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Days of our Lives (Dool) news shows that there is sad news to report, actor Wayne Northrop has died at the age of 77. He played Roman Brady on the Peacock sudser, appearing in over 1,036 episodes of the show from 1981 to 2006.

The actor’s publicist, Cynthia Snyder, told TMZ that Northrop Northrup died on Friday, November 29 at the Motion Picture and Television Woodland Hills Home, which is an assisted living facility for veterans of the film industry.

Days of Our Lives can be Streamed on Peacock

Northrop was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago and needed full time care which necessitated his stay at the facility.

Northrup was married to Lynn Herring Northrop who plays Lucy Coe on ABC’s General Hospital. She issued a statement noting that the daytime star “was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s 6 years ago” and “took his final breath in the arms of family.

Best known for his portrayal as Roman Brady on “Days of our Lives” (1981-1984; 1991-1994) and Michael Culhane on “Dynasty,” actor Wayne Northrop died on Friday, November 29 at the Motion Picture and Television Woodland Hills Home in Woodland Hills. He was just 77 years old.

Outside of soaps, Northrop was married to “General Hospital” star Lynn Herring (Lucy Coe) for 43 years. They had two kids together, Hank and Grady.

In a family statement, they said, “Wayne was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s 6 years ago. He took his last breath in the arms of his family. We wish to thank the most caring and amazing place, The Motion Picture and Television Home for taking such great care of him. Wayne touched so many people with his sense of humor and wit. A husband for 43 years, the best dad ever to his two boys, Hank and Grady, and a rancher who loved...

Days of our Lives alum Wayne Northrop died on Friday, November 29th. The actor was 77 years old, and he passed at the Motion Picture and Television Woodland Hills Home.

Remembering Northrop

His wife, Lynn Herring Northrop, released a statement. She said, “Wayne was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s 6 years ago. He took his last breath in the arms of his family. We wish to thank the most caring and amazing place, The Motion Picture and Television Home for taking such great care of him. Wayne touched so many people with his sense of humor and wit. A husband for 43 years, the best dad ever to his two boys, Hank and Grady, and a rancher who loved his cows and was a friend to many.”

Northrup was best known for his role as Roman Brady, the tough yet kind-hearted detective on Days (1981-1984 & 1991-1994). Roman’s romance and marriage to Dr.

Frederic Forrest, who earned critical acclaim opposite Bette Midler in The Rose and collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola, has died. He was 86.

Other than earning both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for playing Huston Dwyer — the opposite end of a doomed relationship — in 1979’s The Rose, Frederic Forrest is perhaps best known for playing Jay “Chef” Hicks, who loses his head both mentally and literally, in Apocalypse Now the same year. For both performances Forrest was recognized by the National Society of Film Critics as that year’s Best Supporting Actor.

Bette Midler took to Twitter to pay tribute to her co-star, saying Frederic Forrest was a “remarkable actor” and “brilliant human being.”

The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and...

Though actors typically portray many roles throughout their careers, they can also be defined by one or two pivotal parts that become their legacy (whether they like it or not). Such is the case with Pernell Roberts.

The actor was featured in numerous projects from the ’60s until the ’80s, particularly on TV. But Roberts is best known for two major characters over the course of his lifetime.

The TV shows were a substantial contributor to Roberts’ net worth. He left behind a small fortune at the time of his death in 2010. Here’s more about the actor and his legacy:

Pernell Roberts was best known for his roles on ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Trapper John M.D.’

Roberts has more than 100 credits to his name. But he’s best known for two roles, which also happen to be the lengthiest.

The Georgia native got his start playing Shakespearean characters on theater stages...

Lenny von Dohlen, who played Harold Smith on Twin Peaks and its 1992 spinoff pic Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and starred in the 1984 rom-com Electric Dreams during a four-decade screen career, has died. He was 63.

His manager Steven Wolfe said von Dohlen died July 5 at his Los Angeles home after a long illness.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

Born on December 22, 1958 in Augusta, Ga, and raised in Goliad, Texas, Von Dohlen made his screen debut in the 1981 telefilm Kent State and had a small role in the Robert Duvall country music pic Tender Mercies before getting his big break in Electric Dreams. He starred as Miles Harding, an architect whose new PC becomes self-aware and develops a love triangle his Miles’ neighbor (Virginia Madsen). The romantic comedy was the debut feature of prolific music video helmer Steve Barron, who went on to direct for TV, earning an Emmy nom for Merlin.

Josh Brolin has spent his career pushing the narrative boundaries of the West.

Roles in resurgent Westerns such as “No Country for Old Men” and “True Grit” fortified the Oscar nominee’s place in the genre’s recent canon. His first major TV role was on ABC’s 1989 series “The Young Riders,” about the Pony Express.

The year prior to “Riders,” Brolin spent 24 hours believing he’d get his big break on CBS’ “Lonesome Dove” miniseries, having been cast as Newt, an orphan in the West, alongside his all-time favorite actor Robert Duvall. But the day after getting the role, the network pulled the offer, citing a contractual obligation to eventual star Rick Schroder.

“It was the greatest moment of my life,” Brolin recalls. “It is still the most elated I’ve ever felt about anything work-related and then it left as quickly as it came. I was absolutely freaking devastated.

Once upon a time, Josh Brolin broke onto the mainstream as Brand Walsh, the heartthrob older brother of Sean Astin's Mikey in "The Goonies." He appeared in a variety of films and even nabbed a leading role on the series "The Young Riders," but new life was breathed into Brolin's career after he was cast as Llewelyn Moss in the Joel and Ethan Coen film "No Country for Old Men." Brolin's Moss is a hunter who inadvertently finds himself mixed up with the deadly assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) after stumbling across the aftermath of a drug deal that...

The post Josh Brolin Thinks the Coen Brothers Pranked Him While Shooting No Country for Old Men appeared first on /Film.

Don Collier, the rugged actor who built a career filled with Westerns with turns in three John Wayne films and work on such shows as The High Chaparral, Outlaws and The Young Riders, has died. He was 92.

Collier died Monday of lung cancer in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, friend and casting director Susan McCray (Little House on the Prairie) told The Hollywood Reporter.

On the big screen, Collier performed alongside Wayne in El Dorado (1966), The War Wagon (1967) and The Undefeated (1969) and acted with Audie Murphy in Seven Ways From Sundown (1960) and with Val Kilmer in Tombstone (1993).

Starting in the 1970s, Collier starred for years as ...

Don Collier, the rugged actor who built a career filled with Westerns with turns in three John Wayne films and work on such shows as The High Chaparral, Outlaws and The Young Riders, has died. He was 92.

Collier died Monday of lung cancer in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, friend and casting director Susan McCray (Little House on the Prairie) told The Hollywood Reporter.

On the big screen, Collier performed alongside Wayne in El Dorado (1966), The War Wagon (1967) and The Undefeated (1969) and acted with Audie Murphy in Seven Ways From Sundown (1960) and with Val Kilmer in Tombstone (1993).

Starting in the 1970s, Collier starred for years as ...

The acclaimed Vestron Video Collector’s Series delivers a gripping dystopian punch when the suspenseful and action-packed Steel Dawn (1987) — available for the first time on limited-edition Blu-ray (plus Digital) — arrives on October 26 from Lionsgate.

The acclaimed Vestron Video Collector’s Series delivers a gripping dystopian punch when the suspenseful and action-packed Steel Dawn — available for the first time on limited-edition Blu-ray (plus Digital) — arrives on October 26 from Lionsgate. Golden Globe® nominee Patrick Swayze stars as a new breed of warrior in a post-nuclear era where laws are useless and water is more precious than blood. Also featuring Lisa Niemi (TV’s “Super Force”) and Primetime Emmy® Award winner Anthony Zerbe, Steel Dawn will be available on limited-edition Blu-ray for the suggested retail price of $17.99.

“Whoever controls the water controls the valley,” proclaims the evil Damnil in this cult favorite starring Patrick Swayze as Nomad, an ex-soldier roaming the desert wastes of a war-ravaged world.

Rhonda Fleming, the actress who starred in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” and Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past,” has died. She was 97.

Fleming’s secretary Carla Sapon confirmed the news to TheWrap, stating that she passed away on Wednesday in Santa Monica, California.

Fleming appeared in more than 40 films, which included Robert Siodmak’s “The Spiral Staircase,” the 1948 musical fantasy “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the 1957 Western “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and the noir “Slightly Scarlet.”

Over the years, she worked with people like Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson, Bob Hope and Ronald Reagan, with whom she made four films. Her other credits include “Pony Express,” “The Big Circus” and most recently, “The Nude Bomb” in 1980.

Fleming was born as Marilyn Louis in Hollywood, California, in 1923. She began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School, and was discovered by...

Rhonda Fleming, star of the 1940s and ’50s who was dubbed the “Queen of Technicolor” and appeared in “Out of the Past” and “Spellbound,” died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., according to her secretary Carla Sapon. She was 97.

Fleming appeared in more than 40 films and worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock on “Spellbound,” Jacques Tourneur on “Out of the Past” and Robert Siodmak on “The Spiral Staircase.”

Later in life, she became a philanthropist and supporter of numerous organizations fighting cancer, homelessness and child abuse.

Her starring roles include classics such as the 1948 musical fantasy “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” alongside Bing Crosby, 1957 Western “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and the noir “Slightly Scarlet” alongside John Payne.

Her co-stars over the years included Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Burt Lancaster, Bob Hope, Rock Hudson and Ronald Reagan, with whom she made four films. Other notable roles included Fritz Lang...

Mel Winkler, a character actor with numerous TV, film and stage credits as well as being a recognizable voice behind characters on the animated series The New Batman Adventures and Oswald, died in his sleep of unknown causes Thursday at his home in Hollywood. He was 78.

His death was announced by family spokesperson Courtney Benson.

Winkler made his Broadway stage debut in 1968’s The Great White Hope, appearing in several productions thereafter before taking the role of Seth Holly in 1988’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson. His final Broadway role was in 1997’s Proposals, written by Neil Simon and directed by Joe Mantello.

Winkler appeared in such films as Doc Hollywood (1991), All the Right Moves (1983) and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). After a 1969 stint on daytime’s The Doctors, he appeared steadily in episodic TV roles from the 1970s through the early 2000s, including such series as The Cosby Show,...

Yvonne Suhor, who starred for three seasons on The Young Riders, an ABC Western that revolved around the Pony Express, has died. She was 56.

Suhor died Sept. 27 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 10 months ago, her husband, actor Simon Needham, told the Orlando Sentinel.

On MGM Television's The Young Riders, which aired from 1989-92, Suhor portrayed Louise McCloud, who disguised herself as a man to become a rider for the Pony Express. The series also featured Josh Brolin (as Wild Bill Hickok), Stephen Baldwin (Buffalo Bill Cody), Melissa Leo and Anthony Zerbe.

Suhor also appeared on such shows as Northern ...

Marrissa O'Leary, a former vp with MGM Worldwide Television Group and New World Television, died Tuesday after a long battle with endometrial cancer. She was 61.

O'Leary died in Palm Desert, California, her friend, screenwriter-producer Heather Hale, told The Hollywood Reporter.

From 1989 to 1993, O'Leary served as vp business affairs and administration with the MGM division when it produced the ABC series The Young Riders and Wes Craven's Nightmare Cafe at NBC.

She then moved to New World and was a vp in charge of talent and program negotiations and a comedy development executive under Brandon Tartikoff.

Earlier,...

In 1989, Josh Brolin starred in the ABC western series “The Young Riders.” Then recently married with a kid, the 21-year-old actor began attending AA meetings while shooting on location in Tucson. There he met fireman Danny Martin, who would become his close friend of three decades.

“He introduced me to an incredible community [of firefighters] that I am still very close with,” said Brolin. “I just spent a lot of time with firefighters since my early 20s. I love the ribbing, I love that you have to man up. They challenge you and if you can’t hang you won’t hang, they won’t let you hang.”

So Brolin was extremely skeptical when director Joseph Kosinski (“Tron: Legacy”) approached him with a script about the famed Granite Mountain Hotshots — the heroic Prescott, Ariz. fire crew that battled the Yarnell Hill fire in 2013 and tragically lost 19 members (many of whom Martin knew...

October 22nd’s new Blu-ray and DVD releases include include The Conjuring, The Internship, The Way Way Back, Before Midnight, Only God Forgives, Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics and Dead in Tombstone. This week also see Blu-ray releases for catalog titles The Uninvited (Criterion Collection), The Vincent Price Collection, John Cassavetes: Five Films (Criterion Collection) and the Bruce Lee Legacy Collection. Music fans will find plenty to love with the release of Viva! Hysteria, 25: Live, Brave Enough: Live at the Variety and the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. TV on DVD releases includes Primeval New World: Complete Series, The Young Riders: Season 2 (Gift Box), and Nikita: The Complete Third Season. Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. Based...

M&C has added cover art and details for this week's Blu-ray and DVD releases - which include The Conjuring, The Internship, The Way Way Back, Before Midnight, Only God Forgives, Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics and Dead in Tombstone. This week also see Blu-ray releases for catalog titles The Uninvited (Criterion Collection), The Vincent Price Collection, John Cassavetes: Five Films (Criterion Collection) and the Bruce Lee Legacy Collection. Music fans will find plenty to love with the release of Viva! Hysteria, 25: Live, Brave Enough: Live at the Variety and the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. TV on DVD releases includes Primeval New World: Complete Series, The Young Riders: Season 2 (Gift Box), and Nikita: The Complete Third Season.

We’re not sure if it’s his ruggedly handsome looks, the intense look in his eyes or maybe just his own personal preference, but Hollywood sure loves to cast Josh Brolin as a guy who can take down his enemies, in the name of money, vengeance or justice. The redband trailer for Oldboy premiered yesterday, and in Spike Lee’s remake of the Japanese flick, we see Brolin brutally taking down a few men with a hammer. After being imprisoned in solitary confinement for 20 years, we can see how you might want to do that.

The above list merely skims the surface of Brolin’s murderous work. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t tip our beat-up cowboy hats to the role that started it all… trigger-happy Pony Express rider James Butler Hickok in ABC’s 1989-91 series, The Young Riders. Back in the day, we sure...

Odd List Np Horton 3 Apr 2013 - 05:30

With the arrival of Spring Breakers imminent, Nick looks at seven former child stars who've gone on to enjoy film careers as grown-ups...

Making a name for yourself while young is definitely an appealing way to get into the acting business, for pushy parents and wannabe stars alike. The pros are obvious – fame and fortune at a young age, established links with the industry, and an early chance to make your mark. But for many, being a child star is the only thing they know, and once adulthood comes around, there goes the career.

Options can become limited once you’ve gone past your cute sell by date (just ask Macaulay Culkin), so is it any wonder that Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson have decided to explode their child star image by starring in boundary pushing and very adult Spring Breakers?...

First poster for Phantom, starring Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner This reminds me of Hunt for Red October, although the plot's different. Unfortunately for the film, that's the first thing readers will think of, and if they're big fans of Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin starrer Red October, will most-likely steer clear. The film opens March 1st, 2013 under the helm of writer and director Todd Robinson (Lonely Hearts, TV's "The Young Riders"). Also in the cast are Lance Henriksen, Jonathon Schaech, Sean Patrick Flanery and Jason Gray-Standord, so the names are there to secure some good home entertainment traffic. In Phantom, Ed Harris plays the captain of a Cold War Soviet missile submarine who has secretly been suffering from seizures that alter his perception of reality. Forced to leave his wife and daughter, he is rushed into a classified mission...

First poster for Phantom, starring Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner This reminds me of Hunt for Red October, although the plot's different. Unfortunately for the film, that's the first thing readers will think of, and if they're big fans of Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin starrer Red October, will most-likely steer clear. The film opens March 1st, 2013 under the helm of writer and director Todd Robinson (Lonely Hearts, TV's "The Young Riders"). Also in the cast are Lance Henriksen, Jonathon Schaech, Sean Patrick Flanery and Jason Gray-Standord, so the names are there to secure some good home entertainment traffic. In Phantom, Ed Harris plays the captain of a Cold War Soviet missile submarine who has secretly been suffering from seizures that alter his perception of reality. Forced to leave his wife and daughter, he is rushed into a classified mission...

Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo.

I interviewed Melissa Leo in January of 2009 for her much-buzzed about (and Oscar-nominated) turn in "Frozen River," in many ways a fitting precursor to her Oscar-winning role as Mark Wahlberg's overbearing mother in David O. Russell's "The Fighter." During our talk, Leo was engaging, dramatic, and mercurial, much like her performance on the Oscars. She remains one hell of an actress, and we at The Interview congratulate her on this well-deserved win.

Melissa Leo: Many Rivers to Cross

By

Alex Simon

Born and raised in New York City, Melissa Leo is one of those faces you always see popping up on the big or small screen at least once a year, and you invariably find yourself asking "Wasn't she in fill in the blank with a movie or TV title of your choosing" and you'd probably be right. A fiercely prolific...

Male character actors tends to get a lot of recognition, at least on a small scale. You know the names Peter Stormare, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Dylan Baker, Zeljko Ivanek, David Morse, and William Sadler (to name a few, most of whom you'll find in any Coen Brothers film), but female character actors are often little recognized or, worse, recognized as failed lead actresses. But Melissa Leo transcends gender -- she's not just the best female character actor around, she's one of the best character actors, period. The woman blows me away.

Leo got her start back in the early 1980s on the soap opera "All My Children" (beating out Julia Roberts, I am to understand. And imagine if things were reversed, and how much better Leo would've been in the Erin Brockovich role). She went from there to a series called "The Young Riders" (along with Josh Brolin), but...

There's no question Melissa Leo is a busy woman. In addition to appearing on the HBO series “Treme,” the Oscar nominee for “Frozen River” has no fewer than four films set for release in 2010. That includes “Welcome to the Rileys,” which premieres Friday, June 25, at the L.A. Film Festival. Yet the actor has taken the time to call from the New York set of “Mildred Pierce” to talk about her role in the drama, in which she and James Gandolfini play parents grieving over the loss of their daughter. She'll even be flying in to participate in a Q&A with Gandolfini following the Friday screening because, in her words, “There's nothing I wouldn't do for this film.”On her role:Leo plays Lois Riley, an agoraphobic who has sequestered herself in her Indiana home for eight years, following the death of her daughter. “My husband Doug, played by the great James Gandolfini,...

But either way, this thing doesn’t look like it’s got greatness in it. Also, you gotta wonder what possessed Josh Brolin to decide he wanted to play a scarred cowboy bounty hunter in a movie based on a D.C. comic book. I don’t know, but he doesn’t strike me as the type who grew up reading comic books and have been dying to play one. I could be wrong, of course. Then again, anyone who knows Brolin’s filmography knows that this isn’t his first time playing a gunslinger — back in the early ’90s, he played a young Wild Bill Hickok on the TV show “The Young Riders”, so he’s not exactly new to the saddle, as it were. Still: Josh Brolin and Jonah Hex? Anyways, here’s a new trailer for the film, which is set to open next month, via the boys at IGN.

Actor Stephen Baldwin has been booted off British reality TV show "Celebrity Big Brother". The "Usual Suspects" star lost a public vote after lining up against Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana Trump and rapper Sisqo on Friday night, January 22. Sisqo was evicted shortly after.

Speaking after leaving the house, born-again Christian Baldwin said, "I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about my faith through interacting with these people." Stars still on the show include Trump, actor Vinnie Jones and actress Stephanie Beacham.

His elimination aside, Stephen Baldwin began his career as an opera singer when he was just attending high school. His first big screen project is 1989 movie "The Young Riders". He went to appear in several films such as "Fred Claus", "Silent Warnings" and "Lost Treasure".

David Gerber, a seminal figure in American and international television for a half-century as a producer, studio executive, industry statesman and philanthropist, died Saturday at Los Angeles County-usc Medical Center. He was 86.

Gerber earned an Emmy (and six other Emmy noms), a Golden Globe, a Peabody award and a Christopher award -- not to mention honors from the American Film Institute, the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors and others -- by taking on serious, often controversial subjects.

He was a pioneer of multiracial programming and an industry innovator with such series as "Police Woman," "Batman," "Room 222," "thirtysomething," "In the Heat of the Night," "Medical Story" and dozens of TV movies, including his last longform effort, the critically acclaimed "Flight 93" in 2006.

His miniseries included "George Washington," winner of a Peabody award; "The Lindberg Kidnapping Case"; "Nothing Lasts Forever"; and "Beulah Land."

In 1974, Gerber produced "Police Woman," the first successful...

Battlestar Galactica producer Harvey Frand has died at the age of 68.

The star passed away on 23 July after he was hospitalised in Los Angeles with respiratory problems.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Frand began his TV career in the 1970s at NBC News but landed his first job as producer in 1982, working on Rock Hudson's series The Devlin Connection.

He went on to produce a variety of shows in the 1980s and '90s, including The Twilight Zone, The Lazarus Man, Strange World, and The Young Riders.

But he was most recognised for his work on the sci-fi hit Battlestar Galactica after signing on to the project in 2003. His work behind the scenes garnered him a slew of honours - he won a Peabody Award in 2005, an AFI Award in 2006 and an Emmy Award last year.

He picked up his second nomination for the prestigious ceremony earlier this month when the shortlist for the Primetime Emmy Awards were announced.

Paying tribute to Frand, studio executive Todd Sharp for NBC Universal says, "Harvey was the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain, the train engineer, the orchestra conductor, the school guidance counsellor. He was adored by executive producers and production assistants, studio and network, cast and crew."

Frand is survived by his partner of 32 years, Bill Bowersock, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Harvey Frand, an Emmy-winning producer who was the "man behind the curtain" on the Syfy hit "Battlestar Galactica," died July 23 in Los Angeles after a brief hospitalization for respiratory problems. He was 68.

Frand's series producing career began in 1982 with "The Devlin Connection," Rock Hudson's final series. Other credits include 34 episodes of the 1985-89 version of "The Twilight Zone"; "Beauty and the Beast"; "The Young Riders"; "The Lazarus Man"; "The Pretender"; and "Strange World." He produced more than 20 pilots and movies of the week.

Frand began on "Galactica" in 2003. For his work on the show, he earned a Peabody Award in 2005, an AFI Award in 2006 and an Emmy last year. This month, he was nominated for a second Emmy.

"Harvey was the Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain, the train engineer, the orchestra conductor, the school guidance counselor," NBC Universal executive Todd Sharp said. "He was adored by executive producers and production assistants,...

Josh Brolin is reciting a text message he received from Joel Coen in July. This was weeks after their film, No Country for Old Men, had won Joel and brother Ethan Oscars for writing, directing, and producing. It was months after the film was released to almost universal acclaim, redefining the Coens and launching Brolin as a serious leading man. And it was more than a year after the film premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival to a rapturous standing ovation. "Ethan and I recently reviewed your original audition tape," the message read, "and we think we've made a horrible mistake."Brolin lets loose an uninhibited laugh, something he does frequently. He is, after all, hitting the prime of his career at age 40. He has suffered through miserable auditions, an agent abandoning him, and the industry's general dismissal. Even when things started going well last year, with four high-profile films,...

"How good did you do the scene? That was the goal," recalls Melissa Leo of her time at New York's Purchase College. "And after I left Purchase, like many conservatory-trained actors, my ambitions continued to be about doing good work. It was never about making the right moves or playing the game. I'm still trying to figure that out. I certainly never anticipated this," she says, gesturing at herself prominently featured on the poster for Frozen River, the new independent film that marks Leo's first starring role in a movie. Best known for playing Detective Sergeant Kay Howard on Homicide: Life on the Street and for her supporting role as wife to Benicio Del Toro's character in 21 Grams, Leo has worked fairly steadily for almost 30 years and is generally satisfied with her career. Still, she's had her share of reappraisals. So have actors Larry Keith, Robert Joy, Robert Foxworth,...