Tag Archives: role

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The Many Faces of… George Clooney

Overview of the roles and movies of actor George Clooney

George Clooney was born on May 6, 1961 in Kentucky. He went to the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. In Ohio he attended St. Michael’s School in Columbus, and St. Susanna School in Mason. In middle school he had a condition which partially paralyzed his face. After a year this went away. When his parents moved to Augusta, Kentucky, he went to Augusta High School. He was a good student with high grades and played baseball and basketball. He even tried to become part of the Cincinnati Reds but wasn’t hired. He attended Northern Kentucky University and chose Broadcast Journalism. In 1978 he landed his first role in the TV series Centennial. His first big role was in a sitcom called E/R (which isn’t the same as the show which really made him famous) and had roles in Golden Girls and Roseanne. When he got a role in ER he really had his big break and received various nominations for the role. His first movie role was together with Quentin Tarantino in From Dusk Till Dawn. He has since managed to build an impressive career starring in movies like Out of Sight, Three Kings, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Perfect Storm and Ocean’s Eleven. He made his directorial debut with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Other movies he starred in were The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up in the Air and The Descendants among many others. He won two Oscars. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston was born in London on the 9th of February 1981. As he was growing up he saw acting as a way to being away from home where his parents were seperating. He acted in a stage play of A Streetcar Named Desire and discovered. He started appearing in TV Shows like The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001), Conspiracy (2001) and Armadillo. He also kept acting on stage and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His big breakthrough came when he starred as Loki in Thor. He has since been in movies like The Deep Blue Sea, Midnight in Paris, War Horse, The Avengers and Out of Time. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Sean Penn

Overview of the roles and movies of actor Sean Penn

Sean Penn was born in Los Angeles County on August 17, 1960. As he was growing up he lived close to Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen and he made short films together with them. His first acting appearance was in 1974, in an episode of Little House of the prairie (which his father directed). His first movie was Taps in 1981, his next movie was Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which made the term “dude” popular. He has since acted in a lot of movies including At Close Range, Colors, We’re No Angels, State of Grace, Carlito’s Way, Dead Man Walking, The Game, The Thin Red Line, I Am Sam, Mystic River, 21 Grams, The Assasination of Richard Nixon, The Tree of Life and Gangster Squad. Sean Penn was nominated for an Oscar a total of 5 times and won 2 for his roles in Mystic River and Milk. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… James Gandolfini

Overview of the career and movies of actor James Gandolfini

This morning I was shocked when I read the news that James Gandolfini had died at the age of 51. I always enjoyed watching his work. The Sopranos is one of my favorite TV shows ever and he had many roles I really loved (The Mexican, In the Loop and Killing Them Softly immediately jump to mind).

James Gandolfini was born on September 18, 1961 in Westwood, New Jersey. He grew up in Park Ridge in an Italian speaking home. In 1979 he graduated from Park Ridge High School where he was in school plays. He went to Rutgers University and got a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication studies. He started pursuing an acting career and his first movie was in Shock! Shock! Shock! as an orderly in 1987. He appeared in movies like True Romance, Terminal Velocity, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty and The Juror before he became a star when he starred in the TV series The Sopranos as Tony Soprano. The show would run for 6 seasons and received a lot of awards, including Screen Actors Guild Awards for Gandolfini. After the show ended he acted in various movies. He died on June 19, 2013 while visiting Italy. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Gwynneth Paltrow

Overview of the roles of actress Gwyneth Paltrow pictures

Gwyneth Paltrow was born on September 27, 1972 in Los Angeles. Her parents worked in acting/movie industry. She studied anthropology at the University of California but dropped out to pursue her acting career. She regularly saw her mother perform and in 1989 she appeared on TV in High. Her first movie role was in Shout (1991). She appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Hook and played the wife of Brad Pitt’s character in Se7en. She appeared in movies like Sliding Doors, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the Iron man movies and Shakespeare in Love, for which she received an Oscar. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Mila Kunis

Overview of the roles and movies of actress Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis was born on born August 14, 1983 in Chernivtsi in Ukraine. She grew up there until her family moved to Los Angeles when she was seven. One of the reason of the movie was antisemitism (Kunis is Jewish). She went to Rosewood Elementary School, not able to talk a word of English, which made it very hard for her. When she was nine her father brought her to acting classes after school. She first did some commercials (for Barbie and Lisa Frank). Her first television apperance was on Days of Our Lives. She also appeared in Baywatch and 7th Heaven. In 1998 Kunis got a role in That ’70s Show, which ran for eight seasons. She also did voice work on Family Guy. She has since appeared in several movies including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Max Payne, The Book of Eli, Date Night, Black Swan, Friends with Benefits, Ted and Oz the Great and Powerful. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Jack Nicholson

Overview in pictures of the roles and movies of actor Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937 in New Jersey. Growing up he always thought that his grandparents actually were his parents and that his mother were his sister. He found the truth after they had died. In high school he was the class clown and always got in trouble, one year resulting in him having to visit detention every day. When he moved to Hollywood he worked as a gopher at MGM animation studios and was offered a job as an animator, which he refused to pursue acting. His first movie appearance was in The Cry Baby Killer in 1958. He worked with Roger Corman and in a documentary about Corman he thanked him for giving him his career. His career in front of the camera first didn’t seem to pan out and he wrote screenplays. He got his big break when he appeared in Easy Rider. He has since starred in a big number of movies including The Shining, The Departed, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Batman, A Few Good Men, About Schmidt, Anger Management and The Bucket List. He has won 3 Oscars. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Marlon Brando

Overview of the roles of Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was born on the 3rd of April 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. While growing up his mother tried to get him interested in stage acting. He regularly started mimicking the mannerisms of people around him. He was expelled from a school for riding his motorcycle through the hallways and ended up in a military school where he showed great talent on stage. He also got into trouble on that school and although he was almost voted out of it, he decided himself to drop out. He worked several jobs and decided to join the army. After examination the army found he had troubles with his knee and would not take him. Brando then headed to New York and attended the American Theatre Wing Professional School and the Actors Studio. After this he was in several plays on Broadway. His first movie role was in 1950’s The Men and also acted in A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Superman and many others (over 40 movies to his name). He is considered one of the greatest actors of the past century and was nominated for an Oscar 8 times. He won 2 of them for his roles in The Godfather and On the Waterfront. He died age 80 on July 1, 2004. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Carey Mulligan

Overview of the roles of Carey Mulligan

Carey Mulligan was born on the 28th of May 1985 in London, England. She lived in Germany from age 3 to 8. Her interest in acting began at six when she saw her brother perform in a school play. In her teens she was busy with theatre and was the student head of the drama department at woldingham School. Her ambition to act kept growing, despite her parents not being a fan of it. She secretly tried to get into drama schools, but was denied. It was actor Julian Fellowes who invited her to a dinner with aspiring actors where she met a casting agent who gave her a role in Pride and Prejudice. She still kept appearing in plays, but also was in several TV shows including Bleak House, Waking the Dead, Trial & Retribution, Doctor Who and Agatha Christie Marple: The Sittaford Mystery. Since 2009 she has been doing more movies. Some of these are An Education, Public Enemies, Brothers, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Never Let Me Go, Drive, Shme and The Great Gatsby. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… James Franco

Overview in pictures of the roles and movies of actor James Franco

James Franco was born on April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California. He went to Palo Alto High School and appeared in several plays. During high school he got into trouble with the law for various things like graffiti and shoplifting and briefly was a ward of the state, looking at juvenile hall. He managed to change and went to university in California where he majored in English. He decided to drop out after his freshman year to pursue an acting career. He took lessons with Robert Cearnegie at the Playhouse West. His first appearance on a screen was in a Pizza Hut commercial, but he soon acted in several TV shows like Pacific Blue, 1973, To Serve and Protect and Freaks and Geeks. His first movie role was in Never Been Kissed and played James Dean in the James Dean TV movie for which he got nominations for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. His next role would introduce him to a world wide audience, playing Harry Osborn in Spider-Man. Looking at his filmography you can say he is a very hard working actor, acting since 1997, with 84 titles to his name. These include City by the Sea, Tristan + Isolde, Flyboys, Pineapple Express, Milk, Eat Pray Love, 127 Hours, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Spring Breakers and Oz the Great and Powerful. Continue reading →