Tag Archives: role

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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… Matt Damon

Welcome to the 25th installment of “The Many Faces of…”, this week starring Matt Damon!

Damon grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived close to Ben Affleck, who has been a friend of his since he was little and with whom he still collaborates. I high school he acted in several plays. He went to Harvard University but did not graduate as he decided to head to LA to pursue an acting career. He started acting in small movies (his first at 18 in Mystic Pizza) and starred together with Gene Hackman in Geronimo: An American Legend in 1992. He was willing to do a lot for his roles and proved so in 1996 when he lost 18 kg for his role in Courage Under Fire (he had to take medication for years after it because it took a big toll on his body). His big breaktrhough came with Good Will Hunting. Together with Ben Affleck he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. After this his career took off and starred in popular franchises as the Oceans and Bourne series. 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… Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson is this week’s star in “The Many Faces of…”. He became famous with his role as Woody Boyd in Cheers. He pursued a career in film as well and has been very successful with a long list of movies to his name. He has received 2 Oscar nominations (for his roles in The Messenger and The People vs. Larry Flint), but never won. Reading about his early life it was interesting to find out that his father was an actual contract killer (who got caught and died in prison) Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… John Malkovich

Although it is documentary week I know a lot of people look forward to this weekly Friday post, so of course there is a new “The Many Faces of…”.

This week’s choice is John Malkovich, who has an impressive list of movies to his name. Not only is he an actor, but he’s also producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. He never won an Oscar, but was nominated twice for his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire. He has Croatian grandparents and a mother of Scottish and German ancestry and has played quite a few roles in different languages. He is fluent in French (he lived there for 10 years).
He’s a great actor who always manages to stand out in the movies he is in as he has a very strong screen presence. Click here to view his many roles