Some
famous personalities born under the sign of Gemini ... famous
geminis
Queen Victoria
Victoria was a famous gemini, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland
(r. 1837-1901), the longest-reigning monarch in English history,
established the monarchy as a respected and popular institution
while it was irrevocably losing its place as an integral part
of the British governing system. Born in Kensington Palace,
London, on May 24, 1819, Victoria was the only child of Edward,
Duke of Kent and son of George III, and Princess Victoria,
daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. Emerging from a lonely,
secluded childhood to take the throne on the death of her
uncle, William IV, Victoria displayed a personality marked
by strong prejudices and a willful stubbornness.
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle was a famous gemini, born May 22, 1859,
died July 7, 1930, was an English novelist who is widely known
as the creator of the detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was
also a medical doctor. His first story featuring Holmes, A
Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in
1887. After 1890 he pursued writing full time, completing
such further Holmes adventures as The Memoirs of Sherlock
Holmes (1894), the popular The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902),
and his last book featuring the detective, The Casebook of
Sherlock Holmes (1927). Doyle wrote 4 novels and 56 stories
involving Holmes. Blessed with an acute sense of deductive
reasoning, Holmes, with his genial but less quick-witted companion,
Dr. Watson, devises ingenious solutions to complex cases,
some involving his archenemy Professor Moriarty. When Doyle
tired of the detective in 1893 and attempted to kill him off,
public outcry necessitated The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1904).
The character has frequently been the subject of books, plays
and films, not all of them based on Doyle's novels.
Richard Wagner
The greatest composer of German opera, Richard Wagner was
a famous gemini, b. Leipzig, May 22, 1813, was the youngest
of nine children of Friedrich and Johanna Wagner. His father,
a police registrar, died 6 months after Wagner was born, and
his mother was remarried the following year to Ludwig Geyer,
an actor and portrait painter, who moved the family to Dresden.
Geyer died in 1821, and in 1827 the family returned to Leipzig.
Wagner was attracted to the theater at an early age. His first
creative effort was a spoken tragedy, Leubald and Adelaide
(1828), which was heavily influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe.
He decided at once, however, that he must also write music,
and he proceeded to teach himself the rudiments of composition,
supplementing them with the study of scores. His formal training
was brief--about 6 months in 1831-32 with the Leipzig cantor
C. T. Weinlig.
Ian Fleming
Ian Flemming was a famous gemini. Born May 28, 1908, and died
August 12, 1964, at one time a journalist, stockbroker, and
British naval intelligence officer, is best known as the creator
of James Bond, fiction's most famous spy. The winning formula
used in each of 13 Bond novels mixed old-fashioned intrigue
and jet-age exoticism with the idiosyncrasies displayed by
Agent 007 in his continuing battle against bizarre international
conspiracies. From Russia, With Love (1957; film, 1963) gained
authenticity from Fleming's experience in Moscow as a secret
agent. Other Bond novels that enjoyed immense popularity when
transferred to the screen include Dr. No (1958; film 1963),
Goldfinger (1959; film 1964), You Only Live Twice (1964; film
1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962, film 1977), and Moonraker
(1955; film 1979).
Clint Eastwood
The American film actor and director Clint Eastwood is a famous
gemini, b. San Francisco, May 31, 1930, after his stint in
the Western television series "Rawhide," achieved
international box-office stardom in the mid-1960s by playing
the lead in three "spaghetti westerns" directed
by Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars
More (1965), and The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The
laconic, tough, anti-hero role taken on by the actor in these
films served him well in many other movies, such as Dirty
Harry (1971), Every Which Way but Loose (1978), and Escape
from Alcatraz (1978). He did, however, portray a much more
vulnerable character surprisingly well in The Beguiled (1971).
Eastwood has directed more than a dozen films, including Play
Misty for Me (1971), The Eiger Sanction (1975), Honkytonk
Man (1982), Sudden Impact (1983), in which he played Dirty
Harry again, Pale Rider (1985), a highly-acclaimed western,
Bird (1988), White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), and Unforgiven
(1992). Eastwood won an Academy Award for his direction of
Unforgiven and the film itself won as Oscar as best picture
of 1992. He also won in the 2005 Oscar Awards for directing
and best picture “The Million Dollar Baby” about
a female boxer in a predominantly male sport which starred
best actress winner Hilary Swank. |
