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Ann-Marie MacDonald

Biography

Ann-Marie MacDonald (born October 29, 1958) is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor, and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany. She won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for her first novel, Fall on Your Knees, which was also named to Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Her 2003 novel, The Way the Crow Flies, was partly inspired by the Steven Truscott case. She received the Governor General's Award for Literary Merit, the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the Canadian Author's Association Award for her play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). She appeared in the films I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and Better Than Chocolate, among others. She also hosted the CBC Documentary series Life and Times (1996-2007). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ann-Marie MacDonald, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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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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Ryan Seacrest

Biography

Ryan John Seacrest is an American media personality, game show host, and producer. He co-hosted Live with Kelly and Ryan and has hosted other shows like American Idol, American Top 40, and On Air with Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest received Emmy Award nominations for American Idol from 2004 to 2013, and for producing Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in 2010. In 2018, he received nominations for Live with Kelly and Ryan in Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment and Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host. In September 2024, Seacrest will become the host of Wheel of Fortune. Born in Atlanta, he attended Dunwoody High School and later studied journalism at the University of Georgia before moving to Los Angeles.
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Blaž Setnikar

Biography

Blaz Setnikar is a classically and modern trained multilingual actor who graduated at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. He has since regularly appeared as a part of the main cast in the popular TV series, e.g. Najini mostovi (Our Bridges), Reka ljubezni (The River of Love), Takle mamo (Household Scenes) and awarded films Posledice (Consequences), Psi brezčasja (Case: Osterberg), Vloga za Emo (Changing Emma), Do takrat pa… (Until then…) and others. He has been fully engaged with all the major theatres in the country over the years. He has received The Slovenian Association of Dramatic Artists award, Julia Award and Sever award and was a part of 20th edition of Sarajevo Film Festival Talents program. He strives towards diversity of genres as well as the characters he portrays.
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Verne Gagne

Biography

Verne Gagne was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, actor, tv host and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in US. As an amateur wrestler, Gagne won two NCAA titles and was an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games before turning professional in 1949. Gagne was an 11-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship ten times and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once as the IWA World Heavyweight Championship was considered a world championship in Japan.
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Luke Evans

Biography

Luke George Evans (born 15 April 1979) is a Welsh actor. Evans began his career on the stage, performing in many of London's West End productions such as Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf before making his film breakthrough in the Clash of the Titans 2010 remake. Following his debut, Evans was cast in such action and thriller films as Immortals (2011), The Raven (2012), and the re-imagined The Three Musketeers (2011). In 2013, Evans starred as the main antagonist Owen Shaw in the blockbuster Fast & Furious 6, and also played Bard the Bowman in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Evans also portrayed the vampire Dracula in the character's film origin story, Dracula Untold. In 2017, Evans starred as Gaston in Disney's live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, and portrayed American psychologist William Moulton Marston, creator of fictional character Wonder Woman, in the biographical drama Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Naseem Banu

Biography

Naseem Banu (4 July 1916 – 18 June 2002) was an Indian actress. She was referred to as Naseem and known as "Beauty Queen" and the "first female superstar" of Indian Cinema. Starting her acting career in the mid-1930s she continued to act till mid-1950s. Her first film was Khoon Ka Khoon (Hamlet) (1935) with Sohrab Modi under whose Minerva Movietone banner she acted for several years. Her high-point came with Modi's Pukar (1939) in which she played the role of Empress Nur Jahan. According to composer Naushad she got the sobriquet Pari-Chehra (fairy face) Naseem through the publicity advertisements of her films. She was the mother of actress Saira Banu and mother-in-law to the actor Dilip Kumar. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Reg Varney

Biography

Varney was born in Canning Town, then in Essex but now part of the London Borough of Newham. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. Varney was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy and a page boy at the Regent Palace Hotel. He took piano lessons as a child and was good enough to find employment as a part-time piano player. His first paid engagement was at Plumstead Radical Club in Woolwich, for which he was paid eight shillings and sixpence (42½p). He also played in working men's clubs, pubs and ABC cinemas, and later sang with big bands of the time. He and his mother decided that show business was the career for him, and he gave up his day jobs. During the Second World War, Varney joined the Royal Engineers, but continued his performing career as an army entertainer, touring in the Far East for a time. After being demobilised in the late 1940s, he starred on stage in a comic revue entitled Gaytime, with Benny Hill as his partner in a double act.[2] He then became an all-round entertainer, working his way around the music halls. Career[edit] Varney was cast in the role of a foreman in the television sitcom The Rag Trade (1961–63), which made him a household name. He was aware that he was the only performer without West End acting experience and worked hard to make up for it. Slightly later, he starred in a show for BBC TV called The Valiant Varneys (1964–65), performing various characters in front of a live audience. After that followed another comedy role in Beggar My Neighbour (1966–68); this also starred Pat Coombs, June Whitfield, and Peter Jones. Pat Coombs played the wife of Varney's character. Varney featured in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) with Frankie Howerd, Dora Bryan and George Cole. Varney's most successful lead role was in the sitcom On the Buses (1969–73) as the bus driver Stan Butler, who never has much luck where romance is concerned. Varney took considerable lengths to research the role, even taking bus-driving lessons and a test to gain a public service vehicle licence so that he could be filmed driving a bus on the open road. Three spin-off films were made — On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973). Varney was 52 when the first series was recorded, although his character, who lived with his mother and was often trying to attract young women, was supposed to be about 35. Varney was only eleven years younger than Doris Hare, the main actress to play his mother in the series. He later worked as an entertainer on cruise ships and toured Australia with his one-man show. He told an interviewer, "Whatever I did after On the Buses, nobody wanted to know about it. But I can't knock the programme because it brought me offers to do concert tours in Australia, New Zealand and Canada."[3] The world's first voucher-based cash dispensing machine was installed at the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank. Varney was living in Enfield at the time and for publicity purposes he was photographed making the first withdrawal from the machine on Tuesday 27 June 1967.[4]
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Fernandel

Biography

Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born in Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, an Occitan town located in the province of Turin. He was a comedy star who first gained popularity in French vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues. His stage name originated from his marriage to Henriette Manse, the sister of his best friend and frequent cinematic collaborator Jean Manse. So attentive was he to his wife that his mother-in-law amusingly referred to him as Fernand d'elle ("Fernand of her"). (Wikipedia)
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Paul Whiteman

Biography

Paul Whiteman began his musical career as a viola player for the San Francisco Symphony. He enlisted in the Navy during World War I, and his musical abilities resulted in the Navy putting him in charge of his own band. After the war he moved to New York in 1920, where he recorded his first hit, Whispering/The Japanese Sandman. It sold more than two million copies, making Whiteman was an instant star. In 1924 he introduced the George Gershwin classic Rhapsody in Blue, which became the band's signature song. Whiteman had the foresight to hire some of the best jazz musicians of the era, including Red Nichols, Frankie Trumbauer, Tommy Dorsey and Bix Beiderbecke. Bing Crosby got his start with Whiteman in 1929, in a trio called the Rhythm Boys. Whiteman's band continued its run into the 1930s, but toward the end of the decade their popularity began to wane, and in the early 1940s Whiteman took a job as musical director for the American Broadcasting Co., a position he kept into the '60s. He would put together his band every so often during that period, and in the early 1960s they even managed to secure engagements in Las Vegas, after which Whiteman retired. Date of Birth 28 March 1890, Denver, Colorado, USA Date of Death 29 December 1967, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA  (heart attack)
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