Category: Profiles

Born October 5, 1975 in Reading, Berskshire, England, Kate Elizabeth Winslet was one of four children of a barmaid and a swimming pool contractor, both of whom were part-time actors. Actor Robert Bridges was her mother’s brother. Winslet made her acting debut in a TV commercial at the age of 2, and as a teenager…

Born February 12, 1923 in Florence, Italy, Franco Zeffirelli was the product of an affair between a fashion designer and a wool and silk dealer, both of whom were married to others. Unable to give her child either name, his mother came up with “Zeffiretti”, the little breezes mentioned in Mozart’s opera, Indomeneo. However, the name…

Born August 8, 1937 to Lillian and Harry Hoffman, a prop supervisor at Columbia, Dustin Hoffman had originally wanted to be a concert pianist but turned to acting instead, making his stage debut at the Pasadena Playhouse opposite Gene Hackman in the late 1950s. He and Hackman moved to New York in pursuit of Broadway…

Born January 5, 1931, in San Diego, California, Robert Duvall was the son of an amateur actress and a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. His lineage traces back to early Maryland. His father expected him to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but he chose to act instead. Studying at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse while working…

Born Kathleen Doyle Bates in Memphis, Tennessee on June 28, 1948, the third child of a mechanical engineer and a homemaker, Kathy Bates’ paternal grandfather was writer Finis Bates. A great-great grandfather was Andrew Jackson’s physician in New Orleans. Majoring in theatre at Southern Methodist University from which she graduated in 1969, Bates immediately moved…

Born June 26, 1970 in Los Angeles, California to Edwina and Ernie Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson’s father was a radio and TV personality, horror host and announcer and one of the first owners of a VCR with a vast collection of classic films for his son to cut his teeth on. Young Anderson began shooting…

Born July 29, 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, William (Horatio) Powell was the only child of Nettie and Horatio Powell. He moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri in 1907 where he graduated from Central High School in 1911. He then moved to New York where he entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in…

Born July 22, 1938 in London, England, Terence Stamp was the eldest of five children of Ethel and Thomas Stamp, a tugboat stoker. With his father away for long periods of time with the Merchant Navy, he was raised mostly by his mother, grandmother, and aunts. His family endured heavy bombing during the World War…

Born November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, Ethan Hawke has been actor since the age of 13. He is a great-grandnephew of Tennessee Williams on his father’s side. His maternal grandfather, Howard Lemuel Green, served five terms in the Texas Legislature and was a minor-league baseball commissioner. Hawke made his stage debut in a school…