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John Ellis
Biography
John Ellis (born 1 June 1952) is an English guitarist and songwriter.
Ellis was a co-founder of the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1970 and a founding member of the punk rock band The Vibrators. He formed The Vibrators in 1976 while still at art school studying illustration. The Vibrators released two albums with Ellis and toured extensively. Ellis left the Vibrators in 1978 to form the short-lived group Rapid Eye Movement, before embarking on a solo career in 1979, releasing a couple of singles, one of which, "Babies in Jars" (a live Rapid Eye Movement recording) reached #34 on the UK Indie Chart.
In 1980, Ellis toured with Peter Gabriel on his "Tour of China 1984", and he appears on the album Peter Gabriel 4. From 1982 onwards, he recorded a number of albums with Peter Hammill, and toured with Hammill (off and on) from 1981 until 1989. From 1981 until 1984, he was a member of the K Group with Peter Hammill. Hammill was "K" (on vocals, piano and guitar), Nic Potter was "Mozart" (on bass guitar), Guy Evans was "Brain" (on drums), and Ellis was "Fury" (on backing vocals and guitar). The Peter Hammill album The Margin is a registration of live-concerts by the K group.
Between late 1990 and 2000, Ellis was a member of the band The Stranglers, starting with the album Stranglers in the Night. During that period he also created music for European Art exhibitions and several short films. Ellis left the Stranglers in 2000. He is an exponent of the E-bow guitar.
Ellis has contributed to the recordings of Judge Smith, a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator.
In 2005, Ellis formed a community organisation called 'The Luma Group', that delivers arts based training and workshops.
In 2009, Ellis started his own record label, Chanoyu Records, in order to release his own music. The first release was Wabi Sabi 21©, an album of electronic instrumentals inspired by the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
Source: Article "John Ellis (guitarist)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Antonio Pietrangeli
Biography
Antonio Pietrangeli (born 19 January 1919 in Rome, died 12 July 1968 in Gaeta) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Pietrangeli was a major practitioner of the Commedia all'italiana genre. He started writing film reviews for famous Italian cinema magazines such as Bianco e nero and Cinema. As a screenwriter, Pietrangeli's work included Ossessione directed byVisconti, Fabiola by Blasetti, Europa '51 by Rossellini, and La lupa by Lattuada. His directing debut was Il sole negli occhi (1953). Career highlights include Io la conoscevo bene (1965) and Adua e le compagne (1960). He drowned in the sea of Gaeta in 1968 while working on Come, quando, perché, which was completed by Valerio Zurlini. [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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Alisa Efimova
Biography
Alisa Borisovna Efimova (Russian: Алиса Борисовна Ефимова, born 8 June 1999) is a Finnish pair skater of Russian ancestry who competes for the United States. With her current partner and husband, Misha Mitrofanov, she is the 2026 Four Continents champion, a two-time U.S. national champion (2025–26), a two-time Grand Prix medalist, and a three-time Challenger Series medalist.
Competing for Germany with Ruben Blommaert, she is the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo silver medalist, a two-time Challenger Series silver medalist, and the 2022 German national silver medalist.
Earlier in her career, she represented Russia with Alexander Korovin. The pair won one Grand Prix medal, silver at the 2018 Skate America, and six medals on the ISU Challenger Series, including gold at the 2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy and 2018 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb. Description above from the Wikipedia article Alisa Efimova, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Aleksandr Andriyevsky
Biography
Soviet film director, screenwriter, organizer of film production. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1965). From 1911 to 1916 he studied at a real school in Tsarskoye Selo. From 1916 to 1918 - at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petrograd University. In 1918 - at the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University and at the Kharkov Drama Studio of N. Sinelnikov. In 1918 he performed on the stage of Sinelnikov's Drama Studio in Kharkov (Orgon in Tartuffe). From 1919 to 1920 he was director and head of the Drama Studio of the Political Department of the 14th Army. In June 1920, the Political Department of the 14th Army was admitted to the CPSU (b). From 1920 to 1921 he worked as a director at the Kharkov Drama Theatre. From 1921 to 1929 he served in the Red Army, worked in the courts and prosecutors. He was an investigator for special cases of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Tribunal under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Deputy People's Commissar of Justice of the Turkmen SSR. Since 1929, he worked as the head of the script department and head of production, then as a director at the Mezhrabpomfilm film studio. His first directorial work was the film The Death of a Sensation (1934), about humanoid robotic machines. From 1934 to 1937 he studied at the director's academy at VGIK. He worked at the Soyuzdetfilm studio, where he made an experimental stereo film The Third Dimension. In 1941 he staged the first full-length stereo film-concert "Land of Youth". In 1942-1944, he worked as the manager of Soyuzintorgkino of the Committee for Cinematography under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. In 1944-1949 he was director, artistic director and scientific director of the Stereokino laboratory. In 1949-1950, he was Chairman of the Board and General Director of the Soviet-German joint-stock company DEFA, Chairman of the DEFA Artistic Council, representative of the Sovexportfilm association in Berlin. In 1950-1952, he was the editor-in-chief, head of the script and editorial department of the Mosfilm film studio, concurrently - director of the Film Actor Studio at Mosfilm. In 1952-1954 he worked as the general director of the Wien-Film film studio in Austria. Since 1954 he was a director of the Gorky film studio. From 1968 to 1978 he taught directing at the screenwriting, film studies, acting and art departments of VGIK. Along with Sergei Ivanov, he was the creator of stereo cinema in the USSR, the author of inventions in the field of stereo cinema and sound design. In 1970, he staged the world's first stereo film using the glasses-free method "Amusement Parade".
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Margaret Whitton
Biography
Margaret Whitton (November 30, 1949 – December 4, 2016) was an American actress. Her most known roles were that of baseball team owner Rachel Phelps in Major League (1989) and its sequel Major League II, and as Michael J. Fox's vibrant and underappreciated aunt-by-marriage in The Secret of My Success (1987). She also appeared in the films The Best of Times (1986) and The Man Without a Face (1993).
She first noticeably appeared on the stage in 1973, billed as Peggy Whitton. In the early 1980s, she began to be billed as Margaret Whitton and made her Broadway debut in 1982's Steaming. After her seven year experiment with film, she returned to the stage, appearing on Broadway in And the Apple Doesn't Fall... (1995) and in the original, award-winning musical Marlene (1999), starring Siân Phillips as Marlene Dietrich.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret Whitton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Marie Drucker
Biography
Marie Drucker (born 3 December 1974) is a French journalist, author, television and radio personality.
The daughter of Jean Drucker, a French television executive, and a niece of Michel Drucker, a television journalist, she was educated at the Sorbonne, where she received a degree in modern literature. Her family is Jewish (from Romania, Austria, Poland, and Algeria).
Her journalistic career started in 1994, as a freelance reporter for such magazines as Le Figaro and ELLE, before she settled down with the Capa agency in 1997, working with them on the TV programme Qu'en pensez-vous? ('What Do You Think of It?') on the Canal+ channel. She was the co-presenter of the France 2 show Rince ta baignoire in 1999. Next, in August 1999, she joined the newly formed team of I-Télé, a 24-hour news channel which first went on the air in November 1999, with whom she stayed until September 2003. The following two years she worked for Canal+, the main station of the Canal+ Group. The Canal+ Group is the parent company of I-Télé. She then moved across to become the main news-reader on the France 3 evening news show Soir 3. At the end of August 2008 Drucker left Soir 3 to take up a new position as substitute anchor of the weekend news bulletins of the France 2 channel.
Marie Drucker is a cousin of actress Léa Drucker. She was ranked the 22nd sexiest woman in the world in a 2006 poll by FHM France.
Despite a desire to protect her privacy, Drucker has been in a number of well publicized relationships with high-profile individuals, several of whom she was engaged to, starting with novelist Marc Levy until 2005. Then starting in late spring 2006 she was the partner of former French Minister of the Interior François Baroin, which led her to resign from Soir 3 out of concerns regarding her objectivity, but the couple were reported to have separated in April 2008.
In 2009 she had an affair with banker Matthieu Pigasse, which became the subject of a scathing book by Pigasse's scorned wife, Alix Étournaud, in which Drucker is never named but instead referred to by nicknames such as "la sorcière" (the witch), "Miss Météo" (weather girl) or "gorge profonde" (deep throat). She shortly thereafter entered a relationship with comic actor Gad Elmaleh which lasted about a year. In 2012, she was reported to be dating celebrity chef Cyril Lignac.
Drucker now lives in the 8th arrondissement of Paris with her partner, Mathias Vicherat, with whom she has been in a relationship since 2014. On the night of 31 March to 1 April 2015 Drucker gave birth to their son, named Jean after her father.
Source: Article "Marie Drucker" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Frank Welker
Biography
Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor with an extensive career spanning nearly six decades. As of 2021, Welker holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With a total worldwide box-office gross of $17.4 billion, he is also the third highest-grossing film voice actor of all time.
Welker is best known for voicing Fred Jones in the Scooby-Doo franchise since its inception in 1969, and Scooby-Doo himself since 2002. In 2020, Welker reprised the latter role in the CGI-animated film Scoob!, the only original voice actor from the series in the movie's cast. He has also voiced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Epic Mickey and its sequel, Megatron, Galvatron and Soundwave in the Transformers franchise, Shao Kahn and Reptile in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film, Curious George in the Curious George franchise, Garfield on The Garfield Show, Nibbler on Futurama, the titular character in Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy in the Scooby-Doo franchise, Astro and Orbitty on The Jetsons, Mushmouse on Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse, and various characters in The Smurfs as well as numerous animal vocal effects in many works. In 2016, he was honored with an Emmy Award for his lifetime achievement.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Welker, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Doris Dowling
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Doris Dowling (May 15, 1923 – June 18, 2004) was an American actress of film, stage and television. After her time as a chorus-girl on Broadway, Detroit-born Doris Dowling followed her elder sister Constance to Hollywood. Her first credited film role was that of Gloria, barfly and drinking companion to fellow alcoholic Ray Milland in the 1945 film The Lost Weekend. She next appeared in The Blue Dahlia, which starred Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. As post-war work became more scarce, she emigrated to Italy to revive her career, as her sister had done.
In Italy, Dowling starred in several acclaimed films including Bitter Rice. She appeared in Orson Welles's European production of Othello in 1952, playing Bianca. Upon returning to the US, much of her work was in theatre and on television. She appeared in such television shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, and, late in her career, The Incredible Hulk, Kojak and finally, The Dukes of Hazzard in 1984. She also co-starred with Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar in the sitcom My Living Doll.
In 1973, Dowling shared an Outer Critics Circle award for her performance in a revival of The Women on Broadway.
Personal life
Dowling dated Billy Wilder and married three times. She was band leader Artie Shaw's 7th wife, by whom she had a son, Jonathan. Her other husbands were Robert F. Blumofe (1956–1959) and Leonard B. Kaufman (1960 until her death in 2004).
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Allison Smith
Biography
Allison Smith's career started on Broadway at the age of nine, in the original production of "Evita", quickly followed by her landing the title role of "Annie" on Broadway in the musical "Annie" at the age of ten. She was the longest-running and youngest star of a Broadway musical at that time, playing the role for over 1,000 performances; nearly 3 years. She's given vocal performances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, and The White House. After "Annie", she was cast on "Kate and Allie", playing the role of "Jennie Lowell" on CBS for six seasons. Allison recurred in all seven seasons of NBC's The West Wing (1999) as "Mallory O'Brien", the chief of staff's daughter / Sam Seaborn's (Rob Lowe's) love interest. She was in the CBS miniseries Helter Skelter (2004), in which she portrayed real-life Charles Manson murderess Patricia Krenwinkel, and gave a stellar performance starring as the guest in the pilot of The Closer (2005). She has starred in several regular television series: Buddy Faro (1998), Spy Game (1997). She played the lead in the independent feature, A Reason to Believe (1995), and supporting roles in such features as Holes (2003) and Switchback (1997). Other theater work includes starring in the L.A. premiere production of David Mamet's "Oleanna", "QED" opposite Alan Alda at the Mark Taper Forum and with Randy Newman in his musical "The Education of Randy Newman", at South Coast Rep, for which her vocal performance got rave reviews. Also a writer, she was born in New York City and raised in Bergen County, New Jersey.
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