ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries) has become
one of the world's most popular and bankable film superstars since emerging
in feature films in the late '70s. Last summer, Schwarzenegger starred
in Warner Bros.' international action hit "Eraser."
Schwarzenegger's motion-picture career began in 1977 with his role in the
critically acclaimed Pumping Iron, a feature-length documentary about the
Mr. Universe competition. Director Bob Rafelson, recognizing Schwarzenegger's
engaging natural presence before the camera, next cast him opposite Sally
Field and Jeff Bridges in Stay Hungry. His performance garnered winning
reviews and a Golden Globe Award as Best Newcomer in Films.
In 1978, he put aside his competitive bodybuilding career to pursue acting
full-time. He starred with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margret in the romantic
action-comedy Western The Villain and took the part of Mickey Hargitay in
the television movie The Jayne Mansfield Story"
Schwarzenegger made his breakthrough role in director John Milius' Conan
the Babarian, playing the comic-book superhero of the mystical Dark Ages.
The film grossed more than $100 million worldwide; spawned a popular sequel,
Conan the Destroyer; and earned Schwarzenegger a devoted following.
In 1983, soon after becoming an American citizen, Schwarzenegger took a
chance on a low-budget independent film by an unknown director. James Cameron's
futuristic thriller, The Terminator, became a runaway hit at the box office
and was cited by Time as one of the year's 10 best films.
The success of The Terminator placed Schwarzenegger at the front rank of
Hollywood stars. Over the next few years, he became virtually synonymous
with the phrase "action hero," largely due to the phenomenal success
of a series of action-
adventure films, including Commando, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man
and Red Heat"
In 1988, Schwarzenegger realized yet another of his goals as a film star
when he showcased his previously untapped talents as a comic actor in Twins,
in which he starred with Danny DeVito under the direction of Ivan Reitman.
The film's triumphant success paved the way for the trio's reunion in the
comedy Junior, which also starred Emma Thompson. In 1990, Schwarzenegger
delivered a one-two punch with the futuristic action-thriller Total Recall,
followed that Christmas by Ivan Reitman's comedy hit Kindergarten Cop.
This past holiday season, he starred in the Christmas comedy Jingle All
the Way.
Schwarzenegger's greatest commercial success to date came with Terminator
2: Judgment Day, which reunited him with director Cameron and earned more
than $500 million worldwide. His unprecedented success compelled the National
Association of Theater Owners to invent a new award to present him at the
ShoWest convention in February of 1995: "International Star of the
Decade." The following summer came Last Action Hero, which became
a worldwide hit, and the subsequent summer brought another Schwarzenegger/Cameron
blockbuster, True Lies.
Schwarzenegger has been active behind the scenes of moviemaking since 1990,
when he made his directorial debut on The Switch, an episode of the popular
HBO anthology series Tales from the Crypt. He also directed a remake of
the holiday classic Christmas in Connecticut for Turner Network Television
(TNT), starring Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson and Tony Curtis.
From his early childhood in Graz, Austria, Schwarzenegger was encouraged
by his father to become involved in athletics. His initial participation
in sports was in soccer and track and field. At 15, he discovered his genuine
passion, weight-lifting, which he practiced for the next three years before
moving into bodybuilding. By the age of 20, Schwarzenegger became Mr. Universe,
the first of what would become an unprecedented 13 world titles.
Since 1979, he has served as the weight training coach for the Special Olympics.
Beginning in 1991, he served as Executive Commissioner of the Los Angeles
Inner-City Games, a mini-Olympics designed to help urban youth say "no"
to drugs and violence and "yes" to sports, education and life.
Then in 1993, Schwarzenegger founded and became chairman of the National
Inner-City Games Foundation. From 1990 to 1993, he served on the President's
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and is the author of numerous books
on health and fitness.
Schwarzenegger has twice received the Simon Wiesenthal Center's national
leadership award for his support of the organization's Holocaust studies
and human-rights issues, once in 1991 and again in 1997. Earlier this year,
Schwarzenegger received ShoWest's first Humanitarian of the Year Award in
acknowledgement of his manycontributions to the community.
GEORGE CLOONEY (Batman/Bruce Wayne), one of Hollywood's most sought-after
leading men, has parlayed his award-winning portrayal of Dr. Douglas Ross
on NBC's smash hit drama ER into a major motion picture career.
Clooney appeared last year opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in the romantic comedy
One Fine Day, and will be seen later this year in the action drama The Peacemaker.
This summer, he will go to Australia to film a cameo in The Thin Red Line
for director Terence Malick. In the fall, he will continue production on
ER, in the role that has earned him Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe
and People's Choice Award nominations, and will also star as a fugitive
bank robber in the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's best-selling novel,
Out of Sight.
Previously, Clooney starred in the thriller From Dusk Till Dawn opposite
Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. Robert Rodriguez directed
from a script by Tarantino.
Clooney keeps busy behind the camera as well. He recently formed Left Bank
Productions with producer Robert Lawrence (Clueless, Die Hard With a Vengeance).
The company has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. to develop and produce
feature films. Clooney also partners with former ABC drama vice president
Deborah Leoni in their television production company, Mirador Entertainment.
CHRIS O'DONNELL (Robin/Dick Grayson) followed Batman Forever with
two very different roles, starring opposite Gene Hackman in The Chamber,
based on the John Grisham best-seller, and with Sandra Bullock in Richard
Attenborough's period romance, In Love & War
At the age of 21, O'Donnell starred opposite Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
A critical and box-office success, the film earned him a Golden Globe nomination
and the Chicago Film Critics Award as Most Promising Actor of the Year.
O'Donnell was next seen in the swashbuckling period adventure The Three
Musketeers, for which he was named NATO/ShoWest Male Star of Tomorrow.
Prior to his debut as Robin in Batman Forever, O'Donnell starred in Pat
O'Connor's romantic comedy, Circle of Friends, and appeared opposite Drew
Barrymore in Antonia Bird's Mad Love."
O'Donnell first came to prominence with his critically acclaimed performance
as a rebellious teenager in Men Don't Leave. His other feature-film credits
include Fried Green Tomatoes, School Ties and Blue Sky.
UMA THURMAN (Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley) earned an Academy Award nomination
for her standout performance in Quentin Tarantino's highly praised hit,
Pulp Fiction. She went on to star in A Month By the Lake, Beautiful Girls
and The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Just prior to beginning her work on
Batman & Robin, Thurman starred in Gattaca, to be released this fall.
Her next projects are Les Miserables, based on Victor Hugo's novel,and
a big-screen version of 1960s television series The Avengers, in which she
stars opposite Ralph Fiennes.
Thurman was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, New York.
She attended a preparatory school in New England, where at 15 she was discovered
by two New York agents in a production of The Crucible. At 16, she transferred
to the Professional Children's School in New York City in order to pursue
an acting career.
Thurman's entrance onto the mainstream film scene began with Johnny Be Good,
but it was her role as the goddess Venus in Terry Gilliam's 1988 fantasy,
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which brought her international attention.
She went on to receive critical acclaim for her work in Stephen Frears'
Dangerous Liaisons. The following year, she starred in Philip Kaufman's
controversial Henry and June.
She portrayed Maid Marian in the telefilm Robin Hood, and her additional
feature-film roles include Where the Heart Is, Final Analysis, Mad Dog and
Glory and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
ALICIA SILVERSTONE (Batgirl/Barbara Wilson) catapulted to worldwide
success with the comedy Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling.
Most recently, she undertook the first of two films under her production
deal with Columbia Pictures, producing and starring in the romantic adventure
Excess Baggage.
Few actresses have the opportunity to gain the leading role in their first
feature film, but Silverstone was chosen to portray the lead in The Crush,
opposite Cary Elwes, and she won two MTV Movie Awards for that performance.
Silverstone was born and raised in San Francisco and spent her summers in
England, the native country of her parents, where her love for theater grew.
She made her stage debut in Carol's Eve at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles.
A ballet dancer since she was a young child, Silverstone attended her first
acting workshop at the age of 13 and soon after was spotted by an agent
at the showcase.
Before she was cast in The Crush, Silverstone guest starred on The Wonder
Years. Her additional feature-film credits include Hideaway, The Babysitter,
True Crime and Les Nouveaux Mondes, directed by the renowned French filmmaker
Alain Corneau. She also starred in the Showtime film The Cool and the Crazy,
directed by Ralph Bakshi.
MICHAEL GOUGH (Alfred Pennyworth) has become one of the most central
and familiar features of the Batman movies in his role as Bruce Wayne's
loyal butler and surrogate parent, Alfred. Gough has played this role in
Batman, Batman Returns and Batman Forever, and he now returns in Batman
& Robin.
He made his Broadway stage debut in Love of Women in 1937. His first of
more than 50 films came in 1948 with Blanche Fury. In the late 1940s and
1950s, Gough appeared in such motion pictures as Anna Karenina, The Man
in the White Suit, The Sword and the Rose, Richard III, Reach for the Sky
and The Horse's Mouth. During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s,
Gough starred in a series of horror films for Hammer and other studios,
which brought him permanent cult status among fans of the genre. They included
Horror of Dracula, The Black Zoo, Konga, The Phantom of the Opera, The Skull,
Trog and Berserk!
Gough later returned to prestigious mainstream cinema, where he has remained
ever since in such films as Women in Love, Julius Caesar, The Go-Between,
Henry VIII and His Six Wives, Savage Messiah, The Boys From Brazil, The
Dresser, Top Secret!, Caravaggio, The Fourth Protocol, Out of Africa, Strapless,
Blackeyes, Let Him Have It, Nostradamus and The Age of Innocence.
On television, Gough was seen in the mini-series The Search for the Nile,
QB VII, Smiley's People, Brideshead Revisited and Inside the Third Reich,
as well as on the popular fantasy series Dr. Who.
A Tony Award-winner, Gough celebrated 50 years of Broadway appearances with
his performance in Breaking the Code. Most recently, he appeared with Dame
Diana Rigg in Mother Courage and Her Children at the Royal National Theatre
in London.
PAT HINGLE (Commissioner Gordon) has enjoyed more than 40 years in
show business, ranking among the top handful of great American character
actors. He has also built a loyal following among contemporary audiences
for his portrayal of Police Commissioner Gordon in Batman, Batman Returns
and Batman Forever, the first three films in the Batman series. He now
returns to that role for the fourth time.
Beginning his professional acting career in a non-union stock company in
Rockville Centre, New York, Hingle has since done 22 shows on Broadway alone.
Four of them -- J.B., Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Strange Interlude and That
Championship Season -- won Pulitzer Prizes.
Hingle was a prótége of Elia Kazan and The Actors Studio in
New York. His Broadway work also includes performances in The Dark at the
Top of the Stairs (for which he received a Tony nomination), The Deadly
Game, The Price, Blues for Mr. Charlie, the first revival of The Glass Menagerie,
The Odd Couple, Child's Play, The Lady from the Sea and A Life. Hingle
has played the title role in Macbeth and Hector in Troilus and Cressida
at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. He has
also given command performances at The White House and The Library of Congress.
Hingle made his film debut in Elia Kazan's classic On the Waterfront. Among
his numerous screen appearances are Kazan's Splendor in the Grass, No Down
Payment, The Ugly American, Hang 'Em High, The Gauntlet, Sudden Impact,
Norma Rae, The Falcon and the Snowman, Baby Boom, The Grifters, Lightning
Jack, The Quick and the Dead and Larger Than Life Concurrent with his co-starring
role in Batman & Robin, Hingle shot Jocelyn Moorhouse's A Thousand Acres,
starring Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Hingle's many television appearances include roles in the mini-series LBJ:
The Early Days, War and Remembrance and The Kennedys of Massachusetts, and
in the television movies Citizen Cohn, Elvis, The Last Angry Man, Of Mice
and Men, Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, Noon Wine, Truman,
Gunsmoke: To The Last Man, A Friendly Suit, Truman Capote's One Christmas
and, most recently, Showtime's Bastard Out of Carolina and ABC's Stephen
King's The Shining. Hingle has also guest-starred on numerous series, including
Life Goes On, The Equalizer, Murder, She Wrote, In the Heat of the Night,
Cheers and Wings.
ELLE MACPHERSON (Julie Madison) has successfully made the transition
from one of the world's most famous models to a busy career in film acting.
She made her motion-picture debut in 1994 with Hugh Grant in Sirens. She
subsequently filmed Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre and starred in If Lucy
Fell. She was also seen last fall in Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has
Two Faces. Directly after completing her work in Batman & Robin, Macpherson
travelled to Canada to star with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin in the
thriller Bookworm..
Macpherson became an international star via Sports Illustrated pictorials;
she graced the cover of the magazine's special swimsuit issue for an unprecedented
three consecutive years. Her popularity became so wide that, in 1986, Time
ran a cover of her entitled "The Big Elle." Simultaneously, the
Australian government offered the Sydney-born star a post on the tourism
commission as unofficial ambassador.
Transcending the traditional career path of the supermodel, Macpherson is
a successful businesswoman who uses her influence to raise funds and awareness
for a range of charitable organizations, including AIDS and homelessness.
JOHN GLOVER (Dr. Jason Woodrue) won a Tony Award for his heralded
performance in Terence McNally's Broadway hit, Love! Valour! Compassion!
and recently reprised that role for the feature-film adaptation of the play.
He also recently received acclaim for the title role of the Roundabout
Theatre's Tartuffe: Born Again.
Glover's numerous feature films have included, 52 Pick-Up, Gremlins 2:
The New Batch, The Chocolate War, Masquerade, Scrooged, Rocket Gibraltar,
White Nights and. Annie Hall
On television, Glover is a five-time Emmy nominee. His work includes An
Early Frost, Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder with Lee Remick, and
An Enemy of the People for American Playhouse, among others.
VIVICA A. FOX (Ms. B. Haven) impressed audiences in Roland Emmerich's
massively successful science-fiction adventure, Independence Day. Fox's
first film role was in the satire Don't Be A Menace To South Central While
Drinking Juice in the Hood. Last fall, Fox starred as one of a quartet of
female bank robbers in F. Gary Gray's powerful Set It Off, and was recently
seen in Jeff Pollack's comedy Booty Call. She recently completed work on
Soul Food.
On television, Fox was a series regular on Living Dolls and Out All Night.
She also had a recurring role on the daytime drama The Young and the Restless,
and was a contract player on the daytime drama Generations. Her theater
credits include In the Abyss of Coney Island and Generations of the Dead
at the Mark Taper Too in Los Angeles.
VENDELA K. THOMMESSEN (Nora Fries), one of the world's most influential
models, makes her feature-film debut in Batman & Robin.
Born in Sweden, Thommessen attended the Rudolf Steiner School in Stockholm,
before moving to Italy at age 18 to pursue a career in modeling under the
tutelage of Ford Models.
In 1989, Thommessen moved to New York and immediately landed a multi-year
contract as the spokesperson for Elizabeth Arden. Over the course of six
years, she successfully launched numerous cosmetics and beauty products.
In 1994, two weeks after her departure from Elizabeth Arden, she signed
a multi-year contract as Revlon's Almay spokesperson. She was previously
a speksperson for Hanes Hosiery and recently became a spokesperson for
Baked Lays potato chips.
Thommessen's previous acting experience includes guest appearances on television's
Murphy Brown and The Larry Sanders Show.
ELIZABETH SANDERS (Gossip Gerty) graduated with a bachelor's degree
in theatre arts from American University in Washington, D.C. and continued
her dramatic training with the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of the
Theatre in New York City, studying with such notables as Wynn Handman, Frank
Corsaro and Sanford Meisner.
Sanders' numerous Off-Broadway credits include A Safe Place, Royal Gambit,
A View From the Bridge, A Social Event, A Thousand Clowns, Last of the Red
Hot Lovers and A Far Country. Her regional theater credits include The
Country Girl, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and
two different productions of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.
Segueing to features and television, Sanders had a recurring role on the
daytime drama The Edge of Night and also appeared in such other popular
soap operas as Love of Life, The Guiding Light and All My Children. She
also starred on two episodes of Divorce Court. In addition to Batman Forever,
Sanders has appeared in such motion pictures as Exorcist II: The Heretic,
All That Jazz, Island of the Alive and Batman Returns."
Elizabeth Sanders makes her home in Los Angeles with husband Bob Kane, which
makes her a very close relative of Batman, indeed.
At six-foot-five and 400 pounds, JEEP SWENSON (Bane) is also known
as the world-class wrestler "Jeep the Mercenary." Swenson has
previously appeared in the features No Holds Barred, The Big Brawl and Bulletproof.
On television, he's appeared in three episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger
and on The Wacky World of Sports.
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