Favorite 'Van' or 'Von'
'Van' is a common preposition found in many Dutch family names, while 'Von' is its counterpart in the German language.
Which actor/actress with the preposition 'Van' or 'Von' in his or her last name is your favorite?
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Which actor/actress with the preposition 'Van' or 'Von' in his or her last name is your favorite?
Discuss the list here
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- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
One of Europe's most celebrated actresses, Carice van Houten is perhaps best known as 'Melisandre' in the iconic TV show Game of Thrones, a performance for which she has been recognized with an Emmy Award nomination in 2019. Other projects include Paul Verhoeven's award-winning Black Book and Bryan Singer's Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise and as Melisandre on Game of Thrones. Recent projects include Instinct and Temple, a TV show for Sky opposite Mark Strong, which has been picked up for a second season.
Her Dutch-language feature Love Life, gained her further critical acclaim and broke box office records in her native Holland. Her next film Happy Housewive won her a record breaking 5th Golden Calf at The Netherlands Film Festival and was voted 'Best Dutch Actress of All Time' by the Dutch audience. Other awards include Best Actress for Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Performance award for Instinct at the Les Arcs Film Festival 2019.
Her credits include Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, the Jesse Owens biopic, Race, with Jason Sudekis and Jeremy Irons and voiced a character in The Simpsons. She can also be seen in Brian de Palma's Domino and in Brimstone, opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington, and The Glass Room, with Claes Bang. She played a leading role in Halina Reijn's directorial feature debut Instinct, opposite Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin), which won the Variety Piazza Grande Award in Locarno Film Festival 2019. Instinct is the first outing for the Carice and Halina's production banner, Man Up.
Up next is the new Dutch series Red Light, in which she not only plays the lead role but she is also creative producer of the show, together with Halina and their production company Man Up The show is expected to air in Autumn 2020.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.
When he was in high school, he and a few fellow students, including Yvonne Lombard, started a theatre club which encouraged his interest in acting. After conscription, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school (1948-1951), together with Lars Ekborg, Margaretha Krook and Ingrid Thulin. His first role was as Nils the crofter in Alf Sjöberg's Only a Mother (1949). After graduation, he worked at the city theatres in Norrköping and Malmö.
His work in the movies by Ingmar Bergman (especially The Seventh Seal (1957), including the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death) made him well-known internationally, and he started to get offers from abroad. His career abroad began with him playing Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Hawaii (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). Since then, his career includes very different kind of characters, like Karl Oskar Nilsson in The Emigrants (1971); Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist (1973); Joubert the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Never Say Never Again (1983); Liet-Kynes in Dune (1984) the artist Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination; Dr. Peter Ingham in Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in Minority Report (2002) and The Renter in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination.
He became one of Sweden's most admired and professional actors, and is the only male Swedish actor to receive an Oscar nomination. He was nominated twice: for Pelle the Conqueror (1987) in 1988 and for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) in 2012. He received the Guldbagge Award for Best Director in his directing debut, the drama film Ved vejen (1988). In 2016, he joined the sixth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011) as the Three-eyed Raven, which earned him his Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Max von Sydow died on March 8, 2020, in Provence, France, and was survived by his wife Catherine Brelet and four children. He was 90.- Actor
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Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. "The Muscles from Brussels" started martial arts at the age of eleven. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak. At the age of 12, Van Damme began his martial arts training at Centre National De Karate (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Master Claude Goetz in Ixelles, Belgium. Van Damme trained for 4 years and earned a spot on the Belgium Karate Team. He won the European professional karate association's middleweight championship as a teenager, and also beat the 2nd best karate fighter in the world. His goal was to be number one but got sidetracked when he left his hometown of Brussels. In 1976 at the age of sixteen, Jean-Claude started his Martial Arts fight career.
Over the next 6-years, he competed in both full-contact and semi-contact matches. He debuted under his birth name of Jean Claude Van Varenberg. In his first match, Jean-Claude was staggered by a round-house kick thrown by fellow countryman, Toon Van Oostrum in Brussels, Belgium. Van Damme was badly stunned, but came back to knockout Van Oostrum moments later. In 1977, at the WAKO Open International in Antwerp, Belgium, Jean-Claude lost a decision to fellow team mate Patrick Teugels in a semi-contact match. At the 1978 Challenge De Espoirs Karate Tournament (1st Trials),Jean-Claude placed 2nd in the semi-contact division. He defeated twenty-five opponents during the week long tournament, but lost in the finals to Angelo Spataro from the Naha Club. Later in 1978, Jean-Claude lost a 3-round match for the Belgium Lightweight Championship (semi-contact) to his fellow team-mate to Patrick Teugels.
In 1979, Jean-Claude traveled to the United States of America, to Tampa, Florida. In his first and only match against a United States opponent, Van Damme faced 'Sherman 'Big Train'Bergman', a kick-boxer from Miami Beach, Florida. For the first and only time in his career, Jean-Claude was knocked to the canvas after absorbing a powerful left hook from Bergman. However, Jean-Claude climbed off the canvas and with a perfectly timed ax-kick, knocked Bergman out in 56 seconds of the first round. Jean-Claude was a member of the Belgium team which competed on December 26, 1979 at the La Coupe Fancois Persoons Karate Tournament which was sanctioned by the Federation bruxelloise de Karate. Van Damme's final match victory enabled his team to win the European Team Karate Championship. In Full-Contact karate, Jean-Claude knocked out England's Micheal Heming in 46 seconds of the first round. In 1980, Van Damme knocked out France's Georges Verlugels in 2 rounds of a match fought under kick-boxing rules. Jean-Claude wanted to defeat his rival Patrick Teugels. At the Forest Nationals in Brussels, on March 8, 1980, Jean-Claude knocked Teugels down and Teugels suffered a nose injury and was unable to continue. Jean-Claude was awarded a first round victory.
Jean-Claude retired from martial arts in 1982, following a knockout over Nedjad Gharbi in Brussels,Belgium. Jean-Claude posted a 18-1 (18 knockouts) Kickboxing record, and a Semi-Contact record of 41-4. He came to Hong Kong at the age of 19 for the first time and felt insured to do action movies in Hong Kong. In 1981 Van Damme moved to Los Angeles. He took English classes while working as carpet layer, pizza delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a club. Norris gave Van Damme a small role in the movie Missing in Action (1984), but it wasn't good enough to get anybody's attention. Then in 1984 he got a role as a villain named Ivan in the low-budget movie No Retreat, No Surrender (1985). Then one day, while walking on the streets, Jean-Claude spotted a producer for Cannon Pictures, and showed some of his martial arts abilities which led to a role in Bloodsport (1988). But the movie, filmed in Hong Kong, was so bad when it was completed, it was shelved for almost two years. It might have never been released if Van Damme did not help them to recut the film and begged producers to release it. They finally released the film, first in Malaysia and France and then into the U.S. Shot on a meager 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a U.S box-office hit in the spring of 1988. It made about 30 million worldwide and audiences supported this film for its new sensational action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.
His martial arts assets, highlighted by his ability to deliver a kick to an opponent's head during a leaping 360-degree turn, and his good looks led to starring roles in higher budgeted movies like Cyborg (1989), Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992). In 1994, he scored with his big breakthrough $100 million worldwide hit Timecop (1994). But in the meantime, his personal life was coming apart. A divorce, followed by a new marriage, followed by another divorce. It began to show up in his career when his projects began to tank at the box office - The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997). The three films made less than $50 million combined. In 1999 he remarried his ex-wife Gladys Portugues and restarted his lost career to attain new goals. With help from his family he faced his problems and made movies like Replicant (2001), Derailed (2002), and In Hell (2003) which did averagely in box office terms, but he tried to give his fans the best, his acting in those movies got better, more emotional and each movie was basically in different action tones.- Carlotta von Falkenhayn was born in 2007. She is an actress, known for The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018), Dark (2017) and Yesterday We Were Still Children (2022).
- Actor
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One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia (Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr. His parents were of Dutch ancestry. Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and sub chasers during World War II. After the war he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr. Roberts". His performance was seen by Stanley Kramer, who cast him as henchman Jack Colby in High Noon (1952), a role that brought him great recognition despite the fact that he had no dialogue. For the next decade, he played a string of memorably villainous characters, primarily in westerns but also in crime dramas such as The Big Combo (1955). His hawk nose and steely, slit eyes seemed destined to keep him always in the realm of heavies, but in the mid 1960s Sergio Leone cast him as the tough but decent Col. Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More (1965). A new career as a western hero (or at least anti-hero) opened up, and Van Cleef became an international star, though in films of decreasing quality. In the 1980s, he moved easily into action and martial-arts movies and starred in The Master (1984), a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989 and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.- Stefanie von Pfetten, aka Stefanie Baroness Christina von Pfetten, is a Canadian film and television actress of German descent.
von Pfetten was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. After high school, she went to Vienna, Austria. Later, she studied Art history in Munich, Bavaria. For a small time, she worked for Sotheby's in Vienna. Back in Vancouver, Stefanie decided to became an actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as "Lilly" in the sci fi-horror film, Decoys (2004), and Captain Marcia "Showboat" Case in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (2004) series and a series lead as "Dr. Daniella Ridley" in CBC's Cracked (2013).
She coaches privately and studies with famed Hollywood acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. - Actor
- Producer
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Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother was entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. His ancestry includes English, Dutch, Scottish, German and Swiss-German. Although he had small roles beforehand, Van Dyke was launched to stardom in the musical "Bye-Bye Birdie" (1960), for which he won a Tony Award, and, then, later in the movie based on that play, Bye Bye Birdie (1963). He has starred in a number of films through the years including Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Fitzwilly (1967), as well as a number of successful television series which won him no less than four Emmy Awards and three made-for-CBS movies. After separating from his wife, Margie Willett, in the 1970s, Dick later became involved with Michelle Triola. Margie and Dick had four children born during the first ten years of their marriage: Barry Van Dyke, Carrie Beth Van Dyke, Christian Van Dyke and Stacy Van Dyke, all of whom are now in their sixties and seventies, and married themselves. He has seven grandchildren, including Shane Van Dyke, Carey Van Dyke, Wes Van Dyke and Taryn Van Dyke (Barry's children) and family members often appear with him on Diagnosis Murder (1993).- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
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Dita Von Teese was born on 28 September 1972 in Rochester, Michigan, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Death of Salvador Dali (2005) and Don't Worry Darling (2022). She was previously married to Marilyn Manson.- Actor
- Music Department
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Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, activist and author. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He is also known for his roles in several television drama series, including as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos (1999-2007) and as Frank Tagliano in Lilyhammer (2012-2014). Van Zandt has his own solo band called Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul, intermittently active since the 1980s. In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. Van Zandt has produced music, written songs, and had his own songs covered by Bruce Springsteen, Meat Loaf, Nancy Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Artists United Against Apartheid, and the Iron City Houserockers, among others.- Shantel Yvonne VanSanten is an American model and actress, born July 25, 1985. As a model, she has been featured in the magazines Teen Vogue and Seventeen. VanSanten was born in Luverne, Minnesota. She is of Dutch and one quarter Norwegian descent. VanSanten was raised in Spring, Texas where she attended Incarnate Word Academy (an all-girls college prep school) in Houston and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. VanSanten also started her career as a model at the age of fifteen for the Page Parkes Management.
- Possessing leading man good looks and undeniable charm, Erik von Detten has proven himself to be an actor of unquestionable talent. Having amassed an impressive resume of feature film and television credits running the gamut from comedy to drama, the young actor has had a lively career.
Erik was born in San Diego, California, to Susan (Farber), a photographer, and Volker von Detten. His father is a German immigrant and his American mother is of English and Russian Jewish descent. He was raised in Southern California in a family of three sisters, which was a far different experience from that of his Complete Savages (2004) character. At the age of nine, Erik accompanied his sister to an agent meeting and was signed on the spot. Soon after, he landed his first professional role, that of a series regular on NBC's Days of Our Lives (1965), which he considers his training ground. After a two-year stint on the show, von Detten continued to amass an impressive list of film and television credits throughout his teenage years.
Von Detten's television credits include series regular roles on ABC's half-hour comedy, Complete Savages (2004) (Produced by Mel Gibson), ABC's Dinotopia (2002), ABC's Odd Man Out (1999) and The Disney Channel's So Weird (1999). He has guest-starred on many popular television series, including ABC's 8 Simple Rules (2002) in which he played the roommate to David Spade's character; an Emmy Award-winning episode of NBC's ER (1994) where he played a kid trapped in a storm drain; and NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), in the role of a preppie murderer. He also appeared as a guest contestant on ABC's Episode #3.1 (2003).
His diverse telefilm credits include the lead role in the hit rollerblading movie, Brink! (1998), which was one of the first Disney Channel Original Movies; Replacing Dad (1999) with Mary McDonnell; a starring role opposite Robert Hays in The Family Channel's Christmas Every Day (1996); CBS' A Stranger to Love (1996) with Beau Bridges; the lead character of Danny in Disney's remake of Escape to Witch Mountain (1995) for ABC; CBS' A Season of Hope (1995) opposite JoBeth Williams; NBC's "In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped" with Dabney Coleman and Timothy Busfield; and the CBS drama In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness (1994), in which he played the young son to Keith Carradine's character.
Von Detten's feature credits include leading roles in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001) where he played the object of Anne Hathaway's affections; and Universal's Leave It to Beaver (1997) in which he played Wally Cleaver opposite Christopher McDonald and Janine Turner. He also lent his voice to Disney's and Pixar's highly successful Toy Story (1995) in which he played Sid, the next-door neighbor toy torturer. Additionally, he has voiced characters for Disney's animated feature Tarzan (1999) and the television series The Legend of Tarzan (2001), the animated television series Recess (1997) and the feature versions Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (2001) and Recess: School's Out (2001).
Aside from acting, von Detten's interests include classical piano, landscape photography and self-portraiture, and spending time on his classic 1969 sailboat which he bought at the age of twelve and has fully restored. During his free time, von Detten also enjoys hiking, surfing, tennis and rollerblading on the Venice Boardwalk with his Dalmation, Miles. He is also a Big Brother through the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program. - Victory Van Tuyl was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She is an actress, known for Bedeviled (2016), Castle (2009) and Marvin Marvin (2012).
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James David Van Der Beek was born on March 8, 1977 in Cheshire, Connecticut, as the oldest of three children of Melinda (Weber), a gymnastics studio owner and Broadway dancer, and Jim Van Der Beek, a cell phone company executive. He has a brother named Jared who was born in 1979, and a sister named Juliana who was born in 1981. James started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year on doctor's orders. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of "Grease." After that, the acting bug sank in and the next three years he spent time doing local theater. Around 16, he and his mother went to New York City to find an agent and possible auditions. A year later, he was cast in an off-Broadway play called "Finding the Sun." After doing another play called "Shenandoah" in 1994, James received an academic scholarship to Drew University in NJ, where he was working towards obtaining a major in English with a minor in sociology and also at that time he won the role of Rick Sanford in the movie Angus (1995). In 1996, he won a very small supporting role in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996) which starred Claire Danes. After that film his acting career was at a dead end and he decided to continue with his schooling and eventually made the Dean's list. The college experience soon became old for James, so he took some time off to travel and when he returned he auditioned for a role in Dawson's Creek (1998). He won the lead in the show, and his life changed forever. Though James has taken a hiatus from his college studies to shoot the series, he still plans to finish his degree. He has starred in several hit films over the past couple of years, like Varsity Blues (1999) andTexas Rangers (2001).- Actor
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Friedrich von Thun was born on 30 June 1942 in Kwassitz, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia [now Kvasice, Moravia, Czech Republic]. He is an actor and director, known for Schindler's List (1993), Cold Hell (2017) and Náhrdelník (1992).- Actress
- Director
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Willeke van Ammelrooy was born on 5 April 1944 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She is an actress and director, known for The Lake House (2006), Antonia's Line (1995) and 't Schaep Met De 5 Pooten (1969). She has been married to Marco Bakker since 20 November 1989.- Nick von Esmarch was born on 2 November 1976 in San Mateo, California, USA. He is an actor, known for JAG (1995), The Game (2006) and Nikki (2000).
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Emily Irene VanCamp (born May 12, 1986) is a Canadian actress, known for her lead roles on the WB series Everwood (2002), the ABC dramas Brothers & Sisters (2006) and Revenge (2011), and as Sharon Carter / Agent 13 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). VanCamp stars as the female lead in the Fox medical drama series The Resident (2018), which debuted in January 2018 as a midseason entry in the 2017-18 US television season. VanCamp was born in Port Perry, Ontario. She is the third of four daughters born to Cindy and Robert VanCamp. Her father is an animal nutritionist and her first job was working for her father, delivering food to clients in and around her hometown. VanCamp started studying dance at age three, and wanting to become a professional dancer, at the age of 11 convinced her parents to let her attend a summer training program in Montreal. At 12, she was accepted at the École supérieure de ballet du Québec, the training program of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and moved in with a local French Canadian family.
In 1998, VanCamp became interested in acting after visiting her sister Katie on the set of the film Ladies Room (1999). She started taking acting classes on Saturday afternoons, found an agent and, after working on a few commercials, was cast in the second part of the three-part season-seven premiere of the Canadian children's horror anthology television series Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990)Her character was present in one scene and spoke no dialogue, playing opposite a 17-year-old Elisha Cuthbert.- Actor
- Producer
Drew Van Acker was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but grew up in Medford, New Jersey. He began acting in high school drama classes, where he also played multiple sports. His abilities led him to a scholarship at Towson University in Maryland. While attending Towson, Drew took a number of theater courses in order to refocus on acting. He then made the decision to move to New York City, followed by a move to Los Angeles.- Actress
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Her father was a Prussian count (Count von Lehndorff-Steinort) who was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 and hanged that year, when Vera was three. Her mother was arrested, and Vera and her sisters spent the rest of the war in Gestapo camps. They were reunited with their mother after the war, but the family was destitute, and ostracised by other Germans for their father's treachery. She ended up studying textile design in Florence, where a fashion designer first asked her to model. She had first travelled to New York in 1961 as plain old Vera, but failed to secure a single booking. After retreating to Milan for a spell, she returned to take Manhattan under her new name.... Veruschka!- Actor
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Casper Van Dien's breakthrough role was as the lead in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi film Starship Troopers (1997). Still one of the most talked about films of 1997 that has one of the largest cult followings in film history. He was also in Tim Burton's critically acclaimed film Sleepy Hollow (1999), as Brom Van Brunt. He was the 20th Tarzan and the only one to ever film in Africa and ride an African elephant in the Warner Bros. film Tarzan and the Lost City (1998).
Other film credits include The Pact (2012), which was well received at Sundance. Casper played a down and out alcoholic detective opposite Caity Lotz. A Post Apocalyptic survivor in Beyond The Wave (2015) shot entirely in China. Starring opposite Sean Maher as part of a two man crew on a mission to the end of the universe in the much anticipated independent film ISRA 88 (2016) .
Television credits include "Monk" (2008) Playing a Navy Doctor for the season finale, and "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1994).
Casper has tackled the web recently playing Johnny Cage in the insanely popular Machinima web-series "Mortal Kombat Legacy" seasons 2 and 3. He won best actor for his comedic chops in the series. He stars as "Hawk Guy" in the upcoming Avengers spoof "Interns of F.I.E.L.D." produced by Screen Junkies. You can also check him out as the hunky bartender in the popular series "Conman" starring Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. He played the perfect version of himself in the comedy series "Crunchtime".
His most recent victory has been behind the camera as a Director. He has directed three films in which he also starred in. His second film Patient Killer won best film and best director awards and was bought and aired on Lifetime.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Grace Van Patten was born on 21 November 1996 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Under the Silver Lake (2018), Mayday (2021) and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).- Actor
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Mario Van Peebles is a highly regarded director, actor, producer and writer. His directorial skills can be seen in the retelling of the epic mini-series "Roots" starring Forest Whitaker and Matthew Goode. Van Peebles has directed award-winning shows such as the recent hit "Empire" and "The Last Ship," as well as "Sons of Anarchy," "Lost," "Damages," and "Boss." As an actor Van Peebles has credits are as equally impressive.
An independent filmmaker to his core, Van Pebbles grew up watching Melvin Van Peebles, his maverick filmmaker father. A true master craftsman in his own right, Van Peebles is defined as a director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer; known for funding his own work.
His many talents can be seen in films like his directorial breakout hit "New Jack City," "Posse" and "Panther;" plus Michael Mann's Oscar® nominated "Ali," in which he received critical acclaim for his role as real life minister and human rights activist Malcom X; the multi-award-winning "Cotton Club" written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge;" and several projects with Ava DuVernay.
Throughout his career, Van Peebles has brought challenging, compelling material to the screen, including his hip hop coming-of-age film "We the Party," for which he wrote, directed and produced; his documentary short "Bring You're a Game;" and, of course, "Baadasssss!" This was Van Peebles' odyssey about the making of his father's groundbreaking film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and was one of Ebert and Roeper's ten best movies of the year for 2004.
As a director, Van Pebbles has affected unusually strong performances from his fellow actors. They often remark that he creates a collaborative climate where they feel free to do their best work. He believes his background as an actor helps him approach the actor's character development process internally. Conversely, he believes being a director has made him a more trusting, nuanced actor. Being able to do both is like creative crop rotation for Van Peebles. Not many directors get the privilege of being directed by other strong filmmakers. Acting for others is still "super exciting" to him.
In 1994, Hofstra University awarded Van Peebles an honorary doctorate of humane letters. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University, Van Peebles spent two years working at New York's Department of Environmental Protection before moving to Hollywood to try his hand at acting writing and directing.
In addition to directing and acting in features, Van Peebles is passionate about supporting education and eco-consciousness through media. With his reality show, Mario's Green House, he teamed up with his five children and his father to chronicle the Van Peebles family's often-humorous attempts to raise their eco-consciousness as they try to go green in Hollywood. Green "We never got to the full green, more like Olive green," jokes Van Peebles.- Actress
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Sand Van Roy was born on 16 October 1987 in Heerlen, Limburg, Netherlands. She is an actress and writer, known for Taxi 5 (2018), Genius (2017) and Indulgence (2019).- Actor
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Peter Van Norden was born on 16 December 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for The Accused (1988), Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) and The Stand (1994). He is married to Wendy Edith Van Norden.- Actress
- Editorial Department
Lynn is a Dutch-speaking Belgian actress, best known for her lead role in Hotel Beau Séjour (2016), for which she received the 2018 TV Drama Best Actress award at the Television Festival in Monte Carlo. While studying acting at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound in Brussels, Lynn showcased her talent in a number of shorts. Quickly thereafter, she emerged on the Belgian acting scene by securing roles (guest and recurring) in some of Belgium's best known television series. When Hotel Beau Séjour (2016) won the audience award at Paris' Séries Mania 2016, the press praised Lynn's natural and emotionally profound portrayal of lead character Kato. As of March 2017, the series streams worldwide on Netflix. Other prestigious roles quickly followed. She appears alongside Veerle Baetens in the internationally acclaimed hit series Tabula Rasa (2017), and in 2018, Lynn is the Belgian lead in the second season of the successful German-Danish-Belgian co-production The Team (2015). She will also appear in a number of future Belgian TV series such as De Dag (2018) and The Twelve (2019). Lynn's skills include motor cross, playing the guitar and horseback riding. Aside from Dutch, she speaks French and English and is studying Spanish. In 2017, Lynn was selected for the Subtitle Talent Network.