1.
Dirk Benedict
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He is the author of Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy and And Then We Went Fishing. Benedict was born Dirk Niewoehner in Helena, Montana, the son of Priscilla Mella, an accountant, and George Edward Niewoehner and he grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. He graduated from Whitman College in 1967, Benedict allegedly chose his stage name from a serving of Eggs Benedict he had enjoyed prior to his acting career. Benedicts film debut was in the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia, when the New York run for Butterflies Are Free ended, he received an offer to repeat his performance in Hawaii, opposite Barbara Rush. While there, he appeared as a guest lead on Hawaii Five-O, the producers of a horror film called Sssssss saw Benedicts performance in Hawaii Five-O and promptly cast him as the lead in that movie. He next played the psychotic wife-beating husband of Twiggy in her American film debut and he also made an appearance in Charlies Angels. Benedicts career break came in 1978 when he appeared as Lieutenant Starbuck in the movie, the same year Benedict starred in the TV movie Cruise Into Terror, and appeared in the ensemble movie Scavenger Hunt the following year. In 1981, Benedict starred alongside Linda Blair in an action-comedy Movie called Ruckus, in 1983, Dirk gained further popularity as con-man Lieutenant Templeton Face Peck in 1980s action television series, The A-Team. He played Faceman from 1982 to 1986, although the series didnt air until January 1983, and the final episode wasnt shown until 1987 rebroadcasts. The second season episode, Steel, includes a scene at Universal Studios where Face is seen looking bemused as a Cylon walks by him as an in-joke to his previous role in Battlestar Galactica, the clip is incorporated into the series opening credit sequence from season 3 onward. In 1986, Benedict starred as a band manager Harry Smilac in the movie Body Slam along with Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, and cameo appearances by Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair. His character Smilac ends up managing the pro-wrestler Quick Rick Roberts and faces opposition by Captain Lou, in 1987, Benedict took the title role of Shakespeares Hamlet at the Abbey Theatre. Both his performance and the production were drubbed by critics. Benedict starred in the 1989 TV movie Trenchcoat in Paradise, in 1991, Benedict starred in Blue Tornado, playing Alex, call sign Fireball, an Italian Air Force fighter pilot. Benedict published an autobiography, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy, A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery, in 1993, Benedict starred in Shadow Force. Benedict also appeared as Jake Barnes in the 1996 action-adventure film Alaska, in 2000, Benedict wrote and directed his first screenplay, Cahoots. In 2005, Benedict played an impostor, pretending to be an 80s movie star who wants to moderate a charity performance in Goldene Zeiten by Peter Thorwarth and he appeared as a contestant on the 2007 U. K. series of Celebrity Big Brother. He arrived on launch night in a replica of the A-Team van, smoking a cigar, in 2010, Benedict starred in a stage production of Prescription, Murder playing Lieutenant Columbo for the Middle Ground Theatre Company in UK
2.
Linda Blair
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Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the child, Regan, in the film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She reprised her role in Exorcist II, The Heretic, for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award, the youngest of three children, Blair was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was raised in Westport, Connecticut. She began her career as a 4-year-old child model and started acting with a role on the short-lived Hidden Faces daytime soap opera. Her first theatrical appearance was in The Way We Live Now. Blair was selected from a field of 600 applicants for her most notable role as Regan in The Exorcist, the role earned her a Golden Globe and Peoples Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an Academy Award nomination. She reprised her role in the sequel, Exorcist II, The Heretic, between these two films, she appeared in Born Innocent, Airport 1975, Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic and Sweet Hostage opposite Martin Sheen, blairs career took a new turn in the 1980s, as she starred in a film in 1980 entitled Ruckus along with actor Dirk Benedict. She also starred in a number of successful horror and exploitation films, including Hell Night, Chained Heat. Blair later worked in films, mostly comedies, including the Exorcist send-up Repossessed in 1990. In 1997, she appeared in a Broadway revival of Grease and she was cast as a regular in the BBC television show, L. A.7. She hosted Fox Familys Scariest Places on Earth, in 2013 Blair accepted a role in the comedy webseries Whoa. and has since appeared in the 2016 feature The Green Fairy, as well as the upcoming Surge of Power, Revenge of the Sequel. Blair also became a rights activist and humanitarian, working with PETA, Feed the Children, Variety, the Childrens Charity. Blair also devotes time to an organization she organized, the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation. She commenced to follow a diet, and was a co-author of the book Going Vegan. Towards the end of the 1970s, Blair encountered trouble with law enforcement authorities as she was charged with drug possession and she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of conspiracy to possess cocaine, in exchange for three years probation. Blair was also required to make at least 12 major public appearances to young people about the dangers of drug abuse. In 1997, she appeared in a documentary for Channel 4 in the UK entitled Didnt You Used to be Satan, which served as a biography of her life to that point and how the film The Exorcist had dominated her career and life
3.
Ben Johnson (actor)
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Ben Son Johnson, Jr. was an American stuntman, world champion rodeo cowboy, and Academy Award-winning actor. The son of a rancher, Johnson arrived in Hollywood to deliver a consignment of horses for a film and he did stunt-double work for several years before breaking into acting through the good offices of John Ford. Tall and laconic, Johnson brought further authenticity to roles in Westerns with his extraordinary horsemanship. He operated a horse-breeding farm throughout his career, although he said he had succeeded by sticking to what he knew, shrewd real estate investments made Johnson worth an estimated $100 million by his latter years. Johnson was born in Foraker, Oklahoma, on the Osage Indian Reservation, of Irish and Cherokee ancestry and his father was a rancher and rodeo champion in Osage County. Johnson was drawn to the rodeos and horse breeding of his early years, in 1953, he took a break from well-paid film work to compete in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, becoming Team Roping World Champion, although he only broke even financially that year. Johnson was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1973, Johnsons mother Ollie died a few years after her son, on October 16,2000, aged 101. Johnsons 1941 marriage to Carol Elaine Jones lasted until her death on March 27,1994 and she was the daughter of noted Hollywood horse wrangler Clarence Fat Jones. Johnsons film career began with the Howard Hughes film, The Outlaw, before filming began, Hughes bought some horses at the Oklahoma ranch that Johnsons father managed, and hired Johnson to get the horses to northern Arizona, and then to take them on to Hollywood. Johnson liked to say later that he got to Hollywood in a carload of horses and his work as a stunt man caught the eye of director John Ford. Ford hired Johnson for stunt work in the 1948 film Fort Apache, during shooting, the horses pulling a wagon with three men in it stampeded. Johnson, who happened to be settin on a horse, stopped the runaway wagon, when Ford promised that he would be rewarded, Johnson hoped it would be with another doubling job, or maybe a small speaking role. Instead he received an acting contract from Ford. Ford called Johnson into his office, handed him an envelope with a contract in it. Johnson started reading it and when he got to the line and it said $5,000 a week, he stopped reading, grabbed a pen, and signed it. His first credited role was in Fords 3 Godfathers, the film is notable for the skills demonstrated by both Johnson and star Pedro Armendáriz. He later said the film was the most physically challenging of his career, Ford then suggested him for a starring role in the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, he played Gregg opposite Terry Moore. Ford also cast Johnson as the lead in Wagon Master, one of Fords favorites, in real life, Johnson did not show any bad temper, his demeanor in tense situations was calm but firm
4.
Richard Farnsworth
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Richard W. Farnsworth was an American actor and stuntman. His sudden death followed a struggle with prostate cancer. Farnsworth was born on September 1,1920 in Los Angeles, California, to a housewife mother and he was raised during the Great Depression. When he was seven, Farnsworths father died and he then lived with his aunt, mother, and two sisters in Downtown Los Angeles. Farnsworth enjoyed a long marriage and had two children, Diamond and Missy, after becoming a widower, he lived on a ranch in Lincoln, New Mexico. On October 6,2000, after a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles in the Columbarium of Purity beside his wife, Margaret née Hill. In 1937, age 16, Farnsworth was working as a hand at a polo field in Los Angeles for six dollars a week when he was offered employment with better pay as a stuntman. He rode horses in such as The Adventures of Marco Polo featuring Gary Cooper and performed horse-riding stunts in films including A Day at the Races. Farnsworth was employed on the set of Spartacus for eleven months where he drove a chariot, from stunt work, Farnsworth gradually moved into acting in Western movies. He made uncredited appearances in films, including Gone with the Wind, Red River, The Wild One. Farnsworth received his first acting credit in 1963 and went on to act in western films, in 1992, he co-starred with Wilford Brimley in The Boys of Twilight. His breakthrough came when he played stagecoach robber Bill Miner in the 1982 Canadian film The Grey Fox and he appeared as a baseball coach in The Natural. Another prominent role was the sheriff in the film version of Stephen Kings Misery. Farnsworth became well known in the Pacific Northwest as the groundskeeper who saw the mythical Artesians in the 1980s Olympia Beer advertising campaign, in addition, Farnsworth received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for his contributions in the motion pictures on 1560 Vine Street on August 17,1992. Richard Farnsworth, Stunt Man And 2-Time Oscar Nominee,80, retrieved 2009-10-19. com The Cowboy Kind Farnsworth wrote the foreword to this book by Darrell Arnold
5.
Tommy Vig
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Tommy Vig is a jazz vibraharpist, drummer, percussionist, arranger, big band leader, film, television, and classical concert composer, inventor, author, and educator. Born to a family in Budapest, Tommy Vig was internationally recognized as a child prodigy by the age of 6, playing drums with his father. He performed live concerts in Budapest on State Radio, at the City Theatre, the Academy of Music, and the National Circus. At the age of 8, he made an album with the best Austrian jazz players in Vienna, including Hans Koller, Ernst Landl, at the age of 9, his drumming won him the 1947 MGM-Jazz Competition in Budapest. As a result, he made recordings with the legendary Chappys Mopex Big Band. Vig completed his studies at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in 1955, following the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he fled to Vienna, where he played concerts with Fatty George and Joe Zawinul. After moving to the United States, he was given a scholarship at Juilliard School of Music, since then he has been writing and conducting his own concerts. Vig worked with Red Rodney, Don Ellis, Cat Anderson, Terry Gibbs, Art Pepper, Milcho Leviev, Joe Pass, in 1961 he settled in Las Vegas, where he performed with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. Tony Curtis, Woody Allen, Judy Garland, and Tony Bennett and he was the percussionist on many of Rod Stewarts albums. In 1970, Vig moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in Warner Brothers, Fox, Universal, CBS, Columbia, ABC, Disney, Goldwyn, MGM and he also organized and conducted the annual Las Vegas Caesars Palace Mini-Jazz Festivals for many years. He wrote the music for 30 films and television shows, including They Call Me Bruce. as a percussionist, Vig participated in the recording of Quincy Jones soundtrack to Roots. He played on the Jazz Festival Münster 1986 with Lajos Dudas, Vig gave master courses at California State University, Northridge, and at the Tatabánya Jazz Academy. Over the past fifty years his pieces were performed by symphony orchestras in the United States, Germany. He was the Vice President of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers, Vig was awarded the EmErTon Prize by the Hungarian State Radio in Budapest in 1994. The Tommy Vig Orchestra 2012 Featuring David Murray and they have one son, Roger, who appeared on television in Los Angeles playing the drums with Vig’s big band at the age of 3. Vig invented the method of Non-Subjective Valuing™ which is fully detailed in his book How To Tell What Things Are Really Worth. Google reveals more than 800,000 entries for Tommy Vig, the Time Machine, Klasszikus Jazz Records Tommy Vig 75. Klasszikus Jazz Records Welcome to Hungary,1983, Sweet Sixteen Tommy Vigs compositions performed in the U. S
6.
New World Pictures
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New World Pictures was an American independent production, distribution, and multimedia company. It was founded in 1970 by Roger Corman as a producer and distributor of motion pictures, New World eventually expanded into broadcasting with the acquisition of seven television stations in 1993, with the broadcasting unit expanding through additional purchases made during 1994. S. Although effectively defunct, it, along with various subsidiaries, continues to exist as holding companies within the complex 21st Century Fox corporate structure. At the time, New World was the last remaining national low-budget film distributor, Corman hoped to continue AIPs formula at New World, making low-budget films made by new talent and distributing them internationally. However, it started out with only ten domestic offices, and one each in Canada, New World initially made exploitation films such as The Student Nurses and other small-scale productions. Corman helped launch the careers of Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Kaplan, Ron Howard, Paul Bartel and Joe Dante. New World also released films from acclaimed directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini. The distribution of films was conceived by Corman in an effort to disassociate New World as an exhibitor for exploitation films. In 1983, Corman sold New World to Larry Kupin, Harry E. Sloan and Larry A. Thompson for $16.5 million, Corman retained the film library, while New World acquired home video rights to the releases. Later that year, Thompson left the company to form his own firm, in May 1986, New World acquired post-production facility Lions Gate Studios for $4.4 million. That November, the acquired the Marvel Entertainment Group, the corporate parent of Marvel Comics. By early 1987, the company sold its shares in Taft Broadcasting for $17.8 million, in 1987, New World acquired independent film studio Highgate Pictures and the Learning Corporation of America. By this time, New World Pictures changed its name to New World Entertainment to better reflect its a range of subsidiaries besides the film studio, also that year, New World almost purchased two toy companies, Kenner Products and Mattel, but both planned acquisitions never materialized. In the fall of 1987, New World became the third in the list of time series producers to the network after Lorimar-Telepictures. In 1988, Michael Mann, executive producer of the syndicated program Crime Story. Around this time, New World faced a financial slump. GE demurred, preferring an insolvency workout and tried to force the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and this began with the sale of Marvel Entertainment Group to Andrews Group in 1989, Marvel Productions was excluded from the sale. In an irony, later that year, Perelman subsequently acquired New World Entertainment, the bulk of its film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to Trans-Atlantic Pictures, a newly formed production company founded by a consortium of former New World executives
7.
Action film
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Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist or protagonists end up in a series of challenges that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases. Advancements in CGI have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences, while action has long been a recurring component in films, the action film genre began to develop in the 1970s along with the increase of stunts and special effects. The genre is associated with the thriller and adventure film genres. Some historians consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first action film, during the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often swashbuckling adventure films in which actors, such as Douglas Fairbanks, wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns. The 1940s and 1950s saw action in a new form through war, the film, along with a war-adventure called The Guns of Navarone, inspired producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy-adventure, based on the novels of Ian Fleming. The long-running success of the James Bond films or series introduced a staple of the action film. Such larger-than-life characters were a veritable “one-man army”, able to dispatch villainous masterminds after cutting through their disposable henchmen in increasingly creative ways, such heroes are ready with one-liners, puns, and dry quips. The Bond films also used fast cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets, Dirty Harry essentially lifted its star, Clint Eastwood, out of his cowboy typecasting, and framed him as the archetypal hero of the urban action film. In many countries, restrictions on language, adult content, and violence had loosened up, in the 1970s, martial-arts films from Hong Kong became popular with Western audiences and inspired big budget films such as Bruce Lees Enter the Dragon. Chuck Norris blended martial arts with cops and robbers in films such as Good Guys Wear Black, from Japan, Sonny Chiba starred in his first martial arts movie in 1973 called the Karate Kiba. His breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter series, which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema and he also played the role of Mas Oyama in Champion of Death, Karate Bearfighter, and Karate for Life. Chibas action films were not only bounded by martial arts, but also action thriller, jidaigeki, in the 1980s Hollywood produced many big budget action blockbusters with actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Dudikoff, Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1982, veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy broke box office records with the action-comedy 48 Hrs. credited as the first buddy-cop movie. That same year, Sylvester Stallone starred in First Blood, the first installment in the Rambo film series made the character John Rambo a pop culture icon. 1984 saw the beginning of the Terminator starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and this story provides one of the grittiest roles for a woman in action and Hamilton was required to put in extensive effort to develop a strong physique. The 1988 film, Die Hard, was influential on the development of the action genre. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building high-rise. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like Under Siege and Sudden Death, by the end of the 1980s, the influence of the successful action film could be felt in almost every genre
8.
Thriller (genre)
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Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television, having numerous subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax, the cover-up of important information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively, a thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Homers Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as a prototype of the thriller. Thrillers may be defined by the mood that they elicit. In short, if it thrills, it is a thriller, as the introduction to a major anthology explains, Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension and these develop from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which make the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached. In terms of expectations, it may be contrasted with curiosity. The objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, the second type of suspense is the. anticipation wherein we either know or else are fairly certain about what is going to happen but are still aroused in anticipation of its actual occurrence. According to Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics, suspense is an important building block of literature, common methods and themes in crime and action thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. Common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique, common elements in dramatic and psychological thrillers include plot twists, psychology, obsession and mind games. Common in horror thrillers are serial killers, stalking, deathtraps, elements such as fringe theories, false accusations and paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers. Threats to entire countries, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins, the themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with other or with outside forces. The protagonist of these films is set against a problem, no matter what subgenre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. While protagonists of thrillers have traditionally been men, women characters are increasingly common
9.
First Blood (novel)
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First Blood is a 1972 novel by David Morrell which was adapted into the 1982 film starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo. Rambo, a Vietnam War veteran, is hitchhiking in Madison, Kentucky and is picked up by Police Chief Teasle, when Rambo repeatedly returns, Teasle finally arrests him and drives him to the station. He is charged with vagrancy and resisting arrest and is sentenced to 35 days in jail and he flees, steals a motorcycle, and hides in the nearby mountains. He becomes the focus of a manhunt that results in the deaths of police officers, civilians. In a climactic ending in the town where his conflict with Teasle began, Rambo is finally hunted down by special forces captain, Sam Trautman, and Teasle. Using his local knowledge, Teasle manages to surprise Rambo and shoots him in the chest and he then tries to pursue Rambo as he makes a final attempt to escape back out of the town. Both men are essentially dying by this point, but are driven by pride, Rambo fires at Teasle and, to his surprise and disappointment, hits him. Rambo dies satisfied that he has come to a fitting end, Trautman returns to the dying Teasle and tells him that he has killed Rambo with his shotgun. Teasle relaxes, experiences a moment of affection for Rambo, Morrell stated he was inspired to write the novel by hearing about the experiences of his students who had fought in Vietnam. The author also said When I started First Blood back in 1968, the characters name was derived in part from the Rambo apple, a supply of which his wife brought home while he was trying to come up with a suitable name for his character. In the DVD commentary for First Blood Morell comments that one of the inspirations for Rambo was World War 2 hero Audie Murphy, the town that Madison, Kentucky was modelled after was Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. MacDonald as one hell of a hard, fast novel, when Stephen King taught creative writing at the University of Maine, he used it as a textbook, and the book has been translated into 26 languages. In 1972, Morrell sold the rights to First Blood to Columbia Pictures. This trend continued for ten years, the story passed through three companies and eighteen screenplays. Finally, Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, two film distributors looking to become producers, obtained the film rights and they altered the story from a transposal of the Vietnam War to America to a cheer for the underdog story, thus beginning the Rambo film series. Morrells 2000 introduction, entitled Rambo and Me, gives insight on the inspirations and development of the novel, as well as the development of the film adaptation and its first two sequels
10.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
