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Milhem Cortaz

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Milhem Cortaz (São Paulo, December 6, 1971) is a Brazilian actor and presenter. Of Arab and Italian descent, Cortaz started in theater at the age of 11, led by actor Walmor Chagas when he performed in the play O Santo Milagroso, in 1983. He moved at the age of 15 to live in Italy with his aunt to get rid of his cocaine addiction, where he graduated from the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and began doing street theater under the influence of Commedia dell'arte but returned to Brazil in 1990, joining the Centro de Pesquisa Teatral (CPT) and stood out, among others, for his performances in O Melhor do Homem in 1995, directed by Ulysses Cruz. He is known for Carandiru (2003), Elite Squad (2007) and A Wolf at the Door (2013).
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Sean Connery

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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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Suda Chuenban

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Suda Chuenban is a singer for both Thai and international songs. Famous in Thailand, she has a long track record of decades, both in the country to the international stage. As well as performances on television and silver screens The owner of the voice singing remedies with Mom Rajawongse Thanatsrisawasdiwat in the Khun Lam Khong album, title song, film, television set, scarecrow and the final song, etc. She began to make prominence since childhood. Suda has practised dance and entered a Thai dance contest in the program 'Sentinel on Radio TAT' organized by Sa-Piam Phongsarn around 1955, giving her the opportunity to perform a traditional dance drama on Channel 4 She graduated from Satirat Bamrung School, model 1962, was a singer of the Red Chang Band (Phong Mookda duo on the Thai premiere of Thai film). The heir is Patcharida Wattana, a former singer, a young girl group, and her daughter Naphatsorn Buranasiri, is a singer and DJ
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Jacques Mayol

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Jacques Mayol, born April 1, 1927, in Shanghai, China, and died December 22, 2001, in Capoliveri, on the island of Elba, Italy, was a French freediver whose story inspired the film The Big Blue (1988). Jacques Mayol grew up in Shanghai, in the French Concession, where his father was an architect. In the summer, the family would often travel to Karatsu, Japan, via the Shanghai-Nagasaki shipping line. It was there that he learned to dive at the age of six. He was fascinated by the "ama," Japanese freedivers who dived for shellfish. It was also in the Nanatsugama caves that he encountered his first dolphin when he was ten years old. In the late 1930s, Japanese militarism drove Westerners away. Jacques Mayol would not return to Karatsu until 1971. In 1939, he settled with his family in Marseille, where he was stranded due to World War II. With his brother, Pierre Mayol, he often went diving, using masks fashioned from truck inner tubes and a homemade speargun to catch a few fish. At seventeen, he decided to join the air force in Morocco but returned to Marseille in 1945. He then spent his time in the Calanques of Marseille with Albert Falco, who later became the captain of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's Calypso. Drawn to Sweden, Jacques Mayol moved there in 1948, where he married a Danish woman, Vibeke Boje Wadsholt (or Vicky), a few years later. They had a daughter (Dottie) and a son (Jean-Jacques/Pedro), and divorced in 1957. The family then settled in Miami (USA), where in 1955 Mayol was hired as a diver to clean the aquariums at a local water park, the Seaquarium. He spent a lot of time with a female dolphin named Clown, the mother of Flipper, the star of the famous 1960s television series. Observing her like a student observes a teacher, he managed to improve his freediving skills. In 1966, he met the Italian Enzo Maiorca in the Bahamas, breaking his personal best with a dive to 60 meters. He became the first diver in the world to reach a depth of 100 meters on a single breath, in November 1976, in the waters off the island of Elba, and then reached 105 meters in 1983, a feat that would remain iconic for many years. He was interested in the physiology of diving, practiced gymnastics, yoga, and meditation, seeking to better understand how the human body adapts to immersion. When he dived, Mayol surprised scientists because his heart rate could drop from 70 to 20 beats per minute; this bradycardia should have caused him to faint. Jacques Mayol, who paved the way for many freedivers, conceived of diving not as a simple sport, but as a physical and spiritual experience. In 1983, he met Luc Besson, who presented him with his film project, The Big Blue. The fictionalized character of Jacques Mayol was portrayed by Jean-Marc Barr. His rivalry with Enzo Maiorca (named Enzo Molinari in the film and played by Jean Reno) is a recurring theme. According to Umberto Pelizzari, he was consumed by loneliness and had been depressed for several months. He took his own life on December 22, 2001, at his home in Calone on the island of Elba, where he had lived for over thirty years. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Tuscany.
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Harry Locke IV

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Harry Locke IV, is an award-winning filmmaker with ten years of industry experience and over 100 on-screen credits that include Academy-Award winners, Sundance breakouts, and popular blockbuster franchises. Through various roles as director, colorist, and post-production supervisor, Locke brings a focus on bridging the divide between the visceral and the physical through communication and innovation. Locke is the co-founder of two acclaimed production companies: Code 10 Studios and IV Sight Pictures LLC which have allowed him to mount productions both in his hometown of Chicago and current city of residence, Los Angeles. His feature-length directorial debut, The City of Gold, opened at number 17 and 21 in the UK's VOD and DVD sales charts. It was the only independent film release in the top 25 for the month of August, 2018.
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Cheng Pei-Pei

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Cheng Pei-Pei (Chinese: 鄭佩佩, December 4, 1946–July 17, 2024) was an actress best known for her performance in the seminal 1966 King Hu wuxia film Come Drink with Me. It made her a contender for one of the first female action star. She continued to play expert swordswomen in a number of films throughout the 1960s. In 2000, she returned to international attention with her role as Jade Fox in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. She followed this up with her portrayal of Long Po in the 2004 television miniseries Watery Moon, Hollow Sky, which was shown on Asian-American television as Paradise. She worked for Zhouyi Media in mainland China.
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Linda Hopkins

Biography

Linda Hopkins (born Melinda Helen Matthews; December 14, 1924 – April 10, 2017) was a Tony Award-winning American actress and blues and gospel singer. She recorded classic, traditional, and urban blues, and performed R&B and soul, jazz, and show tunes. Hopkins was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, the second child of the Reverend Fred Matthews, Sr. and Hazel Smith, Hopkins grew up in the section of New Orleans known by the locals as "Zion City". She went to school in "Gert Town" which bordered the Xavier University of Louisiana. Known as "Lil Helen Matthews" as a child, she was discovered at the age of eleven by Mahalia Jackson when she persuaded Jackson to perform at a fundraiser at her home church, St. Mark's Baptist Church. Lil Helen opened the children's fundraising program with a rendition of Jackson's gospel hit, "God Shall Wipe Your Tears Away". Jackson was reportedly so impressed by Helen's determination and talent that she arranged for the young girl to join the Southern Harp Spiritual Singers in 1936. Hopkins remained with the group for a decade. She first saw Bessie Smith perform Empty Bed Blues at The New Orleans Palace Theatre in 1936. Hopkins greatly admired Smith and later won critical plaudits for her rendition of Smith in the 1959 theatrical presentation Jazz Train. Matthews left New Orleans in the 1950s, and, in 1951, began performing at Slim Jenkins' Night Club in the Oakland/Richmond area. There she met Johnny Otis and Little Esther Phillips who created her stage name, Linda Hopkins. In 1952, Hopkins toured Hawaii and Japan for two years which included a stint with Louis Armstrong at The Brown Derby in Honolulu. She recorded for the Savoy, Crystalette, Forecast, Federal and Atco labels and often appeared at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. In 1960, Hopkins first toured Europe in the Broadway Express, the restaged production of Jazz Train. She recorded "Shake a Hand" with Jackie Wilson on the Brunswick label, which is her sole hit single reaching #21 on the US Billboard R&B chart. She also recorded "I Found Love" and "There's Nothing Like Love" with him on Brunswick in early 1962. She attended Stella Adler's Acting School in New York City. During the 1970s, Hopkins performed in the Broadway musical, Purlie, and with Sammy Davis Jr. for nine months. In addition, she performed at President Jimmy Carter's 1977 inaugural ball. In 1972 she was awarded a Tony and Drama Desk Award for her performance in Inner City. She sang "Do You Believe" at the political event Star-Spangled Women for McGovern–Shriver, bringing 19,000 people to their feet. Hopkins starred in Me and Bessie, a one-woman show paying homage to blues singer Bessie Smith, conceived and written by Hopkins and Will Holt. The world premiere was in Washington, D.C., in 1974. After a run in Los Angeles it transferred to the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway. The critically acclaimed show ran for thirteen months and 453 performances, and Hopkins was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. ... Source: Article "Linda Hopkins" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Piotr Pawłowski

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At the age of 16, during the holidays, he unfortunately jumped into the water, as a result of which he was in a wheelchair ever since [3] . Before he became a completely paralyzed person, he played basketball and practiced athletics. A graduate of the Institute of Family Studies at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University and Postgraduate Studies in Ethics and Philosophy at the University of Warsaw. PhD student at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was a painting lover - he painted with his mouth, preferably landscapes and still lifes. From 1989 he belonged to the World Association of Mouth and Leg Artists. He exhibited his works, among others at the National Museum in Warsaw
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Ja Rule

Biography

Jeffrey Atkins (born February 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Ja Rule, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Born in Hollis, Queens, he began his career in the group Cash Money Click and debuted in 1999 with Venni Vetti Vecci and its single "Holla Holla". From 2000 to 2004, Ja Rule had several hits that made the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, including "Between Me and You" with Christina Millian, "I'm Real (Murder Remix)" with Jennifer Lopez, "Always on Time" with Ashanti, "Mesmerize" also with Ashanti, and "Wonderful" with R. Kelly and Ashanti. During the 2000s, Ja Rule was signed to The Inc. Records, which was formerly known as Murder Inc. and was led by Irv Gotti. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ja Rule, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Mickey Rourke

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Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles in films like Body Heat (1981) and Diner (1982), before portraying leading roles in films like The Motorcycle Boy in Rumble Fish (1983), Charlie Moran in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Captain Stanley White in Year of the Dragon and John Gray in 9½ Weeks (1986). He received critical praise for his work in the Charles Bukowski biopic Barfly and the horror mystery Angel Heart (both 1987). In 1991, following a string of critical and commercial failures, Rourke—who trained as a boxer in his early years—left acting and became a professional boxer for a time. After retiring from boxing in 1994, Rourke returned to acting and had supporting roles in several films such as The Rainmaker (1997), Buffalo '66 (1998), Animal Factory, Get Carter (both 2000), The Pledge (2001), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), Man on Fire (2004) and Domino (2005). In 2005, Rourke made a comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in the neo-noir action thriller Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards, and the Online Film Critics Society. This comeback culminated in his portraying aging wrestler Randy 'The Ram' Robinson in the sports drama film The Wrestler (2008). For the role, Rourke won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. After this, Rourke appeared in several commercially successful films; Iron Man 2, The Expendables (both 2010) and Immortals (2011), before primarily going on to work in independent and direct-to-video productions.
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