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Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born in 1970 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, to Xenobia "Jeanne" (Xenakes), a brokerage employee, and Donald Henry Fey, who wrote grant proposals for universities. Her mother is Greek, born in Piraeus, while her father had German, Northern Irish, and English ancestry. Going by the name of Tina, Fey considered herself a "supernerd" during her high school and college years. She studied drama at the University of Virginia, and after graduating in 1992, she headed to Chicago, the ancestral home of American comedy. While working at a YMCA to support herself, she started Second City's first set of courses. After about nine months, a teacher told her to just skip ahead and audition for the more selective Second City Training Center. She failed but about eight weeks later, she re-auditioned and got into the year-long program. She ended up spending many years at The Second City in Chicago where many SNL cast members first started out. Then in 1995, Saturday Night Live (1975) came to The Second City's cast, including Fey's friend, Adam McKay, as a writer, searching for new talent. What they found was Tina Fey. When Adam was made Head writer, he suggested Fey should send a submission packet over the summer with six sketches, 10 pages each. Tina took the advice and sent them. After Lorne Michaels met her and saw her work she was offered a job a week later. She admitted that she was extremely nervous working in the legendary Studio 8H; being a foot shorter than everyone else, younger, and being one of the only female writers at the time. After a few years, Tina made history by becoming the first female head writer in the show's history. Tina also made her screen debut as a featured player during the 25th season by co-anchoring Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon. Since Tina and Jimmy have taken over Weekend Update it has been considered the best ever. This year she made it to full fledged star by becoming a regular cast member, though she is hardly on the show, besides Update. And during the past two summers, Tina and Rachel Dratch performed their two-woman show to critical acclaim in both Chicago (1999) and New York (2000) and made their Aspen Comedy Festival Debut. Tina is married to Jeff Richmond, a Second City director and lives in New York City.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in Finchley, north London, in the United Kingdom, to Lesley Angold (Harrison), a dancer, and Kyriacos Panayiotou, a restaurateur. His father was a Greek Cypriot, and his mother was of English background. He first discovered fame as a musician when he and school friend, Andrew Ridgeley, formed the pop group Wham!. Success came fast and furious with their first album, 'Fantastic' (1983) hitting the UK number one spot. Wham! survived for five years and during that time the group notched up four number one singles and two number one albums. Most of their other releases made top three. George also contributed to the Band Aid Single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' (1984), and scored two further solo number one hits with 'Careless Whisper' and 'A Different Corner'.
Following the break-up of Wham!, George went on to have a hugely successful career as a solo artist, his debut album 'Faith' (1987) - and the single of the same name - both achieving instant and international success. The album has since been certified Diamond.
Over the last four decades George has notched up 8 number one albums in the and 13 number one singles in the UK (including Wham!, Band Aid, and the 'Five Live' EP). In the U.S. he has achieved 2 number one albums and 10 number one singles, with numerous other number one hits throughout the rest of the world.
He has performed duets with artists including Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield, and actively participates in charitable causes, Live Aid and the Freddie Mercury concert for AIDS being just two of the more prominent examples. According to a BBC documentary, George donated more than five million pounds towards various charities. Whilst with Wham!, he donated all the proceeds of 'Last Christmas' (1984) to charity. The single reached number two in the UK and George also performed simultaneously on the number one charity record 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'.
George released the single 'December Song' in 2008 as a free download: his hope was that purchasers would donate money to charity.
He remained in contact with his Wham! partner and long-time friend Andrew Ridgeley until his death in 2016.- Sampras began learning tennis at the age of seven. He was discovered by trainer Pete Fischer, who subsequently imparted the knowledge to him. In 1988 he became a professional player. One of his sponsors was the former world-class player Ivan Lendl. In the same year he was already among the top hundred best tennis players in the world. In 1990, Pete Sampras experienced his first major success on the tennis circuit. The nineteen-year-old won the US Open tournament as seed number 19, making him the youngest winner of this Grand Slam tournament to date. In 1992 he played his way up to number three in the world rankings. The following year, 1993, he left the pitch as winner for the first time in the traditional London Wimbledon tournament, which is considered the unofficial world championship.
During this time he won the US Open again and a total of six other tournaments. He ended the tennis year with 83 match victories and was almost able to repeat the success of Ivan Lendl in 1985, who recorded 84 victories at the time. His track record includes a total of 14 Grand Slam tournament victories: seven victories at Wimbledon in the years 1993 to 1995 and 1997 to 2000, four victories at the US Open in 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 and two victories at the Australian Open in 1994 and 1997 as well as the five-time title of ATP World Champion in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1999 and the two-time victory of the Davis Cup with the American team in 1992 and 1995. Further decided He was number one in the ATP world rankings for a total of six tennis seasons in a row.
The 14 Grand Slam victories represent an unprecedented record in men's tennis. However, Sampras was still missing a victorious finish at the French Open from his long list of successes. He earned the name "Pistol Pete" because of his hard serve. In the world rankings for doubles players, Sampras reached 27th place as his highest placement. Compared to 66 titles as a singles player, he only achieved two career titles in doubles. His other playing qualities included an excellent serve-and-volley game with a lot of pressure. In addition, his baseline shots were feared, which he also executed powerfully and with a high level of confidence. At the traditional tournament in Wimbledon, England in 2002, the tennis star had to be content with an early exit against the unknown Swiss player Georg Bastl.
His chances of winning before the start of the tournament were only 60 percent. In the same year, Sampras changed his previous coach Tom Gullikson. Since the beginning of 2002, Sampras has been coached by former world-class player José Higueras. After Pete Sampras won his 14th Grand Slam title by winning the US Open in 2002, he officially announced his retirement from active professional sports on August 26, 2003 at the US Open stadium in New York. Meanwhile, Pete Sampras was looking forward to the birth of his child in November 2003. He lives with his wife in Orlando, California. - Producer
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Criss Angel was born on December 19, 1967 and raised in East Meadow, New York. He grew up loving music, playing the drums and always having an interest in magic. Two of his biggest magic influences are Harry Houdini and Richiardi Jr.. His father was also a big influence on him, especially after a long battle with cancer until his death in 1998. As a teenager, he performed as a magician at birthday parties, night clubs and private events. He got his pyrotechnics license at age 18. He also has a 7th degree black belt and a background in dance and gymnastics. Criss played in a band called "AngelDust" with friend Klay Scott, who produced and helped arranged his CD's and music for Criss' Mindfreak show. He performed in "World Of Illusion" at Madison Square Garden in 1998. Criss then scored a show on Broadway titled "Mindfreak", which ran up until Jan. 6, 2003 with almost 600 performances. He has had many television appearances and specials such as The Science of Magic (1997), The Science of Magic II (2003), the ABC Family special Criss Angel Mindfreak (2002), and the Sci-Fi channel's Criss Angel Supernatural (2003). He became a household name with the A&E channel Criss Angel Mindfreak (2005) television series airing every Wednesday night. Seasons 1 & 2 were filmed at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas with season 3 filmed at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.
Angel is the only magician to have won the Merlin Magician of the Year award twice: in 2001 and 2004. He holds the world records for longest time submerged underwater (24 hours), the longest body suspension (5 hours, 42 minutes), fastest time to perform the "Metamorphosis" illusion (under a second) and the fastest straight-jacket escape (2 minutes & 30 seconds). One of his favorite musicians is Korn and he is now a personal friend of Jonathan Davis, who has appeared on his television series.- Actress
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Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, to actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow. Her father was Greek, and her mother was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Italian descent. Jennifer spent a year of her childhood living in Greece with her family. Her family then relocated to New York City where her parents divorced when she was nine. Jennifer was raised by her mother and her father landed a role, as "Victor Kiriakis", on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives (1965). Jennifer had her first taste of acting at age 11 when she joined the Rudolf Steiner School's drama club. It was also at the Rudolf Steiner School that she developed her passion for art. She began her professional training as a drama student at New York's School of Performing Arts, aka the "Fame" school. It was a division of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts. In 1987, after graduation, she appeared in such Off-Broadway productions as "For Dear Life" and "Dancing on Checker's Grave". In 1990, she landed her first television role, as a series regular on Molloy (1990). She also appeared in The Edge (1992), Ferris Bueller (1990), and had a recurring part on Herman's Head (1991). By 1993, she was floundering. Then, in 1994, a pilot called "Friends Like These" came along. Originally asked to audition for the role of "Monica", Aniston refused and auditioned for the role of "Rachel Green", the suburban princess turned coffee peddler. With the success of the series Friends (1994), Jennifer has become famous and sought-after as she turns her fame into movie roles during the series hiatus.- Actress
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Milla Jovovich is a Ukrainian-American actress, supermodel, fashion designer, singer and public figure, who was on the cover of more than a hundred magazines, and starred in such films as The Fifth Element (1997), Ultraviolet (2006), and the Resident Evil (2002) franchise.
Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich was born on December 17, 1975 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now in Ukraine). Her Serbian father, Bogdan Jovovich, was a medical doctor in Kyiv. There, he met her mother, Galina Jovovich (née Loginova), a Russian actress. At the age of 5, in 1981, Milla emigrated with her parents from the Soviet Union, moving first to London, UK, then to Sacramento, California, and eventually settled in Los Angeles. There her parents worked as house cleaners for the household of director Brian De Palma. Her parents separated, and eventually divorced, because her father was arrested and spent several years in prison.
Young Milla Jovovich was brought up by her single mother in Los Angeles. In addition to her native Ukrainian, she also speaks Russian and English. However, in spite of her cosmopolitan background, Milla was ostracized by some of her classmates, as a kid who emigrated from the Soviet Union amidst the paranoia of the Cold War. Many emotional scars had affected her behavior, but she eventually emerged as a resilient, multi-talented, albeit rebellious and risk-taking girl. She was coached by her actress mother since her childhood, first at home, then studied music, ballet, and acting in Los Angeles.
She shot to international fame after she was spotted by the photographer Richard Avedon at the age of 11, and was featured in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements, and on the cover of the Italian fashion magazine 'Lei' which was her first cover shoot. She made her first professional model contract at the age of 12, and soon made it to the cover of 'The Face', 'Vogue', 'Cosmopolitan' and many other magazines. In 1994, she appeared on the cover of 'High Times' in the UK, at the age of 18. The total number of her magazine covers worldwide was over one hundred by 2004, and keeps counting. In 2004, she made $10.4 million, becoming the highest paid supermodel in the world.
Milla appeared in ad campaigns for Chanel, Versace, Emporio Armani, Donna Karen, DKNY, Celine, P&K, H&H, and continues her role as the worldwide spokesperson and model for L'Oreal. Thanks to their continued success with Milla, Giorgio Armani chose her to be the face of his fragrance, Night. In addition to Armani's fragrance, Milla was the face for Calvin Klein's Obsession and Christian Dior's Poison for over 10 years and has most recently become the new face for Donna Karan's Cashmere Mist fragrance, which debuts in August 2009. Milla continues to shoot with the fashion industry's most sought after photographers, including Peter Lindbergh, Mario Sorrenti, Craig McDean and Inez & Vinoodh.
Milla made her acting debut in the Disney Channel movie The Night Train to Kathmandu (1988) and she made guest appearances on television series including Married... with Children (1987) (in 1989 as a French exchange student), Paradise (1988) and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990). In 1988, at age 12, she made her film debut credited as Milla in a supporting role in Two Moon Junction (1988) by writer/director Zalman King. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she played several supporting roles as a teenage actress in film and on television, then starred in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). In 1997, she co-starred opposite Bruce Willis in the sci-fi blockbuster The Fifth Element (1997), then she starred as the title character of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).
In the early 2000s, Milla had a few years of uncertainty in her acting career due to the uneven quality of her films, as well as some hectic events in her private life. She appeared with Mel Gibson in Wim Wenders' The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. She went on to co-star with Wes Bentley and Sarah Polley in The Claim (2000) and in Ben Stiller's spoof of the world of models and high-fashion, Zoolander (2001).
Milla achieved box office success in the U.S. and around the world with the action-packed thriller, Resident Evil (2002), based on the wildly popular video game, Resident Evil. It was written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Milla reprised her role as the zombie slaying heroine, Alice, in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), and again in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) A seventh resident Evil movie is in pre-production.
She received glowing reviews opposite Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Illeana Douglas in Dummy (2002) which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In the spring of 2006, Milla returned to the big screen as action heroine, Violet, in the futuristic film Ultraviolet (2006) directed by Kurt Wimmer.
Focusing on her personal sense of style, her love of fashion led Milla and her friend and business partner, Carmen Hawk, to launch their Jovovich-Hawk clothing line, which achieved instant acclaim in the domestic and international fashion world. The fresh, unique line garnered the attention of red carpet watchers and fashion magazines, including American Vogue, who featured Jovovich-Hawk on their coveted list of "10 Things to Watch Out for in 2005." A student of voice and guitar since she was very young, Milla began writing songs for her first record at the age of 15.
Her first album, "The Divine Comedy", was released by EMI Records in 1994. Informed by her experiences as a child growing up as a Russian emigrant in the Red-bashing Reagan era, the introspective European-folkish debut drew favorable reviews for Milla's songwriting and performing. She continues to write music, and has had songs featured on several film soundtracks. She has been writing music and lyrics to her song-demos, playing her guitar and sampling other sounds from her computer, and allowing free download and remix of her songs from her website.
Charitable work also plays a major part in Milla's life. She has served as Master of Ceremonies and co-chaired with Elizabeth Taylor for the amfAR and Cinema Against AIDS event at the Venice Film Festival, and has been heavily involved with The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, as well as The Wildlands Project.
For many years Milla Jovovich has been maintaining a healthier lifestyle, practicing yoga and meditation, trying to avoid junk food, and cooking for herself. Since she was a little girl, Milla has been writing a private diary, a habit she learned from her mother. She has been keeping a record of many good and bad facts of her life, her travels, her relationships, and all important ideas and events in her career, planning eventually to publish an autobiography. After dissolution of her two previous marriages, Milla Jovovich became engaged to film director Paul W.S. Anderson; their daughter, Ever Anderson, was born on November 3, 2007. They got married on August 22, 2009. Their second daughter, Dashiel Edan, was born on April 1, 2015.- Actor
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Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Record holder for the most Grand Slam singles titles among men and women (along with Margaret Court) - 24. Djokovic has won seven ATP Finals titles, 40 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 15 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for over 400 weeks. In majors, he has won a record ten Australian Open titles, seven Wimbledon titles, four US Open titles, and three French Open title. By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, the first since Rod Laver in 1969 and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces. He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments. Djokovic was also a member of Serbia's winning Davis Cup team in 2010 and in the 2020 ATP Cup.
Djokovic is the first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP and the first male player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title. He is a eight-time ITF World Champion and a eight-time ATP year-end No. 1 ranked player. Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year (four times) and the 2011 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award.- Actor
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Zach Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, to Mary Frances (Cashion), who owned a community arts center, and Harry Galifianakis, a heating oil vendor. His father is of Greek descent and his mother is of mostly English and Scottish ancestry. Zach moved to New York City after failing his last college class by one point. Zach got his start performing his brand of humor in the back of a hamburger joint in Times Square. He toured the country, performing in coffee shops and universities.
After more than a decade performing stand-up and making both television and film appearances, Zach broke through to wider recognition with his co-starring role as "Alan Garner", in the comedy mega-hit, The Hangover (2009). Later that year, he played a large role in the CGI-heavy kids movie, G-Force (2009), and then appeared in memorable supporting parts in the films, Up in the Air (2009) (as a laid-off employee), Youth in Revolt (2009) (as a loutish stepfather), and Dinner for Schmucks (2010), as one of the title characters. More recently, he co-starred with Keir Gilchrist in the teen dramedy, It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010), with Robert Downey Jr. in the road trip comedy, Due Date (2010), and alongside Will Ferrell in the political spoof, The Campaign (2012). He also voiced "Humpty Dumpty" in the animated film, Puss in Boots (2011), and reprised his character in both The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013). In 2014, he appeared in the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), and in 2016, he starred in the comedies Masterminds (2015) and Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016), released three weeks apart.
When not performing and acting, Zach spends time at his home in the mountains of his native North Carolina, where he hopes to open a writer's retreat on a completely self-sustained farm.- Nikola Tesla (28 June 1856 - 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, gaining practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His alternating current (AC) induction motor and related poly-phase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the poly-phase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first-ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the Tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s. - Simona Halep is a Romanian professional tennis player.
She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019. In total, she has been No. 1 for 64 weeks, which ranks tenth in the history of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018. She has finished each year ranked no lower than No. 4 since 2014 and has the longest active streak of being ranked in the top 10. She has won 20 WTA singles titles and has finished runner-up 17 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
She won her first six WTA titles in 2013, and was the first to do so since Steffi Graf in 1986. This led to her being named the WTA Most Improved Player at the end of the year. Halep reached three Grand Slam finals at the 2014 French Open, the 2017 French Open, and the 2018 Australian Open before winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the 2018 French Open against Sloane Stephens. A former junior champion there, she became just the sixth player to win both the girls' singles and women's singles titles at the French Open.
She is the third Romanian to be in the top 10 of the WTA rankings after Virginia Ruzici and Irina Spîrlea, and the second Romanian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title after Ruzici. She is also the first Romanian woman to be ranked No. 1 and the first Romanian player to win a Wimbledon singles title. - Music Department
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Igor Stravinsky's father was a singer at the opera, and thus Stravinsky became a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after a short stint as a law student. Very much influenced by Russian composers, only his sponsor Sergei Diaghilev in Paris was able to convince him to try new styles of ballet, e.g. "Le sacre du printemps". Stravinsky was very flexible in his style and also composed jazz music as well as church music. During his lifetime Stravinsky put influence into all new styles of music, e.g. 12 tone, E music and others.- Actress
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Provocative and ever the temptress in her prime, the dark-maned, gorgeous Lana Wood was born Svetlana Gurdin on March 1, 1946, in Santa Monica, California, to Nick Gurdin (née Nikolai Zacharenko) and Maria Gurdin (known by countless aliases, usually Mary Zudilova), émigrés of Ukrainian and Russian descent. Both her parents' families fled their Russian homeland following the Communist takeover and the couple met and married in San Francisco. Lana's more famous acting sister was christened Natalia eight years earlier and the eldest girl in the family was an Armenian half-sister named Olga Tatuloff, their mother's child from a 1920s marriage.
Young Natalia (renamed Natalie Wood, out of respect to director Sam Wood) became a child star in the late 1940s, with such classics as Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and younger sis Lana would inevitably be drawn into films as a result of Natalie's overwhelming success. She made her "debut" as a baby in Natalie's "B" film Driftwood (1947) only to have her cute bit cut from the picture. Her first screen credit actually came with the John Ford classic The Searchers (1956) as a younger version of Natalie's character, and she was off and running.
In an effort to break away from her sister's looming shadow and find her own place in Hollywood, Lana set out to secure TV roles and did quite well on such popular programs as Playhouse 90 (1956), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Dr. Kildare (1961) and The Fugitive (1963), while continuing her minor appearances in such films as Marjorie Morningstar (1958) (again with Natalie), Five Finger Exercise (1962) and the The Girls on the Beach (1965).
In 1965 she earned a contract at Twentieth Century-Fox and was cast in her first television series, The Long, Hot Summer (1965), playing the Southern belle role Lee Remick had played in the 1958 film (The Long, Hot Summer (1958)). Better yet was her 1966 breakthrough role as hash-slinging waitress "Sandy Webber" on the original prime-time soap opera smash Peyton Place (1964), which she played for two seasons. Unlike the glamorous and refined Natalie, Lana developed an earthier "bad girl" persona. Her character femmes bore typical hard-luck stories--tarnished girls from the wrong side of the tracks who were often more trouble than they were worth. Off-screen, she married Peyton Place (1964) co-star Steve Oliver, who played her abusive husband and jailbird "Lee Webber." The marriage lasted approximately one month.
After Peyton Place (1964), Lana continued to exude sex appeal in such films as For Singles Only (1968) and Scream Free! (1969), a drug tale that reunited Natalie's West Side Story (1961) co-stars Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn. She kept her name alive on TV as well, making the guest rounds on The Wild Wild West (1965), Bonanza (1959), The Felony Squad (1966) and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967).
In April 1971, Lana posed for Playboy in an attempt to gain added exposure. It worked. A major career boost presented itself in the form of producer Albert R. Broccoli (nicknamed "Cubby"), who caught the spread and offered her the role of Bondian femme fatale "Plenty O'Toole" in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) opposite Sean Connery. Following all this sexy publicity, Lana somehow nabbed an unexpected role in the Disney romp Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972).
Although she stayed fairly active throughout the next decade or so with such TV movies as Black Water Gold (1970), QB VII (1974) and Nightmare in Badham County (1976), and the films Grayeagle (1977) and Demon Rage (1982), her star began to diminish.
Marriages during the 1970s included a union with actor/co-star Richard Smedley, whom she met on the set of A Place Called Today (1972). They produced her only child, daughter Evan, in 1974. She later married producer Allan Balter after meeting him during the filming of Captain America (1979). Six marriages would come and go before 1980.
In the mid-'80s she appeared for a time on the daytime soap opera Capitol (1982) but made a decision to move away from the acting arena after this period. Following the tragic drowning death of sister Natalie in 1981, Lana penned the controversial tell-all book "Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister". What was meant as a candid, caring and cathartic expose on Lana's part was denounced by both critics and family alike as self-serving and hurtful. Later years included behind-the-camera work as a producer, which included co-producing the ABC-TV special The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004). She also had her own casting company at one point.
After an extended absence, Lana was seen again on the screen into the millennium. Independent features include Deadly Renovations (2010), Donors (2014), Bestseller (2015), Killing Poe (2016), Subconscious Reality (2016), Wild Faith (2018) and The Marshal (2019). A devoted animal lover, the still-stunning grandmother-of-three occasionally appears at celebrity conventions and continues to work in films.- Director
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Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He directed a string of successful films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan writes, "I don't move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme." His first such "issue" film was Gentleman's Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck, which dealt with anti-Semitism in America. It received 8 Oscar nominations and three wins, including Kazan's first for Best Director. It was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against black people. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received 12 Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. In 1954, he directed On the Waterfront (1954), a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955), which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.
A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him strong negative reactions from many liberal friends and colleagues. His testimony helped end the careers of former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, along with ending the work of playwright Clifford Odets. Kazan later justified his act by saying he took "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." Nearly a half-century later, his anti-Communist testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event.
Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, and capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." On September 28, 2003, Elia Kazan died at age 94 of natural causes at his apartment in Manhattan, New York City. Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia (2010) as a personal tribute to Kazan.- Actor
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Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances, Yul Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and outright lies designed to tease people he considered gullible. It was not until the publication of the books "Yul: The Man Who Would Be King" and "Empire and Odyssey" by his son, Yul "Rock" Brynner, that many of the details of Brynner's early life became clear.
Yul sometimes claimed to be a half-Swiss, half-Japanese named Taidje Khan, born on the island of Sakhalin; in reality, he was the son of Marousia Dimitrievna (Blagovidova), the Russian daughter of a doctor, and Boris Yuliyevich Bryner, an engineer and inventor of Swiss-German and Russian descent. He was born in their home town of Vladivostok on 11 July 1920 and named Yuli after his grandfather, Jules Bryner. When Yuli's father abandoned the family, his mother took him and his sister Vera to Harbin, Manchuria, where they attended a YMCA school. In 1934 Yuli's mother took her children to Paris. Her son was sent to the exclusive Lycée Moncelle, but his attendance was spotty. He dropped out and became a musician, playing guitar in the nightclubs among the Russian gypsies who gave him his first real sense of family. He met luminaries such as Jean Cocteau and became an apprentice at the Theatre des Mathurins. He worked as a trapeze artist with the famed Cirque d'Hiver company.
He traveled to the U.S. in 1941 to study with acting teacher Michael Chekhov and toured the country with Chekhov's theatrical troupe. That same year, he debuted in New York as Fabian in "Twelfth Night" (billed as Youl Bryner). After working in a very early TV series, Mr. Jones and His Neighbors (1944), he played on Broadway in "Lute Song" with Mary Martin, winning awards and mild acclaim. He and his wife, actress Virginia Gilmore, starred in the first TV talk show, Mr. and Mrs. (1948). Brynner then joined CBS as a television director. He made his film debut in Port of New York (1949). Two years later Mary Martin recommended him for the part he would forever be known for: the King in Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "The King and I". Brynner became an immediate sensation in the role, repeating it for film (The King and I (1956)) and winning the Oscar for Best Actor.
For the next two decades, he maintained a starring film career despite the exotic nature of his persona, performing in a wide range of roles from Egyptian pharaohs to Western gunfighters, almost all with the same shaved head and indefinable accent. In the 1970s he returned to the role that had made him a star, and spent most of the rest of his life touring the world in "The King and I". When he developed lung cancer in the mid 1980s, he left a powerful public service announcement denouncing smoking as the cause, for broadcast after his death. The cancer and its complications, after a long illness, ended his life. Brynner was cremated and his ashes buried in a remote part of France, on the grounds of the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Bois Aubry, a short distance outside the village of Luzé. He remains one of the most fascinating, unusual and beloved stars of his time.- Actor
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James Adam Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. The third of four children - his brother was comedian John Belushi - he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by his improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced him to be in a school play. After that, he joined the school's drama club. Today, if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say, "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir - more girls!". He attended the College of DuPage and Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.
In 1977, he joined Chicago's Second City improv troupe and remained for three years. In 1979, Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for Second City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV pilot Who's Watching the Kids (1978) for Paramount and, then, for a role in the series Working Stiffs (1979) (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) for two years. Jim came to national attention in About Last Night (1986), playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago". He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer Sloan, their daughter Jamison and a son, Robert Belushi, from his first marriage.- Actress
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Irene Papas was born on 3 September 1929 in Chilimodion, Corinth, Greece. She was an actress and director, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Message (1976) and Electra (1962). She was married to José Kohn and Alkis Papas. She died on 14 September 2022 in Chiliomodion, Corinthia, Greece.- Actor
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Of Greek descent on both sides, the son of immigrants, Savalas was a soldier during World War II, although most of his enlistment records were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973. He later studied psychology at Columbia University under the GI Bill.
Iconically bald, he often played character roles, sometimes as sadists or psychotics. He became famous in the 1970s when his role as Det. Theo Kojak in the TV movie The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973) was expanded into the gritty Kojak (1973) TV series (1973-78).- 1994 Olympic GOLD Medalist & 1993 World Champion, Ladies Figure Skating.
When Oksana Baiul was three years old, she received her first pair of ice skates from her Grandfather. By just seven years old, she already won her first competition. The Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation immediately took notice of her unique, natural balletic artistry on the ice.
In 1994, at barely 16 years old, the world watched literally (Oksana Baiul holds the record for most watched Olympic performance in history) as Oksana captivated our hearts & won the Olympic Gold Medal, proving that she is the Best in the World! Contrary to the false tales spun by a former coach and others to the media claiming to have financially supported Oksana prior to 1994, in fact Oksana was by 1993 already unknowingly a very wealthy teenager with her own apartment, having won GOLD at the 1993 World Championship, headlined the ISU European Tour and being contracted by Tom Collins to co-headline his 1993 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions sold out 43 US cities tour. In 1994, Oksana was brought to the United States, was signed to William Morris Talent Agency, turned professional, toured and performed nonstop for 8 years and Barbara Walter's named her "One of the 10 Most Fascinating Personalities of 1994".
Born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, she was an only child of parents Sergei and Marina Baiul who divorced when she was two. Her mother and her grandparents raised Oksana. When Oksana was 10, her grandparents died. Tragically, three years later at 13, her mother died of ovarian cancer.
Prior to and since her victory in Lillehammer, Oksana headlined figure skating tours non-stop from 1993 to 2003 in figure skating tours and competitions in the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, North Korea, South Korea, China, Ukraine, Russia and many more including AEG's Champions on Ice and Smucker's Stars On Ice.
Oksana's life story was depicted in the Hallmark & CBS produced movie, "A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story". Oksana has published two NYT Best Selling books, Secrets of Skating/Oksana Baiul; Oksana, My Own Story. Oksana has been profiled in several televised bio specials including Lifetime and A&E's Networks. In 1996, Oksana also launched "OKSANA: Jewels On Ice" and "Oksana: Ice Crystals" her jewelry collections, which sold-out on QVC and in turn was made available with major US luxury department stores. Oksana Baiul has headlined more than 900 live performances touring the globe, a part of over 150 headlining television and movie performances (Nutcracker on Ice, Wizard of Oz on Ice, CBS Sports Olympic Winterfest, Goodwill Games) and more than 300 television appearances.
In 2002, Oksana also launched her clothing line, the Oksana Baiul Collection, the most successful independently owned Figure Skating Apparel line, created and designed by Oksana herself which is re-launching and expanding in 2013. In 2003, Oksana returned to her hometown of Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine and her heartfelt story was featured on ABC's 20/20 and featured in People Magazine. During 2005 to 2009 Oksana also headlined a Moscow Red Square TV special, starred in an off Broadway theatrical show "Cold As Ice" earning her performance critical acclaim, while dedicating the majority of her time to philanthropic endeavors benefiting children. Oksana, the only figure skater to become a globally known household name and cross over to be considered a true entertainer, has graced the covers of over 50 media publications globally and endorsed products such as ICON Fitness' HealthRider and Lifeway's KEFIR. During the last seven years Oksana has also taken on a few acting roles making appearances on television series' (Arli$$, Strong Medicine), supporting roles in movies (Cutting Edge II), and stared as lead judge on ABC's prime-time reality show "Master of Champions".
Oksana Baiul, nicknamed the "Queen of the Ice" and the "Swan of Odessa", who partnered with Entertainment Producer, Investor and Philanthropist Carlo J. Farina, can be found on the ice training in Philadelphia preparing for her upcoming return to performing in 2013, writing her highly-anticipated autobiography, developing her first headlining global tour commencing in 2014 and expanding her career as a co-Producer of the tour in addition to two Television specials, while also designing and re-launching the OKSANA BAIUL Collection encompassing figure skating apparel, ready to wear, accessories and her jewelry line. - Nadia Comaneci was born on 12 November 1961 in Onesti, Romania. She is an actress, known for The Veil (2017), Rock et Belles Oreilles: The DVD 1988 (2001) and Touched by an Angel (1994). She has been married to Bart Conner since 26 April 1996. They have one child.
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Beloved French chanson entertainer Charles Aznavour, who wrote more than 800 songs, recorded more than 1,000 of them in French, English, Italian, German and Spanish and sold over 100 million records in all, was born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian on May 22, 1924, in Paris, the younger of two children born to Armenian immigrants who fled to France. His mother was a seamstress as well as an actress and his father was a baritone who sang in restaurants. Both Charles and his elder sister waited on tables and he performed, as well. He delivered his first poetic recital while just a toddler. Within a few years later he had developed such a passion for singing/dancing, that he sold newspapers to earn money for lessons.
He took his first theatrical bow in the play "Emil and the Detectives" at age 9 and within a few years was working as a movie extra. He eventually quit school and toured France and Belgium as a boy singer/dancer with a traveling theatrical troupe while living the bohemian lifestyle. A popular performer at the Paris' Club de la Chanson, it was there that he was introduced in 1941 to the songwriter Pierre Roche. Together they developed names for themselves as a singing/writing cabaret and concert duo ("Roche and Aznamour"). A Parisian favorite, they became developed successful tours outside of France, including Canada. In the post WWII years Charles began appearing in films again, one of them as a singing croupier in Adieu... Chérie (1946).
Eventually Aznavour earned a sturdy reputation composing street-styled songs for other established musicians and singers, notably Édith Piaf, for whom he wrote the French version of the American hit "Jezebel". Heavily encouraged by her, he toured with her as both an opening act and lighting man. He lived with Piaf out of need for a time not as one of her many paramours. His mentor eventually persuaded him to perform solo (without Roche) and he made several successful tours while scoring breakaway hits with the somber chanson songs "Sur ma vie" and "Parce que" and the notable and controversial "Après l'amour." In 1950, he gave the bittersweet song "Je Hais Les Dimanches" ["I Hate Sundays"] to chanteuse Juliette Gréco, which became a huge hit for her.
In the late 50s, Aznavour began to infiltrate films with more relish. Short and stubby in stature and excessively brash and brooding in nature, he was hardly leading man material but embraced his shortcomings nevertheless. Unwilling to let these faults deter him, he made a strong impressions with the comedy Une gosse 'sensass' (1957) and with Paris Music Hall (1957). He was also deeply affecting as the benevolent but despondent and ill-fated mental patient Heurtevent in Head Against the Wall (1959). A year later, Aznavour starred as piano player Charlie Kohler/Edouard Saroyan in Francois Truffaut's adaptation of the David Goodis' novel Shoot the Piano Player (1960) [Shoot the Piano Player], which earned box-office kudos both in France and the United States. This sudden notoriety sparked an extensive tour abroad in the 1960s. Dubbed the "Frank Sinatra of France" and singing in many languages (French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Armenian, Portuguese), his touring would include sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall (1964) and London's Albert Hall (1967).
Aznavour served as actor and composer/music arranger for many films, including Gosse de Paris (1961), which he also co-wrote with director Marcel Martin, and the dramas Three Fables of Love (1962) [Three Fables of Love") and Caroline chérie (1968) [Dear Caroline]. The actor also embraced the title role in the TV series "Les Fables de la Fontaine" (1964), then starred in the popular musical "Monsieur Carnaval" (1965), in which he performed his hit song "La bohême".
His continental star continued to shine and Aznavour acted in films outside of France with more dubious results. While the satirical Candy (1968), with an international cast that included Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Ringo Starr, and epic adventure The Adventurers (1970) were considered huge misfires upon release, it still showed Aznavour off as a world-wide attraction. While he was also seen in The Games (1970) (1970), The Blockhouse (1973) (1973) and an umpteenth film version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (1974), it was his music that kept him in the international limelight. Later films included Yiddish Connection (1986), which he co-wrote and provided music; Il maestro (1990) with Malcolm McDowell; the Canadian-French production Ararat (2002) for which he received special kudos; cameos as himself in The Truth About Charlie (2002) and Emmenez-moi (2005); and his final feature film, Mon colonel (2006)
Films aside, his chart-busting single "She" (1972-1974) went platinum in Great Britain. He also received thirty-seven gold albums in all. His most popular song in America, "Yesterday When I Was Young" has had renditions covered by everyone from Shirley Bassey to Julio Iglesias. In 1997, Aznavour received an honorary César Award. He has written three books, the memoirs "Aznavour By Aznavour" (1972), the song lyrics collection "Des mots à l'affiche" (1991) and a second memoir "Le temps des avants" (2003). A "Farewell Tour" was instigated in 2006 at age 82. He died
Married at least three times (some claim five) to Micheline Rugel, Evelyne Plessis and Ulla Thorsell, he fathered six children (daughters Katia, Patricia and Seda Aznavour, and sons Misha, Nicholas, and Patrick Aznavour). He died on October 1, 2018, in France.- Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is an American retired professional tennis player and former World No. 1, who was one of the game's most dominant players from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi had been called the greatest service returner in the history of the game. Described by the BBC upon his retirement as "perhaps the biggest worldwide star in the sport's history", Agassi compiled performances that, along with his unorthodox apparel and attitude, saw him cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game. As a result, he is credited for helping to revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s.
- Maria began hitting tennis balls at the age of four. At the age of six, she participated in an exhibition in Moscow which featured Martina Navratilova. At the age of nine, she began training at Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy. During her first two years at the Academy, she was separated from her mother Yelena due to visa restrictions and finances. Maria would travel to tournaments with her father, Yuri, and coaches Robert Lansdorp, and 1984 Australian Open boys' doubles champion Mike Baroch. Yuri eventually replaced Baroch and Lansdorp with former ATP Top 100 player Michael Joyce, who guided Maria to 3 Grand Slam titles and the World #1 ranking (Lansdorp was quoted as saying in 2004: "I've never received anything from one player. Not even a $500 gift. They're all multi-millionaires but I've never received one thing. And I'm telling you, if Maria doesn't put a Mercedes convertible in my driveway, I'm going to shoot myself". Sharapova attended Lansdorp's 75th birthday party in 2013). Off-court, her interests include modeling, singing, jazz dancing, movies such as Pearl Harbor (2001), and reading.
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Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica, to Norval Marley and Cedella Booker. His father was a Jamaican of English descent. His mother was a black teenager. The couple were married in 1944 but Norval left for Kingston immediately after. Norval died in 1957, seeing his son only a few times.
Bob Marley started his career with the Wailers, a group he formed with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in 1963. Marley married Rita Marley in February 1966, and it was she who introduced him to Rastafarianism. By 1969 Bob, Tosh and Livingston had fully embraced Rastafarianism, which greatly influence Marley's music in particular and on reggae music in general. The Wailers collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry, resulting in some of the Wailers' finest tracks like "Soul Rebel", "Duppy Conquerer", "400 Years" and "Small Axe." This collaboration ended bitterly when the Wailers found that Perry, thinking the records were his, sold them in England without their consent. However, this brought the Wailers' music to the attention of Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records.
Blackwell immediately signed the Wailers and produced their first album, "Catch a Fire". This was followed by "Burnin'", featuring tracks as "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff." Eric Clapton's cover of that song reached #1 in the US. In 1974 Tosh and Livingston left the Wailers to start solo careers. Marley later formed the band "Bob Marley and the Wailers", with his wife Rita as one of three backup singers called the I-Trees. This period saw the release of some groundbreaking albums, such as "Natty Dread", "Rastaman Vibration".
In 1976, during a period of spiraling political violence in Jamaica, an attempt was made on Marley's life. Marley left for England, where he lived in self-exile for two years. In England "Exodus" was produced, and it remained on the British charts for 56 straight weeks. This was followed by another successful album, "Kaya." These successes introduced reggae music to the western world for the first time, and established the beginning of Marley's international status.
In 1977 Marley consulted with a doctor when a wound in his big toe would not heal. More tests revealed malignant melanoma. He refused to have his toe amputated as his doctors recommended, claiming it contradicted his Rastafarian beliefs. Others, however, claim that the main reason behind his refusal was the possible negative impact on his dancing skills. The cancer was kept secret from the general public while Bob continued working.
Returning to Jamaica in 1978, he continued work and released "Survival" in 1979 which was followed by a successful European tour. In 1980 he was the only foreign artist to participated in the independence ceremony of Zimbabwe. It was a time of great success for Marley, and he started an American tour to reach blacks in the US. He played two shows at Madison Square Garden, but collapsed while jogging in NYC's Central Park on September 21, 1980. The cancer diagnosed earlier had spread to his brain, lungs and stomach. Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981. He was 36 years old.- Actress
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Nia Vardalos was born on 24 September 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is an actress and writer, known for My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) and I Hate Valentine's Day (2009). She was previously married to Ian Gomez.- Actress
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Actress and singer Lainie Kazan first made her mark with her Broadway debut in 1961 with the musical The Happiest Girl in the World. The following year, she appeared in another musical, Bravo Giovanni. She eventually served as Barbra Streisand's understudy for the lead role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968), and when Streisand was unable to perform, due to a throat condition, Kazan took her place in both a matinee and evening performance for one day of the show's run. Always the tireless entertainer, Kazan has contributed her talents to an endless list of film and television projects roles; perhaps her most talked-about role is of the hilarious mom Maria Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), and its sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016).