-
Alec Kessler
Alec Kessler (1967 - 2007)
Alec Kessler played collegiately for the University of Georgia Bulldogs where he was a three-time academic all-American first-team selection as well as the national academic all-American of the year in 1989 and 1990. Kessler left Georgia as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,788 points (until the record was surpassed by Litterial Green). The 6′ 11″ […]
-
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947)
Occultist. Widely considered the most influential figure in Western occultism, Aleister Crowley first rose to prominence in mystical circles as a member of the London-based Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an esoteric offshoot of freemasonry with many well-known members, including poet and folklorist William Butler Yeats. After a power struggle within that group, Crowley […]
-
Alejandra Boero
Alejandra Boero (1918 - 2006)
Stage director and actress. Also an actor´s teacher. Born Liria Ofelia Alejandra Digiamo Viera, she was one of the pioneers of the Argentine independent stage. She founded in 1950 the Nuevo Teatro group. During her last years, she managed the Theater “Andamio 90.” (bio by: 380W)
-
Alejandro Casona
Alejandro Casona (1903 - 1965)
Playwright. He was born in Besullo, Asturias, Spain. During Spanish Civil War, he was forced to exile and he stablished in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is best known for his books “La Sirena Varada,” “La Dama del Alba,” “Nuestra Natacha,” “Prohibido Suicidarse en Primavera,” “Los Árboles Mueren de Pie,” “La Tercera Palabra” and “El Caballero […]
-
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier (1904 - 1980)
Noted Cuban Writer. He obtained Cervantes Award in 1976. Among his books “Écue-Yamba-Ó,” “El Reino de este Mundo,” “Los Pasos Perdidos,” and “El Concierto Barroco.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)
-
Aleksandr Abdulov
Aleksandr Abdulov (1953 - 2008)
Actor. Born in Tobolsk, Russia, he made his 1974 motion picture debut in “About Vitya, about Masha and the Sea Force.” In 1975 he was hired by Lenkom Theater director Mark Zakharov, and became a celebrity after appearing in “The Ordinary Miracle.” During the early 1980s he was considered a sex symbol and one of […]
-
Aleksandr Abdulov
Aleksandr Abdulov (1953 - 2008)
Actor. Born in Tobolsk, Russia, he made his 1974 motion picture debut in “About Vitya, about Masha and the Sea Force.” In 1975 he was hired by Lenkom Theater director Mark Zakharov, and became a celebrity after appearing in “The Ordinary Miracle.” During the early 1980s he was considered a sex symbol and one of […]
-
Alessandro Blasetti
Alessandro Blasetti (1970 - 1987)
Alessandro Blasetti was born in Rome, where he also died. After studying law at university, Blasetti chose to become a journalist and film critic. He worked for several film magazines and led a campaign for national film production, which had largely ceased by this point. In 1919 he made a brief foray into acting when […]
-
Aleta Freel
Aleta Freel (1907 - 1935)
Actress. A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, she gained prominence as a Broadway theater actress prior to her marriage to Warner Brothers Studio actor Ross Alexander, who had begun his acting career in New York City. After they both moved to Hollywood, California to further their careers, she was unable to find film work. […]
-
Alex Agase
Alex Agase (1922 - 2007)
Agase was born in Chicago, Illinois to an Assyrian father and an Armenian mother. He attended Evanston Township High School, but only played on the school’s varsity football team in his senior year. After graduating, he attended the University of Illinois and played college football there as a right guard in 1941 and 1942. In […]
-
Alex Frazer
Alex Frazer (1900 - 1958)
Actor. One of the best versatile character actors of his time, he appeared on drama radio and on stage in Montreal before going into films. His many movie credits included “The Good Campanions” (1933), “Kidnapped” (1948), “Cowboy and the Indians” (1949), “Three Came Home” (1950), “Loose in London” (1953), “The War of the Worlds” (1953) […]
-
Alex Giannini
Alex Giannini (1958 - 2015)
British Actor. Giannini was a well known actor for his performances on the screen and the stage. He started in the theater, acting in various roles and then went into television and films. Giannini’s film appearances included “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007), “Legend” (2015) and “Miss Monday” (1998). He also appeared in such television […]
-
Alex Haley
Alex Haley (1921 - 1992)
Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11, 1921, and was the oldest of three brothers and a sister. Haley lived with his family in Henning, Tennessee, before returning to Ithaca with his family when he was five years old. Haley’s father was Simon Haley, a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M […]
-
Alex Hawkins
Alex Hawkins (1937 - 2017)
From 1956-58, Alex Hawkins starred collegiately for South Carolina, rushing for 1,491 yards and being voted 1958’s Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. He was the 13th player selected in the 1959 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Hawkins was a member of the Baltimore team that won the 1959 NFL Championship Game, defeating the New […]
-
Alex Karras
Alex Karras (1935 - 2012)
Karras was born in Gary, Indiana, the son of Dr. George Karras, a Greek immigrant (from Chios) who graduated from the University of Chicago and got his medical degree in Canada. There, George Karras met and married a Canadian woman, Alex’s mother, Emmeline (née Wilson), a registered nurse. George Karras opened a medical practice in […]
-
Alex Manoogian
Alex Manoogian (1901 - 1996)
Born into an Armenian family in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Izmir, Turkey), Alex Manoogian was 19 when he immigrated to the United States. He was a refugee from the Armenian genocide in the wake of the collapse of the empire during World War I and the rise of the Turkish nationalist movement. Arriving in Bridgeport, Connecticut […]
-
Alex Mentry
Alex Mentry (1847 - 1900)
Oilman, Folk Figure. Born Charles Alexander Mentrier in France in 1846, Alex Mentry came to the Newhall, California area in 1873 to make his fortune. An experienced oil driller in Pennsylvania, Mentry soon landed a job digging wells in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of what would become Los Angeles. In 1875 he formed a […]
-
Alex North
Alex North (1910 - 1991)
Alex North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, “Unchained Melody”. Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North’s frequent […]
-
Alex Rocco
Alex Rocco (1936 - 2015)
Rocco was born as Alexander Federico Petricone in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1936, but raised in nearby Somerville, the son of Mary (née DiBiase; October 1909–August 1978) and Alessandro Sam Petricone. He was of Italian descent. According to organized crime turncoat Vincent Teresa, Alex was a hanger-on with the Winter Hill Gang of the Boston area. […]
-
Alex Sadkin
Alex Sadkin (1949 - 1987)
Alex Sadkin (Florida 1949 – 25 July 1987) is best remembered as a record producer in the early 1980s, but actually got his start in the music industry as a saxophonist for the Las Olas Brass in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sadkin grew up in Fort Lauderdale across the street from Bennett Elementary School, and played saxophone […]
-
Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek (1940 - 2020)
Alex Trebek Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Alex Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. After his first decision to become a newscaster, he joined the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company), Canada’s premier network in 1961. As he was working, he helped organize national news and covered a variety of […]
-
Alex Webster
Alex Webster (1931 - 2012)
As the son of recent Scottish immigrants James and Alexandrina Webster, Alex Webster grew up in Kearny, New Jersey, where he attended and played high school football at Kearny High School. Webster played a key role on Kearny High School’s football team which won the 1948 New Jersey High School State Championship. In spite of […]
-
Alexa Kenin
Alexa Kenin (1962 - 1985)
Alexa Kenin was born in New York City. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother, actress Maya Kenin, married character actor John Ryan. Kenin began acting as a child and won her first professional part with a supporting role in the 1972 holiday TV special The House Without a Christmas Tree, which […]
-
Alexander “Boots” Smith
Alexander “Boots” Smith (1902 - 1963)
Professional Hockey Player. Smith who was a native of Bootle, England, played for teams in the National Hockey League (NHL), International Hockey League (IHL), Eastern Hockey League (EHL), Quebec Senior Hockey League (QSHL), and the IAHL. Smith played the position of Defense for the Ottawa Senators from 1924 to 1931, 1932 to 1933, and 1945 […]
-
Alexander Afinogenov
Alexander Afinogenov (1904 - 1941)
Playwright. One of the more talented Soviet playwrights to emerge in the years before World War II, he managed to retain his individuality in the face of Stalinist repression. Alexander Nikolayevich Afinogenov was born in Skopin, Russia, and raised in Yaroslavl. He had an early interest in literature, turning out three books of poetry while […]
-
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok (1880 - 1921)
Poet, Playwright. Considered by many the greatest figure of Russia’s Symbolist Movement. His experiments in rhythm and prosody broke new ground in his country’s literature. Blok’s masterpiece, the long poem “The Twelve” (1918), reflected his initial enthusiasm for the Russian Revolution. It depicts twelve Bolshevik soldiers on a winter night, raping, looting, and killing their […]
-
Alexander Anderson, Jr
Alexander Anderson, Jr (1920 - 2010)
Cartoonist. Best remembered as the creator of the cartoon characters “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. In 1938 he began his career in animation working with his uncle Paul Terry at New York’s Terrytoons, the studio that turned out “Mighty Mouse”, “Heckle and Jeckle”, and other theatrical shorts. After serving in the US Navy during World War II, […]
-
Alexander Baron
Alexander Baron (1917 - 1999)
Highly acclaimed British novelist and screenwriter. He was Britains greatest writer during World War II. Baron wrote books such as “From The City, From The Plough,” “There’s No Home,” and “The Human Kind.” As a scriptwriter “The Human Kind” was sold to Hollywood as “The Victors.” Also sold to Hollywood was “The Golden Princess” other […]
-
Alexander Beliayev
Alexander Beliayev (1884 - 1942)
Alexander Beliayev was born in Smolensk in the family of an Orthodox priest. His father, after losing two other children (Alexander’s sister Nina died at childhood from sarcoma and his brother Vasiliy, a veterinary student, drowned during a boat trip), wanted him to continue the family tradition and enrolled Alexander into Smolensk seminary. Belyaev, on […]
-
Alexander Benois
Alexander Benois (1870 - 1960)
Theatrical Designer, Painter, Historian. An imaginative Classicist, his colorful style blended Russian Folk and French Rococo influences. He played an instrumental role in the founding of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Alexander Nikolayevich Benois was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a distinguished family of French-Italian descent. Apart from a brief course in stage design at […]