Category: people

Burrows is an actor, playwright, producer, and activist who started her career as a kid on a radio show. In 1968, she was favorably written about in The New York Times, and she says, “It put me in another tax bracket. I remember being in Algiers at a festival. Why was someone in Algiers talking about me? He knew me because he had read the Times article about me. The Times review can put you in another tax bracket, even today.” – American Theatre

Fleisher famously spent 30 years mastering piano’s left-handed repertoire after an injury to his right hand – and then reintegrated his right hand when it recovered after three decades. “Fleisher often pointed out after his comeback that he was not, and never would be, fully cured. But he also acknowledged, late in life, that the incapacitation of his right hand in 1964 ultimately gave him a far more varied musical life than he might have had if he had been able to pursue a conventional career as a virtuoso pianist.” – The New York Times

Eusebio Leal Spengler so loved the old city that he found ways to save it. “Never a priority in the 20th century, old Havana fell into disrepair. By befriending Fidel Castro, Leal began the process of bringing it back. He managed to get the old town designated a Unesco world heritage site, and then gather enough money from Europe to start putting the buildings back together.” (Spengler died on July 31.) – The Observer (UK)

The actor excelled at playing cantankerous characters but came to fame playing an assistant engineer at a nuclear plant in The China Syndrome. Later, he became famous for his spokesperson roles, not to mention his (very) lively Twitter presence. – The New York Times

He was nominated for the best-director Oscar for the 1978 film “Midnight Express” and again 10 years later for “Mississippi Burning.” – The New York Times

“Because he was not a celebrity editor, he was not particularly well known outside the publishing universe. But let us assure you, because we saw it firsthand: There was nobody quite like him. A disproportionate number of the best things you ever read in New York came through his hands. .. We’ve invited his colleagues at New York, past and present, to talk about him. Here’s John in their words.” (And here’s a similar piece from his colleagues at Vanity Fair.) – New York Magazine

“Mr. Schonfeld, who had been expelled from Harvard Law School for gambling, was nothing if not a risk taker. Early in his career he produced newsreels shown in movie theaters, and by the mid-1970s he was running an agency that provided news programming to independent television stations. In that role he met [Ted] Turner, a brash sailor, sports-team owner and cable TV entrepreneur who was looking to make a bigger name for himself.” – The Washington Post

“In both the manifold building blocks of his works and their titles — Ba-O-Ba, Ju-Ju, Palm Saw Tooth Blatt, Bison Bop — Mr. Sonnier came off at times as an irreverent sensualist alongside peers like Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, Jackie Winsor and Robert Smithson, who employed some of the same materials.” – The New York Times

In 2014, he secured $17 million from Mrs. O’Donnell to create the institute of art history. In 2017, UTD partnered with the late Margaret McDermott to create the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, which, every other year, bestows $150,000 upon an artist “whose body of work demonstrates a lifetime of achievement in their field.” – Dallas Morning News