Allison Mack Biography
Allison Mack (born July 29, 1982) is a German-American film and television actress.
She was born in Preetz, Germany, but moved to the United States when she was two.
She then began studying at The Young Actors Space in Los Angeles when she was seven. She currently stars as Chloe Sullivan on the WB series Smallville. She and co-star Kristin Kreuk have become close friends.
Mack began acting at the age of four in commercials for “German Chocolate”. She then went into modeling for a short period because her mother thought she “looked cute in clothes.” Her first major TV role came in an episode of the WB series 7th Heaven, where she gained a lot of attention playing a teenager who cut herself.
In 2000, she starred in two short-lived series: Hiller and Diller and Opposite Sex. She also starred along-side Sam Jones III in an R. L. Stine miniseries The Nightmare Room. Her filmography includes Eric Stoltz’s directorial debut My Horrible Year!, where she plays a girl having great difficulties in her life as she turns sixteen, and Camp Nowhere.
In the summer of 2006 Mack’s voice will be heard as the sister of the main character in the Warner Bros. CGI movie, The Ant Bully.
Helen Hunt Biography
A pretty, effervescent blonde player, Helen Hunt is the daughter of acting coach and director Gordon Hunt. Born in Culver City, CA, she moved with her family to NYC for six years where she was exposed to theater. When her family returned to L.A., Hunt had decided she wanted to be an actress. Her first job was in the TV-movie “Pioneer Woman” (ABC, 1973), as the daughter of Joanna Pettet. Hunt landed her first spot as a series regular playing the daughter of a policewoman (Jessica Walter) on “Amy Prentiss” (NBC, 1974-75). She continued playing daughters (”Swiss Family Robinson”, ABC 1975-76; “It Takes Two” ABC, 1982-83) or girls-next-door (”The Fitzpatricks”, CBS 1977-78) in series TV, guest appearances (”Family”) and TV-movies (”Angel Dusted”, NBC 1981). Her lead performance in the CBS TV-movie “Quarterback Princess” (1983) earned her praise. One of Hunt’s first adult roles was as the girlfriend of Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse) on the acclaimed NBC drama series “St. Elsewhere”. She played the title role in “Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story” (1991) about a school teacher arrested along with her 16-year-old lover for the murder of her husband. Hunt received some of her best notices to date (as well as several awards including two Emmys) as Jamie Buchman in the weekly comedy series “Mad About You” (NBC, 1992-99), co-starring with Paul Reiser as a couple facing the ups and downs of marriage.
On stage, Hunt appeared off-Broadway with Mary Stuart Masterson in “Been Taken” (1985) and co-starred opposite first Eric Stoltz and later Jason Gedrick on Broadway as Emily Webb in a revival of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” (1989). She has appeared in Los Angeles-area productions of “Vital Signs”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Value of Names”.
On the big screen, Hunt made her debut in “Rollercoaster” (1977), played Sarah Jessica Parker’s goofy friend in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1985) and Kathleen Turner’s teenaged daughter in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986). She brought spunk to her role as an animal trainer in “Project X” (1987), was wasted as Patrick Swayze’s wife in “Next of Kin” (1989) and delivered a delicately nuanced, richly observed portrayal of a married editor of a writer crippled in a climbing accident who becomes romantically involved with him in Neil Jimenez’s “The Waterdance” (1992). In 1992, her “Quarterback Princess” co-star Tim Robbins directed her in a cameo in his political satire “Bob Roberts” and she won praise as a smart-mouthed young agent of Buddy Young Jr (Billy Crystal) in “Mr. Saturday Night” (1992). After a turn as David Caruso’s wife in Barbet Schroeder’s “Kiss of Death” (1995), Hunt had her biggest screen hit with Jan De Bont’s “Twister” (1996). Hunt looked great in a tank top but also brought a strong presence and believable intelligence to her role as a scientist tracking tornadoes with her estranged husband (Bill Paxton). She earned glowing reviews and netted a Best Actress Oscar for her turn as a single mother and waitress who becomes involved with Jack Nicholson’s curmudgeon in “As Good As It Gets” (1997). On the strength of this performance, Hunt was cast as the leading lady in a slew of movies in 2000, playing opposite Kevin Spacey, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks. In 2001, she starred opposited Woody Allen in “Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” and in 2002 was busy developing several projects under her Hunt/Tavel Productions company, these with Hunt in a leading, rather than romantic supporting role.
- Also Credited As:
Helen Elizabeth Hunt - Born:
on 06/15/1963 in Culver City, California - Job Titles:
Actor, Director
Family
- Daughter: Makena lei Gordon Carnahan. born May 13, 2004; father is writer-producer Matthew Carnahan
- Father: Gordon Hunt. directed award-winning episode of “Mad About You”; divorced Hunt’s mother in 1981
- Grandmother: Dorothy Fries.
- Mother: Jane Hunt. divorced Hunt’s father in 1981
- Uncle: Peter Hunt.
Significant Others
- Husband: Hank Azaria. became engaged in 1997; married on July 17, 1999; separated c. May 2000; Hunt filed for divorce on December 18, 2000
- Companion: Matthew Broderick. born March 21, 1962; acted with Hunt in “Project X” (1987); no longer together
- Companion: Matthew Carnahan.
Education
- University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
- 1966 Lived in New York with her family
- 1973 Made TV debut in the ABC movie “Pioneer Woman”
- 1977 Made feature debut in “Rollercoaster”
- 1982 Played recurring role of Dr Jack Morrison’s girlfriend on the NBC medical series “St. Elsewhere”
- 1989 Made Broadway debut replacing Penelope Ann Miller as Emily Webb in a revival of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”
- 1996 Co-starred with Bill Paxton in Jan De Bont’s blockbuster “Twister”
- 1997 Had strong leading role in the comedy-drama “As Good As It Gets”; received Academy Award as Best Actress
- 1998 Made TV directorial debut with episodes of “Mad About You”
- 2000 Acted in Robert Altman’s “Dr. T and the Women”
- 2000 Co-starred opposite Tom Hanks in “Castaway”
- 2000 Had leading role opposite Mel Gibson in “What Women Want”
- 2000 Starred opposite Kevin Spacey in “Pay It Forward”
- 2001 Had leading role in Woody Allen’s “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion”
- 2005 Co-starred with Ed Harris and Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Empire Falls” a miniseries on HBO
- Cast as the next door neighbor on “The Fitzpatricks” (CBS)
- Cast member of the series “Swiss Family Robinson”
- Co-starred on the relationship sitcom, “Mad About You”; made a producer during the 1996-1997 season
- Co-starred with Patty Duke, Richard Crenna and Anthony Edwards in the ABC sitcom “It Takes Two”
- Debut as a TV series regular as title character’s daughter on NBC police drama “Amy Prentiss”
- Makes her directorial debut in the upcoming drama “Then She Found Me,” a drama adapted from Elinor Lipman’s novel of the same name (lensed 2005)
- Moved to NYC
- Returned to L.A.
- Signed on to star in Emilio Estevez’s ensemble project “Bobby,” which will blend fact and fiction around the night in 1968 when Senator Kennedy was shot (lensed 2006)
Sarah Michelle Gellar Biography
A petite, soulful-eyed, young actress who went from playing the daughter Erica Kane bore after a rape on ABC’s “All My Children” to being “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (The WB, 1997-2001; UPN, 2001- ), Sarah Michelle Gellar earned a Daytime Emmy Award (for “All My Children”) before she was old enough to legally order the celebratory champagne. Acting from age four, she made her professional debut as Valerie Harper’s daughter in the 1983 CBS TV-movie “An Invasion of Privacy”. The next year, the brunette could be seen in a small role in the big screen “Over the Brooklyn Bridge”, which starred Elliot Gould. Billed as Sarah Gellar, she also appeared in the feature “High Stakes” (1989). In the early 90s, she was in the pre-Broadway production of Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Woman” and played supported Matthew Broderick (then Eric Stoltz) in the Off-Broadway production of Horton Foote’s “The Widow Claire”.
Her TV career also began in earnest in the 90s. Gellar played the young Jacqueline Bouvier in the NBC miniseries “A Woman Named Jackie” in 1991, and was one of the adolescents in a small wealthy suburb on the short-lived syndicated soap opera “Swan’s Crossing” (1992). For two years (1993-1995), she played the role of the scheming Kendall Hart on ABC’s “All My Children”. Her character was supposed to be the child born to Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) after a teen-age rape who arrived in town determined to make Erica pay dearly for having given her up for adoption at birth. Gellar was twice-nominated for an Emmy and shortly after winning in 1995, it was announced she would be leaving the show. Rumors swirled about the young actress and her relationship with the veteran Lucci. (Gellar was quoted by TV GUIDE as saying “We didn’t have a perfect working relationship.”)
Relocating to California, Gellar won the role of Dyan Cannon’s spoiled daughter in the Disney ABC TV-movie movie “Beverly Hills Family Robinson” (1997). She then landed the leading role as Buffy, based on the 1992 feature. Playing a high school teen who is “the chosen one” of her generation to destroy vampires but who also would like to have a normal adolescence, Gellar won critical praise for her comic abilities and her physicality. The series and its star garnered a rabid fan following and continually won over critics, and “Buffy” was able to maintain both high standards and ratings even after switching networks from The WB to UPN for its final two seasons. Rumors swirled that Gellar may have had some behind-the-scenes friction on the show, but it seems likely that she will re-team with creator Joss Whedon and re-assume the “Buffy” role once again at some point in the future (she was nearly tapped for one of the concluding episodes of the spin-off “Angel” but producers feared her star presence would overwhelm the show’s internal closure).
Gellar also landed a major role alongside rising stars Ryan Phillippe, future husband-to-be Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997) and a smaller part as one of Neve Campbell’s college chums in “Scream 2″ (also 1997), both from the pen of screenwriter Kevin Williamson. While she floundered in the romantic comedy “Simply Irresistable” (the film wasn’t), Gellar shone as a teenage version of the Marquise de Merteuil in “Cruel Intentions” (both 1997), the surprisingly adept resetting of the French classic “Les Liaisons Dangereuse” to tony Manhattan. The actress next graced the big screen in “Harvard Man” (2001), a sexy cheerleader and Mafia princess who seduces the title character. Geller then reunited with Prinze to co-star in the live-action version of the popular cartoon “Scooby Doo” (2002), an ironic in-joke as the crimefighters on her TV series were nicknamed “the Scooby gang”. She also returned for the 2003 sequel “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.”
Further attempting to break out as a leading lady in feature films, Gellar used her horror-project cred to help fuel “The Grudge” (2004), an enigmatic thriller that cast her as an American nurse in Tokyo who is exposed to a mystery virus, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim. The film was remade by director Takashi Shimizu from his original Japanese version and despite a fragmented narrative that left many critics and moviegoers scratching their heads, the combination of Gellar’s presence and a strategic near-Halloween release gave the film an immensively successful debut.
- Also Credited As:
Sarah Gellar - Born:
on 04/14/1977 in New York, New York - Job Titles:
Actor, Ice skater
Family
- Father: Arthur Gellar. Jewish; born c. 1941; divorced from Gellar’s mother c. 1984; found dead in his apartment on October 9, 2001
- Mother: Rosellen. divorced from Gellar’s father c. 1984
Significant Others
- Husband: Freddie Prinze. co-starred in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”; started dating in early 2000; became engaged in April 2001; married September 1, 2002 in Mexico.
- Companion: David Boreanaz. reportedly dating as of late 1999
- Companion: Jerry O’Connell. no longer together
Education
- Fiorello H LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, New York, New York, 1995
- Columbia Grammar and Prepatory School, New York, New York
- Professional Children’s School, New York, New York
Milestones
- 1981 Began career in commercials for Burger King at age four (date approximate)
- 1983 TV acting debut in the CBS TV-movie “An Invasion of Privacy”
- 1984 Had small role in feature film “Over the Brooklyn Bridge”
- 1986 Co-starred opposite Matthew Broderick (and later Eric Stoltz) in Horton Foote’s play “The Widow Claire”
- 1991 Played the young Jacqueline Bouvier in “A Woman Named Jackie” (NBC)
- 1992 Had regular role on syndicated serial “Swan’s Crossing”
- 1992 Was in pre-Broadway cast of Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Women”
- 1993 Played Kendall Hart on “All My Children” (ABC); won Daytime Emmy
- 1997 Starred in title role of the series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (The WB, 1997-2001; UPN, 2001-2003)
- 1997 Had first screen lead in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
- 1997 Played supporting role as a sorority sister in “Scream 2″
- 1999 Co-starred with Ryan Phillippe in “Cruel Intentions”, a contemporary version of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”
- 2001 Starred in “Harvard Man”, directed by James Toback
- 2002 Played Daphne in the live-action version of “Scooby Doo”
- 2003 Left the cult classic series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to pursue a full time film career
- 2004 Once again played Daphne in “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed”
- 2004 Starred in Takashi Shimizu’s thriller “The Grudge”
- Set to star in an arthouse film based on the stories from Melissa Bank’s book, “A Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing” (lensed 2005)
- Will co-star with Seann William Scott in Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” (lensed 2005)
- Will star in Guy Ritchie’s “Revolver” (lenseed 2005)
Phoebe Cates Biography
A top teenaged model of the late 1970s and romantic lead of 80s and 90s film and TV, Cates began her film career in teen movies (”Paradise”, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” both 1982, and “Private School” 1983) before winning attention in 1984 for two very different roles: as Zach Galligan’s sweet-natured girlfriend with a tragic Christmas memory in Joe Dante’s “Gremlins”; and as Lilli, a vengeful actress out to destroy the mother-she-never-knew who abandoned her at birth, in the sensationally trashy ABC TV miniseries, “Lace”. (”All right, which one of you dumb bitches is my mother?”) Cates returned to TV for the somewhat less distinguished 1985 followup, “Lace II” (”Which one of you bastards is my father?”) and, some years later, “Vaclav Havel’s Largo Desolato” (1990) for PBS’s “Great Performances”. Her film credits include “Bright Lights, Big City” (1988), as Michael J Fox’s estranged wife, “Shag: The Movie” (1988), Dante’s antic sequel “Gremlins 2″ (1990), and “Drop Dead Fred” (1991). Cates has also been active on the stage in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. She appeared in “Bodies, Rest & Motion” (1993), teamed with Bridget Fonda, Tim Roth, and Eric Stoltz.
The daughter of producer-director Joseph Cates and niece of director Gilbert Cates, Cates is married to actor Kevin Kline, with whom she co-starred in “Princess Cariboo” (1994).
- Also Credited As:
Phoebe Belle Katz - Born:
on 07/16/63 in New York, New York - Job Titles:
Actor, Singer, Dancer, Model
Family
- Brother: Philip Cates.
- Daughter: Greta Simone Kline. born on March 21, 1994; father, Kevin Kline
- Father: Joseph Cates. divorced from Cates’ mother; died on October 10, 1998 at age 74
- Mother: Cates’ first wife; divorced; Filipina
- Sister: Alexandra Cates. younger
- Sister: Valerie Cates.
- Son: Owen Joseph Kline. born on October 14, 1991; father, Kevin Kline
- Uncle: Gilbert Cates. president, Directors Guild of America
Significant Others
- Husband: Kevin Kline. born on October 24, 1947; married on March 5, 1989
Education
- The Juilliard School, New York, New York, dance
Milestones
- 1982 Screen acting debut in “Paradise”
- 1983 TV debut in “Baby Sister”
- 1984 Co-starred in the hit film “Gremlins”
- 1984 Had lead in the ABC miniseries “Lace”
- 1984 Off-Broadway debut in “The Nest of the Wood Grouse”
- 1985 Starred in “Lace II” (ABC)
- 1989 Broadway debut, “The Tenth Man”
- 1990 Reprised role in “Gremlins 2: The New Batch”
- 1994 Starred opposite husband Kevin Kline in “Princess Caraboo”
- Began modeling professionally at age 15