Russell Crowe

Mini Biography

Born in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child. The son of movie set caterers, Russell got the acting bug early in life. Beginning as a child star on a local Australian TV show, Russell's first big break came with two films ... the first, Romper Stomper (1992), gained him a name throughout the film community in Australia and the neighboring countries. The second, The Sum of Us (1994), helped put him on the American map, so to speak. Sharon Stone heard of him from Romper Stomper (1992) and wanted him for her film, The Quick and the Dead (1995). But filming on The Sum of Us (1994) had already begun. Sharon is reported to have held up shooting until she had her gunslinger-Crowe, for her film. With The Quick and the Dead (1995) under his belt as his first American film, the second was offered to him soon after. Virtuosity (1995), starring Denzel Washington, put Russell in the body of a Virtual Serial Killer, Sid6.7 ... a role unlike any he had played so far. Virtuosity (1995), a Sci-Fi extravaganza, was a fun film and, again, opened the door to even more American offers. L.A. Confidential (1997), Russell's third American film, brought him the US fame and attention that his fans have felt he deserved all along. Missing the Oscar nod this time around, he didn't seem deterred and signed to do his first film with The Walt Disney Company, Mystery, Alaska (1999). He has recently achieved even more success and awards for his performances in Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001).

Filmography

2013 Winter's Tale (filming)
Pearly Soames

2014 Noah (post-production)
Noah

2013 Man of Steel (completed)
Jor-El

2013 Broken City
Mayor Hostetler

2012 Les Misérables
Javert

2012 The Man with the Iron Fists
Jack Knife

2012 Republic of Doyle (TV series)
Boyd Kelley

2010 The Next Three Days
John Brennan

2010 Robin Hood
Robin Longstride

2009 State of Play
Cal McAffrey

2009 Tenderness
Lt. Cristofuoro

2008 Body of Lies
Ed Hoffman

2007 American Gangster
Richie Roberts

2007 3:10 to Yuma
Ben Wade

2006 A Good Year
Max Skinner

2005 Cinderella Man
Jim Braddock

2003 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Capt. Jack Aubrey

2001 A Beautiful Mind
John Nash

2000 Proof of Life
Terry Thorne

2000 Gladiator
Maximus

1999 The Insider
Jeffrey Wigand

1999 Mystery, Alaska
John Biebe

1997 Breaking Up
Steve

1997 Heaven's Burning
Colin

1997 L.A. Confidential
Wendell 'Bud' White

1995 Rough Magic
Alex Ross

1995 Virtuosity
SID 6.7

1995 No Way Back
FBI Agent Zack Grant

1995 The Quick and the Dead
Cort

1994 The Sum of Us
Jeff Mitchell

1993 For the Moment
Lachlan

1993 The Silver Brumby
The Man

1993 Love in Limbo
Arthur Baskin

1993 Hammers Over the Anvil
East Driscoll

1992 The Late Show (TV series)
Shirty, the Slightly Aggressive Bear

1992 Romper Stomper
Hando

1992 Police Rescue (TV series)
Constable Tom 'Bomber' Young

1992 The Efficiency Expert
Kim Barry

1991 Brides of Christ (TV mini-series)
Dominic Maloney

1991 Proof
Andy

1991 Acropolis Now (TV series)
Danny O' Brian

1990 The Crossing
Johnny

1990 Prisoners of the Sun
Lt. Corbett

1988 Living with the Law (TV series)
Gary Harding

1987 Neighbours (TV series)
Kenny Larkin

1977 The Young Doctors (TV series)
Russell

1972 Spyforce (TV series)
Orphan 

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Rosario Dawson

Mini Biography

This exotically stunning actress, who has a built in resourcefulness to her, has been primarily a film player thus far. Only recently has she been opening herself up more to doing TV (the series "Gemini Division" (2008), which she executive-produced), and animated voiceovers. Rosario Dawson obviously acquired the best-looking genes from her multi-ethnic heritage, which includes Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican, Native American and Irish, yet it is her gritty, powerhouse talent that stands out even more in edgy, urban filming that dates back to 1995 when she was only 16.

A rags-to-riches article entitled "Rosario Dawson: From Tenement to Tinseltown" probably says it all. Born in New York City on May 9, 1979, the daughter of Isabel (Puerto Rican/Afro-Cuban), a singer, and Greg Dawson (native American/Irish), a construction laborer, her parents, who married when both were teenagers, eventually divorced. Rosario and her younger brother, Clay Dawson, had it hard while growing up and was cared for by family members, most of whom were poverty-stricken and some of whom were HIV-positive.

Her career actually started as a child when she made a minor showing on the children's show, "Sesame Street" (1969). As the story goes, she was "discovered" as a teenager on her front porch step by two photographers. One of them, Harmony Korine, was an aspiring screenwriter who thought the inexperienced 16-year-old was ideal for the controversial cult film Kids (1995), in which she would portray a sexually-active teen. It took time for Rosario's film career to kick in after that, but by the late 1990s, she had nabbed several indie-styled films. Since then, she has moved into mainstream hits (and misses) and has surprised viewers with her earthy, provocative, uninhibited approach to her roles.

Reflecting New York's tougher, tawdrier side as assorted streetwalkers, homeless moms, drug addicts, etc., her film highlights have included Light It Up (1999), Edward Burns' Sidewalks of New York (2001), Spike Lee's 25th Hour (2002) and Shattered Glass (2003). For Oliver Stone, she portrayed the duped bride of Colin Farrell's famed B.C. Macedonian warrior, Alexander (2004) (as in "...the Great"), which featured a notoriously violent-tinged nude/sex scene.

Expanding her horizons beyond film, she has always expressed interest in singing. She hooked up with Prince for the re-release of his 1980s hit "1999" and appeared in The Chemical Brothers' video for the song "Out of Control" from the album "Surrender". She is also featured on the Outkast track, "She Lives In My Lap". On stage, she co-starred as "Julia" in a revival of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Public Theater's "Shakespeare in the Park" and appeared in "The Vagina Monologues".

She lucked into and got to show off her singing chops in the film adaptation of the hit New York musical Rent (2005), when Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi, became pregnant and was unable to reprise her exotic dancer role. Rosario also appeared as a prostitute in the adaptation of the graphic novel Sin City (2005). Of late, she has turned to producing. One of those, Descent (2007), had her playing a college coed who is brutally attacked and raped by a fellow student. Her more popular ventures have thus far included the role of "Valerie" in the live-action version of the comic strip Josie and the Pussycats (2001), the Will Smith starrer Men in Black II (2002), Eagle Eye (2008) with Shia LaBeouf and Seven Pounds (2008), again with Smith, in which she offered one of her more tender-hearted performances as a woman with a potentially fatal heart condition.

Off-camera, the still-single Dawson is highly active in political, social and environmental causes and has been involved with such organizations/charities/campaigns as the Lower East Side Girls Club, Global Cool, the ONE Campaign, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Control Arms, International Rescue Committee, Voto Latino (which she founded), Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, and Save The Children. In October 2008, she lent her voice to the RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence.

Filmography

2014 Queen of the Night (filming)
Nicole

2013 Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (filming)
Gail

2014 Parts Per Billion (post-production)
Mia

2013 They Die by Dawn (short) (post-production)

2013 Gimme Shelter (post-production)
June Bailey

2013 Chavez (post-production)
Dolores Huerta

2013 Trance (completed)
Elizabeth

2012 Hotel Noir
Sevilla

2012 Fire with Fire (video)
Talia Durham

2012 Syndicate (Video Game)
Lily Drawl (voice)

2011 Five (TV movie)
Lili

2011 10 Years
Mary

2011 Zookeeper
Kate

2011 Girl Walks Into a Bar
June

2010 Unstoppable
Connie

2010 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Persephone

2010/II Awake (short)
Robin

2009 The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
Velvet Von Black (voice)

2009 Wonder Woman (video)
Artemis (voice)

2008 Seven Pounds
Emily Posa

2008 Killshot
Donna

2008 Gemini Division (TV series)
Anna Diaz

2008 Eagle Eye
Zoe Perez

2008 Explicit Ills
Babo's Mom

2008 La Pasion de la Decision (TV series)
Carmen

2007 Robot Chicken (TV series)
Clara Palmer / Dean's Girlfriend / Woman

2007 Death Proof
Abernathy

2007 Descent
Maya

2007 Grindhouse
Abernathy (segment "Death Proof")

2006 Clerks II
Becky

2006 A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Laurie

2005 Rent
Mimi Marquez

2005 Little Black Dress (short)
Haley

2005 Sin City
Gail

2005 Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Video Game)
Tina (voice)

2005 This Revolution
Tina Santiago

2004 Alexander
Roxane

2003 The Rundown
Mariana

2003 Shattered Glass
Andy Fox

2003 This Girl's Life
Martine

2002 25th Hour
Naturelle Riviera

2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Dina Lake

2002 Men in Black II
Laura Vasquez

2002 The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest
Alisa

2002 Ash Wednesday
Grace Quinonez

2002 Love in the Time of Money
Anna

2001 Chelsea Walls
Audrey

2001 Trigger Happy
Dee

2001 Sidewalks of New York
Maria

2001 Josie and the Pussycats
Valerie Brown

2000 King of the Jungle
Veronica

2000 Down to You
Lana

1999 Light It Up
Stephanie Williams

1998 Side Streets
Marisol Hidalgo

1998 He Got Game
Lala Bonilla

1997 Girls Night Out (short)

1995 Kids
Ruby 

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Rosamund Pike

Mini Biography

Born on January 28, 1979 in London, England, actress Rosamund Pike is the only child of a classical violinist mother and an opera singer father. Due to her parents' work, she spent her early childhood travelling around Europe, and speaks fluent German and French as a result. Pike attended Badminton School in Bristol, England and began acting at the National Youth Theatre. While appearing in a National Youth Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, she was first spotted and signed by an agent, although she continued her education at Wadham College, Oxford where she read English Literature, eventually graduating with an upper second class honors degree.

Pike appeared in a number of UK television series, including "Wives and Daughters" (1999), before scoring an auspicious feature film debut as the glacial beauty Miranda Frost in the James Bond film, Die Another Day (2002); when the film was released, she was only 23. Though her debut was a big-budget action film, the film work that followed was primarily in smaller, independent films including _Promised Land (II) (2004)_, The Libertine (2004), (for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award at The British Independent Film Awards), and Pride & Prejudice (2005), as one of the Bennet daughters. A brief foray into Hollywood film followed with the action flick Doom (2005) and the thriller Fracture (2007), but she returned to smaller films with exceptional performances in three films: An Education (2009), Made in Dagenham (2010), and the lead opposite Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version (2010).

As she continued her stage work in England, Pike appeared in the spy spoof Johnny English Reborn (2011) and inhabited the role of Andromeda in the sci-fi epic Wrath of the Titans (2012). She returned to action films with the female lead opposite Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher (2012).

Filmography

2014 Violet Town (pre-production)

2014 Hector and the Search for Happiness (filming)

2013 A Long Way Down (post-production)

2013 The World's End (post-production)

2012 Jack Reacher
Helen

2012 Wrath of the Titans
Andromeda

2012 Devil You Know
Zoe Hughes

2011 The Big Year
Jessica

2011 Johnny English Reborn
Kate Sumner

2011 The Organ Grinder's Monkey (short)
Rochelle

2011 Women in Love (TV series)
Gudrun Brangwen

2010 Made in Dagenham
Lisa Hopkins

2010 Barney's Version
Miriam Grant-Panofsky

2010 Jackboots on Whitehall
Daisy (voice)

2010 Burning Palms
Dedra

2009 Yesterday We Were in America (video)
Narrator

2009 Surrogates
Maggie

2009 Freefall (TV movie)
Anna

2009 An Education
Helen

2008 The Tower (TV movie)
Olivia Wynn

2007 Fugitive Pieces
Alex

2007 Fracture
Nikki Gardner

2005 Doom
Samantha Grimm

2005 Pride & Prejudice
Jane Bennet

2004 The Libertine
Elizabeth Malet

2004/II Promised Land
Rose

2002 Die Another Day
Miranda Frost

2002 Foyle's War (TV series)
Sarah Beaumont

2001 Love in a Cold Climate (TV mini-series)
Fanny

2000 Trial & Retribution (TV series)
Lucy - Barker's P.A.

1999 Wives and Daughters (TV mini-series)
Lady Harriet Cumnor / Lady Harriet

1998 A Rather English Marriage (TV movie)
Celia 

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Richard Armitage

Mini Biography

Richard Armitage was born and raised in Leicester, England. He attended Pattison College in Binley Road, Coventry, and studied at LAMDA (the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art). His first appearance on the screen was in a small role in This Year's Love (1999), but it was Sparkhouse (2002) (TV) that gave him a break-through role as the charming but a bit odd character of John Standring opposite Sarah Smart. After two guest-roles in "Cold Feet" (1997) in 2003 and "Between the Sheets" (2003), he landed a role as Steven in Frozen (2005/I), which eventually led him to play the lead role in the big hit BBC drama "North & South" (2004). Other than appearing on screen, he has also appeared on stage--in, for example, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Filmography

2014 The Hobbit: There and Back Again (post-production)
Thorin Oakenshield

2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (post-production)
Thorin Oakenshield

2013 Black Sky (post-production)
Gary Morris

2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Thorin

2010-2011 Strike Back (TV series)
John Porter / Sgt. John Porter

2011 Captain America: The First Avenger
Heinz Kruger

2002-2010 MI-5 (TV series)
Lucas North / Armed Police Officer

2006-2009 Robin Hood (TV series)
Guy of Gisborne / Guy of Gisbourne

2009 Moving On (TV series)
John Mulligan

2007 Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (TV movie)
Philip Durrant

2007 Miss Marie Lloyd (TV movie)
Percy Courtney

2007 Inspector George Gently (TV series)
Ricky Deeming

2006-2007 The Vicar of Dibley (TV series)
Harry Kennedy

2006 The Impressionists (TV mini-series)
Young Claude Monet

2005 ShakespeaRe-Told (TV mini-series)
Peter Macduff

2005 The Golden Hour (TV series)
Dr. Alec Track

2005 Malice Aforethought (TV movie)
William Chatford

2005 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV series)
Philip Turner

2005/I Frozen
Steven

2004 North & South (TV mini-series)
John Thornton

2003 Between the Sheets (TV mini-series)
Paul Andrews

2003 Ultimate Force (TV series)
Capt. Ian Macalwain

2003 Cold Feet (TV series)
Lee

2002 Sparkhouse (TV movie)
John Standring

2001 Casualty (TV series)
Craig Parker

2001 Doctors (TV series)
Dr. Tom Steele

2001 Macbeth (TV movie)
Angus

1999 Cleopatra (TV mini-series)
Epiphanes

1999 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Naboo Fighter Pilot (uncredited)

1999 This Year's Love
Smug Man at Party

1992 Boon (TV series)
Man in Pub 

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Rachel Weisz

Mini Biography

Rachel Weisz was born on 7th March 1970, in London, England, to Edith, an Austrian psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, a Hungarian inventor.

Rachel was a model when she was 14 and began acting during her studies at Cambridge University. While there, she formed a theater company named "Talking Tongues", which won the Guardian Award, at the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on Neville Southall's "Washbag". Rachel went on to star on stage in the lauded Sean Mathias revival of Noel Coward's "Design For Living". It was a role that won her a vote for Most Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle.

She has starred in many movies, including The Mummy (1999), Enemy at the Gates (2001) and Stealing Beauty (1996). Rachel can also be seen in the movies The Shape of Things (2003), About a Boy (2002), Constantine (2005) and The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She recently (early 2011) married "James Bond" actor, Daniel Craig in a private ceremony in New York.

Filmography

2013 Oz the Great and Powerful
Evanora

2012 The Bourne Legacy
Dr. Marta Shearing

2011 Dream House
Libby

2011 The Deep Blue Sea
Hester Collyer

2011 360
Rose

2011 Page Eight (TV movie)
Nancy Pierpan

2010 The Simpsons (TV series)
Dr. Thurmond

2010 The Whistleblower
Kathryn Bolkovac

2009 The Lovely Bones
Abigail Salmon

2009 Agora
Hypatia

2008 The Brothers Bloom
Penelope

2008 Definitely, Maybe
Summer Hartley

2007 Fred Claus
Wanda

2007 My Blueberry Nights
Sue Lynne

2006 Eragon
Saphira (voice)

2006 Eragon (Video Game)
Saphira (voice)

2006 The Fountain
Isabel / Izzi Creo

2005 The Constant Gardener
Tessa Quayle

2005 Constantine
Angela Dodson / Isabel Dodson

2004 Envy
Debbie Dingman

2003 Runaway Jury
Marlee

2003 Confidence
Lily

2003 The Shape of Things
Evelyn Ann Thompson

2002 About a Boy
Rachel

2001 The Mummy Returns
Evelyn/Nefertiri

2001 Enemy at the Gates
Tania Chernova

2000 Beautiful Creatures
Petula

2000 This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis
Lauren Hynde

1999 Tube Tales
Angela (segment "Rosebud")

1999 Sunshine
Greta

1999 The Mummy
Evelyn 'Evy' Carnahan

1998 My Summer with Des (TV movie)
Rosie

1998/I I Want You
Helen

1998 The Land Girls
Ag (Agapanthus)

1997 Swept from the Sea
Amy Foster

1997 Bent
Prostitute

1997 Going All the Way
Marty Pilcher

1996 Chain Reaction
Dr. Lily Sinclair

1996 Stealing Beauty
Miranda

1994 Death Machine
Junior Executive

1994 Screen Two (TV series)
Becca

1994 Seventeen (TV short)

1994 White Goods (TV movie)
Elaine

1993 The Scarlet and the Black (TV mini-series)
Mathilde

1993 Sweating Bullets (TV series)
Joey

1993 Inspector Morse (TV series)
Arabella Baydon

1992 Advocates II (TV movie)
Sarah Thompson 

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