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Actor John Cazale is notable not just for his talents and intensity as a performer, but also for having one of the most impressive filmographies for any actor with a career as short as his. Cazale, a prolific theater veteran, famously only appeared in five feature films before his untimely death of lung cancer in 1978 at the age of 42. Those five films, however, are often considered some of the best and most significant films of the 1970s, which is saying something.

Cazale appeared in three Francis Ford Coppola movies, as well as Sidney Lumet's stirring bank robber drama "Dog Day Afternoon" and Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter." Cazale played supporting roles in all of them. Each one of them was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Three of them won.

Cazale's film career, of course, was only a small piece of his acting experience. Notoriously guarded and shy,...

Austin Butler is one of the biggest rising stars in Hollywood after his appearances in films like Elvis, Dune: Part Two, and The Bikeriders. Butler began his career as a teen actor and went on to work with acclaimed filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Baz Luhrmann, Jim Jarmusch, and Denis Villeneuve.

Butler gained more prominence when he played legendary singer Elvis Presley in the biopic Elvis. Though the film received mixed responses, Butler’s performance was widely regarded as one of the best of the year and even received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, he was still the secondary star in the film.

How Much Did Austin Butler Earn For Elvis? Austin Butler in Elvis | Credits: Warner Bros.

Austin Butler gave his all for Elvis. Playing the King was no easy task as the legendary musician’s biopic had been in the making since the ‘90s. Butler was reportedly...

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Othello, one of the greatest tragedy tales by William Shakespeare, is all set to return to the stages once again through Broadway. Set in Venice and Cyprus, it is widely regarded among the mastermind author’s major tragedies as it brings about the titular Moorish military commander’s story as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity.

Of course, as famous as it is, there have been innumerable other iterations of this play over the years. Multiple different star-studded actors have joined the cast of the same, and given epic performances that they continue to be renowned for. And now that Broadway is reviving the saga, a cast of critically applauded actors has once again united to give the performance of a lifetime.

Othello revival on Broadway. | Credits: @othellobway / Ig.

This time around, some of the major names connected to the cast are Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal,...

5 Actors Who Could Play Prince Charming in Disney’s Live-Action Film - Main Image

For the first time since his debut in the animated movie Cinderella in 1950, Prince Charming will finally have a live-action solo film bearing his name.

Chris Hemsworth is reportedly in talks to star in Walt Disney Pictures' Prince Charming, with Wonka director Paul King at the helm. Simon Farnaby and Jon Croke will co-write the film with King.

But aside from the MCU star, several other actors could effortlessly embody this iconic character, showcasing their charm, charisma, and undeniable screen presence.

To that effect, here are five actors who could play Prince Charming in the upcoming Disney live-action film.

Luke Newton

Fresh from the latest season of Bridgerton, the Ton universe will be eager to see Luke Newton as the new Prince Charming.

In addition to his youthful charm and fresh face—some of the best...

James Earl Jones is to be honoured with a Broadway theatre light-dimming.Best known as the booming voice behind ‘Star Wars’ villain Darth Vader, the actor – who also starred in ‘Field of Dreams’ and voiced Mufasa in ‘The Lion King’ – passed away at his home in Dutchess County, New York, on 9 September aged 93.Broadway theatres are now set to dim their lights in tribute to the actor as, along with his movie roles, he racked up a list of stellar stage performances throughout his 70-year career.House lights will be turned down on Thursday (26.09.24) at 6.45pm as part of Broadway’s tradition of honouring late theatre icons.Jason Laks, interim president of the Broadway League, said about the tribute: “James Earl Jones was a true pillar of the Broadway industry, providing unforgettable experiences to multiple generations of theatregoers – all while accumulating many well-deserved honours, awards, and achievements for his iconic performances in other entertainment fields.

Broadway theaters will dim their lights on Sept. 26 in memory of James Earl Jones.

Jones, who died Sept. 9 at the age of 93, was a two-time Tony Award winner as well as a recipient of the 2017 special Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The Cort Theatre was renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in September 2022.

Broadway theaters will dim their lights at 6:45 p.m. on Sept. 26 in his honor. The dimming of lights has been a tradition on Broadway for notable members of the community who have died, but must be approved by the theater owners.

Jones made his Broadway in 1957 as an understudy in The Egghead. He received his first Tony Award in 1969 for his role in The Great White Hope and won another Tony in 1987 for his role in Fences. He also appeared in The Iceman Cometh, Of Mice and Men, Othello, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Driving Miss Daisy,...

Broadway will dim its lights for the late James Earl Jones this Thursday, September 26, at at 6:45 pm/Et , the Broadway League announced today.

The traditional honor, in which the marquee lights of Broadway venues go dark for one minute, will pay tribute to the two-time Tony-winning actor who died September 9 at the age of 93. Jones was the recipient of the 2017 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

“James Earl Jones was a true pillar of the Broadway industry,” said Jason Laks, Interim President of The Broadway League, “providing unforgettable experiences to multiple generations of theatregoers – all while accumulating many well-deserved honors, awards, and achievements for his iconic performances in other entertainment fields. While we acknowledge and celebrate Mr. Jones’ significant legacy across multiple mediums, we are particularly proud of his legacy on Broadway, and are grateful for the many memorable performances with which he graced our stages.”

Jones’ Broadway career...

I spent my first decade in New York working at Variety’s former offices on Park Avenue South and more than once found myself sharing an elevator with James Earl Jones while he was on his way to or from Verizon to shoot commercials. The giant of an actor, who died today at age 93, never failed to say a warm, “Good morning” or “Good afternoon,” and even if I hadn’t recognized his face or his imposing 6-foot, 2-inch frame, there was no mistaking that sonorous voice.

His voice was the earth-shaking basso rumble coming from behind the forbidding mask of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga, starting with the original 1977 film, and the stentorian growl of Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands and father of Simba in The Lion King.

It was also the voice of a revered stage actor, who forged his reputation in the 1960s and ‘70s,...

James Earl Jones, the legendary actor known for his deep voice and iconic film, television, and theater roles, passed away on September 9 at 93.

The Egot-winning actor died at his home in Dutchess County, New York; surrounded by family.

Jones, revered for his remarkable career spanning over seven decades, leaves an extraordinary legacy across multiple entertainment mediums.

Movie enthusiasts will forever recall Darth Vader’s iconic lines by Jones that sent chills down the spine, including, “When I left you, I was but the learner — now I am the master.”

The ominous, “I find your lack of faith disturbing,” and the unforgettable revelation to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, “No, I am your father.”

These quotes have cemented Vader’s legacy as one of the greatest cinematic villains.

James Earl Jones overcame a childhood stutter

Born on January 17, 1931, in Arkabutla, Mississippi, Jones overcame a severe childhood stutter to become one of...

When news hit this afternoon of James Earl Jones’ death at age 93, the memories that came to mind likely depend on when you came of age. If you grew up in the Nineties, you probably thought back to The Lion King and The Sandlot. If you’re a bit older, you surely conjured up Coming to America, Conan the Barbarian, and Field of Dreams. And your parents probably remember Dr. Strangelove, and his work onstage in Othello, The Iceman Cometh, and Of Mice and Men. The man had an amazing...

James Earl Jones is dead at the age of 93. Deadline first reported he died the morning of September 9, which IndieWire has confirmed. The distinguished Egot winner, esteemed star of stage and screen, and iconic basso profondo voice of Darth Vader enjoyed a remarkable, decade-spanning career that found him playing a slew of iconic characters in film, TV, and theater. Jones’ credits ranged from Othello to Malcolm X, Santa Claus, Ebenezer Scrooge, King Lear, and one of the famous villains of all time in “Star Wars.”

While he did not win a competitive Academy Award during his career, he received an Honorary Academy Award in 2011, granting him vaunted “Egot” status. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, was presented with the National Medal of the Arts by President George H. W. Bush in 1992, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002.

In 2009, he received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

James Earl Jones, the revered actor who voiced Star Wars villain Darth Vader, starred in Field of Dreams and many other films and Broadway shows and is an Egot winner, died this morning at his home in Dutchess County, NY. He was 93.

His reps at Independent Artist Group confirmed the news to Deadline.

Widely regarded as among the world’s great stage and screen actors Jones is one of the few entertainers to have won the Egot, though his Academy Award was Honorary. Jones has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, a spoken-word Grammy Award in 1977 and three Tony Awards.

The actor amassed nearly 200 screen credits during his brilliant 60-year career, starting some early-’60s TV guest roles and Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He probably is best known for his voice...

Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer behind the likes of Avatar, Titanic, and Alita: Battle Angel, has died. He passed away on Friday in Los Angeles after a 16 month long battle with cancer.

In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Landau's sister Tina confirmed her brother's passing and shared the following: "The best brother a girl could ever dream of — my brother Jon — has passed away. My heart is broken but also bursting with pride and gratitude for his most extraordinary life, and the love and gifts he gave me — and all who knew him or his films."

And it truly was an extraordinary life. Born in New York on 23 July, 1960 to film and TV producer parents Edythe and Ely Landau, whose credits include Sidney Lumet's Long Day's Journey Into Night and John Frankenheimer's The Iceman Cometh, Jon Landau it seems was always destined to...

As the Academy prepares to debut an award for casting directors at the 2026 Oscars, the timing was right for Francine Maisler to travel this week to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic for a tribute organized by its Industry Days office. Taking the stage for a Kviff Talk with her associate Molly Rose, the renowned casting director admitted she had initially been reluctant to enter the limelight. “Coming here is special for me, because I tend to avoid these things. I’m hired to be behind the camera, not in front.”

Despite such modesty, Maisler had no trouble holding the room for nearly 90 minutes, reflecting not only on her own illustrious career path but praising the legions of actors she has worked with for the last 30-odd years. She seemed especially energized by Lady Gaga, having recently seen a cut of Todd Phillips’ heavily anticipated DC sequel Joker: Folie À Deux,...

Sidney Lumet once wrote: “While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and set the mental juices flowing. In a film career spanning 50 years, Lumet explored conscience in such classics 1957’s “12 Angry Men,” 1973’s “Serpico,” 1976’s “Network” and 1982’ s “The Verdict.”

Lumet’s New York Times 2011 obit stated: “Social issues set his mental juices flowing and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal, but also celebrated individual acts of courage.” And one should also add redemption to that list. He was always in a New York state of mind. Of the 38 films he made, 29 were shot in New York. Lumet earned four Oscar nominations for best director- “12 Angry Men,” which marked his feature debut,...

Austin Butler began acting at a young age, but has definitely made a name for himself in Hollywood in recent years. It’s no secret that he’s also ridiculously good looking.

But, is he Pirates Of The Caribbean material? Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom have set the bar high for the franchise.

If you don’t know who Austin Butler is, here’s a quick refresher. Like many Hollywood actors, Butler began his career on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows like Hannah Montana, Jonas, Zoey 101, and Drake & Josh. As he got older he made his way to primetime series like The Carrie Diaries and Arrow.

Who Is Austin Butler?

In 2019 Butler impressed critics with his broadway debut in The Ice Man Cometh. His career continues to blow up and in 2022 he won multiple awards for his role of Elvis Presley in the biographical drama, starring along side Tom Hanks.

Carrie Robbins, whose more than 30 years as a Broadway costume designer saw her involvement in 1972’s Grease, for which she contributed the production’s signature poodle skirts, and the nuns’ habits of 1983’s Agnes of God, died following a brief illness with Covid on Friday, April 12, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. She was 81.

Her death was announced by her friend Daniel Neiden.

Robbin’s Broadway career began somewhat inauspiciously with Leda and the Little Swan, a play that closed on Broadway before its scheduled opening at the Cort Theatre in 1968. Written by Amber Gascoigne and dealing with sex between generations of one family, Leda was called by William Goldman in his classic theater book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway “the hardest show of the season to sit through.”

Robbins rebounded quickly on Broadway with a revival of You Can’t Take It With You the following year, and,...

After the smashing success of Dune: Part Two, Timotheé Chalamet wishes to reunite with his co-star Austin Butler for his upcoming project. Chalamet expressed his views for Austin Butler to reprise his role as Elvis Presley for his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic.

During an interview, both the actors shared their experience of bringing iconic musical figures to life. Timotheé Chalamet remarked that he would love to have Butler’s Elvis appear in his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, creating a shared musical cinematic universe.

MCU – Musical Cinematic Universe

Timotheé Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen | Source: Dune: Part Two

Timotheé Chalamet, in a recent interview, stated that he took some pointers from Austin Butler during their shoot on Dune to get into the skin of musical icons. While Butler shared his excitement for Bob Dylan’s biopic, titled A Complete Unknown, he stated that he wished he...

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are all set to star in a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello on Broadway. Kenny Leon, who won a Tony award for directing Washington in 2014’s A Raisin in the Sun will be directing the film.

Denzel Washington as Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling in Courage Under Fire

While, Washington will be playing the titular role in Othello, one of William Shakespeare’s great tragedies, Gyllenhaal will be seen as Iago, the story’s villain.

Suggested“It has more sense of humor”: Jake Gyllenhaal Reveals His Road House Remake is Wildly Different from Patrick Swayze – But Does That Make it Better?

The story follows Othello, ‘the Moor of Venice,” who is manipulated by Iago, Othello’s standard-bearer into believing his wife, Desdemona, is unfaithful, leading to tragic consequences for all three. Shakespeare’s Othello has been a great source for adaptation and it...

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a 2025 Broadway revival of William Shakespeare’s Othello, producer Brian Anthony Moreland announced today.

The production, to be directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon, will open in Spring 2025 at a Shubert Theatre to be announced.

Washington will portray the title character, while Gyllenhaal will play ‘Iago’.

Few other details were provided in Moreland’s brief announcement today.

Neither Washington nor Gyllenhaal are strangers to Broadway. Washington most recently starred in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh (earning a Tony nomination), and starred as Walter Lee Younger in the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. In 2010, he appeared in (and won a Tony for) Fences, and in 2005 he played Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar. His Broadway debut came in 1988 with Checkmates.

Gyllenhaal has performed on Broadway in Sea Wall/A Life in 2019, Sunday in the Park With George in 2017, and Constellations in...

Exclusive: Emmy Award-winner Tammy Blanchard has been cast in FX’s American Sports Story, the new FX anthology limited series from creator Stu Zicherman, in a series regular role, sources tell Deadline.

American Sports Story, a new extension of Ryan Murphy’s “American Story” franchise, focuses on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

The first installment charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez, played by Josh Andrés Rivera, and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and his legacy in sports and American culture. Season 1 is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. and hails from the Boston Globe and Wondery.

Blanchard will portray the mother of the disgraced football star and convicted murderer, Terri Hernandez, we hear.

The much-anticipated movie Dune: Part Two, starring Austin Butler, has had the internet going bonkers over the last few months. Following his Oscar-nominated performance in Elvis, Austin Butler is set to awe us again in the role of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in the upcoming Dune sequel, which opens in theaters on March 1. The world has been observing Butler since his incredible performance in the 2022 biographical drama Elvis. There is no denying that his acting career has advanced significantly.

As we all know, losing a loved one is never easy, and for Butler, the timing could not have been more heartbreaking. In retrospect, the California-born actor once said that he used to “go home and cry” after working on a TV show. As Butler was coming to terms with his mother’s unexpected death in 2014, he had to fly to New Zealand to start filming The Shannara Chronicles.

Austin Butler in Dune 2...

Director Jeff Nichols wanted three magnetic faces to anchor his motorcycle movie, “The Bikeriders,” which just launched at the Telluride Film Festival. He and his casting director Francine Maisler landed a stellar multinational cast for this three-hander led by Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and Jodie Comer.

The Nichols/Maisler collaboration began with “The Tree of Life” producer Sarah Green. “There’s this young guy who could be the next Terry Malick,” Green told Maisler, who checked out “Take Shelter” and met with Nichols back in 2010. “He was very quiet and humble,” Maisler said at a Telluride interview with Nichols.

Maisler went on to cast “Mud” and every Nichols film since, including “Midnight Special,” which featured an early role for Adam Driver, and “Loving,” which landed Irish actress Ruth Negga an Oscar nomination. “You just put an actor in his hands and they can fly,” said Maisler. “You have a script.

Denzel Washington once again proves his movie star status as his Equalizer 3 is currently looking at a solid $35-$37 million weekend, with around $43 million 4-day take, which falls perfectly in line with our predictions from Thursday. That number will put it squarely in the number two spot for the Labor Day holiday, pulling ahead of Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween which opened with $30.5 million and behind Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ $94.6 million in 2021.

The thing I didn’t realize going in to this weekend is that this is the first fully theatrical movie Denzel has starred in since the last Equalizer film hit theaters in 2018. He would take time to star in The Iceman Cometh on Broadway for which he would earn rave reviews and a Tony Nomination. In 2021 Washington had three movies released: The Little Things, which is an excellent throwback thriller starring Washington,...

"The Equalizer" has been a sturdy franchise for Sony over the last decade. Based on the 1980s CBS series starring Edward Woodward, the films are a model of narrative simplicity: Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall, a world-weary yet principled ex-CIA operative who bounces around the globe to help powerless people overcome viciously corrupt criminals. They're self-contained vigilante yarns powered exclusively by one of Hollywood's most magnetic stars in full-on badass mode. Aside from their extrajudicial nature, they're basically Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" movies absent the racism and wretched treatment of women.

As such, they're utterly critic-proof, and Washington, a two-time Oscar winner who's widely considered to be one of our finest actors, shows no compunction about playing to the cheap seats. He knows audiences dig him in this kind of badass role, and, thus far, he's been proven right at the box office. The first two films (barely...

Austin Butler has shared the key piece of advice he received from Tom Hanks, his co-star in last year’s hit biopic Elvis.

Butler, who was Oscar-nominated for the title role, told the UK’s Times newspaper that he sat down for dinner with Hanks who told his younger co-star that he needed to dive deep into another role as soon as possible, to prevent “emotional whiplash.”

Butler told The Times that Hanks, who played Colonel Tom Parker in the movie, told him:

“[Hanks] said, ‘You have immersed yourself so deeply in Elvis that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else. If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash…

“’And, you know,’ Hanks continued, ‘I’ve got this thing I’m producing.’”

The fruits of this conversation include Butler’s forthcoming role as Major Gale Cleven in Masters of the Air,...

This year’s Tonys will be held on June 11, so the American Theatre Wing will likely be announcing their lifetime achievement award recipient in the near future. Who do you think should be taking home this prestigious trophy? Scroll down to let us know in our poll which behind-the-scenes creative deserves the honor this year.

The Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre honors an individual’s body of work, and in some years we’ve gotten multiple recipients. Last year legendary five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury received this honor about four months before her death on October 11 at the age of 96. The following living creatives have already received this award so they’re not eligible to be chosen again: Paul Gemignani, Alan Ayckbourn, Athol Fugard, Jane Greenwood, Sheldon Harnick, Marshall W. Mason, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Harold Wheeler, and Graciela Daniele.

Here are 10 possibilities, all of them creatives over the...

Austin Butler, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded in front of students at Chapman University, is one of the most talented and exciting young actors in Hollywood. For his electrifying portrayal of Elvis Presley between the ages of 19 and 42 in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis, he won best actor BAFTA and Golden Globe awards; was nominated for best actor Critics Choice and SAG awards; and is now, at the age of just 31, nominated for the best actor Oscar, as well.

As Butler discusses during this episode, he started out in the business as a pre-teen on TV series aimed at kids and young adults, and then briefly walked away from it after losing his beloved mother when he was just 23; he then returned to acting in a 2018 Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh opposite Denzel Washington, who became a mentor...

Harry Styles is turning up the heat in “Don’t Worry Darling” and baring his bum in “My Policeman,” but Styles’ vocal chops are not getting the big-screen spotlight this year — despite Styles’ attempts.

Baz Luhrmann revealed that while Styles and Miles Teller were both in the running to play Elvis Presley in the eponymous musical biopic, in theaters June 24, Styles couldn’t be cast because he’s already a rockstar.

“Harry is a really talented actor. I would work on something with him [but] the real issue with Harry is, he’s Harry Styles,” Luhrmann said during the Australian radio podcast “Fitzy & Wippa” (via Uproxx). “He’s already an icon.”

Former Disney Channel star and fellow triple threat Austin Butler instead is leading the film, along with Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

“Harry and I came to a place, genuinely I mean, he was just desperate to put the suit on and explore,...

Broadway performers and stage managers who worked on four shows connected to producer Scott Rudin will be released from nondisclosure agreements under terms of a new settlement between the Broadway League and Actors’ Equity Association.

The NDAs, Equity says, prohibited the union members from speaking about potential workplace abuses.

The four productions mentioned in the agreement are To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, The Iceman Cometh and The Lehman Trilogy. None are currently in production on Broadway, although Mockingbird is expected to return at some point following a Covid hiatus. The Tony-nominated Lehman closed in January, and director Ivo van Hove’s 2020 revival of West Side Story closed with Broadway’s Covid pandemic shutdown; the 2018 production of The Iceman Cometh featured a cast headed by Denzel Washington.)

The settlement – reached after the union withdrew two unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board – releases actors and stage...

When Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” was first announced, the role of Elvis Presley quickly became one of the most coveted parts in Hollywood. Seemingly every young actor wanted a chance to play The King, with the likes of Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, and Harry Styles all vying for the role at various points.

With so much competition, how did relative newcomer Austin Butler land the gig? As it turns out, he got some help from one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

In a new interview with EW, Luhrmann opened up about the process of casting Butler as “Elvis,” including a nudge he received from Denzel Washington, who appeared with Butler in a 2018 Broadway production of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.”

“[Austin Butler] found me,” Luhrmann said. “I received this videotape of this young man in a flood of tears playing ‘Unchained Melody,’ and I thought, ‘Wow, what is that? How is that happening?...

Exclusive: Trai Byers, Ray Fisher, April Matthis and Michael Potts have joined Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Brooks and John David Washington in the cast of Broadway’s upcoming revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.

The production, to be directed by Latanya Richardson Jackson, will begin performances on Monday, Sept. 19, for a 16-week engagement at the St. James Theatre. The staging will mark the first Broadway revival of the Pulitzer-winning Piano Lesson in more than 30 years.

Byers starred on Fox’s Empire as Andre Lyon. In 2014, he portrayed James Foreman in the Ava DuVernay-directed Selma, and most recently starred in, co-wrote and produced feature film The 24th. The Piano Lesson will mark his Broadway debut.

Fisher, cast as Lymon, is best known for his breakout role as Victor Stone/Cyborg in Warner Brothers’ DC Cinematic Universe. Cyborg was first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and...

“I can feel who I am now, bringing stuff to this that wasn’t there before,” reveals “How I Learned to Drive” star David Morse. The actor is stepping back into the shoes of Uncle Peck in the Broadway production of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama 25 years after originating the role Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 1997. He is joined by fellow original cast members Mary-Louise Parker and Johanna Day in this Manhattan Theatre Club revival, and the actors have had plenty of time to reflect on the ways in which their 25 years of life experiences have “enriched” this production. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

Morse says that the question “why now?” was an important one that hung in the air when starting work on this production. Vogel and Parker had attempted to bring the play to Broadway for many years, but scheduling and theater availability became perpetual obstacles.

Twenty five years after the Off-Broadway debut of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “How I Learned to Drive,” the contemporary American classic has at long last made its bow on Broadway. Fittingly for a memory play, the stars of that first production have returned to their roles: Mary-Louise Parker as Li’l Bit, who recalls her relationship with her predatory Uncle Peck – played by David Morse – who gave her driving lessons. The original director Mark Brokaw once again leads the production, which opened at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Friedman Theatre on April 19 for a limited run.

This long-awaited mounting of “How I Learned to Drive” earned rapturous reviews from critics. Maya Phillips (New York Times) calls the production “unforgettable” and labels it a Critic’s Pick. She credits playwright Vogel, who’s “script creates its own piercing language for assault,” and notes how despite the heaviness of the subject,...

Frankie Faison (The Wire), Jayme Lawson (The Batman), Tosin Cole (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers), Sean Patrick Thomas (Barbershop), John Douglas Thompson (Mare of Easttown) and Roger Guenveur Smith (Self Made: Inspired by the Life Of Madam C.J Walker) will join Danielle Deadwyler, Whoopi Goldberg and Jalyn Hall in Chinonye Chukwu’s feature Orion Pictures release, Till about Emmett Louis Till. The movie is currently filming in Atlanta.

Till tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), whose pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till (Hall) became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. As Time Magazine reported, “…thanks to a mother’s determination to expose the barbarousness of the crime, the public could no longer pretend to ignore what they couldn’t see.” Mamie’s decision to have an open casket at Emmett’s funeral,...

MGM’s Orion Pictures’ film “Till,” starring Danielle Deadwyler, Whoopi Goldberg and Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till, has rounded out its cast.

Frankie Faison, Jayme Lawson, Tosin Cole, Kevin Carroll, Sean Patrick Thomas, John Douglas Thompson and Roger Guenveur Smith have boarded the project, directed by Chinonye Chukwu. “Till” is currently filming in Atlanta, with the full cast pictured above.

“Till” tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), chronicling her decision to have an open casket at Emmett’s funeral and allowing Jet magazine to publish David Jackson’s funeral photos in order to ensure people everywhere saw the true horrors of her son’s murder. The decision from the grieving mother was a galvanizing moment that led to the creation of the civil rights movement. Goldberg is set to portray Till’s grandmother, Alma Carthan.

Chuwku also wrote the screenplay for the film, about a mother’s pursuit of justice,...

As predicted, Lois Smith won the Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her moving turn in Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance.” Not only is this the veteran actress’ first career Tony win, but Smith has just become the oldest Tony winning actor in history. Talk about a victory being worth the wait!

Lois Smith is 90 years of age, having been born on November 3, 1930. This makes her two years older than the previous record holder for oldest Tony winning performer. That would be Cicely Tyson, who won a Tony for playing Carrie Watts in the 2018 revival of “The Trip To Bountiful” at age 88. That was Tyson’s only Tony nomination and win of her career, despite appearing in nine Broadway plays. Ironically, Smith also portrayed Carrie in a 2005 Off-Broadway revival of “Bountiful.” She won the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for that performance.

Vimeo announced the expected 11 members of its board of directors ahead of the video-hosting platform’s spinoff from Iac — a group that includes noted filmmakers Spike Lee and George C. Wolfe.

The Vimeo spinoff is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2021, at which time Vimeo is expected to become an independent company listed on Nasdaq.

In addition to Lee and Wolfe, the anticipated members of Vimeo’s post-spin board of directors are: Iac CEO Joey Levin (who would be chairman of Vimeo); Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud; tech investor and software industry veteran Adam Gross; Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas; Iac general counsel Kendall Handler; Appfolio CFO Ida Kane; Mo Koyfman, founder and general partner, Shine Capital; Thrive Capital general partner Nabil Mallick; and Iac CFO Glenn Schiffman.

Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production company has produced more than 35 films since 1983. Most recently he wrote, directed and...

A version of this story about “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” appears in the Oscar Nominations Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Makeup artist Sergio Lopez-Rivera’s relationship of trust with Viola Davis was cultivated over six seasons of “How to Get Away With Murder.” And therefore, in the early days of making “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” — starring Davis as the real-life 1920s blues singer — the actress sensed a trace of hesitation in Lopez-Rivera’s hands.

“At that first camera test, I was tweaking the makeup to make Viola look better,” he recalled. “And she said something to me I’ll never forget. She said, simply, ‘Bette Davis in ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'”

That reference to the 1962 thriller about a grotesque former child actress clicked instantly for Lopez-Rivera. Viola Davis’s Ma Rainey isn’t an unhinged antagonist like Bette Davis’s Baby Jane, but the connection...

Douglas Turner Ward, the director, actor and playwright who co-founded the landmark, influential Off Broadway Black theater group the Negro Ensemble Company, died Saturday, Feb. 20, at his home in New York City. He was 90.

His death was announced by his wife Diana Ward.

Ward had already begun a solid New York stage acting career in the 1950s and ’60s – including Off Broadway roles in The Iceman Cometh and on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun – when, according to The New York Times, he wrote a 1966 editorial for that newspaper headlined “American Theater: For Whites Only?” The article called for the establishment of a Black repertory theater company. Turner wrote, “Not in the future…but now!”

A year later the Ford Foundation awarded a $434,000 grant to create the Negro Ensemble Company with Ward as artistic director, along with Robert Hooks and Gerald S. Krone in other leadership roles.

The Company...

Casting director Lynn Stalmaster, who jumpstarted the careers of stars like Christopher Reeve and John Travolta, died Feb. 12. He was 93.

The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the story, said the Casting Society of America’s Laura Adler confirmed Stalmaster’s death Friday.

“We are heartbroken to share the news that Lynn Stalmaster, the iconic and beloved casting director, passed away this morning at his home in Los Angeles. A pioneer of our craft, Lynn was a trailblazer with over half a century of world-class film and television casting credits. He was a friend and mentor to many of us, Casting Society of America co-presidents Russell Boast and Rich Mento said in a statement.

“We offer our condolences to his family and friends. Lynn will be deeply, deeply missed. Lynn was the first casting director to receive an Oscar. This photo is from the Academy’s 2016 Governors Awards ceremony in which Lynn received his honorary Oscar.

The new Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman in his final screen role, is a searing drama set in 1920s Chicago, based on a Tony-winning play by legendary playwright August Wilson. The 1982 show is part of Wilson’s 10-play “Pittsburgh Cycle,” a series of plays mostly set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, each in a different decade, that use families in that neighborhood (where Wilson himself was born) as the lens through which Wilson examines the Black experience in America throughout the 20th century.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the exception. Set in Chicago, it does not revolve around a family in the traditional sense but instead a band led by the title character (Davis), a fictionalized version of the real-life blues singer who was a pioneer in terms of both her professional and personal life. One of the first blues...

It’s a collaboration that was decades in the making. George C. Wolfe, who has helped bring the words of everyone from Tony Kushner to Nora Ephron to life in acclaimed productions, says it was in the mid-1990s when playwright August Wilson first raised the prospect of working with him.

“He said, ‘I want you to direct one of my plays,’” Wolfe recalls. “And I said, ‘Let me read it so I can make sure I have something to offer.’ He said, ‘Well, I haven’t written it yet.’”

Considering both are legends of the theater, it’s odd that it has taken this long for Wolfe and Wilson to come together, and that their long-gestating partnership is taking place not in their more familiar medium of the stage but on film. Wolfe is directing Netflix’s adaptation of Wilson’s second play, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which hits the streaming service on Dec.

Clark Middleton, who appeared in such films as Birdman and Snowpiercer and had a recurring role on The Blacklist, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of West Nile virus, his wife said. He was 63.

Middleton also was a stage veteran who in 2018 made his Broadway debut as Hugo in the Tony-nominated revival of The Iceman Cometh, led by Denzel Washington and directed by George C. Wolfe.

During the past 30 years, he performed in New York and across the U.S., creating roles for such writers as Sam Shepard, John Guare, David Ives, John Belluso, Lanford Wilson and Jason ...

Clark Middleton, who appeared in such films as Birdman and Snowpiercer and had a recurring role on The Blacklist, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of West Nile virus, his wife said. He was 63.

Middleton also was a stage veteran who in 2018 made his Broadway debut as Hugo in the Tony-nominated revival of The Iceman Cometh, led by Denzel Washington and directed by George C. Wolfe.

During the past 30 years, he performed in New York and across the U.S., creating roles for such writers as Sam Shepard, John Guare, David Ives, John Belluso, Lanford Wilson and Jason ...

Actor, director and producer Clark Middleton, who appeared in “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” “The Blacklist” and “Snowpiercer,” died Sunday as a result of West Nile Virus, his wife Elissa confirmed. He was 63.

“With heavy hearts we announce the passing of a life eminently worthy of celebration: Clark Tinsley Middleton, 63 – beloved actor, writer, director, teacher, hero, husband, beacon, friend,” Elissa wrote. “Clark transitioned on October 4th as a result of West Nile Virus, for which there is no known cure. Clark was a beautiful soul who spent a lifetime defying limits and advocating for people with disabilities.”

On television, Middleton appeared in recurring roles on “Law & Order,” “Twin Peaks” and, most recently, “The Blacklist,” where he played the irritable Dmv boss Glen Carter. On the 2017 Showtime revival of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” he played Charlie, the sleepy husband of Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn). He told Indiewire in 2017 he didn’t...

If there’s anything a viewer should take into the Ross brothers’ new film, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” it’s a healthy disregard for conventional definitions of film genres or styles. A carefully staged and meticulously cast presentation disguised as a cinema verité documentary, it’s confounding if you feel compelled to put a label on it but raucously moving if you take it as a day-long adventure with a group of fascinating characters.

It’s “The Iceman Cometh” transplanted to the outskirts of Las Vegas or “Cheers” on the wrong side of town, a fiction/nonfiction blend where verité meets improv and the whole thing is shot through with the skid-row romanticism of a Tom Waits song or a Charles Bukowski poem. And with the action set in late 2016 with that year’s presidential election playing out on TV in the background, it’s a sad portrait of America...

It’s closing time for the Roaring 20s. As in, a permanent, fare-thee-well closing time: The Las Vegas cocktail lounge, located both miles and worlds away from the glitzy hotels and amusement-park casinos dotting the strip, has been sold off. So the joint’s longtime customers plan on celebrating in style. Michael, a former actor, is awakened from his morning slumber at the end of the bar and goes to shave in the bathroom. (“That’s a lot more sun then I’m used to seeing,” he says, gazing out the front door.

Nathan Lane took another dramatic turn in his career playing LAPD officer Lewis Michener in the Showtime fantasy series “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.” Lane is a three-time Tony winner and two-time Emmy winner.

Lane spoke in May with Gold Derby contributing writer Sam Eckmann about taking on dramatic roles, the collaborative process on “Penny Dreadful” and his memories of working with the late playwright Terrence McNally. Watch the exclusive video chat above and read the complete transcript below.

SEEPaco Cabezas Interview: ‘Penny Dreadful: City of Angels’ director

Gold Derby: You have become known for great comedic performances from “The Producers” to “The Birdcage” and you certainly haven’t stopped doing comedy. I’ve enjoyed you on Broadway in many comedies recently but there’s also been a more dramatic bent to your career lately. Seeing you in this show certainly and “The Iceman Cometh” and “Angels in America,” is...