Curated playlist

Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners

Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
Christian BaleChristian Bale once lived on black coffee, an apple and a can of tuna each day. The English actor began that regimen with nothing but cigarettes and whiskey. By the end he had lost 63 lb and weighed 121 lb. The script for the psychological…
Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
John GielgudJohn Gielgud was arrested months after being knighted. Backstage in Liverpool, he feared he could not face an audience.
Jack NicholsonJack Nicholson improvised one line in the 1980 horror film The Shining, and it was not in the script.
Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone has said that he once slept for three weeks in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Decades later, he is one of only two actors in history, alongside Harrison Ford, to have starred in a box-office number one…
Robert DuvallRobert Duvall died at his farm in Middleburg, Virginia, on the 15th of February 2026, at the age of 95. His wife, Luciana Pedraza, announced his death in a public statement. He had worked for seven decades, and on screen he rarely seemed…
Javier BardemIn 1989, the Spanish actor Javier Bardem put on a Superman costume for a sketch on the comedy show El Día Por Delante. The job left him wondering whether he wanted to be an actor at all. That doubt makes sense for a man who never planned…
Denzel WashingtonIn 2025, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actor Denzel Washington said that the emphasis in his first name belongs on the first syllable. His mother had moved it to the second syllable so that young Denzel would answer to her call and not his…
Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier's 1948 film Hamlet was the first non-American film to win Best Picture.
Tom CruiseTom Cruise attended fifteen schools in fourteen years. He was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on the 3rd of July 1962 in Syracuse, New York. Today he is an American actor and film producer, and his career has now run for forty-five years. A…
Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. was too big an insurance risk to hire until Mel Gibson paid his insurance bond.
George ClooneyIn 1977, a teenage George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and did not make it past the first round of player cuts. No contract was offered. Clooney, an American actor and filmmaker, would go on to collect two Academy Awards, a…
J. K. SimmonsFor decades, audiences knew J. K. Simmons's face and voice but could not name him. Whiplash in 2014 changed that.
Benicio del ToroBenicio del Toro gained more than 40 pounds for one film role and lost 35 pounds for another.
Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
Jared LetoOn the 9th of November 2023, Jared Leto became the first person to legally scale the Empire State Building. He climbed it to promote a worldwide concert run called the Seasons Tour. Few actors would hang from a skyscraper to sell tickets,…
Heath LedgerHeath Ledger made twenty films in a career that ended while he was still a young man. His last great performance won him an Academy Award that he never had the chance to hold. How did a schoolboy from Australia become an actor whom many…
Sean ConnerySir Sean Connery was the first actor to play James Bond in the cinema, and the role followed him for the rest of his life. In 2009, he described a taxi ride during the Edinburgh Film Festival. The driver was amazed that Connery could name…