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American outlaw Jesse Woodson James (1847-1882) was a colorful bandit whose escapades made him a legendary figure of the Wild West.

At the age of 15 he joined the Confederate guerrilla band led by William Quantrill and participated in the brutal and bloody civil warfare in Kansas and Missouri. In 1866, Jesse and his brother Frank became the leaders of a band of outlaws whose trail of robberies and murders led through most of the central states. The melodramatic style of the exploits of the James gang attracted wide public admiration, giving rise to a number of romanticized legends, the famous song "The Ballad of Jesse James," and much popular literature.

Elia Kazan(born 1909) is known as the preeminent director of works by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Kazan emerged as the leading exponent of psychological realism via his film and stage productions of the 1940s and 1950s. His works reflect both social struggle and personal pain.

Fifty years after the blacklisting of hundreds of artists in Hollywood and on Broadway, the list itself has become news. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decision to present director Elia Kazan with a lifetime achievement award has angered many of those affected by blacklisting. Some of the surviving "Hollywood 10" who served jail time for refusing to testify against others before the committee are protesting the award, as are many others in the entertainment industry.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961) was probably America's best-known primitive painter.

She lived the arduous life of a farm wife, first in the Shenandoah Valley and later at Eagle Bridge, near Hoosick Falls, N.Y. In her late 70s, too frail to do hard work, she began to paint. Her pictures-called American primitives-are simple, gay scenes of farm life that struck the popular fancy and became widely known through prints and Christmas cards. She painted such subjects as The Old Oaken Bucket, Sugaring-Off, and Out for the Christmas Trees. Thanksgiving Turkey is in the Metropolitan Museum. At the age of 100 she illustrated " 'Twas the Night before Christmas" by Clement Moore (1962).

The Swedish-born American film star Greta Garbo (1905-1990) became one of Hollywood's legendary personalities.

Garbo's success in the Swedish film The Atonement of Gosta Berling (1923) brought her to Hollywood. Possessing classic beauty and a husky, alluring voice, she was known in her early films for her portrayals of sexual passion. Her image as a tragic heroine was established in Anna Christie (1930), Anna Karenina (1935), and Camille (1936). Garbo retired from the screen and lived in legendary seclusion from 1941 until her death. Her films include Flesh and the Devil (1927), Grand Hotel (1932), and Ninotchka (1939).

Henry Ford II (1917-1987) was an American industrialist. He turned his grandfather's faltering automobile company into the second largest industrial corporation in the world.

The husky-voiced former usherette was spotted by Howard Hawks' wife on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and made an electric debut in films at the age of 19 opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not.

The pair married a year later, and went on to make five films (and two children) together, including The Big Sleep (1946) and Key Largo (1948). Her movie career cooled somewhat in the '60s and '70s, and she turned to Broadway, winning Tony Awards for her roles in Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year (1981). She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Barbra Streisand's mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and most recently appeared with Nicole Kidman in two films: Dogville (2003) and Birth (2004). (She was also married to actor Jason Robards (1961-69), and is the mother of actor Sam Robards.

The Russian novelist and moral philosopher Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) ranks as one of the world's great writers, and his War and Peace has been called the greatest novel ever written.

His pacifist beliefs were often reflected in his later works. His masterpieces include War and Peace (1862-69), Anna Karenina (1873-76), and The Confession (1879).

Played the rumpled Lt. Columbo on the TV series "Columbo". Excelling as a comedic and dramatic actor, he is perhaps best known as the rumpled and seemingly confused Lieutenant Columbo in more than 65 telefilms over 30 years. He also starred in three John Cassavetes films, including Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), and Opening Night (1977), as well as Murder by Death (1976), The Brinks Job (1978), and The Princess Bride (1987). He received consecutive Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in Murder, Inc. (1960) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961).

The American jazz musician Ray Charles (born 1932) was widely admired as a singer, pianist, and composer. He combined elements of jazz, gospel and rhythm-and-blues to create a new kind of African-American music, known as soul.

A pioneer in rock music whose songs ranged from pop standards to love songs to bebop, Charles, who was blind since age 7, paved the way for such artists as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, and Van Morrison. He won 12 Grammy Awards. His hits include "Georgia on My Mind," "Drown in My Own Tears," and "A Fool for You."

Sophia Loren

Name:Sophia Loren
Birth Date:September 20, 1934
Variant Name:Sofia Villani Scicolene
Nationality: Italian
Gender: Female
Occupations:actress
Place of Birth: Rome, Italy

The acting career of Sophia Loren (born 1934) has covered over 50 years and more than 100 films. Her work has earned virtually every major acting award the international film community has to offer.

She grew up in the slums of Naples. With the help of Italian producer Carlo Ponti (later her husband) she gained international fame as a beautiful and accomplished film actress in both tragic dramas and boisterous comedies. She won the first Academy Award for a foreign-language performance for her role in Two Women (1961), and she received a special Academy Award in 1991 for her body of work. Her movies include The Gold of Naples (1954), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Houseboat (1958), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), and A Special Day (1977). In the autobiographical television movie Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980), she played herself and her mother.