1.
Wes Anderson
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Wesley Wales Wes Anderson is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, and actor. His films are known for their visual and narrative style. He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014 and he also received the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2015. His films are produced under his American Empirical Pictures banner, Anderson is regarded by many as a modern-day example of the auteur. Wesley Wales Anderson was born on May 1,1969, in Houston, Texas, the son of Texas Ann, a realtor and archaeologist, and Melver Leonard Anderson and he is the second of three boys, his parents divorced when he was eight. His elder brother, Mel, is a physician, and his brother, Eric Chase Anderson, is a writer and artist whose paintings. Anderson is of Swedish and Norwegian ancestry and he graduated from St. Johns School in Houston in 1987, which he later used as a prominent location throughout Rushmore. As a child, Anderson made silent films on his fathers Super 8 camera, starring his brothers and friends, Anderson attended college while working part-time as a cinema projectionist. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in philosophy in 1990, Andersons first film was Bottle Rocket, based on a short film that he made with Luke and Owen Wilson. It was a crime caper about a group of young Texans aspiring to achieve major heists and it was well reviewed but performed poorly at the box office. Andersons next film was Rushmore, a comedy about a high school students crush on an elementary school teacher starring Bill Murray. Murray has since appeared in every Anderson film to date, in 2000, filmmaker Martin Scorsese praised Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. The Royal Tenenbaums was Andersons next comedy-drama film, about a successful artistic New York City family and it represented his greatest success until Moonrise Kingdom in 2012, earning more than $50 million in domestic box office receipts. The Royal Tenenbaums was nominated for an Academy Award and ranked by an Empire poll as the 159th greatest film ever made, Andersons next feature was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou about a Jacques Cousteau-esque documentary filmmaker played by Bill Murray. It serves as a example of Andersons style, but its critical reception was less favorable than his previous films. They offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, the Darjeeling Limited was about three emotionally distant brothers traveling together on a train in India. It reflected the dramatic tone of The Royal Tenenbaums but faced criticisms similar to The Life Aquatic. Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film the 2007 movie, the film starred Anderson staples Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson in addition to Adrien Brody, and the script was co-written by Anderson, Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola
Wes Anderson
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Anderson in 2012
2.
Jason Schwartzman
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Jason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor, screenwriter and musician. He is known for his frequent collaborations with Wes Anderson, such as Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. He also starred in films, such as Spun, I Heart Huckabees, Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, Funny People, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He currently releases music through his solo project Coconut Records, and was formerly the drummer of rock band Phantom Planet, Schwartzman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Talia Shire and the late producer Jack Schwartzman. Schwartzmans brother is actor and musician Robert Schwartzman, and his paternal half-siblings are Stephanie and his first cousin once removed, his father Jacks first cousin, is Elliott B. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish immigrants, while his mother is Italian American and he attended Windward School in West Los Angeles. Schwartzmans acting career began when he was 17 years old, when he starred in Wes Andersons Rushmore in 1998, prior to Rushmore, he had no acting experience. Shortly after in 2000, Jason had a guest role in the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks, in 2001, he starred in CQ, a film by his cousin Roman Coppola. In 2002, he starred in Slackers and in 2003 starred in Spun, in 2004, he starred in I Heart Huckabees, and Shopgirl in 2005. He also appeared in television shows, such as Cracking Up. In 2006, he starred in Marie Antoinette under the direction of his cousin, Sofia Coppola, Schwartzman made a cameo appearance as Ringo Starr in the biopic spoof Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story. In 2009, he appeared as Mark, a C-list television star and he starred in the HBO show Bored to Death, in which he played a writer who moonlights as a private detective and puts himself up for hire on Craigslist. In 2009, he starred in The Marc Pease Experience, in 2010, he played Gideon Graves in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the adaptation of the comics by Bryan Lee OMalley. In 2011, Schwartzman made an appearance as Vincent van Gogh in the Beastie Boys short film Fight for Your Right Revisited. In 2013, he made an appearance as himself in an episode of the television show Key & Peele. In 2014 he played himself in the role of the Tim & Erics Bedtime Stories episode The Endorsement. Schwartzmans most recent significant on-screen acting appearance was in the 2013 Disney film Saving Mr. Banks, in it, he portrayed Disney songwriter Richard M. Sherman
Jason Schwartzman
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Schwartzman at the 2010
New York Film Festival
3.
Bryan Cranston
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Bryan Lee Cranston is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, comedian and voice actor. For Breaking Bad, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times, after becoming one of the producers of Breaking Bad in 2011, he also won the award for Outstanding Drama Series twice. Cranston was also nominated three times for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Malcolm in the Middle. In June 2014, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Lyndon B. Johnson in the play All the Way on Broadway. He reprised his role in the film of the same name. For the 2015 film Trumbo, he received acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He has also appeared in several acclaimed films, such as Saving Private Ryan, Little Miss Sunshine, Drive, Argo, and Godzilla. In 2015, Cranston, together with David Shore, executive produced and wrote the story for the Amazon Studios original crime drama Sneaky Pete, the pilot episode of which aired on August 7,2015. Cranston was born in Hollywood, California, the son of Audrey Peggy, an actress, and Joseph Louis Joe Cranston. He is the second of their three children and he was raised partly by his grandparents, living on their poultry farm in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His father was of German, Austrian-Jewish, and Irish descent and he has stated that his parents were broken people and that they were incapacitated as far as parenting, causing the family to lose their house in a foreclosure. Cranstons father held many jobs before deciding to become an actor and he eventually walked out on the family when Cranston was 11 years old, and they did not see each other again until 11 years later, when Cranston and his brother decided to track their father down. Cranston was 22 at the time, and he and his father maintained a relationship until his fathers death in 2014. Cranston later claimed that he based his portrayal of Walter White on his own father, during his preteen years, Cranston encountered a young Charles Manson while riding a horse at the Spahn Ranch. This happened about a year before the Tate-LaBianca murders and he graduated from Canoga Park High School, where he was a member of the schools chemistry club. He earned a degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College in 1976. After college, Cranston began his career in local and regional theaters. He had previously performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, Cranston was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, and performed weddings for $150 a service to help with his income
Bryan Cranston
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Cranston at the 2014
Peabody Awards
Bryan Cranston
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Cranston at the 2013
San Diego Comic Con
Bryan Cranston
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Cranston and wife Robin Dearden, September 2008
4.
Edward Norton
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Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, filmmaker and activist. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his work in the films Primal Fear, American History X and Birdman and he also starred in other roles, such as Everyone Says I Love You, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Fight Club, Red Dragon, 25th Hour, Kingdom of Heaven, The Illusionist, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and he has also directed and co-written films, including his directorial debut, Keeping the Faith. He has done uncredited work on the scripts for The Score, Frida, Norton is president of the American branch of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. He ran in the 2009 New York City Marathon to raise money for the Trust and he also raises money for charity through Crowdrise, a social networking community for volunteers and a micro-donations fundraising platform. In July 2010, Norton was designated as the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on July 2,2014, Norton was elected chairman of the board of trustees to Signature Theatre, a not-for-profit theater company in New York. Norton has been on Signatures board since 1996 and served as the co-chair of the Capital Campaign during the building of the Pershing Square Signature Center, Norton was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Columbia, Maryland. His mother, Lydia Robinson Robin, a teacher of English, Norton has two younger siblings, Molly and Jim, with whom he has professionally collaborated. He graduated in 1987 from Columbias Wilde Lake High School, where his classmates included New York City Council member Mark Levine, after graduation, Norton worked in Osaka, Japan, consulting for his grandfathers company, Enterprise Community Partners, and speaks some Japanese. He appeared in an EFL textbook, Only in America, used by Nova and he moved to New York City to star in the Off-Broadway theater, breaking through with his 1993 involvement in Edward Albees Fragments, at the Signature Theatre Company. In his film debut Primal Fear, Norton played Aaron Stampler, a boy charged with the murder of a Roman Catholic Archbishop. The film is an adaptation of William Diehls novel, ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote, Norton gives a performance thats fully the equal of Geres – hes as slyly self-effacing as Gere is slyly ostentatious. Despite the mixed reviews, Norton won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and that same year, Norton played lawyer Alan Isaacman in The People vs. In 1998, he played Derek Vinyard, a reformed neo-Nazi, in the film American History X, David Denby of The New Yorker noted that he gives Derek ambiguous erotic allure, the film received positive reviews and grossed over $23 million worldwide at the box office. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, later, Norton starred with Matt Damon in Rounders, which follows two friends who urgently need to earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. In David Finchers 1999 film Fight Club, Norton played an unreliable narrator who feels trapped in his white-collar position and it is based on Chuck Palahniuks novel of the same name. To prepare for the role, Norton took lessons in boxing, taekwondo, Fight Club premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival. During promotion for the film, he said, I feel that Fight Club really, probed into the despair and paralysis that people feel in the face of having inherited this value system out of advertising
Edward Norton
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Norton in March 2012
Edward Norton
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Norton in March 2010
Edward Norton
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Norton at the premiere of the
Metropolitan Opera 's 2009 season
5.
Bill Murray
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William James Bill Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Murray received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016, Murray was born on September 21,1950 in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. He is the son of Lucille, a room clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II. Murray and his eight siblings were raised in a Roman Catholic Irish-American family, three of his siblings, John Murray, Joel Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray, are also actors. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan and their father died in 1967 at the age of 46 from complications of diabetes when Bill was 17 years old. As a youth, Murray read childrens biographies of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok and he attended St. Josephs grade school and Loyola Academy. During his teen years, he worked as a golf caddy to fund his education at the Jesuit high school, one of his sisters had polio and his mother suffered several miscarriages. During his teen years he was the singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school. After graduating, Murray attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado and he quickly dropped out, returning to Illinois. Decades later, in 2007, Regis awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree, on September 21,1970, his 20th birthday, the police arrested Murray at Chicagos OHare Airport for trying to smuggle 10 lb of cannabis, which he had allegedly intended to sell. The drugs were discovered when Murray joked to the next to him that he was smuggling. Murray was convicted and sentenced to probation, with an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at The Second City in Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. In 1975, an Off-Broadway version of a Lampoon show led to his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and that same season, another variety show titled NBCs Saturday Night premiered. Cosells show lasted just one season, canceled in early 1976, after working in Los Angeles with the guerrilla video commune TVTV on several projects, Murray rose to prominence in 1976. He officially joined the cast of NBCs Saturday Night Live for the second season, following the departure of Chevy Chase. Murray was with SNL for three seasons from 1977 to 1980. S, during the first few seasons of SNL, Murray was in a romantic relationship with fellow cast member Gilda Radner. Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979 and he followed this up with his portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in 1980s Where the Buffalo Roam
Bill Murray
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Murray at the 2015
San Diego Comic-Con International
Bill Murray
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Murray at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Bill Murray
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Murray in 2014
Bill Murray
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Eric Clapton and Murray kicking off the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007
6.
Jeff Goldblum
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He also starred in several TV series including eighth and ninth seasons of Law & Order, Criminal Intent as Zack Nichols. Goldblum was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Homestead, Pennsylvania and his mother, Shirley, was a radio broadcaster who later ran a kitchen equipment and appliances sales firm, and his father, Harold L. Goldblum, was a medical doctor. He has a sister, Pamela, and an older brother, another older brother, Rick, died of kidney failure when he was 23. His family is Jewish, and had emigrated from Russia and Austria to the U. S, during his childhood, Goldblum belonged to an Orthodox synagogue and had a bar mitzvah. Goldblums parents were interested in show business, Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. He worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner and he made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is also a jazz pianist and declared that if he did not act. He made his debut as a thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo, in 1974, Goldblum appeared in Death Wish as Freak #1. Later in his career, as Lacey Party Guest in Annie Hall, Goldblum is seen saying into the telephone at a Hollywood party, This is Mr. Davis. Goldblum has had leading roles in such as The Fly, The Lost World, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Tall Guy, Vibes. For several years, Goldblum was the voice for most U. S, apple commercials, including advertisements for the iMac and iBook. Toyota commercials as well as Procter & Gambles facial cream line and he has recently appeared on Irish TV in commercials for the National Lottery. Goldblum taught acting at Playhouse West in North Hollywood with Robert Carnegie and it was with several actors from this acting company that he improvised and directed the live action short film Little Surprises, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. In September 2006, it was announced that Goldblum was one of the members of a new theater company in New York called The Fire Dept. His guest appearance was on Sesame Street in 1990 as Bobs long-lost brother Minneapolis where Big Birds friend Snuffleupagus had the golden cabbage of Snuffertiti hidden in his cave. He has also appeared on Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Colbert Report, in 2014, Goldblums jazz band did a weekly show at the Carlyle Hotel. Goldblum replaced Chris Noth as a detective on Law & Order
Jeff Goldblum
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Goldblum on July 17, 2010
Jeff Goldblum
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Goldblum in 1985
Jeff Goldblum
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Goldblum after a performance of The Pillowman, May 2005
Jeff Goldblum
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Goldblum with former spouse
Geena Davis in 1990
7.
Ken Watanabe
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Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and he is also known for his roles in director Christopher Nolans Hollywood films Batman Begins and Inception. He made his Broadway debut in April 2015 in Lincoln Center Theaters revival production of The King, in 2015, Watanabe received his first Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards for his role as The King. He is the first Japanese actor to be nominated in this category, Watanabe was born in Koide, Niigata. His mother was a teacher and his father taught calligraphy. Due to a number of relocations for his parents work, he spent his childhood in the villages of Irihirose and Sumon and he attended Niigata Prefectural Koide High School, where he was a member of the concert band club, playing trumpet, which he had played since childhood. After graduation from school, in 1978 he aimed to enter Musashino Academia Musicae. Because of these problems, Watanabe gave up trying to enter the conservatory, after graduating from high school in 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, getting his big break with the Tokyo-based theater troupe En. While with the troupe, he was cast as the hero in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari, the role attracted critical and popular notice. In 1982, he made his first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran and he made his feature-film debut in 1984 with MacArthurs Children. Watanabe is mostly known in Japan for playing samurai, as in the 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune the 50-episode NHK drama and he played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigeki Gokenin Zankurō, which ran for several seasons. He has gone on to acclaim in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chushingura. In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawas Heaven and Earth, Watanabe was diagnosed with myelogenous leukemia. He returned to acting while simultaneously undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but in 1991 suffered a relapse, as his health improved his career picked back up. He co-starred with Koji Yakusho in the 1998 Kizuna, for which he was nominated for the Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, in 2002, he quit the En theatre group where he had his start and joined the K-Dash agency. The film Sennen no Koi earned him another Japanese Academy Award nomination, in 2006, he won Best Lead Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards for his role in Memories of Tomorrow, in which he played a patient with Alzheimers Disease. Watanabe was introduced to most Western audiences in the 2003 American film The Last Samurai and his performance as Lord Katsumoto earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Watanabe appeared in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, playing Chairman Iwamura and that same year, he also played Ras al Ghuls decoy in Christopher Nolans Batman film reboot, Batman Begins
Ken Watanabe
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Ken Watanabe in 2007
8.
Greta Gerwig
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Greta Celeste Gerwig is an American actress and filmmaker. Gerwig first came to prominence through her association with the film movement. She has collaborated with directors Joe Swanberg and Noah Baumbach on several projects, notable work with Baumbach includes Greenberg in 2010, Frances Ha in 2012, and Mistress America in 2015. She starred in Whit Stillmans Damsels in Distress in 2011, and she played the title role in the 2015 drama Maggies Plan, and had supporting roles in the 2016 films Jackie and 20th Century Women. A native of Sacramento, California, Greta Gerwig is the daughter of Christine, a nurse, and Gordon Gerwig and she has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Gerwig was raised as a Unitarian Universalist, and also attended an all-girls Catholic school and she has described herself as an intense child. With an early interest in dance, she intended to do a degree in theatre in New York. She graduated from Barnard College, where she studied English and philosophy instead, outside of class, she performed in the Columbia Varsity Show alongside Kate McKinnon. Gerwig originally intended to become a playwright, but was cast in a role in Joe Swanbergs LOL in 2006. She began a partnership with the director and an association with other mumblecore filmmakers. I was 25 and thinking, This is supposed to be the best time and Im miserable but it felt like acting was happening for me and she made her first talk show appearance in 2010 on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Gerwig voices one of the characters in the Adult Swim cartoon China. In 2011, she was cast as one of the leads in the HBO pilot The Corrections, Gerwig worked with her boyfriend Noah Baumbach on his film Greenberg in 2010. Commenting on her work in Greenberg and other films, New York Times critic A. O. Scott described the actress as an ambassador of a style that often seems opposed to the very idea of style. In 2011, Gerwig received an award for Acting from the Athena Film Festival for her artistry as one of Hollywoods definitive screen actresses of her generation. Gerwig and Baumbach co-wrote Frances Ha, which was released in May 2013. In 2014 she was selected as a member of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, in February 2014, it was announced that she would lead the spin-off of How I Met Your Mother titled How I Met Your Dad. She would also serve as producer, however, the show was not picked up by the network after the initial pilot was made
Greta Gerwig
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Gerwig at the 2014
Toronto International Film Festival
Greta Gerwig
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Gerwig at the premiere of
No Strings Attached, January 11, 2011
9.
Frances McDormand
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Frances Louise McDormand is an American actress. McDormand is one of the few performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, in 1997, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Fargo. She returned to Broadway for the first time in 20 years to star in the 2008 revival of The Country Girl and her work in the films Mississippi Burning, Almost Famous and North Country, earned her Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominations. Her other films include Short Cuts, Primal Fear, Wonder Boys, Somethings Gotta Give, and The Good Dinosaur. McDormand was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was adopted by an originally from Canada – Noreen E. a registered nurse and receptionist, and Vernon W. McDormand. She has said that her mother may have been one of the parishioners at Vernons church. McDormand attended Bethany College in West Virginia, earning a Bachelor of Arts in theater in 1979, in 1982, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama. She was a roommate of Holly Hunter at the time, mcDormands first professional acting job was in Trinidad and Tobago, performing in a play written by Derek Walcott and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Her film debut was in the 1984 Coen brothers first film, in 1985, Frances, Holly Hunter and director Sam Raimi shared a house in The Bronx. In 1987, she appeared as the wacky friend Dot in the hit film Raising Arizona, starring Holly Hunter, in addition to her early film roles, McDormand played Connie Chapman in the fifth season of the television police drama Hill Street Blues. In 1988, she played Stella Kowalski in a production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire. McDormand is a member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group. McDormand appeared in theatrical and television roles during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. She has gained renown and critical acclaim for her dramatic work, in 1988, she was nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mississippi Burning. In 1996, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as police chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo. For her role in Wonder Boys, she won Best Supporting Actress from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 2006, McDormand received her nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 2005s North Country. She also had a role in the film Friends with Money, a dark comedy co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, and Joan Cusack and she received an Independent Spirit Award for her role in Friends with Money
Frances McDormand
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McDormand at 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards
10.
Courtney B. Vance
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Courtney Bernard Vance is an American actor. O. J. Simpson, in which he played Johnnie Cochran, for the latter, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He guest starred on the TNT series The Closer as Chief Tommy Delk from 2010–11, in 2013, he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in Lucky Guy. Vance was born on March 12,1960 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Leslie Anita, a librarian, and Conroy Vance and he attended Detroit Country Day School, and later graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree. While attending Harvard, Vance was already working as an actor at the Boston Shakespeare Company and he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree later at Yale School of Drama where he met fellow student and future wife Angela Bassett. Vance has earned three Tony Award nominations and he won Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Hap Hairston in Nora Ephrons Lucky Guy at the 67th Tony Awards. He was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Corey in August Wilsons Pulitzer Prize-winning and he was nominated for Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Paul in John Guares Six Degrees of Separation at the 45th Tony Awards. In 1987, he won a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as Cory Maxson in Fences and his early feature film credits include Hamburger Hill, The Hunt for Red October, The Last Supper, Dangerous Minds, and The Adventures of Huck Finn. More recently, he appeared in Robert Altmans Cookies Fortune, Penny Marshalls The Preachers Wife, Vance also starred in Love and Action in Chicago, a romantic comedy which he also co-produced. Vance played Black Panther Bobby Seale in the Melvin and Mario Van Peebles docudrama Panther, in 2008 and 2009, he guest starred in the final season of ER, alongside his wife Angela Bassett. He was also in Hurricane Season, in 2011, he starred in the American horror film Final Destination 5. Vance is set for the lead in the German-American apocalypse thriller The Divide and he also appeared in a Disney Channel Original Movie titled Let It Shine, where he played the Pastor Jacob Debarge, the main characters father. Vance co-starred with Tyler James Williams, Trevor Jackson, Coco Jones, Brandon Mychal Smith and it was the third time Vance portrayed a pastor in a motion picture. Vance has also provided the voiceover for the National Football Leagues You Want the NFL and he appeared as Chief Tommy Delk on the TNT series, The Closer from 2010 to 2011. Vance also played the role of Attorney Benjamin Brooks on four episodes of ABCs Revenge, in 2015, he portrayed Miles Dyson in Terminator Genisys. In 2016, he played the role of Johnnie Cochran in FXs American Crime Story, the series premiered on February 2,2016, and his performance was critically acclaimed by critics. Vance is married to Angela Bassett, whom he first met in 1980, together, they have twins, son Slater Josiah Vance and daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance, the twins were born on January 27,2006. He and Bassett have authored a book, Friends, A Love Story, the two also participate in the annual Christmas celebration, Candlelight Processional, at Epcot
Courtney B. Vance
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Vance in March 2007
Courtney B. Vance
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Vance with wife
Angela Bassett
11.
Fisher Stevens
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Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director, producer and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit and his most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love. He was born Steven Fisher in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sally, a painter and AIDS activist, and Norman Fisher, Steven has described himself as a thin, white Jewish kid from Chicago. He co-founded the Naked Angels Theater Company with longtime friends Rob Morrow, Nicole Burdette, Pippin Parker, Charles Landry, Nancy Travis and he also co-founded Greene Street Films, a film-production company located in Tribeca, New York City, in 1996. Stevens performed as Edgar Allan Poe on Lou Reeds album The Raven in 2003 and he is also an accomplished harmonica player. As an actor, he is known for his portrayals of Chuck Fishman on Early Edition, Seamus ONeill on Key West, Eugene The Plague Belford in Hackers, hawk Ganz in The Flamingo Kid, and Ben Jabituya/Jahveri in Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2. His television credits include Columbo, Frasier, Friends, Law & Order, Key West, Damages and he appeared on two episodes of the television series Numb3rs. Fisher also has a Broadway and off-Broadway career spanning three decades. He played Jigger Craigin in the 1994 Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers, throughout his career, he has acted in and directed more than 50 stage productions. In 2010, Fisher co-founded a new media and documentary company, Insurgent Media, with Andrew Karsch. In June 2010, Stevens made his major theatrical directing debut with John Leguizamos one-man show, Ghetto Klown, the two had appeared together in a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream at The Public Theater about 20 years earlier. On July 13,2012, PBS debuted Tales From a Ghetto Klown, in 2010, Stevens won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for co-producing The Cove. He directed the 2012 crime story Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino and he also teamed up with Alexis Bloom to direct the film Bright Lights, Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. Nina Takes a Lover Only You Cold Fever Hackers The Pompatus of Love Four Days in September The Taxman The Tic Code Sam the Man 3 A. M, the Right To Remain Silent Jenifer Is It College Yet
Fisher Stevens
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Stevens at the 2007
Toronto Film Festival
12.
Harvey Keitel
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Harvey Keitel is an American actor and producer. Along with actors Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn, he is the current co-president of the Actors Studio, Keitel was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Miriam and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland, respectively. His parents owned and ran a luncheonette and his also worked as a hat maker. Keitel grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, with his sister, Renee and he attended Abraham Lincoln High School. At the age of sixteen, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, after his return to the United States, he was a court reporter for several years and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career. Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and at the HB Studio, eventually landing roles in some Off-Broadway productions. During this time, Keitel auditioned for filmmaker Martin Scorsese and gained a role as J. R. in Scorseses first feature film. Since then, Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on several projects, Keitel had the starring role in Scorseses Mean Streets, which also proved to be Robert De Niros breakthrough film. In 1978, Keitel starred in the directorial debuts of Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now, Keitel was involved with the first week of principal photography in the Philippines. Coppola was not happy with Keitels take on Willard, stating that the found it difficult to play him a passive onlooker. After viewing the first weeks footage, Coppola replaced Keitel with a casting session favorite, Keitel drifted into obscurity through most of the 1980s. He continued to do work on stage and screen, but usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. Keitel played Judas in Martin Scorseses controversial The Last Temptation of Christ and co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, the following year, Keitel played another mobster in the Whoopi Goldberg-starring comedy Sister Act. Keitel starred in Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs in 1992, where his performance as Mr. White took his career to a different level, since then, Keitel has chosen his roles with care, seeking to change his image and show a broader acting range. One of those roles was the character in Bad Lieutenant, about a self-loathing. He co-starred in the movie The Piano in 1993, and played an efficient clean-up expert, Keitel starred as a police detective in Spike Lees Clockers. In 1999, Keitel was replaced by Sydney Pollack on the set of Stanley Kubricks Eyes Wide Shut, due to shooting conflicts, Keitel also re-teamed with Jane Campion for Holy Smoke. He also appeared in the Steinlager Pure commercials in New Zealand in 2007, unlike many American male actors, Keitel has appeared nude in several films, including full frontal nudity in Bad Lieutenant and The Piano
Harvey Keitel
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Keitel at the
2015 Cannes Film Festival
Harvey Keitel
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Harvey Keitel in November 2009
Harvey Keitel
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Keitel with singer
Harry Belafonte in New York, April 2011
Harvey Keitel
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Keitel with wife
Daphna Kastner in 2010
13.
Liev Schreiber
–
Isaac Liev Schreiber, better known as Liev Schreiber, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. Schreiber is also a stage actor, having performed in several Broadway productions. In 2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the play Glengarry Glen Ross and that year, he made his debut as a film director and writer with Everything Is Illuminated, based on the novel of the same name. He also narrates the HBO series 24/7, as well as various PBS programs, Schreiber was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Heather and Tell Carroll Schreiber, a stage actor and director. When Heather was 12, her mother was lobotomized and his mother has said that she named him after her favorite Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, while his father has stated that Schreiber was named after the doctor who saved his mothers life. His family nickname, adopted when Schreiber was a baby, is Huggy, when Schreiber was one year old, his family moved to Canada, winding up in the unincorporated rural area of Winlaw, British Columbia. Here, his half-brother, actor Pablo Schreiber, was born, prior to this time, according to Schreibers father, at the beginning of their marriage, Schreibers mother had a bad experience on LSD. Over the next four years, she was admitted to hospitals. After Schreibers father threatened to admit her to a mental institution, milgram, who was the most significant male in Schreibers youth, played the cello and owned Renoir etchings, and made his living by delivering meat to restaurants. When Schreiber was five, his parents divorced, his mother won custody, and they frequently had no electricity, hot water, or even beds. His mother was a highly cultured eccentric who supported them by splitting her time between driving a cab and creating papier-mâché puppets, on Schreibers 16th birthday, his mother bought him a motorcycle to promote fearlessness. Its both his grief and his gift and he endured her mood swings and bohemian proclivities, which included making him take Hindu names, wear yoga shirts, and forcing Liev, briefly, to go to an ashram school in Connecticut when he was 12. In high school, Liev played the bass clarinet, Schreibers mother also forbade Schreiber from seeing color movies. As a result, his actors were Charlie Chaplin and Basil Rathbone. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Schreiber, known then as Shiva Das, lived at the Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville East, in Pomfret and he also abided by his mothers vegetarian diet. In retrospect, Schreiber said in a 2008 interview that he appreciates his mothers influences, saying, Since Ive had Sasha, and I think her choices were inspired. Subsequently, Schreiber attended Friends Seminary at the time as future actress Amanda Peet. Schreiber went on to Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he began his training at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Liev Schreiber
–
Schreiber in 2012.
Liev Schreiber
–
Schreiber (right) and other actors celebrating the world premiere of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine in
Tempe, Arizona, April 27, 2009
Liev Schreiber
–
Schreiber with
Naomi Watts in 2012.
14.
Bob Balaban
–
Robert Elmer Bob Balaban is an American actor, author, producer, and director. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park, Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television. His mother acted under the name Eleanor Barry and his uncles were dominant forces in the theatre business, they founded the Balaban and Katz Theatre circuit in Chicago, a chain which included the Chicago and Uptown Theatres. Balabans father, Elmer, and uncle, Harry, founded the H & E Balaban Corporation in Chicago and they later owned a powerful group of television stations and cable television franchises. His uncle Barney Balaban was president of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years from 1936-64 and his maternal grandmothers second husband, Sam Katz, was a vice president at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer beginning in 1936. Sam had been partners with Bobs uncles Abe, Barney, John. Sam served as President of the Publix theatre division of Paramount Pictures, Balaban began his college career at Colgate University where he joined Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and then transferred to New York University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family and his paternal grandparents emigrated from Russia to Chicago, while his mothers family was from Germany, Russia, and Romania. One of his earliest appearances in film was in Midnight Cowboy, prior to that, he filled the role of Linus in the original off-Broadway production of Youre A Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1967. In 1979 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in The Inspector General, during the 1980s he appeared in films such as Altered States and 2010. He directed the Randy Quaid picture Parents, and the Armin Mueller-Stahl picture The Last Good Time, Balaban appeared in Miami Vice as reporter Ira Stone. In the 1990s, Balaban had a role on the fourth season of Seinfeld as Russell Dalrymple. He also played Warren Littlefield, a real-world NBC executive, in The Late Shift and he continued his ties to Littlefield in 2012 with his performance of Littlefields autobiography, Top of the Rock, Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. In 1999, Balaban made a guest appearance in the sitcom Friends as Phoebe Buffays father Frank in The One With Joeys Bag. In 2010, Balaban appeared as Judge Clayton Horn, the judge who presided over the obscenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In 2001, Balaban produced Gosford Park, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and he also appeared in the movie as Morris Weissman, a Hollywood producer. He appeared in an episode of Entourage as a known for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana. He directed the film Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon and he has directed several episodes of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie
Bob Balaban
–
Balaban at the 2012
Tribeca Film Festival
15.
Scarlett Johansson
–
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer. She made her debut in the fantasy comedy North. Johansson subsequently starred in Manny & Lo, and garnered acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer. She shifted to roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. Since 2010, Johansson has also portrayed the Marvel Comics character Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the 2010 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge. As a singer, Johansson has released two albums, Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up, Johansson is considered one of Hollywoods modern sex symbols, and has frequently appeared in published lists of the sexiest women in the world. As of February 2017, she is the actress of all time in North America. In 2016, she added another $1.2 billion to that box office record and her father, Karsten Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx, Sloans ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Minsk in the Russian Empire. Scarlett Johansson has a sister, Vanessa, also an actress, an older brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter. She holds both United States and Danish passports and citizenship, Johansson grew up in a household with little money, and with a mother who was a film buff. She and her brother attended PS41 elementary school in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Johansson began her training by attending and graduating from Professional Childrens School in Manhattan in 2002. Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions and she would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her debut at the age of 9, as John Ritters daughter in the fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the mystery thriller Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo. Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, after appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film, in 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasnt There
Scarlett Johansson
–
Johansson at the
San Diego Comic-Con in July 2013
Scarlett Johansson
–
Johansson at the premiere of
Girl with a Pearl Earring at
Toronto International Film Festival in 2003
Scarlett Johansson
–
Johansson at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
Scarlett Johansson
–
Johansson with
Michael Caine at the
Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2008
16.
Tilda Swinton
–
Katherine Matilda Tilda Swinton is a British actress, performance artist, model, and fashion muse, known for her roles in independent and Hollywood films. She is the recipient of two BAFTA Awards, one BIFA Award, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and has received three nominations for a Golden Globe Award. She began her career in films directed by Derek Jarman, starting with Caravaggio, followed by The Last of England, War Requiem, Swinton won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her performance as Isabella of France in Edward II. She next starred in Sally Potters Orlando, and was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress, Swinton was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in The Deep End. She followed this with appearances in Vanilla Sky, Adaptation, Young Adam and she then starred in the crime drama Julia, I Am Love, and the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Swinton later starred in the romantic fantasy drama, Only Lovers Left Alive. She is also known for her performances as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Swinton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as lawyer Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton. In 2005, Swinton was given the Richard Harris Award by the British Independent Film Awards in recognition of her contributions to the British film industry, in 2013 she was given a special tribute by the Museum of Modern Art. Swinton was born in London, the daughter of Judith Balfour and her father is a retired major general in the British Army, and was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1989 to 2000. Her paternal great-grandfather was a Scottish politician and herald, George Swinton, the Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the Middle Ages. The family is one of three families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest. Swinton attended three independent schools, Queens Gate School in London, the West Heath Girls School and also Fettes College for a brief period, West Heath was an expensive boarding school where she was a classmate and friend of Princess Diana. Children need their parents and the parents can provide. Swinton went to volunteer in Kenya during a break from college with a charity called Project Trust. In 1983, Swinton graduated from New Hall at the University of Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences, while at Cambridge, she joined the Communist Party, she later joined the Scottish Socialist Party. It was in college that Swinton began performing on stage, Swinton joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, appearing in Measure for Measure. She also worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, starring in Mann ist Mann by Manfred Karge in 1987, on television, she appeared as Julia in the 1986 mini-series Zastrozzi, A Romance based on the Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her first film was Caravaggio in 1986, directed by Derek Jarman, Swinton also played the title role in Orlando, Sally Potters film version of the novel by Virginia Woolf
Tilda Swinton
–
Tilda Swinton at the 2013
Deauville Film Festival
Tilda Swinton
–
Swinton at the 2009
Vienna International Film Festival
17.
F. Murray Abraham
–
F. Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became widely known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus and he is also known for his television and theatre work and is now a regular cast member on the award-winning television series Homeland. Abraham was born as Murray Abraham on October 24,1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Fahrid Fred Abraham, a mechanic, and his wife Josephine. His father was Assyrian and emigrated from Syria at age 5 during the 1920s famine and his mother, one of 14 children, was Italian American, and the daughter of an immigrant who worked in the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania. He had two brothers, Robert and Jack, who were killed in car accidents. Abraham was raised in El Paso, Texas, near the Mexican border and he attended Vilas Grammar School, and graduated from El Paso High School in 1958. He was a member during his teenage years. He attended Texas Western College, where he was given the best actor award by Alpha Psi Omega for his portrayal of the Indian Nocona in Comanche Eagle during the 1959–60 season. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, then studied acting under Uta Hagen in New York City and he began his acting career on the stage, debuting in a Los Angeles production of Ray Bradburys The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. Abraham added F. to his name in honor of his father. He has stated Murray Abraham just doesnt seem to say anything and it just is another name, so I thought Id frame it. Abraham made his debut as an usher in the George C. Scott comedy They Might Be Giants. By the mid-1970s, Murray had steady employment as an actor, doing commercials, Abraham can be seen as one of the undercover police officers along with Al Pacino in Sidney Lumets Serpico, and in television roles including the bad guy in one third-season episode of Kojak. He played a cabdriver in the version of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, a mechanic in the theatrical version of The Sunshine Boys. Despite these small roles, Abraham continued to do commercials and voice-over work for income, but in 1978, he decided to give them up. Frustrated with the lack of roles, Abraham said, No one was taking my acting seriously. I figured if I didnt do it, then Id have no right to the dreams Ive always had and his wife, Kate Hannan, went to work as an assistant and Abraham became a house husband. He described, I cooked and cleaned and took care of the kids and it was very rough on my macho idea of life
F. Murray Abraham
–
Abraham in 2008
18.
Yoko Ono
–
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist who is also known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. She is the wife and widow of singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles. Ono grew up in Tokyo, and studied at Gakushuin and she withdrew from her course after two years and rejoined her family in New York in 1953. She spent some time at Sarah Lawrence College, and then involved in New York Citys downtown artists scene. She first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London and she brought feminism to the forefront in her music, influencing artists as diverse as the B-52s and Meredith Monk. Ono achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, public appreciation of Onos work has shifted over time, helped by a retrospective at a Whitney Museum branch in 1989 and the 1992 release of the six-disc box set Onobox. She received a Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale in 2009, as Lennons widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in New York City, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and she has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012 Yoko Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt, the award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights. Ono continues her activism, inaugurating a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She has a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, from her marriage to Anthony Cox, Ono was born on February 18,1933, in Tokyo, to Isoko Ono and Eisuke Ono, a banker and former classical pianist. Isokos father was ennobled in 1915, isokos maternal grandfather Zenjiro Yasuda was an affiliate of the Yasuda clan and zaibatsu. Eisuke came from a line of samurai warrior-scholars. The kanji translation of Yokos first name Yoko means ocean child, Two weeks before Yokos birth, Eisuke was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. The rest of the family followed soon after, with Yoko meeting Eisuke when she was two and her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936. Yoko was enrolled in piano lessons from the age of 4, in 1937, the family was transferred back to Japan and Ono enrolled at Tokyos Gakushuin, one of the most exclusive schools in Japan. In 1940, the moved to New York City. The next year, Eisuke was transferred from New York City to Hanoi, Ono was enrolled in Keimei Gakuen, an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family
Yoko Ono
–
Yoko Ono at the
Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 2007
Yoko Ono
–
Yoko Ono at a Conference.
Yoko Ono
–
Ono and Lennon in 1980
Yoko Ono
–
Lennon and Ono recording "
Give Peace a Chance ", at the
Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, 1969
19.
Alexandre Desplat
–
Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat is a French film composer. Fox, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2, The Kings Speech, Moonrise Kingdom, Argo, Rise of the Guardians, Zero Dark Thirty, Godzilla, The Imitation Game, and Unbroken. Desplat was born in Paris, to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, after their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. Alexandre is the brother of Marie-Christine, also known as Kiki, who is leading jazz band Certains lAiment Chaud. At the age of five, he began playing piano and he also became proficient on trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis in France and Jack Hayes in the U. S. Desplat swiftly became skilled, Desplats musical interests were wide, listening to a mix of the French symphonists like Ravel and Debussy, jazz and even more exotic world music. He was also influenced by South American and African artists, among whom were Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. Being a big fan of films, Desplat set his sights on becoming a composer from an early age. He worked on his first film Le souffleur in 1986, when recording the music for his first film, he met violinist Dominique Lemonnier who became his favorite soloist, artistic director and wife. Desplat worked on many films throughout his career since the 1980s, and his big Hollywood break came in 2003 with the soundtrack for the film Girl with a Pearl Earring. Fox, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, The Ghost Writer, Daniel Auteuils remake of La Fille du Puisatier, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Desplat has composed songs that have been sung in films by such artists as Akhenaton, Kate Beckinsale, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Valérie Lemercier, Miosotis. He has also written music for the theatre, including pieces performed at the Comédie Française, Desplat has conducted performances of his music played by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Desplat has also given Master Classes at La Sorbonne in Paris, in 2007, he composed the scores for Philip Pullmans Golden Compass, Zach Helms directorial debut Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium with American composer Aaron Zigman, and the Ang Lee movie Lust, Caution. He won the 2007 BMI Film Music Award,2007 World Soundtrack Award,2007 European Film Award and he also won the Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Film Music in The Beat that My Heart Skipped. In 2008, Desplat received his second Oscar nomination for David Finchers Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Desplat received his third Oscar nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2010, both of which were won by Michael Giacchino for Up. In early 2011, Desplat began to write the music to Harry Potter and he reunited with director David Yates, who offered Desplat the opportunity to score the second part after his work on the Part 1 soundtrack in 2010 enchanted everyone in the control room. Desplats soundtrack sequel to the 2008 film Largo Winch was released in 2011 and was well received, Desplats 2011 projects included The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick, A Better Life, La Fille du Puisatier, Roman Polanskis Carnage, and George Clooneys Ides of March
Alexandre Desplat
–
Alexandre Desplat
20.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
–
Slumdog Millionaire is also Searchlights largest commercial success, with over $377 million of box office receipts, against a production budget of only $15 million. The most notable of the releases under these banners include Bill Cosby, Himself, Eating Raoul, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Reuben, Reuben, and Ziggy Stardust, in 2006, a sub-label, Fox Atomic, was created to produce and/or distribute genre films. Fox Atomic closed down in 2009, the Fox Searchlight Pictures logo is quite similar to the regular 20th Century-Fox logo, with even Alfred Newmans fanfare music accompanying it. The animation was used for Fox Videos third logo
Fox Searchlight Pictures
–
Logo used as of 2013
21.
Stop-motion
–
Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is moved in increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a fast sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or clay-mation, not all stop motion requires figures or models, many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as object animation, the term stop motion, related to the animation technique, is often spelled with a hyphen, stop-motion. Stop motion is often confused with the time lapse technique, where photographs of a live surrounding are taken at regular intervals. Time lapse is a technique whereby the frequency at which frames are captured is much lower than that used to view the sequence. When played at speed, time appears to be moving faster. Stop motion animation has a history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as if by magic, in 1902, the film Fun in a Bakery Shop used the stop trick technique in the lightning sculpting sequence. In 1907, The Haunted Hotel is a new stop motion film by J. Stuart Blackton, segundo de Chomón, from Spain, released El Hotel Eléctrico later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, A Sculptors Welsh Rarebit Nightmare was released, as was The Sculptors Nightmare, italian animator Roméo Bossetti impressed audiences with his object animation tour-de-force, The Automatic Moving Company in 1912. The great European stop motion pioneer was Wladyslaw Starewicz, who animated The Beautiful Lukanida, The Battle of the Stag Beetles, The Ant, one of the earliest clay animation films was Modelling Extraordinary, which impressed audiences in 1912. December 1916 brought the first of Willie Hopkins 54 episodes of Miracles in Mud to the big screen, also in December 1916, the first woman animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop motion. She would release her first film in 1917, an adaptation of William Shakespeares Romeo, in the turn of the century, there was another well known animator known as Willis O Brien. His work on The Lost World is well known, but he is most admired for his work on King Kong, oBriens protege and eventual successor in Hollywood was Ray Harryhausen. After learning under OBrien on the film Mighty Joe Young, Harryhausen would go on to create the effects for a string of successful and memorable films over the next three decades. These included The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea, Jason, in a 1940 promotional film, Autolite, an automotive parts supplier, featured stop motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of Franz Schuberts Military March
Stop-motion
–
A clay model of a chicken, designed to be used in a stop motion animation.
22.
Animated film
–
Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon, animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation. Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation. To display animation, a camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced. Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures, Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24,25,30, or 60 frames per second. Computer animation processes generating animated images with the general term computer-generated imagery, 3D animation uses computer graphics, while 2D animation is used for stylistic, low bandwidth and faster real-time renderings. An earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5, 200-year-old Shahr-e Sūkhté in southeastern Iran, the artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian Desert Ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. They may, of course, refer to Chinese shadow puppets, in the 19th century, the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and praxinoscope were introduced. A thaumatrope is a toy with a small disk with different pictures on each side. The phenakistoscope was invented simultaneously by Belgian Joseph Plateau and Austrian Simon von Stampfer in 1831, the phenakistoscope consists of a disk with a series of images, drawn on radi evenly space around the center of the disk. John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph, the first animated projection was created in France, by Charles-Émile Reynaud, who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, on 28 October 1892, he projected the first animation in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, they were drawn directly onto the transparent strip, in 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings. Stuart Blackton, who, because of that, is considered the father of American animation, in Europe, the French artist, Émile Cohl, created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods - the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects. There were also sections of live action in which the hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, the author of the first puppet-animated film was the Russian-born director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich
Animated film
–
A
phenakistoscope disc by
Eadweard Muybridge (1893)
Animated film
–
The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these six frames.
Animated film
–
A clay animation scene from a
Finnish television commercial
Animated film
–
Toy Story zoetrope at
Disney California Adventure creates illusion of motion using figures, rather than static pictures.
23.
Waking Life
–
Waking Life is a 2001 American adult animated docufiction film, directed by Richard Linklater. It is the first animated film released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, the film explores a wide range of philosophical issues including the nature of reality, dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. Waking Life is centered on a man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions. The film contains several parallels to Linklaters 1991 film Slacker, ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters from Before Sunrise in one scene. Waking Life premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, Waking Life is about an unnamed young man living an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events and that eventually progresses toward an existential crisis. Other scenes do not even include the presence, but rather, focus on a random isolated person, group of people. Gradually, the protagonist begins to realize that he is living out a perpetual dream, so far he is mostly a passive onlooker, though this changes during a chat with a passing woman who suddenly approaches him. After she greets him and shares her creative ideas with him, afterwards, he starts to converse more openly with other dream characters, but he begins to despair about being trapped in a dream. The protagonists final talk is with a character who looks similar to the protagonist himself. The protagonist is last seen walking into a driveway when he begins to levitate. The protagonist uncertainly reaches toward the handle, but is too swiftly lifted above the vehicle. He rises into the blue expanse of the sky until he disappears from view. Adding to the effect, the film used an animation technique based on rotoscoping. Animators overlaid live action footage with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed and this technique is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoscoping itself, however, was not Bakshis invention, but that of experimental silent film maker Max Fleischer, a variety of artists were employed, so the feel of the movie continually changes, and gets stranger as time goes on. The result is a surreal, shifting dreamscape, the animators used expensive off-the-shelf Apple Macintosh computers. Linklater used this animation method again for his 2006 film A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2001, and was given a limited release in the United States on October 19,2001. Critical reaction has been mostly positive, roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, describing it as a cold shower of bracing, clarifying ideas
Waking Life
–
Theatrical release poster
