1.
Madison, Wisconsin
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Madison is the capital of the U. S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. As of July 1,2015, Madisons estimated population of 248,951 made it the second largest city in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee, and the 84th largest in the United States. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureaus Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Dane County and neighboring Iowa, Green, the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Areas 2010 population was 568,593. When the Wisconsin Territory was created in 1836 the territorial legislature convened in Belmont, One of the legislatures tasks was to select a permanent location for the territorys capital. Doty lobbied aggressively for Madison as the new capital, offering buffalo robes to the freezing legislators and he had James Slaughter plat two cities in the area, Madison and The City of Four Lakes, near present-day Middleton. Doty named the city Madison for James Madison, the fourth President of the U. S. who had died on June 28,1836 and he named the streets for the other 39 signers of the U. S. Constitution. Being named for the founding father James Madison, who had just died. The cornerstone for the Wisconsin capitol was laid in 1837, on October 9,1839, Kintzing Prichett registered the plat of Madison at the registrars office of the then-territorial Dane County. Madison was incorporated as a village in 1846, with a population of 626, when Wisconsin became a state in 1848, Madison remained the capital, and the following year it became the site of the University of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad connected to Madison in 1854, Madison incorporated as a city in 1856, with a population of 6,863, leaving the unincorporated remainder as a separate Town of Madison. The original capitol was replaced in 1863 and the capitol burned in 1904. The current capitol was built between 1906 and 1917, during the Civil War, Madison served as a center of the Union Army in Wisconsin. Camp Randall, on the west side of Madison, was built and used as a camp, a military hospital. After the war ended, the Camp Randall site was absorbed into the University of Wisconsin, in 2004 the last vestige of active military training on the site was removed when the stadium renovation replaced a firing range used for ROTC training. The City of Madison continued annexations from the Town of Madison almost from the date of the citys incorporation, Madison is located in the center of Dane County in south-central Wisconsin,77 miles west of Milwaukee and 122 miles northwest of Chicago. The city completely surrounds the smaller Town of Madison, the City of Monona, Madison shares borders with its largest suburb, Sun Prairie, and three other suburbs, Middleton, McFarland and Fitchburg. The citys boundaries also approach the city of Verona, and the villages of Cottage Grove, DeForest, and Waunakee. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 94.03 square miles
2.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
3.
Carnegie Mellon University
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Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools, in 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. The universitys 140-acre main campus is 3 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh, john Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and the School of Computer Science. The university also has campuses in Qatar and Silicon Valley, with degree-granting programs in six continents, Carnegie Mellon consistently ranks in the top 25 in the national U. S. News & World Report rankings. It is home to the world’s first degree-granting Robotics and Drama programs, the university spent $242 million on research in 2015. Carnegie Mellon counts 13,650 students from 114 countries, over 100,000 living alumni, Carnegies vision was to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class Pittsburghers. Carnegie was inspired for the design of his school by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, in 1912 the institution changed its name to Carnegie Institute of Technology and began offering four-year degrees. The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was founded in 1913 by banker and industrialist brothers Andrew, Mellon in honor of their father, Thomas Mellon, the patriarch of the Mellon family. The Institute began as an organization which performed work for government. In 1927, the Mellon Institute incorporated as an independent nonprofit, in 1938, the Mellon Institutes iconic building was completed and it moved to its new, and current, location on Fifth Avenue. In 1967, with support from Paul Mellon, Carnegie Tech merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Mellons coordinate womens college, the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College closed in 1973 and merged its academic programs with the rest of the university. The industrial research mission of the Mellon Institute survived the merger as the Carnegie Mellon Research Institute and continued doing work on contract to industry, CMRI closed in 2001 and its programs were subsumed by other parts of the university or spun off into independent entities. Carnegie Mellons 140-acre main campus is three miles from downtown Pittsburgh, between Schenley Park and the Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and Oakland neighborhoods, Carnegie Mellon is bordered to the west by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon owns 81 buildings in the Oakland and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, for decades the center of student life on campus was Skibo Hall, the Universitys student union. Built in the 1950s, Skibo Halls design was typical of Mid-Century Modern architecture, the original Skibo was razed in the summer of 1994 and replaced by a new student union that is fully wi-fi enabled. Known as University Center, the building was dedicated in 1996, in 2014, Carnegie Mellon re-dedicated the University Center as the Cohon University Center in recognition of the eighth president of the university, Jared Cohon. A large grassy area known as the Cut forms the backbone of the campus, the Cut was formed by filling in a ravine with soil from a nearby hill that was leveled to build the College of Fine Arts building. The northwestern part of the campus was acquired from the United States Bureau of Mines in the 1980s, the sculpture was controversial for its placement, the general lack of input that the campus community had, and its aesthetic appeal
4.
Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough
5.
Chicago (2002 film)
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Chicago is a 2002 American musical crime comedy film based on the musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere, Chicago centers on Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, two murderesses who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Velma, a vaudevillian, and Roxie, a housewife, fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows. Directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, and adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago won six Academy Awards in 2003, the film was critically lauded, and was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver. In 1924, Roxie Hart sees star Velma Kelly perform at a Chicago theater, wanting stardom for herself, she begins an affair with Fred Casely, who claims to know the manager. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband Charlie and sister Veronica, a month later, Casely admits to Roxie that he has no showbiz connections and just wanted her body. She convinces her husband, Amos, to take the blame, as Amos confesses to the detective, Roxie fantasizes that she is singing a song devoted to her husband. However, when the detective brings up evidence that Roxie and Casely were having an affair, Amos recants, ambitious District Attorney Harrison announces he will seek the death penalty. At Cook County Jail, Roxie is sent to Murderess Row, Roxie meets her idol Velma, but her friendship is rudely rebuffed. She learns the backstories of the women there, including Velma Kelly. On Mortons advice, Roxie engages Velmas lawyer, the brilliant Billy Flynn, the press believe the story, praised by the public as a tragic heroine, Roxie becomes an overnight sensation. Meanwhile, Kitty Baxter, a heiress, is arrested for murdering her husband. To Velmas surprise, Roxie quickly steals back the fame by claiming to be pregnant. Amos is ignored by the press, and Flynn, to create sympathy for Roxie, convinces him that the child is Caselys. Roxie over-confidently fires Flynn, believing she can now win on her own, however, when Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian woman from Murderess Row is hanged, she realizes the gravity of the situation and rehires Flynn. Roxies trial begins, and Billy turns it into a spectacle with the help of the sensationalist newspaper reporters. Billy discredits witnesses, manipulates evidence, and even stages a public reconciliation between Amos and Roxie when she says the child is his. The trial seems to be going Roxies way until Velma appears with Roxies diary, Billy discredits the diary, implying that Harrison was the one who planted the evidence
6.
Academy Award
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
7.
BAFTA
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and game in the United Kingdom. David Lean was the founding Chairman of the Academy, the first Film Awards ceremony took place in May 1949 and honouring the films The Best Years of Our Lives, Odd Man Out and The World Is Rich. In 2005, it placed a cap on worldwide voting membership which now stands at approximately 6,500. BAFTA has offices in Scotland and Wales in the UK, in Los Angeles and New York in the United States and runs events in Hong Kong, amanda Berry OBE has been chief executive of the organisation since December 2000. Many of these events are free to online at BAFTA Guru. BAFTA runs a number of programmes across the UK, US. Launched in 2012, the UK programme enables talented British citizens who are in need of support to take an industry-recognised course in film. Each BAFTA Scholar receives up to £12,000 towards their annual course fees, since 2013, three students every year have received one of the Prince William Scholarships in Film, Television and Games, supported by BAFTA and Warner Bros. These scholarships are awarded in the name of in his role as President of BAFTA, since 2015, BAFTA has been offering scholarships for British citizens to study in China, vice versa. BAFTA presents awards for film, television and games, including entertainment, at a number of annual ceremonies across the UK and in Los Angeles. The BAFTA award trophy is a mask, designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe. Todays BAFTA award – including the mask and marble base – weighs 3.7 kg and measures 27 cm x 14 cm x 8 cm. BAFTAs annual film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, or the BAFTAs, in 1949 the British Film Academy, as it was then known, presented the first awards for films made in 1947 and 1948. Since 2008 the ceremony has held at the Royal Opera House in Londons Covent Garden. It had been held in the Odeon cinema on Leicester Square since 2000, the ceremony had been performed during April or May of each year, but since 2002 it has been held in February to precede the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards, or Oscars. They have been awarded annually since 1954, the first ever ceremony consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they were awarded by the Guild of Television Producers and Directors, from 1968 until 1997, BAFTAs Film and Television Awards were presented together, but from 1998 onwards they were presented at two separate ceremonies. The Television Craft Awards celebrate the talent behind the programmes, such as working in visual effects, production
8.
Tony Award
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The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at a ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre, several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards are named after Antoinette Tony Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, the rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards, which applies for that season only. It also forms the fourth spoke in the EGOT, that is someone who has won all four awards, the Tony Awards are also considered the equivalent of the Laurence Olivier Award in the United Kingdom and the Molière Award of France. From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, in 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theatre. From 2013 to 2015, the 67th, 68th, and 69th ceremonies returned to Radio City Music Hall, the 70th Tony Awards were held on June 12,2016 at the Beacon Theatre. The 71st Tony Awards will be held on June 11,2017, as of 2014, there are 24 categories of awards, plus several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947, the names and number of categories have changed over the years, some examples, the category Best Book of a Musical was originally called Best Author. The category of Best Costume Design was one of the original awards, for two years, in 1960 and 1961, this category was split into Best Costume Designer and Best Costume Designer. It then went to a category, but in 2005 it was divided again. For the category of Best Director of a Play, a category was for directors of plays. A newly established non-competitive award, The Isabelle Stevenson Award, was given for the first time at the ceremony in 2009. The award is for an individual who has made a contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian. The category of Best Special Theatrical Event was retired as of the 2009–2010 season, the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical were retired as of the 2014-2015 season. Performance categories Show and technical categories Special awards Retired awards The award was founded in 1947 by a committee of the American Theatre Wing headed by Brock Pemberton. The award is named after Antoinette Perry, nicknamed Tony, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died in 1946. As her official biography at the Tony Awards website states, At Jacob Wilks suggestion, proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting, at the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony
9.
Annie (1999 film)
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It stars Victor Garber, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming, Kathy Bates, Kristin Chenoweth, and introduces Alicia Morton as the title character. It is also referred to as a remake of Columbias 1982 film and it was written by Irene Mecchi, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and directed by Rob Marshall. It aired on ABC on November 7,1999 and this version earned two Emmy Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award. This is Disneys and Columbias first film collaboration since Columbia distributed some of Disneys short animated Silly Symphony films from 1930 to 1932, in 1933, 11-year-old orphan Annie was left at a girls orphanage when she was an infant. With her was half a heart-shaped locket with a key hole, the orphanage is run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan, who starves the orphans and makes them suffer. Tired of waiting for her parents, Annie tries to escape to find them, when Miss Hannigan gets distracted, Annie hides in the dirty laundry bin and she finally succeeds in running away. While out on her own, Annie befriends a dog, whom she names Sandy, but a policeman catches her and returns her to the orphanage. When billionaire Oliver Warbucks decides to take in an orphan for Christmas, his secretary, Grace Farrell and she is brought to his wealthy estate and bathes in a grand life. Although at first uncomfortable with Annie, Warbucks is soon charmed by her and he wants to adopt Annie, but Annie still wants to find her real parents, so she announces on the radio a $50,000 reward for anybody who can prove theyre her parents. The orphans accidentally tell Miss Hannigan, and her ex-con brother Rooster, when Lily proves to be too risky for the scheme, Miss Hannigan takes over as Annies mother. Lily is left with the orphans after Miss Hannigan and Rooster leave, the orphans make her tell them what is going on, and she realizes that Rooster could leave her hanging as he has done before. She and the come to Warbucks mansion where Lily demands her part in the cut while the orphans quote WE LOVE YOU MISS HANNIGAN as Miss Hannigan tries to run by Lily. While fleeing from the orphans, Miss Hannigan and Rooster are intercepted upon the arrival of President Franklin D. Roosevelt along with his Secret Service, the President reads the papers that identity Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily while also mentioning the aliases of the latter two. Rooster and Lily are arrested by the Secret Service as Rooster tells Lily that she loused up, Miss Hannigan tries to convince Annie to vouch for her to avoid being arrested, but Annie says she would and states that Miss Hannigan taught her to never tell a lie. Miss Hannigan is driven insane and is carted off to an asylum as Rooster, President Roosevelt then present the evidence to Annie that her real parents are David and Margaret Bennett and had in fact died several years earlier which was why they never returned for her. Although Annie is saddened that her parents are dead, she is cheered up when Warbucks officially takes her in as one of his own. The President ensures a happy ending for all as he promises that each orphan will be adopted by a stable, Warbucks and Grace become engaged, and Annie lives happily with her new parents. The films soundtrack was released on November 2,1999 by Sony, the songs in this version reflect those of the original 1977 production, but does not include Wed Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover, Tomorrow, Annie, or New Deal for Christmas
10.
Taylor Allderdice High School
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Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school located in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. S. It publishes an edition every five to six weeks during the school year and it is supported solely by advertising sales and is distributed at no cost to students, faculty, parents, and members the local community. The newspapers namesake is a play on words of Forward Avenue, in 2012, rapper Wiz Khalifa released Taylor Allderdice, a mixtape named for his alma mater. Taylor Allderdice High School Pittsburgh Public Schools
11.
Theatre in Pittsburgh
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Theatre in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades. These students included Henry Marie Brackenridge, the son of university founder Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Morgan Neville, the son of Presley Neville, and future U. S. Throughout the 1800s, Pittsburgh was home to stock companies, beginning with the Theatre on Third Street, Pittsburghs first free-standing playhouse. Other theatres followed Hendersons lead, including the Pittsburgh Opera House, sam Nixon and Fred Zimmermans building of the Nixon and the Gayety attracted touring productions of successful Broadway plays as well as international ballet and opera companies. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, noncommercial theater became more important and political in nature, exemplified by the New Theater of Pittsburgh. Black theater also became an important cultural force at this time. The Negro Drama League was formed in 1932 to support the vibrant theatrical activity of African-Americans in Pittsburgh, Jewish theatrical activity also became more prominent in Pittsburgh at this time, notably with the Irene Kaufmann Settlement Players. German and Catholic theatre developed a presence as well, civic theaters devoted to a sense of civic theatrical identity grew in popularity, the still-active Pittsburgh Playhouse, established in 1934, is the most enduring theatre of this movement. Over the years, the company has moved to locations throughout the city. The university company became professionally oriented in 1981, and continues to stage productions throughout the year in their primary facility. Saint Vincent Summer Theatre, another major fixture of the Pittsburgh area, the theatre has staged many different kinds of productions over the years, and now produces mostly light farces for a summer theatre audience. Mountain Playhouse, one of the oldest professional theatres in the Pittsburgh area, similar to St. Vincent, Mountain Playhouse also stages light summer stock fare, including comedies and musicals. Apple Hill Playhouse in nearby Delmont also stages light comedies and musicals as well as childrens theater, Pittsburgh Playhouse, currently home to Point Park Universitys conservatory students and resident professional theatre company Playhouse Rep, opened its doors in 1934 as a community theater. Stage Right was established in the mid-1960s and continues to produce theatre in the Fox Chapel area of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Public Theater was chartered in 1974 by Joan Apt, Margaret Rieck and Ben Shaktman and held its first production in 1975. Staging a wide variety of plays and musicals, from classical to contemporary, City Theatre also staged its first production in 1975 as the City Players, a group of recent college graduates that gave free performances in schools, parks, and housing projects. The company has evolved to become a major regional theatre that has staged premieres of new works by Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, Jeffrey Hatcher, Eric Simonson. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a new generation of companies emerged and contributed to Pittsburghs expanding. Quantum Theatre was founded in 1990 by Karla Boos, it has staged productions of plays, musicals, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival was established in 1990 as well to provide a venue for new plays by playwrights from all over the country
12.
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera
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Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera is a nonprofit professional theater company based in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Pittsburgh CLO stages productions of musical theater classics, drawing more than 200,000 patrons each year, established on 20 February 1946, it premiered at Pitt Stadium on 3 June 1946, where it offered outdoor performances until 1958. In 1961, the Civic Arena, was built to house the CLO. In 1973 the company moved to the renovated former Penn Theatre that was now called Heinz Hall. The company moved to the Benedum Center in 1988, CLO opened its newest venue in 2004, The CLO Cabaret at Theater Square. Pittsburgh CLOs history began when Abraham Lewis Wolk, a Pittsburgh City Councilman, attended a performance of the St. Louis Municipal Opera, the first American summertime musical theater. Wolk wanted to copy the idea, and after discussions with Pittsburgh retail magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann, since 1946, Pittsburgh CLO has been dedicated to the preservation, creation and promotion of live musical theater. Pittsburgh CLO produces a Main Stage Season, A Musical Christmas Carol, programs include the Academy, Mini Stars, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Construction Center for the Arts and being a partner in Elephant Eye Theatricals. National touring includes Doctor Dolittle, Barry Manilow’s Copacabana and Joseph, Pittsburgh CLOs numerous programs for students include the Gene Kelly Awards, founded in 1990. In 2004, the Pittsburgh CLO produced The Music Man, featuring Jeff Goldblum as Harold Hill, alongside his then-girlfriend, Catherine Wreford, Illeana Douglas and this production was later made the centerpiece of mockumentary/documentary Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Civic Orchestras musicians come from many backgrounds and ages, archived from the original on December 31,2016. Www. pittsburghcivicorchestra. net www. usctheater. org/events/series/pco Theatre in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera homepage Nederlander Awards Post Gazette mention
13.
Cats (musical)
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Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possums Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. Cats introduced the song standard Memory, the first performance of Cats was in 1981. Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, Cats first opened in the West End in 1981 and it won numerous awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. The London production ran for years and the Broadway production ran for eighteen years. Actresses Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley became particularly associated with the musical, One actress, Marlene Danielle, performed in the Broadway production for its entire run. As of 2016, Cats is the show in Broadway history. Cats is the sixth-longest-running West End musical and it has been performed around the world many times and has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1998, Cats was turned into a made-for-television film, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the production of Cats is based on T. S. Eliots Old Possums Book of Practical Cats, which the composer recalled as having been a childhood favorite. Also, a song entitled The Moments of Happiness was taken from a passage in Eliots Four Quartets. Andrew Lloyd Webber began composing the songs in late 1977 and premiered the compositions at the Sydmonton Festival in 1980, the concert was attended by T. S. Eliots wife, Valerie Eliot and she loved the songs that Webber had composed. She gave her blessing for the songs to be adapted into a stage play. Rehearsals for the musical began in early 1981 at the New London Theatre, an unusual musical in terms of its construction, the overture incorporates a fugue and there are occasions when the music accompanies spoken verse. The show is told through music with virtually no spoken dialogue in between the songs. Dance is also a key element in the musical especially during the 10-minute Jellicle Ball dance sequence, the set, consisting of an oversized junk yard, remains the same throughout the show without any scene changes. Lloyd Webbers eclecticism is very strong here, musical genres range from classical to pop, music hall, jazz, rock, Cats premiered in the West End at the New London Theatre on May 11,1981. There was trouble initially as Judi Dench, cast in the role of Grizabella and she was replaced by Elaine Paige. It played a total of 8,949 performances in London and it held the record as Londons longest running musical until 8 October 2006, when it was surpassed by Les Misérables. The show made its debut on Broadway on 7 October 1982, on 19 June 1997, Cats became the longest-running musical in Broadway history with 6,138 performances
14.
Emmy Award
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An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award, the Tony Award, and the Grammy Award. Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced, each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies. The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences established the Emmy Award as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The first Emmy Awards ceremony took place on January 25,1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the very first Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony. In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, in 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was formed in New York City as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, and help to also supervise the Emmys. The NATAS also established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming, the ATAS still however maintained its separate regional ceremony honoring local programming in the Los Angeles Area. Originally there was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States, in 1974, the first Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held to specifically honor achievement in national daytime programming. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed, also, the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and initially aired outside the U. S. was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, in 1977, due to various conflicts, the ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties. However, they agreed to share ownership of the Emmy statue and trademark. With the rise of television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. The ATAS also began accepting original online-only web television programs in 2013, the Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model. The TV Academy rejected a total of forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus design in 1948. The statuette has become the symbol of the TV Academys goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television, The wings represent the muse of art. When deciding a name for the award, Academy founder Syd Cassyd originally suggested Ike, however, Ike was also the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Academy members wanted something unique. Finally, television engineer and the third president, Harry Lubcke, suggested the name Immy. After Immy was chosen, it was feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette
15.
Annie (musical)
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Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for six years. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, the musicals songs Tomorrow and Its the Hard Knock Life are among its most popular musical numbers. In 1933, eleven-year-old Annie is in the Municipal Girls Orphanage, along with Molly, Kate, Tessie, Pepper, July, when Molly awakes from a bad dream, angering Pepper and Duffy, July tells them to hush up and eventually gets into a fight with Pepper. Annie gets up and tells everyone to go back to sleep, Molly then asks if Annie could read her note from when her parents left her at the orphanage. Duffy and Pepper are yet again annoyed, along with Kate, Pepper and Duffy imitate Annies acting as if they were her parents. Annie decides to escape to find her parents, but is caught by Miss Hannigan and she is angered by this and forces all the girls to vigorously clean the orphanage. Shortly after, Mr. Bundles, the man, comes in to pick up the blankets. While Miss Hannigan is flirting with him, Annie climbs into the laundry basket, once Miss Hannigan realizes she is gone, the other orphans express their frustration. Annie successfully escapes, running into a stray dog. As she comforts him, she tells him of better days yet to come, the dog catcher is after him, so she pretends the dog is hers by calling him Sandy. Though at first unsuccessful, she convinces the dog catcher, and she later finds a Hooverville, where people made homeless by the Great Depression have come together as a community. However, a policeman named Lt. Ward, who had been sent by Miss Hannigan, catches Annie, Grace Farrell, assistant to the billionaire Oliver Warbucks, comes to the orphanage asking for an orphan to come to his mansion for the Christmas holiday. Because Annie was in Miss Hannigans office, Grace asks to take her, once she has left, Miss Hannigan explodes with her hatred for all the girls in the orphanage. Meanwhile, at the Warbucks Mansion, the staff welcomes Annie with open arms, when Oliver Warbucks comes back, though, he is very moody and not too happy to have an orphan in his mansion. He asks Grace to take Annie to a movie, but she persuades him to come too, as he and Annie begin to like each other, they enjoy a fabulous night in New York City. Back at the orphanage, Miss Hannigans brother, Rooster, and his girlfriend, Lily, Miss Hannigan mentions that Annie is staying at a billionaires house, and they think they could use this situation to their advantage, though they do not yet know how. Warbucks sees the locket around Annies neck, and buys her a new one from Tiffany & Co and he debates taking her under his wing, because he doesnt know much about children, but he decides he loves her and gives her the locket
16.
Charles Strouse
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Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to the musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Annie, amongst others. Strouse was born in New York City, to Jewish parents, Ethel and Ira Strouse, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he studied under Arthur Berger, David Diamond, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. Strouses first Broadway musical was the 1960 hit Bye Bye Birdie, with lyrics by Lee Adams, for this show, Strouse won his first Tony Award in the category of best musical, and Bye Bye Birdie is considered the precursor of the rock musical. Strouses next show, All American, with a book by Mel Brooks and lyrics by Adams, came in 1962, it was not a success but it produced the standard “Once Upon a Time”. Following this were Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis, Jr. and Its a Bird, Its a Plane, Its Superman which was modestly successful, in 1970, Applause won Strouse his second Tony Award. Other Strouse musicals include Charlie and Algernon, Dance a Little Closer, Rags, Nick & Nora, Strouse also wrote a number of musical revues, many with Adams. He wrote the music and lyrics for the animated special Lyle, Lyle Crocodile which aired on HBO in 1987, strouses film scores include the classics Bonnie and Clyde, There Was a Crooked Man. The Night They Raided Minskys and the animated movie All Dogs Go to Heaven. He and Adams also wrote the theme song “Those Were the Days” for the television show All in the Family, strouses songs have been heard on the radio throughout his career and have run the gamut from girl-band pop to hip hop. Strouses writing also extends into orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos, in 1977, Strouse founded the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, through which many young composers and lyricists have found a forum for their work. Upcoming works by Strouse include an adaptation of the Paddy Chayevsky film Marty starring John C. Reilly, the musical Minskys, with music by Strouse, book by Bob Martin, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead premiered in January 2009 at the Ahmanson Theater. Strouse has won Emmy Awards for music in television adaptions of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie and he is also the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award and the Oscar Hammerstein Award. He is also a member of the Theater Hall of Fame, Strouse is married to director-choreographer Barbara Siman. They have 4 children, Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria and William, Strouse received an Emperor Has No Clothes Award at the Freedom From Religion Foundations 34th annual national convention on October 8,2011
17.
Kander and Ebb
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Kander and Ebb were a highly successful American songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Recorded by many artists, New York, New York became a song for Frank Sinatra. The team also became associated with two actresses, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, for whom they wrote a considerable amount of material for the stage, concerts, John Kander and Fred Ebb were introduced by their mutual music publisher Tommy Valando in 1962. They first collaborated on a musical called Golden Gate, which producer-director Harold Prince called. basically a test to see if the collaboration was any good. They wrote Flora the Red Menace, their first musical to be produced on Broadway, in 1965, kanders and Ebbs greatest acclaim came from the musical Cabaret and the 1972 film version. The musical, directed by frequent collaborator Harold Prince, was a major success and it won a Tony Award as the seasons best musical, and its original cast recording won a Grammy Award. The film, directed by Bob Fosse, won eight Academy Awards, the musical Chicago after an excellent initial run of 936 performances was revived on Broadway in 1996 to become an even greater hit. It has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history, and the 2002 film version was also a great success, other Broadway successes included Woman Of The Year, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and, posthumously for Ebb, Curtains, their final musical. Minnelli became strongly associated with Kander and Ebb, with Ebb producing Minnellis Emmy-winning television special Liza with a Z and they appreciated the actresss excellent musicianship and found her congenial to work with. Kander said, One of the things about writing for Liza is that you dont have to write for Liza. You know that whatever you do write, shes going to deliver it exactly the way you intended it and its really the same with Chita Rivera, the other woman in our lives. The creative team often met at Harold Princes home to discuss ideas and these sessions are discussed in the Kander and Ebb biography, Colored Lights, as what if sessions. In 1998, Kander and Ebb were recognized for their contributions to theatre, in 1994, they were granted honorary Doctorate degrees from Niagara University, in Lewiston, New York. The Scottsboro Boys played on Broadway for a time in 2010. The book was written by David Thompson and choreographed and directed by Susan Stroman
18.
Chicago (musical)
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Chicago is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice, the original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances until 1977. Bob Fosse choreographed the production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. Following a West End debut in 1979 which ran for 600 performances, Chicago was revived on Broadway in 1996, the Broadway revival holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. It is the second longest-running show in Broadway history, behind only The Phantom of the Opera, having played its 7, 486th performance on November 23,2014, surpassing Cats. The West End revival ran for nearly 15 years, becoming the longest-running American musical in West End history, the 2002 film version of the musical won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In the early 1920s, Chicagos press and public became riveted by the subject of homicides committed by women, several high-profile cases arose, which generally involved women killing their lovers or husbands. These cases were tried against a backdrop of changing views of women in the Jazz age, a lore arose that, in Chicago, feminine or attractive women could not be convicted. The Chicago Tribune generally took a pro-prosecution hang-them-high stance, while presenting the details of these womens lives. Regardless of stance, the press covered several of these women as celebrities, Annan, the model for the character of Roxie Hart, was 23 when she was accused of the April 3,1924, murder of Harry Kalstedt. The Tribune reported that Annan played the foxtrot record Hula Lou over and over for two hours before calling her husband to say she killed a man who tried to love to her. She was found not guilty on May 25,1924, Velma Kelly is based on Gaertner, who was a cabaret singer, and society divorcée. The body of Walter Law was discovered slumped over the wheel of Gaertners abandoned car on March 12,1924. Two police officers testified that they had seen a woman getting into the car, a bottle of gin and an automatic pistol were found on the floor of the car. Gaertner was acquitted on June 6,1924, lawyers William Scott Stewart and W. W. OBrien were models for a composite character in Chicago, Billy Flynn. Watkins sensational columns documenting these trials proved so popular that she decided to write a play based on them, the show received both popular and critical acclaim and even made it to Broadway in 1926, running for 172 performances. DeMille produced a silent film version, Chicago, starring former Mack Sennett bathing beauty Phyllis Haver as Roxie Hart and it was later remade as Roxie Hart starring Ginger Rogers, but, in this version, Roxie was accused of murder without having really committed it
19.
Academy Award for Best Director
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The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that have been awarded Best Picture,63 have also been awarded Best Director, since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four, william Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. As of the 2017 ceremony, Damien Chazelle is the most recent winner in category for his work on La La Land. Chazelle also became the youngest director in history to receive this award, two directing teams have shared the award, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the siblings to have won the award. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com
20.
Memoirs of a Geisha (film)
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Directed by Rob Marshall, the film was released in the United States on December 9,2005 by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures, the latter was given studio credit only. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, production took place in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine. Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, Chiyo is eventually transformed into a geisha and renamed Sayuri, and becomes one of the most celebrated geisha of her time. But with this success, Sayuri also learns the secrets and sacrifices of the geisha lifestyle, the acting, visuals, sets, costumes, and John Williams musical score were praised, but was criticized for casting Chinese actresses as Japanese women and the films style over substance approach. The Japanese release of the film was titled Sayuri, the titular characters geisha name, Chiyo Sakamoto, a young girl from a poverty stricken fishing village, is sold along with her older sister Satsu into a life of servitude by her aging father. Chiyo is taken in by Mrs. Kayoko Nitta, the Mother of a house in Gion, one of the most prominent geisha districts in Kyoto. At the okiya, Chiyo meets another girl named Pumpkin, the cranky Granny. However, Auntie is aware of this and warns Chiyo against trusting and angering Hatsumomo, Chiyo tracks down Satsu and makes plans to run away together. However, upon returning to the okiya she discovers Hatsumomo with her boyfriend, Koichi, when they are caught, Hatsumomo attempts to twist the situation by accusing Chiyo of stealing. Chiyo denies this and informs Mother of what she saw in the shed, as a result, everyone is barred from leaving the okiya at night except to attend work engagements, and this further increases Hatsumomos anger towards Chiyo. On the night of their escape, Chiyo attempts to sneak out. As punishment for dishonoring the okiya, Mother tells Chiyo that she wont invest any money in her geisha training. She also informs Chiyo that both her parents are dead, Chiyo misses her chance to flee and never sees Satsu again. She is also demoted from geisha training to working as a slave to pay off her debts to Mother. One day, while crying on a riverbank, Chiyo is noticed by the Chairman and he buys her a shaved ice dessert and gives her his handkerchief with some money in it. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of the Chairmans life. Several years later, Pumpkin has begun her training as a maiko under Hatsumomos tutelage and she is unexpectedly taken under the wing of Mameha, one of Gions most successful geisha and long time rival of Hatsumomos. Although initially reluctant, Mother is persuaded by Mameha to allow Chiyo to train as a geisha, under Mamehas tutelage, Chiyo becomes a maiko and takes the name of Sayuri
21.
Memoirs of a Geisha (novel)
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Memoirs of a Geisha is a historical novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of a geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before. In 2005, a version was released. Perceived as less attractive in looks and demeanor, Satsu is not sold into the okiya and is forced into becoming a prostitute in Kyotos pleasure district. Chiyo lives in the Nitta okiya alongside another young girl named Pumpkin, the elderly and grumbling Granny, money-obsessed Mother, and Auntie, also living in the okiya is the famous and ill-mannered geisha, Hatsumomo, renowned for her wickedness and dazzling beauty. She promptly takes to disliking Chiyo, whom she sees as a future rival who may threaten her place in the okiya and Gion. Hatsumomo begins to go out of her way to get rid of Chiyo, even withholding the knowledge of Satsus whereabouts in the district to make her do her dirty work. This includes having Chiyo ruin an expensive kimono belonging to her more successful rival, Mameha, Auntie warns Chiyo against both angering and trusting Hatsumomo, knowing the ill-mannered geishas true nature very well. When Chiyo finds Satsu in the district, she conspires with her to escape from their new lives. Returning back to the okiya, she happens upon Hatsumomo engaged in relations with her plebeian boyfriend. This proves to be against the rules of the lifestyle as its a livelihood-threatening situation for a geisha whose air of unattainability is crucial to their allure. A furious Hatsumomo attempts to twist the situation and place blame for an indiscretion on Chiyo. While Mother learns the truth from Chiyo and though she is punished, Hatsumomo is also banned from seeing Koichi again, Mother then orders the gates to be locked and bans everyone from leaving, except for nightly attendance with clients. Despite Pumpkin and Aunties warning not to run away, Chiyo plans to leave the okiya and she is caught when she falls off the roof and breaks her arm. She also learns of her parents death and also that Satsu had returned to Yoroido, overjoyed by Chiyos demotion to being a slave under Mother and wanting revenge for being banned from Koichi, Hatsumomo takes advantage of the situation by continuing to be cruel to her. Several years later, a downtrodden Chiyo is given money and a handkerchief in the street by a strange, Chiyo becomes envious of Pumpkin, who is on her way to becoming a geisha under Hatsumomos tutelage, while Chiyo still remains a maid under Mother. Pumpkin advances and is given her name as Hatsumiyo, though Hatsumomo is dismayed that everyone still refers to her as Pumpkin. Soon afterward, at Grannys funeral, Chiyo is startled when Mameha takes an interest in her, Mameha persuades a reluctant Mother to reinvest in Chiyos training, with Mameha acting as Chiyos mentor and older sister
22.
Zhang Ziyi
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Zhang Ziyi is a Chinese actress and model. She is considered one of the Four Dan Actresses of China and her first major role was in The Road Home. She later achieved fame for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang is known for being a Yimou Girl, as she frequently collaborated with director Zhang Yimou. Zhang is best known for her appearances in Rush Hour 2, Hero, House of Flying Daggers,2046, from 2004 to 2010, Zhang ranked in the Top 5 of Forbes China Celebrity 100 list every year. In 2008, she was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema award at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, in 2013, she received the French Cultural Order at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Awards. Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China and her parents are Zhang Yuanxiao, an accountant and later economist, and Li Zhousheng, a kindergarten teacher. She is very close to her brother, Zhang Zinan. Zhang began studying dance when she was 8 years old, subsequently, while at this boarding school, she noticed how mean the other girls were to each other while competing for status amongst the teachers. Zhang disliked the attitudes of her peers and teachers so much that, on one occasion, at the age of 15, Zhang won the national youth dance championship and began appearing in television commercials in Hong Kong. In 1996, Zhang entered the prestigious Central Academy of Drama in Beijing at the age of 17, Zhang plays a country girl who was in love with her teacher, and won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Hundred Flowers Awards for her performance. She rose to fame in 2000 with her role as Jen in martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The movies success in the US and Europe helped her break into Hollywood, Zhang then appeared in her first American film, Rush Hour 2. In 2002, Zhang co-starred in Hero alongside Tony Leung, directed by her early mentor Zhang Yimou, the film was a huge success in the English-speaking world and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. She then signed on to film a drama film Purple Butterfly. Zhang went back to the martial arts genre in House of Flying Daggers, again by Zhang Yimou and she plays the blind dancing girl Mei, who despite the lack of eyesight, is a skilled fighter. In preparation for the part, Zhang spent two months living with a blind girl. Her performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the BAFTA Awards and she also featured on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem Jia Rén Qu. Zhang next starred in Wong Kar-wais romantic drama film 2046, which featured many top Chinese actors, Critics praise Zhang for her expressive body language that was combined with her reserved and complex emotions in performance as a struggling prostitute
23.
Gong Li
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Gong Li is a Singaporean-Chinese actress. She is credited with helping to bring Chinese cinema to Europe, in 2008, she became a naturalized citizen of Singapore. Gong won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for Farewell My Concubine and she has also twice been awarded the Golden Rooster and the Hundred Flowers Awards, as well as the Berlinale Camera, and the Cannes Festival Trophy. Her other film appearances include Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern,2046, Gong Li was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, the youngest in a family of five children. Her father was a professor of economics and her mother was a teacher, Gong grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong. In 1985, Gong sought to study at Chinas top music school, later that same year, she was accepted to the prestigious Central Academy of Drama in Beijing and graduated in 1989. While a student at the Central Academy of Drama, she was discovered by Zhang Yimou and these roles established her reputation, according to Asiaweek, as one of the worlds most glamorous movie stars and an elegant throwback to Hollywoods golden era. In many of her movies, Gong represents a tragic victim. In June 1998, Gong Li became a recipient of Frances Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, two years later, she was invited by the Berlin Film Festival to be the president of its international jury at the festivals 50th anniversary. In 1993, she received a New York Film Critics Circle award for her role in Farewell My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige, the film was her first major role with a director other than Zhang Yimou. In the same year, she was awarded with the Berlinale Camera at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, in 2006, Premiere magazine ranked her performance in Farewell My Concubine as the 89th greatest performance of all time. Immune to political repercussions because of her fame, Gong Li began criticizing the policy in China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were initially banned in China for being thinly-veiled critiques of the Chinese government, regarding the sexual content in Ju Dou, Chinese censorship deemed the film a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people. Despite her popularity, Gong avoided Hollywood for years, due to a lack of confidence in speaking English and she made her English speaking debut in 2005 when she starred as Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha. Her performance was met generally positive reviews. Her other English-language roles to date included Chinese Box in 1997, Miami Vice in 2006, in all three films, she learned her English lines phonetically. She narrated Beijing, a walking tour by Louis Vuitton and Soundwalk. In 2010, she starred in the World War II-era thriller Shanghai as Anna Lan-Ting, during a press junket for the film, she stated that she was becoming more selective with the Chinese language projects offered to her
24.
Michelle Yeoh
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Tan Sri Dato Seri Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng is a Chinese Malaysian actress, best known for performing her own stunts in the Hong Kong action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s. Born in Ipoh, Malaysia, she was chosen by People as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997, in 2008, the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time. In 2009, she was listed by People – as the only Asian actress – as one of the 35 All-Time Screen Beauties and she is credited as Michelle Khan in some of her earlier films. This alias was chosen by the D&B studio who thought it might be more marketable to international, Yeoh later preferred using her real name. Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, to an ethnic Chinese family of mixed Cantonese and her parents are Janet Yeoh and Yeoh Kian Teik, a lawyer and MCA politician. She was keen on dance from an age, beginning ballet at the age of four. At the age of 15, she moved with her parents to the United Kingdom, Yeoh later studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. However, an injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer. She later received a B. A. degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama, in 1983, at the age of 20, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant. She represented Malaysia at the Queen of the Pacific 1983 beauty pageant which was held in Australia and she was also Malaysias representative at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London. From there, she appeared in a commercial with Jackie Chan which caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company. Yeoh started her career acting in action and martial arts films such as Yes, Madam in 1985. The D&B Group in Hong Kong was run by Dickson Poon, Yeoh married Poon in 1987 and retired from acting. After the couple divorced in 1992, Yeoh returned to acting, yeohs performance in Police Story 3, Super Cop marked her comeback. She acted in The Heroic Trio in 1993, and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master, Yeoh learned English and Malay before Cantonese. She learned the Mandarin lines for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon phonetically and she played Wai Lin in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as an actress who was serious. He referred to her as a female James Bond in reference to her combat abilities and she wanted again to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous
25.
Ken Watanabe
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Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and he is also known for his roles in director Christopher Nolans Hollywood films Batman Begins and Inception. He made his Broadway debut in April 2015 in Lincoln Center Theaters revival production of The King, in 2015, Watanabe received his first Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical at the 69th Tony Awards for his role as The King. He is the first Japanese actor to be nominated in this category, Watanabe was born in Koide, Niigata. His mother was a teacher and his father taught calligraphy. Due to a number of relocations for his parents work, he spent his childhood in the villages of Irihirose and Sumon and he attended Niigata Prefectural Koide High School, where he was a member of the concert band club, playing trumpet, which he had played since childhood. After graduation from school, in 1978 he aimed to enter Musashino Academia Musicae. Because of these problems, Watanabe gave up trying to enter the conservatory, after graduating from high school in 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to begin his acting career, getting his big break with the Tokyo-based theater troupe En. While with the troupe, he was cast as the hero in the play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari, the role attracted critical and popular notice. In 1982, he made his first TV appearance in Michinaru Hanran and he made his feature-film debut in 1984 with MacArthurs Children. Watanabe is mostly known in Japan for playing samurai, as in the 1987 Dokuganryu Masamune the 50-episode NHK drama and he played the lead character, Matsudaira Kurō, in the television jidaigeki Gokenin Zankurō, which ran for several seasons. He has gone on to acclaim in such historical dramas as Oda Nobunaga, Chushingura. In 1989, while filming Haruki Kadokawas Heaven and Earth, Watanabe was diagnosed with myelogenous leukemia. He returned to acting while simultaneously undergoing chemotherapy treatments, but in 1991 suffered a relapse, as his health improved his career picked back up. He co-starred with Koji Yakusho in the 1998 Kizuna, for which he was nominated for the Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, in 2002, he quit the En theatre group where he had his start and joined the K-Dash agency. The film Sennen no Koi earned him another Japanese Academy Award nomination, in 2006, he won Best Lead Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards for his role in Memories of Tomorrow, in which he played a patient with Alzheimers Disease. Watanabe was introduced to most Western audiences in the 2003 American film The Last Samurai and his performance as Lord Katsumoto earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Watanabe appeared in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, playing Chairman Iwamura and that same year, he also played Ras al Ghuls decoy in Christopher Nolans Batman film reboot, Batman Begins
26.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
27.
Nine (2009 live-action film)
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Nine is a 2009 musical drama film directed and produced by Rob Marshall and written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella. The film is an adaptation of the 1982 musical Nine, which in turn is based on Federico Fellinis semi-autobiographical 1963 film 8½, in addition to songs from the stage musical, all written by Maury Yeston, the film has three original songs, also written by Yeston. The ensemble principal cast consists of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, and Sophia Loren. Despite mixed reviews and commercial failure, Nine was nominated for four Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Song. Guido Contini is a gifted Italian filmmaker who, at the age of fifty, has developed writers block and urges all the women in his life, alive and dead, to help him with it. It is 1965, and at the famous Cinecittà movie studios, in Rome, everyone has questions for Signor Contini. At a press conference at the Hotel Excelsior on the Via Veneto, hes charming and colourful, avoiding any clear answer on his new movie, his ninth with producer, Dante, here he meets Stephanie, a Vogue fashion journalist, with whom he begins a flirtation. Escaping the biting probes of the reporters, he creates an elaborate fantasy and he escapes the press conference and arrives at the Bellavista Spa Hotel. While being examined by the doctor, he receives a call from Carla and she describes her desire for him, as he listens on the other end. She arrives at the spa, expecting to share his suite, meanwhile, Guido learns that a Cardinal is also staying at his hotel and tells the cardinal’s assistant to arrange a meeting. However, Dante soon arrives at the spa and escorts Contini to a hall where the entire production team is assembled to help him prepare for his film. He sees Lilli, his designer, and begs for inspiration. She reminds him of Luisas birthday the day and disagrees, saying that it reminds her of Folies Bergère, a Parisian music hall that featured showgirls. The Cardinal agrees to him and advises him to lead a more moral life. Guido remembers Saraghina, a prostitute whom he and his friends paid to them the art of love. Young Guido is caught by his school teachers/priests and whipped by his principal and he awakens on top of Carla, in a fit of anxiety and abruptly leaves to meet his production team for dinner. She wants to come, but he refuses, reminding her that they don’t want to hurt either of their spouses. At dinner, he’s happily surprised to see Luisa, who has come at Lillis request and he embraces her and wishes her a happy birthday, promising that when she returns home, the house will be filled with flowers
28.
Nine (musical)
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Nine is a musical, initially created and written by Maury Yeston as a class-project in Lehman Engels BMI Music Theatre Workshop in 1973. It was later developed with a book by Mario Fratti, and then again with a book by Arthur Kopit, music, the story is based also on Federico Fellinis semi-autobiographical film 8½. The original Broadway production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, the musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and has enjoyed a number of revivals. Yeston began to work on the musical in 1973, as a teenager, he had seen the Fellini film and was intrigued by its themes. I looked at the screen and said Thats me, I still believed in all the dreams and ideals of what it was to be an artist, and here was a movie about an artist in trouble. It became an obsession, Yeston told the New York Times and he would go on to say Nine was the thing I really desperately wanted to write—never thinking for a minute that it would ever be produced. The movie had a impact on me when I saw it as a teenager when it first came out. I was fascinated with Guido who was going through a second adolescence when I was going through my first, as I grew I began to realize that there was room to explore the reactions of the inner workings of the women in Guido’s wake. I think that’s what opened the gateways of creativity for Nine—to hear from these extraordinary women. The great secret of Nine is that it took 8 1/2 and became an essay on the power of women by answering the question, “What are women to men. ”And Nine tells you, they are our mothers, our sisters, our teachers, our temptresses, our judges, our nurses, our wives, our mistresses, our muses. Kopits new book, along with Yestons now completed score, became the script that was produced on Broadway in 1982. Fellini had entitled his film 8½ in recognition of his body of work. Yestons title for the adaptation adds another half-credit to Fellinis output. Yeston called the musical Nine, explaining that if you add music to 8½, as it turns out, it is the same crisis. Luisas efforts to talk to him seem to be drowned out by voices in his head, voices of women in his life, speaking through the walls of his memory, insistent, flirtatious, irresistible, potent. And these are the women Guido has loved, and from whom he has derived the entire vitality of a creative life, as Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied—his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from the objective world. And all the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consumed by anxiety for him, back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him, Claudia Nardi, a star, muse of his greatest successes, who has flown from Paris because he needs her
29.
Daniel Day-Lewis
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Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor who holds both British and Irish citizenship. Born and raised in London, he excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre, before being accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years. Despite his traditional training at the Bristol Old Vic, he is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the schedules of his films. He is one of the most selective actors in the industry, having starred in only five films since 1998. Protective of his life, he rarely gives interviews and makes very few public appearances. He starred in My Beautiful Laundrette, his first critically acclaimed role and he then assumed leading man status with The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He was also nominated in category for In the Name of the Father. He has also won four BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, in November 2012, Time named Day-Lewis the Worlds Greatest Actor. In June 2014, he received a knighthood at Buckingham Palace for services to drama, Day-Lewis was born in Kensington, London, the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and English actress Jill Balcon. Day-Lewiss mother was Jewish, and his maternal great-grandparents Jewish families emigrated to England from Latvia and his maternal grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was the head of Ealing Studios. Living in Greenwich, Day-Lewis found himself among tough South London children and he mastered the local accent and mannerisms and credits that as being his first convincing performance. Later in life, he has known to speak of himself as very much a disorderly character in his younger years, often in trouble for shoplifting. In 1968, Day-Lewiss parents, finding his behaviour to be too wild, at the school, he was introduced to his three most prominent interests, woodworking, acting, and fishing. The transfer led to his debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role. He described the experience as heaven, for getting paid £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked outside his local church, for a few weeks in 1972, he and his parents and sister lived at Lemmons, the north London home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Cecil Day-Lewis had cancer and Howard invited the family to Lemmons as a place they could use to rest, Cecil died there in May that year. Leaving Bedales in 1975, Day-Lewiss unruly attitude had diminished and he needed to make a career choice, although he had excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre in London, he applied for a five-year apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker, but was rejected due to lack of experience
30.
Marion Cotillard
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Marion Cotillard is a French actress, singer-songwriter, musician, environmentalist and spokesperson for Greenpeace who achieved international fame with the film La Vie en Rose. She is the recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, Cotillard has appeared in more than 50 feature films and is also known for being the face of Lady Dior handbags since 2008. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010 and she received Frances highest honor and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2016. She made her Hollywood debut as Joséphine Bloom in Tim Burtons Big Fish and her performance of Luisa Contini in the musical Nine, earned her a second Golden Globe nomination. She next starred in Michael Manns Public Enemies as Billie Frechette, Cotillard became one of only six actors to receive multiple Academy Award nominations for foreign-language performances. Cotillard played Joan of Arc on stage in different countries between 2005 and 2015 in the oratorio Jeanne dArc au bûcher. She provided voice acting for animated films as The Rose in The Little Prince, April in April and the Extraordinary World and Scarlet Overkill in the French version of Minions. Her other notable French and Belgian films include La Belle Verte, Furia, War in the Highlands, Lisa, Pretty Things, Love Me If You Dare, Innocence, Toi et Moi and Dikkenek. Cotillard was born in Paris, and grew up around Orléans, in an inclined, bustling. Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, Cotillards mother, Niseema Theillaud, who has Kabyle ancestry, is also an actress and drama teacher. Her two younger brothers Quentin and Guillaume are twins, Guillaume is a screenwriter and director. Cotillard began acting during her childhood, appearing in one of her fathers plays, or How I Got into an Argument, and the comedy La Belle Verte, directed by Coline Serreau. In 1998, she appeared in Gérard Pirès action comedy Taxi, playing Lilly Bertineau, the film was a hit in France and she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. Cotillard reprised the role in two sequels, Taxi 2 and Taxi 3 and she then ventured into science fiction with Alexandre Ajas post-apocalyptic romantic drama, Furia in 1999. That same year, Cotillard starred in the Swiss war drama film War in the Highlands, in 2001, she appeared in Pierre Grimblats film Lisa, playing the title role and younger version of Jeanne Moreaus character, co-starring with Benoît Magimel and Sagamore Stévenin. In the same year, she starred in Gilles Paquet-Brenners film Pretty Things, in the drama, Cotillard portrayed twins of completely opposite characters, Lucie and Marie, and she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her performances. In 2002, Cotillard starred in Guillaume Niclouxs thriller A Private Affair, in 2003, Cotillard had a notable supporting role in Tim Burtons film Big Fish. In the same year, she starred in the French romantic comedy film Love Me If You Dare, as Sophie Kowalsky, the film was directed by Yann Samuel and was a box office hit in France
31.
Nicole Kidman
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Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an Australian actress and film producer. Kidmans breakthrough roles were in the 1989 feature film thriller Dead Calm, other successful films followed in the late 1990s. Her performance in the musical Moulin Rouge, earned her a second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her performances in the drama Birth and the thriller The Paperboy earned her Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress and her performance in the 2010 drama Rabbit Hole, which she also produced, earned Kidman further accolades, including a third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2012, she earned her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the biopic Hemingway & Gellhorn. Kidmans performance in Lion earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination, Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion in the Order of Australia, as a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States. Kidman founded and owns the production company Blossom Films, Kidman was born 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on educational visas. Her father was Antony Kidman, a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author and her mother, Janelle Ann, is a nursing instructor who edited her husbands books and was a member of the Womens Electoral Lobby. Kidmans ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, and English heritage, being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani. The inspiration for the name came from a baby elephant born around the time at the Honolulu Zoo but the name is also a commonly used Hawaiian name for girls. At the time of Kidmans birth, her father was a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, Kidmans parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, the family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydneys North Shore. Kidman has a sister, Antonia Kidman, a journalist. Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls High School and she was enrolled in ballet at three and showed her natural talent for acting in her primary and high school years. She says that she was first inspired to become an actress upon seeing Margaret Hamiltons performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Kidman has revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness
32.
Sophia Loren
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Sophia Loren is an Italian film actress. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant and she appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, after starting her family in the early 1970s, Loren spent less time on her acting career and chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men, in 1995, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements, one of such awards. In 1999, Loren was acknowledged as one of the top 25 female American Screen Legends in the American Film Institutes survey, AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars. Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone in the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone, Riccardo Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving the piano teacher and aspiring actress without support. Lorens parents had another child together, her sister Maria, in 1938, Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe. Romilda, Sofia, and Maria lived with Lorens grandmother in Pozzuoli, during World War II, the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies. During one raid, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel, after that, the family moved to Naples, where they were taken in by distant relatives. After the war, Loren and her returned to Pozzuoli. Lorens grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda Villani played the piano, Maria sang, and Loren waited on tables, the place was popular with the American GIs stationed nearby. When she was 14, Sofia entered a beauty pageant, Miss Italia 1950 and, later, she enrolled in acting class and was selected as an uncredited extra in Mervyn LeRoys film Quo Vadis, at the age of 15. In 1951, she appeared in Italian film Era lui. sì. sì. where she played an odalisque. She appeared in bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade. She began using her current stage name in La Favorita, the new name being a twist on the name of the Swedish actress Märta Torén and was suggested by Goffredo Lombardo or Carlo Ponti and her first starring role was in Aida, for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the role in Two Nights with Cleopatra, her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples
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Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of award for her role in Anthony Adverse. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 78 actresses. Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters have received the most awards in this category with two awards each, despite winning no awards, Thelma Ritter was nominated on six occasions, more than any other actress. As of the 2017 ceremony, Viola Davis is the most recent winner in category for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, inside Oscar, The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States, Ballantine Books, oscars. org Oscar. com The Academy Awards Database
34.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
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Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides is a 2011 American fantasy swashbuckler film and the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. It is the first film in the not to be directed by Gore Verbinski. Jerry Bruckheimer again served as producer, the film serves as a stand-alone sequel to the previous installments. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released in the United States on May 20,2011 and it was the first film in the series to be released in the Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D formats. Pre-production started after the end of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, principal photography rolled for 106 days between June and November 2010, with locations in Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, and California. Filming employed 3D cameras similar to those used in the production of the 2009 film Avatar, following inflated production costs it is currently noted as the most expensive film ever made. On Stranger Tides broke many box office records upon release, a sequel, titled Dead Men Tell No Tales, is scheduled to be released on May 26,2017. After a failed attempt to rescue his first mate, Joshamee Gibbs in London, the king wants Jack to guide an expedition to the Fountain of Youth before King Ferdinand and the Spanish Navy can locate it. Jacks old nemesis, Captain Hector Barbossa, now a privateer in service to the British Navy after losing his leg and ship, the Black Pearl, Jack refuses the offer and escapes. He meets up with his father, Captain Teague, who warns Jack about the Fountains rituals, Jack learns someone is impersonating him to recruit a crew to find the Fountain. While Jack is shanghaied aboard Blackbeards ship, Gibbs escapes execution by memorizing and destroying Jacks map showing the Fountains location, meanwhile, after a failed mutiny aboard the Queen Annes Revenge, Jack is forced to guide the crew to the Fountain. Blackbeard seeks the Fountains power to circumvent his predestined fatal encounter with a one-legged man, Jack must find two silver chalices aboard Juan Ponce de Leóns missing flagship, the Santiago. The Fountains water must simultaneously be drunk by two people from the chalices, drinking from one chalice containing a mermaids tear will extend life, the second person dies, their remaining years of life transferred to the other drinker. Jack also discovers that the Black Pearl was captured and shrunk before being added to Blackbeards collection of shrunken ships in bottles. The Queen Annes Revenge heads for Whitecap Bay to find and harvest mermaid tears, a mermaid named Syrena is caught, but Philip Swift, a captive missionary, falls in love with her. Reaching Ponce de Leóns ship on an island, Angelica. Jack locates the grounded, decaying vessel, only to find Barbossa there, both guess that the Spanish have taken the chalices, after they are nowhere to be found on the vessel. Jack and Barbossa team up to sneak into the Spanish camp, Barbossa reveals he only wants revenge against Blackbeard for attacking the Black Pearl, and his leg being amputated
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Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)
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Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy swashbuckler films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on Walt Disneys theme park ride of the same name. Directors of the series include Gore Verbinski, Rob Marshall, and Joachim Rønning, the series was most notably written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, other writers include Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert, and Jeff Nathanson. The stories followed the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, characters such as Hector Barbossa and Joshamee Gibbs follow Jack, Will, and Elizabeth in the course of the films. The fourth film featured Philip Swift and Syrena, while the film will feature Henry Turner. The films take place in a historical setting, a world ruled by the British Empire, the East India Company. After the first films success, Walt Disney Pictures revealed that a trilogy was in the works, the franchises second film, subtitled Dead Mans Chest, was released three years later in 2006, the sequel proved successful, breaking financial records worldwide the day of its premiere. Dead Mans Chest ended up being the one film of the year upon earning almost $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office. The third film in the series, subtitled At Worlds End, followed in 2007, on Stranger Tides succeeded in also grossing more than $1 billion, becoming the second film in the franchise and only the eighth film in history to achieve this. A fifth film, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, is set to be released on May 26,2017. Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow to save Turners love, Elizabeth Swann, from cursed pirates led by Jacks mutinous former first mate, Captain Barbossa. Jack wants revenge against Barbossa, who left him stranded on an island before stealing his ship, lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company arrests Will and Elizabeth for aiding Captain Jack Sparrow in the previous film. Lord Beckett gains power over Davy Jones and, with the help of the Flying Dutchman, to stand against the East India Trading Co. Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and the crew of the Black Pearl set out to rescue Captain Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones Locker, as one of the Nine Pirate Lords, Jack is needed in order to summon an ancient goddess with the power to defeat Becketts forces. Captain Jack Sparrow is on a quest to find the fabled Fountain of Youth and crosses paths with a former lover and she forces Jack aboard the Queen Annes Revenge, a ship captained by the infamous pirate Blackbeard, Angelicas father. Both are also in search of the Fountain, Angelica to save her fathers soul, joining the hunt is former pirate captain Barbossa, now a privateer in King George IIs Navy, who is in a race against the Spanish for the Fountain of Youth. Captain Jacks only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, with the release of the official trailer of Dead Men Tell No Tales, it was suggested that Dead Men will be the last film in the franchise. However, on March 4,2017, director Joachim Rønning stated that Dead Men was only the beginning of the final adventure, wenches Scarlett and Giselle fix each other up for their wedding, in which they would each marry their groom. Upon realizing that both their grooms were the same man – Jack Sparrow – the two find themselves in an auction led by the Auctioneer
36.
Johnny Depp
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John Christopher Johnny Depp II is an American actor, producer, and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor and he rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol. He has collaborated on nine films with director, producer, Depp is regarded as one of the worlds biggest film stars. Films featuring Depp have grossed over $3.2 billion at the United States box office, Depp has been nominated for major acting awards, including three nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor. He has been listed in the 2012 Guinness World Records as the highest paid actor, Depp was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2015. Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the youngest of four children of Betty Sue Palmer, a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, Depp is of mostly English ancestry, with some ancestors from elsewhere in Europe. He is descended from a French Huguenot immigrant, Pierre Deppe or Dieppe, Depp is a 20th cousin of Elizabeth II. Depp moved frequently during his childhood and he and his siblings lived in more than 20 different places, eventually settling in Miramar, Florida in 1970. Depps parents divorced in 1978 when he was 15 and his mother married Robert Palmer, whom Depp has called an inspiration to me. With the gift of a guitar from his mother when he was 12, a year after his parents divorce, he dropped out of high school to become a rock musician. He attempted to go back to two weeks later, but the principal told him to follow his dream of being a musician. He played with The Kids, a band that enjoyed modest local success, the Kids set out together for Los Angeles in pursuit of a record deal, changing their name to Six Gun Method, but the group split up before signing a record deal. Depp subsequently collaborated with the band Rock City Angels and co-wrote their song Mary, on December 20,1983, Depp married Lori Anne Allison, the sister of his bands bass player and singer. During their marriage she worked as a makeup artist while he worked a variety of odd jobs and his wife introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to pursue an acting career. Depp and his wife divorced in 1985, Depps first film role was in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which he played the boyfriend of heroine Nancy Thompson and one of Freddy Kruegers victims. After a starring role in the comedy Private Resort, Depp was cast in the role of the skating drama Thrashin by the films director. Instead, Depp appeared in a supporting role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in Oliver Stones Vietnam War drama Platoon. He accepted this role to work with actor Frederic Forrest, who inspired him, despite his success, Depp felt that the series forced into the role of product
37.
Ian McShane
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Ian David McShane is an English actor and voice artist. He is known for his roles, particularly the title role in Lovejoy, Al Swearengen in Deadwood, Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides. He is set to portray Mr. Wednesday in the upcoming Starz series American Gods, McShane was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the son of Irene and Scottish footballer Harry McShane. His father was Scottish and his mother, who was born in England, was of Irish and English descent, McShane grew up in Davyhulme, Manchester, and attended Stretford Grammar School. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was still a student there when he appeared in his first film, 1962s The Wild, McShane was a member of the National Youth Theatre. In the United Kingdom, McShanes best known role may be antiques dealer Lovejoy in the series of the same name and he also enjoyed fame in the United States as British film director Don Lockwood in Dallas and as a British cockfighting aficionado in Roots. He was also nominated for at the 2005 Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Awards, within the science fiction community, McShane is best known for playing the character Dr Robert Bryson in Babylon 5, The River of Souls. In 1985, he appeared as an iconic MC on Grace Jones Slave to the Rhythm, an album which featured his narration interspersed throughout. Other recent roles include Captain Hook in Shrek the Third, Iofur Raknison in The Golden Compass, Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, in live-action, he has performed in Hot Rod, the action/thriller Death Race, and The Seeker. He has appeared in The West Wing as a Russian diplomat, in 2009, McShane appeared in Kings, which was based on the biblical story of David. His portrayal of King Silas Benjamin, an analogue of King Saul, was praised, with one critic saying, Whenever Kings seems to falter. In 2010, McShane starred in The Pillars of the Earth as Bishop Waleran Bigod, the series was a historical drama set in 12th century England and adapted from Ken Folletts novel of the same name. Also in 2010, the Walt Disney Company confirmed that McShane would portray Blackbeard in the installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In 2013, McShane played King Brahmwell in Bryan Singers Jack the Giant Slayer, since 2010, McShane has narrated the opening teases for each round of ESPNs coverage of The Open Championship. In 2012, McShane had a guest role for two episodes as Murder Santa, a serial killer in the 1960s in the second season of American Horror Story. In 2016, he joined the cast of Game of Thrones in Season 6 as Ray, McShane will be playing Mr. Wednesday in the upcoming television adaptation of Neil Gaimans American Gods. McShane married and divorced Suzan Farmer in the 1960s, in 1977, he began a relationship with Sylvia Kristel after meeting her on the set of The Fifth Musketeer. The affair ended his marriage to his wife, model Ruth Post
38.
Geoffrey Rush
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Geoffrey Roy Rush AC is an Australian actor and film producer. Rush is the youngest amongst the few people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, the Academy Award, the Primetime Emmy Award, and the Tony Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, Rush is the founding President of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year. Rush was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Merle, a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush and his father was of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and his mother was of German descent. His parents divorced when he was five, and his mother took him to live with her parents in suburban Brisbane. Before he began his career, Rush attended Everton Park State High School. While at university, he was talent-spotted by Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane, Rush began his career with QTC in 1971, appearing in 17 productions. In 1975, Rush went to Paris for two years and studied mime, movement and theatre at LÉcole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, in 1979, he shared an apartment with actor Mel Gibson for four months while they co-starred in a stage production of Waiting for Godot. Rush made his debut in the QTCs production of Wrong Side of the Moon. He worked with the QTC for four years, appearing in roles ranging across classical plays and pantomime, from Juno, following these, Rush left for Paris where he studied further. Rushs acting credits include Shakespeares plays, The Winters Tale and Troilus and he also appeared in an ongoing production of Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest as John Worthing. In September 1998, Rush played the role in the Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro for the QTC. This was the production of the Optus Playhouse at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at South Bank in Brisbane. A pun on Rushs name was used in the prologue of the play with the comment that the Optus Playhouse was opening with a Rush. Rush has appeared on stage for the Brisbane Arts Theatre and in other theatre venues. He has also worked as a theatre director, in 2007, he starred as King Berenger in a production of Eugène Ionescos Exit the King at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne and Company B in Sydney, directed by Neil Armfield. For this performance, he received a Helpmann Award nomination for best male actor in a play, Rush made his Broadway debut in a re-staging of Exit the King under Malthouse Theatres touring moniker Malthouse Melbourne and Company B Belvoir. This re-staging featured a new American cast including Susan Sarandon, the show opened on 26 March 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
39.
Into the Woods (film)
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Into the Woods is a 2014 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, and adapted to the screen by James Lapine from his and Stephen Sondheims Broadway musical of the same name. Ultimately, the characters are forced to rectify the consequences of their actions, principal photography commenced in September 2013, and took place entirely in the United Kingdom, including at Shepperton Studios in London. Into the Woods held its premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 8,2014. A Baker and his Wife wish for a child but suffer under a curse laid upon the Bakers family by a Witch who found the Bakers father robbing her garden when his mother was pregnant. The Bakers father also stole some beans which caused the Witchs mother to punish her with the curse of ugliness, the Witch later tells the Baker that she asked him to do this task for her because she is not allowed to touch any of the objects. After a series of failed attempts and misadventures, the Baker, the characters debate the morality of handing Jack over. In the process, Red Riding Hoods Mother and Grandmother, Jacks Mother, the characters blame each other for their individual actions that lead to the tragedy, ultimately blaming the Witch for raising the beans in the first place. She curses them for their inability to accept their individual responsibilities and disappears into the ground, the characters lure the Giants Wife into stepping in the tar pit where she ultimately trips and falls to her death. The Giants Wife is killed, and the move forward with their ruined lives. The Baker, thinking of his Wife, is determined to be a good father, Cinderella decides to leave the Prince and help the Baker, and Jack and Red Riding Hood, now orphans, are living with the Baker and Cinderella. The Baker comforts his son after he begins to cry by telling a story as the ends with the Witchs moral, meaning that children can change due to the parents actions. Thus, the film does slightly differ from the stage production, meanwhile, many of the songs in the film have slightly different lyrics than their stage counterparts due to the slight tweaking of storylines. Other changes include a reduction of the significant role of the Mysterious Man. Also, the character of the Narrator is deleted, and the film is narrated by the Baker. The minor role of Cinderellas Father was cut, and he is mentioned as deceased. Due to the films compressed storyline, Rapunzels pregnancy is eliminated, Rapunzels ultimate fate is also changed, rather than being killed by the giant, she refuses to cooperate with her mother and flees with her prince. Similarly, much of the violence and sexual content is slightly toned down from the original musical. The death of Jacks Mother is less violent in the film, on stage, early attempts of adapting Into the Woods to film occurred in the early 1990s, with a script written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel
