- published: 31 Mar 2011
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Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an Academy Award winning American actor, director, comedian, musician and singer. With a film career spanning nearly 60 years, Arkin is known for his performances in Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Little Miss Sunshine, and Argo.
He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor twice for his performances in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. He received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in Argo; he won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, which is his only Academy Award win to date.
Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of David I. Arkin, a painter and writer, and his wife, Beatrice (Wortis), a teacher. He was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion". His grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany. His parents moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11, but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost his father his job as a set designer. During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists, and his father was fired when he refused to answer questions about his political ideology. David Arkin challenged the dismissal, but he was vindicated only after his death.
Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt (born August 15, 1972), better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor and filmmaker. He has won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
Affleck began his career as a child actor, starring in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi (1984, 1988). He later appeared in Dazed and Confused (1993) and various Kevin Smith films including Chasing Amy (1997) and Dogma (1999). Affleck gained fame when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997). He then starred in high-profile films including Armageddon (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Changing Lanes (2002) and The Sum of All Fears (2002). After a career downturn, during which he appeared in Daredevil and the much-derided Gigli (both 2003), Affleck received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland (2006). In 2014, he starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl. Affleck will portray Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad (both 2016).