William Goldman was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. Among other accolades, Goldman won two Academy Awards in both writing categories: first for Best Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and then for Best Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men (1976).
Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received many accolades including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991.
Betty Comden was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history." The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with Singin' in the Rain, as part of the famed "Freed unit" at MGM.
Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera, and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her direction and costume design. Her 2002 film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 jukebox musical film Across the Universe, based on the music of the Beatles.
Dominic Chianese is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Junior Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Leander Whitlock in Boardwalk Empire (2011–2013).
Jerome Bernard Orbach was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor". Over his career he received a Tony Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. The play shows parts of two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts—from lies and flattery to bribery, threats, intimidation and burglary—to sell real estate to unwitting prospective buyers. It is based on Mamet's experience having previously worked in a similar office.
Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American tragedy film directed by James Foley and written by David Mamet, based on his 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The film depicts two days in the lives of four real-estate salesmen and their increasing desperation when the corporate office sends a motivational trainer with the threat that all but the top two salesmen will be fired within one week.
American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet that had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two additional showcase productions, it opened on Broadway in 1977.
Philip Loeb, was an American stage, film, and television actor, director and author, perhaps best remembered for playing Jake Goldberg in The Goldbergs. He was blacklisted under McCarthyism and committed suicide in response.
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 American Technicolor musical comedy film from the Arthur Freed unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart. Directed by Charles Walters, the screenplay is by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Sidney Sheldon, the songs are by Harry Warren (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) with the addition of "They Can't Take That Away from Me" by George and Ira Gershwin, and the choreography was created by Robert Alton and Hermes Pan. Also featured in the cast were Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Jacques François and Gale Robbins. It is the last film that Astaire and Rogers made together, and their only film together in color. Rogers came in as a last-minute replacement for Judy Garland, whose frequent absences due to a dependence on prescription medication cost her the role.
Anthony McCarten is a New Zealand writer and filmmaker. He is best known for writing big-budget biopics The Theory of Everything (2014), Darkest Hour (2017), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), The Two Popes (2019), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). McCarten has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including twice for Best Adapted Screenplay, for The Theory of Everything and The Two Popes.
Arthur Allan Seidelman is an American television, film, and theatre director and an occasional writer, producer, and actor. His works are distinguished by a humane, probing, and sympathetic depiction of characters facing ethical challenges. His approach to directing is guided by his belief that character and relationships, along with an emphasis on genuine emotion over intellectualization, are the keys to unlocking the dramatic potential of a performance, a play, or a screenplay.
Stephen Belber is an American playwright, screenwriter and film director. His plays have been produced on Broadway and in over 50 countries. He directed the film adaptation of his Broadway play Match, starring Patrick Stewart. He created the Netflix series The Madness, starring Colman Domingo, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and John Ortiz and wrote and directed What We Do Next, starring Michelle Veintimilla, Karen Pittman, and Corey Stoll. He also wrote and directed the film Management, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson, and wrote the HBO film O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, Theothus Carter, and William Fichtner. Belber was an actor and associate writer on The Laramie Project, as well as a co-writer of The Laramie Project, Ten Years Later.
Felix Angel Solis is an American actor, film director, and film producer. Born on the Upper West Side and raised in Chelsea/Greenwich Village area of New York City, to parents who were both born in Puerto Rico, Felix considers himself a Nuyorican.
Christopher Denham is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He is known for supporting roles in Oppenheimer, Shutter Island, Argo, Being the Ricardos, Charlie Wilson's War and Sound of My Voice. His television credits include Billions, Shining Girls opposite Elisabeth Moss, and Amazon Prime's Utopia, created by Gillian Flynn. Denham has appeared on Broadway in Master Harold...and the Boys, Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore and David Mamet's China Doll, opposite Al Pacino.
Al Pacino is an American screen and stage actor. His film debut was in 1969 with the comedy drama film Me, Natalie. He had his first lead role in the 1971 drama film The Panic in Needle Park. The following year, he played Michael Corleone in the crime film The Godfather, a role he reprised in the sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). For his performance in the 1973 film Serpico, in which he played Frank Serpico, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. In 1983, he starred as Tony Montana in the crime drama film Scarface, which is considered one of the greatest gangster films, and is considered a cult classic.
Ira Lewis Metsky was an American actor, writer, and playwright. Lewis was best known for his one-act play, Chinese Coffee, which opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 1992, starring Al Pacino. A film adaptation of Chinese Coffee, also starring Pacino, as well as Jerry Orbach, was released in 2000. Ira Lewis wrote the film's screenplay, while Pacino directed the adaptation.
