Profession: Actor

Liam Neeson, the name that has become quite the sensation thanks to his roles in movies such as Taken and Schindler’s List complete with the power packed dialogues makes this actor more than merely versatile as he fondly remembered or the spectacular roles that he played so far. Neeson earned more than some men who made the Celebrity 100, like Ben Affleck and Will Smith, but he didn’t have their fame numbers. Liam Neeson was born  in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The struggle before acting

There’s a funny story behind how he got interested in acting. It is said so that his English teacher had offered him a lead role in a school play, which he accepted because the girl he was attracted to was starring in it. And this accidental foray leads him to his now amazing career.

Liam who first started off by doing some odd-jobs to support himself before he got some meaty roles. He worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, truck driver, assistant architect and an amateur boxer, during which he decided to take up teaching as a career. In course of teaching, he got interested in acting and debuted in the play, ‘The Risen People.’ Developing this interest, as he acted in the Abbey Theater at Dublin, he was spotted and cast into the role of Sir Gawain in the movie, ‘Excalibur’ by John Boorman. There was no looking back after that as Neeson made appearances in several movies and UK television shows.

He continued acting through high school before briefly enrolling in Queen’s University Belfast to study computer science. He eventually left college to work at the Guinness Brewery. But acting was still calling his name. Liam made his feature film debut in 1978′s Pilgrim’s Progress.

And the movies..

Director Steven Spielberg offered Neeson the role of Oskar Schindler in the film about the Holocaust, Schindler’s List, after seeing him in Anna Christie on Broadway, giving a stiff competition to the seasoned actors like Mel Gibson and Warren Beatty. His role in this movie created quite the waves as he was nominated for Best Actor for the Oscars that year, along with the  BAFTA and the Golden Globe Awards. His role earned more than just action roles, but some thrilling roles that made quite an impression with the audience.

Later he went on to act in the Star Wars series, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Kinsey and The Grey.

Liam Neeson also went onto narrate documentaries like Journey into Amazing Caves, The Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure which managed to bag the most prestigious awards, Chicago Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review.

Not just his acting but his voice over capabilities received acclaim and earned him quite a few movies like Chronicles of Narnia, The Wildest Dream, Coral Reef Adventure and Everest. He also lent his voice to a couple of television series like The Simpsons and Star Wars.

Neeson’s voice was also featured in the video game Fallout 3 as the main character’s father, James. Fallout 3, the third game in the Fallout series, was extremely well received by critics and shipped 4.7 million copies by the end of 2008, the year it was released

Let’s talk money

Here’s a brief account of the big cash that has been coming his way since he decided to turn to the cinema industry, with breaking records at all possible box offices by making dozens of movies since then, grossing $5.7 billion at the box office. Back in 2006, he was said to be earning £5m-£9m a film.

Liam’s biggest career pay day by far has not surprisingly come from the surprise hit Taken trilogy. The highest paycheck Liam has ever received is the $20 million he is set to make for Taken 3. He made $5 million for Taken 1 and $15 million for Taken 2. Although, he is still remembered for his role as Xeus in the 2010 movie Clash of the Titans, which went on to become a huge box office hit, grossing $475 million worldwide.

The Estates

A few weeks prior to his wedding, Liam bought a beautiful house in Millbrrok, Duchess County, New York. Unfortunately, his wife passed away in this very house.The home is currently valued at $3.71 million. The country home in colonial style was built in 1810. The home is surrounded by a large estate with the actor acquiring another 16 acres next to the already existing 37 acres.

I stand for a cause

Liam has always been big on charities and standing up for a cause, to the extent that he agreed to go naked to raise funds for a charity. The event was hugely successful and managed to raise about $20,000. All these activities held in the Ellen DeGeneres Show were part of fundraising events held by the TV channel in support of the ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Month.’

In 2011, Liam Neeson was appointed the GoodWill ambassador for UNICEF. Liam has also been extensively involved with the NGO ONE CAMPAIGN, which is fighting against crippling poverty and preventable diseases, particularly in African Nations.

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Profession: Actor, Voice Actor, Film Producer, Film Director

“As an actor, there’s a bit of you that’s decided you want to be looked at and watched, but there’s a paradoxical bit that wants to run away”- Ralph Fiennes

He is lord of all things dark and scary. He is the God of the underworld and death, he is an evil nazi and he is He-who- must- not- be- named. And He-who-must-not-be-named’s name happens to be- Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes.

Ralph Fiennes is a British actor who is well known for portraying dark, dangerous, villain roles to such perfection that a lot of people are afraid to meet him in person.

Early Life-

Fiennes was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England on 22 December 1962 to Mark Fiennes and Jennifer Lash. His father is a farmer and photographer and his mother is a writer. He is the eldest of six children and he has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. His family moved to Ireland in 1973. Fiennes was educated at St Kieran’s College and Newtown School in County Waterford. He finished his schooling at Bishop Wordsworth’s School when his family moved back to England. He went to Chelsea College of Art to learn painting before deciding to take up acting.

Acting career-

Fiennes began his acting career onstage and is a noted Shakespeare interpreter. He achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre before achieving prominence in the Royal Shakespeare Company. Fiennes has portrayed various major and minor  Shakespearean characters in stage productions like Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet and many more.

He made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.  In 1993, he achieved international prominence for portraying the role of a Nazi commandant Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List. In 2005, Fiennes became popular for playing the role of Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He played Voldemort in the rest of the Harry Potter films. Coriolanus, The Duchess, Bernard and Doris, The Constant Gardener, The Prince of Egypt, The English Patient are some of his notable films.

Personal life-

Fiennes married English actress Alex Kingston in 1993, after dating her for ten years. They met while they were both students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. They divorced in 1997.

Fiennes had an affair with Francesca Annis- she played his mother Gertrude in the play Hamlet. The couple separated in February 2006 after 11 years together.

Richness-

Ralph Fiennes has an estimated net worth of approximately $25 million. Predictably, his money came from a long and quality-filled career in stage and more specifically, films. He is also into voice acting, directing and production. Ralph Fiennes is a much sought after ‘villain’. And after playing such intense and dark roles as Hades and Voldemort to perfection, he is proven that he is any director’s best bet of a villain.

Assets-

Ralph Fiennes keeps an apartment in New York and is said to have bought a 1,220-square-foot condo unit in the Gansevoort building in Greenwich Village for $2 million.

Richmond House-

This blushing pink town house is the Fiennes family house, situated in one of the loveliest towns in Suffolk, England. The houses here are ancient and the area is said to be once inhabited by cloth workers and sheep farmers. Richmond House is on the market for £855,000.

Causes-

Ralph Fiennes supports the following charities and trust:

The Constant Gardener Trust-

The trust was set up by the cast and crew of the film The Constant Gardener during filming in Kenya. It aims to help improve basic sanitation and education for those that are most in need of help.

Active Conservation Awareness Program(ACAP)-

ACAP has been working with governments, celebrities, media and other partners to reduce consumer demand for threatened wildlife products globally since 1996.

Artist Against Racism-

The foundation teaches youths to avoid adopting prejudiced attitudes rooting from differences in religion, ethnicity, nationality or skin colour.

Environmental Investigation Agency-

EIA is a UK-based Non Governmental Organisation and charitable trust that investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, hazardous waste, and trade in climate and ozone-altering chemicals.

Shakespeare Schools Festival –

Fiennes is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Fun facts-

-          Ralph Fiennes convinced producers of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to cast his nephew- Hero Fiennes-Tiffin- for the role of young Tom Riddle.

-          He lost the part of Robert Langdon to Tom Hanks in the movie “The Da Vinci Code”.

-          He holds the record of being the first actor to ever receive a Tony Award for playing the part of “Hamlet”.

-          He almost turned down the role of Voldemort as he was not impressed with the style of the first three films.

-          Ralph Fiennes is the 8th cousin of Prince Charles.

 Fun quote-

-          So much of movie acting is in the lighting. And in loving your characters. I try to know them, and with that intimacy comes love. And now, I love Voldemort.

The post Ralph Fiennes- Net Worth, Money and More appeared first on Rich Glare.

Profession: Producer/ Director/ Screen Writer

Introduction:

Steven Allan Spielberg has come to become synonymous with films. He is a director, producer as well as a screenwriter. He has been a part of the industry for over four decades now and knows the intricacies of film making inside out. Steven was born on December 18^th, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother Leah Adherer was a concert pianist and his father Arnold Spielberg was an electrical engineer who was into computer development. Since his childhood, Spielberg had vivid dreams and out of the box imagination. When he went to see cinema for the first time, he became fascinated by movies at once. He spent most of his childhood in Haddon Heights, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona. In Scottsdale, he used to create short 8 mm films. Even then, he had the gall to charge 25 cents from the local kids for watching his epics and his sister used to sell popcorn for the visitors of their little theater.

The Journey:

Steven Spielberg, at the age of 16, he made his first feature length film, “Firelight”, which was showcased at local cinema. It was a science fiction which became the inspiration for the classic “Close Encounters of the third kind”. His parents thereafter got divorced and he moved with his father to Saratoga, California. He completed his graduation and applied to University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television but was rejected three times. So, he attended California State University, Long Beach instead.

However, his career actually started when he started working as an unpaid intern for the editing department at Universal Studios. It was then when Steven directed a twenty-four minute short film, called ‘Amblin’. This film caught the attention of Sidney Shainberg who was the vice-president of production for Universal’s television division and Steven became the youngest director ever to sign a long-term contract with a major studio. Seeing the opportunity at his doorstep, Steven dropped out of the college.

He worked as a television director and directed episodes of Rod Sterling’s Night Gallery, Columbo and Marcus Welby M.D. He also shot four made-for-television films, first of them being the classic ‘Duel’ released in 1971. The success of Duel brought Steven the opportunity of directing the theatrical feature film, ‘The Sugarland Express’, which met with positive feedback.

The Breakthrough:

In 1975, Steven got a major breakthrough with the success of his movie “Jaws”, a movie based on a horror novel written by Peter Benchley. Jaws was a blockbuster and was watched by over 67% Americans. After this movie, it seemed like anything Steven touched turned into gold. In 1981, Steven and his long-time friend and film-maker, George Lucas, collaborated to create ‘Indiana Jones’ which was an even bigger hit. Steven continued to grow and delivered hits one after the other such as Hook, Jurassic Park and Minority Report. He worked on multifaceted themes and genres.

Earlier he worked on science fiction and adventure films which were seen as a symbol of modern Hollywood film-making. However, later he shifted to portrayal of struggle and strength of human spirit via diverse topics like War, Loss, Holocaust, Apartheid and Terrorism. If film making be considered a war, then Steven definitely is the most decorated general. The major part of his money came from Jaws, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. He received acclaim from audience and critics alike. He was also a part of the productions of ‘Back to the future’, ‘Poltergeist’, ‘Animaniacs’, ‘Gremlins’ and ‘The Gooiness’.

His Assets:

He has directed 27 movies which grossed more than $9 million. His push into television seems to be paying off with shows like ‘Under the Dome’ and ‘The Americans’. He is one of the richest Hollywood directors and owns several luxurious properties all around the world. He also possess a private jet, Gran Tourismo car and private islands. He lives a lavish life with a deserving style and comfort. He owns a production company, Amblin Entertainment and co-founded the film studio ‘DreamWorks’, which have given him a real financial boost. With such amazing career there is no doubt that his net worth is $3.1 billion. Steven is also a major collector of the American illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell.

Awards and Achievements:

Steven Spielberg is one of the most celebrated film directors and producers. He is the highest box office collection film maker of all time with his films earning nearly $8 billion internationally. In 2002, he was one of the eight flag bearers who carried the Olympic Flag at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In the year 2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry and TIME placed him in the list of ‘100 Greatest People of the Century’. Also, he was named by LIFE as the most influential person of his generation. He is a three-time Academy Award winner. He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards for the Best Director’s category and nine of the films directed by him were up for the Best Picture Oscar. He won three Oscar for films ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

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