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Jessica Chastain
Biography
Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and film producer. Known for her roles in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two British Academy Film Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.
Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Chastain developed an interest in acting from an early age. In 1998, she made her professional stage debut as Shakespeare's Juliet. After studying acting at the Juilliard School, she was signed to a talent holding deal with the television producer John Wells. She was a recurring guest star in several television series, including Law & Order: Trial by Jury. She also took on roles in the stage productions of Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard in 2004 and Oscar Wilde's tragedy Salome in 2006.
Chastain made her film debut in the drama Jolene (2008), and gained wide recognition for her starring roles in the dramas Take Shelter (2011) and The Tree of Life (2011). Her performance as an aspiring socialite in The Help (2011) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2012, she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a CIA analyst in the thriller Zero Dark Thirty. Chastain made her Broadway debut in a revival of The Heiress in the same year. Her highest-grossing releases came with the science fiction films Interstellar (2014) and The Martian (2015), and the horror film It Chapter Two (2019), and she continued to receive critical acclaim for her performances in the dramas A Most Violent Year (2014), Miss Sloane (2016), Molly's Game (2017) and The Good Nurse (2022). For her portrayal of Tammy Faye in the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), which she also produced, Chastain won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In television, Chastain starred in drama miniseries Scenes from a Marriage (2021) and George & Tammy (2022). For the latter, she won a SAG Award. Her performance also garnered her nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Chastain is the founder of the production company Freckle Films, which was created to promote diversity in film. She is vocal about mental health issues, as well as gender and racial equality. She is married to fashion executive Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, with whom she has two children.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Jessica Chastain, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Alex Joffé
Biography
Alex Joffé (18 November 1918 – 18 August 1995) was a French film director and screenwriter, known for Les cracks (1968), Fortunat (1960) and La grosse caisse (1965). He was the father of the director Arthur Joffé, as well as Marion (born 1952) and Nina (born 1956).
Alex Joffé was born on 18 November 1918 in Alexandria, Egypt, as Alexandre Joffé. He was married to Renée Asseo. on his mother's side, he is related to author and journalist Salomon Malka, the biographer of Emmanuel Lévinas and Franz Rosenzweig, and theatre professor, director and playwright Avraham Oz. He died on 18 August 1995 in Paris.
Source: Article "Alex Joffé" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Kumki Ashwin
Biography
Ashvin Raja or mononymouly known as Kumki Aswin is an Indian film actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. Son of producer Swaminathan of Lakshmi Movie Makers, Ashvin Raja made his film debut portraying the student Paalpandi in Rajesh's comedy film Boss Engira Bhaskaran. His performance in Prabhu Solomon's Kumki as an elephant herder alongside Vikram Prabhu and Thambi Ramaiah was also well received by film critics, and had allotted sixty six days to the film for the shoot. The success of Kumki led to him being referred to "Kumki Ashwin" henceforth.
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Anian Zollner
Biography
Zollner wurde in Bayern geboren, wuchs in München auf und legte sein Abitur am dortigen Maximiliangymnasium ab. Nach dem Zivildienst nahm er sein Studium an der Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin auf, das er 1995 abschloss. 1996 wurde Anian Zollner dann in einer Hauptrolle von Regisseurin Margarethe von Trotta im Kinofilm Das Versprechen besetzt. Es folgten weitere Rollen in Kinofilmen, auch wurde das Fernsehen auf ihn aufmerksam. So spielte er unter anderem im ARD-Mehrteiler Klemperer – Ein Leben für Deutschland mit. Zahlreiche Episodenrollen in Serien schlossen sich an, darunter Praxis Bülowbogen und Der letzte Zeuge. Neben seiner Film- und Fernsehtätigkeit ist Zollner auch als Theaterschauspieler in Erscheinung getreten. Neben den Wiener Festwochen war er unter anderem am Schauspiel Köln sowie am Wiener Burgtheater engagiert. Mit Ich und Kaminski – nach der Romanvorlage von Daniel Kehlmann – vertonte Zollner ein Hörspiel, dem noch mehrere folgten. Er spricht drei Fremdsprachen (Spanisch, Französisch, Englisch) und lebt seit 1990 in Berlin.
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Kristen Stewart
Biography
Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American actress and filmmaker. The world's highest-paid actress in 2012, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Stewart first gained notice at age 12 for her role as the daughter of Jodie Foster's character in David Fincher's thriller Panic Room (2002), which earned her a Young Artist Award nomination. She subsequently starred in Speak (2004), Catch That Kid (2004), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), and Into the Wild (2007). She went on to achieve global stardom for her role as Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga film series (2008–2012), which ranks among the highest-grossing film franchises; for the role, she was awarded the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2010.
After starring in the fantasy film Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Stewart eschewed roles in big-budget films in favor of independent productions in the years following. She took on roles in the dramas Camp X-Ray (2014) and Still Alice (2014), and the science fiction romance Equals (2016). In 2015, she garnered critical acclaim for her performance in Olivier Assayas' drama film Clouds of Sils Maria, which won her the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. Stewart reunited with Assayas the following year in the supernatural thriller Personal Shopper (2016) and made her directorial debut with the short film Come Swim (2017). She returned to mainstream Hollywood with leading roles in the action film Charlie's Angels (2019) and the romantic comedy film Happiest Season (2020). Stewart's portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales in Pablo Larraín's biographical drama Spencer (2021) earned her widespread critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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Hossain Sabzian
Biography
Hossain Sabzian was an Iranian man best known for being the star of the 1990 docufiction film Close-Up directed by Abbas Kiarostami, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made and depending on who you ask the greatest film of Iran ever. In 1989, Sabzian tricked a poor family into believing he was famous Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. These events were later adapted into the previously mentioned film. He was born around 1953-1954 (or in the year 1332 on the Solar Hijri calendar) and is believed to be from Tehran from his comment about himself being “an unemployed youngster from Tehran”. He is believed to be from the weaker social class and having a poor working class background, working as a print-shop laborer since childhood. He lived in Isfahan as a boy, where he “skipped school for three months” to watch cinema and he recalled sneaking to the cinema each day until being caught by his school and being punished.
His love of cinema shaped his life and is a key aspect of it. He was once called a “impoverished, unemployed movie nut”. A film he deeply admired was Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist (1987). Close-Up depicts Sabzian reading a book on the film the first time he and a member of the poor family he tricked, the mother Mahrokh Ahankhah, met. While many would simply label him as a con artist trying to take something from a poor family, Kiarostami’s direction in Close-Up brings empathy to him showing him as a lonely, passionate man trying to do something different even if a bit morally questionable. The film made Sabzian a legend for cinephiles and was perhaps his only chance at being noticed and seen. Despite this, in the years that followed its release, he grew into a deep depression and felt alienated in public.
In his adult life, Sabzian, particularly before the film, worked in a printing press and made a few amateur films even shooting “home wedding videos” however struggled to finance a career in filmmaking. He spent much of his time writing scripts but none of them became official. He became unemployed in the late-1980s. In 1989, Kiarostami learned of Sabzian’s story from a magazine article and arranged to film his trial. The net result was that Sabzian served a short time in jail and was freed after the family “pardons him due to his lack of criminal intent” (understanding he had acted out of love for cinema) Sabzian faced no further punishment. He made a living in his final years selling pirated DVDs at Tehran bus stations. In his life, he had chronic asthma and his health declined due to it. On the way to meet Kairostami again on another film, he collapsed from respiratory failure on a crowded subway and lapsed into a coma. One account notes he spent 102 days in a coma before he passed away on September 29, 2006 at the age of 52.
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Barbara Cartland
Biography
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, DStJ (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.
Many of her novels have been adapted into films for television including A Hazard of Hearts, A Ghost in Monte Carlo and Duel of Hearts.
Her novels have been translated from English into numerous languages, making Cartland the fifth most translated author worldwide (note: not including biblical works). Her prolific output totals some 723 novels.
Although best known for her romantic novels, she also wrote non-fiction titles including biographies, plays, music, verse, drama, operettas, and several health and cook books. She also contributed advice to TV audiences and newspaper magazine articles.
She sold more than 750 million copies of her books, though other sources estimate her total sales at more than two billion. The covers of her novels featured portrait-style artwork, usually designed by Francis Marshall (1901–1980).
Cartland was also a businesswoman who was head of Cartland Promotions. She was a London society figure, often dressed in a pink chiffon gown, a plumed hat, blonde wig, and heavy make-up.
Born at 31 Augustus Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Cartland was the only daughter and eldest child of an Officer of the British Army, Major James Bertram "Bertie" Falkner Cartland (1876–1918), and his wife, Mary Hamilton Scobell, known as "Polly" (1877–1976). Cartland had two brothers: Major Ronald Cartland, a Member of Parliament (MP) who served as a Army Major in World War II (1907–1940), and James Anthony "Tony" Hamilton Cartland (1912–1940). Both were killed in action in Flanders.
Though she was born into upper middle-class comfort, the Cartland family's finances rapidly deteriorated shortly after her birth. Cartland would later attribute this downturn to the suicide of her paternal grandfather, James Cartland, who, she stated, was a financier who shot himself in the wake of bankruptcy. However, according to the entry in the probate registry, James Cartland, the proprietor of the brass foundry firm James Cartland & Son Ltd, left an estate of £92,000. This was followed soon afterwards by her father's death in Berry-au-Bac in World War I. Cartland's mother opened a London dry goods store to make ends meet, and to raise Cartland and her two brothers.
Cartland was educated at private girls' schools: The Alice Ottley School, Malvern Girls' College, and Abbey House, an educational institution in Hampshire. She became successful as a society reporter after 1922, and a writer of romantic fiction; she stated she was inspired in her early work by the novels of the Edwardian author Elinor Glyn, whom she idolised and eventually befriended. ...
Source: Article "Barbara Cartland" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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Tore Sagen
Biography
Tore Sagen er broren til Steinar Sagen, og vokste opp på Holmlia i Oslo. Han gikk på Holmlia ungdomsskole og Nordstrand videregående skole, og ved to skolerevyer ved Nordstrand jobbet han som lystekniker. Han skulle opprinnelig begynne å studere ved Universitetet i Oslo, men avbrøt dette da han fikk jobb som redaksjonsassistent i NRK P3. Han fikk sin første reporterjobb i programmet Holger Nielsens metode. Samtidig begynte han på en utdannelse ved Westerdals Reklameskole, men avbrøt denne da han fikk full stilling som produsent i radioprogrammet Kyrre (med Kyrre Holm Johannessen). Som ung var han i likhet med sin bror med i speideren. Sagen har en hund med navn Biggie.
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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
Biography
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, KCVO ADC (born Henry Charles Albert David; 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, and is sixth in the line of succession to the British throne. On 19 May 2018 he married the American actress Meghan Markle. Hours before the wedding, his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, made him Duke of Sussex. The couple's son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on 6 May 2019.
In January 2020 the couple announced their intention to step back from senior roles in the royal family, become financially independent and split their time between Canada and the United Kingdom. In addition, Harry will no longer, from spring 2020 onward, use the title His Royal Highness and will relinquish his position as Captain General of the Royal Marines.
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Leon Askin
Biography
Leon Askin (Born: September 18, 1907, Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), Height 6ft [1.83m]) was an Austrian-American actor who enjoyed a successful career in both theater and television. He is best known for his portrayal of General Albert Burkhalter in the hit sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," a role he played for six seasons from 1965 to 1971. Born Leo Aschkenasy in Vienna, Austria, in 1907, Askin developed an interest in acting at a young age. He studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a prestigious acting school in Vienna, and began his career on the stage in the early 1930s. With the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, Askin, a Jew, was forced to flee Austria in 1938. He emigrated to the United States, where he continued to work in theater. He also began appearing in films and television shows, often playing villainous roles due to his imposing stature and commanding presence. Askin's most famous role came in 1965 when he was cast as General Burkhalter in "Hogan's Heroes." The show, which chronicled the exploits of a group of American prisoners of war running a secret operation from a German POW camp, was a huge success, and Askin became a household name. After "Hogan's Heroes" ended in 1971, Askin continued to work steadily in television and film. He appeared in numerous guest roles on popular shows such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Rockford Files," and "Murder, She Wrote." He also had recurring roles on the soap operas "General Hospital" and "Santa Barbara."
Askin's film credits include such movies as "The Dirty Dozen," "The Night of the Generals," and "The Boys from Brazil." He also continued to work in theater throughout his career, appearing in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Askin remained active in acting well into his later years. He published an autobiography, "Quietude and Quest: Protagonists and Antagonists in the Theatre, on and Off Stage as Seen Through the Eyes of Leon Askin," in 1997. He also received numerous awards for his work, including the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art in 1988 and the Silver Cross of Honor in 1994.
Askin died in Vienna in 2005 at the age of 97. He is remembered as one of the most versatile and talented actors of his generation.
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