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Marion Williams
Biography
Marion Williams (August 29, 1927 – July 2, 1994) was an American gospel singer. Marion Williams was born in Miami, Florida, to a religiously devout mother and musically inclined father. She left school when she was nine years old to help support the family, and worked as a maid, a nurse, and in factories and laundries. She began singing in front of audiences while young. As was common in the area, Williams learned African American blues and jazz, alongside Caribbean calypso.
Poverty caused Williams to leave school at fourteen to work with her mother at a laundry, although she eventually graduated from Pacific Union College in 1987. She sang at church and on street corners, inspired by a wide range of musicians, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Smith Jubilee Singers.
She stayed with gospel in spite of pressure to switch to popular blues tunes or the opera.
In 1946, while visiting a friend in Philadelphia, Williams happened to sing before an audience that included Clara and Gertrude Ward. They recognized her talent and offered her a job. A year later, she became part of the Famous Ward Singers. Her growling, hands-on-the-hips vocal style made her one of the group's undisputed stars.
In 1958, she and other members of the Ward group formed the Stars of Faith. In 1965, Williams began her solo career. For the next 15 years, she toured the United States, Africa and the West Indies.
In 1992, critic and music historian Dave McGee, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide, said "One will come away from her recordings believing that she was nothing less than the greatest singer ever".
Williams was invited to join the Ward Singers when they heard her singing during a visit to a close friend in Philadelphia in 1946. Williams finally joined them in 1947, staying with them for eleven years. Her first recording with the group was "How Far Am I from Canaan" (1948), followed by the breakthrough "Surely God Is Able", which launched Williams and the rest of the group into super-stardom. Their concerts were mobbed by frenzied fans.
Dissatisfied with the low pay she was receiving while starring for the group, Williams left the Ward Singers in 1958, followed by most of the rest of the group, to form the Stars of Faith. The new group was unable, however, to reproduce the success the Ward Singers had enjoyed, as Williams retreated from the spotlight to give other members of the group more opportunity to star. The group's career recovered, however, in 1961, when it appeared in Black Nativity, an Off-Broadway production, and toured across North America and Europe.
In 1965, Williams began a solo career. While in Miami for her mother's funeral, she felt re-inspired to continue her career and began touring college campuses across the country. The recording that is perhaps her best-known hit, "Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go", is from this period. ...
Source: Article "Marion Williams" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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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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Lefteris Pantazis
Biography
Lefteris Pantazis is a Greek popular singer, regarded as one of the most commercially successful names in Greek folk music. He has released 27 solo albums and 13 compilations, with 30 of them certified platinum and all 40 gold. His total album and CD sales reach around 4 million copies. Pantazis is known for frequently performing in Greece and abroad, particularly for the Greek diaspora. Pantazis was born to Greek Pontic parents and moved to Greece as a refugee at a young age. He began his professional singing career in the mid-1970s, gaining recognition in the early 1980s. His first major hit was "Paranomos desmos" (1979), which remains popular today. Throughout the '80s, he became a household name, with hits like "Tarahi" (1989), "Ta louloudia stin kyria" (1988), and "Na pethanoun oi gynaikes" (1982). He also appeared in a few films during this period. In the 1990s, Pantazis continued his success with hits like "To oraiotero plasma tou kosmou" (1994) and "Vrikes to evaisthito simeio mou" (1998). In the 2000s, he maintained his popularity with songs like "Filakia" (2000), a successful Turkish cover, and "Tsoutsouka" (2004), a Brazilian hit cover. Pantazis also served as president of the Greek football club Panionios F.C. from 2002 to 2006, during which the team participated in the UEFA Cup. Pantazis is the father of actress and singer Konnie Metaxa, from his relationship with actress Zoza Metaxa. He has also had relationships with notable figures such as singer Antzela Dimitriou and actress Kaiti Finou.
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Jerry Ordway
Biography
Jeremiah Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books.
He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), his long run working on the Superman titles from 1986 to 1993, and for writing and painting the Captain Marvel original graphic novel The Power of Shazam! (1994), and writing the ongoing monthly series from 1995 to 1999. He has provided inks for artists such as Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, John Byrne, George Perez and others.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jerry Ordway, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Denis Collangettes
Biography
Denis Collangettes (1945-1999) was a French mountaineer and mountain guide from Mont-Dore, Auvergne. He, along with other guides, was a key figure in the development and reputation of mountain sports in the Massif Central.
He became a mountain guide in 1972, becoming the first guide from the Auvergne region. Collangettes played a fundamental role in the development of mountaineering and climbing in the Sancy Massif and around Mont-Dore, where he practiced much of the year. He is recognized as one of the true pioneers of mountaineering in Auvergne. Throughout his career, Denis Collangettes opened and equipped numerous mountaineering and ice climbing routes, including the first ascent of the Cascade de la Dore with a single ice axe and the "Redondance" gully at Puy Redon. He also mentored several well-known climbers and guides, and funded equipment that contributed to the growth of climbing and mountaineering in the region. His name is associated with numerous local achievements, including the opening of major routes in the Sancy, Cantal, and Haute-Loire massifs.
Denis Collangettes was part of a group of renowned French climbers during the 1988 French expedition to Everest: Jean-Marc Boivin, Gérard Vionnet-Fuasset, Jean-Pierre Frachon, Michel Metzger, André Georges, as well as guides François Pallandre, Christian Aguilera, and Jean Afanassieff. During the expedition, the first-ever paragliding takeoff from the summit was made by Jean-Marc Boivin on September 26, 1988. Denis Collangettes had planned to take off himself in a tandem paraglider, but ultimately abandoned the summit out of self-sacrifice to help René Robert, demonstrating his remarkable team spirit.
Denis Collangettes died in 1999 following a fatal slip at the bottom of a route, in circumstances described as a "common loss of balance." This tragic accident shocked the local alpine community and earned him numerous tributes. A climbing wall at the Sancy chalet now bears his name in his honor.
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Nathan Fielder
Biography
Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian writer, comedian, actor and entrepreneur.
He is best known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central show Nathan for You. Fielder has voiced characters on Rick and Morty, Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons. He also appears in the films The Night Before and The Disaster Artist, both alongside his longtime friend Seth Rogen.
In 2015, Nathan founded Summit Ice Apparel, a “not-for-profit company dedicated to producing quality outdoor apparel and raising awareness of the Holocaust”, and the endeavor was shown during Season 3 of Nathan for You. All of Summit Ice’s profits go to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre in Vancouver, Canada.
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Nicola Roberts
Biography
Nicola Maria Roberts is an English singer and songwriter. In 2002, Roberts was selected as a member of Girls Aloud, a pop girl group created through ITV's reality competition show Popstars: The Rivals. The group went on to receive large success, achieving a string of 20 consecutive UK top ten singles (including four number ones), two UK number one albums, five consecutive platinum selling studio albums, and receiving nominations for five BRIT Awards, winning Best Single in 2009 for "The Promise".
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Collin Chou
Biography
Collin Chou (Chinese: 鄒兆龍) is a Taiwanese actor and martial artist. Chou is best known in the United States for his portrayal of Seraph in the films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. In Asian cinema, Chou has co-starred with Jet Li, Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung in martial arts films such as Fearless (2006), and Flash Point (2007). He is also known for playing the antagonist Shang Wei in Hail the Judge (1994), which starred Stephen Chow, and playing Jade Warlord in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), which starred Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Chou attended Pierce Community College in Los Angeles, United States.
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Andy Johnson
Biography
Andy Johnson. Andy served in the RAF from 1981 as a fighter controller, spending ten years serving in air defence radar stations. In 1992, he moved to RAF Waddington and spent the next seventeen years flying on the AWACS as crewmember and mission crew commander. During his flying service, Andy flew extensively in air operations over Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and worked with the armed forces of many nations, particularly the USA, Australia and India. He has an insider's view of the air environment and the application of air power on the battlefield. Andy has a lifetime interest in military aviation and the campaigns of the British and Commonwealth Armies, particularly in the Second World War, has visited battlefields in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Northwest Europe and has led Staff Rides and battlefield tours looking at the Battle of Britain and visiting the Western Front and Normandy. As a complete contrast, Andy travelled to India on numerous occasions and developed an interest in the Honourable East India Company and its campaigns, particularly the Indian Mutiny of 1857-59. During independent travels, he explored sites at Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gwalior, Jhansi and other locations, many well off the beaten track. He retired from the RAF in 2009 to pursue a second career in battlefield guiding and military and aviation research. He is a volunteer guide at RAF Waddington Heritage Centre, escorting general interest and ancestral groups, and at RAF Digby Operations Room Museum, where a fighter control background is of particular use. He also guides a Lincolnshire-based aviation-themed tour and has guided for Remembrance Travel. He joined the Guild of Battlefield Guides in 2008 and gained Badge No 52 in November 2011. Andy can be contacted [email protected]
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Don Keith Opper
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don Keith Opper (born June 12, 1949) is an American actor, writer, and producer who has starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role as Charlie McFadden in the 1986 science fiction film Critters and each of the three sequels. His most recent film role is in Albert Pyun's 2005 horror film Infection. Opper has made guest appearances on many TV shows, including Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, 21 Jump Street, Roseanne, Harsh Realm and The Division.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Don Keith Opper, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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