Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) capacitor or condenser, device for the storage of electric charge. Simple capacitors consist of two plates made of an electrically conducting material (e.g., a metal) and separated by a nonconducting ...

(Encyclopedia) Coen Brothers, American filmmakers Joel Coen, 1955–, and Ethan Coen, 1958–, both b. St. Louis Park, Minn. Joel studied at New York Univ. Film School (B.A., 1978), Ethan at Princeton (B.A., 1979). ...

(Encyclopedia) James, P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park), 1920–2014, English mystery novelist, b. Oxford. From 1964 to 1979 she worked in the forensic science and criminal law divi...

(Encyclopedia) Hare, Sir David, 1947–, British playwright. Hare is a prominent member of the British theatrical left. A founder of the Portable Theatre and the Joint Stock, he became resident dramatist at the Roya...

(Encyclopedia) Koch, Edward Irving kŏch [key], 1924–2013, U.S. politician, mayor of New York City (1977–89), b. New York City. After receiving his law degree (New York Univ., 1948), he practiced as a lawyer, be...

(Encyclopedia) Simon, Neil (Marvin Neil Simon), 1927–2018, American playwright, b. the Bronx, New York City. His plays, nearly all of them popular with audiences, if not always with critics, are comedies treating ...

(Encyclopedia)  Ward, Douglas Turner, 1930-2021, African-American actor, director, and playwright, b. Burnside, La., as Roosevelt Ward Jr. Ward’s family ...

(Encyclopedia) Warner Brothers, American movie studio executives and producers. Sons of poor E European Jewish immigrants, the brothers were Harry Morris (1881–1958), Albert (1884–1967), Samuel Louis (1887–192...

(Encyclopedia)  Price, Vincent Leonard, Jr., 1911-93, American film actor, b. St. Louis, Mo., Yale Univ. (B.A., 1933). Price studied English and art in college and th...

(Encyclopedia) Zsigmond, Vilmos, 1930–2016, Hungarian-American cinematographer. As a film student in Budapest, he and fellow student (and later cinematographer) Laszlo Kovacs secretly filmed the street fighting as...