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Allison Hayes
Biography
Born Mary Jane Hayes in Charleston, West Virginia, she was in the class of 1948 at Calvin Coolidge High School. Hayes won the title of Miss District of Columbia. She went on to represent D.C. in the 1949 Miss America pageant. Although she did not win the competition, it provided her with the opportunity to work in local television before moving to Hollywood to work for Universal Pictures in 1954. Taking the name Allison Hayes, she played small roles in a handful of films at Universal for a couple of years. In 1955 she filed a lawsuit against the studio over injuries she sustained while filming her second picture, SIGN OF THE PAGAN. Universal released Hayes from her contract, and she was subsequently signed by Columbia Pictures.
After appearing in a handful of Columbia films including COUNT THREE AND PRAY, MOHAWK, and WOLF DOG, Hayes was given in the lead role in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958). The film would eventually gain a cult following and become the performance for which she is best known. However, it did not escalate Hayes's career at the time. For several years she remained consistently employed in movies and on television (including an extended stint on the soap opera "General Hospital" and several appearances on her friend Raymond Burr's "Perry Mason" series).
By the mid-1960s, though, Allison Hayes's career was all but over and she was beset by health problems. She would later admit that the pain of her illness led her to contemplate suicide, and that her symptoms were not taken seriously by doctors. After reading about metal poisoning in factory workers and recognizing the similarity of the symptoms described to her own, she hired a toxicologist to test a calcium supplement she'd been using for an extended time. The tests revealed that the pills contained an extreme amount of lead, and that Hayes was likely suffering from lead poisoning. She mounted a campaign to pressure the Food and Drug Administration into banning the supplement, but her condition deteriorated to the point of total incapacity. In 1976 she was diagnosed with leukemia, and began regular cancer treatment. Allison Hayes died February 26, 1977 at the UCSD Medical Center in La Jolla, California, just short of her 47th birthday. In a letter that arrived after her death, the FDA informed her of amendments being made to the laws governing the importation of nutritional supplements, largely as a result of her advocacy.
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Khaled Zaki
Biography
Khaled Abbas Zaky is an Egyptian actor who was born in Cairo in 1950. He graduated from the High Institute of Dramatic Arts and then worked in cinema and theatre, however he is best known for his work in various roles on television series such as: “Al-dawaa’er Al-Moghlaka (The closed circles), “Zaman al-Akweyaa (The Time of the Powerful), “Al-Shahd wal-Domou’ (Honey and tears), “Al-Dabaab” (The Fog), “Hubb bela Defaaf (A Love with No Banks), and “Ennahom Yadfa’oun Al-Thaman” (They are Paying the Price). With regard to cinema, Zaky has appeared in several films including: “Tabakh Al-Rais” (The President Chef; 2008), “Fatah ‘Aynek” (Open Your Eyes; 2005), “El Shaytan El Awda” (Devils: The Return; 2008), “El Safara fii El Amara” (The Embassy in the Building; 2005).
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Robert Middleton
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Middleton, born Samuel G. Messer (May 13, 1911 – June 14, 1977), was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked steadily as a radio announcer and actor.
One of his early works was as the narrator of the educational film "Duck and Cover". After appearing on the Broadway stage and live television, Middleton began appearing in films in 1954. He's also remembered on television as the boss Mr. Marshall on The Jackie Gleason Show and in film opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours (1955), Gary Cooper in Friendly Persuasion (1956), Richard Egan and Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender (1956), Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack in The Tarnished Angels (1958), and Dean Martin in Career (1959).
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Middleton appeared in many television programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure. He was cast as "The Tichborne Claimant" in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. He appeared in ten episodes of ABC's family Western The Monroes, with costars Michael Anderson, Jr., and Barbara Hershey. Among his several appearances in the long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he portrayed a gangster in high places, Mr. Koster, in the 1956 episode "The Better Bargain". In 1958, he played the villain in the first episode of Bat Masterson. In 1961, he appeared in the episode "Accidental Tourist" on the James Whitmore ABC legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones. That same year, he portrayed the highly sympathetic but fiercely dedicated state executioner in an episode of Thriller (U.S. TV series) entitled "Guillotine". He also appeared in at least one episode of Bonanza (1964).
In the early 1950s, Middleton appeared on Broadway in Ondine. Other significant film roles include The Court Jester (1956) as a grim and determined knight who jousts with Danny Kaye in the famous "pellet with the poison" sequence, and as a sinister politician in The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977). Betwixt and between were an array of brutish mountain daddies, corrupt, cigar-chomping town bosses and lynch mob leaders. Occasionally he showed a bit of levity, as in his recurring role as Jackie Gleason's boss on The Honeymooners (1955) sketches.
Middleton died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood at the age of sixty-six.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Middleton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Parker Stevenson
Biography
Parker Stevenson (born Richard Stevenson Parker, Jr) is an American television and film actor.
Stevenson's first notable screen appearance was a starring role in the 1972 movie A Separate Peace, credited as Parker Stevenson. After graduating from Brooks School and Princeton University, where he studied architecture, he moved to Hollywood and landed a role opposite Sam Elliott in the 1976 film Lifeguard.
Stevenson became well known from starring with teen heartthrob Shaun Cassidy in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries series, produced by Glen A. Larson's production company through MCA-Universal Television (now NBCUniversal) under license from the Stratemeyer Publication Syndicate , from 1977 to 1979 on ABC. In 1983, he co-starred in the movie Stroker Ace as Burt Reynolds's brash race-car driving nemesis, Aubrey James. The film was a critical and financial failure.
In 1986, Stevenson starred as Billy Hazard in the television miniseries North and South: Book II. He co-starred with his then-wife Kirstie Alley, who portrayed his sister Virgilia Hazard. He starred on the short-lived 1988 TV series Probe in the lead role of Austin James. He was part of the original cast of Baywatch in the 1989 season, returning for the syndicated 1997 and 1998 seasons. He had a recurring role as a computer tycoon on Melrose Place during the second season. He starred in Legion. In 2014 he had a guest role on the Western/Mystery series Longmire.
Stevenson has been a photographer since he was young; his work can be found at his photography website, shadowworks.
He currently stars on Greenhouse Academy on Netflix (2017-current) as Louis Osmond, Academy Director.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Parker Stevenson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Robbie Coltrane
Biography
Anthony Robert McMillan (March 30, 1950 - October 14, 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011), and as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his "outstanding contribution" to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.
Coltrane started his career appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984). In 1987, he starred in the BBC miniseries Tutti Frutti alongside Thompson, for which he received his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor nomination. Coltrane then gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the ITV television series Cracker (1993–2006), a role which saw him receive the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in three consecutive years (1994 to 1996). In 2006, Coltrane came eleventh in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars, voted by the public. In 2016 he starred in the four-part Channel 4 series National Treasure alongside Julie Walters, a role for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination.
Coltrane appeared in two films for George Harrison's Handmade Films: the Neil Jordan neo-noir Mona Lisa (1986) with Bob Hoskins, and Nuns on the Run with Eric Idle. He also appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation Henry V (1989), the comedy Let It Ride (1989), Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World (1989), Steven Soderbergh's crime-comedy thriller Ocean's Twelve (2004), Rian Johnson's caper film The Brothers Bloom (2008), Mike Newell's Dickens film adaptation Great Expectations (2012), and Emma Thompson's biographical film Effie Gray (2014). He was also known for his voice performances in the animated films The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and Pixar's Brave (2012).
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Cary Elwes
Biography
Cary Elwes (born October 26, 1962) is the third son born to interior designer/shipping heiress Tessa Kennedy and the late portrait painter Dominick Elwes, and is the brother of producer/agent Cassian Elwes and artist Damian Elwes. He was born and raised in London and attended Harrow. After graduating from Harrow, he moved to the US and studied drama at Sarah Lawrence College. He left school after two years to begin his film career. Cary is well respected by colleagues and fans alike and considered by many to be one of the finest young actors working today. He is interested in history and says, "It's deliberate that a lot of my films have been period pieces". He is politically active for causes he believes in, such as protecting the environment and helping Native American peoples. He is married to Lisa Marie Kurbikoff, a stills photographer.
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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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Ahdy Sadek
Biography
Ahdy Sadek is an Egyptian actor. He was born on 30 December 1945. He graduated from the High Institute of theatrical Arts, and started his career in the mid 1970's. His career consisted of small and supporting roles in numerous television series, plays and films, and had never landed a lead role throughout his whole career. Among his memorable roles in television series are “Layaly El Helmeya” (El Helmeya Nights), “Raafat El Haggan”, “Bawabet El halawany” (El halawany's Gate), and “Arabesque”, and in films are “Al Mutawahisha” (The Savage), “Anyab” (Jaws), “Shahazun wa Nubalaa'” (Beggars and Nobles) and “Al youm Al Sades” (The Sixth Day).
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Charles Officer
Biography
Charles Officer (1975 – 2023) was a Canadian film and television director, writer, actor, and professional hockey player. His diverse career encompassed graphic design, acting on stage and screen, and eventually directing. His debut short film, "When Morning Comes," premiered at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival to widespread acclaim. Following this success, his second film, "Short Hymn_Silent War," premiered at TIFF 2002, earning a Special Jury Citation and a subsequent nomination for a Genie Award in 2004. "Nurse.Fighter.Boy," his first feature film, was shot over 23 days in Toronto. Officer's multifaceted journey in the arts sadly concluded when he passed away in Toronto at the age of 48.
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Russi Taylor
Biography
Russi Taylor (May 4, 1944 - July 26, 2019) was an American voice actress. She was the current voice actress of Disney's Minnie Mouse character from 1986 until her death, longer than any other voice actress. This includes performances in the Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey Mousekersize and television series and the Kingdom Hearts video game series, among many others. She also provided the voices of Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri, and Üter on the animated television series The Simpsons. Description above from the Wikipedia article Russi Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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