Famous People of New Jersey

Houston released her debut album Whitney Houston in 1985, which became the best-selling debut album by a female artist at the time of release. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV enabled several African-American women to follow in her success.

Following her marriage to fellow singer Bobby Brown, Houston appeared in her first starring role in the feature film The Bodyguard in 1992. The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single, "I Will Always Love You", became one of the best-selling singles in music history. • Whitney Houston Books • Whitney Houston Discography

Born to Hungarian immigrant parents, Kovacs was influenced deeply by his Trenton Central High School drama teacher, Harold Van Kirk, and thus went to acting school after his 1937 graduation. His first paid entertainment work was as a disc jockey on Trenton's WTTM radio, which led eventually to his first television job in 1949, a show called Three to Get Ready, at NBC's Philadelphia affiliate, WPTZ. Three to Get Ready was groundbreaking, as the first regularly scheduled early morning (7–9 a.m.) show in a major TV market. Prior to this, it had been assumed that no one would watch TV at such an early hour. The success of Three to Get Ready proved the theory wrong and was one of the factors that led NBC to create The Today Show, which led to WPTZ's cancellation of Ernie's local show in favor of the network offering. • Ernie Kovacs Books • Ernie Kovacs Films

Born Dorothea Nutzhorn in Hoboken, New Jersey on May 26, 1895, she was the daughter of Joan Lange and Henry Nutzhorn Dorothea developed polio in 1902, at age 7. Like many other polio victims before treatment was available, she emerged with a weakened right leg, and a permanent limp. When she was 12 years old, her father abandoned her and her mother, leading her to drop her middle and last names and adopt her mother's maiden name

Lange was educated in photography in New York City, in a class taught by Clarence H. White. She was informally apprenticed to several New York photography studios, including that of the famed Arnold Genthe. In 1918, she moved to San Francisco, and by the following year she had opened a successful portrait studio. She lived across the bay in Berkeley for the rest of her life.

In 1972 the Whitney Museum used 27 of Lange's photographs in an exhibit entitled Executive Order 9066. This exhibit highlighted the Japanese Internment during World War II. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced on May 28, 2008 that Lange will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place on December 15 and her son accepted the honor in her place. • Dorothea Lange Books

Marshall died in Kelsey on August 10, 1885. His body was brought to Coloma and buried on the property where he had owned his vineyard. The grave was in a hill that overlooked the south fork of the American River. In May 1890, a monument was erected over his grave site. A statue of Marshall stands on top of the monument, pointing to the spot where he made his discovery in 1848. • James W. Marshall Books

Nicholson has been nominated for Academy Awards twelve times. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). He is also one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s (the other one being Michael Caine). He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

Notable films in which he has starred include, in chronological order, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Batman, A Few Good Men, As Good as It Gets, About Schmidt, Something's Gotta Give, Anger Management, The Departed, and The Bucket List. • Jack Nicholson Books • Jack Nicholson Movies

Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Piscopo attended West Essex High School and was a member of the drama club "the Masquers". He developed a reputation for never playing a part the way it was written, preferring to add a touch of comedy to his roles. When he was not clowning around he could usually be found lifting weights with his cousins Paul LaMagna and Bill Dolphin (Scarecrow). Although his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, Joe ultimately went into stand-up comedy in the late 1970s, becoming a cast member of the short-lived sketch-comedy series, Madhouse Brigade in 1978.

In the summer of 1980 he was hired as a contract player for Saturday Night Live. The show had gone through major upheaval when all the writers, major producers, and cast members had left that spring. The all-new cast bombed with critics and fans with the exception of Piscopo and Eddie Murphy; they were also the only two cast members to be kept when Dick Ebersol took over the show the following spring. • Joe Piscopo Books • Joe Piscopo Films