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- Writer
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Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast learner and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films. His partnership with Charles Brackett started in 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of Hollywood's classic comedies, including Ninotchka (1939) and Ball of Fire (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer-director one in 1942, with Brackett producing and the two turned out such classics as Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Lost Weekend (1945) (Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Oscars for Best Screenplay), after which the partnership dissolved. (Wilder had already made one film, Double Indemnity (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.) Wilder's subsequent self-produced films would become more caustic and cynical, notably Ace in the Hole (1951), though he also produced such sublime comedies as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) (which won him Best Picture and Director Oscars). He retired in 1981.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Personal life
Mario Casas, has 4 siblings. Born in La Coruña, although very young, at just 4 years old, he left with his family to Barcelona. Later, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the Spanish capital in an adventure in which he took his whole family with him.
His parents were very young when they had him; his mother, Heidi, was only 17 and his father, Ramon, 19. Only a year and a half later they had their sister, so they were very young and had two children. For Mario, his father is his "reference", while his mother, like his brothers, are his "confidants".
His mother has been raising her children, while his father is a cabinetmaker, but has also done construction and renovation work. Because of this work, his father had no problems moving to another city, so they decided to accompany Mario when he left for Madrid and settled with him in the city.
Mario has four other brothers and sisters, forming what he defines as "a Sicilian family", a family with many children established around a "matriarch". Mario, is the oldest of them all. He is followed by his sister Sheila, and two other brothers, named Christian and Oscar. Finally, the youngest member of the family, Daniel, who was born in 2014, and whom he considers almost as his "nephew" because of the enormous age difference.
He gets along well with all of them, although especially with his sister Sheila, as they have grown up together. Mario, a loyal tattoo lover, has one dedicated to each of his parents and siblings, with the initials of each one.
He remembers his childhood as "wonderful", although he had a bit of a hard time because he was given "a lot of cane" for being short, even the girls. He developed very late, until he was 15 years old, he continued to have the body of a child. Even so, he has always been a flirt, and had his first "girlfriend" at the age of 4.
As a child he liked everything: singing, dancing, ping-pong, football.... He says he liked to try everything, although he admits that he got tired fast. His professional career began as an "advertisement child", as he was involved in advertising as a child. He advertised Cola Cao, Telepizza, Scalextric... He eventually decided to become an actor after he had enrolled the Cristina Rota School of Dramatic Arts
He also keeps "lifelong" friends from school. They are the ones he made when he arrived in Barcelona and have always been with him. In his words, true friends who you can count on the fingers of one hand.
Over the years he dated a few fellow actresses he starred with in movies such as María Valverde and Berta Vázques. Since 2018, he is in a relationship with famous Spanish actress Blanca Suarez he played with in movies/tv shows such as: Carne de Neon (2010), El Barco (2011-2013), Mi Gran Noche (2015), and El Bar (2017).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Luis Zahera was born on 23 May 1966 in Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for Cell 211 (2009), The Candidate (2018) and The Beasts (2022).- Actor
- Additional Crew
With an intimidating face like craggy granite and a towering 6'5" solid frame, Mike Mazurki (born Mikhail Mazuruski or Mikhail Mazurkiewicz) was one of cinema's first serial thugs and specialized in playing strongarm men, gangsters and bullies for over 50 years on screen. Nearly always portrayed as a lowbrow muscle, in real life Mazurski was highly intelligent, very well read and a witty conversationalist. He was also an accomplished sportsman, having been a football player and a professional wrestler. He first appeared onscreen in uncredited roles in films such as Gentleman Jim (1942) and About Face (1942); however, his daunting bruiser looks were soon noticed and he became phenomenally busy in the 1940s, appearing in nearly 50 movies during the decade, including his well remembered performance as ex-con "Moose Malloy" in the film noir thriller Murder, My Sweet (1944) and as the gruesome "Splitface" in Dick Tracy (1945).
He continued his menacing onscreen presence throughout the 1950s and 1960s, often showing he could be quite adept at deadpan comedy in films including Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Donovan's Reef (1963) and The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967). Demand for his talents slowed down in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, as younger villains came to the fore; however, he still turned up in support roles and was still acting at the age of 83 when he passed away in December, 1990.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Luis Tosar was born on 13 October 1971 in Lugo, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for Cell 211 (2009), Sleep Tight (2011) and Take My Eyes (2003). He has been married to María Luisa Mayol since 10 August 2015. They have two children.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Pedro Alonso was born on 21 June 1971 in Vigo, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and director, known for Money Heist (2017), The Ministry of Time (2015) and Amigos invisíbeis (2007).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and eyes, 165 pounds. He joined the Yiddish Art Theatre in New York (1908) for 4 years, and then moved to other Yiddish theaters until 1926, when he "went into an American play" called "We Americans", his first English-language role. In 1927-28, he appeared in the plays "Four Walls", "This One Man", "Counsellor-at-Law", and others. He began with Fox in 1928. He would later alternate between Broadway and Hollywood for his roles, becoming one of the more distinguished actors in either venue. Failing eyesight and otherwise poor health forced him into retirement after his appearance in The Last Angry Man (1959).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg was born Israel Strassberg in Budzanov, Austria-Hungary (now Budanov, Ukraine). Brought to America as a child, he had a brief acting career, before becoming one of the founders of the Group Theatre in 1931, directing a number of plays there. His greatest influence, however, was through the Actors Studio, where he became director in 1950. A proponent of "method" acting, which he adapted from the "system" brought to America by Konstantin Stanislavski's disciple--and Marlon Brando's mentor--Stella Adler, he influenced several generations of actors, from James Dean to Dustin Hoffman. Film audiences would know him best as gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II (1974).- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to study film.- Javier Rey was born on 25 February 1980 in Galicia, Spain. He is an actor, known for Fariña (2018), Sin fin (2018) and Not the End (2014).
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Stunts
Tall, lean, austere-looking Austrian character actor, whose chiselled features appeared on screen in small parts from 1945. Friedrich was the younger brother of renowned Viennese stage and film actor and director Leopold von Ledebur, both descended from a distinguished aristocratic family (their forebears included several high-ranking luminaries among the clergy, as well as political and military leaders). As a cavalry officer in an Ulan (Light Cavalry) Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army, he saw action during the First World War. Friedrich was a superb rider, a skill which later stood him in good stead as a trainer of horses for the film industry. After the war, having gained an engineering diploma (which he rarely, if ever, put to use), he spent the next two decades travelling the world, working all manner of odd jobs from gold mining to deep sea diving, to riding and winning prize money at rodeos. Having finally settled down in the United States in 1939, he eventually anglicised his name to 'Frederick'.
A close friendship with a fellow adventurer, the director John Huston, paved the way for more substantial character roles in Hollywood. The first and best of these was as the laconic cannibal Queeqeg, chief harpooneer on the ship "Pequod" in Huston's Moby Dick (1956). This is unquestionably the role for which he is best remembered. Friedrich came to specialise in eccentric character roles, ranging from stoic Indian chiefs to Vikings, from German Field Marshals to imposing Pirate Captains and Spanish aristocrats. Latterly white-maned, he popped up in a wide variety of genres, from historical epics, to spy thrillers and European westerns, even as one of the monastic guardians of the devil in the "The Howling Man" episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
The actor was first married to English actress, poet and noted wit Iris Tree. His second wife (from 1955) was the Countess Alice Hoyos, who was descended from a titled Spanish dynasty, latterly resident in Austria.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Fernando Rey, the great Spanish movie actor primarily known in the United States for his role as "Frog One" in The French Connection (1971) and its sequel, was born Fernando Casado D'Arambillet on September 20 1917, in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, the son of Colonel Casado Veiga. Originally, the young Fernando intended to become an architect. However, when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, his architectural studies were interrupted, and he gained employment as a movie extra. He took the stage name "Fernando Rey" at the beginning of his career, equivalent, in English, to "Fernando King". Eight years after his movie debut, he was cast in his first major speaking role, as the Duke de Alba in José López Rubio's 1944 movie "Eugenia de Montijo".
Rey enjoyed a long and prosperous career as an actor in movies, the theater, radio, and television. He also was a major voice-over artist in Spain, narrating films and dubbing the voices of actors in foreign films. Rey's most fruitful collaboration was with the great director Luis Buñuel, which began during the 1960s and continued thought the 1970s. The films that Rey appeared in for Buñuel' made him an international star, the first produced by the Spanish cinema. By the early 1970s, Rey's career reached its high point, with his co-starring role in "The French Connection" (Best Picture Oscar Winner for 1971) and his starring role in Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) ("The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner for 1972). Rey followed up these successes by appearing in The French Connection (1971) in 1974, and Buñuel's tandem That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) ("That Obscure Object of Desire"), an art-house hit that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Ironically, in the film, Rey's voice was dubbed into French by Michel Piccoli. That same year, he won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for Carlos Saura' Elisa, My Life (1977).
Many honors came to Rey in the twilight of his career, during the 1980s and 1990s. He was awarded at San Sebastián and Cannes, and was presented with the gold medal of the Spanish Art and Movie Sciences Academy. He became the president of that Academy from 1992 till his death from cancer two years later.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Rodrigo Cortés was born in 1973 in Pazos Hermos, Ourense, Galicia, Spain. He is a director and editor, known for Buried (2010), Love Gets a Room (2021) and Red Lights (2012).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cristina Castaño was born on 30 October 1978 in Vilalba, Lugo, Galicia, Spain. She is an actress, known for I Can Quit Whenever I Want (2019), Toy Boy (2019) and La que se avecina (2007).- Martiño Rivas was born on 10 January 1985 in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor, known for The Boarding School (2007), Cable Girls (2017) and Los girasoles ciegos (2008).
- Actress
- Soundtrack
María Castro was born on 30 November 1981 in Vigo, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. She is an actress, known for Vive cantando (2013), Sin tetas no hay paraíso (2008) and SMS, sin miedo a soñar (2006). She has been married to José Manuel Villalba since 15 September 2018. They have one child.- Actor
- Editor
- Soundtrack
Tamar Novas was born on 3 October 1986 in Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and editor, known for Broken Embraces (2009), Nowhere (2023) and The Sea Inside (2004).- Chechu Salgado was born on 1 February 1991 in Sober, Lugo, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor, known for The Laws of the Border (2021), Tóxico and Fariña (2018).
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Anny Ondra was a Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French singer and a film and stage actress. As a child she lived in Prague, where her father was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army. After graduating from convent school in Prague, she studied to be an actress with Professor Bor. She was already a star in the Czech theater when, at age 16, the teenage beauty was discovered by the film industry.
From 1920--mostly under the direction of Karel Lamac--she became a major comedic star in Czech cinema, and in 1928 she conquered German cinema. Historically, she was Alfred Hitchcock's first blonde, appearing in his film Blackmail (1929), which was England's--and Hitchcock's--first talking film (Hitchcock, knowing that not all theaters supported talkies, also shot a silent version of the film). In 1930 in Germany she created, with the help of Karel Lamac, the Ondra-Lamac Film Society, which lasted till 1936. She was in Die vom Rummelplatz (1930) ("Those of the Sideshow") but the film, was lost and remains so to this day.
She played in German-, Czech- and French-language versions of all her movies, always as the leading lady. She became an international cinema superstar and one of the most beloved of German film stars. She appeared in more than 88 films. She retired from the industry in 1957 and lived in Hollenstedt in der Lüneburger Heide, Germany (near Hamburg), with her husband, boxing champion Max Schmeling, whom she married in 1933.
She died in Hollenstedt and will never be forgotten by her fans.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Nerea Barros was born on 12 May 1981 in Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. She is an actress and producer, known for Marshland (2014), Memoria (2022) and 36 (2021).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Carlos Blanco was born in 1959 in Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and director, known for Volver (2006), Heroína (2005) and Dhogs (2017).- Actress
- Producer
Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of the merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna, and she made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. In 1916 she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia next to the famous Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her. The next stage in her career was Vienna, where she posed as a model for the talented but deeply unhappy sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck. He fell in love with her, but she rejected him; his suicide soon afterwards shocked her. After performing in Vienna and Munich she came to Berlin in 1921. There she played in productions by Max Reinhardt and became a very popular actress.
During her early years as an actress, she was often helped by the poet and critic Albert Ehrenstein, whom she called Xaverl. Ehrenstein was also in love with her. At one time she promised him a child but changed her mind. Ehrenstein wrote numerous poems for her, but often she kept him at a distance. However, their friendship lasted and they continued to exchange letters.
She made her film debut in Der Evangelimann (1924). In 1924, director Paul Czinner gave her a part in Husbands or Lovers (1924). This was the beginning of their successful professional collaboration as well as their personal relationship. Her most successful silent movie was Fräulein Else (1929).
Bergner and Czinner were both Jews, and after the Nazis came to power, they emigrated to Vienna and then London, where they were married. She learned English and was able to continue her career. In London, she became friendly with G.B. Shaw and J.M. Barrie, who after a long hiatus from writing drafted a play for her; the result, The Boy David (1936), unfortunately was not successful. She also appeared as Gemma Jones in the movie version of Escape Me Never (1935) by Margaret Kennedy, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Her movie The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934) was forbidden in Germany.
During her London years, she sent much of her money to relatives and friends in need, among them Ehrenstein. Bergner's only Hollywood movie, Paris Calling (1941), failed to attract attention. On Broadway, she fared better and was very successful in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. While appearing in it, she encountered a young aspiring actress who stood in the alley outside the theater every night and claimed to have seen every performance; Bergner befriended and later hired her but broke with her after the young actress -- who called herself Martina Lawrence, the name of one of Bergner's twin characters in Stolen Life (1939) -- became over-interested in all aspects of Bergner's life. Bergner later recounted this story to her friend Mary Orr, a writer, who turned it into the short story "The Wisdom of Eve" -- which was the basis for the movie All About Eve (1950).
After the war, Bergner worked in New York for a few years; in 1950, she returned to England. She gave acclaimed Bible readings in Israel in English, German and Hebrew. In Germany, she resumed her stage career, and in 1959 she stunned audiences and critics in Berlin with her performance in Geliebter Lügner, a German version of Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar, a play based on the letters exchanged between G.B. Shaw and actress Stella Campbell. In 1961, she returned to the movies, and in 1970 she made her directorial debut. Her last stage appearance took place in 1973 (Her husband had died in 1972).
In 1978, a volume of her memoirs was published, in which she shared some of her secrets with the public, such as Lehmbruck's obsession with her. In 1979 she received the Ernst Lubitsch Prize and in 1982 the Eleonora Duse Prize. She discussed a possible return to Vienna with Bruno Kreisky, but she died from cancer at her home in London in 1986. In Seglitz (Berlin), a city park was named after her.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Born in Germany he went to America some time before the second World War and spent a year in Hollywood reading foreign scripts after which he returned to Berlin where he set up his own company to organise the remaking of foreign films into German language versions. One he handled was 'All Quiet on the Western Front', an anti war film that became a kind of personal crusade for him. On the opening night the Nazi's, then in power, put a bomb in the cinema. When the Nazis came into power he left Germany and divided his time between Britain, France and America. He changed his name to the more international sounding S.P. Eagle but changed it back when with 'On the Waterfront' he realised he'd made a film to which any man would be proud to put his name.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
One of the most respected cinematographers in the industry, Polish-born Rudolph Mate entered the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He worked in Hungary as an assistant cameraman for Alexander Korda and later worked throughout Europe with noted cameraman Karl Freund. Mate was hired to shoot some second-unit footage for Carl Theodor Dreyer and Erich Pommer, and they were so impressed with his work that they hired him as cinematographer on Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (US title: "The Passion of Joan of Arc"). Mate was soon working on some of Europe's most prestigious films, cementing his reputation as one of the continent's premier cinematographers. Hollywood came calling in 1935, and Mate shot films there for the next 12 years before turning to directing in 1947. Unfortunately, while many of his directorial efforts were visually impressive (especially his sci-fi epic When Worlds Collide (1951)), the films themselves were for the most part undistinguished, with his best work probably being the film-noir classic D.O.A. (1949).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Ramón Campos was born in 1975 in Noia, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. He is a writer and producer, known for Gran Hotel (2011), Now and Then (2022) and High Seas (2019).