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José Carreras

Biography

Josep Maria Carreras Coll (Catalan: [ʒuˈzɛb məˈɾi.ə kəˈreɾəs ˈkɔʎ]; born 5 December 1946), better known as José Carreras (/kəˈrɛərəs/, Spanish: [xoˈse kaˈreɾas]), is a Spanish operatic tenor who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Born in Barcelona, he made his debut on the operatic stage at 11 as Trujamán in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro, and went on to a career that encompassed over 60 roles, performing in the world's leading opera houses and on numerous recordings. He gained fame with a wider audience as one of the Three Tenors, with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, in a series of large concerts from 1990 to 2003. He is also known for his humanitarian work as president of the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation (La Fundació Internacional Josep Carreras per a la Lluita contra la Leucèmia), which he established following his own recovery from the disease in 1988. Carreras was born in Sants, a working-class district in Barcelona. He was the youngest of Antònia Coll i Saigi and Josep Carreras i Soler's three children. In 1951, his family emigrated to Argentina in search of a better life. However, this move abroad proved unsuccessful, and within a year they had returned to Sants where Carreras was to spend the rest of his childhood and teenage years. He showed an early talent for music and particularly singing, which intensified at the age of six when he saw Mario Lanza in The Great Caruso. The story recounted in his autobiography and numerous interviews is that after seeing the film, Carreras sang the arias incessantly to his family, especially "La donna è mobile", often locking himself in the family's bathroom when they became exasperated with his impromptu concerts. At that point, his parents, with the encouragement of his grandfather Salvador Coll, an amateur baritone, found the money for music lessons for him. At first he studied piano and voice with Magda Prunera, the mother of one of his childhood friends, and at the age of eight, he also started taking music lessons at Barcelona's Municipal Conservatory. At just eight years old, he also gave his first public performance, singing "La donna è mobile", accompanied by Magda Prunera on the piano, on Spanish National Radio. A recording of this still exists and can be heard on the video biography, José Carreras – A Life Story. On 3 January 1958, at the age of eleven, he made his debut in Barcelona's great opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, singing the boy soprano role of Trujamán in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro. A few months later, he sang for the last time as a boy soprano at the Liceu in the second act of La Bohème. Throughout his teenage years, he continued to study music, moving on to the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu and taking private voice lessons, first with Francisco Puig and later with Juan Ruax, whom Carreras has described as his "artistic father". Following the advice of his father and brother, who felt that he needed a "backup" career, he also entered the University of Barcelona to study chemistry, but after two years he left the university to concentrate on singing. ... Source: Article "José Carreras" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Betty Pei Ti

Biography

Betty Pei Ti (Chinese: 貝蒂; pinyin: Bèidì; born 10 November 1951) is a Chinese actress. Though born in Taiwan, she is best known for her roles in Hong Kong films, particularly of the Shaw Brothers Studio. She was born Han Pai-chou (韩白绸) in Yilan City, Taiwan. In 1971, while touring Hong Kong with a Chinese arts troupe, she came to the attention of director Chor Yuen.[1] He asked her to star opposite Lily Ho [fr] in Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, the Shaw Brothers' first gay (lesbian) film, released in 1972.[2] Betty Pei Ti's performance endeared her to the studio, and she was persuaded to stay in Hong Kong and make movies. In the course of the 1970s, she became more active in Taiwanese cinema and by the end of the decade appeared exclusively in Taiwanese films. She continued acting in films until 1981.
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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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Fatih Akin

Biography

Fatih Akın (born 25 August 1973) is a Turkish-German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent. He has won numerous awards for his films, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film Head-On (2004), Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Edge of Heaven (2007), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film In the Fade (2017). Akin was born in Hamburg to Turkish parents. He has one brother, Cem Akin, who works as an actor. He attended the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg to study visual communications and graduated in 2000. Akin has been married to German-Mexican actress Monique Obermüller since 2004. The couple live in Hamburg-Altona, close to where he was raised. They have two children. Akin made his debut as director of a full-length film as early as 1998 with Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos), which brought him the "Bronze Leopard" award at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and the "Pierrot", the Bavarian Film Award for Best New Director in Munich the same year. Since then he has directed feature films such as In July (Im Juli) in 2000, We forgot to go back (Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren) in 2001 and Solino in 2002. His fourth film, Head-On (Gegen die Wand), starring Sibel Kekilli, was a major success in 2004 and received several prizes, among them the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and the "Best Film" and the "Audience Award" at the 2004 European Film Awards. In 2005, he directed a documentary about the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, which includes musicians such as Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Aynur Doğan and Brenna MacCrimmon. It is narrated by a member of a German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke, who also produced music for Head-On. In 2007, Akin's The Edge of Heaven, a German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won the prize for Best Screenplay at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007. On 24 October 2007 the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament. About the comedy Soul Kitchen (2009) he has said he chose this more light-hearted film because he needed a break after making the "tough" films Head-On and The Edge of Heaven before making his next planned film The Devil. "But", he says, "now I feel ready to finish the trilogy". In 2012, his documentary film Polluting Paradise was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. His 2014 film The Cut has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In 2017, his film In the Fade was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes that year, Diane Kruger won the Best Actress award. The film was subsequently selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist. In the Fade won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Description above from the Wikipedia article Fatih Akin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Mason Cook

Biography

Mason Cook Birth Name Mason Cook Elston (Born July 25, 2000 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States) is an American child actor. He is known for his portrayal of Cecil Wilson in Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, for which he was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor in 2011. Filmography The Middle 2009, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 2011, Treasure Buddies 2012, Wyatt Earp's Revenge 2012, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone 2013, The Lone Ranger 2013.
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Suehyla El-Attar

Biography

Suehyla El-Attar Young is an actor/writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She's worked with many theatre companies across the Atlanta area in both capacities, including but not limited to: The Alliance Theatre Company, Theatre du Reve, and Working Title Playwrights. She's an artistic associate with Synchronicity Theatre and is currently working on a commission for Horizon Theatre, via a grant from the MAP fund. Her secret passion is providing scripts for teens to perform and to see; she'd like to be the John Hughes of High school Theatre...simply because she believes we should get them young. She's accomplished this with her two scripts, FISHBOWL and DESPERADOES. Her acting career is attempting a spread from the stage to the screen, at the moment.
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Emilio Linder

Biography

Emilio Linder (Buenos Aires, 1949) is an Argentine actor, musician and presenter, resident in Spain since 1973. His artistic career stands out above all for his participation in Flowers and Salomé, in The Lindsay Kemp Company, in 1978/79 and in various titles in the eighties and nineties, and for his appearances in series and television programs, as well as as a member of several musical groups and shows of clown, cabaret and coffee theater. His first appearances before the camera were on the small screen with supporting roles in the Spanish television series El juglar y la reina (1978) and Escrito en América (1979), With panties in hand (1981), besides intervening in the prestigious Ramón y Cajal (1982). He debuted in the cinema in 1980, with the films La mano negra, by Fernando Colomo and El gran secreto, by Pedro Mario Herrero. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Virginia Leith

Biography

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Leith (October 15, 1925 - November 4, 2019) was an American film and television actress. Leith starred in a few films, with her most productive period coming in the 1950s. Her debut in 1953 was also the first film directed by Stanley Kubrick, a self-financed art house film, Fear and Desire. She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1954 and had leading roles in films such as On the Threshold of Space, Toward the Unknown, Violent Saturday and opposite Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward in the crime drama A Kiss Before Dying. She left show business following her 1960 marriage to actor Donald Harron. After her divorce from Harron, in the 1970s Leith resumed her career and appeared in a few films and on television shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Barnaby Jones, and Baretta. She left the screen again in the early 1980s. Her most recognizable role may have been that of a decapitated woman whose head is kept alive in The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
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Sara Montpetit

Biography

Sara Montpetit is a Canadian actress and environmental activist from Quebec. She is most noted for her performance in the 2021 film Maria Chapdelaine, for which she won the Prix Iris for Revelation of the Year at the 24th Quebec Cinema Awards. In 2021 she was cast in Charlotte Le Bon's film Falcon Lake, which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. In 2022 she was cast in Ariane Louis-Seize's Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant), which came out in 2023. She received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Film at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023, for her performance in Falcon Lake.
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Ágata Lys

Biography

Actress (b. Valladolid, Spain, Dec. 3, 1953). After having studied simultaneously Philosophy and Art and Speech (both careers remained unfinished), she became a household name overnight as one of the pretty and "bespectacled" hostesses of the top-rated TV contest "1, 2, 3, Responda Otra Vez", where she popularized what was going to be her early screen persona: platinum blonde-dyed hair, provocative ways and a sensuality always ready to break out. She made her film debut in 1972, at 19, and acquired an enormous popularity thanks to her tremendous sex-appeal and a clever promotion campaign that exploited a certain similarity between her looks and those of the late Marilyn Monroe to the extent of making a successful movie named precisely "The New Marilyn" (1976). She kept this image for a while (especially in her spectacular TV appearances in the mid-70s), but eventually got tired of it and decided to cut off her hair completely (she did it herself with a pair of scissors borrowed from a filming kit) and let it grow its natural dark colour again. Blonde or brunette, Lys grabbed a long string of femme fatale roles in films of each and every genre (thrillers, comedies, dramas, westerns, etc.) and turned into some kind of domestic myth at that time. (She also had the advantage of owning a fine diction that matched her thought-provoking voice perfectly, so, unlike some other actresses of that era, she didn't need to be dubbed.) Anyway, after leading her bold image one step further in the late 70s, she decided to stop making films and concentrate on her theatrical work, that she had started in 1973 playing Dª Inés de Ulloa in Zorrilla's "Don Juan Tenorio" with her own company. In the 1980s she focused her activity on recording music (which she did with real gusto and vocal dexterity), performing in both musical shows and dramatic or comic plays in which she displayed an image far removed from the one that shot her to fame and even making more sporadic appearances on TV (playing, for example, a splendid Portia on a small-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Merchant Of Venice"). The late 80s saw her returning to the movies and scoring some films of uneven success and quality, although she has always risen to the occasion. In any case, she is still an underestimated actress, though she has proved capable of giving such amusing characterizations as that of "Avisa A Curro Jiménez" (1978), where she seemed almost unrecognizable. Now she leads a rather reclusive life when not working (in contrast to the antics and eccentricities of her early career) and, although she has never married, she enjoys a very stable relationship with Fernando, her partner of some 20 years. Hers is really one of those examples of body-with-a-brain-on-top-to-match, and hopefully she will still be around for a large number of years. - IMDb Mini Biography By: alberto mallofré
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