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César Baldaccini
Biography
César (born Cesare Baldaccini; 1 January 1921 – 6 December 1998), also occasionally referred to as César Baldaccini, was a noted French sculptor.
César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement with his radical compressions (compacted automobiles, discarded metal, or rubbish), expansions (polyurethane foam sculptures), and fantastic representations of animals and insects.
He was a French sculptor, born in 1921 to Italian parents from Tuscany in the working-class neighbourhood of la Belle-de-Mai in Marseilles. His father was a cooper and bar owner. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles (1935-9) he went on to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1943-8). He began making sculptures by welding together pieces of scrap metal in 1952 and first made his reputation with solid welded sculptures of insects, various kinds of animals and nudes.
His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Lucien Durand, Paris, 1954.
His early work used soldered and welded metal as well as junk materials, and by 1960 César was considered one of France's leading sculptors. In that year, on a visit to a scrap merchant in search of metal, he saw a hydraulic crushing machine in operation, and decided to experiment with it in his sculpture. He astonished his followers by showing three crushed cars at a Paris exhibition. It was for these 'Compressions' that César became renowned. César selected particular cars for crushing, mixing elements from differently coloured vehicles. In this way he could control the surface pattern and colour scheme of the piece.
Later the same year he joined the Nouveaux Réalistes (New Realists) - Arman, Klein, Raysse, Tinguely, Pierre Restany and others who found their inspiration in urban life.
In 1965, he started to work with plastics, first with plastic moulds of human imprints, then from 1966 by pouring expanded polyurethane, which was allowed to expand and solidify. He gave up making welded-metal sculpture in 1966 and organised a series of Happenings from 1967 to 1970, in which he produced expansions in the presence of an audience. His later works also included sculptures made out of molten crystal.
In 1995, he was asked to paint a McLaren F1 GTR that participated in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car Chassis GTR5 is still in the livery created by César, and represents the only 'Art Car" based on the iconic Mclaren.
He is the creator of the César du cinéma trophy, which is awarded to the best in French cinema.
He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 22 January 1978 and promoted Officier (Officer) in 1993.
He married Rosine and had one daughter.
He died in Paris in December 1998. Following his death there was an extended dispute over his will between his widow and daughter on the one hand and Stéphanie Busuttil, his companion at the time of his death, on the other. ...
Source: Article "César Baldaccini" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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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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Satoshi Ohno
Biography
Satoshi Ohno (大野 智 Ōno Satoshi, born November 26, 1980) is a Japanese idol, singer, actor, radio host, dancer, and choreographer. He is the lead vocalist and leader of the boy band Arashi, hence his nickname "Leader" (リーダー Rīdā).
Ohno began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates in 1994 at the age of 13. He started an acting career in 1997 when he was cast to be part of the stage play KYO TO KYO. In 2008, Ohno became the first and the only artist from Johnny's to hold his own art exhibition, titled "Freestyle", and also received his first starring role in a Japanese television drama, dEVIL, for which he earned a handful of Best Actor awards. Since then, he has continued to star in numerous dramas and movies, receiving a number of awards and nominations for his roles. For his work as an artist, a singer, and an actor in Kaibutsu-kun: The Movie, Ohno became one of the recipients of GQ Japan's Men of the Year Award in 2011.
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John Bennett
Biography
John Bennett was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire, then trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, followed by a wide repertory theatre experience including Bromley, Bristol Old Vic, Dundee, the Edinburgh Festival and Watford before going to London's West End.
Often cast as a villain, Bennett had many roles on television including Market in Honey Lane, Porridge, Survivors, The Avengers, Strange Report, Bergerac, The Professionals and four episodes of The Saint. Description above from the Wikipedia article Terence Alexander, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Jennifer Lien
Biography
Jennifer Ann Lien (born August 24, 1974) is an American actress, best known for playing the alien Kes on the television series Star Trek: Voyager.
Early life
The youngest of three children, Lien was born in Palos Heights, Illinois. Her mother, Delores Lien, was a college teacher.
Career
Her first television appearance was in a bubblegum advertisement playing twins. Her first appearance on a series was playing a music academy student in 1990 in an episode of Brewster Place starring Oprah Winfrey. She provided her voice for the dubbed English version of Baby Blood, a French horror film. Lien landed the series regular role of Hannah Moore on the series Another World in 1991.
In 1993, she was cast as Roanne in Phenom, a sitcom starring Judith Light. That year she also participated in the recording of Adam Sandler's comedy album They're All Gonna Laugh At You in which she played the part of the Valedictorian on the track "The Buffoon And The Valedictorian", as well as one of the daughters on the track "Oh, mom...".
In 1994, she was cast as Kes on Star Trek: Voyager. Her character is Ocampan, a species that lives for just 8 or 9 years, who joins the crew of the starship after it is stranded 75,000 light-years from earth.
She left the series in 1997, at the same time that Jeri Ryan joined the cast, as Seven of Nine, but guest starred in a few episodes in later seasons.
Lien subsequently appeared in the movie American History X as older sister Davina Vinyard alongside Edward Norton's character Derek Vinyard. In 1998, Lien appeared in SLC Punk! playing Sandy, the wild girlfriend of Matthew Lillard's character Stevo. She also provided her voice for the character of adult Vitani in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and voiced Agent "L" for the first three seasons of Men in Black: The Series.In 2000, Lien returned for an episode of Star Trek: Voyager entitled "Fury" where she had input to the script. Though Lien welcomed the chance to work with the cast of the show again, she later stated that she was disappointed with her performance in the episode.
Personal life
She is married to writer and filmmaker Phil Hwang; their first child, Jonah, was born on September 5, 2002. Since the birth of her son, Lien has retired from acting and voiceover work; however, she was credited as executive producer on her husband's comedy 2008 film Geek Mythology.
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Steve Wiebe
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steven J. Wiebe (born January 3, 1969) is an algebra teacher at Finn Hill Junior High, a school in Kirkland, Washington. Wiebe is best known as a two time world champion of Donkey Kong, most recently holding the title from the 20th of September, 2010 to the 10th of January, 2011 with a high score of 1,064,500 points. Wiebe was the first person to achieve over a million points in the arcade game Donkey Kong with a score of 1,006,600 on July 4, 2004. He is one of the primary subjects of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Steve Wiebe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Manolita Saval
Biography
Manolita Saval (5 February 1914 Paris, France – 23 August 2001 Mexico City, Mexico) was a Spanish actress and singer.
She studied music and drama in Spain, and began her career performing the opera Marina in Valencia. As a lyric interpreter, she toured Latin America, eventually settling in Mexico in 1938. Over the course of her career, she appeared in over 30 films and television programs, as well as in plays, operettas, and operas.
She was born in Paris of Spanish parents and named 'Juana María Saval'. She was the mother of the actor Manuel Saval, and the niece of the Spanish opera singer Vicente Ballester Aparício. Saval died in Mexico City on August 23, 2001 of cardiac arrest due to thrombosis.
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Jim Davis
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jim Davis (born Marlin Davis, August 26, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American actor, best known for his role as Jock Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap opera, Dallas, a role which continued until he was too ill from a terminal illness to perform.
He was known as Jim Davis by the time of his first major screen role, which was opposite Bette Davis in the 1948 melodrama Winter Meeting,[3] a lavish failure for which he was lambasted in the press as being too inexperienced to play the part properly. His subsequent film career consisted of mostly B movies, many of them westerns, although he made an impression as a U.S. senator in the Warren Beatty conspiracy thriller The Parallax View.
Davis performed in numerous television series episodes in the 1950s-1970s. After years of relatively low-profile roles, Davis was cast as family patriarch Jock Ewing on Dallas, which debuted in 1978.
During season four, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma but continued to film the show as long as he could. In many scenes as the season progressed he was shown seated, and his voice became softer and more obviously affected by his illness. He wore a hairpiece to cover the hair he'd lost from chemotherapy. A season four storyline regarding the Takapa development and Jock's separation from Miss Ellie was ended abruptly at the end of season four. The writers depicted the couple suddenly leaving to go on an extended second honeymoon when it became obvious that Davis could no longer continue to work. Their departure in a limousine in the episode "New Beginnings" was Davis' only scene in that episode, and his condition was so poor that close watching reveals (based on his unsynchronized lip movement) that he overdubbed his one last line of dialogue. It was his final appearance on the show. He died of complications from his illness while season four was being aired.
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Ragan Brooks
Biography
Born in Toledo, Ohio and raised in Minnesota, Ragan (Wallake) Brooks began modeling professionally at age five. After attending college and finishing her Bachelor of Arts degree in business a full year ahead of schedule, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She proved a success, booking her very first audition in a guest role on teen soap "Malibu, CA."
Since then, she has guest starred in many television series including "Eastwick," "Las Vegas," "Charmed" and "Summerland," as well as the 2003 film Hollywood Homicide opposite Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett.
Ragan is a fierce advocate for animal rights and adoption. She currently works extensively with Animal Advocates Alliance to help rescue animals from high-kill city and county shelters, provide them with necessary veterinary care, and place them in safe and loving homes. She also gives her time to the Lange Foundation, a no-kill animal shelter based in Los Angeles, and Home for Life, a sanctuary for special needs animals located in rural Wisconsin.
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Sian Crisp
Biography
Sian is a warm, friendly TV presenter from Wales, with a passion for all things features.
Sian has already enjoyed a wide and varied career working as a presenter in TV, events and commercials – ranging from small, intimate TV gigs to hosting live events, including switching on the Christmas lights in front of tens of thousands of people in Belfast.
Sian grew up with a love of the outdoors and nature, so is hugely interested and passionate about rural life, and makes sure that she still connects with her countryside roots in Snowdonia on a regular basis.
Sian has a background in musical theatre, and loves all things arts-related. Sian’s other interests are in fitness and health (she has turned her own life around by losing a significant amount of weight), sport, property and cars. She’s also a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
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