The Pride of the Yankees is a 1942 American film directed by Sam Wood and starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, and Walter Brennan. The film is a tribute to the legendary New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig, who died only one year before the film's release, at age 37, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which later became known to the lay public as "Lou Gehrig's disease".

Though subtitled "The Life of Lou Gehrig", the film is less a sports biography than an homage to a heroic and widely loved sports figure whose tragic and premature death touched the entire nation. It emphasizes Gehrig's relationship with his parents (particularly his strong-willed mother), his friendships with players and journalists, and his storybook romance with the woman who became his "companion for life", Eleanor. Details of his baseball career—which were still fresh in most fans' minds in 1942—are limited to montages of ballparks, pennants, and Cooper swinging bats and running bases, though Gehrig's best-known major league record—2,130 consecutive games played—is prominently cited.

Dave Salmoni (born September 4, 1975) is a Canadian animal trainer, entertainer and television producer. He has his own production company, Triosphere, which is based in South Africa and specializes in wildlife films.

Salmoni's mother, a competitive figure skating coach, and father, a chemical engineer, fostered his love for the wild. Salmoni studied zoology at the Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, and wrote his undergraduate thesis on tracking the hibernation of Canadian black bears. Also while in university, Salmoni was certified in Chemical Immobilization of Wildlife and worked on an elk relocation project and at a deer count station for the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In 1998 Salmoni began his apprenticeship as an animal trainer at Bowmanville Zoological Park. Salmoni left Canada for South Africa in 2000 as part of the controversial Tiger "rewilding" project. Dave Salmoni was attacked by one of his trained big cats named Bongo, a five hundred pound male African lion in August 1999 in Ontario, which inspired his making of After the Attack.

David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr. Show and for his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox sitcom Arrested Development.

Cross starred in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, had main roles in the Comedy Central animated sitcom Freak Show and the Fox sitcom Running Wilde and currently has a recurring role in the ABC sitcom Modern Family.

Cross was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Susi and a father who immigrated from Leeds, England. Six months after his birth, Cross's family moved to Florida. After additional moves to New York and Connecticut, the family settled back in Roswell, Georgia, where Cross remained for nearly a decade. His family was poor and his father left the family when Cross was ten years old, and Cross and his father have not spoken since he was 19, though they both primarily resided in New York City until Cross sold his home there in 2011. Cross and his family were evicted from their home while living in Georgia. He spent some time living in motels and at friends' homes while growing up. He has two sisters, and once bailed his youngest sibling out of jail.

Hugh Dancy (born 19 June 1975) is an English actor and model.

Dancy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of British philosopher Jonathan Dancy, a professor at the University of Reading and at the University of Texas at Austin. His mother, Sarah, is a publisher. His brother, Jack, is a co-director of the travel company, Trufflepig Travel, and his sister, Kate Redman, works for Save the Children. Dancy was educated at Dragon School in Oxford and Winchester College, then went on to study at St Peter's College, Oxford. At the age of 18, he acted in the Winchester College Players production of Twelfth Night which was performed in both Winchester and at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.

In 1999, Dancy played the role of Danny, who had a fleeting romance with Rachel, one of the shows main characters, in the second series of Cold Feet.

In 2007, Dancy had a starring role on Broadway as Captain Dennis Stanhope in Journey's End (Belasco Theatre). He also played Aiden in the 2007 film Blood and Chocolate. He portrayed the character of Adam, a man with Asperger syndrome, spending time during pre-production with Aspergers groups and clinical specialists for the 2009 independent film Adam. Dancy also appeared in the film adaptation of the novel Savage Grace by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson.

Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Whishaw is known for his breakthrough stage role as Hamlet, his roles in the television series Criminal Justice and The Hour and film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, I'm Not There and Brideshead Revisited. It has been announced that he will play the role of Q in the James Bond film Skyfall.

Whishaw was born and brought up in Clifton, Bedfordshire, the son of Linda (née Hope), who works in cosmetics, and Jose Whishaw, who works in information technology. He has a twin brother, James, and was a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. He attended Henlow Middle School and then Samuel Whitbread Community College in Clifton, Bedfordshire. During his time with the group, he first rose to prominence during collaborations with their offshoot theatre company, Big Spirit. He was involved in many productions – perhaps most notably, If This Is A Man (also performed as The Drowned & The Saved). This was a piece devised by the company based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. This harrowing and moving book was adapted into a physical theatre piece by the group and taken to the 1995 Edinburgh Festival where it garnered five-star reviews and great critical acclaim. Whishaw played the character of Levi in this and subsequent productions of the show.