1.
Daniel Clowes
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Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowess work first appeared in Eightball, an anthology comic book series. Clowes’s illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vogue, The Village Voice, with filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into a 2001 film and another Eightball story into the 2006 film, Art School Confidential. Clowes was born in Chicago, Illinois, to an auto mechanic mother and his mother was Jewish and his father was from a reserved WASPish Pennsylvania family, Clowes’s upbringing was not religious. In 1979, he finished school at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Later, he received piles of 1950s and 1960s classic titles like Archie and The Fantastic Four from his older brother, Clowes and writer Mort Todd co-created a recurring Cracked feature titled The Uggly Family. In 1985, Clowes drew the first comic to feature his character Lloyd Llewellyn and he sent the story to Fantagraphics Gary Groth, and his work soon appeared in the Hernandez brothers Love and Rockets #13. Fantagraphics published six magazine-sized, black and white issues of Lloyd Llewellyn in 1986 and 1987, and The All-New Lloyd Llewellyn, in 1989, Fantagraphics published the first issue of Clowes’s comic book Eightball. On issue #1s masthead, Clowes described the anthology as An Orgy of Spite, Vengeance, Hopelessness, Despair, Eightball lasted twenty three issues, ending in 2004. One of the most widely acclaimed American alternative comics, it won two dozen awards, and all of Clowess Eightball serials have been collected and released as graphic novels. From #1 to #18, an Eightball issue typically contained short pieces that ranged in genre from comical rant and Freudian analysis to fairy tale and cultural criticism. These issues also featured a chapter of a serial that Clowes later collected as a novel, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Pussey. With #19, Clowes abandoned the anthology format, the oversized black and white issues #19–21 each contained a single act of Clowess three-act David Boring, which was released as a graphic novel in 2000. Clowes again changed format with #22, the first full-color Eightball, #22 included a single graphic novel-length story Ice Haven. The final issue, #23 was a full-color, single-story comic The Death-Ray released in 2004 and he designed the labels mascot, Punky, who appeared on T-shirts, paddle-balls, watches, and other merchandise. In 1994, Clowes created art for the Ramones video I Dont Want to Grow Up, after Eightball ended in 2004, Clowes began to release full-color graphic novels, beginning in 2005 with Ice Haven, a revised version of the comic that appeared in Eightball #22. In 2010 Drawn and Quarterly published Wilson, Clowes’s first graphic novel that had not been serialized in Eightball,2011 also saw the Drawn and Quarterly hardcover release of The Death-Ray, which first appeared in Eightball #23. During this period, Clowes drew the first of several New Yorker covers and contributed comics to Zadie Smith’s The Book of Other People, in 2006, after a health crisis, Clowes underwent open-heart surgery
2.
Todd Solondz
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Todd Solondz is an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been acclaimed for his examination of the dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia. His work includes Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling, Palindromes, Life During Wartime, Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey. Solondz wrote several screenplays while working as a boy for the Writers Guild of America. Solondz earned his degree in English from Yale and attended New York Universitys Graduate MFA Program in film and television. In his film Happiness, the character Joy finds a similar experience to be traumatic and it leads her to be more sympathetic to workers strikes. Clubs article Is There a God and he answered the question Well, me, Im an atheist, so I dont really believe there is. But I suppose I could be proven wrong, one of Solondzs short films, Schatts Last Shot, was made in 1985. The title character is a high schooler who wants to get into Stanford, the teacher fails him because he cannot make a shot in basketball. He has no luck with the girl of his dreams, but he wishes he was more like the coach, in 1989 Solondz wrote and directed Fear, Anxiety & Depression, an episodic comedy about fledgling playwright Ira and his frustrating interactions with the opposite sex. The film contains several musical interludes, including three written for the film. Stanley Tucci appears in one of his earliest roles as an old, disliked acquaintance of Iras, the frustrations of his first feature led Solondz to swear off further involvement with the industry. More than five years later, an attorney friend urged Solondz to give filmmaking another go, the end result was 1995s Welcome to the Dollhouse, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The dark comedy follows the travails of Dawn Wiener, a bespectacled, toothy and it was distinct from most earlier films about adolescent abuse due to its complex characterization. The film was a success among critics, and a moderate success at the box office. It was a hit, with screenings all over the world. Solondzs next piece was Happiness, a controversial film due to the themes explored in it. After the original distributor October Films dropped it, the film was distributed by Good Machine Releasing, the movie received numerous awards, including International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and yielded strong critical praise for Solondz
3.
James Schamus
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Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Clarita Karlin and Julian John Schamus, and was raised in Los Angeles. He is married to writer Nancy Kricorian, with whom he has two children and his output includes writing or co-writing The Ice Storm, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and producing Brokeback Mountain and the upcoming Alone in Berlin. At Focus he oversaw the production and distribution of Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Coraline and he is Professor of Professional Practice in Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory. He has also taught at Yale University and at Rutgers University and he is the author of Carl Theodor Dreyers Gertrud, The Moving Word, published by the University of Washington Press. He earned his BA, MA, and Ph. D. in English from University of California, Schamus made his feature directorial debut with Indignation, an adaptation of Philip Roths novel of the same name. Schamus also wrote the script for the film, which stars Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, and Tracy Letts, the film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions on July 29,2016. Schamus participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF and he was president of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Gladys Borchers Lecturer, University of Wisconsin,1998, Carl Theodor Dryer’s Gertrud, The Moving Word. Seattle, University of Washington Press,2008, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Portrait of the Ang Lee Film. Two Films By Ang Lee, Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet, New York, The Overlook Press,1994. 23 Fragments on the Future of Cinema, Filmmaker, Winter 2015, Hollywood is Not American, The Hollywood Reporter, October 17,2014. James Schamus Reveals Secrets of the Oscar Voting System, Variety, musts, Maybes, and Nevers, A Book About The Movies. See Here Now, Festival Red Carpets and the Cost of Film Culture, in Coming Soon to a Festival Near You, Programming Film Festivals, scotland, UK, St. Andrews Film Books,2012. Raul Ruiz Remembered by James Schamus, Filmmaker, August 19,2011, the Apartment, The New York Times, November 4,2007. Next Year in Munich, Masculinity, Zionism and Diaspora in Spielberg’s Epic, Representations, Fall 2007, ‘Brokeback Mountain’, An Exchange, The New York Review of Books, April 6,2006. Aesthetic Identities, A Response to Kenneth Chan and Christina Klein, Cinema Journal, Summer 2004, Volume 43, rites of Realism, Essays on Corporeal Cinema, Ivone Margulies, ed. Duke UP,2003. Sing to Us, Muse, of the Rage of the Hulk, The New York Times, the End of Cinema As We Know It, American Film in the Nineties, Jon Lewis, ed. NYU Press,2002. Fragments Towards an Introduction to Elia Suliemans Chronicles,16 Fragments on Auteur Theory, or Sarriss Revenge
4.
Elizabeth Ashley
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Elizabeth Ashley is an American actress of theatre, film, and television. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards, winning once in 1962 for Take Her, Shes Mine, Ashley was also nominated for the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for her performance in The Carpetbaggers, and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1991 for Evening Shade. Elizabeth was a guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 24 times, Ashley was born Elizabeth Ann Cole in Ocala, Florida, to Lucille and Arthur Kingman Cole, and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received Tony nominations for both performances and she appeared on Broadway as Dr. Livingstone in Agnes of God and was a replacement in the role of Mattie Fae during the original Broadway run of August, Osage County. She has been featured in motion pictures over five decades, including early roles in The Carpetbaggers, Ship of Fools. Her other film credits include The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, Rancho Deluxe, Coma, Paternity, Dragnet and Vampires Kiss and her most recent film roles were as Diane Freed in Happiness, and as Marg in the 2007 film The Cake Eaters. Having earlier appeared with Burt Reynolds in Paternity in 1981 and as a guest star in his television series B. L, stryker in 1989, Ashley became a cast member of Reynolds next television series, Evening Shade, from 1990–1994 as Aunt Frieda Evans. In 1991, this garnered her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She was originally supposed to appear in the 1995 movie Mallrats, playing the Governor of New Jersey, however, owing to timing issues and her other television appearances include the 1987 miniseries The Two Mrs. She was also featured in 14 episodes of the HBO series Treme as Aunt Mimi, Ashleys autobiography, entitled Actress, Postcards from the Road, was published in a hardcover edition on June 1,1978 by M. Evans & Co. A paperback publication followed on October 12,1979 through Fawcett, thrice divorced, Ashleys first and second husbands were actors James Farentino and George Peppard. The latter was her man in her first movie, The Carpetbaggers
5.
Dylan Baker
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Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films along with regular work in television and on stage. Baker was born in Syracuse, New York, but was raised in Lynchburg and he began his acting career as a teenager in regional theater productions. He attended Holy Cross Regional Catholic School and then went on to attend Darlington School, Baker attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia and later graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1980. Baker then received a Masters in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama, bakers Broadway theatre credits include Eastern Standard, La Bête, Mauritius, and God of Carnage. He won an Obie Award in 1986 for his performance in the off-Broadway play Not About Heroes, the next year, he made his motion picture debut in the 1987 film Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Bakers first recurring TV role was on Steven Bochcos highly acclaimed Murder One and he garnered major critical attention in 1998 with his performance as a tormented pedophile in Todd Solondzs Happiness. He also gained notice for his portrayal of Dr. Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2, in 2000, he portrayed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in Thirteen Days, a historical drama about the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also held a role in Requiem for a Dream. In 2002 he portrayed Alexander Rance, an accountant for the Chicago Outfit, during the short-lived 2007 series Drive, Baker played the role of John Trimble, a father suffering from a terminal illness. In 2009, Baker played William Cross in NBCs Kings, in which his wife Becky Ann Baker played Jessie Shepherd, Baker also guest starred in an episode of Monk, playing a theater critic in Mr. Monk and the Critic. Baker guest starred in the November 2010 House episode A Pox on Our House, Baker guest starred in the season four finale of Burn Notice as Raines, an old spy friend of Michaels. He reprised the role in the season five premiere, and also permitted his likeness to be used in the Burn Notice graphic novel A New Day, in 2010, Baker played Hollis B. Baker played Pashto-speaking CIA agent Jerry Boorman in season 4 of Damages and he appeared in the USA Network miniseries Political Animals which aired in summer 2012. For his performance as Colin Sweeney on The Good Wife, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2010,2012, in November 2014 it was announced that Baker will join Helen Mirren on Broadway in The Audience. The play depicts meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and important historical figures, Baker will play former Prime Minister John Major. The play opened on March 8,2015, Dylan garnered the 2002 Audie Award for Abridged Fiction for his reading of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Baker has also recorded Jonathan Franzens latest novel, in 1990, he married actress Becky Gelke, now known professionally as Becky Ann Baker. They have a daughter, Willa, and reside in New York City, firefighters eventually got the seriously injured woman out of the apartment and rushed to the hospital
6.
Lara Flynn Boyle
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Lara Flynn Boyle is an American actress. She is best known for her performances as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks and she has also appeared in films including Happiness and Men in Black II. Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Sally, a worker, assistant, and manager. She has German, Irish, and Italian ancestry and she is named after a character in Boris Pasternaks novel Doctor Zhivago. She was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin and she graduated from The Chicago Academy for the Arts. Boyles first film role was a bit part in Ferris Buellers Day Off and she then appeared in the mini-series Amerika and feature film Poltergeist III. Although she was cast in Dead Poets Society, her scenes were deleted and her first major role was as Donna Hayward in the critically acclaimed television series Twin Peaks. When the series ended in 1991, creator David Lynch produced a movie, Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me, in November 2015, it was revealed that she will not be reprising the role for the third season set to air in 2017. She starred on show until 2003, when, in a dramatic attempt to revamp the show and cut costs. For her performance as Helen Gamble, she received an Emmy nomination as well as several Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast nominations. Boyle also made a appearance in the role of Helen Gamble in an episode of Ally McBeal. In 2002, Boyle played a role in the blockbuster feature film Men in Black II as the villainous shapeshifting alien Serleena. She also guest-starred on one of the last episodes of Ally McBeal, this time as Tally Cupp, in 2005, Boyle joined the cast of Las Vegas for a seven-episode stint as Monica Mancuso, a new hotel owner. She played Barbara Amiel in the TV true story Shades of Black, about Amiels controversial husband, Boyle also guest-starred as an ambitious reporter involved with the suspects in a possible murder in the Law & Order 2008 episode Submission. Boyle was in a relationship with Twin Peaks partner Kyle MacLachlan. She also dated comedian David Spade and they went public with their romance at the 1999 Emmys, and remained together until the end of 2000. Her first husband was John Patrick Dee III, whom she married on August 11,1996 and her current husband is Donald Ray Thomas II, a real-estate investor, whom she married on December 18,2006, in San Antonio, Texas. Lara Flynn Boyle at the Internet Movie Database Lara Flynn Boyle at AllMovie
7.
Ben Gazzara
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Biagio Anthony Gazzarra, known as Ben Gazzara, was an American film, stage, and television actor and director. His best known films include Anatomy of a Murder, Voyage of the Damned, Inchon, Road House, The Big Lebowski, Happiness, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of Sam, Dogville and Paris, je taime. He was a collaborator with John Cassavetes, working with him on Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. As the star of the television series Run for Your Life and he won his first, and only, Emmy Award for his role in the television film Hysterical Blindness. Gazzara grew up in New Yorks Kips Bay neighborhood, he lived on East 29th Street and participated in the program at Madison Square Boys. He attended New York Citys Stuyvesant High School, but finally graduated from Saint Simon Stock in the Bronx, years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teen years. He went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering and he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and afterward joined the Actors Studio. In 1954, Gazzara made several appearances on NBCs legal drama Justice and he joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film The Strange One. Then came a performance as a soldier on trial for avenging his wifes rape in Otto Premingers courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. Contemporary screen credits included The Young Doctors, A Rage to Live, when I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers, he said. I wont tell you the pictures I turned down because youll say, You are a fool, gazarra returned to Broadway for a production of Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. with Colleen Dewhurst in 1976. Some of the actors most formidable characters were those he created with his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s and they collaborated for the first time on Cassavetess film Husbands, in which he appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. In The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Gazzara took the role of the hapless strip-joint owner. Also during this period he starred in the television miniseries QB VII, the six-and-a-half hour series was based on a book by Leon Uris and co-starred Anthony Hopkins. He also played gangster Al Capone in the biographical film Capone and appeared in Voyage of the Damned, High Velocity and he starred with Rowlands in the critically acclaimed AIDS-themed TV movie An Early Frost, for which he received his third Emmy nomination. Gazzara appeared in 38 films, many for television, in the 1990s and he worked with a number of renowned directors, such as the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, David Mamet, Walter Hugo Khouri, Todd Solondz, John Turturro, and John McTiernan. In his seventies, Gazzara continued to be active, in 2003, he was in the ensemble cast of the experimental film Dogville, directed by Lars von Trier of Denmark and starring Nicole Kidman, as well as the television film Hysterical Blindness. Several other projects have recently completed or are currently in production
8.
Jared Harris
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He has also had significant supporting roles in films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows, Lincoln and Allied. Harris was born in London, one of three sons of Irish actor Richard Harris, and his first wife, Welsh actress Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His younger brother is actor Jamie Harris, his brother is director Damian Harris. Harris earned a BFA degree from Duke University in 1983, Harris began his film career as director of an unfinished feature-length film for Duke Universitys Freewater Films named Darkmoor in 1983. His first film appearance as an actor was in The Rachel Papers in 1989 and he played the role of the aged Will Robinson in the movie adaptation of the television series Lost in Space. Harris played Dr. Charles Ashford in Resident Evil, Apocalypse, Benmont Tench in Jim Jarmuschs Dead Man, Other notable roles include King Henry VIII in the first film adaptation of the novel The Other Boleyn Girl. He also portrayed Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol, in 1998 he played Vladimir in the black comedy drama film Happiness written and directed by Todd Solondz. He played the gruff Captain Anderson in the BBC2 adaptation of To the Ends of the Earth, Mac McGrath in the movie Mr. Deeds, Eamon Quinn on the FX series The Riches, and David Robert Jones on Fringe. One of his recent film roles was Ulysses S. Grant in the Steven Spielberg-directed Lincoln. He played Lane Pryce in Mad Men from 2009 until 2012 and returned to the series to direct the 11th episode of season 7 and he also portrayed King George VI in the early episodes of The Crown. Harris married Jacqueline Goldenberg in 1989, they divorced in the early 1990s, on 16 July 2005, Harris married actress Emilia Fox, daughter of actors Edward Fox and Joanna David, and filed for divorce in January 2009, the divorce was finalised in June 2010. Harris married Allegra Riggio, a designer and TV host. Jared Harris at the Internet Movie Database Jared Harris at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
