Charles Joseph Whitman was an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people. He fatally shot three people inside UT Austin's Main Building, then accessed the 28th-floor observation deck on the building's clock tower. There, he fired at random people for 96 minutes, killing an additional eleven people and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin Texas law enforcement. Whitman killed a total of seventeen people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.
Silkwood is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was adapted from the book Who Killed Karen Silkwood? by Rolling Stone writer and activist Howard Kohn, which detailed the life of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear whistle-blower and a labor union activist who investigated alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. In real life, her inconclusive death in a car crash gave rise to a 1979 lawsuit, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, led by attorney Gerry Spence. The jury rendered its verdict of $10 million in damages to be paid to the Silkwood estate, the largest amount in damages ever awarded for that kind of case at the time. The Silkwood estate eventually settled for $1.3 million.
Targets is a 1968 American crime thriller film directed by Peter Bogdanovich in his theatrical directorial debut, and starring Tim O'Kelly, Boris Karloff, Nancy Hsueh, Bogdanovich, James Brown, Arthur Peterson and Sandy Baron. The film depicts two parallel narratives which converge during the climax: one follows Bobby Thompson, a seemingly ordinary and wholesome young man who embarks on an unprovoked killing spree; the other depicts Byron Orlok, an iconic horror film actor who, disillusioned by real-life violence, is contemplating retirement.
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him one of only six actors to win three Academy Awards, and the only male or female actor to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959). On television, he starred in the sitcom The Real McCoys (1957-1963).
Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather was an American actress and producer.
Yvette Carmen Mimieux was an American film and television actress who was a major star of the 1960s and 1970s. Her breakout role was in The Time Machine (1960). She was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards during her acting career.
The Hall of Great Western Performers is a hall of fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) presentation that explores how the American West has been interpreted in literature and film. Each year, the museum inducts performers to the hall in conjunction with the awarding of the Western Heritage Awards.
Craig Houston Brewer is an American filmmaker. His 2005 movie Hustle & Flow won the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and achieved commercial success, along with an Academy Award for Best Original Song, "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp". He is also known for directing the 2011 remake of Footloose, the 2019 film Dolemite Is My Name and the 2021 film Coming 2 America; the latter two starring Academy Award–nominee Eddie Murphy.
Kevin Hal Reynolds is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Waterworld, The Count of Monte Cristo, Fandango, and the 2016 film Risen. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for the History miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.
This is a complete list of the 166 shorts in the Tom and Jerry series produced and released between 1940 and 2021. Of these, 162 are theatrical shorts, one is a made-for-TV short, one is a two-minute sketch shown as part of a telethon, and two are special shorts released on HBO Max.
The Delicate Art of the Rifle is a 1996 independent film directed by Dante W. Harper, with a screenplay by Stephen Grant, based on his short story by the same name. It is a surrealistic comedy-drama about a school shooting as seen through the eyes of a socially awkward college student named Jay. Walt Whitman, the shooter, is loosely based on Charles Whitman, but the film is not in any way a factual account of the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas.
Ramiro "Ray" Martinez is a former Austin Police Department officer whose actions contributed to the ending of the University of Texas tower shootings when he, two other officers and a deputized civilian reached and killed sniper Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966.
Track Down is a 2000 American crime thriller film based on the non-fiction book Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw—By the Man Who Did It by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff, about the manhunt for computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. It is directed by Joe Chappelle, with a screenplay by Howard A. Rodman, John Danza, and David & Leslie Newman. The film stars Skeet Ulrich as Mitnick and Russell Wong as Shimomura, with Angela Featherstone, Donal Logue, Christopher McDonald, Master P, and Tom Berenger.
Laura Elena Harring is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1985 and later began acting in television and film. She is known for her roles in movies, including The Forbidden Dance (1990), John Q (2002), Willard (2003), The Punisher (2004), The King (2005), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), Ghost Son (2007), The Caller (2008), Drool (2009), Sex Ed (2014), and Inside (2016). She also played Carla Greco in General Hospital (1990–1991), Paula Stevens on Sunset Beach (1997), and Rebecca "Becca" Doyle in The Shield (2006). She is best known for her lead role as Rita in the 2001 movie Mulholland Drive.
Cry 'Havoc' is a 1943 American war drama film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Richard Thorpe. It stars Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell, and features Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, Ella Raines, Frances Gifford, Diana Lewis, Heather Angel, Dorothy Morris and Connie Gilchrist.
The Liquidator is a 1965 British thriller film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, and Jill St. John. It was based on The Liquidator (1964), the first of a series of Boysie Oakes novels by John Gardner.
Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder is a 1997 American made-for-television drama film based on the real life murder of Adrianne Jones by Diane Zamora in Texas. The film stars Holly Marie Combs, David Lipper, Cassidy Rae, Dee Wallace, Gary Grubbs, Kurt Fuller, and Joanna Garcia. The film was adapted from "The Killer Cadets", an article in Texas Monthly by Skip Hollandsworth, and aired on NBC on February 10, 1997.
Raíces de sangre is a Mexican movie written and directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño released in 1978 in Mexico and other countries. According to some sources, it had a wide release on May 30, 1979, but other sources show it was playing in US theaters as early as August 1978.
The University of Texas tower shooting was an act of mass murder that occurred on August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas at Austin. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Marine veteran Charles Whitman, indiscriminately fired at members of the public, both within the Main Building tower and from the tower's observation deck. He shot and killed 15 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 others before he was killed by two Austin Police Department officers approximately 96 minutes after first opening fire from the observation deck.
Chicano cinema is an aspect of Mexican American cinema that refers to the filmmaking practices that emerged out of the cultural consciousness developed through the Chicano Movement. Luis Valdez is generally regarded as the first Chicano filmmaker and El Teatro Campesino as the first theater company.
