Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known as a high profile child star of the late 1970s and 1980s. Born in Zion, Illinois, Coleman grew up with his adopted parents, and a kidney disease; due to the corticosteroids and other medications used to treat it, his growth was limited to 4 ft 8 in (142 cm). In the mid-1970s Coleman appeared in commercial and acted in an episode of Medical Center. Coleman caught the attention of a producer after acting in a pilot for a revival of The Little Rascals (1977), who decided to cast him as Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986), the show became successful and launched Coleman into stardom. For playing the role of Arnold, he received several accolades, which include two Young Artist Awards; in 1980 for Outstanding Contribution to Youth Through Entertainment and in 1982 for Best Young Actor in a Comedy Series; and three People's Choice Awards; a consecutive three wins for Favorite Young TV Performer from 1980 to 1983; as well as nominations for two TV Land Awards.
James Robert Flynn was an American-born New Zealand moral philosopher and intelligence researcher. Originally from Washington, D.C., and educated at the University of Chicago, Flynn emigrated to Dunedin in 1963, where he taught political studies at the University of Otago. He was noted for his publications about the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores throughout the world, which is now referred to as the Flynn effect. In addition to his academic work, he championed social democratic politics throughout his life.
Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. These consequences sometimes includes stigmatizing and social exclusion. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population—that is, IQs above 130. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures.
Justin Henry is an American actor and businessman, known for playing Billy Kramer in the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer, a debut role that earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, when he was eight years old. To date, he remains the youngest Oscar nominee in any category. The performance later earned him a spot on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Kid Stars. Most of his film and television credits came as a child or teenager, although he has continued acting as an adult.
The Coleman Company, Inc. is an American brand of outdoor recreation products, especially camping gear, now owned by Newell Brands. The company's new headquarters are in Chicago, and it has facilities in Wichita, Kansas, and in Texas. There are approximately 4,000 employees. Some of the products manufactured are portable stoves, lanterns, coolers, sleeping bags, camp chairs, and shelters.
Peter Francis Newell was an American college men's basketball coach and basketball instructional coach. He coached for 15 years at the University of San Francisco, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley, compiling an overall record of 234 wins and 123 losses.
The Gary Coleman Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired on NBC during the 1982–1983 season. The series featured Gary Coleman as the voice of Andy LeBeau, an apprentice angel, who was dispatched back to Earth to earn his wings by helping others.
A high-IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population or above. These may also be referred to as genius societies. The largest and oldest such society is Mensa International, which was founded by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware in 1946.
Dean Butler is a Canadian-American actor and producer of entertainment, sports and documentary programming.
Annette Peacock is an American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger. She is a pioneer in electronic music who combined her voice with one of the first Moog synthesizers in the late 1960s.
Alton Coleman was an American serial killer who, along with accomplice Debra Brown, committed a crime spree across six states between May and July 1984 that resulted in the deaths of eight people. Coleman, who received death sentences in three states, was executed by the state of Ohio in 2002. Brown was sentenced to death in Ohio and Indiana, but the sentences were later reduced to life imprisonment without parole and 140 years, respectively.
The Kid with the Broken Halo is a 1982 American made-for-television fantasy-comedy film starring Gary Coleman, Robert Guillaume, June Allyson, Mason Adams and Ray Walston about a wise-cracking "angel-in-training" (Coleman) who needs constant help from his frustrated heavenly teacher. It was directed by Leslie H. Martinson, written by George Kirgo and was originally broadcast April 5, 1982 on NBC.
Mitchell Stuart Margo was an American singer and songwriter.
The Kid from Left Field is a 1953 baseball comedy film starring Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Lloyd Bridges, and Billy Chapin. The film marked the reunion of Dailey and director Harmon Jones who had teamed up at 20th Century Fox a year earlier in another baseball film, the biographical The Pride of St. Louis.
Jimmy the Kid is a 1982 American comedy film starring Gary Coleman and Paul Le Mat. It was directed by Gary Nelson, produced by Ronald Jacobs, and released on November 12, 1982 by New World Pictures. Following 1981's On the Right Track, it was the second theatrical film release starring Coleman.
The 5th Youth in Film Awards ceremony, presented by the Youth in Film Association, honored outstanding youth performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television and theater for the 1982-1983 season, and took place on December 4, 1983, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
The Kid from Left Field is a 1979 American made-for-television baseball comedy film starring Gary Coleman and Robert Guillaume. Coleman's first film, it is a remake of the 1953 film of the same name.
Law of the Canyon is a 1947 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and written by Eileen Gary. The film stars Charles Starrett, Nancy Saunders, Robert 'Buzz' Henry, Texas Jim Lewis and Smiley Burnette. The film was released on April 24, 1947, by Columbia Pictures. This was the twenty-second of 65 films in the Durango Kid series.
Robert Roland "Rob" Schneiderman is an American jazz pianist who also works as a professor of mathematics at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he specializes in geometric topology.
