Adam Sandler

Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is a Jewish-American actor, comedian, producer, and musician who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In the late 1980s, Sandler portrayed "Smitty" on The Cosby Show (1985-1989). He also was a performer for the MTV game show Remote Control, on which he made appearances as the characters "Trivia Delinquent" or "Stud Boy."

Sandler started performing in comedy clubs by spontaneously taking the stage at a club in Boston. He was then discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller immediately recommended him to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels. Sandler was hired as a writer for "SNL" in 1990 and became a featured player the following year, quickly making a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including The Chanukah Song. He left the show in 1995 to focus on his acting career.

Sandler's first starring vehicle was the cult frat-boy classic Billy Madison, in which he plays a grown man repeating grades 1-12 to get his reluctant father's hotel empire. He followed this movie up with other surprisingly successful comedies such as Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Wedding Singer (1998). After The Waterboy (1998) Sandler reached box-office superstardom, where he has remained since.

Although generally despised by movie critics, audiences have remained faithful to Sandler's slapstick humor to the tune of $100-million-plus grossing movies. Sandler has moved outside the genre of goofball humor to take on more serious parts such as the critically acclaimed Punch-Drunk Love (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), and Spanglish. At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004).

A celebrity comic who keeps a low profile, he rarely gives interviews and keeps his personal life private. Nonetheless, he sporadicly posts short video messages on his website (www.AdamSandler.com) on updates in his life he can afford to share with his fans. Sandler graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1991. On June 22, 2003, he wed model Jackie Titone, whom he'd met on the set of Big Daddy. Sandler and Titone worked together again in the Rob Schneider comedy Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, which Sandler executive-produced. He also has his own production company, Happy Madison, named from two of his most popular early films.

Since Chris Farley's death, in Adam Sandler's movies there is usually a reference to Farley.

Adam is one of Hollywood's perceived few members of the Republican Party and has performed at RNC functions.

Filmography

• Going Overboard (1989)
• Shakes the Clown (1992)
• Coneheads (1993)
• Airheads (1994)
• Mixed Nuts (1994)
• Billy Madison (1995) (also writer)
• Happy Gilmore (1996) (also writer)
• Bulletproof (1996)
• The Wedding Singer (1998)
• Dirty Work (1998) (Cameo)
• The Waterboy (1998) (also executive producer and writer)
• Big Daddy (1999) (also executive producer and writer)
• Little Nicky (2000) (also executive producer and writer)
• The Animal (2001) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
• Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
• Mr. Deeds (2002) (also executive producer)
• Eight Crazy Nights (2002) (voice) (also writer and producer)
• A Day with the Meatball (2002) (short subject)
• The Hot Chick (2002) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
• Anger Management (2003) (also executive producer)
• Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) (documentary) (voice only)
• Stupidity (2003) (documentary)
• 50 First Dates (2004)
• Spanglish (2004)
• The Longest Yard (2005)
• Click (2006) (currently filming) (also producer and writer)
• The Benchwarmers (2006) (currently in post-production) (also writer)

Orlando Bloom

January 13, 1977 - Canterbury, Kent, England. Bloom was raised in Canterbury, Kent, with his sister, Samantha. Their mother taught them to enjoy the arts and encouraged them to participate in the local Kent Festival. Bloom began by reciting poetry and prose, displaying an advanced sensitivity to tone and modulation. Yet, it wasn't this precociousness or his frequent trips to the theater that influenced Bloom to become a professional actor. He was in awe of larger-than-life characters -- from Superman to the members of the A-Team -- and knew the only way to become one was to play one on the screen.

At 16, Bloom relocated to London and performed with the National Youth Theatre for two seasons before winning a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. At the conclusion of his term with the group, he played the lead in A Walk in the Vienna Woods, and secured an agent. This led to small roles on British television and an appearance in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997). Wishing to further his education, Bloom then enrolled at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the alma mater of Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, and Ben Chaplin, among others). There, he acted in several plays, including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Chekov's Three Sisters, and Sophocles' Antigone.

While still in school, Bloom was trying to make it onto a friend's rooftop terrace when he fell three stories and broke his back. The accident almost paralyzed the actor, but surgery let him walk out of the hospital on crutches. Soon afterward, all his peers auditioned for coveted roles in the upcoming The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The extensive and selective casting process took place in every English-speaking country. Bloom good-naturedly tried out for the role of Faramir, a character introduced in the second film, The Two Towers (2002). After meeting with the project's director, Peter Jackson, Bloom was not cast as Faramir. Instead, Jackson asked that he read for the part of Legolas Greenleaf, a much more prominent figure who is featured in all three films. The director offered Bloom the role a few weeks later, only two days before the burgeoning star graduated from drama school.

Legolas, Tolkien's warrior elf, has super-human strength, swift reflexes, and heightened sensory awareness. To play him, Bloom trained in archery, swordplay, and horseback riding for two months prior to shooting. He developed a graceful style of combat based on the characters in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and worked to manage his posture, poise, and composure. As Legolas, Bloom is immortal, and at 2,931 years old, is a tall, athletic, and skilled fighter of evil -- he truly is larger than life.

After finishing The Lord of the Rings -- all three films, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, were shot simultaneously over 18 months in New Zealand -- Bloom headed to Morocco for a role in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The film chronicles the horrific Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, in which a "simple" mission left 18 U.S. soldiers dead and 73 wounded. Debuting his American accent, Bloom plays a neophyte ranger who breaks his back after falling 70 feet from a helicopter. This combat film opened only a few weeks after The Fellowship of the Ring and received equal acclaim.

Following these blockbusters, Bloom performed in several quirky films with limited releases such as Lullaby of Clubland (2001). But it wouldn't be long before Bloom was blowing up the box-office once again with the 2003 crowd-pleaser The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Bloom showed up opposite Brad Pitt and Black Hawk Dawn costar Eric Bana in the 2004 historical epic Troy, his intense star-power was unquestionable.

Bloom faced a down year in 2005, failing to match the box office success of Troy with Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. That same year he stepped into the role once occupied by Ashton Kutcher in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (a romantic comedy opposite screen heartthrob Kirsten Dunst), but the film never recovered from the bad press it received after its initial film festival screening, failed to find an audience in theaters, and was unpopular with critics. Bloom rebounded one year later by returning with the other principles in back-to-back filmed sequels for Pirates of the Caribbean, the first of which, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, shattered box office records for opening day and opening weekend, and became the first film to take in one hundred million dollars in just two days. It will hardly strike one as prescient, then, that industry insiders and the trades were advance prepping Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End as one of the most lucrative releases of 2007, possibly of any year. That installment finds Bloom's Will Turner, Knightley's Elizabeth Swann, and Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbosa setting out to rescue Captain Jack Sparrow from the mental tortures of Davy Jones's Locker, and ultimately battling Pirate Sao-Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) beyond the literal end of the world, where the seas fall off into an empty void.

In the mean time, however, Bloom shifted gears, turning away from epic action and giving romantic comedy a sophomore try after the lackluster Elizabethtown. Bloom essayed a small supporting role in the Alex Keshishian-directed Love and Other Disasters (2006), about a fashion editor for Vogue Paris (Brittany Murphy) who attempts to play matchmaker between two gay men (Matthew Rhys, Santiago Cabrera). The studios slated that picture (which debuted at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival) for U.S. release in 2007.

Colin Farrell

Colin James Farrell (Born May 31, 1976) is an Irish actor who has appeared in several high-profile Hollywood films including Daredevil, Miami Vice, Minority Report, Phone Booth and S.W.A.T..

Farrell was born prematurely, weighing 1 pound 6 ounces, in Castleknock, Dublin to Rita and Eamon Farrell. His father was a footballer who played for Shamrock Rovers FC. Farrell has three siblings, two sisters, Claudine and Catherine, and a brother, Eamon Jr.

Farrell was educated at St. Brigid's National School in Castleknock followed by Castleknock College and Gormanston College. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was a promising young football player for Dublin team, Castleknock Celtic, as a goalkeeper. Farrell attended The Gaiety School of Acting, but dropped out and was cast in the part of Danny Byrne on Ballykissangel, a BBC television drama. Farrell appeared on the show from 1998 to 1999.

Farrell had a number of small parts in various TV shows and movies, until 2000, when he was cast in the part of Private Roland Bozz in Tigerland, an American film directed by Joel Schumacher. Farrell's next American films, American Outlaws (2001) and Hart's War (2002), were not commercially successful, but his 2003 films, including Phone Booth, S.W.A.T. and The Recruit were well-received box office successes. Although he has a pronounced Irish accent, Farrell uses an American accent in some of his films including American Outlaws and his breakthrough role, Tigerland. Farrell is also a proven supporting actor, given his performances as an ambitious cop who chases after a potential criminal, played by actor Tom Cruise in Minority Report (2002), and as the skilled villain Bullseye in Daredevil (2003).

In 2004, Farrell appeared in several films that received only a limited theatrical release, including Intermission and A Home at the End of the World, both of which received some positive reviews.

Farrell appeared in the title role of Alexander the Great in 2004's Alexander, which received mixed reviews. The film was marked by controversy, including homoerotic scenes with other men. Both the movie, including Oliver Stone's directing and story telling of Alexander, and Hephaistion's bisexual aspects, were heavily criticized by some historians and film critics who saw it as an inaccurate and misleading representation of the characters' sexualities. Though it failed at the US box office, it made a profit on its overseas revenues.

Farrell also appeared as a bisexual character in A Home at the End of the World. He has credited his homosexual brother, Eamon Farrell Jr., for inspiring him and teaching him about "the meaning of love and understanding."

His next film was 2005's Academy Award-nominated The New World, also a historical epic that was met with mixed reviews. Farrell played the leading role of captain John Smith, the founder of 17th century colonial Jamestown, Virginia who falls in love with a beautiful American Indian maiden, Pocahontas, played by actress Q'Orianka Kilcher. The film achieved success, despite being released in 811 theatres worldwide and having a relatively low box office gross.

The New World was followed by Ask the Dust, a romance film set in period Los Angeles co-starring Salma Hayek. It received a very limited theatrical release and was not a financial success. 2006 brought more success in Farrell's career, as he appeared opposite Jamie Foxx in Michael Mann's action-crime film Miami Vice. The film received box office status grossing a total of US$ 163,557,986.00 in its worldwide revenues; Universal Pictures released it in over 3,000 theatres worldwide and it captured the top spot at the box office, grossing more than US$ 25.7 million in its opening weekend.