Perfect match - Actor and character (s)
When the actor marries the character, fully. Magic happens
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Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester, and worked on education for the Nigerian government. His grandparents were missionaries. His siblings Katie Firth and Jonathan Firth are also actors.
Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime. Three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries and he spent his early childhood in Nigeria, returning to England at age five where he entered a comprehensive school in Winchester. He spent two years at the Drama Centre, then in Chalk Farm, where he was "discovered" whist playing "Hamlet" during his final term. His first professional role was as "Bennet" in the West End production of "Another Country". From this performance, he was chosen to play the character of "Judd" in the movie of the play. He went on to play a variety of character parts in both film and television. For his portrayal of "Robert Lawrence" in the 1989 TV production Tumbledown (1988), he received the Royal Television Society Best Actor award and also a BAFTA nomination. He also received a BAFTA nomination for "Mr. Darcy" in the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice (1995). In 2011, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his commanding leading role, playing British King George VI in The King's Speech (2010).His creations in "Tumbledown","Apartment Zero", "A Single Man" and "The King's Speech" are extraordinary- Actor
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Film and stage actor and theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Fairport to Marilyn (Loucks), a lawyer and judge, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a Xerox employee, and was mostly of German, Irish, English and Dutch ancestry. After becoming involved in high school theatrics, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989.
He made his feature film debut in the indie production Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991) as Phil Hoffman, and his first role in a major release came the next year in My New Gun (1992). While he had supporting roles in some other major productions like Scent of a Woman (1992) and Twister (1996), his breakthrough role came in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997).
He quickly became an icon of indie cinema, establishing a reputation as one of the screen's finest actors, in a variety of supporting and second leads in indie and major features, including Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), Flawless (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999), Almost Famous (2000) and State and Main (2000). He also appeared in supporting roles in such mainstream, big-budget features as Red Dragon (2002), Cold Mountain (2003) and Mission: Impossible III (2006).
Hoffman was also quite active on the stage. On Broadway, he has earned two Tony nominations, as Best Actor (Play) in 2000 for a revival of Sam Shepard's "True West" and as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) in 2003 for a revival of Eugene O'Neill (I)'s "Long Day's Journey into Night". His other acting credits in the New York theater include "The Seagull" (directed by Mike Nichols for The New York Shakespeare Festival), "Defying Gravity", "The Merchant of Venice" (directed by Peter Sellars), "Shopping and F*@%ing" and "The Author's Voice" (Drama Desk nomination).
He was the Co-Artistic Director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York, for which he directed "Our Lady of 121st Street" by Stephen Adly Guirgis. He also directed "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Jesus Hopped the A Train" by Guirgis for LAByrinth, and "The Glory of Living" by Rebecca Gilman at the Manhattan Class Company.
Hoffman consolidated his reputation as one of the finest actors under the age of 40 with his turn in the title role of Capote (2005), for which he won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award as Best Actor. In 2006, he was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for the same role.
On February 2, 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in an apartment in Greenwich village, New York. Investigators found Hoffman with a syringe in his arm and two open envelopes of heroin next to him. Mr. Hoffman was long known to struggle with addiction. In 2006, he said in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he had given up drugs and alcohol many years earlier, when he was age 22. In 2013, he checked into a rehabilitation program for about 10 days after a reliance on prescription pills resulted in his briefly turning again to heroin.His "Capote" is eerily perfect.- Actor
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James Mason was born in Huddersfield and had a film career spanning over 50 years during which he appeared in over 100 films in England and America but never won an Oscar. Whatever role he played, from the wounded Belfast gunman in Odd Man Out to Rommel in The Desert Fox, his creamy velvet voice gave him away. Like Charlie Chaplin James left the screen to spend his later life living in Switzerland. His first marriage had been to Pamela Kellino, a Yorkshire mill owner's daughter and his second to Australian actress Clarissa Kaye.His portrayal in Kubrick's "Lolita" is unsurpassed- Actor
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Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life, so Malcolm was packed off to boarding school at age 11. He attended the Tonbridge School and the Cannock House School in Eltham, Kent. At school, he was beaten with the slipper or cane every Monday for his wayward behavior. Whilst at school, he decided that he wanted to become an actor; it was also around this time that his love for race cars began. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) to study acting. Meanwhile, he worked at his parents' pub but lost his job when the pub went bankrupt, his father drinking all the profits. He then had a variety of jobs, from coffee salesman to messenger.
His first big-screen role was in Poor Cow (1967), although his two-minute scene was ultimately cut from the completed film. Soon after, he caught the attention of director Lindsay Anderson who cast him in the role of a rebellious student in his film If.... (1968). The film catapulted Malcolm to stardom in Britain but failed everywhere else. He was so enthusiastic about the film's success that he wanted to do another right away. He began writing what would become the semi-autobiographical O Lucky Man! (1973). Then he starred as Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971), a role that gave him world fame, and legendary status (although typecasting him as a in villainous roles). In early 1976, he spent nearly a year working on what would later be one of the most infamous films of all time, the semi-pornographic Caligula (1979), financed by Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione. Around that time, the British film industry collapsed, forcing him to flee to America to continue working. His first American film was Time After Time (1979). He then did Britannia Hospital (1982), the last part of Lindsay Anderson's working-class trilogy that started with If.... (1968).
In the mid-1980s, the years of alcohol and drug abuse, including $1000 a week on cocaine, caught up with him. Years of abuse took its toll on him; his black hairs were now gray. Looking older than he really was, nobody wanted to cast him for playing younger roles. The big roles having dried up, he did many B-rated movies. The 1990s were kinder to him, though. In 1994, he was cast as Dr. Tolian Soran, the man who killed Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was back on the track, playing villains again. He played another in the classic BBC miniseries Our Friends in the North (1996). Today, with more than 100 films under his belt, he is one of the greatest actors in America. He still does not have American citizenship, but he likes the no-nonsense American ways. He resides in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles, California.Look at him in "If..." and tell me if it's not almost a miracle. Also "O Lucky Man" and "A Clockwork Orange"- Actor
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Since his screen debut as a young Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Viggo Mortensen's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.
Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother was American, and his maternal grandfather was Canadian. His parents met in Norway. They wed and moved to New York, where Viggo, Jr. was born, before moving to South America, where Viggo, Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to the St. Paul's boarding school, in the Córdoba Sierras, in Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York.
Viggo attended Watertown High School, and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. In 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither. In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and tending bar and began taking acting classes, studying with Warren Robertson. He appeared in several plays and movies, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where his performance in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award.
He made his film debut with a small part in Witness (1985). He appeared in Salvation! (1987) and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka. The two had a son, Henry Mortensen. But after nearly eleven years of marriage, the couple divorced.
In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he did not know anything about: "The Lord of the Rings." At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of "The Lord of the Rings" made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.
Critics have continually recognized his work in over thirty movies, including such diverse projects as Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993), Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997), Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (1995), Andrew Davis's A Perfect Murder (1998), Ray Loriga's My Brother's Gun (1997), Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon (1999), and Peter Farrelly's Green Book (2018).
Mortensen is also an accomplished poet, photographer and painter.His work in "Eastern Promises" and "A History Of Violence" is quite simply, superb- Actor
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Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.Can you imagine somebody better as Norman Bates in "Psycho"?- Actor
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Alan Bates decided to be an actor at age 11. After grammar school in Derbyshire, he earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Following two years in the Royal Air Force, he joined the new English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. His West End debut in 1956, at 22, was also the company's first production. In the same year Bates appeared in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," a play that gave a name to a generation of postwar "angry young men." It made Bates a star and launched a lifetime of his performing in works written by great modern playwrights -- Harold Pinter, Simon Gray, Storey, Bennett, Peter Shaffer and Tom Stoppard (as well as such classic playwrights as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and William Shakespeare). Four years later Bates appeared in his first film, a classic: The Entertainer (1960), in which he plays one of Laurence Olivier's sons. More than 50 film roles have followed, one of which, The Fixer (1968) (from a novel by Bernard Malamud) earned an Academy Award nomination for Bates. He married Victoria Ward in 1970. Their twin sons, Benedick and Tristan, were born in 1971. Tristan died during an asthma attack in 1990; Ward died in 1992. Bates threw himself into his work to get through these tragedies, and spoke movingly about the effects of his losses in interviews. He was the Patron of the Actors Centre in Covent Garden, London; Bates and his family endowed a theatre there in memory of Tristan Bates, who, like his father and brother, was an actor. With few exceptions, Bates performed in premium works, guided by intuition rather than by box office. For each role he created a three-dimensional, unique person; there is no stereotypical Alan Bates character. Women appreciate the sensitivity he brought to his romantic roles; gay fans appreciate his well-rounded, unstereotyped gay characters; and the intelligence, humor and detail - the smile that started in the eyes, the extra pat or squeeze, the subtle nuances he gave to his lines, his beautiful, flexible voice - are Bates hallmarks that made him special to all his admirers. The rumpled charm of his youth weathered into a softer but still attractive (and still rumpled) maturity. In his 60s Alan Bates continued to divide his time among films, theatre and television. His 1997 stage portrayal of a travel writer facing life's big questions at the bedside of his comatose wife in Simon Gray's "Life Support" was called "a magnificent performance, one of the finest of his career" (Charles Spencer, Sunday Telegraph, 10 August 97). His last two roles in New York earned critical praise and all the Best Actor awards Broadway can bestow. He was knighted in January 2003, and only a few weeks later began treatment for pancreatic cancer. He was positive that he would beat the disease, and continued to work during its course, only admitting to being "a bit tired." His courage and strength were remarkable, and even in his final days his humor remained intact. After his death, there was an outpouring of affection and respect. As Ken Russell said in his Evening Standard tribute, "The airwaves have been heavy with unstinted praise for Alan Bates since his untimely death . . . All the tributes were more than justified for one of the great actors ever to grace the screen and stage.""Women in Love" "Some Kind Of Loving" "Georgy Girl" all, acting masterclasses.- Actor
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Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.Astonishing in "The Private Life Of Henry VIII", "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", "Witness For The Prosecution"- Actor
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The son of the renowned French sculptor Paul Belmondo, he studied at Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD); after the minor stage performances he made his screen debut in À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957) but the episodes with his participation were cut before release. However, the breakthrough role in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960) made him one of the key figures in the French New Wave. Since mid-60s he completely switched to commercial mainstream pictures and became a big comedy and action star in France. Following the example of Alain Delon he founded his own production company Cerito named after his grandmother's maiden name. In 1989 he was awarded Cesar for his performance in Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988) . Recently he returned to stage performing in the Théâtre Marigny, Paris, notably as Edmund Kean or Cyrano de Bergerac. He still appears in the movies but not so often as before preferring mostly dramatic roles. The president of France distinguished him with order of Legion of Honour. Belmondo had three children with his first spouse Elodie Constant: Patricia Belmondo ( who died in a fire in 1993), Florence Belmondo and Paul Belmondo. In 2003, he had another daughter, Stella Belmondo, with his second spouse Natty Belmondo. None of his children became actors though you could have seen his son Paul in an episodic role (the same as his father, at an earlier age) in Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988).A revolution in "Breathless"- Actor
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From a talented acting generation of four brothers, Timothy Bottoms was the closest to achieving out-and-out super-stardom in the 1970s. The eldest of four siblings, he was followed in birth by Joseph Bottoms, Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms.
All four boys were born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, with Timothy James birth date being August 30, 1951. As the children of James "Bud" Bottoms, a sculptor and high school art teacher, and his wife Betty, artistic expression was certainly encouraged in this family and Timothy expressed an avid interest, even during his preschool years, of wanting to perform. He was a local member of the Youth Theater Productions at school and in 1967 toured Europe along with the Santa Barbara Madrigal Society, which sealed his aspirations.
Following high school, Timothy was spotted by Universal in a stage production of "Romeo and Juliet" and chosen (with no prior film experience) for a lead part in director Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (1971). As Joe, a young American soldier who is shelled and left armless and legless on the last day of World War I, Timothy received excellent reviews and earned a Golden Globe nomination as "Most Promising Newcomer." His next starring role propelled him into the top leagues. Cast as aimless Texas-boy "Sonny," the sensitive, mournful-eyed, youthful focus of Peter Bogdanovich's downbeat Oscar winner The Last Picture Show (1971), the film went on to make full-fledged stars not only of Timothy, but of Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd. Younger brother Sam, who frequently visited the set, wound up touchingly cast as simple, naive, ill-fated character.
The early 1970s was a time of great personal accomplishments for Timothy in film. Engagingly maladroit and looking slightly uncomfortable in his own skin, he proved that his first reviews were no flukes. He appeared to great advantage in the touching drama Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973) opposite British acting doyenne Maggie Smith and as the tousle-haired college protagonist in the coming-of-age box-office hit The Paper Chase (1973). In an effort to break free of his sensitive prototype, he delved into stranger, darker characters with The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) and Rollercoaster (1977). These efforts were less successful, however, and he quickly began to discover his film career slipping away at the early age of 26.
Outgrowing his awkward adorableness, he shifted to the smaller screen in order to secure challenging roles, such as the biblical lead in The Story of David (1976); his ex-convict in A Small Town in Texas (1976); his bank teller in Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976); his fatally-stricken track runner in A Shining Season (1979), and the Raymond Massey role (in which he aged 30 years) in the ambitious mini-series East of Eden (1981), with brother Sam recreating the James Dean part.
Timothy's success certainly encouraged his younger siblings. By this time Joseph, Sam and Ben were were all experiencing significant lifts in their own respective careers. As a group, the four brothers hooked up together for the TV movie Island Sons (1987), in which they all played brothers and used their real first names. The movie was promoted as a pilot for an upcoming weekly series, but it failed to make the grade. While Timothy continued to work steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the quality of material he was given grew more standard. Roles in such films as Invaders from Mars (1986), The Drifter (1988) and the foreign-made Istanbul (1989) did little to reignite his earlier success. A sequel to his famous "The Last Picture Show", entitled Texasville (1990), could have had heads turning but the movie decided instead to focus instead on Jeff Bridges (who at this juncture was a big name star) while Timothy's character was given short shrift with what was essentially a cameo.
Into the millennium Timothy had a slight taste of his former glory while showing a keen talent for parody with his uncanny impersonation of president George W. Bush. Who would have thought? Bottoms' dead-on spoof on That's My Bush! (2001), courtesy of the creators of "South Park", led to a brief Bush cameo in the family film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002) and the much more serious TV-movie DC 9/11: Time of Crisis (2003). Interestingly, Timothy needed little in the way of prosthetics. He simply parted his hair differently, added a bit of a drawl and imitated his walk!
The still boyish-looking actor with that same trickle of sadness and discomfort has worked continuously for the past thirty years and appeared in over 65 films. Of late he has shined in small independent features such as with his dysfunctional father in writer/director Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003), which chronicled a Columbine High School-like massacre, and his closer-to-home portrayal as a middle-aged actor in search of his early fame in Paradise, Texas (2006).
Other millennium films include Shanghai Kiss (2007), Along the Way (2007), the remake of Jack London's Call of the Wild (2009), Pound of Flesh (2010), Realm of the Mole Men (2012) and the quirky romantic comedy 1 Nighter (2012) opposite the producer/writer/director of the film Jill Jaress. In addition, he has been frequently viewed in such comedic and dramatic TV movies as Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't (2005), Vampire Bats (2005), I Married Who? (2012), Sweet Surrender (2014) and How Not to Propose (2015), and made guest appearances on the popular series "The Governor's Wife," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and "The Bridge."
Timothy's marriage to folk singer Alicia Cory from 1975 to 1978, produced son Bartholomew. He has three other children (Benton, William, Bridget) with current wife (since 1984) Marcia Morehart. Bottoms divides his time between his acting work and his other great love of training wild horses at his two ranches near Big Sur, California. On the sly he has worked as a surveyor's assistant.
While brothers Joseph and Ben are lesser seen these days and finding satisfying lives outside the Hollywood realm, Sam pursued his own career until his death from brain cancer in 2008 at age 53. Their eldest brother continues to display his talents with more recent prime roles in such films as the dramedy Welcome to the Men's Group (2016), horror opus The Shed (2019) and the adventure thriller Tar (2020).Just look at him in "The Last Picture Show" and "Love and Pain And The Whole Damn Thing"