Tag Archives: The many faces of

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The Many Faces of… Brad Pitt

An overview of the many roles of Brad Pitt

It’s that time of the week again when I take a look at the many roles of one actor, this week with Brad Pitt. Pitt was born in 1963. As he grew up he was always very active as he participated in various sports. Once he graduated high school he went to the University of Missour in 1982. He majored in journalism and was interested in advertising. Something which also interested him was acting and he left the university two week before graduation to move to Los Angeles. He had his first roles in 1987 and appeared in shows like Dallas and Growing Pains and 21 Jump Street. His first leading role was in the movie The Dark Side of the Sun in 1988, which wasn’t released until almost 10 years later. His breakthrough came when he appeared in Thelma and Louise in 1991. From this moment his career took off. He has been nominated for an Oscar several times, but has not won it yet. 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… Al Pacino

An overview in pictures of the roles of actor Al Pacino in most of his movies

Pacino was born in 1940 and grew up in the Bronx. He dropped out of school at 17 and did a lot of small jobs to finance something he wanted to do, acting. He joined the Herbert Berghof Studio where he learned a lot from Charlie Laughton. With his experience there he applied to the Actors Studio and was admitted. He did some plays before making the jump to movies.

The first film he appeared in was Me, Natalie in 1969, with only a small role. He got noticed and his big breakthrough came when he played Michael Corleone in The Godfather (which was only his third movie role), which got him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He later received other Oscar nominations for his roles in Dick Tracy, …And Justice for All, Glengarry Glen Ross, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Scent of a Woman. It was for his role in the last movie he received the statue. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Leonardo DiCaprio

Overview of the roles Leonardo DiCaprio played

It’s Friday Faces time with this week’s star Leonardo DiCaprio. He was born in 1974 and started out doing commercials and moved on to TV shows, appearing in Parenthood, The New Lassie, Growing Pains and Roseanne. He made the step to movies in 1993’s Critters 3 and Robert De Niro (whose many faces you can check out here) picked him to star in This Boy’s Life. He received an Oscar nomination for his role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. His big breakthrough came when he was the lead in Titanic. He has worked with several well-known directors like Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan and Danny Boyle. Continue reading →

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The Many Faces of… Scarlett Johansson

Every week I take a look at the roles of a specific actor or actress. This week the choice is Scarlett Johansson. She was born in New York in 1984. Her father was an architect and her mother a producer (and film buff). Her grandfather was a director and screenwriter. Her first appearance was in the 1994 movie North when she was only nine years old. Thanks to her roles in movies like The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World people started noticing her and she started appearing in bigger movies. 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 →