Trending
Popular people
Edgard Varèse
Biography
Edgard Varèse or Edgar Varèse (both spellings were used by the composer himself at different times in his life) was a French naturalized American composer, born December 22, 1883 in Paris and died November 6, 1965 in New York.
Initially trained at the Schola Cantorum and the Paris Conservatory, Varèse found with more independent artists, such as Debussy and Busoni, the necessary encouragement for his personal expression.
Indeed, well before 1914, Varèse considered abandoning classical composition methods, the tempered system and traditional musical instruments to use “the sound material itself”. This ideal led him to destroy his first scores as far as Americas — where he already used the frequency and intensity modulated sounds of a siren — and to encourage research in the field of acoustics, from the dynamophone to the productions of Léon Theremin and Maurice Martenot.
Varèse abandons the orchestra from Arcana, for more reduced and individualized instrumental ensembles. However, the absence of technical means, a recording studio or a laboratory silenced him for the duration of the Second World War and until the mid-1950s, when studio recording techniques were developed. essays by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. Varèse was then able to produce a work such as the Poème électronique, for the Universal Exhibition in Brussels in 1958.
Maintaining close relations with important representatives of the scientific community of his time, Varèse's interest in science is reflected in the titles he gives to his works, evoking mathematics (Intégrales), metallurgy (Densité 21 ,5), crystallography (Hyperprism), botany (Octandre), chemistry (Ionization) and even alchemy (Arcana). At first, Varèse's work seemed very abstract. However, his music has a great power of incantation, as soon as the human voice intervenes (Offerings, Ecuatorial, Nocturnal).
The scandal of the creation of Déserts, on December 2, 1954 in Paris, revealed him for a new generation of classical (including Iannis Xenakis and Bruno Maderna) and popular (like Frank Zappa) composers who recognized in him much more than a "precursor", a model to follow and one of the great innovators of the 20th century along with Stravinsky, Bartók, Henry Cowell and Anton Webern.
Read more
Martha Mansfield
Biography
From Wikipedia
Martha Mansfield (July 14, 1899 – November 30, 1923) was an American actress in silent films and vaudeville stage plays.
She was born Martha Ehrlich in New York City to Maurice and Harriett Gibson Ehrlich. She had a younger sister, Edith, born in 1905. Although many biographies state that Martha was born in Mansfield, Ohio, her birth record and death certificate both have New York City as her place of birth. Her mother, Harriet, was from Mansfield, Ohio, having emigrated there from Ireland in 1885. Martha later adopted the name of the town as her stage name.
Her first Hollywood movie was Civilian Clothes (1920) directed by Hugh Ford. She gained prominence as Millicent Carew in the film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which starred John Barrymore. She then signed with Selznick Pictures where she was cast with Eugene O'Brien in The Perfect Lover (1919). In 1921, Mansfield returned to the stage in a vaudeville tour. She appeared in two independent films the following year: Queen of the Moulin Rouge and Till We Meet Again. She spent the remainder of the year touring the vaudeville circuit.
In 1923, Mansfield completed her contract for Selznick and signed with Fox Film Corporation. Her first film for Fox was The Silent Command, starring Edmund Lowe and Béla Lugosi. The final completed features in her short film career were Potash and Permutter and The Leavenworth Case, both from 1923.
On November 29, 1923, while working on location in San Antonio, Texas on the film The Warrens of Virginia, Mansfield was severely burned when a tossed match ignited her Civil War costume of hoop skirts and flimsy ruffles. Mansfield was playing the role of Agatha Warren and had just finished her scenes and retired to a car when her clothing burst into flames. Her neck and face were saved when leading man Wilfred Lytell threw his heavy overcoat over her. The chauffeur of Mansfield's car was burned badly on his hands while trying to remove the burning clothing from the actress. The fire was put out, but she sustained substantial burns to her body.
She was rushed to a hospital where she died less than twenty-four hours later of "burns of all extremities, general toxemia and suppression of urine". Mansfield was 24 years old. Accompanied by actor Phillip Shorey, Mansfield's body was transported back to her home in New York City. She was interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
Read more
Sutara Gayle
Biography
Lorna N Gayle (born 14 April 1963), known professionally as Sutara Gayle, is a British actress and singer, known for appearing in the films Run Fatboy Run (2007), The Dark Knight (2008) and One Day (2011). In 2015, she played Shontal in the BBC Three sitcom Fried. As Lorna Gee, she won awards as a lovers rock reggae singer. Between 2021 and 2022, she played the role of Gloria Mason-Walker in Silent Witness.
Since beginning her career in 2007, Gayle has appeared in films, on television and on stage. Gayle's first audition was for the tap-dancing play Stepping Out. She has also appeared in the West End musical Tina. She portrayed the role of Gloria Mason-Walker in Silent Witness on a recurring basis between 2021 and 2022. In 2022, she appeared in four episodes of Magpie Murders as Gemma Whiteley and as Kim Sullivan in the BBC drama Strike.
Whilst on a trip to India with her brother in 2011, Gayle made some "personal discoveries" and was given a naming ceremony, in which she was given the name "Sutara" which has used professionally since 2020.
Read more
Tammy Faye Bakker
Biography
Tamara Faye "Tammy" Messner (née LaValley; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007), formerly Tammy Faye Bakker, was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality.
She initially gained notice for her work with The PTL Club, a televangelist program she co-founded with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. Prior to founding The PTL Club, they had hosted their own puppet show series for local programming in Minnesota in the early 1970s, and Messner also had a career as a recording artist. In 1978, she and Bakker built Heritage USA, a Christian theme park.
Messner would garner significant publicity when Jim Bakker was indicted, convicted, and imprisoned on numerous counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, resulting in the dissolution of The PTL Club. After divorcing Bakker in 1992, she remarried to Roe Messner. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, of which she suffered intermittently for over a decade before dying of the disease in 2007.
Over the course of her career, Messner was noted for her eccentric and glamorous persona, as well as for her moral views that diverged from those of many mainstream Evangelists, particularly her acceptance of the LGBT community and reaching out to HIV/AIDS patients at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more
Nita Naldi
Biography
From Wikipedia
Nita Naldi (November 13, 1894 – February 17, 1961), born Mary Dooley, was an American silent film actress. She was usually cast in the role of the femme fatale/vamp, a persona first popularized by actress Theda Bara.
After first entering vaudeville, Naldi debuted on Broadway in 1918 as a chorus girl at the Winter Garden in The Passing Show of 1918. Her appearance in that production led to more stage jobs. Soon she found herself in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 and 1919. At this time she adopted the name Nita Naldi, which was an homage to a childhood friend named Florence Rinaldi.
She continued working on Broadway, and after a well received performance in The Bonehead, she was offered a stint with well-known producer William A. Brady. Brady cast her in his play Opportunity in 1920.
Naldi was asked to perform in a short film with Scottish comedian Johnny Dooley (no relation). She quit the film after realizing that Dooley had romantic intentions with another woman. She was then offered a role in A Divorce of Convenience with Owen Moore. After those two films, she had small roles in several independent films before being selected for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) with John Barrymore. The role in the film would give Naldi much prestige. During the production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Barrymore and Naldi became friends, and remained friends for many years, with Barrymore lovingly calling her the Dumb Duse.
Naldi was selected by Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez for the role of Dona Sol in the film version of his novel Blood and Sand (1922). Naldi was signed by Famous Players-Lasky for the role, and it became her first pairing with screen idol Rudolph Valentino. The film was a major success, for it gave Naldi the image of a vamp, which would follow her for the rest of her life. Naldi and Valentino were never romantic, and she would be one of the few to befriend his wife Natacha Rambova, though that friendship would sour when the Valentinos divorced.
Thanks to the financial reverses caused by her retirement from films, as well as the Depression, Naldi filed bankruptcy in 1932. She went back to the stage with Queer People and The Firebird in 1933. The press had been critical of her weight since 1924, but reviews to her appearances in both plays were especially harsh this time around—so harsh in fact that Naldi filed suit against one paper in 1934 for $500,000. The suit was dismissed in 1938.
In 1942, Naldi was considered for For Whom the Bell Tolls but did not receive the part. She never made another film. That same year she began appearing in a revue in New York with Mae Murray reciting the 1897 poem "A Fool There Was" in full kitsch.
In 1952, she had a notable role in the play In Any Language, co-starring the legendary stage actress Uta Hagen. In 1955, she coached Carol Channing how to vamp, for Channing's new musical The Vamp. Channing would be nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for that role.
Naldi spent her final years in New York City, where she died of a heart attack in her apartment at the age of 66. She was buried in the family plot at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.
For her contribution to the film industry, Nita Naldi was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6316 Hollywood Blvd.
Read more
Brandon Hurst
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Brandon Hurst (November 30, 1866 – July 15, 1947) was an English stage and film actor.
Hurst studied philology in his youth and began performing in theater in the 1880s. He worked in Broadway shows from 1900 until his entry into motion pictures. His most notable stage appearance was Two Women in 1910.
He was nearly fifty by the time of his 1915 film debut in Via Wireless. He appeared in 129 other films before his death in 1947. He became well known in the 1920s for many distinguished roles portraying the antagonist. Some of these films, such as 1920's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which he played the taunting Sir George Carewe, 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame in which he played evil Jehan Frollo, 1927's Love in which he portrayed cuckold Alexei Karenin opposite Greta Garbo, and 1928's The Man Who Laughs in which he portrayed jester Balkiphedro, are regarded as some of the best films of the time.
His roles in talkies during the 1920s and 1930s were often small. One of his more important roles was sinister Merlin the Magician in Fox's A Connecticut Yankee (1931). Hurst worked as an actor until his death. His final film was Two Guys from Texas, released in 1948.
Read more
Pilar Montenegro
Biography
Mexican Latin pop singer and actress. When Montenegro was 10 years old she landed her first acting part in the TV series Juguemos A Cantar. In 1989 she joined the group Garibaldi. During the mid '90s she began to appear in soap operas and left Garibaldi to pursue a solo career. By 1996 she released her debut album Son del Corazón.
In 2001, Montenegro re-emerged into the music scene by the hand of then husband and executive music producer Jorge Reynoso, and after 6 months of recording with the music production of Rudy Perez, they released her second album Desahogo. The album produced the hit single, a cover of Yolandita Monge’s Quitame Ese Hombre.[3][4] The hit single spent 13 consecutive Weeks at Number 1 on the Hot Latin Tracks of Billboard. With the success of the album "Desahogo" Pilar Montenegro won multiple awards, including 4 Latin Billboard Awards.
Read more
Rajasree
Biography
Rajasree also known as Rajasri or Rajashri, is a noted South Indian film actress from 1956 to 1979. She is particularly famous for her portrayal as princess in several folklore Telugu movies opposite N. T. Rama Rao and Tadepalli Lakshmi Kanta Rao and for acting alongside Ravichandran in the Tamil comedy films – Neeyum Naanum, Kadhalikka Neram Illai and Delhi Mappilai. Notable among Rajasri's roles in non-folklore social films in Tamil are as Nimmi in Tamil hit comedy film Kaadhalikka Neramillai, remade as Preminchi Choodu in Telugu, as movie star Bhama in Tamil film Bama Vijayam. She was credited as Gracy in the Malayalam movies she starred in her career since her debut film Bharya (1962) directed by Kunchakko. Rajasree went on to do 200 films spread across the languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam (as Gracy) and Hindi from beginning of 1956 to 1979.
Read more
Eva Longoria
Biography
Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón (née Longoria; born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, director, and businesswoman. Her breakthrough role as Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) netted her two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe nomination. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018.
After several guest roles on television, she became recognized for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless (2001–2003). She has appeared in the films The Sentinel (2006), Over Her Dead Body (2008), For Greater Glory (2012), Frontera (2014), Lowriders (2016), and Overboard (2018), winning an Imagen Award for the latter. She guest-starred on the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building (2024), earning her a third Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
In 2005, she founded UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, a film and television production company. In 2023, the company was acquired by Hyphenate Media Group, a production company co-founded by Longoria and Cris Abrego. She also executive produced the Lifetime television series Devious Maids (2013–2016), the short-lived NBC sitcom Telenovela (2015–2016) in which she starred, and the films The Harvest (2013) and Food Chains (2014). Her directorial ventures include the television series Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love (2020), for which she was nominated at the Daytime Creative Arts Emmys, and the Oscar-nominated film Flamin' Hot (2023).
She has appeared in several advertising campaigns, including with L'Oréal, New York & Co, Pepsi, and launched her own fashion and perfume brand in 2017. Her other business ventures include opening the restaurant Beso in 2008, investing in businesses and films such as John Wick (2014), and publishing a cookbook.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Eva Longoria, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read more
Charles Lane
Biography
Charles Lane (born Charles Gerstle Levison; January 26, 1905 – July 9, 2007) was an American character actor and centenarian whose career spanned 77 years. Lane gave his last performance at the age of 101 as a narrator in 2006. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Riding High (1950). He was a favored supporting actor of Lucille Ball, who often used him as a no-nonsense authority figure and comedic foe of her scatterbrained TV character on her TV series I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour and The Lucy Show. His first film of more than 250 was as a hotel clerk in Smart Money (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Read more
