Jack Reynor was born in the U.S. in 1992 but moved with his family to Ireland when he was two years of age. He came to international prominence in What Richard Did” in 2012. He is currently making “Transformers 4” in Hollywood.
TCM overview:
A gifted young Irish actor, Jack Reynor rose from acclaimed work in independent films to starring in huge blockbusters. He made his screen debut playing an altar boy in Kevin Liddy’s “Country” (2000), a drama exploring the secrets and lives of an Irish family. His professional momentum increased with larger roles in the made-for-TV movies “Three Wise Women” (STV, 2010) and “Chasing Leprechauns” (Hallmark Channel, 2012) as well as in Kirsten Sheridan’s challenging, largely improvised “Dollhouse” (2012). Reynor’s breakthrough came with “What Richard Did” (2012), where he played the titular “golden boy” teen who makes a fatal error one night and must grapple with his conscience as well as with potentially life-ruining consequences. Reynor’s ability to portray the complex emotions of a character pushed to his limits, both with and, more impressively, without dialogue, dazzled critics. The rising young actor earned a massive international profile boost, however, when it was announced he was cast in the fourth installment of Michael Bay’s global blockbuster franchise, “Transformers” (2007, 2009, 2011). The casting news boosted Reynor’s profile overnight, elevating him to leading man status on an international scale.
Born Jan. 23, 1992 in Colorado, Reynor was the son of human rights activist Tara O’Grady and nephew of actor Paul Raynor, a supporting player in U.K. features and television. While still in preschool, Reynor moved with his family to Humphrystown, County Wicklow, Ireland with his family. There, he fell in love with the movies, watching Hollywood features like “Die Hard” several times a day. In 2000, he made his first appearance in Kevin Liddy’s drama “Country,” on which he impulsively talked his way into moving up from extra to a bit player role as an altar boy. The experience cemented his interest in acting, which he pursued through appearances in student productions at Belvedere College in Dublin. Reynor returned to filmmaking in 2010 with an appearance in the Hallmark Channel TV-film “Three Wise Women,” a romantically-themed variation on A Christmas Carol.
In 2012, he had his first major movie role as a young man caught up in a home invasion in director Kirsten Sheridan’s improvised drama “Dollhouse.” The year proved to be a watershed for Reynor, thanks largely to his star turn as a privileged young man who commits a terrible crime in “What Richard Did” (2012). Festival screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival led to a contract with the William Morris Agency and the attention of Steven Spielberg, who cast Reynor in a supporting role in the Dreamworks comedy “The Delivery Man” (2013), a comedy vehicle for Vince Vaughn. More significantly, his performance in “What Richard Did” inspired director Michael Bay to cast Reynor as the lead opposite Mark Wahlberg in “Transformers 4,” which reportedly marked the launch of a new trilogy for the science fiction-action franchise. The casting news boosted Reynor’s profile overnight, elevating him to leading man status on an international scale.
By Paul Gaita
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Javier Bardem was born in 1969 in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. He came to fame with his performance in “No Country For Old Men” for which he won an Oscar. He recently played the villain ‘Raoul Silva’ in “Skyfall”.
TCM Overview:
Hardly one to have hungered for a Hollywood career, Spanish-born actor Javier Bardem nonetheless achieved great stardom and acclaim while being highly selective of the roles he chose to play. After making his film debut in “The Ages of Lulu” (1990), Bardem graduated to leading roles with “Jamón, Jamón” (1992) and made his English language debut in “Perdita Durango” (1997). He made an international splash with his Oscar-nominated performance as openly gay Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas in “Before Night Falls” (2000), and continued to win serious praise for “The Dancer Upstairs” (2003). Bardem went on to deliver a sterling performance as quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro, who spent 29 years fighting for his right to die in the “The Sea Inside” (2004). Following a brief, but pivotal turn as Mexican drug lord in “Collateral” (2004), Bardem was the fictional Brother Lorenzo in the otherwise historical drama “Goya’s Ghosts” (2006), before starring in Mike Newell’s adaptation of “Love in the Time of Cholera” (2007). But it was his Oscar-winning performance as the ruthless, coin-tossing assassin Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” (2007) that catapulted Bardem into superstardom. From there, he was a Spanish painter in Wood Allen’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (2008), a deteriorating family man in “Biutiful” (2010), and James Bond’s arch-enemy in “Skyfall” (2012), all while embarking on a low-profile marriage with Penelope Cruz. Whether sympathetic hero or psychotic villain, Bardem was certainly worthy of the slew of awards and critical praise he routinely received.
Born on Mar. 1, 1969 in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, Bardem was raised in a show business family. His mother, Pilar, was a talented and well-known stage actress who exposed her children to the craft at an early age. His uncle, Juan Antonio Bardem, was an acclaimed filmmaker, and his grandfather, Rafael Bardem, also acted. At age 4, Bardem followed his mother to the theater where he watched her perform and routinely get sick from stage fright before stepping onstage. Though his mom helped secured him a small part in the miniseries, “El Picaro” (1974), Bardem decided painting was his path and began studying art at the Escuela de Arte y Oficios in Madrid. While struggling to become an artist, he took several odd jobs including as a waiter, security guard and even a stripper at a nightclub to earn his keep. By the time he was in his late-teens, Bardem working as an occasional extra segued into acting, leading to small parts that eventually blossomed into more prominent roles and eventually a burgeoning career.
Bardem had his start with famed Spanish director Bigas Luna, whose searing examinations of masculine obsessions were borderline pornographic. He landed a role in “Las Edades de Lulu (The Ages of Lulu)” (1990) after following his sister to the audition because he had “nothing better to do that day” (Hispanic, May 31, 2003). Though his sister failed to make the cut, Bardem went on appear in the nearly plotless erotic thriller about a sheltered adolescent (Francesca Neri) who loses her virginity to a family friends, sparking a sexual odyssey that leads her down several twisted paths. After brief appearances in “Amo Tu Cama Rica” (1991) and Pedro Almodovar’s “High Heels” (1991), Bardem landed his first starring role in Luna’s “Jamón, Jamón” (1992), playing an aspiring bullfighter tasked to seduce a beautiful working girl (Penélope Cruz) by the distraught mother (Stefania Sandrelli) of the girl’s upper class lover (Jordi Molla), only to work his charms on both.
His next film with Luna, “Huevos de Oro (Golden Balls)” (1993), saw Bardem as a macho, crotch-grabbing ex-military man obsessed with sex who wants to build a phallic skyscraper with the money inherited from his marriage to a rich man’s daughter (Maria de Medeiros). One of Luna’s most notorious films – really more soft-porn than anything else – also proved to be one of his most detested, despite a strong performance from Bardem. After appearing for a small role in “La Teta y la Luna (The Tit and the Moon)” (1994), Bardem’s early collaboration with Luna ended. But his being typecast as a type-A hunk continued with the sex comedy “Mouth to Mouth” (1995) – a role that earned him a Goya Award for Best Actor in 1996 – and the bizarre Rosie Perez black comedy “Perdita Durango” (“Dance With the Devil”) (1997), his English-language debut, spurned the young actor to be more selective in order to avoid being trapped in the same kinds of films.
Bardem finally began breaking the mold with another Almodovar film, “Live Flesh” (1997), playing an ex-cop bound to a wheelchair after a fateful shooting involving a heroin addict (Francesca Neri) and a pizza delivery man (Liberto Rabal), all of whom reunite years later in a web of fate to confront their guilt. After his first turn as executive producer on “Los Lobos de Washington” (1999), Bardem returned to his soft-core porn beginnings with “Entre Las Piernas (Between Your Legs)” (2000), playing a struggling screenwriter who joins a sex therapy group only to relapse with a radio announcer (Victoria Abril) while a series of murders happen around them. In “Second Skin” (2000), Bardem delivered a unique spin on his Lothario persona by playing a surgeon who seduces a man (Jordi Molla), disturbing the man’s marriage with his artist wife (Ariadna Gil). By this time, Bardem had built a pile of respected work, though he had failed to become known outside his native Spain. But his next film changed everything.
Bardem leaped from obscurity to become an Oscar-nominated actor and international star with “Before Night Falls,” the moving and elegiac story of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. Raised in pre-Castro Cuba in the 1940s, Arenas leaves home as an adolescent and moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the revolutionary spirit, joining a circle of political writers and artists. After publishing his first novel, Castro’s oppressive regime engulfs Arenas because of his overt homosexuality and radical political writings. He is imprisoned after being falsely accused of molestation and later flees Cuba for New York City where his hopes for a new life are destroyed when he contracts AIDS. Bardem’s emotional, but gritty performance earned him several critics’ awards, a Best Actor statue at the Venice Film Festival, and nominations at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Bardem went to work building on his success from “Before Night Falls” with another sterling performance. In “Los Lunes al Sol (Mondays in the Sun)” (2002), he played a gruff, out-of-work shipyard man spending his time drinking and commiserating with his fellow working class stiffs, all of whom are down on their luck and pine for better days. Finally, Bardem had moved beyond playing over-sexed macho guys in favor of more nuanced and dimensional characters. He completed his transformation with a strong, but subtle performance in “The Dancer Upstairs,” playing Agustin Rejas, an idealistic policeman in an unspecified Latin American country ravaged by a bloody conflict with a highly-organized terrorist group. Rejas hunts down the leader of the group while falling for a beautiful ballet teacher (Laura Morante), only to suspect her of being involved with the terrorists. Though no awards were forthcoming, Bardem nonetheless delivered a worthy performance to follow up the hoopla surrounding his Oscar nomination.
Taking the advice of actor John Malkovich, who made his directorial debut with “The Dancer Upstairs,” Bardem became decidedly choosier with his roles than he already had been. His constant thirst for good material led him to star in “The Sea Inside,” director Alejandro Amenabar’s moving account about Spanish poet Ramón Sampedro, who became a quadriplegic after a diving accident and his 29-year struggle to end his life with dignity. Bardem delivered a charismatic and witty performance that was counterbalanced by his character’s dark desire to end his life, earning the actor another Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and a nod for Best Actor at the Golden Globes. Bardem made the jump to big Hollywood fare with a small role in Michael Mann’s adept thriller, “Collateral” (2004), playing a powerful drug lord using a determined assassin (Tom Cruise) to kill witnesses set to testify at his pending trial.
After “Collateral,” he returned to Spain to star in Milos Foreman’s historical drama, “Goya’s Ghosts” (2006), playing an enigmatic member of the powerful Spanish clergy who becomes infatuated with the beautiful teenage muse (Natalie Portman) of famed painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgard). Continuing to work with top directors, Bardem was tapped by the Coen Brothers to play the coldly psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh in their laconic thriller, “No Country for Old Men” (2007). Initially reserved about playing a role that required using guns and speaking English, Bardem nonetheless was excellent in his portrayal of Chigurh, a criminal who flips coins for lives and kills with a high-powered air gun while he hunts down a Vietnam vet (Josh Brolin) trying to make off with $2 million found at the bloody scene of a drug deal gone bad. So impressive and powerful was his performance, Bardem won both a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture in early 2008.
He followed his win with an Oscar nod for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Meanwhile, he had a much quieter and far less hailed starring turn in “Love in the Time of Cholera” (2007), Mike Newell’s adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel about a poet and telegraph clerk entangled in a love triangle with the beautiful young wife (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) of a sophisticated aristocrat (Benjamin Bratt). Bardem then starred in his first Woody Allen film, “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (2008), playing a suave artist who woos two American best friends (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) on vacation in Spain, while contending with his darkly tempestuous ex-wife (Penélope Cruz). Bardem earned his third Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actor in the Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical category. He also earned an Independent Spirit Award nod in the same category. And off-screen, he won the heart of co-star Cruz. The couple became a hot fixture in tabloids once pictures of the couple on vacation surfaced on the Internet. In 2010, it was announced the pair had married in the Bahamas, while the following year Cruz gave birth to their son, Leo.
Meanwhile, Bardem lent his considerable talents to the lightweight romantic travelogue movie “Eat Pray Love” (2010), based on the best-selling novel by Elizabeth Gilbert. In the film, a recently divorced woman (Julia Roberts) goes on a globetrotting quest for self-discovery and inner peace, ultimately leading her into the arms of an irresistibly charming Brazilian lover (Bardem). Although carried along at the box office by fans of the book and the film’s lead, “Eat Pray Love” was shown little love by film critics. Returning to Spain and the type of complex, gritty material he had become known for, Bardem next appeared in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Spanish-language drama “Biutiful” (2010). This grim, yet ultimately hopeful story centered around the lives of the poor in the slums of Barcelona, with Bardem portraying Uxbal, a deeply flawed man with a connection to the dead, who desperately attempts to provide for his two young children as his own mortality looms ominously before him. While the film met with mixed reviews and his performance was overlooked by both the Golden Globe and SAG awards, Bardem’s work in the film was universally lauded by critics, cheerleaded publicly by “Eat Pray Love” co-star Roberts, and finally recognized with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Following a lull in 2011, Bardem once again played the villain, this time portraying the arch-enemy of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in Sam Mendes’ highly-anticipated “Skyfall” (2012), which was released on the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, “Dr. No” (1962). For his work in the film, Bardem was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor SAG Award.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Christopher Fulford seems to have been featured in every major British television drama series over the past 25 years. Among his appearances are “A Touch of Frost”, “Inspector Morse”, “Judge John Deed”, “Waking the Dead”, “The Brief” and “Whitechapel”. He made his film debut in “The Ploughman’s Lunch” in 1983. His other movies include “Wetherby” and “A Prayer For the Dying”. He was born in London in 1955.
IMDB entry:
Fair haired British character actor Christopher Fulford has been a recognizable face on British TV and film for over 20 years in a variety of roles. Most recently he’s appeared in the BBC series Servants (2003) as the master butler and in Courtroom drama The Brief(2004). He’s appeared in many character driven roles on TV, usually in crime dramas such as A Touch of Frost (1992), Inspector Morse (1987), Silent Witness (1996), and Wire in the Blood (2002). Memorably he appeared as a suspected child murderer in Cracker(1993), a film which had a brilliant twist in the finale. He’s also appeared in many films, such as Jack the Ripper (1988), Resurrected (1989), Hotel (2001) and Eye See You(2002).
Ben Whishaw was born in 1980 in Clifton. He has starred on television in “Criminal Justice” and “The Hours”. On film he starred in the remake of “Brideshead Revisited” and as the new ‘Q’ in James Bond movie “Skyfall”.
TCM overview:
A veteran of the stage and former member of the esteemed Bancroft Players Youth Theatre, British actor Ben Whishaw quickly gained a reputation as one of England’s most talented young performers. Whishaw garnered considerable attention for his stage work with London’s Royal National Theatre and the Old Vic, prior to appearing in such U.K.-produced films as Matthew Vaughn’s “Layer Cake” (2004) and the Brian Jones rock-n-roll biopic “Stoned” (2005). Soon after, he made his belated entry into Hollywood as the star of the critically lauded period thriller “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2007). Considered one of the U.K.’s most promising new stars, Whishaw continued to win acclaim for leading roles in feature productions like “Brideshead Revisited” (2008) and “Bright Star” (2009). Although he remained a presence on such British TV projects as “The Hour” (BBC, 2011- ), the young actor was soon taking part in major feature blockbusters, including “Cloud Atlas” (2012) and the James Bond film “Skyfall” (2012), in which he played tech wizard Q opposite his “Layer Cake” co-star, Daniel Craig. Still at the dawn of his already impressive career, options for the immensely talented and astute Whishaw appeared limitless.
Born on Oct. 20, 1980 in Hitchen, Hertfordshire, England, Ben Whishaw trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, alma mater of such stage luminaries as Patrick Stewart and Peter O’Toole. Prior to attending RADA, however, Whishaw landed important supporting roles in two 1999 U.K. films. The first was “The Trench,” a modestly produced, but powerful character piece set on the horrific battlefields of World War I. Incidentally, the film also starred a young actor named Daniel Craig, who would go on to international fame as the sixth James Bond in 2006. Whishaw’s second 1999 film, the French drama “Mauvaise passé,” was another well-received character study about a gigolo/escort visiting London. Directed by Michel Blanc, “Mauvaise Passe” paired Whishaw with French actor Daniel Auteuil and became a solid hit with the arthouse crowds.
It was in the theater, however, where Whishaw truly made his name. In 2003, Whishaw made his West End debut at London’s Royal National Theatre in their two-part, six-hour stage adaptation of “His Dark Materials,” based on the works of famed British fantasy novelist, Phillip Pullman. A year later, the 23-year-old Whishaw won the most effusive praise of his young career by playing the title role of “Hamlet” at the legendary Old Vic Theatre. Under the aegis of legendary stage director Trevor Nunn, Whishaw electrified audiences in this “all-youth” production of the Shakespearean classic.
Soon after graduating from RADA, Whishaw landed a handful of semi-substantial roles, with his best known being Jamie Foreman’s nephew, Sidney, in director Matthew Vaughn’s British comedic crime caper “Layer Cake” (2004). Though Whishaw’s role was relatively small, it was the sort of eye-catching showcase performance many young actors killed for. Indeed (not to mention, ironically,) it was Sidney’s willingness to do precisely that, which puts him in conflict with the film’s lead character, XXXX, played by Whishaw’s “Trench” co-star, Daniel Craig. The success of “Layer Cake” won Whishaw a plum supporting role in the sublime British comedy series, “Nathan Barley.” An ITV-produced sitcom about a cynical, loathsome media maven named Nathan Barley (Nicholas Burns), the show skewered the rapid rise of the internet and digital media. Though the program lasted only one season, critics adored it and were especially amused by Whishaw’s turn as the odd Pingu, one of Nathan Barley’s close circle of friends.
On the movie front, the winter of 2007 saw Whishaw’s career take off as never before. That year, Wishaw was cast in his first lead role in the thriller, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.” Based on the award-winning mystery by German author Patrick Süskind, “Perfume” was the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphaned misfit turned serial killer. Set in 18th Century France, the monstrous Grenouille was a respected maker of perfumes by day; a killer of women by night. Born with an uncanny and rare sense of smell, Grenouille’s obsession to capture the aromas, scents, and olfactory “essences” of his victims, formed the backbone of this most unusual murder mystery. With physicality an important component to his role, Whishaw’s performance benefited greatly from his stage training. It also gave the young actor confidence to hold his own with his esteemed co-stars, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. Released in Europe in September 2006, the film was a tremendous success and was well on its way to earning $100 million even before its scheduled U.S. release in early January 2007.
Already touted as one of the most promising young actors in the U.K., Whishaw journeyed to the States to join Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger in their roles as various incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Hayne’s acclaimed biographical collage “I’m Not There” (2007). Returning to home, he earned kudos for his portrayal of the flamboyant Lord Sebastian Flyte in an interpretation of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” (2008), as he did for his turn as poet John Keats in writer-director Jane Campion’s period romance “Bright Star” (2009). In a smaller contribution, the young actor appeared briefly as the spirit Ariel in Julie Taymor’s stylistic interpretation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (2010), starring Helen Mirren as the sorceress Prospera. In a pair of television endeavors over the next two years, he played an ambitious television reporter embroiled in a conspiracy on the British Cold War era series “The Hour” (BBC2, 2011- ) then assumed the role of the titular monarch in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Richard II” (BBC2, 2012).
As the year came to a close, Whishaw appeared in the two biggest film productions of his young career, beginning with a key role in the highly anticipated epic sci-fi drama “Cloud Atlas” (2012). An exploration of the interconnectivity of the human race spanning Earth’s past, present and future, “Cloud Atlas” boasted an all-star ensemble that included Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon and the directorial team of Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. A month later, Whishaw became the latest – and by far the youngest – science geek to provide hi-tech gadgetry to an unappreciative James Bond (Daniel Craig) in the 23rd 007 adventure “Skyfall” (2012).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
If you love 1980’s movies, you have to love Kathleen Turner. She was terrific in “Body Heat”. I love when she says to William Hurt in her husky voice “Your somewhat dim, I like that in a man”. She was excellent too in “Peggy Sue Got Married”, “Romancing the Stone” and “”Prizzi’s Honour”.
TCM overview:
A leading lady of 1980s cinema, Kathleen Turner earned comparisons to 1940s femme fatales like Barbara Stanwyck for sensuous, aggressive roles in “Body Heat” (1981), “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985) and “The War of the Roses” (1989). When the smoky-voiced actress was not manipulating male characters with her on-screen sultry ways, she proved to be quite a comedienne, as well, volleying quips with Michael Douglas in the jungle adventure film “Romancing the Stone” (1984) and inhabiting an 18-year-old body in “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986). She received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in the early 1990s, and that – along with the pained actress’ heavy drinking and over-40 status – meant her screen appearances were reduced to character roles as moms and comic villains – something she still pulled off with panache. After acclaimed theatrical runs in “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” on the New York and London stages, the fiery actress regained her esteemed reputation and settled into a comfortable real-life role as a supporting film player, theater director and acting teacher.
A globe-trotter from birth, Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954; the child of a foreign service diplomat father. Turner lived in Cuba and Venezuela, among other places, and began to take an interest in acting while living in London and seeing top British performers on the West End stage. She studied at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, in addition to classwork at American High School, and when the multi-lingual teen returned to the States, she went on to earn a Theater degree from the University of Maryland. She moved to New York City to pursue an acting career and landed an agent within a month of her 1977 arrival. Work off-Broadway led to her role as social-climbing Nola Dancy Aldrich on the NBC daytime drama “The Doctors” (NBC, 1963-1982). She also debuted on Broadway in “Gemini” in 1978. In 1981, she experienced overnight stardom with her feature debut as the cunning temptress who cons lawyer William Hurt into murdering her wealthy husband in “Body Heat” (1981), a contemporary film noir from Lawrence Kasdan. For her unforgettable performance, critics likened her to Golden Era greats like Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall and Ava Gardner. Proud of the comparisons, Turner capitalized on her femme fatale reputation in sensuous, aggressive roles like Steve Martin’s gold-digging wife in Carl Reiner’s “The Man with Two Brains” (1982), a businesswoman-turned-prostitute in Ken Russell’s “Crimes of Passion” (1984), and the cold-hearted hit-woman in John Huston’s Mafia comedy, “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985).
Turner also proved a likable comedienne in the popular old-fashioned adventure “Romancing the Stone” (1984), in which Turner was cast in the more sympathetic role of a romance novelist who can not find love, only to meet Michael Douglas’ professional adventurer who sweeps her off her feet. The box office success triggered the 1985 sequel “Jewel of the Nile,” but it took a $25 million lawsuit on the part of the studio to make Turner honor her contract for what she perceived was a vastly inferior script compared with the original. In 1986, Turner starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her tour de force performance as a mature woman inhabiting the body of her teenage self. Absolutely believable as a 42-year-old in a 17-year-old body (she was 32 at the time), she captured youthful insouciance through her altered speech and body movements and was the best thing about the sentimental picture. After the psychological thriller “Julia and Julia” (1987) cast her as a woman caught between a happily married existence with Gabriel Byrne and a dangerous affair with Sting, Turner teamed up with Douglas again in Danny De Vito’s darkly comic study of marital breakdown, “The War of the Roses” (1989).
Perfectly cast to voice sexy cartoon character Jessica Rabbit in the ‘toon noir “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988), Turner scored a second time that year when she reteamed with Hurt and Kasdan for “The Accidental Tourist,” playing Hurt’s emotionally distant spouse. Though Geena Davis stole the show and took home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as the new love interest for Hurt, Turner gave a compelling and sympathetic portrayal of a woman deeply scarred by the death of her 12-year-old son. Turner turned in a much-applauded and Tony-nominated portrayal of Maggie in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1990, but the new decade did not bode well for the maturing actress’ box office clout. The detective film “V.I. Warshawski” (1991), the small-scale medical drama “House of Cards” (1993), and the “Thin Man” wannabe “Undercover Blues” (1993) all failed with critics and the public. Filmmaker John Waters, with his knack for sending up actors’ established personas, gave Turner a break from the forgettable with “Serial Mom” (1994), in which she played a modern-day homemaker with the looks of June Cleaver and the heart of Charles Manson. Turner at once frightened and delighted audiences, but nothing she did seemed to fully re-ignite her feature career, which began to suffer in part by a diagnosis of arthritis and the actress’ increasing dependence on alcohol to manage the pain.
Both conditions made Turner less desirable to cast, and she turned to the small screen. Her experience at the helm of “Leslie’s Folly” (1994), part of Showtime’s “Directed By” series, did not earn her subsequent directorial work, and she produced and starred in her network TV-movie debut, “Friends at Last” (CBS, 1995), showing that she was more than willing to be unglamorous in her new life as a character actress. This was never more obvious than taking the role of Chandler Bing’s (Matthew Perry) drag queen father in a number of episodes of the popular sitcom, “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004). With her unmistakably sophisticated voice, she also became a frequent narrator and host of TV documentaries. One of the 1980s leading actresses was now relegated to supporting roles and comic villains on the big screen throughout the 1990s, with appearances as the stepmother in “Moonlight and Valentino” (1995), the wicked fairy in 1997’s “A Simple Wish,” and a nefarious scientist obsessing over “Baby Geniuses” (1999).
Turner returned to the stage, insisting that the best women’s roles could be found there. She portrayed an incestuous mother in Jean Cocteau’s “Indiscretions” on Broadway and later ventured to London to act in “Our Betters” and perform a one-woman show about silent film actress Tallulah Bankhead – someone whose throaty voice was reminiscent of her own. After appearing as a TV anchorwoman in TNT’s satirical “Legalese” (1998), Turner was excellent in her understated turn as the rigid, dowdy mother of five in Sophia Coppola’s feature directing debut, “The Virgin Suicides” (2000).
She returned to the British stage as famed elder seductress Mrs. Robinson in a theatrical adaptation of “The Graduate” (2000), and after reprising the role in a 2002 run on Broadway, the 48-year-old actress checked into a rehab facility for alcohol treatment. A commitment to sobriety plus new developments in arthritis medication that significantly eased the actress’ constant pain facilitated Turner’s return to Broadway in 2005, where she was cast in one of the most demanding roles in American theater, Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She was nominated for a Tony Award for her electric performance and followed the production to London, where she again wowed audiences and critics. Turner maintained her strong standing, lending her voice to the animated film “Monster House” (2006) and debuting as a theatrical director with the off-Broadway production of “Crimes of the Heart.” She was tapped by New York University to teach acting and released the memoir Send Yourself Roses, which offered some insight into her career, her history of alcoholism, and her struggles with arthritis. In 2008, Turner was well-cast to play a drill instructor-like dog trainer in the film adaptation of John Grogan’s bestseller about a rambunctious dog and the family who loves him in “Marley & Me.”
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Stuart Wilson was born in Guilford, Surrey in 1946. He made his film debut with a major role in “Dulcima” with John Mills and Carol White in 1971. Other movies include “Wetherby” and in Hollywood “Lethal Weapon 3”, “The Age of Innocence” and “he Mask of Zorro”.
TCM overview:
A handsome, dark-haired, often mustachioed, actor, Stuart Wilson became more familiar to American moviegoers as the corrupt cop in “Lethal Weapon 3” (1992). Discerning TV viewers might remember the performer from a string of prestige British shows, many of which aired in the USA on PBS. The stage-trained Wilson has a prominent supporting role in “The Pallisers” (1977) and cut a dashing figure as Vronsky to Nicola Pagett’s “Anna Karenina” (1978). In the syndicated “Running Blind” (1981), he was cast an undercover British agent while in the multi-part “The Jewel in the Crown” (1984), he played a British army major. After a turn as a policeman investigating a murder in David Hare’s superb “Wetherby” (1985), Wilson was cast as a titled Hungarian with mixed feelings about the treatment of Jews under the Nazis in the NBC miniseries “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (also 1985).
Once his profile in American films was enhanced with his villainous turn in “Lethal Weapon 3”, Wilson found more or less steady work in the States for a couple of years. He offered another villain, this time a gun-running mercenary, in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III”, then turned more genteel but retaining an air of mystery as a suitor to the Countess (Michelle Pfeiffer) in “The Age of Innocence” (both 1993). The following year, the actor was tapped to play the leader of an anarchic band of rebels in the muddled sci-fi actioner “No Escape”, cast as a diamond smuggler who seeks refuge in a sex retreat in the uneven comedy “Exit to Eden” and portrayed Sigourney Weaver’s husband in Roman Polanski’s film version of Ariel Dorfman’s play “Death and the Maiden”. Wilson went on play Helen Mirren’s lover in two installments of “Prime Suspect” in 1995 and 1996 before etching another nefarious character, the Spanish governor, in “The Mark of Zorro” (1998), opposite Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins
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Edward Burns was born in 1968 in Queens, New York to an Irish-American family. He is best remembered for his role in “The Brothers McMullen” in 1998. Other films including “Saving Private Ryan” and “Looking For Kitty”. He is married to model Christy Turlington.
TCM overview: Like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino and Allison Anders, actor-writer-director Edward Burns rose to prominence during the indie film boom of the mid-1990s on the strength of his debut film, “The Brothers McMullen” (1995). A thoughtful, good-natured comedy-drama about three Irish-Catholic siblings, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and established Burns as a director on the rise. Unfortunately, some of his subsequent efforts, which included “She’s The One” (1996), “Sidewalks of New York” (2001) and “Nice Guy Johnny” (2010) felt like rehashes of “McMullen” in their wordiness and low-wattage conflicts. Burns also enjoyed an occasional side career as an actor, most notably in “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), but his tenacity and dedication to intimate dramas – for better or worse – were his calling cards for his decade-plus career.
Edward J. Burns Jr., born Jan. 28, 1968 in Woodside, Queens County, NY, was the son of police sergeant Edward J. Burns, Sr. and his wife Molly, a Federal Aviation Administration manager at Kennedy Airport in New York. Burns grew up with his older sister Mary and younger brother Brian in Valley Stream, Long Island; there, he enjoyed a typical Irish-Catholic upbringing, including time served as a alter boy. His parents, both dyed-in the-wool movie buffs, encouraged their children to pursue goals that would take them far beyond their neighborhood. Film eventually became his chosen medium, and after time at Oneonta College and State University of New York at Albany, he transferred to Hunter College, where he began making short films.
After graduation, Burns found work as a production assistant on a variety of television news programs, including “Entertainment Tonight” (syndicated, 1981- ), while writing and directing the 45-minute short “Brandy,” which made its way into the 1992 Independent Feature Film Market. The following year, he began work on a feature about his Irish-American roots in suburban New York. Shot on 16mm film at the home of Burns’ parents for less than $30,000 – some of which came from Burns’ father, who was credited as an executive producer – and utilizing a crew of fellow “Entertainment Tonight” staffers, “The Brothers McMullen” was a surprisingly heartfelt, funny picture about a trio of siblings who learn to contend with their collective past as their lives take a variety of turns in regards to love, fidelity, maturity and family. Burns himself led the cast of unknowns as brother Barry, who struggled with committing to Audrey.
“McMullen” was a major hit at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, capturing its Grand Jury Prize and making Burns a rising star in the burgeoning world of independent features. Released theatrically by Fox Searchlight Pictures, it netted $10 million at the box office, which in turn yielded a green light for a second Burns film. The follow-up, 1996’s “She’s the One,” featured several cast and crew members from “McMullen,” including Bahns and co-star Mike McGlone, but the success of the first film allowed him a $3 million budget that afforded such name performers as Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz, as well as an original song score by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A romantic comedy about a pair of Irish-Catholic brothers (Burns and McGlone) who wrestle with heartbreak, broken marriages and new loves, “She’s the One” received mixed reviews, many of which cited its similarity to “McMullen,” and it did not perform as well with moviegoers.
Undaunted, Burns forged ahead with this third film, “No Looking Back” (1998), a lower budget romantic drama with Lauren Holly as a restless small-town waitress who escapes the doldrums of her life via an old flame, played by Burns. A major disappointment in the wake of “McMullen” and “She’s the One,” .
While Burns’ efforts as director occasionally struggled to find an appreciative audience, his turns as an actor caught the eye of Hollywood. His laconic, dry-witted delivery and model-grade good looks received a first-class introduction to mainstream audiences through Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), which cast him as Private Robert Reiben, one of only three members of Army Captain Tom Hanks’ team to survive a mission to save missing a GI called home by the government. However, subsequent efforts to mint him as a leading man, including the cop thriller “15 Minutes” (2001) with Robert De Niro, and “A Sound of Thunder” (2006), with Burns as a time-traveling scientist, were dismal failures, though he made for an appealing con man in the thriller “Confidence” (2003) with Dustin Hoffman. In later years, Burns seemed more comfortable in supporting roles, frequently as a boyfriend or fiancé whose disinterest spurs the female lead to seek romance elsewhere, as in “The Holiday” (2006) or “27 Dresses” (2008). Burns also enjoyed a brief stint as a boyfriend of Grace Adler (Debra Messing) in season three of “Will and Grace” (NBC, 1998-2006), and a season-long run as himself on “Entourage” (HBO, 2004- ) that centered on him penning a television series for the struggling Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon).
Burns returned to the director’s chair in 2001 for “Sidewalks of New York,” a gentle comedy-drama about a group of romantically damaged Big Apple residents – again led by Burns, but also featuring Rosario Dawson, Dennis Farina, Stanley Tucci and Brittany Murphy – who try to overcome their fear of commitment. Shot in 17 days for less than $1 million, it received modest praise and turned a profit, which brought Burns back into the indie fold. It also served as the terminal point for his relationship with co-star Heather Graham, whom he had been dating since his breakup with Lauren Holly in 1998. The pair officially split in 2000, prior to the film’s release. That same year, he began dating model Christy Turlington, with whom he would endure a tumultuous relationship for several years. Initially engaged in 2001, they broke up shortly after the attacks on New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. They reunited and were married in 2003, the same year Turlington gave birth to their daughter, Grace. A son, Finn, followed in 2006.
Burns’ directorial career saw diminishing returns in the years that followed “Sidewalks of New York.” “Ash Wednesday” (2002), with Burns as a guilt-ridden Irish-Catholic and a woefully miscast Elijah Wood as his long-lost brother, opened in only two theaters and grossed less than $3,000. Its follow-up, “Looking for Kitty,” reunited Burns with some of his veteran players, including David Krumholtz and Connie Britton, in a comedy-drama about a basketball coach (Krumholtz) who hires a mouthy PI (Burns) to find his missing wife. It received more positive reviews, but again, only garnered a limited release. Burns tried his hand at television with “The Fighting Fitzgeralds” (NBC, 2001) a comedy about an Irish firefighter (Brian Dennehy) whose retirement is routinely interrupted by his family, but the series – co-produced by Burns’ brother Brian under their joint production company, Irish Twins – lasted less than a season.
Despite growing critical sentiment that Burns had squandered the goodwill generated by his debut, he was still able to raise the financing for film projects. In 2006, he saw the release of “The Groomsmen,” with Burns again drawing from life as a groom-to-be that is about to marry his longtime girlfriend (Brittany Murphy), who, like Turlington, is five months pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Though his supporting cast, which included Jay Mohr, John Leguizamo, Donal Logue and Matthew Lillard, received solid reviews, the film performed poorly during its theatrical run. The romantic drama “Purple Violets” (2007), with Selma Blair and Patrick Wilson, did not even make it to theaters; instead, the film earned the distinction for being the first feature to debut on iTunes. Burns also kept himself busy with a graphic novel, Dock Walloper, in 2007 and a series of noir-styled Internet shorts called “The Lynch Pin,” with Burns as a hired killer, in 2009. The following year saw him back on the festival trail with his latest film, “Nice Guy Eddie,” with Burns now playing the libertine uncle to Matt Bush’s title character, the sort of congenial good guy that Burns himself played a decade prior.
Nora-Jane Noone was born in 1984 in Newcastle, Galway. She made her film debut in “The Magadelene Sisters” in 2002. She plays Garda kate Noonan in the ‘Jack Taylor’ triller series with Iain Glen. She played ‘Louise Hazel’in “Coronation Street”. She recently starred in the TV series “Deception”.
IMDB entry:
Nora-Jane Noone was born on March 8, 1984 in Galway, Ireland. She is an actress, known for The Descent (2005), The Magdalene Sisters (2002) and Savage (2009). Attended The Performing Arts school in Galway Attended college in NUI Galway, studying science. Born in Newcastle, Galway, Ireland. Previous acting role before “The Magdalene Sisters” was as Jan in a High school production of “Grease”Is a dancer and musician – can play the piano. She joined the cast of “Coronation Street”, playing a single mum of one and as a possible love interest for Steve McDonald. [February 2005]
Robert Hays was born in 1947 in Maryland. He is best remembered for his role in “Airplane” in 1980.
TCM overview:
An earnest, boyishly handsome actor, Robert Hays has often adopted an amusing deadpan expression as well-meaning but clueless romantic leads caught up in farcical situations. A “Marine brat”, Hays grew up in Turkey, India and England before graduating from high school in Nebraska. Attending college in San Diego, he caught the theater bug after studying acting for a semester and promptly joined the Actor’s Guild at the Old Globe Theater. Hays stayed with the company for five years, performing in plays ranging from “Richard III” to “The Glass Menagerie” to “Say Who You Are”, winning the Globe’s Atlas award for the latter.
Hays made his TV debut guesting on ABC’s detective series “Harry O” and began appearing on TV-movies soon thereafter. A first series, “The Young Pioneers” (ABC, 1978), with Hays as the eponymous couple’s neighbor, fizzled after three episodes, but he had more luck with “Angie” (ABC, 1979-80). As clean-cut Brad Benson, Hays played a wealthy young doctor who dealt with sitcom adventures after marrying a poor waitress (Donna Pescow). The show was never a huge hit, but it got Hays noticed, and he made a successful debut in features with the hilarious disaster spoof, “Airplane!” (1980). As Ted Striker (a role he reprised for the 1982 sequel) he was quite funny as the goofy yet stalwart former pilot who must try to land an endangered plane.
Hays’ wide-eyed, middle-America good looks suggested promise in films, but the unpopular “Take This Job and Shove It” (1981), based on the hit song, failed to consolidate his fame. Subsequent features were minor farces all cut from the same cloth. In “Trenchcoat” (1982) and “Fifty/Fifty” (1991), he played bumbling spies, while “Honeymoon Academy” (1990) had him married to a spy caught up in work during their honeymoon. “Scandalous” (1984), meanwhile, put Hays in comic suspense once more as a reporter charged with murder. He later did direct-to-video releases like “No Dessert Dad, Till You Mow the Lawn” and “Raw Justice” (both 1994).
The likable Hays, a highly recognizable TV face, kept busy in the comic TV-movies “The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything” (syndicated, 1980) and “Murder by the Book” (NBC, 1987). “Running Against Time” (USA, 1990) found a feckless, time-traveling Hays trying to prevent JFK’s assassination, and he also had his hands full with “Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare” (Fox, 1995). Often cast in roles calling for him to react as much as act, he proved a good choice for a TV version of “Mr. Roberts” (NBC, 1984) and did his charming professional best by such short-lived TV series as “Starman” (ABC, 1986-87), “FM” (NBC, 1989-90) and “Cutters” (CBS, 1993). Hays had a rare opportunity to display his underused dramatic ability as Victoria Principal’s abusive husband in “The Abduction” (Lifetime, 1996).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
