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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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Memphis Slim
Biography
John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other artists. He made over 500 recordings. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.
Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman, in Memphis, Tennessee. For his first recordings, for Okeh Records in 1940, he used the name of his father, Peter Chatman (who sang, played piano and guitar, and operated juke joints); it is commonly believed that he did so to honor his father. He started performing under the name "Memphis Slim" later that year but continued to publish songs under the name Peter Chatman.
He spent most of the 1930s performing in honky-tonks, dance halls, and gambling joints in West Memphis, Arkansas, and southeast Missouri. He settled in Chicago in 1939 and began teaming with the guitarist and singer Big Bill Broonzy in clubs soon afterwards. In 1940 and 1941, he recorded two songs for Bluebird Records that became part of his repertoire for decades, "Beer Drinking Woman" and "Grinder Man Blues". These were released under the name "Memphis Slim," given to him by Bluebird's producer, Lester Melrose. Slim became a regular session musician for Bluebird, and his piano talents supported established stars such as John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Washboard Sam, and Jazz Gillum. Many of Slim's recordings and performances until the mid-1940s were with Broonzy, who had recruited Slim to be his piano player after the death of his accompanist Joshua Altheimer in 1940.
After World War II, Slim began leading bands that generally included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues. With the decline of blues recording by the major labels, Slim worked with emerging independent labels. Starting in late 1945, he recorded with trios for the small Chicago-based Hy-Tone Records.[8] With a lineup of alto saxophone, tenor sax, piano, and string bass (Willie Dixon played the instrument on the first session), he signed with the Miracle label in the fall of 1946. One of the songs recorded at the first session was the ebullient boogie "Rockin' the House," from which his band would take its name. Slim and the House Rockers recorded mainly for Miracle through 1949, with some commercial success.[1] Among the songs they recorded were "Messin' Around" (which reached number one on the R&B charts in 1948) and "Harlem Bound".[9] In 1947, the day after producing a concert by Slim, Broonzy, and Williamson at New York City's Town Hall, the folklorist Alan Lomax brought the three musicians to the Decca Records studios and recorded with Slim on vocal and piano. Lomax presented sections of this recording on BBC Radio in the early 1950s as a documentary, The Art of the Negro, and later released an expanded version as the LP Blues in the Mississippi Night. ...
Source: Article "Memphis Slim" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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John Barrowman
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Scot Barrowman (born 11 March 1967) is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical performer and media personality, best known on British television for his acting and presenting work for the BBC and for his role as Captain Jack Harkness in the science fiction series Doctor Who and Torchwood. Barrowman and his family emigrated to the United States when he was nine years old. Growing up in Illinois, his high school teachers encouraged his love for music and theatre and he studied performing arts at the United States International University in San Diego before visiting Britain and landing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes in London's West End.
As a television presenter and guest, Barrowman has appeared in a variety of light entertainment shows, including Live & Kicking and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical talent shows Any Dream Will Do, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, and I'd Do Anything. Barrowman was a contestant on the celebrity ice skating show Dancing on Ice and was a guest act for the Royal Variety Performance. In 1998, Barrowman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and in 2006 he was voted Stonewall's "Entertainer of the Year".
In addition to appearing in several films and television series, Barrowman has featured on more than a dozen musical theatre recordings including cover tunes found on his 2007 album Another Side, and 2008's Music Music Music. Both albums reached the UK Top 40, as did his 2010 self-titled album, which reached number 11, his highest chart placing to date.
With his sister as co-author, Barrowman has published two memoirs and autobiographies, Anything Goes (2008) and I Am What I Am (2009).
Description above from the Wikipedia article John Barrowman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Seidi Haarla
Biography
Seidi Helena Alexandra Haarla (born January 1, 1984) is a Finnish actress. She played the female lead in Juho Kuosmanen's film Compartment No. 6 (2021). She won the European Film Promotion (EFP) Shooting Stars Award for her role as one of the most promising film actors of the year.
Haarla was born in 1984 in Kirkkonummi in southern Finland. She comes from a family of actors and artists. Her father is artist Teuri Haarla (* 1955). Her younger sister Ruusu Haarla (* 1989) is a playwright and director. Her grandparents were actor Saulo Haarla (1930–1971) and soprano and actress Helena Salonius (1930–2012); her great-grandparents include stage actress Tyyne Haarla (1892–1968) and writer Lauri Haarla (1890–1944).
In 2004, Haarla appeared in a student theater group in Helsinki. In 2005, she studied acting at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in Saint Petersburg. She graduated from University of the Arts Helsinki in 2015 with a Master of Arts in Theater and Drama.
Together with her sister Ruusu, Haarla wrote the plays The Trauma Body (2014) and New Childhood (2020), which were inspired by her own childhood experiences, and she also appeared on stage in their productions.
Haarla has appeared in Finnish film and television productions since 2015. In 2021, she took on the female leading role of Laura in Juho Kuosmanen's film drama Compartment No. 6, which is based on Rosa Liksom's novel of the same name. Her performance earned her critical acclaim and an award as one of the European Shooting Stars 2021. Haarla was nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards 2021.
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Marek Vašut
Biography
Marek Vašut (born May 5, 1960) is a Czech film, stage, and television actor, best known for his appearances in Solomon Kane and Blade II. He voiced the character Tommy Angelo for the Czech version of the video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. Vašut later reprised his role as Tommy in the 2020 remake Mafia: Definitive Edition.
Vašut had first travelled to New York City to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Vašut also attended and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Source: Article "Marek Vašut" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Tony Bill
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Gerard Anthony "Tony" Bill (born 23 August 1940) is an American actor, producer, and director. He produced the 1973 movie The Sting, for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips. The Sting became one of the highest grossing films in history.
He majored in English and art at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, from which he graduated in 1962. Bill began his career as an actor in the 60s, first appearing on screen as Frank Sinatra's ingenuous younger brother in Come Blow Your Horn (1963). Bill specialized in likeable but none-too-bright juveniles and young leads. His acting credits include None But the Brave (1965), You're A Big Boy Now (1966), Never a Dull Moment (1968), Ice Station Zebra (1968), Shampoo (1975), The Little Dragons (1980), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), and Less Than Zero (1987).
Bill continued to act in TV-movies, miniseries, and guest spots though with decreasing frequency as he segued into directing. He appeared in the 1966 episode "Chaff In The Wind" of the long running western The Virginian. He then appeared in 1967 episode "The Predators" of NBC's western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan.
In 1980, Bill directed his first film, My Bodyguard. From there he went on to direct Six Weeks (1982), Five Corners (1987), Crazy People (1990) A Home of Our Own (1993), and Flyboys (2006) which Bill claims was one of the first features shot entirely with digital cameras. In television Bill directed Truman Capote's One Christmas, Harlan County War, and Pictures of Hollis Woods, among others.
In 2009, Bill published the book Movie Speak: How to Talk Like You Belong on a Film Set. The book traces the etymology of the language of the movie set and is filled out with stories from the Bill's career in film.
From 1984-2000, he co-owned with Dudley Moore the celebrated 72 Market Street, a restaurant in Venice, California.
He is married to his second wife, the former Helen Buck Bartlett, his producer/partner in Barnstorm Films in Venice. The couple have two daughters, Madeline and Daphne.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Tony Bill, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Rakesh Bedi
Biography
Rakesh Bedi is an Indian film, stage and television actor. He is most known for his comedy roles in films such as Chashme Buddoor (1981), the television series, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984), Shrimaan Shrimati (1995) and Yes Boss (1999–2009).
Bedi started his film career as a supporting actor in the 1979 film Hamare Tumhare, starring Sanjeev Kumar, and then went on to act in over 150 films and several TV serials. Some of his most memorable roles were in the 1981 film Chashme Buddoor with Farooq Shaikh, Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Ravi Baswani and in the TV sitcoms Shrimaan Shrimati (1995), Yes Boss and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984), written by Sharad Joshi and directed by Kundan Shah. He had a minor role in Gulzar's Mere Apne, and has acted in a number of Punjabi movies, including Main Tu Assi Tussi.
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Michael B. Silver
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Buchman Silver (born July 8, 1967) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Assistant District Attorney Leo Cohen in the television series NYPD Blue. As of summer 2019, Silver has recurring roles on both NBC's The InBetween and CBS' Instinct. Silver was born in New York City, the brother of writer Amanda Silver and the grandson of Oscar-winning screenwriter Sidney Buchman. Silver is a graduate of Brown University.
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Odile Versois
Biography
Odile Versois (born Étiennette de Poliakoff-Baydaroff; 15 June 1930 – 23 June 1980) was a French actress who appeared in 47 film and television productions between 1948 and 1980. Versois was the sister of actresses Marina Vlady, Hélène Vallier and Olga Baïdar-Poliakoff. Their father, Vladimir, was a noted opera singer of Russian descent, and their mother, Militza Envald Voropanoff, was a dancer. Born in Paris, she began acting as a child and for a while pursued a ballet career.
Versois married actor Jacques René Dacqmine (30 November 1923 – 29 March 2010; The Queen's Necklace) in 1951 but the couple divorced a year later. She had four children by her second husband, Comte François Reynier Ambroise Henri Pozzo di Borgo, whom she married in 1953 but also divorced. She died in 1980 in Paris of cancer shortly after her 50th birthday.
Source: Article "Odile Versois" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Nelli Podgornaya
Biography
Nelli Podgornaya is a Soviet and Russian theatre actress. In 1950, she came to Moscow from Leningrad and entered the acting department of the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School, graduated in 1954 and in the same year was admitted to the Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army, to which she was faithful for 57 years.
She made her film debut in 1955 as Klavdiya in "The Rumyantsev Case", directed by Iosif Kheifits, who praised the professionalism of the aspiring actress. This work immediately brought fame to the young artist and became her calling card for life. Since the theater did not approve of the long absence of the actress on the set, she eventually devoted herself entirely to work on stage, refusing all subsequent offers in the cinema, and as a result, played in only three films in the late 1950s.
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