Category: people

Leibman won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in the 1993 Broadway production of Angels in America. At that point, he had Drama Desk Awards and an Emmy, but it was as Cohn that his reputation grew. “So striking was Mr. Leibman’s portrayal that no less an actor than F. Murray Abraham, an Oscar winner, found him a hard act to follow when he took over as Cohn in 1994.” – The New York Times

In the early 20th century, Spiritualism was at its peak, and so were fake psychics who fleeced people who just wanted to communicate with a dead loved one. Into the breech between weird and real stepped Rose Mackenberg, who “investigated more than 300 psychics and seers in the two years she worked for Houdini and many more after that. In a career that lasted decades and led her to testify before Congress, she proved to be quick-witted, adept with disguises and unblinkingly skeptical.” – The New York Times

Camus had sided publicly with the Hungarian uprising since autumn 1956, and was highly critical of Soviet actions. He also publicly praised and supported the Russian author Boris Pasternak, who was seen as anti-Soviet. – The Guardian

“From [his chemistry] studies came an idea that he could translate science into art by using polarized light to bring rainbow colors out of transparent plastic shapes. In the late 1960s he used this process to create kinetic, or moving, sculptures. … Over the next 50 years, Mr. Peiperl’s kinetic art would be displayed at the Hirshhorn, Kreeger and other galleries in Washington and at art spaces in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and in Europe.” – The Washington Post

“Garrett helped transform J. Paul Getty’s pet project museum, which the billionaire originally operated out of his own home, into what is now arguably the wealthiest art museum in the world.” – artnet

“While [he] was not as famous as underground comics stars like R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman, his artistic influence was nonetheless felt strongly, especially among other gay cartoonists. In the early 1980s he was the first editor of Gay Comix, a series of occasional comic books … He then developed Wendel, an adventurous strip about a man and his lover navigating the early years of the AIDS epidemic.” Cruse won multiple awards for Stuck Rubber Baby, a graphic novel that we might describe today as autofiction. – The New York Times

“Fontana, the first female writer on the show, … was perhaps second only to Gene Roddenberry, the series’ creator, in molding the sprawling Star Trek story-telling empire. … [She] wrote or co-wrote some of the most notable episodes of the original series, which ran from 1966 to 1969, and, with Roddenberry, co-wrote the pilot for its revival as Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.”. – NBC News

“When I began to explore Handel’s personal accounts at the Bank of England twenty years ago, I was often asked why. For me the answer was always ‘follow the money’. Handel’s financial records provide a unique window on his career, musical environments, income, and even his health.” – Bank Underground

“In monumental biographies of Peter the Great (1672-1725), Catherine the Great (1729-96) and Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra, who were assassinated with their five children and others in 1918, Mr. Massie captivated audiences with detailed accounts that read to many like engrossing novels. One was even grist for Hollywood: Nicholas and Alexandra (1967) was adapted into a film of the same title in 1971.” – The New York Times

When a woman in a close-knit Jewish family gets divorced and moves in with her parents, her friends tell her she’s just like Mrs. Maisel. But she’s no comedian, she thinks. And then the first open-mic night beckons. – The New York Times