- published: 20 Jul 2010
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Cathy Moriarty (born November 29, 1960) is an American actress whose career spans over thirty years. Her role as Jake LaMotta's wife Vikki in Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese, earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Moriarty's film credits include Neighbors, White of the Eye, Soapdish, Casper, Analyze That and The Bounty Hunter. Appearances on television include Tales from the Crypt (for which she won a CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series), Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Moriarty was born in The Bronx, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants Catherine (a homemaker) and John Moriarty (a warehouse worker). When she was 18 years old, her friends urged her to enter a bathing-beauty contest at a bar:
Moriarty landed her debut role as Vikki LaMotta, girlfriend of Jake La Motta (played by Robert De Niro), in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical black-and-white sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, an Italian American middleweight boxer whose self-destructive and obsessive rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta's well-intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons, and Cathy Moriarty as his wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent.
Scorsese was initially reluctant to develop the project, though he eventually came to relate to La Motta's story. Schrader re-wrote Martin's first screenplay, and Scorsese and De Niro together made uncredited contributions thereafter. Pesci was an unknown actor prior to the film, as was Moriarty, who was suggested for her role by Pesci. During principal photography, each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style and De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds (27 kg) to portray La Motta in his later post-boxing years. Scorsese was exacting in the process of editing and mixing the film, expecting it to be his last major feature .
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE (/ˈbɛkəm/; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer. He played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain, and the England national team for which he holds the appearance record for an outfield player. He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States and France. He announced his retirement in May 2013 after a 20-year career, during which he won 19 major trophies. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending free-kicks, he was twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.
Beckham's professional club career began with Manchester United, where he made his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. With United, he won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. He then played four seasons with Real Madrid, winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club. In July 2007 Beckham signed a five-year contract with Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. While a Galaxy player, he spent two loan spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010. He was the first British footballer to play 100 UEFA Champions League games.
Christina Ricci (born February 12, 1980) is an American actress, who began her acting career appearing in commercials and received early recognition as a child star. Her debut performance in Mermaids (1990) was followed by a breakthrough role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel Addams Family Values (1993) when she was eleven and thirteen years old, respectively. Following her success with the Addams Family films, she earned somewhat of a "teen icon" status thanks to appearances in various big budget productions, notably Now and Then (1995) and Casper (1995), which were marketed for younger audiences before making a successful transition into adult-oriented roles with the art house drama The Ice Storm (1997) at the age of seventeen.
Ricci continued acting in small-scale independent films such as Buffalo '66 (1998) and The Opposite of Sex (1998), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She made a departure from independent cinema with Tim Burton's big-budget Gothic horror Sleepy Hollow (1999) and later received praise for her performance in the drama Monster (2003), portraying the girlfriend of a notorious female serial killer. Although she has developed a reputation for being a prominent independent film actress, Ricci has appeared in many box office hits–to date the films in which she has starred in have amassed a gross in excess of $743 million.