Catherine Zeta-Jones is a Welsh actress. Born and raised in Swansea, Zeta-Jones aspired to be an actress from a young age; as a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals Bugsy Malone. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools and made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street, her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film 1001 Nights, she went on to find greater success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May. Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles. Zeta-Jones established herself in Hollywood with roles that highlighted her sex appeal, such as in the action film The Mask of Zorro and the heist film Entrapment, she received acclaim for her performances as a vengeful pregnant woman in Traffic and a murderous singer in the musical Chicago. She starred in high-profile films for much of the decade, including the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty, the heist film Ocean's Twelve, the comedy The Terminal, the romantic comedy No Reservations.
Parts in smaller-scale features were followed by a decrease in workload, during which she returned to stage and played an ageing actress in A Little Night Music, winning a Tony Award. Zeta-Jones continued to work intermittently in the 2010s, starring in the psychological thriller Side Effects and the action film Red 2, portrayed actress Olivia de Havilland in the FX television series Feud. Zeta-Jones is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award, in 2010, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her film and humanitarian endeavours, she supports various charities and causes, is a prominent celebrity endorser of brands. Her struggle with depression and bipolar II disorder has been well documented by the media, she is married to American actor Michael Douglas. Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea, Wales, on 25 September 1969 to David Jones, the owner of a sweet factory, his wife Patricia, a seamstress, her father is Welsh and her mother is of Irish Catholic descent.
She was named after Zeta Jones and Catherine Fair. She has an older brother, a younger brother, who worked as a sales representative before venturing into film production. Zeta-Jones was raised in the suburban area of Mumbles; because Zeta-Jones was a hyperactive child, her mother sent her to the Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was four years old. She was educated at a private school in Swansea; the family came from a modest background, but their fortunes improved when they won £100,000 in a bingo competition, allowing them to pay for Zeta-Jones's dance and ballet lessons. Zeta-Jones participated in school stage shows from a young age and gained local media attention when her rendition of a Shirley Bassey song won a Junior Star Trail talent competition; as part of a dance troupe, she took trips to London, where she auditioned for roles in the theatre. At the age of nine, she was selected to play one of the orphan girls in a West End production of the musical Annie, in her early teens, she became a national tap dancing champion.
In 1981, she played the lead role of Annie in a Swansea production of the musical, staged at the Swansea Grand Theatre. Two years she played the lead role of Tallulah in a West End production of Bugsy Malone; when she was 15, Zeta-Jones dropped out of school without obtaining O-levels and decided to live in London to pursue a full-time acting career. Describing her teenage years in London, Zeta-Jones said, "I would queue up for auditions and change my costume or put on a different leotard and audition again, it might take me two tries. I figured out what they wanted", she went on to attend the independent Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, for a three-year course in musical theatre. In 1987, when she was 17 years old, Zeta-Jones was picked as the second understudy to the lead actress in a West End production of 42nd Street. During one of the performances, both the star and the first understudy were unavailable, Zeta-Jones was asked to play the role of Peggy Sawyer—a chorus girl who becomes a star.
The producer was impressed by her acting ability and allowed her to play the role for the next two years. Her next stage appearance was with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 where she played Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's Street Scene. In 1990, Zeta-Jones made her film debut in the director Philippe de Broca's film 1001 Nights. An adaptation of the Persian fable One Thousand and One Nights, the French-Italian production recounts the tale from the perspective of Scheherazade, one of the brides of King Sharir; the film was not well received at the box office, according to de Broca's obituary in The Daily Telegraph, the film "is best remembered for its enjoyable nude scenes". Greater success followed when she starred opposite David Jason and Pam Ferris in the British period comedy-drama television series The Darling Buds of May from 1991 to 1993. Adapted from H. E. Bates' novel of the same name, Zeta-Jones played the role of the eldest daughter of a family living in the countryside in 1950s Britain.
The series was the highest-rated television show in the country at the time, Zeta-Jones gained wide public recognition for it.
Uroplatus pietschmanni, known as the cork-bark leaf-tail gecko, the cork bark leaftail gecko, the spiny leaf-tailed gecko, is a species of lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to Madagascar; the specific name, pietschmanni, is in honor of German gecko breeder Jürgen Pietschmann. U. pietschmanni is found in Madagascar. The preferred habitat of U. pietschmanni is rainforest at altitudes of 900–1,200 m. U. pietschmanni is a medium-sized species for its genus. Adults may attain a snout-to-vent length of 8.1 cm, a total length of 13.4 cm. U. pietschmanni is oviparous. Böhle, Andreas. "Eine neue Art der Gattung Uroplatus Duméril, 1805 aus Ost-Madagaskar: A new species of the genus Uroplatus from eastern Madasascar". Salamandra, Rheinbach 39: 129-138... Greenbaum E, Bauer AM, Jackman TR, Vences M, Glaw F. "A phylogeny of the enigmatic Madagascan geckos of the genus Uroplatus". Zootaxa 1493: 41-51. Ratsoavina FN, Raminosoa NR, Lewis EE Jr, Raselimanana AP, Glaw F, Vences M. "An overview of Madagascar's leaf tailed geckos: species boundaries, candidate species and review of geographical distribution based on molecular data".
Salamandra 49: 115-148
Roger Robert Andrew Francis Bradley was a New Zealand-born Dutch cricketer. Bradley was a right-handed batsman. Born in the New Zealand capital, Bradley attended Otumoetai College in Tauranga, he played a single first-class match for Northern Districts in the 1990/91 New Zealand cricket season against Central Districts. By 1995, he had moved to the Netherlands and in June of that year he made his debut for the Netherlands in the 1995 NatWest Trophy against Northamptonshire. Over the next seven years he played 15 List A matches for the Netherlands, competing in the English domestic one-day tournament, the 2000 ICC Emerging Nations Tournament and the 2002 ICC 6 Nations Challenge. In his 15 List A matches for his adopted country, Bradley scored 278 runs at a batting average of 19.85, with two half centuries. His highest score was 78 against Cambridgeshire in 1999, he represented the Netherlands in ten matches in the 2001 ICC Trophy. Bradley died in Tauranga on 24 March 2017 after a long illness. Roger Bradley at Cricinfo Roger Bradley at CricketArchive