William John Francis Naughton, or Bill Naughton (Ballyhaunis, 12 June 1910 - Ballasalla, 9 January 1992) was an Irish-born British playwright and author, best known for his play Alfie.

Born in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland, he moved to Bolton, Lancashire, England in 1914 as a child. There he attended Saint Peter and Paul's School, worked as a weaver, coal-bagger and lorry-driver before he started writing.

Although best remembered for his play, Alfie, mostly because of the British film starring Michael Caine in the eponymous role, Naughton was a prolific writer of plays, novels, short stories and children's books. His preferred environment was working class society, which is reflected in much of his written work.

In addition to Alfie, at least two of his other plays have been made into feature films. These are Spring and Port Wine, which had James Mason starring in the role of Rafe Crompton, and The Family Way, which starred John Mills. His work also includes the novel One Small Boy (1957), and the collection of short stories The Goalkeeper's Revenge: And Other Stories (1961). His 1977 children's novel My Pal Spadger is an account of his childhood in 1920s Bolton.

Edward Petherbridge (born on 3 August 1936 in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire) is an English actor. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in several screen adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels.

At the time of national service in the 1950s, Petherbridge was a conscientious objector.

A stalwart member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in the 1960s, he created the role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. At the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980, he was a memorable Newman Noggs in the company's adaptation of Dickens' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He has spent extended periods with both national companies since then, where he occasionally collaborated with Ian McKellen. In the mid-1980s, he and McKellen formed an actor-centred troupe within the National Theatre; their first productions were Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi.

Edward Petherbridge first came to the attention of American audiences in the already mentioned play version of The Life And Times Of Nicholas Nickleby. First televised in 1982, this lengthy adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel had been performed on the London stage and later in New York. Petherbridge was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance of Newman Noggs.

Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.

Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

Burt F. Bacharach ( /ˈbækəræk/ BAK-ə-rak; born May 12, 1928) is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick. Following on with the initial success of this collaboration, Bacharach went on to produce hits with Dusty Springfield, Bobbie Gentry, Jackie DeShannon and others.

As of 2006^[update], Bacharach had written 70 Top 40 hits in the U.S., and 52 Top 40 hits in the UK.

Burt Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but grew up in the Forest Hills section of New York City, graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1946. He is the son of Irma (née Freeman) and Bert Bacharach, a well-known syndicated newspaper columnist, and is of German-Jewish descent. Bacharach studied music at McGill University, under Helmut Blume, at the Mannes School of Music, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. His composition teachers included Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, and Bohuslav Martinů. Following service in the Army, Bacharach worked as a pianist, both as a solo player and as an accompanist for singers such as Vic Damone, Polly Bergen, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Paula Stewart (who became his first wife). For some years he was musical arranger for Marlene Dietrich as well as touring with her.

Bill Mahoney (born June 23, 1936 in Peterborough, Ontario) is a former Canadian ice hockey coach. He was head coach of the Minnesota North Stars from 1983 to 1985.