Category: Profiles
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Oscar Profile: Diane Keaton
Born January 5, 1946 in Los Angeles, California to an amateur photographer mother and a civil engineer and real estate broker father, Diane Hall was the eldest of four children. After graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1963, she attended Santa Ana and Orange Coast colleges studying acting before moving to New York where…
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Oscar Profile: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Born July 10, 1977 in London, England to a Nigerian born doctor and his pharmacist wife, Chiwetel Ejiofor is the middle of three children. His older sister is a doctor, and his younger sister is a CNN correspondent. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his…
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Oscar Profile: Sydney Pollack
Born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, Sydney Pollack was the son of a former boxer turned pharmacist and his wife, an alcoholic who died when he was 16. Pollack moved to New York after graduating from high school in 1952 From 1952-1954 he studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse. He then served two years…
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Oscar Profile: Susan Hayward Revisited
Born Edythe Marrener, the daughter of a transportation worker, in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, N.Y. on June 30, 1917, the future Susan Hayward went to the movies a lot as a child to escape the boredom of her poor surroundings. A stunning beauty even as a child, she became a photographer’s model as a…
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Oscar Profile: Robert Redford Revisited
Born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California, (Charles) Robert Redford (Jr.) began his acting career in 1959. First on Broadway with a minor role in Tall Story, Redford had an uncredited role in the 1960 film version. His first major role was in the 1960 TV version of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards (Jr.) In numerous…
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Oscar Profile: Elia Kazan Revisited
Born in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, to Greek parents in 1909, Elia Kazan emigrated with his parents to America as a child. An actor before he became a director, he was a co-founder of the Group Theatre in 1932 and the founder of the Actor’s Studio in 1947. As an actor he was best known…
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Oscar Profile: Gregory Peck Revisited
Born April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, (Eldred) Gregory Peck was raised by his grandmother after his parents divorced when he was five. Sent to a Catholic military school by his father, after the death of his grandmother, he later enrolled as a pre-med student at U.C.-Berkeley but caught the acting bug. After graduation…
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Oscar Profile: Charles Laughton Revisited
Born July 1, 1899 in Yorkshire, England, young Charles Laughton followed his father into the hotel management business, but in his late twenties enrolled as a student in London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) where he excelled. Soon appearing on the London stage, he was the first actor to play Agatha Christie’s Hercule…
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Oscar Profile: Vittorio De Sica Revisited
Born July 7, 1901 in Lazio, Italy, Vittorio De Sica grew up in Sicily where his first job was as an office clerk in support of his poor family. Drawn to acting, he made his film debut as the title character as a boy in The Clemenceau Affair in 1917. He did not make another film for…
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Oscar Profile: Mike Nichols
Born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky November 6, 1931 to wealthy Russian-Jewish parents in Berlin, Germany, the future Mike Nichols lost his hair at the age of four due to a bad reaction to an allergic reaction to a Whooping Cough inoculation and wore wigs and false eyebrows in adulthood to hide his baldness. At the age…