Friday, October 2, 2015

Humphrey DeForest Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York on 25-12-1899. His mother Maud Humphrey was a famous magazine illustrator and suffragette and his father 
Belmont DeForest Bogart was a reasonably prosperous surgeon. He was educated at Trinity School, NYC and later was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in training for medical studies at Yale. He was disqualified from Phillips thereafter he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. He supervised a stage company owned by his family friend William A. Brady (father of actress Alice Brady) from 1920 to 1922 and performed a variety of responsibilities at Brady's film studio in New York. He then started regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he signed a contract with Fox and did his a ten-minute short film debut Broadway's Like That co-starring with Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. He performed for five years at stage and in minor film roles. In 1936, he played his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest from Warner Bros. The then star Leslie Howard threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit if Bogart was not given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had already played in the Broadway production with him; resultantly he was given the part over Edward G. Robinson. The film was a major hit and led to a durable contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, he appeared in 28 films, generally as a gangster, twice in Westerns and even a horror film. His milestone year was 1941 in which he played roles in classics including High Sierra (1941) and as Sam Spade in one of his most lovingly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (1941). After that he did Casablanca in 1942, The Big Sleep in 1946 and Key Largo in 1948. He, in spite of his inconsistent education, was amazingly well-read and favored writers and scholars within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he alongwith his wife Lauren Bacall and other actors joined protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee. He also created his own production company and made “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” in 1948. He won the best actor Academy Award for The African Queen in 1951 and was nominated for Casablanca and as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. He died on January 14, 1957 in his sleep at his Hollywood home situated in Los Angeles, California, United States following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer.
Laurence Kerr Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England on May 22, 1907. His parents were Agnes Louise and Gerard Kerr Olivier. In 1935, he played "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" with John Gielgud, which is known as one of his earliest successes as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage. A young Englishwoman just beginning of her career on the stage fell in love with his Romeo. In 1937, she was "Ophelia" to his "Hamlet" in a special performance at Kronberg Castle, Elsinore, Denmark. In 1940, she became his second wife after both returned from making films in America that were major box office hits of 1939. He performed in Wuthering Heights (1939) and her film was Gone with the Wind (1939). Vivien Leigh and Olivier both were screen lovers in the films Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days Together (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941). In 1944, he alongwith Leigh traveled to Scotland with Charles C. Bennett to research the real-life story of a Scottish girl accused of murdering her French lover, It was almost their fourth film together. Bennett recalled that Olivier researched the story "with all the thoroughness of Sherlock Holmes" and "we unearthed evidence, never known or produced at the trial, which would most certainly have sent the young lady to the gallows". The film was abandoned. They both appeared on the stage in England and America and made films whenever they really needed to make some money during their two decades. In 1951, he was working on a screen adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" while Leigh was completing work on the film version of the Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She won her second Oscar for bringing "Blanche DuBois" to the screen. He worked in film Carrie in 1952, which was never talked about by him. George Hurstwood, a middle-aged married man from Chicago who tricked a young woman into leaving a younger man about to marry her, became a New York street person in the novel. A PBS documentary on his career broadcast in 1987, covered his first sojourn in Hollywood in the early 1930s with his first wife, Jill Esmond and noted that her star was higher than his at that time. On film, he was appeared by his second wife, too, even though the list of films he made is four times as long as hers. More than half of his film credits come after The Entertainer (1960), which started out as a play in London in 1957. When the play moved across the Atlantic to Broadway in 1958, the role of Archie Rice's daughter was taken over by Joan Plowright, who was also in the film. They married soon after the release of The Entertainer (1960). In 1969, he appeared in two war films. He played Field Marshal French in the First World War film Oh! What a Lovely War, for which he won another BAFTA award and as Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding in Battle of Britain. After being ill for the last 22 years of his life, he died of renal failure on 11th July, 1989 at his home near Steyning, West Sussex.
Spencer Bonaventure
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born on April 5, 1900 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. He has a four years elder brother Carroll. His father John Edward was a truck salesman and his mother was Caroline Brown Tracy. He attended Marquette Academy alongwith Pat O'Brien and the both left school to join the Navy at the start of World War I. He was at Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia and remained there at the end of the war. He entered Ripon College in February 1921 and soon become a popular student. At Ripon College he performed well as male lead in "The Truth" and decided to become an actor. After graduation he moved to New York and joined a new stock company based in White Plains. In New York, he alongwith O'Brien attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923 they both got nonspeaking parts as robots in "R.U.R". In stock he did the jobs as bellhop, janitor and salesman. In 1926, he was offered a role in a new George M. Cohan's play called Yellow at Broadway. His next play, The Baby Cyclone was released in September, 1927 and proved to be a hit. John Ford saw his critically acclaimed performance in the lead role in The Last Mile in 1932 and signed him to Up the River for Fox. Despite performing in 16 films in Fox for the next 5 years, he could not achieve star status. In 1933, he appeared in The Power and the Glory, written by Preston Sturges. His performance as railroad tycoon Tom Garner received strong reviews. In 1935 he signed with MGM and his career flourished. His first film under the new contract was the The Murder Man. In 1936, his film Fury was released, which was a hit. He played the role of a man who swears revenge after narrowly escaping death by a lynch mob. The film and performance received excellent reviews. He became the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He was nominated for San Francisco (1936), Father of the Bride (1950), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). He had a brief romantic relationship with Loretta Young in the 1930s and a lifelong one with Katharine Hepburn in 1942. He divorced his wife Louise, though they lived apart. He suffered from severe alcoholism and diabetes, which unfortunately impacted his willingness to accept several tailor-made roles in films that would become big hits. Although his drinking habits were well known, he was considered one of the best actors in Hollywood among his peers and remained in demand. A few weeks after completion of Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967, he suffered from lung congestion and died of a heart attack.
James Maitland
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was born on 20th May, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S. His parents Elizabeth Ruth and Alexander Maitland Stewart were the owner of a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Scots-Irish and some English descent. He was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy. During school, he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing), and sometime actor. In 1929, he studied architecture with some success and also performed arts as a musician and actor with the University Players. After completion of graduation he made engagements with the University Players who took him around the northeastern United States, including a run on Broadway in 1932. In the begining work depressed him. In 1934, he followed his friend Henry Fonda to Hollywood, who helped him in acting and things began to pick up by him. He debuted his first screen appearance in Art Trouble in 1934. After that he worked for MGM as a contract player for some time and graduly got a name for himself by performing high-profile roles throughout the rest of the 1930s. His famous work including with Frank Capra in You Can't Take It With You in 1938, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939 and after World War II, It's a Wonderful Life in 1946, helped him to become a star. In October 1940, he was drafted into the U.S Army but was rejected due to height and weight requirements for new recruits. He joined the Army on March 22, 1941 and became the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II. He received his commission as a second lieutenant on January 19, 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The USAAF's First Motion Picture Unit shot scenes of Lieutenant Stewart in his pilot's flight jacket and recorded his voice for narration. The film Winning Your Wings appeared nationwide in late May and was very successful, resulting in 150,000 new recruits. He was promoted to captain on July 9, 1943 and appointed a squadron commander. He served against different staff positions in the 2nd and 20th Bomb Wings from July, 1944 to the end of the war in Europe and was promoted to full colonel on March 29, 1945. He was one of the few Americans to rise from private to colonel in four years. On July 23, 1959, he was promoted to Brigadier General. After 27 years of service, he retired from the Air Force on May 31,1968. He did several television movies in the 1980s, including Mr. Krueger's Christmas. Stewart was a supporter of the Republican Party and actively campaigned for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He continued to work into the 1990s and died at the age of 89 in 1997.
Henry Jaynes
Henry Jaynes "Hank" Fonda was an American actor. He was born on May 16, 1905 in Grand Island, Nebraska, U.S. He graduated from Omaha Central High School, Fonda and thereafter enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study journalism but could not complete it. He came back home in Nebraska and start spending time at the Omaha Community Playhouse and shared the stage with Marlon Brando's mother. By the late 1920s, he had made acting his profession. He moved to New England and joined the University Players Guild. He was cast alongside other young actors including James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. His first big breakthrough was Broadway production's "New Faces" released in 1934. After one year, he moved to Hollywood, where he spend nearly 50-year career in the movies. He made his screen debut in The Farmer Takes a Wife. After that he performed in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in 1936, The Moon's Our Own also in 1936, Wings of the Morning in 1937, You Only Live Once in 1937 and Jezebel in 1938. His role of Abraham Lincoln in the John Ford directed by Young Mr. Lincoln in 1939 was appreciated by critics. The next year he teamed up with Ford again in the 1940 film adaption of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. He played the role of farm worker Tom Joad and nominated for his first Oscar nomination. He became one of the Hollywood's biggest stars due to his talent playing the roles in movies such as The Lady Eve (1941), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), Twelve Angry Men (1957) and Fail Safe (1964). He did more than 80 films during his celebrated career. His final on-screen performance was 1981's the family tale On Golden Pond in which he was cast opposite his daughter Jane Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. The film was criticaly and commercialy success and he won his first Best Actor Oscar Award. He was married five times. He had three children Jane and Peter Fonda are also actors and a second daughter, Amy Fonda. He is also the grandfather of actress Bridget Fonda. At the time of his Oscar win, he was too ill to attend the award ceremony, so, his daughter Jane accepted the honor for him. He died on August 12, 1982 at his Los Angeles home.
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California, U.S. His parents divorced in 1960. He acted in school plays; including South Pacific, while studing in Skyline High School in Oakland, California. He studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward and after two year transferred to California State University, Sacramento. During studying theater, he met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio and became an intern at the festival on Dowling's suggestion. He covered most aspects of theater production including lighting, set design and stage management during his internship. He won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He moved to New York City in 1979, where he made his film debut in the film He Knows You're Alone released in 1980 and played a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters. He was cast in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Mandrake" in the lead role of Callimaco. He alongwith Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men. After that he moved to Los Angeles. The director Ron Howard cast him in a romantic comedy film Splash, which was released in 1984. Film become a box office hit, grossing more than US $69 million. In that year he also appeared in a hit sex comedy Bachelor Party. In 1992, he worked as baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own. He played a gay lawyer with AIDS in film Philadelphia. He won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia. In 1994, he worked in hit Forrest Gump which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. He won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump. He made his directing debut 1996 film That Thing You Do. In 1999, he appeared in an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his character of a marooned FedEx systems analyst in Robert Zemeckis's Cast Away. In 2001, he appeared opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the hit crime comedy Catch Me If You Can. The same year he with her wife produced the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In 2004, he appeared in three films: The Coen brothers' The Ladykillers, Spielberg film The Terminal and The Polar Express. In 2006, he appeared in the film The Da Vinci Code, based on the novel by Dan Brown. Film grossed over US$750 million worldwide. In 2013, he appeared in two films Captain Phillips and Saving Mr. Banks and won nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama for the former role. In March 2015, he appeared in the Carly Rae Jepsen music video for "I Really Like You".
Rachel Emily Nichols
Rachel Emily Nichols was born on January 8, 1980 in Augusta, Maine, U.S. Her mother has English, German, Scotch-Irish, Italian and Scottish descent. She attended Cony High School. She graduated in 1998 and enrolled at Columbia University in New York City. One day during lunch, an agent invited her to work in Paris. She worked in advertising campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Guess and L'Oreal. She also hosted several MTV specials. She had performed in commercials and a bit part as a model in the romantic drama film Autumn in New York. Her modeling agent helped her to get a one-episode role in the fourth season of Sex and the City in 2002. After that in 2003, she was cast in her first major film as Jessica, a dogged student newspaper reporter in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. In 2004, she played a member of a high school debate team in the independent film Debating Robert Lee and a two-episode role in the crime drama television series Line of Fire. Thereafter she was cast in supporting roles in the horror films "The Amityville Horror" and "The Woods". She played a small role in the 2005 romantic drama Shopgirl. She was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scream Scene and the MTV Movie Award for Best Frightened Performance. Her film The Woodswas was released directly to video in October, 2006. She played small part in the drama film Resurrecting the Champ and in the fact-based political drama Charlie Wilson's War in 2007. Sher performed her first starring role in the 2007 horror–thriller film "P2". She played a supporting role in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" in 2008. She was cast in Star Trek in November 2007, but due to the project's secrecy, she was unknown about her character in the film. In 2007, she was cast as Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara in the live-action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe franchise G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. She put on approximately 15 pounds of muscle for the role and trained in mixed martial arts with co-star Sienna Miller for some of the film's action sequences. After G.I. Joe, her next film was the horror film "For Sale by Owner" in which she performed as Anna Farrier. She appeared as Leslie Spencer in the independent crime drama film Meskada in the 2010. In the same year she was cast in the 3-D sword and sorcery film Conan the Barbarian. The film was a box office bomb. She appeared in the action film Alex Cross, which gained negative reviews.On December 30, 2013, she confirmed her engagement to Michael Kershaw, a real estate developer. They got married in September 2014.