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Kirk Alyn
Biography
Kirk Alyn (1910–1999) was an American actor, best known for being the first actor to play Superman in live-action in Superman serial and Atom Man vs. Superman as well as Blackhawk in the Blackhawk serial, and Sam Lane in Superman: The Movie.
Alyn started as a chorus boy for Broadway plays, appearing in notable musicals such as Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, and Hellzapoppin' during the 1930s.
He also worked as a singer and dancer in vaudeville before relocating to Hollywood during the early 1940s to act for feature movies, but he was successful only in gaining bit parts for low-budget movies before obtaining the role of Superman in 1948. During World War II he served in the United States Navy.
Alyn also featured in movie serials, including Federal Agents Vs. Underworld Inc., Radar Patrol Vs. Spy King and Blackhawk. Alyn played Superman for the first live-action Superman movie serial, released in 1948. The serial consisted of 15 episodes which recounted Superman’s arrival on Earth, getting a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet newspaper, and meeting Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.
After playing Superman, he again suffered casting problems. Apart from featuring in some similar comic book-type serials, he had few roles in television series and movies, some even uncredited, until he retired.
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Stephen Chow
Biography
Stephen Chow Sing-Chi (Chinese: 周星馳) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, actor, and producer.
Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong on 22 June 1962 to Ling Po Yee, an alumna of Guangzhou Normal University, and Chow Yik Sheung, an immigrant from Ningbo, Zhejiang. Chow has an elder sister named Chow Man Kei and a younger sister named Chow Sing Ha. Chow's given name "Sing-chi" derives from Tang dynasty Chinese poet Wang Bo's essay Preface to the Prince of Teng's Pavilion.After his parents divorced when he was seven, Chow was raised by his mother. Chow attended Heep Woh Primary School, a missionary school attached to the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China in Prince Edward Road, Kowloon Peninsula. When he was nine, he saw Bruce Lee's film The Big Boss, which inspired him to become a martial arts star. Chow entered San Marino Secondary School, where he studied alongside Lee Kin-yan. After graduation, he was accepted to TVB's acting classes.
Chow began his career as an extra for Rediffusion Television. He later joined TVB in 1981. He was drawn to attention hosting the TVB Jade children's program 430 Space Shuttle.
Chow made his film Final Justice in 1988, which won him the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 25th Golden Globe Awards.
Chow shot to stardom in The Final Combat. The following decade, he appeared in more than 40 films. Fight Back to School became Hong Kong's top-grossing film of all time. In 1994, he began directing films, starting with From Beijing with Love. In the latter half of the 1990s, Chow becomes very famous in China, he became a legend and the Stephen Chow Phenomenon.
In 2001, his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over US$50 million worldwide. Chow won Best Director and Best Actor at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, and the film went on to garner additional awards including a Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director. It was the highest-grossing Chinese film in Hong Kong at the time, grossing $46 million in the Asia region.
In 2004, his film Kung Fu Hustle grossed over US$106 million worldwide. Chow also won Best Director at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and Best Picture of Imagine Film Festival as well as over twenty international awards. Critics as well as film stars such as comedian Bill Murray said that the film was the supreme achievement of modern comedy that had outshone any preexisting form of American comedy, including Murray's directorial work.
His film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo. In August 2007, the film was given the title CJ7, a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missions—Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6. CJ7 became the highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia.
For his work in comedy, he has received praise from notable institutions such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, who called him the King of Comedy.
Stephen Chow has directed multiple classic films since the 1990s.
In 2013, his film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons became the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time.
In 2016, his film The Mermaid broke numerous box office records, and became the highest-grossing film of all time in China.
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Chris Bruno
Biography
Chris Bruno (born March 15, 1966, Milford, Connecticut) is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Sheriff Walt Bannerman on the USA Network television series The Dead Zone.
His brother Dylan Bruno plays Colby Granger on Numb3rs. During college, Bruno was active in both theater and sports. After an injury sidelined his skiing career while attending college in Vermont, he auditioned for and was cast in the lead in The Mandrake. Transferring to the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a theatre major, he also became the starting pitcher for the school's baseball team.
Soon after college graduation, Bruno joined the cast of NBC's Another World as Dennis Carrington Wheeler and was nominated for a Soap Opera Award for Outstanding Newcomer. After Another World, he was cast as Michael Delaney on ABC's All My Children.
Bruno spent some time as a stand up comedian in the years following his soap opera stints and landed several guest-starring spots on the sitcoms The Nanny, Jesse and Suddenly Susan.
In 2001, he was cast as Walt Bannerman in USA Network's sci-fi drama The Dead Zone, the premiere of which was the highest-rated cable television series premiere at that time. In the series' fifth season, Bruno's directorial debut was the episode "Independence Day," which was dedicated in memory of his mother, Nancy M. Bruno, who died of cancer. His brother, Dylan Bruno, guest-starred. His father is actor Scott Bruno (b. 1942). Bruno remained a star on the show for the first five seasons; his character was killed off during the sixth season premiere. Bruno made three additional guest appearances for the remainder of the final season.
He also starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 2005 Roger Donaldson film The World's Fastest Indian, which according to Bruno was "one of the most exciting jobs" he's ever done.
In 2009 he appeared in 2 episodes of Prison Break and then appeared in the television movie Prison Break: The Final Break
Description above from the Wikipedia article Chris Bruno, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Ed Marinaro
Biography
Ed Marinaro (born March 31, 1950) is an American actor and former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football for the Cornell Big Red, where he was a unanimous All-American and won the Maxwell Award in 1971.
From 2010 to 2011, Marinaro starred in the football comedy series Blue Mountain State. He is also known as a regular cast member of Hill Street Blues, playing Officer Joe Coffey for five seasons (1981–1986).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ed Marinaro, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000).
Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.
On October 31, 2020, Connery died at the age of 90.
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Louis Minnaar
Biography
Louis Minnaar is a South African actor best known for his television roles as Wynand de Kock in the SABC2 drama series Erfsondes and as Pieter Terre'Blanche in the SABC3 drama-turned-telenovela High Rollers.
He studied for a National Diploma: Performing Arts at Pretoria Technikon from 1979 to 1982, whereupon he landed a one-year contract at the now-defunct performing arts council PACOFS, where he played a number of roles in repertory theatre in 1983.
He worked as a translator at the SABC from 1988 to 2000, working as an actor and voice artist at the SABC. He has been a freelance actor, voice artist and scriptwriter since 2005.
He played the role of Nick Dekker in the SABC2 mini-series Huis van Liefde in March 2008. Other television series he has acted in include Dryfsand, Amalia, Begeertes, Justice for All, 7de Laan, Binnelanders, Kruispad, Scandal!, 90 Plein Street, Pandjieswinkelstories and Bloedbroers.
Louis has also acted in a number of feature films including District 9, Getroud Met Rugby, Winnie Mandela, Heart and Soul, Blitzpatrollie and Semi-Soet.
In 2013 he landed the recurring role of Pieter Terre'Blanche, the head of security who is a recovering gambling addict. The role was upped to a series regular for Season 2 when the show changed from a weekly drama to a telenovela in 2015.
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George Brent
Biography
George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor.
Brent was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway in 1904 to John J. and Mary (née McGuinness) Nolan. His mother was a native of Clonfad, Moore, County Roscommon.
Brent made his first film, Under Suspicion, in 1930. Over the next two years, he appeared in a number of minor films produced by Universal Studios and Fox, before being signed to contract by Warner Bros. in 1932. He remained at Warner Bros. for the next 20 years, carving out a successful career as a top-flight leading man during the late 1930s and 1940s.
Highly regarded by Bette Davis, he became her most frequent male co-star, appearing with her in 13 films, including Front Page Woman (1935), Special Agent (1935), The Golden Arrow (1936), Jezebel (1938), The Old Maid (1939), Dark Victory (1939), and The Great Lie (1941). Brent also played opposite Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street (1933), Greta Garbo in The Painted Veil (1934), Ginger Rogers in In Person (1935), Madeleine Carroll in The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936), Jean Arthur in More Than a Secretary (1936), Myrna Loy in Stamboul Quest (1934) and The Rains Came (1939), Merle Oberon in 'Til We Meet Again (1940), Ann Sheridan in Honeymoon for Three (1941), Joan Fontaine in The Affairs of Susan (1945), Barbara Stanwyck in So Big! (1932), The Purchase Price (1932), Baby Face (1933), The Gay Sisters (1942), and My Reputation (1946), Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1946), Lucille Ball in Lover Come Back (1946), and Yvonne De Carlo in Slave Girl (1947).
Brent drifted into "B" pictures from the late 1940s and retired from film in 1953. He continued to appear on television until 1960, having appeared on the religion anthology series Crossroads. He was cast in the lead in the 1956 television series Wire Service. In 1978, he made one last film, the made-for-television production Born Again.
In 1960, Brent was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars. He received a motion-pictures star located at 1709 Vine Street, and a second star located at 1612 Vine Street for his work in television.
Brent was married five times: Helen Louise Campbell (1925–1927), Ruth Chatterton (1932–1934), Constance Worth (1937), Ann Sheridan (1942–1943), and Janet Michaels (1947–1974). His final marriage to Janet Michaels, a former model and dress designer, lasted 27 years until her death in 1974. They had a son and a daughter.
Brent also carried on a lengthy relationship with his frequent Warner Bros. co-star, actress Bette Davis, who described her last meeting with Brent after many years of estrangement. He was suffering from advanced emphysema, and she expressed great sadness at his ill health and deterioration. George Brent died in 1979 in Solana Beach, California.
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Theresa Harris
Biography
Theresa Harris (December 31, 1906 [some sources indicate 1909] – October 8, 1985) was an American film and television actress, singer and dancer.
In 1929 Harris traveled to Hollywood, where she embarked on an acting career. She made her film debut in Thunderbolt, singing the song "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home". As she entered the 1930s she found herself playing maids to fictitious Southern belles, socialites and female molls. These parts were sometimes uncredited. She also floated around studios doing bit parts, usually at Warner Bros. or MGM. Aside from maids, she specialized in playing blues singers, waitresses, tribal women, prostitutes, and hatcheck girls.
Harris had a featured role as a friend of Jean Harlow in MGM's Hold Your Man (1932). In 1933 she appeared as Chico in the Warner Bros. pre-Code production of Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck. That same year Harris starred in a substantial role opposite Ginger Rogers in Professional Sweetheart. As Rogers' character's maid, Harris' character subs for Rogers' character as a singer on the radio. Despite the fact that Harris' character was a major point for the story's plot development, she was uncredited for the role.
Throughout the 1930s, Harris played many uncredited parts in films such as Horse Feathers (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933) and Morning Glory (1933). She also played Bette Davis's maid Zette in the film Jezebel (1938). In 1937 she appeared in the race film Bargain With Bullets opposite Ralph Cooper for Million Dollar Productions. While doing promotion for the film, Harris spoke about her frustration over the difficulty African American actors faced in the film industry, stating, "I never had the chance to rise about the role of maid in Hollywood movies. My color was against me anyway you looked at it. The fact that I was not "hot" stamped me either as uppity or relegated me to the eternal role of stooge or servant....My ambition is to be an actress. Hollywood had no parts for me."
Harris continued to lobby for better parts but found few opportunities within Hollywood. In the 1939 movie Tell No Tales she was credited for her part as Ruby, the wife of a murdered man. Harris played an emotional scene with Melvin Douglas at the funeral. She appears in a small but vivid role as Kathie Moffat's ex-maid Eunice Leonard in Jacques Tourneur 1947 Out of the Past.
In addition to films, Harris performed in many radio programs. She was often paired with Eddie Rochester Anderson, who portrayed her on-screen boyfriend. She also appeared in several prominent roles for RKO Pictures as she was a favorite of RKO producer Val Lewton who routinely cast African American actors in non-stereotypical roles. In 1942 Lewton cast Harris as a sarcastic waitress in Cat People, followed by roles in I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Phantom Lady (1944), and Strange Illusion (1945).
During the 1950s Harris appeared several times on television shows. She made her last film appearance in an uncredited role in The Gift of Love in 1958.
Harris later married a doctor and retired from acting, living comfortably after having carefully invested the money she made during her career in the movies.
On October 8, 1985, Harris (then known as Theresa Robinson) died in Inglewood, California.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Paul Campbell
Biography
Paul grew up in White Rock, British Columbia, and graduated from Semiahmoo Secondary in 1997.
From 2004 to 2006 he portrayed Billy Keikeya on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Campbell's character was a personal assistant to President Laura Roslin.
Campbell made his first foray into comedy in 2005, starring in the Bill Lawrence TV pilot Nobody's Watching, for The WB. The pilot was not picked up to series but gained later notoriety when it was posted to YouTube. He starred in National Lampoon's Bag Boy with Dennis Farina in 2007.
In 2008, Campbell appeared in the romantic comedy Play the Game alongside Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, Liz Sheridan, and Marla Sokoloff. Campbell played a young ladies' man who teaches his lonely, widowed grandfather how to re-enter the dating world after a 60-year hiatus.
Also in 2008, Campbell, playing "Billy" for the second time co-starred on NBC's Knight Rider reboot.
In March 2009, Campbell was cast in an ABC comedy pilot based on the British series No Heroics, which revolves around four B-list superheroes. He played the leader of the group, Pete, aka Chillout, a Canadian-born superhero who can freeze small objects. The pilot was not picked up by ABC.
In 2010, Campbell starred in the comedy series Almost Heroes alongside series co-creator Ryan Belleville and actors Colin Mochrie, Lauren Ash and Athena Karkanis. The series debuted on Showcase in June 2011, with the finale of the eight-episode first season airing July 21.
Campbell led the cast of the CTV comedy series Spun Out, alongside Dave Foley, Rebecca Dalton, Al Mukadam, Holly Deveaux, J. P. Manoux and Darcy Michael.
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Jason Cope
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jason Cope is a South African actor best known for his work in Neill Blomkamp's District 9.In the film Cope plays a variety of different characters including the alien Christopher Johnson and the character Grey Bradnam, one of the narrators of the film. Cope also performed the majority of the background voice work in the film; voicing most of the police, pilot and other background voices in addition to the voice of the cameraman Trent.For the creation of the character of Christopher Johnson the film used a process similar to the creation of the character of Gollum played by Andy Serkis in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy using a CGI character modeled on the performance of an actor. This allowed for on-camera performances by the actor, allowing the aliens to interact with the other cast members. Cope is the grandson of the South African writer Jack Cope.
Cope trained as a magician at age 9 and briefly worked as a filler act in a South African circus at age 13. He continued to perform professionally on a part-time basis until he completed his schooling. Later, once he had finished school, he went to London to become a street performer.
At the age of 29 he returned to South Africa and performed stand-up comedy at venues and events around the country.
Cope wrote for and acted in the television comedy show The Pure Monate Show.
Description above from the Wikipedia article William Jason Cope, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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