Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Harivansh Bachchan was born on 11th of October, 1942. He is one of the prominent Indian film actors who gained popularity as the ‘angry young man’ during the 1970s. Throughout his journey in the Indian cinema, he has won three national awards and thirteen Filmfare awards.

Early Life & Family

Amitabh Bachchan was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh and belongs to a Hindu-Sikh family. His father, Dr.Harivanshrai Bachchan was a famous poet and his mother Teji Bachchan belonged to Faisalabad. Amitabh was originally named ‘Inquilab’ inspired from the Indian independence struggle, however was later renamed as Amitabh, which means the ‘light that would never go off’. Although his surname was ‘Srivastava’, his father used ‘Bachchan’ as his pen name to publish all his works. Later on, Amitabh debuted in the film industry with the same last name.

Amitabh was the eldest of the two sons in the family, the other one being Ajitabh. His mother had some amount of influence on his career choice since she insisted that he should take up theatre. He attended Jnana Prabodhini and Boy’s High School in Allahabad, followed by the Sherwood College in Nainital where he took up majors in art. He later went to the Kirori Mal College of the Delhi University and completed his Bsc. During his twenties, he ended up with a job as a freight broker with Bird & Co in Kolkata. Amitabh Bachchan was married to film actress Jaya Bhaduri in the year 1973.

Career

Amitabh Bachchan made his Hindi film debut in the year 1969 and happened to be one of the seven protagonists in the film “Saat Hindustani”. Although the film did not do well commercially, he was awarded the National Film Award for the Best Newcomer. His first commercial success came with the film “Anand” in the year 1971, followed by “Parwana”, “Reshma Aur Shera” and a guest appearance in the film “Guddi”. He was recognised for his deep baritone voice and was offered to narrate the initial part of the film “Bawarchi”.

After “Bombay to Goa” in the year 1972, there was a significant progress in Amitabh’s career. Director Prakash Mehra offered him a lead role in the film “Zanjeer” in 1973. With this role, he was famously known as the “angry young man” of the Indian Cinema. The film was a huge hit all across India and there was no looking back thereafter. He also did non-conventional roles in the films like “Abhimaan”, “Namak Haram”, “Majboor”, “Mili”, “Chupke Chupke” and “Faraar”.

“Deewar”, released in the year 1975 went on to become one of the “Must-Watch Bollywood Films” of all times. In the same year, Amitabh was a part of the highest grossing film in the history of Indian cinema, “Sholay”, earning a total of $60 million. Bachchan became a pre-eminent action hero of India after the phenomenal success of Sholay and retained the top spot from 1976 to 1984. A series of comedies and romantic films attributed its success to Amitabh Bachchan, which includes “Amar Akbar Anthony”, “Kabhie Kabhie”, “Don”, “Trishul”, “Kasme Vaade” and “Muqaddar Ka Sikander”. François Truffaut, the French director referred to Indian cinema as a “One Man Industry” due to the unprecedented success of Amitabh Bachchan.

He continued to give breath-taking performances in films like “Kaala Patthar”, “Dostana”, “Mr.Natwarlal”, “Shaan”, “Ram Balram”, “Silsila”, “Lawaaris” and “Shakti”. Throughout his career, he was pitted against the other legendary actors of the Indian film industry and successfully carved a niche of his own.

The Crucial Injury of Coolie in 1982

While filming a fight scene in the film “Coolie” with the co-actor Punit Issar, he suffered intestinal injury. Bachchan was supposed to perform his own stunts in the movie and in one of the scenes, he was asked to fall on the table and then roll off on the ground. However, while jumping on the table, the angle of the table stuck hard on his abdomen, resulting into a splenic rupture and loss of blood. He was rushed to the hospital immediately and remained crucially ill for several months. The massive public response included prayers and long queues of fans outside the hospital.

Politics

Amitabh took a sabbatical from acting in the year 1984 and entered politics to support a long time family friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested from Allahabad for the 8th Lok Sabha against the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, H.N. Bahuguna. His political career was pretty short lived and he resigned within three years. A newspaper implied his involvement in the “Bofors Scandal” and was later found not guilty in the ordeal.

The Decline

Amitabh Bachchan returned to films in the year 1988, with the film “Shahenshah”. After the success of this film, his star power started weakening since all the films thereafter failed at the box office. “Hum”, “Agneepath, “Khuda Gawah” and “Insaniyat” did not create the same success as before and he chose to retire for a while.

During his retirement, he became a producer by setting up ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd.) in the year 1996. However, the company did not make any profits, instead lost a lot of funds on some events such as the “Miss World Beauty Pageant” in Bangalore. The company was declared bankrupt in the year 1997 and Bachchan decided to revive his acting career. “Bade Miyaan Chote Miyaan” was a moderately successful film followed by box office failures of “Lal Baadshah”, “Sooryavansham” and “Hindustan Ki Kasam”.

The Return

Amitabh Bachchan stepped up the television platform with the Indian version of the entertainment show “Who wants to be a millionaire?” He gained immense popularity with the show and soon returned to silver screen with the film “Mohabbatein”. With astonishing performances thereafter, he soon regained the losses of his company and was highly rewarded for his work in recent films like “Baghban”, “Black”, “Sarkar”, “Sarkar Raj”, “Aankhen”, “Baabul”, “Viruddh”, and “Bhootnath”. One of the latest films “Paa” happens to be the most challenging film of his career where he plays a character of a 12 year old.

Despite a few rough years of his life, Amitabh Bachchan remains to be one of the most identified names of Indian cinema all across the globe. His popularity and his dedication towards films are unparalleled even today.

Johnny Depp

Musician, actor and director Johnny Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky as John Christopher Depp, Jr. on June 9, 1963. His parents were Betty Sue and John Depp. At the same time as his father was a civil engineer, his mother was a waitress and a housewife. He happened to be the youngest of four children and was often withdrawn and a self-admitted oddball. Due to his father’s profession, they often moved to different places and finally landed in Miramar, Florida.

Early Life

At the age of 7, Johnny lived with his family in a motel in Miramar for 12 months, until his father found another job. At the age of 12, he began smoking and started experimenting with drugs. He was frequently disturbed by the stress of family problems. He would often lock himself in a room and play guitar for hours. When he was 15, his parents got divorced in the year 1978. It is known that the split caused a huge rift between his father and himself.

Johnny dropped out of school when he was 16 and joined the garage band called ‘The Kids’. The group became pretty popular and started opening for ‘Talking Heads’ and the ‘B-52’s’, however the income wasn’t enough. Johnny lived for months in his friend’s Chevy Impala. At the age of 20, in 1983, he met and later married the 25 year old make-up girl Lori Allison. The couple moved to LA in the same year, looking forward to the success of the band. With a small budget, the band mates would sell pens for a telemarketing firm, in order to make some extra money.

Career

His wife introduced Johnny to her ex-boyfriend, Nicolas Cage a year later. It is known that Cage sported a lot of potential in the young musician and introduced him to a Hollywood agent. After a few small roles, Johnny got his first legitimate movie role in the popular horror film called ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’. The garage band was broken apart by 1985 and he got divorced in the same year. After his divorce, he met Sherilyn Fenn on the set of his upcoming film, ‘Dummies’. The couple dated for a few months and then got engaged, but the affair was fairly short lived. After this break-up, Johnny was associated to actress Jennifer Gray; however that romance didn’t last long enough as well.

He then focused solely on acting and attended classes at the Loft Studios in LA. His dedication towards acting paid off in 1987 where he replaced the actor Jeff Yagher for the role of an undercover cop in the Canadian TV series ’21 Jump Street’. This role took him to an instant stardom and he soon became a teen-idol. He started pursuing better roles after the series ended in 1989. Johnny starred in the John Waters musical in 1990 called ‘Cry Baby’, which became a major cult hit and led to changing his image completely.

The Stardom

Johnny got to exhibit his flexibility as an actor in the movie called ‘Edwards Scissorhands’ in the year 1990. This movie not only brought him to the list of best actors, but also grossed about $54 million at the box office. He gradually engraved a niche for himself as a dark, serious and a characteristic performer, selecting only those roles that would click with the audiences. He met another actress Winona Ryder while shooting for this film and they soon became the next power couple of Hollywood. The couple split in 1993 when Winona’s parents forbade her to marry at the age of 17.

Besides his personal life, he continued to flourish as an actor and gained critical acclaim for his work. Some of his notable movies include ‘Benny & Joon’ as well as ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’ Along with two other business partners, Johnny bought ‘The Viper Club’ in LA and it became one of the hottest spots in the Sunset Stripe. He used this club as a platform to introduce patrons to his newly formed musical band ‘P’. However actor River Phoenix experienced a drug overdose in this club and died on October 31.

The Depression

After the incident in the club, Johnny submerged himself into drugs and started losing control of his life. He then had a disparaging relationship with the model Kate Moss in the year 1994 and the couple started making headlines for their erratic behaviour. The happenings in his personal life didn’t seem to affect his professional life and he continued his critically acclaimed movies such as ‘Ed Wood’ and ‘Don Juan DeMarco’.

He split with Kate Moss in the year 1998 and was involved in a relationship with a French actress, Vanessa Paradis who later became the biological mother of his first daughter, ‘Lily-Rose Melody Depp’. He became popular with some of his movies thereafter such as ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, ‘The Ninth Gate’, ‘The Astronaut’s Wife’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’. A few of the big-budget films to follow include ‘Blow’, ‘From Hell’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico’. His relationship with Vanessa continued and she gave birth to his second child called ‘Jack’.

The Academy Award Nominations

Jonny received an Academy Award nomination for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the year 2004 for the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. The film was a box office hit and he starred in another critically acclaimed movie called ‘Finding Neverland’. This movie received as many as 10 award nominations and he stared in both the sequels for the pirate series. He then emerged as a dark character in the movie called ‘Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’. He received a Golden Globe Award for his work in this movie. Three of his films are slated to release this year which also include the adaptation of the classic ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe has an ever-lasting impact on today’s civilization. She placed elevated values for herself and was a motivation to a lot of youthful individuals. Marilyn Monroe transformed Hollywood’s stance on women eternally. Her illustration, body, smile, and individuality are what are expected in a new actress or in the least the models at the moment. Nowadays, just because of Marilyn’s sky-scraping standards, it is a lot more intricate for women to make it large as an artist or model. She was something further than just a mere megastar or beauty queen, Marilyn Monroe was a universal sensation in her life span.

Early Life

Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, in the Los Angeles General Hospital. Before she was born, Marilyn’s father bought a motorbike for himself and immigrated north to San Francisco, dumping the people in Los Angeles. Marilyn grew up without knowing who her father was. She often spent time guessing and that was one of the regrets she had all her life. Her mother, Gladys Baker has several romantic encounters all through her life and that further confused her. Gladys gave her the name Norma Jean Baker after a boyfriend she had after Mortenson. Norma had a very troubled childhood. There was never ending poverty in the family. However, her mother had an extremely attractive personality and worked for the RKO studios as a film cutter. She suffered from a series of mental illnesses and hence little Norma had to be sent to foster homes while her mother was being cured in the medical institutions. In the year 1937, Norma Jean moved in with her mother’s friend. So that’s the reason most of her primary education comes from orphanage and foster schools. Her mother’s friend Grace took care of her and she spent some of the most important years of her life with her. Grace would teach her to apply make up and dress appropriately.

First Wedding

In 1942, Grace’s husband was transferred to the East Coast as he was working in the army, hence she could not afford to take young Norma with her. Thereafter Grace arranged her marriage to their young neighbor, Jimmy Dougherty. In June, 1942 Norma got married and turned into Norma Jean Dougherty. It should not be forgotten that Norma was sixteen when she was married to Jimmy. Their marriage started off really well but within four years, she divorced him. She took up modeling as her career after that. She started to model swimsuits and also bleached her hair blonde. A lot of attention was paid to her photo shoots and very soon she gained immense popularity. These pictures were seen by the head of the RKO pictures who in turn offered a screen test to Norma.

Career Progression

Some agent advised her to be associated with 20th Century Fox as that is a better studio than RKO. She then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox for $125 a week for six months. It was at that time that Norma Jean became Marilyn Monroe. Her contract was then extended with an extra $25 per week for another six months. The first film that she featured in was “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” in the year 1947.

She then had to undergo a rough patch in her career. Her performance was highly neglected in the film Scudda Hoo! She left 20th Century Fox and went back to the acting school. Her first commercial success was after she posed nude on the cover of the playboy magazine. After the year 1953, she saw a lot of success in her films as well as the modeling career. She gained a lot of popularity with the movies like “Monkey Business” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. It was the same year when she began dating the great baseball star banes Joe DiMaggio. She then started drawing a lot of audience with merely her appearance. She then appeared in her next hit called “How to Marry a Millionaire”. Her co-stars were often jealous of her onscreen presence as she clicked with most of her audience, especially the males. In 1954, she officially married Joe DiMaggio and also continued acting for the film “There’s No Business like Show Business”. This film was followed by the unforgettable comedy called “The Seven Year Hitch”. It was this movie that showcased Marilyn standing on the subway station and the wind blowing her white dress. This scene is by far the best scene in the history of Hollywood. By eight months after her wedding to the baseball star, she declared her divorce.

Those were the bad times of her career, mostly self-invited. She was suspended by the 20th Century Fox for not coming on time for the forthcoming movies. She carried a non-cooperative attitude towards her producers, directors including her co-stars. Finally in the year 1956, she married the legendary playwright Arthur Miller. Their marriage lasted four years and then they got divorced as well. Marilyn had to wait really long before her next hit in the form of “Some Like it Hot”. This film was the best hit she ever gave in terms of commercial success. Then she starred in her last film which is called “The Misfits” which was also the last film of her co-star George Cukor. In 1962, she was cast for the move “Something’s Got to Give” but her late coming attitude went beyond control and the studio planned to fire her. It cost them a lot of money when such delays happened and she was already 36 by then.

The End

Marilyn came across a lot of obstacles in her life. She also went through a lot of therapies and medications of all sorts. She was suffering from Anemia and severe Bronchitis. In the year 1962, she decided to remarry Joe DiMaggio, who happened to be over protective to her. But before that she was invited to the President John F. Kennedy’s birthday dinner and was believed to have an affair with both John Kennedy and his brother Bobby in the same night. However, no one can confirm the reports of her actually having an affair with both of them but there are a lot of sources that confirm her closeness with John. F. Kennedy.

On August 5th, 1962, Marilyn was found dead in her bed by a maid servant. According to the doctors, she had taken an overdose of sedatives. Doctors also concluded that stress and her family’s mental history was partially responsible for her death. It was also rumored all over the world that she killed herself because John Kennedy refused to divorce his wife and marry her. She was laid to rest in the Corridors of Memories, number 24, Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Marilyn Monroe made sure that she realized her dreams, amidst of all difficulties. However, there were a lot of dark sides to her personality. Well, she shall be remembered as a dedicated, extremely sexy model as well as a motivational human being. She has set both, the good as well as the bad examples to the world!

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was officially known as Elvis Aaron Presley. He was born on January 8, 1935 to Vernon Presley and Gladys Love Presley (nee Smith) in a humble house in Tupelo, Mississippi. He had a twin brother named Jessie Garon was a stillborn. Such circumstance left Elvis as an only child. Born during the Depression Period, Elvis was no stranger to life’s hardship. In 1948, his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis finished his secondary schooling at Humes High School in 1953.

Elvis’s contribution to the music industry is legendary. John Lennon was reportedly quoted as saying: “Before Elvis, there was nothing!” His musical influence was a rich tapestry of pop, country music, gospel music and the black R&B which he heard on historic Beale Street, Memphis. It was in 1954 when Elvis he began his singing career. His records where produced by the Sun Records label in Memphis. However, in the late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor.

Elvis Presley was not only the symbol of the American Idol Dream; he lived the American Idol Dream. He was popular, sensational, scandalous and revolutionary. He rose to international fame in 1956. Elvis displayed his uniqueness by producing a sound and style that showcased his diverse musical influence. The way he danced on stage caused a furor among the moralists of society. Elvis’s gyrations on stage earned him the moniker “Elvis the Pelvis.” His danced steps were immortalized on his version of the songs “Hound Dog” and “Heart Break Hotel.” As the protectors of morality expressed their disapproval of Elvis’s dance steps, his audience loved it. The more controversial he became, the more he became famous and adulated by his teenage fans. Without any doubt, the combined effect of Elvis’s unique sound and style was considered revolutionary. His style broke the social and racial barriers prevalent during his time. His songs broke not only the record charts but international barriers, as well.

Elvis did a lot of concert tours which were often record-breaking. Due to the technological upheaval of the time, Elvis’s fame was fueled by his television appearances and TV specials. His fame did not stop from being a singer. He starred in 33 films considered successful not only in the USA but and in any other country as well. His first movie was, Love Me Tender, which was initially shown at the Paramount Theater in New York City. The movie was originally titled The Reno Brothers, but was re-named to bank on the soon-to-be-released single from the soundtrack. Surprisingly for a rookie, the movie critics rated his acting “not bad” for a melodrama.

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was drafted into the U.S. Army and was assigned serial number 53310761. The Army draft did not post a hindrance from his career nor his popularity. On September 19, 1958, Elvis found himself on a train bound to New York, where he boarded the USS. Randall on his way to Germany. He was stationed in Friedberg for 18 months. While in Europe, Elvis discovered that his European fans accepted him as much as his American fans did. While the army, Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, worked to ensure that Elvis’s career be kept alive via promotions and sure-hit record releases.

In November, 1959, Elvis met Priscilla Ann – then a fourteen and a half year old teenager – the step-daughter of Captain Joseph Beaulieu. He was with his wife – Ann Beaulieu. Priscilla Ann was an only child from Ann Beaulieu’s first marriage to James Wagner – a Navy pilot killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant. Through a mutual friend, Priscilla was invited to Elvis’s party at his home after her arrival in Germany.

While serving the army, Elvis was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on January 20, 1960. He was officially discharged from active duty on March 5, 1960. After his official discharge, the public was treated to a more mature Elvis Presley. Besides the series of movies and concerts he did during this period, Elvis’s involvement in giving back to society was highly notable. He supported about 50 charities in the Memphis, Tenessee alone.

On December, 1966, Elvis proposed marriage to Priscilla. On May 1, 1967, they got married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada in a very private ceremony attended only by family members and a highly select group of friends. Priscilla gave birth on February 1, 1968 and presented Elvis a daughter – nine months to the day after their her marriage. The named the baby Lisa Marie Presley. The marriage lasted until late 1971. Sometime early 1972, Elvis and Priscilla separated and Priscilla . She moved out on her own with daughter – Lisa Marie.

The 60’s and early 70’s saw Elvis performing as a movie actor and doing live concerts and charitable works. Come 1973, Elvis was hospitalized in Memphis. At this time, he was battling health problems which included increased dependency on prescription drugs. On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died of heart failure.