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Michael Willson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Andreas Willson 29 October 1963 |
| Nationality |  British |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
Michael Andreas Willson (born 29 October 1963) is a British former professional sportsperson best known for his role as Cobra on the British TV show Gladiators [1]
Willson has said he often appeared on Gladiators drunk and was nearly fired. [2]
Now living in the West Midlands, he counts watercolours amongst his hobbies. Willson spends time visiting schools and youth clubs up and down the UK, promoting that keeping fit can be fun. Cobra embarked upon a promotional tour of schools in the late nineties in partnership with NatWest, encouraging schoolchildren to sign up for a bank account. Cobra was also part of the special UK international team and headed off to compete against South Africa in the Springbok Challenge 2000. He more recently visited the University of Dundee union to take part in some games with the students. [3]
In 2019 he was hospitalised with pneumonia. [2]
The Karate Kid is a 1984 American martial arts drama film written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John G. Avildsen. It is the first installment in the Karate Kid franchise, and stars Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, and William Zabka. The Karate Kid follows the story of Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), an Italian-American teenager from New Jersey who moves with his widowed mother to the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles. There, LaRusso encounters harassment from his new bullies, one of whom is Johnny Lawrence (Zabka), the ex-boyfriend of LaRusso's love interest, Ali Mills (Shue). LaRusso is taught karate by a handyman and war veteran named Mr. Miyagi (Morita) to help LaRusso defend himself and compete in a karate tournament against his bullies.
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. He risks being caught to win her heart.
Robert Oliver Reed was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, macho image and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career spanned over 40 years, between 1955 and 1999. At the peak of his career, in 1971, British exhibitors voted Reed fifth-most-popular star at the box office.
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson was an American flautist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer. He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951). Willson wrote three other musicals, two of which appeared on Broadway, and composed symphonies and popular songs. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for film scores.
Ralph George Macchio Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for playing Daniel LaRusso in three Karate Kid films, as well as in Cobra Kai (2021–present), a sequel television series on YouTube Premium and Netflix. Macchio also played Johnny Cade in The Outsiders (1983), Jeremy Andretti in the television series Eight Is Enough, William Gambini in My Cousin Vinny (1992), Eugene Martone in Crossroads (1986), and Archie Rodriguez in the television series Ugly Betty. He also had a recurring role as Officer Haddix in the television series The Deuce.
Michael Ashley Ball is an English singer, presenter and actor. In 1985, he made his West End debut as Marius Pontmercy in the original production of Les Misérables. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything", from the musical Aspects of Love, where he played Alex Dillingham. He played the role in the West End and on Broadway. His album Coming Home To You reached number one in the UK making it his 4th number one album to date. On 24 April 2020, Ball and Captain Tom Moore entered the UK Singles Chart at number one with a cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone", with combined chart sales of 82,000 making it the fastest-selling single of 2020.
Martin Howard Willson-Piper known as Marty Willson-Piper is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter famous for his work as a former long-time member of the Australian ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, psychedelic rock band The Church. He joined in 1980 after seeing an early gig where they were performing as a three-piece. He was an integral member of the band for 33 years. He was also the guitarist for the English alternative rock band All About Eve from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2002. He has also worked with Swedish progressive rock band Anekdoten and has collaborated with Linda Perry, Jules Shear, Tom Verlaine, Charlie Sexton, Aimee Mann, Brix Smith, and Rob Dickinson amongst others.
Craig Revel Horwood is an Australian-British author, dancer, choreographer, conductor, theatre director, and former drag queen in the United Kingdom. He is also a patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society.
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Michael Van Wijk is an Indian-born English bodybuilder, professional sportsperson, actor and TV presenter. He is most well known for his role as Wolf on English TV endurance sports game show Gladiators, a role he held for all its eight series (1992–2000).
Mark Smith is a British actor and body builder who starred as Rhino on the ITV show Gladiators until its cancellation in 1999. Shortly after, Smith started acting, his credits include Renford Rejects (1999-2000), EastEnders (2005), Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Batman Begins (2005), Rollin' with the Nines (2006), Sinchronicity (2006), Trial & Retribution (2007), Robin Hood (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Argo (2012), The Last Ship (2015), Yardie (2018), The Harder They Fall (2021), and The Enforcer (2022).
Diane Patricia Youdale is an English television personality, who played Jet on the television series Gladiators.
A cobra is any of several species of snake usually belonging to the family Elapidae.
Gladiators: Springbok Challenge 2 was the second Springbok Challenge series for South African MTN Gladiators and UK Gladiators.
Chris Sheasby is an English former international rugby union player, commentator and coach.
Gary Mullen is a former professional American football and Arena football player who played wide receiver and defensive back for eight seasons for the Denver Dynamite, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Cobras, Detroit Drive, Cincinnati Rockers and the Milwaukee Mustangs. He was elected into the Arena Football Hall of Fame in 1998.
Gladiators is a British sports entertainment game show, produced by London Weekend Television, presented by Ulrika Jonsson and narrated by John Sachs, and originally broadcast on ITV. Based upon the American television programme American Gladiators, the show sees four contestants, split into pairs by gender, compete in a series of physically challenging events against the show's resident "Gladiators", before competing against their respective contestant in one final event. Each series functions like a tournament, with the winner of that year's competition being crowned champion for their respective gender.
Collabro were a UK-based musical theatre group and winners of the eighth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2014. The group consisted of Michael Auger, Jamie Lambert, Matthew Pagan, Thomas J. Redgrave and Richard Hadfield, who left the band in June 2016. Collabro was voted the UK's favourite Britain's Got Talent Winners in a National Poll. The band have a following who they refer to as their "Collaborators" and famous fans include Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix.
Gladiators is a British television series which aired on Sky One from 11 May 2008 to 25 October 2009. It was a revival of the earlier series of the same name and based on the second American version of the show. The US, UK and Australian versions of the show were all revived in 2008.
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