1.
Woody Allen
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Heywood Woody Allen is an American actor, writer, director, comedian, playwright, and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He worked as a writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, as a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians and he is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Allen often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup, some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In 2007 he said Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, critic Roger Ebert described Allen as a treasure of the cinema. Allen won four Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director and he also won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays, in 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen, A Documentary on the American Masters TV series. Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York and he and his sister, Letty, were raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie, a bookkeeper at her familys delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg and his family was Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His childhood was not particularly happy, his parents did not get along, Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School, at that time, he lived in an apartment at 968 East 14th Street. Unlike his comic persona, he was interested in baseball than school. He impressed students with his talent at card and magic tricks. To raise money, he wrote jokes for agent David O. Alber, at the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen. According to Allen, his first published joke read, Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O. P. S and he was then earning more than both parents combined
2.
Kathy Bates
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Kathleen Doyle Kathy Bates is an American actress. Bates began her career on the stage, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play in 1983 for her performance in night, Mother. She rose to prominence with her performance in Misery, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She won another Emmy Award in 2012 for her portrayal as the ghost of Charlie Harper on CBS comedy series Two and a Half Men, Bates was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of three daughters of homemaker Bertye Kathleen and mechanical engineer Langdon Doyle Bates. Her paternal grandfather was lawyer and author Finis L. Bates, One of her Irish great-great-grandfathers, who immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, served as President Andrew Jacksons doctor. She graduated early from White Station High School and from Southern Methodist University and she moved to New York City in 1970 to pursue an acting career. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1983 for her role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play night. The stage production ran for more than a year, mcNally specifically wrote the play for Bates and F. Murray Abraham, who had to drop out and was replaced by Kenneth Welsh. The play was filmed as Frankie and Johnny, starring Al Pacino. She succeeded Amy Irving in the Off-Broadway production of The Road to Mecca in 1988, Bates first feature film role was in the 1971 Miloš Forman comedy Taking Off, in which she sings an original song Even Horses Had Wings. Bates next feature was the Dustin Hoffman film Straight Time, in 1977, Bates made her Soap opera debut as Phyllis on NBCs soap opera The Doctors. From 1983 to 1984, she played prison inmate Belle Bodelle on All My Children and from 1984 to 1985, in 1990 she would appear again with Hoffman in Warren Beattys Dick Tracy as a stenographer. She appeared in films like The Morning After and Summer Heat and she then landed the role of obsessed fan Annie Wilkes, who holds her favorite author captive, in the 1990 thriller film Misery, based on the Stephen King novel. Bates received her first Academy Award nomination for that role, winning Best Actress, soon after, she starred with Jessica Tandy in the acclaimed 1991 movie Fried Green Tomatoes, based on the novel by comedic actress Fannie Flagg. In 1995 Bates played the character in Dolores Claiborne, a film adaptation of another Stephen King novel. In 1997 Bates played Molly Brown in James Camerons Titanic, based on the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, the film went on to earn more than $1.8 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. For this performance, she received her second Academy Award nomination, in 2002 she received her third nomination, for About Schmidt. More recently, she and Terry Bradshaw played the parents of Matthew McConaugheys character in the 2006 film Failure to Launch, Bates was featured in an uncredited cameo in the miniseries of Stephen Kings The Stand
3.
John Cusack
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John Paul Cusack is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He appeared in teen films in the mid-1980s, most notably Better Off Dead. In 1989, for which he gained teen idol status and he later starred in High Fidelity, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. Cusack is also known for his performances in the films Grosse Pointe Blank, Being John Malkovich,1408,2012, Hot Tub Time Machine, Cusack was born to a Catholic Irish-American family in Evanston, Illinois. He is the fourth of five children and his mother, Ann Paula Nancy, is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Richard Cusack, was an actor, as are Cusacks siblings Ann, Joan, Bill and they were from Manhattan, New York and moved to Illinois before his birth. Richard was also a filmmaker who owned a film production company and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1984, where he met Jeremy Piven, Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen films, such as Class, Sixteen Candles, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer and Stand By Me. He made a cameo in the 1988 music video for Trip To The Brain by Suicidal Tendencies, in 1989, he played Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowes Say Anything. His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors, after establishing New Crime Productions, Cusack experienced box office success with his roles in the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air. Cusack starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen Kings short story of the same name and he played a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace Is Gone and as assassin Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc. His sister Joan Cusack and close friend Jeremy Piven appeared in many of his films, the siblings appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles, John as one of Farmer Teds posse and Joan as the geek with the scoliosis brace. They also co-starred in High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child and War, Piven and Cusack starred in One Crazy Summer and Serendipity. Cusack made a cameo, seen from behind but speaking a line of dialogue, in Broadcast News. In 2009, Cusack played Jackson Curtis, a struggling novelist, Cusack played older Beach Boys founding member Brian Wilson in the biopic, Love and Mercy. Cusack is a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which he says he is in trouble in Chicago and he led the crowd in a performance of Take Me Out to the Ball Game at Wrigley Field. He was in attendance, along with fellow Cubs fans Bill Murray, Eddie Vedder and he has also been spotted at multiple Chicago Bears games and attended many Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks. According to Lisa Hampton from NBC Nightly News, Cusack has a vigorous daily wake-up routine and he told her, Im not lazy
4.
Mia Farrow
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María de Lourdes Mia Villiers Farrow is an American actress, activist and former fashion model. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place. An early film role, as Rosemary in Roman Polanskis Rosemarys Baby, saw her nominated for a BAFTA and she went on to appear in films such as John and Mary, Follow Me. The Great Gatsby and Death on the Nile and her later film roles include Widows Peak, The Omen, Be Kind Rewind, Dark Horse and Luc Bessons Arthur series. Farrow is known for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She is involved in activities in Darfur, Chad. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world and her eldest brother, Michael Farrow, died in a plane crash in 1958, at age 19, Patrick, a sculptor, committed suicide in 2009. Her fathers family was originally from England, Farrow grew up in Beverly Hills, California, where she occasionally put on performances with toy daggers and fake blood for passing celebrity tour buses. Aged two, she made her debut in a short documentary Unusual Occupations, Film Tot Holiday. She was raised Roman Catholic and had 13 years of convent education with nuns, when she was nine, she contracted polio during an outbreak in Los Angeles reportedly affecting 500 people. She was placed in a ward for three weeks and later said the experience marked the end of my childhood. Farrow screen-tested for the role of Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music, the footage has been preserved, and appears on the fortieth Anniversary Edition DVD of The Sound of Music. Farrow began her career by appearing in supporting roles in several 1960s films. In 1964, she achieved stardom on the primetime soap opera Peyton Place as naive. Farrow left the series in 1966 at the urging of Frank Sinatra whom she married on July 19,1966, before her acting career, Farrow worked as a fashion model for many years. Farrows first leading role was in Rosemarys Baby, which was a critical and commercial success at the time. Her performance garnered numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress, Film critic and author Stephen Farber described her performance as having an electrifying impact. Film critic Roger Ebert called the brilliant, and noted, A great deal of the credit for this achievement must go to Mia Farrow
5.
Jodie Foster
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Alicia Christian Jodie Foster is an American actress and filmmaker who has worked in films and on television. She has often cited as one of the best actresses of her generation. Foster began her career at the age of three as a model in 1965, and two years later moved to acting in television series, with the sitcom Mayberry R. F. D. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she worked in several television series. Fosters breakthrough came in Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver, in which she played a teenage prostitute, the role garnered her a nomination for an Academy Award. She won her second Academy Award three years later for her role in the sleeper hit The Silence of the Lambs, where she played Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee investigating a serial murder case. Foster made her debut as a director the same year with the moderately successful Little Man Tate. The companys first production was Nell, in which she played the title role. Her other films in the 1990s included period drama Sommersby, Western comedy Maverick, science fiction film Contact, and period drama Anna and her second film direction, Home for the Holidays, was not well-received commercially, while critical reviews were mixed. She has focused on directing in the 2010s, directing the films The Beaver and Money Monster, as well as episodes for Netflix television series Orange is the New Black and she also starred in the film Elysium. In addition to her two Academy Awards, Foster has won three BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Cecil B DeMille Award. Foster was born on November 19,1962 in Los Angeles, as the youngest child of Evelyn Ella Brandy and her father came from a wealthy Chicago family, whose forebears included John Alden, who had arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a Yale University graduate and a decorated U. S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and he had already been married once and had three sons from the union before marrying Brandy in Las Vegas in 1953. Brandy Foster was of German heritage and grew up in Rockford, Foster also has Irish roots, with ancestry that can be traced back to County Cork. Before Fosters birth, she and Lucius had three children, daughters Lucinda Cindy Foster and Constance Connie Foster, and son Lucius Fisher Buddy Foster. Their marriage ended before Foster was born, and she never established a relationship with her father, following the divorce, Brandy raised the children with her partner in Los Angeles. She worked as a publicist for film producer Arthur P. Jacobs, until focusing on managing the careers of Buddy. Although Foster was officially named Alicia, her siblings began calling her Jodie, Foster was a gifted child, and learned to read at the age of three
6.
Fred Gwynne
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Frederick Hubbard Fred Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You. and The Munsters, as well as his roles in The Cotton Club, Pet Sematary. Gwynne was born on July 10,1926, in New York City, son of Frederick Walker Gwynne, a partner in the securities firm Gwynne Brothers, and his wife, Dorothy. His paternal grandfather was an Episcopal priest born in Camus, near Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, Gwynne attended the Groton School, and then entered Harvard College where he was affiliated with Adams House. Although Gwynne grew up in Tuxedo Park, New York, he spent most of his childhood in South Carolina, Florida, and Colorado because his father traveled extensively. At Harvard, he was a member of the Fly Club, sang with the a group the Harvard Krokodiloes, was a cartoonist for the Harvard Lampoon. During World War II, Gwynne served in the United States Navy and he later studied art under the G. I. Gwynne joined the Brattle Theatre Repertory Company after graduation, then moved to New York City, in 1954 he made his first cinematic appearance playing - in an uncredited role - the laconic character Slim in the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront opposite Marlon Brando and Lee J. Cobb. Shortly afterwards Phil Silvers sought him out for his television show because he had been impressed by Gwynnes comedic work in Mrs. McThing, bilko, who seeks prize money by entering Honnergar in an eating contest. During the two-season run of the program he met friend and later co-star. Gwynne was 6 ft 5 in tall, an attribute that contributed to his being cast as Herman Munster, for his role he had to wear 40 or 50 lbs of padding, makeup, and 4-inch asphalt-spreader boots. His face was painted a bright violet because it captured the most light on the black-and-white film, Gwynne was known for his sense of humor and retained fond recollections of Herman, saying in later life. I might as well tell you the truth, much as I try not to, I cant stop liking that fellow. After his iconic role in The Munsters, he found himself typecast, in 1969, he was cast as Jonathan Brewster in a television production of Arsenic and Old Lace. A talented vocalist, Gwynne sang in a Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-television production, The Littlest Angel, and went on to perform in a variety of roles on stage and screen. In 1974, drawing upon his own Southern roots, he appeared in the role of Big Daddy Pollitt in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea and Kate Reid. In 1975 he played the Stage Manager in Our Town at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and he returned to Broadway in 1976 as Colonel J. C. Kinkaid in two parts of A Texas Trilogy, in 1984, he tried out for the part of Henry on the show Punky Brewster
7.
Julie Kavner
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Julie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, voice actress and comedian. She is best known for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. She also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, known for her improvisation and distinctive honeyed gravel voice, Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974. She received the Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 and three nominations for playing the character. Following Rhoda, Kavner was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, the Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, and the decided to ask Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons, Kavner has been described as nearly reclusive, part of her contract says that she will never have to promote The Simpsons on video. Typically cast as a woman who is supportive, sympathetic or self-effacingly funny, in 1992, she starred in This Is My Life, her first leading role in a feature film. Kavner has also appeared in roles in seven films written by Woody Allen. Kavner was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 7,1950, the daughter of Rose, a family counselor, and David Kavner, a furniture manufacturer. She decided to pursue a career in acting because There was nothing else I wanted to do and she attended Beverly Hills High School, where she was something of a loner, and unsuccessfully tried out for several plays. After graduating in 1971 she got a day job as a typist at the UCLA School of the Arts, in 1973, Kavner auditioned for a role as one of Rhoda Morgensterns sisters in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. David Davis, producer of the show, had convinced her to audition for the part, a year later, Rhoda Morgenstern became the leading character in a spin-off called Rhoda. Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern, Rhoda ran on CBS from September 9,1974, to December 1978. She received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Brenda and she also received four Golden Globe Award nominations. In 1975, she received Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her role in the daytime special The Girl Who Couldnt Lose. Following Rhoda, Kavner had a guest appearance on Taxi and appeared in the 1985 comedy Bad Medicine as well as the 1987 film Surrender and she appeared in the television movies Revenge of the Stepford Wives, No Other Love and A Fine Romance, and shot a television pilot. Woody Allen first saw Kavner one night while he was watching Rhoda in the 1970s and he thought that she was remarkable and later offered her a role in his 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters
8.
John Malkovich
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John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, director, and producer. He has appeared in more than 70 films, for his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award nominations. In January 2017, he launched his fashion line with an online shop. Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois and his paternal grandparents were Croatian, hailing from Ozalj. His mother was of English, French, German and Scottish ancestry and he grew up in a large house in Benton, Illinois, where his next door neighbor was future basketball star Doug Collins. His father, Daniel Leon Malkovich, was a state director and publisher of Outdoor Illinois. His mother, Joe Anne, owned the Benton Evening News, Malkovich has three younger sisters and an older brother. Malkovich attended Logan Grade School, Webster Junior High School, during his high school years, he appeared in various plays and the musical Carousel. He was also active in a gospel group, singing in area churches. As a member of a local summer theater/comedy project, he co-starred in Jean-Claude van Itallies America Hurrah in 1972, upon graduating from high school, he entered Eastern Illinois University, and then transferred to Illinois State University, where he majored in theater. In 1976, Malkovich, along with Joan Allen, Gary Sinise and he moved to New York City in 1980 to appear in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West for which he won an Obie Award. In early 1982, he appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire with Chicagos Wisdom Bridge Theatre, Malkovich then directed a Steppenwolf co-production, the 1984 revival of Lanford Wilsons Balm in Gilead, for which he received a second Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award. His Broadway debut that year was as Biff in Death of a Salesman alongside Dustin Hoffman as Willy, Malkovich won an Emmy Award for this role when the play was adapted for television by CBS in 1985. One of his first film roles was as an extra alongside Allen, Terry Kinney, George Wendt and he made his feature film debut in 1984 as Sally Fields blind boarder Mr. Will in Places in the Heart. For his portrayal of Mr. Will, Malkovich received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and he also portrayed Al Rockoff in The Killing Fields. He later reprised this role for the video of Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox. In 1990, he recited, in Croatian, verses of the Croatian national anthem Lijepa naša domovino in Nenad Bachs song Can We Go Higher, Malkovich starred in the 1992 film adaptation of John Steinbecks award-winning novella Of Mice and Men as Lennie alongside Gary Sinise as George. In 1994, he was nominated for another Oscar, in the same category, though he played the title role in the Charlie Kaufman-penned Being John Malkovich, he played a slight variation of himself, as indicated by the characters middle name of Horatio
9.
Kenneth Mars
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Kenneth Mars was an American television, film and voice actor, who specialized in comedic roles. He had roles in two Mel Brooks films, as the Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein, Mars appeared in two seasons of Malcolm in the Middle as Otto, Franciss well-meaning but dim-witted boss. He voiced King Triton, Ariels father, in the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid and its sequel, the television series and the Kingdom Hearts series. He also did several other animated voice over film roles such as Littlefoots grandfather in the Land Before Time series, a Dinosaurs Story, and King Colbert in Thumbelina. His father, Bernard Sonny Mars, was a radio and television personality and he studied fine arts and acting at Northwestern University. After graduation he began acting in the early 1960s, then did small roles in theatre followed by TV, in 1977, he married Barbara Newborn. They had two daughters, Susannah and Rebecca, and six grandchildren, the marriage lasted until his death in 2011. Mars made his debut in 1962 as a book publisher on Car 54. He later appeared on television series as Gunsmoke, Get Smart, McMillan & Wife. He also appeared in roles, such as Will Turner. Mars played Harry Zarakartos on the Richard Benjamin-Paula Prentiss sitcom He & She and he was featured in a number of small roles in broadcasts such as the Misfits of Science pilot episode and the Star Trek, Deep Space Nine episode Shadowplay. He was cast opposite Bette Davis in Hello Mother, Goodbye, a 1973 television pilot aired by NBC but never picked up as a series. From 1970-74 Mars guest starred in five episodes of Love, American Style, although he often played comic-looking oddball characters, his appearances on Love, American Style showed he was actually a tall, good-looking man. In 2001 Mars portrayed a comedic famous but washed-up photographer on Just Shoot Me, Mars often played characters with exaggerated accents. He portrayed German characters in The Producers and Young Frankenstein, and played the Croatian musicologist Hugh Simon in Whats Up and his first broadly accented character was that of Sir Evelyn Oakleigh in the 1962 Off-Broadway revival of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. He also appeared in the 1962 Broadway play, The Affair, Mars cultivated a lengthy voice acting career, launching it by voicing several characters on Uncle Crocs Block. He voiced the roles of Ariels father King Triton in The Little Mermaid, a Dinosaurs Story, as well as voicing Triton in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. He voiced Littlefoots Grandpa Longneck in the Land Before Time series of films and he played some minor roles on the popular radio show, Adventures in Odyssey
