1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
2.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academys corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, the roster of the Academys approximately 6,000 motion picture professionals is a closely guarded secret. While the great majority of its members are based in the United States, the Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The Oscars. The Academy plans to open the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2017, the notion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences began with Louis B. He said he wanted to create an organization that would mediate labor disputes without unions and he met with actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo, and the head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Fred Beetsonto to discuss these matters. The idea of this elite club having a banquet was discussed. They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry, actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts, everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy. Several organizational meetings were held prior to the first official meeting held on May 6,1927 and their first organizational meeting was held on May 11. At that meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as the first president of the Academy, while Fred Niblo was the first vice-president and that night, the Academy also bestowed its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison. Initially, the Academy was broken down into five groups, or branches. The original five were, Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, the initial concerns of the group had to do with labor. However, as went on, the organization moved further away from involvement in labor-management arbitrations and negotiations. By July 1928 the board of directors had approved a list of 12 awards to be presented, during July the voting system for the Awards was established, and the nomination and selection process began. This award of merit for distinctive achievement is what we know now as the Academy Award, the initial location of the organization was 6912 Hollywood Boulevard. In May 1928, the Academy authorized the construction of a state of the art screening room, the screening room was not completed until April 1929. With the publication of Report on Incandescent Illumination in 1928, the Academy began a history of publishing books to assist its members. Another early initiative concerned training Army Signal Corps officers, in 1929 Academy members in a joint venture with the University of Southern California created Americas first film school to further the art and science of moving pictures
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Headquarters building
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study building on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in the Hollywood district
3.
Emma Stone
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Emily Jean Emma Stone is an American actress. One of the worlds highest-paid actresses in 2015, Stone has received accolades as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award. She appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2013, and is described by the media as one of the most talented actresses of her generation. Born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Stone began acting as a child, in a theater production of The Wind in the Willows in 2000. As a teenager, she relocated to Los Angeles with her mother, and made her debut in VH1s In Search of the New Partridge Family. After small television roles, she won a Young Hollywood Award for her debut in Superbad. The 2010 teen comedy Easy A was Stones first starring role and earned her nominations for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and this breakthrough was followed by the commercially successful film Crazy, Stupid, Love, and a supporting part in the critically acclaimed drama The Help. Stone gained wider recognition for playing Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man and she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of a recovering drug addict in the black comedy-drama Birdman or. Her Broadway debut came in a revival of the musical Cabaret, Stone won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for playing an aspiring actress in the highly successful musical film La La Land. Emily Jean Stone was born on November 6,1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Krista Jean Stone, a homemaker, and Jeffrey Charles Stone, Stone lived on the grounds of the Camelback Inn resort from the age of 12 to 15. She has a brother, Spencer. Her paternal grandfather, Conrad Ostberg Sten, was from a Swedish family that anglicized their surname to Stone when they immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island and she also has German, English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. As an infant, Stone had baby colic and cried frequently, Stone has described herself as having been loud and bossy while growing up. She was educated at Sequoya Elementary School and attended Cocopah Middle School for the sixth grade, although she did not like school, she has stated that her controlling nature meant that I made sure I got all As. Stone suffered panic attacks as a child, which she caused a decline in her social skills. She underwent therapy but states that it was her participation in local theater plays that helped cure the attacks and she has recalled, The first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friends house, and I thought the house was burning down. I called my mom and she brought me home, and for the three years it just would not stop. I would go to the nurse at lunch most days and just wring my hands, I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be, then ask again 30 seconds later
Emma Stone
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Stone in 2014
Emma Stone
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Stone at the
Zombieland world premiere, 2009
Emma Stone
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Stone at the premiere of Easy A in Germany, 2010
Emma Stone
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Stone at the
Deauville American Film Festival in 2011
4.
Film industry
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The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i. e. Though the expense involved in making movies almost immediately led film production to concentrate under the auspices of standing production companies, advances in affordable film making equipment, and expansion of opportunities to acquire investment capital from outside the film industry itself, have allowed independent film production to evolve. Hollywood is the oldest film industry of the world and the largest in terms of box office gross, other centers include Hong Kong and in Europe the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany are the countries that lead movie production. The worldwide theatrical market had a box office of US$38.3 billion in 2015. The top three continents/regions by box office gross were, Asia-Pacific with US$14.1 billion, North America with US$11.1 billion and Europe, distinct from the centers are the locations where movies are filmed. Because of labor and infrastructure costs, many films are produced in other than the one in which the company which pays for the film is located. For example, many U. S. movies are filmed in Canada, many Nigerian movies are filmed in Ghana, while many Indian movies are filmed in the Americas, Europe, Singapore etc. The cinema of the United States, often referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. The United States cinema is the oldest film industry in the world which originated more than 121 years ago and also the largest film industry in terms of revenue. Hollywood is the nexus of the U. S. film industry with established film study facilities such as the American Film Institute, LA Film School. However, four of the six film studios are owned by East Coast companies. Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, only The Walt Disney Company — which owns the Walt Disney Studios — is fully based in Southern California. And while Sony Pictures Entertainment is headquartered in Culver City, California, its parent company, most shooting now takes place in California, New York, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina. Hollywood is the most popular film industry with the highest number of screens, between 2009-2015, Hollywood consistently grossed $10 billion annually. Jenkins used his Phantoscope to project his film before an audience of family, friends, the film featured a vaudeville dancer performing a Butterfly Dance. Jenkins and his new partner Thomas Armat modified the Phantoscope for exhibitions in temporary theaters at the Cotton States Exposition in the fall of 1895, the Phantoscope was later sold to Thomas Edison, who changed the name of the projector to Edisons Vitascope. Nestor Studios was Hollywoods first movie studio, founded on October 27,1911 It was built by David Horsley for Nestor Motion Picture Company and it was then owned and operated by David Horsley and his brother, William Horsley. The first motion picture stage in Hollywood was built behind the tavern, other East Coast studios had moved production to Los Angeles, prior to Nestors move west
Film industry
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A scene from
Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the second full-length Indian motion picture, after
Pundalik (1912).
Film industry
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Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (1913) is credited as the first Hong Kong feature film
Film industry
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First Pakistani film
Teri Yaad (film) (1948).
Film industry
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A
still from
The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.)
5.
1st Academy Awards
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AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show. Tickets cost $5,270 people attended the event and the ceremony lasted fifteen minutes. Awards were created by Louis B, Mayer, founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not to be broadcast either on radio or television, during the ceremony, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards in twelve categories. Winners were announced three months before the live event, some nominations were announced without reference to a specific film, such as for Ralph Hammeras and Nugent Slaughter, who received nominations in the now defunct category of Engineering Effects. Unlike later ceremonies, an actor or director could be awarded for works within a calendar year. Emil Jannings, for example, was given the Best Actor award for his work in both The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command, moreover, Charlie Chaplin and Warner Brothers each received an Honorary Award. Major winners at the ceremony included 7th Heaven and Sunrise, which received three awards, and Wings, receiving two awards. Among its honors, Sunrise won the award for Unique and Artistic Picture and these two categories at the time were seen as equally the top award of the night intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior film making. The next year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was established by Louis B. Mayer, originator of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would be joined into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, mayers purpose in creating the award was to unite the five branches of the film industry, including actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. Mayer commented on the creation of the awards I found that the best way to handle was to hang medals all over them, if I got them cups and awards theyd kill them to produce what I wanted. Thats why the Academy Award was created, Mayer asked Cedric Gibbons, art director of MGM, to design an Academy Award trophy. Nominees were notified through a telegram in February 1928, in August 1928, Mayer contacted the Academy Central Board of Judges to decide winners. The ceremony was held on May 16,1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, located in Los Angeles and it consisted of a private dinner with thirty-six banquet tables, where 270 people attended and tickets cost five dollars. Actors and actresses arrived at the hotel in luxury vehicles, where many attended to encourage celebrities. The ceremony was not broadcast on radio or television, and was hosted by AMPAS director Fairbanks, winners were announced three months before the ceremony. Three categories were eliminated for subsequent presentations, Best Engineering Effects, Best Title Writing, the larger film producers received the preponderance of awards, Fox Films Corporation, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Radio-Keith-Orpheum and Warner Brothers Production
1st Academy Awards
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The first Academy Awards was at the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
6.
Janet Gaynor
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Janet Gaynor was an American film, stage and television actress and painter. Gaynor began her career as an extra in shorts and silent films, after signing with Fox Film Corporation in 1926, she rose to fame and became one of the biggest box office draws of the era. In 1929, she was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films, 7th Heaven, Sunrise, A Song of Two Humans, and Street Angel. This was the occasion on which an actress has won one Oscar for multiple film roles. After retiring from acting in 1939, Gaynor married film costume designer Adrian with whom she had a son and she briefly returned to acting in films and television in the 1950s and later became an accomplished oil painter. In 1980, Gaynor made her Broadway debut in the adaptation of the 1971 film Harold and Maude. In September 1982, she sustained injuries in a serious car accident which contributed to her death in September 1984. Gaynor was born Laura Augusta Gainor in Germantown, Philadelphia, nicknamed Lolly as a child, she was the youngest of two daughters born to Laura and Frank De Witt Gainor. Frank Gainor worked as a painter and paperhanger. When Gaynor was a toddler, her father teaching her how to sing, dance. As a child in Philadelphia, she began acting in school plays, after her parents divorced in 1914, Gaynor, her sister, and her mother moved to Chicago. Shortly thereafter, her mother married electrician Harry C. Jones, the family later moved west to San Francisco. After graduating from San Francisco Polytechnic High School in 1923, Gaynor spent the winter vacationing in Melbourne, Florida, upon returning to San Francisco, Gaynor, her mother, and stepfather moved to Los Angeles, where she could pursue an acting career. She was initially hesitant to do so, and enrolled at Hollywood Secretarial School and she supported herself by working in a shoe store and later as a theatre usher. Her mother and stepfather continued to encourage her to become an actress, Gaynor won her first professional acting job on December 26,1924, as an extra in a Hal Roach comedy short. This led to extra work in feature films and shorts for Film Booking Offices of America. Universal eventually hired her as a player for $50 a week. Six weeks after being hired by Universal, an executive at Fox Film Corporation offered her a screen test for a role in the film The Johnstown Flood
Janet Gaynor
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in
Servants' Entrance (1934)
Janet Gaynor
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Janet Gaynor around 1931
Janet Gaynor
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1927 studio portrait
Janet Gaynor
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Gaynor's gravestone at
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
7.
7th Heaven (1927 film)
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7th Heaven is a 1927 American silent romantic drama directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The film is based upon the 1922 play Seventh Heaven, by Austin Strong and was adapted for the screen by Benjamin Glazer, 7th Heaven was initially released as a standard silent film. On September 10,1927, Fox Film Corporation re-released the film with a synchronized Movietone soundtrack with a musical score, upon its release, 7th Heaven was a critical and commercial success and helped to establish Fox Film Corporation as a major studio. It was one of the first of three films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards held on May 16,1929, Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film. Director Frank Borzage also won the first Academy Award for Best Directing while screenwriter Benjamin Glazer won the first Academy Award for Best Writing. In 1995, 7th Heaven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, when the play was adapted for the screen, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell were cast in the lead roles. The pairing proved to be so popular, the two went on to star in 11 more films together and were dubbed Americas Favorite Lovebirds, 7th Heaven features the song Diane by Ernö Rapée and Lew Pollack, who wrote the song specifically for the film. The song is included on the version of the film. 7th Heaven initially premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles replacing another Fox melodrama What Price Glory. which had been playing since November 1926, a second opening was held at the Sam H. Harris Theatre in New York City on May 25. Both openings earned a total of $14,500, a series of Movietone shorts featuring Ben Bernie and his Orchestra, Gertrude Lawrence, Raquel Meller, and Charles Chic Sale preceded the film. Upon its release, 7th Heaven was a critical and commercial success, the critic also praised Borzages direction, stating that the director has given it all that he could put through the medium of the camera. The film went on to play for 19 weeks in New York City, the re-release version premiered at New York Citys Roxy Theatre on September 10,1927. By 1932, 7th Heaven had become the 13th-highest-grossing American silent, a comparatively unknown 1937 remake of the film was produced as a sound feature, starring Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, and Gregory Ratoff, with Henry King directing. Unlike the 1927 version, the remake was not as financially successful. On October 17,1938, a adaptation of 7th Heaven aired on the Lux Radio Theatre, starring Don Ameche as Chico. A television adaptation was aired on October 26,1953, on the anthology series Broadway Television Theatre, the episode stars Hurd Hatfield and Geraldine Brooks and was directed by Robert St. Aubrey. On May 26,1955, a musical version of the film opened at the ANTA Theatre starring Gloria DeHaven. It closed on July 2,1955, after 44 performances, on December 9,2008, 7th Heaven was included in the Murnau, Borzage and Fox DVD box set released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
7th Heaven (1927 film)
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7th Heaven
7th Heaven (1927 film)
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Janet Gaynor in 1927
8.
Street Angel (1928 film)
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As one of the early, transitional sound film releases, it did not include recorded dialogue, but used intertitles along with recorded sound effects and musical selections. Street Angel was one of three movies for which Janet Gaynor received an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929, the others were F. W. Murnaus Sunrise, Street Angel was also nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. The other was The Quiet One nominated in 1948 for Documentary Feature and 1949 for Story and she is caught in the act, runs away from punishment, and finds her mother dead. Destitute and on the streets, she joins a traveling carnival, though they fall in love, her past will not leave her alone. The film was thought lost for years, but it is now part of a 12 film collection by Fox that was released in 2008, Street Angel at the Internet Movie Database Street Angel at Virtual History
Street Angel (1928 film)
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Theatrical release poster
9.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
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Sunrise, A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American silent romantic drama film directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring George OBrien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story The Excursion to Tilsit, Murnau chose to use the then new Fox Movietone sound-on-film system, making Sunrise one of the first feature films with a synchronized musical score and sound effects soundtrack. The film incorporated Charles Gounods 1872 composition Funeral March of a Marionette, chopins A minor prelude also features prominently in orchestral arrangement. Sunrise won the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929, Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film. The films legacy has endured, and it is now considered a masterpiece. Many have called it the greatest film of the silent era, in 1989, Sunrise was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress for films that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The Academy Film Archive preserved Sunrise in 2004, although the original 35mm negative of the original American version of Sunrise was destroyed in the 1937 Fox vault fire, a new negative was created from a surviving print. A vacationing Woman from the City lingers in a town for weeks. After dark, she goes to a farmhouse where the Man and she whistles from the fence outside. The Man is torn, but finally departs, leaving his wife with the memories of times when they were deeply in love. The man and woman meet in the moonlight and kiss passionately and she wants him to sell his farm—which has not done well recently—to join her in the city. When she suggests that he solve the problem of his wife by drowning her, he throttles her violently, the Woman gathers bundles of reeds so that when the boat is overturned, the Man can stay afloat. The Wife suspects nothing when her husband suggests going on an outing and he prepares to throw her overboard, but when she pleads for his mercy, he realizes he cannot do it. He rows frantically for shore, and when the boat reaches land and she boards a trolley, and he follows, begging her not to be afraid of him. The trolley brings them to the city and her fear and disappointment are overwhelming. He plies her with flowers and cakes and finally she stops crying, emerging back on the street, they are touched to see a bride enter a church for her processional, and follow her inside to watch the wedding. The Man breaks down and asks her to forgive him, after a tearful reconciliation, they continue their adventure in the city, having their photograph taken together and visiting a funfair. As darkness falls, they board the trolley for home, soon they are drifting back across the lake under the moonlight
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
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Theatrical release poster
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
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The Man (
George O'Brien) asks the Wife (
Janet Gaynor) to go on a boat ride.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
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Gaynor and O'Brien pose in the boat for a promotional photo for Sunrise.
10.
Single transferable vote
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The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat organizations or constituencies. The exact method of reapportioning votes can vary, Hare–Clark is the name given to STV in lower house elections in two Australian states and territories, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. The name is derived from Thomas Hare, who developed the system, and the Tasmanian Attorney General, Andrew Inglis Clark, Hare–Clark has been changed to use rotating ballot papers. Although the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Senate have reformed their electoral systems to abolish group tickets, STV is the system of choice of groups such as the Proportional Representation Society of Australia, the Electoral Reform Society in the United Kingdom and FairVote in the USA. STV has had its widest adoption in the English-speaking world, as of 2010, in government elections, STV is used for, In British Columbia, Canada, STV was recommended for provincial elections by the BC Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform. In a 2005 provincial referendum, it received 57. 69% support and it was not adopted, however, because it fell short of the 60% threshold requirement the Liberal government had set for the referendum to be binding. For a more complete list, see History and use of the single transferable vote, when STV is used for single-winner elections, it is equivalent to the instant-runoff voting method. STV used for elections is sometimes called proportional representation through the single transferable vote. STV usually refers to the version, as it does in this article. In Australia STV is known as the Hare–Clark Proportional method, while in the United States it is called choice voting. In STV, each voter ranks the list of candidates in order of preference, in the most common ballot design, they place a 1 beside their most preferred candidate, a 2 beside their second most preferred, and so on. The completed ballot paper contains an ordinal list of candidates. The Droop quota is an extension of requiring a 50% +1 majority in single-winner elections, for example, at most 3 people can have 25% +1 in 3-winner elections,9 can have 10% +1 in 9-winner elections, and so on. If fractional votes can be submitted, then the Droop quota may be modified so that the fraction is not rounded down, thus the quota is a positive but not necessarily an integer value. An STV election starts with every voters first choice, according to the following steps, if any such elected candidate has more votes than the quota, the excess votes are transferred to other candidates. Votes that would have gone to the go to the next preference. This can be done in several ways, if no-one new meets the quota, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and those votes are transferred to each voters next preferred candidate. This process repeats until either a winner is found for every seat or there are as many seats as remaining candidates, there are variations, such as how to transfer surplus votes from winning candidates and whether to transfer votes to already-elected candidates
Single transferable vote
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Carl Andræ
11.
3rd Academy Awards
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The 3rd Academy Awards were awarded to films completed and screened released between August 1,1929, and July 31,1930, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All Quiet on the Western Front was the first film to win both Best Picture and Best Director, a feat that would become common in later years, lewis Milestone became the first person to win two Oscars, having won Best Director – Comedy at the 1st Academy Awards. The Love Parade received six nominations, the greatest number of any film to that point, however, it did not win in any category. Best Sound Recording was introduced this year, making it the first new category since the inception of the Oscars and it was awarded to Douglas Shearer, brother of Best Actress winner Norma Shearer, making them the first sibling winners in Oscar history. Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface,1929 in film 1930 in film Academy Awards Database
3rd Academy Awards
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Carl Laemmle, Jr..
12.
Jeanne Eagels
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Jeanne Eagels was an American stage and film actress. A former Ziegfeld Girl, Eagels went on to fame on Broadway. She was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her 1929 role in The Letter after dying suddenly that year at the age of 39 and that nomination was the first posthumous Oscar consideration for any actor, male or female. Eugenia Eagles was the second of six born to Edward, of German and French Huguenot descent, and his wife Julia Eagles. Jeanne, who changed the spelling of her surname to Eagels, would later claim that her father was a Spanish architect. In reality, she was born in Kansas City, Missouri, Edward Eagles died in February 1910. Eagels attended St. Josephs Catholic School and Morris Public School and she quit school shortly after her First Communion to work as a cash girl in a department store. Eagels began her career in Kansas City, appearing in a variety of small venues at a very young age. She left Kansas City around the age of 15 and toured the Midwest with the Dubinsky Brothers traveling theater show, at first, she was a dancer, but in time she went on to play the leading lady in several comedies and dramas put on by the Dubinskys. As a teenager, she married Morris Dubinsky, who played villain roles. Around 1911, she moved to New York City, working in chorus lines and her hair was brown, but she bleached it when she went to New York. During this period, one of her acting coaches was Beverley Sitgreaves, Eagels was in the supporting cast of Mind The Paint Girl at the Lyceum Theatre in September 1912. Eagels played opposite George Arliss in three plays in 1916 and 1917. In 1915, she appeared in her first motion picture and she also made three films for Thanhouser Film Corporation in 1916-17. In 1918, she appeared in Daddies, a David Belasco production and she quit this show due to illness and subsequently travelled to Europe. She appeared in several other Broadway shows between 1919 and 1921, in 1922, she made her first appearance as a star in the play Rain, by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. Eagels played her role, that of Sadie Thompson, a free-wheeling and free-loving spirit who confronts a fire-and-brimstone preacher on a South Pacific island. She went on tour with Rain for two seasons and returned to Broadway to give a farewell performance in 1926
Jeanne Eagels
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Jeanne Eagels
Jeanne Eagels
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Jeanne Eagels, 1921, in a fashion photo wearing a dress and cape by Paris couturier,
Louise Chéruit
Jeanne Eagels
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Eagels with George Arliss in Hamilton (c. 1917)
Jeanne Eagels
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Jeanne Eagels, The Bellman, Volume 23, July 7, 1917
13.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
Elizabeth I of England
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The "Darnley Portrait" of Elizabeth I (
c. 1575)
Elizabeth I of England
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The Lady Elizabeth in about 1546, by an unknown artist
Elizabeth I of England
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The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul, a translation from the French, by Elizabeth, presented to
Catherine Parr in 1544. The embroidered binding with the monogram KP for "Katherine Parr" is believed to have been worked by Elizabeth.
Elizabeth I of England
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Mary I, by
Anthonis Mor, 1554
14.
Cate Blanchett
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Catherine Elise Cate Blanchett is an Australian actress and theatre director. She has received acclaim and many accolades, including six AACTA Awards. In 2013, she starred as Jasmine Francis in Woody Allens Blue Jasmine, Blanchett is one of only six actors, and the only actress, to receive Academy Award nominations for portraying the same role in two films, accomplished in her case by portraying Queen Elizabeth I. She is additionally the only Australian to win two acting Oscars, a seven-time Oscar nominee, she has also received nominations for Notes on a Scandal, Elizabeth, The Golden Age, Im Not There and Carol. Blanchett has also had a career on stage and is a four-time Helpmann Award winner for Best Female Actor in a Play. From 2008 to 2013, she and her husband Andrew Upton were co-CEOs, Blanchett has been awarded the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society by the Australian government. She was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2012, in 2015, she was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the industry. Blanchett was born on 14 May 1969 in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe and she is the middle of three children, her older brother is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister is a theatrical designer. The two met when Blanchetts fathers ship broke down in Melbourne, when Blanchett was 10, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own. Blanchetts ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and remote French roots, Blanchett has described herself as being part extrovert, part wallflower during childhood. She had a penchant for dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases during her teenage years and she studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne but dropped out after one year to travel overseas. While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to play an American cheerleader, as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie, Kaboria, in need of money, she accepted. Upon her return to Australia, she moved to Sydney and enrolled in the National Institute of Dramatic Art to pursue an acting career and she graduated from NIDA in 1992. Blanchetts first major role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the 1992 David Mamet play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company. That year, she was also cast as Clytemnestra in a production of Sophocles’ Electra, a couple of weeks after rehearsals, the actress playing the title role pulled out, and director Lindy Davies cast Blanchett in the role. Her performance as Electra became one of her most acclaimed at NIDA, Blanchett played the role of Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh, and was nominated for a Green Room Award. She appeared in the 1994 TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries Bordertown with Hugo Weaving and she also appeared in the 50-minute drama short Parklands, which received an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Her first leading role was as Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrongs romantic drama Oscar and Lucinda, Blanchett received wide acclaim for her performance, and earned her first AFI Award nomination as Best Leading Actress, she lost to Deborah Mailman in Radiance
Cate Blanchett
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Blanchett at the
Deauville Film Festival in 2013
Cate Blanchett
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Blanchett at the
Berlin International Film Festival, 2007
Cate Blanchett
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Blanchett in 2012 at the
AACTA Awards
15.
Greta Garbo
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Greta Garbo, was a Swedish-born American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her luminous, Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gosta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B, Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film, Torrent, released in 1926, a later, her performance in Flesh. Garbos first talking film was Anna Christie, MGM marketers enticed the public with the catch-phrase Garbo talks. That same year she starred in Romance, for her performances in these films she received the first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. In 1932, her popularity allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract and her success continued in films such as Mata Hari and Grand Hotel. Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille to be her finest, the role gained her a second Academy Award nomination. Garbos career soon declined, however, and she was one of the many stars labeled Box Office Poison in 1938, from then on, Garbo declined all opportunities to return to the screen. Shunning publicity, she began a life, and neither married nor had children. Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden and she was the third and youngest child of Anna Lovisa —a housewife who later worked at a jam factory—and Karl Alfred Gustafsson, a laborer. Garbo had a brother, Sven Alfred, and an older sister. Her parents met in Stockholm where her father visited from Frinnaryd and he moved to Stockholm to become independent and worked in various odd jobs—street cleaner, grocer, factory worker and butchers assistant. He married Anna, who had moved from Högsby. The Gustafssons were impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No.32 and they brought up their three children in a working class district regarded as the citys slum. Garbo would later recall, It was eternally grey—those long winters nights and my father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room my mother is repairing ragged old clothes and we children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air, such evenings are unforgettable for a sensitive girl
Greta Garbo
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Garbo in
Anna Karenina (1935)
Greta Garbo
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Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
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Monument on the building which now stands where Greta Garbo was born on
Södermalm.
Greta Garbo
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Garbo in her first leading role in the Swedish film
The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) with
Lars Hanson
16.
Barbara Stanwyck
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Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, model and dancer. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, deMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as an actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood. Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes and she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times, for Stella Dallas, Ball of Fire, Double Indemnity and Sorry, Wrong Number. For her television work she won three Emmy Awards, for The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Big Valley and The Thorn Birds, the Thorn Birds also won her a Golden Globe. She received an Honorary Oscar at the 1982 Academy Award ceremony and she was also the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the American Film Institute, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Screen Actors Guild. Stanwyck received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16,1907, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the child of Byron E. and Catherine Ann Stevens. Her father was a native of Massachusetts and her mother was an immigrant from Nova Scotia, Ruby was of English and Scottish ancestry, by her father and mother, respectively. When Ruby was four, her mother died of complications from a miscarriage after a drunken stranger accidentally knocked her off a moving streetcar, two weeks after the funeral, Byron Stevens joined a work crew digging the Panama Canal and was never seen again. Ruby and her brother, Byron, were raised by their elder sister Mildred, when Mildred got a job as a showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes, from which young Ruby often ran away. Ruby toured with Mildred during the summers of 1916 and 1917, watching the movies of Pearl White, whom Ruby idolized, also influenced her drive to be a performer. At the age of 14 she dropped out of school, to take a job wrapping packages at a department store in Brooklyn, Ruby never attended high school, although early biographical thumbnail sketches had her attending Brooklyns famous Erasmus Hall High School. Soon afterward, she took a job filing cards at the Brooklyn telephone office for a wage of $14 a week and she disliked both jobs, her real goal was to enter show business, even as her sister Mildred discouraged the idea. She then took a job cutting dress patterns for Vogue magazine and her next job was as a typist for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company, a job she reportedly enjoyed. However, her ambition was to work in show business. In 1923, a few months before her 16th birthday, Ruby auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a night club over the Strand Theatre in Times Square. A few months later, she obtained a job as a dancer in the 1922 and 1923 seasons of the Ziegfeld Follies, I just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat, Stanwyck said
Barbara Stanwyck
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Stanwyck in studio portrait, c. 1930s
Barbara Stanwyck
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Barbara Stanwyck as a Ziegfeld girl (c. 1924)
Barbara Stanwyck
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In
The Gay Sisters (1942)
Barbara Stanwyck
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With
Ralph Meeker in
Jeopardy (1953)
17.
Mary Pickford
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Gladys Louise Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress, writer, director, and producer. She was a co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known in her prime as Americas Sweetheart and the girl with the curls, Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her name and she was awarded the second ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette and also received an honorary Academy Award in 1976. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute ranked Pickford as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema, Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892 at 211 University Avenue, A Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English Methodist immigrants and her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two siblings, Charlotte, called Lottie, and John Charles, called Jack, who also became actors. To please her husbands relatives, Pickfords mother baptized her children as Methodists, John Charles Smith was an alcoholic, he abandoned the family and died on February 11,1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship. When Gladys was age four, her household was under infectious quarantine and their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders after being widowed. One of these was a stage manager. At his suggestion, Gladys was given two roles, one as a boy and the other as a girl, in a stock company production of The Silver King at Torontos Princess Theatre. She subsequently acted in many melodramas with Torontos Valentine Company, finally playing the child role in their version of The Silver King. By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise, Gladys, her mother and two younger siblings toured the United States by rail, performing in third-rate companies and plays. After six impoverished years, Pickford allowed one more summer to land a role on Broadway. In 1906 Gladys, Lottie and Jack Smith supported singer Chauncey Olcott on Broadway in Edmund Burke, Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia. The play was written by William C. deMille, whose brother, Cecil, David Belasco, the producer of the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage name Mary Pickford. After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, on April 19,1909, the Biograph Company director D. W. Griffith screen-tested her at the companys New York studio for a role in the nickelodeon film, Pippa Passes
Mary Pickford
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Portrait photograph, 1918
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
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Mary Pickford, 1920
18.
Deborah Kerr
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Deborah Kerr CBE was a Scottish film, theatre and television actress. She was also a winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and she spent the first three years of her life in the nearby town of Helensburgh, where her parents lived with Deborahs grandparents in a house on West King Street. Kerr had a brother, Edmund, who became a journalist. He was killed in a road incident in 2004. Kerr was educated at the independent Northumberland House School, Henleaze in Bristol, Kerr originally trained as a ballet dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadlers Wells in 1938. After changing careers, she found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who ran the Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol and she adopted the name Deborah Kerr on becoming a film actress. Kerrs first stage appearance was at Weston-super-Mare in 1937, as Harlequin in the mime play Harlequin and she then went to the Sadlers Wells ballet school and in 1938 made her début in the corps de ballet in Prometheus. In 1943, aged 21, Kerr made her West End début as Ellie Dunn in a revival of Heartbreak House at the Cambridge Theatre, stealing attention from such as Edith Evans. She has the gift, wrote critic Beverley Baxter, of thinking her lines. The process of development from a romantic, silly girl to a hard, after her first London success in 1943, she toured England and Scotland in Heartbreak House. Near the end of the Second World War, she also toured Holland, France, and Belgium for ENSA as Mrs Manningham in Angel Street, and Britain in Gaslight. Having established herself as an actress in the meantime, she made her Broadway debut in 1953, appearing in Robert Andersons Tea and Sympathy. Kerr repeated her role along with her stage partner John Kerr in Vincente Minnellis film adaptation of the drama, in 1955, Kerr won the Sarah Siddons Award for her performance in Chicago during a national tour of the play. After her Broadway début in 1953, she toured the United States with Tea, in 1975, she returned to Broadway, creating the role of Nancy in Edward Albees Pulitzer Prize-winning play Seascape. In 1977, she came back to the West End, playing the role in a production of George Bernard Shaws Candida. I dont mean to belittle acting but Im like a child when Im out there performing—shocking the grownups, enchanting them and its an unbelievable terror, a kind of masochistic madness
Deborah Kerr
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Kerr in 1973, by
Allan Warren
Deborah Kerr
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Kerr in
Young Bess (1953)
Deborah Kerr
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Kerr in
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Deborah Kerr
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Deborah Kerr in
The Sundowners (1960)
19.
Gena Rowlands
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Virginia Cathryn Gena Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night, in November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances. Rowlands was born as Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin and her mother, Mary Allen, was a housewife who later worked as an actress under the stage name Lady Rowlands. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and state legislator and he was a member of the Wisconsin Progressive Party, and was of Welsh descent. She had a brother, David Rowlands and her family moved to Washington, D. C. From 1947–50, she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she was a popular student already renowned for her beauty and she left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the early 1950s, Rowlands performed with theatre companies. She made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch and toured in a production of the play. In 1956, she starred in Middle of the Night opposite Edward G. Robinson and she appeared alongside husband Cassavetes on an episode of the 1959–60 NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. She also appeared on an episode of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin, Rowlands made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. In 1961–62, she starred as Teddy Carella, the wife of Robert Lansing. In that same season, she appeared on ABCs Target, The Corruptors and she also guest starred in CBSs The Lloyd Bridges Show and ABCs Breaking Point. In 1963, she guest-starred in an episode on the NBC western series, Bonanza and The Virginian, in 1967, she was cast as socialite Adrienne Van Leyden in the prime time ABC soap opera Peyton Place. According to Boston University film scholar Ray Carney, Rowlands sought to suppress an early version of Cassavetes first film, Shadows, Rowlands also became involved in the screenings of Husbands and Love Streams, according to Carney. At Rowlands request, UCLA created a print with almost ten minutes of content edited out. The alternative print is the one that has been made available for rental. In 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie An Early Frost and she won an Emmy for her portrayal of former First Lady of the United States Betty Ford in the 1987 made-for-TV movie The Betty Ford Story. In 1988, Rowlands starred in Woody Allens dramatic film Another Woman and she played Marion Post, a middle-aged professor who is prompted to a journey of self-discovery when she overhears the therapy sessions of another woman
Gena Rowlands
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Rowlands in 1967
Gena Rowlands
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Rowlands at the
2006 Cannes Film Festival
20.
Sophia Loren
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Sophia Loren is an Italian film actress. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant and she appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, after starting her family in the early 1970s, Loren spent less time on her acting career and chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men, in 1995, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements, one of such awards. In 1999, Loren was acknowledged as one of the top 25 female American Screen Legends in the American Film Institutes survey, AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars. Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone in the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone, Riccardo Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving the piano teacher and aspiring actress without support. Lorens parents had another child together, her sister Maria, in 1938, Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe. Romilda, Sofia, and Maria lived with Lorens grandmother in Pozzuoli, during World War II, the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies. During one raid, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel, after that, the family moved to Naples, where they were taken in by distant relatives. After the war, Loren and her returned to Pozzuoli. Lorens grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda Villani played the piano, Maria sang, and Loren waited on tables, the place was popular with the American GIs stationed nearby. When she was 14, Sofia entered a beauty pageant, Miss Italia 1950 and, later, she enrolled in acting class and was selected as an uncredited extra in Mervyn LeRoys film Quo Vadis, at the age of 15. In 1951, she appeared in Italian film Era lui. sì. sì. where she played an odalisque. She appeared in bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade. She began using her current stage name in La Favorita, the new name being a twist on the name of the Swedish actress Märta Torén and was suggested by Goffredo Lombardo or Carlo Ponti and her first starring role was in Aida, for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the role in Two Nights with Cleopatra, her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples
Sophia Loren
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Loren in 1959
Sophia Loren
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Sophia Loren in It Started in Naples, in which she sang "
Tu Vuò Fà L'Americano "
Sophia Loren
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Theatrical poster for Two Women (1960): Loren's gritty performance earned her an
Academy Award, the
1961 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award. and 22 international awards
Sophia Loren
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Theatrical poster for El Cid (1961)
21.
Katharine Hepburn
–
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress. Known for her independence and spirited personality, Hepburn was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from comedy to literary drama. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while studying at Bryn Mawr College. After four years in the theatre, favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Hepburn masterminded her own comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the rights to The Philadelphia Story. In the 1940s, she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy, the screen-partnership spanned 25 years and produced nine movies. Hepburn challenged herself in the half of her life, as she regularly appeared in Shakespearean stage productions. She found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in The African Queen, three more Oscars came for her work in Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond. In the 1970s, she began appearing in films, which became the focus of her career in later life. She remained active into old age, making her screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96, Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine and refused to conform to societys expectations of women. She was outspoken, assertive, athletic, and wore trousers before it was fashionable for women to do so and she married once, as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. A 26-year affair with her co-star Spencer Tracy was hidden from the public, Hepburn was born on May 12,1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn, a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Houghton, as a child, Hepburn joined her mother on several Votes For Women demonstrations. The Hepburn children were raised to exercise freedom of speech and encouraged to think and her parents were criticized by the community for their progressive views, which stimulated Hepburn to fight against barriers she encountered. Hepburn said she realized from an age that she was the product of two very remarkable parents, and credited her enormously lucky upbringing with providing the foundation for her success. She remained close to her throughout her life
Katharine Hepburn
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Studio publicity photograph, c. 1941
Katharine Hepburn
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Hepburn's college yearbook photo, 1928. It was while studying at
Bryn Mawr College that she chose acting as a career.
Katharine Hepburn
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Hepburn in the role that brought her to the attention of Hollywood, 1932's The Warrior's Husband
Katharine Hepburn
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Hepburn's first movie appearance, in the melodrama
A Bill of Divorcement (1932). Critics loved the performance and she became an instant star.
22.
Meryl Streep
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Mary Louise Meryl Streep is an American actress and philanthropist. Nominated for 20 Academy Awards, Streep has more nominations than any actor or actress. Streep has also received 30 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight—more nominations, Streep made her professional stage debut in Trelawny of the Wells in 1975, and in 1976 received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. She made her debut in the 1977 television film The Deadliest Season. In 1978, she won an Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Holocaust and she went on to win Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer, and Best Actress for Sophies Choice and The Iron Lady. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal of Arts, in 2003, the government of France made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2017, Streep was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22,1949, in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Wolf Wilkinson, a commercial artist and art editor, the eldest child, she has two younger brothers, Dana David and Harry William III. Streeps father Harry was of German and Swiss ancestry and her fathers lineage traces back to Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her fathers family was from Giswil, Switzerland and her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry. Some of Streeps maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and were descended from 17th-century immigrants from England and her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle in Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, Streeps maternal great-great-grandparents, Manus McFadden and Grace Strain, the namesake of Streeps second daughter, were natives of the Horn Head district of Dunfanaghy, Ireland. Streeps mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame Judi Dench, strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a young age. Streep has said, She was a mentor because she said to me, Meryl and she was saying, You can do whatever you put your mind to. If youre lazy, youre not going to get it done, but if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Although Streep was naturally more introverted than her mother, at times when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother, asking her for advice. Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and attended Cedar Hill Elementary School and the Oak Street School, in her Junior High debut, she starred as Lousie Heller in the play The Family Upstairs. In 1963 the family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School
Meryl Streep
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Streep in the late 1970s
Meryl Streep
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Meryl Streep as a senior in high school, 1966
Meryl Streep
–
Producer
Dino De Laurentiis, who thought Streep too unattractive for film
Meryl Streep
–
Robert De Niro, who suggested Streep for her role in The Deer Hunter (1978)
23.
Los Angeles County
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Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, is the most populous county in both the United States and the state of California, the countrys most populous state. Its population is larger than that of 42 individual U. S. states and it has 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas and at 4,083 square miles, it is larger than the combined areas of the U. S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island. The county is home to more than one-quarter of California residents and is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the U. S and its county seat, the City of Los Angeles, is also its most populous city at about four million. Los Angeles County is one of the counties of California. The county originally included parts of what are now Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, as the population increased, sections were split off to organize San Bernardino County in 1853, Kern County in 1866, and Orange County in 1889. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,751 square miles, Los Angeles County borders 70 miles of coast on the Pacific Ocean and encompasses mountain ranges, valleys, forests, islands, lakes, rivers, and desert. The western extent of the Mojave Desert begins in the Antelope Valley, most of the population of Los Angeles County is located in the south and southwest, with major population centers in the Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley. Other population centers are found in the Santa Clarita Valley, Pomona Valley, Crescenta Valley, the county is divided west-to-east by the San Gabriel Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges of southern California, and are contained mostly within the Angeles National Forest. Los Angeles County includes San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island, non-Hispanic whites numbered 2,728,321, or 28% of the population. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race numbered 4,687,889, 36% of Los Angeles Countys population was of Mexican ancestry,3. 7% Salvadoran, and 2. 2% Guatemalan heritage. The largest Asian groups of the 1,346,865 Asians in Los Angeles County are 4. 0% Chinese,3. 3% Filipino,2. 2% Korean,1. 0% Japanese,0. 9% Vietnamese,0. 8% Indian, and 0. 3% Cambodian. The racial makeup of the county is 48. 7% White,11. 0% African American,0. 8% Native American,10. 0% Asian,0. 3% Pacific Islander,23. 5% from other races, and 4. 9% from two or more races. 44. 6% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race, the largest European-American ancestry groups are German, Irish, English and Italian. 45. 9% of the population reported speaking only English at home,37. 9% spoke Spanish,2. 22% Tagalog,2. 0% Chinese,1. 9% Korean,1. 87% Armenian,0. 5% Arabic, and 0. 2% Hindi. At the census of 2000, there were 9,519,338 people,3,133,774 households, the population density was 2,344 people per square mile. There were 3,270,909 housing units at a density of 806 per square mile. 25% of all households were made up of individuals and 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.61. In the county, the population was out with 28% under the age of 18, 10% from 18 to 24, 33% from 25 to 44, 19% from 45 to 64
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County
24.
Morning Glory (1933 film)
–
Morning Glory is a 1933 Pre-Code American drama film which tells the story of an eager would-be actress and her journey to stardom, and what she loses as a result. Hepburn won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for this movie, Morning Glory was remade in 1958 under the title Stage Struck. Eva Lovelace is a performer from a town who has dreamed since childhood of making it big on Broadway. She has evidently gone to many auditions, but no one has given her a break, blonde diva Rita is high-handed and self-absorbed, with an alcohol problem as well, but shes under verbal contract to Easton. She shamelessly flirts as she negotiates a deal, shell accept a role in the upcoming play, for one big concession. The principals are taking a risk that shell contain her artistic temperament, delighted with her childlike ebullience, Hedges agrees to help her. He takes Eva into the office and introduces her as his protegee and she declares that after a long and successful career, shell kill herself onstage as a dramatic farewell to her fans. Joseph is entranced, but the aristocratic Easton sees her as too young and inexperienced, Hedges has lost touch with Eva. She frequently moves due to finances and hasnt been cast in meaningful roles. Hedges finds her struggling and hungry, Eva expresses regret that Easton gave her a small role in one of his lesser plays, one which flopped. She bravely declares she wont take any more offers, unless the role truly suits her abilities, realizing shes broke and basically starving, Hodges escorts her to a celebrity party at Eastons apartment. Eva quickly downs two glasses of champagne, although not a drinker. Inebriated, Eva sits on the arm of Eastons chair, stroking his face and she makes a spectacle of herself before the bemused party guests. Then unexpectedly she gives two Shakespearean orations, Hamlets well-known monologue followed by Juliets balcony scene, the difference in the roles demonstrates her art, she gets a polite ovation from the guests and further impresses Sheridan. Eva lays her head on Eastons lap and promptly falls asleep and his butler put her to bed in his own bedroom. The next morning, Easton asks Sheridan asks for help, Easton gave in to temptation and explains the encounter through innuendo. Hes remorseful at taking advantage of an innocence and cant face her. Joseph is devastated to learn that the overnight guest was Eva, a radiant Eva comes downstairs and sees Joseph, whom she obviously regards as just a friend
Morning Glory (1933 film)
–
Original US cinema poster
25.
The Lion in Winter (1968 film)
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The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama film based on the Broadway play by James Goldman. It was directed by Anthony Harvey and produced by Joseph E. Levine and Martin Poll from Goldmans adaptation of his own play, The Lion in Winter. The film stars Peter OToole, Katharine Hepburn, John Castle, Anthony Hopkins as Richard the Lionheart, Jane Merrow and, in appearances, Timothy Dalton. The film was a success and won three Academy Awards, including one for Hepburn as Best Actress. There was a remake in 2003. The Lion in Winter is set during Christmas 1183, at King Henry IIs château and primary residence in Chinon, Anjou, as a ruse, Henry agrees to give Alais to Richard and make him heir-apparent. He makes a deal with Eleanor for her freedom in return for Aquitaine. When the deal is revealed at the wedding, Richard refuses to go through with the ceremony, after Richard leaves, Eleanor masochistically asks Henry to kiss Alais in front of her, and then looks on in horror as they perform a mock marriage ceremony. Having believed Henrys intentions, John, at the direction of middle brother, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, Henry and Phillip meet to discuss terms, but Henry soon learns that Phillip has been plotting with John and Geoffrey, and that he and Richard were once lovers. Henry dismisses all three sons as unsuitable, and locks them in a cellar, telling Alais, the royal boys are aging with the royal port. Henry sees that she is right and condemns them to death and he and Eleanor go back to hoping for the future, with Eleanor going back on the barge to prison, laughing it off with Henry before she leaves. Though the background and the destinies of the characters are historically accurate, The Lion in Winter is fictional. There was a Christmas court at Caen in 1182 but there was no Christmas court at Chinon in 1183, in reality, Henry had many mistresses and many illegitimate children, the Rosamund mentioned in the film was his mistress until she died. The article on the Revolt of 1173–1174 describes the events leading to the plays events. There was also a rebellion, when Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted in 1183. Geoffrey died in 1186 in a tournament held in Paris. A third rebellion against Henry by Richard and Philip in 1189 was finally successful, and a decisively defeated Henry retreated to Chinon in Anjou, Richard scored considerable victories against his Muslim counterpart, Saladin, although he did not succeed in retaking Jerusalem. John finally succeeded Richard in 1199 after Richards death, during his unsuccessful reign he lost most of his fathers holdings in Northern France and angered the barons by his excessive taxation and disrespect towards them
The Lion in Winter (1968 film)
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Theatrical release poster
The Lion in Winter (1968 film)
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Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine.
26.
On Golden Pond (1981 film)
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On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same name, Henry Fonda won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and the Academy Award for Best Actor in what was his final film role. The film co-starred Dabney Coleman and Doug McKeon, an aging couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer, continue the long tradition of spending each summer at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond, in the far reaches of northern New England. When they first arrive, Ethel notices the loons calling on the lake welcoming them home and they are visited by their only child, a daughter, Chelsea, who is somewhat estranged from her curmudgeon of a father. She introduces her parents to her fiance Bill and his thirteen-year-old son Billy, Norman tries to play mind games with Bill, an apparent pastime of his, but Bill wont hear of it, saying he can only take so much. Before they depart for a European vacation, Chelsea and Bill ask the Thayers to permit Billy to stay with them while they have time to themselves. Norman, seeming more senile and cynical than usual due to his 80th birthday and heart palpitations, Ethel tells him that hes the sweetest man in the world, but she is the only one who knows it. Billy is at first annoyed by being left with elderly strangers with no friends nearby and he resents Normans brusque manner, but eventually comes to enjoy their Golden Pond fishing adventures together. Billy and Norman soon grow obsessed with catching Normans fish rival, named Walter, Chelsea returns to find out her father has made good friends with her fiances, now husbands, son. But when she sees the change in her fathers demeanor, Chelsea attempts something Billy accomplished that she never could, Chelsea successfully executes the dive in front of a cheering Norman, Billy, and Ethel. Chelsea and Norman finally fully embrace before she departs with Billy back home, the final day on Golden Pond comes and the Thayers are loading the last of the boxes. Norman tries to move a box, but starts having heart pain. Ethel tries unsuccessfully to get the operator to phone the hospital, Norman then says the pain is gone and attempts to stand to say a final farewell to the lake. Ethel tells him she has known about death but for the first time it felt real. Katharine Hepburn – Ethel Thayer Henry Fonda – Norman Thayer Jr, the father-daughter rift depicted on screen closely paralleled the real-life relationship between the two Fondas. Screenwriter Thompson spent his summers along the shores of Great Pond, located in Belgrade, Maine, a gazebo and a small boathouse were also relocated during the shoot. Despite their many common acquaintances and long careers in business, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn not only had never worked together. On the first day of shooting, Hepburn presented Henry Fonda with her longtime companion Spencer Tracys lucky hat, Hepburn, who was 74 at the time of filming, performed all her own stunts, including a dive into the pond
On Golden Pond (1981 film)
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Movie poster by
Bill Gold
27.
Bette Davis
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Ruth Elizabeth Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television, and theater. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, however, her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances, in 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract. Although she lost the legal case against the studio, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinemas most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful, Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative and confrontational. She clashed with executives and film directors as well as many of her co-stars. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona, Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career went through periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was widowed and three times divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. In 1999, Davis was placed second behind Katharine Hepburn on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Bettys younger sister, Barbara Harriet Bobby, was born October 25,1909, at 55 Ward Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1915, Daviss parents separated and Betty and Bobby attended a Spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, which is located in the Berkshires. In 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City with her daughters, Betty changed the spelling of her name to Bette after Honoré de Balzacs La Cousine Bette. Davis attended Cushing Academy, a school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. In 1926, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsens The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle, Davis later recalled for Al Cohn of Newsday, The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle. She auditioned for admission to Eva LeGalliennes Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by LeGallienne who described her attitude as insincere, upon graduating from Cushing Academy, Bette enrolled in John Murray Andersons Dramatic School. In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, after performing in Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes, and followed it with Solid South. In 1930, Davis moved to Hollywood to screen test for Universal Studios, Davis and her mother traveled by train to Hollywood and arrived on December 13,1930. She would later recount her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her at the train, in fact, a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who looked like an actress
Bette Davis
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Studio portrait, 1940
Bette Davis
Bette Davis
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Davis in her film debut,
The Bad Sister (1931)
Bette Davis
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As the shrewish Mildred in
Of Human Bondage (1934), Davis was acclaimed for her dramatic performance
28.
Dangerous (film)
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Dangerous is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Bette Davis in her first Oscar-winning role. The screenplay by Laird Doyle is based on his story Hard Luck Dame, Don Bellows, a prominent New York architect, is engaged to the beautiful and wealthy Gail Armitage when he meets down-and-out Joyce Heath, who was once the most promising young actress on Broadway. Don feels deeply indebted to Joyce because her performance as Juliet inspired him to become an architect, while rehabilitating her, Don falls in love with the tempestuous actress. Joyce, convinced she destroys anything and anyone she touches, warns him she is a jinx, compelled to save her, Don breaks his engagement to Gail and risks his fortune to back the actress in a Broadway show. Joyce goes to Gordon and begs him for a divorce, when he refuses, she causes an automobile accident that cripples him for life. Her own injuries keep her from opening in the show, which fails, Don is ruined, and when he learns that Joyce has deceived him, he accuses her of being a completely selfish woman, her only true jinx. Joyce briefly considers suicide, but eventually sees the truth in Dons accusation and she re-opens the show and, although she truly loves Don, sends him away to marry Gail. The show is a success, and Joyce, now dedicated to a life, goes to visit Gordon. Wallis convinced her she could make something out of the character. She was determined to look like an actress on the skids and it was for this film Perc Westmore styled her hair in the bob cut she would favor for the rest of her life. Franchot Tone, who recently had completed Mutiny on the Bounty, was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to bolster Davis marquee value, Davis was immediately drawn to the actor, who was engaged to Joan Crawford at the time. Producer Harry Joe Brown later revealed he had walked in on Davis, Crawford apparently knew about the liaison, but didnt break the engagement. Most biographers believe this was the start of the feud between the two actresses. Three songs by Harry Warren - Forty-Second Street, The Little Things You Used to Do, the other song was Bridal Chorus by Richard Wagner. In 1941, the film was remade as Singapore Woman with Brenda Marshall in the lead role and it coincidentally utilized some of the sets from The Letter, the 1940 film starring Davis. Davis won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, in 2002, Steven Spielberg anonymously bought the Oscar Davis had won at auction at Sothebys and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The statuette had been part of the memorabilia displayed by the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, the New York Times wrote, That Bette Davis has been unable to match the grim standard she set as Mildred in Of Human Bondage is not to her discredit. Except for a few sequences where the tension is convincing as well as deadly she fails, say this for Miss Davis, she seldom lets down
Dangerous (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Dangerous (film)
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Dangerous
29.
Jezebel (film)
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Jezebel is a 1938 American romantic drama film released by Warner Bros. and directed by William Wyler. It stars Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, the film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston, and Robert Buckner, from the play by Owen Davis, Sr. The film tells the story of a headstrong young Southern woman during the period whose actions cost her the man she loves. The film is based on a 1933 stage play starring Miriam Hopkins, tallulah Bankhead was originally slated for the role, but fell severely ill during rehearsals. In 1852 New Orleans, spoiled, strong-willed belle Julie Marsden is engaged to banker Preston Pres Dillard, all of Julies friends are shocked, but no one can convince her to give up her whim. At the Olympus ball, Pres and Julies entrance is met with shock and she finally realizes the magnitude of her social blunder and begs Pres to take her away, but instead he forces her to dance with him. All of the dancers leave the floor. When the orchestra playing at the instruction of one of the balls sponsors. Pres and Julie finish the dance, afterwards, Pres takes his leave of Julie, implicitly breaking their engagement. In a final bit of spite, Julie slaps him in the face, aunt Belle Massey urges her to go after Pres and beg his forgiveness, but she refuses, confident that he will return to her. Instead, he goes north on business, Julie shuts herself up in her house and refuses to see visitors. A year later, Pres finally returns, to help Dr. Livingstone try to convince the city authorities to take measures against an outbreak of yellow fever, before Pres can stop her, Julie humbles herself and begs for his forgiveness and a return of his love. Then Pres introduces her to his wife, Northerner Amy, dismayed, Julie eggs on her admirer, skilled duellist Buck Cantrell, to quarrel with Pres, but the scheme goes awry. Press inexperienced brother Ted is the one who is goaded into challenging Buck, in an unexpected twist, Ted shoots and kills Buck. Then something happens that overshadows everything else, as Dr. Livingstone had warned repeatedly, a deadly epidemic of yellow fever sweeps the city, as it had done numerous times before. Pres is stricken and, like all other victims, is to be quarantined on an island. Amy prepares to go along to care for him, risking her own life and she begs to go in her place, as an act of redemption. Amy agrees, but only after Julie admits that Pres no longer has any love for Julie, the Turner Classic Movies Database states that the film was offered as compensation for Bette Davis after she failed to win the part of Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind
Jezebel (film)
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Theatrical poster
Jezebel (film)
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Bette Davis and
George Brent in Jezebel
Jezebel (film)
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Fonda and Davis
30.
Luise Rainer
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Luise Rainer was a German and American film actress. She was the first actor to win more than one Academy Award, and at the time of her death, Rainer began acting in Germany at age 16, being trained by Austrias leading stage director, Max Reinhardt. Within a few years, she had become a distinguished Berlin stage actress with Reinhardts Vienna theater ensemble, Critics raved about her acting quality. After years of acting on stage and in films in Austria and Germany, she was discovered by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scouts, a number of filmmakers envisioned she might become another Greta Garbo, MGMs leading female star at the time. Her first American film role was in Escapade in 1935 and she was later dubbed the Viennese teardrop, for her dramatic telephone scene in the film. The subdued character role was such a dramatic contrast to her previous, vivacious character that she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. However, she stated nothing worse could have happened to her than winning two consecutive Oscars, as audience expectations from then on would be too high to fulfill. After a string of unimportant movie parts, MGM and Rainer became disappointed, leading her to end her brief three-year film career, some film historians consider her the most extreme case of an Oscar victim in Hollywood mythology. The daughter of Heinrich and Emilie Rainer, known familiarly as Heinz and Emmy, Rainer was born on 12 January 1910, in Düsseldorf, Germany and raised in Hamburg and later in Vienna, some references list her birthplace as Vienna. Describing her childhood, she stated, I was born into a world of destruction, the Vienna of my childhood was one of starvation, poverty and revolution. Her father was a businessman who settled in Europe after spending most of his childhood in Texas, Rainers family was upper-class and Jewish. Rainer had two brothers and was a baby, born two months early. She describes her father as being possessive and tempestuous, but whose affections, Luise seemed to him as eternally absent-minded and very different. She remembers his tyrannical possessiveness, and was saddened to see her mother, a beautiful pianist, although generally shy at home, she was immensely athletic in school, becoming a champion runner and a fearless mountain climber. Rainer said she became an actress to help expend her physical and it was her fathers wish, however, that she attend a good finishing school and marry the right man. Rainers rebellious nature made her appear to be more of a tomboy and she also feared she might develop what she saw as her mothers inferiority complex. I wanted to run away and marry him but I never had an opportunity, I am sure, though, that the experience first disclosed to me the entertainment world. For years I longed to be able to walk on a tight wire, at age 16, Rainer chose to follow her dream to become an actress, under the pretext of visiting her mother, she traveled to Düsseldorf for a prearranged audition at the Dumont Theater
Luise Rainer
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Rainer in a 1936 publicity photo
Luise Rainer
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as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld
Luise Rainer
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With Paul Muni in The Good Earth
Luise Rainer
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With
Paulette Goddard in Dramatic School (1938)
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