Contemporary Actors Archives - Page 44 of 49

Frank Langella

Frank Langella. TCM Overview.

Frank Langella was born in 1938 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He made his film debut in 1970 with Mel Brook’s “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Diary of a Mad Housewife”. He scored a success on Broadway in the title role in “Dracula” a role he repeated on film. Recently he has won widespread acclaim for his role in “Frost/Nixon”.

TCM Overview:

Frank Langella’s status as one of the most highly regarded actors of the American stage was well-deserved, as his grand presence earned two Tony Awards by the time he was 30 years old. During his career of 75-plus stage plays and three dozen films, Langella, with his penchant for bold, romantic leads and chilly villains, was entrusted with such classic characters as Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and Cyrano de Bergerac. He favored period classics during his early years, but middle age found him more at ease in contemporary film drama, where he earned critical notice for “Dave” (1993), “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005) and a portrayal of Richard Nixon that migrated from the West End to Broadway to movie screens in “Frost/Nixon” (2008). Even as high profile film roles eventually brought the actor mainstream recognition, Langella maintained his residency in the world of professional thespians rather than being a Hollywood commodity.

Born Nov. 1, 1938, Frank Langella was raised in Bayonne, NJ. From a childhood love of listening to opera and taking the stage in school plays, Langella went on to study drama at Syracuse University. After several years of performing in regional repertory and summer stock, he joined the Lincoln Center Repertory Company as one of its original members, studying under Elia Kazan. He made his New York City stage debut in “The Immoralist” in 1963 and spent much of the remainder of the decade onstage, building his reputation with OBIE-winning turns in “The Old Glory” (1964), “Good Day” (1965) and “The White Devil” (1965). He also appeared frequently at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Berkshire Theatre Festival, where he created the role of Will Shakespeare in “A Cry of Players” (1968), earning another Drama Desk Award. Langella made an excellent feature film debut as a swaggering, self-centered amoralist afraid of serious relationships in Frank Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Housewife” (1970). That same year, he also came up aces as a Russian con man in Mel Brooks’ “The Twelve Chairs,” winning the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Board of Review for the two performances.

After his role as the deranged counter-revolutionary son of Rita Hayworth in the Love Goddess’ swan song, “The Wrath of God” (1972), Langella boldly inhabited the charismatic title character in the ABC TV movie, “The Mark of Zorro” (1974). He went on to spend the majority of the 1970s on stage, earning a Tony Award for his Broadway debut as a slithering lizard in Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-winner, “Seascape” (1975). His legendary smoldering performance in the Broadway smash “Dracula” (1977) led to another Tony nomination – a significant accomplishment as the actor shared the spotlight with illustrator Edward Gorey’s magnificent sets. Langella’s acclaimed stage work reached larger audiences when tapings of his Williamstown Theatre Festival performances in Chekhov’s “The Seagull” and Tennessee Williams’ “Eccentricities of a Nightingale” aired on PBS’ “Theater in America” series in 1975 and 1976. He reprised his immensely seductive “Dracula” on the big screen in 1979, and while some thought the trendy horror gimmicks employed by director John Badham upstaged Langella’s acclaimed Broadway characterization, the film did fine with both blood-thirsty audiences and swooning female fans at the box office. What followed was a burst of sex-symbol mania over Langella’s brooding good looks, which he rode into the next decade.

The seasoned Broadway actor branched out into directing at the helm of Albert Innaurato’s “Passione” on Broadway in 1980, and on the big screen he was quite good as a down-on-his-luck actor in Michael Pressman’s sleeper “Those Lips, Those Eyes” (1980). In one of several of Langella’s portrayals of famous artists, he essayed famous Italian composer Antonino Salieri in Sir Peter Hall’s stage production of “Amadeus” (1982). The following year, he tackled painter Leonardo Da Vinci in the PBS show “I, Leonardo: A Journey of the Mind” (PBS, 1983). Langella produced and starred in a 1984 off-Broadway revival of “After the Fall,” and appeared in George C. Scott’s production of Noel Coward’s “Design for Living” (1984) and Mike Nichols’ 1985 staging of “Hurlyburly.” On the small screen, he portrayed famed sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi in the historic made-for-television offering, “Liberty” (NBC, 1986). For the most part, worthy big screen roles continued to elude him and he landed in questionable movies like “The Men’s Club” (1986), the tedious, imitative fantasy “Masters of the Universe” (1987), and in Roger Vadim’s ill-advised remake of “And God Created Woman” (1988). He rebounded with one of his more famous roles, starring as British literary hero Sherlock Holmes in a Broadway production of “Sherlock’s Last Case” (1987). He revived the role to an excellent reception in HBO’s “Sherlock Holmes” (1991).

Now white-haired and enjoying a comfortable position as a highly regarded stage and screen thespian, Langella’s career reached new heights in the 1990s. He gave a tremendously villainous performance as a duplicitous White House chief of staff in “Dave” (1993), and was equally ominous as the brilliant, cynical arms designer of HBO’s “Doomsday Gun” (1994). In a rare appearance in broad comedy, he was seen as a department administrator in support of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Ivan Reitman’s “Junior” (1994). Langella returned to the New York stage to play family patriarch Junius Brutus Booth in Austin Pendleton’s “Booth” (1994), and hit theaters in double duds “Cutthroat Island” (1995) and the sports comedy “Eddie” (1996), which begat a long-term relationship with co-star Whoopi Goldberg. He rebounded by tackling another historical figure, playing the Pharaoh to Ben Kingsley’s “Moses” (TNT, 1996), while on stage he garnered acclaim for what Variety called a “hair-raising” performance as August Strindberg’s “The Father” (1996). He also gave a delicious turn as the perpetually preening matinee idol Garry Essendine in a revival of Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter” (1996). His role as a playwright vying for the affections of a seductive teenager in the second film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” (1997) met with mixed reviews, and the controversial film was banned from feature release in the U.S., but aired on Showtime in 1998.

Dusting off a character he had played twice on stage in Williamstown, Langella scripted, directed and starred off-Broadway as “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1997) in a scaled-down adaptation of his own vision. He appeared in the NBC miniseries “Jason and the Argonauts” (2000) before essaying the role of a cable network owner for ABC’s “The Beast” (2001), a short-lived series about the 24-hour World News Service (WNS) network. The following year, he gave a Tony Award-winning turn in Ivan Turgenev’s “Fortune’s Fool” at the Stamford Center for the Arts in Connecticut. Roles in a string of minor films followed before Langella resurfaced in a major way with his magnetic portrayal of the demanding, compelling and sometimes hypocritical acting teacher Goddard Fulton in the George Clooney-Steven Soderbergh-produced improvised series, “Unscripted” (HBO, 2005). He remained on the air in a recurring role as Pino, the mercurial owner of a high class New York restaurant, in the short-lived sitcom “Kitchen Confidential” (Fox, 2005). In one of Langella’s best known film roles, he portrayed legendary CBS head William S. Paley, forced to find the delicate balance between allowing journalist Edward R. Murrow to take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy but also maintaining safe network business sense, in Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005). The critical fave was a nominee for both Oscar and Golden Globe Best Pictures.

In a follow-up coup, Langella was cast in the role of Daily Planet newspaper editor Perry White in Bryan Singer’s blockbuster “Superman Returns” (2006). In the summer of that year, he flew to London for a long stage run portraying Richard Nixon in the West End production “Frost/Nixon,” a drama based on the televised interviews the former president did with British broadcaster David Frost in 1977. After receiving an overwhelmingly positive response, the show was exported to Broadway where Langella’s performance earned him a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Actor. On movie screens that year Langella earned multiple film festival nominations for his starring role as a fading novelist in the indie drama “Starting Out in the Evening” (2007), based on the novel by Brian Morton. The following year, he reprised his Nixon characterization in Ron Howard’s film adaptation of “Frost/Nixon” (2008), which earned him a Golden Globe nod for Best Performance by an Actor, as well as his first ever Academy Award nomination.

After a starring run on Broadway in “A Man for All Seasons,” Langella’s flair for the ominous was again used with good measure in the 2009 horror film “The Box.” He went on to play a financial manager whose tragic end unearths the shady practices of the head of an investment bank (Josh Brolin) in Oliver Stone’s disappointing follow up, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” (2010), starring Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas. From there, he was a wealthy real estate magnate whose son and heir (Ryan Gosling) is accused of murdering his wife (Kirsten Dunst) in the true crime thriller, “All Good Things” (2010), a loosely re-imagined telling of the real-life case involving billionaire Robert Durst. After a supporting turn opposite Liam Neeson and January Jones in the action thriller “Unknown” (2011), Langella was an aging ex-con whose given a robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) to care for him, only to use it to perform a heist in the indie comedy “Robot & Frank” (2012).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Jack Scalia was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950. In 1982 he played Rock Hudson’s son in “The Devlin Connection” on television. He also had a featured role in “Dallas”. His films include “Black Tuilip” and “The Genius Club”.

Gary Brunburgh’s entry:

Actor Jack Scalia, a Brooklyn native, was an All-American athlete in high school, playing three sports through college, while participating in four triathlons and six marathons. He decided to attempt Hollywood stardom as an actor after an injury ended a pro-baseball career. In 1975, he took advantage of his muscular build and macho good looks by modeling with Armani, later joining the Ford Modeling Agency and signing on as the “Jordache Jeans Man”. In January 1980, Scalia made the transition into acting, which led to his first film role in the mini-movie, The Star Maker (1981), starring the late Rock Hudson. Scalia got his first taste of series stardom as an unshaven, rough-and-tough detective who joins forces with his slick and debonair father (Hudson again) in the TV series, The Devlin Connection (1982). Though the series had a short life, Scalia received scads of attention. His more popular telefilm credits included I’ll Take Manhattan (1987),Ring of Scorpio (1991), Lady Boss (1992) and Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993), playing infamous tabloid newsmaker Joey Buttafuoco, with Alyssa Milano as his teenage object of desire. Though Scalia never scaled to the heights of a Tom Selleckor Pierce Brosnan with that one smash series, he would headline a near-record eleven TV shows that kept him constantly in the running. In 2001, he joined the cast of All My Children (1970) for a time and won a daytime Emmy nomination in the process. He’s also been an active hero and villain in low-budget thrillers, such as The Rift (1990) (aka “Endless Descent”), T-Force (1994), Act of War (1998) and Ground Zero (2000). More recently, he returned from living in Rome, Italy while filming a remake of his American TV series, Tequila and Bonetti (1992). He made his stage debut as the lead in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, “Red River Rats”, in Los Angeles. The tall, dark and hirsutely handsome Scalia has remained a durable “ladies’ man” and “man’s man” for over two decades.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Dianne Wiest was born in 1948 in Kansas City. She made her movie debut with Jill Clayburgh in “It’s My Turn” in 1980. She made several films with Woodt Allen and won two Oscars in his films, “Hannah and her Sisters” and “Bullets Over Broadway”. She also stars in the television series !In Treatment” as Gabriel Byrne’s analyst.

TCM Overview:

Academy Award-winning actress Dianne Wiest was a highly respected New York stage veteran who initially carved out a reputation for intense dramatic chops, but found herself more frequently cast in comedy when her career expanded to include feature films. A favorite of filmmaker Woody Allen, the director offered her every stage actress’ dream of playing complex, well-developed characters which she brought to sparkling life in films including “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986), “Radio Days” (1987) and “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994). Hollywood generally gave the versatile actress less adventurous work and Wiest obliged with innumerable supporting roles as underwritten moms, though some of Tinseltown’s more visionary directors captured her quirky qualities in “The Lost Boys” (1987), “Parenthood” (1989) and “Edward Scissorhands” (1990). Wiest’s steady Hollywood offers financed the actress’ frequent returns to the New York stage, and she remained a figure both on- and off-Broadway throughout her film and eventual primetime television career, culminating in the revered role of a therapist on HBO’s “In Treatment” (2008- ), all which helped cement her status as one of Hollywood’s most esteemed and beloved character actresses.

Wiest was born on March 28, 1948, in Kansas City, MO, but as the eldest child of a pilot and a nurse she was an “Army brat” who grew up in several communities in the U.S. and Germany. While a teenager, she studied at the School of American Ballet, but abandoned dance at the age 16 in favor of acting. She dropped out of the University of Maryland when she was offered a slot in a touring Shakespeare company, eventually landing a four-year gig as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. By the mid-1970s, Wiest had settled in New York City and found employment in productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre. Wiest broke through with a multiple award-winning comic turn in the off-Broadway play “The Art of Dining” in 1979. She played Desdemona to James Earl Jones’ “Othello” in 1982 and made her first significant film appearance that year, supporting Jill Clayburgh in “I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can.” She also began to land a handful of small screen productions, turning in stage-quality work in “The Wall” (CBS, 1982), a fictionalized account of Jewish Resistance to Nazis in WWII Warsaw, and “The Face of Rage” (ABC, 1983), where she gave a moving depiction of a rape survivor.

Wiest began making inroads in features by playing routine roles, including the long-suffering wife of a preacher (John Lithgow) in “Footloose” (1984), but it took joining Woody Allen’s unofficial stock company and being given the freedom to showcase her capabilities for her profile to rise. In “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985), the writer-director cast her in the small but memorable role of a hard-bitten prostitute. Wiest picked up her first Academy Award for her scene-stealing turn as Mia Farrow’s younger sister, a neurotically unfocused aspiring actress in “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986). She also lent a similar garrulous charm to man-chasing spinster Aunt Bea in Allen’s nostalgic “Radio Days” (1987). In his turgid “September” (1987), she again gave a command performance as an unhappily married woman competing with her best friend (Farrow) for the attentions of the same man (Sam Waterston). It was doubtful that another actress could have telegraphed the character’s sexual desire mixed with apprehension in the way that Wiest effectively did.

After the Oscar win and string of strong Allen outings, Hollywood predictably began to tap Wiest for maternal roles. She played the clueless mom of a budding vampire in the cult hit, “The Lost Boys” (1987), the sainted Madonna of “Bright Lights, Big City” (1988), and the wholesome Avon Lady and adoptive mom of outcast “Edward Scissorhands” (1990). Ron Howard’s “Parenthood” (1989) netted Wiest a second Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for playing the harried, divorced parent of teenagers – one pregnant; one a morbid loner. In the span of some seven years, only “Little Man Tate” (1991) offered a slight change of pace, casting her as a caring child psychologist in conflict with the mother of a boy genius. It was Woody Allen who again provided a meaty and decidedly different character for Wiest: a narcissistic, tempestuous actress past her prime in “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994). Using her “stage voice” – a bit deeper, more sensual, and in Allen’s words “more pretentious” – she inhabited the skin of this campy grande dame and amassed another set of trophies, including a second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Another pedigree director – this time, Mike Nichols – paired Wiest with Gene Hackman as the conservative parents of a daughter marrying into an unconventional family in the laugh-out-loud comedy “The Birdcage” (1996). She added an Emmy to her collection for a 1996 guest appearance on “Avonlea” (The Disney Channel) before Robert Redford tapped into her maternal traits for “The Horse Whisperer” (1998). But the actress seemed to stumble a bit in her over-the-top interpretation of an eccentric aunt training her nieces, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, in witchcraft in “Practical Magic” (1998). Wiest picked up an Emmy nomination for a supporting role as a diner owner and friend to a seemingly ageless carpenter in “The Secret Life of Noah Dearborn” (CBS, 1999), and was tapped to play a wicked queen who plots to usurp the throne of mythical monarchy in the big-budget miniseries “The 10th Kingdom” (NBC, 2000). She remained a presence on the small screen for the next two years, taking on the role of a district attorney on the acclaimed legal drama “Law & Order” (NBC, 1990-2010).

A return to the big screen found Wiest playing the agoraphobic neighbor of a mentally retarded man (Sean Penn) fighting for custody of his seven-year-old daughter in “I Am Sam” (2002). Wiest lent her voice to Mrs. Copperbottom in the animated family blockbuster “Robots” (2005), and appeared next in “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” (2006), an independent film adaptation of Dito Montiel’s memoir about growing up in Queens, NY during the 1980s. The film was a favorite on the festival circuit, winning a special Jury Prize for its ensemble cast at the Sundance Film Festival. In a great onscreen pairing with John Mahoney as parents to a widower (Steve Carell) with three daughters, Wiest contributed to the top notch performances in the offbeat comedy “Dan in Real Life” (2007).

Next up for the ever dependable player, Wiest won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series the following year for her return to primetime in HBO’s “In Treatment” (HBO, 2008- ) a smart, character-driven drama starring Gabriel Byrne as a psychotherapist and Wiest as his therapist. She followed with a 2008 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television category. The actress also appeared on limited film screens that year as part of the reality-bending directorial debut from Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York.” In 2009, Wiest added to her long list of career accolades with another Best Supporting Actress Emmy nomination for “In Treatment.”

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Blythe Danner was born in 1943 in Philadelphia. She first won acclaim on Broadway in “Butterflies Are Free”. In 1972 she starred as Martha Jefferson in “1776”. Other films include “The Great Santini”, “The Prince of Tides” in 1991 and opposite Robert De Niro in “Meet the Parents” and it’s sequels. She is the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow.

IMDB entry:

Blythe studied acting and got her degree from Bard College and began her career in Boston theater companies. By 25, she won the Theater World Award for her work in Molière‘s “The Miser”, at Lincoln Center. She also won the 1970 Tony award for her role in “Butterflies Are Free”. She made her film premiere in the same year in the television production of Dr. Cook’s Garden (1971). For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. She has also been nominated for Tonys for performances in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Betrayal”. Married to director Bruce Paltrow, she is the mother of two acting children, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: John Sacksteder <jsack@ka.net>

Harry Hamlin. TCM Overview.

Hamlin was born in 1951 in Pasadena, California. In 1979 he played the title role in the miniseries “Studs Lonnigan”. In 1982 he starred with Michael Ontkean in “Making Love”. Other films include “Clash of the Titans”, “Movie, Movie” and was one of the stars of the very successfeul television series “LA Law”.

TCM Overview:

With a résumé often overshadowed by his relationships with several Hollywood sex symbols, Harry Hamlin’s acting career began promisingly and peaked with a hugely successful television series, but he ironically found its niche in the role of husband to a former soap opera star. After studying drama at Yale and earning his M.F.A. from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, Hamlin quickly made the leap to feature films, appearing in 1978’s “Movie Movie,” and nabbing the title role in the NBC miniseries “Studs Lonigan” (1979). He made a splash with the special effects-laden feature “Clash of the Titans” (1981), and went on to major stardom as part of a stellar ensemble on one of the biggest TV series of the 1980s, “L.A. Law” (NBC, 1986-1994). However, poor choices in both projects and women ultimately relegated Hamlin to sub-par direct-to-video fare and serving as fodder for the tabloids, respectively. Oddly enough, it was his celebrity marriage to onetime soap opera star Lisa Rinna that allowed Hamlin to once again enjoy both his offscreen life and the spotlight as one-half of a celebrity couple to a degree he had not known in well over a decade.

Born on Oct. 30, 1951, in Pasadena, CA, Hamlin attended the Flintridge Preparatory School in nearby La Cañada before continuing on to the prestigious boarding academy, The Hill School in Pottstown, PA. At the University of California, Berkley, Hamlin enrolled in the school’s theater program only after the courses for his intended major were filled, but was soon enamored with the stage and chose to seriously pursue an acting career. In 1972, much to the dismay of his family, Hamlin transferred to Yale University where he earned a B.A. in drama in 1974. A scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater brought him back West to San Francisco, where Hamlin’s real transformation into an actor occurred in the Advanced Actor Training Program. There, Hamlin starred in a production of “Equus,” attracting the attention of director Stanley Donen, and receiving his M.F.A in acting in 1976. That year, he was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship, but turned it down after landing his first feature film role as naïve boxer Joey Popchick in Donen’s nostalgic comedy “Movie Movie” (1978), starring alongside the likes of George C. Scott and Red Buttons. Barely out of college, Hamlin was already off to a promising Hollywood start.

Around this time, Hamlin began a four-year relationship with original “Bond Girl,” Ursula Andress, with whom he would father a son, Dmitri, in 1980. The couple remained a favorite subject of the gossip columns throughout their May-September romance. On television, Hamlin won the title role in the miniseries “Studs Lonigan” (NBC, 1979), for which the young actor received favorable notices. With “King of the Mountain” (1981), Hamlin won his first leading role in a feature film. Unfortunately, the tale of illegal street racing on Mulholland Drive stalled at the box office. Hamlin’s next feature, however, would secure him a place in the hearts of fantasy-loving fanboys for decades to come. As the mortal Perseus in the Greek mythology adventure epic “Clash of the Titans” (1981), Hamlin would once again share screen time with film legends such as Laurence Olivier and Burgess Meredith, in addition to girlfriend Ursula Andress, who, naturally, took the role of Aphrodite. His bare-chest-laden exposure in “Clash of the Titans” resulted in more feature offers, but 1982’s “Making Love” proved to be a poor follow-up choice. Directed by Arthur Hiller, the drama focused on a loving husband (Michael Ontkean) suddenly realizing he is in love with another man (Hamlin) and the resulting emotional turmoil as he struggles to tell his wife (Kate Jackson). For all its good intentions, less-than-accepting audiences stayed away in droves, effectively killing Hamlin’s movie career.

After one more stab at the big screen in the box office bomb “Blue Skies Again” (1983), Hamlin returned to television with two more literary-inspired miniseries, “Master of the Game” (CBS, 1984), based on the Sidney Sheldon melodrama, and “James A. Michener’s ‘Space'” (CBS, 1985). In a continuing theme, Hamlin’s personal life would continue to outshine his career. His relationship with aging sex symbol Andress had ended a few years earlier, and in 1986 Hamlin married actress Laura Johnson, a regular on the primetime soap “Falcon Crest” (CBS, 1981-1990). It was a tumultuous romance that would end in a messy divorce a few years later, once again salaciously covered in the tabloids. Suddenly, everything changed for Hamlin when he was cast as the brooding, intense attorney, Michael Kuzak, on the breakout hit series “L.A. Law” (NBC, 1986-1994). The show became the prototype for what would be a mainstay of episodic television – the legal drama. Hamlin’s character was considered the show’s moral lynchpin. With his chiseled good looks and onscreen chemistry with co-star Susan Dey, Hamlin’s popularity exploded overnight, culminating in him receiving the dubious honor of being named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1987. The personal and professional upswing would not last, however, when, shortly after his ugly split from Johnson, Hamlin chose to exit the vehicle that had made him a household name, leaving the cast of “L.A. Law” in 1991.

The intent for leaving a No. 1 program was invariably to go on to bigger and better projects, however, the decade that followed was anything but stellar for Hamlin. In 1991, he married for a second time to yet another primetime soap vixen, Nicollette Sheridan of “Knots Landing” (CBS, 1979-1983). It did not last, and by 1993 the couple was divorced quite acrimoniously, to the delight of tabloid editors. In fact Hamlin took the split exceptionally hard, particularly after his bombshell ex took up with singer Michael Bolton almost immediately. Over the course of the 1990s, the former TV heartthrob appeared in an uneven string of direct-to-video erotic thrillers like “Under Investigation” (1993); television movies of a similar vein, “Her Deadly Rival” (CBS, 1995); and failed attempts at headlining another episodic series, “Movie Stars” (The WB, 1998-2000). Still, there was one bright spot in this otherwise faith-shaking period for Hamlin.

Shortly after rebounding from his breakup with Sheridan, he began dating Lisa Rinna, another actress known for her roles on daytime and primetime soaps, particularly “Days of our Lives” (NBC1965- ) and “Melrose Place (Fox, 1992-99), respectively. Apparently, the third time was a charm for Hamlin, as the couple married in 1997 and produced two daughters, Delilah and Amelia. Art imitated life, when Hamlin and Rinna took on recurring roles as a celebrity couple on the critically acclaimed crime-drama “Veronica Mars” (UPN, 2004-07). After cheering on Rinna from the sidelines the previous season, Hamlin strutted his stuff in 2006 as a celebrity cast member on season three of “Dancing with the Stars” (ABC, 2005- ). However, his less than graceful moves failed to impress, and he was voted off much earlier in the competition than his wife. In 2009, Hamlin made a brief appearance in the torturous murder mystery “Harper’s Island” (CBS, 2008-09). The following year, the low-key Hamlin and the extroverted Rinna capitalized on the interest in their celebrity marriage with the launch of a reality series “Harry Loves Lisa” (TV Land, 2010- ). Balancing out the good with the bad was the break in and burglary of the couple’s Sherman Oaks boutique clothing store twice within the span of a week in early October 2010.

Hamlin returned to more credible television work with brief arcs on the military drama “Army Wives” (Lifetime 2007-2013) and the American adaptation of the black comedy “Shameless” (Showtime 2011- ). In 2013, he joined the cast of the Emmy-winning drama “Mad Men” (AMC 2007- ) as the straitlaced ad executive Jim Cutler, who clashes with the partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce when his agency suddenly merges with theirs.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Dennis Christopher has starred in two cult classic films and been featured in another. The two are “Breaking Away” in 1979 and “Fade to Black”. The other film is “Chariots of Fire”. He was born in 1955 in Philadelphia. He has also guest starred in two “Star Trek” episodes.

Article from “The Huffington Post”:

If you’re an actor and you wind up being cast in one of Quentin Tarantino’s films, it’s for a reason. He wants you there. Hollywood has its “A-list,” and Tarantino has his… Take actor Dennis Christopher, widely known as the Italo-centric, cycling “cutter” who shaved his legs in 1979’s Academy-Award-winning film Breaking Away. When he stepped on set, in Wallace, Louisiana, to play Leonide Moguy (DiCaprio’s consigliore) in Django Unchained, his mercurial director let everybody know who he was … even the caterers.
“One day they were setting up lights for the dining room table scene and Quentin pointed at me and shouted, ‘Need I remind you people that this man has been lighted by Federico Fellini,'” Dennis Christopher told us recently.

“He never misses a moment to be able to tell people why any person is on the set who happens to be there.”

Filmography aside, Christopher’s life to date is as interesting as his resume. Born in Philadelphia, Christopher couldn’t wait to check out of the mire of middle-class suburbia and find his way in the world.

“There were two things I wanted to be: an actor and a hippie,” Christopher told us.
“But, the hippie thing was over in the United States, and I knew it was still going on over in Europe, so I bought a one-way charter flight to Europe. I had a duffle bag, a pair of fry boots and $79 in my pocket. It was quite an adventure.”

It was that hippie ethos that found the young journeyman hitchhiking around Europe and at the scene of one of his life’s many seminal events — an encounter that would forever shape him.

Upon arriving in Rome, Christopher followed a beautiful barefoot chanteuse down the street, into a square where he unexpectedly stumbled onto a film set commanded by none other than legendary director Federico Fellini.

Not only did he muster enough courage to speak to the director, he turned the chance encounter into a three-week job, playing — of all things — a hippie.

“He used to have me as a focal point when he would set up a shot. Then he’d call me over and put his hand on my shoulder and yell ‘Azione,'” said Christopher in his best Italian accent.
“He used to call me ‘Bambino,’ which is funny, because that was the original title ofBreaking Away. He took a great fondness to me.”

Christopher’s next bout with serendipity occurred a few years later in New York, when a friend got him a job working with world-renowned designer Halston, most famous for designing the pill-box hat Jackie Kennedy wore at her husband’s inauguration.

“I started out in the stockroom and worked my way up to assistant,” remembers Christopher.

“One of my best friends, [artist and designer] Stephen Sprouse, Bill Dugan, and I worked designing clothes, doing every conceivable thing. New York was a really intoxicating period for me, literally and figuratively. There was a lot of overlap with Andy Warhol, Studio 54, and Halston. And while I was drawn to that world I’m glad I didn’t go off in that direction because there were too many lost souls. I knew that getting high and laying around was no way to build a career. So, I’d always keep going back to the acting. Once the rent was paid and the phone bill, the next money you had was for acting classes.”

Christopher soon began finding steady acting work, first on stage in Yentl the Yeshiva Boyat The Brooklyn Academy before the production moved to Broadway. Next came film and TV roles, including James Bridges’ September 30th 1955, and two Robert Altman films, 3 Women and A Wedding.
His big break was Breaking Away, a poignant comedy about a group of four working class teenagers who grow up in the shadow of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It was a chance to work with another legendary director, Peter Yates, whose oeuvre consisted largely of action pictures like Bullit, Mother Jugs and Speed, and The Deep.
Christopher was cast as the film’s lead Dave Stoller, a recent highschool grad who forsakes college for competitive bicycle racing, and obsesses over all things Italian after winning a Masi bicycle.

“I didn’t want to play that part, because it seemed impossible for me to play this guy who shaves his legs…”

“I had a bike as a kid, and when I worked in Manhattan — I had a 10-speed I rode from downtown to 68th and Madison for my day job. I knew about fighting traffic but nothing about racing.”
Christopher also arrived on set in Bloomington two weeks into principal photography, exhausted after finishing a film with Richard Harris and still ambivalent about the character Peter Yates cast him to play.

“My first day on set they darkened my skin with makeup, colored my hair a dark, dark brown and slicked it back. They had me in skin-tight clothes, pointy high-heeled black boots, and gold chains around my neck. I looked like a reject from Saturday Night Fever.”

“The next morning, I ran over to Peter Yates and I burst into tears. I looked at him and I said, ‘Peter, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t like this boy that you’ve created. …These guys wouldn’t be friends with me… They’d beat me up.’ He says, ‘You haven’t slept in a few days. Go back to the hotel and sleep and I will be over at the hotel room later on to talk with you.'”

“So I got a little bit of rest and Peter and [screenwriter] Steve Tesich came to the hotel to talk to me and I told them, ‘I’m not pretending to be Italian to get pussy.'”

“I said, ‘I want a big family. That’s why I want to be Italian. It’s a whole different feel, what it means to be Italian.’ They didn’t realize I’m half Italian (Christopher’s real surname is Carrelli) and I had lived in Italy for over a year. But they listened, to the point where they sent somebody back to Los Angeles to bring my clothes to the set. All the clothes that you see me [wear] in the movie that are not bicycle riding outfits, they are my clothes. I have no idea why they listened to me.”
Nearly 35 years after it’s release, Breaking Away is regarded, still, as one of the most memorable coming-of-age films ever made. Not only did it win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but Breaking Away made the careers of the young actors who made up its ensemble cast. Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley, Daniel Stern, and Dennis Quaid have all gone on to have stunning film and television careers.

“I just marvel when I look at the movie, and I think an Englishman directed it and was able to bring a love of America and a critical eye to a small town and point out that indeed there is a class struggle in America … He examined things in such a way that it drew you into the picture, and that’s one of the satisfying things about watching Breaking Away.”

Christopher has worked regularly as a character actor, on stage and screen, since Breaking Away. In 1981, he appeared as American Olympic track star Charlie Paddock in the Oscar-sweeper Chariots of Fire. Other films include, Fade to Black, The Falling, A Sinful Life, andDjango Unchained, to name only a few. He’s appeared in a myriad of roles on such TV shows as Stephen King’s It, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the HBO Series Deadwood.

Of course there are many more, and Quentin Tarantino swears he’s seen them all.
“When I first met him, he’d been a fan of everything I’d done … I can’t even make that claim,” said Christopher. I said, “‘You saw Dead Women in Lingerie?’ He said, ‘Yeah, the week it opened … It was a piece of shit but you were great in it.'”
For more stories like this go to www.web2carz.com

The above article in “The Huffington Post” can also be accessed online here.

David Clennon was born in 1943 in Illinois. His first film was “Being There” in 1979. His other films include “The Thing”, “Missing”, “Sweet Dreams” and “Syriana”.

TCM Overview:

This lean, often bearded, character player of stage and screen since the 1970s gained some measure of celebrity as the cold, cunning Miles Dentrel on the acclaimed dramatic series “thirtysomething” (ABC). As the resident yuppie scum from 1989-1991, Clennon portrayed the calculating character who seemed to represent the fears and reservations of the show’s more sympathetic figures. That his prior stints as a TV regular–“Rafferty” (CBS, 1977), a medical drama and “Park Place” (CBS, 1981), a short-lived legal sitcom–had him playing a surgeon and an eager, idealistic legal aide lawyer, respectively, testify to Clennon’s versatility.

After several years of anti-war activism during the Vietnam era, Clennon established himself Off-Broadway and in regional theater, racking up credits at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Long Wharf Theatre and the Actor’s Theater of Louisville. He entered films with bit parts in several noteworthy American films of 70s, including “The Paper Chase” (1973), “Bound for Glory” (1976), and “Coming Home” (1977), before landing the substantial supporting role of an ambitious attorney in “Being There” (1979). Clennon amassed additional feature credits, usually in supporting roles, in a wide variety of films. He was the tight-lipped US consul in Chile who cannot help Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek find John Shea in “Missing” (1982) and Meryl Streep’s seemingly passionless husband in “Falling in Love” (1984). He received more screen time than usual in Paul Schrader’s “Light Sleeper” (1992), as a drug dealing colleague of Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe. More recently, he portrayed a doctor in Allison Anders’ “Grace of My Heart” (1996).

The small screen has also offered a variety of opportunities for the actor. Clennon’s first appearance in a TV longform was a small role in “The Migrants” (CBS, 1974). He could be seen in the miniseries “Helter Skelter” (CBS, 1976) and alongside Henry Fonda in “Gideon’s Trumpet” (CBS, 1980). Clennon frequently found himself cast as professionals; an exception was his turn as the American general (and future president) William Henry Harrison in “Tecumseh: The Last Warrior” (CBS, 1995). Among his many guest appearances, the most notable was as a writer suffering with AIDS in an affecting episode of the HBO comedy “Dream On”, for which he won an Emmy in 1993. Clennon returned as a series regular on “Almost Perfect” (CBS, 1995-96), as a laid-back, bohemian writer for a TV cop show.

This TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Brian F. O’Byrne. TCM Overview.

Brian F. O’Byrne was born in 1967 in Mullagh, Co. Cavan. He won widespread critical acclaim for his stage performances in Martin McDonagh’s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” and “The Lonesome West”. The plays were first staged by the Druid Theatre in Galway and then on to London and huge success on Broadway. O’Byrne stayed on in the U.S. and acted in mnay fine plays on Broadway. He guest starred in the successful TV series “Oz”. His films included “Million Dollar Baby” in 2004, “The Blackwater Lightship” with Angela Lansbury and “No Reservations”.

TCM Overview:

Brían O’Byrne was that rare kind of actor who effortlessly navigated the worlds of film, television and the stage. The Tony Award-winning O’Byrne gained acclaim for his multilayered performance in the Broadway production of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (1998), “The Lonesome West” (1999), and the off-Broadway play “Frozen” (2004), in which he portrayed a sympathetic serial child killer. O’Byrne’s versatility landed him a number of memorable film roles, most notably playing a priest in the Academy Award-winning drama “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) opposite Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank. He proved his mettle on television, with high-profiles roles on the Showtime drama “Brotherhood” (2006-08) and the ABC sci-fi series “FlashForward” (2009-10). But it was O’Byrne’s earnest portrayal of a likeable cheating husband on the HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce” (2011) that catapulted him to A-list status in Hollywood and proved that he was undeniably one of the most compelling and dependable performers in the business.

Brían Flynn O’Byrne was born on May 16, 1967 in County Cavan, Ireland. After training at the Samuel Beckett Center and Trinity College in Dublin, the twenty-something O’Byrne moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. He landed minor parts in several short films and on the sitcom “Valerie’s Family” (NBC, 1986-1991). He also starred in a few Irish feature dramas such as “The Last Bus Home” (1997) and “The Fifth Province” (1997), the latter of which saw him portray a tormented writer in search of a mythical province that promises magic and passion. While he built up his TV and film acting credits, O’Byrne also had a thriving career on stage. His memorable performance in the 1998 Broadway production of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor that year, followed by another Tony nod for Best Actor in 1999 for his role in “The Lonesome West.” The year 2004 had several milestones for O’Byrne. Not only did he win that year’s Tony Award for Best Actor for portraying a sympathetic child murderer in the off-Broadway production of “Frozen,” he also won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor for his compelling performance as a personable child-molesting priest in the play “Doubt.”

In 2004, O’Byrne co-starred in the critically acclaimed drama “Million Dollar Baby” as a priest who dissuades a boxing trainer (Clint Eastwood) from performing euthanasia on his fallen and disfigured protégé (Hilary Swank). In the late 2000s, O’Byrne’s career gained momentum on television. He had a recurring role on the crime drama “Brotherhood” (Showtime, 2006-08) as the lead character’s (Jason Isaacs) Irish cousin and right-hand man, and was a regular on the sci-fi series “FlashForward” (ABC, 2009-2010), about a mysterious event that causes everyone on Earth to simultaneously lose consciousness for a few minutes and see visions of their future.

Oliver Platt & Brian F. O'Byrne — Oliver Platt & Brian F. O’Byrne

In 2011, he co-starred on the television remake of the mini-series “Mildred Pierce” opposite Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, and Evan Rachel Wood. Based on James M. Cain’s 1941 novel and set in post-Depression America, the series followed Winslet’s character, a single mother trying to raise her children without her first husband, played by O’Byrne, whom she threw out of the house after she caught him cheating. For his portrayal of a surprisingly likeable character on the series, O’Byrne earned a 2011 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Anthony Geary was born in 1947 in Utah. He is best known for his role in the long running television series “General Hospital”. His films include “Johnny Got His Gun”, “Blood Sabbath” and “Carpool Guy”.

IMDB entry:

Mr. Geary has come a long way from Coalville, Utah, the small mountain community of 800 where he was born. Tony was a gifted student, attending the University of Utah as a Presidential Award Scholar in theater. Jack Albertson saw Tony perform there, a nd cast him in “The Subject Was Roses.” The production, starring Albertson and Martha Scott, toured Hawaii and settled at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, where Tony decided to establish himself. His ensuing musical theater credits comprise a catalog of classics. A highlight in this period was his co-starring engagement with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in “Your Show of Shows.” Mr. Geary has performed in more than 50 stage productions throughout the United States. His extensive theatrical credits include roles in productions of “The Wild Duck, ” “The Inspector General, ” “The Cat’s Paw, ” “The Glass Menagerie, ” and “Barabbas” a t the Los Angeles Theater Center. In addition, he toured with a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar, ” portraying the title role. He also portrayed Octavius Caesar, opposite Lynn Redgrave and Timothy Dalton, in a production of Shakespeare’s “Antony and C leopatra” for PBS and the BBC. Mr. Geary has made guest appearances on more than 40 television shows. Among his TV credits are roles on “Starsky & Hutch, ” “Barnaby Jones, ” “The Streets of San Francisco, ” “The Blue Knight, ” “All in the Family, ” “The Six Million Dollar Man, ” “The Par tridge Family, ” “Most Wanted, ” “Mannix, ” “The Mod Squad, ” “Room 222, ” “Doc Elliot, ” “Temperatures Rising, ” “Marcus Welby, M.D., ” Arthur Hailey’s “Hotel” and “Murder, She Wrote.” He also performed in the television movies, “Perry Mason and the Case of the Murdered Madam, ” “Kicks, ” “Sins of the Past, ” “The Imposter, ” “Intimate Agony” and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” and in the daytime dramas, “Bright Promise” and “The Young and the Restless.” As a producer, Mr. Geary received a Cindy Award for the drama, “Sound of Sunshine, Sound of Rain, ” a children’s story for Public Radio. He has also taught improvisation and story-theater techniques. Mr. Geary competed in track and field and swimming events as a college student, and also raced horses. He is a certified scuba diver as well as an accomplished rollerblader. Tony also claims to be “the world’s oldest Hip Hop dancer.” As portrayed by Anthony Geary, Luke Spencer was described as the most popular character in soap opera history. One critic said, “Geary’s individualism, uniqueness and awesome range is the most notable in daytime (television) history, ” a statement that is typical of the actor’s reviews. He added to his laurels by winning the 1981 Emmy Award as Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series. In January, 1991, Mr. Geary returned to “General Hospital” in the role of Bill Eckert, a cousin of Spencer’s, and a man of many, often dark, colors. Mr. Geary was seen on-screen as both Bill Eckert and Luke Spencer as the story progressed, until the death of Eckert.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gisele Herbert <gisele@ptd.net>

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online her

Collection of Contemporary Actors

Frank Langella

Frank Langella. TCM Overview.

Jack Scalia

Dianne Wiest

Blythe Danner

Harry Hamlin

Harry Hamlin. TCM Overview.

Dennis Christopher

David Clennon

Brian F. O’Byrne

Brian F. O’Byrne. TCM Overview.

Anthony Geary

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