Actors

Actress Theresa Saldana survived a brutal stabbing by a stalker, a crime which was was committed in broad daylight in front of her Hollywood. She plays herself in a forthcoming television movie based on the incident.

British actor Jonathan Miller gave up a medical career to pursue acting. His career led him to become a television critic, director, and producer. He eventually returned to medicine, and is a practicing neurologist and medical writer.

Marchand talks about the differences between acting onstage and in television, the challenges of raising children while working, and the intersection of her celebrity and personal life.

Actor Joel Grey talks about the legacy of his father, comedic actor and clarinetist Mickey Katz. Grey's Jewish heritage helped him add complexity to his performance in the Broadway and film versions of Cabaret, in which he played the Master of Ceremonies.

Little tells Fresh Air about his experiences as an African American actor on- and off-Broadway. He considers how black actors have risen to greater prominence on stage and screen.

Television actor Dorian Harewood is known for roles in Roots, Strike Force, and Trauma Center. He stars in a new miniseries as groundbreaking athlete Jesse Owens. Harewood joins Fresh Air's Danny Miller to talk about the making of the program, as well as Owens' career.

Jack Eric Williams played one of the villains in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, and found success during a run of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. He has written a musical of his own called Mrs. Farmer's Daughter, about the life of actress Frances Farmer, which is now in production in Philadelphia.

Scholar Frank McCourt and his brother, actor Malachi McCourt, grew up poor in Ireland before finding success in the United States. Both brothers were voracious readers and were able to find success without a high school education. They wrote and perform together in a new, autobiographical play.

The married couple joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss their experiences a black actors, the need for strong African American writers for theater and television, and their work to promote new works by and about marginalized groups.

Esther Rolle played a maid in the television show Maude, a role which she hoped would subvert the racist tradition of mammy characters typically given to African American actresses. Rolle now works mostly in theater, and is featured in a production of Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding.