James and Oliver Phelps

James Andrew Eric Phelps and Oliver Martyn John Phelps (born 25 February 1986) are identical twin British actors, best known for playing identical twins, Fred and George Weasley, respectively, in the Harry Potter film series.

Early life

James and Oliver were born in the Sutton Coldfield area of Birmingham, England on 25 February 1986. They are the only sons of Susan (née Spare) and Martyn Phelps. James is the younger of the two by 13 minutes. Growing up, they attended Little Sutton Primary School and the Arthur Terry Secondary School. As they spent an extensive amount of time shooting for Harry Potter, the twins were tutored on set, along with their fellow school-age cast mates.

Career

In 2000, at age 14, the twins attended an open audition, despite having no previous acting experience, and, after about six auditions, were cast as Fred and George Weasley in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. They went on to portray their characters in all of the subsequent Harry Potter films.

Oliver Phelps

Oliver Phelps was early in life a tavern keeper in Granville, Massachusetts. During the Revolution he was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army and served until the end of the war. After the war ended, he was appointed a judge, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and became a land speculator in western New York state. A depressed real estate market forced him to sell most of his holdings.

Personal life

Phelps (October 21, 1749 – February 21, 1809) was born in Poquonock, Connecticut. His father died when he was 3, and his mother was left to raise their seventeen children. Phelps took a job at age 7 in a local store to help support his family. He married Mary Seymour, daughter of Zachariah and Sarah (Steele) Seymour. When he was 21 in 1770, they moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where he apprenticed to a local merchant, and in 1770 the couple moved to Granville, Massachusetts where he opened his own store. They had a son, Oliver Leicester (22 September 1775 – 9 October 1813), and a daughter, Mary (5 September 1778 – 11 September 1859).

Virtual International Authority File

The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international authority file. It is a joint project of several national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). The project was initiated by the German National Library and the US Library of Congress.

The aim is to link the national authority files (such as the German Name Authority File) to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together. A VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary "see" and "see also" records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are made available online and are available for research and data exchange and sharing. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative protocol.

The file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata.

Participating libraries and organizations