Male Actors

Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch December 9, 1916) is an American actor and film producer recognized for his prominent cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches". He is the father of Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas. He was #17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Early life Douglas was born in Amsterdam, New York, to Bryna and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch, a businessman. Douglas's parents were Russian Jewish immigrants from Gomel, now in independent Belarus. His father's brother, who emigrated earlier, …

Tom Berenger (born May 31, 1949) is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films. Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan. He picked "Berenger" as his professional name, after a school friend, because there was already a "Tom Moore" in the Actors' Equity Association.He graduated from Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois, in 1967. Berenger studied journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, but decided to seek an acting career following his graduation. He worked first in regional theatre and moved t…

Judd Asher Nelson (born November 28, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbary in St. Elmo's Fire, and Jack Richmond in Suddenly Susan. Early life Nelson was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Jewish-American parents Merle, a court mediator and former member of the Maine state legislature, and Leonard Nelson, a corporate lawyer who was the first Jewish president of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He has two sisters, Eve and Julie. He went to school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, and studied at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, leaving during hi…

James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor of stage and screen, well known for his deep basso voice. To modern audiences, he is known for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and the tagline for CNN. Early life Childhood James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, the son of Ruth, a teacher and maid, and Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006), an actor, boxer, butler, and chauffeur who left the family shortly after James Earl's birth. Jones and his father reconciled many years later in the 1980s and 1990s. Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, farmers Maggie and John Henry Connolly, and is of African, Irish, Choctaw…

Edward James "Eddie" Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is a Mexican American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are Commander/Admiral William Adama in the Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series, Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Detective Gaff in Blade Runner, and narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit. Early life Olmos was born Edward James Olmos in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised, the son of Eleano and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder. His father was a Mexican immigrant and his mother Mexican American. He grew up wantin…

Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner. He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series. Biography Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian), Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia. His parents were Alois and Elvira. When h…

Ramón Antonio Gerard Estévez (born August 3, 1940), better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an actor known for his performances as Captain Willard in the film Apocalypse Now, Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the film Gettysburg, President Josiah Bartlet in the television series The West Wing, and as the voice of The Illusive Man in the video game Mass Effect 2. He has worked for some of cinema's prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Attenborough, Terrence Malick and Mike Nichols. With the critical acclaim he has received as an actor, Sheen has become known as an activist. Born and raised …

James Harrison Coburn, Jr. (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American film and television actor who appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career. He played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Glen Whitehouse in the film Affliction. Early life Coburn was born in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of Mylet S. and James Harrison Coburn, Sr., a garage mechanic. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from Sweden.Coburn was raised in Compton, California, and attended Compton Junior College. He enlisted in the US Army in 1950, serving as an Army truck driver and also was an occasiona…

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, writer, actor, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work, despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting and chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, soun…

Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1939)[1] is an English actor who has appeared in 63 films. He has had great commercial success in memorable roles such as young Billy Budd in Billy Budd (1962), butterfly collector Freddie Clegg in The Collector (1965), the strange visitor in Theorem (1968), second arch-villain General Zod in Superman (1978) (plus it 1980 sequel), the drag queen Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Wilson in The Limey (1999), the Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), antagonist ghost Ramsley in The Haunted Mansion (2003), Elektra's master Stick in Elektra (2005), Cross friend Pekwar…

*Source*Wikipedia Michael Austin Cera (pronounced [ˈsɛ.rə]) (born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian television and film actor, best known for playing George Michael Bluth in the television series Arrested Development and Evan in the comedy Superbad. [edit] Biography [edit] Personal life Cera, the middle child of three siblings, was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, the son of Linda and Luigi Cera, a Xerox technician.[1][2] Cera's father is Sicilian.[1] Cera has two sisters and, as of 2007, still lives with his parents in Brampton.[2] He attended Heart Lake Secondary School.[1] His first role was for a Summer Camp commercial by Tim Hortons.[1] [edit] Career Cera played the youn…

Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor and singer, known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in CSI:NY Biography Early life Giovinazzo was born and raised on Staten Island, the son of Nancy and Dominick, who was a police officer. He comes from a family of policemen and has Italian (originally from Calabria), Norwegian, Native American and English ancestry. Growing up in the streets of Staten Island, Giovinazzo was an avid athlete; though he played many different sports, baseball and roller hockey were his preferences. He graduated from Port Richmond High School in 1991 and attended Wagner College. He had hoped to become a professiona…

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Oliver James Goodwill (born October 25, 1982) is an English actor and musician. He was first noticed when he appeared in the Evanescence music video Call Me When You're Sober and gained popularity on the band's website. He is sometimes known as Wolfie among his fans Career He studied at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England and is a professional drummer, an instrument he learned at the age of 7. In 2003, he was given the opportunity to study abroad in Los Angeles for one semester. In 2004, he moved to LA to continue his studies at UCLA. Goodwill is currently establishing himself as an actor, musician and film co…

William Louis Petersen (born February 21, 1953) is an American actor and producer, best known for playing Dr. Gilbert "Gil" Grissom on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He has also portrayed President John F Kennedy in the 1998 TV film The Rat Pack. Petersen is notoriously selective about the film roles he chooses, and has turned down roles in several films that went on to become modern classics. Early life Petersen, the youngest of six children, was born in Evanston, Illinois, to parents who worked in the furniture business. His father was Danish-American Arthur Edward Petersen, Sr. (1907-2004) and his mother was German-American June Hoene Petersen (…

Lionel Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England. He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most famous for his U.S. horror roles in the 1930s. His two most memorable parts were as the crazed, disfigured sculptor in Mystery of the Wax Museum (Warner Brothers, 1933), and as Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), memorably sent up by Kenneth Mars in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein (1974). When he was not cast in macabre roles, Atwill …

George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his bravura stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and an early flamboyant film performance as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. He has also widely been known for his rather gravelly voice. Early life Scott was born in Wise, Virginia, the son of Helena Agnes (1904–1935) and F. Scott (1896–1948). He was the only son and younger of their two children. His mother died just before his eighth birthday, and he was raised by his father, an executive at the Buick…

Abbott and Costello, one of the greatest comedy teams of all time Abbott and Costello was a legendary comedy team, consisting of Bud Abbott, the tall, thin straight man, and Lou Costello, the short, pudgy comic. They were famous for their rapid-fire verbal exchanges, and Costello’s clownish view of the world. Like Laurel and Hardy, they were a visual contrast - the tall, debonair Bud Abbott, and the short, goofy, unkempt Lou Costello. In fact, when they were hired by Universal Studios, the studio was thinking of them as a more up-to-date version of Laurel and Hardy. Abbott and Costello initially teamed up in 1931 when Bud Abbott was working at a Brooklyn theater, and L…

Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), in 1948 he was the first major star of US television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions during TV's golden age. Early life Milton Berlinger was born to a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 West 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, he chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger, was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1880–1954), eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Be…

David Carradine (December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009), born John Arthur Carradine, was an American character actor, best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu and its 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. He was a member of a productive acting dynasty that began with his father, John Carradine. His acting career, which included major and minor roles on stage, television and cinema, spanned over four decades. A prolific "B" movie actor, he appeared in more than 100 feature films and was nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award. The latest nomination was for his part in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Film projects tha…

Richard St. John Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer. He appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as King Arthur in Camelot (1967), as Oliver Cromwell in Cromwell (1970) and as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), his final film. He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970) and a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). Despite his limited singing ability, Harris had a top ten hit in Britain and the US with hi…

George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996), born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer. His career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century. Beginning at the age of 79, George enjoyed a career resurrection as an amiable, beloved and unusually active old comedian, continuing to work until shortly before his death, in 1996, at the age of 100. Early life Nathan Birnbaum was the ninth of twelve children born to Louis and Dorothy (Bluth) Birnbaum in New York City. His father was a substit…

Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. However, for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television series, The Shield, Whitaker merely had to draw on his childhood years growing up in South Central Los Angeles, California. Whitaker won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker has also won a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA. He became the fourth African American man to win an Academy…

Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. Paré was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joan, a homemaker, and Francis Paré, who owned print shops. He had six sisters and three brothers. Paré's father was of French-Canadian ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry. His father died from leukemia when Paré was five, leaving his mother to raise the large family of children. A good athlete, his primary sport in high school was wrestling. Paré first studied to be a chef at the Culinary Institute of America, and was working in that trade when he was approached to work as a male model. This opened the door into acting, having been discovered by agent an…

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe, Larry, and Shemp," among other lineups. The film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Shemp Howard and longtime friend Larry Fine. Curly Howard replaced brother Shemp, who later returned when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946. After Shemp's death in 1955, he was replaced by comedian Joe Besser, after the use of stuntman Joe Palma to record several "Sh…

Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957- August 9, 2008) better known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy. After briefly hosting the HBO show Midnight Mac, Mac appeared in several films in smaller roles. His most noted film role was as Frank Catton in the remake Ocean's Eleven and the titular character of Mr. 3000. He was the star of The Bernie Mac Show, which ran from 2001 through 2006, earning him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding…