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Ian Ogilvy
Biography
Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English film and television actor. He is best known as the star of the TV series Return of the Saint (1978–79), in which he assumed the role of Simon Templar from Roger Moore (1962–69).
The role led to his being considered a leading contender for the role of James Bond in the early 1980s, when Moore announced his intention to leave the role. He never played the part (in part due to Moore reconsidering his resignation on several occasions), although he did play a Bond-like character in a series of North American TV commercials broadcast in the early 1990s. At least once, in an episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, "Dragon's Wing II", he played a Bond-like British agent, complete with white dinner jacket.
He was a friend of film-maker Michael Reeves and starred in all three of Reeves's films: Revenge of the Blood Beast (1966), The Sorcerers (1967), and Witchfinder General (also known as The Conqueror Worm, 1968). He guest-starred in The Avengers in the 1968 episode "They Keep Killing Steed" as Baron Von Curt, and on the BBC in Somerset Maugham's The Door of Opportunity, opposite Marianne Faithfull.
He appeared in the films Stranger in the House (1967), and The Day the Fish Came Out (1967), and had a major role in the epic film Waterloo (1970).
In 1976, he featured in the pilot episode of the television comedy series Ripping Yarns. He also appeared in I, Claudius (1976, as Drusus), and guest-starred in 6 episodes of Murder, She Wrote and 4 episodes of Diagnosis Murder. He appeared as Edgar Linton in a film version of Wuthering Heights (1970) and as Owen Gereth in BBC dramatization of The Spoils of Poynton (also 1970).
In the 1990s, he guest-starred in the TV series Babylon 5 (1998). The series' star, Bruce Boxleitner, is the former husband of Ogilvy's second wife, actress Kathryn Holcomb. He also had a role in the short-lived 1990s American soap opera, Malibu Shores. He appeared as Lawrence Kirbridge in the series Upstairs, Downstairs. He's had roles in over 100 TV shows, often appearing as a guest star. He then co-starred with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her (1992); and with Richard Dreyfuss and Nia Vardalos in My Life in Ruins (2009), among others.
He has had an extensive career in the theatre playing leading roles in many London West End productions, including Design for Living, Happy Family, Three Sisters, Rookery Nook by Ben Travers, Run for Your Wife, The Millionaires by Shaw, The Waltz of the Toreadors, and others. He has also worked widely in the American theatre.
He is a playwright and novelist, currently working on a series of children's books: Measle and the Wrathmonk, Measle and the Dragodon, Measle and the Mallockee, Measle and the Slitherghoul, and Measle and the Doompit. He has written and published two novels – Loose Chippings and The Polkerton Giant – and two plays: A Slight Hangover and Swap!. His memoir, Once a Saint, was published in May 2016. His book of film reviews 'Withering Slights', based on his Facebook page, was published in 2020.
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Jean Anouilh
Biography
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. His plays are less experimental than those of his contemporaries, having clearly organized plot and eloquent dialogue. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.
Anouilh was born in Cérisole, a small village on the outskirts of Bordeaux, and had Basque ancestry. His father, François Anouilh, was a tailor, and Anouilh maintained that he inherited from him a pride in conscientious craftmanship. He may owe his artistic bent to his mother, Marie-Magdeleine, a violinist who supplemented the family's meager income by playing summer seasons in the casino orchestra in the nearby seaside resort of Arcachon. Marie-Magdeleine worked the night shifts in the music-hall orchestras and sometimes accompanied stage presentations, affording Anouilh ample opportunity to absorb the dramatic performances from backstage. He often attended rehearsals and solicited the resident authors to let him read scripts until bedtime. He first tried his hand at playwriting here, at the age of 12, though his earliest works do not survive.
In 1918 the family moved to Paris where the young Anouilh received his secondary education at the Lycée Chaptal. Jean-Louis Barrault, later a major French director, was a pupil there at the same time and recalls Anouilh as an intense, rather dandified figure who hardly noticed a boy some two years younger than himself. He earned acceptance into the law school at the Sorbonne but, unable to support himself financially, he left after just 18 months to seek work as a copywriter at the advertising agency Publicité Damour. He liked the work, and spoke more than once with wry approval of the lessons in the classical virtues of brevity and precision of language he learned while drafting advertising copy. ...
Source: Article "Jean Anouilh" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Laura Gemser
Biography
Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser (born October 5, 1950, Java, Indonesia) is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emmanuelle films. Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most notably in Love Is Forever (1983).
Gemser left Indonesia in 1955, at the age of four, and moved with her parents to the Netherlands. She grew up in the Dutch city of Utrecht, where she attended the MULO Regentesseschool high school. After that, she attended the Artibus Art School in Utrecht, where she specialized in fashion design. In 1975 she moved to Italy.
After modelling in various magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium, Gemser began to take part in some soft erotic films. She became internationally recognised after starring in a number of Black Emanuelle films in the 1970s.
Her most mainstream and well-received role was as Laotian refugee Keo Sirisomphone in Michael Landon's 1983 American television movie, Love Is Forever, in which she was credited as Moira Chen.[citation needed] Gemser continued to do films: at times, she worked with her actor husband, Gabriele Tinti. In the 1990s, she left the movies to do costume designing for film. In addition, she lost her husband, who died of cancer in 1991. Today she lives in retirement and low profile in Rome, but she is still remembered as one of the many beautiful women who played the sensual adventuress Emmanuelle.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Laura Gemser, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Murray Cook
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Murray James Cook AM (born 30 June 1960 in Cowra, New South Wales) is an Australian vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as one of the founding members of the children's band The Wiggles. Cook is also a regular guest on the Australian TV show Spicks and Specks, with his good friend, host Adam Hills.
As a member of the Wiggles, Cook wears a red shirt and serves as an instrumentalist and vocalist. He is considered the intellectual and analytical member of the group (something referred to in several episodes of their TV show), so he acts as mediator for their group decisions. When The Wiggles received honorary degrees from the Australian Catholic University, Cook gave the commencement speech to the graduates.
Cook played the guitar in the late '80s bands Transistor and Finger Guns before joining the Sydney-based band Bang Shang a Lang. (He continued to play for this band in Sydney, when not on tour with The Wiggles.) When things did not work out in the music field for him, he returned to college and studied early childhood education at Macquarie University, where he met Anthony Field and Greg Page and formed The Wiggles in 1991.
Cook's schtick in The Wiggles is an obsession with playing the guitar. He was conscious that he was probably the first guitarist children would see, and said, "I always think that if it inspires kids to play guitar later on that would be great. I think it would be really nice if in 15 years I read that somebody got into guitar playing because of the Wiggles. I know that would be fantastic." When asked what his favorite Wiggles song was, he stated, "'Play your guitar with Murray,' of course. When we play that song live I get to play like a rock 'n roll star." Cook's major musical influences are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Eric Clapton. In 2008, Cook was named "the sixth best guitarist in Australia".
Cook owns a collection of thirty vintage guitars. Onstage, he uses the Australian made Maton Mastersound 500 guitar. He also plays a '53 Gibson Les Paul gold top, '64 Fender Strat, James Burton Fender Telecaster, Maton Mastersound 500 and a more recent Les Paul at home or in the studio. The amplifiers he uses are the Marshall Head and Box Combo, the Fender Twin and a Bad Cat, which he bought while in the U.S. and said had a "great sound."
Cook, whose nickname is "Muzz", or "Muzza", came up with The Wiggles' signature index finger-wagging move after watching professional bowlers do the move on television.
Cook was made a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2010 for service to the arts, particularly children's entertainment, and to the community as a benefactor and supporter of a range of charities.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Murray Cook,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Edith Carlmar
Biography
Edith Carlmar (Edith Mary Johanne Mathiesen) was an Norwegian actress and Norway's first female film director. She grew up in the eastern part of Oslo, in poor conditions, alone with her mother. However, her mother was a culturally oriented woman, so Edith was introduced to music, dance, and the theatre at an early age. At 19, she married Otto Carlmar, whom she met through her mother. In her early twenties, she made her debut as an actress at Det Nye Teater in Oslo. There she came into contact with Tancred Ibsen, and her interest in film began to take shape when he offered her a position in film production.
During the war, she worked as a production manager on several films, and in 1946 she traveled to England to study production management and directing. In 1949, she and her husband founded Carlmar Film A/S, where she was the director and he was the producer. She made her directorial debut in 1949 with Death Is a Caress.
Throughout her career, Edith Carlmar directed ten feature films and several short documentary films. Her thematic focus often depicted contemporary Norwegian society in the postwar years, frequently highlighting strong female characters. Many of her films were major audience successes, and the productions often made a profit, even without state funding. Fools in the Mountains remains one of Norway’s greatest box office successes.
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Lai Suen
Biography
Lai Suen began her career in film at the age of 17 before transitioning to television in the 1970s. She became a familiar face after joining TVB in 1990, appearing in many dramas including The Greed of Man in 1992, where she played the mother of the character portrayed by Adam Cheng Siu-Chau. Lai retired after starring in Only You in 2010 and had rarely appeared in public in recent years. In 2023, the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild awarded her the "Outstanding Performing Arts Award".
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Yuvan Shankar Raja
Biography
Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian singer-songwriter, film score and soundtrack composer, and occasional lyricist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil films.
Yuvan Shankar Raja comes from musically affluent Tamil family, Yuvan Shankar Raja is the third and youngest child of musician and film composer Ilaiyaraaja and his wife Jeeva. He is the younger brother of music director Karthik Raja and playback singer-cum-music director Bhavatharini. His father as well as his siblings have sung many songs under his direction.
After initial struggle, he made his big break with the Thulluvadho Ilamai soundtrack (2001), and evolved as one of Tamil cinema's most sought-after composers by the mid-2000s.
Considered a versatile composer, he often strives for different and innovative music and has explored and used elements of various genres in his compositions that range from folk and R&B to techno and heavy metal. He is particularly known for his use of western music elements and often credited with having introduced Hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and having started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu.
Being popular among the younger generation,he is frequently referred to as the "Rockstar",and the "Youth Icon of Tamil Film Music". In addition, Yuvan Shankar Raja is recognized for his background score in films (re-recording) that have fetched him accolades among critics
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Vince Guaraldi
Biography
Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip. His compositions for this series included their signature melody "Linus and Lucy" and the holiday standard "Christmas Time Is Here". He is also known for his performances on piano as a member of Cal Tjader's 1950s ensembles and for his own solo career. His 1962 composition "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a radio hit and won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Original Jazz Composition. He died of a sudden heart attack on February 6, 1976, at age 47, moments after concluding a nightclub performance in Menlo Park, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Vince Guaraldi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Aaron Frobel
Biography
Aaron Frobel is a Canadian professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name Michael Elgin. He most recently worked for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was a one-time GHC Tag Team Champion with Masa Kitamiya. He is best known for his work with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former NEVER Openweight Champion. In NJPW, he was also a one-time IWGP Intercontinental and a one-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion. He is also known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a one-time ROH World Champion. He has also worked for the Southern California-based company Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he is a one-time PWG World Tag Team Champion with Brian Cage.
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Preston Tyreese Johnson
Biography
PRESTON TYREESE JOHNSON (he/him) is an AMDA NYC trained performing actor, writer, and poet. Performing representative roles in school such as Everyman in Every-man, Holiday in Holiday Heart, and Mercutio in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, his versatile training allows him to cover all forms of entertainment mediums. Outside of school he has performed in KING OF KINGS (Lead Wise Man/Ensemble) and more recently lent his southern charm to the role of Amora for the film “In This Moment”. Currently Preston produces and appears on his own podcast, “Crazy, Peachy, Cool” and at poetry slams around the city!
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