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1-14 of 14
- Music Artist
- Composer
- Actor
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Mattie Shaw, a jazz singer and social worker, and John L. Nelson, a lyricist and pianist. His father's stage name was "Prince Rogers". His parents were both from African-American families from Louisiana. They separated during his youth, which lead him to move back and forth. Prince had a troubled relationship with his step-father which lead him to run away from home. Prince was adopted by a family called the Andersons. Prince soon after became friends with the Anderson's son, Andre Anderson (Cymone) together along with Charles Smith they joined a band called Grand Central. The band later renamed themselves Champagne and were a fairly successful live band, however soon diminished.
Prince at the age of eighteen started working on high-quality demo tracks with Chris Moon. With these demo tracks Prince eventually ended up signing a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records and was the youngest producer associated with the label. Prince made his debut on the record label with his 1978 album, For You. It wasn't a strong successful album, however it was fair for a beginning artist and ranked 163 on the U.S. Pop Charts. Prince's next releases would tend to do much better on the charts with his singles, "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and I Wanna Be Your Lover in 1979. This would start to introduce Prince as a person who presented sexually explicit material into the music industry. However Prince didn't begin to attract mainstream artists until he release his single, 1999. This single began to be noticed by M.T.V. viewers and this would make him a part of the main-stream music media. Prince released two more singles called Little Red Corvette and Delirious. The album featured Prince's new band, The Revolution. In 1984 Prince would release what would be seen as an admired and profound masterpiece the feature film/sound-track album, Purple Rain in 1984. Prince's father contributed to this album, by cowriting the chord sequence for a couple of his songs. Prince continued to give cowriting credit to his father on several other albums, as his famous chord sequence would be used in several of Prince's singles and albums.
A lot of Prince's songs did not agree with listeners and one of his songs, Darling Nikki prompted a group of people to start a censorship organization called, Parents Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.) as the track implemented grinding ludicrous acts such as masturbating, which stunned listeners. Prince however continued to release various other singles with the same platform his memorable releases being, Around The World In A Day, Parade, Love Sexy, and Batman.
Prince released a sequel to Purple Rain in 1990 called Graffiti Bridge, a soundtrack album accompanied this movie entitled, Graffiti Bridge. The film did terrible in box-office and was nominated for several Razzie awards. Many people saw the sound-track album, as the high point of the film.
In 1991, Prince assembled a new band called, The New Power Generation with this band he would release singles such as Diamond And Pearls, Cream, and Gett Off. Prince eventually changed his stage name from Prince to a symbol, which lead people to call him, "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince". Prince soon took back his old stage name.
In the 1990s, Prince continued to release singles such as Came, The Gold Experience, Chaos And Disorder, and Emancipation. With the rise of the new millennium, Prince released material such as a religious album called The Rainbow Children,One Nite Alone,The Chocolate Invasion,The Slaughter House, and had a collaboration with Stevie Wonder on Stevie's single called, What The Fuss in 2005.
Prince died on April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minnesota, at his Paisley Park recording studio complex. He was 57.
Prince will be remembered as a musician and artist who inspired millions through his music, and set an inspirational platform which others still abide by.- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Michelle McNamara was born on 14 April 1970 in Oak Park, Illinois, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020), 51 Paintings (2012) and What is Real? The Story of Jivamukti Yoga (2016). She was married to Patton Oswalt. She died on 21 April 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- David L. Thompson was born in 1931 in Eugene, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for Arena (1989), Beyond Justice (1991) and The Law of the Desert (1991). He died on 21 April 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
A Los Angeles native, Dick Darley graduated from Los Angeles High School before enlisting in the US Navy during WW II. Afterwards he attended the University of Southern California, majoring in radio production, and later worked for an experimental TV station before joining ABC Television in Hollywood. From 1950 to 1955 he directed the live early sci-fi TV series Space Patrol (1950), from its start as a 15-minute local show to its expansion to a half-hour nationally televised series (he was credited as "Dik Darley" on the show, mainly because a TV critic misspelled his first name in a review, and Darley was advised that "Dik" was a name people would remember more than "Dick", so he kept it). He also worked on other TV shows while directing "Space Patrol", notably The Plymouth Playhouse (1953), for which he directed a two-part production of Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities".
When "Space Patrol" ended in 1955 he was hired by Walt Disney Studios to direct their new show, The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). Having worked with child actors before, he got along well with the cast members on the show, and was able to get them to give the performances he wanted without resorting to shouting and bullying, as other directors had done with them. He liked to use film techniques while directing the show, such as crane shots, close-ups and wide-angle views, things that had seldom been done on television up to that time, and certainly not on variety shows. He also helped pioneer the use of the three-camera setup, which shot the same scene from three different angles and eliminated the need for stopping and re-starting scenes for re-shoots, which was a necessity with single-camera setups, and gave the scene a much more fluid look after final editing.
Darley was replaced after the first year, however, when Walt Disney thought the show needed a revamping, despite its tremendous success and very high ratings. In hindsight it seems to have been one of the few mistakes Disney ever made, as the new changes were not popular with the show's audience and the ratings steadily declined in the second season.
Darley left Disney and directed a variety of TV shows in a variety of genres, from comedies to variety shows to dramas. He created his own sci-fi animated series, Space Angel (1962) in 1962. When that show went off the air he returned to episodic TV series, and also branched out into directing TV commercials. In the 1970s he directed several series for Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft. His son Chris Darley is also a television director.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
D.B. Nihalsinghe was born on 27 May 1939 in Sri Lanka. D.B. was a director and cinematographer, known for Welikathara (1971), Maldeniye Simion (1987) and Keli Madala (1991). D.B. died on 21 April 2016 in Sri Lanka.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Marco Leto was born on 18 January 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for La villeggiatura (1973), Al piacere di rivederla (1976) and About That Strange Girl (1989). He died on 21 April 2016 in Rome, Italy.- Reinhard Friedrich was an actor, known for The Fourth State (2012), The Legend of Rita (2000) and Die gläserne Fackel (1989). He died on 21 April 2016 in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Lonnie Mack was born on 18 July 1941 in Harrison, Indiana, USA. He is known for 8 Million Ways to Die (1986), Only You (1992) and Forever Lulu (2000). He died on 21 April 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Lorenzo Panzavolta died on 21 April 2016 in Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
- Olava was born in Stavanger city and was raised by Johannes and Anna Ims. Johannes was a police officer and worked at Stavanger kretsfengsel. Anna was a midwife. Along with Olava, they also had a older son who also later became a police officer.
She started her career at the Stavanger Theater in the early 1940's where she starred in The merry widow as one of the main characters, Hanna Glawari. At age 19, she joined as an active member of the resistance movement where she helped with hiding revolvers for her fellow resistance comrades inside the scene drapery.
At other occasions, when there where German officers present in the theater, she would deliberately sing the famous resistance song "Om det smedle eller dundra", which was an direct insult to the German occupation. She did this many times directly in front of high ranking officers, and as they had little experience with the Norwegian language, they cheered along her. In honor to the city, she also made a famous song called "På Kafeer i Stavanger" (At cafee's in Stavanger), which would often sing.
Alongside with the play "The merry widow", she starred in many other smaller roles and plays.
After the war, in 1947, she moved to Oslo and become an actor at "Nationalteateret" (The national theater) and Chat Noir. There she performed along with many famous actors as Leif Juster, Einar Rose, Wenche Foss and Arve Opsahl among many others.
She ended her acting career at the beginning of the fifties, when she joined the Academy of journalism. Later on, she became a journalist at Norway's largest newspaper, The Aftenposten. There, she also worked as a London correspondent. - Hans Koschnick was born on 2 April 1929 in Bremen, Germany. He was married to Christine. He died on 21 April 2016 in Germany.
- Composer
- Sound Department
- Music Department
Jann Castor was born on 27 June 1954 in Wloclawek, Poland. He was a composer, known for Beyond the Quest (2007), Maniacts (2001) and Red Express (1991). He died on 21 April 2016.- Pepe Fechoría was born on 20 March 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Las minas de Salomón Rey (1986). He died on 21 April 2016 in Galicia, Spain.
- Animation Department
Simon Praamsma was born on 18 April 1921 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He is known for ABC Weekend Specials (1977), The New Fred and Barney Show (1979) and Heathcliff (1980). He died on 21 April 2016.