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M. V. Rajamma

Biography

M. V. Rajamma (10 March 1921 – 23 April 1999) was an Indian actress, producer and playback singer of Indian films mostly in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages from the 1930s through 1970s. She has the distinction of having acted as both heroine and mother to stalwart South Indian actors such as Rajkumar, Sivaji Ganesan, MGR and NTR. Making her debut as a lead actress in the 1936 released Samsara Nauka Rajamma enjoyed an elaborate career in feature films across South India. She was the first and foremost woman producer in India and in Kannada films. She produced the film Radha Ramana in 1943 under her own home banner Vijaya Films. Her entry to the Tamil films was through the 1940 classic hit film Uthama Puthiran. She went on to star in about 60 Kannada, 80 Tamil, 20 Telugu and one Hindi films in her career spanning around four decades.
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Jackie Chan

Biography

Jackie Chan (Chinese: 成龍; born 7 April 1954), born Chan Kong-sang, is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1970s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. Chan was born on April 7, 1954, in Victoria Peak, in the former Crown colony of Hong Kong, as Chan Kong-sang (meaning "born in Hong Kong") to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed Paopao (Chinese: 炮炮, literally meaning "Cannonball") because he was such a big baby, weighing 12 pounds, or about 5.4 kgs. Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district. Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the Three Brothers or Three Dragons. At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung. He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973.
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Mike Wilmot

Biography

Mike Wilmot is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor. In 2005 he won two Canadian Comedy Awards for best male stand-up and best actor for his work in It's All Gone Pete Tong. Wilmot has appeared on Corner Gas, British TV shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and alongside American comedian Rich Hall in BBC television series Rich Hall's Fishing Show and Rich Hall's Cattle Drive. He was the host of the Paramount comedy series Comedy Blue. He has also appeared on the Australian TV show Good News Week as a guest panelist and visits Australia annually to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In 2009, he starred as Michael Valmont-Selkirk, the crooked and corrupt director of a philanthropic foundation in the Canadian TV series The Foundation.
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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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Michel Droit

Biography

Michel Droit (23 January 1923 in Vincennes, Val-de-Marne – 22 June 2000) was a French novelist and journalist. He was the father of the photographer Éric Droit (1954–2007). After studying at the Faculté des lettres de Paris and Sciences Po, Droit joined the army in 1944 and was wounded near Ulm in April 1945. He took on a career as a press, radio and television journalist after the Second World War and at the 1960s he was the preferred television interviewer of général de Gaulle. His first novel, Plus rien au monde, dates to 1954. In 1964, he won the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for his novel The Return (Le Retour). On 6 March 1980, on the same day as Marguerite Yourcenar, he was elected as a member of the Académie française, replacing Joseph Kessel. Droit wrote a polemic against a reggae adaptation of La Marseillaise as Aux armes et cætera by Serge Gainsbourg, reproaching him for "provoking" a resurgence of anti-Semitism and thus making things difficult for his "co-religionists". Droit was attacked for this position by the Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples. Droit got into legal difficulties as a member of the CNCL, a television regulator set up in the 1980s, but this was thrown out of court with the help of his lawyer Jean-Marc Varaut. Droit accidentally killed one of his companions on a safari in Africa. Droit is buried in the Passy Cemetery. Source: Article "Michel Droit" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Peter Lawford

Biography

Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford (né Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president John F. Kennedy and senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. From the 1940s to the 1960s, he was a well-known celebrity and starred in a number of highly acclaimed films. In later years, he was noted more for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting; it was said that he was "famous for being famous". Description above from the Wikipedia article Peter Lawford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia​
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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".
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Nirut Sirijanya

Biography

Nirut Sirijanya, nicknamed Nhing, is a Thai film and television actor, born to a Thai Police Lieutenant and a Thai woman whose mother was half Thai-French. He attended Assumption College in Bangkok and received a graduate certificate in Business Administration in Australia. He then went to Kuala Lumpur to study. When he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, he started working at AM PAC as an engineer, before moving to positions in various airline companies, including Alitalia. Nirut began his acting career at the suggestion of Terng Stiphuang. His first TV series was Sangsoon, in which he co-starred. He then starred in Kae Kop Fah (Just Horizon), shown on Channel 3. By now known throughout Thailand, he attracted the most attention for his part as Jaded in Poo Cha Na Sib Tid. His first film was Derby, and he continues to perform to this day. He gained international attention from his role in The Hangover Part II. Nirut is best known internationally for his role as Lauren's father Fong in the 2011 sequel The Hangover Part II. He is the recipient of Suphannahong National Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor in 2006. Nirut also appeared as a judge in the first season of Thailand's Got Talent.
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Seth Lesser

Biography

Seth Lesser is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Simon Gotch. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he held the NXT Tag Team Championship as one-half of The Vaudevillains along with Aiden English and also worked for the main roster on its SmackDown brand. He also competed for Major League Wrestling (MLW). From 2002 until 2013, he worked under the ring name Ryan Drago, invoking the image of early 20th century professional wrestlers or strongmen. In 2013 he joined WWE, retaining the "classic wrestler" image, but being renamed "Simon Gotch" (after Frank Gotch and Karl Gotch), together with Aiden English they often appeared in silent movie segments. After leaving WWE he began to use the name Simon Grimm, but was legally able to use the name Simon Gotch in April 2018.
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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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