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Carla Thomas
Biography
Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is best known for her 1960s recordings for Atlantic and Stax including the hits "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1960), "B-A-B-Y" (1966) and "Tramp" (1967), a duet with Otis Redding. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.
Thomas was born and raised in the Foote Homes Projects in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Along with her siblings, Marvell and Vaneese, she was one of three musical children of Rufus and Lorene Thomas. Despite growing up in the projects, the Thomas family lived near the Palace Theater on Beale Street, as Rufus was the theater's Master of Ceremonies (MC) for their amateur shows. This access not only gave Thomas her first taste of the music world but it also provided a springboard for her transformation into the Queen of the Memphis Sound.
In Memphis, the African-American-centered WDIA radio station sponsored a rotating musical group of high school students called the Teen Town Singers; notable alumni include Anita Louis and Isaac Hayes. Although the requirements to join the Teen Town Singers stated that the person should be of high school age, Thomas became a member in 1952 at the age of 10. She was able to sneak into their ranks thanks to the fact that her father Rufus was an on-air personality for the radio station. This opportunity with the Teen Town Singers did not come without its drawbacks though.
As a 10-year-old student, Thomas was responsible for not only attending classes and completing her schoolwork, but she also had to attend rehearsals on Wednesdays and Fridays after school and then perform at the station on Saturday. Despite the grueling schedule, she enjoyed the experience: "It was a lot of fun, it really was." She remained with the Teen Town Singers until the end of her senior year.
Thomas is best known for the work she completed for both Atlantic Records and most notably, Stax Records in the 1960s. Her first record, "'Cause I Love You" (1960), was a duet with her father, with brother Marvell on keyboards, that was released by Satellite Records, which eventually became Stax Records. Recorded when Thomas was still attending Hamilton High School in Memphis, the record drew enough local attention to catch the interest of Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records.
He signed a deal with the owners of Satellite Records, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, to distribute "Cause I Love You" and thus paved the way for Thomas’ most famous single, "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)", reaching number 10 on the pop chart and number 5 on the R&B chart. While she continued to have success on the R&B charts throughout the 1960s, her only other solo top 40 pop hit was "B-A-B-Y", reaching number 14 in 1966. Her duet, "Tramp", with Otis Redding reached number 26 on the pop chart the following year.and her album of duets with Otis Redding, King & Queen, was a number 18 hit in the UK Albums Chart.
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Ashley Rickards
Biography
Ashley Nicole Rickards (born May 4, 1992, height 5' 3¾" (1,62 m)) is an American actress, known for her role in MTV's Awkward as Jenna Hamilton, and as Samantha "Sam" Walker, a troubled young girl taken in by Brooke Davis who becomes her foster-mother, in The CW teen drama series One Tree Hill. She also starred in the 2011 independent drama film Fly Away as Mandy, a severely autistic girl.
Rickards grew up on a horse farm that catered for children with special needs. She attended a local Montessori school where, at age 13, she had her first taste of acting in an opera production. Rickards graduated from high school at age fifteen and is a member of Mensa. After attending a local talent showcase, organized by Lou Perlman, Rickards traveled to Los Angeles where she eventually gathered a team of representatives. Upon graduating, Rickards began to appear in a number of minor roles, as child labor laws restricted the number of hours she was able to work. After making a number of guest appearances and shorts, she landed the role of Samantha Walker, a runaway foster child, in One Tree Hill for the 2008-2009 season. Although not aware of the show before auditioning, Rickards found that she "learned so much from acting techniques to different ways of shooting things".Her character did not return the following season, while in the same year she had a bit part in her first feature film, Gamer.
Rickards spent much of 2009 attending auditions while a proposed lead-role in the film Dirty Girl fell through. In 2010 she appeared opposite Jimmy Smits in an episode of the legal drama Outlaw while she also auditioned for the lead-role in Awkward. Initially rejected, her manager Adam Griffin sent the producers a tape Rickards had made for Fly Away "to show how she can do anything". The actress landed both roles and filmed the pilot for the MTV series prior to Fly Away, a feature where she played a severely autistic girl.
A former competitive equestrian, she helped to launch the Project Futures Somaly Mam Foundation (2011), which works to prevent and end human trafficking and sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. Rickards writes poetry, scripts, and enjoys painting in her spare time. She also appeared in The Fray's video for "How to Save a Life", and also in The Format's video for "She Doesn't Get It".
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Kim Weston
Biography
Kim Weston (born December 30, 1939) is an American soul singer, and Motown alumna. In the 1960s, Weston scored hits with the songs "Love Me All the Way" and "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" and with her duet with Marvin Gaye, "It Takes Two".
Born Agatha Nathalia Weston in Detroit, Michigan, United States, she was signed to Motown in 1961, scoring a minor hit with "Love Me All the Way" (R&B No. 24, Pop No. 88). "Love Me All the Way" was a originally the b-side to "It Should Have Been Me", however, it was switched when a DJ reacted to "Love Me All the Way". Weston's biggest solo hits with Motown were "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" (R&B No. 4, Pop No. 50, later covered by the Isley Brothers; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Jermaine Jackson; the Doobie Brothers; and Phil Collins), and "Helpless" (R&B No. 13, Pop No. 56, entered Cashbox March 26, 1966, previously recorded by The Four Tops on their album, Four Tops Second Album). She is notable for singing the hit "It Takes Two" with Marvin Gaye in 1966, and for her later recording of the Black National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing". It was the success of "It Takes Two" that caused Motown to partner Gaye with Tammi Terrell, spawning even more success for the label.
Weston left Motown in 1967, and later sued the company over disputes about royalties. She and her then-husband William "Mickey" Stevenson (former A&R head at Motown) both moved to Los Angeles and began their career with MGM Records, with Stevenson running his own label at MGM. Weston cut a couple of singles for MGM, "I Got What You Need" "Nobody," which went largely unnoticed due to lack of airplay and promotion. She made an album for the label, This Is America, which included her popular version of the Black National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing". This was released as a single and featured in the movie, Wattstax. All the money from the single was donated to the United Negro College Fund. She recorded several more albums for various labels, Stax/Volt among them, and also made an album of duets with Johnny Nash. Weston declined in charts by the time new singles were released, and Weston reportedly relocated to Israel, where she worked with young singers. Weston also participated in a musical called Sound and the Kidnapped African.
Along with many former Motown artists, Weston signed with Ian Levine's Motorcity Records in the 1980s, releasing the single "Signal Your Intention", which peaked at No. 1 in the UK Hi-NRG chart. It was followed by the album Investigate (1990), which included some re-recordings of her Motown hits as well as new material. A second album for the label, Talking Loud (1992), was never released, although all the songs were included on the compilation The Best Of Kim Weston (1996).
Weston was inducted into the inaugural class of the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame at Cleveland State University in August 2013.
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Tifani Winkfield
Biography
Tifani Winkfield, also known as Tifani Ahren Davis, is most well known for her award-winning performance in the psychological thriller indie series "Clever Girl" and her well received performance in the poignant film "75" depicting the current opioid crisis. Her portrayal of dark, daunting persona contrasts her genuinely sweet disposition.
She was born in Singapore and began acting at 15 in Oklahoma. In college she studied theater but graduated with a bachelors in International Relations with a focus in Middle Eastern studies. Following school, she was drawn to costume design but luck had other plans for her when she was pulled in front of the camera while on set. This indirect path brought her back to acting, allowing her to use her world experiences to further her depth for her character persona's.
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Mehran Ahmadi
Biography
Mehran Ahmadi is an actor, planner, assistant director, and director who was born in 1973 in Neyshabour, Iran. He started his career in cinema and starred in “Adam” movie by Reza Kahani in 2006. From his notable activities in cinema movies, “Nafas” by Narges Abyar, “Alzheimer" by Ahmadreza Motamedi, and “Absolutely Tame Is a Horse” directed by Abdolreza Kahani can be named. He has also starred in series such as “Ta Sorrayya” by Sirous Moghaddam and “Sounds of Rain” by Hossein Soheilizade. Mehran Ahmadi has won the Crystal Simorgh for “Alzheimer” in 29th Fajr Film Festival.
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Alondra Mijangos
Biography
Alondra Berber Mijangos, known as the absinthe drinker, is a Mexican surrealist poet, polymath, and art witch, interested in exploring various aesthetic, philosophical, and subconscious languages. Author of the books El péndulo de cal (2013) and El fuego de las mariposas (2015). Practitioner of Midraf calligraphy (the personal alphabet for the writing of Alondra) created by her from dreams and altered states of consciousness. She made her film debut in 2022 with the movie Nourishment of the oblivion, which premiered at the First-Time Filmmaker Sessions and the Lift-Off Filmmakers Sessions at Pinewood Studios in United Kingdom. Screenwriter and director of the films Nourishment of the oblivion, Misméntica instora, The death of the minotavr, Mauve, Minotavr I and Minotavr II. Her essay films and hybrid art videos have been presented at film festivals in the UK, France, Greece and Colombia. Her film The death of the minotavr (2022) was nominated for best experimental short film at the Hallucinea Film Festival in Paris.
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Golshifteh Farahani
Biography
Golshifteh Farahani (گلشیفته فراهانی) was born on 10th July 1983 and is an international Iranian actress. She has dual Iranian and French nationality. Golshifteh Farahani started her acting career in theatre at the age of 6. Since then she has played in more than 40 films, many of which have been screened or awarded at international festivals. Amongst her famous Iranian films are Bahman Ghobadi's Half Moon, Dariush Mehrjui's Santoori , Rasool Mollagholipour's M for Mother and Asghar Farhadi's About Elly. Starring in Ridley Scotts Body of Lies (2008), alongside Leonardo Di Caprio and Russel Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani became the first Iranian to act in a major Hollywood production. She has also starred in films such as Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) directed by Ridley Scott, Paterson (2016) directed by Jim jarmush, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Extraction (2020), and Alpha (2025) directed by Palme d'Or winning filmmaker Julia Ducournau.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 - October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award.
Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000).
Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.
On October 31, 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
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Frederick Schmidt
Biography
Frederick Schmidt is a British actor who has appeared in such films as Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).
In his early career, he starred in many British films. In Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), he appears alongside Tom Cruise. In Angel Has Fallen (2019), he plays Wade Jennings's assistant. He also stars in the TV series Supergirl, where he plays Metallo. Schmidt will also star in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, set for debut in 2025.
Description above from the Wikipedia article about Frederick Schmidt, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Li Landi
Biography
Li Landi, also known as Landy Li, is a film and television actress from mainland China.
In 2009, at the age of 10, Li Landi began her career in film and television with her debut in the movie "Who Loved You Lost?" In 2016, she won the Most Potential Child Actress Award in June for her performance in the children's inspirational film "Young Chess King."
Her breakthrough came in 2017 with her role in "The Heartless Master II," where she charmed audiences as the pure-hearted Taozi. In the same year, she earned the New Drama Award at iQIYI’s Scream Night for her performance in the youth campus drama "Hello, Old Time."
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