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William Beaudine

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From Wikipedia William Beaudine (January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970) was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres. In 1915 he was hired as an actor and director by the Kalem Company. He was an assistant to director D.W. Griffith on The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. By the time he was 23 Beaudine had directed his first picture, a short called Almost a King (1915). He would continue to direct shorts exclusively until 1922, when he shifted his efforts into making feature-length films. Beaudine directed silent films for Goldwyn Pictures (before it became part of MGM), Metro Pictures (also before MGM), First National Pictures, Principal and Warner Brothers. In 1926 he made Sparrows, the story of orphans imprisoned in a swamp farm starring Mary Pickford. Beaudine had at least 30 pictures to his credit before the sound era began. Among his first sound films were short Mack Sennett comedies; he made at least one film for Sennett while contractually bound elsewhere, resulting in his adopting the pseudonym "William Crowley." He would occasionally use the pseudonym in later years, usually as "William X. Crowley." He ground out several movies annually for Fox Films, Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal Pictures. His most famous credit of the early 1930s is The Old-Fashioned Way, a comedy about old-time show folks starring W. C. Fields. Beaudine was one of a number of experienced directors (including Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan) who were brought to England from Hollywood in the 1930s to work on what were in all other respects very British productions. Beaudine directed four films there starring Will Hay, including Boys Will Be Boys (1935) and Where There's a Will (1936). Beaudine was often entrusted with series films, including the Torchy Blane, The East Side Kids, Jiggs and Maggie, The Shadow, Charlie Chan and The Bowery Boys series. His efficiency was so well known that Walt Disney hired him to direct some of his television projects of the 1950s and had him direct a feature western, Ten Who Dared (1960). Beaudine became even busier in TV, directing Naked City, The Green Hornet, and dozens of Lassie episodes. His last two feature films, both released in 1966, were the horror-westerns Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (with John Carradine) and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. By the end of the decade he was the industry's oldest working professional, having started in 1909. Beaudine died of uremic poisoning in 1970 in California and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
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Daniel J. Egbert

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Daniel J. Egbert is a student Emmy nominated filmmaker, a finalist in the 2024 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, and 2023 Academy Nicholl Fellowship. He is the 2021 recipient of the Richard P. Rogers Spirit Of Excellence Award For Directing presented by AFI Fest, and one of twelve directors selected for the seventh annual CAA Moebius Showcase. Originally from New York, Daniel left home at seventeen to join the United States Marine Corps Infantry. He served four deployments including both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Daniel’s work explores loss of control, and how trauma complicates but beautifies the human experience—through themes of inadequacy, rage, and rebirth. Daniel earned an MFA in Directing from the AFI Conservatory. His films while in attendance were nominated for the KODAK/UFVF Excellence In Filmmaking Award, garnered twenty-one nominations and ten wins, including six Oscar Qualifying selections. Daniel is a writer for CBS Studios/Paramount+ and is represented by CAA and Wildflower.
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Jimmie Walker

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James Carter Walker Jr. (born June 25, 1947), known professionally as Jimmie Walker, is an American actor and comedian. Walker is best known for portraying James Evans Jr. (J. J.), the oldest son of Florida and James Evans Sr. on the CBS television series Good Times which originally ran from 1974–1979. Walker was nominated for Golden Globe awards Best Supporting Actor In A Television Series in 1975 and 1976 for his role. While on the show, Walker's character was known for the catchphrase "Dy-no-mite!" which he also used in his mid–1970s TV commercial for a Panasonic line of cassette and 8-track tape players. He also starred in Let's Do It Again with John Amos, and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened with James Earl Jones. Walker continues to tour the country with his stand-up comedy routine. In 1967, Walker began working full-time with WRVR, the radio station of the Riverside Church. In 1969, Walker began performing as a stand-up comedian and was eventually discovered by the casting director for Good Times, after making appearances on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In and on the Jack Paar Show. He eventually released one stand-up comedy album during the height of his Good Times popularity: Dyn-o-mite on Buddah Records (5635). During Good Times' 1974–75 season, Walker was 26 years old, though his character was much younger. John Amos, the actor who portrayed Walker's father on Good Times, was actually just eight years older than Walker. Walker credits producer/director John Rich for inventing "Dy-no-mite!" which Rich insisted Walker say on every episode. Both Walker and executive producer Norman Lear were skeptical of the idea, but the phrase and Walker's character caught on with the audience. Also, off- and on-camera, Walker did not get along with series' lead, Esther Rolle, who played Florida Evans, in the series, because she and Amos disapproved of Walker's increasingly buffoonish character and his popularity, and Walker felt hurt by their disdain. Dissatisfaction led Amos (before Rolle), to leave the show, making Walker the star of the show. Walker was the only Good Times star to not attend Rolle's funeral.
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Martin Wright

Biography

American movie actor turned professional wrestler. He tried out for "WWE Tough Enough 4" in 2004 and made it to the finals of the auditions but was cut for lying about his age. Despite this, he received a developmental deal and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling. He was first called "Liar" Marty Wright before being repackaged as the Boogeyman. In Summer 2005, "WWE SmackDown!" started airing vignettes promoting the debut of the Boogeyman. On the October 14th episode, storyline UPN executive Palmer Cannon told "SmackDown!" General Manager Theodore Long about how "The Boogeyman" was going to be a new show on the network until "something happened on the set," but, that they had a "multi-year holding deal" with the intended star and that in Cannon's opinion "he'd be a great addition for 'SmackDown!," leading to the Boogeyman making his first appearance on WWE TV. He made his TV in-ring debut on the December 2nd episode, defeating Simon Dean (Mike Bucci) in 25 seconds. He went on a streak of defeating his opponents very quickly, usually through scaring them before he even entered the ring. He made his PPV debut at "WWE Royal Rumble 2006," defeating former WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Bradshaw Layfield (John Layfield) in 1:45. Lasted with WWE until March 2009 and went on to the independents. On March 14, 2015, he won his first title when he and Bobby Lashley won the AWF (Alabama Wrestling Federation) Tag Team Titles. Continues to compete in the independents.
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Harry 'Snub' Pollard

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Snub Pollard (9 November 1889 – 19 January 1962) was an Australian-born vaudevillian, who became a silent film comedian in Hollywood, popular in the 1920s. Born Harold Fraser, in Melbourne, Australia on 9 November 1889, he began performing with Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company at a young age. Like many of the actors in the popular juvenile company, he adopted Pollard as his stage name. The company ran several highly successful professional children's troupes that traveled Australia and New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1908, Harry Pollard joined the company tour to North America. After the completion of the tour, he returned to the US. By 1915 he was regularly appearing in uncredited roles in movies, for example Charles Epting notes that Pollard can clearly be seen in Chaplin's 1915 short By the Sea. In later years, Pollard claimed Hal Roach had discovered him while he was performing on stage in Los Angeles. Pollard played supporting roles in the early films of Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels. The long-faced Pollard sported a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache turned upside-down; this became his trademark. Lloyd's producer, Hal Roach, gave Pollard his own starring series of one- and two-reel shorts. The most famous is 1923's It's a Gift, in which he plays an inventor of many Rube Goldberg-like contraptions, including a car that runs by magnet power. In early 1923, shortly after his second marriage, Pollard returned with his wife Elizabeth to see his relations in Australia. His visit attracted considerable attention, and he appeared again in several theatres to speak about the motion picture business. On his return to the US, he left Roach and joined the low-budget Weiss Brothers studio in 1926. There he co-starred with Marvin Loback as a poor man's version of Laurel and Hardy, copying that team's plots and gags. In later years, Pollard claimed the Great Depression wiped out his investments, and he had been unable to "adjust to the talkies." However, in the 1930s, he played small parts in talking comedies, and was featured as comic relief in "B" westerns. Pollard's silent-comedy credentials guaranteed him work in slapstick revivals. He appeared with other film veterans in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), The Perils of Pauline (1947), and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). He also appeared regularly as a supporting player in Columbia Pictures' two-reel comedies of the mid-1940s. Forsaking his familiar mustache in his later years, he landed much steadier work in films as a mostly uncredited bit player. He played incidental roles in scores of Hollywood features and shorts, almost always as a mousy, nondescript fellow, usually with no dialogue. Snub Pollard died of cancer on 19 January 1962, aged 72, after nearly 50 years in the movie business. His interment was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). For his contributions to motion pictures, Pollard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6415½ Hollywood Boulevard.
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Philippe Lafontaine

Biography

Philippe Lafontaine (born 24 May 1955) is a Belgian singer and composer. Lafontaine was born in Gosselies, Belgium. He spent a short time in a Jesuit college that he left at 17 to pursue a career in music. His first successes came from the writing and recording of jingles for television commercials, including Stella Artois and Coca-Cola. Throughout the 1980s he joined the musical comedy Brel en mille temps, touring in Dakar and Moscow, and then Leningrad and Saint Petersburg. Lafontaine released three albums. The song "Cœur de loup" was his first big hit and launched his career once and for all in Europe. The song garnered many awards in Belgium, France and Quebec. He represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 in Zagreb with his own composition "Macédomienne" dedicated to his Macedonian wife, ending in 12th place. In 2001, he ventured for a 2nd time in musical comedy, composing Celia Fee, a musical for children and adults alike. His lyrics are known for being full of doubles entendres. Source: Article "Philippe Lafontaine" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Richard E. Grant

Biography

Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a Swaziland-born English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. Grant is also known for his roles in the feature films Warlock (1989), Henry & June (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Little Vampire (2000), Gosford Park (2001), Penelope (2006), The Iron Lady (2011), Jackie (2016), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and Saltburn (2023). He is also known for his roles in television, including Frasier (2004), Dig (2015), Game of Thrones (2016), Hang Ups (2018), A Series of Unfortunate Events (2019), and Suspect (2022).
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Kirk Torrance

Biography

Kirk Torrance is a New Zealand actor and playwright of Māori origins. He is also a former Commonwealth Games swimmer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Acting from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in Wellington. His debut play Strata (2003) won Best New Playwright at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. He played the lead role of Holden in the New Zealand movie Stickmen (2001) and award-winning television drama Fish Skin Suit (2003). While appearing on Outrageous Fortune, he hosted one series of a New Zealand version of The Real Hustle. He was nominated Best Supporting Actor at the Qantas Film & Television Awards 2008 for his ex-cop role in the television series Outrageous Fortune. In 2008, he was named Sexiest Man in Auckland by Metro magazine.
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Sarah Seegar

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sara Seegar (July 1, 1914 – August 12, 1990) was an American actress. A performer on stage, film, radio, and television, she may best be remembered for her role as "Mrs. Wilson" in the 1962–63 season of Dennis the Menace. Starting in 1940, Seegar performed in Broadway plays, in film, on radio and on television. She was a regular character actor on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with roles on Suspense, Perry Mason, and The Donna Reed Show. She played ten different small roles on Bewitched over the course of that same series. In the 1962–63 season of Dennis the Menace, Seegar played Eloise Wilson, the wife of John Wilson. She effectively replaced Sylvia Field, who portrayed Martha Wilson—the original "Mrs. Wilson"—from 1959 to 1962. Field left the series after the death of Joseph Kearns (George Wilson), due to George and Martha Wilson being written out of the series. John Wilson (Gale Gordon) began playing John Wilson, George's brother, after Kearns' death.
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Peter Renaday

Biography

Peter Renaday (born Pierre Laurent Renoudet; June 9, 1935 – September 8, 2024) was an American actor who was perhaps best known for his role as Master Splinter in the 1987 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He voiced characters in films such as The Aristocats and Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, as well as TV shows such as Angel, Grim & Evil, Evil Con Carne, and Justice League. Renaday also voiced characters in a number of video games, such as Dragon Age: Origins, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Halo Wars, and Fallout: New Vegas. Renaday died at his home in Burbank, California, at the age of 89 from natural causes.
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