Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Kings Park , is a stadium in the Kings Park Sporting Precinct in Durban, South Africa, which was originally built in 1891 and extensively renovated... in the 1990s. It has a capacity of 55,000 and is the home ground of the Sharks. The stadium has also been used by Durban based Premier Soccer League football clubs, as well as for large football finals. In 1995 the stadium was one of the host venues for the Rugby World Cup held in South Africa. The stadium hosted three pool games in Pool B. The stadium also hosted one quarter final with France defeating Ireland 36-12. The stadium was then used for the semi final between South Africa and France, with the Springboks winning 19-15 on their way to the nation's first ever Rugby World Cup trophy. The stadium was one of four venues for the 1996 African Cup of Nations. It hosted 3 group matches, a quarter final and semi final. On 8 November 1995 Whitney Houston performed here as part of her The Bodyguard World Tour.
more

Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in numerous films and television productions in a career lasting more than 70 years. Cusack was... born in Durban, Natal, South Africa. His mother, Alice Violet , was an English Cockney actress and chorus girl, and his father, James Walter Cusack, was Irish and a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took him to England, and then to Ireland. Cusack's mother and her partner, Breifne O'Rorke, joined the O'Brien and Ireland Players. Cyril made his first stage performance at the age of seven. Cusack was educated in Newbridge College, Newbridge, County Kildare and University College Dublin. He left without a degree and joined the Abbey Theatre in 1932. Between then and 1945, he performed in over 60 productions, particularly excelling in the plays of Seán O'Casey. In 1947, Cusack formed his own company and staged productions in Dublin, Paris and New York. In 1963, Cusack joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and appeared there for several seasons.
more

Bruce David Grobbelaar is a former football goalkeeper and manager. He played for a number of clubs in a career which spanned for more than 20 years... at professional level, most notably Liverpool during their dominant period in the 1980s and early 1990s. In his teenage years, Grobbelaar was a talented cricketer and was offered a baseball scholarship in the United States, but a career in football was his main ambition. His footballing career started with a Bulawayo-based team, Highlanders FC, in Rhodesia's second biggest city. In his late teens he was signed up by Durban City Football Club in South Africa, but left claiming to have been sidelined owing to his colour in this predominantly black team — the team had played in an all-White league until the previous year. Immediately after leaving Highlands Park, he signed up for National Service, spending two years on active service in the Rhodesia Regiment during the Rhodesian Bush War. In 1979 Grobbelaar was signed up by the Vancouver Whitecaps of the NASL after he had attended their scouting camp in South Africa.
more

Mimi Coertse , is a South African soprano. Coertse, born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, matriculated at the Helpmekaar Girls High School in Johannesburg.... She began vocal studies in South Africa in 1949. In July 1953 she married the broadcaster and composer Dawid Engela. She left South Africa in September 1953 for London, and then went via The Hague to Vienna. In January 1954 she started training with Maria Hittorff and Josef Witt. Coertse made her debut in January 1955 as the First Flower girl in Wagner's Parsifal at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Karl Böhm conducting. She also sang in Basle at the Teatro San Carlo. On 17 March 1956 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart and remained with the Vienna State Opera until 1978. Her Covent Garden debut was in 1956, in the same role. Coertse sang the soprano part in Bach's Matthäus-Passion at Fritz Wunderlich's first appearance in Vienna in 1958, when he performed the tenor arias with Julius Patzak singing the Evangelist. In 1958, Coertse and Fritz Wunderlich again worked together at the Aix-en-Provence festival in Die Zauberflöte.
more

Kandyse McClure is an actress, best known for playing Anastasia Dualla on the Sci Fi Channel's television program Battlestar Galactica. Born Candice... McClure in Durban, South Africa, she graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School in 1998. As of 2005 McClure resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2008, in support of the Babz Chula Lifeline for Artists Society, which was raising money for their friend and fellow Canadian actor Chula's cancer treatment, McClure and her Battlestar Galactica colleague Tahmoh Penikett auctioned off the opportunity to have dinner with both of them in Vancouver. McClure appeared in roles on Fox Family's teen drama Higher Ground , as well as the NBC's Saturday-morning series Just Deal. Her first lead role was with Lou Diamond Phillips in the 1999 telefilm In a Class of His Own, where she portrayed the recurring character of Elizabeth Munroe on Showtime's Jeremiah. McClure later played the role of Sue Snell in the 2002 telefilm remake of Stephen King's Carrie. From 2003 to 2009 she played Anastasia "Dee" Dualla on the Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica.
more

Glynis Barber is a South African actress of Afrikaner descent, born and brought up in South Africa. She was born Glynis van der Riet. When she was... five years old, her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to Johannesburg. She is best known for her portrayal as Sgt. Harriet Makepeace in the British police drama Dempsey & Makepeace. She studied at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Acting since 1978, her popular breakthrough came in 1981 with her role as Soolin in the BBC science fiction television series Blake's 7. In 1982 she took the title role in the television series Jane playing a World War II heroine. This series was filmed against a blue screen allowing for the addition of a cartoon background, an experimental technique in its day. However, Barber is best known for her mid-1980s role of Sgt. Harriet Makepeace in the British police drama Dempsey & Makepeace, where she met her future husband, Michael Brandon. Since 1987, Barber has appeared frequently in plays, films and television series. She also starred in the LWT drama series Night and Day as Fiona Brake.
more

Terence William 'Blondie' Chaplin is a musician from Durban, South Africa who first became known to international audiences through his brief stint... in the early 1970s as a singer and guitarist for The Beach Boys. Chaplin was also listed as a co-producer, sang lead vocals with fellow South African musician Ricky Fataar and composed, with Fataar, "Here She Comes" and "Hold On Dear Brother" on the twenty-third official Beach Boys album, Carl and the Passions - "So Tough", released in 1972. He is well known in recent years as a long term backing vocalist, percussionist and acoustic rhythm guitarist for the Rolling Stones on their tours. Blondie Chaplin, along with drummer Ricky Fataar, joined the Beach Boys when original drummer Dennis Wilson suffered a hand injury which left him unable to play the drums for almost two years. For the Beach Boys, it was a period in which long-time member Bruce Johnston had departed the band, and one-time leader Brian Wilson's participation in the group was very limited. As a result, Chaplin and Fataar joined the Beach Boys as full-fledged members and not merely as backing musicians.
more