122nd Birthday of Charlie Chaplin

Link: http://youtu.be/3NGSU2PM9dA

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best-known for his work during the silent film era. He became one of the most famous film stars in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Chaplin in 1920

Bruce Lee's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com.tw/logos/2010/brucelee2010-hp.jpg

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is considered one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century, and a cultural icon.

Lee was born in San Francisco, California in the United States, to parents of Hong Kong heritage but raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Upon reaching the age of 18, Lee emigrated to the United States to claim his U.S. Citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films, Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973), directed by Robert Clouse; and The Game of Death (1978), directed by Lee.

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world and remains very popular among Asian audience and in particular among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism through his films While Lee initially trained in Wing Chun, he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead to utilise useful techniques from various sources in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist). [Read more on Wikipedia]

Vlasta Burian's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/burian10-hp.gif

Josef Vlastimil Burian, better known as Vlasta Burian, (April 9, 1891, Liberec – January 31, 1962, Prague) was a Czech stage and film actor, singer, comedian, footballer and a film director. In the Czech Republic, he is known as Král komiků (King of Comedians). [Read more on Wikipedia]

Vlasta Burian (1937)

Akira Kurosawa's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/kurosawa10-hp.jpg

Akira Kurosawa (黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明 Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. [Read more on Wikipedia]