Category: Profiles
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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…
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Oscar Profile: James Whale Revisited
James Whale was born in Dudley, England, a poor mining town, in 1889. He learned to direct as a prisoner of war in a German prison camp during World War I. That experience led him to the London stage, Broadway and eventually a Hollywood contract with Universal, where he made most of his films. Although…
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Oscar Profile: Richard Burton Revisited
Born November 10, 1925 in Pontrhydyfen, Wales to Welsh speaking parents, Richard Walker Jenkins, Jr. was the twelfth of thirteen children. His mother died shortly after giving birth to his younger brother when Richard was just two years old. His father, a coal miner, soon abandoned the family and he was raised by his older…
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Oscar Profile: Julie Andrews Revisited
Born October 1, 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England as Julia Elizabeth Wells, the internationally acclaimed superstar known professionally as Julie Andrews took the last name of her stepfather (Ted Andrews) when her mother remarried in 1944. Andrews began performing at early age with her mother and stepfather who were both music hall performers. Just after…
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Oscar Profile: Ray Heindorf
Born August 25, 1908 in Haverstraw, New York, Ray(mond) John Heindorf worked as a pianist in a silent movie house in Mechanicville in his early teens. In 1928, he moved to New York City, where he landed a job as a musical arranger before moving to Hollywood in February 1929. Heindorf’s first job in Hollywood was as an orchestrator…