Combining 2 mysql statements into 1

I have 2 statements which I want to join into 1.

First statement grabs the actors ratings and details.
Second statement grabs the number of videos each actor appears from a certain date.

select actors.*, actor_ratings.* from actors, actor_ratings where actors.id = actor_ratings.actor_id limit $perpage offset $start

select actor_id, count(*) as total_videos from videos, video_actors where date_added < '$date' and videos.id = video_actors.video_id group by actor_id

Tried some inner joins but the query seems much slower. What's the best way to join these 2 tables together based on actor id?

Thank you.

 

I guess you are looking for union operator

 

I believe union is used for tables with same type of information?
I could be wrong

I need the two tables joined by actor id that way I have the actor's details and the number of videos he/she is in

 

I think I got it.

select * from (select actor_id, count(*) as total_videos from videos, video_actors where videos.date_added < '$date' and videos.id = video_actors.video_id group by actor_id) as videos_per_actor RIGHT JOIN actors ON actors.id = videos_per_actor.actor_id INNER JOIN actor_ratings ON actor_ratings.actor_id = actors.id limit $perpage offset $start

0.07 seconds on 50k tables.

But when I add "order by name" it adds an extra second or two.

select * from (select actor_id, count(*) as total_videos from videos, video_actors where videos.date_added < '$date' and videos.id = video_actors.video_id group by actor_id) as videos_per_actor RIGHT JOIN actors ON actors.id = videos_per_actor.actor_id LEFT JOIN actor_ratings ON actor_ratings.actor_id = actors.id order by name limit $perpage offset $start

A normal order by name on the table takes .07 but it adds 1 or 2 seconds when it's placed with the joins. Why is this the case?