Portal:California/Selected biography/Archive
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[edit] September 30, 2006: Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rap artist, actor, activist, and poet. He was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling rap/hip-hop artist ever, having sold over 73 million albums worldwide[1], including over 44.5 million sales in the United States alone. [2] Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up around violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, and sometimes his feuds with fellow rappers. Tupac is known for the political, economic, and racial equality messages in a lot of his work. He has been ranked by many fans, critics, and industry insiders as the greatest rapper ever.[3][4]
[edit] November 18, 2006: Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is the 60th and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, following the 2006 Congressional elections, and is the first woman, first Californian, and first Italian American in U.S. history to hold that office. Pelosi ranks second in the Presidential line of succession following Vice President Dick Cheney. No woman has been closer to the Presidency.
[edit] January 12, 2007: Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool (born September 29, 1963 in Richmond, California, USA) is a bassist and lead singer, best known for his work with the alternative rock band Primus. Claypool's mastery of the electric bass has brought him into the spotlight with his funky, creative playing style. Though he cites bass virtuoso Geddy Lee of Rush as his greatest influence, Claypool mixes heavy metal finger-tapping, flamenco-like strumming, and a Larry Graham-like slap technique to develop his own unique style. Claypool has earned respect as one of rock's premier bass talents and has become an influence for younger bassists in recent years.
[edit] July 18, 2007: John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, he wrote Of Mice and Men (1937) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940), both of which examine the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and subsequent Great Depression. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters, and his stories drew on real historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century. His body of work reflects his wide range of interests. They were marine biology, jazz, politics, philosophy, history, and myth.
Seventeen of his works, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films, and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.
