- published: 02 Dec 2013
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Christopher Atkins (born Christopher Atkins Bomann on February 21, 1961) is an American actor, who became famous with his costarring debut role in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon.
Atkins was born in Rye, New York, to Donald Bomann and Bitsy Nebauer. In high school, he was a lifeguard and sailing instructor, where he was discovered for The Blue Lagoon.
He had no previous interest or experience in acting, but an agent he knew persuaded him to audition for The Blue Lagoon, a role he won over 4,000 other actors. In the film, he and co-star Brooke Shields played two teenage cousins who have lived alone together since they were marooned as children in a tropical paradise, eventually falling in love. The R-rated film featured both Atkins and Shields in scant clothing, and Atkins appeared nude in several scenes, including brief full frontal nudity. The film was a huge box office success, grossing over US$58 million with a production cost of US$4.5 million.
He went on to star with Kristy McNichol in The Pirate Movie (1982), an update of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Pirates of Penzance. He hit #71 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the song "How Can I Live Without Her?", which appeared in The Pirate Movie. Atkins again appeared shirtless in this film, which was to become a recurring theme in his acting career. Atkins commented, "What do you mean as soon as I get a job where I don't have to wear a loincloth, I will be wearing a speedo swimsuit! Will I ever have an acting job when I don't have to be shirtless?"
Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.
Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.
Christina Ann "Kristy" McNichol (born September 11, 1962) is an American actress.
McNichol is known for her roles as Leticia “Buddy” Lawrence on the television drama series Family and as Barbara Weston on the sitcom Empty Nest. She is also the sister of former child actor Jimmy McNichol. McNichol retired from acting when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1992.
McNichol was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Carolyn McNichol Lucas, a business manager and actress, and Jim McNichol, a carpenter. She has two brothers from that marriage: Thomas and Jimmy McNichol. Her parents divorced when she was six years old. When McNichol was 19 her mother married her much younger German boyfriend Siegfried Lucas. In the same year Lucas and McNichol's mother adopted McNichol's sister Jennifer Lucas.
McNichol appeared with her brother Jimmy in commercials and later, on her own, in guest appearances on such other series as Starsky and Hutch, The Bionic Woman, Love American Style and The Love Boat, thanks to family friend Desi Arnaz. Her first stint as a series regular came in the role of Patricia Apple in the short-lived CBS television series Apple's Way (1974).