Willard Carroll Smith II[3] (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, rapper and film producer. He has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards.[4][5][6] As of 2024, his films have grossed over $9.3 billion globally,[7] making him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.[8][9]
Smith began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1993 and 1994. He first gained recognition as part of a hip hop duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff, with whom he released five studio albums and the US Billboard Hot 100 top 20 singles "Parents Just Don't Understand", "A Nightmare on My Street", "Summertime", "Ring My Bell", and "Boom! Shake the Room" from 1984 to 1994. He released the solo albums Big Willie Style (1997), Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002), and Lost and Found (2005), which contained the US number-one singles "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" and "Wild Wild West". He has received four Grammy Awards for his rap performances.[10]
Smith achieved wider fame as a leading man for the action film Bad Boys (1995) and the science fiction comedy Men in Black (1997); he later reprised his role in several sequels. After starring in the thrillers Independence Day (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998), he received Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his portrayals of Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001), and Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). He starred in the commercially successful films I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016), Aladdin (2019), as well as the dramas Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Concussion (2015), and Emancipation (2022).[11]
For his portrayal of Richard Williams in the biographical sports drama King Richard (2021), Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor.[12] At the 2022 ceremony, shortly before winning, Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock after Rock made an unscripted joke[13] referencing Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The controversial event earned substantial media coverage and criticism, with Smith ultimately resigning from the Academy along with being banned from attending all their events for ten years.[14]
J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer; /ˈɒpənhaɪmər/ OP-ən-hy-mər; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. He was director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II and is often called the "father of the atomic bomb".
Born in New York City, Oppenheimer earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1925 and a doctorate in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927, where he studied under Max Born. After research at other institutions, he joined the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became a full professor in 1936. He made significant contributions to theoretical physics, including achievements in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics such as the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer–Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and early work on quantum tunneling. With his students, he also made contributions to the theory of neutron stars and black holes, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays.
In 1942, Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, and in 1943 he was appointed director of the project's Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, tasked with developing the first nuclear weapons. His leadership and scientific expertise were instrumental in the project's success. On July 16, 1945, he was present at the first test of the atomic bomb, Trinity. In August 1945, the weapons were used against Japan in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.
In 1947, Oppenheimer became the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and chaired the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during a 1949–1950 governmental debate on the question and subsequently took positions on defense-related issues that provoked the ire of some U.S. government and military factions. During the second Red Scare, Oppenheimer's stances, together with his past associations with the Communist Party USA, led to the revocation of his security clearance, following a 1954 security hearing. This effectively ended his access to the government's atomic secrets and his career as a nuclear physicist. Although stripped of his direct political influence, Oppenheimer nevertheless continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. In 1963, as a gesture of political rehabilitation, he was given the Enrico Fermi Award. He died four years later, of throat cancer. In 2022, the federal government vacated the 1954 revocation of his security clearance.
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981)[1] is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time,[a] she was ranked world No.1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks, including a joint-record 186 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No.1 five times. She won 23 major (Grand Slam) women's singles titles, the most in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time. She is the only player to accomplish a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.[18]
Along with her elder sister Venus, Serena Williams was coached by her parents Oracene Price and Richard Williams. Turning professional in 1995, she won her first major singles title at the 1999 US Open. From the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open she was dominant, winning all four major singles titles (each time over Venus in the final) to achieve both a Career Grand Slam and a non-calendar year Grand Slam (known as a "Serena Slam"). The next few years saw her capture two more major singles titles, but suffer from injury and decline in form. Starting in 2007, however, she gradually returned to form despite continued injuries, reclaiming the world No.1 singles ranking. Beginning with the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Williams returned to dominance, claiming Olympic gold (completing the Career Golden Slam in singles)[19] and winning eight out of thirteen singles majors, including all four in a row from 2014 – 2015 to achieve a second "Serena Slam". At the 2017 Australian Open, she won her 23rd major singles title, surpassing Steffi Graf's Open Era record. After becoming pregnant, she took a break from professional tennis, but reached four major finals upon returning to play. In August 2022, Williams announced her impending "evolution" away from professional tennis. She played her final match at the 2022 US Open.[20]
Williams won 14 major women's doubles titles, all with her sister Venus, and the pair was unbeaten in major doubles finals (the best unbeaten record in major finals in any discipline of the sport).[21][22] The sisters achieved a non-calendar year Grand Slam between the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and the 2010 French Open, which granted the sisters the doubles world No.1 ranking. Williams won four Olympic gold medals, three in women's doubles—an all-time joint record in tennis, shared with her sister.[23][24] The duo are the only women in the Open Era to win Olympic gold in both singles and doubles.[25] Williams also won two major mixed doubles titles, both in 1998. She is the only singles player, male or female, to complete three Career Golden Slams – one in women's singles and two in women's doubles.[18]
The ascent of the Williams sisters has been credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour.[26][27][28][29] Serena holds a combined 39 major titles: 23 in singles, 14 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. She is joint-third on the all-time list and second in the Open Era for total major titles. She is the most recent woman to simultaneously hold all four major singles titles (2002–2003 and 2014–2015), and to win the Surface Slam (major titles on hard, clay and grass courts in the same calendar year), which she accomplished in 2015. She is also, with Venus, the most recent player to have simultaneously held all four major women's doubles titles (2009–2010).
Williams was the world's highest paid woman athlete in 2016, earning almost $29 million.[30] She repeated this feat in 2017 when she was the only woman on Forbes' list of the 100 highest-paid athletes, with $27 million in prize money and endorsements. She won the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award a record four times (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018), and in December 2015 was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine.[31] She is the highest-earning woman athlete of all time.[32]
Ryan Thomas Gosling (/ˈɡɒslɪŋ/ GOSS-ling;[1] born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in both independent films and major studio features, his films have grossed over $2 billion worldwide. Gosling has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.
Gosling rose to prominence at age 13 on Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1995), and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996). His breakthrough film role was that of a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2001), and he gained stardom in the 2004 romantic drama The Notebook. He starred in the critically acclaimed independent dramas Half Nelson (2006), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor; Lars and the Real Girl (2007), and Blue Valentine (2010).
In 2011, Gosling had three mainstream successes in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, the political drama The Ides of March, and the action thriller Drive. After making his directorial debut with Lost River (2014), he starred in the financial satire The Big Short (2015), the action comedy The Nice Guys (2016), and the romantic musical La La Land (2016), the latter of which won him a Golden Globe and a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Further acclaim followed with the science fiction film Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and the biopic First Man (2018). In 2023, he played Ken in the fantasy comedy Barbie, which emerged as his highest-grossing release and earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Gosling's band, Dead Man's Bones, released their self-titled debut album and toured North America in 2009. He is a co-owner of Tagine, a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. He is a supporter of PETA, Invisible Children, and the Enough Project and has traveled to Chad, Uganda and eastern Congo to raise awareness about conflicts in the regions. He has been involved in peace promotion efforts in Africa for over a decade. He is in a relationship with actress Eva Mendes, with whom he has two daughters.
Cillian Murphy (/ˈkɪliən/ KILL-ee-ən;[1] born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.
Murphy began his collaboration with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in 2005, playing the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012) as well as appearing in Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017). He gained greater prominence for his role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC period drama series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) and for starring in the horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II (2020). Murphy portrayed J. Robert Oppenheimer in Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award.
In 2011, Murphy won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for the one-man play Misterman. In 2020, The Irish Times named him one of the greatest Irish film actors of all time