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Beit, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Beit, Alfred bīt [key], 1853–1906, South African financier, b. Hamburg. He went to South Africa in 1875, grew rich from the development of diamond mines, and was a colleague and lieutenant of Cecil...

Beerbohm, Sir Max

(Encyclopedia)Beerbohm, Sir Max bērˈbōm [key], 1872–1956, English essayist, caricaturist, and parodist. He contributed to the famous Yellow Book while still an undergraduate at Oxford. In 1898 he succeeded G. ...

Swanson, Gloria

(Encyclopedia)Swanson, Gloria, 1899–1983, American movie actress, b. Chicago. Swanson began her film career in 1913, displaying an elegant comedic style in a series of films for director Cecil B. DeMille. Finance...

De Niro, Robert Anthony Jr.

(Encyclopedia) De Niro, Robert Anthony, Jr., 1943-, American film actor and director, b. New York, N.Y. Both of De Niro’s parents were painters; De Niro was raised...

Laval, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Laval, city (1991 pop. 314,398), coextensive with Île-Jésus (94 sq mi/243 sq km), S Que., Canada, between the Rivière des Mille Îles and the Rivière des Prairies, just NW of Montreal. The second ...

Roth, Cecil

(Encyclopedia)Roth, Cecil, 1899–1970, Jewish historian and educator, b. London. He was educated at Oxford (Ph.D., 1924) and was reader in Jewish Studies there from 1939 to 1964. Thereafter he was visiting profess...

Bowra, C. M.

(Encyclopedia)Bowra, C. M. (Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra) bouˈrə [key], 1898–1971, English classical scholar, b. China. Associated with the Univ. of Oxford throughout his adult life, he was warden of Wadham College ...

Rhodes, Cecil John

(Encyclopedia)Rhodes, Cecil John sĕsˈĭl, rōdz [key], 1853–1902, British imperialist and business magnate. A trip in 1875 through the rich territories of Transvaal and Bechuanaland apparently helped to insp...

King, B. B.

(Encyclopedia)King, B. B., 1925–2015, African-American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Indianola, Miss., as Riley B. King. He grew up poor in the Mississippi Delta region, began playing the guitar at 12, was ...

Garbo, Greta

(Encyclopedia)Garbo, Greta, 1905–90, American film actress, b. Stockholm, Sweden, as Greta Gustafsson. Garbo's success in the Swedish film The Atonement of Gösta Berling (1923) brought her to Hollywood. Possessi...
 

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