Portal:Biography
Introduction
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.
Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.
An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person himself or herself, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter.
Featured biography
Angelina Jolie is an American film actress, a former fashion model, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. After appearing as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production Cyborg 2, subsequently playing her first leading role in a major film in Hackers. She appeared in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace and Gia, and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted. She achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and since then has established herself as one of the best known and highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children as well as three biological children. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR. (Read more...)
Selected portrait
Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon (Hebrew: משה יעלון; born 24 June 1950) is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israel's Defense Minister from 2013 until his resignation on 20 May 2016.
Things you can do
Subcategories
Biography • People
By association • By behavior • By ethnicity • By gender • By language • By nationality
By occupation:
- Academics • Scientists
- Actors • Artists • Choreographers • Comedians • Dancers • Directors • Musicians • Photographers •Dramatists and playwrights • Writers
- Astronauts • Aviators • Explorers • Mountain climbers
- Businesspeople • Computer designers • Innovators
- Heads of state • Humanitarians • Journalists • Lawyers • Politicians • Warriors
- Sportspeople • Association football players • [http://raithal.com Baseball players] • Basketball players • Olympians • Tennis players
On this day – November 18
Births
- 1787 – Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (d. 1851)
- 1901 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (d. 1984)
- 1908 – Imogene Coca, American actress and comedienne (d. 2001)
- 1923 – Alan Shepard, American astronaut (d. 1998) (pictured)
- 1939 – Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
- 1968 – Owen Wilson, American actor
Deaths
- 1886 – Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)
- 1922 – Marcel Proust, French novelist (b. 1871)
- 1962 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
- 1965 – Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (b. 1888)
- 1969 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., American politician (b. 1888)
- 2002 – James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)
Did you know
- ... that child actress Nozomi Ōhashi (pictured), who sang the theme song for the 2008 film Ponyo, started acting when she was just three years old?
- ... that pioneering ecologist William Gardner Smith only became active in the field after the sudden death of his brother Robert, who had left an unfinished manuscript that William completed?
- ... that Florence Violet McKenzie, Australia's first female electrical engineer, taught Morse code to thousands of sailors free of charge?
- ... that Hieronim Ossoliński, a 16th-century Polish politician who helped to unite Poland and Lithuania, also wanted to establish a Protestant national church?
- ... that part of the financing for the first published work by Romanian communist activist Mihail Roller reportedly came from Baptists?
- ... that Amanda Clement was the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game?
- ... that John Knox's journals provide one of the most complete accounts of the British Army's campaigns in North America from 1757 to 1760?
Quote of the week
"I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul."
In "J'accuse…!", L'Aurore 13 January 1898
WikiProjects
List of WikiProjects and work groups that involve biography articles:
See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)
