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Pierre Bourdieu
Biography
Pierre Bourdieu (1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence in several related academic fields (e.g. anthropology, media and cultural studies, education, popular culture, and the arts). During his academic career he was primarily associated with the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris and the Collège de France.
Bourdieu's work was primarily concerned with the dynamics of power in society, especially the diverse and subtle ways in which power is transferred and social order is maintained within and across generations. In conscious opposition to the idealist tradition of much of Western philosophy, his work often emphasized the corporeal nature of social life and stressed the role of practice and embodiment in social dynamics. Building upon and criticizing the theories of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Erwin Panofsky and Marcel Mauss among others, his research pioneered novel investigative frameworks and methods, and introduced such influential concepts as cultural, social, and symbolic forms of capital (as opposed to traditional economic forms of capital), the cultural reproduction, the habitus, the field or location, and symbolic violence. Another notable influence on Bourdieu was Blaise Pascal, after whom Bourdieu titled his Pascalian Meditations.
Bourdieu was a prolific author, producing hundreds of articles and three dozen books, nearly all of which are now available in English. His best-known book is Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1979), in which he argues that judgments of taste are related to social position, or more precisely, are themselves acts of social positioning. The argument is put forward by an original combination of social theory and data from quantitative surveys, photographs and interviews, in an attempt to reconcile difficulties such as how to understand the subject within objective structures. In the process, Bourdieu attempts to reconcile the influences of both external social structures and subjective experience on the individual. The book was named "the sixth most important sociological work of the twentieth century" by the International Sociological Association (ISA).
Pierre Bourdieu's work emphasized how social classes, especially the ruling and intellectual classes, preserve their social privileges across generations despite the myth that contemporary post-industrial society boasts equality of opportunity and high social mobility, achieved through formal education.
Pierre Bourdieu was born in Denguin (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in southern France, to a postal worker and his wife. The household spoke Béarnese, a Gascon dialect. In 1962, Bourdieu married Marie-Claire Brizard, and the couple would go on to have three sons, Jérôme, Emmanuel, and Laurent. ...
Source: Article "Pierre Bourdieu" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Prince Albert II of Monaco
Biography
Albert II (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, reigning since 2005.
Born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, Albert is the second child and only son of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. He attended the Lycée Albert Premier before studying political science at Amherst College. In his youth, he competed in bobsleigh during Winter Olympic finals before retiring in 2002. Albert was appointed regent in March 2005 after his father fell ill, and became sovereign prince upon Rainier's death a week later. Since his ascension, he has been outspoken in the field of environmentalism and an advocate of ocean conservation, and adoption of renewable energy sources to tackle global climate change, and founded The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in 2006, to directly raise funds and initiate action for such causes and greater ecological preservation.
With assets valued at more than $1 billion, Albert owns shares in the Société des Bains de Mer, which operates Monaco's casino and other entertainment properties in the principality.
In July 2011, Prince Albert married South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. He has four children: Jazmin, Alexandre, Gabriella, and Jacques.
Prince Albert was born in the Prince's Palace of Monaco on 14 March 1958, as the second child of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. At the time of his birth, he was heir apparent to the throne. He has Irish, German, and Monegasque ancestry. Albert was a dual citizen of both the Principality of Monaco and the United States of America by birth, before renouncing his American citizenship in his early adulthood. He was baptized on 20 April 1958, by Monsignor Jean Delay, Archbishop of Marseille, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Monaco. His godparents were Prince Louis de Polignac and Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. ...
Source: Article "Albert II, Prince of Monaco" 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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Gene Wilder
Biography
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer-songwriter, and author.
He began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series The Play of the Week in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
He is known for his iconic portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991), as well as starring in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972). He directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984).
With his third wife, Gilda Radner, he starred in three films, the last two of which he also directed. Her 1989 death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club.
After his last acting performance in 2003 – a guest role on Will & Grace for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – he turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008), and Something to Remember You By (2013).
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Jonas Malmsjö
Biography
Swedish actor who has worked in theatre, TV and radio; he is the son of Swedish actor Jan Malmsjö and the Swedish actress Marie Göranzon. Apart from his work in his native Sweden, which has included a starring role in the TV series Labyrint, he has been in several productions directed by Ingmar Bergman at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He was also cast as Skorpa of the White Horse, a Viking warlord in the second half of The Last Kingdom, a BBC adaptation of the first two books in Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories series of historical novels.
He also contributed the voice of Ingmar Bergman in the Sparks musical, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman.
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Karrie Emerson
Biography
Karrie Emerson was a beautiful, engaging and energetic slender brunette actress who had a fleeting ten year career. She was born in 1960. Karrie first began acting in the late 70s. She popped up in guest spots on such TV shows as "Dallas," "Vega$," "The Jeffersons," and "T.J. Hooker." She briefly appeared as a sunbather in Samuel Fuller's outstanding "White Dog." Emerson had a recurring role on the popular daytime soap opera "The Edge of Night." Karrie was especially impressive and memorable in substantial lovely luckless lass in jeopardy lead roles in the enjoyably trashy low-budget 80s horror favorites "Evils of the Night" and "Chopping Mall." Alas, following her small part in the TV mini-series "From the Dead of Night" Karrie Emerson abruptly stopped acting in the late 80s.
- IMDb mini biography by: woodyanders
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Jean Carmet
Biography
Jean Carmet (25 April 1920 – 20 April 1994) was a French actor.
Jean Carmet began working on stage and then in film in the early 1940s becoming a very popular comedic actor in his native country. He is best known internationally for his role as a French colonist in the 1976 film, La Victoire en Chantant (Black and White in Color).
Because of his good-natured manner, he was as popular with members of the film crew as he was with the audiences. During his long career, he appeared in more than 200 films, and although he played dramatic parts, he usually acted in a supporting role as a comedic character.
He was nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for his leading role in the 1986 film, Miss Mona. Twice he won the César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated on two other occasions. In February 1994, to celebrate his 50th year in film, he was honored by the French motion picture industry with a special César Award. Just a few months later, Jean Carmet died of a heart attack.
Jean Carmet is interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. In his birthplace of Bourgueil, a theater and an avenue were named in his honor.
Source: Article "Jean Carmet" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Dean Smith
Biography
Dean Smith was raised in Eliasville, Texas, and later lived in Breckenridge, Texas, where he raised horses and longhorn cattle. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he competed in track and football. He won an Olympic gold medal for the 400-meter relay in the 1952 Helsinki games and finished fourth in the 100 dash in the closest race in Olympic history. He was the lead-off man on the University of Texas world record relay team, 1954-55, and AAU national champion in the 100-meter dash. He played with the Los Angeles Rams during exhibition season and was traded to the Pittsburg Steelers at which time he decided to enter the movie business. He also won amateur rodeo championships for bareback bronco riding and calf roping.
He was an honorary member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, was inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame (2006), the Texas Sports Hall of Fame (1985), Stuntman's Hall of Fame (1980), and the University of Texas Hall of Fame (1980). He was awarded the American Culture Award for Western Movies and Television (2000), the Golden Boot Award in 1998, the Ben Johnson Award in 1993, the All-American Cowboy Award in 1997, and the Head of the Class Alvin Davis Award in 2002.
In 2002, he organized the Dean Smith Celebrity Rodeo benefiting the Cowboy Cancer Crusade tribute to Ben Johnson, the Dean Smith Celebrity Rodeo benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute honoring John Wayne, and, in 2006, the Dean Smith Celebrity Rodeo benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute honoring The Singing Cowboys in Abilene, Texas, the third weekend in October. On April 8, 2006, the John Wayne Cancer Institute honored him with the "Duke Award" for his contributions to cancer research.
In 2023, Dean Smith died of cancer, aged 91, in Breckenridge, Texas.
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Don McKillop
Biography
Donald Harley McKillop (15 February 1928 – 19 December 2005) was an English actor who trained at RADA. Notable roles include Bert the Landlord in the Doctor Who fifth and final serial of the eighth season, The Dæmons in 1971, Jack in The Likely Lads, Bill in Rosie and as Sgt. McKechnie in the first series of the Scottish TV production Sutherland's Law, opposite Maev Alexander. He appeared in five episodes of Dr. Finlay's Casebook between 1964 and 1970. He also appeared in notable films such as The Breaking of Bumbo (1970), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Walter (1982).
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Anu Lamp
Biography
Anu Lamp (born March 29, 1958) is an Estonian stage, film, television and voice actress, stage director, translator and instructor.
Anu Lamp was born in Tallinn. She graduated from secondary school in 1976 at the Tallinn 7th Secondary School (now, the Tallinn English College). From 1976 until 1978, she studied philology at University of Tartu before studying acting under instruction of Aarne Üksküla at the Tallinn State Conservatory (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre), graduating in 1982. Among her graduating classmates were Margus Oopkaup, Jaan Rekkor, Laine Mägi, Sulev Teppart, Andrus Vaarik, and Viire Valdma.
In June 2016, she graduated from the Institute of Theology of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church with a master's degree in theology.
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