Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel; the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The Statue of Liberty is a figure of a robed Roman liberty goddess, she holds a torch above her head with her right hand, in her left hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed in Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI", the date of the U. S. Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet; the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, a national park tourism destination. It is a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad. Bartholdi was inspired by a French law professor and politician, Édouard René de Laboulaye, said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to U. S. independence would properly be a joint project of the French and U.
S. peoples. Because of the post-war instability in France, work on the statue did not commence until the early 1870s. In 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the U. S. build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was designed, these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions; the torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult for the Americans, by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar; the statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, assembled on the completed pedestal on what was called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and by the Department of War. Public access to the balcony around the torch has been barred since 1916. According to the National Park Service, the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time; the project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between de Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, is supposed to have said: "If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations." The National Park Service, in a 2000 report, deemed this a legend traced to an 1885 fundraising pamphlet, that the statue was most conceived in 1870.
In another essay on their website, the Park Service suggested that Laboulaye was minded to honor the Union victory and its consequences, "With the abolition of slavery and the Union's victory in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye's wishes of freedom and democracy were turning into a reality in the United States. In order to honor these achievements, Laboulaye proposed that a gift be built for the United States on behalf of France. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to call for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy." According to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who recounted the story, Laboulaye's alleged comment was not intended as a proposal, but it inspired Bartholdi. Given the repressive nature of the regime of Napoleon III, Bartholdi took no immediate action on the idea except to discuss it with Laboulaye. Bartholdi was in any event busy with other possible projects. Sketches and models were made of the proposed work.
There was a classical precedent for the Suez proposal, the Colossus of Rhodes: an ancient bronze statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios. This statue is believed to have been over 100 feet high, it stood at a harbor entrance and carried a light to guide ships. Both the khedive and Lesseps declined the proposed statue from Bartholdi; the Port Said Lighthouse was built instead, by François Coignet in 1869. Any large project was further delayed by the Franco-Prussian War, in which Bartholdi served as a major of militia. In the war, Napoleon III was deposed. Bartholdi's home province of Alsace was lost to the Prussians, a more liberal republic was installed in France; as Bartholdi had been planning a trip to the United States, he and Laboulaye decided the time was right to discuss the idea with influential Americans. In June 1871, Bartholdi crossed the Atlantic, with letters of introduction signed by Laboulaye. Arriving at New York Harbor, Bartholdi focused on Bedloe's Island as a site for the statu
Rick Baker
Richard A. Baker is a retired American special make-up effects creator known for his creature effects and designs. Baker won the Academy Award for Best Makeup seven times from a record of eleven nominations, beginning when he won the inaugural award for An American Werewolf in London. Baker was born in Binghamton, New York, to Doris and Ralph B. Baker, a professional artist, he has two daughters. As a teen, Baker began creating artificial body parts in his own kitchen, he appeared in the fan production The Night Turkey, a one-hour, black-and-white video parody of The Night Stalker directed by William Malone. Baker's first professional job was as an assistant to prosthetic makeup effects veteran Dick Smith on the film The Exorcist. Baker received the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on An American Werewolf in London, he created the werewolf creature Michael Jackson transforms into in the music video Thriller. Subsequently, Baker has been nominated for the Best Makeup Oscar ten more times, winning on seven occasions, both records in his field.
He was married to Elaine Melba Parkyn for ten years. Baker claims. On October 3, 2009, he received the Jack Pierce – Lifetime Achievement Award title of the Chiller-Eyegore Awards, he was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University San Francisco in 2008. He contributes commentaries to the web series Trailers from Hell for trailers about horror and science fiction films. Baker received the 2485th star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 30, 2012; the star is located in front of the Guinness World Records Museum. Baker announced his retirement on May 28, 2015: "First of all, the CG stuff took away the animatronics part of what I do. It's starting to take away the makeup part; the time is right, I am 64 years old, the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, they wanted cheap and fast; that is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a huge working studio anymore."
Baker played the title role in the 1976 remake of King Kong. In the 2005 remake, he had a cameo as the gunner who shot down Kong, he made cameo appearances in: the John Landis film Into the Night as a drug dealer with a business card. Octaman The Thing with Two Heads Schlock The Exorcist It's Alive The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman King Kong Track of the Moon Beast Squirm The Incredible Melting Man Star Wars The Fury An American Werewolf in London The Howling The Funhouse The Incredible Shrinking Woman Videodrome Thriller Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes Starman Into the Night My Science Project Captain EO Ratboy Harry and the Hendersons Beauty and the Beast Werewolf Coming to America Gorillas in the Mist Missing Link Gremlins 2: The New Batch The Rocketeer Wolf Ed Wood Batman Forever The Nutty Professor The Frighteners Escape from L. A. Ghosts Men in Black Critical Care Mighty Joe Young Psycho Life Wild Wild West Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas Nutty Professor II: The Klumps Planet of the Apes Men in Black II The Ring The Haunted Mansion Hellboy The Ring Two King Kong Cursed X-Men: The Last Stand Click (special age makeup artist, special
Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy is a French-American actress, film director and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, or acted in more than 30 films, including Europa Europa, Three Colors: White, the Before trilogy, An American Werewolf in Paris, 2 Days in Paris, she has been nominated for three César Awards, two Online Film Critics Society Awards, two Academy Awards. After moving to the United States in 1990, she became an American citizen in 2001. Julie Delpy was born in Paris, the only child of Albert Delpy, a French actor and theater director, Marie Pillet, a French actress in feature films and the avant-garde theater, her mother was known for having signed the 1971 Manifesto of the 343 Bitches, signed by women advocating for reproductive rights and admitting to having had an abortion when abortions were illegal in France. In Delpy's 2007 film 2 Days in Paris, her character's mother was played by her real mother and acknowledges signing the manifesto, mirroring her action in real life.
Pillet died in 2009. At an early age, Julie was exposed to the arts by her parents, she said: I couldn't hope for better parents. They raised me with a love of art, bringing me to museums and seeing things that a child wouldn't see at that age. I would see Ingmar Bergman movies when I was 9 and go for it, and they would bring me to see Francis Bacon's paintings, which I loved: so dark and at the same time it's so wonderful. In 1984, at the age of fourteen, Delpy was discovered by film director Jean-Luc Godard, who cast her in Détective. Two years Delpy starred in the title role in Bertrand Tavernier's La Passion Béatrice. For her performance, Delpy was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress, she used the money. Delpy became an international celebrity after starring in the 1990 film Europa Europa directed by Agnieszka Holland. In the film, she plays a young pro-Nazi who falls in love with the hero, Solomon Perel, not knowing that he is Jewish, she did not speak German so she performed her role in English and was dubbed over.
Following the success of Europa Europa, Delpy appeared in several Hollywood and European films, including Voyager and The Three Musketeers. In 1993, she was cast by director Krzysztof Kieślowski to play the female lead in Three Colors: White, the second film of Kieślowski's The Three Colors Trilogy. Delpy appeared in the other two films in the same role; that same year, she appeared opposite Brendan Fraser in the Percy Adlon feature Younger and Younger starring Donald Sutherland. In 1994, she starred opposite Eric Stoltz in Roger Avary's directorial debut Killing Zoe, a cult heist film capturing the Generation X zeitgeist. Delpy is best known for her co-starring role with Ethan Hawke in director Richard Linklater's 1995 film Before Sunrise, for which she wrote much of her own dialogue; the film received glowing reviews and was considered one of the most significant films of the 1990s' independent film movement. Its success led to the casting of Delpy in the 1997 American film An American Werewolf in Paris.
In late 2001, she appeared alongside comedian Martin Short in the 30-minute film CinéMagique, a theatre-show attraction presented several times daily at Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris. Delpy attended the March 2002 opening of the park and the inauguration of the film-based attraction which sees her star as Marguerite—a female actress with whom Short's character, falls in love as he stumbles through countless classic movies. CinéMagique won the 2002 Themed Entertainment Association award for "outstanding" themed attraction. Delpy reprised her Before Sunrise character, Céline, with a brief animated appearance in Waking Life, again in a 2004 sequel, Before Sunset; the film was well received and earned Delpy, who co-wrote the script, her first Academy Award nomination for Writing Adapted Screenplay. In addition, she has been nominated for César Awards three times. Delpy has had an interest in a career as a film director since her childhood, enrolled in a summer directing course at New York University.
She wrote and directed the short film Blah Blah Blah in 1995 which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2004 Delpy co-wrote Before Sunset, a sequel to the 1995 movie Before Sunrise, with director Richard Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke. Describing the experience Delpy said, "I'm not a feminist wearing overalls and hating the male gender, but I'm a definite feminist. I don't want to make Before Sunset into a little male fantasy, ever." She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for her work. She made her feature length directorial debut in 2002, with a film entitled "Looking for Jimmy" which she wrote and produced. In 2007, Delpy directed, edited, co-produced the original score for 2 Days in Paris co-starring Adam Goldberg; the film features Delpy's real-life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents. In one scene, Pillet's character acknowledges having been one of the "343 bitches". In 2009, Delpy starred in The Countess her third film as a director in which she played the title role of Elizabeth Báthory.
The film starred Daniel Brühl, William Hurt. In 2011 Delpy directed Le Skylab; the film received a theatrical release in France, but failed to find distribution in the U. S. In 2012 she released 2 Days in a sequel to her 2007 film 2 Days in Paris; the film starred actor Chris Rock. Delpy stated
Emergency medical technician
Emergency medical technician and ambulance technician are terms used in some countries to denote a health care provider of emergency medical services. EMTs are clinicians, trained to respond to emergency situations regarding medical issues, traumatic injuries and accident scenes. EMTs are most found working in ambulances, but should not be confused with "ambulance drivers" or "ambulance attendants" – ambulance staff who in the past were not trained in emergency care or driving. EMTs are employed by private ambulance services and hospitals, but are often employed by fire departments, in police departments, there are many firefighter/EMTs and police officer/EMTs. EMTs operate under a limited scope of practice. EMTs are supervised by a medical director, a physician; some EMTs are paid employees. There is considerable degree of inter-provincial variation in the Canadian Paramedic practice. Although a national consensus identifies certain knowledge and abilities as being most synonymous with a given level of Paramedic practice, each province retains ultimate authority in legislating the actual administration and delivery of emergency medical services within its own borders.
For this reason, any discussion of Paramedic Practice in Canada is broad, general. Specific regulatory frameworks and questions related to Paramedic practice can only definitively be answered by consulting relevant provincial legislation, although provincial Paramedic Associations may offer a simpler overview of this topic when it is restricted to a province-by-province basis. In Canada, the levels of paramedic practice as defined by the National Occupational Competency Profile are: Emergency Medical Responder, Primary Care Paramedic, Advanced Care Paramedic, Critical Care Paramedic. Regulatory frameworks vary from province to province, include direct government regulation to professional self-regulating bodies, such as the Alberta College of Paramedics. Though the title of Paramedic is a generic description of a category of practitioners, provincial variability in regulatory methods accounts for ongoing differences in actual titles that are ascribed to different levels of practitioners. For example, the province of Alberta has adopted the title "Emergency Medical Technician", or'EMT', for the Primary Care Paramedic.
Only someone registered in Alberta can call themselves an EMT or Paramedic in Alberta, the title is protected. All other provinces are moving to adopting the new titles, or have at least recognized the NOCP document as a benchmarking document to permit inter-provincial labour mobility of practitioners, regardless of how titles are regulated within their own provincial systems. In this manner, the confusing myriad of titles and occupational descriptions can at least be discussed using a common language for comparison sake. Most providers that work in ambulances will be identified as'Paramedics' by the public. However, in many cases, the most prevalent level of emergency prehospital care is that, provided by the Emergency Medical Responder; this is a level of practice recognized under the National Occupational Competency Profile, although unlike the next three successive levels of practice,The high number of EMRs across Canada cannot be ignored as contributing a critical role in the chain of survival, although it is a level of practice, least comprehensive, is generally not consistent with any medical acts beyond advanced first-aid and oxygen therapy,administration of ASA and oral glucose and administration of narcan with the exception of automated external defibrillation.
Primary Care Paramedics are the entry-level of paramedic practice in Canadian provinces. The scope of practice includes performing semi-automated external defibrillation, interpretation of 4-lead ECGs, administration of Symptom Relief Medications for a variety of emergency medical conditions, performing trauma immobilization, other fundamental basic medical care. Primary Care Paramedics may receive additional training in order to perform certain skills that are in the scope of practice of Advanced Care Paramedics; this is regulated both provincially and locally, ordinarily entails an aspect of medical oversight by a specific body or group of physicians. This is referred to as Medical Control, or a role played by a base hospital. For example, in the provinces of Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, many paramedic services allow Primary Care Paramedics to perform 12-lead ECG interpretation, or initiate intravenous therapy to deliver a few additional medications; the Advanced Care Paramedic is a level of practitioner, in high demand by many services across Canada.
However, Quebec still does not utilize this level of practice. The ACP carries 20 different medications, although the number and type of medications may vary from region to region. ACPs perform advanced airway management including intubation, surgical airways, intravenous therapy, place external jugular IV lines, perform needle
John Landis
John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for the comedy films that he has directed, such as National Lampoon's Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Three Amigos, Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop III, for directing Michael Jackson's music videos for "Thriller" and "Black or White". Landis was born into a Jewish family in Chicago, the son of Shirley Levine and Marshall Landis, an interior designer and decorator. Landis and his parents relocated to Los Angeles. Though spending his childhood in California, Landis still refers to Chicago as his hometown, is a big fan of the Chicago White Sox baseball team; when Landis was a young boy, he watched The 7th Voyage of Sinbad which inspired him to become a director: I had complete suspension of disbelief—really, I was eight years old and it transported me. I was on that beach running from that dragon, it just dazzled me, I bought it completely. And so, I sat through it twice and when I got home, I asked my mom, "Who does that?
Who makes the movie?" Landis began his film career working as a mailboy at 20th Century Fox. He worked as a "go-fer" and as an assistant director during filming MGM's Kelly's Heroes in Yugoslavia in 1969. During that time Landis became acquainted with actors Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland, both of whom would work in his films. Following Kelly's Heroes, Landis worked on several films that were shot in Europe, including Once Upon a Time in the West, El Condor and A Town Called Bastard. Landis worked as a stunt double. I worked on all kind of movies. French foreign movies. I worked on a movie called Red Sun where Toshiro Mifune kills me, puts a sword through me.... I worked as a stunt guy. I worked as a dialogue coach. I worked as an actor. I worked as a production assistant. Landis made his directorial debut with Schlock, he was 21 years old. The film, which he wrote and appeared in, is a tribute to monster movies; the gorilla suit for the film was made by Rick Baker—the beginning of a long-term collaboration between Landis and Baker.
Though complete in 1971, it was not released until 1973 that Schlock was released after it caught the attention of Johnny Carson. Carson was a fan of the film and invited Landis as a guest on The Tonight Show, showing clips from the film and in the process bringing attention to it. Schlock has since gained a cult following, but Landis has described the film as "terrible". Landis was hired to directed The Kentucky Fried Movie after David Zucker saw his Tonight Show appearance; the film was inspired by the satirical sketch comedy of shows like Monty Python, Free the Army, The National Lampoon Radio Hour and Saturday Night Live. It is notable for being the first film written by the Zucker and Zucker team, who would have success with Airplane! and The Naked Gun trilogy. Sean Daniel, an assistant to Universal executive Thom Mount, saw The Kentucky Fried Movie and recommend Landis to direct Animal House based on that. Landis says of the screenplay, "It was literally one of the funniest things I read.
It had a nasty edge like National Lampoon. I told him it was wonderful smart and funny, but everyone’s a pig for one thing." While it received mixed reviews, it was a massive financial success, earning over $120 million at the domestic box office, making it the highest grossing comedy film of its time. It's success started the gross out film genre, it featured the screen debuts of John Belushi, Karen Allen and Kevin Bacon. In 1980, he co-wrote and directed The Blues Brothers, a comedy starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, it featured musical numbers by R&B and soul legends James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. It was, at the time, one of the most expensive films made, costing $30 million, it is speculated that Spielberg and Landis engaged in a rivalry, the goal of, to make the more expensive movie. The rivalry might have been a friendly one, as Spielberg makes a cameo appearance in Blues Brothers and Landis had made a cameo in 1941 as a messenger. In 1981, Landis wrote and directed another cult-status movie, the comedy-horror An American Werewolf in London.
It was Landis's most personal project. It was another commercial success for Landis and inspired studios to put comedic elements in their horror films. On July 23, 1982, during the filming of Twilight Zone, actor Vic Morrow and child extras Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in an accident involving an out-of-control helicopter; the three were caught under the aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board reported in October 1984: The probable cause of the accident was the detonation of debris-laden high temperature special effects explosions too near a low-flying helicopter leading to foreign object damage to one rotor blade and delamination due to heat to the other rotor blade, the separation of the helicopter's tail rotor assembly, the uncontrolled descent of the helicopter; the proximity of the helicopter to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, in command
Bungee jumping
Not to be confused with reverse bungee. Bungee jumping is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure while connected to a large elastic cord; the tall structure is a fixed object, such as a building, bridge or crane. The thrill comes from the rebound; when the person jumps, the cord stretches and the jumper flies upwards again as the cord recoils, continues to oscillate up and down until all the kinetic energy is dissipated. The first modern bungee jumps were made on 1 April 1979 from the 250-foot Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, by David Kirke, Simon Keeling, members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club, Geoff Tabin, a professional climber who tied the ropes for the jump; the students had come up with the idea after discussing a "vine jumping" ritual carried out by certain residents of Vanuatu. The jumpers were arrested shortly after, but continued with jumps in the US from the Golden Gate Bridge and the Royal Gorge Bridge, spreading the concept worldwide. By 1982, they were jumping from mobile hot air balloons.
Organised commercial bungee jumping began with the New Zealander, A J Hackett, who made his first jump from Auckland's Greenhithe Bridge in 1986. During the following years, Hackett performed a number of jumps from bridges and other structures, building public interest in the sport, opening the world's first permanent commercial bungee site, the Kawarau Bridge Bungy at the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge near Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand. Hackett remains one of the largest commercial operators, with concerns in several countries. Several million successful jumps have taken place since 1980; this safety record is attributable to bungee operators rigorously conforming to standards and guidelines governing jumps, such as double checking calculations and fittings for every jump. As with any sport, injuries can still occur, there have been fatalities. A common mistake in fatality cases is to use a cord, too long; the cord should be shorter than the height of the jumping platform to allow it room to stretch.
When the cord becomes taut and is stretched, the tension in the cord progressively increases. The tension is less than the jumper's weight and the jumper continues to accelerate downwards. At some point, the tension equals the jumper's weight and the acceleration is temporarily zero. With further stretching, the jumper has an increasing upward acceleration and at some point has zero vertical velocity before recoiling upward. See Potential energy for a discussion of the spring constant and the force required to distort bungee cords and other spring-like objects; the Bloukrans River Bridge was the first bridge to be'bungee jumped off' in Africa when Face Adrenalin introduced bungee jumping to the African continent in 1990. Bloukrans Bridge Bungy has been operated commercially by Face Adrenalin since 1997, is the highest commercial bridge bungy in the world. In April 2008 a 37-year-old Durban man, Carl Mosca Dionisio, made bungee jumping history when he jumped off a 30 m tower attached to a bungee cord made of 18,500 condoms.
The word "bungee" originates from West Country dialect of English language, meaning "Anything thick and squat", as defined by James Jennings in his book "Observations of Some of the Dialects in The West of England" published 1825. Around 1930, the name became used for a rubber eraser; the Oxford English Dictionary records the use in 1938 of the phrase bungy-launching of gliders using an elasticized cord. The land diving of Pentecost Island in Vanuatu is an ancient ritual in which young men jump from tall wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles as a test of their courage and passage into manhood. Unlike in modern bungee-jumping, land-divers intentionally hit the ground, but the vines absorb sufficient force to make the impact non-lethal; the land-diving ritual on Pentecost has been claimed as an inspiration by AJ Hackett, prompting calls from the islanders' representatives for compensation for what they view as the unauthorised appropriation of their cultural property. A similar practice, only with a much slower pace for falling, has been practised as the Danza de los Voladores de Papantla or the'Papantla flyers' of central Mexico, a tradition dating back to the days of the Aztecs.
A tower 4,000 feet high with a system to drop a "car" suspended by a cable of "best rubber" was proposed for the Chicago World Fair, 1892–1893. The car, seating two hundred people, would be shoved from a platform on the tower and bounce to a stop; the designer engineer suggested that for safety the ground below "be covered with eight feet of feather bedding". The proposal was declined by the Fair's organizers; the elastic rope first used in bungee jumping, still used by many commercial operators, is factory-produced braided shock cord. This special bungee cord consists of many latex strands enclosed in a tough outer cover; the outer cover may be applied when the latex is pre-stressed, so that the cord's resistance to extension is significant at the cord's natural length. This gives a sharper bounce; the braided cover provides significant durability benefits. Other operators, including A. J. Hackett and most southern-hemisphere operators, use unbraided cords with exposed latex strands; these can be home-produced.
Accidents where participants b
Griffin Dunne
Thomas Griffin Dunne is an American actor, film producer, film director. Dunne studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. Dunne was born Thomas Griffin Dunne in the son of Ellen Beatriz and Dominick Dunne, he is the older brother of Dominique Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims after Dominique's murder in 1982, his father was a producer and actor. He is the nephew of writers John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. Raised in Los Angeles, Dunne attended the Fay School in Southborough and went to high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he developed an interest in acting, appearing in many school plays, he was scheduled to perform in a school production of Othello when on the eve of a performance, Dunne was found smoking marijuana by a teacher. He was expelled and soon after, he moved back to New York to pursue his acting interests, he studied acting at HB Studio in New York City. Dunne began his professional acting career at age 19 with a small supporting role in The Other Side of the Mountain in 1975.
He has since appeared on both film and television, starring in An American Werewolf in London as Jack Goodman, Johnny Dangerously as Tommy Kelly, After Hours as Paul Hackett, Who's That Girl as Loudon Trott opposite Madonna, My Girl as Jake Bixler, Quiz Show as the Geritol Account Executive, Game 6 as Elliott Litvak, I Like It Like That as Stephen Price. Dunne played Dr. Vass, opposite Matthew McConaughey, in the Oscar-nominated 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club. Dunne's TV appearances include Frasier, Saturday Night Live and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, he portrayed Tony Mink in the comedy Trust Me on TNT. In 2012, Dunne guest-starred as management consultant Marco Pelios in seven episodes of the premiere season of the Showtime TV series House of Lies; as of Fall 2018, he guest stars on This is Us as Nicky Pearson, Jack Pearson's brother in Season 3. In 1995, Griffin Dunne was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Duke of Groove, which he directed and co-wrote, he shared the nomination with producer Thom Colwell.
Along with his producing partner, actress/producer Amy Robinson, he has produced several films including Baby It's You, After Hours, Running on Empty and Game 6 through their company, Double Play Productions. Dunne's directorial debut was the 1995 short film Duke of Groove. Since he has directed five feature films, including Addicted to Love and Practical Magic, he directed one segment of the 2012 anthology film Movie 43. Dunne produced and directed Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, a documentary about his aunt, author Joan Didion, whom Dunne interviews and appears with on screen. From 1989 to 1995, he was married to American actress Carey Lowell, with whom he has one daughter, actress Hannah Dunne. In July 2009, he married Anna Bingemann, an Australian stylist. Griffin Dunne on IMDb Griffin Dunne at AllMovie
