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Grégory Lemarchal
Biography
Grégory Jean-Paul Lemarchal (13 May 1983 – 30 April 2007), known professionally as Grégory Lemarchal, was a French singer who rose to fame by winning the fourth series of the reality television show Star Academy, which was broadcast on the TF1.
He died at the age of 23 of health complications (cystic fibrosis) while waiting in hospital for a lung transplant. A posthumous album, La Voix d'un ange, was released with profits going towards the Association Grégory Lemarchal charity. A compilation, Rêves, was released in 2009. He has sold more than 2 million albums.
Grégory Lemarchal remains an emblematic figure in France, often associated in the research and fight against cystic fibrosis.
Lemarchal was born in La Tronche, Isère to Pierre and Laurence Lemarchal, who also had a daughter named Leslie. At twenty months of age he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition which affects the lungs, liver, pancreas and intestine.
Growing up near Chambéry, Lemarchal enjoyed sports such as basketball and football, and even considered becoming involved in sports journalism. Nevertheless, his passion for music and rock n'roll dancing was irresistible. In 1997, at the age of 14, he became the winner of France Rock 'N' Roll, a rock 'n' roll dancing competition.
In 1999, Lemarchal auditioned for a talent show, Graines de stars, by singing a solo rendition of Daniel Balavoine's "Le chanteur", as well as performing in a trio with two other contestants singing "Foule sentimentale" by Alain Souchon. This initial attempt failed, but helped to catapult him into fame and turned him into a local celebrity as a result of his performance in the show.
In May 2003, Lemarchal was involved in a musical entitled Adam and Eve, which was directed by Paul Tordjmann. Sponsored by Sony Music, AB Prod, Radio Scoop and Partouche, the production had ambitious plans to make a provincial tour, before a run at the Le Zénith in Paris. A total of 16 actors and dancers were involved in the production, with Lemarchal taking the lead role as Adam.
In 2004, Lemarchal gained international recognition after participating in the fourth season of the French reality singing competition Star Academy. Through the recommendation of a friend, he was contacted by the show's producers who needed another male contestant for the show. During his participation in the show, he had the opportunity to perform with French singers such as Yannick Noah, Michel Sardou and Patrick Bruel, and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Lemarchal was announced as the winner of the season on 22 December 2004, beating fellow contestant Lucie Bernardoni with a massive vote of 80% to become the first male winner of the series. ...
Source: Article "Grégory Lemarchal" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Yutaka Ozaki
Biography
He was born in Tokyo Setagaya Ward SDF Central Hospital to Kinue and Kenichi Ozaki. He had one older brother, Yasushi. Early in life, he was hospitalized with intestinal torsion and bronchitis which subsequently weakened his internal organs. In 1973 he began studying martial arts and continued training throughout his life. In January 1975 he began playing piano and in March of that year, he wrote his first poem. His first live performance was in 1978 at his school's cultural festival. He was discovered by producer Akira Sudo and signed to CBS Sony in 1983.
Yutaka Ozaki debuted in December 1983 while he was still attending high school with his hit single "Jūgo no Yoru" (15の夜, "A night at Fifteen") and his album Seventeen's Map (十七歳の地図, Jū-nana-sai no Chizu, literal translation: "The Map of a Seventeen Year Old"). He gained tremendous support from his younger fanbase with his devastating live performances along with his unique lyrics that expressed dreams and love or the meaning of life. He represented the angst of adolescence, and a lot of the times attacked what he felt was unfair in society or schools.
On April 25, 1992, Ozaki was found naked, drunk and unconscious in a Tokyo alleyway. He was taken by ambulance but was soon dismissed from the hospital. He died several hours later. The cause of death was reported as pulmonary edema but many theories have arisen as to the actual cause of death, the most popular being homicide. He was survived by his wife, Shigemi, and his son, Hiroya Ozaki.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He 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, Connery died at the age of 90.
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James C. Katz
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James C. Katz is a film historian and preservationist who has restored and reconstructed a number of classic films. Though he began his career as a film producer, he concentrated his attention on preserving existing films.
His film preservation projects include: Spartacus, My Fair Lady, and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear Window. He frequently collaborates with Bob O´Neil and Robert A. Harris, with whom he shared the King Vidor Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the 2000 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
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Flora Finch
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.
Finch was born into a music hall and travelling theatrical family in London and was taken to the United States as a young child. She kept up the family tradition and worked in theatre and the vaudeville circuit right up until her 30s.
She had her first film roles at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company starting in 1908. There she worked with Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Sennett (with whom she was romantically involved for a short time) and Charlie Chaplin amongst others.
Starting in 1910 at Vitagraph, she was paired with John Bunny for the first of 160 very popular shorts made between 1910 and 1915. These shorts, known as "Bunnygraphs", "Bunnyfinches", and "Bunnyfinchgraphs", established Finch and Bunny as the first popular comedy team in films. The duo became a short-lived trio, when Mabel Normand arrived at the studio.
After Bunny's death in 1915 she continued to make comedy shorts, but with less success. She started her own production company, "Flora Finch Productions", but was never able to regain her popularity. One of her best-known roles in the later silent years was Aunt Susan in Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927). She found film work in the sound era, but only in small supporting parts. The Scarlet Letter (1934) gave her one of her more substantial roles in sound films, and she had a cameo in one of Laurel and Hardy's best-known films Way Out West (1937). Her last film was The Women (1939).
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Gower Champion
Biography
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.
Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940).
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Roselyne Bachelot
Biography
Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, generally known as Roselyne Bachelot (born 24 December 1946) is a French politician who served as Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex (2020–2022) and as Minister of Solidarity and Social Cohesion (2010–2012) in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon. She was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which was part of the European People's Party.
Bachelot was born as Roselyne Narquin on 24 December 1946 in Nevers, France. Her father Jean Narquin, was a résistant and gaullist député, and her mother was Yvette Le Dû, a native from Gourin, both dentists. She has a brother, Jean-Yves Narquin, who ran for the European Parliament as a member of the National Front in 2015. Bachelot received a Doctorate in Pharmacy.
From 1988 until 2002 and again in 2007, Bachelot was a member of the National Assembly, representing Maine-et-Loire's 1st constituency. During that time, she served on the Committee on Cultural Affairs.
From 2004 until 2007, Bachelot served as a Member of the European Parliament for the west of France. She was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. She also was a substitute on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, a member of the delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Israel.
From 2007 until 2010, Bachelot served as French Minister for Health and Sports. Since French ministers cannot be members of Parliament, she was forced to give up her seat in the European Parliament.
During her time in office, Bachelot implemented the planned prohibition on smoking in restaurants, bars, discos, casinos and other commercial pleasure enterprises in 2008. She notably issued a warning against excessive mobile phone use, especially by children. Also in 2008, she publicly endorsed legislation introduced by Valérie Boyer which would have made the promotion of extreme dieting a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of some $45,000; it passed the French lower house, but later failed in the Senate. She also encouraged the National Assembly of France to change the legal age to purchase alcohol in France from 16 to 18; the new law took effect in July 2009.
In 2009, Bachelot ordered 94 million vaccines from Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Baxter International for the French Government at a cost of 869 million euros (and an option on 34 million additional vaccines in 2010) to fight against the H1N1 influenza virus; however, less than 10% of French population (about 6 million people) had been vaccinated by the end of the winter. She later canceled over half the flu vaccines ordered to combat the virus, in an effort to head off criticism after reserving too many shots. ...
Source: Article "Roselyne Bachelot" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Ed Thomason
Biography
Prior to relocating to Nova Scotia in 1996 Ed worked extensively in British theatre and broadcasting as Associate Director of the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, Artistic Director of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (both major regional theatres), and Features Editor and Producer for BBC Radio 4. In Wolfville (NS) Ed and his wife, Shelley Thompson, founded WILLPOWER, an independent theatre company creating and producing new work in Halifax and beyond, including The Strange Case Of Jekyll & Hyde, The Afterlife Of George Cartwright (from John Steffler’s novel), Love On Main (from Schnitzler’s Reigen), Shakespeare Unplugged, and Private Views (a collaboration with visual artist Holly Carr and The Art Gallery Of Nova Scotia) At Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, directed Travels With My Aunt and Closer; at the Chester Playhouse (NS), Fields of Crimson. Most recently he was Artistic Producer of Festival Antigonish (NS) for twelve seasons, programming, creating, directing and acting.
Writing credits for CBC Radio Drama include the series: Daddy’s Home, Now You See Her, Y-Soccer, and two episodes of Backbencher. For CBC TV – screenplay Gentle Sinners; for Vision TV - The Prince & The Grail (Documentary). For BBC Radio - The Double Man, a solo show written for Mark Wing-Davey as W.H. Auden, originally produced at the Liverpool Playhouse and The Bush Theatre, London, revived in 2017 at the Public Theatre NYC.
MOST RECENTLY
Dramaturge/Director – Unconfined by Elizabeth Richardson at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Actor - Duke of Cornwall, staged reading of King Lear directed by Leon Major – Senior in Zuppa Theatre’s This Is Nowhere; Prosecutor in Diggstown (CBC TV) – Dr Frost in Chapelwaite (Epix).
AWARDS
Best Screenplay ACTRA Award for Gentle Sinners (CBC), CINO DEL DUCCA Award, for Best TV Direction for All The Days Of My Life (CBC), SONY RADIO Award, Best Feature, for Dear Miss Pym Dear Mr Larkin (BBC), Theatre Nova Scotia MERRITT Award nomination, Best Supporting Actor for Mr Noreen in Geometry In Venice.
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Robert Mandan
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Robert Mandan (born February 2, 1932 in Clever, Missouri) is an American actor, most famous for his portrayals of playwright David Allen on the NBC serial From These Roots from 1958 -1961, businessman Sam Reynolds serial Search for Tomorrow from 1965 to 1970, and his subsequent satire of the genre playing Chester Tate on the sitcom Soap from 1977 to 1981 on ABC. During his time on Search for Tomorrow, he appeared in the the Broadway musical Applause. He left the serial both due to the tiring of the role and the rigors of doing both the serial and the play.
Mandan appeared on Match Game in 1978, Super Password in January 1985 and made appearances on The $20,000 Pyramid as well as The $25,000 Pyramid. In addition to hi s Soap years, he made some appearances with some of his Soap cast members on All Star Family Feud one-hour specials.
He also played the ineffective but very well-meaning Colonel Fielding on the television adaptation of the movie Private Benjamin in 1981, a disapproving father, James Bradford, on ABC's Three's a Crowd opposite John Ritter in 1984, and Peace Corps doctor Bruce Gaines, who married Mrs. Garrett in her final episodes on The Facts of Life in 1986.
In 1991, Mandan reunited with his former TV wife Katherine Helmond from Soap on Who's the Boss?. He appeared in Married with Children in episode The D'Arcy Files (1994). He starred in serials more recently playing Mr. Jonesy alongside Louise Sorel on Days of our Lives from 1997 to 1998. He guest-starred as a judge on General Hospital in early 2006.
He made a memorable appearance in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Cardassians".
He also played an auctioneer on the first episode of Sanford and Son, and in 1990, he played Maxwell Hammer, a friend of Minx, in Santa Barbara.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Mandan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Natsuka Kusano
Biography
Born in 1985, raised in Kanagawa, Japan. After graduating from Tokai University’s School of Cultural Studies (Department of Creative Writing), Kusano completed the 12th Fiction Course of the Film School of Tokyo. In 2014 she directed her first featurelength film, Antonym (Rasen Ginga), which received the SKIP City Award and Best Director Award at the 11th SKIP City International D-Cinema Festival in Saitama, Japan. Her second feature-length film, Domains, was created on the invitation of Aichi Arts Center, Japan.
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