Category: Oscar Profile

Born November 22, 1974 in Savannah, Tennessee, Elizabeth Patterson was the daughter of a confederate soldier who became a judge. Educated at Martin College with postgraduate work at Columbia Institute in Tennessee, Patterson’s parents sent her to Europe hoping the experience would diminish her interest in becoming an actress, but it only intensified her determination.…

Born October 1, 1930 to a farming family in Limerick, Ireland, Richard Harris was bound for a career in rugby when a teenage bout with tuberculosis steered him in the direction of the theatre instead. After honing his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Harris appeared in several stage and TV…

Born January 30, 1937 in London, England to acting giants Michael Redgrave (1908-1985) and Rachel Kempson (1910-2003), Vanessa Redgrave was the eldest of the couple’s three children which later included equally acclaimed actors Corin Redgrave (1939-2010) and Lynn Redgrave (1943-2010). The young actress made her stage debut in London’s west end in 1958 opposite her…

Born February 11, 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was the younger brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897-1953), the Oscar-winning co-writer of Citizen Kane. Young Joe Mankiewicz received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1928 at the age of 19. His college professor father sent him to Berlin to study German drama at…

Born May 9, 1936 in Birkenhead, England to working class parents, Glenda Jackson was named after actress Glenda Farrell. Having performed with a local acting group while in her teens, she received a scholarship to the London based Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1954. She made her professional acting debut in a RADA production…

Born April 13, 1924 in Columbia, South Carolina to Moses and Helen Donen, Stanley Donen was a lonely and unhappy child who spent much of his youth in movie theatres. His favorite film was the 1933 Astaire-Rogers film, Flying Down to Rio which he saw between thirty and forty times. He shot and screened home…

Born July 22, 1955 in Appleton, Wisconsin, William J, Dafoe was one of eight children whose parents were a surgeon and a nurse who worked together constantly, leaving the future actor to be raised by his five older sisters. He became known as “Willem”, the Dutch name for “William”, while in high school. Dafoe studied…

Born May 31, 1908 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Dominic Felix Amichi, known professionally as Don Ameche, the actor was one of eight children and after his 1932 marriage, became the father of six. Having played in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, Ameche became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which led to the offer…

Born June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri to Patsy and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer who grew up in China as the son of a Methodist missionary, (Mary) Kathleen Turner also grew up abroad. After graduating from the American School in London, her father died of a coronary thrombosis and she and…

Born February 17, 1934 in Derbyshire, England, Alan Bates was the eldest of three sons of an insurance broker and a housewife. Wanting to be an actor from the age of 11, he won a scholarship to RADA (the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) where his classmates included Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole. After…

Born August 15, 1990 in Louisville, Kentucky, Jennifer Lawrence is thus far the only person born in the 1990s to have won an acting Oscar. During her childhood, Lawrence performed in church plays and school musicals. Spotted by a talent scout when she was 14, her family moved to Los Angeles in support of her…

Born April 28, 1958 in Santa Ana, California to Donna and Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor, Michelle Pfeiffer has an older brother, Rick, and two younger sisters, Deedee and Lori, both of whom have acted. She made her acting debut in 1978 as the bombshell in the TV series, Delta House. In minor…

Born February 1, 1908 in Cegléd, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) the son of stage entertainers, George Marczincsak was educated at the Budapest Academy of Arts, graduating in 1928 with a degree in architecture. Highly skilled at drawing, with no prospects for a job as an architect, he went to work for Hunnia Films in Budapest. There…

Born November 1, 1972 in Sydney, Australia, Toni Collet(e) was the first of three children of Judith (née Cook), a customer service representative and Bob Collet, a truck driver. At the age of eleven, she faked appendicitis out of boredom, her act so convincing that doctors had to remove her appendix even though the tests…

Born March 21, 1958 in London, England to a welder and his homemaker wife, Gary Oldman’s alcoholic father left home when he was seven. Raised from then by his now 99-year-old mother, Oldman left school at 16 to work in a sports shop. A pianist as a child, and later a singer, he gave both…