The Illustrated Directory Of Film Character Actors

A companion volume to Quinlan's illus. directory of film stars. B/W photos.

This is a guide to over 850 character actors and actresses. The people covered include John le Mesurier, Irene Handl, Dora Bryan and Sam Kydd from the British studios, and Elisha Cook, Iris Adrian, Hattie McDaniel and Irving Bacon from Hollywood. There is a photograph to accompany every entry in the book. After a short account of each actor's career and characteristics, all their known film credits are given, including many fleeting appearances never previously recorded, plus shorts and TV movies.

Including over 1800 entries, this guide provides a short biography for each star, with a complete filmography of all film, television, voice-overs and guest appearances. Those featured include Jim Carrey, Uma Thurman and Brad Pitt, and there is also updated information on all stars with re-assessments of career turnarounds, such as John Travolta and Tommy Lee Jones.

This illustrated volume documents the careers of 850 top film character actors and provides a character summary, a role-type description, a detailed filmography, and a photograph for each

Profiles over three hundred comedy actors, describing their personal life, professional methods, and career histories

This reference guide looks at the career histories of nearly 300 comedy stars, some of whom have a prodigious reputation resting only on one or two outstanding films. The author examines their methds and their sense of physical comedy with background stories as to how comic effects were achieved. Over 350 photographs illustrate entries for nearly 300 comedy stars, including John Cleese, Steve Martin and Danny De Vito and older favourites, the Marx Brothers, Mae West and Danny Kaye. Each entry is accompanied by a complete filmography, including film, TV and guest appearances, plus voice-over narrations and films directed.

With no formal training as an actor, Welsh-born Ray Milland (1907-1986), a former trooper in the British Army's Household Cavalry, enjoyed a half-century career working alongside some of the great directors and stars from the Golden Age of cinema. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as the alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend (1945), a defining moment that enabled him to break free from romantic leads and explore darker shades of his debonair demeanor, such as the veiled menace of his scheming husband in Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder (1954). A consummate professional with wide range, Milland took the directorial reins in several of his starring vehicles in the 1950s, most notably in the intelligent Western A Man Alone (1955). He comfortably slipped into most genres, from romantic comedy to adventure to film noir. Later he turned to science fiction and horror movies, including two with cult filmmaker Roger Corman. This first complete filmography covers the actor's screen career, with a concise introductory biography and an appendix listing his extensive radio and television credits.