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The Gambler (1974 Film)
''The Gambler'' is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino and Lauren Hutton. Caan's performance was widely lauded and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Plot Axel Freed is an English professor in New York City with a gambling addiction that begins to spiral out of control. In the classroom, Freed inspires his college students with his interpretations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. In his personal life, Axel has the affection of the beautiful Billie and the admiration of his family, including his mother, Naomi, who is a doctor, and his grandfather, a wealthy businessman. Axel's gambling has left him with a huge debt. His bookie, a mafioso known as Hips, likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he does not pay it soon. When Billie, having been informed by Axel that he owes $44,000, questions the wisdom of her associating with him, Axel confidently tells her she loves his life's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960), a classic of kitchen sink realism, and the romantic period drama ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981). Early life Reisz was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia of Jewish extraction.Milne, Tom"Obituary: Karel Reisz"''Guardian.co.uk'', 28 November 2002 (Retrieved: 3 July 2009) His father was a lawyer. He was a refugee, one of the 669 rescued by Sir Nicholas Winton. He came to England in 1938, speaking almost no English, but eradicated his foreign accent as quickly as possible. After attending Leighton Park School, he joined the Royal Air Force toward the end of the war; his parents were murdered at Auschwitz. Following his war service, he read Natural Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and began to write for fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 February 1881), sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include ''Crime and Punishment'' (1866), ''The Idiot'' (1869), ''Demons'' (1872), and ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (1880). His 1864 novella, ''Notes from Underground'', is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as many of his works are considered highly influen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ric Mancini
Enrico P. Mancini (April 16, 1933 – May 26, 2006) was an American film and television actor. He played Mayor Cobb in the 1985 film '' Friday the 13th: A New Beginning''. He also played Sal in the 1974 film '' The Gambler'' and Steve in the 1984 television film ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. Career Mancini started his acting career playing Marco in a 1964 production of the play ''A View from the Bridge''. Mancini continued to appear on stage and in television commercials, before starting to appear in films and on television in the 1970s, first appearing in '' McCloud''. Mancini later appeared in films and television programs including ''The Rockford Files'', ''M*A*S*H'', ''Deep Cover'', ''Charlie's Angels'', ''Ed Wood'', ''Across 110th Street'', ''Laverne & Shirley'', '' Who's the Boss?'', ''Ghostbusters'', ''Quantum Leap'', ''Nickelodeon'' and ''The A-Team''. Mancini died in May 2006 in Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Margolin
Stuart Margolin (January 31, 1940 – December 12, 2022) was an American film, theater, and television actor and director who won two Emmy Awards for playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin on the 1970s television series ''The Rockford Files''. In 1973, he played in ''Gunsmoke'' as an outlaw. The next year he played an important role, giving Charles Bronson his first gun in '' Death Wish''. In 1981, Margolin portrayed the character of Philo Sandeen in a recurring role as a Native American tracker in the 1981–1982 television series, ''Bret Maverick''. Early life Margolin was born January 31, 1940 in Davenport, Iowa, to Morris and Gertrude Margolin but spent much of his childhood in Dallas, Texas, where he learned to golf. Margolin stated that he led a "hoodlum" childhood, was kicked out of Texas public schools, and was sent by his parents to a boarding school in Tennessee. While he attended that school, his family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. When Margolin was released from reform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Rich
Benjamin Norman Schultz (February 8, 1926 – August 22, 2020), known professionally as Allan Rich, was an American character actor. Career Rich began his acting career when he was nine years old. He appeared in the Broadway productions ''I'll Take the High Road'' (1943), ''Career Angel'' (1944), ''Darkness at Noon'' (1951), and ''The Emperor's Clothes'' (1953). In 1948, Rich played the title role in a production of Ben Jonson's ''Volpone'' in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Beginning in 1979, Rich was distributor and publisher of Hollywood portraits made by George Hurrell. Personal life and death Allan Rich was one of the many alleged communist sympathizers blacklisted in the 1950s Hollywood blacklist. He married Elaine in 1951, who would go on to be a personal manager to a number of actors after the couple moved to Los Angeles in 1976. The couple had two children together, Marian and David. Elaine Rich died in 2015, aged 81. He mentored Rene Russo in acting. Rich spent the last fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Woods
James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his work in various film, stage, and television productions. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in '' The Trial of the Catonsville Nine'' alongside Sam Waterston and Michael Moriarty on Broadway. In 1978, he made his television breakthrough alongside Meryl Streep, playing her husband in the critically acclaimed four-part miniseries ''Holocaust,'' which received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. After his film debut in Elia Kazan's '' The Visitors'', he had supporting roles in films, including Sydney Pollack's ''The Way We Were'' and Arthur Penn's '' Night Moves'' (1975). In 1979, he gained acclaim for his leading role as Gregory Powell in the crime thriller '' The Onion Field''. For the next two decades, Woods went on to work with directors such as David Cronenberg (''Videodrome''), Oliver Stone ('' Salvador'' and ''Nixon''), Ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Lee
London Alan Levine (February 4, 1935 – September 29, 2015), better known as London Lee, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Early life Lee grew up in Closter, New Jersey. He claimed that he was born in London, England while his parents were on vacation, and that he was named after that city. His father was Mike Levine, a wealthy New York garment manufacturer. After graduating from New York University with a degree in psychology, he began work as a dress salesman for his father's company. He disliked the work and started his own record company, U.S.A. Records, which failed. After the record venture ended he took a succession of other jobs, including music publisher, personal manager and clothing manufacturer, interspersed with working for his father. He moved to Los Angeles, working as a cab driver by day and a dishwasher by night. One night he told jokes to a group of friends, and was encouraged to perform on-stage. Career His comedy routines were based on his b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Keats
Steven Keats (born Steven Paul Keitz; February 6, 1945 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor who appeared in such films as '' Death Wish'' (as Charles Bronson's character's son-in-law), '' Black Sunday'' and the Chuck Norris thriller ''Silent Rage''. Early life and education Keats was born in the Bronx to Francis (née Rebold) and Daniel David Keitz. His father was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to Polish Jewish parents from Warsaw. His mother was born in New York, also to a Polish Jewish family. As a small child his father was the proprietor of a camera store and the family lived on Bryant Avenue in the South Bronx. He grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York. At the time of his graduation from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1962 he was living in Bay View Houses, a public housing project.Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016 atabase on-line Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. After serving a tour of duty in Vietnam with the United States Air Force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vic Tayback
Victor E. Tayback (January 6, 1930 – May 25, 1990) was an American actor. He is known for his role as Mel Sharples in the film '' Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' (1974) and the television series '' Alice'' (1976–1985). The latter earned him two consecutive Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Life and career Tayback was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Helen (née Hanood) and Najeeb James Tayback. His parents were immigrants from Aleppo, Syria. He moved with his family to Burbank, California during his teenage years and attended Burbank High School, from which he graduated in 1947. He also attended Glendale Community College and the Frederick A. Speare School of Radio and TV Broadcasting. Tayback served in the United States Navy before beginning his acting career at the age of 25. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, he was a familiar face on television in the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on numerous series, including ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmine Caridi
Carmine Caridi (January 23, 1934 – May 28, 2019) was an American film, television and stage actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) and ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990). In 2004, Caridi became the first person to be expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Life and career Caridi's most notable film roles are Carmine Rosato in ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974) and Albert Volpe in ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990). He is one of three actors to play two different roles in the ''Godfather'' films; the others being Frank Sivero (who played a young Genco Abbandando in ''Godfather Part II'' and a bystander to the fight between Sonny Corleone and Carlo Rizzi in ''The Godfather''), and Sofia Coppola (who played Mary Corleone in ''Godfather Part III'' and the infant son of Carlo and Connie baptized in the final scenes of ''The Godfather'' as well as a child on the ship at the beginning of ''Godfather Part II''). Accord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacqueline Brookes
Jacqueline Victoire Brookes (July 24, 1930 – April 26, 2013) was an American film, television, and stage actress, best known for her work both off-Broadway and on Broadway. Life and career Brookes was born in Montclair, New Jersey, the daughter of Maria Victoire (née Zur Haar) and Frederick Jack Brookes, an investment banker. She attended a French-speaking school in New York and spoke fluent French. She chose to attend the University of Iowa, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Then she went to London on a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. During the 1960s, she spent several summers acting in the Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, performing in plays such as ''Antony and Cleopatra'', ''A Winter's Tale'', ''The Merchant of Venice'', ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', and ''Richard III''. During that era, she also performed Rosalind in ''As You Like It'' at the New Mexico State Univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of the ghetto appear across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people. The term was originally used for the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, as early as 1516, to describe the part of the city where Jewish people were restricted to live and thus segregated from other people. However, early societies may have formed their own versions of the same structure; words resembling ''ghetto'' in meaning appear in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian, Germanic, Old French, and Latin. During the Holocaust, more than 1,000 Nazi ghettos were established to hold Jewish populations, with the goal of exploiting and killing the Jews as part of the Final Solution. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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