1.
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
2.
Debbie Allen
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Deborrah Kaye Debbie Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is perhaps best known for her work on the 1982 musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant and she currently portrays Catherine Avery on Greys Anatomy. She is the sister of actress/director/singer Phylicia Rashad. She holds honoris causa Doctorates from Howard University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and she also taught choreography to former Los Angeles Lakers dancer-turned-singer, Paula Abdul. Her daughter, Vivian Nixon, played Kalimba in the Broadway production of Hot Feet, Debbie Allen was a great actor and dancer in her early life. After her trip with her family from Mexico, both Debbie Allen and her decided to return to their permanent home in Texas. When she returned to her home in Texas, Debbie Allen auditioned at the Houston Ballet School at the age of twelve, even though her audition performance exceeded beyond the qualifications of admission, Debbie Allen was denied admission to the school due to the color of her skin. After a year of hearing this news, Allen was given another chance and was admitted by a Russian instructor who accidentally saw Debbie Allen perform in a show. Once admission recruiters from the Houston Ballet School became aware of the situation and this is not the only incident Allen had experienced racism. Unfortunately, Allen was rejected due to her body not suited for ballet. In many cases, African American dancers were often discouraged to dance because they were told the structure of their body did not suit the body of a ballet dancer. After receiving numerous rejections, Allen decided to focus on her academics and. Debbie Allen had her Broadway debut in the chorus of Purlie, Allen also created the role of Beneatha in the Tony Award-winning musical Raisin. One of her television appearances was in the TV sitcom Good Times in a memorable 2-part episode titled J. J. s Fiancee as J. J. s drug-addicted fiancee. Allen was first introduced as Lydia Grant in the 1980 film Fame, although her role in the film was relatively small, Lydia would become a central figure in the television adaptation, which ran from 1982 to 1987. During the opening montage of each episode, Grant told her students, and right here is where you start paying. Allen was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Actress four times during the shows run, in 1981, she had the important role of Sarah, the lover of Coalhouse Walker who is killed while trying to defend him in the movie version of the best-selling novel Ragtime. When the book was made into a Broadway musical, her role was played by Audra McDonald who won a Tony Award for the part, Allen was also lead choreographer for the film and television series, winning two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award
3.
Morgan Freeman
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Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer and narrator. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and he rose to fame as part of the cast of the 1970s childrens program The Electric Company. Morgan Freeman is ranked as the 4th highest box office star with over $4.316 billion total box office gross, Morgan Freeman was born on June 1,1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the son of Mayme Edna, a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, according to a DNA analysis, some of his ancestors were from Niger. Freeman was sent as an infant to his grandmother in Charleston. He moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi, Gary, Indiana, when Freeman was 16 years old, he almost died of pneumonia. Freeman made his debut at age nine, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, a building serves today as Threadgill Elementary School, in Greenwood. At age 12, he won a drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville. Freemans service portrait appears in his characters funeral scene in The Bucket List. During this period, Freeman also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 Worlds Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group. He acted in a touring version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun. He continued to be involved in work and received the Obie Award in 1980 for the title role in Coriolanus. In 1984, he received his second Obie Award for his role as the preacher in The Gospel at Colonus, Freeman also won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as a wino in The Mighty Gents. He received his third Obie Award for his role as a chauffeur for a Jewish widow in Driving Miss Daisy, although his first credited film appearance was in 1971s Who Says I Cant Ride a Rainbow. Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera Another World, during his tenure with The Electric Company, t was a very unhappy period in his life, according to Joan Ganz Cooney. Freeman himself admitted in an interview that he never thinks about his tenure with the show at all, since then, Freeman has considered his Street Smart character Fast Black, rather than any of the characters he played in The Electric Company, to be his breakthrough role. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise
4.
Nigel Hawthorne
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Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne CBE was an English actor. He portrayed Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister, for this role, he won four BAFTA TV Awards for Best Light Entertainment Performance. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying King George III in The Madness of King George. He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series The Fragile Heart and he was also an Olivier Award and Tony Award winner for his work in the theatre. Hawthorne was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the son of Agnes Rosemary and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, when Nigel was three years old, the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had bought a practice. Initially they lived in the Gardens and then moved to a newly built house near Camps Bay and he was educated at St Georges Grammar School, Cape Town and, when the family moved, the now defunct Christian Brothers College, where he played on the rugby team. He described his time at the latter as not being a happy experience. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town but withdrew and returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue a career in acting, Hawthorne made his professional stage debut in 1950, playing Archie Fellows in a Cape Town production of The Shop at Sly Corner. He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in As You Like It and he returned to the New York stage in 1990 in Shadowlands and won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He won a sixth BAFTA for the 1996 TV mini-series The Fragile Heart, Hawthorne was also a voice actor, and lent his voice to two Disney films, in 1985, Fflewddur Fflam in The Black Cauldron, and in 1999, Professor Porter in Tarzan. They met in 1968 when Bentham was stage-managing the Royal Court Theatre, from 1979 until Hawthornes death in 2001, they lived together in Radwell near Baldock and latterly at Thundridge, both in Hertfordshire, England. The two of them became fund raisers for the North Hertfordshire hospice and other local charities, Hawthorne had several operations for pancreatic cancer, although his immediate cause of death was from a heart attack, aged 72. He was survived by Bentham, and his service was held at St Marys. His funeral was attended by Derek Fowlds, Maureen Lipman, Charles Dance, Loretta Swit and Frederick Forsyth along with friends, the service was led by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans. The coffin had a wreath of white lilies and orchids and Trevor Bentham and he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987, and was knighted in 1999. Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Movie Database Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Broadway Database
5.
Anthony Hopkins
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Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE, is a Welsh actor of film, stage, and television. In 1968, he got his break in film in The Lion in Winter, since 2016, he has starred in the critically acclaimed HBO television series Westworld. Along with his Academy Award, Hopkins has won three BAFTA Awards, two Emmys, and the Cecil B, in 1993, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, Hopkins was born on New Years Eve 1937, in Margam, a suburb of Port Talbot, Glamorgan. His parents were Annie Muriel and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker and his school days were unproductive, he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing, or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones West Monmouth Boys School in Pontypool. He remained there for five terms and was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan. Hopkins was influenced and encouraged by Welsh compatriot Richard Burton, whom he met at the age of 15, Hopkins promptly enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, from which he graduated in 1957. After two years in the British Army doing his national service, he moved to London, where he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Hopkins made his first professional appearance in the Palace Theatre, Swansea. In 1965, after years in repertory, he was spotted by Laurence Olivier. Hopkins became Oliviers understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a production of August Strindbergs The Dance of Death, despite his success at the National, Hopkins tired of repeating the same roles nightly and yearned to be in films. He made his debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. His first starring role in a film came in 1964 in Changes, in 1968, he got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard I. Although Hopkins continued in theatre he gradually moved away from it to more established as a television. He portrayed Charles Dickens in the BBC television film The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens in 1970, and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBCs mini series War and Peace. In 1972 he starred as British politician David Lloyd George in Young Winston, in 1980, he starred in The Elephant Man as the English doctor Sir Frederick Treves, who attends to Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in 19th century London. That year he starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in A Change of Seasons
6.
Djimon Hounsou
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Djimon Gaston Hounsou is a Beninese-American actor and model. Hounsou began his career appearing in music videos and he made his film debut in the Sandra Bernhard film Without You Im Nothing and gained widespread recognition for his role as Cinqué in the Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He gained further recognition for his roles in Gladiator, In America, Blood Diamond, Guardians of the Galaxy and he has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Academy Awards. Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Bénin, to Albertine and Pierre Hounsou and he emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond. Soon after arriving in France, Hounsou dropped out of school, a chance meeting with a photographer led to Hounsou being introduced to fashion designer Thierry Mugler, who encouraged Hounsou to pursue a modeling career. In 1987, Hounsou became a model and established a career in Paris and he moved to the United States in 1990. Between 1989 and 1991, Hounsou appeared in the videos for Straight Up by Paula Abdul, Love Will Never Do by Janet Jackson. Hounsous film debut was in the 1990 Sandra Bernhard film Without You Im Nothing and he had television parts on Beverly Hills,90210 and ER and a guest starring role on Alias. Hounsou captured a larger role in the fiction film Stargate. Hounsou received wide acclaim and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role as Cinqué in the 1997 Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He gained further notice as Juba in the 2000 film Gladiator, in 2004, Hounsou was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for In America, making him the fourth African male to be nominated for an Oscar. Hounsou also acted in a role in the 2009 science fiction film Push. In 2011, he starred as a French commando in the French film Forces spéciales, director Tim Story told IGN that if he were to do a third Fantastic Four movie, he would like to have Hounsou as the Black Panther. In November 2008, it was announced that Hounsou would be providing the voice of the Black Panther in the series of the same name. Hounsou had signed on to play Abdiel in the version of John Miltons Paradise Lost with Benjamin Walker. The film however was scrapped in early February 2012, in 2013, he appeared in the comedy film Baggage Claim alongside Paula Patton. He also voiced Drago Bludvist in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and portrayed Korath the Pursuer in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, on February 17,2016, FOX reported that Hounsou would join the second season of the television series Wayward Pines. On February 24,2007, it was announced that Hounsou would be the new Calvin Klein underwear model, at the time, Hounsou was being represented by Los Angeles modeling agent, Omar Albertto
7.
Matthew McConaughey
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Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor. He first gained notice for his role in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused. Matthew McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was born on November 4,1969 in Uvalde, Texas and his mother, Mary Kathleen Kay or KMac, is a former kindergarten teacher and a published author. She was originally from Trenton, New Jersey and his father, James Donald McConaughey, was from Louisiana and ran an oil pipe supply business. He played for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Houston Cougars college football teams, in 1953, Jim McConaughey was drafted in the 27th round by the NFL football team the Green Bay Packers. He was released before the season began and never played a league game in the NFL. Matthews mother and late father married each other three times and his ancestry includes Scottish, English, Irish, Swedish and German. He is a relative of Confederate brigadier general Dandridge McRae, McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas in 1980, where he attended Longview High School. He lived for a year in Warnervale, New South Wales, Australia and he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He began in the fall of 1989 and graduated in the spring of 1993 with a degree in Radio-Television-Film. His original plan had changed as he wanted to attend Southern Methodist University until a brother told him that private school tuition would have been a burden on the family finances. He also had planned to attend law school graduation from college. McConaughey began working in commercials, including one for the Austin, Texas daily newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. The line, How else am I gonna keep up with my Horns, – a reference to his beloved Texas Longhorns sports teams – gave the local community a look at the young actor, before he was cast in Richard Linklaters film Dazed and Confused. In 1992, he was cast as Joe in Trisha Yearwoods video for her hit song Walkaway Joe, in the late 1990s, McConaughey was cast in leading roles in more movies, including Contact, Amistad, The Newton Boys, EDtv and U-571. By the early 2000s, he was frequently cast in comedies, including The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. McConaughey starred in the 2005 feature film Sahara, along with Steve Zahn, prior to the release of the film, he promoted it by sailing down the Amazon River and trekking to Mali. That same year, McConaughey was named People magazines Sexiest Man Alive for 2005, in 2006, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch and as Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyal in We Are Marshall
8.
Pete Postlethwaite
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After minor television appearances, including in The Professionals, his first major success arose through the British autobiographical film Distant Voices, Still Lives. Following this role, he portrayed the mysterious lawyer, Mr. Kobayashi, in The Usual Suspects, in television, Postlethwaite played Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill on Sharpe. He trained as a teacher and taught drama before training as an actor, director Steven Spielberg called him the best actor in the world after working with him on The Lost World, Jurassic Park. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 New Year Honours list. Less than one month after his death from cancer, he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Ben Afflecks The Town. Postlethwaite was born in Warrington, Lancashire, the fourth and youngest child of William and Mary Postlethwaite and he had two sisters, Anne and Patricia, and a brother, Michael. He attended St Benedicts RC Junior School and a seminary and he then joined the 4th form at West Park Grammar School, St Helens where he enjoyed sport including rugby. He spent an extra year re-sitting some O-levels and then took four A-levels in English, history, geography, despite portraying Irish characters on multiple occasions, it had been claimed that Postlethwaite was not of Irish descent. Postlethwaite and Walters had a relationship during the latter half of the 1970s. He was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting companies, after other early appearances in small parts for television programmes such as The Professionals, Postlethwaites first film success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993 and he is well known for his role as mysterious lawyer Mr. Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects. He made appearances in several films, including Alien 3, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, Inception. In 2003, he was both the physical and vocal actor for the villain Deeth in Zixx, Level One, a Canadian TV series created by IDT Entertainment. This was directed by Rupert Goold, who would direct his Lear in 2008. As well as Australia, the play toured Canada, New Zealand, in The Art of Discworld, Terry Pratchett wrote that he had always imagined Sam Vimes as a younger, slightly bulkier version of Pete Postlethwaite. One of his notable roles was Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in ITVs Sharpe series. The actor said this was one of his roles and that he and fellow actor Sean Bean played well off each other because of their mutual love. Bernard Cornwell, the author and creator of the Sharpe series, Postlethwaite co-starred with Bean in When Saturday Comes
9.
John Williams
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John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Schindlers List, Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but two of his feature films. Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, with 50 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams score to 1977s Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowls Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, Williams composed the score for eight movies in the Top 20 highest-grossing films at the U. S. box office. John Towner Williams was born on February 8,1932 in Floral Park, New York, the son of Esther and Johnny Williams, Williams has said of his lineage, My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My fathers parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, people with those roots are not inclined to be lazy. In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950 and he later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams had originally briefly attended Los Angeles City College for one semester as the school had a Studio Jazz Band. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U. S. Air Force, in 1955, following his Air Force service, Williams moved to New York City and entered The Juilliard School where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time Williams worked as a jazz pianist in the many jazz clubs. After moving to Los Angeles he began working as a session musician, Williams has two brothers, Donald and Jerry, both of whom work as percussionists in Los Angeles. After his studies at Juilliard, and the Eastman School of Music, Williams returned to Los Angeles, among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Williams recorded with Henry Mancini the film scores of 1959s Peter Gunn, 1962s Days of Wine and Roses, and 1963s Charade. Williamss first film composition was for the 1958 B movie Daddy-O and he soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for his score for 1967s Valley of the Dolls. Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his score in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof
10.
DreamWorks
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DreamWorks Pictures is an American film production label of Amblin Partners. It was formerly distributing its own and third-party films by itself and it has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each. As of October 2016, DreamWorks films are marketed and distributed by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks began in 1994 as an attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio of which they owned 72%. Currently, DreamWorks operates out of offices at Universal Studios, in December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006, in 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and signed a $1.5 billion deal to produce films with Indias Reliance ADA Group. Reliance provided $325M of equity to fund recreating DreamWorks SKG into DreamWorks Studios, after the formation of Amblin Partners in 2015, the studio entered into a distribution agreement with Universal Pictures. DreamWorks animation arm was spun off in 2004 into DreamWorks Animation SKG, which owns the DreamWorks trademarks. Spielbergs company continues to use the DreamWorks trademarks under license from Universal Studios, the original company was founded following Katzenbergs resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. Katzenberg approached Spielberg and Geffen about forming a live-action and animation film studio, which had not been done in decades due to the risk and expense. They agreed on three conditions, They would make fewer than nine movies a year, they would be free to work for other studios if they chose, and they would go home in time for dinner. They officially founded DreamWorks SKG in October 1994, with backing of $33 million from each of the three partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Their new studio was based at offices in the Universal Studios lot, despite access to sound stages and sets, DreamWorks preferred to film motion pictures on location. Usually, the company would film in a soundstage or set in a major studio, as of 2016, DreamWorks is still based in Universal. In 1995, traditional animation artists from Amblimation joined the new studio, which led to DreamWorks buying part of Pacific Data Images, both were software divisions, and would merge later on. For then, DreamWorks had the traditional animators working for their animation department. These films were distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, the same year, PDI/DreamWorks produced its first full-length animated features, Antz and The Prince of Egypt, which were also distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. DreamWorks SKG continued to distribute PDI/DreamWorks productions through their name until 2004. In 2000, DreamWorks was planning in building a studio backlot after buying 1,087 acres of land in the Playa Vista area in Los Angeles and it was to be complete with 18 sound stages, with many office buildings and a lake
11.
Historical period drama
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The term, historical period drama refers to a work set in an earlier time period, usually used in the context of film and television. It is an informal term that can apply to several genres and is often heard in the context of historical fiction and romances, adventure films. A period piece may be as long and general as the ages or as limited as one decade, for example. Historical drama film stories are based upon events and famous people. A period film is a film that attempts to depict a specific time period. Examples include movies like Cinderella Man, Schindler’s List, Les Misérables or Lincoln, the most common type of period piece is the historical period piece, both on stage and in movies. This category includes Robin Hood, Barry Lyndon, Amadeus, The Young Victoria, films that are set in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Last Man Standing, can also be placed in this category. Other examples include Marie Antoinette, Middle march, and Pride, many highly successful television series have been known as period pieces. Notable examples include The Tudors, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey, Deadwood, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Little House on the Prairie
12.
La Amistad
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La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a revolt by Mende captives, who had been enslaved in Sierra Leone. The African captives took control of the ship, killing some of the crew, the Spanish survivors secretly maneuvered the ship north, and La Amistad was captured off the coast of Long Island by the brig USS Washington. The Mende and La Amistad were interned in Connecticut while federal court proceedings were undertaken for their disposition, the owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property, but the US had banned the African trade and argued that the Mende were legally free. Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention, the Amistad, the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery, La Amistad was a 19th-century two-masted schooner of about 120 feet. Built in the United States, La Amistad was originally named Friendship, by 1839 the schooner was owned by a Spaniard captain, Don Ramon Ferrer. Strictly speaking, La Amistad was not a ship as it was not designed to transport large cargoes of slaves. The ship engaged in the shorter, coastwise trade around Cuba, the primary cargo carried by La Amistad was sugar-industry products. It carried a number of passengers and, on occasion. These 53 Mende captives had been taken from Mendiland and illegally transported from Africa to Havana, mostly aboard the slave ship Teçora, the crew of La Amistad, lacking purpose-built slave quarters, placed half the captives in the main hold, and the other half on deck. The captives were relatively free to move about, which aided their revolt, in the main hold below decks, the captives found a rusty file and sawed through their manacles. They killed the captain and some of the crew, but spared Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez, discovered by the naval brig USS Washington while on surveying duties, La Amistad was taken into United States custody. A widely publicized court case ensued in New Haven to settle legal issues about the ship and they were at risk of execution if convicted of mutiny. This became a cause célèbre among abolitionists in the United States, since 1808, the United States and Britain had prohibited the international slave trade. A question was whether the circumstances of the Mendes capture and transportation meant they were free and had acted as free men rather than slaves, on appeal, the United States v. The Amistad case reached the US Supreme Court, in 1841, it ruled that the Mende had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and had rebelled in self-defense. Thirty-five survivors returned to Africa in 1842, aided by funds raised by the United Missionary Society, pennington, a Congregational minister and fugitive slave in Brooklyn, New York, who was active in the abolitionist movement
13.
Mende people
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The Mende people are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, their neighbours, the Temne people, have roughly the same population. The Mende and Temne each account for more than 30% of the total population. Some of the cities with significant Mende populations include Bo, Kenema, Kailahun. The Mende belong to a group of Mande peoples who live throughout West Africa. The Mende are mostly farmers and hunters, during the civil war the Civil Defense Force, a militia group founded by late Dr. Alpha Lavalie, a Mende himself, to fight the rebels along government troops. The forces included five groups drawn from all ethnic groups in the country, Tamaboros, Hunters, Donso, Kapras. Kamajor is a meaning for hunter, they were not only the dominant warring factions but the most fearful among the CDF militias headed by late Deputy Minister of Defense. To date, the Kamajors are honored among the groups of men and women who fought to restore democracy in modern Sierra Leone. The secret Poro society is for men while Sande society for both of whom initiate the young into adulthood. The Mende believe that all humanistic and scientific power is passed down through the secret societies, the Mende language is widely spoken in Liberia more so in areas once considered part of Liberia. In the year 1984, then President Samuel Doe threatened to retake the part of Sierra Leone that was once Liberia, both countries have Mende, Gola, Vai, Gissi and Gbandi tribes but the Mende are the dominant population. Mende language is taught in Sierra Leone schools and the Alphabet is closely identical to the English Alphabet. For example, the letter C is flipped facing left and pronounced orh, E is written with broken edges and their language is spoken by around 46% of Sierra Leones population. Sierra Leones politics have been dominated by the Mende, on the one hand, and the Temne and their political allies. The Mende support the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, while the Temnes, regional warfare throughout the 19th century led to the capture and sale of many Mende-speakers into slavery. Most notable were those found aboard the Amistad in 1839 and they eventually won their freedom and were repatriated. After working the plantation, they were placed on the schooner Amistad, on the way, they escaped their bondage and were led in a rebellion by Sengbe Pieh. They told the crew to return them to Africa and their efforts to return home were frustrated by the ships remaining crew, who navigated up to the United States
14.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
15.
United States v. The Amistad
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United States v. Schooner Amistad,40 U. S.518, was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of Africans on board the Spanish schooner La Amistad in 1839. It was a freedom suit that involved international issues and parties. The historian Samuel Eliot Morison in 1965 described it as the most important court case involving slavery before being eclipsed by that of Dred Scott, the schooner was traveling along the coast of Cuba on its way to a port for re-sale of the slaves. The African captives, who had kidnapped in Sierra Leone and illegally sold into slavery and shipped to Cuba, escaped their shackles. They killed the captain and the cook, two crew members escaped in a lifeboat. The Africans directed the survivors to return them to Africa, the crew tricked them, sailing north at night. The Amistad was later apprehended near Long Island, New York, by the United States Revenue Cutter Service, the widely publicized court cases in the United States federal district and Supreme Court, which addressed international issues, helped the abolitionist movement. The captives were ruled to have acted as men when they fought to escape their illegal confinement. The Court ruled the Africans were entitled to take whatever measures necessary to secure their freedom. Under international and sectional pressure, U. S. President Martin Van Buren ordered the case appealed to the Supreme Court. It affirmed the court ruling on March 9,1841, and authorized the release of the Africans. Supporters arranged for housing of the Africans in Farmington, Connecticut as well as funds for travel. In 1842 they transported by ship those who wanted to return to Africa, on June 27,1839, La Amistad, a Spanish vessel, departed from the port of Havana, Cuba, for the Province of Puerto Principe, also in Cuba. The masters of La Amistad were the ships captain Ramón Ferrer, José Ruiz, with Ferrer was his personal slave Antonio. Ruiz was transporting 49 Africans, entrusted to him by the governor-general of Cuba, Montez held four additional Africans, also entrusted to him by the governor-general. As the voyage took only four days, the crew had brought four days’ worth of rations. On July 2,1839, one of the Africans, Cinqué, freed himself, the Mende Africans killed the ships cook, Celestino, who had told them that they were to be killed and eaten by their captors. The slaves also killed Captain Ferrer, the struggle resulted as well in the deaths of two Africans, two sailors escaped in a lifeboat
16.
Cutter (boat)
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A cutter is typically a small, but in some cases a medium-sized, watercraft designed for speed rather than for capacity. Traditionally a cutter sailing vessel is a small single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, the cutters mast may be set farther back than on a sloop. In modern usage, a cutter can be either a small- or medium-sized vessel whose occupants exercise official authority, examples are harbor pilots cutters and cutters of the U. S. Coast Guard or UK Border Force. Cutters can also be a small boat serving a one to ferry passengers or light stores between larger boats and the shore. This type of cutter may be powered by oars, sails or a motor, the cutter is one of several types of sailboats. Traditionally the sloop rig was a rig with a single mast located forward of 70% of the length of the sailplan, in this traditional definition a sloop could have multiple jibs on a fixed bowsprit. Cutters had a rig with a single mast more centrally located, which could vary from 50% to 70% of the length of the sailplan, with multiple headsails, a mast located aft of 50% would be considered a mast aft rig. Somewhere in the 1950s or 1960s there was a shift in these definitions such that a sloop only flew one headsail, in this modern idiom, a cutter is a sailing vessel with more than one head sail and one mast. Cutters carry a staysail directly in front of the mast, set from the forestay, a traditional vessel would also normally have a bowsprit to carry one or more jibs from its end via jibstay on travelers. In modern vessels the jib may be set from a permanent stay fixed to the end of a fixed bowsprit, or directly to the stem fitting of the bow itself. In these cases, that may be referred to as the forestay, and the inner one, a sloop carries only one head sail, called either the foresail or jib. These could be managed without the need for crews, winches, or complex tackles, making the cutter especially suitable for pilot, customs. For example, a pilot cutter may only have two people on board for its outward trip—the pilot to be delivered to a ship and an assistant who had to sail the cutter back to port single-handed. The cutter sailing rig became so ubiquitous for these tasks that the modern-day motorised vessels now engaged in these duties are known as cutters, the open cutter carried aboard naval vessels in the 18th Century was rowed by pairs of men sitting side-by-side on benches. The cutter, with its transom, was broader in proportion compared to the longboat, the Watermen of London used similar boats in the 18th Century often decorated as depicted in historical prints and pictures of the River Thames in the 17th & 18th Centuries. The modern Waterman’s Cutter is based on drawings of these boats and they are 34 feet long with a beam of 4 ft 6 in They can have up to six oarsmen either rowing or sculling and can carry a cox and passengers. The organisers of the Great River Race developed the modern version in the 1980s, watermen’s Cutters also compete annually in the Port of London Challenge, and the Port Admirals’ Challenge. Cutter races are also to be found at various town rowing and skiffing regattas, in addition the cutters perform the role of ceremonial Livery Barges with the canopies and armorial flags flying on special occasions
17.
Mutiny on the Amistad
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The book explores the events surrounding the slave mutiny on the Spanish schooner Amistad in 1839. The ship was taken into United States custody off the south coast of Long Island, the book discusses the roles and international dynamics of the case, involving Spain, England, and the United States as they related to the 19th-century slave trade. The book was written by Howard Jones, a historian at the University of Alabama, cornish wrote that Jones work was a careful, comprehensive study that should make it easy to restore references to the case in textbooks, where it had been overlooked in the prior decade. The 1997 film Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg, was based on this book, including the Supreme Court case
18.
United States Secretary of State
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Secretary of State is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule and thus earns the salary prescribed for that level. The current Secretary of State is former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and those that remain include storage and use of the Great Seal of the United States, performance of protocol functions for the White House, and the drafting of certain proclamations. The Secretary also negotiates with the individual States over the extradition of fugitives to foreign countries, under Federal Law, the resignation of a President or of a Vice President is only valid if declared in writing, in an instrument delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. Accordingly, the resignations of President Nixon and of Vice-President Spiro Agnew, domestic issues, were formalized in instruments delivered to the Secretary of State, six Secretaries of State have gone on to be elected President. Former Secretaries of State retain the right to add the title Secretary to their surnames, as the head of the United States Foreign Service, the Secretary of State is responsible for management of the diplomatic service of the United States. The foreign service employs about 12,000 people domestically and internationally, the U. S. Secretary of State has the power to remove any foreign diplomat from U. S. soil for any reason. The nature of the means that Secretaries of State engage in travel around the world. The record for most countries visited in a secretarys tenure is 112, second is Madeleine Albright with 96. The record for most air miles traveled in a secretarys tenure is 1.380 million miles, second is Condoleezza Rices 1.059 million miles and third is Clintons 956,733 miles. S
19.
John Forsyth (Georgia)
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John Forsyth, Sr. was a 19th-century American politician from Georgia. He represented Georgia in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Forsyth also served as the 33rd Governor of Georgia. As a strong supporter of the policies of Andrew Jackson, he was appointed Secretary of State by Jackson in 1834, Forsyth was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His father Robert Forsyth was the first U. S, marshal to be killed in the line of duty in 1794. He was an attorney who graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1799 and he married Clara Meigs, daughter of Josiah Meigs, in 1801 or 1802. One of his sons, John Forsyth, Jr. later became a newspaper editor, Forsyth served in the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and as the 33rd Governor of Georgia. He was the United States Secretary of State from 1834 until 1841, in this role he led the governments response to the Amistad case. He was a follower of Andrew Jackson and opposed John C. Calhoun in the issue of nullification. Forsyth was appointed as Secretary of State in reward for his efforts and he led the pro-removal reply to Theodore Frelinghuysen about the Indian Removal Act of 1830. He supported slavery and was a slaveholder himself, Forsyth died in Washington, D. C. and was buried in Congressional Cemetery. Forsyth County, Georgia, Forsyth, Georgia, and Forsyth Park in Savannah are named for him and he died the day before his 61st birthday. In the 1997 Steven Spielberg movie, Amistad, John Forsyths character was played by American character actor David Paymer and this article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http, //bioguide. congress. gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress,24, Georgetown, District of Columbia George R. Gilmer, Governor of Georgia / John Forsyth
20.
Martin Van Buren
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Martin Van Buren was an American politician who served as the eighth President of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President and tenth Secretary of State. Van Buren won the presidency by promising to follow through on Jacksons policies, during his half-century of public service, he built, perfected, and defended a new system of political parties at first the state and then the federal level. In New York he reorganized the Democratic-Republican Party and established the Albany Regency to keep it in power and he then moved on Washington where he did more than anyone to construct the modern Democratic Party which dominated American politics down to the American Civil War. A delegate to a convention at age 18, he quickly moved from local to state politics. Elected to the Senate by the New York State Legislature in 1821, Van Buren supported William H. Crawford for president in the 1824 election, but by 1828 had come to support Jackson. Van Buren was a supporter and organizer for Jackson in the 1828 election. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and after serving as governor for two months, Van Buren resigned to become Jacksons Secretary of State. During Jacksons eight years as president, Van Buren was a key advisor, in 1831, following his resignation as Secretary of State, which aided Jackson in resolving the Petticoat affair, Jackson gave Van Buren a recess appointment as American minister to Britain. Van Burens nomination was rejected by the Senate, cutting short his service in London, Van Buren faced little opposition for the presidential nomination at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig opponents in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren was the first president to be born a United States citizen, of Dutch ancestry, he is the only president who spoke English as a second language, and was the first not to have a university degree or a military commission. As president, Van Buren was blamed for the depression of 1837 and he attempted to cure the economic problems by keeping control of federal funds in an independent treasury—rather than in state banks—but Congress would not approve of this until 1840. Additionally, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada proved to be strained from the bloodless Aroostook War, in the 1840 election, Van Buren was voted out of office, losing to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. Van Buren was the candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1844, but lost to James K. Polk. In the 1848 election Van Buren ran unsuccessfully as the candidate of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and he returned to the Democratic fold to endorse Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency. However, his increasingly abolitionist views and support for the Union led him to support Abraham Lincolns policies after the start of the American Civil War, Van Burens health began to fail in 1861, and he died in July 1862 at the age of 79. Martin Van Buren was born on December 5,1782, in the village of Kinderhook, Van Buren was the first President not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry. His father, Abraham van Buren, was an inn–tavern keeper, Abraham Van Buren supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution as a captain in the Albany County Militias 7th Regiment, and later joined the Jeffersonian Republicans
21.
Isabella II of Spain
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Isabella II was Queen of Spain from 1833 until 1868. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, after a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1868, and formally abdicated in 1870. Her son Alfonso XII became king in 1874, Isabella was born in Madrid in 1830, the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, and of his fourth wife and niece, Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Queen Maria Christina became regent on 29 September 1833, when her three-year-old daughter Isabella was proclaimed sovereign on the death of the king, the first pretender, Ferdinands brother Carlos, fought seven years during the minority of Isabella to dispute her title. Carlos and his descendants supporters were known as Carlists, and the fight over the succession was the subject of a number of Carlist Wars in the 19th century, Isabellas reign was maintained only through the support of the army. After the Carlist war, the regent, Maria Christina, resigned to make way for Baldomero Espartero, Prince of Vergara, Espartero, a Progressive, remained regent for only two years. Baldomero Espartero was turned out in 1843 by a military and political pronunciamiento led by Generals Leopoldo ODonnell and they formed a cabinet, presided over by Joaquín María López y López. This government induced the Cortes to declare Isabella of age at 13, the marriages suited France and Louis Philippe, King of the French, who as a result nearly quarrelled with Britain. However, the marriages were not happy, persistent rumour had it that few if any of Isabellas children were fathered by her king-consort, rumoured to be a homosexual. The Carlist party asserted that the heir-apparent to the throne, who later became Alfonso XII, had fathered by a captain of the guard. Isabella had nine children, but only five reached adulthood, Ferdinand Maria Isabel, Princess of Asturias, Maria Cristina Alfonso XII Maria de la Concepcion Maria del Pilar María de la Paz, who married her cousin Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria. Francisco de Asis Eulalia de Asis de la Piedad, who married her cousin Infante Antonio, the couple was rather caustically described by an English contemporary thus, … The Queen is large in stature, but rather what might be called bulky than stately. There is no dignity either in her face or figure, the countenance is cold and expressionless, with traces of an unchastened, unrefined, and impulsive character, and the indifference it betrays is not redeemed by any regularity or beauty of feature. Moderados and Unión Liberals quickly succeeded each other and kept out the Progressives, Queen Isabella II often interfered in politics. She showed favour to her reactionary generals and statesmen and to the Church, by virtue of a royal decree, she opened Iloilo to world trade on September 29,1855 exporting mainly sugar and also other products to America, Australia and Europe. At the end of September 1868, Isabella went into exile, after her Moderado generals had made a show of resistance that was crushed at the Battle of Alcolea by Generals Serrano. This revolt, which deposed Isabella, is known as the Glorious Revolution, the new government replaced Isabella with Amadeo I, second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, after much deliberation. The First Spanish Republic collapsed in December 1874, Isabella had been induced to abdicate in Paris on 25 June 1870, in favour of her son, Alfonso XII, furthering the cause of the Restoration
22.
Roger Sherman Baldwin
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Not to be confused with Roger Nash Baldwin, 20th Century founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Roger Sherman Baldwin was an American politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Connecticut from 1844 to 1846, as a lawyer, his career was most notable for his participation in the 1841 Amistad case. Baldwin was son of Simeon Baldwin and Rebecca Sherman in New Haven and he was the maternal grandson of notable founding father Roger Sherman. He attended Hopkins School, and entered Yale College at the age of fourteen, at Yale, Baldwin was a member of the Linonian Society. After leaving Yale he studied law in his fathers office in New Haven, and also in the Litchfield Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1814. Although repeatedly called into office, he devoted himself through life to the profession of his choice, attaining the highest distinction. His defense in 1841, of the rights of the Africans of the Amistad, is particularly celebrated, both for his ability and for the importance of the case. After having been a member of the city government in New Haven, in 1826 and 1828, Baldwin was elected in 1837, in 1840 and 1841 he represented the town of New Haven in the General Assembly. He was chosen Governor of Connecticut in 1844 and was reelected in 1845, on the death of Hon. J. W. He was elected by the Legislature in the following May to the same position and he was described as a devout Christian who studied the Bible every day. Baldwin died in New Haven, February 19,1863, at the age of 70 and was interred at Grove Street Cemetery. A biographical discourse was pronounced at his funeral by Rev. Dr. Dutton, which was printed in the New Englander for April 1863, and was also published as a pamphlet. A simplified version of the events regarding the Amistad case was made into a movie called Amistad in 1997 in which Matthew McConaughey portrayed Roger Sherman Baldwin, in Greenwich, Ct there is a town park called Roger Sherman Baldwin Park
23.
Lewis Tappan
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Lewis Tappan was a New York abolitionist who worked to achieve the freedom of the illegally enslaved Africans of the Amistad. Contacted by Connecticut abolitionists soon after the Amistad arrived in port and he ensured the acquisition of high-quality lawyers for the captives, which led to their being set free after the case went to the United States Supreme Court. With his brother Arthur, Tappan not only gained legal help and acquittal for the Africans, finally, he organized the return trip home to Africa for surviving members of the group. Lewis Tappan was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan and abolitionist Arthur Tappan and his middle-class parents were strict Congregationalists. Once Lewis was old enough to work, he helped his father in a dry goods store, on his sixteenth birthday, he ventured into other areas of commerce, and ultimately started The Mercantile Agency in 1841 in New York City. The Mercantile Agency was the precursor to Dun & Bradstreet and modern credit-reporting services, convinced by Arthur to read a biography of William Wilberforce, who led the cause for abolition in Great Britain, Tappan started his quest for abolition in the United States. He is well known for his work to free the Africans from the Spanish ship Amistad, despite his Congregationalist upbringing, Lewis Tappan became attracted to Unitarianism for intellectual and social reasons. William Ellery Channing, a Unitarian minister, became Tappan’s pastor, as a peace advocate, Channing played an influential role in Tappans decision to join the Massachusetts Peace Society. In 1827 his brother Arthur convinced him to return to a Trinitarian denomination, Tappan joined Arthur in the Congregational church. Weld gained considerable influence following the move of the Tappan brothers to this group, in December 1833, at Philadelphia, Lewis Tappan joined activists such as William Lloyd Garrison to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. The departure of the Tappans from the ACS is partially explained by the death of an African whom they repatriated, captured in Africa and enslaved in Mississippi, Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahima was a Fulani prince. He would have had potentially lucrative trade contacts in Africa, partly for business reasons, the Tappans focused on Ibrahimas repatriation, which was finally achieved. Shortly after reaching his homeland, however, Ibrahima died in 1829 and this ended the Tappans hopes of easily establishing significant African trade. The Tappan brothers were Congregationalists and uncompromising moralists, even within the abolitionist movement, Lewis Tappan advocated intermarriage as the long-range solution to racial issues, as all people would eventually be mixed race. He dreamed of a copper-skinned America where race would not define any man, woman, Tappan characterized the arrival of the Amistad and its Africans on American shores as a providential occurrence that might allow the heart of the nation to be touched by the power of sympathy. The Tappan brothers created chapters of the American Anti-Slavery Society throughout New York state, although Tappan was popular among many, opponents of abolition attacked his homes and churches by arson and vandalism. In 1833, the Tappans helped establish Oberlin College in Ohio, Lewis began a nationwide mailing of abolitionist material, which resulted in violent outrage in the South and denunciation by Democratic politicians, who accused him of trying to divide the Union. In the North, the mailings generated widespread sympathy and financial support for the American Anti-Slavery Society, by 1840, however, the anti-slavery program had expanded and the movement splintered
24.
John Quincy Adams
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John Quincy Adams was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, United States Senator, member of the House of Representatives, and was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican and he was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and thus contributed to the formation of the Adams political family. Adams shaped U. S. foreign policy using his ardently nationalist commitment to U. S. republican values, as a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, historians generally concur that he was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history. Adams was elected president in a close and controversial four-way contest in 1824, as president he sought to modernize the American economy and promote education. Adams enacted a part of his agenda and paid off much of the national debt, however he was stymied time and again by a Congress controlled by opponents, and his lack of patronage networks helped politicians sabotage him. He lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, after leaving office, he was elected as U. S. Representative from Massachusetts in 1830, serving for the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president, animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. Adams predicted the Unions dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, historians have in the aggregate ranked Adams as the 21st most successful president. John Quincy Adams was born on July 11,1767, to John Adams and he was named for his mothers maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named. Young Adams was educated by private tutors – his cousin James Thaxter and his fathers law clerk and he soon began to exhibit his literary skills in 1779, when he initiated a diary which he kept until just before he died in 1848. The diary comprised an unprecedented fifty volumes, representing one of the most extensive, much of Adams youth was spent accompanying his father overseas. He accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 until 1779, Adams acquired an education at institutions such as Leiden University. He matriculated in Leiden on January 10,1781, for nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, during these years overseas, Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and became familiar with German and other European languages. Though Adams enjoyed Europe, he and his family decided he needed to return to the United States to complete his education and he entered Harvard College, graduated in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and was elected by Phi Beta Kappa. Adams, mainly with the influence of his father, had excelled in studies and reached fluency in Latin. Upon entering Harvard he had already translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, after graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789
25.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
26.
West Africa Squadron
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The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron at substantial expense in 1808 after Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The squadrons task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa, with a home base at Portsmouth, it began with two small ships, the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Derwent. At the height of its operations, the squadron employed a sixth of the Royal Navy fleet, between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans. On 25 March 1807 Britain formally abolished the Slave Trade, prohibiting British subjects from trading in slaves, crewing slave ships, sponsoring slave ships, the Act also included a clause allowing the seizure of ships without slave cargoes on board but equipped to trade in slaves. In order to enforce this ruling in 1808 the Admiralty dispatched two vessels to police the African Coast, the small British force was able, due to the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, to stop any ship bearing the flag of an enemy nation, making suppression activities much easier. Portugal, however, was one of the largest slave trading nations and Britains ally against France, dart, and in 1813 another letter of marque, were the only two vessels to pursue slavers for profit, and thus augment the efforts of the West Africa Squadron. The lack of private initiatives, and their duration, suggest that they were not profitable. In 1814 France agreed to cease trading, and Spain in 1817 agreed to cease North of the equator, in order to prosecute vessels captured, and thereby allowing the Navy to claim its prizes, a series of courts were established along the African Coast. In 1807 a Vice Admiralty Court was established in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1817 several Mixed Commission Courts were established, replacing the Vice Admiralty Court in Freetown. These Mixed Commission Courts had officials from both Britain and foreign powers, with Anglo-Portuguese, Anglo-Spanish, and Anglo-Dutch courts being established in Sierra Leone. Far from the Pax Britannica style policing of the 1840s and 1850s, the actions of the West Africa Squadron were strictly Governed by the treaties, and officers could be punished for overstepping their authority. Commodore Sir George Ralph Collier, with the 36-gun HMS Creole as his flagship, was the first Commodore of the West Africa Squadron. On 19 September 1818, the navy sent him to the Gulf of Guinea with the orders, however, he had only six ships with which to patrol over 5,000 kilometres of coast. He served from 1818 to 1821, in 1819 the Royal Navy created a naval station in West Africa at Freetown. This was the capital of the first British colony in West Africa, most of the enslaved Africans freed by the squadron chose to settle in Sierra Leone as for fear of otherwise being re-enslaved. From 1821, the also used Ascension Island as a supply depot. As the Royal Navy began interdicting slave ships, the slavers responded by abandoning their merchant ships in favour of faster ships, particularly Baltimore clippers. At first, the Royal Navy was often unable to catch these ships, however with the capture of slaver clippers, one of the most successful ships of the West Africa Squadron was one such captured ship, renamed HMS Black Joke
27.
John C. Calhoun
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John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina, and the seventh Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He is remembered for defending slavery and for advancing the concept of minority rights in politics. He began his career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent of a strong national government. His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the Souths secession from the Union in 1860–1861, Calhoun began his political career in the House of Representatives. He then served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe, Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency in the 1824 election. After failing to support, he let his name be put forth as a candidate for vice president. The Electoral College elected Calhoun for vice president by an overwhelming majority and he served under John Quincy Adams and continued under Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in the election of 1828. During his terms as president, he made a record of 31 tie-breaking votes in Congress. Calhoun had a relationship with Jackson primarily due to the Nullification Crisis. In 1832, with only a few remaining in his second term, he resigned as vice president. He sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1844, but lost to surprise nominee James K. Polk, Calhoun served as Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845. As Secretary of State, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to extend the slave power and he then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican–American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. Calhoun often served as a virtual party-independent who variously aligned as needed with Democrats, later in life, Calhoun became known as the cast-iron man for his rigid defense of Southern beliefs and practices. His concept of republicanism emphasized approval of slavery and minority rights, as embodied by the Southern states—he owned dozens of slaves in Fort Hill. Calhoun also asserted that slavery, rather than being an evil, was a positive good. To protect minority rights against majority rule, he called for a concurrent majority whereby the minority could sometimes block proposals that it infringed on their liberties. To this end, Calhoun supported states rights and nullification, through which states could declare null, Calhoun was one of the Great Triumvirate or the Immortal Trio of Congressional leaders, along with his Congressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In 1957, a Senate Committee headed by Senator John F. Kennedy selected Calhoun as one of the five greatest United States Senators of all time
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South Carolina
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South Carolina /ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia across the Savannah River, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution, doing so on May 23,1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede from the Union on December 20,1860, after the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25,1868. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 23rd most populous U. S. state and its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3. 13%. The capital and largest city is Columbia with a 2013 population of 133,358, South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, under whose reign the English colony was first formed, with Carolus being Latin for Charles. There is evidence of activity in the area about 12000 years ago. Along the Savannah River were the Apalachee, Yuchi, and the Yamasee, further west were the Cherokee, and along the Catawba River, the Catawba. These tribes were village-dwellers, relying on agriculture as their food source. The Cherokee lived in wattle and daub houses made with wood and clay, about a dozen separate small tribes summered on the coast harvesting oysters and fish, and cultivating corn, peas and beans. Travelling inland as much as 50 miles mostly by canoe, they wintered on the plain, hunting deer and gathering nuts. The names of these survive in place names like Edisto Island, Kiawah Island. The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area, in 1521, founding San Miguel de Gualdape, established with 500 settlers, it was abandoned within a year by 150 survivors. In 1562 French settlers established a settlement at what is now the Charlesfort-Santa Elena archaeological site on Parris Island, three years later the Spanish built a fort on the same site, but withdrew following hostilities with the English navy. In 1629, King Charles I of England established the Province of Carolina an area covering what is now South and North Carolina, Georgia, in the 1670s, English planters from the Barbados established themselves near what is now Charleston. Settlers built rice plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry, east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, settlers came from all over Europe. Plantation labor was done by African slaves who formed the majority of the population by 1720, another cash crop was the Indigo plant, a plant source of blue dye, developed by Eliza Lucas. Meanwhile, in Upstate South Carolina, west of the Fall Line, was settled by farmers and traders. Colonists overthrew the rule, seeing more direct representation
29.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
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Royal Marines
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The Corps of Royal Marines is the United Kingdoms amphibious light infantry force, forming part of the Naval Service, along with the Royal Navy. The Royal Marines were formed in 1755 as the Royal Navys infantry troops, as a highly specialised and adaptable light infantry force, the Royal Marines are trained for rapid deployment worldwide and capable of dealing with a wide range of threats. The Royal Marines have close ties with allied marine forces, particularly the United States Marine Corps. Today, the Royal Marines are a fighting force within the British Armed forces. The Royal Marines can trace its origins back as far as 28 October 1664 when at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company the Duke of York and Albanys maritime regiment of foot was first formed. On 5 April 1755, His Majestys Marine Forces, fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, were formed by Order of Council under Admiralty control. Initially all field officers were Royal Navy officers as the Royal Navy felt that the ranks of Marine field officers were largely honorary and this meant that the furthest a Marine officer could advance was to lieutenant colonel. It was not until 1771 that the first Marine was promoted to colonel and this attitude persisted well into the 1800s. During the rest of the 18th century, they served in numerous landings all over the world and they also served in the American War of Independence, being particularly courageous in the Battle of Bunker Hill led by Major John Pitcairn. In 1788 a detachment of four companies of marines, under Major Robert Ross, due to an error the Fleet left Portsmouth without its main supply of ammunition, and were not resupplied until the Fleet docked in Rio de Janeiro midway through the voyage. In 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the Earl St. Vincent, the Royal Marines Artillery was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb ketches. These had been manned by the Armys Royal Regiment of Artillery, during the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Marines participated in every notable naval battle on board the Royal Navys ships and also took part in multiple amphibious actions. In the Caribbean theatre volunteers from freed French slaves on Marie-Galante were used to form Sir Alexander Cochranes first Corps of Colonial Marines and these men bolstered the ranks, helping the British to hold the island until reinforcements arrived. This practice was repeated during the War of 1812, where escaped American slaves were formed into Cochranes second Corps of Colonial Marines and these men were commanded by Royal Marines officers and fought alongside their regular Royal Marines counterparts at the Battle of Bladensburg. Throughout the war Royal Marines units raided up and down the east coast of America including up the Penobscot River and they fought in the Battle of New Orleans and later helped capture Fort Bowyer in Mobile Bay in what was the last action of the war. In 1855 the Infantry forces were renamed the Royal Marines Light Infantry, during the Crimean War in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross, two in the Crimea and one in the Baltic. In 1862 the name was altered to Royal Marine Light Infantry. The Royal Navy did not fight any other ships after 1850, in these Naval Brigades, the function of the Royal Marines was to land first and act as skimishers ahead of the sailor Infantry and Artillery
31.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
32.
Razaaq Adoti
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Razaaq Adoti is a British actor, producer and screenwriter. Adoti was born in Forest Gate, London of Nigerian descent and he landed his first professional screen role on the British television show, Press Gang, playing a police officer. Adoti was cast as Yamba in Steven Spielberg’s feature epic, Amistad alongside Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, after completing Amistad, he returned to London where he worked on various television and film projects. 1, and Black Hawk Down with director Ridley Scott, playing the antagonist Yousuf Dahir Moalim, since then, Adoti has starred in numerous productions including Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil, Apocalypse, Haven, Doom and The Hard Corps. Adoti also starred as Dutch Maas in Bill Duke’s 2008 film, Adoti, through his Area Boyz production company, has written a screenplay Sons of the Soil to be shot in England and Nigeria. He is also the host and co-producer on the new Fox Soccer Channel television show titled Extra Time set for a summer 2008 premiere, Adoti, is a big fan of the English Premier League and is an ardent supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Razaaq Adoti at the Internet Movie Database
33.
Anna Paquin
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Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. As a child, she beat 5000 candidates for the role of Flora McGrath in Jane Campions romantic drama film The Piano, despite having had little to no acting experience prior to getting the role. For her performance, she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 11 and she played mutant superheroine Rogue in multiple films of the X-Men franchise and was nominated for a Saturn Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in the first installment. Paquin is also known for playing the role of Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO vampire drama television series True Blood. Paquin has been married since 2010 to actor Stephen Moyer, with whom she has two children, Paquin has two older siblings, Andrew, a director, and Katya, whose partner is the Green Party of New Zealands former co-leader Russel Norman. Paquin is of Dutch, French and Irish descent, Paquins family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She attended the Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School until she was eight or nine and her musical childhood hobbies in New Zealand included playing the viola, cello and piano. She also participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing, while in New Zealand, Paquin attended Hutt Intermediate School. She graduated from Windward School in June 2000 and completed the schools Community Service requirement by working in a soup kitchen and she studied at Columbia University for one year but has since been on a leave of absence to continue her acting career. Director Jane Campion was looking for a girl to play a main role in The Piano, set to film in New Zealand. Paquins sister read the ad and went to try out with a friend, when The Piano was released in 1993 it was lauded by critics, won prizes at a number of film festivals, and eventually became a popular film among a wide audience. Paquins debut performance in the film earned her the 1993 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 11, making her the second-youngest Oscar winner in history, behind Tatum ONeal. The Piano was made as a independent film and wasnt expected to be widely known. However, she was invited to the William Morris Agency, and she systematically refused them, but she did appear in three commercials for the phone company MCI in 1994. She later made a series of commercials for Manitoba Telecom Systems in her birth city of Winnipeg. She also appeared as a voice in a book entitled The Magnificent Nose in 1994. In 1996, she appeared in two films, the first role was as young Jane in Jane Eyre. The other was a part in Fly Away Home playing a young girl who, after her mother dies, moves in with her father
34.
Tomas Milian
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Tomas Milian was a Cuban American-Italian actor and singer, known for the emotional intensity and humour he brought to roles in Italian genre films. A student of Lee Strasberg, Milian studied method acting at the Actors Studio in New York City. Throughout the late-1960s and early-1970s, Milian established himself as a leading actor in a series of Spaghetti Western films, most notably The Big Gundown, The Ugly Ones. Face to Face, Run, Man, Run, Death Sentence, Tepepa, Compañeros, Sonny and Jed, Life Is Tough, following a decline in the popularity of Spaghetti Westerns, Milian transitioned to roles in poliziottesco films. He also appeared in films during this period, including the giallo Dont Torture a Duckling. After returning to the United States in 1985, Milian continued to perform supporting roles in productions, including JFK, Amistad, Traffic. Milian was born in Havana as the son of a Cuban general and his father was arrested and jailed, he later committed suicide on a New Years evening. Milián then decided to leave Cuba and pursue his wishes of being an actor and he settled in the United States to study at New Yorks Actors Studio and later became an American citizen. In 1969, he became a naturalized Italian citizen, Milian was bisexual, prior to his marriage to actress Margherita Valletti, he had relationships with both men and women. After starting a career in the United States, Milian went to Italy in 1958 to take part in a festival in Spoleto. He eventually decided to relocate to Italy, where he lived for over 25 years and his first film part in Italy was in the 1959 picture La notte brava. Although his voice was dubbed due to his accent, Milián performed his lines in Italian. He initially starred in movies and worked with directors such as Mauro Bolognini. After five years of making what he deemed intellectual movies, Milián was unhappy with his contract with producer Franco Cristaldi, needing money to start over, he took the opportunity to star as a bandit in a spaghetti western called The Bounty Killer. The film boosted his career, and ultimately resulted in his staying in Italy and he became a star of the spaghetti western genre, where he often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. As the spaghetti westerns dwindled, Milián remained a star in genre films. He starred with Barbara Bouchet in the giallo Dont Torture a Duckling and he later turned to comedy, playing the recurrent characters of petty thief Monnezza and Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi in a variety of crime-comedy pictures. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, miliáns inventive use of romanesco made him a cult performer in Italy
35.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
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Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor, CBE, is a British actor. Ejiofor portrayed the characters Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange, Dr. Vincent Kapoor in The Martian, Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things and The Operative in Serenity. For 12 Years a Slave he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and he was nominated for a 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance in Dancing on the Edge. In 2008, he was awarded an Officer of the OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts and he was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours. Ejiofor was born in Londons Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents of Igbo origin and his father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. His younger sister is CNN correspondent Zain Asher and his father was killed, and Ejiofor was badly injured, and received scars that are still visible on his forehead. Ejiofor began acting in plays at the age of fourteen at Dulwich College. He got into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art but had to leave after his first year, after being cast in Steven Spielbergs film Amistad. He played the role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1996. Ejiofor made his debut in the television film Deadly Voyage in 1996. He went on to become an actor in London. In Steven Spielbergs Amistad, he gave support to Djimon Hounsous Cinque as interpreter Ens, in 1999, he appeared in the British film G, MT – Greenwich Mean Time. In 2000, he starred in Blue/Orange at the Royal National Theatre and that same year, his performance as Romeo in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. Ejiofor was awarded the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards in 2000, Ejiofor had his first leading film role in 2000 playing Nicky Burkett in Jeremy Camerons It Was An Accident. In 2002 he starred in Dirty Pretty Things, for which he won a British Independent Film Award for best actor. In the following year, he was part of the ensemble cast of Love Actually, starred in a BBC adaptation of Chaucers The Knights Tale and he starred alongside Hilary Swank in 2004s Red Dust, portraying the fictional politician Alex Mpondo of post-apartheid South Africa. He played Mike Terry, in the cult film Redbelt that received favourable reviews and he also received acclaim for his performance as a complex antagonist The Operative in the 2005 film Serenity. Ejiofor played a revolutionary in the 2006 film Children of Men and his singing and acting performance in Kinky Boots received a Golden Globe Award and British Independent Film Award nomination
36.
Derrick Ashong
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Derrick N. Ashong, also known as DNA, is a musician, artist, activist, and entrepreneur. Born in a house with no running water in Accra, Ghana in 1975, Ashong was a founding member of the Harvard Black Alumni Society and founded the Black Mens Forum. Derrick Ashong is married and has two children, ashongs musical career started while at Harvard. He produced a musical entitled Songs We Cant Sing, for which he won awards, the band later became known as Soulfège. In 1997, Ashong had a role in Steven Spielbergs Amistad, playing the character Buakei and he also appeared in a 2006 documentary about the Angola 3, entitled 3 Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation. Ashong founded a talent agency, ASAFO Productions, Ashong is also the former host of The Derrick Ashong Experience on Oprah Radio, The Stream on Al Jazeera English, and DNAtv on Fusion. In 2012, Ashong and his team won a Royal Television Society Award and were nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award for their work on The Stream. He received another Emmy nod in 2015 for Take Back the Mic, The World Cup of Hip Hop, the show of his digital media company, amp. it. He is the author of FREE THIS CD, Ashong reached prominent media attention when a YouTube video went viral, of him speaking on Barack Obamas campaign to gain the Democratic nomination for the 2008 U. S. presidential election. Surprising the interviewer who expected a short soundbite, Ashong gave a measured and protracted analysis of Obamas campaign, the video has been viewed more than a million times. He recently founded a Miami-based tech company, called amp, Official website Official Soulfège website amp. it website Free this CD Derrick Ashong article on Goodmagazine. com Ashong/Obama YouTube Video
