25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Emilio Estefan, Jr.

October 25, 2019

Emilio Estefan, Jr. is a Cuban-American of Lebanese ancestry who is a musician and producer. Estefan’s first taste of celebrity came as a member of the Miami Sound Machine, but he is also recognized as the producer of many famous singers. He is the husband of singer Gloria Estefan. He is also the uncle of Spanish-language television personality Lili Estefan.

Gloria Estefan became romantically involved with Estefan, who was the Miami Sound Machine’s band leader, in 1976. She and Emilio married on September 2, 1978.

They have two children: Nayib and Emily Marie and live on Star Island in Miami Beach, Florida.

In 1995, one student from Howard University was killed and another was injured when their personal water craft collided with the Estefan’s pleasure boat.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Emma Thompson

October 25, 2019

Emma Thompson Honored with 2,416th Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame for her Motion Picture Career
Emcee Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, President/CEO Leron Gubler
Guest speakers: Hugh Laurie and Maggie Gyllenhaal
At 6714 Hollywood Boulevard in front of The Pig 'n Whistle British Pub
Friday, August 6, 2010

Emma Thompson is one of the world's most respected talents for her versatility in acting as well as screenwriting. On August 20, her current global hit, Universal Pictures' Nanny McPhee Returns, comes to the U.S. and Canada.

In 1992, Thompson caused a sensation with her portrayal of Margaret Schlegel in the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster's Howards End. Sweeping the Best Actress category wherever it was considered, the performance netted her a BAFTA, a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award®. She earned two Oscar® nominations the following year for her work in The Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father. In 1995, Thompson's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," directed by Ang Lee, won the Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and Best Screenplay awards from the Writers Guild of America and the Writers Guild of Great Britain, amongst numerous others. For her performance in the film, she was honored with BAFTA for Best Actress and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award®.

In 2008, Thompson starred with Dustin Hoffman in director Joel Hopkins' charming romance, Last Chance Harvey, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical. In 2006, Thompson co-starred, to critical acclaim, with Dustin Hoffman, Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than Fiction, directed by Marc Forster, and produced by Nanny McPhee Returns producer, Lindsay Doran. Gyllenhaal also stars in in Nanny McPhee Returns.

In 2004, Thompson brought to the screen J.K. Rowling's character of Sybil Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, for director Alfonso Cuarón, and in 2007, she reprised the role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for director David Yates. Also in 2004, Thompson appeared in her own adaptation of Nanny McPhee, directed by Kirk Jones.

Thompson is currently writing a new film version of My Fair Lady for Sony Pictures and starring, with Alan Rickman, in a flagship production of the poem "The Song of Lunch," by Christopher Reid, for the BBC.

Thompson was born in London to Eric Thompson, a theater director and writer, and Phyllida Law, an actress. She read English at Cambridge and was invited to join the university's long-standing Footlights comedy troupe, which elected her vice president. Hugh Laurie was president. While still a student, she co-directed Cambridge's first all-women revue (Women's Hour), made her television debut on BBC Television's Friday Night, Saturday Morning as well as her radio debut on BBC Radio's Injury Time.

Throughout the 1980s, Thompson frequently appeared on British television, including widely acclaimed recurring roles on the Granada TV series Alfresco, BBC's Election Night Special and The Crystal Cube (the latter written by fellow Cambridge alums Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie), and a hilarious one-off role as upper-class twit Miss Money Sterling on The Young Ones. In 1985, Channel 4 offered Thompson her own TV special, Up for Grabs, and in 1988, she wrote and starred in her own BBC series called Thompson. She worked as a stand-up comic when the opportunity arose, and earned £60 in cash on her 25th birthday in a stand-up double bill with Ben Elton at the Croydon Warehouse. She says it's the best money she's ever earned.

Thompson continued to pursue an active stage career concurrently with her television and radio work, appearing in A Sense of Nonsense and touring England in 1982, the self-penned Short Vehicle at the Edinburgh Festival in 1983, Me and My Girl at Leicester and then London's West End in 1985, and Look Back in Anger at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue in 1989.

Thompson's feature film debut came in 1988, starring opposite Jeff Goldblum, in the comedy The Tall Guy. She then played Katherine in Kenneth Branagh's film-directing debut, Henry V, and went on to star opposite Branagh in three of his subsequent directorial efforts—Dead Again (1991), Peter's Friends (1992) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

Thompson's other film credits include Junior (1994), Carrington (1995) and The Winter Guest (1997). She has also starred in three projects directed by Mike Nichols—Primary Colors (1998) and the HBO telefilms Wit (2001, in a Golden Globe-nominated performance) and Angels in America (2002, for which she received Screen Actors Guild and Emmy Award nominations). Also in 2002, she starred in Imagining Argentina, for director Christopher Hampton, and Love Actually, for director Richard Curtis. The latter film netted Thompson a number of accolades, including Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2004 Evening Standard Film Awards, a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 2004 BAFTAs, Best Supporting Actress at the 2004 London Critics Circle Film Awards and Best British Actress at the 2004 Empire Film Awards.

Thompson is involved with several charities including: The Teaching Awards, of which she is President and she is the Chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation which fights against human trafficking and forced labor, a vastly overlooked scourge that affects more than 12 million people around the world.

About The Hollywood Walk of Fame: It began with the installation of a few demonstration stars in August 1958, the first of which was dedicated to actor Preston Foster. Officially dedicated in November 1960, the Walk now features more than 2,400 stars in the categories of television, radio, live theatre, motion pictures and recording. The Walk of Fame ceremonies draw international media attention and throngs of people to catch a glimpse of a favorite celebrity or Hollywood industry leader. It is one of the top tourist draws in Los Angeles and most recognizable images of Hollywood, along with The Hollywood Sign. Follow the Walk of Fame 50th Anniversary plans, news of upcoming star ceremonies and video clips from the ceremonies at www.WalkOfFame.com

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Engelbert Humperdinck

October 25, 2019

Engelbert Humperdinck is a popular music singer who became famous internationally during the 1960s and 1970s, after adopting the name of the famous German opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck as his own stage name.

As Arnold Dorsey, Humperdinck was one of ten children born in Madras, India, to British Army officer Mervyn Dorsey and his wife Olive. His mother and father were themselves both British. His family moved to Leicester, England, when he was 10, and a year later he showed an interest in music and began learning the saxophone. He started work as an apprentice engineer and by the early 1950s he was playing the instrument in nightclubs, but he is believed not to have tried singing until he was 17 and friends coaxed him into entering a pub contest. His impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to begin calling him "Gerry Dorsey," a name he worked under for almost a decade.

Though Dorsey's music career was interrupted by his national service in the British Army Royal Corps of Signals during the middle 1950s, he got his first chance to record in 1958 with the Decca Records label after his discharge. His first single, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," was not a hit, but Dorsey recorded for the same company almost a decade later with much different results. Dorsey continued working the nightclubs until 1961, when he was stricken with tuberculosis. He regained his health and returned to nightclub work with, unfortunately, little success. However, in 1965, he teamed with his former roommate, Gordon Mills, who had become a music impresario and the manager of Tom Jones.

He had his first real success during July 1966, in Belgium where he and four others represented England in the annual Knokke song contest, and in October he was on stage in Mechelen. In that period, Dorsey was already No. 1 in the Belgian charts, six months before the release of "Release Me". Belgian Television then made a video clip in the harbour of Zeebrugge.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Enrico Caruso

October 25, 2019

Enrico Caruso was an Italian tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and North and South America. Caruso also made approximately 290 commercial recordings of his voice, beginning as early as 1902 in Italy and continuing from 1904 until 1920 in the United States. All of his known surviving recordings are available today on remastered CDs.

Caruso’s 25-year career, stretching from 1895 to 1920, included 863 appearances at the New York Metropolitan Opera before he died from an infection at the age of 48. His fame has lasted to the present day despite the limited marketing and promotional vehicles available during Caruso’s era. Publicity in Caruso’s time relied on newspapers, particularly wire services, along with magazines, photography and relatively instantaneous communication via the telephone and the telegraph, to spread a message and raise a performer’s profile.

Caruso biographers Pierre Key, Bruno Zirato and Stanley Jackson attribute Caruso’s fame not only to his voice and musicianship but also to a keen business sense and an enthusiastic embrace of commercial sound recording, then in its infancy. Many well-known opera singers of Caruso’s time rejected the phonograph due to the low fidelity of early discs. Their voices have been lost as a result. But other singers, including Adelina Patti, Francesco Tamagno and Nellie Melba, exploited the new technology once they became aware of the financial returns that Caruso was reaping from his initial recording sessions.

Caruso made more than 260 extant recordings in America for the Victor Talking Machine Company from 1904 to 1920, and he earned millions of dollars in royalties from the retail sales of the resulting 78-rpm discs. He was also heard live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in the first public radio broadcast in 1910.

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Eric Braeden

October 25, 2019

Eric Braeden is a German-born film and television actor, best known for his role as Victor Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Braeden won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role.

Braeden was born Hans Jörg Gudegast in Bredenbek, Germany, where his father was once mayor. He emigrated to the USA in 1959. In the United States, Braeden attended The University of Montana in Missoula.

Braeden accumulated many TV and film credits during his first two decades in America, most notably a role as the German Hauptmann Hans Dietrich on the TV series The Rat Patrol, as well as a starring role in the movie , in which he first took the stage name of Eric Braeden, and a supporting role in the 1971 film Escape from the Planet of the Apes. He was also kept busy during the early 1970s in a variety of guest starring roles in such TV series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Wonder Woman and as a guest star in several episodes of the CBS western Gunsmoke. He also appeared, uncredited, as Bradford Dillman’s de facto stunt double in the 1978 film Piranha–Braeden had originally been cast to play Dillman’s character, Paul Grogan, and had shot some underwater swimming footage before the role was recast; Braeden’s stunt footage ended up in the finished film anyway.

In 1980, he was offered the role of self-made magnate Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless for a 26-week run. His character imprisoned his wife’s lover, and became so popular the character became a love-to-hate villain, and his contract was renewed. Still on the show today, Braeden won a Daytime Emmy for his work in 1998.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Ella Raines

October 25, 2019

Ella Raines was an American actress. Born Ella Wallace Raines near Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, Raines studied drama at the University of Washington and was appearing in a play there when she was seen by Howard Hawks. She became the first actor signed to the new production company he had formed with the actor Charles Boyer, "B-H Productions", and made her film debut in Corvette K-225 in 1943.

During 1954 she starred in her own television series Janet Dean, Registered Nurse. She also appeared in such television series as Robert Montgomery Presents, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents, Lights Out, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse and The Christophers.

She retired from acting in 1957, but made one further acting appearance with a guest role in the series Matt Houston in 1984.

Raines has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6600 Hollywood Boulevard.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Ellen Drew

October 25, 2019

Ellen Drew was an American film actress. Born Esther Loretta Ray in Kansas City, Missouri, Drew worked various jobs and won a number of beauty contests before becoming an actress. Moving to Hollywood in an attempt to become a star, she was discovered while working at an ice cream parlor where one of the customers William Demarest took notice of her and eventually helped her get into films.

She became a fixture at Paramount Pictures from 1938 to 1943, where she appeared in as many as six films per year, including Sing You Sinners with Bing Crosby and The Lady’s from Kentucky with George Raft. She moved to RKO in 1944. Among her leading men were Ronald Colman, William Holden, Basil Rathbone, Dick Powell, and Robert Preston. Her films include Christmas in July, Isle of the Dead, Johnny O’Clock, The Man from Colorado, and The Crooked Way. In the 1950s, with her movie career on the decline, she worked as a television actress.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Vera-Ellen

October 25, 2019

Vera-Ellen was an American actress and dancer, principally celebrated for her filmed dance partnerships with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Donald O’Connor.

She was born Vera Ellen Westmeier Rohe in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, to Martin Rohe and Alma Catherine Westmeier, both descended from German immigrants. She began dancing at the age of 9 and quickly became very proficient. At 16, she was a winner on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, and embarked upon a professional career.

In 1939, Vera-Ellen made her Broadway theatre debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein musical Very Warm for May at the age of 18. She became one of the youngest Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, although she was not tall. This led to roles on Broadway in Panama Hattie, By Jupiter, and A Connecticut Yankee, where she was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn, who cast her opposite Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo in the film Wonder Man.

She danced with Gene Kelly in the Hollywood musicals Words and Music and On the Town, while also appearing in the last Marx Brothers film, Love Happy. She received top billing alongside Fred Astaire in Three Little Words and The Belle of New York. Then came co-starring roles with Bing Crosby in the blockbuster hit White Christmas and with Donald O’Connor in Call Me Madam.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Elmer Bernstein

October 25, 2019

Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions. His most popular works include the scores to The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Bernstein won an Oscar for his score to “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and was nominated for fourteen Oscars in total. He also won two Golden Globes and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Bernstein was born in New York City, the son of Selma and Edward Bernstein. Although not related to the celebrated composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, the two were friends. Within the world of professional music, they were distinguished from each other by the use of the nicknames Bernstein West and Bernstein East. During his childhood, Bernstein performed professionally as a dancer and an actor, in the latter case playing the part of Caliban in The Tempest on Broadway, and he also won several prizes for his painting. He gravitated toward music at the age of twelve, at which time he was given a scholarship in piano by Henriette Michelson, a Juilliard teacher who guided him throughout his entire career as a pianist. She took him to play some of his improvisations for composer Aaron Copland, who was encouraging and selected Israel Citkowitz as a teacher for the young boy. Bernstein’s music has some stylistic similarities to Copland’s music, most notably in his western scores and in his spirited score for the 1958 film adaptation of Erskine Caldwell’s novel God’s Little Acre.