Fame Hilite: Wrote "Bach Goes to Town", made famous by Benny Goodman, and became a star of American radio.
Death info: Died 28 March 1963 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, aged 52.
Birth info: Born in Cardiff, Wales; sources differ between 1909 and 1910 as his birth year.
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Templeton's tongue-in-cheek classical parodies made him a favourite of the American radio audience through the late 1930s and 1940s, with guests on his shows including Pearl Bailey. He also pioneered early tape-manipulation recordings, releasing "Magic Piano" and "Smart Alec" using techniques akin to Les Paul's multi-speed guitar recordings.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Composed "Bach Goes to Town", recorded by Benny Goodman's band in 1938
Career Highlight: Hosted the long-running US radio show Alec Templeton Time from 1939
Career Highlight: Starred in his own DuMont television series, It's Alec Templeton Time, in 1955
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Connection: Born blind in Cardiff, he began broadcasting for the BBC as a boy before emigrating to the USA in 1936.
Alec Andrew Templeton was born in Cardiff, blind from birth but gifted with absolute pitch. His extraordinary musical ear was recognised early, and from the age of nine he studied organ at Worcester College, Oxford, with Ivor Atkins, later training at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He began broadcasting for the BBC as a boy and remained a familiar voice on British radio through the early 1930s.
In 1936 Templeton moved to the United States as a member of Jack Hylton's jazz band and quickly built a career as a...
Alun Michael
MP for Cardiff South and Penarth. Appointed Minister for Industry and the Regions following the 2005 general election. Formerly Defra minister.
Fame Hilite: Co-founder of shoegaze pioneers Ride, later bassist of Oasis and Beady Eye; not to be confused with Erasure's Andy Bell.
Birth info: Born Andrew Piran Bell on 11 August 1970 in Cardiff, Wales.
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Bell's middle name, Piran, references the patron saint of Cornwall, though he was born and spent his earliest years in Cardiff before the family later moved and he grew up largely in Oxford, where his musical career began. He has also spent time based in Sweden and now lives in London.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Co-founded shoegaze band Ride, 1988, releasing debut album Nowhere, 1990
Career Highlight: Joined Oasis as bassist, November 1999, replacing Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan
Career Highlight: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Oasis, 2026
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born in Cardiff, though he built his music career in Oxford, England, from his teenage years onward.
Andrew Piran Bell was born on 11 August 1970 in Cardiff, Wales. Note: this is not the Andy Bell of Erasure, who was born in Peterborough, England and has no Welsh connection - this Andy Bell is the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter best known for co-founding the pioneering shoegaze band Ride in 1988 with Mark Gardener, whom he met at school in Oxford. Ride's early EPs and their acclaimed debut album "Nowhere" (1990) helped define the shoegaze sound, and the band became fixtures of the UK indie scene through albums...
Fame as?: Physician and epidemiologist, founder of the Cochrane Collaboration
Fame Hilite: The father of evidence-based medicine, who led pioneering epidemiology research from Cardiff.
Death info: Archie died on the 18th of June, 1988.
Birth info: Archie was born on the 12th of January, 1909, in Galashiels, Scotland.
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Cochrane's 1972 book "Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services" argued for the systematic use of randomised controlled trials to guide medical practice. Five years after his death, this call led to the founding of the Cochrane Collaboration, whose UK Cochrane Centre opened in Oxford, with the Cochrane Library and Cochrane Reviews now central to evidence-based medicine worldwide.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Director, MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cardiff
Career Highlight: Author, Effectiveness and Efficiency, 1972
Career Highlight: Namesake of the Cochrane Collaboration
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Ground breaking research based in Cardiff
Comment By: nv2003 , This Comment: Pioneered the use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) within science and medicine.
Archibald "Archie" Leman Cochrane (1909-1988) was a Scottish-born physician and epidemiologist, born in Galashiels, Scotland, who became one of the most influential figures in the history of medical research. He is remembered as the father of evidence-based medicine, and both the Cochrane Collaboration and Cochrane Library — international networks for systematic medical reviews, are named in his honour.
Cochrane's Welsh connection is through his career rather than his birthplace: the Medical Research Council founded an...
Fame Hilite: Cardiff-born singer who fronted The Six Pistons alongside Damon Hill and has worked with Midge Ure, The Who and the Stereophonics.
Birth info: Born 1969 at St David's Hospital, Cardiff, Wales.
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Beyond his band and solo singing work, Parsons has recorded well over 190 audiobooks and become an established voice-over artist for commercials and computer games, frequently working with production house Molinare in Soho. He remains an active, working performer based in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Fronted The Six Pistons, featuring former F1 driver Damon Hill
Career Highlight: Launched solo project Mydash, featuring Midge Ure and members of the Stereophonics and The Who
Career Highlight: Recorded 190+ audiobooks as a professional voice artist
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born in Cardiff to Welsh parents and still based in Wales, where he continues to perform and work as a professional voice artist.
Aubrey Parsons was born at St David's Hospital in Cardiff in 1969 to Welsh parents and has remained based in Wales throughout a long career as a singer and voice artist. Over more than three decades as a performing vocalist, he has fronted "The Six Pistons" (a band featuring former Formula One driver Damon Hill), sung with Ultravox's Midge Ure, performed with "Fat Barry's" soul band and "The Watchmen", and worked alongside members of The Who, Big Country and the Stereophonics. Alongside his band work, he has built a...
Fame Hilite: WBO super-featherweight world champion in 1997 - stripped of the title on medical grounds having never lost it in the ring, now a respected boxing commentator
Birth info: Born 3 May 1974, Ely, Cardiff, Wales
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Jones remains the only Welsh boxer to have won a Silver Medal at the European Junior Championships, an early sign of the talent that trainer Pat Thomas would go on to develop through the 1990s. His world title win over Wilson Palacio at London Arena in December 1997 was scored a clean sweep on the judges' cards (116-112, 118-110, 118-110).
The circumstances of losing his title remain a point of sympathy among Welsh boxing fans: Jones was never beaten for the WBO belt, but had his licence revoked by the British Boxing Board of Control in 1998 after doctors flagged an anomaly on a brain scan - a medical, not sporting, decision. He returned to the ring under different jurisdiction but was stopped in the eighth round by the hard-hitting Acelino Freitas in January 2000, a defeat that brought his career to a close. He has remained closely involved in the sport ever since as a boxing analyst and commentator.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Only Welsh boxer to win a Silver Medal at the European Junior Championships
Career Highlight: Turned professional in 1992 aged 18, trained by former British champion Pat Thomas
Career Highlight: Won the WBO super-featherweight world title, London Arena, 19 December 1997
Career Highlight: Successfully defended the WBO title against Affif Djelti
Career Highlight: Retired with a professional record of 18 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw
Career Highlight: Now works as a boxing commentator for Sky Sports, BT Sport, BoxNation and iFL TV
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born and raised in Ely, Cardiff, Wales
Barry Jones was born on 3 May 1974 in Ely, Cardiff, and remains one of Welsh boxing's great "what might have been" stories. Turning professional in 1992 at just eighteen under trainer Pat Thomas - himself a former British welterweight champion - Jones built a reputation as a skilled, disciplined super-featherweight, and he remains the only Welsh boxer to have won a Silver Medal at the European Junior Championships.
His finest hour came on 19 December 1997 at London Arena, where he took the WBO super-featherweight world...
Fame Hilite: Long-serving Cardiff harp tutor, reportedly including time at the Cardiff College of Music and Drama; said locally to have performed for royalty (unverified).
Birth info: Birth date and place not independently confirmed; local accounts state born in Cardiff.
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Botterill is remembered for performing in full Welsh national costume, a distinctive tradition of the Welsh triple harp, and for having taught a number of harpists who went on to notable careers of their own, though the individuals concerned have not been independently identified.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Over 30 years as a harp tutor in Cardiff
Career Highlight: Reportedly taught at the Cardiff College of Music and Drama
Career Highlight: Known for performing in full Welsh national costume
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Reportedly born in Cardiff; lived on Dyfrig Street, Llandaff.
Beatrice Botterill was a Welsh harpist remembered locally in Cardiff for a long teaching career and for performing in full Welsh national costume, a tradition closely bound up with the harp's place in Welsh culture. According to local and family accounts, she was born in Cardiff and lived on Dyfrig Street in Llandaff, and she is said to have performed for royalty during her career, though no independently verifiable record of specific royal engagements has been located.
Botterill spent more than thirty years as a harp...
Bernard Knight
Forensic pathologist, barrister and writer. Creator of the 'Crowner John' series, historic crime fiction. As a forensic pathologist, worked on the infamous Fred West case, recovering all twelve bodies!
Fame Hilite: Played Julia Drusilla in the BBC's I, Claudius
Death info: Beth died on the 1st of March, 2018.
Birth info: Beth was born on the 19th of July, 1943, in Gorseinon, South Wales.
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Morris appeared in numerous television mini-series through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including 'David Copperfield', 'I, Claudius' and 'Belonging'. She died on the 1st of March 2018.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: I, Claudius (1976) as Julia Drusilla
Career Highlight: David Copperfield (1974) as Dora Spenlow
Career Highlight: Belonging
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born and raised in Gorseinon, South Wales; trained at Cardiff College of Music and Drama.
Beth Morris (19th July 1943 – 1st March 2018) was a Welsh actress, born and raised in Gorseinon, near Swansea, South Wales. She trained at Cardiff College of Music and Drama, now the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
She is probably best remembered for playing Julia Drusilla in the BBC's celebrated 1976 adaptation of 'I, Claudius', and for her portrayal of the tragic Dora Spenlow in the BBC's 1974 adaptation of Charles Dickens's 'David Copperfield'. Her television career spanned from 1969 into the 2000s, and...
Fame Hilite: Nobel Prize-winning physicist, discoverer of the Josephson effect.
Birth info: Brian was born on the 4th of January, 1940, in Cardiff.
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Josephson's 1962 prediction of quantum tunnelling between superconductors, made while still a research student, became a foundation of superconducting electronics and remains central to precision measurement and quantum computing today.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Predicted the Josephson effect, 1962
Career Highlight: Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1973
Career Highlight: Emeritus Professor at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born and educated in Cardiff, where he attended Cardiff High School before going on to Cambridge.
Brian David Josephson was born on 4 January 1940 in Cardiff, Wales, and attended Cardiff High School, where his talent for mathematics and science was already clear. He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, completing his PhD there in 1964, and has spent the great majority of his academic career at Cambridge as a theoretical physicist.
While still a postgraduate student in 1962, Josephson predicted what became known as the 'Josephson effect' — the quantum mechanical phenomenon by which a supercurrent can tunnel...
Fame Hilite: Frontman and bassist of Welsh hard rock pioneers Budgie, whose songs were later covered by Metallica.
Death info: Died 10 January 2022, aged 71, at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, following long-term health problems.
Birth info: Born Burke Cornelius Shelley on 10 April 1950 in Cardiff, Wales.
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Budgie were rated among Wales's best rock bands of the 1970s, touring internationally and building a cult following that has continued to grow since. Shelley's songwriting partnership with guitarist Tony Bourge produced the material that Metallica would later champion, and he continued performing and recording with various line-ups of Budgie into the 2000s, remaining a respected and much-loved figure on the Cardiff music scene throughout his life.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Co-founded Budgie in Cardiff in 1967, originally as Hills Contemporary Grass
Career Highlight: Frontman and bassist across four decades of Budgie recordings and tours
Career Highlight: Songs "Breadfan" and "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" later covered by Metallica
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Cardiff-born frontman of Budgie, one of Wales's most influential rock exports.
Burke Shelley was born on 10 April 1950 in Cardiff, and became one of Wales's most influential exports in rock music as the bassist and lead vocalist of Budgie. Formed in Cardiff in 1967 under the name Hills Contemporary Grass before adopting the Budgie name a year later, the trio built a reputation for a heavy, riff-driven sound that predated and helped shape the entire genre of heavy metal.
Shelley's distinctive high-register vocals combined with his powerful bass playing gave Budgie a sound that stood apart from...
Fame Hilite: Section Principal with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and a former member of the RPS Young Artist Award-winning Heath Quartet.
Birth info: Born in 1981 in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales.
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Cerys is a member of the Sinfonia of London and appears regularly as Guest Principal with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. She continues to pass on her craft as a teacher at both the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in her home city of Cardiff and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: Soloist debut with BBC National Chamber Orchestra of Wales, 2003
Career Highlight: RPS Young Artist Award with the Heath Quartet
Career Highlight: BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year 2020 with Sinfonia of London (Korngold)
Show Comment Form: No, don't show form
Connection: Born and raised in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before her professional career.
Cerys Jones is a violinist from Rhiwbina, Cardiff, who began playing at the age of eight and went on to become one of Wales's most accomplished orchestral and chamber musicians. In 1996 she won a full scholarship to the Junior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying under Barry Haskey, before leading the Cardiff County and Vale of Glamorgan Youth Orchestra and appearing as a soloist with the BBC National Chamber Orchestra of Wales in 2003, performing Bach's Concerto for Violin in E major.
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Fame Hilite: Became the youngest artist to top the UK classical chart at age twelve with 'Voice of an Angel' (1998).
Birth info: Born 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales.
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Beyond music, Church has worked as a television presenter and actress, and became known as a prominent political and social activist, notably as a vocal campaigner during the UK phone-hacking scandal. She has sold more than ten million records worldwide across her classical and pop careers.
Career Highlights:
Career Highlight: 1998 — debut album 'Voice of an Angel' topped the UK classical chart
Career Highlight: 2005 — moved into pop music with the album 'Tissues and Issues'
Career Highlight: Sold over ten million records worldwide across classical and pop releases
Charlotte Maria Church was born on 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, and first sang in public at the age of three and a half, performing the 'Ghostbusters' theme with her cousin at a holiday camp in Caernarfon. She began formal voice lessons at nine, and her voice matured with remarkable speed.
She shot to national attention at age eleven after singing 'Pie Jesu' on British television, which led to a recording contract and her debut album 'Voice of an Angel' (1998). The album topped the UK classical chart...