Whitney arrived straight from high school in the clothes she had worn that day. While waiting (her mother’s manager was running late), she asked if she could do her homework; Mitchell agreed, noting he had never had that happen before or since.

She had no makeup artist, hair stylist, or entourage. Mitchell, more accustomed to “highly glazed” celebrities like Donna Summer, was surprised by the simplicity. He described her as “an innocent, sweet, pleasant schoolgirl with very good manners.” The shoot was sometimes an “uphill situation” because she was not camera-ready or particularly savvy, though she responded well to direction. He did not see obvious stardom written on her face at the time: “The pictures I made of her were not her subsequent polished image. Mine were just simple images.” He believed these were among her first professional photographs, taken while she was still singing in a church choir and occasionally performing with her mother.

The black and white portraits show a fresh-faced, natural-looking young woman in casual or simple attire (including turtlenecks and everyday school clothes), often in straightforward or profile poses against plain studio backgrounds. They contrast sharply with the glamorous, highly styled images of her later career. The negatives remained in Mitchell’s files for about 30 years until he released them following her death in February 2012.

He was born Alessandro Nilo Angelo Moreschi on November 1, 1858 in the small town of Monte Compatri, near Frascati in the Papal States (now Lazio, Italy). He came from a modest Roman Catholic family; his parents were Luigi Lorenzo Moreschi and Rosa Maria Potelli. He was one of several children (accounts vary between the sixth, seventh, or eighth).

As a boy he sang in the local chapel of the Madonna del Castagno. His clear voice attracted attention. Around age 7–9, he was castrated. The official story often given was that the operation treated an inguinal hernia, a common medical excuse of the era, since castration was still sometimes viewed as a remedy for certain conditions. In reality, it was almost certainly done to preserve his high singing voice for a career in church music, following a centuries-old Italian tradition. Talent scouts for the papal choirs sought out promising boys; one key figure was Nazareno Rosati, a former Sistine Chapel singer.

By about 1870–1871, Rosati brought him to Rome. There he studied at the Scuola di San Salvatore in Lauro under Gaetano Capocci, the distinguished maestro di cappella of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

In 1873, at only 15, Moreschi was appointed First Soprano at St. John Lateran. He also performed in the salons of Roman high society. His breakthrough came in 1883 when he sang the florid coloratura role of the Seraph in Beethoven’s oratorio Christus am Ölberge (in Italian translation). The performance earned him the nickname “l’Angelo di Roma.” Shortly afterward he joined the Sistine Chapel Choir as First Soprano, a position he held for roughly thirty years.

He rose within the choir hierarchy, serving at times as secretary, director of the concertisti, and even temporary maestro. He also sang with other papal chapels (including the Cappella Giulia). Outside the Vatican he was a sought-after soloist. A high point came on August 9, 1900, when, at the request of the Italian royal family, he performed as soloist at the Pantheon under Pietro Mascagni for the funeral rites of the assassinated King Umberto I; he received a gold watch in thanks.

Physically, castrati typically remained beardless, with elongated limbs, a somewhat expanded ribcage, and a youthful appearance into middle age, traits Moreschi shared. Contemporary listeners described his voice as pure, ethereal, and “supernatural.”

Williams was enthusiastic about swimming in her youth. Her older sister Maurine took her to Manhattan Beach and to the local pool. Esther took a job counting towels at the pool to pay the five-cent entry fee, and while there, she had swimming lessons from the male lifeguards. From them she learned the “male only” swimming strokes, including the butterfly, with which she would later break records.

Her medley team set the record for the 300-yard relay at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1939 and was also the national AAU champion in the 100-meter freestyle, with a record-breaking time of 1 minute 9.0 seconds. By age 16 Williams had won three U.S. national championships in breaststroke and freestyle swimming.

To portray Dega, Hoffman wore thick, distorting round spectacles, which impaired his vision during filming and emphasized the character’s physical vulnerability in contrast to the harsh jungle penal colony. Dega relies on the rugged, escape-obsessed Henri “Papillon” Charrière for physical protection, while Dega provides Papillon with financial backing and resources to fund their escape attempts. Known for his immersive preparation, Hoffman deliberately adopted a hesitant, nervous demeanor and soft-spoken delivery to contrast McQueen’s stoic intensity.

Papillon was a major commercial success in 1973, grossing over $53 million on a $12 million budget, and earned praise for the dynamic screen pairing between McQueen and Hoffman.

Feature debut in Young and Dangerous (1957), followed by Eighteen and Anxious (1957), Dragstrip Riot (1958), The Party Crashers (1958), and a supporting role as the love interest in Jerry Lewis’s Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). The Lewis film was a significant early break after he spotted her in Dragstrip Riot.

Released her debut album Concetta in 1958 on Warner Bros. Records (she was among the early artists signed to the label). She recorded standards and other material; later in 1959 she scored a major novelty hit with the duet “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)” alongside Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (tied to his character on 77 Sunset Strip). In 1959 she signed a multi-year contract with Warner Bros. and was cast as Cricket Blake (a photographer/singer) on the new detective series Hawaiian Eye, which premiered in October 1959 and quickly made her a teen idol.

By the end of the decade she was established as a pert, energetic blonde ingénue with a distinctive voice—working steadily in Hollywood’s teen-film and TV pipeline and on the cusp of wider pop success (her biggest solo hit, “Sixteen Reasons,” came in 1960–61). Her image mixed cute/tomboyish appeal with singing talent, and the Hawaiian Eye role cemented her early fame.

The filming of Leone’s 1984 masterwork was a legendary multi-continental production that took over 13 years of development and 10 demanding months of principal photography. Unlike almost all modern film productions where music is composed and recorded post-filming, Ennio Morricone composed and recorded the film’s iconic score before shooting began.

Leone insisted on setting up large loudspeakers on set during filming to blast Morricone’s haunting score, such as “Deborah’s Theme” and “Cockeye’s Song,” while the camera rolled. Because the film was shot without live sound recording, the actors moved, walked, and paced their performance directly to the rhythm of the music.

To prepare for the older 1968 version of Noodles, De Niro requested a private meeting with real-life crime figure Meyer Lansky to study his mannerisms and body language. Lansky declined, but the request was classic De Niro method preparation.

Leone spent weeks casting child actors who possessed exact physical mannerisms matching their adult counterparts. During rehearsals, he made the older actors study footage of the younger actors, and vice versa, to synchronize their body movements. Makeup artist Manlio Rocchetti spent hours applying fine latex appliances on De Niro and Woods for the 1968 sequences to achieve natural-looking aged skin rather than heavy prosthetics.

Leone originally envisaged two three-hour films, then a single 269-minute (4 hours and 29 minutes) version, but was convinced by distributors to shorten it to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes). The American distributors, The Ladd Company, further shortened it to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes), and rearranged the scenes into chronological order, without Leone’s involvement.

The US edit was a critical and commercial flop in the United States, and critics who had seen both versions harshly condemned the changes made. While sometimes considered one of Leone’s most overlooked films, the original European cut of Once Upon a Time in America has remained a critical favorite and frequently appears in lists of the greatest films of all time, especially in the gangster genre.