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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. He 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, Connery died at the age of 90.
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Saki Shimizu

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清水佐紀 (Shimizu Saki) is a Japanese former idol, actress, model, and Hello! Project advisor. She is a former member of Hello! Project, having joined as a member of Hello! Project Kids in 2002 and later debuting as the leader of Berryz Koubou in 2004. During her time in Hello! Project she was also the leader of the Hello! Project Dance Club as well as a member of ZYX, High-King, BeriKyuu, Cat's♥Eye 7, and GREEN FIELDS. She graduated from Hello! Project on March 3, 2015 in a joint graduation concert with the other members of Berryz Koubou. Afterwards, Shimizu became a Hello! Project advisor and has been primarily involved in Hello Pro Kenshuusei rehearsals. She retired from the entertainment industry on November 30, 2021.
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Boots Anson-Roa

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María Elisa Cristóbal-Anson or Boots Anson-Roa (born January 30, 1945) is a Filipino actress, columnist, editor, and lecturer. She was born on January 30, 1945. Anson-Roa, a Bicolana, is the eldest daughter of post-war matinee idol Oscar Moreno, then known as the Robert Taylor of the Philippines, and Belen Cristobal, a descendant of Epifanio de los Santos. She finished her primary and secondary education at the posh Assumption Convent in Herran St., Manila. Her younger brother, Alvin Anson (born October 20, 1962; Manila) was also a lead actor and model. Anson-Roa was married to Pete Roa, her co-host in the series Dance-o-Rama from 1964 until his death in 2007. They have four children: Leah Cuevas, Joey, Chiqui Roa-Puno, and Ben from whom they have nine grandchildren. On November 30, 2013, she was engaged to lawyer Francisco "King" Rodrigo Jr., son of Senator Francisco Soc Rodrigo; They married on June 14, 2014.
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Leonardo DiCaprio

Biography

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biopics and period films, DiCaprio is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. As of 2019, his films have grossed over $7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors. Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career in the late 1980s by appearing in television commercials. In the early 1990s, he had recurring roles in various television shows, such as the sitcom Parenthood, and had his first major film part as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life (1993). At age 19, he received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performance as a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). He achieved international stardom with the star-crossed romances Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). After the latter became the highest-grossing film at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years. In an attempt to shed his image of a romantic hero, DiCaprio sought roles in other genres, including crime drama in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Gangs of New York (2002); the latter marked the first of his many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004) and received acclaim for his performances in the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime drama The Departed (2006), and the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008). In the following decade, DiCaprio starred in several high-profile directors' projects, including the science fiction thriller Inception (2010), the western Django Unchained (2012), the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the survival drama The Revenant (2015), for which he won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), all of which were critical and commercial successes. DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions, a production company that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008–2010), and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. He regularly supports charitable causes and has produced several documentaries on the environment. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.
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Yoshimitsu Morita

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Yoshimitsu Morita was a Japanese film director. Self-taught, first making shorts on 8 mm film during the 1970s, he made his feature film debut with No Yōna Mono (Something Like It, 1981). In 1983 he won acclaim for his movie Kazoku Gēmu ("The Family Game"), which was voted the best film of the year by Japanese critics in the Kinema Junpo magazine poll. This black comedy dealt with then-recent changes in the structure of Japanese home life. It also earned Morita the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. He also won the award for best director at the 21st Yokohama Film Festival for 39 keihō dai sanjūkyū jō ("Keiho", 2003) and the award for best screenplay at the 18th Yokohama Film Festival for Haru (1996).
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Choi Mu-ryong

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South Korean actor, producer, and director who is father of Choi Min-soo. Choi was one of popular actors of the 1960s along with Shin Young-kyun and Kim Jin-kyu. Choi gained a popularity for his handsome appearance and masculine image. Choi's personal life was as much dramatic as his starred films, so he always garnered the public attention. 1952, Choi married a colleague actress, Kang Hyo-shil, the daughter of a noted actress, Jeon Ok with the nickname, "Queen of Tears" and a singer Gang Hong-sik. Choi and his wife had one son and four daughters including an actor, Choi Min-soo. However, Choi had an affair with Kim Ji-mee, the best popular actress at that time, so that Choi and Gang divorced in 1962. Choi soon married Kim Ji-mee, but he owed massive debts due to his failed film production. As a result, Choi chose to divorce Kim again in 1969. At that time, the phrase, Because I love you, I have to part from her was circulated among the public.
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Max Greenfield

Biography

Max Greenfield (born September 4, 1979) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Dave Johnson on the CBS sitcom The Neighborhood, and as Schmidt on the Fox sitcom New Girl, the latter for which he received nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and the Critics' Choice Television Awards. His films include Promising Young Woman, What Men Want, The Glass Castle, The Big Short, About Alex, and They Came Together. He had recurring roles on Veronica Mars, American Crime Story, American Horror Story, The Mindy Project, Raising the Bar, Ugly Betty, Greek, and Modern Men. He also guest starred on a number of TV shows. He has voiced characters on Hoops, Bob's Burgers, Bojack Horseman, and Robot Chicken.
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Andrzej Sapkowski

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Andrzej Sapkowski, born 21 June 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. Sapkowski studied economics and, before turning to writing, he worked as a senior sales representative for a foreign trade company. His first short story, "The Witcher" ("Wiedźmin"), was published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading fantasy literary magazine, in 1986 and was enormously successful both with readers and critics. Sapkowski has created a series of tales based on the world of "The Witcher", comprising three collections of short stories and five novels. This cycle and his many other works made him one of the best-known fantasy authors in Poland in the 1990s.
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Moustapha Alassane

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Moustapha Alassane (1942–17 March 2015) was a Nigerien filmmaker. Born in 1942 in N’Dougou (Niger), Moustapha Alassane graduated in mechanics. However, in the Rouch IRSH in Niamey he learned the cinematographic technique and thereafter became one of its main proponents. Jean Rouch provided for Alassane's education and accommodation in Canada, where he met the famous Norman McLaren, who taught him about animation. He was the creator of the first animated films of the sub-Saharan Africa, also directing documentaries and fiction films. He was Head of Cinema Department at the Niamey University for 15 years. Moustapha Alassane directed, in 1962, two shorts inspired in traditional tales: Aoure and La Bague du roi Koda. Representing African culture (e.g. in Deela ou el Barka le conteur, 1969 and Shaki, 1973), Alassane also employed moral satire (F.V.V.A., femme, villa, voiture, argent, 1972), denouncing the thirst for power for “new wealth” in Africa. Social criticism and black humour are in almost all of his films. Le Retour d'un aventurier (1966) is considered the first African western. The frog was his favourite animal and protagonist of most of his animated films, because Alassane believed it is funnier to animate frogs rather than humans. His workshop was based in Tahoua. To work, Alassane used several materials, such as wood, metal or wire, glue, fabric or sponge. Numerous retrospectives of Alassane's career have been made in several international film festivals. Moustapha Alassane was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
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Alfredo Mayo

Biography

Alfredo Mayo is a Spanish cinematographer and director of photography. Early in his career, Mayo worked with many different directors, on little known films as second operator for Teo Escamilla and José Luis Alcaine until 1984, when he was director of photography for “The Conquest of Albania”. In 1991 he won the Goya for best cinematography for Las cartas de Alou (1990). Subsequently, he was also nominated for the Goya Awards for “El maestro de esgrima” in 1992 and for “El misterio Galíndez” in 2003. In 1991, he worked as director of photography on Pedro Almodóvar's “Tacones lejanos” and, later, on “Kika” (1993). At this time he also began shooting for Marcelo Piñeyro, on “Caballos salvajes”; Mayo became the cinematographer with whom Piñeyro worked on all the films he directed himself (except “Historias de Argentina en vivo”), including the critically acclaimed “Plata quemada” (2000) and “Kamchatka” (2002). He later collaborated with director Gerardo Herrero, for whom he was director of photography on ten films between 1994 and 2006. Mayo has also worked with Fernando León de Aranoa on three occasions (“Barrio” in 1998, “Familia” in 1996, and the award-winning “Los lunes al sol” in 2002).
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