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1-50 of 199
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Character actor Anthony James was born on July 22, 1942 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Unusually tall (6' 6½) and lanky, with a rough, pockmarked face, a lean, stringy build, and an extremely intense screen presence, James was often cast in Westerns as scary, sleazy villains. He was especially memorable as the racist diner counterman in the outstanding In the Heat of the Night (1967). Other noteworthy parts include a gay hitchhiker in the cult classic Vanishing Point (1971), a priest in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), an outlaw in High Plains Drifter (1973), a deranged psycho in The Teacher (1974), the chauffeur from hell in the chiller Burnt Offerings (1976), and the vicious leader of a gang of ferocious barbarians in the science fiction film Ravagers (1979).
James was hilarious in a rare change-of-pace good guy role as a heroic cannibal (!) in the post-nuke sci-fi romp World Gone Wild (1987), and also parodying his evil persona in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991). Among the many television shows in which he appeared in guest roles were Married... with Children (1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Simon & Simon (1981), The A-Team (1983), Riptide (1984), The Fall Guy (1981), Hunter (1984), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Quincy M.E. (1976), Charlie's Angels (1976), Vega$ (1978), Starsky and Hutch (1975), S.W.A.T. (1975), Ironside (1967), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Bonanza (1959), Gunsmoke (1955) and The Big Valley (1965).
James's last film appearance to date was as the owner of a seedy bordello in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992). After quitting acting in the early 1990s, he pursued a successful career as an artist. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in such major cities as New York, Boston and Miami.- Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 on Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. He was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.
His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Hawking was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009 and achieved commercial success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his book "A Brief History of Time" appeared on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
At the release party for the home video version of A Brief History of Time (1991), Leonard Nimoy, who had played Spock on Star Trek (1966), learned that Hawking was interested in appearing on the series. Nimoy made the necessary contact, and Hawking played a holographic simulation of himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) in 1993. The same year, his synthesizer voice was recorded for the song "Keep Talking" by the rock band Pink Floyd, and in 1999 for an appearance on The Simpsons (1989). Hawking also guest-starred on Futurama (1999) and The Big Bang Theory (2007).
Hawking allowed the use of his copyrighted voice in the biographical drama The Theory of Everything (2014), in which he was portrayed by Eddie Redmayne in an Academy Award-winning role. Hawking died at age 76 in his home in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, early in the morning of 14 March 2018. - Barbara Young was born on 9 February 1931 in Brighouse, Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Good Companions (1980), Crime and Punishment (1979) and Coronation Street (1960). She was married to Jack Pulman. She died on 27 April 2023 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Syd Barrett was born on 6 January 1946 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Doctor Strange (2016), Mysterious Skin (2004) and The X-Files (1993). He died on 7 July 2006 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Robert B. Parker was born on 17 September 1932 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Jesse Stone: Night Passage (2006), B.L. Stryker (1989) and Spenser: For Hire (1985). He was married to Joan H. Parker. He died on 18 January 2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Bob Mason was born on 29 July 1951 in Rochdale, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Emperor's New Clothes (2001), Coronation Street (1960) and Guest House Paradiso (1999). He was married to Janet Heppell. He died on 21 September 2004 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. He is one of the most widely cited U.S. Supreme Court justices and most influential American common law judges in history, noted for his long service, concise, and pithy opinions-particularly for opinions on civil liberties and American constitutional democracy-and deference to the decisions of elected legislatures. Holmes retired from the court at the age of 90, an unbeaten record for oldest justice on the Supreme Court. He previously served as a Brevet Colonel in the American Civil War, in which he was wounded three times, as an associate justice and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and as Weld Professor of Law at his Alma mater, Harvard Law School. His positions, distinctive personality, and writing style made him a popular figure, especially with American progressives.
- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Al Capp (born Alfred Gerald Caplin) was an American cartoonist and humorist from New Haven, Connecticut. He is primarily known for creating the comic strip "Li'l Abner" (1934-1977), which depicted the lives of a fictional clan of hillbillies in an impoverished mountain village. At its prime the strip had 60 million readers in more than 900 American newspapers, and was also reprinted in 28 foreign countries. Capp won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year. He posthumously won their 1979 Elzie Segar Award, for his "unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning".
In 1909, Capp was born in New Haven, Connecticut to a family of Latvian Jews. His parents were Otto Philip Caplin (1885-1964) and his wife Matilda Davidson (1884-1948). Their respective families had migrated from Latvia to the United States in the 1880s, in order to escape pogroms in the Russian Empire. Capp grew up in poverty, and had several younger siblings. His brothers Elliot and Jerome went on their own careers as cartoonists, while his sister Madeline became a publicist.
In August 1919, Capp was run down by a trolley car. He had his left leg amputated above the knee, and awoke from a days-long coma to discover that he was missing a limb. Capp was eventually given a prosthetic leg, and adopted a slow way of walking. His childhood tragedy reportedly led him to develop a darker worldview, and a more sardonic sense of humor than other cartoonists of his time. Capp's father was an amateur cartoonist, and introduced his son to drawing as a form of therapy. Capp studied the art styles of the illustrator Phil May, and the then-popular comic strip cartoonists Billy DeBeck, Rudolph Dirks, Tad Dorgan, Rube Goldberg, Milt Gross, George McManus, Fred Opper, and Cliff Sterrett.
Capp attended Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but never gained a high school diploma. In adult life, he claimed that he kept failing his geometry class. Capp subsequently wished to become a professional cartoonist, and took classes in three different art schools: the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Designers Art School (located in Boston). He was kicked out of all three for nonpayment of tuition. Due to his impoverished background, Capp had trouble in financing his education.
In early 1932, Capp hitchhiked his way to New York City. He settled himself in Greenwich Village, and supported himself by drawing advertising strips for a meager fee. By March 1932, Capp had been hired as a cartoonist by the Associated Press. He was disappointed that they wanted him to take over "Colonel Gilfeather", a comic strip created by Dick Dorgan, instead of allowing him to create his own strip. He revamped the strip, but eventually grew fed up with the task. Capp left the Associated Press in September 1932, and left New York City as well. He temporarily moved back to Boston, in order to marry his girlfriend Catherine Wingate Cameron. They had met as classmates in an art class.
In 1933, Capp moved back to New York City in search of a job. He reportedly only had about 5 dollars in his pocket during his return. He was hired as a ghost writer and ghost artist for the boxing-theme comic strip "Joe Palooka", while Ham Fisher remained the strip's sole credited writer. In an early story arc for this strip, Capp introduced a new character. He was Big Leviticus, an oafish mountaineer. He turned out be a crude prototype for Lil'Abner.
While still working as a ghost writer, Capp had started developing ideas about a comic strip focused on depicting mountain-dwellers. During his teen years, Capp had hitchhiked his way through rural West Virginia and the Cumberland Valley. He believed that the locals could inspire a decent strip. Capp sold "Li'l Abner" (the new strip) to the United Feature Syndicate, and was hired as its main artist. The strip was launched on August 13, 1934, printed on only 8 different newspapers. The strip soon became much more successful, because Capp had a talent for creating outlandish characters and bizarre situations. He also included both black humor and social commentary into his stories.
Until 1934, Capp still used his real name when signing a strip. His syndicate asked him to start using a simpler name which could fir into fit into a cartoon frame. He chose Al Capp as his professional name, and had his name changed legally in 1949. Capp eventually created sub-series for his comic strip, which satirized other comic strip. The most successful of these parodies was Fearless Fosdick (1942-1977), a parody version of "Dick Tracy".
Besides the popular "Li'l Abner", Capp went on to create two other comic strips. He co-created "Abbie an' Slats" (1937-1971). The strip's protagonist duo were the spinster Abigail "Abbie" Scrapple and her orphaned cousin Aubrey Eustace "Slats" Scrapple, sharing a household. Capp remained the strip's main writer from 1937 to 1945, but was then replaced by his brother Elliot Caplin. The strip was syndicated to about 400 newspapers, but never became the major hit that Capp had hoped for. Capp then went on to co-create "Long Sam" (1954-1962), featuring a tall and attractive mountain girl as a protagonist. The strip is considered an example of "good girl art" in comics, art focusing on attractive young women in skimpy or form-fitting clothing. While briefly popular in its own right, this strip faced frequent changes in writing staff which led to an early cancellation.
During the 1950s, Capp was an outspoken liberal, and satirized politician Joseph McCarthy for (in his words) "terrifying the helpless and naive". During the 1960s, Capp's favorite targets for satire included campus radicals, hippies, and counterculture icons. He harshly criticized militant antiwar demonstrators and student political groups. Capp started being viewed as reactionary by the public at large, though he vocally supported struggles for racial equality and gay rights.
In 1972, Capp was arrested in Wisconsin on charges of "attempted adultery", as adultery was a felony in this state. He was accused of propositioning a married woman. The resulting negative publicity led to hundreds of newspapers dropping his comic strip. The popularity of "Li'l Abner" further declined over the following years, largely due to a perceived decline in Capp's own humor. Capp was in poor health at the time, and he was not as inventive as he once was. Capp announced his retirement on November 13, 1977, publicly admitting that he had stayed on longer than he should have.
In November 1979, Capp died from emphysema at his home in South Hampton, New Hampshire. His illness was caused by a lifetime of chain smoking, and he was 70-years-old at the time of his death. Capp was buried in Mount Prospect Cemetery in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Capp was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2004. Since his death in 1979, Al Capp and his work have been the subject of more than 40 books, including three biographies.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
While at Cambridge, Clive began a fruitful songwriting partnership with Pete Atkin. With Clive's lyrics and Pete's vocals and musical settings, they released six critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums in the early 70s before Pete moved on to audio production at the BBC. Clive toured with Pete in a words and music show promoting the final album. They have recently re-united on stage and in the studio for more of their trademark songs, which have been described as "somewhere between The Kinks and Steely Dan" (quote from NY Times).- Actor
- Music Department
Brother Blue is an internationally renowned storyteller. Trained as an actor at Yale and as a pastor at the Harvard Divinity School, Brother Blue has been telling stories since the late 1960's. He has told in prisons, on the streets, for the U.N. and more. Brother Blue's life work is storytelling, both performance and inspiring others to tell stories. He believes and teaches that storytelling can change the world.- Actor
- Writer
Bert Parnaby was born on 4 March 1924 in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Blackadder (1982), First Among Equals (1986) and The Bretts (1987). He died on 30 July 1992 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.- B.F. Skinner was born on 20 March 1904 in Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 18 August 1990 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Writer
- Director
Edward Bond was born on 18 July 1934 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Blow-Up (1966), Walkabout (1971) and Laughter in the Dark (1969). He was married to Elisabeth Pablé. He died on 3 March 2024 in Cambridge, England, UK.- Additional Crew
Educated at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), Philip Morrison was present at the birth of the A-bomb. He went on to teach at Cornell and MIT. In the late 50s, he first proposed using microwaves as a way to communicate with aliens. He was a founder of the Planetary Society and SETI and received many technical awards.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Malcolm Hulke was born on 21 November 1924 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Avengers (1961) and Secret Agent (1964). He died on 6 June 1979 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Robert Gardner was born on 5 November 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Forest of Bliss (1986), Rivers of Sand (1974) and Altar of Fire (1976). He died on 21 June 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.- John Atkinson was born on 7 October 1921 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Avengers (1961), Barnaby Rudge (1960) and The Devil's Crown (1978). He died on 12 May 2007 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- Barry Kemp was born on 14 May 1940 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He was married to Miriam Bertram. He died on 15 May 2024 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- American novelist George Cuomo was born George Michael Cuomo in the Bronx, NY, in 1929. His father was a machinist and his mother was a cleaning woman. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City and attended Tufts University, where he received a B.A. in English. He later got his masters degree from Indiana University. He worked at a succession of jobs, including newspaper copy editor, advertising and public relations writer and even had a stint in the corporate world, as assistant to a corporate vice president. He began his teaching career at such institutions as the University of Arizona, Victoria University in British Columbia, Canada, and California State College at Hayward before finally settling in at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he taught writing for 20 years.
Novelist Richard Yates ("Revolutionary Road") helped to launch Cuomo's writing career in 1963 by including one of his short stories, "A Part of the Bargain", in Yates' anthology "Stories for the Sixties". Cuomo followed that with several novels, including "Jack Be Nimble" (1963), "Bright Day, Dark Runner" (1964) and "Among Thieves" (1968), and an assortment of short stories. poems and articles, which were published in such publications as "Saturday Review", "The Nation" and "The Saturday Evening Post".
He died on October 26, 2015, in Cambridge, MA, of degenerative bone disease. - Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Margret Rey was born on 16 May 1906 in Hamburg, Germany. She was a writer and producer, known for Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle (2015), Curious George and Curious George: Cape Ahoy (2021). She was married to H.A. Rey. She died on 21 December 1996 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.- Edward Bernays was born on 22 November 1891 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was married to Doris Fleischman. He died on 9 March 1995 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Henry A. Murray was born on 13 May 1893 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 23 June 1988 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Frederick Wilson was born on 13 August 1912 in London, England, UK. He was an editor and producer, known for Arabesque (1966), Floodtide (1949) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). He died in August 1994 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.- John Kenneth Galbraith was born on 15 October 1908 in Dunwich Township, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer, known for Festival (1960), Cold War (1998) and Prologue (1970). He was married to Catherine Merriam Atwater. He died on 29 April 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Eleanor H. Porter was born on 19 December 1868 in Littleton, New Hampshire, USA. She was a writer, known for Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), Dawn (1919) and Pollyanna (1920). She died on 21 May 1920 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.