Justice League (1987)

Quirky, inventive and handsome American actor Michael Keaton first achieved major fame with his door-busting performance as fast-talking ideas man Bill Blazejowski, alongside a nerdish morgue attendant (Henry Winkler), in Night Shift (1982). He played further comedic roles in Mr. Mom (1983), Johnny Dangerously (1984), and Beetlejuice (1988), earned further acclaim for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), and since then, has moved easily between film genres, ranging from drama and romantic comedy to thriller and action.

Keaton was born Michael John Douglas on September 5, 1951 in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, to Leona Elizabeth (Loftus), a homemaker, and George A. Douglas, a civil engineer and surveyor. He is of Irish, as well as English, Scottish, and German, descent. Michael studied speech for two years at Kent State, before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh. An unsuccessful attempt at stand-up comedy led Keaton to working as a TV cameraman in a cable station, and he came to realize he wanted to work in front of the cameras. Keaton first appeared on TV in several episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968).

He left Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for TV. He began cropping up in popular TV shows including Maude (1972) and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (1979). Around this time, Keaton decided to use an alternative surname to remove confusion with better-known actor Michael Douglas. He looked into the "K"'s for surnames and thought it was inoffensive to chose 'Keaton'. His next break was scoring a co-starring role alongside Jim Belushi in the short-lived comedy series Working Stiffs (1979), which showcased his comedic talent and led to his co-starring role in Night Shift (1982). Keaton next scored the lead in the comedy hits Mr. Mom (1983), Johnny Dangerously (1984) , Gung Ho (1986), the Tim Burton horror-comedy Beetlejuice (1988), and The Dream Team (1989).

Keaton's career was given another major boost when he was again cast by Tim Burton, this time as the title comic book superhero, millionaire playboy/crime-fighter Bruce Wayne, in Batman (1989). Burton cast him because he thought that Keaton was the only actor who could portray someone who has the kind of darkly obsessive personality that the character demands. To say there were howls of protest by fans of the caped crusader comic strip is an understatement! Warner Bros. was deluged with thousands of letters of complaint commenting that comedian Keaton was the wrong choice for the Caped Crusader, given his prior work and the fact that he lacked the suave, handsome features and tall, muscular physicality often attributed to the character in the comic books. However, their fears were proven wrong when Keaton turned in a sensational performance, and he held his own on screen with opponent Jack Nicholson, playing the lunatic villain, "The Joker". Keaton's dramatic work earned widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike, and Batman (1989) became one of the most successful films of the year.

Keaton remained active during the 1990s, appearing in a wide range of films. Keen to diversify his work, Keaton starred as a psychotic tenant in Pacific Heights (1990), as a hard-working cop in One Good Cop (1991), and then donned the black cape and cowl once more for Batman Returns (1992). He remained in demand during the 1990s, appearing in a wide range of films, including the star-studded Shakespearian Much Ado About Nothing (1993), the drama My Life (1993), another Ron Howard comedy The Paper (1994), with sexy Andie MacDowell in Multiplicity (1996), twice in the same role, dogged Elmore Leonard character Agent Ray Nicolette, in Jackie Brown (1997) and Out of Sight (1998). He also played a killer in the mediocre thriller Desperate Measures (1998).

In the 2000s, Keaton appeared in several productions with mixed success, including Live from Baghdad (2002), First Daughter (2004), and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). He also provided voices for characters in the animated films Cars (2006), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Minions (2015).

He returned to major film roles in the 2010s, co-starring in The Other Guys (2010), RoboCop (2014) and Need for Speed (2014). Also that year, Keaton starred alongside Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), a film by 21 Grams (2003) and Biutiful (2010) director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. In the film, Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a screen actor, famous for playing the iconic titular superhero, who puts on a Broadway play based on a Raymond Carver short story, to regain his former glory. Keaton's critically praised lead performance earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy, and nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award, British Academy Film Award, and Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 2015, he played a journalist in Spotlight (2015), which, like Birdman, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2016, he starred as Ray Kroc, the developer of McDonald's, in the drama The Founder (2016).

He is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University.

Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City, to journalist Barbara Johnson (née Barbara Pitney Lamb) and writer/professor F.D. Reeve (Franklin D'Olier Reeve). He came from an upper-class family; his paternal grandfather was CEO of Prudential Financial, and one of his maternal great-grandfathers was Supreme Court Associate Justice Mahlon Pitney.

When Reeve was four, his parents divorced. His mother moved him and his brother Benjamin to Princeton, New Jersey, and married an investment banker a few years later. After graduating from high school, Reeve studied at Cornell University while at the same time working as a professional actor. In his final year at Cornell, he was one of two students selected (Robin Williams was the other) to study at New York's famous Juilliard School, under the renowned John Houseman. Although Christopher is best known for his role as Superman (1978), a role which he played with both charisma and grace, his acting career spans a much larger ground. Paralyzed after a horse riding accident, he died suddenly at age 52 after several years of living and working with his severe disability.

Margot Kidder was born Margaret Ruth Kidder in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, to Jocelyn Mary "Jill" (Wilson), a history teacher from British Columbia, and Kendall Kidder, a New Mexico-born mining engineer and explosives expert. Margot was a delightful child who took pride in everything she did. At an early age, she became aware of the great emotions she felt towards expressing herself, and caught the acting bug. As a child, she wrote in a diary that she wanted to become a movie star, and that one day it would happen, but she had to overcome something else first. She was aware that she was constantly facing mood swings, but didn't know why. At odd times, she would try to kill herself - the first time was at age 14 - but the next day she would be just fine. Her father's hectic schedule and moving around so much didn't help matters, either, causing her to attend 11 schools in 12 years. Finally, in an attempt to help Margot with her troubles, her parents sent" her to a boarding school, where she took part in school plays, such as Romeo and Juliet", in which she played the lead.

After graduation, Margot moved to Los Angeles to start a film career. She found herself dealing with a lot of prejudice, and hotheads, but later found solace with a Canadian agent. This was when she got her first acting job, in the Norman Jewison film Gaily, Gaily (1969). This led to another starring role in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), in which she co-starred with Gene Wilder. After some harsh words from the film's director, Margot temporarily left films to study acting in New York, doing television work to pay her bills, but when the money ran out, she decided it was time to make a second try at acting. When she arrived in Hollywood she met up at a screen test with actress Jennifer Salt, resulting in a friendship that still stands strong today. Margot and Jennifer moved into a lofty beach house and befriended other, then unknown, struggling filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg and Susan Sarandon, among others. Late nights would see the hot, happening youngsters up until all hours talking around a fire about how they were all going to change the film industry. It was crazy living and within the Christmas season, Margot had become involved with De Palma, and as a Christmas present he gave her the script to his upcoming film Sisters (1972). Margot and Salt both had the leads in the film, and it was a huge critical success.

The film made branded Margot as a major talent, and in the following years she starred in a string of critically acclaimed pictures, such as Black Christmas (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), 92 in the Shade (1975) - directed by Thomas McGuane, who was also her husband for a brief period - and a somewhat prophetic tale of self-resurrection, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975).

After three years of being a housewife, looking after her daughter Maggie and not working, Margot decided it was time to let her emotions take control and get back into acting. Once her marriage to McGuane was over, she eyed a script that would change her life forever. Her new agent referred her to a little-known director named Richard Donner. He was going to be directing a film called Superman (1978), and she auditioned for and secured the leading female role of Lois Lane. That film and Superman II (1980) filmed simultaneously. After the success of "Superman" she took on more intense roles, such as The Amityville Horror (1979) and Willie & Phil (1980). After that, Margot starred in numerous films, television and theater work throughout the 1980s, including Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). When the 1990s erupted with the Gulf War, Margot found herself becoming involved in politics. She made a stir in the biz when she spoke out against the military for their actions in Kuwait. She also appeared in a cameo in Donner's Maverick (1994).

In 1996, as she was preparing to write her autobiography, she began to become more and more paranoid. When her computer became infected with a virus, this gave her paranoia full rein, and she sank into bipolar disorder. She panicked, and the resulting psychological problems she created for herself resulted in her fantasizing that her first husband was going to kill her, so she left her home and faked her death, physically altering her appearance in the process. After an intervention took place, she got back on her feet and started the mental wellness campaign. Since then, she resumed her career in film, television, and theatre, including appearing in a Canadian stage production of "The Vagina Monologues", and in films like The Clown at Midnight (1998).

Margot died on May 13, 2018, in Livingston, Montana.

Lynda Jean Cordova Carter is an American actress, singer, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World USA 1972 and finished in the top 15 at the Miss World 1972 pageant. Carter is best known as the star of the live-action television series Wonder Woman, in the role of Diana Prince / Wonder Woman. The role was based on the DC comic book fictional superhero character of the same name, and aired on ABC and later on CBS from 1975 to 1979.

Michael J. Fox was born Michael Andrew Fox on June 9, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Phyllis Fox (née Piper), a payroll clerk, and William Fox. His parents moved their 10-year-old son, his three sisters, Kelli Fox, Karen, and Jacki, and his brother Steven, to Vancouver, British Columbia, after his father, a sergeant in the Canadian Army Signal Corps, retired. During these years Michael developed his desire to act. At 15 he successfully auditioned for the role of a 10-year-old in a series called Leo and Me (1978). Gaining attention as a bright new star in Canadian television and movies, Michael realized his love for acting when he appeared on stage in "The Shadow Box." At 18 he moved to Los Angeles and was offered a few television-series roles, but soon they stopped coming and he was surviving on boxes of macaroni and cheese. Then his agent called to tell him that he got the part of Alex P. Keaton on the situation comedy Family Ties (1982). He starred in the feature films Teen Wolf (1985), High School U.S.A. (1983), Poison Ivy (1985) and Back to the Future (1985).

Dolph Lundgren was born as Hans Lundgren in Stockholm, Sweden, to Sigrid Birgitta (Tjerneld), a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. He lived in Stockholm until the age of 13, when he moved in with his grandparents in Nyland, Ångermanland, Sweden. Despite an early interest in music and the fine arts, Dolph decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue an Engineering degree. After having completed his military service, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

It was in the military when Dolph first came in contact with the martial arts. Five years later, he had become a world-class competitor in Japanese Karate and was deeply involved with a discipline that was to become an important part of his life. After graduating High School, Dolph spent considerable time studying in the United States and abroad on various academic scholarships. He attended Washington State University and Clemson University in South Carolina. In 1982, he received a scholarship to complete his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. In 1983, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, one of the world's top engineering schools.

However, that same year, he decided to move to New York City and take up acting. He changed his forename to Dolph. He started studying drama at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop in Manhattan, not knowing how quickly his life was about to change. His film debut came in A View to a Kill (1985). However, it was his performance in Rocky IV (1985) later that year that definitely got him noticed. After a 9-month audition process among 5,000 hopefuls, he was cast opposite writer-director Sylvester Stallone, as his Russian opponent, "Ivan Drago". Following the success of Rocky IV (1985), Lundgren moved to Los Angeles and has since starred in more than 30 feature films.

Lundgren portrayed the classic action-heroic lead in such films as Gary Goddard's Masters of the Universe (1987), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) co-starring Brandon Lee and Blackjack (1998), by Hong-Kong action legend, John Woo. Lundgren has also continued to turning in memorable performances as the main adversary to other action-stars, most notably in Universal Soldier (1992) opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme, directed by Roland Emmerich, as well as Robert Longo's Johnny Mnemonic (1995) opposite Keanu Reeves. In February 2004, Lundgren directed his first feature film, the thriller The Defender (2004), in which he also starred. In 2005, he directed and starred in yet another feature, The Russian Specialist (2005) (a.k.a "The Mechanik").

In January 2006, he finished principal photography of The Final Inquiry (2006), a joint Italian/American/Spanish co-production, directed by Giulio Base, appearing opposite, among others, Daniele Liotti, Max von Sydow and F. Murray Abraham. In 2006, Lundgren starred in Diamond Dogs (2007), a Chinese/American co-production filmed on location in Mongolia. In 2007, he directed a modern day western shot in Texas, Missionary Man (2007). In 2009, he completed two new directorial efforts, the action-packed Command Performance (2009), which showcases Lundgren's longtime musical talents as a drummer; and the neo-noir thriller Icarus (2010). Lundgren also reunited with co-stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sylvester Stallone for Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) and the highly anticipated action blockbuster, The Expendables (2010).

Lundgren managed to not let his Hollywood career stand in the way of his athletic background. He has been awarded his Third Degree Black Belt by the World Karate Organization in Tokyo. His accomplishments include being the Captain of the Swedish National Karate Team, as well as a Champion of the Swedish, European and Australian Heavyweight Division titles. Lundgren still regularly performs Karate exhibitions at international tournaments worldwide. In addition, he was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee to serve as Team Leader of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Pentathlon Team during the Atlanta Games. He is actively involved in promoting the image of this sport. His production company, Thor Pictures, is developing several projects in which he will produce, star and/or direct. He is also a founding member of "Group of Eight", a New York theater group started in 1994.

Lundgren has reportedly been working on a fitness book and sports wear line for men, the creation and launch of a new eponymous brand, a licensing, media and publishing program, and the development of future entertainment and media projects. Lundgren was married to Anette Qviberg-Lundgren, an interior decorator and fashion designer, until their divorce in 2011. They had two daughters together.

A true multi-hyphenate, Blair Underwood is enjoying success in film, television and theatre, as an actor, director and producer. Underwood recently returned to Broadway starring opposite David Alan Grier in the Pulitzer Prize winning drama "A Solider's Play" for director Kenny Leon and the Roundabout Theatre Company. He also co-stars in Justin Simien's "Bad Hair" which will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Also this year, Underwood stars opposite Octavia Spencer & Tiffany Haddish in Netflix's highly anticipated limited series "Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker" (March 20).

Underwood recently appeared in the Netflix Emmy-Award winning limited series "When They See Us." He also had a recurring role on the Netflix comedy series, "Dear White People" and can be seen in Clark Johnson's "Juanita," opposite Alfre Woodard, also for Netflix. He spent two years as a series regular on the ABC drama series "Quantico," while also recurring on another hit ABC drama "MARVEL AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. " He also had a co-starring role in "The After Party," from writer/director Ian Edelman, which Netflix released late in 2018.

Past television credits include series regular roles on "Dirty Sexy Money," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "In Treatment," "The Event" and "L.A. Law". Film credits include "Deep Impact," "Set It Off," "Rules of Engagement," "Just Cause," "Madea's Family Reunion" and Steven Soderbergh's "Full Frontal." Underwood co-starred opposite Cicely Tyson in the Lifetime telefilm & theatre production of "A Trip to Bountiful," based on the Tony Award-winning play.

In 2012 he made his acclaimed Broadway debut in the iconic role of Stanley in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," for which he earned a 2012 Drama League Distinguished Performance Award nomination. He also starred in "Paradise Blue" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and "Othello" at the Old Globe Theatre.

Underwood also has several projects in the development pipeline as a director, including "Viral," a feature based on a Joe McClean script. In 2010 he made his feature film directing debut with "The Bridge to Nowhere," which starred Ving Rhames, Danny Masterson, Bijou Phillips and Alex Breckenridge.

Underwood is an Emmy Award-winner (as producer of the philanthropy-centered NBC Saturday morning series "Give"), a two-time Golden Globe Award nominee, and has been nominated for 17 NAACP Image Awards (seven wins). He won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word as co-narrator of Al Gore's audiobook, An Inconvenient Truth. A newly minted member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he is also active in several philanthropic endeavors.

Tony Award-winning English actor Michael Gough, best known for playing the butler Alfred Pennyworth in the first four Batman (1989, 1992, 1995 & 1997) movies and for playing the arch-criminal Dr. Clement Armstrong in The Avengers (1961) episode "The Cybernauts", was an accomplished performer on both stage and screen. He was nominated twice for Tony Awards, in 1979 for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Alan Ayckbourn's "Bedroom Farce" and in 1988 in the same category for Hugh Whitemore's "Breaking the Code", winning in 1979. Though he never achieved on the small screen and silver screen what he did in the theater, Gough's career in television and movies spanned sixty-plus years over eight decades. Michael Gough died at age 94 on March 17, 2011 at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.

This warm and winning, very non-theatrical brunette was born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter in Portland, Maine, on November 20, 1919. The daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter, her acting talent came from her mother's side, who was a one-time Shakespearean actress. Phyllis was educated for a time at St. Genevieve School in Montreal and back at Portland's Deering High School.

She apprenticed in summer stock and had joined the Montreal Reperatory Theatre company by the time she made her Broadway debut at age 17 in "What a Life!" in 1939, the "Henry Aldrich" play. She went on to play a maid and to understudy the leading ingénue in "There Shall Be No Night" (1940), which starred America's premiere theatrical couple, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, then understudied Dorothy McGuire in the hit dramatic play, "Claudia", later that year. She eventually played the title role both on Broadway and on the road, but lost out on the film role to McGuire.

Hollywood films reached her sights a few years later with the MGM war film, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), proving quite convincing as Van Johnson's noble wife. Similar to Margaret Sullavan, June Allyson, Dorothy McGuire and Teresa Wright, Phyllis was depended on as a stabilizing factor in melodramas and war pictures, often the dewy-eyed, altruistic wife, girlfriend or daughter waiting on the home-front.

Other important films included the girl with a split personality in Bewitched (1945), and as a angst-ridden, teary-eyed bride-to-be in Week-End at the Waldorf (1945). She was dutifully wholesome as the daughter who reunites Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the movie The Sea of Grass (1947) and evoked tears, yet again, as little Margaret O'Brien's mother in Tenth Avenue Angel (1948). So natural and non-glamorous was she that she tended to blend into the woodwork while the flashier actresses often stole the thunder and the notices.

Audiences did not always fully appreciate Phyllis's understated work. She finished out her MGM contract with Act of Violence (1948), ever-faithful to even the bad guy, this time psychotic gangster Robert Ryan. Phyllis moved to Warner Brothers in the 1950s and played more of the same. The ever-patient wife to a slew of top actors including shady boat skipper John Garfield in The Breaking Point (1950), an alcoholic Gig Young in Come Fill the Cup (1951) and law-abiding Gary Cooper in Springfield Rifle (1952), her nascent career at Warners was suddenly curtailed by illness.

While visiting her family in Portland, she contracted a form of infantile paralysis. Fortunately, she recovered quickly but the ailment triggered the termination of her contract. Film roles were few and far between after this. Still displaying her built-in compassion and concern, her best-known part came with the touching but relatively minor role of farm wife "Martha Kent" in the highly popular Superman (1978) film series with the late Christopher Reeve as her adopted superhero son and Glenn Ford as her husband. She was also a steady guest star on TV with numerous dramatic appearances including The Twilight Zone (1959), The F.B.I. (1965), Cannon (1971), Medical Center (1969), Barnaby Jones (1973) and several TV movies.

Married for nearly two decades to James T. Aubrey (1918-1994), who became president of CBS-TV before taking over MGM, they had three children--including Schuyler, who would become the actress Skye Aubrey. Following the couple's divorce in 1962, Phyllis married Gilbert Lea, who owned Tower Publishing Company in Portland. They eventually retired to Cumberland, Maine, where she involved herself in civic/community activities and dedicated herself to hospital volunteer work.

Phyllis died in Florida on August 14, 2012, at age 92.

The quintessential jet-set Euro starlet, Ursula Andress was born in the Swiss canton of Berne on March 19, 1936, one of six children in a strict German Protestant family. Although often seeming icily aloof, a restless streak early demonstrated itself in her personality, and she had an impetuous desire to explore the world outside Switzerland. (For instance, she was tracked down by Interpol for running away from boarding school at 17 years old.) The stunning young woman found work as an art model in Rome and did walk-on parts in three quickie Italian pictures before coming to Hollywood in 1955 and getting nowhere professionally; a four-month fling with rising star James Dean brought her good publicity but not much else. That same year, still just 19, she met and had an affair with fading matinée idol John Derek, who left his wife Pati Behrs and two kids for Ursula even though she spoke almost no English at the time. In 1957 they eloped to Las Vegas, and the new bride put her acting aspirations on hold for a few years thereafter.

1962 saw the relatively unknown Swiss beauty back on the set, playing opposite Sean Connery in the first movie version of Ian Fleming's fanciful "James Bond" espionage novels, Dr. No (1962). Andress' role as bikini-clad Honey Ryder was somewhat brief, and her Swiss/German accent so thick that her entire performance had to be dubbed by a voiceover artist. Nevertheless, her striking looks and smoldering screen presence made a strong impression on moviegoers, immediately establishing her as one of the most desired women in the world and as an ornament to put alongside some of the most bankable talent of the era, such as Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco (1963) and Dean Martin in 4 for Texas (1963). In 1965, she was one of several European starlets to co-star in What's New Pussycat (1965) -- a film that perhaps sums up mid-'60s pop culture better than any other -- written by Woody Allen, starring Allen and Peter Sellers, with music by Burt Bacharach, a title song performed by Tom Jones and much on-screen sexual romping.

Andress appeared in many more racy-for-their time movies in both the United States and Europe, including The 10th Victim (1965), in which she wore a famously ballistic bra, and The Blue Max (1966), where she was aptly cast as the sultry, insatiable wife of an aristocratic World War I German general. She was also featured in Casino Royale (1967), a satirical foray into the world of James Bond, and gave a sparkling performance in the T&A-filled crime caper Perfect Friday (1970). Roles as a prostitute kidnapped by outlaws in Red Sun (1971), a stewardess living on the edge in Loaded Guns (1975), and a bombshell nurse hired to titillate a doddering millionaire to death in The Sensuous Nurse (1975) all provided plenty of excuses to throw her clothes to the wind. In Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), she was notoriously stripped and slathered in orange paint by a pair of nubiles. Then she took on the sophisticated role of Louise de la Valliere, slinky, conspiratorial mistress of King Louis XIV (Beau Bridges) in The Fifth Musketeer (1979).

As for her personal life, Andress separated from Derek in 1964 and got divorced two years later, after falling in love with French superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo on the Malaysian set of Up to His Ears (1965). (Ron Ely, John Richardson and Marcello Mastroianni kept her company during the interim.) The relationship with Belmondo hit a wall in 1972, and she was next attached to her leading man from Stateline Motel (1973), Italian heartthrob Fabio Testi. When that didn't work out, Andress jumped into the dating pool, sporadically involved with a host of Lotharios including (but by no means limited to) Dennis Hopper, Franco Nero, John DeLorean and Ryan O'Neal. In 1979, she began what would be a long-term romance with Harry Hamlin, her handsome young co-star from Clash of the Titans (1981) (in which she was cast, predictably, as "Aphrodite"). While subsequently traveling in India, Andress' belly began to swell out of her clothing, and she felt very nauseous. What at first seemed a severe case of "Delhi Belly" turned out to be pregnancy, her first and only, at age 43. Hamlin encouraged her to have the baby, and on May 19, 1980, the international sex symbol gave birth to a boy named Dimitri Hamlin amid much hoopla.

After the birth of her son, Andress scaled back her career, which now focused on slight European productions, as she was raising Dimitri in Italy. This meant turning down a big-budget Mel Brooks film in lieu of Red Bells (1982) (starring old flame Nero). Occasional television stints on the soap opera Falcon Crest (1981) and critically lauded miniseries Peter the Great (1986) helped maintain her visibility as an actress. Dumped by Hamlin in 1983, she started seeing Fausto Fagone, a Sicilian student three decades her junior, in 1986. In 1991, she met a new man when things dwindled with Fagone -- karate master Jeff Speakman. Since the breakup of that relationship, her love life has gone undocumented. She last worked on a film in 2005. Apparently retired from acting, Ursula makes the rounds of charity events and pops up on foreign talk shows every now and then. She divides her time between family in Switzerland, friends in Virginia and Spain, and her properties in Rome and L.A.

Pat Hingle (real name: Martin Patterson Hingle) was born in Miami, Florida, the son of a building contractor. His parents divorced when Hingle was still in his infancy (he never knew his father) and his mother supported the family by teaching school in Denver. She then began to travel (with her son in tow) in search of more lucrative work; by age 13 Hingle had lived in a dozen cities. The future Tony Award nominee made his "acting debut" in the third grade, playing a carrot in a school play ("At that time it didn't seem like much of a way to make a living!", he recalled). Hingle attended high school in Texas and in 1941 entered the University of Texas, majoring in advertising. After serving in the Navy during WW II, he went back to the university and got involved with the drama department as a way to meet girls. With his wife Alyce (whom he first met at the university), Hingle moved to New York and began to get jobs on the stage and on TV. The apex of his stage career was "J.B." by poet Archibald Macleish, with Hingle in the title role as a 20th-century Job. It was during the run of "J.B." that Hingle took an accidental plunge down the elevator shaft of his New York apartment building, sustaining near-fatal injuries in the 54-foot fall. He was near death for two weeks (and lost the little finger of his left hand); his recovery took more than a year. In more recent years, Hingle has played Commissioner Gordon in the "Batman" movies.

Just prior to his death, he resided in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, with his wife, Julia.

Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England. His mother, Maura Patricia (Langmead), was a school secretary, and his father, James Curry, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain. Curry studied Drama and English at Birmingham University, from which he graduated with Combined Honors. His first professional success was in the London production of "Hair", followed by more work in the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Glasgow Citizens Repertory Company, and the Royal Court Theatre where he created the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show". He recreated the role in the Los Angeles and Broadway productions and starred in the screen version entitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Curry continued his career on the New York and London stages with starring roles in "Travesties", "Amadeus", "The Pirates of Penzance", "The Rivals", "Love for Love", "Dalliance", "The Threepenny Opera", "The Art of Success" and "My Favorite Year". He also starred in the United States tour of "Me and My Girl". He has received two Tony Award nominations for best actor and won the Royal Variety Club Award as "Stage Actor of the Year".

A composer and a singer, Tim Curry toured the United States and Europe with his own band and released four albums on A&M Records. In addition to an active movie and television career, he is a sought-after actor for CD-ROM productions. His distinctive voice can be heard on more than a dozen audio books, and in countless animated television series and videos. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Gedde Watanabe was born on 26 June 1955 in Ogden, Utah, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Sixteen Candles (1984), UHF (1989) and Parental Guidance (2012).

Jane Seymour was born as Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg in 1951 in Middlesex, England, to a nurse mother and gynaecologist/obstetrician father. She is of Polish Jewish (father) and Dutch (mother) descent. She adopted the acting name of "Jane Seymour" when she entered show business as it was easier for people to remember (and the name of one of King Henry VIII's wives). She attracted the attention of the James Bond film producers when they saw her on British television. She was cast as the main Bond girl, "Solitaire", in Live and Let Die (1973). The role gained her international recognition but she was in danger of losing it all like the previous Bond girls, so she came to the U.S.

A casting director advised her to lose her English accent and acquire an American accent to land roles on American television. She did and started getting roles, earning five Emmy nominations, resulting in one win for Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988) for playing Maria Callas. She won Golden Globe awards for both East of Eden (1981) and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993), where she played the title role for 5 years. She occasionally appeared in feature films, memorably in Somewhere in Time (1980) and in Wedding Crashers (2005).

Married and divorced four times, she gave birth to four children and is a stepmother to two. They have children of their own, making her a grandmother. As of 2018, she has been acting in television movies and making guest-appearances.

Reginald VelJohnson was born on 16 August 1952 in Queens, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Die Hard (1988), Family Matters (1989) and Ghostbusters (1984).

Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London, to Margaret Doreen Rose (Bartlett), of English and Welsh descent, and Bernard Rickman, of Irish descent, who worked at a factory. Alan Rickman had an older brother (David), a younger brother (Michael), and a younger sister (Sheila). When Alan was 8 years old, his father died. He attended Latymer Upper School on a scholarship. He studied Graphic Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design, where he met Rima Horton, who would later become his longtime partner.

After three years at Chelsea College, Rickman did graduate studies at the Royal College of Art. He opened a successful graphic design business, Graphiti, with friends and managed it for several years before his love of theatre led him to seek an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). At the relatively late age of 26, Rickman received a scholarship to RADA, which started a professional acting career that has lasted nearly 40 years, a career which has spanned stage, screen and television, and overlapped into directing, as well. In 1987, he first came to the attention of American audiences as the Vicomte de Valmont in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" on Broadway (he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the role). Denied the role in the film version of the show, Rickman instead made his first film appearance opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988) as the villainous Hans Gruber. His take on the urbane villain set the standard for screen villains for decades to come.

Although often cited as being a master of playing villains, Rickman actually played a wide variety of characters, such as the romantic cello-playing ghost Jamie in Anthony Minghella's Truly Madly Deeply (1990) and the noble Colonel Brandon of Sense and Sensibility (1995). He treated audiences to his comedic abilities in such films as Dogma (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and roles like Dr. Alfred Blalock in Something the Lord Made (2004), and as Alex Hughes in Snow Cake (2006), showcased his ability to play ordinary men in extraordinary situations. Rickman even conquered the daunting task of singing a role in a Stephen Sondheim musical as he took on the role of Judge Turpin in the movie adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). In 2001, Rickman introduced himself to a whole new, younger generation of fans by taking on the role of Severus Snape in the film versions of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). He continued to play the role through the eighth and last movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Alan Rickman died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016. He was 69 years old.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.

Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."

Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with Night Moves (1975) and Bite the Bullet (1975), or fall to new depths with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Young Frankenstein (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Extreme Measures (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in Crimson Tide (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and The Quick and the Dead (1995).

Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.

He was the son of Teunke Hauer (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, actors who operated an acting school. As his parents were often touring, he and his three sisters were raised by a nanny. A bit of a rebel during his childhood, he chafed at the rules and rigors of school and was often getting into mischief. His grandfather had been the captain of a schooner and at age fifteen, Hauer ran away to work on a freighter for a year. Like his great-grandfather, Hauer was color-blind, which prevented him from furthering his career as a sailor.

Upon his return he attended night school and started working in the construction industry. When he again bombed at school, his parents enrolled him in drama classes. An amateur poet, he spent most of his time writing poetry and hanging out in Amsterdam coffee houses instead of studying. He was expelled for poor attendance and afterward spent a brief period in the Dutch navy.

Deciding he didn't like military life, Hauer honed his acting skills trying to convince his superiors he was mentally unfit and was sent to a special home for psych patients. It was an unpleasant place, but Hauer remained there until he had convinced his ranking officers that the military really did not need him.

Widely regarded as the one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native USA and internationally, James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi. At an early age, he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). For several movie fans, he is probably best known for his role as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy (due to his contribution for the voice of the role, as the man in the Darth Vader suit was David Prowse, whose voice was dubbed because of his British West Country accent). In his brilliant course of memorable performances, among others, he has also appeared on the animated series The Simpsons (1989) three times and played Mufasa both in The Lion King (1994) and The Lion King (2019), while he returned too as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).

Richard Donner was born on 24 April 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Lethal Weapon (1987). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on 5 July 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Peters made his Hollywood debut in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956) as the boy on the donkey crossing the Red Sea. He went on to be a hard-case kid who spent his formative years in and out of reform school. Peters entered the family business of hairdressing at age 14. Armed with an instinctive genius for self-promotion, he amassed a huge celebrity clientele at his trendy Jon Peters Salon on Rodeo Drive, raking in millions by merchandising the salon's ancillary cosmetic products. Privy to confidences that the rich and famous only reveal to their hairdressers, Peters became hip to the ways and means of Hollywood. In 1973, he fell in love with his client Barbra Streisand and proceeded to manage her early music and film career. He produced her 1976 remake of A Star Is Born (1976) which yielded over $100 million at the box office and four Oscar nominations including the Oscar-winning song, "Evergreen". Peters went on to produce a string of best-selling Streisand albums, "The Main Event", The Eyes of Laura Mars" and "Caddyshack". Peters blossomed into an A-list producer, a status he's maintained over 30 years.

In 1980, Peters teamed with former Casablanca Records and Filmworks exec Peter Guber; together with Neil Bogart, Peters and Guber formed the Polygram Productions, later renamed the Boardwalk Company. A series of mergers and sell-offs later, Guber-Peters was born in 1983. The team's willingness to take enormous chances with huge amounts of money transformed Guber and Peters into the wunderkind of Hollywood, especially after such critical and financial successes as Missing (1982), Flashdance (1983), The Color Purple (1985), Witches of Eastwick (1987), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Rain Man (1989). Guber-Peters acquired Chuck Barris Productions (The Gong Show, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game), cementing their role in television as Guber-Peters-Barris. The partnership took its biggest risk and scored its biggest hit with Batman (1989) which won Peters and his partner a multimillion-dollar seven-year WB contract. Within months, they were wooed away by Sony Corporation, which offered Guber and Peters one billion dollars to assume chief executive posts.

Peters left to start Peters Entertainment which has produced such blockbusters as Batman Returns, Wild Wild West, Ali, and Superman Returns. Peters has received over 254 nominations, and won multiple Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammys. The producer's combined grosses exceed $6 Billion worldwide and will continue to soar with two Superman sequels and a Star is Born remake in development. Peters is the proud father of five children: Christopher, Caleigh, Jordan, Skye, and Kendyl. Through the Peters Family Foundation he supports the Christopher Reeve Foundation, Life Rolls On, Homeboy Industries, My Friend's Place, Cambodian Children's Fund, Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation, Heartfelt Foundation, The Laurence School, the Sheriff's Youth Foundation, and countless other youth charities.

Peter Guber, Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group, has been a force in the entertainment industry for over fifty years. He has leveraged his creativity and business acumen into record-breaking profits and critical acclaim, establishing him as an enormously successful executive and entrepreneur in the entertainment and communications industries. Films he personally produced or executive produced, including Rain Man, Batman, The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Gorillas In The Mist, The Witches of Eastwick, Missing and Flashdance, have resonated with audiences all over the world, earning over three billion dollars worldwide and garnering more than 50 Academy Award nominations.

Guber joined Columbia pictures in 1968 and within three years became Studio Chief. During his tenure at the creative helm, Columbia surged to record breaking profits on the strength of such box office hits as Shampoo, Taxi Driver, Tommy, The Way We Were and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In 1975, Guber quit Columbia Pictures and started Filmworks with a three-year producing pact, but over a year later, in 1976, Guber merged Filmworks with Casablanca Records to form Casablanca Record and Filmworks. Its record operation included such superstars as KISS, Donna Summer and The Village People, and included some of the most successful soundtracks of all time including Flashdance, which sold more than 14 million albums. In 1979 Guber renamed the film unit to PolyGram Pictures after PolyGram took a stake in the company, where he was Chairman of the Board and CEO. He sold his interest in Polygram in 1982 and formed and served as Co-Owner of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company (GPEC) which established a major presence in motion pictures, television and music including producing the Grammy Award winning music and official soundtrack for the 1984 Summer Olympics. Within five years, GPEC became a public company and in 1989, was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In 1989, Guber was named Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Under his visionary leadership, the company re-framed its entire Loews exhibition circuit, introducing Sony's SDDS sound system, introduced the concept of IMAX theater and films integrated into multi-plex theaters and transformed the Sony lot into a state of the art digital production facility. Guber acquired for Sony the Magic Johnson Theatres and began an ongoing twenty year business relationship with Magic Johnson. SPE's motion picture business earned an industry best domestic box office market share averaging 17% over four years, propelled by an enormous string of successes including A Few Good Men, Philadelphia, Basic Instinct, A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle among many others. During this same period, Sony Pictures led all competitors with a total of 120 Academy Award Nominations.

After leaving Sony as CEO in 1995, Guber formed Mandalay Entertainment Group as a multi-media joint venture with Sony in motion pictures and television. Mandalay Entertainment Group later added professional sports, sports entertainment and digital media as business enterprises.

Mandalay Pictures, a division of Mandalay Entertainment Group, produces motion pictures for the global marketplace. The company's rich history of creating filmed entertainment includes the box office hits, Donnie Brasco, Seven Years in Tibet, Wild Things, Les Miserables, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Sleepy Hollow, Enemy At The Gates, The Score, Beyond Borders, Into the Blue, The Jacket, Never Back Down, When The Game Stands Tall, Horns, and Dark Places. Mandalay's most recent release, The Birth of a Nation, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and swept the two top prizes - the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Jury Award. The film sold to Fox Searchlight for a record breaking price.

Mandalay Vision is the company's independent development, production and financing label that focuses on innovative storytelling with premier talent. Mandalay Vision's first release, The Kids Are All Right, won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Mandalay Vision also released Soul Surfer starring Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and Carrie Underwood, The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds, and Bernie, starring Matthew McConaughey and Jack Black. Bernie garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Jack Black and was selected as a 2012 Top Independent Film by the National Board of Review.

Following his location based entertainment leadership experience with Loews, Guber expanded Mandalay into a national entertainment sports provider with Mandalay Sports Entertainment. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors and is the Managing Partner of Mandalay Baseball LLC, which is a joint venture with ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers that recently acquired the Triple-A affiliated Minor League Baseball franchise in Oklahoma City, and commencing with the 2015 baseball season, became the Triple-A affiliate of the Dodgers. He also continues to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Mandalay Baseball Properties, which has owned and operated a national array of affiliated Minor League Baseball franchises and venues.

Peter Guber is the owner and serves as the Co-Executive Chairman of the NBA's Golden State Warriors. As co-managing partner, he and Joe Lacob were the driving forces behind the ownership group's NBA record-setting bid (at the time) to purchase the Warriors in 2010. The Warriors were named "Sports Team of the Year" by the Sports Business Journal at the seventh annual Sports Business Awards.

2015 was a monumental year for the Golden State Warriors. In April, two-time NBA All-Star, Steph Curry, was voted the NBA's Most Valuable Player. In May, the Warriors won the Western Conference Finals. In June, the Warriors won the NBA Championship. Also, in 2015, Steph Curry won the ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete and Steve Kerr won the ESPY Award for Best Coach/Manager.

2016 brought great success to the Golden State Warriors. The franchise went 73-9, breaking the record for the most wins in a single NBA season. Steve Kerr was named NBA Coach of the Year. Three-time NBA All-Star, Steph Curry, was unanimously voted the NBA's Most Valuable Player for a second year in a row. The Warriors were named "Sports Team of the Year" by the Sports Business Journal at the ninth annual Sports Business Awards. The team has 183 consecutive sellouts with over 28,000 members currently on the Season Ticket Priority Wait List.

In 2014, Guber and Lacob proposed to build a new state-of-the-art privately financed sports and entertainment venue in San Francisco and entered into an agreement with salesforce.com to purchase private land in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood. In 2016, the ownership group announced a 20 year naming rights partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co. The new arena will be called the Chase Center where the team will play their 2019-2020 season.

Prior to the 2011-12 season, the Warriors ownership group acquired the D-League team, the Dakota Wizards, and moved the franchise to Santa Cruz, California. With a new name and location, the Santa Cruz Warriors are the official NBA D-League affiliate of the Golden State Warriors and play in the newly built Kaiser Permanente Arena. In 2015, the team won the NBA D-League Championship.

In 2012, in a third partnership with Magic Johnson, Peter Guber became an owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the storied Major League Baseball franchise, led by the Guggenheim Baseball Management group headed by Mark Walter together with Magic Johnson. Under their ownership, the franchise has won the 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 National League West championships.

Also in 2012, Guber and Mandalay Entertainment partnered with CAA Sports, the world's leading athlete representation agency and Mike Tollin, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning film and television producer/director to create Mandalay Sports Media. The diversified sports media business creates, finances, and acquires operating businesses, intellectual property, and varied enterprises within the sports and media sectors, as well as develops high-quality sports-themed entertainment programming for distribution across multiple platforms including film, television, mobile and digital. Mandalay Sports Media has several entertainment projects in development with ESPN, Turner Sports, New Line Cinema, and Incognito Pictures, among other distribution media venues.

In addition, in 2012, Guber joined with Guggenheim Partners and Allen Shapiro as CEO to purchase Dick Clark Productions. Founded by the late Dick Clark, Dick Clark Productions is a leading independent producer of television programming including perennial hits such as the American Music Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and So You Think You Can Dance.

Peter Guber is an investor, board member, and Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board for NextVR. NextVR enables the transmission of live, long-form virtual reality content in broadcast quality - leading the way for live and on-demand VR to become a mainstream experience for sporting events, concerts, cinematic productions and more. As a board member and Chairman of the advisory board, Peter develops initiatives with established leagues and musical venues. In addition, he develops IP opportunities, creating value propositions from sponsors, investors and advertisers. In 2016, NextVR received the "Best in Sports Technology" Award at the ninth annual Sports Business Awards.

In October of 2014, Peter Guber became the owner and executive chairman of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). The ownership group includes sports veteran Tom Penn, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Mia Hamm Garciaparra and Tony Robbins, among others. LAFC is scheduled to debut in 2018 in the Banc of California Stadium, the first new open-air stadium built in the city of Los Angeles since Dodger Stadium in 1962.

In September of 2016, Peter Guber and Ted Leonsis led an ownership group in the purchase of the controlling interest in Team Liquid, one of the most successful global esports team franchises. Team Liquid competes at the highest level in global tournaments including StarCraft 2, League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, Halo, Street Fighter, and SSBM.

Peter Guber is a full professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and has been a member of the faculty for over 30 years. He also co-teaches an annual MBA course with the dean of UCLA's Anderson School of Management. He is a member of the UCLA Foundation Board of Trustees, as well as the winner of UCLA's prestigious Service Award for his accomplishments and association with the university. Guber is the Chair of the Founding Board of Advisors for The Center for Managing Enterprises in Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES) at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. MEMES is the preeminent Center for thought leadership and management education in the global media, entertainment and sports industries.

Guber has turned this legacy and experience in front of the camera where he has been seen every Sunday morning for six years on American Movie Classics (AMC) cable network, as co-host of the critically acclaimed national TV show, Shootout. AMC moved Guber's talents to prime time with a series of one hour specials in 2009 called StoryMakers. Guber was most recently seen as co-host of In the House, a weekly, national half-hour news and interview show on Encore and KNBC.

Peter Guber is a noted author with works including "Inside The Deep" and the L.A. Times best-seller "Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood," which was the impetus of his long running TV show of the same title. In December 2007, Guber wrote the cover article for the Harvard Business Review titled," The Four Truths of the Storyteller." He has also authored op-ed pieces for the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Guber recently released his third book, Tell To Win - Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, which became an instant #1 best seller in the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and on Amazon.com. Fortune magazine chose Tell To Win as one of their "5 Business Books You Can Really Use" and Hudson Booksellers, retail book stores in airports throughout North America, chose Tell To Win as one of the "5 Best Business Books of the Year."

A passionate, humorous, and tireless motivator, Guber is a sought after speaker for corporations and global events. He is a regular contributor in the national media, both in print and on television. Since October of 2008, he has been seen on Fox Business News, appearing on America's Nightly Scoreboard and After The Bell as an Entertainment and Media Analyst. He has also appeared on Good Morning America (ABC), Today (NBC), The Charlie Rose Show (PBS), Your World with Neil Cavuto (FOX NEWS), Lou Dobbs Tonight (FOX NEWS), Bloomberg TV and Morning Joe (MSNBC), among others.

Sam Hamm was born on 19 November 1955 in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992) and Masters of Horror (2005). He was previously married to Trudy Legge.

Tom Mankiewicz was born on 1 June 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Ladyhawke (1985), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He died on 31 July 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Arguably the most famous casting director in show biz with more than 400 film and TV credits to his name, Lynn Stalmaster has helped to launch the career of many a great star. He was born in Nebraska, the son of a District Court Judge (Irvin Stalmaster, 1897-1952) and Estelle Lapidus (1903-1971). His family relocated to L.A. in 1938 where he was schooled at Beverly Hills High School and first discovered acting on radio. Following military service he studied at UCLA, graduating with a master's degree in theatre arts in 1952. Between 1951 and 1955, he had a minor career as a screen actor but at the same time hedged his bets by joining an independent production company headed by Jack J. Gross and Philip N. Krasne. Stalmaster started out as a producer's assistant and took over the role of casting director upon his predecessor's retirement, over time developing a canny aptitude for 'reading actors' as well as accumulating an inventory of (not necessarily established) theatrical players from the U.S. and Europe. He initially worked on several classic TV shows, including The Lone Wolf (1954), 319 episodes of Gunsmoke (1955) and Have Gun - Will Travel (1957). After going free-lance, he was tasked by the director Robert Wise to find 'new faces' who could be cast as suitable inmates for the Susan Hayward prison dramaI Want to Live! (1958). Offers soon began to flood in from other famous film makers for ensemble casting.

Stanley Kramer utilised his services for Inherit the Wind (1960) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (kick-starting the career of William Shatner), William Wyler for The Children's Hour (1961), Billy Wilder for Irma la Douce (1963) and The Fortune Cookie (1966), Norman Jewison for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971). Stalmaster's bolder choices included travelling across Europe to recruit native German speakers (rather than using familiar English actors) for key roles in The Great Escape (1963) (he found Hannes Messemer, who played prison Kommandant Von Luger, in Zurich). His keen eye for talent resulted in the seminal casting of relatively unknown stage actor Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) and LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte in Roots (1977). He discovered Christopher Reeve on the New York stage and persisted in sustained efforts to have him assigned the lead role of Superman (1978) (saying "I was totally captured, not only by his talent, but by him as a human being"). He furthered the careers of Ned Beatty (Deliverance (1972)) and Jeff Bridges (Halls of Anger (1970)) by prompting their respective movie debuts. Others whose careers 'The Master Caster' helped mentor along the way include Richard Dreyfuss, Jill Clayburgh, John Travolta, Bruce Dern, Jon Voight and James Caan.

Stalmaster was the first in his chosen profession to receive a single card main screen credit ('casting by') for The Thomas Crown Affair and also the first casting director to receive an Honorary Academy Award in 2017.