Previous Nominees

Being nominated for the Zone of Ruthaz is definitely an honor, and all our nominees are, by their very act of being nominated, phenomenal in their own right.

Previous Nominees for Induction in the Zone of Ruthaz are:

Betty White Ludden (born January 17, 1922) better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Showand Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. As of 2011, she is starring as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland. She has also released several books over the span of her career. In August 2010, she entered a deal with G.P. Putnam Sons to produce two more books, the first of which was scheduled for release in 2011. White has won six Emmy Awards and received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting (for the short-lived Just Men!). In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award. She made regular appearances on the game shows Password and Match Game and played recurring roles on Mama’s Family, Boston Legal, and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor, voice actor, and musician. He stole his Mason Verger from a Rodney Roller impression. A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s with a string of performances that prompted pre-eminent film critic, Roger Ebert, to describe him as “the best young British actor around”. He portrayed Sid Vicious in his acclaimed first leading role in Sid and Nancy (1986), and earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor for his second real-life portrayal, Joe Orton, in Prick Up Your Ears (1987). Oldman’s role in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead(1990) brought him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor, while his performance as a violent gunman for an Irish American gang in State of Grace(1990) earned him greater notice and critical acclaim in the United States. His international breakthrough came with his portrayals of Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), and Count Dracula in Dracula (1992)—the latter bringing him the Saturn Award for Best Actor. Oldman also attracted media attention for his marriage to actress Uma Thurman in the early 1990s. He went on to play the villain of a number of popular films in the 1990s, including True Romance (1993), Léon (1994) and The Fifth Element(1997). His performance as a zealous Republican congressman in The Contender (2000) earned him Screen Actors Guild- and Independent Spirit Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the people who has won the “Triple Crown of Acting“: an Academy Award, aTony Award and an Emmy Award. Apart from being nominated for 4 Academy Awards for acting (winning 1) and 5 BAFTA Awards (winning 3), he has also won 2 Golden Globe and 4 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Awardnominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code, Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and as Magneto in the X-Men films.  In 1988, McKellen came out and announced he was gay. He became a founding member of Stonewall, one of the United Kingdom’s most influential LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman. McKellen was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts.

Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE (born Chan Kong-sang, 陳港生; 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, director, producer,martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. An operatically trained vocalist, Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopopstar, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred.

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television seriesRoseanne (1988–1997) for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles inRaising Arizona as an escaped convict, in Barton Fink as a congenial murderer, in The Big Lebowski as a volatile bowler and in O Brother Where Art Thou? as a cultured thief. Additionally, Goodman’s voice work has appeared in numerous Disney films, including the voice for “Sulley” in Monsters, Inc.. Having contributed to more than 50 films, Goodman has also won two American Comedy Awards and hosted Saturday Night Live fourteen times.

Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his performance asLuke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as his voice role as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, its various spin-offs, and the video games Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Hamill has also lent his voice to various other villains and anti-heroes in various other animated productions.

Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented and respected actresses of the modern era. Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971′s The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. She later won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Sophie’s Choice(1982). Streep has received 16 Academy Award nominations, winning two, and 25 Golden Globe nominations, winning seven, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, four New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, a BAFTA award, an Australian Film Institute Award and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor best known for his early comedic roles, most notably his breakout performance as the title character in Beetlejuice. Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Batman in Tim Burton‘s Batman andBatman Returns. In recent years, he has starred in films such as Pixar‘s Cars and Toy Story 3.

Sir Peter Robert Jackson is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, who is well known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001 to 2003), adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien.

He won international attention early in his career with his “splatstick” horror comedies beginning with Bad Taste (1987) before coming to mainstream prominence with Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which he shared an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination with his wife, Fran Walsh. Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003; he also won the BAFTA,Golden Globe and Saturn Award for Best Direction the same year.

His films also include Meet the Feebles (1989), Braindead (1992), Forgotten Silver (1995), The Frighteners (1996), King Kong (2005), The Lovely Bones (2009), and the upcoming The Hobbit trilogy, which will include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (2014). He also produced District 9 (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011).

Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002. He was later knighted (as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit) by then Governor-General Anand Satyanand at a ceremony in Wellington in April 2010.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He has received many industry awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or and has been nominated for an Emmy and Grammy.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino was an avid film fan. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend’s Birthday. Its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter and the aestheticization of violence that often results in the exhibition neo-noir characteristics. His films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003, 2004), Death Proof (2007),Inglourious Basterds (2009), and the upcoming Django Unchained (2012).

Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee. After gaining critical acclaim for his role in Jungle Fever in 1991, he appeared in films such as Patriot Games, Amos & Andrew,True Romance and Jurassic Park. In 1994 he was cast as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, and his performance received several award nominations and critical acclaim. Jackson has since appeared in over 100 films including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The 51st State, Jackie Brown, Unbreakable, The Incredibles, Black Snake Moan,Shaft, Snakes on a Plane, as well as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and small roles in Quentin Tarantino‘s Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds. He played Nick Furyin Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the first two of a nine-film commitment as the character for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Jackson’s many roles have made him one of the highest grossing actors at the box office. Jackson has won multiple awards throughout his career and has been portrayed in various forms of media including films, television series, and songs. In 1980, Jackson married LaTanya Richardson, with whom he has one daughter, Zoe.

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award). Connery is best-known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 (six “official” EON productions films and the non-official Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again). In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as “The Greatest Living Scot”. In 1989, he was proclaimed “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted “Sexiest Man of the Century”.

Sigourney Weaver (born October 8, 1949) is an American actress best known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series, a role for which she has received worldwide recognition. Other notable roles include the Ghostbusters films, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Working Girl, Death and the Maiden, Prayers for Bobbyand Avatar. She is a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Working Girl (1988) winning Golden Globe Awards in the latter two films. Weaver has been called “The Sci-Fi Queen” by many on account of her many science fiction and fantasy films.

Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer. His other major roles include butterfly collector Freddie Clegg in The Collector, arch-villain General Zod in Superman and Superman II, trans woman Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, tough guy Wilson in The Limey, Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, ghostantagonist Ramsley in The Haunted Mansion, Elektra‘s master Stick in Elektra, Pekwarsky in Wanted, Maxwell Smart’s arch-villain Siegfried in Get Smart, council of high help Terrence Bundley in Yes Man and General Ludwig Beck in Valkyrie. Stamp has won a Golden Globe, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Seattle International Film Festival Award, a Satellite Award and a Silver Bear.

Willard Christopher ”Will“ Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968), also known as The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, film producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in music, television and film. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards. In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith transitioned from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films that received broad box office success. In fact, he is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office as well as being the only actor to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the #1 spot in the domestic box office tally. Fourteen of the 19 fiction films he has acted in have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million, and 4 of them took in over $500 million in global box office receipts. As of 2011, his films have grossed $5.7 billion in global box office. His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II,Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitchand Seven Pounds. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations for the latter two.