Idris Elba

Idris Elba

Name: Idrissa Akuna Elba
DOB: Sept. 6, 1972
Where: Hackney, London, England
Years Active: Actor, hip hop artist
Occupation:1995-present
Website: http://www.dris.com

-English actor of TV, film, theatre
-Grew up in Canning Town, East London
-DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis/Big Driis the Londoner.
-In 2009, he appeared on an episode of the American sitcom The Office, playing Charles Miner, Michael Scott's new boss.
-Recently, he took the role of Det. John Luther in the BBC show Luther.

Early Life
-Shortened his first name at school in Canning Town, where he first got into acting. His father is Sierra Leonean and his mother is Ghanian.
-Grew up in East Ham, and began helping his uncle with a wedding DJ business in 1986. Left school in 1988 and won a place in the National Youth Music Theatre- thanks to a grant.
-After this, he began working the night shift at a Ford factory in Dagenham from 1989-1990

Career
-In 1995, landed his first role on a series called Bramwell, a medical drama set in 1890s England. In 1995, had a supporting role as a gigolo on an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, entitled "Sex". Alot of the roles he got were on British TV shows.

-Moved to New York City in 1999. Returned to England occasionally for a job, such as one in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries, a crime series. In 2001, he landed a starring role on an episode of Law and Order.
-He appeared as the role of Charlie Gotso in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency opposite Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose.

-In the Tyler Perry movie Daddy's Little Girls, he played Monty, a working class mechanic who falls in love with an attorney(Gabrielle Union), who is helping him to gain custody of his kids, and finds this relationship threatened by the arrival of his ex-wife.

-He later starred in Obsessed(2009), opposite Beyonce Knowles. He played an asset manager with a beautiful wife(Beyonce) and booming career until a seductive temp worker(Ali Larter) begins stalking him.

Personal Life
-Currently single
-He and ex-wife Kim Elba have one daughter
-Spends much of his time in London, but owns a house in Atlanta, so he can be close to his daughter
-Fan of Arsenal F.C. while his dad supports Manchester United
-In the April 2004 issue of Essence Magazine, he was voted one of the "Ten Hottest Men on the Planet".
-In the May 2007 issue of People Magazine, he was voted as one of the 100 Most Beautiful People in the World

Filmography

Readmore..

The Sopranos

For some reason, I like watching this show. Man, I've been hangin' around my mom and stepdad way too long, they both watch this. They had this exact same picture down in their basement, but they stopped watching the show because they said they "outgrew" it, and now, it's hanging in my room, weird.

The Sopranos

-1999-2007
-American TV drama that premiered in 1999
-Revolves around the New Jersey-based fictional Italian American mobster Tony Soprano(James Gandolfini) and the problems he faces as he tries to balance the life of the Mafia and homelife.
-The show also features his Mafia associates in roles and storylines, most noted his wife Carmela(Edie Falco), cousin and protege Christopher Moltisanti(Michael Imperioli). Tony talks about these problems to a shrink named Dr. Jennifer Melfi(Lorraine Bracco)
-Premiered on Jan. 10, 1999

-This show is considered a staple of 2000s American pop culture, and has spawned a video game, been the topic of parodies, controversy and merchandise.

-Many of the actors on the show were virtual unknowns but have gone on to successful careers because of this show, such as Michael Imperioli, who has appeared on Law and Order as Det. Nick Falco and most recently, as Det. Len Fenerman in The Lovely Bones.
-This show is partly inspired by the DeCavalcante Family, who rose to prominence in the New Jersey area where Chase grew up. Apparenty Chase was inspired by gangster flicks like The Untouchables, and was inspired by the Mafia and organized crime from a very early age.

Casting
-Many of the actors on the show are Italian American just like their characters. Many of them had appeared together in films and TV before joining the cast. The show shares a total of 27 actors with the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas, including main cast Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Tony Sirico. 8 of the Sopranos actors have also appeared in the 1999 comedy Mickey Blue Eyes.

-Michael Imperioli, according to TV producer David Chase, who is also Italian American because his family name is DeCesare, said that Imperioli beat out other actors who auditioned. James Gandolfini auditioned after someone seen the performance he gave in True Romance. Lorraine Bracco was asked to play Carmela Soprano after being seen playing Karen Hill in Goodfellas. So she got the role of highly educated psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi, she said it would be a challenge for her. Tony Sirico, who does actually have a criminal background, signed on to play Paulie Walnuts, as long as his character was not a "rat". Springsteen guitarist "Little Steven" Van Zandt(known as part of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band) got to audition for the role of mob consigliere Silvio Dante. He was asked to audition after being seen performing at the 1997 Rocka and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Van Zandt had never acted before, and his real life spouse Maureen was cast as Silvio's wife, Gabriella.

-Several well known actors also appeared in a few episodes, like Charles S. Dutton, Ken Leung, Lauren Bacall, Tim Kang, Burt Young, Annette Bening.

Music
-The show is known for it's use of previously recorded songs. Steven Van Zandt also helped out with music too, considering he's a musician.
-The show's opening theme, "Woke Up This Morning" was written by, remixed and performed by British band Alabama 3. And throughout episodes, songs may be played multiple times, such as "Living on a Thin Line" by The Kinks, is season 3, episode "University", "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison in season 5 finale "All Due Respect".

Sets, Locations
-The majority of the filming takes place in New Jersey. The other places, like the Soprano residence, alot of interior shots, the back room of the strip club The Bada Bing! and Dr. Melfi's office- are all filmed at Silvercup Studios in New York City
-The Italian deli, a frequent hangout of the mobsters, was in the pilot, known as Centanni's Meat Market, was an actual butcher shop in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The studio leased a building with a store front in Kearny, New Jersey and this served as the deli store, Satriale's. The building was demolished after the series ended.
-The Bada Bing!, a fictional strip club owned and operated by Silvo Dante, is an actual strip club on Route 17, in Lodi, New Jersey. Exteriors and interiors, except for the back room, were shot on location. The club is really called Satin Dolls. The owner of the real club, Mark Kamine, said that they could film on location as long as shooting did not "conflict with his business time."
-The Italian restaurant Vesuvio's, was filmed at a restaurant called Manolo's in Elizabeth.
-In the title sequence, Tony Soprano is seen leaving the Lincoln Tunnel and entering the New Jersey Turnpike. The show features numerous New Jersey landmarks

Characters
James Gandolfini- Tony Soprano

Lorraine Bracco- Carmela Soprano

Michael Imperioli- Christopher Moltisanti

[Insert little hearts, lmao]

Dominic Chianese- Corrado Soprano Jr. aka Uncle Junior

Vincent Pastore- Sal "Big Pusy" Bonpensiero

Steven Van Zant- Silvio Dante

Tony Sirico- Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri

Robert Iler- Anthony Soprano Jr.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler- Meadow Soprano

Drea de Matteo- Adriana La Cerva

Aida Turturro- Janice Soprano

Steven R. Schirripa- Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri
Nancy Marchand- Livia Soprano
Federico Castelluccio- Furio Giunta

HOTTIE! HOTTIE! HOTTIE!! What a hot hunk of Italian man!!!

Joseph R. Gannascoli- Vito Spatafore

Episodes

Controversy
-The show has been attacked numerous times for showing negative stereotypes about Italian Americans being associated with the Mafia

Readmore..

Mickey Blue Eyes

Mickey Blue Eyes

-1999 film directed by Kelly Makin.
-Hugh Grant stars as an English auctioneer named Michael Felgate who becomes involved in his soon to be father in law's Mafia world. Several of the actors in the movie are featured as cast members on The Sopranos

Did You Know?
-When Vincent Pastore showed up late one day, Caan asked angrily why. Pastore realized another film he was doing ran late, and when Caan realized he was doing 2 films at once, he backed off.
-The theme music is recycled from the 1990s British TV show Jeeves and Wooster
-In the movie, James Caan nicknamed Hugh Grant "Whippy", after the Whippet, an English breed of dog that is small and shivers a lot.
-More than half of the cast also appears on the Sopranos.

Plot
-Michael Felgate(Hugh Grant) is a British auctioneer who proposes to his girlfriend Gina Vitale(Jeanne Tripplehorn), and he is shocked when she turns him down. Gina later explains that her father Frank(James Caan) and most of her cousins and uncles are gangsters involved in a Mafia family. She is worried that he'll become involved, and he does. He manages to get involved in a money laundering scheme that has the FBI looking his way.

-When one of the money laundering scams at Michael's auction house goes awry, Gina's cousin Johnny(John Ventimiglia) confronts and assaults Michael. Gina fires a warning shot into the ceiling which ricochets and kills Johnny. When his father Vito finds out, he tells Frank he will kill Gina unless Frank kills Michael during his wedding speech. Unable to carry this out, Frank confesses what Vito has ordered him to do and Michael and the two of them turn to the FBI for help. They set up an operation in which Michael's murder is faked at the wedding reception. He is given a recording device and is given the job of trying to record Vito into admitting his activity on tape before he is "killed".

-Michael's plan fails, and when Vito realizes that his murder is a fake, he orders Vinnie(Joe Viterelli) to kill Michael. Vinnie shoots Gina in what looks like an accident. Vito is arrested for ordering the murder of Michael. As Frank and Michael mourn Gina's "death" in the back of the ambulance, her death was faked. Vinnie and Gina were involved in the FBI sting. The film's title comes from Michael being forced to impersonate a gangster, who Frank kindly nicknames "Kansas City Little Mickey Blue Eyes." And towards the end of the film, Frank is trying to show Michael the ropes of being a gangster, which is hard for Michael, because he has an English accent and Frank is showing him how to say things like "Forget about it."

Cast

• Hugh Grant as Michael Felgate
• James Caan as Frank Vitale
• Jeanne Tripplehorn as Gina Vitale
• Burt Young as Vito Graziosi
• James Fox as Philip Cromwell
• Joe Viterelli as Vinnie D'Agostino
• Gerry Becker as FBI Agent Bob Connell
• Maddie Corman as Carol
• Tony Darrow as Angelo
• Paul Lazar as Ritchie Vitale
• Vincent Pastore as Al
• Frank Pellegrino as Sante
• Scott Thompson as FBI Agent Lewis
• John Ventimiglia as Johnny Graziosi
• Margaret Devine as Helen, Michael's assistant

Readmore..

David Thewlis

David Thewlis

Name: David Wheeler
DOB: March 20, 1963
Where: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Occupation: actor, author, director, screenwriter
Years Active: 1987-present
Partner: Anna Friel(2001-2010, 1 child)

-English actor of stage and screen
-Most successful role to date was that of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series
-Other roles include: Kingdom of Heaven(2005), James and the Giant Peach(1996)

Early Life
-2nd of 3 children born to Maureen Thewlis and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his father's shop, which sold toys in summer, wallpaper and paint in winter
-Enrolled in Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Graduated in 1984. Wanted to use 'David Wheeler' as his stage name, but it was taken, so he used his mother's maiden name Thewlis instead

Career
-First acting role: play called Buddy Holly at the Regal
-Through the 1990s, he appeared in a variety of movies, mostly fantasy anf period, such as Restoration(1995), Black Beauty(1994), Dragonheart(1996), Seven Years in Tibet(1997)
-In the movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, he played an SS Commandant in the Nazi death camp.

Personal Life
-In 2001, began a relationship with actress Anna Friel. They have one daughter, Gracie Ellen May Friel.

Filmography

Readmore..

The Green Mile

The Green Mile
One of my favorite movies ever!

I'm currently reading the book for this.

-1999 American drama directed by Frank Darabont
-Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King
-Told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecombe, Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.
-Tells the story of Paul Edgecombe and his life as a supervisor on the death row during the Great Depression and the supernatural events that he was able to witness

Did You Know?
-The music old Paul Edgecombe hears in the nursing home is the same music the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
-When Melinda Moores is visited by Coffey, she gives him a St. Christopher medal. According to Catholicism, St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and like Coffey, died a martyr.
-Doug Hutchinson, who played Percy Wetmore, was actually 39 years old, instead of being 21 like the character in the book.
-When Paul and John go outside, John looks up and says "Look Boss, it's Cassie, the lady in the rocking chair". This is a reference to the constellation Cassiopeia

Plot
-In a Louisiana nursing home in 1999, Paul Edgecombe(Dabbs Greer) begins to cry while watching Top Hat. His elderly friend, Elaine Connolly, shows concern for him and Paul tells her that the film reminded him of when he was a corrections officer in charge of Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the summer of 1935. The cell block Paul(Tom Hanks) worked in was called "The Green Mile" because of the color of the floor's linoleum. Condemned prisoners would walk this floor, nicknamed "The Last Mile" by the guards because it was their last mile before their execution.

-One day, John Coffey(Michael Clarke Duncan), a giant of a black man, 6'8'', is convicted of raping and murdering 2 small white girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick. He shows all the signs of being a gentle giant; keeping to himself, soft spoken, fearing darkness, and crying often. Soon enough, John reveals unusual powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and bringing a mouse back to life. Later on, he would reveal that he would heal the terminally ill wife of the prison warden, Hal Moore(James Cromwell).

-At the same time, Percy  Wetmore(Doug Hutchinson), is a sadistic guard who enjoys bothering the prisoners. The only thing that is keeping him there is he "knows people, big people". He is the nephew of the governor's wife. Percy recognizes that the other officers greatly hate him and uses that to demand to be "put out", meaning front line position, on the next execution. After that, he promises that he will have himself transferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. A deal is made. But then when it comes time for the execution of Eduard Delacroix(Michael Jeter), Percy sabotages it. He is supposed to soak the sponge that goes inside the electrode cap for a quick death in brine to conduct it better. But he does not soak the sponge, and this causes Del to catch fire and die in great, slow pain

-Before Del's execution, a violent prisoner named William "Wild Bill" Wharton(Sam Rockwell) arrives, due to be executed for multiple murders committed during a robbery. At one point, he grabs John's arm and John physically senses that Wharton was the one who raped and killed the 2 girls, the crime John was accused of. John "takes back" the sickness in Hal Moore's wife Melinda and puts it into Percy, who goes mad and shoots Wild Bill to death in his cell, after which, Percy falls into a coma like state. He is tranferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. In the aftermath of these events, Paul talks to John, who says he "punished them bad men" and offers to show Paul what he saw. John takes Paul's hand stating he has to give Paul "a part of himself" in order to see what really happened

-Paul asks John what he should do, if he should open the door and let John walk. John tells him that he is ready to die because the world has too much pain in it and he is "rightly tired of the pain." As the last request he makes, John watches Top Hat. When John is put into the electric chair, he asks Paul not to put the traditional black hood on, as he is afraid of the dark. Paul agrees, shakes his hand, and John dies.

-As Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Elaine questions his statement that he had a fully grown son at the time and Paul explains that he was 44 years old at the time of John's death and that he is now 108 years old and still in excellent health. This apparently had a side effect of John giving a "part of himself"  to Paul. Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse brought back by John is also still alive. Paul believes his outliving all of his friends and relatives is to be a punishment from God for having John electrocuted. Paul explains he has deep thoughts about how "we each owe a death; there are no exceptions; but, Oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long." Paul is left wondering if Mr. Jingles has remained living, and wonders how long it would be until Mr. Jingles death.

Cast
-Tom Hanks: Paul Edgecombe
-Michael Clarke Duncan: John Coffey
-Bonnie Hunt: Janice Edgecombe
-David Morse: Brutus "Brutal" Howell
-Doug Hutchinson: Percy Wetmore
-Sam Rockwell: William "Wild Bill" Wharton
-Michael Jeter: Eduard "Del" Delacroix
-James Cromwell: Warden Hal Moores
-Patricia Clarkson: Melinda Moores
-Barry Pepper: Dean Stanton
-Jeffrey DeMunn: Harry Terwilliger
-Harry Dean Stanton: Toot-Toot
-Dabbs Greer: Old Paul Edgecombe
-Gary Sinise: Burt Hammersmith
-Graham Greene: Arlen Bitterbuck
-William Sadler: Klaus Detterick
-Bill McKinney: Jack Van Hay

Readmore..