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François Léotard

Biography

François Gérard Marie Léotard (26 March 1942 – 25 April 2023) was a French politician. Singer and actor Philippe Léotard was his brother. A member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he appeared in the foreground of the political scene in the 1980s. He led a new generation of right-wing politicians, the "renovationmen", who opposed the old right-wing leaders Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation. His political career started with being elected as the mayor of Fréjus in 1977. He served two terms as the deputy of Var. As culture minister from 1986 to 1988,[3] he sold the main public TV channel TF1. He returned to the French cabinet as defense minister, from 1993 to 1995. Supporting the candidacy of Edouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election, he was dismissed after Chirac's election. Elected president of the UDF in 1996, he could not prevent the split of this confederation two years later with Alain Madelin's secession. This and the party's poor showing in the 1998 regional elections prompted his resignation. After a mission in Macedonia in 2001 as representative of the European Union, he retired from politics. In 2003, he created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle East. He later authored several books. Léotard died in Fréjus on 25 April 2023, at age 81. Source: Article "François Léotard" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Vincent Gallo

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Vincent Gallo (born April 11, 1961) is an American film actor, director, producer, screenwriter, singer-songwriter, and painter. Although he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, did the music for and starred in; The Brown Bunny, which he also wrote, directed, produced, starred in and photographed; Arizona Dream; The Funeral; and Palookaville. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gallo was a painter in the New York City art scene showing with famed art dealer Annina Nosei, performed in a rap duo and was part of the first hip hop television broadcast Graffiti Rock, and played in an industrial band called Bohack which released an album title It Took Several Wives. In the early 2000s, he released several solo recordings on WARP records. Gallo is known for his outspoken views and generally sarcastic nature, once stating: "I stopped painting in 1990 at the peak of my success just to deny people my beautiful paintings; and I did it out of spite." Gallo was awarded the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at the 67th Venice International Film Festival for his performance as a wordless escaping Muslim prisoner in Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing. His own feature film Promises Written In Water, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, also screened In Competition at the festival.
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Dmitriy Zolotukhin

Biography

Son of actor Lev Zolotukhin. Actor, director, screenwriter, producer. Honored Artist of Russia (2000). In 1979, he graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio (course of VK Monyukov), in 1987 - the directing department of VGIK (workshop of S. Gerasimov). Actor of the Moscow Art Theater (1979-1982). After graduating from the Moscow Academic Art Theater School in 1979, he made his film debut in 1981 with the role of the young Peter the First, in the dilogy "Youth of Peter" and "At the Beginning of Glorious Deeds." After the success of these tapes created the same image in the television series. Currently working in the field of digital TV, producing programs for mobile and IPTV.
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Alan Bates

Biography

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his tour-de-force with Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky, and The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as playing varied roles in television drama, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.
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John Bruno

Biography

John Bruno is an American visual effects artist and filmmaker known for his prolific collaborations with director James Cameron on films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, True Lies, Titanic, Avatar, and The Abyss, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He has also contributed to other blockbuster films, including Ghostbusters, Batman Returns, Cliffhanger, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. He also directed the 1999 science fiction horror film Virus, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland. He currently holds five Oscar nominations and two BAFTA Award nominations. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Bruno, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Kamal Joumblatt

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Kamal Jumblatt (كمال جنبلاط), born December 6, 1917 and died March 16, 1977, is a Lebanese politician, founder of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Lebanese Druze leader. He is the father of Walid Jumblatt. Kamal Jumblatt was born in 1917 in Moukhtara in Lebanon. The Jumblatt family enjoys significant prestige in the Druze community. His father, Fouad Joumblatt, was assassinated on August 6, 1921. After his father's death, his mother, Nazira, took over. She will play an important political role in the country. In 1926, Kamal Jumblatt entered a Christian school where he completed his elementary studies in 1928. In high school, he studied French, Arabic, science and literature. He graduated from this high school in 1936. He obtained a diploma in philosophy a year later, in 1937. He then left for Paris where he joined the faculty of arts at the Sorbonne. He also studies psychology, civics and sociology. He returned to Lebanon in 1939, where he continued his studies at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut. He obtained a law degree there in 1945. He married May 1, 1948 with May Arslan (died in 2013), daughter of the Druze emir Chekib Arslan. They will have only one son, Walid Jumblatt. Kamal Jumblatt, pacifist leader, fighting for democracy, socialism with a human face and a secular Lebanon, still marks memories. Kamal Jumblatt was not destined for politics. The death of his cousin Hikmat naturally designated him as successor, representative of the family. Then, India has always fascinated a young man more inclined to meditate than to govern: he went there at the age of 26: one of the photos shows him plowing. From his time at the Ministry of Agriculture and Social Affairs in 1947 to the violent insurrection of 1958, Kamal Jumblatt asserted his charisma and quickly outlined his ambitions after the creation, in 1949, of the PSP (Progressive Socialist Party): unity of Arab countries, fight against the Lebanese oligarchy to establish real democracy. From 1958, the year of the start of the presidency of Fouad Chéhab, supported by Kamal Jumblatt and his party, to 1969, the date of the first riots with the Palestinians, the Druze politician was Minister of National Education then of the Interior , while tirelessly meeting with various foreign officials in order to initiate a dialogue of peace which he favored above all. He will no longer stop defending the Palestinian cause and admiring the Jordanian position in the conflict which pits the Feyadine against the Israeli army. From 1970, conflict loomed and peaceful solutions became increasingly bogged down, as Kamal Jumblatt feared and predicted. He became considerably closer to the Soviet Union, which awarded him the Lenin medal in 1970 to honor his work in favor of peace. Indeed, the Druze leader never tires of meeting political and religious leaders from all sides, but cannot escape the war: in 1976, he reviewed part of the People's Liberation Army. A few months later, he was shot dead in his car, along with two of his companions.
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Stefan Brogren

Biography

Stefan Brogren (born 21 April 1972) is a Canadian actor, director, and producer who is best known for his mainstay role as Archie "Snake" Simpson in the Degrassi television franchise. First appearing as a student in the second series Degrassi Junior High (1987-89) and continuing into Degrassi High (1989-91), Brogren played the role of Snake throughout every subsequent entry in the franchise, reprising his role in the revival Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-15) as a teacher and later principal, and again in Degrassi: Next Class (2016-17). Known for his visual style and character driven storytelling, Stefan has directed shows for The CW, Netflix, Hulu, Lifetime and most recently for the streamer, Tubi. Stefan is also an accomplished Producer. He has received 4 Primetime Emmy nominations for his producing work within the Degrassi franchise. Stefan’s directing has been nominated 4 times, with two wins at the Canadian Screen Awards for “Best Direction in a Youth Program or Series”. Including his 2021 nomination for Holly Hobbie. He won a Directors Guild of Canada Award in 2015 for the series Open Heart and received his fourth DGC nomination in 2017 for Degrassi: Next Class.
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Jody Lawrance

Biography

As the 1950s began, Jody Lawrance (born Nona Josephine Goddard) showed much promise as a contract player for Columbia. In 1951 alone, she was the female lead in four features including "Ten Tall Men," playing opposite Burt Lancaster. However, her reticence to appear in the Mickey Rooney musical, "All Ashore" (1953) because she didn't feel she had the singing ability required for the role and her reluctance to do publicity for the studio resulted in an early release from her contract. After her appearance as Pocahontas in the independent film, "Captain John Smith and Pocahontas" (1953) was a critical and commercial flop, Lawrance was effectively out of the movie business. Now working as a waitress in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, she was the subject of a feature article on her plight as an actress. Soon afterward, she received a surprise visit at the restaurant by her former co-star Burt Lancaster, who promised to help restart her acting career. This led to a role in the film noir, "The Scarlet Hour" (1956) and a contract with Paramount. While her billing had dropped a few notches from her Columbia days, her career was clearly on the mend. However, when Paramount learned that she had eloped and was expecting her first child, they terminated her contract. Despite this latest setback in her career, Lawrance found work on the small screen and appeared on some of the most popular television series of the late 1950s, including "The Loretta Young Show," "The Rebel," and "Perry Mason." She succeeded during this period despite the failure of her first marriage and the subsequent custody battle. After her second marriage, she effectively retired from show business to raise a family with her new husband.
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Felician Hohnloser

Biography

Felician Hohnloser (born 1986 in Heidelberg) is a German actor and theater artist. From 2009 to 2014, Felician Hohnloser studied acting at the Zurich University of the Arts; while still a student, he collaborated with directors such as Herbert Fritsch, Martina Eitner-Acheampong, and Hannes Weiler at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. Subsequent engagements took him to venues including Theater Chemnitz and the Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Since 2016, Hohnloser has worked as a freelancer on stages such as the Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Stadttheater Heidelberg, as well as within the independent theater scene and on film productions. Together with director Matthias Rippert, he developed the solo performance *Der mit dem Sohn tanzt* (The One Who Dances with His Son), a piece exploring father-son relationships that toured throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In 2020, Hohnloser initiated and curated *neu.txt*, a Heidelberg-based festival dedicated to new theatrical texts. He also realized interdisciplinary projects such as the immersive video performance *Gift* (Poison), which examines internalized images of masculinity. In 2023, he collaborated with his son, the author Lorenz Just, on a stage project exploring the subject of gender from a child's perspective. Hohnloser also appears regularly in front of the camera. In 2024, he played the role of Günther in the film *The Shipwrecked Triptych* by Deniz Eroglu; the film won the Grand Prize at the Filmadrid festival. Additionally, he appeared in the *Tatort* episode "Der Reini" alongside Hans-Jochen Wagner. In the film adaptation of *Ein Mann seiner Klasse* (A Man of His Class), he played the main character's uncle; in 2025, the film was awarded the German Television Prize for Best Television Film.
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Janne Grönroos

Biography

Janne Grönroos, born August 21, 1984, in Hanko, Finland, is a Finnish-Swedish presenter and stand-up comedian. Grönroos was born in Hanko but grew up in Ekenäs in southern Finland and studied pedagogy at Åbo Akademi University in Vaasa. During that time, he worked as a singer in the cover band Das Dunderhonung and worked as a host for the program "Listan" on Radio X3M. During his studies, Grönroos began to socialize with the artist Krista Siegfrids. The couple were married between the years 2017 and 2019. During his studies, Grönroos participated in Radio X3M's reality series Galleriet, after which he worked for the channel as a presenter for various programs. Between 2011 and 2016, he did Radio X3M's morning show "Succémorgon". Grönroos worked for Aftonbladet TV from 2017 to 2020, in 2021 he will start as host of the TV program Efter Nio.
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