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Shannon Leto
Biography
Shannon Leto (/lɛtoʊ/; born March 9, 1970) is an American musician best known as the drummer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. He co-founded the group in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, with his younger brother Jared. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success. As of September 2014, the band has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
Leto has worked on several side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Antoine Becks, a recording with the short-lived supergroup The Wondergirls, and performing on occasional dates with Street Drum Corps. His creative contribution to music has received praise from musicians and critics. He is noted for his dynamic drumming style and his energetic live performances.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Shannon Leto, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Philip Jackson
Biography
Philip Jackson (born 18 June 1948) is an English actor, known for his many television and film roles, most notably as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the cult 1980s series Robin of Sherwood.
Jackson was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire. He started acting while studying Drama and German at the University of Bristol, and has worked in the theatre in Leeds, Liverpool and London. His stage work includes Pozzo in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre in the West End in 1991 and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds in 2010. He was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Little Voice (1998).
His television appearances have included Coronation Street, Robin of Sherwood, A Touch of Frost, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, Heartbeat, Little Britain, Hamish Macbeth, Raised by Wolves and Last of the Summer Wine. He has also appeared in the films Scum, Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street, Brassed Off, Mike Bassett: England Manager, "Grow Your Own", and My Week with Marilyn. He also appeared in the music video of A-Ha's "Take On Me"
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Bryan Dawe
Biography
Born in Port Adelaide. Played football and cricket a lot. Represented S.A. schoolboys football 1961. Escaped Woodville High at 15. Music industry in Adelaide until 21. Left Adelaide for London. Returned 1972 moved to Melbourne. Next four years was Senior Executive for Lunch & Dinner assisting Astor Records and music industry in supporting Australian wine industry and restaurants across Australia. Retired hurt, travelled and wrote songs for next ten years. Wrote for ABC radio. Made head of Radio Comedy Unit for four years - only person in unit. Performed Roly Parks and Sir Murray Rivers QC for the past 27 years.
Met Mr John Clarke. Spent next 27 years with aforementioned trying to get politicians to put their hands up on the table where we could all see them. Hasn't worked thus far but will keep trying. We live in hope. Inveterate traveller and photographer.
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Gladys McConnell
Biography
From Wikipedia
Gladys McConnell (October 22, 1905 – March 4, 1979) was an American film actress and aviator. She was born in Oklahoma City, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).[1] She was the daughter of William Marshall McConnell (born April 28, 1876, McNairy County, Tennessee) and his wife, Harriet (née Sharp; born October 10, 1882, Newbern, Tennessee), and had a sister, Hazel. Gladys McConnell attended Hollywood High School.
Her film career was brief, about four years from the late silent to early sound era (1926 – 1930). She sometimes used the professional name Gladys Morrow. One of her first parts came in The Devil Horse (1926). The film featured Rex the Wonder Horse, a stallion featured in at least fifteen films. She starred with Harry Langdon in Three's A Crowd (1927). In The Chaser (1928), as Langdon's talkative wife. She broke ties with the Fox Film Company over differences over her roles, choosing to freelance instead.
She was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1927. WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) was a Hollywood promotional campaign that selected thirteen baby stars (slang at the time for starlets) as most likely to gain success. Others in the 1927 group included Iris Stuart, Natalie Kingston, Sally Phipps, and Rita Carewe.
McConnell married Arthur Q. Hazerman in 1926; they divorced three years later. In September 1931, she married Hollywood attorney, A. Ronald Button, at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California. William Jennings Bryan Jr., a friend of the bridegroom, was best man at the wedding. McConnell was attended by her sister, Mrs. Harold O. Wright. They had a daughter, Mary Barbara Button (b. February 9, 1937, Los Angeles), now known as Barbara McAllister, a commercial real estate broker.
McConnell became an aviator and began flying in Portland. Aside from Ruth Elder, she logged more air hours than any woman in the film colony.
Gladys McConnell died in Fullerton, California in 1979, aged 73.
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Geoffrey Haley
Biography
Geoffrey Haley is a camera operator and filmmaker. Born with a deep passion for film and music, Haley was a cellist from age five and grew up experimenting with an 8mm camera. However, upon finishing high school, he chose to pursue film over music, fearing that relying on his musical passion for income might diminish his love for it.
Haley studied psychophysiology on the West Coast, strategically selecting a university that allowed him to spend summers in Los Angeles, gaining hands-on experience in the film industry. His musical background helped him secure early work as a boom operator. Later, he transitioned to video playback before ultimately finding his niche in the camera department.
His first significant break came when he was tasked with shooting the iconic floating bag scene in American Beauty (1999). Originally intended as a CGI placeholder, Haley’s footage was so compelling that it became a defining visual of the film. This exposure led to him being hired for HBO’s Six Feet Under (2001–2005), where he remained for the entire five-season run, refining his skills in cinematography, scene breakdown, and collaboration with directors and actors.
While working on Six Feet Under, Haley ventured into directing and writing, creating The Parlor (2001), which earned an Honorable Mention at Sundance 2002. He later wrote a feature screenplay purchased by a major studio but remained unproduced due to budget constraints. Determined to direct, he wrote The Last Word (2008), a romantic comedy that premiered at Sundance and saw a successful theatrical release.
Despite his directing aspirations, Haley found a fulfilling career in camera operation. His philosophy emphasizes collaboration with directors to serve the story, emotion, and performance rather than getting lost in the technical aspects of the job. His approach has led to successful collaborations with cinematographers like Lawrence Sher ASC and Stephen F. Windon ASC ACS, as well as directors including Todd Phillips (Joker), David O. Russell (The Fighter, American Hustle), and Danny Boyle (Steve Jobs).
Haley’s expertise in Steadicam operation has been pivotal in high-profile productions, notably his work on Steve Jobs (2015), where he navigated the challenges of capturing long takes of dialogue-heavy scenes. He has also played a key role in large-scale action films, working closely with the Russo brothers on Avengers: Endgame (2019), Cherry (2021), and The Gray Man (2022), where he also served as an executive producer.
A respected figure in the camera operating community, Haley serves on the board of governors for the Society of Camera Operators (SOC). His dedication to storytelling and immersive cinematography has earned him multiple accolades, including the SOC Camera Operator of the Year Award for Joker and Cherry.
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Françoise Prévost
Biography
Françoise Prévost (13 January 1930 – 30 November 1997) was a French actress, journalist and author. She was the daughter of writer Marcelle Auclair. She appeared in more than 70 films between 1949 and 1985.
Prévost was born and died in Paris, France. She made her film debut at 18, in Jean de la Lune. After several minor roles she emerged with the Nouvelle Vague, with roles of weight in films by Pierre Kast, Jean-Gabriel Albicocco and Jacques Rivette. Starting from 1960s she was also pretty active in the Italian cinema, starring in leading roles in dramas, comedies and genre films. In 1975 Prévost gained critical appreciation and commercial success as an author, with an autobiographical book about her struggle against an incurable disease, Ma vie en plus.
Source: Article "Françoise Prévost (actress)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Bahman Ghobadi
Biography
Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even considered as the most famous short ever made in Iran. This success allowed Bahman Ghobadi to make several feature films, the best known being his first, "A Time for Drunken Horses" (2000), the first Kurd film in the history of Iran. This film and all the the others made by Ghobadi were hits in the festival circuit, garnered dozens of awards but were little seen or not seen at all in his native country. His last movie to date, filmed without official permit, rapidly and feverishly, "No One Knows About Persian Cats" (2009) is a remarkable semi-documentary about underground indie music in Tehran.
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Karl-Anthony Towns
Biography
Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. (born November 15, 1995), also known by the initialed nickname KAT, is a Dominican-American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. Towns was named to the Dominican Republic national team as a 16-year-old. He was selected with the first overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves and went on to be named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2015–16 season. He has received three All-Star selections. Towns also won the 2021–22 NBA Three-Point Contest.
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Tamara Jolaine
Biography
Tamara Jolaine, began her acting career in Canada. At age 18, around the time of her completion of her Political Science degree at the University of Toronto, she cast aside her plans to attend law school and began an artistic journey revolving around both acting and music. In Toronto, Tamara worked on many film and commercial projects. The feature independent film
Tough Love, directed by Frank Caruso, was her first official starring role and aided in her decision to take acting further and move to study in New York. Jolaine studied at Circle in the Square Theater School and it was there, in Times Square, where she really began to hone her skills. Following the completion of her training, Tamara set her sights on the theater, starring in many off-Broadway shows, including the hit show
Line, written by Israel Horowitz. She also got her feet wet in a musical titled, Let’s Be Frank, playing both Lauren Bacall and Shirley Maclain, which received widespread accolades from audiences all over Manhattan. By the time she left New York, Tamara had starred in more than seven off-Broadway plays. It was in Austin where Tamara found her ultimate acting mentor, David A. Cox. David studied for many years under the great Sanford Meisner and today he personally embodies the man’s teaching spirit and methods. Under Cox’s tutelage, Tamara continued to develop her craft, which eventually aided in her securing a recurring role on NBC’s
Friday Night Lights, as Erin, the free-spirited waitress who finds herself in a life altering circumstance. In the second season finale her character, Erin, reveals to former star quarterback, Jason Streets, that she is pregnant with his child.
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Pat Thomson
Biography
Patricia Elizabeth Thomson (September 7, 1940 - April 18, 1992) was an English-born Australian television and film actress, best remembered as Shirley Hastings, the over-zealous, pretentious mother of Scott Hastings in the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom.
Thomson died of an aneurism on 18 April 1992 in Sydney, Australia, missing the premiere of her last movie, Strictly Ballroom. In the same year, she posthumously won the AFI award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Strictly Ballroom.
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