Edward Hutchinson Robbins (February 9, 1758 - December 17, 1837) served as the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1802 to 1806. He is the great-great-grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the side of Roosevelt's mother, Sarah Delano:

• Edward Robbins married Elizabeth Murray
  • …whose daughter, Anne Jean Robbins, married Joseph Lyman
    • …whose daughter, Catherine Robbins Lyman, married Warren Delano Jr.
      • …whose daughter, Sara Delano, married James Roosevelt
        • …whose son was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

References[link]

Rockie Robbins is an American soul singer from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Biography[link]

Robbins was born Edward W. Robbins Jr. He cut his first record in 1979, which was produced by Richard Evans and Johnny Pate. The master tapes for this record were erased in transit to the record company, and the album had to be re-recorded.^[1] Robbins' self-titled debut did not sell particularly well but A&M retained him for a second album, which was produced by Bobby Martin, and which produced his biggest hit, "You and Me". Robbins moved to MCA Records who, in 1984, included his song “Emergency” in the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the Hollywood blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop. They also released a second self-titled album. Robbins changed record company again, this time to Respect Records, where he recorded his last album, Are You Ready (1991).

Discography[link]

Albums

• Rockie Robbins (A&M Records, 1979) US #204
• You and Me (A&M, 1980) US #71, US R&B #19^[2]
• I Believe in Love (A&M, 1981) US #147, US R&B #47
• Rockie Robbins (MCA Records, 1985) US R&B #60

Charting singles

• "Be Ever Wonderful" (1979) US R&B #60^[3]
• "You and Me" (1980) US #80, US R&B #9

References[link]

1. ^ Biography, Allmusic.com
2. ^ Billboard, Allmusic.com. passim.
3. ^ Billboard Singles, Allmusic.com, passim.

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Peter Francis James (born September 16, 1956) is an American actor and voice-over artist, distinguished by his strong baritone.

Life and career[link]

He was born September 16, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois to David James and Mary Galloway James. He has five siblings.

He is best known for playing Raymond Parks, husband of Rosa Parks, in the 2002 TV movie The Rosa Parks Story; for a recurring role as Judge Kevin Beck on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; and for playing Jahfree Neema in the HBO television series Oz. Some of his most recent works include The Messenger, as Dr. Grosso, The Rebound, playing a doctor, and The Pack (starring Lucie Arnaz), as Marc Forrest.

His acting career began in 1979, when he appeared in a version of Shakespear's Coriolanus, starring Denzel Washington, Earle Hyman, and Morgan Freeman.

Peter has appeared in TV shows such as Gossip Girl, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (as Mr. Richmond), Law & Order (as Judge John Laramie), Double Platinum, and Third Watch.
He was in a 1982 TV movie version of Long Day's Journey Into Night (starring Earle Hyman). In 1990 he was in a TV movie version of Hamlet, directed by Kevin Kline. He played Thurgood Marshall in 1993 movie "The American Experience" Simple Justice, and he played Isaac Coles in the 1998 television miniseries The Wedding (starring Halle Berry and Lynn Whitfield). In 2003, he took on the role of Clayton Boudreau on the daytime drama Guiding Light, a role he played until early 2004. In 2006, he returned for a single episode. In 2009, James returned to Guiding Light on a recurring basis.

He played the voice of Dr. J.S. Steinman in the videogame BioShock, a game by Ken Levine. He has played in many minor role in films, such as appearing in movies like Joe Gould's Secret and Montana.

He was the reader for the Recorded Books edition of Richard Wright's Native Son.

He was a featured player in Regina Taylor's play Drowning Crow, at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Peter teaches drama at Yale University.

Filmography[link]

This section requires expansion.

External links[link]

• Peter Francis James at the Internet Movie Database
• "Peter Francis James speaks truth to power as Colin Powell in Stuff Happens" Time Out New York

Alfred Francis James (21 April 1918 – 24 August 1992) was an Australian publisher known for being imprisoned in China as a spy.

Early life[link]

James was born in Queenstown, Tasmania, the son of an Anglican priest. His early life was unsettled as his father moved between parishes. In 1934 he started at Canberra Grammar School, meeting his lifelong friend Gough Whitlam (who later became Prime Minister of Australia). He was expelled the next year after a theological dispute with the headmaster and later attended Fort Street High School. He completed his Leaving Certificate in 1936.

Between 1937 and 1939 James served with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). At the outbreak of World War II, James travelled to Britain and joined the Royal Air Force, enlisting on the last day of the Battle of Britain. After pilot training and operations, he was shot down over France on Anzac Day, 25 April 1942, receiving severe burns to his face and eyes. He was captured, caused a great deal of trouble in German military hospitals and POW camps, and was then repatriated, through Cairo Red Cross, because of his injuries. He was formally invalided out of the Royal Air Force in April 1945 and received a Totally and Permanently Incapacitated pension from the British Government for the rest of his life. In the same month he married Joyce Staff in London.

Publishing career[link]

After returning to Australia, James was employed as a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald in 1950. He was a distinctive figure, habitually wearing a black broad-brimmed hat and a cloak.

In 1952, James took over management of The Anglican, a publication of the Church of England. In 1960, The Anglican was subject to a takeover bid by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), which culminated in a street brawl in which Packer's forces unsuccessfully attempted to occupy the building.

Controversy continued when in 1964, James was fined 50 pounds for the offensive publication of the Oz magazine.

During the 1960s he used The Anglican to campaign against the Vietnam War and in 1966 stood as a candidate for the Liberal Reform Group in the federal election. He visited North Vietnam twice.

Imprisonment in China[link]

In 1969, James was arrested in China for alleged spying. The reasons for his behaviour remain unclear, but it is often thought he was playing a practical joke.

After four years' imprisonment, he was released and expelled in 1973 after lobbying by his old friend Gough Whitlam, who was then Prime Minister.

Francis James died in 1992, aged 74.

Jane Alexander
Alexander in March 2008
Born	Jane Quigley (1939-10-28) October 28, 1939 (age 72) Boston, Massachusetts , U.S.
Occupation	Actress, author
Years active	1970–present
Spouse	Robert Alexander (m. 1962–1974) «start: (1962)–end+1: (1975)»"Marriage: Robert Alexander to Jane Alexander" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Jane_Alexander) Edwin Sherin (m. 1975) «start: (1975)»"Marriage: Edwin Sherin to Jane Alexander" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Jane_Alexander)

Jane Alexander (born October 28th, 1939) is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed herself to a variety of charitable causes.

Early life[link]

Alexander was born Jane Quigley in Boston, Massachusetts ,daughter of Ruth Elizabeth (née Pearson), a nurse, and Thomas B. Quigley, an orthopedic surgeon.^[1] She graduated from Beaver Country Day School, an all-girls' school in Chestnut Hill outside of Boston, where she discovered her love of acting.^[2]

Encouraged by her father to go to college before embarking on an acting career, Alexander attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she concentrated on theater but also studied mathematics with an eye toward computer programming, in the event that she failed as an actress. Also while at Sarah Lawrence, she shared an apartment with Hope Cooke who would become Queen Consort of Sikkim. Alexander spent her junior year studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where she participated in the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society. The experience, together with apparently good reviews of her performances, solidified her determination to continue acting.^[2]

Career[link]

Alexander's major break in acting came in 1967 when she played Eleanor Backman in the original production of Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Like her co-star, James Earl Jones, she went on to play the part both on Broadway (1968), winning a Tony Award for her performance, and in the film version (1970), which earned her an Oscar nomination.^[3] Alexander's additional screen credits include All the President's Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Testament (1983), all of which earned her Oscar nods, Brubaker (1980), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Fur (2006), in which she played Gertrude Nemerov, mother of Diane Arbus, played in the film by Nicole Kidman.

The play The Time of Your Life was revived in March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Alexander, Henry Fonda, Gloria Grahame, Lewis J. Stadlen, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin, Richard X. Slattery and Pepper Martin among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.^[4][5]

Alexander portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in two television productions, Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977); and she played FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in HBO's Warm Springs (2005) with Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon, a role which garnered her an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Alexander co-starred with Rachel Roberts in Steven Gether's teleplay and production of A Circle of Children (1977), about parents coping with their emotionally disturbed children (with an emphasis on autism), which won Gether an Emmy.

Alexander's other television films include Arthur Miller's Playing for Time, co-starring Vanessa Redgrave, for which Alexander won another Emmy Award; Malice in Wonderland (as famed gossip-monger Hedda Hopper); Blood & Orchids; and In Love and War (1987) co-starring James Woods, which tells the story of James and Sybil Stockdale during Stockdale's eight years as a US Navy Commander and prisoner of war in Vietnam. Alexander also played the protagonist, Dr. May Foster, in the HBO drama series Tell Me You Love Me. Her character, a psychotherapist, serves as the connecting link between three couples coping with relational and sexual difficulties. The show's frank portrayal of "senior" sexuality and explicit sex scenes generated controversy, although it won a rare endorsement by the AARP.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Alexander chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the organization that had provided partial funding for The Great White Hope at Arena Stage. Alexander moved to Washington, DC and served as chair of the NEA until 1997. Her book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics (2000), describes the challenges she faced heading the NEA at a time when the 104th U.S. Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down.^[2] She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.^[6]

In 2004, Alexander, together with her husband, Edwin Sherin, joined the theater faculty at Florida State University.^[7] She serves on various boards, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, Project Greenhope, the National Stroke Association, and Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, and she has received the Israel Cultural Award and the Helen Caldicott Leadership Award. Alexander is also a fellow of the International Leadership Forum.^[8]

Personal life[link]

Alexander met her first husband, Robert Alexander, in the early 1960s in New York City, where both were pursuing acting careers. They had one son, Jace Alexander, in 1964; and the couple divorced in 1974. Alexander had been acting regularly in various regional theaters when she met producer/director Edwin Sherin in Washington, D.C., where he was Artistic Director at Arena Stage. Alexander starred in the original theatrical production of The Great White Hope under Sherin's direction at Arena Stage prior to the play's Broadway debut. The two became good friends and, once divorced from their respective spouses, became romantically involved, marrying in 1975. Between the two, they have four children, Alexander's son—Jace, a television director—and Sherin's three sons—Tony, Geoffrey, and Jon.^[2]

Body of work[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Stage[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Alexander, Jane. Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics. PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Book Group; New York, NY, 2000. ISBN 1-891620-60-1.
• International Leadership Forum biography
• Lawson, Carol. "Howard Sackler, 52, Playwright Who Won Pulitzer Prize, Dead;" NYT (The New York Times). October 15, 1982. accessed September 8, 2006. (NOTE: payment required for full article, if retrieved online)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jane Alexander

• Jane Alexander at AllRovi
• Jane Alexander at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jane Alexander at the Internet Movie Database
• Jane Alexander at the TCM Movie Database
• Downstage Center at the American Theatre Wing interview
• Jane Alexander in the International Leadership Forum
• Booknotes interview with Alexander on Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics, August 13, 2000.