Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Top Handsome Man - Ashton Kutcher, American actor

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978), best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model, and comedian, known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He also created, produced and hosted Punk'd, and played lead roles in the Hollywood films Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian, and What Happens in Vegas. He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401 and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek. Kutcher currently co-stars in the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as the character Walden Schmidt.

Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is the son of Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee, and Larry M. Kutcher, a factory worker. His father is of Bohemian (Czech) descent and his mother is of Irish, German, and Bohemian ancestry. Kutcher was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic family, with an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Kutcher's twin brother also has cerebral palsy and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars.

Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year, before his family moved to Homestead, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek Amana High School. Kutcher also appeared in school plays.
Kutcher's brother's cardiomyopathy caused his home life to become increasingly stressful. He has stated that "I didn't want to come home and find more bad news about my brother" and "kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel". Kutcher stated that during adolescence, he contemplated committing suicide. At thirteen, he attempted to jump from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, with his father intervening in the incident. Kutcher's home life worsened as his parents divorced when he was sixteen. During his senior year, he broke into his high school at midnight with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was arrested leaving the scene. Kutcher was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years' probation and 180 hours of community service. Kutcher stated that although the experience "straightened him out", he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and he was ostracized at school and in his community.







Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Top Handsome Man - Russell Brand, English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter

Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.

Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinian's. He became known to American audiences when he got a major role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall which led to a starring role in 2010's Get Him to the Greek. He has also been a voice actor for animated films such as 2010's Despicable Me and the 2011 film Hop. He starred in the 2011 remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore film Arthur.

Brand is noted for his eccentricity and his controversies in the British media, including his dismissal from MTV for dressing up as Osama bin Laden and controversies while presenting at various award ceremonies, as well as his former substance abuse. The 2008 prank telephone calls he made to Andrew Sachs while co-hosting The Russell Brand Show with Jonathan Ross led to his resignation from the BBC and major policy changes in that organisation. His prior drug use, alcoholism and promiscuity influenced his comedic material and public image. He married American pop singer Katy Perry in October 2010, and filed for divorce from her in December 2011; the divorce was finalized in 2012.





Saturday, February 25, 2012

Top Handsome Man - Raffaello Balzo, Italian Actor

Raffaello Balzo, born in Artegna, Udine, Italy on March 18, 1975, is an Italian actor and model.

Balzo lived at Artegna, a small town in the province of Udine, until the age of 18. Very close to his family, he remembers with affection his grandmother who, during the 1976 earthquake in the Friuli region, saved him from the rubble of the house that was collapsing around him and in doing so leaped to fame in the newspaper headlines.

Balzo was encouraged by his friends to make his debut in showbusiness, taking part in 1995 in the beauty contest “Photographic Model of the Year” and winning the national title. In the same year, he finished his studies at technical college and gained his diploma with a mark of 56 out of 60.






Top Handsome Man - Valerio Foglia Manzillo, Italian Actor

Valerio Foglia Manzillo, born February 3, 1978, in Napoli, is an Italian actor.

Valerio is Italy’s equivalent of Brad Pitt. He was discovered by film director, Matteo Garrone, working as a model. The director then cast him in his first movie role in The Embalmer as Valerio, a handsome young man who apprentices with a dwarfish fifty-year-old taxidermist in the director Matteo Garrone’s unconventional romantic drama. When the closeted older man falls for his pupil Valerio – who’s also being wooed by a beautiful woman-a taut battle of wills develops. The movie is a gripping and obsessive work, a look at loneliness and desire that’s more about the con than the kinkiness. The movie became a big hit in Italy.





Top Handsome Man - Jason Statham, English actor

Jason Statham (born 12 September 1967) is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Statham appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Death Race, Crank, The Bank Job and War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li). Statham also appeared alongside established action film actors Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables. He usually performs his own fight scenes and stunts.

Statham was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Eileen (née Yates) and Barry Statham, a lounge singer. He moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, and decided to pursue the arts. He grew up with Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later go on to act. Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school (1978–83), which he had attended since the age of eleven, but his real passion was diving. He practised daily in perfecting his diving techniques – in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years.

Statham's life in the media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specialising in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection.






Sunday, February 19, 2012

Top Handsome Man - Riccardo Scamarcio, Italian film actor

Riccardo Scamarcio (born 13 November 1979) is an Italian film actor.

Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia.

He went to train as an actor at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema in Rome, where he now lives. His debut acting role was in a TV series in 2000, while his first ever lead role in a feature film was in Tre metri sopra il cielo (2004), directed by Luca Lucini. Through this he immediately became well known to the Italian speaking public, especially a young audience. His success brought him prominence as a sex symbol and boosted requests for his acting skills, leading to his role in Texas (2005), directed by Fausto Paravidino and soon to him joining the cast of Romanzo criminale, playing a monosyllabic, enigmatic thug character in a powerful portrait of a mafiosi community directed by Michele Placido.

In 2006 he acted in The Black Arrow, a TV series broadcast by Canale 5, adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, and took on four new film roles: Mio fratello è un figlio unico (2007), directed by Daniele Luchetti, based on the novel Il Fasciocomunista by Antonio Pennacchi. Scamarcio won a David di Donatello nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this work. He also played in Manuale d'amore - Capitoli successivi (2007), directed by Giovanni Veronesi, Ho voglia di te (2007), directed by Luis Prieto, and Go Go Tales (2007), directed by Abel Ferrara.

In 2007 he began work on Colpo d'occhio (2008) directed by Sergio Rubini, and Italians (2009), a comedy directed by Giovanni Veronesi and Il grande sogno (2009), set in Italy in 1968, directed by Michele Placido. Eden à l'Ouest, directed by Costa-Gavras, saw Scamarcio playing an illegal immigrant-cum-innocent abroad. L'uomo nero (2009), directed by Sergio Rubini, co-starred Scamarcio's partner, Italian-Greek actress Valeria Golino, who plays his sister.





Top Handsome Man - Stefano Accorsi, Italian actor

Stefano Lelio Beniamino Accorsi (born 2 March 1971) is an Italian actor.

Accorsi was born in Bologna. He graduated from Bologna's Theatrical School in 1993, and acted in the theatre for several years before moving to cinema.

In 1995 he played the lead in Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo, one of his best known films.

In 1998 he worked with Daniele Luchetti in I Piccoli Maestri, which competed for the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. In the same year he won three prizes for his role in Radiofreccia, directed by rock star Luciano Ligabue, including David di Donatello for Best Actor.

He was the lead in the successful film L'ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss).

He won the leading role in Maria de Medeiros’ Capitães de Abril (April Captains), and has worked with director Nanni Moretti in The Son's Room. In 2001, Accorsi also had the leading role in Ferzan Ozpetek's Le fate ignoranti (His Secret Life – Festival Title/The Ignorant Fairies – International Title), which was in competition at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival. This film was a big success in Italy and in Turkey, and Accorsi, who played the role of a homosexual man, won three awards for his interpretation.

He also starred in David Blair's Tabloid TV (UK) and in Marco Ponti's Santa Maradona.

Then Accorsi acted in the TV film Il giovane Casanova by Giacomo Battiato. His next film was Un viaggio chiamato amore (A Journey Called Love) which took part in the Venice International Film Festival 2002 and for which he won the Coppa Volpi, the award for best male performance as the Italian poet Dino Campana.





Top Handsome Man - Alessandro Gassman, Italian actor

Alessandro Gassman (born February 24, 1965) is an Italian actor.

Born in Rome, he is the son of Italian actor Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel.

He debuted at 17 in the autobiographical film Di padre in figlio, written and directed with his father, under whose tutoring he later studied in the Theatre Workshop of Florence. Among his theatrical activity, he was noted for his playing in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Affabulazione (1984).

In 1996 he began an artistic partnership with his friend Gianmarco Tognazzi with whom he co-acted in popular movies like Uomini senza donne, Facciamo festa, Teste di cocco, Lovest, I miei più cari amici and Natale a Beverly Hills, in the theatrical version of Some Like it Hot and as dubbers of the Disney cartoon Eldorado. In 1997 he imposed internationally with Ferzan Ozpetek's Hamam.

He was subsequently chosen by Yves Saint Laurent as testimonial for his perfume Opium, and posed in a nude calendar for the Italian magazine Max. He also became a testimonial for Lancia of Musa, as well as appearing in an ad for the Glen Grant liquor. As an actor, he worked for several TV miniseries and, in France, in the action movie Transporter 2, produced by Luc Besson. In 2006, Gassman appeared in the comedy Non prendere impegni stasera.

He then took part in TV dramas such as Piccolo mondo antico, Le stagioni del cuore, La guerra è finita and La Sacra Famiglia; he also acted in the US action film Transporter 2 and in Italy in the comedy Non prendere impegni stasera.

In 2008 he acted in the film Caos calmo as the brother of the main lead, interpreted by Nanni Moretti. For this role, he was honoured by many awards: the David di Donatello award for a supporting actor, the Ciak d'oro, the Nastro d'Argento and the Globo d'oro of the foreign press. In the same year, he adapted for the stage the teleplay 12 Angry Men, written by Reginald Rose in 1954 that was made into a film by Sidney Lumet in 1957: the performance was taken up again in 2009, year in which he also appeared as leading actor in 4 padri single by Paolo Monico, Ex by Fausto Brizzi and Il compleanno by Marco Filiberti as well in the TV miniseries Pinocchio directed by Alberto Sironi.