1.
Laurence Olivier
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Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles, late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no connections, but Oliviers father, a clergyman. After attending a school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Cowards Private Lives, in 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, there his most celebrated roles included Shakespeares Richard III and Sophocless Oedipus. From 1963 to 1973 he was the director of Britains National Theatre. His own parts there included the role in Othello and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Among Oliviers films are Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director, Henry V, Hamlet and his later films included Sleuth, Marathon Man, and The Boys from Brazil. His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence, Long Days Journey into Night, Love Among the Ruins, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brideshead Revisited, Oliviers honours included a knighthood, a life peerage and the Order of Merit. For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatres largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, the youngest of the three children of the Revd Gerard Kerr Olivier and his wife Agnes Louise, née Crookenden. Their elder children were Sybille and Gerard Dacres Dickie and his great-great-grandfather was of French Huguenot descent, and Olivier came from a long line of Protestant clergymen. Gerard Olivier had begun a career as a schoolmaster, but in his thirties he discovered a strong religious vocation and was ordained as a priest of the Church of England and he practised extremely high church, ritualist Anglicanism and liked to be addressed as Father Olivier. This made him unacceptable to most Anglican congregations, and the church posts he was offered were temporary. This meant a nomadic existence, and for Laurences first few years, in 1912, when Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant priest at St Saviours, Pimlico. He held the post for six years, and a family life was at last possible
2.
Michael Caine
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Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor and author. Renowned for his working class cockney accent, Caine has appeared in over 115 films and is regarded as a British film icon. His most notable roles in the 1970s included Get Carter, The Last Valley, Sleuth, for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination, The Man Who Would Be King, and A Bridge Too Far. He achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with Educating Rita earning him the BAFTA, in 1986, he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Woody Allens Hannah and Her Sisters. Caine played Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Caine played Nigel Powers in the 2002 parody Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Trilogy. He appeared in other of Nolans films including The Prestige, Inception. He also appeared as a character in Alfonso Cuaróns Children of Men. As of February 2017, films in which he has starred have grossed over $3.5 billion domestically, Caine is ranked the eleventh highest grossing box office star. Caine is one of two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s. In 2000, Caine was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his contribution to cinema. Caine was born in St Olaves Hospital in Rotherhithe, London, the son of Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a market porter, and Ellen Frances Marie Burchell. His father had English, Irish, and, reportedly, Irish Traveller ancestry and he was brought up in his mothers Protestant religion. Caine had a maternal half-brother, David William Burchell and a full brother, Caine grew up in Southwark, London, and during the Second World War, he was evacuated to North Runcton near Kings Lynn in Norfolk. In 1944, he passed his eleven plus exam, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School, after a year there he moved to Wilsons Grammar School in Camberwell, which he left at sixteen after gaining a School Certificate in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria Street. He had gone into Korea feeling sympathetic to communism, coming as he did from a poor family, Caine would like to see the return of national service to help combat youth violence, stating, Im just saying, put them in the Army for six months. Youre there to learn how to defend your country, then when you come out, you have a sense of belonging rather than a sense of violence. Adopting the stage name Michael Scott, in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the Companys production of Wuthering Heights and he moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21
3.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
4.
Mystery film
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Mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, investigation, suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect. This genre has ranged from early mystery tales, fictional or literary detective stories, a related film subgenre is spy films. Mystery films mainly focus with solving a crime or a puzzle, the mystery generally revolves around a murder which must then be solved by policemen, private detectives, or amateur sleuths. At times the viewer is presented with information not available to the main character, the central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy. The successful mystery film adheres to one of two types, known as Open and Closed. Mystery novels have proven to be a medium for translation into film. The sleuth often forms a leading character, and the plots can include elements of drama, suspense, character development, uncertainty. The locales of the tale are often of a mundane variety. Successful mystery writers can produce a series of books based on the same sleuth character, until at least the 1980s, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the detective and frequently playing the part of woman-in-peril. The women in films are often resourceful individuals, being self-reliant, determined. They can provide the triggers for the events follow, or serve as an element of suspense as helpless victims. The earliest mystery films reach back to the silent era, the first detective film is often cited as Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a very short Mutoscope reel created between 1900 and 1903 by Arthur Marvin. It is the film to feature the character of detective Sherlock Holmes. In France, the popular Nick Carter detective novels inspired the first film serial, Nick Carter and this six-episode series was followed with Nouveaux aventures de Nick Carter in 1909. Louis Feuillade created the highly popular Fantômas serial based on the serial novel about Juve. Later detective serials by Feuillade include The Vampires, Judex, Tih Minh, feuillades films, which combined realism, poetic imagery, and pure fantasy, influenced the American The Perils of Pauline, directors such as René Clair, and Surrealists such as André Breton
5.
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
6.
Automaton
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An automaton is a self-operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the observer that they are operating under their own power. The word automaton is the latinization of the Greek αὐτόματον, automaton and this word was first used by Homer to describe automatic door opening, or automatic movement of wheeled tripods. The automata in the Hellenistic world were intended as tools, toys, religious idols and he had invented the worlds first cuckoo clock. Complex mechanical devices are known to have existed in Hellenistic Greece, though the surviving example is the Antikythera mechanism. However, the information gleaned from recent scans of the fragments indicate that it may have come from the colonies of Corinth in Sicily and its also said that when King Solomon stepped upon the throne, a mechanism was set in motion. As soon as he stepped upon the first step, a golden ox, on each side, the animals helped the King up until he was comfortably seated upon the throne. In ancient China, an account of automata is found in the Lie Zi text. Within it there is a description of an earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an artificer. The latter proudly presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical handiwork and it walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune and he touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red, other notable examples of automata include Archytass dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius. The manufacturing tradition of automata continued in the Greek world well into the Middle Ages, similar automata in the throne room were described by Luitprands contemporary Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who later became emperor, in his book Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου Τάξεως. In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built, statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates, the public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed. In 827, Caliph Al-Mamun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad, there were metal birds that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim inventors and engineers. The Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir also had a tree in his palace in Baghdad in 915, with birds on it flapping their wings. In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented an automatic flute player. Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206 and his automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties
7.
Joanne Woodward
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Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, producer, activist, and philanthropist. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in The Three Faces of Eve. Woodward was born on February 27,1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor and Wade Woodward and her middle names, Gignilliat Trimmier, are of Huguenot origin. She was influenced to become an actress by her mothers love of movies and her mother named her after Joan Crawford, using the Southern pronunciation of the name – Joanne. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1977, in a production of Come Back. During rehearsals, she mentioned this incident to him, and he told her that he remembered her doing it, Woodward lived in Thomasville until she was in the second grade, when her family relocated to Marietta, Georgia, where she attended Marietta High School. She remains a booster of Marietta High and of that citys Strand Theater and they moved once again when she was a junior in high school, after her parents divorced. She graduated from Greenville High School in Greenville, South Carolina in 1947, Woodward won many beauty contests as a teenager. She appeared in productions at Greenville High and in Greenvilles Little Theatre, playing Laura Wingfield in their staging of The Glass Menagerie. She returned to Greenville in 1976, to play Amanda Wingfield in another Little Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie and she had also returned in 1955 for the premiére of her debut movie, Count Three And Pray, at the Paris Theatre on North Main Street. Woodward majored in drama at Louisiana State University, where she was an initiate of Chi Omega sorority, woodwards first film was a post-Civil War Western, Count Three and Pray, in 1955. She continued to move between Hollywood and Broadway, eventually understudying in the New York production of Picnic, which featured her future husband Paul Newman, the two were married in 1958, after their work together in the film The Long, Hot Summer. By that time, Woodward had starred in The Three Faces of Eve and she appeared with husband Paul Newman in ten feature films, The Long, Hot Summer Rally Round the Flag, Boys. From the Terrace Paris Blues A New Kind of Love Winning WUSA The Drowning Pool Harry & Son — Mr. and she appeared in the television films Sybil, opposite Sally Field, and Crisis at Central High. She was the narrator for Martin Scorseses screen version of The Age of Innocence, Woodward was a co-producer and starred in a 1993 broadcast of the play Blind Spot, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie. In 1995, Woodward directed off-broadway revivals of Clifford Odets Golden Boy, Woodward served as the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse from 2001 to 2005. She recorded a reading of singer John Mellencamps song The Real Life for his box set On the Rural Route 7609, in 2011, she narrated the Scholastic/Weston Woods film All the World. Woodward was reported to have engaged to author Gore Vidal prior to marrying Paul Newman
8.
All About Eve
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All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It was based on the 1946 short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr, the film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star. Anne Baxter plays Eve Harrington, a young fan who insinuates herself into Channings life. George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Barbara Bates, Gary Merrill, and Thelma Ritter also appear, praised by critics at the time of its release, All About Eve received 14 Academy Awards nominations and won six, including Best Picture. All About Eve is the film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations. All About Eve was selected in 1990 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and was among the first 50 films to be registered, All About Eve appeared at #16 on AFIs 1998 list of the 100 best American films. Margo Channing is one of the biggest stars on Broadway, but having just turned forty she is worried about what her advancing age will mean for her career. After a performance of Margos latest play, Aged in Wood, Margos close friend Karen Richards, wife of the plays author Lloyd Richards, brings in a fan, Eve Harrington. She tells a story of growing up poor and losing her young husband in World War II. Moved, Margo quickly befriends Eve, takes her into her home, and hires her as her assistant, leaving Birdie, Eve quickly insinuates herself into Margos life, acting as her secretary and adoring fan. She seems to anticipate Margos every need, including placing a long phone call to Bill when Margo forgets his birthday. Margo becomes increasingly distrustful and bitter, particularly after she catches Eve trying on one of the costumes for Aged in Wood, Margo asks her producer, Max Fabian, to hire Eve at his office, but instead Eve manages to become Margos understudy without Margos knowledge. As Margos irritation grows, Karen feels sorry for Eve, in hopes of humbling Margo, Karen arranges for her to miss a performance of Aged in Wood, so Eve will have to give the performance in her place. Eve invites the citys theatre critics, including the acerbic Addison DeWitt, to attend that evenings performance, Eve tries to seduce Bill, but he rejects her. Instead, Addison takes her under his wing and writes a column that criticizes Margo for not making way for new talents like Eve and that evening, Margo and Bill announce their engagement at dinner with the Richardses. Before Karen can talk with Lloyd, Margo announces to everyones surprise that she does not wish to play Cora, now, Eve exults, Lloyd will write brilliant plays showcasing her. Angered that Eve believes she can manipulate him as easily as she does everyone else and her real name is Gertrude Slojinski, she was never married, and she had been paid to leave her hometown over an affair with her boss, a brewer in Wisconsin. Addison blackmails Eve, informing her that she not be marrying Lloyd or anyone else, in exchange for Addisons silence
9.
Dorothy L. Sayers
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Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages, however, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dantes Divine Comedy to be her best work. She is also known for her plays, literary criticism, Sayers was an only child, born on 13 June 1893 at the Headmasters House, Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford. Her father, the Rev. Henry Sayers, M. A. was a chaplain of Christ Church, when she was six, he started teaching her Latin. She grew up in the village of Bluntisham-cum-Earith in Huntingdonshire after her father was given the living there as rector. From 1909 she was educated at the Godolphin School, a school in Salisbury. Her father later moved to the living of Christchurch, in Cambridgeshire. In 1912, Sayers won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford where she studied modern languages and she finished with first-class honours in 1915. Women could not be awarded degrees at that time, but Sayers was among the first to receive a degree when the position changed a few years later and her experience of Oxford academic life eventually inspired her penultimate Peter Wimsey novel, Gaudy Night. Her father was from Littlehampton, West Sussex, and her mother was born at The Chestnuts, Millbrook, Hampshire, to Frederick Leigh, Sayerss Aunt Amy, her mothers sister, married Henry Richard Shrimpton. Sayerss first book of poetry was published in 1916 as OP, I by Blackwell Publishing in Oxford. Her second book of poems, Catholic Tales and Christian Songs, was published in 1918, later, Sayers worked for Blackwells and then as a teacher in several locations, including Normandy, France. Sayerss longest employment was from 1922 to 1931 as a copywriter at S. H, bensons advertising agency, located at International Buildings, Kingsway, London. Sayers was quite successful as an advertiser and her collaboration with artist John Gilroy resulted in The Mustard Club for Colmans Mustard and the Guinness Zoo advertisements, variations of which still appear today. One famous example was the Toucan, his bill arching under a glass of Guinness, with Sayerss jingle and she used the advertising industry as the setting of Murder Must Advertise, where she describes the role of truth in advertising. The firm of Pyms Publicity, Ltd, now, Mr. Pym is a man of rigid morality—except, of course, as regards his profession, whose essence is to tell plausible lies for money— How about truth in advertising. Of course, there is truth in advertising. Theres yeast in bread, but you cant make bread with yeast alone, is like leaven, which a woman hid in three measures of meal
10.
Lord Peter Wimsey
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Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers in which he solves mysteries—usually murders. A dilettante who solves mysteries for his own amusement, Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective. Born in the year 1890 and ageing in real time, Wimsey is described as being of height, with straw-coloured hair, a beaked nose. He also possessed considerable intelligence and athletic ability, evidenced by his playing cricket for Oxford University while earning a First, among Lord Peters hobbies, in addition to criminology, is collecting incunabula, books from the earliest days of printing. He is an expert on matters of food, male fashion and he excels at the piano, including Bachs works for keyboard instruments. One of Lord Peters cars is a 12-cylinder 1927 Daimler four-seater, Lord Peter Wimseys ancestry begins with the 12th-century knight Gerald de Wimsey, who went with King Richard the Lionheart on the Third Crusade and took part in the Siege of Acre. The family coat of arms is blazoned as Sable,3 mice courant, argent, crest, the family motto, displayed under its coat of arms, is As my Whimsy takes me. Lord Peter was the second of the three children of Mortimer Wimsey, 15th Duke of Denver, and Honoria Lucasta Delagardie, who lives on throughout the novels as the Dowager Duchess of Denver. The Dowager Duchess is witty and intelligent, and strongly supports her son, whom she plainly prefers over his less intelligent, more conventional older brother, Gerald. Geralds snobbish wife, Helen, who detests Wimsey, and their heir, Viscount St. George. So does Lady Mary, the sister of the Duke and Lord Peter. Lord Peter Wimsey is called Lord by courtesy as the son of a Duke and he is not a peer and has no right to sit in the House of Lords, nor does this courtesy usage pass on to any offspring he may have. As a boy, the young Peter Wimsey was, to the distress of his father, strongly attached to an old. According to the novels, Lord Peter was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford and he was also an outstanding cricketer, whose performance would still be well remembered decades later, leading to the near unmasking of his incognito in Murder Must Advertise. Though not taking up a career, he was left with an enduring. To his uncles disappointment, Peter fell deeply in love with a woman named Barbara. When the First World War broke out, he hastened to join the British Army, the girl later married another, less principled, officer. Wimsey served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, reaching the rank of Major in the Rifle Brigade and he was appointed an Intelligence Officer, and on one occasion he infiltrated the staff room of a German officer
11.
Agatha Christie
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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot. She also wrote the worlds longest-running play, a mystery, The Mousetrap. In 1971 she was made a Dame for her contribution to literature, Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London and she was initially an unsuccessful writer, but The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920 featuring Hercule Poirot. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time and her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the worlds most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeares works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. And Then There Were None is Christies best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the worlds best-selling mystery ever, in 1955 Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of Americas highest honour, the Grand Master Award. Later the same year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play, in 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers Association. Most of her books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890, into a wealthy upper middle-class family in Ashfield, Torquay, Devon. Her mother, Clara Boehmer, was an Englishwoman who was born in Belfast in 1854 to Captain Frederick Boehmer and Mary Ann West, Clara Boehmer had four brothers, one of whom died young. Captain Boehmer was killed in an accident while stationed on Jersey in April 1863. Under financial strain, she sent Clara to live with her aunt Margaret Miller, the couple lived in Prinsted, West Sussex. Clara stayed with Margaret, and there she met her husband, an American stockbroker named Frederick Alvah Miller. Christies father Frederick was a member of the American upper class and he was considered personable and friendly by those who knew him. He soon developed a relationship with Clara, and they were married in April 1878. Clara soon purchased a villa in Torquay named Ashfield in which to raise her family, Christie described her childhood as very happy. She was surrounded by a series of strong and independent women from an early age
12.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. 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
