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Anil Kapoor

Anil Kapoor, is a prominent Indian film actor and producer. He first won acclaim for his roles in Yash Chopra’s drama Mashaal (1984) and Shekhar Kapur’s sci-fi Mr. India (1987), and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in the former.

After a series of successful films, Kapoor earned his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in N. Chandra’s Tezaab in 1988, and later for Indra Kumar’s Beta in 1992. Since then, he has starred in a number of critical and commercial successes, including Virasat (1997), for which he won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance; Biwi No.1 (1999); Taal (1999), for which he won his second Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award; Pukar (2000), for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor; and No Entry (2005). Kapoor has thus established himself as one of the most successful and popular actors of Hindi cinema.

His first role in an international film was as Prem Kumar in Danny Boyle’s Golden Globe and Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008), for which Kapoor won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and received a nomination for Best Ensemble at the Black Reel Awards of 2008.

Anil Kapoor was born on December 24, 1956, in a chawl in Tilak Nagar, Mumbai, India, to a film producer Surinder Kapoor and Nirmal Kapoor. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School, Chembur. Coming from a film-oriented family, Kapoor’s elder brother, Boney Kapoor, is a producer while younger brother Sanjay Kapoor is also a well known Bollywood actor, though not as successful.

In 1984, he married Sunita Kapoor and had two daughters and a son. Kapoor’s elder daughter is the actress Sonam Kapoor. As of 2008, his other daughter, Rhea, is studying in New York while his son Harsh is still in school.

He is the brother-in-law of the actress Sridevi with whom he has starred in many films. Recently he acted in a movie called Slumdog Millionaire which won 8 academy awards.

Kapoor made his Bollywood debut with Umesh Mehra’s Hamare Tumhare (1979) in a supporting role. After a few minor roles in films such as Hum Paanch (1980) and Shakti (1982), he got his first leading role in the 1983 Hindi film, Woh Saat Din. Kapoor later tried acting in Tollywood and Kollywood, and appeared in the Telugu film Vamsa Vriksham and Mani Ratnam’s Kannada debut film Pallavi Anu Pallavi.

Next, followed a critically acclaimed performance in Yash Chopra’s drama Mashaal (1984), for which he won his first Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actor category. Going on to deliver commercial success with films like Meri Jung (1985) and Karma (1986), Kapoor won acclaim for his title role in Shekhar Kapur’s sci-fi film Mr. India (1987). The film became one of his biggest box office hits and shot him to superstar status.

In 1988, he was rewarded with his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in the hit film, Tezaab. The following year he delivered more commercial success with Ram Lakhan, Parinda and Rakhwala. The year 1990, saw him play a dual role, as twin brothers in the successful Kishen Kanhaiya. Anil Kapoor won critical acclaim for his performance in Eeshwar, co-starring Vijaya Shanti. With these successes, Anil Kapoor was widely acknowledged as the industry’s biggest star at the time. This was followed by a critically acclaimed performance as a middle aged man in Yash Chopra’s romantic drama Lamhe. Although the film was a box office failure in India, it proved to be a success overseas.

In 1992, Kapoor received his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Indra Kumar’s Beta opposite Madhuri Dixit. In 1993, Boney Kapoor’s much delayed mega-budget Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja was a disaster at box office and damaged Anil Kapoor’s reputation as the industry biggest star at the time. The only major success in these years was Laadla with Sridevi, a film also produced by Boney Kapoor.

After a period of little box office success, he had box office success with films like Judaai (1997), Deewana Mastana (1997), Biwi No.1 (1999), Loafer (1996), Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain (1999) and Taal (1999).. He also won critical acclaim for his strong performance in Virasat, a remake of Tamil film in which Kamal Hasan had played Anil Kapoor’s role.

The great showman director Subash Ghai has said in a TV show that Anil Kapoor is the only actor which always give full sactisfaction in his films. They have worked in more than 5 films.

He won his first National Film Award in the Best Actor category for his role in Rajkumar Santoshi’s critically acclaimed Pukar in 2000. Following films from 2001 to 2004 failed to do well but Kapoor won acclaim for his role in the thriller My Wife’s Murder (2005), which he also produced. Anees Bazmee’s super-hit comedy No Entry followed for Kapoor that year. The film became the highest grossing film of the year and Kapoor’s comic-timing was applauded.

Kapoor’s most recent films, Anees Bazmee’s Welcome, which released on December 21, 2007, did very well at the box office. His first 2008 release Abbas Mustan’s thriller Race became a box office hit too. But Vijay Krishna Acharya’s Tashan, which marked Anil’s comeback to Yash Raj Films failed to do well at the box office. His most recent films were his first English-language film Slumdog Millionaire, which released on 12 November 2008, and Yuvvraaj, which released on 21 November 2008. Yuvvraaj, with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles, has failed to do well at the box office. On the other hand, Slumdog Millionaire has won a number of international awards and received rave reviews from critics across the globe, costing only US $15 million to produce, but pulling in more than $40 million in the first three months of opening. In January 2009, he attended the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony along with the team of Slumdog Millionaire, which won four Golden Globe Awards. Kapoor also received a nomination for Best Ensemble at the Black Reel Awards of 2008 and has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2002, Kapoor produced his first film, the comedy Badhaai Ho Badhaai, in which he also starred in, but the film failed to do well. Next followed, the critically acclaimed thriller My Wife’s Murder (2005), which also didn’t do well at the box office. His next produced film, Gandhi, My Father, which focuses on the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his son Harilal Gandhi released on August 3, 2007. Despite being acclaimed by critics and audiences, the film failed to do well.

Kapoor is currently producing the film, Shortcut - The Con Is On.

Kate Elizabeth Winslet

Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress and occasional singer. She is noted for having played diverse characters over her career, but probably best-known for her critically acclaimed performances as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sarah Pierce in Little Children, April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, and Hanna Schmitz in The Reader.

Winslet has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Reader. She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, as well as being nominated for an Emmy. At the age of 22, she became the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, a milestone she would maintain through her sixth nomination. David Edelstein of New York Magazine hails her as “the best English-speaking film actress of her generation.”

Winslet was born in Reading, England, United Kingdom, the daughter of Sally Anne, a barmaid, and Roger John Winslet, a swimming-pool contractor. Her parents were “jobbing actors”, with Winslet commenting that she “didn’t have a privileged upbringing” and that their daily life was “very hand to mouth”. Her maternal grandparents, Linda and Archibald Oliver Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory Theatre, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver!. Her sisters, Beth Winslet and Anna Winslet, are also actresses.

Winslet, raised as an Anglican, began studying drama at the age of eleven at the Redroofs Theatre School, a co-educational independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where she was head girl and appeared in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs cereal, directed by Tim Pope.

Winslet’s career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children’s science fiction serial Dark Season in 1991. This was followed by appearances in the made-for-TV movie Anglo-Saxon Attitudes in 1992 and an episode of medical drama Casualty in 1993, also for the BBC.

While on the set of Dark Season, Winslet met actor-writer Stephen Tredre, with whom she had a five-year relationship. He died of bone cancer soon after Winslet completed filming Titanic, so she missed the premiere because she was attending his funeral in London. She and Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio have remained good friends since the filming.

Winslet was later in a relationship with Rufus Sewell, but on 22 November 1998 she married director Jim Threapleton. They have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on 12 October 2000 in London. After a divorce in 2001, Winslet was in a relationship with Sam Mendes, whom she married on 24 May 2003 on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, was born on 22 December 2003 in New York City.

Mendes and his production company, Neal Street Productions, purchased the film rights to the long-delayed biography of circus tiger tamer Mabel Stark. The couple’s spokesperson said, “It’s a great story, they have had their eyes on it for a while. If they can get the script right, it would make a great film.”

The media have documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to allow Hollywood to dictate her weight. In February 2003, the British edition of Gentlemen’s Quarterly magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally enhanced to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent. GQ issued an apology in the subsequent issue.

Winslet and Mendes currently reside in New York City. They own a manor house in the tiny village of Church Westcote in Gloucestershire, England. They spent £3 million on the secluded Westcote Manor, a rambling Grade II-listed house with eight bedrooms, set in 22 acres. They have reportedly spent more than £1 million on interior renovations, as well as restoring the original water garden, mulberry garden, and orchard, all of which fell into disrepair when the former owner, equestrian artist Raoul Millais, died in 1999.

As a result of both being involved in aircraft incidents, and fearing leaving their children parentless, Winslet and Mendes never fly on the same aircraft. He was scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked on 11 September 2001 and subsequently crashed into the Pentagon. In October 2001, Winslet was seven hours into a London-Dallas flight with daughter Mia when a passenger who claimed to be an Islamic terrorist, later charged with creating mischief, stood up and shouted “We are all going to die.”

Debra Messing

A vivacious redhead with a knack for verbal and physical comedy, Debra Messing was a Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress who dominated the sitcom scene for eight years as lovelorn interior designer Grace Adler on “Will and Grace” (ABC). It was during this masterful run as the ditzy Adler that Messing received the ultimate compliment for any comedienne – an oft-cited comparison to Lucille Ball. During and after the show’s run, Messing also found time to appear in the feature films “Hollywood Ending” (2002) and “The Wedding Date,” as well as the popular USA summer miniseries, “The Starter Wife” (2007) – a role which earned her another Emmy nomination.

Born Debra Lynn Messing in Brooklyn, NY on Aug. 15, 1968, Messing’s parents recognized her preoccupation with acting and singing when, as a child, she put on performances in their East Greenwich, RI home for family and visitors. The Messings encouraged their daughter to pursue a career in the arts, sending her to numerous performing arts camps during her adolescence. Following a high school tenure filled with numerous turns in musical and dramatic productions – with occasional moments of anti-Semitism thrown in, which the undaunted Messing used to strengthen her personality and resolve – she attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts. During her junior year, she also studied theater at the British European Studio Group, a prestigious program based in London. She graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts, before being accepted into NYU’s exclusive Graduate Acting Program, which earned her a Master’s degree in Fine Arts.

Messing gained her earliest notices in a workshop production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Perestroika” in 1993, later appearing in New York productions of plays by John Patrick Shanley and Paul Rudnick. That same year, she also played Dana Abandando, the cold-hearted, man-hungry sister of Gail O’Grady’s character in three episodes of “NYPD Blue” (ABC, 1993-2005). Her movie debut, as Keanu Reeves’ war bride in Alfonso Arau’s World War II fantasy, “A Walk in the Clouds,” came in 1995, as did her first big break – her network series debut in “Ned and Stacey” (Fox, 1995-97). While the series was not long for this world, it would hone her comic chops and make network execs sit up and take notice.

As a liberal reporter who must pretend to be married to cantankerous conservative adman Thomas Haden Church, Messing earned solid reviews for her comic skills – and much admiration from everyone for holding her own against that powerhouse of snide, Haden Church. By the end of the series’ run in 1997, Messing was working regularly in film and on television. She had a two-episode turn – including the much-loved “The Yada Yada” episode – as a girlfriend of Jerry Seinfeld on “Seinfeld” (NBC, 1989-1998), and appeared as the female lead in the woeful big-screen adaptation of “McHale’s Navy” (1997) with Tom Arnold.

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Eva Mendes

Eva Mendes (born March 5, 1974) is an American actress.

Mendes was born in Miami, Florida (although many sources incorrectly state her birthplace is Houston, Texas) to Cuban parents and was raised in Los Angeles. She went to Hoover High School in Glendale, California. She later attended California State University, Northridge but dropped out to seek an acting career. She studied with Ivana Chubbuck.

Mendes worked her way up through commercials to music videos (including an appearance in Will Smith’s video “Miami”) to guest roles in television soap operas and supporting film roles. She received her first big-screen break when she appeared in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Training Day, where Mendes appeared completely nude. That performance led to roles in Stuck on You, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and as the female lead in the comedy Hitch opposite Will Smith. Her role in Once Upon a Time in Mexico also gave her a nomination at the Teen Choice Awards. She has two major movie projects pending, including Ghost Rider, in which she costars along with Nicolas Cage.

Mendes is a spokesmodel for Revlon. She has also worked in interior design and has written children’s books. Maxim ranked her #27 in their 2006 Hot 100 issue.

Young, talented and beautiful, Latino actress Eva Mendes rose to stardom on sheer luck and timing. Just five years prior to her starring role in “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003), the sequel to the unexpected hit, “The Fast and the Furious” (2001), Mendes wasn’t even thinking about an acting career, much less actively pursuing one. But fortune shined it’s light on the energetic actress, and with her passion and zest for life, seized the moment and never looked back.

Born on March 5, 1978 in Miami, Mendes moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was two years old. Of Cuban descent, her parents fled the island in 1959 before the revolution, but ultimately split when Mendes was ten. Her mother worked as an accountant to support the family, and was very strict on Mendes and her three elder siblings. Mendes later attended Cal State Northridge where she majored in marketing, though she wasn’t terribly interested in the subject.

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Tamara Mello

Tamara Mello (born February 22, 1976) is an American actress. Her career began in 1993 with appearances on various television programs and films. She has appeared on 7th Heaven and The Brady Bunch Movie, Boy Meets World, She’s All That and Diagnosis: Murder.

In 1999, she debuted in Popular as Lily, the politically correct vegetarian. After a few years on the show, major management firms had her high on their list, but she has only done a total of six roles since then.

A petite, spunky, tousle-haired California girl best known for her role as activist and outcast Lily on “Popular” (The WB, 1999-2001), actress Tamara Mello got her start in the early 1990s, racking up independent film credits before landing on the aptly-named teen comedy-drama. Mello got her start in the mockumentary “…And God Spoke” in 1993, and the following year acted in an episode of the CBS drama “Sweet Justice”. 1995 saw her take a small supporting role in the hit spoof “The Brady Bunch Movie”, and in 1997 she was featured in the less successful comedy “The Beautician and the Beast”.

Mello began making frequent appearances on television in the mid-90s, guesting on episodes of “7th Heaven” (The WB) and “Boy Meets World” (ABC) in 1996 and 1997, respectively. From 1997-1998 she had a regular role on the critically acclaimed ABC drama “Nothing Sacred”. A provocative and somewhat controversial series about a renegade priest (Kevin Anderson), “Nothing Sacred” featured Mello as a receptionist in a Catholic church who deals with the emotional and spiritual fallout of an unplanned pregnancy and subsequent abortion. The series met an early demise despite its quality, and it was back to guest work for Mello, including a 1999 episode of “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane”, a New York-set teen sitcom on The WB.

1999 would turn out to be a banner year for Mello, who followed up forgettable roles in the direct-to-video releases “Infidelity” and “Overnight Delivery” (both 1998) with a supporting turn in the hit teen feature “She’s All That” (1999). Playing Chandler Locklear, a stealthily sharp-tongued in-crowd member loyal to Uber-popular villainess Taylor (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe), Mello was surprisingly convincing as a catty high school student. She took a rather different role in “Popular” later that year, playing Lily Esposito, a tireless activist and one of the more outgoing and fearless members of the out-crowd. Down-to-earth and charming, with an energy more inspiring than annoying, Lily was an asset to the series due to Mello’s skilled portrayal.

While “Popular” won a fiercely loyal audience and numerous accolades from various organizations advocating responsible programming, Mello continued to pursue film work in her free time, portraying the quirky Mars Girl in the independent comedy “Spanish Judges” (2000) and taking a supporting role in 2001’s “Tortilla Soup”, a Los Angeles-set Mexican-American remake of Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink Man Woman”.

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Katharine McPhee

Katharine Hope McPhee (born March 25, 1984) is an American singer who was the runner-up to Taylor Hicks on the fifth season of American Idol in 2006.

Born in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys, McPhee moved with her parents and sister to Sherman Oaks when she was 12 years old. McPhee has been singing since the age of two. Her mother, Patricia Burch McPhee (stage name Peisha Arten), a vocal coach and accomplished cabaret singer, recognized a talent for music in her daughter and decided to train her. Her father, Daniel McPhee, is a television producer and her older sister, Adriana Burch McPhee (born June 30, 1982) is an aspiring producer as well. McPhee also has two dogs named Lilly and Nena. She carries them along when she is on shoots or during recordings

McPhee graduated in 2002 from Notre Dame High School. At Notre Dame, McPhee was a student body vice president, a varsity swimmer, and a thespian. She performed in school plays with her elder sister Adriana; both sisters were Homecoming Princess nominees in their senior year.

Afterward, McPhee attended Boston Conservatory for three semesters, majoring in musical theater. McPhee left the college due to her manager’s suggestion that she try out for television pilots in Los Angeles. In a People news article it was reported that she was rejected in “only 195 out of 200 auditions.” She was eventually cast as “Paramount Girl” in the 2006 musical film about the life of Hank Garland, Crazy Other early acting endeavors included lead actress in local professional productions of Annie Get Your Gun and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. She was nominated in 2005 for the Theatre L.A. Ovation Award for her lead role in Annie Get Your Gun. McPhee was also part of a failed mall-based MTV soap opera entitled You Are Here, playing the older sister of a more popular younger sister.

American Idol:

McPhee was persuaded by a significant other to try out for American Idol. She auditioned in San Francisco, and sang “God Bless the Child,” originally performed by Billie Holiday. Paula Abdul said that McPhee looked beautiful, Randy Jackson hailed her audition as potentially the best so far that season, and Simon Cowell complimented her for being “current” in terms of her appearance. Cowell also noted that McPhee was not the wannabe that he’d presumed she was after learning that her mother was a singer.

In the final cut-down show for the Top 24, McPhee was one of the first to be put through and, in excitement, kissed all three judges on the lips.

McPhee listed Whitney Houston and Brian McKnight as her favorite artists in the American Idol interview of the top 24 semi-finalists.

During the week leading to the third round of the semi-finals, she was rumored to be quitting due to pregnancy. However, during the performance show on March 7, 2006, she denied this accusation, attributing it to a poor choice of clothing. Host Ryan Seacrest, with tongue-in-cheek, later asked about her and fellow Idol contestant Kevin Covais; McPhee denied any relationship.

During the week preceding the top three show, McPhee visited her former high school for her hometown celebration.

McPhee’s run on American Idol led to the popular use of the term “McPheever”, coined by Ralph Garman of Los Angeles radio station KROQ’s morning show Kevin and Bean.

McPhee was congratulated by Congressman Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, the 27th district of California, who raised a flag in her honor at the United States Capitol on the day of the finale show.

During the competition, McPhee roomed with fellow contestant Kellie Pickler, and when Pickler was eliminated, she roomed with Paris Bennett.

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Rose McGowan

Rose Arianna McGowan (born September 5) is an American actress, known for her role as Paige Matthews in Charmed. She has also appeared in Hollywood films including Scream and Jawbreaker. Although her exact age is unknown various reliable sources have listed her year of birth as 1973, 1974, and 1975.

Early Life

Rose McGowan, the second-eldest of six children (including two half-siblings), was born in Florence, Italy to Daniel McGowan (an Irish-born artist) and Terri (a French American writer); her parents were members of the Children of God and her father ran the Italian chapter of the group. McGowan spent her early childhood in the group’s communes and travelling Europe with her parents. Through her father’s art contacts, McGowan had become a child model and had appeared in Vogue Bambini and various other Italian magazines. Her parents divorced when McGowan was ten. She subsequently lived in Oregon and Gig Harbor, Washington. McGowan did not speak English until she moved to the U.S.

McGowan’s high school years were spent with her father in Seattle attending Roosevelt High School and Nova Alternative High School. At the age of fifteen, McGowan officially emancipated herself from her parents. She pursued a possible career in the film industry during her late teens. She also enrolled in a beauty school as a back-up.

Career

McGowan’s first attempt to “break” into Hollywood came in the form of a bit-role in the 1992 Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man. Her role in the 1995 black comedy, The Doom Generation, brought her to the attention of film critics and she received a nomination for “Best Debut Performance” at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards. She was subsequently cast as Tatum Riley, the best friend of Neve Campbell’s character Sidney, in the 1996 hit horror-satire film Scream.

McGowan spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in low-budget films, including parts in Southie, Going All the Way and Lewis & Clark & George. She appeared in the critically-acclaimed short Seed, directed by San Francisco-born filmmaker Karin Thayer, in 1997, and played opposite Peter O’Toole in the 1998 movie adaptation of Phantoms, based on a novel by Dean Koontz. Notably, she also starred in the 1999 black comedy, Jawbreaker, where she played a high school student who tries to cover up a classmate’s murder. The role of Courtney Shayne earned McGowan a nomination for Best Villain at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.

In 2001, after some minor film roles (including a small role in the wrestling-themed movie Ready to Rumble, which performed poorly at the box-office), McGowan was cast as Paige Matthews in the popular television series Charmed, as a replacement lead actress after Shannen Doherty’s resignation from the show. McGowan was offered to be a producer after the seventh season, but turned it down. The series ended its run in May 2006.

In May 2005, she portrayed actress/singer Ann-Margret in Elvis, a CBS mini-series about the life of Elvis Presley. That same year, McGowan lent her voice to the video game Darkwatch as a femme fatale named Tala. The game was published by Capcom for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

McGowan can be seen starring in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grind House, scheduled to be released on April 6, 2007. She also had a brief appearance in the upcoming Brian de Palma film The Black Dahlia.

Modeling

McGowan was the face of American clothing company bebe from 1998-1999. She was also the cover model for the Henry Mancini tribute album Shots in the Dark, which was released in 1996.

In addition to clothing endorsements, McGowan has appeared on numerous magazine covers including Seventeen, Interview, Maxim and GQ. Rose has also been featured on Maxim, FHM and Stuff magazine’s sexiest women lists.

Awards

In 1996 Rose was nominated for a Independent Spirit Award for her role in the dark comedy “The Doom Generation.” A few years later, at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, Rose was nominated for “Best Villain” for her role as Courtney Shayne in 1999’s “Jawbreaker.” In 2005 Rose won her very first award “Best Sister” at the Family TV Awards, for her role as Paige Matthews on the witchy hit series “Charmed.”

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Elizabeth McGovern

A large-eyed, slightly baby-faced stage and screen performer McGovern first gained attention as Conrad Jarrett’s (Timothy Hutton) supportive and understanding girlfriend in the Oscar-winning “Ordinary People” (1980). The willowy actress followed with a stunning turn as Evelyn Nesbit in Milos Foreman’s adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow novel “Ragtime” (1981) netting a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. While subsequent projects found her working with a number of top film directors, she failed to find roles that utilized her unique beauty and challenged her range and talent. She appeared as the object of Robert De Niro’s obsession in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984) and as Kevin Bacon’s pregnant wife in John Hughes’ “She’s Having a Baby” (1988). In 1989, McGovern offered two diverse performances as Mickey Rourke’s sympathetic girlfriend in Walter Hill’s “Johnny Handsome” (1989) and as a rebellious lesbian in Volker Schlondorf’s nonsensical thriller “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1989). McGovern fared better in the little seen romantic comedy-drama “The Favor” (1994) and was featured in the groundbreaking “Wings of Courage” (1995), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s period adventure, the first dramatic film shot in the IMAX 3-D format.

McGovern has been better served in her stage and TV roles, appearing off-Broadway in several productions, notably in Tina Howe’s “Painting Churches” (1989), David Hare’s “A Map of the World” (1990) and Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Her TV debut was opposite Beau Bridges in the adaptation of “The Man in the Brooks Brothers Suit” on the HBO anthology “Women & Men: Stories of Seduction” (1990). She later played an FBI agent in “Broken Trust” (TNT, 1995). McGovern made the jump to series TV headlining the short-lived sitcom “If Not For You” (CBS, 1995). Portraying a woman engaged to a boring yuppie but fighting a growing attraction to a co-worker, she gave a deft and sweetly comic turn. Using her expressive face and throaty voice, she revealed a previously untapped comic sensibility. McGovern married English producer-director Simon Curtis in 1992.

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Kelly McGills

This leading lady’s first two film appearances, as the love interest to a drunken writer in “Reuben, Reuben” (1982) and the soft-spoken Amish widow in “Witness” (1985), displayed a promising mix of talent and earthy beauty. Kelly McGillis’ career, however, stumbled a bit after playing Tom Cruise’s love interest in “Top Gun” (1986) as her forays into straightforwardly glamorous roles have earned relatively lukewarm critical responses.

McGillis dropped out of high school to pursue a career as an actor and eventually attended Juilliard in Manhattan. She understudied the role of Dona Elvire in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Don Juan” but had little other professional experience when director Robert Ellis Miller “discovered” her and cast her opposite Tom Conti in “Reuben, Reuben”. Notices were good, and McGillis then moved to “Witness” and “Top Gun.” (In the latter, her 5′10″ height was quite evident as she stood next to the shorter Tom Cruise.) Attempts to put her in the position to carry a picture resulted in “Made in Heaven” (1986), in which McGillis was matched with Timothy Hutton as the as-yet-unborn beauty he meets in heaven, who is yet unborn, and “The House on Carroll Street” (1988), in which McGillis was a blacklisting victim who stumbles on an espionage plot. Both films were box office disappointments. “The Accused” (1988) had McGillis as the assistant district attorney who is moved to put three rapists behind bars by the pathos of Jodie Foster, but it was Foster who got the reviews–and the Oscar. McGillis then did “Winter People” (1989), an Ozark-based Sturm und Drang, which also flopped. In 1991, she produced the film “The Awakening”, which did not receive wide-spread release, and the following year played the woman who marries and tries to tame John Goodman’s “The Babe”. McGillis joined “Witness” co-star Alexander Godunov in reprising their characters in a brief, amusing cameo for “North” (1994).

McGillis appeared in her first TV-movie in 1984, playing a sister who seeks to punish her sister’s tormentor in “Sweet Revenge” (CBS). She followed with “Private Sessions” (NBC, 1985), a busted pilot. In 1993, McGillis played a woman in love with a retarded man in “Bonds of Love” (CBS) and in the 1994 CBS miniseries “In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride and Madness”, she was a woman obsessed with destroying her ex-husband.

McGillis’ theater career was interrupted by “Reuben, Reuben”, but she returned to the stage in 1988 playing Portia in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre production of “The Merchant of Venice.” She has since continued an association with that company, appearing in “Twelfth Night”, “Mary Stuart” and “Measure for Measure”, among others. In 1994, McGillis made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of “Hedda Gabler”.

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Reba McEntire

Country music superstar Reba McEntire has enjoyed huge commercial and critical success in 1980s and 90s. She proved to be a key figure in the successful crossover of country music into the pop mainstream, and later showed herself a capable character player in features and on TV. The product of a small-town upbringing in Oklahoma, McEntire competed on the rodeo circuit with her family and sang with her brother and sister as part of the teenaged Singing McEntires until she was signed by Mercury Records in the mid-70s. Achieving success by the end of the decade, she brought her rich, throbbing alto, with its distinctive Midwestern twang, to such country pop tunes as “I Can’t Even Get the Blues”. In the mid-80s McEntire sang several very traditional country songs like “How Blue” and plush ballads about broken romance including “Whoever’s in New England” and “He Broke Your Memory Last Night”. She continued her success into the 90s with her hard-hitting duet with Linda Davis, “Does He Love You” and other he-done-me-wrong songs like “For My Broken Heart.”

With her attractively forthright manner and her trademark voluminous, teased brunette hair, McEntire not only won many music industry awards and produced an impressive string of best-selling albums, but also made music videos and a great many TV variety and award show appearances. As with other country music stars, media visibility and the experience of putting over storytelling songs suggested the possibility of straight acting, and McEntire made her feature debut in the highly enjoyable revamp of 50s monster films, “Tremors” (1990). She has subsequently performed smoothly as the extravagant Texan mother candidate in “North” (1994) and in TV-movies such as “The Man from Left Field” (1993), opposite Burt Reynolds and as Annie Oakley in “Buffalo Girls” (CBS, 1995). The latter proved a nice warm-up for her 2001 Broadway debut as Annie Oakley in the hit revival of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun.” McEntire received glowing notices not only for her beautifully singing but also for her deft comic timing and chemistry with leading man Brent Barrett.

McEntire began concentrating more television than film in the late-1990s, starring in several made-for-TV movies, including “Forever Love” (CBS, 1998) in which she played a loving wife and mother who slips into a stroke-induced coma only to awake twenty years later and try to assimilate herself back into the lives of her loves ones. In “Secrets of Giving” (CBS, 1999), she was a widow in 1905 struggling to keep her farm and few head of cattle while caring for her ailing 5-year-old son (Devon Alan). But a lone stranger (Thomas Ian Griffith) arrives out of the blue to help, making a deal with the town’s banker that puts his own future in jeopardy, but brightens the Christmas season for everyone else. McEntire then got her own sitcom, “Reba” (WB, 2001- ), playing a Texas soccer mom whose idyllic suburban life is rapidly falling apart around her after her husband leaves her for another woman and her teenaged daughter gets pregnant. Despite a previously crazed schedule of recording, touring and hosting “The Country Music Awards,” McEntire found it a blessing to have a regular schedule in which to live a normal family life. The show itself became a rare hit for the perpetually struggling WB, taking in a consistent 3 million viewers a week, as McEntire earned kudos with a nomination for a 2003 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

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Natascha McElhone

A tall, cool beauty, Natascha McElhone (pronounced MAC-el-hone) became a star overnight with her portrayal of Francoise Gilot opposite Anthony Hopkins’ artist in the Merchant-Ivory production “Surviving Picasso” (1996).

Born near London and raised in Brighton, McElhone honed her craft in various stage productions throughout Britain. The elegant brunette with expressive eyes and high cheekbones studied at LAMBDA and landed her first stage role in “The Count of Monte Cristo” in the early 1990s. After amassing other credits (including a stint performing Shakespeare at an open-air theater in London), McElhone was cast as the mistress of the famous Spanish painter in “Surviving Picasso”. She subsequently appeared in the British TV production of “Karaoke” (1996), written by Dennis Potter and landed feature roles as Brad Pitt’s love interest in Alan J. Pakula’s “The Devil’s Own” (1997) and the young version of the title character in “Mrs. Dalloway” (1998). A co-starring role opposite Robert De Niro in the actioner “Ronin” followed by a primary supporting role in Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” (both 1998) exposed McElhone to a larger audience. She was next featured in Kenneth Branagh’s musical adaptation of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (2000).

In 2002, McElhorne co-starred with Stephen Dorff in the feature thriller “Feardotcom”. McElhorne played an ambitious researcher who join forces with a detective (Dorff) to find the answers behind the mysterious death of four people who died after logging on to a popular website. She was also seen in the thriller “Killing me Softly” (2002) starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes as well as the space thriller “Solaris.” (2002)

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Frances McDormand

An intelligent, versatile character actress who virtually disappears into each role, Frances McDormand earned a Best Actress Academy Award as Marge Gunderson, the pregnant deputy sheriff of the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” (1996), her third film with husband Joel and brother-in-law Ethan. After graduating from Yale Drama School, McDormand hit NYC, appearing in several plays, notably “Painting Churches” and “Awake and Sing!” (both 1984). She also entered features as the dim, violent tart whose cuckold husband hires a hit man to kill her and her lover in “Blood Simple” (1984), the debut film of the Coen brothers. She then appeared as a nun in Sam Raimi’s “Crimewave” (1985), a slapstick crime comedy co-written by the Coens and Raimi, and reunited with the former pair to play a shrill, swinging Southern wife who offers Holly Hunter child-rearing advice in their broad-as-a-barn kidnapping comedy “Raising Arizona” (1987).

McDormand was still virtually an unknown when she won an Oscar nomination playing a meek Southern woman abused by her Klansman husband in Alan Parker’s “Mississippi Burning” (1988). Her character’s unconsummated relationship with Gene Hackman’s FBI agent produced scenes that were a stunning tutorial on how to express emotion without words. She played one of her few up-market characters–a lawyer–to Liam Neeson’s comic-book vigilante in Raimi’s “Dark Man” and won the admiration of Ken Loach for her turn as an American human rights activist in his political thriller set against the battleground of Northern Ireland, “Hidden Agenda” (both 1990), prompting the august British director to tell her as she was leaving, “Not only have you changed my opinion of actors, you’ve changed my opinion of Americans.” She also offered tense comic relief as the ex-wife of Peter Gallagher and lover of Tim Robbins in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts” (1993).

McDormand admits now that she took roles in the failed Hollywood comedies “The Butcher’s Wife” (1991) and “Passed Away” (1992) “to prove that I could be funny” and her lackluster part as Patricia Arquette’s sister in “Beyond Rangoon” (1995) so that she could travel to Malaysia. After “Fargo”, Hollywood needs no further proof that she can be funny. McDormand’s likable, reality-based performance as the deputy investigating a series of killings made the Coens’ chilling bit of madness safe for decent folk to laugh at and brought her much-deserved stardom along with practically every acting prize. She also delivered acclaimed turns that year as the alcoholic hooker June in the heist comedy “Palookaville,” a football-crazed divorcee in friend John Sayles’ underrated Western “Lone Star” and a psychiatrist interviewing a potential killer in the courtroom thriller “Primal Fear”.

McDormand flirted briefly with television in the 80s, acting in the 1985 TV-movie “Scandal Sheet” (ABC) and as a regular in the short-lived detective drama “Leg Work” (CBS, 1987), but her work for the small screen in the 90s has been more inspiring. She rejoined fellow Yale grad and NYC roommate Holly Hunter for Martha Coolidge’s “Crazy in Love” (TNT, 1992) and joined first-time directors Kathy Bates for the monologue drama “Talking With” (PBS) and Tommy Lee Jones for TNT’s “The Good Old Boys” (both 1995). She also turned up as Gus, a tough-talking mechanic, in HBO’s acclaimed look at the working poor, “Hidden in America” (1996), starring Beau Bridges. Her return to the stage as Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire” netted her a Tony nomination in 1988, and after performing at Yale Repertory in “A Moon for the Misbegotten” (1990-91), she was back on the Great White Way in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig” in 1992, followed by a turn in “The Swan” (1993) at NYC’s Public Theatre.

Since portraying a German Jewish doctor incarcerated by the Japanese during World War II in “Paradise Road” (1997), which she filmed prior to receiving her Oscar, McDormand has been very selective in her projects. In Dublin she courageously essayed the role of Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1998), and though the famous neurotic was a reach for her, one had to applaud her risk-taking. On film that year, she donned the habit as Miss Clavell, the headmistress of the boarding school girls of “Madeline”, based on the books of Ludwig Bemelmans, and she also returned to the New York stage in a modern adaptation of “Oedipus”. Teaming with director Curtis Hanson for his first foray into comedy, “Wonder Boys” (2000), McDormand excelled in the quiet, understated part as a college chancellor, revealing new facets of her screen persona. She next surfaced amidst the huge ensemble of Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” comedy-drama (2000), playing the overprotective, unintentionally funny mother of the young journalist (Patrick Fugit) drawn from Crowe’s experiences as a teenager writing for Rolling Stone. In 2002, McDormand stood by her man as husband Robert DeNiro realizes that the killer he has been searching for is his son in the crime drama “City By The Sea.”

The following year, she portrayed a entirely different kind of mother from her “Fargo” and “Almost Famous” roles in the indie feature “Laurel Canyon,” a drama that also co-starred Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale. Although the film was lackluster, it was invigorated by McDormand’s fresh and fearless performance as a sexually confident record producer in her 40s who sketchy personal choices and innate desire to stay youthful, hip and edgy has alienated from her son (Bale) and intrigued her future daughter-in-law (Beckinsale). McDormand was equally appealing in her too-brief turn as Diane Keaton’s tell-it-like-is sister in the romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003).

After a supporting role in the blockbuster bomb, “Aeon Flux” (2005), McDormand again appeared with her “Flux” co-star Charlize Theron in the far more competent and emotionally involving “North Country” (2005). She played a smiling, but tart-tongued truck driver at an iron mine who helps her friend Josey (Theron) speak out against the poor treatment of female employees by their male counterparts. McDormand earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by An Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. She also got a nod from the Academy Awards, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

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