Absolute Strangers
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Absolute Strangers
''Absolute Strangers'' is a 1991 made-for-television CBS docudrama featuring ''Happy Days'' star Henry Winkler returning to his first major TV role in eight years. The screenplay, written by Robert Woodruff Anderson, was based on the true story of a husband's controversial decision to have his wife undergo an abortion to aid her recovery after a head-trauma accident had left her comatose. The title is taken from the real-life court decision that used the phrase "absolute strangers", itself apparently derived from a courtroom outburst by the husband—to describe two anti-abortion activists, one of whom sued the husband to get custody of the fetus, the other to be appointed guardian of the comatose wife. The impending broadcast of the film spurred anti-abortion activists, including the American Family Association, to try to discourage advertisers from buying time during the show. These efforts provoked counter-demonstrations, and campaigns of letter-writing in support of the broadcas ...
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Gilbert Cates
Gilbert Cates (né Katz; June 6, 1934 – October 31, 2011) was an American film director and television producer, director of the Geffen Playhouse, a member of Cates/Doty Productions, and founding dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Cates is most known for having produced the Academy Awards telecast a record 14 times between 1990 and 2008. Personal life Cates was born Gilbert Katz in New York City, the son of Jewish parents Nina (née Peltzman) and Nathan Katz, who was a dress manufacturer. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, and graduated from Syracuse University. According to '' The Jewish Journal'', Cates stumbled into his profession by accident: While a pre-med student at Syracuse University, he joined the fencing team and was asked to instruct student actors in a production of ''Richard III'' on how to handle swords. He was so taken by the experience that he changed his major to theater. Cates was a member of the Reform Jewish Wilshire Boulevard T ...
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Primetime Emmy
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime Emmys are presented in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming. The award categories are divided into three classes: the regular Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards to honor technical and other similar behind-the-scenes achievements, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for recognizing significant contributions to the engineering and technological aspects of television. First given out in 1949, the award was originally referred to as simply the "Emmy Award" until the International Emmy Award and the Daytime Emmy Award were created in the early 1970s to expand the Emmy to other sectors of the television industry. The Primetime Emmy Awards generally air every September, on the Sun ...
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American Docudrama Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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Mitchell Laurance
Mitchell "Mitch" Laurance (born Mitchell Dycoff) is an American film and television actor and sports broadcaster. Early life, family and education Mitchell Dycoff was born in Queens, New York City, New York and raised in Hewlett, New York. He has an identical twin brother, Matthew (born four minutes later), who is also a professional actor. Both brothers are graduates of Tufts University. Career Mitchell Laurance and his identical twin brother Matthew Laurance appear occasionally together, beginning when they were children in a margarine TV commercial which featured identical twins, and later in an episode of the TV series ''Cop Rock''. Although Matthew was a performer on ''Saturday Night Live'' for its sixth season, Mitchell also appeared in uncredited roles on the show for a few seasons (1977–80) and was an associate director and producer for the show. In 1989, Mitchell was in a AT&T commercial where he played a man in a phone booth trying to dial Phoenix and was instead re ...
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René Auberjonois
René Murat Auberjonois (; June 1, 1940 – December 8, 2019) was an American actor and director. He was best known for portraying Odo on '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993–1999). He first achieved fame as a stage actor, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1970 for his portrayal of Sebastian Baye opposite Katharine Hepburn in the André Previn-Alan Jay Lerner musical '' Coco''. He went on to earn three more Tony nominations for performances in Neil Simon's '' The Good Doctor'' (1973), Roger Miller's '' Big River'' (1985), and Cy Coleman's '' City of Angels'' (1989); he won a Drama Desk Award for ''Big River''. A screen actor with more than 200 credits, Auberjonois was most famous for portraying characters in the main casts of several long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on ''Benson'' (1979–1986), for which he was an Emmy Award nominee, and Paul Lewiston on '' Boston Legal'' (2004–2008). In films, Auberjonois portray ...
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Alan Oppenheimer
Alan Oppenheimer (born April 23, 1930) is an American actor. He has performed numerous roles on live action television since the 1960s, and he has had an active career doing voice work since the 1970s. Early life Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 23, 1930, to Louis and Irene Oppenheimer. His father worked as a stockbroker. Career Character roles As a character actor, Oppenheimer has had diverse roles in popular American television programming, from playing a Nazi in '' Hogan's Heroes'', to playing an Israeli secret agent as well as a double-agent KAOS scientist on ''Get Smart'', to being the second actor to play Dr. Rudy Wells in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' (Martin Balsam played the role in the pilot telemovie). Oppenheimer took over as Rudy starting with the second film, "Wine, Women and War" up until the introduction of the bionic woman in 1975, whereupon Martin E. Brooks took over as Wells until cancellation). He was the original Mickey Malph (Ralph Malph's ...
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James Karen
James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in '' Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', '' Wall Street'', ''The Return of the Living Dead'', '' Invaders from Mars'' and ''The Pursuit of Happyness'', but was perhaps best known as the signature pitchman for Pathmark, famously appearing in commercials for the now-defunct East Coast-based supermarket chain from the late 1970s to the early 1990s which earned his nickname "Mr. Pathmark". Karen is also known for his recurring television role as Tom Bradford's boss, Eliot Randolph, in ''Eight Is Enough''. He was nominated for a Saturn Award for his 1985 role in ''The Return of the Living Dead''. He also appeared in an episode of ''Cheers'' as Frasier's mentor and the father of Carla's sixth child. Early life Karen was born Jacob Karnofsky in Wilkes-Barre, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the son of Russian-bor ...
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Tony Jay
Tony Jay (2 February 1933 – 13 August 2006) was a British actor. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in radio, animation, film, and video games. Jay was particularly noted for his distinctive baritone voice, which often led to him being cast in villainous roles. He was best known as the voice of Judge Claude Frollo in Disney's ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996), Megabyte in ''ReBoot'' (1994–2001), Shere Khan in ''The Jungle Book 2'' and the TV series ''TaleSpin'' (replacing George Sanders who played the character in original film), and the Elder God (plus various other roles) in the ''Legacy of Kain'' series of video games. Jay also made many distinguished on-screen appearances, including the role of Nigel St John on '' Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' (1993–1995). He further made guest appearances on programs including ''The Golden Girls'' in 1987, ''Twin Peaks'' in 1990–91, and ''Night Court'' in 1991. ...
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Steven Gilborn
Steven Neil Gilborn (July 15, 1936 – January 2, 2009) was an American actor and educator. Gilborn was born in New Rochelle, New York. He attended Swarthmore College, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in English and earned a Ph.D. in dramatic literature from Stanford University in 1969, where his dissertation provided a psychoanalytic perspective on the plays of the 19th-century French dramatist Émile Augier.Fox, Margalit"Steven Gilborn, Stage and Television Actor, Dies at 72" ''The New York Times'', January 12, 2009. Accessed January 12, 2009. Before becoming an actor, Gilborn was a professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and faculty adviser to the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He also taught at Stanford University, Columbia University and at the University of California, Berkeley. He was married to American landscape photographer Karen Halverson. Gilborn guest-starred in a number of notable television series, including '' Columbo' ...
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Vasili Bogazianos
Vasili Bogazianos (born February 1, 1945) is an American actor, best known for his role as Benny Sago #2 on the television series ''All My Children'', which he played from 1980 to 1990. He began his television career by playing the small role of Mickey Dials, alias Tobias, on ''The Edge of Night''. Later, he was hired to replace actor Lawrence Fleischman in the role of Benny. He had a recurring role on ''Home Improvement (TV series), Home Improvement'' as Antonio, a rude and sarcastic waiter at an Italian restaurant. He has also appeared on the California-produced serial ''Days of Our Lives'' as well as ''The Young and the Restless'' and, in 2004, spent a number of months on ''As the World Turns'' in the recurring role of gym manager Bud Simpson. He returned to ''All My Children'' for the funeral of Phoebe Wallingford (Ruth Warrick) in 2005. Filmography External links

* American male soap opera actors Male actors from New York (state) 1945 births Living people {{U ...
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Doris Belack
Doris Belack (February 26, 1926 – October 4, 2011) was an American character actress of stage, film and television. Life and career Belack was born in 1926 in New York City, the younger daughter of Isaac and Bertha Belack, Jewish immigrants from Russia. She had one sibling, an older sister. In 1955, she performed on the record ''Poetry of the Negro'' with Sidney Poitier. The record was produced by her husband, Philip Rose. Belack has been misidentified as the first "Mrs. Fish" to Abe Vigoda's character on ''Barney Miller''. She was actually only a one-episode replacement for actress Florence Stanley, who played "Mrs. Fish" ("Bernice Fish"). Before that, Belack was seen mainly in soap operas; she originated the role of Anna Wolek Craig for nearly a decade on ''One Life to Live''. She also appeared in '' Another World'' (three different roles over the show's 35-year run), '' The Doctors'' (1980, as psychiatrist Dr. Claudia Howard) and ''The Edge of Night'' (1981, as Beth B ...
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Jayne Atkinson
Jayne Atkinson (born 18 February 1959) is a British-American actress. She is best known for the role of Karen Hayes on '' 24'', as well as her Tony Award–nominated roles in '' The Rainmaker'' and '' Enchanted April''. She has also appeared in the CBS drama ''Criminal Minds'' as BAU Section Chief Erin Strauss, the CBS drama '' Madam Secretary'' as United States Vice President Teresa Hurst, and in the Netflix political drama ''House of Cards'' as U.S. Secretary of State Catherine Durant. Early life Atkinson was born on 18 February 1959 in Bournemouth, England. Her family moved to the United States in 1968 when she was 9 years old. She grew up in North Miami Beach, Florida, and graduated from Pine Crest School, where she was elected Homecoming Queen in 1977. She attended Northwestern University (BS Communications, 1981), where she was initiated as a member of Alpha Chi Omega and a sorority sister of Laura Innes; and graduated with an MFA from the Yale Drama School in 1985. Care ...
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