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Jimmy Bain
Biography
James Stewart Bain (19 December 1947 – 23 January 2016) was a Scottish musician, best known for playing bass guitar in the bands Rainbow and Dio. He also worked with Kate Bush and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, co-writing on his solo albums.
On 23 January 2016, he died while in his cabin on Def Leppard's "Hysteria on the High Seas" cruise. He was due to perform on the cruise with his group Last In Line the following day. The performance did not go ahead, and band members informed fans on the cruise that he had been battling pneumonia for some time. The cause of death was determined to be lung cancer tho he had not been diagnosed with cancer and was aware only of his pneumonia. He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), not far from his bandmate Ronnie James Dio.
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Vera Ralston
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vera Ralston (born Věra Helena Hrubá) was a Czech figure skater and actress. She later became a naturalized American citizen. She worked as an actress during the 1940s and 1950s.
As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in competition under her birth name Věra Hrubá. She competed at the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 15th. Later that season, she competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she placed 17th. During the games, she personally met and insulted Adolf Hitler. Hitler asked her if she would like to "skate for the swastika." As she later boasted, "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika. The Führer was furious." Hrubá competed at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 7th. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a naturalized citizen in 1946.
She moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. During her career she was known as Vera Hrubá Ralston and later Vera Ralston. She normally played an immigrant girl, because of her limited English skills. Among the 26 films Ralston starred in were: Storm Over Lisbon; Dakota; I, Jane Doe; The Fighting Kentuckian; A Perilous Journey; and Fair Wind to Java. She retired from films in 1958.
In 1952, Ralston married Republic studio head Herbert Yates. Yates was nearly 40 years her senior, and had left his wife and children to be with Ralston. Yates used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, and at one point was sued by studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife. Yates died in 1966, leaving his $8 million estate to Ralston. She suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, remarried, and lived quietly in southern California.
She died on February 9, 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer. For her work in films, Ralston has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A registered Republican, she supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Vera Ralston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Tina Louise
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tina Louise (born February 11, 1934) is an American actress best known for playing movie star Ginger Grant in the CBS television situation comedy Gilligan's Island. She began her career on stage during the mid-1950s, before landing her breakthrough role in 1958 drama film God's Little Acre for which she received Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.
Louise had starring roles in a number of Hollywood movies, including The Trap, The Hangman, Day of the Outlaw, and For Those Who Think Young. Louise later returned to film, appearing in The Wrecking Crew, The Happy Ending, and The Stepford Wives (1975).
Tina Blacker was born in New York City. By the time she was four years of age, her parents had divorced.
An only child, she was raised by her mother, Sylvia Horn (née Myers) Blacker (1916–2011), a fashion model. Tina's father, Joseph Blacker, was a candy store owner in Brooklyn and later an accountant. The name "Louise" was allegedly added during her senior year in high school when she mentioned to her drama teacher that she was the only girl in the class without a middle name. He selected the name "Louise" and it stuck. She attended Miami University in Ohio.
At the early age of just two years, Tina got her first role, after being seen in an ad for her father's candy store. She played numerous roles until she decided it was best to focus on school work. By the age of 17, Louise began studying acting, singing and dancing. She studied acting under Sanford Meisner at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan. During her early acting years, she was offered modeling jobs, including as a rising starlet, who along with Jayne Mansfield, was a product advocate in the 1958 Frederick's of Hollywood catalog, and appeared on the cover of several pinup magazines such as Adam, Sir! and Modern Man. Her later pictorials for Playboy (May 1958; April 1959) were arranged by Columbia Pictures studio in an effort to further promote the young actress.
Louise with Gene Barry from the television series Burke's Law (1964).
Her acting debut came in 1952 in the Bette Davis musical revue Two's Company,[4] followed by roles in other Broadway productions, such as John Murray Anderson's Almanac, The Fifth Season, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? She appeared in such early live television dramas as Studio One, Producers' Showcase, and Appointment with Adventure. In 1957, she appeared on Broadway in the hit musical Li'l Abner. Her album, It's Time for Tina, was released that year, with songs such as "Embraceable You" and "I'm in the Mood for Love".
Louise made her Hollywood film debut in 1958 in God's Little Acre. That same year, the National Art Council named her the "World's Most Beautiful Redhead." The next year she starred in Day of the Outlaw, with Robert Ryan. She became an in-demand leading lady for major stars like Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark, often playing somber roles quite unlike the glamorous pinup photographs and Playboy pictorials she had become famous for in the late 1950s. ] In 1962, she guest-starred on the sitcom The Real McCoys, portraying a country girl from West Virginia in an episode titled "Grandpa Pygmalion". Two years later, prior to the development of Gilligan's Island, she appeared with Bob Denver in the beach party film For Those Who Think Young. CLR
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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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Anne-Marie David
Biography
Anne-Marie David (born 23 May 1952) is a French singer. She has represented both Luxembourg and France at the Eurovision Song Contest, winning in 1973 and placing third in 1979.
David was born and raised in Casablanca, French Protectorate in Morocco, and in Strasbourg. During Middleschool the family moved to Arles. She started her musical career at age 18 in Paris when she became involved with musical theatre. In 1972, she was cast in the role of Mary Magdalene in the French production of Jesus Christ Superstar. 1972 also saw her submit the song "Un peu romantique" to the French selection committee for the Eurovision Song Contest. It made the final shortlist of ten songs.
In 1973, she was selected to represent Luxembourg as the Grand Duchy sought to repeat its previous year's triumph on home soil in the Eurovision Song Contest. She thus joined the long list of non-native performers to have represented the country in the contest, which also includes France Gall (the 1965 winner) and Vicky Leandros (the 1972 winner). The 1973 contest crystallised into a three-way battle between songs that have since established themselves as Eurovision classics: David's "Tu te reconnaîtras", the Spanish entry "Eres tú", and the United Kingdom's "Power to All Our Friends", performed by Cliff Richard. Ultimately six points separated the third place from David, securing the second successive triumph for Luxembourg.
After the contest, she started touring the world. She lived in Turkey for a while, recorded two singles in Turkish and one album and received several awards in the country. She returned to Eurovision in the 1979 contest held in Jerusalem, this time representing her native France with the song "Je suis l'enfant soleil". Once again it was a tight three-way finish, with the Israeli entry "Hallelujah" edging to a home victory leaving David in third place. She started to tour France in the 1980s.
Between 1982 and 1983, she continued her musical career in Norway. In 1987, she retired from music but returned in 2003. In 2005, she sang at the festival for the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Copenhagen, where she performed the 1972 Eurovision winner "Après toi". She attended the live music show of Turkish Radio Television (TRT) before the 2009 Eurovision Final was aired live, with Johnny Logan (1980, 1987 ESC winner). According to ESCRadio.com, in 2011, David released a new revamped version of her 1973 winning song, aptly named "Tu Te Reconnaîtras (Encore Une Fois)". Together with the German pop artist Mave O'Rick she released her comeback single "International" in late 2015, being recommended by Song Contest Consulting as a nomination for Austria, (Germany) and San Marino for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Source: Article "Anne-Marie David" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Mike Smith
Biography
Mike Smith is a Canadian actor and musician born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and raised in Thorburn. He earned a degree in English from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He played hockey for the Pictou County Weeks of the Nova Scotia Midget AAA Hockey League when he was in high school. For a short time in 2006, he was engaged to actress Nichole Hiltz. He is best known for his portrayal of "Bubbles" and co-writer of the ongoing cult classic television program, films and stage production Trailer Park Boys.
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Jacques Villeret
Biography
Jacques Villeret (6 February 1951 – 28 January 2005) was a French actor, best known internationally for his role as François Pignon in the comedy Le Dîner de Cons. During his career, he earned many awards including the prestigious medal and title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.
Villeret was born Jacky Boufroura in Loches, Indre-et-Loire, France, to an Algerian father and a French mother. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSAD) in the same class as Louis Seigner, the grandfather of Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathilde Seigner. While he was most famous for his role as François Pignon in Le Dîner de Cons; both on the stage and in the film, his other celebrated roles included the extra terrestrial in La soupe aux choux, the autistic Mo in L'été en pente douce, and marshal Ludwig von Apfelstrudel in Papy fait de la résistance.
At the time of making the film Un aller simple directed by Laurent Heynemann – a film about integration and racism and the clash of generations – he said that watching the young actors in the film, Barbara Schulz and Lorant Deutsch, reminded him of the insouciance he had had as a young man with his friends at the Conservatoire.
When his career was at its height, with the success of Le Dîner de Cons, everything collapsed in a tragedy mirroring the plot of the film. Villeret separated from his wife and suffered an enormous financial downfall due to tax issues, plunging him into depression. Villeret turned to alcohol for comfort, and became an alcoholic. He isolated himself and hid away for long periods. He later said: Alcohol is a friend, but a friend who means you harm.
Villeret's love of his profession helped to bring his career back from the brink. In an interview in 2001 he spoke of his admiration for performers like Johnny Hallyday and Jacques Brel for their level of commitment, and quoted the author Louis-Ferdinand Céline: When I write, I put my balls on the table.
In 1979 Villeret married Irina Tarassov, an actress and writer. They separated in 1998. Tassarov wrote about their life together in her book Un jour, tout ira bien. (One day, everything will go well).
In 2002 Villeret met Seny, a Senegalese-French widow descended through her grandfather, Mor Diarra N'Dao, from a long line of Sérès nobles of the ancient Kingdom of Saloum, and they fell instantly and deeply in love. They were partners for three years, and she was about to move to Paris to be with him when he died in Évreux in January 2005 of a liver haemorrhage. Seny wrote a memoir of their life together, Jacques Villeret, mon bébé blanc, which was published in Paris by Le Cherche Midi in 2005.
Source: Article "Jacques Villeret" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Rupa Sri
Biography
Roopa Shree hails from Karnataka and belongs to a family with an acting background. This young actress started working in the Sandalwood Industry at a very young age. She is equally passionate about dance and music, as much as she is about novels. It only shows Roopa’s commitment and dedication to fitness, as she claims to a big foodie and possess a stunning physique.
She also happens to be a big foodie. Roopa has done lead roles in various Kannada movies; Sankranthi directed by Mussanje Mahesh Banner, Putra directed by Vijay, Hare Rama Hare Krishna directed by C V Ashok Kumar, Rame Gowda Vs Krishna Reddy director by T.N. Nagesh, Shamboshankara directed by Chindodi Bangaresh are few of them.
She has also acted in a lead role in Telegu Movie, ‘Ninnu cheraalini’. Roopa has also, acted in the documentary, ‘Operation Ankusha’ which was nominated for the Limca Records Book.
One may have spotted Roopa in various reality shows like Haaku Hejje Haaku and Nammoora Yuvaraani aired on ETV. She also appeared as a judge on Dance show, Sye 2 on Suvarna TV.
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Yavuz Özkan
Biography
Yavuz Özkan was a Turkish film director, screenwriter, and producer who was active in the Turkish film industry from the 1970s to the 2000s. He is best known for his films that deal with social and political issues, and for his collaborations with some of the leading actors of Turkish cinema.
Özkan began his career as an assistant director on several films in the early 1970s. He made his directorial debut in 1975 with the film "Anayurt Oteli" (The Hotel Anatolia), which was a critical and commercial success. The film won several awards at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, including the award for Best Film.
Özkan went on to direct a number of successful films, including "Nehir" (The River, 1977), "Yol" (The Road, 1982), and "Hakkari'de Bir Mevsim" (A Season in Hakkari, 1983). These films are known for their realistic portrayal of Turkish society and for their strong political messages.
Özkan was also a prolific screenwriter. He wrote the screenplays for many of his own films, as well as for films directed by other directors. He was a member of the Writers' Union of Turkey and was awarded the union's Grand Prize for his screenplay for the film "Yol".
Özkan was a leading figure in Turkish cinema for over three decades. His films were widely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, and he won numerous awards for his work. He was a committed and passionate filmmaker who used his films to explore important social and political issues.
In addition to his work in film, Özkan was also active in theater and television. He directed several plays and television series, and he was a member of the board of directors of the Istanbul State Theater.
Özkan passed away in 2019 at the age of 76. He is survived by his wife and two children. His legacy lives on through his films, which continue to be screened and studied by film lovers around the world.
IMDb mini bio by YusufPiskin
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Derek Miller
Biography
Derek, a Chicago native, is a product of that city's improv scene. As a child he was trained under the Piven Theatre Workshop and Interlochen Arts Camp. He attended Indiana University where he co-founded improv troupe Full Frontal Comedy while taking classes at Second City and iO (formerly Improv Olympic.) Derek has been a mainstay of the L.A. improv community - performing and teaching for over 15 years. He still performs at i.O. West with Opening Night: The Improvised Musical! in over 650 performances.
In 2008 after touring with Second City at Sea, Derek landed the series "The Hills: According to Me" for MTV (where he played over 20 roles) and then in 2009 the Comedy Central series, "Sercret Girlfriend" playing the role of Phil and acting as a consulting writer.
2012 saw Derek joining TBS' hour-long comedy "Wedding Band" Derek plays Barry the band's drummer - an instrument he had never played before.
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