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Dario Argento

Biography

Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other family members, including an aunt who told him frighting bedtime stories. Argento based most of his thriller movies on childhood trauma, yet his own--according to him--was a normal one. Along with tales spun by his aunt, Argento was impressed by stories from The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allan Poe. Argento started his career writing for various film journal magazines while still in his teens attending a Catholic high school. After graduation, instead of going to college, Argento took a job as a columnist for the Rome daily newspaper "Paese Sera". Inspired by the movies, he later found work as a screenwriter and wrote several screenplays for a number of films, but the most important were his western collaborations, which included Cimitero senza croci (1969) and the Sergio Leone masterpiece C'era una volta il West (1968). He is known in italy as Master of Horror.
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Daniel Bernhardt

Biography

Daniel Bernhardt (born 31 August 1965) is a Swiss actor, stuntman, martial artist, and former model. He is known for his work on various action films. He made his acting debut in the leading role in the martial arts film Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite (1996), and appeared in two of its sequels, Bloodsport III (1997) and Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite (1999). Also known for playing villainous characters, he appeared opposite Chuck Norris in The Cutter(2005), Jean-Claude Van Damme in Kill 'Em All (2017), Sylvester Stallone in Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019), and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and John Wick (2014). He also starred as Siro in the television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998–1999). As a stunt performer and fight choreographer, he has worked on Creed II (2018) and Nobody (2021). Bernhardt is a black belt in Taekwondo under Black Belt Hall of Fame member Hee-il Cho (the two also starred together in Bloodsport II). He also studied Kyokushin karate under South Korean master Mas Oyama. Description above from the Wikipedia article Daniel Bernhardt, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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George Ogilvie

Biography

George Ogilvie (March 5, 1931 - April 5, 2020) was an Australian actor and film director. He was born in Goulburn, New South Wales in 1931. He directed Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome with George Miller. He was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) in the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to the theatre and the performing arts. His 1988 television feature Captain Johnno was awarded an International Emmy. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Ogilvie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia 
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Harriet Sansom Harris

Biography

Born in Texas, Harriet Sansom Harris got involved in acting as a youngster. At seventeen, Harris was accepted at New York's famed Juilliard School. Upon graduation, Harris joined The Acting Company, a repertory group formed by the first alumni of John Houseman's Drama Division of The Juilliard School. She spent three years with the Company before she left to work primarily in regional theater. This led to a successful Broadway and Off-Broadway career. Her life changed after appearing as the sole female in the original cast of "Jeffrey", Paul Rudnick's smash Off-Broadway hit about love in the time of AIDS. "Jeffrey" led to guest shots on series television, including "Frasier" (1993), where she created the memorable role of "Bebe Glazer", Frasier's cutthroat, neurotic, chain-smoking agent. She also won raves from critics for her role of "Vivian Buchanan" on CBS's "The 5 Mrs. Buchanans" (1994). She now calls New York her home, but frequently travels to California for film and television appearances. IMDb Mini Biography By: Dan Flave-Novak
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Laurie Bird

Biography

Laurie Bird (September 26, 1953 – June 15, 1979) was an American actress and photographer. She appeared in three films during the 1970s, two of which were directed by Monte Hellman. She was romantically involved with Hellman and Art Garfunkel, committing suicide in the latter's apartment by taking an overdose of Valium. Bird's mother died by suicide when Bird was a baby. Her father was an electrical engineer. She had two older brothers. Her father restricted her social life and she fled home multiple times. In response, he placed her in an institution for troubled girls. She attended Jamaica High School, in New York City, until she was 15. Described by Hollywood columnist Dick Kleiner as "looking like an innocent Hayley Mills", Bird appeared in just three films: Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), Cockfighter (1974), and a small role as girlfriend to Paul Simon's character in the romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977). While researching for Two-Lane Blacktop, screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer met her and recommended her to Hellman while he was looking for actresses for the same movie. In Two-Lane Blacktop she played a hitchhiker to whom the film's characters are initially attracted, but who runs off with a motorcyclist near the end of the film. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Her second release, Cockfighter, had her paired opposite Warren Oates. He loses her in a bet. Film critic Michael Atkinson wrote in his book Exile Hollywood (2008) "In two films, she made more of an impression, left more of a synaesthetic presence, than many actors do in a career". Bird was the still photographer on Cockfighter and shot the cover photo for Art Garfunkel's 1977 album Watermark. She appeared on the cover of Garfunkel's 1975 album Breakaway. She was romantically involved with her Blacktop and Cockfighter director Monte Hellman. From 1974 until her death in 1979, Bird was in a serious romantic relationship with Art Garfunkel. In 1979, Bird died by suicide by taking an overdose of Valium in the New York apartment she shared with Garfunkel, who was deeply affected by her death. Garfunkel said, "She was beautiful, in a lonesome, haunted way, and I adored her. But I wasn't ready for marriage and she was not very comfortable being Laurie. She wasn't happy with herself. Her mother committed suicide at 26, and so did she."
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Vivek

Biography

Vivek was an Indian film actor, comedian, television personality, playback singer and activist working in the Tamil film industry. Introduced in films by director K. Balachander, he won 3 Filmfare Best Comedian – Tamil Awards for his performances in movies such as Run (2002), Saamy (2003), Perazhagan (2004) and 5 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Best Comedian for Unnaruge Naan Irundhal (1999), Run (2002) Parthiban Kanavu (2003), Anniyan (2005) and Sivaji (2007). He has acted more than 220 films. In 2009, Government of India awarded Vivek with the Padma Shri award for his contribution to the arts. Sathyabama University has conferred actor Vivek with an honorary doctorate for his contribution to the society through cinema. As a television personality, Vivek has hosted a number of events and has interviewed media personalities, notably A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Inspired by Kalam's environmentalism, Vivek founded the Green Kalam initiative in 2010 with the mission of planting one billion trees across Tamil Nadu.
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Alexandre Mnouchkine

Biography

Alexandre Alexandrovich Mnouchkine (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Мну́шкин; 10 February 1908, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire – 3 April 1993, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was a French film producer. He moved to Paris in 1925. After his entry into cinema in 1932, he created Ariane Films in 1945. Alexandre Mnouchkine married twice, the second time to the comedian Simone Renant. He is the father of Ariane Mnouchkine. In 1987 he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. Source: Article "Alexandre Mnouchkine" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Ernst Lubitsch

Biography

Ernst Lubitsch (January 29, 1892 – November 30, 1947) was a German film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch". Lubitsch is best known for screwball comedies and romantic comedies, such as Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). While being escapist, his films often offer social commentary on human relationships and society in a satirical way. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States.
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Hrithik Roshan

Biography

Hrithik Roshan is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films. After having appeared in films as a child actor in the 1980s, Roshan made his film debut in a leading role in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) for which Roshan earned his Filmfare Awards for Best Actor and Best Male Debut. In 2001, he went on to appear in the melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., which became India's highest-grossing film in the overseas market and his biggest commercial success to date. Following through with several unnoticed performances from 2002–03, he starred in the commercially successful Koi... Mil Gaya and its sequel Krrish, both of which won him numerous Best Actor awards.Roshan received his third Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2006 for his performance in the action film Dhoom 2. He later received critical acclaim for his performance in Jodhaa Akbar, for which he received his first international award at the Golden Minbar International Film Festival. These accomplishments have established him as a leading contemporary actor of Hindi cinema.
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Kambuzia Partovi

Biography

Kambuzia Partovi (also spelt Kambozia Partovi, Persian: کامبوزیا پرتوی; 11 November 1955 – 24 November 2020) was an Iranian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Rasht, Iran, on the Caspian Sea. After studying theater arts in school he wrote mainly scripts for TV series. In 1988 he made his feature film debut with Golnar. His 2007 film Café Transit, which received the special mention at Mar del Plata film festival, was selected by Iran as its candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He wrote screenplays for other directors, most notably Jafar Panahi's The Circle. In 2013 he acted in and co-directed Closed Curtain with Panahi. Partovi trained and supported many Iranian artists and film makers, most notably Bahman Ghobadi. He died on 24 November 2020, of complications from COVID-19. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kambuzia Partovi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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