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Louise Brooks
Biography
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.
Brooks began her career as a dancer. While dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City, she came to the attention of Walter Wanger, a producer at Paramount Pictures, and was signed to a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928).
Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in seventeen silent films and eight sound films.
After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became a paid escort. For the next two decades, she struggled with alcoholism and suicidal tendencies.
Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78.
[preceding biography, edited, from Wikipedia]
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Simone Reyes
Biography
Long-time secretary of entertainment mogul Russell Simmons, Reyes was seen in the Beastie Boys music videos "No Sleep till Brooklyn" and "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" in 1987. She then made her sole foray into acting (going by just "Simone") in Cemetery High (1989), playing one member of a quintet of female killers who indiscriminately murder male "scum suckers." It appears she gave up on her acting career after that experience. In 2015, she was promoted to director of development at Def Pictures Television. Reyes also is a vegan and outspoken animal rights activist.
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Javier Batiz
Biography
Mexican guitarist from Tijuana and precursor of rock in Mexico. In 1957 he founded a group called Los TJ's with which he picked up musical influences that were received in the Mexican border cities of black music, blues and R&B from people like T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, among others.
Bátiz moved to Mexico City. By 1968 Javier Bátiz became a famous figure in the Mexican blues world and was hired to play at the Terraza Casino bar, which turned out to be a successful season. Personalities from all walks of life gathered there every night to draw impressive crowds, including politicians, artists and intellectuals. That popularity led him to perform in 1969 at the first massive open-air concert in Mexico held by authorities of the then Mexico City Department in the Alameda Central, where according to eyewitness estimates, Javier played to an audience of at least 18,000 people. Known as a teacher of people such as: Carlos Santana, Alex Lora, Abraham Laboriel, Fito de la Parra (Canned Heat), and Guillermo Briseño. Carlos Santana has always been recognized as the creator of Javier Bátiz's sound. In the year 2000 he participated in Canned Heat's Boogie 2000 album, with the song ¨The world of make believe¨ song that took the first places in Europe, which allowed him to travel with Canned Heat on tour in Milan, Ceseña, Terramo and Naples, in Italy. He presented his Metromental Recording which featured the seventies genius with a modern treatment in arrangements and production by Tony and Beto Méndez and special collaborations by Álex Lora, Lalo Toral (Locos de Ritmo), Guillermo Briseño, Nando Estevane and Fernando Vahaux among others.
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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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Maya Lin
Biography
Maya Ying Lin is an American architect and sculptor. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Lin has designed numerous memorials, public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures. Although she is best known for historical memorials, she is also known for environmentally themed works, which often address environmental decline. According to Lin, she draws inspiration from the architecture of nature but believes that nothing she creates can match its beauty.
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Monah Delacy
Biography
Monah Delacy, stage name of Lacy Corrêa dos Santos Torloni (Belo Horizonte, March 22, 1929) is a Brazilian actress. She began her artistic career in theater, in 1950, in the plays O Demorado Adeus, Treze à Mesa and A Moratória. She made her film debut in 1960, in the film Esse Rio que Eu Amo, directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen. In the 1960s, she also began dedicating herself to painting, even holding an individual exhibition, with 19 oils, in 1980.
From her marriage to actor Geraldo Matheus Torloni, she had two children, Marcio Torloni, who did not pursue an artistic career, and actress Christiane Torloni. She is the grandmother of actor Leonardo Torloni Carvalho. She teaches acting at Casa de Arte das Laranjeiras.
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Claire Du Brey
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Claire Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubrey, August 31, 1892 – August 1, 1993) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 200 films between 1916 and 1959. Her name is sometimes rendered as Claire Du Bray or as Claire Dubrey.
Du Brey's screen career began with Universal Studios and she played at one time or another with almost all the larger companies. More notable films in which she appeared were Anything Once (1917), Social Briars (1918), The Devil's Trail (1919), What Every Woman Wants (1919) and Dangerous Hours (1919). Other films include The Wishing Ring Man, The Spite Bride, The World Aflame, and The Walk Offs. Her career declined with the sound era and she later played mostly small roles.
Du Brey was proficient in athletics, excelling in swimming, riding, golfing, tennis and motoring. She was five feet seven inches high, weighed 130 pounds and had auburn hair and brown eyes, and took a lively interest in horticulture.
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Inna Modja
Biography
Inna Bocoum, also known as Inna Modja (born May 19, 1984), is a Malian-French female singer and model. "Modja" means "bad, not good" in Fulfulde.
Born on May 19, 1984, in Bamako, Mali, in a Fula family, the sixth of seven children, Inna Bocoum owes her artist name to her mother, who gave her the nickname of Inna Modja, which means "Inna is bad" or "Inna is not good" in Fulfulde. When she was six, her parents enrolled her in a choir. At home, her father encouraged her to progress by playing her some records he liked (artists such as Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding, Sarah Vaughan). She was also influenced by her older siblings, who transitioned into Thrash Punk, '80/'90s Rap, Heavy Metal periods, in addition to Blues, Soul and Disco. As a teenager, she still alternated between Hard Rock and love songs. She regularly visited her neighbour, Salif Keita, who invites her to be part of the Rail Band of Bamako, a group of swinging old men (Bossa Nova and Jazz), amongst whom he himself debuted.
She speaks against female genital mutilation, as she herself and her four sisters were circumcised without their parents' approval, an event she sang about in one of her songs. She since had reconstructive surgery done. She's also outspoken against violence against women, which she portrayed in the music video of her song "La Valse de Marylore."
From these experiences, Inna Modja learned to adapt to different rhythms, like Swing or Disco. She finally settled on a Pop and Soul sounds. After appearing on a Fête de la Musique special TV show produced by France 2 singing a duet with Jason Mraz on his song "Lucky", Inna Modja opened for Sliimy on several of his shows. She released her first single, "Mister H", which is included on her first album "Everyday is a New World", itself released in October 2009. She supported it with appearances on several TV shows, including "Vivement Dimanche" and "Taratata".
She made a comeback in June 2011 with her new single "French Cancan (Monsieur Sainte Nitouche)". It quickly became one of the biggest Summer hits of 2011 in France and went No. 4 on the SNEP French Singles Chart. She followed this success with "La Fille du Lido", the second single off her second album "Love Revolution" which was released on November 7. She participated to the annual Téléthon, which benefits the French Association Against Myopathies. The music video for the third single, "I Am Smiling" (February 2012), was entirely made from videos from her fans.
She contributed a cover of "Souris Puisque C'est Grave" on Alain Chamfort's cover album Elles & Lui (2012), and lent her voice to the charity single "Je Reprends Ma Route", to benefit the association "Les Voix de l'enfant".
In 2018 she was part of the re-imagining, at Laurent Ruquier's inspiration, of Claude Bolling's Les Parisiennes.
Source: Article "Inna Modja" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Carice van Houten
Biography
Carice Anouk van Houten, born on September 5, 1976, is a Dutch stage and film actress. One of Europe's most celebrated actresses, Carice van Houten is perhaps best known as 'Melisandre' in the iconic TV show Game of Thrones, a performance for which she has been recognized with an Emmy Award nomination in 2019. Other projects include Paul Verhoeven's award-winning Black Book and Bryan Singer's Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise and as Melisandre on Game of Thrones. Recent projects include Instinct and Temple, a TV show for Sky opposite Mark Strong, which has been picked up for a second season.
Her Dutch-language feature Love Life, gained her further critical acclaim and broke box office records in her native Holland. Her next film Happy Housewive won her a record breaking 5th Golden Calf at The Netherlands Film Festival and was voted 'Best Dutch Actress of All Time' by the Dutch audience. Other awards include Best Actress for Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Performance award for Instinct at the Les Arcs Film Festival 2019.
Her credits include Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, the Jesse Owens biopic, Race, with Jason Sudekis and Jeremy Irons and voiced a character in The Simpsons. She can also be seen in Brian de Palma's Domino and in Brimstone, opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington, and The Glass Room, with Claes Bang. She played a leading role in Halina Reijn's directorial feature debut Instinct, opposite Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin), which won the Variety Piazza Grande Award in Locarno Film Festival 2019. Instinct is the first outing for the Carice and Halina's production banner, Man Up.
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Natasha Neri
Biography
Natasha Neri is a journalist, Brazilian filmmaker, and researcher of Human Rights and Criminal Justice who studied Sociology and Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She directed the documentary Auto de Resistencia (2018) (Police Killing in English and Letal in Spanish) alongside Lula Carvalho. The film, based on Neri's research, describes the different stages of processing of several cases in which people were killed in alleged clashes with the police in Rio de Janeiro, the so-called "resistance acts."
Description above from the Wikipedia article Natasha Neri, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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