Category: Profiles

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…

Born June 4, 1907, the middle of seven children to a successful Connecticut lawyer and his wife, Rosalind Russell was named after the S.S. Rosalind, a ship on which her parents had a memorable cruise and not the Shakespeare character as is commonly thought. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan,…

Born August 17, 1943 in New York, New York, Robert De Niro Jr. is the only child of painters Virginia and Robert De Niro, Sr.  Although he has an Italian name and is, along with Al Pacino, the screen’s most prolific of actors playing Italian-American men, De Niro is only 25% Italian, his father having…

Born February 10, 1961in Omaha, Nebraska, Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos, known professionally as Alexander Payne, is the son of the owners of Omaha’s legendary Virginia Café, a popular restaurant founded by his paternal grandfather.  He is the youngest of three brothers. Payne was educated at the prestigious Brownell-Talbot Elementary School, Lewis and Clark Junior High, Creighton…

Born July 21, 1926 in Toronto, Canada, to convenience store and post office manager Percy Jewison and his wife, Dorothy, Norman Jewison displayed an aptitude for performing at an early age. After serving in the Canadian Navy during World War II, Jewison travelled to the American South where he encountered segregation, an experience that would…