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San Fernando Valley
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The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in Los Angeles County, California, defined by the mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it. Home to 1.8 million people, it lies north of the larger, nearly two thirds of the valleys land area is part of the city of Los Angeles. The other incorporated cities in the valley are Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, Hidden Hills, the Los Angeles River begins at the confluence of Calabasas Creek and Bell Creek, between Canoga Park High School and Owensmouth Ave. in Canoga Park. These creeks headwaters are in the Santa Monica Calabasas foothills, the Simi Hills Hidden Hills, Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the river flows eastward along the southern regions of the Valley. One of the rivers two unpaved sections can be found at the Sepulveda Basin, a seasonal river, the Tujunga Wash, drains much of the western facing San Gabriel Mountains and passes into and then through the Hansen Dam Recreation Center in Lake View Terrace. It flows south along the Verdugo Mountains through the communities of the valley to join the Los Angeles River in Studio City. Other notable tributaries of the river include Dayton Creek, Caballero Creek, Bull Creek, Pacoima Wash, the elevation of the floor of the valley varies from about 600 ft to 1,200 ft above sea level. Universal City, an enclave in the part of the valley, is unincorporated land housing the Universal Studios filming lot. Mulholland Drive, which runs along the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains, in this Mediterranean climate, post-1790s European agriculture for the missions support consisted of grapes, figs, olives, and general garden crops. The San Fernando Valley contains five incorporated cities—Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, Hidden Hills and Calabasas—and part of a sixth, Los Angeles, the unincorporated communities are governed by the County of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles city section of the valley is divided into seven city districts,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 12. Of the 95 neighborhood councils in the city,34 are in the valley, the valley is represented in the California State Legislature by seven members of the State Assembly and five members of the State Senate. The valley is divided into five congressional districts, the San Fernando Valley, for the most part, tends to support Democrats in state and national elections. This is especially true in the areas which include Sherman Oaks. The Los Angeles satellite administrative center for the valley, The Civic Center Van Nuys, is in Van Nuys. The area in and around the Van Nuys branch of Los Angeles City Hall is home to a station, municipal and superior courts. Northridge is home to California State University, Northridge, many branches of the Los Angeles Public Library are located in the valley. For independent libraries see Incorporated Cities in the Municipalities and districts list below, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, and independent valley city departments
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Santa Monica, California
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Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736, due in part to an agreeable climate, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its core, significant job growth. The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination, Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. Named after the Christian saint Monica, there are two different accounts of how the name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her sons early impiety. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848, in the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure. By 1885, the towns first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel, around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica, the two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field for the Douglas Aircraft Company, in 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles in 175 days, the Douglas Company kept facilities in the city until the 1960s. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply, one report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt, in the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall, the main Post Office and Barnum Hall were also among other WPA projects
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Romantic comedy film
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Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is a movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. Another definition states that its primary distinguishing feature is a plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. Romantic comedy films are a genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. However a romantic comedy is classified as a film with two genres not a new genre. Some television series can also be classified as romantic comedies, a wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. The basic plot of a comedy is that two characters meet, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other, the protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external obstacles to their being together. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them realizes that they are ideal for each other, or that they are in love with each other. Then, after one of the two makes some effort to find the other person and declare their love, or through an astonishing coincidental encounter. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other, the couple does not, however, have to marry, or live together happily ever after. The ending of a comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists lives. There are many variations on this basic plotline, sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each others arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character. Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, the basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Some comedy films, such as Knocked Up, combine themes of romantic comedies and stoner comedies, often known as bromance, such films usually use sexual elements which bring the two characters together. Films in this genre include American Pie 2 and even Wedding Crashers, romantic comedies have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory
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Pretty Woman
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Pretty Woman is a 1990 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall from a screenplay by J. F. Lawton. The film stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and features Hector Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, Laura San Giacomo, originally intended to be a dark cautionary tale about class and sex work in Los Angeles, the film was reconceived as a romantic comedy with a large budget. It was widely successful at the box office and became one of the films of 1990. The film received positive reviews, with Robertss performance being praised, for which she received a Golden Globe Award, in addition, screenwriter J. F. Lawton was nominated for a Writers Guild Award and a BAFTA Award. Leaving a party, he takes his lawyers Lotus Esprit luxury car and he stops for her, having difficulties driving the car, and asks for directions to Beverly Hills. He asks her to get in and guide him to the Beverly Hills Regent Hotel and it becomes clear that Vivian knows more about the Lotus than he does, and he lets her drive. Vivian charges Lewis $20 for the ride, and they separate and that evening, visibly moved by her transformation, Edward begins seeing Vivian in a different light. He begins to open up to her, revealing his personal, Edward takes Vivian to a polo match in hopes of networking for his business deal. His attorney, Phillip, suspects Vivian is a corporate spy, Phillip later approaches Vivian, suggesting they do business once her work with Edward is finished. Insulted, and furious that Edward has revealed their secret, Vivian wants to end the arrangement, Edward apologizes, and admits to feeling jealous of a business associate to whom Vivian paid attention at the match. Vivians straightforward personality is rubbing off on Edward, and he finds himself acting in unaccustomed ways, clearly growing involved, Edward takes Vivian in his private jet to see La Traviata in San Francisco. Vivian is moved to tears by the story of the prostitute who falls in love with a man, after the opera. Vivian breaks her no kissing on the rule, and he offers to put her up in an apartment so she can be off the streets. Hurt, she refuses, says this is not the tale she dreamed of as a child. Meeting with the tycoon whose shipbuilding company he is in the process of raiding and his time with Vivian has shown him a different way of looking at life, and he suggests working together to save the company rather than tearing it apart and selling off the pieces. Phillip, furious at losing so much money, goes to the hotel to confront Edward, blaming her for the change in Edward, he attempts to rape her. Edward arrives, punches him in the face, and throws him out, with his business in L. A. complete, Edward asks Vivian to stay one more night with him -- because she wants to, not because hes paying her. Richard Gere as Edward Lewis, a corporate raider and womanizer from New York
5.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
6.
Broadcasting
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Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers. Before this, all forms of communication were one-to-one, with the message intended for a single recipient. Over the air broadcasting is usually associated with radio and television, the receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively small subset, the point is that anyone with the appropriate receiving technology and equipment can receive the signal. The field of broadcasting includes both government-managed services such as radio, community radio and public television, and private commercial radio. The U. S. Code of Federal Regulations, title 47, part 97 defines broadcasting as transmissions intended for reception by the general public, private or two-way telecommunications transmissions do not qualify under this definition. For example, amateur and citizens band radio operators are not allowed to broadcast, as defined, transmitting and broadcasting are not the same. Transmissions using a wire or cable, like television, are also considered broadcasts. In the 2000s, transmissions of television and radio programs via streaming digital technology have increasingly been referred to as broadcasting as well, the earliest broadcasting consisted of sending telegraph signals over the airwaves, using Morse code, a system developed in the 1830s by Samuel F. B. Morse, physicist Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail and they developed an electrical telegraph system which sent pulses of electric current along wires which controlled an electromagnet that was located at the receiving end of the telegraph system. A code was needed to transmit natural language using only these pulses, Morse therefore developed the forerunner to modern International Morse code. Audio broadcasting began experimentally in the first decade of the 20th century, by the early 1920s radio broadcasting became a household medium, at first on the AM band and later on FM. Television broadcasting started experimentally in the 1920s and became widespread after World War II, satellite broadcasting was initiated in the 1960s and moved into general industry usage in the 1970s, with DBS emerging in the 1980s. Originally all broadcasting was composed of signals using analog transmission techniques but in the 2000s. In general usage, broadcasting most frequently refers to the transmission of information, Analog audio vs. HD Radio Analog television vs.9 zettabytes. This is the equivalent of 55 newspapers per person per day in 1986. Historically, there have been several methods used for broadcasting electronic media audio and/or video to the public, Telephone broadcasting. Telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone services for news and entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s. These telephone-based subscription services were the first examples of electrical/electronic broadcasting, Radio broadcasting, audio signals sent through the air as radio waves from a transmitter, picked up by an antenna and sent to a receiver
7.
74th Academy Awards
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The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, took place on March 24,2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories honoring films released in 2001, the ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the fourth time and she first hosted the 66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the 71st ceremony in 1999. A Beautiful Mind won four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Ron Howard, other winners included The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring also with four awards, Black Hawk Down and Moulin Rouge. With two, and The Accountant, For the Birds, Gosford Park, Iris, Monsters Ball, Monsters, murder on a Sunday Morning, No Mans Land, Pearl Harbor, Shrek, Thoth, and Training Day, with one. Despite a record length of four hours and twenty-three minutes, the telecast garnered nearly 42 million viewers in the United States, the Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring earned the most nominations with thirteen. It was the film to earn that many nominations. A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge, tied for second place with eight apiece. The winners were announced during the ceremony on March 24,2002. Denzel Washington was the second African-American to win Best Actor in a Leading Role, halle Berry became the first African-American to win Best Actress in a Leading Role. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger, Sidney Poitier Robert Redford Arthur Hiller The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers. The Academy wanted to find a new venue for the festivities amid limited seating and this was the first time the ceremony was held in Hollywood since the 32nd ceremony took place at the Pantages Theatre in 1960. In view of the return of the Oscars to Hollywood, the Academy hired film producer, AMPAS president Frank Pierson explained the decision to hire Ziskin saying, This show is one of the most difficult—if not the most difficult—producing jobs in show business. Laura Ziskin brings intelligence, experience and wit expressed in everything she has done and this marked the first occurrence that a woman produced the Oscars solo. Four months later, Whoopi Goldberg was selected as host of the 2002 ceremony, I look forward to collaborating with Whoopi to put on a meaningful and entertaining evening. Furthermore, the September 11 attacks affected the telecast and its surrounding events, however, due to security concerns the Academy announced that red carpet bleacher seats would now be limited on a reservation basis based on a random selection and a background check. Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony, actors Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland served as announcers during the show. The orchestra led by composer and telecast musical supervisor John Williams
8.
79th Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Laura Ziskin, Actress Ellen DeGeneres hosted for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on February 10, the Departed won four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Martin Scorsese. The telecast garnered nearly 40 million viewers in the United States, dreamgirls received the most nominations with eight, and Babel came in second with seven. This marked the first and only occurrence that the film with the most nominations was not a Best Picture nominee, the winners were announced during the awards ceremony on February 25,2007. With his latest unsuccessful nomination for Best Actor, Peter OToole became the most nominated performer without a competitive win, Best Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Hudson was the fifteenth Oscar acting winner to win for a debut film performance. I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth became the first song from a film to win Best Original Song. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger, ennio Morricone — In recognition of his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music. Sherry Lansing The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers, because of the declining viewership of recent Academy Awards ceremonies, producer Gil Cates declined to helm the upcoming festivities. The Academy sought ideas to revamp the show while renewing interest with the nominated films, in September 2006, the Academy selected producer Laura Ziskin to oversee production of the telecast for a second time. Nearly three months later, actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who had previously emceed three Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies between 2001 and 2005, was chosen as host of the 2007 ceremony. In an article published in the Los Angeles Times, Ziskin explained the decision to hire DeGeneres saying Certainly, shes popular with a very wide audience. She is not a niche performer and she touches a lot of demographics. AMPAS christened this years telecast with a theme celebrating movie quotes, in tandem with the theme, advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day designed the official ceremony poster featuring 75 quotes from several Oscar-nominated or winning films. To stir interest surrounding the awards, filmmaker Spike Lee released a trailer featuring everyday people around New York City reciting famous film lines, during the ceremony, a montage produced by director Nancy Meyers saluted the work of screenwriters and their contributions to film. Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony, william Ross served as musical director for the ceremony. J. Michael Riva designed a new set and stage design for the ceremony, voice actor Don LaFontaine was hired with Gina Tuttle as announcers for the telecast. Actor Greg Vaughan and Lucky columnist Allyson Waterman co-hosted Road to the Oscars, members of the dance troupe and contortionist group Pilobolus performed interpretive shadow figures representing scenes and logos from the nominated films
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Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
10.
University of Southern California
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The University of Southern California is a private research university founded in 1880 with its main campus in Los Angeles, California. As Californias oldest private university, USC has historically educated a large number of the regions business leaders. In recent decades, the university has also leveraged its location in Los Angeles to establish relationships with research and cultural institutions throughout Asia, an engine for economic activity, USC contributes $8 billion annually to the economy of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and California. For the 2014–15 academic year, there were 18,740 students enrolled in undergraduate programs. USC also has 23,729 graduate and professional students in a number of different programs, including business, law, engineering, social work, and medicine. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the world, consistently ranking among the top 3 in external contributions, multiple academic rankings list the University of Southern California as being among the top 25 universities in the United States. With an acceptance rate of 16 percent, USC is also among the most selective academic institutions in the nation. USC maintains a tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship, with alumni having founded companies such as Lucasfilm, Myspace, Salesforce. com, Intuit, Qualcomm, Box, Tinder. As of 2014, the university has produced the fourth largest number of billionaire alumni out of all institutions in the world. USC is home to the world’s most powerful computer, which is presently housed in a super-cooled. The only other commercially available quantum computing system is operated jointly by NASA, USC was also one of the earliest nodes on ARPANET and is the birthplace of the Domain Name System. Other technologies invented at USC include DNA computing, dynamic programming, image compression, VoIP, USC sponsors a variety of intercollegiate sports and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Members of the teams, the Trojans, have won 102 NCAA team championships, ranking them third in the nation. Trojan athletes have won 288 medals at the Olympic games, more than any university in the United States. If USC were a country, its athletes would have received the 12th-most Olympic gold medals in history. In 1969, it joined the Association of American Universities, the University of Southern California was founded following the efforts of Judge Robert M. Hellman. The three donated 308 lots of land to establish the campus and provided the seed money for the construction of the first buildings. Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, the school mandated from the start that no student would be denied admission because of race, the university is no longer affiliated with any church, having severed formal ties in 1952
11.
USC School of Cinematic Arts
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The USC School of Cinematic Arts is a private film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The school offers undergraduate and graduate programs from seven divisions including the John C. Their degree programs cover production, screenwriting, cinema & media studies, animation and digital arts, additional advanced programs include the Media Arts and Practice PhD Program, the Peter Stark Producing Program, and the Business of Entertainment. The schools founding faculty include Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith, deMille, Ernst Lubitsch, Irving Thalberg, Mary Pickford, and Darryl Zanuck. In April 2006, the USC Board of Trustees voted to change the name to the USC School of Cinematic Arts. On September 19,2006, USC announced that alumnus George Lucas had donated US$175 million to expand the school with a new 137. This represented the largest single donation to USC and the largest to any school in the world. His previous donations resulted in the naming of two existing buildings after him and his then-wife, though Lucas was not fond of the used in those buildings. An architectural hobbyist, Lucas laid out the designs for the project. The project also received another $50 million in contributions from Warner Bros. 20th Century Fox, in the fall of 2006, the USC School of Cinematic Arts joined forces with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan to create the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Aqaba, Jordan. The first classes were held in 2008, and the first graduating class for the university was in 2010, the Frank Sinatra Hall, dedicated in 2002, houses a public exhibit and collection of extensive memorabilia commemorating Sinatras life and contributions to American popular culture. He is seen holding a weapon in one hand to reflect his strong ties with the USC Fencing Club. Since 1973, at least one alumnus of SCA has been nominated for an Academy Award annually, since 1973, at least one SCA alumnus or alumna has been nominated for the Emmy Award annually, totalling 473 nominations and 119 wins. The top 17 grossing films of all time have had an SCA graduate in a key creative position, the Princeton Review has ranked the Interactive Media and Games Divisions video game design program best in North America multiple years in a row. Blume also received an Academy Award nomination that year for documentary short, the films crew and cast included Nick Castle, cinematographer, John Carpenter, film editor and original music, James Rokos, director, Johnny Crawford, lead actor, and Kristin Nelson, lead actress. In 1973, Robert Zemeckis won a Special Jury Award at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences second annual Student Film Awards presentation for A Field of Honor. In 2001, MFA student David Greenspan won the Palme d’Or for short film at the Cannes Film Festival for his student film Bean Cake. In 2006, director, co-writer, and producer Ari Sandel received an Academy Award for best live action film made as a USC Cinema graduate school project
12.
A Star Is Born (1976 film)
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It is a remake of two earlier versions – the 1937 version was a drama starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and the 1954 version was a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Believing in her talent, John gives her a helping hand and her career begins to eclipse his. Writer and director Frank Pierson, in his New West magazine article My Battles With Barbra and Jon summarized it thusly, An actress is a more than a woman. The woman in our story is ambitious to become a star, but it is not necessary, it can make her happier and richer, with stardom she is only a little more than a woman. His career is also gives him his sense of who he is. Without it, he is lost and confused, his demons eat him alive, thats why he is a little less than a man. And it is not that her success galls him, or that she wins over him, and so the conclusion is measured by the theme. He takes his life in the belief that he will then not drag her down with him. G. Wellman and Robert Carson with additional contributions by Pierson, John Gregory Dunne and it also features Gary Busey and Sally Kirkland. Venetta Fields and Clydie King perform as Streisands backing vocalists The Oreos, kristoffersons then wife Rita Coolidge and Tony Orlando appear briefly as themselves. The earlier films had portrayed the world of Hollywood film making. However, this version adapted the story to the music business, for example, the 1937 and 1954 films each portrayed the lead female character winning an Academy Award, while the 1976 version depicted the heroine winning a Grammy Award instead. A Star Is Born was co-produced by Streisand and her then-partner Jon Peters for Barwood Films and Warner Brothers with Peters as the main producer, among the actors considered for the male lead were Neil Diamond and Marlon Brando. Both Streisand and Peters wanted Elvis Presley for the role, they met with Elvis and discussed the film, parker also did not want to have Elvis portrayed as having a show business career that was in decline. This in fact was far from the truth, with Elvis playing to packed auditoriums wherever he toured in the States, the film cost around $6 million to produce. Its soundtrack album was also a success reaching number 1 in many countries. The filming locations included many in Arizona such as downtown Tucson, Tucson Community Center, Sonoita, Streisands characters clothing was straight out of Streisands own closet. The actual credit reads, Miss Streisands clothes from, the film was choreographed by David Winters of West Side Story fame, who worked closely with Streisand to perfect the movies dancing sequences
13.
Barbra Streisand
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Barbara Joan Barbra Streisand is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker. She is among a group of entertainers who have been honored with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Streisand is one of the music artists of all time, with more than 68.5 million albums in the United States. She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl, for which she won the Academy Award, with the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical, Streisand received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the first woman to win that award. The RIAA and Billboard recognize Streisand as holding the record for the most top 10 albums of any recording artist. According to Billboard, Streisand holds the record for the female with the most number one albums, Billboard also recognizes Streisand as the greatest female of all time on its Billboard 200 chart and one of the greatest artists of all time on its Hot 100 chart. Barbara Joan Streisand was born on April 24,1942, in Brooklyn, New York and her mother had been a soprano singer in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary. Her father was a school teacher at the same school. Streisands family was Jewish, her grandparents emigrated from Galicia and her maternal grandparents from the Russian Empire. Her father earned a degree from City College of New York in 1928 and was considered athletic. As a student, he spent his summers outdoors, once working as a lifeguard, hed try anything, his sister Molly said. He married Ida in 1930, two years after graduating, and became a respected educator with a focus on helping underprivileged. In August 1943, a few months after Streisands first birthday, her father died suddenly at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, the family fell into near-poverty, with her mother working as a low-paid bookkeeper. As an adult, Streisand remembered those early years as always feeling like an outcast, explaining and her mother tried to pay their bills but could not give her daughter the attention she craved, When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food, Streisand says. Streisand recalls that her mother had a voice and sang semi-professionally on occasion. During a visit to the Catskills when Streisand was thirteen, she told Rosie ODonnell, she and that session was the first time Streisand ever asserted herself as an artist, which also became her first moment of inspiration as an artist. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister
14.
Sally Field
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Sally Margaret Field is an American film and television actress and director. Field began her career in television, starring on the sitcoms Gidget and she ventured into film with Smokey and the Bandit and later Norma Rae, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. She later received Golden Globe Award nominations for her performances in Absence of Malice and Kiss Me Goodbye, Field received further nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for Murphys Romance and Steel Magnolias. In the 2000s, she returned to television with a role on the NBC medical drama ER. She also appeared as Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man and reprised the role in the 2014 sequel. As a director, Field is known for the television film The Christmas Tree, in 2014, she was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sally Field was born in Pasadena, California, to Margaret, mr. Field was an army officer. Following her parents 1950 divorce, her mother married actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney, through her maternal grandmothers genealogical line, Field is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger and colonial governor William Bradford, her 10 times great-grandfather. As a teen, Field attended Portola Middle School and Birmingham High School in Van Nuys and her classmates included financier Michael Milken, actress Cindy Williams, and talent agent Michael Ovitz. Field got her start on television as the surfer girl in the sitcom Gidget. The show was not a success and was canceled after a single season, however, summer reruns garnered respectable ratings. Wanting to find a new starring vehicle for Field, ABC next produced The Flying Nun with Field cast as Sister Bertrille for three seasons, from 1967 to 1970. In an interview included on the Season One DVD release, Field said that she thoroughly enjoyed Gidget, Field was then typecast, finding respectable roles difficult to come by. In 1971, Field starred in the ABC TV movie Maybe Ill Come Home in the Spring, playing a teen runaway who returns home with a bearded. She made several guest television appearances through the mid 1970s, including a role on the western Alias Smith and Jones and she also appeared in the episode Whisper on the TV thriller Night Gallery. In 1973, Field was cast in a role opposite John Davidson in the short-lived series The Girl with Something Extra from 1973 to 1974. Following the series cancellation, Field studied at the Actors Studio with the acting teacher Lee Strasberg, Strasberg became a mentor to the actress, helping her to move past her television image of the girl next door. It was during time period that Field divorced her first husband in 1975
15.
Murphy's Romance
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Murphys Romance is a 1985 American romantic comedy film directed by Martin Ritt. The screenplay by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch was based on the 1980 novella by Max Schott, the film stars Sally Field, James Garner, Brian Kerwin, and Corey Haim, and was produced by Laura Ziskin for Fields production company Fogwood Films. The films theme song, Love for the Last Time, is performed by Carole King, Emma Moriarty is a 33-year-old, divorced mother who moves to a rural Arizona town to make a living by training and boarding horses. While refusing to help her outright with charity or personal loan, Murphy buys a horse and pays to board it with Emma, while encouraging others to do the same. He also introduces Emma to the local politicians and provides much-needed emotional support for Emma as well as Jake. A rivalry soon develops between Murphy and Bobby Jack and this contest of wills continues until a character shows up from Bobby Jacks recent past that surprises everyone, while forcing Murphy and Emma to reevaluate the nature of their relationship. Columbia didnt want to make the picture at all, because it had no sex or violence in it. But because of the success of Norma Rae, with the star, director, and screenwriting team. But, Columbia then wanted Marlon Brando, or someone with greater box-office allure, to play the part of Murphy, so Field and Ritt had to insist on Garner. Field had worked successfully with Newman in 1981s Absence of Malice. On the A&E television program Biography of Garner, James Garner, Hollywood Maverick, filming took place on location in Florence, Arizona and the towns preserved Main Street appears throughout the movie. They did a limited, selected, release December 25,1985 so that the film would qualify for that years Academy Awards, the film was one of the final titles to be released on the now defunct CED Videodisc format in 1986. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars stating Much depends on exactly what Emma and Murphy say to other, and how they say it. The movie gets it all right, the film holds a 71% on the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews. The screenplay is very different from the Max Schott novella, in the Schott story, Murphy and Emma stay just platonic friends. Murphy marries someone else, and then tries to find Emma a suitable husband, murphys Romance received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and for Best Cinematography. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists,2002, AFIs 100 Years
16.
No Way Out (1987 film)
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No Way Out is a 1987 American political thriller drama film. It stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, and Sean Young, will Patton, Howard Duff, George Dzundza, Jason Bernard, Fred Thompson and Iman appear in supporting roles. The film is a remake of The Big Clock, both films are based on Kenneth Fearings 1946 novel The Big Clock. Filming locations included Baltimore, Annapolis, Arlington, Washington, D. C. and Auckland, the film features original music by Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre. In a suburban house, U. S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell is asked by two men about how he first met Secretary of Defense David Brice. In a flashback, Farrell is invited to a ball by his college buddy Scott Pritchard. Pritchard, Brices General Counsel, hopes that Brice will transfer Farrell to the Pentagon, on meeting Farrell, Brice is unimpressed and virtually ignores him. Moments later, Farrell begins flirting with another guest, Susan Atwell, the two make love in her limousine and begin a secret relationship, even though she admits to also being involved with a married man. Farrell returns to sea and rescues a crewman from being washed overboard during a storm, Brice reads a newspaper story about the rescue and orders Farrell transferred to his intelligence staff. After Susan and Farrell return from a weekend, her married lover - Secretary Brice - arrives at her door. After urging a hurt and jealous Farrell to leave through the back door, Brice sees a man leaving Susans house but cannot see that it was Farrell. After Susan lets him in, an enraged Brice demands to know the name of her other lover, Brice resists, and ultimately pushes Susan to her death over an upstairs railing. After calling Pritchard, Brice is ready to turn himself in, but Pritchard suggests that if the other man was made out to be a suspected KGB sleeper agent code-named Yuri, then the other mans elimination could be made a matter of national security. Pritchard cleans Susans house of all evidence that Brice was there, the negative shows a very poor, unidentifiable image of a man. Unaware that Farrell was in a relationship with Susan, Brice orders him to find and arrest Yuri, Farrell is told that the city police have not been informed, and that CID officers, commanded by Major Donovan, have been assigned to conduct the investigation. Meanwhile, to protect his concocted story, Pritchard sends two former CIA assassins to eliminate everyone who knew of Brices affair with Susan, beginning with her girlfriends. Attempts to enhance the photo negative begin to bear fruit due to Sam Hesselman, meanwhile, Farrell sets out to conclusively link Brice to Susan by searching computer files for evidence that Brice gave her a Government-registered gift from the Moroccan Foreign Minister. Needing more time, Farrell convinces Hesselman to delay the work on the photograph, CID officers bring two witnesses to Donovan who have seen Yuri with Susan during their romantic weekend
17.
Orion Pictures
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It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion achieved a high reputation for Hollywood quality. Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, of the films distributed by Orion, four won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Amadeus, Platoon, Dances with Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs. Two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters and Mississippi Burning, were nominated for same category. In 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived the Orion name for television, a year later Orion Pictures was quietly relaunched by the studio, in January 1978, three executives of Transamerica -owned studio United Artists – Arthur B. Krim, Eric Pleskow, and Robert S. Benjamin - quit their jobs, Krim and Benjamin had headed UA since 1951, and subsequently turned around the then-flailing studio with a number of critical and commercial successes. Change had begun once Transamerica purchased UA in 1967, and within a decade a rift formed between Krim and TA chairman Jack Beckett regarding the studios operations, Krim suggested spinning off United Artists into a separate company, which was rejected by Beckett. The last straw came for Pleskow when he refused to collect, Krim, Benjamin, and Pleskow quit United Artists on January 13,1978, followed by the exits of senior vice presidents William Bernstein and Mike Medavoy three days later. In February 1978, the five men forged a deal with Warner Bros, the executives formed Orion Pictures Company, named after the constellation, which they claimed had five main stars. The new company intended only to projects, giving the filmmakers complete creative autonomy. Orion held a $100 million line of credit, and its films would be distributed by the Warner Bros. studio, Orion, however, was contractually given free rein over distribution and advertising, as well as the number and type of films the executives chose to invest in. In late March 1978, Orion signed its first contract, a deal with John Travoltas production company. Orion also developed a co-financing and distribution deal with EMI Films, Orions first film, A Little Romance, was released in April that year. That year, Orion released Blake Edwards 10, which became a big critical and commercial success, other films released in that period included Caddyshack, The Great Santini, a critically praised but underpromoted adaptation of a Pat Conroy novel, and Promises in the Dark. Out of the 23 films Orion released between April 1979 and December 1981, only a third of them made a profit, Orion executives were conflicted over financing big-budgeted films and passed on Raiders of the Lost Ark for that reason. By early 1982, Orion had severed its ties with Warner. As part of the deal, the rights to Orions films made up to that point were sold to Warner, Orion was now looking to have its own distribution network by acquiring another company with such capabilities. The four partners looked into Allied Artists and Embassy Pictures before settling on Filmways, Orion subsequently purchased Filmways and reorganized the flailing company
18.
Dennis Quaid
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Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs, for his role in Far from Heaven he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor and several other accolades. Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita B, nita Quaid, a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid, an electrician. Quaid has English, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Cajun ancestry, Quaid dropped out of the University of Houston before graduating and moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. He initially had trouble finding work but began to notice when he appeared in Breaking Away. Known for his grin, Quaid has appeared in comedic and dramatic roles. Quaid had starring roles in the films Enemy Mine, Innerspace and he also achieved acclaim for his portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire. In 1989, he appeared throughout the Bonnie Raitt music video for the song Thing Called Love. He continued to garner positive reviews in a variety of films, Quaid was also the guest star of a season 2 episode of Muppets Tonight. I. Joe, The Rise of Cobra, and Pandorum, in 2009, Quaid guest starred in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, playing Mr. Krabs grandfather, Captain Redbeard. He portrayed U. S. President Bill Clinton, alongside Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton, in 2012 and 2013, Quaid played Sheriff Ralph Lamb in the CBS TV drama series Vegas. In 2017 he starred in A Dogs Purpose, billed as a celebration of the connection between humans and their dogs. He received nominations for Best Supporting Actor from the Golden Globe Awards, the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards, Quaid was also honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Houston, in April 2012. Quaid has been married three times and has three children, Quaid and his first wife, actress P. J. Soles, were married on November 25,1978. On February 14,1991, Quaid married actress Meg Ryan, Quaid and Ryan fell in love during the shooting of their second film together, D. O. A. Quaid and Ryan have a son, Jack Henry and they announced their separation on June 28,2000, saying they had been separated six weeks by then. Their divorce was finalized July 16,2001, Meg Ryan later revealed to InStyle Quaid had been unfaithful to her for a long time while they were married. Quaid dated model Shanna Moakler in 2001 and they were together when she was approached by Playboy, and they discussed it before she posed nude in the magazine
19.
D.O.A. (1988 film)
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D. O. A. is a 1988 American crime-thriller film and a remake of the 1950 film noir of the same name. While it shares the same premise, it has a different story, the film was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, and scripted by Charles Edward Pogue. The writers of the film, Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene. It stars Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, and Charlotte Rampling, the movie was filmed in Austin, Texas and San Marcos, Texas. A man staggers into the station to report a murder. When the desk sergeant asks who was murdered, he answers and that man is Professor Dexter Cornell, who then sits down to video-tape his account. Thirty-six hours previously, Cornell is on campus and he is a college professor, was once a promising writer, made his name and is secure in his tenure, but he has spent the last four years going through the motions and playing it safe. Publish or perish is the rule of university politics and Cornell helps his friend Hal Petersham with his first book. While he is in his office, a student, Nick Lang. This, coupled with the depressing Christmas season, unseasonably hot weather, there he meets admiring student Sydney Fuller and they proceed to get drunk. The next morning, Cornell, feeling his sickness is more than just a hangover, after running some tests, they discover that he has been poisoned and has 36 hours to live. An incredulous Cornell staggers out to try to sense of it all. Aided by Fuller, whom he kidnaps by super-gluing himself to her arm, the list of suspects includes his wife, who is also the victim of a murder, which the police make half-hearted efforts to pin on Cornell. It is learned that Lang was not a suicide but was also murdered, Cornell also suspects Langs mentor Mrs. Fitzwaring, Bernard the Fitzwarings chauffeur and Graham Corey, a jealous co-worker. In the end, at the station, Cornell has solved the crime. His friend Hal had read and was so impressed by Nick Langs manuscript that he decided to kill Nick, however, this involved killing anyone who knew that Nick was the original author, including Dexter. After a scuffle, Dexter shoots Hal who then falls out his office window, Dexter resigns himself to his fate. Dennis Quaid as Professor Dexter Cornell Meg Ryan as Sydney Fuller Daniel Stern as Hal Petersham Charlotte Rampling as Mrs. O. A, opened to mixed reviews and currently has a rating of 61% on Rotten Tomatoes
20.
D.O.A. (1949 film)
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D. O. A. is a 1950 American film noir directed by Rudolph Maté, considered a classic of the genre. The frantically paced plot revolves around a mans quest to find out who has poisoned him. This film marks the debuts of Beverly Garland and Laurette Luez, the film stars Edmond OBrien and Pamela Britton. Popkin produced D. O. A. for his short-lived Cardinal Pictures, due to a filing error the copyright to the film was not renewed on time, causing it to fall into the public domain. The Internet Movie Database shows that 22 companies offer the VHS or DVD versions, the film begins with what a BBC reviewer called perhaps one of cinemas most innovative opening sequences. The scene is a long, behind-the-back tracking sequence featuring Frank Bigelow walking through the hallway of a station to report his own murder. Oddly, the police almost seem to have been expecting him, a flashback begins with Bigelow in his hometown of Banning, California, where he is an accountant and notary public. He decides to take a vacation in San Francisco, but this does not sit well with Paula Gibson, his confidential secretary and girlfriend. Bigelow accompanies a group from a convention on a night on the town. At a jive nightclub called The Fisherman, unnoticed by Bigelow, the nightclub scene includes one of the earliest depictions of the Beat subculture. The next morning, Bigelow feels ill and he visits a doctors office, where tests reveal he swallowed a luminous toxin for which there is no antidote. A second opinion confirms the diagnosis, and the other doctor implies that the poisoning must have been deliberate. Bigelow remembers his drink tasted strange, with a few days to live at most, Bigelow sets out to untangle the events behind his impending death, interrupted occasionally by phone calls from Paula. She provides the first clue, a man named Eugene Phillips, from there, the trail leads to Phillips widow and brother Stanley. The key to the mystery is a bill of sale for what turns out to be stolen iridium, Bigelow had notarized the document for Eugene Phillips six months earlier on behalf of Phillips business associate George Reynolds. He connects Phillips mistress, Marla Rakubian, to gangsters led by Majak and they capture Bigelow where he learns that Reynolds was murdered months earlier after the sale. Since Bigelow has learned too much, Majak orders his psychopathic henchman Chester to kill him, however, Bigelow manages to escape and Chester is killed by the police while attempting to kill Bigelow. Bigelow thinks Stanley and Miss Foster are his killers, but when he confronts them he finds Stanley has been poisoned too—after having dinner with Mrs. Phillips
21.
Taylor Hackford
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Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director and former president of the Directors Guild of America. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Teenage Father, Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary, a waitress, and Joseph Hackford. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1968, where he was a major focusing on international relations. After graduating, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and he decided that he did not want to pursue a career in law, and instead got a mailroom position at KCET-TV. At KCET he was the producer on the Leon Russell special Homewood in 1970. In 1973 at KCET he produced the one-hour special Bukowski, directed by Richard Davies, the Idolmaker starred Ray Sharkey, who was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vinnie in the film. The Music Supervisor was Richard Flanzer, Hackford said of The Idolmaker, I make films about working-class people, showbusiness is one of those things through which people can get themselves out of the lower rung of society. To me, the story in The Idolmaker is the guy with a wonderful talent. Richard Gere originally balked at shooting the ending, which involves his character arriving at his lovers factory wearing his Navy dress whites and carrying her off from the factory floor. But when Gere saw the later with the music underneath it at the right tempo, he said it sent chills up the back of his neck. Hackford said of his film Ray, My proudest moments in Ray were in those chitlin clubs, Ray Charles ended his life in concert halls, where people would go in tuxedos and quietly listen to a genius perform. But in these clubs, he had to get people up dancing, what I tried to create was a little of that energy and exuberance. The great thing about music is when you can get people on their feet, in a 2005 interview, Hackford confirmed that he never watched his own films, When I finish a film, I put it away and I never look at it again. Occasionally I do now because of the DVDs and the commentary tracks, I usually put it aside and go onto the next. I never went to film school, I worked for the KCET public television station in L. A. I have done a lot of music, I feel very comfortable shooting music, and I think you can see that. Hackford has also directed videos, including Against All Odds by Phil Collins and Say You. On July 25,2009, Hackford was elected President of the Directors Guild of America and he was re-elected to a second, two-year term as President on June 25,2011, at the DGAs National Biennial Convention in Los Angeles
22.
Everybody's All-American
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Everybodys All-American is a 1981 novel by longtime Sports Illustrated contributor Frank Deford and later made into a motion picture directed by Taylor Hackford. The novel tells the story of a famous college football player at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the early 1950s. The setting of the novel was changed to Louisiana University for the movie adaptation, the novel is narrated by Greys nephew, Donnie McClure, an historian who has written a biography of Confederate war hero J. E. B. During his college career, Greys heroics are often compared to Stuarts actions, both are celebrated not only for their actions, but for their gentle behavior and consideration for others around them. Greys greatest moments came away from the football field, at a fraternity party, a carelessly-placed cigarette ignites the dress of a young coed, who staggers back in fear and nearly starts a much larger fire by lighting a set of drapes. Despite a strong fear of fire, Grey saves the woman by leaping forward, Blue and Grey compare attributes but decide that a foot-race must be held to determine which is the faster runner. Despite falling behind initially, Grey eventually overcomes Blue by a shade at the end of the race, after a serious knee injury cuts short his professional career, he is miserable in retirement and returns to accept a lesser role with the Baltimore Colts. However, his season, and ultimately his career, end after a knee injury in his third game. Grey is left calling every team in the NFL, begging for one more chance, Grey is left to constantly reminisce about his glory days on the football field, boring and embarrassing those around him. His once-gawky and awkward nephew Donnie becomes a scholar and biographer. All of Greys former teammates move towards their life off the gridiron with infinitely more grace, as each day passes, Grey falls farther away from his moments of glory. And with each passing day, his relevance, sense of place, some have said that the main character in the novel is based on Charlie Choo-Choo Justice, a real-life North Carolina football star. Then, after the movie was released, simply because the film had been relocated to Louisiana, there were rumors that Deford had based Gavin Grey on LSUs All-American running back, Billy Cannon. Deford has always denied that the character of Gavin Grey was based on any real person, but was, in fact. Never met Justice or Cannon, and hardly anything about them
23.
Julia Roberts
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Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress and producer. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman and she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for her performance in the HBO television film The Normal Heart. Roberts was the actress in the world throughout most of the 1990s. Her fee for 1990s Pretty Woman was US$300,000, in 2003, as of 2007 Robertss net worth was estimated to be US$140 million. She has been named one of People magazines 50 Most Beautiful People in the World eleven times, Roberts was born on October 28,1967, in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts. She is of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German and her father was a Baptist, her mother a Roman Catholic, and she was raised Catholic. Her older brother, Eric Roberts, from whom she was estranged until 2004, sister Lisa Roberts Gillan, Robertss parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces. They later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta and they ran a childrens acting school in Decatur, Georgia, while they were expecting Julia. The children of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King attended the school, as a thank-you for his service, Mrs. King paid Mrs. Robertss hospital bill when Julia was born. Robertss mother filed for divorce in 1971, the divorce was finalized in early 1972, from 1972, Roberts lived in Smyrna, Georgia, where she attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School, and Campbell High School. In 1972, her mother married Michael Motes, who was abusive and often unemployed, the couple had a daughter, Nancy Motes, who died at 37 on February 9,2014, of an apparent drug overdose. The marriage ended in 1983, with Betty Lou divorcing Motes on cruelty grounds, Robertss own father died of cancer when she was ten. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child and she also played the clarinet in her school band. After graduating from Smyrnas Campbell High School, she attended Georgia State University and she later headed to New York City to pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click Modeling Agency and enrolled in acting classes, Roberts made her first big screen appearance in the film Satisfaction, alongside Liam Neeson and Justine Bateman, as a band member looking for a summer gig. She had previously performed a role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red, filmed in 1987. Her first television appearance was as a rape victim in the initial season of the series Crime Story with Dennis Farina, in the episode titled The Survivor. Her first critical success with moviegoers was her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988, that same year, she had a role in the fourth-season finale of Miami Vice
24.
Richard Gere
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Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor and humanitarian activist. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man, Gere was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Doris Ann, was a housewife and his father, Homer George Gere, was an insurance agent for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and had originally intended to become a minister. Gere is their eldest son and second child and his paternal great-grandfather had changed the spelling of the surname from Geer. Both of his parents were Mayflower descendants, Geres ancestors include Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, Francis Cooke and William Brewster. In 1967, Gere graduated from North Syracuse Central High School and he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years. Gere first worked professionally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971 and his first major acting role was in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973. He began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid-1970s, originally cast in a starring role in The Lords of Flatbush, he was replaced after fighting with another star of the film, Sylvester Stallone. He played a small but memorable part in Looking for Mr. Goodbar and starred in the director Terrence Malicks well-reviewed 1978 film, Days of Heaven. Gere was one of the first notable Hollywood actors to play a gay character, Gere won a Theatre World Award for his performance. Gere experienced several box office failures after 1982, but his career rebounded with the releases of Internal Affairs and he starred in several successful films throughout the 1990s, including Sommersby, Primal Fear and Runaway Bride. He also took a role in the 1997 action movie The Jackal. Geres 2004 ballroom dancing drama Shall We Dance. was also a performer that grossed $170 million worldwide. His next film, the 2005 adapted novel Bee Season, was a commercial failure, in 2008, Gere co-starred with Diane Lane in the romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe. The film was panned by critics, but grossed over $84 million worldwide. Later in his career, Gere was honored twice for his lifetime achievement, regarding his 2012 performance in Arbitrage, Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said Richard Gere gives the best performance of his career. He received an award from the 34th Cairo International Film Festival in December 2010, Gere had a relationship with actress Penelope Milford from 1971 to 1978
25.
Touchstone Pictures
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Touchstone Pictures is an American film distribution label of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Previously, Touchstone operated as an film production banner of Walt Disney Studios. Touchstone Pictures merely serves as a brand, not a business operation. In 2009, Disney entered into a 5-year, 30-picture distribution deal with DreamWorks Pictures by which DreamWorks productions would be released through the Touchstone banner, Touchstone then distributed DreamWorks films from 2011 to 2016. Due to increased public assumption that Disney films were aimed at children and families, in late 1979, Disney Productions released The Black Hole, a science-fiction movie that was the studios first production to receive a PG rating. Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, tron was considered a potential Star Wars-level success film by the film division. A loss of $33 million was registered by the division in 1983 with the majority resulting from Something Wicked This Way Comes. Never Cry Wolf, a 1983 PG release that featured male nudity did well as the studio downplayed the films association with the Disney brand. Touchstone Films was started by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller on February 15,1984 as a label for their PG films with an expected 3 to 4 movies released under the label. Touchstones first film was Splash, a hit for grossing $68 million at the domestic box office was released that year. Incoming Disney CEO Michael Eisner and film chief Jeffrey Katzenberg considered renaming the label to Hollywood Pictures, following in 1986, Down and Out in Beverly Hills was another early success for Touchstone and is noted as Disneys first R-rated film. Allowing the momentum to increase with films with Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men. In April 1985, Touchstone Films were licensed to Showtime/The Movie Channel for five years starting in 1986, Touchstone Films was renamed Touchstone Pictures after the film Ruthless People in 1986. With the Touchstone movies, Disney moved to the top of box office receipts beating out all the major film studios by 1988. In April 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures with newly appointed president Ricardo Mestres, on October 23,1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I to supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios primary funding source. Mestres was appointed president of Hollywood, in 2006, Disney limited Touchstones output to 2 or 3 films in favor of Walt Disney Pictures titles due to an increase in film industry costs. Two Touchstone co-productions flopped at the box office minimized by its co-producers financial contributions to the movies, Disney revived Touchstone in 2009 to serve as a distribution label for DreamWorks Studios films. DreamWorks was expected to allow Disney to release additional family fare that could be used at its parks and on its channels, Disney has been financing DreamWorks productions with an $90 million more available under its agreement if DreamWorks cannot get additional equity funding
26.
What About Bob?
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What About Bob. is a 1991 American black comedy film directed by Frank Oz, and starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. Murray plays Bob Wiley, a patient who follows his egotistical psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin on vacation. When the unstable Bob befriends the other members of Marvins family, the film received positive reviews and was a box office success. This film is number 43 on Bravos 100 Funniest Movies, Bob Wiley is a good-natured man with great work ethic, but he suffers from multiple phobias and is divorced. He feels good about the results of a session with Dr. Unable to cope. Leo is annoyed because he does not see patients on vacation but, seeing how desperate Bob is, he gives Bob a prescription telling him to take a vacation from his problems. Bob seems to have made a breakthrough, but the morning shows up at Leos house again. Marvin for purchasing the home they had been scrimping and saving for years to buy. Bob suggests that they start a friendship, although Leo thinks being friends with a patient is beneath him, however, Bob swiftly ingratiates himself with Leos family, who think Bob may have some foibles, but is otherwise a balanced and sociable man. Bob goes sailing with Anna and helps Sigmund to dive into the lake, Leo then angrily pushes Bob into the lake and Leo’s wife, Fay, insists on inviting Bob to dinner to apologize, which Bob accepts. At dinner, Bobs comment on Baby Steps causes Leo to choke, a thunderstorm then forces Bob to spend the night. Leo wants Bob out of the house by 6,30, the next morning, however, the television crew shows up early and, oblivious to Leos discomfort, suggest having Bob on the show as well. Leo is tense and makes an out of himself during the interview while Bob is relaxed and speaks glowingly of Leo. Outraged, Leo throws a tantrum and then attempts to have Bob committed, forced to retrieve him, Leo then abandons Bob in the middle of nowhere, but Bob quickly gets a ride back to Leos house while a variety of mishaps delay Leo until nightfall. Leo is then surprised by the party that Fay has been secretly planning for him. But when Bob appears and puts his arm around Lily, Leo becomes completely enraged, Bob remains oblivious to Leo’s hostility, but Fay explains that Leo has been acting unacceptably as a result of an inexplicable grudge against Bob, and he agrees to leave. Meanwhile, Leo breaks into the general store, stealing a shotgun and 20 pounds of explosives. Leo then returns to the house, gleefully preparing his cover story, a frantic Leo asks Bob where he put the black powder, to which Bob replies in the house just before the Marvins vacation home detonates
27.
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
28.
The Doctor (1991 film)
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The Doctor is a 1991 drama film directed by Randa Haines. It is loosely based on Dr. Edward Rosenbaums 1988 book, the film stars William Hurt as Jack MacKee, a doctor who undergoes a transformation in his views about life, illness and human relationships. Dr Jack MacKee is a surgeon at a leading hospital. He and his wife have all the trappings of success, although Jack works such long hours that he rarely has time to see their son and has become somewhat emotionally dead to his wife. His bedside manner with his patients, in many cases seriously ill, is quite lacking. The decorum in the theater is very casual, loud country and rock music. Returning home from a party, Jack has a coughing fit. His wife Anne is shocked when he coughs up blood all over her, in an examination, Jack has a sample of a growth removed from his throat. The biopsy comes back positive for cancer and his time spent with another, cold impersonal surgeon in this examination is the beginning of his transformation. As Jack experiences life as a patient, there comes a clearer understanding of the emotionally void hospitals, some doctors and he befriends June Ellis, a fellow cancer patient who has an inoperable brain tumor. She gets him to promise to never lie or mislead a patient again, Jack begins to bark at the medical establishment. Jack and June take off to see a native Indian show and his wife, meanwhile, struggles to understand Jacks relationship with June. Jacks radiation treatment does not stop the cancer on his vocal cords and his despair ends in a confrontation with Dr. Leslie Abbott, the surgeon treating him whom he provokes in a heated discussion. Jack asks a colleague he has previously ridiculed, Dr. Eli Bloomfield, Jack apologizes for his and Murrays insulting behavior, to which Eli replies with a smile, Well, Jack, Ive always wanted to slit your throat, and now Ive got the chance. Elis bedside manner is an example for Jack. Jacks cancer is treated and cured, but June dies, when he returns to work, he begins to teach new medical interns about the importance of showing compassion and sensitivity towards their patients, which in turn will make them better doctors. Jack puts the interns in patient gowns, assigns them various illnesses and it holds a favorable 85% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film web site as of 2013. The movie was a modest box office success, grossing $38 million in the US, young Artist Award for Best Family Feature Film - Drama The Doctor at the Internet Movie Database The Doctor at Rotten Tomatoes The Doctor at Box Office Mojo
29.
Stephen Frears
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Stephen Arthur Frears is an English film director. Frears has directed British films since the 1980s including My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity, The Queen, Philomena and he has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director for The Grifters and The Queen. In 2008 The Telegraph named him among the most influential people in British culture, Frears was born in Leicester, England. His father, Russell E. Frears, was a practitioner and accountant. Frears was brought up Anglican, and did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s, Frears later went on to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1960 to 1963. After graduating from Cambridge, Frears worked as an assistant director on the films Morgan and he spent most of his early directing career in television mainly for the BBC, but also for the commercial sector. In the late 1980s, Frears came to attention as a director of feature films. His directorial film debut was the detective spoof Gumshoe, but it was his direction of My Beautiful Laundrette that unexpectedly led to wider notice. In 1987, Frears worked with Adrian Edmondson on Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, for a 45-minute programme by cult ensemble The Comic Strip Presents, in 1985, Frears also directed a Comic Strip parody of Rebecca. The following year, Frears made Dangerous Liaisons in France, with a cast that included Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. Based on the novel of romantic game playing, the film received numerous Academy Awards and BAFTA nominations, Frears had further critical success with his next film The Grifters, another tale of con-artists. The film earned Frears his first Academy Award nomination for best direction, in 2006, Frears directed The Queen, that depicts the death of Princess Diana on 31 August 1997. The Queen also achieved critical acclaim, box-office success. Frears himself received his second Academy Award nomination for best direction, Frears returned to directing for television with The Deal, which depicts an alleged deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown over which of them should become leader of the Labour Party in 1994. Frears has also directed two films based on novels by Roddy Doyle, The Snapper and The Van and he holds the David Lean Chair in Fiction Direction from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, where he teaches. His 1992 film Hero, starring Dustin Hoffman, was a box office disappointment. Frears was nominated for a Razzie Award for his direction of Mary Reilly and it stars Coogan and Judi Dench. His biopic of disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong The Program was premiered in the 2015 BFI London Film Festival, many of Frears films are based on stories of real life characters, but Frears has never met any of them
30.
Hero (1992 film)
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Hero is a 1992 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears. The film was written by David Webb Peoples from a written by Peoples, Laura Ziskin and Alvin Sargent and stars Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy García, Joan Cusack. Following the critically acclaimed The Grifters, Hero was the second American feature film by British filmmaker Frears, Bernie LaPlante is a pickpocket and petty criminal who anonymously rescues survivors including TV reporter Gale Gayley at an aircraft crash. His motives are not pure as he enters the burning airliner in order to some of the passengers purses and wallets. John, however, contacts Gale, recounting Bernies tale of the rescue, when Bernie tries to tell people that John is a fake, the media, after sensationalizing the heroic image of John, will not believe his story. Gale, as one of the survivors, considers herself to be in Johns debt. She finds herself falling in love with John even though she has questions about his authenticity, despite his reluctant acceptance of his fame, John turns out to be a decent person, using his notoriety and reward money to help sick children and the homeless. John finds himself in a dilemma since his persona is inspirational to countless people. Meanwhile, Bernie continues to aggravate ex-wife, Evelyn, and fails to bond with his son, Joey, Bernie begins to feel that if Joey is going to idolize anyone, perhaps John is the better choice. A police detective tells Gale her credit cards were recovered during Bernies arrest and she and her cameraman, Chucky, break into Bernies apartment with the help of Winston, the landlord. While searching for evidence to incriminate Bernie, Gale finds a stolen Silver Microphone Award that she won in New York and they are interrupted by Winston, who says John is on television, about to commit suicide by jumping from the ledge of a high-rise skyscraper. Gale rushes to the scene and brings Bernie along, threatening to have him prosecuted if John leaps to his death, in addition, she demands Bernie apologize for the attempted blackmail. Evelyn and Joey rush there as well, with Evelyn reminiscing how Bernie is selfish and cynical, when they arrive, Bernie goes out on the ledge, hatching a scheme to milk the media attention for all its worth. Ultimately, he convinces John that the needs a hero. When Bernie slips off the ledge, John grabs him and pulls him to safety, when Gale sees Bernies face covered with dirt, as on the night of the crash, she realizes it was he who saved her. She confronts him off the record with her supposition, but he insists that John was the hero, as Gale leaves, however, she thanks Bernie for saving her life, and he impulsively replies, Youre welcome. She tells him to tell Joey the truth, John agrees to continue playing the part of public hero. While on an excursion to the zoo, Bernie decides to tell Joey the true story of the crash, after he does so, a lady cries out that her daughter has fallen into the lions cage
31.
Meet John Doe
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Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man. It became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story and it was ranked #49 in AFIs 100 Years. In 1969, the film entered the public due to the claimants failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after release. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, Mitchell starts to pen a series of articles in Does name, elaborating on the original letters ideas of societys disregard for people in need. Proposing to take Doe national via the radio, Mitchell is given $100 a week by the newspapers publisher, Norton, to write radio speeches for Willoughby. Afterward, feeling conflicted, he runs away, riding the rails with the Colonel until they reach Millsville. John Doe is recognized at a diner and brought to City Hall, where hes met by Bert Hanson, the John Doe philosophy spreads across the country, developing into a broad grassroots movement whose simple slogan is, Be a better neighbor. However, Norton secretly plans to support for Doe into support for his own national political ambitions. On the night of the rally, Willoughby, who has come to believe in the John Doe philosophy himself, learns of Nortons treachery from a drunken Connell. He denounces Norton and tries to expose the plot at the rally, despondent at letting his now-angry followers down, Willoughby plans to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the City Hall on Christmas Eve, as indicated in the original John Doe letter. Mitchell, who has fallen in love with Willoughby, desperately tries to him out of jumping. Convinced not to himself, Willoughby leaves, carrying a fainted Mitchell in his arms. The film was screenwriter Robert Riskins last collaboration with Capra, the treatment was based upon Connells 1922 Century Magazine story titled A Reputation. Gary Cooper was always Frank Capras first choice to play John Doe, the composer selected was frequent Capra collaborator Dimitri Tiomkin, who also did the scores for Capras Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Its a Wonderful Life. He later won two music Oscars for the non-Capra film High Noon, bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times noted that John Willoughby was just the latest of the everyman that Frank Capra had portrayed in earlier films. Crowther wrote, With an excellent script by Mr. Riskin—overwritten in many spots, Capra has produced a film which is eloquent with affection for gentle people, for the plain, unimpressive little people who want reassurance and faith. Many of his camera devices are magnificent in the scope of their suggestion, only space prevents us from enthusing loudly about individual touches
32.
Nicole Kidman
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Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an Australian actress and film producer. Kidmans breakthrough roles were in the 1989 feature film thriller Dead Calm, other successful films followed in the late 1990s. Her performance in the musical Moulin Rouge, earned her a second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her performances in the drama Birth and the thriller The Paperboy earned her Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress and her performance in the 2010 drama Rabbit Hole, which she also produced, earned Kidman further accolades, including a third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2012, she earned her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the biopic Hemingway & Gellhorn. Kidmans performance in Lion earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination, Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion in the Order of Australia, as a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States. Kidman founded and owns the production company Blossom Films, Kidman was born 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on educational visas. Her father was Antony Kidman, a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author and her mother, Janelle Ann, is a nursing instructor who edited her husbands books and was a member of the Womens Electoral Lobby. Kidmans ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, and English heritage, being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani. The inspiration for the name came from a baby elephant born around the time at the Honolulu Zoo but the name is also a commonly used Hawaiian name for girls. At the time of Kidmans birth, her father was a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, Kidmans parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, the family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydneys North Shore. Kidman has a sister, Antonia Kidman, a journalist. Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls High School and she was enrolled in ballet at three and showed her natural talent for acting in her primary and high school years. She says that she was first inspired to become an actress upon seeing Margaret Hamiltons performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Kidman has revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness
33.
To Die For
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It stars Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, and Joaquin Phoenix. Major supporting roles feature Illeana Douglas, Wayne Knight, Casey Affleck, Kurtwood Smith, Dan Hedaya, Kidman was nominated for a BAFTA and won a Golden Globe Award and a Best Actress Award at the 1st Empire Awards for her performance. Her character has described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder in the scientific journal BMC Psychiatry. The film includes cameos by George Segal, David Cronenberg, author Maynard and it features original music by Danny Elfman. Suzanne Stone dreams of being a news anchor. When Larry starts asking her to take time off from her career to start a family, with the help of Russell and Lydia, Jimmy ultimately commits the murder. Jimmy, Russell and Lydia are arrested, Lydia makes a deal with the police to converse with Suzanne while wearing a wiretap, and Suzanne unwittingly reveals her hand in the murder. Despite this undeniable proof of Suzannes guilt, however, she is acquitted in court, on the basis that the police had resorted to entrapment, and walks free. Suzanne basks in the spotlight as she talks to reporters about Larrys death. Jimmy and Russell are sentenced to life in prison, though Russell appeals against his sentence and receives sixteen years instead, Larrys father, Joe, sees Suzanne lying about Larry on television, and realizes that Suzanne was behind his sons murder. He then uses his Mafia connections to have her murdered, the hitman lures Suzanne away from her home by pretending to be interested in broadcasting her life story, kills her, and then buries her under a frozen lake. Lydia gains national attention by telling her side of the story in a television interview, Larrys sister, Janice, practices her figure skating on the frozen lake where Suzannes corpse is hidden. The role of Suzanne Stone was originally offered to Meg Ryan, who turned down the part, Kidman, who was later cast in the role, was paid $2 million. The film was screened out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, to Die For currently holds an 87% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 54 reviews. The target is broad, but Gus Van Sants film is too sharp and funny for that to matter, instead. Both Mr. Van Sant and Ms. Kidman have reinvented themselves miraculously for this occasion, mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said of Kidman, brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up - as she does throughout the film - Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning and her beauty and magnetism are electric. Undeniably she belongs on camera, which means its equally undeniable that Suzanne belongs on camera and that in itself is an irony, a commentary or both
34.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
35.
Edward Zwick
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Edward M. Zwick is an American filmmaker, director and Academy Award-winning film and television producer. He has worked primarily in the comedy-drama and epic historical film genres, including About Last Night, Glory, Legends of the Fall, Zwick was born into a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ruth Ellen and Allen Zwick. He attended New Trier High School, received an A. B. at Harvard in 1974 and his films include Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Siege, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and Defiance. Along with Marshall Herskovitz, Zwick runs a production company called The Bedford Falls Company. This company has produced such films as Traffic and Shakespeare in Love and the TV shows thirtysomething, Relativity, Once and Again. He was one of the recipients of the Academy Award for Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love, despite sharing a surname and being in the same profession, Edward is unrelated to fellow director Joel Zwick. Edward Zwick on Charlie Rose Edward Zwick at the Internet Movie Database Works by or about Edward Zwick in libraries Edward Zwick collected news and commentary
36.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
37.
Courage Under Fire
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Courage Under Fire is a 1996 American war film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. It is the collaboration between Denzel Washington and director Edward Zwick. The film was released in the United States on July 12,1996, while serving in the Gulf War, Lieutenant Colonel Serling accidentally destroys one of his own tanks during a confusing night-time battle, killing his friend Captain Boylar. The US Army covers up the details and transfers Serling to a desk job, later, Serling is assigned to determine if Captain Karen Emma Walden should be the first woman to receive a Medal of Honor. She was the commander of a Medevac Huey that was sent to rescue the crew of a shot-down Black Hawk, when she encountered a T-54, her crew destroyed it by dropping a fuel bladder onto the tank and igniting it with a flare gun. However, her own helicopter was shot soon after. The two crews were unable to join forces, and when the survivors were rescued the next day, Serling notices inconsistencies between the testimonies of Waldens crew. Specialist Andrew Ilario, the medic, praises Walden strongly, however, Staff Sergeant John Monfriez claims that Walden was a coward and that he led the crew in combat and improvised the fuel bladder weapon. Sergeant Altameyer, who is dying in a hospital, complains about a fire, warrant Officer One Rady, the co-pilot, was injured early on and unconscious throughout. Furthermore, the crew of the Black Hawk claim that they heard firing from an M16, under pressure from the White House and his commander, Brigadier General Hershberg, to wrap things up quickly, Serling leaks the story to newspaper reporter Tony Gartner to prevent another cover-up. When Serling grills Monfriez during a car ride, Monfriez forces him to get out of the vehicle at gunpoint, Serling tracks Ilario down, and Ilario finally tells him the truth. Monfriez wanted to flee, which would mean abandoning Rady, when Walden refused, he pulled a gun on her. Walden then shot an enemy who appeared behind Monfriez, but Monfriez thought she was firing at him and shot Walden in the stomach, the next morning, the enemy attacked again as a rescue party approached. Walden covered her mens retreat, firing an M16, however, Monfriez told the rescuers that Walden was dead, so they left without her. Napalm was then dropped on the entire area, Altameyer tried to expose Monfriezs lie at the time, but was too injured to speak, and Ilario was too scared of the court-martial Walden had threatened them with and remained silent. Serling presents his final report to Hershberg, Waldens young daughter receives the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony. Later, Serling tells the truth to the Boylars about the manner of their sons death, the Boylars tell Serling he must put down the burden at some point. In the last moments, Serling has a flashback of when he was standing by Boylars destroyed tank, Serling suddenly realises Walden was the Huey pilot. S
38.
One Fine Day (film)
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The title comes from the 1963 song One Fine Day by The Chiffons. Michelle Pfeiffer served as a producer on this film, which was made in association with her company Via Rosa Productions. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, Melanie Parker is an architect and divorced single mother to son, Sammy. The children arrive just a moment too late to go on a field trip. Their parents are forced to accept that, on top of hectically busy schedules, Melanie must make an architectural design presentation to an important client. Jack has to find a source for a scoop on the New York mayors mob connections, Sammy causes havoc at Melanies office with toy cars, causing her to trip and break her scale model display. In frustration, Melanie takes Sammy to a center, where she coincidentally comes across Jack trying to convince Maggie to stay. They create impromptu costumes for the children, utilizing his imagination and she takes her model to a shop to get quickly repaired. Having left for a meeting, Melanie panics when she receives a call from Sammy about another child having a psychedelic drug. She phones Jack in desperation and asks him to pick up both kids and he agrees, on the condition that she take over their care at 3,15 while he chases down a potential news source. While in Melanies care, Maggie goes missing from a store, Melanie breaks down in despair at the police station, files a missing child report, and then goes to a mayoral press conference to find Jack. He is notified by the police that Maggie has been found and he had earlier tracked down its source, just as she was leaving a beauty salon in a limousine. Although they have been antagonistic, Melanie and Jack work together to get both Sammy and Maggie, by taxi, to a soccer game. She insists that she will have time first to do her presentation to the new clients and she begins her pitch over drinks at the 21 Club lounge, but upon seeing Sammy in high spirits, she realizes that she cares more about him than her job. Bravely insisting that she must leave immediately to be him, she fully expects to be fired. At the game, Melanie meets her ex-husband, Eddie, who admits that he lied to Sammy and that he will be going on tour as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen. That evening, Jack wants a reason to visit Melanies apartment, at Melanies apartment, the children watch TV while she and Jack share an awkward first kiss. She goes to the bathroom to freshen up, when she returns and she joins him and they fall asleep together, with the children happily observing
39.
Inventing the Abbotts
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Inventing the Abbotts is a 1997 coming-of-age film directed by Pat OConnor, starring Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, as well as Joanna Going. The screenplay by Ken Hixon is based on a story by Sue Miller. The original music score was composed by Michael Kamen, the lives of two closely linked families dangerously intersect in a small Illinois town in the 1950s. Two brothers, Jacey and Doug Holt are growing up in Haley, Illinois and their father, a reckless risk-taker, has lost his life via a bet with Lloyd Abbott, his business partner. Abbott eventually becomes one of the towns foremost, wealthiest and most-admired citizens, the lives of the Holts and the Abbotts are intertwined through various entanglements. Lloyd Abbott and his distant wife, Joan, are the parents of three daughters, Alice, Eleanor and Pamela. Because of a misunderstanding of the circumstances surrounding his fathers death, at first, Doug, the younger brother, admires and worships his brothers libertine lifestyle. However, as he matures, he discovers that all that glitters is not gold and he eventually falls in love with the youngest, virginal Abbott, Pamela, who protests his early, fumbling sexual advances. She forces him to appreciate her for who she is, not what she may offer up to him, meanwhile, Eleanor is sent away to a mental hospital after she and Jacey are caught by Lloyd Abbott, who cannot keep them apart. After two years of being apart from other, Doug and Pamela meet again by chance while they are in college in Philadelphia. However, Doug and Jacey are brought back to Haley after their mothers death and they also find a letter from their late father that says he has sold their patent for a 1937 DeSoto Coupe convertible. The film holds a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 26 reviews, Inventing the Abbotts at the Internet Movie Database Inventing the Abbotts at AllMovie Inventing the Abbotts at Rotten Tomatoes Inventing the Abbotts at Box Office Mojo
40.
Volcano (1997 film)
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Volcano is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Mick Jackson and produced by Andrew Z. Davis, Neal H. Moritz and Lauren Shuler Donner. The storyline was conceived from a written by Jerome Armstrong. The film features Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, and Don Cheadle, Jones is cast as the head of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management which has complete authority in the event of an emergency or natural disaster. His character attempts to divert the path of a lava flow through the streets of Los Angeles following the formation of a volcano at the La Brea Tar Pits. A joint collective effort to commit to the production was made by the film studios of 20th Century Fox, Moritz Original. It was commercially distributed by 20th Century Fox, Volcano explores civil viewpoints, such as awareness, evacuation and crisis prevention. Although the film used special effects, it failed to receive any award nominations from mainstream motion picture organizations for its production merits. Volcano premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on April 25,1997 grossing $49,323,468 in domestic ticket receipts, on a $90 million budget. It earned an additional $73.5 million in business through international release to top out at a combined $122,823,468 in gross revenue, despite its release and recognition, Dantes Peak gained more commercial success than Volcano. It was also met with mixed critical reviews before its screening in cinemas. The Region 1 code widescreen edition of the film featuring special features was released on DVD in the United States on March 9,1999, a fictional earthquake strikes the city of Los Angeles. Michael Mike Roark, the head of the citys Office of Emergency Management, insists on coming to work to help out with the crisis, even though he has taken a vacation with his daughter Kelly. As a precaution, Roark tries to halt the subway lines run parallel to where the deaths took place. Against regulations, Roark and a colleague Gator Harris venture down the sewer in the park to investigate. They are nearly burned alive and barely escape with their lives when hot gases suddenly spew out of a crack in the concrete lining and floods the tunnel. Later that night, Barnes and her assistant Rachel venture in the sewer to investigate the scene of the accident. While they are taking samples, a powerful earthquake strikes. Near the La Brea Tar Pits, smoke rises out along with lava bombs, Roark helps injured firefighters out of the area
41.
The English Patient (film)
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He questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past. The patient tells Hana and Caravaggio that, in the late 1930s and their expedition is joined by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton. Katharine and Almásy have an affair, which she abruptly ends, the explorers find and document the Cave of Swimmers and the surrounding area until they are stopped due to the onset of the war. Madox leaves his Tiger Moth plane at Kufra oasis before returning to England, while Almásy is packing up their base camp, Geoffrey, in attempted murder-suicide, deliberately crashes his plane, narrowly missing Almásy. Geoffrey is killed instantly, Katharine is seriously injured, Almásy carries her to the cave, leaving her with provisions, and begins a three-day walk to get help. At British-held El Tag he attempts to explain the situation, but is detained as a possible German spy and he escapes from the train and trades the Geographical Society maps to the Germans for gasoline. He finds Madoxs Tiger Moth and flies back to the cave, as he flies himself and Katharines body away, they are shot down by German anti-aircraft guns. Katharines body is not recovered, Almásy is badly burned but is rescued by a Bedouin, after he has related the story, Almásy asks Hana for a lethal dose of morphine, she complies and reads Katharines final journal entries to him as he dies. She and Caravaggio leave the monastery for Florence, saul Zaentz was interested in working with Anthony Minghella after he saw the directors film Truly, Madly, Deeply, Minghella brought this project to the producers attention. Michael Ondaatje, the Sri Lankan-born Canadian author of the novel, during the development of the project with 20th Century Fox, according to Minghella, the studio wanted the insurance policy of so-called bigger actors. Zaentz recalled, they’d look at you and say, ‘Could we cast Demi Moore in the role, not until Miramax Films took over was the directors preference for Scott Thomas accepted. The film was shot on location in Tunisia and Italy, with a production budget of $31 million. The Conversations, Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje is based on the conversations between the author and film editor, once he began, the possibilities became apparent, some of which took him away from the order of the original script. A reel without sound was made so scene change visuals would be consistent with the quality of the aural aspect between the two, the final cut features over 40 temporal transitions. It was during this time that Murch met Ondaatje and they were able to exchange thoughts about editing the film, two types of aircraft are used in the film, a De Havilland D. H.82 Tiger Moth and a Boeing-Stearman Model 75. The camp crash scene was made with a scale model. The film has a Certified Fresh rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 75 reviews, though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghellas adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving. The film also has a rating of 87% on Metacritic, indicating universal acclaim, chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 rating, saying its the kind of movie you can see twice – first for the questions, the second time for the answers
