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Hanks, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Hanks, Tom, 1956–, American film actor, b. Concord, Calif., as Thomas Jeffrey Hanks. In 1980 he acted in his first film, and in 1980–82 he co-starred in a television sitcom. Hanks subsequently app...

Connery, Sean

(Encyclopedia) Connery, Sean, 1930-2020, Scottish film actor, b. Edinburgh, Scotland. Connery joined the Royal Navy in 1946, serving for three years until he was dis...

Child, Julia

(Encyclopedia)Child, Julia, 1912–2004, American cooking teacher, author, and television personality, b. Pasadena, Calif., as Julia Carolyn McWilliams. In the early 1940s both she and her husband-to-be, Paul Child...

Tyson, Cecily

(Encyclopedia) Tyson, Cecily, 1924-2021, American actress, b. East Harlem, N.Y. Of Caribbean heritage, Tyson began working as a model while studying acting in the la...

Weaver, Sigourney

(Encyclopedia) Weaver, Sigourney , 1949- , American actress, b. New York, N.Y., as Susan Alexandra Weaver, Stanford Univ. (B.A., 1972), Yale Univ. (M.F.A., 1974). Wea...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...

Grange, Red

(Encyclopedia)Grange, Red (Harold Edward Grange), 1903–91, American football player, b. Forksville, Pa. Grange was All-America halfback at the Univ. of Illinois (1923–25). After a spectacular college career in ...

Eiffel Tower

(Encyclopedia)Eiffel Tower, structure designed by A. G. Eiffel and erected in the Champ-de-Mars for the Paris exposition of 1889. The tower is 984 ft (300 m) high and consists of an iron framework supported on four...

Schuller, Robert Harold

(Encyclopedia)Schuller, Robert Harold, 1926–2015, American Protestant minister and television evangelist, b. Alton, Iowa. Schuller gained attention (1955) when he used a drive-in theater to preach to his newly es...

Perlman, Itzhak

(Encyclopedia)Perlman, Itzhak, 1945–, Israeli musician, one of the greatest violinists of his generation, b. Tel Aviv. A child prodigy, he gave a solo violin recital at age ten, appeared on American television in...