Category: Oscar Profile

Born December 9, 1934 in Yorkshire, England, to a physician who was also general practitioner for a local theatre and his wife, the wardrobe mistress, Judith Olivia (Judi) Dench grew up to become one of her country’s greatest actresses. Although she intended to become a set designer, she followed her brother Jeff into acting school…

Born July 14, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, Arthur Levine, known professionally as Arthur Laurents, was a noted American playwright, stage director and screenwriter. After graduating from Cornell University, Laurents took a radio writing course at New York University which led to his first produced work, a radio play for Shirley Booth, who would later…

Born November 2, 1913 in East Harlem to a postal worker and his wife, Burt Lancaster was one of five children. A street smart kid, he developed an interest in gymnastics at an early age. He and childhood friend Nick Cravat formed an acrobatic team called Lang and Cravat in the 1930s and together joined…

Born February 27, 1932 in London, England to American parents working in London, Elizabeth Taylor came to the U.S. during World War II. A strikingly beautiful child, she auditioned for the movies and was immediately signed by Universal who cast her in 1942’s There’s One Born Every Minute. Dropped by Universal after just the one…

Born April 15, 1843 in New York City to wealthy parents, Henry James was one of the best known intellectuals in mid-19th Century America. He spent his first twenty years traveling back and forth between the U.S. and Europe. At 19 he briefly studied law at Harvard but preferred reading literature and soon dropped out.…

Born April 20, 1949 in Cloquet, Minnesota to a teacher/traveling salesman and his wife, Jessica Lange was the third of four children. The future actress received an art scholarship from the University of Minnesota in 1967 where she met and began dating photographer, Paco Grande. After marrying him in 1970, Lange left college to pursue…

Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan on December 7, 1932, the high school cheerleader and young model was the “away we go” girl on TV’s Jackie Gleason Show in 1955 and 1956. Deciding to become an actress, she changed her name to Ellen McRae, racking up nearly thirty credits on numerous TV shows before…

Born Maurice Micklewhite March 14, 1933 in London, England, the son of a fish market porter and a charlady, Michael Caine grew from his humble beginnings to become one of the world’s best known and most respected actors. Having left school at 15, he took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British Army…

Born May 8, 1906 in Rome, Italy to a French-Italian mother and Italian father, Roberto Rossellini would become one of the world’s great filmmakers. His father, who owned a construction firm, built the first cinema in Rome which he ran, granting young Roberto a free pass to frequent the cinema at an early age. He…

Born Helen Lydia Mironof on July 26, 1945, Dame Helen Mirren’s father Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980) was of Russian origin and her mother Kitty (1909-1996) was English. Her paternal grandfather was a Tsarist Russian diplomat who was stranded in London during the Russian revolution with his family and later became a cab driver. Her father,…

Born January 29, 1892 in Berlin, Germany to a successful tailor and his wife, Ernst Lubitsch eventually became one of the most successful international directors of all time. Expected to follow in his father’s footsteps, he chose instead to become an actor and joined Max Reinhardt’s acting troupe in 1911. He made his film debut…

Born October 18, 1902 to wealthy parents in Savannah, Georgia, Miriam Hopkins attended the finest schools before becoming a chorus girl at the age of 20. On Broadway first in musicals, then dramatic roles, she had her first starring role on screen in 1930’s Fast and Loose featuring Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan but attracted…

Born October 20, 1938 to actor Bert Hicks and his former actress wife, Harriett, who divorced when she was three, Dolores Hicks, stage name Dolores Hart, grew up wanting to be an actress. Celebrated singer-actor Mario Lanza was her uncle by marriage, an Army buddy of her father’s who fell in love with Hicks’ sister…

Born July 6, 1951 in Santa Monica, California to John Huston and his fourth wife, Italian-American prima ballerina Ricki Soma while her father was in Africa directing The African Queen, Anjelica Huston spent most of her childhood in England and Ireland 1969, the year of her mother’s death in a car accident at the age…

Born July 1, 1863 in London, England, Charles Aubrey Smith, known professionally as C. Aubrey Smith, was educated at Cambridge University where he was a member of the cricket team. Moving to South Africa in 1888 to prospect for gold, he developed pneumonia and was pronounced dead from the malady that would actually kill him…