
9.
Discovery Channel
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Discovery Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is the flagship television property of Discovery Communications, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. S. Flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally, programming on the flagship Discovery Channel in the U. S. A popular annual feature on the channel is Shark Week, which airs on Discovery during the summer months, as of February 2015, Discovery Channel is available to approximately 96,589,000 pay television households in the United States. John Hendricks founded the channel and its parent company, Cable Educational Network Inc. in 1982, several investors raised $5 million in start-up capital to launch the network. The Discovery Channel began broadcasting on June 17,1985 and it was initially available to 156,000 households and broadcast for 12 hours each day between 3 p. m. and 3 a. m. About 75 percent of its content had never been broadcast on U. S. television before. In its early years, the focus centered on educational programming in the form of cultural and wildlife documentaries. It also broadcast some Soviet programming during this time, including the news program Vremya, in 1988, the channel premiered the nightly program World Monitor. By 1990, the channel was available in over 50 million households, the drop in viewership was widely attributed to an over-reliance on a few hit series, such as Monster Garage and American Chopper. Some critics said such shows strayed from Discoverys intention of providing more educationally based shows aimed at helping viewers learn about the world around them, in 2005, Discovery changed its programming focus to include more popular science and historical themes. The networks ratings eventually recovered in 2006, the network was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards that year for shows including The Flight that Fought Back and Deadliest Catch. In 2007, Discovery Channels top series included the Emmy Award- and Peabody Award-winning Planet Earth, Dirty Jobs, MythBusters, Discovery Channels 2008 lineup included Fight Quest and Smash Lab. On September 1,2010, 43-year-old James Jay Lee entered the Discovery Communications headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, Lee fired at least one shot and held several employees hostage, he was later shot dead by police. Lee had published criticisms of the network at Savetheplanetprotest. com, in December 2015, Discovery Communications launched its TV Everywhere service, Discovery Go, which features live and video-on-demand content from Discovery Channel and eight of its sister networks. Popular programs on the channel have included the Shark Week programming event, Deadliest Catch, MythBusters, How Its Made, Dirty Jobs, Cash Cab, Christopher Lowell won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000 for The Christopher Lowell Show. After the 2007 victory with the Spaniard Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel discontinued the cycling sponsorship, Discovery Channel Radio was a radio network, whose programming consisted of audio versions of popular programs from the Discovery Communications family of television channels. Discovery Channel Radio was previously carried by XM Satellite Radio, until its removal from the provider in early September 2005, sirius Satellite Radio dropped Discovery Radio from its lineup on February 21,2007, it was also carried on both of Canadas major satellite radio services. Discovery Channel lent its brand to stores in malls and other locations across America
10.
NBC Sunday Night Football
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NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of National Football League games on NBC in the United States. It began airing on August 6,2006 with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, NBC took over the rights to the Sunday prime time game telecasts from ESPN, which carried the broadcasts from 1987 to 2005. Previously, NBC had aired American Football League, and later American Football Conference, games from 1960 until 1998, during the 2011–12 season, Sunday Night Football became the first live sports competition to hold the position as Nielsens most-watched program on U. S. As of 2016, Al Michaels serves as the announcer for the broadcasts, with Cris Collinsworth as the color commentator. John Madden, the commentator for the first three years of the program, retired prior to the 2009 season, he was succeeded in that role by Collinsworth. NBCs broadcast begins at 7,00 p. m. Eastern Time with its pre-game show Football Night in America, the show serves the same purpose as NFL Primetime did for ESPN, offering recaps of the early action as well as a preview of the game to come. The show emanates from the NBC Sports studios in Connecticut as well as at the game site, Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Peter King and Mike Florio broadcast from the studio while Mike Tirico reports from the game. Michaels, Collinsworth, and Tafoya will also appear, NBC is the current home of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which begins the NFLs preseason each August. Normally, there are two other preseason telecasts on NBC, however, because of the Beijing Olympics, only two were shown in 2008, two preseason games, and the Thursday night season opener were retained as part of the new contract beginning in 2014. From 2006 until 2013, NBCs contract included the rights to both Saturday wild card games that had been previously aired by ABC as part of its Monday Night Football contract. Tom Hammond provided play-by-play for the game until 2012, with Dan Hicks taking the position in 2013. Joe Gibbs was the color commentator for these broadcasts, doing so until 2008 when he replaced John Madden as lead analyst. Mike Mayock, NBCs Notre Dame color commentator until 2012, John Madden taking as color commentator in 2013, the actual first game of the run – the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles – was televised on August 6,2006. NBC Sunday Night Football is the beneficiary of the leagues new flexible-scheduling system, in its first four seasons of Sunday night coverage, NBC took one week off in late October or early November, so as not to conflict with Foxs coverage of baseballs World Series. In 2006 NBC did not air a game on October 22, which was the date for Game 2 of the World Series. In 2007, there was no game on October 28, in 2008, there was no game on October 26, although no games aired on these nights, Football Night in America still aired as scheduled at 7,00 p. m. Eastern. NBC televised a game on October 31,2010 and again on October 23,2011, both games featured the New Orleans Saints at home, first in 2010 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then in 2011 against the Indianapolis Colts. Ratings have been mixed for these results, with the NFL winning the night in 2010 while MLB won in 2011, louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers was a more closely contested game, caused the ratings to slip in 2011
11.
NFL Kickoff Game
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The National Football League Kickoff game, along with related festivities, marks the official start of the National Football League regular season. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies and this first game of the season is usually scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day and since 2004, it was hosted by the previous seasons Super Bowl champions. However, in 2012, the game was moved to Wednesday to prevent conflicts with the speech of the Democratic National Convention. The remainder of the league plays their opening weekend games the following Sunday and Monday, the Kickoff Game was introduced in the 2002 season. From 2004 onward, the defending Super Bowl champion has played in the game every year. The Kickoff Game was introduced in the 2002 season, under the leadership of marketing executive John Collins. It was conceived as an effort to boost economic recovery in the New York and it was considered a success, increasing NFL sponsorships by $1.9 billion over the next 14 months. In order to do so, ESPN eliminated its traditional late-October Thursday night game, in 2006, NBC acquired the television rights to the Kickoff Game as part of their Sunday Night Football package. The concept of the NFL champion playing in a game was not altogether new. With the advent of Monday Night Football in 1970 it became common for the Super Bowl champion to appear in a game the first weekend of the season. This was the case in 1978–1979,1983, 1987–1988, 1990–1993, 1996–2000, Defending Super Bowl champions are 11–2 in the Kickoff Game. The New York Giants and the Baltimore Ravens are the two only defending Super Bowl champions to have lost,2003, The games popularity and success saw it move to ABC as part of the Monday Night Football package. In order for the game to fit into the schedule. In return, ESPN received a week 17 Saturday night game, while defending Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay were not selected for the Thursday night game, they did play a nationally-televised game at Philadelphia four nights later on MNF. Instead, the Washington Redskins defeated the New York Jets 16-13,2004, The tradition began that the kickoff game would be hosted by the defending Super Bowl champions. After the wardrobe malfunction incident at Super Bowl XXXVIII, the NFL initially canceled future plans for concerts in conjunction with the NFL Kickoff game, later in the year, however, the decision was reversed, and instead a 10-second broadcast delay was put in place. 2006, With the change in television contracts, the Kickoff Game was moved to NBC, the game opposite the first weekend of World Series games was once again removed to compensate. 2008, The league and NBC agreed to move up the opening kickoff of the kickoff game and that game featured the Redskins and Giants
12.
Desperate Housewives
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Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama and mystery series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It originally aired for eight seasons on ABC, from October 3,2004 to May 13,2012, executive producer Cherry served as showrunner. Other executive producers since the season included Bob Daily, George W. Perkins, John Pardee, Joey Murphy, David Grossman. The storyline covers 13 years of the womens lives over eight seasons, the series features an ensemble cast, headed by Teri Hatcher as Susan Mayer, Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo, Marcia Cross as Bree Van de Kamp, and Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis. Brenda Strong narrates the series as the late Mary Alice Young, appearing sporadically in flashbacks or dream sequences, Desperate Housewives was well received by viewers and critics alike. It won multiple Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, from the 2004–05 through the 2008–09 television seasons, its first five seasons were rated amongst the top 10 most watched series. In 2012, it remained the most-watched comedy series based on data from Eurodata TV Worldwide. Moreover, it was the third-highest revenue earning series for 2010, the show placed #56 on Entertainment Weeklys New TV Classics list. In 2011, it was confirmed that Desperate Housewives would conclude after its eighth season, by the end of the series, it had surpassed Charmed as the longest running hour-long television series featuring all female leads by two episodes. The main mystery of the season is the suicide of Mary Alice Young. The second season premiered on September 25,2005, and its central mystery is that of new neighbor Betty Applewhite, Susans love life becomes even more complicated as her ex-husband Karl Mayer is engaged to Edie and is also started to incline towards Susan. Lynette goes back to her career in advertising while her husband Tom Scavo becomes a father, and Gabrielle decides to be faithful to Carlos. Paul is framed and sent to jail not for the murder he committed in the previous season, the third season premiered on September 24,2006. In the third season, Bree marries Orson Hodge, whose past, meanwhile, Lynette has to adjust to the arrival of Toms previously unknown daughter to the home. The Scavos also experience tension as Tom wants to start a pizzeria, Gabrielle goes through a rough divorce, but finally finds new love in Fairviews new mayor. After being run over by Orson in the season finale, Mike falls into coma. Edie sees her chance to make her move on Mike, Susan loses hope that Mikes memory will return and in the process moves on to a handsome Englishman whose wife is also in a coma, while her daughter Julie Mayer starts dating Edies nephew. Elderly neighbor Karen McCluskey hides something in her freezer, a shooting at the local grocery store leaves two characters dead and changes everyones lives forever
13.
Lost (TV series)
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Lost is an American television drama series that originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company from September 22,2004, to May 23,2010, over six seasons, comprising a total of 121 episodes. Lost is a series containing elements of science fiction and the supernatural. It follows the survivors of the crash of a passenger jet. The story is told in a serialized manner. Episodes typically feature a storyline set on the island, augmented by flashback or flashforward sequences which provide additional insight into the involved character. Lost was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, who share story-writing credits for the pilot episode, which Abrams directed. Throughout the shows run, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse served as showrunners and head writers, working together with a large number of other executive producers and writers. Due to its ensemble cast and the cost of filming primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii. Having achieved both wide acclaim and commercial success throughout its run, Lost has been consistently ranked by critics as one of the greatest television dramas of all time. The first season garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC. During its sixth and final season, the show averaged over 11 million U. S. viewers per episode, users of IMDb. com Pro gave Lost the highest average ranking for any television series during the first ten years of that websites operation. Season 1 begins with the aftermath of a crash, which leaves the surviving passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 on what seems to be an uninhabited tropical island. Jack Shephard, a doctor, becomes their leader and their survival is threatened by a number of mysterious entities, including polar bears, an unseen creature that roams the jungle, and the islands malevolent inhabitants known as The Others. They encounter a French woman named Danielle Rousseau, who was shipwrecked on the island 16 years before the story and is desperate for news of a daughter named Alex. They also find a metal hatch buried in the ground. While two survivors, Locke and Boone, try to force the hatch open, four others, Michael, Jin, Walt, meanwhile, flashbacks centered on individual survivors detail their lives prior to the plane crash. Season 2 follows the conflict between the survivors and the Others and continues the theme of the clash between faith and science, while resolving old mysteries and posing new ones. The four survivors in the raft are ambushed by the Others, the survivors are forced to return to the island, where they find the tail-section survivors
14.
Hugh Laurie
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James Hugh Calum Laurie OBE is an English actor, writer, director, musician, singer and comedian. From 2004 to 2012, he played Dr. Gregory House, Laurie was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the most watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama, earning £250,000 per episode in House. Laurie has portrayed Senator Tom James in HBO political satire Veep since 2015, in 2016 Laurie appeared in the BBC / AMC miniseries The Night Manager, and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, his third overall. The youngest of four children, he has a brother named Charles Alexander Lyon Mundell Laurie. He had a relationship with his mother, Patricia. He notes that his mother was Presbyterian by character, by mood and his father, William George Ranald Mundell Laurie, was a doctor who won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs at the 1948 London Games. Lauries parents, who were of Scottish descent, attended St. Columbas Presbyterian Church of England in Oxford and he notes that belief in God didnt play a large role in my home, but a certain attitude to life and the living of it did. He followed this by stating, pleasure was something that was treated with great suspicion, I was going to say it had to be earned but even the earning of it didnt really work. It was something to this day, I mean, I carry that with me, I find pleasure a difficult thing, I dont know what you do with it, I dont know where to put it. He has stated, I dont believe in God, but I have this idea that if there were a God, or destiny of some kind looking down on us, that if he saw you taking anything for granted hed take it away. Laurie was brought up in Oxford and attended the Dragon School from ages seven to 13 and notes that he was, in truth, Not much given to things of a bookey nature, spent a large part of youth smoking Number Six and cheating in French vocabulary tests. Laurie went on to Eton College, which he describes as the most private of private schools and he attributes his attending Selwyn College, Cambridge, as a result of family tradition as his father went to Cambridge and I applied to the same college. Laurie notes his father had a bout as an oarsman at Cambridge. He studied for a degree in archaeology and anthropology, specialising in social anthropology, in 1980, Laurie and his rowing partner, J. S. Palmer, were runners-up in the Silver Goblets coxless pairs for Eton Vikings rowing club, later, Laurie also achieved a Blue while taking part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Cambridge lost that year by five feet, during this time, Laurie was training for up to eight hours a day and was on course to become an Olympic-standard rower. Laurie is a member of Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world and he was also a member of the Hermes Club and the Hawks Club. Forced to abandon rowing during a bout of fever, Laurie joined the Cambridge Footlights
15.
Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
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Hugo Hurley Reyes is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jorge Garcia. For most of the run, Hurley served as the shows comic relief, but occasionally. He takes over as the Islands protector from Jack Shephard then takes Benjamin Linus as his adviser, the same way Jacob took Richard Alpert. His storylines mostly involved his mental illness, his belief that his lottery win is a curse to those around him, his relationship to The Numbers, Hurley is involved in an accident in which a deck collapses as he steps onto it, killing two people. Even though there were too many people on the prior to his arrival. He sinks into a state, so his mother enters him into a psychiatric institution. There he creates an imaginary friend called Dave, and meets Leonard Simms, Hurleys condition eventually improves, he leaves the institution and he resumes his job at a fast-food restaurant. He uses the numbers 4,8,15,16,23 and 42 in the lottery, Hurley begins experiencing constant bad luck, and as his net worth increases, so does his bad luck. Hurley suspects the numbers he used to win the lottery are cursed and he tells Hurley the man who could explain the mystery of the numbers, Sam Toomey, lives in Australia. Before Hurley can travel to Australia, his returns to the family. He convinces Hurley to go to a psychic to cure his curse, once in Australia, Hurley visits Sam Toomeys wife, who reveals that Sam was driven to suicide to escape his constant bad luck. Halfway through the flight, the plane hits turbulence, splits in mid-air. During the chaos post-crash, Hurley looks after Claire, a pregnant woman, at the request of Jack, a doctor. Hurley helps the group ration the food and water from the plane, in a brief scene that made the character. Hurley moves into the caves with some of the other survivors, when Claire claims to have been attacked one night, Hurley creates a census and discovers that Ethan, a fellow survivor, was never on the flight. When Hurley looks at the maps that Sayid recovered from Rousseau and he treks into the jungle in search of Rousseau, with Jack, Sayid and Charlie in pursuit. After being separated from the rest of the group, Hurley eventually encounters Rousseau, who reveals that the numbers brought her to the island and that night, during a heart-to-heart, he tells Charlie about his wealth. Charlie does not take him seriously, and storms off, one morning, Rousseau arrives on the beach and warns the camp that the Others are coming
16.
The Office (U.S. season 2)
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The second season of the American situation comedy television series, The Office, premiered in the United States on NBC on September 20,2005, and ended on May 11,2006. The season had 22 episodes, including its first 40-minute super-sized episode, Michael Scott soon starts a relationship with his boss Jan Levinson and, Pam Beesly and Jim Halperts relationship become one of the focal points of the season. Their compatibility becomes more obvious as Jims feelings for Pam continue to grow, season two of The Office aired on Tuesdays in the United States at 9,30 p. m. from September 20,2005 to December 6,2005. The timeslot changed to Thursdays at 9,30 p. m. from January 5,2006 to May 11,2006, the season was a ratings success, bolstered by Carells success in the 2005 film The 40 Year Old Virgin. The season also received glowing reviews from critics, with calling it one of the greatest sitcom seasons ever produced. The second season was released in a four-disc DVD boxset in Region 1 on September 12,2006, and in Region 2 on January 28,2008. The DVD set contained all 22 episodes, as well as commentaries from creators, writers, actors and it was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The second season of the show was produced by Reveille Productions and Deedle-Dee Productions, the show is based on the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are executive producers on the show. The Office is produced by Greg Daniels, who is executive producer. Returning writers from last season include Daniels, Larry Wilmore, Michael Schur, Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein, joining the writing staff for the second season are Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who also served as story editors, and Jennifer Celotta, who was a consulting producer. Some of the actors also received promotions, Kaling was promoted to editor, Novak became a co-producer. Series star, Steve Carell, wrote his first Office episode, season two featured episodes directed by eight different directors, each of whom aside from Bryan Gordon directed multiple episodes. Despite low ratings from the first season of the show, NBC renewed The Office a second season, the season was originally set for a run of six episodes, but NBC later ordered seven more episodes, bringing the total number of episodes in the second season to thirteen. In early November, NBC again ordered additional episodes, this time three, for The Office, bringing the total to sixteen, and NBC later ordered a full season,22 episodes. The Office employs an ensemble cast, all of the main characters, and some minor ones, are based on characters from the British version of The Office. While these characters normally have the same attitudes and perceptions as their British counterparts, the show is known for its large cast size, many of whom are known particularly for their improvisational work. Steve Carell stars as Michael Scott, Regional Manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch, rainn Wilson portrays Dwight Schrute, who, based upon Gareth Keenan, is the Assistant to the Regional Manager, although the character frequently fails to include to the in his title. John Krasinski portrays Jim Halpert, a representative and prankster, who is based upon Tim Canterbury, and is in love with Pam Beesly
17.
The Office (U.S. TV series)
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The Office is an American television comedy series that aired on NBC from March 24,2005 to May 16,2013. It is an adaptation of the BBC series of the same name, the Office was adapted for American audiences by Greg Daniels, a veteran writer for Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons. It is co-produced by Daniels Deedle-Dee Productions, and Reveille Productions, the original executive producers were Greg Daniels, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman, Ricky Gervais, and Stephen Merchant, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons. The series depicts the lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania. To simulate the look of a documentary, it is filmed in a single-camera setup. The show debuted on NBC as a replacement and ran for nine seasons and 201 episodes. The Office initially featured Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer and B. J. Novak as the main cast, the first season of The Office was met with mixed reviews, but the following four seasons received widespread acclaim from television critics. These seasons were included on several critics year-end top TV series lists, winning awards including four Primetime Emmy Awards. While later seasons were criticized for a decline in quality, earlier writers oversaw the final season, Greg Daniels served as the senior series showrunner for the first four seasons of the series and developed the British series for American television. He then left the position when he co-created the comedy series Parks and Recreation with fellow Office writer Michael Schur, Paul Lieberstein and Jennifer Celotta were named the series showrunners for the fifth season. Celotta left the series after the season and Lieberstein stayed on as showrunner for the following two seasons. He left the spot after the eighth season for the potential Dwight Schrute spin-off, The Farm. Daniels returned to the position for the ninth and final season. Other executive producers include cast members B. J. Novak, Kaling, Novak, Daniels, Lieberstein and Schur made up the original team of writers. Kaling, Novak and Lieberstein also serve multiple roles on the series, as they play regular characters on the show, as well as write, direct, credited with twenty-four episodes, Kaling is the most prolific writer on the staff. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created the original British series, are credited as producers, and wrote the pilot. Merchant later directed the episode Customer Survey while Gervais appeared in the episodes The Seminar, randall Einhorn is the most frequent director of the series, with 15 credited episodes. Episodes have been directed by several of the actors on the show including Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Ed Helms, before the series aired its second episode, the writers spent time researching in offices
18.
24 (TV series)
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24 is an American crime thriller television series produced for the Fox network, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, and starring Kiefer Sutherland as counter terrorist agent Jack Bauer. Each season, comprising 24 episodes, covers 24 hours in Bauers life using the real method of narration. Premiering on November 6,2001, the show spanned 192 episodes over eight seasons, in addition, a television film,24, Redemption, was broadcast between seasons six and seven, on November 23,2008. 24 returned as a 12-episode series titled 24, Live Another Day,24, Legacy, a spin-off series featuring new characters, premiered on February 5,2017, after Super Bowl LI. Throughout the series most of the plot elements unfold like a political thriller. At the conclusion of its season,24 became the longest-running U. S. espionage/counterterrorism-themed television drama ever. 24 is a drama that stars Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer. Each episode typically follows Bauer, officials in the U. S. government, the episodes take place over the course of one hour, depicting events as they happen, in real time. Season 1 begins at midnight on the day of the California presidential primary, Season 2, set 18 months later, begins at 8,00 a. m. Season 3, set three years later, begins at 1,00 p. m, Jack must infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel to seize a deadly virus being marketed underground. President Palmer must deal with potential scandal that could cost him his presidency, Season 4, set 18 months later, begins at 7,00 a. m. Jack must save the lives of his new boss, Secretary of Defense James Heller, Season 5, set 18 months after, begins at 7,00 a. m. Jack is believed to be dead by everyone except a few of his closest friends and he is forced to resurface when some of those friends are murdered and he is framed by terrorists with connections to the American government. The acquisition of nerve gas by the terrorists poses a new threat, Season 6, set 20 months later, begins at 6,00 a. m. Jack is released after being detained in a Chinese prison following the events of Season 5, terrorists who hold a vendetta against Jack plot to set off suitcase nuclear devices in America. Later, Jack is forced to choose between those he loves and national security when the Chinese set their sights on sensitive circuitry that could trigger a war between the U. S. and Russia. Redemption, set years later, begins at 3,00 p. m. Jack finds himself caught up in a coup in the fictional African nation of Sangala
19.
24 (season 5)
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The fifth season of the American drama television series 24, also known as Day 5, premiered on January 15,2006, on Fox and aired its season finale on May 22,2006. The season five starts and ends at 7,00 a. m. – the same time frame as the previous season. The season received overwhelming critical acclaim and is regarded as the shows best season. It received twelve Primetime Emmy Award nominations with five wins, including Outstanding Drama Series, the fifth season is set 18 months after season four. Former Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer begins the season, working as a laborer at an oil refinery under the alias Frank Flynn in Mojave. On a monumental day in Charles Logans presidency, a treaty with Russian President Yuri Suvarov is about to be signed when events take a tragic turn. Season 5 is one of the 24 seasons that can be divided into three acts, In the first act, two murders force Jack to reveal himself. He attempts to save innocent people from a plot involving Russian separatists that is rapidly unfolding, in the second act, the terrorists gain control of nerve gas canisters with help from corrupt officials. In the final act, Jack discovers how deep the conspiracy goes, Jack is distraught by the loss of David Palmer. This motivates his crusade throughout the day, with him stating this is several times. Jack comes into contact with people who thought he was dead, including his daughter Kim Bauer, the First Lady attempts to correct the Presidents perceived mistakes. The Vice President convinces the President to impose martial law in Los Angeles without approval from the U. S. Congress, Chloe loses two men in her life when one of them dies and the other is apprehended for his involvement in a murder. Bill Buchanans authority at CTU is undermined first by Lynn McGill and then by Karen Hayes, former U. S. President David Palmer is assassinated in Los Angeles, California and Jack Bauer is framed for his murder. The assassins also plan to frame Jack for the murders of Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler and Chloe OBrian, Michelle is killed when her car explodes and Tony is critically injured in a secondary explosion but Jack manages to save Chloe. After investigating David Palmers death, Jack goes looking for information at LA/Ontario International Airport. The terrorists are Russian separatists in contact with an official named James Nathanson and they take 40 people hostage in attempt to dissuade President Logan from signing a landmark anti-terrorism treaty with Russian President Yuri Suvarov. Terrorists, led by Vladimir Bierko, use the plot as a diversion to steal 20 canisters of VX nerve gas, while searching for the nerve gas, Jack discovers the involvement of James Nathanson and White House Chief of Staff Walt Cummings. They plan to release nerve gas on Russian soil and use that as an excuse for invoking the military clauses of the treaty, David Palmer was killed because he was beginning to find out about their plan
20.
Fox Broadcasting Company
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The Fox Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the third largest major network in the world based on total revenues, assets. Launched on October 9,1986 as a competitor to the Big Three television networks, Fox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U. S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U. S, the network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studios predecessors, Fox Film. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters, 20th Century Fox had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August of that year after it became mired in financial problems. 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for the NTA network, KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV in Houston, WFLD-TV in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a television network that would compete with ABC, CBS. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios, organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis. These first six stations, then broadcasting to a reach of 22% of the nations households. Except for KDAF, all of the original owned-and-operated stations are part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Foxs affiliate body consisted of independent stations. The Fox Broadcasting Company launched at 11,00 p. m. Eastern and its inaugural program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show, which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers. By early 1987, Rivers quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the creative direction. The network expanded its programming into prime time on April 5,1987, with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox added one new show per week over the several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street. On July 11, the network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the drama series Werewolf
21.
Kiefer Sutherland
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Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland is a British born Canadian actor, producer, director, and singer-songwriter. His portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox drama series 24 brought him an Emmy Award, Sutherland got his first leading film role in a Canadian drama The Bay Boy, which earned him a Genie Award nomination. Sutherland was inducted to Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canadas Walk of Fame and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from Zurich Film Festival. Sutherland was born in St Marys Hospital, Paddington, London, to Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas and he has a twin sister, Rachel. His maternal grandfather was Scottish-born Canadian politician and former Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, Sutherlands family moved to Corona, California. In 1975, Sutherland moved with his mother to Toronto and he attended elementary school at Crescent Town Elementary School, St. Clair Junior High East York, and John G. Althouse Middle School in Toronto. He also spent a semester at Regina Mundi Catholic College in London, Ontario, Sutherland told Jimmy Kimmel Live. that he and Robert Downey, Jr. were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting. He and Downey, Jr. also starred together in the film 1969, Sutherland made his screen debut in Max Dugan Returns, in which his father Donald Sutherland also starred. Sutherland was one of the contenders for the role of Glen Lantz in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, after receiving critical acclaim for his role as Donald Campbell in The Bay Boy, Sutherland moved to Hollywood. Stand by Me was the first film Sutherland made in the United States, in the film, directed by Rob Reiner, he played a neighborhood bully in a coming-of-age story about a search for a dead body. Before that, he played a silent, supporting character, as one of Sean Penns friends who goes up against Christopher Walken in James Foleys crime-thriller At Close Range. His film Promised Land, with Meg Ryan, was the first film to be commissioned by the Sundance Film Festival and his role as vampire David in The Lost Boys is one of his iconic roles in his career reviews by many critics and audiences. In the Western film Young Guns, he starred alongside Emilio Estevez and he was considered for the role of Robin in Batman, alongside Michael Keaton, in the early production before the character was deleted from the shooting script. He went on to star again with his close friend Lou Diamond Phillips and that same year, he and his father appeared at the 61st Academy Awards as presenters of the Academy Honorary Award to the National Film Board of Canada. In the sequel Young Guns II, Sutherland continued to play Doc alongside some of the original cast and it is the only sequel to a feature film he has starred in. Sutherland did not make a film in 1991, in a recent interview, he said he declined the offer of Gus Van Sant to star in the lead role in the movie My Own Private Idaho, a decision that he regretted. He hosted Saturday Night Live instead, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In The Vanishing, he starred alongside Jeff Bridges as a husband seeking his wife three years after she mysteriously vanished, in The Three Musketeers, Sutherland played the central character of Athos
22.
Ellen Burstyn
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Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Her career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the decade included several films. Burstyn is one of the few performers to have won the Triple Crown of Acting, in 2013, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Burstyn was born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Correine Marie and she has described her ancestry as Irish, French, Pennsylvania Dutch, a little Canadian Indian. Burstyn has a brother, Jack, and a younger brother. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her brothers and she attended Cass Technical High School, a university-preparatory school which allowed students to choose a specific field of study. In high school, she was a cheerleader, a member of the student council and she dropped out of high school during her senior year after failing her classes. After dropping out of school, Burstyn got a job as a model in a Detroit department store and she later relocated to Dallas, where she continued modeling before traveling to New York City. From 1955 to 1956, Burstyn appeared as an away we go dancing girl on The Jackie Gleason Show under the name Erica Dean. Burstyn then decided to become an actress and chose the name Ellen McRae as her professional name, Burstyn debuted on Broadway in 1957 and joined Lee Strasbergs The Actors Studio in New York City in 1967. In 1975, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in the comedy Same Time, during 1964-1965, she had a recurring role as Dr. Kate Bartok on the NBC daytime television soap opera The Doctors. In 1967-1968, she co-starred as Julie Parsons opposite Dale Robertson in the ABC Western The Iron Horse and she was credited as Ellen McRae until 1967, when she and her then-husband Neil Nephew both changed their surname to Burstyn and she began to be credited as Ellen Burstyn. In 1971, Burstyn received Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the drama film The Last Picture Show, during the filming of The Exorcist, she injured her coccyx, which led to permanent injury to her spine. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1974 for her performance in the drama Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese. She also received Best Actress nominations in 1978 for Same Time, Next Year, in 1980 for the drama Resurrection, and for the drama Requiem for a Dream in 2000. In 1977, she was a member of the jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival, Burstyn hosted NBCs Saturday Night Live, a late-night sketch comedy and variety show, in December 1980. In 1990, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre, from 2000 to 2002, Burstyn appeared in the CBS television drama Thats Life. In January 2006, she starred as an Episcopal bishop in the NBC comedy-drama series The Book of Daniel, conservative groups including American Family Association and Focus on the Family urged supporters to complain to NBC affiliates that carried the show
23.
Mrs. Harris
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Mrs. Harris is a 2005 American-British drama film written and directed by Phyllis Nagy. The film stars Annette Bening as Jean Harris, Ben Kingsley as Herman Tarnower, Cloris Leachman as Tarnowers sister, and Chloë Sevigny as his secretary and lover. The film also features a performance by Ellen Burstyn as one of Tarnowers previous girlfriends, Burstyn played Jean Harris in the made-for-television movie. On a stormy night in March 1980, a distraught Jean Harris arrives at the baronial Purchase, New York home of Herman Tarnower following a drive from McLean. Her goal is to commit suicide beside the pond on his estate after confronting her former lover, when Jean removes a gun from her handbag, Tarnower attempts to take it away from her, and in the struggle he accidentally is shot and collapses. Because the phone isnt working, Jean drives off to help from a neighbor. He proposes marriage and presents Jean with a ring she feels is embarrassingly large, by prescribing numerous medications to which she becomes addicted, he forces her to become both physically and emotionally dependent upon him while he flaunts his many affairs with other women. During Jeans trial, a flashback to the night of the shows it in a very different light from the earlier portrayal. An angry Jean willfully and methodically shoots Herman and coldly watches him writhe in pain and her staunch refusal to allow attorney Joel Aurnou to portray her former lover in a bad light prevents him from presenting any details that would support a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. Consequently, she is guilty and sentenced to 15 years to life in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County. Playwright and screenwriter Phyllis Nagy made her debut on Mrs. Harris after executive producer Elizabeth Karlsen asked her who she thought should direct her screenplay. I thought to myself, Well, I want to direct it, I came up with four names of people that I didn’t think would screw it up, and basically, she didn’t want any of them. And she said, Well, I think you should do it, yes, very smart woman, thank you. This was the television movie about the Harris murder trial, following The People vs. Jean Harris. In the earlier film, Harris was portrayed by Ellen Burstyn and her performance, which consists of two lines of dialogue totaling 38 words and lasts 14 seconds, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. USA Today reported when asked about her reaction to the nomination by AP Radio, Burstyn responded and my next ambition is to get nominated for seven seconds, and, ultimately, I want to be nominated for a picture in which I dont even appear. On review aggregator Metacritic, Mrs. Harris received a average score of 70/100 based on 21 critics. Nevertheless, tale and execution are both colorful enough to hold attention, the film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or TV Film and the Satellite Award for Best Television Film
24.
Grey's Anatomy
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Greys Anatomy is an American medical drama television series that premiered on American Broadcasting Company as a mid-season replacement on March 27,2005. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents and attending physicians, as they evolve into seasoned doctors while trying to maintain personal lives. The title is a play on Grays Anatomy, a human anatomy textbook by Henry Gray. The shows premise originated with Shonda Rhimes, who serves as a producer, along with Betsy Beers, Mark Gordon, Krista Vernoff, Rob Corn, Mark Wilding. Although it is set in Seattle at the fictional Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital it is filmed in Los Angeles. The show was originally titled Complications, a reference to the complicated medical procedures, the series was created to be racially diverse, utilizing a color-blind casting technique. It revolves around the title character Dr. Meredith Grey played by Ellen Pompeo. The original cast consisted of nine star-billed actors, Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, T. R. Knight, Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr. Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey. The cast has undergone changes through the shows run, with many members leaving and being replaced by others. In its twelfth season, the show had an ensemble of sixteen actors. On February 10,2017, ABC renewed Greys Anatomy for a fourteenth season,3 drama on all of broadcast. Greys Anatomy has been received by critics throughout much of its run. Since its inception, the show has been described by the media outlets as a television phenomena or a juggernaut, owing to its longevity and dominant ratings. It is considered to have had a significant impact on culture and has received numerous awards. It has received multiple Emmy nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series, in 2012, Greys Anatomy was named the fifth-highest revenue earning show, in terms of advertising per half-hour. It is the longest running scripted primetime show airing on ABC. The series follows Meredith Grey, the daughter of a general surgeon named Ellis Grey. The residents are joined by Jackson Avery and April Kepner, former Mercy-West residents who join Seattle Grace following an administrative merger in the sixth season
25.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
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Marcus Welby, M. D. was an American medical drama television program that aired Tuesdays at 10, 00–11,00 p. m. on ABC from September 23,1969 to July 29,1976. Marcus Welby, M. D. was produced by David Victor, the pilot, A Matter of Humanities, had aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 26,1969. As with most medical dramas of the day, the plots often concerned a conflict between well-meaning physicians. Here, Dr. Welbys unorthodox way of treating patients was pitted against the more strait-laced methods of Dr. Steven Kiley, the catch with this particular program was that the roles were reversed in that Dr. Kiley was much younger than Dr. Welby. The opening credits of episode reminded viewers of the generation gap between the two doctors, Welby driving his sedan and Kiley riding a motorcycle. Welby had served in the US Navy as a doctor during the war and he owned a sail boat and enjoyed the ocean. The doctors worked alongside each other in their practice in Santa Monica, California. At the office, their loyal secretary-nurse and friend was Consuelo Lopez, Dr. Kiley met and married public relations director Janet Blake, in 1975, at the beginning of the shows last season on the air. Its handling of many varied medical cases – some common, some uncommon – made it an instant hit for ABC, at its second season, it ranked #1 in the Nielsen ratings, becoming the first ABC show to top the list. The same year, both Young and Brolin won Emmy Awards for their work, as did the show for Outstanding Dramatic Series, Young won a Golden Globe in 1972 for his performance. Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians served as advisers for the series. The show twice found itself at the center of controversy and protests by gay activists, the next year, The Outrage sparked nationwide demonstrations because its story of a teenage student being sexually assaulted by his male teacher conflated homosexuality with pedophilia. Seven sponsors refused to buy advertising time, and 17 television network affiliates refused to air the episode. This was the first known instance of network affiliates refusing a network episode in response to protests, during its run, Marcus Welby, M. D. had two crossover stories with Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. In Men Who Care, Marshall defends the father of Welbys patient when the man is accused of murdering his daughters boyfriend, in Ive Promised You a Father, Marshall defends Kiley in a paternity suit filed by a nurse claiming that Kiley is the father of her child. It was the first show in ABCs history to become the #1 show on television, by the mid-1970s, the popularity of medical dramas began to wane. Ratings for both Marcus Welby, M. D. and CBS Medical Center began to drop, as did the ratings for daytime dramas General Hospital, previous episodes initially went into syndication in the fall of 1975 as Robert Young, Family Doctor. The show ended its run in 1976 after a total of 169 episodes were made, in 1984, the reunion movie The Return of Marcus Welby, M. D. aired, with Young and Verdugo reprising their roles
26.
My Name Is Earl
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My Name Is Earl is an American sitcom series created by Greg Garcia that aired on the NBC television network from September 20,2005, to May 14,2009, in the United States. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and starred Jason Lee as Earl Hickey, the series also stars Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Nadine Velazquez, and Eddie Steeples. Every time something happened to me, something bad was always waiting around the corner. Thats when I realized that I had to change, so I made a list of everything bad Ive ever done and one by one Im gonna make up for all my mistakes, Im just trying to be a better person. Convinced he has to turn his life around to survive, Earl gives himself over to the power of karma. As his first step of a makeshift twelve-step program to fix his misdeeds, Earl makes a list of every bad thing and every person he has wronged, after doing a first good deed, he finds the $100,000 lottery ticket that was previously lost. Seeing this as a sign of karma rewarding him for his commitment, after a year of doing good deeds, a major plot-twist occurs in season two. She is facing life in prison due to this being her third strike, to soften the jury, she decides to have a surrogate baby for her half-sister Liberty Washington. When things do not go well at her trial, Earl takes the blame for the theft and kidnapping to protect Joys freedom. Behind bars, Earl is forced to surrender his original list and he also meets fellow prisoner and friend Franks girlfriend, Billie. In an attempt to re-capture an escaped Frank, Earl, his brother Randy, through Earls captivity, the Warden grants more and more time off Earls sentence for his good deeds. However, the Warden revokes all of time off on what would be Earls second-to-last day in prison. However, Earl eventually gains the hand and forces the Warden to honor his early release. He reverts to his pre-list ways, doing reckless and bad things until Billie hits him with her car, Billie is subsequently hit by a car herself, leaving them both lying in the street. Eventually, Earl wakes up, finds Billie, and marries her, however, Earl and Billie argue about his list, and Earl eventually chooses the list over her, sending her into a rampage where she undoes the good things that he has accomplished to that point. Earl uses it to doing good deeds on his original list. As he continues to perform good deeds, Earls motives initially come across as shallow and selfish – that he is doing good to improve his karma. As another plot-twist, Darnell blows his Witness Protection cover when Joy goes crazy at an audition for a show entitled ¿Estrada or Nada
27.
Tony Shalhoub
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Anthony Marcus Tony Shalhoub is an American actor. Shalhoub is the ninth of ten children, and was born and raised in Green Bay and his father, Joe, was from Lebanon and immigrated to the United States as an orphan at the age of ten. Joe married Shalhoub’s mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American, and founded a grocery chain. Shalhoub was introduced to acting by a sister who put his name forward to be an extra in a high school production of The King. Despite finding himself standing on the side of the curtain during the final dress rehearsal. Shalhoub attended Green Bay East High School, in his senior year he suffered a setback, breaking his leg in a fall off the stage into the pit during a rehearsal. Recovering quickly, he was able to perform in the final play of the year. After a short time at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, he earned a degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine. He later went on to earn a masters from the Yale School of Drama in 1980 and he made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles, Shalhoub returned in December 2006 to the Off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre, opposite Patricia Heaton for a run of The Scene by Theresa Rebeck. In 2010, he went to Broadway to act as Saunders in a version of Lend Me a Tenor in New York at the Music Box Theatre. He was nominated for a 2013 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for Lincoln Center Theaters production of Golden Boy at the Belasco Theatre. He was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Lincoln Center Theaters production of Act One at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. Shalhoub and his wife appeared in Samuel Becketts Happy Days in June and he stars in the musical stage adaption of the film The Bands Visit, in the Off-Broadway Atlantic Theatre Company production. The musical, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Itamar Moses runs from November 11,2016 through December 23,2016 and he later appeared as Walter Franz in the 2017 Broadway revival of The Price. One of Shalhoubs first television roles was in 1991 as the Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the sitcom Wings, Shalhoub was pleasantly surprised to land the role after having a guest appearance in the second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role, in the same time period, Shalhoub played physicist Dr. Chester Ray Banton in The X-Files second-season episode Soft Light. He had a role in the film Big Night, where he plays an Italian-speaking chef complete with accent
28.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
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Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She is known for her work in comedy, including Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine. Louis-Dreyfus holds several records for most Primetime Emmy Award wins and nominations, Louis-Dreyfus broke into comedy as a performer in The Practical Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, which led to her casting in the sketch show Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. Her breakthrough came in 1990 with a run playing Elaine Benes on Seinfeld. Louis-Dreyfus film roles have included Hannah and Her Sisters, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Deconstructing Harry and she has voiced roles in several animated films, including A Bugs Life and Planes. Louis-Dreyfus has received nine Emmy Awards, seven for acting and two for producing, with a total of 22 nominations throughout her career and she has also received a Golden Globe Award, seven Screen Actors Guild Awards, five American Comedy Awards, and two Critics Choice Television Awards. Louis-Dreyfus received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010, in 2016, Time named Louis-Dreyfus one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. Louis-Dreyfus was born in New York City and her American-born mother, Judith, was a writer and special needs tutor, and her French-born father, Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, chaired Louis Dreyfus Energy Services. Her paternal grandfather, Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, was president of the Louis Dreyfus Group, Pierre was from an Alsatian Jewish family, he remained in France during World War II, fighting as a cavalry officer and later in the French Resistance. Her paternal grandmother was born in America, to parents from Brazil and Mexico, during the 1940s, in 1962, one year after Louis-Dreyfuss birth, her parents divorced. After relocating to Washington, D. C. when Julia was eight, her mother married L. Thompson Bowles, during her childhood, her mother occasionally took her to Unitarian church services. Louis-Dreyfus spent her childhood in several states and countries, in connection with her stepfathers work with Project HOPE, including Vietnam, Colombia and she graduated from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland in 1979, and attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. There, she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, as part of her comedic training, Louis-Dreyfus appeared in The Second City, one of Chicagos best-known improvisation theatre groups. It was her performance with The Practical Theatre Company at their Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee that led to her being asked to join the cast of NBCs Saturday Night Live at the age of 21. Louis-Dreyfus was subsequently made into a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985, during her time on SNL, she appeared alongside several actors who would later rise to prominence, such as Eddie Murphy, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, and Martin Short. It was during her third and final year on SNL that she met writer Larry David during his year on the show. In 1988, she was cast in the NBC sitcom Day by Day, in the early-1990s Louis-Dreyfus became famous for the role of Elaine Benes on NBCs Seinfeld. She played the role for nine seasons, appearing in all, one of the episodes that she did not appear in was the inaugural pilot episode, The Seinfeld Chronicles, because her character was not initially intended to be a part of the series
29.
Mariska Hargitay
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Hargitay was born at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of actress and 1950s-era sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. Her father was the Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay and her first and middle names are Hungarian and refer to Mary Magdalene. She has two brothers, Miklos and Zoltan, and three half-siblings, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Antonio Tony Cimber and Tina Hargitay. Hargitays parents divorced in May 1963, but a judge later found their Mexican divorce invalid and they reconciled a few months before Hargitays birth in January 1964, but soon separated again. In August 1964 her mother petitioned the court to rule the Mexican divorce legal. A few weeks later, Mansfield married the director Matt Cimber, on June 29,1967, Mansfield was killed in an automobile accident on a stretch of U. S. Route 90 between New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Her boyfriend, Sam Brody, and the driver were also killed, asleep in the back of the vehicle, Hargitay, then three and a half years old, was left with a zigzag scar on one side of her head. Her brothers Miklós and Zoltán were also in the car, after the death of their mother, the three siblings were raised by their father and his third wife, Ellen Siano. Hargitay dislikes comparisons with her famous mother and at age 18 said, My dad was Mr. Universe, while a student at her Catholic secondary school, Marymount High School, Hargitay was active in cheerleading, student government, athletics, and the theater program. She enjoyed acting and enrolled at UCLA after graduation from school in 1982. That same year, Hargitay was crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA, by the time she was a freshman in college, Hargitay had an agent and several small roles to her credit. She attended UCLA School of Theater Film and Television and she left before completing her degree when she began her acting career. Hargitay attended Groundlings Theatre and School in Los Angeles and her improv teacher was Kathy Griffin. Griffin stated in an interview, We started class, and in the Groundlings curriculum, I made everyone stand in a circle, with me in the center, and I said, being onstage, you have to trust your fellow actors, especially when youre an improviser. Youre going to be there for other, and theyre going to be there for you. For example, Im going to back, knowing that youll catch me. Then I let myself fall backward, and sure enough, I was caught, everyone gets out some nervous laughter, and then they all took turns doing it. By the time it got around to Mariska Hargitay, wed already done it with ten or eleven students, okay, Mariska, cross your arms in front of you and gently fall back, I said
30.
Andre Braugher
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Andre Braugher is an American actor. On the TNT show Men of a Certain Age, and Captain Raymond Holt on the Golden Globe-winning comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Braugher, the youngest of four children, was born July 1,1962, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sally, a worker, and Floyd Braugher. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep and later graduated from Stanford University with a B. A. in theater in 1984 and he then attended the Juilliard Schools Drama Division, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1988. He was acknowledged as the Most Outstanding Theater Student at graduation, braughers first film role was in the 1989 film Glory as Thomas Searles, a free, educated black man from the North who joins the first black regiment in the Union Army. He played Kojaks side-kick in the late-1980s ABC television film revival of Kojak and he subsequently moved on to a role on the television series Homicide, Life on the Street as Detective Frank Pembleton, a self-righteous, fiery, unyielding, Jesuit-educated police detective. Playing opposite Kyle Secor, Braugher became the breakout star. He received Television Critics Association awards for achievement in drama in 1997 and 1998. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1996 and 1998 and he left Homicide after its sixth season but returned for the reunion television film. He has also co-starred in the films City of Angels, Frequency, in 1997, he was selected by People as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. In 2000, he played the role as Ben Gideon in the series Gideons Crossing. In 2002, Braugher narrated the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet, produced by Unity Productions Foundation and he played Detective Marcellus Washington in the TV series Hack from 2002-2004. In 2006, Braugher starred as Nick Atwater in the mini-series Thief for FX Networks and he portrayed General Hager in the 2007 film Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer. Braugher appeared on the TV series House, M. D. as Dr. Nolan and he also appeared in the TNT series Men of a Certain Age, for which he was nominated twice as Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He also voiced the villain Darkseid in the film, Superman/Batman. Braugher co-starred in the Manhattan Theatre Clubs production of The Whipping Man, off-Broadway and he narrated the introduction to the Olympic Games on NBC from 2006 to 2010, succeeding James Earl Jones in the role. Braugher also narrated James Pattersons Alex Cross book Cross Fire and he has a recurring role as defense attorney Bayard Ellis on Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, and appeared as the lead character, Capt. Marcus Chaplin, in ABCs military drama TV series Last Resort. Braugher married Ami Brabson in 1991, an actress who later played Pembletons wife Mary on Homicide, the couple have three sons, Michael, Isaiah, and John Wesley
31.
Helen Mirren
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE is an English actor. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen, Tingle, Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, The Last Station, Hitchcock, and The Hundred-Foot Journey. She played Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2, in 2003, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Performing Arts. In 2013, Mirren was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of Kathleen Kitty Alexandrina Eva Matilda and Vasily Petrovich Mironoff. Her mother was English and her father was Russian, originally from Kuryanovo, Mirrens paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating a deal in Britain when he. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family and his son, Helen Mirrens father, anglicised the family name to Mirren in the 1950s and changed his name to Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, Mirrens mother was a working-class Londoner from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been very anti-monarchist, Mirren was the second of three children, she was born three years after her older sister, Katherine, and also had a younger brother, Peter Basil. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, aged eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was playing Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, as a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, in 1970, the director/producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film was made for ATV and shown on the ITV Network in the UK and she then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975. According to Beauman, there were no repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC. Her performance earned her the London critics Plays & Players Best Actress award, beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers new farce The Bed Before Yesterday. In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friels Faith Healer, – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983. On 15 February 2013, at the West Ends Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgans The Audience, the show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, a further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country
32.
Jeremy Piven
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Jeremy Samuel Piven is an American actor and producer. He also starred in the British period drama Mr Selfridge, which tells the story of the man who created the luxury English department store chain Selfridges. Piven is a native of New York City, born in Manhattan and he grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Piven was raised in a Reconstructionist Jewish household and he graduated from Evanston Township High School, and attended Harand Theater Camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as a teenager. He played Bernardo in West Side Story there, in Illinois, he trained at Piven Theatre Workshop, founded by his parents. He also attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he departed after his year to attend New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. He left Tisch during his year to pursue his acting career and is an alumnus of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He spent a semester at the National Theater Institute at the The Eugene ONeill Theater Center in Waterford and he has appeared in a number of films with John Cusack, who is also from Evanston and is a fellow alumnus of the Piven Theatre Workshop. Piven and Cusack once shared an apartment and have been friends since high school, Pivens first important role came in 1992 when he became a regular cast member on HBOs The Larry Sanders Show, in which he played the head writer Jerry. He left the show in the season after growing tired of playing Jerry because his character was not given much of a background. In 1993, he portrayed George Costanza on the scene in the Seinfeld episode. Piven was a supporting cast member on the last three seasons of the sitcom Ellen, where he played the part of Ellens cousin, Spence. He was also the star and producer of the short-lived ABC dramedy series Cupid, beginning in 2004, Piven achieved significant success playing fast-talking, acerbic Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. He received Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor four straight years from 2005 to 2008, and won the award in 2006,2007,2009 was the first year in which he did not receive an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the show. He also received Golden Globe nominations from 2005 to 2010 for the role and he has also made cameo appearances in Rush Hour 2 and the US release of Cars. In 2007, Piven appeared in the video for Drivin Me Wild, the two were co-stars in Smokin Aces, and appeared together when Piven hosted SNL in January 2007. Piven appeared in the first Broadway revival of David Mamets Speed-the-Plow, co-starring Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss, the production began preview performances on October 3,2008, and opened on October 23,2008, the play was due to run through February 22,2009. After Piven missed several performances, on December 17,2008, Pivens rep. announced that due to an undisclosed illness, the illness was revealed to be hydrargaria, a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds, though the source is unknown
33.
Megan Mullally
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Megan Mullally is an American actress and a singer. Mullally is best known for playing the wealthy, alcoholic socialite, Karen Walker, on the Emmy Award-winning TV sitcom, Will & Grace, from 2006 until early 2007, Mullally hosted The Megan Mullally Show. Following the short-lived talk show, she has been a regular on shows such as In the Motherhood, Party Down. She has appeared in several guest-starring roles in programs, including Parks and Recreation, Happy Endings,30 Rock, Up All Night, Boston Legal. She has also appeared in such as Why Him. Smashed, and The Kings of Summer, Mullally was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Martha and Carter Mullally, Jr. an actor who was a contract player with Paramount Pictures in the 1950s. Mullally moved to her fathers native Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the age of six and she is of Irish ancestry on her fathers side. She studied ballet from the age of six and performed at the Oklahoma City Ballet during high school, Mullally moved to Los Angeles in 1985. Two weeks later, she was signed by the William Morris Agency, one of her first acting spots was on a McDonalds commercial that also featured John Goodman. She made her series debut in 1986 in The Ellen Burstyn Show and she subsequently guest starred on sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Frasier, Wings, Ned and Stacey, Mad About You, Caroline in the City, and Just Shoot Me. So I get a one day from my agent that Id gotten offered a guest role. I literally fell down onto my knees and testified and wept, I played some former protégée of Jessica Fletcher. Its one of my favorite things Ive ever shot, in 1989, Mullally tested for the co-starring role of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld. Mullally in 1998 landed the role of Karen Walker, Grace Adlers sarcastic, pill-popping assistant and she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in both 2000 and 2006, and was nominated in 2001,2002,2003,2004, and 2005. She is the first of two actresses to win a SAG Award three years in a row. She was nominated each year from 2000 until 2003 for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Also in 2005, Mullally was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her innovation in creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television. Following Will & Grace, Mullally hosted her own talk show and she has hosted Saturday Night Live, guest-hosted the Late Show with David Letterman, hosted the 2006 TV Land Awards, and been a featured performer twice on the Tony Awards
34.
Alan Alda
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Alan Alda is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is known for his roles as Captain Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He has also appeared in feature films, most notably in Crimes and Misdemeanors as pretentious television producer Lester. Senator Owen Brewster, the latter of which saw Alda nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for 14 years, he served as the host of Scientific American Frontiers, a television show that explored cutting-edge advances in science and technology. He serves on the board of the World Science Festival and is a judge for Math-O-Vision and his father, Robert Alda, was an actor and singer, and his mother, Joan Browne, was a homemaker and former beauty-pageant winner. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry and his adopted surname, Alda, is a portmanteau of ALphonso and DAbruzzo. When Alda was seven years old, he contracted polio, to combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, consisting of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles. Alda attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, in 1956, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV. Aldas half-brother, Antony Alda, born that year, also became an actor, during Aldas junior year, he studied in Paris, acted in a play in Rome, and performed with his father on television in Amsterdam. In college, he was a member of the ROTC, and after graduation, he served for a year at Fort Benning, in 1956, while attending Fordham, he met Arlene Weiss, who was attending Hunter College. They bonded at a friends dinner party, when a rum cake accidentally fell onto the kitchen floor. A year after his graduation, on March 15, they were married and they have three daughters, Eve, Elizabeth, and Beatrice. Two of his eight grandchildren are aspiring actors, the Aldas have been longtime residents of Leonia, New Jersey. Alda began his career in the 1950s, as a member of the Compass Players comedy revue and he continued to play Felix the Owl for the 1964-5 Broadway season. In 1966, he starred in the musical The Apple Tree on Broadway, although from away, Alan Alda says he became a Mainer in 1957 when he played at the Kennebunkport Playhouse. He made his Hollywood acting debut as a player in Gone are the Days. – a film version of the highly successful Broadway play Purlie Victorious, during this time, Alda frequently appeared as a panelist on the 1968 revival of Whats My Line. He also appeared as a panelist on Ive Got a Secret during its 1972 syndication revival, in early 1972, Alda auditioned for and was selected to play the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the TV adaptation of the 1970 film MASH
35.
Blythe Danner
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Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress of film, television and stage. She is known for her role as Marilyn Truman, mother of Will, on the sitcom Will & Grace and she is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow. In 1970 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Butterflies Are Free and she won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on Huff. Her other film work includes roles in 1776, The Great Santini, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Prince of Tides, Husbands and Wives, Danner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Katharine and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive. She has a brother, opera singer/actor Harry Danner, a sister-in-law, performer-turned-director Dorothy Danner, Danner has Pennsylvania Dutch, and some English and Irish, ancestry, her maternal grandmother was a German immigrant, and one of her paternal great-grandmothers was born in Barbados. Danner graduated from George School, a Quaker high school located near Newtown, Bucks County and she began her Friends School experience in Kindergarten at Media-Providence Friends School, then known as Media Friends in Media, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Bard College, Danners first roles included the 1967 musical Mata Hari, and her early Broadway appearances included roles in Cyrano de Bergerac and The Miser. She won a Best Supporting Actress Tony playing a free-spirited divorcee in Butterflies Are Free, in 1972, Danner portrayed Martha Jefferson opposite Ken Howards Thomas Jefferson in the movie version of 1776. That same year, she played a wife whose husband has been unfaithful opposite Peter Falk and her earliest starring film role was opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown. Danner appeared in the episode of M*A*S*H entitled The More I See You and she played lawyer Amanda Bonner in televisions Adams Rib, also opposite Ken Howard as Adam Bonner. She played Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Last of the Belles and she was the eponymous heroine in the film Lovin Molly. She appeared in Futureworld, playing Tracy Ballard with co-star Peter Fonda, in the 1982 TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. In the film version of Neil Simons semi-autobiographical play Brighton Beach Memoirs, Danner appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents, and its sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. From 2001 to 2006, she appeared on Will & Grace as Will Trumans mother Marilyn. From 2004 to 2006, she starred in the TV series Huff, in 2005, she was nominated for three Emmy Awards, for her work on Will & Grace, Huff, and Back When We Were Grownups. Emmy host Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at Danner during the ceremony, saying that Danner should not be nervous because she was almost certain to win at least one Emmy. In July 2006, she won a second consecutive Emmy award for Huff, for 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she also serves on the Board of Directors. In 2006, Danner was awarded an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr Colleges Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center, in 2015, Danner was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame
36.
Jeremy Irons
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Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppards The Real Thing, Irons first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenants Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such as Moonlighting, Betrayal, and The Mission. In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune, other notable films have included Steven Soderberghs mystery thriller Kafka, the period drama The House of the Spirits, the romantic drama M. Irons has also made several notable appearances on TV. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited. In 2005, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries Elizabeth I, for which he received a Golden Globe Award, from 2011 to 2013 he starred as Pope Alexander VI in the Showtime historical series The Borgias. He is one of the few actors who won the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, in October 2011, he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Irons was born in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the son of Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant and his paternal great-great-grandfather was a Metropolitan Policeman who was sacked for drunkenness, and later a Chartist. He has an amount of Irish ancestry, tracing back to County Cork. Irons has a brother, Christopher, and a sister, Felicity Anne and he was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset from 1962 to 1966. He was the drummer and harmonica player in a school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and he made several appearances on British television, including the childrens television series Play Away and as Franz Liszt in the BBC1974 series Notorious Woman. More significantly he starred in the 13-part adaptation of H. E, the role which brought him fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited. First broadcast on ITV, the ranks among the greatest British television dramas. Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier, in the same year he starred in the film The French Lieutenants Woman opposite Meryl Streep. On 23 March 1991, Irons hosted Saturday Night Live on NBC in the US, in 2005, Irons won both an Emmy award and a Golden Globe award for his supporting role in the TV mini-series, Elizabeth I. A year later Irons was one of the participants in the series of the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are. In 2008, he played Lord Vetinari in Terry Pratchetts The Colour of Magic, on 6 November 2008, TV Guide reported he would star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia OKeeffe, in a Lifetime Television biopic, Georgia OKeeffe
37.
Kelly Macdonald
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Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her roles in the films Trainspotting, Gosford Park, Intermission, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Brave. For the 2005 TV film The Girl in the Cafe, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and she was part of the cast of the famous miniseries State of Play portraying the role of Della Smith. For her role in the 2007 film No Country for Old Men and she went on to star for five seasons in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire as Margaret Thompson, for which she received a 2011 Emmy Award nomination. Macdonalds career began while she was working as a barmaid in Glasgow and she saw a leaflet advertising an open casting session for Trainspotting and decided to audition, winning the part of Diane, the underage seductress to Ewan McGregors Renton. Other roles include Mary ONeary in Two Family House, and an actress playing Peter Pan in Finding Neverland and she had major roles in Robert Altmans British period piece Gosford Park, where she played an aristocrats maid, and in Intermission, as Deirdre. On radio, she portrayed Mary in the 1999 BBC radio drama Lifehouse, based on Pete Townshends abandoned rock opera, some of the songs for which were released on The Whos album Whos Next. On television, her highest profile roles have been in two BBC dramas, the Paul Abbott serial State of Play, and the one-off Richard Curtis piece The Girl in the Café, both of these were directed by David Yates, and both also starred Bill Nighy. Her agent was originally unsure she was right for the latter part and her persistence paid off, however, as she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She played the lead in The Merry Gentleman, as Kate Frazier, in 2010, she played her first comedy role, in the British independent romantic comedy film The Decoy Bride. The Decoy Bride was released in 2012, in 2011, she played the Grey Lady in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the final instalment of the Harry Potter film franchise. She replaced Nina Young, the actress in the role. In 2012, she provided the voice of Merida, the heroine of the Disney/Pixar film Brave, from 2010 until its ending in 2014, she starred in the HBO crime drama Boardwalk Empire as Margaret Thompson, the wife of Prohibition-era Atlantic City crime boss Nucky Thompson. She appeared in all five seasons of the series, in 2011, she and the rest of the shows cast were awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. In 2016, she starred in Ricky Gervais Special Correspondents as Claire Maddox, in 2016, she played the lead role in Hated in the Nation, an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror for which she received critical acclaim. On 3 November 2016 Macdonald was featured in the trailer for Danny Boyles T2 Trainspotting confirming she will reprise her role as Diane from the original film and her mother was a garment industry sales executive. In August 2003 Macdonald married musician Dougie Payne, bassist of rock band Travis, the couple have two children, and moved back to their home town of Glasgow in 2014, after living in London and then New York City. Kelly Macdonald at the Internet Movie Database Kelly Macdonald at the TCM Movie Database Kelly Macdonald at the British Film Institutes Screenonline Kelly Macdonald in Skellig on Sky1, Easter 2009
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