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The Biography Portal

Biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος), meaning 'life', and gráphein (γράφειν), meaning 'to write') is a genre of literature or film which presents a relatively full account of the most interesting and important events of a notable person's life. While a biography may focus on a fictional person, the term usually refers to non-fiction works. As opposed to summaries of people's lives, such as profiles or curriculum vitae, a biography is a continuous narrative which interprets and explains the person's character, personality, and social context.

Featured biography

Angelina Jolie is an American film actress, a former fashion model, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. After appearing as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production Cyborg 2, subsequently playing her first leading role in a major film in Hackers. She appeared in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace and Gia, and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted. She achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of videogame heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and since then has established herself as one of the best known and highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children as well as a biological child. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR. (read more...)

Selected portrait

McCoy Tyner (born December 11, 1938) is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet, playing with Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. His brother, Jarvis Tyner, was the Communist Party USA vice-presidential candidate in 1976. (read more...)

Photo credit: Gisle Hannemyr

Did you know...

• 
  ... that botanist Thomas Frederic Cheeseman (pictured) had a wide range of interests: he also described a few species of marine gastropods?
• ... former Regimental Sergeant Major Harry Lapwood was known as having the loudest voice in the New Zealand House of Representatives?
• ... that in 1951, Bulgarian politician and exile G. M. Dimitrov helped found the first Bulgarian NATO company?
• ... that Edith Killgore Kirkpatrick published a short book of favorite songs titled Louisiana Let's Sing in honor of her husband Claude's unsuccessful candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in 1963?
• ... that canal engineer Hugh Henshall was both pupil of and brother-in-law to James Brindley, the famous canal architect of the Industrial Revolution?
• ... that it took Peter Steinfeld six and a half weeks to write the opening eleven pages of his first screenplay, Drowning Mona?

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See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)

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On this day – November 23

Births

• 1616 - John Wallis, English mathematician (d. 1703) (pictured)
• 1804 - Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (d. 1869)
• 1837 - Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
• 1887 - Boris Karloff, British actor (d. 1969)
• 1888 - Harpo Marx, American comedian (d. 1964)

Deaths

• 1814 - Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States of America (b. 1744)
• 1902 - Walter Reed, American bacteriologist (b. 1851)
• 1979 - Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
• 1990 - Roald Dahl, British author (b. 1916)

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