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1-17 of 17
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Ravi Shankar was a world-renowned musician, composer, performer, and scholar of classical Indian music. He was one of the leading cultural figures of the twentieth century whose accomplishments placed him as the leading figure of an important musical tradition. His long and distinguished musical career included numerous recordings, performances at all the world's leading venues, and a series of unprecedented collaborations with other leading musicians. Although he is well known because of his interaction with the popular music world, it is important to underscore that Shankar is considered the leading international figure in a very elevated art form, Hindustani music. Shankar was born on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi, India. He moved to Paris in 1930, and received most of his education there. From the age of 12, he performed as a musician and dancer on tour in Europe and America with his brother Uday Shankar, and in 1939 had his first concert as soloist at a music conference in Allahabad. By 1945 Shankar's reputation as the leading performer of traditional Hindustani music on the sitar had coalesced. He began to branch out as a composer, writing music for ballet and for important films such as such as Dharti Ke Lal and Neecha Nagar. He also composed the song Sare Jahan Se Accha, which is one of the most widely known piece of music in India. In 1949, Shankar became Music Director of All-India Radio at Delhi, and founded the Vadya Vrinda Chamber Orchestra. During the years 1950-55 Shankar composed some of his most famous music, most notably in the internationally-acclaimed film studios of Calcutta, where he scored The Ray Triology. For his outstanding contribution to Indian music and culture, he received his first of five Presidential Awards in 1962, India's highest honor in the arts. In the mid-1960s, his preeminence as one of the world's leading serious musicians was augmented with wide popular success. George Harrison of The Beatles developed a deep, abiding interest in Hindustani music, and began to study with Shankar. One influence of this study can be heard in his song Within You, Without You. Shankar died in San Diego, California in 2012 at the age of 92.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Charles Young was born on 14 October 1935 in Augusta, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Darkman (1990), Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991) and Matlock (1986). He died on 11 December 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.- Radmila Gutesa was born on 25 May 1925 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. She was an actress, known for Written Off (1974), Wintering in Jakobsfeld (1975) and Otpisani (1974). She died on 11 December 2012 in Belgrade, Serbia.
- Special Effects
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Visual Effects
After service with the Royal Corps of Signals, Harry Oakes volunteered for the AFPU and served with No 5 Section in North West Europe from 1944 - 1945. He then served in South East Asia and then returned to cover the Allied Occupation of Vienna, December 1946. Equally at home using a cine or still photograph camera, he was one of the AFPU team deployed under the command of Lt H A Wilson to cover the relief of Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) concentration camp in April 1945. He also covered the Rhein Crossing, accompanying the airborne landing of 6th Airborne Division, and the meeting of British and Soviet Forces on the Elbe.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Galina Vishnevskaya was a famous Russian opera singer and public figure.
She was born Galina Pavlovna Ivanova on October 25, 1926, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia. Abandoned by her parents during Stalin's dictatorship, young Galina was raised by her grandmother, only later to learn her father had been imprisoned. During WWII, she refused to evacuate from Leningrad which was besieged by the Nazis, who intended to starve the population and raze the city. (Some one million people died, mostly of starvation and disease, between 1941 and 1944.) She joined the resistance and, after two years of fighting, she was decorated for her courage defending her city from the Nazis. At age 18, she married naval officer Georgi Vishnevsky, but the marriage did not work, because he objected her opera career. After divorce, she kept the surname Vishnevskaya.
In 1944, after the liberation of Leningrad, she joined a small operetta company led by Mark Rubin, who became her second husband. The couple had one son who died in 1945. Vishnevskaya and Rubin toured together for several years until she got the job at the Bolshoi Theatre Opera in Moscow. There, in 1955, she married the talented Mstislav Rostropovich and the couple had two daughters, Olga (b. 1956) and Elena (b. 1958). During the 1950s/60s, Russia was undergoing cultural changes and liberalization known as "The Thaw" initiated by Nikita Khrushchev. At that time, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich made a significant input in the performing arts of the USSR. But the Thaw ended with the arrest of Khrushchev.
In 1969, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya saved their friend, dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from prosecution. At that time Solzhenitsyn needed a place to hide from the Soviet authorities. An arrangement was made for Solzhenitsyn to live secretly at Rostropovich's dacha, a summer cabin outside of Moscow. This angered the Soviet Communists, so Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were banned from international tours and royalties. Their performances in the Soviet Union were also banned, their income was drastically reduced, and their musical activity was limited to teaching. The Soviet authorities put severe pressure on Rostropovich by restricting his communication with the world and by ignoring his numerous invitations to perform at international festivals and competitions. In 1974, after years of struggle with the Soviet dictatorship, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya fled the Soviet Union with their two daughters. In exile, they were living the artistic freedom they had so longed for, and did not want to go back until the fall of the oppressive Soviet regime.
In 1977, Rostropovich was appointed Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, DC, the post he kept for the next seventeen years. Soon after Rostropovich became employed in the USA, he and Vishnevskaya moved from Paris to Washington and made their home there for the next eighteen years. Leonid Brezhnev retaliated by revoking their Soviet citizenship in 1978. During the 1970s and 1980s Rostropovich enjoyed a very active concert career; he toured extensively as a cellist as well as an internationally acclaimed orchestra conductor and pedagogue. He also made numerous recordings of cello music and became recognized as arguably the world's best cellist of his time. Being also a good pianist, Rostropovich accompanied Vishnevskaya on her numerous international concert tours. Besides her singing recitals, she directed a successful production of the Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tzar's Bride" in Washington D.C. In 1984, she published a memoir titled "Galina: A Russian Story", which became an international bestseller.
In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev restored their citizenship of Russia (then still part of the Soviet Union), allowing Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya to return back home. Their return happened during the most dramatic events of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time Rostropovich joined the Russian President Yeltsin during the August coup of the hard-line communists against Mikhail Gorbachev. Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich established themselves as internationally recognized cultural, political and intellectual figures of the new Russia. Their film and music performances as well as their public statements were equally acclaimed and respected by all freedom-loving people. Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya divided their time between Moscow and St. Petersburg and remained active in the country's cultural and political life.
In 2002, Vishnevskaya opened her own opera theatre in Moscow, the "Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre". In 2006, she was featured in Aleksandr Sokurov's documentary Elegy of Life: Rostropovich, Vishnevskaya (2006). In 2007, in another Sokurov's film, Alexandra (2007), Vishnevskaya starred as a grandmother coming to see her grandson in the Chechen War.
Galina Vishnevskaya was made Grand-Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1982), Commander of the Legion of Honor of France (1983). She was designated People's artist of the USSR (1963). Her numerous awards and decorations include the Order of Lenin (1973), the Diamond Medal of the city of Paris (1977), the Order of the Fatherland of III and II degrees (1996, 2006) and the Order of Princess Olga of the Russian Orthodox Church. On numerous public occasions Vishnevskaya stated that the most valuable recognition in her life is the medal for Defense of Leningrad, which she earned when she was a teenager, in 1943, during the Siege of Leningrad in WWII. She lived and worked in Russia, sharing her time between her two homes, one in Moscow, and one in St. Petersburg.
Galina Vishnevskaya died, aged 86, on December 11, 2012. She was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Al Stetson was an actor, known for The Other Guys (2010), Cop Out (2010) and Salt (2010). He died on 11 December 2012.- Peter Bzdúch was born on 28 March 1955 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He was an actor, known for Alzbetin dvor (1986), Král Drozdia brada (1984) and Juzná posta (1988). He died on 11 December 2012 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Ryonosuke Shiono was an actor, known for Lorenzo's Oil (1992). He was married to Teruko Utagawa. He died on 11 December 2012 in O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Adolf Wessely was born on 10 December 1931 in Hustopece, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Wegen Verführung Minderjähriger (1960) and 38 (1986). He died on 11 December 2012 in Vienna, Austria.
- Toni Blankenheim was born on 12 December 1921 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was an actor, known for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1971), Wozzeck (1972) and Lulu (1979). He died on 11 December 2012 in Hamburg, Germany.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Antonie Hegerlíková was born on 29 November 1923 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. She was an actress, known for Eugene Onegin (1988), Miss Golem (1972) and Akce B (1952). She died on 11 December 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Writer
- Cinematographer
- Visual Effects
Robert Fadeley was born on 24 August 1950 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a writer and cinematographer, known for To Be Chosen (2010), Warrant Unit (2009) and Crime Stoppers Case Files: Northeast Ohio (2011). He was married to Marilyn J. Zamer. He died on 11 December 2012 in Munson Township, Ohio, USA.- Sound Department
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Otokar Balcy was born on 28 November 1924 in Orlová, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was a producer, known for Margo the Mouse (1985), Karrypel kontra Groszki (1997) and Around the World with Bolek and Lolek (1977). He died on 11 December 2012 in Bielsko-Biala, Slaskie, Poland.- After retiring from the NYPD, Howard pursued a second career in acting, using the screen name Ron Voz. He played the corpse in three different productions of "Lucky Stiff." He filmed with Richard Gere in "The Hoax," playing the role of Norman Mailer, and with Robin Williams and John Travolta in the film "Old Dogs." He played the role of the chauffeur in the Julia Roberts & Clive Owens film, "Duplicity." Following a principle role in the Disney film "Enchanted," he joined the Screen Actors Guild. He recently filmed the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers teaser trailer, produced by his grandson Louis Maldarelli. He plays the butler in "Can a Song Save Your Life" (forthcoming, with Keira Knightley). He especially enjoyed volunteering in student-directed films at New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and the New York Film Academy.
- Production Designer
- Set Decorator
- Art Director
Karl Wägele was born on 31 October 1922. He was a production designer and set decorator, known for Tatort (1970), Nonstop Nonsens (1975) and Ein Königreich für ein Bett (1963). He died on 11 December 2012.- Roger Broggie was born on 12 April 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was married to Marilyn. He died on 11 December 2012 in Bend, Oregon, USA.
- Mücap Ofluoglu was born on 14 November 1920 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. He was an actor, known for Kurtulus (1994), Sahane kadin (1961) and Günahkârlar cenneti (1958). He died on 11 December 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.