D. W. Griffith was an American film maker, who invented much of the basic technical grammar of modern cinema.
David Wark Griffith was born on January 22, 1875 at Crestwood, Oldham County, Kentucky. At the age of 18 he became an actor in Louisville. He was a supporting player in provincial companies for 10 years performing under the stage name Lawrence Griffith. In 1906 he secretly married actress Linda Arvidson Johnson. However, they parted 5 years later.
In 1907 Griffith sold a poem to Frank Leslie’s Weekly and a play, A Fool and a Girl, to actor James K. Hackett. The play failed and Griffith decided to try his hand in the movie business.
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Contemporaries called him the eighth wonder of the world, King of the Air, God of Dance.
Vaslav Nijinsky was born on March 12, 1889 in Kiev. His parents were dancers at the Warsaw Imperial Theater and after retirement went on tour in Paris, Kiev, Minsk, Tiflis, Odessa, St. Petersburg. When they divorced, Eleanor Nijinskaya and their three children settled in the northern capital of Russia, St. Petersburg. She became the first teacher for her son.
At the age of ten Vaslav was brought to the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg by his parents. Soon he was recognized as remarkable by his ballet teacher, N. Legat.
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Bram Stoker is best known as the author of Dracula (1897), one of the most famous horror novels of all time.
Abraham Stoker was born on November 8, 1847 in Clontarf, Ireland. He was a sickly child and spent a lot of time in bed, where his mother read him horror stories. However, at Trinity College he excelled in athletics. In 1870 he graduated with honors in mathematics. For ten years he worked in the Irish Civil Service.
Young Bram had always dreamed of becoming a writer. His first story was a dream fantasy called The Crystal Cup (1872). It was published by The London Society. Three years later he wrote a four-part horror story called The Chain of Destiny. He also found time to work as editor for The Irish Echo.
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Christina Ricci is an American actress and producer.
Christina Ricci was born February 12, 1980, in Santa Monica, California. She spent much of her youth on America’s East Coast. She has siblings – Rafael and Dante.
No matter how many roles Christina Ricci takes on, she will always be remembered for playing Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991). Unlike many of her young colleagues, Christina was able to make the transition to serious actress by having the courage to take on complex roles.
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Jacques Brel (April 8, 1929, Scharbeck, Belgium – October 9, 1978, France) was a Belgian French-speaking poet, bard, actor and director. Jacques was more of a fine artist than songwriter. His compositions are full of passion, action and location.
At school he did not study brilliantly, but from an early age took part in amateur theater performances. His father forced Jacques to join the family business.
In 1951, Brel married Teresa Michilsen, in the same year they had a daughter.
In his early twenties he relocated to Paris.
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Kristin Scott Thomas is a British actress, nominated for Oscar for the film The English Patient. She is one of the most famous actresses in modern British history. This pretty woman performed many wonderful roles in her career. For many years she has worked with young directors and recognized classics.
Kristin Scott Thomas was born on May 24, 1960 in Redruth, Cornwall, UK. Her father, who served in the British air forces, died when she was only five years old. Then Kristin and four other children of the family were brought up by their mother. Soon their mother remarried, however, the stepfather also died in a plane crash.
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Jean Reno is a French actor of Spanish origin, who began his career in 1979.
Juan Moreno y Herrera Jimenez (his real name) was born on July 30, 1948 in Casablanca. In 1960, Moreno family returned to Europe and settled in France (they had fled to Morocco from Andalusia to escape the regime of General Franco). Jean had to serve in the French army, to obtain citizenship. In 1970, he took acting classes at Rene Simon studio, in 1974 he debuted in TV shows, then on the stage of Ecce Homo and in 1978 in the movie L’Hypothese du tableau vole, but his film career did not develop.
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