A legal drama, or a courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative. Legal dramas have also followed the lives of the fictional attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, or other persons related to the practice of law present in television show or film. Legal drama is distinct from police crime drama or detective fiction, which typically focus on police officers or detectives investigating and solving crimes. The focal point of legal dramas, more often, are events occurring within a courtroom, but may include any phases of legal procedure, such as jury deliberations or work done at law firms. Some legal dramas fictionalize real cases that have been litigated, such as the play-turned-movie, Inherit the Wind, which fictionalized the Scopes Monkey Trial. As a genre, the term "legal drama" is typically applied to television shows and films, whereas legal thrillers typically refer to novels and plays.
Walter Matthau was an American actor and comedian, best known for his film roles, including as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, based on the play of the same title by playwright Neil Simon, in which he also appeared on broadway theatre, and notably, opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade. He also appeared in the less successful Odd Couple film sequel some 30 years later, The Odd Couple II. Matthau was known for his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple co-star Jack Lemmon, particularly in the 1990s with Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Besides the Oscar, he was the winner of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony awards.
Willard Carroll Smith II is an American actor and rapper. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.
Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset is an English actress. She began her film career in 1965, first coming to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a most promising newcomer Golden Globe nomination. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), Day for Night (1973) which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Deep (1977), and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy.
Crime films, in the broadest sense, are a cinematic genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but also include comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as mystery, suspense or noir.
Kathleen Robertson is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles as Tina Edison in the Canadian sitcom Maniac Mansion (1990–1993) and as Clare Arnold in the Fox teen drama series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1994–1997). Robertson also starred in a number of films, and from 2011 to 2012 played the role of Kitty O'Neill in the Starz political drama series Boss. In 2014, Robertson began starring as homicide detective Hildy Mulligan in the TNT series Murder in the First.
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress, director, screenwriter, and former fashion model. She played Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the X-Men film series (2000–2014), Ava Moore on Nip/Tuck, and Lenore Mills in the Taken film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity by the United Nations. She made her directorial debut with Bringing Up Bobby in 2011. She is also known for her role in the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove and for her role in ABC's How to Get Away with Murder. Janssen starred in the 2017 NBC crime thriller The Blacklist: Redemption.
The Writers Guild of America Awards for outstanding achievements in film, television, radio and video game writing, including both fiction and non-fiction categories, have been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949. In 2004, the awards show was broadcast on television for the first time.
Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress who is best known for her roles in the films Trainspotting (1996), Gosford Park (2001), Intermission (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), and Brave (2012). For the 2005 TV film The Girl in the Cafe, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. In 2003, she appeared in the acclaimed BBC miniseries State of Play as journalist Della Smith.
Alan Douglas Ruck is an American actor. He played Cameron Frye, Ferris Bueller's hypochondriac best friend in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and Stuart Bondek, a lecherous, power-hungry member of the mayor's staff in the ABC sitcom Spin City. His other notable films include Bad Boys (1983), Three Fugitives (1989), Young Guns II (1990), Speed (1994), Twister (1996), and Kickin' It Old Skool (2007). In 2016, he co-starred with Geena Davis in an updated Fox TV adaptation of William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel The Exorcist.
Papillon is a 1973 historical period drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1969 autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film stars Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière ("Papillon") and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Because it was filmed at remote locations, the film was quite expensive for the time, but it earned more than twice that in its first year of release. The film's title is French for "Butterfly," referring to Charrière's tattoo and nickname.
Jacques Demy was a French director, lyricist, and screenwriter. He appeared in the wake of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrated for their sumptuous visual style. Demy's style drew upon such diverse sources as classic Hollywood musicals, the documentary realism of his New Wave colleagues, fairy-tales, jazz, Japanese manga, and the opera. His films contain overlapping continuity, lush musical scores and motifs like teenaged love, labor rights, incest, and the intersection between dreams and reality. He is best known for the two musicals he directed in the mid-1960s: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He made his debut in the comedy film Women Talking Dirty (1999). He is known for his starring roles in the films Finding Neverland (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), August Rush (2008), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008). He won two consecutive Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Young Performer.
Katherine Whitton Baker is an American actress. Baker began her career in theatre and made her screen debut in the 1983 drama film, The Right Stuff. She received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance in Street Smart (1987). Baker also has appeared in over 50 films, including Jacknife (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Cider House Rules (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), Nine Lives (2005), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Last Chance Harvey (2008), Take Shelter (2011), Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and The Age of Adaline (2015).
Coline Serreau is a French actress, film director and writer.
Abigail Leigh Spencer is an American actress.
The Other Woman typically refers to a mistress or "the other woman"
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. He is a recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B DeMille Award, AFI Life Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
John Ford Noonan Jr. was an American playwright. He also wrote for theater, film and television, and he was an actor. His father worked as a jazz musician. He has four children. His brother, Tom Noonan, is an actor and writer. He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut.
