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1-50 of 1,517
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Charles Dickens' father was a clerk at the Naval Pay Office, and because of this the family had to move from place to place: Plymouth, London, Chatham. It was a large family and despite hard work, his father couldn't earn enough money. In 1823 he was arrested for debt and Charles had to start working in a factory, labeling bottles for six shillings a week. The economy eventually improved and Charles was able to go back to school. After leaving school, he started to work in a solicitor's office. He learned shorthand and started as a reporter working for the Morning Chronicle in courts of law and the House of Commons. In 1836 his first novel was published, "The Pickwick Papers". It was a success and was followed by more novels: "Oliver Twist" (1837), "Nicholas Nickleby" (1838-39) and "Barnaby Rudge" (1841). He traveled to America later that year and aroused the hostility of the American press by supporting the abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement. In 1858 he divorced his wife Catherine, who had borne him ten children. During the 1840s his social criticism became more radical and his comedy more savage: novels like "David Copperfield" (1849-50), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1959) and "Great Expectations" (1860-61) only increased his fame and respect. His last novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", was never completed and was later published posthumously.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Richard Genée was born on 7 February 1823 in Danzig, West Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia [now Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for The Beggar Student (1956), The Beggar Student (1931) and Die Fledermaus (1931). He was married to Emilie L'Orange. He died on 15 June 1895 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary.- Estanislao Del Campo was born on 7 February 1834 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a writer, known for El Fausto Criollo (2011). He was married to Carolina Micaela Lavalle Darregueyra. He died on 6 November 1880 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Ricardo de la Vega was born on 7 February 1839 in Madrid, Spain. He was a writer, known for La verbena de la Paloma (1921), De cuarenta para arriba (1918) and La verbena de la Paloma (1963). He died on 22 June 1910.- Alfred Bishop was born on 7 February 1848 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Brass Bottle (1914), The Lifeguardsman (1916) and His Last Defence (1919). He was married to Rose Egan (actress). He died on 22 May 1928 in London, England, UK.
- Scots stage actor who late in life appeared in a number of silent films. Educated in Belfast, Ireland, Mantell traveled to America at 24 and played in "Romeo and Juliet" and "East Lynne" with Helena Modjeska. He worked constantly in America and Great Britain and established himself as a great success in Shakespearean works. Mantell married five times and was widowed twice. His third wife, Charlotte Behrens, had been his leading lady. Married, she fell in love with Mantell and lived openly with him. Her husband threatened to kill Mantell, who was also married. Following a divorce for each of them, they married, but Charlotte died less than two years later under cloudy circumstances. His fourth wife, Marie Booth Russell, was also his leading lady, and she too died at an early age, of Bright's Disease, in 1911. Mantell's fifth wife, Genevieve Hamper, was another of his leading ladies. She survived him when he died at 74, in 1928, following a nervous collapse. Mantell's son, Robert B. Mantell Jr. appeared in a few films before his suicide.
- Charlie Siringo was born on 7 February 1855 in Matagorda County, Texas, USA. He died on 18 October 1928 in Altadena, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Alexander Black was an American author, photographer and newspaperman born in New York City, the eldest child of Peter Black and Sarah MacCrae, both born in Scotland. After a grammar school education and teaching himself printmaking, he began his career as a newspaperman in Brooklyn and stenographer for Brooklyn courts, alongside freelance writing and photography. In 1886 he became the first president of the department of photography at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. He presented a magic lantern show of candid photography called "Life through a Detective Camera" (alternately titled "Ourselves as Others See Us") in 1889. Inspired by audience responses to these lectures, as well as emerging work by Eadweard Muybridge capturing the effect of motion in photography, Black began to develop a plan to bring fiction to life through dissolving slides. Over the summer of 1894, he wrote and photographed his first "Picture Play" titled Miss Jerry (1894). The finished work debuted before a live audience on October 9, 1894 at Carbon Studio, featuring a "slow movie" composed of over one hundred glass slide photographs of posed motion, accompanied by a feature-length script. Miss Jerry was well received at the time, and Black went on to create and tour with two more Picture Plays, A Capital Courtship (1896) and The Girl and the Guardsman (1899). In the years following the Picture Play, he went on to become a popular novelist, publishing several books into the 1930s, including adaptations of his three Picture Plays. He also continued to experiment with photography and film, creating several home made 16mm films featuring special effects and titles.- Additional Crew
James P. Francis was born on 7 February 1859 in New York, USA. James P. died on 8 July 1933 in Massachusetts, USA.- Fanny Rice was born on 7 February 1859 in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for My Husband's Other Wife (1920), The Moonshine Trail (1919) and Dawn (1919). She was married to Warren H. Purdy and G.W. Purdy. She died on 10 July 1936 in The Bronx, New York, USA.
- Anna Norrie was born on 7 February 1860 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. She was an actress, known for The Springtime of Life (1912), Greven från gränden (1949) and Mutter und Tochter (1912). She was married to Anton De Verdier and William Norrie. She died on 13 July 1957 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.
- Archibald Denny was born on 7 February 1860 in Dumbarton, Scotland, UK. He died on 29 May 1936 in London, England, UK.
- Edgar L. Davenport was born on 7 February 1862 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Four Feathers (1915), The Black Arrow (1911) and Samson (1915). He died on 24 July 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- British mystery writer Joseph S. Fletcher was born in Halifax, England, in 1863. He was orphaned at eight months old, and was taken in and raised by his grandmother, who lived in Yorkshire. At age 18 he moved to London to get into journalism. He worked on a few newspaper, though not as a journalist, and eventually turned to freelance writing. From 1890 to 1900 he wrote pieces about the joys and sorrows of country life for the "Leeds Mercury" newspaper using the alias "Son of the Soil". His first novel, "When Charles the First Was King", was published in 1902 and garnered him some attention. From then on he wrote prolifically in all genres--poetry, fiction, history, biography, theology, romance, comedy, and pretty much everything in between.
In 1918 US President Woodrow Wilson remarked about how much he enjoyed Fletcher's mystery novel "The Middle Temple Murder", and with that endorsement American publisher Alfred Knopf began publishing some of Fletcher's many detective stories, and achieved wide popularity in the US.
Fletcher died on January 31, 1933. - Director
- Writer
- Actor
Michel Carré was born on 7 February 1865 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Prodigal Son (1907), L'enfant prodigue (1916) and The Miniature (1909). He died on 11 August 1945 in Paris, France.- Writer
- Director
- Special Effects
American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright George Ade was first and foremost a self described Hoosier. Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline Ade. While attending Purdue University, he met and started a lifelong friendship with cartoonist and Sigma Chi brother John T. McCutcheon and worked as a reporter for the Lafayette Call. In 1890, Ade was hired on by the Chicago Morning News (later known as the Chicago Record), where McCutcheon was working. He wrote the column, Stories of the Streets and of the Town. In the column, which McCutcheon illustrated, Ade illustrated Chicago-life. It featured characters like Artie, an office boy, Doc Horne, a gentlemanly liar, and Pink Marsh, a black shoeshine boy. Ade's well-known "Fables in Slang" was introduced in the popular column.
Ade's literary reputation rests upon his achievements as a great humorist of American character during an important era in American history. The 1890's marked the first large migration from the countryside to burgeoning cities like Chicago, where, in fact, Ade produced his best fiction. He was a practicing realist during the Age of (William Dean) Howells and a local colorist of Chicago and the Midwest. His work constitutes a vast comedy of Midwestern manners and, indeed, a comedy of late 19th century American manners.
Ade's fiction dealt consistently with the "little man," the common, undistinguished, average American, usually a farmer or lower middle class citizen (he sometimes skewered women too, especially women with laughable social pretensions).
Ade's followed in the footsteps of his idol Mark Twain by making expert use of the American language. In his unique "Fables in Slang," (1899) which purveyed not so much slang as the American colloquial vernacular, Ade pursued an effectively genial satire notable for its scrupulous objectivity. Ade's regular practice in the best fables is to present a little drama incorporating concrete, specific evidence with which he implicitly indicts the object of his satire-- always a type (e.g., the social climber). The fable's actual moral is nearly always implicit, though he liked to tack on a mock, often ironic moral (e.g., "Industry and perseverance bring a sure reward").
As a moralist who does not overtly moralize, who is all too aware of the ironies of what in his day was the modern world, George Ade was perhaps our first modern American humorist, paving the way for people such as Will Rogers to follow. The United States, in Ade's lifetime, underwent a great population shift and transfer from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Many felt the nation suffered the even more agonizing process of shifting values toward philistinism, greed, and dishonesty. Ade's prevalent practice is to record the pragmatic efforts of the little man to get along in such a world.
Ade was a playwright (see "Other Works") as well as an author, penning such stage works as Artie, The Sultan of Sulu (a musical comedy), The College Widow, The Fair Co-ed, and "The County Chairman." He wrote the first American play about football.
After twelve years in Chicago, he built a home near the town of Brook, Indiana (Newton County). It soon became known for hosting a campaign stop in 1908 by William Howard Taft, a rally for Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, and a homecoming for returning soldiers and sailors in 1919.
George Ade is one of the American writers whose publications made him rich. When land values were inflated about the time of World War I, Ade was a millionaire. The Ross-Ade football stadium at Purdue University was built with his (and David E. Ross's) financial support. He also generously supported his college fraternity, Sigma Chi, leading a fund-raising campaign to endow the Sigma Chi mother house at the site of the fraternity's original establishment at Miami University. Ade is also famous among Sigma Chis as the author of The Sigma Chi Creed, written in 1929, one of the central documents of the fraternity's philosophies.
While Ade's writings fell out of public favor as America struggled through the Great Depression and the onslaught of World War II, his legacy lives on. Ade populated his writings with comedic characters lifted from the streets and front porches of small Midwestern towns and peppered the language with witty slang; characters and situations that can still be found in movies and television sitcoms. Ade's comedic style is just as popular today as it was when he introduced it over a hundred years ago. While Ade was never considered a high-brow literary writer or a fashionably caustic social critic, he succeeded in what he had set out to do, he made America laugh.- Robert Cunningham was born on 7 February 1866 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. He was an actor, known for The Luck of the Navy (1927). He died on 13 March 1939 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.
- Born Laura Elizabeth Ingalls in Wisconsin in 1867, she spent her childhood as a "pioneer girl, " settling in Wisconsin (twice), Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota by the time she was twelve years old. Her family stayed in South Dakota, or Dakota Territory as it was known, and in 1885, she married Almanzo Wilder. She called him "Manly" and he called her "Bess". The following year, they had a daughter, Rose, later to become the author Rose Wilder Lane. In 1894, the three of them left De Smet and traveled to the Ozark mountains of Missouri, where they settled in the town of Mansfield. Laura and Manly remained there for the rest of their lives. In the 1930's and 1940's, encouraged and aided by Rose, Laura set pen to paper and wrote a series of books about her childhood on the frontier. Called the "Little House" books, they were published every year or so from 1932 to 1943, describing Laura's experiences from her earliest memories of the big woods of Wisconsin and the Kansas prarie to the golden year in which she married Almanzo. The books were immensely popular with children, for whom they were written, and adults alike. Except for the occasional book tour, Laura's life as a farm wife in Mansfield still remained relatively unchanged, however, though she did receive much more mail than she ever had before! She died in 1957, shortly after her 90th birthday. Even after her death, Rose found more of her writings. These included a diary she kept detailing the journey to Mansfield in 1894, letters she wrote to Almanzo while visiting Rose in San Francisco in 1915, and even a new, unfinished "Little House" book, about the first four years after her marriage to Almanzo. Her major contribution to movies and television has been her books, for they were the inspiration for the long-running TV series "Little House on the Prairie" (1974-1983), and its various TV-movie sequels. Currently (1999), a TV-movie entitled "Beyond the Prarie," is in production. It purports to be "the true story of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
- Jindrich Simon Baar was born on 7 February 1869 in Klentsch, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Klencí, Czech Republic]. He was a writer, known for Jan Cimbura (1941), Cestou krízovou (1938) and Muzikanti (1954). He died on 24 October 1925 in Klencí pod Cerchovem, Czechoslovakia [now Klencí, Czech Republic].
- Frank Bertram was born on 7 February 1870 in Greenwich, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Lord of the Manor (1933), The Amateur Gentleman (1936) and Three Men in a Boat (1933). He died on 16 March 1941 in Whitstable, Kent, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Wilhelm Stenhammar was born on 7 February 1871 in Stockholm, Sweden. He is known for Gossip (2000). He was married to Helga Marcia Westerberg. He died on 20 November 1927 in Jonsered, Västergötland, Sweden.- Chester Bishop was born on 7 February 1871 in New Albany, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Millionaire for a Day (1921), Missing Daughters (1924) and Lights Out (1923). He died on 23 May 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
Luigi Barzini was born on 7 February 1874 in Orvieto, Umbria, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for Per aver visto (1919), La fabbrica dell'imprevisto (1920) and La fabbrica dell'imprevisto (1942). He was married to Mantica Pesavento. He died on 6 September 1947 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.- Actress
- Producer
Marie Cahill was born on 7 February 1874 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Judy Forgot (1915), When Betty Bets (1917) and Gladys' Day Dreams (1917). She was married to Daniel V. Arthur. She died on 23 August 1933 in New York City, New York, USA.- Louis A. Fuertes was born on 7 February 1874 in New York, USA. He is known for Little Ned (1913), The Lottery Man (1916) and Tony, the Fiddler (1913).
- Arthur T. Mason was born on 7 February 1875 in Hulme Walfield, Cheshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for A Dear Fool (1921). He died on 13 May 1941 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Erkki Melartin was born on 7 February 1875 in Käkisalmen mlk., Finland. He is known for Mestari (1992), Sleeping Beauty (1949) and Elämä lyhyt, Rytkönen pitkä (1996). He died on 14 February 1937 in Pukinmäki, Helsinki, Finland.- Gouverneur Morris was born on 7 February 1876 in New York, USA. Gouverneur was a writer, known for The Ace of Hearts (1921), That Model from Paris (1926) and The Man Who Played God (1932). Gouverneur was married to Ruth Wightman and Elise Waterbury. Gouverneur died on 14 August 1953 in Gallup, New Mexico, USA.
- Pat Moran was born on 7 February 1876 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA. He died on 7 March 1924 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
During World War I director of a popular cabaret and revue theatre. As the theatre belonged to the circle of different film companies, occasionally Mérei also joined in the film production. Altogether he directed 4 films. His first film was made in 1915 at the film company of Sándor Klein, Hungária, based on the "Jiddish ballad" published by Judit Simon, József Kiss in 1875 and a very sensational piece for decades. Later he was the director of some acknowledged Corvin productions.- G.H. Hardy was born on 7 February 1877 in Cranleigh, Surrey, England. G.H. died on 1 December 1947 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Holger Holm was born on 7 February 1879 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor and director, known for Døden (1910), Verdensgiften (1914) and Kærlighed gør stærk (1912). He died on 29 August 1916 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Edwin John Beer was born on 7 February 1879 in Hounslow, Greater London, England, UK. He was married to Phoebe Hill and Margaret Finney. He died on 24 September 1986.
- H. St. Barbe West was born on 7 February 1879 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Condemned to Death (1932), Balaclava (1928) and The Vultures of London (1915). He was married to Margaret ?. He died in 1940 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.
- J.M. Dumont was born on 7 February 1879 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Always Audacious (1920), The City of Masks (1920) and Sweet Lavender (1920). He died on 19 December 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Alf Blütecher was born on 7 February 1880 in Lårdal, Norway. He was an actor, known for A Trip to Mars (1918), The End of the World (1916) and Manden med de ni Fingre II (1915). He died on 5 March 1959 in Oslo, Norway.
- Dudley Hill was born on 7 February 1880 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917), My Wife (1918) and The Lady of the Photograph (1917). He died on 9 January 1960 in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA.
- Marenka Zieglerová was born on 7 February 1881 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Batalión (1937), Hanicko, co s tebou bude? (1928) and Bahno Prahy (1928). She died on 7 February 1966 in Melník, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- David Keir Gracie was born in 1884 in the district of St Andrews in Dundee, Scotland. He left Dundee for London in his teens to learn the glove trade and enter the family business. He abandoned this, however, and went on the stage, first as a hoofer in vaudeville and then as an actor. Because such a move brought shame on an otherwise respectable family he used his middle name and took the stage name David Keir. He toured extensively as an actor in repertory, playing in the US, Africa, India and China. In the 1930s through to the 1950s he had parts in over 70 films. Some were uncredited but the most famous was A.J. Cronin's Hatter's Castle (1942) with Robert Newton. He had some television work at the end of his career. Being of small statute and over 50 years of age by the time he made his first film, he had mainly minor parts but he loved the work. He lived alone in Holborn in London until his death in 1971.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
József Bécsi was born on 7 February 1884 in Lébénymiklós, Hungary. He was a cinematographer, known for Az utolsó hajnal (1917), Az utolsó bohém (1913) and Tavasz a télben (1918). He died on 19 January 1947 in Budapest, Hungary.- Additional Crew
Duffy Cornell was born on 7 February 1884 in Indiana, USA. Duffy is known for Unholy Partners (1941). Duffy died on 28 April 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a colossus of American letters in the first half of the last century. Arguably, he is the first major "modern" writer of the 20th century, as there is American literature before "Main Street" (1920) and after that seminal novel, which revolutionized writing in the US. His eminence as a great American writer was eclipsed by Ernest Hemingway, who although more influenced by Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein, owes a debt to Lewis, as do most realists in 20th-century American letters.- Writer
- Editorial Department
- Director
Wyndham Gittens was born on 7 February 1885 in Barbados, British West Indies [now Barbados]. He was a writer and director, known for Radio Patrol (1937), Forbidden Valley (1938) and The Three Musketeers (1933). He died on 18 June 1967 in Dunedin, Florida, USA.- Fred DeSilva was born on 7 February 1885 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was an actor, known for The Fighting Guide (1922), The Rainbow Trail (1925) and The Sea Hawk (1924). He was married to Cora Meese DeSilva. He died on 16 February 1929 in Norwalk, California, USA.
- Soundtrack
Berthe Sylva was born on 7 February 1885 in Brest, Finistère, France. Berthe died on 24 May 1941 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.- Fred Lancaster was born on 7 February 1885 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was an actor, known for South Sea Love (1923), Kismet (1920) and The Fire Eater (1921). He died on 16 February 1929 in California, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
David Aylott was born on 7 February 1885 in London, England, UK. He was a director and actor, known for Gamblers All (1919), It's Never Too Late to Mend (1917) and Mad Dog (1906). He died on 31 October 1969 in Hertfordshire, England, UK.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Walter Janssen was born on 7 February 1887 in Krefeld, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Maria Stuart, Teil 1 und 2 (1927), Irrende Seelen (1921) and Die Alm an der Grenze (1951). He died on 1 January 1976 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.- Composer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Songwriter ("I'm Just Wild About Harry", "You Were Meant For Me", "Memories of You"), pianist and arranger, Eubie Blake was educated at New York University. He studied the Schillinger System, and studied with Margaret Marshall and Llewellyn Wilson. He was a pianist and organist in cafés and in vaudeville and theatres.
In 1915 he joined a vaudeville team with Noble Sissle, and in 1917 he became assistant conductor to Jim Europe at the Clef Club, then he toured in a musical show organized by Europe from musicians of the US Army's 369th Infantry Regiment. During World War II he toured with the USO for five years.
He joined ASCAP in 1922, and his chief musical collaborators included Sissle and Andy Razaf. His other song compositions include "Love Will Find a Way", "Shuffle Along", "Bandana Days", "Gypsy Blues", "Goodnight, Angeline", "Slave of Love", "Lowdown Blues", "You're Lucky to Me", "Lindy Hop", "Lovin' You the Way I Do", "Green Pastures" and "Handy Man".- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Boris Sushkevich was born on 7 February 1887 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Sverchok na pechi (1915), Rabi lyubvi (1916) and Khleb (1918). He died on 10 July 1946 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].