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Sean Connery
Biography
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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Reginald Sheffield
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reginald Sheffield was born Matthew Reginald Sheffield Cassan in the St. George's, Hanover Square district of London, to Matthew Sheffield Cassan and Alice Mary Field. He had a brother, Edward Sheffield Cassan, and a sister, Flora Kathleen Sheffield Cassan, who became an actress known as Flora Sheffield.
His father was born in Ireland and his mother in England. They were married in London in 1892. Matthew died when Reginald was nine. In 1913 Reginald (billed as Eric Desmond) appeared in David Copperfield. In 1914, Alice Sheffield and her children emigrated to the United States, where they lived in Queens, New York. Reginald acted on the stage and in films. While his sister Flora was an actress, brother Edward worked as an accountant in a bank and later became a theatrical agent.
Sheffield's Broadway performances credited as Reggie Sheffield include Evidence (1914), in which his mother also appeared, The Merry Wives of Windsor (1916), If (1917), The Betrothal (1918), and Helena's Boys (1924). His performances credited as Reginald Sheffield include Youth (1920), The Way Things Happen (1924), Hay Fever (1925), Slaves All (1926), Soldiers and Women (1929), and Dear Old England (1930).
Reginald Sheffield was married in 1927 to Louise Van Loon (21 January 1905 – 14 April 1987), a New York-born Vassar College graduate with a liberal arts education. The couple had three children: Mary Alice Sheffield Cassan (born 1928), Jon Matthew Sheffield Cassan (11 April 1931 – 15 October 2010) (aka actor Johnny Sheffield), and William Hart Sheffield Cassan (15 July 1935 – 12 December 2010) (actor Billy Sheffield).
As film production became more and more located in Southern California, Sheffield and his wife travelled back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles. After several years they moved permanently to the West Coast.
Being a trained stage actor, Sheffield easily made the transition from silent films to talkies. He was a working actor who became memorable in numerous character and supporting roles and appeared with some of the greatest film stars of the day, including Constance Bennett, William Powell, George Arliss, Loretta Young, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.
In 1954, he began starring as Professor Mayberry in the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. And after his son, Johnny Sheffield [of first the Tarzan then the Bomba films series], appeared in his last jungle film in 1955, Reginald created, produced and directed a pilot for a television series, Bantu, the Zebra Boy, but a sponsor was not found and the show was never produced as a weekly series.
Sheffield acted in both versions, 1938 and 1958, of Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer, the latter being his last screen appearance.
Reginald Sheffield died 8 December 1957 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, aged 56.
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Jean-Claude Brialy
Biography
Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director.
Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland France with his family in 1942. He was an alumnus of the Prytanée National Militaire. When he was 21 years old, he went to Paris to work as an actor.
In 1956, Brialy acted in his first role in the short film Le coup du berger (Fool's Mate) by Jacques Rivette.
By the late 1950s, he'd become one of the most prolific actors in the French nouvelle vague and a star. He appeared in films of nouvelle vague directors such as Claude Chabrol (Le Beau Serge, 1958; Les Cousins, 1959), Louis Malle (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, 1958; Les Amants, 1958), François Truffaut (Les 400 Coups, 1959), Jean-Luc Godard, (Une femme est une femme, 1961), Éric Rohmer (Claire's Knee, 1970), as well as in films of other filmmakers such as Jean Renoir (Elena et les hommes 1958), Roger Vadim (La ronde, 1964), Philippe de Broca (Le Roi de cœur, 1966), Luis Buñuel (Le Fantôme de la liberté, 1974), and Claude Lelouch (Robert et Robert, 1978).
In 2006, he appeared in his last role, as the eponymous character of the TV film Monsieur Max, directed by Gabriel Aghion. Godard described him as "the French Cary Grant," while Brialy's self-described "life models" had reportedly been actor Sacha Guitry and director Jean Cocteau.
Brialy directed a number of films, including Églantine in 1971, which was loosely inspired by his own memories of a happy childhood spent in Chambellay with his grandparents, and Les volets clos (Closed shutters) in 1972.
He owned the restaurant L'Orangerie, on the Île Saint-Louis; he'd also worked as a TV presenter, a singer, and a radio host. During the presentation of one of his books, Brialy described himself this way: "I'm a boy who got lucky enough to do what I love in life".
Brialy, in 1959, acquired a château in the commune of Monthyon, near Paris. There, he accommodated and entertained many friends from the cinema and the theatre, such as Jean Marais, Pierre Arditi, and Romy Schneider whom he'd met during the 1958 production of the film Christine. Schneider, after the 1981 fatal accident of her son David, found a "refuge from the paparazzi" in Brialy's home. French singer Barbara would often sing at the piano. Director Jean-Pierre Melville used the château to shoot the last scenes of his 1970 crime film Le Cercle Rouge, where Alain Delon and Yves Montand are killed by the police.
In his books, the autobiographical Le Ruisseau des singes (The river of monkeys) (2000) and the memoir J'ai oublié de vous dire (I Forgot to Tell You) (2004), Brialy revealed that he was bisexual. ...
Source: Article "Jean-Claude Brialy" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Pasquale Squitieri
Biography
Pasquale Squitieri (27 November 1938 – 18 February 2017) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Born in Naples, Squitieri graduated in law, then was briefly involved in stage, as author ("La battaglia") and even actor (directed by Francesco Rosi). He made his film debut with Io e Dio, produced by Vittorio De Sica, and, after two Spaghetti Westerns he signed as William Redford, he focused on drama films centered on political and social issues. His film Il prefetto di ferro won the David di Donatello for Best Film in 1978. Li chiamarono... briganti!, a film about the brigand Carmine Crocco, was suspended from the cinemas and it is not available on the home video market. Squitieri was the partner of Claudia Cardinale since 1974. His 1980 film Savage Breed was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. Since 2003 he had been romantically linked to the actress and singer Ottavia Fusco, whom he had married in December 2013.
Source: Article "Pasquale Squitieri" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Ann Ayars
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ann Ayars (23 July 1918 – 27 February 1995) was an American soprano and actress. Early in her career she acted in several TV series and non musical films. Later, she sang with the New York City Opera (NYCO), and became known worldwide when she sang and acted the part of Antonia in the 1951 British film The Tales of Hoffmann.
From 1968 to 1987 she taught voice and piano and staged 19 full-length opera productions at Mt. San Jacinto College in California, where she was made a professor emerita.
Ann Ayars was born on 23 July 1918 in Beverly Hills, California. She began as a singer in the late 1930s and started acting in the early 1940s. She had parts in several television series, including Batman, Hazel, Mission: Impossible, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Perry Mason, The Virginian and The Monroes.
She starred as Cholita in the 1941 film Fiesta and in 1942 she was Cynthia Cookie Charles in Dr. Kildare's Victory. Also in 1942, she appeared as Constance Selden in Apache Trail, Kaaren de Relle in Nazi Agent and Juliette in Reunion in France. In 1943 she was Mrs Sandoval in The Human Comedy and Susan Thayer in The Youngest Profession.
She left Hollywood in 1943 to join the newly formed New York City Opera, becoming its leading lyric soprano. Her operatic roles included Monica in The Medium, Mimi in La bohème and Violetta in La traviata. Her friend, mezzo-soprano Frances Bible, said "Her work with the opera has inspired many young singers, many of whom went on to professional careers."
She had a star part as Antonia in the 1951 Powell and Pressburger film The Tales of Hoffmann, which was based on the opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach. Although all the parts in the film are sung, only Robert Rounseville (Hoffmann) and Ayars sung their own parts, the others being dubbed.
In 1968 she returned to California and took a post teaching voice and piano at Mt. San Jacinto College in San Jacinto, California, where she staged 19 full-length opera productions.
She retired in 1987. On 27 February 1995 she died at her home in Hemet in Riverside County following complications from diabetes .
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Vas Blackwood
Biography
Vasanth Blackwood is a British television and film actor.
Blackwood played Lenny Henry's sidekick Winston Churchill in The Lenny Henry Show (1987) and David Sinclair in Casualty (1996–97). Since playing Rory Breaker in the hit film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) he has had a number of film roles, including Mean Machine (2001), 9 Dead Gay Guys (2002) and Creep (2004). In 2005 he appeared in A Bear's Tail, a spin off of Bo' Selecta!. He also made an appearance as Lennox Gilbey in Only Fools and Horses.
In 2008 he did voiceover work for Fable II on the Xbox 360 and PC.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Vas Blackwood, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Jordan Walker Ross
Biography
Jordan Walker Ross is an actor, screenwriter and producer. Jordan began acting at the age of 6, playing Tiny Tim in a community theater production of 'A Christmas Carol'. After that, Jordan performed in over 40 professional productions throughout Texas, as well as California. In his teens, Jordan shifted gears and began focusing on film/television, going on to appear in 'Walker Texas Ranger', Comedy Central's 'Reno 911', Nickelodeon’s 'Just Jordan' and several independent films.
In 2018, Jordan Walker Ross was cast in season 1 of 'The Chosen', in the role of Little James. The series is now in production season 5 (of 7 planned seasons) and has garnered over 250 million viewers worldwide. The success of The Chosen has led to other projects for Jordan, such as '1883' - the prequel to Paramount’s 'Yellowstone', 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' and the upcoming film 'Rise & Shine', based on the book, ‘Remembering Terri’. Jordan Ross is also a screenwriter with several projects in various stages of development, as well as a host for his podcast, 'What's Your Limp?'.
Jordan Walker Ross was born two months premature, which led to Cerebral Palsy and Scoliosis. Jordan underwent over half a dozen major surgeries before the age of 10, as well as countless hospital stays due to severe asthma. His disabilities presented some issues as an actor. Jordan lost out on roles because his limp was too noticeable and even cut out/replaced from projects for the same reason.
On top of that, Jordan experienced vicious bullying in high school. However, it was his love for acting that motivated Jordan to keep pushing forward. Now, playing a character with a disability on 'The Chosen', Jordan is using his platform to educate others on disabilities, bullying & mental health. Jordan travels to schools, churches and other events to promote his message of vulnerability and self-acceptance.
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Manikandan
Biography
K. Manikandan is an Indian film writer, actor and director who works in the Tamil film industry.
Manikandan participated in a popular reality comedy show and finished as the runner-up of the season. Subsequently, he joined an FM channel as a Radio Jockey while also dubbing/voice acting for several films and TV shows.
He debuted as a writer with Pizza II: Villa (2013). He made his acting debut with India Pakistan (2015) and played a minor role in the Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum (2016) directed by Nalan Kumarasamy. Manikandan then played an antagonist in Sri Ganesh's debut directorial venture 8 Thottakkal (2017) alongside M. S. Bhaskar and Lallu. He penned the dialogues for Pushar-Gayathri's third directorial venture Vikram Vedha (2017) and also played a role of a police constable in the film. In 2018, Pa. Ranjith picked Manikandan for a role in Kaala (2018). Manikandan was involved in Viswasam (2019) Thambi (2019), directed by Siva and Jeethu Joseph respectively, as a dialogue writer. He paired with Nivedithaa Sathish in the romantic anthology film Sillu Karupatti (2019), directed by Halitha Shameem.
Manikandan directed an independent film ‘Narai Ezhuthum Suyasaritham’ (English Title: Endless) starring Delhi Ganesh and himself in lead roles. The film was selected to participate in Bengaluru International Film Festival (2016) under ‘Indian Cinema Competition’. Endless was one of the four films to be selected for screening at 16th New York Indian Film Festival (2016).
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Shanthi Williams
Biography
Shanthi Williams is an Indian actress who has played supporting roles in Tamil and Malayalam movies and serials. Shanti Williams was born in Coimbatore to Malayali parents. She came into the industry as a child artist at the age of 12. Then she went on second heroine roles and supporting roles. She is best known for her role as the traditional mother in the serial Metti Oli. She was awarded the Best Actress in a negative role by director K. Balachander for her performance in Thendral where she plays the role of Tamizharasu's mother. Currently, she is acting in the popular SUN TV serial Vani Rani, where she plays the role of Vani and Rani's conspiring mother-in-law. She was married to Malayalam Cameraman J. Williams in 1979.
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Grant Mitchell
Biography
Grant Mitchell (born John Grant Mitchell Jr.) was an American stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for his portrayals of fathers, husbands, bank clerks, businessmen, school principals and similar type characters, usually supporting, in films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Mitchell, a Yale post graduate at Harvard Law, gave up his law practice to become an actor, making his stage debut at age 27. He appeared in lead roles on Broadway in such plays as "It Pays to Advertise", "The Champion", "The Whole Town's Talking", and "The Baby Cyclone", the last which was specially written for him by George M. Cohan.
His screen career took off with the advent of sound (years earlier he had appeared in at least two silent films). He appeared primarily in B films, though from time to time enjoyed being a part of A-quality productions such as Dinner at Eight (1933), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Grant Mitchell retired from show business in 1948. He died, age 82, in Los Angeles in 1957.
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