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Ann Reinking was born on November 10, 1949, in Seattle, Washington. Renowned more for her dancing than acting, Reinking has danced in many Broadway shows. She made her film debut in Movie Movie (1978) and the following year starred opposite Roy Scheider and Jessica Lange in the Bob Fosse biopic All That Jazz (1979), which won many Oscar nominations -- including a nod for Best Picture of 1979. Reinking was charming as Grace Farrell, the sympathetic and devoted secretary to grouchy Daddy Warbucks (Albert Finney) in John Huston's Annie (1982), in which she sang the songs "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here", "We Got Annie" and "Let's Go To The Movies." Her best performance was also in her last film to date in Blake Edwards' brilliant 1984 comedy Micki + Maude (1984), in which Dudley Moore plays a bigamist with two pregnant wives -- workaholic attorney Micki (Reinking) and laid-back cellist Maude (Amy Irving). After that, Ann Reinking never acted in another motion picture. She was married to financier Herbert Allen for a time, and only popped up sporadically on television and on the stage. Her big Broadway comeback occurred in the early 1990s with Chicago, which won her a well-deserved Tony Award for Best Choreography.

Kurt Cobain was born on February 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt and his family lived in Hoquiam for the first few months of his life then later moved back to Aberdeen, where he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced. The divorce left Kurt's outlook on the world forever scarred. He became withdrawn and anti-social. He was constantly placed with one relative to the next, living with friends, and at times even homeless. Kurt was not the most popular person in high school as he was in public school. In 1985 Kurt left Aberdeen for Olympia where he formed the band Nirvana in 1986. In 1989 Nirvana recorded their debut album Bleach under the independent label Sub-Pop records. Nirvana became very popular in Britain and by 1991 they signed a contract with Geffen. Their next album Nevermind became a 90s masterpiece and made Kurt's Nirvana one of the most successful bands in the world. Kurt became trampled upon with success and found the new lifestyle hard to bear. In February 1992 Kurt married Courtney Love, the woman who was already pregnant with his child, Frances Bean Cobain. Nirvana released their next album Incesticide later that year. The album appealed to many fans due to the liner notes, which expressed Kurt's open-mindedness. In September 1993 Nirvana released their next album, 'In Utero', which topped the charts. On March 4, 1994, Kurt was taken to hospital in a coma. It was officially stated as an accident but many believe it to have been an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Family and friends convinced Kurt to seek rehab. Kurt was said to have fled rehab after only a few days from a missing person's report filed by Courtney Love. On April 8th Kurt's body was found in his Seattle home. In his arms was a shotgun, which had been fired into his head. Near him laid a suicide note written in red ink. It was addressed to his wife Courtney Love and his daughter Frances Bean Cobain. Two days after Kurt's body was discovered people gathered in Seattle, they began setting fires, chanting profanities, and fighting with police officers. They also listened to a tape of Courtney reading sections of the suicide note left by Kurt. The last few words were "I love you, I love you".

A native of central California, Frank Silva majored in theater at San Francisco State University where he received a master's degree in light design. He worked with director David Lynch on several of his movies (Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) as a prop master and set decorator. While Silva was working on fixing up the set for the character Laura Palmer's bedroom in the pilot episode for Twin Peaks, Lynch decided that Silva should be Bob after accidentally filming him in a reflection in a mirror which this long-haired, prematurely gray man gave Lynch himself a jolt because of his sudden frightening appearance.

John Aylward was born on 7 November 1946 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Armageddon (1998), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) and Instinct (1999). He was married to Mary L Fields. He died on 16 May 2022 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Margaret "Peg" Phillips was a retired accountant when she began taking acting classes at age 65. In 1990 she was cast in the role of Ruth-Anne Miller, the shop keeper in the series Northern Exposure (1990). The role was supposed to be only intermittent, but Peg's portrayal won the hearts of viewers, and Ruth-Anne became a regular role. In addition to Northern Exposure (1990), Peg appeared with Shirley MacLaine in Waiting for the Light (1990) and TV movies How the West Was Fun (1994) and Chase (1985), and guest appearances in 7th Heaven (1996), Touched by an Angel (1994), and ER (1994), and a number of commercials. Born in Everett, Washington, Peg overcame polio, peritonitis, a ruptured aorta, and, at age 81, a broken hip and wrist from being hit by a car. A smoker since age 13, Peg Phillips died of lung disease in a suburban Seattle care center. She was 84.

Full name - Nicholetta Rangoni Machiavelli. The first role in a long movie was in Luigi Zampa's Una questione d'onore (1966), produced in 1965. In 1969, was nominated as best actress for the German Academy Award for her role of Scarabea in the film Scarabea - wieviel Erde braucht der Mensch? (1969).

Machiavelli played in film sketches and movies with many of the good Italian and French directors of her time: Alberto Lattuada, Liliana Cavani, Carlo Lizzani, Dino Risi, Andrzej Zoulawski, Georges Lautner.

In 1978 she became a Rajneeshee, a follower of the spiritual teacher Rajneesh, later known as Osho, and after two more films, she stopped her career and moved to Rajnespuram (Wasco County, Oregon, USA).

In 1985 she settled in Seattle (USA), where she was an interpreter and Italian language teacher at the University of Washington. Occasionally worked as a guide on inclusive tours in her home country.

She passed away on November 15, 2015 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Astronomer, educator and author Carl Sagan was perhaps the world's greatest popularizer of science, reaching millions of people through newspapers, magazines and television broadcasts. He is well-known for his work on the PBS series Cosmos (1980), the Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning show that became the most watched series in public-television history. This was seen by more than 500 million people in 60 countries. The accompanying book, "Cosmos" (1980), was on the New York Times bestseller list for 70 weeks and was the best-selling science book ever published in English.

Carl Edward Sagan was born November 9, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York. Having taught at Cornell University since 1968, Sagan received a bachelor's degree (1955) and a master's degree (1956), both in physics, and a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics (1960), all from the University of Chicago. He taught at Harvard University in the early 1960s before coming to Cornell, where he became a full professor in 1971. Sagan played a leading role in NASA's Mariner, Viking, Voyager and Galileo expeditions to other planets. He received NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and twice for Distinguished Public Service and the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. His research focused on topics such as the greenhouse effect on Venus; windblown dust as an explanation for the seasonal changes on Mars; organic aerosols on Titan, Saturn's moon; the long-term environmental consequences of nuclear war; and the origin of life on Earth. A pioneer in the field of exobiology, he continued to teach graduate and undergraduate students in courses in astronomy and space sciences and in critical thinking at Cornell.

The breadth of his interests were made evident in October 1994, at a Cornell-sponsored symposium in honor of Sagan's 60th birthday. The two-day event featured speakers in areas of planetary exploration, life in the cosmos, science education, public policy and government regulation of science and the environment -- all fields in which Sagan had worked or had a strong interest. Sagan was the recipient of numerous awards in addition to his NASA recognition. He received 22 honorary degrees from American colleges and universities for his contributions to science, literature, education and the preservation of the environment and many awards for his work on the long-term consequences of nuclear war and reversing the nuclear arms race. Among his other awards were: the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society; the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award; the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society. He also was the recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences, "for distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare".

Sagan was elected chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, president of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union and chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For 12 years, he was editor of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was co-founder of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization and the largest space-interest group in the world. The society supports major research programs in the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the investigation of near-Earth asteroids and, with the French and Russian space agencies, the development and testing of balloon and mobile robotic exploration of Mars. Sagan also was Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and was contributing editor of Parade magazine, where he published many articles about science and about the disease that he battled for the last two years of his life.

On December 20, 1996, Carl Sagan died at age 62 of pneumonia at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.

Erin O'Brien was born on 17 January 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for In Like Flint (1967), John Paul Jones (1959) and Onionhead (1958). She was married to Kanan Awni and James (Jimmy) Donald Fitzgerald. She died on 20 May 2021 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

The youngest of five children, Robert Clinton Blanche was born to Mary Edith Blanche (Heavner) and Richard Keith Blanche on March 30, 1962 in Pomona, California, but spent most of his life in Oregon. He joined SAG (Screen Actors Guild) in 1995 and served as Portland SAG Branch President for many years pre-merger and Portland SAG-AFTRA Local President from 2017-19. In addition to his work locally, he served as Vice Chair of the National SAG Indie Committee from 2007-08. Since 1996, he served as member or alternate of the TV/Theatrical, Low Budget and Agency committees.

James Young was born on 4 May 1920 in Billings, Montana, USA. He was a producer and director, known for The Thing from Another World (1951), General Hospital (1963) and Young Dr. Malone (1958). He was married to Judith Lenore LaMonte. He died on 17 April 1985 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Arlen Dean Snyder was born on 5 March 1933 in Rice, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Heartbreak Ridge (1986), One Life to Live (1968) and Mommy's Day (1997). He died on 5 July 2024 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Roy Chiao was born on 16 March 1927 in Shanghai, China. He was an actor, known for Bloodsport (1988), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Game of Death (1978). He died on 14 April 1999 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Tell Schreiber was born on 2 August 1941 in the USA. He was an actor, known for The Keeper (1976). He was married to Heather Schreiber. He died on 1 March 2021 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

He married his wife, former The Love Boat (1977) star Lauren Tewes in 1996. Seemingly healthy, in 1997, he suddenly became fatigued while acting in a play. Then while auditioning for a radio commercial, he tripped over a word so badly that the producer thought he was drunk. In January 1998, Bob was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

August Wilson once dropped out of school, disillusioned after having been unjustly accused of plagiarism by a racist instructor who could not fathom the artistic and intellectual genius of a then young Black male writer. Wilson was not disillusioned forever. Having now completed a decade by decade cycle of seven plays that illustrate the complexity, problems, and beauty of Black American life, Wilson sits at the pinnacle of American playwrights who have achieved world-renown. He first became involved in theatre in the late 1960s when he co-founded the Black Horizons Theater which was a community theatre located in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. His first professional production was "Black Bart and the Sacred Hills" which was based on an earlier series of poems. "Black Bart..." was produced at St. Paul's Penumbra Theatre in 1981. Wilson's breakthrough occurred when Lloyd Richards--then Dean and Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theatre--brought Wilson to the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and premiered his plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Richards, the only Black American at Yale to have a Department Chair named for him, was a major influence on and expert collaborator with Wilson, who used Yale as a workshop for developing many of his productions. To date, his plays have been staged on Broadway and at regional theatres across the United States. He has won Pulitzer Prizes for "Fences" (1987) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990) and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", "Fences", "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", "The Piano Lesson", "Two Trains Running", and "Seven Guitars". His most recent works include "Jitney" and "King Hedley II". He has been honored with Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwrighting; is an Alumnus of New Dramatists and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, further demonstrating an artistic, intellectual, and literary profundity that has assured him a permanent and prominent place in the history of American Theatre.

Layne was born August 22, 1967 in Kirkland, WA. When Layne was seven, his parents divorced. He started playing drums around the age of 12.

Layne always wanted to sing when he played his drums, so his groupies told him that he should sing instead. So, Layne traded in his drum set for a microphone and delay.

While at a party in Seattle in 1987, he met Jerry Cantrell who suggested the two start a band. Jerry then introduced Layne to Mike Starr, who introduced him to Sean Kinney. Layne was known to be dark and mysterious, but he actually had a thirst for knowledge and was a chatterbox. He was also an artist. Layne did the artwork both for Mad Season's album and in sleeve of Alice in Chains' "Dirt" album. His best known artwork is probably the Alice In Chains Sun Logo.

Brigid Bazlen was born on 9 June 1944 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for How the West Was Won (1962), King of Kings (1961) and The Honeymoon Machine (1961). She was married to Marlin Greene and Jean-Paul Vignon. She died on 25 May 1989 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Stephen Brooks was born on 12 August 1942 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek (1966), The F.B.I. (1965) and Days of Our Lives (1965). He died on 1 December 1999 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

David Hoffman was born on 2 February 1904 in Russia. He was an actor, known for The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), The Creeper (1948) and Danger in the Pacific (1942). He died on 19 June 1961 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Matronly or grandmotherly, Alma Kruger appeared onscreen between 1935-47. She was 64 years old when she made her film debut in William Wyler's These Three (1936). She then proceeded to appear in over 40 films in the space of little more than a decade, appearing in, among others, Mother Carey's Chickens (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944), and Saboteur (1942). She was likely best-known as head nurse "Molly Byrd" in the Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie films of the 1930s/40s. She died at age 88 in 1960.

Rick May was a Canadian-American voice actor, director, theatrical performer and teacher known for voicing the Soldier from Team Fortress 2, Dr. M from Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and Peppy Hare and Andross from Star Fox 64. He also voiced in Freddi Fish 5 and Age of Empires II. He passed away at Seattle in 2020.

Stewart Stern was born on 22 March 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Rachel, Rachel (1968), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Sybil (1976). He was married to Marilee Stiles Stern. He died on 2 February 2015 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Alvin Sargent was an American screenwriter who wrote Ordinary People and the Marvel screenplays for Sony: Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. His writing for Spider-Man 2 got widespread acclaim. He also wrote a few episodes of Paper Moon. He was married to film producer Laura Ziskin, who produced the Spider-Man films he had written.

Charles B. Jenkins was born on 11 June 1951 in Washington, USA. He was an actor, known for The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), A Force of One (1979) and Matt Houston (1982). He died on 9 December 1985 in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Lynda Ann Healy was born in 1952. She was a University of Washington (UW) senior, majoring in psychology. She worked part-time for Western Ski Promotions and broadcast ski condition reports to 20 radio stations in Washington and Oregon. She lived in Seattle, Washington. She died on February 1, 1974 in Seattle, Washington, USA. She was 21 years old.