Eric Roberts is one of the most prolific actors of all time. He has participated in more than three hundred films, and about ninety television productions throughout his career. He has literally appeared in almost all important television shows since the late seventies, including Oz, Touched by an Angel and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — to name just a few —, and has participated literally in all kinds of motion pictures, from relevant blockbusters like The Dark Knight and The Expendables, as well as other very successful movies, like Inherent Vice and even films from horror franchises, like The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence). Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Eric Roberts' extensive filmography is mostly made up of irrelevant made-for-television films, mediocre low-budget independent productions and straight-to-DVD releases, that have largely gone unnoticed. And most of all, he does mostly small participations of only a few minutes, since he is never the protagonist of any project on which he is involved, with a few notable exceptions. 

Most of all, Roberts seems to be a "twig breaker" — a potentialized version of Christopher Walken, an actor also known to be prolific, and who is friends with Roberts —, which means someone who is always available for a job, doesn't matter how bad it is. The most important thing, after all, is the salary. In 2016 alone, Roberts participated in thirty-two films. For comparison, this is Leonardo DiCaprio's entire filmography. But of course, let's be fair, DiCaprio rarely does mediocre movies, and he is always the protagonist of all the productions upon which he becomes involved. All this unbridled level of work, in the end, doesn't seem to compensate, since for a lot of people Eric Roberts is still known as the brother of Julia Roberts, and the father of Emma Roberts, both being way more famous than him. 

Despite the fact that Roberts now is wasting his time doing movies so bad and so lackluster that nobody wants to see, he is a very dedicated and talented actor, who had a brilliant start. Initially, doing mostly lead roles — in severe contrast to his current situation —, Roberts received Golden Globe nominations for movies like 1978 King of the Gypsies and 1983 Star 80. He also received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in the 1985 movie Runaway Train. Two years later, he had his Broadway debut in the play Burn This, authored by Lanford Wilson. For his performance, Roberts won the Theatre World Award. From then on, his career would continue in perfectly good standards, almost without any interruptions. Already a hard-working man, in the beginning of this decade, the demand for Roberts work increasingly expanded, and for a long time now, he rarely has a day off cameras. The actor can be in three different movie sets in a day, since his agenda is always full of work. So he has to mantain a flexible schedule, and is always running against the clock to meet the demands of the productions on which he is involved. Currently, the actor accumulates in exceess of five hundred credits in film and television, being a potential candidate for a place in the Guiness World Record as the most prolific English-speaking actor of all time. 

Of course, Roberts has battled severe problems in his personal life, like drug addiction, for which he sought treatment. He was a guest-star in the television show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, where he — alongside his family —, discussed the way his addiction on medical marijuana was affecting their lives. He also had a troubled relationship with his famous sister, actress Julia Roberts, well documented in the press, that now seems to be working towards reconciliation. The estrangement between Roberts and his sisters, Julia and Lisa, who is also an actresses, apparently had started when their parents divorced, and Roberts stayed with his father, while the girls went living with their mother. So each one of the siblings built their lives separately, moving away naturally. Moreover, both Julia and Eric had seemed to have natural differences, as a result of character and personality mismatches, whose friction caused them to grew apart from each other over time, which is something relatively normal in any family. Nowadays, however, they seemed to have resolved their differences, and are no longer deliberately ignoring each other.  

Being an actor in such a high demand is a very impressive achievment, especially for someone like Roberts, who is now sixty-three years old, and is no longer a youth full of energy, vitality and health, as he once was. Nevertheless — if he goes on like this —, making dozens of movies a year, Roberts could double the credits he has accumulated so far, making him undoubtedly a potential candidate as the most prolific actor of all time, at least in the English-speaking world. The most important thing, though, is the fact that he is a terrific and very talented actor, which will continue to entertain us in dozens of interesting and remarkable movies, as well as other productions of inferior category, and, well, let's say, of questionable quality. 


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Godfrey Gao, a Taiwanese-Canadian actor and model — best known in the west for his role in the 2013 feature film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones —, has died on November 27, while participating in the Chinese sports reality television series Chase Me, produced by the Zhejiang Television Network. His death is particularly worrying, because the actor apparently has died in the middle of a challenge, when he collapsed in the ground. He was immediately attended by the company's medical team, and then sent to a hospital, where resuscitation procedures where performed for almost three hours, without result. Soon after, Gao was pronounced dead. 

The cause for his untimely demise was soon explained as the result of a cardiac arrest. 
This fact immediately prompted criticism to the network, because the reality series on which Gao was participating when he collapsed required contestants to undergo strenuous and demanding physical challenges, some of them late at night. This was done without any considerations for the personal physical conditions and health of the participants. The executive committee of the company was seriously negligent about all the risks involved, and was held responsible for the actor's demise. Nevertheless, the corporation is willing to recognize the carelessness and indulgence they committed, and accept to be held accountable for all the negligence on which they incurred, and whose final outcome was an irreversible fatality. The actor's remains would be transferred to Taipei — Taiwan's capital —, to his family, that will provide a proper burial for him. 

Despite being little known in the west, Godfrey Gao had a stable and solid career in the East, specially in Taiwan, and to a lesser degree, in mainland China. Although he has spent most of his childhood in Canada, in the early 2000's he returned to Taiwan, where he managed to develop a solid career as a model. Soon after he achieved stardom, to the point of being classified as Asia's first male supermodel. He was also the first male Asian model to appear in a campaign for the worldwide famous brand Louis Vuitton. Slowly, Godfrey Gao was also breaking into mainstream Hollywood productions. With eleven films and fifteen television series to his credit, Gao was a talent on the rise, that unfortunately was cut short, by virtue of the criminal negligence of a television company, more interested in the rates they could get, than in the personal well-being of all their employees. Unfortunately, its highly improbable that his death could result in any relevant changes in the television industry. 

Godfrey Gao's death has sparked a major controversy in China, and its repercussion is still being felt. Social media is currently boiling, with many people requesting the cancellation of the show in which the actor was a contestant when he died. According to evidence, the challenges required superhuman degrees of effort to be executed, and could be indeed physically harmful. Gao was already working for seventeen hours when he died, which indicates that in fact the program was pushing the actor to the limit, and possibly, was doing the same thing with the other contestants. Probably, the wisest thing to do is to cancel the program to prevent this type of tragedy of happening again. And of course, almost as important is to punish the culprits who allowed this fatality to happen. 


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Tod Slaughter was a British character actor of stage and screen. Born Norman Carter Slaughter in Newcastle upon Tyne, in 19 March, 1885, Slaughter began his career in theater in 1905, at twenty years old, briefly interrupting it to serve in the army, to fight in the First World War. 

Primarily a stage actor, Slaughter also served as general manager of several theaters, first in the Theatre Royal, in Chatham, Kent, then in the Elephant and Castle Theatre, in London. Slaughter remained active in the theater — his greatest passion — for all of his life. An enthusiastic actor that engaged audiences in his eclectic and outstanding performances, Slaughter soon acquired great popularity, doing work for mass consumption, as well as more sophisticated dramas for a quality demanding public. He only started appearing in movies in 1934, at forty-nine years old. His first movie was Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn, released the following year. In total, he appeared in eighteen films.    

His next feature, 1936 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street — on which he would play the title character — would become his most successful and celebrated movie. As it was the case with this movie, as well as its predecessor, Slaughter had also played the theater versions of these stories.  

Based on a character that was first featured on a weekly serial of the Victorian era — The String of Pearls —, Sweeney Todd rapidly developed into an urban legend, similar to that of Spring-heeled Jack. The movie tells the story of a professional barber, that kills his customers with the assistance of Mrs. Lovatt (played by Stella Rho), the owner of a nearby pie store.  

Tod Slaughter would reprise the role in two less successful sequels, 1945 Bothered by a Beard, and 1954 Puzzle Corner No. 14, his last movie. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won a remake in 2007, directed by Tim Burton, with his long time collaborator Johnny Depp in the title role. 

Another relatively remarkable movie in Tod Slaughter's career was 1939 The Face at the Window, where he plays Chevalier Lucio del Gardo. On this movie — set in Paris in 1880 — several people are killed by what appears to be a wolf, something that is corroborated according to the sound heard in each attack. Before every murder, though, the victims saw the killer's face by the window. Chevalier Lucio del Gardo is a very obscure, malignant and evasive character, who tries to seduce people and gain their confidence with his evil charm. Eventually, he makes a deal with a nearly bankrupt banker, to marry his beautiful daughter, Cecile de Brisson (played by Marjorie Taylor). When he knows that she is in love with another man, Lucien Cortier (played by John Warwick), he does everything in his power to incriminate him as the responsible for the murders that has been taking place.   

In this movie, Tod Slaughter played the villain, something that was a recurring fact in his film career, which created a curious contrast with his theater career, where he usually played the hero or the benevolent prototype of altruistic romanticism. 

As theater remained his greatest passion, Tod Slaughter appeared to have seen movies just as a means to supplement his financial income. Always busy, he ran theater companies, went on tour regularly even in his old age, and was exceedingly versatile, playing all kinds of spectacles, from conventional melodramas to more complex one act monologues. In the early fifties, however, his fortunes changed for the worst, as the theater companies that he led were no longer in demand, having gradually falling out of favor in the public's general taste. By this time, Tod Slaughter went broke. Nevertheless, with no better prospects, he continued performing and touring, and accepting work-related performing jobs.  

He still did some feature films in the fifties. King of the Underworld and Murder at Scotland Yard were both released in 1952. As they worked together as a single story, in these movies, Slaughter played the same character, a criminal mastermind named Terence Reilly. 

Tod Slaughter also had done some work on television, on the TV Series Inspector Morley. Nevertheless, the episodes on which he participated were combined in two movies for theatrical release. A version of the legendary British entity known as Spring-Heeled Jack adapted for the theater, starring Slaughter, was filmed and later exhibited in television. 

After fifty years completely dedicated to the performing arts, Tod Slaughter died of coronary thrombosis, in Derby, in 19 February, 1956, one month before completing seventy-one years. After his death, his work was entirely forgotten. More recently, his movie work has been properly appreciated by critics and evaluated by film scholars, generating interest from classic movies' enthusiasts.


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Nigel Bruce was a British actor of theatre and film, that became better known as Dr. Watson, the adventure partner of Sherlock Holmes, in a series of  fourteen films made between 1939 and 1946. He also voiced the character in a radio series titled The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, from 1939 to 1947. 

Born William Nigel Ernle Bruce in 4 February, 1895, in Ensenada, Mexico, to British parents, he was formally educated in England. In school, he excelled at sports, and became part of the cricket team
at Abingdon School. In 1912, he begun a career in the stock market in the City of London. 

In 1914, before the first World War, he enlisted as a voluntary in the auxiliary Territorial Force of the British Army. When the conflict broke out, he was sent with his regiment to the Western Front. Despite the fact that eventually he suffered severe injuries in both legs, being as a result discharged as an invalid — having to spend most of the following year recovering —, he re-enlisted in 1916, being recruited again; however, this time to attend more bureaucratic demands. 

When the war was over, Nigel Bruce had decided not to return to work in the stock market, as now he was completely passionate about acting. Determined to dedicate himself to his new found vocation, he rapidly started a career in the performing arts. Nigel Bruce made his stage debut in 1920 as a character in the play Why Marry?. Two years later, he would make his film debut in the silent Flames of Passion — now a lost film —, in a minor uncredited role. In 1930, at thirty-five years old, he would start a solid career in the movie industry, that would last until his death, in 1953. In 1934, Nigel Bruce relocated to Hollywood, where he would live for the rest of his life. 

In the late thirties, Bruce was cast as Dr. John Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles, a film adaptation of the eponymous mystery novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his most celebrated literary creation, the detective Sherlock Holmes, portrayed in the movie by Basil Rathbone. This would be the first in a series of fourteen films to be shot until 1946. These characters would define the careers of both Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, though they were already established talents in the acting business. 

The first and the second movie — the following was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes —, were both released in 1939. They were produced by 20th Century Fox, that dropped the Sherlock Holmes series project soon thereafter. Nevertheless, Universal Studios acquired the rights for the screen to shoot the entire series, but resumed production with substantial differences. While the Fox films were big budget efforts, inspired by the original works of Conan Doyle, the Universal movies were usually low budget productions, with contemporary setting, rather than the Victorian era, where the Holmes universe is situated. Because of the period, Second World War, some features in the series saw Holmes and Watson fighting the nazis. 

These movies were usually hour long features, rarely exceeding this time. The last feature in the series was Dressed to Kill, also known as Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code, released in 1946, that was one of the least successful. Regardless of the reception of the movies — some were enthusiastically received, while others failed to captivate critics and audicences alike —, both Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were widely praised by their performances as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Nevertheless, despite his competent acting skills, ardorous enthusiasts and avid readers of the Sherlock Holmes adventures written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle labeled Nigel Bruce's interpretation of Watson as too humorous, condesceding and caricaturesque, arguing that he gave the character an exaggerated comic atmosphere, incompatible with the Watson described by Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes works. 

There's no denying the fact that Nigel Bruce really gave the Watson character a more laid back, friendly and fun aspect. Nevertheless, his interpretation of Watson was crystallized as definitive in the minds of generations of viewers, and certainly can be seen as one of the best in the history of Sherlock Holmes feature film adaptations. 

Despite the brief stint as Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes film series, Nigel Bruce enjoyed his career when the series was over, being in demand afterwards. He also had roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, 1940 Rebecca and 1941 Suspicion. In total, he had roles in almost eighty movies, in a twenty-three years feature films career. 

If he remains best remembered as the character Dr. Watson, this is because his remarkable acting skills went generally underappreciated, as he was never given the opportunity to fully demonstrate his versatility. During all the time he spent in the United States, Nigel Bruce never sought American citizenship, and remained a British subject for all his life. Well-liked and appreciated among the community of English expatriates in Hollywood, Nigel Bruce was an avid cricket player throughout his life. For some time, he was the captain of the Hollywood Cricket Club, whose members were mostly British. The actor died of a heart attack, in 8 October, 1953, at fifty-eight years old. His last film, the drama World for Ransom — directed by Robert Aldrich —, was released posthumously. 


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Gösta Ekman was a notorious and legendary Swedish actor, known as the first theater star in his home country. Born Frans Gösta Viktor Ekman in Stockholm, in 28 December, 1890, he was active in the capital's theatrical community from 1907, until his premature death in 12 January, 1938, from drug-related causes, two weeks after turning forty-seven years.

Beginning in 1907 as an extra, Gösta Ekman officialy started his acting career four years later, in 1911. From the onset, the actor gained a remarkable reputation for his capacity of being skilfully versatile; besides acting in dramas, comedies and tragedies, he could play all kinds of characters, becoming unrecognizable with makeup. He was also amazingly prolific, working in several productions and in different positions at the same time. While he was constantly working on the stage, he was also the administrative director of several private theaters in different periods of his life, like the Konserthusteatern and the Oscarsteatern. From 1931 to 1935, he was the director of the Vasateatern, where he directed plays, and played the lead in several stage productions. During this time, he was also the director of the Gothenburg City Theatre. All his professional life was punctuated by a busy schedule, that for his part was firstly moved by an unconditional love for the theatre and the dramatic arts. Being so busy meant that the actor didn't had any time to enjoy a personal life. 

Gösta Ekman also became a famous and renowned movie actor. He begun his career precisely the same time as the emerging world cinema, and the actor was instrumental in the development of the movie industry in his country. One of his first movies was the 1912 silent drama Trädgårdsmästaren, a thirty-four minutes short directed by Victor Sjöström. In the following decade, the actor would achieve international recognition with the 1926 movie Faust — where he played the title character —, directed by legendary German filmmaker F. W. Murnau, an adaptation of the literary epic poem authored by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, based on an ancient German legend about a man that does a deal with the Devil in exchange for endless power and knowledge. The role of Mephisto was played by notorious German actor Emil Jannings, that later would have his career permanently ruined as a consequence of his association with the nazis. 

In 1936, Gösta Ekman played the lead in the Swedish drama film Intermezzo, directed by Gustaf Molander. On this movie, he worked with Ingrid Bergman, that would later become one of the most iconic and legendary movie stars of all time.  

During production for Faust, the actor — that by this time was also feeling the weight of his workload on his shoulders — was introduced to cocaine, that he began to use regularly, to help him in the execution of all his professional activities. Unfortunately, the drug and the addiction he would later develop would be the primary reason for his  untimely demise. Sadly, fame came at a high cost for the actor; as his reputation grew, his workload increased proportionally, progressively becoming more and more unbearable for him to fulfill all his obligations, which gradually increased his necessity of drug use. 

After a glorious and overwhelmingly busy thirty years career in theatre and cinema, Gösta Ekman died at forty-seven years old, in 12 January, 1938, as the result of a severe work schedule, exacerbated by substance abuse. Despite a brief existence, he enjoyed a prominently successful career, that made him — thanks to a brutal workload, that paradoxically helped to project him as the primary talent of his generation, as well as being responsible for all the distresses that would eventually made him dependent on cocaine, the primary factor for his precocious death — one of the most memorable and legendary acting stars of his country. In total, he appeared in forty-five movies, and was involved in more than one hundred theatre productions.

Very much like the American Barrymore family — of which the most prominent members probably are Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore and Drew Barrymore — Gösta Ekman became the progenitor of a long-standing and successful dynasty of actors and actresses. His son Hasse Ekman became a sucessful director, screenwriter and actor, active from the thirties to the sixties. His sons — Gösta Ekman's grandchildren — are director Mikael Ekman, actor Stefan Ekman and the late namesake Gösta Ekman, probably the most famous of the third generation, who died at seventy-seven, in 2017. Hasse Ekman was also the father of the children's book author Fam Ekman. Swedish actress Sanna Ekman is Gösta Ekman's granddaughter.

Generally, to distinguish the two actors with the same name, Gösta Ekman, the elder, is referred as Gösta Ekman senior, while his grandson is referred as Gösta Ekman junior. Nevertheless, their full names are entirely different. While Gösta Ekman senior's complete name is Frans Gösta Viktor Ekman, his grandson's full name was Hans Gösta Gustaf Ekman. 


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James Spader is an American actor — active since 1978 —, that initially found fame in Hollywood portraying charismatic, maladjusted and mysterious young characters, in movies mostly directed to teen audiences, like 1985 Tuff Turf and 1986 Pretty in Pink. Both movies gave him notoriety, and helped Spader in his road to consolidate a cohesive career as a professional actor.

A succession of moderately successful, accessible and friendly movies in the eighties established him as a talent on the rise, until 1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape — a movie where he plays the main antagonist, a sexually deviant and obsessed psychopath — definitely increased his profile, casting Spader to stardom, and earning him a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. From then on, James Spader's career flourished, and he eventually became a household name. Since his first movie, 1978 Team-Mates, he has made more than forty films, so far. 

One of the most remarkable movies of his career was certainly 2000 The Watcher, where Spader plays the main role, opposite Keanu Reeves. The plot revolves around FBI agent Joel Campbell, played by Spader, who is constantly tormented and disturbed by mysterious and somber serial killer David Allen Griffin, portrayed by Reeves. Marisa Tomei was also part of the cast, playing a character named Polly Beilman. One of the most sinister movies in James Spader's filmography, The Watcher follows a tense, reluctant and anxious law enforcement agent, that probably has to endure the most terrible ordeal of his life, having to decipher the clues left by the sadistic and cruel serial murderer, deliberately handed over to Campbell to see if he can — within a matter of hours —, find out where the killer's next victim is; so Campbell is always in a rush againt the clock, in an effort to rescue the person being held captive, and prevent the hostage from being murdered by Griffin.

A dense, dynamic and intelligent thriller, The Watcher definitely leaves the audience exceedingly interested in the events as the plot unfolds, and in great expectation as to what will happen to both the protagonist, the afflicted and desperate Campbell, and the antagonist, the brutal and insensible Griffin. It's a movie that will severely hold your attention for the entirety of its dark and lugubrious ninety-eight minutes, keeping your eyes directly fixed onto the screen.

Despite the success in the film industry, in the beginning of the 21st century, Spader became an iconic television presence, in the wake of his portrayal of the remarkable Alan Shore, in the shows The Practice and Boston Legal. More recently, Spader has been playing criminal underground informant Raymond Reddington, in The Blacklist, a character that consolidated his reputation and his presence as a reference and a familiar face to television audiences. With an amoral, somewhat rude, and a very pragmatic attitude, Alan Shore captivated audiences with his frivolous, sometimes despondent and indifferent, but always combative personality, that fought challenges and difficulties with a restless, but rational temper, eventually becoming a beloved and deeply estimated character in primetime television. 

While Spader appeared in The Practice only in the show's final season — being the series basically led by a character named Bobby Donnell, played by Dylan McDermott —, in Boston Legal, almost everything revolved around his character Alan Shore, which was from the beginning a cornerstone and a fundamental element of this successful legal drama. For his portrayal of Alan Shore in The Practice and Boston Legal, Spader won several Emmy Awards, in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. In 2006, he won a Satellite Award. Boston Legal also infused William Shatner's career with more prominence and vitality. 

For six years now — since 2013 —, Spader has been playing Raymond Reddington, in The Blacklist. In the series, his character is a deranged and immoral criminal, that turns himself over to the FBI, willing to make an exchange. He will reveal to the agents information about several prominent and conspicuous criminals, if they grant him legal immunity. So they make a deal, and Reddington partners with young FBI rookie Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone), to start the monitoring of the illicit activities of all the offenders about whom Reddington keeps a secret. The show is currently on its sixth season, with the seventh set to premiere in October, and it has been a popular hit, with audiences and critics alike praising its intricate plot and cohesiveness, as well as James Spader's performance. 

James Spader is a veteran actor, that now — at fifty-nine years old — is on the crest of the wave. Having earned recognition in the film and television industries, and most importantly, a place in the hearts of audiences, the actor, in every work, always reveals new professional capabilities, and a new side of his personality, that the fans didn't knew. Always willing to accept a challenge, to showcase how far his acting abilities can go, James Spader will continue to be an actor on the rise. And luckily, we will keep seeing him, for many more years to come. 


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John Shea is an American actor of movies, television and theater, that for almost forty-five years, has been exceedingly dedicated to the dramatic arts. Active since 1975, Shea began his career on Broadway, in an adaptation made by stage director Robert Kalfin of a play titled Yentl, written by iconic Polish-American man of letters Isaac Bashevis Singer. Shea was then nominated for a Theatre World Award, and eventually won the prize. This was a glorious sign that a promising career in the dramatic arts was just beginning. 

The play then converted to an Off-Broadway spectacle, but the success continued. After seeing him performing in the play, famous Polish-American theatre practitioner and acting courses pioneer Lee Strasberg invited the actor to study method acting, in the now renowned Actors Studio. Shea gladly accepted the offer, and welcomed the opportunity to hone and refine his acting skills. 

Soon afterwards, in the end of the seventies, Shea made his television debut. He was offered the role of Joseph, in a made-for-television adaptation of the birth of Jesus — based in the Gospels as well as in the apocrypha —, titled The Nativity, opposite Madeleine Stowe, who played Mary. The movie was released in 1978. In 1980, he made his debut in the movie industry, with a starring role in the British production Hussy, directed by Matthew Chapman, opposite Helen Mirren. 

In 1981, he had a role in another made-for-television production, Family Reunion, which was starred by iconic and legendary American actress Bette Davis. In the following year, Shea played a character named Charles Horman, in the controversial and disruptive Missing — a movie about the military dictatorship in Chile —, directed by legendary Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras. 

From then on, the actor was on the rise. John Shea managed to consolidate a solid reputation as a serious, versatile and highly skilled actor, and remained in constant demand in movies, television and theater productions to this day, never being short of offers and invitations. In 1987, the actor was cast in an ABC miniseries, where he portrayed a character named William Stern. His performance was so critically celebrated that he eventually won his first Emmy Award in the Supporting Drama Actor category. 

In 1993, Shea was cast as malevolent and eccentric millionaire Lex Luthor — on what came out to be one of his most memorable television roles — in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Though he was moderately credible and sinister as a villain, Shea left the show after only one season, returning occasionally for the remainder of the series as a guest star, despite the fact that he managed to left a personal signature and a lasting impression in his interpretation of the famous DC Comics character. 



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In television, Shea would continually land exceedingly remarkable and exceptional roles. He became a face recognizable to audiences of police procedural dramas when he was cast in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and from five seasons, from 2007 to 2012, the actor was introduced to younger audiences, in the wake of his portrayal of Harold Waldorf, the father of Blair Waldorf — one of the show's main characters, marvelously played by famous actress Leighton Meester —, in The CW hit teen-oriented drama series Gossip Girl. In 2009, he also appeared in The Good Wife, a television show that ran for seven seasons on CBS, starred by Julianna Margulies. 

In this same year, Shea had a prominent role in the Indian movie Achchamundu! Achchamundu!, portraying a character named Theodore Robertson. Besides breaking boundaries being the first American actor to work in a Tamil-language film, he also took the role of associate producer. Directed by emergent  Indian-American filmmaker Arun Vaidyanathan, the movie won several awards upon its release, and was shown on several film festivals around the world. It was also the first Indian movie to be shot with the Red One camera technology.  

Since then, John Shea has never stopped, though sometimes he takes some personal time to be with his family. Engaged in artistic events within the community, the actor also spends time working to develop independent efforts locally, a task that he has been doing with great responsability and diligence as artistic director of the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket. Nevertheless, John Shea — despite being seventy years old — works hard to reconcile his passions, and to continually expand his legacy in the performing arts. 

A familiar face to audiences for decades in movies, television and theatre, John Shea has managed to conquer his place of honor in the business. Certainly someone that we will keep seeing frequently until he decides to retire — if he will ever do that —, John Shea is the perfect example of a discreet, but highly talented individual, that undoubtedly deserves everything he has achieved. 


Wagner

Carl Dreyer — whose birth name was Carl Theodor Dreyer, but later became better known as Carl Th. Dreyer — was one of the most important Danish filmmakers, and the first in his country to acquire in the history of cinema a place of honor. Born in Copenhagen in February 3, 1889, to an adulterous relationship, his father Jens Christian Torp, a married farmer who had an affair with one of his female employees, a Swedish woman named Josefine Bernhardine Nilsson, didn't want to assume the responsibility to raise him, so very soon he was given for adoption. The young boy, after two years going from one orphanage to another, was adopted by a couple; a man named Carl Theodor Dreyer and his wife, Inger. Eventually, they gave him precisely the same name of his surrogate father. In the distinctive Danish culture, though, no "Junior" or "Senior" is applied as a name complement.  

There is scarcely very little information about Dreyer's childhood and adolescence. When he became an adult person, Dreyer started his professional activities working as a journalist. After opportunities appeared in the film industry, he accepted a position as a writer of title cards, and soon he begun working as a scriptwriter. When his energetic passion for movie making became uncontrollable, he decided to write his own screenplays, and began to look for someone who would finance his projects. 

Since it was difficult to find financial support in his own home country, Dreyer frequently had to go to other European nations. In France, he became acquainted with famous directors, like Jean Cocteau, and established artistic connections who would somehow facilitate his journey as a filmmaker. In 1919, he directed his first movie, Præsidenten.

Highly influenced by the expressionism of the twenties, Dreyer managed to work on this period in a succession of movies that were, more or less, well received. Despite some difficulties, the twenties were his most prolific decade. He made eight movies — almost one per year — of which La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, made in France, proved to be the most successful. 

His next movie, Vampyr, was released in 1932. This movie — a loose adaptation of literary works by famous nineteenth century Irish gothic writer Sheridan Le Fanu — was partly financed by the dilettante actor Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, that starred in the film as the main character, Allan Gray, though he was listed in the credits as Julian West. The screenplay was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul. 

The plot of the movie revolves around Allan Gray — a student of the occult —, that moves to a modest pension in the French countryside. Suddenly, mysterious and unexplained things begin to happen, and he has to discover why so many dreadful things has been occurring at the inn. He eventually finds out that a vampire has been haunting the region, and discreetly tormenting the village inhabitants. So he has to find courage to fight back the source of evil, and to defeat the curse that has been bestowed upon the people. 

With an intriguing premise, a somber, but incisive storyline and a very lugubrious stylistic sensibility, Vampyr certainly was one the best movies directed by Dreyer, and certainly was a landmark of European cinema at the time. Despite its conciseness — the movie is only seventy-three minutes long — its lucid, but dark tonalities, as well as its pungent quality, gave the film a realistic and sober tenacity, that becomes insidious as the story reaches a climax. The movie proved to be technically difficult to make, though. Since it was Dreyer's first sound film, he had to shoot in three different languages. To surpass this difficulty, the director used little dialogue, and basically kept the silent movie method of title cards to communicate to audiences the narrative, as the plot unfolds.

Gunzburg was not a professional actor, and Vampyr was the only movie in which he worked in his life. It is speculated that Dreyer accepted him for the role mainly because he was financing the film, though most of the cast was also made of amateur actors. Later, Gunzburg emigrated to the United States, and found fame as editor of several prominent magazines.  

Vampyr was Dreyer's only movie made in the thirties. In the forties, he experimented for the first time with short films, eventually becoming fond of the format, and directing six of them. He also directed two features, 1943 Vredens Dag, and 1945 Två människor. Vredens Dag was a sixteenth century period drama, that became a very celebrated movie in some countries, after it was released. With a script written by Dreyer, Mogens Skot-Hansen and Poul Knudsen, the movie was based on a play called Anne Pedersdotter — authored by Norwegian playwright Hans Wiers-Jenssen —, which, by its turn, was based on a real life event, about an eponymous woman that was burned at the stake in 1590, in Bergen, because she was accused of witchcraft. After the movie was made, Dreyer left Denmark, and went to Sweden, as his country was being occupied by the nazis.

In the fifties, Dreyer directed two short movies, and one feature film, titled Ordet. Released in 1955, the movie was written and produced by Dreyer, who based his script on a play written by Danish Lutheran minister and playwright Kaj Harald Munk. The movie shows the hardships and difficult ordeals of the Borgen family in the Danish countryside. Ordet is considered by many to be Dreyer's masterpiece. The movie won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. 
His next movie, Gertrud — which would be his last — was the only one he made in the sixties. Released in 1964, this drama, based on an eponymous play authored by Swedish writer Hjalmar Fredrik Söderberg, is about an unhappy opera star, the titular character, played by Nina Pens Rode, who discovers love in a complicated and unusual moment of her life. A movie that met with some controversy upon its release, eventually Gertrud was lauded as a precious and refined cinematic work, and today is considered a fundamental part of the director's artistic legacy. 

After Gertrud, Dreyer stopped directing and retired. In a forty-five years career, having directed twenty-two movies — fourteen feature films, and eight short movies —, with at least five of them being considered masterpieces, Carl Theodor Dreyer has certainly left his mark in twentieth century cinema, having contributed to develop a singular, profound, polyvalent and expressively sensible form of art, that undoubtedly would not have been conceived in the same way, without his technique and gloriously audacious virtues. Disseminating the enormously rich, dense, majestic and diversified Scandinavian culture by reevaluating its proverbial literary traditions, and adapting some of its most controversial and relevant works to the screen, Carl Dreyer managed to create amazingly beautiful and consistent masterpieces, that somehow discreetly revolved around his poignantly personal and extraordinary perspective on life. 

Dreyer died in Copenhagen, in March, 1968, at seventy-nine years old. He was survived by his wife, Ebba Larsen, who died nine years later, in 1977.


Wagner  

On June 15, died in Rome famous Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, well known for movies like 1967 The Taming of the Shrew, 1968 Romeo and Juliet – that won Golden Globe and Academy Awards – and television productions, like 1977 Jesus of Nazareth, that Zeffirelli wrote in partnership with Italian screenwriter Suso d'Amico and acclaimed British novelist Anthony Burgess. He was also a successful opera director, achieving an international degree of notoriety showcasing his talent in productions like La traviata, with famous Greek soprano Maria Callas, whom he honored in his last movie, 2002 Callas Forever. 

Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli was born in Florence, Tuscany, in 12 February, 1923, an illegitimate son born out of wedlock. Very precociously, the young Zeffirelli felt attraction to the arts, and studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze, graduating when he was only eighteen years old. He fought as a resistance soldier in the Second World War, eventually sidelining with the allies. When the war was over, he resumed his formal studies, but relegated them as secondary obligation, becoming amazingly attracted to theater after seeing legendary British actor Laurence Olivier in a 1944 movie adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Henry V, which was also directed by Olivier. Despite being a movie, Olivier was predominantly known as a theatre actor, being active in the stage for more than six decades, having participated in more than one hundred different theater productions.

Zeffirelli’s fortunes with prospective artistic career opportunities flourished, when he was introduced to famous Italian director Luchino Visconti – acclaimed for masterpieces like 1954 Senso, starring Farley Granger and Alida Valli, and 1963 Il Gattopardo, an adaptation of the famous novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon – that hired him as assistant director for his third feature film, La Terra Trema, released in 1948. It would be nearly two decades, though, for Zeffirelli actually managing to go behind the cameras to work as a director. His first movie was the documentary Florence: Days of Destruction, about a terrible and tragic flood that occurred in 1966 in Zeffirelli’s native city, that was the most devastating in centuries, and killed more than a hundred people. Released the same year, the work was fifty minutes long, and would be the only documentary in the director’s career. In between directing his first film and his entrance in the movie industry, Zeffirelli worked as an assistant for famous Italian directors, like Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica, acquiring a large amount of experience, that would be extremely beneficial to him in his career as a filmmaker. 

His first feature film was an adaptation of William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. Released in 1967, the movie starred famous Hollywood actors, like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – that were married at the time – and was a moderate box office success. His next movie was also an adaptation of Shakespeare, the more famous Romeo and Juliet. Released the following year, despite the more modest and unknown cast, the movie was a box office success, grossing almost forty times its actual budget; taking into account that – projected at less than a million dollars – was very moderate for a Shakespeare adaptation. Nevertheless, audiences and critics alike loved the film. Renowned movie critic Roger Ebert commented that it was the best movie ever produced from a work of Shakespeare.

This was followed by the movie Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna, largely inspired by the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, the notorious Catholic friar. On the movie, the pious religious deacon is played by an unknown British actor named Graham Faulkner, that was active in the show business for just a little more than a decade. In the movie, his character was named Francesco di Bernardone, which was a mixture of the nickname and the real name of Saint Francis of Assisi, whose birth name was Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but he was dearly known as Francesco. Al Pacino screen tested for the lead role, but his method acting style was disliked by Zeffirelli. Released in 1972, this movie – contrary to the previous one –, was only moderately received.  

Zeffirelli would return to religious themes, with Jesus of Nazareth, a 1977 British-Italian television co-production, that run for a month in the NBC network in the United States, ITV in the United Kingdom and Rai 1 in Italy. Presenting the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as depicted in the gospels, the show had English actor Robert Powell in the title role, with an ensemble cast consisting of highly acclaimed stars, like Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, James Farentino, Stacy Keach, Ian Holm and even Laurence Olivier, one of Zeffirelli’s heroes, amongst many others. A highly successful miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth was hugely acclaimed both in Europe and North America. Nevertheless, the production had its share of criticism, concerning what was felt by certain religious groups as a somewhat “mundane” portrayal of Jesus, though this perception was entirely subjective. Lead actor Robert Powell was highly praised for his depiction of Jesus, and remains best remembered to this day for this role.  

After Jesus of Nazareth, Zeffirelli turned to opera productions, directing Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for the Metropolitan Opera House, both in 1978. His next movie was The Champ, an American production starring Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder. Remake of a 1931 movie of the same name directed by King Vidor – despite being a box office success –, the film was only moderately received by critics, and to this day remains one of the least favorable in the director’s filmography. 

From the early eighties to the mid-nineties, Zeffirelli mostly concentrated on opera, although he mixed his two passions in several occasions, adapting several operas to the screen. In 1996, he released Jane Eyre, an adaptation of the famous eponymous novel by English novelist Charlotte Brontë, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt in the main roles. In 1999, he released Tea with Mussolini, a work notable for his semi-autobiographical nature. His last movie was 2002 Callas Forever, a homage he made to honor opera soprano Maria Callas, that died precociously at fifty-three years old from a heart attack, in September 16, 1977. He personally directed her in three operas. 

After that, Zeffirelli went into semi-retirement. He was also active for a time in politics, having served as senator for seven years, from 1994 to 2001. He died in his home in Rome, in June 15, ninety-six years old. Fortunately, he leaves a formidable artistic legacy – which overflows very peculiar qualities, like outstanding beauty and marvelous sensibility – that will shine vividly for the decades to come.  


Wagner

Ann Dvorak – born Anna McKim in August 2, 1911 – was an icon of the American movie industry, in the first half of the twentieth century. One of the most recognizable and beautiful faces of black and white cinema, she was born in New York City, to a family working in the show business: her mother Anna Lehr was an actress, and her father, Edwin McKim, was a director. Dvorak began her career as a child actress, in the silent movie era; she was only four years old when she was cast in her first film, Ramona. Nevertheless, this was just a brief stint. After one more movie, she stopped, and would return to the screen only twelve years later, in 1929. 

After some minor works, Dvorak was introduced to the famous Howard Hughes. Subsequently, she begun to be noticed by the studios, and a potential career in film became a reality. Her talent and dramatic abilities were recognized, and she eventually went on to star in several successful films, becoming a highly sought-after actress. In 1930 alone, Dvorak has participated in fourteen movies, and in the next year, she was in eight. Though this were mostly uncredited appearances, she became widely noticed in the industry, and in 1932, she starred in the iconic movie Scarface as Cesca Camonte. In this period of her life, she became extremely active professionally, and always had work in excess. Both Dvorak herself and Hollywood took advantage of her youth and exotic appearance; in her early twenties, she became a star on the rise. 

From then on, Dvorak’s future in the industry was practically assured. She would star in several important motion pictures, achieving a respectable degree of notoriety, that a lot of other actresses of her generation – for lack of talent, opportunity or both – wouldn’t be able to match. Dvorak managed somehow to always star as one of the main characters, or to effectively secure the lead role, in the movies that she was cast. In 1934, Dvorak portrayed Myra, in the drama Heat Lightning, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Marguerite Gilbert, in the romantic movie Side Streets, directed by Alfred E. Green, Joan Morley in the crime film Midnight Alibi, directed by Alan Crosland, Nan Reynolds in the drama film Housewife, also directed by Green, Barbara in I Sell Anything, directed by Robert Florey, Susan Merrill in the drama film Gentlemen Are Born, also directed by Green and Judy in the action film Murder in the Clouds, directed by Ross Lederman. 

In the next year, she starred as Bonnie Haydon, in the musical Sweet Music – another movie directed by Alfred E. Green –, Jean Morgan in the crime drama film G Men, directed by William Keighley, where she acted alongside American screen legend James Cagney, Fay Wilson, in the drama Bright Lights, directed by Busby Berkeley, Josephine Gray, in the crime film Dr. Socrates, directed by William Dieterle and as Sally Mason, in the musical Thanks a Million, directed by Roy Del Ruth. In the forties, Dvorak slowed down, reducing her workload to two films per year. She would break this pattern only in 1950, one year before her retirement, participating in four films. 

Mostly active in the thirties and forties, Dvorak retired in 1951 – only forty years old –
 after her last movie, The Secret of Convict Lake. In total, between short movies and full length features, Dvorak made almost ninety films, in twenty-two years in the movie industry (although becomes twenty-four, if we add her two years as a child actress). 

 In 1959, forty-eight years old, Dvorak decided to move to Honolulu, Hawaii, with her third husband, Nicholas Wade, to live a quiet and peaceful life there. They married in 1951 – precisely when Dvorak retired from the movie industry – and remained married until his death, in 1975. Previously, Dvorak was married to Igor Dega, from 1947 until 1951. Her first marriage was to Leslie Fenton, a well-known actor and filmmaker, that coincidentally retired from the industry about the same time as Dvorak. 

Dvorak died of cancer, sixty-eight years old, in Hawaii, in December 10, 1979. Despite her decades long absence from the screen, she remains one of the most iconic and significant actresses from the first half of the twentieth century American cinema. Her legacy remains as one of the most relevant for classic movies enthusiasts, and for the cinematic arts as a whole.  


Wagner