Advanced search

As one of Hollywood's leading men, Bruce Boxleitner has starred in a major motion picture franchise, numerous feature films, and several popular television series, produced a major network film and TV series, performed on Broadway, and authored two science fiction novels.

Boxleitner received his formal acting training on stage. A native mid-westerner, he is an alumnus of Chicago's prestigious Goodman Theatre. In 1972, he starred in the Broadway production of Status Quo Vadis with Ted Danson. He then relocated to Los Angeles and quickly landed a guest spot on the legendary TV series The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) as well as numerous guest roles on series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Baretta (1975), Police Woman (1974), and Gunsmoke (1955).

Boxleitner's big break occurred when he was cast opposite James Arness in the pilot for the epic TV series How the West Was Won (1976). He went on to star in the CBS series Bring 'Em Back Alive (1982); mini-series East of Eden (1981); and TV movie The Last Convertible (1979).

In 1982, Boxleitner was cast as the title role in Disney's cult film Tron (1982) which garnered him science fiction fans worldwide. However, it was in Boxleitner's four-year run for CBS's Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983), starring opposite Kate Jackson, which endeared him to fans everywhere and made him a household name. In 1994, Boxleitner joined the cast of the popular TV series Babylon 5 (1993) as John Sheridan, President of the Interstellar Alliance, a war hero-turned-diplomat at the helm of Earth Alliance Space Station in the year 2259. The show aired for five seasons.

Boxleitner most recently starred with Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy (2010), the popular motion picture sequel to TRON. The cast includes Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. In addition, Boxleitner reprised his role in Tron: Uprising (2012) on Disney's XD TV network, his first animated TV series. The multi-talented cast includes Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Lance Henriksen, and Paul Reubens. The original TRON recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Several motion pictures include Gods and Generals (2003) with Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang and Mira Sorvino; The Babe (1992) with John Goodman and Kelly McGillis; Kuffs (1992) with Christian Slater; and The Baltimore Bullet (1980) with James Coburn.

Numerous TV movie credits include The Secret (1992) with Kirk Douglas; Perfect Family (1992) with Jennifer O'Neill and Joanna Cassidy; Double Jeopardy (1992) with Rachel Ward, Sally Kirkland and Sela Ward; Passion Flower (1986) with Barbara Hershey and Nicol Williamson; and Hallmark Channel movies, Love's Everlasting Courage (2011) and Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door (2006); among many others. The veteran actor has appeared in numerous recurring roles on TV series including GCB (2012) and Heroes (2006), and has guest-starred on NCIS (2003) and Chuck (2007), among others.

A skilled horseman, Boxleitner utilized his talents in numerous western TV series and films including The Gambler television movie series that aired on CBS and NBC, starring opposite Kenny Rogers; Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice (1994) with James Arness (Arness' final film); CBS' remake of Red River with Gregory Harrison, James Arness and Laura Johnson; Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone (1994) with Hugh O'Brian; and Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills (1986), based on legendary western author Louis L'Amour's novel of the same name.

Boxleitner was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in April 2012 honoring him for his illustrious career in western films. He is a two-time recipient of the Wrangler Award.

In 2013, Boxleitner co-starred with Andie MacDowell and Dylan Neal in Hallmark Channel's first-ever prime-time series, Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove (2013) to rave reviews and an average of 2 million viewers. The #1 rated cable program was renewed for a third season and is scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2015.

In 1999, Boxleitner authored "Frontier Earth" and in 2001, its sequel "Frontier Earth: Searcher", published by The Berkley Publishing Group. Boxleitner resides in Los Angeles with his wife, publicist Verena King, and has three sons: Sam, Lee and Michael.

Jim Gaffigan is a six-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy winning top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist. He is known around the world for his unique brand of humor, which largely revolves around his observations on life. A top ten earning comedian according to Forbes' 2019 comedy list, Jim recently released his 9th stand-up special, Comedy Monster, on Netflix. He was also recently awarded for being the first comedian to reach one billion streams on Pandora.

Up next, Gaffigan will be seen as the lead in the Sci-Fi drama Linoleum, which will premiere at SXSW in 2022, and will star as Mr. Smee in Disney's Peter Pan and Wendy, opposite Jude Law's Captain Hook He was also recently heard in Disney/Pixar's highly anticipated film, Luca, opposite Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph.

On the silver screen, his many credits include Three Kings, Super Troopers 1 & 2, and Chappaquiddick. 2019 was Gaffigan's biggest year to date with an astonishing eight films releasing, three which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including Troop Zero with Viola Davis and Alison Janney, Them That Follow and Light From Light - with many festival goers and press calling Gaffigan the "King of Sundance." Gaffigan also had two films recently in which he debuted as the lead. The comedic film Being Frank, and American Dreamer, a dark thriller which was the grand finale of 2019 for Jim and features him as a ride share driver who moonlights as a private driver for a drug dealer. Both films are now available for download. Gaffigan can also be seen opposite Ethan Hawke in IFC Films Tesla, as well as opposite Josh Hartnett in Saban Films Most Wanted.

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical The Jim Gaffigan Show, which he wrote and produced with his wife Jeannie, and his widely popular stand-up comedy specials, Gaffigan has guest starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from Portlandia and Bob's Burgers to the HBO cult hits Flight of the Concords to dramatic roles in Law & Order. Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on CBS Sunday Morning for which he has won 3 Emmys. In 2018 Jim served as master of ceremony at The Al Smith Memorial dinner. In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and over 1 million festival attendees at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia. Gaffigan starred on Broadway with Brian Cox, Kieffer Sutherland, Chris Noth and Jason Patric in That Championship Season.

Gaffigan and his wife currently live in Manhattan with their five loud and expensive children.

Chelsea Brummet was born on 28 January 1987 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Gilmore Girls (2000), What I Like About You (2002) and All That (1994).

David Otunga was born on 7 April 1980 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Call (2013), Criminal Minds (2005) and WWE Smackdown! (1999).

Courtney Reed was born on 10 August 1984 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Endings, Beginnings (2019), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and The Affair (2014).

Billy Dickson was born in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is known for Ally McBeal (1997), IQ-145 (2008) and The Palmer Supremacy (2014).

Ben Kalina was born on 5 October 1981 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. Ben is a producer and production manager, known for Big Mouth (2017), The Midnight Gospel (2020) and Niko and the Sword of Light (2015).

Paul Swearingen was born on 7 March 1963 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Dead Calling (2006), Blackout (2009) and The Radio Mechanics: Apocalypse of the Dial (2005). He died on 26 June 2020 in Wisconsin, USA.

Jayson Creek was born on 16 June 1956 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor, known for Gilmore Girls (2000), Suddenly Susan (1996) and Angel (1999).

Jason Ryan Lovett is an American actor who has performed in film, television, and the theater.

He is known for his role as Billionaire Gilbert Hulko in Adam Ruins Everything, WSB Agent Evans in General Hospital, and Harvey Goobenstien in Victorious. He also plays Doctor Goode on the original internet series, Space Hospital.

Michael Galvin was born on 10 November 1973 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor, known for Shank's Mare (2004), The White Room (2000) and Vengeance of the Dead (2001).

Young Entertainer Award winner Sawyer Amadeus is an international award-winning actor across Europe, Asia, North and South America at festivals alongside industry giants George Clooney, Liam Neeson, William Shatner, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes, Gérard Depardieu, Millie Bobby Brown, and Timothée Chalamet.

Sawyer was born in Elgin, Illinois, to Craig and Sarah Holmberg, on September 13th, 1997. His great+ grandfather was King Edward III of England, and he's cousins with Anderson Cooper and Eddie Redmayne. Sawyer has won an astonishing 21 awards internationally for his portrayal of an AI who becomes sentient, in ALT + <3 (2018), 14 for his role in the time travel comedy Love Takes Time (2018), and 15 for Say It with Your Vest (2019). He's also won awards internationally for his work in the series Just The Tip (2019) as the whimsical Smokey and received a nomination for his obsessed, bedsheet snorting, exceedingly eccentric character in Roses and Restraining Orders (2017). Sawyer also won a Young Entertainer Award, considered to be the child actor equivalent of the Oscars, for Say It with Your Vest (2019) and has had five additional YEA nominations Be Happy (2017), ALT + <3 (2018), A Family Christmas (2018), Just The Tip (2019), and If the Shoe Fits, Buy It! (2019) respectively.

When he was eight-years-old, his first musical was a youth theater production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999). Later when Sawyer was 16, his first professional, theater performance came when he was cast in an Equity production of the same show with Ozark Actors Theatre playing the role of Zebulun. He was also cast in the 2014 Metropolis Performing Arts Centre's A Christmas Carol (1999) where he played the role of Chalmers and was a resident performer at Burbank Family Theater (2016-2019).

He began singing professionally in 2007 when he sang in the Christmas spectacular, Holiday Showcase at the Sears Centre Arena. In 2008, he sang in Holst's The Planets which was narrated by Leonard Nimoy and performed again in the Sears Centre's Holiday Showcase but this time with Tony award winner Jodi Benson. Since then, Sawyer's sung the National Anthem for the opening of the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, the Chicago Rush at the Allstate Arena, and the Chicago Express at the Sears Centre Arena. He was also selected to perform in the international Aloha Children's Choir Festival at Waikiki Shell in Honolulu with Henry Leck. Sawyer's performed in concert with the Grammy® award winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Dove award nominees BarlowGirl. He also sang in The Queen's Coronation Festival Gala (2013) at Buckingham Palace and for the opening of the Glasgow 2014 Opening Ceremony (2014) on BBC. Most recently, Sawyer has sung in At the Movies at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carmina Burana at the Crystal Cathedral, and in Grammy® award-winning composer Eric Whitacre's Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of our Universe (2018).

Brian Oldfield (The Big O) is a legendary shot-putter, best known for perfecting the rotational style of shot-putting, which he used to become the first man to throw 75 feet in 1975.

Oldfield, well-known for his eccentric behaviour both on and off track, was also successful as an athlete in the Scottish Highland Games and appeared on television's "Superstars" and "World's Strongest Men" competitions.

The huckster, TV commercial pioneer, automaker and electronics manufacturer--and, as some have called him, marketing genius--Earl Muntz was born on Jan. 3, 1904, in Elgin, IL. He showed an early interest in electronics, and at age 8 had already built his first radio (a few years later he built a radio for his parents' car). He dropped out of high school and went to work in his parents' hardware store in Elgin. At age 20 he opened up a used-car lot in town and actually made a go of it. A few years later, however, on a trip to California, he noticed that used cars were selling for far higher prices than they were in Elgin, so he opened up a lot in Glendale, CA. In the late '30s he had an opportunity to pick up a dozen right-hand-drive cars for next to nothing--they had been made for customers in Asia, but were unable to be shipped there due to the Japanese takeover of most of Asia just prior to WW 2 (one was a custom-made Lincoln built for Chinese dictator Kai-Shek Chiang). Muntz got local newspapers to write some articles about these unique cars, and within two weeks he had sold all of them for a handsome profit. Realizing that L.A. was where the money was, he closed his Elgin lot and relocated permanently to California.

Having made a considerable amount of money because of what was basically a publicity stunt, Muntz decided to go even further over the top. He developed the persona of "Madman" Muntz, a somewhat crazed used-car salesman who dressed in outrageous costumes and performed wild stunts (he once featured an old clunker as a "manager's special" and claimed that if the car didn't sell, he'd smash it to pieces on TV with a sledgehammer. It didn't sell, of course, and he kept his promise), on a series of quirky, humorous--and wildly successful--TV commercials that blanketed the Los Angeles area, making him the predecessor of such well-known used-car pitchmen as Cal Worthington ("If I can't sell you a car I'll eat a bug!" and Ralph Williams ("Hi friends, Ralph Williams here!"). He caught the imagination of L.A. television viewers, who took him to their hearts, and "Madman" Muntz quickly became a local celebrity. People would come to his used-car lot not to buy a car but to see him, and at one point his lot was rated by a local travel agency as the 7th most visited site in Southern California.

In 1948 race-car driver Frank Kurtis developed and marketed a new two-seater sports car, but only sold 16 vehicles over the next two years. He sold the company and rights to Muntz in 1950. Muntz immediately retooled the car, redesigned it, lengthened it into a four-seater, renamed it the "Muntz Jet" and put it on the market. Although it was a well-built, reliable car and sold fairly wellk for its price (about $5,000), Muntz's improvements in design and amenities--it had aluminum body panels, a removable fiberglass top, a Cadillac (later Lincoln) V8 engine and the back armrests contained a full cocktail bar--increased production costs, and after selling about 400 cars, and losing about $400,000, he ceased production in 1954.

If there was one thing Muntz was really known for, however, it was manufacturing TV sets. He made his first one in 1946. A self-taught electrical engineer, he saw that the few TV sets available at the time were big, bulky, complicated, heavy, had small screens and were expensive. By taking apart and examining the various makes of TVs on the market, he figured out how to build a good set, using a minimum amount of parts but delivering a good picture, for less than $100 (the average 12-inch TV set went for about $450). He also included a built-in aerial in his sets, a major innovation--most TVs had to use an aerial that attached to the roof of the building in order to get reception, and apartment buildings at the time often had rules prohibiting the use of aerials on their roofs, so many apartment residents didn't have TVs, making them prime customers for Muntz's sets. He marketed his TVs with the same types of outrageous TV commercials and radio and newspaper ads as he did with his cars, and the sets sold like wildfire. In 1951 alone his company grossed almost $50 million. Unfortunately, by the mid-1950s color TV was introduced and the market for black-and-white TVs like Muntz's shrank precipitously. In 1953 his company lost almost $1.5 million. He hung on for a few more years, but by 1959 Muntz's TV operation was forced to declare bankruptcy and shut its doors.

Not one to let adversity get him down, Muntz turned to another market--car stereos. He invented the Stereo-Pak four-track tape cartridge, a direct predecessor to the famous eight-track tape cartridge so popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Muntz chose to make it in stereo because many more records were being recorded in stereo than in monaural, and he believed that mono was on its way out. Before Muntz's Stereo-Pak system, the only units that could play pre-recorded music in an automobile were actual record players designed for that purpose--several higher-end cars such as Cadillac and Lincoln offered them as options--but they would skip when the car hit a bump or pothole, often scratching and ruining the record that was being played. Muntz's tape player was called the Autostereo--the manufacturing of which he contracted out to a Japanese company--and could play an entire album from start to finish with no bumps, skips and eliminating the need to flip over the record to play the other side. Muntz also made a deal with the major record companies to license their catalogs and then manufactured the tapes himself, to be sold in his own chain of electronics stores alongside the tape players.

Aircraft engineer Bill Lear, who had just developed the LearJet, contracted with Muntz to install his tape players in Lear's aircraft. Lear was so impressed with the unit that he did what Muntz earlier did to TV sets--he took it apart and looked for a way to improve it. He wound up developing his own tape player, the Lear 8-Track. It was wildly successful and demand for Muntz's 4-Track units slipped substantially. In addition, Muntz had not counted on the large number of cartridges returned from dealers when a particular album ran its course, and the credits he had to issue to them for returned merchandise greatly ate into his profits. If that wasn't bad enough, a fire in 1970 at his main office caused severe damage to the facility. All these factors contributed to Muntz closing down his tape player/cartridge business that year.

As usual, though, Muntz didn't stay idle for long. He entered the burgeoning home-video market. In the mid-'70s he took a Sony 15-inch color TV, equipped it with a special lens and mirror he had developed, then projected the enlarged image onto an even bigger screen, enclosing the entire unit in a large wooden console. What he had done was to develop one of the first, if not the first, widescreen projection TVs designed for home use. By 1977 he was selling millions of dollars worth of these units every year. Two years later he decided to sell VCRs and blank tapes at bargain prices--usually less than it cost him to buy them--in order to lure people into his showroom so he could sell them the more expensive projection systems. As it turned out, he sold so many VCRs and tapes that he actually wound up making money on them.

Not all of his business ventures were successful, though. In the 1980s he invested a lot of money in Technicolor's Compact Video Cassette (CVC), a system intended to compete with Sony's Betamax and the VHS and Super-8 systems. The CVC system tanked big-time and Muntz lost his entire investment and then some. He was forced to close his electronics store shortly afterwards.

Not long before his death from lung cancer in 1987 he got into the cellular phone business. By the time he died he was the biggest cellular phone dealer in Los Angeles.

Tom Shales was born on 3 November 1944 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun, The Larry Sanders Show (1992) and This Is MST3K (1992). He died on 13 January 2024 in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

Brandon Johnson was born on 27 March 1976 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He has been married to Stacie Rencher since 22 December 1998. They have three children.

Jerry Ramlet was born on 22 August 1963 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor.

Shawn Montgomery was born on 22 April 1985 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and production manager, known for Retribution (2023), Baghead (2023) and UglyDolls (2019).

Brian Jason Tran was born on 28 January 1989 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is known for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Spies in Disguise (2019) and The Possession of Hannah Grace (2018).

Casey Roth was born in Elgin, Illinois, USA. Casey is an editor, known for Vanderpump Rules (2013), The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (2020) and Winter House (2021).

Flynn Robinson was born on 28 April 1941 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for 1970 NBA All-Star Game (1970). He was married to Nancy Pitts. He died on 23 May 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Charles Gatewood was born on 8 November 1942 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He was a director and actor. He died on 28 April 2016 in San Francisco, California, USA.

Heidi spent her childhood in majestic Portland, Oregon. She still longs to set roots there - and hopefully will have an opportunity to work with Gus Van Sant. She later found herself all over the great city of Chicago. A graduate of DePaul University she spent time developing at The Piven Theatre Workshop and Act One Studios. A short film, The Spooky Incident (2000), won Chicago Film Fest Best Short in 2000. Numerous independents and industrials later, Heidi packed up and headed west. Recently she attended the California Independent Film Festival just east of San Fransisco. An ensemble piece, _My Brother's Light (2001)_, screened there after making numerous stops at festivals thoughout the year.

Still searching for the breakthrough role, Heidi finds herself networking with fellow passionate indie filmakers through IFP, Women in Film, and several production jobs.

Ken T. Williams was born on 26 January 1976 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and production manager, known for Mister Scrooge to See You (2013), Journey to Paradise (2010) and The Return (2015). He has been married to Rachel M. Leverence since 1 April 2005.

Kevin Martin was born on 9 April 1969 in Elgin, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Children of Men (2006), Airheads (1994) and The D Train (2015).