Born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Brittany Anne Snow is known for her roles as Meg Pryor in American Dreams, Daisy Lemay in Guiding Light and Amber Von Tussle in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Hairspray.
In Hairspray, Brittany played Amber Von Tussle alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, John Travolta, Allison Janney and Queen Latifah.
Brittany's musical talent is shown in numerous numbers, including a solo entitled "The New Girl In Town," a song which did not appear previously in the Broadway musical version.
Brittany had previously worked with Adam Shankman, the director of Hairspray, on the Disney film The Pacifier. She also played the lead role in Prom Night, which was released in April 2008.
Brittany also appeared on the music video for "The Phrase That Pays" by The Academy Is... which was released July 2007.
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Snow began modeling at the age of three and a half in a print ad for Burdines. She had a popular role at age 12 as troubled teen Daisy LeMay on CBS' Guiding Light. She played Meg Pryor on NBC's American Dreams and neo-Nazi high school student Ariel Alderman on the third season of Nip/Tuck. In 2005, she appeared in The Pacifier with action star Vin Diesel.
In 2006, she was in the film John Tucker Must Die and voiced Naminé in the video game Kingdom Hearts II as well as Shizuku Tsukishima in the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart, along with Ashley Tisdale.
She also portrayed a young woman afflicted with bipolar disorder in the season seven finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Snow was scheduled to play the lead, Alyssa, in the upcoming film adaptation of Clock Tower, which was due out in 2010. The project is "officially in limbo."
Brittany stars alongside Evan Ross in the upcoming cautionary thriller 96 Minutes. She appears in David E. Kelley's legal drama Harry's Law, which premiered in January 2011. She also stars in CBS' romantic comedy Mad Love. ####
Did you know? In 2005, Gilmour was rated the 82nd greatest guitarist by Rolling Stone. In January 2007, Guitar World readers voted Gilmour's solos, "Comfortably Numb," "Time" and "Money" into the top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos; "Comfortably Numb" was voted the 4th greatest solo of all time, "Time" was voted the 21st greatest solo of all time and "Money" was voted the 62nd greatest solo of all time.
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Born David Jon Gilmour, in Cambridge, England, he is best known as the lead guitarist, one of the lead singers and one of the main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist.
In 2003, he was appointed "Commander of the Order of the British Empire"(CBE) for services to music and philanthropy and was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution title at the 2008 Q Awards.
Gilmour's father was a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge and his mother was a teacher and film editor who raised her family at Grantchester Meadows, later immortalised by a Roger Waters song on Pink Floyd's Ummagumma.
Gilmour attended The Perse School in Cambridge, and met future Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett, and bassist and vocalist Roger Waters who attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, nearby. Gilmour often spent his lunchtime learning to play the guitar with Barrett.
Gilmour started playing in the band Joker's Wild in 1962. He left the band in 1966 and busked around Spain and France, not very successfully.
Gilmour was approached in late December 1967 by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who asked if he would be interested in joining Pink Floyd, making Pink Floyd a five-piece band. He filled in for Syd Barrett's guitar parts due to his erratic behavior.
Eventually, Barrett was out, and Gilmour assumed the role of the band's lead guitarist and took over most of the band's lead vocal duties with bassist Roger Waters and keyboard player Richard Wright. After the back-to-back successes of The Dark Side of the Moon and then Wish You Were Here, Waters took more control over the band, writing most of Animals and The Wall by himself.
Keyboardist Wright was fired during The Wall sessions and the relationship between Gilmour and Waters would further deteriorate during the making of The Wall film and the 1983 Pink Floyd album The Final Cut.
After recording Animals, In 1968 Gilmour thought that his musical influence had been underused, and fused his ideas into his self-titled first solo album, which showcases his signature guitar style, as well as underscoring his songwriting skills. (A tune written during the finishing stages of this album, but too late to be used, became "Comfortably Numb" on The Wall.)
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The negative atmosphere surrounding the creation of The Wall, compounded by The Final Cut's virtually being a Roger Waters solo album, led Gilmour to produce his second solo album About Face in 1984. He used it to express his feelings about a range of topics, from the murder of John Lennon, to his relationship with Waters. Afterwards, he played guitar with a range of artists, and also produced The Dream Academy, who had a top ten hit with "Life in a Northern Town."
In 1985, Waters declared that Pink Floyd was "a spent force creatively." However, in 1986, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason stated that Waters had quit the band and they intended to continue without him. Gilmour assumed full control of the group and produced A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987 with some contributions from Mason and Richard Wright. Wright officially rejoined the band after the release of the album for a lengthy world tour and helped create 1994's The Division Bell.
In 1986, Gilmour purchased the houseboat Astoria which is moored on the River Thames, and transformed it into a recording studio. The majority of the two most recent Pink Floyd albums, as well as Gilmour's 2006 solo release On an Island, were recorded there.
On July 2, 2005, Gilmour played with Pink Floyd—including Roger Waters—at Live 8. Gilmour donated all of his resulting profits to charities.
In December 2006, Gilmour released a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had died on 7 July of that year, in the form of his own version of Pink Floyd's first single "Arnold Layne." Recorded live at London's Royal Albert Hall, the CD single featured versions of the song performed by Pink Floyd's keyboard player Wright and special guest artist David Bowie.
Since their Live 8 appearance in 2005, Gilmour has repeatedly said that there would be no Pink Floyd reunion. With the death of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright in September 2008, another reunion of the core group members became impossible.
Gilmour also took up various roles as a producer, sideman and even concert sound engineer for a wide variety of acts which included former bandmate Syd Barrett, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Elton John, Eric Clapton, B. B. King, Seal, Sam Brown, Jools Holland, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, The Who, Supertramp, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Alan Parsons, among others plus a variety of charities.
In 1985, Gilmour was member of Bryan Ferry's band. He played on Ferry's album Boys and Girls, as well as the song "Is Your Love Strong Enough" for the U.S. release of the Ridley Scott-Tom Cruise film Legend.
Gilmour also took part in a comedy skit titled "The Easy Guitar Book Sketch" with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and Gary Moore.
In 2001 and 2002, he held a small number of acoustic solo concerts in London and Paris, along with a small band and choir.
In 2003, Rolling Stone included Gilmour in the list of hundred greatest guitarists of all time at number 82.
On 6 March 2006, his 60th birthday, he released his third solo album, On an Island. It debuted at #1 in the UK charts. The album features David Crosby and Graham Nash on harmonies on the title track, Robert Wyatt on cornet and percussion and Richard Wright on Hammond organ and vocals, and a host of other musical contributors. The album was Gilmour's first U.S. Top 10 album as a solo artist.
On July 11, 2010, Gilmour gave a performance for the charity Hoping Foundation with Roger Waters in Oxfordshire, England. According to onlookers, it seemed clear that Gilmour and Waters had ended the their long-running feud and seemed to be the best of friends, laughing and joking together along with their respective partners.
Waters has confirmed via his Facebook page that Gilmour will play Comfortably Numb with him for one of his shows on his upcoming The Wall Live.
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In his early career with Pink Floyd, Gilmour played a multitude of Fender Stratocasters. One of his popular guitar solos ("Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2") was played on a Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar equipped with Bigsby tremolo bar and P-90 pick-ups.
Although mainly known for his guitar work, Gilmour is also a proficient multi-instrumentalist. He also plays bass guitar (which he did on some Pink Floyd tracks), keyboards, synthesizer, banjo, harmonica, drums (as heard on the Syd Barrett solo track "Dominoes," and other songs where he opted to play all the instruments) and lately, the saxophone.
In 1996, Gilmour was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd. ####
... she died on December 26, 2010. She was 54 years-old.
Born Mary Christine Brockert, Teena Marie was a protege' of R&B and "funk" legend Rick James, and was one of the most successful white performers of R&B. She played rhythm guitar, keyboards and congas. She also wrote, produced, sang and arranged virtually all of her songs since her 1980 release, Irons in the Fire, which she said was her favorite album.
She had a daughter, Alia Rose, who, as of 2009, sang under the name Rose Le Beau. Marie died on Sunday, December 26, 2010, at home.
A four-time Grammy nominee, Marie had a strong African-American influence from her godmother. Blessed with the gift of music at a young age, the Santa Monica, California, native grew up in the historically African-American enclave of Oakwood, California in westside Los Angeles. Raised on Motown music and singing Harry Belafonte music by age 2, Marie’s self-professed “Gift from God” would become fine-tuned as the years progressed.
As a child, she had an acting role on The Beverly Hillbillies, credited as Tina Marie Brockert. She also sang at the wedding of actor Jerry Lewis' son when she was 10 years old.
While attending Venice High School, she joined the Summer Dance Production, and also had a role in the school's production of The Music Man.
Marie signed with Motown Records in 1976, having gained an introduction to staff producer Hal Davis (best known for his work with Brenda Holloway and the Jackson 5, and then auditioned, with her band, for label boss Berry Gordy. She recorded unreleased material with a number of different producers, including Kerner and Wise, but was then spotted by Rick James, and guitarist Paul C Saenz, who became her mentors.
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Her debut album release, Wild and Peaceful, was originally targeted as a project to be produced by James for Diana Ross, but James preferred to work with Marie. It scored Marie's first top-ten R&B hit, "I'm Just a Sucker for Your Love" which was a duet with James.
Neither the album sleeve nor other packaging showed a picture of Marie, apparently on the theory that black audiences might be reluctant to buy an album by a white artist. In fact, many radio programmers wrongly assumed Marie was African American during the earliest months of her career. This myth was disproved when Marie performed her debut hit with James on Soul Train in 1979. In 1980, her second album, Lady T, sported a picture of her on the cover.
Lady T included production from Richard Rudolph (husband of R&B singer Minnie Riperton, and father of Maya Rudolph from Saturday Night Live.) Marie had asked Berry Gordy to contact Rudolph and secure his input as Rick James was unavailable and she felt unprepared to be sole producer of her own material. Rudolph intended for the song he penned, "Now That I Have You,"to be sung by his wife, but it was later given to Marie.
Rudolph also co-composed the single "Behind The Groove,"which reached number 21 on the black singles chart and the top ten on the U.K. singles chart. The song was also included on the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the Fever 105 station. Another notable track, "Too Many Colors," featured Rudolph and Riperton's then 7-year-old daughter, Maya Rudolph, who became Teena Marie's god-daughter.
Also in 1980, Marie released her third LP, Irons in The Fire, in which she handled all writing and production herself, including the horn and rhythm arrangements of her band and all backing vocals. The single "I Need Your Lovin'" brought Teena her first top 40 hit. That same year, Teena Marie appeared on James' hugely successful album, Street Songs, with the steamy duet "Fire and Desire."The two would perform the single at the 2004 BET Awards, which would be their last TV appearance with one another as Rick James died later that year.
Marie continued her success with Motown in 1981, with the release of It Must Be Magic, her first gold record, which included her then biggest hit on R&B, "Square Biz." Other notable tracks include "Portuguese Love," the title track "It Must be Magic," and "Yes Indeed,"which Marie has cited as a personal favorite.
In 1982, Marie got into a heated legal battle with Motown records over her contract and disagreements about releasing her new material. The scuffle resulted in "The Brockert Initiative,"which makes it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist. In such instances, artists are able to sign and release with another label instead of being held back by an unsupportive one.
After leaving Motown in 1982, Marie signed with Epic Records in 1983 and released the concept album Robbery, which featured the hit "Fix It", as well as "Shadow Boxing" and "Casanova Brown." The latter was one of a number of tracks Marie would write over the years about her real-life romance with one-time mentor Rick James. The relationship had ended by that point, but the two would continue a sometimes tempestuous friendship, until James's death in August 2004. In 1984, Marie released her biggest-selling album, Starchild. It yielded the hit single "Lovergirl in March 1985.
In 1986, Marie released a rock music-influenced concept album titled Emerald City. It was controversial with her established fan base and not as successful as its predecessors. She also recorded another rock-influenced track, "Lead Me On,"for the soundtrack of the box office hit film, Top Gun.
In 1988, she returned to her R&B and funk roots, releasing the critically-acclaimed album Naked to the World. That album contained the hit "Ooo La La La,"which reached the top of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart and remains her only #1 single on that chart to date. During her 1988 Naked to the World concert tour, she suffered a fall and was hospitalized for six months.
In 2010, Marie continued to be a headliner on the Las Vegas Strip, appearing regularly at the Las Vegas Hilton and other venues until just before her death at age 54.
... she was 76 when she died from a heart attack on November 10, 2008.
Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa even though she was exiled from her country of birth for 30 years. Hailed as the Empress of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the 1960s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music.
As the daughter of a sangoma, a mystical traditional healer of the Xhosa tribe, she spent six months of her birth year in jail with her mother. Gifted with a powerful voice, Makeba recorded her debut single, "Lakutshona Llange," as a member of the Manhattan Brothers in 1953.
Although she left to form an all-female group named the Skylarks in 1958, she reunited with members of the Manhattan Brothers when she accepted the lead female role in a musical version of King Kong, which told the tragic tale of Black African boxer, Ezekiel "King Kong" Dlamani, in 1959. The same year, she began an 18 month tour of South Africa with Alf Herbert's musical extravaganza, African Jazz And Variety, and made an appearance in a documentary film, Come Back Africa. These successes led to invitations to perform in Europe and the United States.
Makeba was embraced by the African-American community. "Pata Pata," Makeba's signature tune was written by Dorothy Masuka and recorded in South Africa in 1956 before eventually becoming a major hit in the U.S. in 1967. In late-1959, she performed for four weeks at the Village Vanguard in New York. She later made a guest appearance during Harry Belafonte's ground-breaking concerts at Carnegie Hall.
A double-album of the event, released in 1960, received a Grammy award. Makeba has continued to periodically renew her collaboration with Belefonte, releasing an album in 1972 titled Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte. Makeba then made a special guest appearance at the Harry Belafonte Tribute at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
Makeba's successes as a vocalist were also balanced by her outspoken views about apartheid. In 1960, the government of South Africa revoked her citizenship. For the next thirty years, she was forced to be a 'citizen of the world.' Makeba received the Dag Hammerskjold Peace Prize in 1968.
After marrying radical Black activist Stokely Carmichael, many of her concerts were cancelled, and her recording contract with RCA was dropped, resulting in even more problems for the artist. She eventually relocated to Guinea at the invitation of president Sekou Toure and agreed to serve as Guinea's delegate to the United Nations. In 1964 and 1975, she addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on the horrors of apartheid.
Makeba remained active as a musician over the years. In 1975, she recorded an album, A Promise, with Joe Sample, Stix Hooper, Arthur Adams, and David T. Walker. Makeba joined Paul Simon and South Africa 's Ladysmith Black Mambazo during their world-wide Graceland tour in 1987 and 1988. Two years later, she joined Odetta and Nina Simone for the One Nation tour.
Makeba published her autobiography, Miriam: My Story, in English in 1988 and had it subsequently translated and published in German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Following Nelson Mandela's release from prison, Makeba returned to South Africa in December 1990. She performed her first concert in her homeland in thirty years in April 1991. Makeba appeared in South African award-winning musical, Sarafina, in the role of Sarafina's mother in 1992. Two years later, she reunited with her first husband, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, for the Tour Of Hope tour.
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In 1995, Makeba formed a charity organization to raise funds to help protect the women of South Africa. The same year, she performed at the Vatican's Nevi Hall during a world-wide broadcasted show, Christmas In The Vatican. Makeba's first studio album in a decade, Homeland, was released in 2000.
Jessica Claire Biel was born in Ely, Minnesota, her family moved frequently during her childhood, living in Texas, Connecticut, and Woodstock, Illinois, before finally settling in Boulder, Colorado. While growing up, Biel played soccer and also trained as a gymnast. From 2000 to 2002, she attended Tufts University in Medford, MA.
Biel initially trained to be a vocalist, and from age nine appeared in several musical productions in her hometown, playing lead roles in productions such as Annie, The Sound of Music, and Beauty and the Beast.
At twelve, Biel attended The International Modeling and Talent Association conference in Los Angeles where she was discovered and signed by a talent agency. She began modeling for print advertisements, and appeared in commercials for products such as Dulux Paint and Pringles.
Biel also played the character Regrettal, a lead role in a low-budget musical short titled It's a Digital World, but the film was never released. At fourteen, after auditioning for several television pilots, Biel was cast as Mary Camden, the oldest daughter in the family drama 7th Heaven. The show ran 11 seasons, making it the longest-running family drama in U.S. television history.
Biel landed her first feature film role as Peter Fonda's granddaughter in the drama Ulee's Gold, released in 1997. Her performance earned her a Young Artist Award. In spring 1998, during a break from filming 7th Heaven, Biel starred in I'll Be Home for Christmas, playing the love interest of Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
In 2000, during the fourth season of 7th Heaven, Biel commented that she'd grown tired of playing the wholesome preacher's kid, and blamed the show for giving her a squeaky-clean image, causing her to lose out on a role in American Beauty. The part went to Thora Birch.
Gear magazine
In a last-ditch attempt to be released from her contract, she posed semi-nude for the cover of Gear magazine. The shoot sparked considerable controversy as Biel was still under eighteen at the time. Biel appeared in minimal episodes in season five, due to her character attending college out of state.
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In 2001, Biel played the love interest of Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the baseball-themed movie Summer Catch. The next year she starred as promiscuous college student Lara in the ensemble movie The Rules of Attraction, an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel.
After leaving 7th Heaven at the end of its sixth season, Biel was cast in her first top-billing role in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Her performance was praised and it was a commercial success, scoring the number-one spot in its opening week.
In 2003, Biel began work on the third installment of the Blade film series, Blade: Trinity. Almost immediately after finishing it in 2004, she headed to Australia to shoot the action-thriller Stealth. Both movies were critical and box office failures.
Biel also made a cameo appearance in the 2004 film Cellular and had a minor role in Elizabethtown. She then played the title character in the indie film London.
Biel's film career blossomed when she played a turn-of-the-century duchess in the period piece The Illusionist, co-starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. The movie received mostly positive reviews and was a turning point for Biel, who had previously played more contemporary roles. She received the Rising Star Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and an Achievement Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival for her performance.
Biel played an Iraq War veteran in the 2006 film Home of the Brave, a drama about soldiers struggling to adjust back into society after facing the hardships of war. Her performance was well-received but the movie was a commercial failure. Biel and Home of the Brave co-star Samuel L. Jackson were nominated for Prism Awards for their performances.
Then, after a three-year absence from television, Biel returned for what was to be the series finale of 7th Heaven. Biel agreed to shoot her scenes during a break from filming her upcoming 2007 film Next.
In Next, Biel played alongside Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore. She then played in the summer comedy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, co-starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Biel also produced and starred in a short film titled Hole in the Paper Sky, which was released in 2008. Earlier, in 2007, Biel signed on to play a stripper in Powder Blue, alongside Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta and Patrick Swayze.
In 2008, Biel shot Easy Virtue, an adaptation of the play by Noël Coward. Biel plays young widow Larita, who impulsively marries John Whittaker in France and must face her disapproving in-laws on returning to England. The film premiered in September 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Critics praised Biel for her performance.
Back to her musical skills: Biel performed two songs on the Easy Virtue soundtrack, "Mad About the Boy" and "When the Going Gets Tough."
During the 2009 season at the Hollywood Bowl, Biel performed the role of "Sarah Brown" in a fully-staged concert production of Guys and Dolls with The Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Biel also landed a part in Lincoln Center Theater's two-week-long workshop of the musical version of the Pedro Almodóvar classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, along with Salma Hayek.
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