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Robert Gerard Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadian origin. He was the son of Jeanette (Gauthier) and Joseph Georges André Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks later, his father, lying on his death bed, called Robert to his side and told him the Lord had given him a beautiful voice and he must go and sing. His father died when Robert was 13 and he moved to Edmonton, Canada, a year later. Goulet won a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of music in Toronto and, in 1951, made his concert debut at Edmonton in George Frideric Handel's "Messiah". Goulet was also a DJ on Canada's CKUA in Edmonton for two years. In 1960, he landed one of his biggest roles as "Lancelot" in Broadway's "Camelot", opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. He received a Tony award in 1968 for his role in "Happy Time". He and his first wife, Louise Longmore, had one daughter, Nicolette Goulet (aka Nikki). His second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence, produced two sons, Christopher and Michael. In 1982, with Glenn Ford giving the bride away, he was married in Las Vegas to Vera Goulet (aka Vera Novak), a Yugoslavian-born writer, photographer and artist. When not living at their home in Las Vegas, they reside on their yacht, "Rogo", in Los Angeles. Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents, as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

On September 30, 2007, he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition". On October 13, he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined that he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant".

Goulet died on October 30, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a transplant.

He is survived by his wife, Vera Goulet, and three children, sons Christopher and Michael, and daughter Nicolette Goulet, who is the mother of his grandchildren, Jordan Gerard and Solange.

Beaumont began his career in show business by perfoming in theatres, nightclubs, and on the radio in 1931. He attended the University of Chattanooga, but left when his position on the football team was changed. He later attended the University of Southern California, and graduated with a Master of Theology degree in 1946. He was visiting his son Hunter, a Psychology Professor in Munich, at the time of his sudden death.

William Shockley is an American actor, director, writer, and producer (p.g.a.).

Shockley is a partner in Tiki Tane Pictures along with Allen Gilmer and Tom Brady, a film production company based in Los Angeles and Austin, TX. Tiki Tane is represented by UTA Independent Film Group. Their film, Long Shadows, a Western directed by Shockley, will have a theatrical release in Summer 2025, starring Blaine Maye, Sarah Cortez, Jacqueline Bisset, Dominic Monaghan and Dermot Mulroney.

Shockley is an Executive Producer on The Assessment, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander and Himesh Patel, directed by Fleur Fortune and produced by Stephen Woolley, to be released theatrically in 2025.

As an actor, Shockley will next be seen in Haunting of the Queen Mary, starring Alice Eve, directed by Gary Shore; Natty Knocks with Robert England and Bill Mosley, directed by Dwight Little; Far Haven with Bailey Chase, directed by Gary Wheeler; and Martingale with Kelly Sullivan, directed by Jeremy Berg.

Shockley made his directorial debut with the short film, Common Threads, starring Nancy Stafford, a period western set in Tucson, Arizona, 1887. Common Threads won 8 Film Festival Awards, including 'Best Short Film - Family' at the 2017 'IFS Film Festival' in Los Angeles. At the 2017 'Best Shorts Awards Competition' in La Jolla, CA, Common Threads won 6 Awards of Excellence, including Short Film, Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Family Programming and Ensemble Cast. And at the 2017 Lady's First International Film Festival in Cork, Ireland, Common Threads won Best Production Design.

In 1986, while doing theatre in Dallas, Texas, Shockley had his first audition, and was cast by Paul Verhoeven in Robocop. His next decision was easy. Sell everything and move to Los Angeles.

After just a few months of living in LA, Shockley landed a slew of episodic and movie-of-the-week roles. He was then cast in the feature films Howling: Rebirth with Phil Davis, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane with Andrew Dice Clay, and The Joyriders with Martin Landau and Kris Kristofferson. Paul Verhoeven cast Shockley again in the cult classic, Showgirls.

Shockley has also worked in numerous television projects. He won over audiences for six years as 'Hank Lawson', the saloon-keeper in CBS' highly regarded drama, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", starring Jane Seymour. Shockley was given a development deal by CBS and starred in his own series, "California", a Dr. Quinn spin-off. Shockley also starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the CBS sitcom, "Bagdad Cafe", and opposite Teri Garr in the critically acclaimed ABC series, "Good & Evil ".

Shockley has co-written 11 feature scripts that have been produced, and has also produced 13 feature films and 3 TV movies.

Jeff Yagher was born on 18 January 1961 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. He is an actor, known for My Fellow Americans (1996), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) and Æon Flux (2005). He has been married to Megan Gallagher since 2001. They have two children. He was previously married to Karen.

Erin Brockovich-Ellis was born on 22 June 1960 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Erin Brockovich (2000), Rebel (2021) and Creature Features (2016). She has been married to Eric L. Ellis since 20 March 1999. She was previously married to Steven Michael Brockovich and Shawn Brown.

Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence entered several beauty contests (apparently her mother wanted her to be more than just a "schoolmarm"). Thelma was so successful in these endeavors that she entered on the state level and won the title of "Miss Massachusetts" in 1925 and went on to the "Miss America" pageant; though she didn't win, the pageant let her be seen by talent scouts looking for fresh new faces to showcase in films. She began to appear in one- and two-reel shorts, mostly comedy, which showcased her keen comic timing and aptitude for physical comedy--unusual in such a beautiful woman.

She had been making shorts for Hal Roach when she was signed to Paramount Pictures. Her first role--at age 21--was as Lorraine Lane in 1927's Fascinating Youth (1926), a romantic comedy that was Paramount's showcase vehicle for its new stars. Thelma received minor billing in another film that year, God Gave Me Twenty Cents (1926). The next year she starred with Gary Cooper and William Powell in the western Nevada (1927). That year also saw her in three more films, with The Gay Defender (1927) being the most notable. It starred Richard Dix as a man falsely accused of murder.

As the 1920s closed, Thelma began to get parts in more and more films. In 1928 and 1929 alone she was featured in 20 pictures, and not just comedies--she also did dramas and gothic horror films. Unlike many silent-era stars whose voices didn't fit their image or screen persona, Thelma's did. She had a bright, breezy, clear voice with a pleasant trace of a somewhat-aristocratic but unsnobbish New England accent and easily made the transition to sound films. In 1930 she added 14 more pictures to her resume, with Dollar Dizzy (1930) and Follow Thru (1930) being the most notable. The latter was a musical with Thelma playing a rival to Nancy Carroll for the affections of Buddy Rogers. It was a box-office hit, as was the stage production on which it was based. The following year Thelma appeared in 14 more films, among them Let's Do Things (1931), Speak Easily (1932), The Old Bull (1932), and On the Loose (1931). Her most successful film that year, however, was the Marx Brothers farce Monkey Business (1931). While critics gave the film mixed reviews, the public loved it. In 1932 Thelma appeared in another Marx Brothers film directed by Norman Z. McLeod, Horse Feathers (1932). She also starred in This Is the Night (1932), a profitable film which featured Cary Grant in his first major role. In 1934 Thelma made 16 features, but her career would soon soon come to a grinding halt. In 1935 she appeared in such films as Twin Triplets (1935) and The Misses Stooge (1935), showcasing her considerable comic talents. She also proved to be a savvy businesswoman with the opening of "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café", a nightclub/restaurant that catered to show-business people. Unfortunately, it also attracted some shady underworld types as well, and there were rumors that they were trying to take over her club and use it as a gambling establishment to fleece the wealthy Hollywood crowd. According to these tales, Thelma and her boyfriend, director Roland West, wouldn't sell their establishment once they found out what the gangsters had in mind, which incurred the enmity of the wrong people with whom to have differences of opinion. Whether or not the stories were true, on December 16, 1935, 29-year-old Thelma was found dead in her car in her garage in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled suicide-by-carbon-monoxide-poisoning. At the time, as today, many felt that her death was actually a murder connected to the goings-on at her club, a theory that was lent credence by the fact that no one who knew her had ever seen her depressed or morose enough to worry about her committing suicide. Another factor that aroused suspicion was that her death was given a cursory investigation by the--at the time--notoriously corrupt Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the case was quickly and unceremoniously closed. Her death has remained controversial to this day.

Three films she made before her death weren't released until the following year: Hot Money (1936), An All American Toothache (1936), and The Bohemian Girl (1936). The latter saw her quite substantial role cut down so much that she was barely glimpsed in the picture. Thelma had made an amazing 115 films in such a short career, and her beauty and talent would no doubt have taken her right to the top if not for her untimely demise.

Ilia Isorelýs Paulino was born on 26 March 1995 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Me Time (2022), Family Switch (2023) and One Piece (2023).

Leo Penn was born on 27 August 1921 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Ben Casey (1961), Remington Steele (1982) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Eileen Ryan and Olive Deering. He died on 5 September 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Lee Child was born in the exact geographic centre of England, in the heart of the industrial badlands. Never saw a tree until he was 12. It was the sort of place where if you fell in the river, you had to go to the hospital for a mandatory stomach pump. The sort of place where minor disputes were settled with box cutters and bicycle chains. He's got the scars to prove it.

He survived, though, got an education and went to law school, but only because he didn't want to be a lawyer. Without the pressure of aiming for a job in the field, he figured it would be a relaxing subject to study. He spent most of his time in the university theatre - to the extent that he had to repeat several courses, because he failed the exams - and then went to work for Granada Television in Manchester. Back then, Granada was a world-famous production company, known for shows like _"Brideshead Revisited" (1981) (mini)_, The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Prime Suspect (1982) and Cracker (1993). Lee worked on the broadcast side of the company, so his involvement with the good stuff was limited. But he remembers waiting in the canteen line with people like Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Natalie Wood and Michael Apted. He says that being involved with more than 40,000 hours of the company's programme output over an 18-year stay taught him a thing or two about telling a story. He also wrote thousands of links, trailers, commercials and news stories, most of them on deadlines that ranged from 15 minutes to 14 seconds. So the thought of a novel a year didn't worry him too much in his next career.

Why a next career? He was fired, back in 1995, that's why. It was the usual 1990s downsizing thing. After 18 years he was an expensive veteran, and he was also the union organizer, and neither thing fit the company's plan for the future. Because of his union involvement, he wasn't on too many alternative employers' wish lists, either. So he became a writer, because he couldn't think of anything else to do. He had an idea for a character who had suffered the same downsizing experience but who was taking it completely in his stride. He figured if he brought the same total commitment to his audience that he'd seen his television peers develop, he could get something going. He named the character Jack Reacher and wrote "Killing Floor" as fast as he could (he needed to sell it before his redundancy pay ran out). He made it with seven weeks to spare, and luckily the book was an instant hit, selling strongly all around the world and winning both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel. It led to contracts for at least nine more Reacher books, which currently extend to 2006.

Lee moved from the UK to the US in the summer of 1998. He lives just outside New York City, with his American wife, Jane. They have a grown-up daughter, Ruth, and a small dog called Jenny. Lee fills his spare time with music, reading, and the New York Yankees. He likes to travel, for vacations, but especially on promotion tours so he can meet his readers, to whom he is eternally grateful.

Bottrell is probably best known for playing the creepy "Lincoln Meyer" on season three of Boston Legal. Other memorable work includes recurring and guest star work on such shows as Frasier (2023 reboot), Modern Family, FBI: Most Wanted, Law and Order (2022), The Blacklist, Rectify, Law and Order: SVU, Longmire, Mad Men, Justified, True Blood, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Castle, iCarly, and Days of Our Lives. A former off-Broadway actor & playwright, his critically-acclaimed one-man shows, "David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One-Man Show" and "The Death of Me Yet" consistently play to sold out audiences on both coasts. Bottrell co-wrote the off-Broadway play, "Dearly Departed" as well as the film adaptation entitled "Kingdom Come" starring Whoopi Goldberg, L.L. Cool J., Anthony Anderson and Jada Pinkett-Smith. He's also the author of the critically acclaimed how-to book, Working Actor: Breaking In, Making a Living and Making a Life in the Fabulous Trenches of Show Business published by Random House (Ten Speed Press) in February 2019. Bottrell divides his time between Los Angeles and New York.

Annie grew up in Kansas and performed with the Lawrence School of Ballet. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Psychology and an emphasis in Cognitive Neuroscience. Her father is a Professor of Theater and her mother has a PhD in Film. She has done a great deal of voice-over work.

James Greene has been a successful working actor for over seventy years. He appeared on Broadway in 1951 in Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia de Havilland. His most recent television appearances were in Parks and Recreation (2009) as Councilman Milton, Modern Family (2009), Cold Case (2003), and Las Vegas (2003). James enjoyed a four-year stint on TV's The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (1987) with writer and director Jay Tarses. His films include Road to Perdition (2002), Patch Adams (1998), The Missouri Breaks (1976), and Philadelphia Experiment II (1993). He resides in LA with his wife of thirty-three years, Els Collins.

Renowned composer ("West Side Story", "Candide", "On The Town"), conductor, arranger, pianist, educator, author, TV/radio host, educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University (BA) with Walter Piston. Edward Burlingame Hill and A. Tillman Merritt. He studied piano with Helen Coates, Heinrich Gebhard and Isabelle Vengerova, at the Curtis Institute with Fritz Reiner, and at the Berkshire Music Center with Serge Koussevitzky (and became an assistant to Koussevitzky). He was assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943-1944, and conductor of the New York Symphony, 1945-1948.

He was music advisor to the Israel Philharmonic from 1948-1949, and a member of the faculty at the Berkshire Music Center from 1948 (though he did take leaves of absence), and head of the conducting department there in 1951. He was Professor of Music at Brandeis University, 1951-1956; and co-conductor of the New York Philharmonic, 1957-1958, and music director there after 1958. He won an Emmy award for his televised Young People's Concerts. He was guest conductor of symphony orchestras in the USA and Europe, and conducted the Israel Philharmonic seven times between 1947 and 1957. He toured the US with Koussevitzky in 1951, and was the first American to conduct at the La Scala Opera House in Milan, in 1953. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in Denmark, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

He joined ASCAP in 1944, and his chief musical collaborators included Betty Comden, Adolph Green, John Latouche, and Stephen Sondheim. His song compositions include "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "Some Other Time", "I Can Cook, Too", "I Get Carried Away", "Lucky to Be Me", "Ohio", "A Quiet Girl", "It's Love", "A Little Bit in Love", "Wrong Note Rag", "Glitter and Be Gay", "El Dorado", "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Maria", "Tonight", "Something's Coming", "I Feel Pretty", "Cool", "America", and "Gee, Officer Krupke".

Ziwe was born on 27 February 1992 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. She is a writer and actress, known for Dickinson (2019), Shell (2024) and Baited with Ziwe (2017).

As co-founding member, principal co-songwriter, electrifying lead guitarist and co-producer of Aerosmith--America's Greatest Rock & Roll Band--Joe has achieved permanent iconic stature in the pantheon of rock. He has helped to drive his band, over the course of three decades, to sales of more than 150 million albums, critical acclaim, four Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The world's true Guitar Hero was immortalized in 2008, when Aerosmith made history and created a cultural firestorm with the Activision released Guitar Hero®: Aerosmith®, an epic collaboration that marked the first music-based game to feature one band. The groundbreaking partnership united "America's greatest hard rock act" (as described by Mojo editor Phil Alexander in a May '07 cover story) with the massively successful video game franchise; sales exploded and broke records, with Aerosmith reaching yet again a younger generation of fans.

In 2009, Joe Perry released his fifth solo CD- Have Guitar Will Travel, entirely written and produced by Perry. The hard driving, ten-song, in your face, collection features Perry's trademark rock and blue ferocity. In his 2005 Grammy-nominated fourth solo album Joe Perry--recorded at the BoneYard, Perry's basement home studio in Boston-- he provided an exciting glimpse of another side of himself. Still as scorching hot on guitar as he is preternaturally cool in his persona, Perry created a collection of songs reflecting his deepest personal concerns, from his passion for rock and love of the blues to his keen social conscience and devotion to friends and family.

His previous solo works--as the "Joe Perry Project"--include the self-produced Let The Music Do The Talking (1980) and Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker (1983), along with I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again (1981), all of which were recorded at a time when Joe was on hiatus from Aerosmith.

As a producer, JOE has received a producing credit (solo or included as AEROSMITH) for the band's following albums: Rocks, Draw The Line, Night In The Ruts (Partial), Greatest Hits, Classics Live Ii, Just Push Play, and their last studio album Honkin' On Bobo.

PERRY has expanded his musical outreach to include composing for film and television. He composed the theme song for the "Spiderman" animated TV series as well as instrumental music for the independent movie This Thing of Ours, starring James Caan. His other instrumental credits include Aerosmith's Grammy-nominated track, "Boogie Man," a guitar tour de force from 1994's Get A Grip album, as well as "Mercy"--from Joe Perry, his last solo album--which earned him a Grammy nomination in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" category (2005).

Perry's guitar prowess was documented in a version of James Moore's "I'm A King Bee," performed with Aerosmith bandmate Steven Tyler heard on the album and film, Lightning In A Bottle, the 2005 Martin Scorsese-produced concert documentary on the blues shot at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

In September, 2009 Joe Perry met the nation's Top Scientists and Leaders on Capitol Hill for a panel discussion focusing on promoting cures and improving therapies for Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, HIV/AIDS and PTSD, followed by a performance with JOE and a back up band consisting of NIH Director Francis Collins, MD PhD, Rudy Tanzi, PhD Professor of Neurology at Harvard University and others. A few months later JOE and other iconic celebrities including will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, Seal and Josh Groban, appeared alongside the Top Scientists and Leaders for a feature called Rock Stars of Science in GQ's Men of the Year issue.

At the Lollapalooza Festival in 2009, JOE took the stage with Janes Addiction to play "Jane Says", for what would be the band's first major performance together at Lollapalooza since 1991. The night before PERRY joined Jimmy Buffett at Toyota Park in Chicago and performed on "Margaritaville" to roughly 30,000 fans.

On July 1, 2007, PERRY joined Tom Jones and his band at the historic "Concert For Diana" at Wembley Stadium on the classic "Ain't That A Lot of Love" (with Joss Stone on guest vocals) and covers of Prince's "Kiss" and the Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor." Between this appearance, viewed by more than 500 million worldwide, and his special guest performance with Kelly Clarkson on the 2007 season finale of "American Idol," Perry and his fiery signature guitar sound (not to mention his cool, mysterious aura) were a part of two of the year's biggest TV events.

In late 2006, at the personal invitation of Chuck Berry, JOE jammed with Mr. Berry and his band at his 80th birthday celebration at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis. JOE also played guitar on Mick Jagger's last solo album, Goddess in the Doorway; appeared in the video for Nelly's "#1" hit single; and played guitar on Les Paul & Friends: A Tribute To A Legend.

In June 2006, PERRY and his wife Billie hosted a concert for the town of Woodstock, Vermont (where his family occasionally live in the landmark "Sleepy Hollow Farm") for the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars. Later that year, PERRY went to see the All Stars and joined them on stage for a medley of Bob Marley's "War" and "Get Up Stand Up." JOE also ensured that the band could continue to pursue their music by providing them with instruments (guitars, basses and strings) along with a MAC computer for the youngest member.

Beyond his music career, JOE made his acting debut guest-starring as DEA agent "Joe Landrewsky" in an October 1998 episode of the critically hailed NBC drama "Homicide: Life On The Street." Perry also had a cameo in Wayne's World 2 and the 2005 film MGM/UA movie Be Cool, a sequel to Get Shorty, which also features an Aerosmith performance of the group's smash "Cryin'." In 2005, fashion designer John Varvatos, a fan of JOE's, asked him to be in one of his major fashion campaigns with his son Tony. He appeared on billboards and high fashion magazines around the US.

Perry and his wife Billie have four sons (Tony, Roman, Adrian and Aaron); The legendary guitarist frequently sits in with TAB THE BAND which is led by sons Adrian and Tony.

In 2003, PERRY launched his own food company "Joe Perry's Rock Your World". With the first products being BoneYard Brew Table Sauce, later followed by Mango Peach Tango; JOE is planning to release his Mac and Cheese "Joe Perry's Rockin' Roni" soon. It will have two flavors: White Cheddar and Shells and Spicy Buffalo Cheddar and Elbows.

PERRY and his family are well-known animal lovers and helped to fund the building of a new animal shelter in their community. PERRY was also instrumental in bringing awareness to the Friesian Horse. Twenty years ago, Joe and Billie were the first in the New England area to own a pair of the once endangered breed, a cause Billie is very involved with. In that time, the Friesian Horse has gone from the endangered list to rare breeds list and now numbers in the tens of thousands in America alone. In addition, he also supports the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose members undertake campaigns to protect marine species and environments.

Joe's work with Aerosmith has resulted in an unending array of accolades and honors. Beyond their Grammy Awards and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, other key milestones over the past 35 years include: 12 MTV Video Awards; two People's Choice Awards; six Billboard Music Awards; eight American Music Awards; 23 Boston Music Awards; and an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (from the soundtrack to Armageddon).

Recent Aerosmith releases include: 2011's Tough Love: Best Of The Ballads; the 2004 blues-influenced CD Honkin' On Bobo (which received a four-star review in Rolling Stone); 2004's live DVD You Gotta Move; 2005's Rockin' The Joint, a live CD recorded at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas; and 2006's career retrospective Devil's Got A New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith that featured two unreleased songs. Aerosmith are recording a new album this summer with Producer Jack Douglas. They've maintained their high profile through an array of key television, commercial and film appearances and have had their music featured in numerous films, commercials and TV shows. In 2001, Aerosmith performed at the prestigious NFL Superbowl XXXV Halftime Show along with Britney Spears and 'N Sync--in front of approximately 84.3 million viewers--and they were a headliner at Woodstock '94. Other highlights include the CBS-TV 4th of July concert in 2006 with the Boston Pops Orchestra and an alliance with NASCAR racing: their newly-recorded live version of their classic "Back In The Saddle," with new racing-themed lyrics, was an integral part of the ABC-TV/ESPN's NASCAR telecasts in 2007.

In 2007, Aerosmith's World Tour broke attendance records with sold out stadium shows in numerous countries including Dubai, Russia, India, Finland, France, England Italy, Germany, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium etc. In November 2009, the band played at the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi to 50,000 fans. On the 2010 Cocked Locked, Ready to Rock tour, Aerosmith felt "Aero-mania", as thousands of frenzied fans in Latin America mobbed the band everywhere they went. In October 2011, the band returned to Latin America where they played to fans in Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Brazil, Columbia and Ecuador. In November, 2011, Aerosmith performed in Japan for the first time in 7 years and really enjoyed playing for their fans who were struck with the recent tragedies there.

Delbert Mann, the Oscar-winning film director, was born Delbert Martin Mann Jr. in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1920. His father moved the family to Nashville, Tennesse, after taking a teaching position at Scarritt College. The young Mann graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he met his future wife, Ann Caroline Gillespie. He developed a lifelong friendship with Fred Coe, whom he met at the Nashville Community Playhouse, that would prove critical in his professional life.

After his 1941 graduation from Vanderbilt, Mann joined the Army and was assigned to the Air Corps, eventually becoming a pilot with the 8th Air Force. As a B-24 pilot with the "Mighty Eighth," Mann flew 35 bombing missions in the European Theater of Operations. After being demobilized at the end of the war, his interest changed to another type of theater, and he attended the Yale Drama School. From Yale he moved on to a directing job with the Town Theatre of Columbia, South Carolina.

His old friend Fred Coe, a producer at NBC, offered Mann the opportunity to direct live television drama on the network's The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). Mann accepted the job offer and moved to New York in 1949. For NBC he directed many dramas for the "Philco Playhouse," which later alternated its broadcasting weeks on the network with the Goodyear Playhouse (1951) and Producers' Showcase (1954) (television programs in the early days typically had one major commercial sponsor; thus, many programs from the early days bore the name of that primary sponsor). Mann directed episodes for all three showcases, including "October Story" with Julie Harris and Leslie Nielsen, "Middle of the Night" with Eva Marie Saint and E.G. Marshall, a remake of The Petrified Forest (1936) with the inevitable Humphrey Bogart (who created the role of Duke Mantee on the Broadway stage and played it in the classic 1935 film), and even two productions of William Shakespeare's "Othello" (one of which featured the unlikely Walter Matthau as Iago!).

Mann was one of the best-known graduates of "The Golden Age of Television," when live original drama was a staple of network TV. Other showcases he worked for included NBC Repertory Theatre (1949), Ford Star Jubilee (1955) and Playwrights '56 (1955). In 1953 he directed a live teleplay written by another WWII vet, Paddy Chayefsky. The episode of "Goodyear Television Playhouse" starring another vet, the up-and-coming Method actor Rod Steiger, as a lonely butcher named "Marty."

Delbert Mann's name will always be linked to the extraordinary cultural phenomenon that was "Marty," but it was as a film, not as television program, that Chayevsky's 1953 script became legendary, the first blockbuster hit of independent cinema. However, Mann's first recognition from the culture industry didn't come from Chayevsky's "Marty," either on television or film, but from Thornton Wilder's theatrical warhorse about a small burg in New Hampshire, "Our Town."

In 1954, Mann won a Best Director Emmy nomination for the "Producers' Showcase" episode "Our Town," a musical adaptation featuring the young Paul Newman and the singing talents of swinging Frank Sinatra. Ironically, the TV play of "Marty," considered the summit of TV's Golden Age in retrospect, went unrecognized during the nascent industry's awards season, though it did receive an excellent buzz via word of mouth. (The live "Marty" was captured via kinescope, a method of reproduction that involved shooting a 16-mm copy of the broadcast off of a TV monitor for rebroadcast to the West Coast in the days before coast-to-coast TV hookups, let along videotape; such programs were seldom rebroadcast after the initial showing due to the poor quality of the 'scope.) That situation would change once "Marty" moved from New York to Hollywood.

It's said that superstar Burt Lancaster and his producing partner Ben Hecht were looking for a property to generate a tax write-off for their successful indie production company, Hecht-Lancaster. That property was Marty, shot in B+W in the standard Academy ratio of 4:3 in an era when the blockbuster, like Cecil B. DeMIlle's epic remake of "The Ten Commandments," shot in color in the wide-screen processes of CinemaScope, Cinerama and VistaVision, were all the rage. (The box office gross of the 1956 "Ten Commandments," if adjusted for inflation, would rival the grosses generated by the top block busters of the present era.) Color, widescreens and spectacle were considered to be the necessary ingredients to get people out of the house where they were planted in front of the TV and back into the theaters. And here was a low-budget, B+W film with no production values and no stars based on a TV play that had appeared free on TV (Hollywood's great enemy) just two years before!

Remaking "Marty" seemed an honorable way to generate a tax-write off, so the story goes, while associating the company with quality, but Hecht-Lancaster refused to spend much money on it. The budget was limited to just under $350,000. (It's said that "Marty" was the first Oscar-winning film in which the advertising costs exceeded the budget.) Rod Steiger, who did not want to be bound contractually to Hecht-Lancaster, refused to reprise the eponymous title role, so it was turned over to Burt Lancaster's "From Here to Eternity" co-star, 'Ernest Borginine' . Having assayed Fatso Judson and other screen heavies in his brief cinema career, Borgnine had never played a sympathetic supporting character, let alone a lead, on film before.

Possibly due to its unpromising prospects, Burt Lancaster didn't bother putting his name on the picture as a producer, leaving that honor (and the Oscar that lay in "Marty's future) to Hecht. No wonder the success of "Marty" caught everyone flat-footed! It's perhaps the supreme case in Hollywood's checkered flirtation with "quality" cinema that quality not only won out, but more importantly, paid off (and paid off handsomely at that!).

The movie "Marty" was a critical success before it was a commercial success. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, it was the first American film to win the Golden Palm (an award which, in the French manner, is shared by its director). In release, the film returned $3 million in rentals ($21 million in 2005 dollars), which was a considerable amount in the mid-1950s. More importantly for Hecht-Lancaster, its low-budget made "Marty" one of the most profitable movies ever made.

The critical recognition and boffo box office made "Marty" a sleeper at the 1956 Academy Awards, at which Mann won the Oscar as Best Director of 1955 and Chayevsky copped the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy. In addition to the original "auteurs," Ernest Borgnine won the Best Actor Oscar and Harold Hecht picked up the gong for Best Picture. Betsy Blair and Joe Mantell also received nominations in Best Supporting Acting categories, and on the technical side, "Marty" was nominated for Best B+W Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle) and Best B+W Art Direction-Set Decoration ( Ted Haworth, Walter M. Simonds, Robert Priestley). Until Sam Mendes duplicated the feat in 2000, Mann was the only director to win an Oscar for his first film.

Though he could not know it then, "Marty" was the highpoint of Mann's career. While Chayevsky went on to win two more Oscars, Mann never won another Oscar nomination, though he did pick up two more Emmy nominations in 1972 and 1980 during his productive career. More significantly, Delbert Mann had the respect of his peers: in addition to his three subsequent Directors Guild of America nominations to go along with his win for "Marty," the DGA honored him with its Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 1997 and an Honorary Life Membership in 2002.

Paige Ellen Peterson was born May 2nd, 1980, in Lawrence, Kansas. At an early age she developed a love for the spotlight. First performing in dance competitions and later in community theater productions. By her mid teen years Paige convinced her mother to allow her to leave Kansas and head for the hills of Hollywood. After intense acting lessons she soon landed an agent and then began life as a professional actress. Paige currently resides in the San Fernando Valley but makes plenty of trips home to the midwest each year.

Shannon Collis was born in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Tender Bar (2021), Snapshots (2018) and Inherent Vice (2014).

Sully Erna, best known as singer and main songwriter of acclaimed rock band Godsmack was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston Massachusetts. He has been a musician since the tender age of 3 years old, where he began his musical journey as a drummer. Already a proven commodity as the frontman of one of today's most powerful rock bands, Erna is also a successful producer, actor, and multi-instrumentalist, and has reaped a myriad of accolades, including several industry records such as:

. 20 Million Albums World Wide . 3 consecutive #1 debut albums on the Billboard 200 charts o Faceless (2003) o Godsmack IV (2006) o The Oracle (2010) . 27-Top 10 singles - More than any other band in Active Rock history!! . Thirteen #1 Songs, including the smash hit "I Stand Alone" that stood at #1 for 17 weeks straight. . Billboard Music Award. "Rock Artist of the Year" . EMMY in 2005 for Best Sports Show on NESN . Four Grammy Nominations. . Soundtracks - The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone) , Any Given Sunday (Al Pacino), Scorpion King (Dwane Johnson), The One (Jet Li), and many many more.

2022 - Cast for Kevin Price, 2nd in command to Tom Sizemore in the feature "Damon's Revenge"

2018 - Cast for Co-lead Brett Bayton, a southern guest at "The Manor" starring Christina Robinson

2007 - Cast for "Mark" a small town junkie on the FX series "Dirt" starring Cortney Cox.

2013 - Cast for Paul "sunny" Wade, a prison assassin in the Eric Bross short film "Goliath"

2014 - Cast for Sherriff Bridge in the Indy horror "Army Of The Damned" starring Tony Todd & Michael Berryman

2016 - Cast for the Feature "Bleed For This", Executive Producer, Martin Scorsese. Starring Miles Teller, Katie Segal and Aaron Eckheart,

Philip Messina was born on 19 February 1965 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. He is a production designer and art director, known for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) and Mother! (2017). He is married to Kristen Toscano Messina.

Michael Cohen was born on 25 August 1966 in Lawrence, New York, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal (2022), ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (1953) and Trumpland (2020). He has been married to Laura Shusterman since 1994. They have two children.

Corinne Brinkerhoff was born on 17 December 1979 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for The Good Wife (2009), American Gothic (2016) and No Tomorrow (2016). She is married to Laura Kampf.

Kate Jurdi was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress, known for The Finest Hours (2016), The Pink Panther 2 (2009) and Black Mass (2015).

Brady Rubin was born on 31 October 1936 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Larry Crowne (2011), The Master (2012) and The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). She has been married to Ira Brady Rubin since 4 February 1979.

Victor Caroli was born on 11 May 1942 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor, known for The Transformers: The Movie (1986), The Exorcist Chronicles (2015) and Police Story (1973).