Contemporary Actors Archives - Page 42 of 48

Michael Moriarty

Michael Moriarty. TCM Overview.

Michael Moriarty was born in 1941 in Detroit. His film appearances include “Bang the Drum Slowly”in 1972 with Robert De Niro and “Report to the Commissioner”,”The Stuff” and “Pale Rider”. He starred also in “Law & Order”

TCM Overview:

A stage, screen and TV actor, Michael Moriarty came to prominence with his sensitive performance as baseball pitcher Henry Wiggen in the acclaimed 1973 drama, “Bang the Drum Slowly”. Not all of Moriarty’s subsequent work has lived up to that early promise, nor has he proven to be “box office”, yet he has remained in demand for stage and TV roles. Additionally, he has branched out as a composer and jazz pianist.

Moriarty has worked extensively on the stage, beginning soon after his graduation from Dartmouth in 1963. He was Octavius Caesar in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Antony and Cleopatra”, then went to London to study acting on a Fulbright Scholarship at LAMDA. On his return, Moriarty did additional Shakespearean roles, and won a Tony for originating the role of the homosexual Julian Weston in “Find Your Way” (1974). By that time, he had established himself in films on TV, earning an Emmy Award as Jim, the gentleman caller, in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” (ABC, 1973), starring Katharine Hepburn. While most of his other feature film roles have generally been in forgettable films, save “Report to the Commissioner” (1975), Moriarty has excelled on TV. He is remembered as Erik Dorf, the unemployed German who becomes a Nazi to feed his family and evolves into the administrator of the extermination policies in “Holocaust” (NBC, 1978). He was Wilbur Wright in “The Winds of Kitty Hawk” (NBC, 1978), Major Daniels in “Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy” (HBO, 1989) and won kudos opposite Blythe Danner in “Too Far to Go” (NBC, 1979), based on the John Updike stories that traced the dissolution of a marriage over twenty years.

In 1990, Moriarty became a series regular for the first time as Ben Stone, deputy district attorney of “Law & Order” (NBC), but was fired from the series in 1994, a year before the end of his contract. Moriarty claimed his outspoken attack on US Attorney General Janet Reno’s attempts to curb violence and, in Moriarty’s view, “censor” Hollywood contributed to his departure from the series. He immediately bounced back replacing Richard Chamberlain as Henry Higgins in the ill-fated Broadway revival of “My Fair Lady” and starring in the Civil Rights miniseries “Children of the Dust” (CBS, 1995). He also returned to features after a six year absence in “Courage Under Fire” (1996), as Denzel Washington’s superior officer.

BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY [US 1973] MICHAEL MORIARTY, ROBERT DE NIRO Date: 1973

Moriarty is also a playwright; his “Flight to the Fatherland” was produced in Rochester, NY, in 1982, the same year The New York Shakespeare Festival offered a production of his “The Ballad of Dexter Creed”. He has pursued a music career more diligently. A jazz pianist with his own group that has performed in New York City, he has also contributed a songs to the films “Q” (1982) and “The Secret of the Ice Caves” (1990) and his “Symphony for String Orchestra” has been performed publicly. Moriarty also released jazz albums in 1990 and 1991.

n 2001, Moriarty returned to acting with two back-to-back father roles. In “Along Came a Spider,” he portrayed a US Senator desperately searching for his abducted daughter and in the TNT biopic “James Dean,” he was cast as James Dean’s father, Winton — a role which earned him a 2002 Emmy nomination.

James Spader was born in Boston in 1960. In 1981 he played Brooke Shield’s brother in “Endless Love”. He starred in “Pretty in Pink”, “Less than Zero” and “Wall Street”. He gave a tremndous performance opposite Susan Sarandon in “White Palace” in 1990.From 2004 until 2008 he starred in “Boston Legal”.

TCM Overview:

Actor James Spader was known for playing intriguing deviants in a number of acclaimed independent films in the 1980s and 1990s before his magic touch with morally ambiguous outsiders found its way to television on “Boston Legal” (ABC, 2004-08). Spader began his career playing a series of unsympathetic yuppie types in the era of the shamelessly wealthy, then put films like “Wall Street” (1987) and “Less Than Zero” (1987) behind him in favor of exploring man’s attraction to danger – often sexual – in acclaimed indie films like “sex, lies, and videotape” (1989), “Crash” (1996) and “Secretary” (2002). In 2003, he was handpicked to shake things up on David E. Kelley’s stale law drama, “The Practice” (ABC, 1997-2004), before being given a starring role as lawyer of questionable ethics in the spin-off, “Boston Legal,” for which he earned several Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. By the time he joined the cast of “The Office” (NBC, 2005-2013) in 2011, Spader was firmly established as a credible lead in television and on film, capably performing in just about any role that came his way.

Born on Feb. 7, 1960 in Boston, MA, Spader was raised the son of two teachers, Todd and Jean, who enrolled him in top private schools, including Phillips Academy in Andover. But he was not particularly interested in school and spent more time lost in his active imagination. To compensate, Spader started performing theater while in school, where he could completely absorb in his fantasies, and eventually dropped out at 17 to move to New York City. While there, he took on a series of odd jobs and trained at the Michael Chekov Acting Studio. But he still considered acting a hobby and form of escape when he started landing paying gigs. Unexpectedly, he found himself becoming a professional actor. His earlier roles including a small part as Brooke Shields’ brother in “Endless Love” (1981) and playing the Kevin Bacon character in an unsold pilot for a 1983 adaptation of the coming-of-age dramedy “Diner” (1982). He played Frank Converse’s slightly rebellious son in the short-lived “The Family Tree” (NBC, 1982-83), then costarred in a few television movies before he hit his stride in feature films.

Spader gained feature film attention as Andrew McCarthy’s linen-clad, elitist best friend in the wrong-side-of-the-tracks teen romance “Pretty in Pink” (1986). He followed by digging even deeper into the dark side of the privileged, playing a rich kid cocaine dealer who forces Robert Downey Jr. to prostitute himself for drugs in “Less Than Zero” (1987). He paired with McCarthy again as a less-loathsome buddy in the absurd romantic comedy “Mannequin” (1987), but was again tapped to deliver his best smarmy yuppie in the classic portrait of 1980s excess, “Wall Street” (1987). In 1989, Spader saw a turning point in his career when the actor – who had often been seen as the guy you loved to hate – gave an intriguing and subtle performance in Stephen Soderbergh’s “sex, lies, and videotape.” He was recognized with a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his finely nuanced portrayal of an eccentric, quietly neurotic drifter forced to face his emotional demons when a return to his college town upsets the staid suburban life of an old friend.

Following a supporting role as a possessive boyfriend in the well-received Martin Amis adaptation, “The Rachel Papers” (1989), Spader played a buttoned-up square befriended by a dangerously charming con artist (Rob Lowe) in the uneven thriller “Bad Influence” (1990). He fared better in independent film territory, delivering a quality performance as a young widower who falls for an older woman (Susan Sarandon) in the erotic “White Palace” (1990). He was paired alongside John Cusack for the political drama “True Colors” (1991), but the film about friendship and blackmail was not a commercial success. With “Storyville” (1992), Spader reinforced his new association with sexy, intelligent fare playing a New Orleans lawyer turned congressional candidate tempted by fleshly pleasures. He was again at the mercy of a destructive femme fatale (Madchen Amick) in the erotic thriller “Dream Lover” (1994), though the “Basic Instinct” (1992) wannabe failed to attract much attention.

In “Wolf” (1994), an imaginative urban take on the werewolf legend, Spader played his trademark yuppie villain, then went on to score his biggest commercial hit with “Stargate” (1994). An unexpected sight in the mainstream sci-fi adventure, Spader successfully showcased another side of his eccentricity playing a nerdy Egyptologist who becomes involved in a parallel dimension. When he returned from journeying across the universe, Spader was back to exploring the dark underbelly of humanity as a scheming hit man characterized as evil incarnate in John Herzfeld’s “2 Days in the Valley” (1996). Stepping boldly into the film adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s “Crash” (1996), the David Cronenberg-directed world of fetishism and erotic obsession, Spader found perhaps his most provocative role since his 1989 breakthrough, delivering an inspired portrayal of a man whose involvement in a fatal accident revitalizes his sex life. Spader cut a terrific presence with his Elvis-style hair-do in the murder mystery “Keys to Tulsa” (1997), before giving a more conventional performance as an unethical doctor in Sidney Lumet’s “Critical Care” (1997).

Following a pair of duds – “Supernova” (2000) and “The Watcher” (2000) – Spader revived his acclaimed status with the erotic art house hit “Secretary” (2002). The Special Jury Prize winner at Sundance explored issues of love, sex and power through the story of an unusual relationship between a lawyer (Spader) and his young secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who was released from a mental institute. Though the lion’s share of the awards went to Gyllenhaal, the film raised Spader’s profile and helped him land on David E. Kelley’s short list when the television producer was looking to revive his ratings-deprived courtroom drama, “The Practice.” Kelley wanted someone provocative, compelling and a tad strange to insert into the mix of decent lawyers and approached Spader, thanks to his success playing devious, offbeat characters. As the charismatic and morally slippery Alan Shore, Spader breathed new life into the show’s final season and earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

In 2005, his character was spun off into “Boston Legal,” where Spader was able to further explore the questionable morals of his law partner at Crane, Poole and Schmidt, while sharing undeniable sparring chemistry with co-star William Shatner. The show delivered steady ratings for ABC, while Spader’s performance earned him Emmys in 2005 and 2007. After “Boston Legal” went off the air, Spader made his Broadway debut in David Mamet’s “Race” (2009), before returning to television with a guest starring role on “The Office” (NBC, 2005-2013) for the season seven finale, playing ultra-manipulative salesman Robert California. In a high-profile announcement, Spader returned to the show as a regular player for season eight after outgoing star Steve Carell moved on. With his “Office” stint clearly reviving his career, he kept up the momentum, appearing in Steven Spielberg’s historical drama “Lincoln” (2012). Spader soon landed his own series, starring as master criminal Red Reddington in “The Blacklist” (NBC, 2013- ). Shortly before the show aired, his next major role was announced-the veteran actor would be taking on the villainous part of Ultron in the highly anticipated superhero sequel “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” due to hit theaters in 2015.

This TCM Overview can also be accessed online here.

David Rasche was born in 1944 in St Louis, Missouri. He made his film debut in 1977 in “An Unmarried Woman”. His other films include “Manhatten” and “Honky Tonk Freeway”.

TCMOverview:

A tall, blond, ruggedly handsome actor of stage, film and TV, David Rasche may be best remembered by sitcom cultists as the dim-witted but gung ho hero cop of “Sledge Hammer!” (ABC, 1986-88), a likably broad parody of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry,” and as Jack Trenton, the crooked financier doing court-ordered hospital community service, from 1992-94 on the NBC’s “Nurses.”

Born in St. Louis but raised in Illinois, Rasche received his theatrical training at Chicago’s celebrated Second City. He eventually replaced John Belushi in the company that also included Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. By 1974, the actor had forged ties with playwright David Mamet by appearing in Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” Over the next two decades, Rasche amassed a number of distinguished stage credits in productions ranging from Michael Cristofer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Shadow Box” (1977) to the genial comedy “Lunch Hour” (1980). In the latter, he co-starred with Gilda Radner under Mike Nichols’ direction. Like William H Macy, Rasche has also emerged as one of the premiere interpreters of Mamet’s plays. He won high praise for putting his own spin on the shark-like film executive in “Speed-the-Plow” in 1988, replacing original star Ron Silver and as the lead in a 1997 revival of “Edmond.”

On the small screen, Rasche has successfully played off his Midwestern charm and cherubic countenance to generally play schemers and smarmy professionals. While his extensive credits include guest shots on “Miami Vice” and “Kate & Allie,” he has also had regular or recurring roles on several series, notably “L.A. Law,” “Sara” and “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.” More recently, he was the slick co-owner of a publishing house on the short-lived CBS comedy “High Society” (1995-96). He has fared somewhat better in longforms, appearing in such prestige productions as NBC’s experimental “Special Bulletin” (1983) and HBO’s stunning “Barbarians at the Gate” (1993). Rasche has also done voice work for animated projects, including the CBS Saturday morning “Santo Bugito” in 1995.

Features have provided fewer opportunities for the stage veteran. Rasche debuted playing an actor in Woody Allen’s TV show in “Manhattan” (1979) and went on to play bit parts and supporting roles in “Native Son” (1986), as the district attorney who prosecutes Bigger Thomas, in Alan Rudolph’s “Made in Heaven” (1987), as a naked man who encounters prospective homeowner Kelly McGillis, “An Innocent Man” (1989), as a cop who helps frame Tom Selleck, and “Delirious” (1991), as a morally ambiguous denizen of John Candy’s soap opera world. He had one of his best feature film roles playing Bette Midler’s “Let’s feel good” shrink husband in “That Old Feeling” (1997).

The above TCM Overview can also be accessed online here.

Tony Roberts

Tony Roberts was born in New York in 1939. After attending Northwestern University be made his Broadway debut in 1962 in “Something About A Soldier”. He is best known or his work in the films of Woody Allen including “Play It Again Sam”, “Annie Hall” and “Hannah and her Sisters”.

TCM Overview:

This tall, curly-haired son of longtime CBS radio announcer Ken Roberts debuted on Broadway in “Something About a Soldier” (1962). Twice-nominated for Tony Awards, Tony Roberts has had notable collaborations with Neil Simon (appearing in three Broadway productions, a film and a national tour) and Woody Allen (two plays and six films). Although Roberts’ stage credits have outnumbered his film appearances, he is perhaps best recalled for his work with Allen. He reprised his stage success as the businessman and best friend whose wife (Diane Keaton) Allen covets in “Play It Again, Sam” (1972). Roberts’ command of upwardly mobile mannerisms and affectations made him the perfect WASP foil to Allen’s nebbish persona as evidenced by the best-friend roles he played in such films as “Annie Hall” (1977), “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy” (1982) and “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986).

Roberts has acted in other films, including Sidney Lumet’s “Serpico” (1973, again as an intimate of the title character), “The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three” (1974, as a mayoral aide) and Lumet’s “Just Tell Me What You Want” (1980, as a gay film executive). As the star of “Amityville 3-D” (1983), Roberts turned in a solid performance that complemented the competence at all levels that kept that sequel from being trashy. He took a few days’ leave from the hit musical “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” (1990) to rush to L.A. to film his role as a nasty advertising executive in Blake Edwards’ “Switch” (1991).

Despite his frequent Broadway appearances, Roberts has rarely been the first choice, originating few musical roles like his Tony-nominated turn in the unsuccessful “How Now, Dow Jones” (1967). While he was the first to play the parts on stage, he inherited two well-known roles, both involving drag: Joe/Josephine, the role originated by Tony Curtis in Billy Wilder’s 1959 classic “Some Like It Hot”, in “Sugar” (1972), and Toddy, the gay mentor of a down and out singer, in Blake Edwards’ 1996 stage version of “Victor, Victoria”. Roberts has also appeared in non-musical roles, most notably in “Absurd Person Singular” (1974) and in the revival of “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1986). He also tried his hand at directing with the 1992 Off-Broadway staging of Charles Grodin’s comedy “One of the All-Time Greats”.

But whatever qualities that made him Woody Allen’s favorite WASP for a while never translated to the small screen. His featured work as Lee Pollack on “The Edge of Night” (1963-67) and his starring turns on the short-lived series “Rosetti and Son” (NBC, 1977), “The Four Seasons” (CBS, 1984), “The Lucie Arnaz Show” (CBS, 1985) and “The Thorns” (ABC, 1988) all failed to captivate the public. The nondescript actor persevered all the same, carving out his niche as a working actor. In the 90s, he teamed with his future “Victor, Victoria” co-star Julie Andrews in her TV-movie debut “Our Sons” (ABC, 1991) and also acted in the ABC movie “Not in My Family” (1993), “Arthur Miller’s American Clock” (TNT, 1993) and NBC’s “Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester” (1995). He also provided voices for PBS documentaries “Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud” (1996) and “The Trial of Adolph Eichmann

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

The Times obituary in 2025

Ruggedly handsome, broad-shouldered and suavely self-assured, Tony Roberts was perhaps everything Woody Allen would have liked to be.

Allen cast Roberts as his tall, confident wingman in no fewer than six of his films, including Annie Hall (1977) in which he portrayed Rob, a Hollywood actor and best friend and tennis partner of Allen’s Alvy Singer. In one memorable scene Allen’s character ranted about finding antisemites everywhere. “You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC and I said, ‘Did you eat yet?’ and [they] said, ‘No, Jew?’ Not, ‘Did you?,’ but ‘Jew eat? Jew?’ Not ‘Did you?,’ but ‘Jew eat?’ ”. To which Roberts’s character laconically replied, “You see conspiracies in everything.” The exchange seemed to sum up their relationship — the nervous, insecure Allen and his good-looking, urbane, nonchalant companion trying to keep his tortured friend’s neuroses in check

Best friends off-screen as well as on it, Roberts played similar types in other Allen films. In Stardust Memories (1980), he was a brash, street-smart actor who brought a Playboy model to a film festival while Allen played an angst-ridden move director. In A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982), he was a jovial womanising bachelor who declares that “Marriage, for me, is the death of hope” and in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), he was the effortlessly cool sperm donor who gives Mia Farrow and her infertile husband twin boys. It was not lost on critics that Farrow and Allen, her partner at the time, had attempted to conceive a child together before adopting.

Christopher Isherwood noted that Allen created Roberts’s characters as a foil to “epitomise suave charm in contrast to his own hapless shrubbery”. Roberts himself was less certain about why they worked so well together. “I don’t know what chemistry we lucked upon,” he said. “Woody said people like our schmoozing.. If it was a case of opposites attract and Roberts fulfilled the role of a fantasy alter ego for Allen, then Roberts admitted that in turn there were times when he wished he were Allen.“I would like to have his gift and his genius and his brain. He’s as knowledgeable on most subjects as anyone I know whether you’re talking music or painting or history or politics. That’s a pleasure to be around. But I wouldn’t want his deeper neuroses,” he said of the friend he called “Max” after Allen had asked him not to use his real name in public.

His loyalty to Allen was evident in 2015 when he wrote Do You Know Me?, his autobiography. Several publishers told him they would publish the memoir if it included details about Allen’s personal life. Roberts refused and had the book published independently, forgoing the usual publisher’s advance.

At times when he was not working, he feared that his serial collaborations with Allen might have typecast him. “I was always so vividly the guy Woody wrote that everybody in the business would think of me that way,” he said in 1997. “The persona I was for Woody is a hard thing to break out of.”

The comment suggested a touch of his friend’s insecurity had rubbed off, for in reality, away from the films he made with Allen, he was a prolific actor on stage and screen. Asked if he ever took a vacation, he replied, “No, I crack under leisure.”

His memoir began with a stranger interrupting him one afternoon when he was sitting on a bench in Central Park before saying, “I’ve seen you in something, but I can’t place it. What have I seen you in?” If it was not one of the six films he made with Allen, it might have been in a range of other hit movies from Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (1973), in which he played alongside Al Pacino, to his lead role in Amityville 3-D as the tabloid journalist who buys the infamous haunted house — or in one of the two dozen plays in which he starred on Broadway.

Indeed, it was on the New York stage that Roberts first encountered Allen in 1966 when he auditioned for his play Don’t Drink the Water. It ran for nearly 600 performances over a year and a half, although Roberts claimed that in all that time they hardly exchanged “more than two sentences”.

They grew closer when Roberts appeared on Broadway again in Play It Again, Sam, written by and starring Allen. Roberts received a best actor Tony nomination for his performance and he and Allen reprised their roles in the 1972 movie version directed by Herbert Ross.

David Anthony Roberts was born in Manhattan in 1939, the son of Norma (née Finkelstein), an animator, and Ken Roberts, a radio announcer. His father claimed he knew his son was destined to be an actor when at the age of four he was transfixed by hearing Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare’s Henry V on the radio.

To show his son how a radio station operated, he started taking him to work with him. “We would sit in a room and I would watch grown-ups in suits and ties pretend to be cops, robbers, astronauts, politicians,” recalled Roberts. “They would act in front of a little piece of metal on a stand, but their bodies and their expressions were so invested in their story. It was like watching grown-ups behave like children. That is what did it for me.”

He went on to major in speech and theatre at Manhattan’s High School of Music & Art and at Northwestern University. He later married Jennifer Lyons, a former dancer, but the marriage ended in 1975; he is survived by their daughter, Nicole Burley.. After graduating he returned to New York and his breakthrough came fortuitously in the first Broadway run of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park as the back-up to the understudy to Robert Redford.

When Redford took a two-week vacation, the understudy promptly broke his ankle playing softball. “His break was my big break,” Roberts said. It was while filling in for Redford that Allen saw him and recruited him to appear in Don’t Drink the Water.

“We were friends and had identifiable repartee,” he said of their long collaboration. “The intimacy you saw was real.” There was also some gentle teasing. While making Annie Hall, Roberts returned to his dressing-room trailer to find he had been robbed. The first thing Allen wanted to know was had Roberts’s copy of the script been stolen..

About a week later, they found it in a garbage pail a mile away,” he recalled. “It was my pleasure to make him aware that the thieves thought the script was garbage.”

Tony Roberts, actor, was born on October 22, 1939. He died of lung cancer on February 7, 2025, aged 85

Gary Busey was borin in 1944 in Goose Creek, Texas. In 1978 he starred in the title role in “The Buddy Holly Story”. That same year he also starred with Jan-Michael Vincent and William Katt in the iconic classic “The Big Wednesday”.

IMDB entry:

A blond-haired, fair-complexioned actor with a toothy grin and capable of an unsettling glint in his eyes, Gary Busey was born in Goose Creek, Texas, and was raised in Oklahoma. He is the son of Sadie Virginia (Arnett), a homemaker, and Delmar Lloyd Busey, a construction design manager. He has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German, ancestry. He graduated from Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1962 and for a while was a professional musician. A talented drummer, he played in several bands, including those of country-and-western legends Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson.

Busey’s first film appearance was as a biker in the low-budget Angels Hard as They Come(1971) and, over the next few years, he landed several film roles generally as a country hick/redneck or surly, rebellious types. His real breakthrough came in the dynamic filmThe Buddy Holly Story (1978), with Busey taking the lead role as Buddy Holly, in addition to playing guitar and singing all the vocals! His stellar performance scored him a Best Actor nomination and the attention of Hollywood taking overcasting agents. Next up, he joined fellow young actors William Katt and Jan-Michael Vincent as surfing buddies growing up together in the cult surf film Big Wednesday (1978), directed by John Milius. However, a string of appearances in somewhat mediocre films took him out of the spotlight for several years, until he played the brutal assassin Mr. Joshua trying to kill Los Angeles cops Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the runaway mega-hit Lethal Weapon(1987). Further strong roles followed, including alongside Danny Glover once again inPredator 2 (1990). He was back on the beaches, this time tracking bank robbers with FBI agent Keanu Reeves, in Point Break (1991) and nearly stole the show as a psychotic Navy officer in league with terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones taking over the USS Missouri in the highly popular Under Siege (1992).

The entertaining Busey has continued to remain busy in front of the cameras and has certainly developed a minor cult following among many film fans. Plus, he’s also the proud father of accomplished young actor Jake Busey, whose looks make him almost a dead ringer for his famous father.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.c

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Craig McLachlan was born in 1965 in New South Wales, Australia. He began his acting career on Australian TV soaps such as “Neighbours” and “Home and Away”. In 2005 he starred in “Hating Alison Ashley” on film and currently he is on TV in “At Home With Julia”.

IMDB entry:

Craig McLachlan is one of Australia’s most versatile actors and a household name both in Australia and the U.K. He has been the recipient of the top Australian television accolade, the coveted Gold Logie and his stage production of Grease held the U.K. West End all time box office record from 1993 right up to 2010.

He is an actor of huge range who is equally comfortable in film, television or stage productions. He not only carries with him huge personal charisma but is also not afraid to use it, which might account for his singular popularity across a wide range of audience demographics both in Australia and internationally.

Craig first appeared on television in a guest role on the TV drama Sons And Daughters in late 1986. He became famous in 1987 in the role of Henry Ramsay, brother of Kylie Minogue’s character Charlene, in Neighbours, a role which not only garnered him significant praise both in Australia and the UK but also led to an offer two years later to play schoolteacher Grant Mitchell on Home And Away, thereby becoming one of the few actors to achieve popularity in all of the major Australian television dramas.

Craig has also had Major success as a singer and songwriter, achieving Australian and UK hit singles with such songs as “Amanda” (AUS#23 / UK#19, 1990), and “On My Own” (AUS#23, 1991) and the now classic remake of the Bo Diddley song “Mona” (AUS#3 / UK#2, 1990),

In 1993 he was invited to London and starred as Danny Zuko in the popular West End revival of the musical Grease alongside Deborah Gibson, a role he played to great acclaim .If this wasn’t enough in 1995 Craig appeared in the popular British television series BUGS, as a free-lance agent and electronics expert, who along with his colleagues worked covertly to combat terrorist threats. Proving that his abilities extended beyond television series and stage productions he appeared in the major television movie Catherine The Great alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeanne Moreau and Omar Sharif.

In 2001, Craig had a breakthrough with the American movie Superfire, The first of many US attached performances and in 2004, was asked to take the role of Kane Morgan in the popular show, McLeod’s Daughters.

In 2005 he starred as Jeff Kennard in the successful Australian film Hating Alison Ashley, with fellow Neighbours star Delta Goodrem, and then returned to London to take over the role of Caracticus Potts in the London Palladium Production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with Richard O’Brien as the Child Catcher, who had long been a fan of Craig’s ever since Craig played Richards greatest creation, Fran ‘N Furter In The Rocky Horror Show, in 2003.

Craig continues to be popular and his star shows no sign of diminishing as is demonstrated by his appearance as Billy Flynn in Australia and Asia in Chicago as well as roles in the hit series City Homicide, The Cut, and the number one Australia TV series Packed To The Rafters. Combine this with his stand out performances in the feature films Savage Crossings and Amar A Moir and it becomes clear that Craig is not only here to stay but is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with in all aspects of his profession.

Craig is thrilled to be working back in Australia with the hit show Rescue Special Opps during 2010.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: S and J Management

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

David Keith was born in 1954 in Knoxville, Tennessee. His first film was “The Great Santini” in 1979. He won wide praise for his performance as Richard Gere’s army friend in “An Officer and a Gentleman”. His other films include “The Two Jakes”, “Running Wild”, and “Unrequited” in 2010.

IMDB entry:

David Lemuel Keith was born on May 8, 1954 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Lemuel Grady Keith Jr. and Hilda Earle. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theater. Keith had a supporting role in The Rose (1979) starring Bette Midler, had a supporting role in Brubaker (1980), and co-starred withRichard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). He played a local thug in The Great Santini (1979), starred in The Lords of Discipline (1983) and White of the Eye (1987), and held a prominent supporting role opposite Matthew McConaughey in U-571 (2000). He played opposite Drew Barrymore in the science fiction horror film Firestarter (1984), and opposite Brooke Shields and Martin Sheen in Running Wild (1995).

Keith played Elvis Presley in Chris Columbus‘ Heartbreak Hotel (1988), the cowboy “Boo-Hoo” Boone in Frank Oz‘s The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), and the leading role of Nate Springfield in the horror film Hangman’s Curse (2003). He also co-starred in the sitcom The Class (2006) as Yonk Allen, a retired professional football player. He has appeared in the horror remake Carrie (2002), Daredevil (2003), Raise Your Voice (2004) starring Hilary Duff, and Expiration Date (2006). He has also appeared on the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001),CSI: Miami (2002), NCIS (2003), and Hawaii Five-0 (2010). He also co-starred as Robert Allen’s father John Allen on the short-lived Fox drama series Lone Star (2010).

David Keith married realtor Nancy Clark in 2000 and the couple reside in Knoxville, Tennessee.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: <smonso61@maine.maine.edu>

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Joseph Fiennes was born in 1970 in Wiltshire. He is the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes. In 1973 he moved to Ireland with his family and was educated there for some years. His film debut was in 1996 in “Stealing Beauty”. His other films include “Shakespeare in Love”, “Elizabeth””Killing Me Softly” and “The Darwin Award

Despite the long shadow cast by his older brother, Ralph Fiennes, actor Joseph Fiennes carved out a comfortable niche in compelling independent and foreign features. Like many actors from England, Fiennes studied theater, particularly Shakespeare, where he delved into the finer nuances of his craft while performing the classics. He did struggle, however, in those early years, living hand-to-mouth while performing on the stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company. But he finally emerged to become an international star with his winsome portrayal of a young and lovesick Bard in “Shakespeare in Love” (1998). The Oscar-winning film propelled his profile into the stratosphere, giving Fiennes his pick of projects at that time. But instead of enhancing his newfound stardom, he followed his own path by returning to the stage while churning out a string of often little-seen independents, only to occasionally emerge in larger films like “Enemy at the Gates” (2001), “The Great Raid” (2005) and “Running with Scissors” (2006). Ironically, Fiennes often found himself accosted by the tabloid press for his exploits with various models and actresses, including Naomi Campbell and Catherine McCormack, despite being intensely private; perhaps a result of him casting off the typical trappings of being a successful and talented performer.

Born on May 27, 1970 in Salisbury, Whiltshire, England, Fiennes was the youngest of six siblings and one half of fraternal twins born to Mark, a farmer and photographer, and his mother, Jini (a.k.a. Jennifer Lash), author of The Burial (1961), The Dust Collector (1979) and Blood Ties (1998). The Fiennes family moved around the British Isles quite a bit, which included a stay in West Cork, Ireland. By his own count, Fiennes had changed schools some 14-odd times. When he was 16, he finished school and attended art college in Suffolk, only to switch to working at the National Theatre as a dresser and eventually performing with the Young Vic Youth Theatre. Fiennes received a grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and after graduating in 1993, embarked on his performing career in earnest. He spent two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which proved to be a mixed blessing. While receiving excellent notices for his performances, including a portrayal of Jesus Christ in Dennis Potter’s “Son of Man” (1995), Fiennes was suffering financial distress, paying out more than he was taking in.

Despite the early struggle, he managed to advance his career with turns opposite Helen Mirren in “A Month in the Country” (1994) and Bernard Hill in “A View From the Bridge” (1995). He finally began to climb out from his doldrums with his television acting debut on “The Vacillations of Poppy Carew” (ITV, 1995), which he followed with a noted performance as a young gay man in Bernardo Bertolucci’s romantic drama “Stealing Beauty” (1996). Following well-regarded theatrical turns as Troilus in “Troilus and Cressida” (1996) and Silvius in “As You Like It” (1996), Fiennes gained some much-needed momentum when he landed leading roles in three high profile features. In “The Very Thought of You/Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence” (1998), a low-budget comedy about three friends who fall for an American expatriate, he was cast as the sensitive Laurence, who passes his time teaching elderly women how to play bridge. He followed as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who is the childhood love of the eventual Queen of England (Cate Blanchett) in the somewhat controversial biopic “Elizabeth” (1998). In this version, directed by Shekhar Kapur, the relationship between the monarch and her favorite is depicted as a carnal one, which belied the established history.

Fiennes was launched to international stardom with his next film, “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), in which he played a lovesick William Shakespeare struggling to write “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirates Daughter” while embarking on a forbidden love with the daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow) of a wealthy merchant. Written by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, “Shakespeare in Love” won a surprise Academy Award for Best Picture. But instead of capitalizing on the film’s success, the atypical star balked at major Hollywood features and instead returned to the London stage to star in “Real Classy Affair” (1998). He rounded out a banner year with a starring role in the romantic comedy of errors, “The Very Thought of You” (1998), but suffered a creative step back with the outlandish comedy thriller “Rancid Aluminum” (2000). Following another acclaimed return to the stage in the title role of Christopher Marlowe’s “Edward II” (2001) at the Crucible Theatre, Fiennes was cast opposite Jude Law and Rachel Weisz to form a triangular romance in the WWII-era drama “Enemy at the Gates” (2001). Playing a Russian soldier adept at propaganda, who uses Law’s exploits as a marksman to create a hero during the siege of Stalingrad, the actor handled a difficult role with aplomb. He was better served with a leading role in the erotically-charged drama of sexual obsession “Killing Me Softly” (2001).

After strong turns playing a recently released political prisoner in the long-delayed British-made drama “Leo” (2002), Fiennes returned to the historical biopic when he played the German monk and activist Martin Luther in the European production of “Luther” (2003). Expanding his horizons to animation, he voiced Prince Proteus, the best friend of the legendary sailor “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” (2003). After portraying Berowne in Trevor Nunn’s superb production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (2003) for the Royal National Theatre, Fiennes made a welcome return to the world of Shakespeare on the big screen, adroitly playing the role of Bassanio opposite Al Pacino’s Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” (2004). He next played an army officer stricken by disease after surviving the Bataan Death March in “The Great Raid” (2005), based on the true story of the liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in the Philippines during World War II. In “Running With Scissors” (2006), he was the 33-year-old son of an unorthodox psychiatrist (Brian Cox) who enters into a sexual relationship with a young boy (Joseph Cross) sent to live with them after leaving his dysfunctional family.

Continuing to take on roles in independent films rather than reach for superstardom, Fiennes starred in “The Darwin Awards” (2007), playing a paranoid obsessive-compulsive former detective a la “Monk” who becomes an insurance assessor and falls in love with his partner (Winona Ryder) while investigating a series of bizarre accidents. Following a turn as the real-life James Gregory, the censor officer and prison guard for Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert) in “Goodbye Bafana” (2007), he played a tough, but muted convict who helps a career criminal (Brian Cox) bust out of prison in the intelligent, but little-seen crime thriller “The Escapist” (2009). That fall, Fiennes made a surprising move to American primetime on “FlashForward” (ABC, 2009-2010), a sci-fi series starring Fiennes as the head of an FBI unit investigating the cause of a mass time travel incident that has shaken up the planet. After that show was canceled following large scale promotion declaring it the next “Lost,” Fiennes starred as Merlin on “Camelot” (Starz, 2011), a well-received retelling of the King Arthur tale that was not renewed due to the cable network’s logistical challenges with production. Undeterred, Fiennes stayed on the small screen and joined the second season of Ryan Murphy’s popular horror series, “American Horror Story: Asylum” (FX, 2012- ), where played an ambitious priest in 1964 who founded a sanitarium run by a sadistic nun (Jessica Lange).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Ralph Fiennes was born in 1962 in Suffolk. In 1973 his family moved to Ireland where he was educated for some years. He first came to film fame with his evil performance in “Schindler’s List” and then in 1994 he starred in the U.S. in “Quiz Show”. Other films include “The English Patient”, “Red Dragon” and “The End of the Affair”.

His IMDB entry:

Ralph Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England to Mark Fiennes, a photographer, and Jennifer Lash, a novelist, the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; Sophie, a producer; and Joseph Fiennes, an actor.

Fiennes has been honored with two Academy Award nominations, the first in 1994 for his performance in Steven Spielberg‘s Oscar-winning Best Picture, Schindler’s List (1993). Fiennes’ chilling portrayal of Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth also brought him a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Award, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston and London Film Critics associations. Four years later, Fiennes earned his second Oscar nomination, for Best Actor, in another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella‘s The English Patient (1996). He also garnered Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the film’s ensemble cast.

His long list of film credits also includes the award-winning drama The Reader (2008), co-starring Kate Winslet; Kathryn Bigelow‘s Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker (2008); theNeil Jordan-directed films The End of the Affair (1999) and The Good Thief (2002); István Szabó‘s Sunshine (1999); Maid in Manhattan (2002); the animated The Prince of Egypt(1998); Oscar and Lucinda (1997); Robert Redford‘s Quiz Show (1994); and Wuthering Heights (1992), which marked his film debut. Fiennes notably portrayed of the evil Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter blockbuster film franchise. His nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffinplayed Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(2009).

Fiennes made his feature film directorial debut with a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s political thriller Coriolanus (2011), in which he also starred with Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. He will star next in Mike Newell‘s screen adaptation ofCharles Dickens‘ Great Expectations (2012), with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and in the highly anticipated Skyfall (2012), the next film in the Bond series, from director Sam Mendes.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

The IMDB entry above can also be accessed online here.

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