A singer and dancer who began in the child line-up of the Jackson 5 and in 1982 released Thriller — still the best-selling album in the history of recording. His short films changed what a music video was for; his last fifteen years passed in courtrooms and seclusion. Born in Gary, Indiana, on 29...
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An actress nominated for the Oscar more often than anyone in the history of the award, and holder of three — for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady. She is known for her work with speech: the accent of each role is built separately, from Polish to Danish. Born in Summit, New...
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An actress who took Oscars for Klute and Coming Home, and one of the most visible opponents of the war in Vietnam — her 1972 journey to Hanoi split American opinion of her for decades. In the eighties her aerobics videos sold in the millions. Born in New York on 21 December 1937 at 09:14 Eastern...
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An actor whom Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry made the image of the silent loner, and then a director who twice took the Oscar for direction, for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. He has gone on directing into an eighth decade. Born in San Francisco on 31 May 1930 at 17:35...
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A director, actor and radio broadcaster whose radio War of the Worlds in 1938 threw part of its audience into panic, and whose Citizen Kane two years later changed the language of film — depth of field, cutting, the composition of sound. The rest of his life was spent fighting studios for the right
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An artist and musician who worked within the Fluxus circle long before she met John Lennon: the Instruction pieces, Cut Piece, the book Grapefruit. The public long blamed her marriage to Lennon for the breaking up of the Beatles, while her own work was taken seriously only decades later. Born in...
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An actress whom And God Created Woman of 1956 made the image of a new French freedom; in twenty years she appeared in nearly fifty pictures. At thirty-nine she left the cinema and has since worked for animal welfare through a foundation in her name. Born in Paris on 28 September 1934 at 13:15...
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An Italian actress who in 1962 became the first to take an Oscar for a leading role played in a language other than English, for De Sica's Two Women. She acted for half a century, from neorealism to Hollywood, and remained the image of post-war Italy. Born in Rome on 20 September 1934 at 14:10...
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A singer whose manner — melisma drawn out of gospel — set the sound of the pop ballad for two decades; I Will Always Love You held first place for fourteen weeks. Her last years were spent struggling with addiction; she died in Beverly Hills in February 2012. Born in Newark, New Jersey, on 9 August
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A musician who joined funk, rock and pop and made records single-handed — on his debut album he played all twenty-seven parts himself. Purple Rain brought him an Oscar; in a dispute with his record company he gave up his name for several years, replacing it with a symbol. Born in Minneapolis on 7...
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