Prince John was a son of King George V. He suffered from severe epilepsy and would die from a seizure at age 13.
Paul and Ringo played in the same band as the two guys you just posted about. Or, something like that.
Ringo Starr has long been married to the American actress Barbara Bach, who played a beautiful but deadly Soviet agent in the 1977 James Bond thriller The Spy Who Loved Me.
Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon starred in the 2018 comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me.
Actor Roger Moore, James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, attended an acting school in London. One of his classmates there was the Canadian actress Lois Maxwell. She played as the original Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond movies.
It was revealed in the film Skyfall that Moneypenny was initially a field agent assigned to Bond before being reassigned to desk duty, working as M’s personal secretary.
Skyfall was filmed, in part, in Glencoe, Ballachulish, Highland, Scotland, UK. Skyfall’s exterior scenes were shot and set at Hankley Common, Elstead, Godalming, Surrey, England, UK (so, English). Skyfall was built out of plywood and plaster for the movie.
Updated to include English because I ninja’d you @kenobi_65
M was an English synth-pop project from the late 1970s and early 1980s, led by musician Robin Scott. The group is known for their 1979 single “Pop Muzik,” which was a top 10 hit in the UK, as well as across Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.
(edited to make sure it builds on @Bullitt’s post – all good!)
Arthur Fiedler was the long time conductor of the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, and also appeared on numerous telecasts on Evening at Pops, carried on PBS stations nationwide.
Fiedler was a fan of firefighters and often drove to fires in the Boston area to watch them at work. He was even made an “Honorary Captain” in the Boston Fire Department, and several other fire departments around the country gave him honorary fire helmets and/or badges.
Rival firefighting companies in pre-Civil War New York City sometimes fought over which would get to put out a fire if both arrived on the scene more-or-less simultaneously. (Sometimes the house or building would burn to the ground, a total loss, while the firefighters brawled). Such an incident is shown in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 historical drama, Gangs of New York.
Aston Martin has been building cars since 1915. The Martin in the name comes from one of the two founders, Lionel Martin. The other founder was Robert Bamford. The Aston in the name comes from a place. Aston Hill is a place where motorsports events took place and Lionel Martin was a keen racing driver. When they began producing cars, he would test drive them at Aston Hill.
Aston Hill is northwest of London and there is a plaque there for Aston Martin. To find the plaque, paste these lat/long coordinates into the map: 51.782811, -0.709757.
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was the second surviving son of Edward III. Through his daughter Phillipa, he was the ancestor of Richard, Duke of York, whose sons became Edward VI and Richard III. The Yorkists argued that their claim, through Clarence’s daughter, was superior to the male-issue descent of the Lancastrians from Edward’s third surviving son, Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV.
The War of the Roses gets its name from a scene in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part I where quarreling factions meet in Temple Garden. Supporters of Richard, Duke of York pick white roses and supporters of Henry VI pick red roses.
While the Yorkists used the white rose during the conflict, the red rose of Lancaster was only introduced after Henry VII’s victory at Bosworth, and the two roses were combined to form the Tudor rose.
Also, my bad. My nitpick above was in error. You were correct.
Brian “The Boz” Bosworth was a star linebacker for the University of Oklahoma in the 1980s: he was a unanimous All-American pick in both his sophomore and junior seasons, and won the Butkus Award (given to the nation’s top linebacker) in both of those seasons, as well. Bosworth was a media celebrity, due to his outspoken personality and wild haircuts.
After his junior season, Bosworth was drafted by the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, but his professional career was short-lived; he was forced to retire after two seasons, due to degenerative arthritis in his shoulders.
Linebacker Brian Bosworth met running back Bo Jackson on the playing field in a much-anticipated matchup between the two players. It was on 30 November 1987, on Bo Jackson’s 25th birthday. Jackson ran wild over Bosworth and his Seattle Seahawks. He gained 221 rushing yards and 3 TDs that night, and the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 37-14.
One iconic play had the players facing off 1:1, and Jackson blew past Bosworth for one of his touchdowns.
Bo Jackson may have been the greatest two-sport athlete in professional sports history. The injury that forced his early retirement occurred while playing football for the Oakland Raiders, when he escaped a tackle by running so hard, he dislocated the bone from the hip socket. After the play, Jackson popped it back in place and continued playing.
In baseball, sports writers have remarked that he hit the ball with such force, it would split the seams of the ball. One writer stated that Jackson hit a flyball so high, he reached third base before it came down to the ground.
Out of play: There was a recent thread on Bo Jackson in the game room: How good was Bo Jackson in his prime?
In Play: Jim Thorpe, ranked by the Associated Press the greatest athlete of the first half of the Twentieth Century, won two gold medals in the 1912 Olympics. He was stripped of his titles for playing semi-professional baseball, but the medals were restored in 1983. He played professional baseball, football, and basketball, and was a member of the inaugural class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
mea culpa - the Lancastrians were descended from Edward’s third surviving son, John of Gaunt, whose son became Henry IV.
It’s tricky doing late night geneological trivia!
Carry on.
Jim Thorpe is a small town in eastern Pennsylvania, which was previously known as Mauch Chunk.
In the 1950s, after the death of Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, Mauch Chunk paid Thorpe’s widow for the right to have him buried there. The town built a mausoleum for Thorpe’s remains, and renamed itself after him, despite the fact that Thorpe, himself, had never been there while alive.
Jim Thorpe won the decathlon in the 1912 Olympics, placing in the top four in all ten events. Legend has it that his shoes were stolen before the event started, so he competed with a mismatched pair, including one found in a trashcan.
When King Gustav V awarded him the challenge prize for winning the decathlon, the King exclaimed “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world”, to which Thorpe replied, “Thanks, King”.