Michael J. Jacobs

Country of origin: England

From Wikipedia:

Michael J. Jacobs (born May 25, 1952 in London, England) is a photojournalist turned feature film director and motion picture studio owner. Michael Jacobs has three decades of professional experience as a photojournalist. Assignments have taken him to nearly 70 countries, in every continent. During the Vietnam War Michael spent two years as a photojournalist and aircrewman in the U.S. Navy's elite Combat Camera Group. He later documented the opening of the new South Pole Station. With nearly thirty years photographing the entertainment industry, he has worked on more than 200 film, television, video and music productions. His photographic collection contains nearly two million images. Of these, more than 10,000 images and 500 articles have been published. In 2004, along with his wife Ruby Handler Jacobs, he founded the Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2006 he made his debut at the helm of award-winning Crab Orchard starring Edward Asner, Judge Reinhold and Ruby Handler. They are reported to have signed an agreement to co-produce a $50 million action thriller.

I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Jacobs and his wife several months ago, and I must say they are both truly remarkable people.

Sujata Massey

Country of origin: England

I was born in Sussex, England to a father from India and a mother from Germany. My name, Sujata, is pronounced sue-JAH-tah, and is taken from Buddhist history. Sujata was the young woman who served Buddha a bowl of rice or milk. (The food differs depending on the country where the legend is being told. Indians say rice, but Japanese go for milk, and a Japanese company called "Sujata" manufactures coffee creamer and ice cream! Japanese children usually sing an advertising jingle when they hear my name.) When I was five, my parents emigrated to the United States. I grew up in Philadelphia, PA; Berkeley, CA; and St. Paul, MN, making enough return trips to Europe and Asia that I never completely felt American. I have trouble answering the question of where I come from, but when push comes to shove, I became a U.S. citizen in 1998.

To read the rest of her biography, visit her website.

Sui Sin Far

Country of origin: England

Sui Sin Far (born Edith Maude Eaton; 15 March 1865 – 7 April 1914) was an author known for her writing about Chinese people in North America and the Chinese American experience. "Sui Sin Far", her pen name, is the Cantonese name of the narcissus flower, popular amongst Chinese people.
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First published in 1896, her fictional stories about Chinese Americans were a reasoned appeal for her society's acceptance of working-class Chinese at a time when the United States Congress maintained the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration to the United States.

To read more about Sui Sin Far, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Oliver Smithies

Country of origin: England

Oliver Smithies (born June 23, 1925) is a British-born American geneticist and Nobel laureate, credited with the invention of gel electrophoresis in 1955, and the simultaneous discovery, with Mario Capecchi and Martin Evans, of the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more reliable method of altering animal genomes than previously used, and the technique behind gene targeting and knockout mice.

To read more about Oliver Smithies, visit his link at Wikipedia, or see this page at nobelprize.org.

Jessica Tandy

Country of origin: England

Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994) was an English - American stage and film actress. She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films. Following the end of her marriage to Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She won the Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, sharing the prize with Katherine Cornell (who won for Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea). Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a substantial role in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (playing in the two-character play opposite her husband, Cronyn) in 1977. She, along with Cronyn was a member of the original acting company of The Guthrie Theater. In the mid 1980s she enjoyed a career revival. She appeared opposite Hume Cronyn in the Broadway production of Foxfire in 1983 and its television adaptation four years later, winning both a Tony Award and an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Annie Nations. During these years, she appeared in films such as Cocoon (1985), also with Cronyn. She became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), for which she also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). At the height of her success, she was named as one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People". She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, and continued working until shortly before her death.

To read more about Jessica Tandy, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Dan Wheldon

Country of origin: England

Daniel Clive "Dan" Wheldon (22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011) was an English racing driver. He was the 2005 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion, and winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and 2011. Wheldon died from injuries shortly after a collision at the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 16 October 2011, at the age of 33.

To read more about Dan Wheldon's support of disaster victims, read this article. To find out more about Dan Wheldon, visit his page on Wikipedia. My condolences go out to his family for their loss.

Claude Rains

Country of origin: England

Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Mr. Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and, perhaps his most notable performance, as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942).

To read more about Claude Rains, visit his page on Wikipedia.

Emily Alice Goldsmith and Frank John William Goldsmith

Country of origin: England

Emily Goldsmith and her son Frank Goldsmith were survivors of the Titanic disaster.

Frank John William Goldsmith (19 December 1902 — 27 January 1982), was a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. He later wrote a book about his experiences on the ship, and had his story featured in the documentary, Titanic: The Legend Lives On, as well as a children's book about the disaster, Inside the Titanic.

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After their rescue Emily and Frankie made their way to Detroit where they settled. Emily found employment as a dressmaker. She acted as a volunteer for the American Red Cross during World War Two.

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Frank served as a civilian photographer for the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After the war, he brought his family to Ashland, Ohio, and later opened a photography supply store in nearby Mansfield, Ohio.

Frank wrote an autobiography entitled Echoes in the Night: Memories of a Titanic Survivor and published by the Titanic Historical Society. Walter Lord wrote the foreword to the book, which is the only book written by a third class passenger about the sinking.

To read more about Frank John William Goldsmith visit his page at Wikipedia and you can find out more about Emily Alice Goldsmith here.

Elizabeth Furse

Country of origin: Kenya (British citizen)

Elizabeth Furse (born October 13, 1936) is a small business owner and faculty member of Portland State University. She was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999, representing Oregon's 1st congressional district. She is a Democrat, and was the first person born in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) to win election to the United States Congress.

Furse was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to British parents, and grew up in South Africa. Inspired by her mother, she became an anti-apartheid activist in 1951, joining the first Black Sash demonstration in Cape Town, South Africa.

She moved to England in 1956, before eventually moving to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California. While in Los Angeles, she became involved in a women's self-help project in Watts, and with Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers movement, working to unionize grape farm workers. Moving to Seattle, Washington, in 1968, she became involved in American Indian/Native American rights causes including fishing and treaty rights. She became a United States citizen in 1972. Two years later, she graduated from The Evergreen State College.

In 1978, she finally settled in the Portland, Oregon, area, where she attended Northwestern School of Law. After dropping out of law school, she led the efforts of several Oregon-based American Indian/Native American tribes to win federal recognition, successfully lobbying the U.S. Congress to grant federal recognition to the Coquille, Klamath and Grand Ronde tribes. In 1986, she co-founded the Portland-based Oregon Peace Institute, establishing a mission to develop and disseminate conflict resolution curriculum in Oregon schools.

To read more about Elizabeth Furse, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Aldous Huxley

Country of origin: England

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts.

To read more about Aldous Huxley, visit his page at Wikipedia.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Country of origin: England

Jhumpa Lahiri (Bengali: ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ী; born on July 11, 1967) is an Indian American author. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both "good names", but goes by her nickname Jhumpa. Lahiri is a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Awards:

* 1993 – TransAtlantic Award from the Henfield Foundation
* 1999 – O. Henry Award for short story "Interpreter of Maladies"
* 1999 – PEN/Hemingway Award (Best Fiction Debut of the Year) for Interpreter of Maladies
* 1999 – "Interpreter of Maladies" selected as one of Best American Short Stories
* 2000 – Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
* 2000 – "The Third and Final Continent" selected as one of Best American Short Stories
* 2000 – The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year for "Interpreter of Maladies"
* 2000 – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut Interpreter of Maladies
* 2000 – James Beard Foundation's M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for "Indian Takeout" in Food & Wine Magazine
* 2002 – Guggenheim Fellowship
* 2002 – "Nobody's Business" selected as one of Best American Short Stories
* 2008 – Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for Unaccustomed Earth
* 2009 – Asian American Literary Award for Unaccustomed Earth

To learn more about Jhumpa Lahiri, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Nora Stanton Blatch Barney

Country of origin: England

Nora Stanton Blatch Barney (September 30, 1883 – January 18, 1971) was an American civil engineer, architect, and suffragist.

To read more about Nora Stanton Blatch Barney, visit her page on Wikipedia, or read about her in The First American Women Architects by Sarah Allaback.

Bob Hope

Country of origin: England

Sir Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel. Throughout his career, he was honored for his humanitarian work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored Bob Hope by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces." Bob Hope appeared in or hosted 199 known USO shows.

His list of awards and accomplishments can be found on his page at Wikipedia.

Below is a quote from Ellis Island interviews : in their own words:

We were only at Ellis Island for a few hours. But I do remember standing with my mother and five brothers on the boat as it entered New York Harbor for the first time, and seeing the lights and the Statue of Liberty. It was early morning. I was wearing knickers and a cap, and it was cold. My nose was running. I was just a kid. I didn't know what was going on. And I remember looking up at my mother after we passed through inspection. We smiled and kissed and hugged each other because we had achieved this great thing, this rite of passage...

Years later, after I made it in show business, vaudeville, I guess I was in my late twenties. I was doing some sort of publicity thing in New York---down near the harbor. I just remember staring out over the water to Ellis Island and the statue, and remember feeling very grateful, very lucky, and saying to myself, "Thank you." Thanks for the memory. That was the first song I sang in the movies with Shirley Ross and it was such a hit, I just kept doing it. But emotionally, when I hear it, I think of that day we arrived at Ellis Island. I don't think, in all my years, I ever told anyone that...

To find out more, you can also visit this page or this page.

Charlie Chaplin

Country of origin: England

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best-known for his work during the silent film era. He became one of the most famous film stars in the world before the end of World War I.

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Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the Music Hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's identification with the left ultimately forced him to resettle in Europe during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s.

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Although Chaplin had his major successes in the United States and was a resident from 1914 to 1953, he always maintained a neutral nationalistic stance. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a suspected communist and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to keep extensive secret files on him, tried to end his United States residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second European front in the war and reached a critical level in the late 1940s, when Congressional figures threatened to call him as a witness in hearings. This was never done, probably from fear of Chaplin's ability to lampoon the investigators.

In 1952, Chaplin left the US for what was intended as a brief trip home to the United Kingdom for the London premiere of Limelight. Hoover learned of the trip and negotiated with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke Chaplin's re-entry permit, exiling Chaplin so he could not return for his alleged political leanings. Chaplin decided not to re-enter the United States, writing: "Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States."

To learn more about Charlie Chaplin and the depths to which our country sank during the McCarthy era, visit Charlie Chaplin's link on Wikipedia. There is also extensive information about Charlie Chaplin here.

Peter Frampton

Country of origin: England

Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies in the United States alone and spawned several hits. Since then he has released several major albums. He has also worked with David Bowie and both Matt Cameron and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, among others. Frampton is best known for such hits as "Show Me the Way", "Baby, I Love Your Way", "Do You Feel Like We Do", and "I'm in You", which to this day, remain staples on classic-rock radio. He has also appeared as himself in television shows such as The Simpsons, The Colbert Report and Family Guy.

For more about Peter Frampton, see his page on Wikipedia. You can also see a list of the causes he supports here.

Angela Lansbury

Country of origin: England

Angela Brigid Lansbury, CBE (born 16 October 1925) is an English-American actress in theater, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned seven decades. Her first film appearance was in Gaslight (1944) as a conniving maid, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Among her other films are The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Beauty and the Beast (1991).

She expanded her repertoire to Broadway and television in the 1950s and was particularly successful in Broadway productions of Gypsy, Mame and Sweeney Todd. Lansbury is perhaps best known to modern audiences for her 12 year run as writer and sleuth Jessica Fletcher on the U.S. television series Murder, She Wrote, in which she starred from 1984 to 1996. Her recent roles include Lady Adelaide Stitch in the 2005 film Nanny McPhee, Leona Mullen in the 2007 Broadway play Deuce, Madame Arcati in the 2009 Broadway revival of the play Blithe Spirit (2009) and Madame Armfeldt in the 2010 Broadway revival of the musical A Little Night Music.

Respected for her versatility, Lansbury has won five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, and has been nominated for numerous other industry awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on three occasions, and eighteen Emmy Awards.


To read more about Angela Lansbury, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Tracey Ullman

Country of origin: England

Tracey Ullman (born 30 December 1959) is an English-born stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author.

Her early appearances were on British TV sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). She also appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls On Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

She emigrated from the UK to the US and created her own network television series, The Tracey Ullman Show, from 1987 until 1990, from which The Simpsons was spun off in 1989. She later produced programs for HBO, including Tracey Takes On..., for which she has won numerous awards. She has also appeared in several feature films. Ullman's most recent sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, ran from 2008—2010 on Showtime.

To read more about Tracey Ullman, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Ted Koppel

Country of origin: England

Edward James "Ted" Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is an English-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008. Koppel is currently a senior news analyst for National Public Radio and contributing analyst to BBC World News America.

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Koppel, an only child, was born in Nelson, Lancashire, England, after his German Jewish parents fled Germany due to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. Koppel, at 13, immigrated to the United States in 1953 with his family. His mother, Alice, was a singer and pianist, and his father, Edwin, was a tire factory owner. He graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science Degree and from Stanford University with a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communications Research and Political Science.

To read more about Ted Koppel, read his page on Wikipedia.

Elizabeth Blackwell

Country of origin: England

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910) was the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register. She was the first openly identified woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in educating women in medicine in the United States, and was prominent in the emerging women's rights movement.

To find out more about this pioneering woman, visit her page on Wikipedia.

Also I'd like to wish everyone a happy International Women's Day!

Alfred Hitchcock

Country of origin: England

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. Viewers are made to identify with the camera which moves in a way meant to mimic a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to manipulate the feelings of the audience and maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing to demonstrate the point of view of the characters. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." The magazine MovieMaker has hailed him as the most influential filmmaker of all time, and he is widely regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.

To read more about this incredible filmmaker (I'm biased, since he is one of my favorites) see his page on Wikipedia.