Googie Withers was an English entertainer who was a dancer and actor whose career spanned nine decades in theatre, film, and television. She was particularly well-known as a star of British films during the World War II and postwar years.
She emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s, where she became best known in theatre, although she played prison governor Faye Boswell in the TV series Within These Walls in the 1970s and continued to feature in films.
Jiang Qing was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, actor, and major political figure during the country’s Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976). In 1938, she became the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China, and served as the inaugural “First Lady” of the People’s Republic of China. She was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the political alliance known as the “Gang of Four”. In addition to her work as first lady, Jiang worked as Director of Film in the Central Propaganda Department, and as a member of the Ministry of Culture steering committee for the film industry. She was also known for using her political power to attack her rivals and enemies, including those who had personally slighted her.
In the 1930s, Jiang Qing was active in both the Communist Party and as an actor. She was jailed for three months in 1934 for her political activities in Shanghai. Taking the stage name “”Lán Píng”” (“”Blue Apple””, 蓝苹), she appeared in many films and plays, including Goddess of Freedom, Scenes of City Life, Blood on Wolf Mountain, Wang Laowu and a starring role in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In 1937, Jiang joined the Lianhua Film Company and starred in the drama Big Thunderstorm (大雷雨).
At the beginning of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1967, Jiang declared eight performance works to be the new models for proletarian literature and art, called “”model operas””, or “”revolutionary operas””. These designed to glorify Mao Zedong, The People’s Liberation Army, and the revolutionary struggles. Jiang also directed operas and ballets with communist and revolutionary content as part of an effort to transform China’s culture. She dominated the Chinese arts, and in particular attempted to reform the Beijing Opera. She developed a new form of art called the Eight model plays or “”revolutionary opera”” which showed the world in simple, binary terms (i.e “”good guys”” vs “”bad guys””).
Gwyneth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an American actor and dancer, who won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer’s assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Known for her bright red hair and a quaver in her voice, Verdon was a celebrated performer on Broadway from the 1950s through the 1970s. Having originated many roles in musicals she is also remembered as the dancer, collaborator and muse for whom her husband director–choreographer Bob Foss choreographed much of his work, and who guarded his legacy after his death.
Yvette Guilbert was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque, who also starred in several early films, from 1919 to 1936. Onstage, she usually dressed in bright yellow with long gloves, standing almost perfectly still, gesturing with her long arms as she sang. Ahead of her time, she favored monologue-style “patter songs” and was frequently billed as a “diseuse” or “sayer”. The lyrics (often her own) were raunchy, and delved into subjects like tragedy, lost love, and the Parisian poverty of her childhood. Guilbert broke and reinvented the rules of music hall performance with her audacious lyrics, and the audiences loved her. She was acclaimed in France, England, and the United Statesin the early 1900s for her songs and imitations of France’s common people.
Yvonne Hudson is an American television actress best known for being the first African-American female cast member on Saturday Night Live. She joined the cast as a featured player for the show’s 1980–1981 season. (The first black female repertory player was Danitra Vance.) She was also the third African-American SNL cast member, following Garrett Morris and Eddie Murphy. Hudson first appeared on the show in 1978 as an uncredited extra in many episodes.
Hudson rarely had a role of significance and was among the majority of the cast members fired at at the end of the troubled season. She continued to appear occasionally in uncredited small roles until her final appearance on the show in 1984. Other than her stint on SNL, Hudson has not appeared in any other television or film role.
French actress and singer Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois made her debut as Mistinguett at the Casino de Paris in 1895 and went on to appear in venues like the Folies Bergère, Moulin Rouge and Eldorado. With risqué routines that captivated Paris, she would become the most popular French entertainer of her time and the highest-paid female entertainer in the world, known for her flamboyance and flair for the theatrical. In 1919 her legs were insured for 500,000 francs.
She first recorded her signature song, “Mon Homme”, in 1916; it was subsequently popularised under its English title “My Man” by Fanny Brice and has become a standard in the repertoire of numerous pop and jazz singers.