January 22, 1946 – April 08, 2010
The history of popular culture – and counter-cultural music in particular – is riddled with provocateurs. Characters whose entire being longs to push boundaries and shock the system. Enter Malcolm McLaren.
Whether selling original clothes out of a dingy shop in Chelsea or building the foundational architecture of the punk rock subgenre of music, McLaren approached everything he did with a proverbial thumb in the eye of “The Man”.
July 24, 1802 – December 05, 1870
French novelist and playwright, Alexandre Dumas, was a leading voice in the 19th Romantic literary movement. Born of a mixed-race lineage stemming from the Caribbean French colony known today as Haiti, Dumas used his struggles with race issues along with his travels throughout a changing European landscape to craft historical fiction that was both immediately popular and enduring. Though a successful playwright at the start of his career, his most famous works are arguably his many novels, including “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers.” Like many of his contemporaries, much of his writing was released serially and later compiled into the works we know today.
January 6, 1705 – April 17, 1790
The key. The kite. The bifocals. The legend.
Benjamin Franklin is arguably one of the most popular and famous Americans in the history of the country. Born in Boston to English colonists, Ben was one of 17 children between his father’s two marriages. Originally, his father wanted him to be a minister, but could not afford to pay for more than two years of school. Young Ben dropped out and became an apprentice in his brother’s printshop.
Printmaking would define much of Franklin’s early life. He moved himself to Philadelphia and began publishing leaflets, newsletters and – eventually – newspapers. Gravitating toward critique and satire, his writings (often under pseudonyms) became very popular. He made a very good living having founded a number of papers in Pennsylvania and other colonies.
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February 11, 1967 – March 4, 1990
Casual sports fans may not immediately know the name Hank Gathers, but fans of college basketball likely know it too well. Gathers was a standout power forward at Loyola Marymount University during the late 1980s. He led the nation in both scoring (32.7 points/game) and rebounds (13.7/game) his junior year for the Lions. In a December home game during his senior year, Gathers collapsed on the court. After seeing doctors, he was diagnosed with a heart condition and given a regimen of medications. He missed two games and, when he returned, claimed the medication had a negative affect on his performance. His dosage was adjusted down over the following weeks and it’s believed he refused to take the meds at all on game days. He continued; however, to play well over this stretch. On March 4th, 1990, during a West Coast Conference Tournament game against Portland, Gathers collapsed again. This time, he never got up.
July 15, 1606 – October 04, 1669
Perhaps the most prolific and famous visual artist of all-time, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a leading talent in the already-packed-with-talent, era known as the Dutch Golden Age. Throughout the prosperous 17th Century, the Dutch masters perfected a painting style which moved away from the religious subjects of previous generations in lieu of more common, everyday people and daily life. The fact that they were able to capture the nuance of light so well only added to the lasting appeal. Dozens of painters became famous for their works: Vermeer, Steen, Cuyp, legends all. But, none reached the heights of the man who is simply remembered by one name: Rembrandt.
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September 12, 1931 – June 19, 2020
Prolific Shakesperean actor, Sir Ian Holm, did not become a household name overnight, but his award-winning, nearly six decade career should be the envy of any aspiring thespian. Born in Essex, England, Holm secured a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 19. From RADA, it was a certain jump to a long tenure at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Performances on stage and television built up his reputation and, by 1967, he had won a Tony award for his role in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming on Broadway. More roles followed, including the voice of Frodo Baggins in the BBC’s radio production of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – a sign of legendary things to come.
March 22, 1923 – September 22, 2007
Marcel Marceau was arguably the most famous World-War-II-Jewish-Resistance-hero-turned-international-mime-superstar in the history of the world. Top 3, at very least.
Born Marcel Mangel in France along the German border, Marcel’s family fled to central France when the Nazis invaded. He and his brother joined the liberation movement after their father was killed in Auschwitz. With the resistance, they helped rescue many Jewish children from captivity and racial laws at the time. Following the liberation of Paris, Marcel joined the French army for the remainder of the war.
As a young boy, Marcel was introduced to performing when his mother took him to see Charlie Chaplin movies. During his time with the resistance, he dabbled with silent comedy and mime to entertain children being evacuated. When the war ended, he entered college and studied the art of mime officially.
November 26, 1909 – March 28, 1994
There are absurdist playwrights. Then there is Eugène Ionesco.
Born in Romania, Ionesco spent most of his youth in France. He would alternate between the two countries depending upon whether there was a war or not, but eventually, he settled with is family in Paris. Following a transcendental experience in which he found himself awestruck by a crystal clear, sunny day in the idyllic French countryside as a young man, he was taken by how juxtaposed that feeling was to the actual world around him…which he regarded as decaying and monotonous. The moment would have a lasting impression on his life and his art.
June 25, 1963 – December 25, 2016
From the years 1987 to 1992, there were 2, maybe 3, entertainers in the world more famous than George Michael. As one half of the ubiquitous ’80s English pop-duo, Wham!, Michael was already a household name when he launched his solo career. Wham! spawned a Gold album (Fantastic), a 6x Platinum album (Make it Big) and 11 Top-10 singles in the UK (6 in the US). George was the primary songwriter for the group and never hid his ambitions to be a solo artist.
In 1987, with bandmate Andrew Ridgeley’s blessing, Michael recorded his first foray into post-Wham! superstardom: A duet with Aretha Franklin called “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. As was the trend, the song hit #1 in both the US and the UK. Later that year, he released his first solo album, Faith, and his meteoric rise hit the stratosphere.
January 08, 1942 – March 14, 2018
Stephen Hawking’s story began unremarkably. As a young boy in Hertfordshire, England, Stephen played games with his friends. He built model boats and made homemade fireworks. He was, in every way, a normal kid. But, he also was profoundly interested in mathematics. He began attending his father’s alma mater, University College at Oxford at the age of 17. Since math wasn’t an available area of study, he majored in physics and chemistry.
It was immediately apparent that he was a gifted thinker, though he had to make a considerable effort to enjoy his university experience. But once he committed, he made friends, took up rowing and found interest in other subjects like music and literature. He fell in love with theoretical physics and eventually earned a degree in physics as well as a doctorate in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge. He then went on to blow our understanding of the universe out of the proverbial water.
Celebrity Graveland 