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1-50 of 103
- Writer
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- Soundtrack
A gifted poet, playwright and wit, Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in 19th-century England. He was illustrious for preaching the importance of style in life and art, and of attacking Victorian narrow-mindedness.
Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin before leaving the country to study at Oxford University in England when he was in his early 20s. His prodigious literary talent was recognized when he received the Newdegate Prize for his outstanding poem "Ravenna". After leaving college his first volume of poetry, "Patience", was published in 1881, followed by a play, "The Duchess of Padua", two years later. It was around this time that Wilde sparked a sensation.
On his arrival to America he stirred the nation with his flamboyant personality: wearing long silk stockings--an unusual mode of dress--long, flowing hair that gave the impression to many of an effeminate and a general air of wittiness, sophistication and eccentricity. He was an instant celebrity, but his works did not find recognition until the publication of "The Happy Prince and Other Tales" in 1888. His other noted work was his only novel, was "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890), which caused controversy as the book evidently attacked the hypocrisy of England. It was later used as incriminating evidence at Wilde's trial, on the basis of its obvious homosexual content.
Wilde was a married man with children, but his private life was as a homosexual. He had an affair with a young snobbish aristocrat named Lord Alfred Douglas. Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queensberry, did not approve of his son's relationship with the distinguished writer, and when he accused Wilde of sodomy, Wilde sued the Marquess in court. However, his case was dismissed when his homosexuality--which at the time was outlawed in England--was exposed. He was sentenced to two years hard labor in prison. On his release he was a penniless, dejected man and soon died in Paris. He was 46.
Wilde is immortalized through his works, and the stories he wrote for children, such as "The Happy Prince" and "The Selfish Giant", are still vibrant in the imagination of the public, especially "The Picture of Dorian Gray", the story of a young handsome man who sells his soul to a picture to have eternal youth and beauty, only to face the hideousness of his own portrait as it ages, which entails his evil nature and degradation. The book has been interpreted on stage, films and television.- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
John Philip Sousa was born on 6 November 1854 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was a writer and composer, known for Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Octopussy (1983) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). He was married to Jane van Middlesworth Bellis. He died on 6 March 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA.- James T. Kelley was born on 10 July 1854 in Castlebar, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was an actor, known for Among Those Present (1921), The Rink (1916) and The Fireman (1916). He died on 12 November 1933 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Director
- Cinematographer
William Matthew Tilghman served as a lawman for 35 years. In his career he rode with the Earps, was a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas, and battled the Dalton gang and the Wild Bunch. In the early 1900s he became fed up with the way Hollywood glamorized the outlaws of the west and, along with his friends E.D. Nix and Chris Madsen, set out to make a movie of how it really was back then. They starred in the film, Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws (1915), as themselves and arranged to have a member of the Dalton gang named Arkansas Tom released from prison to act as a technical consultant. They met with some difficulty in getting the film shown--theater owners didn't want to show it because there were no name actors in it. Hollywood told them to put Tom Mix in it if they wanted it to sell, but Tilghman refused.
In 1924, some businessmen from the town of Cromwell, Oklahoma, contacted Tilghman, hoping to persuade him to accept the position of town sheriff. Cromwell was a virtual cesspool of crime: bootlegging, gambling and prostitution (many of the prostitutes being underage) were among the illegal activities going on, all under the protection of a corrupt federal Prohibition agent named Wiley Lynn. Cromwell was a booming oil town, and its citizens wanted Tilghman to run the "bad element" out of town in order to preserve its future; they didn't want the town to dry up when the oil did. Tilghman was reluctant at first, but finally took the job and promised to clean up the town. He made good on his promises, closing down gambling houses, arresting bootleggers and moonshiners and sending the prostitutes home to their families. This upset those in town who were running the various crime rings, including Wiley Lynn. One night as Tilghman was having dinner with friends at Ma Murphy's restaurant, Lynn showed up. He claimed he had a warrant, and was coming in to clear out the underage girls who worked there, dancing with lonely men. He was brandishing a pistol, and according to witnesses was either drunk or high on cocaine. As Tilghman and his deputy attempted to disarm Lynn, he pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot Tilghman in the mid-section. He escaped, while Tilghman lay dying on the boardwalk. A doctor was summoned, and a friend fetched Tilghman's young wife and children. The doctor was unable to save him, and Tilghman died on a table in Ma Murphy's, surrounded by his friends and family (in 1925 Wiley Lynn was tried for and acquitted of Tilghman's murder, but was dismissed from federal service. In 1932 he was shot and killed by an agent of the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation).- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Engelbert Humperdinck was born on 1 September 1854 in Siegburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was a composer and writer, known for Hannibal Rising (2007), Lore (2012) and Hänsel und Gretel (2015). He was married to Hedwig Taxer. He died on 27 September 1921 in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Arthur Rimbaud was born on 20 October 1854 in Charleville-Mézières, Ardennes, France. He was a writer, known for Ein großer graublauer Vogel (1970), Ardiente paciencia (1983) and Criminal Lovers (1999). He died on 10 November 1891 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.- James Bland was an African-American musician and composer who wrote many songs about the American South for use in minstrel shows. His most famous was Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (1878), which became the official State Song of Virginia, being retired in 1997 due to racial controversies. Bland was born in Flushing, New York on October 22, 1854, one of eight children to educated free parents. His father bought him an eight-dollar banjo and Bland was soon performing professionally by his early teens. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., but soon pursued music, inspired by the music of some of the workers on the Howard campus, and joined the all-black Georgia Minstrels in the late 1870's. He soon married fellow Howard student and Virginia native Mamie Friend, and was inspired to write Carry Me Back to Old Virginny after hearing her speak of her homesickness while away at college. Other songs composed by Bland were In the Morning in the Bright Light (1879), In the Evening by the Moonlight (1879), and his second most famous song, Oh! Dem Golden Slippers (1879), known today mostly because it was used in an often-aired Golden Grahams cereal television commercial in the 1970's. In 1881, he moved to London, spending the next twenty years there before returning to the United States. While in London, he performed without blackface and gave command performances for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. Bland was making $10,000 a year at one point but recklessly spent his money. In 1901 he returned penniless to Washington, D.C., and as the popularity of minstrel shows waned, Bland could not find work. He died alone in Philadelphia on May 5, 1911, a victim of tuberculosis. He was buried in an unmarked grave but in 1939 the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) provided a headstone at the grave site to commemorate his life. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
- Actor
- Producer
George A. Williams was born on 11 August 1854 in Kinnikinnic, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Super Speed (1925), Thundering Romance (1924) and Lucky Dan (1922). He died on 21 February 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
American-born English inventor and technician, a pioneer of early cinema design, photography, development, and patents. He was born to English parents in Richmond, Virginia, on July 23, 1854. His parents moved with young Birt to North Carolina and started a plantation there. However, the U.S. Civil War erupted and both parents died defending the plantation. Young Acres, orphaned at 10, went to live with his aunt in Virginia. She recognized his artistic and inventive talents and sent him to Paris to study at the Sorbonne Art Studios. He became enthralled with photography and began to study the science of cameras and the potential for moving pictures. Upon his return from France, he set out on a long journey through the American West. He worked as a lumberjack and studied and traded with Native American tribes. Eventually, his love of photography led him to move to England, where he opened a photography and painting studio in Ilfracombe, Devon. He applied himself to the study and development of photographic chemistry. He wrote scholarly articles on photography and chemical development and became rather well-known in the photographic community. He was invited to join the Royal Meteorological and Photographic Societies. In 1891, he was invited to take over the running of Elliott & Sons, the leading British maker of photographic plates and paper. He moved to London with his relatively new family. He was especially fond of nature photography and developed a slide projector which could crudely replicate, by shuffling rapidly through images, the motion of waves, clouds, and wind-blown trees, a precursor using the persistence of vision effect that would make motion pictures possible. In 1894, Acres met Robert W. Paul, who was interested in creating films that could be shown on Thomas A. Edison's new kinetoscope. Together they invented a camera that would make 35 mm films compatible with Edison's machine. Acres used it to create the first film to be shot in England, Clovelly Cottage, Barnet (1895) or "lncident in Clovelly Cottage," filmed at Acres's home. Acres and Paul began making films of various sporting events as well as human interest and comedy pieces. But the two men were incompatible partners and split up angrily in 1895. Each went his own way, and they became competitors in the business of projector manufacture and sales. Acres in January, 1896, presented the first public projection of motion picture film in Britain with screenings at the Lyonsdown Photographic Club and the Royal Photographic Society. He presented his films at a Royal Command Performance at Marlborough House that summer and was invited to photograph the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Cardiff Exhibition. With a prescient concept of a home-movie market, he invented a 17.5 mm camera called the Birtac that used half the normal amount of film and was small enough to be used by non-professional individuals. His original projector, the Kineopticon, or Kinetic Lantern, he continued to develop and improve. He founded a company, The Northern Photographic Works (later Whetstone Photographic Works), in London. He continued to invent and develop products for motion picture photography, but was reluctant to take part in the increasing entertainment market for films. Thus his business began to suffer, since he preferred to promote (and lecture about) scientific and nature-oriented cinema. He was twice bankrupted and by 1900 had abandoned the film business. He died from peritonitis following appendicitis on December 27, 1918, at 64, survived by his wife of 27 years, Annie, and their two children. He is buried in Walthamstow Cemetery in Greater London.- George Eastman was born on 12 July 1854 in Waterville, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Cannibals of the South Seas (1912) and Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson (1930). He died on 14 March 1932 in Rochester, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
George Morgan was born on 10 October 1854 in Concord, Delaware, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Lurking Peril (1919), The Hurricane Express (1932) and The Pirate of Panama (1929). He died on 8 January 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.- Brilliant stage and screen actor Charles Eldridge was born in New York in 1854. Starred on the drama and comedy theatre from the 1870's. Occasionally known as Mr. Eldridge became a white haired gentleman who starred and supported in more than 160 melodrama, comedy and crime movies, with the Vitagraph Film Company from 1910, making his film debut as the old farmer in 'The Legacy' co-starring Mary Maurice. His most notable role was as Jabee Smith in many of the 'Mr. Jarr' comedies starring Harry Davenport in 1915. Mr. Eldridge left Vitagraph in 1916 to worked for several other film companies including IMP, Victor, Rolfe, Columbia, Stubert and last with Goldwyn and Fox until his death from cancer in 1922 age 68.
- Ella La Cour was born on 31 January 1854 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Hamlet (1911), Thru Trials to Victory (1911) and Dødsklippen (1913). She was married to de la Cour, Charles Dornonville. She died on 28 June 1935.
- Riley Chamberlin was born on 7 November 1854 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for His Winning Way (1914), The Star of Bethlehem (1912) and Mr. Cinderella (1914). He died on 24 January 1917 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
G.H. Chirgwin was born on 13 December 1854 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Blind Boy (1917), The Blind Boy (1900) and Chirgwin Plays a Scotch Reel (1896). He died on 14 November 1922 in London, England, UK.- Delaunay was born on 23 May 1854 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Marion de Lorme (1918), En détresse (1917) and Le diamant noir (1913). He died on 15 May 1937 in Saint-Raphaël, Var, France.
- Jenöné Veszprémy was born on 11 March 1854 in Kenyhec, Austria-Hungary [now Kechnec, Slovakia]. She was an actress, known for Toprini nász (1918), A Szentmihály (1921) and Károly bakák (1918). She died on 28 January 1945 in Kápolnásnyék, Hungary.
- Edmond Duquesne was born on 25 February 1854 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France. He is known for Father John; or, The Ragpicker of Paris (1913), The Legend of the Eagle (1911) and Madame Sans-Gêne (1911).
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Alfredo Catalani was born on 19 June 1854 in Lucca, Grand Duchy of Tuscany [now Tuscany, Italy]. He is known for Crimson Tide (1995), A Single Man (2009) and Philadelphia (1993). He died on 7 August 1893 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.- Auguste Prasch-Grevenberg was born on 22 August 1854 in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. She was an actress, known for Die Buddenbrooks (1923), Die Heilige und ihr Narr (1928) and Die Rache einer Frau (1921). She died on 14 December 1945 in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany.
- Hugo Thimig was born on 16 June 1854 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony [now Saxony, Germany]. He was an actor, known for Geld auf der Straße (1930), Velbloud uchem jehly (1926) and Das verbotene Land (1924). He was married to Franziska Hummel. He died on 24 September 1944 in Vienna, Austria.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Leos Janácek was born on 3 July 1854 in Hukvaldy/Hochwald, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer, known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Cunning Little Vixen and NET Opera Theater (1967). He was married to Zdenka Schulzova. He died on 12 August 1928 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Camillo De Riso was born on 20 November 1854 in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Campania, Italy]. He was an actor and director, known for Nanà (1917), La principessa (1917) and Armiamoci e... partite! (1915). He died on 2 April 1924 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Adolf Jensen was born on 6 December 1854 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor, known for Fyrstindens skæbne (1916), Manden, der sejrede (1920) and A Friend of the People (1918). He died on 7 March 1920.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Francis Marion Crawford was born on 2 August 1854 in Bagni di Lucca, Grand Duchy of Tuscany [now Tuscany, Italy]. Francis Marion was a writer, known for Son of India (1931), The White Sister (1923) and The White Sister (1933). Francis Marion was married to Elizabeth Christophers Berdan. Francis Marion died on 9 April 1909 in Sorrento, Campania, Italy.