An impresario of film and television, Garry Marshall created a vast TV world of long-running and interconnected shows that remain on the air to this day. He was also renowned as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. Garry Kent Marshall was born in the Bronx on November 13, 1934. He studied journalism before joining …
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As a Tony®-, Emmy®-, and Grammy®– winning and Oscar®-nominated director, Julie Taymor has changed the face of Broadway with her innovative direction. Julie was born on December 15, 1952, in Newton, Massachusetts. From an early age she was drawn to the stage, becoming one of the youngest members of the Boston theatrical community. At age 15 …
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One of the best-known media personalities of our time, Oprah Winfrey is a producer, actress, network CEO, and philanthropist. For 25 years she was a daily fixture as host of the award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in rural Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. While studying communications at Tennessee State …
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A teen heartthrob who then became one of the biggest movie stars in the world star, Johnny Depp is a rarity among actors, willing and able to mix swashbuckling leading-man performances with eccentric character roles. Perhaps best known among these parts is the internationally-beloved Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Nothing, …
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“I always wanted to be a Disney animator, but it was somewhat of an exotic idea,” Andreas Deja says. Exotic because Andreas was born in Gdansk, Poland, and grew up in Germany. “You’d tell your friends and family that your life’s goal was to go to America and work for Disney, and the reaction was, …
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“I think I always knew that I’d be an artist,” Carson Van Osten says, “and although I was too young to remember it, my parents told me that I said I wanted to draw cartoons for Walt Disney when I grew up.” And since 1970, Carson Van Osten has done just that. He’s helped bring …
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For decades, Disney Ambassadors have been a constant presence around the globe, attending special events, supporting charitable causes, and spreading goodwill. But the long tradition began with a single individual—Julie Reihm Casaletto, the very first Disneyland Ambassador. a personification of Disneyland’s world-famous spirit of friendliness and happiness Julie was born in Galveston, Texas, but the …
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Few filmmakers, no matter how successful, can claim to have created an entire universe—much less one that defined generations of young filmgoers—but that’s exactly what George Lucas did with Star Wars, the biggest film phenomenon of its time, and one that continues to make new fans to this day. George Walton Lucas, Jr. grew up …
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Few actors prove so dominant a presence that they practically define an entire genre, but Susan Lucci did just that in her four decades portraying Erica Kane on ABC’s fabled soap opera All My Children. It is a role that TV Guide deemed unequivocally the most famous character in the history of daytime television—and it …
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Daniel Elfman grew up immersed in movie music. “I could listen to the scores of Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, and Erich Korngold and identify them. I was really proud.” “I could hear something and go, ‘That’s definitely Max Steiner,’ and Nino Rota was huge. I loved playing the game of tuning into a movie on …
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