Online movies rent: Most popular directors and actors
Groucho Marx
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About: The heavy-browed, cigar-wielding comic genius known as Groucho Marx was born Julius Henry Marx on Oct. 2, 1890, in New York City. It was his mother, Minnie Schoenberg -- who came from a famous vaudeville family -- who launched Groucho and his brothers Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo into show biz.The Marx Brothers made their first film, The Cocoanuts, in 1929, a result of their stage success. In the '30s, they made a series of outrageous comedies that became classics: Animal Crackers, Monkey Busin... Link: Groucho Marx |
Brenda Blethyn
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About: By the time Brenda Blethyn wowed moviegoers with her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a mother getting to know the daughter she gave up in Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996), she'd already been a working actress for more than two decades. But that was on stage: Now, Blethyn would begin a whole new phase of her career -- one that included another Oscar nod (for Little Voice) and a string of successful films.One of nine children, Blethyn was born Feb. 20, 1946, in Ramsgate, England. After working as a... Link: Brenda Blethyn |
Alfred Molina
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About: Born in London on May 24, 1953, to a Spanish father and an Italian mother, Alfred Molina honed his acting skills in the Royal Shakespeare Company before debuting on the silver screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and getting his big break in Letter to Brezhnev (1986).Endlessly adaptable, Molina went on to play roles of far-ranging ethnic diversity, including an Iranian in Not Without My Daughter (1991), a Cuban in The Perez Family (1995) and a Mexican (famed painter Diego Rivera) in the biop... Link: Alfred Molina |
Christopher Walken
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About: Possessing a reptilian charm and famed for his quirky behavior, Christopher Walken is unlike any other star in Hollywood. Born March 31, 1943, and raised in Queens, N.Y., Walken began his career as a catalog model, but later trained hard as a dancer and even worked a short stint as a circus lion tamer.After appearing in several New York theatre productions, including the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1966, Walken made his film debut in 1968 with a bit part in Me and My Brother. Oscillating be... Link: Christopher Walken |
Naomi Watts
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About: Although born in Shoreham, England (September 28, 1968), Naomi Watts was raised in Australia, where she made her screen debut in 1989's Flirting, alongside Thandie Newton and longtime friend Nicole Kidman.After relocating to Hollywood, her first film appearances made little impact (except for her turn as Lori Petty's pal in the minor cult item Tank Girl). It was a breakthrough dual-role performance in David Lynch's strange-even-for-him surreal mystery Mulholland Drive (2001) that earned Watts nu... Link: Naomi Watts |
Jodie Foster
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About: Born November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, Calif., Jodie Foster landed her first acting job as an adorable tyke in a Coppertone commercial. She soon became a television mainstay, starring in shows such as "My Three Sons," "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" and "The Partridge Family."Her breakthrough role came in Martin Scorsese's gritty Taxi Driver, in which she played a 12-year-old prostitute and for which she won many industry accolades. She also attended Yale University, where she graduated magna... Link: Jodie Foster |
David Arquette
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About: On Sept. 8, 1971, in Winchester, Va., David Arquette was born into an acting family that included his showbiz siblings Rosanna, Patricia, Richmond and Alexis. His professional career began in 1990 with a role on the short-lived TV series "The Outsiders."Arquette made his film debut as Luke Perry's pal turned vampire in the 1992 film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Airheads and Wild Bill followed, but it was another comic horror film, 1996's Scream, that would make Arquette a star. Preview a... Link: David Arquette |
Tim Blake Nelson
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About: Moving effortlessly between stage and screen writing, directing, acting and even singing (witness his performance as one of the Soggy Bottom Boys in O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Tim Blake Nelson is a Renaissance man when it comes to the performing arts. Born May 11, 1964, in Tulsa, Okla., Nelson studied classics at Brown University before shifting his attention to theater.By the early 1990s, Nelson was landing small but meaty roles in films such as This Is My Life (Nora Ephron's directing debut)... Link: Tim Blake Nelson |
Emily Mortimer
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About: Born Dec. 1, 1971, London native Emily Mortimer -- daughter of John Mortimer, who penned the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series -- caught the acting bug after appearing in several plays while attending college. One of those performances caught the eye of a TV producer, and it wasn't long before the young actress started popping up on British television.In 1996, Mortimer made her silver screen debut playing Val Kilmer's wife in The Ghost and the Darkness, and she gained international exposure in 1998... Link: Emily Mortimer |
Lindsay Lohan
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About: The "It" girl of 2004 -- the daughter of a Wall Street trader and a Radio City Rockette -- was born in New York City on July 2, 1986. Lohan was modeling and appearing in television commercials from age 3, and at age 10 she appeared on the daytime soap "Another World."Writer Nancy Meyers handpicked Lohan for the dual-role lead in Disney's big-screen 1998 remake of their 1961 classic, The Parent Trap. Lohan landed some "Best Newcomer" awards as a result and did two TV movies for Disney. She also l... Link: Lindsay Lohan |