Taken


11:30 pm - 01:30 am, Today on Global Ottawa (6.1)

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About this Broadcast
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An ex-CIA agent turns Paris upside down when his teenage daughter is abducted by members of a sex-trade gang.

new 2008 English Dolby 5.1
Action/adventure Drama Mystery Crime Entertainment Suspense/thriller Rescue

Cast & Crew
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Liam Neeson (Actor) .. Bryan
Maggie Grace (Actor) .. Kim
Famke Janssen (Actor) .. Lenore
Xander Berkeley (Actor) .. Stuart
Katie Cassidy (Actor) .. Amanda
Olivier Rabourdin (Actor) .. Jean Claude
David Warshofsky (Actor) .. Bernie
Leland Orser (Actor) .. Sam
Jon Gries (Actor) .. Casey
Mathieu Busson (Actor) .. Undercover Agent
Holly Valance (Actor) .. Sheerah
Nicolas Giraud (Actor) .. Peter
Marc Amyot (Actor) .. Pharmacist
Arben Bajraktaraj (Actor) .. Marko
Michel Flash (Actor) .. Gio
Rubens Hyka (Actor) .. Leka
Camille Japy (Actor) .. Isabelle
Valentin Kalaj (Actor) .. Vinz
Christophe Kourotchkine (Actor) .. Gilles
Jalil Naciri (Actor) .. Ali
Anca Radici (Actor) .. Ingrid
Nathan Rippy (Actor) .. Victor
Héléna Soubeyrand (Actor) .. Girl with the Jacket
Tommy Spahija (Actor) .. Nezir
Anatole Taubman (Actor) .. Dardan
Gérard Watkins (Actor) .. Patrice St. Clair
Fani Kolarova (Actor) .. Prostitute
Goran Kostic (Actor) .. Gregor
Edwin Krüger (Actor) .. Jean-Claude's Assistant
Goran Kostić (Actor) .. Gregor
Rita Ora (Actor)

More Information
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Did You Know..
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Liam Neeson (Actor) .. Bryan
Born: June 07, 1952
Birthplace: Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Trivia: Standing a burly 6'4", Liam Neeson was once described by a theatre critic as a "towering sequoia of sex." To say that he has undeniable charisma is certainly accurate, but it is a charisma composed as much of impressive talent as of broken-nosed physical appeal. Bearing both versatility and quiet forcefulness, Neeson has been touted as one of the most compelling actors of the late 20th century.Born June 7, 1952, in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, Neeson had an upbringing partially defined by his involvement in boxing. He became active in the sport as a teenager, earning his distinctive broken nose in the process; he stayed with boxing until he began experiencing black-outs from repeated blows to the head. Initially interested in a career as a teacher, Neeson attended Belfast's Queens College, but he aborted his studies after developing a desire to act. In 1976, he joined Belfast's Lyric Theatre, and two years later he began performing the classics at Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre. While he was with the Abbey, Neeson was discovered by director John Boorman, who cast him as Gawain in 1981's Excalibur. Following his part in that action fantasy, Neeson had supporting roles in such films as The Mission (1986), and he was featured in leads opposite Cher in Suspect (1987) and Diane Keaton in The Good Mother (1988). He got his first starring vehicle in 1990 with Sam Raimi's Darkman; unfortunately, the film was a relative disappointment. Neeson continued to do starring work in such films as Big Man (1991), which featured him as a boxer, Ethan Frome (1992), and Under Suspicion (1992), but ironically, it was his work on the stage that led to his true screen breakthrough. In 1992, the actor was turning in a Tony-nominated performance in Anna Christie opposite Natasha Richardson (whom he would marry in 1994) on Broadway. His work attracted the notice of Steven Spielberg, who was so impressed with what he saw that he cast Neeson as Oskar Schindler in his landmark Holocaust drama Schindler's List (1993). Neeson received Best Actor Oscar and British Academy Award nominations for his performance, and he subsequently didn't have to worry about finding work in Hollywood, or elsewhere, again.More high-profile work followed for Neeson, who went on to star in such films as Nell (1994), Rob Roy (1995), and Michael Collins (1996). However acclaimed his previous work had been, none of it received the hype of one of Neeson's 1999 projects, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Although the film, which starred Neeson as a Jedi master, ultimately earned a galaxy's worth of negative reviews, it mined box office millions. Its success further enhanced Neeson's status as one of the world's most visible actors, and it even helped to downplay the disappointment of The Haunting, his other film that year.Neeson would enter the new millennium with a variety of projects on his to-do list, appearing in the Martin Scorsese period piece Gangs of New York in 2002, and the extremely popular romantic comedy Love Actually in 2003. The following year would find him tackling a meatier role, however, as he singed on to portray pioneering scientist and researcher on human sexuality Alfred Kinsey in the biopic Kinsey. The part would earn Neeson a Golden Globe nomination, and Neeson would follow its success with performances in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, as well as one in the blockbuster superhero reboot Batman Begins in 2005. He would also sign on to provide the voice of lion king Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia fantasy franchise.In 2008, Neeson starred in the thriller Taken, portraying a former CIA officer who employs his brutal skills learned on the job to find his kidnapped daughter. Audiences weren't accustomed to seeing the actor hold down the lead in an action film, but Neeson succeeded and the film was a categorical success. Sadly, the following year, Liam's wife actress Natasha Richardson died suddenly after suffering a severe head injury during a skiing accident. Neeson was left in care of their two children, Michael and Daniel, but was later able to resume his career. Neeson would find himself appearing in many action/adventure films over the coming years. He starred as the cigar-chomping ohn "Hannibal" Smith in the big-screen adaptation of The A-Team in 2010, and a man fleeing for his life and fighting for his identity in 2011's Unknown. The following year, Neeson played an oil driller stranded amid a pack of wolves in The Grey.
Maggie Grace (Actor) .. Kim
Born: September 21, 1983
Birthplace: Columbus, Ohio, United States
Trivia: Few performers experience a meteoric rise to fame on par with that of actress Maggie Grace. An Ohio native whose parents co-ran a jewelry business, Grace left her Columbus home amid complete obscurity, nurturing dreams of becoming an A-list actress, and within five years made that dream a reality, given her ability to test out of high school and graduate years ahead of time. With the blessing of her parents, Grace promptly moved to Los Angeles at age 16 and snagged an agent. Roles in low-medium-budgeted features and short-lived television series (FOX's Septuplets and Oliver Beene) followed, but it was her breakout turn in the blockbuster series Lost -- as the pampered, spoiled and bratty Shannon Rutherford -- that made her a superstar. From that launching pad, she transitioned to a number of features, including the supernatural horror opus The Fog (2005) (a remake of the 1980 John Carpenter film of the same name), director Robin Swicord's gentle romantic comedy The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and a leading role as the abducted daughter of an ex-soldier (Liam Neeson) in the high-adrenaline thriller Taken (2008) (a role she would reprise for 2012's Taken 2 and 2015's Taken 3). In 2011, she booked a role in another high-profile franchise, playing a vampire in the two-part The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Grace also found time for a recurring role on the series Californication, and in 2014, appeared in the ensemble dramedy About Alex.
Famke Janssen (Actor) .. Lenore
Born: November 05, 1965
Birthplace: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Trivia: A former model, Dutch-born actress Famke Janssen had her screen breakthrough as Xenia Onatopp, James Bond's (literally) man-crushing foe in GoldenEye (1995). After earning fame and a certain dose of coy notoriety for her portrayal of the character, who was endowed with the unique ability to squash potential seducers to death between her thighs, Janssen went on to prove that she was more than just the latest variety of Bond babe.Born in Holland on January 1, 1964, Janssen launched her lucrative modeling career at an early age. Moving to New York when she was barely out of her teens, she soon tired of the vacuous nature of modeling and enrolled at Columbia University, where she studied literature and creative writing. Janssen made her screen debut in the 1992 drama Fathers and Sons. Following the success of GoldenEye, the actress began finding steady screen work, appearing in such films as Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man (1998), in which she played Kenneth Branagh's ex-wife; Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), which cast her as Branagh's girlfriend; and Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty, in which Janssen's part was furthered by alien brainwashing, instead of Branagh.After closing the century with another excursion into supernatural grotesqueries in the remake of The House on Haunted Hill (1999), Janssen began the 21st century on a somewhat more heroic note, playing one of the titular group of superheroes in Bryan Singer's adaptation of the popular comic book X-Men.
Xander Berkeley (Actor) .. Stuart
Born: December 16, 1955
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Trivia: Brooklyn-born Xander Berkeley made the rounds on numerous TV shows throughout the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, not just as an actor, but as a makeup artist. The actor has put his uncanny talent in the makeup department to use on the sets of many shows, like on 24, where he designed his own makeup to depict his character's affliction with radiation sickness.Berkeley got his start in show business in the early '80s, appearing on shows like Moonlighting, The A-Team, and M*A*S*H. He went on to appear in movies, as well, like The Rock and Apollo 13, but he frequently returned to the small screen for memorable roles like George Mason, head of the Counterterrorist Unit on 24, and Sheriff Roy Atwater on CSI. In the coming years, Berkeley would continue to find success on teh small screen, on shows like Nikita.
Katie Cassidy (Actor) .. Amanda
Born: November 25, 1986
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States
Trivia: Katie Cassidy -- the daughter of onetime Partridge Family sensation and teen idol David Cassidy and fashion model Sherry Williams -- jump-started her fame not as an actress but as a teen pop star, à la Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. A trained vocalist from the age of 12, Katie teamed up with music mega-producer Joel Diamond in 2004, and released her first single that summer, banking off of her father's fame with a remake of "I Think I Love You." In 2005, Cassidy appeared in a recurring role on the popular family drama 7th Heaven as Zoe. She slid into the feature arena inauspiciously, as Kelli, one of the slasher victims in the grotesque, critically panned gorefest Black Christmas, then traveled the comedic route with supporting roles in the Adam Sandler vehicle Click (2006), the ensemble picture You Are Here (2007, as an aspiring Hollywood climber), and the Cary Elwes comedy Walk the Talk (2007). Cassidy is perhaps best known, however, for her recurring role as Ruby on Supernatural, a program about a couple of young men journeying across the country in their black Impala and fighting off evil supernatural forces. In 2008 she appeared in the box office smash Taken, and followed that up with one of the main parts in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Olivier Rabourdin (Actor) .. Jean Claude
Born: March 03, 1959
David Warshofsky (Actor) .. Bernie
Born: February 23, 1961
Birthplace: Saratoga, California
Leland Orser (Actor) .. Sam
Born: August 06, 1960
Birthplace: San Francisco, California, United States
Trivia: Became interested in acting after playing the role of Tiny Tim in a stage production of A Christmas Carol in third grade. Studied at American Conservatory Theater's Young Program. Lived in Italy and other locations in Europe while attempting to find work as an international banker. First professional acting job was in a Folgers commercial. Began appearing on TV in the early 1990s, performing in small roles on Cheers, The X-Files, NYPD Blue and Mad About You. Wrote, directed and starred in a 2010 film titled Morning opposite his wife, actress Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Jon Gries (Actor) .. Casey
Born: June 17, 1957
Mathieu Busson (Actor) .. Undercover Agent
Born: July 05, 1976
Holly Valance (Actor) .. Sheerah
Born: May 11, 1983
Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Trivia: Usually blonde and frequently bronzed, Australian-born actress/singer/pinup girl Holly Valance first caught the attention of Aussi television viewers with a regular role on the long-running soap opera Neighbours before making a bid for international stardom as a picturesque pop princess. The Melbourne native was the child of a Serbian father and an English mother, who always encouraged musical development in their children. Family played an essential role in the aspiring actress' childhood, and in between sessions of swimming on the beach and practicing Muay Thai, young Valance could frequently be found in the company of her extended family of half brothers and sisters. By the age of 12, Valance was scouted by a prolific modeling agency, and by 15, she had landed the role of feisty Felicity "Flick" Scully on Neighbours. Though she was initially hesitant to take the part, a little encouragement from her parents went a long way in launching her acting career, and she was soon one of the most popular characters on the program. After three years on the small screen, however, Valance was ready to advance to the next stage in her career. In the spring of 2002, Valance took her love of music to the next level. Her debut single, "Kiss Kiss," topped charts all across Europe, with the popular singles "Down Boy" and "Naughty Girl" following in short order. Just one year after the release of her debut album, Footprints, Valance was already preparing her sophomore release, State of Mind. Of course, Valance was still eager to expand her onscreen career, and what better way to accomplish such an ambitious feat than to relocate to Los Angeles? In 2004, she did precisely that. After honing her craft at the renowned Leslie Kahn dramatic school, she appeared in such popular stateside series as Prison Break, CSI: New York, CSI: Miami, and the hit HBO series Entourage. Although Valance had been focusing most of her acting ambitions on the small screen up to this point in her career, appearances as a kung fu fighter in DOA and a fun-loving sorority girl in Pledge This! proved that she was eager to break into features as well.
Nicolas Giraud (Actor) .. Peter
Born: November 12, 1978
Marc Amyot (Actor) .. Pharmacist
Arben Bajraktaraj (Actor) .. Marko
Born: January 29, 1973
Michel Flash (Actor) .. Gio
Rubens Hyka (Actor) .. Leka
Camille Japy (Actor) .. Isabelle
Born: September 07, 1968
Valentin Kalaj (Actor) .. Vinz
Christophe Kourotchkine (Actor) .. Gilles
Jalil Naciri (Actor) .. Ali
Anca Radici (Actor) .. Ingrid
Nathan Rippy (Actor) .. Victor
Héléna Soubeyrand (Actor) .. Girl with the Jacket
Tommy Spahija (Actor) .. Nezir
Anatole Taubman (Actor) .. Dardan
Born: December 23, 1970
Gérard Watkins (Actor) .. Patrice St. Clair
Born: July 04, 1965
Fani Kolarova (Actor) .. Prostitute
Goran Kostic (Actor) .. Gregor
Edwin Krüger (Actor) .. Jean-Claude's Assistant
Goran Kostić (Actor) .. Gregor
Rasha Bukvic (Actor)
Jamie Dornan (Actor)
Born: May 01, 1982
Birthplace: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Trivia: Mother died of pancreatic cancer when he was 16 years old. Formed the folk band Sons of Jim and the record label Doorstep Records with his college friend David Alexander. Dropped out of college to pursue a modeling career.
Dakota Johnson (Actor)
Born: October 04, 1989
Birthplace: Austin, Texas, United States
Trivia: In 1999, made her film debut in Crazy in Alabama, a comedy-drama directed by her stepfather Antonio Banderas. Was named Miss Golden Globe 2006. Her mother, Melanie Griffith, had that honour in 1975. Began her modeling career at age 18 and became the face of Mango jeans in 2009. Made Nylon magazine's 2010 list of Top 55 Faces of the Future.
Arielle Kebbel (Actor)
Born: February 19, 1985
Birthplace: Winter Park, Florida, United States
Trivia: The fair-haired, fresh-faced and photogenic Arielle Kebbel lived the dream of many an American teenage girl by traveling the direct, one-shot path from obscurity to an instantly flourishing career. Just after high school, this former victor of teen beauty pageants (and Hollywood hopeful) hit the road with her mom and undertook a cross-country journey in the family car from the Kebbels' hometown of Winter Park, FL, straight to Southern California. In no time at all (reportedly less than one week), Kebbel auditioned for a recurring guest role on the WB's series comedy drama Gilmore Girls -- and was hired immediately by series producers, thus realizing instantly her dreams of becoming a respected Tinseltown actress.In the popular Gilmore program, Kebbel portrayed Lindsay Lister, the woman who dates, then marries, then divorces small-town hunk Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki). The turn lasted from the midpoint of season three (2003) into the fall of 2004, concluding with the Foresters' estrangement. Kebbel then graduated from the small to the big screen with a series of turns in high-profile but (unfortunately) consistently schlocky and critically maligned Hollywood films. Kebbel traveled as one of the few white passengers on a "jive" purple airplane commandeered by Snoop Dogg in the neo-blaxploitation comedy Soul Plane (2004), then received second billing as one of the busty, "all-American" campers (and the child sweetheart of the lead) in 2005's direct-to-video sexploitationer American Pie Presents: Band Camp. Kebbel's profile would continue to raise throughout the 2000's, as she appeared in films like John Tucker Must Die, The Grudge 2, and on popular shows like The Vampire Diaries, and 90210.
Brant Daugherty (Actor)
Born: August 20, 1985
Birthplace: Mason, Ohio, United States
Trivia: Announced that he wanted to be an actor at the age of 3. Got his start in show business working as a production assistant. Originally auditioned for the roles of Ezra and Toby on Pretty Little Liars, but was turned down before finally landing the role of Noel. Had to take himself out of the running for a part on Days of Our Lives due to scheduling conflicts, but was later offered a different role by the show's producers.
Max Martini (Actor)
Born: December 11, 1969
Birthplace: Woodstock, New York, United States
Trivia: Born in upstate New York in 1969, actor Max Martini performed on the stage throughout college before landing small but memorable roles in the high-profile feature films Saving Private Ryan and Contact. A number of TV guest spots followed, including multiple-episode arcs on Fox's 24 and the acclaimed Canadian cop show Da Vinci's Inquest. In 2006, Martini landed a lead role opposite Dennis Haysbert on CBS's The Unit, a military drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Mamet.
Kim Basinger (Actor)
Born: December 08, 1953
Birthplace: Athens, Georgia, United States
Trivia: Kim Basinger was hardly the first successful model to head to Hollywood in hopes of a career on the big screen, but few have managed to achieve the same degree of public acclaim and professional recognition that she has earned. Born in Athens, GA, on December 8, 1953, Kim Basinger was raised in a family of entertainers; her father had been a jazz musician and her mother a dancer who was part of the "water ballet" chorus in a handful of Esther Williams musicals. Basinger's parents enrolled her in dance classes at an early age to help her overcome a strong case of shyness; in time, she discovered she enjoyed both dancing and singing, and began contemplating a career in show business. She began competing in beauty contests as a teenager, and won the Junior Miss Georgia pageant, which took her to the national competition in New York City. By this time a striking and statuesque blonde beauty, Basinger was spotted by a representative of the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and offered a contract; while she had hoped to make her mark as a cabaret singer, she wisely decided moving to the Big Apple was a step in the right direction. Before long, Basinger was earning 1,000 dollars per day through modeling jobs, and had signed on as the Breck Shampoo girl; in her spare time, she studied acting and picked up occasional singing gigs.In 1976, Basinger decided to take a more serious stab at acting, and moved to Los Angeles. Within a year, she made her television debut as a female police detective in the pilot for a short-lived crime drama entitled Dog and Cat; in 1978, she landed the starring role in the made-for-TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, appropriately playing a beautiful Southern girl who comes to Los Angeles in search of stardom. After being cast as Lorene Rogers in a TV remake of From Here to Eternity (a role she reprised in a subsequent series based upon the film), Basinger finally made her way to the big screen in the low-budget drama Hard Country. But while it (and Basinger) received good reviews, her screen career didn't take off in a big way until 1983, when she was cast opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond adventure Never Say Never Again. She also posed for a well-publicized layout in Playboy which, coinciding with the film's release, certainly didn't hurt her growing popularity.While Basinger's career took off after Never Say Never Again, and she appeared in several major hits (including The Natural, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Batman, the latter of which led to a brief romance with pop star Prince), quality roles tended to elude her. But she generally fared well with the material given to her, and shined in several smaller films, including Fool for Love and Nadine. In 1991, Basinger was cast opposite Alec Baldwin in the comedy The Marrying Man, and the two hit it off -- so much so that some accused their romance of interfering with the production. The couple rode out the negative publicity, however, and married in 1993. (It was Basinger's second marriage after divorcing Ron Britton in 1989.)The next several years were difficult for Basinger. Her decision to not appear in the film Boxing Helena after verbally committing to the project led to her being sued by the film's producers, who won an eight-million-dollar judgment against her. Although the ruling was eventually overturned on appeal, legal bills forced Basinger to declare bankruptcy. And after several undistinguished projects, the actress went three years without working, during which she and Baldwin had a child. However, Basinger's 1997 comeback in L.A. Confidential suggested her time away had been well spent; playing a high-priced call girl with a close resemblance to Veronica Lake, Basinger's assured performance won her an Oscar as best supporting actress. This triumph was followed by another three-year sabbatical, which was followed by her divorce from Baldwin and a pair of box-office flops, I Dreamed of Africa and Bless the Child. In 2002, Basinger re-teamed with L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson, and won rave reviews for her gritty performance as a troubled single mother in the acclaimed urban drama 8 Mile. A committed vegetarian, Basinger also became an outspoken animal-rights activist In her offscreen life during the '90s.In 2001 she had a very public and ugly divorce from Alec Baldwin, but her career continued with appearances in the well-reviewed drama The Door in the Floor the thriller Cellular in 2004, and the horror film While She Was Out as well as the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Informers in 2008.
Eric Johnson (Actor)
Eloise Mumford (Actor)
Born: September 24, 1986
Birthplace: Olympia, Washington, United States
Trivia: Landed a recurring role on Crash, the TV spin-off of the Oscar-winning movie. Guest starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Mercy. Described her character Lindsay on Lone Star as a "sweet, down-to-earth homegirl. She's the apple-pie, backyard-barbecue spectrum of the American dream."
Rita Ora (Actor)
Born: November 26, 1990
Birthplace: Pristina, Kosovo, Yugoslavia
Trivia: Family fled Yugoslavia for the United Kingdom when she was 1. In 2007, sang on Craig David's song "Awkward" and worked with him again on "Where's Your Love" in 2008. Auditioned for the BBC's Eurovision - Your Country Needs You in 2009. Signed a record deal with Roc Nation in December 2009; later that year, appeared on Jay-Z's video "Young Forever and Drake's "Over". Her single, with DJ Fresh, "Hot Right Now" reached number 1 in the Official UK Singles Chart. Released her debut album, Ora, in 2012; it reached the top of the UK Album Charts in August 2012.
Luke Grimes (Actor)
Born: January 21, 1984
Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio, United States
Trivia: Grew up in a devoutly religious family in Dayton, OH, where his father is a Pentecostal minister; learned to play the drums in church. One of first auditions in Hollywood was for the title role in the 2005 CBS biopic Elvis, which ultimately went to Jonathan Rhys Meyers. In 2007, started playing drums for the rock band Mitchells Folly, who released their debut album, Whirlwind, in 2008. At the 2008 Breckenridge Festival of Film, shared a Best Supporting Actor Award with costar Dan McCabe for War Eagle, Arkansas. His competition for the buzzed-about role of Ryan Lafferty on ABC's Brothers & Sisters included actors Jason Ritter and Scott Porter.
Victor Rasuk (Actor)
Born: January 15, 1984
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Trivia: In a role that seemed tailor-made for him thanks to the Dominican-American ties between the character and actor, thespian Victor Rasuk arrived onscreen sounding a graceful, soulful, and multilayered note, with a stunning lead portrayal in the coming-of-age romance Raising Victor Vargas (2002). As directed by Peter Sollett (Five Feet High and Rising), this sweet, finely-observed fable told of a young man's successful attempts to court a local Hispanic beauty -- and the lessons learned by each over the course of their relationship -- won the hearts of critics and audiences around the world. Unsurprisingly, this project foreshadowed the career accomplishments that lay ahead for Rasuk, on two levels: he consistently received respectable billing and consistently chose interesting, unpredictable work. His resumé through the late 2000s includes supporting roles in such pictures as Lords of Dogtown (2005), I'm Reed Fish (2006), and Adrift in Manhattan (2007).
Fay Masterson (Actor)
Amy Price-Francis (Actor)
Born: September 16, 1975
Birthplace: England
John Emmet Tracy (Actor)
Born: July 02, 1969
Hiro Kanagawa (Actor)
Kirsten Alter (Actor)
Marcia Gay Harden (Actor)
Born: August 14, 1959
Birthplace: La Jolla, California, United States
Trivia: Often noted for her striking feature debut as a gun-toting seductress in the Coen brothers' noirish gangster crime thriller Miller's Crossing (1990), Marcia Gay Harden has since bounced between disparaging disappointment and critical prosperity, and is commonly praised for her chameleon-like ability to immerse herself in characters that are often the polar opposite of the cheerfully optimistic actress.Born in La Jolla, CA, on August 14, 1959, as the third of five children in a military family, Harden's clan moved constantly. Her passion for drama sparked by a period that the family spent in Greece (when she attended Athenian plays), Harden studied drama in college, earning a B.A. in theater from the University of Texas, and an M.F.A. in theater from New York University. After graduation, Harden continued to hone her acting talents on stage in Washington, D.C. Immediately evincing an innate ability to portray a wide range of characterizations, Harden earned two Helen Hayes Award nominations - one for her role in Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and one for her role in The Miss Firecracker Contest. Angels in America brought Harden to Broadway, where she found further success in earning both Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations, as well as winning the Theater World Award for Best Actress. Though she had made an impressive screen debut in Miller's Crossing, disappointment soon followed with a slew of critically shunned successes mixed with a series of creative misfires. Though discouraged in the critics' failure to recognize what Harden considered to be some of her best work, Harden began to focus less on Hollywood validation for happiness, and instead shifted her attention to refining her acting abilities. Moving from quirky dramatic roles, such as her manipulative character in Crush (1992), to quiet dramas like 1996's The Spitfire Grill, and such mainstream efforts as The First Wives Club (also 1996) and Meet Joe Black (1998), Harden felt comfortable in a wide variety of roles. She also occasionally compromised on her choice of material during this period (perhaps out of necessity) - such as the dumb-dumb comedy Spy Hard, with Leslie Nielsen, and the 1997 Absent Minded Professor rehash Flubber (starring Robin Williams).But her fortunes began to turn with a supporting role in Ed Harris' long-anticipated Jackson Pollock biopic Pollock (2000) that finally brought the actress much-deserved, mainstream critical recognition for her work. Reunited with Harris from their pairing in an earlier stage production of Sam Shepard's Simpatico, Harden's role as Pollock's dysfunctional muse earned her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 2000 Academy Awards. The dawning years of the new millennium were undeniably kind to the tireless actress, and after a trio of made-for-television movies in the year 2000 Harden essayed the role of a stylish but enigmatic catalyst to a mystery with decidedly comic undertones in Susan Seidelman's Gaudi Afternoon, and portrayed the NASA engineer love interest of Tommy Lee Jones's crop duster, Hawk, in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys; Harden and Eastwood forged a strong professional bond and would work together again, several years later.A brief foray into sitcom territory followed soon thereafter, when Harden co-starred with Richard Dreyfuss in shortlived television series The Education of Max Bickford (2001), and the following year, she stuck to the small screen for the mini-series Guilty Hearts and the made-for-television feature King of Texas (the latter earning her a a Golden Sattelite nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Made for Television). An adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear set in the Old West, King of Texas found Harden essaying the role of cattle-baron John Lear's (Patrick Stewart) eldest daughter. Equally busy in 2003, Harden abandoned the small screen to work with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Hollywood. Following her second onscreen assignment for Clint Eastwood - in his deeply flawed but commendable ensemble piece Mystic River - Harden essayed the role of a mother attempting to adopt a South American girl in longtime indie filmmaker John Sayles' Casa de Los Babys and provided a key supporting performance in Mike Newell's Mona Lisa Smile. She contributed to the disappointing (and eminently forgettable) Gene Hackman/Ray Romano onscreen pairing Welcome to Mooseport (as president Hackman's campaign manager) but fared better by joining the cast of Richard Linklater's remake The Bad News Bears, starring Billy Bob Thornton (Harden plays the mom who brings Thornton's slovenly Morris Buttermaker in to coach the team). After relatively limited work throughout 2005 - including a small-scale voiceover assignment as Willa Cather in Joel Geyer's Willa Cather: the Road is All and Mrs. Merriman in the heartwarming family drama Felicity: An American Girl Adventure - Harden's activity crescendoed over the course of 2006, with appearances in no less than three A-list features. These entailed work in multiple genres, and suggested a broad array of fun and challenging characterizations. In Lasse Hallstrom's late 2006 docudrama The Hoax, Harden plays Edith Irving, the wife of scam artist Clifford Irving (portrayed by Richard Gere) during his notorious early-1970s scheme to forge an autobiography of the late Howard Hughes. In Paul Weitz's American Dreams, she plays yet another matron - this time the wife of American president Dennis Quaid, as the generally clueless fellow (!) is sent on a nationally-broadcast talent program. And Harden joins the celebrity-studded ensemble of the more conventional Dead Girl - a murder mystery directed by Karen Moncrieff, whose cast members include Harden, Giovanni Ribisi, Brittany Murphy, Piper Laurie, Josh Brolin, and Mary Steenburgen. The plot recalls Ray Lawrence's Lantana, in its investigation of several seemingly-unrelated lives that intersect in unforeseen ways as the mystery surrounding a woman's death is gradually disclosed to the characters and audience. In 2007 she acted in both The Hoax and Sean Penn's Into the Wild. She joined the cast of the hit show Damages in the second season. In 2009 she played a concerned mother in the roller derby comedy Whip It, and played a harried school administrator in Detachment for director Tony Kaye in 2011.Offscreen, Harden married property master and occasional location scout Thaddaeus Scheel (Boys on the Side, Houseguest, The Spitfire Grill) in 1996. The couple has three children.
Ashleigh Lathrop (Actor)
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Trivia: Has 10 siblings.Most of her life she wanted to be a doctor, until she saw Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses.Spent a 10-week-residency at The School at Steppenwolf after graduating college.Was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Non-Equity Award for Supporting Actress for her role in Motortown at the Steep Theatre in 2014, and was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Non-Equity Award for Best Actress for her role as Darlene in Balm in Gilead at the Griffin Theatre in 2015.Has worked in theater, film and television.Supports NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness.

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