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Tom Connolly
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Thomas Anthony Connolly (December 31, 1870 - April 28, 1961) was an English-American umpire in Major League Baseball. He officiated in the National League from 1898 to 1900, followed by 31 years of service in the American League from 1901 to 1931. In over half a century as an AL umpire and supervisor, he established the high standards for which the circuit's arbiters became known, and solidified the reputation for integrity of umpires in the major leagues.
Connolly was born in Manchester, England, and played cricket as a boy. It was not until his family emigrated to the United States in 1885, settling in Natick, Massachusetts, that he saw the game of baseball played for the first time, but he was quickly fascinated and resolved himself to learning as much about the game as he could. He immersed himself in the rule book, and within a few years was umpiring for local games. While working in YMCA games, he was discovered by major league umpire Tim Hurst, who gained a position for him in the New England League, where he umpired from 1894 to 1897. In 1898 the NL brought him up to the majors, but he was offended by the league president's reluctance to back up umpires' decisions on the field, and resigned in the middle of the 1900 season, later signing with the fledgling AL in 1901. That league's president, Ban Johnson, was eager to create a reputation for the AL as a solid challenger to the NL, and he gave umpires a greater measure of support than they had previously received, demonstrating that attacks upon umpires would not be tolerated and that their judgment was final. Connolly had the privilege of umpiring, by himself, the first American League game ever played on April 24, 1901.
Although he had begun his career by showing that he was willing to remove players from the field – he ejected 10 in his first season – he came to earn great respect from the players, and once went 10 full years without needing to throw one out of a game. He also showed an ability to stand firm against the toughest players in defense of the rules; on September 11, 1912, he called Ty Cobb out for stepping across home plate while batting, after Cobb had hit an RBI triple on the third pitch of an intentional walk. During the ensuing argument, Connolly was struck in the mouth by a bottle thrown by a spectator. His reputation earned him prominent game assignments, including the first AL games ever played at Comiskey Park, Shibe Park, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium. Connolly was also the sole AL umpire chosen to work in the first World Series in 1903.
In 1931, new AL president Will Harridge was concerned about widespread complaints that the quality of umpiring in the league had deteriorated, and Connolly retired from active field work to become the league's first supervisor of umpires. Travelling throughout the league to work with other umpires and ensure that everyone's work was meeting the same high standards, he remained in that post until 1954, and came to be known as the nation's foremost expert on baseball rules.
In his career, Connolly worked in an AL-record 8 World Series: 1903, 1908 (even-numbered games), 1910, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1920 and 1924. He was also the home plate umpire for Addie Joss' perfect game on October 2, 1908, one of four no-hitters in which he called balls and strikes. On May 4, 1928, he was the first base umpire for a remarkable game between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics, in which 12 players who would eventually be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame appeared. Leo Durocher, who would be elected as a manager, also played; both managers, Miller Huggins and Connie Mack, were eventually elected, as were Connolly and fellow umpire Bill McGowan.
Connolly was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, one of the first two umpires (the NL's Bill Klem was the other) named to that honor. Connolly and Klem are the only two umpires in history to have worked in five decades; Connolly's record of 31 years umpiring American League games was broken by Larry Barnett in 1999.
He died at age 90 in Natick, Massachusetts.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Connolly, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Willy Merkl
Biography
Willy Merkl (6 October 1900 – 15/17 July 1934) was a German mountain climber who is most notable for his attempt to lead a German-American team up Nanga Parbat (the Naked Mountain) in the Himalayas in 1932.
His team were known to be very experienced in Alpine and European mountain expeditions. Merkl and Fritz Bechtold had also climbed in the Caucasus in 1929. However, they were unprepared for the trials of the Himalayas. Despite being forced to turn back in 1932, the team did make excellent progress and found a way through the Rakhiot Peak and the main ridge.
In 1934 he led another expedition up the same mountain that proved to be fatal. Although this expedition was better prepared and financed by Nazi Germany, due in large part to the Nazis' desire to symbolically 'conquer any peak', the weather proved too strong and overtook the climbers. On July 6, the team was at a good point to attempt the final stretch of the climb. Had the climbers set out right then, some could have likely been well on their way to the top. However, Merkl wanted the entire team to arrive at the same time, so they waited a day to rest the group, assuming all would be well. Instead, the next day saw the beginning of a snowstorm and blizzard that lasted for nine days. When it let up, Merkl, two other members of the team, and six Sherpas were dead. It is apparent that their deaths had been slow and extremely arduous, caused by an extended exposure to the cold and starvation.
The frozen bodies of Merkl and Sherpa Gaylay were found in 1938 after another German expedition stumbled upon the snow cave in which they had taken refuge.
Karl Herrligkoffer, Merkl's half-brother, initiated and then led the Willy-Merkl-Gedächtnisexpedition, the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition which was the first to reach the summit.
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Jamila Chihi
Biography
Jamila Chihi is a Tunisian actress, especially known for her role as Zeineb Labiedh in the humorous series Choufli Hal.
Jamila Chihi debuted at the cinema in two feature films: Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud's Les Siestes grenadine (1999) and Abdellatif Ben Ammar's Le Chant de la noria (2002).
In 2005, she obtains the role of Zeineb in the television series Choufli Hal, role that makes it popular with the Tunisian public. Subsequently, she obtains the role of Kenza's mother in the Casting series. In 2011, she took the role of Malek in the series Master Malek broadcast by Tunisian Television 1.
At the theater, she plays in 2010 in Noomen Hamda's "Life with Lost Body" and "Desire" by Chedly Arfaoui.
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Vera Gordon
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vera Pogorelsky Gordon (June 11, 1886 - May 8, 1948) was a stage and screen actress.
Vera Pogorelsky was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on June 11, 1886, the daughter of Boris Pogorelsky and Teigan Nemirovsky. She emigrated with her family to the United States when she was seven years old.
Pogorelsky was a child actor but she was fired by the directors of the Shevchenko Imperial Company when they learned she was of Jewish heritage. After immigrating in the United States, Pogorelsky, now Gordon, appeared in smaller theater like The Liberty and The Lyric in New York’s Lower East Side.
In 1916 Gordon went on a tour in England, appearing in vaudeville and theatre. Gordon starred in several motion pictures such as Humoresque and The Cohens and Kellys. She represented the archetypical Jewish mother.
She contributed to newspapers and magazines on marriage and children, and supported Jewish children orphanages. She was a member of Actors' Equity Association, Russian-American Art Club of Los Angeles, Grand Street Boys, New York.
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Deborah Nadoolman Landis
Biography
Deborah Nadoolman Landis (born May 26, 1952) is an American costume designer, author, and professor. She has worked on notable films such as Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Three Amigos, all of which credited her as Deborah Nadoolman. Landis served two terms as president of the Costume Designers Guild of which she has been a member for more than thirty years. She is married to director John Landis; their son is screenwriter Max Landis.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Deborah Nadoolman Landis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Dean Stockwell
Biography
Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021) was an American film, television and stage actor with a career spanning over 70 years. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he first came to the public's attention in films including Anchors Aweigh (1945), The Green Years (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), and Kim (1950). As a young adult, he had a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and 1959 screen adaptation of Compulsion; and in 1962 he played Edmund Tyrone in the film version of Long Day's Journey into Night, for which he won two Best Actor Awards at the Cannes Film Festival. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his starring role in the 1960 film version of D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.
He appeared in supporting roles in such films as Dune (1984), Paris, Texas (1984), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). He received further critical acclaim for his performance in Married to the Mob (1988), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently had roles in The Player (1992), Air Force One (1997), The Rainmaker (1997) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).
His television roles include Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in Quantum Leap (1989–1993), Navy Secretary Edward Sheffield on JAG (2002–2004), and Brother Cavil on Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009). Following his roles on Quantum Leap and Battlestar Galactica, he appeared at numerous science fiction conventions. He retired from acting in 2015 following health issues and focused his later life on sculpture and other visual art.
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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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Devrim Özkan
Biography
Devrim Özkan (2 September 1998 Muğla, Türkiye) While studying at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University's School of Fine Arts, she dropped out at the end of her freshman year and moved to Istanbul, where she began her acting career with her first role in the TV series Rüya.
She joined the cast of historical series such as Vatanım Sensin and Mevlânâ Celâleddîn-i Rûmî. She later appeared in the TV series Ramo. She played her first leading role in the TV series Vuslat for two seasons. She later gained widespread recognition by portraying the character of Songül Acarerk in the TV series Gelsin Hayat Bildiği Gibi. Later on, she portrayed the character of Fidan Hersekli in the TV series Ne Gemiler Yaktım.
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Nia Roberts
Biography
Roberts' big break came in 1998, when she appeared in Solomon a Gaenor opposite Ioan Gruffudd. With dialogue in Welsh and Yiddish, the movie won Best Film at the 2000 Verona Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Academy Awards.
Her subsequent Welsh-language credits include Fondue, Rhyw a Deinosors!, Newes of the Weeke, Y Palmant Aur, Glan Hafren, the long-running soap opera Pobol y Cwm, and S4C's gangster drama Y Pris. Roberts' English-language television credits include the comedy series Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, the drama Border Café, and several single-episode appearances in prime-time British shows such as The Bill and Casualty.
Roberts has starred in two films directed by her husband, Marc Evans: Snow Cake (2006), a drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident; and Patagonia (2009), a drama set in Y Wladfa, Argentina. In 2009, Roberts also starred as registrar Mary Finch in Crash!, a hospital drama commissioned by BBC Wales and produced by Tony Jordan.
In 2010, Roberts guest-starred in the two-part Doctor Who Series 5 episode The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. More big-screen productions followed: She appeared in Hattie Dalton's Third Star (2010) and in Vertigo Films' The Facility (2012), an atmospheric, micro-budget horror film about volunteers fighting for their lives after a drug trial goes wrong.
In 2014, Roberts appeared in the fourth episode of Y Gwyll (Hinterland), a highly acclaimed noir detective series shot in both Welsh and English.
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Aisha-May Hunte
Biography
Aisha-May Hunte is a non-binary, queer, mixed-race performer based between London and Swansea.
Their recent screen credits include roles in BBC’s Death Valley, S4C’s Anfamol and ITOPIA, BBC’s Casualty, and SKY/National Theatre Wales’ GALWAD. On stage, they have played leading roles in Olion (Seren), Gypsy (Gypsy Rose Lee), Pippin (Theo), and Swyn (Welsh Narrator) at Frân Wen, Theatr Genedlaethol and Mountview. Fluent in both English and Welsh, Aisha-May is highly skilled in musical theatre, physical theatre, voice acting, and presenting. They have developed a strong command of diverse accents — from Caribbean to American Southern — and thrive in projects requiring dynamic characters, multilingual storytelling, or powerful musical performances.
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