Trending
Popular people
Zalman King
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zalman King (born Zalman King Lefkowitz; May 23, 1942 – February 3, 2012) was an American film director, writer, actor and producer. His films are known for incorporating sexuality, and are often categorized as erotica.
He was born Zalman Lefkovitz in Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. As a young man in 1963 he played a gang member on Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Memo from Purgatory" written by Harlan Ellison) with James Caan and Walter Koenig. In 1967 he played the outlaw Muley in "Muley", an episode of the TV show Gunsmoke. His character shoots Marshall Matt Dillon as part of a plan to rob the Dodge City Bank, but as he and his gang are waiting for Dillon to recover (so they can try again to kill him), Muley falls in love with one of the girls at the Long Branch Saloon, which thwarts the plan.
From September 1970 until May 1971, King played attorney Aaron Silverman on the drama The Young Lawyers, broadcast on the ABC television network. King later contributed a unique delivery to Trip with the Teacher (1975), portraying the psychopathic Al, a narcoleptic murdering motorbiker.
King has directed several commercially successful films, including Two Moon Junction (1988), Wild Orchid (1990), and Red Shoe Diaries (1992), which became a long-running television series for Showtime network. It spawned many sequels. He is perhaps best known for his collaboration with director Adrian Lyne on the film 9½ Weeks which starred Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. He produced (and usually directed) the television series and film ChromiumBlue.com and Showtime series Body Language. He appeared in Lee Grant's directorial debut feature film Tell Me a Riddle.
Other work as director includes the 1995 film Delta of Venus based on the book by Anaïs Nin and starring Audie England. The film about an American girl living in Paris in 1939 is in many ways reminiscent of European art house films where erotica forms a centerpiece to a plot which is nevertheless about greater issues.
He is married to writer/producer Patricia Louisianna Knop. They have collaborated on many projects, such as writing Wild Orchid, Delta of Venus and 9½ Weeks as well as many episodes of Red Shoe Diaries. They have two daughters, Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Zalman King, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who 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 31 October 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Connery, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Read more
Bette Davis
Biography
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.
Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theater roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, after Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time.
Read more
Philippe Léotard
Biography
Philippe Léotard ( born Ange Philippe Paul André Léotard-Tomasi August 28, 1940 - died August 25, 2001) was a French actor, poet, and singer.
He was born in Nice , one of seven children - four girls, then three boys, of which he was the oldest - and was the brother of politician François Léotard. His childhood was normal except for an illness (rheumatic fever) which struck him and forced him to spend days in bed during which time he read a great many books. He was particularly fond of the poets - Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Blaise Cendrars. He met Ariane Mnouchkine at the Sorbonne and in 1964 they formed the théâtre du soleil.
He played Philippe, the tormented son of a women with terminal illness, in the 1974 drama film La Gueule ouverte, by the controversial director Maurice Pialat. He won a César Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1982 movie La Balance.
One of his few English-language roles was a cameo in the 1973 thriller The Day of the Jackal and he co-starred as "Jacques" in the 1975 John Frankenheimer movie French Connection II which starred Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey, (sequel to The French Connection).
Léotard died in 2001 of respiratory failure in Paris at the age of 60. He was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Philippe Léotard, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Ken Yamamura
Biography
Ken Yamamura, born Kennosuke Yamamura (山村 憲之介, Yamamura Kennosuke, born January 21, 1986), is a Japanese actor best known for playing the younger Ichirō Yashida / Silver Samurai (sharing the main antagonist's role with Haruhiko Yamanouchi) in the 2013 film The Wolverine, and Takashi in the 2014 remake of Godzilla.
Yamamura was born in Osaka on January 21, 1986. He studied drama at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. After graduating, he has not missed a chance to have a role in a Hollywood blockbuster.
In 2013, Yamamura made his first acting appearance as the younger Ichiro Yashida / Silver Samurai in the American superhero film The Wolverine, which had starred Hugh Jackman. The following year, he went on to portray the role of Takashi, the associate of Bryan Cranston's character, in the 2014 remake of Godzilla.
In 2019, he then appeared to portray as the character Oguchi in the thriller crime drama film Earthquake Bird, featuring Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough, which was released by Netflix on November 15, 2019.
In 2021, Yamamura has portrayed Taka in the film People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan.
Read more
Tommy Davidson
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tommy Davidson (born November 10, 1963) is an American comedian, film and television actor.
Born in Washington, D.C., Davidson was adopted when he was 2-years-old. He is the product of an interracial adoption, with his parents being Caucasian and he being African-American. He attended high school at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, in Bethesda, Maryland. After graduating, he enrolled at the University of the District of Columbia, but dropped out shortly thereafter.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Tommy Davidson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Niki Iliev
Biography
Actor, model Niki Iliev, followed the film path taken by his father Bulgarian film director Boyko Iliev. He was born on October 10, 1981 in Sofia, Bulgaria and attended the New Bulgarian University, graduating in film directing. However, Niki changed paths and pursued acting instead of directing. Since 2003, Niki has enjoyed a steady run of several film shorts and television outings and movies. He utilized his knowledge of film-making for the 2012 film The Foreigner which he directed. His model-quality good looks could be credited to his constant practice in sports and martial arts.
Read more
Julee Cruise
Biography
Julee Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and musician, best known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released four albums and collaborated with a variety of other artists.
Cruise was known for her song "Falling", the theme song for the television series Twin Peaks. She also had minor appearances as a roadhouse singer in Twin Peaks, both the original series and the 1992 movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. She would later return for the revival series, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), 25 years later, performing in the closing credits of the penultimate episode. She also featured in Lynch and Badalamenti's avant garde concert, Industrial Symphony No. 1, which was filmed and released on home media.
Other notable singles included "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" (1990) and "If I Survive" from her 1999 Wide Angle album. Her final album, My Secret Life, was released in 2011.
Cruise was also a stage actress and appeared on the Broadway musical Return to the Forbidden Planet and the bio-musical Radiant Baby in 2004.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Julee Cruise, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Terry Jones
Biography
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team.
At the age of 4, the Jones family moved to Surrey in England. Jones attended primary school at Esher COE school and later attended the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was school captain in the 1960-61 academic year. He later read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, but "strayed into history". While there, he performed comedy with future Monty Python cast-mate Michael Palin in The Oxford Revue.
Jones appeared in the comedy TV series "Twice a Fortnight" with Michael Palin; Graeme Garden; Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, as well as the television series |"The Complete and Utter History of Britain" (1969). He appeared in" Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967–69) with Michael Palin; Eric Idle and David Jason. He wrote for "The Frost Report" and several other David Frost programmes.
Read more
Kevin Smith
Biography
Kevin Smith, born Kevin Todd Smith on March 16, 1963, in Auckland, New Zealand, was an actor best known for his role as Ares in the television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." He developed an interest in acting at a young age and pursued a career in the entertainment industry.
Smith's breakthrough came when he was cast as the mischievous and manipulative god of war, Ares, in "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," which aired from 1995 to 1999. His portrayal of Ares made him a fan favorite, and he became a recurring character in the series. Smith's on-screen chemistry with Kevin Sorbo, who played the lead role of Hercules, contributed to the show's success.
Outside of his work on "Hercules," Smith also made appearances as Ares in the spin-off series "Xena: Warrior Princess" and in the made-for-television movies based on both shows. His portrayal of Ares showcased his talent for balancing charm, charisma, and villainous tendencies, making him a memorable presence in the world of Greek mythology-themed television.
Tragically, Kevin Smith's life was cut short when he suffered a fatal fall during a film production in China on February 15, 2002, at the age of 38. His untimely death was mourned by fans and colleagues alike, as he had left an indelible mark on the "Hercules" and "Xena" franchises with his memorable performance as Ares.
Read more
