George De La Pena

George De La Pena

Born: December 9, 1955
in New York City, New York, USA
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  

George de la Peña (born December 9, 1955) is an American ballet dancer, musical theatre performer, choreographer, actor, and teacher. He was born in New York City, New York, U.S.

Originally trained as a concert pianist, de la Peña switched to ballet while studying at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. He graduated from George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. He joined American Ballet Theatre in the 1970s, rapidly rising to soloist. While at ABT, de la Peña danced in works choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Agnes de Mille, Kenneth MacMillan, and Jerome Robbins, among others. By 1985, de la Peña and his then-wife, Rebecca Wright, had both left ABT and relocated to California. (De la Peña and Wright had two children before they separated.) He and Ms. Wright can both be seen in Baryshnikov's production of The Nutcracker, on television and on DVD.

De la Peña began acting when he was cast as Vaslav Nijinsky in Herbert Ross's film Nijinsky (1980), and for some time thereafter he was typecast in Russian roles. (In a 1983 interview in the New York Times, an exasperated de la Peña, who is of mixed Russian and Argentinian descent, pointed out that producers thought he was not a native English speaker.) He appeared on Broadway in Woman of the Year, the revival of On Your Toes, the notorious flop The Red Shoes (Drama Desk Award nomination), and Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Drama League Award). While living in Los Angeles during the 1980s, he performed in Cats and various regional productions.

His film and television credits include Personal Best (1982), The Flamingo Kid (1989), Brain Donors (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), and guest appearances on shows such as L.A. Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was last seen in the film The Dust Factory, with Hayden Panettiere and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

De la Peña has taught at universities across the country, including CalArts, Connecticut College, and the University of Iowa. He continues to teach for ABT. A director and choreographer for both theatrical works and concert dance, he assisted figure skater Debi Thomas with her routine for the Olympics. He frequently collaborates with the choreographer Martha Clarke.

George is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Laboratory.

Description above from the Wikipedia article George de la Peña, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for George De La Pena...

Ovation
Title: Ovation
Character: Salazar
Released: July 11, 2016
Type: Movie
Maggie Chase, now a passionate theater actress, must follow her mind or heart when she falls for a slick television star.
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The Dust Factory
Title: The Dust Factory
Character: Ringmaster
Released: October 15, 2004
Type: Movie
Ryan is a teenager who lacks the ability to speak. One day, Ryan falls off a bridge and he finds himself transported to a strange fantasy world where he encounters his Grandpa Randolph and a pretty girl named Melanie; together, Ryan and Melanie learn to help one another with their problems, and they both discover the wisdom they can gain from elders like Grandpa Randolph.
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One Last Dance
Title: One Last Dance
Character: Max Delano
Released: April 4, 2003
Type: Movie
In the wake of tragedy, a renowed New York dance company is on the brink of collapse. After leaving the dance world for good, Travis, Chrissa, and Max are pulled in to resurrect the dance that shattered their careers. They have one last chance to save the company, re-connect with the passion and magic, and prove that miracles really can happen.
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Mighty Aphrodite
Title: Mighty Aphrodite
Character: Greek Chorus
Released: September 13, 1995
Type: Movie
When Lenny and his wife, Amanda, adopt a baby, Lenny realizes that his son is a genius and becomes obsessed with finding the boy's biological mother in hopes that she will be brilliant too. But when he learns that Max's mother is Linda Ash, a kindhearted prostitute and porn star, Lenny is determined to reform her immoral lifestyle. A Greek chorus chimes in to relate the plot to Greek mythology in this quirky comedy.
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Red Hot
Title: Red Hot
Character: Gurevitch
Released: June 1, 1993
Type: Movie
In 1959, a young Soviet musician risks everything to pursue his newfound love of American rock 'n' roll.
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Brain Donors
Title: Brain Donors
Character: Roberto Volare
Released: April 17, 1992
Type: Movie
Three manic idiots—a lawyer, cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.
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Kuffs
Title: Kuffs
Character: Sam Jones
Released: January 10, 1992
Type: Movie
George Kuffs didn't finish high-school, just lost his job, and his college-age girlfriend is pregnant. To top it off, George's brother Brad is killed and George inherits Brad's "patrol special" privatized police district and all the problems that come with it.
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Title: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Character: Lt. Orfil Solis
Released: September 28, 1987
Type: TV
Follow the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.
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Title: L.A. Law
Character: Mikhail Olinskov
Released: September 15, 1986
Type: TV
L.A. Law is an American television legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco's trademark features including a large number of parallel storylines, social drama and off-the-wall humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff. The show was popular with audiences and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were for Outstanding Drama Series.
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Popeye Doyle
Title: Popeye Doyle
Character: Itan Kellerman / The Shadow
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
While Popeye Doyle is investigating what appears to be a very simple drug overdose, he becomes involved in international intrigue. The Mosad and various other foreign diplomatic figures turn up everywhere he goes. The drug overdose becomes a very involved murder case.
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The Cowboy and the Ballerina
Title: The Cowboy and the Ballerina
Released: October 23, 1984
Type: Movie
A champion rodeo rider falls in love with a Russian ballerina who is trying to defect.
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Title: Murder, She Wrote
Character: Alexander Masurov
Released: September 30, 1984
Type: TV
An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
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The Merry Widow
Title: The Merry Widow
Character: Count Jolidon
Released: December 23, 1983
Type: Movie
The Merry Widow, a beguiling, romantic ballet starring Patricia McBride and Peter Martins.
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Personal Best
Title: Personal Best
Character: Raoul
Released: February 5, 1982
Type: Movie
Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.
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Nijinsky
Title: Nijinsky
Character: Vaslav Nijinsky
Released: March 20, 1980
Type: Movie
The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality, the latter prompted by his romantic involvement with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joins impresario Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diaghilev, who is both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky succumbs to Romola's charms and marries her, after which his gradual decline from artistic moodiness to complete lunacy begins.