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Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 463. Photo: Eon Productions Limited & Danjaq, LLC, 1997. Pierce Brosnan, Teri Hatcher and Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997).

American actress, writer, presenter and singer Teri Hatcher (1964) is most known as Lois Lane on the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997), as Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and as Susan Mayer on the TV series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012). For the latter, she won a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a nomination for an Emmy Award.

Teri Lynn Hatcher was born in 1964 in Palo Alto, California. She was the only child of Esther (née Beshur), a computer programmer who worked for Lockheed Martin, and Owen Walker Hatcher, Jr., a nuclear physicist and electrical engineer. Hatcher took ballet lessons at the San Juan School of Dance in Los Altos and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. At De Anza College, she studied mathematics and engineering. In March 2006, Hatcher alleged that she was sexually abused from the age of five by Richard Hayes Stone, an uncle by marriage who was later divorced by Hatcher's aunt. She said her parents were unaware of the abuse at the time. In 2002, she assisted Santa Clara County prosecutors with their indictment of Stone for a more recent molestation that had led his female victim, Sarah Van Cleempunt, to die by suicide at the age of 14. Sarah left behind a note that said "You're probably thinking a normal teenager doesn't do this; well, ask Dick!" Dick was Richard Hayes Stone, Hatcher's uncle, who had been a trusted family friend of the Van Cleemputs and both families had vacationed together. Hatcher contacted prosecutors and, with a tape recording running, Hatcher explained in detail how her uncle, then-husband of her mother's sister, allegedly molested her in the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was no more than 7. After prosecutors gave the defence a transcript of Hatcher's interview, Stone, then 64 years old, pleaded guilty, leaving no need for a trial or a court appearance for Hatcher. He pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Chuck Gillingham, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney in California, said, "Without Teri, this case would have been dismissed." In an interview with Vanity Fair for their April 2006 edition, Hatcher revealed that at the time she talked to the authorities, she was afraid that if her story came out in the tabloids, she would be seen as a has-been actress seeking publicity. "At the end of the day, there was no way I was not going to put this girl first, before whatever damage might be done to me," Hatcher told the magazine. "But my fear is far outweighed by what I know is my obligation to help other victims of sexual abuse to not feel alone." Stone died of colon cancer in 2008, having served six years of his sentence.

Teri Hatcher studied acting at the American Conservatory Theatre. One of her early jobs (in 1984) was as an NFL cheerleader with the San Francisco 49ers. From September 1985 to May 1986, she joined the cast of the TV series The Love Boat, playing the role of Amy, one of the Mermaid showgirls. This role mainly involved dancing and singing as part of the Mermaids' weekly show routine, but had short comedic lines in some episodes, and in one episode, she was part of one of the three main storylines. From 1986 to 1989, she appeared in six episodes of the TV series MacGyver as talkative but naive Penny Parker opposite Richard Dean Anderson's eponymous hero. In 1987, she played the sensible, intelligent 18-year-old daughter of Patty Duke's lead character in the short-lived comedy Karen's Song and had a guest-star role in an episode of Night Court. In 1988, she made a short guest appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lt. Robinson. In 1989, she guest-starred in episodes of Quantum Leap and L.A. Law. She also made her film debut with a minor role in the comedy The Big Picture (Christopher Guest, 1989) starring Kevin Bacon, and then played Sylvester Stallone's dancer younger sister in the big-budget, police action-comedy Tango and Cash (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1989), co-starring Kurt Russell. It was a critical and box office disappointment. She returned to television for parts in an episode of Murphy Brown (1990), the Norman Lear comedy series Sunday Dinner (1990) opposite Robert Loggia, and the TV crime movie Dead in the Water (Bill Condon, 1991) with Bryan Brown. In the cinema, she was among the all-star cast of the comedy Soapdish (Michael Hoffman, 1991) and appeared in the romantic comedy Straight Talk (Barnet Kellman, 1992) starring Dolly Parton. She also starred in the low-budget erotic thriller The Cool Surface (Erik Anjou), which was not released until 1994.

Teri Hatcher made a much-discussed guest appearance on a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, in which her character, Sidra, breaks up with Jerry because she believes Jerry sent his friend Elaine into a sauna to ascertain if Sidra's breasts were natural or enhanced by surgery. She returned to play Sidra in brief scenes in two subsequent episodes. Then Hatcher landed a starring role opposite Dean Cain in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) as the Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. At the height of the show's popularity in 1995, a picture of Hatcher wrapped in a Superman cape was reportedly the most downloaded image on the Internet for several months. Hatcher played a villain in two crime dramas: the ensemble 2 Days in the Valley (John Herzfeld, 1996), a moderate box office success, and Heaven's Prisoners (Phil Joanou, 1996), co-starring Alec Baldwin, which failed at the box office. Then Hatcher won the role of Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997). It was the second Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent. The film follows Bond as he attempts to stop Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a power-mad media mogul, from engineering world events to initiate World War III. Hatcher was three months pregnant at the filming's start, by her then husband, Jon Tenney. She was voted the world's sexiest woman by readers of the popular men's magazine FHM in spring 1997 after having been number four in 1996. Hatcher also appeared in the psychological thriller Fever (Alex Winter, 1999) starring Henry Thomas, and Spy Kids (Robert Rodriguez, 2001) starring Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino.

From 2014 to 2012, Teri Hatcher played one of the lead roles on the TV series Desperate Housewives, in which she starred as divorced mother Susan Mayer. For her role, she won the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award in 2005. Later that year, Hatcher won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award in the same category. In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, along with co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman. In 2006, Hatcher was one of the highest-paid television actresses in the United States, reportedly earning $285,000 per episode of Desperate Housewives. In 2006, she released her first book, Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life. She voiced the Other Mother, a mysterious, button-eyed figure, as well as Coraline's mother, Mel Jones, who constantly shows Coraline "tough love," both in the hit film Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009), which received critical acclaim. In 2010, Hatcher made a return to the Superman franchise, with a special guest role in the final season of Smallville as Ella Lane, the mother of Erica Durance's Lois Lane. The episode continued a tradition of former Lois Lane actresses portraying the character's mother many years later. Hatcher voiced Dottie in the Disney film Planes (Klay Hall, 2013) and Planes: Fire & Rescue (Bob Gannaway, 2014). In 2016, Hatcher had a recurring role as Charlotte, a successful single mother who becomes Oscar's (Matthew Perry) love interest in the second season of the comedy series The Odd Couple. In 2017, Hatcher appeared as Queen Rhea of Daxam in a recurring role on the TV series Supergirl. Teri Hatcher married Marcus Leithold in 1988; they divorced the following year. In 1994, she married actor Jon Tenney; they had a daughter, Emerson Rose, in 1997, and divorced in 2003. Her more recent films include the crime comedy Madness in the Method (Jason Mewes, 2019), and the TV movies How to Fall in Love by Christmas (Michael Kennedy, 2023), and The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story (Greg Beeman, 2024).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 544. Photo: Paramount Pictures Corp. Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001).

American actress Angelina Jolie (1975) won an Oscar, for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She gained international acclaim with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and established herself as one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with the Tomb Raider sequel The Cradle of Life (2003). Jolie proved her status as an action movie star with the blockbusters Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Wanted (2008). She received rave reviews for her roles in A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination. Forbes named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Angelina Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, in 1975. She is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of director James Haven. When Jolie was six months old, her father left the family and she moved to upstate New York with her mother and brother, and ten years later the family returned to Los Angeles, where 11-year-old Jolie decided to become an actress and enrolled at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Although she had a happy childhood, Jolie became depressed in her teens. In high school, she was bullied by her peers for her thin body and full lips, and she cut herself. Jolie had no personal contact with her father for many years and had the surname Voight removed from her name in 2002. Jolie and Voight reestablished contact after her mother, with whom Jolie had a very close relationship, died of ovarian cancer in 2007. After a short-lived career as a fashion model, Jolie began her film career in 1993 with a starring role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2. Some notable films from this period include her first Hollywood production, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller, and Foxfire (1996), where she began a relationship with co-star Jenny Shimizu. In 1998, Jolie won a Golden Globe for her role in the biographical television film George Wallace (1997). That same year, she played the tragic photo model Gia Marie Carangi in the biographical television film Gia. Critics praised Jolie's performance as the lesbian, heroin-addicted Carangi; she won a Golden Globe for the second year in a row and her first Screen Actors Guild Award. She appeared in Playing by Heart (1998), an ensemble production which also starred Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. The film in general and Jolie's performance in particular were well received. Next, Jolie appeared in Pushing Tin (1999) as the seductive wife of Billy Bob Thornton, whom she would marry the following year. Jolie then worked with Denzel Washington in the crime film The Bone Collector (1999). The film grossed $151 million worldwide but received poor reviews. Jolie also played the psychopathic Lisa Rowe in the biographical film Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Winona Ryder. Girl, Interrupted marked Jolie's breakthrough in Hollywood and she won her third Golden Globe, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The summer of that year saw the release of her first blockbuster, Gone in 60 Seconds, in which she played the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The film brought in $237 million internationally, making it her best-attended film to that point.

Angelina Jolie achieved international superstar status with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Although Jolie was widely praised for her physical performance, the film received mainly negative reviews. The film was nevertheless an international success with sales of $275 million and launched her global reputation as a female action film star. Jolie appeared as Antonio Banderas' sensual but deceitful mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001). In 2002, she played an ambitious journalist who is told she will die within a week in Life or Something Like It. Both films received poor reviews, but Jolie's performance was again well received by critics. In 2003, Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The sequel, although not as profitable as the original, had international sales of $156 million. Later that year, she appeared in Beyond Borders, a film about development workers in Africa. The film reflected Jolie's interest in development aid but was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 2004, Jolie appeared alongside Ethan Hawke as an FBI agent in the thriller Taking Lives. She also provided the voice of the fish Lola in the DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale and had a small role in the science fiction/adventure film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. That same year, Jolie played the role of Olympias in Alexander, a biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film was poorly attended in America, which director Oliver Stone attributed to its depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but was a success internationally with sales of $139 million. Jolie starred in only one film in 2005, the action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where she met Brad Pitt. The film, which tells the story of a bored couple who discover that they are both hit men, was one of the biggest successes of 2005, with sales of $478 million worldwide. Jolie then appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) as the neglected wife of a CIA agent played by Matt Damon. In 2007, Jolie appeared in A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. For her performance, Jolie received a fourth Golden Globe nomination and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. That same year, Jolie also played the mother of Grendel in the motion-capture-created epic film Beowulf. In 2008, Jolie played the hit woman Fox in the action film Wanted, alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The film was well-received by critics and was an international success with sales of $342 million. She also provided the voice of Tigress in the DreamWorks animated film Kung Fu Panda, which became her best-selling film to date with sales of $632 million worldwide. That same year, Jolie appeared in Clint Eastwood's truth-based drama Changeling, about American Christine Collins (played by Jolie) who is reunited in 1928 not with her kidnapped son but with a boy who had claimed to be her son. Jolie received a second Academy Award nomination, a fifth Golden Globe nomination, and a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her role.

Angelina Jolie's performance as the title character Evelyn Salt in Salt (2010) had many reviewers calling her the female James Bond. Jolie would also provide the voice of Tigress in the children's animated film Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, before taking on her next big hurdle: stepping behind the camera. Jolie directed and produced the war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2012), a tragic love story that takes place during the Bosnian War. The film's uncompromising depiction of the war atrocities that marked the conflict caused some stir in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, but her choices were largely celebrated by Bosnians, as well as most critics in the U.S. and Europe. Jolie returned to acting in 2014, playing the title character in Disney's Maleficent, which would prove to be Jolie's biggest live-action hit, passing the box office totals for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, taking in $600 million. She also continued to direct and produce films including Unbroken, First They Killed My Father, and By the Sea, In 2019 she starred in the Marvel movie The Eternals. In addition to her acting career, Jolie has been active for the UN refugee agency UNHCR since 2001, first as a Goodwill Ambassador and since 2012 as a Special Envoy. For her efforts, she received an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II. After marriages with actors Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003), Jolie had been in a relationship with actor Brad Pitt since 2004, with whom she has six children. In 2016, the couple separated and Jolie filed for divorce.

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 543. Photo: Paramount Pictures Corp. Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001).

American actress Angelina Jolie (1975) won an Oscar, for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She gained international acclaim with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and established herself as one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with the Tomb Raider sequel The Cradle of Life (2003). Jolie proved her status as an action movie star with the blockbusters Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Wanted (2008). She received rave reviews for her roles in A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination. Forbes named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Angelina Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, in 1975. She is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of director James Haven. When Jolie was six months old, her father left the family and she moved to upstate New York with her mother and brother, and ten years later the family returned to Los Angeles, where 11-year-old Jolie decided to become an actress and enrolled at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Although she had a happy childhood, Jolie became depressed in her teens. In high school, she was bullied by her peers for her thin body and full lips, and she cut herself. Jolie had no personal contact with her father for many years and had the surname Voight removed from her name in 2002. Jolie and Voight reestablished contact after her mother, with whom Jolie had a very close relationship, died of ovarian cancer in 2007. After a short-lived career as a fashion model, Jolie began her film career in 1993 with a starring role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2. Some notable films from this period include her first Hollywood production, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller, and Foxfire (1996), where she began a relationship with co-star Jenny Shimizu. In 1998, Jolie won a Golden Globe for her role in the biographical television film George Wallace (1997). That same year, she played the tragic photo model Gia Marie Carangi in the biographical television film Gia. Critics praised Jolie's performance as the lesbian, heroin-addicted Carangi; she won a Golden Globe for the second year in a row and her first Screen Actors Guild Award. She appeared in Playing by Heart (1998), an ensemble production which also starred Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. The film in general and Jolie's performance in particular were well received. Next, Jolie appeared in Pushing Tin (1999) as the seductive wife of Billy Bob Thornton, whom she would marry the following year. Jolie then worked with Denzel Washington in the crime film The Bone Collector (1999). The film grossed $151 million worldwide, but received poor reviews. Jolie also played the psychopathic Lisa Rowe in the biographical film Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Winona Ryder. Girl, Interrupted marked Jolie's breakthrough in Hollywood and she won her third Golden Globe, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The summer of that year saw the release of her first blockbuster, Gone in 60 Seconds, in which she played the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The film brought in $237 million internationally, making it her best-attended film to that point.

Angelina Jolie achieved international superstar status with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Although Jolie was widely praised for her physical performance, the film received mainly negative reviews. The film was nevertheless an international success with sales of $275 million, and launched her global reputation as a female action film star. Jolie then appeared as Antonio Banderas' sensual but deceitful mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001). In 2002, she played an ambitious journalist who is told she will die within a week in Life or Something Like It. Both films received poor reviews, but Jolie's performance was again well received by critics. In 2003, Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The sequel, although not as profitable as the original, had international sales of $156 million. Later that year, she appeared in Beyond Borders, a film about development workers in Africa. The film reflected Jolie's interest in development aid, but was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 2004, Jolie appeared alongside Ethan Hawke as an FBI agent in the thriller Taking Lives. She also provided the voice of the fish Lola in the DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale and had a small role in the science fiction/adventure film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. That same year, Jolie played the role of Olympias in Alexander, a biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film was poorly attended in America, which director Oliver Stone attributed to its depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but was a success internationally with sales of $139 million. Jolie starred in only one film in 2005, the action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where she met Brad Pitt. The film, which tells the story of a bored couple who discover that they are both hit men, was one of the biggest successes of 2005, with sales of $478 million worldwide. Jolie then appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) as the neglected wife of a CIA agent played by Matt Damon. In 2007, Jolie appeared in A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. For her performance, Jolie received a fourth Golden Globe nomination and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. That same year, Jolie also played the mother of Grendel in the motion-capture-created epic film Beowulf. In 2008, Jolie played the hit woman Fox in the action film Wanted, alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The film was well-received by critics and was an international success with sales of $342 million. She also provided the voice of Tigress in the DreamWorks animated film Kung Fu Panda, which became her best-selling film to date with sales of $632 million worldwide. That same year, Jolie appeared in Clint Eastwood's truth-based drama Changeling, about American Christine Collins (played by Jolie) who is reunited in 1928 not with her kidnapped son but with a boy who had claimed to be her son. Jolie received a second Academy Award nomination, a fifth Golden Globe nomination, and a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her role.

Angelina Jolie's performance as the title character Evelyn Salt in Salt (2010) had many reviewers calling her the female James Bond. Jolie would also provide the voice of Tigress in the childrens' animated film Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, before taking on her next big hurdle: stepping behind the camera. olie directed and produced the war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2012), a tragic love story that takes place during the Bosnian War. The film's uncompromising depiction of the war atrocities that marked the conflict caused some stir in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, but her choices were largely celebrated by Bosnians, as well as most critics in the U.S. and Europe. Jolie returned to acting in 2014, playing the title character in Disney's Maleficent, which would prove to Jolie's biggest live-action hit, passing the box office totals for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, taking in $600 million. She also continued to direct and produce films including Unbroken, First They Killed My Father, and By the Sea, In 2019 she starred in the Marvel movie The Eternals. In addition to her acting career, Jolie has been active for the UN refugee agency UNHCR since 2001, first as a Goodwill Ambassador and since 2012 as a Special Envoy. For her efforts, she received an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II. After marriages with actors Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003), Jolie had been in a relationship with actor Brad Pitt since 2004, with whom she has six children. In 2016, the couple separated and Jolie filed for divorce.

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 541. Photo: Paramount Pictures Corp. Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001).

American actress Angelina Jolie (1975) won an Oscar, for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She gained international acclaim with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and established herself as one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with the Tomb Raider sequel The Cradle of Life (2003). Jolie proved her status as an action movie star with the blockbusters Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Wanted (2008). She received rave reviews for her roles in A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination. Forbes named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Angelina Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, in 1975. She is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of director James Haven. When Jolie was six months old, her father left the family and she moved to upstate New York with her mother and brother, and ten years later the family returned to Los Angeles, where 11-year-old Jolie decided to become an actress and enrolled at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Although she had a happy childhood, Jolie became depressed in her teens. In high school, she was bullied by her peers for her thin body and full lips, and she cut herself. Jolie had no personal contact with her father for many years and had the surname Voight removed from her name in 2002. Jolie and Voight reestablished contact after her mother, with whom Jolie had a very close relationship, died of ovarian cancer in 2007. After a short-lived career as a fashion model, Jolie began her film career in 1993 with a starring role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2. Some notable films from this period include her first Hollywood production, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller, and Foxfire (1996), where she began a relationship with co-star Jenny Shimizu. In 1998, Jolie won a Golden Globe for her role in the biographical television film George Wallace (1997). That same year, she played the tragic photo model Gia Marie Carangi in the biographical television film Gia. Critics praised Jolie's performance as the lesbian, heroin-addicted Carangi; she won a Golden Globe for the second year in a row and her first Screen Actors Guild Award. She appeared in Playing by Heart (1998), an ensemble production which also starred Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. The film in general and Jolie's performance in particular were well received. Next, Jolie appeared in Pushing Tin (1999) as the seductive wife of Billy Bob Thornton, whom she would marry the following year. Jolie then worked with Denzel Washington in the crime film The Bone Collector (1999). The film grossed $151 million worldwide, but received poor reviews. Jolie also played the psychopathic Lisa Rowe in the biographical film Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Winona Ryder. Girl, Interrupted marked Jolie's breakthrough in Hollywood and she won her third Golden Globe, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The summer of that year saw the release of her first blockbuster, Gone in 60 Seconds, in which she played the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The film brought in $237 million internationally, making it her best-attended film to that point.

Angelina Jolie achieved international superstar status with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Although Jolie was widely praised for her physical performance, the film received mainly negative reviews. The film was nevertheless an international success with sales of $275 million, and launched her global reputation as a female action film star. Jolie then appeared as Antonio Banderas' sensual but deceitful mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001). In 2002, she played an ambitious journalist who is told she will die within a week in Life or Something Like It. Both films received poor reviews, but Jolie's performance was again well received by critics. In 2003, Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The sequel, although not as profitable as the original, had international sales of $156 million. Later that year, she appeared in Beyond Borders, a film about development workers in Africa. The film reflected Jolie's interest in development aid, but was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 2004, Jolie appeared alongside Ethan Hawke as an FBI agent in the thriller Taking Lives. She also provided the voice of the fish Lola in the DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale and had a small role in the science fiction/adventure film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. That same year, Jolie played the role of Olympias in Alexander, a biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film was poorly attended in America, which director Oliver Stone attributed to its depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but was a success internationally with sales of $139 million. Jolie starred in only one film in 2005, the action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where she met Brad Pitt. The film, which tells the story of a bored couple who discover that they are both hit men, was one of the biggest successes of 2005, with sales of $478 million worldwide. Jolie then appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) as the neglected wife of a CIA agent played by Matt Damon. In 2007, Jolie appeared in A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. For her performance, Jolie received a fourth Golden Globe nomination and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. That same year, Jolie also played the mother of Grendel in the motion-capture-created epic film Beowulf. In 2008, Jolie played the hit woman Fox in the action film Wanted, alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The film was well-received by critics and was an international success with sales of $342 million. She also provided the voice of Tigress in the DreamWorks animated film Kung Fu Panda, which became her best-selling film to date with sales of $632 million worldwide. That same year, Jolie appeared in Clint Eastwood's truth-based drama Changeling, about American Christine Collins (played by Jolie) who is reunited in 1928 not with her kidnapped son but with a boy who had claimed to be her son. Jolie received a second Academy Award nomination, a fifth Golden Globe nomination, and a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her role.

Angelina Jolie's performance as the title character Evelyn Salt in Salt (2010) had many reviewers calling her the female James Bond. Jolie would also provide the voice of Tigress in the childrens' animated film Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, before taking on her next big hurdle: stepping behind the camera. olie directed and produced the war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2012), a tragic love story that takes place during the Bosnian War. The film's uncompromising depiction of the war atrocities that marked the conflict caused some stir in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, but her choices were largely celebrated by Bosnians, as well as most critics in the U.S. and Europe. Jolie returned to acting in 2014, playing the title character in Disney's Maleficent, which would prove to Jolie's biggest live-action hit, passing the box office totals for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, taking in $600 million. She also continued to direct and produce films including Unbroken, First They Killed My Father, and By the Sea, In 2019 she starred in the Marvel movie The Eternals. In addition to her acting career, Jolie has been active for the UN refugee agency UNHCR since 2001, first as a Goodwill Ambassador and since 2012 as a Special Envoy. For her efforts, she received an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II. After marriages with actors Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003), Jolie had been in a relationship with actor Brad Pitt since 2004, with whom she has six children. In 2016, the couple separated and Jolie filed for divorce.

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 546. Photo: Paramount Pictures Corp. Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001).

American actress Angelina Jolie (1975) won an Oscar, for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She gained international acclaim with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and established herself as one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood with the Tomb Raider sequel The Cradle of Life (2003). Jolie proved her status as an action movie star with the blockbusters Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Wanted (2008). She received rave reviews for her roles in A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination. Forbes named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Angelina Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, in 1975. She is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of director James Haven. When Jolie was six months old, her father left the family and she moved to upstate New York with her mother and brother, and ten years later the family returned to Los Angeles, where 11-year-old Jolie decided to become an actress and enrolled at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Although she had a happy childhood, Jolie became depressed in her teens. In high school, she was bullied by her peers for her thin body and full lips, and she cut herself. Jolie had no personal contact with her father for many years and had the surname Voight removed from her name in 2002. Jolie and Voight reestablished contact after her mother, with whom Jolie had a very close relationship, died of ovarian cancer in 2007. After a short-lived career as a fashion model, Jolie began her film career in 1993 with a starring role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2. Some notable films from this period include her first Hollywood production, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller, and Foxfire (1996), where she began a relationship with co-star Jenny Shimizu. In 1998, Jolie won a Golden Globe for her role in the biographical television film George Wallace (1997). That same year, she played the tragic photo model Gia Marie Carangi in the biographical television film Gia. Critics praised Jolie's performance as the lesbian, heroin-addicted Carangi; she won a Golden Globe for the second year in a row and her first Screen Actors Guild Award. She appeared in Playing by Heart (1998), an ensemble production which also starred Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. The film in general and Jolie's performance in particular were well received. Next, Jolie appeared in Pushing Tin (1999) as the seductive wife of Billy Bob Thornton, whom she would marry the following year. Jolie then worked with Denzel Washington in the crime film The Bone Collector (1999). The film grossed $151 million worldwide, but received poor reviews. Jolie also played the psychopathic Lisa Rowe in the biographical film Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Winona Ryder. Girl, Interrupted marked Jolie's breakthrough in Hollywood and she won her third Golden Globe, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The summer of that year saw the release of her first blockbuster, Gone in 60 Seconds, in which she played the ex-girlfriend of car thief Nicolas Cage. The film brought in $237 million internationally, making it her best-attended film to that point.

Angelina Jolie achieved international superstar status with her role as video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Although Jolie was widely praised for her physical performance, the film received mainly negative reviews. The film was nevertheless an international success with sales of $275 million, and launched her global reputation as a female action film star. Jolie then appeared as Antonio Banderas' sensual but deceitful mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001). In 2002, she played an ambitious journalist who is told she will die within a week in Life or Something Like It. Both films received poor reviews, but Jolie's performance was again well received by critics. In 2003, Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The sequel, although not as profitable as the original, had international sales of $156 million. Later that year, she appeared in Beyond Borders, a film about development workers in Africa. The film reflected Jolie's interest in development aid, but was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 2004, Jolie appeared alongside Ethan Hawke as an FBI agent in the thriller Taking Lives. She also provided the voice of the fish Lola in the DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale and had a small role in the science fiction/adventure film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. That same year, Jolie played the role of Olympias in Alexander, a biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film was poorly attended in America, which director Oliver Stone attributed to its depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but was a success internationally with sales of $139 million. Jolie starred in only one film in 2005, the action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where she met Brad Pitt. The film, which tells the story of a bored couple who discover that they are both hit men, was one of the biggest successes of 2005, with sales of $478 million worldwide. Jolie then appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) as the neglected wife of a CIA agent played by Matt Damon. In 2007, Jolie appeared in A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. For her performance, Jolie received a fourth Golden Globe nomination and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. That same year, Jolie also played the mother of Grendel in the motion-capture-created epic film Beowulf. In 2008, Jolie played the hit woman Fox in the action film Wanted, alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The film was well-received by critics and was an international success with sales of $342 million. She also provided the voice of Tigress in the DreamWorks animated film Kung Fu Panda, which became her best-selling film to date with sales of $632 million worldwide. That same year, Jolie appeared in Clint Eastwood's truth-based drama Changeling, about American Christine Collins (played by Jolie) who is reunited in 1928 not with her kidnapped son but with a boy who had claimed to be her son. Jolie received a second Academy Award nomination, a fifth Golden Globe nomination, and a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her role.

Angelina Jolie's performance as the title character Evelyn Salt in Salt (2010) had many reviewers calling her the female James Bond. Jolie would also provide the voice of Tigress in the childrens' animated film Kung Fu Panda and its sequel, before taking on her next big hurdle: stepping behind the camera. olie directed and produced the war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2012), a tragic love story that takes place during the Bosnian War. The film's uncompromising depiction of the war atrocities that marked the conflict caused some stir in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia, but her choices were largely celebrated by Bosnians, as well as most critics in the U.S. and Europe. Jolie returned to acting in 2014, playing the title character in Disney's Maleficent, which would prove to Jolie's biggest live-action hit, passing the box office totals for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, taking in $600 million. She also continued to direct and produce films including Unbroken, First They Killed My Father, and By the Sea, In 2019 she starred in the Marvel movie The Eternals. In addition to her acting career, Jolie has been active for the UN refugee agency UNHCR since 2001, first as a Goodwill Ambassador and since 2012 as a Special Envoy. For her efforts, she received an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II. After marriages with actors Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999) and Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003), Jolie had been in a relationship with actor Brad Pitt since 2004, with whom she has six children. In 2016, the couple separated and Jolie filed for divorce.

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

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Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 323. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. Publicity still for Alien 3 (David Fincher, 1992).

"In space, no one can hear you scream" is the tagline of the Sci-Fi Horror classic Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979). A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft. Alien stands as one of the more thought-provoking, yet utterly terrifying horror films ever. Sigourney Weaver is amazing as Ellen Ripley, who became an iconic character in film history. The film won an Oscar for special effects, including the alien designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger.

It is the year 2122. The U.S.C.S. Nostromo (Italian for "mate"), a commercial cargo spacecraft, is flying to Earth with several million tonnes of ore on board. The ship is manned by seven people and a sophisticated computer, which the crew call "Mother". The crew members are the men Dallas, Ash, Kane, Parker and Brett and the women Ripley and Lambert. The crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas's (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane's stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company. While still a student at the University of Southern California, scriptwriter Dan O'Bannon had teamed up with director John Carpenter to make a comic science fiction film called Dark Star. His experience making this film gave Bannon the idea of making a similar film, but with a horror theme instead of a comedy. A few years later, he began writing a screenplay around this idea. Around the same time, Ronald Shusett began working on a screenplay that would eventually become Total Recall. He contacted O'Bannon after seeing Dark Star, after which the two decided to work together on Alien. However, O'Bannon had not yet thought about what the monster should look like.

Swiss artist H.R. Giger's alien design and Carlo Rambaldi's visual effects for Alien (1979) creepily meld technology with corporeality, creating a claustrophobic environment that is coldly mechanical yet horribly anthropomorphized, like the metallic monster itself. Director Ridley Scott keeps the alien out of full view, hiding it in the dark or camouflaging it in the workings of the Nostromo. Lucia Bozzola at AllMovie: "Signs of '70s cultural upheaval permeate Alien's future world, from the relationship between corporate capitalism and rapacious monstrosity to the heterogeneous crew and Ripley's forceful horror heroine. However, the intense frights and gross-outs are credited with making Alien one of the biggest hits of 1979 (it premiered on the two-year anniversary of Star Wars); Giger, Rambaldi, et al. won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects." Alien went on to spawn some genre-bending sequels: the actioner Aliens (1986), dark prison drama Alien 3 (1992), and the exotically grotesque Alien Resurrection (1997). In 2003, a director's cut of Alien (1979) was released in cinemas, with some additional scenes. The franchise now counts seven films. Roger Ebert: "Certainly the character of Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, would have appealed to readers in the Golden Age of Science Fiction. She has little interest in the romance of finding the alien, and still less in her employer's orders that it be brought back home as a potential weapon. After she sees what it can do, her response to "Special Order 24" ("Return alien lifeform, all other priorities rescinded") is succinct: "How do we kill it?" Her implacable hatred for the alien is the common thread running through all three "Alien" sequels, which have gradually descended in quality but retained their motivating obsession."

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Lucia Bozzola (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 461, 1997. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Poster image of Alien - Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997) with Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder.

American actress Sigourney Weaver (1949) rose to international fame with her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien saga. After her breakthrough in the Science Fiction blockbuster Alien (1979), she became one of Hollywood's major female stars during the 1980s and 1990s. Weaver often plays strong, independent, and driven women. She was nominated for an Oscar for Aliens (1987), Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988) and Working Girl (1988), and her tour-de-force performance in the Broadway play 'Hurlyburly' (1984) earned her a Tony Award nomination. Weaver has actually won more than ten film awards, including two Golden Globes and a BAFTA Award.

Susan Alexandra 'Sigourney' Weaver was born in New York, in 1949. Weaver is the daughter of television producer and president of NBC Pat Weaver and British actress Elizabeth Inglis. She changed her name to 'Sigourney' at the age of 14, after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's book 'The Great Gatsby'. She graduated from Stanford and Yale, in the same class as Meryl Streep. In the 1970s, she acted in experimental and classical plays, including those by her former classmate Christopher Durang. Because of her height (she is 1.82 metres), she was often ignored by most producers and directors. In 1976, Weaver got a role in the soap opera Somerset. The following year, she made her film debut: she appeared for six seconds in Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977). However, it made many people sit up and take notice. She had her first starring role in Madman (Dan Cohen, 1978) starring Michael Beck. Her breakthrough followed in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). The part of Ellen Ripley became her most famous role and made Weaver one of the greatest actresses of the moment. She continued her career with drama films such as Eyewitness (Peter Yates, 1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (Pewter Weir, 1982), with Mel Gibson. In 1984, she played her first comic role as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984). In 1986, the first sequel to Alien was released. In Aliens (James Cameron, 1986), Weaver portrayed Ripley as an intelligent, powerful woman. The film was an even greater commercial success than the original and she was rewarded for her role with her first Oscar nomination. She was also nominated for an Oscar for her roles as the animal rights activist and zoologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (Michael Apted, 1988) and her delicious performance as a double-crossing, power-hungry corporate executive in the comedy Working Girl (Mike Nichols, 1988). She missed out on the award all three times but did receive Golden Globes for the latter two films.

Sigourney Weaver reprised the role of Dana Barrett in the sequel Ghostbusters II (Ivan Reitman, 1989) and played Rebecca Gorin in the reboot Ghostbusters (Paul Feig, 2016). Weaver also reprised the role of Ellen Ripley in the films Alien³ (David Fincher, 1992) and Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997) with Winona Ryder, as well as in the game Alien: Isolation (2014), the latter of which marks the actress' return 17 years after her last appearance in the franchise. Weaver collaborated with Ridley Scott again, appearing as Queen Isabella in 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and appeared in the Roman Polanski–directed Death and the Maiden, in a major role opposite Ben Kingsley. For her role in The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997), she received her fourth Golden Globe nomination and won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. In 1999, she co-starred in the hilarious Science Fiction comedy Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) with Tim Allen and Alan Rickman. Then followed a decade in which she continued to appear in films but also had multiple voice roles in animated films, including The Tale of Despereaux (Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen, 2008) and the Pixar films WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008) and Finding Dory (Andrew Stanton, 2016). She also worked in several documentaries, such as the BBC series Planet Earth (2006) and The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (2016). During the 2010s, she made a major comeback in the cinema with supporting roles in the blockbuster Avatar (2009), which marked her reunion with James Cameron, and in the historical blockbuster Exodus: Gods and Kings (Ridley Scott, 2014), starring Christian Bale, for which she reunited with Ridley Scott. She made a lasting return with the Sci-Fi thriller Chappie (Neill Blomkamp, 2015), the fantasy film A Monster Calls (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2016), and the TV mini-series The Defenders (2017). Last year, she returned as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Jason Reitman, 2021). Sigourney Weaver married director Jim Simpson in 1984, with whom she had a daughter in April 1990.

Sources: Wikipedia (English, Dutch and French), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions B.V., no. SP 04. Image: Comedy Central, 1999. Caption: Kick ass!

The American animation series South Park (1997-) follows the misadventures of four young boys in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado. The TV show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden. South Park is a dark, satirical look on Western society - politics, the media, today's youth, celebrities, violence in our society, projected through the bizarre adventures of four irreverent school boys —Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick. The show debuted in August 1997 with great success and high ratings. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is slated to air in new episodes through 2019.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, no. FA 283, 1992. Photo: Carolco International N.V. Publicity still for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991).

Austrian-born muscleman, Hollywood star and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) started his career as a bodybuilder, who won several European contests and international titles. ‘The Austrian Oak’ moved to the US and was a millionaire at 21. He achieved stardom in the documentary Pumping Iron (1977) and established himself as an action star with Conan the Barbarian (1982). As the murderous android title character in The Terminator (1984) and its sequels, Schwarzenegger became a bona fide box-office draw and the cigar-chomping strongman went on to star in interesting box office hits as Predator (1987), Total Recall (1990) and True Lies (1994). His most notable role of the new millennium was political - as governor of California.

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in the village Thal near the small Austrian town of Graz. His parents were Gustav and Aurelia Schwarzenegger. His father, was an alcoholic police chief and one-time member of the Nazi Party, who clearly favoured Arnold's brother over his gangly, seemingly less athletic younger son. Gustav is reported to have beaten and intimidated Arnold and pitted his two boys against one another. Schwarzenegger would later refuse to attend the funeral of his father, who died in 1972, or his brother, who was killed in a car crash in 1971. Gustav wanted Arnold to become a soccer player, but the 15-year-old opted for weight training. He frequented the local cinemas to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park and Steve Reeves on the big screen. In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. During his army service in 1965, he won the Junior Mr. Europe contest. Arnold went on to win several European contests. This was his ticket to the U.S., where he billed himself for body-building exhibitions as ‘The Austrian Oak’. At age 20, he won the first of five Mr. Universe titles, and three years later, he captured his first Mr. Olympia title. He would win the title a total of seven times. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Though his thick Austrian accent and slow speech patterns led some to believe that the Austrian Oak was shy a few leaves, Schwarzenegger was, in fact, a highly motivated and intelligent young man. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in business and economics, he invested his contest earnings in real estate and a mail-order bodybuilding equipment company.” At 21, Schwarzenegger was a millionaire via shrewd investments and decided to try acting. Producers were impressed by his physique but not by his last name, so he made his film debut with a dubbed voice and as Arnold Strong in Hercules in New York (Arthur A. Seidelman, 1970), a low-budget parody of the sword and sandal epics of Arnold’s youth. He reverted to his own name for Stay Hungry (Bob Rafelson, 1976), with Jeff Bridges. For his part, he was awarded a Golden Globe for New Male Star of the Year. Then he achieved stardom as ‘himself’ in Pumping Iron (George Butler, Robert Fiore, 1977) about a group of men training for the Mr. Olympia contest. Arnold had already won the title six times before, and was training for his seventh victory before retiring to fully pursue his acting career. In The Villain (Hal Needham, 1979), a cartoon-like Western parody, he played ‘Handsome Stranger,’ exhibiting a gift for understated. In 1980, he starred opposite Loni Anderson in the TV biopic The Jayne Mansfield Story (Dick Lowry, 1980) as Mansfield's husband, Mickey Hargitay.

Arnold Schwarzenegger established himself as an action star with his role as the barbarian warrior Conan in the formidable Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982) and its inferior though enjoyable sequel, Conan the Destroyer (Richard Fleischer, 1984). As the murderous android title character in The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984), Schwarzenegger became a bona fide box-office draw. Made on a relatively modest budget, the high voltage action / science fiction thriller was incredibly successful worldwide, and began one of the most profitable film franchises in history. Schwarzenegger's catchphrase "I'll be baaaack" became part of popular culture around the world. Then followed two of his best action films: Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) - an entertaining marriage of action and science fiction about a team of commandos hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior in a South-American jungle, and Paul Verhoeven's wild and sublime Sci-Fi action film Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990). Total Recall, loosely based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, tells the story of a construction worker who goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, but an unexpected and harrowing events force him to go to the planet for real - or does he? Stuart Wood at IMDb: “Total Recall is without doubt Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movie since The Terminator. Arnold fits perfectly in the role of Doug Quaid (definitely his best acting in a movie to date) the confused construction worker and Ronny Cox provides his usual evil plotting arch bad-guy. The impressive visual effects are worth the movie's $100million price tag, and Paul Verhoeven proved that, as with Robocop and Starship Troopers, sci-fi is where he does his best work.“ As Danny De Vito's unlikely pacifistic sibling in Twins (Ivan Reitman, 1988), Schwarzenegger received the praise of critics. In the police comedy Kindergarten Cop (Ivan Reitman, 1991), Schwarzenegger played a hard-bitten police detective who found his true life's calling as a schoolteacher. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991), wherein ‘Arnie’ exercised his star prerogative and insisted that the Terminator become a good guy, was the most expensive film ever made up to its time and became one of the biggest moneymakers. The actor's subsequent action films were equally as costly. Hal Erickson: “sometimes the expenditures paid off, while other times the result was immensely disappointing - for the box-office disappointment Last Action Hero (1992), Schwarzenegger refreshingly took full responsibility, rather than blaming the failure on his production crew or studio.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a rock-ribbed Republican despite his former marriage to JFK's niece, Maria Shriver, with whom he has four children. He was appointed by George Bush in 1990 as chairman of the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, a job he took as seriously and with as much dedication as any of his films. A much-publicized investment in the showbiz eatery Planet Hollywood increased the coffers in Schwarzenegger's already bulging bank account. Schwarzenegger then added directing to his many accomplishments, piloting a few episodes of the TV series Tales From the Crypt as well as the TV-movie Christmas in Connecticut (1992) with Dyan Cannon, a remake of the classic Christmas in Connecticut (Peter Godfrey, 1945) with Barbara Stanwyck. Schwarzenegger bounced back from the disastrous Last Action Hero (John McTiernan, 1990) with True Lies (James Cameron, 1994), which was one of the major hits of that summer. Following the success of True Lies, Schwarzenegger went back to doing comedy with Junior (Ivan Reitman, 1994), co-starring with Emma Thompson. The film met with critically mixed results, although it fared decently at the box office. Schwarzenegger continued to alternate action with comedy with Eraser (Chuck Russell, 1996) and Jingle All the Way (Brian Levant, 1996). The latter proved to be both a critical bomb and a box-office disappointment. Schwarzenegger returned to action films with Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), in which he played the villain Mr. Freeze. Unfortunately the film proved to be a huge critical disappointment.

The turn of the century found Arnold Schwarzenegger's film career and box office prominence into decline. He made two millennial paranoia films, End of Days (Peter Hyams, 1999) and The 6th Day (Roger Spottiswoode, 2000), both failures. Collateral Damage (Andrew Davis, 2002) also failed to do well at the box office. Fans rejoiced when Arnold resumed his role as a seriously tough cyborg in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, 2003). Jeremy Wheeler at AllMovie: “What T3 does effectively is bring back the mix of highly intense action, character-driven humor, and technological wizardry that the big screen had been lacking for more than a decade since Terminator 2: Judgment Day. There's a direct understanding of the series core dynamics, and once things kick in, there's no doubt that you're back in Terminator-land. Arnold Schwarzenegger eases back into the role effortlessly, bringing an understanding to the lovable cyborg that goes beyond simple line delivery and stoic screen presence.” Though Schwarzenegger made a cameo Around the World in 80 Days (Frank Coraci, 2004), his most notable role of the new millennium was political. In 2003 he became the governor of California, and ‘The Governator’ served two terms until 2011. In 2010, Schwarzenegger he was among the all-star cast of action-movie icons in The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, 2010), an action thriller following a group of tough-as-nails mercenaries as they deal with the aftermath of a mission gone wrong. He reprised his role for The Expendables 2 (Simon West, 2012) and The Expendables 3 (Patrick Hughes, 2014). The Last Stand (Kim Jee-woon, 2013) was his first leading role in 10 years. More recently he returned to the Terminator franchise in Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015) and he produced and acted in the dramatic horror film Maggie (Henry Hobson, 2015).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), David Montgomewry (IMDb), Stuart Wood (IMDb), Jeremy Wheeler (AllMovie), Biography.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.