Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pryor, Richard, 1940–2005, American comedian, b. Peoria, Ill. His iconoclastic, wildly inventive, and racially explosive comic style was expressed in language that was often crude and frequently bri...

(Encyclopedia) Shirley or Sherley, Sir Anthony, 1565–1636?, English adventurer. He fought in the Netherlands (1586) under the earl of Leicester and in France (1591) under the earl of Essex, who became his patron. ...

(Encyclopedia) Richard II, 1367–1400, king of England (1377–99), son of Edward the Black Prince. Richard is possibly the most enigmatic of the English kings. Some historians have attributed his behavior in ...

(Encyclopedia) Burbage, Richard bûrˈbĭj [key], 1567?–1619, first great English actor. The leading tragedian of the Chamberlain's Men, he originated the title roles in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Lear, Othello, and Ri...

(Encyclopedia) Bax, Sir Arnold Edward Trevor, 1883–1953, English composer, studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. His early works, in an elaborately chromatic style, did not find great favor with the publi...

(Encyclopedia) Heath, Sir Edward Richard George, 1916–2005, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he served in the Royal Artillery during World War II, rising to the rank of colonel. He was elected to Parliament ...

(Encyclopedia) Cromwell, Richard, 1626–1712, lord protector of England; third son of Oliver Cromwell. He was the eldest surviving son at the death of his father (Sept. 3, 1658), who had nominated him as his succes...

(Encyclopedia) Gielgud, Sir John (Arthur John Gielgud) gĭlˈgo͝od [key], 1904–2000, English actor, director, and producer. A grandnephew of Ellen Terry, Gielgud made his debut at the Old Vic in 1921. His intelli...

(Encyclopedia) Richard Lion-Heart: see Richard I, of England. ...

(Encyclopedia) Llewellyn, Richard lo͞oĕlˈĭn [key], 1907–83, Welsh novelist. He is best known as the author of How Green Was My Valley (1939), a story of life in the S Wales mining areas, and None but the Lonel...