Sir Michael Caine CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr.; March 14, 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinctive South London accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film icon. As of February 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide.
Often playing a Cockney, Caine made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Alfie. His roles in the 1970s included Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Sleuth (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He earned his second Academy Award nomination for Sleuth and achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with Educating Rita (1983) earning him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) earning him his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Caine is also known for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and for his comedic roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Miss Congeniality (2000), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Secondhand Lions (2003). He received his second Golden Globe Award for Little Voice (1998). In 1999, he received his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a sympathetic doctor in The Cider House Rules. He portrayed a British journalist in Vietnam in The Quiet American (2002), earning his sixth Oscar nomination, and appeared in Alfonso Cuaron's dystopian drama film Children of Men (2006). Caine portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012). He appeared in several other of Nolan's films including The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Tenet (2020). He also appeared in the heist thriller film Now You See Me (2013), the action comedy film Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), the Italian drama Youth (2015) and the crime film King of Thieves (2018).
Caine officially confirmed his retirement from acting on 13 October 2023.
Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and film producer. Known for her roles in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two British Academy Film Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.
Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Chastain developed an interest in acting from an early age. In 1998, she made her professional stage debut as Shakespeare's Juliet. After studying acting at the Juilliard School, she was signed to a talent holding deal with the television producer John Wells. She was a recurring guest star in several television series, including Law & Order: Trial by Jury. She also took on roles in the stage productions of Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard in 2004 and Oscar Wilde's tragedy Salome in 2006.
Chastain made her film debut in the drama Jolene (2008), and gained wide recognition for her starring roles in the dramas Take Shelter (2011) and The Tree of Life (2011). Her performance as an aspiring socialite in The Help (2011) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2012, she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a CIA analyst in the thriller Zero Dark Thirty. Chastain made her Broadway debut in a revival of The Heiress in the same year. Her highest-grossing releases came with the science fiction films Interstellar (2014) and The Martian (2015), and the horror film It Chapter Two (2019), and she continued to receive critical acclaim for her performances in the dramas A Most Violent Year (2014), Miss Sloane (2016), Molly's Game (2017) and The Good Nurse (2022). For her portrayal of Tammy Faye in the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), which she also produced, Chastain won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In television, Chastain starred in drama miniseries Scenes from a Marriage (2021) and George & Tammy (2022). For the latter, she won a SAG Award. Her performance also garnered her nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Chastain is the founder of the production company Freckle Films, which was created to promote diversity in film. She is vocal about mental health issues, as well as gender and racial equality. She is married to fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, with whom she has two children.
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Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009.
As a teenager, she was cast in the television series Get Real (1999–2000) and made her breakthrough as the protagonist in her debut film, the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). Hathaway made a transition to adult roles with the 2005 dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. The comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she played an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point.
She played a recovering addict with a mental illness in the drama Rachel Getting Married (2008), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in several commercially successful films, including the comedy Get Smart (2008), the romances Bride Wars (2009), Valentine's Day (2010), and Love & Other Drugs (2010), and the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010). In 2012, she starred as Selina Kyle / Catwoman in her highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight Rises. Also that year, she played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in the musical Les Misérables, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She has since played a scientist in the science fiction film Interstellar (2014), the owner of an online fashion site in the comedy The Intern (2015), a haughty actress in the heist film Ocean's 8 (2018), a con artist in the comedy The Hustle (2019), and Rebekah Neumann in the miniseries WeCrashed (2022).
In addition to film roles, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her voice role in the sitcom The Simpsons, sung for soundtracks, appeared on stage, and hosted events.
Hugh Michael Jackman (born October 12, 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine / Logan in the X-Men film series (2000–2017), a tenure that earned him the Guinness World Record for "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero". Jackman has received a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards. During his career, Jackman has headlined films in various genres, including the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige (2006), the period romance Australia (2008), the epic musical Les Misérables (2012), the thriller Prisoners (2013), the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), the political drama The Front Runner (2018), and the crime thriller Bad Education (2019). For his role as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, Jackman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and for The Greatest Showman, he received a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. He also provided voice roles in the animated films Flushed Away (2006), Rise of the Guardians (2012), and Missing Link (2019). Jackman is also known for his early theatre roles in Oklahoma! in 1998 and Carousel in 2002. On Broadway, Jackman won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in The Boy from Oz. In 2021 he returned to the theatre as Harold Hill in the Broadway revival of The Music Man. A four-time host of the Tony Awards, he won an Emmy Award for hosting the 2005 ceremony. He also hosted the 81st Academy Awards in 2009. Jackman was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to performing arts and to the global community.
Matthew David McConaughey (born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He first gained notice for his supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993), which was considered by many to be his breakout role. After a number of supporting roles in films including Angels in the Outfield (1994) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), his breakthrough performance as a leading man came in the legal drama A Time to Kill (1996). He followed this with leading performances in the science fiction film Contact (1997), the historical drama Amistad (1997), the comedy-drama The Newton Boys (1998), the satire EDtv (1999), the war film U-571 (2000), and the psychological thriller Frailty (2001).
In the 2000s, McConaughey became best known for starring in romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006), Fool's Gold (2008), and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), establishing him as a sex symbol. After a two-year hiatus from film acting, McConaughey began to appear in more dramatic roles beginning with the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer (2011). He was acclaimed for his supporting performances in Bernie (2011), Magic Mike (2012) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and for his leading roles in Killer Joe (2011) and Mud (2012).
McConaughey's portrayal of Ron Woodroof, a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS, in the biopic Dallas Buyers Club (2013) earned him widespread praise and numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2014, he starred as Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO's crime anthology series True Detective, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. His film roles since have included Interstellar (2014), The Sea of Trees (2015), Free State of Jones (2016), Gold (2016), The Dark Tower (2017), and The Gentlemen (2019), earning varying degrees of commercial and critical success, as well as voice work in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), Sing (2016), and Sing 2 (2021).
Sir Christopher Edward Nolan, CBE (born July 30, 1970) is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was born in Westminster, London, England and holds both British and American citizenship due to his American mother. He is known for writing and directing critically acclaimed films such as Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-12), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017). Nolan is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films. He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan.
Hoyte van Hoytema (born 4 October 1971) is a Dutch-Swedish cinematographer. Hoytema is also known for his collaborations with director Christopher Nolan, having shot Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), and Oppenheimer (2023). His work has been highly praised by film critics and audiences alike and has earned him multiple awards, including an Academy Award from two nominations and a BAFTA Award from four nominations for Best Cinematography.
Nathan Crowley (born 28 February 1966) is an English production designer and a former art director, who is best known for his collaborations with Christopher Nolan. He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), First Man (2018), and Tenet (2020).
For The Prestige, he was nominated with set decorator Julie Ochipinti; for The Dark Knight, he was nominated with set decorator Peter Lando; for Interstellar and Dunkirk, he was nominated with set decorator Gary Fettis; and for First Man and Tenet, he was nominated with set decorator Kathy Lucas. Crowley was also nominated five times for the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design for Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Dunkirk (2017), and First Man (2018).
Crowley grew up in Islington, North London. His father and grandfather were both architects. Crowley attended Leighton Park School. After completing a foundation year at the Sir John Cass School of Art, he went on to graduate from Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton) with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Three-dimensional design. He initially worked odd jobs in architecture.
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