Michael ( /ˈmaɪkəl/) is a given name that comes from the Hebrew: מִיכָאֵל / מיכאל‎ (Mikha'el), derived from the Hebrew question מי כמו אלוהים? (Hebrew pronunciation: [mi kəmo ʔelohim]) meaning "Who is like God?" In English, it is sometimes shortened to Mike, Mikey, or, especially in Ireland, Mick. In Russian language, it is Mikhail and Mykhailo in Ukrainian.

Female forms of Michael include Michèle, Michelle, Michaela, Mechelle, Micheline, and Michaelle, although Michael is occasionally seen as a female name, with women named Michael including actresses Michael Learned and Michael Michele. Another form is Mychal, which can either be a male or female name. Surnames that come from Michael include Carmichael, Dimichele, MacMichael, McMichael, Micallef, Michaelson, Mikhaylov, Mykhaylenko, Michaels and Mitchell.

The name first appears in the Bible, Numbers 13:13, where Sethur the son of Michael is one of twelve spies sent into the Land of Canaan. The Archangel Michael, referred to later in the Bible (Daniel 12:1), is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. 29 September is the feast day of the three archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

Vincenzo Colosimo (born 11 November 1966) is an Australian AFI Award winning stage, television and screen actor. He has worked in both Australia and the United States.

Colosimo was born in Melbourne, one of four children of Italian-born parents from Calabria. He grew up in the inner city suburb of North Carlton. He has a daughter, Lucia (2002), with his former partner, actress Jane Hall. Colosimo and Hall worked together on A Country Practice in 1994. He lives in Westgarth, a suburb of Melbourne, in a house once owned with Hall.

He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.

Colosimo has had some success on film, mainly in Australia. He made his film debut in the coming-of-age story Moving Out in 1982 and featured in 1984's Street Hero.

Other credits include the cult movie Chopper (2000), in which he played Melbourne drug dealer Neville Bartos opposite Eric Bana, The Wog Boy (2000) Lantana (2001), Walking on Water (2002), The Nugget (2002), Take Away (2004) and Opal Dream (2006). In 2008, he starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2008 American film Body of Lies. He is scheduled to act in Australian-based director Mario Andreacchio's movie entitled "The Last Dragon" in 2009. In 2010, Colosimo starred in Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos (the sequel to The Wog Boy). Colosimo also appeared in the vampire film Daybreakers, starring alongside Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke.

Francesco Durante (31 March 1684 – 30 September 1755) was a Neapolitan composer.

He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Naples, and at an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio. He is also supposed to have studied under Bernardo Pasquini and Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni in Rome, but there is no documentary evidence. He is said to have succeeded Scarlatti in 1725 at Sant' Onofrio, and to have remained there until 1742, when he succeeded Porpora as head of the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto, also in Naples. This post he held for thirteen years, till his death in Naples. He was married three times.

His fame as a teacher was considerable, and Niccolò Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolò Piccinni and Leonardo Vinci were amongst his pupils. As a teacher, he insisted on the unreasoning observance of rules, differing thus from Scarlatti, who treated all his pupils as individuals. A complete collection of Durante's works, consisting almost exclusively of sacred music, was presented by Selvaggi, a Neapolitan art collector, to the Paris library. A catalogue may be found in Fétis's Biographie universelle. The imperial library of Vienna also preserves a valuable collection of Durante's manuscripts. Two requiems, several masses (one of which, a most original work, is the Pastoral Mass for four voices) and the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah are amongst his most important settings.

Michael Delano (born 1940) is an American actor who portrayed Walsh, Terry Benedict's casino manager in the movie Ocean's Eleven and its sequel Ocean's Twelve. He also portrayed Dr. Mark Dante in General Hospital (1976), Reverend Sung in Soap (1979) and he is known for his short role as Forrestal in the 1985 movie Commando.

Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role. He then appeared in such films as White Fang (1991), A Midnight Clear (1992), and Alive (1993) before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he gained critical acclaim. In 1995, he starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise, and later in the 2004 sequel Before Sunset.

In 2001, Hawke was cast as a rookie police officer in Training Day, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. Other films have included the science fiction feature Gattaca (1997), the title role in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000), the action thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), and the crime drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007).