What If You Die Tomorrow?
“Analysis of death is not for the sake of becoming fearful but to appreciate this precious lifetime.” — Dalai Lama When we fear death, we stop living. We like to feel invincible…
Why Accepting Death Will Make You Worry Less
“Death is the destination we all share; no one has ever escaped it. Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears…
Chadwick Boseman: A ‘King’, Unmasked, Shows His Dignity
The problem with dignity is that there’s not much an actor can do with it. Not when he’s playing Jackie Robinson or Thurgood Marshall, not when you’re the leader of…
Regis Philbin: Selling Million Dollar Dreams on TV
He presided over live morning shows for four decades, emceed 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and served as Joey Bishop's late-night sidekick. Regis Philbin, the indefatigable and downright neighborly…
Little Richard: The ‘Tutti Frutti’ of Rock ’n’ Roll
Delving deeply into the wellsprings of gospel music and the blues, and screaming as if for his very life, he created something new, thrilling and dangerous. Richard Penniman, better known…
Rishi Kapoor: Bollywood’s Ultimate Loverboy
For several decades it was difficult to imagine there would ever be a wrinkle on Rishi Kapoor’s face. A few years before his death in April 2020 at the age…
Kenny Rogers: Country Music’s ‘Gambler’
From bold psychedelic rockers and cinematic story songs to sentimental country pop, Kenny Rogers covered considerable musical turf throughout six decades of recording and performing, using his gravel-tinged vocals to…
Irrfan Khan: The International Face of Bollywood
In 1986, when the director Mira Nair was scouting for her film Salaam Bombay! at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, she fixed her gaze on a young…
Kobe Bryant: An Icon Beyond Basketball
Kobe Bryant was one of America’s few basketball legends who made the leap directly from high school to a glittering 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers that established him…
Karl Lagerfeld: Fashion Legend Who Loved Starting Anew
Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most prolific and widely popular designers of the 20th and 21st centuries, was creative director of Chanel, the French house founded by Gabrielle Chanel, for…
Aretha Franklin: The Indomitable ‘Queen of Soul
Universally acclaimed as the “Queen of Soul”, Aretha Franklin was one of America’s greatest vocalists of all-time and a virtuoso of almost singing style. In her indelible late-1960s hits, Ms.…
Stephen Hawking: Mind Over Matter
The image of Stephen Hawking in his motorized wheelchair, with head contorted slightly to one side and hands crossed over to work the controls, caught the public imagination, as a…
Margot Kidder: Superman’s ‘Lois Lane’
“You’ll believe a man can fly,” promised the advertising campaign for the 1978 blockbuster Superman: The Movie. None of that technical razzle-dazzle would have counted for much, though, without the…
Sridevi: Indian Cinema Queen Who Balanced Grit With Humor
Throughout the 1980s, the Bollywood film star Sridevi was the undisputed queen of Indian cinema, often eclipsing the male actors she starred with. In breaking through this glass ceiling, she…
David Cassidy: The Teen Idol Who Never Wanted To Be Superstar
“Girls are following me around – they’re ruining my whole life!” cried Keith Partridge in a fraught moment on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family. Keith, played by David Cassidy,…
Hugh Hefner: The Playboy Who Changed The Worldview of Sex
Hugh Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s, built a multimedia empire under the Playboy brand featuring girly magazine, clubs, mansions, movies and television…
Vinod Khanna: The Maverick Bollywood Hero
Vinod Khanna belonged to the second wave of Punjabi heroes who ruled Bollywood - known as "Partition Punjabis". His family hailed from Peshawar in Pakistan and had moved to India…
John Hurt: The ‘Elephant Man’ Known For Shape-Shifting Movie Roles
Sir John Hurt was an unprepossessing British character actor who vanished inside dozens of roles, from Shakespeare to science fiction, including John Merrick, the hideously deformed title character in the…
Om Puri: The Bollywood Face Of The West
As an actor, Om Puri exuded reassuring warmth and gravitas over a long career divided between Bollywood and Hollywood. At home, his Hindi hits included the political comedy Jaane Bhi…
Carrie Fisher: Star Wars’ Down-to-Earth Princess Leia
Carrie Fisher, the actress whose role as Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy inspired millions of fans worldwide, helped George Lucas’ space-fantasy epic redefine Hollywood blockbusters for a…