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John Carpenter
Biography
An American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor.
Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.
Most films in Carpenter's career were initially commercial and critical failures, with the notable exceptions of Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984).
However, many of Carpenter's films from the 1970s and the 1980s have come to be viewed as cult classics, and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker. Cult classics that Carpenter directed include: Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995).
His films are characterized by minimalist lighting and photography, static cameras, use of steadicam, and distinctive synthesized scores. Carpenter is also notable for having composed or co-composed most of the music of his films; some of them are now considered cult as well, with the main theme of Halloween being considered a part of popular culture. His music is generally synthesized with accompaniment from piano and atmospherics. He released his first studio album Lost Themes in 2015, and also won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Vampires (1998).
Carpenter is an outspoken proponent of widescreen filming, and all of his theatrical movies (with the exception of Dark Star and The Ward) were filmed anamorphic with a 2.35:1 or greater aspect ratio. The Ward was shot in Super 35, the first time Carpenter has ever used that system. Carpenter has stated he feels that the 35mm Panavision anamorphic format is "the best movie system there is", preferring it over both digital and 3D film. Many of Carpenter's films have been re-released on DVD as special editions with numerous bonus features.
Carpenter has been the subject of the documentary film John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies, and American Cinematheque's 2002 retrospective of his films. Moreover, in 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween to be "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Carpenter about his career and films for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. Carpenter appears in all three episodes of the series. He was also interviewed by Robert Rodriguez for his The Director's Chair series on El Rey Network.
Many filmmakers have been influenced by Carpenter, including James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight was heavily influenced by The Thing), Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, Nicolas Winding Refn, Bong Joon-ho, among others.
The video game Dead Space 3 is said to be influenced by Carpenter's The Thing, The Fog and Halloween, and Carpenter has stated that he would be enthusiastic to adapt that series into a feature film.
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Jack Norton
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Norton (September 2, 1882 – October 15, 1958) was an American stage and film character actor who appeared in 184 films between 1934 and 1948, often playing drunks, although in real life he was a teetotaler.
Career
Jack Norton was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 2, 1882.
In his early career he had a vaudeville comedy act with his wife Lillian Healy. Norton made his Broadway debut in 1925 in that year's edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities, and also appeared in Florida Girl, which was produced and staged by Carroll.
Norton's first film work was for a musical short, School for Romance, in 1934, in which a young Betty Grable appeared, but his scenes were deleted. His work survived to reach the screen in his next assignment, The Super Snooper, a comedy short, and in his third film, his first full-length movie, Finishing School, which featured Frances Dee, Billie Burke, Ginger Rogers and Bruce Cabot, Norton played a drunk, setting the pattern for many of his future performances. Although he also played stone sober characters as well, he was best known for his inebriated characterizations, and he improved his work by following genuine drunks around, picking up behavioral tips.
Norton worked continuously and consistently, sometimes appearing in as many as 20 films in one year, although many of his performances went uncredited. One of the few times he was credited as part of the main cast was in 1945 for the film A Guy, a Gal and a Pal In the 1940s, Norton was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in five films written and directed by Sturges. He is perhaps best known to modern audiences as A. Pismo Clam, the drunken film director whom W.C. Fields is hired to replace in The Bank Dick (1940).
In 1947, Norton retired from films due to illness, his last appearance being in Alias a Gentlemen, which was released in 1948, although he did make some live television appearances in the early 1950s.
Jack Norton's final appearance would have been in the 1956 episode of The Honeymooners entitled "Unconventional Behavior", but age and infirmity had so overwhelmed him that he was literally written out of the show as it was being filmed, though Jackie Gleason saw to it that Norton was paid fully for the performance he was ready, willing, but unable to give.
Norton died on October 15, 1958 in Saranac Lake, New York at the age of 76. He is buried in Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton, New York on Long Island.
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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
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Christopher Darden
Biography
Christopher Allen Darden (born April 7, 1956) is an American lawyer, author, actor, and lecturer. He is a 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, where he was a co-prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, a role in which he gained a great deal of national attention.
He left the District Attorney's office after the Simpson case and joined the faculty of the Southwestern University School of Law, where he taught and specialized in criminal procedure and trial advocacy. He then left the law school in 1999 and started his own firm, Darden & Associates, Inc., specializing in criminal defense and civil litigation. In December 2007, he was considered for a judgeship by then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He is a former legal commentator for CNBC, CNN, Court TV, and NBC, and a frequent guest and commentator on CNN, Court TV, and Fox News Network. He has made guest appearances on Touched by an Angel, Girlfriends, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Howard Stern Show, Muppets Tonight, Roseanne, the movie Liar Liar, and the TV movie One Hot Summer Night (in which he plays a disgruntled policeman). He is the former principal attorney in the syndicated legal show Power of Attorney.
He is also an author. In addition to In Contempt, which chronicles his experiences with the Simpson trial, he co-authored (with Dick Lochte) a number of crime novels, including The Trials of Nikki Hill (1999), LA Justice (2000), and The Last Defense (2002).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Matt Craven
Biography
Matt Craven (born Matthew John Crnkovich) is a Canadian actor. (No relation to actor Wes Craven).
Craven's film credits include Meatballs, Hog Wild, Tin Men, Blue Steel, Jacob's Ladder, K2, A Few Good Men, Indian Summer, Crimson Tide, The Juror, Paulie, Dragonfly, The Life of David Gale, Timeline, The Clearing, Assault on Precinct 13, Déjà Vu, Disturbia, The Longshot, Public Enemies, X-Men: First Class, White House Down, and Lou.
He's had recurring roles on Stumptown, Sharp Objects, Resurrection, Justified, NCIS, Raines, The Lyon's Den, Boomtown, ER, L.A. Doctors, High Incident, Harry (1987), and Tough Cookies. His guest starring credits include Alcatraz, Without a Trace, The Pacific, Nuremberg, From the Earth to the Moon, American Gothic, and The Outer Limits.
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Sai Kiran
Biography
He was born in Hyderabad. He made his début with the hit film Nuvve Kavali. This was followed by a string of successful films, including Preminchu, Manasunte Chaalu, Darling Darling, and Satta.
He has also worked in television serials, appearing as Hindu deities such as Krishna, Vishnu, and Venkateshwara.His well known serials in Tamil are Thangam (TV series) and Vamsam (TV series) , he made his debut in Malayalam industry with the serial Vanambadi (TV series) which is remake of Telugu serial koyilamma he plays the same role in both languages.
His first appearance as Vishnu was in Shiva Leelalu, which was made during the golden days of Ushakiran movies, e.t.v.
He is also into music, He released his first Rock music single on Lord Shiva named "Shivastaan".
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Anne Whitfield
Biography
Anne Whitfield (August 27, 1938 - February 15, 2024) was an actress known for playing Susan Waverly in White Christmas (1954).
Whitfield appeared in the movies Juvenile Jungle and Tick, Tick, Tick, and also acted in episodes of shows like Days of Our Lives, Perry Mason, The Magical World of Disney, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Bonanza. She also performed uncredited voice work in Disney’s Peter Pan.
The actress moved to Olympia, Wash. in the 1970s, working for the Evergreen State’s Department of Ecology as a steward of clean water. She was socially and politically active, working against climate change, assisting the unhoused, and advocating for women’s rights and refugees. Whitfield was also an accomplished hiker and frequent traveler.
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Paul Nicholas
Biography
Paul Nicholas is an English actor and singer. He started out with a pop career, but soon changed to musical theatre. Later, in the 1970s, he began an acting career. He returned to the pop charts, starring in the 1983 BBC sitcom Just Good Friends, for which he is best known. The show won a BAFTA and Nicholas was also nominated for best comedy performance. After the show ended, he returned to musical theatre and various other entertainment roles, including producing and directing.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Nicholas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Noboru Iguchi
Biography
Noboru Iguchi is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor. He has worked as a director in adult video (AV) as well as in the horror and gore genres.
Iguchi was born on June 28, 1969. In an interview he said he was influenced in his work by the ghost houses and freak shows he went to as a child in Japanese play lands, and that his aim in his films is to both entertain and surprise.
In his extensive career as an AV director, Iguchi has worked for a number of studios including CineMagic, Big Morkal, Try-Heart, h.m.p and Soft On Demand (SOD). Nana Natsume and Risa Coda have been among the AV Idols featured in his videos. His videos have explored several of the typical Japanese AV genres, from incest for SOD to "nakadashi", bondage, group sex and some enema fetish videos for CineMagic.
His video Final Pussy starring Nana Natsume won the Best Rental Video Award at the 2005 SOD Awards. In this January 2005 video, Natsume's character (as the result of a military experiment gone wrong) has guns burst from her breasts when sexually aroused. The special makeup effects were by Yoshihiro Nishimura.
One of Iguchi's early movies was Kurushime-san (クルシメさん) which was first released in 1997. Iguchi was screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and director of the black comedy-horror film which won the Encouragement Prize at the 1998 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival and starred Aki Arai, Miako Tadano and Tomoko Matsunashi.
In 2003, Iguchi wrote and directed the horror comedy A Larva to Love (恋する幼虫, Koi-suru Yōchū) (with effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura) about a strange relationship involving a boy, a girl, and a parasite. Iguchi also wrote and directed the February 2006 film Sukeban Boy or Oira Sukeban (おいら女蛮 スケバン, Oira sukeban) with AV star Asami. At an interview at the New York Asian Film Festival, Iguchi told of an incident where one of the actresses in the movie, completely unaware of her role, balked at doing action scenes totally naked. According to Iguchi "We had to calm her down, capture her, and convince her to do the job ... We made it so she could not leave the set ... [in] America we would have been sued."
Later in 2006, Iguchi directed Cat-Eyed Boy (猫目小僧, Nekome kozō) based on the manga by Kazuo Umezu. The movie, with gravure idol Miku Ishida, Asami Kumakiri, Hiromasa Taguchi, Naoto Takenaka and Kanji Tsuda, was released theatrically in Japan in June 2006, and on DVD in October of the same year.
Iguchi was also both the screenwriter and director for the 2008 action and gore cult film The Machine Girl (片腕マシンガール, Kataude mashin gāru) where he once again teamed up with Yoshihiro Nishimura who did the special effects and makeup effects. Iguchi said he wanted to make an action movie with a woman fighting and it started with just an idea of a girl losing her arm and going out for revenge and was originally called "One Armed Big Busty Girl" - the machine gun came later. Iguchi was a special guest at the 2009 and 2010 New York Asian Film Festival.
In 2010, Iguchi directed his largest-budgeted feature, the action film Karate-Robo Zaborgar, based on the popular 1970s television series Denjin Zaborger. He followed it with the scatological horror/comedy Zombie Ass in 2011.
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Diana Bracho
Biography
Diana Bracho (born Diana Bracho Bordes on December 12, 1944 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican actress.
Diana Bracho is the daughter of actor/director Julio Bracho, the niece of actress Andrea Palma and the aunt of actor Julio Bracho (named after his grandfather). She married Dr. Felipe Bracho, a university professor. They have a daughter, Andrea. She married, secondly, to Rafael Cortes, an artist, designer and painter. She made her film debut as a child actress in two of her father's films: San Felipe (1949) and Immaculate Conception(1950). She studied Philosophy and Letters in New York. She debuted professionally on stage in the play Israfel by Abelardo Rodríguez alongside Sergio Bustamante. Her television debut was in 1973. Diana Bracho won the Silver Ariel award twice, the first time in 1973. She won her second Silver Ariel for El infierno, de todos tan temído and was nominated for Best Actress for Letters from Marusia (1976) and Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda (1996). On August 6, 2002 she was appointed president of theAcademia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas. She has been involved in co-productions with countries such asThe Chess Player (France); Edmilson (Germany), The Dogs of War (Britain), The Aleph (Italy), The legend of the Drum (Spain), Antonieta (Spain) and On Wings of Eagles (United States). She starred in several television series and soap operas, notably as Leonora Navarro in the telenovela Cuna de lobos (1986), produced by Carlos Tellez. She also played the villainous Evangelina Vizcaíno in Cadenas de Amargura (1991), produced by Carlos Sotomayor. She is set to play the role of the black widow in the third season of Mujeres Asesinas. Though Diana was confirmed to star in Salvador Mejía's new telenovela: La tempestad, she rejected her participation.
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