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JEFF
DANIELS (Colonel Joshua Chamberlain) made his feature
film debut in Milos Forman's Ragtime, but it was his portrayal as
Debra Winger's husband in Terms of Endearment that catapulted him
to stardom.
Woody
Allen was among the first to recognize the actor's talent and comic
ability and cast Daniels in the starring role in The Purple Rose
of Cairo. He then went on to star in a number of films including
Something Wild, The Butcher's Wife, Checking Out, Fly Away Home,
101 Dalmatians, Speed, Pleasantville, Arachnophobia, Gettysburg,
Dumb and Dumber, and most recently, Blood Work and The Hours. Television
credits include Robert Altman's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial,
Lee Grant's No Place Like Home, A&E's The Crossing, Saturday
Night Live, and Cheaters for HBO.
Daniels'
success is not limited to the screen; his appearances on the Broadway
stage include Lanford Wilson's Redwood Curtain and Fifth of July,
which won him a Drama Desk Award for Best Supporting Actor. Off
Broadway, Daniels received a Drama Desk Nomination for Lemon Sky,
as well as an Obie for his performance in the Circle Repertory Company
production of Johnny Got His Gun.
Back
home in Chelsea, Michigan, he has continued his passion for the
theater by founding the Purple Rose Theater Company, which he dedicated
to encourage and develop Midwestern actors, playwrights, directors
and designers. All of Daniels' own plays have premiered there; Shoe
Man (Detroit News Critics Award for Best New Play); The Tropical
Pickle, The Vast Difference, Thy Kingdom's Coming, Apartment 3A,
Boom Town, Escanaba in da Moonlight, and most recently, Across the
Way, which was nominated for Best New Play by the American Theatre
Critics Association.
In
1999, Daniels formed Purple Rose Films, a Michigan-based independent
production company. His first film as writer/actor/director, Escanaba
in da Moonlight, a comedy about deer hunting based on his hit play,
was self-distributed in Michigan and Wisconsin, grossing $2.3 million.
His second film, Super Sucker, a comedy about Midwestern vacuum
cleaner salesmen, won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO. The film was released in
January 2003 in Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Cleveland,
Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.
STEPHEN LANG (General Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson) stepped into the highly sought-after starring
role in Gods and Generals on the heels of an impressive career in
motion pictures, television and the Broadway stage.
Lang,
a native New Yorker, is a longtime member of the Actors Studio and
has been acclaimed on the Broadway stage for performances as Col.
Jessep in A Few Good Men (winning the Helen Hayes Award), in Dustin
Hoffman's revival of Death of a Salesman (and also in the CBS telecast)
and in the recent production of Wait Until Dark opposite Marisa
Tomei and Quentin Tarantino.
For
his stage work, Lang has received the Joseph Jefferson Award as
well as Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations. He
has honed his stagecraft at some of the finest theatres in the nation.
Lang
is also remembered for his portrayal of General George Pickett in
Ron Maxwell's Gettysburg. Lang, one of the top audio recording artists,
also narrated the audio version of the Jeff Shaara novels Gods and
Generals and The Last Full Measure (he has interpreted more than
75 books on tape).
On
the big screen, Lang won critical praise for his performance as
nefarious Ike Clanton in Tombstone and as the doomed strike leader
Harry Black in Last Exit to Brooklyn, and appeared in The Hard Way,
Guilty as Sin, Project X, Fire Down Below and The Amazing Panda
Adventure.
He
is remembered by television fans as the "one armed man"
in the recent Warner Bros. television series The Fugitive and appeared
for director Michael Mann in Manhunter and the series Crime Story.
In an astonishing transformation, he also portrayed Babe Ruth in
the NBC biopic movie.
ROBERT
DUVALL (General Robert E. Lee) didn't travel as far as
some for his role in Gods and Generals. Considered by many as one
of America's finest actors, Duvall lives on a Revolutionary War-era
estate in rural Virginia, which was within easy reach of most of
the film's locations.
Duvall was born in San Diego, California, into a military family.
After duty with the U.S. Army he studied acting in New York with
Sanford Meisner, founder of the respected Neighborhood Playhouse,
who was the first to recognize his potential and cast him in several
plays. Duvall once shared an apartment with another struggling actor,
Dustin Hoffman; the two palled around with Gene Hackman.
Playwright
Horton Foote was the one who recommended him for To Kill a Mockingbird.
Duvall followed this with an Obie Award-winning performance in Arthur
Miller's revival of A View From the Bridge.
The
actor has starred in a number of America's finest films: The Godfather,
which earned him an Oscar nomination, and The Godfather, Part II;
he was nominated a second time for an Oscar for his performance
in Apocalypse Now; he was nominated a third time for The Great Santini;
and won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Tender Mercies.
Duvall
wrote, directed, starred in and produced The Apostle, receiving
an Oscar nomination for his performance in the title role, as well
as Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director and
Best Actor. He co-starred in Deep Impact and A Civil Action, which
won him his sixth Oscar nomination as well as a Golden Globe nomination.
Other
memorable characterizations were in Gone in 60 Seconds, A Shot at
Glory and John Q. An avid tango dancer, another film venture close
to his heart is Assassination Tango, which Duvall produced, wrote,
starred in and directed in Argentina.
Duvall
honed his craft in such well-known films as Bullitt, True Grit,
M*A*S*H, THX 1138, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The Eagle Has Landed,
The Greatest, The Betsy, True Confessions, and in the role of Dwight
D. Eisenhower in the miniseries Ike. In l983 he wrote, produced
and directed Angelo My Love, a portrait of New York's secretive
Gypsy life. Other film roles were in The Stone Boy, The Natural,
Let's Get Harry and Colors. Duvall received an Emmy nomination for
his performance in the mini-series Lonesome Dove (one of his favorite
roles).
In
the last decade he starred in Days of Thunder, The Handmaid's Tale,
A Show of Force, Convicts, Rambling Rose, Falling Down, Geronimo
and Wrestling Ernest Hemingway. He formed Butchers Run Films in
l992, producing and starring in A Family Thing, which earned a Humanitas
Award, followed by the second Butchers Run Film The Man Who Captured
Eichmann, for which Duvall was nominated for an Emmy. Duvall was
also seen in The Paper, The Stars Fell on Henrietta, The Scarlet
Letter and Phenomenon, and won a Golden Globe for Best Actor as
the Soviet dictator in HBO's Stalin.
Duvall's
upcoming projects include Open Range, co-starring with Kevin Costner,
and Secondhand Lions, co-starring with Michael Caine and Haley Joel
Osment.
MIRA
SORVINO (Fanny Chamberlain), an Academy Award winner
for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Mighty Aphrodite, gives
another impressive performance in a fast-rising career that took
her from graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1990
to standing on stage holding an Oscar statuette five years later.
Her
role in Gods and Generals finds her reuniting with writer/director/producer
Ron Maxwell, who had cast her in his script, Joan of Arc: The Virgin
Warrior. One of the most sought after actresses in films and television,
Sorvino has appeared in a number of challenging roles in both mediums.
A few of her most recent screen credits include Triumph of Love,
The Grey Zone and Between Strangers. She gave a memorable performance
as Daisy Buchanan in the recent television version of The Great
Gatsby, and won critical plaudits for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe
in the telefilm Norma Jean and Marilyn.
She
recently produced the critically acclaimed film Lisa Picard is Famous
directed by Griffin Dunne, which was chosen as an official entry
in the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to starring in the Classic
Stage Company's Broadway production of Auigi Pirandello's Naked,
she etched out striking dramatic performances in Spike Lee's Summer
of Sam and At First Sight. Her versatility was showcased in divergent
roles in the action drama The Replacement Killers, the sci-fi thriller
Mimic and the comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Other
credits include Beautiful Girls, Quiz Show, Barcelona and her Sundance
debut, Amongst Friends.
Over the past 37 years, KEVIN CONWAY (Sgt. "Buster" Kilrain)
has created many memorable characters in film, on television and
in some of the most significant stage plays of the era. As both
actor and director, he continues to build on his unique and important
career, covering all aspects of the entertainment industry.
Conway
recently completed a successful run at Lincoln Center in New York
of the revival of Dinner at Eight. He also provided the voice of
Mark Twain for Ken Burns' award-winning series on PBS.
In
Gods and Generals, he reprises his role as Sgt. "Buster"
Kilrain, which he originated in Gettysburg.
He
resides in New York City.
In
Gods and Generals, C. THOMAS HOWELL (Lieutenant
Thomas Chamberlain) reprises the role of Lt. Chamberlain,
which he originated in Gettysburg.
Howell
made his film debut in 1982 in E.T. the Extraterrestrial. He followed
up the next year with his critically acclaimed performance as Ponyboy
in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders.
Howell's considerable roster of films includes roles in Grandview,
U.S.A, Red Dawn, Secret Admirer, The Hitcher, Soul Man, A Tiger's
Tale, Franco Zeffirelli's Il Giovane Toscanini, The Return of the
Musketeers, Side Out, Tank and That Night; he recently completed
filming on Hildago.
Howell
has directed the films The Big Fall, Pure Danger and Hourglass,
for which he also wrote the screenplay.
FRANKIE
FAISON (Jim Lewis) was most recently seen in Brett Ratner's
Red Dragon; Faison is the only actor to have appeared in all four
Hannibal Lector films: Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal
and Red Dragon.
Faison's
considerable film credits include Warner Bros. Pictures' Showtime;
Jill Sprecher's 13 Conversations About One Thing; Down to Earth
with Chris Rock; Where the Money Is, starring Paul Newman; The Thomas
Crown Affair; Rich Man's Wife, starring Halle Berry; I Love Trouble;
Sommersby, starring Jodie Foster and Richard Gere; Freejack; Mississippi
Burning; Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing; Coming to America; Julien
Po; The Money Pit and Keith Gordon's Mother Night.
On
television, Faison is a series regular on The Wire for HBO, was
a series regular on Fox's True Colors and Prey for ABC and has made
guest appearances on Cosby, Law and Order, Kate and Allie and Sesame
Street, and played the role of the Captain in the PBS production
of King Lear.
In
addition to numerous off-Broadway roles, Faison has appeared in
the Broadway productions of August Wilson's Fences, a performance
which earned him Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for Best
Supporting Actor; Getting Away With Murder; Of Mice and Men; The
Iceman Cometh; Broadway, Broadway and Shadow Box.
Faison
will be seen next in the upcoming feature film Highwaymen.
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