Linus Pauling

 

Linus Carl Pauling (/ˈpɔːlɪŋ/; February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994)^[4] was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.^[5] New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time,^[6] and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history.^[7] For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four people to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger).^[8] Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes,^[9] and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie.^[8]

Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology.^[10] His contributions to the theory of the chemical bond include the concept of orbital hybridisation and the first accurate scale of electronegativities of the elements. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the alpha helix and beta sheet in protein secondary structure. Pauling's approach combined methods and results from X-ray crystallography, molecular model building, and quantum chemistry. His discoveries inspired the work of James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms.^[11]

In his later years he promoted nuclear disarmament, as well as orthomolecular medicine, megavitamin therapy,^[12] and dietary supplements. None of his ideas concerning the medical usefulness of large doses of vitamins have gained much acceptance in the mainstream scientific community.^[6][13] He was married to the American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. Wikipedia

Edna St. Vincent Millay--First Woman to Win a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

 

 

Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright.

Encouraged to read the classics at home, she was too rebellious to make a success of formal education, but she won poetry prizes from an early age, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1923, and went on to use verse as a medium for her feminist activism. She also wrote verse-dramas and a highly praised opera, The King's Henchman. Her novels appeared under the name Nancy Boyd, and she refused lucrative offers to publish them under her own name.

Millay was a prominent social figure of New York City's Greenwich Village just as it was becoming known as a bohemian writer's colony, and she was noted for her uninhibited lifestyle, forming many passing relationships with both men and women. She was also a social and political activist and those relationships included prominent anti-war activists including Floyd Dell, editor of the radical magazine The Masses, and perhaps John Reed. She became a prominent feminist of her time; her poetry and her example, both subversive, inspired a generation of American women.

Her career as a poet was meteoric. In 1923 she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer prize in poetry. She became a performance artist super-star, reading her poetry to rapt audiences across the country.^[1]

A road accident in middle-age left her a partial invalid and morphine-dependent for years. Yet near the end of her life, she wrote some of her greatest poetry. Wikipedia

Edith Wharton--First Woman to Win a Pulitzer Prize in Literature

 

Edith Wharton (/ˈhwɔːrtən/; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.^[1] Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth and the novella Ethan Frome. Wikipedia

 

 

Thomas Wolfe

"A stone, a leaf, an unfound door; a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces.
Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth."

 

Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.^[1]

Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written and published from the 1920s to the 1940s, vividly reflect on American culture and the mores of that period, filtered through Wolfe's sensitive, sophisticated, and hyper-analytical perspective.

After Wolfe's death, contemporary author William Faulkner said that Wolfe might have been the greatest talent of their generation for aiming higher than any other writer.^[1][2] Wolfe's influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and of authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others.^[3] He remains an important writer in modern American literature, as one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and is considered North Carolina's most famous writer.

Wolfe was unable to sell any of his plays after three years because of their great length.^[8] The Theatre Guild came close to producing Welcome to Our City before ultimately rejecting it, and Wolfe found his writing style more suited to fiction than the stage.^[1] He sailed to Europe in October 1924 to continue writing. From England he traveled to France, Italy and Switzerland.

On his return voyage in 1925, he met Aline Bernstein (1880–1955), a scene designer for the Theatre Guild. Twenty years his senior, she was married to a successful stockbroker with whom she had two children. In October 1925, she and Wolfe became lovers and remained so for five years.^[8] Their affair was turbulent and sometimes combative, but she exerted a powerful influence, encouraging and funding his writing.^[8]

Wolfe returned to Europe in the summer of 1926 and began writing the first version of an autobiographical novel titled O Lost. The narrative, which evolved into Look Homeward, Angel, fictionalized his early experiences in Asheville, and chronicled family, friends, and the boarders at his mother's establishment on Spruce Street. In the book, he renamed the town Altamont and called the boarding house "Dixieland". His family's surname became Gant, and Wolfe called himself Eugene, his father Oliver, and his mother Eliza. The original manuscript of O Lost was over 1,100 pages (333,000 words) long,^[9][10] and considerably more experimental in style than the final version of Look Homeward, Angel. It was submitted to Scribner's, where the editing was done by Maxwell Perkins, the most prominent book editor of the time, who also worked with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He cut the book to focus more on the character of Eugene, a stand-in for Wolfe. Wolfe initially expressed gratitude to Perkins for his disciplined editing, but he had misgivings later. It has been said that Wolfe found a father figure in Perkins, and that Perkins, who had five daughters, found in Wolfe a sort of foster son.^[11]

The novel, which had been dedicated to Bernstein, was published 11 days before the stock market crash of 1929.^[8][12] Soon afterward, Wolfe returned to Europe and ended his affair with Bernstein.^[11] The novel caused a stir in Asheville, with its over 200 thinly disguised local characters.^[8][13][14] Wolfe chose to stay away from Asheville for eight years because of the uproar; he traveled to Europe for a year on a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[8][15][16] Look Homeward, Angel was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and Germany.^[12] Some members of Wolfe's family were upset with their portrayal in the book, but his sister Mabel wrote to him that she was sure he had the best of intentions.^[17]

After four more years writing in Brooklyn,^[16] the second novel Wolfe submitted to Scribner's was The October Fair, a multi-volume epic roughly the length of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. After considering the commercial possibilities of publishing the book in full, Perkins opted to cut it significantly and create a single volume. Titled Of Time and the River, it was more commercially successful than Look Homeward, Angel.^[8] In an ironic twist, the citizens of Asheville were more upset this time because they hadn't been included.^[18] The character of Esther Jack was based on Bernstein.^[11] In 1934, Maxim Lieber served as his literary agent.

Wolfe was persuaded by Edward Aswell to leave Scribner's and sign with Harper & Brothers.^[19] By some accounts, Perkins' severe editing of Wolfe's work is what prompted him to leave.^[20] Others describe his growing resentment that some people attributed his success to Perkins' work as editor.^[11] In 1936, Bernard DeVoto, reviewing The Story of a Novel for Saturday Review, wrote that Look Homeward, Angel was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something resembling a novel by Mr. Perkins and the assembly-line at Scribners".^[21][22]

Wolfe spent much time in Europe and was especially popular and at ease in Germany, where he made many friends. However, in 1936 he witnessed incidents of discrimination against Jews, which upset him and changed his mind about the political developments in the country.^[22] He returned to America and published a story based on his observations ("I Have a Thing to Tell You") in The New Republic.^[22] Following its publication, Wolfe's books were banned by the German government, and he was prohibited from traveling there.^[22]

In 1937, Chickamauga, his short story set during the American Civil War battle of the same name, was published.^[23] Wolfe returned to Asheville in early 1937 for the first time since publication of his first book. Wikipedia

 

Ludwig I Karl August Wittelsbach King of Bavaria [Oktoberfest]

 

 

 

 Ludwig I, born as Ludwig Karl August (* August 25, 1786 in Strasbourg, † February 29, 1868 in Nice), was King of the Kingdom of Bavaria from the House of Wittelsbach. He succeeded his father Maximilian I on the Bavarian throne after his death in 1825 and abdicated in the revolutionary year of 1848 after his affair with Lola Montez in favor of his son Maximilian II. His marriage in 1810 to Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen established the Oktoberfest. During his reign, Bavaria turned to Greece and numerous art collections and classical buildings were set up. The first railway line in Germany from Nuremberg to Fürth, opened in December 1835, bears his name. Like other German rulers, Ludwig I reacted to the liberation movements of the Hambach Festival in 1832 in his kingdom with repression and tightened press censorship.

In 1846 the Irish dancer Lola Montez came to Munich and, soon after being granted an audience, became the king's mistress. She received a luxurious villa on Barer Strasse in Munich, a title of nobility (Countess von Landsfeld) and financial support from Ludwig. He was only able to obtain naturalization after the resignation of his minister, Karl von Abel. Queen Therese reacted tensely to her relationship with the "Spaniard" and embarrassed diplomats by staying away from her husband in the theater and at the table where the public could see her.[12] She strictly rejected the awarding of the Theresa Order to her mistress. The king was annoyed by the queen's "coldness and speechlessness", which also included the new ministers[13].[14] Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and his wife Elisabeth, Ludwig's half-sister, who found his behavior "appalling",[14] refrained from a planned trip to Bavaria in order not to have to meet the king. Montez, visited almost daily by the king, enrolled in an approved fraternity. When riots broke out at the university because of her, the king ordered the university to be closed immediately on February 9, 1848. This led to protests, as a result of which Ludwig had the university reopened on February 10 and had Montez expelled. On February 11, the dancer left the city. Nevertheless, the arsenal was stormed on March 4, 1848, the crowd armed themselves with the military equipment stored there and marched towards the Residenz. In addition to the absolutist behavior of the love-drunk monarch, price increases aroused additional resentment. Prince Karl, as the king's brother and field marshal of the Bavarian army, ensured peace by his appearance and it was peacefully dissolved after free beer had been served. As a result, his family and conservative circles opposed Ludwig. The ministers sympathized with the people. On March 6, King Ludwig had to sign the so-called March Proclamation (which his Minister Oettingen-Wallerstein literally dictated to him in response to the unrest and demonstrations) with significant concessions. In this proclamation he announced that he would immediately convene the Estates Assembly and initiate reforms, and on the same day the army was sworn to the constitution. Ludwig appointed the mayor of Regensburg, Gottlieb von Thon-Dittmer, as administrator of the Ministry of the Interior with the task of forming a March Ministry and implementing the royal concessions contained in the proclamation in cooperation with the state parliament. In Nuremberg and elsewhere, citizens rallied to celebrate the reform announcement with jubilation, and the crisis seemed resolved as public opinion backed its monarch after the March 6 concessions. Therefore, Ludwig I did not fall as a result of the revolution like Prince Metternich or Louis Philippe in France. On March 16, 1848, renewed unrest followed, because Montez had returned to Munich after his exile. Ludwig had to have the police search for her on March 17, which was the worst humiliation for him.[15] On March 20, 1848, Ludwig I voluntarily abdicated in favor of his first-born son Maximilian II. Not wanting to appear as if he was being forced to resign, he wrote a few weeks later: "I could no longer govern, and I didn't want to give up my signature. Not to become a slave, I became a baron." It was therefore up to Ludwig's successors to counteract the revolutionary mood in Bavaria and to grant the promised reforms. With the March proclamation, the father bound his son to a program that enabled him to convert Bavaria into a constitutional monarchy in the proper sense. Ludwig I is therefore referred to as the last sovereign ruling monarch in Bavaria.  Wikipedia [in German]

 

Andy Devine

 

Andrew Vabre Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977)^[1] was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in Western films, including his role as Cookie, the sidekick of Roy Rogers in 10 feature films. He also appeared alongside John Wayne in films such as Stagecoach (1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and How the West Was Won (both 1962). He is also remembered as Jingles on the TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok from 1951 to 1958, as Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1937), and as the voice of Friar Tuck in the Disney Animation Studio film Robin Hood (1973).

Devine had an ambition to act, so after college, he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a lifeguard at Venice Beach,^[3][4] in easy distance of the studios. While filming Doctor Bull at Fox Studios in 1933, he met Dorothy House (1915–2000). They were married on October 28, 1933, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and remained united until his death, on February 18, 1977. They had two children, Timothy Andrew (Tad) Devine and Dennis Patrick Gabriel Devine.

His peculiar wheezy voice was first thought likely to prevent him from moving to the talkies, but instead, it became his trademark. Devine claimed that his distinctive voice resulted from a childhood accident in which he fell while running with a curtain rod in his mouth at the Beale Hotel in Kingman, causing the rod to pierce the roof of his mouth. When he was able to speak again, he had a labored, scratchy, duo-tone voice. A biographer, however, indicated that this was one of several stories Devine fabricated about his voice.^[5] His son Tad related in an interview for Encore Westerns Channel (Jim Beaver, reporting from the 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival) that there indeed had been an accident, but he was uncertain if it resulted in his father's unusual voice. When asked if he had strange nodes on his vocal cords, Devine replied, "I've got the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune."

Devine with Rosemary Clooney, 1958

Devine first attempted stand-up comedy, as he was part of a Vegas act called Three Fat Guys, along with David Arvedon and Jackie Gleason. They had back-and-forth banter on stage revolving around second-rate jokes, which did not get much reaction from the audience. After Devine and Gleason left this act, Devine later appeared in more than 400 films and shared with Walter Brennan, another character actor, the rare ability to move with ease from B-movie Westerns to feature films. His notable roles included Cookie, Roy Rogers's sidekick, in 10 films; a role in Romeo and Juliet (1936),^[6] and Danny in A Star Is Born (1937). He appeared in several films with John Wayne, including Stagecoach (1939), Island in the Sky (1953), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

He was a long-time contract player with Universal, which in 1939 paired him with Richard Arlen for a series of fast-paced B-pictures (usually loaded with stock footage) that mixed action and comedy; they made 14 over a two-year period. When Arlen left in 1941, the series continued for another two years, teaming Devine with various actors, often Leo Carrillo.

Most of Devine's characters were reluctant to get involved in the action, but he played the hero in Island in the Sky (1953), as an expert pilot who leads other aviators on an arduous search for a missing airplane. Devine was generally known for his comic roles, but Jack Webb cast him as a police detective in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which Devine lowered his voice and was more serious than usual.

His film appearances in his later years included roles in Zebra in the Kitchen (1965), The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969), and Myra Breckinridge (1970).

Devine's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 6366 Hollywood Boulevard

Devine worked extensively in radio, and is well remembered for his role as Jingles, Guy Madison's sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, which the two actors reprised on television. Devine appeared over 75 times on Jack Benny's radio show between 1936 and 1942, often in Benny's semiregular series of Western sketches, "Buck Benny Rides Again". Benny frequently referred to him as "the mayor of Van Nuys". In fact, Devine served as honorary mayor of that city, where he lived, preferring to be away from the bustle of Hollywood, from May 18, 1938, to 1957, when he moved to Newport Beach.^[7][8]

Devine also worked in television. He hosted Andy's Gang, a children's TV show,^[8] on NBC from 1955 to 1960. During this time, he also made multiple appearances on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In addition, he was a guest star on many television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby", playing the part of Frisby, a teller of tall tales who impresses a group of gullible alien kidnappers. He played Hap Gorman, a character likewise given to tall tales, in five episodes of the NBC TV series Flipper, during its 1964 season. He played the role of Jake Sloan in the 1961 episode "Big Jake" of the acclaimed anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show, also on NBC. He also played Honest John Denton in the episode "A Horse of a Different Cutter" of the short-lived series The Rounders.

He made a cameo appearance as Santa Claus in an episode of the 1960s live-action Batman TV series on ABC. The episode, entitled "The Duo Is Slumming", was originally broadcast on December 22, 1966. In this role, he directly addressed the viewers, wishing them a merry Christmas.

Devine made his stage debut in 1957 with his portrayal of Cap'n Andy in Guy Lombardo's production of Show Boat at the Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, Long Island.^[8] In 1973, he went to Monroe, Louisiana, at the request of George C. Brian, an actor and filmmaker who headed the theater department at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, to perform in Show Boat.

He also performed voice parts in animated films, including Friar Tuck in Walt Disney's Robin Hood. He provided the voice of Cornelius the Rooster in several TV commercials for Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Devine was a pilot and owned Provo Devine, a flying school that trained flyers for the government during World War II. Wikipedia

 

Ambrose Bierce

 

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842^[2] – circa 1914^[3]) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.^[4] His story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature",^[5] and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (also published as In the Midst of Life) was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.^[6]

A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States,^[7][8] and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction.^[9] For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft.^[10] S. T. Joshi speculates that he may well be the greatest satirist America has ever produced, and in this regard can take his place with such figures as Juvenal, Swift, and Voltaire.^[11] His war stories influenced Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, and others,^[12] and he was considered an influential and feared literary critic.^[13] In recent decades Bierce has gained wider respect as a fabulist and for his poetry.^[14][15]

In 1913, Bierce told reporters that he was travelling to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution.^[16] He disappeared and was never seen again. 

During his lifetime, Bierce was better known as a journalist than as a fiction writer. His most popular stories were written in rapid succession between 1888 and 1891, in what was characterized as "a tremendous burst of consummate art".^[39] Bierce's works often highlight the inscrutability of the universe and the absurdity of death.^[40][41]

Bierce wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the war^[42] in such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "A Horseman in the Sky", "One of the Missing", and "Chickamauga". His grimly realistic cycle of 25 war stories has been called "the greatest anti-war document in American literature".^[43]

According to Milton Subotsky, Bierce helped pioneer the psychological horror story.^[44] In addition to his ghost and war stories, he also published several volumes of poetry. His Fantastic Fables anticipated the ironic style of grotesquerie that became a more common genre in the 20th century.

One of Bierce's most famous works is his much-quoted The Devil's Dictionary, originally an occasional newspaper item, first published in book form in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book. Described as "howlingly funny",^[45] it consists of satirical definitions of English words which lampoon cant and political double-talk. Bierce edited the twelve volumes of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, which were published from 1909 to 1912. The seventh volume consists solely of The Devil's Dictionary.

Bierce has been criticized by his contemporaries and later scholars for deliberately pursuing improbability and for his penchant toward "trick endings".^[40] In his later stories, apparently under the influence of Maupassant, Bierce "dedicated himself to shocking the audience", as if his purpose was "to attack the reader's smug intellectual security".^[46]

Bierce's bias towards Naturalism has also been noted:^[47] "The biting, deriding quality of his satire, unbalanced by any compassion for his targets, was often taken as petty meanness, showing contempt for humanity and an intolerance to the point of merciless cruelty".^[48]

Stephen Crane was of the minority of Bierce's contemporaries who valued Bierce's experimental short stories.^[49] In his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", H. P. Lovecraft characterized Bierce's fictional work as "grim and savage." Lovecraft goes on to say that nearly all of Bierce's stories are of the horror genre and some shine as great examples of weird fiction.^[50]

Critic William Dean Howells said, "Mr. Bierce is among our three greatest writers." When told this, Bierce responded, "I am sure Mr. Howells is the other two."  Wikipedia

 

 

 

Rev. Theophilus Eaton, Cofounder & Governor of New Haven Colony & Original Patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

 Theophilus Eaton, (born c. 1590, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, Eng.—died Jan. 7, 1658, New Haven, Conn.), merchant who was cofounder and colonial governor of New Haven colony.

As a youth, Eaton went to London as a merchant apprentice. He began his own commercial enterprise trading with Baltic seaports, and his successes in business resulted in his election as deputy governor of the East-Land Company and also in his appointment to the court of Denmark as agent for Charles I.

When he returned to London from his residence in Copenhagen, Eaton became interested in the settlement of New England. He was one of the original patentees of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Eaton had adopted firm Puritan beliefs, and in early 1637 he joined his boyhood friend John Davenport and several Puritan followers in migrating to New England. The group arrived in Boston in June, but instead of settling in Massachusetts Bay, they established an independent colony at New Haven (Quinnipiac) in April 1638. The next year Eaton was elected governor of the colony, and he was reelected annually until his death.

In 1643 Eaton became an original commissioner in the New England Confederation, and 12 years later he and Davenport drew up a new legal code for New Haven colony. As governor, Eaton also became involved in various mercantile endeavours, some of which provoked tensions with the Dutch in neighbouring New Netherlands. The last years of his life, however, were devoted primarily to agricultural pursuits, along with his duties as governor. Brittanica

 

Dale Carnegie

 

Dale Carnegie (/ˈkɑːrnɪɡi/;^[1] spelled Carnagey until c. 1922; November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books.^[2]

One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's behavior towards them.Wikipedia

 

Gary Merrill

 

Gary Fred Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990) was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. Merrill starred in All About Eve and married his co-star Bette Davis.

Before entering films, Merrill's deep cultured voice won him a recurring role as Batman in the Superman radio series. His film career began promisingly, with roles in films such as Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and All About Eve (1950), but he rarely moved beyond supporting roles in his many Westerns, war movies, and medical dramas. His television career was extensive. He appeared from 1954 to 1956 as Jason Tyler on the crime drama Justice.^[2]

In 1958, Merrill guest starred with June Lockhart in the roles of Joshua and Emily Newton in the episode "Medicine Man" of the series Cimarron City.

Merrill had recurring roles in Then Came Bronson with Michael Parks and Young Doctor Kildare, both of which lasted less than a season.

In addition to Merrill's starring roles in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in November 1963 he starred with Phyllis Thaxter and Fess Parker (Daniel Boone) in a memorable episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale").

In 1964, he starred as city editor Lou Sheldon in the short-lived drama The Reporter.

In 1967, he starred in the Elvis Presley film Clambake, with co-star James Gregory.

Aside from an occasional role as narrator, Merrill essentially retired from the entertainment business after 1980. Shortly before his death, he authored the autobiography Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989). Wikipedia

Brigadier General George Henry Sharpe--"Father of Military Intelligence"

 

George Henry Sharpe (February 26, 1828 – January 13, 1900) was an American lawyer, soldier, Secret Service officer, diplomat, politician, and Member of the Board of General Appraisers.

Sharpe was born in 1828, in Kingston, New York, into a prominent Ulster County family. He earned his bachelor's degree at Rutgers University and studied law at Yale University. He practiced law in New York City from 1847 to 1851. He served as Secretary of the United States Legation in Vienna, Austrian Empire from 1851 to 1852 and then resumed his law practice in New York from 1854 to 1861.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Sharpe served as a captain in a New York regiment for three months and then returned to civilian life. In 1862, at the request of the Governor of New York, he raised a new regiment and went back into service as a colonel with the Army of the Potomac. In 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker selected Sharpe to command the Bureau of Military Information (BMI), the Army of the Potomac's intelligence operation. He served in that role until the end of the war. By the war's end, Sharpe was promoted to brevet major general.

After the war, Sharpe mixed his law practice and the pursuit of his interests in New York state Republican Party politics with several stints in Federal government service. He went to Europe to investigate the Lincoln assassination conspiracy for the State Department. He served as a U.S. Marshal in New York City and as Surveyor of the Port of New York. In 1878, he was elected to the New York State Assembly and served for four years, for two of which he was selected as Speaker. In 1884 he was appointed head of the U.S. Commission to Central and South America and then he ended his career with an appointment to the U.S. Board of General Appraisers in 1890. Wikipedia

Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett

 

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of Star Trek: The Original Series, its sequel spin-off series Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television.

As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun – Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series, The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1987, the sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television in first-run syndication; Roddenberry was heavily involved in the initial development of the series but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health. He continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991.

In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games, and fan films set in the Star Trek universe. Wikipedia

Roddenberry's second wife was Majel Barret 

In various roles, Barrett participated in every incarnation of the popular science fiction Star Trek franchise produced during her lifetime, including live-action and animated versions, television and cinema, and all of the time periods in which the various series have been set.

She first appeared in Star Trek's initial pilot, "The Cage" (1964), as the USS Enterprise's unnamed first officer, "Number One". Barrett was romantically involved with Roddenberry, whose marriage was on the verge of failing at the time, and the idea of having an otherwise unknown woman in a leading role just because she was the producer's girlfriend is said to have infuriated NBC network executives who insisted that Roddenberry give the role to a man.^[10] William Shatner corroborated this in Star Trek Memories, and added that female viewers at test screenings hated the character as well.^[11] Shatner noted that female viewers felt she was "pushy" and "annoying" and also thought that "Number One shouldn't be trying so hard to fit in with the men."^[12] Barrett often joked that Roddenberry, given the choice between keeping Mr. Spock (whom the network also hated) or the woman character, "kept the Vulcan and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think Leonard [Nimoy] would have it the other way around".^[13]

When Roddenberry was casting for the second Star Trek pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", she changed her last name from Hudec to Barrett and wore a blonde wig for the role of nurse Christine Chapel, a frequently recurring character,^[2] who was introduced in "The Naked Time", the sixth new episode recorded, and was known for her unrequited affection for the dispassionate Spock. Her first appearance as Chapel in film dailies prompted NBC executive Jerry Stanley to yodel "Well, well—look who's back!".^[10] In an early scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, viewers are informed that she has now become Doctor Chapel, a role which she reprised briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as Commander Chapel. Barrett provided several voices for Star Trek: The Animated Series, including those of Nurse Chapel and a communications officer named M'Ress, an ailuroid officer who served alongside Uhura.^[14]

Barrett returned years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation, cast as the outrageously self-assertive, iconoclastic, Betazoid ambassador, Lwaxana Troi, who appeared as a recurring character in the series, often visiting her daughter Deanna, the ship's counselor. Her character often vexed the captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, who spurned her amorous advances. She later appeared as Ambassador Troi in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where her character developed a strong relationship with Constable Odo.

She provided the regular voice of the onboard computers of Federation starships for Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and most of the Star Trek movies. She reprised her role as a shipboard computer's voice in two episodes of the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, thus making her the only actor to have a role in all six televised Star Trek series produced up to that time. She also lent her voice to various computer games and software related to the franchise. The association of her voice with interactions with computers led to Google's Assistant project being initially codenamed Google Majel. Barrett had also made a point of attending a major Star Trek convention each year in an effort to inspire fans and keep the franchise alive.

On December 9, 2008, less than ten days before her death, Roddenberry Productions announced that she would be providing the voice of the ship's computer once again, this time for the 2009 motion picture reboot of Star Trek.^[15] Sean Rossall, a Roddenberry family spokesman, stated that she had already completed the voiceover work, around December 4, 2008. The film is dedicated to Roddenberry and Barrett.Wikipedia