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Louis DiGiaimo
Louis DiGiaimo (1938 – December 19, 2015) was an American casting director and film producer. He was one of the casting directors of Francis Ford Coppola's ''The Godfather'' and went on to help cast multiple films each for directors William Friedkin, Barry Levinson and Ridley Scott. He also produced Mike Newell's '' Donnie Brasco'' alongside Levinson and, in 1998, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Levinson's television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street''. Biography Early life and career DiGiaimo spent his childhood in Paterson, New Jersey. He graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University and worked as an accountant before embarking on a career as a casting director. His big break came in 1968 when he met director Martin Ritt, who was preparing to shoot the mafia drama '' The Brotherhood'', starring Kirk Douglas. DiGiaimo's manner in seeking out both actors and non-actors for ''The Brotherhood'' impressed Ritt, and the director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA). After directing ''The Rain People'' in 1969, Coppola co-wrote ''Patton'' (1970), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay along with Edmund H. North. Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of ''The Godfather'' (1972), which revolutionized the gangster genre of filmmaking, receiving strong commercial and critical reception. ''The Godfather'' won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Mario Puzo). His film ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics, the film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breakheart Pass (film)
''Breakheart Pass'' is a 1975 American Western film that stars Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, and Jill Ireland. Based on the 1974 novel of the same title by Scottish author Alistair MacLean (1922–1987), it was filmed in north central Idaho. Plot In the 1870s, residents of the garrison at the Fort Humboldt frontier outpost of the United States Army are reported to be suffering from a diphtheria epidemic. A special express train is heading up into the remote mountain ranges towards the fort filled with reinforcements and medical supplies. There are also civilian passengers on the train in the rear luxurious private car – Nevada Governor Fairchild (Richard Crenna) and his fiancée Marica (Jill Ireland), the daughter of the fort's commander. The train stops briefly in the small whistle stop settlement of Myrtle, where it takes on board local lawman United States Marshal Pearce (Ben Johnson) and his prisoner, John Deakin (Charles Bronson), a supposedly not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalon (1990 Film)
''Avalon'' is a 1990 American drama film written and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Joan Plowright, and Elijah Wood. It is the third in Levinson's semi-autobiographical tetralogy of "Baltimore films" set in his hometown during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s: ''Diner'' (1982), ''Tin Men'' (1987), and ''Liberty Heights'' (1999). The film explores the themes of Jewish assimilation into American life, through several generations of a Polish immigrant family from the 1910s through the 1950s. The film was released to critical acclaim, and was nominated for four Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Plot It is the late 1940s and early 1950s, and much has happened to the family of Polish Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky since he first arrived in America in 1914 and eventually settled in Baltimore. Television is new. Neighborhoods are changing, with more and more families moving to the suburbs. Wallpaper has been Sam's prof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sleepers (film)
''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Vittorio Gassman, Brad Renfro, Ron Eldard, Jeffrey Donovan, Terry Kinney, Joe Perrino, Geoffrey Wigdor, Jonathan Tucker, Bruno Kirby and Billy Crudup. The title is a slang term for juveniles who serve sentences longer than nine months. ''Sleepers'' was theatrically released in the United States on October 18, 1996 and was a box-office hit, grossing $165.6 million against a $44 million budget. Plot Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Tommy Marcano, Michael Sullivan, and John Reilly are childhood friends living in Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s. Father "Bobby" Carillo, their parish priest and a youth offender himself in the past, tries to teach them right from wrong. They still play pranks and start running small errands for loc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Hollywood
''Jimmy Hollywood'' is a 1994 American comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Joe Pesci and Christian Slater. It was released on April 1, 1994, and was a box office bomb, grossing just $3 million against its $30 million budget. While initially unsuccessful at the box office, it has since gained a cult following. Plot Jimmy Alto is a failing actor living in Los Angeles. After increasing frustration with his career going nowhere and with crime in the city, Jimmy, along with his "spaced-out" best friend William, decides to take the law into his own hands. After losing his job as a waiter, Jimmy transforms himself into "Jericho," leader of a mock-vigilante group that videotapes criminals and then turns them over to the police. Jimmy enjoys the free publicity, anonymously, but eventually the police begin to close in on him, resulting in a tense standoff at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. Cast * Joe Pesci as Jimmy Alto / Jericho * Christian Slater as William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rain Man
''Rain Man'' is a 1988 American road movie, road Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of abrasive, selfish young wikt:wheeler-dealer, wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), a Savant syndrome, savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left with only his father's beloved vintage car and rosebushes. Valeria Golino also stars as Charlie's girlfriend Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of ''Bill (1981 film), Bill'' (1981), an earlier film that Morrow wrote.Barry Morrow's audio commentary for ''Rain Man'' from the DVD release. ''Rain Man'' premiered at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good Morning, Vietnam
''Good Morning, Vietnam'' is a 1987 American war comedy film written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson. Set in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War, the film stars Robin Williams as a radio DJ on Armed Forces Radio Service, who proves hugely popular with the troops, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his "irreverent tendency". The story is loosely based on the experiences of AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer. Most of Williams' performances that portrayed Cronauer's radio broadcasts were improvisations. The film was released by Buena Vista Pictures (under its Touchstone Pictures banner) to critical and commercial success; for his work in the film, Williams won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film is number 100 on the American Film Institute's " 100 Years...100 Laughs" list, containing 100 movies conside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tin Men
''Tin Men'' is a 1987 American comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson, produced by Mark Johnson, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, and Barbara Hershey. It is the second of Levinson's tetralogy "Baltimore Films", set in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s: ''Diner'' (1982), ''Tin Men'' (1987), ''Avalon'' (1990), and ''Liberty Heights'' (1999). Plot Ernest Tilley and Bill "BB" Babowsky are rival door-to-door aluminum siding salesmen in Baltimore, Maryland in 1963, an era when "tin men," as they are called, will do almost anything—legal or illegal—to close a sale. BB is a smooth-talking con-artist who scams naive and comely young women with his sales pitches, while Tilley is a hapless loser. They first meet when BB, driving his new Cadillac off the lot, backs into Tilley's own Cadillac. Though Tilley had the right of way, each man blames the other, and an escalating feud erupts between them. After BB smashes Tilley's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Natural (film)
''The Natural'' is a 1984 American sports film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. Like the book, the film recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great "natural" baseball talent, spanning the decades of Roy's career. In direct contrast to the book, the film ends in a positive tone. It was the first film produced by TriStar Pictures. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Close), and it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger). Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in 1983 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York, built in 1937 and demolished in 1988. All-High Stadium, also in Buffalo, stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field in a key scene. Plot In 1910s Nebraska, a young Roy Hobbs learns to play baseball from his father. After Hobbs Sr. suffers an early fatal heart a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is among the List of best-selling music artists, world's best-selling music artists with an estimated 150 million record sales. Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate, easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. He found success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "Bobby soxer (music), bobby soxers". Sinatra released his debut album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'', in 1946. When his film career stalled in the early 1950s, Sinatra turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best-known concert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The First Deadly Sin
''The First Deadly Sin'' is a 1980 American crime thriller film produced by and starring Frank Sinatra. The film features Faye Dunaway, David Dukes, Brenda Vaccaro, James Whitmore, and Martin Gabel in his final role. The film is based on the 1973 novel of the same name written by Lawrence Sanders. The screenplay was written by Mann Rubin. The film originally was slated to be directed by Roman Polanski, who was dropped by Columbia Pictures after statutory rape charges were brought against him. Director Brian G. Hutton took over the production after Polanski fled to France. The last of nine films produced by Sinatra, and his final starring role, he plays NYPD Sergeant Edward X. Delaney, a troubled veteran New York City Police Department homicide detective. In a small role, Dunaway is Delaney's ailing wife, hospitalized during the entire story with a rare kidney affliction. Bruce Willis makes his film debut as an extra walking past Sinatra in a restaurant (although he is vir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian G
H. Brian Griffinas shown in Brian Griffin's House of Payne is a fictional character from the American animated television series ''Family Guy''. An anthropomorphic white labrador retriever voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he is one of the show's main characters as a member of the Griffin family. He primarily works in the series as a less-than-adept writer struggling to find himself, attempting essays, novels, screenplays, and newspaper articles. He first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself. MacFarlane was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company, based on ''The Life of Larry'' and ''Larry & Steve'', two shorts made by MacFarlane featuring a middle-aged character named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve. These two are now considered as Peter and Brian. After the pilot was given the green light, the Griffin family appeared in the episode " Death Has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
