Category: Profiles

Some longtime great actors and actresses go out in a blaze of glory with an Oscar nomination or even a win for their last great performance. Two-time Oscar winner Spencer Tracy gave four unforgettable last hurrah performances beginning with one in a film called The Last Hurrah in 1958, followed by Inherit the Wind in…

Some longtime actors and actresses seem to be nominated for an Oscar every time they take a role in a high caliber film.  Some are nominated just once or twice in their long careers.  Still others fail to be nominated at all, no matter how hard they try. Everyone knows that such legends as Lon…

Born June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, the youngest of four children of a waitress mother and civil engineer father, John Christopher (Johnny) Depp II frequently moved with his family, settling in Miramar, Florida.  His parents divorced when he was 15, his mother later marrying Robert Palmer, who young Depp considered an inspiration. Depp’s mother…

Born February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, N.Y., (Robert) Jonathan Demme was the son of Robert Demme, a public relations manager and his wife, Dorothy.  The family later moved to Florida, where he was educated, graduating from Southwest Miami High School and the University of Florida. Demme had an early job as a film critic for…

Born July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois to a radio actress and an actor turned advertising executive, Harrison Ford was a lackluster student with no athletic ability who never averaged more than a C grade.  After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin where he did some acting and later summer stock, he signed a…

Born February 5, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, Michael Mann studied English literature at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, graduating with a B.A. in 1965.  Having fallen in love with the movies thanks to a screening of Dr. Strangelove, the fledgling filmmaker then moved to London where he earned an M.A. from the London Film…

Born October 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to a contracting company founder and CEO and his wife, Emma Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix where she made her debut in a production of The Wind in the Willows.  She appeared in many of their productions…

Born August 12, 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Warren Low was an American silent screen actor before he became a film editor. Low began as editor at Warner Brothers, first as an assistant editor beginning in 1930.  Among the film on which he worked as assistant editor without credit were 1934’s British Agent and 1935’s A…

Born November 23, 1965 in Mexico City, Mexico, Rodrigo Prieto’s grandfather (Jorge Prieto Laurens) was the mayor of Mexico City and leader of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico who was later persecuted by the country’s ruler because of political differences. The grandfather escaped with his family to Texas and then to Los Angeles where…

Born in May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, Katharine (Houghton) Hepburn was the daughter of a prominent Connecticut doctor and a noted suffragette.  The liberally raised    tomboy attended Bryn Mawr College where she decided to become an actress, appearing in many of their productions. Hepburn had a brief stage career before breaking through in the…