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Buck Houghton
Biography
Archible Ernest "Buck" Houghton Jr. is chiefly remembered as producer of The Twilight Zone (1959) during its first three seasons (more than a hundred episodes in total), his influence palpable in all facets of production, from script selection to renting production facilities, to casting, scoring and editing. Houghton had graduated from UCLA with majors in English and economics. He was at that time known as 'Arch'. The origin of his nickname 'Buck' may have been the result of buck teeth as a child. His career began in Hollywood as back stage help on films by Cecil B. DeMille, then as reader for Val Lewton and story editor to David O. Selznick. Via subsequent stints at Paramount's casting and budget departments, the Office of War Information (where he worked on short propaganda films) and four years as executive assistant at RKO, Houghton worked his way up to television producer by the early 1950's. He served as associate producer on an excellent early action series, Yancy Derringer (1958), which is, sadly, almost forgotten today. William Self, who preferred to remain in his executive position with CBS, offered Houghton the job of producing "The Twilight Zone" and Houghton enthusiastically accepted, having perused the first two scripts. He became popular with many of the directors, for example Douglas Heyes (usually put in charge of more character-driven assignments like "The Invaders"), who regarded him as the best producer he ever worked with. Most importantly, Houghton complemented the creative genius of Rod Serling by his expertise in all minutiae of production.
Houghton left "Twilight Zone" at the end of season three, having raised objections about extending the show to the -- as it turned out, much less suitable -- one-hour format. Few of his subsequent appointments proved entirely satisfactory: Houghton more often found his style cramped, clashing with stars he regarded as 'autocratic' (The Richard Boone Show (1963), Hawaii Five-O (1968)) or executive producers he disliked (Lost in Space (1965)). There were several more production credits to his name in the 80's -- mostly B-grade made-for-TV films -- before his retirement in 1994.
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Eduardo Hernández
Biography
Eduardo Aníbal González Hernández, better known as Juventud Guerrera, is a Mexican professional wrestler who is best known for his work in many wrestling promotions worldwide, including all the major American wrestling promotions, such as World Wrestling Entertainment, World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, as well as the major Mexican wrestling promotions Asistencia Asesoría y Administración and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.
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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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Bess Flowers
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bess Flowers (November 23, 1898 – July 28, 1984) was an American actress. By some counts considered the most prolific actress in the history of Hollywood, she was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras," appearing in over 700 movies in her 41 year career.
Born in Sherman, Texas, Flowers's film debut came in 1923, when she appeared in Hollywood. She made three films that year, and then began working extensively. Many of her appearances are uncredited, as she generally played non-speaking roles.
By the 1930s, Flowers was in constant demand. Her appearances ranged from Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford thrillers to comedic roles alongside of Charley Chase, the Three Stooges, Leon Errol, Edgar Kennedy, and Laurel and Hardy.
She appeared in the following five films which won the Academy Award for Best Picture: It Happened One Night, You Can't Take it with You, All About Eve, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. In each of these movies, Flowers was uncredited. Including these five movies, she had appeared in twenty-three Best Picture nominees in total, making her the record holder for most appearances in films nominated for the award. Her last movie was Good Neighbor Sam in 1964.
Flowers's acting career was not confined to feature films. She was also seen in many episodic American TV series, such as I Love Lucy, notably in episodes, "Lucy Is Enceinte" (1952), "Ethel's Birthday" (1955), and "Lucy's Night in Town" (1957), where she is usually seen as a theatre patron.
Outside her acting career, in 1945, Bess Flowers helped to found the Screen Extras Guild (active: 1946-1992, then merged with SAG), where she served as one of its first vice-presidents and recording secretaries.
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Julien Clerc
Biography
Paul Alain Leclerc (born 4 October 1947), better known by his stage name Julien Clerc, is a French singer-songwriter.
Born in Paris, Clerc grew up listening to classical music in his father Paul Leclerc's home, while his mother Évelyne Merlot introduced him to the music of such singers as Georges Brassens and Edith Piaf. He began to learn the piano at six, and by 13, started to play by ear everything he heard on the radio.
During his secondary school and university days, he met Maurice Vallet and Etienne Roda-Gil, two of his main songwriters, and began to compose his first songs. He changed his name to Julien Clerc upon signing a contract with Pathé Marconi, releasing his first album in May 1968.
The album went on to win the Académie Charles Cros Record Award. In 1969, Clerc went on the Olympia stage for the first time to open for Gilbert Becaud's concert. Despite having been in show business for only one year, his performance was a great success. He would later return repeatedly to the Olympia for a series of concerts.
From May 1969 to February 1970, he starred in the highly successful Paris run of the musical Hair, which increased his profile.
By the age of 24, Clerc was a major star and had recorded numerous hits, many of which were sold abroad, translated and distributed in other languages.
In 1979, he took part in two new collaborative ventures, singing the title song of the children's musical, "Emilie Jolie" and participating in "36 Front Populaire", a double album musical about a turbulent historical period. Over the years, Clerc's repertoire has ranged from his own compositions to classic French songs like "Comme Hier" by Brassens and "L'hymne à l'amour" by Edith Piaf. He has performed in Africa, the Americas and Europe.
In January 1999, Clerc went on stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and delivered an unplugged acoustic set that was a long way from the rock/pop-based shows that he had been giving his audience for some years. In 2000, he appeared, along with many other artists, in a number of benefit concerts for Restaurants du Coeur, a winter food bank charity.
In 2003, Clerc recorded a new album of classic American "standards", in French. On another front, Clerc was named UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at a ceremony in Paris in November 2003 after working for nearly two years with the agency on various benevolent projects for refugees. In March 2004, he undertook his first field mission to meet with refugees and aid workers in Chad. His mission was documented by Envoyé spécial and was broadcast on a national French TV channel in April 2004.
Clerc has five children: daughters Angèle (adopted) and Jeanne Herry with French actress Miou-Miou; daughter Vanille and son Barnabé with then-wife Virginie Coupérie; and son Léonard with Hélène Grémillon, whom he married in 2012.
Source: Article "Julien Clerc" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Maggie Shiu
Biography
Her career began in 1985 when she joined Hong Kong TVB. As her career developed, she took on variety of roles in TV series and movies. Hong Kong audiences still remember her first appearance in Jacky Cheung's music video "輕撫你的臉" and her performance as Princess Fragrant in Take Care, Your Highness! (皇上保重). Overseas, Maggie has gained a wider audience with roles as Xiaozhao (小昭) in New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠龍刀), Shek Yi-Ming (石伊明) in Blood of Good and Evil (我本善良), Cin Kiu (展翹) in The Breaking Point (今生無悔), Wai Hoi-Yi (韋海怡) in Conscience (第三類法庭), Anson Man (萬安生) in Healing Hands (妙手仁心), Sylvia Hong (康雅言) in The Gem of Life (珠光寶氣), Officer Kat in PTU, and Mrs. Big D in Election.
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Lynda Carter
Biography
Lynda Jean Carter (born July 24, 1951) is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA 1972 and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman (1975–77) and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1977–79). The epitome of the word "statuesque," brunette, big blue-eyed, and 6' tall Lynda Carter was once considered one of the most beautiful women in the western world. Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, Carter's height caused considerable awkwardness in high school. Friends encouraged her to become a performer; she began studying voice and by the time she graduated, she was named her school's most talented student. She briefly attended Arizona State University, but dropped out to become a professional singer and tour the country with several rock groups. By 1972, Carter had returned home and entered a local beauty pageant. She won and went on to win the title of Miss World-USA. After that, Carter studied acting in New York. She started her career in television making guest appearances on such shows as Starsky and Hutch, but Carter did not become famous until winning the title role of Wonder Woman in 1975. The Wonder Woman shows originally started out as specials on the ABC network, but by 1976 had been turned into a series. The network canceled the show after one season and it was picked up by CBS and aired there for a few years. When the series ended, she had a somewhat successful career as a Las Vegas entertainer. She also continues to occasionally appear in television movies and as a series guest star. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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Clinton Sundberg
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clinton Charles Sundberg (December 7, 1903 – December 14, 1987) was an American character actor in film and stage.
Sundberg left teaching English literature for acting, appearing in plays in stock theater in New England. He appeared in a number of Broadway plays, debuting in Nine Pine Street (1933). His most notable roles were Mr. Kraler in the original 1957 production of The Diary of Anne Frank and Mortimer Brewster (as a replacement) in the 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace.
He became a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he appeared in numerous supporting roles in films of the late 1940s and early 1950s. He played Mike, the bartender who listens to Judy Garland's character's troubles in Easter Parade. One of Sundberg's most memorable roles was in the 1949 film In the Good Old Summertime (which also starred Garland and Van Johnson) as Rudy Hansen, a friendly co-worker and confidante of Johnson's character. He also played the hotel owner who hired Annie Oakley to enter the shooting contest against Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun. He later made several television appearances, including two episodes of Perry Mason: "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito" in 1963 and "The Case of the Scarlet Scandal" in 1966. He also appeared in several television commercials.
In 1962, Sundberg was cast in the lead guest-starring role of Luther Boardman, a naive but troublesome newspaper publisher who comes to Laramie, Wyoming, to capture the story of "real West" gunfighters in "The Man Behind the News", one of the last episodes of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Lawman, which starred John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop. Hal Baylor appears in the episode as gunfighter Mort Peters, whom Boardman (Sundberg) goads into a shootout with Troop.
Sundberg died of heart failure in Santa Monica, California, aged 84.
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Paul Giamatti
Biography
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (/ˌdʒiːəˈmɑːti/ JEE-ə-MAH-tee; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globes, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. After studying acting at the Yale School of Drama he performed in numerous theatrical productions. Giamatti made his Broadway debut portraying Ezra Chater in the Tom Stoppard play Arcadia (1995). Later that year he played the Rev. Donald "Streaky" Bacon in the David Hare play Racing Demon (1995). He returned to theatre in the revivals of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters (1997) and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1999).
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Mohamed Ramadan
Biography
Mohamed Ramadan began acting while at school. He has received the award for greatest nationwide talent three times consecutively – an unprecedented achievement. He started his career with small roles in TV series like “The Cindrella,” until he had his big break in Yousry Nasrallah's “Ehky Ya Sharazad” (Tell me, Shahrazad). He then went on to star in blockbusters produced by the the famous Egyptian producers Mohamed and Ahmed El Sobky, which made him one of the most valuable actors in the middle east. Mohamed Ramadan is perhaps the only Egyptian actor to have been praised by the internationally renowned performer ‘Umar el-Shereef who stated that he had chosen Mohamed to perpetuate his acting legacy.
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