Portal:Wales/Selected biography
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[edit] Selected biographies list
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/1
Daniel Leon "Danny" Gabbidon (born August 8, 1979 in Cwmbran, Wales) is a Welsh professional footballer currently playing for West Ham United and for Wales. He plays at centre half. Gabbidon began his career at West Bromwich Albion, joining as an apprentice in November 1996 before turning professional in July 1998. He made his Albion début in a 1–0 home defeat against Ipswich Town on 20 March 1999 and, utilised as a right-back, he went on to make 27 appearances for West Brom in all competitions. Following the appointment of Gary Megson as manager towards the end of the 1999–2000 season, Gabbidon failed to keep his place in the team. Megson switched to a 5-3-2 formation, signing Des Lyttle to fill the right-wingback position. Gabbidon joined Cardiff City on a one-month loan at the start of the 2000–01 season.
Gabbidon signed a permanent four-year deal with Cardiff City in September 2000, for a fee of up to £500,000 depending on appearances and future honours. His performances in the 2001–02 season helped Cardiff to the Division 2 play-offs, saw him make his senior international debut for Wales in March 2002 and win the Welsh clubman of the year award in October 2002. He signed an extension to his contract in April 2002, saying that it was the prospect of exciting times ahead that had persuaded him to do so.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/2
Alfred Ernest Jones (January 1, 1879 – February 11, 1958) was a Welsh neurologist, psychoanalyst and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. As the first English-language practitioner of psychoanalysis and as President of both of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association in the 1920s and 1930s, Jones exercised unmatched influence in the establishment of its organisations, institutions and publications in the English-speaking world. After obtaining his medical degrees Jones specialised in neurology and took a number of posts in London Hospitals. It was through his association with the surgeon Wilfred Trotter that Jones recalled first hearing of Freud’s work. Having worked together as surgeons at University College Hospital they had become close friends, with Trotter taking the role of mentor and confidant to his younger colleague. They had in common a wide-ranging interest in philosophy and literature, as well as a growing interest in Continental psychiatric literature and the new forms of clinical therapy it surveyed. By 1905 they were sharing accommodation above Harley Street consulting rooms with Jones’s sister, Elizabeth ( later to become Trotter’s wife), installed as housekeeper. Jones, appalled at what he had seen of the institutionalised treatment of the “insane”, began experimenting with hypnotic techniques in his clinical work.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/3
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE (born Ryan Joseph Wilson on 29 November 1973 in Ely, Cardiff) is a Welsh footballer currently playing for Manchester United in the English Premiership, and formerly for the Welsh national team prior to his retirement from international football on 2 June 2007. Alessandro Del Piero said this about Ryan Giggs: "This is embarrassing to say but I have cried twice in my life watching a football player; the first one was Roberto (Baggio) and the second was Ryan Giggs". Giggs received an OBE in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours List, alongside his former team mate Teddy Sheringham, who received an MBE. Giggs is Manchester United's longest-serving current player. He made his first appearance for the club during the 1990-91 season and been a regular player since the 1991-92 season. He has played the second highest number of competitive games for the club (second only to Bobby Charlton), and holds the club record of team trophies won by a player (23)
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/4
Manic Street Preachers (often known colloquially as the "Manics") are a Welsh rock band, consisting of James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, guitar), Nicky Wire (bass guitar, vocals) and Sean Moore (drums, vocals). Co-lyricist and guitarist Richey James Edwards (Richey James, as he preferred to be known) mysteriously disappeared in 1995; his whereabouts are unknown.
The band are often associated with the Britpop scene, who gained mainstream popularity in the UK in the late 1990s. They are known for their intelligent and often political lyrics and have a dedicated following. Although during the early part of their career they were regarded as a punk rock band, their music is now often generally regarded as alternative rock, due to changes in their sound. Politically, the Manics appear as a socialist group — a stance inflected by their working class upbringing in Blackwood, Caerphilly, South Wales (they grew up during the miners' strike of the 1980s) as evidenced by their often highly politicised lyrics and actions (they once dedicated an award to Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers and later the Socialist Labour Party). The band also played a highly publicised gig in Cuba as guests of President Fidel Castro
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/5
Maxwell Boyce, MBE, (born 7 September 1945 in Glynneath) is a Welsh comedian, singer and former coal miner. He rose to fame in the United Kingdom during the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in the mining communities of South Wales. Having sold more than two million albums in a career spanning four decades, and playing to full houses all around the world, Boyce is one of the most successful and enduring entertainers in Welsh history.Max Boyce has always lived in the town of Glynneath, but his family were originally from Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley. Within days of Boyce's birth, his father died in an explosion in the coal pit where he was working. At the age of fifteen, Boyce left school, went to live with his grandfather, and followed his father's footsteps by working in a colliery "for nearly eight years". In his early twenties, he managed to find work in a factory instead, but his earlier mining experiences were to influence his music considerably in later years.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/6
Owain Lawgoch, (English: "Owain of the Red Hand", French: "Yvain de Galles"), full name Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri (c. 1330 - July 1378), was a Welsh soldier who served in Spain, France, Alsace and Switzerland. He led a Free Company fighting for the French against the English in the Hundred Years' War. As the last politically active descendant of Llywelyn the Great in the male line, he was a claimant to the title of Prince of Gwynedd and of Wales. Following the death of Llywelyn the Last in 1282, Gwynedd along with the remainder of Wales came under the rule of the king of England. Llywelyn's daughter Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn was committed to a nunnery at Sempringham, while the sons of his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd were kept in Bristol castle until their deaths. Another of Llywelyn's brothers, Rhodri ap Gruffydd, spent much of his life in England. By his second wife, Katherine, he had a son, Thomas, the father of Owain. Rhodri was content to end his life as a country gentleman in England, and though his son Thomas ap Rhodri used the four lions of Gwynedd on his seal he made no attempt to win his inheritance.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/7
Lisa Michelle Scott-Lee (born 5 November 1975 in St Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales) and grew up in Rhyl. She is a Welsh singer and a graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school, who is best known for her five years with one of the most successful UK pop groups of all time, Steps. The group, which came together in 1997 and had 14 top 10 singles in the UK, split up on Boxing Day 2001. Scott-Lee spent a short time managing her three younger brothers, including Andy, in a group of their own called 3SL. After little success they were dropped from their label, and split up. Scott-Lee decided she would go solo and was signed to Mercury Records. She stepped back into the limelight in April 2003 with her debut single, "Lately", which she co-wrote. The single was released on 12 May 2003 and pulled into the singles chart at a respectable number 6.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/8
Rebecca 'Beki' Onslow (born Rebecca Barrington Onslow, 3 January 1975 in Swansea, Wales) nicknamed Boo Boo by her friends is a Welsh singer song writer dancer who is most famous as a lead singer and a member of the 1990s English Girlband Solid HarmoniE. Onslow was one of the original members of the group, arguably the founder of Solid HarmoniE. Solid HarmoniE was fairly successful in Europe and Asia - their album went gold, winning thousands of fans worldwide with their music. The group split in 1999. Onslow was born in Swansea and grew up in Llanelli, Wales. She has two elder brothers named Stuart and Avi. She went to the same school as Emma Bunton of the Spice Girls. Beki had an enormous interest in the world of showbiz from her very childhood. She was inspired by musical artists like Belinda Carlisle, Bananarama and Madonna. By the time she was nine she started modelling regularly for local TV and print ad campaigns, as well as acting at local theater. Onslow attended a remarkbly top College in London for the performing arts (with a full scholarship from Cameron Macintosh for musical theater), where she caught the attention of a top London agent, which led to a 1995 audition for a German-based British female vocal trio that eventually came to be known as Solid HarmoniE.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/9
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born December 31, 1937) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, double Emmy-, triple BAFTA- and Saturn Award-winning Welsh film, stage and television actor. He is arguably best known for his portrayal of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 blockbuster The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel, Hannibal, and its prequel, Red Dragon. Other notable film credits include The Elephant Man, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Remains of the Day, The Mask of Zorro, Hearts in Atlantis, Nixon and Fracture. Hopkins was born and raised in Wales, and also became a U.S. citizen on 12 April 2000. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008. Hopkins was born in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, the son of Muriel Anne (née Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker.His mother is a distant relative of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/10
Rowan Douglas Williams, DD, DCL, PC, FBA (born June 14, 1950 in Swansea, Wales) is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England. Williams was born in Swansea, Wales, into a Welsh-speaking family. He was educated at Dynevor School, Swansea; Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied theology; and Wadham College, Oxford, where he took his DPhil in 1975. He lectured at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, West Yorkshire for two years. In 1977 he returned to Cambridge to teach theology, first at Westcott House, having been ordained deacon in Ely cathedral that year and was ordained priest in 1978. Unusually, he undertook no formal curacy until 1980 when he served at St George's Chesterton until 1983, having been appointed as a lecturer in Divinity at the University of Cambridge. In 1984 he became dean and chaplain of Clare College, Cambridge and, in 1986, at the very young age of 36, he was appointed to the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at the University of Oxford and thus also a residentiary canon of Christ Church. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989. In 1991 Dr Williams was appointed and consecrated Bishop of Monmouth in the Anglican Church in Wales. In 1997 he was proposed as a potential Bishop of Southwark. George Carey, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, asked Dr Williams to distance himself from his writings sympathetic to the cause of gay rights, but he declined and was not nominated to the post.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/11
Sir Thomas Jones Woodward, OBE (born 7 June 1940), known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh pop singer. He was born in Treforest, near Cardiff, Wales. Tom Jones rose to fame in the mid-1960s, with an exuberant live act that included wearing tight breeches and billowing shirts, in an Edwardian style popular among his peers at the time. He was known for his overt sexuality, before this was as common as it has become in subsequent years. In 1963 he became the frontman for Tommy Scott and The Senators, a local beat group. Clad in black leather, he soon gained a reputation in the South Wales area of the United Kingdom, although the Senators were still unknown in London. In 1964 they laid down seven tracks with maverick Telstar producer Joe Meek, and took them to various labels in an attempt to get a record deal, with no success. The plan was to release a single, Lonely Joe / I Was A Fool, but the ever-flighty Meek refused to release the tapes. Only after It's Not Unusual became a massive hit, Meek was able to sell the tapes to Tower (USA) and Columbia (UK). The group returned to South Wales and continued to play gigs at dance halls and working men's clubs.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/12
Tommy Cooper (March 19, 1921 – April 15, 1984) was a British prop comedian and magician. He made an art form of getting magic tricks wrong. However, despite his purported inability to perform conjuring tricks, he was in reality an accomplished magician and member of The Magic Circle. Famed for his red fez, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6ft 3ins (1.91m) tall and over 15 stone in weight. He had a range of facial expressions and would also say things like, "I must say you've been a wonderful audience" or "Have we got time for more?" immediately after he walked on stage that would convulse audiences with laughter. He had a host of other catchphrases such as "Spoon, jar, jar, spoon!!" and "Whisky, sample, sample, whisky, sample...". His most often quoted catchphrase "Just like that" has never been heard on film. Famously he was once standing for several minutes behind the curtain at the start of a televised show, and the audience, knowing he was there, was in hysterics before he even appeared. "People were laughing, just standing in line, for the tickets to see him" has often been quoted. Born Thomas Frederick Cooper, in Caerphilly, Wales, he was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family was lodging. Cooper's parents were Welsh-born army recruiting sergeant father Tom, and his English born mother Gertrude from Crediton, Devon.
Portal:Wales/Selected biography/13
Katherine Jenkins (born 29 June 1980 in Neath, Wales is an award-winning Welsh mezzo-soprano. Her first album Premiere made her the fastest-selling mezzo-soprano to date and she later became the first British classical artist to have two number one albums in the same year. She also stands as the first female artist to win two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards. Jenkins has released four classical number one studio albums to date, with a fifth album recently released on 19 November 2007. Her albums feature arias, popular songs, hymns and classical crossover music and she has performed in a large number of concerts around the United Kingdom and other countries, including the United States and Australia. At school Jenkins received A grades in both GCSEs and A Levels and participated in productions such as Calamity Jane and Guys and Dolls. Two years after she had become a choir girl at her church, she shattered a chandelier whilst singing "O Holy Night" at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall. Jenkins' music talents continued to progress and she achieved Grade 8 distinctions in singing and piano.
[edit] Nominations
- Adding articles
- Feel free to add WP:FA or WP:GA articles to the above list. Other Wales-related biography articles may be nominated here.
- If you are unsure or do not know how to add an entry, feel free to post a question, suggestion or nomination here below, or at the talk page Portal talk:Wales.
