Category: Oscar Profile

Born November 1, 1972 in Sydney, Australia, Toni Collet(e) was the first of three children of Judith (née Cook), a customer service representative and Bob Collet, a truck driver. At the age of eleven, she faked appendicitis out of boredom, her act so convincing that doctors had to remove her appendix even though the tests…

Born March 21, 1958 in London, England to a welder and his homemaker wife, Gary Oldman’s alcoholic father left home when he was seven. Raised from then by his now 99-year-old mother, Oldman left school at 16 to work in a sports shop. A pianist as a child, and later a singer, he gave both…

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…

Born June 7, 1928 in Berkeley, California, the son of a sawmill operator and his wife, James Ivory grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He attended the University of Oregon from which he received a degree in fine arts in 1951. He then attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts where he directed the 1953…

Born April 12, 1994 in The Bronx, New York, Saoirse Ronan is the only child of actor Paul Ronan and his wife, Monica, a former child actress. When she was three, the family moved to Dublin, Ireland where she grew up, hence her dual American and Irish citizenship. She made her acting debut in the…

Born November 27, 1927 in Omaha, Nebraska, Lynn Stalmaster’s father was the first Jewish judge appointed to the District Court of Nebraska. He was also active in the local Jewish community serving as president of the Omaha B’nai Brith. Young Stalmaster attended Dundee Elementary School in Midtown, Omaha. In 1938, his family moved to Beverly…

Born December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York, Denzel Washington’s father was a Pentecostal minister who also worked in a department store. His mother was a beautician. His parents divorced when he was 14 and he attended various schools including Fordham University as a journalism major. Having caught the acting bug while appearing in…

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…

Born October 28, 1967 in Smyrna, Georgia to one-time actors and playwrights who ran an acting school in Decatur, Georgia when she was born, Julia Roberts’ mother’s maternity bill was paid for by Coretta Scott King in gratitude to Julia’s father, her daughter Yolanda’s acting coach. Following in the footsteps of her older brother, Eric,…

Born December 4, 1913 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mark Robson was a political science major at the University of California who found work in the prop department at 20th Century-Fox. Fired by Daryl F. Zanuck for asking for a raise, he moved to RKO. At RKO, Robson became an assistant editor under Robert Wise, working…

Born November 3, 1930 in Topeka, Kansas, Lois Arlene Humbert was the youngest of six children of a telephone worker and his wife. She grew up performing in church plays put on by her father. At 18, she married fellow actor Wesley Dale Smith, becoming Lois Smith, the actress we know and love today. Smith…

Born August 16, 1940 in Sydney, Australia, Bruce Beresford was the son of an electrical goods salesman and his homemaker wife. Interested in film making from an early age, he made several short films beginning in 1959 while still in his teens. Having graduated from the University of Sydney in 1964, he moved to England…

Born April 6, 1895 in New York, New York, Harold “Hal” Rosson came from a film-making family. His older brothers, Arthur and Richard were successful directors and his younger sister, Helene, was an actress. Rosson began his film career in 1908 as an actor at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, working his way up the…

Born Fredrick Martin MacMurray on August 30, 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, Young Fred was raised in Wisconsin from the age of five. A saxophone player in college, he later became a singer and as such had featured roles in the 1930’s Three’s a Crowd and 1933’s Roberta on Broadway. He became a life-long friend with…

Born November 28, 1923 in Los Angeles, California to Reginald Hallward, an architect and author, and Jean Grahame, a British stage actress and acting teacher, Gloria Grahame (Hallward) began acting in theatre while still in high school. Signed to an MGM contract she made her film debut in 1944’s Blonde Fever, followed by a small…