1.
The Descendants
–
The Descendants is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay by Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash is based on the novel of the name by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Matthew Matt King is a Honolulu-based attorney and the trustee of a family trust of 25,000 pristine acres on Kauai. The land has great value, but is also a family legacy. While Matt has always managed his own finances, most of his cousins have squandered their inheritances. With the trust expiring in seven years due to the rule against perpetuities, amidst these discussions, a boating accident has rendered Matts wife, Elizabeth, comatose. Doctors determine that Elizabeths coma is irreversible and her living will directs all life support to be discontinued, when Matt tells Alex, she reveals that she caught Elizabeth having an affair before the accident, causing a major rift between mother and daughter. Two close family friends tell Matt that Elizabeth was unhappy and wanted to him for her lover, Brian Speer. After Matt arranges for friends to bid Elizabeth goodbye, he decides Speer should also have an opportunity and he and the girls, and also Alexs slacker boyfriend Sid, travel to Kauai to find Brian. While there, Matts cousin, Hugh mentions that Brian is brother-in-law to Don Hollitzer, Brian stands to make a small fortune from the sales commission. Matt confronts Brian and informs him Elizabeth is dying and offers him an opportunity to see her one last time. Brian declines, admitting that although Elizabeth was in love him, it was only a fling to him, he loves his wife, Julie. When Elizabeth is disconnected from life support, her father, Scott admonishes Matt for not being a more generous, choosing not to disclose the details of her affair to Scott, Matt agrees, but Sid and Alex both unexpectedly defend Matt. At the King family meeting, Matt overrules the majority of his cousins who favor selling to Hollitzer, Matt decides to keep the land and look for a different solution to the problem posed by the rule against perpetuities. Shocked, Hugh tells Matt that he and the other cousins will take action if Matt refuses to sell. After learning of Brians affair with Elizabeth and realizing that he will not visit, Julie comes to the hospital and she tearfully admits to Elizabeth that she wants to hate her for trying to destroy her family, but that she forgives her. Matt finally comes to terms with his wifes betrayal and her impending death and he tenderly kisses her goodbye, followed by Alex and Scottie, and later, scatter Elizabeths ashes in the ocean off Waikiki. The film concludes with the three at home sitting together sharing ice cream and watching television, all wrapped in the Hawaiian quilt Elizabeth had been lying in, the film began its on-location shoot in Hawaii on March 15,2010
The Descendants
–
Theatrical release poster
2.
The Artist (film)
–
The Artist received highly positive reviews from critics and won many accolades. Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and it was also the first French film to win Best Picture, and the first mainly silent film to win since 1927s Wings won at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. It was also the first film presented in the 4,3 aspect ratio to win since 1953s From Here to Eternity, in France it was nominated for ten César Awards, winning six, including Best Film, Best Director for Hazanavicius and Best Actress for Bejo. The Artist has received more awards than any other French film, in 1927, silent film star George Valentin is posing for pictures outside the premiere of his latest hit film when a young woman, Peppy Miller, accidentally bumps into him. Valentin reacts with humor to the accident and shows off with Peppy for the cameras, the next day, Peppy finds herself on the front page of Variety with the headline Whos That Girl. Later, Peppy auditions as a dancer and is spotted by Valentin, while performing a scene in which they dance together, Valentin and Peppy show great chemistry, despite her being merely an extra. With a little guidance from Valentin, Peppy slowly rises through the industry, two years later, Zimmer announces the end of production of silent films at Kinograph Studios, but Valentin is dismissive, insisting that sound is just a fad. In a dream, Valentin begins hearing sounds from his environment and he decides to produce and direct his own silent film, financing it himself. The film opens on the day as Peppys new sound film as well as the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Now Valentins only chance of avoiding bankruptcy is for his film to be a hit, unfortunately audiences flock to Peppys film instead and Valentin is ruined. His wife, Doris, kicks him out, and he moves into an apartment with his valet/chauffeur, Clifton, Peppy goes on to become a major Hollywood star. Depressed and drunk, Valentin angrily sets a match to his collection of his earlier films. As the nitrate film quickly blazes out of control he is overwhelmed by the smoke and passes out inside the burning house, however, Valentins dog attracts the help of a nearby policeman, and after being rescued Valentin is hospitalized for injuries suffered in the fire. Peppy visits the hospital and discovers that the film he rescued is the one with them dancing together and she asks for him to be moved to her house to recuperate. Valentin awakens in a bed at her house, to find that Clifton is now working for Peppy, Valentin seems to remain dismissive of Peppy having taken him in, prompting Clifton to sternly remind Valentin of his changing luck. Peppy insists to Zimmer that Valentin co-star in her next film, after Valentin learns to his dismay that it had been Peppy who had purchased all his auctioned effects, he returns in despair to his burnt-out apartment. Peppy arrives, panicked, and finds that Valentin is about to attempt suicide with a handgun, Peppy tells him she only wanted to help him. They embrace and Valentin tells her its no use, no one wants to him speak
The Artist (film)
–
Theatrical release poster
The Artist (film)
–
Some of the cast and crew at the
2011 Cannes Film Festival: (left to right), score composer
Ludovic Bource, director
Michel Hazanavicius, stars
Missi Pyle,
Bérénice Bejo, and
Jean Dujardin, director of photography
Guillaume Schiffman and producer
Thomas Langmann.
The Artist (film)
–
Jean Dujardin and
Bérénice Bejo at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
The Artist (film)
3.
Homeland (TV series)
–
Homeland is an American crime thriller television series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the Israeli series Prisoners of War, which was created by Gideon Raff. The series stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency officer with bipolar disorder, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a U. S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper. Mathison had come to believe that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was turned by the enemy, the series is broadcast in the U. S. on the cable channel Showtime, and is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. It premiered on October 2,2011, the first episode was made available online, more than two weeks before the television broadcast, with viewers having to complete game tasks to gain access. On October 22,2013, Showtime renewed Homeland for a fourth season, on November 10,2014, Showtime renewed the series for a 12-episode fifth season that premiered on October 4,2015. On December 9,2015, the series was renewed for a sixth season, the sixth season debuted on January 15,2017. The series has also renewed for a seventh and eighth season. In Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda, Carries job grows complicated when her boss, Director of the Counterterrorism Center David Estes, calls Carrie and her colleagues in for an emergency briefing. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war whom her asset in Iraq was talking about, however, the federal government and her superiors at the CIA consider Brody a war hero. Later, another Marine, Tom Walker is also rescued casting doubt on which of the Marines is the suspected spy. Realizing it would be impossible to convince her boss to place Brody under surveillance, Carrie approaches the only other person she can trust, her mentor. The two must now work together to investigate Brody and prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, the second season follows Carrie and the CIA working with Brody to capture Abu Nazir. Discovering a video of Brodys confession during a CIA operation in Lebanon, Carrie and Saul, along with analyst Peter Quinn, Brody gives in to the CIA interrogation and is now an asset for the CIA, sending information to both sides. The downside of being an agent as well as a rising Congressman with the Vice Presidents support brings Brody closer to Carrie while worsening his relationship with his family. Brodys friend Mike tries to find the truth behind Tom Walkers death, seemingly free of being Nazirs man, Brody celebrates with Carrie at the CIA headquarters and both survive an explosion that kills Director Estes and many others. Brody then flees the U. S. with Carries help, Saul, who was attending the burying of Nazirs body at sea, is left to pick up the pieces. The beginning of season 3 presents the aftermath of a terrorist attack committed by Abu Nazirs people, Carrie is blamed for the CIAs failings as Senator Lockhart grills Saul, now Acting Director of the CIA, in front of the Senate Committee. However, it turned out to be part of a bigger plot and he later relayed the information to Carrie that the main perpetrator of the bombing was still in the U. S. and the CIA acted to bring the real bomber and the officers lawyers in for questioning
Homeland (TV series)
–
Homeland
Homeland (TV series)
–
Promotional poster of season 1 of the series.
4.
Modern Family
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Pritchetts family includes his second wife, his son and his stepson, as well as his two adult children and their spouses and children. Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan conceived the series while sharing stories of their own modern families, Modern Family employs an ensemble cast. The series is presented in mockumentary style, with the characters frequently talking directly into the camera. The series premiered on September 23,2009, and the season premiered on September 21,2016. Modern Family was acclaimed by critics throughout its first season, although reception has become more mixed as the series has progressed and it has so far won a total of 22 Emmy awards from 75 nominations. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2011, the broadcast syndication rights to the series were sold to USA Network and 10 Fox affiliates and CW affiliate WLVI for a fall 2013 premiere. The success of the led to it being the tenth-highest revenue-generating show for 2012. Modern Family revolves around three different types of living in the Los Angeles area who are interrelated through Jay Pritchett and his children, Claire Dunphy. Jays daughter Claire was a homemaker, but has returned to the world, she is married to Phil Dunphy. They have three children, Haley Dunphy, a stereotypical teenage girl, Alex Dunphy, a nerdy, smart middle child, and Luke Dunphy. Jays lawyer son Mitchell and his husband Cameron Tucker have an adopted Vietnamese daughter, as the name suggests, this family represents a modern-day family and episodes are comically based on situations which many families encounter in real life. Dotted lines indicate a relationship through adoption or marriage. Note, The series has also had recurring characters. Reid Ewing appeared in episodes as Haleys boyfriend Dylan. Shelley Long appeared in the first two seasons and occasionally thereafter as DeDe Pritchett, Jays ex-wife and Claire and Mitchells mother, nathan Lane appeared during the second and fifth season as Cameron and Mitchells flamboyant friend Pepper Saltzman. Adam DeVine appeared as Andy Bailey, Jay and Glorias Manny, Phils assistant, stella, Jay and Glorias dog, has appeared in most episodes, played first by Brigitte and then by Beatrice. Larry, Mitchell and Camerons cat, is played by Frosty, as creators Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan retold stories about their families, they realized that the stories could be the basis for a show. They started working on the idea of a family being observed in a mockumentary-style show and they later decided that it could be a show about three families and their experiences
Modern Family
–
Cast of Modern Family at the
69th Golden Globe Awards in January 2012.
Modern Family
Modern Family
–
Sofía Vergara with the award for Modern Family at the 69th Annual Peabody Awards
5.
Downton Abbey
–
Downton Abbey is a historical period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece. It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, the sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints towards the eventual decline of the British aristocracy. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011 and it earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total. It was the most watched series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited. By the third series, it had one of the most widely watched television drama shows in the world. On 26 March 2015, Carnival Films and ITV announced that the series would be the last. It aired on ITV between 20 September 2015 and 8 November 2015, the final episode, serving as the annual Christmas special, was broadcast on 25 December 2015. The storyline centres on the fee tail or entail governing the titled elite, as part of the backstory, the main character, Robert, Earl of Grantham, had resolved past financial difficulties by marrying Cora Levinson, an American heiress. Her considerable dowry is contractually incorporated into the comital entail in perpetuity, Robert and Cora have three daughters and no sons. As the eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley was to marry her second cousin, the first episode begins as news reaches Downton Abbey that both Grantham heirs perished in the sinking of the Titanic. A distant male cousin, solicitor Matthew Crawley, is from an upper-middle-class family - as his mother reminds him in one of series one. Matthew Crawley becomes the new heir, the plot centres on the relationship between Lady Mary and Matthew, who resists embracing an aristocratic lifestyle. A subplot involves John Bates, Lord Granthams new valet, and Thomas Barrow, Bates and Thomas remain at odds in subsequent series. Barrow works to sabotage Bates after learning he was released from jail for theft. In the story line, Barrow, a gay man in late Edwardian England, aided by Miss OBrien, Lady Granthams personal maid, Barrow is caught stealing, but he joins the British army as a medic. Matthew eventually falls in love with Lady Mary, but she rejects his proposal. Cora becomes pregnant, possibly with an heir, but falls and miscarries after OBrien, mistakenly believing she was to be fired. The series ends just after the Archduke Franz Ferdinands assassination and the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, the second series comprises eight episodes and runs from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the 1918 flu pandemic
Downton Abbey
–
The original cast image
Downton Abbey
–
Highclere Castle, used for interior and exterior filming of Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey
–
Byfleet Manor in Surrey is portrayed as the
dower house
6.
Golden Globe Award
–
Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Golden Globe Award
–
The Golden Globe statuette
7.
Film
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A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
Film
–
A vintage Fox movietone motion picture camera
Film
–
The
Berlin Wintergarten theatre was the site of the first
cinema ever, with a short film presented by the
Skladanowsky brothers on 1 November 1895. The image depicts a July 1940
variety show.
Film
–
A shot from
Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early narrative film.
Film
–
This
16 mm spring-wound
Bolex "H16" Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in
film schools.
8.
Television
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Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
Television
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Flat-screen televisions for sale at a consumer electronics store
Television
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The first known photograph of a moving image produced by Baird's "televisor", circa 1926 (The subject is Baird's business partner Oliver Hutchinson)
Television
–
Vladimir Zworykin demonstrates electronic television (1929)
Television
–
Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939
9.
Beverly Hilton Hotel
–
The Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an 8. 9-acre property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards in Beverly Hills, California. Conrad Hilton opened the Beverly Hilton in 1955, architect Welton Becket designed the hotel as a showpiece with 582 rooms. Since 1961, the hotels International Ballroom has hosted the Golden Globe Award ceremony, in 1975, 50% of the property was sold to Prudential Insurance Company forming a partnership with the Hilton Hotels Corporation. The partnership sold the hotel to entertainer and businessman Merv Griffin for $100.2 million in December 1987, the Beverly Hilton had completed a $35 million renovation prior to Griffins purchase. Griffin owned the hotel from 1987 to 2003, during which time its reputation faded as maintenance was deferred, in 2003, Griffin sold the Beverly Hilton for $130 million to Beny Alagem, co-founder of Packard Bell Electronics, through his company Oasis West Realty. Commemorating its 50th anniversary, an ambitious $80 million renovation by architecture firm Gensler began in conjunction with Hilton Hotels, the renovation reduced the number of rooms to 570, which feature 42-inch plasma high-definition televisions and Bose Wave radios. The meeting spaces and the International Ballroom—where the Golden Globes ceremony is also renovated. On February 11,2012, singer Whitney Houston died in her bathtub in Suite 434, Hotel management has since renovated the room. In April 2006, owners unveiled plans for an expansion to the Beverly Hilton property. One intent of the plan was to position the upgraded hotel as a less-expensive 4½-star alternative to nearby five-star rivals such as the Peninsula. Two new three-story buildings on Wilshire Boulevard would house 96 guest rooms, the Beverly Hilton will be renovated into a smaller, 402-room hotel, renamed the Beverly Hilton Oasis. A 120-room Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills hotel, designed by Gensler with interiors by Pierre-Yves Rochon, the Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills will be the first new hotel for the brand on the West Coast. The Beverly Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria would be separate premises, with both operated and managed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, the Beverly Hills City Council approved the $500 million project by a 3-2 vote. Measure H authorized the Beverly Hills City Council to amend the citys plan to allow a luxury hotel, condominiums. On December 2,2008, Proposal H passed by 129 votes with over 15,000 cast, the 12-story, 170-room Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills was designed by architecture firm Gensler with interior designer by Pierre-Yves Rochon. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is slated to open in 2017, measure HH was a November 2016 ballot initiative to allow Oasis West Realty to build a 37-story condominium tower on the Beverly Hilton site. The initiative was rejected by Beverly Hills voters, with nearly 56% voting no, presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards was videotaped visiting Rielle Hunter, during his extramarital affair scandal. American singer and actress Whitney Houston died at the hotel on February 11,2012 after accidentally drowning while in the bathtub of her room, Hilton Worldwide The Beverly Hilton website
Beverly Hilton Hotel
–
The Beverly Hilton as seen from Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hilton Hotel
–
Merv Griffin Way with The Beverly Hilton in the background, in Beverly Hills, California.
10.
Beverly Hills, California
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Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. By 2013, its population had grown to 34,658, sometimes referred to as 90210, one of its primary ZIP codes, it was home to many actors and celebrities throughout the 20th century. The city includes the Rodeo Drive shopping district and the Beverly Hills Oil Field, gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3,1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828 and they called their 4,500 acres of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. in 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson and Henry Hancock. By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres and was being bought up by anglos from Los Angeles. Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it, at this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel were planning to build a town called Morocco on their holdings and they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property Beverly Hills, subdivided it, the development was named Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow, Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed as servants by white residents and it was also forbidden to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills. Burton Green began construction on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911, the hotel was finished in 1912. The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills and that same year, the Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Utility Commission was split off from the company and incorporated in September 1914, buying all of the utilities-related assets from the Rodeo Land. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921, the glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal. By the early 1920s the population of Beverly Hills had grown enough to make the water supply a political issue, in 1923 the usual solution, annexation to the city of Los Angeles, was proposed. There was considerable opposition to annexation among such famous residents as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, the Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507. In 1925, Beverly Hills approved an issue to buy 385 acres for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to pay for the new campus
Beverly Hills, California
–
Beverly Hills at the corner of Rodeo Drive & Via Rodeo
Beverly Hills, California
–
Seal
Beverly Hills, California
–
Aerial view, 3D computer generated image
Beverly Hills, California
–
Hammel and Denker ranch, c. 1905
11.
NBC
–
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
NBC
–
The
Comcast Building in
New York City (or the GE Building, originally the
RCA Building) serves as the headquarters of NBC.
NBC
–
National Broadcasting Company
NBC
–
Radio City West was located at
Sunset Boulevard and
Vine Street in Los Angeles until it was replaced by a bank in the mid-1960s.
NBC
–
Entrance at the GE Building.
12.
Ricky Gervais
–
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, singer, and musician. Gervais appeared on The 11 OClock Show on Channel 4 between 1998 and 2000, in 2000, he was given a Channel 4 talk show, Meet Ricky Gervais, and then achieved greater mainstream fame a year later with his BBC television series The Office. It was followed by Extras in 2005 and he co-wrote and co-directed both series with Stephen Merchant. In addition to writing and directing the shows, he played the roles of David Brent in The Office. He reprised his role as Brent in the comedy film Life on the Road and he has also starred in the Hollywood films Ghost Town, and Muppets Most Wanted, and wrote, directed and starred in The Invention of Lying and the Netflix released Special Correspondents. He has performed on four stand-up comedy tours and written the Flanimals book series, Gervais also starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the podcast The Ricky Gervais Show, which has spawned various spin-offs starring Pilkington and produced by Gervais and Merchant. He hosted the Golden Globe Awards in 2010,2011,2012 and 2016, Gervais has won seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the 2006 Rose dOr, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, he was named the third most influential person in British culture, in 2007 he was voted the 11th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 3rd greatest stand-up comic. In 2010 he was named on the Time 100 list of the worlds most influential people, Gervais was born at Battle Hospital in Reading. He was raised in Whitley, along with brother Larry, sister Marsha and his father, Lawrence Raymond Jerry Gervais, a Franco-Ontarian from Pain Court, Ontario, emigrated while on foreign duty during the Second World War and worked as a labourer and hod carrier. He met Gervaiss mother, Eva Sophia, who was English, during a blackout and she died, aged 74, of lung cancer. He intended to study biology but changed to philosophy after two weeks, and earned an upper second-class honours degree in the subject, during his time at UCL, he met Jane Fallon, with whom he has been in a relationship since 1982. He is the boss of Coldplay drummer Will Champion. In 1983, during his year as a student at UCL, Gervais and college friend Bill Macrae formed the new wave pop duo. They were signed by London Records, which released two of their singles—More to Lose and Bitter Heart, the songs failed to chart inside the UK top 75. Despite not being successful in the UK, Seona Dancing did manage to score a hit in the Philippines with More to Lose and he also worked as the manager for Suede before they became successful in the 1990s. In 2013, Gervais performed a tour as David Brent along with a band under the name Foregone Conclusion. Gervais and the band performed songs written under the Brent character including songs such as Equality Street, Gervais also produced a series of YouTube videos under the title Learn Guitar with David Brent, featuring acoustic guitar versions of nine songs
Ricky Gervais
–
Gervais at
Comedy Central 's "Night of Too Many Stars" in 2010
Ricky Gervais
–
Gervais at the
60th British Academy Film Awards in 2007
Ricky Gervais
–
Gervais (right) with
Jonathan Ross at
Live 8 in July 2005
Ricky Gervais
–
Ricky Gervais performing at
Tribeca Performing Arts Center in 2007
13.
Yoshiki Hayashi
–
Yoshiki Hayashi, better known by his stage name Yoshiki, is a Japanese musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. He achieved international fame as the leader and a co-founder of the metal band X Japan, for which he is the drummer, pianist. The band achieved success in the late 1980s, besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label. The group is credited as one of the pioneers of the visual kei movement. Though the band disbanded in 1997, they reunited in 2007, in 2000 and 2007, Yoshiki formed his solo musical project Violet UK and the Japanese rock supergroup S. K. I. N. Yoshikis solo career includes two classical studio albums—Eternal Melody, produced by George Martin and Eternal Melody II —and the classical compilation Yoshiki Classical and he has collaborated and played with Tetsuya Komuro and Roger Taylor. In 1999, at the request of the Japanese government, he composed and performed a song at a celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of Emperor Akihitos enthronement. For the 69th Golden Globe Awards, the original musical theme was composed by Yoshiki and became available for digital download on iTunes. Yoshiki was born on November 20,1965 in Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan and his father was a tap dancer and jazz pianist, his mother played the shamisen, while his aunt played the koto. He began taking lessons and music theory at age four. He then became interested in works by Ludwig van Beethoven. In elementary school, he played the trumpet in the brass band and this period was a decisive point in his life. He was 11 years old when his father committed suicide, he found relief in rock music, after discovering the music of American hard rock band Kiss, he started learning to play drums and guitar. Yoshiki was also influenced by works from Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Queen, The Beatles, Charged GBH, soon with his childhood friend Toshi formed a band called Dynamite in 1977. Dynamite changed its name to Noise a year later, when Noise disbanded in 1982, Yoshiki and Toshi formed a new band, which they named X while they tried to think of another name, but the name stuck. In 1986, Yoshiki founded his own independent record label, Extasy Records, on December 26,1987, the band participated in an audition held by CBS/Sony which led to a recording contract in August of the following year. The bands breakthrough came in 1989 with the release of their second, and major debut, album Blue Blood, in 1990, the band received the Grand Prix New Artist of the Year award at the 4th Japan Gold Disc Awards. In 1991 they released their hit million-selling album Jealousy, and were the first Japanese metal band to perform in Japans largest indoor concert venue, the Tokyo Dome
Yoshiki Hayashi
–
Yoshiki in 2014
Yoshiki Hayashi
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Yoshiki playing the piano with X Japan at the concert in Brasil 2011, after the bands reunion in 2007.
Yoshiki Hayashi
–
Yoshiki playing the piano at
the Grammy Museum in 2013.
Yoshiki Hayashi
–
Yoshiki at his drum kit during a 2011 X Japan concert in
São Paulo.
14.
X Japan
–
X Japan is a Japanese heavy metal band from Chiba, formed in 1982 by drummer Yoshiki and lead vocalist Toshi. Predominantly a power/speed metal band with symphonic elements, they later gravitated towards a progressive sound with an emphasis on ballads. They achieved breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second, following 1991s Jealousy, Taiji left the band in early 1992. He was replaced by Heath and the changed their name to X Japan before producing the mini album Art of Life. In 1995 the group dropped most of its original visual kei aesthetics in favor of a casual look and released Dahlia. X Japan performed their last concert at the Tokyo Dome on December 31,1997, after ten years, X Japan reunited in 2007 and recorded the new song I. V. In 2011, the band went on their first world tour throughout Europe, South America, X Japan has released five studio albums, six live albums, and 21 singles. Three of their albums have debuted at number one on the Oricon chart. In 2003, HMV Japan ranked the band at number 40 on their list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts, in 2007, Rolling Stone Japan ranked Blue Blood number 15 on its list of the 100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time. In 2017, Loudwire named X Japan the Best Metal Band from Japan and it has been reported that X Japan have sold over 30 million records. In 1977, Yoshiki and Toshi formed a band called Dynamite in their hometown of Tateyama, Chiba, Dynamite changed its name to Noise in 1978, while they were still in high school. In 1982, Noise disbanded and Yoshiki and Toshi formed a new band, they named it X while they tried to think of another name, X began to actively perform in the Tokyo area in 1985 with a frequently changing lineup. In November 1985 bassist Taiji joined X, though he left the group shortly thereafter, to ensure a continuous outlet for the bands music, Yoshiki founded the independent label Extasy Records in April 1986, and released their second single Orgasm. Taiji would officially rejoin the band in November of that same year, the songs Stab Me in the Back and No Connexion, for the February 1987 Victor Records sampler Skull Thrash Zone Volume I, were recorded with Pata as a support guitar player. Soon after these recordings hide joined as a guitarist, after Pata once again provided support, this time at a live show, he officially joined completing the groups first well-known lineup. In August 1987 they performed at the Rock Monster event at Kyoto Sports Valley and gave out their first home video, on December 26,1987, the band participated in an audition held by CBS/Sony which led to a recording contract in August of the following year. In the meantime the band released its first album, Vanishing Vision through Extasy Records on April 14,1988, the albums first press of 10,000 copies sold out in a week, topping the Oricon indies chart and reaching number 19 on the main chart. The Vanishing Tour Vol.2 took the band to 20 locations for 24 shows from June to July, in November, X participated in music magazine Rockinfs Street Fighting Men concert at Differ Ariake Arena
X Japan
–
X Japan at
New York Comic Con in 2014
X Japan
–
X circa 1990: Toshi, Taiji, Yoshiki, Pata, hide
X Japan
–
Pata performing with Ra:IN.
X Japan
–
X Japan with guests
Richard Fortus,
Sugizo and
Wes Borland in 2008.
15.
Woody Harrelson
–
Woodrow Tracy Woody Harrelson is an American actor, activist and playwright. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee and has won one Emmy Award out of seven nominations and his breakout role came in 1985, joining the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd, for which he earned five Emmy Award nominations. Larry Flynt, country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion and he will be portraying the Colonel in War for the Planet of the Apes. Larry Flynt and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, the son of Diane and Charles Voyde Harrelson. He has two brothers, Jordan and Brett Harrelson, Charles Voyde Harrelson, who was a hitman, was arrested in 1979 for killing Federal Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio, Texas. His father was convicted and eventually died during his sentence in the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility. In 1973, Harrelson moved to his mothers native city, Lebanon and he attended Lebanon High School, working through much of high school as a woodcarver at Kings Island amusement park. He attended Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, where he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and he received a Bachelor of Arts in theater and English in 1983. He told Playboy in October 2009, I was getting into theology and studying the roots of the Bible, I started seeing things that made me ask, Is God really speaking through this instrument. My eyes opened to the reality of the Bible being just a document to control people, at the time I was a real mamas boy and deeply mesmerized by the church. Harrelson is widely known for his work on the NBC sitcom Cheers and he played bartender Woody Boyd, who replaced Coach. He joined the cast in 1985 in season four, spending the final eight seasons on the show, for this role, Harrelson was nominated for five Emmy Awards, winning once in 1989. His character, Woody Boyd, was from Hanover, Indiana, in 1999, Harrelson guest-starred in the Cheers spin-off success Frasier, in which he reprised the role of Woody Boyd. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this performance and he appeared in several 2001 episodes of Will & Grace as Graces new boyfriend Nathan. On the November 12,2009 episode of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Harrelson was interviewed by Stephen Colbert, in response to Colberts questioning of his support for the troops, Harrelson agreed to let Colbert shave his head on camera. On June 6,2010, Harrelson took part playing in Soccer Aid 2010 for UNICEF UK at Old Trafford in Manchester, the match was broadcast live on UKs ITV television. After being brought on as a substitute for Gordon Ramsay, Harrelson took the penalty in the penalty shootout. When later interviewed he claimed that he didnt even remember the moment of scoring, Harrelson also took part in Soccer Aid 2012 on May 27,2012
Woody Harrelson
–
Harrelson at the
Zombieland world premiere at the 2009
Fantastic Fest
Woody Harrelson
–
Harrelson in April 2007
Woody Harrelson
–
Harrelson in 2004
16.
Gerard Butler
–
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. After studying law, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in such as Mrs Brown, the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. In 2000, he starred as Dracula in the horror film Dracula 2000 with Christopher Plummer and he then was cast as the role of Erik, The Phantom in Joel Schumachers 2004 film adaptation of the musical The Phantom of the Opera alongside Emmy Rossum. That role earned him a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor and that role earned him nominations for an Empire Award for Best Actor and a Saturn Award for Best Actor and a win for MTV Movie Award for Best Fight. He played military leader Tullus Aufidius in the 2011 film Coriolanus and he also played Sam Childers in the 2011 action biopic Machine Gun Preacher. Butler was born in Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland, the youngest of three children of Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker, Butler is from a Catholic family of Irish descent. Butlers family moved to Montreal, Quebec, when he was six months old, when her marriage broke down, his mother left Quebec and returned to Scotland with baby Gerard aged 18 months. Butler was head boy at St Mirins & St Margarets High School in Paisley and he also attended Scottish Youth Theatre while a teenager. Butler did not see his father again until he was 16 years old, when Edward Butler called to meet him at a Glasgow restaurant. After this meeting, Butler cried for hours, and recalled later, That emotion showed me how much pain can sit in this body of yours, pain, Butler became close to his father after this reunion. During his time as a student, he was the President of the university law society and he also sang in a rock band called Speed. While Butler was a 22-year-old student, his father was diagnosed with cancer and he would say of this period in his life, I had gone from a 16-year-old who couldnt wait to grasp life to a 22-year-old who didnt care if he died in his sleep. Before his final year of law school, Butler took a year off to live in California and he mostly lived in Venice Beach, working at different jobs, travelling often, and, according to him, drinking heavily, at one point being arrested for alcohol-related disorderly conduct. Butler later described this year as, I was out of control, and justifying it with this idea that Im young and this is me just being boisterous. After his time off in America, he returned to Scotland to finish his final year at law school, upon graduation, he took a position as a trainee lawyer at an Edinburgh law firm. However, his lifestyle remained unrestrained and he missed work due to his partying antics. One week before he qualified as a lawyer, he was fired, at the age of 25, and an unqualified lawyer, Butler moved to London to pursue his dream of becoming famous. He admitted, When I started out, Im not sure I was actually in it for the right reasons, I wanted very much to be famous
Gerard Butler
–
Butler at the
2015 Toronto International Film Festival
Gerard Butler
–
Butler at the 2012
Nobel Peace Prize Concert in
Oslo,
Norway
Gerard Butler
–
Butler in March 2013
17.
Rashida Jones
–
Rashida Leah Jones is an American actress, comic book author, producer, singer, and screenwriter. She is known for playing Ann Perkins on NBCs comedy Parks and Recreation, Louisa Fenn on Foxs Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office, as well as a small role in the TV show Freaks & Geeks. She has had roles in I Love You, Man, Our Idiot Brother, The Social Network, The Muppets and Celeste and Jesse Forever. She now plays the role in the TBS comedy series Angie Tribeca. Jones was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actress Peggy Lipton and she is the younger sister of actress and model Kidada Jones, and half-sister to five siblings from their fathers other relationships. Jones father, who is African American, also has distant English and Welsh ancestry, Jones and her sister were raised in Reform Judaism by their mother, Jones attended Hebrew school, though she left at the age of ten and did not have a Bat Mitzvah. Jones grew up in Los Angeles Bel Air neighborhood and she has said of her parents mixed-race marriage, it was the 1970s and still not that acceptable for them to be together. In his autobiography, her father recalled how he would find the six-year-old Jones under the covers after bedtime. She has said that she grew up a straight-up nerd and had a computer with floppy disks, Jones displayed musical ability from a young age and can play classical piano. Her mother told Entertainment Tonight that Jones is also a singer and songwriter. Jones attended The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California, where she made the National Honor Society and was voted Most Likely To Succeed by her classmates, Jones was involved with theatre at Buckley, with tutelage from acting teacher Tim Hillman. She went to the school as socialites Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie. Jones parents divorced when she was 14 years old, her sister subsequently remained with their father, in 1994, Jones garnered attention with an open letter responding to scathing remarks made by rapper Tupac Shakur about her parents interracial marriage. After high school, she left California to attend Harvard University and she was initially interested in becoming a lawyer but changed her mind after becoming disillusioned by the O. J. Simpson murder trial. She studied religion and philosophy and graduated in 1997, Jones made her professional acting debut in The Last Don, a 1997 miniseries based on the novel by Mario Puzo. She next appeared in Myth America, East of A and If These Walls Could Talk 2, in 2000, she guest starred as Karen Scarfolli on Freaks and Geeks before landing the role of Louisa Fenn on Boston Public. Between 2000 and 2002, she appeared in 26 episodes, earning an NAACP Image Award nomination in her final year, although she had a minor supporting role in the series, film opportunities quickly surfaced. She had a role in Full Frontal, directed by Steven Soderbergh
Rashida Jones
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Jones in 2007
Rashida Jones
–
Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, and
Paul Rudd at the Austin, Texas premiere of
I Love You, Man
Rashida Jones
–
Jones in March 2009
18.
Martin Scorsese
–
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian, whose career spans more than 50 years. Scorseses body of work addresses such themes as Sicilian-American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, faith, machismo, modern crime, many of his films are also known for their depiction of violence and liberal use of profanity. Part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking, he is regarded as one of the most significant. In 1990, he founded The Film Foundation, an organization dedicated to film preservation. Their third film together, The Departed, won Scorsese the Academy Award for Best Director in addition to the winning the award for Best Picture. Their collaborations have resulted in numerous Academy Award nominations for both as well as winning several other prestigious awards. His work in television includes the episode of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the crime drama The Departed, with eight Best Director nominations, he is the most nominated living director and is tied with Billy Wilder for the second most nominations overall. Scorsese was born in Queens, New York and his family moved to Little Italy, Manhattan before he started school. His father, Charles Scorsese, and mother, Catherine Scorsese and his father was a clothes presser and an actor, and his mother was a seamstress and an actress. His fathers parents emigrated from Polizzi Generosa, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Scorsese was raised in a devoutly Catholic environment. As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Powell, Scorsese was one of only two people who regularly rented that reel. The other was future Night Of The Living Dead director George A. Romero, Scorsese has cited Sabu and Victor Mature as his favorite actors during his youth. He has also spoken of the influence of the 1947 Powell and Pressburger film Black Narcissus, whose innovative techniques later impacted his filmmaking. Enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep, Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time. He acknowledges owing a debt to the French New Wave and has stated that the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since. He has also cited filmmakers including Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and he went on to earn his M. F. A. from NYUs School of the Arts in 1966, a year after the school was founded. Scorsese attended New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts making the short films Whats a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This. and Its Not Just You, Murray
Martin Scorsese
–
Scorsese at the 2010
Cannes Film Festival
Martin Scorsese
–
From left:
Salvo Cuccia, Martin Scorsese and
Vittorio De Seta at the
2005 Tribeca Film Festival
Martin Scorsese
–
Scorsese at the
Gangs of New York screening at the
Cannes Film Festival with
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Cameron Diaz
Martin Scorsese
–
Martin Scorsese at the 65th Annual Peabody Awards
19.
George Clooney
–
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, filmmaker, and activist. He has received three Golden Globe Awards for his work as an actor and two Academy Awards, one for acting in Syriana and the other for co-producing Argo, in 1999, he took the lead role in Three Kings, a well-received war satire set during the Gulf War. In 2001, Clooneys fame widened with the release of his biggest commercial success, the heist comedy remake Oceans Eleven, in 2013, he received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the political thriller Argo. He is the person who has been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories. In 2009, Clooney was included in Times annual Time 100 as one of the Most Influential People in the World and he is also noted for his political activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since January 31,2008. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Clooney was born in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce, was a beauty queen and city councilwoman and his father, Nick Clooney, is a former anchorman and game show host who hosted AMC for five years in the late 1990s. Clooney has Irish, German, and English ancestry and his maternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow, was the half-sister of Nancy Lincoln, mother of President Abraham Lincoln. Clooney has a sister named Adelia. His aunt was the cabaret singer and actress Rosemary Clooney. Through Rosemary, his cousins include actors Miguel Ferrer, Rafael Ferrer, and Gabriel Ferrer, Clooney was raised a strict Roman Catholic, but said in 2006 that he does not know if he believes in Heaven, or even God. He has said, Yes, we were Catholic, big time, whole family and he began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. He attended St. Michaels School in Columbus, Ohio, then Western Row Elementary School in Mason, Ohio, from 1968 to 1974, and St. Susanna School in Mason, the Clooneys moved back to Kentucky when George was midway through the seventh grade. In middle school, Clooney developed Bells palsy, a condition that partially paralyzes the face, the malady went away within a year. In an interview with Larry King, he stated that yes and it takes about nine months to go away. It was the first year of school, which was a bad time for having half your face paralyzed. After his parents moved to Augusta, Kentucky, Clooney attended Augusta High School and he has stated that he earned all As and a B in school, and was an enthusiastic baseball and basketball player. He tried out to professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977
George Clooney
–
Clooney at a ceremony for
John Wells in January 2012
George Clooney
–
George Clooney cast his hands and shoes in the
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 2007.
George Clooney
–
George Clooney at the premiere of
The Men Who Stare at Goats in the
2009 Toronto International Film Festival
George Clooney
–
Clooney in
Abéché, Chad, in January 2008 with the UN
20.
Meryl Streep
–
Mary Louise Meryl Streep is an American actress and philanthropist. Nominated for 20 Academy Awards, Streep has more nominations than any actor or actress. Streep has also received 30 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight—more nominations, Streep made her professional stage debut in Trelawny of the Wells in 1975, and in 1976 received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. She made her debut in the 1977 television film The Deadliest Season. In 1978, she won an Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Holocaust and she went on to win Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer, and Best Actress for Sophies Choice and The Iron Lady. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal of Arts, in 2003, the government of France made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2017, Streep was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22,1949, in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Wolf Wilkinson, a commercial artist and art editor, the eldest child, she has two younger brothers, Dana David and Harry William III. Streeps father Harry was of German and Swiss ancestry and her fathers lineage traces back to Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her fathers family was from Giswil, Switzerland and her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry. Some of Streeps maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and were descended from 17th-century immigrants from England and her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle in Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, Streeps maternal great-great-grandparents, Manus McFadden and Grace Strain, the namesake of Streeps second daughter, were natives of the Horn Head district of Dunfanaghy, Ireland. Streeps mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame Judi Dench, strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a young age. Streep has said, She was a mentor because she said to me, Meryl and she was saying, You can do whatever you put your mind to. If youre lazy, youre not going to get it done, but if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Although Streep was naturally more introverted than her mother, at times when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother, asking her for advice. Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and attended Cedar Hill Elementary School and the Oak Street School, in her Junior High debut, she starred as Lousie Heller in the play The Family Upstairs. In 1963 the family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School
Meryl Streep
–
Streep in the late 1970s
Meryl Streep
–
Meryl Streep as a senior in high school, 1966
Meryl Streep
–
Producer
Dino De Laurentiis, who thought Streep too unattractive for film
Meryl Streep
–
Robert De Niro, who suggested Streep for her role in The Deer Hunter (1978)
21.
Jean Dujardin
–
Jean Dujardin is a French actor, television director and comedian. He began his career as a comedian in Paris before starting his acting career guest-starring in comedic television programs and films. Dujardin garnered international fame and widespread acclaim with his performance of George Valentin in the 2011 award-winning silent movie The Artist and he became the first French actor in history to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He later appeared in Martin Scorseses 2013 black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street and George Clooneys 2014 historical drama, Jean Dujardin was born on 19 June 1972 and raised in Rueil-Malmaison, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. After attending high school, he went to work for the company of his father. Dujardin began contemplating a career in acting while serving his military service a few years later. Dujardin began his career performing a one-man show he wrote in various bars. He first gained attention when he appeared on the French talent show Graines de star in 1996 as part of the comedy group Nous Ç Nous, the TV series charted the path of a relationship, each episode was less than ten minutes long. In 2005, he portrayed the titular surfer in the comedic film Brice de Nice. The films success spawned a sequel, OSS117, Lost in Rio, in 2007, directed by Jan Kounen, he starred in the film 99F, a very successful existential parody of an advertising exec, adapted from the eponymous best-seller written by Frédéric Beigbeder. This same year, he ventured in drama for the first time on the screen, playing a tortured father. In 2009, he appeared in A Man and His Dog alongside screen legend Jean-Paul Belmondo, in 2010, he starred alongside Albert Dupontel, playing his characters cancer in The Clink of Ice, a French black comedy written and directed by Bertrand Blier. The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where he received the Best Actor Award and his performance garnered much critical acclaim and he received numerous nominations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor and the Screen Actors Guild for Best Actor. On 15 January 2012, Dujardin won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and he later went on to win the Screen Actors Guild for Best Actor, and the BAFTA for Best Actor. He was also nominated for the César award of the best actor, Dujardin went on to win the Best Actor award at the 84th Academy Awards. In effect he is the fourth French actor to be nominated for an Oscar and he has been described as Frances answer to George Clooney. Following his Oscar nomination for his role in The Artist, WME agency signed the actor, Dujardins breakthrough roles as Brice de Nice and OSS117 exemplified this tendency. In February 2012, Dujardin appeared in Les Infidèles with co-star and he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2012 along with 175 other individuals
Jean Dujardin
–
Jean Dujardin,
2011 Cannes Film Festival
Jean Dujardin
–
Jean Dujardin in 2014
22.
Michelle Williams (actress)
–
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. She began her career with television guest appearances, and made her film debut in Lassie. She gained wider recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the The WB series Dawsons Creek from 1998 to 2003 and she followed this with films such as Martin Scorseses Shutter Island. Her work in Blue Valentine garnered her nominations for the Golden Globe Award and she won a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, which also garnered her BAFTA, SAG, and Academy Award nominations. In 2016, she received acclaim for her performance in the drama Manchester by the Sea, earning her nominations from the BAFTA, SAG. On Broadway, Williams appeared in a revival of the musical Cabaret in 2014 and she received a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination for the latter. Williams was born in Kalispell, Montana, the daughter of Carla Ingrid and her parents are separated, and she has one sister, Paige, and three half-siblings. Her mother is a homemaker, and her father is an author, stock and commodities trader and she has Norwegian, and smaller amounts of English, German, Danish, Swiss, Swedish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. As a child, Williams kept to herself and was self-sufficient, as she has said, I was really secretive with my parents, I found that by keeping to myself I got on OK. When Williams was nine, her moved to San Diego. She became interested in acting at an age when she saw a local production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Williams began her career in the early 1990s by making guest appearances in programs such as Step by Step. In 1993, she appeared as Bridget Bowers in Baywatch and she debuted in the adventure film Lassie. In Species, she portrayed the younger version of Sil, an alien-human who grows up to become the character played by Natasha Henstridge. At age 15, with her parents approval, she filed for emancipation from them, after completing ninth grade at Santa Fe Christian Schools, in Solana Beach, California, she left school because of severe bullying. Subsequently, Williams was home-tutored by her father and later graduated with a GED from a correspondence school and she moved to Los Angeles and quickly secured a role in Dawsons Creek. Williams said later that she thought she knew all she needed to know since age 15 and she said in 2011 that she chose emancipation as she was influenced by other young actors doing it. In 1997, unhappy with the roles they were being offered, Williams and it was sold, but nothing happened with it
Michelle Williams (actress)
–
Williams at the 2012
Comic-Con in San Diego
Michelle Williams (actress)
–
Williams at the 84th Annual
Academy Awards Red Carpet 2012
Michelle Williams (actress)
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Williams at the 2010
Berlin International Film Festival for the premiere of
Shutter Island
23.
Christopher Plummer
–
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. After making his debut in Stage Struck, Plummer went on to a successful film career. Plummer has ventured into television projects, including the miniseries The Thorn Birds. Plummer has won awards and accolades for his work, including an Academy Award. With his win at age 82 in 2012 for Beginners, Plummer is the oldest actor ever to win an Academy Award and his fathers uncle was patent lawyer and agent F. B. Plummers parents were divorced shortly after his birth, and he was brought up at the Abbott family home in Senneville, Quebec and he is bilingual, speaking English and French fluently. Plummer is a cousin of actor Nigel Bruce, the British actor, best known as Doctor Watson to Basil Rathbones Sherlock Holmes. He had studied to be a concert pianist, but developed a love for the theatre at an early age and he began acting while he was living on Pine Avenue in Montreal and attending Montreal High. He attended McGill, at time he also took up acting. Whittaker, who was also stage director of the Montreal Repertory Theatre, cast Plummer, aged 18. Plummer made his Broadway debut in January 1953 in The Starcross Story and his next Broadway appearance, Home is the Hero, lasted 30 performances from September to October 1954. He appeared in support of Broadway legend Katharine Cornell and film legend Tyrone Power in The Dark is Light Enough, the play toured several cities, with Plummer serving as Powers understudy. Later that same year, he appeared in his first Broadway hit, Plummer appeared less frequently on Broadway in the 1960s as he moved from New York to London. From May to June 1973, he appeared on Broadway as the character in Cyrano. For that performance, Plummer won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, later that year, he played Anton Chekhov in Neil Simons adaptation of several Chekhov short stories, The Good Doctor. In the 1980s, he appeared on Broadway in two Shakespearean tragedies, Othello, playing Iago to James Earl Jones Moor, and the role in Macbeth with Glenda Jackson playing his lady. His Iago brought him another Tony nomination and he appeared with Jason Robards in the 1994 revival of Harold Pinters No Mans Land and had great success in 1997 in Barrymore, which he also toured with after a successful Broadway run. His turn as John Barrymore brought him his second Tony Award and he was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his 2004 King Lear and for a Tony playing Henry Drummond in the 2007 revival of Inherit the Wind
Christopher Plummer
–
Plummer at the
2009 Toronto International Film Festival
Christopher Plummer
–
Photograph by
Carl Van Vechten, 1959
24.
Octavia Spencer
–
Octavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress and author. She made her debut in A Time to Kill. She had an acclaimed performance in Ryan Cooglers drama Fruitvale Station. Recently, Spencer has received acclaim for her work in the films Get on Up, Black or White, Smashed, Snowpiercer, The Divergent Series, Insurgent, and Zootopia. In 2017, she received Academy Award, Golden Globe, octavia Lenora Spencer was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and has six siblings, including sisters Rosa and Areka. Her mother, Dellsena Spencer, worked as a maid, Spencer graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1988. She studied drama for two years, and received a degree in Liberal Arts from Auburn University. At nineteen, Spencer worked as an intern on the set of The Long Walk Home, in 1997 she moved to to Los Angeles on the advice of her friend Tate Taylor, the future director of The Help which Spencer would star in. Spencer made her debut as a nurse in Joel Schumachers A Time to Kill. She was originally hired to work on casting, but asked Schumacher if she could audition for a part, other film credits include, Never Been Kissed, Big Mommas House, Bad Santa, Spider-Man, Coach Carter, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. She is best known for her roles as Serenity Johnson on Comedy Centrals Halfway Home, and Constance Grady. In 2003, Spencer made her debut in Los Angeles, in Del Shores play, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife. It was her first and only play, as, she once explained, later that year, she starred opposite Allison Janney in Tate Taylors critically lauded short feature Chicken Party. In 2008, Spencers brief appearance in Seven Pounds as Kate, Rosario Dawsons home care nurse, garnered her high praise, in April 2009, Entertainment Weekly listed Spencer as among its 25 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood. In August 2009, Spencer appeared in Rob Zombies Halloween II and she also had a role in the American remake of the Danish classic Love at First Hiccup, opposite Scout Taylor-Compton. Spencer starred in the feature film Herpes Boy, alongside Beth Grant, Ahna OReilly and she played the voice of Minny on the audio version of novel The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Later that year, Spencers short film The Captain was honored by the CICFF as a finalist for the coveted REEL Poetry Award, in August 2010, Spencer joined Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help, an adaptation of the novel. She played the feisty and unflappable Minny Jackson, the film was written, produced and directed by Tate Taylor, and produced by Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe
Octavia Spencer
–
Octavia Spencer
25.
Woody Allen
–
Heywood Woody Allen is an American actor, writer, director, comedian, playwright, and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He worked as a writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, as a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians and he is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Allen often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup, some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In 2007 he said Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, critic Roger Ebert described Allen as a treasure of the cinema. Allen won four Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director and he also won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays, in 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen, A Documentary on the American Masters TV series. Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York and he and his sister, Letty, were raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie, a bookkeeper at her familys delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg and his family was Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His childhood was not particularly happy, his parents did not get along, Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School, at that time, he lived in an apartment at 968 East 14th Street. Unlike his comic persona, he was interested in baseball than school. He impressed students with his talent at card and magic tricks. To raise money, he wrote jokes for agent David O. Alber, at the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen. According to Allen, his first published joke read, Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O. P. S and he was then earning more than both parents combined
Woody Allen
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Allen in the 1970s
Woody Allen
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Allen as a high school senior, 1953
Woody Allen
–
Allen with the Broadway cast of Play It Again, Sam (1969).
Woody Allen
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Allen candid from 2006
26.
Kelsey Grammer
–
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, producer, director, writer, singer, and activist. Grammer is known for his portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcoms Cheers. Grammer has been married four times and has seven children, Grammer was two years old when his parents divorced. Grammer attended Pine Crest School, a preparatory school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After leaving Juilliard, he had an internship with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in the late 1970s before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. He made his Broadway debut in 1981 as Lennox in Macbeth, Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. In 1983 he performed on the demo of the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George, in 2000, Grammer again played Macbeth on Broadway, in a production that closed after only 10 days. Grammer originated the roles of Charles Frohman and Captain Hook in the Broadway premiere of the musical Finding Neverland in March 2015 and he returned to the stage from January 19,2016, to April 3. His television career began in the early 1980s when he portrayed Stephen Smith in the NBC miniseries Kennedy, Grammer came to broader public attention as Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcom Cheers. The character became the center of the spin-off Frasier, one of the most successful spin-offs in TV history. In addition to starring, he directed more than 30 episodes, especially during the second half of the series. Frasier was nominated for and won awards during its 11-year run. In 2001, he negotiated a US$700, 000-per-episode salary for Frasier and his 20-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane ties a length set by James Arness in playing Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975 but was surpassed by Richard Belzer in playing Det. John Munch on Homicide, Life on the Street and Law & Order, Frasier Crane also had a crossover appearance in 1993 Wings episode Planes, Trains, & Visiting Cranes. In 2005, Grammer returned to television and he produced and appeared in an American adaptation of the British show The Sketch Show, which aired on Fox. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Paul F. Tompkins, Grammer appeared in only short opening and closing segments in each episode. Many of the sketches from the British version were re-created, such as the California Dreamin, English Course, only six episodes of the show were made, and it was canceled after only four of them had aired. In 2007, Grammer starred with Patricia Heaton in the American sitcom Back to You and it was canceled by Fox after its first season
Kelsey Grammer
–
Kelsey Grammer, May 2010
Kelsey Grammer
–
Grammer during
Fleet Week in New York City, in May 2006
27.
Claire Danes
–
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Danes gained recognition with her role as Angela Chase in the acclaimed 1994 teen drama series My So-Called Life. The role won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and she made her film debut the same year in Little Women. From 1998 to 2000, Danes attended Yale University before dropping out to return to acting and she appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in 2000, and made her Broadway debut playing Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 revival of Pygmalion. She is married to actor Hugh Dancy, with whom she has one child, Danes was born in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of a sculptor and printmaking artist, Carla Danes, and a photographer, Christopher Danes. She has a brother, Asa, who is a lawyer. Danes parents met when they were studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, during Danes childhood her father worked as a general contractor for 20 years, working on residential buildings in a company he ran called Overall Construction in New York. He also worked as a photographer and computer consultant and he is the son of Gibson Andrew Danes, a former dean of the Yale School of Art and Architecture from 1958 to 1968. Danes is named after her grandmother, Claire Danes, who died in 1953. The family lived in a loft on Crosby Street. 3 and PS11 for elementary school and Professional Performing Arts School for junior high school, Danes attended the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies in New York City. She attended The Dalton School for one year of school before moving with her parents to Santa Monica. Danes said they moved two days after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Danes graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in 1997. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University, director Oliver Stone wrote a letter of recommendation. After studying for two years as a major, she dropped out to focus on her film career. Danes started studying dance when she was six years old, Danes took dance classes from Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop and acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute at the age of ten. She appeared in theater and video productions in New York City, although she continued to dance, Danes said that her focus shifted to acting by the time she was nine years old
Claire Danes
–
Danes at the 2015
PaleyFest
Claire Danes
–
Danes in Toronto, for a
MuchOnDemand promotion of
Stardust, 2007
Claire Danes
–
Danes at the
2012 Time 100
28.
Matt LeBlanc
–
LeBlanc also stars as a fictional version of himself in the BBC/Showtime comedy series Episodes. He won a Golden Globe award for his work on Episodes, since 2016, LeBlanc has hosted the BBC motoring show Top Gear. LeBlanc was born in Newton, Massachusetts and his mother, Patricia, was an office manager, and his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic. His mother is of Italian ancestry and his father is French-Canadian and he attended Newton North High School and graduated in 1985 with comedian Louis CK. LeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial, in 1988, he starred in the television drama TV101 for one season. In 1991, he had a role on the hit Fox sitcom. He played Vinnie Verducci, the son of one of the friends of the protagonist, Al Bundy and he went on to star in two short-lived spin-offs of Married. With Children, Top of the Heap in 1991 and Vinnie and he appeared in two of Jon Bon Jovis music videos, Miracle, from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and Say It Isnt So in 2000. LeBlanc found success in the role of Joey Tribbiani on Friends, Friends was successful and LeBlanc, along with his co-stars, gained wide recognition among viewers. For his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. During this time he appeared in the films Lookin Italian, Ed, Lost in Space, Charlies Angels. His production company, Fort Hill Productions, co-produced the made-for-TV movie, The Prince, following the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting, which later turned into a five-year hiatus from acting. His next role would be as a version of himself on Episodes. In 2011, LeBlanc began appearing as a version of himself in Episodes. The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik, LeBlanc won the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Series Comedy for his performance, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards. The latest season of Episodes, its fifth, began filming in 2016 and he also appeared in Series 19 Episode 4 to race the New Kia Ceed, and beat the old car time. In February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc was to be one of the new presenters of Top Gear, in September 2016, LeBlanc signed a new two-year deal to continue hosting Top Gear. He is also starring in CBS new sitcom Man with a Plan, LeBlanc married Melissa McKnight, a former model, in May 2003
Matt LeBlanc
–
LeBlanc at the 2013
British Academy Television Awards
29.
Laura Dern
–
Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress. Dern won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film for the 1992 film Afterburn and she is known for her collaborations with filmmaker David Lynch, having appeared in three of his films and the upcoming revival of Twin Peaks. The poet, writer, and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was her great-great-uncle, laura Derns film debut was a cameo in her mothers film White Lightning. She also made a appearance in Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore. Her mother objected to her 13-year-old daughters presence on the set of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, in 1982, she became the youngest-ever winner of Miss Golden Globe. Dern began working with acting coach Sandra Seacat in 1984, Dern would later attribute Seacat with a dramatic transformation in her life and work. Between 1985 and 1990, Dern gained critical acclaim for roles in Mask, Blue Velvet, Derns starring role in Blue Velvet was a breakthrough though her next notable film, Wild at Heart, took almost four years to be released. Derns affiliation with David Lynch has continued with her role in Inland Empire, Dern starred as Dr. Ellie Sattler in Steven Spielbergs 1993 film Jurassic Park. That same year, Clint Eastwood contacted the actress for his film A Perfect World and she also starred as Ruth in the 1996 film Citizen Ruth, the directorial debut of Alexander Payne. Derns mother makes a appearance, playing Derns characters mother. In 1997, Dern was featured in Widespread Panics music video for their song, Aunt Avis, in 1998, Dern co-starred in Jodie Fosters film The Baby Dance. While dating Thornton in 1999, she was cast as his love interest in his film Daddy and Them, Dern also appeared in Joe Johnstons film October Sky. Robert Altman called upon Derns talents to play a Champagne-loving Aunt in his Texas-based comedy Dr. T & the Women in 2000 and she co-starred in Within These Walls and Arthur Millers Focus. She had a role in Jurassic Park III, and was a supporting actress in the film I Am Sam. She starred in the 2002 film Damaged Care and the 2004 film We Dont Live Here Anymore, Dern starred in the 2005 film Happy Endings, and in the same year, she appeared in the film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. In 2006, David Lynch and Dern reunited for Inland Empire and, also in 2006, Dern had a supporting role in Lonely Hearts. Mike White, known for writing School of Rock and The Good Girl, hired Dern for his debut in 2007. In 2008 Dern starred in Recount for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Laura Dern
–
Dern at the 2013
Cannes Film Festival
Laura Dern
–
Dern in 2009 at a ceremony for
Mary Steenburgen to receive a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Laura Dern
–
Dern with then-husband
Ben Harper in December 2009
30.
Idris Elba
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Idrissa Akuna Idris Elba, OBE is an English actor, musician, and DJ. He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film, winning one, and was nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Elba has appeared in such as Ridley Scotts American Gangster, Takers, Thor, Prometheus, Pacific Rim, Thor, The Dark World and Beasts of No Nation. In 2016, he also voiced Chief Bogo in Zootopia, Shere Khan in The Jungle Book and he will make his directorial debut with an adaptation of 1992 novel Yardie by Victor Headley. In addition to his work, Elba is a DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis. In 2016, he was named in the Time 100 list of the Most Influential People in the World, an only child, Idrissa Akuna Elba was born on 6 September 1972 in Hackney. His father, Winston, was a Sierra Leonean and worked in the Ford motor factory at Dagenham, while his mother, Elbas parents were married in Sierra Leone and later moved to London. Elba himself was brought up in Hackney and East Ham, and shortened his first name from Idrissa to Idris at school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting. He credits The Stage with giving him his first big break, having seen an advertisement for a play in the newspaper, Elba auditioned and met his first agent while performing in the role. In 1986, he began helping an uncle with his wedding DJ business, within a year, Elba left school in 1988 and won a place in the National Youth Music Theatre, thanks to a £1,500 Princes Trust grant. His first roles were in Crimewatch murder reconstructions, to support himself between roles in Crimewatch reconstructions, he worked in jobs such as tyre-fitting, cold call advertising sales, and the night shift at Ford Dagenham. He was working in nightclubs, under the DJ nickname Big Driis, at age 19, in 1995, Elba landed his first significant role on a series called Bramwell, a medical drama set in 1890s England. He played a character in an episode of Season 1, an African petty thief named Charlie Carter. His first named role arrived earlier in 1995, cast as a gigolo on the Sex episode of Absolutely Fabulous, many supporting roles on British television followed, including series such as The Bill and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries. He joined the cast of the soap opera Family Affairs and went on to appear on the television serial Ultraviolet and he decided to move to New York City soon after. He returned to England occasionally for a role, such as a part in one of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries. In 2001, Elba played Achilles in a production of Troilus. After a supporting turn on a 2001 episode of Law & Order, from 2002 to 2004, Elba portrayed Russell Stringer Bell in the series, perhaps his best-known role in the United States
Idris Elba
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Elba in October 2014
Idris Elba
–
Elba (back row, centre) with the cast of
RocknRolla at the 2008
Toronto International Film Festival
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