Documents for "Film and Television: Biographies":

• Abbott and Costello American comedy team of William Alexander "Bud" Abbott, 1895-1974, b. Asbury Park, N.J., and Lou Costello, 1906-59, b. Paterson, N.J., as Louis Francis Cristillo. From 1931 to 1957 the tall, elegant...

• Allen, Gracie see Burns, George.

• Allen, Woody (Allen Stewart Konigsberg), 1935-, American actor, writer, and director, one of contemporary America's leading filmmakers, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Allen began his career writing for television comedians...

• Almodóvar, Pedro 1951-, Spanish film director. Almodóvar began to make films in the mid-1970s and released his first feature, Pepi, Luci, Bon y otras chicas del montón, in 1980. In post-Franco Spain's cultural freedom, Almodóvar became popular for his blackly comic yet joyous visions of human entanglements and the wilder shores of sexuality. Such outrageously...

• Altman, Robert 1925-, American film director, b. Kansas City, Mo. One of the most original talents in contemporary filmmaking, he creates complex, often loosely plotted movies marked by brilliant ensemble...

• Antonioni, Michelangelo 1912-, Italian film director and scriptwriter, b. Ferrara, Italy. In the 1940s he made documentaries that contributed to the development of Italian neorealism. His later films deal with the...

• Autry, Gene (Orvon Gene Autry), 1907-98, American entertainer and businessman, b. Tioga Springs, Tex. Probably the most successful of the movies' singing cowboys, Autry began singing on the radio during the...

• Ball, Lucille 1911-89, American actress and producer, b. Celoron, N.Y. At first promoted by Hollywood as another glamorous movie star, Ball was often cast as a spunky sidekick in second features. In 1951, as one...

• Beatty, Warren (Henry Warren Beatty) , 1937-, motion picture actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, b. Richmond, Va. An eminently bankable star, the handsome, charismatic, yet oddly elusive leading man made his film debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961). His reputation as a Hollywood Don Juan often overshadowed his considerable talents, which were nonetheless apparent in his next smash hit, Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which he also produced. Among his more notable later movies are Robert Altman 's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971); The Parallax View (1974); the very popular Beatty-produced Shampoo (1975); Heaven Can Wait (1978); the ambitious and romantic saga of the Russian Revolution Reds (1981), for which he won the best-director Oscar; the colossal comedic flop Ishtar (1987); the comic book-like Dick Tracy (1991), costarring Madonna ; Bugsy (1991), in which his complex and forceful gangster portrait is perhaps his most effective performance; and another directorial effort, Love Affair (1994), costarring his wife, Annette Bening. Long active in liberal politics, he briefly received media attention in 1999 as a potential presidential hopeful. The actress Shirley MacLaine is his...

• Belmondo, Jean-Paul 1933-, French film actor, b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, studied Paris Conservatory. Belmondo made his film debut in 1957, but first gained fame in Breathless (1960), playing a restless, flippant young hoodlum. His particularly disengaged style appealed to young audiences of the day, making him France's most popular male film star throughout the 1960s...

• Benny, Jack 1894-1974, American comedian, b. Waukegan, Ill., as Benjamin Kubelsky. His shows on radio (1932-55) and television (1950-65) made famous his miserliness, reproachful silences, and violin. His films...

• Beresford, Bruce 1940-, Australian film director, b. Sydney, grad. Sydney Univ. (1962). Beresford moved to England, worked for the British Film Institute (1966-71), and made several modest films. Returning home in...

• Bergman, Ingmar (Ernst Ingmar Bergman) , 1918-, Swedish film and stage writer, director, and producer. Bergman achieved an impressive degree of freedom early in his career and used it to create and develop a highly individual approach...

• Bergman, Ingrid 1915-82, Swedish actress, b. Stockholm. Specializing in portrayals of strong, dignified, and sophisticated women, Bergman was acclaimed for her performance in Joan of Lorraine (1946) both on stage...

• Berkeley, Busby 1895-1975, American film director and choreographer, b. Los Angeles as William Berkeley Enos. He choreographed several Broadway revues before moving (1930) to Hollywood, where he achieved his...

• Berle, Milton 1908-2002, American entertainer, b. New York City as Milton Berlinger. Berle first performed in vaudeville and on (1939-48) radio. His great success, however, came as television's first real star,...

• Bertolucci, Bernardo 1940-, Italian film director and screenwriter, b. Parma. The son of poet Attilio Bertolucci and himself a published poet, he began his film career in 1961 as an assistant to director Pier Paolo Pasolini...

• Bogarde, Dirk 1920-99, English film actor, b. Hampstead as Derek Van den Bogaerde. In his early career Bogarde played romantic leads in such films as So Long at the Fair (1950) and A Tale of Two Cities (1958)....

• Bogart, Humphrey DeForest 1899-1957, American film actor, b. New York City. After a succession of stage roles he achieved note with his portrayal of the gangster Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1934). He was in films...

• Brando, Marlon 1924-2004, American film actor, often described as the greatest of his generation, b. Omaha, Nebr. Regarded as the foremost practitioner of "method" acting as taught by American disciples of Constantin Stanislavsky at New York's Actor's Studio, the young Brando combined a rough sex appeal with a powerful immediacy and a naturalistic performance style, one which revolutionized and transformed the art of screen...

• Bresson, Robert 1901-99, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Bromont-Lamottie, France. Bresson's films tend to be austere, unadorned, and concerned more with intellectual and spriritual values than plot or...

• Brooks, Mel 1927-, American film director, writer, actor, and producer, b. New York City as Melvin Kaminsky. His earliest work was in television, notably as a gag writer for Sid Caesar 's "Your Show of Shows"...

• Bruce, Lenny 1925-66, American comedian, b. Long Island, N.Y., as Leonard Alfred Schneider. Possessed of a cynical, surreal, and intensely comic view of the world, Bruce brutally satirized such sensitive areas...

• Buñuel, Luis 1900-83, Spanish film director, b. Calanda, Aragón. In his best films, he used poetic, often bizarre imagery and black humor to question and undermine all claims of authority and knowledge. His...

• Burnett, Carol 1936-, American television performer, b. San Antonio, Tex. Beginning her show-business life as a singer, she soon turned to comedy. After starring in the off-Broadway play Once upon a Mattress (1959), Burnett achieved success on television as a regular on The Garry Moore Show (1959-62). Then, at a time when variety shows were disappearing, her own Carol Burnett Show (1967-79) with its regular group of players performing comedy sketches and musical numbers, proved highly successful and won five Emmy Awards. She also starred in a number of successful television...

• Burns, George 1896-1996, b. New York City as Nathan Birnbaum, and his wife Gracie Allen, 1906-64, b. San Francisco, American comedy team (1923-58). In vaudeville in the 1920s, on radio (1932-50) and television (1950-58) and in films, they played an endlessly patient husband and...

• Burns, Ken (Kenneth Lauren Burns), 1953-, American documentary filmmaker, b. Broooklyn, N.Y., grad. Hampshire College (1975). Acting as producer, director, and cinematographer, Burns typically explores themes...

• Burton, Richard 1925-84, British actor, b. Pontrhydfen, Wales; his original name was Richard Jenkins. A dark, introspective actor with a splendid speaking voice, Burton specialized in portraying conflicted,...

• Caesar, Sid 1922-, American comedian, one of the stars of the 1950s "golden age of live television," b. Yonkers, N.Y. While performing in a World War II military show he met the producer Max Liebman who, impressed with Caesar's comic abilities, later sponsored him in club gigs and had him host the...

• Cagney, James 1899-1986, American movie actor, b. New York City. He worked on Broadway as an actor and dancer before appearing in films. He is best remembered as a brash, sadistic, tough guy in such movies as Public...

• Campion, Jane 1954-, New Zealand film director, b. Wellington; grad. Victoria Univ., Wellington (1975), Sydney College of the Arts, Australia (1979), Australian School of Film and Television, Sydney (1984)...

• Capra, Frank 1897-1991, American film director, b. Bisaquino, Sicily. One of the preeminent Hollywood directors of the 1930s and 40s, he produced idealistic populist movies that, sometimes amusingly and...

• Carson, Johnny 1925-2005, American television entertainer, b. Corning, Iowa. Carson, who grew up in Nebraska, began his career as a magician, then wrote comedy sketches for radio and hosted daytime television...

• Cassavetes, John 1929-89, American film actor and director, a pioneer of independent filmmaking, b. New York City. The son of Greek immigrants, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began his acting...

• Chaney, Lon 1883-1930, American film actor, b. Colorado Springs, Colo. Chaney was the son of deaf-mute parents. He made more than 150 silent films. A master of the use of grotesque, distorting makeup, he is...

• Chaplin, Charlie (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin), 1889-1977, English film actor, director, producer, writer, and composer, b. London. Chaplin began on the music-hall stage and then joined a pantomime troupe. While on...

• Clair, René 1898-1981, French film director, writer, and producer. Beginning as a film critic, Clair first received international attention in the 1930s with his early sound films, notable for their satirical...

• Close, Glenn 1947-, American actress, b. Greenwich, Conn. She began her career in the theater, debuting on Broadway in Love for Love (1974), winning an Obie for the off-Broadway The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs...

• Colbert, Claudette 1903-96, American movie actress, b. Paris as Lily Chauchoin. Known for her rosy cheeks, velvet voice, hearty laugh, and curly bangs, Colbert distinguished herself in a series of sophisticated...

• Colman, Ronald 1891-1958, British stage and film actor. Dignified in demeanor and voice, Colman created an image of kindness, humor, erudition, and romantic appeal. His films include the silent Stella Dallas (1927),...

• Cooney, Joan Ganz 1929-, American television producer, b. Phoenix, Ariz. After graduating (1951) from the Univ. of Arizona, Cooney worked as a newspaper reporter and television publicist for ten years before...

• Cooper, Gary 1901-61, American film actor, b. Helena, Mont., as Frank James Cooper. His first important starring role in A Farewell to Arms (1933) was followed by such films as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936),...

• Coppola, Francis Ford 1939-, American film director, b. Detroit. Coppola began his career directing low-budget films and working on screenplays for other directors. He won his first Academy Award for Patton (1970) and firmly established his reputation with The Godfather (1972; Academy Award). In this film, he converted an unambitious novel about the Corleone family and organized crime into a subtle portrait of the immigrant experience in America. He created an...

• Cosby, Bill (William Henry Cosby, Jr.) , 1937-, American actor, b. Philadelphia. He became known as a comedian and was subsequently the first African-American actor to star in a dramatic series on television (...

• Costello, Lou see Abbott and Costello.

• Crawford, Joan 1908-77, American movie star, b. San Antonio, Tex., as Lucille le Sueur. After working as a Broadway chorus dancer, Crawford began making films in 1926, eventually moving from musicals to drama. In...

• Davis, Bette 1908-89, American film actress, b. Lowell, Mass., as Ruth Elizabeth Davis. One of the most durable stars of the American screen, she made her debut in 1931. With compelling and distinctive...

• De Mille, Cecil B. (Cecil Blount De Mille), 1881-1959, American movie director and producer, b. Ashfield, Mass. In 1913, together with Samuel Goldwyn , he made the first feature-length film in Hollywood, The Squaw Man....

• De Niro, Robert 1943-, American film actor, b. New York City. After studying for the stage, he acted in films directed by Brian De Palma. In 1973 he made his first major movies, Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets....

• De Palma, Brian 1940-, American film director, b. Newark, N.J. Heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock , he is especially known for bloody, shocking, and suspenseful thrillers. Sometimes accused of voyeurism and misogyny, De Palma has also been praised for his visual stylishness and technical...

• De Sica, Vittorio 1901-74, Italian film director and actor. His Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1948), and Umberto D. (1952) are classics of postwar Italian neorealism. Among his later works are Yesterday,...

• Dean, James (James Byron Dean), 1931-55, American film actor, b. Marion, Ind. After a few stage and television roles, Dean was chosen to play the moody, rebellious son in the film East of Eden (1953). He was further...

• Depardieu, Gérard 1948-, French actor, b. Châteauroux. A versatile and highly successful actor, he has performed on stage and screen in France and has also made a number of English-language films in the United...

• Dietrich, Marlene 1901-92, German-American film actress and singer, b. Berlin. Dietrich began her career as a violinist. She then studied drama, appearing on the stage in Vienna and Berlin before her great film...

• Disney, Walt (Walter Elias Disney) , 1901-66, American movie producer, pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago and began his career as a cartoonist in 1920. In 1928 Disney created...

• Dovzhenko, Aleksandr 1894-1956, Soviet film director, b. Ukraine. He ranks with Eisenstein and Pudovkin as one of the greatest Soviet filmmakers. Zvenigord (1928), Arsenal (1929), and Earth (1930) used editing...

• Dressler, Marie 1869-1934, American actress, b. Coburg, Ont., Canada. She appeared on stage and in vaudeville before making her first film, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914). Although she gained fame as a large, good-natured...

• Dreyer, Carl Theodor 1889-1968, Danish motion picture director. He began making films in Denmark in 1919. His Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), widely regarded as a classic of silent filmmaking, made extensive use of close-ups and stark lighting to increase the film's dramatic effect. He experimented with innovative techniques in Vampyr (1931), his first movie with sound, which explored the power of evil and the horror of human suffering. His later works, usually adaptations of plays that employed a slow pace to build great...

• Eastwood, Clint (Clinton Eastwood, Jr.), 1930-, American actor and director, b. San Francisco. Eastwood, who began his acting career in 1955, came to public attention with his role in the TV Western Rawhide and in so-called spaghetti Westerns (usually filmed in Italy), such as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). As an actor, Eastwood is best known for his starring roles in action films, in which he portrays a strong, silent, often violent hero. He has played a leading role in more than 40 movies,...

• Eisenstein, Sergei Mikhailovich 1898-1948, Russian film director. An architect and engineer, he became interested in a theatrical career and worked as a scene designer and stage director (1920). He began his film career in 1924...

• Evan, Dale see under Rogers, Roy.

• Fairbanks, Douglas 1883-1939, American movie actor, b. Denver. From 1901 to 1914, Fairbanks appeared on stage in light comedies. In 1915 he began making movies, becoming the swashbuckling hero of his day in such...

• Fassbinder, Rainer Werner 1946-82, German filmmaker, b. Bad Wörishofen, Bavaria. One of the most highly regarded and prolific directors of the post-World War II generation and a leading figure in modern German cinema, he...

• Fellini, Federico 1920-93, Italian film director. After World War II he wrote screenplays for such neorealistic films as Rossellini 's Open City and Paisan. He began directing in 1950 and quickly abandoned neorealism...

• Fields, W. C. (William Claude Fields), 1880-1946, American comic actor, b. Philadelphia as Claude William Dukenfield. He began his career as a juggler, and much later appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and in Earl Carroll's Vanities. In 1925, he first worked with D. W. Griffith. With his rasping voice and bulbous nose, Fields was an able satiric comedian. At his best in portrayals of drunken, swaggering, and down-at-the-heels...

• Finney, Albert 1936-, English actor, b. Salford, Lancashire, studied Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London. He debuted in the theater in 1956 and has continued to act on the London and New York stage. His...

• Flaherty, Robert Joseph 1884-1951, American explorer and film producer. He was born in Michigan and grew up in Canada. He explored (1910-16) subarctic E Canada and in 1922 completed the first feature-length documentary...

• Fonda, Henry 1905-83, American actor, b. Grand Island, Nebr. He had considerable stage experience, appearing in such plays as Mr. Roberts (1948), The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1958), and Two for the Seesaw...

• Fonda, Jane 1937-, American actress, b. New York City; daughter of Henry Fonda and sister of Peter Fonda. First cast in pert and sexy roles, she later distinguished herself in dramatic parts, often as a tough and disillusioned woman. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she is also...

• Fonda, Peter 1939-, American actor. The son of Henry Fonda and brother of Jane Fonda , he made his screen debut in a forgettable 1963 feature. Several movies later he co-wrote and starred in the now-classic 1960s motorcycle odyssey Easy Rider (1969), an enormously successful film that largely typecast him as a laid-back biker. Fonda subsequently made a string of other films, including The Hired Hand (1971), a Western that also marked his directorial debut. He did not approach his earlier success for almost three decades, however, until he won critical and popular acclaim for his starring role...

• Ford, John 1895-1973, American film director, b. Cape Elizabeth, Maine, as John Martin Feeney. Ford began directing in 1917 after an apprenticeship with his brother Francis. Over the next 50 years, he brought...

• Foster, Jodie (Alicia Christian Foster), 1962-, American actress, b. Los Angeles. A child model, she began acting in TV commercials at three, appeared on various TV shows, and made her screen debut in Disney's Napoleon...

• Friendly, Fred W. 1915-98, American broadcaster and author, b. New York City as Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer. He began his career at age 22 at a radio station in Providence where he wrote, produced, and narrated "Footprints in the Sands of Time," a series of five-minute biographies. After army service in World War II, he went to New York City, where he and Edward R. Murrow produced "I Can Hear It Now," a radio series, and "See It Now," its television sequel, which included Murrow's famous documentary on Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Friendly was executive producer of "CBS Reports" (1959-64), and president of CBS News (1964-66). After resigning from CBS in a dispute over ratings, he became Edward R. Murrow professor of journalism at Columbia Univ. and was adviser (until 1980)...

• Gabin, Jean 1904-76, French film actor, b. Paris; his original name was Alexis Moncourge. Gabin's work as a cabaret entertainer led to a career in films. He was one of France's most popular actors. In his...

• Gable, Clark 1901-60, American film actor, b. Cadiz, Ohio. He began his career in films in 1930 and soon after became a star. He won an Academy Award in 1934 for his brilliant comic performance in It Happened One...

• Garbo, Greta 1905-90, American film actress, b. Stockholm, Sweden, as Greta Gustafsson. Garbo's success in the Swedish film The Atonement of Gösta Berling (1923) brought her to Hollywood. Possessing classic beauty and a husky, alluring voice, she was known in her early films for her portrayals of sexual passion. Her image as a tragic heroine was...

• Gish, Lillian 1896-1993, American stage and movie actress, b. Springfield, Ohio. In 1912 she began her film career with D. W. Griffith. A fragile, delicate beauty, Gish often played a heroine rescued from cruel...

• Godard, Jean-Luc 1930-, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Paris. Godard is probably the most influential of the French New Wave directors. His highly personal films are marked by a freewheeling approach to...

• Goldwyn, Samuel 1882-1974, American film producer, b. Warsaw, Poland. Goldwyn arrived in the United States in 1896, and with Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille he organized the Jesse Lasky Feature Photoplay Company,...

• Grace 1929-82, princess consort of Monaco, b. Philadelphia as Grace Patricia Kelly. She acted on stage and television in New York, and made her film debut in 1951. Cool, blonde, and patrician, she became...

• Grant, Cary 1904-86, British movie actor, b. Bristol as Archibald Alexander Leach. He began on stage in 1923 and made his first film in 1932. An almost immediate hit, Grant was a leading star until his...

• Griffith, D. W. (David Wark Griffith), 1880-1948, American movie director and producer, b. La Grange, Ky. Griffith was the first major American film director. He began his film career as an actor and a scenario...

• Guinness, Sir Alec 1914-2000, English actor, b. London. After his stage debut in 1934, Guinness performed with John Gielgud 's company and at the Old Vic. An actor of enormous versatility and range on stage and in film, he was especially noted for his minimalist approach and his finely tuned interpretations of character. One of his earliest and most...

• Harlow, Jean 1911-37, American movie star, b. Kansas City, Mo., as Harlean Carpentier. Harlow brought charm and a sexual knowingness to a series of comedies during the 1930s, becoming the model of feminine...

• Hawks, Howard (Howard Winchester Hawks), 1896-1977, American film director, b. Goshen, Ind. Although not as well known as such contemporaries as John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock , he has been critically acclaimed as one of the 20th cent.'s best motion picture directors. His directorial career began in the silent film era with The Road to Glory (1926). Hawks's uncomplicated and unpretentious style, visual clarity, and sense for crisp dialogue are evident in his more than 40 films, which cover an unusually wide variety of cinematic genres...

• Head, Edith 1907-81, American costume designer, b. Los Angeles, Calif. She began to design costumes for the motion pictures in the early 1930s, working at Paramount for most of her career and moving to...

• Henson, Jim (James Maury Henson), 1936-90, American puppeteer, creator of the Muppets, b. Greenville, Miss., grad. Univ. of Maryland (A.B., 1960). In 1954 he got his first job as a local television puppeteer,...

• Hepburn, Audrey 1929-93, film actress, b. Brussels as Audrey Kathleen Ruston. The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, she and her mother lived in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation. Moving...

• Hepburn, Katharine 1907-2003, American actress, b. Hartford, Conn. She made periodic stage appearances from 1928 on and debuted in the first of her 43 films in 1932; in her early roles she was usually cast as rather...

• Herzog, Werner 1942-, German director, screenwriter, and producer; originally named Werner Stipetic. One of the leading filmmakers in contemporary German cinema, the prolific Herzog is known for his vivid and...

• Hitchcock, Sir Alfred 1899-1980, English-American film director, writer, and producer, b. London. Hitchcock began his career as a director in 1925 and became prominent with The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). In 1940 he began working in the United States. In his suspense thrillers, Hitchcock unsettled audiences both through the use of intense set pieces and the suggestion that normality as...

• Hoffman, Dustin 1937-, American actor, b. Los Angeles. Not glamorous in the manner of earlier stars, Hoffman began on Broadway, but gained widespread popularity with his first major film, The Graduate (1967). Subsequently,...

• Hope, Bob 1903-2003, American comedian, b. London as Leslie Townes Hope; he came to the United States at the age of five. Famous for his "ski-jump" nose, topical humor, superb timing, brashly irreverant attitude, and rapid-fire delivery, Hope enjoyed immense popularity. He began his show-business career as a vaudeville dancer and later...

• Hopkins, Sir Anthony 1937-, British actor, b. Port Talbot, Wales. A classically schooled actor, he studied drama in Wales and London, made his stage debut in 1960, and was long a member of the British National Theatre...

• Huston, John 1906-87, American motion picture director, writer, and actor, b. Nevada, Mo. In many of his films, such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Moby Dick (1955), Huston focused on groups...

• Karloff, Boris 1887-1969, Anglo-American actor, b. Dulwich, England; his original name was William Henry Pratt. A distinguished character actor with a superb speaking voice, Karloff was famous for his monster...

• Keaton, Buster (Joseph Francis Keaton), 1895-1966, American movie actor, b. Piqua, Kans. Considered one of the greatest comic actors in film history, Keaton used his considerable acrobatic skills, which he had...

• Kelly, Grace see Grace , princess consort of Monaco.

• Kubrick, Stanley 1928-99, American film director, writer, and producer, b. New York City. His visually stunning, thematically daring, boldly idiosyncratic, and darkly compelling films generally portray a deeply...

• Kurosawa, Akira 1910-98, Japanese film director, scriptwriter, and producer, b. Tokyo. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest directors. In Rashomon (1950), he introduced Western audiences to Japanese film. Its bleakly humanistic stance toward the slippery nature of truth and its highly charged visual style marked Kurosawa's approach. His 29...

• Lancaster, Burt (Burton Stephen Lancaster), 1913-94, American film actor, b. New York City. A superb athlete, he began his career as an acrobat. Best known for his roles as a cerebral tough guy, he achieved...

• Lang, Fritz 1890-1976, German-American film director, b. Vienna. His silent and early sound films, such as Metropolis (1926), are marked by brilliant expressionist technique. He gained worldwide acclaim with M (1933), a study of a child molester and murderer. After directing 15 films, Lang fled Nazi Germany (1933) to avoid collaborating with the government and settled in the United States. His 20...

• Laughton, Charles 1899-1962, Anglo-American actor, b. Scarborough, England. A large, versatile character actor, Laughton was successful both in films and on the stage. In The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), his lusty...

• Laurel and Hardy American film comedy team. The duo consisted of Stan Laurel, 1890-1965, b. Ulverson, England, whose real name was Arthur Stanley Jefferson; and Oliver Hardy, 1892-1957, b. Atlanta, Ga. The thin...

• Lean, Sir David 1908-91, English film director, producer, and scriptwriter, b. Croyden, England. He was one of Britain's most accomplished film editors before turning to directing. His early films include In Which...

• Lee, Spike (Shelton Jackson Lee), 1957-, American filmmaker, b. Atlanta, Ga. He gained recognition as a student at New York Univ. with his graduation film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1982). His...

• Lemmon, Jack (John Uhler Lemmon 3d), 1925-2001, American actor, b. Newton, Mass., grad. Harvard (1947). He became famous in roles ranging from sardonic comedy to compelling drama, ultimately achieving the...

• Lewis, Jerry 1926-, American comedian, b. Newark, N.J. as Joseph Levitch. Known for his slapstick portrayals replete with facial mugging and sight gags, Lewis teamed (1946-56) with singer Dean Martin for a...

• Lloyd, Harold 1893-1971, American movie actor, b. Burchard, Kans. Lloyd was famous for his comic portrayals of a wistful innocent with horn-rimmed glasses who blunders in and out of hair-raising situations. His...

• Loren, Sophia 1934-, Italian film actress, b. as Sophia Scicoloni. She grew up in the slums of Naples. With the help of Italian producer Carlo Ponti (later her husband) she gained international fame as a...

• Losey, Joseph 1909-84, American film director, b. La Crosse, Wis. Among his Hollywood works, many of which dealt with social issues, are The Boy With Green Hair (1948) and M (1951). Losey was blacklisted in Hollywood because of alleged Communist sympathies and left for England in 1952. In collaboration with writer Harold Pinter, he directed films about corruption and...

• Lubitsch, Ernst 1892-1947, German-American film director, b. Berlin. He studied acting in his native city and in 1911 joined Max Reinhardt 's theatre company. Lubitsch turned to directing in 1914 and became known...

• Lucas, George W., Jr. 1944-, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Modesto, Calif. Although Lucas's first film, THX-1138 (1970), was not successful, his next two, American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977), set the course for filmmaking in the next decade. The first made song scores an acceptable alternative to symphonic orchestrations; the second presented a simple action scenario bolstered...

• Lumière, Louis Jean 1864-1948, and Auguste Lumière , 1862-1954, French inventors, brothers. They invented the Cinématographe, which was patented and demonstrated in 1895. This mechanism was the first to photograph, print, and project moving pictures...

• Malle, Louis 1932-95, French film director, b. Thumeries, France. Malle's motion pictures are noted for their nonjudgmental approach to often taboo material, for which he sought to cause the audience to...

• Martin, Steve 1945-, American comedian, actor, and writer, b. Waco, Tex. An Emmy-winning television comedy writer in the late 1960s, he began performing stand-up in the early 70s, achieving acclaim as a regular...

• Marx Brothers team of American movie comedians. The members were Julius (1890?-1977), known as Groucho; Arthur (1888?-1964), originally Adolph and known as Harpo; Leonard (1887?-1961), known as Chico; and two...

• Mason, James 1909-84, British stage and film actor. Mason, trained at Cambridge as an architect, became a leading man in British films in the 1940s and thereafter an international star. With a velvet smooth...

• Mastroianni, Marcello 1923-96, Italian movie actor, b. Fontana Liri, Italy. Known for his striking good looks and his world-weary introspective air, he was directed by Federico Fellini in such films as La Dolce Vita...

• Mayer, Louis Burt 1885-1957, American movie producer, b. Russia. Mayer began (1907) as the operator of a theater in Haverhill, Mass., gradually gaining control of all the theaters in the city. In 1924 he merged his...

• Mifune, Toshiro 1920-97, Japanese actor, b. Qingdao, China. Mifune was a versatile actor, noted for a wide range of roles in more than 120 films. He appeared in more than a dozen films for director Akira Kurosawa...

• Mitchum, Robert (Robert Charles Duran Mitchum), 1917-97, American film actor, b. Bridgeport, Conn. He found extra work and bit parts in early 1940s movies, and first achieved wide notice for his supporting role in The Story of G. I. Joe (1945). Mitchum became known for tough-guy roles in dramas where his easy nonchalance and sleepy-eyed handsomeness made him an ideal noir hero—or villain. He appeared in more than 125 films,...

• Miyazaki, Hayao 1941-, Japanese animator. Japan's preeminent maker of animated films (anime), Miyazaki is thought by many to be the world's finest living animator. He draws, writes, and directs magical motion...

• Monroe, Marilyn 1926-62, American movie actress, b. Los Angeles as Norma Jean Baker. Raised in orphanages and first married at 14, Monroe became a world-famous sex symbol and, after her death, a Hollywood legend...

• Moore, Mary Tyler 1936-, American actress, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Although she began her career as a dancer, Moore's success came on with television, first as the secretary on "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" (1959), then as the costar of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66), and finally with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-77), the first to center on an unmarried and happy career woman. In 1970, with her then husband Grant Tinker, she formed MTM productions, which produced other successful television comedies...

• Moreau, Jeanne 1928-, French movie actress, b. Paris. She studied at the Comédie Française. She is known for her sophisticated portrayals of amoral heroines. In Jules and Jim (1961), she etched a highly...

• Murnau, Friedrich W. 1889-1931, German film director, b. as Friedrich W. Plumpe. He began directing films in Germany in 1919 and went to Hollywood in 1927. Murnau's films, especially those made in collaboration with...

• Newman, Paul 1925-, American actor, b. Cleveland, Ohio. After performing for several years in television dramas, Newman became a versatile film actor. His enduring characterization is of an insolent,...

• Nichols, Mike 1931-, American actor and director, b. Berlin, Germany, as Michael Igor Peschkowsky. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1939, and he studied (1950-53) at the Univ. of Chicago. A...

• Nicholson, Jack 1937-, American film actor, b. Neptune, N.J. After appearing in a series of low-budget movies for some 10 years, he scored his first success with Easy Rider (1969). One of Hollywood's most accomplished actors, adept at both drama and comedy and known for his versatility, charm, and debonair rebelliousness, Nicholson has won Academy Awards for his work...

• Ophüls, Marcel see under Ophüls, Max.

• Ophüls, Max 1902-57, German-born French film director, b. Saarbrücken as Maximilian Oppenheimer. He started his career in the 1920s as an stage actor and director and began directing films in Berlin during...

• O'Toole, Peter 1932-, British actor, b. Connemara, Ireland. A classical stage actor, he appeared (1955-58) with the Bristol Old Vic, debuted in London in 1956, and has played a variety of Shakespearean roles...

• Ousmane, Sembene see Sembene, Ousmane.

• Pabst, G. W. (Georg Wilhelm Pabst) , 1885-1967, German film director, b. Austria. He used montage in such works of social realism as The Joyless Street (1925), Pandora's Box (1929), Westfront 1918 (1930),...

• Pacino, Al (Alberto Pacino) , 1940-, American actor, b. New York City, studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio, New York City. Known for his intense, finely tuned performances, he achieved his first...

• Pathé, Charles 1873-1957, French photographer. He was the first to present (c.1909) the newsreel as a regular attraction at a theater in Paris. In 1910 he introduced the newsreel to the United States; thereafter...

• Peck, Gregory 1916-2003, American movie actor, b. La Jolla, Calif., as Eldred Gregory Peck. Peck studied at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and debuted on Broadway in The Morning Star (1942) and in film in Days of Glory (1944). He achieved stardom in 1944 with his role in The Keys to the Kingdom and went on to become one of the screen's most enduring leading men. Tall and dark with a resonant baritone voice, Peck often portrayed characters who displayed quiet strength and nobility in the...

• Penn, Arthur Hiller 1922-, American director, brother of Irving Penn , b. Philadelphia; studied Black Mountain College and the Actors' Studio, Los Angeles. Penn, who often deals with themes of alienation in American life, began directing for television during the...

• Pickford, Mary 1893-1979, American movie actress, b. Toronto, Ont. In 1909 she began working with D. W. Griffith. Specializing in playing young girls, she was dubbed "America's Sweetheart." Her films include...

• Poitier, Sidney 1927-, American actor, b. Miami, raised in the Bahamas, returned to the United States at 15. The first African-American actor to achieve leading man status in Hollywood films, Poitier combines...

• Polanski, Roman 1933-, Polish-French film director, b. Paris. His family returned to Kraków, Poland, when he was three. His parents were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and his mother died at Auschwitz, but...

• Powell, William 1892-1984, American movie actor, b. Pittsburgh. Powell made his stage debut in 1912. He played the dapper villain in such early films as Sherlock Holmes (1921), Romola (1924), and Beau Geste (1926)....

• Pryor, Richard 1940-2005, American comedian, b. Peoria, Ill. His iconoclastic, wildly inventive, and racially explosive comic style was expressed in language that was often crude and frequently brilliant. He...

• Pudovkin, Vsevolod Ilarionovich 1893-1953, Russian film director. He used new techniques of film editing, particularly intercutting, in his character-centered stories. His most famous work came at the end of the silent era, with...

• Quinn, Anthony (Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn), 1915-2001, American actor, b. Chihuahua, Mex. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was four years old. Quinn had a number of jobs before turning to acting in the...

• Ray, Satyajit 1921-92, Indian film director, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). His subtle, austere, and delicately lyrical films made him one of the outstanding filmmakers of the 20th cent.; he was the first Indian...

• Redford, Robert (Charles Robert Redford, Jr.), 1937-, American actor and director, b. Santa Monica, Calif. Blond, with a perennially boyish handsomeness and an appeal that has lasted several decades, he is one of...

• Reed, Sir Carol 1906-76, English film director, b. London. He acted and directed on the stage before turning to films in the mid-1930s. Reed powerfully portrayed characters at the end of their tethers, frequently...

• Renoir, Jean 1894-1979, French film director and writer, b. Paris; son of Pierre Auguste Renoir. He made his first film in 1926. Gathering around him a devoted coterie of actors and technicians, Renoir...

• Riefenstahl, Leni (Berta Helene Amalie Riefenstahl) , 1902-2003, German filmmaker, b. Berlin. A dancer and actress, she was began directing her own films in 1932. Her Triumph of the Will (1935) documented a huge Nazi rally at Nuremberg using such innovative techniques as moving cameras, telephoto lenses, and unusual camera angles to produce startling black-and-white footage with...

• Robinson, Edward G. 1893-1973, American movie actor, b. Bucharest, Romania, as Emmanuel Goldberg. He made his stage debut in New York City in 1915. A short, tough-looking man, Robinson played both vicious gangsters...

• Roddenberry, Gene (Eugene Wesley Roddenberry), 1921-91, American television writer and producer, b. El Paso, Tex. After being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for flying 89 missions and...

• Rogers, Fred McFeely 1928-2003, American children's television personality, b. Latrobe, Pa. Rogers began working in television immediately after he graduated (1951) from Rollins College and in 1953 began his career in...

• Rogers, Roy 1911-98, American Western film star, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, as Leonard Franklin Slye. The guitar-strumming Rogers succeeded Gene Autry as America's favorite singing cowboy in movies of the mid-1940s. An ex-fruit picker and cowpuncher, he and his brother performed on the radio during the 1930s. Rogers was a founder (1934) of the...

• Rohmer, Eric 1920-, French film director and writer, b. Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer. He was a founder (1950) of La Gazette du cinéma, cowrote (1957) a study of Alfred Hitchcock , and edited (1957-63)...

• Rossellini, Roberto 1906-77, Italian film director and producer. He first received international attention in 1946 with Open City, which was made clandestinely during the Fascist period and became the key film of the...

• Schwarzenegger, Arnold Alois 1947-, Austrian-American actor, bodybuilder, and politician, b. Thal, Austria. He began competing in bodybuilding contests in his teens, and won his first of five Mr. Universe titles in 1967. He...

• Scorsese, Martin 1942-, American film director; b. Queens, N.Y. A major figure in contemporary cinema, he grew up in Manhattan's Little Italy, attended film school at New York Univ., made his first feature-length...

• Selznick, David O. 1902-65, American film producer, b. Pittsburgh. He worked for studios in Hollywood before founding Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Selznick's most famous movie is Gone with the Wind (1939)....

• Sembene, Ousmane 1923-, Senegalese writer and film director writing in French and Wolof, often regarded as the father of sub-Saharan African cinema. He left school at 15 and after being drafted into the French...

• Sennett, Mack 1884-1960, American movie director and producer, b. Danville, Que. In 1909 he began working for D. W. Griffith at the Biograph Company, and in 1912 he organized his own Keystone Company. Sennett's films, rarely more than one or two reels long, were slapstick comedies noted for their fantastic chases and...

• Sirk, Douglas 1900-87, German-American film director, b. Hamburg as Claus Detlef Sierck. A successful director in German theater and film, he fled the Nazi regime in 1937. Two years later he emigrated to the...

• Spielberg, Steven 1947-, American film director, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. Spielberg began his career as a television director, admired for his understanding portrayal of human character. His film Jaws (1975) was the first to earn more than $100 million, a record he surpassed first with E.T. (1983) and then with Jurassic Park (1993), which grossed more than $900 million. Spielberg's love of older movies was demonstrated with his serial-inspired trilogy of movies featuring Indiana Jones. Other films, many based on...

• Stewart, Jimmy (James Maitland Stewart), 1908-97, American actor, b. Indiana, Pa. He began his film career in 1935 and soon gained popularity for his lanky good looks, slow drawl and shy, homespun charm, evident...

• Stone, Oliver 1946-, American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer, b. New York City, studied filmmaking with Martin Scorsese at New York Univ. (B.F.A., 1971). Stone enlisted (1967) in the army and saw combat in Vietnam, winning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He adapted the screenplay for Midnight Express (1978; Academy Award) and authored other scripts before directing his first Hollywood film, The Hand (1981). Stone won critical plaudits for Salvador (1986), but it was not until he wrote and directed the grimly realistic Vietnam War drama Platoon (1986; Academy Award, best director) that he catapulted to popular success. In his exploration of various uniquely American themes, Stone has become a controversial figure, frequently criticized...

• Streep, Meryl