[Portal] Biography

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The Biography Portal

Third Volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans printed by Jacob Tonson

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person himself or herself, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter.

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Selected biographies - show different entries

Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas as depicted in the Sapieha Genealogy in Kodeń, 1709

Gediminas (Belarusian: Гедымін, c. 1275 – December 1341) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death. He is credited with founding this political entity and expanding its territory which, at the time of his death, spanned the area ranging from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Also seen as one of the most significant individuals in early Lithuanian history, he was responsible for both building Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and establishing a dynasty that later came to rule other European countries such as Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

As part of his legacy, he gained a reputation for being a champion of paganism, who successfully diverted attempts to Christianize his country by skillful negotiations with the Pope and other Christian rulers. Read more...
William Charles Wurtenburg (December 24, 1863 – March 26, 1957) was an American college football player and coach. Born and raised in Western New York to German parents, Wurtenburg attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, where he played football. He enrolled in classes at Yale University in 1886 and soon earned a spot on the school's football team. He played for Yale from 1886 through 1889, and again in 1891; two of those teams were later recognized as national champions. His 35-yard run in a close game in 1887 against rival Harvard earned him some fame. Wurtenburg received his medical degree from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1893.

The following year, the United States Naval Academy hired him to coach their football team. He led the squad to a 4–1–2 record for the season, including a 1–1–1 record against rival schools. He then accepted a coaching job at Dartmouth College, where for the next four years he led them to perfect records against both of their Triangular Football League opponents. They had a winning record the first year and a 5–2–1 record the second year. In 1899, his fifth season as coach, his team went 2–7 and lost both of its conference games. Read more...
Jugate bronze coin depicting Cleopatra Selene in the foreground with her son Antiochus XIII in the background

Cleopatra Selene (Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη; c. between 135 and 130 – 69 BC) was the monarch of Syria as Cleopatra II Selene (82–69 BC). She was the daughter of Ptolemy VIII of Egypt by Cleopatra III, in whose political manoeuvrers Cleopatra Selene, favoured by her mother, became a pawn. In 115 BC, Cleopatra III forced her son Ptolemy IX to divorce his sister-wife Cleopatra IV, and chose Cleopatra Selene as the new queen consort of Egypt. Tension between the king and his mother grew and ended with his expulsion from Egypt, leaving Cleopatra Selene behind; she probably then married the new king, her other brother Ptolemy X.

Following the marriage of the Syrian Seleucid princess Cleopatra I to Ptolemy V of Egypt, dynastic marriages between the two kingdoms became common. In 102 BC, Cleopatra III decided to establish an alliance with her nephew Antiochus VIII of Syria; Cleopatra Selene was sent as his bride. After his assassination in 96 BC, she decided to marry his brother and rival Antiochus IX. Cleopatra Selene lost her new husband in 95 BC and married a final time to Antiochus IX's son Antiochus X, who disappeared from the records and is presumed to have died in 92 BC, but may have remained in power until 89/88 BC (224 SE (Seleucid year)). Cleopatra Selene then hid somewhere in the kingdom with her children. Eventually, Syria split between the sons of Antiochus VIII with Philip I ruling in the Syrian capital Antioch and Antiochus XII in the southern city Damascus. Read more...
Lloyd Webber in 2007

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and "Memory" from Cats. In 2001 The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history". Ranked the "fifth most powerful person in British culture" by The Daily Telegraph in 2008, the lyricist Don Black stated "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical."

He has received a number of awards, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from Queen Elizabeth II for services to the Arts, six Tonys, three Grammys (as well as the Grammy Legend Award), an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe, a Brit Award, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, the 2008 Classic Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and an Emmy Award. He is one of fifteen people to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Read more...
Guru Gobind Singh ([gʊɾuː goːbɪn̯d̯ᵊ sɪ́ŋgᵊ])(5 January 1666 – 7 October 1708), born Gobind Rai, was the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, Guru Gobind Singh was formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at age nine, becoming the tenth Sikh Guru. His four sons died during his lifetime – two in battle, two executed by the Mughal army.

Among his notable contributions to Sikhism are founding the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699 and introducing the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times. Guru Gobind Singh also continued the formalisation of the religion, wrote important Sikh texts, and enshrined the scripture the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's eternal Guru. Read more...
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. Lucas is known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012.

After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas wrote and directed THX 1138 (1971), based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film American Graffiti (1973), inspired by his youth in early 1960s Modesto, California, and produced through the newly founded Lucasfilm. The film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Read more...
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was the queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. She restored, to the Church, some of the property taken from it in the previous two reigns. She was not able to legislate to force those who, at that time, held property which had been plundered from the Catholic Church and the monasteries.
The executions that marked her pursuit of the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England and Ireland led to her denunciation as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents.

Mary was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother Edward VI (son of Henry and Jane Seymour) succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became mortally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had begun during his reign. On his death, leading politicians proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556. Read more...
The "Torun portrait" (anonymous, c. 1580), kept in Toruń town hall, Poland.

Nicolaus Copernicus (/koʊˈpɜːrnɪkəs,kə-/; Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik; German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; Niklas Koppernigk; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance-era polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe, in all likelihood independently of Aristarchus of Samos, who had formulated such a model some eighteen centuries earlier.

The publication of Copernicus' model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Read more...
Larson at the National Air and Space Museum in 2018

Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (born October 1, 1989), known professionally as Brie Larson, is an American actress and filmmaker. Noted for her supporting work in comedies when a teenager, she has since expanded to leading roles in independent dramas and film franchises, receiving such accolades as an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.

Born in Sacramento, California, Larson was homeschooled. At age six, she became the youngest student admitted to a training program at the American Conservatory Theater. She soon relocated to Los Angeles and began her acting career in 1998 with a comedy sketch in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She appeared as a regular in the 2001 sitcom Raising Dad and briefly dabbled with a music career, releasing the album Finally Out of P.E. in 2005. Larson subsequently played supporting roles in the comedy films Hoot (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and 21 Jump Street (2012), and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the television series United States of Tara (2009–2011). Read more...
Portrait attributed to François Clouet, c. 1555

Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de Medici, pronounced [kateˈriːna de ˈmɛːditʃi]; French: Catherine de Médicis, pronounced [katʁin də medisis]; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589), daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, was an Italian noblewoman who was queen of France from 1547 until 1559, by marriage to King Henry II. As the mother of kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France. From 1560 to 1563, she ruled France as regent for her son Charles IX, King of France.

In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Catherine married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favors on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded much influence over him. Henry's death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II. When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life (he would outlive her by seven months). Read more...
Luís Vaz de Camões (Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈiʒ ˈvaʒ dɨ kaˈmõjʃ]; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, e.g. by Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, /ˈkæmoʊˌənz/; c. 1524 or 1525 – 20 June [O.S. 10 June] 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads). His collection of poetry The Parnasum of Luís de Camões was lost in his lifetime. The influence of his masterpiece Os Lusíadas is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões". Read more...
Davies in 2008

Stephen Russell Davies (born 27 April 1963), better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include Queer as Folk, Bob & Rose, The Second Coming, Casanova, the 2005 revival of the BBC One science fiction series Doctor Who, and the trilogy Cucumber, Tofu, and Banana.

Born in Swansea, Davies aspired to work as a comic artist in his adult life, until a careers advisor at Olchfa School suggested he study English literature; he consequently focused on a career of play- and screen-writing. After he graduated from Oxford University, Davies joined the BBC's children's department in 1985 on a part-time basis and worked in varying positions, which included writing and producing two series, Dark Season and Century Falls. He left the BBC in the early 1990s to work for Granada Television and later became a freelance writer. Davies moved into writing adult television dramas in 1994. His early scripts generally explored concepts of religion and sexuality among various backdrops: Revelations was a soap opera about organised religion and featured a lesbian vicar; Springhill was a soap drama about a Catholic family in contemporary Liverpool; The Grand explored society's opinion of subjects such as prostitution, abortion and homosexuality during the interwar period; and Queer as Folk recreated his experiences in the Manchester gay scene. His later adult-oriented series in the 2000s include Bob & Rose, which portrayed a gay man who fell in love with a woman; The Second Coming, which focused on the second coming and deicide of Jesus Christ from a mostly non-religious point of view; Mine All Mine, a comedy about a family who discover they own the entire city of Swansea; and Casanova, an adaptation of the complete memoirs of Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova. Read more...
Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952) was an Indian-born American monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India. A chief disciple of the Bengali yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, he was sent by his lineage to spread the teachings of yoga to the West, to prove the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to preach a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality. His long-standing influence in the American yoga movement, and especially the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the "Father of Yoga in the West."

Yogananda was the first major Indian teacher to settle in America, and the first prominent Indian to be hosted in the White House (by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927); his early acclaim led to him being dubbed "the 20th century's first superstar guru," by the LA Times. Arriving in Boston in 1920, he embarked on an successful transcontinental speaking tour before settling in Los Angeles in 1925. For the next two and a half decades, he gained local fame as well as expanded his influence worldwide: he created a monastic order, went on teaching-tours, bought properties for his organization in various California locales, and initiated thousands into Kriya Yoga. By 1952, SRF had over 100 centers in both India and the US; today, they have groups in nearly every major American city. His "plain living and high thinking" principles attracted people from all backgrounds among his followers. Read more...
Turner in 1999

Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American media proprietor, producer, and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television, which later became TBS.

As a philanthropist, he is known for his $1 billion gift to support the United Nations, which created the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden domestic support for the UN. Turner serves as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors. Additionally, in 2001, Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with US Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). NTI is a non-partisan organization dedicated to reducing global reliance on, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors. Read more...
Kubrick, age 21, 1949

Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is frequently cited as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. His films, which are mostly adaptations of novels or short stories, cover a wide range of genres, and are noted for their realism, dark humor, unique cinematography, extensive set designs, and evocative use of music.

Kubrick was raised in the Bronx, New York City, and attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. He received average grades, but displayed a keen interest in literature, photography, and film from a young age, and taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating from high school. After working as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began making short films on a shoestring budget, and made his first major Hollywood film, The Killing, for United Artists in 1956. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas, the war picture Paths of Glory (1957) and the historical epic Spartacus (1960). His reputation as a filmmaker in Hollywood grew, and he was approached by Marlon Brando to film what would become One-Eyed Jacks (1961), though Brando eventually decided to direct it himself. Read more...

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Did you know... - show different entries

... that since 2001, street artist John Hamon has postered and projected his image on the buildings of Paris and 76 other cities around the world?
... that the writer İsmet Kür's father and sister were writers, and her daughter is also a writer?
... that when rag sorter Mary Fitzpatrick was tried for murder, the jury included six aristocrats and the judge was Sir Henry Hawkins of the High Court, known as "Hanging Hawkins"?
... that Hans Riemer went from being a prisoner of war in 1945 to President of Austria's Bundesrat in 1955?
... that an hour and a half before fur trader Captain Joseph LaBarge died, he received a telegram from historian Hiram M. Chittenden assuring LaBarge of the completion of his biography?
... that after scientist Qian Lingxi was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, China's nuclear submarine project sought the help of Premier Zhou Enlai to make him available for this strategic program?
... that Herbert Vivian, a leader of the Neo-Jacobite Revival and later a fascist, was the first journalist to interview Winston Churchill?
... that Chinese scientist Liu Xinyuan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine?
... that before the cremation of former business executive Sun Fuling, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his final respects at the cemetery?
... that legal scholar Wang Jiafu gave lectures to China's top leaders, including President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng?
... that in 2014, the Australian actor Jackson Gallagher escaped without injury from a rockfall during a climbing expedition at the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand?
... that the Ross Volunteers are the military escort for the Governor of Texas?

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General images

The following are images from various biography-related articles on Wikipedia.

A scene from the Baburnama
Cover of the first English edition of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, 1793
John Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, was one of the earliest English-language biographies.
Einhard as scribe
Third Volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans printed by Jacob Tonson
Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions, the first Western autobiography ever written, around 400. Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century.
Eminent Victorians set the standard for 20th century biographical writing, when it was published in 1918.
James Boswell wrote what many consider to be the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1791.

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Selected portrait - show another

Credit: Raden Saleh or Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel (authorship disputed)

Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman (1807 or 1811 – April 23, 1880) is one of the best known painters from Indonesia and a master of advanced Indonesian art. He was considered to be the first modern artist from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and his paintings corresponded with nineteenth-century romanticism, which was popular in Europe at the time.

More selected pictures...	Read more...

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On this day – November 27

Births

1701 - Anders Celsius, Swedish inventor and astronomer (d. 1744) (pictured)
1940 - Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (d. 1973)
1942 - Jimi Hendrix, American guitarist (d. 1970)
1955 - Bill Nye, American engineer and broadcaster
1957 - Caroline Kennedy, American journalist

Deaths

1852 - Ada Lovelace, British mathematician (b. 1815)
1895 - Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author (b. 1824)
1953 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
1988 - John Carradine, American actor (b. 1906)

More of today's anniversaries...

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In the news

24 November 2019 – 2019 Hong Kong protests, 2019 Hong Kong local elections: With a record 71% turnout, the pro-democracy camp wins 333 of 452 seats up for election. Jimmy Sham, one of the leaders of the protest, won in his electorate while major pro-Beijing leader Junius Ho lost in his. (Reuters)
22 November 2019 – 2021 German federal election: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced German Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, threatens to stand down as a chancellor candidate if her centre-right party continues to disagree over support. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Telegraph)
20 November 2019 – Next Israeli legislative election: Blue and White Alliance leader Benny Gantz's mandate to form a new government expires. As both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form one, Israel will likely face a third election in two years. (Al Jazeera)
13 November 2019 – 2019 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vows not to give in to protesters as chaos continues into Wednesday morning. (The Straits Times)
12 November 2019 – 2019 Hong Kong protests: After police shoot a protester with live ammunition, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam speaks out and labels the protesters as "selfish" for "paralyzing" the city and urges all students not to take part in protests. (Reuters)
12 November 2019 – November 2019 Spanish general election: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez from the PSOE and Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left-wing Podemos, announce a first government agreement that will constitute the first coalition government in Spain's democratic history. This follows the failure to reach an agreement last summer and the rise of the far-right party Vox. (The New York Times)