ACTOR - "The Great Zamboni" On January 1, 2002, in recognition of Ben Kingsley's role as one of the world's most renowned actors, Britain's Queen Elizabeth honored him with a knighthood. BEN KINGSLEY'S acceptance into the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 was the foundation for a career that is as impressive in the theater as it is on film, but it is on the big screen that he has made his biggest impact. In 1982, he starred in his first major film, "Gandhi." That role won him an Oscar and proved to be the catalyst for his undoubted talents. In addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, he also won the British Film and Television Arts Award for Best Actor and Best Newcomer. In recent years, KINGSLEY received universal acclaim for his role of Itzhak Stern in STEVEN SPIELBERG'S epic portrayal of the Holocaust, "Schindler's List." He followed that role with the compelling part of alleged torturer Dr. Roberto Miranda in ROMAN POLANSKI'S "Death and the Maiden," co-starring SIGOURNEY WEAVER. He was nominated for two Emmys, as Best Supporting Actor in Turner Network Television's "Joseph" and as Best Actor for his portrayal of Anne Frank's father in the ABC miniseries "Anne Frank." His most recent nomination is for Best Supporting Actor in the upcoming Academy Awards for his sizzling performance as cockney gangster Don Logan in "Sexy Beast," for which he has already won the best actor award at the British Independent Film Awards and best supporting actor award at the Critics' Choice Awards. He has also received two Golden Globe Award nominations and two Screen Actors Guild nominations for best supporting actor for "Sexy Beast" and best actor for "Anne Frank." KINGSLEY decided to become a professional actor at the age of 20. It was a pivotal moment as he had also been offered a singing contract by Beatles manager BRIAN EPSTEIN. Although acting won out, music has remained a part of the actor's distinguished career. He wrote the music for the British Production of "The Tempest" and BRECHT'S "Baal" and recently did a recording of "The King and I" with JULIE ANDREWS. In addition to getting an Oscar nomination for his role as gangster Meyer Lansky in "Bugsy," KINGSLEY also won acclaim for his performance in the emotional title role in "Pascali's Island" and as Pandolfini in "Searching for Bobby Fischer." He portrayed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in the TVS/HBO production "Murderers Among Us" and as Dr. Watson in "Without a Clue" opposite MICHAEL CAINE. The extraordinarily versatile actor has played such a multitude of roles that it is virtually impossible to put him into a box. Says KINGSLEY of his acting approach, "I always try to make whatever character I'm playing a completely whole human being with integrity, morality, or the lack thereof. I try to give the audience an opportunity to look at the screen and recognize some element of the person."

Actress - "Boss" MERCEDES RUEHL has created some of the stage and screen's most eccentric and memorable characters, like her Oscar winning role opposite ROBIN WILLIAMS in "The Fisher King" and as DEAN STOCKWELL's terminally jealous wife in the mafia send up "Married to the Mob". The daughter of an FBI agent, RUEHL was constantly moving as a child until her family finally settled in Silver Springs, Maryland. She attended college in New Rochelle before beginning a career in theater. Taking odd jobs during down time between engagements, RUEHL at one point nearly gave up acting for a position with the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company. She persevered, however, and in the late 1970's began chalking up stage successes such as "I'm Not Rappaport," followed by the off Broadway production of "The Wedding of Betty & Boo," for which she won an Obie and her Tony winning role for "Lost in Yonkers". Launching her film work in 1979 with a role in "The Warriors," RUEHL subsequently appeared in feature films such as "84 Charing Cross Road" with ANTHONY HOPKINS and in WOODY ALLEN'S "Radio Days". Her role as TOM HANKS' mother in the box office hit "Big," led to the part of "Connie Russo" in "Married to the Mob" followed by her Academy Award winning performance in "The Fisher King". Not to be limited to film and theater, RUEHL also had a reoccurring role in the hit series "Frasier" as Frasier Crane's amorous boss. A versatile performer, RUEHL moves with ease from comedy to drama. She played a repressed heartland housewife in "The Minus Man," appeared as a WWII Polish nightclub performer in "The Virtouso," and starred as a wife and mother who constantly sacrifices herself for her family in "The Amati Girls." She also starred in the critically acclaimed HBO feature "Gia," the docu-drama chronicling the life of a young model who was one of the first well know AIDS victims. In Hallmark Hall of Fame's "The Lost Child" she stars as a woman raised by a Jewish couple who goes in search of her Navajo birth family.

Actor - "Max" MATT WEINBERG stars in "Spooky House" as Max, the orphan who wins the heart of BEN KINGSLEY'S "Great Zamboni." He enjoys acting immensely, "I don't do this for the money," he says with a grin, "I do this for the fun." When WEINBERG was eight, a family friend suggested he would make a good child actor. His parents wanted no part of it and said no. They were still saying no five months later when the friend decided to take matters into her own hands and, behind their backs, sneaked a kids' agent into a gym where WEINBERG was taking boxing lessons. The agent flipped for him and, when asked, WEINBERG said, "I'll give it a try." The parents consented. Since then, WEINBERG has been busy in both film and television. He has appeared in several feature films including the Fox blockbuster "X-Men" in which he was the jellyfish obsessed Tommy, "Dawg" in which he plays the 8-year-old version of star DENNIS LEARY, and the upcoming indie "Who's Your Daddy." He is the voice of Young Simba in the new Disney video "Lion King 3" and is one of four leads in JOE DANTE's 4-D film for Lookout Entertainment, "R.L. Styne's Haunted Lighthouse." He landed one of the most sought-after kids roles of the 1999 pilot season when he was cast as Eli opposite EDWARD ASNER in Imagine Television's "Eli's Theory." Viewers of "ER" saw WEINBERG as a guest lead in an episode that aired in January 2002. In 2001 he was cast as James Bishop, the ring-leading child in the family that has hired a witch-turned-nanny in "The (mis) Adventures of Fiona Plum," a comedy pilot for the WB Network. WEINBERG has guest starred as a little boy who believes his mother will return from heaven on "Touched By An Angel," as a skateboarder whose shadow becomes inhabited by an evil, murderous spirit on "Freakylinks," and as an adopted son who finds out just how much his new older brother loves him on "Chicken Soup for the Soul." WEINBERG starred as the son of CHRISTINE LAHTI and TOM SKERRITT in Lifetime's MOW adaptation of WENDY WASSERSTEIN's "An American Daughter," and worked with legendary star MAUREEN O'HARA in the CBS MOW "The Last Dance." His co-star appearance on friends cast him as a talented actor who shows-up Joey Tribbiani when they audition together for a soup commercial; he also is credited with a co-starring appearance on "Ellen." He also has numerous commercials under his belt including McDonalds, Digimon and Loanworks. WEINBERG was twice nominated for the prestigious Young Artist Award for his performances in "Friends" and "An American Daughter." His performance in "The Last Dance" earned him a CAMIE Award (Character And Morality In Entertainment). A gifted student at a Los Angeles public school, WEINBERG is also the starting shortstop for his little league team, the Mariners. He lives in Los Angeles with his mom, DANA, his dad, LARRY, a public relations executive; his brother MIKE, 8 (also an actor), three dogs, one frog, and three lizards. And, his nay-saying parents are now his biggest fans. A Spooky Story In a spooky turn of events, shortly after the shooting of "Spooky House" was completed, the WEINBERGS moved to a new house, only to discover that, by sheer coincidence, out of all the houses in all of Los Angeles, it was the very house where director/writer/producer WILLIAM SACHS and his wife and co-writer, MARGARET SACHS, had lived when they created the character of Max and wrote the original screenplay for "Spooky House."

Director/Writer/Producer William Sachs co-wrote the screenplay for Spooky House with his wife, Margaret. He controlled all creative, financial and business aspects of the production from the project's inception and funding through principle photography to all post-production and marketing activities. Sachs is an award-winning director, writer and producer whose films have received critical acclaim, commercial success and even cult status. They have been included on various top ten lists, as well as Variety's chart of all time box office champions, and have - in addition to Spooky House's awards - received more than 25 film festival awards including the top three awards at the Paris Film Festival of Science Fiction and the Fantastic for Galaxina (Grand Jury, Critics' Prize, and The People's Choice Award) and the Stuntman's Association Award for Exterminator 2. His action drama Hitz, about the horror and violence of life as a street gang member, is used by LA anti-gang activists to show at-risk youth the hopelessness and hazards of gang life. His science fiction spoof Galaxina became a #1 box office attraction within days of its release and became an instant cult classic. Concrete War became a major international success and in Japan alone over 22 thousand home video units were sold (the average for a studio picture being only seven thousand). His Van Nuys Blvd. was so popular among the young adult audience that LAPD had to close down the famous Southern California cruising street. His The Incredible Melting Man, featuring make-up by the multiple Academy Award winning make-up artist Rick Baker, is also a high grossing cult classic and plays in midnight shows. Sachs has also earned a unique reputation as one of only a few Hollywood film doctors. Retained by both producers and completion bond companies, some of the films he has saved have become major grossers and launched stars' and directors' careers. His first doctoring assignment was an unreleasable motion picture called The Gap. He reconstructed the entire picture and retitled it Joe. It went on to become one of the highest grossing independent pictures ever, launching the careers of Susan Sarandon and Peter Boyle. The box office success of Joe single-handedly put Cannon Films on the map. Sachs was later recruited by Cannon to save Exterminator 2, and as a result the film made more money for Cannon and launched the career of Mario Van Peebles. Trimark Pictures enlisted Sachs' services to salvage two of their important films: the first, Servants of Twilight, based on the Dean Koontz novel, that was immediately sold to Showtime; the second, an unreleasable horror film originally intended for straight-to-video and starring the then unknown Jennifer Aniston. He remade the picture, added a little humor, and created an unexpectedly entertaining picture titled Leprechaun that became an immediate box office hit, spurring five sequels. Leprechaun helped raise Trimark's quarterly profits 200% in the first quarter of its release and enabled the company to raise public money in the hundreds of millions of dollars, igniting its rise toward becoming a leading independent motion picture company. Sachs' video and television credits include a psychedelic film used by Pink Floyd during concerts, a series of public service announcements and music videos narrated by the Ambassador to the United Nations from Bosnia Herzegovina as part of an international campaign to raise money for transporting injured Bosnian children to foreign hospitals, and They Slew the Dreamer, a screenplay he wrote for Turner Broadcasting. Sachs is a graduate of the London Film School and has studied acting in London, New York and Los Angeles. His professional activities have included membership in the Director's Guild of America's Creative Rights Committee, serving as a screen credits arbitrator for the Writers' Guild of America, and guest lecturer at the UCLA and Cal State Northridge Film Schools.

Co-Writer Margaret Sachs is the author of two nonfiction books: Celestial Passengers (New York: Penguin Books, 1977) and The UFO Encyclopedia (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1980). She was a contributing writer for OMNI magazine from 1981-82. Her articles were also published in OMNI'S Continuum: Dramatic Phenomena from the Frontiers of Science (Boston/Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1982). She stopped writing for several years to spend as much time as possible with her children during their early years. She began again in 1994, co-writing with her husband, Bill, a series of PSAs narrated by Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations as part of an international effort to rescue injured children from the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1997 she wrote two episodes of TNT's "The New Adventures of Robin Hood." Sachs' first job was as a researcher for Chambers Encyclopedia at Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press in London. She moved to Italy in 1968 where for three years she worked concurrently as an assistant to British author Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brody) and to Eugene Walter, local eccentric and author, as well as actor and dialogue coach on Federico Fellini's movies. During this period she also translated screenplays from Italian into English. In 1971 she moved to the US where she worked for several years as a script supervisor as well as in foreign sales for various companies including Lorimar and Heritage Enterprises. The daughter of a British military intelligence officer, Sachs spent her childhood traveling the world and living in Germany, Malaysia, Norway, and Yugoslavia.