Category: Profiles

When I think of classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age that Oscar failed to recognize, I’m not talking about films that like The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life, modest hits that were nominated for Best Picture Oscars but failed to win the top prizes, but films that weren’t even nominated for those awards. The Wizard of…

Born April 22, 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey, Jack Nicholson was raised by his maternal grandparents believing them to be his parents and his showgirl mother his older sister. He grew up on the Jersey shore, attending high school in Manasquan. He learned the truth from a reporter in the mid-seventies after both his mother…

Born May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children of a church soloist and an insurance salesman, Annette Bening grew up in San Diego, California. She began acting in junior high school where she played the lead in The Sound of Music. She began her professional career with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in…

Born May 27, 1879 in Québec City, Canada, Lucille Watson was the daughter of an officer of the British Army who went to New York against her father’s wishes to enroll in a drama school. On Broadway for many years, Watson was married to actor Rockliffe Fellowes from 1906-1922.  She had an uncredited role in…

Born May 3, 1899 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Aline MacMahon was of Scottish-Irish and Russian-Jewish descent. Her father Marcus MacMahon was a telegraph operator who became editor-in-chief of Munsey Magazine, her mother Jennie Simon MacMahon, who lived to 107, was an actress. Growing up in McKeesport, a suburb of Pittsburg, and later Brooklyn, New York, MacMahon…

Born November 12, 1980 in London, Ontario, Canada, Ryan Gosling is the son of a secretary and a traveling salesman.  Homeschooled by his mother, he attended several high schools including a vocational school where he excelled in drama and fine arts. Gosling performed in several talent shows eventually landing a spot on The All New Mickey…

Born Amy Marie Madigan on September 11, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois to Dolores and John J. Madigan, her mother was an amateur actress ,and her father was a journalist who worked for Newsweek and provide political commentary on such shows as Meet the Press and Face the Nation. During high school, Madigan performed in school plays. …

Born August 17, 1960 in Santa Monica, California, the second son of actor-director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, Sean Penn is the fourth actor to receive three Oscars and the first since Walter Brennan to win all three on successive nominations. The actor’s older brother is composer Michael Penn (born 1958).  His younger brother…

Born October 5, 1975 in Reading, Berskshire, England, Kate Elizabeth Winslet was one of four children of a barmaid and a swimming pool contractor, both of whom were part-time actors. Actor Robert Bridges was her mother’s brother. Winslet made her acting debut in a TV commercial at the age of 2, and as a teenager…

Born February 12, 1923 in Florence, Italy, Franco Zeffirelli was the product of an affair between a fashion designer and a wool and silk dealer, both of whom were married to others. Unable to give her child either name, his mother came up with “Zeffiretti”, the little breezes mentioned in Mozart’s opera, Indomeneo. However, the name…