A nationally acclaimed speaker who teaches his audiences how to get past personal shortcomings and move forward productively in their careers. Being both a comedian and motivational speaker, he is able to make this difficult topic both entertaining and enlightening.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Leo Burmester (February 1, 1944 - June 28, 2007) was an American actor. Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996), and also for directors such as John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
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Eugene M. "Gene" Davis is the brother of actor Brad Davis, perhaps best known for playing the psychotic killer "Warren Stacy" in the 1983 film 10 To Midnight with Charles Bronson. He also played a killer in the Charles Bronson/J. Lee Thompson vehicle Messenger of Death. He also appeared in the psychological thriller Fear X in 2003, as well as a victim in the Al Pacino movie Cruising.
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William David Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
Friedkin's other films in the 1970s and 1980s include the drama The Boys in the Band (1970), considered a milestone of queer cinema; the originally deprecated, now lauded thriller Sorcerer (1977); the crime comedy drama The Brink's Job (1978); the controversial thriller Cruising (1980); and the neo-noir thriller To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). Although Friedkin's works suffered an overall commercial and critical decline in the late 1980s, his last three feature films, all based on plays, were positively received by critics: the psychological horror film Bug (2006), the crime film Killer Joe (2011), and the legal drama film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), released two months after his death. He also worked extensively as an opera director from 1998 until his death, and directed various television films and series episodes for television.
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Mark Johnson (born December 27, 1945) is an American film and television producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the 1988 film Rain Man. Johnson was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Dorothy (née King), a realtor, and Emery Johnson, who worked in the air cargo business. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1971.
Allan Miller is an American actor, who has been acting since 1956, and worked in over 100 movies and TV shows. He is probably best known for his roles in Brewster's Millions (1985), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), and Nero Wolfe (1981).
Alfredo James Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a career spanning over five decades, he has received many awards and nominations, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He is one of the few performers to have received the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts.
A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino's film debut came at the age of 29 with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969). He gained favorable notice for his first lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). Wide acclaim and recognition came with his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), for which he received his first Oscar nomination, and he would reprise the role in the sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
His portrayal of Michael Corleone is regarded as one of the greatest in film history. Pacino received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and ...And Justice for All (1979), ultimately winning it for playing a blind military veteran in Scent of a Woman (1992). For his performances in The Godfather, Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019), he earned Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.
Other notable portrayals include Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way (1993), Benjamin Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997), and Lowell Bergman in The Insider (1999). He has also starred in the thrillers Heat (1995), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Insomnia (2002), and appeared in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). On television, Pacino has acted in several productions for HBO, including Angels in America (2003) and the Jack Kevorkian biopic You Don't Know Jack (2010), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for each. Pacino currently stars in the Amazon Video web television series Hunters (2020–present).
He has also had an extensive career on stage. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, in 1969 and 1977, for his performances in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Pacino made his filmmaking debut with Looking for Richard (1996), directing and starring in this documentary about Richard III; Pacino had played the lead role on stage in 1977. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation and 2010 stage production of The Merchant of Venice. Pacino directed and starred in Chinese Coffee (2000), Wilde Salomé (2011), and Salomé (2013). Since 1994, he has been the joint president of the Actors Studio.
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Keith Prentice was an American TV, film and stage actor, whose most famous role was the part of Larry in both the original stage and film versions of The Boys in the Band. Prentice also appeared on the TV soap Dark Shadows during the series' final months in 1971. For a number of years, his picture was displayed on the Tasters Choice coffee label.
In 1982, Keith Prentice co-founded Kettering Theatre Under the Stars, and directed summer shows there until the year of his death.
Prentice died of AIDS-related cancer on September 27, 1992, in Kettering, Ohio.
William Russ was born on October 20, 1950 in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA as William Hardy Russ IV. He is known for his work on Boy Meets World (1993), Wiseguy (1987) and Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986). He is married to Clare Wren. They have two children.
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Don Scardino (born 17 February 1948) is an American television director and producer and a former actor.
Born in New York City, Scardino began his career as an actor. His first Broadway credit was as an understudy in The Playroom in 1965. Additional Broadway acting credits include Johnny No-Trump, Godspell, and King of Hearts. Off-Broadway he appeared in The Rimers of Eldritch, The Comedy of Errors, Moonchildren, and I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, he was also the lead in a cult classic B horror movie titled Squirm in 1976. He served as Artistic Director at Playwrights Horizons from 1991-96. On television he appeared on the daytime soap operas The Guiding Light, All My Children, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and Another World and the primetime series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and The Name of the Game. Feature film credits include Rip-off, Homer, Squirm and Cruising.
Following his acting on the network soap operas, he began to direct them. He directed episodes of Another World, One Life to Live, and All My Children. He went on to direct plays on and off-Broadway, including the world premiere of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men. He has directed extensively in television, most notably NBC's comedy 30 ROCK. Feature film directing work includes Me & Veronica (Venice Film Festival), and Advice From A Caterpillar, winner, best comedy, at Aspen Comedy Festival.
Scardino was married to actress Pamela Blair from 1984 to 1991. He is currently married to painter Dana L. Williams.
Paul Anthony Sorvino (/sɔːrˈviːnoʊ/, Italian: [sorˈviːno]; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor, opera singer, businessman, writer, and sculptor. He often portrayed authority figures on both sides of the law and was known for his roles as Paulie Cicero (based on Paul Vario) in the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas, and NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta on the TV series Law & Order. He took on supporting roles in A Touch of Class, Reds, The Rocketeer, Nixon, and Romeo + Juliet. He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino.
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Joe Spinell was born Joseph J. Spagnuolo in Manhattan, New York of Italian immigrant parents, and the last of six children. His father, Pelegrino Spagnuolo (b. 1892, d. 1950), died from liver and kidney disease. His mother Filomena Spagnuolo (b. 1903, d. 1987) was a bit-part actress who acted in a few movies, some of them alongside her son. Spinell stood 5 foot and 11 inches. He was born at his family's apartment in Manhattan's Little Italy on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. A few years after the death of his father, he moved with his mother and older siblings to Woodside, Queens, New York where he lived off-and-on for the remainder of his life. Spinell suffered most of his life from hemophilia as well as chronic asthma. Because of his large, heavyset frame and imposing looks, Spinell was often cast as criminals, thugs, or corrupt police officers. His most notable roles were as mafioso Willi Cicci in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and as loan shark Tony Gazzo in Rocky and Rocky II. Although primarily known as a character actor, Spinell co-wrote and starred as a serial killer in the 1980 film, Maniac. Joe Spinell died in his apartment on January 13, 1989 at the age of 52. The cause of his untimely death is arguable to this day. Some say that his death was caused by sudden heart attack due to heavy drug use, drinking and emotional distress in light of his mother passing away two years earlier. It is also speculated that he may have died from asthma complications, or bled to death from hemophilia related causes. He was planning a sequel to Maniac before his death. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens near his home. He is the distant cousin of the American football team St. Louis Ram's Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo. Spinell was married to adult film star Jean Jennings from February 1977 to July 1979. Together they had one daughter, but they eventually divorced.
An American actor. Known for his large size at 6' 3" or 190 cm, he has typically been typecast as playing thugs or henchmen. Starr was born in Flushing, Queens, New York to a retail employee mother and a meatpacker father. His older brother Beau Starr is also an actor. Mike Starr is a graduate of Hofstra University. He and his family reside in Riverdale, New York.
Jerry Weintraub was born on September 26, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for The Avengers (1998), Behind the Candelabra (2013) and The Next Karate Kid (1994). He was previously married to Jane Morgan and Janice Ivy Greenberg. He died on July 6, 2015 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.