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1-11 of 11
- Actor
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Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee idol of the Italian theatre, and repeated that achievement in Italian movies, mostly light comedies. He turned to directing in 1940, making comedies in a similar vein, but with his fifth film The Children Are Watching Us (1943), he revealed hitherto unsuspected depths and an extraordinarily sensitive touch with actors, especially children. It was also the first film he made with the writer Cesare Zavattini with whom he would subsequently make Shoeshine (1946) and Bicycle Thieves (1948), heartbreaking studies of poverty in postwar Italy which won special Oscars before the foreign film category was officially established. After the box-office disaster of Umberto D. (1952), a relentlessly bleak study of the problems of old age, he returned to directing lighter work, appearing in front of the camera more frequently. Although Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) won him another Oscar, it was generally accepted that his career as one of the great directors was over. However, just before he died he made The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), which won him yet another Oscar, and his final film A Brief Vacation (1973). He died following the removal of a cyst from his lungs.- Karen Silkwood, a nuclear plant laborer and union activist who died while investigating safety violations made by her employer, is viewed as a martyr by anti-nuclear activists; her story was made into the drama film Silkwood (1983).
On the night of November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, a technician at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron River nuclear facility in Crescent, Oklahoma, was driving her white Honda to Oklahoma City. There she was to deliver a manila folder full of alleged health and safety violations at the plant to a friend, Drew Stephens, a reporter from The New York Times and national union representative. However, seven miles out of Crescent, her car went off the road, skidded for a hundred yards, hit a guardrail, and plunged off the embankment. Silkwood was killed in the crash, and the manila folder was not found at the scene when Stephens arrived a few hours later. Nor has this come to light since. Although Kerr-McGee was a prominent Oklahoma employer whose integrity had never been challenged, as a part of the nuclear power industry it had many adversaries. The controversy ignited by Silkwood's death regarding the regulation of the nuclear industry was intense, with critics finally finding an example around which to focus their argument. The legacy of the Silkwood case continues to this day in the on-going debate over the safety of nuclear technology.
Silkwood seemed an unlikely candidate to have had such a dramatic impact on American society. One biographer commented that "most of her life was distinguished by how ordinary it was, as ordinary as her death was extraordinary." Born in Longview, Texas, Silkwood grew up in Nederland, in the heart of the Texas oil and gas fields. The oldest of three daughters of Bill and Merle Silkwood, she led a normal life. In high school, she played on the volleyball team and flute in the band, and was an "A" student and a member of the National Honor Society. She excelled in chemistry and, upon graduation, went to Lamar College in Beaumont to become a medical technician.
After her first year of college, Silkwood eloped with Bill Meadows. They moved around Texas, where Meadows worked in the oil industry and Silkwood took care of their three children. After years of financial struggle (they finally declared bankruptcy), Silkwood left him in 1972 when she discovered Meadows was having an affair with her friend. Giving Bill custody of the children, she moved to Oklahoma City. There she found a job at Kerr-McGee's Cimarron River plant in Crescent, thirty miles north of Oklahoma City, soon joined the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, and walked the picket line during their largely unsuccessful nine-week strike in 1972.
The Cimarron facility manufactured fuel rods that were used in nuclear fission reactors. Contained within these fuel rods were particles of plutonium, an element created from uranium atoms, and the most toxic substance then known. Even pollen-sized grains of plutonium can cause cancer, as had been shown in animal experiments, but the workers at the plant were not alerted to any danger. Nonetheless, Silkwood became increasingly concerned about health and safety violations that went uncorrected by management, and as 1974 drew on, got involved with the bargaining committee for the union. The Cimarron plant was experiencing sixty percent employee turnover a year, was using second-hand equipment, and was behind on production.
Desperate to avoid another strike, which was looming, Kerr-McGee organized a union de-certification vote that, though ultimately failing, galvanized the union into bringing the safety violations to the attention of federal officials. Silkwood and two other local union officials went to Washington, D.C., to confer with national union leaders and the Atomic Energy Commission. Chief among their allegations were the lack of training given employees, failure to minimize contamination, and poor monitoring, including the finding of uranium dust in the lunchroom. At this meeting, Silkwood secretly agreed to obtain before and after photomicrographs of faulty fuel rods showing where they were being ground down to disguise faults.
After this meeting, Silkwood began carrying around notebooks to document a variety of safety violations at the plant. Her assertion was that people were being contaminated by plutonium all the time, and indeed there were at least 17 acknowledged incidents of exposure involving 77 employees in the recent past. Silkwood's concern was obsessive. As her friend Stephens remarked: "She just lived it, couldn't let it go and relax, particularly in the last month she was alive." On November 4 and 5, 1974, for two consecutive days, Silkwood was contaminated by radioactivity, detected by plant electronic monitors when leaving work. By November 7, her urine showed very high levels of radioactivity. When tested, her apartment also showed high levels, especially in the refrigerator. At this time, Silkwood was convinced she was going to die of plutonium poisoning. She and her roommate and Stephens were sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to be more thoroughly tested. The exposure level was deemed not serious.
On November 13, Silkwood attended a local union meeting then got into her car to drive to Oklahoma City to deliver the manila folder of evidence, the results of her seven-week vigil, to New York Times reporter David Burnham. Ten minutes later, her car went off the road and Silkwood died. The state patrol ruled it an accident, saying "it's pretty clear she fell asleep at the wheel. She never woke up." While blood tests showed a small amount of alcohol and methaqualone (a prescription sedative) in her system, it is doubtful the amount was sufficient to induce sleep in ten minutes. A subsequent investigation by a private detective concluded that she had likely been forced off the road by another car; a dent in the rear bumper showed metal and rubber fragments, as if another car had rammed her from behind. The manila folder was not recovered from the site of the crash, though other personal effects were.
A subsequent Justice Department investigation also ruled this an accident. However, Congressional hearings, along with a lawsuit on behalf of Silkwood's children, have revealed an intriguing and bizarre story to discredit critics, involving the FBI, newspaper reporters, and the nuclear industry, a story largely left untold. It is possible Silkwood's phone had been tapped and that she had been under surveillance for a while. Union official Jack Tice has said that Silkwood had been alarmed before her death: "She was starting to think someone was out to get her."
The truth of what happened the night of November 13, 1974, may never be known. What is clear is that the death of Silkwood has become a rallying point for anti-nuclear activists and put the nuclear industry on the defensive. The Atomic Energy Commission confirmed three violations at the Cimarron plant, which eventually shut down. And a major questioning of the nuclear industry has occurred as a result of the revelations that have come to light. In a suit filed by Bill Silkwood on behalf of his grandchildren, a jury in May 1979, awarded the Silkwood estate over ten million dollars in punitive damages and cleared Silkwood of the allegation that she had stolen plutonium from the plant. It also found that Kerr-McGee had been negligent and that someone had planted plutonium in her apartment. Though an appeals court overturned the decision, the Supreme Court eventually agreed with the lower court, reinstating the victory for the Silkwood family and saying that punitive damages could be awarded in cases involving the nuclear industry, effectively allowing state and jury regulation.
Though many mysteries remain surrounding the death of Silkwood, the public has gained much awareness about nuclear issues and has pressured the industry to become more responsible to health and safety concerns. As former Congresswoman Bella Abzug has commented, the issues stemming from the Silkwood case are "a matter of concern both in regard to public safety and the rights of individuals."
Silkwood's story was unveiled to a much greater audience in the 1983 drama film directed by Mike Nichols. Meryl Streep starred as Karen Silkwood with Kurt Russell and Cher in supporting roles. Silkwood (1983) garnered numerous Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for acting, directing, and screenplay writing. Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. - Marc DeFeo was born on 4 September 1962 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Louise DeFeo was born on 3 November 1931 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was married to Ronald DeFeo Sr.. She died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Dawn DeFeo was born on 29 July 1956 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Allison DeFeo was born on 16 August 1961 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Hazel Jones was born on 17 October 1896 in Swarraton, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Secret of the Moor (1919), Is Your Daughter Safe? (1927) and Sisters in Arms (1918). She died on 13 November 1974 in New York City, New York, USA.
- John Matthew DeFeo was born on 24 October 1965 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Ronald DeFeo Sr. was born on 16 November 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Louise DeFeo. He died on 13 November 1974 in Amityville, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
John Rhodes Sturdy was born in 1911 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. John Rhodes was a writer, known for Corvette K-225 (1943), The Cariboo Trail (1950) and Troubleshooters (1959). John Rhodes died on 13 November 1974 in British Columbia, Canada.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Paul Gury was born on 11 May 1888 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a writer and actor, known for A Man and His Sin (1949), Séraphin (1950) and L'escadrille de la chance (1938). He was married to Yvette Brind'amour. He died on 13 November 1974 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.