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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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Seidi Haarla

Biography

Seidi Helena Alexandra Haarla (born January 1, 1984) is a Finnish actress. She played the female lead in Juho Kuosmanen's film Compartment No. 6 (2021). She won the European Film Promotion (EFP) Shooting Stars Award for her role as one of the most promising film actors of the year. Haarla was born in 1984 in Kirkkonummi in southern Finland. She comes from a family of actors and artists. Her father is artist Teuri Haarla (* 1955). Her younger sister Ruusu Haarla (* 1989) is a playwright and director. Her grandparents were actor Saulo Haarla (1930–1971) and soprano and actress Helena Salonius (1930–2012); her great-grandparents include stage actress Tyyne Haarla (1892–1968) and writer Lauri Haarla (1890–1944). In 2004, Haarla appeared in a student theater group in Helsinki. In 2005, she studied acting at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in Saint Petersburg. She graduated from University of the Arts Helsinki in 2015 with a Master of Arts in Theater and Drama. Together with her sister Ruusu, Haarla wrote the plays The Trauma Body (2014) and New Childhood (2020), which were inspired by her own childhood experiences, and she also appeared on stage in their productions. Haarla has appeared in Finnish film and television productions since 2015. In 2021, she took on the female leading role of Laura in Juho Kuosmanen's film drama Compartment No. 6, which is based on Rosa Liksom's novel of the same name. Her performance earned her critical acclaim and an award as one of the European Shooting Stars 2021. Haarla was nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards 2021.
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Raghini

Biography

Ragini (1937–1976) was a South Indian danseuse and actress. She was the youngest of the famed Travancore Sisters; Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini. She started her acting career in the mid-1950s along with her sister Padmini and has acted in movies of different Indian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. The era of dance in Hindi cinema is considered to have begun with the entrance of Ragini and other South Indian actresses. Ragini died of breast cancer in 1976. She had acted in many dramas also. She was married to Madhavan Thampi. The couple had two daughters, Lakshmi and Priya. Actress Sukumari was the trio's maternal first cousin. Malayalam actors Shobana, Ambika Sukumaran, Vineeth and Krishna are her relatives. Her husband left her for the USA in 1972, but returned after his wife became ill from cancer.
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Eiichiro Oda

Biography

Eiichiro Oda (Japanese: 尾田 栄一郎, Hepburn: Oda Eiichirō, born January 1, 1975) is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series One Piece. With more than 523.2 million tankōbon copies in circulation worldwide, One Piece is both the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume, in turn making Oda one of the best-selling fiction authors. The series' popularity resulted in Oda being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga. Since November 7, 2004, Eiichiro Oda has been married to Chiaki Inaba (稲葉ちあき, Inaba Chiaki), a former model and actress whom he met in late 2003 during Jump Festa festival 2004. Oda and Inaba have had two daughters; the eldest was born in mid-2006 and the youngest in 2009. Description above from the Wikipedia article Eiichiro Oda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Memphis Slim

Biography

John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other artists. He made over 500 recordings. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989. Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman, in Memphis, Tennessee. For his first recordings, for Okeh Records in 1940, he used the name of his father, Peter Chatman (who sang, played piano and guitar, and operated juke joints); it is commonly believed that he did so to honor his father. He started performing under the name "Memphis Slim" later that year but continued to publish songs under the name Peter Chatman. He spent most of the 1930s performing in honky-tonks, dance halls, and gambling joints in West Memphis, Arkansas, and southeast Missouri. He settled in Chicago in 1939 and began teaming with the guitarist and singer Big Bill Broonzy in clubs soon afterwards. In 1940 and 1941, he recorded two songs for Bluebird Records that became part of his repertoire for decades, "Beer Drinking Woman" and "Grinder Man Blues". These were released under the name "Memphis Slim," given to him by Bluebird's producer, Lester Melrose. Slim became a regular session musician for Bluebird, and his piano talents supported established stars such as John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Washboard Sam, and Jazz Gillum. Many of Slim's recordings and performances until the mid-1940s were with Broonzy, who had recruited Slim to be his piano player after the death of his accompanist Joshua Altheimer in 1940. After World War II, Slim began leading bands that generally included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues. With the decline of blues recording by the major labels, Slim worked with emerging independent labels. Starting in late 1945, he recorded with trios for the small Chicago-based Hy-Tone Records.[8] With a lineup of alto saxophone, tenor sax, piano, and string bass (Willie Dixon played the instrument on the first session), he signed with the Miracle label in the fall of 1946. One of the songs recorded at the first session was the ebullient boogie "Rockin' the House," from which his band would take its name. Slim and the House Rockers recorded mainly for Miracle through 1949, with some commercial success.[1] Among the songs they recorded were "Messin' Around" (which reached number one on the R&B charts in 1948) and "Harlem Bound".[9] In 1947, the day after producing a concert by Slim, Broonzy, and Williamson at New York City's Town Hall, the folklorist Alan Lomax brought the three musicians to the Decca Records studios and recorded with Slim on vocal and piano. Lomax presented sections of this recording on BBC Radio in the early 1950s as a documentary, The Art of the Negro, and later released an expanded version as the LP Blues in the Mississippi Night. ... Source: Article "Memphis Slim" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Willi One Blood

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Willi One Blood (born William Harbour, Jr.) is a reggae singer and actor, formerly New York-based and now in Miami. He is best known for the song "Whiney Whiney (What Really Drives Me Crazy)", from the soundtrack album of 1994 film Dumb and Dumber, which peaked at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. Blood's acting credits include the films Léon: The Professional (1994) and Joe's Apartment (1996). His character in Léon is called "Blood" by Gary Oldman's Stansfield character, and "Willi Blood" by another antagonist, Malky; he is credited as "Stansfield's 1st man". Blood guest-starred in the New York Undercover episode "Catman Comes Back" (1995), and appeared as himself in the independent film Blazin' (2001). Blood inspired the appearance and personality of Gary Oldman's antagonist Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993).
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Garrett Hedlund

Biography

Born in Roseau, Minnesota, Garrett spent his early years growing up on a farm in a small town. When he was in the ninth grade his family moved to Scottsdale Arizona, where he began taking private acting lessons. After graduating high school, he immediately moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. One month later, he'd landed the role of Achilles' cousin Patroclus in the major motion picture Troy (2004) opposite Brad Pitt. His next feature was Friday night lights (2004) starring Billy Bob Thornton, in which Garrett played a high school football player. He then landed a starring role opposite Mark Wahlberg in Four Brothers (2005), playing one of four brothers whose mother is murdered.
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Darshana Rajendran

Biography

Darshana Rajendran is an Indian actress who works predominantly in the Malayalam and Tamil film industries. Known for her natural charm and nuanced portrayals, she has carved a niche for herself within a short span of time. Darshana hails from a non-filmy background. She made her film debut in the 2014 Malayalam film "John Paul Vaathil Thurakkunnu." Darshana has established herself as a versatile actress by collaborating with renowned directors in diverse projects. She re-teamed with Aashiq Abu for the medical thriller "Virus" (2019), delivered poignant performances in Jis Joy's "Vijay Superum Pournamiyum" (2019) and Anjali Menon's "Koode" (2018), and showcased her acting skills in Vineeth Sreenivasan's "Hridayam" (2022). Her recent portrayal in Rajeev Ravi's historical drama "Thuramukham" further solidified her position as a serious actress capable of tackling challenging roles. Darshana has also made her mark in Tamil cinema, starting with character roles in films like "Kavan" (2017) and "Irumbu Thirai" (2018). These roles allowed her to experiment with different languages and characters. In 2022, Darshana took on the lead role in the Malayalam film "Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey," showcasing her range and ambition. This film further established her presence in the film industry.
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Mariam Al Ferjani

Biography

Mariam Al Ferjani was studying medicine in her native Tunisia when she met Leyla Bouzid and exchanged her medical studies for directing and acting courses at the Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti in Milan, where her father was based at the time. Outside of term-time, Al Ferjani headed home to Tunisia to direct and star in experimental shorts THE CLAIM and WINTRY. Alongside her cinema studies, she is also building a following for her photographic self-portraits. Since graduating in 2015, Mariam has been living and working between Tunis and Milan. She plays the lead role in Kaouther Ben Hania’s BEAUTY AND THE DOGS (2017). In Milan, she is currently writing her first fiction feature, ALYAH.
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Takuya Kimura

Biography

Takuya Kimura (Japanese: 木村 拓哉, Hepburn: Kimura Takuya, born November 13, 1972) is a Japanese actor, singer, and radio personality. He is regarded as a Japanese icon after achieving success as an actor. He was also a popular member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. A 1996 television drama series, Long Vacation, in which he landed his first lead role, became a massive success, creating a phrase called the "Lon-bake phenomenon". He was given the title, "The King of Ratings", as his subsequent television series continued to generate high ratings and each show became a social phenomenon as it aired. Five of his works are ranked in the 10 best-viewed TV drama series in Japan, the highest of which is his 2001 drama series, Hero. He also starred in blockbuster films, including Love and Honor (2006), Hero (2007) and Howl's Moving Castle (as a voice actor, 2004). Kimura is also known for his work in the video games Judgment and Lost Judgment, portraying Takayuki Yagami.
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