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Einar Nilson

Biography

Einar Nilson (1881–1964) was a Swedish-American composer, conductor, and musical director known for his work in theater and film. Born in Kristianstad, Sweden, Nilson displayed musical talent from an early age, playing violin in a family trio with his father and brother. His passion for music led him to study at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm before continuing his education in Berlin, where he became associated with the renowned theater director Max Reinhardt. As chief conductor and head of the music department for Reinhardt’s productions, Nilson played a crucial role in shaping the musical landscape of European theater in the early 20th century. He composed and arranged music for numerous stage productions, including Jedermann (Everyman), which became a staple of the Salzburg Festival for decades. His career took him across Europe and the United States, where he eventually settled in the 1930s and became a U.S. citizen. In Hollywood, Nilson worked in the film industry, notably collaborating with Warner Bros. One of his film contributions came in the 1946 film Deception, directed by Irving Rapper, where he coached actor Claude Rains in orchestral conducting for his role as a composer. Nilson also made an uncredited cameo in the film, conducting the orchestra in a pivotal scene featuring Erich Korngold’s Cello Concerto. Beyond his theatrical and cinematic work, Nilson’s compositions and arrangements reflected his deep understanding of classical and contemporary music, often bridging the worlds of theater, film, and symphonic performance. He continued working in music until his retirement in 1960, passing away in Hollywood in 1964.
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Mckenna Grace

Biography

Mckenna Grace Burge (born June 25, 2006) is an American actress and singer. Born in Grapevine, Texas, she began acting professionally at age five and relocated to Los Angeles, California, as a child. Her earliest roles included Jasmine Bernstein in the Disney XD sitcom Crash & Bernstein (2012–2014) and Faith Newman in the soap opera The Young and the Restless (2013–2015). After several minor roles, she starred as a child prodigy in Gifted (2017), a breakthrough for which she received the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. Grace subsequently appeared in the films I, Tonya (2017), Troop Zero (2019), and Captain Marvel (2019). During this time, she appeared in several horror projects, including The Bad Seed(2018), The Haunting of Hill House (2018), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). For playing the abused teenager Esther Keyes in The Handmaid's Tale (2021–2022), Grace was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, making her the first child recognized for a guest acting Emmy. She appeared in the supernatural comedy films Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) as Phoebe Spengler, receiving critical praise and a Critics' Choice Super Award nomination. In 2022, Grace wrote, executive produced, starred in The Bad Seed Returns and portrayed Jan Broberg in A Friend of the Family. After signing with Photo Finish Records in 2020, Grace released her debut single, "Haunted House", in 2021 as part of the Ghostbusters: Afterlife soundtrack. She released two extended plays in 2023: Bittersweet 16 and Autumn Leaves, which explored pop rock and folk sounds, respectively. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mckenna Grace, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Gerard Butler

Biography

Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with minor roles in productions such as Mrs Brown (1997), the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and Tale of the Mummy (1998). In 2000, he starred as Count Dracula in the gothic horror film Dracula 2000. He played Attila the Hun in the miniseries Attila (2001), then appeared in the films Reign of Fire (2002) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) before starring in the science fiction film Timeline (2003). He played Erik, The Phantom in Joel Schumacher's 2004 musical The Phantom of the Opera. Butler gained wider recognition for portraying King Leonidas in Zack Snyder's fantasy war film 300 (2007). In 2010, he began lending his voice to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. Also in the 2010s, he portrayed a Secret Service agent in the action thriller Has Fallen film series, played military leader Tullus Aufidius in the 2011 film Coriolanus, and Sam Childers in the 2011 action biopic Machine Gun Preacher. Butler had further action film roles in Geostorm (2017), Den of Thieves (2018), Greenland (2020), and Plane (2023).
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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 October 31, 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
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Joey King

Biography

Joey Lynn King (born July 30, 1999) is an American actress. She starred as Ramona Quimby in the comedy film Ramona and Beezus (2010). She gained wider recognition for her lead role as a late-blooming teenager in The Kissing Booth film series (2018–2021). King received critical acclaim for playing Gypsy-Rose Blanchard in the crime drama series The Act (2019), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. King has also appeared in the films Battle: Los Angeles (2011), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Conjuring (2013), White House Down (2013), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), and Going in Style (2017), as well as in the FX black comedy series Fargo (2014–2015). She has since taken on lead roles in the action films Bullet Train (2022) and The Princess (2022), romantic comedy A Family Affair (2024), and performed a voice role in Despicable Me 4 (2024). Description above from the Wikipedia article Joey King, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Cliff Edwards

Biography

Clifton Avon "Cliff" Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike", was an American musician, singer, actor and voice actor, who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. He also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career, and is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940) and Fun and Fancy Free (1947). His rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" in Pinocchio is probably his most familiar recorded legacy.
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Norman Abbott

Biography

Norman Abbott (July 11, 1922 – July 9, 2016) was an American vaudevillian, actor, producer and television director. Abbott was born in New York City, where his uncle, comedian Bud Abbott, and his mother raised him. His early experience in entertainment was as a vaudeville performer, including summers working the 'borscht circuit" in resorts in the Catskill Mountains of New York. In the early 1940s, he and Pat Costello (brother of Lou Costello) worked as stand-ins for the better-known act during filming of Who Done It? (1942).[3] During World War II, Abbott served as a member of the original United States Navy SEALs team. After the war, Abbott became a dialog director on the Abbott and Costello films and was mentored by the team's director, Charles T. Barton. Abbott later directed episodes of The Jack Benny Program, Leave It to Beaver, Get Smart, The Munsters, Welcome Back, Kotter, Dennis the Menace, and Sanford and Son. Abbott's obituary in The Hollywood Reporter described him as "the brainchild behind the Broadway sensation Sugar Babies, the comeback vehicle for Mickey Rooney in the late 1970s". He conceived the idea of a Broadway musical based on burlesque after inheriting his uncle's "treasure trove of burlesque material, including written gags, props, music and posters".[4] Despite his having originated the concept, Abbott was fired as director of the show after two weeks of rehearsing.
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Ridley Scott

Biography

Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. He directs films in the science fiction, crime, and historical epic genres with an atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. He ranks among the highest-grossing directors, with his films grossing a cumulative $5 billion worldwide. He has received many accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross by King Charles III in 2024. An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising as a director of commercials. He made his film directorial debut with The Duellists (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, Alien (1979). Though his films range widely in setting and period, they showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome in Gladiator (2000) and its 2024 sequel, 12th-century Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), medieval England in Robin Hood (2010), ancient Memphis in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), contemporary Mogadishu in Black Hawk Down (2001), futuristic cityscapes of Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982) and extraterrestrial worlds in Alien, Prometheus (2012), The Martian (2015) and Alien: Covenant (2017). Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards: Directing for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture and received a nomination in the same category for The Martian. In 1995, Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Scott's films Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise were each selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture. Scott also works in television and has earned 10 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won twice, for Outstanding Television Film for the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the History Channel's Gettysburg (2011). He was Emmy-nominated for RKO 281 (1999), The Andromeda Strain (2008), and The Pillars of the Earth (2010). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ridley Scott, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Bubba Smith

Biography

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith (February 28, 1945 – August 3, 2011) was an American actor and former athlete. He was a professional football player in the 1960s and 1970s who became an actor in the late 1970s. Born in Orange, Texas, he attended high school in Beaumont, Texas. He is well known for his tremendous size at 6 ft 7 in (2 m). Description above from the Wikipedia article Bubba Smith, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Petula Clark

Biography

Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades. Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1960s she became known internationally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "Colour My World", "A Sign of the Times", and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". She has sold in excess of 68 million records throughout her career. Description above from the Wikipedia article Petula Clark, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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