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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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Jiří Menzel
Biography
Jiří Menzel (Czech: [ˈjɪr̝iː ˈmɛntsl̩] was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura.
Menzel, a member of the Czech New Wave, became internationally famous in 1967, when his first feature film, Closely Watched Trains, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His controversial film Larks on a String was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the Czechoslovakian government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.
Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy My Sweet Little Village. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989 he was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1995 he was a member of the jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival. He would be conferred with IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2013.
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Peter Lalonde
Biography
The co-founder of the highly successful indie studio, Cloud Ten Pictures, Lalonde captured the attention of Hollywood and the business community with his avant-garde approach to the marketing and promotion of his movies.
One of his most notable strategies was a reverse tactic by which Cloud Ten released the mega-hit Left Behind (2000) on video three months before it's theatrical release. The film, featuring Growing Pains star 'Kirk Cameron', sold over 3 million copies, becoming the number one selling video in America in November of 2000. It won the Video Software Dealers Association's (VSDA) "Best Selling Title of the Year from an Independent Studio" and "Sell-through Title of the Year by an Independent Studio."
Lalonde has earned nominations for the "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award", "Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies" and "Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year Awards".
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François Jacob
Biography
François Jacob (17 June 1920 – 19 April 2013) was a French biologist who, together with Jacques Monod, originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells occurs through regulation of transcription. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff.
Jacob was born the only child of Simon, a merchant, and Thérèse (Franck) Jacob, in Nancy, France. An inquisitive child, he learned to read at a young age. Albert Franck, Jacob's maternal grandfather, a four-star general, was Jacob's childhood role model. At seven he entered the Lycée Carnot, where he was schooled for the next ten years; in his autobiography, he describes his impression of it: "a cage". He was antagonized by rightist youth at the Lycée Carnot around 1934. He describes his father as a "conformist in religion", while his mother and other family members important in his childhood were secular Jews; shortly after his bar mitzvah, he became an atheist.
Though interested (and talented) in physics and mathematics, Jacob was horrified at the prospect of spending two additional years in "an even more draconian regime" to prepare for higher study at the Polytechnique. Instead, after observing a surgical operation that cemented his "slight interest" in medicine, he entered medical school.
During the German occupation of France—and on the heels of his mother's death—Jacob left France for Great Britain to join the war effort. Jacob, who had only completed his second year of medical studies, joined the medical company of the French 2nd Armored Division in 1940. He was injured in a German air attack in 1944 and returned to now-liberated Paris on 1 August 1944. For his wartime service, he was awarded France's WWII highest decoration for valor, the Cross of Liberation, as well as Légion d'honneur and croix de guerre.
After his recovery, Jacob returned to medical school and began researching tyrothricin and learning the methods of bacteriology in the process. He completed a thesis he described as "replicating American work" on the effectiveness of the antibiotic against local infections, and became a medical doctor in 1947. Though attracted to research as a career, he was discouraged by his own perceived ignorance after attending a microbiology congress that summer. Instead, he took a position at the Cabanel Center, where he had done his thesis research; his new work entailed the manufacture of an antibiotic, tyrothricin. Later, the center was contracted to convert gunpowder factories for penicillin production (though this proved impossible).
Also in this period, he met and began courting his future wife, Lise Bloch. Jacob remarried in 1999 to Geneviève Barrier.
In 1961 Jacob and Monod explored the idea that the control of enzyme expression levels in cells is a result of regulation of transcription of DNA sequences. Their experiments and ideas gave impetus to the emerging field of molecular developmental biology, and of transcriptional regulation in particular. ...
Source: Article "François Jacob" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Shane Henry
Biography
Shane Henry, singer/songwriter/guitarist from Oklahoma began his musical journey at 19 when he played 30 dates on the B.B. King Festival Tour opening for B.B. himself. Shane's style has evolved over the years from a blues-influenced style to what is now a blend of rock, soul, blues, & pop. Shane has opened for Etta James, The Neville Brothers, Jonny Lang, & many more. His newest album Light in the Dark was released in 2017. TV shows like The Young & The Restless & films such as Approaching The Unknown feature Shane's music.
Shane also makes up one half of the band, The Imaginaries, formed in 2018 with wife & singer/songwriter Maggie McClure. Produced by the duo, their debut self-titled album was released March 26, 2021. It serves as both an introduction to The Imaginaries and the beginning of their journey as a band after both singer songwriters have enjoyed their own successes as solo artists. Maggie, with her subtly sweet vocals and piano style fuses seamlessly with Shane's blues-rock grit to form their own unique blend of Americana music. The Imaginaries were selected to open for the Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas Rocks! Tour (25 dates across the USA) in November-December 2019. They also opened for Judy Collins and John Waite in 2021.
Shane has appeared in many feature films and TV shows and has written/produced music for many films as well. He is a Co-Producer of upcoming feature "A Cowgirl's Song" written/directed by Timothy Armstrong. The film stars Cheryl Ladd, Savannah Lee, and Darci Lynne. Shane and Maggie co-start in the film and wrote the entire soundtrack for the film which has distribution with Samuel Goldwyn Films and due for a Spring 2022 release.
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Denise Bidot
Biography
In 2014 Bidot became the first Plus Size Model to walk the runway for two straight size brands during New York fashion week. Bidot has worked for clients such as, Nordstrom, Forever21, Target, Old Navy, Lane Bryant, Levi's, Macy's. Bidot has been featured on several television shows including nuvoTV's “Curvy Girls,” HBO’s “Habla Women,” And Yahoo! En Español web series “Mama vs. Mama”. She has also been included on segments on the “Tyra Banks Show” and “The Real.” In 2016 Bidot launched a lifestyle movement called "There is No Wrong Way to be a Woman". Bidot is one of the featured models in the new documentary film Straight/Curve.
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Riccardo Chailly
Biography
Riccardo Chailly, who was born in 1953 in Milan, studied at the Conservatories of Perugia, Rome, and Milan and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, beginning his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado at La Scala in Milan. Chailly was appointed Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1980, and in 1988 he moved to the same position with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which he helmed for sixteen years. From 2005 to 2016, Riccardo Chailly served as head of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; starting in 2015, he became Music Director of La Scala in Milan, and since the summer of 2016 he has held the position of Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Chailly regularly conducts such leading European orchestras as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris. In the United States, he has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As an opera conductor – in addition to his performances at La Scala – he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, Zurich Opera, the Bavarian and Vienna Staatsoper companies, Chicago Lyric Opera, and San Francisco Opera. Riccardo Chailly has received many prizes for his more than 150 CDs, including two Echo Klassik Awards (in 2012 and 2015); Gramophone magazine chose his account of the Brahms symphonies as Recording of the Year in 2014. Riccardo Chailly is a Grand’Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, Cavaliere di Gran Croce, and a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in France he has been an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres since 2011.
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John Wood
Biography
John Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) was an English stage and screen actor known for his distinguished career in both classical and contemporary theater. He was born on July 5, 1930, in Derbyshire, England. Wood gained prominence as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he performed in numerous Shakespearean productions.
Wood's notable stage roles include performances in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," "The Rivals," and "Travesties," among many others. He also appeared in various productions on Broadway, earning critical acclaim for his performances in plays such as "Amadeus" and "The Winslow Boy."
In addition to his stage work, John Wood had a presence in film and television. He starred in movies like "WarGames" (1983) and "Chocolat" (2000). His television credits include appearances in series such as "The Avengers," "Inspector Morse," and "Midsomer Murders."
John Wood was highly regarded for his exceptional acting talent, particularly his ability to portray complex characters with depth and nuance. He received several awards throughout his career, including a Tony Award for his performance in "Travesties" and a Laurence Olivier Award for his work in "The Philanthropist."
Sadly, John Wood passed away on August 6, 2011, in England, leaving behind a legacy of remarkable performances in the world of theater and film.
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Mitsuko Uchida
Biography
Dame Mitsuko Uchida (Japanese: [miꜜtsu͍̥ko u͍ꜜtɕida], DBE (内田光子), born 20 December 1948) is a classical pianist and conductor, born in Japan and naturalised in Britain, particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.
She has appeared with many notable orchestras, recorded a wide repertory with several labels, won numerous awards and honours (including Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009), and has since 2013 been Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the only musician to be its sole Artistic Director since co-founder Rudolf Serkin.She has also conducted several major orchestras.
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Lina Romay
Biography
Maria Elena "Lina" Romay (January 16, 1919 - December 17, 2010) was a Mexican-American actress and singer. She was born in 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Porfirio Romay, then-attache to the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. She appeared in both photoreal and live-action form in the Droopy cartoon "Senor Droopy" (1949).
Romay performed for a time with Xavier Cugat before eventually retiring. She was featured on Cugat Rumba Revue on NBC radio in the early 1940s. Along with Cugat and his orchestra, she appeared in the films You Were Never Lovelier (1942) and Bathing Beauty (1944).
Prior to singing with Cugat, she had sung with Horace Heidt's orchestra, when she was billed as Josette, a Frenchwoman.
She was married to John Lawrence Adams and later was the third wife of Jay Gould III (son of Jay Gould II), whom she married on 30 June 1953.
Doña Romay died, at age 91, on December 17, 2010, from natural causes at a hospital in Pasadena, California, U.S.
(Wikipedia)
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