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Richard Maurice
Biography
Richard D. Maurice was a pioneering filmmaker from the early 20th century. In 1920, he formed the Maurice Film Company in Detroit, which was one of the first production companies that made films targeted specifically to an African American audience. These films which depicted African Americans in heroic and leading roles were in sharp contrast to most productions of the time which often relegated them to stereotypical and demeaning roles, if they appeared at all. After the film company ceased operations in the 1930s, Maurice worked for the railroad industry where he got involved in labor organizing.
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Sean Connery
Biography
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who 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 31 October 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Connery, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Hélène Perdrière
Biography
Hélène Perdrière (born 17 April 1912 in Asnieres-sur-Seine, died 27 August 1992 in Boulogne-Billancourt) was a French stage and film actress. After earning a first prize for comedy at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in 1928, she became the first resident of Comédie-French. She resigned to become the partner of Pierre Fresnay in the boulevard theaters of the time, before returning to the Comédie-French circuit in April 1952, and remaining until its end in December 1973. She then went on to play with the Renaud-Barrault Company until her retirement a year later. At the Comédie-French, she staged several plays of Marivaux. She was also an election interpreter.
Source: Article "Hélène Perdrière" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Isaac Bashevis Singer
Biography
Isaac Bashevis Singer (Yiddish: יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born Jewish-American novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated his own works into English with the help of editors and collaborators. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. A leading figure in the Yiddish literary movement, he was awarded two U.S. National Book Awards, one in Children's Literature for his memoir A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw (1970) and one in Fiction for his collection A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories (1974).
Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in 1903 to a Jewish family in Leoncin village near Warsaw, Poland. The Polish form of his birth name was Icek Hersz Zynger. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but most sources say it was probably November 11, a date similar to the one that Singer gave to his official biographer Paul Kresh, his secretary Dvorah Telushkin, and Rabbi William Berkowitz. The year 1903 is consistent with the historical events that his brother refers to in their childhood memoirs, including the death of Theodor Herzl. The often-quoted birth date, July 14, 1904 was made up by the author in his youth, possibly to make himself younger to avoid the draft.
His father was a Hasidic rabbi and his mother, Bathsheba, was the daughter of the rabbi of Biłgoraj. Singer later used her first name in an initial literary pseudonym, Izaak Baszewis, which he later expanded. Both his older siblings, sister Esther Kreitman (1891–1954) and brother Israel Joshua Singer (1893–1944), became writers as well. Esther was the first of the family to write stories.
The family moved to the court of the Rabbi of Radzymin in 1907, where his father became head of the Yeshiva. After the Yeshiva building burned down in 1908, the family moved to Warsaw, a flat at Krochmalna Street 10. In the spring of 1914, the Singers moved to No. 12.
The street where Singer grew up was located in the impoverished, Yiddish-speaking Jewish quarter of Warsaw. There his father served as a rabbi, and was called on to be a judge, arbitrator, religious authority and spiritual leader in the Jewish community. The unique atmosphere of pre-war Krochmalna Street can be found both in the collection of Varshavsky-stories, which tell stories from Singer's childhood, as well as in those novels and stories which take place in pre-war Warsaw. ...
Source: Article "Isaac Bashevis Singer" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Ana Claudia Talancón
Biography
Born on May 1st, 1980 in Cancun, Mexico. Her first performance was in her home town Quintana Roo in Cancun. She studied acting in Cancun with the Cuban professor Albio Paz. She later went to Mexico City to continue her studies at the Acting Workshop of Héctor Mendoza and Raúl Quintanilla. She has starred in various soap operas such as 'Al norte del corazón', 'Señora','Romántica obsesión' (for which she won the Sol de Oro award in 1999 for Best New Actress) and 'Amor latino'. Her big screen debut was with the movie 'El Cometa by Marisa Sistach, playing the character Valentina, for which she was nominated for the Ariel award for Best New Actress. Now we see her alongside 'Gael García Bernard' in 'El Crimen del Padre Amaro' in the role of Amelia. That movie has brought her world-wide celebrity.
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Yorgos Lanthimos
Biography
Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Pangrati, Athens. He was raised mainly by his mother. His father, Antonis Lanthimos, was a professional basketball player who played for Pagrati B.C. and the Greece national basketball team, and was also a basketball instructor at the Moraitis School. Having graduated from the Moraitis School, Lanthimos went on to study Business Administration and played for a period in Pagrati B.C. He eventually dropped out and went on to study Directing for Film and Television at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos (HCTSS) in Athens. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theater plays. "Kinetta", his first feature film, played at Toronto and Berlin film festivals to critical acclaim. His second feature "Dogtooth", won the "Un Certain Regard prize" at the 2009 Cannes film festival, followed by numerous awards at festivals worldwide. It was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award (Oscar) in 2011. "Alps" won the "Osella for best screenplay" at the 2011 Venice film festival and Best Film at the Sydney film festival in 2012. His first English language film The Lobster was presented in Competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Moreover, "The Lobster" was nominated for the (Oscar about the) Best Original Screenplay by the Academy and won Best Screenplay and Best Costume Design at the European Film Awards of 2015. His fifth project "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was also presented in Competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for the best Screenplay. His sixth feature "The Favourite" premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Colman. His seventh feature "Poor Things" is a science-fiction romantic comedy based on the same-name 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray. It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2023, where it won the Golden Lion.
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Holden Pollak
Biography
Holden Pollak is a twenty-year-old screenwriter, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and actor who has been making films since the age of ten. Although having a background in comedy, Holden has a diverse filmmaking style that allows him to fully explore all genres. While growing up he studied the work of comics Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Mel Brooks, and Chris Farley. Pollak is known for his bizarre and outrageous coming-of-age comedies "Radical Moonlight" and "Watch Your Brother!" His father Brad Pollak has been working closely with Holden on all of his projects, since he bought him his first camera. Although Holden is young, he continues to propel new stories forward every year.
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Seth Rogen
Biography
Seth Aaron Rogen (born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, producer and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks, and then got a part on the sitcom Undeclared, which also hired him as a writer. After landing his job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, Apatow guided Rogen toward a film career. As a staff writer, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
His first movie appearance was a minor role in Donnie Darko (2001). Rogen was cast in a supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Universal Pictures subsequently cast him as the lead in Apatow's films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen co-starred as Steve Wozniak in Universal's Steve Jobs biopic in 2015. In 2016, he developed the AMC television series Preacher with his writing partner Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin. He also serves as a writer, executive producer, and director, with Goldberg.
Rogen and Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet, This Is the End, and directed both This Is the End and The Interview, all of which Rogen starred in. He has also done voice work for the films Shrek the Third, Horton Hears a Who!, the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Monsters vs. Aliens, Paul, Sausage Party, the 2019 version of The Lion King, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
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David Greene
Biography
L. David Syms-Greene (February 22, 1921 – April 7, 2003), born Lucius David Syms Brian Lederman, was a British television director from Manchester, England, who emigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1953, where he trained in television production with the CBC, and then moved on to Hollywood, California.
Greene's career began as a stage actor and director in England in 1948. In 1950 he appeared in the film, The Wooden Horse. In Hollywood, Greene became best known for his television series and television film productions.
He died aged 82 on April 7, 2003 of pancreatic cancer, in Ojai, California.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Mike Doyle
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mike Doyle is an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known for his recurring roles in the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing Forensics Tech Ryan O'Halloran, and Oz, playing Adam Guenzel.
It was on the set of Oz that Doyle met George Morfogen, whom he would cast in Shiner, a short film written, produced and directed by Doyle that debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. Doyle also wrote and produced the 2003 limited-release film Cutter.
Doyle played Lt. Cmdr. Tom Palatonio in the 2005 action film Phantom Below, which is notable for having been released in multiple versions under multiple names which included or excluded gay content depending on the edit (the gay-themed edit was released under the title Tides of War). Also in 2005, he plays a gay coffee barista named Andy in 29th and Gay.
On June 2, 2009, The New York Times published an article about Doyle and his tendency to die on screen during his acting roles. His seventh death, in the season 10 finale of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, ended a successful six year run as forensic tech Ryan O’Halloran on the show.
He recently guest starred in the Criminal Minds episode, "A Rite of Passage", as well as the In Plain Sight episode, "Coma Chameleon". He also appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart in Rabbit Hole.
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