Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

194 results found

Hepburn, Audrey

(Encyclopedia)Hepburn, Audrey, 1929–93, British film actress, b. Brussels as Audrey Kathleen Ruston. The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, she and her mother lived in the Netherlands during the ...

Jones, Bill T.

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Bill T. (William Tass Jones), 1952–, American dancer and choreographer, b. Bunnell, Fla. A gay African American who has experienced dual prejudices, he has often brilliantly transformed his a...

Astaire, Fred

(Encyclopedia)Astaire, Fred əstârˈ [key], 1899–1987, American dancer, actor, and singer, b. Omaha, Nebr., as Frederick Austerlitz. After 1911 he and his sister Adele (1896–1981), b. Adele Marie Austerlitz, f...

Perelman, S. J.

(Encyclopedia)Perelman, S. J. (Sidney Joseph Perelman) pĕrˈəlmən [key], 1904–79, American comic writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He entered the magazine world as a cartoonist for a New York weekly, soon turning from...

Caldwell, Zoe

(Encyclopedia)Caldwell, Zoe (Zoe Ada Caldwell) zō [key], 1933–2020, Australian theater actress. From the late 1950s she played many Shakespearean roles first with England's Royal Shakespeare Company and then at ...

Brooks, Mel

(Encyclopedia)Brooks, Mel, 1927–, American film director, writer, actor, and producer, b. Brooklyn, NY as Melvin Kaminsky. His earliest work was in television, notably as a gag writer for Sid Caesar's “Your Sho...

Redford, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Redford, Robert, 1937–, American actor and director, b. Santa Monica, Calif., as Charles Robert Redford, Jr. One of Hollywood's superstars, he began his acting career in 1959, scoring his first big ...

Peck, Gregory

(Encyclopedia)Peck, Gregory, 1916–2003, American movie actor, b. La Jolla, Calif., as Eldred Gregory Peck. Peck studied at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and debuted on Broadway in The Morning Star (1942) and ...

Dench, Dame Judi

(Encyclopedia)Dench, Dame Judi jo͞oˈdē dĕnch [key], 1934–, British actress, b. York, England, as Judith Olivia Dench. She studied at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, London, made her de...

Donen, Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Donen, Stanley, 1924–2019, American film director, choreographer, and producer, b. Columbia, S.C. He is best known for directing some of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's finest musicals. In 1940 Donen danced i...