Fanny Marguerite Judith Ardant is a French actress and film director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two César Awards and a Lumières Award.
Olivia Hussey is an English film, stage, and television actress. Her awards include a Golden Globe Award and a David di Donatello Award. The daughter of Argentine opera singer Andrés Osuna, Hussey was born in Buenos Aires and spent most of her early life in her mother's native England. She aspired to become an actress at a young age and studied drama for five years at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero, known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film Django (1966), which made him a pop culture icon and launched an international career that includes over 200 leading and supporting roles in a wide variety of films and television programmes.
Diane Marie Antonia Varsi was an American film actress best known for her performances in Peyton Place – her film debut, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award – and the cult film Wild in the Streets. She left Hollywood to pursue personal and artistic aims, notably at Bennington College in Vermont, where she studied poetry with poet and translator Ben Belitt.
Gloria Grahame Hallward was an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 made her first film for MGM.
Maria-Hélène Schneider, known professionally as Maria Schneider, was a French actress. In 1972, at the age of 19, she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, but being traumatised by a rape scene and hounded by unsavoury publicity negatively affected her subsequent career. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975) showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcome in the industry. However, she re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under. She continued acting in film and TV until a few years before she died in 2011 after a long illness.
Jesús Franco Manera was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies. In a career spanning from 1959 to 2013, he wrote, directed, produced, acted in, and scored approximately 173 feature films, working both in his native Spain and in France, West Germany, Switzerland and Portugal. Additionally, during the 1960s, he made several films in Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul.
Horst Tappert was a German film and television actor best known for the role of Inspector Stephan Derrick in the television drama Derrick.
Alexandrina Maria da Costa, best known as Blessed Alexandrina of Balazar, was a Portuguese mystic and victim soul, member of the Association of Salesian Cooperators, who was born and died in Balazar. On 25 April 2004 she was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II who stated that "her secret to holiness was love for Christ".
Harry Alan Towers was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 feature films and continued to write and produce well into his eighties. Towers was married to the actress Maria Rohm, who appeared in many of his films.
Soledad Rendón Bueno, better known by her stage names Soledad Miranda or Susann Korda, was an actress and pop singer who was born in Seville, Spain. She starred in several erotic thriller films directed by Jess Franco in 1969 and 1970, such as Count Dracula (1970) and Vampyros Lesbos (1970).
Count Dracula is a 1970 gothic horror film directed by Jesús Franco, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom and Klaus Kinski.
Treasure Island is a 1972 adventure film, based on the 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Orson Welles as Long John Silver, Kim Burfield as Jim Hawkins, Walter Slezak as Squire Trelawney, Rik Battaglia as Captain Smollett, and Ángel del Pozo as Doctor Livesey.
Lalita Pawar was a prolific Indian actress, who later became famous as a character actress, appearing in over 700 films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati cinema. She holds a Guinness world record of longest acting career spanning over 70 years. Pawar is the awardee of a Filmfare award for best supporting actress for Anari. She featured in hit films such as Netaji Palkar (1938), made by Bhalji Pendharkar, New Hana Pictures' Sant Damaji, Navyug Chitrapat's Amrit, written by VS Khandekar, and Chhaya Films' Gora Kumbhar. Her other memorable roles were in the films Anari (1959), Shri 420 and Mr & Mrs 55, and the role of Manthara, in Ramanand Sagar's television epic serial Ramayan.
Marquis de Sade: Justine is a 1969 film directed by Jesús Franco. The film is based on the 1791 novel Justine by the Marquis de Sade. The film is set in 1700s France where Justine and her sister Juliette are orphans in Paris. Juliette becomes a prostitute and marries a rich noble. Justine is falsely arrested and sentenced to death, then escapes from prison to become a fugitive.
Sabrina Siani is an Italian film actress. She also used pseudonyms such as Sabrina Sellers and Sabrina Syan. She starred in numerous films, mostly violent cannibal films and sexy barbarian "sword-and-sandal" movies, and most of her films were made in a three-year period between the ages of 17 and 20. Siani retired from acting entirely in 1989, at age 26.
The Blood of Fu Manchu, also known as Kiss of Death, Kiss and Kill and Against All Odds, is a 1968 British adventure crime film directed by Jesús Franco, based on the fictional Asian villain Dr. Fu Manchu created by Sax Rohmer. It was the fourth film in a series, and was preceded by The Vengeance of Fu Manchu. The Castle of Fu Manchu followed in 1969.
Fern Andra, Dowager Baroness von Weichs was an American actress, film director, script writer, and producer. Next to Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen, she was one of the most popular and well-known actresses in German silent film.
The Girl from Rio is a 1969 spy-fi film directed by Jess Franco and starring Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, George Sanders and Maria Rohm. Written and produced by Harry Alan Towers, the film follows a tribe of Amazonian women, as, led by their queen, they attack wealthy men as part of a long-term plan to take over the world. A co-production between West Germany, Spain and the United States, the film is a sequel to The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967), and is based on Sax Rohmer's Sumuru character. Nevertheless, Sumuru's character is referred to as either "Sumitra" or "Sununda".
The Bloody Judge is a 1970 horror film directed by Jesús Franco and written by Enrico Colombo, Jesús Franco, Michael Haller, and Anthony Scott Veitch. The film stars Christopher Lee, Maria Schell, Leo Genn, Hans Hass Jr., Maria Rohm and Margaret Lee. The film was released in Italy on February 5, 1970.
