Pratt Institute

Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor and singer. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, Howard broke into the... mainstream with a succession of television and film roles between 2004 and 2006. His roles in movies includes Winnie, Ray, Lackawanna Blues, Crash, Four Brothers, Hustle & Flow, Get Rich or Die Tryin', Idlewild, August Rush and The Brave One. Howard co-starred in Iron Man and reprised the role in the video game adaption. His debut album, Shine Through It, was released in September 2008. Howard was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Cleveland, Ohio , the son of Anita Williams and Tyrone Howard. His maternal great-grandmother, Minnie Gentry, was a stage actress, as were his mother and uncles. Both of his parents were biracial, of African American and European American descent; he experienced racism throughout his childhood. His father was involved in what has been termed the Santa Line Slaying, serving 11 months in prison on manslaughter charges after stabbing another man.
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Martin Nodell was an American cartoonist and commercial artist, best known as the creator of the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern. Some of his... work appeared under the pen name "Mart Dellon." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nodell was the son of Jewish immigrants. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to New York City in the 1930s, where he attended Pratt Institute. Nodell began his illustrating career in 1938, working first as a freelancer. In 1940 he provided some work for Sheldon Mayer, an editor at All-American Publications, one of three companies that ultimately merged to form the present-day DC Comics. Interested in gaining more steady employment, Nodell created designs for a new character that would become the Golden Age Green Lantern . The inspiration came in January 1940 at the 34th Street subway station in Manhattan. Nodell noticed a trainman waving a lantern along the darkened tracks. He coupled the imagery with elements from Richard Wagner's operatic Ring cycle as well as Chinese folklore and Greek mythology to create the hero.
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Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect and winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize. Zumthor was born in Basel, the son of a cabinet-maker. He apprenticed to a... carpenter in 1958 and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in his native city starting in 1963. In 1966, Zumthor studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute in New York. In 1968, he became conservationist architect for the Department for the Preservation of Monuments of the canton of Graubünden. This work on historic restoration projects gave him a further understanding of construction and the qualities of different rustic building materials. As his practice developed, Zumthor was able to incorporate his knowledge of materials into Modernist construction and detailing. His buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel. Zumthor founded his own firm in 1979. His practice grew quickly and he accepted more international projects.
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Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist,... philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. In 2010 he was awarded French Knighthood in the Legion d'Honneur. At the height of his fame in the 1970s and 1980s, he was often described as one of the world's most attractive men and remains one of the most popular movie stars. His popular films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , Downhill Racer , Jeremiah Johnson , The Candidate , The Sting , The Way We Were , The Great Gatsby , Three Days of the Condor , The Great Waldo Pepper , All the President's Men , A Bridge Too Far , The Natural , Out of Africa , Sneakers , Indecent Proposal ,The Last Castle and Spy Game .
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