Gertrude Elion - Wonderful Woman No. 86

Gertrude Elion - 1918-1999
American Biochemist, Pharmacologist and Teacher

Whenever I write of women in science on this blog, it has been necessary to mention the sexism they have faced and overcome in order to achieve their goals. The same is true of Gertrude Elion, who wished to work in research science as her idol Marie Curie (Wonderful Woman No. 42) had.

In the 1930s when Gertrude began applying to work in her chosen field, she was rejected from every post, one employer even telling her that she was "too pretty" to work in their laboratory and that she would be a distraction to the men. For a while she worked unpaid teaching biochemistry to medical students. It was the second World War that changed Gertrude's fate, with so many men away fighting, her chance to become a research biochemist was finally realised.

Alongside her colleague, Dr. George Hitchings, Gertrude developed numerous important medicines and there is no doubt that she both saved and improved an uncountable number of lives. Among the drugs they developed were Acyclovir (Zovirax) which is used to treat viral herpes, Allopurinol used to treat the inflammatory condition gout, Trimethoprim which combats bacterial infection and has been used in the treatment of life-threatening illnesses such as meningitis and septicemia, Pyrimethamine used to treat potentially fatal Malaria, Pyrimethamine the first drug used to combat the cancer lukemia and Azathioprine (Imuran) which is used to assist the body of organ transplant recipients from rejecting the donor organ.

Gertrude is one of very few women in science to have been awarded a Nobel Prize, she was also the first woman to be inducted into the American National Inventors Hall of Fame.

A former American president said she was a woman who "transformed the world". This album is really a celebration of women who have shaped the lives of the people who contribute to it, I can't think of a more suitable entry.

Don't be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don't let others discourage you or tell you that you can't do it. In my day I was told women didn't go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn't.
Gertrude Elion

Thora Hird - Wonderful Woman No. 85

Thora Hird - 1911-2003
British Actress, Writer and Television Personality

Added to the album by Howie, A Wonderful Man

Icon
Lee, A Wonderful Man

There are some actresses who you forget are actresses at all, whose very being is imprinted on the public consciousness. Thora Hird is one such woman and one who genuinely earned the status of National Treasure in the United Kingdom.

Perhaps best remembered as Edie in Last of the Summer Wine, Thora seemed best in the roles she aged into. In the blog entry on Maggie Smith (Wonderful Woman No. 62), I wrote of Alan Bennett's fantastic Talking Heads series, Thora was another actress to perform one of the seminal monologues. Her performance in Cream Cracker Under The Settee is filled with pathos, I remember watching it with both laughter and tears, again forgetting that this was an actress but in true belief that the woman I saw really was alone after a fall.

She made you believe. She got inside the skin of the character and made it real. A wonderful talent.

[Thora's] Warmth, humanity and remarkable professional longevity made her a true candidate for that overworked epithet "much-loved".
The Daily Telegraph

From a theatrical family, Thora first appeared on stage in her Lancastrian home-town Morecambe aged just two months old. She performed on stage and in feature films such as Once A Sinner, The Entertainer and Some Will, Some Won't. Her true platform though was British television, where she appeared regularly from the 1960s to the last years of her life, in programmes such as Meet the Wife, Dinner Ladies and, of course, Last of the Summer Wine. She was a winner of both BAFTA and Emmy awards and was a subject of the cultural television programme The South Bank Show.

Thora also presented television programmes and was the author of several books.

She was a supporter and spokesperson for the charity Help The Aged and dedicated time to many other charitable causes too. She also always loved to meet and talk to fans, saying she enjoyed that they felt they knew her because she was so often in their living rooms on the television.

This droll-faced Northern girl, who in the course of a long and happy life took her place among the best we have.
Alan Bennett

A great representation of northern women, a superb actress and a genuine, funny and humble wonderful woman.

There's nothing I like better than having a good laugh, apart from making other people laugh with me.
Thora Hird

Joan Jett - Wonderful Woman No. 84

Joan Jett - Born 1958
American Musician, Singer, Songwriter and Actress

Added to the album by Julie, A Wonderful Woman

I have written a lot about singers and songwriters that have meant a lot to me, that have been like old friends through their music. If I am honest, Joan Jett is not one of those women. It is not that I don't believe her to be wonderful... rock just isn't my thing. This is why I love that so many people have contributed the names of women they have been influenced by to the album. It makes writing it really interesting and I hope the broad range of women included makes viewing the album more interesting too.

I feel that this is a good time again to say thank you to Julie and to everyone who has shared women they have been in wonder of. I am really happy that you have.

Having read about Joan Jett since her name was suggested I am clear that she is indeed a very wonderful woman.

Joan was a founding member of the American Rock band The Runaways, with whom she recorded five albums and toured internationally. Joan played lead guitar and shared vocals until the final two albums, on which she was the lead.

From 1979, Joan began a solo career and released two albums. She went on to form Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, the band with whom she has enjoyed most success. In 1982, their single I Love Rock 'N' Roll reached Number 1 in the American billboard charts and remained at the top of the chart for seven weeks. The band continued to have chart success and released eight studio albums. Last year, it was announced that Joan would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Joan has been for many years the icon of the female rocker. Her image never overtly feminine, she stands shoulder-to-shoulder with her male counterparts, refusing to let her gender be an issue or even discussed. She is the ballsy lead singer of a rock band, just like Axl Rose, Brett Michaels or Steve Tyler, her femininity has never got in the way of that.

She adheres both to rock tradition and breaks with it -- she plays classic three-chord rock & roll, yet she also loves the trashy elements of it as well, and she plays with a defiant sneer.
MTV

In addition to her career as a musician, Joan has also worked as an actress on stage in productions such as The Rocky Horror Show, on television on shows like Law and Order and she appeared in the feature film By Hook or By Crook.

I feel under-qualified to write about a rock goddess but what I know of rock is that it seems to be a world dominated by men, the fact that this women threw the doors open on that world, held her own and stood as an equal makes her pretty darn wonderful in my eyes. Better way to say it? - She Rocks!

When people said to me, "Girls can't play rock 'n' roll," I'm like, What are you saying? Girls can't master the instrument? I'm in class with girls playing cello, violin, piano, Beethoven, Bach. You're telling me they can't play guitar?
Joan Jett

Eileen Atkins - Wonderful Woman No. 83

Eileen Atkins - Born 1934
British Actress and Screenwriter

Added to the album by Lee, a wonderful man

When Eileen Atkins was a little girl, a gypsy woman prophecised that she would become a famous dancer. Her mother immediately enrolled her in dance lessons and she did indeed earn a living for a while dancing in clubs and for soldiers in the war. Thanks to an inspirational teacher, Eileen attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

She appeared in her first professional play in 1952 and has worked ever since, including completing two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has appeared on stage in some of theatre's most celebrated plays and has worked with some of the professions finest actors and directors.

Eileen has also had a success film and television career. Her work on British television includes shows such as Upstairs, Downstairs, Cold Comfort Farm and David Copperfield. She has also appeared in some of the British film industry's best work of recent times including Gosford Park, Jack and Sarah and Vanity Fair. She has received a number of honours for her acting talent, amongst them, three Laurence Olivier Awards, a BAFTA and an Emmy.

Eileen is also an occasional screenwriter.

Similarly to Helen Mirren (Wonderful Woman No. 79), Eileen's feminine allure knows no limits of age. Famously, not long before her 70th birthday, she was propositioned by Irish actor and lothario, Colin Farrell.

She's an incredibly attractive woman. Has a wicked turn of phrase and incredible wit. Very attractive woman.
Colin Farrell

Once again this album celebrates a wonderfully talented actress and a fantastically formidable woman.

There's no such thing as a legend.
Eileen Atkins

Paula Rego - Wonderful Woman No. 82

Paula Rego - Born 1935
Portuguese-British Artist

Added to the album by Cara, a wonderful woman

Born in Portugal, educated in Britain and now a British citizen, considered one of the country's finest living artists. Paula Rego is a reluctant genius, insisting on describing herself as a drawer rather than a painter. She receives goddess-like adoration in Portugal, with a museum named in her honour and having been bestowed with numerous accolades, including honorary doctorates. Similarly in the United Kingdom, she has received many acknowledgements of her talents from the highest echelons of society. The list of solo exhibitions of her work internationally is enormous, as is the number of times her work has be published in catalogues and books.

In my bog entry about Frida Kahlo (Wonderful Woman No. 37), I noted that often in the history of art, women are not given the same credit as male artists. Paula seems to have broken that tradition, though she does point out that it took many years of creativity before her work started to sell.

No other artist has ever come close to capturing Rego’s sense of the phantasmagoria that is female reality.
Germaine Greer, Wonderful Woman No. 41

Stylistically, Paula takes inspiration for stories and folklores inherited from her Portuguese grandmother. Her work tells stories, sometimes mystical and sometimes vividly real. She often depicts the female form in various guises, young and old. There are considered to be undercurrents of sexual connotations in her art and in many pictures the women are perceived as strong, dominating and passionate, there is a true expression of feminism in her imagery. It is also considered that the way the female is portrayed in some pieces is to show her as a human being, rather than a woman in the way women are often seen by the media.

To look over Paula Rego's body of work is to look over the landscape of women's experience: desire, abortion, rape, female circumcision, childbirth, family relationships, dominating and being dominated by men; her masculine female figures are sometimes lonely, but usually fierce and often bent on revenge.
Emine Saner, The Guardian

A woman who has wonderfully captured what it is to be a woman through her art and a very wonderful woman herself.

I can turn the tables and make women stronger than men.
Paula Rego

Audrey Tatou - Wonderful Woman No. 81

Audrey Tatou - Born 1976
French Actress

Added to the album by Geoff, a wonderful man

I'm in love with her.
Geoff

When this photo first appeared in the Facebook album, it was met by a host of likes from both men and women and a number of comments supporting Geoff's suggestion.

Great choice, Geoff !
Paul, A Wonderful Man

Audrey seems to be one of those women who appeals to both men and women, young and old. Indeed, for quite some time, the most wonderful man I have ever known (my dad) kept asking me who it was in the television advert for Channel No. 5, seemingly mesmerized by her beauty.

Not just beauty, she has this other-worldly quality about her, that really does light up the screen.

The first time I ever saw Audrey Tatou was in the French film, Amelie. I fell in love with the film, the character and her. It really is one of the most enchanting films I have ever seen and for being the star of this film alone, Audrey is wonderful to me. The film is internationally the most successful French film of all time.

Audrey's screen appeal has made her successful in films in both her native France and in the United States, she has starred in some internationally successful and popular films such as The Da Vinci Code and Coco Before Chanel - a biopic of another wonderful woman (Coco Chanel - Wonderful Woman No. 71 - http://iamawonderfulwoman.blogspot.it/2012/03/coco-chanel-wonderful-woman-no-71.html). She is revered within the film industry and has won numerous awards for her talent, including two BAFTAs.

She is a true ambassador for France and is very proud of her nation's heritage.

Like so many women in this album, Audrey is a true individual. A unique beauty and a unique talent... both very wonderful things to be.

I don’t surf on the big waves. When I see them coming, I take my board and go straight back to the beach.
Audrey Tatou

Jill Scott - Wonderful Woman No. 80

Jill Scott - Born 1972
American Poet, Singer, Songwriter and Actress

Added to the album by Gemma, a wonderful woman

I absolutely LOVE Jill. My favourite singer & definitely a wonderful woman.
Damian, A Wonderful Man

I feel very fortunate to have seen a live performance of this wonderful woman. She blew me away, such a talent. It is hard not to just start and end with "She's freakin' awesome!" But she deserves more than that. In addition to seeing her live, I also have happy memories of hearing her songs at various events, just yesterday one of my wonderful friends, Phil, reminded me of a night singing along to one her records at the top of my voice at a music weekender. Once again, I find myself writing about someone whose music has been part of the soundtrack to the lives of my friends and I... and once again, I think that this in itself is pretty wonderful.

Jilly from Philly started her career performing poetry and was soon a recording vocalist. While firmly an icon of neo-soul music, Jill's songs are also jazz inspired, with elements of R'N'B, hip-hop and funk. Her lyrics are intense, using her own life experience. She speaks as a strong woman, is open, honest and creative, her voice is fantastic but her lyrics are what make her most fabulous (to me at least).

Scott's real strong suit is her ability to make every woman in the house want to be her friend and every man want to be, as someone tweets afterward, "a better man". You don't have to be African-American, or even female, to feel an affinity: her life, with its stumbles and victories, has endowed her with sisterly sageness.
Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian

She has recorded four studio albums and tours extensively. The best of the music industry queue to work with her, collaborations to date include Erykah Badu (Wonderful Woman No. 45 - http://iamawonderfulwoman.blogspot.it/2012/02/erykah-badu-wonderful-woman-no-45.html), Common and George Duke. She has received massive critical acclaim and received many awards, including three Grammys.

In addition to her career as a musician, Jill has appeared in acting roles on a number of television shows and in some feature films.

Jill founded the Blues Babe Foundation, a charity in her home-town, Philadelphia, which gives support to young people whose families do not have the financial resources to keep them in education. Jill has given a substantial amount of her personal wealth to the charity, as well as offering her time and actively promoting education and progression.

Jilly from Philly, about as cool as it gets in my opinion and wonderful in many, many ways.

Power doesn't have to be on such a big scale for powerful things to occur. Within your own home, you can be a powerful woman as a mother, influencing your children's lives.
Jill Scott

Helen Mirren - Wonderful Woman No. 79

Helen Mirren - Born 1945
British Actress

Added to the album by Howie, a wonderful man

I remember my parents being fans of Prime Suspect, a British television series starring Helen Mirren as police dectective Jane Tennison. I don't think I ever watched the show. I was probably too young to understand the relevance of Helen playing this role on prime-time TV, a woman in her forties (at a guess), playing a strong female lead and the series being both popular and critically acclaimed.

Before Prime Suspect, Helen had worked in theatre for almost thirty years. She had worked with some of the leading theatre companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and had appeared on Broadway. Her creditials as a stage actress are enormous and include playing some of theatre's most challenging and famous roles, including Cleopatra in Anthony and Cleopatra, Ophelia in Hamlet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.

Though she had appeared in television and film before, Prime Suspect really changed Helen's career. After it, she landed starring roles in movies such as Gosford Park, Calendar Girls and State of Play. In 2006, Helen appeared in the biopic film The Queen (about Elizabeth II), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. No stranger to receiving accolades for her talent, Helen has won many other prestigious awards including four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.

Her sex appeal has no expiry date.
Gina Piccalo, The Daily Telegraph

Though well into her sixties, Helen is still considered a symbol of female sexuality, power and desire.

Another wonderful talent and a wonderful representation of a woman who past middle-age is still taking on career challenges, still achieving huge success, is still attractive, still sensual and still embodies female power and independence.

The trick in life is learning how to deal with it.
Helen Mirren