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- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Barry Gordon was born on 21 December 1948 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993), A Thousand Clowns (1965) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987). He has been married to Dr. Gail Schaper-Gordon since 1993. They have two children. He was previously married to Sally Julian.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Hodgman was born on 3 June 1971 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Coraline (2009), Baby Mama (2008) and Arthur (2011). He has been married to Katherine Fletcher since 1999. They have two children.- Michael Tow was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor, known for Lioness (2023), Landman (2024) and Free Guy (2021).
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the original A Star Is Born (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.
A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the 29th of February in Brookline, MA, Wellman was the great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis, one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Wellman's father was a stockbroker and his mother, the former Cecilia McCarthy, was born in Ireland. Despite an upper-middle-class upbringing, the young Wellman was a hell-raiser. He excelled as an athlete and particularly enjoyed playing ice hockey, but he also enjoyed joyriding in stolen cars at nights.
Cecilia Wellman served as a probation officer for "wayward boys" (juvenile delinquents) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was such a success in her field that she was asked to address Congress on the subject of delinquency. One of her charges was her own son, as the young Bill was kicked out of school at the age of 17 for hitting his high school principal on the head with a stink bomb. He tried making a living as a candy salesman and a cotton salesman, but failed. He worked for a lumber yard but was fired after losing control of a truck and driving it through the side of a barn. Eventually he wound up playing professional ice hockey in Massachusetts. While playing at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, an actor named Douglas Fairbanks took note of him. Impressed by Wellman's good looks and the figure he cut on ice, the soon-to-be silent-film superstar suggested to him that he had what it took to become a movie actor. Wellman's dream was to become an aviator, but since his father "didn't have enough money for me to become a flier in the regular way . . .I went into a war to become a flier."
When he was 19 years old, through the intercession of his uncle, Wellman joined the air wing of the French Foreign Legion, where he learned to fly. In France he served as a pilot with the famous Lafayette Flying Corps (better known as the Lafayette Escadrille), where he won his nickname "Wild Bill" due to his devil-may-care style in the air. He and fellow pilot Tom Hitchcock, the great polo player, were in the Black Cat group. Wellman was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and injured during the landing of his plane, which had lost its tail section. Out of 222 Escadrille pilots 87 were killed, but Wellman was fated to serve out the duration of the war. In the spring of 1918 he was recruited by the US Army Air Corps, joining "because I was broke, and they were trying to get us in." Commissioned an officer, he was sent back to the US and stationed at Rockwell Field, in San Diego, CA, to teach combat fighting tactics to the new AAC pilots.
Wellman would fly up to Hollywood and land on Fairbanks' polo fields to spend the weekend. Fairbanks told the returning hero that he would help him break into the movies when the war was over, and he was as good as his word. Fairbanks envisioned Wellman as an actor and cast him as the juvenile in The Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919) and as a young officer in Evangeline (1919), but acting was something Wellman grew to hate, a hatred he later transferred to actors in his employ. He was fired by fellow macho director Raoul Walsh from "Evangeline" for slapping the lead actress, who Wellman didn't know was Walsh's wife. Disgusted with acting, Wellman told Fairbanks he wanted to be a director, and Fairbanks helped him into the production end of the business. It was a purely financial decision, he later recalled, as directors made more money than supporting actors at the time.
Goldwyn Pictures hired him as a messenger in 1920 and he soon worked his way up the ladder, first as an assistant cutter, then as an assistant property man, property man, assistant director and second-unit director before making his uncredited directorial debut later that year at Fox with Twins of Suffering Creek (1920) starring Dustin Farnum (the silent film B-Western star whom Dustin Hoffman's star-struck mother named the future double-Oscar winner after). Wellman later remembered the film as awful, along with such other B-Westerns as Cupid's Fireman (1923), starring Buck Jones, whose westerns he began directing in 1923 after serving his apprenticeship.
Fox Films gave Wellman his first directing credit in 1923 with the Buck Jones western Second Hand Love (1923) and, other than the Dustin Farnum picture The Man Who Won (1923), he turned out Jones pictures for the rest of his time at Fox. The studio fired him in 1924 after he asked for a raise after completing The Circus Cowboy (1924), another Buck Jones film. Moving to Columbia, he helmed When Husbands Flirt (1925), then went over to MGM for the slapstick comedy The Boob (1926) before landing at Famous Players-Lasky (now known as Paramount Pictures after its distribution unit), where he directed You Never Know Women (1926) and The Cat's Pajamas (1926). It was as a contract director at the now renamed Paramount-Famous Players-Lasky Corp. that he had his breakout hit, due to his flying background. Paramount entrusted its epic WW I flying epic Wings (1927) to Wellman, and the film went on to become the first Academy Award-winning best picture.
Paramount paid Wellman $250 a week to direct "Wings". He also gave himself a role as a German pilot, and flew one of the German planes that landed and rolled over. The massive production employed 3,500 soldiers, 65 pilots and 165 aircraft. It also went over budget and over schedule due to Wellman's perfectionism, and he came close to being fired more than once. The film took a year to complete, but when it was released it turned out to be one of the most financially successful silent pictures ever released and helped put Gary Cooper, whom Wellman personally cast in a small role, on the path to stardom. "Wings" and Wellman's next flying picture, The Legion of the Condemned (1928)--in which Cooper had a starring role--initiated the genre of the World War One aviation movie, which included such famous works as Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930) and Howard Hawks' The Dawn Patrol (1930). Despite his success in bringing in the first Best Picture Oscar winner, Paramount did not keep Wellman under contract.
Wellman's disdain for actors already was in full bloom by the time he wrapped "Wings". Many actors appearing in his pictures intensely disliked his method of bullying them to elicit an performance. Wellman was a "man's man" who hated male actors due to their narcissism, yet he preferred to work with them because he despised the preparation that actresses had to go through with their make-up and hairdressing before each scene. Wellman shot his films fast. The hard-drinking director usually oversaw a riotous set, in line with his own lifestyle. He married five women, including a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, before settling down with Dorothy Coonan Wellman, a former Busby Berkeley dancer. Wellman believed that Dorothy saved him from becoming a caricature of himself. She appeared as a tomboy in Wild Boys of the Road (1933), a Depression-era social commentary picture made for the progressive Warner Bros. studio (and which is a favorite of Martin Scorsese). It came two years after Wellman's masterpiece, The Public Enemy (1931), one of the great early talkies, one of the great gangster pictures and the film that made James Cagney a superstar. Scorsese says that Wellman's use of music in the film influenced his own first gangster picture, Mean Streets (1973) .
Wellman was as adept at comedy as he was at macho material, helming the original A Star Is Born (1937) (for which he won his only Oscar, for best original story) and the biting satire Nothing Sacred (1937)--both of which starred Fredric March--for producer David O. Selznick. Both movies were dissections of the fame game, as was his satire Roxie Hart (1942), which reportedly was one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films.
During World War Two Wellman continued to make outstanding films, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) and Story of G.I. Joe (1945), and after the war he turned out another war classic, Battleground (1949). In the 1950s Wellman's best later films starred John Wayne, including the influential aviation picture The High and the Mighty (1954), for which he received his third and last best director Oscar nomination. His final film hearkened back to his World War One service, Lafayette Escadrille (1958), which featured the unit in which Wellman had flown. He retired as a director after making the film, reportedly enraged at Warner Bros.' post-production tampering with a film that meant so much to him.
Other than David O. Selznick, not many people in Hollywood particularly liked the hell-raising iconoclast Wellman. Louis B. Mayer's daughter Irene Mayer Selznick, the first wife of David O. Selznick, said that Wellman was "a terror, a shoot-up-the-town fellow, trying to be a great big masculine I-don't-know-what". The Directors Guild of America in 1973 honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
William Wellman died (from leukemia) in 1975.- John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Rose Kennedy (née Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald) and Joseph P. Kennedy. John was named after his maternal grandfather, John "HoneyFitz" Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston. John was very ill as a child and was given the last rites five times, the first one being when he was a new-born. He was the second of four boys born to an Irish Catholic family with nine children: Joseph Jr., John, Robert F. Kennedy (called Bobby), and Ted Kennedy (born Edward). Because Rose made Joe and Jack (the name his family called him) wear matching clothes, they fought a lot for attention. When John was young, the family moved from Boston to New York. John went to Choate, a private school. Most of the time, though, he was too sick to attend. In the late 1930s, father Joe became the ambassador to England. He took sons John and Robert with him, as well as his wife and daughters Kathleen and Rosemary Kennedy. John went to Princeton, then Harvard, and for his senior thesis, he wrote a piece about why England refused to get into the war until late. It was published in 1940 and called "Why England Slept". His older brother Joe was a pilot during the war, and was killed when the bombs his plane was carrying exploded. Not long after that, John's sister Kathleen and her husband died in a plane crash. In the early 1950s, John ran for Congress in Massachusetts and won. He married Jacqueline Kennedy (née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier) on September 12, 1953. Their daughter, Caroline Kennedy, was born on November 27, 1957 and their son, John Kennedy Jr., was born on November 25, 1960. They also had a stillborn daughter named Arabella and a son named Patrick Bouvier, who died a few days after birth. In 1954, J.F.K. had to have back surgery and in the hospital wrote his second book, "Profiles in Courage". His father always said that his son Joe was going to be President of the U.S.; when he died in World War II, though, that task was passed on to John. He ran for president in 1960 against Richard Nixon and narrowly won. His administration had many conflicts, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis being key examples. In November 1963, he and Jackie (his wife's nickname) went on a trip to Texas. Everywhere they went there were signs saying "Jack and Jackie." On November 22, 1963, John was to give a speech in Dallas, but on his way an assassin hidden on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository opened fire at Kennedy, who was riding in an open car. Hit twice and severely wounded, Kennedy died in a local hospital at 1:00 P.M. The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was captured a short time later after shooting and killing a Dallas policeman, and was himself assassinated before he could be thoroughly interrogated, let alone tried. In just a little bit of irony, considering the death of Abraham Lincoln a century earlier, Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln (Lincoln was in Ford's Theater when he was shot). He was laid to rest on his son's third birthday.
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Carrie Aizley was born on 16 August 1964 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for For Your Consideration (2006), Best in Show (2000) and Campus Ladies (2006). She has been married to Kevin since 20 May 2000. They have two children.- Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-68), US politician, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the third son of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and wife Rose Kennedy. He studied at Harvard and at the University of Virginia University Law School, served at sea (1944-46) in World War II, was admitted to the bar (1951), and served on the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities (1957-59), when he prosecuted several top union leaders. An efficient manager of his brother John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, he was an energetic Attorney General (1961-64), notably in his dealings with civil rights problems. He became senator from New York in 1965. After winning the Californian Democratic presidential primary election, he was shot at a hotel in Los Angeles. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian-born immigrant, was sentenced to the gas chamber in 1969, but was not executed.
- Eric Menyuk was born on 5 November 1959 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor, known for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), The Babysitter (1995) and L.A. Law (1986).
- Theo Stockman is an American actor, known for playing Josh in "Bonding" on Netflix and Jacob in "WeCrashed" on Apple TV+. Other TV credits include "Law & Order: SVU," "Shades Of Blue," "Inside Amy Schumer," "The Following," "Private Practice," "Nurse Jackie," "Blue Bloods," "CSI," "30ROCK," as well as HBO's "High Maintenance" & "Olive Kitteridge". Film includes Stephen King's A Good Marriage, opposite Joan Allen.
Theo has appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair, Green Day's American Idiot, and American Psycho, as well as numerous Off-Broadway productions. - Actor
- Writer
Born in Brookline, MA, Gerald Berns grew up in Newton, MA and is a graduate of Newton South High School and the University of Rhode Island where he was a starting catcher and first baseman on the varsity baseball squad. Earning a graduate J.D. degree from Boston University, soon after Mr. Berns became a resident actor with The Boston Repertory Theatre and for 5 years appeared in over 20 stage productions, starring in the world premieres of Harry Nilsson's musical, "The Point" - creating the role of "The Rockman" - and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Player Piano" - creating the role of "Kroner". As a theatre producer in Boston, Mr. Berns produced at the Charles Playhouse a multi-week, sold-out Performance of Viveca Lindfors in her acclaimed production of "I Am A Woman." Mr. Berns has appeared in many television shows, commercials, and feature films. His character in "Beverly Hills Cop" was satirized in MAD Magazine. On stage in Los Angeles Mr. Berns was seen in "Outward Bound", a production at the Hudson Backstage, and at Ojai's Theatre 150 in "True West" by Sam Shepard. Attending the play, Mr. Shepard remarked the production "was one of the best" he had seen of his play. As regards Mr.Berns' portrayal of the character SAUL, a Hollywood producer, Mr. Shepard described it as "Good, really good." A screenwriter, Mr. Berns has had over 20 options of his screenplays and has been represented by the William Morris Agency, Paradigm, and the Irv Schechter Company . In 2015 and 2016, entering USA Film Festivals, four of his screenplays, two co-written, won over a dozen Film Festival Honors, including two years in a row Silver Awards at the Oregon International Film Awards. Most recently in 2022, Mr. Berns' first novel "Thank You, Mr. Emerson" was published on both Amazon and Kindle.- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Mike Wallace was born on 9 May 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for 60 Minutes (1968), The Sword and the Dragon (1956) and The Big Surprise (1955). He was married to Mary Yates, Lorraine Perigord, Buff Cobb and Norma Kaphan. He died on 7 April 2012 in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Ken Ober was born on 3 July 1957 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), Parenthood (1990) and Mind of Mencia (2005). He died on 15 November 2009 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Patricia Kennedy was born on 6 May 1924 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She was married to Peter Lawford. She died on 17 September 2006 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Philip Wood was born on 21 July 1895 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Our Town (1940) and Room Service (1938). He died on 3 March 1940 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Edward Moore Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on February 22, 1932. His parents were Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Kennedy. He was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. "Ted" Kennedy graduated Harvard University in 1956 and the University of Virginia Law School in 1959. He campaigned for his brother John during the latter's 1960 presidential bid. Ted was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962 and held that position until his death. As a Senator, he had served as majority whip and chaired Senate committees. His rise was hampered by the Chappaquiddick Island incident on July 18, 1969, when he accidentally drove his car off a bridge, resulting in the drowning of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. He was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident. In 1980, he unsuccessfully challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination. In May of 2008, Kennedy experienced a stroke that resulted in hi being diagnosed with brain cancer. He remained active and endorsed President Barack Obama's candidacy early-on. He died at his family compound on Cape Cod in Hyannis, Massachusetts, August 25, 2009.
- Alyssa Bresnahan was born on 29 October 1967 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress, known for 27 Dresses (2008), The Wrestler (2008) and Swallow (2019). She was previously married to James Colby.
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver was born on 10 July 1921 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She was a producer, known for Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999), Westside Special Olympics (WSO) Games (1976) and The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). She was married to Sargent Shriver. She died on 11 August 2009 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA.
- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ron Weiner was born on 8 August 1973 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for 30 Rock (2006), Silicon Valley (2014) and Futurama (1999).- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
David Maysles was born on 10 January 1931 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Grey Gardens (1975), Gimme Shelter (1970) and Salesman (1969). He died on 3 January 1987 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor/Model: Regardless of the role, Steve Tyler brings something unique to each character he plays, reflecting in his seasoned resume. Tyler has immensely enjoyed working with a vast array of talent in film, television, and theater, including Academy Award winner Peter Farrelly and the renowned Farrelly Brothers, Charlie Wessler, Bennett Yellin, Jim Carrey, Jenny Sullivan, Jason Gould, Nicole Conn, Marc Cherry, and Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black. Tyler has appeared in hundreds of TV and print campaigns worldwide, in both English and Latin markets.
Producer: Mr. Tyler has produced theatrical and political fundraisers that include some of the biggest names in Hollywood and political circles. Using his status as an established actor/activist and his coveted list of contacts that consist of media outlets, corporate sponsors, and VIPs, Tyler has served as a board member and has produced and chaired over 150 events and fundraisers. Tyler is the co-founder of the Los Angeles Playwright's Arena, a renowned non-profit theatre company that has been the recipient of numerous awards for its original productions - many of which have gone on to premiere to critical acclaim off-Broadway. From Hillary and Bill Clinton to Sir Ian McKellen and Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, Tyler has collaborated with the world's most recognizable names. His enthusiasm and dedication as a leader are prominent in his work ethic and long-standing relationships
Activist: Steve Tyler continues to be an influential force in philanthropic and political arenas. A tireless advocate, volunteer, and fundraiser focusing on equality for the LGBTQ, women's, and African American communities, at-risk abused and neglected youth, human rights, and mental health care, Tyler was a Governor's appointee to California Council for the Humanities. His philanthropy and record-setting fund-raising efforts have made him one of the top fundraisers in Los Angeles and California. Tyler serves as Board of Directors Co-Chair for the Alcott Center for Mental Health in Los Angeles. - Rosemary Kennedy was born on 13 September 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She died on 7 January 2005 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, USA.
- Jean Kennedy Smith was born on 20 February 1928 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Lincoln (2012), Jack: The Last Kennedy Film (1993) and Australian Story (1996). She was married to Stephen Smith. She died on 17 June 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Helenka Adamowska was born on 22 November 1900 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Grit (1924) and Second Fiddle (1923). She died on 5 January 1987 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Richard Morse was born on 31 May 1927 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Studio One (1948), 'Way Out (1961) and Un hecho violento (1959). He died on 21 August 2022 in Godfrey, Illinois, USA.
- Royal Beal was born on 2 June 1899 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Joe Louis Story (1953) and The United States Steel Hour (1953). He was married to Edna Bennett. He died on 20 May 1969 in Keene, New Hampshire, USA.