Roy William Thomas Jr. (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and The Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.
Among the comics characters he co-created are Wolverine, Vision, Doc Samson, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ultron, Yellowjacket, Defenders, Man-Thing, Red Sonja, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Squadron Supreme, Invaders, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Nighthawk, Havok, Banshee, Sunfire, Thundra, Arkon, Killraven, Wendell Vaughn, Red Wolf, Red Guardian, Daimon Hellstrom, Brother Voodoo and Valkyrie.
Thomas was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011 and into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2022.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Roy Thomas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. He was one of the writers for the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now, and wrote and directed The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn.
He wrote a number of iconic film lines such as "Charlie don't surf" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," from Apocalypse Now, and the famous Dirty Harry one-liners delivered by Clint Eastwood, including "Go ahead, make my day" and "Ask yourself one question, 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?". Milius also wrote the USS Indianapolis monologue in the film Jaws; the sequence performed by Robert Shaw. After his work on Rough Riders (1997), Milius became an instrumental force in lobbying Congress to award President Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor (posthumously), for acts of conspicuous gallantry while in combat on San Juan Hill. Milius made two films featuring Roosevelt: The Wind and the Lion (where he was played by Brian Keith) and the made-for-TV film Rough Riders (where Tom Berenger took the role).
The character of John Milner from the 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti was inspired by Milius, who was a good friend of Lucas while they were at USC film school. Likewise, the character Walter Sobchak in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, made by his friends the Coen Brothers, was partly based on Milius. The novella "Blind Jozef Pronek and Dead Souls" by Aleksandar Hemon features an episode with Milius, who is described as "sitting at a desk sucking on a cigar as long as a walking stick."
In 2013 a documentary about his life, titled Milius, was released.
Writer Nat Segaloff called Milius:
"The best writer of the so-called USC Mafia, a tight-knit group that resuscitated—some say homogenised American cinema in the 1970s... Raised on Ford, Hawks, Lean and Kurosawa, shaped by filmmakers as disparate as Fellini and Delmer Daves, Milius favours history books over comic books, character over special effects, and heroes with roots in reality, time, place and customs. Milius' stories reflect his own deeply held ethic, which embraces the values of tradition, adventure, spiritualism, honour and an intense loyalty to friends... Although he privately chafes at his public image as a gun-toting, liberal baiting provocateur, he allows himself to be painted as such, at times even holding the brush. He plays the Hollywood game like a pro, yet sticks to his own rules; he is a romantic filmmaker who avoids love scenes; his movies contain violence, yet no death in them is without meaning."
Milius himself once said:
"Never compromise excellence. To write for someone else is the biggest mistake that any writer makes. You should be your biggest competitor, your biggest critic, your biggest fan, because you don’t know what anybody else thinks. How arrogant it is to assume that you know the market, that you know what’s popular today [...] Write what you want to see. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to have any true passion in it, and it’s not going to be done with any true artistry."
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (born August 1, 1979) is an American actor and filmmaker. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001), which was followed by his portrayal of Ronon Dex on the Syfy science fiction series Stargate Atlantis (2005–2009), Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2012), Declan Harp on the Discovery Channel historical drama series Frontier (2016–2018), and Baba Voss on the Apple TV+ science fiction series See (2019–present). Momoa was featured as the lead of the two lattermost series.
Since 2016, Momoa portrays Arthur Curry / Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), headlining the eponymous 2018 film and its 2023 sequel. Momoa also played Duncan Idaho in the 2021 film adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jason Momoa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American actor, film producer, businessman, former bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California (2003-2011). As of 2022, he is the most recent Republican governor of California. Time magazine named Schwarzenegger one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007. He also served as Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (1990-1993).
He began weight training at 15. He was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest a total of seven times. He appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron (1977). The Arnold Sports Festival, considered the second-most important bodybuilding event after Mr. Olympia, is named after him. He has remained a prominent presence in the sport of bodybuilding and has written several books and numerous articles on the sport.
He wanted to move from bodybuilding into acting, finally achieving it when he played the title role in Hercules in New York (1970). Credited under the stage name "Arnold Strong", his accent in the film was so thick that his lines were dubbed after production. His second film role was as a mob hitman in The Long Goodbye (1973), followed by a more significant part in the film Stay Hungry (1976), for which he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor.
In 1977, he appeared in an episode of the ABC sitcom The San Pedro Beach Bums and the ABC police procedural The Streets of San Francisco. He auditioned for the title role of The Incredible Hulk, but did not win the role because of his height. He appeared in the 1979 comedy The Villain. In 1980, he starred in a biographical film of the 1950s actress Jayne Mansfield as her husband, Mickey Hargitay.
He gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action star with his breakthrough starring role in the epic Conan the Barbarian (1982) and its sequel in 1984. After playing the title role in the sci-fi action film The Terminator (1984), he starred in its' sequels Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine's (2003), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). His other action films include Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), Red Heat (1988), Total Recall (1990), and True Lies (1994). His comedy films include Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), and Jingle All the Way (1996).
After leaving the governor's office, he resumed his acting career. He starred in The Expendables 2 (2012), The Last Stand (2013), his first leading role in 10 years, Escape Plan (2013), Sabotage (2014) and returned as Trench Mauser in The Expendables 3 (2014). He then starred in the Terminator sequels Terminator Genisys (2015) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). He was slated to reprise his role as Conan in The Legend of Conan, later renamed Conan the Conqueror; however, in April 2017, producer Chris Morgan stated that Universal had dropped the project, although there was a possibility of a TV show.
He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" and "Schwarz" during his acting career and the "Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator"). He is the founder of the film production company Oak Productions.