Bryceland worked as a newspaper librarian and an amateur actress before making her professional acting debut in Stage Door in 1947, but she had only moderate success until she joined the Cape Performing Arts Board (1964). In 1969 she triumphed in Fugard’s People Are Living There and Boesman and Lena, in which she made her London debut and then toured Europe. The collaboration with Fugard resulted in several more plays, most notably Orestes, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Hello and Goodbye, and The Road to Mecca, in which she made her American debut. Her repertoire also included Dario Fo’s One Woman Plays, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, and Euripides’ Medea. In 1978 she moved to London, where she joined the National Theatre.

Bae found his calling as an actor as a teenager and entered the film, television, and multimedia program at Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University. After his father’s business failed, Bae was forced to leave school to help support his family. Although his interest in acting continued, Bae could find only low-paying work as a production assistant on a film set. He made valuable contacts during this time, however, and in 1994 made his debut as the lead in the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) drama series Love Greeting. Bae’s performance earned him accolades from the network, and the glasses that he wore for the role became his trademark. He went on to star in more than a half dozen drama programs for KBS and other Korean networks before taking a break in 1999 to resume his university studies.

Bae returned to acting in 2001, starring in the television series Hotelier. The story of a businessman who had everything he wanted except someone with whom to share it, Hotelier was a smash in Korea and drew a following throughout Asia. Its wide-ranging popularity was one of the early signs of an emerging Korean presence in the Asian entertainment market. The trend became known as hallyu, or “Korean Wave,” and it seemed to peak with the KBS drama series Gyeoul yeonga (2002; Winter Sonata). Though the story was a typical tale of star-crossed lovers, the performances of Bae and costar Choi Ji Woo captivated the country. The Japanese network Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) broadcast the series on its satellite channel the following year, and it was an immediate hit with Japanese fans, who referred to Bae as Yonsama (a shortened form of his name combined with -sama, an honorific title that implies the highest respect). Viewers from Egypt to the Philippines embraced Winter Sonata, and Bae became a global sensation. When Bae arrived in Japan to promote his 2004 photo book, The Image: Volume 1, some 4,000 screaming fans forced the closure of Narita Airport.

These successes translated to the big screen, with Bae’s debut, Joseon namnyeo sangyeoljisa (2003; Scandal)—an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses set in 18th-century Korea—performing well at the box office. His follow-up, Oechul (2005; April Snow), received poor reviews but was a moderate hit. Bae returned to television for Tae wang sa shin gi (2007; Legend), bringing his trademark regal bearing to the role of King Kwanggaet’o in the dramatic story of Korea’s Three Kingdoms period.

‘Araft was one of seven children of a well-to-do merchant whose wife was related to the anti-Zionist grand mufti of Jerusalem, Amn al-usayn (died 1974). The date and place of ‘Araft’s birth are disputed. A birth certificate registered in Cairo, Egypt, gives August 24, 1929. Some sources, however, have supported ‘Araft’s claim to have been born in Jerusalem on August 4, 1929, and still others have given Gaza, Palestine, as his birthplace. ‘Araft attended the University of Cairo, graduating as a civil engineer. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood and the Union of Palestinian Students, of which he was president (1952–56), and was commissioned into the Egyptian army. In 1956 he served in the Suez campaign.

After Suez, ‘Araft went to Kuwait, where he worked as an engineer and set up his own contracting firm. In Kuwait he helped found Fatah, which was to become the leading military component of the PLO. After being named chairman of the PLO in 1969, he became commander in chief of the Palestinian Revolutionary Forces in 1971 and, two years later, head of the PLO’s political department. Subsequently, he directed his efforts increasingly toward political persuasion rather than confrontation and terrorism against Israel. In November 1974 ‘Araft became the first representative of a nongovernmental organization—the PLO—to address a plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In 1982 ‘Araft became the target of criticism from Syria and from various Syrian-supported factions within the PLO. The criticisms escalated after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon forced ‘Araft to abandon his Beirut headquarters at the end of August 1982 and set up a base in Tunisia and later in Baghdad, Iraq. ‘Araft was subsequently able to reaffirm his leadership as the split in the PLO’s ranks healed.

In mid-1996 Israeli-Palestinian relations became acrimonious with the election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who favoured a slower transition to self-rule. Growing distrust between ‘Araft and Netanyahu resulted in a 19-month-long deadlock, and in 1998 U.S. President Bill Clinton intervened, arranging a summit meeting with the two leaders at Wye Mills, Maryland. The resulting Wye Memorandum detailed the steps to be taken by Israel and Palestine to complete the peace process. ‘Araft pledged to continue the process with Netanyahu’s successor, Ehud Barak.

In 2000, in talks mediated by Clinton at Camp David, where the historic Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt were negotiated in 1978, ‘Araft rejected an offer by Barak that would have created an independent Palestinian state because it did not grant the Palestinians full control over East Jerusalem or adequately guarantee, in his view, the right of Palestinian refugees to return. ‘Araft’s decision was widely hailed by Palestinians, and Barak was ousted from office in 2001 by Ariel Sharon, whose visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in September 2000 had sparked a wave of Palestinian violence. In 2001, following suicide attacks in Israel that Sharon blamed ‘Araft for instigating, ‘Araft was confined by Israel to his headquarters in Ramallah. In October 2004 ‘Araft fell ill and was transported for medical treatment to Paris, where he died the following month.