Celebrity Name : Busby Berkeley

Celebrity Real Name : Welliam Berkeley Enos

Date of Birth : November 29, 1895

Birth Location : Los Angeles

Biography :
Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895–March 14, 1976), born William Berkeley Enos in Los Angeles, California, was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley’s quintessential works used legions of showgirls and props as fantastic elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. He started up as a theatrical director, just as many other movie directors. Unlike many of them at that time, he felt that a camera should be allowed mobility, and he framed shots carefully from unusual angles to allow movie audiences to see things from perspectives that the theatrical stage never could provide. This is why he played an enormous role in establishing the movie musical as a category in its own right.

Career:
He made his stage debut at five, acting in the company of his performing family. During World War I, Berkeley served as a field artillery lieutenant, where he learned the intricacies of drilling and disciplining large groups of people. During the 1920s, Berkeley was a dance director for nearly two dozen Broadway musicals, including such hits as ‘A Connecticut Yankee’. As a choreographer, Berkeley was less concerned with the terpsichorean skill of his chorus girls as he was with their ability to form themselves into attractive geometric patterns. His musical numbers were among the largest and best-regimented on Broadway. The only way they’d get any larger was if Berkeley moved to films, which he did the moment films learned to talk.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bozo the Clown

Celebrity Real Name : Larry Harmon

Biography :
Bozo the Clown (also known as Bozo), is the name of a clown whose widespread franchising in early television made him the best-known clown character in the United States. Partly as a result, the word “bozo” has become synonymous with a foolish person. It also was a common name given to hobo or tramp clowns.Bozo the Clown was created in 1946 by Alan W. Livingston, who wrote and produced a children’s storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book set which Livingston called a “Record Reader”, the first of its kind, titled Bozo at the Circus for Capitol Records. Pinto Colvig portrayed the character on this and subsequent Bozo read-along records.
The albums were extremely popular and the character became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed “Bozo the Capitol Clown.” In 1949, Capitol and Livingston began setting up royalty arrangements with manufacturers and television stations for use of the Bozo character. KTTV-TV in Los Angeles began broadcasting the first show, “Bozo’s Circus”, featuring Colvig as Bozo with his blue-and-red costume, oversized red hair and classic “whiteface” clown makeup (as seen in photo) on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

Bozo on Chicago TV :
The Chicago Bozo franchise was the most popular and successful locally-produced children’s program in the history of television. It also became the most widely-known Bozo show as WGN became a national cable television staple. Chicago’s Bozo debuted in 1960 starring Bob Bell on a live half-hour show weekdays at noon, performing comedy sketches and introducing cartoons. It evolved into Bozo’s Circus in 1961, as a live hour-long show with additional cast members, a 13-piece orchestra, circus acts, games and prizes before a 200+ member studio audience.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Boy George

Celebrity Real Name : George Alan O’Dowd

Date of Birth : June 14, 1961

Birth Location : Eltham, Kent, England

Biography :
George Alan O’Dowd, better known as Boy George, (born June 14, 1961, in Eltham, Kent, England) is an English singer-songwriter. George grew up in a large, working-class Irish family.

Career :
George gained fame with his group Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, since he was heavily influenced by R&B and reggae. His solo work has also touched on glam rock influences, particularly David Bowie. Early recordings with Culture Club with George’s vocals had an emotional quality which was reminiscent of American soul music of the 1960s and 1970s.In 1992, George scored a hit with a version of the song “The Crying Game” (produced by the Pet Shop Boys), which was featured on the movie of the same name, and reached the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100. Although he’d had solo hits in the UK, this would be his first and only big U.S. pop hit since Culture Club’s 1986 single “Move Away”. He released a rock-driven Cheapness And Beauty in 1995, but the album was not successful.

Trivia :
* In August 1994, a British court tossed out a paternity suit filed against him by a Californian woman.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : (Lil) Bow Wow

Celebrity Real Name : Shad Gregory Moss

Date of Birth : March 9, 1987

Birth Location : Reynoldsburg, Ohio

Biography :
Shad Gregory Moss (born March 9, 1987) is an American rapper and actor. He is best known as Bow Wow or Bow Wow. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the “youngest solo rapper to ever hit number one”.
Career :
At the beginning of his career, Bow Wow was first a part of the Death Row Records artist roster, with his name appearing in various magazine and poster advertisements for the label. In 2000, he released his first album, Beware of Dog and became a successful recording artist under Dupri’s mentorship; the same year, Bow Wow’s single, “Bounce With Me”, was also successful.After the success of Bow Wow’s debut album, he released 2002’s Doggy Bag, which contained, among others, the songs “Thank You” and “Take You Home”. During this time, he removed “Lil’” from his professional name.He eventually broke out on his own in 2003 with the album Unleashed, which was his first without Dupri’s writing assistance; the album’s sales were lower than that of his first two. In addition to his own albums, Bow Wow has contributed to Will Smith’s Wild Wild West album, and had a guest appearance on Brandy’s TV sitcom, Moesha as well as The Steve Harvey Show.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bono (Vox)

Celebrity Real Name : Paul Hewson

Date of Birth : 10 May 1960

Birth Location : Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Biography :
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), nicknamed Bono Vox (stage name) and Bono (pronounced Bonn-oh), is the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist of the Irish rock band U2. Bono lives south of Dublin with his family and shares a villa in Èze in the Alpes-Maritimes in the South of France with The Edge, as well as an apartment at The Dakota in Manhattan. Paul Hewson was brought up in Glasnevin, Dublin. His mother, Iris, was Protestant, and his father, Bob, was a Roman Catholic.
“Bono Vox” is an alteration of Bona Vox, a brand of hearing aid. The phrase in Latin translates to “good voice”. “Bono Vox” was the name of a hearing aid shop they regularly passed on North Earl Street, just off O’Connell Street, in Dublin. It is said he was nicknamed “Bono Vox” after the shop by his friend Gavin Friday because he sang so loudly he seemed to be singing for the deaf. Initially, Bono did not like his name. However, when he learned it translated to “good voice”, he accepted it.

Humanitarian work:
In a 1986 interview with Rolling Stone magazine Bono explained that he was first motivated to become involved in social and political causes by seeing one of the benefit shows staged by Monty Python’s John Cleese and producer Martin Lewis for human rights organization Amnesty International in 1979. “I saw ‘The Secret Policeman’s Ball’ and it became a part of me. It sowed a seed…” The seed led to Bono and U2 being performers on Amnesty’s Conspiracy Of Hope tour of the US in 1986 alongside Sting who was one of the Secret Policeman’s Ball performers seen by Bono. It also led to Bono’s participation as a performer in the Band Aid and Live Aid projects organized by Bob Geldof - another Secret Policeman’s Ball performer - with whom Bono later collaborated as an organizer on the 2005 Live 8 project. Bono’s commitment to Amnesty has endured and when U2 contributed a live performance to Amnesty’s 2001 benefit, Bono introduced the song by referring to “The Secret Policeman’s Ball - which is a mysterious and extraordinary event that certainly changed my life… [wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bobby Darin

Celebrity Real Name : Walden Robert Cassotto

Date of Birth : December 20, 1973

Birth Location :The Bronx, New York

Biography :
Bobby Darin (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) (born Walden Robert Cassotto) was one of the most popular American big band performers and teen idols of the late 1950s. However, he is widely respected for being a multi-talented, versatile performer, who challenged and successfully conquered many music genres, including, folk, country, pop, and jazz. He was also an accomplished actor. His wish for a legacy was “to be remembered as a great entertainer, and a human being”.

Musical career :
As was common with ethnic minorities at the time, he changed his Italian name and, in 1956, his agent negotiated a contract for him with Decca Records where Bill Haley & His Comets had risen to fame. However, this was a time when rock and roll was still in its infancy and the number of capable record producers and arrangers in the field was extremely limited. Like other performers, Darin was at first pigeon-holed, recording the banal songs popular with record executives at the time.He left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records, where he wrote and arranged music for himself and others.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bob Hope

Celebrity Real Name : Leslie Townes Hope

Date of Birth : May 29, 1903

Birth Location :Eltham, London, England

Biography :
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), born Leslie Townes Hope, was a famous British-born American entertainer who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio and television, in movies, and in performing tours for U.S. Military personnel.

Career:
From the age of 12, Bob Hope worked at a wide variety of odd jobs at a local board walk. When not doing this he would busk, doing dance and comedy patter to make extra money. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests, and won prizes for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He also boxed briefly and unsuccessfully under the name Packy East. Fallen silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of his performances and in 1925 got him steady work with Hurley’s Jolly Follies. A year later Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who had a tap dancing routine. After five years on the Vaudeville circuit, by his own account Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé in Culver City, California. Hope returned to New York City and subsequently appeared in several Broadway musicals including Roberta, Say When, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies and Red, Hot and Blue with Ethel Merman. His performances were generally well-received and critics noted his keen sense of comedic timing. He changed his name to “Bob”, reportedly because people in the US were calling him “Hopelessly”. His given name as stated above is Leslie, although in the 1920’s he sometimes used the name “Lester Hope”.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bob Dylan

Celebrity Real Name : Robert Zimmerman

Date of Birth : May 24, 1941

Birth Location : Duluth, Minnesota, USA

Biography :
Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and was raised there and in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range northwest of Lake Superior.Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan’s best known work is from the 1960s when he became an informal documentarian and reluctant figurehead of American unrest. Some of his songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”,became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements. Forty years later, his 2001 album “Love and Theft”, reached the top five on the charts in the U.S. and the UK. His latest studio album, Modern Times, released on August 29, 2006, became his first US #1 album in thirty years, making him the oldest living chart topper in history at the age of 65.

Career :His career accomplishments have been recognized with the Polar Music Prize, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honors, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was listed as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 20th century.In the fall of 1980 Dylan briefly resumed touring, restoring several of his most popular 1960s songs to his repertoire, for a series of concerts billed as “A Musical Retrospective”. Shot of Love, recorded the next spring, featured Dylan’s first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with explicitly Christian songs. The haunting “Every Grain of Sand” reminded some critics of William Blake’s verses.[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bo Diddley

Celebrity Real Name : Elias Bates

Date of Birth : December 30, 1928

Birth Location : Otha Ellas Bates in McComb, Mississippi

Biography :
Bo Diddley (born December 30, 1928) “The Originator”, is an influential American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is often cited as a key figure in the transition of blues into rock and roll, by introducing more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard edged guitar sound.

Career :
He recorded for Chicago’s Chess Records subsidiary label Checker. Diddley is best known for the “Bo Diddley beat”, a rhumba-based beat (see clave) also influenced by what is known as “hambone”, a style used by street performers who play out the beat by slapping and patting their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks while chanting rhymes.The beat has been used by many other artists, notably Buddy Holly (”Not Fade Away”), The Who (”Magic Bus”), Bruce Springsteen (”She’s the One”) U2 (”Desire”) The Smiths (”How Soon Is Now?”), and Guns N’ Roses (”Mr. Brownstone”).Bo Diddley used a variety of rhythms, however, from straight back beat to pop ballad style, frequently with maracas by Jerome Green. He was also an influential guitar player, with many special effects and other innovations in tone and attack. He also plays the violin, which is featured on his mournful instrumental “The Clock Strikes Twelve”.
His first hit, “Bo Diddley” was based on the lullaby “Hush Little Baby”. Likewise, “Hey Bo Diddley” is based on the folk song, “Old Macdonald”. The rap-style boasting of “Who Do You Love”, a wordplay on hoodoo, used many striking lyrics from the African-American tradition of toasts and boasts. His “Say Man” and “Say Man, Back Again” have been connected with rap, but actually feature the insults known as the Dozens: “You look like you been in a hatchet fight and everybody had a hatchet except you.”[wikipedia]

Celebrity Name : Bo Derek

Celebrity Real Name : Mary Cathleen Collins

Date of Birth : November 20, 1956

Birth Location : Long Beach, California

Biography :
Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins on November 20, 1956, Long Beach, California) is an American film actress and model.Derek is of Irish, German, Dutch and Welsh descent.[citation needed] She was married to the actor and director John Derek, who was 30 years her senior, from 1974 until his death in 1998. They met during filming of a movie, and subsequently, John filed for divorce from his wife, actress Linda Evans.

Career :
She made the first of many appearances in Playboy, starting with the March 1980 issue. Her first pictorial (among others) was photographed by then husband John, on a secluded beach along an unnamed area of the Colorado River.The twelve page spread featured a few with her and her pet greyhound together jogging and sunbathing, as well as her sailing and swimming in the river, all nude. She also made the cover (in a bikini). The issue was a sell-out.

Awards nomination :
Bolero and Tarzan, the Ape Man earned her the dubious honor of four Golden Raspberry Awards, as well as a nomination in 2000 as the “Worst Actress of the Century”. Her most respectable showing was as Jamie Kennedy’s mom and Ryan O’Neal’s wife in Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003).[wikipedia]