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Fran Allison
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frances Helen Allison (November 20, 1907 – June 13, 1989) was an American television and radio comedian, personality and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which ran from 1947–1957, occasionally returning to the air until the mid-1980s. The trio also hosted The CBS Children's Film Festival, introducing international children's films, from 1967-1977.
Allison was married to music publisher Archie Levington.
For contributions to the television industry, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6763 Hollywood Boulevard. Additionally, she appeared with puppets Kukla and Ollie on a 44¢ US commemorative postage stamp issued on August 11, 2009.
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Mary Kostakidis
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mary Kostakidis (born 1954) is the former weeknight SBS World News Australia presenter.
Mary Kostakidis was the first woman appointed to present a national prime time news bulletin in Australia.
She was member of the management team that set up and developed SBS Television in 1980 and went on to present its flagship World News for 20 years, resigning in 2007.
Her board and committee appointments during nearly 3 decades at SBS and subsequently reflect a strong commitment to social justice and interest in the arts.
She is currently a member of the Fred Hollows Foundation Board, the Sydney Theatre Board, the National Library of Australia Council, the ResMed Foundation Board, Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors(NSW).
The Sydney Peace Foundation is a University of Sydney Foundation and its major Partner in Peace is the City of Sydney. Annually it awards Australia's only international prize for peace, the Sydney Peace Prize. Past recipients include Muhammad Yunus, Xanana Gusmao, Mary Robinson, Hanan Ashrawi, Arundhati Roy, Hans Blix, Irene Khan and Patrick Dodson.
In 2009 Kostakidis served on the National Human Rights Consultation Committee chaired by Frank Brennan. The Committee inquired into the adequacy of the protection and promotion of human rights in Australia, holding consultations in metropolitan, rural and remote areas across the country and receiving over 35,000 written submissions. They recommended a raft of measures, the most contentious of which was a Human Rights Act. Human rights education was the measure that had the greatest support of those that took part in the consultation, but the overwhemling majority supported human rights legislation. The four member Committee also included Mick Palmer and Tammy Williams.
From 1997 till 2003 she served on the Advertising Standards Board; in 1993 she was appointed by then Prime Minister Paul Keating to Republican Advisory Committee chaired by Malcolm Turbull; in the early nineties she also served on the Council for the Order of Australia and in 1992 was a founding member of the James Joyce Foundation Board along with Ed Campion and Don Anderson. She has also been an active member of the Kazantzaki society.
Kostakidis has also served as an Ambassador for Beyond Blue and was also a member of the Drug and Alcohol Council, the Breast Cancer Council Advisory Committee and the Constitutional Centenary Foundation.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Mary Kostakidis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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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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Jerry Leiber
Biography
Jerry Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) was an American songwriter and record producer, best known for his songwriting partnership with Mike Stoller. Together, they wrote many of the biggest hits of the 1950s and 1960s, including "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me," "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown," and "Kansas City."
Leiber and Stoller met as teenagers in Los Angeles in the early 1950s, and began writing and producing music together. They quickly gained success with their first hit, "Hound Dog," which was originally recorded by blues singer Big Mama Thornton and later made famous by Elvis Presley.
Throughout their career, Leiber and Stoller worked with a wide variety of artists, including The Coasters, The Drifters, Ben E. King, and Elvis Presley. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Leiber passed away on August 22, 2011, at the age of 78, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most influential songwriters and producers in the history of rock and roll.
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Julian Schnabel
Biography
Julian Schnabel is an American artist and filmmaker. In the 1980s Schnabel received international media attention for his "plate paintings"—large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates.
Schnabel directed Before Night Falls, which became Javier Bardem's breakthrough Academy Award nominated role and the four-time Academy Award nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
He has won a Golden Globe, as well as BAFTA, a César Award, a Golden Palm, two nominations for the Golden Lion and an Academy Award nomination.
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Nanami Yonetani
Biography
Once the nerd of the group, Yonetani Nanami (or "Yone") may have also been the most normal member of the group (which made her strange in her own way). Along with Oda, Yone supported the group from the back as a mental support, as well as providing the bass voice in Keyakizaka songs. She always loved science (in particular, obsessed with volvox algae) and always seeked knowledge, which lead to her making the decision to graduate from the group to focus on her studies. Yone retired from entertainment industry after graduation, but occasionally makes appearances in graduated members' social media posts (Only her fingers and pet rabbit, Bob).
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Kenji Utsumi
Biography
Kenji Utsumi (内海 賢二, Utsumi Kenji, August 26, 1937 – June 13, 2013) was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Kitakyushu, affiliated with the self-founded Ken Production.
He was best known for his roles in Sally the Witch (1966) (as Sally's Papa), Fist of the North Star (as Raoh and Kaioh), Dr. Slump Arale-chan (as Senbei Norimaki), the Dragon Ball series (as Shenlong, Commander Red, Reacoom and the Tenkaichi Budōkai announcer), Fullmetal Alchemist (as Alex Louis Armstrong) and Hajime no Ippo (as Coach Kamogawa). He was also known for dubbing over the voices of actors Carl Weathers, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Sammy Davis, Jr., Victor Mature and Robert Shaw in the Japanese-language editions of their films.
He received a lifetime achievement award at the third Seiyu Awards.
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Nisreen Faour
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nisreen Faour is a Palestinian actress best known for her role as Muna in the 2009 American film, Amreeka.
Faour was born in Tarshiha, Palestine and moved to the United States to study theater and performance when she was 16. She studied theater directing at the University of Haifa. She has performed in a number of award - winning theatrical plays. She also appeared in films such as In the Eighth Month directed by Ali Nassar and Jamr Alhikaya (Whispering Embers). Her television appearances include Family Deluxe and Mishwar Al-Joma.
Faour's performance as Muna Farah, a Palestinian immigrant to the United States in the 2009 independent film Amreeka, received high marks from film critics. American film critic Kenneth Turan argues that, while all of the casting choices "are excellent, it is Palestinian actress Nisreen Faour as the irrepressible Muna who truly owns the picture."
Description above from the Wikipedia article Nisreen Faour, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Ed Nelson
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Edwin Stafford Nelson (born December 21, 1928) is an American actor.
Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there. Hurricane Katrina prompted him to move his family to Sterlington near Monroe in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
Nelson began acting while attending Tulane University in New Orleans. He left college after two years to study at the New York School of Radio and Television Technique. After graduating, he took a position as a director at WDSU-TV in New Orleans. By 1956, acting became his central focus and he moved to the Los Angeles area. Early in his career he worked with famed B-movie producer Roger Corman on such Corman films as Cry Baby Killers, A Bucket of Blood, Teenage Cave Man and Attack of the Crab Monsters. In 1958 he participated in Bruno VeSota's science fiction horror film The Brain Eaters.
His early television career featured many guest starring roles in such series as The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, Harbor Command, Tombstone Territory, Tightrope, The Blue Angels (as arrogant flight instructor Lieutenant Dayl Martin), Laramie, COronado 9, The Eleventh Hour, Bonanza, Thriller (US TV series), and Channing, an ABC drama about college life.
In 1964 he won his most famous role portraying Dr. Michael Rossi on the ABC drama Peyton Place, which ran from 1964 to 1969. Nelson's fellow cast members included Mia Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, and Dorothy Malone. Dr. Rossi proved to be so popular that by 1968, he became the lead actor on the show. Nelson reprised his role in two made-for-TV movies, Murder in Peyton Place and Peyton Place: The Next Generation.
After Peyton Place ended, Nelson worked in many more productions of all varieties, including starring role in many movies of the week, a second TV series, "The Silent Force," and a popular morning talk show which he hosted for three years.
Soon after, Nelson struck gold with his critically acclaimed portrayal of elusive pit crew chief Robert Denby in the hit film Riding with Death (1976), earning him several prestigious accolades and legions of devoted fans.
He portrayed a dangerous impostor in the adventure movie For the Love of Benji (1977).
During the 1980s, Nelson took on the role of Senator Mark Denning in the daytime soap Capitol.
Nelson also spent a couple of years as Harry Truman onstage replacing James Whitmore for the National Tour of "Give 'Em Hell, Harry."
While living in Los Angeles, Nelson was an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and was elected to the union board for many years. Nelson is a long-standing member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and continues a long tradition of participation in voting for the Academy Awards.
In 1999, Nelson returned to Tulane University to finish credits toward his undergraduate degree, which he completed the following year at the age of seventy-one. Nelson continues to act as the opportunity arises. He and his wife of fifty-eight years, Patsy, enjoy semi-retirement visiting his six children and fourteen grandchildren.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ed Nelson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Bobby Goldsboro
Biography
Robert Charles Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941)[2] is an American pop and country singer and songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over 1 million copies in the United States, and the UK top-10 single "Summer (The First Time)".
Goldsboro starred in his own television show, The Bobby Goldsboro Show, from 1973 to 1976. He also created the children's series The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon.
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