And then there's...
Some are icons (Mr. T, Banksy, Ralph Bakshi, Evel Knievel), some are lovable and obscure (William Hung, Matty Cardarople) and some are just douchebags and losers (Jacob Chansley, Derek Savage, Billy Mitchell). The others... you can decide.
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Ninja was born on 26 September 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an actor and director, known for Chappie (2015), The Bad Batch (2016) and Blended (2014). He was previously married to ¥olandi Vi$$er.- Actor
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Ford Austin is an American stage and motion picture actor who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. He is a descendant of Stephen F. Austin. For much of the mid-1990s, Austin lived as an actor in Philadelphia & New York City making stage appearances in the Philadelphia premiere of The a Grapes of Wrath, the Homecoming, Death of a Salesman at The Papermill Playhouse (with Ralph Waite and Lisa Richards), Macbeth, Lawyers at Westport Country Playhouse (with Kevin Conway) and many more. While in New York, he appeared on television series like Another World and Saturday Night Live. In 2000, he made his feature film debut in the war film Pearl Harbor as one of the legendary Doolittle pilots under the direction of a Michael Bay. Austin gained wide recognition for playing Darwin in Vicky Jenson's Family Tree with Talia Shire and Harland Williams. The movie premiered at Sundance and won the jury prize at SXSW and became the darling of the film festival circuit before qualifying for the Academy Awards. Immediately following the films success, Austin landed a national tour of a one man show called MaleIntellect: An Oxymoron which he performed in for almost two years before returning to Hollywood to try his hand at writing & directing. At this time, he and a close friend Scott Ingalls wrote and directed the hilariously successful comedy series about The Wright Brothers called The Wright Stuff. The Wright Stuff premiered on Dan Harmon and Rib Schrab's Channel 101 network and ran for six months as a prime time show until it was canceled. After that, Austin wrote and directed another academy qualifier film called Tiny Dancer which he filmed on the backlot at Universal Studios. The motion picture featured a ballerina who uses her dancing to evade street punks. The dancing sequences were choreographed by Ballanchine dancer Zippora Karz and opened in theaters before becoming Austin's second Academy qualifying motion picture.
About thus time, Austin was tapped by Stephen Chao (COPS, Americas Most Wanted) and Mike Goedecke of a Belief Design firm to launch an internet company called WobderHowTo.com. Austin became one of the first five hires of the new company where he was made a share holder in the corporation, named Vice President of Original Production and wrote, produced and starred in over 300 pieces of content for the company. Two years later, Austin returned to directing motion pictures under his own shingle The Ford Austin Company. Austin directed over a dozen Low budget horror features including The Curse of Lizzie Borden, Attitude for Destruction and his cult horror comedy classic Dahmer vs Gacy which won many awards for the actor turned director and was released in the Laemmle theater chain.
On March 9th, 2011, while in production on seven feature motion pictures, Austin suffered a life changing car accident in Hollywood, California that brought everything to a halt. He spent two weeks in a coma followed by five months at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Doctors gave him a 1% chance of survival and said he would probably never walk again. Defiantly, Austin stayed in process and worked from his hospital bed during his hospital stay. He produced the feature documentary The Right to Love:An American Family with Cassie Jaye and would eventually attend the motion picture's premiere at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Marin, California. The movie would also become Austin's third Academy Awards qualifying motion picture. When he arrived home from his first of seven hospitalizations, Austin found a copy of Variety on his deck which had a full page ad for another motion picture he was producing before his accident called The Ghostmaker released by Lions Gate Entertainment. Austin relocated to New York City where he had more hospitalizations and surgeries. During his recovery from the procedures, he created, produced and pitched a clip show to Time Warner Cable in Manhattan called The Angry Baby Monkey Short Film Showcase and completed a 26 episode sale that aired in New York City for a year.
In 2012, Austin,fully recovered from his injuries, and his amazing wife Lauree Dash returned to work in Los Angeles. He joined The Actors Studio as a Lifetime Member where he studies with Mark Rydel, Lou Antonio, Lisa Richards, Cathleen Leslie, James DiStefano, Allan Miller and his mentor Martin Landau.- Actress
Nebula is known for Virus (2019).- Composer
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Buckethead was born on 13 May 1969 in Huntington Beach, California, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Mortal Kombat (1995), Ghosts of Mars (2001) and Last Action Hero (1993).- Actor
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Psy is a South Korean pop singer and International satirical pop performer whose hit single, "Gangnam Style," won the 2012 Best Video MTV Europe Award and became a viral video on YouTube. He is also a songwriter, record producer and rapper.
He was born on December 31, 1977 in Seoul, South Korea as Park Jae Sang. He has been married to Yoo Hye Yeon since October 14, 2006. They have two children. Before fame, He dropped out of business school and music school in order to pursue a singing career in Korea.
In 2012, he performed with MC Hammer at the New Year's Eve celebration in Time Square, New York City. He was introduced as the undisputed King of Pop by Heidi Klum at the MTV Europe Awards. He was born Park Jae-sang to an affluent family in Gangnam, South Korea. In 2006, he married Yoo Hye-yeon.- Actor
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Most remembered for his extravagant costumes and trademark candelabra placed on the lids of his flashy pianos, Liberace was loved by his audiences for his music talent and unique showmanship. He was born as Wladziu Valentino Liberace on May 16, 1919, into a musical family, in Wisconsin. His mother, Frances Liberace (née Zuchowski), whose parents were Polish, played the piano. His father, Salvatore Liberace, an immigrant from Formia, Italy, played the French horn for the Milwaukee Symphony. His siblings, George Liberace, Angie Liberace and Rudy Liberace, also had musical ability. Liberace's own extraordinary natural talent became evident when he learned to play the piano, by ear, at the age of four. Although Salvatore tried to discourage his son's interest in the piano, praises from Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a famous Polish pianist, helped the young musician follow his musical career.
As a teenager, Liberace earned wages playing popular tunes at movie theaters and speakeasies. Despite being proud of his son's accomplishments, Salvatore strictly opposed Liberace's preference for popular music over the classics. Pianist Florence Bettray Kelly took control of Liberace's classical training when he was 14.
He debuted as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony, under the direction of Dr. Frederick Stock. At age 17, Liberace joined the Works Progress Administration Symphony Orchestra. He received a scholarship to attend the Wisconsin College of Music. In 1939, after a classical recital, Liberace's audience requested the popular tune, "Three Little Fishes". Liberace seized the opportunity and performed the tune with a semi-classical style which the audience loved. Soon, this unique style of playing the piano got Liberace bookings in large nightclubs.
By 1940, Liberace was traveling with his custom-made piano, on top of which he would place his candelabrum. He then took Paderewski's advice and dropped Wladziu and Valentino to become simply Liberace. South Sea Sinner (1950), a movie with Shelley Winters, was Liberace's film debut. He played a honky tonk pianist in the movie, which opened in 1950.
In 1952, The Liberace Show (1952), a syndicated television program, turned Liberace into a musical symbol. It began as a summertime replacement for The Dinah Shore Show (1951), but after two years, the show was one of the most popular on TV. It was carried by 217 American stations and could be seen in 20 foreign countries. Sold-out live appearances at Madison Square Garden enhanced the pianist's popularity even more. Soon, Liberace added flamboyant costumes and expensive ornaments to his already unique performances. His second movie, Sincerely Yours (1955), opened in 1955, and Liberace wrote his best-selling autobiography, "Liberace", in 1972. His first book, "Liberace Cooks", went into seven printings.
In 1977, Liberace founded the non-profit "Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts". The year 1978 brought the opening of "The Liberace Museum" in Las Vegas, Nevada, which serves as key funding for the Liberace Foundation. The profits from the museum provide scholarship money for financially needy college musicians. He continued performing until the fall of 1986, despite suffering from heart disease and emphysema during most of the 1980s. A closeted homosexual his entire life, Liberace was secretly diagnosed with AIDS sometime in August 1985, which he also kept secret from the public until the day he died. His last concert performance was at Radio City Music Hall on November 2, 1986. He passed away in his Palm Springs home on February 4, 1987 at age 67.
Liberace was bestowed with many awards during his lifetime including: Instrumentalist of the Year, Best Dressed Entertainer, Entertainer of the Year, two Emmy Awards, six gold albums, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In The Guinness Book of World Records, he has been listed as the world's highest paid musician and pianist. Liberace was an extremely talented and versatile man. He not only played the piano, but sang, danced and joked during his performances. In fact, one of Liberace's biggest accomplishments was his ability to turn a recital into a show full of music, glitter and personality.- Actor
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Tiny Tim, the ukulele-playing singer of 1920s ditties who was a true icon of the 1960s, was born Herbert Khaury on April 12, 1932, in New York City. The son of a Lebanese father and Jewish mother, the young Khaury grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. A high school dropout, his interest in the popular music of the 1890s through the 1930s manifested itself early, and his dream was to become a singer. He learned to play guitar and ukulele and began performing professionally as "Larry Love" in the early 1950s, making his debut at a lesbian cabaret in Greenwich Village called Page 3, where he became a regular. Though his parents tried to discourage him, Khaury continued to publicly perform the early mass culture American music that he so loved and collected on 78 records, at small clubs, parties and talent shows under a variety of names.
Khaury had established himself as a cult performer in the Greenwich Village music scene by the early 1960s, singing under the name that he would become famous for, that of the crippled lad in Charles Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol" (allegedly the stage name was suggested by a manager who used to work with midgets; Khaury himself stood an inch over six feet, but the name helped to reinforce his bizarre persona). After appearing in You Are What You Eat (1968), he made an appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), the smash hit series that was as much a part of the 1960s as Tim would come to be. He was an instant sensation and his career was made. His weird appearance and act (he evinced the polite manners of a bygone era, which stood out in stark contrast to the "Let it All Hang Out!" ethos of the time) touched a nerve and he became a cultural specimen that elucidated the zeitgeist of that era.
Tiny Tim appeared several more times on "Laugh-In" but became better known through his frequent guest spots on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), where audiences were bemused by his eccentric personality. He signed with Frank Sinatra's record label Reprise and issued his debut album, "God Bless Tiny Tim," in 1968, featuring what became his signature song, a falsetto cover of "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips." "Tulips" became a hit, reaching the Top 20, and "God Bless Tiny Tim" sold over 200,000 copies. He followed it up before the year was out with the ingeniously entitled "Tiny Tim's Second Album."
Tiny Tim's wave crested in 1969, in terms of cultural recognition and popularity. In August he released his third LP, an album of children's songs called "For All My Little Friends," while on December 17 of that year he married "Miss Vicki," his 17-year-old girlfriend (Vicki Budinger) on "The Tonight Show." The wedding drew the largest rating ever recorded for an evening talk show, enjoying an incredible 85% share of the audience watching TV at that time. The couple mostly lived apart (as Tim did with his two later wives), and while the union produced a daughter, inevitably named Tulip, he and Miss Vicki divorced after eight years of marriage.
Tiny Tim performed around the country in 1970, enjoying some highly lucrative gigs in Las Vegas, but his business associates fleeced him. A one-trick pony, his popularity began to wane in the early 1970s and the lucrative bookings and TV appearances became a thing of the past. A trouper, Tiny Tim kept performing, eventually traveling the country playing community centers, high school theaters and other less-than-prestigious venues as part of Roy Radin's Vaudeville Revue with the likes of The Five Harmonica Rascals. He continued to record throughout the 1970s and 1980s for small labels, but he never again achieved any real success.
After the Roy Radin Revue, Tim kept on performing. He even joined a circus for its 36-week schedule. In the late 1980s he moved to Des Moines, Iowa, and managed a small comeback of sorts in the mid-'90s, when he appeared on Howard Stern's radio show. However, his comeback suffered a setback after he had a heart attack performing at a ukulele festival in September of 1996. After getting out of the hospital, Tiny Tim the trouper resumed his concert schedule. The schedule proved too taxing, and on November 30 he suffered another heart attack while performing "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" in Minneapolis, and died an hour later. He was 64 years old.- Actor
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Ol' Dirty Bastard was born on 15 November 1968 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Bulworth (1998), Nerve (2016) and Don't Look Up (2021). He was married to Icelene Jones. He died on 13 November 2004 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
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Tricky was born on 27 January 1968 in Knowle West, Bristol, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for The Fifth Element (1997), Face/Off (1997) and Virtuosity (1995).- Actor
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Lemmy was born on 24 December 1945 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Airheads (1994) and Smokin' Aces (2006). He died on 28 December 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Klaus moved to New York City in the mid-70s where he worked as a pastry chef and a night club singer. A performance of his was attended by 'David Bowie' who hired Nomi as backup for his Saturday Night Live (1975) performance.- Actor
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Keith Flint was born on 17 September 1969 in Chelmsford, Essex, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for F9: The Fast Saga (2021), The Condemned (2007) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003). He was married to Mayumi Kai. He died on 4 March 2019 in Brook Hill, North End, Dunmow, Essex, England, UK.- Actor
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Blue Man Group is known for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Space Chimps (2008) and Spare Parts (2015).- Actor
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M Huncho is known for M Huncho: Tranquility (2019), M Huncho & Dutchavelli: Burning (2020) and Don't Hate the Playaz (2018).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Wolfman Jack was born on 21 January 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for American Graffiti (1973), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and Motel Hell (1980). He was married to Lucy Lamb. He died on 1 July 1995 in Belvidere, North Carolina, USA.- Actor
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Don Drakulich is known for Sleazy Pictures After Dark (2015), Cinema Insomnia with Mr. Lobo (2001) and The Thrillbillys (2001).- Born in Australia and now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Bridie Mayfield is primarily a dancer and choreographer with Brutal Ballet, doing ballet to heavy metal music. She branched into acting in 2014 and has appeared in many of the productions filmed in Northern Ireland including Line of Duty, Krypton, Game of Thrones, The Northman and Dungeons and Dragons, Honour Among Thieves. She regularly performs in Sweden under the name Brutal Ballet at the various dark culture festivals.
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Influenced mainly by horror B-movies and campy macabre shows and movies, almost every song he's wrote is connected to some kind of movie some more obvious than others. Wednesday started with music in 1992 in the bands Psycho Opera and Maniac Spider Trash both of which were short lived. He then went on to form The Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 which lasted a total of 6 years along with a reunion which lasted for 1 year. His big breakthrough came when he formed The Murderdolls with Slipknot's Joey Jordison however the band was short lived with Joey focusing on Slipknot and Wednesday starting a solo career to which he is still active. The Murderdolls released a new album after an 8 year hiatus. Wednesday also plays in side projects such as Bourbon Crow and Gunfire 76. He starred in a straight to DVD short entitled Weirdo a Go-Go which he showed B-movie trailers in the form of a Saturday morning cartoon show with puppets.- Actor
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Kita is known for Dark Floors (2008), In the Nick of Time (2005) and Lordi: Hard Rock Hallelujah (2006).- Music Department
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Mark 'Bez' Berry was born on 18 April 1964. He is an actor, known for Skins (2007), Halita (2019) and Geezers. He has been married to Firouzeh Razavi since 3 September 2022.- Visual Effects
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When it comes to motion-picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic: Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion-picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.
Born in Los Angeles, the signature event in Harryhausen's life was when he saw King Kong (1933). So awed was the 13-year-old Harryhausen that he began researching the film's effects work, ultimately learning all he could about Willis H. O'Brien and stop-motion photography--he even contacted O'Brien and showed an allosaur short he made, which caused O'Brien to quip to his wife, "You realize you're encouraging my competition, don't you?" Harryhausen tried to make a stop-motion epic titled "Evolution," but the time required to make it resulted in it being cut short. The footage he completed--of a lumbering apatosaurus attacked by a belligerent allosaurus--made excellent use as a demo reel, and as a result, Harryhausen's first film job came with George Pal, working on the Puppetoon shorts for Paramount. A stint in the army utilized Harryhausen's animation skills for training films.
After World War II, Harryhausen acquired over 1,000 feet of unused military film and made a series of Puppetoon-flavored fairy tale shorts, which helped him land a job with Willis H. O'Brien and Marcel Delgado on Mighty Joe Young (1949). Although O'Brien received credit for it, 85% of the actual animation was done by Harryhausen. His real breakthrough, however, came when he was hired to do the special effects for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The film's $200,000 budget meant that Harryhausen was forced to improvise to get the kinds of quality effects he wanted, and to that end, he learned a technique called split-screen (rear projection on overlapping miniature screens) to insert dinosaurs and other fantastic beasts into real-world backgrounds. The result was eventually picked up for release by Warner Bros. and was one of the most influential sci-fi films of the 1950s.
From there, Harryhausen went over to Columbia and teamed with producer Charles H. Schneer, which became synonymous among sci-fi and fantasy film aficionados with top-notch special-effects work during the remainder of their respective careers. After three sci-fi monster films and work with Willis O'Brien on an Irwin Allen documentary, Harryhausen did the effects work for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), his first split-screen film shot entirely in color, which was highlighted by Harryhausen's mythological monsters interacting with Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher's flavorful performance as the villain, and the rousing score of Bernard Herrmann.
Because Harryhausen worked alone on his stop-motion animation sequences, the filming of these could often take as long as two years, the most famous example of the kind of patience required being the exciting skeleton sword fight sequence in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (his most popular film), in which Harryhausen often shot no more than 13 frames of film (just over one-half second of elapsed time) per day.
The 1960s were Harryhausen's best years, among the highlights being his reunions with dinosaurs in Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). His pace slowed in the 1970s, but he produced three of his masterworks during that period: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977); and Clash of the Titans (1981). It was not until 1992 that Harryhausen finally achieved film immortality with an honorary Oscar, a long-overdue tribute to the one name that personifies visual magic.- Director
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Ralph Bakshi worked his way up from Brooklyn and became an animation legend. He was born on October 29, 1938, in Haifa, Israel, the son of Mina (Zlotin) and Eliezar Bakshi, and is of Krymchak Jewish descent. He was raised in Brownsville, after his family came to New York to escape World War II. Bakshi attended the Thomas Jefferson High School and was later transferred to the High School of Industrial Arts and graduated with an award in cartooning in 1957.
At the Terrytoons studio, he started as a cel polisher then graduated to cel painting. Practicing nights and weekends, he quickly became an inker and then an animator. There, he worked on such shows as Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, Foofle and Lariat Sam. At 28 he created and directed a series of superhero spoof cartoons called The Mighty Heroes.
In 1967, Bakshi moved to Paramount Studios. Working with producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi worked on episodes of the Spider-Man TV series and several short films. In the 1970s, Bakshi set out to produce films using his innovative vision for how animated films should be. Krantz suggested Robert Crumb's "Fritz the Cat" comic book as Bakshi's first feature. The two set out to meet with Crumb and get the film rights. In 1972, the film premiered and was extremely successful, as the first feature-length animated film to receive an X rating by the American rating system (when it was distributed worldwide, it generally received lower ratings the equivalent of an R rating, and was released as being unrated on DVD).
The success of "Fritz the Cat" allowed Bakshi to produce films featuring his own characters and ideas, and so "Heavy Traffic" and "Coonskin" were produced, both of which were extremely controversial, but were praised by critics. During the same period, he shot and completed another feature titled "Hey Good Lookin'" for the Warner Brothers studio, who didn't think that a combination of live-action and animation would sell, and forced Bakshi to go back and animate the live action sequences.
During this period, Bakshi also produced two very successful fantasy films, "Wizards" and part one of an animated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Although these films were financially successful, they were misunderstood by critics, and United Artists, the studio that produced "The Lord of the Rings" refused to fund the second part, or sequel to Bakshi's ambitious adaptation.
During the 1980s, animation went into a decline. "American Pop," done using the same style of realistic animation as "The Lord of the Rings" was not successful financially, and critics did not see the point of the film being animated. The finished version of "Hey Good Lookin'" was released during the same year as "American Pop," but was also unsuccessful financially. Bakshi's last film of the decade, "Fire & Ice," a collaboration with famed artist Frank Frazetta, was a flop.
Bakshi produced several television features with mixed results before returning to film with what would eventually become "Cool World" - the script was rewritten several times during production without Bakshi's knowledge until it came to the point where Bakshi did not recognize his own work. The film was critically scorned, and was a box office flop. Fans feel that the film is not a true Bakshi film.
Since then, the Internet and DVD releases of Bakshi's work have brought him a new generation of fans and increased interest, encouraging Bakshi to produce another film. "Last Days of Coney Island" is in production. Bakshi lives in New Mexico. A three-day retrospective was held at American Cinematheque at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California and the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California in April, 2005.- Director
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Neil Breen was born on November 23, 1958. He started his career as a real-estate agent and architect in Las Vegas before switching to being an independent filmmaker.
Breen never attended film school; he learned everything he needed to know on his own. He deliberately makes independent films as he has stated he doesn't want to be a part of what he calls the "Hollywood insider's group". He self-financed, wrote, directed, edited, and starred in all of his independent films: Double Down (2005), I Am Here... Now (2009), Fateful Findings (2013), and Pass Thru (2016). He funds his films by the income he gathers from being an architect or via crowdfunding.
Breen's movies tend to have a supernatural nature where the protagonist (always portrayed by himself) is a messianic being who stands up for the greater good by confronting harmful people and powerful/corrupt institutions. This moral protector of the innocent people wants to clean the earth from all evil and wrongdoing. These thematic layers are often presented by long dialogues narrated by the protagonist himself.
Despite that, Neil Breen's films are generally perceived as very bad and amateurish features due to their poor production value and bad writing, acting, and editing. It's very likely that Breen gained a lot of fame due to this perception.- Writer
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Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a feature film that received the 2003 Audience Award at the New York International Film Festival. In 2004, he produced the documentary Homeless in America (2004), which received the 2004 Social Award.
He is now working on several more projects.- Additional Crew
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H.R. Giger was born on 5 February 1940 in Chur, Switzerland. He was a director, known for Alien (1979), Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Carmen Maria Scheifele and Mia Bonzanigo. He died on 12 May 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.- Actor
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Actor/SFX wizard/stuntman/director Tom Savini was born in Pittsburgh. Inspired by the film Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), a young Savini became fascinated with the magic and illusion of film. He spent his youth in his room creating characters by tirelessly practicing make-up. Later, as a combat photographer in Vietnam, Savini saw first-hand the gruesome carnage for which he later gained fame, simulating it on screen.
He has acquired a remarkable cult following among film fans, primarily due to his ground-breaking SFX in the "splatter movie" explosion of the early 1980s. Along with fellow special make-up legends Dick Smith and Rob Bottin, Savini was one of the key SFX people behind the startling make-up & EFX seen in the fantasy/horror genre films of the 1980s-'90s. Savini was heavily influenced by the remarkable silent-era actor Lon Chaney, and he sought to emulate the amazing theatrical make-up effects that were a hallmark of Chaney's career. In Savini's insightful book "Grande Illusions", he speaks of his early attempts at applying prosthetics to his face using "spearmint gum", having misinterpreted that he was meant to actually use "spirit gum"! His first work was in low-budget fare, providing SFX and make-up for independently made horror films such as Deranged (1974) and Martin (1977).
He really caught the attention of horror buffs with his grisly effects in the cult George A. Romero-directed zombie film Dawn of the Dead (1978), and then in the controversial slasher film Friday the 13th (1980), the movie generally identified as the kickstart for the aforementioned "splatter movie" genre. Savini also contributed the incredible EFX & make-up to other splatter thrillers such as Maniac (1980), The Burning (1981), Creepshow (1982) and Romero's third "Dead" film, Day of the Dead (1985) (for which he won a Saturn Award). In 1990, Savini directed his feature film debut Night of the Living Dead (1990), the remake of the original zombie-classic.
Not content with only being behind the lens, however, Savini has appeared in dozens of films, and can be seen demonstrating his capable acting skills as "Morgan, the Black Knight" in Knightriders (1981), as "Blades", one of the biker gang members in Dawn of the Dead (1978) and as "Sex Machine", another leather-clad biker--but this time with a groin-mounted gun--in the wild vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).- Actor
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Harvey Pekar was born on 8 October 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for American Splendor (2003), Hero Tomorrow (2007) and Harvey Pekar's Teo Macero (2015). He was married to Joyce Brabner. He died on 12 July 2010 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA.- Writer
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Robert Crumb was born on 30 August 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer, known for Crumb (1994), American Splendor (2003) and Meatball (1969). He was previously married to Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Dana Morgan.- Art Department
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Jean Giraud had one of the most interesting double lives in comics history. Under his own name, he co-created the legendary western comic 'Blueberry' (1963-2012) with writer Jean-Michel Charlier. He also used the shortened signature of "Gir" for this series. This cowboy series was noted for its highly realistic artwork and more gritty, complex and adult story lines, which had a tremendous impact on several other European western comics from the late 1960s on. Giraud also created another western series with Charlier, 'Jim Cutlass' (1979), but later wrote the stories himself while Christian Rossi provided artwork. As Moebius, he was one of the most innovative and influential comic artists of the 20th century, known for groundbreaking science-fiction and fantasy works like 'Arzach' (1975), 'The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius' (1976-1979) and 'The Incal' (1980-1985). He experimented with graphic styles, lay-out, dialogue, visuals and plot development. Its themes, highly influenced by philosophical writings and hallucinogenic drugs, elevated adult comics to another level. Moebius was at the forefront of a new wave of experimental comic authors, who gathered in the comics magazine Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) and the publishing label Les Humanoïdes Associés. He was active as a comics writer, screen writer, storyboard and concept designer too. Last but not least, superhero fans may know him from his mini-series based on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's 'The Silver Surfer' (1988-1989). Both as Giraud and as Moebius he is one of the most important comics authors of all time, whose influence can be felt in several fantasy and science fiction films and video games too.
Early life Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was born in 1938 in Nogent-sur Marne, a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris. Giraud was largely raised by his grandparents, with whom he lived in Fontenay-sous-Bois since his parents' divorce in 1941. He grew up reading comics and watching American B-Westerns, while developing a passion for drawing. His mother encouraged him to further pursue his artistic ambitions, and he took art courses from an early age. He enrolled at The Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris, where he studied alongside Jean-Claude Mézières, who became a close friend, and Pat Mallet for two years. While feeling no desire for designing wallpaper and furniture, he started drawing his own western comic strips, inspired by Belgian artists like André Franquin and Morris. He also published his first illustrations in Fiction magazine. Other artistic influences of Giraud were were Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Winsor McCay, Harold Foster, Jijé, Jack Kirby and Robert Crumb.
After leaving the Academy in 1955 he went to live with his mother in Mexico for eight months. There, he was exposed to mind-expanding substances, sex and the desert for the first time. The experience had an enormous impact on his future life and career, both as Giraud and as Moebius. Back in France in 1956, he sold his first comic story ('Les Aventures de Frank et Jérémie') to Far West, a western magazine edited by Marijac. Through Mézières he subsequently got the opportunity to work for the children's publications of Éditions Fleurus, such as Fripounet et Marisette, Coeurs Vaillants and Âmes Vaillantes between 1956 and 1958. His contributions were mainly short stories of an educational and historical nature, and he also provided artwork to a publication called Sitting-Bull. He spent his military service in Algeria and Germany, where he made illustrations and comic strips for the army monthly 5/5 Forces Françaises. Another contributor to this magazine was André Chéret.
Assistant of Jijé Back in civilian life, Giraud became an apprentice of Joseph Gillain, the classic Belgian comic artist known as Jijé. He inked the episode 'La Route de Coronado' of Jijé's western series 'Jerry Spring', which was published in Spirou magazine in 1961. Jijé learned Giraud the finer points of the comics profession, training him in creating simple lay-outs, effective usage of black, rhythm in storytelling and working with photo documentation. He also worked on comic stories for Bonux-Boy (1960-1961) and Total Journal (1966-1968), two advertising comic magazines edited by Jijé's son Benoît, who had become a close friend of his. In 1961 and 1962, Giraud and Mézières were artists at Studio Hachette, where they participated in collections like 'L'Histoire des Civilisations'.
Blueberry When scriptwriter Jean-Michel Charlier proposed Jijé to create a new western series for Charlier's magazine Pilote, Jijé suggested Giraud for the assignment. The first story, 'Fort Navajo', premiered in Pilote on 31 October 1963. The initial set-up featured an ensemble cast, but the character of Lieutenant Mike S. Donovan, a.k.a. Blueberry, quickly took the centre stage. Along the way, he received two sidekicks, namely the boozing gold prospector Jimmy McClure and Redneck, an expert on Indian matters. However, Dargaud, the original publisher of the books, continued to use the series title 'Fort Navajo, une Aventure du Lieutenant Blueberry' until 1973.
The first 'Blueberry' cycle dealt with the American Indian Wars, and consisted of more basic adventure stories in the tradition of Charlier's other series, such as 'Buck Danny', 'La Patrouille des Castors' and 'Barbe-Rouge'. Giraud based Blueberry's original looks on the French western actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, while his artwork in general was still heavily inspired by Jijé. As the series evolved, Giraud became more and more influenced by the gritty western movies of Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci and Sam Peckinpah, American comic artists Milton Caniff and Hal Foster, and Western painter Frederic Remington. Giraud's brushwork became grittier too, and his involvement in Charlier's scripts increased. Giraud let Blueberry age as the stories progressed, which was highly unusual in comic series at the time. The stories and the action became more hard-boiled after Pilote began to focus on a more mature readership from 1968 on.
The series gained full maturity when Giraud and Charlier made a cycle about a hidden treasure of Confederate gold in Mexico. This story arc consists of the albums 'Chihuahua Pearl' (1973), 'L'Homme qui Valait 500.000 $' ('The Half-A-Million Dollar Man', 1973), 'Ballade pour un Cercueil' ('Ballad for a Coffin', 1974), 'Le Hors-la-loi' ('The Outlaw', 1974) and 'Angel Face' (1975). The flawless hero of 'Fort Navajo' had by now transformed into a normal human being, one who wasn't safe from being manipulated, betrayed and tortured. Giraud's explicit graphic portrayals of the dirty and sweaty Far West with all its violence and dangers paved the way for other European western comics, such as 'Comanche' by Hermann and Greg, 'Jonathan Cartland' by Michel Blanc-Dumont, 'Durango' by Yves Swolfs and even the later 'Jerry Spring' stories by Jijé. A dispute over royalties with publisher Georges Dargaud led to a more complex publication history of 'Blueberry' stories after 1973. Stories were prepublished in Nouveau Tintin (1975), Métal Hurlant (1979), Super As (1980), L'Écho des Savanes (1981) and Spirou (1983), before they were published directly in albums. The books were published by Fleurus, Novedi and Alpen, before Giraud returned to Dargaud in 1995. In addition, Giraud and Charlier had been presenting scenes from Blueberry's younger years in Super Pocket Pilote from 1968. Dargaud published three books with these stories in 1975 and 1979. Three new installments of 'La Jeunesse de Blueberry' ('Young Blueberry') were created by Charlier and New-Zealand artist Colin Wilson at Novedi between 1985 and 1990. During their dispute with Dargaud, Giraud and Charlier created 'Jim Cutlass', another western comic of which one album was published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1979. Giraud revived the series in 1991 and wrote six more books for artist Christian Rossi at Casterman until 1999.
Moebius While Giraud and Charlier had basically renewed the western comics genre with 'Blueberry', Giraud embarked upon even more innovative territory under his pen name Moebius. He had first used the name for a couple of short stories in the satirical monthly Hara-Kiri in 1963-1964. Starting in 1969, Moebius made a series of science fiction illustrations for sci-fi novels published by Opta, which marked the beginning of Giraud's exploits outside of the mainstream. Giraud further developed his Moebius persona while on a hiatus from 'Blueberry' between 1974 and 1979. With comic artist Philippe Druillet, journalist/writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas he launched the revolutionary comics anthology Métal Hurlant in December 1974. The men gathered under the collective name Les Humanoïdes Associés, which also became the name of the associated publishing house. Métal Hurlant published mainly avant-garde science fiction and fantasy comics. Besides aforementioned authors, it also ran work by international creators like Richard Corben, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Enki Bilal, Caza, Serge Clerc, Alain Voss, Berni Wrightson, Milo Manara, Jordi Bernet, Antonio Segura and Frank Margerin. A licensed US edition called Heavy Metal was launched in April 1977. The final issue of the original run of Métal Hurlant appeared in 1987, but Les Humanoïdes Associés has continued to publish comics and graphic novels in France since then.
The Airtight Garage Moebius experimented with every aspect of the comics medium. He switched from drawing with a brush to a pen, which resulted in more open drawings with influences from the "Clear Line" style. He crafted highly imaginative worlds and creatures, while his narratives are mainly based around improvisation and character development instead of plot. An essential character in Moebius' output is Major Grubert, a rather stereotypical explorer inspired by Frank M. Buck's 1930 novel 'Bring 'm Back Alive'. The character had first appeared in a short story for Pilote, and then in experimental and surreal stories for France-Soir and Fluide Glacial. He was also instrumental in one of Moebius' masterpieces, 'Le Garage Hermétique' ('The Airtight Garage', 1976-1979). In this series of often confusing short stories, Major Grubert encounters several entities seeking to invade an asteroid in a pocket universe. Another notable character is Jerry Cornelius, a secret agent created by sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock as a sort of "open source" character for other authors to work with.
The Airtight Garage
'Le Garage Hermétique' was serialized in Métal Hurlant from 1 March 1976 to 1 June 1979., and in the US edition Heavy Metal from 1977. The original French book version was published in black-and-white under the title 'Major Fatal' in 1979. The story was colorized for the US publication, and has been published both as a graphic novel (Titan Books, 1989) and a 4-issue comic book series in 1992. The comic is widely praised because of its improvised nature, which makes the reader a witness of the artistic process of story development, while it also leaves a lot open to the reader's own interpretation. Therefore, 'The Airtight Garage' is not only a journey through a fictional world, but also through an artist's mind. In later years, Moebius created sequels like 'L'Homme du Ciguri' ('The Man from the Ciguri', 1995) and 'Le Chasseur Déprime' (2008), while the first Moebius book at Éditions du Fromage, 'Le Bandard Fou' ('The Horny Goof', 1974) can be considered a prequel. Major Grubert has continued to appear in Moebius' work throughout his career, and was also the central character in the "sketchbook graphic-novel" 'Le Major' in 2011.
Arzach Moebius' talent for creating strange and desolate landscapes was even more showcased in 'Arzach', a collection of short comic stories about a silent warrior riding on a pterodactyl-like creature. The stories have no balloons, captions or onomatopoeias, which makes up for a surreal and psychedelic reading experience. Even the main character's name seems disturbing, as Moebius spelled it differently in every story (Arzak, Arzach, Harzac, Harzach, Harzack). The installments appeared in Métal Hurlant between 1 April 1975 and 1 January 1976 and were collected in book format in 1976. Moebius returned to this character at the end of his life, when he planned to explore the character's origins in a trilogy. Only the first book was published under the title 'Arzak: L'Arpenteur' ('Arzak: The Surveyor') by Glénat in 2010. The second and third installment were never created because of the author's death in 2012.
L'Incal Moebius' first collaboration with avant-garde comics writer and film director Alejandro Jodorowsky was in 1975, when he did creature and character designs and storyboards for Jodorowsky's planned movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic sci-fi novel 'Dune' in 1975. The project was never completed, but Moebius and Jodorowsky continued to work together on comics projects. After releasing the comic book 'Les Yeux du Chat' at Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1978, they created a comics classic with 'L'Incal' ('The Incal'). The saga focuses on P.I. John Difool, who receives the Light Incal, a crystal of enormous powers. The original series by Moebius and Jodorowsky was prepublished in Métal Hurlant from December 1980 on and then made available in six books by Les Humanoïdes Associés between 1981 and 1988. It was the first installment in Jodorowsky's own sci-fi universe known as the "Jodoverse", which also includes 'Meta-Barons' (drawn by Juan Giménez), 'The Technopriests' (drawn by Zoran Janjetov) and 'Mégalex' (drawn by Fred Beltrán). A sequel called 'Après L'Incal' was started by Jodorowsky in 2000. Moebius drew only the first book; the second and third installments were drawn by José Ladrönn. The character's early years were explored in 'Avant l'Incal' by Jodorowsky and Zoran Janjetov (1988-1995) and a final cycle called 'Final Incal' was produced by Jodorowsky and Ladrönn (2008-2014).
Moebius was highly influenced by drugs and the philosophies of French New Age guru Jean-Paul Appel-Guéry and Swiss nutritionist Guy-Claude Burger for his next major work, 'Le Monde d'Edena' ('The Aedena Cycle'). The artist's journeying lifestyle also left its mark on the comic; the installments were drawn in Tokyo, California and France. The cycle had its origin in a promotional comic Moebius had made for French car manufacturer Citroën in 1983 ('Une Croisière Citroën sur l'Étoile'), in which two characters are transported to a "Garden of Eden" in another galaxy. Éditions Casterman collected the rest of what has to be Moebius' most philosophical series in four books between 1988 and 2001. Main themes are dreams, nutrition, health, biology and sexuality, structured societies and the archetype of good and evil. The series was published in English by Marvel/Epic comics between 1988 and 1994. Moebius and Jodorowsky also made 'Le Coeur Couronné' (1992-1998), a comics trilogy about the affair of a Philosophy professor with a delusional student, as well as the erotic one-shot 'Griffes d'Ange' (1994).
Another notable comic by Moebius is 'The Long Tomorrow' (1976), a futuristic crime noir short story written by Dan O'Bannon, who also did the special effects on Jodorowsky's 'Dune' project. The story has been a huge source of inspiration for George Lucas' 'Star Wars' film 'The Empire Strikes Back', Ridley Scott's sci-fi film 'Blade Runner' (1982) as well as the fashion in the videoclip for 'Firestarter' by The Prodigy (1996). Compilations of Moebius' other short stories were published by Les Humanoïdes in books like 'Double Évasion' (1981), 'La Citadelle Aveugle' (1989) and 'Escale sur Phargonescia' (1989).
From 1983, Moebius was active in merchandising his properties. He co-founded the publishing label Aedena in 1984, while his wife Claudine Giraud oversaw Starwatcher, a company specialized in publishing and distributing related products. Based in Los Angeles, Moebius got most of his graphic novels published in the US through Marvel Comics. He furthermore worked with Stan Lee on a two-issue mini-series starring the 'Silver Surfer' for Marvel's Epic imprint in 1988 and 1989. Under his own Aedena label, he produced the portfolio 'La Cité-Feu' (1985) with Geoff Darrow, and he published 'La Nuit de l'Étoile' (1986), a sci-fi comic written by Moebius and drawn by Marc Bati.
Writings Giraud had been writing comic stories for other artists since the early 1970s. For Pilote, he wrote the initial episodes of the post-apocalyptic comic 'Jason Muller' for Claude Auclair in 1970, as well as a couple of short stories for Jacques Tardi. His further scriptwriting work includes six books of 'Altor' with Marc Bati, a comic initially published under the title 'Cristal Majeur' (Dargaud, 1986-2003), and 'Little Nemo', a sequel to the classic American newspaper comic 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' by Winsor McCay, which was drawn by Bruno Marchand (Casterman, 1994-2002). Giraud and Bati have also made a comic book based on George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' ('La Ferme des Animaux' at Novedi in 1985). In 2005 Moebius wrote the French manga story 'Icare' for Jirô Taniguchi (Éditions Kana). With Jean-Marc Lofficier, who also translated most of his works to English, he worked on the scripts of a couple of stories set in the same universe as 'The Airtight Garage'. 'The Elsewhere Prince' was drawn by and Eric Shanower and published by Epic Comics in six issues in 1990, while Jerry Bingham did the art for 'The Onyx Overlord', which was published in four issues in 1992. Witch scriptwriter Jean-Luc Coudray, he made 'Les Histoires de Monsieur Mouche' in 1994.
Not surprisingly, 'Blueberry' also changed into a different direction because of Giraud's work under his alter ego Moebius. Especially after Jean-Michel Charlier's death in 1989, Giraud further developed the character's background and deeper emotions. He completed the final story he had started with Charlier, 'Arizona Love' (Alpen, 1990), and wrote and drew five more albums, which form the 'Mister Blueberry' cycle (1995-2005). Instead of following Charlier's plan of rehabilitating Blueberry and sending him back to the army, Giraud decided to turn his protagonist into a loafing civilian who spends his days playing poker. He also added another spin-off to the 'Blueberry' universe, which focused on Blueberry's adventures as a marshal in the war against the Apaches prior to the Confederate gold storyline. The first two books of 'Marshal Blueberry' were drawn by William Vance (Alpen, 1991, 1993), while the third one was drawn by Michel Rouge (Dargaud, 2000). In the meantime, the 'Young Blueberry' series was still continued by François Corteggiani and Michel Blanc-Dumont, although with no creative input from Giraud.
A third planned spin-off about an elderly Blueberry was called 'Blueberry: 1900', and was supposed to be drawn by François Boucq. Giraud wanted Blueberry to reside with the Hopi tribe and meditate under the influence of mind-expanding substances, while a comatose President McKinley is levitated in his bed. The project was halted by Philippe Charlier, the son and heir of Jean-Michel Charlier, who found this new direction too far away from the creative integrity and legacy of his father. However, the psychedelic hallucinations did end up in the 2004 movie 'Blueberry, l'expérience secrète' starring Vincent Cassel, Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis (with Jean Giraud in a cameo role). The film was no commercial success, but did gain a certain cult status as a "trip film". Since it deviated so much from the source material, the Charlier heirs demanded that their family name should be removed from the credits.
Film work Besides the abandoned 'Dune' project, Jean Giraud/Moebius has participated in the development of several movies. He did storyboards and concept designs for Ridley Scott's movie 'Alien' (1977), 'Tron' by The Walt Disney Company (1982), René Laloux's 'Les Maîtres du Temps' ('Time Masters', 1982), James Cameron's 'The Abyss' (1989) and Luc Besson's 'The Fifth Element' (1997). A comic album with stills from 'Les Maîtres du Temps' and a companion book with storyboard drawings and photos were published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1982. In 1985 Moebius headed for Tokyo to work on the script and conceptual art for 'Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland' (1989), an animated film based on Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland'. Giraud also made original character designs and did visual development for the Warner Bros movie 'Space Jam' in 1996. In the 1990s, Giraud worked on a planned movie adaptation of 'The Airtight Garage', which remained unreleased due to financial problems. The Chinese 3D-CGI feature film 'Thru the Moebius Strip' (2005) was based on an original story and designs by Jean Giraud.
Later career & recognition Several artbooks with Moebius' drawings and paintings have been published, such as 'Starwatcher' (1986), 'Made in L.A.' (1988), 'Quattre-vingt huit' (1990), 'Chaos' (1991), 'Chroniques Métalliques' (1992), 'Fusion' (1995), 'Une jeunesse heureuse' (1999). He additonally made illustrations for books and magazines, including an edition of Paulo Coelho's novel 'The Alchemist'. He also worked with Coelho on the video game 'Pilgrim' in 1997. In 1999, Giraud released 'Giraud/Moebius - Histoire de mon double', which featured a biography of Giraud by Moebius and vice versa. From 2004 to 2010, Stardom published 'Inside Moebius', an illustrated autobiographical fantasy featuring many of his longtime characters, such as Major Grubert, Blueberry and Arzak. The project covers 700 pages and was published in six hardcover volumes.
Jean Giraud was invested with a knighthood in the Ordre National du Mérite in 2011. He died in Paris, on 10 March 2012 at the age of 73, after a long battle with cancer. One of his final comics created under his own name was 'La Version Irlandaise', the first of a two-part volume in the 'XIII' series, which was released at the same time with its companion piece by the regular authors William Vance and Jean Van Hamme in November 2007.
An interview that Numa Sadoul had with Jean Giraud was published under the title 'Mister Moebius et Docteur Gir' at Albin Michel in 1976. It was reprinted by Casterman in 1991 in 'Moebius : Entretiens avec Numa Sadoul', which also contained later interviews. A large career retrospective called 'Trait de Génie Giraud/Moebius' was on exhibit in the Comics Museum in Angoulême, and an extensive catalogue edited by Thierry Groensteen was published for this occasion.
Legacy and influence With an oeuvre fuelled by mind-expanding drugs and New Age philosophies, Moebius has created a legacy which remains an inspiration to science fiction and fantasy authors to this day. He is considered one of the most influential comic artists since Hergé, and among his many and diverse admirers are comic authors like Hergé, Stan Lee and Marc Sleen, film directors Federico Fellini, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and Quentin Tarantino, and novelists Paulo Coelho, Neil Gaiman and William Gibson. He was an influence on the work of Hayao Miyazaki, William Stout, Emmanuel Roudier, Arno, Georges Bess, Dominique Hé, André Juillard, François Boucq, Geof Darrow, Louis Paradis, Martin tom Dieck, Milan Misic, Katsuya Terada, Jean-Jacques Sanchez, Zalozabal, Karel Verschuere, Jan Bosschaert, Stedho, François Schuiten, Frank and Thierry Van Hasselt. 'Arzach' was a major influence on the development of the 'Panzer Dragoon' video game by Team Andromedia in 1995. 'The Airtight Garage' inspired by the name for a San Francisco-based bar and video game parlor and for a band from Washington DC (1993-1996).- Director
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Andrew Warhol's father, Ondrej, came from the Austria-Hungary Empire (now Slovakia) in 1912, and sent for his mother, Julia Zavackyová Warholová, in 1921. His father worked as a construction worker and later as a coal miner. Around some time, the family moved to Pittsburgh. During his teenage years, Andy suffered from several nervous breakdowns. Overcoming this, he graduated from Schenley High School in Pittsburgh in 1945, and enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University), graduating in June 1949. During college, he met Philip Pearlstein, a fellow student.
After graduation, Andy Warhol (having dropped the letter 'a' from his last name) moved to New York City, and shared an apartment with Pearlstein at St. Mark's Place off of Avenue A for a couple months. During this time, he moved in and out of several Manhattan apartments. In New York, he met Tina Fredericks, art editor of Glamour Magazine. Warhol's early jobs were doing drawings for Glamour, such as the Success is a Job in New York, and women's shoes. He also drew advertising for various magazines, including Vogue, Harper's Bazzar, book jackets, and holiday greeting cards.
During the 1950s, he moved to an apartment on East 75th Street. His mother moved in with him, and Fritizie Miller become his agent. In 1952, his first solo exhibition was held at Hugo Gallery, New York, of drawings to illustrate stories by Truman Capote. He started illustrating books, beginning with Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette. Around 1953-1955, he worked for a theater group on the Lower East Side, and designs sets. It is around that time that he dyed his hair silver. Warhol published several books, including Twenty Five Cats Named Sam, and One Blue Pussy. In 1956, he traveled around the world with Charles Lisanby, a television-set designer. In April of this year, he was included in his first group exhibition, Recent Drawings USA, held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He began receiving accolades for his work, with the 35th Annual Art Directors Club Award for Distinctive Merit, for an I.Miller shoe advertisement. He published In The Bottom Of My Garden later that year. In 1957, received 36th Annual Art Directors Club Medal and Award of Distinctive Merit, for the I.Miller show advertisements, and Life Magazine published his illustrations for an article, "Crazy Golden Slippers".
In 1960, Warhol began to make his first paintings. They were based on comic strips in the likes of Dick Tracy, Popeye, Superman, and two of Coca-Cola bottles. In 1961, using the Dick Tracy comic strip, he designed a window display for Lord & Taylor, at this time, major art galleries around the nation begin noticing his work. In 1962, Warhol made paintings of dollar bills and Campbell soup cans, and his work was included in an important exhibition of pop art, The New Realists, held at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. In November of this year, Elanor Ward showed his paintings at Stable Gallery, and the exhibition began a sensation. In 1963, he rented a studio in a firehouse on East 87th Street. He met his assistant, Gerard Malanga, and started making his first film, Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of (1964). Later, he drove to Los Angeles for his second exhibition at the Ferus Gallery. In November of that year, he found a loft at 231 East 47th Street, which became his main studio, The Factory. In December, he began production of Red Jackie, the first of the Jackie series. In 1964, his first solo exhibition in Europe, held at the Galerie Ileana Sonnebend in Paris, featured the Flower series. He received a commission from architect Philip Johnson to make a mural, entitled Thirteen Most Wanted Men for the New York State Pavilion in the New York World's Fair. In April, he received an Independent Film Award from Film Culture magazine. In November, his first solo exhibition in the US was held at Leo Castelli Gallery. And at this time, he began his self portrait series.
In the summer of 1965, Andy Warhol met Paul Morrissey, who became his advisor and collaborator. His first solo museum exhibition was held at the Institute of Contempary Art, at the University of Pennsylvania. During this year, he made a surprise announcement of his retirement from painting, but it was to be short lived. He would resume painting again in 1972. It was around this time that he met Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker (collectively known as The Velvet Underground), and a German-born model turned chanteuse called Nico. He paired Nico with the Velvets, and they developed a close bond with Warhol. This was an alliance that forever changed the face of world culture. Warhol produced the group's first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, which has been called "the most influential record ever" by many critics. Later, a multimedia show developed (called The Exploding Plastic Inevitable), managed, and produced by Warhol, featuring the Velvet Underground.
In the summer of 1966, Warhol's film Chelsea Girls (1966) became the first underground film to be shown at a commercial theater. In 1967, Chelsea Girls opened in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and six of his Self Portraits were shown at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In August of this year, he gave a lecture at various colleges in the Los Angeles area, his persona is so popular that some colleges hire Allen Midgette to impersonate him for lectures. Later, Warhol moved The Factory to 33 Union Square West, and met Fred Hughes, who later became President of Enterprises, and Interview Magazine. In 1968, Warhol's first solo European museum exhibition was held at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. But later that year on June 3, 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, an ultra-radical and member of the entourage surrounding Warhol. Solanis was the founder of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Fortunately, Warhol survived the assassination attempt after spending two months in a hospital. This incident is the subject of the film, I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Afterwards, Andy Warhol dropped out of the filmmaking business, but now and then continued his contribution to film and art. He never emotionally recovered from his brush with death.
During the 1970s and 80s, Andy Warhol's status as a media icon skyrocketed, and he used his influence to back many younger artists. He began publishing of Interview magazine, with the first issue being released in fall of 1969. In 1971, his play, entitled Pork, opened at London at the Round House Theatre. He resumed painting in 1972, although it was primarily celebrity portraits. The Factory was moved to 860 Broadway, and in 1975, he bought a house on Lexington Street. A major retrospective of his work is held in Zurich. In 1976, he did the Skulls, and Hammer and Sickle series. Throughout the late 70s and 80s, a retrospective exhibition was held, as Warhol began work on the Reversals, Retrospectives, and Shadows series. The Myths series, Endangered Species series, and Ads series followed through the early and mid 1980s. On 22 February 1987, a "day of medical infamy", as quoted by one biographer, Andy Warhol died following complications from gall bladder surgery. He was 58 years old.- Music Artist
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Born in 1965 in the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik, the daughter of Gudmundur Gunnarsson (an electrician) and Hildur Hauksdóttir who divorced before her second birthday, Björk grew up in a hippie-type community with her mother and her seven siblings. She started to study classical music at the age of 5 and released her first album in 1977 (mainly traditional Icelandic folk songs and international hits translated to Icelandic) when she was only 11. During her teenage years Björk became involved in several bands, most of them punk: Spit & Snot (1977), Exodus (1979-80), Jam 80 (1980), Tappi Tíkarrass (1981-83) (featured the documentary Rock in Reykjavik (1982)) and Kukl (1984-86). She then formed the pop group The Sugarcubes with Einar Örn Benediktsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson and eventually other members Þór Eldon (with whom she had a son in 1986), Margrét Örnólfsdóttir and Bragi Ólafsson. The band released its first single in 1986 and its first album, "Life's Too Good", in 1988, and discovered international success, especially in UK. While touring in the US with the Sugarcubes, Björk met Boris Acosta, a music connoisseur and now a film producer and director, who told her she would be very successful in the years to come. She was shocked to hear that and gracefully thanked him for his sweet words. During her Sugarcubes years, Björk also collaborated with the Icelandic jazz group Gudmundar Ingólfssonar Trio for the album "Gling-Glo" in 1990, and featured 808 State's "Ooops", which was the start of her electronic music interest. The Sugarcubes eventually split after a few albums in 1992 and in 1993. Björk released her first solo album, "Debut", in collaboration with producer Nellee Hooper. The worldwide success of the album (nearly 3 million copies sold) made possible her second album, "Post", in 1995, also with help of not only Nellee Hooper but techno gurus Graham Massey (from 808 State), Howie B. and Tricky, followed by the remix album "Telegram" the year after. After some problems in the UK, where she lived, she decided to go to Spain to record her third album, "Homogenic", released in 1997. Her main collaborators were the 'Icelandic String Octet', Mark Bell (from LFO), Mark Stent and again Howie B, and the album may be her most electronic. After Danish director Lars von Trier discovered her in the music video of "It's Oh So Quiet", he asked her to play the main role and to compose the music for his new movie Dancer in the Dark (2000). She won the Best Actress Prize in the Cannes Festival, and said that it would be her only cinema performance (although she'd already acted in the Icelandic movie The Juniper Tree (1990)) because it was too painful for her and because she considered herself a music artist and not a cinema artist. The original soundtrack was re-worked by her before being released as an album under the title "Selmasongs" in September 2000 (including a new version of the duet song "I've Seen it All" with Thom Yorke). Her fourth album, probably the most quiet, "Vespertine", featured a chamber orchestra, an Icelandic choir and harpist Zeena Parkins, and was also a successful collaboration with Matmos. She then successively released a book of photos and texts, series of DVD, a Greatest Hits album and two special boxes ("Family Tree" and "Björk Box"). She also took time to marry artist Matthew Barney, with whom she had a daughter in 2002. In August 2004 she composed and sang "Oceania" for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens. This song was featured on her fifth album, "Medúlla", released about two weeks after the ceremony. It is mostly made with vocals and some titles are close to experimental music, featuring choirs, Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq, Japanese artist Dokaka, Robert Wyatt, Rahzel and Mike Patton, but also collaborating again with programmers Matmos, Mark Bell and Mark "Spike" Stent.- Producer
- Actor
- Music Department
RuPaul Andre Charles is an American actor, model, singer, songwriter, television personality, and author. As executive producer and host of the reality competition TV series RuPaul's Drag Race, RuPaul has received fourteen Primetime Emmy Awards - the most wins for outstanding host of a reality or competition program and for any Black artist in history.
In 2022, RuPaul received a Tony Award as a producer of Best Musical A Strange Loop.
RuPaul is the most commercially successful drag queen of all time, and in 2017 was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
RuPaul was born and raised in San Diego, CA and later moved to Atlanta, GA to study performing arts. After settling in New York City, RuPaul became a popular fixture on the nightclub scene before achieving international fame with the release of the 1993 song "Supermodel (You Better Work)."
In 1995, RuPaul became the first spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics, raising millions of dollars for the MAC AIDS Fund and becoming the first man to land a major cosmetics campaign.
In 1996, RuPaul landed a TV talk show on VH1, The RuPaul Show, taping more than 100 episodes with co-host Michelle Visage, while simultaneously co-hosting a morning drive radio show with Visage on WKTU.
As a recording artist, RuPaul has co-written and co-produced eighteen studio albums to date, including Foxy Lady (1996), Champion (2009), Glamazon (2011), Born Naked (2014), American (2017), and Black Butta (2023).
RuPaul's Drag Race has produced sixteen seasons to date and has inspired several international spin-off series, including RuPaul's Drag Race: UK and RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. RuPaul was also featured as a host on the series Skin Wars: Fresh Paint, Good Work, Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul, Lingo, Celebrity Lingo, and was the guest host of NBC's Saturday Night Live on February 8th, 2020.
As an actor, RuPaul has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows, both in and out of drag, including Crooklyn (1994), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), the Comedy Central series Broad City (2017), Netflix originals Girlboss (2017) and Grace and Frankie (2019), and as the voice of Queen Chante in The Simpsons (2018). In 2020, RuPaul teamed up with Michael Patrick King (Sex in the City, 2 Broke Girls) to produce the Netflix original comedy series AJ & The Queen, in which RuPaul also starred.
As an author, RuPaul has published four books: the #1 New York Times bestseller The House of Hidden Meanings (Harper Collins, 2024), GuRu (Harper Collins, 2018), Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style (Harper Collins, 2010), and Lettin' It All Hang Out (Hyperion Books, 1995).
On March 16, 2018, Jane Fonda presented RuPaul with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6652 Hollywood Blvd.
RuPaul lives in New York, California, and Wyomin.Dressing Up- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Producer
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.Dressing Up- Denali is known for Chicago Drag Excellence (2021), Look at Huh (2023) and RuPaul's Drag Race (2009).Dressing Up
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in Chicago, Shea Couleé (she/they) is an internationally-renowned drag superstar, performer, recording artist, podcast host, model, and actor known for their fashion-forward editorial looks. Couleé's legendary tenure on the Emmy-nominated show RuPaul's Drag Race includes winning All Stars 5 and finishing a finalist on the special all-winners edition of All Stars 7 and their original season, Drag Race 9. Couleé has performed in theater since nine years old.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Alaska Thunderfuck was born on 6 March 1985 in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018), Race Chaser with Alaska & Willam (2018) and Eastsiders (2012).- Jonathan Goldsmith was born on 26 September 1938 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Hang 'Em High (1968) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972). He has been married to Barbara Jacobson Buky since 2006. He was previously married to Betty Miller.
- The archetypal screen tough guy with weatherbeaten features--one film critic described his rugged looks as "a Clark Gable who had been left out in the sun too long"--Charles Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky, one of 15 children of struggling parents in Pennsylvania. His mother, Mary (Valinsky), was born in Pennsylvania, to Lithuanian parents, and his father, Walter Buchinsky, was a Lithuanian immigrant coal miner.
He completed high school and joined his father in the mines (an experience that resulted in a lifetime fear of being in enclosed spaces) and then served in WW II. After his return from the war, Bronson used the GI Bill to study art (a passion he had for the rest of his life), then enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. One of his teachers was impressed with the young man and recommended him to director Henry Hathaway, resulting in Bronson making his film debut in You're in the Navy Now (1951).
He appeared on screen often early in his career, though usually uncredited. However, he made an impact on audiences as the evil assistant to Vincent Price in the 3-D thriller House of Wax (1953). His sinewy yet muscular physique got him cast in action-type roles, often without a shirt to highlight his manly frame. He received positive notices from critics for his performances in Vera Cruz (1954), Target Zero (1955) and Run of the Arrow (1957). Indie director Roger Corman cast him as the lead in his well-received low-budget gangster flick Machine-Gun Kelly (1958), then Bronson scored the lead in his own TV series, Man with a Camera (1958). The 1960s proved to be the era in which Bronson made his reputation as a man of few words but much action.
Director John Sturges cast him as half Irish/half Mexican gunslinger Bernardo O'Reilly in the smash hit western The Magnificent Seven (1960), and hired him again as tunnel rat Danny Velinski for the WWII POW big-budget epic The Great Escape (1963). Several more strong roles followed, then once again he was back in military uniform, alongside Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in the testosterone-filled The Dirty Dozen (1967).
European audiences had taken a shine to his minimalist acting style, and he headed to the Continent to star in several action-oriented films, including Guns for San Sebastian (1968) (aka "Guns for San Sebastian"), the cult western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) (aka "Once Upon a Time in The West"), Rider on the Rain (1970) (aka "Rider On The Rain") and, in one of the quirkier examples of international casting, alongside Japansese screen legend Toshirô Mifune in the western Red Sun (1971) (aka "Red Sun").
American audiences were by now keen to see Bronson back on US soil, and he returned triumphantly in the early 1970s to take the lead in more hard-edged crime and western dramas, including The Valachi Papers (1972) and the revenge western Chato's Land (1972). After nearly 25 years as a working actor, he became an 'overnight" sensation. Bronson then hooked up with British director Michael Winner to star in several highly successful urban crime thrillers, including The Mechanic (1972) and The Stone Killer (1973). He then scored a solid hit as a Colorado melon farmer-done-wrong in Richard Fleischer's Mr. Majestyk (1974). However, the film that proved to be a breakthrough for both Bronson and Winner came in 1974 with the release of the controversial Death Wish (1974) (written with Henry Fonda in mind, who turned it down because he was disgusted by the script).
The US was at the time in the midst of rising street crime, and audiences flocked to see a story about a mild-mannered architect who seeks revenge for the murder of his wife and rape of his daughter by gunning down hoods, rapists and killers on the streets of New York City. So popular was the film that it spawned four sequels over the next 20 years.
Action fans could not get enough of tough guy Bronson, and he appeared in what many fans--and critics--consider his best role: Depression-era street fighter Chaney alongside James Coburn in Hard Times (1975). That was followed by the somewhat slow-paced western Breakheart Pass (1975) (with wife Jill Ireland), the light-hearted romp (a flop) From Noon Till Three (1976) and as Soviet agent Grigori Borsov in director Don Siegel's Cold War thriller Telefon (1977).
Bronson remained busy throughout the 1980s, with most of his films taking a more violent tone, and he was pitched as an avenging angel eradicating evildoers in films like the 10 to Midnight (1983), The Evil That Men Do (1984), Assassination (1987) and Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989). Bronson jolted many critics with his forceful work as murdered United Mine Workers leader Jock Yablonski in the TV movie Act of Vengeance (1986), gave a very interesting performance in the Sean Penn-directed The Indian Runner (1991) and surprised everyone with his appearance as compassionate newspaper editor Francis Church in the family film Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1991).
Bronson's final film roles were as police commissioner Paul Fein in a well-received trio of crime/drama TV movies Family of Cops (1995), Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II (1997) and Family of Cops III: Under Suspicion (1999). Unfortunately, ill health began to take its toll; he suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the last few years of his life, and finally passed away from pneumonia at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in August 2003.
Bronson was a true icon of international cinema; critics had few good things to say about his films, but he remained a fan favorite in both the US and abroad for 50 years, a claim few other film legends can make. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Billie Thomas was an African-American child actor who was best-known for appearing in the "Our Gang" film series from 1934 to its end in 1944.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Thomas auditioned for an "Our Gang" role when he was three years old. He was cast as a background player in the short films "For Pete's Sake!", "The First Round-Up", and "Washee Ironee", all from 1934.
With the short film "Mama's Little Pirate" (1935), Thomas became the third actor to portray the character "Buckwheat", who had at first been depicted as a bowed-pigtailed female character at first, portrayed by Carlena Beard (1929-1972) and Willie Mae Walton (1918-2018); Thomas was effectively cross-dressing for the role. Buckwheat eventually became a more masculine character, and was first credited as male in "The Pinch Singer" (1936). He gained an entirely-new costume for "Pay as You Exit" (1936), where he played a slave in search of a master. Thomas kept this new look--overalls, striped shirt, oversized shoes, and a large, unkempt Afro--for the duration of playing this role, until 1944.
Thomas performed in "Our Gang" for 10 years. During this time, he was only absent for a single film, "Feed 'em and Weep" (1938), because he was ill. His character was paired with that of Eugene "Porky" Lee: they were "the little kids" who outsmarted "the big kids": George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.
As a young child, Thomas had a speech impediment; this was transferred to his character and used as a comic device. Both Buckwheat and Porky spoke in "garbled dialogue" and pronounced "OK" as "O-tay!"
The series' original short films were produced by Hal Roach Studios, but production was taken over by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938. From 1938 to 1944, MGM produced 52 "Our Gang" short films and Thomas was the only cast member to appear in all of them. He was the only holdover from the Hal Roach era to remain in the series until its end.
Thomas' team-up with Eugene Lee ended when Lee was replaced by new cast member Robert Blake. By 1940 Thomas had outgrown his speech impediment, and Buckwheat started speaking clearly as well. The series' final film was "Dancing Romeo" (1944), and Thomas was 12 years old during its production.
While Buckwheat became synonymous with the "pickaninny" stereotype of African-American children, Thomas himself was well-liked for being depicted as a playmate and equal to the white children of the series. "Our Gang" featured a desegregated cast during the Jim Crow Era.
Thomas largely retired from acting following the 1940s. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956 and received both a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. Following his discharge, Thomas was offered new acting roles but he rejected them. He viewed an acting career as "a rat race ... with no security". Instead, he chose a more modest career as a film lab technician for the Technicolor corporation.
In the summer of 1980, surviving "Our Gang" cast members appeared in the second annual meeting of the fraternal organization the Sons of the Desert (named after a Laurel and Hardy film). Thomas received a spontaneous standing ovation by 500 fans, and cried in response. On October 10, 1980, he suffered a heart attack and died. He was 49 years old.
Thomas was survived by his son William Thomas Jr. In 1992, the younger Thomas created the Buckwheat Memorial Scholarship for students of California State Northridge University. The scholarship was named in honor of his father and his best-known role.- Actor
- Stunts
Evel Knievel was born on 17 October 1938 in Butte, Montana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bionic Woman (1976), Viva Knievel! (1977) and The Last of the Gladiators (1988). He was married to Krystal Kennedy-Knievel and Linda Knievel. He died on 30 November 2007 in Clearwater, Florida, USA.- One of the most recognizable grapplers of the 1980s, Sgt. Slaughter became huge in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), American Wrestling Association (AWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). While never actually serving as a United States Marine, Remus adopted the character Sgt. Slaughter and became a professional wrestler. During his run in the WWF, Sgt. Slaughter became a contender to Bob Backlund's WWF Championship and also faced Italian wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino in Sammartino's last match at Madison Square Garden. Sgt. Slaughter was also a NWA United States Champion, as well as NWA Tag Team Champion with Don Kernodle. When Sgt. Slaughter's career exploded, he became one of the most beloved and popular superstars in the WWF during the 1980s, along with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Snuka.
Besides becoming a household name in wrestling, the Sarge also made his name as a popular culture icon for letting the G.I. Joe using him as a toy. In 1991, he then won his first and only WWF Championship from the Ultimate Warrior at the year's Royal Rumble. After his retirement from being a full-time competitor, Sgt. Slaughter then became a commissioner, later a well respected road agent.
Sgt. Slaughter was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. - One of the most colorful wrestlers in and out of the ring, Randy "Macho Man" Savage became a larger-than-life pop icon along with other wrestling superstars, such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Snuka (aka "Superfly Jimmy Snuka"), Jesse Ventura and Dwayne Johnson (aka "The Rock").
When signed to the WWE (then known as the WWF), Savage immediately became a top heel (bad guy). He was managed by WWE Hall of Fame managers such as Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan, Classy Freddie Blassie (Freddie Blassie) and, of course his best known manager--the gorgeous Miss Elizabeth (Elizabeth Hulette). During his time in the WWE Savage went up against other WWE legends in the 1980s, such as Junkyard Dog (Sylvester Ritter), Merced Solis (aka Tito Santana), Bruno Sammartino and George 'The Animal' Steele. He also had a well-known feud going with WWE superstar Hulk Hogan.
While in the WWE Savage won the Heavywieght Title two times, the Intercontinental title once and was the 1989 King of the Ring. He then moved to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and signed a $6-million contract with them. He won the WCW Heavyweight Title four times,.
To fans, Savage is most notable for having an off- and on-screen relationship with Miss Elizabeth. Their relationship became the most famous love story in WWE history. However, their relationship started to go downhill, and it began to show in his professional life. Soon they split up. After having left the WCW, Savage went to TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) Wrestling.
Randy Savage died of cardiovascular disease on May 20, 2011, in Seminole, FL. - Michael Alig was born in South Bend, Indiana. He was a founding member of the notorious Club Kids, a group of young club goers led by Alig and James St. James in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Alig learned from mentors, including St. James, while rising in popularity and prominence in the national underground club scene. Alig was also influential in the early promotion of DJ Keoki, Jenny Talia, Freez, Richie Rich, and many other Club Kid personalities. The Club Kids' outrageous behavior resulted in their appearing on the news and the television talk show circuit.
Alig's most notorious parties were held at The Limelight, owned by Peter Gatien. The Limelight was closed by the police, but subsequently reopened several times during the 1990s. In September 2003, it reopened under the name "Avalon".
The events of Alig's years as a club promoter up to his arrest were examined in the 1998 documentary, Party Monster (1998), and recreated in a 2003 film of the same name (see Party Monster (2003)), starring Macaulay Culkin as Alig and Seth Green as St. James. The events are also covered in St. James's memoir, 'Disco Bloodbath'.
Alig was eligible for parole in November 2006, but was denied. He was again denied parole in July 2008 and had his conditional release date in March 2010. His release was held up after Alig received another ticket for prescription drug use. Alig was eventually released on parole in May 2014.Portrayed by Macauley Culkin in Party Monster (2003) - Producer
- Actor
- Make-Up Department
Greek-born Alexis Mardas was a charismatic self-proclaimed inventor and electronics wizard. During 1967 and 1968, The Beatles fell under his spell and plouged valuable Apple cash into financing his wild and often mythical inventions - which more often than not turned out to be hopeless failures or just boxes of flashing coloured lights. At the height of his influence, he offered to take them out of the drab over-familiar surroundings of Abbey Road and build them a custom-made recording studio in the Apple offices. The studio did appear but was of such poor quality that The Beatles were forced to return to Abbey Road. Their association with Alex was terminated shortly afterwards.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
L. Ron Hubbard was born on 13 March 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Battlefield Earth (2000), The Secret of Treasure Island (1938) and How the E-Meter Works (1976). He was married to Mary Sue Whipp, Sara Northrup and Margaret Louise Grubb. He died on 24 January 1986 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.- Art Department
- Director
- Writer
Banksy is known for Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) and History of the Wall (2017).- Abbie Hoffman was born on 30 November 1936 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Steal This Movie (2000) and Brand X (1970). He was married to Anita Hoffman and Sheila Karklin. He died on 12 April 1989 in New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Additional Crew
Bozo the Clown is known for Poodle Samizdat (2006), The 26th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (1952) and Hollywood Christmas Lane Parade of the Stars (1960).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Dennis Rodman is an American retired professional basketball player who played for the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was nicknamed "The Worm" and is famous for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities.
Rodman played at the small forward position in his early years before becoming a power forward. He earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships. His biography at NBA.com states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history". On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman's No. 10 jersey, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year.
In addition to being a retired professional basketball player, Rodman is a retired part-time professional wrestler and actor. He was a member of the nWo and fought alongside Hulk Hogan at two Bash at the Beach events. In professional wrestling, Rodman was the first ever winner of the Celebrity Championship Wrestling tournament. He had his own TV show, The Rodman World Tour (1996), and had lead roles in the action films Double Team (1997) and Simon Sez (1999). He also appeared in several reality TV series.- Edward Alexander "Aleister" Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, philosopher, professional writer, and self-proclaimed prophet. In his youth, Crowley joined the occult organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903), where he received much of his training in theurgy and ceremonial magic. In 1904, Crowley established his own religion: Thelema (Greek for "the will"). He had supposedly received a divine revelation from an angel. Crowley believed that humans should strive to overcome both their desires and their socially-instilled inhibitions in order to find out the true purpose of their respective lives. Several of Crowley's religious ideas went on to influence Wicca, the practice of chaos magick, Satanism, and Scientology.
In 1875, Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire to a wealthy family. His father was the retired engineer Edward Crowley (1829-1887), who was 46-years-old at the time of Crowley's birth. Edward had grown wealthy due to being the partial owner of a successful brewery. Cowley's mother was Emily Bertha Bishop (1848-1917), a member of a somewhat prominent family whose members lived in both Devonshire and Somerset.
Crowley's parents were converts of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian fundamentalist movement whose members believed that the Bible is the only authority for church doctrine and practice. Crowley received his early education at an evangelical boarding school located in Hastings. He was then send to the Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge. The boy grew to hate the abusive Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, who inflicted sadistic punishments on his students. Crowley eventually dropped out of this school, due to health problems. The boy had developed albuminuria, a urine disease.
By the time he was 12, Crowley was skeptical about Christianity and its teachings. Years of bible study had resulted in Crowley realizing and memorizing the inconsistencies in the Bible. He eagerly pointed these to his religious teachers. In his teen years, Crowley largely rejected Christian morality. He felt the need to satisfy his sexual urges, and did not view this need as immoral. He received college lessons in chemistry, and started writing poetry as a hobby. In his early 20s, Crowley was also a chess enthusiast, and an increasingly skilled mountaineer. In 1894, Crowley joined the Scottish Mountaineering Club. In 1895, Crowley climbed the peaks of five mountains in the Bernese Alps.
By 1895, Crowley started using his nickname "Aleister" as his legal name. From 1895 to 1898, Crowley attended Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied primarily philosophy and literature. He was the president of the local chess club, and briefly considered pursuing a career as a professional chess player. In 1896, Crowley had his first sexual experience with another man while vacationing in Stockholm, Sweden. He would later embrace his bisexuality. He had sexual sexual relationships with various men while living in Cambridge, though such activities were illegal in Victorian England. In 1897, Crowley started a romantic relationship with the on-stage female impersonator (drag queen) Herbert Charles Pollitt (1871-1942). They eventually broke up because Pollitt refused to join his boyfriend in his studies of mysticism and occultism. Crowley later wrote several texts concerning his lifelong regrets about ending his relationship with Pollitt.
In 1898, Crowley dropped out of Cambridge. He maintained excellent grades, but he lost interest in actually pursuing a degree. Also in 1898, Crowley published two volumes of his poems. Shortly after leaving Cambridge, the novice occultist Crowley started hanging out with members of the occultist organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903). He was formally initiated into the organization in November 1898. His initiation ritual was performed by the organization's de facto leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854 -1918). Crowley grew to consider Mathers to be an ineffectual leader.
In the late 1890s, Crowley received training in ceremonial magic by more experienced members of the Golden Dawn. He was fascinated with the ritual use of drugs. He rose through the organization's ranks, but was soon refused entry into the group's inner Second Order. The openly bisexual and libertine Crowley was disliked by several conservative members of the organization. Crowley had started a feud with a fellow member, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Yeats' friends resented Crowley.
A schism eventually started within the Golden Dawn, between Mathers' supporters and the members who disliked Mathers' autocratic policies. Crowley chose to support Mathers, and tried to take over one of the organization's temples in the name of Mathers. The dispute resulted in a court case between the rival factions of the Golden Dawn, over ownership of the temple. Mathers lost the court case, and Crowley started being treated as a pariah by members of the winning faction.
In 1900, Crowley decided to migrate to Mexico. He settled in Mexico City, where he experimented with the Enochian invocations of the famed occultist and alchemist John Dee (1527-1608/1609). His mountaineering activities led him to reach the top of several Mexican mountains, such as Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima. After leaving Mexico, Crowley started traveling the world in search of new experiences. He visited California, Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and France. Crowley took part in a failed mountaineering expedition that attempted to reach the peak of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. The expedition reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters). They abandon the attempt to reach the peak, as Crowley and several other expedition members were suffering from malaria.
In August 1903, Crowley married Rose Edith Kelly (1874-1932), the sister of one of his close friends. It was a marriage of convenience, not love. Rose wanted to escape an arranged marriage, and was fleeing from domineering family members. Her brother viewed the marriage as a personal betrayal by Crowley. The couple took an extended honeymoon. In February 1904, the couple settled in Cairo Egypt. Crowley started invoking ancient Egyptian deities in magical ceremonies. He also took the opportunity to study Islamic mysticism.
In early April 1904, Crowley started listening to the disembodied voice of the angel Aiwass. It supposedly delivered to Crowley messages from the god Horus, concerning a new age for humanity. Crowley recorded his divine revelations in "The Book of the Law", the first publication of Thelema. The disembodied voice supposedly also requested a number of difficult tasks from Crowley, who simply chose to ignore them as unreasonable demands.
In 1905, Crowley returned to his private estate in Scotland, for the first time in several years. He renounced his former mentor Mathers, as Crowley was convinced that the old man was conspiring against him. Crowley established his own printing company, the "Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth". He chose the name to mock a Christian charity organization, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698-). The primary purpose of the company was the promotion of Crowley's literary works. By this point, Crowley was relatively famous as a poet. Several of his poems were favorably received by critics, but they never sold well.
Crowley soon resumed world traveling. He led a failed mountaineering expedition to climb the mountain Kanchenjunga in Nepal. Crowley faced a mutiny over his reckless behavior during the expedition. He returned to India, then made an extended tour of Southern China. He also visited Hanoi in Vietnam. He worked on a new ritual while in China, invoking his Holy Guardian Angel. He proceeded to travel through Japan and Canada, and visited New York City in a failed effort to secure funding for a new mountaineering expedition.
Crowley's return to the United Kingdom came with a nasty surprise for him. He learned that his first-born daughter Lilith Crowley had died of typhoid fever during his absence. He also realized that his wife Rose was struggling with alcoholism, and that she was probably not fit to be a parent. His own health was failing at the time, and he underwent a series of surgical operations.
In 1907, Crowley started regularly using hashish in his magic rituals. In 1909, he published an essay concerning the mystical aspects of hashish use. He published several books concerning the occult during the late 1900s. The family fortune which he had inherited was running out at the time, and he tried to secure additional funds. At one point, Crowley was hired by George Montagu Bennett, the Earl of Tankerville, to protect him from evil witchcraft. Crowley realized that Tankerville was a cocaine-addict suffering from paranoia, so Crowley just improvised a drug rehabilitation project for his employer.
In 1908, Crowley realized that horror short stories were selling much better than poetry. So he published a series of his own horror stories. He also became a regular writer for a weekly magazine, the so-called "Vanity Fair" (1868-1914). In 1909, Crowley established his own magazine, "The Equinox" (1909-1998). The magazine specialized in texts about occultism and magick, but also regularly published poetry, prose fiction, and biographies.
In 1909, Crowley divorced his wife Rose, as he was fed-up with her drinking binges. Rose was institutionalized in 1911.In November 1909, Crowley started a long journey through the deserts of Algeria. He chose to recite the Quran on a daily basis while living in the desert. At one point, Crowley offered a blood sacrifice to the demon Choronzon while still in Algeria. He returned to London in January 1910, to find that his old mentor Mather was suing him for publishing secret texts of the defunct Golden Dawn. Crowley both won the court case, and enjoyed the publicity which the case brought him. The yellow press was portraying him as a Satanist, and Crowley found it amusing to embrace various stereotypes about Satanism at the time.
In 1910, Crowley organized the Rites of Artemis, a public performance of magic and symbolism. All the performers were associates and followers of Crowley. The celebrations received favorable reviews from the press. The encouraged Crowley soon organized the Rites of Eleusis in Westminster, but this performance received mostly negative reviews. There were press reports at the time that Crowley was homosexual, but the authorities made no attempt to arrest him. Crowley devoted the next couple of years to his writing activities, completing 19 works on magic and mysticism in this period. He also continued publishing poetry and fiction.
In 1912, Crowley published the magical book "The Book of Lies", one of his best-reviewed works. Crowley found himself accused of plagiarizing the works of the German occultist Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), based on the similarities between their ideas. Crowley managed to convince Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and befriended Reuss in the process. Crowley was then initiated in Reuss' own occult organization, the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). With Reuss' permission, Crowley established a British branch of the organization and completely rewrote most of the organization's rituals. OTO was practicing sex magic, and Crowley liked that idea.
In 1913, Crowley served as the producer for a group of female violinists. Primarily because the group's leader was a close friend and lover of Crowley. He followed them during 6 weeks of performances in Moscow, Russia. Crowley wrote several new works while in Moscow. In January 1914, Crowley and his long-term lover Victor Neuburg settled together in a Parisian apartment. The couple experimented with sex magic rituals, which involved the use of strong drugs. At the time, Crowley regularly invoked the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury in his new rituals. Noticing that Neuburg had started distancing himself from Crowley by the end of their vacation in Paris, Crowley had an intense argument with him and ritually cursed Neuburg.
By 1914, Crowley was nearly bankrupt. He financially depended on donation by his followers. In May 1914, he transferred the ownership of his estate in Scotland. Later that year, Crowley suffered from a bout of phlebitis. Following his recovery, he decided to migrate to the United States for financial reasons. He settled in New York City, where he became a regular writer for the American version of the magazine "Vanity Fair" (1913-1936). He continued experimenting with sex magic while living in the Big Apple.
During World War I, Crowley declared his support for the German Empire against the British Empire. His sympathies were possibly influenced by his German friends in the OTO. In 1915, Crowley was hired as a writer for the propagandist newspaper "The Fatherland", which championed German interests in the United States. Crowley left New York City for a while, going on an extended tour of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He visited Vancouver to make contact with the local variation of the OTO. Crowley spend part of the winter of 1916 in New Orleans, which was his favorite American city. In February 1917, Crowley headed to Florida for a family reunion with a number of his evangelical Christian relatives who had settled there.
Later in 1917, Crowley returned to New York City. He struggled with unemployment, as several of the newspapers and magazines which had previously hired him had shut down. In 1918, Crowley worked on a new translation of the Taoist book "Tao Te Ching". At the time, Crowley claimed to have started experiencing past life memories. Fueled by his belief in reincarnation, Crowley proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Pope Alexander VI/Rodrigo de Borja (1431-1503, term 1492-1503). Having more free time than usual while living in Greenwich Village, Crowley found a new hobby in painting. He exhibited several of his painting at a local literary club, and attracted some attention from the local press.
In 1919, the impoverished Crowley moved back to London. The local press labeled a traitor for his Germanophile tendencies. He was suffering from asthma attacks at the time. An English doctor prescribed a supposedly miraculous drug for Crowley, which promised to cure his asthma. The drug was actually heroine, and was highly addictive. Crowley developed a drug addiction. In January 1920, Crowley moved to the Parisian apartment of his lover Leah Hirsig. While there, he started efforts to establish a new organization, the Abbey of Thelema. He named it after a fictional organization which had appeared in the works of Francois Rabelais (c. 1483-1553).
In April 1920, Crowley settled in Sicily with a number of his supporters and their families. They established the Abbey of Thelema. They established daily rituals for the sun god Ra. Crowley offered a libertine education for the children of his followers, and allowed them to witness sex magic rituals. The organization soon attracted new followers, but Crowley's drug addiction was increasingly out of control. In 1922, Crowley published the autobiographical novel "Diary of a Drug Fiend". The British press criticized it for supposedly promoting the use of drugs.
In 1923, Crowley was at the center of an international scandal. A young Thelemite follower died from a liver infection, after drinking polluted water. His widow published stories of the unsanitary conditions in the Abbey, and of self-harm rituals which Crowley had created for his followers. The international press published scathing stories for Crowley. Benito Mussolini, the fascist Prime Minister of Italy (1883-1945, term 1922-1943) decided to deport Crowley in April 1923. The Abbey was not officially targeted by the fascist government, but it soon collapsed due to its lack of leadership. There was no way to attract more followers of Crowley to Sicily without using Crowley's physical presence as a tool for recruitment.
In self-exile in Tunis during much of 1923, Crowley started working on his autobiography, "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley". In January 1924, Crowley moved back to France in preparation for a series of nasal operations. For the next few years, Crowley spend part of each year in Tunis and part of each year in France. He wrote a few significant works at the time, though some of his personal relationships deteriorated.
In the mid-1920s, Crowley declared himself to be the new leader of the OTO, following the death of Reuss. His right to leadership was questioned by other candidate leaders,. The OTO soon split itself to several rival factions, each proclaiming itself to be the true continuation of the original organization. In 1928, Crowley was deported from France. Due to Crowley's past loyalty to the German Empire, the French authorities worried that he may be a German agent.
In 1929, Crowley moved back to the United Kingdom. He secured a book deal with Mandrake Press, which agreed to publish his autobiography and several works of prose fiction. The Great Depression negatively affected Crowley. In November 1930, Mandrake went into liquidation. Crowley was left with no regular published for his works, and no regular source of income. Crowley spend part of the year 1930 in Berlin, Germany, where his expressionistic paintings were displayed in a gallery. His works gained favorable press reviews, but few of them were actually sold. Painting was not a profitable occupation for Crowley.
In January 1932, Crowley started socializing with German communists and other far left figures in Berlin, despite having never previously expressed any interest in their ideologies. Some of his biographers suspect that Crowley was merely acting as a spy for British intelligence at this time. Later that year, he returned to London for another nasal surgery. In desperate need of money, Crowley launched a series of court cases for libel against his perceived enemies. The litigation proved more expensive than he expected, and he was declared bankrupt in February 1935. The bankruptcy case revealed that Crowley's expenses over the past few years had far exceeded his income.
In 1936, Crowley published "The Equinox of the Gods". It was his first new book in half a decade, and sold unusually well. Crowley also managed to secure funding from the Agape Lodge, a Californian splinter faction of the OTO. His benefactor was the Lodge's de facto leader, the rocket engineer Jack Parsons (1914-1952). Crowley was concerned at the time about the disestablishment of the German faction of the OTO, whose members faced persecution by the Nazi Party. Several of Crowley's German friends had been arrested, and others had fled the country.
During World War II, Crowley was closely associated with the British intelligence community. His biographers are uncertain whether he was working as a British agent, or merely assisting actual agents. Among Crowley's close associates during the War were two fellow British writers who were working as intelligence agents: Roald Dahl (1916-1990) and Ian Fleming (1908-1964). Crowley supposedly helped create a new war slogan for the BBC, called "V for Victory". His asthma attacks worsened during the war, in part because the medication he needed was unavailable. He was briefly hospitalized in Torquay. Among Crowley's last published works was a wartime book about the concept of human rights.
On December 1, 1947, Crowley died due to chronic bronchitis, aggravated by pleurisy. He was 72-years-old at the time of his death. Despite Crowley maintaining several friendly and professional contacts during the last years of his life, only about a dozen people bothered to attend his funeral. His body was cremated, and his ashes were delivered to the next leader of the OTO, Karl Gemer. Gemer was living at the time in exile in the United States. Gemer buried Crowley's ashes in a garden located in Hampton, New Jersey. Crowley remains one of the most famous and influential occultists of his era, thought the nature of his legacy remains a controversial topic. - Actor
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Don King coined the phrase, "Only in America." He lives it. He breathes it. He believes it. It's part of his soul. "Only in America can a Don King happen," explains Don. "America is the greatest country in the world-I love America. What I've accomplished could not have been done anywhere else." Indeed, the odds have always been long for King. A product of the hard-core Cleveland ghetto, he beat those odds to become the world's greatest promoter. His shocking hairstyle, infectious smile, booming laugh and inimitable vocabulary have made Don King universally recognizable. He has been featured on the covers of Time, Sports Illustrated, Ebony, Jet, and countless other magazines. He has appeared in movies, television shows and on numerous television and radio talk shows. There was even an award-winning unauthorized movie loosely based on his life and numerous other attempts by Hollywood to depict his larger-than-life personality. Don's promotions have entertained billions around the globe. His life has been devoted to staging the best in world-championship boxing as well as always giving something back to the people. Don King-promoted events have given the sports and entertainment world some of its most thrilling and memorable moments. Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997, King was the only boxing promoter named to Sports Illustrated's list of the "40 Most Influential Sports Figures of the Past 40 Years." The following year as part of New York City's centennial celebration, King, along with such notables as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall, musician Duke Ellingon, and poet Maya Angelou, was named by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as one of the New York City's 100 top black achievers of the century.- Laurence Robert Harvey was born on July 17, 1970. He is a British actor, best known for portraying Martin Lomax in a horror film The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011), directed by Tom Six. In the film, Martin is an obese, asthmatic and mentally challenged security guard for a parking lot, who is obsessed with the original film. Harvey also appears in The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015) in a different role than part 2.
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Originally born Harris Glen Milstead just after the end of WWII, Baltimore's most outrageous resident eventually became the international icon of bad taste cinema, as the always shocking and highly entertaining transvestite performer, Divine.
Milstead met maverick film director & good friend, John Waters, at high school in Baltimore, and the two combined to star in and direct several ultra low budget, taboo breaking cult films of the early 1970s. Their first efforts included Roman Candles (1967), Eat Your Makeup (1968) and Mondo Trasho (1969)....however, their most infamous work together was the amazing Pink Flamingos (1972), in which Divine starred as "Babs Johnson", the "filthiest person alive" living in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son and voyeuristic daughter.
Divine also starred as career criminal Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble (1974), as bored housewife Francine Fishpaw in Polyester (1981), as outlaw gal Rosie Velez in Lust in the Dust (1984) and in Waters' loving (but still slightly bizarre) salute to teen dance TV shows as Ricki Lake's mother in the superb Hairspray (1988).
Milstead's health deteriorated due to to his obese frame, and he passed away in his sleep from a combination of heart attack and apnea in 1988.- Music Artist
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Engelbert Humperdinck was born on 2 May 1936 in Madras, Madras Presidency, British India [now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India]. He is a music artist and actor, known for Game Night (2018), You Were Never Really Here (2017) and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996). He was previously married to Patricia Healey.- Producer
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One of the most listened to doctors in America, Dr. Drew hosted the nationally syndicated radio show "Loveline", where he had taken calls from listeners since 1983. Dr. Drew is a practicing physician who is board certified in internal and addiction medicine, sill runs a private practice, is on staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck USC School of Medicine.
Dr. David Drew Pinsky, better known as Dr. Drew, was born September 4, 1958 in Pasadena, California. He is the oldest child with a sister, Dana, now a paralegal, who is six years younger. His mother, Helene, was a homemaker, and his father, Morton, was a doctor. Drew used to go on house calls with his father and decided young that he wanted to be a doctor, too. Drew attended Polytechnic High School, a private school in Pasadena, before going to Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In high school, Drew played football and was class president. At Amherst, Drew majored in Biology. He graduated from high school in 1976 and, with an undergraduate degree, from Amherst in 1980. Upon graduation, Drew came back to California and attended the University of Southern California, School of Medicine. He graduated with an M.D. from USC in 1984. Drew served his residency at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. He was appointed to chief resident at HMH. Now he is in private practice in Pasadena where his patients are 60+ years old and also does rounds at Las Encinas Hospital. He began hosting the radio version of Loveline in 1983, when he was in his third year of medical school. KROQ was just a small, local station then. Now, Drew does the radio show Sunday through Thursday, 10:00 PM to midnight (Pacific Time). He began doing the MTV version of Loveline about 5 years ago. Drew tapes the shows on Fridays and Saturdays.
Dr. Drew co-authored the first academic study on celebrities and narcissism. The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Elsevier) and received worldwide press coverage. Dr. Drew's professional activities in the medical field are numerous.
Dr. Drew and Vh1 teamed up for the first reality TV series to depict the process of overcoming addiction. Now in its third season, "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" was critically acclaimed by the addiction community for pulling back the veil of secrecy about what goes on in rehabilitation programs. "Sober House," which chronicles the sober living process, began airing in January 2009 and is now in it's second season. "Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" looks at the struggles and treatment of those dealing with serious sex addictions. Using the media to deliver information, Dr. Drew often appearance on national and international television and radio to talk about sex, relationships, and addiction. He frequently guest hosts for CNN's Larry King Live and is a regular contributor on the Today Show. Dr. Drew has stopped in to visit Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Conan O'Brien, and Chelsea Lately to name a few. He has been profiled in Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Muscle & Fitness and was named one of the top 10 Real Sexiest Men by O Magazine, and one of the top 10 Silver Foxes by OK Magazine. Dr. Drew is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America (Harper-Collins) and Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again (Harper-Collins).
His membership and activities in professional societies include the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the California Medical Association and the American Society of Internal Medicine. When he's not traveling the country speaking at college campuses, Dr. Drew enjoy playing sports, working out and spending time at home with his wife Susan and their teenage triplets.
Dr. Drew met his wife, Susan, at a bar in Laguna Beach, California in the 1980s. They have triplets; Douglas, Jordan, and Paulina. The triplets were conceived by in vitro fertilization. In his little spare time, Drew likes to play with his children, read by the pool, play the piano, and sing opera (he's a baritone & he trained for 12 years).Among the darlings. See Also: Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil- Grumpy Cat was born on 4 April 2012 in Morristown, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever (2014), N00bslayr (2017) and Bizaardvark (2016). She died on 14 May 2019 in Morristown, Arizona, USA.
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Piggy D. is known for The Lords of Salem (2012), Alice Cooper: Along Came a Spider (2008) and Rob Zombie: Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga (2015). He has been married to Maureen Van Mortis since 7 October 2011.- Director
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Bobby Blood is a world-traveled Drummer from legendary bands such as Downset, First Blood, and Merauder. He studied Film Production in Las Vegas, NV, and Los Angeles, CA. Blood's films are focused primarily on the Horror genre, and he is the co-host and producer of the 85 Grave Horror Show & Podcast. Blood is a devout vegan of 15+ years and lives a straight-edge lifestyle.- Jaafar Jackson is a rising singer, songwriter and entertainer born in Los Angeles, California. He is the second youngest son to legendary singer, songwriter, and producer Jermaine Jackson and nephew to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
As a young child, Jaafar had aspirations of being a professional golfer, however, having grown up surrounded by a family of iconic entertainers in Encino, California his entire life, it was only natural that Jaafar followed suit.
As the Jackson family notably holds the most powerful musical influencers in the world, Jaafar naturally has an amazingly eccentric and extraordinary taste in music. Along with listening to film scores, Jaafar spends his time showcasing a great deal of variety in his selections from Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye to Nat Cole and Johnny Mathis.
Beginning his music career at the tender age of 12, Jaafar is well versed in playing the piano and has developed a slew of techniques and a wealth of knowledge of music and artistry.
A creative spirit, Jaafar also shares his appreciation for the arts which includes drawing, traveling and a keen love for fashion. Outside of America, his favorite places to visit are Hong Kong and Austria. The landscaping, shops, and great energy are what Jackson says makes these places dear to his heart.
With dreams of traveling to Paris and collaborating with renowned producer Rick Rubin, Jaafar's timeless tenor voice, captivating swagger, and magnetic Pop and R&B vibe are sure to lead him to influence people of all demographics. He wants to be remembered as an artist who makes great music by telling stories, all while inspiring people to be themselves.
Jaafar is managed by Alex Avant, son of legendary executive, entrepreneur, and film producer Clarence Avant also known as the "Godfather of Black Music". - Character actor John Richard Link was born on November 6, 1946. The son of John Link Sr. and Anne Link, Link was a graduate of Ridgefield Memorial High School in Ridgefield, New Jersey. A lovable eccentric with a most unique and distinctive screen presence, John was often cast in colorful supporting roles in low-budget indie horror fare. Outside of acting, Link was also a musical performer with David Peel & The Lower East Side band at assorted New York City rock'n'roll venues, the host of the Blog Talk Radio program The John Link Show, a noted B-movie historian, a paranormal investigator, and a popular perennial guest at the biannual Chiller Theater Expo horror convention held in New Jersey. Moreover, John was also part of a stand-up comedy team with longtime friend and fellow actor Edward X. Young, with whom he performed with in many films and numerous live stage gigs. Link died on his 75th birthday on November 6, 2021 at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. John was predeceased by his mother Anne Link, whom he cared for at home until she was 99 years old. He was survived by his brother Frederick Roy Link and several cousins.
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Spookey Ruben is a Canadian musician, composer, producer, songwriter and filmmaker. Best known for his song and music video "These Days Are old", Ruben's songwriting and eccentric production techniques often contrast high and low vocals, analogue keyboards, found sounds, sampled beats and stringed instruments such as electric and Spanish guitar. Spookey has released seven full-length solo albums.
In 2008, Spookey Ruben began filming a series of short films. There have been seven episodes, which include musicians from various bands.- Johnny Eck was born John Echkardt, twenty minutes after his twin brother Robert. The boys entered the sideshow circuit at the age of 12, where John was billed as "Johnny Eck, The Half-boy." Johnny went on to play a role in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932) before returning with his brother to Baltimore, where he became a screen painter. Johnny died January 5, 1991, at the age of 79, in the house where he was born.
- Vissarion, born as Sergey Anatolyevich Torop, in Krasnodar 1961, is a Russian mystic and spiritual leader of the Vissarionites. He is the son of Anatoly Torop and Nadezhda (nee Malashenko); after his military service in the Red Army, he settled in Minusinsk, where he worked as a patrol officer before losing his job in 1989. On 18 August 1990 he claims that he had a revelation and a reincarnation of Christ. Reborn as Vissarion, the returned Jesus Christ, he soon afterwards he founded a religious movement, the Church of the Last Testament, also known as "Community of Unified Faith", with its head church located in the Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk Depression east of Abakan, in the small settlement of Petropavlovka. In 2013 the movement gathered five thousand followers, known as Vissarionites, who live in a community based in the rural Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia. The Church of the Last Testament combines elements of the Russian Orthodox Church with Buddhist themes of reincarnation, as well as preparations for the impending apocalypse; members are vegan and are restricted from drinking alcohol, smoking, and using money. Vissarion has two wives, and six children from two marriages.
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Bert Kreischer's career has evolved from earning Rolling Stone's 1997 "Number One Partier in the Nation," to one of the top grossing stand-up comics in the business. In 2022, Pollstar listed Bert as #4 in the "Top 10 Highest Grossing Tours", performing to sold-out arenas around the globe. He is currently on his 2023 Tops Off World Tour.
As one of the best storytellers of his generation, Kreischer seamlessly and sincerely shares anecdotes about his family and fatherhood while showing his ability to prove "that there's a way to take his [party-boy] antics into middle-age," (Forbes).
On March 14th, Kreischer released his highly anticipated 5th stand-up special, Razzle Dazzle on Netflix. Shameless - and shirtless - as ever, Bert spills on bodily emissions, being bullied by his kids and the explosive end to his family's escape room outing. His stand-up specials Secret Time, The Machine, and Hey Big Boy are currently streaming on Netflix.
As if that wasn't enough, Kreischer tops off this summer as the star in the Legendary/ Sony picture film, The Machine, exclusively in theatres across the country May 26th. Set 23 years after the study abroad experience he chronicled in his 2016 Showtime stand-up special, the movie follows Kreischer as the Russian mafia finally catches up with him after all these years and seeks retribution for the crimes that he committed in their country as a rowdy, drunken college student.
In additional to a successful stand-up career, Kreischer has made himself a household name in the podcast world with several top comedy podcasts including Bertcast and Two Bears One Cave that he co-hosts with Tom Segura. He also hosts the popular YouTube cooking show, Something's Burning.- Actor
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Mike Ferguson is a tattoo artist turned actor who in a short time has become a prolific and invaluable staple in independent genre films and beyond. His early roles include the TV show Death Squad, the film Triassic Hunt, and memorable scenes in Timothy Woodward's American Violence and Silencer. He recently had leads in Amityville Uprising (Lionsgate) and Shadowmarsh (Lew Temple and Felissa Rose), and has shared the screen with John Savage, Bonnie Aarons, Andrew Divikoff, Nicky Whelan, Casper Van Dien and Louis Mandylor. YouTube audiences know him as the "Professional Bounty Hunter" in the videos of Ben Azelart , The Stokes Twins, Zhong ,NichLmao ,Topper Guild and Ryan Prunty. He has supporting roles in the upcoming films Showdown at the Grand (Terrence Howard and Dolph Lundgren) and The Last Deal. "If your gonna be dumb , You got to be tough ..I'm extra tough " Mike Ferguson- Actor
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Born in Cheltenham, England, Richard Smith's family moved to Tauranga, New Zealand, in 1951 when his father, an accountant, decided to become a sheep farmer. Watching horror and science-fiction double features in nearby Hamilton, Smith added an interest in acting to his love of rock and roll. He moved back to England in 1964, tried singing, then became a movie stuntman and fringe theater actor. He changed his name to O'Brien (his beloved maternal grandmother's name) one day while on the phone to British Actors Equity, to avoid confusion with another Richard Smith. He met director Jim Sharman in 1972, when Sharman cast him in the dual roles of Apostle and Leper for the London stage production (transferred from Sharman's native Australia) of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Working again with Sharman on a production of Sam Shepard's "The Unseen Hand", O'Brien mentioned a new rock musical he'd been writing called "Rock Horror." The play went into rehearsals as "They Came from Denton High," and at Sharman's suggestion, was retitled "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" before opening in June 1973.- Actress
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Bonnie Morgan is a talented actress, a daring stunt woman and an extraordinary contortionist with an uncanny ability to bend herself to fit any role. The mad-capped redhead is an eccentric comedienne, yet she is most often cast to play dramatic, horrific monsters!
In "The Ring Two," she shocked horror fans with her terrifying and now infamous "spider crawl" performance as 'Samara,' chasing Naomi Watt's character out of the well.
Bonnie has now taken over the iconic role of 'Samara' in the upcoming "Rings 3," where she returns with a familiar video tape to strike terror once again. "Rings 3," the latest in the $400 million horror franchise, will be released by Paramount on April 1st, 2016.
In addition, Bonnie can be seen as 'Tree Witch' in Lionsgate's supernatural action film "The Last Witch Hunter," starring Vin Diesel.
In the 2012 hit Paramount thriller "The Devil Inside," Bonnie terrified audiences as the demonically possessed 'Rosa,' showcasing both her acting and contortionist abilities in a role that was both physically and emotionally demanding.
Bonnie grew up in a castle on a crest of the Hollywood Hills, raised by third-generation circus performers who also have a fantastic horror lineage. Bonnie's father Gary Morgan is an incredible stuntman/actor who played 'Billy' in the sci-fi classic "Logan's Run" and doubled the dog in "Cujo," and her aunt Robbi Morgan played 'Annie,' Jason's first victim in "Friday the 13th."
Before she could walk, Bonnie's dad started teaching her acrobatics, and, as she grew, she showed a remarkable aptitude for trapeze, silks, stilts and tight rope. Expanding on her repertoire, she soon discovered her astounding powers as a contortionist at the tender age of nine.
She began her acting career as a child, doing commercials and guest-starring on such family-favorite series as "Blossom," "The Nanny" and "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman." She went on to follow in her father's footsteps, augmenting her acting career with stunts and creature characters in such films as "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," where she marauded through the troll market; and "Men in Black II," where a head-like appliance was placed on her behind - hence the moniker 'Jabba the Butt.'
Bonnie's acting and contorting talents have also merged in such features as "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," marking her third film with Jim Carrey; "National Lampoon's Transylmania"; Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise; and "Piranha 3D" where she was hilariously eaten alive through an inner tube. More recently, she appeared opposite Robert Englund in "Fear Clinic," playing 'Paige,' a patient who perishes during the opening credits, yet haunts Englund's character throughout the story, eventually merging as Evil itself!
Fearless and uniquely agile, Bonnie has also contributed her skills to daring stunts in such films as "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," "Fright Night" and "Peter Pan," also showcasing her acting talents in each film with roles as a Who, a vampire and a fairy, respectively.
For the small screen, she partied on Showtime's "Shameless," was broken and bent as the Terminator Rosie on "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," and was beaten to a pulp by Michelle Rodriguez in the short "Sorority Pillow Fight." In "Criminal Minds," she had a recurring role as a broken, tortured human marionette doll. She has also appeared on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Castle" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Most recently, she contorted for Patrick Stewart in his Starz original series "Blunt Talk."
Bonnie's diverse appearances have ranged from Shakespearean troupes to Los Angeles-based circuses, in addition to opening for the legendary Paul McCartney in his Driving USA Tour. She was the opening act this past year for the Mistress of Darkness' "Elvira's Big Top" show at Knott's Scary Farm. She has performed in numerous Shakespeare productions, including the role of 'Gertrude' in "Hamlet." Her favorite Shakespearean character is the clever, mischievous sprite 'Puck' in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which she has played in seven productions.
She is also a regular performer at the historic and uber-exclusive Brookledge Theater in Hollywood, owned by the Magic Castle's Larsen Family. Bonnie and her family also perform annually at the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and Bonnie has recently starred in and directed a Commedia del Arte with her family at the Faire, among other venues. Another feather in her cap is a Guinness World Record for her remarkable contortionist abilities!
The Morgan Family is known for throwing legendary, by-invitation-only parties in their eccentric home, known as Morgan Castle, which sits high above Los Angeles on a peak in Laurel Canyon. Recent themes have been "Back to the Future Prom," "Jungle Boogie" and "Beatlemania," as well as the most epic New Year's Eve party to ring in 2015!
Bonnie is also consistently in demand for commercials, becoming such famous characters as FLO-BOT in the Progressive Insurance commercials, the Kia Sock Monkey, the Comcast Robot, The Silk Soy Milk Cow, the Awkward Robot Butler for WINK, and a menacing creature in the #7000 Chemicals campaign.- The 1981 Manila International Film Festival was designed by First Lady Imelda Marcos as an elaborate showcase of Filipino culture. To everyone's horror, the only film that sold to the world was a midget spy film - a miniature mockery of Western pop iconography, and a joyously naïve celebration of Filipino Goon Cinema - called For Y'ur Height Only. Its star, a two-foot nine primordial dwarf named Weng Weng, became the most famous Filipino celebrity of his generation both inside the Philippines and abroad, yet curiously, less than 30 years later, the real Weng Weng story has all but been forgotten even by those who worked alongside him. Blame faulty or selective memories, or a fad-driven culture that never pauses long enough to ask "who?", "what?" or "why?" - truth is, the story of Weng Weng has become one of the Philippines' greatest urban legends, and the wildest and woolliest of stories fill in the gaps. Stand-up comedian married to a porn actress, real-life secret agent, hit karaoke chanteur with Imelda, the flow is endless. Once the horsecrap hardens, it's almost impossible to extricate truth from fiction, the right from the rot.
It's taken me over a year, three visits to the Philippines and more than 40 interviews with the people closest to him, including his only surviving relative, brother Celing de la Cruz, to glean the following information. There are still enormous gaps, but this is the most detailed portrait of Weng Weng I am able to put together; my documentary The Search For Weng Weng is as complete as it ever will be.
Weng Weng was born Ernesto de la Cruz, the youngest of five brothers, on 7th September 1957 in Balacaran, a district of Pasay City (now part of the sprawling 17-city Metro Manila). A condition known as primordial dwarfism caused him to be born, in the words of his brother Celing, "no bigger than a coke bottle", and he spent the first 12 months of his life in an incubator. He was not expected to live. Naturally, it was declared a miracle when he did, and in a country that venerates miraculous acts of faith, it is no surprise that Weng Weng was dressed as the Christ-child figure at the head of Baclaran's yearly Santo Nino parade.
A cheerfully mischievous child, his family nicknamed him Weng Weng, an epithet usually reserved for toy dogs. He was obsessed with martial arts and trained almost daily, until his instructor contacted film producer Peter Caballes and said, "You just have to see THIS." Peter and his wife, the successful businesswoman Cora Ridon Caballes, took Weng Weng on the rounds of film producers, including Bobby A. Suarez, whose novelty kiddie films The Bionic Boy (1977) and Dynamite Johnson: The Bionic Boy Part 2 (1978) were already international hits. Suarez turned down the idea of Weng Weng as a midget Superman, but successful indie producer/director Luis San Juan, who specialized in kung fu films for the export market, cast Weng Weng in a cameo in a film whose name is now lost to the sands of time. Peter Caballes then introduced Weng Weng to the King of Philippines Comedy, Dolphy, who cast him as his kung-fu kicking sidekick in his spy caper The Quick Brown Fox (1980) and western parody Da Best In Da West (1981).
Weng Weng, meanwhile, was a frequent visitor of the Marcos family at the Presidential Palace, where he was made an honorary Secret Agent by future President General Ramos, and was presented with a badge and a 25-callibre pistol. This act may have been the direct inspiration for Weng Weng's first starring role as Agent OO in the James Bond parody For Y'ur Height Only, produced by Peter and written by Cora Caballes for their company Liliw Productions. Eddie Nicart, renowned stunt director for the SOS Daredevils, trained Weng Weng every day for three months to be a professional stuntman, and was given his first opportunity to direct.
It's hard to pin down the appeal of For Y'ur Height Only - whether it's the inadvertently genius deconstruction of both Western action films and their Pinoy counterparts, surreal pot-addled dubbing by American expats (and Apocalypse Now survivors) Jim Gaines and Nick Nicholson, or inspired casting of every Bad Guy (or "Goon") still alive at the time, and the James Bond of the Philippines himself, Tony Ferrer aka Agent X44, as Weng Weng's boss. It all adds up to an absurdist masterpiece of gloriously bad cinema, one which was sold all over the world and became one of the Philippines' most successful exports.
Weng Weng became an instant superstar, appearing on TV and at parties, film festivals, movie openings. Liliw Productions quickly cranked out a much less successful Agent OO sequel, The Impossible Kid (1982), and a modern Pinoy western D'Wild Wild Weng (1982), starring Weng Weng as a government agent known as "Mr Weng", which doesn't appear to have made it beyond the Philippines borders. There may be other Weng Weng film appearances, including a starring role in Agent OO (c.1981) and a guest cameo alongside the stick-thin Palito's character "James Bone", but even in the Philippines information is sketchy at best, if not non-existent.
As the profits diminished, Cora Caballes moved on to a political career and Liliw Productions folded. As a result, Weng Weng found himself no longer flavour of the month and without a film career. According to his brother, his family was poor before he became famous, and afterwards remained as poor as ever. In a bizarre twist of fate, General Ramos decided to put Weng Weng through paratrooper training; this time he was given a genuine Agent badge and was sent on infiltration missions where his size would been used to its maximum advantage. Thanks to the Caballes' connections at Manila Airport, Weng Weng was seen patrolling the Arrivals Lounge in the mid-Eighties in his blue uniform as the unlikeliest "Welcome To Manila" banner.
He continued to live in the family home in Baclaran, gained weight and, according to some reports, drank heavily, and developed hypertension after a severe reaction to eating crabmeat. His health declined steadily over the next twelve to eighteen months, and he died of heart failure on 29th August 1992, just short of his 35th birthday.
The Philippines' tiniest film icon is buried in a modest white marble tomb with his parents, grandparents and great-grandmother in Pasay City Cemetary. - Jim Jones was born during the Great Depression. He was the only son of James Thurman Warren Jones Sr. (1887-1951) and Lynetta Putnam (1902-1977). His father was an alcoholic Klansman and he claimed his mother was part Cherokee Indian. He spent most of his formative years in conservative rural Indiana. His father struggled to earn a living as a mystic fortune teller. His parents separated in 1948 and he went to live with his mother in Richmond, Indiana. Jones also worked as an orderly at a local hospital. He got married young, to a nurse 4 years his senior, and adopted 3 children of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Jones began working as a Methodist minister in Indianapolis in the early 1950 decade. In 1954, when he claimed he had met God on a train ride near Philadelphia, he was defrocked. The charismatic leader then founded his own gathering - the Community National Unity Church. By 1955 he had renamed it the People's Temple Full Gospel Church. He set up a soup kitchen, gave away groceries and clothes to the poor, and established two nursing homes, while preaching messages of apostolic socialism and racial equality. Secretly, he also joined the Communist party on the side. He was appointed director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission in 1961. Jones began a dubious path as a "spiritual healer" by planting actors among his believers and miraculously 'healing' them. Jones was getting richer and more popular.
In the early 1960s, during the height of the Cold War, Jones had a vision of apocalyptic destruction. Jones took the vision seriously and decided to move his congregation to Ukiah, California, in the Redwood Valley region north of San Francisco. This area was believed to be one of 9 places on earth that would be safe during a global nuclear war. He then moved to San Francisco's Fillmore district in 1965. Over the next 10 years, his 'flock' of believers reached a peak of 3,000. Jones could be heard on regular radio broadcasts over KFAX radio in California. However, there were occasional bizarre behaviors as well: in April of 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, Jones staged a fake attempt on his own life.
Jones received several humanitarian awards in Northern California for his work with the poor. In 1976, he was appointed to the San Francisco Housing Authority by the Mayor George Moscone for his commitment to social activism. However Jones was becoming more and more of a dictator. He demanded sexual favors from some young women, was the only person who could decide if a couple in his congregation could get married, and often separated children from their parents. In 1973, eight close aides defected from his camp and revealed these details to the press, including allegations of misuse of church money. Very soon after, Jones had begun making plans to move his congregation to the socialist nation of Guyana in South America. By 1974, fifteen of Jones' followers had negotiated a lease for 27,000 acres on Guyana's western border with Venezuela, and began clearing the jungle for what would become the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, or "Jonestown." Jones eventually relocated to Guyana in July 1977. In December 1977, his mother Lynetta Jones died at Jonestown.
In 1978, a group of ex-members calling themselves the Committee of Concerned Relatives published literature that likened Jonestown to a concentration camp, complete with torture. Jones began teaching his followers about mass suicide and held practice drills to test his members' loyalty for the "White Night". In November 1978, U.S. House Representative Leo J. Ryan visited the compound and sought to bring back several defectors, including an ex-member's child. Leo's entourage, along with fifteen defectors, were ambushed and killed by Jones' people on the airstrip as they attempted to leave. The next day, the entire community of 914 'followers' (including 276 children) drank a deadly potion of Fla-Vor Aid laced with cyanide poison. Jones' wife was among them. After the mass suicide of his followers, Jones and a close aide shot themselves. - Director
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Terry Richardson was born on 14 August 1965 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and actor, known for Miley Cyrus: Wrecking Ball (2013), Primal Scream: Swastika Eyes (1999) and Kate Upton: Cat Daddy (2012).- Actor
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During the 1960s, Abagnale attended high school in Long Island. His father built a profitable stationery store on Madison Avenue in New York City. When his father suffered a business loss and his parents divorced, the son left home in 1964 with around $100 in his pocket. The sixteen-year-old vowed to make up for his father's losses and bring his parents together again. To this end, in the years that followed, the young man developed an unusual talent for creative transformation, starting with forging his driver's license by bringing his birth year forward by 10 years. Even before he turned 21, the teenager, who appeared much older, had already posed as a pilot for the Pan Am airline, a doctor, a lawyer and a professor of history. Through forged checks, Abagnale secured a fortune of over $2.5 million.
Throughout his 5-year criminal career, Abagnale was patiently pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty in a sort of cat-and-mouse game. At the end of his criminal career, he was wanted in 26 countries and the entire USA as "The Skywayman", who, thanks to a fake "Pan Am" identity card, repeatedly managed to escape by plane to other states and countries. After the fraudster was finally arrested in France in 1969, he was extradited to Sweden after a French prison sentence, where he also served time in a Malmö prison. Ultimately, Abagnale was extradited to the United States and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1974, however, the US government offered him early release in return for revealing his criminal skills and knowledge. Abagnale decided to work with the FBI, where he then held expert seminars in its financial crimes unit. Authorities and companies around the world soon became interested in the former document forger's expert knowledge.
As independent entrepreneurs, "Abagnale & Associates" today offer services for expert assessment and advice in the area of documents and certificates with great success on an international scale. Abagnale married and had three sons. With his company profits, the fraud expert paid back the entire $2.5 million that he had once swindled. The quick-change artist and creative fraudster has an intelligence quotient of 136. In 2001, Abagnale published his book "The Art of the Steal", a guide to preventing fraud and counterfeit crime. Based on Abagnale's autobiography of the same name from 1980, Steven Spielberg filmed the life of the cunning fraudster in 2002: In "Catch me if You can" the actor Leonardo DiCaprio plays the young Abagnale.
In the run-up to the US presidential election in November 2004, Abagnale spoke out in favor of the incumbent President George W. Bush: As an expert in document forgery, he declared the recently published notes of National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Kilian about alleged misconduct by Lieutenant Bush in 1972 Counterfeits. A little later, the television station "CBS", which had released the documents during the election campaign, had to admit the mistake and apologize. In 2015, he was named an AARP Fraud Watch Ambassador, where he helps "provide online programs and community forums to educate consumers about ways to protect themselves from identity theft and cybercrime." In 2018, he began co-hosting the AARP podcast "The Perfect Scam."- Actress
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Patricia Hearst was born on 20 February 1954 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Cry-Baby (1990), Bio-Dome (1996) and Serial Mom (1994). She was previously married to Bernard Lee Shaw.- Actor
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Chuck Wepner was born on 26 February 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Gig (1985), Jhon Jatenjor's Interviews (2021) and ABC's Wide World of Sports (1961).See Also: Sylvester Stallone- Actor
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Joe Exotic was born on 5 March 1963 in Garden City, Kansas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Joe Exotic: Here Kitty Kitty (2015), Tiger King (2020) and I Saw a Tiger (2013). He was previously married to Dillon Passage and Travis Maldonado.- Duane 'Dog' Chapman was born on 2 February 1953 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (2016), Hawaii Five-0 (2010) and Dog the Bounty Hunter (2003). He has been married to Francie Frane since 2 September 2021. He was previously married to Beth Chapman, Tawny Marie Gillespie, Lyssa Rae Worthington, Anne M. Tegnell and LaFonda Sue Honeycutt.
- John Gotti was born on 27 October 1940 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Victoria DiGiorgio. He died on 10 June 2002 in Springfield, Missouri, USA.
- Applewhite was born in Spur, Texas the son of a Presbyterian Minister. He graduated from high school in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1948. Applewhite briefly enrolled to study as a Minister but changed his mind and went into Music. In 1952 he graudated from Austin College. He then did a brief stint in the US army corps from 1954 to '56. By 1959 he had obtained his Masters in Music from the Univ. of Colorada at Boulder. He was hired as choral director at Univ. of Alabama in 1961. From 1966 to '70 he taught music at Houston's Univ. of St. Thomas. Applewhite even played leading roles at the Houston Grand Opera. However, in 1970 he was dismissed for 'health reasons of an emotional nature'. He even underwent some psychotherapy but of no avail. By 1972 he had divorced his wife and was estranged from his 2 children. During this period in his life he met divorceé Bonnie Lu Nettles a former nurse and mother of 4 who was now interested in astrology. The 2 lived as common-law partners and moved to Las Vegas and Oregon looking for 'spiritual awakening'. In 1974 Applewhite was jailed in Texas for auto theft and credit card fraud. In the period after his release Applewhite and Nettles began calling themselves "the Two" and "Bo" and "Peep" (respectively) and also "Do" and "Ti" (like the musical notes). They began to collect a group of disillusioned followers preaching that the body was just a 'container' and that a great big 'mother ship' would come from outer space to collect the true believers before the end of the world. The press initially dubbed them as a 'UFO cult'! In 1985 when Bonnie died from cancer, Applewhite said that she had been collected by the 'mother ship' and only her container (body) was left behind. By 1993 they were called 'Total Overcomers Anonymous'. On January 17, 1994 when an earthquake rocked California they claimed that it was a sign that the end was near. Applewhite and his followers now needed another sign. They got it, in March 1997 when comet Halle Bopp appeared in the night skies. Applewhite along with 38 other followers made a videotape recording their last messages for loved ones. At their 'ranch' - Rancho Sant Fe (30 miles north of San Deigo, California) they committed mass suicide by consuming vodka laced with phenobarbital and covering their heads with plastic bags. They were all dressed in black with new nike shoes - a uniform by which the 'aliens' who would pick them up could identify them by. They were found a few days later in their bunk beds. Applewhite would not have said it was suicide - they had simply "moved on".
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Sonny Barger was born on 8 October 1938 in Modesto, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Sons of Anarchy (2008), Gimme Shelter (1970) and Angels from Hell (1968). He was married to Zorana Barger and Sharon Barger. He died on 29 June 2022 in Oakland, California, USA.In 1988 Barger was sentenced for conspiring to blow up the clubhouse of a rival motorcycle club, the Outlaws in Louisville, Kentucky. He spent four years in federal prison in Arizona.- Gregory Rasputin was one of Russia's most controversial and mysterious figures who posed as a "holy man" and destroyed the political image and reputation of Russia's Emperor Tsar Nicholas II and his family through a series of political manipulations, disgusting scandals and treachery, provoking a huge wave of public anger and helping the communists to prepare the disastrous Russian revolution. His mysterious activity is still disputed by historians and religious authors, mostly because he left no papers or documents with the exception of a few messages, while acting behind-the-scenes inside the Palaces of the Russian Tsars, and he remained inaccessible to public because of the heavy security that surrounded the Russian Imperial family.
He was born Gregory Efimovich Rasputin in 1869 into a Russian peasant family in Pokrovskoye village, Tobolsk province in Siberia. He was the only surviving child of Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and Anna Vasilevna Rasputina--their four previous children died before he was born. The family name, Rasputin, has a negative connotation, similar to "ill-behaved" or "ill-aimed". His mother died when Rasputin was young and his father was imprisoned for some time. Gregory had very little schooling and was unable to read or write. At age 16 he was arrested for theft, and the citizens of Pokrovskoe appealed to the authorities to excommunicate and exile him. Rasputin was sentenced to three months in prison, which was later commuted to serving his term at Verkhoturye Monastery in Siberia. Rasputin settled with the lonely monk Makariy, who lived in a rugged hut and practiced rituals akin to ancient shamanic and tribal traditions of the Siberian people. Rasputin mentioned that Makariy had cured him of a severe sleep disorder and trained him to practice hypnotism and a vegetarian lifestyle, which included some alcohol and also the use of various weeds and drugs for "spiritual transformation" according to ancient shamanic rituals.
Rasputin stated later that he modeled himself after Makariy. At that time he became interested in manipulating people through their weaknesses and beliefs, including use of their personal and social habits as well as their politics and religion. He was also introduced to the banned mystical sect of Khlysty (flagellants), whose had a strong sexual content among other exotic practices. Rasputin evolved into a cynical and ruthless manipulator who practiced his principle that "any sin shall make me a holy man" and was spreading his beliefs around. In 1889 Rasputin married Praskovia Feodorovna and had three children, but left his family in Siberia and became a wanderer. He walked across Russia on foot from Siberia to Kiev and back several times during the 1890s, then made a pilgrimage on foot to Greece and Jerusalem during 1901, walking back to Russia and staying in Kazan with a local priest who gave him a letter of recommendation to St. Peterburg, the Russian capital. He arrived in the city in 1903, and solicited money to build a church in his home village of Pokrovskoe. In St. Petersburg Rasputin was accommodated by none other than Father Sergiy (who later, in 1942, was appointed by Joseph Stalin the Head of Orthodox Christianity in the Soviet Union), who was at that time Director of St. Petersburg Holy Academy and Seminary and also was a clandestine political opponent of Tsar Nicholas II. At several reception parties staged by Father Sergiy, Rasputin stunned St. Petersburg society by his forecasts that Russia would be defeated in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904, and that the Russian navy "would sink down", which was exactly what happened next.
Soon the Ober-Procurator of Russia, Pobedonostsev, issued a ban on public appearances of Father Sergiy and Rasputin, declaring that Rasputin was hiding his manipulative traits under the cover of "holyness" and illegally declared himself an Orthodox Christian mystic. Rasputin, however, ignored that ban and continued posing as a "prophet" and healer. He continued his wanderings as a self-proclaimed "holy man", often using lies and hypnotism to intimidate people into submission and then used them for his own goals. He made loose affiliations with various monasteries, then appointed himself a religious "elder" in St. Petersburg. At that time mystical interpretations of Christianity were in vogue, and official Orthodox Christianity was losing its control over people amidst the proliferation of disastrous wars and civil unrest, including revolutions. After the failure of several "religious advisers" to bring peace into the seriously dysfunctional Russian royal family of Tsar Nicholas II, Rasputin was summoned by Anna Vyrubova and the famous ascetic mystic, Father Theofan, the religious adviser to the royal family. In October of 1905 Father Sergiy and Father Theofan arranged Rasputin's introduction to the royal household through some relatives of reigning Romanov family. Rasputin instantly found a way to use the weaknesses and insecurities of Crown Prince Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov, whose incurable illness--he was a hemophiliac, having inherited the disease from his grandmother, Britain's Queen Victoria--was the main concern of the royal family. Rasputin convinced the Empress, Tsarina Alexandra, that he could improve the health of young Crown Prince Aleksey. Both Tsar Nicholas II and his wife were devastated and demoralized by their son's illness, and their anxiety and desperation was used by Rasputin, and the people behind him, in a crafty way to achieve goals that suited their political agenda.
At the same time Tsar Nicholas was warned by his loyal prime minister, Count Stolypin, that Rasputin was a dangerous fraud who could become a threat to the royal family and to Russia. However, at Tsar Nicholas' insistence, Stolypin had a private meeting with Rasputin. Not long afterward Stolypin was assassinated by a hired terrorist, and the resulting investigation by the authorities was stopped order of the Emperor. Stolypin's records revealed that he had an argument with Rasputin, but he was stopped and intimidated by the hypnotic stare of Rasputin's piercing eyes. Stolypin and many other political figures of that time had documented that Rasputin had "satanic eyes" and he was possessed of a powerful and hypnotic glare that he used to intimidate and cow his enemies. Rasputin also often used verbal abuse and intimidation, including the most foul profanities--a practice considered shocking in the rarefied air of the Russian court--to intimidate and manipulate people into submission. At the height of his political influence, Rasputin was constantly guarded by six agents provided by the Russian security service by order of Tsarina Alexandra. Also by the Imperial order Rasputin was given a new name, Novykh, meaning the "new man", an exclamation attributed to the suffering boy, Crown Prince Aleksey.
Rasputin apparently persuaded both the Empress and her ailing son to ensure that he kept a permanent presence in the tsar's palaces, and he was appointed to an official court position as "personal healer" to Crown Prince Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov. Rasputin may had some limited beneficial effect on Prince Aleksey's condition through hypnotism, but it apparently was enough to convince both the Empress and the Prince to depend more and more on Rasputin's presence and his hypnotic abilities. Rasputin also insisted that real medical doctors should be kept away from Alexey, constantly telling the family, "Don't let the doctors bother him, let him rest." On the occasions when Aleksey's health had actually improved, Rasputin used the opportunity to take personal credit for the Prince's "improvement", thereby solidifying his control over access to the royal family.
The Empress became a patron of Rasputin, who soon established himself as an extremely powerful figure within the Russian court. The Emperor was calling Rasputin a "holy man" and referred to him as "our friend". Rasputin referred to the Emperor and the Empress only as "papa" and "mama" and always used a frank and "sincere" tone in conversations with the royal family. Meanwhile, government security sources reported about wild orgies at the many parties and gatherings at Rasputin's residence, located just a few blocks away from the Tsar's palace and paid for out of the Russian Treasury. Rasputin's drinking binges were reported as "massive and wild" that often degenerated into drunken and violent sex orgies, designed to entangle politicians and other guests who could prove useful to Rasputin's ambitions. He aggressively indoctrinated his victims by using, among other methods, his motto "Sin that you may obtain forgiveness!", which was in line with the views he learned from the sect of Khlysty.
Soon Rasputin and people behind him succeeded in using his influence to entangle many politicians in scandals, including dirty manipulations involving their wives, drinking parties, promiscuity, and massive embezzlement of the government funds during the First World War, by diverting money to special interests through insiders within the Treasury of Russia. Rasputin also manipulated the Empress Tsarina Alexandra to make controversial political appointments, which led to a bitter divide within all classes of the Russian society, causing a blow to the public image of the Imperial House of the Romanovs. Rasputin's manipulative activities provoked many conflicts within the Russian government and the Russian military command during the First World War. Rasputin was using his position inside the Tsar's Palace to directly interfere with Tsar's communications with the government and media, thus undermining the Tsar's public image. At several times Rasputin was able to interfere with the Tsar's schedule of meetings with political figures as well as military commanders during the war.
In 1914, while visiting a church in Siberian city of Tobolsk, Rasputin was attacked by his former prostitute-friend, Khionia Guseva, who then turned a religious disciple of monk Iliodor. Ms. Guseva approached Rasputin with a knife and wounded him in the stomach, but he recovered from the wound and soon gained an even stronger influence on the Empress Tsarina Alexandra. Later Ms. Guseva said to the Grand Jury that she acted in clear mind and full understanding that "Rasputin is the Antichrist harmful to the people of Russia." However she was declared insane and was forcefully placed in an asylum in Siberia. Rasputin's most destructive actions were committed in 1916, when he convinced the Tsar Nicholas II to move from the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, to the front-lines in Belarus, leaving the Empress Alexandra alone under his influence and in charge of internal politics of the country. In absence of the Tsar, St. Petersburg was surreptitiously over-taken by the revolutionary communists, who penetrated into many regiments of the Army, the Navy, as well as into the local political circles in the capital of Russia, thus preparing for the Communist Revolution of 1917. The decade of Rasputin's destructive manipulations led to irreparable political and economic damage and caused a bitter divide within the government and military command, as well as within all social layers of Russia. At that time the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue made a record that the "Russian Empress is mystically devoted to Rasputin."
Communist leader Vladimir Lenin wrote, "monstrous Rasputin is pushing the Tsar's regime to a disaster", which was helping the communist revolution. According to historians Rasputin was used by a secret group behind the communist revolutionaries, which acted to destroy the Romanov dynasty and the monarchy, and eventually fulfilled their plans and came to power through revolution. That explained how and why Rasputin was manipulated to discredit the royal family and personally the Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin's main handler was a St. Petersburg's underworld drug lord, named Dr. Badmayev, who controlled Rasputin through his drug addiction and often instructed Rasputin about his political moves. Rasputin often stayed overnight after having a fix at Dr. Badmayev's home in St. Petersburg. At the same time, Rasputin's hypnotic influence over the Empress Alexandra and the Crown Prince Alexey remained very strong, allowing him to make political, ecclesiastical and military appointments for those who served his interests. Rasputin created and used public scandals and rumors about his sexual and alcoholic excesses, and designed crafty entrapments for many members of the Russian political establishment into orgies and scandals for immediate blackmail and exploitation. He polarized the society by using his political influence in securing the appointments and dismissals of several military commanders and government ministers during the First World War. Rasputin's abuse of power and his notorious debauchery was used by the communist propaganda to depict Rasputin with the Empress Alexandra in numerous pornographic comics, drawings and provocative publications as part of a massive negative publicity campaign against the House of Romanovs and the Russian monarchy. In the communist propaganda Rasputin was shown as a peasant who turned the Russian Tsar into a wimp, so the country was in "bad hands" and "proletarians must join with peasants to overthrow the monarchy and take power", so declared the communist leader Vladimir Lenin, who in turn was secretly financed by the German military.
In 1916, during the most difficult time in the First World War, brothers of Tsar Nicholas II obtained evidence that Rasputin was secretly negotiating a peace treaty with Germany while Russia's position in the war was not good. Rasputin said on record that "too many peasants were dead because of the war", indicating his agenda to settle "peace at any cost" which was also in line with the communist propaganda, and helped the German Armies. Peasants deserted from the Russian Army by hundreds of thousands, then armed peasants came to St. Petersburg and joined the communist revolutionary brigades. Rasputin's secret activity and his contacts with the Germans became a political scandal. Tsar's cousin, Grand Prince Nicholas, announced that he wants to hang Rasputin for treachery as a spy in German employ, albeit Rasputin was under the protection of the Empress Tsarina Alexandra, who herself was German. That led to a plot by a group of aristocrats, led by Prince Feliks Yusupov, a relative of the Tsar, to assassinate him, but Rasputin was officially guarded by six agents from the Russian Imperial Security under constant supervision of specially assigned officers who lived in Rasputin's house in St. Petersburg.
In November of 1916, Prince Yusupov pretended that he had chest pains and obtained a high recommendation to become a patient of Rasputin. Prince Feliks Yusupov made several visits to Rasputin as a patient and soon he made friends with Rasputin and presented him a picture of his wife, beautiful Princess Irene Yusupov, niece of the Emperor Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin immediately became horny and expressed his desire to meet the beauty. On December 16, 1916, Prince Yusupov and his fellow officers designed a plan centered on using the beautiful Princess Irina Yusupov, as a bait. On December 29, 1916, Prince Feliks Yusupov personally invited Rasputin to a dinner and drove him to Yusupov's Moika Palace in St. Petersburg. There Rasputin was waiting for the appearance of the Princess Irina Yusupov, but she never showed up. Meanwhile, Rasputin was plied with wine and food that had been laced with cyanide, albeit the plotters were oblivious to the fact of chemistry that cyanide is often neutralized by some ingredients in food, as it turns into a harmless salt in most desserts and wines. Rasputin also had a condition with hyper-acidity and post-surgical stomach problems which caused him to minimize his intake of sugar and alcohol. When the poison had no apparent effect on Rasputin, Prince Feliks Yusupov pulled out his gun and fired, but Rasputin's life was saved because the first bullet was reflected by the hard metal button on his coat, he was wounded, but still managed to jump up and tried to escape out of the Moika Palace. Then Prince Yusupov and Count Vladimir Purishkevich together with their friend, British intelligence officer Oswald Rayner, pulled out their guns and fired at Rasputin, then, noticing that he was still trying to get up, they clubbed him into submission. In the early morning of December 30, 1916, members of the plot wrapped Rasputin and dragged him into the icy waters until he finally drowned in the Neva River.
Even after his death, Rasputin still remained dangerous and could be used as a destructive and divisive tool, because he left a wild and threatening message to Emperor Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra, predicting their death and disaster for Russia. Crown Prince Alexey remained gravely ill and was heavily dependent and conditioned to Rasputin's hypnotic influence. Rasputin's body was buried upon Empress Alexandra's and Prince Alexey's request at the location in the park of Tsarkoe Selo, near the Summer Palace of the Russian Tsars. Two months after Rasputin's assassination, Emperor Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, then was arrested as citizen Romanov who was obediently sweeping snow from roads while waiting for his sentence under supervision of communist revolutionaries. Soon both Nicholas and Alexandra became increasingly paranoid about having Rasputin's grave next to his Summer Palace. Ironically, Tsar Nicholas II was under the house arrest in that same palace during the year of 1917, and both Empress Alexandra and Prince Alexey were not allowed to make visits to Rasputin's grave, which was vandalized by revolutionaries in search for valuables. By that time, Rasputin's body was removed upon the order from Aleksandr Kerensky, the head of the Russian provisional government, who previously was a student at the same school and at the same time with the future communist leader Vladimir Lenin. Initially Kerensky ordered to remove Rasputin's body to a remote cemetery, but during the move, Rasputin's body, masked as a piano in a wooden box, was destroyed in the fire started by a group of revolutionaries. Shortly after the Communist Revolution, the entire family of Tsar Tsar Nicholas II with his wife and five children were executed, then Tsar's Palaces were vandalized by the revolutionary communists and Rasputin's grave was again burglarized by poor proletarians in search for jewelery.
Later, while in emigration outside of the Communist Russia (then Soviet Union), both accounts by Prince Feliks Yusupov (who lived through the 1960s) and Count Vladimir Purishkevich (who died in the 1920s) were published in their respectful books of memoirs about their plot and assassination of Rasputin in the context of their participation in the historic events. Prince Yusupov compared Rasputin's cynical and manipulative treatment of the Tsar's family to the Communist Party's ruthless methods of control over innocent people of Russia. Rasputin's own "religious" speeches were interpreted and recorded by his enchanted admirers and titled "holy wanderings" and "holy thoughts" when first published in Russia in 1907 and in 1915. In 1942, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin appointed the notorious St. Petersburg Bishop Sergiy the Patriarch of Orthodix Christianity in the Soviet Union. Then Patriarch Sergiy brought back the name of Gregory Rasputin from oblivion. At the same time some sectarian monks organized rumors about possible canonization of Gregory Rasputin as a "martyr and saint" who was assassinated by the family of the "bad" tsar.
Rasputin's daughter, Matrena Solovyova-Rasputina, and her husband, Boris Solovyov, who secretly collaborated with the Communist regime, took money and jewelery from Empress Tsarina Alexandra in exchange for a promise of assist the Tsar Nicholas II and his family to escape from the Communist regime. They betrayed the Tsar and his family and left them to be killed by the communists, while themselves escaped to France. There Rasputin's daughter, who was money hungry, read the memoirs of Prince Feliks Yusupov, and filed several law suits against Prince Yusupov, who gave accounts of Rasputin's death under oath in 1934 and 1965. Eventually Rasputin's daughter ended up working for a circus as a tiger tamer, then she moved to Los Angeles, and died there in 1977. - Actor
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Suge Knight was born on 19 April 1965 in Compton, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Untitled Suge Knight Biopic, DysFunktional Family (2003) and Talk Is Jericho (2013).- Composer
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Phil Spector was born on 26 December 1939 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Top Gun (1986), Mean Streets (1973) and Dirty Dancing (1987). He was married to Rachelle Marie Short , Janis Lynn Zavala, Ronnie Spector and Annette Lee Merar. He died on 16 January 2021 in French Camp, California, USA.- Orenthal James Simpson, was an American former football running back, broadcaster, actor, advertising spokesman.
Simpson attended the University of Southern California, where he played football for the USC Trojans and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He played professionally as a running back in the NFL for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills from 1969 to 1977. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers from 1978 to 1979. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He holds the record for the single season yards-per-game average, which stands at 143.1. He was the only player to ever rush for over 2,000 yards in the 14-game regular season NFL format.
Simpson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. After retiring from football, he began new careers in acting and football broadcasting. - Hard Rock Nick is known for Tosh.0 (2009).
- Born a rich nobleman, Marquis being his title rather than his birth name, De Sade gradually became a decadent libertine among the French society of Louis XVI. A liberally educated iconoclast, he wrote prose and verse, and specialized in testing the limits of decency, breaking tabboos and shocking the aristocracy, often with sordid details drawn from real life. He was thought to have committed much of the perversions and debauchery he had written about. He was incarcerated in an asylum shortly before the French Revolution. After a decade of feverish creativity, he willingly gave up writing and lived his remaining years in uneventful calm. De Sade has been portrayed in movie and TV by Daniel Auteuil, Stuart Devenie, Keir Dullea, Robert Englund, Klaus Kinski, Patrick Magee, Nick Mancuso, Geoffrey Rush, Brother Theodore, and Conrad Veidt.
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Grace Jones was born on May 19, 1948 in Spanish Town, St Catherine, Jamaica to Marjorie Jones (née Williams) and Reverend Robert W. Jones. When she was 12 she moved to Syracuse, New York, joining her family who had already moved there. She studied acting at Syracuse University and appeared in her first musical; halfway through college, she was approached by a drama professor who proposed that she work with him in a play he was putting on in Philadelphia, she accepted.
Jones later moved to New York City and signed on as a model with Wilhelmina Models, but when her looks weren't successfully received, she moved to Paris, France, where her androgynous, bold, dark-skinned appearance was so highly visible, she began to model for Yves Saint-Laurent, Claude Montana, Kenzo Takada, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Hans Feurer, and Azzedine Alaïa, and she appeared on the covers of "Elle", "Vogue", and "Der Stern."
Disillusioned with modeling, and since she always wanted to be an actress, she began her movie career playing small parts, her first being in the blaxploitation flick Gordon's War (1973) followed by an uncomfortable cameo in the unwatchable French sex comedy Let's Make a Dirty Movie (1976). It wasn't until the the '80s that Jones' on-screen career really soared, when she appeared in three supporting roles: Zula, the amazonian warrior in the American sword and sorcery/adventure film Conan the Destroyer (1984); May Day, the secondary antagonist in the 14th James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985); and Katrina, a bloodthirsty Egyptian vampire queen in the comedy horror Vamp (1986). Leaving audiences with only the resonance of unique and tantalizing movie performances, Jones hasn't acted in a feature film since the '90s.
In recent years, Jones's primary focus is sharing the vulnerability behind her larger-than-life persona. Jones and director Sophie Fiennes released the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017). According to Fiennes, the documentary is not a retelling of what can easily be found in books and magazines, but an intimate portrait of Jones in recent years as she returns to Jamaica, the country of her birth and childhood, for a family reunion.- Actor
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Marvin "Krondon" Jones currently stars in the CW's BLACK LIGHTNING, portraying "Tobias Whale," a crime boss and lead villain. The role marks Jones' transition into acting, as he is also a solo rapper and Strong Arm Steady (SAS) front man. With the moniker Krondon (KRNDN), Jones recently released his impressive independent project "Everything's Nothing," which features standout tracks "7 Eleven" and "Lean On Me," capturing the essence of the West Coast with his "feel good" records. Apart from his work with SAS, the Cali rapper has written for a number of artists, including Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and Xzibit. In 2003, he released a successful collection of cuts independently, entitled "The Beginning Of." Krondon has set himself apart in the rap game from more than his lyricism alone. His unique voice and dynamic look has helped him to create a lane all his own.- Actor
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Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw his chance when a comedian suddenly fell ill, and he went on stage in the man's place. With a friend he formed the comic duo "The Two Beat" (his artist's name, "Beat Takeshi", comes from this period), which became very popular on Japanese television.
Kitano soon embarked on an acting career, and when the director of Violent Cop (1989) (aka "Violent Cop") fell ill, he took over that function as well. Immediately after that film was finished he set out to make a second gangster movie, Boiling Point (1990). Just after finishing Getting Any? (1994), Kitano was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that almost killed him. It changed his way of life, and he became an active painter. This change can be seen in his later films, which are characterized by his giving more importance to the aesthetics of the film, such as in Fireworks (1997) and Kikujiro (1999).- Actor
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Eric Lynn Wright, better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper who performed solo and as a member of the group NWA Wright is affectionately called "The Godfather Of Gangsta Rap."
He was born in Compton, California. After dropping out of high school in the tenth grade, he supported himself primarily by selling drugs before investing it in and becoming founder of Ruthless Records. He made his debut as a rapper with "Boyz-N-The-Hood" which was a revolutionary song in rap history written by Ice Cube. NWA first released N.W.A. and the Posse in 1987. In 1988, they released their most controversial album, "Straight Outta Compton." The group released two more albums before disbanding in the early 1990s.
Eazy-E continued as a solo artist releasing three solo projects. In addition, he released several notable artists on his Ruthless Records label including but not limited to Jada Michelle, The D.O.C., Above the Law and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.
He fathered nine children. He died March 26, 1995 due to complications of pneumonia associated with AIDS.- Writer
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Hunter S. Thompson was born on 18 July 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Rum Diary (2011) and Gonzo (2008). He was married to Anita Thompson and Sondi Wright. He died on 20 February 2005 in Aspen, Colorado, USA.- Actor
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Dave Burd was born on 15 March 1988 in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Dave (2020), The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and Lil Dicky: Earth (2019).- Actor
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Shorty, grew up in two different worlds - one a middle/upper-class almost completely white suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles with his dwarf parents and the other in Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in Watts, a section of South Central Los Angeles, where he lived with a family friend to avoid conflict at home. By the age of 15, Shorty was living on his own.
When he was 18 years old, he was involved in a gang-related shooting and convicted of several felonies. He was sent to a youth facility and later to Folsom State Prison to serve a total sentence of 10 years, 10 months and 10 days. While in prison, Shorty turned his life around, and by the time he was released, he was determined to make something better out of his life.
Looking to make a fresh start, Shorty turned to entertainment jobs and soon learned he could earn lucrative gigs as a little person. Shorty landed his first job in show business at Universal Studios Hollywood as "Alvin" for an Alvin and the Chipmunks stage show. Since then, he has appeared in several commercials and worked on several movies such as The Grinch with Jim Carrey; The Kid with Bruce Willis; Call Me Clause with Whoopie Goldberg; and ShowTime and Daddy Day Care with Eddie Murphy, among others. He's appeared on dozens of TV shows and has performed live on theatre for years. In 2000, Shorty founded his own company, Shortywood Productions, to provide and manage little people entertainers for all types of shows, private parties and corporate events.
But Shorty has a special passion that's been a major part of his life since he was a teenager - championing the cause of pit bulls. Shorty has owned pit bulls since he was 14 and credits them with "saving his life" for being such loyal companions through some of the roughest times in his life.
Because of this, Shorty took on another huge endeavor, forming Shorty's Pit Bull Rescue, a second business ;which rescues, rehabilitates and places neglected and abused pit bulls in loving, nurturing homes. Shorty's Rescue is not a shelter or a charity; its employees work tirelessly to help relieve the suffering of and prevent cruelty to pit bulls through education and activism. Through positive pit bull involvement in the community, Shorty's Pit Bull Rescue influences a healthy/much-deserved reputation for the breed. Shorty's Pit Bull Pet Stars have worked on several independent, student and short films as well as public-service commercials and various print ads. The group does volunteer work by visiting nursing homes, schools, functions and hospitals.
After injuring himself in a stunt, Shorty became interested in service animal training. He trained one of his own pit bulls to be a service animal, and he actively has been involved in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) community ever since. Currently, two of Shorty's dogs are registered service animals with one in training.
Shorty is a workaholic by nature; therefore, he doesn't have much spare time for socializing. When in social settings, he often surrounds himself with people of all backgrounds in his home in Los Angeles and his second home in Mexico, where he also spends a lot of time promoting pit bull awareness. Shorty has a special place in his heart for his employees Ashley, Sebastian and Ronald, who are all little people. Shorty loves cigars, wine and relaxing with friends and his five pit bulls.
As of September 2011, Shorty is working on new episodes of Pit Boss, producing a movie called "Hercules Saves Christmas" with his pit bull Hercules and writing a memoir of his life story which comes out in January 2012.- Actress
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Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth, also known by her nickname Brush Cut, was born October 25, 1993 in Southwark, London, England to a Brazilian mother and a Canadian father.
Aged 14, she was discovered at the Underage Festival in London by fashion photographer Gemma Booth, who signed her to Storm Model Management. She subsequently appeared in advertisements for Vogue and Miu Miu. She began to audition for films at the age of 16, and after finishing sixth form, she won her first role in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac and played alongside Willem Dafoe. She later played Sophie Campbell in the Sky Atlantic's crime drama series The Tunnel and appeared in Stephen Fingleton's directed introductory short film Magpie. In 2015, Goth played the lead role of Milja in the post-apocalyptic thriller The Survivalist. She also appeared in the BBC One's crime series Wallander. Goth starred in the disaster adventure-thriller film Everest, which was directed by Baltasar Kormákur. In 2017, Goth played a lead role in the horror film A Cure for Wellness, directed by Gore Verbinski.
In 2018, Goth had a supporting role in Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria, alongside Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton, as well as the sci-fi mystery film High Life, directed by French auteur director Claire Denis, opposite Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche.- Actress
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Sarah Sherman was born on 7 March 1993 in Long Island, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Three Busy Debras (2020), Nimona (2023) and Flayaway (2018).- Actor
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Matty Cardarople has always wanted to be an entertainer. Born and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire, Cardarople fueled his creative passion by entertaining friends and family with his comedic skills. After moving to Los Angeles he studied acting at The Beverly Hills Playhouse and has been perfecting his craft studying with Lesly Kahn. Ultimately Cardarople was discovered by Luke and Owen Wilson who gave him his career start with roles in the feature films Blonde Ambition and Drillbit Taylor.
Cardarople went on to appear in the blockbuster hit Jurassic World and Dumb and Dumber To, where he worked with his childhood idol Jim Carrey whom he cites as his career inspiration. Cardarople quickly continued to add to his credits with roles in the indie comedy The 4th, the critically-acclaimed Amazon rom-com The Big Sick and the Steven Soderbergh directed film Logan Lucky.
Cardarople got another big break with a starring role in the hit Netflix show A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Orlando, the "Hench Person of Indeterminate Gender" in the Troupe of Count Olaf played by Neil Patrick-Harris. The series is streaming now and is a favorite of audiences and critics alike. And as his impressive success continues, Cardarople can be seen in the highly-talked about second and third season of the Netflix instant classic Stranger Things.
He also stars as Noodle in the Netflix comedy film Wheels of Fortune alongside actors Matt Jones (Breaking Bad), Jeff Fahey, Noureen DeWulf, and John Ducey. The film follows a down-on-his-luck mechanic and his best friend as they head to competitions to win a big inheritance.
Recently Cardarople can be heard as the voice of Preston in Archibald's Next Big Thing streamable on Netflix. Cardarople continues to keep busy with roles such as Roger in Lazy Susan, Roy Meyer in I Am Woman, and Frank White in the Hulu anthology series Monsterland. He has also been cast as Ansel in the Taika Waititi project Reservation Dogs, Remy in "Made for Love", and the upcoming Netflix animated series "We Lost Our Human" alongside Ben Schwartz.
Things aren't slowing down for Cardarople, he can be seen in the blockbuster hit Free Guy alongside Ryan Reynolds. The film is "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes. Coming up next, he will also play Clay Elliot, a young inattentive father in the romance thriller American Cherry from writer/director Marcella Cytrynowicz.
Cardarople has been seen on notable television shows such as New Girl, Angie Tribeca, Scrubs, Ray Donovan, You're The Worst, Comedy Bang! Bang! Selfie and Chasing Life.
Cardarople is accomplished in other arenas as well. He spends time drawing and writing poetry; his first self-published book of poems is titled Space Cadet and he just released his second titled Happy Birthday Everyday which both are available for purchase online. When not on set, Cardarople devotes his efforts to a number of worthy causes such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, and local animal shelters.
Cardarople currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, cats and a rescue pomeranian named Azoun.