Curated playlist
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Jude LawJude Law dropped out of school at 17 to become an actor. It led to an Oscar nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley.
- Penélope CruzPenélope Cruz was fifteen years old in 1989 when she won an audition against more than 300 other girls. Only a short time earlier, an agent had sent her away three times because she was too young. Cruz kept coming back anyway, and she says…
- Michael DouglasMichael Douglas won a Best Picture Oscar before he was a star. He produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
- ShakiraAt age four, Shakira climbed onto a restaurant table and danced to a doumbek. It happened in Barranquilla, Colombia.
- Uma ThurmanUma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino once imagined a character from one image: a bride covered in blood. The two of them came up with it on the set of Pulp Fiction, long before anyone shot a frame of what became Kill Bill. That picture suits…
- Zoe SaldañaZoe Saldaña is the highest grossing actor in history, a title that sits oddly beside a childhood spent speaking Spanish at home in Queens. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her road to…
- Celine DionCeline Dion spent her earliest months sleeping in a dresser drawer, because her family could not afford a crib. She was the youngest of 14 children, born on the 30th of March 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec. Nothing about that crowded, careful…
- George ClooneyIn 1977, a teenage George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and did not make it past the first round of player cuts. No contract was offered. Clooney, an American actor and filmmaker, would go on to collect two Academy Awards, a…
- Sting (musician)Sting, the English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, once disowned his own first name on camera. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night, a journalist addressed him as Gordon. He answered, "My children call me Sting,…
- Eldar RyazanovEldar Ryazanov first refused to direct a comedy. He wanted to make serious films, but Carnival Night was a hit.
- James TaylorJames Taylor, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was the last act on the bill at the Newport Folk Festival on the 20th of July 1969. Thousands of fans had stayed through the rain just to hear him. He got through only 15 minutes.…
- Victoria BeckhamOn the 8th of July 2000, Victoria Beckham performed alone in public for the first time. The setting was London's Hyde Park, where a crowd of 100,000 had gathered for a Prince's Trust charity concert. She sang "Out of Your Mind", her first…
- Akira ToriyamaAkira Toriyama, the Japanese manga artist behind Dragon Ball, made his final contribution to that story by changing one drawing. In chapter 103 of Dragon Ball Super, the warrior Piccolo is shown departing. Toriyama instructed his…
- Shigeru MiyamotoDonkey Kong began as a way to use up unsold arcade machines.
- Kylie MinogueKylie Minogue's hit "I Should Be So Lucky" was written in under 40 minutes.
- Peter MolyneuxPeter Molyneux got ten free Amiga computers after Commodore mistook his baked bean exporter for a software firm.
- Peter Brown (historian)Peter Brown argued that the late Roman world was a time of invention, not decline.
- Selena GomezIn 2016, Selena Gomez became the first person to reach 100 million followers on Instagram, a milestone Time later singled out in its Firsts series. Gomez is an American actress, singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and producer, born in…