On May 27, 1995 Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from his horse in an eventing competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research afterward. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.

Reeve married Dana Morosini in April 1992, and they had a son, William, born that June. Reeve had two children, Matthew (born 1979) and Alexandra (born 1983), from his previous relationship with girlfriend Gae Exton. • Christopher Reeve Books • Christopher Reeve Movies

I suppose one might expect the celebrated illustrator (he was careful to always distinguish himself as an illustrator and not an artist) to something above the fray, laughing at the foibles of the human condition. Here we find that Rockwell was just as neurotic, and full of fancy as any of his subjects. His life, however, wasn't always a Rockwell painting. After a very unsuccessful first marriage, Rockwell found love in the arms of his second wife. • Norman Rockwell Books

Rooney was born in Brooklyn, New York to a vaudeville family. His father, Joseph Yule, was from Scotland, and his mother, Nellie W. (nιe Carter), was from Kansas City, Missouri. Both parents were in vaudeville, and appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl when Joseph, Jr. was born. He began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo. • Mickey Rooney Books • Mickey Rooney Movies

Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Motion Picture Academy, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Katherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 16, 1907. She was the fifth and last child of Byron and Catherine McGee Stevens; the couple were working-class natives of Chelsea, Massachusetts and were of English and Irish extraction, respectively. When Ruby was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar. • Barbara Stanwyck Books • Barbara Stanwyck Films

She studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her dιbut as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until 1938, also appearing in guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera. Her Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier was one of her finest and most accomplished roles.

She was engaged at the Teatro Colσn in 1938 (again as Octavian) and was invited to the Glyndebourne Festival in 1939 where she was heard as Dorabella and Cherubino. In 1938 she made her dιbut at the Metropolitan Opera as Mignon. Three days later, she sang Octavian opposite Lotte Lehmann. The film industry in Hollywood produced several films for her, including The Chocolate Soldier (1941) with Nelson Eddy and Going My Way (1944) with Bing Crosby, the latter film crediting Stevens as a contralto. • Rise Stevens Books • Rise Stevens Discography

She is one of the most commercially and critically successful female entertainers in modern entertainment history and one of the best-selling solo recording artists with more than 71 million albums shipped in the United States and 176 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list and the only female recording artist in the top ten.

According to the RIAA, Streisand has a total of 31 top ten albums to her credit since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (46 years) between first and latest Top 10 albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album Love Is the Answer, she became the only artist to achieve number 1 albums in five consecutive decades. Streisand also holds the record for the most top 10 albums of any female recording artist. Her RIAA tally shows she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States. • Barbra Streisand Books • Barbra Streisand Movies • Barbra Streisand Discography

Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. He was later shot five times and robbed in the lobby of a recording studio in New York City. Following the event, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the incident and did not warn him; the controversy helped spark the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur was later convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to one and half to four and a half years in prison. After serving eleven months of his sentence he was released from prison on an appeal financed by Marion "Suge" Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. In exchange for Suge's assistance, Shakur agreed to release three albums under the Death Row label. • Tupac Shakur Books • Tupac Shakur Discography

Washington attended grammar school at Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon, and in 1968, at the age of 14, he was sent to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy, in New Windsor in New York State, followed by Mainland High School, a public high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 1970-71.He became well known on St. Elsewhere, and later in movies such as Cry Freedom and Remember the Titans. • Denzel Washington Books • Denzel Washington Movies

Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial stars of her day, West encountered many problems including censorship.

When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. Born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, she was the daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda "Tillie" Doelger (also spelled Delker).

Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and then as a detective who ran his own agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. The family was Protestant, although West's mother was reported as a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria. Her Irish Catholic paternal grandmother, as well as other relatives who were Roman Catholic, disapproved of her career and her choices, as did the aunt who helped deliver her. By some accounts, West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin, may have been an African American who passed for white. • Mae West Books • Mae West Films