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Johnny Sheffield
Biography
Johnny Sheffield (born John Matthew Sheffield Cassan) was an American child, teen, and young-adult actor, his screen career lasting from 1938 to 1955.
In 1938, Sheffield became a child star after he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play On Borrowed Time, which starred Dudley Digges and featured Victor Moore as Gramps. Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway. The following year, his father read an article in The Hollywood Reporter that asked, "Have you a Tarzan Jr. in your backyard?" He believed he did and set up an interview. MGM was searching for a suitable youngster to play the adopted son of Tarzan in its next jungle movie with stars Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan. When he was 5 years old, Sheffield was taken to an audition where Weissmuller chose him over more than 300 juvenile actors interviewed for the part of "Boy" in Tarzan Finds a Son. In that same year, Sheffield appeared in the Busby Berkeley movie musical Babes in Arms with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, classmates of his at the studio school.
He appeared with many other performers over the years, including Jeanette MacDonald, Pat O'Brien, Cesar Romero, Ronald Reagan and Beverly Garland. He played the childhood version of the title character in Knute Rockne, All American, perhaps the most prestigious film in which he had a role.
Sheffield played Boy in three Tarzan movies at MGM, and in another five after the star, Weissmuller, and production of the movie series moved to RKO. Brenda Joyce played Jane in the last three Tarzan movies in which Sheffield appeared.
After he outgrew the role of Boy, the teenaged Sheffield went on to star in his own jungle movie series for Allied Artists. In 1949, he made Bomba, the Jungle Boy with co-star Peggy Ann Garner. In all, he appeared as Bomba 12 times, more than any other character he portrayed. Sheffield appeared in his last movie, as Bomba, in 1955.
He then made a pilot for a television series, Bantu the Zebra Boy, which was created, produced and directed by his father, Reginald Sheffield. Although the production values were high compared to other TV jungle shows of the day, a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.
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Buck Taylor
Biography
Walter Clarence "Buck" Taylor, III (born May 13, 1938) is an American actor and water color artist best known for his role as gunsmith-turned-deputy Newly O'Brien in 113 episodes during the last eight seasons of CBS's Gunsmoke television series (1967–1975). In recent years, he has painted the portrait of his friend and Gunsmoke costar James Arness. Taylor's painting specialty is the American West, and each year, he creates the posters for several Texas rodeos. Taylor lives with his second wife on a ranch near Fort Worth, Texas.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Buck Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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West Buchanan
Biography
Born in October 1934, Buchanan made his first listed appearance late, at the age of 31 in the 1975 film C.I.A. Secret Story, directed by the arch provocateur Giuseppe Ferrara. Before this, however, he had already been active in Italian cinema for almost half a decade – much like many anonymous American adventurers – as a stuntman and extra, sometimes using the name Buck West. His part in C.I.A. Secret Story was largely insignificant, and although he played a named character in Edward Dmytryk’s big-budget spy film The Human Factor he was just one of a number of jobbing Americans buried deep in the credits (including a very young Danny Huston, who was only thirteen at the time). More fleeting appearances followed – in Pupi Avati’s Bordella, Dino Risi’s Telefoni bianchi – before he secured his first major role in Mino Guerrini’s comedy Vinella e Don Pezzotta, based on a successful radio play and starring Giorgio Bracardi. A religious parody, the third billed Buchanan played Padre Splendid, a modernizing priest sent to Italy from the States.
Next came his best known roles, internationally at least: three appearances in the series of cheapskate Star Wars rip offs directed by Alfonso Brescia. In War of the Planets he was again third billed, playing space captain John Richardson’s engineer and right hand man as he battles a giant, malevolent robot. It’s not a good film by any means, but with his stocky build and shocking blonde hair Buchanan made an impression. He was back for Battle of the Stars, although this time round only in a cameo role as a pilot and friend of space captain John Richardson, again battling a (different) giant, malevolent robot. Finally came another guest spot in War of the Robots, this time as an associate of space captain Antonio Sabato as he battles several malevolent if not particularly giant robots.
Around this time there were other films as well. He popped up in Lina Wertmuller’s A Night Full of Rain (78), Pier Carpi’s gothic horror film Ring of Darkness, in which he played the husband of the protagonist Anne Heywood, Nino Manfredi’s Nudo di donna and the Giorgio Bontempi’s ambitious espionage thriller Spy Connection (83), which was made for TV but also released on video in a shorter theatrical version.
In the early eighties he moved back to America, where he starred in David Hess’s slasher movie To All a Goodnight (80) and well down the credits in Walter Hill’s epic western The Long Riders. A handful of small roles followed in low budget films before he made his bow in Rex Pickett’s obscure 1988 production From Hollywood to Deadwood.
Buchanan died aged 61 in 1995.
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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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Dieter Bohlen
Biography
Dieter Bohlen (born Dieter Günter Bohlen, 7 February 1954) is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of the pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous German and international artists. He is also a judge on casting shows Deutschland sucht den Superstar and Das Supertalent.
Bohlen is the eldest son of building contractor Hans Bohlen (born 1928) and his wife Edith (born 1936), and grew up in East Frisia. His maternal grandmother is originally from Königsberg. He was named Dieter Günter Bohlen but later expressed dissatisfaction with his second given name and had it officially struck. He has a younger brother named Uwe. The family later moved to Eversten (Oldenburg). In his youth, Bohlen was a member of the Socialist German Workers Youth for a while and shortly of the German Communist Party, though he is not a member of any party nowadays. After getting his Abitur at the Wirtschaftsgymnasium der Berufsbildenden Schulen in Oldenburg-Haarentor, he moved to Göttingen. There, he studied business administration at his parents' request at the Georg-August-Universität, finishing his studies in 1978 with a degree.
Bohlen was still in school when he started writing music. In the late 1970s, he worked as a songwriter at the Hamburg-based label Intersong for numerous Schlager singers. In 1978, he founded the short-lived duo Monza with Holger Garbode. Their first single, "Hallo Taxi Nummer 10", written and produced by Tony Hendrik, was Bohlen's first record and was unsuccessful. Monza released a second single, "Heiße Nacht in der City", a German-language cover of Nick Gilder's "Hot Child in the City", which also was unsuccessful. In 1980, he began working for the Berlin-based label Hansa. That same year, under the pseudonym Steve Benson, he released a solo single in English, "Don't Throw My Love Away". It was followed in 1981 by two other singles under that name, "Love Takes Time" and "(You're A Devil With) Angel Blue Eyes". None of them reached the top 100, which led to the abandonment of the project in 1981. Soon after, he joined the band Sunday, with which he appeared on the ZDF-Hitparade in early 1982 with the song "Halé, hey Louise". The song was covered by artists such as Ricky King. In 1983, Bohlen wrote the song "Mit 17" for Bernd Clüver, which reached the third place of the German pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.
After Bohlen produced six unsuccessful singles in German for Schlager singer Thomas Anders from 1982 to 1984, they founded the pop duo Modern Talking. The band topped the German singles chart five times in a row with "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want", "Cheri, Cheri Lady", "Brother Louie", and "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. For Love)", and were also successful in other European countries as well as in Asia and Africa. In 1987, the band split up and Bohlen founded his solo project Blue System, which he ended ten years later. He also continued writing and producing for other artists, including C. C. Catch (whom he discovered), Sheree (whom he signed when she was fifteen years old), and boy band Touché. ...
Source: Article "Dieter Bohlen" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Benjamin Ferencz
Biography
Benjamin Berell Ferencz (March 11, 1920 – April 7, 2023) was an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the chief prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the 12 Subsequent Nuremberg Trials held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, Germany. Later, he became an advocate of international rule of law and for the establishment of an International Criminal Court. From 1985 to 1996, he was an adjunct professor of international law at Pace University.
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Timothée Chalamet
Biography
Timothée Hal Chalamet (born December 27, 1995) is an American actor.
He began his career appearing in the drama series Homeland in 2012. Two years later, he made his film debut in the comedy-drama Men, Women & Children and appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar. He came into attention in Luca Guadagnino's coming-of-age film Call Me by Your Name (2017). Alongside supporting roles in Greta Gerwig's films Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019), he took on starring roles in Beautiful Boy (2018) and Dune (2021).
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Toto Cutugno
Biography
Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno (born 7 July 1943) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his worldwide hit song, "L'Italiano", released on his 1983 album of the same title. Cutugno also won the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 held in Zagreb, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia, with the song "Insieme: 1992", for which he wrote both lyrics and music.
Toto Cutugno was born in Fosdinovo, Lunigiana, (Tuscany), to a Sicilian father from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and a homemaker mother. Shortly after his birth the family moved to La Spezia (Liguria).
He began his musical career as a drummer, and later formed an Italo disco band together with Lino Losito and Mario Limongelli called Albatros. He also started a career as songwriter, contributing some of French-American singer Joe Dassin most well-known songs such as L'été indien, Et si tu n'existais pas and Le Jardin du Luxembourg (written with Vito Pallavicini). He also co-wrote Dalida's Monday Tuesday... Laissez moi danser ("Voglio l'anima"), which enjoyed Platinum record status shortly after its release.
In 1976, Albatros participated for the first time in the Sanremo Music Festival finishing in third place with the song Volo 504. Following another chart success with the song Santamaria De Portugal Albatros effectively disbanded, and Cutugno concentrated on his solo career.
In 1980 Cutugno returned to the Sanremo Music Festival and won with the song Solo noi. However, Cutugno's affiliation with the festival is mostly remembered for L'italiano ("The Italian"), a song he presented in 1983. Originally intended for Adriano Celentano, who declined to sing it, L'italiano's recapitulation of some of Italy's most popular social traits, made the song very popular with Italian expats. Although the song finished only fifth in Sanremo, it went on to become Cutugno's biggest international hit.
Cutugno would finish second in six more editions of Sanremo festival: in 1984 with the song Serenata ("Serenade"); in 1987 with Figli ("Sons" or "Children"); in 1988 with Emozioni ("Emotions"); in 1989 with the song Le mamme ("Mothers"); in 1990 with the song Gli amori ("Loves", but entitled "Good Love Gone Bad" in Ray Charles's version); and in 2005 with Annalisa Minetti with the song Come noi nessuno al mondo ("No One Else in the World Like Us"). Toto Cutugno participated to the festival a total of 13 times.
In 1990 Cutugno won the Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb with his own composition, "Insieme: 1992" ("Together: 1992"), a ballad which celebrated European political integration and the establishment of the European Union. Along with Gigliola Cinquetti, Italy's second Eurovision winner, he presented the 1991 contest, which was staged in Rome as a result of his victory. Aged 46 years, 302 days, Cutugno became the oldest winner of the contest to date, surpassing the record set by André Claveau in 1958. Cutugno's record stood until 2000. He was also the last winner for Italy until Måneskin in 2021. ...
Source: Article "Toto Cutugno" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Paul DeCeglie
Biography
Paul DeCeglie was born to a middle class family in Brooklyn, N.Y. He aspired to become an FBI agent even while studying TV and Journalism at Brooklyn College, CUNY, where he was managing editor of ken, a college newspaper. But his life took a surprising turn when his resonant voice attracted the attention of a radio executive who immediately hired DeCeglie as a newscaster on American Radio News. He went on to cover the first two manned space shots from Cape Canaveral, the JFK inauguration, the UN Congo Crisis, and other events.
After honing his news-writing skills, DeCeglie transitioned into newspaper reporting for the daily Journal of Commerce and later for the American Banker. Following a year as Editor of the National League Journal in Washington, D.C., he was recruited to edit the California Savings and Loan Journal in Los Angeles. His vast Hollywood connections led to his being cast as an extra and actor in TV and movie roles, ultimately leading to his being elected President of the 6,700-member Screen Extras Guild (SEG). His term was highlighted by his efforts to merge the Extra’s union into the Screen Actors Guild.
After serving four years as SEG President, DeCeglie returned to writing--freelancing for The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Business Start-Ups, and California Business, as well as writing for a number of public relations firms across the U.S. In 2001, he began a brief retirement in Thailand, but soon was drafted once again into the world of publishing (Pattaya Today and Pattaya Trader) and continued writing for the next 20 years.
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Stephanie McMahon
Biography
Stephanie McMahon Levesque is an American businesswoman and retired professional wrestler. She is the chief brand officer (CBO)of WWE and appears as an authority figure on the Raw, NXT and SmackDown brands. On May 19, 2022, She announced that she was taking "a leave of absence" from WWE.
She is a fourth-generation wrestling promoter as a member of the McMahon family, she has worked for WWE since she was a young girl (modeling T-shirts and other merchandise for various WWE catalogs) working her way up to receptionist, then in various front office jobs up to and including her current CBO position. She is the great-granddaughter of Roderick "Jess" McMahon, granddaughter of Vincent J. McMahon, daughter of WWE Chairman and CEO Vincent K. McMahon and retired WWE CEO and former Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon, the younger sister of WWE part-owner/wrestler Shane McMahon, and wife of WWE executive/wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque.
McMahon began appearing regularly on-air for WWE (then WWF as the World Wrestling Federation) in 1999 as a part of a storyline with The Undertaker. After a brief on-screen relationship with Test, she was engaged to Triple H — whom she married both on-screen and later in real life — which resulted in The McMahon-Helmsley Faction storyline. She has held the WWF Women's Championship once. In 2001, she was the on-screen owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling during The Invasion. The following year, she was the SmackDown General Manager, but stopped appearing regularly on television after an "I Quit" match with her father Vince McMahon.
After making only sporadic appearances for several years, McMahon began appearing regularly on Raw in 2008 as the Raw brand general manager before disappearing once again. By mid-2013, McMahon returned to regular on-air appearances in the WWE, this time under the gimmick of an unctuous, judgmental, bullying owner along with on-screen chief operating officer, her husband, Triple H. From 2013 to 2016, they acted as a power couple known as The Authority, making what were often shady decrees while claiming only to be concerned for "what's best for business," all the while romanticizing each other in the process with public displays of affection. The Authority later expanded into a stable, co-led by Triple H and herself.
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