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Campbell Cooley

Biography

Early life He attended the University of Louisville where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre. For several years he worked as a stage actor and director. Acting career In 1997, he moved into acting for film and television. In 1998 (during a four-month period), he played three different villainous roles on Xena: Warrior Princess. One of the roles gave him the distinction of being victim to Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) in the "infamous Drool scene", is named by Xena fans, from the episode, In Sickness and In Hell. In 2005 he appeared in New Zealand's medical soap opera Shortland Street as nurse 'Liam Todd', caregiver to Dr. Chris Warner's twin sister, Amanda Warner (Marissa Stott). In 2007 he got his first major role in the Power Rangers franchise, the new voice of Alpha 6 in the Operation Overdrive episode “Once a Ranger”. He would go on to villainous voice Admiral Malkor in Power Rangers Megaforce, Snide in Power Rangers Dino Super Charge, Galaxy Warriors host Cosmo Royale and Ripcon in Power Rangers Ninja Steel and Super Ninja Steel and Scrozzle in Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
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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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Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina

Biography

Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (born in M'sila in 1934) is an Algerian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1975 film Chronicle of the Years of Fire. He is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Arabic cinema. Born in 1934 at M'Sila, Algeria, Lakhdar began his studies in his native country. He first became interested in the world of cinema at the Lycée Carnot in Cannes, France. After beginning studies of agriculture and law at French universities, he deserted the French Army in 1958 and joined the anti-French Algerian Resistance in Tunisia, where he worked for the provisional Algerian government in exile. His film career began as he joined the Algerian Maquis (guerrillas). In 1959, the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) sent him to Prague, where he pursued his cinematography studies at the cinema school, Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Czech academy for cinema and television. However, he quit his studies in order to work for the Barrandov Studios. In 1960 he joined the Service Cinema, created by the Algerian government in exile. In 1959, the Algerian ministry of information in exile commissioned Lakhdar-Hamina, together with Djamel Chanderli and Pierre Chaulet, to produce a movie about Algeria's predicament under French colonialism. The documentary film, titled Djazzaïrouna (Our Algeria), aimed at portraying the goals pursued by the Algerian nationalist guerrilla movement, the Maquis. In 1961, Lakhdar-Hamina collaborated with Chanderli in the movie Yasmina, which tells the story of a refugee girl who must flee her village following its destruction. Lakhdar-Hamina collaborated again with Chanderli in the 1962 The people's voice and 1961 The guns of freedom. Upon Algerian independence in 1962, he returned to his homeland where, together with his colleagues from Tunisian exile, he founded the Office des actualités algériennes, of which he was director from 1963 until its dissolution in 1974. From 1981 until 1984 he acted as director of the Office National pour le Commerce et l'Industrie Cinématographique, the most important institution for furtherance of the French film industry. One of his most recent films, The last image, was part of the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and was nominated for the Golden Palm. Lakhdar-Hamina's son, Malik Lakhdar-Hamina, became well known after the release of his first long film, Autumn: October in Algiers (1992), a film that explores the riots of October 1988 through the microcosm of an Algerian family split by a Westernized versus Islamicized view of contemporary Algeria. His other son, Tariq Lakhdar-Hamina, is a film producer. From its inception, Algerian cinema was intertwined with the ideological and existential debates that surrounded the Algerian war of independence and the postcolonial nation-building stage. In this context, Lakhdar-Hamina's cinematographic career has significantly contributed to the development of a new filmic language characteristic of contemporary Maghrebi cinema in general and Algerian in particular, notably distinct from the filmic experiences of other Arab countries and most particularly of the Egyptian cinematic industry. ... Source: Article "Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Jiang Luxia

Biography

Jiang Luxia is the Nationalwide Wushu Champion in Shaolin quan in China. She is also a China State "Wuying Level" Sportsman; a State Martial Arts Repertoires A-level Referee; the Chief Trainer in the "Practical Ladies Self-Defense" program on CCTV.com and the Vice Chaiperson of the Beijing Sports University Wushu Association. She is also excellent in Martial Arts Repertoire, Practical Self-Defense, Qiqong, Taijiquan and Crossbow techniques. From February 2007 onwards, Jiang has uploaded videos of herself on the Internet under ID of "Mao Er Bao Bei". So far, the "Mao Er Bao Bei" series has recorded a click rate of over 25 million and was being searched for over 4 million times. "Mao Er Bao Bei" has ranked Top N°4 by the Google search engine in 2007. This record has way surpassed many of the other "web stars" from before. Commonly known as "Mao Er Bao Bei", Jiang is most loved by the Internet fans for her healthy and positive image. Due to the popularity of the "Mao Er Bao Bei" video series, each of her new videos is often featured on the home pages of many video portals and websites in order to attract the web viewers !
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Timothy Spall

Biography

Timothy Leonard Spall (born February 27, 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Spall performed in Secrets & Lies (1996), and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Subsequently, he starred in many films, including Hamlet (1996), Still Crazy (1998), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Enchanted (2007), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Damned United (2009), The King's Speech (2010), Ginger and Rosa (2012), Denial (2016), and The Party (2017). He voiced Nick, a cynical, portly rat in Chicken Run (2000). He played Peter Pettigrew in five Harry Potter films, from Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010). Spall has collaborated with director Mike Leigh, making six films together: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). Spall won great acclaim for his performance in the last of these for his portrayal as J. M. W. Turner winning him the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. He starred in the television documentary Timothy Spall: ...at Sea (2010–2012) and in 2019 he appeared as Lord Arthur Wallington in the 6-part BBC Cold War drama Summer of Rockets.
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Viire Valdma

Biography

Viire Valdma (born August 29, 1960) is an Estonian stage, television and film actress. In 1981, Vire Valdma made her feature film debut as Reet Pärn in the Peeter Simm directed drama Ideaalmaastik. The film was based on a novel by Karl Helemäe in which a member of the Young Communist League arrives at a collective farm and has to decide whether to follow the wisdom of the villagers, or the orders of Communist party authorities. This was followed by the role of Milla in the 1983 Kaljo Kiisk directed Nipernaadi for Tallinnfilm; the film was an adaptation of August Gailit's 1928 influential novel Toomas Nipernaadi. In 1989, she had a small role in the Leia Laius directed drama Varastatud kohtumine, about a mother who was released from a Soviet prison camp and tries to reconcile with her son. The same year, she appeared in the Mikk Mikiver directed drama Doktor Stockmann. In 1990, she appeared as the character Liivi in the Aimée Beekman and Vladimir Beekman penned, Kaljo Kiisk directed drama Regina. Following her appearance in Regina, Valdma would concentrate on her stage career and not appear in another film until a small role in 2002's Marko Raat directed political thriller Agent Sinikael, starring Mait Malmsten and Kersti Heinloo. In 2003, she appeared in the role of Imbi in the Rando Pettai directed, Peep Pedmanson penned comedy Vanad ja kobedad saavad jalad alla (English release title: Made in Estonia). The film was based on the popular Estonian radio-serial and television comedy series Vanad ja kobedad. In 2007, she returned to film as Liina in the Andres Maimik and Rain Tolk directed road movie comedy Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse; a film that portrays Estonian actor Jan Uuspõld as a down-on-his-luck caricature of himself trying to hitchhike from Tallinn to Tartu to perform in a role at the Vanemuine theatre. That same year she played the role of Kärt in the Rainer Sarnet directed drama Kuhu põgenevad hinged, starring Ragne Veensalu. The film was produced by Exitfilm and based on the novel Mis sinuga juhtus, Ann? by Aidi Vallik about a troubled teenage girl whose brother is born with a heart defect. In 2018, she appeared as Imbi, the mother of a young woman who abandons her infant in the Liina Triškina-Vanhatalo-directed Allfilm drama Võta või jäta. Valdma has also appeared in a number of film shorts and student films
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Giuseppe De Santis

Biography

Giuseppe De Santis (11 February 1917 – 16 May 1997) was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social reform. In 1942, De Santis collaborated on the script for Ossessione, Luchino Visconti's debut film, which is usually considered one of the first neo-realist films. His third film Bitter Rice (1950), the story of a young woman working in the rice fields who must choose between two socially disparate suitors, made a star of Silvana Mangano and was a landmark of the new cinematic style. It also earned De Santis an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story.
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Grahame Bond

Biography

Grahame Bond (born 21 November 1943) is an Australian comic actor, writer, presenter and composer, known primary for his role as Aunty Jack. He studied architecture at Sydney University and performed in university revues. He graduated in 1967 and was a commercial jingle writer before creating his memorable Goons-inspired character Aunty Jack for an ABC children's radio show. The character was aired in an episode of The Comedy Game in 1971 and the following year The Aunty Jack Show became a cult smash on the ABC. In the 1990s Bond hosted the Channel Seven game show Whose House is it Anyway, and was a presenter on the popular Seven lifestyle series Better Homes and Gardens for six years.
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Anthony Ross

Biography

Anthony Ross (February 23, 1909 – October 26, 1955) was a Broadway stage, television and film actor. Born in New York City, he may be best remembered for being the first to play the character of "the Gentleman Caller" in the original 1944 production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Ross appeared in 20th Century Fox films including Kiss of Death (1947) and The Gunfighter (1950); in the Nicholas Ray-directed film noir, On Dangerous Ground (1952), and in the popular serial Mysterious Island (1951). He appeared in many television productions, including the 1954 CBS series The Telltale Clue in which he starred as police Captain Richard Hale. Ross died at age 46 of a heart attack in 1955. Description above from the Wikipedia article Anthony Ross, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Patricia Barry

Biography

Patricia received her first break into acting very soon after she graduated from Stephens College in the mid 1940s. Almost immediately after graduating, she received a contract from Columbus Pictures. They recognized that she had the rare combination of beauty, grace and intelligence that would serve her well throughout her long and well-respected career. When she first signed with Colombia Pictures, she was known as Patricia White. A few years later, in the late 1940s, she met Philip Barry, Jr., who was to become her husband. Philip was a television producer/director and the son and namesake of the well-known playwright, Philip Barry. By 1950, Patricia began using her married name, Barry. Patricia and her husband Philip shared a long and happy marriage that only ended upon his death on May 16, 1998. During their marriage, they collaborated on several projects. Her husband Philip wrote and she acted in episodes of Matinee Theater in the late 1950s. Her husband also produced several television programs that she acted in. They include: The Alcoa Hour, a major dramatic TV series than ran from 1955-1957, a well-known TV horror film called Crowhaven Farm (1970) and two a made-for-TV biographies, First You Cry (1978), and Bogie (1980). Patricia Barry may well be one of the hardest working actresses of her time. She has performed over 130 movie and television roles to date.
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