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Curtis Hanson
Biography
Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Reno, Nevada, Hanson grew up in Los Angeles. After dropping out of high school, Hanson worked as photographer and editor for Cinema magazine. In the 1970s, Hanson participated as a writer for the horror film The Dunwich Horror (1970) and made his directorial debut the B-Movie Sweet Kill (1973), where he lacked creative control to fulfill his vision. While Hanson continued directing, he rose to prominence screenwriting critically acclaimed films such as The Silent Partner (1978), White Dog (1982), and Never Cry Wolf (1983).
After working on projects that kept him unsatisfied, he decided that he should write and direct thriller films based on the success of The Silent Partner. Hence, he followed up with The Bedroom Window (1987) where his writing and directing finally came to merge. By this point, his body of work made an impression on screenwriter David Koepp, who was convinced that he could handle the directorial duties for his script, which led to Bad Influence (1990). Finally he directed The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), which was both a critical and commercial success.
Moving forward he directed the thriller The River Wild (1994), which grossed $94.2 million. Afterwards, he directed the acclaimed neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997) earning him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and is preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
His next directorial effort was the critically acclaimed comedy-drama Wonder Boys (2000). Then came the hip-hop drama 8 Mile (2002), starring rapper Eminem and based on his life experiences. The film was a triumph with critics and at the box-office grossing $242.9 million. Finally the romantic comedy In Her Shoes (2005), was also critically acclaimed and a financial success.
Prior to his 2014 retirement, due to poor health, Hanson directed Lucky You (2007), and Chasing Mavericks (2012), both had troubled productions and the final results did not come near his previous critical and financial accomplishments. Hanson's last significant directorial effort was the HBO television film Too Big to Fail (2011) receiving nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series or Movie. Hanson died of natural causes in 2016.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Curtis Hanson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Tara Summers
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tara Summers (born December 19, 1979) is an English actress.
The granddaughter of bridge player Fritzi Gordon, Summers was educated at Heathfield St Mary's School, in Berkshire. A graduate of Brown University (class '01)(where she received a B.A. in History), the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art(class '03), and the National Theatre Institute.
Summers has written and starred in her own one-woman theatrical show, Gypsy of Chelsea.The play is the story of her own childhood, charting her mother's turbulent journey from cocaine addiction to recovery.
In 2007 and 2008, Summers starred as Katie Lloyd on Boston Legal, for which she was nominated, with her castmates, for a SAG Award in the category of Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2008 and again in 2009.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Tara Summers, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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David Nelson
Biography
David Oswald Nelson (October 24, 1936 – January 11, 2011) was an American actor. He was the elder son of entertainment couple Harriet Hilliard Nelson and Ozzie Nelson and the older brother of musician Ricky Nelson.
Nelson's acting career started in 1949 when he and his brother began playing themselves on his parents' radio series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which lasted until 1954. His film debut came in Here Come the Nelsons, released in 1952.
Also in 1952 Nelson continued playing himself on the television version of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran until 1966.Starting in the early 1960s, he directed about a dozen episodes of the show.
From the 1970s through 1990 Nelson had roles in Smash-Up on Interstate 5, Up In Smoke, The Love Boat, High School U.S.A., and A Family for Joe. Nelson's last film appearance was in John Waters' 1990 film Cry-Baby.
Nelson died on January 11, 2011, in Century City, California, of complications of colon cancer.
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Frederic Raphael
Biography
Frederic Michael Raphael FRSL (born 14 August 1931) is an American-born British novelist, biographer, journalist and Oscar-winning screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for Darling, Far from the Madding Crowd, Two for the Road, and Stanley Kubrick's last film Eyes Wide Shut. Raphael rose to prominence in the early 1960s with the publication of several acclaimed novels, but most notably with the release of the John Schlesinger film Darling, starring Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde, a romantic drama set in Swinging London, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1966. Two years later he was nominated again in the same category, this time for his work on Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Since the death of screenwriter D. M. Marshman Jr. in 2015, he is the earliest surviving recipient of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and the sole surviving recipient of the now retired BAFTA category of Best British Screenplay.
In addition to his work in film and television, he has written over 20 novels, and a number of non-fiction books, including biographies of Lord Byron, W. Somerset Maugham and Flavius Josephus, as well as a memoir of his time working with Stanley Kubrick, entitled Eyes Wide Open.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Frederic Raphael, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Randee Heller
Biography
Randy M. 'Randee' Heller (born June 10, 1947) is an American television and film actress. Her most notable roles were in the film The Karate Kid and one of its sequels, as Daniel LaRusso's mother, and on the 1970s serial sitcom Soap as Jodie Dallas's roommate Alice, one of the first recurring lesbian characters in television history. She also had a starring role as Carol in the 1979 made-for-TV movie, Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze. She had a recurring role on the series Mad Men as Don Draper's elderly secretary Ida Blankenship.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Randee Heller, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Nile Rodgers
Biography
Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide. He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a three-time Grammy Award-winner, and the chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Known for his "chucking" guitar style, Rolling Stone wrote in 2014 that "the full scope of Nile Rodgers' career is still hard to fathom".
Formed as the Big Apple Band in 1972 with bassist Bernard Edwards, Chic released their self-titled debut album in 1977, including the hit singles "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance". The 1978 album C'est Chic produced the hits "I Want Your Love" and "Le Freak", with the latter selling more than seven million singles worldwide. The song "Good Times" from the 1979 album Risqué was a number one single on the pop and soul charts, and became one of the most-sampled songs of all time, "ushering in" hip-hop via the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", inspiring Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", and anchoring the Daft Punk hit "Around the World".
Description above from the Wikipedia article Nile Rodgers, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Hallie Shepherd
Biography
Hallie is a writer, actress, producer, and editor, and she co-owns Fireshoe Productions with Eric Colley. She graduated with honors with a B.A. in English from Western Washington University where she ran varsity track and cross-country. Hallie produced Cuba Gooding Jr.’s directorial debut Bayou Caviar, starring Gooding Jr., Famke Janssen, Katharine McPhee, and Richard Dreyfuss. The film was released in theaters, hotel chains, airplanes, and VOD in October 2018. It’s now available on STARZ.
In addition to producing, Hallie wrote the suspense/thriller Last Seen in Idaho, played the lead role, and co-edited the film. The film is currently airing on the SHOWTIME channel. Hallie also produced, co-wrote, and co-edited the World War II drama The Last Rescue, in which she also played one of the main characters in the ensemble cast. In July 2015, the film premiered at Redbox, and it can now be seen on VOD or Amazon Prime.
Most recently, she acted in the comedy Bigfoot Killed My Wife, which is in post-production. Hallie wrote the script and is producing the film. She plays one of the leads, a neurotic character with a big heart.
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Alexander Godunov
Biography
Alexander Borisovich Godunov (Russian: Александр Борисович Годунов; November 28, 1949 – May 18, 1995) was a Russian-American ballet dancer and actor. A member of the Bolshoi Ballet, he became the troupe's Premier danseur. In 1979, he defected to the United States. While continuing to dance, he also began working as a supporting actor in Hollywood films. He had several small but prominent roles in films such as Witness (1985) and Die Hard (1988).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Alexander Godunov, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Anselmo Duarte
Biography
Anselmo Duarte Bento (April 21, 1920 – November 7, 2009) was a Brazilian actor, screenwriter and film director.
Initially known as a leading man in popular musical comedies (known in Brazil as "chanchadas"), he debuted as filmmaker in 1957's "Absolutamente Certo", in which he also stars. His next film, "O Pagador de Promessas" (1962), adapted from a stage play by Dias Gomes, won the Golden Palm at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. It is, to date, the only Brazilian feature film to be so distinguished and the first Cannes' Southern Hemisphere Golden Palm for best feature film.
Duarte was awarded with the Order of The Cultural Merit, Brazil's highest cultural civilian honor, and with the Order of Ipiranga, which is the state of São Paulo's highest civilian honor. He was also awarded with titles of merit citizenship by numerous Brazilian municipalities including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salto, his birthplace. In 2009, the municipality of Salto inaugurated a multimillion-dollar cultural and educational center named "Centro Cultural e Educacional Anselmo Duarte", housing a 500 audience amphitheater for film and theatrical events. The center also displays for public view the original "Golden Palm" awarded to Duarte at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. n 2008, at 88, Duarte founded a cultural organization (Instituto Anselmo Duarte) dedicated to restoring selected Brazilian films and creating special, free of charge, educational projects aimed at young filmmakers to improve their technical filmmaking skills. After his death, his son, Ricardo Duarte, 69, became the institute's president.
Upon being diagnosed by suffering Alzheimer's dementia in 2002, Duarte spent his last 7 years of life under the care of his son, Ricardo, and his grandchild, Daphne, a preeminent Brazilian artist. Anselmo had 4 children.
Reaching stage 6 on his Alzheimer illness condition, a bladder cancer was detected which led to a severe blood hemorrhage, precipitating a heart stroke. Although both the bladder cancer and heart conditions had been successfully treated, a sudden massive hemorrhagic brain stroke left the legendary Brazilian actor and filmmaker in a coma for 6 days, which led to his passing on November 7, 2009.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Anselmo Duarte, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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John St. Polis
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John M. St. Polis (November 24, 1873 – October 8, 1946) was an American actor.
St. Polis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before starting his film career, he made a name for himself on the Broadway stage, most notably in the role of Frederik in the original production of The Return of Peter Grimm (1911–12) and the play's revival in 1921, both performed at the Belasco Theatre.
He appeared in 126 films between 1914 and 1943. In all of his early roles, the actor is billed as John Sainpolis. His best-known performances are as Etienne Laurier in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), and as Comte Phillipe de Chagny in The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
St. Polis successfully made the transition from silent cinema to "talkies" with one of his most praised performances as Dr. John M. Besant, the father of Norma Besant (played by Mary Pickford) in Coquette (1929).
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