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Emanuele Pacca

Biography

Emanuele Pacca is an Italian actor, singer and performer. Engaged in Theatre, Cinema, Music and TV. Protagonist for years of many musical comedies, films, drama shows and concerts; between tours, festivals and seasons. He studied performing arts at Gino Landi's "Musical Training Centre", graduating with top marks in all disciplines relating to entertainment. Subsequently he specialized in modern singing (as a singer and teacher) in Rome. He subsequently specialized in acting (theatrical and cinematographic). Graduated in Literature, Art, Music and Entertainment. He works as an actor and singer in important television programs and is involved in cinema and theater in different roles and as a "character actor".
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Darius Milhaud

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Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and make extensive use of polytonality. Milhaud is considered one of the key modernist composers. A renowned teacher, he taught many future jazz and classical composers, including Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis among others. Milhaud was born in Marseille, the son of Sophie (Allatini) and Gad Gabriel Milhaud. His father was from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, and his mother from a Sephardi Jewish family from Italy. Milhaud began as a violinist, later turning to composition instead. Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent d'Indy. From 1917 to 1919, he served as secretary to Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist who was then the French ambassador to Brazil, and with whom Milhaud collaborated for many years, setting music for many of Claudel's poems and plays. While in Brazil, they collaborated on a ballet, L'Homme et son désir. On his return to France, Milhaud composed works influenced by the Brazilian popular music he had heard, including compositions of Brazilian pianist and composer Ernesto Nazareth. Le bœuf sur le toit includes melodies by Nazareth and other popular Brazilian composers of the time, and evokes the sounds of Carnaval. Among the melodies is, in fact, a Carnaval tune by the name of "The Bull on the Roof" (in Portuguese, which he translated to French 'Le boeuf sur le toit', known in English as 'The Ox on the Roof'). He also produced Saudades do Brasil, a suite of twelve dances evoking twelve neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. Shortly after the original piano version appeared, he orchestrated the suite. Contemporary European influences were also important. Milhaud dedicated his Fifth String Quartet (1920) to Arnold Schoenberg, and the following year conducted both the French and British premieres of Pierrot lunaire after multiple rehearsals. And on a trip to the United States in 1922, Milhaud heard "authentic" jazz for the first time, on the streets of Harlem, which left a great impact on his musical outlook. The following year, he completed his composition La création du monde (The Creation of the World), using ideas and idioms from jazz, cast as a ballet in six continuous dance scenes. In 1925, Milhaud married his cousin, Madeleine (1902–2008), an actress and reciter. In 1930 she gave birth to a son, the painter and sculptor Daniel Milhaud, who was the couple's only child. ... Source: Article "Darius Milhaud" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Aksel Hennie

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Aksel Hennie (born 29 October 1975) is a Norwegian actor, director and writer. He has acted in a number of successful Norwegian movies, and has received several awards. Hennie grew up in Lambertseter in Oslo. In his late teens he was sentenced for graffiti, and became an outcast in the community for confessing to the police. This personal story contributed much of the background for the movie Uno. The conviction against Hennie was in fact one of the first such cases in Norway. Hennie was admitted to the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre after applying four times. He graduated in 2001, and has since acted both at Teatret Vårt in Molde (2001–2002) and at Oslo Nye Teater (2002–), where he has been in plays such as Hamlet, and Kvinnen som giftet seg med en kalkun (English: The woman who married a turkey). His main success, however, has been as a film actor. He made his debut starring in the feature film Jonny Vang in 2003. Though the director, Jens Lien, originally thought Hennie was too young for the role, the actor convinced him he was the right man for the film. The same year he also acted in the movies Buddy and Ulvesommer, and the next year he made his debut as a director and writer with the movie Uno, in which he also acted. For this film Hennie, and his co-star Nicolai Cleve Broch, went into hard physical training for six months to perform convincingly as bodybuilders. He won the Amanda Award – the main Norwegian film award – for "Best Direction" for the movie Uno in 2005, and that same year he was also among the nominees for "Best Actor" and "Best Film". He also won an Amanda award as "Best Actor" for the movie Jonny Vang in 2003. He was named one of European films "Shooting Stars" by European Film Promotion in 2004. In 2001 he was also named "Theatre talent of the year" by the newspaper Dagbladet. In 2008 Hennie starred in the movie Max Manus, where he played the role of the Norwegian war hero by that name. The movie had a large budget by Norwegian standards, and was met with great expectations. His next upcoming international film is Age of Heroes, a world war 2 movie primarily shot in Norway starring Sean Bean and Danny Dyer. Description above from the Wikipedia article Aksel Hennie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Leonard Nimoy

Biography

Leonard Simon Nimoy (March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series 1966–1969, multiple films, television and video game sequels. Nimoy began his career in his early twenties, teaching acting classes in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s, as well as playing the title role in Kid Monk Baroni. In 1953, he served in the United States Army. In 1965, he made his first appearance in the rejected Star Trek pilot, "The Cage", and would go on to play the character of Mr. Spock until 1969, followed by seven further films and a number of guest slots in various sequels. His character of Spock generated a significant cultural impact and three Emmy Award nominations; TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. Nimoy also had a recurring role in Mission: Impossible and a narrating role in Civilization IV, as well as several well-received stage appearances. Nimoy's fame as Spock is such that both his autobiographies, I Am Not Spock (1977) and I Am Spock (1995) detail his existence as being shared between the character and himself. Nimoy was born to Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker. Nimoy began acting at the age of eight in children's and neighborhood theater. His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the accordion—which, his father advised, Nimoy could always make a living with—but his grandfather encouraged him to become an actor. His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!. Nimoy took Drama classes at Boston College in 1953 but failed to complete his studies, and in the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has an MA in Education and an honorary doctorate from Antioch University in Ohio. Nimoy served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1953 through 1955, alongside fellow actor Ken Berry and architect Frank Gehry.
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Oliver Morse

Biography

Oliver is a cinematographer, writer, director, and editor currently working on his final film at SAE Sydney. Originally from the Blue Mountains, he moved to Sydney in 2017 to pursue his filmmaking career. Oliver has worked as a writer/director on Big Coffee, DOP on Sydney Sports Recovery and Beliefs in the Afterlife, and contributed as both 1st and 2nd AC on numerous other projects during his time at SAE. On his final film, Oliver tackled creative challenges such as live animals and CGI/FX elements, problem-solving throughout the production process. As DOP and editor, he found the experience fulfilling and is proud to leave SAE with such an ambitious project behind him.
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Emily Klassen

Biography

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Emily Klassen began performing at a very young age, in every talent show, play and musical she could find. She discovered a passion for classical music as a teenager and went on to develop her talents as a professional soprano, specializing in 17th and 18th Century music. In this capacity, she has performed with companies across North America and Europe. Emily is also a grant recipient of the Canada Council of the Arts for her work in Baroque Opera. Since moving to Toronto, Emily has also appeared in several notable on-screen productions, including the NBC series Hannibal (2013), where she performed an excerpt of Handel's Piangerò la sorte mia (an aria in his opera 'Julius Caesar in Egypt'), the CBC series Murdoch Mysteries (2008), the CTV series Flashpoint (2008), and the Lifetime Network series Angela's Eyes (2006).
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Telma Hopkins

Biography

Telma Hopkins was born on October 28, 1948 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA as Telma Louise Hopkins. She is an actress, known for Family Matters (1989), The Love Guru (2008) and Half & Half (2002). She was previously married to Donald B. Alen. Telma Louise Hopkins is an American actress and singer. Hopkins rose to prominence as a member of the 1970s pop music group Tony Orlando and Dawn, which had several number-one songs. She also performed on the CBS variety show Tony Orlando and Dawn from 1974 until 1976 along with Tony Orlando and Joyce Vincent Wilson.
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Seymour Cassel

Biography

Seymour Joseph Cassel (January 22, 1935 – April 7, 2019) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films and television shows, with a career spanning over 50 years. He first came to prominence in the 1960s in the pioneering independent films of writer/director John Cassavetes. The first of these was Too Late Blues (1961), followed by Faces (1968), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won a National Society of Film Critics Award. Cassel went on to appear in Cassavetes's Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Opening Night (1977), and Love Streams (1984). He also appeared in other notable films, including: Coogan's Bluff (1968), The Last Tycoon (1976), Valentino (1977), Convoy (1978), Johnny Be Good (1988), Mobsters (1991), In the Soup (1992), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), Imaginary Crimes (1994), Beer League (2006), and Fort McCoy (2011). Like Cassavetes, Wes Anderson frequently cast Cassel – first in Rushmore (1998), then in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and finally in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004).
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Jeanette Leung

Biography

She is a former TVB contracted female artist who graduated from the 21st TVB Artist Training Course in 2007. From 2000 to 2005, she studied at Baylor University in the United States, majoring in fashion purchasing and minoring in business. In 2007, she played the role of Yuen Mei Yiu (Mei Mei) in the sitcom "Best Selling Secrets" and won praise from the audience. In 2015, Jeanette Leung retired from the entertainment industry after her marriage, ending her 8-year guest-host relationship with TVB.
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Pauline Chan Bo-Lin

Biography

Born in Shanghai, China, as Chen Baolian, Pauline Chan Bo-Lin emigrated to Hong Kong at age 12 with her mother when her parents divorced. A beautiful young girl, it didn't take long for photographers and agents to notice her and she began modeling at 15. In 1990 she entered the Miss Asia beauty pageant. She didn't win, but her striking looks, lithe body and classy bearing attracted the attention of several producers in Hong Kong's adult film industry. At age 18 she made her adult-film debut and her enthusiastic performances shot her to the top of the Chinese porn field. In 1997 she hooked up with a much older man, a Taiwanese millionaire, and they had a short (two-year) but stormy relationship. After their break-up in 1999, Chan's personal and professional lives began to unravel. She had had a drug problem for several years and it got worse--during one television interview in which she was apparently high on drugs she actually tried to commit suicide. A series of brushes with the law ensued, resulting in her being deported from several countries, and she was briefly sent to prison in the UK for assault. These and other incidents pretty much pulled the plug on her film career. She moved back to her hometown of Shanghai and in July of 2002 gave birth to a baby boy. Motherhood didn't solve her problems, however, and on July 31, 2002, she leaped out of the window of her 24th-floor apartment and plunged to her death.
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