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Antoine Pinay
Biography
Antoine Pinay (30 December 1891 – 13 December 1994) was a French conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1952 to 1953.
Antoine Pinay was born on 30 December 1891 in Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise. He was a child of Claude Pinay (5 July 1852 – 4 March 1919), and his wife, Marie Antoinette Besson (10 October 1861 – 23 November 1936).
On 25 April 1917, Pinay married Marguerite Fouletier (3 June 1895 – 3 December 1970) and had two daughters and one son, Geneviève (1918–2017), Odette (1920–2015), and Pierre (1922–1964).
As a young man, Pinay fought in World War I and injured his arm so that it was paralyzed for the rest of his life.
After the war, he managed a small business and in 1929 he was elected mayor of Saint-Chamond, Loire.
He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1936, running as an independent candidate opposed to the Popular Front. In 1938 he was elected to the Senate, where he joined the Independent Radicals. On 10 July 1940 he voted to give the Cabinet presided over by Marshal Philippe Pétain authority to draw up a new constitution, effectively ending the French Third Republic and establishing Vichy France. In 1941, Antoine Pinay was appointed to the Conseil National of the Vichy regime. He was also awarded the Order of the Francisque. During the occupation, Antoine Pinay remained mayor of Saint-Chamond, although he had been urged by General Georges to move to Algiers, in order to better protect the residents of this city. Pinay resigned from the Conseil National within a few months and refused any official position with the Vichy regime, such as the préfecture de l'Hérault offered by Laval. He also gave several hundreds of identity papers to help Jews and members of the Resistance flee from France to Algiers or Switzerland. An official commission in 1946 recognized his long lasting opposition to the Nazis and the help he gave to the Resistance and released him without charge.
In 1944, he was first placed on house arrest, and stripped of his right to be candidate to an election on 5 September 1945. After the intervention of René Cassin, the vice-president of the Conseil d'État, who pointed to his fierce opposition to the German occupation, his citizen rights were restored on 5 October 1945. On 2 June 1946, he could successfully run for election to the Assemblée Constituante as a moderate candidate.
He helped create a conservative party, the National Center of Independents and Peasants (CNIP). He acquired the reputation as one of France's more spirited politicians and in 1952 became prime minister by virtue of being the most popular elected CNIP official. His ministry was seen as the return of the "classical right", discredited since the Liberation. He stabilized the finances of the French nation and the French currency.
In 1955, he was one of the participants of the Messina Conference, which would lead to the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
During the May 1958 crisis precipitated by the Algerian war, he supported Charles de Gaulle's return to power and approved of the Fifth Republic's constitution. He served as finance minister until 1960. In 1973, he was made médiateur de la République (ombudsman) by President Georges Pompidou. ...
Source: Article "Antoine Pinay" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Sujan Mukherjee
Biography
Sujan Mukhopadhyay (also known as Neel Mukherjee) (born 22 July 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Bengali language films, television and theatre. In 2012 he made his directorial debut with the film Ghete Gho. He is an active Member of the renowned Theatre Group Chetana. On 22 February 2016 his directorial debut, in the field of Theatre, Ghashiram Kotwal,which is an adaptation on Marathi play, was premiered. In 2018 he directed Don: Taake Bhalo Laage an adaptation of Dale Wasserman's Don Quixote which was translated into Bengali by Arun Mukhopadhyay many years back. This play marked the re-entry of Suman Mukhopadhyay as an actor after 25 years.
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Ulrike Koch
Biography
Ulrike Koch was born in Birkenfeld/Nahe, Germany. She studied sinology, Japanology and ethnology at the University of Zurich as well as Chinese literature and philosophy at Beijing University/China. Her journalistic activities include writing articles and film reviews for various publications, e.g., Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Weltwoche, Positif (Paris), as well as project consulting and lecturing on China, Tibet and Buddhism. Before directing her own films she worked as casting director for The Last Emperor and Little Buddha, both by Bernardo Bertolucci; and as assistant director for Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia by Ulrike Ottinger and Urga by Nikita Mikhalkov. She lives and works as an independent filmmaker in Zollikon near Zurich.
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Maiko Minami
Biography
Maiko Minami, originally known as Yukoyo Takahashi and born on March 8, 1961, is a distinguished Japanese female talent and actress affiliated with Actors Promotion. Hailing from Tokyo, Minami embarked on her professional journey in 1981 as an executive secretary at Itochu Corporation, concluding her tenure in 1983. Impressively, she held credentials in Soroban (abacus) Level 2, Eiken (English proficiency) Level 2, and Penmanship Level 2.
In 1985, her career took a notable turn as she garnered recognition as a member of the idol ensemble "Onattāzu," alongside Natako Ogawa and Harumi Fukano. Post the group's disbandment, Minami sustained her dynamic influence across various arenas, including gravure modeling, television programs, and films.
Notably, in 1995, she entered matrimony with event company owner Soichiro Kimura, yet the marriage met a swift end through divorce after a brief period.
(Source: Wikipedia Japan)
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Marco Joubert
Biography
Self-taught Canadian filmmaker and video artist with a background in architecture and visual arts. His audiovisual practice, characterized by formal rigor, lies at the crossroads of cinema, video art, poetry, and philosophy. Thematically, his work explores the specificity of the human condition: the implications of our capacity to think and reason; the gap between material comfort and basic needs; the difficulty of communication; and the ever-present awareness of mortality. His films create otherworldly realities that still resonate with common human experience. While pursuing an MFA at Concordia University (2022–2025), Joubert has been investigating how today’s technological ecosystem challenges our perceptions of humanness, as well as how innovative uses of audiovisual language can open new ways of thinking.
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Olympia Snowe
Biography
Olympia Jean Snowe (née Bouchles; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Senators by Time magazine. Throughout her Senate career, she was considered one of the most moderate members of the chamber.
On February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she would not seek re-election in November 2012, and retired when her third term ended on January 3, 2013. She cited hyper-partisanship leading to a dysfunctional Congress as the reason for her retirement from the Senate. Her seat went to former governor Angus King, a former Democrat and current independent.
Snowe is a senior fellow for the Bipartisan Policy Center and co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform.
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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 October 31, 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90.
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Lily Rose Smith
Biography
She is best known for her work on HBO's DC Comic series Watchmen as well as playing Josie Saltzman on seasons 7 & 8 of the CW's hit series The Vampire Diaries. Lily Rose is a fraternal triplet with Tierney & Miley and started her career as an infant doing print and commercial work. She is one of 7 children. There are her sisters, Tierney & Miley as well as a younger brother named Jaxon, and 2 step-brothers and an older step-sister. Her sister, Tierney, is also an actress who played her sister Lizzie Saltzman on The Vampire Diaries.
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Jacob Letman
Biography
Jacob Letman grew up in the small town of Lander, Wyoming. After high school he received a bachelor's of arts degree in communications and theatre from Montana State University Billings (2014). He started his entertainment career as an NCAA Sports Broadcaster for men's and women's basketball (2011-2015). Jacob then worked as a sports anchor and reporter for KTVQ News in Billings, Montana (2014-2015).
Jacob started his acting career in Southern California in 2016 after training in film, commercial, and voice over at Del Mar Media Arts (Irvine, CA). He currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona where he continues to train and work as a commercial and film actor.
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Gegam Grigorian
Biography
Gegham Grigorian (also written Grigoryan, Armenian: Գեղամ Գրիգորյան; Russian: Гегам Григорян; 29 January 1951 – 23 March 2016) was an Armenian operatic tenor.
Gegham Grigorian was born in Yerevan and graduated from Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. He was a student of Professor Sergei Danielyan. Grigorian made his first appearance on the big stage in 1971 at age 20. In 1972 he went to West Berlin to perform in solo concerts.
In 1975 he made his debut at the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Armenia in the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. After this, he played Saro in Armen Tigranian's Anoush, Tirit in Tigran Chukhajian's Arshak II, Sayat Nova in Alexander Arutiunian's Sayat Nova, Count Almaviva in Gioachino Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and the titular role in Charles Gounod's Faust.
By the 1970s, he was already a famous singer in the Soviet Union. In 1978, he took part in the competition of La Scala Theatre Academy in Milan and was one of the four winners who were invited to qualify for this school. During his traineeship in Italy, he participated in several concerts. At La Scala, Gegham Grigorian made his debut in the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. After that performance, he signed a contract with La Scala" for leading roles in the operas "Boris Godunov" and Tosca. The performances were to be conducted by Claudio Abbado, who was then the principal conductor of La Scala.
"But politics interfered. The Mussorgsky opera was being staged by Yuri Lyubimov, the famous Moscow director-dissident already in conflict with the government (he was later stripped of his citizenship, in 1984). The production was in rehearsals when the Soviet Union Ministry of Culture asked Grigorian to cancel his participation. As the singer described it at the time - just after the first dress rehearsal - he initially refused. But when the authorities threatened him and his family he acquiesced and departed for Russia. Subsequently he was put on the so-called restricted artists list and not allowed to leave the Soviet Union for eight years" (25 March 2016| by Maya Pritsker, Musicalamerica.com)
As written by The Telegraph on 30 March 2016: "In November that year (1979), however, he turned up in Trieste, some 250 miles east of Milan, seeking political asylum. He was living in a refugee centre while his case was being considered, but within days had vanished, failing to turn up in Milan for his appearance in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov on December 7."
In 1980, Virgilijus Noreika, artistic director of Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre invited Grigorian to work In Vilnius. There Grigorian worked with the famous conductor Jonas Alex. He sang in the operas Eugene Onegin, Don Carlos, Boris Godunov, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto and many others.
In 1989, at the invitation of Valery Gergiev he joined the Kirov Opera (soon to be the Mariinsky Theater) as the lead singer.
Here Grigorian was a great success. In those years, the Mariinsky Theater had just gained fame. Gegham Grigorian made a great contribution in the formation and establishment of a company of soloists under the chief conductor and artistic director Valery Gergiev. ...
Source: Article "Gegham Grigoryan" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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