1640) Ninian Beall

Ninian Beall (1625-1717). Founder of Georgetown.
Born in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, he fought in the battle of Dunbar (3 Sept. 1650) against Cromwell, but he was made prisoner and sentenced to five years' servitude. He was sent with 150 other Scottish men to Barbadoes, West Indies.
In 1652, Beall entered into another indentured servant arrangement and migrated to Maryland. After his term was over, he ended up with a large stretch of land and began to gain power and influence. He became a member of the Maryland House of Burgesses and held a high position in Maryland’s Provincial Forces. He also was one of the first settlers of the area now known as Georgetown, owning nearly 800 acres of land, which he named the Rock of Dumbarton in homage to his home country.
At 42, Beall married 16-year-old Ruth Moore and fathered twelve children.

 

- "Ninian lived well into his 90s and his grave was exhumed sometime during the 1970s and they found that he stood at 6 foot 7 inches tall and there was evidence that he had red hair." https://dunaganfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/07/asa-griggs-candler-founder-of-coke.html

- "When his body was removed, his skeleton was found to be perfect, and measured six feet seven inches and his hair had grown long and retained its youthful color of red." https://it.findagrave.com/memorial/25527218/ninian-beall

 

1639) Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León

 Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León (1916-2005). Illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who had her from the Irish nanny Beatrice Noon (but some claim she was Scottish).
After her birth, she was sent to Paris to be educated by José María Quiñones de León, ambassador of Spain in France, great friend of the King and later his executor. The child was registered with the name Jeanne-Alphonsine Milán and her birth was placed in the capital of France. The surname has an uncertain origin. Some believe that it is a memory of the duque de Milán, one of the titles that Alfonso XIII used in his sentimental escapades.
She was endowed with great intelligence and a prodigious memory, so she acquired an extensive culture, learned to speak five languages ​​without an accent and to play the piano. Later, when she reached the appropriate age, she was sent to a very strict school in Grenoble where young girls belonging to the great French families were educated.
Juana Alfonsa always thought that the ambassador was her grandfather, although she also professed a certain affection for a very special friend, Alfonso XIII, who visited the faithful Quiñones de León a couple of times a year.
In 1936, when she was 21 years old, she found out that she was the daughter of the King of Spain. During the occupation of Paris she settled in Geneva and when Alfonso XIII died in 1941 she received one million pesetas, a fortune at that time.
She began to behave erratically and squander the money bequeathed by her father. However, happiness, like money, seemed to slip through her fingers. And so did love. Lovers followed one another. She had four children - from different fathers - whom she barely cared for. One of the children died in a French hospice.
In 1972 she was in Spain, where she was sentenced to six years of prison for falsification of commercial documents. In 1993, Juana Alfonsa was living in Madrid. Her father's fortune had long since been lost in the excesses of a life without direction. She barely received 50,000 pesetas a month (300 euros) from the administrators of her father's estate.
One day in 1994 she suffered a fall. The social workers and the people who looked after her managed to admit her to the Hospital de la Fuenfría in Cercedilla. There, given her condition as a patient with a long recovery period, she shares a corridor with terminally ill patients. She faces the human drama although she is happy there because she discovers that the centre was inaugurated by her father. She was never able to take care of herself again. In 2001 she got a place in a nursing home in Mirasierra. She did not go unnoticed: she frequented the cafeteria and even wrote some articles in Ecos de Mirasierra, the center's magazine.

 

- "Debió de ser un bebé robusto, rubensino, de piel blanquísima y pelusilla pelirroja como lo era el cabello de su madre Beatriz Noon... Según el historiador Ramón de Franch, el exilio especuló con que aquella joven de abundante cabello pelirrojo y ademanes refinados era la nueva amante del Rey." [She must have been a robust bay, ruddy, with white skin and red hair like her mother Beatrice Noon... According to the historian Ramón de Franch, the exiles speculated that this young woman with abundant red hair and refined manners was the King's new lover.] https://www.elmundo.es/loc/famosos/2023/05/02/6450c4ade4d4d8eb0f8b4576.html 

 

1638) Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France

Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France (1726 – 1746). Daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese and wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV. The Dauphine died aged 20, three days after giving birth to a daughter who died in 1748.

 

- "Although the Dauphine was described as beautiful, dignified, pious and well educated, negative remarks were made because of her red hair." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Teresa_Rafaela_of_Spain

 

1637) José Ruiz y Blasco

José Ruiz y Blasco (1838 – 1913). Spanish painter, art teacher, and father of artist Pablo Picasso.

He was born in Málaga, Spain and grew up in a middle-class family. At 42 years of age, he married María Picasso López (1855-1938), who was 17 years younger than him. The couple had three children; Pablo, Dolores and Concepción.

From 1875 to 1890, José Ruiz y Blasco worked as an art teacher at the Escuela Provincial de Bellas Artes San Telmo. He specialised in still lifes, landscapes, and images of doves and pigeons. He also worked as curator and restorer at the Museo Municipal in Málaga. In 1891 he moved his family to A Coruña and taught at the Escuela de Bellas Artes.

Ruiz y Blasco attempted to achieve an income from his paintings, but was unsuccessful. He exhibited his work twice in A Coruña but received lukewarm reviews. As a result, he decided to give up these aspirations. In 1895 he moved to Barcelona and taught at the Escuela de Bellas Artes ("La Lonja").

Early in his son's life, Ruiz y Blasco recognised the artistic talent of Pablo. He began to teach him art at the age of seven. In Barcelona, Ruiz y Blasco was a model for his son's artwork and Pablo made numerous portraits of his father. Ruiz y Blasco also helped his son to create some of his artworks, including Science and Charity. He also rented a studio to help Picasso to work.

Later in life, Picasso admitted to the photographer Brassaï the reason why he painted so many bearded men: "Yes, they are all bearded, do you know why? Every time I draw a man, I accidentally think of my father. For me, the man is Don José and he will be like that all my life..."

 

- "José Ruiz Blasco (Málaga, 1838-Barcelona, 1913), padre de Picasso, era muy alto y delgado, pelirrojo, pálido, pecoso; estas características hicieron que fuera apodado “el inglés”. [José Ruiz Blasco, father of Picasso, was very tall and thin, red-haired, pale and freckled. These features earned him the nickname of "the Englishman"] https://www.diariosur.es/.../vidas-obras-sombra-genio...

 

 

1636) Milva

Maria Ilva Biolcati (1939 – 2021), known as Milva. Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as La Rossa (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro ("The Panther of Goro"), which stemmed from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birthplaces. The colour also characterised her leftist political beliefs, claimed in numerous statements. Popular in Italy and abroad, she performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany and Japan, where she often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain, and South America.

She collaborated with European composers and musicians including Ennio Morricone in 1965, Francis Lai in 1973, Mikis Theodorakis in 1978 (Was ich denke became a best selling album in Germany), Enzo Jannacci in 1980, Vangelis in 1981 and 1986, and Franco Battiato in 1982, 1986 and 2010.

Her stage productions of Bertolt Brecht's recitals and Luciano Berio's operas toured the world's theatres. She performed at La Scala in Milan, at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, at the Paris Opera, in the Royal Albert Hall in London and at the Edinburgh Festival, amongst others.

Having had success both in Italy and internationally, she remained one of the most popular Italian personalities in the fields of music and theatre. Her artistic stature was officially recognised by the Italian, German and French Republics, each of which bestowed her with the highest honours. She was the only Italian artist in contemporary times who was simultaneously: Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic (Paris, 11 September 2009), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Rome, 2 June 2007), Officer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Berlin, 2006), and Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Paris, 1995).


As she got older, she began to dye her hair a bright red, but in photos and videos of her as a young woman, her hair looks a more natural auburn.

 One of her most famous songs, Alexanderplatz.

 

 

1635) Sergey Petrovich Botkin

Sergey Petrovich Botkin (1832 – 1889). Russian clinician, therapist, and activist, one of the founders of modern Russian medical science and education. He introduced triage, pathological anatomy, and post mortem diagnostics into Russian medical practice.
In early 1860s, Botkin was assigned as an advising member of the medical board of the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1873 he was also made Head Surgeon to the Emperor, having been among the court physicians for Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III. Furthermore, the same year he was elected president of the Medical Association of St. Petersburg.
His brother Vasily was a prominent writer and his brother Mikhail was a painter and well-known art collector. His son, Dr. Eugene Botkin, was murdered with Nicholas II and the Tsar's family on 16/17 July 1918 by the Bolsheviks.

- "His head... being quite big, was fringed by strands of very thin light auburn hair with some gray..." https://historymedjournal.com/HOM/index.php/medicine/article/download/182/155/301 

 

1634) Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith (born Margaret Natalie Smith, 1934 – 2024). British actress known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles.
She had an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades she established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and Tom Stoppard's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
Smith won Academy Awards for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She was Oscar-nominated for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001).
She married actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens and were divorced in 1975. Later that year Smith married playwright Alan Beverly Cross and they remained married until his death in 1998.
Smith was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.

- "She was very striking with that red hair, very thin, very tall." https://www.vogue.com/article/dame-maggie-smith-obituary

- "Smith was red-haired, wore braces as a kid and had a lot of freckles." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/maggie-smith-oscar-favourite-is-a-glorious-antidote-to-the-selfabsorption-of-so-many-in-her-profession-a6734096.html

- "“Maggie Smith’s red-haired Desdemona is a beautifully vibrant, sensitive lass who accepts the realization of her doom with pathetic submissiveness.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/maggie-smith-has-died-at-89-after-iconic-career-in-harry-potter-movies-and-downton-abbey

- "A master at classical and contemporary roles who was as renowned for her subtlety as for her broad-stroke mannerisms, the red-haired Smith delighted several generations of theatergoers on both sides of the Atlantic..." https://variety.com/2024/legit/news/maggie-smith-dead-harry-potter-1236157839/

- "The girl who effects this contrast is a British actress with dark red hair, a smile that could win a war or at least make one worth losing, and “a light in her eye” https://time.com/archive/6833053/actresses-maggie-maggie/