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George Pan Cosmatos
George Pan Cosmatos (4 January 1941 – 19 April 2005) was a Greek-Italian film director and screenwriter. Following early success in his home country with drama films such as ''Massacre in Rome'' with Richard Burton (based on the real-life Ardeatine massacre), Cosmatos retooled his career towards mainstream "blockbuster" action and adventure films, including ''The Cassandra Crossing'' and ''Escape to Athena'', both of which were British-Italian co-productions. After relocating to North America, he directed the horror film '' Of Unknown Origin''. This was followed by some of his best-known work, including the action films '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' and '' Cobra'' (both of which star Sylvester Stallone), the science-fiction horror film ''Leviathan'', and the critically acclaimed Western ''Tombstone''. Early life Cosmatos was born to a Greek family in Florence, Italy, and grew up in Egypt and Cyprus. He is said to have spoken six languages. After studying film at the London ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico anno 2013, datISTAT/ref> Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as '' Laura'' (1944) and ''Fallen Angel'' (1945), while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with themes which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (''The Man with the Golden Arm'', 1955), rape (''Anatomy of a Murder'', 1959) and homosexuality (''Advise & Consent'', 1962). He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. He also had several acting roles. Early life Preminger was born in 1905 in Wischnitz, Bukovina, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Vyzhnytsia, Ukraine), into a Jewish family. His parents were Josefa (née Fraenke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) was an entertainment production company and distribution studio founded by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. The company is notable for producing '' Manhunter'', '' Blue Velvet'', the horror films ''Near Dark'' and ''Evil Dead II'', ''King Kong Lives'' (the sequel to De Laurentiis' remake of ''King Kong''), and ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'', as well as distributing '' The Transformers: The Movie''. The company's main studios were located in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is now EUE/Screen Gems Studios. The studio's first releases were in 1986. It went bankrupt two years later after '' Million Dollar Mystery'', among other films, failed at the box office. Carolco Pictures acquired DEG in 1989. History In 1983, Dino De Laurentiis produced '' Firestarter'' in Wilmington. The governor of North Carolina, Jim Hunt, claimed that the filming increased economic activity in the state. Hunt used incentives and loans to allow De Lauren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudia Cardinale
Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English. Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition in 1957, the prize being a trip to Italy, which quickly led to film contracts, due above all to the involvement of Franco Cristaldi, who acted as her mentor for a number of years and later married her. After making her debut in a minor role with the Egyptian star Omar Sharif in ''Goha'' (1958), Cardinale became one of the best-known actresses in Italy with roles in films such as ''Rocco and His Brothers'' (1960), ''Girl with a Suitcase'' (1961), ''Cartouche (film), Cartouche'' (1962), ''The Leopard (1963 film), The Leopard'' (1963), and Federico Fellini, Fellini's ''8½'' (1963). From 1963, Cardinale appeared in ''The Pink Panther (1963 film), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s. Elliott's breakthrough role was in the ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The following year Gould starred as Capt. Trapper John in Robert Altman film ''M*A*S*H'' (1970) for which he received BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. He continued working with Altman in '' The Long Goodbye'' (1973) and ''California Split'' (1974). Other notable film roles include Alan Arkin's ''Little Murders'' (1971), Ingmar Bergman's '' The Touch'' (1971), Richard Attenborough's '' A Bridge Too Far'' (1977), ''Capricorn One'' (1978), ''The Silent Partner'' (1978), Warren Beatty's '' Bugsy'' (1991), ''American History X'' (1998), Steven Soderbergh's '' Contagion'' (2011), and ''Ruby Sparks'' (2012). He starred as Reuben Tishkoff in the ''Ocean's'' film series (2001, 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer whose career spanned four decades. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on the crime drama series ''Kojak'' (1973–1978) and James Bond archvillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the film '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' (1969). Savalas' other roles include ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965), ''Battle of the Bulge'' (1965), ''The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes'' (1970), ''Horror Express'' (1972), ''Lisa and the Devil'' (1974) and ''Escape to Athena'' (1979). For ''Birdman of Alcatraz'', he was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. As a singer, Savalas released a cover of the Bread song " If", which became a UK No. 1 single in 1975. The song also peaked at number 12 in Australia. Early life Aristotelis Savalas was born in Garden Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Niven
James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946), Phileas Fogg in ''Around the World in 80 Days'' (1956), Sir Charles Lytton ("the Phantom") in ''The Pink Panther'' (1963), and James Bond in '' Casino Royale'' (1967). Born in London, Niven attended Heatherdown Preparatory School and Stowe School before gaining a place at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After Sandhurst, he joined the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. Upon developing an interest in acting, he found a role as an extra in the British film ''There Goes the Bride'' (1932). Bored with the peacetime army, he resigned his commission in 1933, relocated to New York, then travelled to Holly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985. Moore's seven appearances as Bond, from '' Live and Let Die'' to ''A View to a Kill'', are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries. On television, Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series ''The Saint'' (1962–1969). He also had roles in American series, including Beau Maverick on the Western ''Maverick'' (1960–1961), in which he replaced James Garner as the lead, and a co-lead, with Tony Curtis, in the action-comedy ''The Persuaders!'' (1971–1972). Continuing to act on screen in the decades after his retirement from the Bond franchise, Moore's final appearance was in a pilot for a new ''Saint'' series that became a 2017 television film. Moore was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. As of 2022, she is one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema and is the only remaining living person to appear on the AFI's list of the 25 greatest female stars of American film history, positioned at number 21. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant, Loren began her film career at age sixteen in 1950. She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Her film appearances around this time include ''The Pride and the Passion'', '' Houseboat'', and ''It Started in Naples''. During the 1950s, she starred in films as a sexually emancipated persona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top directors in a career spanning 147 films between 1939 and 1997, and garnered many international honors including 2 BAFTA Awards, 2 Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, 2 Golden Globes, and 3 Academy Award nominations. Born in the province of Frosinone and raised in Turin and Rome, Mastroianni made his film debut in 1939 at the age of 14, but did not seriously pursue acting until the 1950s, when he made his critical and commercial breakthrough in the caper comedy ''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' (1959). He became an international celebrity through his collaborations with director Federico Fellini, first as a disillusioned tabloid columnist in ''La Dolce Vita'' (1960), then as a creatively-stifled filmmaker in ''8½'' (1963 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rappresaglia
''Massacre in Rome'' ( it, Rappresaglia) is a 1973 Italian war drama film directed by George Pan Cosmatos about the Ardeatine massacre which occurred at the Ardeatine caves in Rome, 24 March 1944, committed by the Germans as a reprisal for a partisan attack against the SS Police Regiment Bozen. The film was based on the 1967 book ''Death in Rome'' by Robert Katz. An Italian court gave producer Carlo Ponti and director Cosmatos a six-month suspended sentence for their film which claimed Pope Pius XII knew of and did nothing about the execution of Italian hostages by the Germans. The charges eventually were dropped on appeal. The names of the victims are shown in the closing credits, as opposed to the cast credits and crew members. Plot The film stars Richard Burton as the Rome Gestapo chief Herbert Kappler, who carries out the killings of 335 mostly randomly and hurriedly selected victims in revenge for partisans killing 33 Germans: using a ratio of ten Italian victims for ever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
