Tag Archives: career

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The Many Faces of… Joe Pesci

It’s almost weekend and as you have come to expect from me it means a new installment of “The Many Faces of…”, this week starring Joe Pesci. He was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. He went to Belleville High School and started acting at a young age. He appeared in plays when he was five and when he was ten he appeared on the TV show Startime Kids.

He stopped acting though and became a barber in the sixties. At the same time he played in several bands and released a record under the name “Joe Ritchie” (he would release another one in 1998 on which he even rapped on the track Wise Guy). He even did a comedy act, but allegedly wasn’t very successful.

He made some small appearances on TV, but it was his small role in the movie The Death Collector which was noticed by Robert de Niro, who convinced Martin Scorcese to cast him in Raging Bull. Through the years Pesci has appeared in a lot of movies, but is best known for his roles in various gangster movies and successful franchises as the Lethal Weapon and Home Alone series. He retired from acting in 1999, but did appear in The Good Shepherd and Love Ranch. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Christian Bale

roles overview Christian Bale movies

Welcome to a new installment, this week featuring English actor Christian Bale. He was born in 1974. His father was a commercial pilot and his mother worked in the circus. He did his first acting in commercials (for Lenor and Pacman). In 1986 he started appearing in movies and it was his performance in 1987’s Empire of the Sun which earned him lots of praise. He considered quitting, but was convinced to continue acting, which has resulted in an impressive career. He is willing to do a lot for his roles as he has lost massive amounts (up to 30 kilos) of weight to play his roles in The Machinist, Rescue Dawn and The Fighter and gaining it back for roles he did in between. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Robert De Niro

Another Friday and a new installment in this weekly series. This week actor Robert De Niro. He was born on August 17, 1943 and didn’t start acting in 1963 (although the movie wasn’t released until 1969). His career really started in 1973. It didn’t take long for him to appear in a big movie though as he starred as Vito Corleone in the second Godfather movie in 1974, for which he won an Oscar. Now that’s a good start of your career.
He appeared in close to 90 movies, so picking out a favorite for this actor is going to be a tough one. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Kate Winslet

The Many Faces of... Kate Winslet

Welcome to another great “Friday Faces”, this week starring Kate Winslet. Winslet was born in 1975 (same year as me!) and studied drama when growing up. She landed her first role in 1991 in the TV series Shrinks. After this she did several other TV shows and made the step into movies in 1994 as Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures. After this she quickly became famous after appearing in Titanic, which broke all records at the time. She has starred in a lot of great movies and earned an Oscar with her role as Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. An overview of her roles after the jump. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Nicolas Cage

So after some weeks off “The Many Faces of…” is back again. This time it’s an actor I will watch in almost any movie he is in, Nicolas Cage. His real name is Nicolas Kim Coppola and his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola. He changed his name to make sure people didn’t think he made a career based on his name alone. He’s a big comic book fan (something he also showed when he named his son Kal-El (which is the birthname of Superman) and chose the name Cage after the superhero Luke Cage. He managed to make his mark in Hollywood quickly and managed to get two Oscar nominations, winning one for his role in Leaving Las Vegas. His acting style is very unique and he is not afraid to go all out. It might not be something that everyone likes, but I love it. After the jump an overview of his many roles. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Forest Whitaker

This week’s star of “The Many Faces of…” is Forest Whitaker. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles and went to college on a football scholarship. Because he had a back injury he had to switch his major to music (voice) and he toured England with the Cal Poly Chamber Singers in 1980. He was set to study opera as a tenor and graduated, but also graduated in drama in 1982. His first role was in the teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High and kept acting appearing in movies like The Color of Money, Platoon and Good Morning, Vietnam. He starred in Bird, a Clint Eastwood directed movie about musician Charlie Parker. Whitaker won an Oscar for his role as dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Bruce Willis

The weekend is almost about to start and I’m looking forward to it. But the start of the weekend isn’t complete without a new “Many Faces of…”. This week’s star is Bruce Willis (Bruce being is middle name, Walter his first), who was born in Germany and moved to the US in 1957. When he was young he used to stutter, but lost this as he grew up.

Before going into movies he worked as a security guard at a power plant, transported work crews and was a private investigator. He started his career on TV, appearing in an episode of Miami Vice and being the lead in Moonlighting (a show which lasted five seasons).
His big breakthrough in movies is obviously his role as John McClane in Die Hard and cemented him as an action star. Since then he has appeared in a lot of movies. Besides acting he’s also a musician and had various solo albums. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Tom Hanks

Today is my birthday and of course this means a party. As a visitor you will get a present today in the form of a new “The Many faces of…”. This time I’ve selected Tom Hanks. No particular reason, heard his name in some podcast and thought it would be interesting. Searching for pictures I quickly found out these were not as versatile as Samuel L. Jackson’s ones as he only started to change his appearance in later movies. This made me think what Jason Statham looks like in the various movies. I’d almost bet it would be exactly the same.

Now on to this week’s star, Tom Hanks. Going through his acting career I noticed that he played a lot of small roles in big TV shows like Family Ties, Taxi, The Love Boat and Happy Days. He started acting in 1979 in a small slasher movie called He Knows You’re Alone. It wasn’t until his role in Big that his career really took off. Click here to view his many roles