With Michael B. Jordan making his directorial debut with Creed III this weekend, we wanted to know what film by a first time Actor turned Director has been your favorite? Some came out of the gates with Oscar Glory (Kevin Costner/ Robert Redford) while others found a passion they haven’t looked back from (Ron Howard/ Sofia Coppola). If you don’t see your favorite listed, please let us know what (and who) it is in the comments section.
Update: I have rightly been called out for listing Braveheart as Mel Gibson’s first film when he actually directed a film prior to that called The Man Without a Face in 1993. So I guess the results are slightly skewed, but really, wasn’t Braveheart the first Mel Gibson directed film we all saw?!
Favorite Film by a First Time Actor Turned DirectorThat Thing You Do! (1996) (Tom Hanks)Ordinary People (1980) (Robert Redford)In a World…...
Update: I have rightly been called out for listing Braveheart as Mel Gibson’s first film when he actually directed a film prior to that called The Man Without a Face in 1993. So I guess the results are slightly skewed, but really, wasn’t Braveheart the first Mel Gibson directed film we all saw?!
Favorite Film by a First Time Actor Turned DirectorThat Thing You Do! (1996) (Tom Hanks)Ordinary People (1980) (Robert Redford)In a World…...
- 3/5/2023
- by Brad Hamerly
- JoBlo.com
Liza Minnelli was born into show business royalty on March 12, 1946, and pressed into service onstage at the tender age of 14 months by her singer mother Judy Garland and director father Vincente Minnelli.
According to a short 1947 mention in Variety titled “In Ma’s Footsteps,” “Liza Minnelli, 14-month-old daughter of Judy Garland, makes her acting bow in Metro’s ‘The Pirate,’ which her father is directing.” It didn’t take long for her to move up to a film credit. Her first credited film role was at 3 years old, appearing briefly in “In the Good Old Summertime” alongside her mother.
And though her biggest wish when she was young was to be a dancer, Minnelli ended up doing back-to-back serious dramatic roles before winning her Oscar for her irrepressible performance as nightclub singer Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”
“I always wanted to be a dancer. I remember going to dancing school because I asked my dad.
According to a short 1947 mention in Variety titled “In Ma’s Footsteps,” “Liza Minnelli, 14-month-old daughter of Judy Garland, makes her acting bow in Metro’s ‘The Pirate,’ which her father is directing.” It didn’t take long for her to move up to a film credit. Her first credited film role was at 3 years old, appearing briefly in “In the Good Old Summertime” alongside her mother.
And though her biggest wish when she was young was to be a dancer, Minnelli ended up doing back-to-back serious dramatic roles before winning her Oscar for her irrepressible performance as nightclub singer Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”
“I always wanted to be a dancer. I remember going to dancing school because I asked my dad.
- 3/12/2021
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – He moved deftly from British matinee idol to formidable movie star to reliable character actor, and was nominated four times for an Academy Award (no wins). Albert Finney had a nearly 50 year stage and screen career that encompassed virtually all types and genres of acting. He died in London on February 7th, 2019. He was 82.
He was born Albert Finney Jr., and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating at age 20 in 1956. He became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company shortly thereafter, and appeared on the stage throughout the late 1950s, and throughout his career. His debut film role was “The Entertainer” in 1960. He was the title character in the Oscar Best Picture “Tom Jones” (1963), and other films in that decade included “Night Must Fall” (1964), “Two for the Road” (1967) and “Charlie Bubbles”.
An Early Career Albert Finney
Photo credit: File Photo
His most fruitful film era was arguably the 1980s and ‘90s,...
He was born Albert Finney Jr., and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating at age 20 in 1956. He became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company shortly thereafter, and appeared on the stage throughout the late 1950s, and throughout his career. His debut film role was “The Entertainer” in 1960. He was the title character in the Oscar Best Picture “Tom Jones” (1963), and other films in that decade included “Night Must Fall” (1964), “Two for the Road” (1967) and “Charlie Bubbles”.
An Early Career Albert Finney
Photo credit: File Photo
His most fruitful film era was arguably the 1980s and ‘90s,...
- 2/26/2019
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
British cinematographer Peter Suschitzky is known for his collaborations with David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Spider, eXistenZ, Crash, Naked Lunch and Dead Ringers). His eclectic career saw him start working in fantastical “what if” tales on It Happened Here (1966) and Privilege (1967). He worked with Peter Watkins, Albert Finney, Peter Watkins, John Boorman, Ken Russell and Warris Hussein in Britain, before Hollywood came calling. is first trip to Cannes, working on Charlie Bubbles by Albert Finney, was cancelled after the festival was stopped by the May ’68 protests led by Jean Luc-Godard. This year, I met him at the […]...
- 6/9/2016
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Billie Whitelaw, the acclaimed British actress who won praise for her roles on stage as well as on screen, has died in a nursing home at age 82. Whitelaw began appearing in British films in the 1960s and gradually became one of the nation's most reliable and respected actresses. Her film titles include "Carve Her Name With Pride", "Charlie Bubbles", "The Krays", "Gumshoe", Hitchcock's "Frenzy", "Start the Revolution Without Me", "The Dark Crystal" and her final big screen venture, the 2007 hit cult comedy "Hot Fuzz". She is best known to American audiences as Mrs. Baylock, the creepy housemaid from the 1976 version of "The Omen" who has a knock-down brawl to the death with Gregory Peck. Whitelaw, who was also a popular presence through frequent appearances in television series, attributed her rise to stardom to her close association with avant garde playwright Samuel Beckett, with whom she collaborated on numerous acclaimed stage productions.
- 12/24/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Update Tuesday, 7:00 a.m. with more information, below:
Stage, screen and radio actress Billie Whitelaw was perhaps best known to international audiences for her role as Mrs. Baylock in 1976 horror film The Omen, but she had a versatile career at home in the UK where she was a muse to Samuel Beckett and won BAFTAs for her film and television work. Whitelaw died on Sunday at a London nursing home, her son told the BBC. She was 82. Among her many big-screen credits, which stretch back to 1953, are 1967’s Charlie Bubbles with Albert Finney; 1968’s The Twisted Nerve with Hayley Mills; Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972’s Frenzy; The Omen; 1988’s The Dressmaker with Joan Plowright and Pete Postlethwaite; Peter Medak’s classic biopic The Krays in 1990; and more recently, Edgar Wright’s 2007 Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg.
Whitelaw was born in 1932 and made her radio acting debut at age 11, per the BBC.
Stage, screen and radio actress Billie Whitelaw was perhaps best known to international audiences for her role as Mrs. Baylock in 1976 horror film The Omen, but she had a versatile career at home in the UK where she was a muse to Samuel Beckett and won BAFTAs for her film and television work. Whitelaw died on Sunday at a London nursing home, her son told the BBC. She was 82. Among her many big-screen credits, which stretch back to 1953, are 1967’s Charlie Bubbles with Albert Finney; 1968’s The Twisted Nerve with Hayley Mills; Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972’s Frenzy; The Omen; 1988’s The Dressmaker with Joan Plowright and Pete Postlethwaite; Peter Medak’s classic biopic The Krays in 1990; and more recently, Edgar Wright’s 2007 Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg.
Whitelaw was born in 1932 and made her radio acting debut at age 11, per the BBC.
- 12/23/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
This first feature by San Francisco-based director Colin Trevorrow is very much a whimsical product of both the Sundance Institute's brand of independent cinema and the rambling, low-budget movie genre known as mumblecore. The latter features characters who live in the interstices of society and are as talkative as they are inactive, and the term was coined in the earlier years of this century by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who works in this area. One of the leading roles in Safety Not Guaranteed is played by the writer-director Mark Duplass, who with his brother, Jay, pioneered mumblecore, most notably in their picture The Puffy Chair, the shaggy dog tale of a search around the American south for an old lounge chair to be given as a birthday present to their father. They went on to make Jeff Who Lives at Home, which featured the familiar faces of Jason Segel,...
- 12/30/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
They say it's your birthday.♬ ♩♬♩♬ it's my birthday, too.
Herewith, in semi off the cuff order, the greatest peoplethings born on this day in history. Happy June 6th!
Honorable mention...
Jason Isaacs -The impossibly hot 49 year old actor studied to be a lawyer but if he had stuck with it we would have never had his Captain Hook, or his Lucius Malfoy, or his bickering married screenwriter in Friends With Money, or even known who he is. Tragedy averted.
Vc Andrews - not for writing the ridiculous "Flowers in the Attic" but for inspiring the ridiculous genius of Parker Posey's Waiting for Guffman scene in which the brilliant comic actress uses it for her small town theater audition.
"and who's on top and who's on bottom now? Huh?!"
Top Ten June 6th Birthday Peoplethings!
10 Levi Stubbs
From the Four Topps to Audrey II. I ♥ Little Shop of Horrors, don't you.
Herewith, in semi off the cuff order, the greatest peoplethings born on this day in history. Happy June 6th!
Honorable mention...
Jason Isaacs -The impossibly hot 49 year old actor studied to be a lawyer but if he had stuck with it we would have never had his Captain Hook, or his Lucius Malfoy, or his bickering married screenwriter in Friends With Money, or even known who he is. Tragedy averted.
Vc Andrews - not for writing the ridiculous "Flowers in the Attic" but for inspiring the ridiculous genius of Parker Posey's Waiting for Guffman scene in which the brilliant comic actress uses it for her small town theater audition.
"and who's on top and who's on bottom now? Huh?!"
Top Ten June 6th Birthday Peoplethings!
10 Levi Stubbs
From the Four Topps to Audrey II. I ♥ Little Shop of Horrors, don't you.
- 6/6/2012
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Feisty playwright best known for her ground-breaking debut, A Taste of Honey
Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she wrote A Taste of Honey, one of the defining plays of the 1950s working-class and feminist cultural movements. The play's group of dysfunctional characters, utterly alien to the prevailing middle-class "anyone for tennis?" school of theatre, each explored their chances of attaining a glimpse of happiness. The central character, a young girl named Jo, lives in a decrepit flat in Salford with her mother, who is apt to wander off in pursuit of men with money. Jo becomes pregnant by a black sailor and is cared for by Geoffrey, a young gay friend, until her mother ousts him in what could be a burst of suppressed maternal love or a display of jealous control-freakery.
Delaney, who has died of cancer aged 71, had to endure harsh criticism for her attack on the orthodoxies of the period.
Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she wrote A Taste of Honey, one of the defining plays of the 1950s working-class and feminist cultural movements. The play's group of dysfunctional characters, utterly alien to the prevailing middle-class "anyone for tennis?" school of theatre, each explored their chances of attaining a glimpse of happiness. The central character, a young girl named Jo, lives in a decrepit flat in Salford with her mother, who is apt to wander off in pursuit of men with money. Jo becomes pregnant by a black sailor and is cared for by Geoffrey, a young gay friend, until her mother ousts him in what could be a burst of suppressed maternal love or a display of jealous control-freakery.
Delaney, who has died of cancer aged 71, had to endure harsh criticism for her attack on the orthodoxies of the period.
- 11/22/2011
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
"Playwright Shelagh Delaney, best known for her 1958 play A Taste of Honey, has died of cancer," reports Robert Barr for the AP. "The writer was just 19 when A Taste of Honey premiered. The downbeat tale of a young woman's pregnancy following a one-night stand with a black sailor, and her supportive relationship with a gay artist, verged on scandalous at the time, but the play had successful runs in London and New York…. Delaney's immediate inspiration was her dislike of Terence Rattigan's play, Variations on a Theme. Believing she could do better, she wrote A Taste of Honey in two weeks, reworking material from a novel she was writing. Delaney and the film's director, Tony Richardson, shared BAFTA and Writer's Guild awards for best screenplay for the 1961 film adaptation, which starred Rita Tushingham."
"Delaney's play sits in between John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and Joe Orton's...
"Delaney's play sits in between John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and Joe Orton's...
- 11/21/2011
- MUBI
Liza Minnelli was born in Los Angeles and made her screen debut as a toddler in the musical In the Good Old Summertime in 1949. One of the world's best-loved entertainers, she won Tony awards for Flora, the Red Menace in 1965 and The Act in 1978, along with a third for Best Personal Achievement, resulting from her 1974 engagement at the Winter Garden Theatre. Nominated for an Academy Award? for The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), she won the best actress prize for her best-known film, Cabaret (1972), which also won her a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA. She won an Emmy for Liza with a 'Z' (1972) and was also the recipient of a Grammy Legend Award in 1989, making her one of the few artists who have won entertainment's top six awards. Liza has also been the recipient of three David di Donatello Awards - for The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), Cabaret (1972) and Lifetime Achievement (2002). Film credits include...
- 1/25/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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