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| Actress/singer Olivia Newton-John was born on September 26, 1948, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. She lived there until she was five years old, and her family relocated to Australia when her father was offered a job as the dean of a college in Melbourne. When she was a teen she returned to live in England with her mother, after winning a singing talent contest.In 1975, she moved to the USA where she had already become well-established as a Pop and Country singer, she had over 25 Top 40 singles, more than half of which went Top 10, including five #1 hits. In 1978, she co-starred in the biggest musical of all time, Grease and became a household name. She later starred in Xanadu, which was expected to be her big follow up to Grease, however the movie failed to live up to expectations. Still, the soundtrack became a huge seller for that year and spawned many hits. The movie has since become a cult classic and it's soundtrack sounds as good today as it did then. Olivia married her Xanadu costar Matt Latanzi and the two had a daughter, Chloe. Although Olivia's acting credits were few after Xanadu, her hit making music career charged ahead and she continued to put out hit singles. The coming years were bad to Olivia, she had lost her beloved father, delcared bankruptcy, divorced husband Matt Latanzi and was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although she defeated the cancer she was dealt another tragic blow when in 2005 her long-time boyfriend, cameraman Patrick McDermott, went missing after going on an overnight fishing trip on a sport fishing vessel out of San Pedro, California. As of August 22, 2005, the U.S. Coast Guard had not located his whereabouts. Olivia continues to work and raise her daughter Chloe, who has followed in her mothers footsteps and chosen a musical career. The two starred together in two movies, A Christmas Romance and The Wilde Girls. Olivia lives on in the hearts of her fans who love her more than ever and she continues to enchant her fans with her grace, beauty and her courage. |
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| John Michael Beck Taylor was born in Memphis, Tennesse in 1949. He attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi where he played quarterback for his college football team. While quarterbacking for his college team, Michael got the role of Tybolt in Romeo and Juliet. He also starred in the college's theatre productions of Idiot's Delight; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; and the role of King Arthur in Camelot. Having been bitten by the acting bug, after college he went to London's prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama. He was one of 30 finalists chosen, out of 2500 applicants. Within three weeks of coming to New York, he found a agent and was in Israel filming "Madman", the film in which Sigourney Weaver made her film debut. Then he starred in one of his most applauded performances as gang leader; Swan in "The Warriors". Michael then followed this with "Xanadu", stating later that "The Warriors" opened the door for him and "Xanadu" closed it. However, Michael continued to act and found brief success in the 1980's with a series titled "Houston Nights", although the show was short lived. Since then, Michael has found work starring in television movie roles, like Alcatraz the Whole Shocking Story, Fade to Black, and Dead Run. His starring role of Levon Lundy in 1987 CBS-TV crime drama series, Houston Knights, has lead to other guest starring roles in Murder She Wrote, and Walker Texas Ranger and Jag. He also narrates audio books for Time-Warner, and is currently writing his own book, a novel set in the Southern US. Michael, married his songwriter wife, Cari, in Sept. 1980. They now live in California. They also lived in Oregon during their two children's early years, son Jesse, and daughter Ashley. |
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| Gene Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 23 in 1912. His mother encouraged him and his siblings to take dance lessons at an early age, but, being a young boy, he was never too enthusiasic about it. Gene's main goal in life at that age was to play baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and not to dance. When the depression hit hard, Gene took on many jobs to help support his family, including some Vaudeville dancing. Though his mother encouraged the arts, her goal for Gene was to be a lawyer. Believe it or not, but in his mother's opinion, Gene's brother Fred was the more likely to succeed in entertainment. Well, Gene grew to love dance so much he wanted to go into it professionally. This worried his mother, but Gene went through with it anyway. Gene went to New York and in a short time, he became a huge success. "Pal Joey" was what brought him to the attention of David O. Selznick. Gene trekked his way out to Hollywood, with his new wife Betsey Blair, and soon his friend Stanley Donen, who would later work with Gene quite frequently in film. Gene signed a contract with Selnick ,but, unfortunately, Selznick didn't have any good parts for Gene. Also, Selznick encouraged Gene to focus more on dramatic acting, and pretty much forget dancing. Gene wasn't too happy about this, and was thrilled when he got an offer from MGM to star in "For Me and My Gal" with Judy Garland. Since Gene wasn't doing anything at that time anyway, Selznick agreed to lend him out of his contract. He made a few low budget films with MGM after "For Me and My Gal", but it wasn't until after he made "Cover Girl" for Columbia that MGM decided to buy Gene Kelly's contract from Selznick. "Cover Girl" was a huge success. MGM refused to lend Gene to other studios anymore because he was too much of a money-maker. Though flattering at the time, this proved to be somewhat disasterous in the future. Gene was doing well at MGM, but when Pearl Harbor was bombed Gene pleaded with the studio to let him take a leave of absence and go to fight for his country. After a while, they agreed. Gene left for the Navy in 1944. He didn't get back until 1946, and he was quite worried that the public had forgotten him. He also worried that his best dancing years were over, already being 34 years old. What Gene didn't know was that the best was yet to come. Gene became one of MGM's top grossing actors and starred in such classics as "An American In Paris" and the immortal "Singing In The Rain", which launched in career into overdrive. Gene became one of Hoillywood's most endurable leading men and an innovator as a dancer and director. When the Hollywood musical began to die out, Gene slowly faded into retirement. He emerged in 1985 to star in Xanadu, which some people considered to be a bad choice (depends on who you talk to) and later he made occasional appearances in television miniseries and some projects like MGM's "That's Entertainment". In 1996, Gene died after two fatal strokes. He will be remembered for the contributions he made to motion picture history and as one of Hollywood's best dancers. |
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| James Sloyan was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, but his family moved to Europe when he was a young boy. James has lived in Rome, Capri, Milan, Switzerland and Ireland. When he was 17, his family moved back to the states and settled in upstate New York where he managed a Theater there. He recieved a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After two years he went to work for Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1962, he was drafted into the army; after 4 years he returned to the NYSF. He performed 28 plays and choreographed all the onstage fights. Some off Broadway appearances followed; as well as a play on Broadway called Dream Out Of Time. James moved to Hollywood where he landed a three-picture contract with MGM. He appeared in The Traveling executioner with Stacy Keach. He returned to NY to do the origional Off-Broadway play, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He then appeared in Cantonville Nine, the Kurt Vonnegut Movie Between Time and Timbuktu and in Paradise Lost for WNET. Heading back to Hollywood he appeared in The Sting with Robert Redford playing the character of Joe Mattola. His Television work incudes: Westside Medical, Oh, Madeline with Madeline Kahn, both short lived tv series. TV- movies like Centennial,tv guest apparences, throughout the 70's 80's including Highway to Heaven and Growing Pains . He can also be seen in all of the Star Trek Sci-Fi series like Deep Space 9 and Star Trek the Next Generation. He also was a Semi-regular on the series Murder She Wrote (90-91) Mr. Sloyan also supplies the voiceover for Lexus. |
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