Curated playlist

American people of Swedish descent

Matt DamonMatt Damon once turned down 10 percent of the profits from Avatar, a film that went on to become the most successful of all time. Director James Cameron made the offer while Damon was still working on the Bourne films, and Damon did not…
David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
Wes AndersonWes Anderson has said his first ambition was to be a writer, not a director. He grew up making silent films.
Julia RobertsJulia Roberts was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 28th of October 1967. Her hospital bill was paid by Coretta King, whose children attended an acting school run by Julia's parents. The Roberts family was struggling with money at the time.…
Joan CrawfordA 1938 ad called Joan Crawford "box office poison," but Mildred Pierce later won her an Academy Award.
Kirsten DunstKirsten Dunst was ten years old when she shared a screen kiss with Brad Pitt, an actor two decades her senior, and her verdict was blunt. "I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10," she recalled. Dunst, an American…
Maggie GyllenhaalMaggie Gyllenhaal did not learn her own legal first name until 2013. The name on her birth certificate is Margalit, a Hebrew word that means pearl. She found this out when she took on her husband's surname, which turned the full name into…
Brie LarsonBrie Larson's 2005 album Finally Out of P.E. sold only 3,500 copies. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Tom BradyTom Brady was once drafted by the Montreal Expos as a catcher. He chose football at Michigan instead.
Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
Michelle PfeifferMichelle Pfeiffer was born on the 29th of April 1958 in Santa Ana, California, and by the early 1990s she ranked among the best-paid actresses in the world. Her start was far less certain. After her first leading role, in the 1982 musical…
Uma ThurmanUma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino once imagined a character from one image: a bride covered in blood. The two of them came up with it on the set of Pulp Fiction, long before anyone shot a frame of what became Kill Bill. That picture suits…
Jake GyllenhaalJake Gyllenhaal, the American actor born on the 19th of December 1980, came close to playing two of the best-known superheroes in film. In 2003 he auditioned for Batman Begins and nearly won the part, which went to Christian Bale. A year…
Brian WilsonOn a flight to Houston in 1964, Brian Wilson broke down sobbing. He then quit touring with the Beach Boys.
Jerry GarciaJerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead, left behind roughly 15,000 hours of recorded guitar work. That estimate comes from the Bay Area guitarist Henry Kaiser, who calls Garcia the most recorded guitarist in history. Kaiser…
George AkerlofGeorge Akerlof showed why good used cars can vanish from a market.
Hugh HefnerIn 1992, Hugh Hefner paid $75,000 for a burial crypt in Los Angeles, and the neighbor he wanted was Marilyn Monroe. He never met her. In 2009 he told the Los Angeles Times, "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to…
Todd RundgrenTodd Rundgren, born on the 22nd of June 1948, once called one of his own albums "my act of tyranny". He said it brought "a complete loss of about half of my audience". He said the episode became the model for the rest of his life. Rundgren…
Jonathan FranzenA gate-crasher once pulled novelist Jonathan Franzen's glasses off his face. He jokingly demanded $100,000 in 2010.
Rian JohnsonRian Johnson shot his debut film, Brick, at his old high school. It cost roughly $450,000 and grossed nearly $4 million.
Emma StoneEmma Stone, born Emily Jean Stone, once built a PowerPoint presentation for an audience of her parents. Its title was "Project Hollywood," and its purpose was to persuade them to let a teenager from Arizona pursue acting in California. The…
James FrancoFor five weeks, James Franco spent twelve hours a day in a gully built as a film set, and he left it only to use the lavatory. Between takes he read books, including academic textbooks, just to keep busy. The American actor and filmmaker…
Maya HawkeMaya Ray Thurman Hawke was born on the 8th of July 1998 in New York City, and her story starts on a film set before she existed. Her parents, the actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, met while making Gattaca in 1997. They married in May…
Val KilmerVal Kilmer spent decades being praised in a way that sounded almost like an apology. In 1992, the film critic Roger Ebert remarked, "if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it". By then…
Charles LindberghCharles Lindbergh stared at a huge field of glowing lights near Paris in May 1927 and took it for a giant industrial complex. He had just flown alone across the Atlantic, and the airfield he was hunting was not on his map. All he knew was…
Mark WahlbergMark Wahlberg was 13 years old when he became an original member of a boy band, and he quit after only a few months. The group carried on without him and became famous. Wahlberg took a very different road. He first became known as a rapper…
Rasmus B. AndersonRasmus B. Anderson started the push to give Leif Erikson a day on the American calendar.
Mark HamillMark Hamill voiced Ukraine's air raid alert app as Luke Skywalker. Each alert ended with "May the Force be with you".
Donnie WahlbergDonnie Wahlberg began his working life in the foreign-exchange office of a bank, hardly the usual first stop for a future pop star. Born in Boston, he went on to become a singer, a screen actor, a producer and a television host. His career…
Russell M. NelsonRussell M. Nelson performed nearly 7,000 operations as a surgeon before he was called to be an apostle. He later served as the seventeenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 2018 until his death. He lived to…
Josh AllenJosh Allen finished high school in Firebaugh, California, without a single scholarship offer from any NCAA Division I program, whether at the top level or the one beneath it. Years later, the National Football League named him its most…
Emma RobertsEmma Roberts was nine years old when she auditioned for the first time, and the part she won was in Blow, a 2001 crime film directed by Ted Demme. She played Kristina Jung, the daughter of the characters portrayed by Johnny Depp and…
Victor Davis HansonAfter earning a Stanford PhD, Victor Davis Hanson went home and farmed. He grew orchards and vineyards for four years.
Jessica MeirJessica Meir took part in the first spacewalk done entirely by women. She and Christina Koch replaced a faulty unit.
Joakim NoahPresident Obama called Joakim Noah's shot the ugliest he had ever seen.
Israel KeyesIsrael Keyes left behind a drawing of eleven skulls and a pentagram, sketched in blood and hidden beneath his bed. Underneath the skulls were three words: "WE ARE ONE". Investigators found the drawings in his Anchorage jail cell after he…