John Badham
Film Director
Born in England and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, John Badham became a naturalized American citizen at the age of seven. The son of actress Marym Hewitt and a U.S. Army general,he became the second of two siblings to break into the movie business. His sister Mary received a 1962 Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the young protagonist in To Kill A Mockingbird. Badham received a BA and MFA at Yale University, which he attended before and after his military service.
He worked his way up the professional ladder at Universal Studios; his first directorial assignments included the trailers (or coming-attraction reels) of the studio's features. In the early 1970s, Badham gained a good reputation as an able director of made-for-TV movies. It was his handling of the 1974 docudrama The Gun that won Badham his first theatrical-feature assignment, the 1975 baseball flick The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings (Badham was a last-minute choice when Steven Spielberg suddenly priced himself out of the film's budget thanks to Jaws).
Badham's first bona-fide-and indeed, one of the biggest moneymakers of the 1970s-was the disco-driven Saturday Night Fever (1978). The director's striking visual sense and innate gift for montage has served him well in such nailbiters as Blue Thunder (1984), Wargames (1984),American Flyers (1985) and Point of No Return (1991); his comedies include Stakeout (1987) and Bird on a Wire (1989).
His latest project is The Jack Bull starring John Cusack and John Goodman which premiered on HBO in April 1999.
Nell Carter
Actress/Singer
Nell Carter has found success on stage, television, in nightclubs and in feature films. She grew up singing in the coffeehouses of her native Birmingham and moved to New York as a nightclub/cabaret performer, but first gained national attention after winning a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' and an Emmy Award for the television adaptation of the show. Her
theatre credits also include JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR, HELLO DOLLY, and the revival of ANNIE. For her stage work, Carter has also received an Outer Circle Critics Award, an Obie and The Drama Desk Award.
On television, Carter started appearing on television in the mid '70s when she had recurring roles in such series as the soap opera Ryan's Hope and the prime-time series The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979-1981) where she played police sergeant Hildy Jones. Carter is best remembered for playing the strong-willed but soft-hearted Nell on the sitcom Gimme a Break (1981-1987).
In addition to series work, Carter has appeared in television movies and guested many times on The Tonight Show. In 1986, she hosted her own television special Never Too Old to Dream; during the 65th Annual Academy Awards (1992), she performed a show-stopping version of "Never Had a Friend Like Me" from the Disney animated musical Aladdin.
Carter made her feature-film debut in Milos Forman's adaptation of the controversial hit musical HAIR and continues to find steady work in such films as "The Grass Harp" and "The Proprietor."
Polly Holliday
Actress
For four years, Polly Holliday portrayed the beloved character, "Flo", on the television series "Alice" (1976-80) which earned her four Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe Award. Her other televison credits include the movies "Missing Children," "The Gift of Love" and "You Can't Take It With You." More recently she co-starred in the series, The Client with Jo Beth Williams and Ossie Davis and had a recurring role on Home Improvement.
Polly began her career with seven years of classical repertory at the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota where she performed in over 70 plays. In 1973, Holliday made her New York debut at the Public Theatre in Wedding Band by Alice Childress. Her Broadway credits include ALL OVER TOWN; directed by Dustin Hoffman, and a revival of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. In 1990 she was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of "Big Mama" in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF opposite Kathleen Turner.
Her film roles include Gremlins (1984), in which she was eminently hissable as Mrs. Deagle. Other film credits include Disney's remake of "The Parent Trap," "All the President's Men," "The One and Only," "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings," "Moon Over Parador," "Mrs. Doubtfire and Mr. Wrong."
Holliday recently appeared in the Off-Broadway revival of John Guare's MARCO POLO SINGS A SOLO, Horton Foot's DEATH OF PAPA with Matthew Brodrick and Ellen Burstyn and co-starred in the world premiere of John Guare's CHAUCER IN ROME at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2000 she appeared at Lincoln Center in the revival of Arthur Laurents' TIME OF THE CUCKOO.
Lois Wilson
Actress
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Alabama, actress Lois Wilson was one of four sisters, all of whom would subsequently have silent film careers-but only Lois would rise to stardom. Intending to become a schoolteacher, Wilson was lost to academia forever when she won an Alabama beauty contest (considered to be the first "Miss Alabama") sponsored by Universal Pictures. Her first film for the studio was Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), filmed in Chicago, where she showed up uncredited in several minor roles (along with another newcomer named Boris Karloff). Blessed with a serene beauty and expressive eyes, Lois had little trouble achieving leading-lady status in a group of J. Warren Kerrigan westerns. She moved to Famous Players (aka Paramount) in 1919, attaining full Stardom for her subtly shaded performance in What Every Woman Knows (1921).
In 1926, she reached an artistic peak with her performance as Daisy Buchanan in the first version of The Great Gatsby. It was one of her secondary roles for which Wilson is most fondly recalled today: As Shirley Temple's mother in Bright Eyes (1934), she is killed off halfway through the picture, but
her sudden demise affects the outcome of the film to such an extent that one can't help remembering her. In 1937, Wilson left Hollywood for a long and fruitful stage career, returning only periodically thereafter. Her last screen appearance was as Virginia Mayo's mother in 1949's The Girl from Jones Beach, but she remained active on stage (I Never Sang for My Father, Madwoman of Chaillot) and television (The Aldrich Family, The Guiding Light) into the '70s.