Michael Benthall
Michael Pickersgill Benthall CBE (8 February 1919 – 6 September 1974) was an English theatre director. Michael Benthall was the son of the British businessman and public servant Sir Edward Charles Benthall and of the Hon. Lady Benthall, ''née'' Ruth McCarthy Cable, daughter of Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable. As an undergraduate at Oxford University, Benthall met Robert Helpmann, who had been fulfilling an invitation to dance there. The two men formed a romantic relationship that was to last for 36 years. The couple lived and worked together quite openly, until Benthall's death at age 55 in 1974. His first connection with the Old Vic was during the 1944 season when the company, owing to enemy action, had been forced to relocate to the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) where Benthall directed a production of ''Hamlet'' jointly with Tyrone Guthrie. Benthall provided the scenario for two ballets by Arthur Bliss: ''Miracle in the Gorbals'' (1944), and ''Adam Zero'' (1946) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were originally made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire (later Commonwealth) and the Viceroy of India. Nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most Commonwealth countries ceased recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire when they cre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carmen Mathews
Carmen Sylvia Mathews (May 8, 1911 – August 31, 1995) was an American actress and environmentalist. Biography Mathews was born in Philadelphia. She studied first at Bennett Junior College and then in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She began her professional acting appearance with the Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearean Company before moving back to the United States. Her Shakespearean roles included Ophelia in ''Hamlet'' and the Queen in ''Richard II''. Her film credits include ''Butterfield 8'' (1960), ''A Rage to Live'' (1965), ''Rabbit, Run'' (1970), '' Sounder'' (1972), ''Top of the Hill'' (1980) and ''Daniel'' (1983). On television she performed on a wide variety of series over a span of four decades. A few of those series include appearances on six episodes of ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' (1955–65), as well as roles in a 1961 episode of ''The Twilight Zone,'' a 1964 episode of '' The Fugitive,'' and a 1972 episode of ''Cannon''. One of her more mem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of '' Tovarich'' (1963). Although her career had periods of inactivity, in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Leigh as the 16th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. After completing her drama school education, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progressed to the role of heroine in ''Fire Over England'' (1937). Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richard Kiley
Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film and television actor and singer. He is best known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor In A Musical. Kiley created the role of Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical '' Man of La Mancha'' and was the first to sing and record " The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical '' Kismet'', he played the Caliph in the original Broadway cast and, as such, was one of the quartet who sang " And This Is My Beloved". Additionally, he won three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards during his 50-year career and his "sonorous baritone" was also featured in the narration of a number of documentaries and other films. At the time of his death, Kiley was described as "one of theater's most distinguished and versatile actors" and as "an indispensable actor, the kind of performer who could be called on t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leslie Uggams
Leslie Marian Uggams (born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, Uggams is recognized for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries ''Roots'' (1977), earning Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance. She had earlier been highly acclaimed for the Broadway musical ''Hallelujah, Baby!'', winning a Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968. Later in her career, Uggams received renewed notice with appearances alongside Ryan Reynolds as Blind Al in ''Deadpool'' (2016) & ''Deadpool 2'' (2018) and in a recurring role on ''Empire''. Life and career Early life Uggams was born in Harlem, the daughter of Juanita Ernestine (Smith), a Cotton Club chorus girl/dancer, and Harold Coyden Uggams, an elevator operator and maintenance man, who was a singer with the Hall Johnson choir. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caesar And Cleopatra (play)
''Caesar and Cleopatra'' is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw that depicts a fictionalized account of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. It was first published with ''Captain Brassbound's Conversion'' and ''The Devil's Disciple (play), The Devil's Disciple'' in Shaw's 1901 collection ''Three Plays for Puritans''. It was first performed in a single staged reading at Newcastle upon Tyne on 15 March 1899, to secure the copyright. The play was produced in New York in 1906 and in London at the Savoy Theatre in 1907. Plot The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian god Ra addressing the audience directly, as if he could see them in the theater (i.e., breaking the fourth wall). He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar represents the new Rome. The gods favored Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ''Man and Superman'' (1902), ''Pygmalion'' (1913) and '' Saint Joan'' (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Her First Roman
''Her First Roman'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Ervin Drake, based on the 1898 George Bernard Shaw play '' Caesar and Cleopatra''. Original production During its out-of-town tryout, the original director Michael Benthall was fired and succeeded by Derek Goldby, and the original choreographer was fired and replaced. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick were brought in to write new songs and wrote "Ptolemy", "(Kind) Old Gentleman", and "Caesar is Wrong". Goldby cut a lot of Drake's score and replaced whole sections of his libretto with lines from Shaw's play. The show opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on October 20, 1968 and closed after 17 performances. The rest of the crew had set design and costume by Michael Annals, lighting design Martin Aronstein, musical director and dance and incidental music Peter Howard, music orchestrated and vocal arrangements Don Walker, production manager Tom Porter, stage managers George Rondo and Ellen Wittman, and press by Max Eisen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Bennet
Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed to the seat when Senator Ken Salazar became Secretary of the Interior. Bennet previously worked as a managing director for the Anschutz Investment Company, chief of staff to Denver mayor (and his future Senate colleague) John Hickenlooper, and superintendent of Denver Public Schools. Bennet is the son of Douglas J. Bennet, a former State Department official and president of Wesleyan University. Early in his career, Bennet worked for Ohio Governor Richard Celeste. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, worked as a law clerk, and was counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General during the administration of Bill Clinton. Bennet became superintendent of the Denver public school system in July 2005. He was appointed by Gove ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. He won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors. Early life and education Born in New York City, he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner's cousins was the radio comedian and television game show panelist Henry Morgan (comedian), Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England, Choate Rosemary Hall, The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, (where he wrote "The Choate Marching Song") and Harvard University, Harvard. He attended both Camp Androscoggin and Camp Greylock. At both Choate and Harvard, Lerner ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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André Previn
André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In movies, he arranged and composed music. In jazz, he was a celebrated trio pianist, a piano-accompanist to singers of standards, and pianist-interpreter of songs from the "Great American Songbook". In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained television fame as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy as a composer of art music. Before the age of twenty, Previn began arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He would go on to be involved in the music of more than fifty films and would win four Academy Awards. He won ten Grammy Awards, for recordings in all three areas of his career, and then one more, for lifetime achieve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her thir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |