Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 77
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Richard Grieco was born to an Italian father (Richard Grieco) and an Irish mother (Carolyn O'Reilly). He is a musician and, in 1995, released a CD ('Waiting for the Sky to Fall') in Germany. In 2009, several years after being encouraged by Dennis Hopper, Grieco publicly revealed that he has been painting since 1991. He calls his work "Abstract Emotionalism".- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Richard Bakalyan was born on 29 January 1931 in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Chinatown (1974), The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Von Ryan's Express (1965). He was married to Elizabeth Lena (Betty Lee) Baumann. He died on 27 February 2015 in Elmira, New York, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Mark Neveldine was born in Watertown, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Gamer (2009), Crank (2006) and Crank: High Voltage (2009). He has been married to Alison Lohman since 19 August 2009. They have three children.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Timmy Williams was born on April 10, 1981 in Watertown, South Dakota, USA. He is a writer and actor and a member of comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know, and has appeared in all of their projects, including eponymous sketch comedy show (2007-2011), their movie The Civil War on Drugs (2011), and the upcoming Whitest Kids movie "MARS." Timmy is a single dad, lives in the Midwest, and loves licorice.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The career of actor and night club nightclub performer Charles Pierce, "Male Actress," Stand-Up Comic in a Dress, and the "Master and Mistress of Surprise or Disguise" included acting and radio announcing, but as a female impressionist, Pierce has left his audiences weak with laughter, and brightened their lives with his wicked and sometimes irreverent impressions of film stars, including Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Carol Channing, Katharine Hepburn and even "Mrs. Olsen" of the Folgers coffee commercials. His career took him to London, New York, San Francisco, Miami Beach, Los Angeles and Chicago. His 1984 show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was filmed and broadcast on the Playboy Channel. His engagements at the Henry Fonda Theatre (Hollywood), Ballroom and Village Gate (Manhattan) and the Fortune Theatre (London) were all sell-outs. During his illustrious career, celebrities around the world, including Tommy Tune, Anita Loos, Beatrice Arthur, Eugenia Bankhead (the sister), the Incomparable Hildegarde (with whom he appeared at Town Hall in New York), and Stephen Sondheim have toasted him. In the mid-1990s he retired, having lost several staff members to the AIDS epidemic. He made a few appearances for special events, such as author/actor Charles Busch's highly successful Town Hall drag summit show in New York City, which featured Milton Berle and all the best drag acts. In the last couple of years, Charles gathered together all his scrapbooks photographs, programs, recordings and videotapes and shipped them to the Performing Arts Library of Lincoln Center, New York, and to the ONE Archives at USC in Los Angeles. By May 1999 the materials were catalogued, and are now available to researchers.
Born on Bastille Day in 1926, Charles was named after his grandfather, Dr. Charles E. Pierce, and spent his youth in Watertown, New York. Beginning around 1944, Charles worked at a local radio station WWNY, playing the Hammond organ and acting in radio dramas. In a vintage photo taken at the station, 18-year-old Charles, seated at the organ, is shown looking at the sheet music of "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old," a song Bette Davis sang in the Warner Bros. film "Thank Your Lucky Stars." It was not easy for the critics to describe Charles' unique act, but when they did, he would happily appropriate the description. Apparently it was Herb Caen (in whose San Francisco Chronicle gossip column Charles appeared 50 times) who dubbed Charles a "male actress." When he played the Fairmont Venetian Room in the 1980s, the ads showed Charles as Bette Davis, holding a smoldering cigarette, with the caption, "The Last Drag."
Charles' first stand-up comedy routines were naïvely costumed. In a 1983 Public Radio interview on KALW in San Francisco, Charles said, "Through the years the act has had a lot of phases. I originally started in a tuxedo with a box of props. Then I started working clubs in Florida that required a lot of changes in material, so then I started working more or less in drag, and I say 'more or less' because Florida [laws] were very strict: You could wear black pants, you could wear a black turtle neck sweater, but you could not wear a dress. You could put feather boas on, and hats and gloves and pocketbooks, but you couldn't be in drag. And so we did a lot of pantomimes, and then I would do my 'live' material (maybe 10 minutes) at the end of that show. Eventually we ended up here in San Francisco (When I say 'we,' I refer to my performing partner at that time, Rio Dante), and we 'holed up' at the Gilded Cage for six years. We did a lot of pantomimes, and Mae West's [rock and roll] 'Treat Him Right' was one of them." In this same interview, Pierce admitted he never took the impersonations too seriously, "I've been billed as the 'stand up comic in a dress or 'the grand impostor,'...but it's all for laughs, it's all for fun and comedy."
Through the years, Charles' reputation built up from playing small gay clubs around the country, but San Francisco embraced him as no other town. John Wallraff, who attended the Pasadena Playhouse with Charles in 1947-48 reminisced: "He wanted to be a stage actor. He raced around Hollywood trying to get jobs. He went to a theatre group called Cabaret Concert, doing sketches à la Noël Coward. Back at Pasadena Playhouse, he played in Richard III and played the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol, Pierce also did some summer stock in upstate New York before returning to California. He had gone to see Arthur Blake - who did famous impressions of Bette Davis, Charles Laughton, and Tallulah Bankhead. Charles submitted some material to Blake, but Blake told him he wrote his own, so Charles said 'I'll use it myself!' While Living at Algonquin Hotel in Pasadena, in the early 50s, we went to see 'The Star' with Bette Davis. Charles decided it was fodder for a comedy parody, and performed it for me in his apartment. Charles and I started writing material, such as the Norma Desmond routine. At a Hollywood party, he played for a group that included Harriet Parsons (Louella's daughter), Jane Withers, Franklin Pangborn, and Mary McCarty. Charles did the tux bit in Altadena at Café La Vie, doing stand-up seriously. At various bars, he would improvise. Eventually Ann Dee, of Ann's 440 (San Francisco) saw him in Altadena and signed him up for her club, where Johnny Mathis later got his start."
"He then traveled to Florida, to the Red Carpet (Miami Beach) and the Echo Club. In Miami he met his future show-biz partner, Rio Dante, and they started to do lipsynching. They also created the puppets (The Moppettes), headless puppets Charles would put up to his own face and then perform outrageous dialogue and suggestive poses - with the likes of Shirley Temple, a Singing Nun, and a stripper. Rio Dante and Charles did a gig at the Statler Hotel in Hollywood and the Club Capri. Next stop was San Francisco's legendary Gilded Cage, in 1963, where he played a record six years. He made many appearances on television, but not always in drag: Wonder Woman, Designing Women, Fame (as a bag lady), Wayland Flowers and Madame in Madame's Place, Love American Style, Chico and the Man. Starsky and Hutch, Laverne & Shirley, and the talk shows of Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglass and Regis & Kathy Lee."
He was selected by playwright Harvey Fierstein to play "Bertha Venation" in the film "Torch Song Trilogy." Pierce rolls his eyes in the dress shop when Harvey Fierstein tells Matthew Broderick that "...if anyone asks, I'm the pretty one." Through the years, Charles had the best musical directors/accompanists in the business, and they all admitted to having learned a great deal about comedy and timing from Mr. Pierce. Those who have accompanied him include Michael Biagi, Michael Ashton, Joan Edgar, Rio Dante, and Michael Feinstein (Backlot of Studio One, September, 1981). That's three Michaels, a Rio and a "real Woman," as Charles used to call Joan in front of a screaming, adoring audience. Joan Edgar, Charles' musical director for seven years, marveled at the way he would constantly work on his act, even up to the final performance. At the end of a three-month run, just before the final show, in his dressing room he remarked, "Darling, you know that line where I say that our theatre curtain used to be Orson Welles' boxer shorts? Well, it would sound funnier if I said, "It was one of Kate Smith's slack suits. You see, the sound of all those consonant 'ks' make it sound funnier... or, how would it sound to say Rosemary Clooney's caftan?"
Billy Saetre, a professional singer/friend of Pierce living in Munich, remarked, "There is a genuine warmth and love of the 'art' of performing that so few folks have anymore. Of course being in the classical branch of performing, I see a completely different side of this silly world, where 'genuineness' is absolutely foreign. There is such a love of humor with Charles, and when he blows a line, or messes up a joke/story, he relishes in his own embarrassment as well as getting himself out of the situation... I remember crying at his last show when he sang "Illusions" (an old Dietrich number). There is something so poignant about him and his connection with an audience... Charles Pierce completes the information from Alpha to Omega. Everything the audience not only wants, but needs to know, is shared. No silly nonsense or mystery there. Gott sei Dank!"
Russ Alley (General Manager of San Francisco's York Hotel and Plush Room 1980-1983) produced more than 500 performances of Pierce at the York Hotel's Plush Room. Alley later went to work at the Fairmont Hotel in SF, as director of Public Relations & Entertainment, for Rick Swig. It was there that Alley convinced Swig to hire Charles Pierce, by showing him that Pierce's revenue had "saved" the Plush Room from closing. Alley remarked, "I had been trying to sell Charles to the Fairmont for years. I showed Swig the numbers, and told him 'Herb Caen will love it.'" And he did. Alley continued, "There will never be another Charles... or a better Katharine Hepburn as 'Eleanor of Acquitaine' (turkey wattle!), Maria Ouspenskaya (one of his Turban Ladies), Bette, Tallulah, those ratty foxes of his from way back.... Dietrich: "I was on a fwight fwom pawwis to Los Angewis and both of my wegs were on the fwight wif me; one in first cwass and the other in coach...", and of course Jeanette MacDonald and that swing. So many great memories."
John Epperson (The Fabulous Lypsinka) remarked, "Charles Pierce, the self-described 'male actress,' was one of the funniest people in the world. He was also incredibly generous. He had many successes at The Ballroom, a nightclub in New York City. In 1991, when the management asked him to PLEASE come back again, he said, 'Call Lypsinka instead.' He was sorely missed by all of his fans for the last several years in all the venues where he was so popular.
At The Plush Room many years ago, he acknowledged his good friend Beatrice Arthur, in the audience, as having the greatest comic timing in the world. He should know: Charles had the second best. People who never saw him as Tallulah and Bette Davis--at the same time--don't know what they've missed. (People who don't know Tallulah and Bette don't know what they're missing!) People who did see Charles' act know they saw a comic mastermind.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Victor Izay was born on 23 December 1923 in Watertown, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Wild Hogs (2007), Young Guns (1988) and Employee of the Month (2006). He was married to Jo Roybal Izay and Connie Izay. He died on 20 January 2014 in Glendora, California, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Matt Selman is an American screenwriter and producer from Watertown, Massachusetts known for producing and writing various episodes of The Simpsons. He also created the Icebox series Superhero Roommate, worked on The Angry Birds Movie and had written various Simpsons video games including Hit & Run, Road Rage and The Simpsons Game.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Christina Hornisher was born on 1 October 1942 in Watertown, New York, USA. She was a director and writer, known for Hollywood 90028 (1973), And on the Sixth Day (1966) and Terror in the Jungle (1968). She was married to Robert L. Collins and Jean Pierre Geuens. She died on 29 April 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Emma Renee Engle is an American Actress, Model and Dancer who was born on the 18th of May 2003, in Watertown NY, to Tonia Engle. She is the youngest of 5 girls and one brother. Before making her journey to California to pursue her dreams of acting at the young age of 7 years old, Emma spent her days growing up in the small community with a population of just 13,700 people in Seabrook Texas. Emma enjoyed her elementary school years at Big Springs Elementary School. Emma could often be found creating an audience for herself, so that she could perform her scripts, that she would spend hours writing herself . She was and is still very involved for her age. Very dedicated to everything she sets her mind too. One of her real passions is working with the homeless people, always trying to make a difference.
At 7 years old Emma was invited to IMTA LA while attending Neal Hamil Agency to pursue her modeling career. Emma came to California in January 2012 to attend the 5 day competition. Walking away that year with Headshot of the Year, Swimsuit Model of the Year, Most Sought After Actresses of the year amongst many other great honors. After the competition Emma and her family returned home to Seabrook Texas, that is until many LA managers and agents contacted her about representation. At that point Emma and her family took a long hard look at her talent and decided that they believed in her as much as Hollywood did and they decided to take their chance on helping her chase her dream. Her single mom sold their home and everything they owned, packed up a UHAL and away they drove towards the bright lights with nothing more than that dream and a lot of hope and dedication.
The Engle family was informed that this would be a long shot and warned Emma that she would be up against tens of thousands of other children her age competing for the same roles. And that the talent increased by thousands more during pilot and episodic season. Within the first week of locating to California, Emma was scoring auditions left and right and immediately booked her first National commercial with LG. She was able to work with the very talented Tony Goldwyn. After booking this first national commercial she quickly started booking many national commercials and also her dream role beside Ariana Grande and Jennette McCurdy with the amazing creator Dan Schneider in Nickelodeons Sam And Cat ( see reel), giving her the long awaited accomplishment of becoming a SAG/ AFTRA member.
Emma moving to California was a decision that her family never thought twice about never looking back with no regrets.
Emma recently had the opportunity to work not once, but twice with everyone's favorite actor Rob Lowe and Fred Savage on the Grinder in 2015 and then again on Code Black as Kaya ( see reel) a young girl with a crush that is attacked by a shark on Malibu Beach.
Emma feels that once she has worked beside Adam Sandler, and she has walked across the stage at the Nickelodeon Choice Awards and The Oscars that she will have achieved her greatest goal in life.
Emma continues to live in Los Angeles California with her mother and three sisters, Hannah, Zoe and Kiara. - Stunts
- Actor
- Writer
Frank Blake was born on 24 August 1972 in Watertown, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), Officer Downe (2016) and Precious Cargo (2016).- Gordon Ross was born on 27 February 1930 in Watertown, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978) and V (1984). He died on 16 August 1995 in Studio City, California, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Executive
A true "triple threat", Kathryn has had performance in her blood all her life. Growing up in Minnesota, she began dance classes like most girls her age and loved it! Once on stage, she was hooked. From then on, it was hard to keep her from the spotlight. With her incredible stage presence, she continued acting, dancing and singing her heart out! She found a home at Larkin Dance Studio in Maplewood for her high school dance career. They kept her very busy, dancing 16+ hours a week and competing in Minnesota and all over the country! She also took voice lessons, sang in the choir and was involved in as many shows as her schedule would allow. Upon graduation, Kathryn set off to Los Angeles, leaving her friends and family, to follow her dreams and pursue acting. She studied theatre, dance and voice at Loyola Marymount University. Keeping herself very busy, learning, performing and meeting many, many people, she graduated in 2003 with 2 degrees; one in dance and one in musical theatre. Kathryn has not stopped since then. She is currently bi-coastal and continues to meet people and create opportunities for herself. With the heart, passion and drive she has, there is no option but star blazing success!- Eugenie Besserer was born in Watertown, New York on Christmas Day of 1868. She was largely a silent film actress who made her debut in 1910's silent version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910). She was 42 at the time. For the most part Eugenie was a character actress, much in demand for filling in roles. Because of her willingness to take just about any role, Eugenie was able to be a part of films such as Enemies of Children (1923), The Millionaire Policeman (1926), The Jazz Singer (1927) (the first "talkie"), and A Royal Romance (1930). Her final film was 1933's To the Last Man (1933). Eugenie died of natural causes on May 28, 1934 in Los Angeles, California.
- Raabe was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1915. In 1934, he was a member of the Midget City cast at the Chicago World's Fair. The money from his appearances at the fair and other places was how he paid for his bachelor's in accounting and master's in business administration.
His wife, Marie Hartline, worked for a vaudeville show called Rose's Royal Midget Troupe.
After Oz, while the film always remained a large presence in his life, he was a pilot and an instructor in the Civil Air Patrol during World War II, worked as a spokesman for the Oscar Mayer hot dog company for 30 years, a horticulturist, and teacher as well as during later years toured fan conventions. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Composer and singer; started as vocalist with Don McNeill's 'Breakfast Club' for two years. He was a salvage diver, and later a New Orleans radio singer, featured also in night clubs. He has made many records. He joined ASCAP in 1960 and composed: "Life of My Life"; "Forget It"; "Where Did You Go Last Night?"; and "Possom Song".
In June of 1991, The American Foundation for the Performing Arts and M. Edward Bass presented Gary with an Award at a "A Tribute to John Gary" to Benefit the John Gary Recovery Fund for Cancer Treatments. The event was star-studded with Liza Minelli. The event was produced by Bass and Karen Sharpe-Kramer.- Camera and Electrical Department
Kristi Noem is a United States Congresswoman from South Dakota and is the only Congressional representative from that state. Noem is a Republican and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2010. Previous to that she served two terms in the South Dakota House of Representatives (2007-10), the latter term as Assistant Majority Leader.- Director
- Music Department
- Producer
Ernest Pintoff won the Oscar for best animated short for The Critic (1963), a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks. Pintoff previously earned an Oscar nomination for his animated short The Violinist (1959), narrated by Carl Reiner. For television Pintoff directed episodes of numerous series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Falcon Crest (1981). As part of NBC's "Experiments in Television" in the late 1960s, he directed the documentaries "This Is Marshall McLuhan" and "This Is Sholem Aleichem." Among Pintoff's feature credits as a director are the low-budget Who Killed Mary Whats'ername? (1971), starring Red Buttons, and Dynamite Chicken (1971), a collection of songs, skits, commercial parodies and old movie clips with appearances by Richard Pryor, John Lennon, Andy Warhol and other celebrities. He taught directing at the School of Visual Arts, the American Film Institute, the California Institute of the Arts and UCLA, and received the International Animated Film Society's Winsor McCay Award for distinguished lifetime contributions to the art of animation in 1998.
Born in Watertown, CT, and raised in New York City, Pintoff originally was a jazz trumpeter and later taught painting and design at Michigan State University. He began his animation career in 1956. After suffering a stroke in 1983, he turned to writing books, including a memoir ("Bolt From the Blue"), a novel ("Zachary") and animation textbooks.
He died from complications of a stroke on January 12, 2002, in Woodland Hills, CA. He is survived by his wife, Caroline; son Jonathan of Los Angeles; daughter Gabrielle Stornaiuolo of San Francisco; and three grandsons.- Director
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Richard Gaikowski was born on 14 March 1936 in Watertown, South Dakota, USA. He was a director and producer, known for This Is My Black Movie (1970), Festival of Bards (1978) and Moody Teenager (1980). He died on 30 April 2004 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Composer
Michael J. Kirkland was born in Watertown, New York. His parents, Robert and Maria, named him after the Archangel Michael or maybe the Patron Saint St. Michael. It all sounds like a typical press release but that's the way it is.
Originally from Watertown, New York, Michael moved with his mother and stepfather to Syracuse and, later, to Altoona, Pennsylvania where he graduated from high school in 1993.
After relocating to Los Angeles, Michael's first professional film work came as an extra in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Though his part, which basically involved him taking his shirt on and off, never made it into the film, it did get Michael his SAG card, and opened the door for his professional acting career.
Michael's professional training came first with Stella Adler-trained actor Carey Scott at Carey Scott's Rehearsal Room in San Diego, then in Los Angeles at the Howard Fine Acting Studio and, finally, at the Beverly Hills Playhouse with Richard Lawson. Michael has also read extensively on the craft of acting, studying books by Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Michael Shurtleff, Uta Hagen, Richard Boleslawski and, his personal favorite, Milton Katselas.
Director of the award winning short "choices". Best Narrative Short at the Cannes Artisan Film Festival 2012.
Michael currently resides in Los Angeles, Ca waiting for Waning Crescent Moon to return.- Ben Stone was born on 12 April 1915 in Watertown, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950), Underdog (1964) and King Leonardo and His Short Subjects (1960). He died on 7 May 2008 in Concord, California, USA.
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Ted Swanson was born on 28 July 1936 in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. He was a production manager and assistant director, known for Rocky (1976), Lionheart (1990) and Witness (1985). He was married to Janet Saxman Watt. He died on 23 July 2009 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
George Coutoupis was born on 18 November 1955 in Watertown, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Bad Dreams (1988), Where the Boys Are (1984) and Blue Skies Again (1983).- Allen Dulles was born on 7 April 1893 in Watertown, New York, USA. He was married to Clover Todd. He died on 29 January 1969 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Todd Eastman Brown is an American actor born in Watertown, New York. In 1981 his family relocated to Concord, North Carolina where he quickly became involved in auto racing. Todd's racing career spanned over 10 years capturing numerous wins and championships before he turned his sights to entertainment. In 1998 he began to study acting through private studies with an acting professor from North Carolina School of the Arts and signed with his first agency. During this time, Todd also pursued a career in music as a lead vocalist. From 2002 through 2012 Todd toured and recorded 3 albums while also pursuing his acting career. In early 2012, Todd made the decision to step away from music and solely focus on film and television. Since doing so, Todd has appeared in over 60 productions between film, television, commercials and print accumulating over 75 career credits. In addition, Todd has been successful as a screenwriter and producer of award winning short films.- John Hinderaker was born on 19 September 1950 in Watertown, South Dakota, USA. He has been married to Loree Kay Miner since 4 June 1994. He was previously married to Shannon Faye Smith.