Kiyotaka Kaburagi (1878 - 1972)

Japanese-style painter. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Kiyotaka Kaburagi (1878 - 1972)

Japanese-style painter. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Klari Tolnay (1914 - 1998)

Actress. One of Hungary’s most popular film and theatre stars. Born in Budapest, she made her acting debut in 1934 and quickly won screen idol status with “Car of Dreams” (1934), which sparked an Eastern European vogue for sophisticated comedies. Tolnay’s cover girl looks and breezy style made her a natural for the genre and […]

Klaus Kinski (1926 - 1991)

Klaus Kinski was born to German nationals in Zoppot in what was, under League of Nations supervision, the Free City of Danzig from 1920-1939. (It is now Sopot, Poland). His father, Bruno Nakszynski, a German of Polish descent, was a failed opera singer turned pharmacist; his mother, Susanne (née Lutze), was a nurse and the […]

Knud Rasmussen (1879 - 1933)

Knud Rasmussen was born in Jakobshavn (now Ilulissat), Greenland, the son of a Danish missionary, the vicar Christian Rasmussen, and an Inuit- Danish mother, Lovise Rasmussen (née Fleischer). He had two siblings, including a brother, Peter Lim. Rasmussen spent his early years in Greenland among the Kalaallit (Inuit) where he learned from an early age […]

Kobe Bryant (1978 - 2020)

Kobe Bryant Professional Basketball Player, Olympic Games Gold Medalist Athlete. A perennial National Basketball League All Star, he played his entire career for the Los Angeles Lakers. During his 20-year career, he won five national championships, was named to the All-Star team 18 times, was a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member […]

Kocho Baba (1970 - 1970)

Scholar of English literature. Younger brother of politician Tatsui Baba. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Koichiro Kawada (1836 - 1896)

Financier. Served as governor of the Bank of Japan. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Kokichi Mikimoto (1858 - 1954)

Businessman. Founder of the Mikimoto Jewelry company. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Konstantin Balmont (1867 - 1942)

Poet, Translator. Once regarded as a major figure of the “Silver Age” of Russian Literature. He was associated with the Symbolist movement but was primarily a lyricist; his imagery was colorful and impressionistic, his rhythms inherently melodious.  The books “Let Us Be Like the Sun” (1903) and “Love Alone” (1903) represent Balmont at his finest. […]

Kozo Ota (1970 - 1970)

KOZO OTA Educator. Served as the first president and chairperson of Asia University, founded in 1954. He defined the university’s guiding principles as self-help and cooperation. He envisioned a place of learning that would prepare people to contribute to the development of Japan and Asia. Mr. Ota’s successors have continued to carry out his mission. […]

Kriss Donald (1988 - 2004)

On 15 March 2004, Kriss Donald was abducted from Kenmure Street by five men associated with a local Pakistani gang led by Imran Shahid. The kidnapping was ostensibly revenge for an attack on Shahid at a nightclub in Glasgow city centre the night before by a local white gang, and Donald was chosen as an […]

Kristina Soderbaum (1912 - 2001)

Actress. Called the “Drowned Girl of the Reich” for her numerous onscreen suicides by drowning, she is remembered as a longtime star of the German cinema and as the blonde Aryian ideal of several of Dr. Joseph Goebbels’ propoganda films from the Nazi era. The child of a distinguished academic, she was raised in Stockholm […]

Kurt Cobain (1967 - 1994)

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American musician who was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in […]

Kurt Gerron (1897 - 1944)

Born Kurt Gerson into a well-off merchant family in Berlin, Kurt Gerron studied medicine before being called up for military service in World War I. After being seriously wounded he was qualified as a military doctor in the German Army (despite having been only in his second year at university). After the war Gerron turned […]

Kurt Huber (1893 - 1943)

Kurt Huber was born in Chur, Switzerland, to German parents. He grew up in Stuttgart and later, after his father’s death, in Munich. He showed an aptitude for such subjects as music, philosophy and psychology. Huber became a professor of Psychology and Music in 1926 at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Huber was appalled by […]

Kurt Kasznar (1913 - 1979)

Kurt Kasznar was born Kurt Servischer on August 12, 1913, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (today: Austria). His father left the family when Kurt was very young. After his mother married Hungarian restaurateur Ferdinand Kasznar, Kurt assumed his surname. While working as an apprentice waiter at his stepfather’s restaurant, Kasznar met director Max Reinhardt and enrolled in […]

Kurt Maetzig (1911 - 2012)

Kurt Maetzig was the son of Robert Maetzig and Marie Maetzig (née Lyon). He grew up in the Charlottenburg borough of Berlin, where he gained an insight into the film industry from an early age as his father was the proprietor of a factory that produced film copies there. During the First World War, he […]

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007)

Kurt Vonnegut (/ˈvɒnᵻɡət/; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut attended […]

Kyle Pavone (1990 - 2018)

Kyle Pavone  We Came As Romans celebrated its late singer Kyle Pavone with an emotional all-star concert on Sunday in its home town of Detroit, benefiting the Kyle Pavone Foundation recently established up by the singer’s family. “Kyle’s favorite thing about music was how it brought people together,” WCAR’s other vocalist, Dave Stephens, told the […]

Kyoko Kishida (1930 - 2006)

Actress. Daughter of the playwright and novelist Kunio Kishida. Her best-known role was in Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1964 movie “Suna no Onna” (“Woman in the Dunes”). A founding member of the theater group Engeki Shudan En (formed in 1975), she was also known in Japan for dubbing the voice of “Moomin” in the popular animation series. […]

Kyosuke Kindaichi (1882 - 1971)

Linguist, literary scholar. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)