Dominick "Dom" DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor and comedian. Known primarily for comedy roles, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows. He is widely recognized for his performances in the films of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, as well as a series of collaborations and a double act with Burt Reynolds. Beginning in the 1980s, his popularity expanded to younger audiences from voicing characters in several major animated productions, particularly those of Don Bluth.
DeLuise was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian American parents. He attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City and later studied biology at Tufts University. After graduating from college, he began his career as a stand-up comedian. He made his television debut in 1964 on the variety show The Dean Martin Show.
In 1970, DeLuise made his film debut in the Mel Brooks comedy The Twelve Chairs. He went on to appear in several other Brooks films, including Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and History of the World, Part I. He also starred in a number of films with Gene Wilder, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, The World's Greatest Lover, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
DeLuise was a frequent collaborator with Burt Reynolds, and the two starred in a number of films together, including The End, Smokey and the Bandit II, and Cannonball Run II. He also had a recurring role on the television series Evening Shade.
In addition to his film and television work, DeLuise was also a successful voice actor. He voiced characters in a number of animated films, including All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH, and An American Tail. He also hosted the children's cooking show Cooking with Dom DeLuise.
DeLuise was a popular and beloved figure in Hollywood. He was known for his infectious laugh and his larger-than-life personality. He was also a talented actor and comedian, and he enjoyed a long and successful career.
Dom DeLuise died on May 4, 2009, at the age of 75. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for several months. He died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
DeLuise's family released a statement saying that he had died "peacefully at home after a long battle with cancer." They said that he was "surrounded by his loving family and friends."
DeLuise's death was met with sadness and tributes from fans and colleagues alike. Mel Brooks, who directed DeLuise in several films, said that he was "a great talent and a great friend." Gene Wilder said that DeLuise was "one of the funniest people I've ever known."
DeLuise's funeral was held on May 8, 2009, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. He was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. (born February 24, 1966) is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon "Cal" Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr. E in CQ.
Joanna Pacula (born January 2, 1957) is a Polish actress. Pacula joined Warsaw Dramatic Theatre where she acted until 1981. She started her career playing in productions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Othello and As You Like It. She also found work in a handful of films, including Krzysztof Zanussi's Barwy ochronne/Camouflage (1977). In 1981, Pacula was caught in Paris when communist authorities in Poland declared martial law. In 1982 she eventually emigrated to the U.S. where she has specialized in playing European temptresses since her feature debut opposite William Hurt in Gorky Park (1983). She played the part of the exotic beauty in numerous American TV series and movies, including the Holocaust drama Escape From Sobibor (CBS, 1987), The Kiss (1988), E.A.R.T.H. Force (CBS, 1990), and the TV series, The Colony (ABC, 1996). She was featured in Marked for Death (1990) as an expert on Jamaican voodoo and gangs; in the Italian erotic thriller Husbands And Lovers (1992) as a free spirited adultress (which featured a rather controversial bare-bottom spanking scene, a first in a mainstream film); Tombstone (1993) as Doc Holliday's lover, Kate (also known as Big Nose Kate and Mary Catherine Haroney, born November 7, 1850); in The Haunted Sea (1997); and in the movie Virus (1999), playing a Russian scientist. She currently resides in Southern California.
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Charlene L. Tilton (born December 1, 1958, ht. 4'11") is an American actress and singer. She is widely known for playing Lucy Ewing, the niece of brothers J. R. Ewing and Bobby Ewing (played by Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy), on the television series Dallas in the 80's.
She has had a varied career in show business. She is best known for playing Lucy Ewing, the sly, vixenish, frequently frustrated granddaughter of Jock Ewing in the popular television series Dallas from 1978 to 1985 and from 1988 to 1990 and also on Knots Landing for 1 episode in 1979. She will reprise the role in the pilot of the new series.
In addition to several appearances on various TV shows, she has also appeared in feature films (including a cameo appearance in the John Milius film Big Wednesday), although these garnered little attention. Tilton is also a singer, singing her own vocals on a 1978 episode of Dallas. She also released a dance-pop single "C'est La Vie" in 1984 which became a hit in several countries in Europe, including staying at #1 in Germany.
She appeared on Circus of the Stars in 1979 and 1991, on one occasion acting as a knife thrower's target girl in a gold bikini. She was the guest host on Saturday Night Live on February 21, 1981. The episode in question featured a parody of the famed "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of Dallas. She did a number of commercials in the 1990s for the Abdominizer workout equipment. She appeared as herself in an episode of Married... with Children where her involvement with the "Abdominizer" was spoofed. In 2005, she appeared in the British reality TV show, The Farm.
Tilton was married to country singer Johnny Lee from 1982 to 1984 and to Domenick Allen from 1985 to 1992. She has one daughter, Cherish Lee, born in 1982.
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Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American character actor. He is best known for a number of film roles, including detective Milton Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns (1965), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men (1957), and Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), as well as for his role as Murray Klein in the television sitcom Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983).
Dark haired, usually mustachioed US actor with a cheeky grin who achieved pop culture status through his portrayal of the kooky patriarch "Gomez Addams" in the hit TV series The Addams Family (1964). John Astin standing at a height of 5' 11" (1.8 m) was born March 30, 1930 (Aries), in Baltimore, MD as John Allen Astin to Allen V. Astin and Margaret Astin with a brother Alexander Astin. He is an American actor, voice actor and director. He attended Washington, Jefferson College and Johns Hopkins University where he studied mathematics. However he discovered a passion for the theater and began performing in minor plays and doing voice-over work for commercials. Married Suzanne Hahn on March 26, 1956, had 3 sons: David Aston (born 1953), Allen J. Astin (born March 23, 1961) and Thomas E. Astin (born March 19, 1965), then divorced June 14, 1972. He first got noticed in a small role in West Side Story (1961), then appeared in several other films, That Touch of Mink (1962), Move Over Darling (1963), before being cast as "Gomez Addams". While "The Addams Family (1964–1966)" was initially a huge hit, its popularity petered out after two years, and Astin moved on to other work including the offbeat Bunny O'Hare (1971), playing a grizzled but not particularly bright gunfighter in the western spoof Evil Roy Slade (1972), an appearance in the Disney comedy Freaky Friday (1976), reprising the role in the television film Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977) and dual roles in National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), Teen Wolf Too (1987) and The Frighteners (1996). Married Patty Duke on August 5, 1972, had 2 sons: Mackenzie Astin (born May 12, 1973) and adopted Sean Astin (born February 25, 1971), when he was 3 years old, then divorced November 3, 1985. Roughly four years later, he married Valerie Ann Sandobal on March 19, 1989 and is still presently married. He has since lent his comedic talents to numerous appearances as "Dr. Gangreen" in several corny "Killer Tomato" movies, and has contributed his voice to recreate "Gomez Addams" in the animated series The Addams Family (1992), and then played "Grandpa Addams" in the short-lived TV series The New Addams Family (1998). In addition, Astin has contributed voices to several animated shows, and is still active (1957-present) regularly appearing in films. Currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland with current wife. Astin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his directorial debut, the comedic short Prelude (1968).
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh.
Diller was one of the first female comics to become a household name in the U.S., credited as an influence by Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others. She had a large gay following and is considered a gay icon. She was also one of the first celebrities to openly champion plastic surgery, for which she was recognized by the cosmetic surgery industry.
Diller contributed to more than 40 films, beginning with 1961's Splendor in the Grass. She appeared in many television series, featuring in numerous cameos as well as her own short-lived sitcom and variety show. Some of her credits include Night Gallery, The Muppet Show, The Love Boat, Cybill, and Boston Legal, plus 11 seasons of The Bold and the Beautiful. Her voice-acting roles included the monster's wife in Mad Monster Party, the Queen in A Bug's Life, Granny Neutron in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Thelma Griffin in Family Guy.
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Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith (February 28, 1945 – August 3, 2011) was an American actor and former athlete. He was a professional football player in the 1960s and 1970s who became an actor in the late 1970s. Born in Orange, Texas, he attended high school in Beaumont, Texas. He is well known for his tremendous size at 6 ft 7 in (2 m).
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As a kid in the 1930s growing up in a tough New York neighborhood, kinetic wiseguy Larry Storch took in the multi-ethnic flavor of his surroundings and started blurting out various accents as a juvenile to provoke laughs and earn attention. Little did he know that this early talent would take him on a six-decade journey as a prime actor and comedian. Larry's gift as an impressionist paid off early as a teen in vaudeville houses. Following military duty during WWII as a seaman (1942-1946), a happenstance meeting with comedian Phil Harris in Palm Springs led to an opening act gig at Ciro's for Lucille Ball's and Desi Arnaz' show. From there he received his biggest break yet on radio with "The Kraft Music Hall" when he was asked to sub for an ailing Frank Morgan. Larry not only delivered his patented star impersonations, he did a devastating one of Morgan himself that went over famously.
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Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr. (January 13, 1931 – October 6, 2019) was an American actor and comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache, toupee, and his habit of showering himself (and others) with confetti.
Throughout the 1970s, Taylor was a frequent celebrity guest panelist on TV game shows such as Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, and The Gong Show, and substituted for Charles Nelson Reilly on The Match Game. He became a regular on Sid and Marty Krofft's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, playing Sheldon, a sea-genie who lived in a conch shell. In addition, Taylor was also a regular on The Brady Bunch Hour, playing a role of neighbor/performer Jack Merrill. He also hosted a short-lived send-up of beauty pageants titled The $1.98 Beauty Show, created by Gong Show producer/host Chuck Barris, in 1978.
Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned almost six decades. She appeared in numerous films, and won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Other roles Winters appeared in include A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), and Pete's Dragon (1977). In addition to film, Winters appeared in television, including a years-long tenure on the sitcom Roseanne, and also authored three autobiographical books.
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Henry Silva (September 23, 1926 – September 14, 2022) was an American actor. A prolific character actor, Silva was a regular staple of international genre cinema, usually playing criminals or gangsters. His notable film appearances include ones in Ocean's 11 (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Johnny Cool (1963), Sharky's Machine (1981), and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).
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John Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.
Joseph James Dante Jr. (born November 28, 1946) is an American filmmaker, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably Gremlins (1984) alongside its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with 1960s radicalism and cartoon comedy.
Dante's output includes the films Piranha (1978), The Howling (1981), Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), The 'Burbs (1989), Matinee (1993), Small Soldiers (1998), and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). His work for television and cable include the social satire The Second Civil War (1997), episodes of the anthology series Masters of Horror ("Homecoming" and "The Screwfly Solution") and Amazing Stories, as well as Police Squad! and Hawaii Five-0.
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An American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor.
Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.
Most films in Carpenter's career were initially commercial and critical failures, with the notable exceptions of Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984).
However, many of Carpenter's films from the 1970s and the 1980s have come to be viewed as cult classics, and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker. Cult classics that Carpenter directed include: Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995).
His films are characterized by minimalist lighting and photography, static cameras, use of steadicam, and distinctive synthesized scores. Carpenter is also notable for having composed or co-composed most of the music of his films; some of them are now considered cult as well, with the main theme of Halloween being considered a part of popular culture. His music is generally synthesized with accompaniment from piano and atmospherics. He released his first studio album Lost Themes in 2015, and also won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Vampires (1998).
Carpenter is an outspoken proponent of widescreen filming, and all of his theatrical movies (with the exception of Dark Star and The Ward) were filmed anamorphic with a 2.35:1 or greater aspect ratio. The Ward was shot in Super 35, the first time Carpenter has ever used that system. Carpenter has stated he feels that the 35mm Panavision anamorphic format is "the best movie system there is", preferring it over both digital and 3D film. Many of Carpenter's films have been re-released on DVD as special editions with numerous bonus features.
Carpenter has been the subject of the documentary film John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies, and American Cinematheque's 2002 retrospective of his films. Moreover, in 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween to be "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Carpenter about his career and films for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. Carpenter appears in all three episodes of the series. He was also interviewed by Robert Rodriguez for his The Director's Chair series on El Rey Network.
Many filmmakers have been influenced by Carpenter, including James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight was heavily influenced by The Thing), Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, Nicolas Winding Refn, Bong Joon-ho, among others.
The video game Dead Space 3 is said to be influenced by Carpenter's The Thing, The Fog and Halloween, and Carpenter has stated that he would be enthusiastic to adapt that series into a feature film.
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Melvin Brooks (né Kaminsky, born June 28, 1926) is an American filmmaker, comedian, actor and composer. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit The 2000 Year Old Man. He also created, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart, which ran from 1965 to 1970.
In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of the year they were released. His best-known films include The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007.
In 2001, having previously won an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar, he joined a small list of EGOT winners with his Tony award for The Producers. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010, the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award in June 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in March 2015, a National Medal of Arts in September 2016, and a BAFTA Fellowship in February 2017. Three of his films ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000), all of which ranked in the top 15 of the list: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13.
Brooks was married to Oscar-winning actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005.
Archibald Marshall Bell (born September 28, 1942) is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), Stand by Me (1986), Twins (1988) and Total Recall (1990).
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Sal Landi was born on April 11, 1951 in New York, USA as Salvatore M. Garriola. He is an actor and producer, known for How to Get Away with Murder (2014), Independents' Day (2016) and Scandal (2012).
Irwin was a generous actor. He reinvented the horror genre with his acting skills. He got his start with minor role characters in the 70's & 80's in low & big budget films. He has not only claimed a great amount of film work, but he has starred with entertaining actors & actresses such as John Patrick Jordan, Rey Mysterio Sr. & Leyla Milani. He continued acting up until his death. His acting life will live in fans everywhere.
Kimber Sissons was born on November 22, 1961 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is an actress, known for Empire Records (1995), The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and Dream On (1990).
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Eddie Deezen (born March 6, 1955) is an American character actor, voice actor and comedian, best known for his bit parts as nerd characters in 1970s and 1980s films such as Grease, Grease 2, Midnight Madness, 1941 and WarGames, as well as for larger roles in a number of independent cult films, including Surf II: The End of the Trilogy and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
As a voice actor, he is easily recognizable for his distinctively high-pitched and nasally voice, most notably used for the characters of Mandark in the Cartoon Network series Dexter's Laboratory, Snipes the Magpie in Rock-A-Doodle, Ned in Kim Possible and Lenny the Know-It-All in The Polar Express.
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Kenneth "Ken" Davitian (born June 19, 1953) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Borat's producer (Azamat Bagatov) in the 2006 comedy film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in which he speaks the Eastern dialect of Armenian throughout the film.
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Peter John DeLuise (born November 6, 1966) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, perhaps best known for directing episodes of science fiction television shows, particularly in the Stargate franchise.
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Joseph Anthony "Tony" Cox is an American actor known for his comedic performances in Bad Santa, Me, Myself and Irene, Date Movie, Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. He is also known for his work in George Lucas's Willow, as an Ewok in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and as The Preacher in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Cox also appeared in the music videos "Just Lose It" by Eminem and "From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" by Snoop Dogg.
