Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, he is regarded as one of the best comedians of all time.
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian known mainly for his work in Hollywood films. Candy rose to fame in the 1970s as a member of the Toronto branch of the Second City and its Second City Television (SCTV) series, and through his appearances in comedy films, including Stripes (1981), Splash (1984), Summer Rental (1985), Spaceballs (1987), The Great Outdoors (1988), Uncle Buck (1989) and Cool Runnings (1993), as well as more dramatic roles in Only the Lonely and JFK. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the talkative shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy film Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987).
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer. Known for his performances on the screen and stage, he has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". He is also known for his frequent collaborations with directors Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, and Tony Scott. Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, two Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2016, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2020, The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century.
Stephen Glenn Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has earned five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academy's 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013. Among many honors, he has received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center Honors, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir of the same name. It tells the story of a fictional character, neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is based on Sacks and played by Robin Williams. In 1969, he discovered beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe and the rest of the patients are awakened after decades and have to deal with a new life in a new time. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Montel Brian Anthony Williams is an American television host, actor and motivational speaker. He is known for hosting the long-running daytime tabloid talk show The Montel Williams Show, which ran in syndication from 1991 to 2008. He currently hosts Military Makeover: Operation Career on Lifetime. Williams is active with the nonprofit MS Foundation, which he founded after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. Additionally, he is noted for his service in both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy, from which he retired after 22 years of service.
Jonathan Harshman Winters III was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also had records released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 Grammy nominations, including eight for Best Comedy Album, during his career. From these nominations, he won the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for his contribution to an adaptation of The Little Prince in 1975 and the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Crank(y) Calls in 1996.
Remember the Titans is a 2000 American biographical sports film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. The screenplay, written by Gregory Allen Howard, is based on the true story of coach Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel Washington, and his attempt to integrate the T. C. Williams High School football team in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971. Will Patton portrays Bill Yoast, Boone's assistant coach. Real-life athletes Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell are portrayed by Ryan Hurst and Wood Harris, respectively.
William December Williams Jr. is an American actor. He appeared as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise, first in the early 1980s for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), and thirty-six years later in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), marking one of the longest intervals between onscreen portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history.
Ralph Rexford Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned 62 years on stage, film, and television. During his career, he played leading roles as well as supporting roles, garnering acclaim and awards, including a Tony Award for Best Dramatic Actor in Sunrise at Campobello and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Awful Truth (1937).
Hector Juan Samuel "Tico" Torres is an American musician, artist, and entrepreneur, best known as the drummer, percussionist, and a songwriter for American rock band Bon Jovi. In 2018, Torres was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bon Jovi.
Inside the Actors Studio is an American talk show that airs on Ovation. The series premiered in 1994 on Bravo where it aired for 22 seasons and was hosted by James Lipton from its premiere until 2018. It is taped at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University's New York City campus.
Kimberly Payne Williams-Paisley is an American actress known for her co-starring roles on According to Jim and Nashville, as well as her breakthrough performance in Father of the Bride (1991), for which she was nominated for several awards, and its sequel, Father of the Bride Part II (1995). Throughout her acting career, she has guest-starred on TV shows including Tales from the Crypt, George Lopez and Less Than Perfect. She is also known for her roles in made-for-TV movies, including Safe House, The Christmas Shoes, and Lucky 7, and also her role as Laura Parker in Shade, a short film that she also wrote and directed. Williams is married to country musician Brad Paisley, with whom she has two sons; actress Ashley Williams is her sister.
The Five Heartbeats is a 1991 musical drama film directed by Robert Townsend, who co-wrote the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans. Produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film's main cast includes Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon Robinson, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells, Harold Nicholas, and Diahann Carroll. The plot of the film follows the three decade career of the rhythm and blues vocal group The Five Heartbeats. The film depicts the rise and fall of a Motown inspired soul act through the eyes of one of the Heartbeats, Donald "Duck" Matthews.
Mississippi Masala is a 1991 romantic drama film directed by Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, and Roshan Seth. Set primarily in rural Mississippi, the film explores interracial romance between African Americans and Indian Americans in the United States.
Richard Anthony Williams was an American actor. Williams is best known for his starring performances on Broadway in The Poison Tree, What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Black Picture Show. Williams also had notable roles in 1970s blaxploitation films such as The Mack and Slaughter's Big Rip-Off.
Ellis E. Williams is an American film and television actor/comedian who is better known for playing "Henry Hugley" on the sitcom, The Hughleys.
Ernest AnthonyPuente Jr., commonly known as TitoPuente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that endured over a 50-year career. His most famous song is "Oye Como Va".
Moone Boy is an Irish sitcom created, co-written by and co-starring Chris O'Dowd for British broadcaster Sky One. The series is co-written by Nick Vincent Murphy and is produced by Baby Cow Productions, Sprout Pictures, Hot Cod Productions, and Grand Pictures. The series is semi-autobiographical of O'Dowd and focuses on a young boy's life growing up in Boyle, County Roscommon, in the west of Ireland in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Moone Boy is the second series produced from Sky One's Little Crackers shorts and is inspired by O'Dowd's contribution, "Capturing Santa", which was produced by Sprout Pictures.
Rose Tico is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, first appearing in the simultaneously-released Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Cobalt Squadron. A mechanic with the Resistance, she befriends Finn and works with him to try to help Resistance forces escape from the First Order. Rose is portrayed by Kelly Marie Tran.
