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People: Famous People born in 1869

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194 people found (page 1/7):

John Hyams(† 71)

Crew | United States of America (US)

John Hyams (born December 19, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director and cinematographer, best known for his involvement in the "Universal Soldier" series, for which he has directed two installments. Hyams is the son of director Peter Hyams.Hyams graduated from Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts, becoming a noted painter and sculptor exhibiting and selling work in New York and Los Angeles. He became known in Hollywood in 1997 after writing, producing, and directing the critically acclaimed "One Dog Day." The film debuted at the Taos Talking Picture Film Festival. After that, Hyams directed several documentaries, most notably "The Smashing Machine" (2002), which follows the life of fighter Mark Kerr. Hyams also directed several episodes of ABC Television's "NYPD Blue."In 2009, Hyams directed the franchise reboot "Universal Soldier: Regeneration," with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, which was shot mostly in Bulgaria on a budget of $9 million. In 2012, he wrote and directed the sequel "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning," which also featured Van Damme and Lundgren. It was shot in 3D with a budget of $8 million.Hyams has since gone on to work in the horror genre, directing the films "Alone" (2020) and "Sick" (2022), the latter of which features a script by Kevin Williamson.

* 07/06/1869

Neville Chamberlain(† 71)

Actor | Edgbaston, Birmingham, England (GB)

Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940. After working in business and local government, and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father Joseph Chamberlain and elder half-brother Austen Chamberlain in becoming a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election for the new Birmingham Ladywood division at the age of 49. He declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short-lived Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931. Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister on 28 May 1937. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards an increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among the British at the time. In response to Hitler's continued aggression, Chamberlain pledged the United Kingdom to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought his country into war after the German invasion of Poland. The failure of Allied forces to prevent the German invasion of Norway caused the House of Commons to hold the historic Norway Debate in May 1940. Chamberlain's conduct of the war was heavily criticised by members of all parties and, in a vote of confidence, his government's majority was greatly reduced. Accepting that a national government supported by all the main parties was essential, Chamberlain resigned the premiership because the Labour and Liberal parties would not serve under his leadership. Although he still led the Conservative Party, he was succeeded as prime minister by his colleague Winston Churchill. Until ill health forced him to resign on 22 September 1940, Chamberlain was an important member of the war cabinet as Lord President of the Council, heading the government in Churchill's absence. His support for Churchill proved vital during the May 1940 war cabinet crisis. Chamberlain died aged 71 on 9 November of cancer, six months after leaving the premiership. Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians, the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, led by Churchill in The Gathering Storm. Some later historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the thirty-year rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British prime ministers.

Known for: Goring's Secret
* 03/18/1869

Ben Turpin(† 70)

Actor | New Orleans, Louisiana (US)

Bernard "Ben" Turpin (September 19, 1869 – July 1, 1940) was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films. His trademarks were his cross-eyed appearance and adeptness at vigorous physical comedy. A sometimes vaudeville performer, he was "discovered" for film while working as the janitor for Essanay Studios in Chicago. Turpin went on to work with notable performers such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, and was a part of the Mack Sennett studio team. He is believed to have been the first filmed "victim" of the pie in the face gag. When sound came to films, Turpin chose to retire, having invested profitably in real estate, although he did do occasional cameos.

* 09/19/1869

Mahatma Gandhi(† 78)

Actor | Porbandar (IN)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (ISO: Mōhanadāsa Karamacaṁda Gāṁdhī; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world. Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London, and was called to the bar in June 1891, at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. There, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land-tax. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India. Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when he was 78. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India, who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948. Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu (Gujarati endearment for "father", roughly "papa", "daddy").

* 10/02/1869

Charley Grapewin(† 86)

Actor | Xenia, Ohio (US)

Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville and circus performer, a writer, and a stage and film actor. He worked in over 100 motion pictures during the silent and sound eras, most notably portraying Uncle Henry in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Wizard of Oz (1939), "Grandpa" William James Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941), Uncle Salters in Captains Courageous (1937), Gramp Maple in The Petrified Forest (1936), Wang's Father in The Good Earth (1937), and California Joe in They Died With Their Boots On (1941).

* 12/20/1869

Lucy Beaumont(† 67)

Actress | England (GB)

Lucy Beaumont (born Lucy Emily Pinkstone; 18 May 1869 – 24 April 1937) was an English actress of the stage and screen from Bristol.

* 05/18/1869

A.E. Matthews(† 99)

Actor | Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England (GB)

Alfred Edward Matthews (22 November 1869 – 25 July 1960), known as A. E. Matthews, was an English actor who played numerous character roles on the stage and in film for eight decades. Already middle-aged when films began production, he enjoyed increasing renown from World War II onwards as one of the British cinema's most famous crotchety, and sometimes rascally, old men.

* 11/22/1869

Tyrone Power Sr.(† 62)

Actor | London, England (GB)

Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power Sr. (2 May 1869 – 23 December 1931) was an English-born American stage and screen actor, known professionally as Tyrone Power. He is now usually referred to as Tyrone Power Sr. to differentiate him from his son, actor Tyrone Power. He was thrice widowed.

* 05/02/1869

Stina Berg(† 60)

Actress | Stockholm / Sthlm (SE)

Stina Berg (21 October 1869 – 5 October 1930) was a Swedish silent film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1912 and 1931.

* 10/21/1869

Paul Biensfeldt(† 64)

Actor | Berlin (DE)

Paul Biensfeldt (4 March 1869 – 2 April 1933) was a German-Jewish stage and film actor.

* 03/04/1869

Svend Kornbech(† 64)

Actor | Copenhagen (DK)

Svend Kornbeck (3 July 1869 – 30 October 1933) was a Danish stage and film actor.

* 07/03/1869

Walter R. Booth(† 68)

Crew | Worcester (GB)

Walter Robert Booth (12 July 1869 – 1938) was a British magician and early pioneer of British film working first for Robert W. Paul and then Charles Urban mostly on "trick" films, where he pioneered techniques that led to what has been described as the first British animated film, The Hand of the Artist (1906).

* 07/12/1869
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Harry C. Bradley(† 78)

Actor | San Francisco, California (US)

Harry C. Bradley (born Harry Bradley Cockrill) was an American stage and screen actor, his film career (nearly always appearing uncredited) spanning the years 1930 to 1946.

* 04/15/1869

Richard Waldemar(† 77)

Actor | Vienna (AT)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 05/03/1869

Philipp Manning(† 81)

Actor | Lewisham, London, England (GB)

Philipp Manning (23 November 1869 – 9 April 1951) was a British-born German actor. He was born in Lewisham to a British father and a German mother. He was sent to Germany for his education and settled there. He often played British characters in German films, including in Nazi propaganda ones. He died in Waldshut-Tiengen.

* 11/23/1869

Pierre Magnier(† 90)

Actor | Paris (FR)

Pierre Frédéric Magnier (February 22, 1869 - October 15, 1959) was a French actor who began on the stage in the 1890s and became a prominent silent film actor in France. He was the second actor to portray Cyrano de Bergerac in any film in 1925. He continued acting until the 1950s. He is most remembered for the role of the General in Jean Renoir's La règle du jeu, where he has one of the films more poignant quotes (and the film's final line) when he praises Marcel Dalio's character as one of "a vanishing breed."

* 02/22/1869

Rita Carlyle(† 80)

Actress

- No description / details available yet. -

* 1869

August Blom(† 77)

Crew | Copenhagen (DK)

August Blom was a Danish film director, writer, production leader and pioneer of silent films during the "golden age" of Danish filmmaking from 1910 to 1914.

* 12/26/1869

Svend Kornbeck(† 64)

Actor | Copenhagen (DK)

- No description / details available yet. -

 
* 07/03/1869

Alexander Murski(† 73)

Actor | Saint Petersburg (RU)

Alexander Alexandrovich Murski (Russian: Александр Александрович Мурский) (1 November 1869 – April 1943) was a Saint Petersburg, Russian-born German actor. Murski died in 1943 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France. He was occasionally credited with the names Alexander Mursky and Aleksandr Murskij.

* 11/01/1869

John Hyams(† 71)

Actor | Syracuse, New York (US)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 07/06/1869

Maxim Gorky(† 67)

Crew | Nizhny Novgorod (SU)

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (1868–1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (Russian: Максим Горький), was a Russian writer and political activist. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an author, he travelled widely across the Russian Empire changing jobs frequently, experiences which would later influence his writing.Gorky's most famous works are a short story collection 'Sketches and Stories' (1899), plays 'The Philistines' (1901), 'The Lower Depths' (1902) and 'Children of the Sun' (1905), poem 'The Song of the Stormy Petrel' (1901), autobiographical trilogy 'My Childhood', 'In the World', 'My Universities' (1913–1923), and novel 'Mother' (1906). Though Gorky himself judged some of these works as failures, most are now seen as masterpieces.Some of his less-known post-revolutionary works such as the cycles 'Fragments from My Diary' (1924) and 'Stories of 1922–1924' (1925), and novels 'The Artamonov Business' (1925) and 'The Life of Klim Samgin' (1925–1936), Gorky himself was more proud of; the latter is considered Gorky's masterpiece and sometimes being viewed by critics as a modernist work. Unlike his pre-revolutionary writings (known for their "anti-psychologism"), these differ with an ambivalent portrayal of the Russian Revolution and "unmodern interest to human psychology" (as noted by D. S. Mirsky).

* 03/28/1869

Rosa Rosanova(† 75)

Actor

- No description / details available yet. -

* 1869

John Wallace(† 76)

Actor

- No description / details available yet. -

* 08/24/1869

Christian Schrøder(† 71)

Actor | Middelfart (DK)

Christian Schrøder (13 July 1869 – 10 December 1940) was a Danish film actor, screenwriter and director. He was also a captain in the reserve. He appeared in 30 films between 1912 and 1940, mostly farce and comedy. He was born in Middelfart, Denmark, and died in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Known for: Don Quixote
* 07/13/1869

Algernon Blackwood(† 82)

Crew | Greenwich (GB)

Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".

Known for: Wendigo, Suspense
* 03/14/1869

George Robey(† 85)

Actor | London, England (GB)

Sir George Edward Wade, CBE (20 September 1869 – 29 November 1954), known professionally as George Robey, was an English comedian, singer and actor in musical theatre, who became known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a comedian, he mixed everyday situations and observations with comic absurdity. Apart from his music hall acts, he was a popular Christmas pantomime performer in the English provinces, where he excelled in the dame roles. He scored notable successes in musical revues during and after the First World War, particularly with the song "If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)", which he performed with Violet Loraine in the revue The Bing Boys Are Here (1916). One of his best-known original characters in his six-decade long career was the Prime Minister of Mirth. Born in London, Robey came from a middle-class family. After schooling in England and Germany, and a series of office jobs, he made his debut on the London stage, at the age of 21, as the straight man to a comic hypnotist. Robey soon developed his own act and appeared at the Oxford Music Hall in 1890, where he earned favourable notices singing "The Simple Pimple" and "He'll Get It Where He's Gone to Now". In 1892, he appeared in his first pantomime, Whittington Up-to-date in Brighton, which brought him to a wider audience. More provincial engagements followed in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, and he became a mainstay of the popular Christmas pantomime scene. Robey's music hall act matured in the first decade of the 1900s, and he undertook several foreign tours. He starred in the Royal Command Performance in 1912 and regularly entertained before aristocracy. He was an avid sportsman, playing cricket and football at a semi-professional level. During the First World War, in addition to his performances in revues, he raised money for many war charities and was appointed a CBE in 1919. From 1918, he created sketches based on his Prime Minister of Mirth character and used a costume he had designed in the 1890s as a basis for the character's attire. He made a successful transition from music hall to variety shows and starred in the revue Round in Fifty in 1922, which earned him still wider notice. With the exception of his performances in revue and pantomime, he appeared as his Prime Minister of Mirth character in all the other entertainment media including variety, music hall and radio. In 1913 Robey made his film debut, but he had only modest success in the medium. He continued to perform in variety theatre in the inter-war years and, in 1932, starred in Helen!, his first straight theatre role. His appearance brought him to the attention of many influential directors, including Sydney Carroll, who signed him to appear on stage as Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 in 1935, a role that he later repeated in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film, Henry V. During the Second World War, Robey raised money for charities and promoted recruitment into the forces. By the 1950s, his health had deteriorated, and he entered into semi-retirement. He was knighted a few months before his death in 1954.

* 09/20/1869

Minnie Rayner(† 72)

Actress | London (GB)

Minnie Rayner (2 May 1869 – 13 December 1941) was a British stage and film actress. In 1889, while in Cape Colony, she acted in the comic opera Falka as Edwige, the fiery Gipsey girl and sister of the brigand chief. The play was staged at the Globe Theatre in Johannesburg and produced by Mr. Perkins of The Edgar Perkins Lyric Opera Company. A character actress, she played working class figures, often mothers, in films of the 1930s. Her roles include the matriarch of the working-class Fulham family who takes in an exiled Russian prince (Ivor Novello) as a lodger in the comedy I Lived with You (1933). The same year she played Gracie Fields's mother in This Week of Grace. A recurring role was that of the landlady Mrs. Hudson in a series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations starring Arthur Wontner. Her stage work included the part of Clara in the original production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, in 1925. She also appeared in a series of Ivor Novello's plays and musicals in the West End: Symphony in Two Flats (1929), Fresh Fields (1933), Glamorous Night (1935), Careless Rapture (1936), Crest of the Wave (1937), and The Dancing Years (1939). In 1930, she reprised her performance as Mabel in Symphony in Two Flats in the Broadway stage and British film versions.

* 05/02/1869

Albert Heijn(† 76)

Actor | Oostzaan

Albert Heijn (15 October 1865 – 13 November 1945) was a Dutch entrepreneur who was the original founder of Albert Heijn, which is now the largest food retailer in the Netherlands. On his wedding day in 1887, he took over the grocery store of his father, Jan Simonsz Heijn, and the supermarket chain founded by his grandson still carries his name to this day.The first Albert Heijn store still exists today as a Museum at Zaanse Schans near Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

 
* 10/15/1869

Pietro Sosso(† 92)

Actor

- No description / details available yet. -

* 1869
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