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Sean Connery

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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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Jacques Charon

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Jacques Charon (27 February 1920 – 15 October 1975) was a French actor and film director. Born in Paris, Charon trained at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique (CNSAD) and made his début at the Comédie-Française in 1941. During his time there which lasted until his death, he played over 150 roles in the classical and modern repertoire. Charon directed the 1968 feature film A Flea in Her Ear and the 1973 television movie Monsieur Pompadour. He played Spalanzani in the complete recording of The Tales of Hoffmann (Decca, 1971). Charon died in Paris and is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre. Source: Article "Jacques Charon" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Eadweard Muybridge

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Edward James Muggeridge, known by the pseudonym Eadweard Muybridge (April 9, 1830, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom - ibid., May 8, 1904) was an English-American photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. Today, Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878, which used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-motion photographs. In the 1880s, he entered a very productive period at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, producing over 100,000 images of animals and humans in motion.
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Gisèle Halimi

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Gisèle Halimi (born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) was a Tunisian-French lawyer, politician, essayist and feminist activist. Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb was born in La Goulette, Tunisia, on 27 July 1927 to a modest, practicing Jewish Berber family (to Edouard and Fortunée "Fritna" Taïeb). She was educated at a French lycée in Tunis, and then attended the University of Paris, graduating in law and philosophy. Her childhood and the ways in which she blends a Jewish-Muslim identity are discussed in her memoir, Le lait de l'oranger. She was first married to Paul Halimi and then to Claude Faux. She died the day after her 93rd birthday, on 28 July 2020. In 1948, Halimi qualified as a lawyer and, after eight years at the Tunis bar, moved to practise at the Paris bar in 1956. She acted as a counsel for the Algerian National Liberation Front, most notably for the activist Djamila Boupacha in 1960, who had been raped and tortured by French soldiers, and wrote a book in 1961 (with an introduction by Simone de Beauvoir) to plead her case. She also defended Basque individuals accused of crimes committed during the conflict in Basque Country, and was counsel in many cases related to women's issues, such as the 1972 Bobigny abortion trial (of a 17-year-old accused of procuring an abortion after having been raped), which attracted national attention. In 1967, she chaired the Russell Tribunal, which was initiated by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre to investigate and evaluate American military action in Vietnam. In 1971, she founded the feminist group Choisir (transl. To Choose) to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343 admitting to having illegal abortions, of which she was one. In 1972 Choisir formed itself into a clearly reformist body, and the campaign greatly influenced the passing of the law allowing contraception and abortion carried through by Simone Veil in 1974. In 1981, she was elected to the French National Assembly, as an independent Socialist, and was Deputy for Isère until 1984. Between 1985 and 1987 she was a French legate to UNESCO. In 1998, she was a founding member of ATTAC. Source: Article "Gisèle Halimi" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Laura Branigan

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single "Gloria", stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at No. 2. It also reached number one in Australia and Canada. In 1984, she reached number one in Canada and Germany with the U.S. No. 4 hit "Self Control". She also had success in the United Kingdom with both "Gloria" and "Self Control" making the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. Seeing her greatest level of success in the 1980s, Branigan's other singles included the Top 10 hit "Solitaire" (1983), the U.S. AC chart number one "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" (1983), the Australian No. 2 hit "Ti amo" (1984), and "The Power of Love" (1987). Her most successful album was 1984's platinum-selling Self Control. She also contributed songs to motion picture and television soundtracks, including the Grammy and Academy Award-winning Flashdance soundtrack (1983), and the Ghostbusters soundtrack (1984). In 1985, she won the Tokyo Music Festival with the song "The Lucky One". Her chart success began to wane as the decade closed and after her last two albums Laura Branigan (1990) and Over My Heart (1993) garnered little attention, she generally retired from public life for the rest of the 1990s. She began returning to performing in the early 2000s, most notably appearing as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis. As she was recording new music and preparing a comeback to the music industry, she died at her home in August 2004 from a previously undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm.
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Kaoru Maeda

Biography

is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by the ring name Kaoru (stylized in all capital letters). Billed as the "Original Hardcore Queen", Kaoru is known for her wrestling style, which combines high-flying with hardcore wrestling. Trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, Maeda worked in both Japan and Mexico in the late 80s and early 90s, before making her breakthrough in the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably was a founding member of the D-Fix stable. After the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Maeda became a freelancer, though closely affiliating herself with the Oz Academy promotion. After returning from a three-year-long injury break Finally, in the fifth fall of the match, Ozaki dropped Kaoru with a brainbuster off a ladder through a barbed-wire board to win the fall and the match. In order to reduce Ozaki-gun's numbers advantage over her, Kaoru began teaming with Jungle Jack 21 in 2010, though not officially joining the stable. After defeating Ozaki-gun member Yumi Ohka with Mayumi Ozaki's signature Ozakick on May 16, Kaoru defeated another former stablemate, Takako Inoue, on June 13 to become the number one contender to the Oz Academy Openweight Championship On July 11, Kaoru defeated Carlos Amano to win the Oz Academy Openweight Championship, becoming the promotion's top champion. She made her first title defense on August 22, defeating Mayumi Ozaki in a Last Woman Standing match. Her second defense took place on November 3, when she defeated Takako Inoue.On February 19, 2011, Kaoru made her third successful defense, defeating Jungle Jack 21 member Ran Yu-Yu.On April 10, Kaoru, Aja Kong and Mayumi Ozaki faced each other in a three-way two-fall match, where Kaoru put her title and Kong and Ozaki the futures of their respective stables on the line. During the first fall, Kaoru fractured her calcaneus when diving out of the ring onto Kong and was unable to continue the match, resulting in the referee declaring the match a no contest and stripping Kaoru of the Oz Academy Openweight Championship, ending her reign at 273 days.Kaoru underwent surgery four days later.Her recovery was slowed down by her developing an osteomyelitis. Marvelous (2015–present) On January 18, 2015, it was announced that Maeda had signed with Chigusa Nagayo's Marvelous promotion, officially ending her days as a freelancer. On August 23, Kaoru made her debut for World Wonder Ring Stardom, when she entered the 2015 5★Star GP as a representative of Marvelous.She finished the tournament on September 13 with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, failing to advance to the finals due to losing to Kairi Hojo in the head-to-head match.On October 16, 2016, Kaoru and Dash Chisako defeated Hikaru Shida and Syuri to win the vacant Sendai Girls World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Shida and Syuri in a rematch on November 23.Kaoru and Chisako regained the vacant title on September 24, 2017, by defeating Alex Lee and Mika Shirahime
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James Brolin

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James Brolin (born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin; July 18, 1940) is an American actor, producer and director. He has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is best known for his TV roles such as Steven Kiley on Marcus Welby, M.D.(1969–1976), Peter McDermott on Hotel (1983–1988), John Short on Life in Pieces (2015–2019), and the Narrator on Sweet Tooth and his film roles such as Sgt. Jerome K. Weber in Skyjacked (1972), John Blane in Westworld (1973), General Ralph Landry in Traffic (2000),[2] Jack Barnes in Catch Me If You Can (2002), and Emperor Zurg in the 2022 Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear. In 1966, he married Jane Cameron Agee, a wildlife activist and aspiring actress at Twentieth Century Fox, 12 days after they first met. The couple had two children, actor Josh Brolin (b. 1968), and Jess (b. 1973). They were divorced in 1984. In 1985, he met actress Jan Smithers on the set of Hotel, and they married in 1986. The couple had a daughter, Molly Elizabeth (b. 1987). Smithers filed for divorce from Brolin in 1995. In 1996, he met singer and actress Barbra Streisand through a friend, and they married on July 1, 1998. He is stepfather of Streisand's only child, Jason Gould.
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Sheila

Biography

Sheila (born Annie Chancel, 16 August 1945) is a French pop singer who became successful as a solo artist in the 1960s and 1970s, and was also part of the duo Sheila & Ringo with her husband singer Ringo. She also fronted a disco act called Sheila and B. Devotion. Her stage name came from the title of her first release, a French cover version of "Sheila", a hit by Tommy Roe. Throughout her career, Sheila has sold more than 85 million records worldwide. Sheila started her musical career in 1962, after being noticed by Claude Carrère, a French record producer and songwriter. Her parents signed a contract with Carrère for her, when she was 16; the contract led to an artistic collaboration which lasted for more than 20 years. In 1995, a lawsuit put an end to this life-time deal. She entered into a long royalties battle against her former producer, which she won. Sheila had numerous hits in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, playing the typical 'girl next door'. Her first hit was "L'école est finie" ("School is over"), in 1962 (1 million copies). It reached the #1 position in France. In the movie, Eight Women, Ludivine Sagnier sang her 1963 hit "Papa t'es plus dans l'coup" ("Daddy, you are not in on it anymore"). Sheila's music also featured in the 1996 François Ozon film Une robe d'été (A Summer Dress). The character Sébastien is a fan of Sheila, and Sheila's version of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" was on the soundtrack. "Les rois mages" also featured in "Ma vie en rose", a 1997 gender-bender film, "Love me baby", in 1978, "Attention les enfants regardent", with Alain Delon, "Spacer" in "Podium" (2004). After more than a decade of targeting the French teen music audience, mainly in French but also in Spanish, German and Italian, Sheila made a change in her career by releasing "Les Femmes (Qu'y a-t-il dans le cœur des femmes)", a song by Christine Charbonneau in 1976. "Les Femmes" climbed to number one and stayed in the chart for three months. "Les Femmes" brought to Sheila a revolution of modernity, making her one of the idols of the French pop music. In 1977, she started singing in English as Sheila and B. Devotion (in some countries records were under the name "Sheila B. Devotion") and changed her style to disco music. Sheila was accompanied by three male dancers who made up the "Black Devotion" in her routine. She enjoyed international success with hits such as "Singin' in the Rain", "Love Me Baby", "You Light my Fire" and "Spacer" (from the album King of the World, produced by Chic). "Spacer" is one of her biggest hits with more than 5 million copies sold worldwide. According to different interviews, she often said her experience with Chic completely changed her way of working and singing. It was the beginning of a deep artistic disagreement with her French manager Carrère, which made Sheila leave France, move to New York "to start all over again" and studied at the Actors Studio. After her disco period, in 1981, Sheila (without the "B. Devotion" gimmick) recorded the rock album Little Darlin', produced by Keith Olsen, and was back in the U.S. Billboard chart. The title song became her only U.S. Billboard Hot 100 hit, reaching #49 in early 1982. ... Source: Article "Sheila (French singer)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Kalpana

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Kalpana Priyadarshini (13 October 1965 – 25 January 2016), known mononymously as Kalpana, was an Indian film actress best known for her work in South Indian films, primarily Malayalam and Tamil films. Kalpana has acted in over 300 films in various South Indian languages. Kalpana started off her career as a child artist in the late 1970s. Although she came into the industry with the intention of being a lead actress, she turned out to be popular for her comic roles among the audience. At the 60th National Film Awards, she won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Thanichalla Njan (2012) On 25 January 2016, she she died of heart attack.
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Kip Pardue

Biography

Kevin Ian "Kip" Pardue (born September 23, 1975) is an American actor and model best known for his roles in the films Remember the Titans, Driven, The Rules of Attraction, and Thirteen. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he attended Dunwoody High School in Atlanta. He qualified for the Honor Roll with a 3.6 GPA in junior high and was treasurer of the French Club during his freshman year of high school. The name "Kip" comes from the initials of his full name. After graduating from Yale University where he played football, he was discovered by Molly Ringwald's publicist. He has been a model for Armani, Polo, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He was named by Armani Exchange as one of the "Top 10 Upcoming Actors" in 2001. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kip Pardue, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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