1.
John Malkovich
Actor, Dangerous Liaisons
In 1976, John Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman"...
2.
Steve Buscemi
Actor, Fargo
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New
York, USA. He became interested in acting during his last year of high
school. After graduating, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with
John Strasberg. He began writing and performing original theatre pieces
with fellow actor/writer Mark Boone Junior. This led to his being cast in his first lead role in Parting Glances...
3.
Klaus Kinski
Actor, Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Klaus Kinski grew up in Berlin, was
drafted into the German army in 1944 and captured by British forces in
Holland. After the war he began acting on the stage, quickly gaining a
reputation for his ferocious talent and equally ferocious temper. He
started acting in films shortly afterwards, showing an...
“ Why no photo? ” - oakleybingham
4.
Dennis Hopper
Actor, Speed
Multi-talented and unconventional
actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of
Hollywood who has led an amazing cinematic career for more than five
decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936 in Dodge City, Kansas.
The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first
appeared in a slew of 1950s television series...
5.
Christopher Walken
Actor, Catch Me If You Can
Nervous-looking lead and supporting actor
of the American stage and films. He won an Oscar as best supporting
actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter. Seen in mostly supporting roles throughout the 80s and early 90s, often portraying psychologically unstable characters.
6.
Nicolas Cage
Actor, Lord of War
The son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (a brother of director Francis Ford Coppola)
and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang, Cage changed his name early in
his career to make his own reputation, succeeding brilliantly with a
host of classic, quirky roles by the late 1980s. Initially studying
theatre at Beverly Hills High (though he dropped out at 17)...
7.
Peter Lorre
Actor, Casablanca
Peter was born in Rózsahegy, Hungary, to
Alois and Elvira Löwenstein. He was educated in elementary and secondary
schools in Vienna, Austria. He ran away from home when he was 17 and
joined an improvised theater. In 1922, he worked as a bank clerk. Did
bits with a company in Breslau, then secured a part in Galsworthy's
"Society" in Zurich...
9.
John Turturro
Actor, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Highly talented, lightly built Italian
American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a
favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling
performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles. Has become a
regular in the thought provoking films of Spike Lee and the off the wall comedies of Joel Coen & Ethan Coen...
10.
Montgomery Clift
Actor, From Here to Eternity
Monty was born just after his twin sister Roberta and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift.
Their father William made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor
during the depression. Their mother Ethel "Sunny" was born out of
wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her
illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats...
11.
James Mason
Actor, North by Northwest
Great English actor of British and
American films. Born in Yorkshire, attended Marlborough and Cambridge,
where he discovered acting on a lark and abandoned a planned career as
an architect. Following work in stock companies, he joined the Old Vic
under the guidance of Sir Tyrone Guthrie and of Alexander Korda...
12.
Martin Landau
Actor, Ed Wood
Martin Landau, the Oscar-winning character
actor, was born on June 20, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of
17, he was hired by the New York Daily News as a staff cartoonist and
illustrator. In his five years on the paper, he served as the
illustrator for Billy Rose's "Pitching Horseshoes" column...
13.
Peter Falk
Actor, The Princess Bride
Peter Michael Falk was born on September
16, 1927 in New York City, New York. At the age of three, his right eye
was surgically removed due to cancer. He graduated from Ossining High
School, where he was President of his class. His early career choices
involved becoming a certified public accountant...
14.
Marcel Dalio
Actor, Sabrina
Sunday, November the 20th is the
anniversary of Marcel Dalio's death in 1983. It was the end of a
serendipitous life. You know him. He was a citizen of the world. Born
Israel Moshe Blauschild, in Paris, in 1900, he became a much
sought-after character actor. His lovely animated face with its great
expressive eyes became familiar across Europe...
15.
Udo Kier
Actor, Blade
Udo Kier was born October 14, 1944 in
Cologne, Germany, during World War II. His entrance was just as dramatic
as some of his roles. On the evening of his birth Udo's mother
requested extra time with her new baby. The nurses had gathered all of
the other babies and returned them to the nursery when the hospital was
bombed...
16.
Orson Welles
Actor, Citizen Kane
His father was a well-to-do inventor, his
mother a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts
(magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died (he was
seven) he traveled the world with his father. When his father died (he
was fifteen) he became the ward of Chicago's Dr...
17.
Jack Nicholson
Actor, The Shining
Jack Nicholson, an American actor,
producer, screenwriter, and director, is a 3-time Academy Award winner
and 12-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two
actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received Oscar nods in every decade from 1960s through the 2000s. Born April 22...
18.
Harvey Keitel
Actor, Reservoir Dogs
Came to prominence in the early films of Martin Scorsese after working in theatre for around ten years, particularly Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.
Faded into anonymity in the eighties even though he turned in some
impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors.
He re-emergered into star status with his role as Mr...
19.
Harry Dean Stanton
Actor, Alien
Prolific character actor with a drooping,
weather-beaten appearance and superb acting talent that have been his
ticket to appearing in over 100 films, and 50 TV episodes. Born in West
Irvine, Kentucky, Stanton served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during WW
II, and was on-board and LSt during the Balltle...
20.
James Coburn
Actor, Monsters, Inc.
Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor
with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied
acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting
coach Stella Adler.
After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a
handful of minor westerns before being cast as the knife-throwing...
21.
Lee J. Cobb
Actor, 12 Angry Men
Lee J. Cobb, one of the premier character
actors in American film for three decades in the post-World War II
period, was born Leo Jacoby in New York City's Lower East Side on
December 8, 1911. The son of a Jewish newspaper editor, young Leo was a
child prodigy in music, mastering the violin and the harmonica...
22.
Gene Hackman
Actor, Unforgiven
The son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Lydia
(nee Gray), Gene Hackman grew up in a broken home, which he left at the
age of 16 for a hitch with the US Marines. Moving to New York after
being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying
journalism and television production on the G.I...
23.
Warren Oates
Actor, In the Heat of the Night
American character actor of the 1960s and
1970s whose distinctive style and intensity brought him to offbeat
leading roles. Oates was born in a very small Kentucky town and attended
high school in Louisville, continuing on to the University of
Louisville and military service with the U.S. Marines. In...
24.
John Carradine
Actor, The Grapes of Wrath
John Carradine, the son of a
reporter/artist and a surgeon, grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. He
attended Christ Church School and Graphic Art School, studying
sculpture, and afterward roamed the South selling sketches. He made his
acting debut in "Camille" in a New Orleans theatre in 1925. Arriving in
Los Angeles in 1927...
25.
Tommy Lee Jones
Actor, No Country for Old Men
Born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Clyde
C. and Lucille Marie (Scott) Jones, Tommy Lee Jones worked in underwater
construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas,
a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship, and
went to Harvard on another scholarship.He roomed...
26.
Kevin Spacey
Actor, American Beauty
As enigmatic as he is talented, Kevin
Spacey has always kept the details of his private life closely guarded.
As he explained in a 1998 interview with the London Evening Standard,
"the less you know about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am
that character on screen. It allows an audience to come into a movie
theatre and believe I am that person"...
28.
John Lithgow
Actor, Shrek
If "born to the theater" has meaning in
determining a person's life path, then John Lithgow is a prime example
of this truth. Son of a retired actress and a father who was both a
theatrical producer and director, he moved frequently as a child while
his father founded and managed local and college theaters and
Shakespeare festivals throughout the Midwest of the United States...
29.
Chris Penn
Actor, Reservoir Dogs
Chris Penn was a well known actor,
belonging to a family whose roots were set in the production of movies.
Although his life ended before his time, Penn racked up an impressive
number of performances in his career, in films now treasured as
classics. Born on October 10, 1965 in Los Angeles, California...
30.
Samuel L. Jackson
Actor, Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson usually played bad guys and drug addicts before becoming an action hero, as the character Mitch Henessey, in The Long Kiss Goodnight and in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. From character player to leading man. His performance in Pulp Fiction gave him an Oscar nomination for his character Jules Winnfield...
31.
Walter Brennan
Actor, To Have and Have Not
In many ways the most successful and
familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to
date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan
attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering.
While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school
plays...
32.
John Huston
Director, The Maltese Falcon
An eccentric rebel of epic proportions,
this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and
character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time
Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston of Scottish and
Irish heritage in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906...
33.
Lionel Barrymore
Actor, It's a Wonderful Life
Famed actor, composer, artist, author and
director. His talents extended to the authoring of the novel "Mr.
Cartonwine: A Moral Tale" as well as his autobiography. In 1944, he
joined ASCAP, and composed "Russian Dances", "Partita", "Ballet
Viennois", "The Woodman and the Elves", "Behind the Horizon"...
34.
Marlon Brando
Actor, The Godfather
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier
in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the
screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the
Broadway stage adieu in 1949...
35.
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Actor, The 400 Blows
Jean-Pierre Léaud is not everybody's cup
of tea for sure, but will remain an important name in film history. As
an actor he can be adored or hated for exactly the same reasons: he is
one of those rare players that directors let improvise his dialogue,
which gets on certain viewers' nerves while it fascinates others...
36.
Jean Gabin
Actor, La Grande Illusion
Jean-Alexis Moncorge started his career
with 15 years at the theatre and debuted at the "Moulin Rouge" in Paris
in 1929. Despite of his rude aspect he knew to be the gentleman of the
French cinema in the time between the two World Wars. One of his most
popular personalities was inspector Maigret. But he was also able to
play all other kind of people: aristocrats...
37.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Actor, The Big Lebowski
Film and stage actor and theater director
Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of
Fairport on July 23, 1967. After becoming involved in high school
theatrics, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts,
graduating with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989. He made his feature
film debut in the indie production Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole as Phil Hoffman...
38.
Dustin Hoffman
Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer
Graduated from Los Angeles High School in
1954. Went to Santa Monica City College where he dropped out after a
year due to bad grades. But before he did, he took an acting course
because he was told that "nobody flunks acting." Also received some
training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Decided to go into acting
because he did not want to work or go into the service...
39.
Benicio Del Toro
Actor, Snatch.
Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-'90s
as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come
along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream
public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican cop in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. Born in Puerto Rico on February 19...
40.
Eli Roth
Producer, Grindhouse
Eli Roth began shooting Super 8 films at the age of eight, after watching Ridley Scott's Alien
and vomiting, and deciding he wanted to be a producer/director. With
his brothers and friends, ketchup for blood and his father's power
tools, he made over fifty short films before attending film school at
N.Y.U....
41.
Bill Murray
Actor, Groundhog Day
Bill is the fifth of nine children born to
Edward and Lucille Murray. He and most of his siblings worked as
caddies, which paid his tuition to Loyola Academy, a Jesuit school. He
played sports and did some acting while in that school, but in his
words, mostly "screwed off." He enrolled at Regis College in Denver to
study pre-med but dropped out after being arrested for marijuana
possession...
42.
Sid Haig
Actor, The Devil's Rejects
Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid
Haig has provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitation film
and high-priced action film. Sid Haig was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on
July 14, 1939 in Fresno, California, a screaming ball of hair. His
career was somewhat of an accident. Sid was growing so fast that he had
absolutely no coordination...
44.
Louis Gossett Jr.
Actor, Enemy Mine
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. was born on May
27, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York City. He made his professional acting
debut at age 17, winning the Donaldson Award as best newcomer to
theatre. He went to New York University on a basketball scholarship and
was invited to try out for the New York Knicks, yet...
45.
José Mojica Marins
José Mojica Marins was born on March 13,
1936 in San Paulo, Brazil, to a family of simple means. José's love of
movies began at an early age. He spent a great deal of his time with his
family at the local movie house, which his father helped manage. By the
time he was eighteen, he had completed over eighty films...
46.
William Sanderson
Actor, Blade Runner
Prolific and versatile character actor
William Sanderson was born on January 10, 1944, in Memphis, Tennessee.
His mother was an elementary school teacher and his father was a
landscape designer. William served two years in the US Army. Following
his military service he attended Southern Methodist University...
47.
Scatman Crothers
Songwriter ("Dearest One"), actor,
composer, singer, comedian, and guitarist who, after high school,
appeared in night clubs, hotels, films, and on television. He made many
records, including his own compositions. He joined ASCAP in 1959, and
his popular-song compositions also include "The Gal Looks Good", "Nobody
Knows Why", "I Was There", "A Man's Gotta Eat", and "When, Oh When".
49.
Jean-Louis Barrault
Actor, The Longest Day
Celebrated French stage
actor/director/producer Jean-Louis Barrault was born on September 8,
1910. A superlative tragedian and mime, his dedication to both
avant-garde and classical plays helped revive the French theatre after
World War II, while presenting world premières of works by such
playwrights as Samuel Beckett...
50.
Lon Chaney
Actor, The Phantom of the Opera
Although his parents were deaf-mutes,
Leonidas Chaney became an actor and also owner of a theatre company
(together with his brother John). He made his debut at the movies in
1912, and his filmography is vast. Lon Chaney was especially famous for
his horror parts in movies like e.g. Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
51.
Johnny Depp
Actor, Edward Scissorhands
Born John Christopher Depp in Owensboro,
Kentucky, on June 9, 1963, Johnny Depp was raised in Florida. He dropped
out of school at age 15 in the hopes of becoming a rock musician. He
fronted a series of garage bands including The Kids, which once opened
for Iggy Pop. Depp got into acting after a visit to Los Angeles...
52.
Ian McKellen
On May 25th, 1939, in the town of Burnley,
Lancashire, in the north of England, Ian Murray McKellen was born. His
parents, Denis and Margery, soon moved with Ian and his sister Jean to
the mill town of Wigan. It was in this small town that young Ian rode
out World War II. He soon developed a fascination with acting and the
theater...
53.
John Hurt
Actor, V for Vendetta
This transatlantic talent was born John
Vincent Hurt on January 22, 1940 in Shirebrook, a coal mining village
near the busy market town of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, England, to a
parish vicar and a one-time actress. The youngest of three children, he
spent much of his childhood in solitude. Demonstrating little
initiative...
54.
Malcolm McDowell
Actor, A Clockwork Orange
Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13,
1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Charles and Edna
Taylor. His father was a publican and an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his
parents' ways and fought against it. His father was keen to send his son
to private school to give him a good start in life...
55.
George Sanders
Actor, All About Eve
George Sanders was born of English parents
in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in
the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show
business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio
and theatrical understudy. His film debut, in 1936...
56.
Alec Guinness
Actor, Star Wars
Alec Guinness de Cuffe was born on April
2, 1914 in Marylebone, London, England. While working in advertising, he
studied at the Fay Compton
Studio of Dramatic Art, debuting on stage in 1934 and played classic
theater with the Old Vic from 1936. In 1941, he entered the Royal Navy
as a seaman and was commissioned the next year...
57.
Peter Sellers
Often credited as the greatest comedian of
all time, Peter Sellers was born to a well-off English acting family in
1925. His mother and father worked in an acting company run by his
grandmother. As a child, Sellers was spoiled, as his parents' first
child had died at birth. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served
during World War II...
58.
Javier Bardem
Actor, No Country for Old Men
Javier Bardem is the youngest member of a
family of actors that has been making films since the early days of
Spanish cinema. He got his start in the family business at age six when
he appeared in his first feature, "El Pícaro" (The Scoundrel). During
his teenage years, he acted in several TV series...
59.
Roman Polanski
Director, The Pianist
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director,
producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France
and the USA he is considered one of the few "truly international
filmmakers. Roman Polanski's parents returned to Poland from France in
1936, three years before World War II began: on Germany's invasion in
1939 as a Jewish family they were all sent to the Krakow ghetto...
60.
Bruce Campbell
Actor, Army of Darkness
Born June 22, 1958 (the youngest of 3 brothers) in Royal Oak, Michigan. As a child, Bruce watched Lost in Space
on TV, and ran around dressed as Zorro. He got the acting bug at age 8;
his dad was performing in local community theater. At 14, Bruce got to
play the young prince in "The King and I" and even got to sing...
63.
Keye Luke
Actor, Gremlins
Keye Luke was born in Canton, China. He
grew up in Seattle, Washington, and entered the film business as a
commercial artist and a designer of movie posters. He was hired as a
technical advisor on several Asian-themed films, and made his film debut
in The Painted Veil. It seemed that he appeared in almost every film that called for Chinese characters...
64.
James Woods
Actor, Once Upon a Time in America
James Howard Woods was born on April 18,
1947 in Vernal, Utah, the son of a United States Army intelligence
officer. Leanly built, strangely handsome actor-producer-director with
intense eyes, swarthy complexion, and a sometimes untrustworthy grin has
been impressing audiences for over three decades with his compelling
performances...
65.
Forest Whitaker
Actor, Platoon
Forest Whitaker has packaged a king-size
talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb. frame. The athletically-inclined
Whitaker initially found his way into college via a football
scholarship. Later, however, he transferred to USC where he set his
concentration on music and earned two more scholarships training as an
operatic tenor...
66.
Robert Duvall
Actor, The Godfather: Part II
Veteran actor and director Robert Duvall
was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, the son of a career
military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at
Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a two-year hitch in the army
after graduating in 1953. He began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse
School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I...
67.
John C. McGinley
Actor, Platoon
John C. McGinley's path to stardom is a
story that reads like a classic Hollywood script. While an understudy in
New York in the Circle-In-The-Square production of John Patrick
Shanley's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," he was spotted by director
Oliver Stone and soon after was cast in "Platoon," the...
68.
Willem Dafoe
Actor, Spider-Man
In 1979, Willem Dafoe was given a small
role in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate from which he was fired. His
first feature role came shortly after in Kathryn Bigelow's The Loveless.
From there, he went on to perform in over 70 films - in Hollywood
(Spider-Man, The English Patient, Finding Nemo, Once Upon A Time In
Mexico...
69.
Donald Sutherland
Actor, The Italian Job
The towering presence of this Canadian
character actor is not often noticed, but his contributions are
legendary. He has been in almost a hundred and fifty different show and
films. He is also the father of renowned actor Kiefer Sutherland. Born in New Brunswick, Sutherland worked several different jobs...
70.
Telly Savalas
Son of Greek immigrants. Soldier during
World War II. Studied psychology. Worked as journalist for ABC News. The
bald-headed actor played character roles, often as sadistic or
psychotic types. He became a TV favorite in the 1970s when his role as
Det. Theo Kojak in the TV movie The Marcus-Nelson Murders was expanded into the gritty Kojak TV series, lasting from 1973-78.
71.
Anthony Quinn
Actor, Lawrence of Arabia
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rudolfo
Oaxaca Quinn on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to an ethnic
Irish-Mexican father and an ethnic Mexican mother. After starting life
in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los
Angeles, California, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and the Echo
Park neighborhoods...
72.
William Hickey
Son of Edward & Nora Hickey. Best known as the ancient Mafia don in Prizzi's Honor,
Hickey had a long, distinguished career in film, television, and the
stage. Began career as a child actor on the variety stage. Made Broadway
debut as walk-on in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (1951 production, starring Uta Hagen)...
73.
Ron Perlman
Actor, Hellboy
Ron Perlman, a classically trained actor,
has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television
productions. He was born Ronald Francis Perlman on April 13, 1950 in
Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy, still
lives there and is retired from the City Clerk's Office...
74.
Joe Dallesandro
Actor, The Limey
Joe Dallesandro's still hangin' . . .
after battles with drug addiction and alcohol, brushes with the law,
three broken marriages and numerous love affairs, plus the suicide of
his only sibling Bob. One of the most beautifully photographed wild guys
to come out of the Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey "Factory" era...
75.
Joaquin Phoenix
Actor, Gladiator
Born in Puerto Rico to Children of God
missionaries "John Bottom Amram" and "Arlyn Dunetz Jochebed" (a.k.a.
Heart), Joaquin was the middle child in a brood of five. As a youngster,
he took his cues from older siblings River Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier monikers...
77.
R. Lee Ermey
Actor, Se7en
A talented character actor known for his
military roles, Ronald Lee Ermey was in the United States Marine Corps
for 11 years. He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and later was
bestowed the honorary rank of Gunnery Sergeant by the Marine Corps,
after he served 14 months in Vietnam and later did two tours in
Okinawa...
78.
Crispin Glover
Actor, Back to the Future
While he's never been a typical leading
man, Crispin Glover has distinguished himself as one of the most
intriguing personalities in the movie business. His unusual characters
and personal projects have inspired a cult-like following that has
dubbed him both madman and genius. The son of actor Bruce Glover...
79.
Ernest Thesiger
Actor, The Bride of Frankenstein
Although he made nearly 60 films in a 50-year acting career, it is for the two he made with director James Whale
that Ernest Thesiger will be best remembered. Born Ernest Graham
Thesiger in London on January 15, 1879, he was the grandson of the first
Baron of Chelmsford. Educated at Marlbrough college and the Slade...
80.
Michael Rennie
The British actor Michael Rennie worked as
a car salesman and factory manager before he turned to acting. A
meeting with a Gaumont-British casting director led to Rennie's first
acting job - that of stand-in for Robert Young in Secret Agent directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He put his film career on hold for a few years to get some acting experience on the stage...
81.
Victor Mature
Actor, My Darling Clementine
American leading man. Born Victor John
Mature (to knife sharpener Marcellus George Mature, born Marcello
Gelindo Maturi in Pinzolo, Trentino, and a Swiss-American mother, Clara
Ackley) in Louisville, Kentucky, Victor Mature worked as a teenager with
his father as a salesman for butcher supplies. Hoping to become an
actor...
84.
Ving Rhames
Actor, Pulp Fiction
Irving "Ving" Rhames was born in New York
City, New York, and grew up in Harlem, New York. A good student, Ving
entered the New York High School of Performing Arts, where he discovered
his love of acting. He studied at the Julliard School of Drama, and
began his career in New York theater. He first appeared on Broadway in
the play "The Winter Boys" in 1984...
85.
Jeremy Irons
Actor, The Lion King
Elegant and handsome British lead actor
Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, which is a small
island just off the south coast of England. He trained at the Bristol
Old Vic School for two years, then joined Bristol Old Vic repertory
company where he gained much experience working in everything from
Shakespeare to contemporary dramas...
86.
Max von Sydow
Actor, Minority Report
He was born in a middle-class family in
Lund, where his father was an ethnologist. When he was in high school,
he and a few fellow students, including Yvonne Lombard,
started a theatre club which encouraged his interest in acting. After
conscription, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting
school (1948-1951)...
87.
Ben Kingsley
Actor, Schindler's List
Ben Kingsley was born in England. His
father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was of Gujrati descent. Ben began to
act in stage plays during the 1960s. He soon became a successful stage
actor, and also began to have roles in films and TV. His birth name was
Krishna Bhanji - but he changed his name to "Ben Kingsley" soon after
gaining fame as a stage actor...
89.
John Cleese
Writer, A Fish Called Wanda
John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939,
in Weston-Super-Mare, England. He was born into a family of modest
means, his father being an insurance salesman; but he was nonetheless
sent off to private schools to obtain a good education. Here he was
often tormented for his height, having reached a height of six feet by
the age of twelve...
90.
Kevin Bacon
Actor, Mystic River
Born on July 8, 1958 in Phildelphia,
Pennsylvania, Kevin Bacon's early training as an actor came from The
Manning Street. His debut as the strict Chip Diller in Animal House almost seems like an inside joke, but he managed to escape almost unnoticed from that role. Diner became the turning point after a couple of television series and a number of less-than-memorable movie roles...
91.
George Carlin
Actor, Dogma
Born and raised by his mother in various
places in The United States. They moved frequently in order to avoid his
father, who in Carlin's words, was a stalker and alcoholic. His mother
(as well as his father) worked in marketing, where they met. The long
hours the mother worked left the young George by himself for long hours
every day...
92.
Bud Cort
Actor, Dogma
Bud Cort, American actor/comedian, was
born Walter Edward Cox in New Rochelle, New York. The second of five
children, he grew up in Rye, New York, the son of Joseph P. Cox, an
orchestra leader, pianist, and owner of a successful men's clothing
store in Rye, and Alma M. Court a former newspaper and Life magazine
reporter and an executive asst...
93.
John Leguizamo
Actor, Ice Age
Fast-talking and feisty-looking John
Leguizamo has continued to impress movie audiences with his versatility:
he can play sensitive and naïve young men, such as Johnny in Hangin' with the Homeboys; cold-blooded killers like Benny Blanco in Carlito's Way; a heroic Navy SEAL, stopping aerial terrorists in Executive Decision; and drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar...
94.
Boris Karloff
Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price,
Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema,
and the actor most closely identified with the general public's
perception of the "monster" from the classic Mary Shelley book, "Frankenstein". William Henry Pratt was born on November 23...
95.
Keir Dullea
Actor, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Tall, slim, remote and boyishly handsome,
one of Keir Dullea's most arresting features are his pale blue eyes and,
at one time, they were featured all over the screen in a number of
watershed films of the 1960s. A major, up-and-coming film star from the
"Camelot" years straight through the turbulent Vietnam era...
96.
Claude Rains
Actor, Casablanca
William Claude Rains, born in the
Camberwell area of London, was the son of the British stage actor
Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at
the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of
theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth business
end as well...
97.
Joseph Cotten
Actor, Citizen Kane
Before Joseph Cotten became a movie actor,
he worked in advertising, as a theatre critic and began acting on
stage. He got his chance at the movies due his friendship with Orson Welles,
which began with their time at the Federal Theatre in 1936 and lasted
until Welles death. He is probably best remembered from roles of Jed
Leland in Citizen Kane...
98.
Woody Harrelson
Actor, No Country for Old Men
Academy Award-nominee Woody Harrelson was
born on July 23, 1961 in Midland, Texas. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio,
and, after receiving degrees in theater arts and English from Hannover
College, had a brief stint in New York theater. He was soon cast as
Woody on TV series Cheers, which wound up...
99.
Peter Cook
Actor, The Princess Bride
One of four stars of the London and New York revues Beyond the Fringe and Beyond the Fringe (with Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, and Dudley Moore). Later created scatological comedy routine "Derek & Clive" with Moore.
100.
Sean Penn
Actor, Mystic River
Powerhouse film performer capable of
intensely moving work who has gone from strength to strength during a
colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his
stormy private life and political viewpoints, California-born Sean Penn
is the second son of actress Eileen Ryan & director Leo Penn...
No comments:
Post a Comment