Hugh Alan "Buddy" MacMaster was a Canadian fiddler. He performed and recorded both locally and internationally, and was regarded as an expert on the tradition and lore of Cape Breton fiddle music.
Marion Ross is a retired American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Sabrina (1954), Lust for Life (1956), Teacher's Pet (1958), Some Came Running (1958), Operation Petticoat (1959), and Honky (1971), as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television's The Lone Ranger (1954). She was also twice nominated successively in 1992 and 1993 for the Primetime Emmy Award for her performance on the CBS television comedy-drama Brooklyn Bridge and later netted another Emmy nomination in 1999 for a two-episode appearance on the popular CBS drama Touched by an Angel. Ross also starred in the high-profile, long-anticipated sequel to Terms of Endearment (1983), The Evening Star (1996), in a turn for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as both a nomination and win for a Lone Star Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Rita MacNeil was a Canadian singer and songwriter from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. Her biggest hit, "Flying On Your Own", was a crossover Top 40 hit in 1987 and was covered by Anne Murray the following year, although she had hits on the country and adult contemporary charts throughout her career. In the United Kingdom, MacNeil's song "Working Man" was a No. 11 hit in 1990.
The Jury is a British television serial broadcast in 2002. The series was the first ever to be allowed to film inside the historic Old Bailey courthouse.
New Waterford Girl is a 1999 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Allan Moyle, and written by Tricia Fish. It stars Liane Balaban as Agnes-Marie "Mooney" Pottie, a teenager in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, who dreams of life beyond her small-town home. She is inspired and fascinated when Lou Benzoa, an idiosyncratic girl from New York City, moves into the house next door. Agnes learns Lou has a talent for boxing, leading to her taking Lou in as "muscle" in an attempt to make some changes around town.
Viola Irene Desmond was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre. For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive. Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.
Ellen M. Travolta is an American actress known for playing Louisa Arcola Delvecchio in Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi as well as Gloria Cerullo in General Hospital and Lillian in Charles in Charge (1987-1990).
Wilby Wonderful is a 2004 comedy-drama film directed by Daniel MacIvor, and starring James Allodi, Maury Chaykin, Paul Gross, Rebecca Jenkins, Sandra Oh, Elliot Page, Callum Keith Rennie, and Daniel MacIvor. Wilby Wonderful tells the story about 24 hours in the life of the small town of Wilby, where the municipal festival is in preparation. It focuses on the changes occurring in the lives of several different inhabitants as development comes to the island and threatens to change the world around them. The title comes from a sign created to promote the town; comically, it has been painted wrong, and says "Wilby Wonderful", as opposed to "Wonderful Wilby".
Only the Lonely is a 1991 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Chris Columbus, produced by John Hughes, and stars John Candy, Maureen O'Hara, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, and James Belushi. The film is a comedic take on the premise established in the 1953 television play Marty and the 1955 film Marty, while the title comes from the song "Only the Lonely" by Roy Orbison. The story follows a bachelor police officer who is looking to settle down and start a family with a mortuary beautician, while coping with his controlling mother who wants him all to herself.
Clarence (Clarie) Gillis, MP was a Canadian social democratic politician and trade unionist from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. He was born on Nova Scotia's mainland, but grew up in Cape Breton. He worked in the island's underground coal mines operated by the British Empire Steel and Coal Company (BESCO). He also served as a member of the infantry in the Canadian Corps in Flanders during the First World War. After the war he returned to the coal mines and became an official with the mine's United Mine Workers of America (UMW) union. In 1938, he helped bring UMW Local 26 into the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), becoming the first labour local to affiliate with the party. In 1940, he became the first CCF member elected to the House of Commons of Canada, east of Manitoba. While serving in the House, he was known as its leading voice championing labour issues. He was also a main voice for social rights during his 17-years in Parliament. His most notable achievement was securing the funding that allowed the building of a fixed-link between Nova Scotia's mainland and Cape Breton Island at the Strait of Canso: the Canso Causeway. After winning four straight elections, he was defeated in 1957 and died three years later in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
Linden Joseph MacIntyre is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and novelist. He has won ten Gemini Awards, an International Emmy and numerous other awards for writing and journalistic excellence, including the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his 2009 novel, The Bishop's Man. Well known for many years for his stories on CBC's The Fifth Estate, in 2014 he announced his retirement from the show at age 71. His final story, broadcast on November 21, 2014, was "The Interrogation Room" about police ethics and improper interrogation room tactics.
Pit Pony is a 1999 CBC television series which tells the story of small-town life in Glace Bay, on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1904. The plot line revolves around the lives of the families of the men and boys who work in the coal mines.
Liar, Liar is a 1993 Canadian drama television film starring Vanessa King as a girl who accuses her father of molestation, only to have no one in her family believe her. The film originally aired on January 24, 1993 on CBC Television in Canada.
Jesse Stone: Thin Ice is a 2009 American made-for-television crime drama film directed by Robert Harmon and starring Tom Selleck, Kathy Baker, and Kohl Sudduth. Based on the characters from the Jesse Stone book series created by Robert B. Parker, the film is about the police chief of a small New England town who investigates a cryptic letter sent to the mother of a kidnapped child who was declared dead. Filmed on location in Nova Scotia, the story is set in the fictitious town of Paradise, Massachusetts.
Allister MacGillivray CM, D. Litt (honors), is a Canadian singer/songwriter, guitarist, and music historian from the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia. He was born January 17, 1948, in the coal-mining and fishing town of Glace Bay.
The Poker House, subsequently retitled as Behind Closed Doors, is a 2008 American independent drama film written and directed by Lori Petty, in her directorial debut. Based on Petty's early life during the 1970s, the film depicts a painful day in the life of Agnes a teenage girl who is raising her two younger sisters, Bee and Cammie, in their mother's whorehouse.
Maria Morris Miller (1813–1875) was a Canadian artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia who is known for her botanical paintings and illustrations. She presented her work to Queen Victoria and received royal patronage for life. She is also the first professional woman artist in Nova Scotia, recognized in her field during her active career years. She worked with scientists and government officials, garnering her accolades as the "Audubon of Nova Scotian field flowers".
Lillian Burke was an American artist, teacher, musician and occupational therapist chiefly known for developing a hooked-rug cottage industry in the village of Chéticamp, Cape Breton. From 1927 until 1940, Burke taught the French-speaking women of the village how to create high-quality hooked rugs based on her own designs. Most of the rugs were commissioned by leading New York decorators on behalf of their affluent clients.
Marjorie Simmins is a Canadian writer, journalist and teacher. She is the author of three books of non-fiction that blend personal essays, memoir and journalism to explore themes of love and loss, the lure of the sea and her lifelong passion for horses. A fourth book on memoir writing includes interviews with prominent authors who practise the craft and is intended to serve as a guide for those who wish to tell their own stories.
