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Jim Thorpe is an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football (collegiate and professional), baseball, and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals.
Jim Thorpe grew up in Oklahoma, and attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time All-American for the school's football team. After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1913, Thorpe signed with The New York Giants Baseball Team, and he played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships; he later played for six teams in the National Football League (NFL). He played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians.
From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41. He struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He was married three times and had eight children, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953.
Thorpe has received various accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press named him the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. A Pennsylvania town was named in his honor and a monument site there is the site of his remains. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the film Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951).- Producer
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Helen Biggar was born in the Hyndland area of Glasgow on 25th May 1909, the eldest of three daughters to Hugh and Florence Biggar. Her family were socialists and both her father and uncle were involved in local politics. Although during her childhood she suffered from various ailments and accidents, including an operation to remove a tubercular gland from her neck, and two spine injuries which left her permanently short in size.
Due to this, she attended a school for handicapped children in 1918 and in 1825 she was admitted to the Glasgow School of Art (GSA). In 1929 she was awarded a diploma in textile design and followed this with post-graduate work in sculpture. Her artistic flair was put to good use over the next 15 years, mainly in Glasgow, where she worked as a sculptor in a variety of studios, producing works for local patrons.
In 1934 she met Norman McLaren and began to work in film, producing a number of scripts and film treatments, usually with local or political interest. Their 1936 short Hell Unltd (1936) is still widely regarded as one of the most innovative and important political films ever made in the UK, and featured the ground-breaking use of live action and animation. She continued to make films for Glasgow Kino Film Group (these are currently not listed on IMDB). In 1938 Biggar began a long association with the Glasgow Workers'; Theatre Group, designing their agitprop stage shows, some of which toured to the Edinburgh Festival and to London. She eventually moved to Londion permanently, where, on 11th October 1948 she married collaborator and fellow artist Eli Montlake. Whilst in London she resumed her film-making activities, including a contribution to the documentary Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-day (A Century of Song) (1946), but she also continued her theatre work and in 1950 she was appointed wardrobe mistress and costume designer for the dance company Ballet Rambert.
Helen Biggar died of a brain haemorrhage on 28th March 1953 at St Mary Abbot's Hoaspital in London. Her cremation, at Golder's Green was attended by her many friends and luminaries from the artistic, theatrical and ballet worlds.