Male Actors

James Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966), commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos. He also appeared as Det. Ed Green's temporary replacement, Det. Nick Falco, in the TV drama series Law & Order. Imperioli spent the 2008-2009 television season as Detective Ray Carling in the US version of Life on Mars. He plays Len Fenerman in The Lovely Bones. Life and career Imperioli, an Italian American, was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Dan Imperioli, a bus driver and amateur actor. In his early childhood he went to St. Catherine's in Ringwoo…

Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1899 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era Born Jacob Krantz in New York City (Vienna is often incorrectly cited as his place of birth) into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street in a broker's office and as a boxer before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a "Latin lover" to compete with such highly popular actors of the era as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno. When rumour began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Spanish, the studios tried to pass him off as a different type of…

Robert Armstrong (November 20, 1890 – April 20, 1973) was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end. Months later, he starred as Carl Denham again in the sequel, Son of Kong, released the same year. In the late 1950s, Armstrong appeared as Sheriff Andy Anderson on Rod Cameron's syndicated western-themed television series, State Trooper. Biography Born in Saginaw, Michigan, he studied to be a lawyer but gave it up to manage his uncle's touring companies. In his spare time he wrote plays which eventually led to h…

Don Alvarado (November 4, 1904 – March 31, 1967) was an American actor, assistant film director, and film production manager. Life and career Born as José Paige in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He first studied agriculture on his father's sheep and cattle ranch but ran away from home and went to Los Angeles in 1922, still a teenager, hoping to find acting work in the fledgling silent film industry. He secured work in a sweet factory before getting into the films via work as an extra, his first appearance being in Mademoiselle Midnight. In Los Angeles, he became close friends with another Mexican actor, Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, who would later be known as Gilbert Roland…

Arthemus Ward "Art" Acord (April 17, 1890 – January 4, 1931) was an American silent film actor and rodeo champion. Early life and career Born to Mormon parents in Glenwood, Utah, as a young man Acord worked as a cowboy and ranch hand. He won the Steer Bulldogging world championship in 1912 and repeated as champion in 1916, defeating challenger and friend Hoot Gibson. Acord was one of the few cowboys to have ridden the proclaimed bucking horse Steamboat—who later inspired the bucking horse logo on the Wyoming license plate—for the full eight seconds. His rodeo skills had been sharpened when he worked for a time for the Miller Brothers' traveling 101 Ranch Wild West Show…

I loved Dom since Lord of the Rings! he's so cute! and now, as Charlie in "Lost" I have fallen in love with him even more! BIO: Full Name: Dominic Monaghan d.o.b.: 8 december 1976 p.o.b.: Berlin, Germany Haircolor: brown Eyecolor: blue Height: 5'6" / 5'7" Spouse: none Dominic Monaghan was born in Berlin, Germany on the 8th of December 1976 as a second son for father Austin and mother Aureen. He stayed in Germany for 12 years, when he moved back to England with his family. His first big role on television was "Hetty Wainthrop investigates", a detective series where he played alongside Patricia Routledge. He also starred in "This is personal: the hunt for t…

Arnold Vosloo (born June 16, 1962) is a South African actor, known for playing the title role in the 1999 film The Mummy and its 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns. More recently, he played a South African Mercenary named Colonel Coetzee (loosely based on Eeben Barlow) in the film Blood Diamond, a Middle Eastern terrorist named Habib Marwan in the television series 24, and Zartan in the film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Biography Early life Vosloo was born in Pretoria, into an acting family, his parents (Johan J. Daniel Vosloo and Johanna Petronella, née Vorster) having been stage-actors, and the family moved around quite a lot. They lived in Port Elizabeth, where his father …

Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987)[1] was an American actor, singer and comedian. Early years Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn named Jacob Kaminsky (father) and Clara Kaminsky (mother), Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians. He spent his early youth attending Public School 149 in East New York, Brooklyn, before moving to Thomas Jefferson High School, but he never graduated. He learned his trade in his teenage years in the Catskills as a tummler in the Borscht Belt. Career Danny Kaye made his film debut in a 1935 comedy short titled Moon Over Manhattan. In 1937 he signed with New York–based Educational Pictures …

Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is an American actor best known for his work in Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and the Mission: Impossible film series. Early life Rhames was born in New York City, New York to Reatha, a homemaker, and Ernest Rhames, an auto mechanic. He was named after the now deceased NBC journalist, Irving R. Levine, and grew up in Harlem, Manhattan. A good student, Ving entered New York's School of Performing Arts, where he discovered his love of acting. After high school he studied drama at SUNY Purchase where he met fellow actor Stanley Tucci, who gave him his nickname "Ving". He later…

Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer. Early years Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. Together with their father the three were known as "The Hines Kids" and later as "The Hines Brothers" only to have the name change again in 1963 to "Hines, Hines and Dad". Career Hines performed as the lead singer and musician in a rock band called Severance in 1975/1976 based in Venice, California. Severance was one of the house bands at an original music club called Honky Hoagies Handy Hangout, otherwise known…

Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts (July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards. He also played landlord Ralph Furley on the 1980s television sitcom Three's Company. Early life Knotts was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, a son of William Jesse Knotts and his wife, the former Elsie L. Moore. Knotts' paternal ancestors had emigrated from England to America in the 17th century, originally settling in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Knotts' father was a farmer, but suffered a nervous breakdown and lost his land. Afflicted…

Craig Eric Sheffer (born April 23, 1960) is an American film and television actor. Early life Sheffer was born in York, Pennsylvania to a mother who worked in a nursing home and a father (Rock Sheffer) who worked as a prison guard and screenwriter. He has a daughter named Willow (born November 8, 1993). His brother is writer Hogan Sheffer. He is a graduate of York Suburban Senior High School. Career Sheffer was first seen on a nationwide basis as Ian Hayden on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, and as the teenage son of Michael Goodwin and Leigh Taylor-Young on the 1983 prime time serial The Hamptons. His earliest starring assignment in films was as the best…

Walter John Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won an Academy Award for his performance in the Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Early life Matthau was born in New York City's Lower East Side on October 1, 1920, the son of Rose Berolsky (from Lithuania), who worked in a sweatshop, and Milton Matthau, an electrician and peddler (from Russia), both Jewish immigrants. His surname has often incorrectly been listed as Matuschanskayasky. A…

John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts (for which he won the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger (for which he won the 1973 Best Actor Academy Award), The Out-of-Towners, The China Syndrome, Missing, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men. Early life Lemmon was born in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He was the son and only child of Mildred Burgess LaRue and John Uhler …

Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg (April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981), better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor. Early life Douglas (Douglas was the surname of his maternal grandmother) was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla, a Protestant Tennessee-born Mayflower descendant, and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a Jewish concert pianist and composer from Riga, Latvia. Though his father taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school. Career Douglas developed his acting skills with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa; Evansville, Indiana; Madison, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan. He had a long theat…

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…

*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…