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Carey Lowell Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

This 16th “James Bond girl” followed in the spike-heeled footsteps of female actors as diverse as Ursula Andress, Jill St John, Jane Seymour and Joanna Lumley (as well as more than a few whose names are long-forgotten). A geologist’s daughter, the New York-born Lowell grew up in Libya, Holland, Virginia and Texas. By the time she was a fine-featured high school graduate, she had been signed by the Ford modeling agency and was posing for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein while attending college.

After some experience at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse, Lowell opted out of modeling. She played unnoticed roles in small films such as “Dangerously Close” and “Club Paradise” (both 1986) and “Downtwisted” (1987) and met future husband Griffin Dunne while shooting the 1988 sex comedy “Me and Him” (”Me” being Dunne and “Him” being his private parts). But Lowell’s big break came the following year, when she was cast as Pam Bouvier, the tough, confrontational CIA agent who makes life interesting for Timothy Dalton’s James Bond in “Licence to Kill” (1989).

A leading role followed, in William Friedkin’s silly ‘killer nanny from Hell’ flick “The Guardian” (1990, in which Lowell and Dwier Brown hire Jenny Seagrove, who turns out to be a tree-worshipping demon). Stardom did not follow, and her next film–appropriately titled “Road to Ruin” (1992)–was a romantic comedy that sank without a trace. Her subsequent feature, Nora Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), was a box office hit, but her role as Tom Hanks’ deceased wife was nothing more than a cameo. Lowell, who had returned to modeling (for Revlon), went on to play small roles in the big-budget Warren Beatty-Annette Bening vehicle “Love Affair” (1994) and in Mike Figgis’ acclaimed low-budget “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995). In the latter, she played a bank teller who clashes with a hung-over Nicolas Cage. Lowell was also in the 1995 short drama “The Duke of Groove” (directed by Dunne; their separation shortly thereafter was presumably unrelated to the film). She also appeared in the British comedy “Fierce Creatures” (1997), directed by John Cleese and featuring Kevin Kline, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Lowell’s TV exposure has been limited. She starred as Dottie (the role originated by Geena Davis on the big screen) in the short-lived comedy series “A League of Their Own” (CBS, 1993). Lowell spent two seasons (1996-98) as an assistant district attorney on NBC’s award-winning “Law & Order” and returned to television in 2001 as an attorney on the short-lived series “Big Apple.” In between projects Lowell was most visible as the longtime companion of actor Richard Gere; after seven years and one child together, the couple finally tied the knot in 2002.

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Carrie Fisher Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Carrie Fisher.jpg

A true child of Hollywood, Carrie Frances Fisher grew up in the shadow of scandal as the daughter of famous parents run amok. But it was her work as the gun-toting heroine in a then little anticipated science fiction film that cemented her in the public’s mind as Princess Leia Organa in “Star Wars” (1977). The role put the then 19-year old actress on the map and endeared her to generations of fans for decades, and although the actress made other notable appearances in film and earned acclaim and respect for her well-written novels, acerbic wit, and highly sought-after script doctoring skills, she will always be Princess Leia to the faithful of writer-director George Lucas’ sweeping film saga.

Born Oct. 21, 1956 in Beverly Hills to the “America’s Sweethearts” of the era, actress Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher, the future star was Hollywood royalty long before she donned the infamous pastry-bun hairstyle years later. When Fisher was two years old, her father left her mother for a recently widowed Elizabeth Taylor – culminating in the biggest Hollywood love triangle scandal of the 1950s.

Raised by her single mother under intense public scrutiny, Fisher decided to join the family business. At age 12, she joined her mother’s Vegas nightclub act. She appeared in the chorus of Reynolds’s award winning Broadway revival of “Irene” at age 15. A year later, she dropped out of Beverly Hills High School to focus on her career, enrolling in London’s Central School of Speech and Drama. She made her film debut in “Shampoo,” (1975) as a teenage nymphet, uttering a memorably enticing and profane line of dialogue to star and real-life family friend, Warren Beatty.

Two years later, Fisher auditioned opposite a young carpenter/actor named Harrison Ford for a part in an intergalactic fantasy film, written and directed by up-and-coming director Lucas. Despite her teen chubbiness at the time, Fisher nailed the part of the “staggeringly beautiful” rebel leader. Lucas would later say that despite her diminutive height (5’ 1”), she had all the poise and feistiness the part required. “Star Wars” became the hit of the year and the highest grossing film of all time until “E.T.” knocked it off its perch five years later. Fisher, Ford and Mark Hamill became overnight superstars, with their likenesses plastered on everything from bed sheets to bubble bath. The film and its merchandising goldmine made untold millions of dollars for everyone involved in the epic trilogy. Fisher revisited Princess Leia twice in the sequels “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983) — both huge box office successes. The latter film provided “Star Wars” fans with the iconic image and many a young boy’s fantasy: Leia in the famously sparse metal bikini.

At the height of her stardom, Fisher hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” (Nov. 1978), and hit it off with several of the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” – most notably, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd (to whom she was briefly engaged in 1980). So began Fisher’s descent into drug addiction, which would later inform her writings and overall survivor persona. In between her galactic exploits on screen, Fisher tried to forge an independent screen identity, appearing on the big screen as Belushi’s jilted fiancée in “The Blues Brothers” (1980) and Chevy Chase’ love interest in the misbegotten comedy “Under the Rainbow” (1981). Neither role did much to advance her career. After dating singer Paul Simon on and off for several years, she married the music legend on Aug. 16, 1983. Fisher’s growing drug dependency was later cited as a reason the marriage lasted only 8 months.

After performing on Broadway in “Agnes of God” (1983), Fisher returned to the big screen. Unlike her former co-star Harrison Ford, Fisher never escaped her Leia legacy, taking supporting parts in such films as “Garbo Talks” (1984), “The Man w/ One Red Shoe” (1985), “Hannah and her Sisters” (1986), “Amazon Women on the Moon” (1987), “The Burbs” (1989) and “Soapdish” (1991).

Despite losing close friend Belushi to a heroin/cocaine overdose in 1982, Fisher continued to abuse a medicine cabinet of drugs – including alcohol, Percodan, cocaine and others. By the mid 1980s, she overdosed and was rushed to the hospital. Using her life-altering experience, she penned her first novel, Postcards from the Edge(1987) – a sardonic roman a’ clef detailing fictional actress Suzanne Vale’s battles with drugs, Hollywood high life and mom. A new career was born as Fisher became an overnight literary star, shooting up The New York Times bestseller list and winning the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Two years later, Fisher adapted the screenplay for the 1990 Mike Nichols film of the same name, starring Meryl Streep as the Fisher-esque Vale and Shirley MacLaine and her domineering movie star mother. For her freshman effort, she garnered a BAFTA nomination for best screenplay adaptation in 1991.

In 1990, Fisher began dating Hollywood uber-agent Bryan Lourd. The two had a daughter, Billie, in 1993. Fisher returned to the tabloid headlines when, after several years of dating, Lourd confessed his homosexuality to Fisher. The press had a field day, but the two shared custody and remained close for their daughter’s benefit.

Although Fisher found herself a critical favorite with her performance as Meg Ryan’s best friend in the romantic comedy hit “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), writing became her real bread and butter. Other best selling novels followed, including Surrender the Pink (1991)–with many allusions to her relationship with Simon–Delusions of Grandma (1994)–drawing on her experiences with Lourd–and The Best Awful (2004). Fisher began an impressive career as a top comedy-script doctor, polishing such scripts as “The Wedding Singer” and “Sister Act.” Although she received no on-screen credit, her reputation grew and directors sought out the much-beloved actress-turned-writer to add punch to their dialogue. Even old friend George Lucas tapped Fisher to spruce up scripts for his television series, “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” (1992).

At the peak of her success as script doctor du jour, Fisher suffered a “psychotic break” in 1997 when she was prescribed new drugs to curb her long-diagnosed mental depression. The allergic reaction landed her in a mental ward in Cedars-Sinai where she remained for six days. She spent a half a year in outpatient care. After surviving the harrowing experience, Fisher grew determined to de-stigmatize mental illness. On talk show after talk show, she made jokes at her own expense. She became a much sought-after speaker on the mental health lecture circuit – from urging State legislators to increase government spending for mental health issues, to serving as key note speaker for Community Alliance benefits and other mental health organizations.

Fisher returned to acting intermittently in recent years, appearing in cameo roles in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997), “Scream 3” (2000), “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001), “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003), “Wonderland” (2004) and “Undiscovered” (2005). She joined the Oxygen network in 2002 for her first venture into serial television – “Conversations From the Edge with Carrie Fisher.” The one-hour talk show allowed fans to view Fisher’s quick-wit up-close as she interviewed the entertainment industry’s biggest stars. As one of the most beloved women in town, it was not difficult to land interviews w/ George Lucas, Lisa Kudrow, Whoopie Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin and other Hollywood A-listers. Fisher also orchestrated the seemingly impossible – bringing together Debbie Reynolds and “the other woman” Elizabeth Taylor, by co-penning a campy TV movie, “These Old Broads” (2001) specifically for them and co-star Shirley MacLlaine. The screen legends’ much heralded appearance together was a hit with viewers, but not with critics.

With the re-release of the Special Edition “Star Wars” films, a new legion of fans joined the old timers and all lined up to see their favorite characters on the big screen during the winter of 1997 and Fisher was no exception. Having made peace with her timeless character years before, she happily joined the commemoration in television retrospectives and on the red carpet at the Hollywood premieres of both Special Edition films and the recent prequels. In June, 2005, she and fellow co-stars Ford and Hamill appeared onstage together for the first time in decades to help Lucas celebrate his American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award nearly thirty years after he turned them into unforgettable icons.

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Julie Christie Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Julie Christie.jpg

Combining radiant, striking beauty and genuine talent, Julie Christie emerged as one of the more engaging female leads of the 1960s and 70s. She got her break as star of British TV’s “A For Andromeda” (1960) and had small parts in two Ken Annakin films before achieving big-screen success with leading roles in John Schlesinger’s “Billy Liar” (1963) and the tailor-made “Darling” (1965), for which she won an Oscar as Best Actress. Although usually exemplifying the sexually liberated, contemporary woman, Christie also starred as the object of desire in lavish period films: David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago” (1965), with Omar Sharif, and Schlesinger’s “Far From the Madding Crowd” and Joseph Losey’s “The Go-Between” (both 1971), alongside Alan Bates.

Christie moved to the United States in the 1970s; her sojourn there distinguished by three movies she made with lover (and later pal) Warren Beatty. She was excellent as Beatty’s business partner in Robert Altman’s deconstructionist Western “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination) and handled her assignment in Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo” (1975) with ease and flair. Her final dismissal of Beatty (who also co-scripted with Robert Towne) was a dramatic highlight of the film. As the woman who inspires Beatty in the remake “Heaven Can Wait” (1978), however, Christie seemed miscast but still pulled off her part as the love interest who makes the connection between two distinct vessels the Beatty animus occupies. Perhaps her best performance of the decade was for her cinematographer-turned-director Nicolas Roeg in the downright scary yet erotic thriller “Don’t Look Now” (1973). Co-starring with Donald Sutherland, they played a couple who encounter the supernatural in Venice while trying to recover from their daughter’s drowning.

Since the 80s, the extremely private Christie has chosen fewer, and lower profile, projects, while continuing to turn in exemplary performances, as in “Heat and Dust” (1983), “Miss Mary” (1986) and as the ravishingly beautiful, alcoholic widow in the otherwise disappointing “Fools of Fortune” (1990). Reuniting with director Schlesinger and frequent co-star Alan Bates, she showed herself at her very best in the HBO production of “Separate Tables” (1983). Christie returned to films after a six year absence to co-star with Dennis Quaid in the medieval epic “Dragonheart” and went on to co-star as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh’s full-length version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (both 1996). The following year, she proved once again how seductive she could be–to co-stars and moviegoers alike–as a former B movie actress engaging in an extramarital affair with a much younger man in Alan Rudolph’s “Afterglow”, for which she received her third Oscar nomination as Best Actress.

Despite the late-career fanfare, Christie continued to work at her own pace and generally eschewed commercial fare for more visionary and independent minded projects, including supporting turns in Hal Hartley’s mythic “No Such Thing” (2001), Rudolf van den Berg’s poignant “Snapshot” (2002) opposite Burt Reynolds, and the little-seen romantic comedy “I’m With Lucy” (2002). Her next film was far more high-profile, with the actress playing Thetis, the mother of Brad Pitt’s Achilles in “Troy” (2004), the action-oriented adaptation of Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War; the actress was better served with her subsequent role in “Finding Neverland” (2004), playing the stern, disapproving matriarch of a family who has captured the imagination of “Peter Pan” creator J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp).

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Kate Capshaw Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Kate Capshaw.jpg

Frizzy-haired, slim, blonde lead, best known as the skittish heroine of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984), the film noir-style B-girl owner of a “hostess bar” in “Black Rain” (1989), and, as of fall 1991, the second wife of filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Capshaw worked two years as a teacher of learning disabled children before moving to NYC to pursue a career as a model/actress. She worked in TV commercials while studying her craft and eventually landed jobs on several daytime soaps. Capshaw made her feature debut in the modest romantic comedy “A Little Sex” (1981), but regular movie assignments didn’t materialize until after she had played the American entertainer Willie Scott opposite Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones.

Capshaw was fairly busy in films during the mid-1980s, often appearing with major talents in modest or unsuccessful fare: with Max von Sydow and Dennis Quaid in “Dreamscape”; with Eddie Murphy and Dudley Moore in “Best Defense” (both 1984); and with Richard Gere in “Power” (1986). She continued to appear in TV-movies and miniseries before taking a career hiatus to concentrate on marriage and child rearing. Capshaw returned to the business in the 90s, starring in a short-lived detective sitcom, “Black Tie Affair” (NBC, 1993) and taking supporting roles in the romantic remake “Love Affair” (1994) as the intended betrothed of Warren Beatty, as Sean Connery’s wife in “Just Cause” and as Winona Rider’s hippie mother in “How to Make an American Quilt” (both 1995). Critics were divided over her work in “The Locusts” (1997) with some feeling the actress was miscast as a slatternly farm owner while others felt she delivered a strong performance. Capshaw also played onscreen mother to her real-life daughter Jessica Capshaw in the film. The following year, the actress offered a sly comic turn as a fortyish widow who becomes involved with a twentyish salesman (David Arquette) in the comedy-drama “The Alarmist”.

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