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Jorge Amado
Biography
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands in 1976. His work reflects the image of a Mestiço Brazil and is marked by religious syncretism. He depicted a cheerful and optimistic country that was beset, at the same time, with deep social and economic differences.
He occupied the 23rd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death in 2001. He won the 1984 International Nonino Prize in Italy. He also was Federal Deputy for São Paulo as a member of the Brazilian Communist Party between 1947 and 1951.
Amado was born on Saturday, 10 August 1912, on a farm near the inland city of Itabuna, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia. He was the eldest of four sons of João Amado de Faria and D. Eulália Leal. The farm was located in the village of Ferradas, which, though today is a district of Itabuna, was at the time administered by the coastal city of Ilhéus. For this reason he considered himself a citizen of Ilhéus. From his exposure to the large cocoa plantations of the area, Amado knew the misery and the struggles of the people working the land and living in almost enslaved conditions. This was to be a theme present in several of his works (for example, The Violent Land of 1944).
As a result of a smallpox epidemic, his family moved to Ilhéus when he was one year old, and he spent his childhood there. He attended high school in Salvador, the capital of the state. By the age of 14 Amado had begun to collaborate with several magazines and took part in literary life, as one of the founders of the Modernist "Rebels' Academy".
He was the cousin of Brazilian lawyer, writer, journalist and politician Gilberto Amado, and of Brazilian actress and screenwriter Véra Clouzot.
Amado published his first novel, The Country of Carnival, in 1931, at age 18. He married Matilde Garcia Rosa and had a daughter, Lila, in 1933. The same year he published his second novel, Cacau, which increased his popularity.
He studied law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Faculty of Law but never became a practising lawyer. His leftist activities made his life difficult under the dictatorial regime of Getúlio Vargas. In 1935 he was arrested for the first time, and two years later his books were publicly burned. His works were banned from Portugal, but in the rest of Europe he gained great popularity with the publication of Jubiabá in France. The book received enthusiastic reviews, including that of Nobel prize Award winner Albert Camus.
In the early 1940s, Amado edited a literary supplement for the Nazi-funded political newspaper "Meio-Dia". Being a communist militant, from 1941 to 1942 Amado was compelled to go into exile to Argentina and Uruguay. When he returned to Brazil he separated from Matilde Garcia Rosa. In 1945 he was elected to the National Constituent Assembly, as a representative of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) (he received more votes than any other candidate in the state of São Paulo). He signed a law granting freedom of religious faith. ...
Source: Article "Jorge Amado" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Rick Wakeman
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for his solo albums, contributing to the BBC comedy series Grumpy Old Men and for Rick's Place, his former radio show on Planet Rock that aired until December 2010.
Born in west London, Wakeman purchased his first electronic keyboard at 12 years of age. In 1968, he studied the piano, clarinet, orchestration and modern music at the Royal College of Music before leaving after a year in favour of session music work. He went on to feature on songs by artists including Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John and Cat Stevens. Wakeman joined the folk group Strawbs in 1969 and played on three of their albums. He first joined Yes in 1971 to replace Tony Kaye, and left the group in 1974 to work on his solo career. He returned in 1976 before leaving with lead vocalist Jon Anderson in 1980. Wakeman was part of the side project Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, a group of ex-Yes members formed in 1989, and the eight-member Yes lineup that followed until his third departure in 1992. He returned for two years in 1995 and once more in 2002, where he was part of the band's 35th anniversary tour until its end in 2004.
Wakeman began his solo career during his first run with Yes. His perhaps most known records being his first three, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975). He has produced over 100 solo albums that have sold more than 50 million copies. In November 2010, Wakeman was awarded the Spirit of Prog award at the annual Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Rick Wakeman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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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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Antonio Centa
Biography
Antonio Centa (10 August 1907 – 19 April 1979) was an Italian film actor.
Born in Maniago, Province of Pordenone, Centa was among the most active and popular actors between the mid-1930s and 1943 (when the Italian film industry almost halted because of the war). He was especially popular with the female audience, and had critically acclaimed performances, notably in Renato Castellani's films A Pistol Shot and Zazà. After the war his success declined, and he gradually started to be cast in supporting roles.
Source: Article "Antonio Centa" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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James Burke
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Burke (September 24, 1886 – May 23, 1968) was an American film and television actor born in New York City. He made his stage debut in New York around 1912 and went to Hollywood in 1933. He made over 200 film appearances during his career, which ranged from 1932 to 1964; he was more often than not cast as a cop, usually a none-too-bright one, most notably as Sgt. Velie in Columbia's Ellery Queen mysteries in the early 1940s. He appeared in The Maltese Falcon, At the Circus, Lone Star, and many others. One of his best roles was as Charles Ruggles' rowdy rancher pal in Ruggles of Red Gap.
In the early 1950s, Burke appeared with Tom Conway in the ABC detective drama series then called Inspector Mark Saber -- Homicide Detective, later renamed, reformatted, and switched to NBC under the title Saber of London. From 1960-1961, Burke appeared in the role of Zeke Bonner in seven episodes of the ABC western television series Stagecoach West, starring Wayne Rogers, Robert Bray, and Richard Eyer.
Burke suffered from a heart condition, which took his life at the age of eighty-one.
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Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei
Biography
Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei, sometimes spelled Charlie Young, 楊采妮, is a Chinese film actress and singer. She was first noticed after appearing in a jewellery commercial with Aaron Kwok. Since then she has participated in the music videos of artists such as Hacken Lee, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jacky Cheung and made a number of films, most famously with Tsui Hark (The Lovers, Love in the Time of Twilight, Seven Swords) and Wong Kar-wai (Ashes of Time, Fallen Angels).
She retired at the height of her career in 1997, but has since returned in 2004 in New Police Story.
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Noah Bashore
Biography
Noah is an independent Writer/Director based in Grand Rapids, MI. He’s also the editor for ‘Just Shoot It’, a popular indie filmmaker podcast. Mr. Bashore (pronounced BAY-SHORE) grew up in the small village of Sand Lake, MI, and may or may not be a film/art school dropout. Walter Grace & The Submarine is Noah’s feature film directorial debut, with plans of continuing to tell modest, character-driven stories that are both humorous and melancholic. Aside from workshopping with his two lead actors, Noah’s favorite experience on set was being able to joke around and get to know his talented crew.
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Munenori Sawa
Biography
Munenori Sawa (born April 20, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He was trained by and spent his entire career in the BattlARTS promotion, adopting the promotion's "Bati Bati" wrestling style, known for its stiff strikes and submission-based shoot wrestling, but would often also incorporate comedy into his matches, especially when performing as Lingerie Mutoh, his comedic take on Keiji Mutoh.
Besides Battlarts, Sawa also worked for various other promotions in Japan, Germany and the United States, most notably Pro Wrestling ZERO1, where he became an NWA Intercontinental Tag Team and NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Champion and won the 2011 Tenkaichi Jr. tournament, and where he wrestled his initial retirement match on November 9, 2011, four days after the folding of BattlARTS.
Since his initial retirement from professional wrestling, Sawa has wrestled grappling matches for ZST and has wrestled as Ippanjin Munenori Sawa (lit. "Ordinary Person Munenori Sawa"). He has wrestled more since 2024, mainly under his Ippanjin persona, which parodies mainstream Japanese politics.
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Stratos Dionysiou
Biography
Stratos Dionysiou (Greek: Στράτος Διονυσίου; November 8, 1935 – May 11, 1990), nicknamed "To Geraki tis Pistas" (The hawk of the stage), was a Greek singer, composer and lyricist. Stratos Dionysiou was born on November 8, 1935, in Nigrita, Serres. He was the son of Angelos and Stasa Dionysiou, refugees from Ayvali in Asia Minor. In 1947, he moved to Eptalofos of Ampelokipi, Thessaloniki. A year later, his father passed away. In 1955 he married his childhood love, Georgia Laveni, with whom they had four children: Angelos, Tasoula, Stelios and Diamantis.
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Emilio Echevarría
Biography
Emilio Echevarría (July 3, 1944 - January 5, 2025) was a renowned Mexican actor, born in Mexico City. He would begin his extensive career as an actor in 1978, as an active member of the Constitution of Art and Society. He was part of the theater group Circo, Maroma y Teatro, an institution that would open its doors to him, where he had actors such as José Luis Ibáñez, Otto Minera and Dimitrio Sarrás as teachers.
He began his career in film with A Crucial Day for Ausencio Paredes (1987), and later participated in films such as Intimidad (1989), Ana's Steps (1991), Novia que te ver (1994), Preludio (1999). He rose to fame with the role of El Chivo, in the acclaimed film Amores Perros (2000), by Alejandro González Iñárritu. After his participation in the film, Echevarría became a highly sought-after actor.
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