The Beauty of Retrospect: Janet Evans In the 2010s

So how has Janet Evans been doing in this decade?

Quite well, thank you.  

This is her at the 2017 Rose Parade in Pasadena, as one of that year's three Grand Marshals.  (Allyson Felix - another past honoree on this blog - and Greg Louganis were the other two.)  The man to her left, I presume, is her husband, Bill Willson.

 

Here she his with her kids, her daughter Sydney (in her arms) and her son Jake.

Her son is cute. He obviously gets his cuteness from his mom. :-)

Right.  Back in October with a new A-Z round. 

The Beauty of Retrospect: Janet Evans

I thought I'd close out September, before I go forward with a new round of A-Z subjects for October and November, with another look at legendary distance swimmer Janet Evans, who now serves as the  Vice Chair and Director of Athlete Relations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics - which is how she describes herself on her Twitter page.  She also describes herself as a "Mom, Wife, Olympic Champion . . ." :-)

And, of course, she is also my only sports celebrity crush. :-)

The above photo is from an appearance at DePauw University in Indiana in September 1996, two months after concluding her competitive swimming career at the Atlanta Olympics. She was on a victory lap in the form of a speaking tour.

The photo below is of our heroine at a swim meet in 2014.

She was only there as a spectator, yet she drew applause just the same. 

It's that magic ability she has. :-) 

Beautiful Women: Year Twelve

Once again, as another year on this blog, which started twelve years ago today, comes to a close,  I feature a complete list of the one hundred women I have featured in the year past.  They are, as always, a mix of actresses, and models, with athletes and media personalities included as well.  No dancers - I only feature them in Decembers of even-numbered years.  But come this December, December 2018, there will be more dancers.  I assure you.

As before, I have featured many women from different countries, though most of them, more by accident than design, are Americans.  And, as always, where a woman's nationality was in doubt - this mainly applies to the more obscure models I have featured - I did not list one.  Only two subjects - the actress in that hilarious Dewey Stevens commercial, and the Kohl's model I just closed out the past year with - remain unidentified.  Thanks again to those who identified the other unknown subjects.

So, without further ado, here's my latest list. :-)

Candice Accola King, American actress and singer
Malin Åkerman, Canadian (Swedish-born) actress
Alison Alberts, fashion model
Jasmine Ash, American pop singer/songwriter
Nicole Atkins, American folk-rock singer/songwriter
Patti Austin, American jazz/pop singer
Rebecca Ayoko, Togolese (Paris-based) fashion model
Joan Baez, American folk and folk-rock singer
Basia, Polish contemporary jazz singer
Sophie Billard, Belgian fashion model
Candice Bergen, American actress
Gunilla Bergström, fashion model
Brittany Boyer, American on-air weather forecaster
Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer
Jessica Chastain, American actress
Kaitlan Collins, American TV news reporter
Rita Coolidge, American pop-rock singer
Laveda Cooper, American beauty model
Emily Dann, American actress and dancer
Cécile de France, Belgian actress
Prisca Demarez, French musical actress
Jennifer Di Noia, American stage actress
Zohre Esmaeli, German (Afghan-born) model and designer
Nancy Everhard, American actress
Paige Faure, American stage actress
Roberta Flack, American jazz/soul singer
Amy Freeze, American TV meteorologist
Gal Gadot, Israeli actress
Yasmeen Ghauri, Canadian fashion model
Ros Gold-Owunde, American TV sports reporter
Meagan Good, American actress
Rebecca Hall, British/American actress
Veronica Hamel, American actress
Juliana Hatfield, American alternative-rock singer/songwriter
Winnie Hollman, Danish model and actress
Shelya Huff, American fashion model and interior designer
Stephanie Johnson, fashion model
Jolie Jones, American model, record producer, singer, and activist
Meiko Kaji, Japanese actress
Bhavaja Kat, American fashion model
Emily Keane, Australian stage actress, singer and dancer
Chaka Khan, American soul/funk singer
Gladys Knight, American soul singer
Machiko Kyō, Japanese actress
Miranda Lambert, American country and western singer
Carol Lee, American print and broadcast journalist
Taylor Louderman, American stage actress
Rebecca Lowe, British sportscaster
Carol Lynley, American actress
Leslie Mann, American comedic actress
Shirley Manson, British (U.S.-based) rock singer
Elizabeth Marvel, American actress
Kathy Massey, fashion model
Alexi McCammond, American journalist and commentator
Joanne McCoy, Boston-based fashion model
Natalie Merchant, American folk-rock singer
Melba Moore, American soul singer
Natalie Morales, American broadcast journalist
Nadette, fashion model
Ruth Negga, Irish actress
Kathleen Newman, fashion model
Kelli O'Hara, American stage actress and singer
Jane Olivor, American singer
Ana Ortiz, American actress
Annette O'Toole, American actress, singer and songwriter
Vanessa Paradis, French actress and singer
Elizabeth Pariente, Mexican fashion model
Carol Perkins, American fashion model and entrepreneur
Abby Phillip, American TV news reporter
Dania Ramirez, American (Dominican-born) actress
Julianne Regan, British rock singer (All About Eve)
Martha Reeves, American soul singer
Deborah Roberts, American broadcast journalist
Saoirse Ronan, American/Irish actress
Sara Rue, American television actress
Stephanie Ruhle, American broadcast journalist
Sara Sampaio, Portuguese model
Sunlen Serfaty, American broadcast journalist
Grace Slick, American rock singer and songwriter
Mira Sorvino, American actress
Heather Stewart-Whyte, British fashion model
Jennifer Taylor, fashion model
Catherine Timmer, fashion model
Eleanor Tomlinson, British actress
Liv Tyler, American actress
unidentified actress in Dewey Stevens TV commercial
unidentified Kohl's model
unidentified Target model, later identified as Maria Borges, Angolan model
Meryem Uzerli, German actress
Wanda Ventham, British actress
Ursula Vincent, fashion model
Susan Walker, fashion model
Mia Wasikowska, Australian actress
Deniece Williams, American soul and gospel singer
Rita Wilson, American actress
Cat Wise, American television reporter
Constance Wu, American actress
Manuela Wust, fashion model
Yadi, fashion model
Brigitte Zarie, Canadian jazz singer

The Beauty of Anonymity: Unidentified Kohl's Model

I found this picture of a model from a Kohl's ad.  I don't know who she is or what her name is, but I find her attractive, and so that was enough reason to include her here.   

As always, if anyone can identify her, please let me know in the comment section under this blog entry.  Heck, my three most recent posts of models I could not identify by name yielded identifications after  I asked my followers, so maybe I'll get lucky and get a fourth one here.   

This is my 1,200th subject.  I'll be featuring my list of the women I've featured (not counting retrospectives, of course) in the past year in a couple of days. :-) 

Model Yadi

Yadi is a fashion model from the late 1970s.

She worked in London, and she was represented by the Model Management agency.  Further details about this exotic woman are unavailable.

Model Manuela Wust

Manuela Wust is a fashion model from the early nineties.

She was represented by the prestigious Ford modeling agency in New York and also by the Neil Hamil agency ion Houston.  

Actress Constance Wu

This actress named Constance is a constant presence on the ABC network in the U.S.

Constance Wu plays Jessica Huang, the mother of Eddie Huang, in "Fresh Off the Boat," the ABC sitcom  based on the real-life chef Eddie Huang's memoir of the same name about growing up as the son of Taiwanese immigrants.  Set in the nineties, the show depicts Jessica as a stern mother who pushes her children for success.  (Eddie Huang's father Louis, played by Randall Park in the series, managed a steakhouse restaurant in Florida.)

Like many television actors, Constance Wu made a jump to the movies - with Crazy Rich Asians, yet another work based on a book (a Kevin Kwan novel, of the same name).  She plays an American economics professor who goes to Singapore with her boyfriend to attend a wedding, and he finds out his family is crazy and rich .  .  . and that her boyfriend attracts women like honey attracts bears.

Crazy Rich Asians premiered in August 2018.  It became a huge hit within a week after its release. 

German/Turkish actress Meryem Uzerli

Zohre Esmaeli isn't the only German celebrity of Asian descent to make her mark on Germany's popular culture. There's also Meryem Uzerli.

Meryem Uzerli is a German-born television actress of Turkish origin on her father's side (her mother is German) who started out as a model before landing TV roles in both Turkey and Germany.  Her early TV appearances include a role in the German hospital drama "Notruf Hafenkante" and the crime-detective series "Ein Fall für zwei" ("A Case For Two"), both in 2010.

She became a star in Turkey on the television miniseries "Muhteşem Yüzyıl", or "The Magnificent Century," about the old Ottoman Empire.  In the series, which ran from 2011 to 2013, she played a slave girl who married a sultan . . . and then became one herself.

Oh yeah, the Turkish edition of GQ chose her as 2012's Woman of the Year.

Turkish immigrants in Germany have had trouble assimilating there, but Meryem Uzerli is probably the best argument for immigration being an added value. :-)  

Actress Eleanor Tomlinson

British actress Eleanor Tomlinson is a big star in America thanks to the success of the British series "Poldark" on PBS.

She plays Demelza, a servant girl who marries the eponymous hero of "Poldark" - Ross Poldark, a British veteran of the American Revolution who comes home to find that his original fiancée married someone else when she thought he was dead.  Ross originally hires Demelza  as a maid and falls in love with her while trying to run the copper mine in his village.  The program is based on a series of novels by Winston Graham.

Ms. Tomlinson has done other British TV shows, such as the three-part drama "Death Comes to Pemberley," a murder mystery based on a P.D. James novel using characters based on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," and "Ordeal by Innocence," another three-part drama based on yet another book - the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.  Ms. Tomlinson also took part in an experimental  biography movie about Vincent Van Gogh, Loving Vincent, in which cast members were animated based on Van Gogh's paintings.  Ms. Tomlinson played one of Van Gogh's models.

Eleanor Tomlinson is only 26 years old at this wiring, so she has a brilliant future ahead of her.   

Actress Mira Sorvino

Mira Sorvino  was one of the hottest young actresses in the nineties.

Her breakthrough role was in Woody Allen's 1995 comedy Mighty Aphrodite, as Linda, a happy-go-lucky prostitute that Woody's character falls in love with.  Really.

The daughter of actor Paul Sorvino, Mira Sorvino seemed to be everywhere in the years following her star-making performance in Mighty Aphrodite.  She appeared in the comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion and Guillermo del Toro's horror movie Mimic, about . .  .cockroaches. :-O  Both movies came out in 1997. 

Subsequent roles included that of an aspiring actress in the romantic drama/mystery Lulu On the Bridge from in 1998 and Bronx girl Dionna in Summer of Sam, a 1999 drama about the summer of 1977 and the hunt for killer David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz.  It was something of a novelty in that it was directed by Spike Lee and had a mostly white cast. Ms. Sorvino even played Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn, an HBO television movie that gained her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.

Though she continued to work steadily in the two thousand zeroes - including a Mexican movie, 2002's Santa Semana (Holy Week), as a police detective - Mira Sorvino's movie roles were of a lesser profile than her late-1990s performances.  She came out as a recipient of Harvey Weinstein's sexual advances in 2017, and she thought that her refusal to give in to him hurt her career. Few disagreed.

More recently, Mira Sorvino has done a few Hallmark TV movies and played a few recurring parts in basic-cable TV shows, but she's hardly done with film.  She's set to star in Stuber, an action/comedy set for releases in the spring of 2019.  From breakout . . . to comeback (let's hope).

Actress Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan is only 24 years old as of this writing, but she's already made a big impression in the movies.

Her first big role was as the young Briony Tallis in Atonement, the 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's World War II novel of the same title, and her character was played at 77 years of age in the same movie by Vanessa Redgrave.  Through several more movie roles in her teenage years, Ms. Ronan worked her way up to Redgrave-like status.  She was part of the huge ensemble cast of 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel, a comedy about a concierge who is framed for murder and tries to prove his innocence.

She broke through in a big way the following year in Brooklyn, about an Irish immigrant in that New York City borough in the 1950s who falls in love with an Italian-American boy.  But it was role as a socially and intellectually ambitious teenager in 2017's Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig (an earlier honoree on this blog), that made her a bona fide star.  The movie set a record on the Rotten Tomatoes movie Web site for the most consecutive "Fresh" reviews without any "Rotten" reviews against it; at the end of 2017, it had gotten 164 consecutive positive reviews. 

A this writing, she's working on playing Mary, Queen of Scots in the movie of the same name, which is now in post-production.

Fun fact:  In a twist on her role in Brooklyn, Saoirse Ronan was born to Irish immigrants in the Bronx, but she grew up in Ireland.

Stage actress Kelli O'Hara

Sophisticates dismiss musicals as middlebrow knockoffs of opera.  Kelli O'Hara has done both.

The Oklahoma born Ms. O'Hara has done numerous Broadway shows and opera performances.  Not in Oklahoma!, alas but she did play Anna in a 2015 production of The King And I and she portrayed Susan, the leading female role, in the original 2002 Broadway production of Sweet Smell of Success, based on the 1957 movie of the same name.  Other roles include Nellie Forbush in a 2008 production of South Pacific and Babe Williams in a 2006 production of The Pajama Game.

Her opera repertoire includes the role of Valencienne in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow (in 2014) and Despine in Mozart's Così fan tutte from this year (2018). Both performances were at the Metropolitan Opera.

Now that's versatility. :-)

Actress Ruth Negga

Ruth Negga was known to only a few Americans for her film roles before her big breakout role - that of Mildred Jeter Loving in Loving, about the Virginia interracial couple who successfully challenged anti-miscegenation laws in the South in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. 

Born to an Ethiopian father an an Irish mother, Ruth Negga was raised in Ireland but moved to London.  Her movie roles include a part in the 2005 comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto, a comedy-drama about gender identity, and 2007's Color Me Kubrick, about a chap (played by John Malkovich) pretending to be the director of that name.  She also had a role in the 2013 Jimi Hendrix bio-drama Jimi: All Is by My Side. 

Ms. Negga has also done theater, having played Ophelia in a London production of Hamlet and the title role in a 2018 Dublin production of the same Shakespeare drama!  But it's Loving that has gotten her the most attention; it earned her seven acting awards.

Fun fact:  Ruth Negga played a role in 12 Years a Slave, but her part was edited out.