Trending

Popular people

Laurence Hanray

Biography

Laurence Hanray (16 May 1874 – 28 November 1947), sometimes credited as Lawrence Hanray, was a British film and theatre actor born in London, England. He is also credited as the author of several plays and music hall songs. Laurence Hanray was born Lawrence Henry Jacobs in St John's Wood on 16 May 1874, the son of Angelo Jacobs (c. 1851-1910), a glass manufacturer, and Leah (née Nathan; 1850/1851 - 1946). His father changed his name to Angelo Jacobs Hanray, and with it the family name, after becoming bankrupt in 1897, although Laurence had been using the name Hanray professionally from at least 1892, when he appeared as a member of the Hermann Vezin Theatre Company in supporting roles in Hamlet and Macbeth at Her Majesties Theatre, Dundee. Australian newspapers show he was in Australia and New Zealand from around 1901-04, appearing as Carraway Bones the undertaker in the farce Turned Up at the Theatre Royal, Perth, in May 1901, and subsequently at most of the main cities until June 1904. Travel records show him departing Sydney for Auckland in August 1901, and sailing from Sydney for London on 7 October 1904. He then resumed touring in Britain. In the 1911 census, Laurence Hanray (36), actor, is listed as residing at the Woolton Hall Hydropathic Hotel, Much Woolton, Lancashire, England. Hanray married Dorothy Mary Chambers Farnsworth (1884-1918) in the Birkenhead district during the first quarter of 1914. She petitioned for divorce in 1917, but then died suddenly in London on 16 August 1918. Hanray married Lois Grace Heatherley (1892-1966) in Paddington during the same quarter his first wife died. Lois was also an actress and performed with Laurence at the Booth Theatre, Broadway, in 1921. They were also together in The Faithful Heart, she as Ginger and Laurence as Major Lestrade, at the Comedy Theatre, Haymarket. Travel records then show the couple arriving in New York in September 1922. He appeared in John Galsworthy's play Loyalties at the Gaeity Theatre on Broadway. They arrived in Liverpool in May 1923. The couple also played together in Escape at the Booth Theatre, Broadway in 1927, she as Miss Grace and he in multiple roles (the Fellow Convict, the Old Gentleman and the Farmer). Laurence and Lois had a daughter, Ursula Susan Edith Hanray, on 16 November 1923. According to travel records, the family visited America from September 1927. Laurence also went on his own to Canada in September 1931, and also during 1939-1940. Ursula became a child actress, playing the title role in the first televised production of Alice Through The Looking Glass in 1937, and the young Queen Victoria in a London theatre in 1940. Hanray worked almost up to his death; The Times reported in early September 1947 that he was to appear in a play at Dunfermline Abbey Theatre. He died at age 73 on 28 November 1947, following an operation at the Middlesex Hospital, London. Lois Grace Hanray died aged 74 on 25 April 1966.
Read more

Nicole Gale Anderson

Biography

NICOLE GALE ANDERSON stars as Macy in the Jonas Brothers Disney Channel series, JONAS set to air in Spring 2009. Atlanta grad, Nicole, also starred in the ABC Family movie “Princess.” In real life, she’s a 17-year-old actress who’s been performing one way or another since she enrolled in gymnastics at age 3! Her 10-year tumbling career took her to three state championships and one national championship. At age 13, Nicole won a scholarship to the Barbizon Modeling School in Atlanta, which led to ads for Lands End, Mary-Kate and Ashley clothing, Bratz, Evergirl, and more. Then she started getting TV parts on shows such as “Hannah Montana,” “iCarly,” and “Unfabulous.” She lives in San Marcos, California, with her parents, siblings, and an American Eskimo puppy named Coco Chanel. Nicole just started college and plans to major in psychology. In her free time, she likes reading, writing poetry, Pilates workouts, and watching Audrey Hepburn movies
Read more

Zhang Zhehan

Biography

Zhang Zhe Han is a Chinese actor and singer working with Beijing Ranyi Music Culture Media. He graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy and made his acting debut in the 2010 romance series, Why Love You. His first major role was in the 2015 Chinese historical series, Legend of Ban Shu. He starred in notable Chinese dramas Legend of Yunxi, The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion, and Everyone Wants to Meet You. His role as “Zhou Zi Shu” in famous Wuxia drama Word of Honor gained him significant amount of international recognition. In 2020, he received the Weibo Award for Rising Artist of the Year. In 2021, he received the Weibo Movie Night Awards for the Category Most Watched/Followed Actor of the Year. His first directorial documentary, "August," premiered on YouTube on April 14, 2024. The film tells the story of his self-healing journey after experiencing a cyber media storm.
Read more

Shirley Jean Rickert

Biography

Shirley Jean Rickert (March 25, 1926 – February 6, 2009) was an American child actress who was briefly the "blonde girl" for the Our Gang series in 1931, during the Hal Roach talkie period. At 18 months of age, Rickert won a local baby beauty contest, which emboldened her mother to move the family to Hollywood. She made her screen debut at the age of four in the short How's My Baby (1930), soon followed by her Our Gang debut, Helping Grandma in 1931. Rickert's most notable appearances were in the films Love Business and Bargain Day. After Rickert left the Our Gang series, she had a brief movie career, including starring roles as Tomboy Teri Taylor alongside Mickey Rooney in eight Mickey McGuire comedies, followed by a string of jobs including driving trucks for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. She later worked in burlesque as an exotic dancer, billed as Gilda and Her Crowning Glory (after her long blonde hair), retiring from burlesque in 1959. Description above from the Wikipedia article Shirley Jean Rickert, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more

Charles Chauvel

Biography

Charles Edward Chauvel OBE (7 October 1897 – 11 November 1959) was an Australian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter and nephew of Australian army General Sir Harry Chauvel. He is noted for writing and directing the films Forty Thousand Horsemen in 1940 and Jedda in 1955. His wife, Elsa Chauvel, was a frequent collaborator on his filmmaking projects. Charles Edward Chauvel was born on 7 October 1897 in Warwick, Queensland, the son of James Allan Chauvel and his wife Susan Isabella (née Barnes), pioneer farmers in the Mutdapilly area.[1][2] He was the nephew of General Sir Harry Chauvel, Commander of the Australian Light Horse and later the Desert Mounted Corps in Palestine during World War I. His father, a grazier, at 53 also enlisted to serve in Palestine and Sinai in World War I. The Chauvels were descended from a French Huguenot family who fled France for England in 1685, and soon established a tradition of serving in the British army. The Australian Chauvels descended from a Charles Chauvel who retired from the Indian Army to New South Wales in 1839 and was a pioneer in the New England region. Chauvel was educated at the Normanby State School (now the Mutdapilly State School), The Southport School and Ipswich Grammar School in Queensland.[2][3] After leaving school, he worked on Queensland properties, and on his family property when his father was at war, before studying commercial art and taking drama classes in Sydney. He was fascinated by films and pestered a friend, showman Reginald "Snowy" Baker, to give him work as a production assistant; usually, he was the man in charge of the horses. Chauvel worked on The Shadow of Lightning Ridge (1920) and The Jackeroo of Coolabong (1920) with Baker; he also assisted on Robbery Under Arms (1920) He designed the St Aidan's Church of England in Mutdapilly in 1921 (the church closed in 1974 and is now used as a private residence).[2][4] Chauvel followed Baker to Hollywood in 1922, at his own expense, and spent some time as a jack of all trades including working as an extra, a lighting technician, a publicist, a stunt double and so on. The films he worked on included Strangers of the Night (1923). Chauvel turned to television, making the BBC series Walkabout which travelled to interesting locations in Australia. He died unexpectedly of coronary vascular disease on 11 November 1959, less than a month after Errol Flynn, whom he cast in In the Wake of the Bounty. According to Ken G. Hall, Chauvel had left a message asking to speak to Hall on the day he died, and left an estate worth £32,000.[13] In honour of the contribution made to filmmaking by Elsa and Charles Chauvel, the Chauvel Award was created in 1992 to celebrate those who have made an impact on the Australian film industry.[14] It is awarded annually at the Gold Coast Film Festival.[15] Chauvel Cinema, an art-house cinema in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, is named after him. Chauvel was posthumously inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2013.[16] In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Charles Chauvel was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as an "Influential Artists".[17]
Read more

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
Read more

Arunraja Kamaraj

Biography

Arunraja Kamaraj  is a singer, lyricist, actor and director. He is known for his works as lyricist in films such as Theri, Pencil, Kabali and Jigarthanda. He also debuted as an actor in Raja Rani and appeared as Nerrupu kumar in the film Maan Karate. He has written and sung the song Ding Dong for the movie Jigarthanda, which was critically acclaimed. He has also written and sung the song Neruppu da in Rajinikanth's film Kabali. His other notable works includes movies such as Demonte Colony,Trisha Ilana Nayanthara,Pizza and Darling as Lyricist and Singer.
Read more

Na Renhua

Biography

Na Renhua was born on November 17, 1962 in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia. At the age of 13, she played a role in the film "Battlefield Yellow Flower" when she was still in the first year of junior high school. In 1978, she was admitted to the city song and dance troupe as a dancer. In 1979, she starred as the heroine Shang Xiaoli in the movie "Breast Swallow Fei", and was later transferred to the Xi'an Film Studio actor troupe, starring successively in "Love and Legacy", "Traitor", "Son of the Earth" etc. In 1982, Na Renhua was admitted to the undergraduate class of the Acting Department of Beijing Film Academy, and later won the Golden Rooster Queen for her outstanding performance in the film "Xiao Xiao".
Read more

Pauline Lafont

Biography

Pauline Lafont (6 April 1963 – 11 August 1988) was a French actress. She was the daughter of film star Bernadette Lafont and Diourka Medveczky, a Hungarian sculptor. Born Pauline Aïda Simone Medveczky in Nîmes, France, she died in a hiking accident in Barre-des-Cévennes, Lozère, France. Three months and ten days after she had set out, her body was found by a passing farmer at the foot of a cliff, four kilometres from her home. Investigators determined she had fallen more than ten metres and died instantly. Prior to the discovery of her body, her disappearance had triggered several rumours regarding her whereabouts. Source: Article "Pauline Lafont" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Read more

Kari Väänänen

Biography

Kari Kyösti Väänänen (born 17 September 1953 in Ivalo) is a Finnish actor and director. Domestically he is a member of the Ryhmäteatteri group of actors. He was introduced to international audiences by Aki Kaurismäki; and belongs to the list of his "trusted" stable of actors. His most challenging role has been the eponymous mafia hitman of Rosso, for which he learned all his lines phonetically, without previously speaking a word of Italian. Kari Väänänen was featured in Star Wreck, a Finnish sci-fi parody where he played the Russian president. He also starred in Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film Night on Earth. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more