Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was Jon Cryer's first film role?
At age 19, Cryer appeared in the 1984 romantic comedy film No Small Affair, in the lead role as Charles Cummings, after the original production with Matthew Broderick was shut down due to a heart attack by director Martin Ritt.[13] He went on to have small roles in films and television movies, and he made his breakthrough as Phil "Duckie" Dale in the John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink.[14] In an interview with the Daily News, Cryer's mother said that after Pretty in Pink, she started getting calls from teenage girls from all over the world, who would leave hysterical, giggling messages on her answering machine.[7] In 1989, he got the lead role in the TV comedy series The Famous Teddy Z. His performance gained poor reviews[15] and the show was canceled after the first season.[15]
Spheeris wanted Jahnson to be part of the casting process, and invited him to many of the casting sessions, which was not common practice for directors. Jon Cryer, who had recently gained attention for his role in the hit film "Pretty in Pink", was attracted to the eclectic nature of "Dudes"' script as well as the opportunity to play the hero, which he had not done before. Spheeris favored Cryer for the film's lead but also considered Keanu Reeves, and chose Cryer at Jaffe's suggestion. To prepare for the role Cryer learned how to ride a horse and fire a gun, and got his ear pierced since the script called for Grant to wear an earring; the heavy earring caused the piercing to become infected. Being young and eager to play the hero, he performed many of his own stunts. He had difficulty with the scenes that required him to drive a car; He had earned his driver's license while performing in "Torch Song Trilogy" in Los Angeles several years prior, but used public transport and taxis in his native New York City and had very little experience behind the wheel.
Cryer made a guest appearance on the sitcom series Husbands in its second season.[27] He was initially cast to voice the lead character in DisneyToon Studios' animated film Planes, a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise,[28] but later dropped out and was replaced by Dane Cook.[29][30] Cryer did however receive a credit on the film for "additional story material."[31]
Ricky (Jon Cryer), a lonely, 40-something restaurant manager finally meets his ideal woman, Danita (Stéphanie Szostak) through a dating website. However, one significant problem arises: she's married and wants him to kill her abusive husband (Jed Rees) so that she and Ricky can be together. Ricky is so smitten he agrees to do it with the help of his accountant best friend, Seth. (Will Sasso).When interviewed by CJAD radio of Montreal, Chantal Chamandy spoke toward the production of this film. One year after creation of her production company Chantal Chamandy Entertainment, Chamandy began production on the film "Hit By Lightning". The film was shot over a 17-day period during summer 2013 in a studio in metro Ottawa, locations through the city, as well as locations in Los Angeles. The film was budgeted at C$1 million provided by private funding and through Telefilm Canada, and had no cost overruns. Ricky Blitt had written the script and was invited to Montreal by Chamandy to direct the film as his directorial debut. Jon Cryer was production's first choice for the lead role, and he accepted the role after discussing the script with Blitt. The film is described by Cryer as "sort of a mixture of "Body Heat" meets "The 40-Year-Old Virgin".
3 Pigs and a Baby is the first animated film in the series based on "Three Little Pigs". The direct-to-DVD film was released on March 4, 2008 and stars Jon Cryer, Brad Garrett, Steve Zahn and Jesse McCartney.
Production Company: Kings Road EntertainmentCritics generally felt the film to be poor, although the cast, especially Jon Cryer, was usually praised. The New York Times noted that "It's hard to imagine any adult sitting through this movie without dozing off or cracking up, but it's a harmless enough fantasy, and if Jon Cryer's career takes off -- he's due in at least two more films, "Dudes" and "Superman IV" -- "Morgan Stewart" may find a place in the archives as an early little movie in which the star wasn't nearly matched by the material."
Although Cryer gained fame with his early film roles, it took several years to find success on television; none of his star vehicles, including The Famous Teddy Z, Partners, and The Trouble with Normal, lasted more than 22 episodes. In 2003, Cryer was cast as Alan Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009 and 2012.[2][3] Cryer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television in 2011.
Gish's first starring role was in the 1986 teen film "Desert Bloom". In 1987, she starred in the film "Hiding Out" with Jon Cryer. She played "Kat", the sister of Julia Roberts' character, in 1988's "Mystic Pizza". In 1989, Gish got her first major TV film role in "When He's Not a Stranger" as rape victim Lyn McKenna. Gish portrayed Anne Hampton, the doomed second wife of Rhett Butler, in 1994 in the TV mini series "Scarlett".
No Small Affair is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Jon Cryer and Demi Moore. Cryer, Jennifer Tilly and Tim Robbins make their film debuts.
Through the 1980s, Wedgworth had many supporting roles, often playing mothers, such as in "No Small Affair" as Jon Cryer's character's, in "Sweet Dreams" as Patsy Cline's and in 1987's "Made in Heaven" as one unknowingly reunited with her dead son. In 1989, she portrayed Aunt Fern in "Steel Magnolias". She appeared as Sissy Spacek's character's mother in the 1991 film "Hard Promises". She also appeared in two films opposite Renée Zellweger: "Love and a .45" and "The Whole Wide World". Wedgworth had her final film role in "The Hawk Is Dying", with Paul Giamatti, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.
Donald David Cryer (born March 8, 1936) is a veteran American stage, television and film actor and singer and one of the founders of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater which began in Pittsburgh and New York’s Mirror Repertory Theatre. In recent years, he is best known for the role of Firmin in "The Phantom of the Opera", which he has played for nearly 19 years on the road and on Broadway. He has also played more performances of the Bernstein Mass, as The Celebrant (including at the Metropolitan Opera and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and more performances as Juan Peron in "Evita" than any other actor. Cryer and his first wife, the songwriter Gretchen Cryer, are the parents of the actor Jon Cryer and his sister Robin Cryer Hyland. With his second wife, the dancer and actress Britt Swanson, he is the father of four children: Rachel, Daniel, Carolyn, and Bill. He has eight grandchildren.
Cryer's first professional acting effort was as David in the Broadway play Torch Song Trilogy, replacing Matthew Broderick, whom he "closely resembled".[12] Cryer was later an understudy and replacement for Broderick in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1989.
Cryer was born in New York City, New York. His mother, Gretchen Cryer (née Kiger; * 1935), is a playwright, songwriter, actress and singer. His father, Donald David Cryer (born 1936), is an actor and singer who originally studied to be a minister.[4][5][6] Cryer's paternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. Donald W. Cryer (1909–1988), was a well-known Methodist minister. He has two sisters, Robin and Shelly.[7]
In 2015, Cryer released a book titled So That Happened, a breezy, often comic tale chronicling Cryer's 30-year career on stage, film and television.
Davis's first film role was in the 1982 drama film "Shoot the Moon", playing the daughter of Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. As a teen, her best-known film role was in the 1987 comedy film "Morgan Stewart's Coming Home" which she starred with Jon Cryer.
On November 16, 2018, it was announced that Cryer had been cast as the classic villain Lex Luthor on The CW's Supergirl in a recurring role, starting in the fifteenth episode of Season 4. [32]
According to Jon Cryer, who played Luthor's nephew Lenny, Reeve had taken him aside just before the release and told him it was going to be "terrible". Although Cryer enjoyed working with Reeve and Hackman, Cryer claimed that Cannon ran out of money during the production and ultimately released an unfinished film.
Cryer's long run of unsuccessful TV projects finally ended three years later. Against the wishes of CBS executives (who were aware of his past failures) and due to a friendship with Charlie Sheen, he was cast in 2003 to portray Alan Harper on the hit comedy series Two and a Half Men. He has earned seven Primetime Emmy Award[22] nominations and two wins[2] for his acting work on the show.[3] In a comment on the show's high ratings, he said: "When you’re on a show that's fighting for survival every week, you stop trusting your instincts, because you think, ‘My instincts haven't worked so far.’ But when people clearly like the show and are watching it in great numbers, it takes a huge amount of pressure off you. It allows you to trust your instincts and go with what has worked for you before."[8] After former co-star Charlie Sheen's departure from the series, Cryer's character became the show's main protagonist (with Ashton Kutcher being cast as the co-lead) throughout the final four seasons, mainly due to the show's retooled plot. At the end of the series of Two and a Half Men, Cryer is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the series; Sheen was fired in March 2011 and his on-screen son Angus T. Jones left the series at the end of season 10, after expressing the show as "filth" and that Jones is a "paid hypocrite".[23] All appeared to be forgiven, however, as Jones, contrary to Charlie Sheen, appeared to great applause in the finale. Before being cast for Two and a Half Men, Cryer auditioned for the role of Gaius Baltar on the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica, but the role went to James Callis.[24] In 2008, Cryer appeared with Laurence Fishburne and James Cromwell in the film Tortured,[25] and in 2009 co-starred with James Spader in the film Shorts.[26]
Weather Girl is a 2009 comedy film written and directed by Blayne Weaver. The film stars Tricia O'Kelley, Mark Harmon, Jon Cryer, and Enrico Colantoni.
Because of its peculiarity, the word "pompatus" has secured a niche in 20th century pop culture. Wolfman Jack frequently referenced the phrase and there is a sound clip of him using the line within the song "Clap for the Wolfman" by The Guess Who. "The Pompatus of Love", a 1996 film starring Jon Cryer, featured four men discussing a number of assorted topics, including attempts to determine the meaning of the phrase. Jon Cryer was also a writer of the film, and describes finding out the meaning of the phrase during a phone call with Vernon Green in his autobiography "so that happened" in chapter 22, page 217. The line has been mentioned in various television show gags, including "The Simpsons" and "South Park".
A year later, he starred with Charlie Sheen in the Jim Abrahams comedy Hot Shots!,[8] which was received very positively.[16] Cryer is frequently linked to the Brat Pack.[17] In a March 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Cryer stated that he had auditioned for St. Elmo's Fire but was not cast in a role.[18] In 1993, he was asked to audition for the role of Chandler Bing on Friends, while doing a play in London. His reading was videotaped by a British casting agent but the tape failed to arrive in the U.S. before the network had made its final decision.[8]
Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Cryer attended a fundraiser hosted by the McCain campaign and, according to news reports, endorsed Senator John McCain.[40][41] When Cryer did not make a public endorsement for the 2012 race, his spokeswoman said that the 2008 report aligning him with the Republican Party was a "mistake" and that Cryer is "not really political." He had attended events for both Republicans and Democrats "because he wanted to hear what both sides had to say."[42]
After appearing on the podcast Crime Writers On... it was announced Cryer is joining the team at the Undisclosed podcast for their second season.
Cryer joined the cast of "Expresso Bongo" (1957) with Susan Hampshire, Millicent Martin and Paul Scofield, during which he recorded the song "Purple People Eater", made famous by Sheb Wooley. For contractual reasons, Wooley's version was never released in Scandinavia, but Cryer's was, and reached number one in Finland. Cryer's first writing credits were four sketches for "The Jimmy Logan Show", co-written with Douglas Camfield. Cryer became head writer with an occasional stage role for Danny La Rue's London nightclub, where he was spotted by David Frost. This led to a writing role on the variety special "A Degree of Frost", which led to Cryer joining the writing team, which also included John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman, on "The Frost Report" from 1966–67. Frost used Cryer on a number of subsequent shows, which established Cryer as a star writer in the 1970s. Cryer is seen serving the wine in the original performance of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on "At Last the 1948 Show", first broadcast in 1967.
Jonathan Niven Cryer (born April 16, 1965)[1] is an American actor and television director. Born into a show business family, Cryer made his motion picture debut as a teenaged photographer in the 1984 romantic comedy No Small Affair; his breakout role came in 1986, playing "Duckie" Dale in the John Hughes-written film Pretty in Pink. In 1998, he wrote and produced the independent film Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five.