Trending
Popular people
Gamil Ratib
Biography
Born Gameel Abu-Bakr Raateb (November 1928 – Cairo) is an Egyptian actor. In 1940s, Gameel first appeared in the film “Al-forsaan al-thalaatha i.e. The three musketeers”, his family refused the idea and his scenes were removed. Raateb traveled to Paris to study Law and Economy, yet he preferred studying Theatre and appeared in Shakespeare’s “Much ado without nothing (1947)”. To provide living expenses, Gameel worked in small jobs besides acting and then became a notable member of the “Comédie Française”. American filmmaker Carol Reed presented Gameel Raateb in “Trapeze (1956)” along with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. Gameel also showed in many TV series like; “Rehlat al-million i.e. The journey to be a millionaire” and “Sonbol ba’d al-million i.e. Sonbol..a millionaire”. He played the villain his unique way and excelled in authoritarian and aristocrat roles especially with Faaten Hamaama in “Hekaaya waraa koll baab i.e. A story behind every door”.
Read more
Gianna Nannini
Biography
Gianna Nannini (born 14 June 1954) is an Italian singer and songwriter. Her most notable songs include "America" (1979), "Fotoromanza" (1984), "I maschi" (1987), "Meravigliosa creatura" (1995), "Sei nell'anima" (2006) and "Bello e impossibile" (1986). The latter became a hit across Europe, especially in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Nannini was born in Siena on 14 June 1954. She has a younger brother Alessandro Nannini, a former Formula One racing driver. She studied piano and composition in Milan in the late 1970s.
Nannini scored her first domestic hit in 1979 with the single "America" and the album California, which became a success in several European countries. Her international breakthrough happened in 1984 with the release of her sixth album, the Conny Plank-produced Puzzle, which peaked in the top 10 in the Italian, German, Austrian and Swiss charts. The first single from the album, "Fotoromanza", was supported by a music video directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, and went on to win many musical awards. Nannini embarked on a long European tour to support the album, culminating in a headlining gig at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
In 1986, her song "Bello e impossibile" was a European hit in Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Her 1987 compilation album Maschi e altri sold over a million copies.
In 2004, she released the greatest hits album Perle, where a number of her most renowned songs were rearranged with the support of musicians such as Christian Lohr on piano (who also had a co-producer credit), and a string quartet composed of Vincenzo di Donna (first violin), Luigi de Maio (second violin), Gerardo Morrone (viola) and Antonio di Franca (violoncello). With this orchestra Nannini went on a European tour from 2004 to 2005.
The album Grazie was released in February 2006, and peaked at number one of the Italian hit-parade with the single "Sei nell'anima".
In April 2007, Nannini released Pia come la canto io, a collection of songs produced by Wil Malone and originally intended for a rock opera based on the medieval Tuscan character Pia de' Tolomei (briefly mentioned in Dante's Purgatorio) that would eventually be performed in 2008 after eleven months of gestation.
An acoustic version of her song Meravigliosa Creatura (from Perle) has been used in a 2008 advertisement commercial for the Fiat Bravo directed by Matthias Zentner. Fiat would later include another Gianna Nannini song, "Aria", in a subsequent Fiat Bravo ad.
In 1987, she performed with Sting, Jack Bruce and Eberhard Schoener the "Three Penny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill at the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 1990, she and Edoardo Bennato sang "Un'estate italiana", the official song of the Football World Cup 1990 composed by Giorgio Moroder. In September 2006, she recorded the single "Ama Credi E Vai" with Andrea Bocelli. Nannini was also featured on Einstürzende Neubauten member Alexander Hacke's solo album Sanctuary, on the track "Per Sempre Butterfly". In 2008, she duetted with the Italian rapper Fabri Fibra in his song "In Italia". She also sang the song "Aria" with the Macedonian vocalist Toše Proeski. ...
Source: Article "Gianna Nannini" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Read more
Frank Perconte
Biography
Frank J. “Perco” Perconte (March 10, 1917 – October 24, 2013) was an American Army non-commissioned officer and World War II veteran. He served as a Technician Fourth Grade with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and was one of the first soldiers assigned to the company.
Born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, Perconte graduated from Joliet Central High School in 1935. During the Great Depression, he moved to Gary, Indiana, where he worked at a steel mill. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1942 and volunteered for the airborne forces before joining Easy Company.
Perconte parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and participated in the Normandy campaign. He subsequently fought during Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. During the assault on Foy in January 1945, he was wounded by a German sniper but later returned to the company. In April 1945, Perconte was among the Easy Company soldiers who discovered the Kaufering concentration camp near Landsberg, Germany, and reported the discovery to Major Richard Winters.
After the war, Perconte returned to Joliet and worked as a postal employee. He remained involved with his fellow Easy Company veterans and contributed his recollections to Marcus Brotherton's 2009 book We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers. He was also featured in accounts and interviews about the experiences of Easy Company veterans.
Perconte's wartime experiences were featured in Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 book Band of Brothers and its 2001 HBO miniseries adaptation, in which he was portrayed by James Madio. He died on October 24, 2013, in Joliet, Illinois, at the age of 96.
Read more
Edita Gruberova
Biography
Edita Gruberová (23 December 1946 – 18 October 2021) was a Slovak coloratura soprano. She made her stage debut in Bratislava in 1968 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, and successfully auditioned at the Vienna State Opera the following year, which became her base. She received international recognition for roles such as Mozart's Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
In her later career, she explored heavier roles in the Italian bel canto repertoire, such as the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Elvira in Bellini's I puritani. In 2019, she portrayed Elisabetta in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, who leaves her throne, concluding a stage career performing leading roles over 51 years. She is remembered as the "Slowakische Nachtigall" (Slovak Nightingale), and as prima donna assoluta.
Edita Gruberová was born on 23 December 1946 in Rača, Bratislava, to a German father and a Hungarian mother. As an anti-communist, her father survived a five-year prison sentence for treason. Her father drank and she developed a close relationship with her mother. She sang in a school choir and in the children's choir of the broadcaster. The pastor of the parish where she prepared for Confirmation accompanied her when she sang solos at church, and prepared her in piano playing to pass the exam to enter the conservatory. Gruberová began her musical studies at the Bratislava Conservatory (Konzervatórium v Bratislave), where she was a student of Mária Medvecká. She then continued at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU). While studying there, she was a singer of the Lúčnica folk ensemble and appeared several times in the Slovak National Theatre. She would later study with Ruthilde Boesch in Vienna.
In 1968, Gruberová made her operatic debut at the National Theatre in Bratislava as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. After winning a singing competition in Toulouse, she was then engaged as a soloist of the opera ensemble of the J. G. Tajovský Theatre in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, from 1968 to 1970. Among her roles was Eliza Doolittle in Loewe's musical My Fair Lady. Since communist Czechoslovakia was going through normalisation, during which the borders to non-communist countries were closed, Medvecká surreptitiously arranged for an audition for Gruberová at the Vienna State Opera in the summer of 1969. She was immediately engaged, and made her breakthrough the following year when she appeared as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In 1971, Gruberová decided to emigrate to the West. She became a member of the Vienna State Opera in 1972, where she was only given secondary and supporting roles in her early years. She was invited to perform at many of the most important opera houses in the world, especially in coloratura roles. Gruberová made her debut at Glyndebourne in 1973 as the Queen of the Night. She became an Austrian citizen in 1974. ...
Source: Article "Edita Gruberová" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Read more
Joakim Thåström
Biography
Sven Joakim Eriksson Thåström växte upp på Skebokvarnsvägen 209 i Högdalen i Stockholm. Han var med och skapade bandet Helt Sonika som bestod av Thåström, Thomas Svanljung, Lars Elffors, Lennart "Elton" Hellgren, Bosse Steinholtz och Lars Bremer. Helt Sonika spelade runtom Stockholm på ungdomsgårdar, klubbar, utomhusfestivaler mm. Lennart Eriksson (eller Fjodor som han kallades) bodde i Rågsved. De bildade tillsammans med Gunnar Ljungstedt ("Gurra") ett band som hette The Haters. The Haters bytte dock redan efter tre dagar namn till Ebba Grön, som härstammar från en poliskod med anknytning till den s.k. Operation Leo, där den tyske terroristen Norbert Kröcher planerade att kidnappa dåvarande invandrarministern Anna-Greta Leijon. "Ebba röd" var polisens kod för den operation som gick ut på att gripa Kröcher. Då gripandet var fullbordat ropades "ebba grön" ut i radion.
Thåström har en dotter från sitt första äktenskap vilket upplöstes 1998, och en son född 2000. I unga år hade han ett förhållande med skådespelaren Amanda Ooms. Paret återförenades efter flera år isär och är numera sambos.
Read more
Arik Einstein
Biography
Arieh Einstein was born in Tel Aviv. His father, Yaakov, was an actor with the "Ohel" Theater. Einstein was Israel's junior high jump and shot put champion. His father urged him to audition for an army entertainment troupe, and he was accepted into the Nahal Brigade troupe. In 1963, Arieh Einstein married Alona Shochat in the hall of Habima Theater (where he was onstage in a production of Irma La Douce). After four years of marriage, during which their daughter Shiri was born, the couple divorced. A year later, in 1968, they remarried. Their daughter Yasmin was born in 1971. They divorced again in 1972. Alona Einstein died in 2006 from cancer. Arik Einstein's second wife was Sima Eliyahu, whom he met shortly before filming the movie Metzitzim in 1972. They had a daughter and a son: Dina and Amir.[citation needed] Despite a successful career of acting and singing, Einstein was the shy type and a homebody. In one of his songs he sang that his greatest pleasure was staying home with a cup of lemon tea and his books, and in this he was sincere. In a candid interview that was shown on TV, he said that performing in front of big crowds was difficult for him (without the help of a few glugs of cognac beforehand). For this reason he ceased to perform public concerts from the year of 1981 and on, despite many attractive offers. In 1982 he was hurt in a major car accident. His wife was also hurt, and another friend lost her life. Following the accident Einstein's eyesight, which was already myopic, got worse and he spent less and less time in public.
Read more
Bryan Cranston
Biography
Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor. After taking minor roles in television, he established himself as a leading actor in both comedic and dramatic works on stage and screen. He has received several accolades, including seven Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.
Cranston first gained prominence playing Hal in the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He gained stardom for his dramatic leading role playing Walter White in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), for which he won the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014). He was Emmy-nominated for All the Way (2016) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2018). Cranston co-developed and appeared in the crime drama series Sneaky Pete (2015–2019), and has also starred in the drama series Your Honor (2020–2023).
On stage, he earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Broadway play All the Way (2014), a role he reprised in the 2016 HBO film of the same name. He received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and his second Tony Award for portraying Howard Beale in the play Network on the West End and Broadway, respectively.
Cranston earned nominations for the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for portraying Dalton Trumbo in the Hollywood blacklist drama Trumbo (2015). Other notable films include Saving Private Ryan (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Drive (2011), Contagion (2011), Argo (2012), Godzilla (2014), The Infiltrator (2016), The Upside (2017), Last Flag Flying (2017), Isle of Dogs (2018), Asteroid City (2023), and The Phoenician Scheme (2025). He has also voiced roles in Madagascar 3 (2012), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), and Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Bryan Cranston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Rachael Dowling
Biography
Rachael Dowling made her screen debut playing Lily in John Huston's classic film adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987). She went on to star in Tom Collin's Bogwoman opposite Peter Mullan and David Yates' (Harry Potter) The Tichborne Claimant. Other roles include P.J. Dillon's Rewind, Tears In The Rain opposite Sharon Stone, RTE drama The Treaty opposite Brendan Gleeson as Michael Collins , Double Act a Channel 4 series for children based on the novel by Jacqueline Wilson, Scarlett (the US TV sequel to Gone With The Wind) and Widow's Peak. She is well known to Irish television audiences as Sharon in Glenroe, a long running rural Irish drama serial.
Rachael was seen on stage recently (2012) in Edna O'Brien's own adaptation of The Country Girls which had a highly successful run at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre as well as on tour in Ireland.
She made her professional theatrical debut in Jim Sheridan's New York production of Brendan Behan's The Hostage (1985) and continued to work with Mr Sheridan on several of his theatre productions at The Irish Arts Centre in Manhattan. She also appeared in his films The Field and In The Name Of The Father.
Other theatre work includes: A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Child's Christmas in Wales, Peg O' My Heart, She Stoops To Conquer (Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, USA) The Hostage (Irish Arts Centre, New York and Druid Theatre Co. Galway), Forty Four Sycamore (Red Kettle Theatre Co.), Aristocrats (Mark Taper Forum LA), Torchlight And Laser Beams (Gaiety Theatre), A Slice Of Saturday Night (Andrews Lane Theatre), The Streets Of Dublin (Tivoli Theatre), Da (Olympia Theatre), Purple Dust (Abbey Theatre), Big Maggie (Abbey Theatre) School for Scandal (Gate Theatre), Pride And Prejudice (Gate Theatre) and Uncle Vanya (Mercury Theatre -London). In the mid 90's Rachael took a career break to study Film and Television Production at Hunter College in Manhattan. She then returned to Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland and was awarded her MA in Film Studies gaining first class honours and first place in her class.
She lectured at The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Film History.
She has written and directed an award winning short film Stealth which was screened at several international film festivals. She has also directed for the theatre including Missing Football an award winning first play by Irish writer Peter McKenna.
Rachael continually works with Irish screenwriters and directors as a script editor and creative consultant.
Read more
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.
Read more
Ai Hashimoto
Biography
Kumamoto-native Ai Hashimoto debuted in 2008 via an audition at Sony's Newcome that her mother pushed her to attend. Her mother loves celebrities. She has two sisters with her being the middle one. Her mother believed she is the one daughter who could make it in the audition. Immediately after the audition Ai disbelieved she would win. She began modelling in Seventeen magazine in 2010 and also made her acting debut in that year in Give And Go where she was the main character. She continued with roles in Confessions and Sadako 3D. Ai was awarded the prize as Rookie of The Year at the 36th Japan Academy Program in 2013. She ceased modelling in 2014. Hashimoto likes manga, karaoke and bicycling. She states that while she memorizes her scripts she avoids trying to understand the character from the lines and instead understand the spirit and motivation. Hashimoto is obsessed with eating tomatoes and cites the number three as her favourite.
Read more
