Contemporary Actors
IMDB entry:
Michael Socha was born on December 13, 1987 in Derby. He is an actor best known for his role as Tom in Being Human (2008). His parents Robert Socha and Kathleen Lyons are Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Poland during World War 2.
Socha was a rebellious pupil who often skipped school. At the age of 11 Michael unsuccessfully auditioned for the lead role in a school musical play, but won the lead role of Bugsy Malone in another play years later.
IMDB entry:
McAvoy was raised in Drumchapel, Glasgow, by his grandparents after his father, also called James and a roofer by trade, abandoned his mother when James Jr. was 7. He went to St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started “a little school band with a couple of mates”.
McAvoy toyed with the idea of the Catholic priesthood as a child but when he was 16, a visit to the school by actor David Hayman sparked an interest in acting. Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room (1995) but despite enjoying the experience McAvoy didn’t seriously consider acting as a career, though he did continue to act as a member of PACE Youth Theatre. He applied instead to the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
He took the place at RSAMD and when he graduated in 2000, he moved to London. He’d already made a couple of TV appearances by this time and continued to get a steady stream of TV and movie work until he came to British public attention in 2004 playing Steve McBride in the successful UK TV series Shameless (2004) and then to the rest of the world in 2005 as Mr Tumnus in Disney’s adaptation of ‘C. S. Lewis”s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Since then he and his easy facility with accents (no, wait, what? he’s Scottish?) have been much in demand.
TCM overview:
An astonishing character actor-turned-lead on stage and screen, William H. Macy was at his best when he was humanizing despairing, imperfect people trying to keep their head up while their world disintegrates. Macy was a longtime collaborator of playwright and director David Mamet, originating the role of Bobby in Mamet’s famed “American Buffalo” on the Chicago stage in 1975, as well as appearing in Mamet’s films throughout his career. Additionally, he was giving memorable performances in several films by another boundary-pushing filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson. But of the top names in American independent film, it was the Coen Brothers who brought Macy his ultimate breakout with “Fargo” (1996), in which he gave an unforgettable performance as a car salesman whose very fallible murder plan goes awry. From his Oscar-nominated work in that film, Macy’s hangdog persona and his weathered innocence was tapped for character work in big budget Hollywood films like “Pleasantville” (1997) and “Seabiscuit” (2003). His later credentials also opened the door for Macy to write and star in a number of Emmy-nominated television films including “Door to Door” (TNT, 2002), as well as a tour-de-force performance as a no-good, but ultimately kindhearted alcoholic on the dramedy “Shameless” (Showtime, 2011- ), all of which solidified his reputation as a fountain of quality work and an impeccable performer and storyteller.
Born March 13, 1950, Macy was raised first in Atlanta, GA, where his father ran a construction firm, before relocating to Maryland when his father switched to a job in insurance. Macy was a shy kid, and began to crack out of his shell later in high school, culminating in a live musical performance at the annual talent show. Upon graduation in 1968, Macy adopted a hippie lifestyle which interfered with his half-hearted attempt to study veterinary medicine at Bethany College in West Virginia. Macy transferred to Goddard College in Vermont and became involved in the theater program. It was there that he met David Mamet, a recent Goddard grad who returned to teach acting at his alma mater. When Mamet returned to his native Chicago, IL several years later, he took Macy and writer Steven Schachter with him, and the trio founded the St Nicholas Theater. In 1975, they staged Mamet’s “American Buffalo” with Macy playing Bobby, the youth who serves as a kind of witless apprentice to two hapless thieves. For the rest of the seventies, the actor honed his craft on stage; his boyish handsomeness leading to typecasting as the callow youth (“dead or weeping by the end of the play”) or the boy genius with the solution to the play’s central conflict. At the end of the decade, he began to land small screen roles, including in the 1978 NBC miniseries “The Awakening Land,” the forgettable sex comedy “Foolin’ Around” (1979) and the cult classic, “Somewhere in Time” (1980).
In New York City, Macy found success in off-Broadway shows, including a Mamet-directed “Twelfth Night” (1980-81) and A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room” (1982). He and Mamet also co-founded the Atlantic Theatre Company, where Macy both acted, directed and eventually taught acting. Mamet used Macy in small roles in his feature film directing debut, “House of Games” (1987), and the following year in “Things Change” (1988); the same year Macy reached Broadway portraying Howie Newsome in the revival of “Our Town.” When Macy moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career, Mamet cast him in his first major screen part as a doomed police detective in “Homicide” (1991). His early years in Hollywood were thereafter marked with roles as a villain, child molester, sleazy lawyer or the good cop gone bad. After starring onstage as a college professor accused of sexual harassment by a female student in Mamet’s “Oleanna” (1992), he reprised the role in Mamet’s static 1994 film version. Despite fine turns as the uptight vice principal in “Mr. Holland’s Opus” (1995) and a recurring role as the forever put-upon hospital chief of staff on “ER” (NBC, 1994-2009) from its first season until 1998, leading film roles eluded the gifted actor.
Finally, in 1996, Macy was cast as a conniving car salesman with an eye on his wife’s family money in “Fargo.” His battle of wits with Frances McDormand’s pregnant police chief earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and, curiously, an Independent Spirit Award win for lead actor. The Coen Brothers’ universally acclaimed dark and bloody comedy not only made him a recognizable “movie star,” it established the actor’s strength in playing frightened, fumbling men on the brink. “I’m completely hooked into the imploding WASP role,” he informed The Los Angeles Times in 1998. Macy made his action-adventure debut in 1997 as a gun-toting presidential adviser supporting Harrison Ford in “Air Force One” (1997). That same year also saw him deliver a touching performance as the cuckolded assistant director to a pornographic filmmaker in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” (1997), not to mention a small role in the political send-up “Wag the Dog” (co-scripted by Mamet). With his hangdog look, Macy was perfectly cast (and gave a poignant portrayal) as the repressed TV father in “Pleasantville” (1997) stuck in a black-and-white world while everyone around him blossomed into Technicolor. He was equally splendid in “A Civil Action” as a harried legal accountant with the thankless job of asking for more money while John Travolta’s obsession with one case threatened to bankrupt the practice. He rounded out the year by stepping into Martin Balsam’s shoes as private dick Milton Arbogast in Gus Van Sant’s unnecessary shot-for-shot color remake of Hitchcock’s classic, “Psycho” (1997).
Macy was his usual droll self as the unlikely superhero The Shoveler in the sharply written comedy “Mystery Men” (1999), and was even better when he reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson for “Magnolia” (1999), portraying damaged former “Quiz Kid” Donnie Smith, who has been reduced to a routine job in an electronics store and hopes that pricey dental work will revive his love life. Despite having broken through to high-dollar mainstream films, Macy still made time for more adventurous independent films like “Happy, Texas” (1999), where he played a gay sheriff, and the romantic drama “Panic,” which debuted at Sundance in 2000. Macy co-wrote one of his best parts of 1999 – that of a movie critic who turns out to be a philandering, larcenous murderer in TNT’s “A Slight Case of Murder,” for which the actor earned an Emmy Award for his lead acting. Co-scripted with “Mamet Mafia” mate Schachter, the movie cast him opposite new wife, actress Felicity Huffman. He was able to spend even more time with the missus by taking a recurring role as a ratings expert on her ABC series “Sports Night” during the 1999-2000 season. Back with Mamet for “State and Main” (2000), Macy played a libidinous Hollywood director on location in Vermont. He also acted that year in a London revival of “American Buffalo;” this time taking the larger and older role of Teach.
In 2002, Macy starred in the light-hearted caper comedy “Welcome to Collinwood,” directed by the Russo Brothers and scored on television for his portrayal of a man afflicted with cerebral palsy who is determined to become a door-to-door salesman in the TNT movie “Door to Door” (2002), which Macy co-wrote with Schachter, the director. In 2003, Macy took home Emmy awards for his work as both lead actor and co-screenwriter in the real life story, and followed up by adding a welcome dose of comedy to the reverent historical film “Seabiscuit” (2003), the true-life story of the Depression Era racehorse-turned-folk hero, as the fast-talking, rumor-spreading sports announcer “Tick-Tock” McLaughlin. His performance was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination and in a nice bookend for the year, Macy turned in his ultimate “loser” performance in the offbeat film “The Cooler,” playing a man so overwhelmingly unlucky he is employed by a Las Vegas casino to spread his infectious misfortune, until a torrid affair with a gorgeous cocktail waitress (Maria Bello) turns his luck around. On television, Macy starred opposite David Arquette in the Showtime telepic “Stealing Sinatra” (2003), and earned an Emmy nomination for playing a not-so-clever culprit who holds Frank Sinatra’s son for ransom in the story of a real-life kidnapping case from the 1960s.
He re-teamed with Huffman on the Showtime miniseries “Out of Order” (2003) about the personal lives of married Hollywood screenwriters, and joined his wife and Tom Selleck for the 2004 CBS miniseries “Reversible Errors,” a legal potboiler based on the Scott Turow novel. In 2004, Mamet cast Macy in the edgy political thriller “Spartan” in what at first appeared to be a subdued, walk-on role that helped Macy nearly walk away with the entire film. The actor was again at the top of his game in the equally gimmicky and inspired thriller “Cellular” (2004), spinning his world-weary persona into a seemingly routine, by-the-books veteran police officer who dreams of opening a day spa upon retirement, only to prove that the old dog does have a few new tricks when he is drawn into a bizarre kidnapping case. For cable television’s TNT, Macy penned and starred in the telepic “The Wool Cap” (TNT, 2004) as the mute superintendent of a ramshackle apartment building who becomes the unwilling guardian of a little girl with an attitude. He earned another Emmy nomination as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his performance before starring in Mamet’s film version of his 1982 play “Edmund” (2005), playing a bland businessman who encounters a mysterious fortune teller who sends him on a darkly funny descent into a modern urban hell.
Back on the small screen, Macy earned another Emmy award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for “Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King” (TNT, 2005-06), an anthology series based on a trio of stories penned by the master of horror himself. In one of the following year’s most talked about independent films, Macy had a role in “Thank You for Smoking” (2006), as a Vermont senator trying to take down a tobacco lobbyist with a gift for spin. After voicing characters in animated features “Doogal” (2006) and “Everyone’s Hero” (2006), Macy joined an all-star cast for the docudrama “Bobby” (2006), director Emilio Estevez’s engaging look at the 16 hours prior to Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Macy made a surprisingly commercial career choice when he joined John Travolta, Tim Allen, and Martin Lawrence in “Wild Hogs” (2007), a hugely successful comedy about four down-and-out men who embark on a freewheeling, cross-country motorcycle trip in order to prove their manhood. He returned to more artful offerings in 2008, including “He Was a Quiet Man” (2008), a well-received limited release starring Christian Slater as a vengeful office worker and “The Deal,” a comedy scripted by Macy and co-starring Macy, Meg Ryan and Jason Ritter in a satire of Hollywood action films. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, but failed to land distribution and was released on home video in 2008.
Macy lent his voice to the animated fantasy film “Tale of Despereaux” (2008) and returned to the big screen in 2009 in the comedy “The Maiden Heist,” playing one of a trio of museum guards who plot to steal the artworks they have grown fond of. He also appeared in the Robert Rodriguez family comedy “Shorts” (2009) as the father of a boy who discovers a magical, wish-granting rock. Following supporting turns in “Maiden Heist” (2009) and “Bart Got a Room” (2009), Macy appeared in the critically maligned live action adaptation of the comic strip “Marmaduke” (2010). He next appeared as an investigator who doubts the innocence of an accused would-be murderer (Ryan Phillippe) defended by a slick attorney (Matthew McConaughey) who operates his business out of his Lincoln Town Car in “The Lincoln Lawyer” (2011). Back on the small screen, Macy delivered an attention-grabbing performance as a dysfunctional father of six and hopeless alcoholic who leaves his children to fend for themselves on the acclaimed series “Shameless” (Showtime, 2011- ), a remake of a British series of the same name that aired on the BBC the previous decade. Always one to choose interesting projects, Macy played an unorthodox priest who advises a nearly 40-year-old man (John Hawkes) who has spent most of his life inside an iron lung to hire a professional sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) so he can lose his virginity in the critically acclaimed drama, “The Sessions” (2012).
TCM overview:
After a decade on the UK stage, actor Rhys Ifans was propelled into the mainstream with his scene-stealing performance as the unkempt and uninhibited roommate of Hugh Grant in the blockbuster “Notting Hill” (1999). Having provided 90 percent of the romantic comedy’s more hilarious moments, Ifans’ big personality was snapped up for a few more Hollywood supporting roles in the Adam Sandler comedy “Little Nicky” (2000), Lasse Hallstrom’s adaptation of the novel “The Shipping News” (2001), and the thriller “Hannibal Rising” (2007). However, the Welsh actor remained better known overseas, where he was associated with a group of similarly-aged hip London actors including Jude Law and Ewan McGregor; all three being collectively known as the Primrose Hill set. Ifans earned a BAFTA TV Award for his portrayal of English comedian Peter Cook in the biopic “Not Only but Always” (Channel 4, 2004), and was steadily recognized for his assortment of slightly damaged common men and mischievous dreamers in films like “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1998), “Danny Deckchair” (2004) and Richard Curtis’ “Pirate Radio” (2009). With his remarkable ability to become unrecognizable and a versatility that could channel sensitivity or unbridled swagger with equal flair, Ifans laid out a path for a long career as a valuable, quirky screen player.
Born July 27, 1968, Ifans was raised in a Welsh-speaking home in Northern Wales by parents who were primary school teachers. He was drawn to performing at an early age, captivated by the building of the regional Theater Clywd and the touring actors he saw come and go. He became active with youth theater programs and made his stage debut playing a rat in “Toad of Toad Hall,” before going on to dramatic training at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. The bilingual actor amassed theater credits in London and Wales including “Hamlet” and “As You Like It,” and in 1990 was cast as the host of a children’s quiz show on Welsh television. During the early 1990s, Ifans also performed with the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. In 1994 he made a mark on London’s West End in a production of “Beautiful Thing,” playing the laid back and likable young companion of an older woman whose teenaged son is coming of age. Ifans’ early film appearances included “Streetlife” (1996), a gritty urban drama screened on the film festival circuit, and he was cast by Anthony Hopkins in the fellow Welshman’s directorial debut, “August” (1996), a reworking of Chekhov’s classic “Uncle Vanya” set in 19th Century Wales.
Ifans teamed with his real-life younger brother Llyr Evans (Ifans preferred using the traditional Welsh spelling of their surname) in 1997 and gave a breakout screen performance as one of a pair of sociopathic brothers in “Twin Town.” Presumably setting out to do for Swansea what “Trainspotting” did for Edinburgh (and even executive produced by Danny Boyle and Andrew Macdonald), the less moralizing “Twin Town” proved a mixed success, with many finding the subversive elements of the film troubling, while others enjoyed its boundless energy and irreverence. Ifans’ grimace-laden portrayal of the gleefully violent Jeremy was at once enrapturing and disturbing. The following year, Ifans’ performance in the Irish period drama “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1998) showcased a different side of the actor. In a much more likable and inspiring role, Ifans played an endearing dreamer whose pure-heartedness sparks a sense of independence and abandon in a family of small town sisters.
While Ifans’ previous performances were strong and compelling, they did not capture the public notice of his scene-stealing turn as the flaky, unwashed, oddball Spike in the blockbuster romantic comedy, “Notting Hill” (1999), starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Ifans earned Best Supporting Actor nominations from the BAFTA and Satellite Awards for playing the uninhibited roommate of a mumbly, self-doubting bookshop owner (Grant) who becomes linked to a world famous actress (Roberts) and endures ’round the clock paparazzi as a result. Ifans reportedly prepared for the role by going unwashed and unshaven for an unpopular amount of time prior to being cast, but in the wake of the film’s runaway success he was eager to clean himself up for a starring turn in the darkly comic crime caper “Rancid Aluminum” (2000). In this adaptation of the novel by Welsh author James Hawes, Ifans co-starred alongside Joseph Fiennes, Tara Fitzgerald and Sadie Frost as a young businessman who mistakenly takes up with the Russian Mafia in a bid to end his financial woes, though with disastrous results.
Ifan’s post-“Notting Hill” buzz led to a steady string of releases in 2000, including another mainstream Hollywood offering “Little Nicky” (2000), in which Ifans supported Adam Sandler as his brother – one of three sons of Satan. He charmed again as a cheeky Welsh pub owner and soccer player in the sports comedy “The Replacements” (2000), starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman, and joined Primrose buddies Jonny Lee Miller, Jude Law and Sadie Frost in the crime drama “Love, Honour, and Obey” (2000), about rival London street gangs. Ifans also supported in the light British comedy “Janice Beard: 45 wpm” (1999), the thriller “You’re Dead” (2000) starring John Hurt, and the teen buddy comedy “Kevin and Perry Go Large” (2000), based on popular British television characters. From this string of mostly light, mainstream films, Ifans was increasingly tapped by independent-minded filmmakers, beginning with his casting in Michel Gondry’s and Charlie Kaufman’s collaboration, “Human Nature” (2001), an absurdly offbeat drama in which Ifans played a man raised in the wild by apes. He followed up with a performance as Beaufield Nutbeem in “The Shipping News” (2001), director Lasse Hallstrom’s disappointing adaptation of Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a newcomer in a small Newfoundland town.
Following a supporting turn as a dealer in the drug drama “Formula 51” (2001), Ifans gave another standout comedic turn in the warm-hearted “Once Upon a Time in the Midlands” (2002), in which he and fellow Primrose Hill mate Robert Carlyle competed for the affections of a working class single mum. Ifans appeared onstage at the Donmar Theater in “Accidental Death of an Anarchist” and proved he could ably carry a film with his charming performance in the Australian comedy “Danny Deckchair” (2004), as a man who floats away from his unsatisfying life in a lawn chair hoisted by helium balloons, to crash land miles away and make a fresh start with a new identity. Ifans continued his run of strong pictures with “Enduring Love” (2004), starring as a man who witnesses a violent accident and thereafter begins to stalk a fellow passerby (Daniel Craig) who shared the experience. Ifans’ complex turn in the psychological drama earned him a Best Actor nomination from the Empire Awards UK. And while that film was only released in limited theaters, Ifans’ work went wide again when he was cast as love-starved Dobbin in director Mira Nair’s adaptation of Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair,” starring Reese Witherspoon.
Rounding out a year of solid screen achievements, Ifans won a much-deserved BAFTA and earned an International Emmy Award nomination for starring as Peter Cook in “Not Only But Always” (Channel 4, 2004), a biopic about iconic British comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Ifans also achieved critical acclaim as a kind-hearted, vulnerable social worker opposite terminally ill call girl Penelope Cruz in the ensemble drama “Chromophobia” (2005) and returned to the stage where he offered a sly, energetic update of “Don Juan” in a West End staging of the Moliere classic. The actor was back in the international eye the following year for his supporting roles in “The Silence of the Lambs” prequel “Hannibal Rising” (2007) and the sequel “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007); both of which found Ifans playing against his easy charm as antagonistic characters. Much to his dismay, the actor earned the most attention of his career for his year-long relationship with actress Sienna Miller in 2008, though the renowned partier had always been photographed around London with pals the Gallagher brothers of the rock band Oasis and fellow actors from the Primrose Hill set.
The following year, Ifans gave a classic display of his kinetic personality as a voracious-living disc jockey aboard an illegal, seafaring pirate radio station during 1960s England in “Pirate Radio” (2009), from Richard Curtis. Ifans took a villainous turn in the family film sequel “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang” (2010) before appearing as Xenophilius Lovegood in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows” (2010), the hotly anticipated final installment of the film franchise which ensured another spike in Ifans’ international film profile. He returned to star billing in “Mr. Nice” (2010), based on the biography of an infamous and charismatic British drug trafficker who, while behind bars, taught illiterate inmates to read and write.
TCM overview:
This often intimidating but charismatic and ruggedly handsome actor of full-blooded Cherokee heritage enhanced several thoughtful Hollywood Westerns of the 1990s by thoroughly embodying roles that would have once been mere stereotypes and imbuing them with depth and dignity. The intense and muscular Studi first gained attention playing the “toughest” of the Pawnees in Kevin Costner’s ambitious and well-meaning revisionist work “Dances With Wolves” (1990). He also lent his powerful presence to Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” (1991), as the silent Indian in the desert, before coming into his own as a film and TV character player.
The Oklahoma-born performer’s native language is Cherokee, which he spoke until he started primary school at age five. Returning from serving in the Vietnam War, Studi became seriously involved with Native American politics. He joined the American Indian Movement and participated in their 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Studi subsequently attended college and helped start a Cherokee newspaper. He also began teaching the Cherokee language professionally before shifting to running his own horse ranch. The late 70s found Studi divorced and bereft of his ranch. Thinking it would be a good way to meet women, he decided to start taking acting lessons.
Studi gained substantial stage experience in many productions with the American Indian Theatre Company and in a touring one-man show, “Coyote Chews His Own Tale”. He consolidated his standing in films with a searing performance as the fiercely angry Magua in Michael Mann’s stirring adaptation of “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992). Studi finally entered the limelight via his gritty yet noble interpretation of the title role of Walter Hill’s classically elegant $35 million biopic “Geronimo: An American Legend” (1993). The commercial failure of that project sent him back to more fully clothed character roles in the forgettable Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle “Street Fighter” (1994) and the high profile crime film “Heat” (1995). The latter project reunited him with “Last of the Mohicans” writer-director Mann and cast him as a L.A. cop aiding Al Pacino in his pursuit of professional thief Robert De Niro and his gang. Studi’s distinctive bass voice can often be heard on TV documentaries about the Native American experience. He has also appeared in several historical TV-movies, series and miniseries.
TCM overview{
Award-winning actress Julianne Moore gradually built up an increasingly impressive body of work to ultimately become acknowledged as one of the most talented actresses of her generation. Emerging from the world of daytime soaps, Moore began to attract attention for work in films like Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993) and eventually blockbusters like Steven Spielberg’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997). But it was her devastating turn as a maternal porn star in “Boogie Nights” (1997) that made everyone sit up and take notice. With a combination of supporting roles in off-beat comedies like “The Big Lebowski” (1998) to starring turns in such dramatic fare as “The End of the Affair” (1999) and “Magnolia” (1999), Moore found herself in ever-increasing demand. With a pair of characters exploring the despair of two separate 1950s suburban housewives in the acclaimed dramas “Far From Heaven” (2002) and “The Hours” (2002), she racked up more award nominations than most performers receive in a lifetime. Moore continued to astonish with her versatility in the dystopian thriller “Children of Men” (2006), the off-key character drama “A Single Man” (2009), and the critical indie darling “The Kids Are All Right” (2010). On the small screen, she topped herself with an uncanny, Emmy-winning portrayal of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in “Game Change” (HBO, 2012), showing yet again that she continually defied expectations and reinvented herself with nearly every role.
Born Dec. 3, 1960 at Fort Bragg, NC, Moore was raised by her father, Peter, a military judge and colonel in the Army, and her mother, Anne, a psychiatrist and social worker who emigrated from Dunoon, Scotland to the United States. Because of her father’s position, Moore routinely moved throughout her youth, living in some 23 places across America and Germany. After graduating Frankfurt American High School in Frankfurt, Germany in 1979, Moore attended Boston University, where she earned her Bachelor’s in Theater at the School of Fine Arts. In 1983, she graduated and promptly moved to New York City, where she almost immediately made her television debut on the daytime soap opera, “Edge of Night” (ABC/CBS, 1956-1984). She then landed a regular soap opera role on “As the World Turns” (CBS, 1956-2010), playing the dual characters of the good Frannie Hughes and her mysterious, British identical half-sister, Sabrina Hughes. Despite the campy melodramatics such a situation could trigger, Moore nonetheless made both characters realistic and earned a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series in 1988. In a few short years, Moore had emerged as a talented actress who was bound to grow exponentially outside the stifling confines of daytime television.
But her moment in the limelight was still a decade off, leading Moore to meticulously carve out a career that consisted of varied roles that eventually helped grabbed the attention of top filmmakers. In the meantime, she left “As the World Turns” to tackle Ophelia in a production of “Hamlet” at the famed Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. She returned to television with the miniseries “I’ll Take Manhattan” (CBS, 1987), playing Valerie Bertinelli’s best friend. In 1990, she returned to the stage for a workshop production of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Eventually she landed her first feature role, albeit as a coed who becomes the hapless victim of a mummy in the forgettable “Tales From the Darkside: The Movie” (1990). Moore finally made an impact when she played the career-driven real estate agent friend of a new mom (Annabella Sciorra) who meets a horrific, glass-shattering fate in the surprise hit thriller, “The Hand the Rocks the Cradle” (1992). She then attracted notice from none other than Steven Spielberg with a mere three-minute scene as a medical colleague of Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) in “The Fugitive” (1993). She amplified her call for notice by famously delivering a confessional monologue while nude from the waist down in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993).
Following an admitted misfire with the Madonna bomb “Body of Evidence” (1993), Moore further built on her status as rising star with her luminous, poised portrayal of Yelena in “Vanya on 42nd Street” (1994), a filmed version of an Andre Gregory workshop which she followed by playing a housewife who develops allergies to everyday chemicals and fragrances in Todd Haynes’ disturbing throwback to paranoia thrillers, “Safe” (1995). Moore attempted to raise her profile in more mainstream features by undertaking roles like Hugh Grant’s pregnant girlfriend in “Nine Months” (1995) and an electronics expert targeted for death in “Assassins” (1995), but neither role truly made use of her wide range. She was slightly better served as the artist’s mistress Dora Maar in “Surviving Picasso” (1996) and as the moody daughter of a highly dysfunctional family in the indie “The Myth of Fingerprints” (1997), directed by future husband Bart Freundlich. Audiences began to put a name to her face after she was tapped by Spielberg to play a paleontologist pursuing dinosaurs in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997). But the capper for that year was a richly deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Amber Waves, a drug-addicted porn star who plays mother to a ragtag film crew and becomes emotionally connected to one of her frequent co-stars, Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg), in “Boogie Nights” (1998), a role that propelled the lesser-known actress into a household name overnight.
After time off for motherhood, Moore teamed with the Coen brothers for “The Big Lebowski” (1998), playing the disaffected daughter of an aging millionaire (David Huddleston), an artist who puts paint on her body, then flings herself at the canvas. She followed with a slightly more conventional role, stepping into Vera Miles’ shoes as Lila Crane in Gus Van Sant’s unnecessary shot-by-shot color remake of Hitchcock’s 1960 classic “Psycho” (1998). Moore followed with one of her busiest years, making the first of five feature appearances as an eccentric Southerner in Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune” (1999). Segueing to period drama, she polished her flawless British accent to play a scheming woman not above blackmail in Oliver Parker’s take on the Oscar Wilde play “An Ideal Husband” (1999), then offered an Oscar-nominated turn as an adulterous wife in the World War II-set drama, “The End of the Affair” (1999). Returning to contemporary times, Moore continued to display her versatility as an almost saintly mother whose child dies while in the care of her best friend in “A Map of the World” (1999). Rounding out this incredible output, she portrayed the pill-popping trophy wife of a dying television executive (Jason Robards) who comes to realize she has fallen in love with her husband in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Altmanesque “Magnolia” (1999).
Despite being widely respected by both critics and audiences, she was never considered to be an A-list box office draw. Meanwhile, her career hit a bit of a rocky patch when she took over the seemingly impossible-to-fill role of FBI agent Clarice Starling, made famous in 1991 by Jodie Foster, in the long-anticipated, but ultimately failed sequel “Hannibal” (2001). Despite the film being nearly universally panned, Moore exuded her typical grace and competence in a role many top actresses were loath to take, including Foster herself. Unfortunately for Moore, her string of mediocre movie choices continued with “Evolution” (2001), a much-maligned and rather pointless science-fiction comedy that focused on a team of investigators led by a local college professor (David Duchovny) looking into a meteor carrying alien life forms that crashed in the Arizona desert. After “Evolution” went extinct at the box office, Moore co-starred opposite Kevin Spacey in the uninspiring romantic drama, “The Shipping News” (2001), playing a single mother in a small Newfoundland town who falls for a recently arrived newspaper reporter (Kevin Spacey) struggling to revitalize his life after leaving a wretched marriage. Both films failed to catch on with critics and audiences.
Despite the downturn in 2001, Moore continued to churn out a steady stream of films throughout the following year and returned to reclaim her mantle as the critics’ darling. She was particularly praised in her turn as Cathy Whitaker, a suburban housewife who finds her picture-perfect life quickly dissolving in the 1950s-modeled drama “Far From Heaven” (2002), directed by Todd Haynes. As the neglected wife whose husband (Dennis Quaid) is secretly homosexual, Moore turned in a sublime performance, wearing her heartbreak behind a mask of porcelain smiles and polite gestures, while her perfectly-ordered world suddenly crashes around her. For her next film, “The Hours” (2002) – perhaps her finest work to date – Moore again played a 1950s housewife; this one yearning for escape by readingMrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) and contemplating leaving her life behind. With three interconnected stories spanning three time periods – 1923, 1951 and contemporary times – “The Hours” told a deftly emotional tale about the struggles of three divergent woman (Moore, Kidman, Meryl Streep) from similar problems. Both triumphant performances paid off with two Academy Award nominations – Best Actress for “Far From Heaven” and Best Supporting Actress for “The Hours.”
After her remarkable string of dramatic roles, Moore next tested the waters of romantic comedy again in the uninspired, little-seen “Laws of Attraction” (2004), playing opposite Pierce Brosnan. The pair played opposing divorce lawyers who, despite their adversarial courtroom relationship, wake up to discover they have gotten married after a romantic, if alcohol-soaked, evening. Her next film, the moody thriller “The Forgotten” (2004), fared better at the box office, with Moore cast as a woman who is told her son never existed, sending her on an investigation that uncovers a paranormal explanation. Moore then played another 1950s-era suburban housewife in “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” (2005), a true-life tale of Evelyn Ryan, a mother of 12 who keeps her impoverished household afloat by entering and winning jingle contests while her bum husband (Woody Harrelson) drinks away his meager wages. Moore had two starring roles that creeped in under the radar; first in the dismal romantic comedy “Trust the Man” (2006), directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich; then in the equally unpleasant thriller “Freedomland” (2006).
Moore rebounded with a striking appearance in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men” (2006), a futuristic dystopian tale about a former political activist (Clive Owen)-turned-down-and-out bureaucrat who is convinced by a former lover (Moore) to help transport a young pregnant woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey) – who carries the world’s only child after all humanity has become infertile – to the fabled Human Project in order to save the future. In a rare action role, Moore starred opposite Nicolas Cage in “Next” (2007), playing an FBI counterterrorist agent trying to track down a Las Vegas magician (Cage) with the power to foresee and change the outcome of future events in order to prevent a nuclear attack. After playing a character based on Joan Baez in Todd Haynes unusual biopic about Bob Dylan, “I’m Not There” (2007), she played the underclass wife of a well-bred man (Stephane Dillane) and mother of a homosexual son (Eddie Redmayne) who tries to cure him of his so-called problem, only to meet a disastrous end in the real-life tale of the affluent, dysfunctional Baekeland family in “Savage Garden” (2008).
After co-starring opposite Keanu Reeves and Robin Wright Penn in Rebecca Miller’s indie drama, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” (2009), Moore appeared in “Blindness” (2008), playing the wife of an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo), who pretends to be blind in order enter a government detention center that houses citizens inflicted by a mysterious illness that causes loss of sight. She next earned critical kudos for her performance as the consoling friend of a gay man (Colin Firth) who struggles to deal with the death of his longtime partner (Matthew Goode) in “A Single Man” (2009). Aside from several nods from critics associations, the actress received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. She next starred in the erotic thriller, “Chloe” (2009), playing a respected doctor and wife of a music professor (Liam Neeson) who tests her husband’s fidelity by tempting him with a high-class escort (Amanda Seyfried), which leads to disastrous results. Moore returned to award prominence following her performance in “The Kids Are All Right” (2010), playing the career-less lesbian partner of a successful doctor (Annette Bening) whose two children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) try to track down their sperm donor dad (Mark Ruffalo). Directed by independent filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko, “Kids” received near universal acclaim despite its limited release.
Moore followed with a starring role opposite Steve Carell as a woman in the midst of a mid-life crisis who asks her average Joe husband (Carell) for a divorce in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” (2011), a convention-tinkering romantic-comedy co-starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Appearing in flashback, she next took on a supporting role as the long-deceased mother of a young man (Paul Dano) who is reunited with his estranged father (Robert De Niro) many years later in the biographical drama “Being Flynn” (2012). That same year, Moore floored audiences with her spot-on portrayal of former Alaskan governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in “Game Change” (HBO, 2012). Based on the political tell-all of the same name by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the high-profile cable movie focused on the selection of and consequent disillusionment with the ill-prepared Palin in the days and months leading up to John McCain’s (Ed Harris) loss in the 2008 presidential election. HBO’s biggest ratings success in nearly a decade, the film immediately began generating Emmy buzz for nearly all involved, particularly Moore for her Tina Fey-topping embodiment of Palin. As expected, she received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:
Blessed with a piercing, blue-eyed glint, brawny looks, cocky “tough guy” stance and effortless charisma, TV’s Christopher Meloni also drew on his sexy Italian heritage to grab audiences attention, male and female alike, finding breakthrough small screen stardom playing both sides of the law.
Audiences first were taken in by his sexually arresting portrayal of a sociopathic killer in the gripping prison drama Oz (1997) on cable TV. Although his small screen roots were in 90s situation comedy, the network powers-that-be wisely discovered his power and allure as a dramatic star and quickly handed him his own prime-time crime series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), as a not-quite-by-the-book crime detective. This one-two punch of “Oz” and “Law & Order: SVU” put Meloni, who seems to grow sexier with age, on the map and well on top, where he remains today.
Christopher Peter Meloni was born on April 2, 1961, in Washington, D.C., the son of Robert, an endocrinologist, and Cecile Meloni. Of Italian and French-Canadian parentage, he attended St. Stephen’s School and played quarterback for his high school team. Developing an interest in acting rather early in life, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder following high school graduation. He initially majored in acting but wound up earning a degree in history in 1983. Acting won out in the long run, however, and Chris relocated to New York where he studied with acting guru Sanford Meisner at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse.
Supplementing his income during these lean years by taking advantage of his powerful physique (as construction worker, bouncer, personal trainer), Meloni worked his way up the acting ladder via parts in commercials. With a full head of hair in the early days, he broke into series TV in 1989, the first being the already-established cable football comedy 1st & Ten: The Championship (1984). In this sitcom, which was HBO’s very first back in 1984, Chris played ex-con quarterback Vito Del Greco (aka “Johnny Gunn”). The series’ star Delta Burke had already left the cast by the time Chris came aboard in its final season.
A second sitcom arrived almost immediately with the stereotypical Italian family sitcomThe Fanelli Boys (1990) featuring Chris as dim-eyed, skirt-chasing Frankie Fanelli, one of the four “dees, dem and dos” sons of Brooklynite widow Theresa Fanelli (Ann Morgan Guilbert). Despite a strong, boisterous cast, the show was painfully obvious and met an early demise. True to nature, Chris gave voice and added to the fun as a cocky, mooching high school teen who knows the “how to’s” of attracting pretty girl dinos in the animated prehistoric series Dinosaurs (1991). He also made a manly mark in mini-movies with co-starring roles in such “women” dramas as In a Child’s Name (1991) starring Valerie Bertinelli, Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992), which top-lined Molly Ringwald, Without a Kiss Goodbye (1993) as the caring husband of Lisa Hartman, and the Connie Sellecca starrer A Dangerous Affair (1995).
An interchangeable ability to convey both heartfelt sympathy and virile menace did not go by unnoticed. After minor parts on the big screen with Clean Slate (1994), Junior(1994) and Twelve Monkeys (1995), Chris drew strong notices in the featured role of gangster Johnnie Marzzone in the classic neo-noir Bound (1996), which earned cult status for its sexually-charged lesbian sub-storyline. A tough recurring part on “NYPD Blue”, a typical mafia role in the mini-series The Last Don (1997) and another short-lived comedic series lead (Leaving L.A. (1997)) finally led to a big payoff in the brutal and brilliant cable series Oz (1997).
Christopher’s introduction to the Oz prison as bisexual psychopath Chris Keller was powerhouse casting and he drew immediate notice and critical applause into the show’s second season. Unflinching in its blood-soaked presentation of life behind bars, Chris’ raw animal magnetism was unparalleled on the show and his steamy, erotic couplings with another male prisoner on screen promoted him swiftly to gay icon status. Undaunted by the possible career-damaging effects that could occur, Chris’ frank acceptance and acknowledgment was admirable indeed and his outright support of human rights causes earned him high marks. The father of two (daughter Sophia Eva Pietra (born March 23, 2001), and son Dante Amadeo (born January 2, 2004), he has been married since 1995 to production designer ‘Sherman Williams’ (The Dark Backward (1991)).
Chris’ sudden burst of cable notoriety earned him his own prime time NBC series. With the veteran “Law & Order” program developing a sister spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Meloni raised the bar with his trenchant pairing with co-star Mariska Hargitay as partners of a special victims crime unit. Despite the show’s reality-driven approach, Meloni and Hargitay’s dynamite chemistry carried the show to a new level. Allowing their characters’ more serious flaws to surface, Meloni, in particular, managed to convey Detective Stabler’s private pain and personal turmoil with a raw poignancy. Both he and Hargitay have been honored with Emmy award nominations for their work here (she has won).
Occasionally appearing on stage, Chris’ theater credits include “The Rainmaker” (as Starbuck) (1998) and “Comers” (1998), both at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He earned standout reviews as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller‘s “A View from the Bridge,” which he performed at Dublin’s Gate Theatre in 2005. In 2006 he joined the campy proceedings at an Actors’ Fund of America Benefit of the soap opera spoof “Die, Mommie Die!” starring drag illusionist and “Oz” alumnus Charles Busch.
Going well over a decade’s worth of service to the series that made him a household name, Meloni finally retired his TV detective in 2011. Throughout the show’s run he continued to flaunt his humorous side, showing up on such parody shows as “Mad TV” and cracking up on the various night time TV haunts. On film he continues to shatter his dramatic image in such fare as The Souler Opposite (1998), Wet Hot American Summer(2001), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) and its sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008).
While he has not found outright stardom on the big screen (he has nominally played “other man” roles in such popular films as Runaway Bride (1999) and Nights in Rodanthe(2008)), Chris has more than proved his staying power since he left the popular series. More recently he moved forward as a writer/producer/director/star of the comedy filmDirty Movie (2011), which also has in its cast “L&O: SVU” co-star Diane Neal. In addition, Chris supplied the voice of DC Comics classic character Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern) in the animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight (2009). He also has held regular roles on the series True Blood (2008) in 2012 and Surviving Jack (2014) as well as strong cinematic parts in the Superman film Man of Steel (2013) and in Small Time (2014).
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Tragic Heath Ledger was one of the best actors on film of his generation. He was born in 1979 in Perth, Western Australia. He began his career In 2000 he went to the U.S,. to play Billy Bob Thornton’s son in “Monster’s Ball”. “A Knight’s Tale” and “Ned Kelly” followed. He delivered a stunning performance in 2005 in “Brokeback Mountain”. He died suddenly in 2008 and was awarded a n Oscat for “The Dark Night” after his death.
TCM overview:
The handsome, curly-haired Australian Heath Ledger was introduced to American audiences as the young star of the Fox adventure series “Roar” (1997) and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the busiest leading men of his generation, earning particular acclaim for his dramatic turn as a conflicted, closeted homosexual ranch hand in the bittersweet drama “Brokeback Mountain” (2005). Already a small screen veteran in his native land, the tall blond had been featured as the gay cyclist Snowy Bowles in the Australian TV drama “Sweat”, set at an elite training academy for young athletes. Ledger also did extensive guest work on Australian television, with appearances in the series “Ship to Shore”, “Bush Patrol” and “Corrigan”. Despite his status as an unknown in the USA, he was tapped to make his American television debut as the star of “Roar” (Fox, 1997), a medieval-set adventure in which he played Conor, a teenaged Celtic prince who becomes the leader of his people when the Romans murder his father and the rest of his family. With a job description that included bellowing a mighty roar before beating the baddies in addition to dealing with his inner turmoil, Ledger proved an impressive recruit, and was well loved by the series cult audience. Film appearances in the festival screened “Two Hands” (1998) and the teen comedy “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) followed. The latter promised the rising player the opportunity for a great deal more exposure than a short-lived genre program could offer; he starred as Patrick Verona, a moody student with a reputed criminal past who is enlisted to woo Julia Stiles’ Kat in this modern retooling of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Ledger perhaps reached his widest audience to date, though, as Mel Gibson’s son in the much-heralded “The Patriot” (2000), a Revolutionary War saga about a pacifist (Gibson) forced to choose sides after his soldier son is captured by the enemy. Following the flurry of magazine covers and articles, the in-demand actor starred as medieval swashbuckler set to arena rock standards in “A Knight’s Tale” (2001), and he impressively held his own opposite Billy Bob Thorton as the anguished son of a cold-hearted prison guard in “Monster’s Ball” (2001). He signed on opposite Kate Hudson to headline yet another remake of “Four Feathers” (2002), directed by Shekhar Kapur, but the film made nary a ripple at the box office. Commencing a high-profile romance with slightly older actress Naomi Watts, Ledger quickly became a favorite subject of the paparazzi and entertainment media, and as his public profile rose he sought to shore up his professional reputation with his portrayal of renegade priest Father Alex Bernier who runs afoul of an ancient, secret and evil sect operating within the church in “The Order” (2003). In “Ned Kelly” (2004), Ledger played a good man driven to striking back at a corrupt British colonial system in 19th century Australia after serving a prison term on trumped-up charges for horse theft and the threat of more jail time for attempted murder. Reviews were mixed for the slow-moving western, and despite a cast that included Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts, “Ned Kelly” was released by Universal into less than 20 theaters. His next appearance was in “Lords of Dogtown” (2005), the fictionalized rags-to-riches tale of board rats Jay Adams, Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta, Southern California riff-raff who revolutionized skateboarding and propelled themselves into wanton celebrity. Ledger was virtually unrecognizable as Skip Engblom, the stoner surfer-dude who owns a surf shop and forms the skaters into the celebrated Zephyr Skateboard Team. He then teamed with Matt Damon to play totally fictionalized versions of the famed Bavarian fairy tale spinners “The Brothers Grimm” (2005), reimagined by director Terry Gilliam as a pair of curse-removing con artists who are suddenly tasked with solving a genuine magical mystery that ultimately inspires many of their famous stories. Ledger showed some range as the sensitive, conflicted Jacob, but the story ultimately left him too little to do, and the film lacked some of the spark and imagination expected of a Gilliam project. His next project, that same year, more than made up for “Grimm’s” shortcomings: director Ang Lee’s sensitive film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx’s revered short story “Brokeback Mountain,” expanded by screenwriter Larry McMurtry, cast Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, a manly, rough-around-the-edges ranch hand who explores his homosexuality while on a 1960s sheep drive through a mountain range with a fellow cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal), but continues to live a closeted life with a wife (Michelle Williams) and children even as he continues his on-off gay relationship over the ensuring decades. Ledger’s haunting, convincingly tortured performance was a revelation, his best work to date as he seemed to literally inhabit a character entirely different from his own on-screen image and sparked a wave of awards-season buzz. Ledger, who by the time of filming had also ended his high-profile relationship with Watts, became involved with his co-star Williams, and the two had a child together by the time of the film’s release. Meanwhile, Ledger was honored by a slew of award nominations, including the Oscar for Best Actor, but failed to win much of anything besides a New York Film Critics Circle award thanks to the juggernaut known as Philip Seymour Hoffman. Just weeks after his triumphant performance in “Brokeback Mountain” hit theaters, his final 2005 film debuted: “Casanova,” director Lasse Hallstrom’s fictionalized account of the legendary lothario falling in love, was easily one of the most ill-conceived and disappointing films of the year, despite lavish production values and game performances by Ledger and the rest of the all-star cast. Hot off of the phenomenal success of “Brokeback Mountain” it was announced that Ledger would appear as the legendary comic book villain The Joker opposite Christian Bale’s Batman in “The Dark Knight” (scheduled for release in 2008) in the second film in director Christopher Nolan’s popular revival of the Caped Crusader’s film franchise.
Billy Ray Cyrus was born on August 25, 1961 in Flatwoods, Kentucky, USA as William Ray Cyrus. He is an actor, known for Doc (2001), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Hannah Montana(2006). He has been married to Tish Cyrus since December 28, 1993. They have three children,
Anyone who knows me are aware that I am a bit of a movie buff. Over the past few years I have been collecting signed photographs of my favourite actors. Since I like movies so much there are many actors whose work I like.